Maybe reckless endangerment. Whether or not the charges come. Hard to to imagine they didnt evacuate these people. And move them to a working hospital. Where they could have saved their lives. The news continues. Cuomo primetime starts now. Im chris cuomo, welcome to primetime. Soon it will be too late to escape florence. Go now if youve been directed to evacuate. Officials up and down the coast are echoing this warning. Please hear it. Many of you are watching from the areas that could be affected. Please dont meet me the clown under circumstances you may regret during or after this storm. Winds are beginning to blow now even more americans are in the path of destruction. Florence has weakened slightly to a category 3, but its increased in size and taken a slight turn. The second and third factors matter way more than the first. Georgia is now in jeopardy as well and the entire caroline coastline is bracing for a direct hit. Tonight we have the one ask only sam champion is here. The storm is coming, my friends, its time to prepare. Lets get after it. The storm of a lifetime, thats what experts are calling it. Lets show why forecasters warn that florence could be the most intense hurricane to strike the eastern seaboard in decades. What are the numbers . 25 million in the forecast. Sam champion is here. We Work Together at abc news. Sam men order the me in the ways of weather for years. Thank you, brother. Its good to have you. Pleasure to be here. This does not look good. No, and its important because these things will fluctuate in strength. This storm is really getting bigger and thats bad in a lot of ways. So tonight we need to double down on who should get out because tomorrow even though were going to start to see those Tropical Storm force winds, we wont have time to make the decisions. Whos going to flood. And theres a big area of that as well. Fresh water flooding, storm surge flooding, this storm has it all. Lets start with the data and science. We have tom sater. What do we know, tom . You got a good mentor there. For those of you who wanted to know how large in size florence is, to compare to the land, were getting much closer now. You can see what a monster this is. This all started a little wave off the coast of africa, the First Advisory was august 30th, two weeks ago. For the first time in history a Storm Hurricane at this latitude and longitude is making landfall. Never before has that happened. Theyve all moved to the north. Heres the problem. Between tomorrow night, thursday night and sunday morning, florence may move only 150 miles. That is slower than a walking pace. Two to three miles an hour. Like harvey. Thats port of the problem now. You look at the Hurricane Force winds. The Tropical Storm force winds, youre starting to see how its broad eng out. This is an amazing storm. Early in the morning on the Northeast Quadrant a wave height was reported at 83 feet. Is that thats mind boggling. So this system as it moves in you can see how far out 300 miles of Tropical Storm force winds. Its day in and day out of storm surge. This is a relentless rainfall and believe it or not, we may see more rain than washington, d. C. , picks up in an entire year in just three days. I got a quick question because people will be looking at numbers and chris and i were just talking about this before the show. When you see two times in a row this storm has dropped or weakened a little bit, and some people might get the feeling this is going to an allclear. But talk to me about how this storm could strengthen, weaken, and how its not an allclear. When you look at the satellite, its quite ragged. Theres dry air coming in underneath and youre losing an eye. Hurricane hunters flying into this. Do not bite on the notion this is weakening. Tomorrow it will get to the gulf stream and it has a few tricks up its sleeve. These things as you know, everyone is different. Every characteristic is different from storm to storm. The National Hurricane center is going to play with that track a little bit. It cant jump on over model that would be irresponsible. Right. We need to get supplies in place and evacuations, but just looking at these molds and for the european, looks like wilmington is going to get hammered. Carolina beach. But the european model, it wants to drift it back off shore. Down to the south. Thats why the size winds up being relevant. Stay with us. Lets go over to the wall and start going through some of these factors and ill use both of you guys to kind of let people know why were worried about this. Again, this idea of just worrying about the numbers itself, its not enough. Here we are last year with irma. The difference between 145 miles an hour and 105 miles an hour, meaningless when youre standing in it but people take the numbers as some type of direction as to how bad it is. Category 4, 120, category 3, so dont care about the categories. This is a dangerous and destructive storm. That storm did a lot of damage. This storm will do a lot of damage. As tom mentioned, theyre all completely different. Pushed my hairline back half an inch. You mentioned the wave 83 feet. People will look at the data and say the face of it was only 35, 40. We measure from the back of the wave from meteorology because that indicates the force that is pushing along with that water. Thats what creates surge. What do you see in these numbers . That wave was on the northern right side of the storm. If you took the storm and drew a pie across it, the wave height was up here. If its coming this way, its over here. Right. So, this is the worst part of the storm. That quadrant, right front quadrant. To get off what were talking about for a second off that wave, when that moves on shore, this will move on shore like that which means everything north of wherever the center of the storm strikes, all of that on the coast line, north and east, will get the worst