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Don Lemon Tonight

New Forecast In For Hurricane Florence As Millions Are In Path Of Storm; Wild Horses Of Outer Banks Under Threat? Aired 11-12a ET

Aired September 12, 2018 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[23:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: All right. This is our breaking news tonight. This is CNN TONIGHT. By the way I am Don Lemon, it is a little -- it is 11:00 p.m. here on the East Coast, we are live with all the breaking news. There's a brand-new forecast just in for hurricane Florence. The storm now a very strong category two expected to bring up to 13 feet of storm surge and more than 30 inches of rainfall producing life-threatening conditions in the Carolinas and Virginia. Let us get right to Tom Sater in the CNN Weather Center.

Tom, 20 to 40 inches of rain, a massive storm that is what is expected to drop. There's a brand-new advisory. Take it away.

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLIGIST: Dry air, Don, has been trying to infiltrate this. Notice in the southern flank here, the symmetry is lost somewhat. It's been undergoing this eye wall replacement cycle. We're losing the eye. That is to be expected. Going down to a category two status means absolutely nothing. The rain is still going to be the same. More rain in a three-day period than Washington, D.C. picks up all year. The surge is still going to be the same. We're still going to have massive waves crashing on shore and well inland. The only thing coming down to a category two means is there's two things.

The winds are not going to be as strong. However the winds, this was never about the winds. It's always been about water, water, water. The other thing that we can take away from this going down to a two right now, the only other factor is OK, hazel still will be the strongest who ever hit North Carolina. All right. It is the record books remain the same. Hugo will always be the strongest in the last 29 years. We don't want to break those records anyway.

We're only 1-mile-per-hour off from category three. This is the latest track. The national hurricane center wants to bring it in a little early now, 8:00 in the morning as a category two. Remember this could still get to three. Let me back up just a moment. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans as a category three. We're just about there. When it came out of the gulf, it was a category five. The water underneath Katrina created even though it made landfall as a three a record 28-foot storm surge. Early this morning, a wave height reported in that northeastern quadrant was 83 feet that staggers the imagination.

So the wall of water is still underneath this storm. The surge is going to be the same. The threat for loss of life and loss of property does not change. So do not pay attention to these numbers. It never was about that. It was about where the storm has come from, how strong it is, the vulnerable coastline and the massive slowdown. That has not changed. So the rainfall rates are going to be staggering, a couple of inches an hour for several days. We could see over ten inches a day for a couple of days. So that 40, 35, 40 inch total is going to be met in many locations.

So the threat for loss of life from flooding, from storm surge is still with us. Now, it carries down through South Carolina, starts to pick up speed, but our concern now is that heavy rain that will go northward into the mountainous areas and that is going to be something I'll show new a moment. How about this Don.

Because it slows down, the other day we thought Thursday night we would have landfall and high tide would be at 11:00. Get it over with. Well, because it's slowing down on coast, it's not just one high tide cycle. We are going to go through several cycles of high tide. So that means, high tide along with the surge everything crashing on shore is going to be relentless. So that doesn't change just as more problems really. Don't worry about that, too.

The heavy rainfall does not change. Into areas of the Piedmont, the mountains, parts of the Smokiest, getting into the Blue Ridge, the Shenandoah. This area has been locked and loaded with heavy rain all summer long. And then it extends northward where they've been going through water rescues and crazy heights in some of the streams and rivers in Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

They can't handle any more and when you look at these areas of red, you're talking six, seven inches up toward Boston, maybe seeing four or five. It's just hard to fathom. So again, when we talk about this losing a little bit of strength going through an eye wall replacement cycle, it means nothing for the loss of property, at least the potential there.

[23:05:07] So again, this could change. These things are fickle. Everyone is different, but I can't stress enough, Don, the rain and surge remain the same. Those who got out did the right thing. Those who are there, send prayers to them. I want to end with this if I may. Send thoughts and prayers out to our fellow Americans in the Hawaiian Islands because Olivia is a tropical storm and it is making landfall now. It got numerous down tress in Honolulu and so many landslides around Maui. It's closing and blocking off roadways. So, they are going through a tough time too. This is not the only storm in town.

