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Don Lemon Tonight

CNN's Special Coverage Of Tropical Storm Florence; Non-Stop Flooding, Heavy Rains and Debris as Florence Batters the Carolinas. Aired 11-12a ET

Aired September 14, 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: This is CNN TONIGHT I'm Don Lemon. It is the top of the hour. What was hurricane Florence is now a tropical storm. And we're now hearing that it has killed at least five people in this area.

This tropical storm is battering the Carolinas tonight. We're told that more than 500,000 people maybe up to 850,000 people are without power right now. They are concerned about major storm surges and also catastrophic flooding in the area. I just want to take you out here on the beach. Because this is where the major problem where storm is rolling in and they're concerned about flooding. This is what we've been seeing all day, the storms rolling in, coming in, moving from the north and then coming south down the shore here.

And one of those places that is being hit really hard is where colleague, Miguel Marquez is. He is in Carolina Beach. And Miguel, all day, you have been getting inundated with water and wind. Tell us what you're seeing.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this has been 36 hours of just hell in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, Don. The wind is still blowing very, very hard. The rain is coming in right now, we're not seeing a lot of rain, but the wind is still very, very heavy here. The electricity is out in Carolina Beach and throughout the county. About 108,000 of the 128,000 customers that they have here are without power tonight.

Cell phone service is down. Some roofs have been ripped off. Some walls have collapsed in and around Carolina Beach, but officials still waiting to be able to get out into daylight tomorrow to figure out just how much damage the storm has done.

Fortunately, they haven't had those really big bad emergency calls for water rescues and the like. About 600 people of the 6200 people who live in this town decided to stay and tough out this storm. And tonight is the final test. Tide is coming in here in a little bit. There are areas of town that flood on a good day so they are waiting to see how bad it gets tonight. I can tell you in the last 24 hours we have seen incredibly hard rain, lots and lots of wind. And water up to the waist in some places.

Also a lot of beach erosion. It's devastating to a town like this that depends on its beach for people who come here to enjoy it. About two feet of sand of beach sand is now gone, and a lot of beach erosion. So, a lot of rebuilding already is very evident here for Carolina Beach. Don?

LEMON: Yes, they're going to, Miguel, they are going to have some issues when it comes to beach erosion. Speaking to the spokesperson last night for Myrtle Beach. And they said they were supposed to have a beach restoration project that was supposed to start this week. But instead, this hurricane now tropical storm came through and delayed them. It was going to add hundreds of feet of beach to this area. Not going to happen right now for at least a couple of weeks because of the storm.

I want to get to my colleague, Ed Lavandera. Ed Lavandera is in Jacksonville, North Carolina where he has been witnessing some of the things going on. Ed, as I understand you were out with people who were rescuing people earlier. What's happening where you are?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, we spent the most of our day in the town of New Bern which has been the focus of some of the high water rescues and people being evacuated from their homes there in that town about 300 people having to be more than 300 people having to be rescued from their homes in these neighborhoods.

Pockets of neighborhoods where floodwaters rose up overnight and into today. So there was a race to get to these people. And Don, it was very reminiscent what we saw a year ago in Houston during hurricane Harvey where you had private citizens rushing to the scene there and launching their boats to this flood waters to reach the people who were trapped in their homes and wanted to get out.

[23:05:00] So, it was fascinating to see from that standpoint. We met a gentleman by the name of Jason Wineman who 10 years ago bought an old and a government auction -- an old military vehicle, high vehicle, used to transport troops. He said he bought it for moments like this. So he dispatched himself into the scene there and was driving it through high water that regular cars couldn't get through and able to load people up and bring them to safety.

We met a woman Jennifer Morales who was rescued in Jason's truck and brought out. She was with her husband and 2-year-old son. They said that they told us that they had been calling for help for nearly 12 hours before rescuers could get to the home where they were trapped by floodwaters. So, some very dramatic scenes and stories we heard throughout the day today in New Bern, North Carolina. Don?

LEMON: All right. Ed Lavandera. Ed, thank you very much. Ed, you've been doing great work all day. This is not the way that most people who live here and the people came into rescue expected to spend their Friday night and their weekends, but they're happy, especially the rescue folks to be here, helping out. We had seen a lot of that. Usually at this hour, right at 11:00, every evening, we had been getting an update on this storm.

