Hello, you are in the cnn newsroom. Im ana cabrera in new york. The disaster from Hurricane Florence is most likely only beginning. Damage from the wind is over, cleanup will take weeks or longer. But more urgently right now, floodwaters are rising. Emergency officials are warning people in parts of North Carolina to get to Higher Ground or they are risking their lives. The flood threat is already proving deadly. In just the last hour the death toll from the storm went up. It now stands at eight. The latest victims of florence are two people caught in flash flooding in fast moving water just north of wilmington, North Carolina. Again, eight people now dead from this storm. And forecasters say conditions will continue to worsen as long as this massive weather system just sits and dumps rain, refusing to break apart or to move faster. Cnn teams are in place where the water is rising and where people are being told to take these floodwaters seriously. Cnns Martin Savidge joins us from wilmington, North Carolina. Martin, officials are using the strongest terms to convince people who are near livers and lowlying areas to get themselves to a safer place. Reporter thats true, ana. Its not just that you have to be near a body of water. Many people think, i havent got a river or a lake near me. This water can materialize out of nowhere, and especially in the western part of North Carolina, where its quite mountainous. Then you get it racing down the sides of those hills and those mountains there. In fact the governor said they fear there will be land slides that will begin starting tonight. Lets now go to scott mclean with a take a look at Garden City Beach, with the threat of flooding there. Scott . Reporter martin, were starting to see some flooding here in Garden City Beach where i am. You can see two blocks down where that truck is going through, and just a block off of the beach. The flooding were seeing here is partially caused by the rain. They have seven inches of rain so far, theyre expecting to get five more before its said and done. This is partially caused by the tides and the storm surge that has come in. So about three hours ago, a little less than that, there was high tide here. That means peak storm surge as well. The reason why that storm surge didnt happen earlier when florence was coming in, martin, is because initially the winds were pushing offshore creating a negative storm surge, creating a vacuum effect, so theyre a day delayed. What were seeing right now is related to that, because actually, if we walk over here really briefly, you can see just between those two buildings. Thats actually an inlet. And so the water is actually being pushed up the inlet from the Atlantic Ocean and ending up right here where we are. So you can see over here that theres a gentleman checking into his house right now. I just spoke to him a moment ago. Hes here for the first time after he evacuated from this storm, trying to see if theres any water. Hopefully that is not the case. Theres also some water that got up close to this church. Not clear if theres any inside. Obviously theyre hoping there isnt. But the reality for a lot of people inland, martin, as you point out, look, the storm, the wind, that came early. The worst might be yet to come, because it will take a couple of days for some of those rivers and streams and creeks to actually crest. Some people may be returning home and find a few days later theyre underwater. Reporter scott mclean, that is true. The governor of North Carolina had been warning people that if you are evacuated, stay where you are, do not try to return, even though it may appear that the winds have subsided, because the danger is still very present. I wou i want to take you to North Carolina. Polo sandoval, youre in an area that is notorious for flooding, an area people are very worried about now, right, polo . Reporter thats right, martin. The rain continues to fall here in lumberton. The rainwater continues to flow into the river. Those are two reasons why city officials have been going door to door. Weve been with them as theyre pleading with residents who are not in shelters, who are still near the river, to get out. That river is closing. Ill take you back two years ago when Hurricane Matthew swept through the region. The river here crested at 23. 9 feet. The current forecast right now is calling for it to reach about 25 feet. Back then, the infrastructure about this city was crippled because of floodwaters, many people lost their homes as well. You can imagine that extra foot will mean more people, if that happens, have the potential to lose their belongings, lose their homes. Officials want to keep them from losing their lives because this is a very serious situation that authorities are stressing to the public. Something that is concerning to officials, the mayor pro tem on this very location told me earlier today that he has gone to these shelters and has seen many people noticing that the winds have died down and choosing to go back home. He is asking them to remain in place and telling them, and they cannot say this loud and hard enough, martin, if you were affected by the floods in 2016 and youre in lumberton, do not go home, you should not be home. Also if you were close to those areas as well. Right now we continue to monitor the water. Ill leave you with this, earlier this morning we were standing 30 feet