nbc's tom costello with us tonight from washington. tom, good evening. >> the government is very concerned about this storm's track, really right up the i-95 corridor. fema always has emergency supplies prepositioned, ice, blankets, cots, food, it's also putting advanced teams into communities now to coordinate with local authorities. i spoke a short time ago with the fema director. >> we also ship things like bottled water, shelf stable meals, infant-children supplies, tarps, things that we have historically known that have been needed in the aftermath of a hurricane. >> we can also report the major airlines are starting to waive the change fees to and from the east coast airports that are likely to be affected. meanwhi meanwhile amtrac has cancel led all train service south of d.c. for friday, saturday and sunday. another big concern on the east coast, the oil refineries in new virginia, pennsylvania, delaware, new jersey, they produce nearly 80% of the country's gas and diesel fuel. they are in harm's way. the navy has ordered the th

tom costello, nbc news, washington. >> one more note about damage. it extends to a lot of farms. irene killed, for example, 30,000 chickens in just the state of maryland. it has badly damaged the tobacco crop and the sizable blueberry crop in south jersey. the damage extends to the north along with flooding and wind damage. the farming country of upstate new york and vermont, hit hard, too early for an estimate of loss. and forgive us for doing this, after all we've been through, but we need to introduce you to katia. it's a long way away, closer to africa than the u.s. but the meteorologists at the weather channel have identified it as the next formidable storm. it's a tropical storm tonight but expect it to be declared a hurricane by wednesday. a chance it could turn into a major hurricane. we've reached "k" in the alphabet of storm names this hurricane season. katia will replace katrina as they retire the names of the more memorable storms. >>> and a fine how-do-you-do. how about a fire to further darken the sixth anniversary of katrina in new orleans? this is a marsh fire bur

our report from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: these days, it could be any grocery store in america. walk down the aisles and you come face to face with sticker shock. >> i thought it was closer to $3.50. i didn't know it would be over $4. >> reporter: in margate, florida, farrah crow says her grocery bills for family of four seem to grow each passing week. >> a horrible time with school shopping that we need to do and, you know, i'm hoping that most of his things still fit him from last year. >> reporter: it is no illusion prices have jumped over the past year, in some cases, dramatically. as of the end of june, government data showed a dozen grade a eggs costs 19 cents morse than a year earlier, $1.68 a carton. chicken costs 7 cents more, 1.30 a pound. ground beef was up 33 cents to 3.62 a pound. a gallon of milk, up 33 cents in a year to 3.62 a gallon. coffee up 1.54 to 5.24 a pound. and prices are expected to keep climbing, perhaps 3% to 4% this year the weather gets much of the alone. blame. heat, drought and flooding have sent wheat prices soaring and corn prices hit record hi

tom costello is with us from dover, delaware. tom, good evening. >> reporter: brian, it was a somber and a heartbreaking day here at dover air force base in delaware. it was after 10:00 a.m. this morning when the remains of these 30 u.s. servicemen and eight afghan nationals arrived here on two air force c-17s. president obama arrived soon after to pay tribute to them and participate in the military dignified transfer proceedings and he then met for a few hours? private with several hundred family members and members of the military. there are no photos of the flag-draped remains out of respect for the family as the military must still identify everyone lost in the attack and the crash. with that pains taking process will be the job of a mortuary specialist. but we're told this was an extraordinarily somber and poignant and deeply-moving day. we're told that's how people reacted. back to you. >> tom costello at dover air force base, thanks. this was a demoralizing crushing blow to all of us. retired four-star u.s. general barry mc

tom costello is there. a is not allowed in, but tom, what can you tell us about the ceremony? >> well, the president's trip is unscheduled and an announced and he canceled a trip to ohio and arrived here and this dignified transfer procedure or ceremony gets under way in 15 or 20 minutes or so, and the president spent the next two hours here on base. we expect that the members of the military are here, and some family members may be here for the ceremony. as you mentioned, 30 american service personnel are here and among those who are, whose remains were brought back to the united states today. in addition, there were eight afghans who also were brought back and the reason for that is that the expertise that dover offers in terms of the mortuary services and identification and they want to go through the remains ofhe

