wilmington is a big city with a big university. unc wilmington is there. what was the evacuation effort like in a city that size? >> reporter: the evacuation started earlier this week. the mayor tells me that it went very well. wilmington is one of the fastest-growing cities not just in north carolina, in all of the southeast. new brunswick county where we are is one of the fastest growing counties in the carolinas. wrightsville beach is a barrier island. there are a number of these barrier islands that dot the coast of north carolina. a number of these islands have become far more populated over the past five or ten years than they had been. so you've got this growing population here on the coast of north carolina. lots of people who have moved to this area for a variety of reasons, so you've got far more people here who are at risk. my friend and colleague joe fryer is covering this storm. whatever conditions like to in jacksonville? >> reporter: we are in jacksonville right now. what i can tell you basically is that even though we are about a 20-mile dr

in wilmington the wind gust is the fastest wind at 92 since 1960. what you are seeing is another piece where you were almost out of it, and now you are back in it. >> chad meyers telling me we are getting wind gusts of 92 miles per hour, which i absolutely believe based on what i am feeling here, getting kicked around on the docks here. the storm surge and the extreme flooding we have seen up the coast at new bern, that's a much greater concern. people needing to be rescued right there. this wind of 90 miles per hour, it's bad and dangerous, but it's not the worst of it. this wind speed will not last hopefully that much longer, maybe a few hours. again, on the phone with us right now, the mayor of the city of the north carolina, bill safo. you were preparing for this moment. please give us a sense of how the city is doing. >> well, we have power outages, for the most part, the entire city is out of power and trees are down. we are getting the wind gusts now coming in at 90 miles per hour, and a lot of calls for emergencies and we are not able to get

wilmington, do we have rainfall amounts for wilmington as yet? i know it's expected -- that was in like -- wilmington is definitely in the area where it's more than 15 inches of rain, possibly 20 and in that area that says locally 40, which i know seems like a crazy jump from 15 to 40 inches, but here's the problem. remember, you know, you've seen those rain bands, if the rain band moves over one community for many hours, that community is going to get two, three times as much rain as a community that stayed out of the rain band for awhile. so it's not that we're just kind of throwing numbers at it. it really and truly is that the rain comes in in stripes, comes in in bands, if you're under it, you get it. >> one more note i did notice at the banner at the bottom the number of people without power in the state of north carolina has grown just in the last two hours that we've been talking. it is now just under 300,000 people are without lights, doubled. doubled since we've been here talking about this and that number definitely will grow in the ov

we have been talking about wilmington, north carolina. wilmington will see the eye of this storm. it's still going to take awhile to get there, but it's been in the projected path of this storm for quite sometime. for his own set of reasons, our friend cal perry is out driving around wilmington, north carolina tonight. cal, what have you seen? >> yeah, so as we move north -- zach, go ahead and flip the picture, i'll turnoff the lights. as we move north toward surf city, it's really interesting just being able to drive 15 miles and go from winds that are sort of 25, 35 miles an hour to where we are now, obviously a very different picture than downtown wilmington. these winds are sometimes 50, 60 miles an hour. they're enough to take a very heavy suburban full of a lot of electronic equipment and just kind of slide it from lane to lane, brian. this is why the emergency vehicles are not out right now. as we move further north, you're getting to those hurricane winds. they simply cannot operate out here. and again, compound that with a very, very slow storm, just kind of scraping down

riding the storm out here in wilmington. all right. coverage continues here from wilmington. we will continue of course to monitor the situation. bring you the very lathes after the break. stay with us. cnn breaking news coverage continues. your society was dearled by a woman, who governed thousands... commanded armies... yielded to no one. when i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. my name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. now with 2 times more geographic detail than other dna tests. order your kit at ancestrydna.com exbut are you gettinglot enough of their nutrients?, new one a day with nature's medley is the only complete multivitamin with antioxidants from one total serving of fruits and veggies. new from one a day. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ 1 out of 2 kids don't get enough calcium, vitamin d, and potassium. make sure your kid isn't one of them. one simple way? 3 servings of real milk a day. ♪ ♪ serve real milk at mealtime. ♪ ♪ take us downtown, waze. waze integration- seamlessly connecting the world inside... with the world ou

brad johnson in wilmington. they started getting hit with hurricane force winds just after midnight. how's it feeling there now and how does it compare? do you find major changes from the last hour? >> the strongest bands that we have seen come through wilmington. it has been an extremely fickle storm as you know. thinking that a cat 4 was probably coming on shore. to a 3 to a 2 and it started crawling to a one. in wilmington woef seen some of the strongest bands where it looked like the power was going to ramp up and that would dispate. it's closer to the on shore with the eye we're getting strong wind bands. not a lot of rain. power outages have been a problem throughout. through many of the live shots tonight. we have seen transformers blow and lose power and change position. now the wind continues to swirl as it comes on shore. and we're still waiting to see what kind of water surge we're going to get. >> give us a sense of where you are. where's the water from where you are. >> we're probably just three mil

