but it did intensify a few minutes ago. you can see it thicken up again. one of the things we're talking about, you might be able to see. the ground is already pretty saturated here in a lot of these low-lying areas. so one of the big concerns, y talk about north carolina, a lot of those are counties inland not right on the coast. that's because of all the rainfall. and it has been raining steadily now for several hours. and as chad myers has been pointing out, we could be in this kind of weather and worse weather through tomorrow, late afternoon and evening because the core of this hurricane is expected to pass right over us at about 7:00 a.m. in the morning when we get the category 1, category 2 hurricane winds. for another 6 or 8 hours the backside of the storm, we're going the get tropical storm force winds and the continuation of the rainfall. so a long time yet to go before

we see any clear skies here. anderson. >> that's it for us on "360". more hurricane coverage next. hi there. good morning, everybody, from the cnn center. this is your cnn start morning. coming to you an hour earlier today to cover this storm, hurricane irene that is actually putting about 20% of this country's population under threat of this storm. we're talking about 65 million people are in the path of this sucker. you see the line there. that's the cone of uncertainty they call it. but still they believe this is the path it's going to take, right up the east coast. and we're talking about some of this country's largest cities, most populus cities. these are cities that not often are tested for their hurricane preparedness. well, they will get a i test it appears here today and tomorrow through this weekend. we're talking about new york, washington, baltimore, boston,

philly. all of those cities, just to name a few, all in the line of fire of this irene. it is tracking on this still north/northeastern pattern. you're getting a look at it on the radar here. it is now a category 1 storm. it has been downgraded. don't let the word downgraded and don't let category 1 fool you. it is still pushing sustained winds of 90 miles per hour. it's moving at about 14 miles per hour right now. but this is a huge, expansive storm. we have warnings in effect from north carolina all the way up the coast. the president has declared federal states of emergency in virginia, new york, massachusetts, also in connecticut. we have mandatory evacuations that are in place in several low-lying areas along the coast. and in some places that aren't used to seeing these kind of mandatory evacuations. we're talking about new york city, folks. lower lying areas, including lower manhattan. in the financial district they have ordered some people to get

out of there. also, this is causing fits for those folks trying to travel. flights have been canceled. trains have been cammed in some places. greyhound has been stopped in the northeast. get this, folks. we're a few hours away from the subway system being shut down in new york city. new jersey. philadelphia, public transit will come to a stop. you see we have our people all over the place, up and down the east coast from north carolina literally up to new york and new jersey. jacqui jeras will be here with us. i want to start with our meteorologist reynolds wolf out in north carolina where he has been the past few days in kill devil hills. reynolds, tell us how you have seen the conditions change and tell us how they are right now. we have to get a sense just from looking at your picture. >> well, i can tell you, t.j., the last couple hours we have seen things begin to deteriorate. right along this boardwalk things are, as you expect,

getting worse. the atlantic ocean to our south. as this gets closer to us, we can expect more rainfall, stronger wind gusts with and with that the possibility of flooding. some places could get a full foot of rainfall. part of the beach down here to my right has really disappeared. yesterday we were to the water's edge. plenty of sand is now gone. on this side, a lot of sea oats, grasses, with extensive root systems that are made for these big piles of sands or the dunes together being thrashed a little bit. i would say winds are around 40 miles per hour sustained. it will kick up to 60, 65 miles per hour. again, as this gets closer, i know we'll be dealing with worse conditions. the possibility of tornados. whenever you have a landfalling tropical system, when it gets closer to you, with the twist, a

little bit of sheer off it is not unusual at all to have tornados form. in fact, back to 2004 with hurricane ike as it made landfall in parts of florida and alabama, 117 tornados developed across that. even as this gets closer, again, it's a category 1. the chance of it weakening are certainly going to be there. the threat remains. we certainly have to stay vigilant. t.j.? >> we appreciate you. checking back in with plenty this morning. i went south of where reynolds is to atlantic beach, north carolina. john zarrella is there. i don't know if you can hear reynolds. he was talking about tornados that often can churn up from these things. and i believe it was your crew tornado hit not too terribly far from you guys? >> yeah. i believe 10:00 p.m. last night. there was a tornado that hit. just a little ways north of where we are.

