i am in atlanta and the national hurricane center is just out with a new update on irene. we will also go lower manhattan.

>> a troubling new assessment. they are expecting the storm surge to flood the area with anywhere from six to 12 feet of water. other low lying neighborhoods on a mandatory evacuation orders. the mass transit system will shut down as of noon tomorrow. this is what they are concerned about. pictures of irene hit the bha mas.

>> not much change in the forecast and not much change in the track. we are still at 100 miles per hour. still forecasting to get slightly weaker as we run the storm over north carolina and on up into the northeast. that is good news. i still think because of the size of this storm that that flooding po sensual in downtown new york in manhattan in even towards rockaway beach and long beach in new york still there as the waves will be pushing and the winds will be pushing water up against that shore for a very long time. here is what has happened to the storm as the turn happened. it was very low pressure. right now the pressure is low enough to make a category three

hurricane. it's just not organized enough to get the category winds it is much harder than hurricane direction. we can wake up tomorrow morning and see something bigger than that. we will see. i don't think that is what is in the forecast and not what anybody else here will do as well. very close to ed who is right there. probably a little bit farther to the east now. just to the west of the cape light. and then back just to the west there. that's about over to the east of virginia beach. the problem is that we will have such a wind field.

so just like kind of pushing water around and around and around. you start to pile up the water. that could actually be a wind driven surge all the way into parts of chesapeake. a lady back towards delaware into and you could see -- everybody has been asking me what about philadelphia. and the issue has not been talked about much because you are just far enough to get 69 mile per hour winds. certainly not the eye. the big threat of all of this as we get rid of the winds, the biggest threat will be the rainfall potential. the biggest potential for damage would be flooding. the rugged rough areas.

ten inches of rainfall there is the threat there. long island sound there. that all is going to to have to go one place and that will be the east river. the east river goes up. you get to williamsburg, you get water there and that's right where laguardia is. water is trying to rush from two separate directions and you can't do it very long without that water rising. i suspect it will be wet not with rain but with salt water because of the water getting pushed in from the ocean by tomorrow. >> the different areas to be worried about. we will continue to check in with you, chad. let's go brian todd. what are conditions like where you are? >> we're just getting hit with the outer bands and you can see

how bad it is here. we are getting ripped by wind and very strong rain. we are on the edges of the river here. they are very worried about flash flooding getting hit pretty hard. the marge management director. i spoke to him a little while ago. 6,000 customers are without power. they are very worried about power lines snapping down. came down over here and saw a lot of power lines very violently in the wind. there is a big concern in this area. experts have told us that a lot of time when people died during and after hurricanes it is because they are trying to drive through flooded roads.

experts are saying you have got stay out of this stuff during and after a hurricane. that is going to be a big concern here. the wind is whipping at us from the north. this is what we are dealing with here. >> what's your sense of the level of preparedness for the storm there in north carolina. >> i think the preparedness has been very good. they are well versed in hurricanes coming up right into this area through the rivers on the southern and eastern coast of north carolina to the outer

banks. they know how to get people out of here. they know when to warn them and give them enough time to leave places like the outer banks. it does take time. a lot of these places are crossed inland and the only way to get out is a two-lane bridge. you have got give enough people time and they are well versed at doing. that. >> with that in mind we see the driving rain right now. what's the sense of when this thing could get really bad? >> they anticipate landfall sometime between six and 9:00 a.m. it will get bad probably in the next few hours. look i looking here in wilmington.

