where cities from d.c. to boston are making emergency plans. right now state of emergencies have been declared in new jersey, maryland, virginia, connecticut, pennsylvania's been added to that list and delaware. where vice president biden is arriving today. president obama being briefed on the hurricane from his vacation spot on martha's vineyard says all federal resources will be available for the storm and the aftermath. the white house says the president will leave martha's vineyard tonight instead of tomorrow to go back to washington. >> i cannot stress this highly enough, if you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now. don't wait. don't delay. we all hope for the best. >> in for andrea mitchell today, hurricane irene is packing winds of 105 miles per hour as it barrels toward north carolina's outer banks.

residents and vacationers have been streeping inland and more than 50 shelters on are standby waiting for those evacuees. pennsylvania governor just redlared a state of emergency there as hurricane irene approaches. msnbc meteorologist jeff is tracking this storm for us. age lot of people said it went from a three to a two it isn't so bad, wrong. >> exactly. we're talking about hurricane force winds that stretch out over 70 miles from the center of this storm system. tropical force storm winds that are still wide reaching stretching out literally some 300 mimes. this is a strong, intense storm even though we've seen it waiver a little bit in its strength. right now on the satellite loop it's getting very, very close to north carolina where we do expect that first landfall. take a look at this, i wanted to show you and start off a little bit backwards with the come computer models. this has not waivered at all, with the latest update we have

this going up into the north carolina outer banks for tomorrow morning as we head into the next 48 to 72 hours impacting the delmarva peninsula also new jersey into long island where we could see the second maybe third landfall. as we take a look at the storm on the infrared satellite loop there's plenty of intensity around the center of the storm, the eye of the storm with the winds packing 100 miles per hour. on the radar, on the current view, what we're noting are these rain bands starting to move from georgetown up to will mington at 36 miles per hour it's going to increase from here on out. as we take a look at these hurricane warnings you can see all the way from willmington the evacuations. take place in long island a very rare and unusual hurricane for new england is still on track for long island as we head into sunday morning you are in a

hurricane watch into boston including the cape. so here's the track as a two entering the outer banks of north carolina as we head into tomorrow morning and as we zoom in closer what you're going to find here are some of the more, you know, detailed impacts of this storm system. we look for that strongest window of this happening from 4:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. tomorrow. then it has as we head up the coastline maybe our secondary landfall is actually into central new jersey at this point it's going to get very, very close as a category one storm and we look for this to move on up as we head throughout saturday and then you can see here this track taking it possibly across long island as we head to sunday some sometime at this point. as we always say with these storms, chris, we don't want to be overly focused with the center of the storm system it's so far-reaching this is a storm many people will have probably never experienced. >> and hope they never have to see again. jeff, thank you so much.

north carolina residents have been heading for safety. the state has declared a state of emergency. continuing preparations are going on ahead of irene's landfall there. kerry sanders live on atlantic beach, north carolina. kerry, maybe it's my imagination, it seems like the surf is up from several hours ago when we last touked. >> reporter: oh, no, it's definitely up. it's starting to spritz here. the sea oats are beginning to wave a little bit. it's an early indication. i can't help but think 100 years ago people had no idea what was coming. technology is really amazing that jeff can demonstrate to us what's actually out there. about three million people along the coast here are make their way inland. they're evacuating following the orders that there is a mandatory evacuation. some of them are heading inland to shelters. that is where the salvation army comes in. major mitt raymer is here with us. what are you doing at this point for those headed to those

shelters? >> we are prepared to feed them of course, we have 19 canteens with the capability of 1900 meals a day. we will feed three meals a day. >> reporter: what's for lunch today? >> we're talking it's the south. it's home cooked meal. it's going be wonderful. we want it to be as wonderful as possible because these people are being displaced. >> reporter: how long are you they? >> as long as needed. and the salvation army will be here. we're synonymous with disasters. we'll be here until the very end. >> that means that people don't want to see you, but folks indeed are making and heeding the warnings as the folks to the north see what's going on down here to the south from hurricane veterans they should understand have a plan. >> thanks so much, kerry sandsers. so experienced at these things. let's go to the state's lieutenant governor walter dalton. it's good to see you, lieutenant