LEMON: My goodness. Tom Sater thank you very much for that update. I need to get now to Ed Rappaport, the Deputy Director of the National Hurricane Center. Ed, we appreciate you joining us here. Losing a little bit of strength. Is losing that strength -- is there a concern that people might hear that and think this is not something to take seriously now?

ED RAPPAPORT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: It's always been an issue. That was an excellent discussion of why we don't want to focus too much on the exact wind speed. Yes, it's near category two, category three threshold. But that is still a dangerous hurricane, but as always, the most threatening part of a hurricane what makes most lives is water. And we're concerned about both the storm surge at the coast and the inland flooding from the rainfall. Both instances, the decrease in the wind speed by a little bit has not changed those threats.

LEMON: So how destructive could this storm be at this point? And also, can it pick up speed again? Does it have enough time to do that before it makes landfall?

RAPPAPORT: It does. And what we're looking at now, if you take a look at a satellite picture, here's the center of the storm, here's North Carolina, South Carolina coast. If you drew a line straight through it, most of the clouds are to the north of the center. The eye being here. Very little to the south. That is because we're experiencing over the storm some southerly wind shear. That is what we believe has weakened the hurricane today.

We think that wind shear will diminish over the next 12 to 24 hours which could allow for some re-intensification. So, again, we're talking about a category two or category three at landfall, but regardless of the specifics of the wind speed, it's that storm surge of up to 13 feet that we could see along the North Carolina coast. Some of the rivers and then almost that high to the south over South Carolina and the far northern part of North Carolina and then the inland flooding to follow.

LEMON: So certain areas, Ed, as I understand could get up to 24 hours of hurricane force winds? How unusual is it for a storm to crawl down a coast like this?

RAPPAPORT: It's not that unusual, but what is unusual is for it to happen right near the coastline. We do see sometimes a storm stall and make a little loop. Here is the forecast, 12 hours, 24 hours, but then 36 and 48 hours, the storm almost stops right near the coast. And unfortunately, that means a protracted period of hurricane force winds and storm surge that will go through several high tide cycles and that is why we're greatly concerned about those water levels along the coast.

LEMON: All right. Thank you very much, Ed Rappaport. We appreciate it. We appreciate your time.

Now let's go to CNN's Drew Griffin, he is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Drew, good evening to you. You have been out speaking to residents of Myrtle Beach. What are you hearing on the ground ahead of this life-threatening storm?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Something interesting about this particular area, Don. I've never been in advance of a hurricane where so few people have been through a really big storm or can even remember a big storm. It doesn't mean they're not evacuating. They are, but they just don't know what they're about to go through. And listening to that forecast where you know, basically in the eyes of a layperson this storm has been downgraded, that could certainly lead to people not leaving now. Those who have now chosen to say stay. So I do worry about that. We did talk to a lot of people who have chosen to leave finally, because of the southward turn here into the Myrtle Beach area. I talked to one woman who says, you know, a lot of her neighbors just can't. Take a listen to why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of them just don't have a place to go. Some of these people in here don't have vehicles. They have like bicycles or mopeds or something like that. I mean, they cannot leave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: The city is trying to encourage them to leave and even help them leave, but I think with this news of a downgraded forecast for the storm, just the number alone, it's going to be hard to get those people out because they have equally as tough time getting back in after the storm, Don.

LEMON: Today, Drew, big wake-up call that the storm is shifting south. More people making the decision to leave?

GRIFFIN: Yes, they did. They did. And you know, the shelters is opened up.

[23:10:02] The mayor of Myrtle Beach said they did a fantastic job. A lot of people were evacuating all day today. The highways both directions were going outbound. And people are going to the shelters even though they're going to the shelters as we heard from them somewhat reluctantly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Inside I'm a little worried about our home. Because well, we lived down here 13 years. And it's a modest home, but it's you know, home. And I don't want to see it destroyed, but we know that is a possibility, but we'll deal with that when you know, when the time comes. Because everybody here will have to deal with it. We're not alone. There's a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: It will be very interesting tomorrow morning to see if this forecast holds for a category two, whether or not those evacuations continue or whether people actually just try to leave some of those shelters and maybe come back to their homes. That is what I would worry about now if I was an official here in Myrtle Beach.

