As this white house is preparing for a storm that would test any administration while the ongoing political and legal anxiety continues to hang over this west wing, between the mueller effort, lets not forget the approaching midterms. First, to this approaching storm, it is poised to complete an intercontinental journey from the coast of west africa to the east coast of the United States. By this time tomorrow night we will be covering the hammering of the north and South Carolina coastlines that florence will deliver. The International Space station today used their widestangle lens to fit the entire storm in one frame from 200plus miles above the storm. It was hard to shoot that picture out the window. About preparedness, the president talked about that tonight while engaging in some selfcongratulation at the same time. We have some really big situation confronting us. Its coming in fairly fast. And its going to be one of the biggest to ever hit the east coast, one of the biggest to
The embedded purple hitting places like surf city. It is going to take a while to get there, but right now wilmington has all of the weather they can handle from this storm. Nbc news correspondent Miguel Almaguer is putting up with it as part of our coverage. Miguel, it is clear to see on the radar why it has picked up where you are. Reporter yeah, brian. As the winds here increase, we certainly can feel the bands of rain also picking up here. Power has gone in and out for many who are in this city here. The mayor of wilmington told us theyre expecting upwards of four feet of rain. We are starting to see the steady precipitation now here over the last several hours. We have been outside at this location, which is a safe location, for the last six or seven hours here. Brian, as we have rolled into the evening and now officially hit friday morning, we can tell you that the weather here is beginning to deteriorate significantly. We had heavy rain here earlier today. Now it is just whippin
Well talk to the mayor of new bern North Carolina on rescue efforts. So far florence claimed at least seven lives including a woman and her baby who were killed when a tree fell on their home. Nearly a Million People are without power at this hour well have an update from the regions major Power Company welcome everybody glad to have you im neil cavuto and were keeping track of all of this as fast as we can. Jonathan siri in a hard hit writesville beach, North Carolina. Jonathan . Reporter hi, neil were still experiencing some winds, but the good news is that theres really no structural damage. No major structural damage to talk about. Were seeing relatively minor damage. Take a look at the bottom floor of this condominium complex like many buildings on this island its actually built on stilts to protect the living quarters from any type of storm surge and so this building remained intact, but down here is some minor damage these wood panels were knocked over in the Hurricane Force win
Make landfall but its become like everything else, politicized. So much so that President Trump and his team are trying to stay how to have the storm the criticism of the response to it even though the storm has not yet made landfall. We have Team Coverage tonight. Rick leventhal is live in North Carolina, bracing for florence. Kristin fisher in washington with how the federal government and the president are preparing for the monster storm. Shannon, President Trump is already declared a state of emergency for North Carolina, south carolina, and virginia. Hes also canceled Circle Campaign event so he can focus on the storm. Shannon, this could be the strongest hurricane to hit the carolinas in decades. He he said that his administratn is bearing no expense to make sy are ready. We are totally prepared. We are ready. We are as ready as anybody has ever been. President trump us down and confident. You go days before Hurricane Florence is expected to make landfall. Is tremendously big and
Our eyes and ears on the ground. Conditions are beginning to change. John is going to be with us this entire hour. We are in the Opening Hours of Hurricane Florences assault on the carolinas, but the siege itself will last days. Over the past few hours, the monster storm has slowed, but that is not good news. The National Hurricane center says the storm surge could still rise up to 13 feet. Thats enough to swallow the first floor of buildings pretty easily. And though the storm weakened slightly overnight to a category 2, as it will make landfall as a cat 2, the surge coming with it is considered a category 4. Catastrophic flooding is also expected inland with florence looking to stall over the carolinas. It will then dump seemingly endless rain for days. And the days part of this equation is where the real problems can set in. The predictive rainfall totals are both historic and jawdropping. Up to 40 inches in some parts. So its looking to be one hit after another after another hit fo