uncork for a cause will start off with limited edition wines and sports collectables. courtesy of cory ross. thanks for watching bay area news. nbc "nightly news" is next. see you back here at 6:00. flooding not yet at its peak. major damage to report from this vast and unusual summer storm that stopped an entire region cold. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television from nbc news world quarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian

williams. >> it's been an eventful 24 hours on the east coast of the united states. let's get right to what is left of irene and where it is. surging up to canada, taking the rain with it but not the wind and certainly not the trouble like the flooding that is yet to crest. like the fact that millions of americans are going into this late summer sunday night with no power, and it may be that way for a while in some areas. irene is now technically a tropical storm and on its way out it's slamming new england. there's what looks like tornado damage in some places. some suburbs. and flooding like those pictures we sometimes see from overseas. this is vermont. more on that later. the pictures of the day might be these. the life guard tower getting moved off its moorings by seawater on long island. and the road undermined and cut in half on the outer banks of north carolina. the bad news? 18 storm-related deaths so far. 4 million people, give or take, without power tonight.

and 12,000 canceled flights so far. the good news? something made this storm let up just a little bit and just when we really needed it to, meaning new york city was spared the worst of the storm surge after all those precautionary evacuations. but we still have, make no mistake, a lot of standing water in a lot of places and a lot of beaches that will take ages to come back. that includes along the jersey shore. we have a team of correspondents covering the flood zone. we want to begin tonight with nbc's michelle franzen in bay head, new jersey, on the jersey shore. michelle, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the water is slowly receding from this street in bay head. just one example of the damage caused near the shore. but it is new jersey's inland communities that may have been hit hardest by hurricane irene. with the worst yet to come. water spilled over the floodgates on the rariton river

in new jersey, swallowing portions of this low lying community. >> we're a little worried now. >> reporter: marie hollow is worried. the town's new flood control measures implemented following hurricane floyd are now being tested to the limit by hurricane irene. >> we're afraid because now the wall is here and the water is going to come closer to us. >> reporter: floodwaters are now the biggest threat to new jersey's inland areas. >> this storm is transitioning into a flooding event. we're going to experience major flooding. some rivers haven't crested yet, and it's still raining. >> reporter: the first hurricane to make landfall in the state in more than a century crawled along the shore overnight. heavy rain mixed with storm surge and wind. >> it was pretty intense in the middle of the night. you could hear it howling. >> reporter: rick spent the morning cleaning up minor flooding in his basement. down in bay head, the rising waters of the banaget bay flooded streets near the shore. most residents were ordered to

leave their homes in the days prior. >> we have power. these people have no power. >> reporter: nancy walton decided to ride out the storm with her husband. both were awakened by the crash of a tree falling outside their bedroom. >> we knew about it 11:30, 12:00 we made a mistake by staying. but we couldn't go anywhere. we were stuck. so we had sent our family out of harm's way, but we were stupid. >> reporter: more than 1 million people had been ordered to evacuate the jersey shore. that included residents and vacationers in spring lake where the damage today was evident. look at the boardwalk here in spring lake. it's a two-mile boardwalk. i am told about 1.5 of those miles of boardwalk have been destroyed by the waters that irene sent rushing up on to these shores. >> reporter: in asbury park, storm surge reached the famous boardwalk but didn't cause any major damage. the massive storm left more than 600,000 without power. due to heavy winds and downed

trees. damage the governor says could have been worse. >> the fact that we were successful in evacuating over a million people from the most affected areas was a preemptive measure that i am confident saved lives. >> reporter: it could have been worse. but make no mistake, it was pretty bad. and the governor christie says by the time this is all over, it could cost into the billions. brian? >> a lot of standing water that's going to remain for a long time, michelle, you're right. first time we're seeing some of these pictures of these landmarks like the asbury park bo boardwalk overtaken briefly by water. the storm moving on up through new england. wild conditions for a time on the cape. nbc's ron allen in new bedford, mass, tonight. ron, what's it like? >> reporter: well, brian, it's still a bit blustery up here. we're expecting wind gusts up to about 50 miles per hour into the evening. we've been monitoring this harbor all day. one of the safest on the east coast. those commercial fishing boats back there have been rock solid