away from where i am. That was the water line. You can see its slowly making its way up this road, and not far from where im standing, youll find homes and businesses. So we will see if this flooding happens here in this part of South Carolina. Highways, major thoroughfares already being closed at this hour, martin. Reporter polo sandoval, thank you very much, in lumberton, North Carolina. There are so many places bracing for the floodwaters that they know will come, and there are so many that are coming. Volunteers, many of them, who are trying to assist. Included in that are many volunteers that were born out of the tragedy in louisiana, im talking about the cajun navy. Theyre now playing a Critical Role in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. Taylor [ inaudible ]. Were with the american cajun navy. [ inaudible ] hello . Reporter yes, sir, go ahead, tell me what youre saying. Can you hear me . Right now were seeing a lot of lane closures. The water is rising and a lot of places are turning into islands. Reporter so your people are out and making rescues. How many rescues have you been able to carry out today, and how difficult are the conditions for you to work . Uh, its different. Im from houston, harvey was in my own backyard. We were in suburban neighborhoods. This is kind of a different animal. You have a katrinastyle surge that came in with harveystyle rains, and its creating a bad situation. Reporter how does your Organization Find out about the people who are in trouble . How are you notified and how do you vector in to find them . They send us a message to our page, its Americas Cajun Navy on facebook. Well send it to your dispatch, and our dispatchers will prioritize it, make sure the caller is still in need, and theyll dispatch it out to the boats. Reporter are you working in coordination with the local authorities and with the National Guard or do you all operate separately on your own . Oh, no, we have full cooperation with the authorities. Theyre actually one of our biggest assets. When we pulled in, i believe thursday night, we got some sleep in fayetteville. Ive been up since tuesday night. We got a call that one town was taking on water with ninefoot swells, so we made the threehour drive through the storm. Our whole time on the phone with the mayor, with the police chiefs, sheriffs, fire chiefs. And when we pulled in, they said, look, you have our assets, we just need your knowhow. We got on the boat with me, my navy ga n navigator, and from 1 00 to 4 00 a. M. , we did easily over 400 rescues, getting people out of their holes. The biggest thing was getting people out of their attics, which is a horrible decision. Do not go into the attic. Reporter right, that is i saw that play out in hurricane katrina, tragically, in new orleans. And the advice is, yes, do not go to the attic. Many people want to head to the highest part of the house. The problem is, and you can probably explain this better, taylor, is that people get trapped up there. The water is rising, it gets over the gutter line, at that point youre trapped in the attic. I will go under a doorway to get in there, but i would never recommend to do that. When that water rises, it compresses the oxygen in there. Multiple families, a big family in there, youre going to run out of oxygen. You go in there without an axe to either cut through and get yourself to the roof or cut an oxygen hole to keep air flowing in there, youre in a situation where, one, youre potentially going to have the water rise enough to trap you in there so youre going to drown, or two, youll run out of oxygen and suffocate. Reporter and we saw that, unfortunately, play out in new orleans. I want to thank you, taylor fontanelle, for you and your organization. I saw you operate in careen the reason in katrina, weve seen you operate since. Way grateful youre here, and i know the authorities are as well. Thank you. The deluge hitting the carolinas is not going to end anytime soon. Were talking about days before any of the rivers even crest. Cnn analyst Allison Chinchar is live with a glimpse of whats ahead. You pointed out in the last hour how much rain is to come and how much more water there may be yet in some areas. Yes, and for some areas it may be a bit misleading, because were starting to get breaks in the rain, especially in areas like hatteras, youve gone a couple of hours without rain. But i dont want people to think the storm is over. Even in other areas, you get breaks in the showers and you this this is it. Its not. All its doing is taking the heaviest bands and pushing them off to the west. That doesnt mean the rain is ending entirely. So do keep that in mind. Dont go outside, dont try to go through the roads, thinking that this is over, base the wat because the water thats already on the ground will take time before it finally recreeds back. Right now two of the heaviest bands of rain we have is this one line to the north of wilmington, and the other to the south and west of wilmington. Those areas where you see the yellows and reds, thats coming down at two to three inches an hour. If that was all you got in one hour, thats fine. The problem is for several of these cities in North Carolina, it has been raining for nearly 40 hours straight. So that additional two to three inches, that number alone may not sound like that much, you have to remember thats on top of what