story that we are doing today, other than this hurricane and that is a plea deal with paul manafort, the president's former campaign manager. for that, i want to go to my friend hallie jackson in d.c. with the latest. >> thank you very much. i am hallie jackson in washington. msnbc's coverage of hurricane florence will continue in a moment. former trump campaign chair, paul manafort expected to plead guilty to two charges as part of a deal with federal prosecutors in a deal with special counsel. this is big news. i want to get to ken, outside the courthouse here in washington. ken, break this down. what do we know? >> reporter: special counsel robert mueller filed a massive criminal information against manafort that suggests he is going to walk into the courthouse at 11:00 a.m. and plead guilty to conspiracy.

he was set to go on trial next week in that case. as part of the criminal information, he is admitting, essentially to the kitchen sink, all the conduct the government charged him with in washington, d.c. and virginia. including failure to register as a lobbyist. he's only pleading guilty to two counts. they suggested that could indicate he cut a deal to cooperate with mueller, but we don't know the answer to that question. we may learn it later today, but we may not. >> you mentioned dan goldman, joining us from new york, let me mention here, dan, paul manafort, upon entering a guilty plea is expected to forfeit assets, including his house in the hamptons, a property in new york city, a property in brooklyn and alexandria, virginia all the money and

banking expenses he has. it is coming at 11:00. it is a plea hearing, the official language from the court and special counsel. dan, what is the significance of this? >> it's quite significant. what's interesting about this in reading the document that was filed by the special counsel's office this morning, a criminal information, the same as an indictment, but paul manafort is waiving his right to have a grand jury vote on the indictment. therefore, he is allowing this information to be filed. what's interesting about it, as ken said, it includes almost all of the conduct, if not all the conduct he is charged with in the d.c. case. but, notably, what sticks out to me, it includes some conduct that he was only charged with in the virginia case and on which the jury hung. now, that and the benefit he is getting from the charging document is the sentence is

going to be capped statutorily capped at ten years. two counts of conspiracy. it includes all criminal conduct, but they dropped a number of counts that would have blown up his statutory maximum. he cannot be sentenced more than ten years. the judge in d.c., if there's no cooperation, the judge would have the option of running that sentence concurrently, which means at the same time as the sentence in virginia. what paul manafort, at a minimum is getting here, is somewhat of a cap on what his ultimate sentence could be. the interesting thing, as ken pointed out is whether or not he is cooperating with mueller. he could be entering into a plea agreement where he agrees to plead to all the charges and then gets his benefit that i just discussed or, if he wants to actually reduce his sentence, the only way to do that through the criminal justice system is

through cooperation. that's what we are waiting to see. as i read this, because it includes all of his conduct, including some conduct in virginia, this reads to me like it could be cooperation. >> let me press pause on this for a second. let me back up as ken is at the courthouse. we showed on screen, a series of seven charges related to the d.c. trial. that is separate from the virginia trial we covered that has ended that led to the conviction of paul manafort. manafort, now in this d.c. case is expected to plead guilty to two of the charges that you see. those conspiracy charges. and, importantly, ken, this relates to activity conducted prior to manafort joining the donald trump campaign. i do want to underscore that point. that is something you hear often from the white house. it is accurate. paul manafort was a part of the trump campaign. he was a significant part in the summer during the convention of

2016. what he is pleading to relates to work he had done prior to coming on board, right? >> well, technically, you are right. you are mostly right. the conduct that the government is alleging and lays out in this information continued up to and including the time he was on the trump campaign. that includes defrauding banks. when he joined, he was working for free. the government says he was strapped for crash. he turned to, e sensually inflating incomes and loans on property to generate cash and fuel his lifestyle. what everybody cares about here, right, is whether paul manafort is going to cooperate with mueller. paul manafort, of all the people who work for donald trump had the most connections with russians and ukraine al guards.

