island hospital both campuses of staten island and university hospital and the veterans affair hospital in manhattan and nyu medical center on the manhattan upper east side are evacuating patients to other hospitals and yesterday by executive order also covered eight nursing homes and one psychiatric facility and eight adult care centers, and all of those are or have been in the process of evacuating and most of the facilities are completing this process themselves, and a lot of the facilities have contracted with people to help them. but in some cases the city ambulance crews have been called in to help and we are happy to provide that service. another vulnerable population we are concentrate on is the homeless. we have four homeless shelters for families and two for single adults. the clients will be relocated to the bed-fitted shelter in brooklyn and also to the el camino shelter in queens. we are also taking the shelgters in 30th street and manhattan as

well and at the same time outreach teams are stepping up -- i'm tamron hall and the news nation is following breaking news in eight states as we are listening to the new york city mayor bloomberg saying that several neighborhoods are under mandatory evacuation including battery park and coney islands and i'm naming some of the names that you would know nationally now affected in new york city. in fact, we also have some live pictures from nags head, north carolina, where ten-foot waves are crashing ashore as hurricane irene bears down on that state. 55 million americans could feel the wrath of irene in what is expected to be a weekend of violent weather. the red cross has shelters set up in north carolina and on long island with 15,000 shelter sites

selected and they have some 60,000 what they call ready to eat meals standing by for families who could be displaced as well as portable kitchens which can fix as many as 1 million meals if needed a day. airlines have canceled more than 430 flights and most of them from newark's jfk and boston's logan airport. millions under a mandatory evacuation order are leaving the barrier islands in north carolina, virginia, maryland, delaware and new jersey, and president obama is cutting his vacation on martha's vineyard short by a day. a few hours ago, the president told everyone to heed the warnings. >> don't wait. don't delay. we all hope for the best and be prepared for the worst. >> let's get right to the latest from the weather channel hurricane specialist bryan norcross and give us the latest on the path and the time line here. >> okay, tamron. the bottom line right now is that this is still an extraordinarily dangerous storm.

the top winds have come down just a little bit in the new advisory, but the wind spreads out over such a large area, and the power of the storm and the movement of the water at the coast to cause to wreak havoc up and down the east coast is undiminished. looking at the satellite picture, and i will show you the size and scope of it. it is off of jacksonville, florida and georgia now, and there is the size of the hurricane and keep it in mind as we move up the coast that it is heading right in the direction of the forecast track to arrive tomorrow at the outer banks or the eastern part of north carolina, and we are fearful there that it is going to be a very bad life-threatening day in the eastern part of north carolina from both the ocean water coming over the outer banks and from the very heavy rain causing major flooding and from the flooding from pimlico south, and them from points north into the tide water, a e

tremendous amount of water will be pushed into chesapeake bay and delmarva dangerous and life-threatening conditions along the coast. up to the delaware coast, same thing. jersey shore, long beach island and now they have both lanes westbound off of long beach island and a long history of violent destruction along the jersey shore from past hurricanes, and this is mimicking those past hurricans.s in the new york city area where where we have the elbow between new jersey and long island, the water is going to pile into the elbow and that is why the mayor is ordering the evacuations, and that is going to mack the water high in lower manhattan and in the southern part of brooklyn and the rockways and up the hudson river to some degree although the hudson river side is higher. and the south shore of long island, extreme danger right at the coast as the water and the full force of this thing will pile against that south shore, and then points north. the main issue inland and this is going to go all of the way

back into north carolina inland is that tremendous amount of rain is expected, up to a foot of rain on top of the saturated soil and the trees there are not able to withstand this kind of wind and trees will come down and power out and coastal flooding in new england along the coast again because of the tremendous amount of energy that the hurricane is putting in the water. i said i'd show you one more thing here, and these are the waves being generated right now. the waves nout the open ocean and not crashing on to beaches, but in the open ocean, and you see how high off of the show, but in the middle they are over 30 feet. that is the power of this thing coming north. look at the size of the waves here over 15 feet that is moving all of the way up the coast of new england and we don't see how to avoid if not this incredible wind event at the very least the tremendous amount of power with the storm, and we think that the wind combined with the rain and the coastal events will lead to in the end the hurricane of our

