irene. >> we are at an eye of irene about 180 miles from making landfall first thing tomorrow morning. if you want to get out of coastal carolina it's almost too late at this point. plus you have no time tomorrow. so it's either time to go or time to hunker down and stay there. there's the eye right there. there's the center. it is moving on very close to where our john zarrellis or toward the coastal sections right there. and we have another reporter right there, brian todd. from virginia beach the wind now pushing waves, water into the chesapeake bay. that could cause a little coastal flooding up into the chesapeake. then tomorrow the waves and the piers? >> thank you very much. my only advice is to listen to the authorities, to take the advice they give you. that's all for us tonight. >> cnn center in atlanta. national hurricane center is out with a new update on irene. we'll check in with chad myers shortly. and anderson cooper in lower manhattan. mayor bloomberg out with a

troubling new assessment. they're expecting the storm surge from irene to flood the area, which includes the ground zero construction site, with anywhere from 6 to 12 feet of water. and other low-lying neighborhoods under mandatory evacuation orders. the city transit system will shut down at noon tomorrow. all five local airports also in danger of flooding. they're being closed, arriving flights, starting at noon. this is what they're concerned of. pictures of irene hitting the bahamas. new yorkers are used to seeing this on tv, not up close, though. they might see a version of it about 36 hours from now. all day today irene was making its way north. as it did, emergency plans started kicking in. warnings went up. people stocked up or hunkered down or they took off. in a moment we'll check in with anderson and our entire team for

irene. first, chad myers and the late bulletin from the national hurricane center. chad, what's the latest? >> not much change in the forecast and not much change in the track. we're still at 100 miles per hour. we're still forecast to get slightly weaker as we run the storm over north carolina. and then on up into the northeast. and that's good news. i still think because of the size of this storm that that flooding potential in downtown new york, in manhattan, in parts of hoboken and rockaway beach and long beach in new york still there as the waves will be pushing, the winds will be pushing water up against that shore for a very long time. here's what's happened to the storm and what happened earlier today and also during the day yesterday as the turn happened. during that turn there was enough wind shear pushing the storm from a different direction that the storm didn't like it very much. and the storm really disintegrated for a while. extremely low pressure. in fact, right now the pressure is low enough to make a category

3 hurricane. it's just not organized enough to get those category 3 winds. that's not saying it couldn't happen tonight. we could wake up tomorrow morning. one of the things the hurricane center will tell you is that the forecast for hurricane wind speed is harder, much harder than hurricane direction. so we can wake up tomorrow morning and see that too be something bigger than that. we'll see. i don't think that's the forecast and it's certainly not what anybody else here thinks as well. but it will drive itself right over north carolina. very close to ed who is in wrightsville beach. probably a little bit farther east. just to the west of the cape hatteras light and back to the west there and east of virginia beach, slowly back into the ocean here. the problem is we will have such a large wind field with each one of these circles, each one of these spins, that the waves and winds will be pushing in one

direction for a very long time. so just like pushing water for 12 hours in all one direction here 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 the chesapeake as the the water runs in there, all the way back up the james a little bit. or back up to delaware, into wilmington. everybody has been asking, what about philadelphia? we haven't really been talking about philadelphia. you haven't been talked about very much because you're just far enough to get 69-mile-per-hour winds but certainly not the eye. the big threat with all of this as we get rid of the winds, the biggest threat on this side will be the rainfall potential. and philadelphia, i think that's your biggest potential for rainfall. your biggest potential for damage would be flooding. you could see 10 inches of rainfall, philadelphia. same story for wilkes-barre, new city, all the way back up to

schenectady and albany, saratoga springs. can you imagine what the rugged areas in the poconos and catskills would do with 10 inches of rainfall? there's the threat there. the threat for new york city is clearly if you take all that water and pile it up in the harbor and take it and push it around into the north part of long island, long island sound there, that is all going to have to go to one place, the east river. the east river goes up and all of eastern manhattan floods, williamsburg and that's right where laguardia is. water tries to rush from two separate directions and it can't do it very long without rising. i suspect we'll be wet not with rain but saltwater because of the water getting pushed in from the ocean by tomorrow. >> different areas to be worried about. chad, thank you. we'll continue to check in with you. now to brian todd in wilmington,

