From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbarale. This is the Daily.

Today, North Carolina is now facing a statewide crisis as Florence slowly ravages the

South, flooding cities, sending thousands into shelters and endangering communities from

the coastline to the mountains.

A dispatch from just one of those communities. It's Monday, September 17.

So Richard, you're based in the South, which obviously sees a lot of storms. What was the

feeling about this storm as the weekend began?

There's an incredible amount of anxiety, as you can imagine.

The fans of this massive storm will soon be lashing our coast.

The storm was growing in strength in the Atlantic, and the Carolinas have had a couple of

traumatic storms in the last few years that have really put them on high alert.

My message today, don't relax. Don't get in place of a stay on guard.

This storm approached. It started losing power, but it also started slowing down.

This was a really ominous sign for people who know how storms work.

This is a powerful storm that can kill today, the threat becomes a reality.

And the fear is that the wind wouldn't be as powerful in battering the coast, but this

thing was just a monster, and it was just kind of squat on the Carolinas for days upon

it, and it felt like an incredible amount of rain.

And this was a real source of concern for people in the Carolinas because they knew

that there would be numerous stages to this tragedy.

In fact, that's what we're living through now.

Here's what you need to know about Hurricane Florence. It is shaping up to deliver disaster

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