welcome back, everybody. hurricane dorian menacing the coast as a category 1. bill karins is going to tell us more about the storm's next path. >> heavy rain is pounding the area with absolute certainty. >> bracing for a storm surge that could leave more of the region under water. >> 20 tornadoes touching down in the carolinas. >> all of this comes as the devastation is still coming to

light. hello. you're watching special coverage of hurricane dorian. >> dorian is weaker this morning but packing a powerful punch moving along the carolina coast. the national weather service is recording sustained winds up to 90 miles an hour. >> and as dorian inches closer, almost 290,000 homes are in the dark with transformers blowing out. this is new video you're seeing here from thursday night. as you can sea, sudden loss of power. this was in wilmington, virginia. >> now up to 20 suspected tornadoes left trails of destruction tossing around mobile homes in emerald aisle. >> and we have video of another suspected tornado moving across white oak, north carolina. the other big story today, the rising death toll in the bahamas

now at least 30 people are dead. officials expect that number to go significantly higher in the coming days as more rescue workers are trying to reach as many victims as possible. >> all right. we have extensive teach coverage on the ground. but first let's begin with meteorologist bill karins to see what direction it is moving. >> the thing we've been watching overnight is this barely off shore track along the carolina coast. we've not had official landfall. it is located just off of cape lookout now. you can see the position there. that's where we're getting high gusts. 62 mile-per-hour gusts. hatteras was in the 50s earlier. we're still gusting in jacksonville to the 50s. picture it as a big, huge storm with only a really small area of really intense winds. and that's in this northern eye. if we go a closer view up, here's the morehead city area.

just the other side you get out to atlantic beach. or you can drive with a boat and head up on the ferry to go out to the island hear. the road doesn't connect right here in, highway 12. this black line shows us where the center is. in order to get an official landfall, it has to go over land. we may never get an official landfall. but regardless, we have the highest winds right now along the coast. as far as the forecast goes, we only have about five, six hours left. and then dorian will be heading away and exiting the north carolina coast. it'll take awhile. probably until mid or late afternoon. the storm surge not much of an issue anymore. with the high tide between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning. now we're heading to low tide. so i think inland flooding is my last concern as we go throughout the rest of the morning.

and we still have a high risk of flash flooding. especially areas around alamor all the way to virginia beach. this is where we're going to see the heaviest rain through the storm. this area of green is everywhere in a flood watch. everywhere in maroon is who is under flash flood warnings. that means we have had excessive rainfall. and we could get a possible additional 3 to 6 inches in this area. overall up to this point, 300,000 people without power. i haven't heard of any tremendous storm surge issues that have destroyed homes or anything like that. we're doing pretty well considering. >> all right. bill karins, we're going to check back with you throughout the course of the morning. stay with us. >> it seems as if bill was just talking about right now, dorian is sitting over north carolina. so let's go there where dorian has been unleeching as we have been seeing strong winds and heavy rain.

want to start with david, though, in nagshead. what are you experiencing right now? how serious are the conditions? >> reporter: yeah. we've had some ferocious winds and rain over the last few hours. but it's come in waves as we got hit by bands from the storm. right now it's not as bad as it has been. bill talking about the storm surge, it is what a lot of people feared it would be. we're here in the outer part of the banks. i drove down to hatteras which is a thin barrier island. hatteras is a very thin barrier island. there's the ocean on one side and the pimlico sound on the other. a lot of people were worried about storm surge from the atlantic and from the sound. and that would make that road impassable. we haven't seen that level of storm surge. people here seem pretty comfortable with the level of wind we've seen. seems like what they're mostly worried about is water and the

prospect of that two-lane road, the lifeline to get them to the tip as being impassable. as the new day begins, they're going to have a sense of how much damage has been done to that road. >> let's cross over to wilmington now. let's give us an idea of how things played out there as we continue to watch what unfolded. >> reporter: the day started with those tornadoes up north and finished with this deluge of water. about an inch every hour. the concern was flooding. we sort of seem to be past that concern now. certainly not what we saw last year where we saw the state cut off for four days. emergency services will be able to move around. i'm about 13 miles from the shore from the beaches that are near wilmington. the police will get out in force