governor. are you satisfied at this point with the level of preparation, where you are right now? >> i'm certainly satisfied with the level of preparation and particularly the cooperation we're getting from the citizens. i think the evacuation process is going well. since i spoke with you on wednesday we have thousands of people engaged in te vacation process and they're at the ready for the relief process a lot of local government officials, a lot of statewide employees, our highway patrol d.o.t., emergency management. you just spoke with the salvation army, the red cross is on the ground. fema has teams, our national guard and coast guard are ready. so i think we're very, very prepared for this event. it's not the first time we have experienced a hurricane in north carolina. but most of all we want to thank the people for their patience and their cooperation in this evacuation effort. >> you folks do have some in getting ready for these things, unfortunately. while it may work to your advantage, there are things that are out of your control.

what's your biggest concern right now? is it widespread power outages? >> that's certainly one of the concerns. you never know what the storm may do. there's going to be a lot of rain, wind. the main concern though is getting the people out of harm's way. when you see a hurricane coming you know it can be life threatening when there is an adverse event oftentimes that is coupled with human recklessness. we ask people to pay attention to the threats of this storm, heed the warnings, take advantage of the evacuation routes and those people who are there to help them. they know what they are doing and they will get you to safety. >> let me ask you a question if i can based on your hard earned experience. as u.n. yo, north carolina is the only state among those that are under a state of emergency that really has a large number of residents with any experience at all with hurricanes. so the folks up north, what would you say to them? >> heed the warnings. don't take this lightly at all. i don't know many people that would stand in front of a 90

miles per hour major league fast ball. i don't know why you would want to subject yourself to debris an object being blown by 100 miles per hour wind. it doesn't make sense. take advantage of these warnings. keep yourself safe, these storms are very serious and this is a very huge storm. if you stay calm, if you use common sense, then you will be safe. >> lieutenant governor waller dalton. good luck to kro all you folks in north carolina. thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> we want to go live to virginia's governor who is briefing, box mcdonald. let's listen? . >> we are going to have our outages that would be anticipated to be widespread and could last for days. this is one of those events that our friends in maryland and north carolina may not be able to come and help because they have their own issues as well. this is going to be one that will call for patience from our residents in order to work together to endure the impaktss

of this storm. so based on all the information that we've gotten, we believe that the impact is likely to be equal to or greater than what our residented experienced eight years ago with hurricane isabel, the storm surges, the flooding and winds will be broader in scope than what we experienced there because of the swath of this storm. those who lived through that eight years ago in virginia be prepared it will likely be worse this time around. here's what i've done so far, i've issued an emergency declaration yesterday morning. which begins to trigger a number of things. i have also made a request for a federal emergency declaration preland fall that will be requested this afternoon. we also issued late yesterday afternoon an executive order pursuant to my authority under the statute to allow localities based on their consultation with the department of emergency

management to order mandatory evacuations. that requires people to leave under threat of criminal prosecution to leave those areas and a number of local governments up to today have issued those evacuations. i want to tell you what those are because this is very important that people heed this warning and do it now. tomorrow will be too late. actmet county has upgraded to a mondaytary evacuation in certain localities along the bay side and the seaside. they can get information from their county officials. the city of chesapeake has a voluntary evacuation for all low lying areas and mobile homes. the town of chink cheat has a mandatory evacuation for all nonresidents. gloucester county voluntary evacuation for low lying areas and mobile homes.

