and helping in any way to prioritize critical infrastructure to get power restored to those kmubts. our expectation is this will take days -- not hours but days to get that done. >> the storm hit the south even harder when it first struck taking lives in north carolina, virginia and florida, the extent of property damage is anyone's guess and it's not over yet. jonathan mann, cnn. hello, again, everyone, i'm fredericka whitfield. >> and i'm brook baldwin. here we go at the world headquarters in atlanta cover s tropical storm irene. let's talk new york city after lashing manhattan irene is barreling through new england where it is dumping heavy rain. the storm made landfall twice overnight, both cases -- actually the first case is a hurricane in new jersey and then as a tropical storm at coney

island in new york. >> on long island irene's storm surge flooded downtown long beach. some streets in manhattan also flooding but the water started to recede and new york's evacuation order is being lifted this hour. in its sweep up the coast irene has killed 15 people across six states. more than 4 million people overall without power and these amazing pictures show some of the damage when irene made landfall as a hurricane. for place like new york city, the storm wasn't as bad as many feared but as janet napolitano said earlier today, it's not over yet. >> no matter where you are from north carolina to maine, we encourage you to stay off the roads as much as possible so that we can keep them clear for first responders and for vehicles who are working on power restoration.

we also encourage everyone to continue listening to the instruction of their state and local officials and to advice the ready.gov for tips on how to stay safe after the storm. >> we want to show you more of the images because this storm 'ferocious march up the coast left a trail of destruction and put a number of people in harm's way. even with all of the advance planning and warnings, a number of people were cut in very precarious situation. this video shows the rescue crews in the boats, trying to help these people in a home in elmsford get to safety. they had to be rescued by boat when the floodwaters came rushing in. also this, irene's storm surge sent a life guard station tumbling. there it goes, along the waters. this is off the long beach in new york. it's -- we're told a small building but the forgs of the water there, you see it lifting off the foundation, pinning it against the boardwalk. also a boat off the coast of the

atlantic islands in new jersey, not faring so well in the storm. irene's floodwaters caused it to sink. of course, we have reporters all along the storm zone to bring you the latest. gary tuckman in newport rhode island and soledad o'brien is in new york city. the evacuation orders for parts of new york was actually lifted minutes ago, hundreds of thousands of people left for higher ground ahead of irene but today the storm pushed the rivers on either side of manhattan over their banks and into the streets but good news now, a lot of water receded but just a little bit of wind they are still experiencing. >> just a little backdrop from soledad o'brien. it looks like a few people have left now. >> they are all on this side. you know, the wind has really

picked up. it's funny, when you cutaway from me, the wind blows hard. when you come back it slows down. but the evacuation order lifted and we can expect to see people coming back from the high rises, evacuation zone a they called it chgs a mandatory evacuation, this is landfill and the concern was that if people didn't get out and the storm was as bad as they thought it would be and if lots of water rushed in there would be major problems in the high rises, they got people out here. now people are allowed to come back. also we're being told that the staten island ferry is running and the city is slowly getting back to normal. i've been getting tweets from people. what's the best place to have breakfast. it's an indication of how quickly the city comes back. as the mayor said, we dodged a bullet. things could have been bad here. there was a point and i think we had video that we shot earlier where i was report gs just a bit

north of where i am now where the water started to recede. the hudson topped its banks and overflowing 2 feet deep then started to recede. i want to show you a walk and talk we did. you can take a look. a little bit of good news to report. first, not that much rain which has been nice. earlier it was coming down hard. take a look at the flooding over here. just a couple of inches at this point. this was frp higher, much deeper water, just about 90 minutes ago. that is clearly going down. some of that probably due to the fact that high tide was 8:00 this morning, a couple hours later. that's probably helping. let's come on this side. you'll see what i was sloshing through just an hour and a half ago. if you remember, we had inches and inches of water and down here 2 feet of water because this is the had you hudson rive

here. this was not only was it overflowing its banks. it had overflowed its banks to a large degree. this was all covered in water and remember i stood up here to get out of the way. look at that. it has drained from the area. that combined with the fact that we're not seeing high winds, we're not seeing heavy rain is boding very well for the people in lower manhattan because flooding has been the big issue all morning. we shot the video more than three hours ago. you can see even that long ago, the water was receding, all of that has cleared out. water came to up to where i am and people are coming out. i would say enjoying the weather because it was sni for a little but but not getting windy. that's why we don't have as many folks behind us. back to you in the studio. >> enjoying the weather, i think that's fair to say if you were treating and where to find breakfast earlier today. >> soledad o'brien, thanks so

