the island, most are headed for the exits going to the airport or on to the ferries to get off the island ahead of the storm, in addition to that at some of the marinas, boats are being pulled out of the water. one hop is selling hurricane supplies, so people here a little jittery about the hurricane that might be impacting this area, but so far no changes to the president's schedule. he's still expected to depart on saturday. >> doesn't sound like much of a vacation for him, but good to know. >> reporter: that's right. >> good to know he stays on the job. dan lothian in martha's vineyard. dan, thank you very much. that will do it for me. cnn newsroom continues now withdrew griffin. hi there, drew. >> randi, thanks. in for brooke today. boy, a day for you. tracking, watching, bracing for hurricane irene. millions of people could be impacted by this monster storm. much of the eastern seaboard, now from the carolinas up to maine, on alert. irene is a major category 3 hurricane. it could come ashore two different times.

north carolina first gets hit on saturday, and then somewhere in new england after that, even in areas that don't get a direct hit though, there's the flooding damage, wind damage and power outages, a major pain. you're looking at live pictures from folly beach in south carolina. residents keeping an eye on irene. it could pass by though. they haven't been told to leave though. they are urged to take precautions. evacuations are under way though in the north carolina outer banks. the governor declaring a state of emergency ahead of the hurricane. many areas are accessible only by ferry so voluntary evacuations have now become mandatory. residents and tourists told to get out today. >> we have the website posted with where there are shelters. there are sheltering options and several counties. wilson is one. we have those on our website and the local emergency management have them published in that data, and then obviously on sunday you'll hear an immediate

response from the local emergency people and the state emergency folks talking about the methods of getting back into the coastal communities. if an area is damaged. >> as they always do, the u.s. navy sending its ships out to sea. these are heading out from norfolk's naval station to protect them from damage. the governor of virginia joining maryland and new jersey declaring states of emergency. another big worry, what impact irene could have on scheduled dedication of that martin luther king jr. memorial that's in washington on sunday. we just did get off the phone with the organizers. they are going ahead right now as planned, sunday morning, dedicating that new memorial on the mall in washington. we'll keep you posted on that. we know so many of you are going there, so many of you are there right now. i-reporters showing us some of irene's mother. renaldo forbes shot this as the storm hit the turks and cakeios. scenes like this intimidating new yorkers, not used to

hurricanes. mayor michael bloomberg not calling for evacuations yet but is calling for people to at least take precautions. >> there are different ways to evacuate. one is to suggest that people move. another thing is the mayor apparently has the power to issue an executive order and to force people to move which we would do, i think only in the worst of circumstances, but we certainly would encourage people at this point in time. for example, if you have a car and you live in a low-logue area, my suggestion is park it on top of a hill, not in the valley. it's those kinds of things, and then in your house, start moving some stuff upstairs if you have a two-story house. take some precautions now so that if it gets to that you'll have less to do. >> common sense. as we've said. irene is a monster. you know, check out this image from space. category 3 expected to grow and be even more powerful as it hits the u.s., and, chad, we're looking at all the tracking and everything like that, but it's the size of it, too, and the

duration of the rain that's going to pelt, that's going to knock down water-logged trees, et cetera >> you know, the line on our map, drew, is this big. >> yeah. >> that's not how big the hurricane is. the hurricane 100 miles in both directions of that line. so i know everyone focuses oh, it's going to hit left of me or right of me by 15 miles. well, that's bad, because that means you'll be in the eye wall or still be in 60 or 70-mile-per-hour winds or storm surge, so i'm going to show you the line and show you the cone. i just want you to understand, and you have to understand which way the wind is going to come depending on which side of the line you're on. let's go to this right now. i'm taking you to the eye of the storm. it's actually on radar, from the miami radar. it is about level with west palm, and it is a little bit farther west, if i go all the way up there, than cape hatteras. it's on the way, in this little bend. this storm would literally have to stop going west, turn to the east and go out to sea to miss

north carolina, and that is not in the forecast. so let's put it into motion. we'll put it up to the north as a category 3. right now it's a 100-mile-per-hour storm. i know it says 115, but it's not just not. a little bit disorganized. watching the hurricane hunter aircraft. it will reorganize. it will turn into a 125-mile-per-hour storm, and it should staying in this, notice how the cone is getting smaller. as the storm gets closer, the cone is smaller and smaller. when you're five days away the cone is very big because it could be this way or this way so cape hatteras and morehead city, right in the middle of the cone, could be wilmington, could be offshore. not a single model right now that's offshore. there were models yesterday offshore. didn't happen today. the models are saying, no, onshore. no models today that are saying a direct miss. there's not a single model out to sea right now, and most take them somewhere over suffolk county, nassau county or even right up the hudson river.

take that, think about what that possibly could. a category 2, and you run that into any big city in the northeast, you're looking at 500,000 to 750,000 people without power, and some spots will take 10 to 15 days for all of that power to come back. so what does that mean? drew, that means you might be camping in your house for ten days. what does it mean to camp without power, without water probably, and how do i survive those ten days? take care of yourself and don't expect the government to take care of you. get the water -- i'm not saying buy bottled water. empty some old milk out of a jug, rinse it out and make sure your bathtub is full of water before that gets there. that will be your gray water. you won't drink it, flush with it. you'll water plants and whatever you need to do with water that you just wouldn't drink so there's going to be a run on all the supplies. don't need to go out and run on all the supplies. water is still very good to drink out of your tap. make sure you have plenty of it in the fridge and turn the freezer on full blast.

not the fridge. turn the freezer on full blast in case the power is out for a couple of days. that stuff stays frozen because it's ten degrees pleaio, get it so cold it won't melt. those little things, you know, those little things you have to think about. >> want to ask you about the computer models because i did see them tightening up pretty narrowly today. there were wild swings and everybody hoped it would go out to sea and take the furthest right bend, but today right there they are all converging. why is that? did something happen in the atmosphere, or the winds that made them all say this is not going to blow out to sea? >> well, the closer you get to the landfall, the less inaccuracy you have. so let's say ten miles out. let's just go 12 hours out. 12 hours out the inaccuracy or the error, one way or the other is about 25 miles one way or the other, so you've got a 50-mile cone. then you do another 12 hours, and have you a 50 to 100-mile cone. and then you go out and out and out, and the cone gets bigger

and bigger and bigger. so they are more focused here because it's closer to landfall. they are also more focused -- let's get this back and put it into motion -- they are also more focused here across parts of the northeast because you'll notice there are even some models as far west as harrisburg right there. so there are no models offshore because everything has brought itself. all the models are thinking you in a little farther left. that's because there's a small little trough in here, and that trough is going to try to hang that thing this way, rather than turn it up. the west winds, almost down here, the west winds usually blow it out to sea, but when there's a trough here, a small little east part of the wind. it's not going to do that. it's going to kind of come back at us and then go to the northeast then. >> chad, thanks. stick around. we'll go right down to the bahamas now where our jim spellman has been standing by riding out this storm. jim, i've been watching your pictures, seeing what's behind you. it's very interesting to me, and what i'm seeing behind you is trees still standing. cars driving by. it looks like the bahamas, at least where you are, relatively

survived this thing pretty well. >> reporter: yeah. indeed, and i'll tell you, they did really make out okay. over 14 hours of this pounding, pounding wind and stinging rain, but it was just far enough way. so many of the buildings here, they are built to withstand this stuff. they have all made out just fine. everybody here is starting to come out of the woodwork and drive around and see how they made out. everybody here is delighted. they took it very seriously and prepared very seriously. >> all right. what you're hearing, that being that crackle is not just the

wind. sometimes there's water that gets into those microphone parts so we want to move on. you know, he's got a -- i guess we're turning now to libya and this man and the hunt for this man. there is a near $2 million bounty on moammar gadhafi's head. no one for sure knows where he is. rebels in tripoli say they know, and they have got him and his sons cornered. we're going to take you live to the ground, to the search for moammar gadhafi next. ♪ [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them. cops are cracking down on drinking and riding. drive sober, or get pulled over. i've tried it. cops are cracking down on drinking and riding. but nothing's helped me beat my back pain. then i tried this. it's salonpas.