there's wilmington so it's very, very close to that as well. that's why the winds kind of picked up in our live shots and while around topsail getting back into that area of storms. this will circle back around and run over them again. now just looking again, slide it around. i noticed that new bern was still getting in one of those bands of storms because, again, if the storm doesn't move itself, and the bands aren't raining out and still have the same strength that pressure bobble with it, whether it's 955 or 956 doesn't mean that the storm is strengthening but it's not weakening. when we expect to see bobbles in not just the shape of the eye or the shape of the storm or the pressure itself, we expect to see that. but what you want to see is a trend that the storm is opening up or the storm is weakening or is getting dry air in it and you can tell people that things are going to be getting better. i cannot tell you things will get better because it's still the same strength that it's been for several hours and it's inching its way close to th

i'm seeing streets here, on a very high part in wilmington. i'm seeing streets fill with wear and seen signs flying across the roads here and the deck that we are standing on boards have started ripping up from the end of it. we are in the heart of the storm and eyewall is always the most violent part and we are feeling and seeing that here in wilmington as rob said, even after we get into the eye there's still going to be hours long of at least tropical storm-force winds. but hopefully nothing like this. all right. we're going -- yeah. those boards are coming up. >> please take shelter. please. >> we'll go back to rob right now and, oh, goodness when you see those kind of scenes, the storm surge just explain to people how dangerous it is. >> we often say, you know, you can hide from the wind but you've got to run from the water. you have to get away from higher ground, you got to get to higher ground from low ground and this is all low ground, tidewater and low country because it is just that. at sea level so we have this storm surge warning

wilmington, you're in it. for chris for myrtle beach it's not here because it's meandering, kind of waobbling around here. and the color indicates how cold the cloud tops are. if the storm is getting colder or bright red, then it's not dying. so this storm is in no way, shape or form dying yet. the eye is not onshore. it turns to the left, it will eventually get to myrtle. that may still be another 12 hours before chris gets any onshore flow and threat of storm surge there. topsail beach all the way up, and these are the areas even like emerald aisle, you have seen winds now about 80 miles per hour for the better part of 12 hours. if you lose a shingle in the first hour and then lose two or lose four, a squualso this is a duration type storm as we move through the rest of the day. cape lookout already 105. the strongest winds to the right of the eye. this is always the case. where the most damage will occur. offshore in myrtle beach no surge at all. even chris said the water's far away, way down the coast beca

john berman in wilmington, north carolina. this is cnn special live coverage of hurricane florence. behind me is the northeast cape fear river. one of the rivers that flows into the atlantic from here. this is a river that is concerned about flooding. there are a number of boats here. i think you can see a jib on a sailboat that has come loose. it was tied around the mast. it has come loose and shaking violently and very loud here. i think someone was trying to tie it down. that would be a hard job. that is what could come loose and become flying debris and be dangerous as the winds pick up in a storm like this. powerful outer bands have passed through. sustained winds of 50 to 60 miles an hour and gusts more powerful than that. it is just the beginning. it will be like that for some time here in wilmington, north carolina. let's go to kaylee hartung who is not too far from where i am right now. riding out the storm with a family here in wilmington. kaylee, what do you see? >> reporter: john, we're waking up here just on the b

near wilmington, north carolina. more than 400 400,000 homes and businesses have no power right now. the big problem is rain. the storm is moving really slowly and installing. it could drop as much as 40 inches of rain in some areas. >>> a cargo plane from the bay area took off for the carolinas last night from moffett field in mountain view carrying 20 members of the california national guard and emergency equipment including medical supplies and rescue helicopter. members of the 129th rescue wing told us they are leaving with mixed emotions. >> i want to help people. i want to see how it looks but this is my first time. i'm also nervous. >> all of these guys are volunteers. once they showed up at 4:00 this morning they prepared the helicopter but now they were loaded into the c-17 and go to dover, delaware. all of these guys are excited to be a part of this mission. our motto is that others may live. >> over the years this group has been credited with saving more than 1000 lives. >>> hurricane florence is pounding

in wilmington. about 120,000 people, wilmington is the inland town. if you live in wilmington if you go to the beach, you drive over the big coastal highway, this is england by about 8 miles. it's our first drive along look like this to see what things are like and it's great to see all these trees still standing, there are a lot of limbs in the road, having some connection problems there with the mobile hook up, we are probably using a live view here which is a piece of equipment that connects to the internet signals and broadcasts these live pictures. you see a tree there split in half on the left, some debris on the right. it the drive along gives us a kind of idea. originally the storm was a category four, the meteorologists didn't see any way it was going to weaken because there were no steering currents or anything like that. two days ago in the afternoon, about 3:00 eastern time we were speaking with a pilot in a hurricane hunter plane and he was in the southeast quadrant of the storm. we wer