lifetime. it is still, it does not change our thinking on this event. tamron, if i could say one more thing, i put out a notice here that all of these things have happened before. everything that we have talked about has happened before, but never in one hurricane. so, we know that these things can happen, but it is just that this one is a perfect storm of convergence of events. >> all right. bryan, thank you very much. now, msnbc's mark potter who is actually at nags head, north carolina, where we saw the waves kicking up behind you all morning long. what is the latest there, mark? >> well, hey, tamron, it has been fairly calm here today. we had a gray overcast sky, but we haven't had any rain yet, and the winds are relatively calm. they are picking up a little bit, and we know a lot more is coming, but they haven't hit yet. the waves are kicking up, but not the spectacular waves yet and all of that to come starting tonight and into tomorrow. the big issue here is evacuations. the tourists left the island yesterday and the residents here

now deciding what to do. many of them have left and especially the long-time families have said we have ever in left in the past and not leaving now, and the emergency managers are trying to get them to change their minds on that and saying if you get in trouble, we can't help you, but a lot of people are holding firm and won't leave and some people on the fence. a couple of people we talked to and i believe we have a clip of them right now. >> i will watch and see what happens when it hit the gulf stream, and if it intensifies there, i will take off. >> it is easier to take care of the house if the water comes in and the windows break. >> a lot of people are saying that another reason they don't want to leave is if they dole y leave it could take a week to come back because of the roads inundated. and the emergency managers do describe this as a serious event here is that the prospect of the eye of the storm passing to the west of the outer banks. if that happens, they have winds to the east and the leading

winds pushing the water from the atlantic and then to the pimlico sound hitting the western shore, so like a sandwiching of the outer banks by the water as the storm comes and goes, and that is what they are most worried about, tam ron. >> thank you, mark. mandatory evacuations taking place in virginia. we go to weather channel's eric fisher, and eric, are you hearing a similar thing from people like mark who some folks for some reason just don't want to leave? >> yeah, absolutely tamron. in every one of the situations, there are always going to be people who wish they can stay, and we wish them the best, but that is often not the case, but the safest place is 15 miles inland. and here in virginia beach, you can see a sand berm they built all night long to protect a part of the boardwalk from part of the storm surge and you notice a couple of the white tents on the beach, and one of the largest surfing championships in the country and the east coast surfing championships is going

on and that is all that is left from a festival that stretches 10 city blocks here and they will take those down this evening and they will not be surfing in the day tomorrow. let me show you the waves here and the beach is not as crowded as it normally would be, and the swells starting to come in, and we went into town early on and it is a mixed vibe inside of virginia beach. one business completely boarded up and one next door open for business completely. some people are walking around. and i will tell you what, as we head into the morning hours tomorrow and all day tomorrow and saturday night and sunday morning is when we are under the brunt of the storm, and if not, kree yacreating the category 1 and also a foot of range and storm surge one to eight feet, and norfolk who is most prone to the flooding we could be looking at a situation like isabel which led to over $1 billion in damages in the state of virginia. tamron, back to you. >> i have been to virginia beach

many times and beautiful community, and a lot of hotels and if you have the surf championship going on and the rough weather timeline there, and have people evacuated from the hotels close to where you are? >> they are waiting for a mandatory order, otherwise they are not going to evacuate. we cannot see it, but it is one of the first hotels on the boardwalk here and full of banners from the surfing championship where everyone is staying for the most part, and they say they will be there unless they get the mandatory order, be for right now most of the evacuations are voluntary k3e79 except for the extreme areas. >> and now over to jim cantore, and we just got an update from the mayor of new york who was talking about mandatory evacuations for the first time also in the city's history and shut down the city's subway system and they are like others bracing for the worst here. >> i mean, first of all to put your mind around that, shutting down the mass transit in new

york city boggles the mind. you have to go back to 9/11 pretty much to have, and that was not a weather event to have that happen. but you have to go back to 2005 the strike and the last time that thing has happened and here it is a hurricane that has the potential to flood this very spot where i am. as you can see, we have hundreds of visitors waiting to take the ferry out to ellis island and there is a breeze off of the water, but what looms out there is a large ocean with big waves and big surf potential, and tamron, should the high tide that we expect to be astronomically high sunday night couple with the storm surge arrival from irene, that is what happened with donna, and this very spot in manhattan was under water, so no question to evacuate level a and the battery park and the far rockaways and, you know -- gosh, coney island