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chaotic fighting continues to rock the central part of tripoli. we'll take a look at it right now. that's late this morning where libyan rebels claimed to have moammar gadhafi surrounded. only a matter of hours later though gadhafi apparently managed to get this brief broadcast out. here's part of what he said. >> translator: do not leave tripoli for the rats. do not leave them. fight them. destroy them. you are the overwhelming majority. you have marched in millions. march with the same millions but fight this time. fill the streets and the field. >> so it seems he is alive, but let's look at what's happened since then. after the rebels claimed they have gadhafi surrounded, rebels by the hundreds converged on apartment buildings just south of gadhafi's former compound. amid bursts of sniper fire, heavily armed rebels darted

about that neighborhood, fired off rounds and searched potential hiding places. they did enter some of the buildings, made their ray up stairwells and went door to door searching apartments, and in some cases kicking their way in. hours later though still no moammar gadhafi. the rebels did overrun gadhafi-held positions and set fire to several camps which had been abandoned rather quickly. rebels also took a number of prisoners, some believed to be african mercenaries recruited by gadhafi's defenders. dozens of bodies were found in the streets, some with their wrists bound. we warrant to go to arwa damon. she's only western reporter live at tripoli airport. arwa, what is the latest there? >> reporter: the artillery pounding here has been quite intense, not just artillery but ground rockets being fared as well, various bursts of gunfire. there's a plane on fire at the tarmac. we were able to get out there earlier when it was still daylight, and to be able to do

that our crews had to crawl up into the control tower and stay crouched down only filming through a small sliver because rebel fighters told us that there was a sniper in the area that had been targeting them regularly. and we had been seeing the fight intensify, especially at sunset when rebels broke their fast. while we were at the control tower, some of the incoming artillery rounds, the explosions were so intense that the entire tower itself was shaking, and it has been like this pretty much for the last few days ever since we've been here. gadhafi loyalists are really trying to win this key position back, it would seem, drew. >> all right. why? are they trying to protect a possible escape route for gadhafi to get on a plen and get out? >> well, that's what the senior commanders here believe in terms of them trying to carve out some

sort afternoon escape route, but they do not necessarily think that that would involve taking off in any sort of an aircraft from this location. it most certainly does not seem to be the case, because much of the incoming artillery and rockets is targeting the tarmac and the aircraft themselves. they believe that that is being assaulted because, first of all, gadhafi loyalists want to wreak as much havoc as they can on the infrastructure, but also to keep the fighters bogged down in defending this key position, so that, then gadhafi loyalists could carve out some sort of an escape route for gadhafi to potentially move through the areas because the rebels do not control the area to the east. we keep hearing the whoosh of artillery going past us. we always want to make sure and see what direction it's coming from, incoming or outgoing. >> arwa, we're seeing that plane, that airliner being burned on the ground there. who set it on fire and why?

>> reporter: well, that was from one of the incoming artillery rounds. it seems as if it possibly could have been a direct hit. that's not the first time that the gadhafi loyalists have managed to fire artillery on to the landing strip and target one of these aircrafts. last night another aircraft went up in flames as well. the number of other airplanes have been destroyed, too, and so the fighters here say that the gadhafi forces quite simply are employing a soreched earth policy. they want to destroy as much as they possibly can. >> strange. arwa damon live at the airport there in libya as the search for gadhafi goes on, and i guess his supporters still think there's hope they can come back. thanks, arwa. appreciate that. moving on to the hurricane now. already very powerful. getting stronger by the day. irene is battering the bahamas. it's headed for a collision course though with the u.s. >> every citizen in this state who is in harm's way needs to prepare for the worst and pray

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all right. here's the message this afternoon. if you live along the east coast from south carolina to maine get ready for hurricane irene and maybe many of you should get ready to get out. this thing is a monster. check it out. this is what irene looks like from the international space station. a state of emergency has just been declared for north carolina east of i-95 and in virginia, new jersey and maryland.

we expect to get the first hurricane warning within the next couple of hours. that's a warning for the u.s. already under a mandatory evacuation warning is on the ocracoke islands. the only way on or off that island is to put your car on a ferry. take a close look. do you see how many cars are on board? north carolina's governor doesn't either. she's worried too many people will wait until the last month to get out. listen to the governor and keep in mind those ferries can only carry about 50 cars at a time. >> i was dismayed when i saw that many of the ferries were nearly empty. people on ocracoke island need to take this seriously because it's hard to get off if the ferries are full. every citizen in this state who is in harm's way needs to prepare for the worst and pray for the best. that's what we do in north carolina. >> indeed, that's what they do in north carolina. kate myers with the american red

cross traveling north carolina's outer banks looking for people who need supplies or help getting out. kate, are people getting the message? what are you seeing there? >> we drove out to the outer banks this morning, and as we were driving in, there were long lines of cars with luggage racks and the jetskis on the back, and they were leaving, but at the same time we've been talking to local residents who said we've seen this before. we're staying. we're going to stick it out. >> are you trying to advise them to leave? is the red cross supplying them with things they may need after the fact? >> the red cross message is to be prepared, make sure that you're staying informed, make sure that you know how to keep you and your family safe, get a kit. get a disaster get together. those emergency supplies you're going to need. if you are going to stick it out. make sure you've got that first aid kit, flashlight, extra batteries, water. have a plan if you need it evacuate for your family, and above all stay informed and keep watching the news and keep watching to see what the storm

is going to do. >> and when this storm passes, what will the red cross' role be after that storm for the people who need you? >> immediately the red cross will be on the scene. we'll be doing damage assessment and handing out emergency supplies, like food and water. we'll have shelters set up if we need to for people who have been evacuated or displaced as a result of the storm, and really we're just helping people getting back on the road to recovery. >> kate meier, thank you so much, now in nationgs head as t storm is approaching. steve jobs resigning and the news isn't good and this is a look at the damage inside the washingtonman umt after tuesday's earthquake. for broccoli, say one. for toys, say two. toys ! the system can't process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 central standard time. he's in control. goodbye.

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if you're just tuning in, here's what's happening on this very, very busy news day. we're watching fast moving developments in libya. the big question right now where is moammar gadhafi? rebel fighters have sent more troops to scour a cluster of buildings near his compound. rebels believe gadhafi works has a $1.4 million bounty for his capture or death, may be holed

up nearby. meanwhile, rebel fighters and allied special forces are still encountering pockets of resistance across various parts of tripoli. rebel leaders working to consolidate power and have started to move the rebel base in eastern libya to the capital, tripoli. take a look at this i-report showing hurricane irene hitting the bahamas. the message for the east coast this afternoon, get ready. this tomorrow is a biggie. the governors of four states have already declared states of monk. that is as irene is closing. in the storm could impact 55 million people from north carolina to new england. the man who revolutionized home computing and brought us the ipod, the ipad, the iphone is stepping down as apple's ceo. steve jobs says he can no longer run apple day to day, though he'll remain as the board chairman. jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004. apple's chief operating officer tim cook taking over at ceo. the price of apple fell, by the

way, following jobs' announcement. we're getting a better look at the damage done to the washington monument caused by the ebt. these pictures obtained by cnn show a distinct crack at the top of the structure, pieces of mortar on the floor in the observation area. the monument will stay closed for now. engineers who specialize in seismic events and structures have been hired to assess the damage. he's lost his compound and his government is now his rv. member mom wanted dead or alive today running for his life. have the rebels finally found his hiding place? we'll take to you libya coming up next. and if you would hike to see poverty incredible video we're getting out of libya or anywhere else around the world check out cnn's ground breaking new video experience. you can get it at cnn.com/video. [ dr. ling ] i need to get the results from the m.r.i. see if the blood work is ready. review ms. cooper's history. and i want to see katie before she goes home.

