Ed Rapaport News Today

This is cnn tonight im don lemon. What was Hurricane Florence is now a Tropical Storm. And were now hearing that it has killed at least five people in this area. This Tropical Storm is battering the carolinas tonight. Were told that more than 500,000, maybe up to 850,000 people are without power right now. They are concerned about major storm surges and also catastrophic flooding in the area. I want to take you out here on the beach. This is where the major problem where storm is rolling in and ...

China are being made. he also said this. >> the tariffs have put us in an incredible negotiating position. i say that to china directly. its only going to get worse for china. >> and we are going to talk about all of this in just a moment with top white house reporters who are standing by. but first, right now, just past 11:00 p.m. on the east coast, that means a new update on hurricane dorian. were joined by ed rapaport, deputy director of the national hurricane center. ed, were thrilled to hav...

Because i dont think that there was a mandatory have given for new bern. was it forecast to get that much water, that much floodwater? >> yes, we had talked about how the water was going to rise on the order of ten feet along the coast. also up the rivers. the neuse river and pamly coriver. thats what weve seen. may be higher in a few places. now weve got the water coming down the river from the rainfall and so were going to see flooding well into next week there. >> ed, can you explain to me an...

Just dramatic how it comes down in sheets and sheets for hours and hours. it is stunning to see. >> yeah. ed, can we talk a little bit about new bern? because threw lost all their power. they had major flooding. and i just want to know when you were there last night and when you were there today, what did you see? i mean, what were the conditions of the homes and the people who were there they were rescuing? >> you have to understand the geography of new bern. and i let kind of comes in from the...

Hopefully that is not going to happen. we do know because weve been getting so much rain. and then there was -- there is the storm drains here we have been watching on the beaches. when we first got here, those drains were little tricks if they were moving at all. little tiny trickles. now theyve opened up and some of the water has been flowing from other areas. and expanding those, as well. weve been getting updates from the national weather center, also updates from the national hurricane cent...

City sometime tomorrow. thats what everyone here is bracing for. as you mentioned, about 150,000 people across this area are without power, that number expected to climb. duke energy tells us it could be as high as 3 million people by tomorrow. but ads kerry mentioned, restoration crews are at the ready. not far from here we saw a hundred ambulances standing by at the ready, ready for emergency calls. we spoke to the fire department. no swift water rescues. most folks are inside battening down t...

Hours and you can see that its -- in this particular location, its now 6 feet above where it should be. that puts it in major -- the major flood region and, in fact, thats not even the highest that weve seen reported. a couple areas up the noose river, which is where were seeing some of the worst of the storm surge, weve seen one spot that has now a 10-foot storm surge on the noose river. >> all right. and, ed, talk about pacing, forward speed, stalling. what can we expect 24 hours from this min...

Going to have florence move just very slowly across north carolina and south carolina, and thats why were expecting to have such heavy rains. nearly the entire two-state area having over 5 inches of rain. everywhere over 5 inches of rain in those states with locally 15 to 20 inches, maybe even more. so were seeing now the devastating flooding thats occurring along some portions of the coat and up the river. the rest of the states of the two-state area is going to have the risk of catastrophic fl...

Rapaport, the director of the national hurricane center has been kind enough to join us three nights in a row. this is the start of the time when sleep really gets scarce, i imagine, ed. i love seeing the numbers come down, 4, 3, 2, 1. i dont love how much of this category 1 hurricane still has the moisture attributes of a 4. >> yeah, unfortunately theres not a direct correlation between the wind speed and the amount of flooding that you necessarily will get. the winds still are pretty high, tho...

Area. it will still drop crazy amounts of rain and the surge is getting high up to 13 feet. we believe that could be higher. >> either path it is devastating. its going to sit there, bring water and storm surge. well collect back with you. i want to bring in, ed rapaport the national director of the national hurricane center. ed, you know we have to meet on these occasions. i wish it was better news. i hope people get out. you have been tracking the storm all night. what is the best or worst cas...