I want to go to meteorologist, Allison Chinchar who joins us from the CNN Weather Center to give us the very latest. What is happening Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right so, Don, we've seen a couple of changes in the latest update for starters the sustained winds have dropped down now at 65 miles per hour. Still a tropical storm but the forward movement has actually picked up a little bit. Now it rest southwest at about five miles per hour. Had been moving at three. Both of them still indicate a very slow pace. And that is going to be the concern going forward, because as the storm moves so slowly, it's going to dump rain in the same spots.

Two particular bands of rain we've been focused on. This first one here, you can see over Moorhead City, New Port up through Jacksonville. This other one now really starting to ramp up around Wilmington. And notice that skinny line, but it's training over the same spots. A lot of these locations are getting two to three inches of rain an hour.

On top of that, you also have a tornado watch in effect for most of the overnight hours and even some active tornado warnings that we have off and on throughout the evening. Now the thing is, as this trek continues to make its way in towards portions of South Carolina and then finally takes off, it's that shift as it starts to begin to push southward, one of the big things we are going to notice is the change in storm surge.

Up to this point, it's really only been an issue for areas of North Carolina. But as the low sinks back down, that storm surge is now going to begin to shift into portions of northeastern South Carolina, including Myrtle Beach which expected to get about four to six feet of storm surge. Really over the next 12 to 24 hours that is when you really going to start to see the worst of the storm surge for those locations.

In addition to that, again, we've been talking about the flood threat. It's a twofold. You have the rain that is coming down from above and the water that is coming up from below. That is the storm surge. The short-term problem is the flash flooding that is going to take place. The long-term problem would be the tributaries. All of that water has to go somewhere. It goes from those tributaries and in bays and inlets into the rivers and creeks and streams.

We're expecting 20 of those rivers to reach major flood stage. And nearly 30 of them to reach moderate flood stage and for a lot of these locations they're not even going to crest until Tuesday of next week. So it's really going to be a long time before we finally start to see that water begin to recede.

And already, the Cape Fear River at Wilmington reached that record height today at 8.288 feet. And another location along the northeast Cape Fear River, now this is a little bit further inland, we expect that to end up reaching a record crest, as well, Don, but again, that is not likely to get to that point till well into Sunday and more likely not until Monday.

So, again even as the storm begins to make its way inland and push away from the Carolinas, this is going to be a problem they are still going to be dealing with for at least the next five days.

LEMON: Allison, it's really unbelievable. I mean, just for the last couple of days, this thing has been just sitting here and pouring water on top of people. And as you said, it is going to be until Tuesday till some of these rivers and tributaries and all this, until the rivers crest. I can only imagine what that means for the flooding situation here.

This is we are. I just want to take a little bit of walk out here. You may lose me in the dark a little bit, but the concern was that this water from the beach may start coming up to the berms and flowing in there. It's pretty much high tide. So hopefully that is not going to happen. Where we do not know, because we've been getting so much rain. And then there was -- there is the storm drains here that we have been watching on the beaches. When we first got here, those drains were little trickle, if they were moving at all. Little tiny trickles.

[23:10:03] And now they've opened up and even some of the water has been flowing from other areas. And expanding those, as well. We've been getting updates, of course, from the National Weather Center, also updates from the National Hurricane Center, as well. Ed Rappaport who has been joining us here every single evening, is going to give us an update now. Ed, do I have you? Can you hear me?

ED RAPPAPORT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes, I can. Good evening, Don.

LEMON: So give us an update here. I'm in Myrtle Beach. You can see the bands are coming through right now. And we are getting drenched here and the wind is picking up. What's going on?

RAPPAPORT: The center is located just to the west of you now. A lot of rain covering eastern part of North Carolina. It is spread to the west. Your correspondent showed an interesting graph just a minute ago. I want to show another version from another river. And what we're looking here is again the rise of the water, but here we are seeing two different peaks and this is near New Bern, North Carolina. And what we see a rise that occurred yesterday and into today and that is because of the storm surge that went up about five feet or six feet. Then starting to come down, but now it is going back up again.

That is really -- mostly due to the rainfall. Yes, it's high tide. But now the surge is beginning to recede, but the rainfall that is falling over the river area and up to the west which has to drain out now through there is causing the water level to rise even further. And it's up into the major flood stage already.

LEMON: So Ed, listen, the big concern here you know there have been rescuing a lot of people, hundreds of people, has been this area called New Bern. And I'm wondering was it forecast to get that high? Because I don't think that there was a mandatory evacuation have given for New Bern. Was it forecast to get that much water, that much floodwater?

