>> and now it's the northeast's turn to face irene's fury. the storm has weakened a bit, but it's still very dangerous. in fact, we now know of nine hurricane-related deaths. and at this hour, 2:00 on the east coast, hurricane irene is turning off the coast of delaware, heading toward the jersey shore and then, of course, to new york city. glad you are with us, everybody. >> i'm ainsley earhardt. for the first time in history, a total mass transit shutdown for

the city of new york. mayor michael bloomberg has a message for new yorkers -- if you are planning on evacuating now, he says, too bad. >> time for evacuation is over. everyone should now go inside and be prepared to stay inside until weather conditions improve, which won't likely be until sunday afternoon. but we will get to this next 24 hours, i assure you. the city has taken exhaustive steps to prepare for whatever comes our way. >> new york has shut down the transit system. philly has shut down the transit system. boston is doing that as of 8:00 this morning. the winds are about 80 miles per hour. the rain already causing major flooding in some parts where the ground was already drenched because there has been so much rain in the northeast over the last couple of weeks. and we have gotten word of tornadoes in three states up in new england.

maria molina is riding out the storm with us and she is here to break it down at the fox news extreme weather center. >> we have had a lot of rain in portions of the northeast. so now we are getting a tropical system, which produces more rain than we usually get with mid-latitude systems. so this is an ongoing rain event and because the ground's saturated, we are looking at widespread flooding and are starting to do so from north carolina through delaware. delaware reporting up toa 8 inches of rain. if you look at radar, it is still raining very heavily. we got a two o'clock a.m. advisory, irene is a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 miles per hour. it has held together. the pressure has risen, 958 millibars, that's a sign of weakening. but the maximum sustained winds at 80 miles per hour. we could look at stronger winds than that and the storm is located just 15 miles to the south-southeast of ocean city,

maryland. and that makes it 195 miles south-southwest of new york city. and the system has increased in speed a little bit, just to the north-northeast at 17 miles per hour. so the storm system's at a crawl. it is coming. if you still do not think it's coming. yes, we are looking at a category 1 hurricane, possible landfall across new york city and portions of long island. again, there is very heavy rain, power outages reported across jersey. i got a report out of nassau county, where my friends did text me that the power did go out there and on twitter, reports of power outages across southeastern pennsylvania. there is rain as far as central p.a., very heavy rain at that. now the other risk are tornadoes, unfortunately with the storm system. last night when we were on the air, we saw tornadoes across north carolina. now there is a watch, including in new york city area, long island and portions of jersey in effect until 5:00 a.m. eastern

time. so the risk for tornadoes will be ongoing. winds across the area starting to pick up. norfolk, winds at 52 miles per hour and a sustained wind here at the new advisory, newport news, virginia, a sustained wind up to -- a gust to 68 miles per hour and a sustained wind at 48 miles per hour. so sustained means that it's just ongoing. so, guys, we are looking at the winds picking up near the center of the storm system. jfk with a wind gust of 58 miles per hour. the storm is still far away. and long island and westhampton, 38-mile-per-hour wind, flashflood warnings across the entire state of delaware, jersey. so this is going to be an ongoing event through the overnight hours. >> i was amazed to read about the wing span of the storm, 500 miles wide. if you are experiencing some of these events going on where they live and are wondering how long it's going to last, what would

you tell them? >> i have a track to tell you just that. so we are looking at, basically, the storm system being an ongoing event because it's such a big storm tdoesn't matter if the center doesn't go over your area. over 500 miles wide. so the storm will be impacting areas very far inland. as far as the times on the storm system, new york city landfall, i anticipate it after 8:00 a.m. eastern time, basically through 11:00 a.m. eastern time. so we are going to be looking at landfall there across the area, new york city or western long island, sustained winds right now, aiblght miles per hour. it is expected to weaken before that, to 75 miles per hour. but, guys, very significant storm system. and because this is such a long duration event, areas are looking at rain in the local areas over 24 hours. that's what we saw in north carolina. and unfortunately, that's going to be the story across the rest of the northeast. >> maria, i'm getting comments on facebook, one from joseph

