Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room 20140703

Wolf blitzer is off today. Im Brianna Keilar and youre in the situation room. We have breaking news. Hurricane arthur arriving. The storm is already lashing the North Carolina coast with heavy rain and winds up to 95 Miles Per Hour. Storm surge is expected, deadly rip currents offshore, deadly flooding inland. Isolated tornados are also possible along the outer bands of the storm and a tornado watch is up for eastern parts of North Carolina. Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate vulnerable Barrier Islands and many more are strongly urged to do so. Our correspondents are standing by in the hurricane zone from Wrightsville Beach, up the coast to Kill Devil Hills with the kind of coverage that only cnn can deliver. Were going to begin with the latest forecast, so lets go straight now to cnn meteorologist and Severe Weather expert, chad myers. What are you seeing, chad . Brianna, we hope the 5 00 increase would take it down to a category 1 hurricane this evening, but they still go category 2. 100mileperhour storm, now slamming cape fear right there, the eye of the storm, well defined and completely clear, which means the storm is still getting bigger. One of our correspondents right there, alina many in wilmington city. All three reporters in the way of this storm. All three may get the eye wall tonight and that eye wall may include 100mileperhour winds. It moves along the coast. And this is the problem, prolonged wind coming onshore of 100 Miles Per Hour, scouring the beach, taking out homes, of course, taking out roads for sure, and then as this storm goes by, the winds come from the other side at about 100 Miles Per Hour, on the backside of the eye. So this is a onetwo punch along that North Carolina coast. The southeast carolina coast. By morning, now were talking again, parts of the east here, were talking nagshead and that little peninsula we talk about, called the outer banks. Thats not until tomorrow morning. So now we still have at least 12 hours of pounding surf in these regions before it heads up to atlantic canada, maybe even getting towards the bay of fundy, up into nova scotia and newfoundland. Theres the storm on the satellite. Its still gaining strength. Usually when they get close to shore, they start to die off. This one, not so much. Still very warm water where its at right now. And you mentioned alina who is in Wrightsville Beach, near wilmington. Alina, tell us what youre seeing. Reporter as you can see, it is very, very windy here. And this is what we have been seeing now for several hours. It started off slow here, but right now, the wind, the wind gusts are strong. The rain has died down just a bit, but we have had heavy downpours at times. Very steady for several hours, and really, brianna, the good news here, at least, is that for the most part, people have heeded the warnings, theyve stayed out of the water in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, and officials here hope that that stays that way, because conditions here are only expected to worsen. Brianna . All right, alina, thank you so much. And lets move along the coast and go live to cnns renee ma h marsh. She is in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Tell us the scene there, renee. Well, take a look, brianna. We can tell you, things have changed over the last couple of hours. The winds definitely picking up, and we do notice that were seeing a lot of rough surf here. The tide is even coming a little higher, because we were standing here just a second ago, and this wasnt happening. The bottom of my jeans are now getting wet. Take a look at that sign there, no lifeguard on duty. So if you are out here, which im happy to say, we dont see anywhere in the water at this moment, but if you are out here, you are definitely swimming at your own risk. All right. Well, so back out here live, i want to really set the scene. Lets take a look over here go, go, go, go go i want to set the scene for you guys. Take a look here. You can see that there is actually no one in the water at this moment, which is good, because earlier today, just a matter of hours ago, we saw those red flags going out. As we speak to you, we feel that the rain is coming down a lot heavier and the wind is blowing. If you look over there, you see just a couple of people on the sand, making their way possibly to their hotel. You always have situations like this, where you have people who are just very curious and they want to come out here. But the good news, brianna, like i said, no one in the water. But this is just the beginning, because what were really expecting is heavier rain, stronger winds. I would say roughly another five hours from now. And as we speak, we can feel at least one of those bands coming in on us, because now its starting to come down. But, again, were really expecting the heavy stuff roughly another six hours from now. Brianna . Yeah, weve heard that rain increase, renee, just as weve been talking to you in the last couple of minutes. Lets go back now to Wrightsville Beach. Mark ledford is joining us on the phone. Hes the facilities manager at the shell island sort there in Wrightsville Beach. Give us a sense of what youre seeing from your vantage point. Were starting to see the water come up a little further. A lot of wind is picking up, and were expecting it to get more windy. So weve taken our precautions. And what about your guests there at the resort. What are they hanging tight or waiting the weather this . The guests are hanging tight. They actually seem to be having a good time. Theyre ready to wait it out and theyre just kind of hanging out. Are they what kind of precautions have you taken and have you made any recommendations to them . Well, first thing, we made sure that all of our stuff thats loose outside on the ground, weve put them inside and locked it down. Made sure we didnt have anything, flying projectiles. Made sure they close their sliding glass doors and stay away from those doors when it gets real windy and made sure that our alarm systems were working correctly and our intercom system was working correctly. Did you have anyone put off their trip to stay at your resort, or do you have them even coming out yesterday and staying through the weekend, just weathering the storm . Yeah, most of them are staying through the weekend. We had a lot of checkins, actually, today. And they were still coming in around 4 00. I think theyre ready to ride out the storm and hopefully have a good rest of the weekend. So, when you, obviously and youre familiar with this. What happens to tourism in the area. There must be some people who decide to put off visits, obviously, restaurants, folks arent going to those as much. What do you see happen. How big of a hit is it on the weekend when the outer banks in the surrounding area are expecting almost a quarter million visitors . Im sure the outer banks ais going to be theyre going to be hurting worse than we are, but for the most part, i think were going to have a busy weekend still. Okay. It sounds like at this point, youre just getting ready, hunkering down. People are hoping for that storm to pass, and we certainly hope the best for you and theres really a limited storm surge. Thanks so much, mark ledford there in Wrightsville Beach. Lets talk to bill blair, the mayor of Wrightsville Beach. Hes joining us now on the phone. And talk to us a little bit, if you will, about sort of what youre seeing, what you are telling your residents, and how youre urging them to stay safe. Well, right now, were kind of between rain bands. Its pretty windy, pretty rainy. Were kind of lucky, because its low tide, so it doesnt lack like well have a lot of beach erosion. It looks like, to us, that the stormss going to move out pretty quickly, and as the shell island folks said, it looks like were going to have a pretty good weekend. We hope its out of here within the next six tight hours. But thats really the concern, right . When youre looking, especially farther up the coast, the tide. It may be low now for you, but as the tide gets higher in certain areas and we see this storm coming onshore, thats really what youre looking out for when youre seeing storms coming toward you in the outer banks and that surrounding area, rig right . Yeah. Landfall with a high tide is not a great combination and the fact that we have an outgoing tide right now is a big benefit to the beach. So i want to ask you, because youre also very familiar, im sure, youre probably studying and waiting to hear what the updates are on what category this is. Category 1 now could come to a category 2. And youre looking at the damage that is expected between a category and a category 2, its a significant jump. Are you more concerned if this is a category 2. If this storm were to slow down in a category 2, you would see a significant difference in damage, especially on the loss of sand and beach erosion. It would be much more significant than a category 2, at a slower space, yes. And are you hearing any concerns from residents, are you feeling that youre very much in touch with the state and with federal authorities and youre getting all the resources you need . Yeah, weve got we have everybody out today, all our Public Safety guys, ocean rescue. Were fully prepared for if the storm were to get worse here, were fully we havent declared a state of emergency, and the state is aware of everything were doing, but we feel like were in pretty good shape. Weve been through this many times before and the residents are used to this sort of activity, so were pretty prepared. All right, mayor, thanks so much for talking to us here at cnn. Really appreciate it. Brianna, thank you. And next, another vulnerable Barrier Island town is bracing for the worst from hurricane arthur. We will take you live to Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Ive had surgery, and yes, i have occasional constipation. Thats why i take doctor recommended colace capsules. [ male announcer ] for certain medical conditions where straining should be avoided, colace softens the stool for effective relief from occasional constipation. Go to colacecapsules. Com for savings. Humans. We are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. Thats why Liberty Mutual insurance has your back, offering exclusive products like optional