while both today and tomorrow's mets-atlanta braves match ups have been postponed. a preseason football game between the new york jets and giants originally scheduled at the meadowlands for tonight will now take place on monday. we want to hear how hurricane irene is affecting you. you can do that by sending your tweets. our address is @msnbctv. make sure you include hash tag irene. the bottom of the hour irene headlines after this on msnbc. .

i'm concerned about all of these wonderful folks from the guard to highway patrolmen who are out and willing to risk their lives during the storm itself. i'm concerned about the folks who think they're going to ride it out for the joy or the thrill, which is befudling for me. afb the storm passes we'll be concerned ar if immediacy of the

recovery and the damage and devastation we're concerned will happen to north carolina. >> that was north carolina governor bev perdue speaking about her concerns regarding hurricane irene. i'm back with continuing coverage of hurricane irene on msnbc. the national hurricane center reports that sustained winds for the storm have decreased. but irene will remain a hurricane as she travels up the mid-atlantic coast even as the storm is expected to lose more strength as it hits land. strong winds are extending 100 miles from irene's center. at least 60 million people are in irene's path including 3.5 million residents along the north carolina coast where the storm is expected to make landfall later this morning. let's bring in jeff who's been tracking the storm. what's going on with it right now? >> we're seeing it getting close to landfall along the outer banks of north carolina.

for those of you in the north carolina area hopefully you have evacuated because those outer banks are getting lashed right now. the winds are at 100 miles per hour in the center of the storm. you can see it winding up on the radar as we've been showing you. there's the ie wall at the -- the eye wall at the bottom of your storm. it's 37 miles away down here from the coastal areas just off to the east of jacksonville, north carolina. look at the winds right now. wind gusts in cape hatterras at 84 miles per hour. you are starting to feel the impacts on the outer banks. in roanoke rapids starting to see those winds ramping up to about 30 miles per hour. we want to get you the full track here. what you're going to find is across the delmarva peninsula we could see it graze and maybe make a secondary landfall sunday morning at 2:00 a.m. still pushing right up the jersey shore as we head throughout

early sunday morning and still expected to make a potential landfall as well as we head into sunday morning for the long island, new york city area as a category one storm. there could be multiple landfalls with this because it is going to be so very close to land. right now it is all about north carolina as this will be peaking through about 6:00 p.m. today with the wind and rain that could be? upwards of 12 inches. let's get you the wide look at the path up into the delmarva peninsula and up into new jersey. you can see the zone of concern is from 4:00 p.m. tonight to 4:00 a.m. on sunday. as we head up into new york city it's all about sunday morning where we still could see a storm surge of three to six feet. that's the thing with this storm is the storm surge is very hard to predict because of that intricate coastline and the way the water could be sloshing around. you could see rainfall totals already approaching six inches for parts of north carolina. we're going to have further

updates. i'm on twitter. i'm on facebook. you can let me know what you're seeing if you're being impacted by the storm and i can share those updates, too. >> i can tweet us@msnbctv. we've been talking about the storm making two landfalls in north carolina and new york, you just mentioned multiple landfalls. >> right just because the center of the storm is going to be near the delmarva peninsula. very close. also the new jersey coastline and up into new york city. we don't want to get overly concerned with the extreme center of the storm just because with this storm it's kind of unique and rare that the hurricane force winds do stretch out 90 miles from the center and tropical force winds 250 miles from the center of the storm. this is going to be historic on many levels with the size, the strength and the path that it's taking. there's no doubt there. >> jeff rainieri, thank you.

>> michael sidle, he's live with out on the outer banks. >> reporter: we still have the wind and rains. hurricane force wind gusts to our south down to the cape, that's down highway 12. that's that highway that always gets cut off. north carolina d.o.t. have heavy congresswomen to get it open soongs they can. with isabel it took about a week or so. those folks were stuck. the only way out is the road unless they take the ferry. the entire beach is underwater. it was a wide beach that was just replenished. there's the atlantic swirling out there it's hard to get a sense of the wave heights because it's still dark. once we get the sunrise we'll get a better idea of the wave heights and how the erosion is taking place.