dylan is in wilmington, north carolina. wilmington has been in the bull's-eye this morning. good morning again. >> good morning. we have been in the bull's-eye. we were standing in the eye wall of this storm. we're driving around wilmington to assess the damage and it's tree damage that we're running into. these seem like old trees that have been here for a long time but we were in the eye wall for so long that it was a constant battering of the wind on even very strong structures. and we are going to see perhaps more storm damage and tree damage. so this will be one of those things where crews will have to get out and clean up. judging from the homes we've driven by, a lot have been boarded up. we haven't seen people of any kind. we're not dealing with flooding yet so it's just tree damage at this point that the crews will have to come out and take care of which certainly will take time. we're meandering over the roads as there is no one else on the roads but some of the roads get blocked because of the trees so that's kind of -- it's a good thing. the fact that we're just

beach and towards wilmington. i have timing in about three or four hours over wrightsville beach. again, it is moving so slowly. and then four to six hours into the wilmington area. a note, we broke the record for the storm surge in the morehead/bmorehead morehead/beaufort area. the wind direction was out of the northeast, blowing the water out. as the storm has moved past it now towards the west, the winds turn to the east and the water level shot up in a hurry. i'm sure a lot of people there, whoever is left there -- everyone was told to evacuate. i know we have our crew that's there and obviously the police and stuff are still there, but that water level i'm sure is -- because of that water height, it is in businesses in downtown beaufort this morning right now. we are going past the high tide, but because the wind direction hasn't changed it hasn't been able the release it, so it is still staying high. that water level should be even higher at the next high tide throughout the morning hours. that's kind of som

this is the town of wilmington. over the last hour or so we have been either able to see it or unable to see it because of the amount of rain that keeps coming down in these extremely thick sheets. it wipes out the entire background behind us we have also been watching the parking lots and the streets behind us started to fill up with water. for safety purposes we are a ways off of the ground. the streets down below me about an hour ago a wet and now they are flooding. we are expecting to get more rain like that, excuse me, more wind like that. there's a lot of stuff flying around right now. my crew and i are a little bit protected from the storm so i'm not even in the wind fully, which at this time it would be too dangerous to be out there. >> i'm sure it's probably hard for you to hear us with all of the wind. is that town completely evacuated? >> reporter: wilmington was under an evacuation order, but it was not mandatory. there are people still here. the entire town behind me has lost power. for a while we were

here is wilmington. this is our radar imagery. here is wilmington. at about 35 miles, that's where the eye of hurricane florence is located. so if we do the math, it's about six hours before it makes landfall. but it's a lili rat i cattle er this close to the shore. if anybody doubts how much moisture is getting wrapped around heef, just take around hurricane florence, just take a look at this. moisture picking up on the atlantic and dumping it on the shore. where george is in wilmington, also derek van dam, we had wind gusts reported in wilmington of 59 miles per hour. now, we have seen some wind gusts in some of the other coastal areas up to about 99 miles per hour. all right, the latest information from the national hurricane center, 90 mile an hour winds associated with hurricane florence. it's indicate g it's category 1. it will make its way on shore, it will inundate these areas. already in three counties, between 80 and nearly 100% of the residents are without power. that's the type of thing that, if you were to have stayed, that you'd be with

we're about 76 in wilmington. some reporting 69, 70 miles an hour and new bern and jacksonville we're not reporting because the stations are down. here are some of the peak wind gusts we've gotten from the storm. i'm stressing it is wind event absolutely, but this is more of a rainfall and a storm surge story that is going to last for days. on top of that, the flash flooding is going to be concerned. the worst part of the storm is the northeast side. morehead city, wilmington will get the back side. flash flood watches and warnings posted in north carolina and south carolina where we think the storm will track next and the potential for tornado because of the counter clockwise motion with these landfalling hurricanes and interaction with the upper level winds and wind-shear. we have the threat of tornadoes that could cause damage. we're getting information from jacksonville, north carolina. because the storm is moving so slowly, it will be the legacy of this event because we'll be talking about it for days. here a

we got rescues in wilmington. what do you know about how people are doing where you are right now in oak island, mariana? >> so people are hunkering down. i spoke to the mayor. i've been texting with her all morning. this is an island that has about 8,000 people, at least 500 decided to stay here. both bridges are closed in and out. they closed at 8:00 p.m. yesterday. the only way we were able to overnight here to bring you these images is because we stayed with a local resident who has a water well who has a generator and who is prepared to hunker down for possibly days. because hurricane matthew back in 2016, it covered all of these dunes, all of the parking lot over here to my right, and that was a storm that just came and went. but when you're talking about hurricane florence, a storm that is going to linger, and just keep dumping up to 40 inches of water in this area, it is quite possible that all of this will be flooded and people won't be able to get back into their homes for days. ali. >> mariana, last nig

wind gusts right now wilmington 83. kingsville9. 74 out in buoy and we are expecting storm sges to come in. up to 3 million people could lose power, guys. the sto surge going to be the big story. 11 feet in m 7 to some areas. even some other areas we are getting reports now that the high tides are going to be one to two feet above what they were expecting. that's going to be an issue as well. 0 to 20 inches. it is going to be a problem. as you just heard, upwards of 20 inches in some areas already. we can see 40 inches before it's al over, guys. >> hard to fatho much water. the national hurricane center says the 7:00 a.m. position the center of the eye of the hurricane is about to make landfall nearll wrights beach, carolina. >> the carolina coast has the ocean on this it's filled with rivers and in.le ts andde thisings. craig is in wilmington. that area is getting pounded as we speak. craig, tell us what you are seeing. >> reporter: this area is being absolutelyummeled rig now, ow oda winds are 80 miles an hour. i want