part of this storm. So thats where that wave height, that 83foothigh wave was. Were not going to see waves like that along the coast. But heres what that tells us. First of all, that wave is there because the storm was moving, it was trapped in winds pushing in the same direction. As that gets here, what we know now is there is a wall of Water Associated with this storm. Usually as this storm is bigger, so is that wall of water. With the eye getting bigger, the wall of water gets bigger. And we know that wall of water is going to end up someplace, the storm surge along the coast. Transfer that 83foot wave down to about 9 to 13 foot storm surge. Were pretty darn sure thats going to happen because there is that much wave action. Tom, one of the reasons were looking at this and trying to figure out what it means, numbers can be deceptive. This is the regular height in that region, tom. If if you can see this from where you are, this is what 6 to 13 feet winds up looking like. It takes you fought top of your house. Unless you hide in the attic, weve seen very low percentage. Even if you have to get out of the water, its better to take your chances not in the house than to get in the attic. Nobody can get you out if there are no windows. There is an nobody carrying machinery to get you out of the attic in a storm like this. Heres the other thing you need to know. A lot of these homes are built on stilts and they think theyre doing okay. Remember, the stilts are not quite a full story. When we have a 13foot storm surge, thats a story and a half. So thats almost two stories of moving water coming at your house. Even if you had stilts on the house, youre still going to wind up about here. You cant exist in that. What always confuses me or concerns me, those that stay behind say i have supplies and i have a generator. You lose a roof or you have 6 feet of water in your house, youre not using your generator. The other problem how many thousands have they sold and theyre firsttime buyers . Theyre going to use them in their home. Every storm we see fatalities of people using generators inside. Good point. Let the visual tell the story for you. If you had a generator where is it, where is it with this kind of water . Its under water. The other thing is water is going to be sitting here for a while, if you stayed in these communities with the water trapped around the house youre not going be able to get in and get out. Youre going to have several feet of water. Its not water any more. Once youre in there, its sewage, everything thats runoff from everything. It gets toxic quickly. We hear about secondary, tertiary, third level infections. Good point. Rain level, size of storm has created new potential for different areas that werent waiting, sam. Right. Tom did a great job of showing you how the storm moved off the african coast line. Its had days to collect moisture in the storm. There is a lot of rain here. Prior to the last 12, not even 20 hours, the South Carolina area wasnt thinking about this much rain. We were really focusing on it here and possibly a little bit in southern virginia. Now this turn and drift that he mentioned is critical. Its hugely important because all of South Carolina is in play. Look at that, all of South Carolina is basically going to flood. Weve got the low lansdowne in here. So even if you dont flood like savannah, youre looking, oh, im not getting the big water out of this. Youre going to get the big drain out of this. The other thing that happens with this is that storm surge pushes water for the entire time its here. Its going to be more than a day kind of wandering the shoreline maybe. That water is holding in those bays and inlets pushing water in there. Tom made a good point. This is not spongy space. Its permeable and thats why its so destructive. Tom, please, go ahead. You know, the second part of this is the mountains of the blue ridge and the piedmont up to areas of shenandoah because theyve already been inundated with flooding in parts of pennsylvania and upstate new york. When this system starts to move northward in the next several days, its going to pull a lot of moisture in that area that theyve already been performing water rescues. I mean, the streams are so high right now, this is not just a coastal event when we get toward thursday wednesday, thursday and friday. So this is going to be ongoing. And really stretch the resources for Law Enforcement and First Responders well up in i think to areas of new england. So the last factor, youve got capacity and concentration. Hazelle was what, 1940, 1950 something hazelle came in there . Eisenhower was president. This was who was exposed then. Look how over time 1990, now were talking hurricane hugo. Category 4 changed the topography of this area. It was the most expensive storm in termds of damage at the time. But now look at it. Look at the concentration, look at the over building and the population, sam. This is the problem. In the old days, chris, we would say that this part of the country is well versed in hurricanes and Tropical Storms. This area gets hit a lot. They have to prepare a lot. They know a lot. But whats happened in the last ten years is that population explosion, and at the same time there hasnt been a big storm. A lot of these people and this is a big college area inland as well. A lot of these people will be in the storm for the very first time. Look how many people live along the coast line. Weve got the coast line handled with those evacuations. My real, real, real present concern is whats going to happen inland. Were talking about, chris, feet of rain. When youre talking from 20 to 30 to possibly 40 inches of rain and all of that rushing in kind of a runoff direction, its going to be a catastrophe for some town, some area with this flood. Tom, you have the storm surge and the winds pushing that water so its not just the rain event. No. And