it's right at 100 miles east southeast of wrightsville beach and wilmington. that is the spot where they believe it will come ashore sometime overnight. the hurricane force winds are already battering the coast from wrightsville beach and myrtle grove, topsail beach, atlantic city, moorehead city, all the way up to cape lookout. all that area along the north carolina coast experiencing the beginning of the hurricane force winds and could go on for many hours. according to the national hurricane center, the report of deadly flooding and storm surge has not changed even though the storm's winds have slowed down to 105 miles an hour. meteorologists have down graded florence to a category two. right now we know that this is the radar look. before with the satellite image, this is ground radar. now to the ground radar. you can see the first bands of rain are beginning to hit myrtle grove and the entire coast up from there. so that is myrtle grieve, wrightsville beach, topsail beach, up to swansboro, kill devil hills, all of that area of the carolina coast getting r

here in wrightsville beach, the power is still out. you can see me because we are using battery power for our lights. as you pan away, it's pitch black in every other section of the island which makes it dangerous to go out. police are not allowing evacuees on to the island. they are strictly enforcing a curfew. there is no running water on the island. the city shut down the public water system so it wouldn't suffer any more damage in the storm. so conditions right now are he can streamly primitive. any electricity you have to bring in yourself. any water, you have to bring in yourself. elsewhere throughout the state, authorities have confirmed at least three storm-related fatalities in wilmington, nearby wilmington, a mother and herb infant killed when a tree fell on their home. further inland in the town of kingston, two men in their late 70s died, one electrocuted trying to connect extension cords and another died when heavy winds knocked him down. here on the island most people heeded the evacuations. it is a ghost town, no reports

here on wrightsville beach most people heeded the warnings. many went to wilmington just over the channel on the mainland. some people have gone far in land. today, charlotte mecklenburg county schools, 200 miles in land in the city of charlotte and mecklenburg county, they canceled classes to accommodate evacuees all the way from the north carolina coast. heather: thank you so much, stay safe, we will check back with you for an update. the worst of hurricane florence may be yet to come, we heard jonathan talking about where the i will pass. we are tracking the latest on that. >> reporter: here is the eye of the storm spinning 30 miles off the coasts of wilmington. if you are talking about the coast, 30 miles from wilmington, the coast is a little closer, likely the center of circulation no more than 10 or 15 miles from the coastline. we will see the winds that are most intense, lots and lots of rain along these areas, flash flood warnings across the entire coast, the winds have been picking up and will continue to do so as the eye wall gets c

it's supposed to go right over the top of where you are in wrightsville beach at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. maw be able to go through an eye even though it's a category 1. in a storm like this for you, as you know and for our viewers, if it was a category 3 or 4 we would bring you in and put you in a safe spot. category 1, if you're in a safe location, you don't have to worry as much. we may see you ride through the eye wall, throughout the eye and through the other side come tomorrow morning. >> well, i have been through two other eyes, so this would be the third eye. and just for our viewers who are wondering, because you see that big map and you see the eye, it's a very strange occurrence to be in the eye because it is so calm in that eye. depending on the speed, this is moving 6 miles an hour, so we actually get a chance to experience if it does follow this path. one of the oddest things i've noted, there are birds flying around and seagulls because it's so calm in the middle of this horrific, gargantuan monster. >> kerry, we actually on radar have had -- there's been

wrightsville beach did not have good luck with storms and starting with f. they had fran back in 1996, a couple with another hurricane that took out their fishing pier and then floyd in '99 did significant damage along the carolina coast and a lot of flooding. now they are worried that florence could do the very same thing, shannon. >> shannon: you mentioned seeing the folks out there come the first responders, we've heard reports in many places that they said at a certain point, steve pointed out, many of the departments have wind limits. once that goes to get to a certain point, they can take out high-profile vehicles, they can't help folks. it sounds like they are still operating in wrightsville at this hour. >> again, i'm surprised they were patrolling over responding to a call if that's what it was. the winds are gusting, we are protected from the reach by significant wall, so it is swirling around us but the winds are significant. i'm glad to see they can still move around in it but i'm not sure how much longer they'll be able to to do that. >> shannon

here are the high tides for wrightsville beach. 11.47. the worst case scenario is this system coming in just about that time, pushing the storm surge on top of the high tide. and that's the problem. rainfall. again, we're talking catastrophic flooding from this. life threatening flood conditions. all-time record rainfall's possible. look at how far inland this rainfall goes. a 10-inch band could be higher. could be 10 to 20 inches. we cannot rule out isolated -- i don't know it's going to be that isolated, of 30-inch totals or more. so -- and if this thing sits, we're going to be talking about it probably monday, tuesday, maybe wednesday. >> that's going to be the concern, the rainfall, the flooding over the weekend into early next week. all right, al roker, busy man. >>> today of course marks 17 years, 17 years, since the september 11th attack. many of the heroes who were first on the scene to help dealing with long-term health problems from that day. the fight to make sure they are getting the best medical care this country can offer. w

