this was the scene of one this morning where a father and two young sons had to be rescued from the top of their car. the water had come up so high. if there had been another ten minutes he doesn t think they d make it. they are thankful for the emergency response and prayerful for anyone else finding themselves in a similar situation. these swift water rescues are happening all over town. we had a crew just return a few minutes ago from two apartment complexes. approximately 20 people rescued. 40 people from another. so there s a pretty dramatic numbers. and emergency services are just inundated with calls. at one point the fire chief told me those calls were rescue were stacked about 100 deep. also calls about downed trees and power outages. it s a recipe for disaster. this water is coming from gills creek. it rose seven feet in three hours this morning. just shattered a previous
roads. other states have been incredibly helpful. i communicated with governor pat mccory from north carolina who said hi will help in any way he can. we ve received four national guard helicopters from north carolina, four additional swift water rescue teams from tennessee, the incident manager team is on its way from florida. that s been helpful but federal resources have been here since thursday and that s been unbelievably helpful in terms of we have a fema incident management team, swift water rescue teams are coming in from fort bragg and we ve got helicopters on the scene. so our goal is all hands on deck what we are going to continue to say is if you are in your house, stay in your house. this is not something to be out taking pictures of. this is not something you want your kids playing in, the water isn t safe and a lot of areas where you see this deep water, it has bacteria in it.
you can see the water going into several businesses. a bidding blocked by the trees is listing from the power of the water. awnings knocked over. we ve even seen furniture just fly by in that water. we ve seen a table, garbage cans, they re gone in a few seconds so the water is misleading when you look at it. you don t know the speed of it until you see debris go by so quickly. and what are residents telling you? residents are mixed. there s those whose homes are affected. they re getting out, they re concerned for their lives. they re concerned for kids and pets. then you have another half that s not affected that s coming down here to take pictures, see what s going on. we ve met a handful of people who came down here to volunteer. i mentioned the gentleman we spoke to who had been trained in swift water rescue. he and friends came down with kayaks to help the fire department, to see if there was anything they needed. the fire department telling them to stay out, they don t need
photograph and see this catastrophic destruction for themselves. you can see just how encompassing it is. this. intersection just turned into a lake there behind me. when we first arrived we could still see the handles on the doors of some of those businesses. now the water level s almost to the top. we re seeing some of those buildings starting to lift a little bit from the water. some collapses out there. just a testament to the power of nature. this water is all from gills creek which rose seven feet in just three hours shattering previous records. as i said, officials just overwhelmed by the shear amount of calls for trapped motorists, swift water rescues, for downed power lines and downed trees. a lot of concerns out there right now. meanwhile people encouraged to stay indoors but they re coming out anyway to see what s going on. emergency shelters operating right now for those who have been forced out of their homes. no sign of things letting up any
bridges and some homes. at least five people have died. people police in south carolina say they performed mon more tha swift water rescues. heavy rains and flash flooding have killed at least 16 people on the french riviera. many residents were caught off guard by a sudden downpour. you can see the result. some victims were trapped in cars at a campsite and also some other folks at a retirement home. in southern china, a strong typhoon is moving inland after roaring ashore. tens of thousands of people have been evacuated ahead of the storm. at least one person has died. as of now, 30 fishermen are missing on the high seas. the supreme court kicks off a new term full of more controversial cases. let s talk about it with carrie severino and elizabeth widerick.