north carolina. brian, what are conditions like where you are? >> well, we're just getting hit with the outer bands of hurricane irene. you can see how bad it is here. we're getting whipped by wind and very strong rain in wilmington. we're on the edge of the cape fear river here. they're very worried about flash flooding. we have seen traces of it in wilmington, getting hit pretty hard. emergency management director i spoke with him a little while ago. already some 6,000 customers are without power. in this area they have power, but they're worried about power lines snapping down. we came from wrightsville beach over here. a lot of power lines whipping violently. that's a big concern in this area. losing power in this area. flash flooding. a huge worry here. experts have told us there are a lot of time being died during

and after hurricanes because they're trying to drive-through flooded gullies, roads that are a lot deeper with water than they think it is. so experts are saying you have to stay out of this stuff during and after a hurricane. don't try to drive-through it. that's going to be a big concern here for flash floods because of the danger. the winds are whipping from the north. a lot of time it will change direction during the hurricanes and hit you from different directions. so this is kind of what we're dealing with here. again, the outer band of irene coming to shore in wilmington. we were in wrightsville beach. this is one of 20 counties in north carolina impacted by the storms, about 3.5 million people. nobody on the streets tonight. people are hunkering down. >> what's your sense of the level of preparedness for this storm there in north carolina? >> i think the preparedness has been very good. they're well versed in

hurricanes coming 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. places like wilmington, wrightsville pwaoefplt it does take time because a lot of these plates cross inland. the only place to get out is maybe a two-lane bridge. you have to give people enough time and they're very well versed in doing that. they're very well prepared. >> we see the driving rain right now. what's the sense in terms of when this could get really bad? >> well, i think in the next few hours it's going to get a lot worse. they anticipate landfall sometime between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m.. a little bit east and a little bit north of here. so it's going to be very bad probably in the next few hours. and, again, you know, you're looking at about seven to eight

hours from now is when it will be at its worst here in wilmington and east of here and wrightsville beach and north. >> mandatory aoe vevacuations were put in place. do we know how well heeded they were? >> they went pretty well. the emergency management director said it went very long. they gave people enough lead time in these counties to get out. again, if you're inland -- we're a little bit inland from the coast. if you're inland you have a much better chance of getting in quickly. but in the outer banks and some of these places they have to cross inlets to get to, you have to have enough time and they did that. there are still people who hold out. and i've heard governors from here to maryland say that's not a very smart thing to do. don't do it. one governor in maryland, governor o'malley, was very

blunt about it. he said it's selfish and stupid to do that because you're taking resources away when they really need it the most. they're urging people to get out. if people are going to leave, they better do it soon. >> brian todd, wilmington, north carolina. brian, stay safe, you and your entire crew. thank you. next jean is farther north in ocean city, maryland. what's it like where you are? >> we are not feeling the weather effects yet. a little bit of wind. a little surf. they're really not expecting to feel the storm here for another 12 hours or so. but the city itself is eerie. it's a party town, beach town on a friday night in the summer. you would expect people to be in the streets, for there to be a lot of noise, bars, clubs open. it is completely quiet. you drive down the streets, there are no cars, there are no people. it reminds me of a zombie movie before the zombies make their

appearance. that's how totally quiet this place is. they're really worried about flooding. although the army corps of engineers put in the dunes and extended the beaches. they're expecting perhaps as much as of a sixth of the city could be under water by the time irene comes through tomorrow and tomorrow night. back to you. >> jeanne meserve, stay safe. now back to anderson. >> deputy director of the national hurricane center joins us from miami. so, how does this hurricane compare to others that we have seen? >> what's different about this hurricane is the forecast track, which is pretty much locked in now, at least through north carolina, the eastern part of the state, it will be a little bit farther west than we have seen for other hurricanes in the northeast. for some folks, that means this will be the most significant event perhaps in 20 years from a tropical system. normally when we have a hurricane out here approaching north carolina we see the track