abc's emily rau begins our coverage in wrightsville beach, north carolina. emily, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, stephanie and kendis. florence is headed this way and changing in the process but one thing that is still the same, the 140-mile-per-hour winds making her a category 4 hurricane. this morning, millions of people are clearing the path of hurricane florence. >> we have to leave. >> we don't have a choice. >> it gets really scary out here in storms. >> reporter: westbound highway traffic at a crawl as more mandatory evacuations take effect. and overnight, florence shifting her path putting landfall closer to wilmington later into friday and setting up a devastating storm surge potential that could be catastrophic. national weather service officials warning, quote, i can't emphasize enough the potential for unbelievable damage from wind, storm surge and inland flooding with this storm. the north carolina governor also sounding the alarm. >> the waves and the wind this storm may bring is nothing like you've ever seen. >> reporter: with a mess

one of the areas expected to be hit hard wrightsville beach. the pier here shutdown and police officers have been driving up and down the beach checking to make sure these blocked off areas stay clear. as for residents and business owners many have spent the last few hours boarding up and getting ready for what's ahead. (pkg)trt 1:45(pkg) (pkg)trt 1:45locator: wrightsville beach 00 - 05 audrey longtin/business owner 10-15brent remadna/wilmington 16-20audrey longtin/business owner 44-52tania varela/business owner 106-115 audrey longtin/business owner 139-144evacuations from virginia down to south carolina are underway... 22:52-23:00 audrey longtin-the workshop owner :10-:15 <"we were hoping it was going to go a little farther to the north but it doesn't look like it. so i think it is going to hit us pretty hard.">39:07 standup (brent remadna) "already many businesses have started boarding up. this is in preparation as florence continues its path towards wilmington.">and for audrey longtin- who owns the workshop in wrightsville beach her once bus

i'm david begnaud for cbs news, reporting for the bbc, in wrightsville beach, north carolina. our top story this lunchtime... conservative pro—brexit mps set out plans for tackling the irish border problem after brexit — they say a hard border can be avoided by using technology. and still to come, why a record number of free—to—use cash machines are closing across the country. coming up on bbc news... gavin whyte steals the show in belfast, scoring on his debut for northern ireland with his first touch of the ball after less than two minutes on the pitch. this weekend is the 10th anniversary of the defining moment of the global financial crisis 7 the collapse of lehman brothers bank. it was the largest bankruptcy in history and sparked a chain of events that led to the worst crisis since the great depression. banks collapsed, markets plunged and millions of people across the globe lost theirjobs. the impact is still felt today. research for the bbc by the institute for fiscal studies shows that on average, people's real annual are £800 a year lower than they were a de

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 drive from the coast -- we're not right on the ocean. despite that, we're still seeing incredibly windy conditions, big gusts, lots of rain. and the wind keeps shifting. that is a huge issue here. we lost power at 9:00 last night. that's before the winds were even close to this strong. so that should tell you just how big of a deal the power issue is going to be here. already 200,000 in

wrightsville beach, 18.5. rain totals keep going up and up, as long as rain bands are sitting over them. we had 108 miles per hour wind in dafdsville, and more rain is still to come. can't stress enough this is not over yet. lot of times we talk about storms making landfall and wrap up and say everything is fine. that's not the case with this storm. it will sit here for quite some time. even days and days after the storm we're going to continue to see river flooding well inland, where we could see record breaking levels, higher than floyd, a lot of levels people said were the highest they've ever seen. we'll see it top that here in north carolina unfortunately in the next couple of days, don. >> all right, jennifer grey, thank you very much. we'll get back to jennifer for an update on florence in moments as we need it here on cnn. >>> a lot of people as we have been telling you, riding the storm out. one is todd berg, joins us from wrightsville beach. todd, how are you fairing? >> we're doing fine. it looks li

most of our residents in wrightsville beach heeded our warning. when the storm came in, it was coming in as a category four. the last time we had a cat four was hurricane hazel in 1954, which devastated wrightsville beach. so we knew we had a powerful storm that could impact our community. when we put that message out, luckily our citizens listened. >> neil: what do you do to those that didn't or sticking around or just stragglers? what do you do? >> we went door-to-door to everybody. we asked them to leave. even some that originally said, you know, hey, i made it through bertha or fran, we're going to stick around, luckily for us, before the storm hit actually did leave the beach. >> neil: so what do you look for now? still a pounding rain and other problems to deal with. what are you looking for now? >> today at high tide was really what -- what we were worried about, we didn't know how much washover we would get or -- luckily we have robust dune system. we didn't have the washover. we have a high tide this evening around midnight. so we're conc

wrightsville beach got the eye. we are now in the eye wall and, of course, that's the worst conditions, we are starting to get debris here which is why i'm hanging back behind the thing. that's a piece of roof there came off the building where we are staying here as you see and hear. that's a chunk of stuff. it looks like we may get the ---we may get the eye here which i haven't been in the eye in several years in a hurricane. and, you know, that would be a real -- interesting to see it because you might even see blue sky. it's a ragged eye at the moment. so, you know, it's not as clear as you might see in a storm that's totally well-formed. we still might get it it's been bumping down the coast. we are next in line for it. and as you know, the closer you get to that eye, you are in that eye wall and that's where the conditions are tough and boy, we have been hit with unrelenting rain and you can see the wind as well. so, and the gusts, the gusts when they come are pretty solid. so, we'll let you know if we get that