better car replacement, where if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. Call. And ask an Insurance Expert about all our benefits today, like our 24 7 support and service, because at Liberty Mutual insurance, we believe our customers do their best out there in the world, so we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. Plus, you could save hundreds when you switch, up to 423. Call. Today. Liberty Mutual Insurance responsibility. Whats your policy . As we speak, hurricane arthur is lashing the North Carolina coast. It is currently gaining in intensity. Lets get the very latest from chad myers, cnn meteorologist and Severe Weather expert. What are we seeing, chad . Well, were seeing the eye itself getting very close to cape fear. There is the northern eye wall right there. Heres cape fear at the very low point, theres our wrights victim beach, right there. Let me show you the difference, what it looks like, just being about ten miles closer to the eye. Heres our shot from Wrightsville Beach, waves are high. You can see the breakers way out, about, i would say, thats at least 300, 400 yards out to sea. People are still walking around, winds at 45 to 50 Miles Per Hour. Theyre legs are getting sandblasted, i guarantee you, at that kind of wind speed. But just down the beach, a little bit closer to the eye, this is what our surfchecks. Com camera looks like. Just shaking winds, 65 or 70 Miles Per Hour, literally why conditions at time. This is the beach right there. Hard to distinguish the water from the sand. Someone trying to get out of the way of that wind right there, the waves just absolute foam. And all were talking about is ten miles. The the difference between that point there and that point there on our map. Here is the story with the hurricane right now. A visible eye. The best eye weve seen all day, meteorologically, the worst eye for the people that live there or that are vacationing there. Because that means the storm is still getting stronger. Still breathing, still bringing in air at the surface, releasing it up through the eye wall and blowing it out as cirrus clouds across the storm itself. This is how a hurricane gets bigger. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. And thats whats going on with this storm right now. Its eventually going to link up with a cold front and push it out to sea, but thats going to take a while. By tomorrow night, boston, youre going to get an awful lot of rain as the storm approaches you. Were also going to see significant storm surge. The main sea level is going to be high about six hours. Theyre at low tide now, its going to be high tide then. This is bad news, as the high tide comes in, and at least another three to four feet of storm surge, it will take the water right up on the beach, right into the sea marsh, right into the sea oat grass, above and on top of the roadways in many places around North Carolina. Believe it or not, there have been three arthurs, three, because they dont retire names unless its a bad storm. 1996, june, theres arthur right there. Whats that . Thats North Carolina. Now lets switch you ahead, because they recycle them every six years. Heres july 2002, guess what, thats arthur. Now we go to this year, and that is a much more sinister storm, 2014, we didnt get one six years ago, but three arthurs in the same place. Thats a little weird. All right. North carolina all too familiar with arthur and one looking to be a mean one. Chad myers, thank you so much. I want to go now to petty officer tim burns of the u. S. Coast guard. Hes joining us on the phone now from the hatteras inlet station. Tell us a little bit, one of the issues here for you, right, is that as we move towards a higher tide and hatteras is certainly looking right in the path of this, there must be some concern there. Yes, maam, it is. High tide actually is forecasted or predicted tomorrow morning around 12 30 in the morning. And based on the current track of the storm, as ive been saying, thats kind of when its supposed to hit. So something to take very seriously as far as being out and about and you know, staying off the beaches and staying safe. And what does that mean for you, in terms of storm surge and really compounding the problem of what you would see from flooding . Well, specifically in hatteras, because its such a lowlying area, youre going to see a lot of potential overwash from the beach. You know, overtaking the roads, just making it very hazardous to just travel by car. So, again, the proximity to the water, were so close with the sand dunes just on the other side of the roads there, so its going to be pretty hazardous. Advise everyone to just stay safe and stay inside and definitely away from the beach and its always kind of interesting to see people kind of get out and see the storm, but the one thing that gets people off guard is strong storms surge and the unpredictability of the waves. Just telling people to stay off the beach and stay safe. And what sort of response are you prepared to make . What do you expect youre going to see . Youve seen other storms before, im sure. What normally happens in this case. When are you coming to the aid of people . Fortunately for us, weve had a majority of the boating traffic down here heed the warning and weve had very little traffic, which is definitely what we like to see as far as people taking the storms seriously. Weve actually prepositioned some of our boats further up inland, away from the storms, so theyll be safe to actually come back down once the storm has passed, so we can resume normal operations. And once that storm discuss passed, well be out ensuring that the channels are clear, making sure that the routes are all for navigable waters are safe for the ferries to start going again, and our main mission in assisting lives or saving lives if necessary. Certainly to note, if Emergency Responders are taking cover, a lot of folks should be heeding the warnings. Tim burns with the u. S. Coast guard, thank you so much. I want to go further up the coast now to cnn Senior Correspondent, joe johns. He is in the outer banks, those vulnerable Barrier Islands. He is in a place called Kill Devil Hills. Joe, tell us what youre seeing there. Reporter well, brianna, as you can see, over the last couple of hours, weve really started to see a change in the situation here at Kill Devil Hills. The mist has started rolling in, the waves have picked up dramatically. Now, when the National Weather Service Upgraded the seriousness of this storm this afternoon, the dare county Emergency Management really essentially started trying to increase the recommendation for people who live theory decide to go ahead and leave. Especially around the area south of here near Hatteras Island. Theyre telling them, if you havent decided already to evacuate, you need to reconsider that decision. Were talking about 40,000 to 50,000 people who have to find somewhere else to go as this storm begins moving up the coast. And now, there are a lot of reasons for that. Its not just the concern about the weather, which could be severe, its also a very big concern about the roads. Specifically, North Carolina, highway 12. Now, that road tends to wash out wherever theres a hurricane, and it washed out a big way just a couple of years ago. There are fears about water on the road as well as a lot of sand. And in that situation, the Emergency Personnel who are standing by to try to clear the road cannot do that until the weather stops being so dangerous. So a series of bad, you know, possibilities here in North Carolina, brianna. All right, joe johns for us in Kill Devil Hills. Well be checking back in with you. But lets bring in now cnns tom foreman. Hell actually mapping out the flood risk in the evacuation routes for us. And of course this gets more concerning, because as weve been talking about, high tide is expected to be happening around time that this could be coming by hatteras and the other parts of the outer banks. Sure, if you think about what joe just said a minute ago, about highway 12 out there, i want you to take a look at what hes making reference to. This is the very area were talking about, the outer banks out here. See that little spit of land out there . This is the area that highway 12 services. And look what happened in 2011, when hurricane irene went through, which was a category 1 at the time. Had a storm surge of 5 to 7 feet, like chad was talking about, and look what happened. Whole areas were cut off and there were really significant problems getting to people. And heres what has continually made this worse for the past 25 years. If you look at our whole area here thats affected, look what has happened with populations. We have been steadily, steadily moving to the beach for ages. This is the percentage increase down here near wilmington. Total population, 125,000. Move over to the next county, 210,000. Move to the next one, 59,000. On and on it goes, in every case, you see these gigantic jumps in the percentage of People Living there. And in the end, by the time you get up here and you add in Virginia Beach and norfolk up here in virginia, youre talking about more than a Million People right now in these coastal counties that are immediately under threat from the storm, and that is a much bigger number than you would have had 15 years ago. Thats when you talk about things like these, evacuation routes which were trying to make reference to, which go all along here and have to feed up into the Community Like this, its a much heavier load on them to get people out and to get riskers in, brianna. All right, tom, thanks so much for mapping that out for us. And coming up, well have the latest forecast for arthur. We are tracking this storm in the cnn hurricane center. Well go back live to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Already really feeling the brutal effects of this storm. Did you know a tensecond test could help your business avoid hours of delay caused by slow internet from the phone company . 