Out in conditions far worse than what were seeing here where the storm is yet to come. They went out. They made the rescues. The calls had been early and often from people who got caught by this storm. And, remember, it is not a four, six or nine hour event. It will be days of downpour. All right . Again, that number 430,000 customers without power. Here in south carolina, north myrtle beach, this is where florence is coming. Throughout the day conditions will be deteriorating. What are we seeing here . By storm standards, reasonable fair. 30, 40 miles an hour sustained winds. Gusts of 50 miles an hour or so. It makes for a dramatic looking ocean. It sounds dramatic if i put the microphone directly into the wind. But by hurricane standards, very light. However, here is whats going to change here. This is a tide just starting to come in. When the wind shifts as this storm rotates and moves southwest by west, by the time it gets here, you will have another high tide, and it will have the wind working with it that time. You will have surge, tidal action and wind coming together. They added five feet of sand to this beach not many weeks ago and it is already having a hard time dealing with high tide without any storm conditions, so well see. Jacksonville has seen very dramatic activity throughout the morning. Ed, tell us, what have the people there had to live through so far on this day . Well, we have been told throughout the night there were a number of homes that were taking on water. A full assessment of how much flood damage has occurred here we dont quite have yet. But there is structural damage. A Hotel Overnight had to be evacuated here after part of the building started collapsing. First responders evacuated about 70 people from that hotel. Though, the winds, chris, and the rains have been relentless and some parts on the north side of this storm, if you go up to moorehead city, the rains started midday. We are approaching 24 hours of intense rains and strong winds. Not as long here in jacksonville, but the winds are sustaining the trees. Those are about 100 foot tall trees that have been just almost seem stuck. Almost like a 50 degree angle. It is intense how strong the winds are here that really gives you a sense of just how long these winds have been sustained for here in this area, the topside of this storm. And that concern is growing, not just in new bern, but that flooding concern is really spreading throughout many areas here on the north side of the storm, coupled with the low lying area. Thats a recipe for treacherous and dangerous situations. As this storm continues to batter away, we will continue to see that as well. Chris . All right, ed. Stay safe. Stay in my ear. Let me know when you want me to come back to you with a change of development. Just so you can understand what ed is talking about, we will go to brian todd. But as we do, put up the sat hide picture. Ed is talking to you about the north side of the storm. You will see it. It is the topside as you look at the coastline of the rotating storm, the hurricane. So the topside has heavy wind coming with it. Now you will have to deal with that for many hours. Once its gone, you have to deal with the backside of the storm as it moves west southwest. Wind changing direction, similar intensity. What does that mean . It creates more vulnerability every area that it passes over. Ground that has been soaked for many hours. Root systems of vegetation. Structures taking on a lot of water. So vulnerabilities increase over time and so does the pressure on people that have to hunker down. For that lets go to brian todd. They thought they had seen the worst. Its going to last throughout the entire day and into the night. Brian, whats it like right now . Well, were pretty much getting pummelled in downtown wilmington. But they have been dealing with this pounding rain and the rising water for several hours. Im going to show you kind of what this situation is like. Youve got downed trees, downed power lines not far from here. This street filling up with water. We are only a block away which of course is going to be just way, way beyond flood stage for much of these next few days. The mayor of wilmington told our colleague they have had already about 100 calls for rescues, and they are trying to get to as many people as possible. But these are the kind of conditions that people will be navigating. A lot of standing water, Rushing Water on these streets. You dont know how deep it is. This is what causes injury and deaths in these situations, in the hurricanes. It is water on the streets. All right. Brian todds shot is taking trouble because of all this electric activity in the air and the wind and the force. Communications are always a problem during storms. It is not necessarily a sign of distress for brian and his team. We are checking in as often as we can. People are doing this coverage as safely as possible. Anderson cooper is of course stage there had in wilmington. Anderson, how are you doing . Chris, it has been pretty miserable here now for several hours, as you know. Made land fall around 7 15 a. M. This morning. We have been getting these gusts. Actually, this town, wilmington, is actually seeing the biggest gust, the strongest gust and hurricane they have experienced since 1960. Its an extraordinary statistic. They mentioned 92 miles an hour wind