officials are recommending that residents -- >> this is one of the thins that governor mcdonell is saying is something that we've heard a little bit about. if anybody is loving in a mobile home and they are in the path of this storm that's a cause of serious concern, but that news conference something we're hearing echoed time and time again state and local officials really warning people to pay attention to what's going on and heed the warnings. one of those places new jersey a little earlier chris christie was on the governor there. they have not been hit with a major hurricane in more than 25 years and the nearly nine million coastal residents in that state are making their own preparations today. lieutenant jim bennett is director of emergency management for brigteen, new jersey, he joins us on the phone. good to talk to you. explain a little bit for people who don't know the area where exactly you're located and why this storm is such a concern to you is this. >> good afternoon. we are located just north of

atlantic city. we are a barrier island. and we have one way on and win way off of the island. and what makes a storm like this particularly dangerous for a town like ours the back bay flooding along with the wind and the rain damage. in a hurricane storm the back bay fills up, if you will. there's not a lot to empty out with the normal tidal process. that leads to really high elevated tides. looking at a ten-foot tide which is enough to inundate most of the water. >> so have your evaiks finished? is everybody pretty much gotten out of town? what's the status there, lieutenant? >> unfortunately, we are still many the process of doing that. the order went out last night mandatory evacuation was effective at 6:00 a.m. this morning. we have a lot of folks who were coming back and forth from work. we are also somewhat of a resort community. we have a lot of second

homeowners here that come from pennsylvania and new york. they're all coming down today or they have been to secure their homes and the items that are outside. so they don't cause any additional damage. we're still getting people out of here. we've asked that everybody be gone that's going to go by dusk today. because at some point this evening the state and the county level officials are going to start shutting down the ingrass roads to the island communities. you will not be able to drive to brigteen or atlantic city or any other town. >> is it your sense that most people are heeding the warnings? that most people will indeed get out of town? >> i think so. i think after katrina and rita and some of the other big ones that have gotten a lot of coverage in the last few years, i think they're paying attention. we fielded a lot of phone calls in the police department and emergency management the last couple of days. we've been putting our stuff out on the social media sites and getting a lot of, you know,

responses back to our requests and it looks like at least the ones who have been through it before or have been through something similar are on their way out. you'll see small pockets of people posting up on facebook that you know, brigteen's taken over the fif floor of the sheraton. that's heartening to see that at least there are some people who's going to go. >> i suppose you have to put nit the perspective if everyone gets out and is safe the other stuff we can deal with. i know you have a long road ahead of you. good luck to you. >> thank you very much. >> as we keep that close eye on hurricane irene, again, high winds expected to start impacting coastal north carolina this afternoon. new jersey as we herd preparing for the storm. the casinos in atlantic city will close down for just the third time in their history. the other shutdowns were in 1985 during hurricane gloria and in 2006 during a state budget

crisis. in new york city the entire transit system, trains, buses, subways may be shut down as irene carves a path up the coast. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. hotel at the same time is a serious money-saving maneuver. book it! major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're helping set opportunity in motion. is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release...

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look at this. right now massachusetts governor is about to hold a news briefing on the state's preparations for hurricane irene. coastal communities in massachusetts are under a hurricane watch. and a tropical storm watch is in effect for interior sections of the state. we'll bring you that briefing when it happens. let's get some other news in, nato warplanes are striking more targets in libya today as the battle moves into muammar gadhafi's hometown. there's growing concern that loyalist fighters might train their antiaircraft weapons on humanitarian flights harr headed to the capital.

stephanie gosk is live in tripoli for us. what's the latest? >> reporter: chris, there's been additional fighting on a furm of different fronts here in tripoli and outside of tripoli. nato has been targeting some locations outside of tripoli in the city of cert. this is a gadhafi stronghold. it's the home to his tribe. he's thought to have a number of loyalists there ready to fight for him. there is an impending battle in that city. there are rebel forces approaching from both directions that want the loyalists in that city to surrender instead of fight. if they do fight, it could be quite a battle. also to the west of us here in tripoli along the coastal road that leads to tunisia there's been some fighting. gadhafi loyalist fighters have control of the border area. it's obviously a very important artery into this city and important for getting supplies in. also today we had battles that