RAPPAPORT: Yes, we had talked about how the water was going to rise on the order of ten feet along the coast. And also up the rivers. The Neuse River and Pamlico River indeed. That is what we've seen. May be even a little bit higher in a few places. Now of course, we've got the water coming down the river from the rainfall and so we're going to see flooding there well into next week.

LEMON: Yes. Ed, can you explain to me and to our viewers why this thing slowed down and stalled? Because that is a problem here. And it's just stalling. And not moving very quickly. And just producing a lot of water.

RAPPAPORT: We talked about a lot of water. But a hurricane is very much like a float in a river. It moves where the currents around it steer it. And fortunately, we were able to forecast pretty well what those currents are going to be for this storm and so we knew days in advance and that is why we had all the flood warnings out.

Unfortunately, in this case it turned out the forecast was right. The storm slowed considerably and dropping a lot of rain and we are worried about dropping in essence of record amounts of rain. We've already had 20 plus inches of rain in a few spots near Wilmington, near Moorhead City in New Bern, five to 10 inches farther to the west of North Carolina.

And by the time the weekend is over, we are going to see almost all of North Carolina, much of South Carolina having had 5 to 10 inches of rain. Half of that area maybe a swathe of 15 to 20 inches. We had seen already 20 plus inches. Some of those locations will get isolated spots to 40 inches of rain. Tremendous flooding to be expected. As we've said, it's going to occur through the weekend and into next week. .

LEMON: All right. Ed Rappaport, thank you very much, I appreciate your time and explaining it to me and to our viewers, as well. Again, check what I said earlier about New Bern. There was a mandatory evacuation ordered for New Bern, not a mandatory evacuation for every place in the Carolinas or at least in north and South Carolina, the coastal areas.

The New Bern was one of them. And that is where we saw so much flooding. And a lot of people there did decide to stay. And unfortunately, you see what happened. We are going to continue on with our coverage here on CNN of tropical storm Florence. We're getting new updates as you see. And we will update you on the other side of the break. Don't go anywhere.

[23:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: And you're looking down upon us now. You can see the exact situation that I'm in on the beach. You can see how this -- this is a pretty wide beach. Now it's shrinking and the water is really lapping at the berm where we're standing right now. Back now to our ground camera. The conditions here are deteriorating rapidly here in Myrtle Beach. They did get spared of course a big hurricane. It's down now to a tropical storm.

I want to get to my colleague Martin Savidge, he has been out in all of this covering this all day. He was in Wrightsville Beach where it came ashore this morning and now he is joining us from Wilmington. Martin, you've move locations. So take us to where you are now.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've moved locations because there's a curfew in effect. There are many curfews actually across all of North Carolina Wilmington, 10:00 p.m. You can't be out. So we came back to the main hotel where we're staying. Like much of downtown Wilmington, this whole area is in the dark without electricity. Wrightsville beach, this morning when it started out, it came ashore around 7:10 this morning.

LEMON: All right. We lost Martin Savidge. We may get Martin back. We're having technical difficulties, because of the situation obviously. When you're in the middle of a storm, everything doesn't work as planned. Martin, I understand you're back.

SAVIDGE: I am. And you're right about that, Don. So I was just saying that this morning after the hurricane eye passed over Wrightsville Beach, it looked like that area did fairly well. Unfortunately, it was the backside of the storm that seemed to have an even stronger impact on the area.

[23:20:00] That is a barrier island as you know, we could not get across the bridge, because of the high winds. First responders say that they had seen some structural damage, but they were really seeing inundation of water coming from the international coastal waterway and also coming from the Atlantic Ocean. That ocean was blasting up against the shore there like a buzz saw as describe. So there's been tremendous beach erosion there unfortunately. On top of that, power failure.

So, in that area, they're only just now beginning to assess. It really won't be till tomorrow they can figure out the damage. Then I can tell you the drive from there to Wilmington is only about 10 miles, but exceedingly treacherous. This is why you have this curfews that are in effect. Power is out throughout the entire area. Traffic lights don't work.

There are some police at some of these intersections. But for the most part, it's just whoever gets to the intersection first. Major trees are down blocking sometimes entire roads and highways. In other cases you have to go the wrong way just to get past a downed tree. There's power lines down and then there is heavy deep pools of standing water that you can drive into the darkness that just literally cause you hydroplane. Very treacherous to go out.

