we found carol enjoying the sand of bethany beach. she is spending her first off- season living here. for her, talk of a perfect storm is upsetting. >> i love that the way it is. i hate to see it disappear. >> she remembers the scenes from a hurricane turned nor'easter in november to 009. -- 2009. it virtually wiped out the beach and there was widespread flooding from the bay side as the high wind pushed the high tide at inland. it took more than two years to rebuild the beach and sand dunes. tonight, there was fear it would happen again. this person is running a boardwalk toy store for the weekend. that concerns me because i have not been down the beach for any of the storms. we have always been in land more and i will be concern for the stores. >> this person owns for apparel shops. >> concerned that it may do some damage. >> for now, she is hopeful that sandy will take some peach and sand dunes but leave the buildings alone, like the storm she says haoles have. >> -- but the storms always have. >> not once have we had any water dam

as far as the beaches, we also have reporters there, bethany beach, taking this very seriously, very worried about beach erosion. they just spent the past two beach.ebuilding the they're worried this hurricane literally change the landscape. jennifer donelan, abc 7 news. >> we will talk more about sandy broadcast, and a new advisory will be released before 11:00. also, the latest is always on wjla.com. >> the race for the white house the battleground of virginia including a presidential dominionthe old city.l in all, three virginia cities re hosting campaign events today. ryan was in bristol this morning. will be in charlottesville. president obama played host to people in richmond this afternoon. richmond andwas in has more from the newsroom. bigger offense, though expect another when he campaigns with bill clinton monday. spokesperson's said they don't know how things out, which is why we're seeing so much of him in virginia and why today was such l stopped intended for just for urging of voters. the view of the president tells story. a reported 15,000 craned their glimpse, but his

dewey beach, bethany beach which are a little lower than where we are at rehoboth beach, they have a bit more flooding than what we have here. and also we can't even get there to see it. delaware route 1 completely closed. you can't get there. there's just water all over the roadways. even if we could, we really technically aren't allowed to. let's go over this way. our lens is getting hosed. even if we could drive down there, we're not allowed to because right now there is a level 2 driving restriction in place. that went into effect at 5:00 this morning. so if you are in the delmarva peninsula, in rehoboth beach, anywhere in sussex county, you're not allowed to be driving right now unless you are emergency or essential personnel. you can actually get a ticket for it. it's 1125 bucks for a first -- it's 125 bucks for a first offense. you could also be jailed up to 30 days. eight no joke. they're taking it very seriously -- it's no joke. they're taking it very seriously. part of it is because there were so many spectators out here for irene and they don't want that again when you cou

it's closed between dewey and bethany beaches. just a warning. do not drive through that water. >>> this is rhode island. the storm creating high surf there. you can see daring kite surfers took advantage of huge waves there yesterday. the governor already declaring a disaster emergency in rhode island. mandatory evacuations for a lot of beach communities started last night and will continue into the morning. >> people along the coast aren't just feeling the effects of sandy in their homes. making ways inside buildings as well. our own wendy rieger reporting from rehoboth beach. >> this is the part of the bathroom, and we thought it was because of a wind tunnel we create, but we closed all the doors. this is like the exorcist here. we're on the second floor. there are three other floors above us. so it's not like -- oh, my god. it's not like this is the roof. so there you go. sandy has arrived in the bathroom of our hotel room. now, how do we get her out of here? >> i would be scared. >> i'm not sure if she was scared or just fascinated. >> or bo

>> rehoboth beach, bethany beach, dewey beach and fenwick island are the four beaches and they've lostit of beach because of what my surfer friends call the absolutely radical waves we've seen on the atlantic ocean today. of all the hurricanes i've covered, i've never seen waves this big. i would estimate, and so would my colleagues, tle were 20 to 25-foot waves here. i've seen that high before in the pacific, but never in the atlantic in the hurricanes we've covered. but the people here in delaware, in ocean city, which is in maryland, in virginia, all part of the delmarva peninsula, as i know you know well, erin, because you're from the area, the people consider themselves very lucky, because the main thrust of this storm ended up going 40 miles to the north of us. there's flooding here, cars under water, streets that are flooded. it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. the most important news, we don't know of any casualties on the delmarva peninsula from storm sandy. something unusual, though, very rare, obviously for us to cover hurricanes at the end of the hurricane season.

