now. some of our concerns are storm surge and heavy rains. we ve got more areas of barrier islands, we ve seen washout fro the storm and previous storms wash over the dune line take ou roads. again, dorian is about 100 miles east of here. if it passes any closer, it s going to bring any damage that happens between now and early tomorrow evening. people here are bracing themselves and waiting to see what the storm brings. brand-new footage of the bahamas tonight, total devastation speedy left his wake . tonight, mobilizing to deal wit the unfolding humanitarian crisis. on record is one of the most powerful atlantic hurricanes to ever make the involved. seven deaths have been blamed o the storm, but we expect that
of the woods. not at all. we re dealing with what we know already. unknown is scary. we ll be telling this story certainly for the rest of the week. i ll be telling stories on the show and talking to people there. see you. welcome back. it s good to have you back. this is cnn tonight. here s our breaking news. we were talking about it. dorian. beginning to move out of the bahamas tonight. and paralleling the east coast of the florida. the storm expected to pick up speed. watches and warnings in effect from florida to north carolina. fears there could be four to seven feet of life threatening storm surge in the carolinas. including charleston. that could happen by the end of the week. south carolina emergency management division warning anybody in evacuation zones tonight to leave. leave immediately. the president is tweeting that he ll sign an emergency declaration for north carolina. tonight. dorian growing in size as it is being felt in florida, where
may make landfall now with the latest predictions. outfront now governor roy cooper. you have just issued mandatory evacuations for the barrier islands. how worried are you about the storm that could make the direct united states landfall in your state? well, erin, as you know north carolina juts out into the atlantic ocean. and we have suffered two hurricanes in the last three years. so our antenna is up. we are prepared. we are ready to go in the event that this storm does hit us. we are hoping for the best. but preparing for the worst. and certainly we are thinking about the people of the bahamas tonight. with the utter devastation that they have experienced there. we know how powerful these storms can be. so we ve got all of our local emergency management people on alert. our barrier islands are spectacular, but we know that it
an entire island is without power tonight. it is way too early to have any sense of the death toll. to give you an idea of just how high the storm surge was, what the united states could be looking at, you can see waves nearly reaching the second story of a home. rescue crews are just starting the grim task of searching for signs of life among the piles of debris. and it is scenes like this has that officials in florida pleading with people in evacuation zone whose are still there to get out. we have a team of reporters standing by from florida to the bahamas tonight. i want to begin with miguel mar kwez. are people heeding the evacuation warnings. reporter: yes and no. most the people along the coast here have evacuated along the way, but this storm has been so slow, it s creeping so slowly toward us, we have had the same wind for most of the day today. that is south. the sea has been quite rough
in fact, you can see that line forming right there on the road. we just checked gas buddy. it says that here in the miami area, more than 60% of gas stations have no gas. tom? gio benitez live in miami for us. thank you. and before dorian reaches the u.s. mainland, it will barrel through the bahamas, where hurricane warnings are now in place. flights expected to be cancelled there. the leading edge of transportation disruptions on the way here as well. as of now, the orlando airport will be closed monday morning. amtrak trains suspended already in florida. and cruise ships are being rerouted. here s marcus moore in the bahamas tonight. good evening. reporter: tom, they are preparing for a direct hit here in this part of the bahamas. you can see they have cleared out the marina, no boats. hurricane warnings have just been posted. evacuation warnings at this popular vacation spot. we re told most of the tourists have left. we should start to feel the