is he live with us from wrightsville beach. mr. mayor, i have been to your town five or six times for hurricanes. it's always absolutely beautiful. our hope our viewers would come back and visit you but not right now. how are things? >> if you look out here today, it's a nice perfect day here at wrightsville beach. but we know it's going to change here the next 48 hours. we are kind of getting prepared, doing our evacuations. just like the conversation you will have with president trump. we know we need to get people off the island. we have had the experience of a lot of hurricanes here, unfortunately. we are actually pretty good at it. >> shepard: yeah. >> so we are used to preparing. we are pretty prepared here. >> shepard: i remember hugo in 1989, i'm almost sad to admit. i remember the salties saying i'm not going anywhere. up to hugo we got up to 99. and when floyd came through there and by then people had said yeah, i have got to get out. is that the thinking now or has it been so long that people have forgotten what can happ

wrightsville beach has gotten more than 18. and like i said, rainfall totals could go up 6 inches or a foot in some locations, so we could have record breaking rainfall here easily. davis, north carolina had a 108 miles per hour wind gust. cape lookout, 106. rain accumulation still to come. we could pick up an additional ten inches of rain across some of these locations in north carolina and south carolina. don, it is going to determine where the bands set up, of course. the river gauges, major flood stage, moderate flood stage. we'll see records broken well inland, well away from the coast, don. >> reporter: jennifer, you said bands are coming toward us in myrtle beach. the forecast this morning at least earlier was the bulk of it may not hit us until 10:00, 11:00, midnight. what's in store for us here? we are starting to feel it more. >> all day you have been getting offshore winds. that's why the waves aren't that big, the surf hasn't been that big. another on the south or west side of the storm getting offshore flow. once t

wrightsville beach. 7 to 11 feet. as you get closer to the south carolina, north carolina border, cape hatteras about four to six feet and the high tides. we will be watching this closely and we have gone to the gauges we have. you can see these are flood stages. this is the atlantic coast at the pier at wrightsville beach. friday, september 14th around 10:00 a.m., major flood stage at 10 feet. they are just over major flood stage there. that's about the time of the high tide. a little bit after 10:00 a.m. this is the cape fear river at wilmington. we will look for another high tide later in the evening. you can see the record is 8.2 and we are just about a half foot from the record. that's going to be interesting to see what happens as the high tides come in on top of the storm surge. that would be on top of that. it's a very changeable situation. we will be watching the gauges and the storm surge as it comes in at each high tide. >> we have mike kramer who is the town manager of carolina beach. a quaint beach commun

in towards portions just to the north of wrightsville beach and wilmington. the hurricane force winds are there all day long, right along the coast,owards the wrightsville beach area. and the tropical storm force winds, they moved in at 7: a.m. on thursday, they're still there at 8:00 a.m. on saturday. a very long duration ent, as far as the wind is concerned. a very long duration event as far as the rain is concerned. how much rain? well, how abo over0 inches of rain. yeah, this is two feet of rain down along the coastalre here of north carolina. much more dodge around myrtle d beach, arocharlotte. this is all going to be flooding, flood-pre in this area. notice our area, though, maybe 2.6 inches.th at's through next wednesday, so, again, we're not going to see much from this over the couple of days. i'm not worried about this storm at all in our area. tomorrow, f40% chance storms with a high of 83. 80 degrees on your friday. frid f is the best chanc rain, but it's not an all-day rain. the showers t will moveough quick. they are moving because of florence. 8

i want to get right to wrightsville beach. just offer wilmington's wrightsville beach which is the spot where the storm came to shore and the mayor there is with us. how is your coastal town held u up? >> that came across about six this morning and to be honest with you, a pretty big win. the damage was moderate, little bit of structural power, but what happened to us as the storm came across and it moved in odd direction. and now we have a pretty significant flooding issue from a surge in a five-minute. , which i've never seen before. the high tide was 11:00, so now waiting for the tide to go slack so we can get back on the island to try to figure out what we've got. >> shepard: you've got a somewhat unique situation with water from banks channel on the left of you and atlantic ocean on the left and it looks like on both sides of your island, the water has been coming up. >> you'd be amazed at all the surgery you're getting now forgotten hour and a half ago which was the came up pretty quick. little bit more than a foot of su

the outer banks here in wrightsville beach evacuation orders in effect. the bridge between here and wilmington will close tomorrow at 8:00. that's it. no one else is able to get in or get out. we're just off of the ocean here. we want to show you this 26 unit condo under development and there are efforts underway to clear all the debris out of here. as you know if and when all this stuff hits it could go flying. they loaded three flatbeds to get the possible deagree out of the area. p.j. kelly is building these homes and you also live here. you have been here 25 years. are you and your friends and family staying or going? >> well, we have chosen to stay, rick. on the beach here obviously a mandatory evacuation the low lying areas you need to be careful with flooding. in you are inland a little bit, board up your windows have a generator and you will be in good shape. >> have you seen the size of the thing and it does look to be coming right this way. >> it has. it's a little intimidating. turning north a little bit. we like to see that. but i think all in

