he's in atlantic beach, north carolina. they've been having some trouble there with the signal and we're going to try to get kerry back. kerry, are you with us? >> reporter: i'm with you. and this is just the early arrival of the tropical force winds before we're going to start getting buffetted by the hurricane force winds. as good as our technology is sometimes mother nature wins. we're with you right now. i'm in a little bit of a protected spot to try to talk to you. what we're seeing as irene is making her way here as bill karins told us it looks like the eye is headed right for this location. we're seeing the waves just buflting the beach and beach erosion taking place right before our eyes. there's a pier behind me, it's kind of hard to see in this crazy early hour here in the darkness, some of those baefs are so powerful and strong and so big that they're crashing over the end of that pier that goes out about 350 yards or so into the water. the community is mostly evacuated and that's what the north carolina governme

the barrier areas of atlantic county. the concern right now is atlantic city. let me talk to you about that. we have been extraordinary successful in evacuating most of atlantic city, we have had some remaining people who have refused to lobby. these are senior citizens predominantly, 600 that live in high-rise buildings in atlantic city. we are concerned about them in the high-rise buildings because of their able and the winds projected at 75 miles per hour plus later tonight and tomorrow morning and we have concerned about flying glass that could cause great injuries. here is what we have done. at my direction, the state police, led by cornell fuentes, and the new jersey transit have sent additional buses to atlantic city. we will put the buses circling in front of these particular buildings in atlantic city and send both county o.e.m. officials at the direction of county executive and personnel to speak to the individuals and try to get them to leave. if those seniors now watching this on tv i ask you to, please, allow

so other than that, other than that issue in atlantic city, the rest of atlantic county is well over 90% evacuated. in monmouth county, the office of merge management there has done an extraordinary job in evacuating those particular municipalities who were under evacuation orders. and including the lieutenant governor who has evacuated to an undisclosed location. so we are meeting the first requirement that you have in any situation like this, which is to do anything you possibly can to preserve human life. the best way to preserve human life from the jersey shore is for there to be no human beings on the jersey shore, given what is about to come. the tracking of the storm continues to be very ominous for our state. while there has been some minor weakening of the storm to a category 1 storm as it hit landfall in north carolina and is heading up the coast, you know, decreasing the wind speeds by 10, 15 miles an hour will make little difference to when is going to cause harm to the folks here in new jersey. we're still looking at anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of rain throughout the st

the storm located about off atlantic city.minutes the wind gusts picking up dramatically, the pace of the rain some. the biggest concern here in the barrier islands and more so, as you head towards the heavier populated areas of new york city, flooding. the question is, how big will the storm surge be when it arrives here just about the same as high tide. as we wait for the storm, you see some of the preparations. this community has been evacuated. you see tape on some of the windows. you're beginning to see the winds pick up. the gusts in the 50 to 60 range. still power here right now although a lot of power out in the new york metropolitan area and the new jersey area. millions without power where irene has already come through. i want to go to athena jones. i understand you've just received an update from emergency management officials in the state of virginia. >> that's right. you can see here in alexandria, we've been seeing wind and rain, we're told by d.c. officials, emergency officials across the potomac they've seen d

mandatory evacuation in the history of atlantic city.ings. all 11 casinos closed today. gaming floors shutdown. all hotel guests were told to get out and leave. as you can see, they have. this is a remarkable sight, the atlantic city boardwalk empty on the last friday night before labor day weekend. this evening i spoke with a top executive who told me they might have made three to five million dollars tonight len. combined with the other 10 casinos and the restaurants and bars and other businesses they may lose 50 to 60 million dollars this weekend because of this mandatory evacuation that was issued for all of the barrier islands. again, remarkable sight. normally a busy friday night. up and down the boardwalk there's not a sold out here. there are some residents who decided to stay. obviously police and emergency officials here as well. ready to respond in case of emergency, but they tell us tomorrow evening when the winds reach four if you five -- reach four fay five miles per hour or above they won't respond to 911 calls. anyone who

right near atlantic beach as well. they're getting the worst of it at this point as we saw in kerry sanders' live shot earlier. the pier pretty much washing away right near where they are with the wind whipped waes anywhere from 15 to 20 feet. towards virginia beach there was a tornado warnings earlier this morning. those are expired. -hour, you are still under that tornado watch and we'll likely see the tornado watch boxes extended through the duration of this storm system as it continues to produce rotation. now let's get to something else. look at the winds. it's been almost two hours of wind gusts. close to category one strength here. right now wind gusts at 77 miles per hour at cape hatterras. right now down towards atlantic beach in the 60s and 70s. the worst of the storm is happening now where kerry sanders is and his crew. hopefully we'll get more updates from him. then we talked about inland flooding. look at this projection and bull's-eye across maryland, philadelphia, delaware, new york city where we could s

