but when these things events come on shore they are devastating. they are nasty. it takes us some time to clean up the roadways, get the power lines back up, get the power back up. and i tell people you don t really want to ride one of these things out. the best thing to do is board up your home, get your belongings and move out of the area. you will be able to see once you get back in here after one of these things passes but to ride one of these things out is not a fun thing. so, you know, i think most people have heeded the warnings, have heard what the media has the information that has been sent to them and shared with us, and i think most people have taken this thing very seriously and have left the area and made preparations. the ones will stay here have made the preparations to ride the storm out hopefully in a safe way. bill: thank you, sir. we ll be in touch with you and your office there in wilmington.
unbelievably damaging and they can t emphasize that enough. violent winds can blow down power lines and trees. heavy, sustained rain that can flood our rivers and low-lying ground will be coming. and expect this storm to batter our state for days. floodplain experts at the north carolina emergency management have been modeling the storm s projected impacts. and from the storm surge alone, tens of thousands of structures are expected to be flooded in north carolina. we are sharing that information with local officials so that they can prepare. shelters began opening yesterday with more opening today to take people in who have been displaced by evacuations. there are at least 16 shelters that are open now and we are
detention centers. what can you tell us about this? is that funding would that funding have been used for hurricane relief? yes, ma am, what i can tell you we have plenty of resources both monetary, staff and commodities to respond to the dangerous storm hurricane florence. we ask those residents in the impacted zones to heed the warnings now. this new information can be provided but right now we want to focus on what are the impacts of florence and what can our citizens do today, which is the last good day to evacuate and we really want to push that message. can you shed light on the funding that senator merkley is calling attention to. what i can tell you we have plenty of resources to respond and recover. that is not impacted our situation whatsoever. thank you. thank you for taking my question. do we have any insight and estimate into how much the damage will be from the storm impact and will there need to
connect you with local resources. i want to thank everyone across our state helping us get ready for this storm. and i want to introduce part of north carolina s team here to provide input for you. to my far right is the director of emergency management. next is colonel glenn mcneil the commander of the state highway patrol. behind me is dr. mandy cohen, the secretary of the department of health and human services. we also have the secretary of transportation to my immediate left. we have our federal coordinating officer from fema, who is here with us in the middle there. and, of course, we have the general of the north carolina national guard, major general
not get on the water. there isn t much we can do if they re on the water. we re putting our people in safe havens not ready to be on the water and to be ready to respond once the storm makes landfall. that s the main thing. try to be ready to respond once the storm makes landfall. right now there isn t much we can do as this gets closer and closer to the shore. people seem to be listening to the warnings. i see this magnitude of the storm approaching the shoreline. that s a good thing that they re listening. bill: do you work in coordination with the national hurricane center? how do you get your information? a lot of different sources. we have connections with fema, national weather service. we have a direct line and getting information there and working basically with fema and all the other federal partners and stuff. we have connections and coordination calls basically three or four times a day making sure we re all operating