and since that period of time the conditions have obviously, as you can see, continued to go down. some minor damage but no reports of any serious damage from that tornado. winds we know here there was a report of a wind gust a couple of hours ago, fort macon, a couple miles of here, of about 74 miles per hour. so right at hurricane force. this is what we've been experiencing down here for the past couple of hours as it continues to get worse and worse. the center of circulation just to the south of us. to give folks bearings a little bit. that's south, that way. the storm is coming this way. that's north. that's east over there. so you can see that the wind is still blowing from the east and the north this way. that counterclockwise

circulation from the storm. so we're still getting winds from the right side of the hurricane. so it's very likely that we're going to be very close here to the center of circulation as this storm makes landfall. water and rain really a critical issue here. inland flooding all was critical. a real serious problem. more from flooding than there is from storm surge. i can tell you the ground is saturated. and with this wind blowing and blowing and this rain coming down in sheets and pouring likely to continue for many more hours. you see how the wind is really picking up now. i'm still standing up in it but it's getting more and more difficult. >> john zarrella, we appreciate you. to our viewers, we will continue to check in with john and

anderson. brian todd is there waiting on this thing as well. hello to you. and we have seen these pictures of what reynolds and john zarrella have been going through. it looks a little calmer there. how is it and how has it been the past few hours? >> it's intensified overnight and the last few hours. officials are worried about inland flooding. as reynolds and john mentioneded, there has been flash flooding the past few hours. you go through periods of calm, just a few seconds. and a few seconds later a huge micro-burst of wind. the river we were told a short time ago the search is under way for a man who fell or jumped into the river a short time ago. this curfew is in effect in this area. people are urged to stay indoors. do not try to go out in this weather. you still saw people in the beach area last night where we

were. back to the flash flooding, the operation center said a concern is downed power lines. they are whipping violently in the wind. we're expecting that in a few hours, the wind to intensify here. and we're about 75 miles due west of the eye. as it moves closer here it is going to intensify. we're getting another squall coming in. again, we go through short periods where you will get a lull in the wind but then it will really pick up. this is getting a little more intense. the inland flooding, flash flooding is a huge concern. they're already seeing some of it. expecting more of it later. >> all right. brian todd there. forgive me for suggesting it was any calmer there. clearly once we heard his microphone you can hear that rain and wind he was talking about. all three of our reporters out

in it as it continues to get worse the past few hours. let's bring in jackqui jeras, or meet rolls. when? it keeps getting closer. where is this thing? >> well, it's about 35 miles away from landfall. do the math. this is moving about 14 miles per hour. about two hours from now. maybe about 7:00 or so. this radar picture shows you you can see the center of rotation, the center of this hurricane. this is moving right towards atlantic beach, near cape lookout right about where john zarrella is. those red boxes, that's a tornado watch which is in effect. we had a tornado warning for chesapeake and virginia beach. that expired at the top of the hour. so no warnings right now. we're going to get these frequent spinups, little tornados, ef-1s. they cause damage, sometimes more than the hurricane itself. take it seriously and get to a safe place whenever you hear the

sirens that continue to go off. we will close in closer here. you can see some of the strongest of bands reaching their way on shore. we can expect to see easily 90-mile-per-hour wind gusts associated with this. cape lookout just a few minutes ago, a sustained wind of 61 miles per hour. gusts at 78 were just reported, to give you an idea of the intensity right now in that area. all right. this is the latest on the statistics. as of the top of the hour, 90 miles per hour. that's the maximum sustained winds. might be generous, the hurricane hunter said as they just flew into this storm. they can still fly into it as long as it's over water. after it goes across land, too dangerous. they don't do it anymore. there's some weakening taking place. dry air has been entraining into this storm. so we will likely see little change before landfall in the carolinas. but some continued weakening will be possible into the northeast. so we can hope for maybe a

tropical storm in the northeast. but right now we still need to be prepared at least for a category 1. we're going to start to feel the impact across the in this case by this evening say for places like virginia peach and washington, d.c. for the tropical storm force winds and into the northeast late tonight and for tomorrow. so we still have a long way to go, t.j., with this storm system. we're not talking until monday. >> help me with something. people are saying it's a category 1. just going to be a little rain. maybe some flooding. category 1 and they think it is just going to be a rain event. can you put it in perspective for them? >> yeah. well, the rain event, first of all, is huge, right? inland flooding may ultimately be more of a problem for a greater percentage of the population. but the thing that i want to point out and what makes this hurricane irene such an animal basically, and such a problem, is look at how big this thing is. this is huge. this is like the size of texas

