that you do have a plan in place should things get worse. that is correct. i was waiting till this time after midnight to determine whether or not i would need to, you know, grab my stuff and go. but as it s turning out, the boat is riding very well. i do expect it to get a little more tumultuous with the higher winds in the morning. the rain is not really a factor in my case where i am. however, i can see where people on the ocean front barrier islands are really going to see a lot of, lot of high water. and, joe, you know, we ve been watching this river as well right behind me and you re on the river there. the water is rising. we ll keep in touch with you. we wish you safety as you continue to ride this storm out over the next several hours.
blocks that way. there is a chance this sliver of land could be covered in water. now, this area has seen hurricanes in the past. h hugo in 89 was massively destructive, category 4, but it did not have the rain this is going to have. 40 inches expected in places. that is going to be the big danger. nick watt, north myrtle beach, south carolina. nick watt, thank you. north myrtle beach important tourist area, so this is certainly an inconvenience for sure. but a lot of people watching to see what happens as this storm pushes through that area. you can see right behind me here, i m sure you can see it, this storm chasing truck. i want to bring in mike tice. this is mike s truck. mike is a storm chaser and also a photographer with national geographic. mike, what is it like for you to drive around in a situation like this and get important readings,
understanding of the storm? i feel like it s my passion in life and my purpose and that is to collect scientific data in hurricanes. i ve always been passionate about them since a little kid so i developed the herb, which stands for hurricane eye watch vehicle. windows can t get smashed out. i have calibrated anomometers. i recorded it earlier today. adds the eye wall comes in, which is very close, we ll see if i get a higher wind gust than that. might be 90 mile, 100 range. the big thing is the surge and inland flooding. that is right in line of what we ve been getting readings on the ground, wind gusts anywhere between 08 and 60. it seems like they come and go. what are your thoughts as you re monitoring this storm? what are your thoughts about what happens when it gets over this region and starts to stall out? yeah, that s the big concern.
thursday, we could see the outer bands of this gigantic storm moving. there was some rain, there was some wind. friday is when this is really going to make its mark on north myrtle beach. this 60-mile stretch of beautiful carolina coast line called the grand strand. now, most people have evacuated from this town. the officials tell us that 85% of people have left in a town of about 15,000 people, but plenty of people are staying. and some of them are staying because they are seeing this storm being downgraded by category, but that category is just for the wind. this storm is still full of water that is going to dump on the carolinas over friday, over the weekend, perhaps even into next week. and that is going to be the danger. there is going to be a storm surge. where we are here, there is almost nothing that stops those waves coming across the beach and into this town. and, of course, the inter coastal waterways is a couple
this thing. this storm will bring destruction to north carolina. weather conditions will continue to deteriorate the next several hours. come hell or high water, joe is most confident on his boat. there s a lot of rain involved with that, so you ll have flooding in low-land areas. but here i am on the river, i m already floating. so as long as the dock doesn t go above the pylons, we re safe. so it s a rough to ride a storm out on the ground. what s it like to ride a storm out on your boat? well, you can see right behind me several boats here, here in wilmington. you get a sense of what s happening on this river that we re monitoring very closely. you get a sense of exactly how turbulent that water is. and if you re worried about joe, don t worry too much. we have joe on the phone with us right now on his boat. joe, i want to ask you right now, we re feeling these wind