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want to get right back to libya tonight. as we reported, heavily armed rebels are searching apartment

buildings doro to door in a central part of tripoli, this after claiming today to have moammar gadhafi surrounded. hours later, we still don't see gadhafi anywhere. arwa damon, the only western reporter at tripoli's airport, a few hours ago. rebels came driving up in what they claim is an rv that gadhafi may have been using as a hideout. watch this as arwa takes us on a tour of that. >> reporter: we're here at the tripoli international airport, and the fighters here that are part of the western mountains just drove up this mobile home. they say they got it off of colonel gadhafi's farm that is located around 15 minutes away from here. they came up. they were honking. they were absolutely overjoyed. they were describing what they had seen on the farm as being gadhafi's life of paradise, everything that they were deprived of, and they say that they have managed to secure around a quarter of the farm. just to give you an idea though of what we have here inside in

the layout here. this is obviously something of a sitting area. we might have some restrictions due to the cables that allow us to do our live broadcasts, but the there's also a few rooms to the back. there's a bedroom back there. i don't know if you can try to zoom in on it. there's a bed that's been made and the rebels were speculating, they were saying that perhaps gadhafi himself had been sleeping there. they have also opening and still rifling through the stuff that they found here and show this bathroom, also has female products in here, too, makeup remover, dreams, and now they say that they are pretty confident that this is in fact a mobile home that was used by cad if you and his family because they say it is familiar to them, that they have seen him use this on a number of occasions in the past.

now they did encounter some resistance when they were coming in to gadhafi's farm. they say they detained some people. here we have the kitchen, all sorts of utensils, garbage bags, actually just going through this ourselves for the first time. spices. i'm not an expert on the kitchen spices, but they say that they did detain some individuals. it looks like, i mean, that this has been in use. it looks like it's been packed away, but most certainly it's been used. everything is full, you know, packaged away. they say that they did detain some people at the farm. there were some brief clashes. they managed to push them back. they are going through trying to clear it all. he brought this out. not entirely sure, but he's speculating that maybe gadhafi was wounded. no way of verifying that at all.

this is a gas mask. he found this in the living room area, gas masks. so the rebels still going through all of this, still trying to figure out the bits and pieces here. certainly, you know, for them, this is yet another victory because they are now seeing and penetrating gadhafi's farmlands themselves. >> some of the excellent reporting of arwa damon in a bizarre scene out of libya, mom member's rv. most folks are fleeing hurricane irene, there are some that are headed straight into, it literally. a hurricane hunter. we'll talk to her in just a few hours from now. that's where they will be going into the sky and inside irene right into the center of it all. [ waves crashing ]

[ martin luther king jr. ] i still have a dream that one day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! [ male announcer ] chevrolet is honored to celebrate the unveiling of the washington, d.c., martin luther king jr. memorial. take your seat at the table on august 28th.

our coverage of this hurricane continues. millions of people on the east coast on alert for this unwanted intruder. her name is irene, underscoring how dangerous this category 3 storm is. four states, north carolina, virginia, maryland and new jersey have now declared states of emergency. here's an exodus of ships, cars and people from north carolina's outer banks. a mandatory evacuation order for both residents and tourists in effect on ocracoke island. governor bev purdue concerned about something she is not seeing on the ferry boats. she's not seeing a lot of cars there, not a lot of people heeding her warning to get off that island which is only accessible by boat. the u.s. navy ordering ships out

of harm's way. warships from the norfolk naval station began moving out to sea today to prevent damage. you're probably going to see a lot of airplanes flying out of the way, too. very eastern tip of long island, new york, is monitoring irene. montauk preparing for a possible power outage and flooding should irene keep its current storm track. they are even taking hurricane precautions in new hampshire. the big worry is lowland flooding. people are being advised to stock up on food and supplies. irene, of course, could impact the area later this weekened. our i-reporters are giving us a look at irene's power. luis ortiz shot this video in puerto rico. he said there wasn't much damage but the winds were fierce. amtrak is cancelling train service tomorrow through sunday for areas south of washington, and right now service along the northeast corridor is still rubbing, but you better check in with them. meteorologist chad myers, of course, keeping an eye on everything, including flight cancellations and everything to

come. >> flight cancellations for the northeast are a sure thing. there's so many tweets. people asking me, trying to get to atlanta today and try to fly back to new york city on sunday night. am i going to make it? i don't think so. the airlines will not put their planes in harm's way. the planes are worth 1 $1 million and plussur lives are worth more than that to them. they are not going to fly planes into places that they don't think they can get them out and won't fly into places where they think it will be dangerous to land. best case scenario you're in the air and trying to go to laguardia and they say we're not taking any more planes to laguardia and you end up in binghamton and have to rent a car. most of these airlines at some point, today or tomorrow, will start doing the free change things, and just take your time, be patient and do what you can. the cars are safe. i'm not -- cars are safe is something else, because look at this. haven't had this graphic up all day, drew. this is 6 to 10 inches in purposele of rainfall. let's say that the forecast is

correct, somewhere here, here and here. because of the way the waves come in and because of the way the wind comes in and the elevation change here with the appalachian mountains, everywhere from eastern north carolina, almost the low country of south carolina, and up into new york city, d.c., will all get 6 to 10 inches of rainfall. some spots a foot -- a foot of rain, so some of these roadways are actually going to be flooded. this is just a weekend to not go to the beach, hunker down at home and watch television, and i heard somebody say get -- i don't know what channel it was. gettur portable tv. do portab do portable tvs even work anymore? get a radio. this is like going back to going camping. if you have no power for five days or ten days and the water coming out of your faucet that's safe to drink, how do i survive for ten days in my house? how i do not go stir crazey? can't help with you that one. how do i survive?

you get water. you get some food and you just get ready to hunker down just like you're going camping, and it's going to be hard. travel is going to be very, very difficult, and airline travel i think will be completely shut down. >> yeah. you get your ipad and cnn app and just watch us, i think. >> you have to get an inverter to plug in your car so that you have power to charge it, or you get the charger that plugs into your cigarette lighter. >> come on over here, because we're going to bring in one of those hurricane hunters, nicole mitchell. >> oh, yes. >> have you talked to her before? >> no. >> incredible person, meteorologist herself. she is going to be going up very soon, is that right, nicole? >> yes. i'm actually resting right now for that mission, and we're getting called in at like 1:00 a.m. in the morning. the down side of any type of weather. it goes 24 hours a day. >> and your goal and your mission is to fly right into this thing to get the data that we cannot get because it's over water, is that correct? >> correct. so we have the satellite over

water, but unlike over land where we have radars and weather stations and all of that stuff, over water we're a little blind so we fly the planes right inside the storm. people ask us this a lot. people think we're over it and we're right inside, it and we'll stay usually in a storm criss-crossing through the center for about six hours, not just the center, but us a guys warn people, don't always just focus on the center because the big storms, we also fly out to the periphery to see how far out the hurricane winds go and things of that nature, and then all of that data is sent right from the plane right back to the hurricane center for their forecasting. >> captain, this -- this is chad. this can't be an unbumpy ride. i'm thinking this is probably my worst nightmare flying from d.c. to atlanta in a thunderstorm, and you're doing it for hours and hours and hours. what's the ride like in. >> it depends on the storm. if the storm is close to land, then you get part of the storm and the friction of the interaction with land so that will make it more turbulence.