yesterday. over 1,000 miles wide. when you're talking about such great size you have a greater storm surge that becomes associated with this as well. plus, it impacts more people. so category 1 might sound like a weak thing to some people into hurricane areas if they're taoufd this in the southeast. as this heads to the mid atlantic and northeast, we already have airports that are closed. jfk, laguardia and newark are closed ahead of the storm. power outages can be expected. we're talking about a foot of rain. it's already very saturated n mid atlantic and the northeast. you put a foot of rain on top of this and we could talk weeks yet potentially for a flood situation in pennsylvania, across maryland. so we've got a lot of threats associated with this. >> well, i want to continue to pound away on that point. because i feel bad since i've been saying downgraded because people hear that and think, oh, it's going to be okay.

just a category 1. >> 74 is the bottom. we're at 90. >> let's tell you about flight cancellations. airlines are being proactive. expect a lot of cancellations. this is an idea what we have gotten so far. united, continental, 2300. delta, 1300. jet blue, about 1,000. airtran, couple hundred. we don't have a specific breakdown. some are allowing you to change your tickets without a penalty because of this storm. so check in with your individual airlines. just mentioned irene has weakened to this category 1 hurricane. but you saw on her radar there this is a monster storm. how exactly does it rate to other historical storms, powerful storms we have seen in the past? a little breakdown coming up next. it's 14 past the hour. we are all over hurricane irene this morning.

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all right. 17 minutes past the hour, past 5:00 a.m. a little early on this saturday morning to give you coverage of hurricane irene. 35 miles off the coast of north carolina now. so much attention is being paid to that city. a live picture this morning of new york city. a lot of people, of course, still out right now. it's the city that never sleeps, as you know. a lot of people out and getting

ready for this storm. depending when you move to new york, if you grew up there, you don't have a lot of experience or maybe no experience with hurricane preparedness. they haven't dealt with this in 20 plus years to get ready for a storm. people there are nervous. some not exactly sure what to do. but certainly heeding the warnings and trying to stock up. >> there's definitely a sense of panic with some people. trying to stock up on the smart stuff. not too many things that will spoil in their refrigerator. >> 18 minutes past the hour. josh, good morning. people off time with these storms, to get some perspective, you need historical perspective. you have that for us. >> exactly. good morning to you, t.j. good morning, everyone. we've been getting a lot of questions from you. i've been hearing from you. a lot of people talking about the history, especially since governor chris christie said this. >> if it continues on the

current track, from a flooding perspective this could be a 100-year event. >> it's tough to compare hurricanes because there are so many factors. let's look back almost 100 years and see what we have seen. first back to this one. 1938. believe it or not we have video for you of the long island express, the infamous hurricane that struck the year it hit new england. that was a category 3 when it made landfall. it is only one of three major hurricanes by category ever to strike massachusetts in u.s. history. new warning systems, stronger structures. wilma right here. let's go to that one. the last major hurricane to strike the united states was wilma in 2005. that was a category 3 when it made landfall in florida. katrina, by the way, was the same year. we all remember so well. also category 3 by the time that

made land fall on the gulf coast. hurricane ike in galveston was a category 2. as you know, as we look at these pictures at the amount of damage and lives lost in some of these hurricanes is not always based on categories. it is how long the lashing winds are there and the rain and the areas that get struck and what kinds of things they have in place for that. throughout the day, we will talk to you about interactives. we have i-reports. we're following you on facebook and twitter. and we'll bring you the absolute latest information from all over the country. >> josh, thank you so much. 20 minutes past 5:00 a.m. eastern time. coming to you a little early because this storm is just a couple hours away from making landfall in north carolina. our reporters are up and down the coast. three in north carolina. you have heard from already this morning. they are getting tossed around this morning in their live shots. you can imagine the people staying getting tossed as well.

