Storm and it has a political element, declarations of states of emergency have been put into place. Well get your expertise in a moment. More than a Million People in three states ordered to evacuate their homes. As the southeast coast, the midsection of the east coast for the first time in decated is bracing for this size of a storm, Hurricane Florence. The massive category four is set to bring torrential rainfall, catastrophic flooding, gale force winds, governors are saying landscape and life changing type of response because of the rainfall. Florence could be the most powerful hurricane to hit the carolinas since haze 8. Hazel. As we watch the map on the left, in 1953, was the last time that it got this big and this close for this long as we are watching it. It was life changing, it was definitely landscape changing then. 15,000 buildings lost to that storm and dozens of lives. We now have live team coverage, mike emanuel in washington on the federal response to this storm. Meteorologist adam plotz in the fox extreme weather center. You have gotten an update, what is it . Still a strong storm. Likely still intensifying over the course of today before beginning to slowly weaken, harris. Florence still a large one, winds at 130 miles an hour, category 4. We are getting to get closer and closer to the coast. Begin to see an Impact Likely tomorrow. Here is the strak, very defined track. Pay attention to how it slows done. This will be a big part of the story. That slowdown means we will have more time for wind, more time for rain, more time for storm surge, unfortunately. All of the problems could get worse because of this slowdown. As far as winds actually arriving that, looks like Tropical Force Winds get there on thursday evening, running into early friday morning. Everything in the red, are Hurricane Force winds, beginning to linger there across portions of North Carolina, stretching down into sex. Stretching into South Carolina. Looks like itll stall out to the coast. Takes it right to the coast, again, taking it to the coast on friday, lingering into saturday, into sunday, so some of these areas getting battered by the wind for 48 hours. The rain continues to fall. It becomes more of a problem before eventually moving its way inland in the next couple of days f you begin to hang around in these locations thats when you see the numbers really pile up. The best case scenario, the stall, you see it stall off the coast and the heaviest rain to sea. We cant promise that will happen, were already seeing with this forecast model place is a long the North Carolina coast, 25 to 30ches in of rain. Widespread behind it getting up to 10 to 12 inches of rain, enough to cause flooding on top of the storm surge bring mg in a whole lot of water. We currently see the hurricane warnings from the middle of South Carolina stretching through North Carolina, i wouldnt be surprised, harris, if this grows a little further south in the next day or so. Harris its the rainfall and you and i were on the air last year as it was happening in houston and they had their first person to perish in all of that. The caution here is about people preparing for longterm departure from their homes. The rainfall knocks out the utilities, the trees begin to fall, the evacuations still very important even if this just picks up a lot of water from the ocean. I want to give you the last comment. Well, you are right. Because this is going to spin off the coast for so long. Its not necessarily like you are going to be through the hurricane on friday and back on saturday. Might not be until monday or tuesday until people return. Harris adam, appreciate it, always the update comes to you as the news warrants. As we track the path of this massive hurricane, President Trump says the federal government anticipates the destruction the storm will bring and his administration is taking the necessary precautionary steps. That includes relaxing trucking rules to prevent fuel and electricity shortages. But even as florence bears down on the east coast, the president faces new criticism over the response to Hurricane Maria which devastated puerto rico last year. For more on that and the governments preparation, lets get to mike emanuel in the washington bureau. Good afternoon. Federal officials warn about the dangers of life threatening storm surge and flash flooding in the carolinas when Hurricane Florence makes landfall. This going to be, you know, a mike tyson punch to the carolina coast then itll have very heavy rains, that, as steve alluded to, its going to stall. Were looking at inland flooding, looking at coastal storm surge, looking at all of the hazards that the storm of this magnitude will take. The sielz of florence is alarming as is the strength, with 130mileanhour winds and substantially higher wind gusts. A stalled or hovering storm with major rainfall could create serious flooding and other dangers. The red cross says preparation is key. Wed like to encourage all residents to, number one, have a plan, know what youre going to do ahead of time, dont wander about aimlessly and take off and not know where youre going to go and where you seek refuge. With people gassing up to get out, fuel supplies run short, the federal government is easing the rules to allow them to distribute their fuel to the region more quickly than usual. State Officials Say danger could last for some time. Understand that the rain may last for days and not hours. And this may be a marathon not a sprint. This storm threatens life. Today, President Trump is urging