The town under curfew. All completely shut down as of 10:00 tonight until 6:00 tomorrow morning. The businesses were shuttered at 5:00. They're trying to send a signal that there is nothing left to stay for. You're not going to have any supplies hoping that will keep people away, Don.

LEMON: Drew griffin holding it down for us in Myrtle Beach. Drew, thank you so much. Be safe out there. When we come back, FEMA calling hurricane Florence a Mike Tyson punch. So why are some people riding out the storm? I'm going to talk to two of them. That is next.

[23:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So more than 25 million people are in the path of hurricane Florence. More than a million under orders to evacuate. Many have left their homes. But some are deciding to stay put even in the face of warnings that this is an extremely dangerous major hurricane and pleas for them to flee. So, why do some people decide to hunker down? I don't know, some get desensitized to watches and warnings or get tired of waiting for promised storms. Some are caring for family members who don't want to leave. Others can't bear to be separated from pets and others just feel they have too much at stake to leave.

So let us discuss now. Joining me are two Charleston residents who are staying put, Adam Randall and Joshua Walker. A lot of people concern about business as well.

Gentlemen, good evening to you. You're dry now. You are in a studio, but who knows what can happen by tomorrow. So Adam, you first. FEMA says today that this storm is going to be a Mike Tyson punch to the Carolina Coast. What made you decide to stay?

ADAM RANDALL, CHARLESTON RESIDENT: I decided to stay out of necessity really being a small independent business owner, I have a lot at stake here, I have a lot to take care of. I have a lot of preparation to do. You know, my family evacuated on Tuesday. Which I'm glad they did, because this is a very dangerous situation to be in, but you have to, you know, I have to take care of what is mine. And it's as simple as that. That is why I decided to stay.

LEMON: Yes. You own a restaurant, fish and chips shop called Cod Father. Very clever, by the way. I like that.

RANDALL: Thank you very much.

LEMON: Are you planning on opening back up once the storm is passed?

RANDALL: We're going to open tomorrow from 11:00 to 3:00. Most of my staff are evacuating I believe tonight and tomorrow which obviously they're free to do so. They volunteered to work this week. Tomorrow we're going to open from 11:00 till 3:00 just for lunch service. Because we're down to a skeleton crew of me, my manager, my chef and a bartender. So we'll probably offer a discount to the first responders as we have with the past storms and just try and clear out some stock.

LEMON: So Joshua, you're a small business owner too, the owner of Wine and company. Strong ties to the community.

JOSHUA WALKER, CHARLESTON RESIDENT: It's not as cool as the Cod Father, right?

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Well, if you sell wine, I'm sure you're going to make a lot of money, right? You are going to do pretty well. Say you feel responsibility to stay. Why is that?

WALKER: For us as Charlestonians and small business owners, I think that we haven't decided to stay indefinitely. What we have decided is the days behind us, we wanted to close for as few days as possible. I think unfortunately, Charlestonians and a lot of natives have this skepticism about some of the early projections for storm and for us, I don't know that we're wanting to stay at all costs, but we are right now thinking that if it is a tropical storm, we want to be responsible with our decision making. So for us, I don't think we're staying against better decision making. We're just doing our best to get all the information we can as we get closer.

LEMON: Joshua, you said something that caught my attention. You say that surviving a hurricane isn't just about the physical destruction, but the fiscal destruction. Tell us more about that.

WALKER: Sure. Well, I think the hurricanes have a lot of the impact. Growing up in Charleston, being a Charleston native, I've never left for hurricanes. I've had a mom that will always worked at the hospital. She is always been required to be here. And for us it's never been about leaving. Fiscal impact is a huge part of it. I think that it's very hard for a business to pay four weeks of bills on three weeks of residents. So, I hate the idea of like getting rich selling wine. We're just trying to support our small businesses and we are trying to be responsible business owners. We don't want to make bad decisions. We don't want to put people in harm, but we want to take care of something we've worked so hard and we poured everything we have into it.

LEMON: Well, said. Because listen, Adam, I got to ask you, you said you're not a daredevil. By the way, you sent your family inland, but you've been through a lot of hurricanes. What are you expecting -- what do you expect on the other side of this one?

