and over to the right is the pier 17, and you can see the buildings and towers of manhattan, power is on. i can see across brooklyn, and it's foggy but i cannot see enough if it's all there. brooklyn bridge is there and there's no traffic except emergency vehicles there. and here is the tree that gives me a sense of wind. the issue we have to concern ourselves with is this, and some pole has found its way into the east river and bobbing to the surface. and it's starting to top it. this is a problem for us. while the winds aren't there, the rain has started to pick up. jacqui and those folks can tell us about how serious it is, and the river is about to top its banks and come into lower manhattan.

>> reporter: rob marciano, let's see if he can hear us. here's in long beach and they're seeing intense wave action. rob, can you tell us? >> reporter: i can't hear the program, so just tell me when to go. >> reporter: anderson, long beach, the winds remain the same and if anything have picked up. irene continues to roll this way. irene is still a hurricane, although you would describe it as a minimal hurricane. i have been in a lot of minimal hurricanes, and it's a still a hurricane. we're taking damage on the boardwalk right now as water continues to fall in. it's tough to see with the connection, but those winds are massive. that surf is pounding the shoreline and has completely

wiped out the man made berm they put up to protect the hotel, the boardwalk and that town. and we'll walk this way and show you the lifeguard building, the headquarters there for i don't know how many years ripped away from the foundation and pinned down. that water is not supposed to be there. it's a good waist deep, and it's not supposed to be there. as far as i can saerks the streets are flooded. not only flooded but flooded with waves on top of the water. so surf in parts of the town here in long beach. over a quarter of the power lost in long island. irene makes its way towards the beaches on the south shore of long island. >> reporter: rob, how big were

the berms they made on the beach that you said are now completely gone? we're having a problem with rob. let's check in with jacqui jarvis. >> we just got the advisory, and it's still a hurricane. 75 miles per hour. i will say i am surprised to see that. perhaps they are getting some of the winds that strong offshore. it's still a threat and we're expecting to see bad conditions in the next couple hours. 40 miles away from new york city, that's where the center of the storm is right now, and the big burst of rain that i was talking about, anderson, this shifted a little further off to the west. this has gone over towards the hudson and over into new jersey, and heading up towards the ft.

lee area. and the winds are strong near that center, and where rob is, here is long beach. you're not seeing much rain right now, but we have the strong east wind that continued to come in here, and that is going to continue -- the water will continue to pileup as it pushes up into that area. and then the water is going to be remaining high. ae we're talking about a good two hours that you will continue to see the high water. the winds will switch to the other direction and then you can see it go down. the winds will come in gusts and bursts, so be prepared. don't go outside if you are feeling a lull or not because you never know when the next wave is coming through. bring in the thunderstorms and downpours and bringing debris or flying trees and leaves and branches and things like that into that area. this is the big picture. and something to keep in mind. we have to talk about what is going on here across the

northeast. look how big the storm is. i never have seen a wind field in a hurricane this big. we're talking about 300 outward miles. 320 miles. that's how far the tropical storm force winds extend from the center of the storm. it could extend from the east to the west, we don't know for sure. and so this is now really baring down into parts of the northeast, and into connecticut and massachusetts, and we have the outer bans that will continue to push through there, and that's why we have the tornado watch in effect. and this includes rhode island and providence because these outer bans are going to continue to push in from the east. we get the spinouts. now we had the warning, and as soon as it goes off you need to take cover and be in an interior part of your house. lots of flooding. when we think about irene, that

will be the bottom storm. we heard from don earlier about all of them coming out of your banks in the philadelphia area as we speak. >> reporter: jacqui, when you and i were talking, is it faster than that? >> no, it's faster. it's accelerating. that's the good news. maybe 5 to 10 inches of rain instead of 6 to 12 inches on the range. it's picking up a little bit. >> reporter: it's amazing how this is happening a lot sooner than we anticipated last night, how it changed even at this late hour. jacqui we will continue to check in with you. still a hurricane, not a tropical storm, and that's a big piece of news right there. let's check in with john king