move on out to sea, missing new england, missing the coast to the south. in this case the forecast track comes through north carolina, eastern part of the state but doesn't turn right away. it's very close to the shoreline, perhaps across long island, southern new england. that means all the weather that is worst to the east will be much closer to the metropolitan areas this time around. in fact, we'll definitely hit the southern new england area. and since there are strong winds, high surge right near the center of the 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 any way to say definitely? >> 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. the continued slow weakening will persist to new england. by the time it gets up to the new york area, southern new england, we're looking at the lower end category 1 hurricane. perhaps upper end of the 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. and in north carolina they experienced hurricane force winds as much as 10 hours. and the whole east coast near the center of the storm will experience tropical storm conditions for as much as 24 hours. so a long period. 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 as well. there will be relatively high tides coming this weekend. so the high tides, plus the storm surge, has us concerned for the shoreline. >> yeah. there's no doubt about it. a lot of damage probably in long

island. i didn't realize it would be lingering, the storm winds, for 24 hours, with the tidal surge. that could be very unpleasant for a lot of people. ed rappaport, thank you. appreciate it. follow us on facebook and twitter @andersoncooper. up next, you'll hear from a hurricane hunter who got back from a flight flew the storm. what he saw. and the storm chaser who captured this moment as hurricane irene hit the bahamas and hit it hard. and new video of the damage there. anderson, moammar gadhafi goes, on searches have been covering his network of escape tunnels and secret tunnels. you'll see what she saw tonight when "360" continues. live from hurricane headquarters, i'm ivanka pwraeur ra with an update on hurricane

irene. we are down from 100-mile-per-hour wind storm to 90 miles per hour. still significant storm system here. what is happening here is we are dealing with a weakening storm as it approaches landfall as opposed to a strengthening storm. as it approaches cape hatteras you'll have a couple hours away from landfall. those are the thunderstorms that wrap around the center of circulation. notice on the western side here, again, some very dry air that's worked its way in across the western side of the storm. if that continues it will expose the low level circulation. that is excellent views if you want this thing to weaken even more so. 90-mile-per-hour winds is what we're dealing with right now. but, again, we are talking about this still tracking to the north and northeast over the next several days. and by the time we get into new york, we're still dealing with a

high end tropical storm or low end hurricane. it is still broad circulation here, so we will be talking significant winds over the next several days. we are talking 6 to 10 inches of rainfall. that is going to be a problem. say we have no winds across new york city, boston, and the major metros kaos the northeast, even without the wind, that rain would be a significant problem for subways and folks trying to get in and out. it's going to gust at times over 50 miles per hour. that persistence with the wind and rainfall, potential for splashover and flooding from the hudson, that is all going to combine to be a big mess the next several days. we'll keep you posted as the hurricane warnings are continuing to be in effect. big update from the national hurricane center. live from hurricane headquarters, i'm ivan cabrera. stay with cnn.

moments ago mayor michael bloomberg spoke to residents. >> mta, our local mass transit system, was shutting down bus and subway service tomorrow at noon. and once gale force winds arrive later in the evening, it is going to be too late to go anywhere. so the mandatory order requires you to be out tomorrow by 5:00 p.m. by a practical sense, if you're not out tomorrow morning, you're going to find it very difficult to get out. >> well, earlier new jersey governor chris cysty had one last warning for anybody on the jersey shore.