a rapidly developing storm has more of that upward motion that we talk about. those are the storms where we get a little bit more lieutenant governorning. i've seen hail. sometimes eye walls have even to be dose in them. so we do have our radar on board. try to steer around the worst of it, and it's our job, and if you're really sensitive to the motion sickness, you probably stare away from doing this job. >> is it truly dangerous? is the stall speed indicator buzzing on you? do you ever feel like i just lost control. i have to go down and tray to catch this again. is it that bad or just a normal day for you? >> i have to say as a meteorologist and i'm a bit of an adventure person, for me this is a dream job because you get to be right in the middle of it, even when it's turbulent. i think that part of it is kind of exciting. actually seeing nature as it's happening, so for me it works. probably not the job for everyone. we do try and do it as safely as possible. we use a big sturdy c-130 cargo

19. you know, if we ever feel like the turbulence is getting too much, we'll climb to a higher elevation still inside the storm so we can still collect the data, and, you know, if the crew ever felt like it was unsafe, never had this happen on one of my flights, you know, there's the option to turn aron, but this is what we do, so we do it as safely as possible, and we know the job is really important. >> chad, i want to tell you a little bit about her because there's a little background here. she sky dives. she's climbed mt. kilimanjaro, been up to antarctica. fair to say, any koeshlgs you a -- nicole, that you're a thrill-seeker. i don't want to give the impression that this is super safe. you like it. >> i love it. with that said, you know, any military job has an inherent dangerous parts of it. none of us would get in a plane on a regular basis if we didn't think we were coming home so we do the job as safely as

possible, and there haven't been any loss of aircraft of ours i think since back in the 1970s. it really is as safe as we can possibly do it. >> okay. were you in katrina and charlie. i know the answer, but i don't think people at home have any idea. why do you fly propellor planes rather than jets? >> as we're flying through the storm, the propellors and all the rain and the thunderstorm activity, the propellors are going to handle that better than the intakes of a jet, and the other reason we do the c-130 is because we can carry over 14 hours of gas, and our missions average ten hours. tomorrow will probably be 12 hours so it lets us do a long ride as well. >> and will you report back your data in realtime, or do you land and then boot it up? >> we have a satellite link right to the hurricane center,

so live time while we're flying. data is collecting a few times a second and that's part elling and going to the hurricane center every 20 minutes and what we see from the eye of the storm, the vortex message, that's something that i type up and send out the second i have it done on the plane so the hurricane center has that almost immediately. >> captain nicole mitchell, we'll monitor your progress all day tomorrow. that's for sure. impressive. >> the next time i'm in a prop plane in a thunderstorm, i'm going to feel safer now because usually i don't as the plane is doing this. >> yeah, great. that's always safe being in a thunderstorm. >> thanks, chad. see you in a little bit. new york gearing up for a possible strike in this hurricane. the monster strike might pass over the big apple. folks from the coast boarding up and bracing for the worst. cnn's jason carroll is in rockaway beach in new york. we'll catch up with him in just

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in about an hour we expect to get the first east coast hurricane warning for hurricane ireap, and north. irene expected to take a path similar to hurricane gloria which made landfall three times back in 1985. gloria came ashore at north carolina's outer banks. closely followed the coastline up to long island and then hit a third time in connecticut. jason carroll sat new york's rock way beach. jason, looks like irene is heading to new york city. rockway beach is the first place where new yorkers would be told

to evacuate. it's hard to tell new yorkers to do anything. are people ready to go? are. >> reporter: well, it's a very good question, drew. the start answer to that is, it depends. the reason for that is there are a lot of residents here who lived here for a long time they have seen it all. i'm going to get to that in a second. let's lay the land for you and just give you an idea of where we are for folks unfamiliar with this area. we're 30 miles south of manhattan, if that helps at all. this is a peninsula. a very large peninsula. and it's sandwiched between the ocean, you've got the atlantic here on this side, and then just about three blocks down the street off the boardwalk you've got jamaica bay. there are a lot of folks who have lived here long enough to remember storms in the past where the ocean met the bay. and there was severe flooding p and that's what folks are worried about this time around. spoke to a woman who has lived here since 1975. again, she had seen it all. she has her own opinions about whether or not she will

evacuate. take a listen. >> my husband and i might decide to stay, if it's dire predictions, we won't. you know. >> right. >> and that's basically what we'll plan. i would think that there will be a fair number of people that will stay. like i say, so many times we have been expecting the worse and, i mean, some days they would expect a hurricane and we were on the beach that afternoon. >> reporter: well, drew, we're hear that tomorrow new york city's michael bloomberg will announce whether or not he will ask for evacuations. if that, in fact, does happen, this area, will be one of those areas effected. actually anyone living in a neighborhood at least ten blocks from coastal area will be asked to, in fact, evacuate. in the meantime the city has done things to prepare. the mayor announcing this a little bit earlier. some of the things -- some 143,000 catch basins throughout this city. they are doing their best to clear those out to help ease the

flooding. some of the subways may be shut down to help with the infrastructure system. also, 33 police boats will be out in the local waters to take care of emergencies as they arise. but as you said at the very top, whether or not some of the new yorkers who were asked to vac with it actually will, that still remains to be seen. drew? >> jason, i guess the other question i have is, evacuate where and for a lot of these people in a larger area, how? because not everybody has immediate access to transportation. >> reporter: very good point. and obviously some of those who live in areas like this will have to do it soon because there's not a lot of ways to get out of rock away. you don't want to be in a line of cars hours long trying to get higher ground, so to speak. very evacuations centers like we are here that have temporarily been set up in higher areas

further out. so they are working on that. it's a matter of timing. if you decide to evacuate you have to do it in enough time to get where you need to go. >> jason, thanks. we'll continue to follow this story with you there. but i just remember, you know, hurricane katrina and one of the big problems is -- in new orleans is that so many people did not have access to transportation. jason carroll there on the ground in rock away beach. one of our great reporters who is going to be following throughout this event. well, apple's new ceo says things won't change post steve jobs. but that's not appeasing some investors. apple stock down today. is a glimpse of things to come? we're going to check in with i allisison kosik at the new york stock exchange for an update. whether it can be done safely and responsibly. at exxonmobil we know the answer is yes. when we design any well, the groundwater's protected by multiple layers of steel and cement. most wells are over a mile and a half deep so there's a

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steve jobs, the man who put an ipod, ipad, or an iphone probably into your hands is stepping down as the ceo of apple. that's not the kind of news wall street likes to hear. alison kosik is standing by at the new york stock exchange. alison, the news came out yesterday. what happened on wall street today? >> well, we saw more movement yesterday, drew. and afterhours trading yesterday shares fell 5%, a little more than that. today not that much movement. you know we saw more of a dip towards the opening bell. apple shares down half a percent now. i think that you see happening here is investors are realizing that jobs' resignation isn't going to ruin apple.

often analyst said, you know what, steve jobs brought in a lot of smart, innovative people to help run apple. of course, losing a visionary like jobs is a huge deal. it's a really big deal. but the company still has, you know, a very solid pipeline of products as well as executives who very clearly understand what his vision is and can carry that on. >> stock has been on an upward swing. what is the outlook for the future? any projections changing because of this? >> no. i mean, you know, experts say that, you know, what you're seeing with today's dip is really going to be temporary. you know, the stock trading at $374 a share right now. majority of analysts actually have their price targets around $500 a share or even higher than that. you know, investors, they know apple is a sound company. even without jobs at the helm. and under tim cook's watch, since jobs -- since jobs has been on his most recent medical leave, tim cook has been on the watch.