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Ive seen the storm make the right turn that we expected all along, finally, because it was really making a bline all the way to wilmington. Heres the line of longitude right there. Follow the eye, now move to the east of that line of longitude. So now we know that it has its eastward component that we always thought. This part of the storm will rotate around, it will wobble up through over moorhead city, through Cape Hatteras, and out to sea, just like that. Because hurricanes dont go in Straight Lines. You think they do, but theyre only going in Straight Lines if theyre very symmetrical. Thats not a symmetrical storm, its kind of a wobbler. This is going to continue to wobble up the east coast. The problem is its wobbling at 90 Miles Per Hour with the eastward front there and its going to get to 100 Miles Per Hour before it does hit Morehead City and then probably into the sound and across to nags head. Heres the issue, when you talk about the sound, its a pretty shallow body of water. You can push water in it, and you can suck water out of it, and you can actually get overwash from both sides, one from the ocean this way, if i draw it right there, the water can come over. And then when the storm goes by, the water rushes out the other way, so, you know, you just saw those erosion pictures that mr. Foreman just showed us, just a little bit, from the storm just a few years ago, we can get it one way and then the other way, we wash out the roads from both directions, brianna. Its pretty scary stuff there, chad. Well be keeping an eye on that as this progresses. Thank you, chad. Lets go now to cnns alina machato in Wrightsville Beach. It seems like conditions have worsened in the last few minutes. Reporter well, brianna, the rain isnt really a factor right this moment, but just the wind, these wind gusts are really picking up. Weve really been feeling them whipping us around for hours now. And were told this is probably going to get worse before it gets better. The good news, though, brianna, is it seems like people are heeding the warnings, theyre staying home and not coming out. I dont know if you notice, but its starting to rain again. Thats kind of the way its been all day. Excuse me a moment, its kind of hard to keep my footing and also hold on to my hat here, brianna. Reporter and alina, lets bring in chad, because i want to get a better, more expert sense of really what shes feeling here, chad. Well, she is now on the north side of a northbound outer band, right through here. Not quite the eye wall, the eye wall is still here, but this outer band shes about to get in will pick those wind speeds up 20 miles an hour from where you are right now, alina. So get ready to batten down your feet, because its about to get really windy. Now, in 20 or so minutes, this band goes by, theres a small break, and then you do get then you do get the north part of the outer eye wall and your wind speeds may pick up another 15 from where youll be here in another 15. So its going to get worse, yes, before it gets better. It gets better probably for you in four hours. But think about the pounding this wind and these waves and all of this now taking on the beaches. A lot of erosion going on right thousand. And alina, are you seeing people out and about there . Reporter you know, weve seen some people out at the beach, every time theres a bit of a break in terms of the rain, but were not seeing people going in the water. And that was really the biggest concern officials here have had this entire time. I mean, the surf is very rough. We are seeing some beach erosion. And really, the last thing people should be doing right now is getting in the water. I think people are also staying home. Not seeing a whole lot of traffic, but weve been primarily at this location so its kind of hard to tell. Chad, do you even want to see people going out to the beach, even if theyre not getting in the water. Shouldnt they be staying away . You should stay away from it. You know, things will start to fly. This is a picture about ten miles south of where alina is right now. This is cure beach. This is the pier at cure beach from our surfchecks. Com camera. Theres nobody on that pier and there shouldnt be, because those piers are getting undercut, some of that sand getting washed away, some of that sand going to never come back, taken out to the ocean a thousand yards and well have to go scoop it up and bring it back. Thats what the picture looks like, not that far away. So when the rain starts, this is what alina is in store for. Ill take you to one more spot, this is five miles north of alina, and a completely different picture. This is what happens when you get a rain band over you. The rain band, when it rains down, it translates. It takes the wind from aloft, that the planes fly through the Hurricane Hunters and slams it to the ground. So in a half hour, this camera will look exactly like this camera right now. And alina will look just like this camera in about ten minutes. Well be watching, chad myers, Alina Machado, thank you so much. Lets go now to jerry jones, he is the mayor of Morehead City, North Carolina. Hes joining us now on the phone. Mayor, tell us what it is like where you are. Well, were just getting to see the storm outside, and our winds are probably 35, 40 miles an hour, but we definitely expect them to pick up quite a bit in the next couple of hours. And are you pretty confident with what how residents, responding . Are there any i mean, weve been hearing people out on the beaches where they shouldnt be. Are you experiencing any of that . I think in fact, i was pleasantly surprised today. We never declared an evacuation either of its always a voluntary evacuation, use your own judgment, but we did mandate one. And its been a lot of people leaving the beach and im hoping theyre going inland, if this has been the evening, and come back tomorrow afternoon when its all over with. But people have been pretty well responsible. Why do you think theyre making that choice this time to leave, even though its not mandatory, or even voluntary at this point. Why are they making that choice . I might pat you on the back for that. I think because of our media and our weather forecasting, i just think weve got gotten the word out and it helps, you know, to let people know what the storm is doing and the potential of it. All right, mayor, thank you so much. Really appreciate you talking to us. I want to go to tom foreman now. He is mapping out the flood risk and the evacuation routes for us. This is a really vulnerable area, tom. And if youre not familiar with the eastern seaboard, you may not understand why its so vulnerable. Its vulnerable, because so much of it is so lowlying out there, brie yantha. Take a look at this. If you see this right here, everything down here that were drawing along here is in an area where if youre talking about a 5 to 7foot storm surge, its potentially vulnerable. Particularly when you get up here, this whole area gets affected and so does this area up into here. This is a lot of people out hear. These islands like Ocracoke Island out here, that has very little chance of staying high and dry in a circumstance like this, and weve already talked about the problems that can happen on highway 12 here. Just as importantly, as much as you may have rain thats pounding down on this area this way, many times a storm like this will carry a lot of rain up into here. And in fact, in hurricane irene, what we saw was a lot of rain here that then came flowing back this way and it started filling up all these sounds. And then you started having a lot of flooding and a lot of different areas and that gave us exactly what we were looking at earlier, roads being washed out, houses being loft. In hurricane irene, you had about 1,100 homes lost in this general area. And of course, there was damage, and as this storm may do the same, went all the way up the eastern seaboard, brianna. And thats one of the concerns here. Its a category 2, which some folks say, well, that could be worse, but youre looking at flooding of 3, 4, 5 feet depending on where you are, you have a high tide, and that really increases the storm surge. One of the things that chad talks about very often that really matters here is the speed of the storm and whether or not it decides its going to sit there and grind for a long period of time. If the storm would simply sweep up this path and be gone, it would do the damage and be gone. The but there are storms sometimes that really come in and they sit down on an area and grind and grind and grind. And when they do that, it allows that water to build up and build up and build up, and that becomes a real problem, especially when you combine it with the wind damage from either direction. The water, always, always, always with hurricanes, water is what you worry about most. We look at the wind because its dramatic and it can do damage, but the thing that puts people out of their homes and wipes out roadways is water. And causes billions of dollars in damage in the case of some hurricanes. Tom, thanks for explaining that to us, really appreciate it. Coming up, hurricane arthur is also impacting air travel. Because this is, yes, a Holiday Weekend, and its just getting started. Well have the latest on this dangerous storm, next. She keeps you on your toes. 