the wider beach is protecting this very important tourist area, the outer banks. they want to get back in business and get everybody back in here ahead of the labor day weekend. they are booked solid next week, which starts today. the weeklies which stay through labor day would check in today. maybe tomorrow. it remains to be seen how bad this ends up being as far as road closures. there's only two ways in and out. there are a lot of trees as you go back on 168 away from the coast. we're going to get the worst of this weather later on this morning and this afternoon. it certainly will be a lot windier than it is right now where winds are gusting 25 to 30 miles per hour. we're going to get a lond of rainfall, too that's the real issue here and new york city, boston, wind, rain, trees down, power outages. power outages will be the biggest inconvenience for most of the folks in the path of the hurricane back to you. >> mike, live for us in nags

head, north carolina. thank you. we want to get you some live pictures coming out of atlantic beach. that's where kerry sanders is. he's in atlantic beach, north carolina. they've been having some trouble there with the signal and we're going to try to get kerry back. kerry, are you with us? >> reporter: i'm with you. and this is just the early arrival of the tropical force winds before we're going to start getting buffetted by the hurricane force winds. as good as our technology is sometimes mother nature wins. we're with you right now. i'm in a little bit of a protected spot to try to talk to you. what we're seeing as irene is making her way here as bill karins told us it looks like the eye is headed right for this location. we're seeing the waves just buflting the beach and beach erosion taking place right before our eyes. there's a pier behind me, it's kind of hard to see in this crazy early hour here in the

darkness, some of those baefs are so powerful and strong and so big that they're crashing over the end of that pier that goes out about 350 yards or so into the water. the community is mostly evacuated and that's what the north carolina government officials wanted. there are some people who decided to stay put and what they discovered this morning is even before irene fully arrived here as a hurricane power was out. folks who are trying to watch their news coverage on television last night lost their cable, lost their satellite dishes very early on because of this rain as it's coming in. and of course, there are really some thankful people that they decided to pack up and head inland and among the most thankful for that are the police. we're at the location where the police are hunkered down and so far we're getting from them no indications that there have been any emergency calls or assistance. that's the last thing they want to have to do is head out into a

hurricane to try to respond to somebody saying help, i need you to come rescue me. >> be careful out there. i'm watching the waves bond you come crashing in. what are you feeling? is it the winds that are kind of really strong at this point, is the rain coming down hard? describe to us what you're feeling? >> reporter: the rain's going sideways. i think you can kind of see that. at times when a really big gust comes through, it stings. it almost feels like someone is throwing sand at you, but it's the rain. down here at the beach the waves that are coming in, as they're coming in, irene is make its way in, interestingly as it's coming in, it's coming in at the same time that the tide is rising. you put that combination together and that also is not good. veroni veronica, a little bit of a gust. >> we've been having trouble with your shot. i know you've been having trouble for the power, how have folks been preparing for this storm? i know power outages are a big problem?

>> reporter: right. the way people paired buzz to put the boards up on their house, that i can their shutters up to try to take things inside the house. they put things on top of the bed. if the water comes up maybe it doesn't get as high as the bed. excuse me, a little bit of a gust there. that's the thing about the hurricanes, the gusts catch you off guard, it can knock you over. i've kind of positioned myself in a by to wedge myself in from getting knocked over. and getting gasoline for the cars heading inland. it's definitely picking up here. i'm going to recon figure ourselves here for one minute and we'll join you back here in about 20 or 30 minutes. >> please, stay safe out there. please do. we appreciate your terrific reporting. hurricane irene projected to make landfall in that area where kerry is east of atlantic beach, north carolina, between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. eastern this morning. we're minutes away from the national hurricane center's

latest advisory on irene. plus, a live update from the jersey shore. also a look inside the storm with a brave group of hurricane hunters. it is all ahead in our continuing coverage of hurricane irene. keep it right here on msnbc. [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables? 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.

we're looking at live pictures right now on atlantic beach, north carolina, where hurricane irene is expected to come ashore around 8:00 a.m. eastern this morning. we're just speaking with our kerry sanders moments ago. you can see him off to the right in the shot. he's trying to hunker down and get to safety. just moments ago he was getting hit hard by one of those outer rain bands. we're going to go to our meteorologist jeff rainieri. what was he experiencing? >> that was right near the eye wall of the storm. looks like it's going to stay pretty bad for him at least through the upcoming hour. the storm is winding up.