the question remaining today is if he does, will he share that with the special counsel? >> can you walk through the nuts and bolts. are we going learn that at the 11:00 hearing? >> yes. what we are waiting to get is the plea agreement. that, what we have is the charges that he's going to be pleading to, but we don't have the plea agreement. in that plea agreement, it will set forth whether or not he is cooperating. if i could add one thing to what you were saying about the timing of it, the other thing that is interesting is there are two obstruction related charges included in this information. both of which occurred late 2016 and even one was early this year, earlier this year, when he tried to tamper with a witness. so, while you are correct that none of the conduct included in here directly relates to any of his activity on the trump

campaign, it does span a lengthy period of time, including after the time he was the chairman of the campaign. >> dan goldman, ken at the courthouse, we are going to check in with you as the breaking news develops. again, we are watching that 11:00 hour court hearing for paul manafort. we expect to learn more including whether or not he will cooperate with the special counsel. we want to bring you back to the other big story, hurricane florence and the impacts in north and south carolina. ali velshi is on the ground. how are you holding up? >> we will have the latest update on the hurricane at 11:00. we have a lot of news at 11:00. i'm in myrtle beach, south carolina. we are getting the least of it. we are getting the outer bands, wind, some rain. up there, where you saw everybody, they are getting hit

hard and it is coming my way. we are going to bring you the update on the number of people trapped in their homes, the number of people who don't have power. our live, special coverage continues after this. , special e continues after this ♪ carla is living with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. she's also taking prescription ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole was significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus letrozole. patients taking ibrance can develop

low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. carla calls it her new normal because a lot has changed, but a lot hasn't. ask your doctor about ibrance. the #1 prescribed fda-approved oral combination treatment for hr+/her2- mbc. ♪ traders -- they're always looking for advantages. the smart ones look to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity

for just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. fidelity. open an account today. ♪

i'm ali velshi in myrtle beach, south carolina with our special coverage of hurricane florence which made land fall

three hours ago in north carolina. we have reporters all along the coast. north carolina and south carolina covering this storm. let's talk about what has happened. north carolina governor, roy cooper called hurricane florence an uninvited brute who just won't leave. the eye of the storm hit wrightsville beach at 7:15 this morning. that area around wilmington, north carolina is inside the eye at the moment. it means it is quiet and calm. rescues are under way. north of wilmington have been getting hit with the violent side of the storm since yesterday. it is now moving a little inward and south. it's going to get to the area i'm in. they are feeling it more violent than i am not far from here. you have nothing going on. you can see, there's virtually no wind blowing. we have something interesting

happening. we are an hour away, less than an hour away from high tide here, but if you look at this, you see the increasing waves coming in. you can almost see the power of this wind, the storm wind is going this way right now and pushing water that way. where the water should be a lot closer to where i am right now, it's actually lower. now, we are going to see in an hour, when we have high tide, what that feels like and how close the storm is. you have the storm's wind pushing the water that way and high tide pushing in here. we're going to see how that affects flooding where i am. marianna is in in north carolina. i'm going to ask my producer where i'm going and who is available. let's go to oak island, north carolina. it was rough last time i talked to you. what's going on now? >> the wind is increasing, ali. we had to change, hopefully you can hear me.

this is west beach drive. you can see the debris flying around. take a look at this house over here to my left. you can already start to see the sides of the houses starting to peel off because these wind gusts, according to our weather apps over 60 miles per hour. i also want to point to this house over here to the left, this gray house. this is a house that was completely swept up by the last big hurricane that hit this area. hurricane hazel, in 1954. that house, completely swept away. it ended up somewhere else. it was years later that the owner had it moved over here. that owner tells us, today, he doesn't know if his house is going to be there at sunset because as we have been discussing, this area hasn't seen the worst of the storm yet. once the eye passes, this beach, and a block away, is going to bear the brunt of hurricane florence. that storm surge, up to 13 feet.

the rainfall up to 40 inches. all the streets completely flooded during hurricane matthew, which was a storm that came and went. when you have a storm like this, it is going to churn and move so slowly. that is where you start to see all of these streets completely -- you can see the wind gusts -- high tide, two hours away from that right now. that is what this beach is -- move in on the streets here. ali, back to you. >> stay safe out there. we are going to explain how this works with the wind pushing the water away from where i am and the high tide about to come in.

marianna is about 40 miles up. if you look at the map, north carolina, south carolina jets out like this before it gets to north carolina. she is at the point where it jets out. matt bradley is half the distance from me in cherry grove, about 20 miles up the coast. how is it looking for you, matt? >> thanks, ali. i was telling you moments ago about the dangers of the gusting wind. i have decided to deliberately and foolishly get into the open more and show you this. this was projected to be 60-80-mile-an-hour winds with gusts up to 100 miles an hour. you might see me get pushed around here. we are right by the north carolina border. so far, this is mostly a wind storm right now. there's quite a bit of rain, but the next street we are waiting for is the surge. that's when we see the waves from the coast, which is right over my left shoulder here.