>> do we know how well heated those were? >> they went pretty well. the emergency management director said that it went very well. and again they gave people enough lead time in a lot of the counties to get out. we're a little bit inland from the coast. we have a much better chance of getting out quickly. they have got to give them enough time and they did that. by all indications the evacuations went very well but there are still people who hold out. i have heard governors from here to maryland say that is not a safe thing to do. don't do it. the governor in maryland said it is selfish and stupid to do that because you are taking resources

away when they need them the most. still maybe not too late to get out of there. >> stay safe, you and your entire crew. let's go a little further north in ocean city, maryland. what's it like where you are? >> we are not feeling the weather effects yet. the city itself is eerie. this is a party town. a beach town. you would expect people to be in the streets, for there to be a lot of noise, bars and clubs open. it is completely quiet. you drive down the streets here. there are no cars or people. it reminds me of a zombie movie before they make their appearance.

they are expecting that perhaps as much of a sixth of this city could be under water by the time irene comes here. back to you. >> thank you. now back to anderson. how does this hurricane compare to others that we've seen? >> what's different about this hurricane is that the forecast track which is pretty much locked in now at least through north carolina, the eastern part of the state is going to be a little bit further to the west than what we've seen for other hurricanes in the northeast and for some folks

that means this is the most significant event in 20 years from a tropical system. when we have a hurricane out here approaching north carolina we see track move on out the sea, missing new england, missing the coast to the south but in this case the forecast track comes up through north carolina, the eastern part of the state but doesn't turn right way. instead it moves very close to the shore line, perhaps across long island and southern new england. that means all the weather that's usually, in this case, worst to the east will be much closer to the metro politan areas and definitely hit the southern new england area and since there are strong winds, high surge, we'll see some of that along the east coast as well. >> so for a city like new york what strength do you think the storm will be when it comes into this region? is there anyway to say definitively? >> at this point, what we have is a category 2 hurricane that's very slowly weakening. we think it will still be category 2 perhaps category 1 as it crosses north carolina. then that continued slow

weakening will persist through the landfall in new england but it gets up to the new york area, southern new england probably looking at a lower end category 1 hurricane, perhaps upper end of a tropical storm conditions. what's important about this particular storm is not so much the peak intensity but the duration. it's a very large hurricane. in north carolina they are experiencing hurricane force within for as much as ten hours and the whole east coast near the center of the storm will experience tropical storm conditions for as much as 24 hours. it's a long period of having a battering of wind as well as higher levels of storm surge and because it's so long we'll go through a full tidal cycle in the northeast. there will relatively high tides coming this weekend. high tides plus the storm surge has us concern for the shore line. >> yeah. no doubt about it. a lot of damage. probably long island. i had no idea, i didn't realize it would linger around for those tropical storm winds for 24

hours. that's with the tidal surge that could be really very unpleasant for an awful lot of people. let us know what you think. follow us on facebook and twitter at anderson cooper. next you'll hear from a hurricane hunter who just got back from a flight through the storm. he'll tell you what he saw and we'll talk to the storm chaser when hurricane irene hit the bahamas and hit it hard. we have new video of the damage there. also check in right now. >> reporter: anderson as the hunt for moammar gadhafi goes on searches have been uncovering his network of escape tunnels and secret bunkers. we got a look. you'll see what she saw tonight when 360 continues. of regular . you'll feel satisfied. [ female announcer ] yoplait greek. it is so good. it's pretty good!

[ grandpa ] relationships are the basis of everything. [ grandma ] relationships are life... if you don't have that thing that fills your heart and your soul, you're missing that part of your life that just fulfills you. ♪ [ male announcer ] for us at humana, relationships matter too. the better we know you, the better we can help you choose the right medicare plan. that's why humana agents sit down with you to figure out your medicare options. and we have nurses you can call anytime, even at 3 a.m.