there at 5:00 p.m. to take a look at the damage once the sun is up. the reason for that is we had some of those transformers go up from the rain, from the storm, from the wind. once those transformers go up, it's a domino effect. you're seeing the video here. that green telltale sign of the transformers blowing up. you can hear it all over town. the duke energy people have stationed trucks outside of raleigh. they will try to get them in here this morning if they can get the trees off the roads. i don't want to jinx it, but when you look at what happened in the bahamas, it feels like north carolina was maybe spared the worst of this storm. >> all right. cal perry in wilmington, north carolina, we'll touch base with you later in the program. i want to get some breaking news out of zimbabwe this morning. the longtime president robert mugabe has died.

he was also a strong man who used violence and oppression to hold onto his office. mugabe ruled for three decades until a coup by members of his own country. getting help to those who need it the most. the next steps being planned right now by the department of homeland security. >> and we're going to monitor the situations on the outer banks. here's what it looks like right now in nagshead.

welcome back to our live coverage of hurricane dorian. new video shared moments ago as you see right there by the

national weather service in morehead, north carolina. showing the rain there and the wind really picking up as the eye wall is approaching the area. the storm, though, is now a category 1 but still incredibly dangerous packing maximum sustained winds of 90 miles an hour. >> all right. so as dorian continues to lash the carolinas, president trump remained fixated on falsely claiming that alabama was in the storm's crosshairs long after it was in the clear. and now a white house official tells "the washington post," coat, it was trump. it was trump who used the black sharpie to mark up an official map which he displayed during an oval office briefing on wednesday. the officials ask no one else writes like that on a map with a black sharpie. also new statement about it by admiral peter brown. he wrote the president had been briefed sunday morning about the

possibility of tropical storm force winds in southeastern alabama. there is at least one report from earlier that suggests the president personally directed that official to issue this statement. let's discuss this with marsha catron. great to have you with us. "the washington post" report implies that the president was not being somewhat truthful when he denied on wednesday knowing how the map was altered. watch this. >> that map you showed today with a sharpie. >> i don't know. i don't know. i don't know. >> so what do you make of all this? it's easy to brush this aside and call it sharpie gate, but this specific moment where the president came out and said he didn't know how that map was altered while you're now having an official tell "the washington post" albeit an unnamed official say it was the president personally who took the sharpie to that map. >> this is no laughing matter.

we need to be able to believe our president especially in times of a national emergency. and that's what this is. folks need to be able to turn to their government for the right answers and the right help to keep them safe. unfortunately, it seems like the president was more interested in making sure he was viewed as being correct rather than helping to save lives. and it just flies in the face of those officials, those professionals who are providing him these briefings all the time. we're told he gets briefed on an hourly basis. i'm not a lawyer, but i'm pretty sure it's against the law to give inaccurate weather advice. >> the president of homeland security actually says the president's statements were based on a briefing on september 1st. but that same day the national weather service of birmingham tweeted alabama was not going to see any of the impacts from the

hurricane. can you imagine a briefing to a president where a homeland security official where they provide incorrect information to the president. >> i can't imagine what's going through these people's minds as they're trying to give accurate information to people in times of a real emergency, the weather. you know, getting them accurate information so they stay safe and alive. it's ridiculous we've spent the last five days talking about sharpie gate. we should be able to give folks the right information. i can't imagine that happening with any national incidence in the past. >> i want to get to that point in a moment, but usually when homeland security and you know this better than any of us. when homeland security is briefing the president, when they're walking into that oval office, they would have had at