nbc's tom costello is there. >> reporter: it's an empty place here, brian. ocean city sits on the northern barrier island, they are expecting irene will come over the top of us from south to north, from virginia to delaware, it's packed with tourists this year. this time however, this year with a mandatory evacuation order now in effect, hundreds of thousands have clogged the highways to move inland, they have left behind virtual ghost towns of empty streets and boardwalks and hotels. we even found the coast guard station also boarding up, preparing to ride out the storm. the last time ocean city ordered this kind of evacuation was in 1985 for hurricane gloria. but emergency managers fear this time it could be different. >> we're going to get a lot of rain, we're going to get a lot of wind and we're going to get a lot of surge and it's going to come all at one time for an extended period of time. >> i'm not usually afraid of storms, but i'm afraid this time. >> reporter: in washington, d.c., they're also stockpiling sandbags and preparing for localized flood

tom costello is in the latter. tom, we've been talking about the degradation of the beaches up and down the east coast, say nothing of the real estate but it's the enjoyment it brings people, the businesses, the tourism money that all the states depend on and the treasure is reoweding out to sea. >> we talked to a lot of people who do business on the boardwalk here. this is the time of year they make their money to hold them over for the rest of the year. the place as you would imagine is a ghost town. behind me, i don't know how well you can see the surf, but we've got waves up about 20, 25 feet, i should say up off of what normally would be the surface and we're looking at winds sustained now of about 30, 35, gusts to 40. and just the last half hour, we lost electricity here. we're coming to you off of battery power. we've had about four inches of rain here on the delmarva peninsula. a total of 10 to 12 they say storm surge of six to eight feet and we're right now just coming off of high tide. but the strong part

we'll go to tom costello. tom, i understand you've seen a tremendous deterioration of the weather conditions in the last hour there. >> reporter: yeah, and i'd love to bring jeff in on this. let me orient our viewers. if you go off of my left hand, that's the south down towards north carolina, that's up towards new york, behind me is the atlantic ocean. we have seen a dramatic pickup in just the last hour. i have winds averaging 20 miles per hour. when we stepped out an hour ago, we were 10 maybe. the ocean has really started churning, and what's interesting here, jeff, and i'd love to know why and i'm sure you can explain it, the rain and wind are coming out of the north. i'm getting pelting on the north side of my face here and the wind is hitting us. this is how the storm is churning in the ocean. >> most certainly, tom. it's kind of shifting and tilting a little bit inward, so you get the outer rain bands from the north down to the south. really the largest impact we're seeing is on that top side of the sto

i think ocean city, tom costello said we got about ten inches there. what are you thinking about new york? >> new york, about eight inches, we've actually already seen about six inches at this point. we'll probably see another one to two inches over the next six hours. >> wow, that's unbelievable. >> that's it. >> they were absolutely right. i wonder what that is. it seems like a lightpost or something. >> a lookout tower. >> a lookout tower. >> this whole area, al should probably hopefully be moving here shortly. >> that was incredible. >> lae, nick in our booth, you can cue that back up again. we would love to see that again. that was extraordinary. >> that's the force of the surge, alex. >> exactly, that is a huge concrete structure and that has been taken off of its, obviously formidable footing there. i mean it's been there for quite some time and it's withstood a lot of things, but not irene. irene is going to move that thing and that's going to compromise the pier, then. >> when people think about a surge, sometimes, they think it's this wave th

people really heeded the warning. >> tom costello, giving us the latest from ocean city, maryland. many thanks. >>> let's go to nbc meteorologist, jeff ranieri. i'm shocked that tom is still feeling the rain bands. i mean, i can't believe how big this storm is. just its width, its breadth. >> it does stretch quite a bit. at its, i think peak, when it was spinning out so far, it was over 700 miles in its overall width. what we're seeing now is the bottom edge as we talked about, alex, how they're getting the second lashing yesterday. there's a lot of dry air that filtered into the bottom edge of the storm. so it looks like some of the heaviest rainfall that you would typically see on the back edge, we may be spared interest that. which could help places like new york city, which definitely prepared for the worst and hoping obviously for the best at this point. we have hurricane warnings up into the cape. i want to get up into the radar and we still have a tornado watch over connecticut. also portions of long island at this point. no taurnornado warnings at the current moment. wind sp

