this is "cnn tonight" i'm don lemon. what was hurricane florence is now a tropical storm. and we're now hearing that it has killed at least five people in this area. this tropical storm is battering the carolinas tonight. we're told that more than 500,000, maybe up to 850,000 people are without power right now. they are concerned about major storm surges and also catastrophic flooding in the area. i want to take you out here on the beach. this is where the major problem where storm is rolling in and they're concerned about flooding. this is what we've been seeing all day, the storms moving from the north and coming south down the shore here. one of those places being hit hard is where miguel marquez is in, in carolina beach. all day, you have been getting

inundated with water and wind. tell us what you're seeing. >> yeah, this has been 36 hours of just hell in carolina beach, north carolina, don. the wind is still blowing very, very hard. the rain is coming in right now, we're not seeing a lot of rain, but the wind is still very, very heavy here. the electricity is out in carolina beach and throughout the county. about 108,000 of the 128,000 customers that they have here are without power tonight. cell phone service is down. some roofs have been ripped off. some walls have collapsed in and around carolina beach. but officials s waiting to be able to get out into daylight tomorrow to figure out just how much damage the storm has done. fortunately, they haven't had those really big bad emergency calls for water rescues and the like. about 600 people of the 6200

people who live in this town decided to stay and tough out this storm. and tonight is the final test. tide is coming in in a little bit. there are areas of town that flood on a good day so they are waiting to see how bad is gets tonight. i can tell you in the last 24 hours we have seen incredibly hard rain, lots and lots of wind. and water up to the waist in some places. also a lot of beach erosion. it's devastating to a town like this that depends on its beach for people who come here to enjoy it. about two feet of sand of beach sand is now gone, and a lot of beach erosion. a lot of rebuilding already is very evident here for carolina beach. don? >> yeah, they're going to, miguel, they'll have issues when it comes to beach erosion. speaking to the spokesperson last night for myrtle beach. they said they were supposed to

have a beach restoration project that was supposed to start this week. instead, this hurricane now tropical storm came through and delayed them. it was going to add hundreds of feet of beach to this area. not going to happen right now for at least a couple of weeks because of the storm. i want to get to my colleague ed lavandera in jacksonville, north carolina where he has been witnessing some of the things going on. as i understand you were out with people who were rescuing people earlier. what's happening where you are? >> right, we spent most of our day in the town of new bern which has been the focus of some of the high water rescues and people being evacuated from their homes there in that town about 300 people having to be more than 300 people having to be rescued from their homes in these neighborhoods. pockets of neighborhoods where floodwaters rose up overnight and into today. so there was a race to get to these people. and don, it was very reminiscent what we saw a year ago in

houston during hurricane harvey where you had private citizens rushing to the scene there and launching boats to reach the people who were trapped and wanted to get out. it was fascinating see from that standpoint. we met a gentleman by the name of jason wineman bought an old military vehicle used to transport troops. he said he bought it for moments like this. so he dispapped himself into the scene and was driving it through high water regular cars couldn't get through and able to load people and bring them to safety. we met jennifer morales who was rescued in dwrampb's truck and brought out. she was with her husband and 2-year-old son. toe they would us they had been calling for help for nearly 12 hours before rescuers could get to the home where they were trapped by floodwaters. dramatic scenes and stories we heard throughout the day in new

bern, north carolina. don? >> all right. ed lavandera. thank you very much. you've been doing greatork all day. this is not the way most people who live here and the people came into rescue expected to spend their friday night and weekend but they're happy to be here, especially the rescue folks, helping out. usually at this hour, right at 11:00, every evening baby been getting a update on this storm. i want to go to allison chinchar to give us the very latest. >> don, we've seen a couple of changes the sustained winds now at 65 miles per hour. the forward movement has picked up a little bit. now west-southwest at about five miles per hour. both of them still indicate a very chlo pace. that's the concern going forward because as the storm moves so slowly, it's going to dump rain in the same spots. two particular bands of rain

we've been focused on. you can see over morehead city, up through jacksonville. this other run ramping up around wilmington. it's training over the same spots. a lot of these locations are getting two to three inches of rain an hour. on top of that, you also have a tornado watch in effect for most of the overnight hours and even actick tornado warnings off and on throughout the evening. as this trek continues to make its way in towards portions of south carolina and then finally takes off, it's that shift as it starts to begin to push southward, one of the big things we'll notice is the change in storm surge. up to this point, it's only been an issue for areas of north carolina. as the low sinks back down, that storm surge is now going to shift into portions of northeastern south carolina, including myrtle beach expected to get 4 to 6 feet of storm surge. over the next 12 to 24 hours that's when you start to see the

