'I'd just rather be at home': Carolinians refuse to evacuate as 'unprecedented' storm bears down on them

More than a million people are under orders to evacuate from coastal areas of North Carolina and Virginia in advance of Hurricane Florence, which will be one of the most intense storms to ever hit north of Florida. It's an unprecedented weather event.

Authorities are warning that power may be knocked out for weeks and that the storm surge could hit 12 feet, meaning the low-lying areas could be severely flooded. These islands are not tethered to the show by coral and, in 2003, a storm washed away a huge chunk of one island.

CNN talked to a handful of people who plan to ignore the mandatory evacuation order.

"I'd just rather be at home," said Jim Darling, who spoke to CNN with a parrot on his shoulder. "Comfortable, got generators, ya know?"

Darling was asked what will happen if he's in an emergency and whether he's potentially putting first responders at risk by staying in defiance of the order.

"I'm not really worried about it, I won't be calling anybody to help me out, I can handle it myself," he said.

Darling said that he is from Boston and has been through blizzards with "two or three feet of snow."

"It's harder with snow than it is with rain," he said.

(An inch of rain is equivalent to 13 inches of snow—coastal North Carolina may get 30 inches of ran, the equivalent of a blizzard with 32 feet of snow.)

Host Brooke Baldwin also spoke to Lisa Presgraves, bartender on the Outer Banks, who said her bar is full as others defy the order.

"I've been through a lot of storms," she said. "I'm just going to go to higher ground... and do the best I can.... A lot of my friends are staying and I don't feel like I'm in that much danger. I've got my generators. I've got food. I feel like I'm going to be safe here."

Watch the interviews below.