then with all the rain thats falling, that surge is going to keep it inland. Part of the problem is this topography, too. The angle of the coast lines and the angle of approach florence is making. Its a big difference when you have it perpendicular is or parallel to the wind event. So i mean youre absolutely right. Were going to have flooding thats going to be well inland. That surge is going to keep that rain and its going to return on the backside of this storm. So theres always a problem, too, on the backside that many think theyre in the clear and theyre just not. People sleep when they see the eye and its a bad wake up call every time. Tom, thank you very much. Ill be checking back with you early and often. Sam, stay here because now were going to go to the next phase of insight. Were going to have brett adaire join us. Hes a storm chaser. He just made his way to the front lines of florence. What concerns him about florence and something many dont know about the economic risk for people who live in the carolinas. Stay with us. Dear foremothers, your society was led by a woman, who governed thousands. Commanded armies. Yielded to no one. When i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. My name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. Now with 2 times more geographic detail than other dna tests. Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com you wouldnt accept an incomplete job from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase sensimist relieves your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. It helps block six key inflammatory substances. Most pills block one. Flonase sensimist. And an ice plant. Rs withne. 70megawatts, 35 mules, but we brought power to the people redefining what that meant from one era to the next. Over 90 years later we continue to build as one of the nations largest investors in infrastructure. We dont just help power the american dream. Were part of it. This is our era. This is Americas Energy era. Nextera energy p3 its meat, cheese and nuts. I keep my protein interesting. Oh yea, me too. I have cheese and uh these herbs. P3 snacks. The more interesting way to get your protein. The good news is florence has slowed down. Heed the warnings, execute it, get out if you were directed to do so. The bad news, slowing down has allowed this storm to expand. Its roughly 300 miles off the southeast coast of wilmington, North Carolina. Locals have cleared out to a large degree. Some hunkering down. Take a look at this video. This is inside the eye of the storm. This is the calm area with hell on all sides. Air force flying right into it gathering weather data for the National Hurricane center to provide all of us with the most Accurate Information about this monster storm. That takes us to brett adaire. These a storm chaser extraordinaire and field meteorologist. Joins us right now from wilmington. Now, youre there. Thank you. Be safe. Because thats where we expected to be the main hit from landfall. But now we see a turn, we see an increase in size. What does it mean to you . Yeah, chris. Weve been watching this thing all day with the Hurricane Center updates. Weve been watching the live air force reconnaissance going in checking the storm out. To us basically, a stallout on the coast line would be a worst case situation because youre going to see those Hurricane Force impacts be felt here in wilmington and along the beaches here for a much longer period of time as well as that inland heavy rainfall threat. Plus youve got the storm surge. And then youve got the waves on top of the storm surge so were very concerned for this area no doubt. Whats next for you in terms of what you want to see with this storm . Well, chris, were really just monitoring the situation. We want everyone here to understand just because we have seen maybe what they would call a weakening of the storm, just because the winds are down below 120 miles an hour, that means nothing. This storm is massive. It is much larger than hugo was when it hit this area in 89. Its larger than hazelle was when it hit in 54. Those are the two benchmark storms for the carolinas. So just because youve seen a little bit of weakening in the winds doesnt mean those wind fields arent growing larger and going to affect a larger land mass. This is still a serious storm, a dangerous threat as we go into the next couple of days. All right. I have sam champion here. What do you have for brett adaire . So, brett, i think you made a huge point for these people because there is only one time that i have ever been forced out of a shelter, and that was a category 1 storm, brett. Its exactly what you just said. Is that it stayed over us for 20 hours. The building was fine, secure, the roof was fine. This was a great place to be for the storm. But 20 hours of being in a blender took the windows out, took the walls down, took the roof out. Its the kind of thing that prolonged damage can be worse than that initial hit. So, brett, are you hearing that people are relaxing a little bit now, or are they still on point with the watches and warnings in the area . Oh, everybody is still paying a lot of attention to the situation, sam. Most of the folks we talk to here along the immediate coast line are absolutely going to heed those evacuation orders and get out. Some of the more interior people, you know, they were getting all the supplies, the generators, the fuel. But again, like you said, if this storm sits here for 24 hours, even longer, youve got the freshwater flooding threat that you could get trapped along with that wind damage threat, the surge threat, all that water from the atlantic is going to go up the rivers and into the inlets. Where is it going to go . Its going to spill out on the land. And water that you cant use. So if youre stuck, you dont have potable water. Youre just sitting and waiting and putting a ton of