and all of the areas obviously suspect to being underwater here. this is amazing to think this. this is one issue. one issue. we have huge issues with inland flooding there. is so much rain in the month of august all of the way through new york and much of new england, we are going to have trees and power lines down and huge areas where the entire grids will have to be rebuilt, and that is why the staging and the preplanning has been well under way, you know, and fema all over this, and i know that the power companies have been all over this, and just to the west, there are hundreds of trucks and thousands of trucks and new power poles to get ready and get in once the storm leave, because it is a lot of people without power probably for weeks until they can get the grids completely redone. it is a huge storm and going to affect millions and millions of people starting tomorrow certainly when you start to shut down the subway. >> thank you jim cantore, live for us in battery park. we will get an update from the red cross and what they are doing to help the people in the

storm. in fact, it can impact 65 million people. what will happen when hurricane irene knocks out cell phone service. we will talk about how to stay in contact before and during and after the storm hits. first, a look at the boardwalk in these signs, come on, irene, you are mean. ocean city evacuating for the first time in 26 years as the city braces for irene. logon to msnbc.com for the latest on hurricane irene, and you can type your address into our hurricane tracker to find out how you could be affected by all of this. we will be right back. ah. capri sun 100% juice. good choice. launch me fellas. [ male announcer ] ooh, bad choice. capri sun 100% juice.

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. >> the "newsnation" is back with live pictures from falmouth,

massachusetts. a evacuation is for this area which is the calm before the storm. and we know that in cape may drivers are filling up the tanks before a mandatory evacuation goes into effect. and also, this is boosting gas prices, which is not good news there. if you want to send pictures of hurricane irene and after the storm passes send them to firstperson.msnbc.com. and emergency personnel are being dispatched throughout the states to distribute meals if needed. i am joined by the national spokesman for the red cross steve bayer. what is your priority right now?

>> my priority is to get out the word for preparedness, and personal preparedness. we as a corporation have done our preparedness and that is why hundreds of thousands of emergency response vehicles and hundreds of thousands trained registered volunteers are on the road going to all of the affected areas, and the areas that are going to be affected. >> in the affected areas we are talking about the densely populated cities in the country which presents a unique set of circumstances in itself. >> yes. i just spoke to somebody down at the outer banks in north carolina, one of my coordinators down there, and we had a very good interesting conversation. it is really nice down there from what he said, and people are out surfing, and that is definitely not recommended. we really want people to be taking this seriously. the tourists have all evacuated from what he told me, and the residents are in the process of making that decision of whether

they are going to evacuate the area. we hope that those who are going will go soon rather than later. >> yes. >> because the longer you wait, the worse the ride is going to be to get away. so, we ask people to take three steps in preparation. we want them to plan ahead, both communications plans and planning where they are going to stay. we ask them to build a kit and not a physical kit, but something that they are going to take with them when they go that will include the important items that have to go in there. >> yeah, we have this list, steve, here, and you say to use local maps to plan the evacuation route, and monitor media reports and develop a family communication plan to get in touch with the loved ones should you get split up for whatever reason, and these are important things that people should have on the checklist. steve, we wish you the best and the entire american red cross team, because this is when we all need you the most. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> and people are evacuating

high-risk areas as hurricane irene makes its way to the northeast. this is video of people leaving the jersey shore. look at this video. a couple of hours ago. the threat of the cat 2 storm has atlantic city casinos shutting down, and it is only the third time that has happened in the 33-year history of casino gambling in new jersey. this traffic is unbelievable. and most airlines now, the travel waivers in place for passengers who need to make flight changes due to the hurricane irene, and jetblue have canceled 430 flights in and out of the northeast this weekend and american airlines canceled 126 flights and other airlines are watching the path before deciding how many flights to scrub. you can logon to msnbc.com for more information and the "newsnation" is back after a quick break. time for the "your business entrepreneur of the week." mike and brad wanted to personalize the surfing