. >>> i want to bring in tom costello. they really took some hits, didn't they, tom? >> reporter: this is a beautiful little town in the middle of virginia, one square mile, and the fire department lieutenant said to me, i can't believe mineral, virginia knocked gadhafi out of the lead for the nightly newscast. they're just astonished by this. we have a major, major train line that comes through here about every 90 minutes, the earth really shakes from this train. they thought that's what it was. over my shoulder, jim is going to push into the back side of town hall. they have lost the back side of the town hall. it'sen sheared off, and if jim will pan over here. these are the fire trucks here for the main fire station. they pulled them all out of the fire station, because they're afraid the fire station may have been compromised. they're also using that as a staging point in the event that people feel like they just aren't safe in their own homes and they want a place to get something to eat. as we were driving in here, i saw an awful lot of chimneys that were down.

you heard tom costello, of course, talking about the nuclear plant in virginia having been triggered with an automatic shutdown. that is a very good thing, indeed. the reason why there was so much trouble in japan, of course, is that the tsunami and we are not in any kind of zone like that, but it is the water that affected the power, the electricity that has to keep the cooling going around the reactor rods. so as long as they have electricity, they are fine there, because that water has to keep going to keep the reactor rods cool once the reactor, itself, is shut down. we are now being permitted to go back into the studios and there is a three-story building and we were on a commercial break, because we were on the air, but we were faced with the rumbling of what we now know initially reported as 5.9 magnitude earthquake, and so rare for this area, for this whole east coast area indeed. as i said, my only other experience with an earthquake not being a californian was once in belgrade, and it was a similar kind of experience, but not anything quite so dramatic as feeling the whole

. >> nbc's tom costello has more from dover. l of us that the pentagon decided to close today's dignified transfer to the press. why did they make that change? >> well, they did it, because first of all we should point out 30 men and 22 of them are navy sae s.e.a.l.s and the other men represent the army and the air force, but there were eight other men, andfgan and special forces troops and 38 men in total, but because of the violent nature of the crash and the ensuing fire, they brought them all back here, and it is here that they will go through this very detailed identification process that will last some time with morticians and experts here at the base working to identify the remains, but because they have not been able to identify each individual soldier or airmen's remains, they are going to -- they could not ask for a particular family's consent or any family's consent. and so, out of respect for the process, the families and the men, they have decided that they are going to close this process, at least this return, if yo

tom costello taking it off on tv.r you thought it was fine, the rains came back in, but rains associated with what may be yet to come, i wonder if that's irene-related or not. irene several looks as if the back half of it, which potential being anything affecting where you are, it looks pretty well dissipated right now. >> reporter: good. i'm taking your word for it. i don't have a radar in front of me, but i'm guessing it's mofds pretty far up north toward new jersey and new york at this point. for a while we were just getting the fingers hitting us on the back side, dumping rain on us, even an hour ago. i'm still wet from an hour ago, but it looks like we're finally in the clear here. >> keep an eye on the surfers. i hope they're hanging ten. those are some pretty hefty waves. >> i hope so. >> tom coals tell owe see you in the shorts next. >> these guys are diehard. >> as are you, after hanging out there the last 24. >>> al roker, look at all, venturing very close to the surf, but it looks like it's receding. >> low

we have tom costello, and nbc's michelle franzen in asbury park for us. tom, we'll start with you.ook there. >> it's starting to rain here, and it has been doing so for a couple of hours. about an hour ago we had high tide, but the sea has been churning and churning, and we are expecting the whole force of this hurricane to come ashore here on the outer bank, if you will, on the barrier island of the delmarva peninsula. sometime in the overnight hours. probably 9:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. they're talking about ten to 12 inches of rain here, and especially here in ocean city where we have had a mass exodus. 200,000 people evacuated ocean city yesterday after a mandatory order for evacuation came to the police department. the police department also then went door to door to door and telling people if you refuse to leave we need to know who your next of kin is so we can notify them in the event that something terrible happens and we have to, you know -- we find your remains, and we have to tell your family. to some extent that was kind of a tactic to scare people off the island. those peop