for hour after hour, just driving the sound up onto atlantic beach under the north side of atlantic beach. they already got hit overnight with the storm surge from the atlantic coming on. we saw a lot of debris over there. now they're getting the storm surge here. if you live near the water up in new england, up in the middle atlantic states, take note if you decide to stay of what you might be experiencing. fredricka? >> john, for the most part, people did heat those mandatory evacuation orders where you are. every now and then, there are stories of die-hazard. is that the case there? >> reporter: yeah. we did see somebody in an upstairs window in one of these places here. but during the overnight hours, there was nobody on the streets here, just the police. we saw a few people out and about this morning. but a lot of the roads -- there's only one main road leading in here, fredricka. with this water that's come up, the road is actually impassable in some places. it may be very difficult if you don't have a high vehicle, an suv or something like that, it's going to be difficult to get of

what's it like there in atlantic city? >> reporter: rain coming down again here pretty hard, rick in a.c., where 300,000 homes and businesses without power. the rain collecting here on the streets and this is a storm drain. but the rain is above the top of the storm drain. they are full. there is nowhere for the water to go, so it's pooling up here. the side streets are worse than this. the closer you get to the beach, the worse the rain gets. we had to move our truck off the boardwalk because we were surrounded by water. this is up and down pacific avenue. there is one vehicle coming, it's probably a police car, that's all we have seen. there is a curfew in atlantic city from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., that's been in effect last night and tonight, until apparently the storm passes. and... they have been pretty successful in getting people out of town. more than 90% of the residents heeded the warnings as did the residents of the hotels. more than 20,000 hotel rooms in atlantic city are empty. bad news for 11 casinos here. th

atlantic city casinos are all shut down. third time it happened in three decades and the winds are picking up prompting tornado warningings. rick leaventhal has more. you are inside of a casino. >> this is rare. new jersey gaming condition is strict about allowing the casino in the floor. there is no one here and we have permission to show you dark slot machines and empty casino. this is one of 11 in atlantic city that are completely dark tonight. there is no gaming going on and hasn't been for a full 24 hours now. we'll walk over this way before wehead outside. the poker room if you are a poker player, you will prec the scene here. every table empty and trays are empty of the chips and there is no staff to operate the tables it is all shut down. this is costing by estimates in the industry 30 to 50 million this weekend because it is the last weekend in august. and one of the busiest months and weeks of the year. it is a terrific blow to the casino industry. and to give you sense of how rare it is, greg. we'll hear from a lo

that's, essentially, he handles the mid-atlantic. his responsibility runs from north carolina through new jersey, so this is the guy to talk to who's right now handling things over there where, exactly where this storm is and is headed. sir, we appreciate your time with us this morning. tell me, have you jumped into action just yet? you were prepared, but have you had to react to anything in north carolina just yet, and what do you anticipate? >> yes, good morning. we have repositioned all of our forces that were in the path of the storm, and we are postured to respond as the storm passes and we're going to swing around behind it. what the general public needs to know right now, though, is that where the storm is actively brewing, and just ahead of it, the coast guard is offline. we had to move our assets, our ships, our boats, our airplanes out of the path of it, so that they wouldn't get rendered inoperable. my advice for everybody upwind of this storm is to stay home, use some common sense, don't do any fool-hearted things. the su

thank you. >> george benitez from the atlantic council. if the panel can address the question of the libyan did i as pour a. they played active role in the revolt. what role will they play in the post-gadhafi libya? >> you mean how good we are? i think we're all very good and very -- would love to see our country going back into democracy and freedom. but i believe one thing. all the did i as pour a, especially arab country will be relatively limited. i do not think the leadership, the political leadership, will come from the diaspora. there is one big problem. we live abroad. we do not know what it has meant to be for 40 years, 30 years, 20 years under gadhafi. the regime is undermined by the simple fact, the language is different. the feelings are different. the emotions and to lead the people you have to understand their emotions and stuff. i think that is a major factor related to --s that's what i meant before. leadership has yet to come. it can not be gebril, or the others that have been abroad or other people. it has to come from th