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grosz the potomac river in washington, d.c., and people packing up sandbags to protect against anticipated flooding due to hurricane irene. and the meteorologists at the weather channel say irene is expected to reach the outer bank by this evening, and baltimore by saturday and philly and new york, and portland, maine, sunday morning. another story we are following this sunday, the national geographic channel will air a special called "george w. bush the 9/11 interview." in that interview, the former president will reveal his thoughts before and after the attacks. he provides new insight into what many considered the president's blank look when he was told about the attacks on the world trade center while visiting a school in florida. >> the classroom was full of kids. who were reading. >> and read this word. >> fast. >> get ready, yes. >> and in the back of the classroom was a full press corps.

and staffers and some adults, and i'm intently listening to the lesson. >> read these words the fast way. >> and i felt a presence behind me, and andy card's massachusetts' accent was whispering in my ear, a second plane has hit the second tower, america is under attack. joining me now, peter shaw, the executive producers and director of "george w. bush, the 9/11 interview." and before we talk about the president's reaction to what critics referred to and how did you get access?

>> we offered former president bush the idea of sitting down with us, and talking about 9/11 from a very personal and very in depth point of view. >> but many have made that request in the past. >> we heard that 400 media requests had been made no the bush office, but it was a combination of i had journeyed with him before on air force one and done a couple of films and a relationship and understanding and very casual understanding between the two of us. and when we approached him, we said, look, you would be the only voice in the film. it would be your thoughts, your recollections and your personal journey as president, commanderer in chief, and also as father and husband. >> and it is interesting how the former president details that moment, because as you well know, many of his critics have gone straight at him for what they say was his inability to act, and some say it was fear and some say it showed how naive and unprepared he was.

is he sensitive or sensitive about explaining what went on in the minutes. it was michael moore's documentary that counted exactly how long it took for him to say anything. >> we recounted every minute of it. i was conscious of the michael moore film and i asked him, you know, there you are, and you are feeling and seeing something that you are hearing something that most presidents might hear in the oval office or in a bunker that america is under attack, and there you are on the world stage. he said, yeah, i was looking to the press and to me, it was like a silent movie, and they were picking up the phones and hearing the same thing i was hearing. i said, but what were you feeling? he said i was wondering who was attacking us and why, and i decided this is the president speaking that i wanted to remain calm in front of the kids. now, that is something that we have been hearing before, and he -- >> yeah, we heard it before. >> this is a journey that a

president took at a time when there was so much confusion and rumors and nobody knew what was going on, but the one thing that he said in the interview that struck me is that i was living through fog of war. >> i want to talk about the moment that he learned that osama bin laden had been found and killed under another president's watch. this is what he had to say. >> i was in dallas in a restaurant eating dinner with laura and the secret service told me i had a phone call from the white house coming in, in 20 minutes. i decided to take the call at the house. president obama called me, and told me that osama bin laden had been killed. my response was i congratulated him, and the special operators who conducted a very dangerous mission. >> good evening. tonight, i can report to the american people and to the world that the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden.

>> so i was grateful. i didn't feel a great sense of happiness or jubilation. i felt a sense of closure, and i felt a sense of gratitude that justice had been done. >> peter, i can't wait to see the entire interview, was the president emotional during your time with him? i think he was very emotional, and it is something that defined his presidency, and you know, it is a legacy that he will have to live with, and it changed who he was. >> it certainly changed all of us. >> it did change all of us. >> and "george bush the 9/11 interview" premiers sunday august 28th on the national geographic channel at 10:00 p.m. we will be right back. [ female announcer ] have you met your skin twin? covergirl trublend has skin twin technology. other makeup can sit on your skin, so it looks like...makeup. but trublend has skin twin technology to actually merge with your skin. how easy breezy beautiful is that?