who is in long beach. this is still a hurricane, john? >> reporter: it's a hurricane, anderson. we're on the boardwalk in long beach, and i was showing you earlier and we have our cameras set up and i will ask jerry to pan over. this sand berm is about five feet high and is supposed to be level with the boardwalk. it did extend that way, and it extended all the way across and it was there an hour ago. an hour ago inside here was dry. and it just shattered the sand berm, and the water is flowing and you can see down through the cracks of the boardwalk flowing out the other way, and i will ask jerry to turn around and come this way, and you can see the water flowing into the streets of long beach. the far street out there was dry an hour ago, and that water is

between ankle and calf deep. you see the officer at the end of the road, the streets in the low-lying areas, they go up and down. if you go just to the left, the water gets deeper and deeper. if you come back here toward the water, jerry, turn around this way, you can see the waves coming in. jacqui was talking about the power of the water. the winds picked up significantly. the waves are wiping out the sand along here. you get out there and the winds just in the last hour picked up quite a bit. the question is there's still power in most of the town and we see some damage out in the streets, and the question is it's high tide now and right around now and the storm is still coming and how much more water will flow into the community, and let's see if it makes it toward your way in the more popular areas, and how significant will the power

outages be and the property damage and street flooding. the question is how long will the rain keep coming and how deep will the waters get, anderson? >> reporter: you can hear the wind on your phone or in your microphone, and it's such a big difference from the way it is here in the center of manhattan. any sense of how strong the winds are there? >> reporter: it's hard to get a sense, but i can tell you this morning when we first came out there it was in the 30s, and that was at 5:00 a.m., and i would say they are now twice as hard in the sense that this morning i had no problem standing in them, and now in the normal wind, you have to brace yourself. when the gusts come you get moved a little bit, and you have to get into the crouch which i know you are familiar with. if i lean towards it, and turn towards it, you are asking for it if you do that. and here they are gusting at

least in the 60s and probably significantly higher than that. i wish i could give you a better sense, but it's dramatically in the past hour significantly from 5:00 a.m. and even in the past hour, not only the winds picked up quite a bit but the rain coming in more or less horizontal. you see the erosion and the damage and the contingency efforts they made here, and you can see the water flowing into the streets of long beach. >> reporter: rob marciano is out, too. rob, do you feel gusts or is the wind pretty constant? >> reporter: yeah, it's constant. the only time i don't feel it as constant as you would think is when i am standing with this protective building. it's just constant. this is sustained, and it's at 50 miles per hour, okay.

and we're getting close to hurricane strength at this point. the waves are just absolutely unbelievable. the power of the ocean right now, we have an astronomical high tide happening right now. we have a storm surge that is timing with the landfall of irene happening right now. that combination has completely wiped out the berm -- >> reporter: ali velshi is standing by pier 17. what has been going on? >> reporter: i won't even say it to you anderson, but the east river topped its banks in lower manhattan. the east river is coming over the banks. it's suddenly calmed down, and the wind is calmed down and you don't see it coming up in surges, and the water is pushing up between the boardwalk. if you are walking on it, the east river, and this is

saltwater and part of the ocean, and it's coming over right now. this is not the lowest part in manhattan. as you go further down the tip of manhattan, you cannot see the tip but you can see the buildings, that's lower, and around the corner is battery park city, and that's lower. the problem that we were concerned about water come into manhattan, even though here it doesn't feel like what rob and john are feeling, the winds are not that high and the rain is sustained but not that bad. this is the problem, the east river broken its banks in lower manhattan, and this is the fear that the authorities had, and most of new york's electrical cables are underground. we had seen the water recede, and we'll keep a close eye on this to see how it gets. lower manhattan now starting to flood, anderson. >> reporter: ali, there are a lot of businesses around the e

seaport, are they sandbagged? >> everything is shut down. there had been some small efforts at sandbagging. they don't look like they will hold anything back. this is a low area -- not only is it low, but you are seeing me at the shore here. as you go in about a block or block and a half, the land is lower. the issue is whether this will cause the storm drains which were pushing up already to push up higher. as you can see it, the east river is blowing on to land. this area that i am in will be flooded within the next few minutes. with each gust and gail and surge, it gets higher. and the locals are taking a look at it and want to see what it looks like for the river to come in. you have the east river and the harbor and the hudson river and where they meet is the most serious point and that's about half a mile down from where i am right now.