stress on the First Responders. And we know how that story goes. Brett, be safe. Ill be checking in with you. Im going to be down there later tonight. Im sure well meet up at some point, okay . Thank you, brother, appreciate it. You know, the story there is a story in a lot of the science. So you and i are covering a we covered like a hundred storms. A lot. I think were in super storm sandy, and im standing somewhere and you say, we have to leave. Were in downtown manhattan. It was not that bad. I remember. You say, no, its duration. We cant take this level of rain for this long with this wind. Were going to get stuck. Cut to two hours later, were staring at my brother across in that big humv. The west side highway, we were trapped on top of a van and inside the van for the entire night and it happened like that. Yeah. And that storm surge and again, we cant tell you exactly where the storm surge is going to set up. That was an 11foot wall of water that moved across the area that we were. And that water came up so quickly that nobody could even get out. The same thing will happen in some part of the coast line here. And what i want people who are seasoned, you know, North Carolina and South Carolina who lived there for ever and been through storms, storm surge is the thing you cant beat. You might be able to protect yourself from the wind, but you storm surge will take you, the building, whatever youre in with it and it will youll be gone. So thats the one game you dont want to play. And the second game i dont like here is the freshwater flooding. All of that flooding inland. Chris, there are so many people who just wont be able to take this and will lose everything in the kind of flooding that we have the potential of having with this storm. Two points. The first is you think you can do it, but you cant. Again, thats super storm sandy. I wanted to try to swim across. Youre like, yeah, go ahead, try to make it to your brother. Let me have your mother on the phone because youre never going to make it. There are cars, telephone poles. The difference between the word hurricane and flooding, we use them together all the time. Its common sense. It should. Thats not how the economics works. Put up the graphic of how many people have Flood Insurance under the program in the carolinas. All right. The numbers are small, but let me just take you through it. Sam directed me to this earlier today as a big factor. Dark colors along the coast. Youll see numbers there of somewhere between 20 to 35 little north of that percent, people have Flood Insurance. They have hurricane insurance, but they dont have Flood Insurance. And once you move inland, its in the Single Digits in most places. Now, how does that play out in a storm like this . Horrifying. Kudos to my friend paul walsh. He handles the business of weather. Hes always looking for this kind of thing. What does it mean economically . This surprised even me, chris. I kind of figured coastal areas would have insured flood protection. But i expected more inland areas. So a lot of people, since we have put this out on twitter, have talked about it. They said, yeah, we dont zr Flood Insurance in the area. Or we had a problem getting when storms came before, we had a problem getting paid out for Flood Insurance so we didnt pick it up again. This is the hard thing. Insurance companies dont like to he pay out. We all know that. Theyre going to make it difficult for you to get money from this. And time is on their side. Time is on their side. Delaying is literally on your life. If your house is not livable, where are you going to live while youre waiting to get the check . But the problem here not having it is this is going to fall on the backs of people who really just cant take that. If you lose your home, you lose your car, you lose the way you can get to work, you lose the clothes that your kids wear to school, you lose everything. And how do you make that up . You know, so thats the problem in these areas in North Carolina, inland areas. Im concerned about this all the way to the mountains and beyond. Even some of this heavy rain in north georgia, tennessee, eastern tennessee, eastern kentucky, southern ohio. And as tom pointed out, now were looking at this thing maybe spinning around back up toward new england carrying some of that heavy rain. In the same areas where the moisture from gordon just went through. The ground is saturated. This is going to flood like that. And, by the way, this isnt the only storm in the area. Right. Right. Youre keeping your eyes on something in the gulf, two or three others in a cluster coming offer the african coast. A lot of people are going to need to know about what is a landfalling system, a hurricane or Tropical Storm in the caribbean, the central caribbean. And then the other thing, look at the 70 zone. That isnt named yet but it is in the gulf, and the gulf is a perfect area to develop storms. What does that mean, 70 . 70 means they have a high probability of becoming a Tropical Storm. Its not named yet. Not named yet. They look at it and is it a 10 chance, 30 chance it will develop . This has been increasing. And the gulf is like an incubator for storms. Its perfect for them to develop. So texas, south texas has had a lot of flooding lately. Cant take a system like this. Houston, we all know the stories last year in flood forgive houston. Houston and north texas had a lot of rain as well. This will be a huge problem even if it doesnt develop. If it just moves on shore exactly like it is, this is a lot of rain for texas. They need to be ready for this. Its one of the things thats frustrating what did we learn from last year. Duration of precipitation, not just to rhyme, is a real problem. That was harvey. Irma, you forget about the strength of the storm. It changes direction and it hangs out places that you didnt expect it to. Its devastating. We learned