Storm florence. All of our crews are out in it. Well be bringing all of this information to you. Our breaking News Coverage our breaking News Coverage continues now with ac360. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com good evening. Im Anderson Cooper in willing, North Carolina. The story has been wailg rain and rain and more rain. Were seeing the heaviest band of rain just in the last ten minutes or so hitting this area down by the cape fear river. Five people have died so far in this storm. Five people. Five lives lost. Hundreds of people have had to be rescued from their homes. Some here in wilmington. Others in new bern and elsewhere. There have been rescues going on last night throughout today and no doubt will continue tonight. Well be talking to some rescuers in the next hour as
well as some people who have been rescued. And the stories they tell are harrowing of water coming into their homes. Of sending their children up into the attic with what they thought was to save their lives, an
people yelling. i have to try to do something. he tried to walk around but the water got too high. my husband is 6 2 . the water got to almost above his chest. he had to come back and then make sure the kids were okay. then we called 911 and they were like, well, we can just wait. we didn t get anyone to come get us until with 9:00 in the morning. so i understand it was a volunteer who came and rescued you? is that right? yeah. there were some guys from indianapolis with some boats. and they were basically just going back and forth bringing people across, i don t even know how far it was for them for to us get to land where the fire department was waiting with a truck. and we were basically just waiting for people to come on to the boat. when you saw them come, i can t imagine, that must have
areas. tributaries are flowing out. when you think of 20 feet above your normal flood stage, your normal high levels for this river, that you know they re in danger from here in wilmington, all the way upstream. i am standing here on water street here in downtown wilmington and i m standing in some water the storm surge has pushed the river into this area. the river is just beyond the pylons there. you can t see it now but when we could see it a few minutes ago, white caps all over the place, the current was just furious. the weather forecasters keeping a very close eye on this part of the cape fear river. when we talk about the flood stage setting record levels. that was for this part of the river where it meets the atlantic ocean. that s where it is.
well as some people who have been rescued. and the stories they tell are harrowing of water coming into their homes. of sending their children up into the attic with what they thought was to save their lives, and then finally being rescued when all hope seemed to be lost. there is a lot to tell but what is happening on the ground here. the storm is now a tropical storm but if you think that means it is over for people here, this rain tells what you the real story is. there is still concern about storm surge in areas, still concern about how much rain will continue to come down throughout the night into tomorrow. there are a lot of different areas that are just getting pummeled and pounded and have been all day long. i drove around wilmington earlier just to get a sense of how the city is. the electricity is out. as you know, probably north carolina, there s more than 300,000 people at this point