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But there are parts of arthur you dont know about. Its those big wide arms that are making showers and storms, lots of lightning across parts of central North Carolina, even to upstate south carolina. Let me show you one of the things thats going to hurt this community all the way from Morehead City, all the way back down here. Notice the shape of the shoreline. It is like a catchers mitt. All of this water thats now pouring in because the wind is blowing it. Think about, you get a cup of black coffee and blow the top off, you kind of try to cool it off. You wet your mouth, your wind, your breath blows the waves to the other side of the cup. Thats whats happening here, except your breath is 100 Miles Per Hour. So its blowing all of this water in ripples, one after another, toward this catchers mitt. And the waters not going to be allowed to go out. As the storm gets closer and closer and the winds get higher and higher, as close as we get to this eye, thats where the winds are going to get higher. The eye wall right through here, the highest winds. All of this water now piling up from Wrightsville Beach, all the way up to surf city, all the way up to Morehead City. You just talked to the mayor of Morehead City. He said a thunderstorm was coming, there it is right there, with one of the outer bands coming to city now, and its going to be hours and hours of this. So think about blowing your coffee for an hour, how much water you push or coffee you push to the other side and think about it blowing it at 90 miles an hour. How much water is going to pile up in these communities. There will be overwash, there will be cities without roads, especially the roads that run all the way through here. Some of the roads, only about i would say, the island, maybe one or two blocks wide. That one or two blocks will be completely overwashed here in a matter of time. Probably two or three hours. Weve been watching this, this is cure beach. You can hardly see, its a white out down here. A little bit farther to the north by about 10 or 15 miles, still doing fairly well. That camera just locked up, but im telling you, you can see the dark horizon here. This is just about and its not nighttime, thats the storm coming here. These are the storms that are headed up towards wilmington and surf city. Theres Wrightsville Beach, one storm after another. And one more thing, because its not bad enough the way it is, anytime you see an orange area here, one of these cells, they could be rotating, theres a tornado watch in effect. Not talking about giant tornadoes, but you only need one small tornado over your house and it will affect you. Tornado watch is in effect. Some tornados have already been on the ground. Brianna . All right, chad. Stick with us. Well be coming back to you momentarily. I want to go now to buzz jones, the owner of a Small Business, this is about three blocks from the beach in Carolina Beach, buzz, thanks for joining us so much. And tell us your concerns about being so close to the beach. Its definitely water, a lot of water in the rain and the storm surge. Were really concerned about the roads closing down. Theres been reports, that they closed the road shortly. And were just trying to wait this thing out. And what does that mean for you, as a business owner, as a resident. I imagine, you have dealt with water damage before. When this storm passes, what do you fear that you will be dealing with . Well, you know, being an airconditioning contractor, a lot of systems drop in homes without airconditioning, should be a nice day, should be warm. And getting all these systems back up and running. Right now, im sitting at a restaurant, the only one thats open, weighing, for, you know, a possible problem. So youre obviously going to be very busy with that tomorrow. Its interesting, you say, its not necessarily the wind that bothers you, but i imagine youre taking precautions against that, and you will continue to as things deteriorate here. Oh, theres no doubt. The wind is a big deal. Its knocking down power lines everywhere. You know, roofs are coming off. Its not a good situation. We hear theres reports of bridges closing at 6 00 and, you know, theres a lot of people going to be stuck on the island. And what about youre, obviously, in a lowlying area. I know that you, i believe, live by a lake. What have you had to deal with even just, even now, youre pumping water, is that right . Right now, were not quite pumping water, but we have equipment ready for that to happen, but right now, its not. You know, weve been through a couple of hurricanes here, not recently, thank goodness, but were ready for it. All right, well, were thinking of you. We know that youre really just in the beginning of all of this, buzz, and we really appreciate you talking to us. That was buzz jones, he is a Small Business owner of a heating and cooling company there in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. And we want to go back now to cnns Alina Machado. She is in Wrightsville Beach. Alina, tell us about what youre seeing there. Reporter well, its interesting. The wind seems to have died down just a little bit since the last time we chatted, but the rains back, and thats why the red jackets on again. And this is what were going to be seeing, it seems, from what chad said. This is the trend here. Were going to see gusts, high wind gusts, were going to see a lot of rain, and its just going to not be much fun for people around here. I talked to the police chief. He says that so far, no major flooding. Earlier, we did have a lot of downpours, and there was some minor flooding of lowlying roads and that has since cleared up. No reports of damage. They also have been going up and down the beach, reminding people of the dangers of being in the water. They have told people to leave, people have listened. So brianna, so far, things are definitely picking up here in Wrightsville Beach, but people are at least paying attention to the warnings. Its like we can see the bands of wind and rain coming as we talk to you each time, alina. Youre in between them and then one is upon you. All right. Stay safe. We will be coming back to you in just a little bit. Meantime, prp Pesident Obama is getting regular briefs on hurricane arthur. This becomes a federal issue when you have a storm like this. Cnn white house correspondent, michelle kosinski, has more on this. Tell us what white house officials are telling us . Reporter were getting some nasty weather over the white house right now, lightning and thunder and heavy rain, and believe it or not, it is not from arthur, at least not yet. But as this storm approaches, and we know that even a category 1 hurricane can do significant damage, sometimes these things do affect the country on national level, in terms of the economy, fuel supplies, infrastructure, insurance. So, yes, the white house is watching this closely and theyre reacting to it. They say right now, first and foremost, number one priority is making sure that citizens are Pay Attention to it. That they are preparing and theyre listening to all those instructions given to them within their own communities. But the white house is also crafting its own Technical Response through fema. Theyve already sent down a special Coordination Team to North Carolina to work with state and local officials there. And theyve prepositioned some staff in both north and south carolina. They want to make sure that the resources are in place and that things can be coordinated easily once the storm hits, brianna. Michelle thank you so much. Storm warnings are up against the east coast. Well show you where this dangerous storm is headed with chad meyers in our hurricane center. Norfolk southern whats your function . Hooking up the country helping business run build were investing big to keep our country in the lead. Load we keep moving to deliver what you need. And that means growth, lots of cargo going all around the globe. Cars and parts, fuel and steel, peas and rice, hey thats nice Norfolk Southern whats your function . Helping this big country move ahead as one Norfolk Southern hows that function . Our breaking news, hurricane arthur is hammering North Carolina and storm warnings are up along the east coast as far as canada. Lets get the latest from chad meyers. Hes in the weather center. Were really getting sort of regular updates here. What are we hearing now . Yeah, every position now updated. And even from the Hurricane Hunter aircraft updating the pressure as they drop a thing in it that goes all the way down to the surface and splashes into the ocean, gives us the exact pressure of the storm. Thats important. Because if a pressure is going down, the storm is getting stronger. If the pressure is going up, that means the storm is dying. We havent seen any dying indication yet. The color on the satellite stnt as impressive. Thats good. But i dont believe thats impressive enough to worry that this is only going to be the cat one. This is still going to be a category 2 making landfall. Because as the eye gets smaller tonight, as it interacts with the land, the eye is going to get smaller thinking like its dying but its not. Its like an ice skater when she bring her arms in and does the spin, bring the arms in, go fast, put the arms out, it goes slower. When the arms get in on this storm and the eye gets to 10 nautical miles, thats when the worst of the storm is going to be takes place somewhere along the carolina coast. Thats Alina Machado right there. Because she didnt have anything about ten minute ago, shes going to get a lot the next time this outer band comes through. As shes here, its almost there and then eventually the northern eye wall right through here and this is the area right there that has the winds of 90 mile per hour. The storm will continue along the coast. It will scour this entire coast right through here. The waste will come in, take the sand and push it right back out into the ocean. A lot of the beach its will be gone. Wont be able to see a beach or notice a beach even when we get down to low tide. This is cure beach, the waves are incredible, six to tenfooters. This is low tide. This is the fence that divides the residences from the beach. We have five more hours before we get this to high tide. When this gets to be high tide, this water is going to get into all of those homes trieth there along cure beach and this is still a picture about ten miles north were still sees the waves pick up there at Wrightsville Beach. Chad, thank you. Coming up, we have correspondents who are deployed throughout this storm zone. We have much more coverage of this dangerous hurricane and well be telling you where its heading next. You want to save money on Car Insurance . No problem. You want to save money on rv insurance . No problem. You want to save money on motorcycle insurance . No problem. You want to find a place to park all these things . Fuggedaboud it. This is new york. Hey little guy, wake up aw, come off it mate geico. Saving people money on more than just Car Insurance. He cadillac summer collection is here. During the cadillac summers best event, lease this all new 2014 cts for around 459 a month or purchase with 0 apr and make this the summer of style. Cozy or cool . 