much. it's important to steer the conversation to rhode island where we have gary tuckman. he rode it out apparently with a number of families, oh, captain, how did they fare in the storm? >> reporter: a bountty of boats, that's a great term. we're standing on a 50-foot fishing boat called the blondy. some boats have suffered damage but not as bad as it could have been. the reason i'm standing here, the reason it's named the blondie because the owner and son are blondies this is dan and fin boynton. they made the decision to sleep on this boat overnight in the middle of what was at that time hurricane irene, became tropical storm irene. first of all you're doing okay, which is great. >> doing great. >> reporter: what was the scariest moment? >> i would say probably about two hours ago with the gusts

from the tail end of it. >> reporter: these were some of the strongest winds, it's gotten very windy. >> we lost power around 10:00, we switched over to generator. that -- having that helped. >> reporter: the heavy rains came 3 or 4 or 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning and the water -- bob you can show where the water was standing, up into the ground right there. that must have been scary as the water levels went out. the staff here did a great job. they relieved some chains off this dock in case the water rose too far. and that would have been a big problem here. they were here early in the morning for the 7:30 high tide. and it all worked out. >> i know you're an expert boater. if you did it over, would you stay in the boat again? this could have gotten worse rather than better? >> i really would have. i feel it's riding the storm out like this, gary, is better in the water.

>> what do you think, fin? >> would you do it again? i would actually, yes. >> >> reporter: i was in a comfortable hotel. i'll tell you that story later. either way, brook back to you. i can tell you here in newport they are considering themselves very lucky, this is a very vulnerable city. there have been damage to the boats. >> a couple of boats lost the tops. >> reporter: the tops here, this is a bimini tops. this bimini top remains. >> glad they had an interesting ride of the storm last night. >> i suppose so. this story is not over. we need to stress that. irene -- >> still potentially dangerous. >> absolutely, chad myers, tell us why irene is right now? >> the potential now as the storm moves up into connecticut and even the rain up into vermont and new hampshire, the potential is still for the flooding. and so the flooding remains and the heavy rain remains from

bangor northward, into vermont and even into pennsylvania. this little tail end of a blue rainfall band right here. not that significant when it comes to rainfall but that's where the heaviest wind will coke back into new york city in two hours. this is where the heaviest wind is. it will move back into the city about 5:30, 6:00 tonight, that's when the winds will blow from the west. if anything is on the ground, that debris will fly around again. may want to be inside for that. there's an awful lot of rainfall still coming in from syracuse into burlington and springfield. significant flooding going on. i'll change the map to our flood warnings and there are just flash flood warnings all the way from maine back into vermont, new hampshire and down into even pennsylvania. i saw this coming out of an area that my parents are from, wyoming county in pennsylvania, from dallas to dupont, he hadwards vil, harvey's lake, and

all flooded now because the rain that fell about two hours ago. it's not that it's probably going to rain for the rest of the day in some spots but the rain that came down has to run off. and it goes into the creeks and streams and they go up very quickly. they go down quickly too. it's when it's hup you have to watch it and don't drive through it. >> a lot of city and state government leaders are still asking people to stay inside because even though it may not be raining anymore, maybe you don't have giant gale force winds, you have the potential of a lot of trees because of saturated ground coming down and that is a big problem we're seeing up and down the east coast. chad, thanks so much. >> you're welcome. >> of course that soggy mess being left behind not just in pennsylvania, not just in new york but also in the mid at lancaster tick states, washington, d.c., maryland, virginia. you'll see images from

connecticut as well. we'll check in with our affiliate from connecticut, d.c. and massachusetts all straight ahead. >> we come from hearty stock, we ain't moving. >> you're not moving? >> we're not moving. >> reporter: clearly that is the case. >> that is the best reality show you're going to get. >> reporter: are any of you concerned about the storm? i'm sorry? >> only my children. wants to have me committed. he lives in georgia, what does he know. >> you're not priflous about this. we take it seriously but the alternative is a nightmare. >> reporter: the alternative being in a shelter. >> not only being in a shelter but not knowing where we will be, our health does not permit most opportunities that have been offered to us. i think that's serious. we haven't heard anything from the top level that takes that into account. hey can i play with the toys ?