[23:20:03] RANDALL: I mean, I've lived in Charleston for 15 years. I'm from England originally. So, you know, some nasty weather, but no hurricanes. In 15 years, I've never seen a hurricane. I've seen some pretty nasty tropical storms. Nothing that ever really alarmed me into getting in the car and leaving. I think we've been lucky you know, Charleston does have a history with the hurricanes, Hugo and Floyd and those kind of storms have been through here.

So you do have to be cautious and you know, you do have to look at all the facts and evaluate your own safety, your employees' safety, the safety of the community around you, but at the end of the day, we're entrepreneurs and we take risks for a living and we do so every single day. So as small business owners it's important to us to maintain what we have invested so much into.

LEMON: Speaking of that, listen, the reality here, because you also say you're sitting on thousands of pounds of fish. What are you going to do with it?

RANDALL: Yes. Well, like I say, tomorrow I'm going to open for lunch and I am going to sell it and I'm going to give it away. I'm going to give the first responders it the opportunity of a free meal. Most of them are probably on call, on duty, away from their homes and families. And you know, nothing warms a soul like a home cooked hot meal. So we'll do whatever we can do to shift as much product and hopefully we will not lose power. You know, the result of losing power is I have to throw it in the garbage which I would really hate to do.

LEMON: Josh, are you going to be open tomorrow? What's your plan?

WALKER: I think that we're going to do our best tonight to assess the situation. We're not going to make a decision any sooner than we need to. So my wife and I are going to sit down in the morning, look and take in as much information as possible and do our best to decide then.

LEMON: If I get close to Charleston, I'm going to come by. Because all of a sudden, I'm craving for fish and chips and a glass of wine. So thank you, gentlemen.

WALKER: We can do that.

RANDALL: I've got the good fish. He is got the better wine.

WALKER: Champagne, fish and chips. Now we're talking.

LEMON: In all honesty, we wish you the best with your businesses and we wish you nothing, but safety. And we thank you for coming on, gentlemen. Thank you so much.

WALKER: Thank you so much.

RANDALL: Yes, thanks very much. Good luck to everybody.

LEMON: When we come back. It's not just the winds from this hurricane. Florence could bring massive storm surges, a wall of water up to 13 feet high as well as potentially catastrophic flooding. What's that going to look like and who feels the impact the most? We'll talk about that next.

[23:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So hurricane Florence could bring life-threatening storm surges up to 13 feet. And with drenching rains of more than 30 inches, the National Hurricane Center says flooding could be catastrophic. I want to talk about this now with Rick Luettich, he is a Director of Coastal Resilience Center at the University of North Carolina. He joins us by the way via Skype. Good evening to you. We thank you for joining us.

RICK LUETTICH, DIRECTOR, COASTAL RESILIENCE CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: Good evening. Pleasure to be here.

LEMON: Absolutely. As the storm approaches the East Coast, it's expected to stall which increases the potential of a catastrophic storm surge and flooding, correct?

LUETTICH: Well, the strength of the storm and its proximity to the coast is the first thing that the stalling will increase the damages that are done by it. So we think our models predict maybe nine or ten feet above means sea level or about seven feet above the normal high tide. The 11:00 forecast out of the Hurricane Center had it weakening just a little bit as it approached shore which is a good thing, but the slow speed means it will just plow that water and plow it up with high waves on top of it and just hour after hour of beach erosions and do you know erosion and potential flooding along with it.

LEMON: So, let's talk about the how much rain. Because it's expected to bring 20 to 40 inches of rain. What kind of an impact could that have?

LUETTICH: Well, that is almost unheard of and certainly in coastal Carolina, but you know, that could be the one-two punch really because people will get it from the Oceanside, from the surge and then from the backside from the rain.

LEMON: So listen, the storm surge is the greatest threat to life and property. And it could be as high as 13 feet. What will be the hardest hit areas? What areas will be hit hardest by the surge?

LUETTICH: Well, the areas just to the north and east of Cape Fear. So up into Topsoil, Wrightsville, Surf City, those are the areas that we think -- again the forward side of the storm will really plow the water into that area. And because it will be there for several days really affecting that area, it will make its way up into estuaries and so it will really penetrate inland. Then as the storm goes further to the southwest, across the Cape Fear and into South Carolina, the backside of the storm will actually get storm surge not quite as high, but in the north Myrtle Beach area ocean isle area and the areas to the west of Cape Fear.

