hello, i'm tamron hall at msnbc headquarters continuing our special live coverage of irene. now a tropical storm. irene barted -- is headed toward rhode island and massachusetts after leaving flooding and downed trees behind in new york and new jersey. in new jersey we're just learning of two deaths, once a princeton firefighter. at least 13 people have died in five states at this hour. more than 4 million people are without power, and officials say it could be days before power is restored in some locations. one of the biggest concerns is storm surge and flooding. as much as 12 inches of rain fell in parts of new jersey

causing the already saturated rivers to rise. governor chris christie expects damages to reach tens of millions. let's get the latest on irene. bill karins is still here with me, still tracking this storm. bill, what's the latest? >> we're still losing power outages. that's the next stop for irene. tropical storm, 60-mile-per-hour winds. the rainfall is starting to add up in new england, that's where it's really coming down hard. now about 4 inches of rain there. new york city had 6.8 inch officially. newark airport had almost 9 inches. the areas that didn't need it the least got it. notice is the difference between boston and hartford. boston only an inch and a half already. this purple shading is 6 inches. we had a large area down here that picked up a ton of rain.

richmo richmond, over 5 inches of rain, even baltimore did pretty well. now, further to the south, we did pick up heavy rainfall amounts in heavy areas, and of course, they were in a drought before this storm, if that's -- that shows where our tropical storm force winds are. notice the northern edge is approaching northern new england. concord, new hampshire. portland, mainest, eventually around augusta, maine. even on the back side we have gusts. it is racing to the north now, 25 miles per hour. this area of yellow is the heaviest rain right now, and it's even north of that, it's moving so fast. the white and green mountains of maine, vermont, new hampshire, the adirondacks. so from massachusetts to connecticut to rhode island, it

looks like your heavy rain is over with. we're mostly talking upstate new york, all through northern new england. wind gusts in boston, just shows you, this storm has weak end significantly. once you get into the 40s, that's when you lose trees and get the power outages. even on the north side of the storms, right now the storms are located here far to the north. like at burlington, vermont, wind gusts out of the north-northeast, that's pretty incredible for a storm this side. tamron will finish up this here, and montauk is actually located right out here, montauk point, and we've got winds at 52 miles per hour at block island coming from the south. that's a lot of wave action, too. thankfully it's low tie. since the rain is with, there's probably a lot of people checking out the huge shores. they're telling people not to,

but sometimes human cure outity is hard. governor bob mcdonnell last hour said the biggest problems are power outages in his state. luke russered is in alexandria, virginia yesterday you were out on that boat, and things look much better now. >> absolutely. tamron, here in -- folks are out here having brunch, walking their dogs, with strollers, with the kids. it's like nothing ever happened yesterday. it's quite amazing. it's a beautiful blue sky, radiant sunshine, so irene has definitely passed through. all that being said, there are hundreds of thousands of people still without power. that's to be expected. that's what officials told us a few days ago they want there are some downed trees in the area, and as well as a bit of some water on the streets, but overall the d.c. metro area

dodged a big bullet. the southern part of virginia did not. there's a lot of votes there that are -- that got some flooding, as well as major power outages. sadly a few fatalities down there. that area, that saw the worst of hurricane irene, and that's where you can see power not turning for anywhere up to a week, but the d.c. area, it was in the path of irene, going up the east coast through d.c. to new york, we really dodged a bullet here. it was a bad storm with some wind and a lot of rain, but there is no flooding. there is a possibility of flooding where i'm standing here at alexandria, that did not happen, even at high tide at 8:00 a.m. that storm surge was supposed to go through the chesapeake bay, but did not come, but a lot of folks enjoying it is day, a beautiful casual day after irene. >> very fortunate set of

circumstances. we know it could have been something different this hour. >> instead. the chesapeake bay bridge is also back own. queens ann county had one storm-related death. a woman was killed after a chimney collapsed. here is the governor of maryland giving an update this morning. >> there are a lot of fallen trees, a lot of people without electricity, and crews going out there as we speak to try to get people restored as soon as possible. >> tom costello is in ocean city, maryland, where the worst of the storm is behind the folks there. we heard him talk about, over 800,000 people at one point in time, but it looks great, at least from your vantage point. >> well, this is -- this is the day after. what a difference 24 hours makes, even 12 hours makes, because today this has turned into a surfer's paradise.