noto who says, ask the meteorologist, what advice do you have for us after the storm hits our area? >> after the storm, that doesn't mean head out, start exploring. there is a lot of flooding. we reported about the flashflood warnings, meaning that's ongoing, d.d c., baltimore. once the storm is gone and, you know, you look outside and things look pretty good. there will be flooding and a lot of things hidden in the water. power lines could be down, it's extremely dangerous. we do get reports, once the hurricane is gone of fatalities after the landfall and after conditions have improved. so it's very important to stay safe after the storm. just stay indoors. let officials do the surveying. that's not our job. >> we learned our lesson there with katrina with a lot of fatalities after the storm, unfortunately. >> are you recovering from irene's damage? or are you one of those anxiously awaiting her arrival? we want to hear from you. the web is the best way to reach

us. facebook and twitter. maria molina has a handle. @foxmaria molina. send us your questions, your experiences. go to my facebook wall and post something. >> we are getting. i have almost 30 comments before the show started. send us your pictures. one of our staffers alerted us to this picture, showing the damage that the storms can cause. look at this tree on top of the car. this is in richmond, virginia. we are getting pictures like this up and down the east coast, sent to us via u-report. this is flooding, obviously. lots of flooding and it's going to get worse in many areas along the east coast. we have uprooted trees we are seeing, eerie skies. and this guy's standing in front of it. is that a child or a man? >> i don't know. but that's a scary situation

because the ground is so wet. we are talking about that with maria. there has been so much rain in this area, over the last several weeks or so, that you have this situation where trees are being uprootedded because the roots are not so firmly plant in the ground. >> you know. your children and wife hunkered down in a basement. >> they are. they are safe, i will be checking on them in the next few hours as the rain moves through south jersey. we are seeing it all. if you have a picture, send it through u-report or twitter or facebook. we might read your comments or show your pictures here on the air. meantime, more than 100,000 homes and businesses in new jersey alone are without power. the numbers are sure to go up. atlantic city, one of the hardest-hit areas. rick levan thol is outside. what's it like there in atlantic city? >> reporter: rain coming down again here pretty hard, rick in a.c., where 300,000 homes and

businesses without power. the rain collecting here on the streets and this is a storm drain. but the rain is above the top of the storm drain. they are full. there is nowhere for the water to go, so it's pooling up here. the side streets are worse than this. the closer you get to the beach, the worse the rain gets. we had to move our truck off the boardwalk because we were surrounded by water. this is up and down pacific avenue. there is one vehicle coming, it's probably a police car, that's all we have seen. there is a curfew in atlantic city from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., that's been in effect last night and tonight, until apparently the storm passes. and... they have been pretty successful in getting people out of town. more than 90% of the residents heeded the warnings as did the residents of the hotels. more than 20,000 hotel rooms in

atlantic city are empty. bad news for 11 casinos here. this is the last weekend in august, one of the busiest weekends of the year let alone the summer. and they are dead. there is nothing going on here. saturday night in atlantic city and it is a ghosttown. they are suffering financially. but at least, people have heeded the warnings and they're in safer territory. we were out on the beach earlier and the surf was very, very rough. and they were concerned that the ocean milt feed the bay because of the elevation. the storm surge they are expecting with high tide and a new moon, sometime early tomorrow morning. we are not sure if that's going to happen. we are seeing a lot of pooling here on the streets and things could get worse as dawn approaches. >> you mentioned the bay. this is an area here in south jersey, atlantic city and vettener and margate and

lomport. are you hearing about flooding in the towns near a.c.? >> reporter: absolutely. there is a lot of localized flooding. a lot of streets are under water. we have seen it for ourselves. we had to move our truck. we almost got trapped in a location not far from here. we heard about a police car that was in water. we heard about some civilians that had to be pulled out because they were in water. most vehicles are not on the road. there is very little traffic, as you can see and very little -- i mean, most people heeded the warnings. so you are not seeing a lot of carc out here. >> you are staying at a casino. all you need is a dealer and you are set. the pick of the tables there. >> reporter: they all went home it take care of their families. that's one reason they shut down the casinos, so the employees could be safe and take care of their families. they won't be back until they can bring the money back in and