worst of the storm surge for those locations. in addition to that, again, we've been talking about the flood threat. it's tow fold. you have the rain coming down from bob and the water that's coming up from below. that's the storm surge. the short-term problem is the flash flooding that's going to take place. the long-term problem would be the tributaries. all of that water has to go somewhere. it goes from those tributaries and in bays and inlets into the rivers and creeks and streams. we're expecting 20 of those rivers to reach major flood stage. nearly 30 of them to reach moderate flood stage and for a lot of these locations they're not even going to crest until tuesday of next week. so it's really going to be a long time before we finally start to see that water begin to recede. already, the cape fear river at wilmington reached that record height today. at 8.288 feet. another location along the

northeast cape fear river, this is a little bit further inland, we expect that to end up reaching a record crest, as well, don. but again, that's not likely to get to that point till well into sunday and more likely not till monday. even as the storm begins to make its way inland and push away from the carolinas, there is a problem they'll be dealing with for at least the next five days. >> alison, it's unbelievable. just for the last couple of days, thing has been just sitting here and pouring water on top of people. tuesday till some of these rivers and the rivers crest. i can only imagine what that means for flooding situation here. this is we are. i want to take a walk out here. you may lose me in the dark a little bit. but the concern was that this water from the beach may start coming up to the berms and flowinging in there. it's pretty much high tide.

hopefully that is not going to happen. we do know because we've been getting so much rain. and then there was -- there is the storm drains here we have been watching on the beaches. when we first got here, those drains were little tricks if they were moving at all. little tiny trickles. now they've opened up and some of the water has been flowing from other areas. and expanding those, as well. we've been getting updates from the national weather center, also updates from the national hurricane centering, as well. ed rapaport who has been joining us every single evening will give us an update now. can you hear me? >> yes, i can. good evening, don. >> so give us an update. i'm in myrtle beach. the bands are coming through right now. we are getting drenched and the wind is picking up. what's going on? >> the center is located just to the west of you now. a lot of rain coughing the

eastern part of north carolina. spread together west. your correspondent showed an interesting graph a minute ago. i want to show another version from another river. we're looking at the rice of the water but seeing two different peaks near new bern, north carolina. we see a rise that occurred yesterday into today because of the storm surge went up about five or six feet. starting to come down but now going back up again. that's mostly due to the rainfall. yes, it's high tide. now the surge is beginning to recede but the rainfall falling over the river area and up to the west which has to drain out now through there is causing the water level to rise even further. it's up into the major flood stage already. >> so ed, listen, the big concern here you know there have been rescuing hundreds of people, has been this area called new bern. i'm wondering was it forecast to get that high?

because i don't think that there was a mandatory have given for new bern. was it forecast to get that much water, that much floodwater? >> yes, we had talked about how the water was going to rise on the order of ten feet along the coast. also up the rivers. the neuse river and pamly coriver. that's what we've seen. may be higher in a few places. now we've got the water coming down the river from the rainfall and so we're going to see flooding well into next week there. >> ed, can you explain to me and our viewers why this thing slowed down and stalled? because that's a problem here. and it's just stalling. and not moving quickly. and just producing a lot of water. >> we talked about a lot of water. a hurricane is very much like a float in a river. it moves where the currents around it steer it. fortunately, we he were able to

forecast pretty well what those currents would be for this storm and so we knew days in advance and that's why we had all the flood warnings out. unfortunately, in this case it turned out the forecast was right. the storm slowed considerably and dropping record amounts of rain. we've had 20 plus inches near wilmington, morehead city in new bern, 35 of 5 to 10 inches farther to the west. by the time the weekend is over, we'll see almost all of north carolina, much of south carolina havinging had 5 to 10 inches of rain. half of that we're a swathe of 20 inches. some of those locations will get isolated spots to 40 inches of rain. tremendous flooding to be expected. as we've said, it's going to occur through the weekend and into next week. . >> all right. ed rapaport, he appreciate your time. explaining it to me and to our

viewers, as well. check what i said earlier about new bern. there was a mandatory evacuation ordered for new bern, not for every place in the carolinas or at least in north and south carolina. new bern was one of them. we saw so much flooding. a lot of people there did decide to stay. unfortunately, you see what happened. we'll continue on with our coverage of tropical storm florence. we're getting new updates as you see. don't go anywhere. friends, colleagues, gathered here are the world's finest insurance experts. rodney -- mastermind of discounts like safe driver, paperless. the list goes on. how about a discount for long lists? gold. mara, you save our customers hundreds for switching almost effortlessly. it's a gift. and jamie. -present. -together we are unstoppable. so, what are we gonna do? ♪ insurance. that's kind of what we do here.

