heard governor roy cooper say you just can t drive through standing or rushing water in this situation. this is an example. another driver was stranded in the middle of a roadway in his car with his girlfriend. we asked if he needed help, he said no, he was waiting it out. we think he got out. went back to check him a short time ago. to give you another idea of what first responders are facing in jacksonville, cornelius jordan said yesterday, they had a cardiac arrest patient they had to get an ambulance to. they sent the ambulance, and the ambulance took on water. luckily there was a swift water rescue team able to get everyone out of the ambulance quickly. they have about 300 plus people in three different shelters in onslow county. a lot of them made their way there since yesterday, thinking they could ride out the storm, ride out flooding in jacksonville. they said they could not. no deaths or injuries to report. still a dangerous situation here. we drove through a driving
to try to essentially cork up that bottle, that particular vulnerability that he was telling us about where the water rushed into the community two years ago. as we heard awhile ago, the water level behind me is expected to be two feet higher than people experienced during hurricane matthew. the message we heard now and you re hearing from officials throughout the southeast, the worst could still be ahead for many people, even after florence s clouds dissipate. that s absolutely the concern. polo sandoval with the latest from lumberton, north carolina. we should point out. you heard this from the governor of north carolina, roy cooper, the federal disaster declaration has been approved for 8 different counties in north carolina. that s key in terms of getting resources in and getting help for people there. there are 20,000 people in shelters across the state. the governor saying they will open more if they need them. one of the particularly hard hit areas, jacksonville, north
carolina. cnn s brian todd is there in one of our roving coverage vehicles. brian, what are you seeing? reporter: erica, this is one of the hardest-hit areas of the state in onslow county, north carolina. we re going to show you a shot out the front camera. you can see this part of mcdaniel street flooded in jacksonville, cars are stranded all over the place. we re going to make a turn and show you a car, couple cars here. the level of flooding we are dealing with. we spoke to cornelius jordan, emergency operations director for onslow county. he tells us they ve had to do 20 home rescues and three water rescues since yesterday. i m going to get out, kind of show you the depth of the water here, if i can make my way down the street. he said 20 home rescues, three car rescues since yesterday. and this is an example of some flooding that the vehicles can experience. they re telling people, you