all day. but if you look over here, you can see a couple of sailboats tucked against that tug boat. they shouldn't be there. earlier today they were out in the harbor loose from their moorings, floating around, bobbing around. the coast guard, a number of other dockworkers had to go out there and rescue the boats, bring them in and tie them down. the last thing you want out in this harbor where these boats have come for safety are sailboats bouncing around like it's a pinball machine. some of the most interesting pictures, however, come from even farther north up in vermont. bratle borough, vermont. these scenes of a river running through the heart of downtown bratleborough, vermont. certainly not the kind of place you think of where hurricanes are going to have a big effect. that's how big and bad this storm was today. just torrents of muddy water rushing into the center of town. all that water is rushing into the connecticut river. which runs through new hampshire, massachusetts, where we are. all that water is coming this way and into the flooding problem that's happening up and

down the east coast and certainly here in new england. brian? >> all right, ron, you're right. i think the story now becomes new england. it's a matter of getting our camera crews, getting people in there and then conveying the pictures of just how bad it is there. ron allen in new bedford, mass. what a difference a day makes here in new york city. if you were watching last night, we showed you pictures of times square. it was under no curfew. it's just that we had so many mandatory evacuations here today, no one came. tonight, a little bit of humanity is returning, though to be truthful about it, it's nowhere near what the crowds and traffic would be like on a summer sunday late in the summer. anne thompson is there tonight. anne, a heard a stat from the police commissioner today. average saturday night in august they make 434 arrests in new york city. they made 34 arrests last night. >> reporter: it was a big difference, brian. just take a look at times square tonight. the people, the noise and the

traffic are back. all the things that make new york great. including the swagger. knowing new york took the best of what irene could give and made it through. i reen tried to bring new york city to its knees, pushing the east river into the streets under the manhattan bridge. burying railroad tracks that carry a quarter million commuters a day. littering streets with trees and branches. but in this well-prepared city, the mayor said the damage was far less than feared. >> nobody likes to shut down the economy of the city. nobody likes to inconvenience people. but human lives are much more important. >> reporter: new yorkers watched irene blow in with 67 mile per hour gusts on early morning tv. >> this is not exactly hunkers do down. >> reporter: two hours ago, i was reporting on the end of that dock. now it's floating.

>> reporter: her family made it through the storm. but irene crushed the suv her husband gave her for valentine's day years ago. >> i'm glad that my kids are fine. my family's okay. that's what matters. >> reporter: joseph morone and his dog hercules had their own close call this morning in manhattan. >> just when we passed the sidewalk behind me, the tree just, like, toppled down. >> reporter: new york firefighters took to boats to rescue more than 60 people, including three babies, from this flooded staten island neighborhood. >> when i looked out, my heart sank because all of the sudden the water was up to the level of the cars. >> reporter: here at the southern tip of manhattan where evacuations were mandatory, irene churned up new york harbor. but the dire predictions of flooding never came true. giving these british tourists a unique experience. >> it's so quiet! we expected new york to be arm to arm people. >> reporter: after packing up her battery park apartment friday, today jessica, her

husband and their dog moved back in, thankful to come home to an intact apartment. >> i think they were trying to protect everybody. if they hadn't, everybody would have been upset that, oh, they didn't do enough. >> reporter: even before irene left town, famously impatient new yorkers were already grumbling about tomorrow's commute. hampered by subway cars still in dry dock. >> it's frustrating. mother nature calmls. i'd rather take the proper precautions, shut everything down. >> reporter: mayor bloomberg admits tomorrow's commute is going to be tough. some commuter rail lines is going to be operating. no word on when the subway system is going to be operating. that carries 5 million people. it's going to take people a lot longer to get to work tomorrow morning. >> anne, then there's air travel. we have a really interesting looking graphic to put on the screen that has just enough lines on it to be truly fascinating. what it shows basically is the weather going up and out to canada and air travel kind of

finally closing in around the bad weather. it'll eventually fill in the gaps. you were at laguardia last night when it was an absolute ghost town. well, we may never see it like that again. it's going to take a while to get all that tin in here and fill those planes with people and start getting 12,000 canceled flights back online. >> reporter: it is. but it's going to start tomorrow morning, brian. the port authority says that they will begin taking arrivals early tomorrow morning at new york's three major airports, newark, laguardia and jfk. then they hope to actually have departures by late morning. you know what it depends on? that subway system. because that's how most airport workers get to work. >> i knew you'd raise that complication. all right. anne thompson in a newly vibrant times square on the last sunday night of august 2011. anne, thanks. now let's go down the atlantic coast. one of the first places to bear the early brunt of this storm.