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in boston. in new york. >> this is going to be a problem for tomorrow morning will the waters recede so people can get where they need to go on a monday morning? and that commute as well. we have trees down all across roadways as well. we've seen a number of pictures of roads covered by those trees. these are pictures from lynn den hearse t, as mobile 2 has been driving around the tri-state area we have been seeing trees down and very difficult to get around. >> let's go to kyw, our affiliate in philadelphia. >> no one hurt fortunately, not any major damage but it's pretty clear that with the soaking that they got down here and in many parts of our area combined with this second shot of winds from irene, that sent the trees toppling and of course they were blocking the sidewalks and streets and a lot of emergency calls here within the last few hours. fortunately again, no injuries.

the winds seem to be dying down and now for the merchants here a new challenge. irene may not have packed the wallop with rain and flooding and winds we might have expected but she did have a big economic impact. a lot of merchants along the jersey shore lost three or four days of business and they will be scrambling to catch up as the labor day weekend approaches one of top income weekends for the entire summer. that's it live from the boardwalk in wild wood, cbs news. >> from pennsylvania let's move to new jersey. more than 250 roads in new jersey are closed and that is where irene roor roared ashore. they expect more flooding as the rivers crest tomorrow into tuesday. joining me on the phone dawn zimer. let's do this quick assessment. what are you seeing midday here sunday? mayor zimer, are you on the

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we're getting great pictures and video from our ireporters all along the east coast giving us an idea what they experienced. take a look at this with maryland eastern shore. a whole lot of heavy rain and he took advantage of it. he and some friends tied a tow rope to the back of a car and then he went street surfing. >> does is this fall under the

don't try this at home category. >> you don't want to try this. you'll see when a big power pole comes by, he let's go. very smartly of that rope. not to get tied up in it. anyway, he was going about 10 miles per hour. so yes, it was very dangerous. there it is right there. thank goodness he let go but you know what, he says it was better than being stuck inside. thankfully there's a happy ending and nobody got hurt. >> i know people get stir crazy, but i don't know about that. >> he's a thrill seeker. >> meantime, flights, they got canceled leading up to this. >> trains. >> a lot of public transportation got interrupted and hopefully now some areas will return to some sort of normalcy now that irene is making its way way up to new england. alexandra steele now back with us. at the travel wall, let's call it. >> let's call it that.

i heard soledad saying new yorkers are so resilient, where's the best breakfast, new york times, want to do the cross word puzzle. everyone is getting back on track. are the airline or airports following suit? an interesting perspective. this is called flight tracker. it's a quick at the second snap shot of what's happening 30,000 feet above us. all of the blueses are planes coming and going. this is what's left of the hurricane to give you a perspective in terms of where we are. right here is long island, nantucket. we have 5,000 flights in the air, usually every day on average there's about 30,000 flights. right now we've got five. let's follow the path of the hurricane. see how these airports are bouncing back in the same kind of movement and momentum and path irene took. we start off in norfolk and show you. ten flights now heading into norfolk, virginia of the move

things further north into washington, dull less and reagan. 84 flights in dulles. going to philadelphia right now, what do we have? zero. airports not open, closed. not accepting departures or arrivals. looking on the docket i saw an 11:00 and 12:00 coming from canada arriving in philadelphia, not canceled. we'll see how that goes in terms if you have flight plans in philadelphia. to new york city we go, what's cooking there? zero. nothing happening in or out. a thousand port authority officials are on the move to get the planes back as soon as possible. expectation in new york for all of the new york airports including islip and laguardia and kennedy, back open tomorrow. >> maybe the case for mta. >> such an erie experience not to have the yellow tape across the subway entrances and exits.

>> new yorkers love the subways. for now the cab drivers are getting extra business. >> working double time. >> alexandra, thanks you. live breaking news coverage of the tropical storm irene continues. we'll go to providence, rhode island where we have kate bolduan standing by. >> let's look at the amazing images of now tropical storm irene as it slammed into the northeast earlier today. ♪ [ female announcer ] something unexpected to the world of multigrain... taste. ♪ delicious pringles multigrain. with a variety of flavors, multigrain pops with pringles.