we've been dunce of surfers up and down the beach here. we just talked to two guys who drove in from washington, d.c., which is about a three-hour drive, because they said they simply could not miss this opportunity. the waves are perfect for a surfer. so that is the up side. a beautiful day for ocean city. six hours ago we had rain, now we have blue skies and sunshine, and it's been a spectacular day, it will end up a spectacular weekend. in ocean city, they've got a total of about 12 inches of rain. they also had gusts coming off the water of about six feet or so. they were told a surge of about six feet, and sustained winds of about 60 miles per hour with the gusts of 80 miles per hour, so they too dodged a bullet. they are prepared for real substantive flooding, and we're only aware of one death in

maryland, tragically a woman -- oops, that's a face full of sand. but for the most part maryland has dodged the worst of it. it seems the worst has been in virginia and north carolina, and i know new jersey and new york and new england are starting to feel the effects, but as a hurricane itself, it seems the worst of it was to the south of us, and is it weakened by the time it got to us. back to you. >> tom, it is great to see the contrast from what you were experiencing last night, but i have to tell you, i think not since pippa middleton wore that dress at the wedding have i received so many tweets about the attire. so many people are talking about your shorts and legs on the internet. i they have you've created one phenomenon. one light thing in the middle of the storm -- your shorts. >> yesterday's attire or today? >> yesterday and today.

you're the new pippa middleton. >> reporter: you've got to go with -- you've got to go with the flow. >> thanks, tom. i'll talk with you soon. tack a look at this near miss. the viewer send this into us, edith santiago of queens, new york, very large tree snapped just missing two homes. how frightening. you can share your extort photos with us. stay with us. we're going to take you as irene makes he way to rhode island and massachusetts. what'd you use? 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

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washington, d.c. is assessing the damage. here is mayor gray who talked with alex witt in our 8:00 hour

just thunderstorm. >> i think overall we fared well. the storm could have been a lot worse. the folks who work with the city have done a great job. we have power outages. which our electric company, our power company is starting to work on. we've got between 40 and 50 trees down. >> cnbc's eamon javers is live in washington, d.c. he's running down some issues, but we also know the dedication of the martin luther king memorial postponed, some 250,000 people would have been there marking that moment today. what's astonishing to me here is how quinnly it's changed. we've had drenching rains, really intense winds, and now we have clear blue sky and bright

sun. what we need now is a pair of sunglasses. it's turned into a gorgeous day. it's a shame for those who canceled the dedication. they probably could have gone off without a hitch if they had had something later in the afternoon. the real challenge is all the power outages. thousands of people theyout the region, including at my house, who are without power. dismissal local power authorities i saying it could be days before some people actually get their power back. some folks were saying on a nationwide level, they're setting disaster assessments teams into the communities most hard hit by the storms, and they're going to start adding up how much of the federal government will be on the hook to pay for all the of the damage from all that coastline damaged by irene, tamron. >> you've got to be thankful. i know as you pointed out, it certainly would have been better than nice to have the dedication today, but it's just a gamble

that could not be taken at this point. we have no idea what could be the impact, but what are folks saying? this is an area where you see joggers all the time, and folks, tourists and the like? >> we've got two folks coming here riding their bikes out here in shorts and t-shirts. it's a casual relaxed atmosphere out here. of course, those folks at the mlk memorial could have gone ahead with this, but leaders have to make decisions with the information they have at the time. i think that's what you'll hear from politician up and down the seaboard as they assess this, they made the best call they could, knowing what they knew at the time in order to cancel some of these major events. >> eamon, thank you for the update. certainly hope that you and the others are able to get your power on very soon. >> reporter: thanks. a young woman in salem county

was trapped in her car, and we've learned that a firefighter has died after attempting a water rescue in princeton. as rivers rise, more than 3,000 -- more than 650,000 customers without power. michelle franzen is on the phone from new jersey, and michelle s. you watched the storm come in, you were in asbury park on the boardwalk there. what do you see just milling about? >> reporter: we've since moved to bayhead, which is not too far from asbury park. when we were in park, certainly yesterday, of course, and the day before we had been reporting from the boardwalk. the water from the jersey shore had reached that point, had reached the edge of the boardwalk and the paramount theater, just lapping over that area. i spoke with the mayor earlier,

and he said there was no beach. it was just all water leading up to that area. with that said, the mayor also said we were very lucky on this one, it could have been worse. that seems to be the case all along the shore. the focus, of course, moving inland as the river flooding is expected to worsen in the next 24 hours. he said they will be keeping their eyes on the rivers. he's urging people not to go out. it's still raining here. we're getting bouts of wind, and we've seen a string of trees on our drive that have either been toppled over from the roots' end or snapped. that number of people with outages seems to keep growing.