because when you're on the right humana medicare plan and taking good care of yourself, then you can be there for the people who matter most. [ grandma ] my family is my joy, my hope... they are my heart. it's the reason we get out of bed in the morning... [ grandpa ] the reason we fall into bed at night sometimes. [ grandma ] yes. that's right. [ male announcer ] humana. our breaking news tonight of course hurricane irene, the outer rain bands hitting north carolina on a path heading straight up i-95 right up the east coast, straight to new york city where we are tonight. a hurricane warning for the city, mandatory evacuations where i'm standing and other low-lying areas. i'm in battery park. moments ago mayor mike bloomberg spoke to residents here. take listen. >> mta, our local mass transit system is shutting down bus and

subway service tomorrow at noon. and once gale force winds arrive later in the evening it's going to be too late to go anywhere. so the mandatory order requires you to be out by 5:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. from a practical sense if you're not out tomorrow morning you'll find it very difficult to get out. >> well, earlier new york city, excuse me, new jersey governor chris christie had one last warning for anyone who was still at the jersey shore. >> get the hell off the beach and asbury park and get out. you're done. it's 4:30. you've maximized your tan. >> he said warnings takes many factors including detailed information from aircraft flying through the storm. a few minutes ago i talked to the noaa hurricane hunter who has just been right in the middle of irene. i asked him what it was like.

>> yes. i'm on noaa's c-3 aircraft. we just passed through the center of tropical storm or hurricane irene. the south side of the storm was kind of benign but the south of the storm is quite bumpy. we got knocked around quite good. this is about par for the course especially with the storm at this stage, category 1, category 2 hurricane. parts of it can be rough, and parts of it are smooth. but right now, like i said, we're on the north side just out of morehead city and we're getting bounced around pretty good. >> getting knocked around pretty good. some people chase hurricanes from 30,000 feet. others do it on the ground up close. sometimes they get video like this.

we showed a portion it to you at the top of the broadcast. this is what hurricane irene looked like at a category 3 storm when it hit the bahamas. then take a look, this is some of the damage that the storm did in new jersey's governor chris christie and everybody else in a leadership position has said you don't want to thereabout when stuff like this happens. jim edge was. it's his job. he joins us now. jim, you were on the island when the storm smashed into it. what was it like? >> it was hard. we thought we would be close to the eye but it wobbled to the west and we got the worst part of it. >> how badly was the island damaged? >> we had some roof structures that were damaged. south part of the island was breached.

i haven't been down there yet. some sails were on the mast. overall not too bad. they build houses a lot stronger here versus the united states. >> they certainly learned the lesson of past storms. i appreciate your time. thank you very much. i'm glad you did okay in the storm. the first hints of hurricane irene are being felt right now in the carolinas as we've been telling you tonight.

coming up we'll take you live to north carolina where the storm is expected to make its first landfall. still ahead bracing new york city. the hurricane is already a historic event first-ever mandatory evacuation order for all five boroughs. the northeast has taken a direct hit from a hurricane, what kind of an impact that has had . with other offers for a total value of $6,000. our greatest model year yet is wrapping up. impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. in servicing clients that serve our country. my name is marjorie reyes. i'm a chief warrant officer. i am very grateful and appreciative that quicken loans can offer service members va loans. it was very important

for me to be able to close and refinance my home quickly. i wanted to lower my mortgage payment. quicken loans guided me through every step of the process. the whole experience was amazing! [ tony ] serving those who serve us all... one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze.

hurricane irene is expected

to make its first landfall along the east coast of the united states in north carolina. a states spokesman said he's concerned about the entire eastern half of the state of, the hurricane could affect 20 counties and 3.5 million people in north carolina alone. that's where john zarrella is with us from atlantic beach. john, what time is it expected to come there. what kind of preparations have they been making? >> 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, anderson. if the eye crosses us here, that's the time the center of the storm is expected to get here. so just after first light. preparations, not a lot of people have put up shutters or boarded up. we did see some. most of the people here, at least a good percentage of them did decide to leave. others said they were going to go ahead and stay. mandatory evacuation. they can't force you to leave. police are patrolling all up and down here. shelters are open, just over in morehead city. salvation army serving meals there.