>> get the hell off the beach and asbury park and get out. you're done. it's 4:30. you have maximized your tan. >> it takes many factors into account, including detailed information from aircraft flying through the store. i spoke with hurricane hunter ian sears who has been right in the middle of irene. i asked him what it was like. >> we just passed through the center of hurricane irene. the first side of the storm here just south of morehead city it got quite bumpy. i've been in storms prior.

this is about par for the course especially especially with the storm at this stage in category 1, category 2 hurricane. we're getting bounced around pretty good. >> getting knocked around pretty good. now, some people chase hurricanes from 30,000 feet. others do it of course on the ground up close. sometimes they get video like this. we showed a portion of it to you at the top of the broadcast. this is what hurricane irene looked like as 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. just about everyone else in a leadership position has said you do not want to be there when stuff like this happens. jim edge was. it's his job. he joins us now. you were on the island when the storm smashed into it. what was it like?

>> it wobbled to the west and came right over us. we got the worst part of the eyewall. >> how badly was the island damaged? >> we had debris fall down, roof structures were damaged. boots in the harbor and sails on the mast. but overall it wasn't so bad pwufplt they build houses a lot stronger here than in the united states. >> yeah. they certainly learned the lesson of past storms. appreciate your time. glad you did okay in the storm. the first hints of hurricane irene are being felt in the carolinas. coming up, live to north carolina where the storm is

expected to make its first landfall. the latest on that next. still ahead, bracing in new york city. sit already a historic event. first ever mandatory evacuation order in effect for all five burrows. the rare time the northeast has taken a direct hit from a hurricane. what impact that has had, coming up.

as you know, hurricane irene is expected to make its first landfall on the east coast of the united states in north carolina. a spokesman said it could affect 20 counties, 3.5 million people in north carolina alone. that's where john is 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 they have taken. not a lot of people who 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 would go ahead and stay. mandatory evacuation. that means they still can't force you to leave but sit a mandatory evacuation. shelters are open just over in morehead city over the bridge. three that we know of. salvation army serving meals there. anderson, one thing as we see the wind picking up, we have gone through heavier wind and rain now. it gets heavier and heavier all the time. inland flooding is what kills more people in hurricanes than storm surge these days. we're seeing already grounds saturated here. a lot of runoff already beginning. and, you know, as i was saying

earlier, we've got the atlantic ocean to the south here and the sound to the north there. but we did have storm surge in both directions as the storm comes by and passes us. but inland there could be a lot of inland flooding and that's a real, real risk for anyone who tries to get out and drive in it. and roads are under water, impassable and that's how loss of life occurs in these things. again, anderson, winds kicking up a little bit. but the rain, steadyiier and heavier as the rains go by. >> john, stay there. i want to bring in chad myers to talk about where you are, where it plays into, where this will make first landfall. chad, in terms of where john so, what can you tell us? >> john is right there. there's morehead city. there's atlantic beach. dual communities. one is the ocean and one is the

city right behind it. 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. winds will at least be 50. right now you're only seeing about 35 to 39. so 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 and higher. >> and in terms of landfall, you're still thinking, what, a category 2 for that area, chad? >> absolutely. 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, and it's

going to hoard all the water and make a big storm surge right here as the storm rolls right on top literally of john zarrella in about 12 hours. >> chad, stand by. john, stand by. we just manageded to get north carolina governor purdue on the phone for us. governor, your state is used to taking major storm hits. this is a bigger storm than people have seen in a while. are you ready? >> yeah, we're ready. everything is tied down. evacuations are complete. tonight is the hard night. we're just waiting for it to hit. >> how have the evacuations gone? people say mandatory evacuations but a lot of times folks don't want to leave. >> you have to let people do what they want to do. that's why it's america. we feel really good that most of our tourists have left. this is the high of tourism, the last weekend of the summer.

so we have lots of tourists who have left. people who are citizens there decided to stay. they're smart. we're urging them to use common sense and not go out tonight in the middle of the storm to try to see what's happening. but, again, we feel like we're prepared. the big problems will come tomorrow as we see what damage is done and go into full recovery. tonight our shelters are open. we have helicopters and highway patrolman, national guardsman. all our resources are deployed and we have that part of the storm handled. it's the waiting that's hard. >> and the president signed a disaster order for your state. you brought in extra national guard just to help out, right? >> we have done that. we're fully mobilized in north carolina. we have the water rescue teams in place across the state. so we really have done it so many times in north carolina. we feel like our system is good. we have prepared as much as we can.