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and you're looking down upon us now. you can see the exact situation i'm in on the beach. this is usually a pretty wide beach. it's shrinking and the water is lapping at the berm where we're standing right now. the conditions here are deteriorating rapidly here in myrtle beach. they did get spared a big hurricane. it's down now to a tropical

storm. i want to get to my colleague martin savidge out in all of this covering this all day. he was in wrightsville beach where it came ashore this morning and joining us from wilmington. you've move locations. take us to where you are now. >> well, we've moved locations because there's a curfew in effect. there are many across all of north carolina wilmington, 10:00 p.m. you can't be out. we came back to the main hotel where we're staying. like much of downtown wilmington, this whole area is in the dark without electricity. wrightsville beach it came ashore around 7:10 this morning. >> all right. we lost martin. we may get him back. we're having technical difficulties because of the situation obviously. when you're in the middle of a storm, everything doesn't work as planned. martin, i understand you're back. >> i am. and you're right about that,

don. so i was just saying this morning after the hurricane eye passed over the beach, it looked like that area did fairly well. unfortunately, it was the backside of the storm that seemed to have a stronger impact on the area. that's a barrier island. first responders say they had seen some structural damage but they were really seeing inundation of water coming from the international coastal waterway and also coming from the atlantic ocean. that ocean was blasting up against the shore there like a buzzsaw. so there's been tremendous beach erosion there unfortunately. on top of that, power failure. in that area, they're only just now beginning to assess. it won't be till tomorrow they can figure out the damage. then the drive from there to wilmington is only ten miles but exceedingly treacherous. power is out throughout the

area. traffic lights don't work. there are some police at some of these intersections. for the most part, it's whoever gets to the intersection first. major trees are down blocking sometimes entire roads and whys. in other cases you have to go the wrong way just to get past a downed tree. there's power lines down and heavy deep pools of standing water you can drive into the darkness that literally cause to you hydroplane. very treacherous to go out. even though the conditions may be improving somewhat, very, very dangerous out there on roads. no one should be out. with the curfew, you could be arrested if you are. don? >> yeah. martin savidge out there in it. good advice. no one should be out in it except for the folks, rescue people and media. we have permission to be out here. we're out here so you don't have to. sit home and watch us. don't try to figure out what's going on just to see how it is.

our thanks to martin. amanda faulkner is with the u.s. coast guard. good evening to you, miss faulkner. i understand the u.s. coast guard has conducted seven operations and rescued at least one person. tell me about that. >> hi, yeah. so we have conducted seven rescues just as weather was permitting early this evening before the sun went down. and we did save one life. it was a cancer patient who needed to get emergency assistance at a hospital. so we got him there in time. and we'll get back up first light tomorrow. we can't operate overnight due to hazards we can't see due to storm damage. >> as i understand rescue operations have been called off for the evening. that is because of the conditions that are out. the hazards at this particular storm that it is posing, right? >> exactly. because there was so much damage to the area, we don't have a good idea of what it looks like

at night. so it's not safe to operate when we can't see what we're operating in. >> yeah. so in the morning when you resume operations again, what are your priorities? >> so our priorities are based on direction from the state and local authorities who are receiving emergency phone calls. we'll take where they want us to conduct operations and we'll go out and do the operations they've asked of us. we have the access and ready to respond. we do search and rescue pre day. this is what the coast guard does. >> all right. amanda, from the u.s. coast guard. thank you very much. we appreciate your time. we'll get back to you on cnn as long as you guys are here and you've got those search and rescue operations going on here. thank you very much. listen, i want to get to someone helping out with patients and that's dr. clyde harris. he's at a hospital that has received several patients

suffering injuries. dr. harris, thank you for joining us this evening on cnn. tell us about the injuries you've been seeing and what sort of treatment have they been having to have. >> we've had a mix of medical and trauma patients. we've had several fractures. several falls. had a lot of chronic medical patients who have deteriorated over like the day and a half where they could not get to the hospital such as congestive heart failure or copd exacerbation where they're having trouble breathing or they run out of oxygen. several kidney failure patient who's showed up for dialysis. we've had a lot of folks who have come in for shelter and possibly triggered by the anxiety and stress of the storm situation. >> yeah. there are lots of power outages throughout the area. is that posing challenges for