here in bayhead, they have some street flooding in this area due from overflow from bay waters and that surge that came in early this morning. as for the river rescue, the governor had mentioned the fire fight, trying to perform a swiftboat water rescue, exactly the scenario he wanted to avoid. another reason he said let the officials get out and do their job today and stay in. >> that is so sad. this firefighters trying to save someone's life, and now his family has the news to deal with that he's lost his life. thank you very much, michelle. let me take to you new york city. mayor michael bloomberg is giving an update of the conditions in the city. we don't yet know the full extent of the damage caused by

the category 1 storm, but so far i've said there's no confirmation of deaths or injuries from the storm and we're great much for that. we are see some very serious consequences of the flooding or up the stove. and as we anticipated, the storm surgeon has caused serious flooding across the five boroughs, including here where the hudson rivers are flowing into their banks. we did have substantial erosion at the staten island beaches, and in the rockaways where the waves breached the 94th street between 1132nd streets and on the west side of manhattan, water was flowing over the docks when i was by earlier at the boat basin in river park. i'm told in the bronx ocean beach is under water, as is

millpond park, and the riverfront lots at yankee stadium. the bronx river is moving very fast and people should certainly stay away from flooded areas in particular, if you were to fall into the bronx river, it's hard to see how emergency personnel could get to you in time. in brooklyn, the eastbound belt parkway is still flooded due to the collapse of a retaining wall. now, yesterday we warned residents that their power may go out or be cut preemptively to avoid damage to the power grid caused by flooding. thankfully coned did not have to do that, and where they had to cut steam service to some buildings, they think that would be restored by tuesday. last records there was something like 62,000 households whose power had been knocked out by the storm, including 28,000 households in queens.

coned is on the job, they have the crew out there. kevin, thank you for all the service, and kevin's estimate was probably by tuesday, day after tomorrow to get everybody back, though overhead lines are easy toss, and big chunks of that 62,000 should be back much earlier. the city's hospitals all have contingency plans in place, including redundancy for emergency generators that are of the most vulnerable to flooding. if the next storm were to come through, they're ready. in terms of tree damage. the storm has uproaded something like 650 treetsds ooh the five boroughs. i've always been fascinated how we get the exact number, but the numb enter is like that. and we can count this, more than

100 forestry crews today to remove downed trees and limits. when we came back an hour later, there was an enormous tree, no injuries. but let me just remind you, when the ground is very wet, the older trees absorb a lot of moisture. without wince and a lot of notice, they can all of a sudden fall. so nature is dangerous. pay attention. they're going to work nonstop to make sure the stop and aftermath is safe. they used three rescue boats to

save 61 adults and three babies in the bulls head area of lake staten after the lake overflowed. sal, thank you for all your men to get out there. these people were trapped in five feet of water and faced a very scary situation, and 50 fdny firefighters answered the call, as they always do, within two minutes and rescued every single one of the people trapped there with no injuries reported. of course we're taking basic safety measures so that can happen as soon as possible. the fdny is currently up in the air with a senior engineer from the buildings department, just looking of an aerial survey, to see if there are buildings where

the water had gotten on all foresides and there may be a danger of foundations being undermined. we set up shelters to provide a safe place for more than 9,000 evacuees. we are now working to get buses from the department of education and the mta to give those people the ability to get back. let me just caution everyone, if you live in a high-rise building, there may have been water damage in the basement, and there's long climbs if you live on a higher flood. with that caveat, buildings will be open and we'll try to get

people who needed buses to get out and give bus rides back. but we do want to remind everybody that there's no guarantee those elevators are all working. it's a case-by-case base we're surveying, we don't know how long or how serious the damage is. and appropriately staffed, and resourced, and once this process is complete, the city will be arranging transportation from the shelters to their homes. in the meantime, these evacuees will be maintained? shelters in a full assessment of special-needs is currently being conducted, to determine if they might more appropriately be transferred to a hospital rather than stay in a shelter a second

night, but it took us two days to move roughly 9,000 people out of senior homes and nursing homes and hops, and we did it safely, and we're going to do it safely moving it back, but that gives you a feel for the amount of time it will take to get everybody back to where they were last week. the engineers are looking at everything. they have to reactivate boilers and assess the building conditions, other things like that, but the progress they're making gives us comfort that most people will be able to get back in. something about 6:00 we would suggest to go back for ntra housing. 3:00 were officially lifting the evacuation order, but please give the engineers and custodians a little more time, so that they can get back. if they can get all the elevators back working, that would be good. we don't want somebody to climb up a lot of stairs that may have a medical problem.