you can also see there in our video, atlantic beach.k potter or kerry sanders right now? >> is that kerry right there? kerry, can you hear us? >> reporter: yeah, it's me. >> you're in atlantic beach. >> reporter: this is the back end of the hurricane coming through here. these are the hurricane-force winds. it's brutal. i got tell you the the sand -- i'm so fortunate just a little -- >> it was so quiet passing over. the tide has gone out, but you can see some of the damage up there. this is from that pounding surf. it took out the far end of the pier there. let me get out of the wind. you can see mother nature's erosion here. i'm 5'5", and it's eating away at the beach here. so really powerful winds there. this is the back end of the storm. the really good news appears to be that irene -- local authorities say -- >> yeah. >> reporter: the lines and power poles are up, and there's only a little bit of damage. mostly street flooding. >> what we see right there at atlantic beach where kerry sanders is no doubt winds gusting in the 60-mile-

shaban is in atlantic city with the latest. good evening. >> reporter: here in new jersey, 650,000 people are still without power and along the jersey shore more than a million have been evacuated. and the strong winds, they're still here. irene's eye may have passed new jersey, but the storm's outer band still have its sights set on the state. the governor says threats of flooding could continue for the next two days. >> some rivers haven't crested yet and it's still raining in various parts of the state. >> reporter: in atlantic city irene's storm surge overflowed the barrier island's back bay. sending water into some neighborhoods but not nearly as much as what many feared. >> we are a block from the ocean, a block from the bay. we thought it was going to meet, and as you see on the street, there's nothing. so we are very, very lucky. >> reporter: in northern new jersey, floodwaters nearly swallowed cars. cbs news early show anchor chris wragge spent nearly 24 hours driving along the jersey shore. >> you can see now we've go

now, this is not the atlantic ocean, t.j. the atlantic ocean is on the other side.king at here is houses that are about underwater in places, and this is the bogue sound, you can see that. you're looking out right now at the bogue sound that has come inland here, and there goes the camera, you can feel the wind and the rain. we have waves literally racing inland. now, this is what we call reverse storm surge. the wind direction changed, t.j., so now the sound is being pushed from the west side to the east here, and driving all of this water inland here along atlantic beach. the road is impassable now in a lot of places, you can't traverse the island in many, many places, the water's getting higher. two houses down over here, t.j., the garage is about a third underwater. not this house, but that next house over. you can see as how i'm standing out here, the water is up above my knees here. so i'm literally, now, standing in bogue sound. and i can tell you that there may be places, t.j., down on the western side, where it is dry land in the sound. that happens with hu

but the systems in the atlantic this year. systems that are coming from the east are basically east coast storms. the systems that have to hit texas, instead of seeing them come all the way through like we've seen before are probably going to have to develop in their backyard. this is an east coast year for the most part like 1954 and 1955 were. >> bill: all right, you're our guy and we really appreciate it. thank you, directly ahead, texas governor rick perry now leading in the republican polls, under attack by the left and we'll have a special report. and then the editor of "the new york times" on insulting christianity. >> bill: according to the gallup and rasmussen polls and a new cnn poll, texas governor rick perry now has a double digit lead over mitt romney and everybody else in the republican field. that means mr. perry is a big target for those who do not like the g.o.p. but the important question is, is the governor qualified to be president? joining us now from austin, texas, bob mann, former press secretary for ted

. >> y desde atlantic city donde se juega la suerte y las apuestas estÁn f contra de la comunidad hispanal motor de esta economÍa. >> y la capital estadounidense no estarÁ en el ojo del huracan, pero sÍ sentirÁ su azote y por esquÍ poblaciÓn y gobierno se preparan. >> hoy noticias telemundo con josÉ dÍaz-balart desde la ciudad de mÉxico. >> tres dÍas de luto nacional en mÉxico un acto aborrecedor y terror y barbarie, cobrÓ por lo menos 52 vidas inocentes en monterrey las imÁgenes muestran a presuntos narcotraficantes atacando y prendiendo fuego al casino royal entre muertos jÓvenes empleados del local y ancianos que se trentretenÍa jugando bingo les tengo todos los detalles de preparativos para estados unidos ante el azoto del huracÁn irene pero nos vamos a monterrey mÉxico, reconocida como ejemplo de progreso hoy convertida en la capital del dolor y la indignaciÓn del paÍs se encuentra julio v quien estÁ al frente del casino royal escena de brutal ataque donde murieron 52 personas inocentes. >> adelante. >> sin duda josÉ se trata de un... autoridades investigan quiÉn puede estar detrÁs d

atlantic city very quiet.we'll continue to bring you updates throughout the weekend. >> greta: what happens if you violate the curfew? tough words from the governor. i don't suppose the people have a lot of spare time to pick up people who violate the curfew. >> reporter: they can lock people up. the other big message is that even though there's a mandatory evacuation order in place, people don't have to leave. if they choose to stay, they've been warned, you are on your own if winds top 45 miles-an-hour, police and firefighters will not respond to 911 calls. anybody who gets in trouble, because they decided to stay going to have to fend for themselves until the weather gets better and police and firefighters feel it is safe to respond. >> greta: if they get that 13 foot surge the high end, what is the picture for that? >> reporter: you can see there are a lot of businesses along the boardwalk. there are a lot of homes and businesses at sea level if you look the side street past our satellite truck, there's a