So, even though the conditions here may be improving somewhat, very, very dangerous out there on the roads. No one should be out. And of course with the curfew, you could be arrested if you are. Don?

LEMON: Yes. Martin Savidge out there in it. Martin, good advice. No one should be out in it except for the folks that are supposed to rescue people and the media. We have permission to be out here. We're out here so you don't have to. If you have power, sit home and watch us. Don't get out there and try to figure out what's going on just to see how it is. Again, our thanks to Martin Savidge. I want to get now to Amanda Faulkner. Amanda is with the U.S. Coast

Guard. As I understand good evening to you, Miss Faulkner. I understand that the U.S. Coast Guard has conducted seven operations, you had rescued at least one person. Tell me about that.

AMANDA FAULKNER, U.S. COAST GUARD: Hi, yes. So we have conducted seven rescues just as weather was permitting early this evening before the sun went down. And we did save one life. It was a cancer patient who need to get emergency assistance at a hospital. So we got him there in time. And we'll get back up first light tomorrow. We can't operate overnight due to hazards we can't see due to storm damage.

LEMON: As I understand rescue operations have been called off for the evening. And that is because of the conditions that are out. The hazards at this particular storm that it is posing, right?

FAULKNER: Exactly. Because there was so much damage to the area, we don't have a good idea of what it looks like at night. So it's not safe to operate when we can't see what we're operating in.

LEMON: Yes. So in the morning when you resume operations again, what are your priorities?

FAULKNER: So our priorities are based on direction from the state and local authorities who are receiving emergency phone calls. We'll take where they want us to conduct operations and we'll go out and do the operations they've asked of us. We have the access and ready to respond. We do search and rescue every day. This is what the Coast Guard does.

LEMON: All right. Amanda, from the U.S. Coast Guard. Amanda, thank you very much. We appreciate your time. We will be getting back to you on CNN as long as you guys are here and you've got those search and rescue operations going on here. Thank you very much.

Listen, I want to get to someone who has been helping out with patients and that is Dr. Clyde Harris. He is at a hospital that has received several patients suffering injuries. Dr. Harris, thank you so much for joining us this evening on CNN. Tell us about the injuries you've been seeing and what sort of treatment have they been having to have.

CLYDE HARRIS, DOCTOR: We've had a mix of medical and trauma patients. We've had several fractures. Several falls. Had a lot of chronic medical patients who have deteriorated over several -- a day and a half where they really could not get to the hospital such as congestive heart failure or COPD exacerbation where they're having trouble breathing or they run out of oxygen. Several kidney failure patient who's showed up for dialysis. We've had a lot of folks who have come in for shelter and possibly triggered by the anxiety and stress of the storm situation.

LEMON: Yes. There are lots of power outages throughout the area. Is that posing challenges for you? And for the hospitals?

HARRIS: Our stand by power, our generator power is powering all our essential functions, but it does make it somewhat challenging with some of the areas we are bedding down in and other areas every outlet is not power, just critical outlets. It is posing a challenge. We're looking forward to getting our usual power structure back.

[23:25:13] LEMON: You know, I'm not sure if you are the doctor who was with the gentleman who lost their family today. Were you at that same hospital?

HARRIS: That was our hospital. Yes, sir. It was very unfortunate event. Family had a tree blow over and fall on them. We assembled a team of four physicians and paramedics and quickly went to the scene to assist. But unfortunately, the mother and her baby had perished at the scene. We were unable to offer any assistance.

LEMON: Gosh, that is just awful. Can I ask you, how is he doing?

HARRIS: I think he is doing OK. I'm not allowed to talk much about him in general. For privacy reasons.

LEMON: Yes. Obviously, I'm not asking you for a specific treatment. I'm just wondering if he is doing OK and you know, under this situation, I would imagine anybody would just be devastated losing your wife and young child. Dr. Harris, we also understand that people have been -- it's been so bad because the lines are down. They don't have electricity. Some people have been tweeting to get emergency and medical help to them. What can they do in these situations? Can you even get to them when you're under such conditions?

HARRIS: Well, we have been able to stand up our emergency transport systems. So they have fielded many calls. We have been sort of parked under this band of wind and rain, seems like hours and hours. That has made travel somewhat difficult as your reporter alluded to what I hear at the street, there are still downed lines and down trees. That impacts the ability of paramedics to get the patients. But we're doing the best we can. Obviously with nighttime it is going to add an additional challenge. But we do have paramedics out and responding to calls.

