and newport, rhode island, home of beautiful mansions and sailboats and they call it the sailing capital of the world, and this city is getting ready. this is gary tuchman, cnn, newport, rhode island. >> all right. a lot of breaking news here breaking of hurricane irene, and it will continue. i'm kyra phillips with marty savidge. >> and our coverage will continue with natalie allen and continue with natalie allen and drew griffin. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >r tha thank > secosecond op second of to closer to new york city. r >> ap >> and th>> ans

bebeer bep bebeen foc powerfpowerfup powerful po powerfpowerfup powerful p r levep levels threaten sever aloalong thp along the eas lealeast ninp least ninele dead. mor more thp more thamo withor without powerrb rnew jersey that has been evacuatp evacuated becausev. r we wiwe will gp we we minutes. thr this this as newprt pounting the!tie lata mideast. >> and jeanne meserve has been pounded by wind and rain for some time and she has been a trooper. jeanne, are you there? >> well, natalie, i am here, and it is picking up here. it is really intense at this point in time. we are seeing a little bit of damage here done. we are seeing some damage, and perhaps we could take a shot down here and you could see on the building next to us some of the siding has been ripped away.

the mayor of this town, ocean city, told me that a lot of the building here are built above the fema code, so he was hopeful they would weather the gusts pretty well, but the gusts are pretty strong, and the water is very high. i talked the a city official who told me that the waves out here are measured at averages of 15 to 20 feet right now, and right now the tide is going out which is a good thing. but they are very worried about the flooding and they are already having some in some pars of the city that characterize it as minor at this point in time. but frankly, they are not going to have a full assessment of the damage being done until the conditions clear up a little bit. it is just so stormy right now that no workers can go out, no emergency workers, no utility crews, no one is able to go out to get a picture. we aren't able to get a picture either. we are pretty much tied down to this hotel and walking around it. i can say i have been in a lot of hurricanes and i'm seeing

much less physical damage at this point in time this geographical area than expected with winds of this force, but the worst is yet to come. back to you. >> and jeanne, you have been sitting there holding your hat for many, for what seems like hours at this point trying to maintain, and we appreciate it. how long has it just been sustained as it is that we are seeing now? >> ooh, gosh. the hours are starting to blend to me, but i think that it started to pick up around 6:00 or 7:00 this evening and we are feeling every hour getting more and more intense and by the way, i want to reassure you that in between the live shots i am out of the wind and the rain and i' not that painful, and look, i'm not holding it right now. >> well, thank you very much, and we will check back in with you jeanne meserve. thank you very much. >> and let's check in with karen

mcginnes about the strength of it. >> well, drew, we have breaking news that we have mentioned a few minutes ago and that is the potential for a dam to break at st. mary's park. this is a google map, and this is washington, d.c. and right along the peninsula, this is the chesapeake peek are peak area, will zoom in near st. mary's lake, maryland, and there is a lot of recreational activities that take place here, and one more time, they have issued a code red meaning that the dam can burst. we have seen rainfall across the region and they are estimating right now they have seen already 7 inches of rain, and we know as irene continues to pull forward it will produce rainfall across the region and 7 inches may become 10 or 12 inches, and those people who are in to a

wi wake of what could be a dam failure will experience severe flooding and flash flooding. this is not something where the water is going to rise slowly and then go back down. we are looking at some flash flooding potential, but right now they are saying that the folks who are in the path of this dam should it burst are in grave danger right now, so a code red alert has withbeen iss. there are 12 parts of this calloway region and this st. mary's park -- well, zoom out, brent, and we will show you the perspective here, and lying offshore about 90 miles or so from ocean city, and then we saw jeanne meserve who is so bravely been out there and battling the wind and the rainfall for many, many hours and she says that it feel likes the wind has been increasing, so that the water is piling up as it moves on shore.

