we're coming up on 5:00. let's take how outlive. the governor is about to address us. >> waiting for the address. i'm sure he's getting briefed. the governor spends time behind the scenes with those monitoring traffic and we provide that information as well as ask questions. again, encouraging people it stay off the roads. if you're on the highway, speed limit max 4345 miles an hour. that's if you have to be. >> marc train, metro, the subway, commuter bus suspended again tomorrow because of hurricane sandy. the bay bridge continues to be shut down at this hour.

>> the federal government is closed tomorrow as well as state government except for central employees. the people you're looking at right now, these are the essential employees working to keep you safe. >> again, we are going to be continuing through the night to watch and wait on sandy that's approaching. new york is getting pummeled. they already closed the holland tunnel. subway service has been shut down. no trading on the stock market. again, we're online at abc2news.com. we're asking for your wick churrs and -- pictures and pix. we have rosie up north. >> joce sterman at bwi. the staging area for the power crews come from all over. the situation has gotten so dangerous that they were talking

about relocating. >> if they can get a picture of the draw bridge at 50 on the chart on maryland web. that's the live traffic cameras. if we can get a shot of that, you can see the waves coming up from ocean city. it's incredible. we're going to work on that. we're working on waiting on the governor. let's go over to mike masco and meteorologist wyatt everhart. let's get to that first weather update. i tell you, hurricane sandy still a monster, monster storm. we're waiting for the fresh 5 p.m. update. we can see the storm clearly coming ashore southern new jersey. it's making landfall over the next hour or so. it's going to cross over central kept county delaware and come

across through cease -- cease -- cecil, given the current movement of the storm. you see the size and scope of sandy, coming ashore at the southern tip of new jersey, basically rung up the delaware bay which may give it more time to maintain full strength, a little bit of additional water. now the huge storm surge we still anticipate being up here, central northern new jersey through the new england states and new york. again, we will have some of the worst rain and probably the worst rain in delaware and maryland. we will be the two hardest hit states. the eyewall coming in right now right here on the southern tip of jersey. it's beginning to push in over the next throw six hours. really over the next three to

four hours especially. these rain totals are getting very excessive. down eastern shore totals over four inches. here are the current winds, steady winds around 5, still at the beach a northwest wind that's good in terms of keeping the bay on the drained side. themes wind gusts have been unbelieve baling, gusting to 74 in ocean city. 61 in kent island. 62347 chris field. we're getting near hurricane force winds on the southern end of the chess -- chesapeake. let's head it back over to the news desk and the governor. >> governor martin o'malley. >> he's pretty good at this. i don't have to be the weather man. that's all right. let's begin. here we go. i want to give you the 5:00 update. we just had a briefing from the

national weather service. it would appear hurricane sandy is actually pick up, not only strength as she approaches landfall but also picking up speed. the bad news is the storm is becoming stronger in her center with 90-mile-an-hour winds. the good news is she's moving faster, will reach landfall between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. the hope would be that she continues to move fast and moves on from maryland and passes over without stopping and hanging out and beating on us for 24, 36 hours. we currently have 75,000 outages in maryland and that number will climb. some of the other weather conditions that we're watching are these. we'll have flood warnings, five

to six inches of rain and will receive another four inches over night. the potomac will likely swell one to three feet above its normal. high tide at 8:25 p.m. tonight. i'm sure all of our friends in ocean city are watching the high tide with a full moon. that's a pretty vulnerable time for them at 8:25 tonight. we anticipate it will be six feet higher than usual. garrett county is going to receive approximately two feet of snow, so how about that. american miniature. american weather extremes in miniature. several days likely as the storm moves up into the susquehanna. we mentioned before that early voting for tomorrow is canceled,

soo we'll do our -- so we'll do our best on when we might reschedule those hours. a few other key closures involve our bridges. the preston lane bridge better known to most of you as the bay bridge, the bay bridge is closed president the hatem bridge in harford county over the susquehanna also closed. the key bridge over 695 in baltimore is also closed. the tydings bridge is not closed. tydings is still open. they're right on the puble now. the nice bridge and thomas johnson as well as tydings all under wind advisory. tomorrow amtrak has canceled service for the northeast corridor. we will not be operating any of

the various metro or mta services tomorrow. all of the bus service will not be operating tomorrow. light rail will be closed. marc trains will be closed, and also the ramada bus is not operating today. parrot transit will also not be preaght tomorrow. we have 36 shelters open state wide pritted by local jurisdictions by the state. i really want to thank the following businesses who have contributed food to make sure we can accommodate people. they are wawa, sam's club and food lion. so thank you many there are no reports currently for critical infrastructure damage. we'll continue to monitor that through the night.