it's going to rise up as the high tide comes in. we are expecting 1-2 feet of surge. there's a reason why all the home that is are built along here, almost all of them have been built on stilts because they expect and anticipate and regularly get surging water off the coast here. they are prepared for that. you know, this is a very dangerous situation for rescue workers. a lot of them aren't going to come out in these level of winds, mostly because of debris that flies around in the streets. there's been a curfew in effect until 7:00 this morning. that is now suspended. a lot of rescue workers in the area say they are not going to come out in this weather until it dies down. as i mentioned before, they are doing a triage, trying to decide what is the most necessary cases. they are not going to put their lives at risk for people who refused to evacuate. ali? >> that's the same situation around here. our winds are gusting higher, not as high as yours.

the point you bring about your weather you are getting and the folks northeast are geting is the same. there's little rain. a little rain coming in now and then. i have a raincoat on because i would be wet if i didn't. this is a wind thing now. as i stand here on the beach, very little wind. then, suddenly, you will see, bill karins was telling me we are getting gusts at 45 miles an hour and higher. all of a sudden, the wind comes in and starts to push a bit like this. this isn't here yet, it gives a false sense of security about what is going to happen next. when you look at the water and how far it is, it's not anywhere close to high tide. we are going to hit high tide in less than an hour. you can see the seashells and pebbles, this is where the water comes out on high tide. we are an eighth of a mile out from that. we are going to see activity over the course of an hour or so as the surge hits here.

part of the issue is that the storm is up there and it's moving at a pace that is not much faster than a walk. a fast walk. that's why you are not feeling it. 20 miles up is where matt is. 40 miles up is where marianna is. 150 miles up is where hans nichols is, at camp le jeune where a number of people evacuated. some people are on the base. it's common practice for military bases to evacuate some people. if i can hear my control room correctly, i think we are going to hans nichols in camp le jeune. is that right? hans are you there? >> i'm here. there is a curfew in place. you can see why. the wind picked up. behind me, you can see the twigs, branches, trees coming down, breaking like match sticks. shelter in place here because

they want to be prepared to help with rescue and recovery. the only vehicles allowed to be moving around right now are fuel vehicles trying to keep the generators connected to have power on the base. overall, they have lost power. we are just on generator power. the important things is to keep communications ready. they have a lot of assets here, ali, that are prestaged, ready to go out for tasking and orders from federal authorities to help with recovery. amphibious vehicles, trucks and the navy. moments ago, i was speaking with navy officials. they have two big ships. the arlington as well as the sarge, they are south of the storm. they are just staying out of the way, ready to move up and follow behind the storm and come ashore. they have all kind of assets on there. they have teams, medium lift, heavy lift. they are ready, waiting,

batoning down, but they need the orders from fema and go through the right channels to help with recovery. overall, on the base, you have a lot of sturdy structures. i'd like to say i bedded down with them, but we stayed in a hotel. i'm going to show you what it looks like here. strong and sturdy structures. we are elevated 30 feet off the river here. we are not in danger of flooding. the lower area of flooding is in danger. that's why they put a lot of vehicles there. they can slide into the water, float out and help with recovery. one final note, they have a shelter here, four shelters for anyone that has a military id. if you can get to this base, the message is, they will take you. they have lost power in one of those shelters. unfortunately, it's the one shelter where you can have pets. three shelters are up and running. with that, back to you. ali? >> all right, hans, i want to

come back to you in a bit to talk about the military and national guard and what they are prepared to do. i want to go to new bern, north carolina with tonja moore, a resident there whose home is about to be flooded and about to be rescued by the national guard. what is your situation? >> yeah, we are. we are getting rescued right now. completely flooded. trees on top of cars. >> tonja, i'm trying to get a sense of who is in your house. how many people are going to be rescued? >> caller: seven of us, five kids, me and my husband and my mom. they are doing the rescue right

now. cat and dog. >> do you have water in your house at the moment, tonja? >> caller: no. it went down last night and is coming back up. that's why they are making everyone evacuate. mandatory evacuation. >> we have pictures on the screen right now about new bern where people are being rescued. we spoke to somebody earlier. did you think this was going to happen? >> caller: no. we were going to stay home. we never, ever thought this would happen to us. never, ever thought. it's bad. >> tonja moore for us in new bern. we are going to keep a close eye on your situation. we have a lot of rescues under way in new bern. we spoke to the mayor protem who says they are trying to help people out of their homes who