but there's always things that are challenges. so, again, during the night we urge people to 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. that's where the problem becomes. that bowl that you were talking about full of water is going to dump somewhere. when it dumps, there's going to be a surge of water and who knows what will happen. >> and that's obviously a big concern here. 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. i know you're busy. appreciate it. >> i want to go next to kill devil hills, north carolina. david, what's the situation there? >> well, anderson, the governor hit it right on the head. the waiting is the hard part. they know what this storm can do. they have 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 hours steady now. just a reminder of what's going to be coming later tonight. we have gale force winds right now. some gusts up to tropical storm force winds probably. and that's going to continue to increase. we're going to have tropical storm force winds overnight and hurricane strength during the day, followed by more tropical storm force winds. this is going to 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 leave. the people have been told, though, if you get in trouble, you're on your own. everyone has been warned. it's going to be a minimum of 72 hours they will be on their own

in this storm and in the aftermath. everyone is advised if they're staying they need the proper suppliers and take the precaution that they do not need emergency services because they're not going to be able to come help if there's a problem. anderson? >> yeah. good advice to try to be -- know you're going to maybe be on your own for days at a time. be prepared for that. we'll show you what the biggest city in the u.s. is preparing for. what would happen in a worst-case scenario? but we don't expect to see that at all. the secret city revealed. inside the tunnels and bunkers. it's a fascinating look at part of libyan and tripoli rule that we have never seen before. we'll be right back. . live from cnn hurricane headquarters. another update on hurricane irene. again, the big uptkaeurbgts the big story, the winds have gone

down. so that is good news. we're dealing with a category 1 storm. we had winds of 100 miles per hour. now it's down to 90. still a more filledable storm. high end category 1 storm. now, the trend is and has been over the last several hours, is weakening here. weakening trend. look at the symmetry. no longer there. it is missing a big piece of itself here on the western side. dry air has worked its way into the storm. that is interrupting its structure here. that is excellent news. at this point it is 50 miles to the south of cape lookout in north carolina. so we're talking about landfall here in just a couple of hours. as far as the radar presentation, we've been dealing with torrential amounts of rain. that is going to be part of the story as we have been talking about the flooding potential. 6 to 10 inches of rainfall not out of the question here. when you get a landfalling tropical system, amount of spin in the atmosphere.

we have had some warnings and reports of damage from one tornado touchdown. so we will have to watch that closely. the highest gusts i've been able to find, 66. or sustained wind 66 miles per hour. we have actually had hurricane force wind gusts at cape lookout. as far as the track, let's get you to that. no significant change. cat 1 launching north. and the northeast impacting new york by the time we get to sunday. this is the north carolina/in this case storm today, heading into new york sunday. big update from the national hurricane center. 5:00 a.m. advisory live at the top of the hour. stay with us. live from hurricane headquarters i'm meteorologist ivan cabrera here at cnn.

we have already seen our reporters in north carolina.

wcsc joins me now. how bad is it where you are right now? >> it's actually not bad at all. in fact, a couple hours ago the gusts were really the worst. i brought a little wind meter with me. i clock them at 42 miles per hour a couple hours ago. now we're only getting minor gusts here. things aren't bad. we're a little south of myrtle beach and north of charleston, south carolina. we feel very fortunate. we definitely need the rain because we were seeing a drought in south carolina. the rain is welcomed. there are a few power outages. i know the causeway 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 10 yards of beach along here.