apple shares have gained 17%. so you know, there is a lot of confidence, a lot of faith in tim cook. and there is a lot of confide fe for apple going forward. >> i want to talk to you about bank of america because i know it's not this simple, but one guy picked up the phone today and put in a buy order and sent this stock sharply up. what happened? >> you're talking about warren buffett. he went ahead and put $5 billion into shares of bank of america. he bought preferred shares which means he's going to get a nice tive dend on that. that bank of america right now up 9%. they were up 26% at the opening bell. but you know, what buffet sees is he thinks bank of america is going to recover. and you know what? he's thinking, i'm good with getting paid while that happens. and you know, it could be anything -- it could be more of a long-term play for buffett. he sees value in bank of america for three to five years. he thought this was well worth it. yeah, he's definitely giving a boost in the stock today, once

again up 9%. drew? >> heck of an order. thanks. alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. we're at the top of the hour now. two major stories unfolding. the first, this guy. he's wanted dead or alive. rebels say in libya say home ga moammar gadhafi is surrounded. these are tape services from him saying a violent message to all of libya. powerful cat 3 hurricane irene, whipping up concern on the u.s. coastline. irene could move into the monster category just within the comes hours. we're talking about category 4 potentially. that could be the biggest hurricane to hit the u.s. in years. much of the eastern seaboard now from the carolinas to maine is on alert. irene could come ashore twice. north carolina first on saturday swrrks in new england after that. right now irene pounding the

bahamas. damage is wide spread. flooding reported, of course. evacuations stepping up today for carolina's outer banks. governor bev perdue of north carolina declaring a state of emergency. she's one of at least four states -- four governors in the states to do so. many areas only accessible by ferry there. voluntary evacuations have become mandatory. some ferries still not full and that has the governor worried. >> i was dismayed when i saw that many of the ferries were nearly empty. people on ocracoke island need to take this seriously because it's hard to get off if the ferries are full. well, those sailors for the u.s. navy sure take their orders seriously. they are gone out to asea trying to protect the assets from damage. other concerns, what impact irene could have on the scheduled dedication of martin luther king jr. memorial. >> we're going forward with our

program. we will give you more information as they come. we will bring you back tomorrow to talk about if, in fact, we have any change. but today, we feel confident that we are moving forward with the dedication of the martin luther king memorial. folking in new york prepare for flooding should irene come their way. the mayor, michael bloomberg, hasn't called for evacuations just yet, but certainly not ruling it out. >> if the worst scenario is going to happen this weekend, we will activate other elements of our storm -- coastal storm plan, including the possibility of evacuating new yorkers who live in low-lying areas. chad myers tracking irene. chad, the forecast track is definitely solidifying, it seems to me. >> it is because we're getting closer to landfall time. the closer you get to landfall time from where we are now to where we're going, the error over the cone gets smaller. so we know where irene is right

now. right over the island. there's the bahamas. here's florida. the outer bands are actually affecting florida right now. this may affect some air travel, especially later today, as a lot of planes try to get into either for the lauderdale or miami or west palm. you have a couple of these storms to come in. some of them could even spin. some could have a small tornado warning on them. not talking giant but water spouts that come onshore. and that could certainly slow down the airports. this will eventually travel on up to the north, get away from the bam hamas and get stronger. it's the strength of the storm, drew, that is the hardest thing to predict. hurricane center will be the first to tell you we kind of know which way it's going to go left or right within a couple hundred miles. but storms can go from category 1 to category 4 overnight. and there's no model that can predict that. there's no model that can tell you when that eye gets very tight, like an ice skater bringing her arms in, that

angular momentum getting down to ten miles. when that eye gets very small, that's when the wind really picks up. a lot of rain up and down the east coast. there's category 3. a lot of wind and erosion damage in parts of florida. the waves are going to be coming in. you're going to lose a lot of beach, all of the way up and down from jacksonville down to miami. a lot of beach is going to be taken away. it will be come back eventually but the erosion will be a problem from there. a direct hit possible for the carolinas. anywhere still from almost wilmington to cape hatteras. now, there's about a 40 % chance that it misses all together. 40% of the cone is out to sea. i don't see that happening. but we'll have to check. and then along the coast, it goes back out into the ocean around duck. and then along the ocean coast, either left or right, so we talked about this d.c. dedication tomorrow, or the weekend. >> sunday, yeah. >> sunday. that can be effected because if it's on the left side of this track, d.c. is in play.

and so is the chesapeake bay for flooding. up along the northeast and very close to new york city. if you park a hurricane there in new york city and you have all this water piling in and on to long island there's going to be extensive flooding there. we talked to jason carroll about jamaica bay. that's not the only place that would flood. you push all this water into new york harbor and the east river and hudson, the water levels can come up rapidly. five to ten feet higher than what you're expecting. and that could cause flooding in this city. if the storm is out here and the winds in the city are this way, that pushes the water out of the harbor and the water actually is down. there's no surge. inverse surge as that water goes away. that's the potential. what you are talking about, these models we look at, they're closer together. they're not all spread out today like they were because actually the hurricane hunter aircraft helps us out. we just talked to the captain of one of the hurricane hunters. they fly through it and tell us what's going on. right now the storm is getting

stronger. they don't think it's 115 right now. i'm going to call it 100. hurricane center as they fly through it they can give us exact miles per hour. tonight it goes back to 115, goes right by 115 and right into the 125. >> one question, that is the forward speed of this thing, because one thing you do want if it's going to hit you is to hit you and get out of the way. is this slow, fast, medium? what's happening with the speed? >> when it hits in new england and new york or philadelphia or new jersey, wrer it goes because all of that is still in the cone, it won't stop like agnes did. agnes in '72 stopped in corning, new york, and it rained for days and flooded everything. it will not be like that. it will be quickly across maybe even north of montreal 24 hours after it hits the coast. >> we're going to go to ocracoke island. he owns the ocracoke harbor inn. are you with us? >> yes. >> how are citying, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> why?

>> i've been here 38 years. and i left one time for gloria. and it was a miserable experience. i actually did not feel as safe when i left. you know, you live here, small island. you know how the buildings are built. you know where everything is at. just feel safer. >> chad, i want to bring you in here. we're looking at a web camera from the harbor in there in ocracoke. certainly a beautiful scene. byron, we sure hope that's the scene when this thing passes. but you came back from gloria. was there a tremendous amount of damage -- one thing ocracoke has been through many, many times is hurricanes. >> yes. since i've lived here we haven't had a lot of structural damage. some roof damage from hurricanes. some flooding in some older houses. most of the damage has been highway 12 to the north. which that can really impact our

daily life and tourism. >> mr. miller, hey, it's chad myers. i'm curious because i'm always curious as to why people stay. are you staying to protect your stuff? are you staying to protect your home? or do you think that you're just better off physically there? >> a little of both. really, you don't ever -- right now there's uncertainty, you know, whether it will make landfall. by the time you're pretty sure whether it's going to make landfall, you can't leave. and it's also very hard to get back when you leave. so as far as coming back and taking care of any damage, that can be real hard. and i do feel safer here. you know, somebody had any medical issues or elderly or something like that, you know, they should leave. but i feel like i'm safer here. >> if you have a ten-foot storm zr surge coming over your island, what is going to happen to your house? >> we have to build above sea level.

a ten-foot storm surge would not put ten feet of water in the village. we probably haven't had seven feet, maybe back in the '30s. so that isn't, you know, very, very iffy thing. >> i assume that the tourists have left. but i do hear a lot and have covered enough hurricanes to know that a lot of people who are residents don't like the fact that once they leave, their return is in the hands of somebody else and they just can't get back to their property. is that what you experienced during gloria? >> no, coming back wasn't -- wasn't that bad in gloria. but during floyd i know the people that left, it took them days to get back because of all the flooding inland. and you know, you end up hanging out someplace for days. you know, the uncertainty and -- so getting back, yes, it can be tough and it is really in somebody else's hands.