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even kids know it's wrong to treat new friends better than old friends. at ally bank, we treat all our customers fairly, with no teaser rates and no minimum deposit to open. it's just the right thing to do. welcome back to our continuing coverage of tropical storm irene. tropical storm irene now kind of barreling through parts of new

england, a lot of the northeast is kind of in the clear and along the eastern seaboard. we're going to hear from the president of the united states coming from the rose garden to give an assessment of how federal response has been and where the rest of the nation goes from here. >> we know the president had to cut his vacation short. he'll be speaking at 5:00 eastern. we'll take that live. you can see the radar here with regard to the storm as it's moving northward, dumping all kinds of rain, record amounts of rain along the eastern seaboard and inland as well. the flooding, huge part of this story. it's left just about 2500 people stranded on the outer banks of north carolina. these are some of the images here. these are some of the first pictures we're getting from the damage in north carolina. as you can see, some entire sections of roadway just ripped away. when as a hurricane it slammed ashore as a category 2.

>> 15 people died across six states. some deaths came as a result of big trees coming down saturated the storm has knocked out power to more than 4 million people on the eastern seaboard and it could be a week before everybody gets the electricity back. the storm is barreling across parts of the northeast. in philadelphia the floodwaters are so high they are actually up to the street signs in some places and we've just received word that president obama again will be making a statement about the storm and its damage and where we go from here. that's at 5:00 eastern time. that from the rose garden at the white house. >> now irene being blamed for at least one death in maryland, but the state more or less largely escaped the storm's wrath. emergency crews are out and about assessing the damage there and many marylanders are in recovery mode. let's go to chris lawrence. live now.

this is chesapeake beach, maryland. chris, i'm guessing maybe sunny skies for now but what do you see around you? >> yeah, brook. this is a world of difference from what it was 12 hours ago. now i look around and see the water levels have dropped so far from where they were. i'm looking at beach where beach didn't even exist before and the waves were literally just lapping up against the shore. the big worry here wasn't so much the wind. it was the storm surge, especially with high tide coming in overnight. they were very much worried about how much water was going to get pushed onshore. the way the winds moved, it sucked more of the water out instead of pushing it in. a lot of people are breathing a sigh of relief. you mentioned the death in maryland in queen ann's county. the wind did collapse a chimney on to an elderdy woman's home and killed her. we've been talking to people all morning. it's amazing how many other

people came very close to having a similar tragic story. we spoke with one man who said the power went out in his house about 8:00 at night. and it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to him. >> the lights went off, i went downstairs to work a crossword puzzle in the basement. and i was going to go upstairs in a little bit once i was getting tired. all of a sudden i hear wham wham and all of a sudden coming through the floor are the branches and scared me to death, otherwise i would have been in my bed and have been crushed. >> reporter: you know, the day after the hurricane it's hard to believe all of this just happened so soon after. of course right now bright sunny -- just incredibly beautiful day. 800,000 in maryland without power. we've been talking to them here saying they are hoping to get back in their homes and get

everything normal as soon as possible. >> chris, i'm curious is the bigger story downed trees, lack of electricity as we're now getting the first images of the damage, some 24 hours later? >> reporter: yeah, a lot of roads are closed. we were told that if and when we want to make our way back to d.c., we'll have to take a very round about way because a lot of main roads have been closed. trees down on homes and a lot of power lines down. crews getting out late this morning and this afterto look at the damage. >> we're looking at it right here, amazing. >> what's interesting, chris, the optimists along the beaches are hoping that people will turn around and come back. a lot of businesses opened up at 9:00, the beaches reopened by midday today. >> labor day weekend next weekend. >> are you seeing traffic going krogs the bay bridge helding

back towards the beach? >> reporter: well, you know, there's a restaurant here that i was talking to a lot of folks here this morning. it was one of the few that actually kept power, one of the only places. everybody i was talking to in there was from all over maryland. people from three or four counties over who didn't have power. apparently for whatever reason the rod and reel, this is the only place that kept power and it has been packed all morning with people. i think when people hear when you come out and they are used to being around the beach and the fact we're coming out to the end of summer and people know fall is on the way, they'll take every opportunity they can get to experience a day like this one. >> thanks so much, chesapeake beach, maryland. let's head northward to the small state of rhode island. it too had big problems with a lot of wind. but thankfully they are for most part in the clear. we'll find kate bolduan in