LEMON: The slight weakening, does it have any significant effect on the storm surge?

LUETTICH: Well, the strength of the storm absolutely. It's what drives the storm surge is the winds. So if the winds weaken, then the surge will be diminished.

LEMON: So, it's expected -- you know, we hear all these terms, you know, every time there's a hurricane and report on a major hurricane and the storm surge, we talk about it on and on and we talk about high tide and low tide, what that means.

So, is this storm expected to hit a high or low tide and how much of a difference will that make in the damage that it could potentially cause?

LUETTICH: A lot of storms, if they just cross the coast and they cross the coast at a fairly rapid pace, you might get lucky and hit a low tide or you might get unlucky and hit a high tide. And that can make a huge difference. In this area, the tide can be five or six feet from low to high tide. So, that's half or two-thirds perhaps of what the surge is itself.

Unfortunately, this slow-moving storm is going to hit multiple high tides. So, it's unlucky (ph) almost to start with, and what we are looking at is it will probably impact the area for about four high tides. And the worst of it, the worst combination of the winds and high tide will probably occur about midday on Friday.

LEMON: I don't know if you answered this next question with what you just said before, but you said that Florence is a hybrid of past hurricanes that have hit the Carolinas. How so?

LUETTICH: Well, we've had a lot of hurricanes in the Carolinas that have been storm surge hurricanes. Our sort of storm record was Hurricane Hazel back in 1954, which hit just to the west of Cape Fear and really decimated Oak Island and Ocean Island and some of those areas down there.

Fran in '96 hit just about the same area where this storm may make landfall, and it had about 10 or 12 feet of storm surge, again did a number on the ocean side and the dunes and the beaches. So, we have had storm surge storms.

We've also had major rainfall storms that have been more inland. Floyd, for example, in the late '90s, and Matthew just two years ago dumped a lot of rain in the Piedmont area in the uplands, then came down. And when it reached the coastal plain, the rivers aren't very deep there and so it just spilled over its banks and flooded tremendous areas in the Greenville and Kingston and Lumberton areas.

This -- but those are separate. The surge at the coast and that rainfall further inland, this slow-moving very wet storm is going to dump both rainfall and storm surge in the same areas at the same time. And so that hybrid, that together concurrency, makes this a very dangerous storm and one that's really unprecedented in our area.

LEMON: So, with all of that said, we talked about the surge and the rainfall amounts, what's your message to people there who say, hey, I'm going to ride it out?

LUETTICH: Water is totally unforgiving. If you're in an area that either at the coast is susceptible and low to the surge or further inland along streams, any areas that could be susceptible to water, you need to find a shelter immediately. It's just not forgiving.

And again, if you wait too long, you may not be able to escape the coastal surge because the rainfall may have you trapped in from the backside. So, again, water is just not forgiving, find shelter.

LEMON: Rick Luettich, you know your stuff, man. We thank you for joining us. Appreciate it.

LUETTICH: My pleasure.

LEMON: Yeah.

LUETTICH: Thank you.

LEMON: When we come back, hospitals across the Carolinas getting ready for a life-saving mission. We're going to talk to a Wilmington doctor about how they're preparing for the biggest storm in a generation.

[23:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So the new forecast for Hurricane Florence tonight, strong winds expected to bring up to 13 feet of storm surge and more than 30 inches of rainfall, producing life-threatening conditions in the Carolinas and Virginia. And access to medical care, well, it's going to be crucial.

So I want to bringing in now Dr. Clyde Harris. He is the vice president of Clinical Excellence for the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Doctor, we so appreciate you joining us. So, New Hanover is one of the largest medical service providers in southeastern North Carolina, staying open is critical to the community. How are you preparing for the storm?

CLYDE HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF CLINICAL EXCELLENCE, NEW HANOVER REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER (via telephone): Well, good evening. Thank you. We have been expecting this storm for several days now. It's been on our radar. We have an incident command structure that -- we've been deploying teams throughout our entire system, getting ready for the storm, bringing in extra supplies, securing the facilities, planning for staffing.

We've had several emergencies in the past such as ice storms or hurricanes and this is unfortunately become somewhat routine. This storm certainly seems to be a little bit different. It's caught our attention. This one seems to be as they keep saying catastrophic potential with this storm. It's been a little bit different. We've been taking it very seriously.