are stuck there. a lot of people who have seen, we spoke to a woman earlier who said she saw refrigerators on the street. they have certainly seen trees down. they have seen power lines down. national guard has suggested that the flooding there is going to be more serious than it was expected to be. i want to go back to wilmington, north carolina. wilmington is a few miles inland from wrightsville beach where this storm came ashore. when i talked to kate a while ago, it calmed down because the eye was above you. what is the situation in wilmington now, kate? >> it's dodgy. it comes and goes. a second ago, i was almost blown off my feet. we are in the northern part of the storm now. if you look at the radar, there's blank areas. lucky to pass through those in a couple hours. it has been windy here all night long. i mean howling, howling hurricane force winds, enough that trying to get a couple hours of sleep overnight was

almost impossible. it was just, the wind was howling so loudly. we are in wilmington, which is a county of about 200,000 people. the mayor tells me the entire county is without, most people are without power now. we lost power at 6:00 a.m. this morning. the concern here is twofold. one, it's the wind. there are trees down. i know lester holt is over at a house where a tree fell on top of a house. there are people making calls like that, medical calls needing help. the mayor said they have had about 100 calls this morning. the problem is, first responders can't get out, yet. it's too dangerous in this wind to be out on the road. all the traffic lights are out, et cetera. the second consideration is flooding. i'm standing in front of the cape fear river, ali. right now, it's okay here. it's okay in downtown wilmington. what they are concerned about are low lying areas. i went to one last night, which

was flooded this morning and we can't get in to visit the family i met with last night. ali? >> the cape fear river had not flooded where you are yet? >> no. i don't know if you can see it behind me. it's very high waves. not flooding. the thing to understand is this part of the cape fear river, there's marshland around it. there's an area for the water to go. it's not going to flood people's homes right away. people in the city and downtown are generally on higher ground. they are probably going to be okay. the mayor is concerned about low lying areas. there's an area of manufactured homes we visited yesterday in the lower area, where a lot of people stayed behind. some families telling us they were scared to leave because they are latino and afraid of going to the shelters, of course the governor of north carolina said no one will be, you know, penalized for going to a shelter. they are not going to,i i.c.e. s

not going to be active. people were staying out of fear. some didn't have the money to leave to go to a hotel. next to me, there's an apartment building and people are peeking out to try to assess how bad things are. it's going to be a number of hours before this clears out, then the concern is the rain and the flooding. >> some people don't have a place to go. some people need medical care. their care aid is local. some need oxygen. the business of people without documentation going to shelters, we hear i.c.e. doesn't go to shelters. after the past couple years, i understand why people who are undocumented are scared. i want to show you pictures of the continued rescues going on in new bern, north carolina. we have talked to two residents being rescued. this has become a serious

situation in new bern where the flooding is greater than anticipated. that has been happening for a long time. they have been getting hit for almost 24 hours. in myrtle beach, we are starting to go. i'm drenched, but that wasn't the case ten minutes ago. we have heavy wind and rain. we have another heavy story, that is the president's former campaign manager, paul manafort, entering into a plea deal into the mueller investigation. we'll have details on that and our continuing special coverage of hurricane florence across the carolinas when we come back. you are watching msnbc. msnbc

- i love my grandma. - anncr: as you grow older, your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. - learning from him is great... when i can keep up! - anncr: thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. - dad's got all the answers. - anncr: prevagen is now the number-one-selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. - she outsmarts me every single time. - checkmate! you wanna play again? - anncr: prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

if your moderate to severeor crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough it may be time for a change.

ask your doctor about entyvio®, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio® works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract, and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio® may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio®. if your uc or crohn's treatment isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio®. entyvio®. relief and remission within reach. - (phone ringing)a phones offers - big button,ecialized phones... and volume-enhanced phones., get details on this state program. call or visit

and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. - ( phone ringing ) - get details on this state program call or visit i'm hallie jackson in washington. we'll get back to the coverage

of hurricane florence in a moment. we are following another breaking story. paul manafort expected to plead guilty as part of a deal with federal prosecutors involved in a special counsel investigation. this would allow manafort to avoid a second trial in washington, d.c. remember, he's been through a trial in virginia. i want to go to ken who is outside the courthouse here in washington. ken, i understand paul manafort's lawyer just walked in in the last couple minutes. we are getting close to finding out something critical, whether it is a plea agreement and only a plea agreement or whether manafort is cooperating with mueller's team. >> reporter: that is the key question. paul manafort's lawyers are in the courtroom. his wife entered the courthouse not long ago. we now know, for sure, this is a plea agreement hearing because mueller's office told us so. it's changed from a status hearing a an arraignment and