we have seen the wind gusts across this region gusting to near 50 miles an hour. we are talking about a hurricane that is a category 1 hurricane. it has sustained winds of 80 miles an hour, and moving toward the north/northeast at 60 miles an hour. we will zoom in one more time, and as i mentioned this is the chesapeake bay area, and this is st. mary's lake, maryland, and with we will zoom in one more time and show you how close this is and the dam that has been identified as potentially bursting after 7 inches of rainfall. it does look like additional rainfall is going to materialize here as it continues to pile up. in some areas also in north carolina, more than 24 hours now have seen these steady downpours across this area. let's go ahead and show you what is happening right now. also, here is long island and we arenticipating the tides right

across here and this is an area that we are focused on and this is an orange shaded area, but it is telling us that the water is going to continue to pile up across this area, and lesser so into the sound and this is where the perth amboy area is and manhattan, and this is where noods could be six feet above where they are and we are seeing higher than normal and astronomical tides across this region, so this is in peril here, but the pressing situation here continues to be focused on now critically on the st. mary's st. park area that we showed you right as you begin to enter the chesapeake bay area, and as i said 7 inches of rain, but because the system is just repeatedly putting rainfall across the coastal sections of north carolina and in some cases as much as 14 inches, but in this particular region, the

ground has been saturated. so plenty of power outages to tell you about and i took a look at one area the vanwick parkway in new york. if you have ever been there going on to jfk, they are saying that they have shut down a portion of that parkway, because the flooding has been so severe. so, lots of information coming in now, and definitive things that are now materializing because of what is happening with irene as she continues to just make her way progressively towards new york city. looks about mid-morning maybe between 4:00 and 6:00, and that is when we will see perhaps some of the worst bands move in across that i-95 corridor as we continue to monitor the progression of irene and then for boston, we are looking at the evening hours for sunday and into the overnight hours and then it will quickly move away into the canadian maritimes, but repeating what the breaking news is, st. mary's state park that's

right at the mouth of the chesapeake bay, they are saying 7 inches of rainfall in danger of breaking, and the folks who are in potential flood zone region of that could see quite a bit of loss of property, and quite a bit of damage associated with that. now, back to you. >> well, the question is 1:00 in morning that they know that they might need to get out of harm's way. >> sure, a lot of the folks in this area have power here and we are looking at people very aware and i'm sure that people who live around this particular park are indeed very aware that it can only sustain so much rainfall before something gives way. i'm sure that this is not the first time they have experienced something like this, so there is a heightened alert for this particular situation. >> i'm looking at the st. mary's county has a warning on the website, and basically what they

are saying is to get ready just in case, and move the family and pets upstairs and have a means of escape and turn off gas, and electricity and water supplies if the water starts to rise and keep listenbing. they are going to be plon monit the situation. >> and of course, don't drive through the floodwater and that could be challenging, karen, since this is so slow-moving. >> this is a warning for them, because this dam has not burst but the prognosis is 7-inches plus an additional 4-8 inches possible and that and the wind-driven rainfall and certainly there is the potential. i don't want to send up an alarm and, you know, that people are hyperconcerned about this, but certainly, they have issued a code red which means they need to pay attention to this, and be ready to go. and we are already seeing winds along the coast there, and jeanne meserve, as i mentioned,

in some instances the winds have gusted to 50 miles an hour, ab it is only going to be worse. they are not even right around the core where the hurricane-force wins are, 50-mile-an-hour winds and we have core winds of 80 miles per hour. >> and karen, quickly, can we see what the hurricane is doing now in terms of that. >> well, we will show you that just one second. >> i don't want to stray too far from that. >> well, i want to show you what is happening as far as the winds are concerned here with north carolina and extending into southern maryland and also philadelphia, we have heard a lot of reports of high wind gusts. and remember, that the hurricane is situated right down here, so we have a whiches to go, hours in fact, early morning hours before this system travels up the i-95 corridor, but we are seeing the winds coming in off of the atlantic, and the

east/northea east/northeasternly fashion, and more toward boston we will see the winds out of the west/southwest, and the areas in the back bay will be in danger, too. and there are two parts of the hurricane, and i will show you one other thing right now, and that is we think as it moves an pulls away, here are the time lines we are looking at. right around, just off of washington, baltimore, towards atlantic city, we go towards 5:00 a.m. 8:00 a.m., in the vicinity of philadelphia. and towards new york city. heading on then to the south of bos ton going into sunday about midday, but what is in particular very interesting about this is that where you see the orange shaded area, that is where we are looking at 60 to 80-mile-an-hour winds. so from new york to boston, that is where we are looking at some of the highest wind gusts that we are anticipating as we are going into the overnight hours