providence. looks like the wind died down significantly since we spoke to you about an hour ago. >> reporter: i'm going to say that then probably get a big gust of wind which seems to know as you know whenever we come on air, we get the big gusts. the wind has seemed to die down quit a bit. we have been getting rain off and on but nothing like people expected. much of what i heard from chris lawrence and many of my colleagues across the eastern seaboard, i can mir or that in saying many people here are relieved that what rhode island experienced was much less than they anticipated and that they had feared. i will tell you the challenge they face now is similar as other cities and states across the east is that they have a challenge now, a power problem really with the wind damage and wind gusts that we're still being told that we could be getting more wind gusts later this afternoon. there's a big concern and big challenge ahead of them in the cleanup as well as trying to get people back online, get power

back to the homes here. we're hearing that it's possible that some half of all of the power customers in the state of row island could be without power. we're trying to confirm the latest as these numbers change minute by minute. that is one of big problems we have. after the last live shot we jumped in the car to get around providence to see what we could see. a lot of debris in the road and we're hearing in neighboring towns like warwick, a lot of downed power lines and trees in the road. that town has restricted travel to only emergency vehicles until further notice because it's just not safe enough and they don't want people on the road. people i'm sure are getting stir crazy and not wanting to stay in their homes anymore. we stopped by a local dominos, seemed to be the only business open several miles radius. they say they are the only pizza place that is open and they are turning out 300 pizzas per hour

because they have so many requests and trying to get more drivers because at this point, the conditions aren't harsh enough that it's scaring people to stay out and they are hungry. big business in the pizza business today. >> i'm sure. >> a lot of pizza eating tonight in providence, rhode island. >> let's go to new jersey. 250 roads are closed. that's where irene roared ashore this morning. the storm triggered flooding there and the officials expect more flooding as rivers crest tomorrow into tuesday. joining me now on the phone of hoboken new jersey is dawn zimmer. dawn, from what i know about hoboken, it's kind of like a bowl. a lot of the city is already under sea level so it doesn't take much for your city to flood. >> yeah, unfortunately when we have high tide and heavy rainfall we get flooding and that's exactly what happened with this storm. and hoboken is still half of hoboken is still flooded.

we are working right now to -- we're actually bringing the national guard has brought in an amphibian truck to go into the deep water. we are bringing in some supplies to those residents that potentially could be spending another night in their homes possibly without electricity just because the tide, the water just -- the river was so hudson river was so high, the water was not actually able to recede from southwest hoboken. and there is a possibility we're going back up into high tide and the flood waters remain. we're taking this opportunity to bring in supplies to residents who may need them and to make sure that they are okay. i'm -- we're working to do that right now. >> flooding and -- >> overall, i feel like preventative measures really kept hoboken residents safe and can't thank everyone enough for coming together and making sure

our community was safe. >> you know, mayor zimmer, people are saying please stay off the roads even if you're not seeing damage outside your door step. i know tomorrow morning it will be tough for people getting up and out to go to work. what's your message for people tomorrow? >> my message to hoboken residents is watch the news. we've advised them come back later tonight and we are hopeful that the flooding will have subsided but there is a possibility that portions of hoboken will still be flooded through the night depending on what happens with the floodwaters and high tide coming back. so we're asking that they watch our website, hobokennj.org and watch for updates. i think it's best they wait to come back to hoboken until later tonight. obviously i understand people want to get back and get settled in and head into work tomorrow. but there's still about 9,000 people in hoboken without

electricity and they are working hard to address that. but we had actually five downed wires and live wires in hoboken and they have come in and made sure that almost all of them now, just one just in jefferson that is still a live wire in the water. >> but four of the five taken care of nice and quickly. >> mayor -- >> mayor dawn zimmer. hopefully people will be able to come back tonight. but they need to check the website. we're trying to you know provide as updated a list of streets that are still flooded but western hoboken is still very much under water. >> mayor zimmer, thanks for calling in. we appreciate it. >> standing water a big problem in hoboken. chad myers, tell me more about where irene is. >> almost ready to cross into canada. there's new hampshire and vermont, the center 50 miles or