bill, thank you for make it go out here from wrightsville beach and go buy a lottery ticket, okay? i want to go up the coast now, griff jenkins standing by live in jacksonville, north carolina, 55 miles per hour north of here near the new river. how is flooding there, griff? good day. >> hey, bill, you know, the flooding's bad. you see here, this is a closed road and it's closed for two reasons, we're going to take you and show awe little bit because of downed power lines and then in the distance, here is a gentleman riding a bike. it's the distance of extreme flooding down there. we were following volunteers on boats to do some rescues, and we weren't able to make it through that heavy water there, and this gentleman here, how are you? good. how bad is the flooding down there? >> it's pretty bad. blue creek road is totally flooded and there's a white car you can see, and then it's not that bad going down there. >> what's your name? >> jonathan. >> are you from here? >> yeah. >> are you okay? your house flooded? >> no. >> all right. thank you. be safe. and, bill, what we're followi

so in about three hours from now you will be in that western-most eye wall in wrightsville beach. if we're going to get wind damage with 90 to 110 miles per hour wind gusts that's when it will occur. this is one of the computer models that tells us what the radar will look like in the future. here is how we're starting off right about now. it shows the eye clearly here and shows that band off the coast. as we go and progress it, we go through time, we go through the morning, and we go all the way to 7:00 p.m. friday, so this is about 18 hours from now, 20 hours from now, with the eye not even in south carolina yet. the western-most portion, the heavier rains barely even in myrtle beach, and then the wilmington area would be on the back side of the eye with the winds coming off the water with tremendous strong winds and torrential rain. our friends to the north who have been suffering all day long from the heavy rain and worst flooding so far from areas around new bern and carteret county here still in the heavy rain bans. that's at 7:00 p.m. this evening as the sun is setting. it

we don't know that the storm will hit wrightsville beach, but we are in the crosshairs. the governor says that this state is in the bull's-eye. and as of now, it looks like it's headed right toward us. >> the residents that warned you against riding this one out, has he evacuated before? >> i could not tell you that. but i did talk to someone earlier who said they had never evacuated before, but they were leaving town tomorrow. we also know that the main bridge between wilmington and wrightsville beach is going to shut down tomorrow night. so if you decide to stay on the island, you won't be able to change your mind. at some point, they are going to put the drawbridge up and it will stay up until they decide to put it back down. while that's happening, you are going to be stuck in place. if you get over the bridge, presumably you are going to be okay. but again, this storm is huge. the dangerous winds extend 170 miles out from the center of it and it's going to roll across the state and dump tremendous amounts of rain. it's moving slowly. not good news for a place alread

we started our day in wrightsville beach, we've been there all week. they flooded to a level we never seen before. a storm surge at 11:00 this morning, inundating the homes in that neighborhood around the famous. there. they flooded that whole area. saw a lot of water and a lot of rain that continues to fall there and just to the west of wilmington, there have been a lot of issues with that as you heard leland mention the tree that came down, a lot of trees it came down all around this area. it could go much higher than that. when we left the the beach and drove over the bridge and saw the trees down and how dark it was and then came this way, every highway is out, they have state police and intersections with lights on. it's slow going in treacherous coag and they want to keep people off the roads until they get the situation cleaned up. >> shannon: i know you've been involved in covering dangerous situations all over the world including many big storms and they are all unique how would you characterize this one? >> it's got a lot of fortitude. it's h

you're clots to wrightsville beach. and forthal bauer kate tsz fokeeping -- and as you look at live pictures from cal pair and the call eegz p how contained is the population who's remained been? >> calipari, if he's driving around, it's likely just c calmergency vehicles. that mantdatory evacuation went into effect 9:00 the fwhoigtfore last. frors akben this is one of those storms where our hats off to local ofillings, initials who steam be gent ahenlf of peep faem earl ur. people who decided to hunker down at their local pub leadership we saw some of that. but by and large overnight the smart. al died. frrt most of these folks, if your not without anywhere. we talked to a fire official yesterday who said there's going to become a point in the storm where because of the conditions they're not going to be able to go out and rescue. they're not going to be able to go out and put out fires. that's expecting to come in the next few hours as well. >> what is the reassurance they can give to the people hunkering down, who di