and about midday coming up for sunday. >> all right. karen, thank you very much, and we will be back to you. and yes, 8:00 a.m. is high tide in new york city. we will go become to new york where the city is in high alert as hurricane irene gets closer and closer. cnn's live coverage continues. ♪ [ jim ] i need to push out a software upgrade. build a new app for the sales team in beijing. and convince the c.e.o. his email will find him... wherever he is. i need to see my family while they're still awake. [ male announcer ] with global services from dell, jim can address his company's i.t. needs through custom built applications, cloud solutions and ongoing support in over 100 countries. so his company sees results. and jim sees his family. dell. the power to do more. for red lobster we can find. [ male announcer ] hurry into crabfest for 3 crab entrees under $20 like our crab and seafood bake... or our snow crab and crab butter shrimp. offer ends soon. my name's jon forsythe

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is it really worth more? we don't think so. chase sapphire preferred is a card of a different color. unlike others, you get twice the points on travel, and twice the points on dining, and no foreign transaction fees. call now or apply at chasesapphire.com/preferred. the mayor announced that we had to evacuate. we kind of knew that we would evacuate so we were prepared, and then we went to whole foods and get a bunch of food, and we have a hotel. so it is a day and a half. i don't think it is that bad.

>> well, we all hope so. a mandatory evacuation order has been issued for all low lying areas and all five boroughs of new york city and we are going to wcbs which is unique to have the reporters driving around, and live shots right from the vehicles they are driving around, and boy, if you have ever been to manhattan, take a look at the beautiful clear street. >> people were jogging down the middle of the street today before it started to get little bit worse. you know, new yorkers being a hearty bunch, but at this point, you won't see too many people out on the streets tonight, hopefully not so. >> we just got another update, breaking news is what we are calling it and it is sad news. another person has died, and we don't have details now, but it brings the total of the storm to ten people who have died along the east coast here because of this storm. and the trees that are falling and the various things happening out there. >> right. many of the people who are

killed have been outside, and car crashes and someone was killed by a downed tree, and that is what we are hearing now, and we don't know the details of the latest death, but, yes, ten people dead, and 1 million without power so far up and down the east coast. we are going to go live now to poppy harlow in lower manhattan near ground zero, and poppy, what's the scene there? go ahead, poppy, can you hear us? >> right now, i'm at the southernmost tip of manhattan at a place called south street seaport and i can hear you, but there is a delay here. it is full of tourists, usually. i have not seen one person on the street. i just want to show you what the local businesses are doing here, guys. you can see how heavy the rain is, and take a look at the local businesses, this is a wine shop all boarded up, sandbagged up, and you will see this at every single business we have been driving to here. we are below wall street to give you some perspective, and

nothing is open. i have not seen one person. there are no cars even on the roads down here. and the only vehicles that we have been passing by are the e mj si vehic merge en si -- emergency vehicles, and we are making our way toward ground zero. this is flood zone a and you are right, because it is sea level, and only a block away is new york harbor, the east river. i have never in my ten years of new york seen this place, if we can show you, so deserted. one lone motorcycle is all we are seeing. we have thousands of power outages and the flooding is get sog bad right across the river in new jersey. look at that, guys! look at that rain if you can see it flowing awe of the rooftop there, and the flooding is so bad in parts of new jersey that they have evacuated a shelter in hoboken which is right across the way.

mayor mike bloomberg is telling you if you lived in this area in lower manhattan, you were told to evacuate and if you did not do that, stay put and deal with as best you can where you are, and if you are in a high-rise building, we are near wall street, and if you are in one of the high-rise buildings, you have to get behind the tenth floor, because these buildings are susceptible, and you have to stay away from the glass obviously and get below the tenth floor. you see con edison, a power truck here, but all you see is power trucks and emergency vehicles. natalie? >> i'm not sure whenever you could drive through the streets of new york city and do a live report and not worry about the traffic around you, poppy. >> and even stopping. and we have more information on the tenth death. queen ann's county, maryland, is where it took place. a woman in her home, and a tree fell through the roof and apparently she died in her home. it is one of the unavoidable

unfortunate things. this woman was obviously inside of her home sheltering and a tree fell over. i think that we will see more of that. >> how tratragic, and the probl is that everyone is saying that it is a slow-moving storm, and the rain is continuous for many more hours, and we are starting to see it move farther up the east coast. up next here, we will talk to man who commanded the military response to hurricane katrina, general russel honore and what the city should expect when the sun comes up. cnn's live coverage continues. it's salonpas. this is the relief i've been looking for. salonpas has 2 powerful pain fighting ingredients that work for up to 12 hours. and my pharmacist told me it's the only otc pain patch approved for sale using the same rigorous clinical testing that's required for prescription pain medications. proven. powerful. safe. salonpas.