LEMON: All right. Dr. Harris, I want to thank you for your time. I know that you're very busy, as well. We appreciate you joining us here on CNN. Listen, I just want to show you the water. Here it is. It is getting closer to us. I think we should be past high tide. It was supposed to happen between 11:00 -- between 10:00 and midnight. Maybe it's getting close here, but again, the flooding situation. They're concerned about catastrophic flooding in the Carolinas.

As you heard, they're concerned about the rivers that have not even crested yet. They think that it's going to be well into the week, probably Tuesday until they can figure out what's going on with all of this. And so they can get to some sort of normalcy. Not sure if they will be able to. Because they're not sure how long specifically they have some idea, but they don't know specifically how long this system is going to sit here and continue to dump water on the Carolinas. We're going to get more updates. And we'll be back on the other side of the break with CNN's special coverage of tropical storm Florence.

[23:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Live pictures of Myrtle Beach now. What you're looking at, this is Ocean Boulevard and it's pretty close to right there where we're camped out. That's the front area of our hotel and the shot -- the scene where we're shooting right now.

And then back out here to me in the rear, right -- we're right next to the beach here. The water started coming up. We moved in just a little bit closer so that we're closer to shelter. But I want to get to Nick Watt who is a little bit further up in North Myrtle Beach to see what the scene is like there. Nick, what do you have for us?

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, we're about 15 miles north of you and all day, we've been having winds coming offshore. Then about 6:00, the winds turned. They're coming on shore and this is the result. Now, we're about an hour away from high tide. The water is already past the normal high tide mark. And it may come further.

This is the potential for the storm surge. This is the potential for this water to wash into North Myrtle Beach and (inaudible) here. Now, back in 1989, Hurricane Hugo swept through here and pretty much wiped out all of these beachfront homes. Since then, they've rebuilt and they've rebuilt them on stilts. So the idea is that when this, if this washes through during the night tonight, it will wash under these homes.

But the problem is, further back, those homes on the next lot are not on stilts. And also since '89, a lot more people have moved here. This is now a town of about 16,000 people. Only about 2,000 people left hunkering down here at the moment. But we are going to be watching this, Don, to see if these on shore winds continue, if this high tide comes in at the same time perhaps as the surge.

Then we might see a few feet of water coming in through Myrtle Beach. Obviously, we hope that does not happen but that is the possibility overnight tonight, Don, back to you.

LEMON: Nick, I'm glad you can hear me this time. We had a bit of technical difficulty last time, which is understandable. So, I've been able, Nick -- while I have you, let me talk to you for a little bit. I've been able to walk in the neighborhood and also get a tour with police, also with the storm chaser earlier.

There is some damage around here. I've been seeing trees down. I've been seeing some damage to roofs and buildings and what have you.

[23:35:00] What's it like in North Myrtle Beach in the surrounding area where you are?

WATT: Pretty similar situation I think to you, Don. We drove around earlier. There were power lines down, some trees have actually fallen over on to power lines. Some pretty big trees have fallen, you know, asphalt off roofs, but you know, nothing major, major so far. But you know, as you and I know, we've been waiting for the storm to arrive all day. So the real damage that we might see will probably be over the next

few hours as this storm crawls down this coastline behind us of what three or four miles an hour, dumping all of this rain. And with this still pretty strong winds, listen, it's not a hurricane anymore, but you know what, strong winds over a sustained period of time, that is going to cause some damage, Don.

LEMON: Yes, absolutely. Nick Watt, thank you very much. Appreciate your reporting. We'll get back to Nick Watt in just a little bit here. One of those wind bands coming through right now.

I'm going to get to my colleague Brian Todd, he is in Wilmington. Brian, you have been out, you've been witnessing rescues. Last night you were out and you saw people contemplating driving through floodwaters and not doing it. That's always a good idea. What are you seeing tonight?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, I hear you and Nick talking about the power and danger of high tide where you are in those coastal areas. Ell, high tide here could be disastrous, as well. But this is a little bit inland. This is fresh water high tide on the Cape Fear River here. It's just beyond these barriers.

And high tide when it comes in about an hour could be very, very dangerous because when we got here a couple hours ago, the water from the previous high tide was still standing in here. This is Water Street in Wilmington. It was still fairly deep because the storm surge pushed the tide of the Cape Fear River on to these banks, and a little bit overlapping it.