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maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com. as we continue to track hurricane irene, a live look right now at the beach near norfolk, virginia. it looks calm right now, but virginia is one of the eight states where mandatory evacuations are in effect. and from philly to new jersey, mass transit is shutting down in the next 24 hours.

jeff ranieri is tracking the storm, and what is the latest? >> well, as of 2:00 p.m., it has a weakening slightly when it comes to the overall wind speed with the storm, but it is still very strong by many accounts. the latest update is winds of 100 miles per hour, the intermediate update and moving at a decent clip with central pressure of 551 millie bars here. and here is the thing to note, that all of you on the coastline under the mandatory evacuations, this is why you don't want to mess with the storm, hurricane-force winds from the center eyewall 90 miles which is large when it comes to the hurricane-force winds and it is sustaining that even though we lost a little bit of the overall forward motion and wind speed and generally with the storm system. so it is still very strong as we have been hearing from bryan norcross from the weather channel all afternoon, and the band is still moving into the

carolinas with winds of 121 miles an hour sustained. hurricane warnings up from wilmington, to central new jersey, and we have hurricane watches right now throughout long island and all of the way up into the cape therefore, and massachusetts as well. so everyone all of the way up to new england needs to be concerned about this storm. now, with the latest update, we have not seen much change on the track in the positioning for tomorrow morning, the outer banks of the carolinas as a category 2 storm. then reemerging and that is the big question, how strong will this reemerge as we head into saturday night back out into the atlantic waters? it looks like we will see it graze closely to new jersey as we head into early sunday morning which then again will be putting this very close to long island as we mentioned, but the first stop once again will be the outer banks of the carolinas where this storm looks to have some of the strongest impacts as we head through saturday morning 4:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. with

rainfall that could go up to 12 inches and winds gusting as high as 120 miles an hour. the other thing we are talking about, tamron, here, is the widespread rainfall. we know that the east coast with so much rainfall, and this could dump widespread rain 10 to 12 inches and we will put it in motion here and you can see the wide swath, this bull's eye over the carolinas, and you can see a similar scenario over new jersey and pennsylvania and inland river flooding is a major threat with this storm system, and the thing that we want to reiterate is the last three or four model runs from the latest data do not show this waivering at all. what you heard about 12 hours ago in terms of the path is exactly where it is still headed at this point. >> all right. jeff, thank you. moments ago, washington, d.c. plans to become the latest city along the east coast to declare a it is the of emergency as hurricane irene approaches. the fast-moving storm has ruined plans for a multimillion dollar

ceremony in washington this weekend. this was supposed to be the site of the dedication for the 30-foot martin luther king jr. sculpt chukulculpture but it is postponed and some 30,000 people were to visit washington, d.c. for this event, and now the mayor will join us. thank you for your time. >> thank you, tamron. >> tell us about the possible state of emergency and where do you stand on this decision? >> well, we're in the course of getting the order drafted. it is our intent to di claire a state of emergency, and it is going to be done within an hour or two. >> and as i mentioned, we were all looking forward and we planned to do our show from d.c. live today for the dedication ceremony of that beautiful monument dedicated to dr. martin luther king, and now you have this postponed indefinitely, and what is the latest there? >> well, it is indefinite and it is hugely disappointing to everyone, the folks associated with the memorial foundation and

the king family and everyone in the district of columbia and we expected upwards to 200,000 people to come for this, but it is the most prudent decision given the conditions. it has been quite a week with the earthquake and now the hurricane. >> and a lot of people are asking me, you guys have the effortquake and now this. but what are the concerns right now for the residents of d.c. in that area as you know mandatory evacuations not very far from where you are. >> that is right. we really are urging the people to just stay in. we don't want them to -- we have not indicated that people should evacuate at this stage. it looks like the storm may be off, you know, if it is on the coast, it may not hit us as hard. we are preparing for the worst, but we want people to stay at home. all of the agencies are prepared to respond at this stage, and we have engaged with the national guard. we have engaged with our transit system, so all agencies are fully coordinated and we think we are ready for this.

