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>> shepard: churning up the coast. moving along slowly. over land right now in north carolina. the worst of it for nags head and the rest is still ahead. but up the coast there is an area that's getting ready for a storm that's not used to getting ready for one. that's along the beaches in new york state. particularly our correspondents in west hampton beach. it has this little strip of land that a tiny little strip that's bay on one side and beach on the other. down in west hampton dunes shut down everyone must be out by 10:00 a.m. right, jonathan hunt? and that's where you are? >> shep, that's exactly where we are. the mandatory evacuation order was in place. they wanted everybody off what you rightly said is a tiny strip of land. just a few hundred yards wide in some places. you can see out here the ocean, shep, already churning ominously. we are feeling a few drops of rain. here is the problem for all this strip of land. take a look at these dunes. they are at the most about 8-foot high in most places. if you get these big waves and

then a storm surge of just a few feet on top of that, you only need to be going over 8-foot and you come right back here and then there are all of these properties that line dubai road. what you are looking at right now is the dune deck hotel. couple people on one of the upper floors checking the windows. they are getting everybody out here. it's the same right along this road, shep. all the residents pretty much are going. we spoke to a couple who have not been boarding up. a friend of ours, steven lives out on this road. we were with him this morning. is he not boarding up his property. is he one of those who says we choose to live on the edge. we choose though live where mother nature can hit us. if it hits us. if it destroys his home, he said, so be it on another guy who we spoke to. he has a house, no insurance on it he was about to sell it he was about to sell it a couple weeks ago. changed his mind. now is he ordered there. ordered in 500 sandbags. he sent his wife off of this strip of land. she a diabetic but is he

staying. he is going to fight the water and get his pumps going as best they can. if they get a. >> shepard: kuhn is higher dunes are newer. two sections of them and frankly, if there is going to be a bad spot. that could redraw the map a little bit too, john. >> definitely. if you go further down, as you say, to my west the dianes don't even reach 8-foot. they are probably about 5-foot. but they are probably as low as 5 feet down there. it really could be very dramatic. as you know, shep, there was a storm here a few names ago. it didn't have a name. no name storm that swept through here and destroyed a lot of the homes. as people were saying to us this morning the homes simply weren't here. they relocated simply into the ocean. that could happen again if they get the storm surge. we don't want to alarm anybody but the authorities are saying

here you have to be off of this tiny strip of land. there is one bridge out. one main bridge. there is another bridge when which they are pretty certain is going to be in the flood zone. so that will be impassable. there is one bridge, they are closing it down right now to everybody. we will be able to get off, we're told, if we need to. we will be here as long as we possibly can to bring you the dramatic development as as they develop here. we're about 24 hours away from the real storm hitting us here. as i say you can see it beginning to churn already out there. ominous to everybody. >> shepard: full disclosure, jonathan and i were at a beach bar across the street from there last night sort of celebrating this storm on the wait a minute people saying we have got to ride it out. is there a sense they will stay on that tiny little dune road? >> there is a few who are staying, shep, i would say it's probably just a handful. most people have woken up this morning. they have taken a look out at the ocean here. the lobby of the hotel where we

are staying here, the dune deck was full of people watching the tv. realizing what was happening down in north carolina and getting the realization that this is serious that they need to get off these kind of little tiny strips of land that have the ocean on one side and bay on the other. it's too dangerous. handful of people hanging around here but most of them are getting off of this strip of land right now, shep. >> shepard: jonathan hunt, west hampton beach, new york. out on dune road. best to kaluchi and officer brian. i want to get to the thick of this thing. hunter brown son the line with us. for those of you not familiar with swans borough, you are much like me i have never heard of it it's right off bear creek and right on the other side of a water way should be taking in a lot of water right over highway 24 there. i guess you get a little mess there, huh? >> yes, sir.

it's been pretty rough, especially since 8:00 this morning. >> shepard: is that right? i know you are not far from camp lejeune. describe the conditions for me if you could. i will say the winds were blowing between 80 and 100 miles per hour this morning. a lot of trees down. just and it blew steadily all night long. and we just noticed now that a lot of trees are down. but it could have been a lot worse. it definitely would have been bad if it was a 3 or a 4. >> shepard: it would have. the one thing about this storm is since it was a 3. it has what amounts to still a category 3 storm surge. the storm is very big. as the wind speed goes down. the amount of the storm surge doesn't. not immediately. the storm surge is going to be an issue here.