But that was nothing compared to what may be coming because this river is setting records for high tide. Just a few hours ago, we were told by our CNN weather folks that at high tied earlier today, it was at 8 1/4 feet which is shattering all the records for high tide here where the river sits, where Wilmington sits at the river at this juncture.

Up river, Don, the northeastern Cape Fear River area where the water does have different contours, it's shallower and narrower in some areas but it could get up to 20 feet above its normal stages and a lot of people live in those low lying areas, Don. It's going to be very, very dangerous.

Officials here keeping a close eye on this. And I have to tell you that here in Wilmington, another added danger is if these streets get flooded, if the people who are living here did not leave are in some danger, it's going to be tough to get to them. I think I heard Anderson talk about he was driving around Wilmington earlier. So were we and you cannot really get past the idea that the streets of Wilmington are so devastated by fallen trees and power lines.

You cannot get around these streets very easily. There are power lines everywhere you go. They are down blocking your way. Massive old oak trees and old trees of different varieties that have been here hundreds of years have just been plucked right out of their roots and have fallen and are blocking roadways all over the place. First responders are going to have a heck of a time trying to get to

people in these areas if and when they flood, Don. That is something that people here are going to be watching very, very closely because the danger is just starting. Again, the vulnerability in these areas of flooding and maybe the lack of ability of the first respond to get to them quickly, that's going to be a huge factor in the hours ahead.

LEMON: Brian, I want to talk to you a little bit more about what you're seeing because last night you were out and about. You were able to drive around and really get a good look at what's going on. Have you been able to do that as much tonight and what is the situation now? Are the conditions deteriorating? What's it like?

TODD: They are deteriorating. The water is getting deeper in some places especially along the river here in Wilmington, Don. And again, driving around here, the devastation in town and in the old section of town you really just can't overstate it because these trees, which I think a lot of people here believe, you know, would be so sturdy that they just wouldn't come down, they have come down like match sticks.

It has been really incredible. When you drive around, you kind of survey this damage, it's really -- it's horrible to look at because a lot of the homes and other areas that these trees have damaged when they've come down will not be repaired quickly. I was also on the scene of that attempted rescue earlier today and they did rescue one man in that house where two people got killed, the lady and her baby.

We were there for about eight hours today as that thing unfolded. It was an excruciating rescue attempt. The first responders were working themselves to exhaustion, and that was again a case of an old and large tree falling on that house. That tree, Don, weighed 30,000 pounds when it fell and split that house wide open.

[23:40:01] They didn't have much of a chance. It was awful. The first responders were really feeling that they were coming out. I talked to a battalion chief, a grizzled old veteran battalion chief who had tears in his eyes because of the fact that such a small child was involved and they just couldn't do anything to help those two people.

LEMON: Yes. And Brian, the sad thing is that it is not over yet. Brian, thank you very much. Some parts of Carolina -- of the Carolinas have gotten 20 inches of rain and they're expecting some pretty major flooding. We're going to update you with more on what's happening with tropical storm Florence right after this very quick break.

[23:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You're looking at a shot now of the Atlantic Ocean here in Myrtle Beach. And that is where Florence got all of that water that is now dumping on this region. Someone who has been following this and has been in the region figuring things out and reporting on it is CNN's Ed Lavandera. Ed Lavandera drove from New Bern to Jacksonville -- New Bern, of course, lost all of its power. It's got some flooding. Now he's in Jacksonville. Tell us about that drive and what you saw, Ed. LAVANDERA: Brutal drive, Don. It was a small country road and

normally would take probably just under an hour to do it. It took us the better part of two hours to complete the drive. We were caught in the middle of a pretty serious rain band on the north side of this storm of what is now a tropical storm.

Even though the winds have died down considerably, at least in the top part of the storm where we're at in our location, as you can see, the rainfall just continues to be way more intense than I would have expected given that it's been raining for -- it feels like probably for 48 hours in the areas that we have been reporting from over the last few days.

So we kind of knew all of this was expected. It's still another thing to experience the constant onslaught of this rain that just doesn't seem to end and obviously, that is what is causing so much concern and so many issues in so many parts of North Carolina and into South Carolina now as you guys are starting to see the brunt of the storm and the intense rainfall, you know, just dramatic how it comes down in sheets and sheets for hours and hours. It is stunning to see.

LEMON: Yes. Ed, can we talk a little bit about New Bern because they lost all their power. They had major flooding and I just want to know, when you were there last night and when you were there today, what did you see? I mean, what were the conditions of the homes and the people who were there they were rescuing?

