Recovery success. I think puerto rico was incredibly successful. And i actually think it was one of the best jobs thats ever been done with respect to what this is all about. I think the puerto rico was an incredible, unsung success. No ones saying that success because its not true. Billionaire president versus a trillion dollar company, weve also got that in sight, apple set to unveil a new slate of iphones today, but with the president s trade wars threatening higher price, will the company be forced to think different . And ten years ago this week, i remember it well, Lehman Brothers collapsed, setting off a chain of events leading to the worst financial crisis since the great depression. So after a decade, have we learned any lessons . You know, we have got to begin with the the storm of a lifetime. Max, thinking, am i going to have a home to come back to . God spare us, spare myrtle beach, spare everybody whos in line with this. Because this looks like its going to be the worst one that ive ever gone through. Ive lived here my whole life, and i cant recall having to evacuate like this. We have our supplies, you know, the water, the bread, everything that we need. Lets head first to Carolina Beach, North Carolina, and nbcs carrie sanders. Carrie, walk us through what locals are doing, are they heeding the warnings and getting out of town . Reporter absolutely. This is a small town, a population of 6,000. And you can see the development here along the beach. But this is a ghost town, just about every person has left. The fire department, the Police Department and the city officials in this small town plan add around noontime to go out and knock on doors, make sure maybe somebody has a Transportation Problem or if somebody decides to stay theyre going to do their very best to urge them to leave. Later today at around 8 00 theyre going to close the bridge to Paradise Island here. By closing that bridge it will prevent people from shooting back over. The idea is to get everybody out other than the few Government Officials that need to stay and basically shut this down so that when the storm comes in, that were not just talking about the wind damage, but right now its such a Beautiful Day here at the beach. But there will be a storm surge. If the storm surge is coming in at around 12 feet, when i take you over here and you see the natural sand dunes here, theyll break up some of that, but it will come well over that. The buildings over here that you see, theyre relatively new buildings. They were built up. But nonetheless theyre not high enough to prevent the storm surge from coming in. And then on the other side of the island here youve got cape fear river. The water will come in there and well have a continual flow here. And its important to note, you know, when we keep talking about
hurricanes, stephanie, so many people focus on the wind speed. That wind speed is what drive it is storm surge. Its pushing the water. But when it comes to the deaths associated with hurricanes, 60 of people who died, died by drowning and its usually in that storm surge. So it is just really critical for people to understand why theyre leaving and going inland, stephanie. Well, it is good to hear that people are taking these warnings seriously, and leaving. Because when you look at that image, to carries point, it is postcard picture perfect, but that picture is going to change dramatically. Lets take you to wilmington, North Carolina where Marian Atencio is standing by. The mood here has shifted. Theres a sense of urgency, people are frantically buying up lastminute supplies. Here in this Hardware Store of wilmington, a city of 100,000 people near the North Carolina coast, it stands in the direct path of this monster storm. We have seen people here all morning buying up generators, buying sandbags, tarps, gas cans. People like terry over here who are making the lastminute decisions, whether to leave or whether to stay. What is your plan, as of right now, terry . Well, as of right now my family is planning on leaving. Of course, im concerned because i have animals and we, you know, were always concerned about putting animals in a car and going several days away. But my best advice to everybody is just hunker down if you are not planning to leave, take everything very seriously, do not leave your hose attached to your house. Theres many things that people neglect that are out in their yard. If you cant put it in somewhere, you stuff it under some bushes, but do not leave things left to fly around. And stay in your interior hallway, your interior bathroom. And my best advice is prayer. Youve been here through many storms, terry. Just real quick, what makes florence so different . This is going to be a very longlasting storm. Unfortunately weve been really blessed for many years, ive been here since 1981, myself, going through storms, and we have had storms that go very quickly and pass over us, and are off. This one is going to linger. This is going to be a long storm. God bless, everybody. Thank you so much, terry. As you heard, steph, people prepared to hunker down for days, if not weeks here in North Carolina. Steph . Thank you. Now to Carolina Beach with tammy lightener. People are concerned because myrtle beach is now in the path. Take a look at this. We have not seen this since raleigh, cases of water. This store told us they got a shipment in overnight. Cases of water, and bread. People have been coming in since 7 00 a. M. They tell us theyre going to stay open until 6 00 p. M. Unless the City Government shuts them down. Thats because this area is under a mandatory evacuation. Weve been speaking with people all morning, and this gentleman, norberto, thanks for sticking around, i know you have a basket full of supplies. You told me you just moved here from new jersey. Bought the house on monday. And now youre trying to decide whether to evacuate. Whats going through your head . Right now its just the decision because i have my parents with me. I bought them a house. I bought i live in maybe seven blocks down. But close to the water. So theyre pretty far away. So Family Meeting and deciding what to do. You have enough supplies to ride out the storm. Whats the deciding factor for you . If its meeting us near head on, ill make the decision. But now it looks it just keeps going north, keeps going south. You can hear my phone. My daughters and wife and friends and family are calling left and right. But i went through sandy. And im on the beach in sandy, a block and a half away. Some people got hit and some didnt. So im sure well get rain and