let's head back to tom costello. tom i under you have a bit of an update on residents. are people back in their homes? >> reporter: they are being allowed back in as of 9:00 business owners and residents were being allowed in. they will completely open ocean city to the entire public as of noon today. also they are saying they got about 12 inches of rain in total is what they expect. very little damage. they only had one case -- now keep in mind this is a big tourist stretch on the beach. a lot of people have their own private second homes here. lots hoff tells as you can expect. lots of restaurants. and massive evacuation, 200,000 people or so and the police report one, one case of what appears to be a case of looting or burglary. that's remarkable. i mean the crime rate in this city dropped through the floor when the whole place evacuated. one burglary or looting case in the last 36 hours. they brought the electricity back up in many areas that had lost it and also the sewage system which they took off line last night came back up at 5:00. ocean city along the delmarv

and now over to nbc's tom costello joining us live outside of dover air force base. tom? >> jonathan, good afternoon to you. we understand that the president arrived two or three hours ago, and he immediately spent time on the two c-17s trying to spend time with those members of the military who have come back, of course, having paid the ultimate price. he spent time on the first one with the commanding base officer here, and then at the second plane as well. then moved on to a private meeting here on the facility with the family members as well as members of the military. 30 u.s. military personnel brought home today with eight afghans and the reason they brought them all back together is because they need to identify each individual man and then present his remains to his family. and so the expertise here at dover air force base is the place they can do that very well with tremendous care and respect for the dead. the president is still here at the air force base, and he is also here with him and making this pilgrimage to dover has been the secretary of defense leon pan

tom costello joins me from there. tom? >> reporter: hi, lester, good evening. they found a crack at the very top of the washington monument, it's about four feet, they say, by about an inch wide and it's near the top, really, near the top of the washington monument. so right now this 555 foot building is off limits to the public. the day after the earthquake shook the east coast, more surveillance camera video of the moment it all started, 1:51 p.m. and everyone, it seems has a story to tell. >> it was like this big shake and then a pause for like three seconds and then it shook more. >> reporter: in washington the chief concern remains the cracks near the top of the 137-year-old washington monument, it remains closed as structural engineers survey the damage. >> they need to probably go back tomorrow and again on friday to determine what is going to be necessary. >> reporter: on capitol hill, crews have cleaned up the paint chips and plaster that fell from the capitol dome but today more cracks were found running along the walls of two committee hearing rooms.

tom costello has some of the best moments caught on tape. >> the earthquake hit in the middle of the day. >> there's another tremor. >> 1:15 mm time. interrupting a cooking show on tv in washington. >> the niche is nearly reddy. earthquake. >> those who felt the powerful quake could hardly believe it. >> my first impression was is the building coming down on me? i didn't know. yoipt to panic, but everything in me told me to get out of that building. >> people not used to earthquakes in this region ran from buildings. some dove under their desks. david harmon was making a commercial for his car service company in chantilly, virginia. >> what was that? my god, i think that was an earthquake. >> the 5.8 magnitude quake was centered here in the small town of mineral, virginia. about 40 miles northwest of richmond, where surveillance cameras captured the moment the quake hit. rattling a gas station, small shops even shearing the bricks off the back of town hall. more than 80 miles from the epicenter they felt the tremors at the white house which evacuated for a time. the president briefed

nbc's tom costello is standing by for us in ocean side, maryland, for the second time. a good morning to you, tom. what's it like there? >> alex, we have seen the winds and the rain really pick up rather dramatically in just the last half hour or so. i have watched the winds here al arianinging right now about 21 miles an hour. there's a buoy out in the ocean, and it is t has clocked gusts of about 30, and we've really seen in just the last hour here the ocean has really started to churn up rather dramatically. a motion ago before you came to me, there is an ocean city beach patrol officer who droe by, and he said, you know, this is really a dangerous surf because yesterday we saw the surfers running out there. the cops would drive by. the surfers ran out behind him and tried to catch a few waves. they're not here today. they've clearly realized this is simply too dangerous. you have probably seen the report incoming from north carolina and from mi seidel lsh. they're expecting it sometime after 6:00 p.m. probably closer to midnight. maybe even after midnight is when we