you? and for the hospitals? >> our stand by power, our generator power is powering all our essential functions but it does make it somewhat challenging with some of the areas we are bedding down in and other areas every outlet is not power, just critical outlets. it is posing a challenge. we're looking forward to getting our usual power structure back. >> you know, i'm not sure if you are the doctor who was with the gentleman who lost their family today. were you at that same hospital? >> that was our hospital. yes, sir. it was very unfortunate event. family had a tree blow over and fall on them. we assembled a team of four physicians and paramedics and quickly went to the scene to assist. unfortunately, the mother and her baby had perished at the scene. we were unable to offer any

assi assistance. >> gosh, that is just awful. can i ask you, how is he doing? >> i think he's doing okay. i'm not allowed to talk much about him in general. for privacy reasons. >> yeah. obviously, i'm not asking you for a specific treatment. i'm wondering if he's doing okay and you know, under this situation, i would imagine anybody would just be devastated losing your wife and young child. dr. harris, we understand that people have been -- it's been so bad because the lines are down. they don't have electricity. some people have been tweeting to get emergency and medical help to them. what can they do in these situations? can you even get to them when you're under such conditions? >> well, we have been able to stand up our emergency transport systems. so they have fielded many calls. we have been sort of parked

under this band of wind and rain, seems like hours and hours. that has made travel somewhat difficult as your reporter alluded to what i hear at the street, there are still downed lines and trees. that impacts the ability of paramedics to get patients. we're doing the best we can. obviously with nighttime it adds an additional challenge. we do have paramedics out and responding to calls. >> all right. dr. harris, i want to thank you for your time. you're very busy, as well. we appreciate you joining us here on cnn. listen, i want to show you the water. here it is. it's getting closer to us. i think we should be past high tide. it was supposed to happen between 11:00 -- between 10:00 and midnight. maybe it's getting close here. but again, the flooding situation. they're concerned about catastrophic flooding in the carolinas. they're concerned about the rivers that have not even crested yet. they think that it's going to be

well into the week, probably tuesday until they can fill out what's going on with all of this. and so they can get to some sort of normalcy. not sure if they will be able to. they're not sure how long specifically they have some idea but they don't know specifically how long this system is going to sit here and continue to dump water on the carolinas. we're going to get more updates. we'll be back on the other side of the break with cnn's special coverage of tropical storm florence. ( ♪ )

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boulevard. it's pretty close to right there where we're camped out, that's the front area of our hotel. the scene where we're shooting right now. back out here to me in the rear, right -- we're right next to the beach. water started coming up. we moved in a little bit closer so we're closer to shelter. nick watt is a little bit further up in north myrtle beach to see what the scene is like there. what do you have for us? >> reporter: well, don, we're about 15 miles north of you. all day, we've been having winds coming offshore. then about 6:00, winds turned. they're coming on shore and this is the result. now, we're about an hour away from high tide. the water is already past the normal high tide mark. and it may come further. this is the potential for the storm surge. this is the potential for this water to wash into north myrtle beach. if you wan around here, now, back in 1989, hurricane hugo swept through here and pretty

much wiped out all of these beachfront homes. since then, they've rebuilt and rebuilt them on stilts. so the idea is that when this, if this washes through during the night tonight, it will wash under these homes. but the problem is, further back, those homes on the next lot are not on stilts and also since '89, a lot more people have moved here. this is now a town of about 16,000 people. only about 2,000 people left hunkering down here at the memt. we're going to be watching this, done, to see if these on shore winds continue, if this high tide comes in at the same time perhaps as the surge. then we might see a few feet of water coming in through myrtle beach. obviously, we hope that does not happen but that is the possibility overnight tonight. don, back to you. >> nick, i'm glad you can hear me this time. we had a bit of technical difficulties last time which is understandable. let me talk to you for a little

bit. i've been able to walk in the neighborhood and get a tour with police. also with the storm chaser earlier. there is some damage around here. i've been seeing trees down, some damage to roofs and buildings and what have you. what's it like in north myrtle beach in the surrounding area where you are? pretty similar situation i there to you, don. we drove around earlier. there were power lines down, some trees have fallen over on to power lines, some pretty big trees have fallen. asphalt off roofs. but nothing major major so far. but you know, as you and i know, we've been waiting for the storm to arrive all day. so the real damage we might see will probably be over the next few hours as this storm crawls down this coastline behind us at what three or four miles an hour dumping all of this rain and about pretty strong winds. it's not a hurricane anymore. but strong winds over a sustained period of time is

