With florence moving slowly and stalling the surge will be a bigger problem than normal. Because as one expert put it the water just keeps piling up. We have reporters in places up and down the coast. The winds keep coming and the rain keeps falling and millions continue to brace for the worse. Hello, everyone its 3 00 on the east coast. We have a busy hour ahead. We start with the situation in North Carolina. Brad johnson in wilmington. They started getting hit with Hurricane Force winds just after midnight. Hows it feeling there now and how does it compare . Do you find major changes from the last hour . The strongest bands that we have seen come through wilmington. It has been an extremely fickle storm as you know. Thinking that a cat 4 was probably coming on shore. To a 3 to a 2 and it started crawling to a one. In wilmington woef seen some of the strongest bands where it looked like the power was going to ramp up and that would dispate. Its closer to the on shore with the eye were
Has begun. In north and South Carolina, millions of residents sent scrambling for Higher Ground to escape potentially lifethreatening floods. Reports now some who stayed behind are on their roofs and water rescues have taken place. We have reporters in place up and down the carolina coast. As the situation gets worse, some areas are bracing for fourfeet of flooding. Tammy leitner joins us now to begin our coverage. Tell me what you are looking at. How is the situation where you are, tammy . Reporter chris, it is not bad here compared to were getting some wind. We had a little bit of rain, but mostly it is just wind here. I can tell you that 60 of this county evacuated and, unfortunately, people are calling and asking to come home. People are asking calling the Emergency Operation center and asking if they can return. There really is a false sense of security here because people have had so much time to prepare for this storm and it is just creeping along. Myrtle beach is just it has re
Strength, where its going and how powerful it is, our meteorologist bill karins is here to start us off the top of the hour. Hey, bill. Good morning once again. What a long friday this is going to be. 24 hours of hurricanestype gusts all the way through the wilmington area, moore head city area. Were getting the brunt of it right now. Heres the center of the storm. We just had a new burst of thunderstorms on the western edge of the storm. You can see those bright thunderstorm bands, thats the heavy pry sip tags were seeing with the radar beam shooting it. This is where some of the strongest winds will be and thats starting to creep into surf city. Im sure if anyones still in this area from surf city to wilmington, youre noticing that things are picking up. Its closing in on you and some of those stronger winds are arriving. Weve been in it all day long in the moore head city area and he with continue in Carter County. Thats where 2003 continue to see some of the worst problems. Lets go