the game commission decides it's safe to reopen these places. it could be sunday night tcould be monday. >> rick leventhal on the ground. >> no one can come into the city to work. movie theaters were closed last night. i was in bed by 8:00 p.m. for the first time since i was five. hurricane irene is not just dangerous, it's annoying for travelers across the country. airlines are scrapping more than 9,000 flight, grounding passengers as irene sweeps up the east coast. at noon on saturday, new york city public transportation system shut down. closing the city's airports to incoming flights. la guardia and jfk are being used as shelters and airports are not opening in new york city until monday afternoon. buses and trains are cutting back on service. amtrak saying no trains will be operating in the northeast on sunday at all. now, for a taste what have new york is going to see shortly,

check out what's happening right now, south ofinous maryland's resort town of ocean city, where irene is just 15 miles away. doug mcelway is live on the site, where he has been pounded by wind and rain for hours. how's it going there, doug? >> reporter: it's going okay. in all truth, it's going okay. the wind is not that strong. we are hearing of sustained winds of 80 miles per hour. i don't feel that. i would guess, maybe 40 or 50, gusts of 50. i don't know why that's happening. but that's a fact. rain, an entirely different matter. it is coming down hard. relentlessly since about 9:00 p.m., so that make its 5 straight hours. having said that, just about an hour and-a-half ago, we took a drive in the height of the storm through downtown ocean city. we probably drove about 20 blocks in a heavily laden suv, very stable. we felt very confident.

and what we saw was very encouraging. there was virtually no ponding in downtown streets with the exception of a few intersections. the electricity was on in the majority of the city. it is not on where we are, for 10 blocks that way or 20 blocks that way. but the majority of downtown ocean city has electricity. we saw the bay on the far side had not really risen into the street level. we saw in addition to that, no trees down. i saw not a single tree down. a lot of branches down, a lot of leaves, but no major trees down whatsoever. so very encouraging signs there, based upon what we have seen. based upon that, as well, i would conjecture, that most of the damage we are going to be seeing up the east coast from the storm is going to be more inland, from power outages and from major trees, old growth trees falling down. we have the summer foliage in full foliage right now. we have the root systems very weakened from the excess rain.

so we are going to have a lot of trees down. the other thing, of course, is the tornadic activity, which we have seen, we have a report of a death in queen anne county, the county that you come to when you take the chesapeake bay from annapolis to the eastern shore of maryland. a tree fell on a home there, one death there. in addition to that, we had a tornado in louis, delaware, about 20 miles to the north here, just beyond rehoboth beach, around the cape pendleton into delaware bay. apparently, a house was destroyed by a horr -- by a tornado. i am very encouraged. i don't know where all of this rain is going, back into the ocean, back into the day bay. but it is not ponding in downtown ocean city. that's the story from here. back to you in new york. >> doug, what's interesting, as you say, you have experienced the rain for five hours.

the hurricane is still 15 miles away from where you are. so you are on the front end of the storm. so does that mean we have five hours of rain on the back end of the storm as well? i assume so. >> reporter: you know, i assume so, too. what that back end of the storm does to the bay, you know, whether we see the water driven back up into the bay and perhaps back on land, that may very well happen. and these words of encouragement, i might be eating them five hours from now. we just don't know. >> we wish you the best. thank you so much, doug. i am sure we will be checking back with you. >> fema has taken heavy criticism in the past for handling natural disasters. but how is the federal agency dealing with the earthquake earlier in the week, the hurricane now? we have a live report from d.c., coming up. don't go away.

>> we have seen fema not perform to the level from time to time. they can be low and bureaucratic. i being you need to have a great conversation. is there a better way to do it? is there a better way to cooperate with the state? @@