but there was essentially no beach. it washed right up to the dunes and into the stairways that are the beach access to the ends 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. we are just now seeing the atlantic ocean recede. and that's the way it looks here right now. >> debbie, the fact that the storm has weakened over the course of today, do you think that's encouraged amount of folks around the area to just stay in the area and not evacuate? >> no. they stayed put. as a matter of fact, i talked to a man who said he built a concrete house so he never had to leave in the event of a hurricane. can you believe that? in fact, we're actually seeing some folks who are living north carolina and virginia and coming this direction because they know essentially that we are seeing

just tropical storm force winds. eventually that will move on out. in fact, you can see the sea oats behind me are barely moving. so i'm hoping that this is the worst of it for us here along the south carolina coast. >> let's hope so. debbie, appreciate it. tonight new york, of course, is planning for the worst. that's what you have to do in a big city like this. public transportation in the city will begin shutting down noon tomorrow. first time i have seen seen that. this was taken at a new york subway station after a severe storm in 2007. not a hurricane, a much smaller storm. you can see the flooding that a regular storm caused. the potential for what a hurricane can do much greater than that. new york has 200 underground -- more than 200 underground subway stations, over 400 miles of tracks. it has blocks and blocks of sky

scrapers and high rises as well. there's concerns of construction sites, with tropical force winds picking up debris. the millions of people, more than 8 million people living here in new york city, all of them wondering tonight how much damage will hurricane irene do? how bad will it really be? steven flynn or for national policy and author of "the edge of disaster, rebuilding a resilient nation" and former president of the structural engineers association of new york. i appreciate both of you being with us. steven, in terms of -- i guess we have to talk worst case scenarios because that's what the city has to plan for. what are we looking at? >> there are people in low-lying areas could see substantial flooding. the mayor stepped out to get people out of the zone a area. there's a lot of stuff in the streets and construction sites, equipment on terraces, people who have gone to the hamptons

and left stuff behind. so that stuff can get tossed around. but the really, really big issue that will affect the speier region is disruption of lives. we will lose electrical power and the transportation systems are going to be a mess for a while. and that means people are going to have to essentially be camped out in their homes or apartments or a substantial period of time. and when we talk about connecticut, long island, very densely populated trees will be taking down a lot of utilities. some folks will be facing not just days but potentially a week or more power outages. >> that graphic we're showing is potential flooding that could occur in a category 2 storm. we believe, chris, though, this coming ashore in north carolina as a category 2. the hope and the belief is that it will slow down, of course, as it travels north, as it lingers over new jersey and other states and by the time it actually hits new york city, if in fact, it continues on that track, it

would be a category, low category 1 or a strong tropical storm, which is still a great concern given what stephen was talking about. and you see that video from the subway system in 2007 from just a big storm. how structurally sound 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 codes, the sky scrapers in the city are designed with safety factors that allow them to withstand wind speeds much greater than we will see in the next two days. there will be motion for the sky scrapers. potentially if you're high up you could experience motion sickness but no structural intelligent issues with the building itself. >> in new york where you have tons of glass and lots of windows with airborne debris, with winds staying at high

levels for 12 or more hours you could have, as stephen said, a lot of stuff being picked up cancer construction sites, chris. >> airborne degree is my major concern from debris and construction sites. entrepreneurings, patio furniture. there's all sorts of things in the city. trees in the cities, the suburbs that can cause potential problems and become missiles for windows. so definitely don't be anywhere near glass when the onset of the storm is and don't take your chances outside. >> stephen, you and i have 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 is the infrastructure capable of dealing with this? >> it will be a bit of a challenge. a lot of our infrastructure in the northeast is ageing and not very gracefully. when you put it under extreme

pressure for an extended period of time we're going to see some failure and it's going to take a while to recover. this is everything from pumps that have to be operating in the subway systems here, dealing with massive rainfall. one good news is that the city is going to 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. out in long island and east long island usually. so this will be a new experience for virtually everybody that's alive in the new york city area. >> chris, you talked about the structural integrity of sky scrapers and high rises. people who live above the 10th floor, is it okay for them to

stay in their apartments or do they go to a lobby, the stairwell? >> it's definitely 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. so everybody needs to help out each other. i know people could be away on vacation. it's a little bit of 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. >> stephen flynn, appreciate you being on. chris, you as well. thank you for your advice. up next, a few rare times the hurricane has hit the northeast. what happened back then might give an indication what could happen this weekend. really it's the high winds and potential for a storm surge. and inside libya, inside tripoli, a vast network of

tunnels in gadhafi's compound. the question tonight, did he use some of these tunnels to escape? >> so, i'm sure it was used, because this place is so big, to get back and forth. unbelievable.