>> reporter: how far has the water come -- i cannot see your picture from where i am. is it just lapping over or constant? >> reporter: it's lapping over. i am at the edge of the river where typically you would look over and have four feet before the river. the river is absolutely level with the shore. you can see it's absolutely level with the sidewalk. so it's lapping over. every time a gust of wind comes over and the chop has picked up now, and it's coming over. further north there's a boardwalk and if you are walking on the boardwalk you would get it splashed up towards you. it's moving in with some speed. no danger just yet. anything lower than where i'm right now, and there are parts of manhattan that are lower than me are going to start to get inundated. >> reporter: we're seeing flooding in brooklyn. >> this would be a bad location.

and the memorial park here, and the banks are overflowing here, too. and i pray there's very little damage. >> we'll make a quick right now that we have a light on to you had 100s. this is sheep head's bay, and can you see how the wind is combining with the surge to push water over the embankment here, and it's splashing out of the bay, and it's starting to flood the streets here in sheep head's bay and there in manhattan beach. marty what do you make of this as we drive around? >> i hope there will be minimal damage and the surge ends soon. irene, you spent enough time here, bye-bye, and time to go. >> irene, they want you out of brooklyn by order of the borough

president. >> time to go and you made your point. >> and we're watching the water of sheep head's bay spill out on the streets. a number of the restaurants on this side of the street are getting some very significant flooding in their facilities, and the police are doing a great job cruising up and down edmonds here trying to stop people from gawking. what do you make of the traffic we're seeing? we're seeing an occasional private vehicle, but people are staying home. >> yeah, and people are in their home and this would be a very, very busy day here in sheep head's bay, with all the restaurants and ran dazios, and some of the other locations here, and sorry they will lose business but hopefully they will make up for it next week, labor day weekend. let's hope the damage is minimal and we get back to our lives,

asap. >> thank you very much. a waterlogged brooklyn and new york city, and waterlogged tri-state area. let's take you downtown in manhattan by battery park city. and scott rapaport is there, and the big concern is the storm surge. >> reporter: this is still is serious hurricane, still a category 1 hurricane, and some of the worst concerns had been there might be a tropical storm. it's not as of the 8:00 a.m. advisory, but it's still a very serious storm a. category 1 storm. there have been fatalities. now we're starting to see the east river starting to lap over its banks, and starting to top its banks and come into -- water starting to come into manhattan a little bit.

around the south seaport area, you are seeing water. we're not seeing the heavy winds inside manhattan, but the story at this hour really is along the low low lying areas, and we're starting to see heavy winds and starting to see the water come in. there has been a heavy police presence on the street as dawn has come now and as the rain is anticipated to stay over the city for 12 hours, and it's a concern of street flooding and flooding into peoples' homes. rob is standing by -- or mary snowe. she has reported that there's breaching and flooding, the lowest part of manhattan. and rob marciano is still in

long beach for him. i believe we have him. rob, are you still seeing the very sustained strong winds, yes? we're having trouble making contact with rob marciano. is jacqui jarvis standing by? mary snowe is down in battery park. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: well, anderson, the hudson river has gone over its banks. it's high tide. there had been a fear of a storm surge of 4 to 8 feet. so far it's flooding but it's under a foot. we have been seeing the waters rising over the past half hour or 20 minutes or so and this is really the low-lying area that the city was very concerned

about. you might say this is the entrance to the ferries that go to the statue of liberty and ellis island. but contrast to what we're hearing in other locations, we're not feeling the kinds of winds i had been anticipating hearing the reports. it's still too early to say how high the waters will rise, but again really officials had been warning about a storm surge of 4 to 8 feet. they knew when there was high tide there would be flooding. right now there is not a foot of flooding so far. >> reporter: so mary, is there water by your feet now? you're on the ground. is there water covering your feet? >> reporter: yes. yeah, there is several inches of water, and water has come over the bank. you can see it now, and it's covering part of this.