so south of the canadian border bringing the winds into maine and couple into nova scotia as well. some of that could be heavy. the good news is it is moving so fast, 25 to 26 miles per hour that there's not going to be time to make more flooding up there. the flash flooding is going on all the way up and down the hudson river valley into new hampshire and the heaviest flooding is very close to flishman's in new york where they are getting rescues going on. the rain is completely gone. this would be the center of the eye as it's moved on up and there's nothing left in the middle of the storm. the storm diminishing rather quickly. there are winds across philadelphia. maybe knocking down trees still here. simply because the ground is so saturated. philadelphia at 13 inches of rain before the storm another 6 with the storm. that's 20 inches in one month. any tree that doesn't have deep roots could be knocked down,

just with a gust of about 40 or 50 miles per hour that could certainly happen. these gusts will move back into new york in two hours. if you are in the city and saying it's over, well, not quite. west winds will be coming in about 40 miles per hour for you for the rest of the night. >> folks still need to heed the warnings. it's still kind of potentially dangerous. don't get too comfortable by venturing out. we're finally getting the images coming in of the damage broad daylight in a lot of cities and states, including this life guard stand when the storm hit completely moving. we'll continue to show you all of these pictures of the destruction and tack to the mayor of stanford, connecticut back in just a moment.

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a quick reminder we are an hour away from the president speaking live from the rose garden on tropical storm irene. let's now go to new york. one of the concern zones i know for the new york governor,

governor cuomo is long island. let's go to long beach, new york. susan candiotti is there live. susan -- i see a black screen. is she there? there she is. can you hear me? >> reporter: yes, i hear you loud and clear. >> wonderful. tell me what you see. >> reporter: well, now the cleanup begins i guess is what you could say because we're getting squalls now that are in some ways almost as strong as we were getting in the middle of the night when we were out here all night watching the storm approach. we're in an area called long beach. this is a barrier island. as you've been hearing in other locations, the damage was less than they had expected but certainly -- done. looking down the street here, this is one of the streets that runs parallel to the south

shore. one of the spots where -- here. that is typical. what is not typical is the mud that is now -- >> all right, obviously the connection a tad precarious there on long beach. we're efforting to get her back up live, susan candiotti at long beach. >> let's head further north, connecticut. it too is dealing with a bit of a storm surge, lots of wind and rain. let's check in and see how they are doing. about 600,000 people are without power in the state of connecticut. mayor michael pavia, you and i talked about the concerns of the storm surge. how did your city fare? >> fortunately we fared well.

the surge we were worried about the coincidence of the surge and the peak runoff of the heavier rainfall and then combine that with the winds pushing water back on land, we were able to dodge that bullet. we saw some surging. we saw some highways. it was a very angry long island sound. we saw flooding of roads. we saw some many, many trees down. in fact in the northern country, the streets are littered with branches and leaves, almost like a leaf confetti all over. the third leg of this storm, the tripod is the cleanup and restoration. and that's going to take us quite a while from what i saw and what i can see. we are currently without power, about 20,000 of our residents which is about 20% of our residents are without power through the city of stamford, primarily in the northern section. we're waiting for the utility

company to dispatch the crews that we were promised that would be here sunday. haven't yet arrived. unfortunately we're all ready to go and waiting for the most important people to show up. >> what do you suppose the holdup is? >> i'm sorry? >> what do you suppose the holdup is? >> i don't know. we're trying to get to the bottom of that right now. that storm that was anticipated predicted how many weeks in advance and now we're waiting for crews to show up. unacceptable. >> it's very frustrating perhaps just traversing because of the weather that is so widespread, might that be one of the reasons why? >> we don't know. we think that maybe the crews that were originally planning to arrive here in lower fairfield county in this area which was projected to be the eye of the bull's-eye, eye of the storm, suddenly found their way in other locations. that's the only reason i can give it.

but we're poised and ready to go. we have all of our crews on the ground ready to go. and to restore the power as quickly as possible. >> hopefully -- >> one thing missing. >> hopefully the 20,000 will get the assistance you're calling on there. mayor michael pavia, glad you all fared fairly well from irene. >> you can hear the frustration in his voice, wanting the people to get the power back on. we're getting a lot of images from you, our ireporters, from north carolina up to maine. we'll share more of the videos, special coverage of the strorm irene. back in two minutes. hey can i play with the toys ? sure, but let me get a little information first. for broccoli, say one. for toys, say two. toys ! the system can't process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 central standard time. he's in control. goodbye. even kids know it's wrong to give someone the run around.