>> all right. mayor gray, thank you for your time and we wish you the best and hope to see you very soon at the dedication of the dr. king monument, because it is absolutely beautiful. thank you, sir. >> thank you, tamron. >> we want the latest on the rain starting to fall in north carolina. jeff morrow is at atlanta beach for us. >> hurricane irene continues to make its way towards the north carolina coast here in atlantic beach where there is a state of emergency in effect, and in fact for all of carteret county and all of the bans from the emerald isle to the outer banks in dare county and carteret county. and most of that is for the tourists and the non-residents, but up in dare county and ocracoke to get off of the barrier islands, because it is that dangerous of a situation. we expect the conditions to go downhill as we head into the evening and tonight, with some of the worst of irene passing by

or to the nearest of this area as we pass into tomorrow, and slowly conditions improving as the hurricane moves away in the day tomorrow. but, again, it looks to be a bad 24 to 36 hours here as the first landfalling hurricane that we have seen in several years in the united states takes its aim on north carolina. i'm jeff morrow in atlantic beach. back to you. we have 15,000 potential shelter sites through the affected area, and if any of your listeners or viewers need to know where those shelters are, they can find it on our website redcross.org or an iphone app as well to give them the shelter maps. >> that is the red cross president gail mcgovern and how the find help fast using something as simple as an app on the cell phone. technology is giving families an advantage when the power goes out.

we will look at the gadgets and things to help you with apps. and we are joined by the director of the gizmo.com. it is amazing how far we have come. >> yes, you can go to many apps which is good for staying ahead of the curve and knowing what to do and evacuate. red cross app is a good one to know and another one is noaa.gov is the national hurricane center's website and you can track the storms and get the warnings and the most up to date information and that is a site that the meteorologists use and weather men are going through to get information, so you can, too, and the only problem with it is that it is a little bit made in weatherman speak, so some of it is hard to parse. fortunately, we have hero geeks coming to the rescue to make

apps to pare it down for you to understand. >> and we talked about hundreds of flipgt flights cancel and y find flights canceled and times as well and delays. and what about ipads and iphones, is that what you were naming? >> hurricane hd is one i like and it is $2 you have to pay for, but it is nice and clean and you get sucked into using it, but if you are in one storm like us and not living in florida where you need a bunch of apps is hurricanehd. >> and talking about cell phone, when the earthquake hit this week they said that they could not make a call, and verizon said it is because they were not designed to handle the volume, andb it can be tough, but the cell phone are still very

reliable. >> well, here is an instantly statistic, any phone call is a mp 3 file, and actually a 1 minute phone call is 4,500 times bigger than a text message. so when a disaster hits, you can make the networks better instead of calling mom, but send her a text to say it is okay. >> and you can charge the phone or the ipod or whatever today and i bought this one today, a solar-powered gadget to power the phone if your power goes down. >> yes, these gadgets are great, because there is a possibility to lose power, and you want the gadgets to stay powered up to use the apps, and also to play games to pass the time, and thing likes that. >> and there is an app that is a flashlight and i don't know if it will illuminate. >> it is called flashlight and it is great. it uses the flash on the iphone camera to look around and it is awesome. >> thank you, joe. thank you for the advice. so many times in hurricanes pets

are left behind when people are forced to evacuate and here is what you need to know to keep the pets safe in the storm. and on nags he s head lifeguard hoisting up a do not approach flag. and cruise ships are forced to alter their itineraries in the bahamas, and ships are rushing back into the ports earlier than usual trying to beat the storm. ? every project we finish comes with a story built-in. it's how our rough ideas become "you did that yourself?" so when we can save more on the projects that let us fix, make, and do more... that just makes the stories even better. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. add some style to your sink, with this moen banbury faucet for the new lower price of $79.

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maryland, where store fronts are boarded up and the governor as ordered evacuation by 5 dlk p.m. eastern time. and 6 million people are in this storm's path. and states of emergencies have been declared in eight states, north carolina, virginia, delaware, pennsylvania, new jersey, new york and connecticut. and as irene barreled towards the east coast what ow should you do to protect the pets? the aspca is urgebing pet owners not to leave home without their animals. we are joined by the miami mote row zoo director who is joining us now. >> good to see you. >> and taking the pet is not an option if you are going to the shelter. >> that is the problem and i hope that the cities will change that policy, because down in south florida shelters don't allow the pets, and people won't leave the pets. one thing is that no single animal is more important than people life, but pets to people are the families, so you need to plan ahead to have a safe place and shelter who will take a pet or if you are going to stay home, you need to protect the