gusts. Thats not sustained wind. Thats a gust. And theyre coming by every now and then, blowing things around. Part of a roof came off of part of a hotel. We have been seeing a lot of debris. A lot of trees are down. The mayor is concerned about communities 10 miles or so outside of wilmington, North Carolina. Some migrant populations, about what may happen to them, especially near the cape river. Obviously, it is too early really to get an assessment of exactly how everybody is. They have been receiving calls here in wilmington for assistance. And its really being done on a casebycase basis. At this point, this actually better than it was when john berman was here even just about 20 or so minutes or so. The rain seems to have slowed down at this point. This is probably one of the differentials in one of the bands of the storm that we keep seeing. We have been watching the marina very closely. It seems to be in good shape. This is what we anticipate seeing all throughout the day today, this grinding, slow moving storm moving about 6 miles an hour. Last i heard electricity is out pretty much everywhere in wilmington. The hotel here, most of the buildings. There is a lot of customers, more than 300,000 customers in North Carolina without power right now. That number is only likely to increase. I think there is a lot of people who are just going to be spending the day inside, cant even watch it on tv anymore. And all they have to do, though, is look out the window. It is miserable. When i spoke up this morning a couple hours ago and looked outside, you can feel the windows, the buildings kind of rattling. You can feel the gusts of winds. So it is a big difference from what it was when i was last on air about midnight last night. It certainly deteriorated. Its definitely got a lot stronger. The storm has made land fall. As we know, it is going to be sitting for 12, 24 hours. So there is some long hours ahead. I want to go over to dianne in new bern where there are people trapped in their homes. A very dangerous situation for residents there. Explain where you are and what youre seeing. So anderson, i am in a Community Called river bend where a few miles away. It took us almost 40 minutes to get here because of all the downed trees and flooded roads. You can see these rescue operations. They have got lots of people. They say theyre not exactly sure on the number right now trapped in homes. I cant show you where the water begins just yet because they asked us to stand back. What i can tell you is that there are eight swift water rescue teams here right now coming from all over. We spoke with one from maryland who says when you go back there, the water is about chest deep on him trying to rescue people. They had to get a woman, bring her back on a boat on a backboard. You are dealing with people who are standing on their roofs, who are trying to get in attics if they have them and basically outrun the water until these boats can get to them. Again, we cant see it anymore here, anderson, what heroes these people are. The wind is strong and the rain is coming down, which means the water is continuing to rise. We have had at least seven inches of rain fall in the new bern area and a storm surge of 10 feet as the water just keeping coming down and rising up. Now, they are going around the entire county and doing this at one point in new bern. This morning they had more than 150 people who needed rescuing. Now, the city said we will come get you. We will rescue you. Stay where you are, get to higher ground. But i have to point out here, they started their evacuations in this county on monday because they know what storms bring to this area. They flood. They have the channels. Theyve got the atlantic ocean. This is an area surrounded by water. Thats why people want to live here, but thats why they have to listen to authorities when they tell them to get out. This is a county under mandatory evacuation and they have hundreds of people that have already been rescued. This is why you need to listen to those evacuations. You dont know if your home is going to be the one that has you up on the roof waiting for rescue teams to come get you. The navy is here as well helping with rescues. But the situation right now, it is dire. Were going to continue here in river bend. Were going to attempt to get a little bit closer. Maybe go with these water teams to get a firsthand look of what it is out there. But our main goal is to observe. It is not to impede their rescue missions. Im going to send it back to you. But again the rain is coming up here. The water is getting deeper and rising quicker. We are coming across it. It is hard to get around here. Theyre asking you just to stay at home if you can. And diane, if you could just say it again, how many rescues do you know have already taken place . And how many calls have come in for aid . They have had hundreds of calls come in and more than 200 rescues have already taken place. They still have more to go. And as this water starts to rise in different parts of the county, they are having to see different areas as well. We came to this part of the county because a woman who had evacuated, she lived here. She was in our hotel. She started showing us pictures of her neighbor who chose not to evacuate, her house and said its really bad there. And she told us, this is where i live. We talked to the town