so, in conclusion, 5,000 outages so famplet the storm is likely to make landfall sooner than we thought because she's picking up speed along with pick up intensity and we expect landfall in new jersey. sceef, correct me fell' wrong somewhere between -- if i'm wrong somewhere between 8 and 10 p.m. >> more like 8. >> okay. more like 8 p.m. and the storm mr. make its way across maryland. this is a violent storm. we need to act responsibly. this storm has already taken a lot of lives in the caribbean. now it's moving on to land in the united states in our most densely populated areas. stay indoors. we're not trying to scare anyone, but are being honest. this is dangerous storm. in chrisfield. some of you go to the millers

clam bake in the summer. on your way down there to the right as you're walking into the parking lot there is a housing community called summers cove. with the tidal surge that came up over the last couple of hours it raised the water that there's three feet of water spread on the ground floor of summers cove. so various as sets from the volunteer fire department to the dnr, police and their wart assets are removing people from there. i don't know if you've been in chris field when it's rained. that lower end tends to take on a lot of water. not unlike the downtown of ocean city. so we have a lot of people responding there and people are being evacuated from those homes to a shelter because their ground floors are filled up with

a lot of water. questions? [ inaudible ] >> the height of the storm any special concerns. we're likely to be indoors. we can't did out to re pair anything whether the power is knocked out in the middle of the night or the middle of the day. the key factor whether we can send the utility crew out there is the wind. this is the night to hunker down and to be mindful of just what dangerous conditions we're under. oirs questions -- other questions. >> will we still need additional help? >> we in assets anticipating we would receive a

direct hit, but hoping that we wouldn't, but bringing in as sets to prepare for a direct hit. the question is do we have enough assets. we certainly have more than i can ever remember us having here. we have a lot of swiss water rescue boats thanks to the president's quick signs of that declaration and the mobilization of a lot of people from fee ma. we certainly have more assets. you never have enough to stop a 90-mile-an-hour hurricane from rolling under you. considering what we're going to be under we have a lot of assets and a lot of good people. i note utility people have -- know the utility people have brought in a lot of assets. there will no doubt be more of those out of state utility cre making their way north as the danger is averted down south of

us. anything else? >> okay. next briefing around 9:00. >> governor o'malley giving us a 5:00 update, basically telling to us act responsibly. don't put yourself in a dangerous situation. storm in the center moving fast. landfall about 8:00 tonight. major concernses, extreme -- con experience extreme flooding. they had to rescue people in the chris field area. >> that's low lying. 75,000 out. >> close to -- let me see. close to 5,000 without -- without power. joce sterman is with the crew from bge. >> reporter: the conditions here are starting to become increasingly dangerous. that's one of the reasons that

bge has decided to shut this down. they have brought in 2300 people from out of state from 10 different states to work on this situation. they're holding them here for meals. they will be sending them out before 6:00 when they have determined the storm's most dangerous components will be coming through maryland. they're about to get bussed out to an area hotel. we want to show you footage from annapolis. businesses there closed down for the most part. they've got their sandbags out. we're told each business was given 10 sandbags. they've got their windows boarded up and stay -- taped up. storm brothers was open. ironically, that's the company that sells ice cream. they were still open for business and actually had customers. we talked to the owner. he said he's open because

customers are there and it's an easy way to keep an eye on his business. >> after 37 years and numerous00, you like to watch your -- numerous hurricanes, you like this watch your business. they figure if you're here, why aren't you open. the first customer was 10:30 and we had them straggling in. >> reporter: this doesn't seem like ice cream weather. >> you have to question their sanity even when the ducks aren't around. >> reporter: the name is appropriate, storm brothers. >> it is. i don't think my grandfather planned that, but it does work. >> reporter: we're back out here live at bwi and the staging area for bge. the wind is really intense. one of their main points of concern is this tent over my shoulder. that's where crews from out of state have been getting their meals and will be getting their

meals in the days coming forward. that tent was bolted down yesterday. they had crews installing that and we were in there, the wind still whipping around it. does not feel great in there. they're mission their own kid's birthday parties, wives events, halloween. so when you think about not having your power out, consider that many people have come from out of state to make sure they are here for you when the opportunity presents it self-to get the power back on and they are missing their own events. the staging hear closing down in less than an hour. joce sterman, back to you guys. >> just an indication of how dangerous things are. the airport is deserted. most, if not all the flights have been closed thanks to sandy and expecting very limited