least by sunday morning the most up-to-date weather forecast. they could come out and say the president was briefed about it. if we were to give him the benefit of the doubt, that would raise questions as to whether or not the homeland security officials briefing the president actually had the most up-to-date information. because there was no doubt what the national weather service was tweeting out. they said clearly alabama was not going to be hit by this hurricane and you now have a homeland security official saying it was possible the president was given wrong information or we gave him the right information but now we have to put out the statement saying he was given the right information. >> the majority of them are career employees who have been there. this is their profession. i have absolutely no doubt they were provided with the most up-to-date information. fema's watching, you know, noaa, national hurricane center. this is what they do. they are the most prepared, in

fact, always over-prepared folks that i know. and i have absolute faith and confident that they had the correct information and walked into the oval office with that correct information. >> just begs the question what is going on with why the president continues nine times, i think, as you said. >> especially i think we put this all in perspective considering all of the lives being affected by this hurricane which is the most important part of this entire story, marsha, which is the fact people are currently losing their homes. >> their lives. >> i mean, the bahamas, obviously, fighting for their lives right now because of this hurricane. and then we are seeing misinformation put out by the president because of the path that he said this hurricane was headed which it definitely was not. >> and then defending it nine times since then. >> and then defending it nine times and going on twitter trying to defend himself again. marsha, thanks again.

appreciate you joining us on this. so we are tracking hurricane dorian, everybody. when might it weaken is the best question. we're going to get the latest from meteorologist bill karins coming up next. >> and here is a look at wilmington, north carolina. you see it right there.

back now with more breaking news on hurricane dorian.

it has weakened slightly to a category 1 storm but is still packing sustained winds up to 90 miles an hour. pounding rain is expected well into this afternoon. and take a look at this. a sudden loss of power as you see there in wilmington, north carolina. lights out suddenly. more than 300,000 homes are currently without power in that area in north and south carolina. meanwhile, in the bahamas, devastated by dorian. another level of devastation. people are camping out at the abaco airport to get out of the disaster zone. this tiny island is serviced by small propeller planes that carry only 16 passengers at a time. many survivors say they have nowhere to go and are just waiting for help. >> we'll talk a lult bit more about the abacos and what's going on in the bahamas in a little bit. first let's get a quick update with nbc news meteorologist bill

karins. bill, we had talked about this over the course of the last couple days that hurricane doran strengthened to category 3 just before it kind of hit the carolinas and the north coast of georgia. it's down now to a category 1, but what are your expectations for the more dangerous parts of this storm which is the storm surge, the rain, the flooding, all of that? we're not in the clear. >> the flash flooding is what could take lives. as we go throughout the first half of today. the heavy rains have been falling. there's a lot of small rivers and streams in low lying areas. if people go driving around this morning, that's where we could get into some trouble. if you notice here, this is the tip of cape lookout. it's now in the eye of dorian. this is the first area in the united states. you know, we did it in the virgin islands. but this is the first portion of the united states that has gone through the eye, the northern

eye wall and is now in the eye. now, to get a center landfall declared by the hurricane center, you need the center of the eye to kind of go over land. we may have to wait a little further up. but this right here, this area, this bright pink in here, the dark red. this is a heavy band. this is the northern eye wall. this is what's left on the powerful eye that once had 185 mile-per-hour wind. now it's down to 90. we could get hayer gusts in here and get some damage. higher tide was between 1:00 and 2:00 on the outer banks. now we're heading towards low tide. so we're not worried about that. by the time we're to the next high tide, the storm is out here in the atlantic. 90 mile-per-hour winds predicted. this is the 8:00 a.m. forecast position. here's hatteras here. now it's starting to move quicker too. by the time to mid-morning, it's off the coast and the effects will start to lessen throughout the day.