wind. Probably anybody near the beaches should really leave, like asap, but, you know you dont have much time to make that decision . Ill do it in an hour. Okay. I caution to the wind sometimes and its worked out. Lets see what happens. Good luck with that. Thank you very much. Reporter you know, one thing the mayor said, people have a false sense of security in this town because some of the storms have not been as bad as projected. But they are warning people to get out of town, that this one will be very dangerous, steph . Thanks, tammy. Lets get the latest on the storms track from nbc meteorologist bill karins. How are things looking right now . We saw mariana speaking to a woman that said it will be a lot longer. She was well informed. Storms from the past went in and out and done in maybe eight to
ten hours. This one could have Hurricane Force winds in wilmington for 24 straight hours, in your safe room with your pets and kids and whole family for 24 hours, and Tropical Storm force winds could last for 60 hours. Thats two 1 2 days. If youre trying to make the decision whether to go or not, if you have the means, go. If you dont, prepare for two or three days in your house with no power with your family, with your kids. And, you know, thats how long it will take even to go outside before it was safe before the storm was done. Give us the timeline. Right now, 500 miles away from the coast right now. It looks like a donut with a perfect eye, the classic little hurricane. Heres the timeline. So thursday at 2 00 p. M. Is when the Tropical Storm force winds would start to arrive. Its a little over 24 hours from now. Its not until we get to sunset thursday till about sunset friday that thats when well have the Hurricane Force conditions. Thats when youll see our reporters on the beaches blowing around in the wind and storm surge. Thats when the power will be going out. Thats mostly going to be in areas from hanover county, emerald isle, Atlantic Beach region. And then it will slowly bend and drift, may not make landfall. And then rain itself out over South Carolina. So what all this means is, the first life threatening thing thats going to happen is the storm surge. That will be thursday evening and then friday all day long from about Bald Head Island all the way back up through the beaches, Carolina Beach, emerald isle, Atlantic Beach. Storm surge here at hatteras. Less impactful. Thats what changed overnight. Things changed for richmond, but things got worse for myrtle beach. High tide on friday, 11 46 a. M. Could be the most destructive one if that storm is stalled
over wilmington. Were watching the squiggly lines, Computer Models are saying, were watching that between the euro and the usa, pretty decent agreement right now. The worst part of this is going to be the rainfall as far as the Fresh Water Flooding goes, stephanie. 26 inches from jacksonville, North Carolina all the way down to south of wilmington. Isolated areas could get up to four feet of rain. What really changed overnight, we were so fearful of the storms slow drifting over North Carolina, like raleigh and greensboro, we were worried about those areas getting the rain, it doesnt look like that anymore. Although it got worse for some spots, Inland Virginia and inland North Carolina, the forecast is much improved. Humor me, go weather geek, european Model Versus American model, what are you talking about . Some of the most powerful computers in the world do all these computations for data plots on a map that show what the weathers going to be at
each specific point. The european model is owned by the European Weather Agency of their own, japanese have their own, the uk, English Version of it, we have ours, the gfs in our country and they get graded on accuracy. Historically the european one has been the most accurate. We have funding and money thats going into place to improve ours. That was done after last hurricane season. Its in the computer. Thank you so much. Yes, it is. I always wondered. Any minute now, fema will be providing an update on hurricane preparations. We will bring that to you live as soon as it begins. But before we get to that next, as our country prepares for florence, President Trump touts his role in past recoveries, saying puerto rico was an unsung success. He said that some have given him an a plus on our recovery efforts. I asked the white house who is the source of that . Who decides the president gives himself an a plus . Ive been to puerto rico, just a few months ago, there were no
a pluses being thrown around. Were going to give you the latest from the white house next. We distribute environmentallyfriendly packaging for restaurants. And weve grown substantially. So i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. I earn unlimited 2 cash back on everything i buy. And last year, i earned 36,000 in cash back. Thats right, 36,000. Which i used to offer Health Insurance to my employees. My unlimited 2 cash back is more than just a perk, its our healthcare. Can i say it . Whats in your wallet . So lets promote our falle a homecomingtravel dealame, 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