have been going on for a couple of days. there's a lot of instability in the country. the hunt for gadhafi continues. as long as he's out there and his loyalists, this is going to be new fighting. >> stephanie reporting in tripoli. thank you. president obama is coming back from martha's vineyard early because of the threat of hurricane irene. he's warning americans in the storm's path to take the threat seriously. the politico briefing coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports." oh, nice hands! chest bump. ugh! good job, man. nice! okay, halftime. now, this is my favorite play. oh! i'm wide open. oh, fumble. fumble. don't want to fumble any of these. [ male announcer ] share what you love, with who you love. kellogg's frosted flakes. it's up... and it's good! good?! they're grrreat!

as we're watching hurricane irene, they're saying there's some very decision being made by lawmakers. in philadelphia mayor michael nutter says transit services are going to shutdown overnight saturday into sunday. so sunday morning at 12:30 half our after midnight on sunday morning they're going to shut down the city's transit services. meantime in new york, we just heard this from mayor -- from

governor cuomo. the metropolitan transit authority is going to be shutting down system wide at noon on saturday. that i know clouds new york city subways. these are the kind of shutdowns that are absolutely unprecedented. but again there had been talk of this depending on the sustained winds, the decision had been made. new york city subways and metropolitan transit authority in general system wide shutdown starting at noon tomorrow. in connecticut the governor there has delaired a state of emergency warning there could be prolonged power outages. residents are stock up on generators and other provisions. fairfield, new haven, middlesex, new haven counties all under a hurricane watch. the coastal communities are expected to feel the brunt of the storm with heavy rain beginning late on saturday and the storm moving through the state on sunday. now speaking from martha's vineyard where he's wrapping up his family vacation, president obama urged people in the path of the hurricane to take this storm seriously.

>> all indications point to this being a historic hurricane. the more you can do to be prepared now, making a plan, make a supply kit, know your evacuation route, follow instructions of your local officials, the quicker we can focus our resources after the storm on those who need help the most. >> joe williams is the white house reporter for politico. joe, i need you to stand by because vincent gray the mayor of d.c. has just started a briefing. we want to take part of that. >> our department of public works for the last 24 hours has been making sandbags available to people who would like to have them to address their concerns about the possibility of flooding. we understand the rainfall could be two to four inches that apparently this will come fully into the district of columbia. rainfall could go higher. of course, this is still an unfolding situation. we should expect tropical winds

that would be diminishing early sunday. perhaps winds up to about 15 miles per hour on sunday. and again maybe some flooding into sunday. we had quite an extensive discussion here today. the entire cabinet was here. the national guard was here with us. fema was here with us. as well as our other federal partners, our utility partners and members of the private sector. the national guard will be at the ready in the event that we need to deploy them, general schwartz was here with us this afternoon. we worked with them to try to prepare the way for them as well as fema. i think i'm going to call upon them to speak. >> let's go back to joe williams

from politico. joe, we have been watching literally a parade of mayors, governors holding these news conferences for the last couple of days. of course, we heard from president obama today. certainly it was a hurricane that in many ways defined the presidency of george w. bush. how important is this do you think in the way he and the federal government handles this to barack obama? >> i think it's very important in the fact that you have a president on vacation making a state his message was clear, expect the worst, but be prepared. be prepared for the worst. that way we can help everyone. the specter of hurricane katrina is still with us. that's another message from the white house. we all remember the photos of george bush peering out of the helicopter as we passes over flooded areas. barack obama does not want to get in that same situation. therefore he's advising people to take this very seriously.

it's not like there's going to be a direct hit on the united states or even on the coastal mainland, it's going to cause enough annoyances that the government is going to get complaints and everyone who can handle those complaints on their own leaves much moreth for federal response. >> thanks and good luck this weekend. >> absolutely. thank you. >> we are awaiting a briefing from mayor michael bloomberg on new york city' storm plans. we just told you that the governor andrew cuomo just order new york city bridges to shut down if winds exceed 60 miles per hour. that includes the george washington bridge and the tappan sooe. stay with us as we continue to bring you the latest on storm preparations. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. full-size truck on the road or because heavy duty made motor trend's 2011 truck of the year. no, it was good because you told us so. consider this a thank-you. the chevy model year wrap up.

