Two unins out from what president obama called the most important election of his lifetime. What are voters actually looking for . Do you guys think that people in washington kind of understand what lifes like out here . Oh, no, you kidding me . But before we get started today, we all pause to remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost on 9 11. It was during this hour, 17 years ago, we came to the realization this was not just a single wayward plane, but an attack on our country. There are ceremonies ongoing in new york city, the pentagon and shanksville, pennsylvania, which we will be showing you throughout this hour. And we will remember. But we begin today with hurricane florence. The kind of storm the midatlantic hasnt seen in decades and it could get stronger as it gets closer, threatening lives in its path. Ive got a great team to help me break it all down. First, lets talk about what were experiencing and what were expecting. Florence is a category 4. It has 140mileperhour winds right now. But it could be a category 5 by the time it hits land on friday. Records go back 150 years. But North Carolina has never been hit with a storm this strong. The comparisons being made by experts are downright sobering. The last category 4 to hit North Carolina, hurricane hazel, more than 60 years ago with storm surges over 18 feet. 95 americans were killed. That was back in 1954. The power expected to match hurricane fran in 1996. That storm laid a path of destruction in the state capital of raleigh and it cost the Timber Industry alone 1 billion. Most recently, hurricane matthew, just two years ago. Some damaged communities across the carolinas still have not recovered. But back to florence, where mandatory evacuations began within the past couple of hours in lowlying area, of North Carolina and virginia. At noon today, south carolinas entire coastline will begin clearing out. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 Million People already. The rip currents for florence are hitting the barrier island. So its dangerous right now and potentially life threatening. Concerned about the storm . Yes, i am. Very concerned. Very worried. Im worried. They said its going to be pretty dangerous and we have to evacuate. See what happens. Hopefully we have a business to come back to. So why is this storm so dangerous . The midatlantic has never dealt with a storm this big and pow powerful. It could hit the shoreline at a 90 degree angle pushing storm surge as high as 20 feet. Thats similar to what sandy did in new jersey six years ago. And it could stall over land. Meaning 20 to 30 inches of rain in some areas. Mandatory evacuationings as are way. Nbcs Kerry Sanders. Whats going on there, kerry . Reporter the Evacuation Order went into effect at 7 00 a. M. People began getting their luggage, getting in their cars and heading inland. In some cases, still trying to determine where to go. Making phone call, discovering that inland, some hotels are already full. Upwards of 1 Million People on the roads and thats a lot of traffic. In beisouth carolina, at noon, n the evacuation goes into effect there, theyre going to take the eastbound lanes of i26 and turn them westbound so they can get twice as much traffic down the road, out towards interstate 95, as people evacuate. One of the important things that the Highway Patrol troopers are saying in the many states here from virginia, North Carolina and south carolina, is it is a natural thing to get a little bit anxious. To be maybe even feeling a little bit panicked. When you get behind the wheel, take your time. They dont want to have Traffic Accidents because somebody was distracted or looking the wrong direction because theyre so worried about evacuating, uncertain where theyre going to go. Because one Traffic Accident causes problems for the people in the vehicles that collide but then it backs up other traffic. Right now, where i am standing, they are anticipating, according to the National Hurricane center, a storm surge that would exceed 12 feet. And if the storm comes in, at approximately late thursday, very late thursday, into early friday, we will have a high tide here, which means the storm surge will be into the second story of buildings here. Every time we have a mandatory evacuation, kerry, and ive lost count of how many of these storms youve covered, there are people who just insist on staying behind. What kind of plans are in place to try to convince those people that this is nothing to be trifled with . Interestingly, i have found most people, even veterans who have decades worth of surviving and staying put, saying theyre going to leave. It is not uncommon for the Police Department, not today, but probably tomorrow, to go door to door. When they find those people, very effective method weve seen, especially in the Police Department in years past, they take a sharpie and they ask the person to hold their arm out and they say write your name, write your Social Security number, write your neck xt of kin so wen identify your body afterwards. That often has the psychological impact of telling people you got to get out. Kerry sanders, thank you. Well be coming back to you a lot. Now to wrightsville beach, where voluntary evacuationings as are way. Are people getting out or are they hunkering down . People are pondering those lastminute decisions right now, chris. This is about 17 miles north from where Kerry Sanders is. I