the atlantic ocean to our south. as this gets closer to us, we can expect more rainfall, stronger wind gusts with and with that the possibility of flooding. some places could get a full foot of rainfall. part of the beach down here to my right has really disappeared. yesterday we were to the water's edge. plenty of sand is now gone. on this side, a lot of sea oats, grasses, with extensive root systems that are made for these big piles of sands or the dunes together being thrashed a little bit. i would say winds are around 40 miles per hour sustained. it will kick up to 60, 65 miles per hour. again, as this gets closer, i know we'll be dealing with worse conditions. the possibility of tornados. whenever you have a landfalling tropical system, when it gets closer to you, with the twist, a little bit of sheer off it is not unusual at all to have tornados form. in fact, back to 2004 with hurricane ike as it made landfall in parts of florida and alabama, 117 tornados developed across that. even as this gets closer, again,

we will check on atlantic city after the break. >>> atlantic city has seen its share of storms, but longdents stick out. in september of 1944, the coastline was devastated by the great atlantic hurricane. look at those archive pictures there. some of the best known landmarks were damaged or destroyed. a lot of people see similarities between that hurricane and hurricane irene. let's go to tom. let's hope those comparisons are way off. how is the city preparing for the storm? >> the city is currently under mandatory evacuation. we have several thousand people that we are moving at the present time and getting into shelters throughout the mainland communities and into different counties. we are working on that all along and we have been working on it all morning long. >> the casinos are shutting down. that does not happen very often. that right there should be an indication to people that this is being taken very seriously, is that right? >> that is exactly right. you cannot make anymore certain that this is the most serious storm we faced in decades. the storm you are referring to was a b

that is the only two times the casinos in atlantic city have ever been shut down. now you can add hurricane irene to the list. >> jason carroll's going to get a lot of wind and rain and flooding in the coming hours. we'll stay in touch with you, as well, jason. thanks. >>> let's bring back our meteorologist and severe weather expert chad myers at the cnn hurricane headquarters. update viewers who may just be tuning in now where the storm is, where it's heading. >> it has just exited north carolina very close to the southern end of virginia beach. and so this is the hardest weather you're going to get in virginia beach. this is the peak gusts. these your peak winds now. eventually the eye will go by, and your winds will shift directions. it will come from this way in about three hours as the eye goes by. and this is going to be the case, wolf, all up and down the coast when the eye gets close to you. that's your peak wind. and all the way up even from cape may, you'll go across delaware and all the way up to sandy hook and then eventually into new york city. so that

but the systems in the atlantic this year.e systems that are coming from the east are basically east coast storms. the systems that have to hit texas, instead of seeing them come all the way through like we've seen before are probably going to have to develop in their backyard. this is an east coast year for the most part like 1954 and 1955 were. >> bill: all right, you're our guy and we really appreciate it. thank you, directly ahead, texas governor rick perry now leading in the republican polls, under attack by the left and we'll have a special report. and then the editor of "the new york times" on insulting christianity. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the most headroom per dollar of any car in america. the all-new nissan versa sedan from $10,990. innovatiosized. innovation for all. are switching from tylenolday, thto advil.f people from $10,990. here's one story. i'm sean. i switched to advil 10 months ago. cyclists are a crazy bunch. when you're out there trying to push to your limits, you have some pain and it can be really vic

the atlantic ocean, the waves have been monster waves.ernoon but later this evening absolutely no one in the water. in fact, the beach, there was no beach. the high tide normally leaves about ten yards of beach along here, but there was essentially no beach, it washed right up to the dunes and in fact into the stairways that are the beach access to the inns along this beach and the folks here had not ever seen the water that high. it has gone back down, but it stayed high well beyond the high tide at 6:00 this evening. so we're just now seeing the atlantic ocean recede and that's the way it looks here right now. >> and debbie, the fact that the storm has weakened somewhat over the course of today do you think that's encouraged a lot of folks around the area to stay in the area and not evacuate? >> reporter: they stayed put. as a matter of fact i talked to a man who said he had built a concrete house, so he never had to leave in the event of a hurricane. can you believe that? but, in fact, we're actually seeing some folks who are leaving n