that just last year. Yeah. And well see exactly the same thing with this storm. And again, people tend to forget because inland folks dont deal with storms like this a lot. But well have tornadoes. Well have severe thunderstorms. Well have flooding. And theyll be dealing with it for days. There will be Power Outages most likely hundreds of miles away from the shoreline just because of this system. Sam champion, nobody does it better. Thank you for helping me once again. Unfortunately, i think im going to need you more in this storm season because theres a lot coming our way. There is. Thank you, my friend. Sam champion, everybody. A man with a lot of experience with storms, mayor of floridas capital Andrew Gillum hoping to be the governor of the state. Well tap into what he learned the last time around. There was blame to go around. What he thinks about what the president said about puerto rico. This isnt just about trump. Those Puerto Ricans left the island, many of them are now potential voters in florida. Andrew gillum next. Why bother mastering something . 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 . Because when you want to create an entirely new feeling, the difference between excellence and mastery, is all the difference in the world. 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Giving technology is not a total solution. Teaching technology, now that is. We worry about storms like florence because of what we dont know. And then they come and we learn too late. But what do we do when they are over . Thats something that were struggling with from last year right now. Now, one person who knows about political fallout and needing to learn in the past is the current mayor of tallahassee and the democrat running to be floridas next governor Andrew Gillum. Welcome back to primetime, sir. Thanks so much for having me. Obviously my heart goes out to those as they prepare for florence, as she makes heron tri onto the united states. I hope that all of those in harms way will heed the warning of their elected officials and leaders and evacuate if theyre in the path of danger. What is your word to the leaders on the ground there from what you learned last year . I would say first of all, ensure that you aggregate all the help you need on the frond end. There are a lot of layers to this thing. Obviously the First Response you want to have in place is for individuals to protect life and to save life, to recover folks from danger. And then beyond that there are going to be some difficult days where people are inconvenienced. They wont have power. Theyll be inconvenienced by some of the water damage. And thats when folks start to get frustrated. Help them through that. Make sure you have comfort station ands places where folks can, again, begin to get some relief from the storm. And then the dangerous part of recovery and what that means f. Youre from puerto rico, many of those folks are still dealing with what it means to recover from the impact of that storm. I want to encourage we look at it in this way. Thats what being an unsung success as we hear from the president. Imagine if it were a catastrophe in puerto rico and im being sarcastic and with cause, many Puerto Ricans, hundreds of thousands fled the island, many did not return, and they are in mostly south florida and they are eligible as american citizens, to register to vote. So, when i ask you about what the president said about puerto rico, its not just about politicians infighting. You have potential constituents who are listening. What do you make of what he said, what do you want the Puerto Ricans in south florida who may vote to know . Well, i mean, another disappointment by this president who seems to be completely disconnected from the reality of the lived experiences of so many of those folks who were displaced because we failed to respond appropriately. I mean, we saw the images of pallets of water that never got distributed. I went to puerto rico a few weeks ago and traveled into the interior of the island where there were still folks there that had not had their utility restored and a major water problem that theyre still trying to figure out. And this president has the unmitigated gall to describe what he did as some form of success. Its a disappointment. These are american citizens. They are deserving of a proper and an appropriate federal response, and they didnt get that in this case. And donald trump and all throughout the system, there is enough blame to go around. You would think hed be contrite and figure outweighs to fix it. Instead hes patting himself on the back. What he points to is puerto ricos fragility, its on them. Of course the irony is if you knew it was fragile and people did know, why didnt you prepare more . You have Puerto Ricans in florida looking at the numbers on your race for whatever good polls are. You know the quinnipiac poll came out. You guys are basically within the margin of error from one another. Its a tight race. One of the reasons everybody is watching a governors race which ordinarily doesnt draw as much national attention, but because its florida and youve got over 93 in each party says i know who im voting for. One of the areas of spread is latinos, hispanics as its termed in the poll. Desantis has a little bit of strength against you with hispanics. Do you think it makes a difference . Hes trumps guy. Trump calls it an unsung success. Does he . And is this something youre going to go after . First of all, i think we are going to get our fair share of the hispanic vote. Not only will this storm and this storm response that mr. Desantis and mr. Trump share in will that be a problem for them, but his position on health care is going to be a problem for him. He doesnt believe in expanding medicaid for 700,000 of the most medically needy people in this state. His economic plan, which we havent seen yet, i mean hes basically