hall manager and at around 2 00 this morning there was four feet of water standing next to the town hall. So this has been something that has been rising overnight. But a lot of people just got trapped. The water at this point this morning came all the way where im standing up to the houses that are back there. They showed me the water line at their home this morning when the storm surge was coming in, and it reached up to the bottom part of their door. We are up on a bit of a hill right here. So the conditions seemed to have improved from that moment there. But i can see the water right now coming up and rising as it continues to rain. We are dealing with a situation where seconds and minutes matter for these people. I cannot say it enough. When people tell you to evacuate in your community, please do it. Kra venn county provided free buss to shelters inland to people for days on end. It has been a mandatory evacuation for more than two days now, voluntary since monday. So, please, when they ask you to evacuate, leave town. Yeah. Now of course you have a situation where theyre needing to be rescued, which puts a lot of other peoples lives in danger. It is a difficult thing. Stay safe. We will continue to check in with you. Thats really been one of the epi centers with some of the earliest flooding in new bern and now with the location she is now where those volunteers and others are staging in order to try to go out in their boats and continue to rescue people as they have been. Extraordinary work, the kind of thing we saw in houston and harvey. One of those gust of winds thats coming by. Its a kind of a stinging rain. There is a little bit of debris in the air. Also, you are conscious of the the possibility for any kind of flying debris. There is a couple of light posts that have some metal on top of it that has flown off for one or two of them. So just keeping an eye on that. I want to check in with chad myers at the Weather Center to get an overview of where this storm is right now for anybody in this area listening and everybody else to get a sense of what we should be anticipating. Chad, what are you seeing in. What you are going to see depends on where you are, north of the storm or south of the storm. What im seeing right now is that the center is right over Carolina Beach. If there is an eye and it still appears that there is an eye with the storm, it would be directly over Carolina Beach. Earlier today when john berman was getting so wet, it was here. It has been traveling toward the south and toward the southwest. And whats southwest of here . Ocean. The land ends right there. So this could quickly be back in the water, maybe in that warm water trying to strengthen. Ill take you to new bern. You have been in this band of weather right through here and right now you are not. So it was really amazing to see the live shot right there with very little wind because the shift water rescues today were going on with wind gusts to 60. Little rubber boats with winds blowing 60 miles an hour. It is nice to see that has calmed down a little bit for the people that were there. So wilmington airport, a brandnew record for you, 105 miles an hour. Looking at you compared to where we were looking at with john berman, it is like you are either in two different spots or he was outside and you are inside because it has changed significantly because the eye has gone down. All morning long where john was the wind was blowing offshore, down the river. Now it is beginning to turn around and it will blow up the river stopping that rain from coming down. There is a lot more rain. Thats still 20 inches of rain to come. Its still there. This is a big storm. The pressure is still very low. It just doesnt have more than a category one wind in the eye. Thats the only difference between this storm and a category three is the eye wind. Everything else is exactly the same. Wilmington, North Carolina normal to date. You should have 42 inches. Right now you are up to 63. That is so much water in the room. You have the trees coming down, the roofs that are wet. So we have 17 moderate stage floods and 14 major floods going on right now and obviously its still raining. If it gets back in the water tonight, that could be our next step for chris cuomo in north myrtle beach, which is where it is going. Chad, appreciate it with. Im going to take a quick break. When we come back, we will have a Live Press Conference from fema officials to find out the latest on how they are seeing this situation in North Carolina and south carolina. Well be right back. Take us downtown, waze. Waze integration seamlessly connecting the world inside. With the world outside. Making life a little. Easier. Introducing the wellconnected lincoln mkc. Show of hands. Lets get started. Who wants customizable options chains . Ones that make it fast and easy to analyze and take action . How about some of the lowest options fees . Are you raising your hand . Good then its time for power e trade the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. Alright one quick game of rock, paper, scissors. 1, 2, 3, go. E trade. The original place to invest online. Youll make my morning, buty the price ruin my day. Ou . Complicated relationship with milk . Pour on the lactaid, 100 real milk, just without that annoying lactose. Mmm, thats good. If you way too often. 