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topping the headlines at the half-hour, hurricane irene is charging toward north carolina and right now packing maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per

hour. the probablity of a large storm surge has caused thousands to evacuate coastal areas from the outer banks all the way up the east coast. for the very latest on where irene is head on the how bad it might be, we're joined by bryan norcross, what's the very latest modelling? what can you tell snus. >> unfortunately we see no change in the forecast tract. right up the coast. we've read about in textbooks but never seen in our lifetime. this very well could be the hurricane of a lifetime. let's take a look at it right now as it is approaching north carolina. it's big, big circulation. extraordinarily large circulation, the kind we saw in hurricane ike that did so much damage three years ago as it came into texas. this is a much bigger deal. it's heading right for north carolina. we think life-threatening conditions along the coast of north carolina along the day on saturday and affecting the entire eastern part of the state. on up to the chesapeake.

the am of water tremendous amount of water being pushed into chesapeake bay over the delmar have peninsula along the beaches there life-threatening conditions through delaware and then to the jersey shore with tremendous water pushed into delaware bay all along the jersey shore one of the we think historic hurricane events for the jersey shore. same thing with long island. in new york city there will be flooded areas but in the core of the city the high rises being inside a high rise should be safe and then we're talking about of course up into new england. everyone prepares inland they evacuate the coast be ready to be out of power for at least a week. that's it, chris. this is in some ways the big one. >> thank you so much. we'll keep checking back, obviously throughout the coming hours and days. now in virginia some of the same search and rescue teams that helped after the japanese tsunami are now being deployed to north carolina mcwhere the

hurricane may well hit the harders. the gosh is warning people to get out of the storm's path now. >> a number of local governments up to today have issued those evaiks. i want to tell you what those are because it is very important that people heed this warning and do it now. tomorrow will be too late. >> major paul frame leads one of the most beautiful cities we have here in the united states, norfolk, virginia, he joins us by phone. give us a sense of the mood there. >> we're doing fine. we've been preparing for this event for days. we've had plenty of notice. we had plenty of cooperation with our friends at the federal level and with governor mcdonell at the state level and all the other governments here are working well. people are tense as you would expect. >> so give me a sense if you can what it's been like over the last 24 hours and what you expect to be happening between now and the time that storm hits, what are your priority at this snoint.

>> well, the health and safety of our residents are our chief priority. we've been watching the weather maps like everyone else has even since last evening the storm seems to have moved a little bit, it is moving at us at a rate faster than we anticipated. so we're trying to speed up some of our evacuations. people keep asking about the storm, we've seen a lot of storms here in norfolk, we're a coastal city. a lot of them miss, some hit. this one looks like -- seems to be the most serious event anywhere around here has been involved in. we tried to make sure all of our citizens take this very seriously. we actually issued a mandatory evacuation last evening for the low lying areas. we've gotten good response there. people are taking this very seriously. a lot of people are leaving. but the truth is we've been preparing for this actually for months an event like this.

