Cooperate with any investigation that goes on and own up to any mistakes and push forward, and keep going, keep moving on. I want to bring in politico reporter Daniel Lichtman with his new reporting on fema director brock long, Washington Post sr. Political reporter andrew blake. That series of tweets just this morning, tamara, aaron and daniel, not Hurricane Florence, the one currently on the way to the east coast but the one that hit puerto rico, leading to the deaths ultimately and eventually of close to 3,000 people. The president now, lets pull up those tweets, is saying, in fact, those 3,000 people did not die as a result of the storm. He is accusing democrats now of actually adding to the death toll. Tamara, you have spent 24 hours, prefact checking this, not knowing that the president would tweet this. Looking into that death toll number from puerto rico. Right. And so what the president is saying is, hey, when i was there visiting and he was throwing paper towels and saying the response was great, the death toll was only 18. Whats going on here . Whats happening is that governor roseo commissioned a report and the report did an estimate based on an increase in the number of deaths over a sixmonth period following the storm over what it would be in a typical year. We want to continue this conversation. First, we want to go to North Carolina where governor roy cooper is speaking now. Well listen to his latest updat update. Going to be extreme. Catastrophic effects. Catastrophic effects will be felt outside the center of the storm due to storm surge as high as 9 to 13 feet. Thats the second story of a house. Battering winds and relentless rain that will last for days. Make no mistake, whether the eye of the storm makes landfall along our shores or further south, were on the wrong side of this thing. This storm will bring destruction to North Carolina. And remember that Hurricane Matthew didnt even make landfall in North Carolina, and look what it did to us. Flood plain experts know that from storm surge alone, tens of thousands of structures are expected to be flooded and many more by rising rivers and creeks. If local officials tell you to seek higher ground, please listen. These orders are not given lightly. They are based on experienced, Emergency Response experts who can predict dangerous and lifethreatening situations. As of now, we have about 108 shelters that are open with more than 7,000 people in them. Emergency managements goal is to set up even more shelters where people can stay safe throughout the duration of the storm and even after. We appreciate local communities stepping up to host storm evacuees and were grateful to the volunteers for helping us out at these shelters. Ive ordered 2800 National Guard soldiers to report for duty to help in this time of crisis and we are truly grateful for their service. And we also want to thank their families and the families of all of the First Responders, who are making sacrifices with their loved ones who are serving with this Natural Disaster. Across our state, we have more than 56 School Districts that are now closed and nearly all of the university of North CarolinaSchool System classes have been canceled. Everyone needs to be prepared for Power Outages that could last for days and maybe even a week or longer. Duke energy and our electric coops are estimating power losses in the millions and families need to have their emergency supplies ready. I know ive said this a lot but it bears repeating. Your supplies should include water, food, flashlights, batteries, medicines, Important Documents that you may need to take with you if you have to evacuate quickly. And you need a plan for your pets. And please remember, if you do lose power, dont operate gaspowered generators inside your home or in a garage, crawl space or shed. This can be deadly. Stay away from loose or dangling power lines that may be knocked over during the storm. And no matter where you live, dont drive through roads covered by standing or moving water. The road that was there before the floodwaters may no longer be there. If you encounter a flooded road, turn around. Most stormrelated deaths are caused by drowning in fresh water. Heavy rains can cause swells in small creeks and can turn streams into ragie ining torren that will sweep anything away in their path, including cars. It only takes a few inches of water to cause devastation and flood. North carolina needs to stay alert and continue to take this storm seriously. You can download the ready nc app or follow North CarolinaEmergency Management on facebook and twitter. There you can get updates and learn how you can weather the storm. I want to thank everyone across our state who is working to get us ready for this storm. And i want to introduce to you part of our team that is leading those efforts. We have mike spraberry at the end, dr. Mandy cohe inform, secretary of health and human services, colonel glenn mcneil, the commander of the North Carolina highway patrol. We have general jim trodman, secretary of the department of transportation. We have albie lewis, who is with fema, with us today and also redship check who is with fema. And Major General gregory lusk, commander of North Carolina highway patrol. You have been listening to North Carolina governor roy cooper. The message could not be clearer. Take this seriously. The storm surge is likely coming. They are expecting a storm surge of up to 13 feet, some 320 National Guardsmen right now are on state active duty. We want to get an update on the size and impact of florence from nbc meteorologist Michelle Grossman. The National Hurricane center in, what, less than an hour now, will give us yet another update, right . What do you think the expectation is . Where is florence going next . Were going to keep it at a category 2 storm. We dont want to get fixated on the category 2 or 3. This is a strong category 2 storm. But its really about the water that weve been worried about from day one. Thats what were still worried about. Thats what well talk about. Yes, well have the winds. That doesnt determine how much rain is going to fall or the storm surge. Lets take a look at whats happening right now. Category 2 storm. We have an update coming fairly soon. Winds at 110 miles an hour. Its moving at 10 miles an hour. That will change the next 24 hours. This is what radar looks like, a different picture than what weve been seeing. We are looking at the outer bands now reaching. Very heavy rain. Take note of that. Also in this last rain you see this line pop up. That is a tornado watch. That is what we expect a lot of times with landfalling hurricanes. Well continue to watch that all throughout the next 24 hours in terms of wind gusts, were seeing gusty winds off the coast. This will start to move inland over the next several hours. If you have not evacuated yet, now is the time. Were going to see some very drastic changes by sundown. The worst does seem to be sundown tonight into sundown tomorrow. Thats where well see the most flooding and the biggest storm surge. Here are the heights. Were looking at nine to 13 feet. Thats almost hard to even imagine. Thats like a tall light where well see storm surge that high. It goes up and over and inundates the land. I want to point out the high tides. One tonight at 11 13. The bigger problem, the peak storm surge will be tomorrow at 11 46. Certainly something to keep in mind. I just want to talk about this real quick. Again, i know were focused on the cat 2, cat 3. But with hurricanes the biggest source of death comes from the water, 49 . This is what were truly worried about. For sure. Meteorologist Michelle Grossman, thank you. Lets check on whats going on, on the ground in oak island, North Carolina. Its where msnbcs mariana atensio finds herself now. The wind, for sure, seems to be picking up. Right . Reporter hallie, yes. We moved a little further west from where we were at with Stephanie Ruhle. This is ocean crest pier. The waves and wind behind me are starting to pick up. This is an hour from north myrtle beach. It is a Barrier Island extremely vulnerable to the storm because you have the ocean to the south. You have the waterway to the north. And you also have the cape view river to the east. I want you to look at the scene behind me. This looks like a regular morning on the beach. You have at least ten surfers out there. You have families. You have onlookers, tourists. This is not the scene that authorities want to be looking at hours before this storm hits. And from what ive gathered with my conversations with locals, because the storm got slightly downgraded to a category 2, that gives people a false sense of security, again, in the critical hours where theyre going to be making these decisions of whether to leave or whether to stay. And, as michelle was explaining to us, it is not the category of the storm that makes it so dangerous. It is the storm surge that could potentially reach up to 12 feet. It is the rain that could potentially reach up to 40. Just to give you an idea of what that can do to a place like this, i want you to look at that parking lot behind me. They tell me with Hurricane Matthew, that was completely covered with sand and water. And with a storm like florence that is going to linger and keep pouring rain on this area, it could be so much more damaging. Hallie . Mariana, hang on a second. Are there people swimming behind you . Are they in the water . Reporter can we point to the surfers over here . Hallie, theres at least ten surfers out there. I want to ask my cameraman to point slightly to the left because theres more people headed into the water. And, again, these are the critical hours where people should be hunkering down or skipping town all together. Hallie . Any officials there, emergency personnel, First Responders, telling these people to get to safety . Reporter ive spoken to the mayor and police chief. They have patrol cars out here but tell me once these sustained winds reach 45 miles an hour they wont be dispatching anymore. The message is if youre out here by that point, youre on your own. Hallie . Mariana atensio, thank you for that. Garret hake is in wilmington, North Carolina. Reporter we just felt the wind. If you watch the last hour or so, 9 00 we were here and the area in front of me was almost completely dry. Now the noose river has started to get out of its banks and start to fill up the street level in front of me. I dont know if you can see how wide our who the is now but when we get into serious storm surge im told the level will go up to about this sign on the lamp post next to me. Officials expect this entire area to be under water, not just in an inconvenient, up to your ankles kind of way. Anyone who owns property along this stretch of river will experience significant flooding from storm surge. Thats what they know, based on previous storms. The last couple of big storms that hit up here have not been anywhere as big as florence has been, even as florence continues to be a little weaker, a little more to the south. Weve been talking to folks who decided to stay in town. This is not an especially touristy kind of place. Its not really a beach community. You have folks who have spent their whole lives here and they feel like staying and they feel like theyre making the appropriate preparations. One gentleman we spoke to a few moments ago, describing what hes getting ready to do and what were going to see tonight. Listen. I cleaned out the yard. Theres no projectiles. Im hoping my neighbors have done the same. Ive