plea agreement. paul manafort agreed to plead guilty to two charges, one, conspiracy to defraud the united states. in a massive criminal information filed, manafort is admitting, not contesting a host of other conduct he was going to go on trial for in washington, d.c. some of which he was tried for in virginia, including money laundering, bank fraud, failure to register as a lobbyist. it's in this information. he's only pleading guilty to two charges. some suggested that could mean, could mean, he entered a cooperation agreement to tell robert mueller things he wanted to know. >> stop for a second. can you explain that there? why does that indicate to legal experts, we are going get to dan and jeff in a second. why is that indication there is a cooperation agreement? >> reporter: he was facing a number of counts in washington, d.c. he was convicted of 8 of 18 in

virginia. you know, we know from a juror in virginia, they were one hold out away from a unanimous conviction on all 18 counts. they have made this concession of allowing manafort to plead guilty to two counts. his sentence, as dan goldman will tell you, is capped to ten years. paul manafort is getting something. what is he giving? >> thank you. jeff bennet is joining us from the white house. jeff, a few weeks ago, the president praised manafort for refusing to break and get a deal. >> reporter: you are right, the president defended manafort as a good man. a couple weeks ago, the president compared him to the mobster al capone suggesting he is treated better than manafort.

silence on both fronts so far. the president's defense of manafort could change on a dime, if the plea agreement comes with a cooperation agreement as ken was outlining. we saw how he turned on his long time friend and fixer. as the president defended manafort, he tried to distance himself, suggesting he was only with the campaign a short period of time when he was for five months during the republican national convention when the only change to the republican party platform had to do with the u.s. approach to ukraine. it is worth underscoring the charges have to do with the work before he joined the campaign. this is something the white house is monitoring closely as they keep an eye on developments related to hurricane florence. >> also, we are going to get back to florence in a moment, but i'm going to bring in former u.s. assistant attorney in the southern district of new york dan goldman. rudy giuliani, president trump's lawyer said to politico earlier

this week, it is clear, if prosecutors were going to get anything from manafort, they would have gotten it already. this plea agreement seems to have changed the game. >> it may have. we have to be cautious in believing anything rudy giuliani says at this point. what we are trying to figure out is whether or not this, as you pointed out, is a straight plea agreement meaning manafort is agreeing to it. when he goes into court at 11:00 a.m., he is going to have to tell the judge in writing or his own words what he did to commit all the crimes that are alleged in the indictment and the information, rather. i think what is important for people to understand is, when you reduce an indictment of seven counts to an information of two counts, that doesn't really mean that you are getting rid of five charges. i think what is really important to emphasize here is he is charged in a broad conspiracy

that includes a number of different crimes, all of which were charged separately in the original indictment, but now grouped in this conspiracy count. he is admitting to the conducts he was charged with, just with fewer counts and a cap on his sentence. the real question and we are reading tea leaves here and will know in about a half hour or so whether or not he is cooperating, is, you know, whether he is agreeing to cooperate against any number of people, including potentially the president or whether he is trying to limit his sentencing exposure after the trial he had in virginia. there's a lot of good reason, by the way, for paul manafort to try to do that and for the special counsel's office to avoid another trial and avoid having to call gates as a witness. he got battered to save resources, all because, most

likely, he's not going to get that much jail time than in virginia anyway. what we are trying to figure out, i could look at this information and try to glean whether or not it's cooperation. i think there are some indications it may be. we'll have to see. >> we will know for sure in 20 minutes from now. dan goldman, thank you. i want to get to ali velshi who is on the coast as hurricane florence continues to batter the area. ali, back to you. >> it's gotten a lot more serious here in myrtle beach, south carolina in the last 20 minutes or so. we are half an hour from high tide, but it is nowhere near where it should be. you can see the wind, the storms over there, 15 or 20 miles from coming in. you are seeing bands of rain and wind. the wind is coming this way, pushing the water out. the wind is fighting the high tide. i don't know how that is going to affect our flooding and surge. if you want to see what flooding