the police commissioner and his staff have checked out everything. we're looking for police cars to look for tree limbs and block off those areas. you should just be careful when you go out there. we're still not back to normal. in terms of transferring, i'm happy to say that all of the bridge are open to the rockaway. some of those had been closed. the make tbta and port authority did replain open, because the winds never got to the point where they had to be closed. the tunnels all kept working. the hudson tunnel had one lane closed in the middle of the night. the ferry service out of st. george begins at 3:00 today. just remember the staten island railroad is not functioning, so

you can't take that to the subway, nor is mass transit on the manhattan side, so just like chris ward talk about point to point with the path tubes, the staten island ferry is a point to point when you get to manhattan or st. george, then you have to figure out how to get where you really want to go. i know that many properties throughout the city have sustained damage includes city government buildings that had some windows blown out our flooding. whenever there is a imagine emergency, our office of emergency managed activates the damage tool. 311 then compiles the data and uses it to deploy state oem and fema workers and inspectors. fema then does a preliminary damage assessment job to see if we are eligible for federal reimbursement. fema has been here throughout this entire process, and i

wanted to say thank you to them. we have enabled a damage report tool, so you can report property damage online, and once again, for updays throughout the storm and its aftermath, you can always go to avmt nycmayor office. i want to thank all the volunteers for helping fellow new yorkers, particularly 2,500 city employees who helped staff our evacuation centers and i'm especially grateful to our first responders, pace at rikers island and other employees who gave it their all, and thank you to the livery drivers, who transferred some of the most vulnerable neighbors to safety. as we've seen so many times before, this is about bringing out about the best in new yorkers. i'm happy to say overnight crime activity was below normal. ray reports 45 arrests overnight

compared to, on average, on a typical saturday night in august, 345. so 300 fewer arrests. if that doesn't tell you about new yorkers, i don't know what does. people said, you were going to have a problem, quite the contrary, new yorkers do come together. the plan for tomorrow, we understand that some people will have difficult times coming to work. city government offices will be open with some disruptions i'm sure, because people can't get there. the new york stock exchange and the other financial markets plan to open on time, and have a normal day. i'm sure most businesses will, with some minor quick adjustments getting riling back to keeping the economy going in this city and giving people the opportunity to share in what's great about new york.

let in in spanish say -- [ speaking foreign language ] and there you have it, the latest information from mayor michael bloomberg on the conditions in new york city. the big headline the evacuation order will be lifted at 3:00 p.m. eastern time for the low-lying areas that were evacuated. the mayor also saying wall street and all of the activity on wall street back to normal hopefully on monday. we have another update from governor chris christie's office s. the new jersey governor, according to his media spokesperson, the governor was given inaccurate information when he reported that the new jersey firefighter had died in a water rescue. the information is that that firefighter is alive, and is in critical condition in intensive care. so the governor was given inaccurate information, and his office is now sending out the word the firefighters involved is in fact alive and in critical

condition in icu. we've also gotten new information from the weather channel, 14 people is the confirmed number of people who lost their lives as a result of this storm in six separate states. the bulk of those sadly in north carolina, five people in virginia, four other fatalities. about 4 million are without power. 750,000 in new york, 650,000 in new jersey, 792,000 in maryland, 1 million without power in virginia and 32,000 in washington, d.c. another 480,000 in north carolina, and rhode island, and 200 thousand people without power in massachusetts. even as irene weakens for a tropical storm it continues to bring heavy rain and destructive high waters to the america's largest cities and has left a swath of destruction. some 4 million people without power. a lot of people certainly will need help in the coming days.

thomas teague is president and ceo of direct relief international. the good news here, obviously, the number of people who could have been impacted in a disastrous way not the case, but there are people in shelters, a lot of seniors who will need help as they leave those shelter and other places to get back home. >> right. thanks, tamron. the good news is it clearly wasn't the worst-case scenario, and may be the best-scare scenario, but with all this disruption, you know, it's still unknown. i think the assessments need to be done. for direct relief international, we're the only nonprofit licensed to provide prescription drugs in all 50 states, so i think that's been on our focus on the particular needs we'll know that, i think we pre-positioned a lot of people in the region. we'll see how it shakes out.