one thing to point out as we see the wind picking up and we've gone through heavier wind and rain now. it continues to get heavier and heavier all the time. inland flooding is what kills more people than hurricanes than storm surge these days. so we're seeing already ground saturated here. a lot of runoff already beginning. and, you know, as i was saying earlier, we got atlantic ocean to the south here and the sound to the north there. we could have storm surge in both directions as the storm comes by and passes us. inland, there could be a lot of inland flooding and that's a risk for anybody who tries to get out and drive in it and then roads are under water, impassable and that is how loss of life occurs. again, anderson, wind kicking up a little bit. still only right around tropical storm force and gusts. but the rain steadier, steadier and heavier. as the moments go by here. anderson? >> john, stay there. i want to bring in chad myers to talk about where you are, where

it plays into where this thing will make first landfall. chad, it terms of where john is what can you tell us? >> john is right there. there's morehead city and atlantic beach, kind of a dual communities, one is the ocean and one is the city right behind it. and john you have a major cell just to your south and southeast, coming your way. this is probably the biggest cell that you've seen so far. wind with at least 50. right now you're only seeing about 35 to 39. almost tropical storm force, but in the next 20 minutes you will easily get to 50 and 55 miles per hour with that nasty bunch of cells coming your way. it's one of the inner outer bands now and as the night goes on every single band will get more windy and more windy and the gusts will go higher an higher. >> and in terms of landfall, you're still thinking what? a category 2 for that area?

>> absolutely. and with that landfall, the way the shape of the land is, anderson, the eye being right down here right now, as the eye comes up and the shape of the land is almost like a bowl. it's going to hoard all of the water and is going to make a big storm surge right here as the storm rolls right on top, literally of john zarrella in about 10 hours. >> chad, stand by and john stand by. we just managed to get north carolina governor on phone. governor, your state is used to taking some major storm hits. this is a slower storm bigger than a lot of people have seen for a while. are you ready? >> yeah, we're ready, anderson. we got evacuations complete. everything is tied down. and tonight is a hard night. we're just waiting for it to hit. >> how have evacuations gone? people say mandatory evacuations. sometimes a lot of folks don't

want to leave. >> sometimes some folks don't want to leave. you have to let people do what they want to do. that's why it's america. this is the last of the summer along all of coastal carolina and the southern part of the country, and so we got lots of tourists have left. a lot of real people, people who are citizens decided to stay. they are smart. we're urging them to use common sense and not go out tonight in the middle of the storm to see what's happening. again, we feel like we're prepared. the big problems will come tomorrow as we see what damage is done ands with we go into full recovery. tonight our shelters are open. we got marine helicopters. we got highway patrolman, national guard. all our resources are deployed. we feel we have this part of the storm handled. it's the waiting that's so hard. >> the president has signed a disaster order for your state. you brought in extra national guard just to help out, right? >> we've done that. we're fully mobilized in north carolina.

we have the water rescue team in place across the state. we really have done it so many times in north carolina, we feel our system is as good. we've prepared as much as we can but there's always things that are challenges. so, again, during the night we urge information stay in, to use caution. we urge people to just be really aware that this doesn't sound like a huge storm right now, 50 or 55 mile-per-hour winds but it will stay over our state 10 or 12 hours. that's where the problem comes. that bowl full of water will dump somewhere and when it dumps there will be a surge of water and who knows what will happen. >> that's obviously a big concern here in manhattan as well, the storm surge and also the slow moving winds just kind of staying in this area for 12 or more hours as you said. governor, appreciate your time tonight. i know you'res about. thanks for checking in with us. i want to go next to david mattingly in kill devil hills.