looks like, new bern, north carolina. we have been reporting on this now over two hours. there are rescues, the national guard is out there. local authorities are out there 67 . we are in new bern, bill karins is here. what are you seeing with respect to rescues? >> the peak of the storm surge was midnight at ten feet. the water level dropped to six feet above where it should be. it's still extraordinarily high. we have a ton of water in place. we have homes with water surrounding them and we also continue to watch the problems there with the wind and the rain. garrett, i know you are near the national guard trucks. give us the latest. >> hey, bill, yeah, we are watching the national guardsmen. they are going block by block, house by house, peeking in windows, making sure no one gets

left behind. the water depth is hit or miss. in some places over my knee. in some places you can walk down the street in flip-flops. folks have gotten trapped in neighborhoods like this, surrounded by water in the low lying areas and by the river, which is a few blocks back behind the camera position. they have found folks who have been here for various reasons. they have pets. they have elderly neighbors. i talked to a man who has been here 30 years, thought he was going to stay overnight, spent the night in his chair with water up to his ankles in his living room. this location here, i don't think is going to be particularly affected by the tide, but affected by the rain we keep getting. this time yesterday, ifts talking how it wasn't a rain event. things have changed here. we have not had a break in this rain since last night. i mean, it has been constant

soaking rain all day long. i think that is one of the factors that led people to make a decision they are going to be in their homes, in the dark. the power has been out for quite a while. that's enough. people are ready to get out of here. i cannot say enough good things about this. they are doing the lord's work. these are people from north carolina who want to take care of their neighbors, communities and towns. they are out here doing it today. bill? >> i know we had ali with us, also. you were mentioning the high tides where you are located. the wind is blowing off the coast. i'm not worried about the storm surge tides there at all. i'm concerned further up the coastline in north carolina. >> yeah, so, talk to me just about what is going on here. i think the winds are starting to feel a lot higher than they were. what's going on on the coast behind me because we are, i think 11:00 it's supposed to be high tide.

this doesn't look like high tide. >> lower than you would normally expect it to be. the wind is taking it and tossing it into the ocean. we are not worried about the storm surge with this high tide in the south carolina beaches at all. i'm concerned to the north, moorhead city and back down toward wrightsville beach. you have to be north of the eye, north of the center of the storm, that's who has to be scared for the high tide cycle in the next two hours. we are waiting and watching the gauges to see how bad it will be. ali, the highest we are going to see for you is probably going to be later on tonight. i was looking at the wind speeds for you, ali, from 5:00 p.m. to midnight, winds 85-95 miles per hour. right now, you are in the 40-60 miles per hour range. those winds will be double what you are experiencing through sunset tonight. you and your crew be prepared. it is going to get a lot more

sporty later this evening. >> yep. we have lots of options here in terms of staying safe from the winds. i's important for you to realize what you are saying. these gusts that push me back take all of my weight to push into are 40-50 miles per hour, then those folks who think 100 is not serious, it is serious, especially when it is blowing on your trees, house and power lines. that cease something to think about. thanks very much. our coverage of hurricane florence continues after this. you are watching msnbc. this. you are watching msnbc dear foremothers, your society was led 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 each of us is different. and each cancer is different. how it reacts, how it evades and adapts. and how we attack it. that's why at cancer treatment centers of america, we use diagnostic tools that help us better understand what drives each person's cancer. this is what we mean by outsmarting cancer. and for some, it may uncover more effective treatment options. like christine bray. after battling ovarian cancer for several years, her test results revealed a potential treatment not considered previously a drug therapy that targeted her tumor. today, christine's metastatic cancer is in remission. this is precision cancer treatment. because at cancer treatment centers of america. we're not just fighting cancer. we're outsmarting it.

visit cancercenter.com and schedule an appointment with our cancer care specialists today. when it comes to making bones stronger, are you headed in the right direction? we are. we have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture. so with our doctors we chose prolia®. to help make our bones stronger. only prolia® helps strengthen bones by stopping cells that damage them with 1 shot every 6 months. do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are allergic to it, or take xgeva®

serious allergic reactions, like low blood pressure; trouble breathing; throat tightness; face, lip or tongue swelling, rash, itching or hives have happened. tell your doctor about dental problems, as severe jaw bone problems may happen or new or unusual pain in your hip, groin, or thigh, as unusual thigh bone fractures have occurred. speak to your doctor before stopping prolia®, as spine and other bone fractures have occurred. prolia® can cause serious side effects, like low blood calcium; serious infections, which could need hospitalization; skin problems; and severe bone, joint, or muscle pain. are you on the path to stronger bones? if you're not sure. ask your doctor about prolia®. i'm 85 years old in a job where. i have to wear a giant hot dog suit. what? where's that coming from? i don't know. i started my 401k early, i diversified... i'm not a big spender. sounds like you're doing a lot. but i still feel like i'm not gonna have enough for retirement. like there's something else i should be doing. with the right conversation, you might find you're doing okay.

