back. we re in between one of these bands of heavy rains and winds. but they re starting to get smaller and smaller, the times that they the amount of time it goes between these bands. so clearly a sign that the center of the storm approaching and getting much closer, anderson. yeah. ed, thank you very much. stay safe, you and you crew. i want to go back to brian todd in hampstead, north carolina. what s going on there, brian? reporter: it is getting a little worse. the rain is picking up and the wind is starting to whip around. as you know for being in these for so many years, when you get rained on sideways, you know it s getting serious, and it is. this band hitting me right now, you can see that. again, the storm surge where we are, is getting to be a problem. this is the intercoastal waterway, just creeping up this road. more so each minute. as we get to high tide, close to
people who live here to cooperate with them. yeah. diane gallagher, and, again, that water would be on the ground for a long time. and more to come. i want to go to brian todd in h hamste hamstead, north carolina. what are you seeing there? reporter: getting pounded with wind and rain here, and it s getting more dangerous as we progress into the evening. i m on old landing road, but behind me, this is the intercoastal waterway. look how the water is pushing on this road. this road does end just a little bit over that way, but this is not even high tide yet. high tide is not for a couple more hours, maybe a few more hours. and look at the water just pushing in from the intercoastal waterway, right onto this roadway. it s going to get a lot worse in the hours ahead. i m going to walk over here and show you another crucial part of this whole thing in the inland flooding that we have to watch out for. this is the marshland that protects these areas.
brian todd in hampstead, north carolina. brian, i understand that you re getting it there. what s going on? reporter: right, don, this is the inter coastal waterway behind me. the waterway obviously between the mainland north carolina and the outer banks, some of the barrier islands. if it looks like i m standing in the intercoastal waterway, i m not. i m standing on old landing road. right now this road and the inter coastal are pretty much one in the same because as you can see the storm surge is coming in and this road is starting to get flooded. i m in a few inches of water. not severe right now, but we know it will be severe. we don t believe this is even high tide yet. that s not even coming for a few hours, but as you can see how low-lying this area is, panning to my left, your right, you can see a little bit of white caps out there on the inter coastal. it will get much worse in the coming hours. it s already with just a little bit of rain starting to fall here and a little b
we begin from drought stricken texas where people have died as a result the wildfires. a 20-year-old woman and her 18-month-old daughter were killed when flames took their mobile home. one is now threatening 1,000 homes. central texas dealing with the worst fire season ever. a record 3 1/2 million acres have burned. tropical depression lee has gotten weaker, but it is unloading lots of rain as it marches north from the gulf. louisiana and mississippi have seen flooding and power outages already. there was a lot of concern about new orleans. but the mayor says the city is okay. even though we ve got nearly a foot of rain. some people in south alabama believe the storm sent them a tornado. i didn t hear it. all i heard ws wind. if it was wind, it was a held of a wind. the lights went out, they came back on and then everything opened up. it was like a machine gun going off. lee s leftovers could dump more rain on upstate new york, new jersey and vermont. the last places th
that was cool. american morning continues right now. after the deluge, i m christine romans, tropical storm lee now a tropical depression, but still, packing plenty of rain after dumping a foot on parts of the gulf coast. i m carol costello. right now massive wildfires threatening to burn down thousands of homes in texas. it is the worst fire season in state history and it s far from over on this american morning. all right. good morning, everybody. it s monday, september 5th. labor day. welcome to american morning. ali is off today. happy labor day. i hope you re not laboring. i really do. up first this morning, tropical storm lee now downgraded to a tropical depression but it s still a major rainmaker as it moves across the southeast. the storm dumping a foot of rain along the gulf coast. it also spawned several tornadoes including one in mobile county, alabama. it ripped the roof off of one home, uprooted trees, and brought down power lines. here s what lee