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i have never seen the ocean look like a river where it is going completely north along the shore instead of right at it. i have seen it coming over the

bulkheads and the dunes, but this is, i mean, this is so far we are lucky. >> and very soon they will find out how lucky or not so lucky they were in kill devil hills because the hurricane has passed by there, and we will bring in our retired general russel honore, and you were there when hurricane katrina devastated new orleans. and you are checking with the sources up and down the coast that you have been working with emergency response. right now, i would say we are halfway through the entire event, and how are we doing? >> well, we have two quarters of the game left to play, because the storm is so big. the first thing in the morning, north carolina and the virginia, they will be doing extensive search and rescue and reaching out to people who have lost power and people who might be isolated the vulnerable population, and the elderly and the disabled, and in the northern part of the storm up in

new york an new england area, they will be seeing the worst of the storm hitting them. so we will have a two-phase operation as we might use a military term in responding to the storm tomorrow by doing recovery and search and rescue in the south and still dealing with the effects of the storm way into the evening tomorrow once we determine what that tidal surge impact will have on new york. that is is the big question mark right now. that's the big unknown. if we can get by without an enormous tidal surge that will flood that area that we have been showing all evening we will be in good shape. but if it, if wall street gets the foot wet, this is a different game. >> and it is certainly a different city than new orleans. new orleans is surrounded by levees, but what are the similarities that you are seeing as far as what new york could face other than lower manhattan, and whether people could be affected after the first storm

comes ashore. that is what happened in new orleans. they didn't know how bad it was at first. >> absolutely. if the that happens, that scenario were to play out, that part of manhattan called the buildings getting their feet wet. the water will go out naturally, but a it is tidal water, and we don't have levees to track it. but the impact, natalie, right now in new orleans, six years after katrina next week, we are still replacing underground infrasfratructure damaged as a result of the storm. think of new york with underground metro systems, tunnels going under water networks, and i mean this could be a real mess on our hands, and the actions that the mayor took were right on to get the people concerned and get them evacuated. >> general, i want to point out to the viewers that we have pictures of long beach, new york, where, you know, the brunt of the storm will hit out there, but to your point as far as new

york is concerned, and the infrastructure buried underneath of it, that i think that will prove to be a big test, because a lot of that stuff is really old. and in some cases, crumbling condition with or without a hurricane. >> yeah, i have been on that system underground, and it is a sight to see. it is functional and the city relies on it. this is the artery of this great city. if it becomes violated, that could be a real issue in one of our world's greatest cities. >> and they have been putting up barriers to try to protect the subways from flooding the best they can do. but as new york has prepared for this, what have been the similarities that you see that lessons perhaps that i are taking from the big crises like katrina in new orleans and they have the national guard and the evacuations. >> well, in the affected states we have 110,000 national guard

assigned to the state, and on the top of that, the national guard bureau have brought troops in from as far as louisiana, texas, illinois, into this area, just in case they are needed to support the national guard there in the states. in the case of new york, the enormity of the population is the issue. if a part of the city get wet, meaning the bottom of the buildings become flooded and the infrastructure is violated, this is a major, major problem may equal katrina in terms of the infrastructure damage and the impact of how the city will rebuild to make it safer in the future. >> because new york is unique, and if you go anywhere in new york, you are walking or taking public transportation. everyone lives in high-rises and it is a city where you have to be able to get out. >> absolutely. there will be a lot of work that can be ghoen tdone in the futur

make the city safer, and once we get to the survey and be proactive and maybe put in gates like new orleans and using the dutch concept to prevent the water from coming in, and people will be taking a strong look at that after this storm is overwith. >> as you look at it right now, nightmare scenario for new york at this moment, is it power loss because of to degradation of the tunnel? >> well, the thing that will affect most people tomorrow waking up is the absence of power, and the inability to stay comfortable in their homes, and many of the high-rises, it is difficult to get the windows open in the office buildings, and this is going to be a tremendous problem, the significance of losing power. when we lose power, it sets back the way we live 80 years. the water not going up beyond the sixth floor in many cases, and this will be a big problem if we lose power for that many people. >> thank you, general hon ri.