in terms of the roadways, we had significant flooding, route 1 down to bethany beach, those roadways completely closed in water. i know some roads down in ocean city are opening back up this morning. some roads, of course, here are clearing -- some of the water is clearing from those roadways. for now, those driving restrictions are still in place. we're hoping to get word from the governor later this morning as to when folks might be able to start driving here again. >> thank you very much. >> as those winds and rain move to shore, more than 5 million people lost power up and down the east coast. >> the gusts from sandy took down untold numbers of trees. this tree took out the edge of a home. here's a run down of the power outages in our area. >> i'm liking the trend this morning. we're seeing the numbers and i just want to show you because i've been tweeting it out since last night, we were 492,000. right now 471,000. over night it was well over half a million. i just wanted to show you that trend. it's good news. at least some work is being done through out the evening. let's star

so in many cases you have hoes -- >> we haven't -- for people who want to leave -- duey and bethany beach that one is closed so there are other evacuation routes for people, but now is really the time. >> we have already seen some flooding, but still quite pertinent, right? >> we're seeing more flooding than we normally would. we have opened several shelters across the state. providing that and they're already starting to get people there which is good. businesses in the evacuation area have to close by 6:00 p.m. tonight, but bottom line, again, people in the evacuation areas, it's time to get out. >> and what kinds of pieces -- >> i can't quite here you but there are some essential businesses that are staying open, but for the most part the businesses in the evacuation area are closing and people are leaving. >> and given that it's fall, it's kind of your offpeak season. governor jack mar kell, appreciate your time and stay safe. >>> people along the east coast did brace for the hurricane surge, but the utility companies are trying to get ready. last year millions lost power and preparat

one, of course, a main closure, route 1 between bethanie beach and dewey beach. what about exit strategies for those who have to leave? >> there are as you say, that one, we knew would be closing. actually closing it yesterday morning. and so there are evacuation routes, route 113 and for those who are north of dewey beach can go up route 1. there are ways out. but we told people a couple days ago now that if you're in the evacuation area you need to get out. >> governor jack markell, good luck to you. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> our daily fix could sandy affect the outcome of this election? for up to the date information on hurricane sandy, be how it will impact your area, check out weather.com. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" special coverage right here on msnbc. begin. tomato, obviously. haha. there's more than that though, there's a kick to it. wahlalalalallala! smooth, but crisp. it's kind of like drinking a food that's a drink, or a drink that's a food, woooooh! [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. could've ha

bethany beach is closed. they remain closed for some days to come.addition to that, the chesapeake bay bridge that links baltimore and washington to the eastern shore of delaware, maryland and virginia has always been shut down. because of high wind warnings. the good news is the wind shifted dramatically. blowing from the north/northeast for the past 24 hours. in the past few hours it's shifted to the west. the high tide we expect here tonight at 8:10 and storm surge associated with that will likely get pushed back to sea. we may be dodging a bullet here, bret. we'll see. when the high tide arrives. back to you. >> bret: doug, thank you. the storm is making landfall as we speak. that is breaking news right now. millions of americans, and people who work in manhattan live on or around long island. correspondent jonathan hunt is on long beach tonight. jonathan, the storm is making landfall right now. send it over to you. >> bret, as the storm makes landfall, we are on the northern edge of the hurricane, as it comes ashore. northern edge means you are