LAVANDERA: You have to kind of understand the geography of New Bern. There is an inlet that kind of comes in from the bay in the Atlantic Ocean that pushes several miles inland into this community. So, you have a series of rivers and tributaries that dump into that inlet and then it pushes all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean.

All of that is backed up so it's from those rivers and tributaries that the water was rising up out of and spilling into some of these neighborhoods so I don't want to paint the picture that the entire city was underwater. But there were pockets of neighborhoods spread out sporadically through the city that had been inundated in these homes where we saw these flooded out homes.

More than 300 people had to be rescued and retrieved from their homes, people who chose to stay back and those evacuations took place throughout the day today, Don.

LEMON: Yes. Ed Lavandera, thank you very much. This is really now we're getting -- this is probably about the strongest that we have seen with the wind coming through here. It picks up and then it subsides, but this is really the strongest. We're going to get a forecast in just a moment to see exactly what's happening and what's the worst and if it's going to get better soon.

Here's the problem besides the wind and the rain, of course, and the water, everything that's being dumped here. The problem is that when the floodwaters come up so high, the things that live underground and in the sewer systems, that all has to come out. Many times that's snakes. We're going to talk about especially when you're talking about the

Carolinas here in the southern region of our country. That poses a big and dangerous problem. We're going to talk to someone who deals with that right on the side of this break.

[23:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You're going to see now in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and you can see the winds are really picking up when it comes to what is now tropical storm Florence. You know, I got a chance to ride around today and on my tour around the city with a storm chaser, there was no one out, but I thought I saw maybe a snake or maybe some rodents or what have you.

And I want to talk about that. Russell Cavender is a nuisance wildlife control operator. And Russell, good evening to you. You have been doing this for 20, 25 years and I know after storms, these situations, the things that live in the ground, have to -- they got to find a place to go and many times that's to the surface. That is a real danger.

RUSSELL CAVENDER, WILDLIFE CONTROL REPORTER (via telephone): Oh, absolutely yes, sir. I mean, it's not only now, but -- not only now but days afterwards and not even weeks afterwards but even next spring you're going to have an issue. You got to imagine all these snakes are being washed out of their grounds where they normally go to hibernate. Not only snakes but alligators as well.

So, the issue, you know, basically, it's worse and worse as the flooding comes. And once the water starts to recede is when you start to see most of your problems. But not only that though, when you go out to clean your yard, you know, for leaf debris and tree limbs and all of that, you have no idea what might be hanging on those limbs.

And most likely they're going to be snakes and there are lots of them. And I can tell you, I have been doing this for 25 years. I went through Hugo, Matthew, Floyd, all of these storms. Every single time we have a storm like this with flooding, we always have issues weeks and weeks if not months after the situation.

[23:55:021] LEMON: Well, today when I saw it, I said we're too close to salt water for that to be a snake and the person I was with wasn't sure. That's not necessarily so I'm being told because many times, even I think rattlesnakes live in the dunes?

CAVENDER: Well, I have. Yes, you can find rattlesnakes just about anywhere. Most likely if you are going to find a snake, you know, you're going to find a corn snake, a rat snake, a water snake, but obviously you can find the copper heads and the cotton mouths, which are the two most common venomous snakes that we find around here, and we find quite a few of them especially after the rains.

LEMON: Oh my gosh.

CAVENDER: Yes, and the copper heads and the cotton mouth you are most to worry about. LEMON: Listen, I remember after, you know, I did a similar story

after hurricane Harvey, and a huge problem -- people may not think it, but fire ants are a huge problem as well.

CAVENNDER: Absolutely. I mean, you have to think, there's nowhere for anything to go when there's so much water, so they attach themselves to whatever is floating. So you get these large mounds of fire ants that are displaced and they will literally attach themselves to a limb, a lump of pine straws, a tire.

And when it floats and meets the ground and wherever it stops when people are trying to clean up and they're lifting this material up, they're grabbing tons and tons, you know, excuse me, lots and lots of fire ants. And you know, and other insects, you know, when they're trying to clean out debris and they don't know they're there because you can't see them.

LEMON: Yes. Russell Cavender, we appreciate your time and alerting us to the danger that's below ground, not just the dangers that we are seeing above ground as well. We're going to continue on with our special live coverage here on CNN of what is now tropical storm Florence, which is battering the Carolinas right now.

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