i want to remind viewers we're still looking at hurricane force winds that do stretch out 90 miles from the storm. we don't want to be overly focused on that. right now that is the focus on this moves in on shore. where kerry is they are seeing winds gusting to 60 to 70 miles per hour near atlantic beach, north carolina. then off to the north cape hatterras getting wind gus at 84 miles per hour. veronica it's really winding up right now. we're feeling the initial impacts. we do expect the initial impact in the next hour or so. all the compute models keeping in as a category one storm. keeps on track for new york city and long island into tomorrow morning. we're going to have more updates. >> we'll check back with you. michelle franzen now at the jersey shore for us in asbury

park. let's get to her. michelle, it's looking like it's starting to come down now in atlantic beach where we were just talking to kerry sanders. where you're at right now, things look relatively calm? >> reporter: they are relatively calm. certainly emergency crews don't want people to forget about that irene will be making an impact here. we're in one of the low lying areas of monomouth county that was evacuated for tourists and vacationers. other people are hunkering down in their homes. in the next hour we're going to tell you how people all throughout new jersey prepared for the storm and how they're scrambling to stay safe. >> michelle franzen in asbury park, new jersey. we'll check back in with you, thank you. as coastal residents are fleeing the hurricane, a small group of scientists are flying into the eye of the storm. peter alexander spent some time with the air force's hurricane hunters.

he has this storm from bill loxy, mississippi. >> this is an inside look at the storm that thois of americans fear. irene making its way up the east coast. at 10,000 feet the veteran crew is heading right into the eye of the storm. >> it looks like it's going to be pretty close -- >> the flight plan fly through the eye wall four times. their mission to collect data for those come computer models that predict a hurricane's path and its intensity. constantly sending their results to the national hurricane center in miami. john talbot the squadron's chief meteorologist has flown into more than 150 eye walls over 26 years. >> the most critical element in that plan is the geographic position of the center of the storm. >> if you don't know where it's starting you don't know where it's going to finish. during our flight researchers released sensitive probes with gps built in.

they fall toward the ocean with a tiny pair ra chute relaying back vital information including humidity, pressure, wind speed and temperature. up front, the flight's commander guides us through blinding clouds. >> everything you learn as a pilot, as an aviator out there is to leave bad weather. and we do just the opposite. >> here in the cockpit we're about to show you something that very few people ever see up close, the hurricane's eye wall. we are three minutes away. 15 miles from there. the wind speeds outside this aircraft is more than 100 miles per hour. minutes later we finally enter the eye and get our first glimpse of blue. below those white-capped waves are more than 30-feet high. the storm itself more than 200 miles long. >> they come in all shapes and sizes. this is a big one. this is a large wind field. this is going to affect a huge area. >> but sunset we head home. another set of hurricane hunters

already en route to meet irene and help detail the next forecast. >> and that was nbc's peter alexander reporting out of biloxi, mississippi. as we continue to cover hurricane irene please send us pictures, but be safe about it. you can also tweet it us, stay with us, we'll be right back.

we're looking at live pictures of atlantic beach, north carolina income. that's where we've been talking to kerry sanders. he's taking shelter right now because the wind and the rain is really starting to strengthen. you can tell by the pictures the waves are kind of crashing in. so as soon as it's safe, we will be checking back with kerry sanders, but again live shot out of atlantic beach, north

carolina, 80,000 people without power right now in north carolina. as you can expect hurricane irene is dominating the national headlines. here is how some of the major newspapers are covering it. the i don't page of "the boston globe", looming large, new england braces for the storm's impact. kwchlt the st. petersburg times" says 65 million on alert as it traces irene's predicted path. coast off limits that's according to "the cincinnati inquirer." "the glass morning news" warns get out of irene's way. "the stx chronicle" sums it up best, easternest move out as irene moves in. hurricane irene is a category one storm with sustained winds of 90 miles per hour. the storm is expected to make landfall in the next hour and a half in north carolina. we're going to take loo look at the latest advisory in just a

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