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Dont get brave just because you see some good waves out there. Stay out of the water. Wolf blitzer is off today, im Brianna Keilar and youre in the situation room. This is the breaks news this hour. It is the beginning, North Carolina starting now to feel the full power of hurricane arthur. Were tracking all of the new developments, Wrightsville Beach and the wilmington area are in the bullseye as we speak. Arthur packing wind gusts up to 100 miles an hour and its getting stronger. Hurricane watches and warnings are in effect forcing beaches to close and the evacuation of thousands of visitors. Were standing by right now for a News Conference by North Carolina governor as the dangerous hurricane emergency unfolds. We have a team of correspondents standing by across the hurricane storm. Were monitoring the storm as well in cnns severe storm center. Lets go to writingsville beach. Thats where we find alina macha machado. Shes really starting to experience the storm. Tell us about what youre seeing . Reporter brianna, hurricane arthur is whipping writingsville beach right here now in North Carolina. It has started to rain. The wind is starting to pick up. And this is something that weve seen on and often pretty much since the morning. It started to pick up about four hours ago and it looks like now its starting to be a little more consistent. Weve. Talking to officials here. They tell us that so far no major reports of flooding. Some other good news . They were worried about rip currents and people possibly drowning, but that has not been the case here. People have heeded the warnings and theyre staying out of the water and so far things are definitely picking up here, but no reports of major damage either. All right. North carolinas governor said dont be wearing your stupid hat. It appears there that folks are definitely wearing their good smart ones. Lets go to joe johns, up further on the outer banks, the vulnerable islands. Youre in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, joe. Tell us about it. Reporter well i got to tell you, surfs up is here and its no joke. The mist has been rolling in, the temperature has dropped and officials are warning people down in Cape Hatteras that if they havent already evacuated they need to reconsider their decision, a potentially dangerous situation here an the North Carolina coast. It might be fun, it might be scary but were going to find out after while. Reporter the illtimed first hurricane of the season is gaining strength up the east coast, threatening destruction and altering holiday plans. Hurricane arthur is churning off the coast and could make land fall in the outer banks as a cat toir 2 storm. Were just prepping. Theres going to be some flooding so were going to move down the street to the other house. But other than that, were going to ride it out. Reporter but riding it out may not be possible in some areas. Revac wagss have been ordered for cape hatter rus. Keep yourself out of the way so you dont put the guard or safety personnel in danger. Take action now. Reporter high winds and a direct hit arent necessary for danger. In the past several decades water has taken more lives than the wind has. Weve had a lot of people die in the ocean and then theres also the storm surge flooding. We could see two to four feet of water above normally dry ground. Reporter and up the coast as millions of people are traveling for the fourth of july holiday, the advice, be alert and be flexible. Dont presume that based on what youve seen with what the track shows or any information that youve heard in passing that that means that the location youre going to is not going to be affect. You want to call ahead and follow what the local officials or the people who are running the hotels have to offer for you in terms of what theyre expect in that particular location. But plan safety into your Holiday Weekend no matter where it is youre going. Reporter officials here will be watching very closely, especially on the roads, including North Carolina highway 12 which is washed out again and again. The storm surge, a huge concern here because of the low elevation of the outer banks. Brianna . Joe johns there in Kill Devil Hills awaiting the storm. Lets get the newest forecast from our Severe Weather expert chad meyers. Where is this thing, chad . Its south of cape fear and still seven miles from maximum impact from joe johns shot. Its going to take a little while to get there. The bad news is its going to scour the beach for a very long time. You already see the little hooks right there. This is going to act like a catchers mitt catching a ul of the water and then the sand is going to go away. Let me take you to what the radar looks like. I want to explain what Alina Machado is going through right now. Shes right there about to get hit again by that band and then it will stop again when she gets by that band and gets into this blue area not really rains. And then its going to pick up again when she gets that band again because thats the northern eye wall. I have a fourth grader and i tem him about hurricanes. I said, think of a hurricane like a ho ho. You have the dark part and the cream part. Every time the dark part hits you, you get wind. The cream, theres nothing there, the win dies down. One band after another will be pounding in surf city. Ill move it up because its not going to stop right here. Its going to go to moore head city and right true the sound and close to hatter rus and right over joe johns but thats around 3 00 or 4 00 in the morning and well still be here. Yes, we will. Im going to call these chad meyerisms. This afternoon we saw the warnings, the storm warnings were going up to the North Carolina, virginia border. But now were looking at the last update weve got nantucket in the cape, right . Thats exactly right, from where the storm is going to go. This storm has a Long Duration here across the carolinas. Theres one reporter there, right there is rene marsh and right there is where joe johns was. This is going to take a long time to get to all of our reporters. Its going to take a day and two hours, almost 26 hours to get very close to washington, d. C. And new york. Thats the closest approach. Gu if i keep pushing the button, all of the sudden it is right here, right over nantucket and cape cod and this will certainly have rain, wind, at least 40 to 50 Miles Per Hour here in boston and the cape maybe even higher. The right side of the cone takes us out to sea. Left side, all of the sudden thats a kblansing blow, but a 60 to 70 mileperhour glancing blow. Still, if we get that storm, lets put it right here, threats plot the storm. Even if its a Tropical Storm or maybe a hurricane right there, were going to see wind and waves come from here, when its here, piling into the long island sound, all along the jersey coast. Were going to have those real rough, those tides, the rip currents we call them now that could take a swimmer out to sea. I want you to know that when those sand bars break all along the east coast, not just the carolinas, its going to be a couple of dangerous days. Get better by saturday. This is Serious Business. You dont want to be in the water even up the your shins or Something Like that. Chad meyers. Thanky so much for warning people. I want to go to richard neal. He is on the phone and hes in whats called the frying pan tower. This is 34 miles off the North Carolina coast. Guess what else is about that far off the North Carolina coast . That would be this storm. Richard, explain to us. Were seeing some of pictures youve shot. Explain to us what this tower. This is a coast guard light station that the government actioned off several years ago, and i happened to accidentally win the auction so ive turned it into an adventure bed and breakfast, although not expecting it to be this much of an adventure. This is not something i was necessarily expecting to hear but this is a fascinating view. Tell us what you have been seeing. Were seeing these pictures of the open ocean and the waves just coming by you. How have things changed over the last several hours as youve been out there . Well, right now were really lucky to be able to speak because were literally in the eye of the storm right now. Weve seen the winds go up to 90 miles an hour pretty consistently and the waves about 30, 35 feet with swells even higher. It has been astonishing how much the actual ocean moves. But were all safe in here and my kids are sitting around playing cards at the kitchen table. If this is an adventure bed and breakfast, do you have people there with you who are staying . This weekend we will again but we did not during this week. We were doing a work trip and happened to be caught in a much larger storm than they predicted. Theyre missing out on the grand adventure, i would say. Tell us, have you seen anything like this . Have you weathered other storms and how does this compare . This is actually the largest one weve been in out here personally. Although this particular facility has been through many of them throughout the years. Its a tough, old light station. In general, i would say back when sandy was rolling through here. Everyone on shore that hadnt already received it should get to safety. These are very large waves and the swells are enormous. And youre really the first person experiencing the eye of the storm as youre talking to us amazingly from the middle of it. If there are any issues obviously the pictures youve taken were previous to now. These are dramatically reduced conditions compared to what youre going through right now. Can you tell us if there are some issues, who is really there to come to your aid . Are you in this alone, i imagine . I think pretty much thats part of what happens when you take on adventure like this. The coast guard is great but i wish for them to take care of the people who truly need their held. The heavy rains actually filled up our water tank, if you can imagine that. But in general, even though the large portion of the storm is just past us, it was tremendously fierce and the facility itself was shaking back and forth, enough to rather unnerve you. All right. And you should know, having weathered some of these other storms. Warning people there on the coast right there, richard kneel, fascinating vantage point. Thank you so much for sharing it with us, talking to us from the eye of hurricane arthur as this is heading towards the North Carolina coast. Thats where we find rene marsh in Atlantic Beach. Describe the scene where you are just south of the outer banks islands. Reporter well, i tell you brian brianna, at this point its a little bit of wind but right now were getting essentially drenched with a downpour here. Thats what weve been