>> do you have any kind of way to escape if you suddenly decide this thing is bigger than i can handle? >> unless governor purdue wants to send a helicopter for me, no. >> i doubt she'll do that. >> no. >> you're on your own, sir. >> you know, it's like i said, there's not that many people that stayed, i would say probably less than 300. you know, it's a small island. everybody knows everybody. with all know where there's plenty of food, water, you know, generators. so unless we do take a devastating cat 4 or 5, i think we will be okay. >> let me ask you about the bahamas, because you have a home there. do you have any idea what has happened to that home? >> yeah, i have a house on green turtle cane, which probably just got out of the eye of irene. what i understood was gusts

still 150, and i did not hear of any, you know, loss of life or anything like that. lots of tree damage and i'm sure there's tons of flooding. >> ihould point out that makes ocracoke a little different. there's not a lot of trees, is that true? >> yeah, yeah. our tallest trees are, you know, 25 feet maybe. so that's -- that's another reason to stay. you go inland and you have these 60- 80-foot trees that can't withstand vf much wind and they can fall into the hotel you are staying in. submerge your vehicle because you're not sure of the roads. you know. that's another reason. >> yes, mr. miller, but your island may not be in the same place when irene is done with it. so we wish you the best, sir. >> it might not. thank you very much. >> byron, try to keep that webcam up if you can for us, all right, throughout there? >> i'll keep p webcam up and we have a weather station. you can look at it on wonder ground at the end of our dock. as long as we've got power, they

will both be up. >> hang in there, buddy. we'll be watching. >> take care. >> thanks, chad. moammar gadhafi surrounded? that's according to rebels hunting him down. it comes as we get a closer look as to what used to be his kingdom. >> so this is the house of resistance, a symbol of gadhafi's stand against the west. so there's now been completely overrun by his enemies. >> cnn's dan rivers makes a disturbing discovery on home garr gadhafi's compound. bodies found rotting in what appears to be gruesome evidence of secret executions. dan is standing by. he's just witnessed. stay right there. [ waves crashing ]

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chaotic fighting has rocked central tripoli. let's take a look at what's been going on. this is from late this morning. libyan rebels claim to have moammar gadhafi surrounded but it was only a matter of hours later that he managed to get out a brief broadcast. here's part of what he said. >> translator: do not leave tripoli for the rest. do not leave them. fight them. destroy them. you are the overwhelming majority. you have marched in millions. march with the same millions, but fight this time. fill the streets and the fields. >> so it seems he is still alive. let's look at what's happened since then. after the rebels claimed they had gadhafi surrounded rebels by the hundreds converged on an apartment building just south of gadhafi's former compound. amid bursts of sniper fire,

heavily armed rebels darted about that neighborhood firing off rounds and then began searching hiding places. they entered some of the buildings, made their way up stairwells and went literally door to door, searching apartments and in some cases they were actually kicking their way into apartment doors. hours later though, still no moammar gadhafi. the rebels did overrun some gadhafi held positions and set fire to encampments, several of which appeared to have been abandoned very xwquickly. rebels took a number of prisoners. some of whom they believe are african mercenaries from other countries recruited by gadhafi's defenders and dozens of bodies were found in the streets. some of their wrists bound. dan rivers live for us now in tripoli. dan, give us a sense of what is happening in tripoli right now in terms of, number one, searching for gadhafi and, number two, if they're still fighting at this late hour. >> reporter: it's pretty calm

here at the moment as far as we are aware. the reports that were coming in earlier in the day were of fierce firefights in one air of tripoli, where you mentioned the rebels claim to have cornered colonel gadhafi. they have produced no evidence to back up that claim if and right now we haven't heard any shots being fired for quite some time. it does seem to be much calmer than it was. tripoli, though, does remain a city that is in a crisis in some senses. we've been out across the city today to get a flavor of what is going on. the report does contain some graphic images that some viewers may find disturbing. this was the very heart of the regime. a potent symbol of gadhafi's resistance against the west. now overrun by his enemies. so is the writing on the wall for the colonel, the rebels would like to think so and they are determined to flush him out

with minimal collateral damage. >> we don't like to spend blood thauz they are our brothers. >> reporter: we've got to be careful at every coroner this part of the city that gadhafi's compound. >> overtaking she'll 23er ter. >> reporter: we're not sure if they're shooting at us but we don't stay to find out. the streets are a wash with guns, all toted by the rebels. so far we haven't seen a single gadhafi loyalist here. among the fighters, tariq, who was held in prison for political dissent. he says he can't remember for how long, but he does remember the torture. >> we've been beat. electricity in our foot. we've been held with our hands tied up like this. >> reporter: we visit the military hospital. now echoing with the screams of children caught up in this mayhem.

campbell works for an aid agency and has been watching hundreds of injured citizens being rushed in for treatment. >> women who have been killed, that basically from snipers into the houses, mortars into the houses, not even in the streets, in their homes. >> pretty signatuckening. >> i've worked for ten years and this one was bad. >> reporter: i meet a 27-year-old fighter shot twice by a sniper yesterday. this is near to where he was shot. hardly a surface that's not punctuated by the ferocious firefight. another the end of this folk filled street an intersection littered with bodies. i count a dozen, a grizzly tabloid of urban warfare. the victims' hands bound behind

them. the rebels say they were execute bid gadhafi's men. but these bodies appear to be black africans. black africans make up a large portion of gadhafi's army, raising questions about whether they were executed by the rebels. these terrible scenes sum up the horror of parts of tripoli now. bodies strewn across the street, gunfire echoing through the sky, and large parts of the city remaining a no-go zone. pretty grim scene there's that we wandered into in the center of tripoli. at the moment, the transitional national council is holding a press conference right here where we are stationed. we'll bring you the latest developments from that. but one other terrible bit of information that we got at the hospital is that they are desperately short of refrigeration units because of the sheer numbers of bodies that they are recovering in the searing heat. more than 100 degrees fahrenheit. they are desperate for somewhere

to place those bodies. >> dan, give me a sense of the town behind you. i'm seeing looks like a coastal scene. you can see just about anywhere, cars passing by, the lights are on. is it fair to say that wherever gadhafi is, that area is getting smaller and smaller or are there huge parts of this city that are still, quote, unquote, wild? >> yeah, i think we're building -- i mean, you know, first, there's really difficult to get hard and fast information. hopefully we'll get some more from this press conference which is going on right now. but i think we are getting a sense that the areas in which gadhafi loyalists are hold up are slowly but surely being eroded. as you can see, as you mentioned behind me, normality is returning to parts of the city. you can see it right here. there are cars out on the streets. there are shops and cafes beginning to reopen and people beginning to emerge after what

must have been an absolutely terrifying ordeal. further to the south, we're right in the north of the city right by the port. further to the south, that's where the fighting is still continuing. that's where the snipers are. and that's where the danger still remains. >> dan rivers, excellent reporting from tripoli tonight. thank you. a few rooms to the back, there's a bedroom back there. i don't know if you can try to zoom in on it. there's a bed that's been made. and the rebels were speculating, they were saying that perhaps gadhafi himself had been sleeping there. >> that's our own arwa damon. she is inside what she is told home garr gadhafi's luxury rv. you'll see what she found and where the rebels say they found it. also, back in the u.s., on alert. hurricane irene barreling toward the east coast. folks getting out of the way. we're going to talk to someone who is literally flying directly into the storm. she's doing it just hours from now. hurricane hunter joining us live coming up.d hi if he had a secret