let's go to tom costello who's live in ocean city, where last we checked, the sun was out, surfers, and yeah, you're with a surfer now. >> i to bring one with me. adam, what is the ocean like when you're surfing? >> as good as it gets. dad, if you're watching, you bet get down here. >> reporter: yesterday weld incredible churn and surf. has this been as good as you have. >> as good as it gets in ocean city. >> reporter: is there any undertow or anything you need to be concerned about? >> wind produce blew it out there. got a little sand in the face. it's pulling you north really hard. so i don't know. >> reporter: adam, thanks. take care. there's one of the locals. he's a nice guy. but he is one of many, about a dozen of them or so taking advantage of this incredible surf. as you said, boy, what a difference a few hours makes. we started the day with sunshine, then we got hit by yet another rainstorm and wind. then about an hour or so ago it broke free. i finally said that's it, i'm done with the rain gear, 20 hours is enough, and so we're enjoying a beautiful day on the beach in ocean

most of the rain was on the eastern shore down near where tom was in ocean beach where tom costello was're seeing some buses starting to make their ways through town. when winds topped over 50 miles an hour, but overall the feeling is in baltimore it was definitely a glancing blow. power is an issue. more than half a million people in the region without power, that will take some time to bring back. wen again a lot of people off-line, and authorities say people need to be patient. it will take time. that's there been an update on the transit situation? >> reporter: we haven't seen that much. we've seen some starting to come out, but that was before we started seeing battle and more winds. i'm not sure if i necessarily want to play ball in this weather, but they're trying to get in the game that was canceled yesterday, and supposedly they start up at 1:35. >> that would be a good sign that i think things are trying to return to normal. >>> in hoboken, flooding god so bad that officials had to evacuate. floodwaters are rising across the state. 600,000 homes and businesses are without powe

tom costello is there, and he joins me now. tom, good morning. >> hi, chris. good morning to you.lanes carrying the remains of the servicemen has arrived here at dover air force base and we are expecting the second one within the hour. 30 men and as you have said, 22 members are members of the elite navy s.e.a.l.s team, but there are also army troops on board as well as air force troops. the air force troops were part of a special operations air traffic control unit on the ground in afghanistan, so in all 30 u.s. service member, but another eight service members who are afghans, and special forces who were in the same attack on that helicopter, in the attack and then killed along with their american colleagues and because of the crash being so horrific, they were unable to separate all of the remains, and so as a result, they are bringing back all 30 men, americans and afghans here to dover air force base and they will conduct what the military calls a dignified transfer service here in private, here on the base, and family members are invited to attend, and we do know that admira

. >> thank you, tom costello. we have ten states under emergency, most of them full of people who never experienced a hurricane before. that's it for this special edition of "hardball." more updates on hurricane irene throughout the night and all through the weekend. "the last word" starts right now. >>> from north carolina to new york city are trying to minimize the damages from hurricane irene, and so too are the politicians. >> get the hell off the beach and get out. >> get out of the storms path now. >> 65 million americans could feel the rather of irene. >> do not waste anymore time working on your tan. >> what happens next is up to mother nature. >> this is a very strong and intense storm, and we're fearful that it's going to be a very bad life-threatening day. >> time is running out, but they can still get ready. >> politicians understandably are running for cover as well. >> president obama is cutting his vacation on martha's vineyard short by a day. >> if you are in the projected path of the hurricane you

joining me to talk about the situation in maryland, tom costello, who is in ocean city. ngs have changed since we talked about a few hours ago, tom? >> reporter: you can barely make out the surf because the sun is going down, and the surf has gone down. this is the day before the storm arrives, the calm before the storm, if you will. it has been a day of evacuation. this is normally one of the most popular places to be, the last week or so of august. 200,000 people here in ocean city alone, not to mention further up into delaware and what have you. this is a very popular place if you live in virginia, delaware and maryland if you try to hit the shore. it's a ghost town. the police last night said that's it, everybody out. for the most part, they did. funny story, though, there had been surfers hiding behind the dunes and when the police go by the surfers run out and do as many quick trips as they can, and catch a couple waves and the cops come back and chase them off, and then the surfers go hide and come back out again. the game of cat and mouse has been kind of funny, a