pet, and have the same thing that you would do for a person, if it needs medication, a week's ahead of medication, water, food, stay with the p pet, and don't put them in some dark area by himself in a room, and animals read the fear in people, and they need the same reassurance that you give them. >> and speaking of the fear they read in people, they have natural fears as well. i have a chihuahua who cannot stand the loud thunder or lightning, and what should you do? crate the pets for the next two to three days? >> that is the best thing to do. i advice crate training the animal anyway, because the crate should be the animal's place of security, and it is the best thing to do, and if you have that established, it is fine and make sure that the animal can see you, also, because it needs that sense of security. >> and you have people sadly with katrina in new orleans they refused to leave the homes, because they did not want to leave the pets, and that is a heart-breaking decision i would not wish on anyone, but the reality is -- >> again, no single animal life is more important than a human life, but i hope that cities start to understand the

importance of pets and make ar rangems for shelters who accept pets, because it is important. >> and we have to keep an eye on the passports and the documentations, and we have to do the same for the pets, too. >> yes, the shots and the vaccinations in line and have that paperwork and the licenses in line, and if you can't, chip the dog. we have technology that is not ined kri bli expensive and we have had animals returned to owners years a afterwards because of the technology. >> and both of my animals have chips, and it is painless and quickly done. and when the earthquake hit earlier this week the people said that the lemurs at the zoo were acting erratic and the animals showed signs and certainly they have to sense what is happening here. >> no question that the animals sense what is happening and you heard about it in the tsunami with the elephants and in california where earthquakes hit, and barks will start to bark uncontrollably, and in miami hours before hurricane andrew came in you could not

find a native animal, because they hunkered down. and after the huge massive disasters, you don't find a lot of of dead animals. >> what can we do? >> certain bunkers are established for the animals a. at the zoo in miami we collect them all up and put them in the public bathrooms at the zoos, because no windows and there is a fresh water supply which is gross, but it is relatively unaffected. >> and thank you so much. we know your pet is important, but keep your life safe as well. and seven people have been hurt after an amtrak train derailed in nebraska. the train was traveling from california to chicago when it struck equipment near the town of max in southwest nebraska. none of the injuries considered life threatening. it knocked two locomotives and three cars off of the tracks. and 16 people were killed in a car attack at the united

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sirte. and more live pictures from hurricane irene. hurricane warnings in effect from north carolina to new jersey. don't let the calm picture fool you. final preparations are being made in atlantic beach, north carolina, where workers seen here removing a parking hut near the beach before irene storms ashore. woman: day care can be expensive. so to save some money, i found one that uses robots instead of real people. 'cuz robots work for free. robot 1:good morning... robot 1:...female child. sfx: modem dial-up noise woman: are there flaws? yeah, um, maybe. anncr: there's an easier way to save. anncr: get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. crisp, clear, untouched. that's why there's brita, to make the water we drink, taste a little more, perfect. reduce lead and other impurities

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welcombation" by e-mailing me at "newsnation" at msnbc.com or tweet me or leave me a message on facebook. i will be checking your messages, because i will be working all weekend long looking to hear what you have to say. we want to give you one more look at the pattern of this storm. still a cat 2, and pushing towards the mid-atlantic, and here in fact, we have a look at kill devil hills, north carolina, and just hours before hurricane irene is expected to hit there. that state's governor says that 3.5 million people in north carolina could be affected by irene, and the outer banks will

feel the full force of the storm tonight. it will push all of the way to philadelphia and here in new york tomorrow night and through the northeast by the end of the weekend, and you can catch some of the powerful weather moving along the eastern seaboard or any of the preps to evacuate, and head to firstperson.msnbc.com and share your photographs with us. that does it for this edition of "newsnation," i'm tamron hall and stay with msnbc all weekend for live coverage of hurricane irene as it bears down on the east coast. my colleague martin bashir is picking up the coverage next. yea, right over here. look at 'em all. what about a black frontier with utilitrack? absolutely. oh, great, that's awesome. what about a platinum graphite rogue with touch-screen nav, bluetooth, and...a moonroof? with or without leather? we got 'em both. [ sighs ] i gotta get back. [ male announcer ] the most innovative cars are also the most available cars. nissan. innovation for all.

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good afternoon it is friday august 26th, and hurricane irene is approaching. brace for impact! some 65 billion americans staring down the path of hurricane irene. we have up to the minute details on where this massive storm will hit and how hard. as coastal americans evacuate to