welcome back to our continuing coverage of hurricane sandy. thank you for staying with us tonight. >> tom is going to have the latest on what is going on with what used to be hurricane sandy, but look how massive that storm system is. >> it is an amazing storm to watch for sure. we have kind of hit a milestone with the coverage of our storm system. the last advisory has been issued. now it will transfer to the weather service office in college park which handles nontropical storms. the transition from hurricane to eastern storm. it is just west of philadelphia with winds of 75 miles an hour and it is the present movement to the west-northwest at about

18 miles an per hour. good signs as far as slowly weak thing storm system. within the -- weakening this storm system. the northern side of the storm still pounding the new york city area. there have been numerous report s of hurricane-forces. you can see here on our doppler radar. near oakland there is thunder snow. it is enhancing the lift just like an uplift in a thunderstorm. in the cold air it is thunder snow and torrential rains falling out of those rain bands. the rain may be tapering off a little bit closer to the center. kind of like the eye of the storm where the rain and winds taper off.

you may be experiencing a little bit of a lull. don't let your guard down. the rain may increase overnight into the morning as well. it may feel like things are winding down a little bit there in the northern tier, sitting right in here as you get towards the center of the storm but all of this is going to wrap back around. let's switch our view and show you to way this storm comes inland from off the ocean as category-1 hurricane slams into atlantic city with 85-mile-an-hour winds and by 8:00 this evening and now it is making progress to the west bringing all of that moisture and wind inland. it is expected to turn to the north. it is moving west. it is expected to make this northwest turn into southern pennsylvania but may go further to the west before it finally makes that turn.

the wind field, that's where the winds diminish but they are still quite strong, well over tropical storm force, well over 40-mile-an-hour gusts. so it is still very strong once you get away from the center of that storm. as a matter of fact, these winds have been marching westward. now pushing west to the bay, getting all the way out to western maryland where winds are gusting over 35 miles an hour. at b.m.y., gust as high as 59 at the -- b.m.i., gusts as high as 59 miles an hour. haven't had a chance to update this yet. 7 inches of rain in southern maryland. we'll finish off with anywhere from 6-10 inches of rain in most areas of maryland.

another flood warning. 48 degrees at ocean city now. we had hurricane-force winds and 48 degrees. just unheard of to have these kind of cold temperatures to sweep into a hurricane. 42 in oakland with heavy snow falling. likely to continue to get cold, maybe cold enough that we see a little bit of snow. this is the picture earlier this evening of the snow-covered i-68. lots of snow on the shoulders too. they may end up with 2 feet of snow out there. that moisture is going to the uplift of the mountain. thunder snow out there from garrett county into west virginia.

on the bay, the winds are going ob strong. look at this out of the southwest. winds coming up the bay. tides running about normal. 8-foot waves. in the evening after all day having the south to southwest winds blow up the bay, the evening tide may be running well above normal too. anywhere from two 2-3-5 feet above the normal tides. up and down bay 2-5 feet above normal on that first tide tomorrow morning. the winds will be coming up the bay. tomorrow that water is going to be trapped a little bit. the snow continues to fall in west virginia tomorrow. the center starts to pull north

toward the eastern part of the great lakes. the mountain snow continues into wednesday. the wind will slowly diminish on wednesday. it is going to be chilly but the trick or treaters still should be able to get out on wednesday evening. maybe some lingering snow showers in the mountains on thursday. we'll gradually crawl out from underneath this storm midweek. 30's tonight. heavy rain still possible in most areas. winds close to hurricane-force at times as the storm pushes west. the wind also slowly diminish. problem is they will be out of the south trapping the water in the bay. sunshine returns for end of the week. weekend looks good. chilly. highs in the 50's.