airline operation today. we're not sure about tomorrow but travelers are encouraged to check with the airline before coming. ever seen that? >> no no. >> look at this. we were talking about this last night and it has happened. hurricane sandy nearly wiped out a large fishing pier in ocean city. it finally happened overnight. the pier extended from the southern end of the boardwalk to an hear that's under an mandatory evacuation order. about 100 to 150 of the pier is gone. there is some debris but it remains intact. that is in bad shape. it's not just the people we have to worry about. during the storm we worry about the pets. the animals were take ton first

mariner arena. barks is closed. for all of those with pets, make sure you have the food, water, medication on hand just in case you have to evacuate. >> we've been tracking it since last week. let's check in with mike masco. >> we got the new advisory from the national hurricane center. that came in about 15 minutes ago. one thing we took away from this we are putting out storm surge alert. be aware we're going to see some surge going into the bay. high tides running later this evening. earlier around pape -- annapolis and you want to start to get your plan together. west, northwesterly motion at 24

miles an hour. 940-millibars, moving off to the west, northwest. the big storm is moving on shore. notice, again, bands of moderate to steady rains right now. there will be another band over the eastern shore that will recharge and move to the west. take a look near dover, salisbury, a band of tremendously heavy rain. that will be rolling into the city limit. take a look at some of our current wind observations. 33 sustained at kent island. pax river at 36 miles an hour with gusts at 61 last hour at kent island. chrisfield has an 86-mile-an-hour gust. that's amazing.

we're well beyond hurricane force winds. we'll add to that probably another three inches, grand total coming to close to 10 inches of rain. get off the roadways because they're flooding out. it's a coastal flooding. going into tonight, be aware of that. here are some of the high tides. a little before midnight, port deposit and annapolis 6:12. the bay bridge is closed, nice and johnson bridge. this is our main drag coming into the inlet. you can see this bobbing. >> look at the water along the sides there. >> we have another shot here we'll try to get at 528 and 56th. another way to come into ocean city.

the water is coming over. >> another reason why these areas have closed and they want us all to stay safe. you've been sending us plenty of pictures. this is harford road. >> more trees down. harford road. send us your storm pics right now. >> find out where sandy is bringing snow. we'll be right back after this break.

crews out and about. roosevelt leftwich. >> reporter: we're in harford county near joppa farm road. i'm starting this off because the wind is coming up so hard. let me go outside of the car. this is joppa farm road between route 7 and route 40. there have been a lot of issues with water. suddenly it will become torrent. i'm walking close to the joppa farm road. this water has been coming down, lots and lots of rain. right here you can see joppa farm road is closed between route 7 and route 40. it's like a little creek that has overflowed the banks.

there's a low spot. there seems to be issues. let me come over here and give you an idea. normally this is barrel just a -- looks like big ditch with a little bit of water but right up here you can really see where it's been coming down through here very, very rapidly. back up on the road surface, you can see it's been a mess for motorists as people are getting caught up and have to turn around. further up on joppa farm road, route 40 right there at joppa farm road, a large tree has come down in the middle of the roadblock things. people are trying to get off route 430. guess what? they wound up here on joppa farm

road. shouldn't try it go through standing water. it has been a mess out here. we've been as far north as the conowingo dam. the port deposit is dry. it's been very difficult for people to get around. also at havre de grace, remember by the museum, they a problem with the boardwalk. that got washed out, i think a few years ago but it's been okay. let's see if we can get the picture back. it's been an issue with a lot of places many we also came across the tydings bridge. you can see why the authorities closed the hatem bridge and also the key bridge because the wind is an absolute mess. as of a half hour ago, the

tydings bridge was still open. luckily, traffic has slowed down. a lot of people are taking that advice and staying off the road and not going anywhere. >> windy lives in hyde, two trees are down. >> look at this video. looking at video from ocean city. waves crashing up against the shore. you can see the beach in the background pouring in sheets. it's expected to get worse for ocean city as sandy gets closer, coming ashore. we'll start seeing the bands by 8:00. >> well, we're live in kent island but let's go to long island. lock at this, a family -- look at this, a family evacuating by boat. they're boating down the street.

you can see several people walking behind the ca noo. the -- behind the canoe. it's almost up thigh high. >> it's impacting 64 million people. this takes you to new jersey with huge waves. you can see the water rushing over the decks here -- the pier. these are homes. the shoreline and just a nasty situation. mandatory evacuation in effect. >> let's go down to north carolina -- what was that movie with diane lange. >> that's not perfect storm. that was a good storm. it was a date movie. >> snowfall. it's projected the hear could get a foot of snow o