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all right. 22 minutes past the hour. "cnn saturday morning". there's my buddy reynolds wolf not no studio but the meteorologist out s out in the weather today. you are on kill devil hills, north carolina. this storm is on its way to you, 35 miles off the coast. you have seen things change the past 24 hours. >> you pushed a button because right before we went on you had steady rains at 55 miles per hour. the thing about the system it is making eulgts way north/northeast. as it does so, we will be exposeded to gusts, possibly heavier rainfall as the bands

approach. one band has given us intermittent rainfall. possibly up to a foot of rainfall along the outer banks and across the intracoastal and sound and the shore of north carolina. something else to consider, look at the radar image. if you look just imagine it being cut with a giant plus sign on it. the upper right quadrant is where you will have some of your strongest winds and momentum as it spins in a counterclockwise rotation. with that we do expect the stronger winds, maybe tornados. and of course that's where the storm surge is. right behind me you can see the waters of the atlantic. some of the white caps coming in. amazing how much the waters are getting. in fact, right up here is the dunes covered by the sea oats, sea grass. on the other side of the building, you have to trust me on this, the parking lot is getting very, very deep.

the main thoroughfare also you're getting water covering that up. what's interesting, t.j., a normal summer day in august, you will have 250,000 people that will be visiting the outer banks. two days ago they were told to get out. then yesterday at 8:00, less than 24 hours ago people who consider this place home year-round, year-round residents, 57,000 or so, were told to leave. it was a mandatory evacuation. what's tricky about that, although it's mandatory it's not as though a governmental official is going to go to their house, pick them up and move them out. if they choose to stay they can stay. there's one caveat. if they're on this island, on the outer banks and if conditions deteriorate, if they need to be evacuated it's not going to happen until all of this subsides and moves north and they are in the wake of the storm. until then, if something happens they simply have to ride it out. they belong to the outer banks

and irene until she makes her way farther north. >> reynolds, we will check in with you often this morning. kill devil hills. reynolds, thank you so much. you heard him talking about people getting out of there. usually a quarter million people there right about now. most of them got out of harm's way. still, there's a lot of work to be done. the red cross put themselves in position to help people that may need it. we'll check in skwrjust a minut. stay with us. it's 25 past the hour.

>> look at this storm on radar now. it is a category 1 storm. 90-mile-per-hour sustained winds in some places. it's on the higher end, as jacqui jeras said a moment ago. this is a dangerous storm. it is a massive storm. people have been told to get out of there. i know it's hard, folks. you planned this vacation all this time. maybe up to a year. you finally got there and you have to evacuate. it looks like a lot of people are, in fact, doing that. a lot of attention has been paid to new york. and for good reason. that is a highly populated, densely populated area, as you know. millions of people. 8 million, 9 million people in that metro area. not used to having to be ready for a hurricane. but right now the city is

getting ready for a direct hit possibly from hurricane irene. already several hospitals started to evacuated yesterday, including new york university hospital that you're seeing here. they're getting people out of there, patients out of there. mandatory evacuations in new york and lower lying areas. look at this. this is the traffic. the backups on the new jersey turnpike yesterday. even though this looks horrible for folks stuck in traffic this is a good sign that maybe people are actually listening and getting out of there. a lot of people buying emergency supplies, buying up generators, food. listen to this. from news 12 new york reporter, listen to this. >> this is the line for generators at the lowest department store in bay shore. and this line began forming at 4:00 a.m. it goes all the way down this aisle. it begins forming down this aisle, goes all the way down and makes another turn to the right more than 100 people. >> yes, people buying up supplies in new york.

also, listen to this, folks, here in a matter of hours, just the life flood of new york is going to shut down. the subway system, the transit system in new york are closing it today starting at noon just to be sure. now, this could have a devastating impact, this hurricane, on new york city. the storm not expected to really get there until sometime tomorrow. taking a look at what could happen if this city is hit by a massive hurricane. >> steve and debbie o'sullivan and their children live in rockaway beach in new york. a tranquil setting. beautiful wide shoreline. they never used to worry about hurricanes. >> we never really understand the greater impact of it. we never had a great fear. we used to play out in them. >> what's changed? >> katrina. >> their house sits one block from the ocean with the atlantic on one side and jamaica bay on the other are thinking about