david, what's the situation there? >> reporter: well, anderson, the governor hit it right on the head. the waiting is the hard part. they know what this storm can do. they've prepared as much as they possibly can. now everyone has to wait and see what the storm does as it passes through here. every passing hour we're getting a little more rain, a little more wind and the surf pounds just a little bit harder. we've had rain for a couple of hours steady now and just a reminder of what's going to be coming later tonight. we got gale force wind right now, some gusts up to tropical storm force wind probably and that will continue to increase. we'll have tropical storm force wind overnight and then hurricane strength winds during the day followed by more tropical storm force within. this will ramp up slowly, be

here for a while and ramp down slowly again. we don't know how many people have actually been staying behind. you heard the governor talking about this as well. they are not going door-to-door making people to leave. people that stayed here have been told if you get in trouble you're on your own. everybody has been warned and it's a minimum of 72 hours that they will be on their own during this storm and in the aftermath. so everyone is advised if they were staying they need to have the proper supplies and need to take every precaution to make sure they do not need some kind of emergency services because they are not going to able to come help them if there's a problem. anderson? >> yeah. good advice. try to know you're going to be on your own for days at a time. david mattingly we'll check in with you. why new york city is trying to take no chances. why the biggest city in the u.s. will happen in a worse case scenario that we don't expect to see. moammar gadhafi's secret underground city revealed. we go inside the maze of tunnels and bunkers. fascinating look at part of libyan, tripoli and gadhafi's rule that we've never seen

before. we'll be right back. >> live from hurricane headquarters with another update here from the national hurricane center. the 5:00 a.m. advisory. no significant change. we are still dealing with the category 2 storm with 100 mile per hour winds. the difference is the movement that continues to get closer to cape lookout here. we are about 85 miles away. the outer rain bands containing the wind gusts are really battering the cape right now. in fact we have the additional element of the tornado watch boxes that have been in effect over the last couple of hours. we are tracking a couple of tornado warning as well. that is the additional danger we are dealing with as well. there is the center of circulation, approaching probably around 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. that is where we look at the landfall. landfall in north carolina. and of course as we know then we

will transition to the secondary landfall and that will be in new york. expecting a significant storm surge upwards of ten feet now. this thing is not going to dissipate. we are looking at a potential category one storm. we will have upwards as we take you into sunday. stay with cnn. live from hurricane headquarters. ♪ [ female announcer ] we're throwing away misperceptions about natural gas vehicles. more of the vehicles that fuel our lives use clean american natural gas today. it costs about 40 percent less than gasoline, so why aren't we using it even more? start a conversation about using more natural gas vehicles

in your community. no, it's just for new people. hey ! chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ? chocolate ! chocolate it is ! yeah, but i'm new, too. umm... he's new... er... than you. even kids know it's wrong to treat new friends better than old friends. at ally bank, we treat all our customers fairly, with no teaser rates

and no minimum deposit to open. it's just the right thing to do.

we already seen reporters in north carolina, south carolina's coast is feeling the power of hurricane irene.

we go to paulie's island. how bad is it where you are right now? >> reporter: it's actually not bad at all. in fact, a couple of hours ago the gusts were the worse. i brought a little wind meter with me and i clocked them at 42 miles per hour, a couple of hours ago. but now we're only getting minor gusts. things aren't bad. to give you and idea of where we are, we're south of myrtle beach and north of charleston, south carolina. we feel very fortunate. we definitely need the rain because we were seeing a trout here in south carolina. the rain is welcomed. there are a few power outages and i know the causeway to paulie's island was closed because of the high waters. the atlantic ocean, the waves have been monster waves. there were a few surfers out this afternoon but later this evening absolutely no one in the water. in fact, the beach, there was no beach. the high tide normally leaves about ten yards of beach along here, but there was essentially no beach, it washed right up to the dunes and in fact into the stairways that are the beach access to the inns along this beach and the folks here had not ever seen the water that high.