theyve already had. Now, the record for the state of North Carolina had been 24 inches from any tropical system. That was floyd back in 1999. We have already broken that record. The new one stands at 30 1 2 inches. Keep in mind where that location is, that number is only going to go up. Look at this. Widespread amounts still expected to be about six to 12 inches. Some areas could pick up more than that. Youre just going to notice that the locations are beginning to change. Now youre starting to have that concern for the heavier rain for places like raleigh, columbia, charlotte, North Carolina, and even as you head into those mountains areas, places like asheville, hickory, those locations will start to get a lot of that heavy rain. One thing to keep in mind, some of those mountainous regions, you have not only flooding and flash flooding but also landslides, because topography will start to come into play for areas that are high in elevation. Keep that in mind, as the rain shifts to the west, youll encounter other problems that we really havent seen yet, one of which is river flooding. Right now we have six rivers at major flood stage and five at moderate flood stage. But take a look, when we push this out a few days, look at how many more rivers jump to major flood stage and moderate flood stage. This is because rivers, createk and streams take time. Not only do you have to worry about the rain that came down directly over the rivers, but all of it that went into peoples yards and roadways. It flows somewhere, eventually it will end up in the rivers, streams, and creeks, but it takes time. Theyre not going to crest until tuesday or even wednesday of the upcoming week. This is one of them that we are talking about. The Cape Fear River at wilmington has actually already set a record of 8. 2 feet. And we still expect it to be off and on in either minor or moderate flood stage for the next several days. Then we also take a look at little river in manchester. This is near cumberland county. The Fayetteville Police have issued a mandatory evacuation for this county. The reason why, the rapid rise within the next 12 hours. They expect that to jump up to major flood stage. More importantly, it will crest at 35 1 2 feet. That is six feet, martin, over the previous record. And its going to rise so rapidly, they dont want people to get trapped in their homes, in their businesses. Theyre telling people to get out now before it reaches that record stage. Reporter that is so true, allison. So many people say, look, i have plenty of time, ill see it coming. It doesnt work that way. Flash flooding happens in minutes. Allison chinchar, thanks very much. Much more ahead. Stay with us. This special cnn live coverage of the aftermath of hurricane, now Tropical Storm florence, continues after this. If youre waiting patiently for a liver transplant, it could cost you your life. Its time to get out of line with upmc. At upmc, livingdonor transplants put you first. So you dont die waiting. Upmc does more livingdonor liver transplants than any other center in the nation. Find out more and get out of line today. Anncr as you grow older, your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. Learning from him is great. 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[ engine revving ] yes, i was busy 24hour roadside assistance. From americas numberone motorcycle insurer. You know, i think youre my best friend. You dont have to say im your best friend. Thats okay. Were back with continuing coverage of florence. The threat now, the rising rivers, the rain that keeps falling, which means flooding, is spreading. In North Carolina, heavy rain, high wind, and violent surf, miguel, have been slamming that beach for two days. Its still windy there. Describe for me what youve been experiencing today. Reporter amazingly enough, this is the nicest weather weve had in 40 hours. Were on the new boardwalk in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. It is the lifeblood of this community. The boardwalk is fine. The beach is now up on the boardwalk, about a foot and a half of sand here. This may be the saddest part for not just the city itself, but for miles and miles up the coast here, its just eroded. This beach two days ago extended much farther into the water, farther upcoast, theres almost no beach. Theres a six or eightfoot drop in front of houses where there used to be beach for 20 or 30 feet. So this is going to be a major problem for communities here to get this back, because this is their economic lifeblood. Beyond that, there are the downed trees, the downed power lines, roofs ripped off, walls down. There is a lot of small damage all over Carolina Beach and this area, that theyre trying to get back online now. Theres one road in, it goes over a bridge, and one road out, and they have to wait until the winds come down more before they can allow people to start getting in and out. They have to clear debris out and make sure that the electricity wires are off the road. All of that will have to take place. Look at this rainstorm, this is another sort of tentacle of this storm that just will not quit. I dont think thats going to be hitting us but it just might. Its been nonstop, for two days weve been sitting out here with everything, from flooding to the tidal surge to rain to wind. And finally, clearly the winds have come down a fair amount, but still, i