though in typical veteran north carolina hurricane style, along with our own kerry sanders, atlantic beach, north carolina, to be exact, kerry, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this is where hurricane irene made landfall. and despite the hurricane's fury, things are in remarkably good shape. still, hurricane irene, well, she left her mark. along the north carolina coast where irene hammered the coastline with pounding surf and wind, today was all about the clean-up. on atlantic beach, crews started early, putting sand back on the beach. hurricane irene took direct aim here. yet inside the beach front tackle box bar, it's hard to believe there ever was a category 1 hurricane. >> but we were just tickled to death that no water came in. we're just waiting for electricity so we can get back open. >> reporter: with 100 mile per hour gusts, trees are down, and with power still out, today folks cooked lunch on an open

fire. on the outer banks these pictures of north carolina highway 12, the storm surge washed the road away in five places and left boats scattered on dry land. in nags head, frank spent today cleaning out his garage. it was swamped. >> actually, the waves made it worse. there was about two, three-foot waves breaking right at the garage door and coming in. nothing i could do about that. >> reporter: to the north, as irene hit virginia, it was still a hurricane packing a still powerful punch. the relentless surf knocked out a virginia beach pier, led to a mid-storm rescue of a couple and their cat stranded on a sailboat which winds tore the roof off this beach side house. in ocean city, maryland, where tourists evacuated, the boardwalk was buried in sand, but no significant destruction here. today the boardwalk was back open for business. >> it was a long time last night. but i can tell you, we dodged the missile here in ocean city.

>> reporter: irene spawned tornadoes in two states, including this twister in delaware that destroyed a home and damaged a dozen more. in washington, old glory over the capitol was tattered, but still flying. we got some additional photographs from ground level of north carolina highway 12. you can see here where the road literally just disappears. from the air it looks like a dotted line. the north carolina department of transportation plans to have ferry service to get people in and out of there while they deal with the longer-term project of rebuilding that road, brian. >> that picture on top, the flag on top of the capitol really gets your attention. kerry sanders, i'm glad the news is so relatively good where you're standing. thanks for your reporting over these two days. we're going to take a break. when we come back, two of the very best in the weather business taking on the question, what did we just witness happening here?

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these are all pictures from this storm. it got very, very violent. up and down the east coast. to talk about what just happened, and in some cases is still happening, two of the very best in the weather business, jim cantore is downtown lower manhattan. same spot where he's been for a couple days. our friend janice huff is still with us here in the studio. meteorologist at wnbc here in new york. janice, we'll begin with you. last night, and we've all become so adept at reading the radar over these days, it looked like the storm lost its back end. it became kind of an arrowhead going up. something, we have to thank something for the fact that it lost some of its energy. >> you know, we noticed a little bit of that early on. right before the storm made landfall at cape lookout, there

seemed to be dry air being intrained into the system. hurricanes don't like dry air. they thrive off moisture from warm oceans. they always tend to weaken when they move over cooler water or over land. that's what shuts them down. they need warm air from the ocean. this was getting dry air pulled into it. it gradually got more and more. it maintained category 1 up the coast, uppiersy shore. it dropped off a bit at coney island when it made land fall. winds dropped to 65 miles an hour. all the officials that made all the calls for people to evacuate here, you couldn't wait until the last hour to do it. you had to do it ahead of time so people could get out safely. >>s me to you, jim. there's always criticism people were overhyped, overwarned and overevacuated. you've been making the point for days, these are tough calls. never hurt anybody to be safe rather than sorry. i notice the water behind you is ski kind of getting boisterous once