it has gone back down, but it stayed high well beyond the high tide at 6:00 this evening. so we're just now seeing the atlantic ocean recede and that's the way it looks here right now. >> and debbie, the fact that the storm has weakened somewhat over the course of today do you think that's encouraged a lot of folks around the area to stay in the area and not evacuate? >> reporter: they stayed put. as a matter of fact i talked to a man who said he had built a concrete house, so he never had to leave in the event of a hurricane. can you believe that? but, in fact, we're actually seeing some folks who are leaving north carolina and virginia and are coming this direction because they know, essentially, that we're seeing just tropical storm force winds and eventually that will move on out. in fact, you can see the sea ropes are barely moving. i'm hoping this is the worst of it for us here along the south carolina coast. >> let's hope so. debbie, appreciate it. tonight new york is planning for

the worst. that's what you have to. public transportation in the city will shut down at noon tomorrow. first time i've ever seen that as a life long new yorker. i want to show you a video on youtube. this was after a severe storm in 2007. not a hurricane just a much smaller storm. you can see the flooding that just a regular storm caused, potential of what a hurricane or tropical storm winds can do. there's 200 underground subway stations, more than 400 miles of underground tracks. we don't have to tell you above ground new york has blocks and blocks of sky scrapers and high rises. there's concern about construction sites with tropical force winds picking up debris. millions of people, 8 million people who live here in new york city all of them wondering tonight how much damage will hurricane irene do? how bad will it be. joining me is stephen flynn, author of the book "the edge of disaster, rebuilding a resilient

nation." joining us is chris soreno. i appreciate both of you being with us. stephen, i guess we have to talk worst case scenarios. what could we be looking at? >> from the safety issues there are people in low-lying areas tend to see substantial flooding and that's why the mayor stepped out to try to get people out of that zone a area. the issue is of degree with hurricane force within, there's a lot of stuff in the streets and construction sites. equipment on terraces. people may have gone to the hamptons and left stuff behind. that stuff can get tossed around. the big issue that will affect the entire region is disruption of people's lives. we'll lose a lot of electrical power. transportation systems will be a mess for a while. people has to camp out in their homes and their apartments for a

substantial period of time. and when we talk about an outlying areas like connecticut and long island, also very densely-populated, trees going to be taken down, a lot of utilities. people could be facing weeks or more of power outages. >> that graphic is potential flooding that could occur in a category 2 storm. we believe, chris, though, this thing may be come ago shore in north carolina as a category 2, the hope is and the belief is that it will slow down, of course, as it travels north as it ling erosion over new jersey and other states. and by the time it hits new york city if in fact it continues on that track that it would be a category, a low category 1 or a strong tropical storm, which is still of great concern, given what stephen was talking about.

you see that video from the subway system back in 2007 from just a big storm. how structurally sound, chris, are landmarks and sky scrapers in new york, in philadelphia, in boston? >> well if i can at least give everybody one piece of good news. with the modern codes, the sky scrapers in the city are designed with safety factors that allow them to with stand wind speeds much greater than what we're seeing in the next two days. that's one piece of good news. >> great news. >> there will be motion to sky scrapers. if you're high up you could experience motion sickness but no structural integrity issues with the building itself. >> the concern, obviously, in a scene like new york where you have tons of glass and lots of windows with air borne debris, with winds that are staying, you know, at high levels for 12 or more hours, you could have as stephen said a lot of stuff being picked up from construction size. >> airborne debris is my major concern as a structural engineer from debris on construction size. awnings around the city. patio furniture. all sorts of things in the city. trees in the city and the

suburbs that can cause potential problems. and become missiles for windows. so definitely don't be anywhere near glass. don't take your chances outside. >> stephen, you and i talked about the infrastructures in big cities in a lot of different ways. but in terms of this storm, how does new york city, for instance, how does the infrastructure here capable of dealing with something like this? >> it's going to be a bit of a challenge particularly on the transportation side. a lot of our infrastructure, especially in the northeast is ageing and not very gracefully. it fails sometimes just by, you know, day-to-day wear and tear. when you put it under extreme pressure for an extended period of time, we're going to see some failure and it will take a while to recover. this is everything from pumps that have to be operating in the subway systems here, dealing with massive rainfall on top of storm surge. it's going to be a challenge for

that infrastructure. one good news of sorts here is that city will go quiet for a little bit of time. getting it back up is going to take a little longer than most new yorkers are used to. we really haven't had a major hurricane hit new york city for almost 100 years in terms of direct hurricane force winds, sustained for a long period of time. usually long island, east long island. this will be a bit avenue experience for virtually everybody who is alive in the metropolitan new york city area. >> you stalked about the structural integrity of sky scrapers. for people who do live in high rise, above the 10th floor, is it okay for them to stay in their apartment?