we're thankful for the support of abbott laboratories, fedex and protect other and gamble who understand this well and stepped forward and said put us down to help. let's pre-position materials where we can. so having those big companies understand and lean into this has been help for direct relief.org. >> how do you see coordinate if folks need help? >> we're in touch every day with the broad network of nonprofit community health care and clinics. we're working through that structure. we have text messaging back and forth. it's really important, particularly as power goes out. we have redundancy to come through us, and work through their local public health care

depends which have been on it throughout the eastern sayboard. >> thank you very much and thank you to your team, who are ready, willing and able to help. >> thank you, thomas. this is new bedford, they're towing in a boat out at sea. there you see our ron allen. he's standing by as well. the name of the boat is "distant dream" i don't know what to make of that, but it looks like they're towing it in. ron, what is the latest other than the owners of "distant dream" not having a good day. >> reporter: well, they may be having a day where they're saved. let's take a look at the boat out there. they just towed it in from way out in the harbor. there have been at least a half dozen or so boats that have come loose. this is a protected harbor.

we've got watching this happen all day. earlier another one was loose and floating around sort of like a pinball machine, but there have been a couple guys out in boats like this that have been trying to secure various -- trying to take care of things, because the last thing you want is a loose boat. those are pleasure crafts that are -- >> it looks like we've lost our connection to ron allen's live short in new bedford, massachusetts. earlier you could see the wind whipping up. i think one of you back, ron. are you there? >> reporter: yeah, i'm here, tamron. we're back and forth. it's been that kind of a day. every tie i say it's calm and

things are easing up, we get a gust of wind or things pick up. this harbor is usually completely smooth. they go out for quite a distance. the conditions keep changing. we were getting rain earlier, now we're getting wind gusts across the state of massachusetts. there have been wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour, and there's a lot of concern about inland flooding. but here, again, watching this all closely, because they're trying to -- >> you heard ron say we're in and out, our connection with him, but you get the gist of what's happening there on the ground from his vantage point. we'll get an update for you. in the meantime the extent of damage is coming into clear focus this hour as the day moves on. a short time ago we confirmed 14 people lost their lives. and at this hour authorities are reiterating even if you're in an area and it looks calm, a

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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. welcome back. we're going to get you caught up on the latest regarding irene, but pick turs on the left side, that's narragansett. just an update of the weather conditions on two separate states. let's go to bill karins. he joins me live. the image, certain montauk is kind of ferocious there. >> let me explain what's happening. we have a long southerly fetch right over the waters. i mentioned yesterday that in cape hatteras we had 14 straight hours of hurricane-force gusts. that was the right side of is the storm. that's what southern new england is going through. because it's such a big storm, it takes so long, the southerly

winds will continue, and they're piling up the water. we still expect a high tide this evening. we're still going to have some problems. we already had one report in the new haven area of one house that actually collapsed. one other one was partially collapsed. we were just showing you the boat rescue around new bedford. those are sort waves coming up anywhere around 10 to 15 feet, in sets one after the other the rain is over with. the huge waves are still existing. the heavy rain has shifted much further to the north. many of the strong wind gusts are strong to the north. heartfold is down to 36. we're still at 35 in albany. at this point it's almost turning into a nor'easter storm. there's a very big wind shift. albany they're out of the north, almost like a cold front located in there. further to the south, winds are

still gusty, 45 here, and in trenden northward, the delaware river is going into major flooding, evacuations are taking place as we watch the water levels continue to rise. as far as the flooding goes, these are the areas most concerned about where the evacuations are taking place. the new hope, those will all crest top ten all time. the reason why? just heavy, heavy rain. we picked up anywhere between 5 to 8 inches. total i saw was about 10 inches. to the north, the rain continues to fall, too. these totals will end up being around somewhere between -- the reason it's taking so long for this storm to wind down is the tropical storm force winds were 700 miles wide. so it was about a 20-hour event from start to end in your area. >> it's incredible when you try to wrap your mind around that length of time. when we were watching a live

report from nags head yesterday, it went on and on. at one point you had people thinking it was stalling out. >> it wasn't, but it was like, end already. >> really. that is it, end already. thank you roche. greatly appreciate it, bill. you've been doing a fantastic job. we'll bring you the latest that you need to know on msnbc.com to keep you and your family safe. up next, aton edwards will join us. did we overprepare? that's what some people are asking. he says, no way, we've done the right thing here. [ female an] kiss everything you know about cookies goodbye.