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I want to go to miguel who is in Carolina Beach just to get a sense of the situation there. I know theres a lot of folks without power. Miguel, how is it . How are you doing . Yeah. Very good. Carolina beach is out of power. They have had some flooding. For the most part, its been small bits of damage. That we are in the eye of the storm. The one significant thing is that the wind, as chad mie mentioned, has changed direction. It had been blowing from the west and now its changed directions and it started to pick up again. When that calm hit, my colleague was up all night long, they were recording 90 miles an hour gusts. It was knocking people over. I came out, fresh and a daisy, and there was literally zero wind. It was unbelievable. We had a long night last night. And then this morning in the eye, zero wind. Now it is starting to pick up. The wind not blowing this way, but blowing this way from the ocean. So this is where they are concerned that that storm surge and a lot of that water will come up into the areas here and do even more flooding. Nothing major right now. Power is out. But so far everybody is okay. Anderson . And just in terms of evacuations, i assume most people have left. Most have. They are guessing about 600 people are still here just being out and about this morning near our hotel, lots of people out surveying damage. But everyone seems to be okay. They effected no rescues overnight. Theres been very few calls for rescue. They had some ambulances and fire crews out, but so far everyone is all right here. Anderson . Miguel, i want to go to the director of the National Hurricane center just to get an overview of where things are at. Ken, thanks so much for being with us. Can you just give us a sense of what you are seeing, what your concerns are . Yeah, good morning, anderson. Lets look at this. We have a large system here and not moving very far. The center of it hugging along the coast. Because it is so slow you are putting people in that eye wall. Look at how far these rain bands stretch out. The slower the system is, the longer these rain bands start stretching over this area. None of these move very far, as long as the center doesnt need us. We are pushing a lot of water inland. Water becomes the biggest threat. 90 of fatalities ends up being the water. You are talking about how slow this s. Do you know how many miles an hour it is moving . Yeah. Thats what were looking at. 4 to 6 miles an hour is hardly any movement. That is not helping us in this situation. Think about it. Even with time, stretching over the next few days, were not moving very far. Saturday afternoon, thats not a lot of real estate to cover. So the prolonged event. And interesting enough, with time, some people even further to the south that have offshore flow, give it some time, be patient. That could switch the wind direction and start pushing the water in. We have seen a change in wind direction. Miguel was just talking about that in Carolina Beach. We have seen that here in wilmington. Tell us how that impacts the feeling on the ground. Yeah. It makes a big difference. You start getting these wind shifts. But with time it really becomes about the water. When we talk about the wind shifts, lets think about it this way. When it changes the wind direction, you can change where the water goes. With time, we are still forecasting south, possibly 4 to 6 foot storm surge. Thats when you start getting the rotation around that. Such a large wind field, thats where you start pushing this storm surge into new bern and places like that. You can get up to 11 feet where the water really piles up. We appreciate your expertise and talking to us this morning. The water seems the rain at least for now seems to have subsided somewhat. It is actually not raining much as all, which is very nice. And the wind getting some gusts but really not too bad. Obviously, this is going to be a really long day for a lot of people. I feel bad for john berman who was out here. I just got out here, and im pretty dry still. We are going to take a break. More from North Carolina, south carolina. We have correspondents all over this whole area. Well be right back. Take us downtown, waze. Waze integration seamlessly connecting the world inside. With the world outside. Making life a little. Easier. Introducing the wellconnected lincoln mkc. 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. Dads got all the answers. Anncr prevagen is now the numberoneselling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. She outsmarts me every single time. Checkmate you wanna play again . Anncr prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Youll make my morning, buty the price ruin my day. Ou . Complicated relationship with milk . Pour on the lactaid, 100 real milk, just without that annoying lactose. Mmm, thats good. This is cnn breaking news. All right. Of course we are continuing to follow Hurricane Florence where Anderson Cooper is on the ground there. But i have major breaking news. That is that president trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, according to our reporting has indicated that he is prepared to plead guilty. This is a significant development. This is a guilty plea in the second trial that manafort faces. Jury selection set to begin monday where he faces seven counts, including Money Laundering all