stocking up on hurricane supplies. >> i really am seriously considering getting more supplies of water and dry goods. it is a worry for me. i mean, he's not as worried as i am. >> there may be good reason for concern. new york city hasn't experienced a big hurricane since 1938. with the increase in hurricane activity, combined with the law of averages, many experts believe another major storm may be coming and soon. >> is it going to be a slow rise? >> yeah. it's going to come up slowly. about the rate that you fill a bathtub. >> coastal geologist nick koch, himself a new yorker, believes if a major hurricane hits, it could be catastrophic. deaths might surpass katrina. >> because the most dangerous thing in new york is "the new yorker". and "the new yorker" thinks they have been tested by everything. very few new yorkers have been in the eye of a hurricane and

know how uncontrollable the energy is. >> the national hurricane center computer models and comprehensive studies are chilling. the water is pushed into lower manhattan, steadily rising. seawater hours through the holland and brooklyn battery tunnels. jfk airport goes under an astounding 60 feet of water. water in the wall street district could be seven feet deep. the subway is knocked down. >> there's going to be glass all over the street, glass flying through the air. >> one study put economic loss from a category 3 hurricane at $100 billion. >> metropolitan areas have high population density and expensive properties. you throw a hurricane in and the results can be really catastrophic. >> there is a plan in place if necessary to move 2.3 million people out of coastal zones. but how many will go? dolores orr heads the community

board in rockaway. >> for those that were raised here i hear them talking that they're not going anywhere. and that's a concern. >> for the o'sullivans, being prepared just makes sense. even in new york where hurricanes are as unheard of as the yankees not making the playoffs. john zarrella, cnn, new york. >> didn't the yankees miss the playoffs a few years ago? 32 minutes past the hour now. we are a couple hours away from landfall with hurricane irene. north carolina is where it is going to make landfall. this is a live picture. this is where you saw brian todd reporting just a few minutes ago. they keep talking about these wind gusts they keep getting. some reported 74-mile-per-hour sustained winds or wind gusts i should say in some areas of north carolina already and the storm hasn't even made it yet technically. quick break. we'll be right back.

37 minutes past the hour on this "cnn saturday morning". coming to you an hour earlier today so we can keep an eye on this storm for you. a storm that is going to affect 20% of the population. 65 million people could be affected up and down the east coast. many cities are populated cities that aren't used to dealing with hurricanes. so they will be tested, testing their hurricane preparedness. we're talking about new york city, d.c., baltimore, boston, philadelphia. this is now a category 1 storm. it was a category 2 yesterday.

don't let that fool you to hear it's been downgraded. it is still packing 90-mile-per-hour sustained winds. 35 miles off the coast of north carolina right now. again, 90 miles per hour, sustained winds, that is a higher end of category 1. it's still close to being category 2. we're expecting this to make landfall in the next few hours. warnings are in place all up and down the coast from carolina to massachusetts. airports, the metro airports up in new york will close to all incoming flights at noon eastern. also amtrak, greyhound, they are canceling some of their services and the major airlines. if you need to fly or a loved one needs to fly because they are canceling a lot of their flights. get this, can you imagine the subway system in new york shutting down?

that's going to happen today at noon. new jersey, philadelphia are doing the same thing today. mandatory evacuations in some of the lower lying coastal areas, including, yes, areas of new york as well. i want to go back to north carolina now. john zarrella, atlantic beach. things continue to go whip up for you there. can you hear me, john? >> i hear you right now fine, t.j. this is a category 1 hurricane. so far it's an hour away from me. the worst of the weather still to come. (inaudible). >> 75% of the power on the atlantic beach, morehead city

over the bridge. power outages on and off. a tornado here also not far from us. (inaudible). the storms move up south of town. can you hear me? >> we can barely make out what you're saying. and we understand why. because of the weather situation. you hang tight there. we're going to come back to you, john zarrella. to our viewers, i know you couldn't make out too well what you're saying and you hear about every other word, every third or fourth word.