winds with the trees and a lot of rain because this storm moving counterclockwise. moving so slowly as it goes up the coast. that the land masses and the houses and everything else getting beaten on for a long time once it goes past you many areas than that one-two punch right there. we will be watching for that throughout the rest of the afternoon. as we mentioned the storm chasers with noah have been tracking eye reason. regular flights around this storm to determine its size and strength and direction and any interesting characteristics about it our cameras went along for one of those flights just yesterday. phil keating is here to front it. national hurricane center in south florida. how many days will they fly this plane through? do we get a plane into every time we have an update, in other words, 8:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., those are our

update times. >> just two flights a day. 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. the turbo props. each flight is 8 hours long. very lengthy flights. these planes which are basically 4 to 5 flying tanks. you can barely even see the fact that you are going through the eye wall. bumpiness. they crisscross and zigzag all through the storm, all through the tropical send all this data back to national hurricane center. drop cylinders down the tubes which pass out through the wing and parachute literally down through the storm and swirl and swirl and swirl and send back critical information. >> temperature, humidity, humidity and wind characteristics. those will go right into the center models. help true up where is the storm, what is the pressure field. what are the winds doing? our photograph flew up on that

plane said his back is sore today. it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. it sounds a bit crazy flying through the eye of a hurricane in and around a category 2 or 3. but these planes have been doing that with every tropical cyclone basically since the 1940s, shep? >> shepard: the government is looking to scale down that hurricane hunter program, right? >> yeah. this is all due to the budget cut in congress and the fight to reduce the deficits. national oceanic atmospheric administration is slated for 1 billion-dollar cut in the house appropriations subcommittee. but a democratic congresswoman out of tampa is saying hey, hurricane irene is an absolute wakeup call. we should not be cutting the funding for the hurricane hunters from 29 million a year down to $17 million a year. that's a 40% cut that would severely reduce the number of hurricane hunter flights that would be available for next year and nobody knows exactly how hurricane rich that's going to be. so we will see how that plays out in congress.

raking through the beltway, shep. phil keating at the national hurricane center in south florida. phil, it's good to see you. i'm getting updates from my computer over here regarding situations in virginia. the storm is moving north, obviously. and things are becoming more treacherous. some pour outtanks northmor than 42,000 people in southeastern virginia are now without power. the resort strip essentially abandoned as it gets strong winds and rain all the way up virginia beach. also getting word of a sailboat in distress. virginia's coast and getting wind and rain from the outer bands of hurricane katrina. there is a 30-foot sailboat that's in trouble off ninth view street in ocean view, virginia coast guard is going out there to help them.

sailboat rescuing' news service wavy. let's listen here. >> that's kind of strange for being a hurricane. and went down investigated a little further and found out that there are, i think, two people on the boat and it's anchored they are trying to get in and they lost their motor. i know you're worried about making your savis last and having enough income when you retire. that's why i'm here -- to help come up with a plan and get you on the right path. i have more than a thousand fidelity experts working with me so that i can work one-on-one with you.

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>> shepard: 12 minutes before 11:00 on the east cotion. that's a look at the loop. the storm made landfall more than 2 hours ago now. it's making its way up across the eastern tip of the state of north carolina. and then it will trek up the coast. the latest models indicate that it will track right along the shore going right up by snooky's house and straight up into we believe it looks like somewhere

around new york harbor. the thinking earlier today was and yesterday that the storm would hit somewhere around babylon long island. only it knows jog at the last minute. i'm thinking somewhere middle island. now it's looking to our weather center like it will be closer to new york city itself. the question in the end is going to be is this storm come with new york city on the west of the storm or the east of the storm. if the storm moves east of new york city new york harbor could drape out. the flooding won't be as bad in the city proper. if it moves to the west of the city, that could flood much of lower manhattan. it could flood subway lines and cause a lot of problems for infrastructure. salt water intruce could be a big deal in the new york city working on redrawing the map life reports from storm chasers

there. we watched as what amounts to an inlet was being cut and this storm, irene is working to row draw the map in and and north carolina. we are expecting update from the national hurricane center. appeared behind the sheridan there which is falling apart. strength, conditions it's moments away after this. walgred for allergies and potentially harmful drug interactions. [ kate ] i can do this. [ female announcer ] the 10 point safeguard check from walgreens. there's a way to stay well.

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>> seven minute presidency before 11:00 on the east coast. there is a update and headline is not much has changed. hurricane irene is packing maximum sustained winds at 85 miles per hour with higher gusts. it is on the exact same track as we reported at 8:00 a.m.. the pressure 952 millibars is the pressure. that may not mean much to you. lower the number the more intense and more dangerous. you can learn by what is happening by watching the pressure. the pressure is remaining very stable at least by the way of the pressure. it is going over land that could cause it to break up and

lose the farm. watch the loop here. it finishes on. and see how the water is come around and ready to spank virginia beach. the worst of the red rain in the red there. it is northeastern side of the eye to the northwestern side of the eye. if you watch on the back side, look how the storm, the eye is right on the coastline and right on that coastline below cape hatteras and myrtle beach, it is dry and dumping the water on the land. the eye of the torm is over the land. fascinating to find out what happens when it gets back over the. how much break up intensity. we'll report for you this at the top of the hour.

johnathon is in atlantic beach, north carolina. you are still getting it there in >> we sure are. we may have been lulled in a false sense of complacency. it was qualm as the eye passed by . the tailent with the winds acting up in the opposite direction we are seeing it ripping the roofing and metal she'ding sliding by and a play house for kids in the hotel below me knocked over and behind me, the fishing pier which has been sustaining damage in the entire storm. now it is sustaining damage to the middle. rails are being pulled off. it is unfolding as we speak. >> three and half machines to the top of the hour. we'll reset and get you updated on the hurricane right after

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