tied to his work and lobbying work with the former prorussian government in ukraine. Again, the man that ran the president s campaign for six critical months leading up to the 2016 election, we have learned from our reporting will plead guilty today in u. S. District court in washington. There was a lot of talk about whether or not this would happen. And a key question still as i bring our legal analyst, a former new york city prosecutor and a key question is whether or not it will include cooperation. Thats the key. You can plead guilty. But will you plead guilty and agree to cooperate with the special counsel, muellers team and give very Important Information to them or not. Thats the central question here. People should understand that probably 90 of the time when somebody pleads guilty to a federal criminal charge there is no cooperation. It is just the prosecutor wants to avoid a trial. The defense wants to avoid a trial and a plea of guilty is entered. So when there is a deal, however, an agreement to cooperate, the defendant gets a much lighter sentence normally. And of course in this case, if the deal is to provide information relevant to the investigation of the russian connection to the president , it is a very, very big deal. But we wont know. The Pretrial Motion was set to begin today at 11 00. We knew this might be coming just before that. Thats why a lot of this seems to have been pushed back by the judge. This is a first person indicted by muellers team. This is what they allege, he hired lobbyists who met with members of congress, who helped organize meetings, including a meeting with president obama who promoted the placement of articles. None of that on its face is illegal. However, if you do not disclose it as part of the foreign agents regular trags act, if you dont tell the department of justice about it, right, and then if you allegedly, they allege he laundered the millions of dollars he got from doing that, that is illegal. Yes, thats what hes up against. But hes already been convicted of eight counts of criminal conduct in virginia in that trial that was just finished recently. What his real fear is is that if hes convicted in this trial he might be facing consecutive time. We will probably get between 6 and 12 years on the virginia charges. But he could face another 12 years on these counts that could run consecutive. But a deal might eliminate that and allow him to have concurrent time. Remember, he refused to cooperate or plead ahead of the first trial that he was then found guilty on these eight counts. And that was a friendly district for him because, remember, in washington, d. C. , it is an overwhelmingly democratic district. At least in the virginia jury pool he likely had people who were registered republican. As we bring in evan perez, evan, just yesterday because, you know, this is a man again who ran the president s campaign for six months and the president , as he said after the first trial, you know, says this has nothing to do with my campaign, et cetera. Giuliani, the president s personal lawyer told politico yesterday, and i am quoting here, there is no fear that Paul Manafort would cooperate against the president because there is nothing to cooperate about, and we long ago evaluated him as an honorable man. We dont know, do we, evan, whether or not this guilty plea will include cooperation. Right, exactly. At this hour we do not know. But certainly at 11 00 a. M. , just over an hour from now, we expect that Paul Manafort is going to enter a guilty plea. Just a few minutes ago, the prosecutors from the special counsels office, Robert Muellers office filed new documents in court, a 76 page criminal information document which lays out essentially what we expect hes going to plead guilty to, which is conspiracy against the united states, Money Laundering, tax fraud, failing to report Foreign Bank Accounts and lying to the Justice Department and the fbi when he was interviewed previously about these Foreign Bank Accounts he had and about his business he was doing in ukraine. At this hour we expect that Paul Manafort is on his way to court. We expect he will be in court at 11 00 and he will enter a guilty plea. What we dont know is the finer points of the deal, which we know they were negotiating for several hours yesterday. We had a team outside the special counsels office and we saw that Paul Manaforts legal team was there spending several hours. They ordered out for lunch. We also saw that the prosecuting team that prosecuted him, that got those guilty verdicts in virginia, in alexandria also showed up for this session. We expect that whatever this deal is that has been reached, and we will learn more about it at 11 00 a. M. , we expect this deal includes the resolution of those charges that remain in alexandria. He was facing 18 charges there. He was convicted of 8 of them. The breaking news that just crossed, bob muellers office confirming that Paul Manafort, the president s former chairman for about six months will plead guilty today in u. S. District court in washington this morning. Were all over this. Also, we are all over the breaking news hitting the carolina coast, Hurricane Florence. We will be back with more of that breaking news. My colleague Anderson Cooper is on the ground. Weve got you covered. Stay with us. As moms, we send our kids out into the world, full of hope. And