we had been standing here all day yesterday. it was clear. this was anticipated that there would be flooding at high tide. and it just really started happening within the last 20 minutes or so when high tide arrived. again, we're still not feeling very strong winds down here. >> reporter: right. i don't have a return so i can't see your picture, but obviously our viewers can. it does seem like the rain right now have intensified in the last few minutes in our location. i assume it's the same down by battery park. how far does that water -- how far as it come down through the park? it is just at the water's edge? >> reporter: the rain -- yeah, the rain has intensified. we have felt that. the rain has not -- the flooding, i should say, is inside the park.

it has not yet spilled out into the streets of lower manhattan as far as we can tell so far. it seems pretty contained right now in the park along the hudson river at the tip of lower manhattan. >> reporter: there is still power in the surrounding buildings, correct, because there had been some concern or thought if there was extensive flooding, con edison might shut down power in concern of what affect the flooding might have. >> reporter: yeah, in fact, we ran into a building manager of a building right down here. he told us last night that he was told that power would be cut in his building. we just ran into him and he said that did not happen. so the buildings still have power. >> that is certainly good news. obviously when you are living in high-rise buildings, when the

elevator shuts down it's a big inconvenience of using the stairs, and there have been concerns about neighborhoods losing power or con ed shutting down the power in anticipation, and where mary is we had been looking at that area closely, and there's water in battery park but mary is not sure how far it's in, and viewers watching there, ground zero is very close to your location? >> reporter: it is very close to the location. i can see it from here. you know, that was a big concern, anderson, over the last couple of days. and because of all the construction going on, and the cranes that were there, they were secured and lowered yesterday, and we saw crews working late into the night, almost around 11:00 when we passed there last night, there

were still workers there securing that location. >> let's check in with ali velshi. where is the water now? >> reporter: still it's coming over and lapping over a little more than when i last spoke to you. i will tell you what happens now. it lapse over and there's a boardwalk here which is back towards the river, so it has not lapped over the incline and into that sidewalk into the streets, but as you know from where you are, anderson, the rain is intensifying here. i am around the bend from where mary snowe is, and she's at the west side of manhattan, and we're amile away on the east side. and up near the meat packing district, they are seeing water about a block into the city. we had already seen some water here that was further in, but it did not correspond to the east river overflowing, it was the

storm drains backing up. and so the river overflow into manhattan here and the storm drains backing up could cause problems for us in lower manhattan. i know you know this area well, and pier 17 is the south street seaport, and this is the east port across, and i don't know how much of our viewers can get over there, but that's brooklyn where we are seeing flooding on that side of the east river as well. and the east river is a title estuary. we're at high tide right now. and as you and i have been discussing, and you heard from jacqui jarvis, it looked like it was as bad as it was going to get and then we got the new ban of rain in here. and the river is lapping over the banks and up through the boardwalk, and has not made its way through the streets of lower manhattan just yet.

>> that's good news. i want to check in with rob marciano. how extensive is the flooding out in long beach? >> reporter: the flooding is just intensifying, anderson. the street flooding continues to lift. the water is rising for sure, and check out the surf. that has not subsided at all. only intensified as have the winds which continue to blow steadily out of the east. and difficult to stand up. the surf now has completely wiped out whatever protective berm they tried to build over the past couple days. to answer your question and point it out, this water continues to pour in under the boardwalk, and that has been breached, and continues to pour in to downtown long beach with wave action on top of that.