told the press in this state that hes not talking to them because he hadnt formulated what his agenda is for the people of the state of florida. He was a near guarantee to win his primary and still didnt think about why hes running for governor and what he wants to do for the people of the state of florida . Thats whats going to do him in. Obviously the storm will be a part of that, but largely it is that he has no real ideas to move this state forward. When you compare that to what were offering, voters are going to make and have a clear choice here, and that is theyre going to choose to go forward, not backwards. Theyre going to choose hope and inspiration and aspiration and not derision and division this candidate happens to be offering. As we talked before and we have to talk more on this show about as an issue, his problem is he doesnt want to cover enough people. Your problem is you want to cover everybody but you dont know exactly how to pay for it yet. Those are interesting issues for the electorate. I know you have your ideas. We invited congressman desantis. Sure. Hes retired for the purposes of his election. But we asked him to come on the show actually for months. Hes invited on again. If he doesnt come, thats his choice. You are invited back to discuss that issue because the economy and health care are the two biggest issues in all recent polling for your voters. Well have you on and we look forward to what your take is on how florence is handled because of your own experience in florida. Thank you, sir. Indeed. Look forward to it. And look forward to sharing with you my plan to pay for it. Good. Andrew gillum, good to have you. So, are we ready . Is the federal government ready . The president proclaimed again tonight, yes. 100 . Now all we want is for that to be true, right . But it wasnt the case in puerto rico. It wasnt a great job. Its still not a great job. Americans there are struggling, and more failures were just exposed. Were going to have a great debate about the reality next. Take us downtown, waze. Waze integration seamlessly connecting the world inside. With the world outside. Making life a little. Easier. Introducing the wellconnected lincoln mkc. Tremfya® is fors caadults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Im ready. With tremfya®, you can get clearer. And stay clearer. In fact, most patients who saw 90 clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. Tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin, and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. Tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. Before starting tremfya® tell your doctor if you plan to or have recently received a vaccine. Ask your doctor about tremfya®. Tremfya®. Because you deserve to stay clearer. Janssen wants to help you explore cost support options. President trump can say it. He can say it again. He can demand it. He can wave his fists when he says it. And it is never true. Calling the recovery and response to puerto rican unsung success is only half right. It is unsung because it is not a success. Millions are now in the path of florence. They are looking to their president for reassurance that he has everything in order. And when they hear whats going on with puerto rico, its hard to have his credibility be not held in check. Listen to the most recent sound bite. Tremendous people working on the hurricane. First responders, Law Enforcement and fema, and theyre all ready and were getting tremendous accolades. Good. They should be ready. Accolades for what they do right, the president , the government should be applauded. But what they do wrong, they have to own or we dont learn and people dont have confidence. Lets debate the status quote with anna navarro and steve cortez. Steve, puerto rico has its problems. Its vulnerable. Everybody knew it. It wasnt prepared for, fema admits it. The president says it is an unsung success. That is not true. Can i get an amen . No, i will not give you an amen. I wish he had continued the sentence and the thought, though, and said, an unsung success given the horrific conditions of both the island before the storm unfortunately, the infrastructure particularly, really a third world infrastructure because of a very corrupt government, combined with acts of god that island has never seen before. Two horrific storms in succession. So i think unsung success given the circumstances is a very rational and logical and truthful analysis. Anna, we have picture from bill weir where hes flying over one of the areas inland in puerto rico and he comes across what looks like some kind of megamall. And what those are are 20,000 pallets of water that was never delivered to people, even though they were in dire straits. The government knew the situation in puerto rico. They knew the storms were coming. Fema admits it did not anticipate the need and did not organize the place is still under water literally and figurative in some places. How is it a success . Its not a success. Look, any time you have 3,000 people, 3,000 americans, 3,000 u. S. Citizens die, it is not a success. And let me remind you that for almost a year the government covered up these deaths. They told us over and over again that there had been 64 deaths in puerto rico. And by the way, i also think the State Government in puerto rico is complicit in this and governor has some explaining to do. Its not just the federal government. I give the Trump Administration and fema accolades for the way they behaved in harvey and irma. I was in florida. Im a floridian. You could see the activity. The bottom line and the facts are that the response to maria was slower and it was less than harvey or irma. Despite the fact that the necessity was much more. We know puerto rico was an island. Its not like a meteor fell from the sky one day suddenly and it became an island. Its an island, okay, its always been an