and down to atlantic city, 31-mile-per-hour wind gusts. still gusting to 41 miles per hour in baltimore, we've been focusing on the extreme northeast. but the mid-atlantic, still reeling from the storm system that's kind of getting the left side of the storm. >> yeah. okay. jeff ranieri, thank you for the update. i know you're not going far. let's go to nbc's kerry sanders, in atlantic beach, north carolina, you were there all day yesterday, you rode it out. though part of the pier behind you, that didn't make it. >> indeed, it did not make it. that was from the pounding surf. we had waves rolling in here consistently eight to ten feet. but some rogue waves that came in close to 17 feet that slammed the pier. the unfortunate thing is that the u.s. geological survey had monitoring equipment at the end of the pier to try to measure the force of the waves and that exact data will never be available now. because when the pier went away, so, too, did their equipment. suffice to say, we do know that it was a very angry, powerful sea and there's

ofof course, atlantic city known for the casinos.ry evacuations are underway there and in surrounding areas as well. the city's 11 casinos are closing down today marking only the third time in this area that this has been done in about 30 years. rick leventhal is live from atlantic city with more for us today. rick? >> who, spanks? yes. jenna: i don't know if rick can hear us. i don't know if we can blame that on the weather, if rick folbaum's with me, maybe we can talk a little more about that. rick, can you hear me as well? is. rick: i hear you fine. look like they didn't tell rick he was going to have a live shot. jenna: that happens to the best of us. rick: listen, it happens sometimes. i can tell you from my own personal experience because i have family that's right near atlantic city, they have all been evacuated and are on their way out of that area. at first the evacuations were voluntary, but then they decided especially along the coast to make them mandatory, so i'm glad that my family is paying attention to that. as we hea

>> irene is about 160 miles south of atlantic beach.t's exactly where one of our crews are actually right now. there's -- we had about a 36-mile-per-hour wind gust there, 36. and then over toward wilmington about a 42-mile-per-hour wind gust. but something else, isha, that's happening tonight, too, with the spin on the storm down to the south, some of these storm, the individual storms that are coming onshore, are spinning. and so some of them could actually have tornados. one tornado warning for arnslow county on the way to the camp lejeune main gate there. indicated by doppler radar potential for tornados tonight let alone the hurricane. like they have anything else to worry about. that's what you get when you have a spinning storm down to the south and that spin pushing these cells, those little convective cells right on shore, each one of them can actually spin on their own. there's the wind speeds for parts of jacksonville, blooming ton, those will definitely come up over the rest of the night. in fact this is a very large wind fie

there's morehead city and there's atlantic beach.f a dual communities, one's kind of the ocean and one's the city right behind it. and john, you have a major cell just to your south and southeast coming your way. this is probably the biggest cell that you've seen so far. winds will at least be 50. right now you're only seeing about 35, maybe 39. so almost tropical storm force. but in the next 20 minutes you will easily get to 50 and 55 miles per hour with that nasty bunch of cells coming your way. it's one of the inner outer bands now. and as the night goes on, every single band will get more windy and more windy, and the gusts will go higher and higher. >> and in terms of landfall, you're still thinking, what a category 2 for that area? chad? >> absolutely. and with that landfall, the way the shape of the land is, anderson, the eye being right down here right now, as the eye comes up and the shape of the land is almost like a bowl. and it's going to hoard all of the water and it's going to make a big storm surge right here as the st

i think we have a video out of atlantic beach, north carolina, that i wanted to show you. that is one of the places in which we've had the most dramatic video this morning. look at that. look at the gushing throughout the streets. i'll tell you, our own people spread out throughout the country are getting us some amazing imagery this morning. i want to encourage everyone, if you are in a position to safely, safely take pictures and video, which our staffer was, then go ahead and share it with us at ireport on our main page at cnn.com. we have a lot more coming up. and we'll show it to you as it comes. >> thanks so much, josh. see you throughout the hour. we're in a new hour right now. 1:00 eastern time. i'm fredricka whitfield at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. hurricane irene is ashore, particularly on the north carolina coast. as many as 65 million people all along the eastern seaboard are going to be impacted in some way, shape or form by irene. and many people are already trying to find shelter where they can. take a look at the size of this storm. eight states

this is the famous atlantic city boardwalk. and tonight it is just about empty. the governor has ordered the evacuation of four coastal counties, which could impact 750,000 people. casinos like trump plaza here have started to board up and close down one by one. >> reporter: i'm marcy gonzalez in q qens, new york. and we're expected to start feeling the effects of this storm tomorrow night into sunday. and for the first time in new york city history, mandatory evacuations are under way in several areas. tonight, the mayor opening more than 90 shelters like this for those with nowhere else to go. >> reporter: i'm david kerley in martha's vineyard, where for the past 36 hours visitors have been cutting short their vacations to get off the island before the hurricane hits. most flights have been canceled. the only way out? ferries. they've added a lot of boats to get everybody off the island in time. >> thanks to david and the abc reporters on the coast therer while some of us wait for the storm out here, others have already seen it. and no one has seen it like the