so i would suspect that there are homes now being flooded. the hotel we were staged at has seen their lower lobby flooded out as well. the streets are being flooded, and homes likely being flooded. certainly businesses being flooded. and the surge not quitting anytime soon. we have high tide happening now. we have not really gotten an onshore push or flow. even when the storm passes us later on this morning and this afternoon, anderson, we're going to get the backside of the thing, and i don't think the water is going down anytime soon. as fwe feared at this time, the storm surge and flooding is the issue here, and not only in nassau county, but up in suffolk county as well. >> no doubt, suffolk county will

be affected. let's check in with jacqui jarvis, and a i think a lot of folks watching this are living in new york and wondering how bad it is in manhattan, and they will think maybe they should go outside and walk around even though it's not -- this is still a hurricane, a category 1 storm. if you don't have to be outside, there's no reason to go outside. >> no. >> it's miserable out here. it's not a sideways rain yet, but a driving, pouring rain, and it's going to be a very uncomfortable day all day today in new york city. where is the storm now and what does it looks like now? >> it's very close to you right now, anderson. i will show you what we call the velocity mode, sarah, if you can do that for me. this is where the center of the storm is. here's sandy hook, new jersey. and here is new york city. there you can see the bronx over here. and there is the center of

circulation. wow, it just popped up to the north further. this thing is moving very, very quickly. it's rushing about 25 miles per hour, and there you can see the center of the storm. looks like it could pass just to the east of new york city, and manhattan, where you are, anderson. the worst of the storm is coming in now in terms of the storm surge, that's where we will see the height of it. it's reliant on where the thunderstorms develop and redevelop around the center of the storm. that's why we're seeing the big rush of the water at this time. we'll switch it over and show you the tide gauge. and now, this is the tide gauge. what this will show you here, this red line is what we have been doing. there you see it following with high and low tide, and this is where we're peaking out right now, and 8.6 feet is what we have seen so far.

it's only about 3 1/2 feet or so above normal tide. see how the line is flattening out, so we are peaking as we speak. we think the worst of the storm surge will between 7:00 and 9 0 9:00. it's coinciding with low tide. we will see it stay high here for maybe another hour or so and then starting to back off a little bit. we have a lot of water in there and it will take sometime for it to recede. want to show you google earth and here is lower manhattan, and this will show you the evacuation zones. that's in the orange. all of the people who live in the area where some of the water could be reach into had been evacuated. they are not there, at least not in the lower levels, and that's the good news. while some of it is not quite as bad as what we were expecting, this is happening, the water is

rising and the winds are strong in many, many areas. so we have a lot of threats still to go, certainly with irene. it's not done yet. category 1, 75 miles per hour. and new england, we have the tornado threat and the watch in effect until 11:00, and it includes you and providence and over towards hartford, and we will see flooding, and up to a foot in some areas. rivers will be out of their banks for days and days. anderson? >> jacqui, we appreciate that. we will take a short break, and before we take a break, let's listen in to wcbs and their coverage. >> reporter: i am not sure about the delay, but what a difference an hour makes. it's calm right now and it started to clear up a little bit. look at all the damage and debris on the boardwalk. look at all of this on here.

it's what washed away from the ocean. i just want to pan over to these impressive waves. they are absolutely incredible. i would say 20 feet high. look at this. and just unbelievable. i haven't seen it like this in a long time. look at all the plywood and all the debris here. oddly enough i was just speaking to the owner of the boardwalk and he tells me they don't think they took such a bad hit after all. jimmy, our photographer, we will walk over here and actually going to walk over to the owner of the boardwalk and let him assess the damage, because, you know, it's not as bad as they thought. thank you so much for joining us. you're looking around, and this fence, we were here when it lifted and came flying this way. >> the wind was pretty amazing. some of the debris is all over the place.

we made it through pretty well. all the buildings are intact and the convention survived, and so far we're crossing our fingers, and are happy we have done as well as we have. so people should not come to the beach or the boardwalk because there's debris and a curfew. >> reporter: the plywood would have been dangerous on the outside. >> yeah, we did not board the windows. >> let's check in with ali velshi. >> reporter: now it was lapping last time i told you about it, and now it's fully leveled. the river and the riverbank are now one. a lot of water coming in. i would say, anderson, we probably need another good four or five inches of this before it starts to innodate the streets. i went back into the streets where i saw storm sewers backing up, and i saw it recede half an