going to cause some damage, don. >> yeah, absolutely. nick watt, thank you very much. appreciate your reporting. we'll get back to nick watt in just a little bit here. one of those wind bands coming through right now. i'm going to get to my colleague brian todd, he is in wilmington. we've been out witnessing rescues. last night you were out and saw people contemplating driving through floodwaters and not doing it. that's always a good idea. what are you seeing tonight? >> don, i hear you and nick talking about the power and danger of high tide where you are in the coastal areas. high tide here could be disastrous, as well. this is a little bit inland. this is fresh water high tide on the cape fear river. it's just beyond account barriers. high tide when it comes in in about an hour could be very, very dangerous because when we got here a couple hours ago, the water from the previous high tide was still standing in here. this is water street. it was still fairly deep. because the storm surge pushed the tide of the cape fear river

on to these barnes, and a little bit overlapping it. that was nothing compared to what may be coming because this river is setting records for high tide. just a few hours ago, we were told by our cnn weather folks at high tied earlier today, it was at 8 1/4 feet schatzering all records for high tide here where the river sits where wilmington sits at this juncture. in the northeastern cape fear area where the water does have different contours, shallower and narrower in some areas but could get up to 20 feet bob its normal stages. a lot of people live in the low lying areas. it's going to be very dangerous officials keeping a close eye on there. i have to tell you that here in wilmington, another added danger is if these streets get flooded, if the people who are living here did not leave are in danger, it's going to be tough to get to them. anderson was driving around earlier. so were we.

you cannot get past the idea that the streets of wilmington are so devastated by fallen trees and power lines. you cannot get around these streets very easily. there are power lines everywhere you go, blocking your way. massive old oak trees and old trees of different varieties that have been here hundreds of years have just been plucked right out of their roots and have fallen and are blocking roadways all over the place. first responders are going to have a heck of a time trying to get to people in these areas if and when they flood. that is something they'll be watching closely because the danger is just starting. the vulnerability in these areas of flooding and maybe lack of ability of the first respond irs to get to them quickly is going to be a huge factor in the hours ahead. >> brian, i want to talk to you a little bit more what you're seeing because last night you were out and about. you were able to drive around and really get a good look what's going on. have you been able to do that as

much tonight? and what is the situation now? are the conditions deteriorating? what's it liking? ing. > they are deteriorating. it the water is getting deeper in some places. especially along the river here in wilmington, don. and again, driving around here the devastation in town and in the old section of town you really just can't overstate it because these trees which a lot of people here believe you know, would be so sturdy they wouldn't come down, they have come down like matchsticks. it has been incredible. when you drive around, you kind of survey the damage, it's really -- it's horrible to look at because a lot of the homes and other areas that these trees have damaged whether he they've come down will not be repaired quick flip i was on the scene of that attempted rescue earlier today. they did rescue one mab in that house where two people got killed, the lady and her baby. we were there for about eight hours as that unfolded.

it was an excruciating rescue attempt. that was again a case of an old and large tree fallinging on that house. that tree weighed 30,000 pounds when it fell and split that house wide open. they didn't have much of a chance. it was awful. the first responders were really feeling that they were coming out. i talked to a battalion chief, a grizzled old chief who had tears in his eyes because of the fact that such a small child was involved. they couldn't do anything to help those two people. >> yeah. brian, the sad thing is that it is not over yet. brian, thank you very much. some parts of carolina, of the carolinas have gotten 20 inches of rain and they're expecting some pretty major flooding. we're going to update you with more on what's happening with tropical storm florence right after this quick break.

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you're looking at a shot now of the atlantic ocean here in myrtle beach. and that is where florence got all of that water that is now dumping on this region. someone who has been following this and has been in the region figuring things out and reporting on it is cnn's ed lavandera. ed drove from new bern to jacksonville, new bern, of course, lost all of its power. it's got some flooding. now he's in jacksonville. tell us about that drive and what you saw, ed. >> reporter: brutal drive, don. a small country road and normally would take probably just under an hour to do it took