>> there on the wrightsville beach, thank you. ken graham is the director of the national hurricane center. ken, thank you. i know you're very busy. i appreciate your time. i want to go back to what al was just talking about there. the european model versus our model. the differences between the two. how stark are they? and can you explain why there is that discrepancy between the two models? >> yeah. little changes, craig, that looking at different wind patterns, sometimes far away from the hurricane make a big difference in the forecast. the steering so far has been a high pressure over the atlantic. but the problem becomes you got a blocking high pressure and eventually losing the steering currents altogether. depending on how strong the models pick up on the subtle changes, sometimes 500, 600 miles away makes a big deal in the forecast. us in the hurricane center don't necessarily look at a couple of mod 'ems but a consensus. we look at the ensemble members of the models. each one with dozens and dozens of model runs in the mo

we were out here all day on the beach, this is wrightsville beach, this time of year it is a typically a relatively busy stretch of beach. it is not the peak season ofjune, july and august, but still you would normally see a few hundred to a few thousand people here. we saw about half a dozen in the immediate area, really, throughout the day. that illustrates the point that most people are not doing what they would normally be doing out on the beach. people were in town, boarding up their homes and businesses, putting the sandbags down, filling up their gas tanks, filling up their gas cans, going to the grocery store, going to the hardware store. loading up on those, sort of, survival supplies. moving their vehicles to elevated areas if they are not travelling or taking those vehicles with them. so yes, for the most part we have seen today lot of people heeding the advice, doing those last—minute preparations. saw a lot of traffic moving away from the coast. your previous report mentioned how some areas are trying to expedite and make the moving process for drivers much easier and sm

this is live pictures now, in serene wrightsville beach. >> don't be deceived. the scene will be different there tomorrow. the conltions w decrease, and the hurricane continues a journey to the east coast.m >>> the view fpace shows the size of florence. larger than the state of michigan. right now, the storm is a category 3. it's slowed down a bit. o it is sti track to arrive in the next day, and it could hit p with ach that the in more have not seen than 6 o ye0 years. >> heavy rains, major flooding, life threatening storm surges as well myrtle beach is usually , bustlind they have been ordered to close by 5:00 p.m. tonight and will not reopen until the >>orm passed. t's a ghost town. the gondolas have bee removed fromhe resort town, and the beaches and hotels deserted. here in the district, president trump urges peopleo heed the warnings and head to safety. >> get out of its way. don't play games with it. it's a big one. may be as big as they'veseen. tremendous amounts of water. the storm will come. it will go. we want everybody to be safe. >> we have team cov

we are just off the atlantic ocean and people are enjoying this day at wrightsville beach. there is a mandatory evacuation order for much of the carolina coast line. 1million in south carolina have been told to get out. the traffic is westbound from charleston through columbia to get people out of the coastal area. mandatory evacuation order's in the outer banks and in wrightsville beach, the bridge will be closed tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. people all have to get out by 8:00 tomorrow night. i want to show you this development right off the beach. 26 unit condo, to give you an idea of what is being done to prepare for the storm, you see piles of wood and there were tree -- there was lumber just carted out of here because all the stuff they were going to use to build these condos to the left, it was going to fly around in the storm. anything not tied down will likely fly and they don't want that to happen. it is being put -- picked up and put away. they will put furniture in a safe place. they are boarding up stores and businesses and there are runs on the stores. there are runs o

up on the north of wrightsville beach, flashes on the mainland side. the power all reaches, coverage is only going to throw. a couple hours ago, 165,000 customers in north carolina without power. that number could reach 1 to 3 million customers before the storm is done. it starts here in wrightsville beach. tough to stay if there is flooding yet on the main roads. we can't really tell, we can't tell if there has been any significant tree damage or trees down, but that is also likely to happen because as you know, the ground in this part of north carolina has been saturated. wilmington set records this summer with the amount of rainfall. 20 or 30 or more inches of rainfall on top of that. that is why they are so concerned about the flooding, the catastrophic flooding that they are predicting, because as the storm moved across the state, it will dump rain on areas of the state that already seen far too much of it. the situation in wrightsville beach is good as far as residents are concerned because most he did the mandatory evacuation. i was told about a

. >> the eye did make landfall in wrightsville beach six miles from where i am with a wind speed of about 90 miles per hour. >> we are just now hitting about the 24-hour mark from where this storm hit in -- you heard there, wrightsville beach. a -- wilmington, rather. and now we're trying to figure out what is left of the storm. one-third of it is still in the water, as you can see. guess who's there to keep us posted. i'm christi paul in studio. victor blackwell is in myrtle beach, south carolina. you've been experiencing different kind of weather out there. >> reporter: yeah. the wind is picking up. the rain is continuing. the headline this hour -- first light and the lifting of curfews in myrtle beach in conway and across horry county in south carolina. people's first opportunity to see if there's been damage caused by the speed of the winds that have picked up over the last several hours. of course, the big headlines out of this story, out of this storm so far, made in north carolina. 780,000 of the more than 900,000 power outages are in north carolina. of course, you mentioned at the

here in north carolina, the outer banks, wrightsville beach, other coastal areas have also instituted mandatory evacuation orders. people are being told to get out now while you still can. we heard from north carolina's governor who is that people need to take this seriously. >> the forecast places north carolina in the bull's-eye of hurricane florence. this storm is strong. and it's getting stronger. >> widespread power outages are expected. they could last for weeks in some areas because of the conditions on the ground, which we still don't know, of course, how bad they will be. >> dana: rick, we have a couple questions. we are going to start with juan. >> juan: i would like to ask rick reichmuth a selfless question. how much will this storm affect boston, new york, philadelphia, d.c., richmond. it looks like it is going across the south but what about the big cities? >> i think new york city will probably get a little bit of rain out of this coming coming may be an interest au pair boston, probably completely clear. d.c. is going to be an interesting one. if the storm goes a little