looked for any kind of places where water and wind might get in the house. Of course, thats not up to me in the end. There are trees in the yard. But the flooding where i am farther up in the neighborhood is not so much a worry. My worry is the trees and the wind taking them down. Reporter when these things come ashore at night its a whole different animal, more dangerous, and more difficult for First Responders to get out and help people when they need it. To help underscore the point that mariana and these officials made, its under mandatory evacuation order. If you dont need to be here, get out. Garret haake from new bern, North Carolina. Mayor of nagshead, North Carolina, thank you for being with us. Good morning, hallie. You heard garrett reference those mandatory evacuation orders in some places. How are these evacuations going . Are people leaving . Are they paying attention . Hallie weve got a great level of compliance with our evacuation orders. I went through nags head from end to end yesterday. I would describe it almost as a ghost town. Driving from my home to town hall this morning theres very little traffic. Weve been door to door to encourage the recalcitrant to leave. Weve gotten a really high level of compliance. Which is good news. What is your a moment ago, we saw about a dozen surfers up where mariana atensio was reporting in North Carolina. What is your message to people who are trying to ride this thing out, who have not left yet or who may be in the water right now . Ear in the water, youre a little nutty at this point. Our message since monday in their county has been to absolutely stay out of the water. The water is extremely dangerous. To the folks that havent left, if you know it floods or dunes may breach, we really need you out. Mayor, there will be a moment tonight when the sun will go down, the storm will make landfall. Thats the expectation. And everybody will wake up tomorrow morning in first light and see the damage, potentially the storm going on. In the aftermath, do you believe you have or will have the resources that you need . Are you comfortable that youre supported enough there . Absolutely. The governor has promised his support. We have great working relationships with sister towns and with county. We know that well have their support. This is a very resilient community, partly by design and partly just because of who we are and i feel very confident that well have a quick recovery. Mayor ben cahoon, thank you very much for being on with us. Please stay safe. Well be checking back in with you over the next several days. The head of fema has two words when it comes to Hurricane Florence, were ready. Two other words are plaguing brock long, under investigation. Well talk about the man in charge of the response to hurricane katrina. He is here with us to talk about the fallout from all of it coming up in a minute. Ute. Who would have thought, who would have guessed . An Energy Company helping cars emit less. Making cars lighter, its a good place to start, advanced oils for those hardworking parts. Fuels that go further so drivers pump less. Improving efficiency is what we do best. Energy lives here. Improving efficiency is what we do best. New family connections, every day. Llion thats more ways to discover new relatives. People who share your dna. And maybe a whole lot more. Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com but he has plans today. Ain. Hey dad. So he took aleve. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. Hurricane florence is barreling toward the carolinas, getting bigger in size. We expect an update from the National Hurricane center some time in the next 45 minutes or so. But here in washington at the white house, the president , while he is tweeting some about florence, he is also talking about Hurricane Maria, the storm that slammed puerto rico last year, ultimately killing as many as 3,000 people, according to an independent study. Thats at the core of a new president ial tweet storm. Kelly odonnell is at the white house for us to talk through that. The head of fema also under fire inny new politico report. Right . Reporter yes. Several things are pressing up against this administration at a time when florence is, they say, their number one, highest priority. Brock long, the fema administrator, says that it is not in his dna to have done anything improper related to government ethics. There is a report that claims he may have improperly used government vehicles for transportation to his home. He does not live in the washington, d. C. Area. He addressed that today and said hes 100 focused on florence, the storm that weve been talking so much about. The president , we are told, has been briefed and that Staff Members at the white house have been in touch today with various parties in the region, the path of the coming storm. The president is also showing some cranky before the storm, reflecting backward, not looking so much at what is coming in the next few days at a time when typically white house leadership is focused on preparations for the coming danger. The president is looking in the rear view mirror and responding to what he perceives as criticism that he deems unfair, which in the initial wave of Hurricane Maria hitting puerto rico, there were a limited number of deaths in the immediate aftermath. Since that time, there has been a revised death count associated with the not only the hurricane itself but the related problems that come from it, things like no power when people are relying on hospital facilities and so forth. Right. The president lashing out, blaming democrats for this criticism. Study looked at five months after the impact of that storm and has raised the numbers considerably. Initially it was a few dozen deaths and now th