i'm in lower manhattan in the evacuation zone here in new york city. low-lying areas, 20 feet for 30 feet from where i'm standing. mayor bloomberg with mandatory evacuations in each of the five burrows. subways and buses will stop running tomorrow afternoon. all broadway shows have been canceled. with irene on the way, we want to look how devastating it can be when the northeast takes a direct hit from the hurricane. a lot of folks don't remember, don't have much experience with it. it doesn't happen off, but when it does it's unforgettable.

1938, infamous long island express hurricane as a category 3 storm and wrecks much of new england. with wind gusts as strong as 186 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, the great atlantic hurricane of 1944 roars onto long island. the storm costing more than $100 million in damage, $1.2 billion today. it sunk five ships, including two coast guard cutters and a navy destroyer and claimed more than 300 lives. in recent times, less powerful but no less danger hurricanes have hit the northeast as well. 20 years before hurricane irene, there was hurricane bob. the eye of the storm made landfall in august 1991 as a strong category 2 with winds 115

miles per hour. bob is blamed more more than a billion dollars in damage and 18 storm-related deaths. just two months later, hurricane grace also atlantaed as category 2 storm before being absorbed by an unusual weather system that led to the halloween nor'easter of 1991, later called "the perfect storm". this storm 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 to a 10-story building. it later inspired the novel by author younger which became a movie. and then there's the so-called storm of the century. hurricane deplore ya, september 1985. recorded winds of up to 150 miles per hour. gloria made landfall as a category 3 on the outer banks of north carolina before rapidly moving up the east coast making

second landfall on long island, 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 is tracking hurricane irene all night, all through the weekend. more on the storm ahead. right now the "360" news and business bulletin. >> anderson, the hunt for mow tkpwar gadhafi continues with libyan opposition forces combing a network of secret tunnels below the compound. 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 will be interesting to see what's on them. >> in mexico, authorities say at least 52 people died when armed gunmen torched a casino in monterrey. they arrived in three vehicles with gallons of gasoline. the president blamed it on terrorists motivated by greed. a four-week losing streak. dow 135 points higher at the close. up 4% for the week. sp 500 and nasdaq also posted gains. investors like what ben bernanke said in a speech that made no mention of plans for more economic stimulus measures. with hurricane irene looming, national park engineers are race to go protect the washington monument from further

damage. they're work to go plug cracks caused by that 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 right now. there's 65 -- we had about a 36-mile-per-hour wind gust. 36. over to wilmington, 32-mile-per-hour wind gust. something else that's happening tonight, too, with the spin down to the south, some of the storms, the individual storms that are coming on shore are spinning. some could have tornados. one tornado or onslow county, camp le jeune main gate. that's what you get when you have a spinning storm to the south and that spin pushing these cells, the little cells right on shore, each one of them

can actually spin on their own. there's the wind speeds for parts of jacksonville, wilmington. those wind speeds will definitely come up over the rest of the night. in fact, this is ale 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 i would say the open coke lighthouse and cape hatteras lighthouse. that's where the main wind will be with this storm, slightly off store. virginia beach, tomorrow night, 7:00. that's where the maximum wind will be, ocean city, by 2:00 a.m. sunday morning all the way up to long island. this is what we're concerned about, when this wind gets to long island and 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.

and welcome chad myers talked about a short time ago, looks like the rain is getting stronger there now, john. >> yeah. you know, anderson, it's not that side ways driving, pelting rain that feels like sand when it h