this is the road to wrightsville beach wilmington is that way. police check point talking to drivers trying to get in to wrightsville beach. if they don't have a residence pass or they are not media they are not getting on wrightsville beach. stopping some of these vehicles. some of them may be helping up residents to board up last minute. you see people being turned away right here. the ones getting over they are going over one draw bridge right here. this is the bridge to wrightsville beach. and this bridge will close at 8:00 tonight. that means that no one is getting onto the beach after 8:00 tonight. dana, if people are there and want to get out, they will let them off but they are not letting anyone on. we went down the road to a nearby gas station. they still did have fuel. they this ice but that business was closing at 8:00 tonight. other restaurants and businesses down the road are already boarded up and closed. everything on the beach side pretty much is also shut down at this point. people seem to be heeding the warnings knowing that th

this is the main drag here in wrightsville beach. i know you're familiar with. north lumina afternoon and south lumina avenue. the water has receded. they set a record in wrightsville beach with almost five feet above the high tide level. that was a record by more than a foot. so nearly five feet of water above high tide. it was covering south lumina and north lumina avenue. it was in a lot of neighborhoods and side streets. there will be homes when the homers get back, they'll find flood damage in a lot of home here. but the water has receded for now. we don't know if it will come back as the rain continues. >> shepard: rick leventhal, thanks, this is a live look at jacksonville, north carolina. they're taking one of those boats out to do rescuing. look at that. got a furry friend on board there today. when you leave -- you don't want to leave your dog behind. if i left mine behind, she would eat everything. piles of fluff would be everywhere from the pillows. but that's what we'd get. nobody left this guy behind. temperatures are still up around 80 degrees. it

bill blair is the mayor of wrightsville beach. wrightsville beach is just six miles east of where i'm standing now. wrightsville beach in the direct path of the hurricane. i asked the mayor about the conditions on the ground now. >> we went out there this morning and was surprised. wind hasn't picked up yet but the erosion is way more significant than you would think at this point the storm because it really hasn't come ashore yet. which is distressing because we just put $11 million worth of sand on the beach four months ago as part of a four-year deal we do to kind of protect public safety, property and all that stuff. i got a feeling that might be a pretty big issue for us. >> yesterday, it looked like a ghost town. >> it is, it's a ghost town today. there were a few people over there. not many. very few. >> power outages expected wide spread. >> yes. >> how are you going to decide when people get to return to their holes and businesses? >> what will happen is after the storms -- the storm will sit here for an extended period.

senior correspondent rick leventhal is on wrightsville beach north carolina. good evening, rick. >> good evening, bret. we are still getting whipped by winds and getting pelted by raines as you can see. the main drag here is virtually deserted because it was eventually underwater earlier today. much of wrightsville beach is underwater thanks to the surging range of hurricane florence, pushing the waters over the intracoastal waterway accounting countless home along this 4-mile strip of sand. when the stopping 90 miles per hour and gusts upo 105. >> the storm is going to continue its violent line across our state for days and to be a major inland event as well. >> florence is crawling now at about 6 miles per hour, weakening but still a massive rainmaker, dumping 40 plus inches in spots, soaking already saturated land. in wilmington, a tree fell on a house, killing a mother and her infant. the father hospitalized with injuries. and the catastrophic flooding predictions are proving true in new bern where two rivers merge with the atlantic. more than 300 rescues

and wrightsville beach seems to be in the crosshairs. this thing could move but the tropical storm force winds extend 170 miles out from the center in every direction. hurricane force winds in every direction. it's a monster and it's going to bring a lot of rain, and some significant they issued mandatory evacuation orders up and down the carolina coastline. and it does seem here in wrightsville beach that a lot of people have heeded the warnings. although people are still here, the roads and businesses are closed and hotels are kicking everybody out, including us tomorrow. the bridge closes tomorrow night at 8:00. once that happens, you can't get onto wrightsville beach and will be able to get off until after the storm passes. if it brings the storm surge they say it might, most of this strip will be underwater. and then the worst comes after that when the storm moves very slowly over the carolinas, over the coast, and then inland, and brings, by some estimates, 2 to 3 feet. turated area. f rain and spots where floods are very likely an

>> ali, this is wrightsville beach, and there is a voluntary evacuation where we are right now, and i want you to take a look at behind me on the beach here. they have actually started to move the cranes to remove the lifeguard stands from the beach, because this area tomorrow morning will be a mandatory evacuation order. if indeed, as michelle was explaining that european model turns out to be the path of the storm, this area which is about 10 miles outside of wilmington, it will get a direct hit. it will be in the direct path of the storm, and so this is where you will see the storm surge and those wind gusts, and again, this a area here, wrightsville beach stands to see some the worst weather in the next 72 hours. >> and wrightsville beach is next to wilmington where i will be seeing you later on this evening, and the mayor of washington, d.c., has declared a state of emergency, and why washington? because of the u.s. model that you talked about or either way washington is going to be drenched? >> think about it like this. the landfall, and that is who is going to be hit, but we wi