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cnn's arwa damon is the only western reporter at tripoli's airport. a few hours ago rebels there came driving up in what they claim is an rv that gadhafi may have been using as his hideout. arwa takes us on a tour. >> reporter: we're here at the tripoli international airport. and the fighters here that are part of the fighters from the western mountains just drove up this mobile home. they say they got it off of colonel gadhafi's farm that is located around 15 minutes away from here. they came up. they were honking. they were abs outly over joyed. they were describing what they had seen on the farm as being ga

df daffy's life of paradise. everything that they were deprived of. they say that they managed to secure around a quarter of the farm. just to give you an idea, though, of what we have inside on the layout here. this obviously something of a sitting area. we might have some restrictions due to the cables that allow us to do our live broadcast. but there's also a few rooms to the back. there's a bedroom back there. i don't know if you can try to zoom in on it. there's a bed that's been made. and the rebels were speculating, they were saying that perhaps gadhafi himself had been sleeping there. they've also -- they're also opening -- they're still rifling through the stuff they found here. and show this bathroom set. it's also got female products in here, too. makeup remover, creams. now, they say that they're

pretty confident that this is, in fact, a mobile home that was used by gadhafi and his family because they say it is familiar to them, that they've seen him use this on a number of occasions in the past. now, they did encounter some resistance when they were coming in to gadhafi's farm. they said they detained some people. here we have the kitchen. all sorts of utensils, garbage bags. actually just going through this ourselves for the first time. i'm not an expert on kitchen spices. but they say that they did detain some individuals. it looks like this has been in use. it looks like it's been packed away, but most certainly it's been used. everything is fully packed away. they say that they did detain some people at the farm. there were some brief clashes. they managed to push them back. they're going through trying to

clear it all. brought this out, i'm not entirely sure but he's speculate thatgadhafi was -- no way to verify that at all. this, he says, a gas mask. he found this in the living room area in the back. gas masks. the rebels still going through all of this, still trying to figure out -- put the bits and pieces here. certainly for them this is yet another victory because they say they are now -- they're not penetrating gadhafi's farmlands themselves. >> arwa damon, tripoli's airport. up next, i'll talk with a hurricane hunter who just hours from now is actually going to fly into this hurricane in hopes of finding out the storm's next move. to make science as exciting as a video game.

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there's a group of people who actually suit up and fly right into the eye of that storm. they are called hurricane hunters. one of them is captain nicole mitchell who tomorrow morning very early tomorrow morning, is that right, nicole, she will board a plane and head into this storm and fly around it for 12 hours. she joins us from bill locoxi, mississippi. the first question i have to ask you is why. >> it's very important data. when the storms are over water we don't have as much data as we do if the storms are over land. it's so valuable to know, to be right inside the storm and find out is the pressure dropping, how strong are the winds, which side of the storm is the worst? over the period of our flight, inside the storm we're there for about six hours and then my day will be long tomorrow because of the getting there and getting back time as well. over that period of six hours what is the trend of the track. things like that can really be a

critical piece of the forecast that the hurricane center puts out. and so they're in there sending all that data back. >> nicole, i'mjoined by chad myers now. the information comes back pretty much in realtime. >> yes, it does. we're sending packages out every ten minutes from the plane to a satellite link to the hurricane center. so there's actually even a phone app now that people can follow our flights on. and a lot of times these meteorologists, like at your station, tracking our flight. that's that same data that's coming in. it has our latitude and longitude on it. so people are able to see exactly where we are and what that data is at each of those points. >> captain, earlier you told us you type out the vortex messages and one came out 12 minutes ago with max outbound flight wind levels of 99 knots, clouds below the center, and the millie bars of 950 right now. you drop something into the middle of that eye to get that

pressure at the surface, don't you? >> yes. the plane itself is collecting pretty much the same things as the drop zone. that's what we calm that. so the plane is getting the horizontal field and then in the eye and the eyewall will drop the son which will give us a vertical look. in the eyewall, that will help us track the wind field all of the way to the surface. that's so important because then we know what sort of winds are going to be hitting the sure sfas. and then the eye tracks the pressures and the temperatures and everything else, but the pressure, the lowest pressure, that's how we categorize the storm. we take a surface measurement and we know if the pressure is dropping, the storm is intensifying. >> it's kind of like going to dave and buster's and throwing the ball into the ski ball hole, isn't it? because you want it to get it into the exact center. >> you do. we steer in the storm. a low pressure area, counter clock wise rotation. we know the wind is off of our

left wing. then the nose of the plane should be headed right for the center. once we get in the eye we're watching the winds drop. we look for that tight center circulation where the winds do the quick shift. we know we've hit the center and we release the son. >> all right. can tan nicole mitchell, we wish you luck and we are going to be following you. we have to get that app. don't you think? >> yes. >> thanks, nicole. we'll see you or hear from you later on as we follow this storm. chad, thanks. >> you're welcome. on the one hand the micromanager from hell but on the other hand his micromanaging has been so brilliant for so long. >> he's talking about this guy, steve jobs, the man behind america's most powerf fuful com. jobs is stepping down, if you haven't heard the news. investors at apple are reacting, wondering, what products are already in the pipeline. we'll have that story for you. plus, as the hurricane takes aim at the east coast, new questions about how some of washington's famous landmarks

are going to hold up, especially after this week's earthquake. you'll see new video of just the damage ahead. purina cat chow helps you well-being. we're all striving for it. nurture it in your cat with a full family of excellent nutrition and helpful resources.

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as soon as apple steve jobs announced he was stepping down to ceo last night apple stocks started to tumble. today that stock stabilized. it's selling for $373.80 a share. to understand why jobs' resignation rattled the markets listen to this piece put to the by cnn money. >> the amazing thing about him is how many businesses he has touched and revolutionized. i mean, everyone knows about the computer business. computer hardware, computer software. then, of course, there's the music business, with itunes and the ipod. just amazing. completely trans fomformed that business. >> the ipod and the ipod touch and the iphone and all the thanks that are portable music players, you know, on paper they have a 90% share of the market.

in fact, they own it. i mean other people might buy other mp3 players but they have thrown them away. >> today apple is going to reinvent the phone. >> steve jobs' influence on the mobile telecommunication spaces many fold for more than 100 years telecommunications companies have exercised most of the krocontrol in the relations with their vendors. apple came in and steve jobs, as is his way, basically kind of bullied his carrier. in this case, at&t, saying you need to create a much more open environment. you need to create an environment in which the user can go anywhere they want to get any kind of information they want. if it happens to be the app store, all the better for apple. the other thing that happened as a result of apple coming on the scene is that it really created a competitive environment for mobile phones that had never existed before. google's android owes a great

debt to apple's iphone because suddenly carriers that didn't have the iphone, like verizon and t-mobile and sprint, were looking for alternatives, looking for new ways to get exciting smart phones in the market. >> there's an indication of just how successful apple is right now. according to a statement released by the u.s. treasury in july, the government, the u.s. government had an operating cash balance of nearly $74 billion. that sounds like a lot of money, right? it's about $2.5 billion short of the cash apple has on hand. well, we are getting a better look at the damage done to the washington monument from tuesday's earthquake. these pictures obtained by cnn show a distinct crack there at the top. pieces of mortar on the floor inside the observation area. the monument is staying closed, engineers who specialize in seismic events and historic structures now hired to assess the damage. up next, we are going to go

live to libya. rebels say moammar gadhafi is surrounded. this is the fighting escalates near what many fear could be his escape route, the airport. stay right there. we'll be right back. ♪