that'll be fantastic. this is the concern right here, all these areas in maroon. that's where we have flash flood warnings. that's a large area from the north carolina/south carolina border practically up almost into areas of southern virginia. and we do even have a chance of getting some strong winds in areas around virginia beach this morning too. this area of red shows you where the hurricane winds are. only about half of one county right now. we did not see the hurricane winds in wilmington. we haven't seen a lot of recent updates of the wind gusts. here's a couple estimates that we're going to deal with as we go throughout the rest of the morning. in the 50 mile-per-hour range or so. and for our friends up in cape cod and nova scotia, nova scotia is expecting a category 1 hurricane as we go through saturday. so it's not done yet after it's past north carolina and even areas there around st. john. and our friends in cape cod are under a tropical storm warning. they could see winds gusting

over 39 miles per hour. overall i think it's going to be looked at as a minor hurricane which is fine. >> for the east coast of the united states minor. not necessarily for the bahamas, obviously. >> right. that was a historic -- >> yeah. once we get done with this part, then we just can focus all our attention trying to help the people in the northern bahamas. >> which they very much need. >> absolutely. bill karins, we're going get an update i believe in about 35 minutes from now from the national hurricane center at the top of the hour barring any delays. we'll have that for you as soon as that comes into our newsroom. i want to go to david gura right now who is standing by nags head, north carolina. one of the area that was at risk for storm surge flooding that bill was just talking about. and as we are seeing this hurricane move up the east coast right around really where you are, talk us through some of what you've been experiencing so

far. >> reporter: we're getting a bit of a reprieve right now. i'm listening to what bill is saying checking out the hurricane updates as they come out. but we have been getting some pummelling rain and wind. that has stopped. this happens as the bands pass through. we'll see what happens in the next few hours. folks paying a lot of attention on what was happening in and around wilmingtowilmington. we'll see what's going to happen here. this was such a slow-moving storm for so long. that was the overriding concern people here had. that this was a storm that could come over us and sit for a long while. there was concern about the storm surge. there was concern about flooding. of course that remains but we haven't seen the storm surge a lot of people were expecting because of how this storm is moving. we are out here on the northern part of the outer banks. if you go 60 miles south of here, it's a thin spit of land that is susceptible to a lot of

flooding. there is one road that gets you from here to there. you could be stranded and i drove that road starting early yesterday morning. came back in the early evening yesterday. there were parts of it that had already gotten water on them. it was difficult to drive where sand had been washed over that road as well. so as bill said, i know we're not out of the woods here at least where i'm standing. but folks here worried about a storm sitting on us and inundating us. >> david, give us a sense as to where you are in comparison to where this eye is sitting right now which is -- looks like just north of wilmington around morehead city. >> halfway between wilmington and cape hatteras, i would say. >> reporter: i'm, like, northeast of there. and the outer banks skeletal line that runs from southeastern virginia all the way down. yeah, that's southwest of me.

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welcome back. we are back with live coverage of hurricane dorian. it is now a category 1 but the storm is battering north carolina's coastline with strong winds and heavy rain as some areas remain at risk of flooding and tornadoes. and there are now more than 300,000 power outages across the carolinas. this new video capturing the

moment that a transform exploded in wilmington, north carolina, overnight. those high winds taking it out. >> let's go over to jay gray in naf wilmington, north carolina. give us an idea what the situation is on the ground. >> reporter: hey. it was a rough right overnight. strong winds and just a driving rain that continued. we're still getting just a spitting rain here and a swirling wind at times. but as this continues a move to the north, it looks like finally it may be losing a bit of intensity. dorian announces its arrival in the coastal carolinas with violent wind, soaking rain, and a storm surge of more than seven feet in some areas. too much water too fast. swallowing parts of the low country where first responders had to push this car out of the fast rising floodwaters that

took over downtown streets. >> when i saw the water, i was trying to back out. but i couldn't back out because there were two trucks behind me. >> reporter: another driver had to abandon his vehicle in the growing surge. >> holy crap. >> reporter: also spawning more than 20 tornadoes over two days. homed ripped apart, and rvs rolled by the twisters. >> my camper was tipping over. i said lord, what in the world. >> reporter: it's a question millions are asking right now as dorian continues to unleash its fury along the coast. yeah. you know, it looks like communities to our north will still feel the effects of this storm. some through early saturday morning. so, guys, this storm not leaving and not losing its strength without a fight. >> i was going to say it seems like the folks in wilmington this morning are more of the