temperatures in the 30's at night for most of this week. >> just to see sunshine at this end of this week will be great. this is what the flooding situation looks like in new york city. there is massive flooding in lower manhattan. the new york stock exchange is going to be closed tomorrow and who knows with flooding, it could be closed more days this week. water downtown. utilities on parts of manhattan. in lower manhattan, the power was cut so they do not have power. parts of the financial district underwater. so it is a very, very tough situation in new york city tonight. >> now we're going to turn our sites here to ocean city. what are the conditions like out there now? >> well, it is like a mixed bag. going back and forth through these live shots. the winds will die down.

the rain will pick up. we're in one of those rain die-down, wind pick up type situations. the bigger story is how cold it is with the wind chill. temperatures in the 40's. that is something to think about as well. it is wet and damp out here. we're going to give you a 360-degree tour. first of all, clogged drains here. you can see all of this sea debris clogging these drains causing standing water to form on the coastal highways. this is not too bad but if you think about this going on all coastal highway, this is a difficult situation here. sometimes it takes up two lanes. i was with an ocean city police officer and he was telling us about the bay situation. it was very serious earlier today with flooding and

certainly we'll see the remnants of that tomorrow in daylight and get a good view of it. you have 3 feet of standing water. a lot of the parking lots and condominiums and hotels. that has since receded, which is good news for now but that could be a different story once we hit the next high tide tomorrow. 17th street and beyond was initially closed and then they closed 62nd street. it is a ghost town. the visibility was horrible earlier this evening. you cannot see anything a couple of streets down. you can see the red stoplight down there that is blinking. that is good news. the first time we have been able to see something like to in quite a while. making the full turn here, more debris in the road. this is the lane we have been standing in here down here where

we have seen more debris and heavier winds. wind gusts in this alley way by the hotel anywhere from 60-65 miles per hour. earlier 74 miles per hour. it certainly felt like that. you saw what happened when some of that debris hit us today, when we were dining shot. some of it came off a hotel here. a lot of people are asking about the situation with the boardwalk. the fishing pier there suffered severe damage. the mayor told me it has happened before. that didn't come too much out of left field, but from what i understand, again, this other police officer that i spoke with told me that a lot of sand has washed up on the boardwalk and there is some structural damage to some buildings there but the boardwalk for the most part is in about the, which is good news. there is just a lot of sand that has washed over it and a lot of

street signs have been blown down and garbage cans managed to break free from the waves and wind. it will be a sight to see which we'll check out sometime tomorrow the if we can get down there. a lot of the flooding that we saw on the bay side has receded. a lot of pictures came out on twitter. this flooding was all the way up to 94th street. those areas really don't see too much flooding. you can see the intensity that came with this storm and the winds blowing off the bay and blowing that water on to the coastal highway. back to you in the studio. >> be safe. thank you very much. >> they have done so much great work today, as always. now we're going to go to david

collins. he is -- how are things there? >> you know, just a few secondses oo ago, it was very quiet here. very little rain. no wind gusts. now the wind is starting to kick up again. let's take a look at some flags. this wreaked havoc on the maryland flag. look at the poor u.s. flag. that is all from wind gusts today. now earlier today, as the wind and rain picked up, a lot of people were coming in and out of hotel. we ran into a couple who spent the last couple of days on their 38-foot sailboat. they said the wind noise and rough seas were just too much so they checked into a hotel. 5100 power outages in queen anne's county. speaking of roads, the bay bridge as we mentioned earlier today, closed this afternoon because of wind gusts up to 75

miles per hour. this evening, sustained winds of 80 miles praur were clocked on the bridge. 16 -- per hour were clocked on the bridge. 16 people seeked emergency shelter. the sheriff's office arrested a disorderly person and found drugs on them. everyone is bracing for a storm surge tomorrow, actually between midnight and down tomorrow. it could go anywhere from 4-5 feet and it is expected to cause a lot of trouble. >> thank you very much. thousands of people are now in the dark as the winds from sandy intensify. b.g.e. anticipated the storm would cause major outages. >> this is a look from earlier this evening where downed power lines have been reported in bel air.