we dont want Something Like meningitis b getting in their way. Meningococcal group b disease, or meningitis b, is real. Bexsero is a vaccine to help prevent meningitis b in 1025 year olds. Even if meningitis b is uncommon, thats not a chance were willing to take. Meningitis b is different from the meningitis most teens were probably vaccinated against when younger. Were getting the word out against meningitis b. Our teens are getting bexsero. Bexsero should not be given if you had a severe allergic reaction after a previous dose. Most common side effects are pain, redness or hardness at the injection site; muscle pain; fatigue; headache; nausea; and joint pain. Bexsero may not protect all individuals. Tell your healthcare professional if youre pregnant or if you have received any other meningitis b vaccines. Ask your healthcare professional about the risks and benefits of bexsero and if vaccination with bexsero is right for your teen. Moms, we cant wait. Like concert tickets or a new snowboard. Matt whoo whoo jen but that all changed when we bought a house. Matt voila jen matt started turning into his dad. Matt mm. Thats some good mulch. Im awake. But it was pretty nifty when jen showed me how easy it was to protect our home and auto with progressive. [ wrapper crinkling ] get this butterscotch out of here. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents. Theres quite a bit of work, cause this was all this was all stapled. But we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. And i dont add up the years. But what i do count on is boost®. Delicious boost® high protein nuritional drink now has 33 more protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals boost® high protein. Be up for life. Welcome back to our continuing coverage about Hurricane Florence. Very slow moving storm that made land fall at 7 15 earlier today, this morning. Diane is in river bend, which they have been gathering boats in order to try to rescue people. We have seen a number of rescues, some 200 people rescued in new bern and surrounding areas over the last several hours in the overnight as the water has been rising. Diane, explain where you are and what you are seeing. So right now i am in a neighborhood in river bend. Were going down into what appears to be a dead end area. But were in a shallow point at this point. Were in a boat because it keeps getting deeper and shallowier. Thats part of the problem there. Their cars stall out. They cant physically get up. Some areas are above my chest. I pointed out, im about 510, so these are high waters here. Again, it goes in and out, in and out. We are with a group of volunteers who drove down from maryland yesterday. They worked until 4 30 in the morning and pulled about 40 people out, rescuing them in downtown new bern. In fact, they told me the water where i was standing at Union Point Park is about 30 feet right now. They saw about five foot waves coming in. They took a little break and got back out here as soon as it was light this morning and have been working ever since pulling people out of these neighborhoods and river bends. It was a boat that went by us with a boat and two people and their dogs. They did call for evacuations. They were mandatory to evacuate in craven county. I apologize. Were starting the boat up trying to move again here. But these are volunteers. These guys drove down here from maryland. They came down to help out. We have talked about the cajun navy. They drove up. Those are good samaritans, heroes who chose to come up here and help people who did not evacuate. Our mission right now is to go get other boats. This can help out with the rescue missions. This can help out people getting property as well. But we can help get more people if we have more boats. Simple math there. You can see these sheds. It goes up high on some houses. Some that came around me. Not as high. In this area right here, he got out of the boat. He is going to walk right here. It is thigh high there on him. Hes a little taller than i am. But these homes, depending on how high or how low this water is. That seems to be where some of the confusion is. I talked to several people who said i dont live on a low street but i couldnt get out because the street next to me was so low. The street in front of me was so low. It took me almost 40 minutes to go just a couple of miles because of all the downed trees, the flooding on the roadways, the downed power lines everywhere. Were having some problems getting around. I apologize. We have another crew member here jumping back in the boat. So were going to go get this boat. Were going to go a little faster now because were going back into a different area here. But again we just wanted to illustrate what these people and these volunteers are trying to do right now. There are more rescues. The water is continuing to rise across the county. Yeah. Its incredible always to see volunteers, you know, putting themselves at risk in order to save their neighbors, in order to save, you know, fellow citizens and folks they dont even know, and theyre doing incredible work. Well check in with you to see how that goes. Hope you are able to get a couple more boats. As you said, thats the mission you are on now, not picking up people but get more boats in order to be able to grow these rescues. We will take a short break. Our coverage continues here in