lucky ones as this moves more northeast away into the north part of the state. jay gray live for us there on the ground in wilmington. on the phone now captain jason berm of the salvation army. we saw some flooding there in charleston. what were the needs there and are you shifting your resources now to north carolina that seems to have been more of the state that has received the brunt of this hurricane? >> well, good morning. welcome and glad to be on from charleston this morning. so our needs have been pretty constant since sunday. our primary feeding operations since sunday have been with emergency and first responders as they've been pouring into charleston from the different areas. we're currently not planning on sending the sources from charleston north. we are still assessing the needs

here. the storm passed us late last evening, so tomorrow morning we'll be sending out our mobile feeding kitchens to start going through neighborhoods as people start to rebuild. lots of limbs are down. i believe as people start putting lives together, we will come back in and help provide food and cleanup kits for people. >> you're talking about some of the power outages that people are experiencing on the ground. we did see a lot of flooding in charleston, south carolina. and we were covering charleston in the days leading up to that storm heading in that drerks. give us a sense really of the situation on the ground, what people's needs are right now. >> we're still really in the pri limb nar stages of that

assessment. we did have high water. however, that has not been our primary concern. it has been power outages. some areas along the coast and along the rivers did some higher than normal flooding. and so we'll be making those assessments. but really when the power goes out, people lose things in the refrigerator. so the staples of what they have are gone. a lot of our folks and especially out on some of the islands are going to be struggling for a few days with power. so they're not going to have that ability to cook and/or provide for their family. so for us, our primary focus is making sure people are being fed. making sure first responders and power company guys and all those who are out trying to support us are taken care of. >> so let me get your thoughts on and certainly, you know, the carolinas, georgia, florida, they are no strangers to hurricane. i'm curious to get your perspective on what, if anything, the salvation army and

others have done differently this time in preparation based on some of the lessons you guys have learned from having gone through this so many times. what different processes or plans did you guys put in place in anticipation of hurricane dorian? >> well, fortunately we have a long time of experience doing this. we've been serving in every major disaster in the united states since 1900. so we've had a long list of good practices. and one of our greatest assets and abilities is to be able to move assets quickly into a an area. we're already in these communities. we're already in over 7 thourkss communities across the united states. and so to be able to move those assets quickly, to get what we need quickly has been one of our best abilities and best assets, so when we made the request to our headquarters for additional personnel, we had those when we needed them. and they are here in time for the storm. and we were able to serve our

emergency operates throughout the storm. the storm was here on land, we were tiebl feed over 6,000 people a day in the last two days. most of those are primary first responders. they're firefighters who came in, coast guard, sheriffs deputies, police officers. people who are ready to serve. >> all right. captain jason berm at the salvation army. thank you very much for all the work you and your organization are doing for those communities. let's check back in with nbc's cal perry at wilmington, north carolina. when we're looking at the map of this hurricane, it looks as if where you are is now on the outer bands of the hurricane, the eye has passed over wilmington. talk to us about what you are experiencing probably just a couple of hours ago as that eye

was passing over wilmington. >> reporter: yeah, you know, it feels like the rain is starting to let up. the conditions are improving. couple things i have heard people talk about a lot but hadn't experienced myself in these hurricanes is that back end. we hear bill karins talk about that a lot. that back end was much worse than the front end. the other thing that happened was the winds shift direction in the middle of the storm. so we set up where we thought was a safe spot. all the debris's flying in one direction. then like you flip a light switch and all of the debris is going back in the other direction. and we're dealing with sort of 60, 70, maybe 80 mile-an-hour winds. it just sort of makes you think what folks in the bahamas were dealing with when you're talking about winds at 180 miles an hour. the other thing that was really interesting about this storm was how it related to the storm that we saw last year, hurricane florence. keep in mind, wilmington has had two hurricanes in less than a

year. hurricane florence also a category 2 storm came on shore in wilmington and just stalled. it just stayed over wilmington. it rained for 24 hours. that's what locked down the city. this one much quicker. moved offshore much faster. i think that's why we're seeing a lot less damage, a lot fewer people without power. and hopefully authorities will be able to move around a lot easier after this storm. >> and juxtapose that, some of the numbers that cal was throwing out there. so florence last year sitting over wilmington for 24 hours. that is a really long time. think about dorian sitting over the bahamas for 50-plus hours just hammering it with 165 mile-an-hour winds. >> as a category 5. not even as a category 1. >> just catastrophic. >> all right. cal perry live there. thanks, cal. the national guard in place and ready to act as you can imagine. the role it will play in the recovery after the storm next.