emergency services are stressing stay off the roads during this time. it is very dangerous. >> toppled trees another concern. this is some of the damage on drew park drive. we have pictures of crews clearing the debris. >> trees also down in downtown reistertown. the national guard was working to clear that situation. >> just another reminder to report any outage. if your power is out, you can call b.g.e. at 1-877-778-2222. you -- a number of closings for tomorrow have been announced. among them all maryland schools are closed. the m.t.a. no service tomorrow.

amtrak new york city service tomorrow at least in the northeastern corridor. maryland state government is going to be closed. >> sandy makes her presence felt even more in our area. >> the power of this storm, certainly overwhelming. this is a birds eye view. that is where the gazebo just vanishes beneath the surf. it was posted on a facebook page. if anyone sees the gazebo, please point it in the way of home. you can see the pictures on wbal-tv.com. click on slide shows. >> our live continuing coverage of hurricane sandy or what was hurricane sandy continues in

just a moment. stay with us.

>> welcome back to our continuing coverage of what used to be hurricane sandy. >> thanks so much for staying with us tonight. we appreciate you're being with us. right now we're going to go live to jennifer franciotti. jennifer? >> it is so interesting being here because you definitely get realtime information. i've been checking the website for b.g.e. the number for power outages still at about 200,000 but we have learned it jumped to 351,000 power outages. joining me is governor o'malley. >> those 350,000 power outages are state-wide.

a sporgs b.g.e. and a portion pepco. tree limbs snapping power lines. that's the reality we're going to be dealing with. >> people starting generators and maybe lighting their home with candles. >> that is a bad thing. candles bad. flashlights are good. we had some people die because of a misuse of generators a couple of storms back. >> what are you hearing about the conditions in western maryland? >> heavy snows falling in garrett county. we have a big pileup. it is a real mess out there. state police are working their

way to those motorists now. we had to close westbound 68 because of the tractor trailers. then the traffic started backing up and as the snow fell they could not get up the hill. we have a pretty major event that we're wrestling with out there in the middle of a snowstorm. we have had just about every weather condition that you could possibly have. somerset county got 12 inches of rain. it wasn't just the tides but also the rain flowing into that peninsula there. we have had the floods. we've that is surf in ocean city. ocean city seems to be holding up fairly well, though, knock on wood, and all considered. then we had the snow out west. it is going to be a long next 12 hours. the north part of the state, the middle of that eye of the storm. >> right. they are really getting battered. as many as 50% of the citizens

there are without power now. so you know this storm is going to continue to knock down trees and knock out power. we're going to be many, many days working on the restoration. we're hoping tomorrow afternoon we might see some of the storm move out of the way and get the crews out there to begin the restoration process. are >> you really think the worst of it is until now and until dawn? >> i do. until dawn or 10:00 a.m.. it is going to be. the winds are still going to be howling through the night. >> i'm going to take this a little lighter now. i heard a rumor about your son getting into the weather business a little bit? >> yes, william has been sending me tongue in cheek weather videos on the road. i think he has some talent. if we could get him an internship some place.

>> wbal may have some room for him. >> when he sees you guys doing this and what sort of example do you set? >> that influences. to be truthful, his video was all daylight video. he was not allowed to go outside at night. >> you haven't seen the last two videos. >> we'll have to check that out. you canceled schools for tomorrow. there are decisions are made by the local boards. some of our rural counties on the eastern shore, some of their schools are being used as shelters so some of them are already making the decision to cancel wednesday as well. we will update you as soon as we know. we have been taking this one day at a time. >> your final message to our viewers? >> to stay inside. stay indoors. shelter in place until this monster of a storm leaves or area. >> you're spending the night

here? >> i am. >> thank you, governor. certainly appreciate it, very much so. again the message is stay in place. don't go out. stay off the roads. it is going to be safest thing possible. >> thank you, jennifer. >> we're going to annapolis. what are conditions like where you are? >> we're here in annapolis. this is -- it is very interesting. it has gotten to be -- it is still range but we don't have the wind that we had earlier. it has calmed down considerably since the last few times that we talked. there is a sigh of relief here from annapolis city officials. one of the issues they were looking at, they were really concerned about it because it already reached 24 feet and when it reaches that level they have to notify the state. if it goes over 25 feet, there is a serious problem.