LEMON: So doctor, you know this storm is expected to knock out power in the region possibly for weeks on end possibly. Is that problematic? How problematic is that is a better way to ask.

HARRIS (via telephone): It's problematic in the community. At our hospital, we have generators.

[23:40:00] We have -- we have several tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel for our generators. We have backup generators for those generators. We've been in touch with FEMA and National Guard and the State Emergency Operation Center, who will be resupplying us when weather permits. And we think we will be able to provide power to the hospital through the entire time.

LEMON: You know, the hospital has also been evacuating certain patients ahead of the storm. Can you tell us about that process?

HARRIS (via telephone): Yes, sir. We have -- we were able to transfer about 40 critically-ill patients out of the system, including 10 from our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. So, these were critically-ill patients, but still stable enough for transport with our critical care transport systems. They've moved up into hospital systems throughout central North Carolina and as far as Winston-Salem, I believe. So, many of our sister facilities have been extremely helpful and accommodating in accepting patients.

LEMON: Which patients -- which patients are staying and how is that decision made? How are you making that decision?

HARRIS (via telephone): Well, we look at the acute patient and we have identified several critical care patients. Some are too unstable to transfer, so we take those off the potential list. And then other folks who are critically ill but stable enough for transport with our critical care transport teams, we've identified and they have various criteria.

We have -- we have been able to send about 200 patients home through either transport or discharge as we tried to decrease our census in preparation for this storm.

LEMON: How do you prepare -- how do you prepare the one who stay? They know a hurricane is coming, right?

HARRIS (via telephone): Yes, sir. We just, you know, we have over 1,300 staff and physicians here. We have a call team, physician call team that covers everything that we do and every single patient in the hospital has a physician that is covering them and in their specialty.

We have shifts of physicians and staff. So we have some rest time built into it. We have sort of a storm team. And we have an after storm team who is prepared to return for relief as soon as they can get here after the storm.

LEMON: The hospital is instructing pregnant women at 37 weeks and above to evacuate the area. But if a woman goes into labor during the storm, you'll be ready?

HARRIS (via telephone): If they are here, we will be ready. If they're at home, we may not be able to get to them. Depending on the severity of the wind, our trucks are unable to travel, I think, it's about 50 miles an hour. So hopefully, these women have made arrangements for evacuation inland prior to right now.

LEMON: You've also asked patient visitors at the hospital to leave at this point. Is there a timetable for when they will be able to come back and see their loved ones?

HARRIS (via telephone): It depends on the nature of the storm. We have -- we are in a situation we call "shelter in place" right now. So people are not allowed to come and go. People that are here are here until it is safe to travel. And we were -- we really had to evacuate or not evacuate, but we had to limit visitation just because we simply cannot take care of all the people that would like to stay here.

We've had to narrow that down to critically-ill patients or family or some deliveries and families. We really have to restrict our visitation. We simply cannot take care of -- we simply do not have the space or capability of taking care of thousands of visitors in addition to the 400 plus patients we have here and the 1,3900 staff.

LEMON: That's completely understandable. We thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Clyde Harris. Be safe. Again, appreciate your time.

HARRIS (via telephone): Thank you very much.

LEMON: Thank you. When we come back, the iconic wild horses of North Carolina's outer banks are right in the path of Hurricane Florence. Will they be safe? I'm going to talk to an expert.

[23:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hurricane Florence is a serious threat for millions of people in the Carolinas and Virginia, but the wild horses of North Carolina's outer banks are in the path of that storm, too. There are about 200 wild horses in North Carolina living in wildlife refuges and in Corolla, Shackleford Banks, and outside Beaumont.

So, let's discuss now with Sue Stuska. She is a wildlife biologist at the Cape Lookout National Seashore, and she joins us via phone. Thank you so much. We appreciate you joining us here. It's important to talk about this story, as well. People are in harm's way, Sue, good evening to you, but these wild horses are beloved by locals and visitors to the outer banks.

A Facebook page for the Corolla herd has been inundated with people asking about them. So with the storm approaching, how concerned should people be for these incredible animals?

SUE STUSKA, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST, CAPE LOOKOUT NATIONAL SEASHORE (via telephone): Well, it's great to be with you. I can speak mostly for the Shackleford Bank horses.