seeing. We had moments of really tough bands of just coming through on then we get a quiet moment. And you just caught us a moment when the rain is coming down. You always have some folks who want to come out and see exactly what Mother Nature is offering up. We found these two. They were just surfing out there. Guys, tell me a little bit about what the water was like. You said you felt a lot of pull in a lot of different directions. I lot of different directions, a lot of waves really fast coming and going, undercurrent was incredible. Reporter you were saying if youre not a strong swimmer wu do not recommend being out here. A lot of people do this on a regular basis when theres a storm or bad weather. But if you are not a strong swimmer, i do not recommend coming out here at all. Reporter thank you very much. I do want to tell you this. Where we are, Atlantic Beach, we spent some time at the Emergency Operations center and we do know that they have been monitoring the weather conditions around the clock. They dont have, at this point, any mandatory evacuations but what that they do is a curfew in place hours before the storm is supposed to get really close to the coast here in coastal North Carolina. There will be a curfew starting about 10 00 for some people, 11 00 for others where they dont want people on the roads. They want people inside of their homes. Again, the issue is those mean waves that we see building up out there and of course that storm surge, they have a lot of low lying areas and they adopt want a situation where youre on the road and now you have water rising in that surge come in and covering the roadways. So they do want people to take precaution. We have a few people out here, but the bottom line is, people are listening. When you look out there, we really dont see anyone, just a few people on the sand observing the really big waves as they continue to build up here and as the conditions continue to deteriorate. When you look in the water, the good news is we do not see anyone taking that risk and thats exactly what it is at this moment, a risk. Stick with us for a second im going to bring in chad meyers who is our captain safety and captain region. You were watching those guys. Are you just shaking your head and that i ear going anywhere near this . No. Because aive been watching thee surf cameras all day long and i just went all right, theres nothing we can say to stop you from going in there, i i guess. But renee is right there on this outer band. Shell have some wonderful weather here in about 20 minutes. But right now getting pounded. Renee, i know there is a car ferry that takes people to the island just north of you. Have you heard anything about that ferry . Is it shut down . Yeah, thats what the wind will do with your earpiece. I think shes talking to us. Can we get renee ear audio pumped up . All right. And that is certainly a problem with microphones. Tell us a little more about whats in store. Looks like shes getting a little clear patch here in a second, chad in. Yes. She will get a nice clear patch probably for at least an hour and a half between this band that shes in and the next band that will come that day. This is the same band that we talked to the mayor of moore head city that just experienced this right now. Theres an awful lot of rain through here. The rain comes sideways. If we take the fingers off of rubber gloves, cut the fingers off and take those fingers of the rubber gloves open put them over the microphone to try to keep the water out of the microphone as bis you can but when water is going in every direction, its hard to do that. Shes about to see the weather id say for ten more minutes and then a very nice break and then heres another part of the northern eye wall, the next session right through here and our other reporter not far from cure beach, but right up here at riceville beach, thats whats getting pounded right now. Its one rainstorm after another. They stop and come and go. When it rains, it gets very windy. When the rain stops, the wind slacks off a little bit, unless of course youre very close to the eye. Wrightsville beach, winds there 60 miles an hour. Alina machado will be seeing some of that action. Still ahead, this thing is affecting a lot of people. There are flights grounded, road trips canceled. Hurricane arthur is hitting North Carolina coast but its also breaking havoc on Holiday Travel plans. Were going to have more on that when we come back. Nded colace c. [ male announcer ] for certain medical conditions where straining should be avoided, colace softens the stool for effective relief from occasional constipation. Go to colacecapsules. Com for savings. For effective relief from occasional constipation. Humans. Even when we cross our ts and dot our is, we still run into problems. Thats why Liberty Mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness with our auto policies. If you qualify, your rates wont go up due to your first accident. Because making mistakes is only human, and so are we. We also offer new car replacement, so if you total your new car, well give you the money for a new one. Call Liberty Mutual insurance at. And ask us all about our auto features, like guaranteed repairs, where if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, the repairs are guaranteed for life. So call. To talk with an Insurance Expert about everything that comes standard with our base auto policy. And if you switch, you could save up to 423. Liberty Mutual Insurance responsibility. Whats your policy . Lets talk now to kel by backum. Hes a raes raunt owner in Wrightsville Beach. Thats where the winds are picking up with hurricane arthur sitting off the coast of North Carolina. Kelly, you own a restaurant and a supermarket. I imagine that you have been raided for groceries, right . Yes. Theyve been coming in buying bread and milk. What are you seeing where you are . How have the conditions changed over the last few hours . They have significantly changed. We have 35 to 40 mile per hour winds as we can see. The rain is coming down way harder than it has at any point today. And we just had a really, really, really bad band that just came through. But were making it here at Wrightsville Beach trying to get through this so we can enjoy the fourth of july weekend. What is your concern in this storm . My concern is that people that want to come to our beautiful beach and enjoy our beach are going to be afraid that the storm is going to last throughout the whole weekend. But as we all know, once it passes, the beautiful skies come out open its nothing but beautiful weather. How big of a deal is july 4th weekend for the tourism in the area . Well we ve three weekends a year to really make our money and make our customers happy that come down to our beautiful, you know, our beautiful beach. Its very significant that, you know, this storm comes on such a, you know, such a great weekend. Its so rare. We were looking at statistics and actually since records were kept, a storm has not really hit that area on july 4th and it really is such a big tourism area. Are you seeing any flooding or anything like that . Yeah, i would definitely say we have water coming up over past the curbs right now. This is definitely the hardest rain thats been coming down. And we do have a little bit of flooding. Our drains can nopt really keep up with the rain what, you know, what Mother Nature is producing right now. But hopefully with the next couple of hours everything is going to be great and well be able to celebrate the independence and fourth of july. Are you seeing people be safe . Are they staying off of the streets . I would say absolutely not. I feel like its almost like a free for all. I feel like all of the people are really just flooding the Wrightsville Beach area wanting to see the waves and what arthur is bringing. I would completely advise everyone to stay away but it doesnt seem like thats happening. We hope that they stay away and hopefully theyre heading your word. Kelly baucom, thank you so much for joining us. We want to go up the coast a little ways. This is Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, just south of the Barrier Islands south of the outer banks. And this is where we find cnns rene marsh back with us now with a dry microphone. Tell us about what youre seeing there. I see some people mind you, rene and it sounds like from the last gentleman we were talking to, even as the conditions, the bands get better, youre in between bands looks like, significant difference from the last time we talk to you just a few minutes ago. Reporter yeah. You know, brianna, that is what were experiencing. Youll get a band and then youll get a couple of minutes, maybe five minutes or so, maybe more and then you have this dry spell which is what were experiencing right now. But whats consistent is the rough surf. If you look out there, you see things are really starting to children up and that is exactly why they dont want people in the water there. But you still have people here on shore taking a look because theyre curious. They want to see what Mother Nature has to serve up here. But we can tell you that we really dont expect to see things get extremely bad until maybe another four or five hours from now. So this is just a precursor of what hurricane arthur has to serve up here for the folks along the coastal North Carolina. Now we spent some time in the Emergency Operations center. And they have been monitoring this literally second by second. Theyve been calling people, elderly people, people in Nursing Homes who may be in areas where they know it is low lying and they want to find out, are these people concerned . Do they want to evacuate . We know that there are shelters that have opened for people who wish to evacuate. We know theres a curfew in place and we know that there have been a handful of mandatory evacuations. But for the most part when you talk to people here, many of them say theyre going to just ride this thing out. Because, remember, this is a coastal community. They are used to these hurricanes. Ive talked to so many people here who are listed i cant list on both hands how many hurricanes theyve lived through. They have this attitude if theyre not told they have to leave, they will not leave. All right. Rene there for us in Atlantic Beach. Lets go down to buckstown. A little further up the