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to libya now. according to our latest reports, heavily armed remember rebels are searching for apartment building door to door in a section of central libya after climbing today to have moammar gadhafi surrounded. hours later still no sign of

him. sarah schneider is standing by at the libyan capital right now. do we have any idea why the rebels thought they had him correspondentered, and does it appear that is just another claim that turns out to be false? >> reporter: i think it's another claim. i think you're getting information that there's a lot of rumors and they're coming from all over the place. and sometimes people will report things and then suddenly realize, wait a minute, i think that might have been a rumor. we're try took careful not to go with every sing that we hear from different sections of the city, because different people are saying different things. and they're all coming from the opposition. so i think it's very, very clear that they do not have moammar gadhafi in their grips at this point in time. i think, drew, if they did, we would all know it. the world would know it. this will be a huge moment for the opposition, a huge moment for libya, and a huge moment really for those who have been paying attention to this conflict and for the world. this man is someone who everyone

who has been in this country, whether they supported him or whether they opposed him, if he is captured, this will be a moment that for certain the opposition would not want to keep secret. so i think we'll stay away from the rumors. the truth is that's what they are right now because we have not seen him and i can tell you when they do find him, we will all know it. i want to give you the latest breaking news right now. we have just gotten information from the national transitional council, that's the political wing of the opposition who has taken the responsibility of trying to figure out a political system for this country. they have just announced that they have moved to tripoli. why is it that significant? that is significant because they are trying to take control as the political wing in power trying to set up a system that they say will be transparent, that will be one of the people that they will try to create, for example, free and fair elections, and a constitution. they have now settled themselves in the capital tripoli.

everyone in this country has said we want tripoli to continue to be our capital and the ntc is now here make that so. drew? >> all right, sara snider in tripo tripoli. fair to say that really is marking the end for moammar gadhafi, no matter where he is. >> i think it is fair to say. i think what's happening here is that i think there is a sense people feel like he needs to be found, they need to know where he is. he needs to be punished for the crimes that everyone here believes he has been committed, crimes against humanity and also the international criminal courts saying that he is also a criminal. but let's be very clear here, that the national transitional council and the rebels themselves who are out on this streets want to move forward. they want to continue to try to take full control of this city. they want to continue to take control of other cities in this country and move forward to try to create what they're calling a new libya, a libya that has free and fair elections, a libya that

let's people express themselves without the fear of retribution. drew? >> sara snider reporting to us. the national transitional counckoun council now in tripoli, libya. you might say it is the new government taking over there. thank you. well, this is the land of skyscrapers. big windows. 9 million people. forecasters say hurricane irene may roll right over new york city. mayor michael bloomberg says they are bracing for the worse. up next, i'm going to talk with the red cross traveling up with the red cross traveling up and down the carolina coast. that one day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! [ male announcer ] chevrolet is honored to celebrate the unveiling of the washington, d.c., martin luther king jr. memorial. take your seat at the table on august 28th.

if you live on the east coast from south carolina to

maine, i don't have to tell you her name, it's hurricane irene coming right for you. this thing is a monster. we expect to get the first hurricane warning along the east coast just about half hour from now. a state of emergency already declared for north carolina, east of i-95, and in virginia, new jersey, and maryland. we expect to get the first hurricane warning again coming up soon for the east coast. under a mandatory evacuation now is the tiny island of ocracoke island on north carolina's outer banks. the only way to get off the island is to put your car on a ferry. but right now too many ferries are like this one, take a close look. hardly a car on board. north carolina's governor doesn't like what she's seeing. she's worried too many people are waiting until the last minute to get out. >> i was dismayed when i saw that many of the ferries were nearly empty. people on ocracoke island need to take this seriously because it's hard to get off if the ferries are full. >> those ferries, by the way,

can handle only about 50 cars at a time. kate miers with the american red cross, she is traveling the outer banks right now looking for people who need supplies or help getting out. and, kate, can you tell us how many of those people need the supplies to stay or how many need the supplies because they're heading out and might need those supplies in their cars or wherever they're heading? >> it's hard to say really what the population is doing. it seems like it might be about 50/50. i talked to a couple last night who boarded their home and got out ahead of the traffic. it's a good thing they did because i traveled south and sat in traffic for a good 45 minutes. that's not typically a long drive. at the same time, i talked to residents who say we're not going anywhere. we've seen this before. we've sustained 110, 115-mile-per-hour winds. we'll do it again this time. >> seeing videos of stores boarded up. are stores still open? is equipment, is food still

available and at moderate prices? >> reporter: most stores that we've talked to are staying open at least through today, if not through tomorrow. and then they're closing their doors sometime tomorrow afternoon, which would be a smart thing, because we know that we're going to start getting real ugly tomorrow afternoon and into saturday. >> are you encouraging, is the red cross encouraging people to leave, like the government? >> it's not really the red cross' role to tell people to evacuate but it is our role to tell people to be prepared. make sure you've got a disaster kit with first aid kit, water, plenty of nonperishable food, flashlight with batteries. make sure you've got a plan. if you're not going to evacuate where is your family going to be with this storm. if you are, where and when are you going to leave. stay informed. watch the news. make sure you know what this storm is going to do. this is a big powerful storm. it's coming right for the outer banks. >> all right. kate, thanks so lot. we'll be following you and your work at the red cross as we move forward. hurricane irene could hit the coast more than once.

check out the possible track similar to gloria back in 1985, if you were around for that storm. it slammed into the coast three times. gloria firhammered the outer ba of north carolina where kate was speaking to us from. and then long island, new york, and then connecticut after an expected landfall in north carolina. hurricane irene could plow right up the coast toward new york or new jersey. jason carroll is at new york's rockaway beach. jason? >> and hello to you, drew. as you know, within the past hour new york's governor did declare a state of emergency. and tomorrow, we're expected to hear from new york's major michael bloomberg in terms of whether or not he calls for evacuations. if he does, this is one of the areas in the rockaways that's in question. it's located about 30 miles south of manhattan. and what most people out here worry about is a condition called when the bay meets the

ocean. and i'll show you what that means. right over here you've got the atlantic ocean. and then just on the opposite side about three blocks off the boardwalk here, that is where you have jamaica bay. when massive storms come through here, it doesn't happen very often, the bay literally meets the ocean. it happened back in 1944. it happened also again in 1960. and one of the residents here, this is libby schlesinger and her daughter, becky. libby, you remember when it happened. you were here when it happened although you were much younger then. >> yes. >> tell me about that condition and what you did. >> i was in school. and the water from the ocean met the bay and parents were coming up and picking up their children and carrying them out on their backs to get them out of the front of the school. >> the reason i bring this up with libby is because she remembers when it happened before. when we talk about evacuations libby told me earlier, you at least right now, are not planning to evacuate. >> nope. we're not leaving. >> tell me why not.

>> because we're prepared. >> tell me what you mean by you're prepared. >> i have a life vest ready to go for her. i have a whistle, a flashlight, i have tuna, cans of tuna, lots of water. >> i want to make this quick. instead of preparing like you're doing right now, why not -- i know you've got a little daughter here. why not just leave? >> i have to teach spin on sunday morning at 7:45. >> libby, you will not be teaching spin sunday morning. i guarantee it. almost can guarantee it. once again, drew, the mayor tomorrow will be making an announcement as to be whether or not they will be calling for evacuations in this particular area. we will be standing by and waiting for that. as you were telling me within the past hour about new yorkers, they're a hard breed. it may take some convincing. >> jason, if part of your security blanket is a life vest to survive this, i think you better get the heck out. jason carroll, rockaway beach, you're going to hang in there for us, right, jason? >> absolutely. i'll be out here for you, for

sure. >> you might be sitting in that spin class, if i know you. >> but we're paid to do it. >> thanks, buddy. we're just getting in brand new data now where this hurricane is heading. stay right there. [ cat meows ] [ woman ] ♪ i just want to be okay ♪ be okay, be okay ♪ i just want to be okay today - ♪ i just want to know today - [ whistles ] ♪ know today, know today - [ cat meows ] - ♪ know that maybe i will be okay ♪ [ chimes ] travelers can help you protect the things you care about... and save money with multi-policy discounts. are you getting the coverage you need... and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage... or visit travelers.com.

new information on hurricane irene. chad? >> brand new. the first hurricane warnings issued for the u.s. hurricane warnings from virginia beach, basically the