wilmington. We have correspondents all over the region. Well be right back. Natural healthy looking teeth are white. Natural enamel, dentin, which is that second layer of the tooth is yellow. Consumption of very acidic foods can wear away your enamel. Once they start wearing down, your tooth is going to look yellower, more dull. I recommend pronamel toothpaste because it helps protect and strengthen your enamel. Its going to make them more resistant to the acid erosion so that your teeth are not bothering you and you feel good about your smile. Its pro enamel. Its good for your enamel. Its a positive thing. All right, welcome back. Im poppy harlow in new york. Were watching Hurricane Florence as it battered the carolina coastline. Anderson cooper is there. I want to update you on something that happened overnight just north of boston. Gas crews are inspecting more than 8,000 homes and businesses there. This is after a series of sequential explosions overnight and fires that one official compared to armageddon. Lets go to athena jones in andover, massachusetts, for us. What happened and what are they learning . Theyre inspecting 8,000 different buildings at this point. Hi, poppy. Thats right. 8600 gas meters. So 8600 buildings, whether they be homes or businesses. And this is a really frightening situation. Something everybody can relate to. Almost everyone is or knows someone who has gas fueling their home. At last check, we got an update from columbia gas, the company that provides the gas to this area. The gas was still not off. And the officials are warning that this incident could stretch a week or more with people not able to access their homes. We know theyre now inspecting, theyre putting up different colored labels on homes they have inspected showing theyre safe or restricted or unsafe. We know one person was killed. At least ten including a firefighter were wounded. Including one critically. A string of violent gas explosions ripping through nearly 40 homes and businesses in three massachusetts towns. Sparking fires that stretched across dozens of blocks and forced thousands to evacuate. I have been in this fire service for almost 39 years and i have never seen anything like this in my entire career. It looked like armageddon. It really did. One explosion collapsing this chimney on a car and killing an 18yearold man who was inside. The Authorities Say an issue with gas lines may have prompted the explosions, which began shortly before 5 00 p. M. That smoke looks crazy. Loud booms ringing out as fires erupted without warning. Firefighters and rescue workers racing to respond. Answering more than 70 reports of fires, explosions, and gas odors as the night pressed on. Top of the road, state police down here. You know, local warrants police. There was mayhem pretty much. Chaos forcing thousands of residents and workers to evacuate as smoke billowed above multiple neighborhoods. I have a paralyzed father. They told us to get out. Insane. As of thursday night, local Utility Company columbia gas was still working to shut off the gas. Authorities warning that some of the lines were overpressurized and that the threat is not over. This is still very much an active scene. If you have not evacuated, you have to go. Trust us when we tell you, if you stay in your home, youre going to risk. Earlier in the day, columbia gas put out this news release announcing they were upgrading natural gas lines in towns across the state, including the neighborhoods impacted by the explosions. The company saying thursday their thoughts are with everyone affected by the incident as they work to support First Responders and safety checks. The focus remains on insuring the publics safety. Wunlts thats complete, well work with federal government and others to investigate how this occurred and hold the appropriate parties accountable for their actions. Now, National Transportation safety board will be investigating this incident, and we expect to learn more information as a press conference, Governor Charlie Baker is holding at some point in the next couple hours. Meanwhile, shelters are open and theres Emergency Operation center up and running. Athena jones, thank you very much. Incredibly scary watching that unfold overnight. Appreciate the reporting. Again, were going to get back to Anderson Cooper in a moment. Hes on the carolina coastline where Hurricane Florence continues to batter and pour down rain. Well bring you the latest in a minute. avo help control cravings and lose weight with contrave. Its fdaapproved to help adults who are overweight or struggle with obesity lose weight and keep it off. Contrave is believed to work on two areas of the brain your hunger center. Im so hungry. avo and your reward system. Ice cream. French fries. avo to help control cravings. One ingredient in contrave may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some children, teens, and young adults in the first few months. Serious side effects are mood changes like depression and mania, seizures, increased Blood Pressure or heart rate, liver damage, glaucoma, allergic reactions, and hypoglycemia. 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The storm here continues the slow grinding march as it has made landfall about 7 15 a. M. This morning. Seeing some images out of nags head of water coming in. We have seen water coming into homes. Some of the