i'm jeff glor from wilmington, north carolina. and this is a special one-hour edition of the "cbs evening news." i am standing in a parking lot that for much of the day was part of the swollen cape fear river as we talk about these historic rainfall amounts now associated with what was hurricane florence. florence came ashore this morning as a category 1 hurricane with 90-mile-an-hour winds, 10 miles east of here, in wrightsville beach. it has been downgraded now to a tropical storm, but it's not going anywhere fast. the governor called florence "an uninvited brute who doesn't want to leave." florence is now blamed for at least five deaths. nearly a million homes and businesses lost power, so this will be a night in the dark for a lot of people in the carolinas. we have a team of correspondents throughout the region as we bring you extensive coverage tonight of florence. florence roared ashore under the cover of darkness, raking the region with pelting rain, widespread flooding, and high winds. gusts reached over 100 miles an hour

killed inside their own home by a downed tree here in wilmington. we were there during those heart-wrenching hours as firefighters and first responders rushed to try to save their lives. >> reporter: as massive trees uprooted across the region, crashing into streets and homes, firefighters knew that calls like this would be inevitable this morning. >> unfortunately we have a very, very large tree that's taken off the back corner of this house. we've been involved in extrication of several victims for a number of hours now. >> reporter: three people, a couple and their 8-month-old baby, trapped. firefighters desperately working to clear a path to the victims who they could hear and speak to. at least one pinned by debris. >> there's a plan "b" requested, a surgical team out here to help us in case an amputation is required. >> reporter: as firefighters work to save them, loved ones arrived on the scene. >> oh, my god! >> reporter: overwhelmed by the situation. and then finally some good news. the father freed and rushed to the hospital. after we saw

it is drifting south of wilmington. rand paul will be quite hefty as it heads towards myrtle beach and starts to make the move inland. it looks like instead of going down past charleston now it starts move inland. that's a good sign. let's hope that continues. it will start to lift northward toward south carolina and northward as well back into north carolina. wilmington now gust 78 miles an hour. they had gusts at 92 and 105 miles an hour. that system is moving inland. it starts to drift a little bit south. it is just hugging the coastline. it looks like it will go in as a category one and then a tropical storm and then lift out . sunday night or monday near bristol, tennessee. for us clouds have returned. today 40s and 50s. a little chill to the morning air. 47 by the concorde pavilion. 57 towards pittsburgh. 49 pleasanton. 53 in patinas and panel. moraga at 52. west southwest breeze. some areas pickup 80s and breeze. if you like this pattern i can't really do much better than this as far as temperatures go. maybe we

outer eyewall over where i am in wilmington, north carolina. the wind is 75 miles an hour at least at times. the near crisis situation north of us in new bern where hundreds of people placing calls to be rescued. trapped in their homes. a storm surge threat there that will continue throughout the day. cnn special live coverage of hurricane florence picks up right after this. welcome to tide pods talk with gronk. i'm gronk! i'm big and awesome, but this guy is little, can it really clean? heck yeah it can! it's concentrated detergent plus stain fighters plus odor flighers that fight for clean. boom! even this entire bottle can't beat tide pods. and now a word from future gronk: ugh... tide pods. if it's clean, it's got to be tide. since joining ninehahi, ubmonths ago,o. my priority has been to listen to you... to cities and communities, and to my own employees. i've seen a lot of good. we've changed the way people get around. we've provided new opportunities. but moving forward, it's time to move in a new direction. and i want you to know just h

megan is on the road in wilmington. what do you think residents of wilmington should be most concerned about now that florence has actually hit the land? >> right. florence is here, gayle. i don't think anybody is questioning that. if they're anywhere near the carolinas right now. we're driving near the cape fear river and you can see white caps on the river. you can clearly see the winds blowing and gusting. but in addition, we've got some ponding and flooding, minor flooding that we've seen so far in and around wilmington at least where we've been able to move around. what we're looking at is still a category 1 hurricane. i expect that we're going to see at least tropical storm force gusts here in wilmington probably until sunday. so moving forward my biggest concern is the fact that this thing is moving so slowly. this by the way is the absolutely latest from the national hurricane center. the track becomes still important but a little less important now that it's made landfall. what we need to focus on is the fact t

it moves on shore just south of wilmington. you have a hurricane, most of the damage happens the northeast of the storm and that's why we focused so much on wilmington, the beaches to the north as well. we will look at that in terms of the storm surge totals where we're seeing nine to 13 feet. as we go throughout time here we want to talk about the winds because that's going to bring the trees down. the ground is so saturated, it will continue to be saturated. so the winds will really bring down the trees and cause power outages. we are already seeing a ton of power outages already. we are seeing roofs ripped off some of the structures. look at some of the numbers here. 66 at camp lejeune. we are looking at near hurricane force winds already and this is the clincher. we will see hurricane source winds for 24 hours in some spots. so if you are in houses that have not been evacuated, you have no power, you will hear that wind battering on your house. you are going to hear the rain falling as well. right now we are looking at wind