still, we wanted to stick with that. still, that puts you there and it gives you perspective of what they are up against right now, how the rain is coming down, the wind is whipping around. even if you can't make out what he's saying, you certainly get an idea where he is now. our brian todd, let's try him now, in wilmington, north carolina. see if we can hear you a little better. brian, how do things look? >> well, t.j., here the last couple hours as well, it's going through a little more dicey section of the storm than we are. but this is intensifying here. we just got an update that 14,000 local customers are without power. obviously tkpwaoeuts e it's going to have a widespread effect purchase. a surge in the last couple of minutes. road blocks, trees down already. the really intense concern right now for this area is the concern

of flash flooding. it's a low lying area. they are worried about storm surges from the river not only during the storm but after. a lot of surges will occur after the storm. again, hearing from reynolds and others, the ground in this area has already been saturated. it's not going to take much. the good thing is that people here having the experience with hurricanes they have had are heeding most of the warnings. curfews are in effect. people here do understand the fair of this even with a category 1. they not only evacuated, which is easier to do here but where john and reynolds are a little harder to evacuate there. a little easier here to aoe y

evacuate. there's a heavy squall here. it comes at you a little more intermittently but still intense from one minute to the next. >> all right. our brian todd in wilmington, north carolina. thank you so much. let's turn to jacqui jeras in studio where me at hurricane headquarters. i want to ask you a question because a viewer asked it and i said i would turn it over to you. the question was, hey, i've been watching this hurricane the last couple days and it looks like it is shearing off. >> shearing? our educated viewer. >> is there some truth to that? >> absolutely. it definitely is. we have dry air which is what we call in training into the system as well. look at this thing, right? you can see down here a couple hours ago it's a symmetrical storm. it's very, very circular looking, balanceded on all sides. as it's moving up to the north, that whole side is starting to

get sheered away basically. in addition to that, here's the dry air moving in there. you have dry air moving in here. all of those things work against the storm strengthening. that's good. we like to see that at that point when we're talking 28 miles away from landfall and the coastline. just because it's weakening doesn't mean this is still a major threat. it is still a category 1 storm. we don't think a lot of additional weakening will take place until it hits into new england after that. here's the official forecast track. this is going to be making landfall 7:00, 7:30-ish this morning. it's going to spend the day moving through the mid atlantic states, heading up to virginia beach, up toward the delmarva. late tonight. this is a big storm. washington, d.c., baltimore, by this evening you'll be getting

tropical storm 4 wind gusts. and we're talking 6 to 12 inches of rainfall in the swatch rated grouped like brian todd was talking about, not to mentioned threat of tornados. we have a tornado watch in effect. we get a lot of spin with hurricanes, t.j. so just a little bit of friction and vorticity and spinouts. >> i can't help it but i keep getting -- viewers keep writing in they don't think it's a big deal. >> they can tweet me. @jacqui jeras. >> i've been wanting to send them to you. >> i'll be tweeting and do what i can to help you. >> just the issue of people keep saying you're making a big deal. this is not going to be that big of a deal. people talk as well but you have to do this now because of katrina and that puts people on edge a different way. you want to make sure you're ready. >> you have to prepare for the worst, suitly. you hope for the best.

it's looking better than a few days ago. >> good to have you with us. thank you so much again, just a couple hours away. expected to make landfall in north carolina just a couple hours from now. a lot of people are getting ready. red cross as well. we're about a quarter to the top of the hour on cnn early saturday morning. [ female announcer ] what if your natural beauty could be flawless too?

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all right. about 10 minutes to the top of the hour on "cnn saturday

morning". starting a little early to bring you coverage of hurricane irene, a category 1 storm. just because it downgraded to category 1, don't let that fool you. still a powerful and huge monster of a storm right now that's a couple hours away from making landfall in north carolina. i want to turn to carolina right now, the greater carolinas chapter of the red cross. katie myer is with me now and has been out getting a message out the past few days, miss myer. do you have evidence that they did listen to the warnings and got out of there? >> yeah. we're very glad to see a lot of people are evacuatinevacuating. we have shelters open as far north as new york. people are already coming into the shelters. in north carolina we have a few thousand people in our shelters just waiting out the storm to see what kind of damage it's going to cause. >> who are these folks in your shelters? a lot of north carolina residents who just needed a place to hunker down or do you have a lot of tourists as well who needed a place to hunker