island. We knew the infrastructure was affected. We knew the Electric Company was affected. We know that its been in a debt and financial crisis now for years because of the inefficiency and incapacity and corruption of the puerto rican government. They have some responsibility. But the federal government knew that puerto rico required more help than texas or florida. And they did not give the same level of response that they did to texas or florida. The question is, why . Steve . Well, you know, im glad you asked that, by the way, because one much our colleagues Jeffrey Tubin made a very careless statement, ridiculous statement frankly when he said they didnt respond because it wasnt white people on the island of puerto rico. Im glad you mentioned Hurricane Harvey in texas because houston, texas, is perhaps the most diverse metro area in america. Houston, in fact, the metro area, has more people of color than the entire island of puerto rico. And yet the Disaster Response in houston, texas, has been uniformly praised from the federal government and the State Government. So its clearly not a case of the president ignoring people of color, ignoring black and brown people in need. The difference is texas is a prosperous place with largely Good Government and is not an island. All three are the opposite in puerto rico, which made the situation there much, much more dire. But to affix this to racism as the left so often does, it reaches its conclusion first that the president is a racist and then it tries to come up with the reasons why is really an insult. Its an insult to First Responders, an insult to the president lets speak to First Responders let me give you some facts, though. Let me give you some facts. Six days after harvey, there were 73 helicopters that were operating onsite. It took three weeks after maria where there was such need to evacuate people because there was no electricity. People were dying because they couldnt hookup their oxygen machines. People were dying because they couldnt keep their insulin refrigerated. It took three weeks to get the same amount of helicopters that it did six days after maria. It took donald trump four days to show up in florida and four days to show up in harvey. Places that had been devastated by the hurricane. It took him almost two weeks to show up in puerto rico. What did he do . He lobbed paper towels at the puerto rican people. There were millions and millions more meals, more liters of water, more tarps sent to Harvey Relief and irma relief than there were to puerto rico in the same nine days immediate response. You cant argue with the fact that the response was less. It was lower. It was not sufficient. And we knew, you know, one of the things with hurricanes as weve seen this week is that they give you advance warning. Its not a tornado, its not an earthquake. We knew for days this was going to happen. It took the uss comfort three weeks to show up there. Listen, you dont i sat in my house watching a you know a hurricane is going to strike the eastern united states. Anna, you dont have advance notice to build infrastructure. You cant build infrastructure within days of knowing that a hurricane is going to arrive and that is the difference between texas, a place where the government did a great job helping a lot of americans, millions of americans of color recover quickly and puerto rico were a lot of americans unfortunately you need to land the helicopter. How much infrastructure do you need to land a military helicopter . You have continuing need in puerto rico thats still not met and thats why the question remains. They just keep not getting it right. We have to leave it there for now. Anna navarro, thank you. Steve cortez as always. All right. What we keep hearing is this one is different. Florence is a storm unlike any other. Dont get caught up in the category. Why . Were going to help put this hurricane in perspective for you and why this one could be so bad, next. You wouldnt accept an incomplete job from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . 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So you can get the best deal on the right hotel for you. Dates, deals, done tripadvisor. Visit tripadvisor. Com a book that youre ready to share with the world . Get published now, call for your free publisher kit today all right. Right after the show im going to head down to the carolina coast obviously to cover Hurricane Florence. Here are some of the stats to contextualize the storm as we understand it right now. It could be the most intense storm to hit the carolina coast in at least 25 years. From late thursday through early sunday, florence is only going to travel about 150 miles. Slow is bad with a hurricane, okay . Thats literally slower than walking pace. Parts of North Carolina could get up to 40 inches of rainfall. Now, why . Three reasons. One, saturation of the ground from so much rain already and from parts surrounding it. Two, the size of the storm. Three, the speed, okay . What does this all mean . It means you got to heed the warnings. Youve got to make a plan and you have to live up to it. Somebody knows this as a professional and as someone who grew up in a hurricanevulnerable area, don lemon. Hes with us right now. Youre going to head down as well. Ive been getting a lot of calls from local officials saying, please keep telling people, dont sleep on this storm because it got weaker in category size. Yeah. Well, and when people say, oh, well, you know, its never as bad as the media says. Well, sometimes they are as bad, and sometimes they are worse. So it doesnt matter if its not as bad as we say because the forecasters are predicting this. And what were trying to do is save your life, keep the loss of life to a minimum, if at all. So i think, again, heed the warnings. Ive gone through a number of them as a child growing up and a young person growing