. >> it is crawled for the last 20 hours from wrightsville beach to myrtle beach in south carolina. that has taken 20 hours. that is a long time to travel such a short distance. there is your center of speculation just outside the myrtle beach area to the west as it worked its way down the coast, no more than 90 miles and it took 20 hours to get there. most have the rain falls on the eastern side of this. that has slowly moved, the rain has continued to pile up across the north carolina coast and a couple areas where those lines are rounding moisture off the ocean and dropping it over and over again in the same location. we have spots getting up to 20 inches to 24 inches, this is estimated rainfall and i heard reports higher than these numbers and the 2 foot range, and the rain hasn't stopped yet and is not going to because the system continues to move 3 miles an hour. additional rain likely on the way. this is not including what we have seen so far. this is added to the rain i have shown you, spotted 20 inches and forecast models projecting another 15 to 20 inches in some locations

landfall near wrightsville beach. ill has 90-mile-per-hour winds and it's still moving at a snail's pace at six miles an foreseeable future for a good portion of the carolina coastline. here is the path the way we look at it now. it's already made landfall it now continues to the east. a slow mover. it's right by myrtle beach by around saturday morning at 2:00 a. it continues moving west towards columbia. itecomes a tropical storm over columbia and then moves further up into the mississippi river valley. look at this. the winds we arexpecting right ,s of 87-mile-per-hour in wilmington, myrtle beach 43-mile-per-hour winds. the tropical-foe winds extend out 130 miles, and the storm surge is going to be big story out of this. we have one area 7 to 11 feet s high tide 11:39.e beach. charleston 1:30. 3 in wrightsville beach. 7 to s 11 footrm surge near cape fear and cape lookout. rainfall amounts, look at the s with of 15 to 20 inches of rain throughout much of the carolinas. and look, it actually moves sland as we. as the

s when the wolf joins me now from wrightsville beach in north carolina wendy good to see you i mean are people heeding the advice that's coming from authorities are they leaving. i would say about seventy five twenty five good afternoon to you barbara here it's a beautiful day on wrightsville beach you know a lot of people who have places on this island have been evacuated they were required to leave this morning about eight o'clock i would say though as you go closer and when you've got more people who have chosen to stay probably about twenty five percent of them have decided to get their supplies board up their homes and businesses and ride out the storm but you also have people like i spoke to on the plane coming down here yesterday you got husbands who were trying to come down and help wives who said get home we got to get out of here and as you saw on the highways yesterday people are heeding those warnings and the people that are staying away get some of the people that are leaving what are they doing to keep themselves safe over the next few hours. i think this is like one forec

>> it's dark and deserted here, geraldo, in wrightsville beach. more than 700,000 across estate without power including everyone in this coastal community. no one here is use using the be everyone is out of here. we saw transformers below around 11:00. if you know wrightsville beach, this is a main drag. the power line dangling in the streets. completely underwater earlier today. they set a storm surge record. almost 5 feet above high tide. we actually try to make our way from low ground to high ground. we wound up with water midway up the side of our doors before we were able to get out of it. it was dangerous and it's a good thing there aren't any people here. the police encourage everyone to get out of town and it looked like people listen to. there have been fatalities reported in connection to the storm, at least four dead including a mother and infant child in wilmington, which is just over the bridge and the father of that family was injured and had to be rescued and taken to the hospital. a lot of stuff is happening. trees falling on homes

is the high tide of wrightsville beach. because the storm is walking, we have to go through another high tide cycle tomorrow, through the afternoon, and it could be higher than the one we're seeing tonight. it's a long, drawn out thing. that's what makes this storm different. chris, finally, the rainfall amounts, and we'll deal with these problems as we go throughout the weekend. we're going to see a wide area of 20 inches of rain. someone's going to get 30. maybe even up to 40 inches of rainfall. a lot of the rivers are expected to go into record territory and it will take them a couple days to head out to sea. we're going to see homes and businesses with water in them. that's going to happen overnight tonight. then during the weekend we're going to have these rivers sending water into homes that hadn't previously been flooded. the first responders on the ground there, they're going to have to be going and rescuing people and going door to door for those that didn't evacuate. they're going to have an extremely long and dif

this is the base of the bridge to wrightsville beach. it's closed as are most if not all the barrier islands of north carolina, because they really need to get people out of that area because of the flooding you were just talking about. winds are increasing. let's get to the time line as we go forward into the next 48 hours. we are going to see the tropical storm force winds move in through the morning. those are winds above 39 miles per hour. by this afternoon the outer bands of hurricane florence will make their way on shore. that's the torrential downpour that we're expecting and that is going to last through the weekend which will cause perhaps up to 40 inches of rain in some areas. tonight we have that first high tide just after 11:00 p.m. as the storm gets closer, we could start to feel the initial effects of that storm surge. then friday morning we have the land fall perhaps around 6:00 a.m. just after that another high tide around 11:00 30. friday, torrential rains, high storm surge and hurricane force winds will be battering thi