for the past couple of days we've really intensified the efforts. >> mayor good luck to you. thank you for taking the time to talk to us. >> thank you. >> washington, d.c. of course also bracing for irene's impact. cancelling sunday's martin luther jing jr. memorial dedication. they had to tear down the huge stage they built for it today. the ceremony was timed to the 48th and vrsry of the madge on washington och dr. king's i have a dream speech. hundreds of thousands of people were planning on traveling to the ceremony from all over the world. andrea mitchell spoke with jenco lin powell about the legacy of dr. king. >> i think that there's a reconciliation of peace of helping our fellow man and woman to a better life still resonates 40 odd years after his death. in my own life he meant a great

deal. he opened doors for me. i was in the army most of the time that he was leading the crew said against racism. i was in vietnam when he gave the i have a dream speech. i was getting ready to go back to vietnam when he was killed in 1968. so what he did really was not just to help blacks to a better life in america. he held a mirror in front of all of america and said look, is this the country we want to be? is this the people wae want to be? we have to change. he led this second civil war, i like to call it much more peaceful civil war than the first one, but just as important to eliminate racism. his message of hope and reconciliation not just in america but became a worldwide message and still resonates. that's why this new memorial is important. >> you were a young infinery officer in vietnam on your first tour of duty when he gave the i have a dream speech 48 years ago. and he was also delivering toward the end of his life an anti-war, anti-vietnam war

message. was there a conflict? did that create some problems for you? >> in 1968 just has he had become anti-the vietnam war, america had started to say we have to bring this war to an end. i was a professional soldier. i did what my government told me to do. it didn't affect me particularly. in 1963 when i was in vietnam in the jungle i wasn't even aware of what was going on. we didn't have satellites and telephones and things like that out where i was. my wife was in birmingham, alabama, during those days. and my father-in-law was guarding him or her. him being my young son, my son of a few months and my wife guarding them late at night from what was going on in birmingham that summer. indiana anything about it. >> when we think about it, we're used to marches, we're used to large protests, rallies. when you look back at the footage of the old black and white film of that first march,

that was the first huge gathering. it was before the anti-vietnam marches. and the meaning to people today it's hard to recapture that. >> it's hard to recapture it. it was a different time. jim crow and racism and segregation was so prevalent through the our country. it wasn't just in the south. you would find it in northern cities as well. it was a great ingathering of the american people. mostly black, but there were great white heroes as well. this great ingathering came together in washington, d.c. on that summer day and said, this has to stop. from the mountain from the mountain of despair we want a stone of hope, which is the theme of the memorial. and we have come a very, very long way. we have made changes that would have been unthinkable back when he was giving that speech. there's still a long way to go. we still have despair in our inner cities. we still have minorities who are not on a path to success in

their country. so this struggle isn't over. if he was alive today what he would be saying to us is we've got to fight poverty, we've got to fight homelessness. we've got to fight the reality that 50% of our minority children are not finishing high school. he'd still be fighting. he'd still be struggling, but his message would be worldwide. >> what would you say to children today with your strong focus on education, what would you say to them about the importance of dr. king? >> he created opportunities for you. you've got to seize them. and so it is not acceptable for you to put drugs in your nose or shoot it in your veins. it's not acceptable for you not to go to school. it is not acceptable for you to miss the opportunity that were created for you. dr. king would be very unhappy. rosea parks would be very unhappy to know that we still have this kind of dropout rate. they'd be mad at the society for allowing such conditions to exist. they'd be mad at the education system, but they'd also be mad

at the young people. i try to inspire young people as i go around and talk at schools and elsewhere don't tell me about role models. be your own role model. you are the solution to your own problems. even though you may have some difficulties in your life, you have got to take advantage of the opportunities that not only these people struggled to give you, but they died to give you. >> when you think back at you first came to washington and as you experienced birmingham through your family, your inlaws, to have a monument to martin luther king jr. on the mall where he addressed the multitudes and to be the only unelected figure, you've got jefferson, washington, lincoln, but martin luther king jr., what does that mean? >> i think it means a great deal. not only to african-americans, but to all americans. when you see what is being created there, when now it's open to everybody in the next

few days you will be amazed at one, how beautiful it is. but also the words that will be ib scribed on the words around the memorial. martin luther king coming out of that stone of hope. i think it will be an inspiration to all who go and see it. who go and experience it. who go and witness it. and i want to see kids go there by the thousands because i want them to read those words. i want them to understand what was done for them. and don't blow the opportunity. we're counting on you. so many of our youngsters are doing extremely well, but we do have problems. and we've got to work on these problems. we can never think that his dream is over until it truly is overand it is not a dream. it is a reality for all americans. not just african-americans for females, for everybody for hispanics. we are a wonderful country. we are the most diverse country on the face of the earth.