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welcome back to our continues coverage. while irene has been downgraded to a tropical storm, it is no comfort to those facing heavy rain flooding and more than 4 million people still without power. joining mess is aton edwards.

thank you for joining us. he was talking about, and he said listen, i look at 3:00 a.m., at 6:00 a.m. and started to get the sense of relief that it would be okay. thankfully for the most part things turned out wonderfully. people were prepared, stocked up, but sadly you said on the radio a short time ago, and you said, people were asking did we overreact? >> i do a show call "the open line." a lot of people were complaining this was a conspiracy or this was this, and i thought to myself, what did you want folks to do? you always err on the side of caution. what the cities, states, federal government did was completely correct to prepare the people. we were just talking about the flashlights. people went to buy the flashlights, the gear, so they have it. even if nothing happened, the mere fact they went and got it for the next disaster, they'll have it. so i believe they did the right

thing. >> i was a radio shack, and witnessed a near brawl over the last flashlight. it is a wake-up call that you need these things in your homes, because you don't know, we had a lot of warning with irene, but we don't have warning where there's a tornado, or god forbid something happens in your building there's a flood because of a pipe erupting. >> and hurricane season isn't over, and we just had an earthquake. people forgot about the fact we just had an earthquake. >> it seems to long ago now. >> in having that gear, people being prepared, and that information put out there, it will only help people for the next emergency. and another emergency will come. >> technology played such a great role here, you have apps from, you know, fema. >> fema has apps now. >> the salvation army. the information that was flooding in from twitter. people tweeting up pictures of the damage in their area, the conditions in their area.

so the technology helped us prepare, in a much different way, quite honestly, and a better way. >> of course, fema itself has been upgraded, the director is doing a great job. they're trying to get certain things in place to help the public and to allow for the public to interface with them in such a way that it can enhance the preparedness experience so americans can be safer. >> let's not forget, looking at this power line that's down there are millions of people still without power right now. >> and they'll go without power for a while. this thing has been over such a wide area and the resources are not there. it will take a while to reboot. this is the self-reliance mode. it's preparedness and self reliance. people have to become self reliant now, because it will take a while -- >> it will take agencies a while to get in and help you.

if you depend on yourself, you are gbetter prepared. to contact fema call 800-621-3362. for the red cross that number, 800-read-cross. 800-733-2767. stay with msnbc, our special coverage will continue. 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. try this. bayer aspirin? it's not a heart attack. new bayer advanced aspirin's for pain. it has microparticles and enters the bloodstream faster. works twice as fast as before. did you invent this or something?

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welcome back. turning to technology and the role it played a key role it helped find one another during the wrath of irene, mobile commons is one website getting those in touch with those who certainly can give them some help. jed alpert is mobile commons ceo. he joins me via skype. tell me what you do. >> first, thank you for having me. we are a mobile platform that n

enabl enables businesses, governments, large organizations to communicate via e-mail and other methods of communication. we get used by governments for vital communication all the time. >> for example, would i, a person with a mole phone, just go in. how does this effect someone's life and help them out in a crisis here? >> a terrific example of what's going on now, if someone texts the word irene to the short code, the six digit number 877877, they can report, for example what you're showing on the screen, a downed tree, some kind of other dangerous or hazardous or bad situation. that immediately gets into a mapping put together by the office of emergency management in new york city and the crowd sourcing technology platform. that allows the city and the country to rely on all of its citizens and everyone around to

participate in reporting and letting people know where the problems are to get things fixed quickly. not just reporting them straight to the government but sharing it with neighbors and other people. >> what kind of traffic did you see in the height of the storm? >> well, this particular one is sort of waiting for the storm is over until they started promoting it or pass by. we are seeing a lot of traffic, literally hundreds of reported incidents throughout the city and the region. other good examples of this were someone could text in a -- the word zone, the short code 30644, and find out immediately if they were in an evacuation zone. >> all right. >> this provides an immediate able for people finding out what they should be doing, where they should be going, and providing that information on their phones. >> technology providing a big role in getting the information out. cool system you have there.

thanks for coming on and letting us know what did you and how it worked out. >> thanks. >> my pleasure. >> the full impact of this storm will likely not be realized for days. rivers could crest later in the week, even before irene august set a record for rainfall for much of the northeast. we'll keep you covered on msnbc. i'll be back after a quick break. [ man ] behind every business is a "what if." what if we designed an electric motorcycle? what if we turned trash into surfboards? whatever your what if is, the new sprint biz 360 has custom solutions to make it happen, including mobile payment processing, instant hot spots, and powerful devices like the motorola photon 4g. so let's all keep asking the big what ifs. sprint business specialists can help you find the answers. sprint. america's favorite 4g network. trouble hearing on the phone? visit sprintrelay.com. handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year.

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