so, no hot dog suit? not unless you want to. no. schedule a complimentary goal planning session today with td ameritrade®. we are in myrtle beach here, continuing the live, special coverage of hurricane florence, hitting myrtle beach. this is the first time we have seen these beaches. i have been wondering how long it is going to take this slow-moving storm, fast winds, but a slow moving storm to get to us. guess what? i finally got it here. what are you feeling where you are? >> i wanted to come out to the beach just to show you how the wind is picking up. it is a situation that is really changing by the minute. we talk about storm surge, these waves behind me is what i'm

referring to. i'm getting pounded by sand right now. we are seeing debris moving around and the sand starts to suck you in like quick sand, practically. i want to show you how close these houses are in relation to the water. high tide is about an hour from now. this vertical tide. we are going to see water rising and come into the houses. i want to see if my team can move the vehicle forward so i can keep showing you how these windses started to pick up here and people think, you know, once the storm passed us, it is going to be better. it is actually the opposite, as we have been discussing, because that is what -- you can see all the water moving from the ocean into this island. this is the largest beach in north carolina. already see the debris flying around. you are already starting to see the streets get flooded. we haven't seen the worst of

this storm, yet. the next couple hours are going to be critical for the largest beach in north carolina as it bears the brunt of hurricane florence. ali?florence. ali. >> reporter: all right, mariana stay safe out there. i am down here in myrtle beach. we are just starting to see these winds, which bill was saying in the 40 to 50 miles per hour wind. a lot of you have expressed concern as to how we reporters stay safe out there. a lot of us have done this a number of time. it's not just us on the beach in front of the camera. i've got a crew over there, and because of the way these winds are coming in, i'm going to move them into a place that's a little more sheltered while we continue to deliver this story to you. just to give you an idea that this is not even half the wind that they were getting up there in new bern or in places like that. in fact, the winds are still in many cases on this storm

sustained at 80 miles an hour, sometimes with gusts up to 100 or over 100 miles an hour. we're still in the 40, 50 miles per hour range. let's go to new bern where they are getting rescues now. rescues are underway because the flooding there has been pretty serious. i'm just listening to my control room. we've got rescues going on in new bern, north carolina. this is where we were just talking to garrett a little while ago. a lot of the flooding is more serious than expected there. there are homes that are flooded to the second floor. we spoke to a family there that is not evacuating, they lost their staircase. it's blown off their house. they can't get out. they've got a ladder, but they're not sure they can get back in again, and the resident there was telling me they saw fridges in the street. they have seen trees down. they are the national guard and the mayor pro tem in new berg saying people should not attempt these evacuations on their own.

they are taking calls and rescuers are triaging the situation, and they are moving out and rescuing people where possible. in wilmington, i want to bring lieutenant general russell onoray. when things started to go south in the hours after hurricane katrina, the task force katrina was formed, he came in to help people get rescued and get the food and supplies they need. general, you and i were talking yesterday. one of the biggest concerns we have is people who are not able to move. they don't have the money. they're unwell. they don't have somewhere to go. it's not just a choice for them. they don't necessarily have that choice to move, and when this storm passes, that's who we are going to have to give our priority to rescuing. >> absolutely. you can put a circle around where most of the vulnerable population is where the people who are economically challenged live and the elderly, and

that's -- where you do most of your rescuing from, ali. i've just watched pictures of the great national guard there along with what looked like maybe some other first responders, maybe fire or police doing a great rescue of that lady in the back of the truck. that's what our national guard do for us when they're needed, and they're doing a great job with those high clearance vehicles. there will come a point in time when those high clearance vehicles can't be used, but right now they seem to be the equipment of choice because boats will have a hard time operating in that wind. >> reporter: yeah, and i think it's important to remember, general, that we're going to over the next few days, as we did in harvey, as we do in all of thaez hurricanes, we're going to be seeing these men and women in the national guard. you won't necessarily know it's them because they're just doing their work. they also have families, and they also have homes, but that relationship of the citizen soldier in america is something