this shows the sea surface temperatures over the atlantic ocean.emperatures above 80 degrees to get bigger and stronger. we have 80 degree water temperature in the orange, all the way to virginia beach. the storm only has until about virginia beach to strengthen. after that, it goes over cooler water, it would weaken. the water temperatures off the ocean city, maryland are in the 70s. off of areas of new england, in some cases, temperatures in the 60s. the carolinas will get hit by most likely a category 3 or very strong 2. you can see the black center line. it is really weakening until it gets past ocean city, maryland, that's why we're expecting a devastating blow to the coast there. now, as far as the wave goes, the wave action is going to be incredible with this storm, such a big storm, so much mass and so much potential energy that will be tossed into the waves. we have 18-foot waves now off the coast of south carolina. 14 just off of wilmington. 10 foot waves off of cape hatteras as the storm nears, those big huge waves will be crashing on sh

we then traveled up to atlantic county, met with atlantic county officials led by the county executivecuation of atlantic county. the county executive is convinced lives were saved, the fact we evacuated the towns in atlantic county that we did, and we then, after leaving atlantic county, took a tour of the entire coastline from atlantic county all the way up to sandy hook. what we noticed was that clearly some beach erosion has occurred. some worse than others in various places along the shore, but the good news is we didn't see any type of visible destruction to homes along the beach. that was encouraging to see that many had prepared and protected their homes, either through hurricane shutters or through plywood. we then traveled across the sent of the state where you see a lot of flooding. and entire roads taken out and unpassable. the rail system unpassable. due to flooding. and so while the initial conserve for everybody was about the shore communities, as i've been saying for a couple days now, the aftermath is really going to be a concern about the rest of the state where we ha

atlantic city casinos have been shut down. it's only their third time in thirstry closing those casinos. as anyone who knows getting back and forth to the jersey shore any summer weekend is a nightmare. this is expected to be especially bad. those folks are likely to be on the road for quite some time, but better now than when the storm is barrelling down on you. also, mandatory evacuation orders for ocean city, maryland and north carolina's outer banks. the evacuation of ocean city began at midnight. everybody is supposed to be out by 5:00. maryland's governor warned people in the hurricane watch zone to get prepared to go it alone in the immediate aftermath of the storm. >> look, the first 72 are on you. in other words, every family needs to be prepared to weather 72 hours in the dark without electricity. there will be electrical outagesoutage outages. it will be so widespread it will take us quite a while to get to them. >> in the meantime, red cross is opening shelters, mobilizing thousands of volunteers and stock up for t

a life look in atlantic beach, north carolina.00,000 are without power across the state of north carolina. take a look at that picture. that's where kerry sanders is positioned. he said just a short while ago it looked like there was some blue skies overhead as they believe they were in a very ill-defined eye of the storm. not so much now. we look at the back side of that eye. it seems to be coming ashore. well, hurricane irene may cause extensive damage along the east coast this weekend, and joining me from dallas, texas, is the property and casualty insurers association of america. good morning to you. how large might insurance losses be from this storm? snoo we know that the insured losses will be large because of the density of the population building along the eastern seaboard of the hurricane is going to track. put the perspective -- this has already been a very difficult natural catastrophe here in the u.s. the first half of the year there were more than 100 catastrophe events with insured losses at moerch $27 billion. we k

we are on the do you know and atlantic ocean.earing the tops off the pray and incredible spray. and that is just too much roberts for anybody. and coming back up in the top of the do you know. there is floding on the other side of the sound in small towns, the river that runs in that area. pongo got inundated by the amount of water the wind was pushing. the gazebo where they are handling the light and let me pop over here. they say that the flooding in that area was worse than in hurricane isabelle in 2003. and that's the yard stick which they measure flooding. serious things going on in the west side of the sound. that is 45 miles southwest of the where we are. >> north of us. we have problems with the roads, they are impassable because of the trees and branches that went down. they have to clean it up tomorrow at first like. there is one more week of summer lefted hading in the labor day weekend. this is the most incredible part of this in the outer banks. out to corola. shep, i know you are familiar with the area and you may k