coast. Were going to talk now with the pastor of our lady of the Seas Catholic Church and he actually wanted to evacuate but he stayed put because many of his parishioners decided that they arent going to leave. Father, tell us how you came to that decision. I just came to it. It was a logical choice to do. What is it like where you are . Right now the sun is setting. I can see it a little bit. The clouds are coming in. Im 15 feet above the land. Im on stilts, i guess the house is on stilts because the water does come in at times. Im wondering what its going to be. Its kind of nervous just waiting for things to happen. Sure. And your house is elevated and ready for any sort of storm surge obviously and the hope being that it will go under your house or around your house. But tell us about why some of your parishioners decided they were going to stay put. Did you urge them to move on out . No. Somebody suggested that to me, but im just new on the outer banks. Ive been only here a year, almost a year and a half now. And the locals like to stay. If its not a category 4 or 5, theyre going to stay here. They dont want to leave their house. If they leave, its very difficult to come back. We have some hot spots on the beaches up here and you have an overflow of the waters, so you cant come in. So they want to stay at their place. Its their home. No other place to go to. So the difference for you is being a newcomer to this its really a beautiful area but it certainly is low lying. You sort of have the nerves of someone who has never gone through a hurricane in this area before. Tell us about that. Yeah, tell us about that. Im trying to tell myself about that. I said that some people were upset at me, some of my family, friends, they were upset at me because im staying. But as i said, it was almost the logical thing to do. Im comfortable, a little nervous. Its like going into surgery. You dont know what to expect. But ive tied down a lot of things so i think im ready. Well wait and see. Well we certainly hope that you are. We hope that you weather the storm. Youre there near hatter ras. Father smuda, thank you so muff for talking with us. We really appreciate it. I appreciate you calling. Thank you very much. Well be certainly thinking of you as well throughout the evening. Now, hurricane arthur, along with other storms up and down the eastern seaboard, its wreaking havoc on a lot of travel plans, just as the long fourth of july weekend begins. Alexander field is joining me now from new Yorks Laguardia airport. Youre feeling it up in new york there . Reporter yeah. We dont have the effects of arthur up here. But nationwide were seeing hundreds of flights being canceled. Here at laguardia, dozens of flights. You can see a full slate of flights have been canceled and this is all because of the threat of thunderstorms this afternoon. This is affecting airports across the new york city area. What were seeing is that inbound flights have been delayed between four and five hours, outbound is delayed one to two hours at laguardia, jfk and over at newark. Thats all because the thunderstorms that are coming in add to the weather thats forecasted now. We had a number of thunderstorms last night. The airlines today had to play catch up. This is the busiest holly travel week of the whole summer. Of course most people krooif during this week, this wednesday through monday travel period. 35 Million Peopled traveling in cars. But for the six Million People traveling by air this weekend, theyre going the get to the airport and see something they dont like. Thank you so much keeping an eye on things in laguardia. We have the latest as hurricane arthur swirls up the carolina coast. Theres also Severe Weather inland as washington, d. C. Getting hit by the Stormy Weather as well. From safety. To fuel economy. To quality. Todays chevrolet has it all. And its a great time to buy. During the chevy 72 hour sale, youll get 0 apr for 72 months. Plus no Monthly Payments for the rest of the summer. 0 apr for 72 months plus no Monthly Payments for the rest of the summer. Hurry, the chevy 72 hour sale ends monday. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. Create a better website at squarespace. Com start your free trial today. This is our breaking news. Youre watching these pictures live from the outer banks of North Carolina. Hurricane arthur is pounding the coast of this state and here are the latest developments. The hurricane is packing sustained winds of 90 miles an hour. There are gusts over 100 Miles Per Hour. And this is forecasted to get stronger. Reaching category 2 status the evening. Very Serious Business here. Storm surges of up to five feet are expected. Deadly rip currents offshore already in effect. And flooding likely in inland areas. Tropical storm warnings are now up as far north as cape cod, massachusetts and nova scotia, canada. Its interesting, chad, you look at where our reporters are and you see that things are changing by the minute, alternating between Severe Weather and being in between the bands of rain and wind. One thing that hasnt changed, and its hard to see from our picture, is the wave action thats coming on shore, taking the beach away from North Carolina and throwing it a thousand yards out into the ocean. Eroding that beach, the dunes, taking away some of the roadways and the bridges before we get done here across the outer banks. We know that u. S. 12, North Carolina 12 is always a mess after a landfalling hurricane and thats what we have. Reed wiseman from nasa from the a space station took that picture of what is arthur. Just came down in the past few minutes. Thats what it looks like from space. I know we always show you the satellite but its not the same as someone actually taking a picture and tweeting it back to earth. Heres the storm. Theres one of our reporters right there, Alina Machado about the get the northern eye wall abwas badass its going get. But all of this water piling up in the arc, this arc right here acting like a catchers mitt holding all of the water. And before this is done, a lot of people arent going to be how much of the beach is gone or if theres any beach left. Some of the houses across the street may have beach front property. When you get 100 mileperhour winds pounding on shore, thats what youre going to see. This is what it looks like, the kaefs coming in. It was low tide about an hour again. Its no longer that. The waves are piling up. This is what it looks like at cure beach. A low tide right now and theres the barrier. That right there is the beginning of the dunes. The waves only 10 to 20 feet from the dunes. We still have another five hours of high tide to go. This water will be in these yards, in these dunes and there are some homes just back out to the west of there. So heres what we have for the next few hours. One band after another affecting all of these cities up and down the southeast part of North Carolina. Something else were seeing right now, just noticed it, an inner eye wall. Inner eye wall right there. That inner eye wall is developing. Thats the part that there have the category 2 hurricane winds as they develop later on this afternoon. Maybe three more hours, this storm will be the 100 mileperhour storm. And that eye is going to go right through there. We have reporters here and more reporters on the cape. This is going to be a long night for people there in the carolinas. Well try to keep you advised. Were just getting word of some of the Power Outages. 7300 Power Outages in North Carolina right now. Thats one of the hallmarks of a cat 1 or cat 2 hurricane . You lose the power lines and the power poles. They take a while to go back up. I saw here just a little bit ago, i dont know if i have the picture or not. Here it is. There were people still in the water and the winds are 70 miles an hour at cure beach and the waves are six to ten feet. Those are the people the government was talking about, please dont put the hat on and the stupid hat. Theyre finally out of the water. No there they are right there. I didnt want to go there. You called it. I did call it. You were saying people would do this and i was highway like, no, we wont see that many people doing it. There they are. Bottom of the screen right there. The zoom keeps going in and out. Get off the beach. You cant tell them everything. I remember when alley velshi was in Atlantic City and i think it was the governor christie that said, ali get out of the water. Thats all i can yell right now. Get out f the water. Get away from it. Dont even be near it. Chad meyers thank so much. We want to bring in cnns tom foreman nop. Youve been checking out the surf cameras which normally people use to see what the surf is like. But this is giving you a real live look at whats happening. Yeah. And you can see exactly what weve been talking about all evening here were this notion that place to place to place looking very different. When youre talking about way up in here, youre got going to see a whole lot. But lets look at the cameras in the area down here where the storm is grinding in. If you look at those, you can see that some dont look that intense. This is near topsail island. This is exactly what chad just mentioned. This nonetheless work away at the sand. You can see the big waves coming up under the peiers here. Lets move on to another view. This is giving us a chance to look place by place by place. Carolina beach much more intense. When you talk about the band and the way in which it pounds in, this is what were talking about. Some areas very intense. A few miles away maybe not so much. Lets look at one more camera here. Ill talk about why this matters so much. Because those few miles from one camera to the next can make an extraordinary difference in terms of the cost of these storms. Of course lives are the first concern. And in about eight counties along North Carolina to just the edge of virginia, were calculated 1. 