people in the path of the storm to take action in a hurry. President trump get out of its way, dont play games with it. Its a big one. Maybe as big as theyve seen. And tremendous amounts of water. The storm will come, it will go, we want everybody to be safe. The president is taking some heat for praising the handling of Hurricane Maria last year. Senate democratic leader Chuck Schumer writing this is an offensive, hurtful, aid blatantly false comment from the president. Nearly 3,000 fellow citizens died in puerto rico following Hurricane Maria, the complete opposite of success. The warnings for this storm, florence, are it will defly inf infrastwruk tur and homes and knock out power in the hard esh9 hit area. Melissa thank you. Matt, when he made that comment you knew it would bring the ire of different people to be sure. Comparing apples to oranges. The infrastructure in puerto rico was decrepid, the bond problems, it was causing this to be held together with duct tape and bubble gum. At the same time to say it was a success, after everything that happened, sounds like kookie talk. Its hard to separate weather there politics. What is great is people in the states need to listen to the governors, listen to their local officials. When it comes to weather, theyre on the front line. Its not the federal government. We see the federal government, we think they can solve everything and they cant. Its First Responders that save peoples lives. The first thing you have to do is listen to them. When it comes to the politics of weather we can go through it. But its unfortunate. For. 4 hours, could Chuck Schumer and the people on my side, try to take care of the storm, take care of the victims, lets not try to turn night a political win. I fear that that will be impossible to make happen. Melissa katie, you know, we heard on our air this idea of people in north and South Carolina saying theyve never seen preparation complete. Its putting the resources in place. The storm is horrible, of course, but the aftermath is so tough when you see people who cant get fuel and dont have energy, you feel like my god, someone help them. Its about where you are ahead of time. Always things to learn about every single one of these storms. Each one is different. Hurricane sandy in new york, new jersey is much different than the Hurricane Harvey we saw in houston. And the local responsibilities is crucial. That is such an important point. Not only before with the preparation, but with the response and the aftermath. Houston had a different response in the aftermath of people coming, driving on the mainland to deliver supplies. Puerto rico, they had 4,000 crates of medical supplies, food, water, sitting in a port because of the infrastructure that failed and was there werent drivers available to get the supplies then to people who needed them. Bottom line, is that this is a storm, stormcaused catastrophes, things you cant foresee, they shut down roads, infrastructure, power, and it can be for a long time. Being prepared, leaving when you are told to, is the only way that you can get out of it alive. Then hopefully be able to rebuild once the storm is over. Its too early for headlines, you look at the washington post, the op ed about President Trump saying another hurricane is about to batter our coast. Trump is complicit. It goes on to talk about climate change. And he said, if you read a little bit further, it says, he continues to dismantle efforts to address the risk of climate change. Its hard to attribute any single weather event to climate change. Of course. Theres no reasonable doubt humans are priming the earths systems to prowls disasters. Is it too early, as people, the storm hasnt hit yet. Im not sure. I think we are able to have all of these conversations and i appreciate your analysis, youre completely correct it is easy to get to houston than puerto rico. It is important to discuss what we can do as humans on this planet to ensure that the next shorns that is bubbling up isnt as strong, it has to do with warming waters. Politicizing this, if president obama had called what happened in puerto rico a success under his watch the Republican Party would have exploded. You know that and i know it. Completely inappropriate. He maintains the death toll was 16. He moved 10 million from fema to i. C. E. That money is about the local responsibilities on the state level. But federal dollars are allocated. He should not be taking them and moving them to other departments where we well may need them so that Jeff Sessions can rn around rounding up illegal aliens. We need the money to be focused on South Carolina and North Carolina and the president is at fault. Melissa you want to respond, matt . I appreciate. That the fact that this is an emergency, there will be no restraint on any federal money that is needed. Once again it goes, and passes through to the local and state authorities. There will not be a dollar left unspent. The money you a talking about is to make sure that we kept Families Together when they crossed the border illegally. After the kids were in cages . Obama cages. After the kids, after the democrats led the charge on trying to keep the Families Together once again. There wont be a dollar left unspent to make sure we have the infrastructure to uphold the immigration laws. The money thing, the money is important. But just dumping money without any accountability also causes problems. Two mayors in puerto rico and another Government Official were arrested for corruption and misusing funds. You know harris ive never