the atlantic ocean is that way. that's actually south the way this beach faces. irene is coming straight up from the south. it's very likely a very good possibility that we could be the first place that sees the landfall here of the center of circulation of irene. at least very close to the center. to the north of me on the left side is bold sound. as the storm comes by, a good possibility we could see storm surge first from the atlantic. as it goes by, we get storm surge coming in this direction. you can see all the power lines crisscrossing us here as the wind once again begins to pick up. one of the great concerns, these power lines could be going down when that storm hits here with full force. certainly some of the light poles, street lights, the signs and concern is going to be police do not want anyone on the streets after 8:00 tonight. mandatory curfew. people want to get off the island, the bridge to get out which is about two miles down the road that way going to remain open as long as they can keep it open or anybody decides they want to get out. nobody

we are just now seeing the atlantic ocean recede. and that's the way it looks here right now. >> debbie, the fact that the storm has weakened over the course of today, do you think that's encouraged amount of folks around the area to just stay in the area and not evacuate? >> no. they stayed put. as a matter of fact, i talked to a man who said he built a concrete house so he never had to leave in the event of a hurricane. can you believe that? in fact, we're actually seeing some folks who are living north carolina and virginia and coming this direction because they know essentially that we are seeing just tropical storm force winds. eventually that will move on out. in fact, you can see the sea oats behind me are barely moving. so i'm hoping that this is the worst of it for us here along the south carolina coast. >> let's hope so. debbie, appreciate it. tonight new york, of course, is planning for the worst. that's what you have to do in a big city like this. public transportation in the city will begin shutting down noon tomorrow. f

seabed off the mid atlantic ridge in order to find out whether indeed this is spec to gold and copper or are in facts contained there and if the research proves to be successful if they do find a war in the mid atlantic ridge that means russia gets the priority in the development of that field of that field is of course comes after russia has applied for this event for the research of this particular area of the atlantic ocean at the end of last year it is the first time that any country has been granted permission to explore their keeps. away from its territorial. waters in the international zone of course the south started the reasons for this were the fact that this has never been done before no countries that are applied for the development of the office in national waters until last year china has decided that they wanted to ask for permission to research for any potential galli will materialize in. the indian ocean so this of course brought forth many opportunities for other countries who are interested in develop development of such resources particularly. russia we were talkin

there's morehead city and there's atlantic beach. dual communities, one's kind of the ocean and one's the city right behind it. and john, you have a major cell just to your south and southeast coming your way. this is probably the biggest cell that you've seen so far. winds will at least be 50. right now you're only seeing about 35, maybe 39. so almost tropical storm force. but in the next 20 minutes you will easily get to 50 and 55 miles per hour with that nasty bunch of cells coming your way. it's one of the inner outer bands now. and as the night goes on, every single band will get more windy and more windy, and the gusts will go higher and higher. >> and in terms of landfall, you're still thinking what, a category 2 for that area chad? >> absolutely. and with that landfall an the way the shape of the land is, anderson, the eye being right down here right now, as the eye comes up and the shape of the land is almost like a bowl. and it's going to hoard all of the water and it's going to make a big storm surge right here as the stor

this is atlantic beach, and it's a rare beach -- this is south.outh and to the east out this way to the east is, you know, and a little to the north, it would be the outer banks. the storm could come up by us, and you can see what they have done. they put up the 2 x 4s, these barriers, and it's 150 yards to the beach, but all the wave action could very well traverse 150 yards, come here and overwash the area. you can see they sandbagged down here, and they have got the shutters, the plywood shutters put up, and they did not do the doors because it's double paned and they told everybody to get out, and now is the time to get out, we don't want you here longer, and they will not tolerate people on the street or vehicles moving. again, fredricka, we're beginning to feel the first affects from the outer bands of the storm. you can see up here some of the clouds, and you see the thunderstorms and the cloud bands starting to rotate around us here, as the storm approaches and getting closer and closer. we expect tropical storm force winds certainly by to

atlantic is that way.and you could get storm surge from the atlantic and as the storm goes by, storm surge coming this way from the sound. it doesn't look like that is the case. with the light coming up, folks can see how fortunate we have been here that the storm did not stay at a category two or a category three. it has steadily weakened down to a category one. that is really, really good news. t.j. >> john zarrella, thank you. jacqui jeras agrees with your assessment. this is a sloppy storm. let me bring in jacqui jeras about the sloppy storm. let's talk about when it will make landfall. tell us what that means and what that will look like. it is not like it is one mass event. >> landfall is when the center of the storm has crossed and made its way on land. the significance is for that is that some of the worst of the storm is making its way onshore. that is when you see the greatest storm surge and you see the greatest winds. the winds will change direction. they have been coming at you from the east a