but extending over towards wilmington. wilmington, as if they haven't had enough. still an excessive rainfall outlook, maining there is the potential for more flooding. how can there be more? the ground is saturated? those trees are going to come down. when we saw derek speaking and those trees collapsing, the ground just can't hold those roots anymore. the rivers can't hold the water anymore. they'll be spilling out for days and days to come. so this is a long haul event. just like we were saying when this was approaching land, and now, tonight, we have the potential for severe weather with the possibility of tornadoes. george? >> that's right, karen. as we understand, you pointed out here, we're under a tornado watch. and we're in that dirty side of the storm, that northeastern quadrant where you have the trains of storms and the possibility for tornadoes throughout. we'll have to keep an eye on it. karen, thank you so much. let's now bring in lieutenant mitchell russlander. we understand with swift water rescue, and we know that these are going to be very busy t

he lives near wilmington trying to escape the hurricane's path but the storm found him. what's your hope right now? >> just to g home and i'm tired of peanut butter and ll sandwiches. >> reporter: the rain is relentless as the wind with neighborhoods already just last night the new river stopped on the other side of the fence. today it's overflowing beyond its banks. a combination of storm surge, high tide and over a foot of rain here t s is more than another hurricane. this is a lomore. >> reporter: tonight as flood waters rise, the drama of florence is reaching far beyond the coast. river flooding is a big concern tonight across north and south carolina. sinland areas cou up to 15 inches of reign in id spots and there could be flooding as far away as 300 miles from here. lester. >> thanks, florence's destructive winds packed up to 90 miles ou anwhen the storm made a direct hit ripping apart buildings, snapping trees and downing power linegu almaguer is here in wilmington where many streets are impassible. miguel? >> reporter: they wore ied about flooding in wilmington

i am jeff glor in wilmington, north carolina. this is an expanded edition of the "cbs evening news" tonight, as florence-- what was hurricane florence, which is now tropical storm florence-- continues to lash the carolinas. this is an enormous storm. it is a slow-moving storm. it was downgraded earlier today with 75-mile-an-hour winds now, still very dangerous. florence is now blamed for five deaths in north carolina. it made landfall this morning as a category 1 hurricane about 10 miles east of here in wrightsville beach. since then, it has been hitting the carolinas with strong winds. ee're just getting another one of these heavy bands right now. the rain is going to be around for a long time here. florence is moving west at less than five miles an hour. as the mayor of wilmington said to me, at times, people have been able to walk faster than florence is moving. the storm has knocked out power to nearly one million homes and businesses. we do have a team of correspondents in the region providing full coverage tonight of floren

this is wilmington where the storm is now right here in wilmington. there's a storm and here's little town of new bern with all of this water and wind coming in that direction. if we zoom into new bern. i can show you that it's right on the neuse river. so all of this rain and water has come moving up into the river and there is a town of new bern. alive look now, this is the spot where the mayor tells us there have been more than 200 rescues on this day already and more than 100 people are waiting to be rescued right now. they're trying to get folks in from the occasion may be which has come up a volunteer group from down in louisiana. a lot of work to be done there throughout the day. look at these rainfall totals. these are official totals from the united states geological survey. morehead city north carolina, 3, emerald isle 31. in linda here, 13. this is surfside beach, 14 and a half inches down in the wrightsville beach area, almost 19 inches of rain and in wilmington close to 17 and a half inches of rain and there is lots more to come throughou

but wilmington, there you go. 105. just as john berman was getting off the air, i really have never seen a person so wet in a live shot for any hurricane ever. this was one of the wettest storms that i have ever seen on record. honestly, that i have ever seen. we also have the potential -- there's one right there, tornadoes across parts of north carolina. every big cell that comes onshore, because the entire thing is twisting, it's a hurricane, any one of those storms can twist as well. putting down some smaller tornadoes. typically, ef-0 or 1, not big storms, more like water spouts that come onshore. this is what i want you to look at for the rest of the day. this is 18 hours of what we believe the future will look like with the radar. so we go to 9:00, 10:00, we'll go around this again. that's okay. almost to midnight right now, and then a little past to 1:30 a.m. now, we're going to go back. i want to start all over again and watch here. this is where the rainfall is the heaviest. and it's still the heaviest. and it

and in wilmington, the rain coming down sideways in sheets. families who chose to stay and ride it out now bracing for the worst. >> we have large pine trees and they're really bending a lot and the wind just howling away as i can hear it from inside the house. >> reporter: reports of structural damage already racking up and shelters overflowing. and while we still do have power here in downtown wilmington a lot of folks already don't. we know at least 190,000 people in north carolina alone now in the dark and more than 100 waiting to be rescued in new bern, north carolina so the conditions really getting worse here as this storm just gets started. kendis and stephanie. >> emily, we can definitely see that wind there just kind of pushing you around. have you seen any emergency responders in the area, any other type of activity where you are? >> reporter: i heard sirens probably about 20 minutes or so ago. but we did hear overnight that those first responders had for the first part pulled back because conditions were bad enough they couldn't ri