>> for the most part, the streets of new york just deserted at this point. power has startedded to go out in some areas. almost 8,000 people without power already and it's just starting to come down. the full impact is expected to come later this morning and into tomorrow for the city of new york. a rarity here in the city. the national weather service has also issued a tornado watch. >> fema in the past has taken heavy criticism for its handling of natural disasters. you remember katrina, for example. but how well is the agency dealing with this deadly hurricane? we go live to washington, d.c. for more on that. >> reporter: hi. good to see you. so far, so good. president obama is being kept up to date on irene throughout the night from fema and during a meeting with fema earlier in the day, the president said it's going to be a tough slog for the cities and states in irene's path. the president visited the fema command center saturday to get a regional update on the plans for a federal emergency response to hurricane irene. he was having a conference call

with everyone throughout the region, including states and municipalities. the president told the staff then he's very pleased with what fema's doosmg he does have concerns but says they are doing a great job. >> what we heard, the biggest concern right now is is flooding and power. it sounds like that's going to be an enormous strain on a lot of states. and that may take even longer in some cases. so we are really going to have to stay on top of the recovery and the response of the recovery phase of this thing. >> thru heard that concern, the concern is response and recovery. the federal emergency management agency, fema, is prepared, it says,s and cities with all the limited partner they will need to respond and recover from hurricane irene. homeland security secretary, janet napolitano telling

everyone to realize that hurricane irene is a large and dangerous storm and people should prepare for it. >> some of our states are moving into the response mode. but other states that are further north along the atlantic citysea coast are still in preparation. so if you receive a warning to evacuate, please do so. even if you haven't received a warning during the storm, please stay inside. quote, hunker down, until the storm passes. stay off the roads, until the roads can be cleared. >> and fortunately, many people have taken heed to that warning. and since irene began making landfall, nearly 1.5 million power outages have been reported across four states. that number is expected to rise and likely will, adding to the power outages, there will be a need for shelter for those recovering from the storm. the american red cross, along with fema will be working with so many agencies around states and cities to help meet those needs. >> we have two-thirds of our

police either on the east kiest or heading toward the east coast. these are emergency response vehicles. this is going to last a long time. so those vehicles their will be there to go through the community, offering food, relief items, hygiene kits and the like. we have tens of thousands of prepackaged meals on site. we are able to feed a million meals a day. >> so the president wants to do one thing with fema and that is to make sure that they are on point and getting to a 24-hour operation, if need be, to assist everyone who will need some help from the federal government. and the president had an evening conference call with vice-president biden, fema's administrator and other top aides. he also told the group he wants to meet again sunday morning. back to you. >> all right. thank you for us. kelly, thank you very much. >> reporter: certainly. >> we have been getting a lot of

tweets and you have been getting comments on facebook. we have a couple of updates from folks out there. we hear from bonnie bell in warrenton, virginia. she says that the wind is insane. we lost power momentarily a few minutes ago. robert dubeznik says power lines are swaying in caldwell, new jersey. it is not even raining in bay bridge, brooklyn. don't worry, it'sing. and from morris county, high winds and pouring rain and mild flooding on property. and ryan hayes nmaryland, we made a slip-and-slide out of a tarp, trying to make the most of a bad situation. >> also in maryland, baltimore city, joe miller says wet, windy, falling trees, standing water. tone nestaten island says rain and falling. lisa in suffolk county, huge rain -- capital letters.

and from new jersey, rain, tree limbs down, the sewers are clogged, causing flooding on the streets. >> that could be a problem as we move into the next couple of days. we have heard from officials, this won't be a 24-hour-type thing. raw sewage making its way into -- you know, into public areas, could be a major problem as we watch all this. continue to send your stuff. there are thousands of floors,ers here in new york, oh glass windows and all of that type of stuff. that could potentially shatter if high winds come along. does the birth rate really go up nine months after a hurricane hits? geraldo rivera breaks down fact versus fiction. >> a single storm and a single event up and down the east coast. >> this is a huge, huge rain maker. >> the concern about the fact that this is a very low-lying area, it's a barrier island that could be cut off. >> it is going to be a true test of the infrastructure, whether

the roadways hold and you want electricity holds up, plumbing, water system, all of those things. >> fact or fiction? hurricane names are used just once. fiction. as long as a storm does not produce catastrophic damage, its name is recycled six years later. the last irene made landfall in 2005. a modest storm. she still claimed a life. fact or fiction -- duct tape will prevent your windows from shattering. fiction. covering your window with an "x" does little to prevent glass shards from flying. >> put sheets of plywood up and make sure your shutters are well attached to the house. >> fact or fiction -- keep the windows closed and locked during a hurricane. >> fact. despite the wives' tale that says an open window helps equalize air pressure, tell let wind and water into your home. fact or fiction -- tornadoes often accompany hurricanes. fact. the big cyclones often spawn

