i m good, i don t want to be rescued. there were others who felt it was inevitable. for whatever reason they decided not to adhere to the mandatory evacuation. they just didn t think it would be this bad. there were people with medical issues. one woman we were told by a rescuer was knocked down by water when it entered her home. it messed up her hips so they took her out on a backboard before getting on that boat. i m told these are volunteers for the most part. they re spending their own money, buying their own food. they re going to be going right back out in a couple minutes here because of the increase in weather we ve experienced. during the day we started getting these lulls and they re coming right back in as strong as they can be. we ve watched the water rise again in downtown new bern. we re still in high tide about another three hours here.
it s almost unprecedented for a storm to stick around this long. that s how slow florence has been moving. we re inside morehead city off of atlantic beach. you cannot see atlantic beach behind me. in one of the lulls that these squall lines have had, we were able to venture out and get a sense of the damage that people are looking at when they come back. take a look. this is the main road of atlantic beach and parts, it s not quite a river yet but certainly a small stream. the rain obviously continuing, which means the waters will only rise. especially as the tide comes back in. this is one of the businesses that is completely destroyed here. you can see top rows of windows blown out. the roof according to the fire department has blown out. there was the front door. now any one can walk through. now it s the bigger question for some many of these businesses. after wind and water will have
that i ve flew. and this storm is on it s on par with the storms we flew last year, like maria and irma. so it s it s a powerful storm. and the eye of this storm, how do you i mean, it seems pretty well, i guess, i don t know if well organized is the right term, but it seems pretty distinct. absolutely, yeah. it is very well organized. we saw today anywhere from about a 10 to a 12-mile eye that was just absolutely spectacular to be in. but, knowing that the power and the damage that those eye walls can do, you know, it s kind of scary. but it is a very powerful storm that s got its act together. so it is it is it is no joke storm. what is it like flying through it? it is moments of intensity followed by some lulls, but it s a challenging environment for any crew and any pilot. it s just fascinating, what you do. and i appreciate what you do,
how do you i mean, it seems pretty well, i guess, i don t know if well organized is the right term, but it seems pretty distinct. absolutely, yeah. it is very well organized. we saw today anywhere from about a 10 to a 12-mile eye that was just absolutely spectacular to be in. but, knowing that the power and the damage that those eye walls can do, you know, it s kind of scary. but it is a very powerful storm that s got its act together. so it is it is it is no joke storm. what is it like flying through it? it is moments of intensity followed by some lulls, but it s a challenging environment for any crew and any pilot. it s just fascinating, what you do. and i appreciate what you do, because it allows everybody else to know exactly minute by minute where this thing is and how big it is. so thank you and your crew, commander kibbey, thank you very much. no problem. thank you.
slowly makes its way north toward the main islands. nbc s steve patterson joins us from the harbor on maui where conditions will are getting worse. steve? reporter: ali, nobody should be fooled. this is the beginning stages of this storm. as we sort of been mentioning, the winds picking up, the rain now significantly starting to fall. we ll get into pockets where it kind of lulls a little bit and hits us in the face pretty good. behind me, i don t know how well you can see, but the surf is rolling in pretty good. the waves are coming in smacking the shoreline at a significant rate. you will still see surfers and people sort of still out here. the locals not too affected by what s happening now. but it will be a significant impact here on maui. in the meantime, this storm has already been striking big island hard, as you mentioned, some pockets 10, some pockets 20, some pockets 30 inches of rain in a very short amount of time. that is cause for concern for emergency officials who are