1 Million People immediately living in this area. If you look back to hurricane irene in 2011, they had 65 mile onpeople considered to be overall involved because thats when you count everything up in new england. The reason the white house is watching, the reason so many of these Business People and these government leaders are watching comes down to this. Ill bring you over to this map. When you talk about the coastal areas of this country, we have moved so much into coastal areas on the gulf coast web the west coast, the east coast, that now 45 of the nations economy, the gdp of everything we produce and sell comes from coastal areas of this country. The coastal area may come a fair bit in, but 45 of it. And this area from up here to down here, this area alone accounts for around 320 billion worth of business a year and a lot of that counts on the summer trade and what should be going on right now. This is about the immediate threat. Its also about the long term impact if this storm grinds away. Thats what we heard from the Restaurant Owner we talked to. Hes so worried that people will stay away because that is a big weekend and not one that a hurricane often will hit this area. Thats a Small Business owner that we talk about who creates jobs. It may sound like one restaurant but you multiply that by an awful lot of people and that has a genuine impakt. Were expecting the population of the outer banks to more than quadruple during this weekend. Now hurricane arthur is expected to lash the North Carolina Barrier Islands for hours. Were going to go now to cnn Senior Correspondent joe johns. He is in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. It looks kind of are you getting a little bit of rain there already, joe . Reporter not rain. But there is some mist coming in. The waves are really whipping up. And it looks a lot more like a hurricane is headed here as opposed to 24 hours ago. You know, 250,000 people here supposedly along the fourth of july weekend. No way to tell how many of those people are actually going to go away or try to come back or whatever. We have some people here, i thought i would just walk up and say hey, its joe johns with cnn. Where are you from . Carol county, maryland. How long have you been here. We came in sad but we may end up leaving tomorrow. Weve never been in a hurricane. Reporter worried about this . Whats your mindset . Not really. Everyone else is staying, so why not . Reporter sort of disappointed about the july fourth weekend . Yeah. We wanted to stay until sad and see the fireworks of course tomorrow night. Reporter but they shut the fireworks down and its going on the on saturday, sunday or monday. Yeah. Were not going to stay until saturday night. Reporter what is your name . Bonnie. Reporter now, you all came together as a family. Yes. Reporter how many people in the family . Its ten of us. Reporter good enough. Thanks. And im going to throw it back to you now, brianna, here on the carolina shore waiting for the storm to come up. I would say bonnie looks a little more nervous there, which i certainly would be as well if theyre waiting that out. Lets go to Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Thats where cnns rene marsh is. Rene, the conditions with getting a little windier since the last time we spoke. Reporter yeah, the wind comes and goes. At this point, brianna, we dont have any heavy rain. We had some heavy rain the last time we spoke to you. I want you to take a look. People are out here but they are being smart about it. They are on the sand and theyre looking at the very, very rough surf, although i do see in the distance now a couple of daredevils out in the water and that is something that they as you know, weve been saying all day, not a good idea. I have been following all of the Emergency Management teams on twitter and we now know that here within this area more than 7600 people are reporting Power Outages. So were starting to see that sort of effect as well, not just the weather and the elements but people starting to lose power. But again, were just feeling those outer bands once in a while well get a band of rain. Were in a quiet period. When we get in those quiet periods, thats when you see everyone come out to observe and see what is happening at any given moment. I see some folks coming down here. You guys come on over, tell me where youre from, what youre doing, why youre out here and not somewhere a little drier. Well talk to you, maam. Whats your first and last name. Paula bowen. Reporter you guys were inside but you ventured out once the rain stopped. Right. Its not that bad yet. The wind hurts out there. The sand blowing. The girls wanted to see what it was out here. Weve been watching it on the news and we saw that yall are all up and down the east coast. I think its in wilmington, headed this way now. Reporter thank you so much. You guys stay safe. Brianna, right now we have this lull. Of course as the time goes by and this storm gets close tore the coast, things will change. Rene, thanks so much. Coming up were going to head back to the outer bank where the team is fanning out and starting to feel arthurs power there firsthand. train horn vo wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. Norfolk southern. One line, infinite possibilities. Your studied day and night for her drivers test. Secretly inside, you hoped she wouldnt pass. The thought of your baby girl driving around all by herself was. You just werent ready. But she did pass. cause shes your baby girl. And now youre proud. A bundle of nerves proud. But proud. Get a discount when you add a newlylicensed teen to your Liberty Mutual insurance policy. 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Obviously concerns about safety as were looking at this storm tracking up North Carolinas coast. And its specked to either go right near or on top of the Barrier Islands there just off of hyde county. We also want to talk about Hatteras Island. This is the island. One of the Southern Islands of the outer banks that has been under a mandatory evacuation order. The one that is, i should say, from dare county officials. This has been since early this morning. No one has even been allowed on this island. Joining me now to talk about this is dare county manager bobby outen. Obviously some pretty big concerns there, bobby, but tell us what really is, i guess, in the forefront of your mind when youre looking at this storm heading toward you. We have Hurricane Force winds heading to Hatteras Island. We made the decision on Hatteras Island, its a narrow island, one road in, one road out, when that road gets cut, then the safety of all it is ens become imperiled. We need to get the people out of there so they are safe because responding to problems there post storm becomes difficult when the roads are breached. At a certain point people are almost on their own as people who First Responders are really limited in what they can do. Are you seeing people heed the warnings here and behave in a careful manner . I would say, yes. I was up at 4 00 this morning. As i was riding down 158 the main thoroughfare here, there was a steady stream of traffic heading north where most of our visitors come from. So yes, throughout the day weve had a steady exit of cars and we believe the people and our visitors especially have heeded our warnings. Are you expecting for there to be Power Outages . I will expect there will be at least intermittent Power Outages through the night as the winds come through. Weve been in touch with the electrical companies. Theyve got their crews standing by. We dont expect any longterm problems, but there would probably be some during the night. Well be keeping an eye on things with you, bobby, wishing you the best of luck there in Hatteras Island, which is under mandatory evacuation. Now up next, storm warnings not just in North Carolina. There are storm warnings that are all up the east coast. Well be showing you where this dangerous storm is headed. Chad myers will give you the latest from our hurricane center. Really. So our business can be on at ts network for 175 dollars a month . Yup. All five of you for 175. Our clients need a lot of attention. Theres unlimited talk and text. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. Low dues. Great terms. Lets close. Introducing at t mobile share value plans. With our bestever pricing for business. I need my actual Credit Report. [ male voice ] shes onto us. [ male voice ] dump her. 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Thats concerning because the smaller the eye gets, the stronger the winds get inside that. Just like an ice skater when she brings her arms in, standing on one leg, that ice skater starts to spin much faster. Were seeing that secondary inner eye wall right there. And that is headed right here, right to moorehead city, theres Atlantic Beach, right up there, those are the outer banks, exactly as we expected, exactly as forecast by the National Hurricane center to become that category 2 hurricane at 100 Miles Per Hour. Well have to see if that actually happens but right now more and more likely when we talk about that eye wall getting smaller and smaller. You can see the eye wall right through here. Its been ragged a lot of the day. Still looks ragged right now but as the radar picks it up, thats faster than satellite. Radar comes down every three to seven minutes. Heres kerry beach here. All the waves coming in, only 20 feet of beach still left right there. There you go, this is another picture. This would be wilmington, maybe Carolina Beach not that far from wrightsville, waves coming in. When its not raining, the winds really die off. Thats what weve been seeing here in between bands, one band here. This is Alina Machado had winds about 65 Miles Per Hour. Then theyve died off. Theyll be back with the northern eye wall at least 50 to 60 next time. As the eye wall strengthens 70 to 80mileperhour winds. As it makes its way up toward Atlantic Beach and to moorehead city, were talking 80 to 90 Miles Per Hour. Thats about three to four hour hs away. It keeps going from here. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for watching. Im Brianna Keilar in the situation room. Stay with us for our hurricane coverage continuing with jake tapper and brooke baldwin. Batten down the hatches, here comes hurricane arthur. We are bracing ourself for impact from the first major storm of the season. This is no time to put your stupid hat on. Dont get brave just because you see some good waves out there. Stay out of the water. This storm does not have to cause loss of life. Hurricane arthur is forecast to become a monster category 2 storm packing winds upward of 100 Miles Per Hour. North carolina is taking a direct hit. Well take you there live as residents head for the hills