out heres llustrates how people are orproaching this incoming people are getting out of town here in wrightsville beach, mandatory evacuations in place beginning at 80 a.m. tomorrow. milar story up and down the southeastern coast. for the coastal communities, mandatory evacuations up and down the east coast. when you get further in land, some mandatory, some voluntary that will eventually be mandatory leacuations. peeally heeding the advice and taking this one seriously from what we have seen. laura: that report from north carolina. au people prepare for florence, president trump isng controversy for his remarks about hurricane maria, which killed nearly 3000 people, leaving many without power for months. here is what he said a short time ago. i think probably the hardest one by far was puerto rico, because of the island nature. i think puerto rico was an incredible, unsung success. laura: every time ago i was joined by -- all brief time ago by our north america reporter rajini vaidyanathan. many people will see that as rewriting pr history. thident describing the response as tremendous. rajini:

natalie burnell is in wrightsville, north carolina with more on the looming danger and evacuations. >> reporter: bracing for impact. homes boarded up, store shelves cleared, gas in short supply. >> as soon as i pulled in the parking lot, somebody told me there was no gas so you might as we will not come here. >> reporter: as the monstrous category 4 florence takes aim at the carolina coast, major highways morphed into one-way escape routes. >> we're currently on what is usually the right side of the road. you can see the traffic coming up the other side, too. >> reporter: for some itea leaving behind >> i got the e-mail that said there was a mandatory evacuation, it just -- it hit latest forecast shifting slightly south and now delaying the storm's landfall until early saturday morning, but florence still expected to pack a catastrophic punch in storm surge and up to 40 inches of rain. some calling it the storm of a lifetime. >> my message is clear. disaster is at the doorstep, and it's coming in. >> reporter: a european astronaut tweeting chilling photos of the storm from space sayin

. >> just to the east of where emily is located there in wilmington is wrightsville beach, north carolina, where folks like to go on vacation. these are some of the scenes we're getting from rightsville beach within the last few moments. as you can see there are some powerful flashes -- this is part of the problem, you can see what's going on. crews are out there in the middle of this storm. >> you can hear the wind. >> yeah, so at least 180,000 people are without power, and that's just in north carolina alone. a lot of people that we've spoken with, some storm chasers have mentioned that they keep seeing these power flashes with these equipment failures. you can understand why so many people are without power right now. >> a lot of crews are there as well. they've had a couple of days for this, we've been waiting for this storm to hit these areas for a couple of days. we are seeing a lot of power outages. crews, despite the rain and the intense winds that rightsville beach is seeing, crews are trying to restore power on the job. >> wrightsville can be windy on an average day, just imagin

in other words, the eye of the storm passing directly over wrightsville beach. we use the call to walk around this general area looking at the structures and everything still standing but no major damage. no shattered windows. there was a garbage can blowing down the street. some small tree branches in the streets. no major damage. remember, this is just what you see here that is just a tiny snapshot of an island that is 4 miles long. it is too dangerous to explore the entire island because when you are in the eye eventually it will pass over and you will hit, get hit by the back half of the storm. the back wind and heavy rains all over again. and wrightsville beach north carolina with fox news. >>> let's get you to rosemary with a little more on the hurricane. we also have a. we get ahead. >> that hurricane will stick around and really be a tough one for those folks over the next 24 - 48 hours as it just isn't really going to move a whole lot until we get into about sunday. it finally looks like it will exit the state. at home we are looking at mostly clear ski

joining us from wrightsville beach this morning. let's go over to mary that's tracking florence in the weather center. hey, mary. >> hi, this storm is far from over. hurricane florence is still moving over the coast there, so really riding the carolina coast. it did hit as a category 1 hurricane and when it hit, alex wilson was clocking wind speeds up to 105 miles an hour. right now we're looking at the wind speeds up to 62 miles an hour in alex wilson there. the reason why -- in wilmington there. the reason that we're calling this a story of a lifetime, is that it's going stay along the coast and throughout the day today, it's going to be still a category 1 hurricane. we're going main tin the hurricane strength, and with it it's going tof rain possible. a lot of impacts with the storm and flash flooding and storm surge and hurricane force winds and maintaining the strength as it stays close to the coast. again, we're talking 3 feet of rain in some location s. we are going to talk about the weather here at homecoming back up. >>> we

the i went onshore at wrightsville beach at 7:15 their time. it is moving very slowly west at six miles an hour. rainfall will continue to be a huge issue. it will move towards myrtle beach and then it looks like it will move inland. that's a little different twist from what the forecast models said. they were really good with wilmington within the last couple of days.his health toward charleston,, now it looks like it will go over florence, south carolina and then columbia and then move northward by late sunday into monday. 52 miles an hour at myrtle beach. 87 wilmington. they had a gust to 105, the strongest since 1958 associated with another hurricane. right over wilmington wrightsville beach, the i is there and starting to move south. there will still be some torrential rainfall. it looks like it will move towards myrtle beach and hopefully start to move inland as it does it will turn into a tropical storm and go over columbia. sunday into monday it will be extratropical and be towards the tennessee valley. for us low clouds are back they a