there's not a lot to slow the system down as far as intensity. right now it's a major hurricane, and we're fearing we could be looking at extremely heavy rainfall. we have seen a lot of heavy rain already this month in the northeast. a foot of rain already. any additional rain will be a huge problem, chris. and then you factor in the winds, it's definitely something we have to watch. we could be looking at mandatory evacuations all along the east coast. >> thank you so much for that dismatch, adam berg. now to the outer banks where nbc's mark potter is. what are conditions like there, and when do officials expect the worst to hit? >> it's actually pretty nice here right now, chris. we're getting a bit of a freshening breeze. we're getting the waves are kicking up a little bit. but that's going to change dramatically soon. by tomorrow, we're expecting rain bands to start coming in. the worst of the storm is expected to hit here on saturday. the big question here, is where does this storm go. as your previous guest was talking about, that is critical