>> hope for the best. >> all right. thank you very much. right now the coast of maryland is getting hit extremely hard, and in fact, it is like this for hoursch these are live pictures out of can chesapeahesapeake be will take you there next. [ male announcer ] hurry into crabfest for 3 crab entrees under $20 like our crab and seafood bake... or our snow crab and crab butter shrimp. offer ends soon. my name's jon forsythe and i sea food differently.

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and you can tell there, the water is moving in and the winds are picking up. there in new york as this storm, this monster slowly and rather eerily creeping along to make its way north and everyone is waiting to see how their area will be impacted. we want to remind the viewers that we now have reports of a tenth death. so now ten deaths in the storm, and the latest victim is a woman apparently in queen ann's county, maryland, inside of her house, but a tree fell and killed her in her home. that is not the first report of people dying due to trees falling. that is the situation with the high winds. >> natalie, it seems at this hour that maryland is getting the brunt of the storm. we had a report earlier about a dam, st. mary's dam, and the county had issued an alert for the people who lived downstream, and they are concerned that the water may go over the top of the dam and people who live

downstream should know that if there is water coming in the morning, that it is coming from the top of the dam, and they are not saying that the dam is going to burst, but just that you should be prepare d if the wate continues to come over the dam there in st. mary's county. chris lawrence by the way is in chesapeake beach, maryland, which is on the bay, and he is looking battered. chri chris? >> yes. we are still getting these bands of wind and rain that come and go. sometimes they die down, and sometimes they kick up a bit as we enter some of the outer bands of the hurricane as it passes out to the east of us. we are a little bit north of the st. mary's county where they are concerned about the dam. obviously, as you mentioned a big difference between being concerned about an overflow which water will eventually pass and an actual breach where the

water would continually pour through the dam. here the concern is not so much the wind, but really the speed or lack thereof of this storm that it is going slow, and it is bringing the rain, and the real concern is storm surge. there are a lot of homes in area that are set up on a cliff and there is a mandatory evacuation for anyone who lives within 100 feet of the cliffs, but a lot of people have decided to stay in their homes. the concern is that if you get enough water in here, it could erode enough of the soil, and destabilize the foundation of where a lot of the homes are built on. in that regard, we are keeping an eye on how the winds blow to make sure and hopefully that a lot of the water does not get pushed into the bay, but rather the opposite way. drew? >> chris, it appears that the wind is at a lull and i don't want to say, you are in irons out there, but it does not seem to be blowing that briskly, but

has the wind turned? >> it does feel like it has turned in a very different direction and just about two hours ago, the wind was whipping and where the rain was coming sideways and hard to stand, but honestly even at the, i would say most intense point, you know, i remember being down in new orleans for hurricane katrina and then on the western side of louisiana a month later for hurricane rita, and there was no way in the storms that you could stand outside. the force of those winds were way too powerful. so even at their height, the wind speed that we see in this storm is not to that extent. i think that the danger here is more how much rain is it going to bring, and the fact that it is so big and moving so slowly, it will sit over an area for a longer time rather than the fast-moving storm that blows for

a long time. >> and it has spawned tornados and new york is under a tornado watch right now. any idea of knowing in that area what the damage has been, or are you able to be in contact with any emergency folks there who can tell you what it has done in the immediate area? >> well, i think that the first thing, natalie, that people are dealing with is a loss of power. thousands of people in the county alone are already without power. we have seen some bits of debris starting to get tossed around. i was talking to one of the police officers here an hour or two ago, and he said that while the storm is passing and pitch black out there at night, they are not going the send tout fou crews or respond to 911 calls, but wait for it to pass. if a police officer is out, and they happen to see a downed power line, they will try to put a flair down to ale-- flare dow

people who are coming up behind them, but as far as any assessment, they will have to wait for the sun to come up coincidentally which is when we are past the brunt of the storm and it will have moved further up the coast. >> chris, keep us posted on what is happening there at chesapeake beach, maryland. thank you, chris. >> when the sun comes up, and that is when the new yorkers will be up, too, trying to see what happens there. that is where long island is, and one bill bull's eye for irene, and cnn's susan candiotti is there, and our special live coverage continues with her in a moment.