do you suggest they go to a lobby or a stairwell? >> it's okay to stay in your apartment. don't be near the glass. i think everybody needs to help out their neighbors because basically what you have if you have balcony furniture or anything that you have on a patio, that could be the projectile into your neighbor's building. be needs to help each other. i know people could be away on vacation in a hazard that they wouldn't be back to secure their furniture. stay inside. stay away from glass. don't let the projectile be an issue for you. >> thank you for your advice. coming up next we'll look at the rare times a hurricane hit the northeast. what happened back thenning might give you and indication what could happen this weekend. it's the high winds and people for flooding storm surge that we're worried about in new york city. we'll take you underground inside library area in tripoli, inside a vast network of tunnels under gas phillipine's compound. it's a fascinating look at what the dictator has done. did he use some of these tunnels to escape? >> i'm sure it was used because this place is so big to get back and forth. unbelievable. which makes it this easy to talk face-to-face

with another iphone. this easy to talk with a mac and this easy to talk with an ipad. facetime. just one more thing that makes an iphone an iphone. can become romantic just like that. a spark might come from -- a touch, a glance -- it can come along anywhere, anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day, so you can be ready anytime the moment's right even if it's not every day. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. don't take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. [ man ] do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach,

delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, stop taking cialis and call your doctor right away. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if cialis for daily use is right for you. for a 30-tablet free trial offer, go to cialis.com. look at all this stuff for coffee. oh there's tons. french presses, espresso tampers, filters. it can get really complicated. not nearly as complicated as shipping it, though. i mean shipping is a hassle. not with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that is easy. best news i've heard all day! i'm soooo amped! i mean not amped. excited. well, sort of amped. really kind of in between. have you ever thought about decaf? do you think that would help? yeah. priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.95, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship.

i'm in battery park in lower manhattan which is in the evacuation zone in new york city. the water is about 20 feet from where i'm standing. today mayor bloomberg took the step of announcing mandatory evacuations from low-lying areas in each of the five boroughs of new york which includes this

area of city. subways and buses will stop running tomorrow afternoon. all broadway shows for the weekend have been cancelled. i want to take a look at how devastating it can be when the northeast takes a direct hit from a hurricane. a lot of folks don't have much sberns it. when it does happen it's unforgettable. 1938, the long island express hurricane crashes ashore as a category 3 storm and wrecks much of new england. >> washed away the pleasant beaches. >> wind gusts as strong as 136 miles per hour and waves as high as 50 feet the storm claims nearly 700 lives in the region and destroys almost 9,000 structures. including the connecticut home of actress katherine hepburn. six years later great atlantic hurricane of 1944 roars on to

long island. the storm cost more than $100 million worth of damage. it sunk five ships including two coast guard cutters and a navy destroyer and claimed 300 lives. in recent times less powerful but no less dangerous hurricanes have hit the northeast as well. 20 years before hurricane irene there was hurricane bob. the eye of the storm made landfall on rhode island in august of 1991 as a strong category 2 with within of 115 miles per hour. bob is blamed for more than a billion dollars of damage in 18 storm related deaths. two months later hurricane grace came by. later called the perfect storm. it lashed the east coast of the u.s. with pounding waves and coastal flooding causing significant damage in massachusetts, maine, new hampshire and new jersey. nine people were killed in the storm which produced 100-foot waves equivalent a ten-foot story building. so-called storm of the century. hurricane gloria, september 1985. recorded winds of up to 150 miles per hour. gloria made landfall as a powerful category 3 storm on the outer banks of north carolina before moving up the east coast making a second landfall on long island then another in connecticut. causing significant damage up and down the east coast and eight storm related deaths. now another tempest is threatening to strike the northeast.