seen a congress that we liked or didnt like who didnt know how to spend money. Right. Harris i dont think that will be the issue. But the political optics, and i know people hate that word, but it is what it is. When the president focuses on the open manies which are the things that apples, the potential things that went right, he doesnt take into account in his comments at the time when he spoke yesterday, all of the things that failed. We have not gotten hard numbers on how many people died but we know it is way north of what we thought it was. And there must be some sort of scientific forensic evidence of that. And so lets not even doubt the families that have lost loved ones. Support them. We can do all of these things simultaneously. And by the way, after talking with some of these lt. Governors and governors in the midsection east coast states, they are as ready as they feel like they need to be. They are the experts. Weve learned with every single storm. From harvey, we learned that rain can punish you and make you lose your house just like wind. So we have respect for that. With each storm, we get ready in a different way. When it rains 40 inches on your house, its a disaster. It seems to be that theyve moved as many people as possible away from that and told them to sustain for several weeks if needed. Lt. Governor dan forrest of North Carolina told me that yesterday. I think back to obama, everybody thought he would fix everything, he was the next thing coming. Then they look at thpt and think hes broken everything because he was the next thing coming. We have to get off this and get to the issues. We are better than this as americans. We can do this. Im done. Melissa i like it. Harris, thank you. While the Trump Administration prepares for Hurricane Florence, it is also working to secure your vote in the upcoming midterm elections. The president expected to sign an executive order that could ensure foreigners who meddle in the democratic process pay a lefty price. But shd the administration take action without congress and how will lawmakers respond . Ok everyone our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition. For strength and energy whoohoo greattasting ensure. With nine grams of protein and twentysix vitamins and minerals. Ensure. Now up to 30 grams of protein for strength and energy captured lightning in a bottle. Over 260 years later as the nations leader in Energy Storage were ensuring americans have the energy they need, whenever they need it nextera energy. Why test a hybrid engine for over six million miles . Why handtune an audio system . Why include the most advanced active Safety System in its class, standard . 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Stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and twohour appointment windows. Click, call or visit a store today. The Trump Administration rolling out a new plan to prevent foreign interference the elections. President trump planning to sign an executive order slapping sanctions on any foreign entities interfering in the elections. Some lawmakers say it by passes congress which is also working to address the issue by passing legislation like the deter act. Matt, im going to you first on this. Well, my confidence in congress with the simple majority kneed in the senate is a little low. [laughing] totally in the president s purview, i love it. They all acted like he colluded with russia, now hes taking steps on make sure that we can could Everything Possible to prevent this type of kind of, you know, getting into our election process. People are going to consider it sides him because he isnt waiting for congress. Dont wait for congress to do a dang thing, america. Melissa i dont trust them to do anything, im with you. The keyword is that is any adversary interfering. Not just russia, also focusing on the chinese, anybody else north koreans. Interference is defined as hacking attempts against election infrastructure, efforts to sway Public Opinion through digital propaganda and solicit private information. Theyre learning lessons from 2016 and applying them to the new executive order. Melissa in the Financial News community we have been aware of this for a long time. Companies get attacked, banks get attacked probably millions of times per day. Everybody is investing a lot of money in cyber security, they look to the government has really good defense and good infrastructure as far as the business community. We do better and need to. I think i had an interesting conversation with neil degrass tyson, one of those people respected, having spacerelated. He was talking about a space force and why that does make sense from a defense point of view because of the satellite and the gps and how much we can get knocked out. We also need a cyber force. That we havent taken that seriously enough. With all of the finger pointing around the russia collusion one thing that could come out of it that would be positive, is this idea that we now all really agree, what an enormous threat that is and we need to get serious. Are democrats going to give the president credit for this, jessica, and are they going to try to work with him to implement some of the executive order initiatives that hes trying to push through . [laughing] this has been your narrative for two years. She said no, katie. Is the narrative going to change on the collusion effort, no chance. With the deter act have by tart partisan support, congressional representatives backing us and it does go further than the executive order. Can you do both. I