hour ago and they are back up and shooting water out of the storm sewers. we have one road impassable. we now fully -- our viewers can see this. this is the river -- the river is now completely on to the boardwalk here, about 50 yards further, and it's coming up like rob said, right through the boardwalk and through the bottom of it. the fact is it's out here. we have people walking around and trying to get a sense of what it's like out here. it doesn't feel serious, because we have a similar rain to what you have. you are north and west of me. it's heavy rain. i would call it a good storm. but there is no sense of wind here. when you look at the chop on the east river, you get a sense something is happening. the water is coming in substantially more forcefully, and we have a con ed train cover half a block from here and that's filling up and that's a great concern because new york's power lines are underground, and all the power lines like the subways are all underneath and that's a problem for power.

i am still seeing power on around me. we have not seen a loss of power here. a lot of police vehicles and con edison vehicles in this part of new york. people walking around. doesn't seem harmful out here or feel harmful, but the east river topped its banks and is getting higher and higher every few minutes. we'll have some flooding on this side. i know around the corner b. a mile from here where mary snowe is, they are seeing it move in and on the hudson riverside they are seeing it move in. lower manhattan is getting flooding, anderson. >> we can see people walking around with umbrellas. there's not enough wind where you cannot use an umbrella. if you can stay indoors there's no reason to come outside, and it's miserable out here and it will be like this for many hours. we're anticipating 12 hours of rain. the storm is moving quicker than it had been yesterday, and even

this morning we're seeing it moving about 17 miles per hour. i think last time we talked to jacqui jarvis it was moving around 25 or 26 miles per hour if i am still correct. in terms of how far the water is where you are, ali, doesn't sound like it has gone too far in? >> reporter: it's topping the banks, and you can see it topping the banks quite clearly. i will walk over to where the boardwalk is, and it's a lip, a sidewalk basically. we have our or five inches, and we have to get to that level, and once it tops that it will make its way down this road here. let me walk for a second, anderson, and show you what we're talking about. this is the underpass, and it's fdr above me, i would not be able to talk it would be so loud. now we're getting out to the street here and i want to make sure we don't get hit by anything, and i want to show you as we cross the road what is happening in the streets.

this is a consolidated edison cover here. it's four inches from topping the electrical wires, and over here i have seen a number of cars try to turn into the street, and i am walking into it, and i know how deep it is and that's why i am walking into it, and the storm drain, i am above a storm drain, and it's absolutely to my knees. i have seen cars come in here, and they have almost got stuck and worked their way out of it. it's more dangerous than it looks. you are right, i have seen people walking around with an umbrella, and there's virtually no wind and the rain is coming straight down where i am, and the flooding has intensified. this whole street is now completely flooded. >> certainly not good news. we'll continue to watch that over the next hour or two.

in terms of -- are there a lot of police where you are, ali? we have seen a heavy police presence throughout the city, a lot of patrol cars going around and checking to make sure things are in order. >> reporter: i am looking straight down south street to the tip of manhattan basically, and basically where the south seaport is, there's a staging, workers and police, and that's the area they are most focused on because that's where they can see the fun rvulnerabilities. i have not seen anything but police presence and media. i have seen people try to make the turn and stop where i am and reverse and go back out. it's definitely becoming impassable for vehicles but mostly it's police out here. >> ali, we will continue to check in with you but we will take a break and the coverage

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welcome back to the continuing coverage of hurricane irene. at the top of the hour, the 8:00 advisory, it was still a category 1 storm. there was hope it would become a tropical storm. it has not and is still a hurricane with the sustained hurricane winds, so we're still watching this very, very carefully. we're starting to see some flooding in the south street seaport in manhattan, and also in battery park city around battery park, around the southern tip of manhattan, about two miles from where i'm. we have correspondents out in long beach where we are seeing more flooding and other parts of new york city. let's listen in to wcbs right now. >> the stuff that is covering the storm drains and keeping these waters from receding even as we have a little bit of a

lull in the heavy rain. >> can you see it, i just see a homeowner going out with his broom to clear it, so i would urge every block where they are in manhattan beach or any of the neighborhoods here in brooklyn, please, let's help out the sanitation department and we're helping ourselves so the water reseeds as quickly as possible. >> i will zip through the water, and we have six inches of water here in sea gate, and it's a demonstration of what we're dealing with in the area. we're reporting live in mobile 2. >> let's head out to hampton bay's, and the last time we checked in with jennifer she was experiencing wind gusts of 71 -- >> let's check in with wabc.