we have a level of diversity and acceptance of each other even with difficulties like no other nation on earth. in one more generation the minorities of america, will be the majority of americans. we're the only country that can handle that and handle it with no great difficulty as long as we keep in mind what our founding fathers had in mind and the dreams that dr. king had. >> colin powell, thank you for your service. >> thank you, andrea. massachusetts state officials are updating hurricane preparations there. the governor has declared a state of emergency. 2500 members of the national guard have been mobilized. state officials are also working to make sure early response teams are ready in the event of widespread power outages. irene is expected to hit massachusetts saturday with the brunt of the storm hitting sunday afternoon. see what anandra did? booking her flight and hotel at the same time a serious money-saving maneuver. book it! major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia.

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hi i'm tamron hall. coming up on "news nation", hurricane irene has started

bearing down on north and south carolina. we just learned new york city is shutting down the entire subway system tomorrow. that is the first time in history that will have happened. and president obama is ending his vacation on martha's vineyard a day early because irene is heading that way. we're expecting new information on where this storm is headed in a few minutes. we'll have the latest information on hurricane irene for you on "news nation." thanks so much tamron. more information coming in to us. new jersey governor chris christie announcing new jersey transit trains will stop running at noon saturday because of hurricane irene. as she bears down on the coastal north carolina and the rest of the eastern seaboard fema is preparing a federal response to the potentially devastating impacts. we're joined now by fema's deputy administrator. give us a sense of how fina is operating right now? >> we've been in constant contact with states throughout the entire region from north

carolina all the way up to maine. we have a number of our instant management assistant teams and federal coordinators embedded in each one of the state's emergency operation center working very closely. our job is to be there to support the governors and locals in case of emergencies. in addition, we've been able to move a lot of our commodities into ince substantiate support bases. those are places we've been able to identify that we can put a number of extra resources such as water and tops and generators to have them prepositioned to go and help the states when and if they need it. >> give us a sense of the size of this. one of the things that we have talked about is often when you get a hurricane as devastating as it may be say a katrina, it is often limited to at least gee dprafkly a certain area or hurricane that hits florida and is often the worst of it hits florida. we're looking at so many states that are under a state of emergency how often has fema had to deploy these kinds of resource sos broadly?

>> one of things we've looked at is how we can deploy all up and down the east coast. we've been planning for this for the last week or so. we had the feeling this is coming. we've been working with the national hurricane center hearing what the track is. starting to move resources for the last few days. we have people in place all the states from north carolina all the way up to maine. we've been working with a lot of our partners in each of the states. one of the most important things we need people to do is listen to their local officials and evacuate when they're told. if the sit and local officials ask them to evacuate to do that. right now we're in the life safety mode. we want to make sure that people heed their warnings. from the up the coast people have some time to prepare and to do that to make sure that they have three-days' worth of supplies. it looks like there's going to be large power outages from the storm because it is such a large storm. >> we're looking at such dense

population areas and so many big cities. how does that change the calculus? >> well, what it does is we've had so many more people in a condensed area in the urban environment. we want people to listen to their local officials. it puts us in a situation where we really need to -- people to take some initiative for themselves and be prepared for themselves so we can help the people who are really going to y administrator, thank you very much. >> we have all of this covered online as well as here. for all of the tips you need to prepare for hurricane irene and all of the things like airline cancellations, you can check out the website msnbc.com.