live in wilmington, north carolina. now back to you. >> thank you. > and hurricane force winds battered myrtle beach, south carolina. this video was shot near thebe h and it gives you some of the ive on the power gusts there. the conditions got so bad that the county said iwas too dangerous for safety crews to respond to emergency calls. that meant the responses would be slow or limited. >>> now our team coverage moves to coastal virginia and the tide water area. the area dubbed the worst of florence. the biggest concern is tidal flooding. >> reporter: as soon as folks in the hampton roadsn reg saw that florence was heading farther south away from many of them breathed a sigh of relief. the concern has been flooding. tidal flooding in particular.is s called the head. it is known to flood. addth t the tropical storm-like conditions. some stronger winds. potentially some surge coming through and that's what creates this. several ft of ter. >> i thought everything would be destroyed. >> reporter: he and his mom taking in a

wilmington is a little bit higher. basically, what they said is if you can get out, just get out the advice is just go. can you come back and fix your house, you can't come back and fix you, if you die. i think most people are taking this one pretty seriously. >> tim buck lan with tland with wilmington star news. thank you for all your coverage. thank you. still ahead, president trump lacking 20 points behind robert mueller and his new poll on how they are handling the russia investigation. this as the president signs a new bill to punish those involved in the election interference, coming up next, we'll talk to a storm chaser live, who will be rideing out hurricane florence, as the clock ticks for most on the coast to evacuate while they can. >> we originally were going to stay, once the track changed overnight or early this morning, then we really did not feel safe if our house. so for that reason, we're leaving. we hate to leave, but we feed to be safe. >> it's unpredictable, really. so we need to get out of here, b

craig melvin is up next live from wilmington, north carolina. craig, i know you're all going to be up all day, all night, through the storm. >> we are indeed, andrea. the wind has started to pick up here. good afternoon to you. craig melvin here live in wilmington, where the long siege has begun. the wind and the rain started to pick up along the coast. we're here in wilmington. the rain actually just stopped literally about two minutes ago. but it had been raining fairly steadily here. winds so far approaching 20 miles per hour. hurricane florence, that whopper of a storm we've been talking about for a few days now, just hours away from making landfall. we're watching live pictures up and down the carolina coast to see what people are already dealing with. power outages have started in this area. tropical storm force winds are reaching the coast. we are seeing rain that will soon be measured in feet, not inches. some people tell us, nonetheless, they're staying put. we'll be talking to some folks who are riding out this storm. we'll be talking

tomorrow morning, it's 84-mile-per-hour gusts right here in wilmington. it doesn't stop there. because by 5:00 p.m. on friday, you are going to see near 60-mile-per-hour gusts in wilmington and near 70 at myrtle beach. that could be disastrous. as it goes into the coast and into south carolina, you still have a 50-mile-per-hour gust at wilmington as of saturday, 5:00 a.m. our hotel, david, has lost power. we are one of the more than 70,000 already would power. this is going to be a tortuous next two days. >> and again, it hasn't even started. ginger zee, who will be with us every step of the way here. ging ginger, thank you. >>> of course, the concern for the most vulnerable in this storm. 1.7 million under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders. we're thinking about them, including those too fragile to move, including some of the seniors forced to shelter in place. and abc's chief national affairs correspondent tom llamas is in myrtle beach, south carolina, tonight on that part of the story. >> reporter: tonight, with florence's winds, rain and angry surf bearing down, most

i'm anderson cooper live in wilmington, north carolina. the storm here continues the slow grinding march as it has made landfall about 7:15 a.m. this morning. seeing some images out of nags head of water coming in. we have seen water coming into homes. some of the

amy is in wilmington. let's go to her. >> reporter: yes, and you can see right now, some of those significant gusts of wind that david was just referring to. not surprising at all to us that that 105-mile-per-hour wind was recorded not far from here. we are on the other side of the eye wall and it is just whipping around and around. you might get a moment of lull and then an incredibly strong gust just comes seemingly out of nowhere. we are in a very safe structured parking garage. we have a roof above us and concrete on both sides of us because i too am getting a lot of tweets. people wondering why are you doing this? we're showing people the strength of these winds and this rain that is coming in to north carolina to batter wilmington right now. and we know that this isn't going away any time soon. that's what makes the storm so significant. it is moving so slowly and the rain is coming down as much as 3 inches an hour if not more and we had the cape fear river behind us and high tide around noon today,

this is a neighborhood in wilmington, north carolina. more dramatically, there are scores of people still waiting to be rescued. they have got federal emergency management teams spread out all across the hardest hit areas. we'll get back to craig melvin shortly but we want to talk now about the dramatic turn in the russia investigation. paul manafort pleading guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice and cooperate with the special counsel's team. i want to bring in mimi roker and msnbc legal analyst danny savalos. a couple of folks in the administration put out a statement saying it has nothing to do with us. i just want to put up a graphic, reminding people of exactly how many convictions, how many pleas we have gotten already. so convicted and pleaded guilty on paul manafort. of the people on that screen, you have five people that worked in the campaign. arguably, paul manafort had the closest ties of anybody in the campaign to russia. so, if you're one of the president's defense lawyers, what are you thinking right now? >> this