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all right. we've been getting a lot of dramatic images in. not just from our own crews but from our ireporters as well. take a look at what irene and our ireporters have delivered. tyler greenepope took this image of a little boy walking along as new york east river overflows the banks into astoria, new york. a little risky. that's the queens borough bridge behind him. the photographer told us the flooding was unlike anything he had ever seen. >> for more of these ireports, let's go to josh levs who is here, going through all these different videos. what are you seeing? >> ireporters are helping tell the story. it's a sign of the times, what's going on. main page, cnn.com, we have open story. this right here, all these red is are where we're getting ireports from in the path of irene. it's been going on for quite a while. click on any one of them and see

some of the images. these are some we had been getting out of north carolina. click farther up the coast. see some of the latest images coming from farther up. this image right here out of princeton junction in new jersey. i've got a video to show you. take a look. look at that street. you're hearing the wind against the microphone there with the camera. this is out of farrockaway. one of the areas in new york authorities have been concerned about. from rilwan kakinola. one more video. take a look at this next one. more of the same there. that's out of union, new jersey. where the streets are flooded. michael ramas went out there, saw some officials trying to figure out what to do and

working with the rez tesidents trying to keep them out of these flooded areas. we're following all sorts of images, photos, videos. if you've been in a position to send them safely, go ahead and join the discussion at ireport. we're also following pictures on twitter. these were sent out by north carolina emergency management. take a look here. they came in not long ago from the twitter of north carolina emergency management. by nc 12, showing the mayor breach. you can see that. look. gone. they sent out one more as well. look over here. see the water is gushing all the way up through. we're getting videos, photos on facebook, every which way. look at the screen. i'll hear from you throughout the afternoon and evening. cnn.com/josh. send whatever it is you've got. i encourage you to join the open story, to help tell this story. we're in a lot of places. fred and brooke, we can't be everywhere. fortunately, our ireporters are just about everywhere.

>> that last image looked like something chad showed us earlier. it was there. there was a piece of property there. it's now gone. >> it's gone. yeah, we had some aerial video coming in. now these photos are going all over on twitter helping reach everyone with the images of what's been happening so many places. >> thank you for sending us the images. feeling irene's power like very few have. you know that there are hurricane hunters out there? we leave hurricanes. she flies into them. we'll talk to her on the other side of the break.

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like captain nicole mitchell. mitchell is a hurricane hunter. did you know that existed? she actually flies right into the eye of the storm. she did so when irene was still a category 1 hurricane. she did so seven times. nicole joins me by phone from savannah, georgia. forgive me. i've been on the west coast on vacation. i have not gotten to talk to you yet. i'm excited about it. let me just ask you, why are you flying into a hurricane? >> we're a military group that works hand in hand with the national hurricane center. when storms are over water, there's not as much data as what you have over land. so we fly right inside to find out the winds, the pressure, some of the temperatures inside the eye, how big the storms are. all those parameters that help the hurricane center then put out a better forecast. >> captain, you've done this before. you mentioned yesterday to me that you would fly about six hours around this storm. how did this one compare to previous hurricanes that you've

flown through before? >> well, typically when a storm is over water, we're flying inside it but an x pattern, through the middle, out a different side, coming back through in a different position. we've seen all sides of the storm and through those six hours gone through the center a few timpbt times to get a trend. because this was basically just off the coastline, we were only predominantly flying the east side. and with what the storm was doing, we were targeting winds more than normal. so we were flying out from the center a little farther than normal. usually we fly out about 100 miles. this time we were flying out as much as 150 miles because some of the stronger winds were out that far. which is unusual for a tropical system. usually you see the higher winds right next to the center. >> tell me what that feels like. what is that like being in that wind sheer, the kind of turbulence that you experience? >> it depends on the storm. if the storm is closer to land, then you get the friction from the storm interacting with land. that causes a