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anticipating a storm that is unprecedented for new york city, mayor michael bloomberg briefing again. let's listen. >> in the potential that emergency services may not be

provided due to the closing of bridges. bridges won't fall down, but there is a point when the winds get so strong they close because the cars and the trucks could be blown off of them and what we are concerned about in the rockaways unlike other parts of the city in low-lying areas or even slightly higher, if something were to happen and you needed emergency services in the rockaways, we are not sure that in the worst case we'd be able to get the services to you, so that is something that is different than yesterday. we are also moving up the time that we want everybody out. that is by 5:00 p.m. tomorrow, saturday. in a storm with wind and very high tides, there are risks that endanger public safety, and i can't stress it enough. please, nature, is a force more power than any of us. it really is better to be safe than sorry. now, the low-lying coastal areas that are endangered most by storm surge include coney island

and manhattan beach in brooklyn and the far rockaway channel in queens and south beach and midland beach and other low-lying areas on staten island and battery park and some sections of manhattan and the bronx. as i said before, we are adding a full evacuation of all people living in private homes or apartments in the rockaways, and in addition, you should know that mta service including subways and buses and rail roads will beginb to shutdown tomorrow at noon, and jay walder will describe that in other measures in a moment, deend ping upon the effect of the storm, let me caution you, also, in regards to the mta, service may or may not be restored in time for rush hour monday morn, so i urge the employees to check with their employers regarding business openings on monday. now we have never done a mandatory evacuation before, and we wouldn't be doing it now if we didn't think that this storm had the potential to be very

serious. the best outcome would be if the storm veers off to the east and doesn't hit us or hit us hard, but we can't depend on mother nature being so kind. we have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. just because this is the first time we have had a mandatory evacuation of any part of this city, i just once again want to repeat, this is very serious. do not be fooled by the sun outside. that is the calm before the storm. and you just can't wait until gale force winds arrive, it is too late then. you have to start the preparations the leave. excuse me. you have to start your preparations to leave right now. keep in mind, afternoon, tomorrow, you are not going to have the advantage of mass transit to help you do that. so, if you were to leave today, that would be very helpful, and tomorrow, if you call access a ride, jay walder will talk about it, but they don't have the

capacity to take a large numbers of people on any one day in a short span of time. so, in spite of the good weather, if you want to be safe, now is the time to start moving. we expect that most new yorkers affected by the evacuation order will find places to stay with relatives or friends who live in safer areas, however, as i said in the beginning of this, evacuation centers and shelters for those who need it will be open by 4:00 p.m. this afternoon and they are staffed an equipped to accommodate the people that we expect, and if the capacity were to be much greater than we have planned for, we certainly have the capacity to expand very quickly. we'll say more in a few minutes about how the system will work. a system that was put a lot of thought and effort into developing to avoid the kind of problems that occurred in hurricane katrina, but first, let me try the bring you up to date on the information that we have in the strength of the path and where this hurricane is

likely to arrive in our area. the national weather service at the moment, and i keep reminding you that this could change any time. the national service has put the entire new york metropolitan area under a hurricane watch which means that sustained winds of 74-mile-an-hour or more are forecast from saturday evening through sunday. at the moment the strongest winds are expected to arrive early evening tomorrow and to continue into late afternoon sunday. the current forecast is that irene will reach the new york metropolitan area as a category 1 storm. the ground speed of the storm has accelerated and gail force winds of 40 miles per hour are the beginning of the storm, and they will grow significantly. we don't know what they will grow to, but the full brunt of the storm, if you are in its way, it is a lot more powerful than any of us. certainly, the worst case -- the best-case scenario is very high

winds and lot of rain and very, very high tides. so, those are the things that you are going to see, and we want to give you ideas of how to stay safe. as i stressed yesterday, our first obligation is to protect the most vulnerable new yorkers in zone a and low-lying cos ast areas and i want to bring you up to date for what we did. hospitals and homes for the aged and others who are in nursing homes and others were yesterday directed to leave, and by 8:00 last night the or 8:00 today, these are now has been done, and everybody has been moved. there were no exceptions made by tom farley, and in all fairness nobody even asked for exceptions. in the rest of the