again. >> reporter: here we are nine hours after landfall. we have still the strongest winds of the storm. and that's exactly what we've been talking about. a wind field that is just so large, i mean, look it. i'm getting rained on right now, showers on from the wash tub that is the new york harbor behind me here. just an incredible situation here. this large wind field, we've talked about a long duration wind event. that's exactly what we mean by that. where we've had some of the strongest winds again on the backside on this storm. track errors have been reduced over the past couple of years. we've been very good at picking out track. intensity is still a tough call. there's one thing that always stood out. a lot of it coming up on hurricane center discussion. the simple point of, folks, this is kind of an unusual hurricane. if you just go up maybe 30 stories or even 80 stories, the intensity of the wind goes up 20%, 30%. now that we're on the backside of that storm and we've got just enough sunshine, that 20% to 30% has now transformed itself down to the surface.

that's why some of these stronger winds. but we have not yet realized the scope and intensity of this storm. all we have to do is look to our neighbors in upstate new york. we're hearing of buildings washing out in troy, new york, right now. towns under water. as you showed in vermont, bridges washing out there. all the way over into ludlow, new hampshire, as well. the full scope of what this is doing and has done in spots to our south will not be further realized, perhaps, for another 24 hours. >> jim, real quick before we leave you, does your photographer have room to pan around and situation you and show us where you are in relation to this body of water? >> reporter: sure. yeah. again, just across, again, from the statue of liberty here. it is just a wash tub out in through here. mike, go ahead and pan around. earlier on across toward governors island, the wave action even just past low tide was being sprayed up on top of the island. an amazing sight. we've had coast guard cruisers out there today.

the staten island ferry from time to time. that's about it. it is just rough seas. that's what happens when you take wind, sustained at tropical storm force, and push it across the body of water. had we had this kind of wave action this morning, even on top of a foot or two of surge, this would have caused a tremendous amount of damage. not only here at the battery, but other places that had been evacuated. >> jim, thanks. looking for all the world like he's on a boat. thank you to you both. coverage will continue right after this. a surprise for you! a mouthwatering combination of ingredients... i know you're gonna love. [ barks ] yes, it's new beneful healthy fiesta. made with wholesome grains, real chicken, even accents of tomato and avocado. yeah! come on! [ barking ] gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. another healthful, flavorful beneful.

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island. look where we are right now. earlier today sustained winds of 65 miles an hour. right now still some pretty significant gusts. there had been giant dunes here. they werethe angry roaring seas. pan the camera and see how strong that surf is even at this hour. earlier today that storm surge picked up the beach patrol headquarters, literally rearranging the furniture as it were, throwing it against the boardwalk here. the surge also forced its way through one of the walls here beneath the boardwalk going into a parking lot here. that used to be a parking lot. a good spot for beachgoers. instead right now it is a murky, muddy mess. the same story down from us farther east in freeport. a lot of people dealing with heavy flooding tonight, brian. a short time ago i spoke to the governor of this state, andrew cuomo. i asked him what he thought about the mandatory evacuations. he said he was satisfied and said new yorkers are tough and they're smart and they're smart enough to know to get out of the way of mother nature. brian? >> peter, you know the winds are high when they sheer off the tops off a breaking wave.

peter alexander in sand whipped long island, peter, thanks for your work all day. when we come back, watching over some hallow ground right through a hurricane. -that's my . is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. is it a robot? no. is it a jet plane? nope. is it a dinosaur? [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] inside every box of heart healthy cheerios are those great tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. stickers? uh-uh. a superhero? ♪ kinda. [ male announcer ] and we think that's the best prize of all. ♪ my name is lacey calvert and i'm a yoga instructor. if i have any soreness, i'm not going to be able to do my job. but once i take advil, i'm able to finish out strong. it really works! [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] make the switch. take action. take advil.

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standing post, walking those same 21 steps right through those hurricane as they do every minute of every day. the largest public gathering that fell victim to all this, today's planned dedication of the monument to the reverend dr. martin luther king jr. monument itself was open. while there was standing water around it this morning, by afternoon, it dried up, allowing visitors to come admire the new statue on the 48th anniversary of the famous "i have a dream" speech. that is our broadcast on a busy sunday night. i'm brian williams in new york. we'll have a live update on all of us halftime during the football game tonight. we'll see you then. thank you for joining us now. of course, we hope to see you right back here tomorrow night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com