ahoy gotcha nooooo. Noooooo. Quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent. Bounty, the quicker picker upper. At fidelity, our online u. S. Equity trades are just 4. 95. So no matter what you trade, or where you trade, youll only pay 4. 95. Fidelity. Open an account today. But allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go too fast. And brake too hard. With feedback to help you drive safer. Giving you the power to actually lower your cost. Unfortunately, it cant do anything about that. Now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Detention center plans. President trump says the pieces are in place to respond to Hurricane Florence, which is a nightmare storm that could do historic amounts of damage to the east coast. During that meeting with reporters, the president also took a victory lap for his administrations response to the last big storm that hit u. S. Territory. That, of course, was hurricane maria, the strongest hurricane to hit puerto rico in nearly 100 years. The job that fema and Law Enforcement and everybody did working along with the governor in puerto rico, i think, was tremendous. I think that puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. Texas, we have been given a pluses for. Florida, weve been given a pluses for. I think in a certain way the best job we did was puerto rico, but nobody would understand that. Why wouldnt anyone understand that . Not everyone agrees with the governments response, that it was a big success. Critics say it was too slow compared to Relief Efforts following hurricanes in texas and florida. And granted, it is more difficult, its an island, and the power grid they had was far more compromised than it was in other places. A new study estimated that there were nearly 3,000 stormrelated deaths in puerto rico. The hurricane caused 90 billion in damage. And initially wiped out power to almost all of the islands 3 million residents. Three months later half the island was without power. The mayor of the capital city of san juan, who has been critical of the president since the beginning, we have to share that, say it doesnt bode well for people in the path of Hurricane Florence. If he doesnt learn from his mistakes, hes going to make them again and people are going to continue to die. This is a stain on the president , on his presidency, and the world has seen what he does. He says hes done a good job when 3,000 people have died. Well, god bless us all if this
man continues on this path. And i want to share rick santorum, i saw last night on cnn, saying he blames the country of puerto rico. Its a u. S. Territory. The people there are u. S. Citizens who can vote, albeit not in the president ial election, and no one needs a passport in the continental u. S. To go there. So puerto rico is not a country. If you want to blame the country, its on us. I want to bring in nbcs Peter Alexander at the white house. I want to get to puerto rico in a moment, but florence is most pressing now. What is the white house telling you about our preparations . We reached out to the white house for updated numbers on personnel and resources, were waiting for those and well share them when we get them. The president , this morning delivering an camera taped message from the rose garden warning about the intensity of this storm, trying to appear proactive, in his words, were handling it, ready, able, finest people, he says. Trump says were urning residents to get out of its way, dont play games with it, its a
big one. Heres more of the president. Fully prepared, food, medical, everything you can imagine, we are ready. But despite that, bad things can happen when youre talking about a storm this size. Its called mother nature. You never know. But we know. We love you all, we want you safe, get out of the storms way. He said but we know. You never know or we know. Yeah, the president concluding those remarks, be ready and god be with you. We have reached out. There are no meetings on the public schedule today with the head of fema, block long or kirstjen nielsen, the Homeland Security secretary. I wouldnt be surprised if there ultimately is a briefing from the white house to demonstrate its preparedness. I want to bring my panel in. Eddie glaude, and pj orourke. Pj, the president , i want to go to puerto rico, says the administration does not get enough credit for their response to hurricane maria. Do you agree . It was a very complicated situation, and it is an island. But 3,000 people died. I covered the iraq war, baghdad was put back together faster than puerto rico, you know, and they dont even like us. But then help me understand the president s strategy here. Its called lying. Theres a technical term for it, its just called lying. You stand up there and you lie. We did a great job. We did a terrible job. If we did such a terrible job, and i would say we absolutely did, i was there just a few months ago, who do these lies work for . Why would the president have an unforced error like this and say, you know, when, granted he said it was an a plus in florida and texas, but we did the best job in puerto rico, we didnt. Hes incapable of critical selfreflection, incapable of a kind of selfassessment which
will allow him to say we made mistake mistak mistakes. What was interesting about that particular presser is he didnt mention one person who died, he didnt say our hearts go out to the 2,975 people who are dead. We want he didnt show any sense of empathy. And thats because in some significant way donald trump is a deeply, morally flawed human