what they are telling us now, the water level is under 24 feet so that is one less thing they have to worry about. they were very concerned about that because if that had happened, not only would they have to notify the city but of course that would have been one ott other big problems that they have -- of the other big problems they have here in the annapolis area. one of the other things they are concerned about is flooding. they believe there will be moderate flooding and they believe it will start between 4:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. on tuesday. they are basically preparing for that at this point. they think that is what will be the brunt of the storm for the annapolis area. >> all right, barry. thank you very much. >> we're hearing another -- some of the problems going on in the northeast quickly. reuters. an emergency at oyster creek nuclear reactor because of

rising water from sandy. >> they are saying around 7:00 p.m. at that same plant, there was an unusual event that was declared -- water reached a high level there and the situation was upgraded less than two hours later. an hour or so, too second lowest four-tiered warning system. certainly there were things they were concerned about and scaled it back a little. all nuclear power plants are what they call in safe condition. >> that's good to hear. good to know that. >> right noh now we're going to carrie. hi. >> hi there. well, the rain has pretty much stopped for now or the wind is just blowing it sideways. the winds are very, very strong here now. we're in wilson's point. i have to say i'm from here but

lived in new orleans during katrina. this is the coldest hurricane. typically you get wet during a hurricane but you're not cold like you during a snowstorm. the today we're getting both. water blowing into your jacket. we're getting creative on how to stay warm out here. we are talking to larry williams who has been generous letting us stay on his property all day. thanks for coming back with us, larry. at this point, you have been out here all day. what is your take on this storm and how you eventually think it is going to impact you here? >> i'm very relieved. with the winds the way they have blown all day long coming out of the west, it has kind of pushed the water out, which is what we like to see. unfortunately it does impact other people. after going through isabel, i couldn't ask for a better storm. >> that is a saying a lot because of the conditions that you're enduring here. you got your boat out of the

water. your home was leveled pretty much by isabel. at this point what can you do? stay up and ride it out and take a look at what happens? >> actually i think -- i would not say we're safe but i think we're getting safe. i'll probably hang out for a little bit more longer and then maybe call it a night, you know? i think we'll be pretty good. i'll get up in the morning and survey any damages and hopefully there won't be any and start to clean up from there. >> just to give people an idea of what you have been through. you lived in a fema trailer for two years while you rebuilt your house. you were telling us what it was like the night isabel came through. you were not expecting anything dramatic. >> actually it was pretty devastating. you know, you're sitting here thinking that everything is fine. i think there was a points in time when somebody news-wise said that we were free and

clear. the storm was by us and all of a sudden the wind changed and it just hit us like -- it was jue craze -- just crazy. water was coming from every direction. did i think that was going to happen then? no. now i believe it can happen at any time. you should always prepare yourself. take it for what it is. just keep moving forward. >> ok. valuable lesson. thank you so much for having us out here. just having a valuable perspective on the storm. you have it surrounding you. they are not in the clear tonight but talking to people, they had personal possessions taken out of here by family members and boarded up windows in some instances because they have seen the worst case scenario and they are not taking any chances tonight. back to you. >> i do not blame them at all. >> kai reed has been in and

around baltimore city. >> on the 5,000 block of norwood avenue, you can see a tree fell on to a power line here and then on the several cars. no injuries. just another example of this storm's strength. we are seeing wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour. we have seen a lot of trees down. a lot of power lines down. unfortunately quite a few cars on the road as well. emergency management wants people to know there is a mandatory traffic restriction in place until noon tomorrow. they don't want people to take any chances. the mandatory traffic restriction is in place until noon tomorrow. >> all right. our coverage continues in just a

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>> geernings everyone. welcome back to our continuing coverage of sandy. thank you so much for staying thank you so much for staying with us.