you're looking at damage here in the city of wilmington, the historic wilmington area. you can't go half a city block without seeing a live oak tree down in the street, power lines down, damage, ripped apart on behalf of hurricane florence that came on shore yesterday. welcome back to our continuing coverage. for the next hour, we're going to take you up and down the coastline, take you to the white house, give you an assessment for what we're learning for this storm that continues now. you see the rain come down and watch the radar. if you look at the screen and see the city of wilmington, you can see the giant bands of rain that will continue to lap through here for the next several hours, if not into sunday, tomorrow. at the moment, five deaths blamed on the storms. more than 700,000 people in north carolina are working today without power. the mayor of wilmington is with me now. he's been an excellent source of information since going back to wednesday of this week and mr. mayor, thank you again for your time. first of all, on the state level, what can you say? >> o

from wilmington, north carolina. on this last saturday of summer, there was a deadly shark attack on cape cod. a swimmer was killed today at newcomb hollow beach in welfleet. it is the first fatal shark attack in massachusetts since 1936, and the first in the nation since 2015. police say a man who has not been identified yet in his 20s was attacked around noon and then pulled from the water. >> i would not be in the water any time soon, you know. this is something now everybody's going to be asking themselves when they go to check the surf, like, is it worth losing a limb or potentially your life. >> glor: this is the second shark attack this summer on cape cod. a man from new york is still in the hospital after being bitten in august. a family from new york that lost a teenaged girl allegedly to the ms-13 game and violence is mourning another tragedy. evelyn rodriguez was at a memorial to mark the second anniversary of her daughter's death. police say it was there she was hit and killed by an s.u.v. shortly after a

to some of the people in wilmington. the streets that run perpendicular to this one, going inland and going toward downtown wilmington, some of them are on an incline. they rise up. the question is are they going to be high enough, the people on the other ends of these streets, are they going to be high enough to avoid some of the flooding? that's what's causing a lot of people some concern tonight, don. that is what we're going to be keeping an eye on. >> thank you, brian todd. of course you heard the mayor of myrtle beach saying five rivers here that pose a threat concern for the area. that's a threat concern really for all over the coastal areas and also inland as well. nick watt is in north myrtle beach. that's where we saw chris cuomo just a little bit earlier. he was talking about the ocean and possibly some flood conditions there. nick, what are you seeing? >> reporter: well, don, we are seeing a continuation of what chris was talking to you about earlier. if you remember, we were talking about this berm on the be

it is 35 miles from wilmington but that was an hour ago. likely closer to 30 miles at a 6 mile an hour pace, maybe closer. that is wilmington over there. getting to the coast probably 10 miles away. the firewall is where these bands wrap around bringing heavy rain, these bands of absolute downpours following on the same location over and over again for hour after hour. that is why everything you are looking at highlighted in these red boxes are flash flood warnings. i'm sure their standing water in most of these locations on top of the wind that in getting closer in these locations was we had of wind gusts, and each of these locations 62 miles an hour in wilmington out to see. that is off the coast. the highest i have seen, 112 miles an hour. still strong wind moving closer to the coast. everything you are looking at in the yellow, 40 miles an hour. that is fueling the storm surge. these are forecasted storm surges but everything you see will get to 8 or 9 feet. storm surge is the ocean water, the bay water ultimately getting 10 feet or lan

and her in wilmington, the heart braking discovery tonight. we were on the scene, a prayer as a mother and her daughter did not survive the tree crashing down. millions in the path. we begin with gio benitez in new bern, where water was rising so fast, the families trapped, rescues still under way. >> reporter: florence raging ashore before dawn. hurricane force winds turning debris into projectiles, driving rain flooding streets, and in new bern, north carolina, a ten-foot storm surge submerging cars and trapping hundreds in their homes. call after call for help. >> it's starting to get deep out, folks. >> reporter: jay schrieber with his wife, shooting this video from the second floor. >> i would say it's probably 12 feet up from normal. a lot of debris out there. some heavy things that shouldn't be this close to buildings. >> people all night long have been in attics and roofs, asking for help. with the resources we had, we got them out of there. we are calling for more resources. >> reporter: hundreds rescued. the national guard saving thi

in wilmington rain coming down in sheets. families trying to ride it out bracing for the worst. >> the wind's howling away as i can hear from inside the house -- >> reporter: reports of structural damage already racking up and shelters overflowing. those high winds, intense winds knocking down power lines in a lot of different areas. at least 180,000 people are without power this morning. here in downtown wilmington, so far i've seen the power flicker but right now where we are power is still on. >> emily, i know you made to it that live location there went the last hour or so. did you get a sense of any sort of damage so far there in wilmington? >> reporter: reports of damage peopling up at this point. you saw the video of the canopy of a gas station being torn off in north carolina. behind me there are parts of the building, the awnings are being ripped off slowly. if anything is not tied down and secured with a cement block or a lot of sandbags, it is not staying put. >> emily, we can see the wind picking up there where yo