all right. we are back now with more breaking news on hurricane dorian. it has weakened slightly to a category 1 storm but is still packing sustained winds of up to 90 miles an hour, pounding rain expected well into this afternoon. >> we're going to have an update with bill karins in just a moment. but we're back following sop breaking news as dorian's eye wall hugs carolina's coast. >> nearly 500 north carolina national guard soldiers and airmen are ready to support disaster efforts as part of this state emergency response team. joining us now on the phone is wes morrison, army national guard chief of staff. appreciate you joining us this morning, sir. i know you have a lot of work ahead of you. so we thank you for this time. how is the army national guard

responding right now as dorian impacts the state? >> yasmin, thank you for having us this morning. i tell you the national guard, we support with things like stranded motorists, flood victims rescue, using high clearance water vehicles, commodity transportation, distribution, swift water rescue support, helicopter search and rescue, warehouse and supply, any damage assessment flights. that's something we'll start with this morning as the weather clears is doing some of the damage and search and rescue overflights in wilmington. >> sir, let me get your thoughts if i may for a moment on the circumstances. under what circumstances do the majority of the water rescues you talked about, the swift boat rescues and others, maybe folks stranded on top of their homes. at what point do they take place in a storm like this?

immediate aftermath or do you try to go in there when the situation is still somewhat uncertain? >> like most first responders, we hunker down during the key points of the storm and then get out there right after in the immediate aftermath of the storm doing searches and rescue. identifying thoeks fa need that rescue. >> and how do you identify -- walk us through how you identify who needs the rescues and how do you prioritize those rescues? i imagine those that are more vulnerable are rescued first. the elderly, those with young children. >> yes. so north carolina we have a bottom up plan. so our north carolina national guardsmen are working directly for our local emergency management. so those 911 calls go in, they are directed by those folks. and then in the air our helicopters are also working for emergency management. in cases like florence, we did identify folks who needed rescue by the air using our search and

rescue helicopters. >> the national guard has obviously got a long history in helping communities across the united states. in the state of north carolina, what is the specific concern for you and what are the biggest factors impacting the response so far? what lessons have you guys learned from the past that you are applying this time around? >> well, the experience that our soldiers have with six hurricanes, joaquin, maher vee, matthew, michael, florence, and maria. all of our soldiers and airmen have been involved with just the wealth of experience in terms of dealing with mainly floodwaters has been our main impact. with this storm it is more wind than we've dealt with with the past few storms. but we're waiting to see what kind of damage we've got out there in terms of that. the floodwaters has been something we've worked with. and making sure that our soldiers are protected with the right protective equipment as they go into the floodwaters and

help our citizens. >> our meteorologist bill karins has talked about the threat of a storm surge that's still very much a possibility. what kind of things would you be seeing if you are dealing with something like a storm surge hence there would be more floodwaters. and then also what are you expecting to see out there when you have 90 mile-an-hour winds right now in that state? >> well, most of us are hunkered down. we try to monitor all the weather reports like that. i tell you what we do is try to do predictive analysis on the rivers as the water reseeds and the rain coming in. we have a system which gives us really good river precinctive analysis in north carolina. so we can target areas we know post-storm that are going to be affecting low lying areas. a lot of our areas affected by matthew and lawrence are going to be affected again by any floodwaters triggered by this storm. >> all right. sir, thank you very much to you

and all the servicemen and women out there for helping those communities. thanks for your service, sir. >> absolutely. we're going to see how north carolina faired as the storm has passed over south carolina. when special coverage of hurricane dorian comes back.