[23:50:02] Those are the ones that I work with professionally although we all work with each other with the different herds. Shackleford Banks is nine miles long. There is 118 horses living there. And the western part of the island is dune fields with (INAUDIBLE) forest on the northern edge.

And these horses being pretty savvy about weather because they're out in it all the time will be moving to higher ground as the water rises and will be moving out of the wind as the wind gets stronger.

LEMON: So they instinctively know that the storm is approaching and they -- they -- they try to take shelter, correct?

STUSKA (via telephone): I believe that. I believe that.

LEMON: Yeah. So we've got video on screen now. A look at a foal, right? Some of these horses are young and this storm is expected to bring huge storm surge with it. Is there enough high ground for the horses to find shelter?

STUSKA (via telephone): Yes, I believe so. And they're social animals. They stay in their own group. There's about 25 groups on the island. But they will move closer to each other while still maintaining their group or social space bubble onto the higher ground as needed.

So you could fit the entire herd in a very small area if there was reason for that. And in the dune fields there is enough low spaces in between the dunes that each group could have its own space and it will be fine.

I've not been out there in a hurricane, of course, but I've been out there in pretty bad thunderstorms. And it's amazingly quiet and out of the wind and of course the ground is higher. The elevation is there in the dune field.

LEMON: Yeah. I'm looking at some of the videos while you're talking and these are just magnificently beautiful animals. There have been many storms along the coast. Has any harm come to horses in the past?

STUSKA (via telephone): So I've been at the park since 1999, and we've had some pretty bad storms since then, and we have not lost any horses in storms since I got there.

LEMON: Yeah.

STUSKA (via telephone): So, hopefully that will continue. There is always the possibility a horse could be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you know, in too low of an area. But like I said, they're pretty savvy and I would expect that they would move to higher ground.

And by the time any of us would get out there, check on them, they'd be right back in their own home ranges in various parts of the island as soon as the water receded.

LEMON: Yeah, we can only hope so. But the flood waters brought by Florence could be around for a long time after Florence moves on. Are they capable of fending for themselves for an extended period of time? I mean, how are they going to get food?

STUSKA (via telephone): Sure. Well, there's grass on the island, and they'll be able to go a little outside their normal comfort zone in grazing and graze on some other species if they're required to stay in an area for an extended period of time.

We've seen that as we've had droughts or monsoons that have buried some of their most favorite grazing areas in water for an extended period of time like at summer, and they do fine. They find grazing elsewhere.

LEMON: So, you know, these horses are wild. There are groups that help manage the herds. Are those groups able to help the horses during or after the storm because so many people have to be evacuated, Sue.

STUSKA (via telephone): Right. So, no, our horses are managed hands- off. They're managed like wild animals. And we do not try to do anything for them. And indeed it would be futile. You really can't go out and round up a bunch of wild horses and take them off and have them be comfortable and unharmed in a very artificial situation for them. So they're much better left where they are, where they know where the shelter is. There will be plenty of water for them to drink, fresh- water, rain.

[23:55:01] And they can tell the difference between that and the saltwater from the storm. So, they should be fine.

LEMON: You're not anymore worried about this than you have been before, are you?

STUSKA (via telephone): No. I know that the storm surge is forecast to be higher, so I expect there will be more movement of the herds.

What I tend to see is if you picture a 9-mile long island with 25 groups of horses spread out in that area, I expect that the horses from the east end are going to move progressively west, pushing all the other groups ahead of them, because they do tend to retain their group home range either further to the west or further to the east just because it's a long, narrow island.

But I think they'll be able to move into a smaller area in the dunes and have plenty of space for themselves and plenty of grazing and freshwater, and they should be fine.

LEMON: Thank you, Sue. We appreciate your time. We wish you the best of luck. Listen, it's up there on your screen. A 110-mile an hour winds, surges up to 130 miles an hour. Right now, it's a Category 2. That was the latest at the top of the hour, but still a very, very severe and big storm and dangerous storm.

So make sure you heed the warnings of officials there. Get out if you can. Hunker down if you don't want to leave, but we suggest you get out. Make sure you stay with CNN for continuing coverage of Hurricane Florence over the coming days.

Thanks for watching. Our coverage continues now.

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