>> reporter: it's four feet above high tide, and we have a new moon, and we have a swollen river. >> we're joining jamie, and bill evans, there may be another surge in that area? >> well the surge will continue. and we will get back to jamie i pictures. i did a quick wind analysis to see where the storm is. we were wondering if it's over long beach or in new york harbor. you will see the actual center is right over rareton bay, and there will be a push of water into new york harbor until we get on the southern side of that circulation -- >> that's wabc. mary snowe is in battery park city where she has seen water coming over. mary, how is it right now?

>> reporter: anderson, there's flooding here on the tip of manhattan in battery park. and this is normally the park where you may be familiar with lining up for ferries to go to the statue of liberty. we're on the other side of the island from where ali velshi has been reporting. it was anticipated there would be flooding and the river topped its banks. the deepest that the water is is about a foot of water. what we can tell from down here, it's just a park so it has been contained in the park. i think we will head over next to battery park city where there are residents and buildings and see the extent of flooding there. so far officials had been anticipating a storm surge down here between four and eight feet. it remains to be seen how much water will be getting down here. if this is as bad as it gets,

it's not as bad as what city officials were fearing. but, again, it's still too early to tell. >> mary, thank you very much. one of the areas we're particularly concerned about is sufficien suffolk county in long island. let's listen in. >> reporter: zoom in to the dead end. and show the breach where the water is coming up. they're telling us the bridge is totally closed, and dune road is under almost three feet of water. >> that's jennifer mclogan reporting for us. she started to get into

pertinent facts about a huge bridge there, and dune road is one of the barrier islands and it is shut down. on dune road are a lot of massive homes and modest homes at all, and it's really choice real estate, and she just said it's under a number of feet of water. that's really disturbing, but not unexpected. it's the kinds of thing we will get out eastern on the eastern long island. jennifer was struggling to keep her footing in the hampton bays. and the wind is threatening power lines, and you want to be careful if you are jennifer or anybody else. >> and let's go out where wendy is standing by, and we were issued a urgent release from the area. officials talking about people staying out of the water, and more power outages are going to be expected obviously with the nasty conditions that you are still experiencing there, wendy.

>> reporter: yeah, it has been a study rain for the last few hours or so. the announcement from the city is an urgent appeal for people to stay in line. there are live wires down at 5th and jefferson, and 8th and madison. and there's so much flooding in the city, and the live wires are down and they are worried people coming out to see the storm will be electrocuted. right now, it's lapping up against the walkway here. i would say within probably half an hour or an hour, it's going to be definitely coming over this walkway, and that is something that the city is very concerned about. three or four feet, and so about one foot every hour, just an

incredible progress. when we first came here, i said there's no way it will be up over the walkway, and it kept rising and rising and rising, and that's the situation here. >> all right, wendy. >> maurice, before we head to the next location. i wanted to talk more about the urgent release -- >> we're just starting to get a gust of wind right now here in the village, very close to washington square park. the rain does seem to be intensifying a bit with the wind gusts. let's check in with our affiliate, wabc, and see the monitoring of their coverage. >> reporter: it has not made its way across on the main roadway. not a lot of residences here, just the fishing pier. in good shape so far and it won't get any worst than this. rough waves out there making their way towards us slowly, but not too bad here. things are quieting down from

the last time i talked to you last, and it's not quite so bad and hopefully will give us a little break for a little while. >> we're here with bill evans. will it stay calm? >> she still has to go through one more batch. >> let's check on our soledad o'brien. she was in the meat backing area earlier. >> reporter: we're along the west side highway, so we're downtown in what is known as the meat packing district. and take a look here, some folks made the mistake of driving through what they thought was clear and open paying the price for it. their vehicles stucked and they are waiting to see how they will move the vehicles out. right across the way is the hudson river. and that's a problem because the hudson crested its banks and flowed over into a walkway as