. >> 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 bull

joining me is tom costello who is in ocean city. not sure a typical summer afternoon, is it, tom? >> no, that's exactly right. we are on the del mar peninsula on ocean city. normally one of the last week ends of august, this place is packed. well, it isn't any more. they ordered evacuations as of midnight last night so 200,000 people have now left the city, except for just a few guys. i don't know if you can see them. they've decide the temptation is too great, these surfers. the waves are spectacular the day before irene. they just ran out here about 10 minutes ago and started riding the waves. as for the bigger picture, mandatory evacuations in maryland, delaware, in virginia. as the police have gone door to door here in ocean city and told people, if you stay, you are doing so against our advice, against the order. and we need to know who your next of kin is. to some, that is an intimidation

tom costello in ocean city. that does it for this special edition of "hardball." thanks for being with us. well back if one hour with another edition of "hardball" and more on hurricane irene. more now with al sharpton. >>> welcome to the show, i'm al sharpton. needless it say, we are all watching the path of hurricane irene. and we will spend a lot of time on that tonight. also, the desperate race to get ready and keep people safe. remind us all how essential our government is. and that all the talking down of our government this year misses the point of how important our first responders and other government officials are to millions of citizens now for this storm. we do begin with our breaking news, hurricane irene, is barreling up the east coast with 65 million people standing in its path. north carolina is just literally hours away. this category 2 hurricane is expected to carve a path of the entire eastern seaboard, potentially causing billions of dollars worth of damage. ten states have already declared emergency. ten states. today, the president urged peop

tom costello is there. he joins me now live. what a tragic day for these families, tom. >> reporter: it is tragic. it's tragic not only for the families, but also for the people here at dover air force base who have a very difficult job ahead of them. they've got to take those 30 individuals and also eight afghan special forces troops who were with those 30. 389 men in total. they have got to take the 38 men and try to identify the remains of each individual man so that they can then give those remains to family members and loved ones across the country. they are the remains of these 30 men, 38 men arrived on two c-17s here at dover air force base in the 10:00 hour east coast time. we are expecting this dignified transfer, procedure or ceremony or what have you this afternoon in the 2:00 hour. that's going to be a private affair. no media is allowed. we are expecting the chairman of the joint chiefs will be here as well as the secretary of defense lien panetta. and perhaps some family members who want to be here for this occasion

tom costello is live in ocean city, maryland. what's the latest there?he power outages. >> yeah. it seems to be in our general vicinity the power outages have been addressed and we have plenty of electricity in ocean city. oh to be a teenager and live in ocean city and be a surfer dude. i have austin here, he's 16. jimmy, 15. you guys surf all the time. what is it like the day after the storm? >> it's better than it usually is. it's bigger. it's going down in size. but it used to be bigger. >> what was it like when you came out here this morning. >> it looks smaller from here, but when you're out there it is the bigger. >> this the best surfing of the summer? >> probably. >> we saw this place suddenly, dozens upon dozens upon dozens of surfers rush the beach, starting at about 11:00 this morning. they are all up and down the beach right now. the aftermath of irene. as for ocean city, i think it's fair to say the damage would be almost negotiaremote. a little. not the stuff that would make the local newspaper if it were not for this storm that just went t