meanwhile, on the mainland, in wilmington, wilmington police say that they are going to go out and begin their initial assessments of the damage a little bit later this morning. they think that the conditions will allow officers to go out. that will lead to the initial clean-up. but again, we are not in the clear just yet because as the wind die down, this remains a rain event. as the storm, as it's predicted, will move further inland. you have communities with saturated ground getting huge amounts of rain over long periods of time. and that creates the potential for flash flooding over the coming days. >> i think about the days when we were down in florida covering rita or wilma. it was a category 3. such a fast moving storm, it was about wind damage. this thing is just hanging over the state. i mean, the states, i should say. >> yeah. and that's, you know, a lot of these coastal communities used to hurricanes over the years, they have become adept in designing buildings that can withstand the heavy wind. a lot of them have codes for storm windows that won't shatter up to a certain wind

sad day in wilmington. a mom and infant daughter have been pronounced dead as a result of this storm. authorities went in to try to save them but couldn't. the husband has been taken to a nearby hospital. so they're hoping for no more fatalities in this storm, which has now officially claimed three lives. in south carolina, they may have missed the worst of it. conditions have deteriorated to some degree as the winds have pushed the sea outward. jonathan hunt is live in north myrtle beach. hey, jonathan. >> shep, this is likely to be a tale in two parts for south carolina the next couple days. first, the good -- we hope the good part. that is the coastal south carolina, including north myrtle beach where we are right now, may have dodged a bull let. we're being told by rick reichmuth, our chief meteorologist, that we're let's likely now than we were before to see a storm surge from the ocean. that is very good news indeed. it was predicted at one point to be anywhere from 2 to 9 feet. but rick is telling us

live here in wilmington, north carolina. good afternoon to you. craig melvin here. wilmington, of course, one of several cities up and down the carolina coastline waiting anxiously for hurricane florence. it is right now the literal calm before the storm here in north carolina. as folks and first responders prepare for what's described as a once in a lifetime monster of a system. fema warning it will be the strongest storm to car get the carolinas in decades and that's saying a lot. where it is headed. when it should arrive and what to expect to see on the ground if you live in its path. also, tremendously big. that's president trump's characterization of the storm. he insists that the feds are totally prepared. so, are we ready? america's storm and rescue infrastructure will most certainly be tested with lives potentially on the line. fema's director just minutes ago telling my colleague andrea mitchell that people are running out of time. we'll get to that part of the story in just a moment. but we start, we start with the storm of a lifetime. that's what the nati

from wilmington to oak island that is slow moving that is the problem. the feeder bands and the convective bands are proprietor -- prompting some of the tornado warnings. it looks like it will take the turn late tonight and tomorrow and become a tropical storm and go over columbia and over florence, south carolina. ththe be the story. kathleen said, when are we going to get our warm september in san francisco? these foggy mornings are depressing. >> kathleen, hang in there. we all do. i'm sure there will be warm weather. a lot of temperatures low 40s this morning. we're still one to six degrees cooler than we were 24 hours ago. 50s, 60s and 70s. that is what we're stuck in for the foreseeable future. 8:18. sal is here. he tells us that the traffic is? >> it is good. did i you say some 50s out there tomorrow? >> that's correct. >>> good morning. we have traffic that is going to be busy on 80 westbound this is the busiest freeway right now. 36 minute drive. looking good considering with a we had this week. i think you'll take that. getting to bay bridge, y

north of the wilmington area. that's where the eye, the calmest part of the storm is going to come to shore probably in the next hour. the worst part of the storm is the eye wall that's on shore right now where they are getting the worse of the hurricane force winds. worse of the rainfall. we have had reports, of course, all morning of over 10 feet of storm surge new bern, hundreds of people having to be else are could you you had and 100 people needing rescue us. many of these people are on their homes in at least tropical storm force winds waiting to be rescued. and that's why we had the evacuations. the national hurricane center by the way did a great job of forecasting. this we are not done yet. we won't really see the damage until next week. this is going to be a flooding and surge event. a flooding and surge event. not a wind event. certainly we will see prolonged winds. it's thought about the category of winds u it's going to be like a hurricane harvey situation in southeast texas where they will get upward

we start this hour in wilmington, north carolina. with tropical storm florence and we are feeling the affects of this storm. wind coming in a few minutes ago no wind. we're feeling it again. rain come and ago. we're on the dirty side of the storm. the north eastern quadrant. capable of producing tornados and thunderstorms. we are under a tornado watch. that watch through 7:00 a.m. eastern time. this is a very slow moving system that we have been talking about. it's drenching the carolina coast for 24 hours. with much more rain to come. and sadly, this storm has proven to be a deadly storm. at least five people died. due to the storm. including a mother and infan killed by a fallen tree. the firefighters pray for victim. 900,000 customers are without power. including us here. stationed reporting on this story. no power here. rescues under way. first responders identified 500 people needing evacuation from the rising flood waters throughout. the big concern is that this major system is moving as a snails pace and capable of dropping a