there's definitely a sense of panic with some people. i'm trying to stock up on the smart stuff and not too many things that will spoil without the refrigerator. >> new yorkers are getting on the storm on its way, and that is right out where you are, susan candiotti, at long beach, new york. >> you are trooper, susan. >> this is the point in the storm where you are finally starting to feel it. now, i don't know where we stand on the radar, but obviously, whoa. this is a pretty strong squall right now. at this point, this is when you

start to feel the pin bricks like sharp pens bursting against the side of your rain jacket here. as the rain is starting to come sideways. so we are in long beach. and we are in the middle of the street here. moving down this way, i think that perhaps you can catch the traffic light swaying in the breeze, as they say, and you have got the power lines starting to shake and rattle and roll just a little bit now. so, here in long beach, we are on a barrier island here, and this could be the impact point for hurricane irene, and that is still several hours away from now, but it is a barrier island to the south of long island and we are about 25 miles east of manhattan. it is really coming down now.

now, we are only about two the three feet, three the four feet actually above sea level here, and some parts of long beach are below sea level. the boardwalk here is 15 feet above sea level, and that is just beyond us now. and now, look at, this all of the sudden, it calmed down, and that is how the squalls go. one of the big concerns here, drew and natalie, is that as the storm surge comes up, and the ocean is this way, that it will be wrapping around so it will cause not only flooding they suspect here in this low-lying obviously closest to the beach, but when it whips around, it is going to come around the north side of this barrier island as well. so they are expecting to get a double-whammy here. the storm surge could be upwards to five feet at the very least, they say, and of course, that could vary as time goes on. of course, they are under a mandatory evacuation order here

various parts of long beach. according to the city officials here, they believe a fair number of people have adhered to that. we are hearing that there have been at least 12,000 electric customers who have lost power on long island as a whole, and of course, those are early numbers, but here, we have the street lights, and the hotel where we are staying still has power, so, so far, so good in this particular area. in another hour or so, i will be talking to the fire chief who told me i could check in with him at 2:30 in the morning eastern time, so i will plan on doing that and see what update he might have. natalie and drew. >> susan, i am sitting here reading about some of the officials saying ability e v in evacuations on long island and it belies logic seeing what you are going through. and give us an idea where you are and your surroundings and where you have chosen to ride it through and where do you have

shelter to go through. >> thanks. we always look around for a hotel who has some substance to it, and some height, and next here and just beyond your view is where our satellite truck is parked up against the building. we have talked to, you know, it is a multi-story buildings and about ten stories high, and in this particular area of long beach, they aare restricted how high buildings can be, so we are surrounded with apartment buildings of that same size. i talked to a family living in a high-rise next door, and elderly couple and the family could not convince them to leave, but especially worried about if the power goes out how the elderly parents could make it down all of the flights. they may not be, but they have decided to stay. now, a lot of the people here, we talked with have also decided to stay, but then again, they moved more inland and felt they would be secure. we will see how it goes. you know, when the sun comes up

obviously, that is about the time when hurricane irene is expected to make its impact. when the storm surge may be at its highest. it is not until it passes that the authorities here will be able to get out and about and see where things stand. it all depends upon how the storm goes. other people in fact, have gotten off of the island altogether, and that is probably maybe a very good bet and maybe the best bet. other than that people are hunkering down here as we often say, riding out the storm as best they can, because, remember, here on long island, it has been many, many years, decades really, before they had, since they had a direct impact of hurricane donna in 1960, and cat 2 or cat 3 storm, and before that, it was the long island express from 1938. so there aren't a lot of people around who remember what this is like. that has caused a lot of people to come out here in the evening

to walk the boardwalk and take a look at the surf, an obvious d , that is not happening here in the middle of the night, but when the sun comes up, they may not go out, because that is when we do expect the full brunt of the storm to be hitting. >> susan candiotti, impressive as always. i'm impress edimpressed, susan, lights are still out there. >> i can't believe it. >> exactly. >> because by now, we are getting the flashlights out, but it has not happened yet. knock on wood, and if i could find any wood to knock on right now, but since i started this report, look at how, you know, the winds have calmed down a little bit. so obviously, it happens in cycles. >> i want you to know not only can we see what you are going through, we can hear it. can't you hear the pelting rain. it is quite evident, susan. thank you, we will check back in with you, thanks so much.