tornadoes. in 2004, for example, hurricane frances unleashed a record-breaking 123 twisters. and the final fact or fiction -- will there be an outbreak of expectant moms giving birth? maybe fact, maybe fiction. but several studies suggest that the closer a hurricane gets, and the loyer the barometric pressure, the more likely pregnant women are to go into labor. >> it was with a big bang. it was amazing. i never thought that we would be giving birth to our daughter in the middle of a big storm. >> anything surprise you out of that report? >> tons of stuff. >> i didn't know the duct tape didn't work. in new york, a lot of people are doing that. >> i feel better about not having done that. >> we haven't had hurricanes on the atlantic, but we have a ways to go. the lat notic hurricane season runs from june 1 to november.

so get insurance, if you are traveling. the weeks right before and after september 10 usually produce the worst storms. >> we are live all night long, as new york city prepares for hurricane irene. farther up north, states are bracing for a punch from the deadly category 1 storm. we will tell you how massachusetts and new england are getting ready for the hurricane, coming up next.

>> okay. so there is new york city and then there is the hudson river. and on the other side of the hudson river is new jersey. hoboken, new jersey, and the southern tip of manhattan. and that city is experiencing flooding in areas close tort water and we go live to the middle of it all. sharon, what's happening in hoboken? >> reporter: yeah. we day started at 7:00 a.m. yesterday. so bear with me. in hoboken, if you have been here on a saturday night tnever

looks like this! empty. completely empty. and that is for good reason, of course. the mayor of hoboken issued an alert to all businesses and restaurants and said, you must shut down at 8:00 tonight. and she also urged people to evacuates, especially those on the west side of hoboken, asking them, especially first-floor apartment dwellers that they had to leave, mandatory evacuation and then at 11:00, she asked everyone in hoboken to leave. of course, they didn't heed that warning. take a look here. it's pretty good right now. there is a little wind, a little rain. within the last hour, there was a deluge of rain. we were dripping wet, wind and rain sideways and then the band stopped. and we are having a break and we expect it to continue like that. it's not just here in hoboken. but the big problem, i should say, in case you are wondering,

what's the big deal? it's a category 1. the big problem is flooding. we have, as the ground here is saturated. we have had a record number of rainy days here. and this is just adding to the misery ands and that's the big concern. emergency officials are working all night, checking the storm drains here. they are concerned that there may be as much as 5 feet of water, flooding hoboken and that's the big concern. and they won't be able to get to the people who need t. that's why the big push to evacuate in advance of hurricane irene, coming in. so that's the latest from hoboken. i'll send it back to you and the nice, warm, dry studio. >> all right. thank you so much for talking to us, sharon. >> reporter: r. >> reporter: oh, yeah. >> hope you rest soon. >> reporter: monday, right? >> monday, exactly. we are all looking forward to monday. frank sinatra was born in hoboken, for folk who is may not know that. >> by the time irene reaches

massachusetts, it could weaken to a tropical storm, but the national hurricane service says that i that won't matter t. will pack dangerous wind, flooding rains and a storm surge up to 8 feet. governor duval patrick is urging residents, stay close to home tomorrow. >> we are planning for the worst. and just as the forecast -- the conditions can improve, they can also worsen. and so our advice to everyone is to stay indoors and off the roads from late tonight when the rain will get high, right through tomorrow. >> some of our fox favorites are sitting in irene's path. and we usually reach out to michael boden, but he's in buzzard bay, massachusetts, right now. he is on the phone with more. buzzard bay, doc, is that part of cape cod? >> caller: that extends into cape cod, the southern part of massachusetts. >> whews going on there right -- what's going on there right now?