just spoke to the city manager. He says this area will be under mandatory evacuation by tomorrow morning. You still see theres families behind me. Theres surfers. And theres people, as you said, deciding whether to leave or whether to stay. That is what antonio is doing. I understand you have a lot of Beach Properties behind me. How are you preparing . Yes, weve got all the properties boarded up and all of the, you know, highflying items tied down. So we think were prepared at this point. Besides the properties, i also know you own boutiques and restaurants. Are you deciding to leave or stay . Actually, its my wifes boutiques. So i would like to stay. My wife, you know, were from jersey, she wants to head either to asheville or down to jacksonville. I think the best advice, and i think chris will agree, is Pay Attention to your wife and leave if you can. Thank you, antonio. Locals here, just as we were driving to this stretch of the beach, theres 2,500 people who live here. They were boarding up. Many of the gas stations had already ran out of service. Locals here cannot remember a monster storm, a category 4 with estimated 130 mile per hour winds coming in this area. Even the older folks, like my friend lucas. Lucas, youre 80 years young. Do you remember a storm like this ever coming in this area and how are you preparing . Well, i think in the mid mid90s, we had two or three storms come through but we didnt have to leave, and i dont remember them being overwhelmingly devastating. You remember hazele . I know all about hazel. I came to southport shortly after hazel left. I remember people floating out of their houses on mattresses. So there was very, very terrible times. Thank you so much. Can i Say Something please, quick, quick . Quick thing. The heavens declare the glory of god and the earth shows his handiwork. Ive live heardd here 41 years, this is heaven. A lot of people praying. All right, a colorful character there, but we hope everybody is safe. I want to go to nbc meteorologist bill karin. What are we really dealing with . This has a chance to be a combination of two worst nightmares. It could be a major category 4 or 5 hurricane. I dont think its going to be a 5, nor a 4. Maybe a 3. Plus the wind damage which adds the storm surge. Then if it stalls, you get the flooding problem. Like you saw with harvey. We borrowed ourselves a little more time. Instead of 8 00 p. M. Landfall, now the Hurricane Center has it more towards friday at 2 00 a. M. I think it could go slower than this into maybe friday at 8 00 a. M. We bought ourselves a little extra time. Maybe the first person ortion o thursday to have to completion. And then the Hurricane Center has an ugly slow demise of this storm over eastern North Carolina. With the current track, if it holds, the strongest winds will be from about the south carolina, North Carolina border through much of eastern incomening incomnorth caroli carolina. Thats where the wind damage will be. If the storm comes inland here, the wilmington area, wrightsville beach, up here, thats where youd see the worst destruction from the storm surge. A little lower numbers for the north. Again, this is assuming it takes the path currently being forecasted. It would also have a tremendous amount of rain. Youre talking about 30 inches of rain. One of the biggest question marks is does the storm make enough progress to get the heavy rainfall into virginia . The trend overnight has been to keep some rain further to the south. The european model has landfall near wilmington. The american model has it stalls over moorehead city and cape cat ru cape cateress. A lot of these are to the north of wilmington. We would love to get people more, you know, definite where its going to hit and where the worst is going to be. Its a little too early for that. We dont want to im saying from charleston to the outer banks, still prepare if its heading your way. We will keep you posted on all of that. Up next, Fact Checking the president. Weeks of not having a White House Press briefing finally comes to an end. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the president s numbers cruncher Kevin Haslett called to account for President Trumps faulty comments about the booming economy. Also, exclusive new reporting. U. S. Personnel in cuba and china on the receiving end of a mysterious attack that led to brain injuries. Well tell you what country officials believe is behind that plot. And as we go to break, right now at the pentagon, the ceremony remembering 184 victims who were killed there on 9 11. To all that is good in this nation. Again, thank you for joining us today. Now we will proceed with the reading of the names. Please remain silent as the names of those who were killed 1 years ago are remembered. Mote ol travel deal on choicehotels. Com like this. Touchdown. Earn a free night when you stay just twice this fall. Or, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com and back pain made it hard to sleep and get up on time. Then i found aleve pm. 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Im thinking. Will i have enough . Should i change something . Well, youre asking the right questions. I just want to know, am i gonna be okay . I know people who specialize in am i going to be okay. I like that. You may need glasses though. Yeah. Schedule a complimentary goal Planning Session today with td ameritrade. Exclusive new reporting this morning from nbc news. Intelligence agencies investigating attacks on u. S. Diplomats in cuba and china now strongly suspect that russia is to blame. 