us the better part of two hours to complete the drive. we were caught in the middle of a pretty serious rain band on the north side of this storm, what is now a tropical storm. even though the winds have died down considerably, at least in the top part of the storm where we're at in our location, as you can see, the rainfall just continues to be way more intense than i would have expected given that it's been raining for it feels like probably 4 hours in the areas that we have been reporting from over the last few days. so we kind of knew all of this was expected. it's another thing to experience the constant onslaught of this rain that just doesn't seem to end. obviously, that is what is causing so much concern and so many issues in so many parts of north carolina and into south carolina now as you guys are starting to see the brunt of the storm and the intense rainfall,

just dramatic how it comes down in sheets and sheets for hours and hours. it is stunning to see. >> yeah. ed, can we talk a little bit about new bern? because threw lost all their power. they had major flooding. and i just want to know when you were there last night and when you were there today, what did you see? i mean, what were the conditions of the homes and the people who were there they were rescuing? >> you have to understand the geography of new bern. and i let kind of comes in from the bay in the atlantic ocean that pushes several miles inland into this community. so you have a series of rivers and tributaries that dump into that inlet and then it pushes all the way out to the atlantic ocean. all of that is backed up so it's from those rivers and tributaries that the water was rising up out of. and spilling into some of these neighborhoods. i don't want to paint the picture that the entire city was

underwater. but there were pockets of neighborhoods spread out supp t sporadically through the city inundated in the homes where we saw the flooded out homes. more than 300 people had to be rescued and retrieved from their homes, people who chose to stay back and those evacuations took place throughout the day today, don. >> yeah. ed lavandera, thank you very much. this is now, this is probably about the strongest that we have seen with the wind coming through here. it picks up and then it subsides. this is really the strongest that we're going to get a forecast in just a moment to see exactly what's happening and what's the worst. and if it's going to get better soon. here's the problem. besides the wind. and the rain, of course, and the water. everything that's being dumped here. the problem is that when the floodwaters come up so high, the thing that live underground and in the sewer systems that all

has to come out. many times that's snakes. we're going to talk about especially whether he you're talking about the carolinas here in the southern region of our country. that poses a big and dangerous problem. we're going to talk to someone who deals with that on the side of this break. we're drowning in information. where in all of this is the stuff that matters? the stakes are so high, your finances, your future. how do you solve this? you partner with a firm that combines trusted, personal advice with the cutting edge tools and insights to help you not only see your potential, but live it too. morgan stanley. be right back. with moderate to severe crohn's disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be.

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enlts, what have you. i want to talk about that. russell cavendar is a wildlife nuisance control operator. good evening to you. you have been doing this for 20, 25 years. i know after storms, these situations, the things that live in the ground, they have to find a place to go and many times that's to the surface. that is a real danger. >> oh, absolutely yes, sir. not only now, but -- not only now but, a, afterwards and not even weeks afterwards but next spring you will have an issue. all of the snoeks are washed out of the grounds they normally go to hibernate. not only snakes but alligators as well. it gets worse and worse as the flooding comes. once the water starts to recede is when you see most of your problems. not only that though, when you go out to clean your yard, you know, for leaf debris and tree limbs and all of that, you have no idea what might be hanging on those limbs and most likely it will be snakes and there's lots of them. i have been doing this for many

years. i went through hugo, matthew, floyd, all of these storms. every single time we have a storm like this with flooding, we always have issues weeks and weeks if not months after the situation. >> well, today when i saw it, i said we're too close to salt water for that to be a snake and the person i was with wasn't sure. that's not necessarily so i'm being told because many times, even i think rattlesnakes live in the dunes? >> well, yeah, you can find rattlesnakes just about anywhere. if you are going to find a snake, it is a corn snake, a rat snake, a water snake, but obviously you can find the copper heads and the cotton mouths, which are the two most common venomous snakes we find around here, and we find quite a few after the rains. >> oh, gosh. >> yes, and especially the cotton mouth and copper heads are the most to worry about. >> i did a story after hurricane

harvey, but fire ants are a huge problem as well. >> absolutely. you have to think, there's nowhere for anything to go when there's so much water, so they attach themselves to whatever is floating. so you get these large mounds of fire ants that are displaced and they will literally attach themselves to a limb, a lump of pine straws, a tire. when it floats and wherever it stops when people are cleaning up and they're lifting this material up, they're grabbing lots and lots of, you know, fire ants. you know, and other insects when they're trying to clean out debris and they don't know they're there because you can't see them. >> yeah. russell cavendar, we appreciate your time and alerting us to the danger that's below ground, not just the dangers we are seeing above ground as well. we're going to continue on with our special live coverage here on cnn of what is now tropical storm florence, which is battering the carolinas right now.

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