>> caller: right now, just a light rain has come in. but they expect by 8:00 in the morning to have heavy rain. afternoon to have winds up to 70 miles per hour and in the evening, up to 5 or the governor said, 8 feet of water above sea level. a lot of flooding in the deep side houses. and one of the interesting things, though, is that they discovered traffic, cars. if you are on the massachusetts turnpike, they won't -- there won't be any tows. monday's tows. >> they got rid of tolls on the highways to speed up the evacuation process so people didn't have to stop and pay the tolls. have there been any mandatory

evacuations where you are? >> caller: there have been a few -- evacuations. we have gotten a lot of telephone call, warning calls from the concerned agencies in the southern part of massachusetts, pointing out where all the shelters are. and there are many people have gone to shelters. they recommended evacuation. but not around here. it hasn't been mandatory -- there are a lot of houses here right on the beach side. >> have you got yourself ready to go in case that needs to happen? >> caller: well, as it stands now, i am going to be locked in to where i am. i am looking forward to seeing how a storm -- a heavy storm looks. i have been a new yorker all my l. so i have never seen a hurricane in person. and it is not going to be a hurricane. but it will be pretty heavy.

rick, it's really beautiful out here when you have -- heavy rain. we are about 25 feet up. so as long as the surge doesn't get 25 feet, we will be okay. >> dr. michael baden, out in buzzards bay in massachusetts. good luck to you. i hope that you get to see the storm from a safe distance and can report back to us after it's all done and have you a nice beach day on monday. caller: thank you, rick. all the best. have a great evening. >> thank you, dr. baden. how do places like national hurricane center gather the information that they get on hiewrns like irene? they send up an airplane and they fill it with hurricane hunters. we will take a look inside one of these airplanes, an exclusive look when we come right back. hi, anne. how are you doing? hi, evelyn. i know it's been a difficult time since your mom passed away. yeah. i miss her a lot, but i'm okay. wow. that was fast.

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>> hey, guys, we have an update with the 2:00 a.m. advisory from the national hurricane center, something of huge concern. now we are looking at a storm surge across the new york harbor of up to 3.5 feet in the center of the storm system, still very far away, still 100 miles from new york city. so we will continue to track this. there is the topo tential to see tornadoes. there is a watch for new york city, long island and eastern portions of new jersey until five o'clock a.m. eastern time with heavy bands of rain from as much as state college, pennsylvania. so we are looking at very heavy rain and widespread flooding and flashflood warnings and we have a tornado warning in the state of new jersey. i hope everyone is hunkered down and in a safe place away from windows. there is a tornado warning that that could mean a tornado on the ground, potentially. so we will continue to keep an eye on that, the tornado risk

will continue in place until 5:00 a.m. back to you. >> good deal. thanks. hurricane irene is packing 80-mile-per-hour winds. you saw that, 58-mile-per-hour winds at jfk, knocked out power to nearly 2 million homes. the deadly storm has killed at least 9 people. joining us now by phone is vince jones with the atlantic county office of emergency management. if you are familiar with that area, that's in new jersey. thanks for being with us, vince. i know you have been working tirelessly to just prepare that area. how are you preparing? and what is your advice for folk who is live in new jersey? >> caller: one of the first things we did here, having the city of atlantic city, having to move that large amount of residency, evacuation -- mandatory evacuation orders went into effect on friday. and for the most part, along our barrier islands, everyone heeded those warnings and have evacuated. right now, we have some very strong wind gusts coming in,

tropical storm-force wind gusts, sustained winds. very heavy rain bands, flooding on the barrier islands. very significant flooding further inland, as the rain bands are coming in and the rain bands are actually -- they would come in, stop, come in. now they are coming in in a steadier pace as the storm moves up to our neck of the woods. and like you were saying, the storm is so large and it covers such a large area, the entire state of new jersey gizz going to get drenched and receive some wind dfnlght we have trees down, power outages, so for us, the worst is still yet to come until the storm comes up and starts to pool north. and we have the back side of the storm to contend with. so we are still not out of the woods yet. and people really, really need to follow this storm, you know, listen to the officials and like you were saying, highway patrolfully, they are hunkered down. >> vince, yesterday and into the