26 government workers in havana had mysterious brain injuries starting in late 2016 and then this year, one u. S. Worker in china was diagnosed with similar symptoms. Joining me now with more on this is nbc news intelligence reporter ken dilanian. This has been a mystery. The cia, the fbi, other intelligence agencies have all been working to try to figure out what exactly happened here. Why do they expect russia now . Whats the evidence they have . Its still partially a mystery but they have more and more evidence they say. Three u. S. Officials tell us, pointing to russia, including communications intercepts that suggest the Russian Intelligence Agency was involved. Really, there was only three suspects. Russia, china and the cubans. The russian and Chinese Intelligence Services operate in force in cuba. Its still believed its possible some element of the cuban Intelligence Services cooperated with this. The other interesting thing were reporting here is one of the technologies used to injure these american spies and diplomats was some kind of microwave weapon that is so sophistica sophisticated, the americans dont fully understand it. Theyve been testing some kinds of aspects kind of reverse engineering . Absolutely. You know, the military has been the u. S. Military has worked on microwave technology. Apparently the russians have as well. It can make people think theyre hearing sounds. Thats why initially this was thought to be a sonic attack of some sort. What do we know about the people . Were individuals targeted . Was it just a group that was targeted . Do we have any idea about a motive . Why these people and then . Again, these are only theories, but what our sources are telling us is this was an intentional attack. Initially people thought it would be a byproduct of some spying technology. Now believed it was meant to hurt these spies and diplomats. Some of whom have suffered serious brain injuries. If it was confirmed russia, it would be a game changer. Sort of unwritten rules are you dont go after the other persons spies and diplomats, you dont try to hurt them yes, you can throw them out of the country but you dont so where are they in this investigation . Are they close . Do we feel like theyre at a place where they will have a definitive answer . They believe eventually go down the track and possibly indictme indictments. Theyre not even willing to say theyre sure it was russia. Scary stuff though, ken dilanian, thank you. The white house this morning on major defense after president ial tweets on the economy were, well, easily disproved. The explaining left to sarah Huckabee Sanders at the first daily White House Press briefing in 19 days. This was the twitter claim, that the quarterly gdp rate was higher than the Unemployment Rate for the first time in 100 years. While the economy is booming, that is absolutely not the truth. He was all about 90 years. Haslett joined sanders in the Briefing Room trying to clear things up. The history and thought of how errors happen is not something that, you know, i can engage in because, like, from the initial fact to what the president said, that i dont know the whole chain of command, but what is true, its the highest in ten years, and at some point, somebody probably conveyed it to him, adding a zero to that, and they shouldnt have done that. That on top of two new polls putting President Trumps Approval Rating below 40 with the midterms just weeks away and people dont think hes honest or a good leader, all sorts of bad numbers in those recent polls. Joining me now, Nbc News National Correspondent peter alexander. So the tweet got him in trouble yesterday. You heard them trying to make an explanation for what the president said. And then today a lot of people have noted that the president s tweeting already. The first thing he tweeted was not, by the way, about 9 11. Talk about what the president s thinking is this morning. Yes, chris, you make a series of important points. It is 9 11. We will hear from the president a short time from now as he dedicated a memorial at the shanksville, pennsylvania site, where flight 993 crashed 17 years ago. So we will wait for the president s remarks here. Even this morning on this most solemn of anniversaries, the president , you can tell where his mind is. Focusing again on some reporting hed seen from fox news and fox business, even as the white house has been forced to correct some of the president s own comments because of what they say is misinformation that hes been provided in the past. One of the tweets saying eric holder could be running the Justice Department right now and it would be behaving no differently than it is. So today hes been casting doubt on the russia investigation, attacking the integrity of career fbi agents and again appears going after the viability of his own attorney general Jeff Sessions here. Im stuck by what you were talking about. That fact check right now on the president. You remember, it was literally just shortly after the president was inaugurated, i asked him about his own claims that his Electoral College victory was bigger than any had been i think he said decades. Base on the tweets we saw yesterday. The requirement that the white house had to correct the president. Its clear they still have a fundamental problem. Which is