tom costello who really rushed to get there. thank you very much. >>> how prepared is the east coast for a major earthquake? we'll talk to robert bazell, as well as a representative from the red cross. their phones have been ringing off the hook in the washington, d.c. area. you're watching "hard ball" only on msnbc. ometimes cleaning up after your dishcloth? bounty extra soft can help. it's super durable, and in this lab test bounty extra soft leaves this surface three times cleaner than a dishcloth. even with just one sheet. super clean. super soft. bounty extra soft. in the pink pack. and try bounty napkins. when you switch your car insurance to esurance. i could save 'em 522 smackers. you talkin' dough? bread. benjamins? scratch. greenbacks. moolah. cheddar... simoleons! don't try to out-save me. [ female announcer ] any way you say it, $522 is the average amount saved by people who switched to esurance. 522 bucks! [ female announcer ] to find out how much you'll save, call 1-800-esurance or visit esurance.com right now. tha

tom costello there in ocean city. thank you for that. place which is not unscathed right now and that's coney island. that's where we find peter alexander who has been braving the elements. it's the worse it's going to get. i told you that an hour ago. you're sustaining that a little bit. how does it compare to an hour ago? >> reporter: the good news is i would say about 20 minutes ago it was the worst we've seen it. right now it's changed. the wind is still -- you hear this howling sound. >> we can hear it. >> reporter: do you hear it? there's some old structures at this famed iconic boardwalk with the amusement park. i'll describe to it you this banging metal against metal. bang, bang, bang, bang. i think we're panning the camera over there to give you a sense. what you're looking at is, if you're familiar called the cyclone. home of the brooklyn cyclone. minor loeg baseball team. given the fact that we're experiencing a cyclone or a hurricane right now it's fitting, the name of the roller coast are ride that many americans come here t

nbc's tom costello has the latest on this story. ood morning. >> hi, matt, good morning to you. this case is similar in some ways to the case of natalee holloway who disappeared in aruba some six years ago. only in this case, 35-year-old robyn gardener apparently left bethesda, maryland, where we are now, on the way to aruba without telling her boyfriend. the man she travelled with is under arrest. that's gary giardono on baby beach in aruba telling police he last saw robyn gardener while they snorkeled together. now he claims she never came back to shore. his attorney in aruba is michael lopez. >> my client has been detained for a murder investigation. he gave the police all kinds of cooperation. >> reporter: robyn gardener met giordano on match.com a year ago and agreed to fly to aruba after she lost her job recently. she already had a boyfriend, richard forester. she told him she was going to florida to see family. now he fears for her safety. >> i'm not angry at her. if she's found and brought back to me, i'll be angry then. but

nbc's tom costello is there. tom, good morning to you. >> reporter: hi, matt. good morning. we're expecting the two planes carrying these men to arrive any time here. and then the military will conduct its dignified service -- specifically dignified transfer ceremony that will be done in private here at dover as these members of the army and the navy and the air force are honored and welcomed home for the last time. outside the main gate of naval air station oceana in virginia beach, the home of s.e.a.l. team 6, the flag flies at half staff. nearly the ten years into the afghan war, the single deadliest loss of american life has brought anguish and heartache to families and communities across the country. 30 men, majority elite navy s.e.a.ls, killed in one attack. >> their loss is the stark reminder of the risks that our men and women in uniform take every single day on behalf of their country.cc1: day after day, night after night, they carry out missions like this in the face of enemy fire and grave danger. cc1: >> reporter: in blanding, utah, they're remembering petty offi

costello joins us with your responses to the "talk back" question. >> the "talk back" question today are rick perry's treason accusations out of line against the fed? this from tomhink people who don't fully understand it should hold their tongue. and then one says this, this is from sergio, they are definitely out of line regardless of his disagreement with how things are done in washington or the fed. mr. piry needs to think before he speaks. he is not impressing anybody by acting this way. and this from scott, yes, not only are they out of line but inaccurate. this is not only unpresidential behavior but plain ignorance of what treason is, making him a noncandidate. keep the conversation going. i will be back with another "talk back" in another 15 minutes or so. >> we look forward to that. before you go, here is proof that there's a lot of love out there, carol. this is showing the power of honesty. in japan, voluntaries and search crews going through the rubble found personal safes from people's homes, and they turned them into the police. that's not the most surprising part. how much money might have been in them? do you want to guess? you don't have to, be