morning, we talked a lot about what to do to prepare for this storm. people were rushing out to get water and that kind of thing. now that the storm is here and very close, what advice do you have as an emergency expert? what advice do you have for all of us after the storm hits our areas? >> caller: hello? >> you can hear me? >> caller:s yes, i'm back. here we go. >> did you hear the question? >> caller: yes, i d. the most important thing right now because of the significance of the storm and the damage that is out there right now, most people, as you said are asleep. when the sun comes up, instinct is going to be let's go out and take a look at the damage. there is a lot of widespread damage. some wires are down and they are live. we are asking people, do not venture out. wherever they are, stay put. the emergency management officials, first responders, swreet daunting task at daybreak to go out. hopefully, the winds will subside enough that we can get out there, start doing our damage assessment and our search

and rescue. that's going to be may be necessary. we have a very large task on the response and the recovery side. the last thing we need to do is to encounter people who are out there to sightsee and take a look at themselves -- and put themselves in even greater danger being out there in the aftermath with the amount of debris that's out there. people need to stay put until the word is given that they can leave wherever they are at. >> okay. vince jones, thanks so much. caller: thank you. >> good luck. hurricane irene has set her sites on the big apple, shutting down mass transit and canceling flights. we will tell when you things are expected to get moving again, right after the break. >> this emergency is bringing out the best in new yorkers. so have a safe night. look out for one another. and weil update you again tomorrow morning.

>> welcome back. go ahead. sorry! >> we jumped on each other. but we take a live look at times square in new york city. you can see the rain-- the lens. i'm sorry, we can't wipe that off. i think that's a remote camera. >> good luck climbing up there. >> i am not climbing up there. but a couple of taxis on the

street. not a lot else as new york city braces for irene, which this shmake her way here sometime in the early hours of this morning. i think between 6:00 and 8:00 a.m., or those are the latest estimates i have heard. it's raining and windy. a lot of you are tweeting and commenting on facebook. i want to share something with you i have gotten from a woman on my facebook page. francesca deangeles, a new york state wildlife rehabilitator and she says to be on the lookout -- wherever you are in this storm's path -- be on lookout for injured wildlife, or wildlife that has been displaced from their nest because of the storm. an awful lot of animals. i saw one on my way into the city, a deer just off the side of the road. i thought about these animals and how they are braving the storm. so be on the lookout for them.

if there is any way you can help and call the local wildlife agency, that would be great. >> shelters here in new york, 91 of them allowing to you bring in pets. >> those are pets. she's talking about the wildlife. e >> in newport news, virginia, near the university. we have been out of power since noon. we can't leave our yard, due to power lines on our street. and a big oak tree fell across the road. and in our neighbor's driveway, winds are whipping, branches still falling. pretty severe in that area. >> live pictures there from atlantic city. casinos are shut down. >> hurricane irene has brought a busy new york city to a standstill, shutting down mass transit, canceling flights. julie banderas has more on what thut shut down in preparation for hurricane irene. >> the outer rain bands of hurricane irene have reached new york city. i'm in battery park, zone "a," evacuated. some 370,000 residents were

ordered, mandatory evacuation yesterday, to be out of here by 5:00 tonight. the mta also making an unprecedented move, in fact, shutting down all public transportation in new york city. that means no subways, no buses, no metro north, which takes you in and out of connecticut. no new jersey transit. to talk about the airplane coming in and out of the city, all cancelled flights, newark, new jersey and jfk international, la guardia, the three biggest, all of those airports are open for people to seek shelter. but no flights will be going out. as for public transportation, shut down until late monday. that will be a monday morning nightmare of a commute for a lot of new york residents. as we wait for the hurricane to come nwe are expecting 70-mile-per-hour winds, a category 1. certainly not strong for those of you who are sitting in florida, new york city, nevertheless, a very big deal and we are told by the new york city police commissioner, ray

kelly, who spoke with me earlier, that in fact, new yorkers are complying. they are compliant for once. they have heeded the evacuation. we will be continuing to watch and see how new yorkers weather this storm as hurricane irene makes its way, close to new york city. >> thank you, julie. glad people are listening to those warnings. a lot of new yorkers are like, hey, we dealt with 9/11, we can deal with this. but this is serious. another advisory at the top of the hour. stay with us for the late test as irene gets ready to slam into new york city. we will go to the fox extreme weather center for the latest on the storm. f!