and yesterday, the fed reported a dismal drop in mid-atlantic states. more bad news for bank of america. it's cutting 3500 jobs as part of restructuring that could eventually eliminate thousands more down the road. and it's the end of the road for hewlett-packard's smartphones, tablets and pcs, as it exits most of its consumer-based business. >>> well, at a time when so many people are looking for jobs, it's really hard to believe there are companies with open positions and no one to fill them. it's the result of something called the skills gap. nbc news senior investigative correspondent, lisa myers reports. >> reporter: even with 14 million americans out of work, the industrial giant siemens is having so much trouble finding qualified workers that for the first time, it's had to hire recruiters. the ceo argues that unemployment remains painfully high, not solely because of a lack of jobs. >> well there are jobs out there, it's that we don't have the people that have some of the skills that are required. >> reporter: it's known as the skills gap, a gap

this is the first mandatory evacuation of atlantic city in its history. and earlier, this evening tappeared it was a wise decision because the streets were flooding, especially the side streets and the weather was very, very rough and it looked incredibly dangerous on the roads. since then, it's calmed down significantly. fortunately for the police who are patrolling pacific avenue here, very few people out. they don't have a lot to worry about. they didn't have a lot of 911 calls because most of the people did heed the evacuation orders, but at this point, it appears -- i know the storm is not completely passed, but it does appear as if atlantic city has dodged the worst and the predictions that it might exceed a record storm surge here is not the case. they are not at high tide. there could be more coastal flooding and problems, not just in atlantic city but in the other communities up and down the new jersey shoreline. but right now, thix look pretty good and it's very, very quiet here. you mentioned, saturday night, the last weekend in august, the las

atlantic city new jersey has closed the casinos.ve a million people out of harm's way. new insights on the day that changed our nation forever. president bush in his own words. what he says about the moment he learned we had been attacked and we'll speak with the man who had to tell him. >> in the back of the room the reporters were on their cell phones. they were getting the same message i got. which meant that a lot of people would be watching my reactions to this crisis. so i made the decision not to jump up immediately. i didn't want to rattle the kids. i wanted to project a sense of calm. @ ♪ sing polly wolly doodle all the day ♪ ♪ hah @ about other topics today. but we want to switch to weather. there are severe warnings coming in. the mayor put it in the most blunt terms saying this is very serious and nature is a force more powerful than any of us. now we get reports that folks in north carolina, that half of the residents of the remote islands are ignoring evacuation orders and are staying behind to right out. that's 400-50

we're 245 miles away from atlantic beach, north carolina. that's the most likely place for this to go. i would say by the time we get up here, the air is ocracoke, all the way over to jensen. maybe. because we're so close now, because we're only 15 hours away from landfall there, the error in that cone is not big. this is pretty much a certainty. that's 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning when the eye gets there. everyone focuses on the eye. hey, look at this. look at what's between the eye and the island. look at the beach. we have all of these weather cells, all of these outer bands that will come first. one band, another band, another band and finally an outer eyewall and maybe an inner one right there. just because the eyewall gets there in 16 hours, the weather is going to go downhill from here dramatically for the next eight to ten hours and then be really bad and then it gets better after tomorrow probably around afternoon. i know everybody focuses on the middle. there's going to be a lot of flooding too. don't get caught trying to drive over

this is the atlantic city expressway, near egg harbor. time in history the atlantic city casinos are shutting down because of whether these people are getting away. they're heading towards philadelphia. look at those mass crowds there. they are heeding the advice about what irene could be bearing toward the eastern seaboard. technology, though, is giving families along the eastern seaboard a true advantage when the power goes out. we want to look at some of the ga gadgets that will keep people connected and safe through the storm as it moves through the northeast. joe brown is editor in chief of gizmodo.com and joins me now. if you have the ipad, the iphone, any other device that you have at home, give us the best case scenario of how we can use these to our advantage during this storm. >> information is power in this situation. the better informed you can be, the more you know, the safer you're going to be. what is great now is the internet as a whole is providing a lot more data and more information for people to look at. it starts with

kerry sand ders in atlantic beach in north carolina where they're coming off a rough night and a rough day today. now are able to look at this storm a bit in the rearview mirror. kerry? >> reporter: well, indeed, brian. hurricane irene arrived early, lingered all day and is just about gone here. and in the wake is, well, there's destruction like that pier over my shoulder and also some deaths. in fact, two deaths directly related to hurricane irene. one man who was outside his home during the hurricane checking some of the damage when a tree limb broke loose, fell, crushed and killed him. another young man, a boy who was inside a vehicle who was driving with his family at an intersection where there was no power and those lights were out and the police say, because those traffic lights were out, there was an accident and that's why this accident happened and this young man died. hurricane irene made first landfall just south of the outer banks on north carolina's coast. winds in excess of 100 miles per hour ripped apart unsecured siding. tilted electrical poles and church steeples. dow