down? >> two days ago i was driving into the outer banks and that's when the evacuation started. we are seeing a lot of residents in our shelters, which means they are evacuating their homes, which is a good thing. >> besides providing the shelters, i guess you just need to ride this thing out. what do you anticipate is going to be the need immediately after this storm? i guess what will you have to jump into action to do? >> well, we have seen already in the wilmington area that power has been loss for tens of thousands of people. so we know food, water, shelter is going to be the immediate needs of these people. we anticipate that all up and down the eastern coast. >> i guess you said people kind of heeded warnings and did get out of there. was that surprising to you? as many people as you do have in your shelters? oftentimes north carolina, florida, places that are used to dealing with hurricanes you have a lot of stubborn folks, if you will? >> well, from spending almost all day in the outer banks

yesterday, at 8:00 a.m. we spent the whole day talking to people. and it seems half the residents are staying. we know there are a lot of people riding out the storm. we're trying to encourage them to make sure they have the supplies. if you choose not to evacuate, make sure you have the emergency needs, water, food, extra food, clothing, batteries, flash lights, battery-powered radio. make a plan for your family. we have shelters up and down the east coast. we have an iphone app that you can put on your phone and find a shelter within seconds to get to. >> you know what, what is that iphone app? >> free shelter app for the red cross don't know loadable on itunes or redcross.org.

you will see all the shelters open next to you. >> it is amazing how much technology can help in a disaster like this or an anticipated disaster at least. ms. myer, i appreciate you taking the time-out with us. hope we can check in in a bit as need be. >> definitely. take care. >> you take care as well. eight minutes at the top of the hour now. and we're just about a couple hours away from the expected landfall of hurricane irene. do you know how to be prepared for a hurricane? are you prepared right now? do you know how to prepare yourself for any disaster? well, some of those tips might sound like common sense but it's always good to get that rekind of reminder. we will have it for you coming up. stay tuned. of regular yogurt. you'll feel satisfied. [ female announcer ] yoplait greek. it is so good. oh, and there's a smile.

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all right, are we ready for a hurricane? are we ready? >> i'm always ready. how about you? i'm cranking up my little -- >> what is that? >> this is a flashlight. it's a hand crank. and so you don't even need batteries. because how many times have you been in a situation where you lost power and all of a sudden my batteries don't work. darn it. hate it when that happens. >> we keep telling people, be prepared for hurricanes. besides getting the heck out of dodge, what does that mean? >> you have to run from water and hide from the winds. those are the two things to keep in mind. so you have to identify what your threat is. you need to have a family disaster plan. you talk to your wife and say, honey, we have a plan. even if you live on the west coast, you have threats too. so you need to have a plan. okay. if something happens, we lost power, we couldn't get in touch with each other, who are we going to contact with out of

town to make sure everybody is okay or where should we be meeting so we can get out of town together. >> we don't have that plan. >> you need to have that plan, t.j. you make me sad. >> oh, my goodness. this is if you decide to hunker down and ride it out, you need this stuff. >> you do. you need a lot of this stuff if you're taking off in your car. >> okay. >> you hear about evacuations. people get stuck in rush-hour traffic. there's critical things that you really, really need. first and foremost i have never seen them in juice boxes like this before but water. you need nonperishable food. now, you don't have to go out and buy a bit fancy kit at the home depot for wherever it is that you buy this kind of stuff. you can make your own. fill your pots and pans and tupperware containers so you have good drinking water. fill up your bathtub.

you probably don't want to drink that water. i've seen his bathroom. no. but you can boil it if you had to drink it. you can use it for cooking and that type of thing and for washing, right? obviously i might suggest two bathrooms so you don't have to share with t.j. you need your flashlight. >> right. >> it doesn't have batteries. just do the crank. and a noaa weather radio. >> you all preach with b those radios all the time. >> it's all hazards. it's not just weather. if there's an evacuation, if there's an amber alert, all that stuff will happen. in this situation, this isn't just landfall. you don't have to just live on the coast. if you're in a flood prone area, we'll see a lot of inland flooding. so a lot of rivers and streams will be coming up. a kit. and something to think about after the storm. there's debris all over the place. there will be power lines down, nails, glass.

first-aid kit. and all your medications for a good seven days you need that supply. >> jacqui, thank you. we'll let you know where hurricane irene is, where it's headed. reporters in north carolina now where it's expected to make landfall soon. stay with us.