kind of amazing. i think back to katrina where you had those national guard men and women out there, they had to worry about the stuff that's going on at home, but they go out and help their neighbors, which is one of the great reasons we have these rescues. >> absolutely, and much of our military along the east coast has been evacuated to helicopters and airplanes and ships, and my other thought is those sailors out there on those ships that are turning and burning are trying to stay in some safe seas out there because some of those ships are designated to follow the storm in, ali. they're coming in right behind the storm with the capability to have helicopters and food and water and medical capacity, so go navy. i'm proud of them out there because i know they got some rough seas. but right now the national guard is doing what they do best, save lives. >> reporter: tell me, your situation was a little bit

different in katrina because it was such a disaster that you had to go in and take the lead on that. there was tension between the police and the citizenry, but generally speaking, how are these multiagency rescues coordinated? we're looking at pictures from new bern. we're going to go there in a second. how does the national guard get called in? is it the mayor, local emergency management? is it state? who tells somebody at the national guard there needs to be a rescue on this street at this house? >> the governor designate the national guard to work with the counties, and they are embedded inside the county emergency operation centers where all of those requests for assistance come in. that's generally how it works. the challenge we had in new orleans, when the levees broke the entire city flooded. all of the first responders, ali, they became victims. most of the police headquarters were under water as well as the

national guard headquarters. total different situation, but the plan is the same. get out and is save lives where you can. >> reporter: all right, we've been hearing from local authorities all night and all morning that, look, we'll help you when we can, but at some point the winds are too strong. the rains are heavy. we don't know if power is down. there are going to be some positions where we're not going to be able to do that. general, stay there for a second, please. i want to go to wilmington, north carolina. lester holt is standing by there. last we checked in wilmington, it had calmed down a little bit because that eye was going over but we know it's come back. what's your situation? >> reporter: i'm sorry. we're at the scene in wilmington

of a tree into a house. it's crushed the back of a house and trapped three people. they've been here several hours. they just extricated one person taken away in a hospital. according to the fire chief, one of the victims has a crushing injury, and so -- they may have to perform an amputation in order to free that person, but there are at least two other people still inside there. we saw distraught family members come down here a while ago, were briefed and then led away. numerous rescues throughout the morning here, a lot of them very much like this where trees have crashed into homes. a lot of the roots are im -- routes are impassable because of -- very perilous out here. but a big, big team of firefighters on the scene here right now being their best to extricate these other two people. >> reporter: talked to a fire

chief there about two hours ago. they had a lull, and they were able to do it, but they had to continue to evaluate whether or not the weather conditions were going to let them continue to conduct rescues. there was a fire that they were dealing with at one point about two hours ago. are the conditions in wilmington still amenable to emergency crews being able to be out there and do the work that they're doing? i think i've lost the line to lester. i'm just going to let my control room know, i don't have audio of lester right now. all right, so i'm going to tell you -- while we figure that out, i'm going to let you know what's going on where i am. i am in myrtle beach, south carolina, where you can see if you've been watching me for the last couple of hours, things have changed quite dramatically. when i came out here there was virtually no wind and no rain. now you're seeing the gusts come through. there are moments where i can stand here relatively comfortably.

then there's moments -- here's a gust coming through right now. if you look at the radar on this, you can see there are bands coming through. there will be forceful, gusting wind for a while. we don't have the heavy sustained winds yet. we're probably getting, my guess is probably in the 50 to 60 miles per hour gusts, but our sustained winds are probably still relatively low right now, but that's because this storm is headed generally in this direction. it's still northeast of us as we speak. we've been talking to our folks, matt bradley and mariana atencio. mat's about 20 miles north of me, mariana's about 40 miles north of me. they've still got the eye. they're going to get the second side of the storm pretty soon, and that's going to bring winds that are as serious and as high as the ones they got before landfall, before landfall when the eye wall comes on, that's the most -- those are the heaviest winds. then, when you get the other

side of the storm, you get winds that are that strong again. you get that eye wall. then they start to diminish. when that happens, those rescues like the one lester was describing, they'll have to see because first responders can't be out there. we know in new bern and wilmington, north carolina, there are rescues underway. people are trapped. trees have fallen, and those rescues are underway right now. we don't have that situation in south carolina, or at least where i am in south carolina. i'm looking up and down the strip here. we do still appear to have power, but we have power outages in north carolina probably about 500,000 people without power, and we do know that customers in south carolina have started losing power as well. i want to send it back to the studio. stephanie ruhle is there. >> thanks so much. good morning, i am stephanie ruhle live at msnbc world headquarters here in new york city. we're going to continue to cover our live coverage of hurricane florence in just a