then there's the so-called storm of the century. hurricane gloria september 1985, recorded winds of up to 150 miles per hour. gloria made landfall as a powerful category 3 storm on the outer banks of north carolina before rapidly moving up the east coast making a second landfall on long island then another in connecticut, causing significant damage up and down the east coast and eight storm-related deaths. and now another tempest is threatening to strike the northeast. in a matter of days, hurricane irene may join this dubious list of killer storms. well, let's hope not. cnn's tracking hurricane irene all night. obviously all through the weekend. we'll have more on the storm i head. right now isha sesay joins us in tripoli the hunt for muammar gadhafi continues with libyan opposition forces combing a network of secret tunnels beneath his compound. today cnn's sara sidner got a

look inside the winding tunnels and bunkers and found a virtual city beneath the city. >> in this room, this is part of the tv studio. he even has professional videotapes there. these are actually tapes that cnn still uses. this is amazing that all of this does exist. it was rumored for so long, and seeing it in person is absolutely almost unbelievable. this whole place is filled with some of gadhafi's recordings. it would be interesting to see what's on them. in mexico, authorities now say at least 52 people died when armed gunmen torched a casino in monterey. the suspects reportedly arrived in three vehicles and burst into the the building with what looked like gallons of gasoline. mexico's president blamed the attack on terrorists motivated by greed. u.s. stocks snapped a four-week losing streak. the dow with 135 points higher at the close. and up 4% for the week.

the s & p 500 and nasdaq posted gains. investor apparently liked what chief ben bernanke said which made no planses for more economic stimulus measures national parks service engineers are racing to protect the washington monument from further damage. there were cracks caused by that magnitude 5.8 earthquake just days ago. another quick check on hurricane irene with our own chad myers. chad, where is irene right now? >> irene is about 160 miles south of atlantic beach. that's exactly where one of our crews are actually right now. there's -- we had about a 36-mile-per-hour wind gust there, 36. and then over toward wilmington about a 42-mile-per-hour wind gust. but something else, isha, that's

happening tonight, too, with the spin on the storm down to the south, some of these storm, the individual storms that are coming onshore, are spinning. and so some of them could actually have tornados. one tornado warning for arnslow county on the way to the camp lejeune main gate there. indicated by doppler radar potential for tornados tonight let alone the hurricane. like they have anything else to worry about. that's what you get when you have a spinning storm down to the south and that spin pushing these cells, those little convective cells right on shore, each one of them can actually spin on their own. there's the wind speeds for parts of jacksonville, blooming ton, those will definitely come up over the rest of the night. in fact this is a very large wind field, almost 300 miles from top to bottom. and those winds are still going to be moving up toward atlantic beach, right about 7:00 in the morning, and then onshore right at about the i would say the ocrakok lighthouse and the cape hatteras lighthouse where the main wind will be with the storm slightly offshore. virginia beach 7:00 tomorrow night where the maximum wind will be ocean city by about 2:00 a.m. sunday morning and all the way up into long island. and then all the way back into the northeastern sections of new york city.

isha? >> chad, thank you. now back to anderson. more storm coverage ahead on 360. stay tuned. ience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. vrrooom...vrrroooomm vroom vrrooom vrrroooomm

vrrroooomm vrroom vrrrooomm vrrroooooooommmmmm mmmm mm. [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them. cops are cracking down on drinking and riding. drive sober, or get pulled over.

> welcome back. we're coming to you from the

southernmost tip-in manhattan. an area expected to be under water when this storm hits. there's a number of rats running around our feet right now. not very pleasant. a states spokesman in north carolina says he's concerned about the entire eastern half of the state, the hurricane could affect 20 counties and 3.5 million people in north carolina alone. john zarrella joins us again tonight from atlantic beach. obviously there's a lot of concern there about the impact of this.