up in louisiana and also covering them as well. Can i just say something, chris . I dont want to insert myself in your show, but it was shocking to me when i heard what steve cortes said about my colleague, Jeffrey Toobin. A gross mischaracterization of what he said. So i went back to look at what he said. He did not say that the president would not send people did not send people in to rescue people because they were not white. What he said is if 3,000 white people had died in florida or texas, he would not be or would we be saying it was a success . Would he be saying it was a success . Those are two different things, and i think that was a gross mischaracterization. As someone who works here at cnn, Jeffrey Toobin is my colleague. I just felt the need to defend him and set the record straight. Its a fair point, and also toobin is far from the only person who said exactly that, including among major congressional leaders. Don, thank you very much for setting the record straight. I keep saying i fear whats coming because, as don was just saying, ive been in storms like this, and i know that the difference between a 2, a 3, a 4 is meaningless when youre on the ground. So if youre still debating whether to stay or go, i have a Closing Argument for you. Please listen and consider. Geico has over 75 years of great savings and service. With such a long history, its easy to trust geico thank you todd. Its not just easy. Itsbeingamasterofhypnotism easy. Hey, i got your text sleep doug, when i snap my fingers youre going to clean my gutters. Ooh i should clean your gutters great idea. Its not just easy. Its geico easy. Todd, you will go make me a frittata. If youre waiting patiently for a liver transplant, it could cost you your life. Its time to get out of line with upmc. At upmc, livingdonor transplants put you first. So you dont die waiting. Upmc does more livingdonor liver transplants than any other center in the nation. Find out more and get out of line today. This wifi is fast. I know i know i know i know when did brian move back in . Brians back . He doesnt get my room. Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. All right. Closing argument for you. Almost exactly a year ago, we were getting slapped around by Hurricane Irma and its aftermath. You remember this, right . That storm and harvey before it, they gave us lessons for florence. The main one, a stalled storm creates suffering. Harvey proved 30 inches of rain or more in a day with even 50mileanhour winds blowing it around creates deadly surge and fatalities from flooding many miles inland. Shelters were a struggle. Many went missing. You remember us making calls here at night trying to reconnect folks . Hey, jess, im alive. Theres no fatalities that i know of. Its just a mess, a total mess down here. Okay, honey. I love you. All right. Bye. Thanks, guys. That was in the keys in florida. All this infrastructure, and yet they needed our Satellite Phone to let people know after days that they were still alive. That storm showed us a change of direction and duration, and for it to happen quickly like may happen with florence, its too late to adjust. Youre out of position. So the lesson is you have to err on the side of caution. You must go. You saw us weathering that storm. Winds were upward of like 140 miles an hour, all right . You saw what they can do to the beefiest of us. You have to play the percentages. A long drive home is a lot better than a short struggle with rising waters and wind. Now, youve seen us. We chase storms. We stand in them. We survey the effects of a lot of different types of historic natural disasters. Ive been with First Responders making miracles happen after a storm, and i see the makings of a bad situation here. Not just because of what we cant control, but because of what we can. Many are not leaving. Many are seeing the 5 go to a 4, go to a 3, and theyre thinking its okay. I have never felt the difference between a 1, 3, or 5 on the ground. Things fly by. People die. Are we going to make sure that the events are recorded . Yes. Thats why we go, so that you know what happens. So that our leaders know, First Responders know, the people from the area know. Thats why we go. I would not be there for any other reason, ill tell you that. If i lived there with my family, i would go. If youre in the area, do what is the absolute safest course of action, please. And if youre watching what happens from home, remember there but for the grace go you. And please do what you can to help your brothers and sisters after the storm. Well be coming to you from the landfall zone starting tomorrow night. I will see you then. If you are in the area, please be safe. Thank you for watching. Cnn tonight with don lemon picks up the coverage right now. You are absolutely right. Great coverage. Hey, listen, i enjoyed your show. You know what the best thing was . Sam. You got it. You know me so well. You know me so well. Simple read. Thank you, chris. Ill see you down there tomorrow. Safe travels. Be safe. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Our breaking news, Hurricane Florence now a category 3 storm. 115mileanhour winds. 115 miles an hour. Hurricaneforce winds extend outward up to 70 miles from the center and Tropical Storm force winds now extend outward up to 195 miles. Thats massive. Ive covered a lot of storms. Im going to be heading down to the zone in just a few hours. By any measure, this is a monster storm. This one is a monster. An extremely dangerous major hurricane according to the National Hurricane center. A storm so massive, an astronaut on the space station said they could only capture it with a super wide angle lens, calling it, quote, chilling even from space. Thats a quote right there. With wave heights of up to 83 feet. Thats about the height of a sevenstory building. Moving more and more slowly as it closes in on the carolina coast