>> we will check the path of the hurricane right after the break and going to the satellite and karen mcginnis. [ male announcer] where'd you get that idea? how'd you learn to do that? what'd you use? every project we finish comes with a story built-in. it's how our rough ideas become "you did that yourself?" so when we can save more on the projects that let us fix, make, and do more... that just makes the stories even better. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. add some style to your sink, with this moen banbury faucet for the new lower price of $79. like the trip around the world you never took. but there's one opportunity that's too good to miss. the lexus golden opportunity sales event. see your lexus dealer. that's not going to satisfy you. come on. it's time for a better snack. try this. it's yoplait greek. it has two times the protein of regular yogurt.

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and now stay rewarded with vacation pay. stay two weekend nights and get a $75 prepaid card. we, it has been er nerve-racking and the evacuation sucks the fun out of it. it has been nerve-racking the last couple of days, but

everything looks secure enough once we are done with this. >> new york getting ready. it is a bizarre to see all of the parts of new york city boarded up for something like a hurricane, because it has been so long, but the mayor of new york saying recently that the storm is finally hitting the city. >> let's find out where it is right now. karen mcginnis is in the cnn headquarters and what is the latest on the dam, too, threatened in maryland. >> well, that was the st. mary's state park, and we will zoom in sitting at the peninsula at the mouth of the chesapeake bay, and we will zoom in, and this is where washington, d.c. is located and st. mary's is right down here. they are saying it is a code red. they are stare saying that the y overflow, but it is not going to burst, but there are some families that could be downstream from this, if it should receive more rainfall, and there has already been 7 inches, so that the dam is

filling up, but they are saying that there is no danger of the dam bursting, but certainly the people could have some effect from the flooding associated with overflow from the dam. the other thing is that we are just about ready to receive from the national hurricane center an yu date update regarding irene. all right. we have seen the winds associated with this at 80 miles per hour, and it is category 1, and where susan candiotti is located, it is still 200 miles away. it is moving to the north, northeast at 16 miles an hour. so she is getting bands of rainfall and a lot of moisture piling up along the beaches there. is severe beach erosion, but the ground has been absolutely saturated across the northeastmenortheast menortheast. in some instances they have seen more than they have seen for the

entire month of august. and high tide occurs around 7:00. so we will see astronomically high tides in addition to that onshore push of water. i think that susan is going to have to go to higher ground pretty soon. >> and so even though this storm is category 1, it is deceptive for all of the rain that it is going to be bringing in? >> yes, because it is very persistent, and as we heard ta general say, when you lose power, because of the high winds, when your home has been damaged, you are reduced to a different level than your ordinary life, and it takes weeks to restore power to such a broad area along that i-95 corridor, but new york city about mid-morning we think that later on in the day for boston, but it could be at tropical storm intensity, but not to be forgiven, because it is packing quite a wallop as far as the heavy downpours are concerned. and some areas in north carolina, it has rained more than 24 hours straight.

>> david mattingly our correspondent in north carolina said he had been rained on for more than 30 hours, and he has been standing out in it. karen, we will come back to you. thank you very much. >> and the folks in philadelphia are not waiting on irene anymore, and they are concerned about the rising rivers. remember that city has two rivers around it. they are also dealing with tornado threats, and we will take you there as cnn's special coverage of hurricane irene continues. well, we suddenly noticed that everything was getting more expensive, so we switched to the bargain detergent, but i found myself using three times more than you're supposed to and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. [ laughs ] thanks, honey. yeah. you suck at folding. [ laughs ] that's my tide. what's yours? [ female announcer ] find the tide that's right for you at tide.com.

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well, it has been almost 24 hours since irene first made landfall in north carolina, and our ireporters have been sending

in incredible footage from the start. george nighro took this from the outer banks, and when he took this irene was blowing from the east pushing water inward swamps this pier, and yes, that is a pier there in the right of the screen. >> and let's show the picture of times square of new york as new york is waiting. it is all lit up, and not too many folks there, but new york is getting pelted with rain, but it is good to see the lights on no matter what. >> it goes to show that even though new york city is facing the first hurricane for most people who live there if the not all, they are not turning the lights off in times square. >> and in philadelphia, the city is getting ready for the pam im of the storm as the airport closed at 10:00 p.m. there is a fear that irene could flood the city. >> and hurricane irene is coming in fast and furious in the city

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