far back as we can see heading that way. and let's walk down this way, jamie. the big problem, already almost a foot deep as i head this way, for the residences here, this is your problem. it looks to me two feet deep. these are first floor apartments and the water is flowing into them, and we talked to the super, carlos, who has been through the night, and pumping will not do anything at this point. this is why they evacuated people. this is the area they talked about, and this used to be landfills, and it's a low-lying area. and people were told up that way they probably want to leave and it was voluntary. the truth is, anderson, it's not raining that hard. we're not feeling the gail force winds that we know we are going to get. if you are seeing this already,

two feet deep right here, water is going to be a massive, massive problem. i have seen several vehicles stuck, and -- yeah? >> i have to jump in. i am told wcbs is getting hit hard by some waves. wanted to show our viewers that. >> reporter: let's get out of here. grab the mike. grab the mike! let's get out of here! whoa! let's get out of here! let's get out of here! grab the mike!

>> john king is standing by for us in long beach. john, you have been watching very heavy waves pounding that shoreline there and the dock. what that is it like now? >> reporter: anderson, the interesting part is the rains have let up significantly and there's a light drizzle here, and mostly water just blowing around. the winds are quite the problem. and just to pan out a little bit, you see the sand berms along the edge, they were five feet high and they extended across. you see the water coming through now. there was a berm across and this water is flowing under the boardwalk here. and there are volleyball nets. and the waters are flowing through under the boardwalk, and we're going out into the streets where we can see the localized flooding. just saw a cargo down the street

a short time ago, and the water was halfway up the wheels. local residents who live in the apartments across the street say they are getting water down in the garage. they say so far, they are saying this is not as bad as they thought it would be. however, we see significant street flooding here. streetlights are still on and most of the town has power. if i turn this way, i am blocking most of it, but if i turn this way, you feel it more substantially, and you see the waves, and they will definitely have a problem of localized flooding. the extent of it we're still trying to get a handle on. oddly enough, the winds are still quite significant here. and it's not raining anywhere near as hard as it was raining sometime ago. we have had some residents who i think are believing the worst

has passed, and we have seen in the last hour 10 or 12 people come and take a look. some people who lived here 25 years and never have they seen the beach covered like this, and a foot or two deep in some areas that we can see. further up the boardwalk you see flooding damage, and the sand berms wiped out completely that they built here and the water is flowing underneath. there's definitely water in the street, and a lot of local residents, anderson, said they thought it was going to be worse than this. >> let's hope that's as worse as it gets. our coverage continues with hurricane irene in just a moment.

welcome back to the continuing coverage of hurricane irene, still a category 1 hurricane. there had been hope by the time it hit new york it would be downgraded to a tropical storm. that is not the case as of the 8:00 a.m. advisory. it's still a category 1. we're seeing flooding down in the south street seaport, and down in battery park where mary

snowe is, and soledad o'brien is on the hudson river in the west side of the new york in the meat packing district. are you seeing a lot of water in the streets there? >> reporter: anderson, tons of water in the streets. you can see it behind me. they have been able to push one of the cars out. but if we go this way, see the vehicle still under water? the water has rizen three inches in the last couple minutes. across the way is the hudson river, and the hudson river has overflowed its banks. the same issue as you turn this way, and we look at some of the apartment buildings, and their water is just pouring into them. you can see two feet of water there probably, anderson, so lots and lots of water. >> how far does the water come

in? i don't have a return so i can't see your shot. how extensive is it? i think we lost soledad. let's check in with jacqui jarvis. >> we have been tracking the storm on doppler radar, and it appears the center is almost right over you, and very central to your location, over new york harbor and potentially making landfall over the coney island area. and we're monitoring the progress of the storm and we're seeing great heights with the surge as well. we're seeing a jump here at battery park. up to 9.4 feet in battery park. that's a significant rise that has taken place in the last hour as it continues to jump up. there you can