early evening last night. so it is the intensity and the prolonged nature of how long this storm is taking to come ashore. it is just a relentless feeling here throughout the night. we experienced the high winds, the heavy rains just coming and coming and coming. so that is eventually the materials around here get stressed out and give in. that s what we are seeing in a lot of places. but it is that flooding concern here on the north site. we are on the in order side, the topside of hurricane florence where we have seen the winds and rain that started midday yesterday. you can sense how dramatic and problematic the continued rain fall is. it s already been going on here for 24 hours. it will be as the situation continues to worsen and compound itself, that s what we re dealing with right now, john. all right. ed up in jacksonville. ed, thanks so much for that report.
very, very slowly, carrying enough rain and storm surge to potentially cause catastrophic damage. i want to get the latest now from our ed lavandera, who is to the north of us in jacksonville, north carolina. ed, how are things? reporter: hey, anderson. we have been on the north side, the topside of this storm. we re really so far throughout the course of this day at least, the brunt of the storm and the heavy winds and rain that have been packed into this storm, and lashing out against the coastline. this is where the brunt of that we have seen throughout the day. we have driven from morehead city to south of jacksonville where we are. for the most part, everything seemed to be holding up rather well, but it is still extremely early. we have spoken with emergency officials in these areas and what they re most concerned about is that flooding situation that will come with this storm surge. for now, the winds have been coming out of the north down to the south, so that has essentially
look will, don, even getting out of the car is a challenge. as soon as you open the door, the wind catches the door and whips it forward. this road is starting to flood a little bit down here. i can see. the trees are really starting to be compromised and whip around. these country roads, these rural roads right by the intercoastal waterway are getting much more dangerous. the flood surge, the storm surge from the waterway not far behind me is coming up right through here. all right. brian todd, be safe. brian is in hempstead, north carolina. from hempstead to jacksonville, north carolina we find ed lavandera. good evening to you. you were getting whipped around getting pelted in the face with water earlier. what are you seeing now? what s going on? hey, don, we re on the north side of the north topside of this storm which really gives us some of the most intense winds and kind of puts us on the edge,
miles an hour can do so much damage to buildings. that s half hurricane strength and we re dealing with a category again, it s not a shame campaign. the first responders and all don was talking about with chief spain here, they have to do the job more for the people who stay behind. they will put their lives at risk to make sure these people who made their decision to stay are okay when that decision goes wrong. god forbid that happens. we hope everybody is making the best choice they can and if they choose to stay hopefully they do it the right way. this right now? the calm before the storm. ed lavender a in moorhead city, north carolina, is living our future. ed? hey, chris, we are on the topside of this storm where we have been seeing now for several hours the strongest bands of
left in a nightgown and socks in a rainstorm and rough seas. hours later police found her dead floating a mile away. autopsy showed bruises on her forearm, knee and the coroner called it an accidental drowning and did not check her fingernails for paint or flesh. wagner said she must have slipped and hit her head getting into the dingy. once missing the boat s captain said wagner wanted to go topside and drink rather than look for his wife. when he suggested we should turn on the light to look for her he said no. instead of saying no let s look for her. he said we should call somebody, no, let s wait. and he is on a boat himself. he can unhook his own boat and look for her. he doesn t even do that. wagner turns 88 this week. his attorney claims he is innocent but refuses to answer questions from police. we want to talk to robert