. welcome back, everyone. let's go over to meteorologist bill karins as we await the latest update from the national

hurricane center which could possibly come while we are talking to bill. so if it does, he will update us with that. where do things stand at this moment? what are your expectations i think for what everyone is really concerned about, the storm surge? >> yeah. the storm surge issues are only in the back bays at this time. the winds that are coming in here are pushing all that water toward all these little inlets in the rivers in here. we're not watching too many problems at the coast. so the storm surge concerns have diminished considerably. we may not see more problems at all. a lot of these wind gusts with in the 50 mile-per-hour range. i've only seen these areas that are closest to that in the 50s. some buoys off the coast are in the 60 mile-per-hour range. a lot of these winds have not been strong enough for considerable damage either. all of these issues have been water issues because of all the rain. here's a closeup of the path. this black line from the national hurricane center. it was only ten miles away from

cape lookout. but it's not doing that. if we take this black line and extrapolate it, we nmay not get an official landfall. so right now the storm is doing a little tour of the outer banks. as we go throughout the day today, it will push away. we're waiting for the new update. this just came in. no surprise. still a category 1. by 2:00 p.m., look how far it is off the coast. so by this afternoon, even the rain should be exiting areas here of north carolina. so that's good news. we'll show you what, if any changes have happened with cape cod and our friends in nova scotia because that's where it's heading next. >> it would be interesting to see that because it seems that initial advisory sees dorian

heading way out into the water. it'll be interesting to see if it's tracking back. >> by the time we get to this afternoon, you know, we'll be given the all clear to a lot of areas. i know a lot of people are going to want to get back in a hurry. >> it's been a couple days now. >> thanks, bill. appreciate it. all right. one part of south carolina that really is recovering right now is myrtle beach. i want to bring in the mayor of myrt myrtle beach brenda bethune. your area hit somewhat hard by this area to say the least. high winds, some pretty heavy rain as well. you had at least one tornado touching down there. how is your community doing this morning? >> good morning. we actually did really well. we were very well prepared for this storm. and luckily, it really did not get us as badly as we thought that it would. you know, our neighbors in charleston and now north carolina did not fair so well.

so we are very, very grateful that it was not as impactful as we were expecting. >> mayor, if i may, can you give us a sense just -- you're saying you're very lucky. you're better off than some of your colleagues and neighbors. what, if any, effect has it had on your community and what are you reeling from if anything at all. tornadoes touching down? reports of home damage, have you had to do any emergency rescues in the community? >> we have not had to do any emergency rescues. our teams were out last night. there were some down power lines. some street in flooding especially on the ocean front area. and we expected that with the storm surge and the amount of rain that we had. we also have crews that will be going out this morning with equipment as daylight breaks just to do a damage assessment and start cleanup efforts. we rely so heavily on tourism

here. and september is still great weather in myrtle beach. so it is just imperative that we clean up quickly and get our businesses and our hotels back open so we can welcome our visitors back. >> how's this comparing -- how's dorian comparing to what you experienced with florence last year? >> nowhere near what we experienced with florence. florence just hovered over us for it seems like days. it was at least three days. and the torrential rains and flooding that followed especially with the flooding from north carolina that came into the county. that flooding really cut us off from the rest of the state. we had every major road into myrtle beach was closed. so even though with florence, we just couldn't get people in here. it was an economic impact.

and this one will be too. any hurricane in myrtle beach is an economic impact. >> myrtle beach mayor brenda be thaun, thanks very much. ahead, an update from the national hurricane center on dorian. that just came in. we'll have that for you top of the hour.

>> good morning. this is friday, september 6. right now, residents on the carolina coast are being told to shelter in place. more than 6 million people are under flood watches. more than 290,000 homes are without power. earlier in the day, hurricane dorian spawned a series of tornado. this photo is from north carolina. a lot of destruction.