it's now closed for about ten miles between dewey and bethany beaches in rehoboth. you are not allowed to drive. it is illegal to drive. >> the state of delaware, no driving on any road right now. in rhode island creating some high surf there. some daring kite surfers took advantage of the big waves yesterday. the governor has already declared a disaster emergency in rhode island. starting this morning, mandatory evaluations will be issued for some coastal areas. >>> people along the coast aren't just feeling the effects of sandy in their homes. they're making their way outside buildings as well. wendy rieger reporting live from rehoboth beach, got a visit from inside her hotel room. >> this is what' >> reporter: this is what's happening. we thought it was because of the wind tunnel we created with the doors open here. but now we closed all the doors, and it's like the exorcist in here. and there are two floors above us. so it's not like this is the roof. so there you go. sandy has arrived in the bathroom of our hotel room. now how do we get her out of here? >> hope

route 1 into dewey beach, bethany beach totally closed. wiped out. here's actually some pretty big news we just found out from the governor of delaware. even though there's a mandatory evacuation order in effect which means if you decided to stay, law enforcement most likely will not be able to come and get you. some people are trapped about 15 miles south of here, trapped in flooding. the national guard and local law enforcement are in the process of going in and trying to get them out. so some folks did not heed that warning. it's starting to get a little bit dicey as hurricane sandy moves a little closer to us. i want to show you all a little bit more of the boardwalk, kind of our setup here. if we take a look down this way towards where we're staying at the atlantic sands hotel, you can see completely deserted but not a ton of flooding on the boardwalk yet. that's some great news. keep in mind we're still about an hour away from high tide. if we go down -- excuse me. tripping over this cord here. if we go down over this way, you can see we've got

>> reporter: police have been going around rehoboth beach and fenwick beach, bethany beach, they haveng but there haven't been any reports of anybody missing or anybody needing to be rescued. that's the major thing about this storm, is that 40 -- about 50 miles as the crow flies to the north is where atlantic city, new jersey, is. that's where the center of the storm passed. it's not far from here but the weaker part of the storm is the left side of the storm and that's the part of the storm that hit here. it was still powerful, hurricane-force winds, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. >> gary tuchman in rehoboth beach, delaware. the prediction from sandy, it did come in pretty fast in terms of wind, waves, storm surges, all of that. >> unfortunately, as it continues to snow, that number of the damage estimates will increase. the rescuers, when they could get out. look at this picture. when the rescuers could get out. they quickly responded. more live coverage next. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it's me

that means folks in rehoboth can't get to dewey beach or bethany beach. it's all closed. standing water across all of those roadways. a lot of the homes on the bay side are definitely starting to get into jeopardy. so what we're going to do, we're here at the atlantic sands hotel. we've been here all night. still very secure. we've got power on. felt a little bit of shaking of the building but nothing too major. these hotels certainly built for that. a lot of the homes on the bay side, again, that's what we're worried about. we're going to make our way a little bit around town and scope out the damage even though we're still so early into this hurricane. we'll bring you more coming up in about half an hour an soos as we get -- as soon as we get set up. i think we'll be heading closer to the bay side so you can get a better ideas of -- better idea of what the flooding looks like. for all the people who love to come to rehoboth beach, it's a wonderful place. we know it's going to stay that way after the storm. let's just hope it doesn't take too bad of a beating. >> kristin

here is the type covering bethany beach.nt could see it is similar situation later on today. markets and kee -- markets emptied real fast this weekend. we will be right back with another look at traffic and weather. >> but first, here's a look from our skycam. we are back with more in a moment. >> welcome back. we are winding out our 8:00 coverage. we have heavy rain in baltimore city. that will be the major story around baltimore. not necessarily the wind, but the heavy rain. expect flooding. just about every county in maryland is expecting flooding. the dark orange and read -- you can see the darkest read, if you look really close, is around seven. that is where the heaviest rain is at the present time. those of you in the western suburbs -- it is pretty easy. the heavy rain is moving in your direction. what's to look at some of the wind speeds. 20 mile per hour cost -- gust. winds will pick up around baltimore later on. i will talk about all of that and what you can expect for the next 24 hours in the 9:00 hour. >> you ca

we're talking rehobath beach, dewey, bethany, south bethany, lewis, delaware to the north, a little belowea level, they expect serious flooding there sometime tomorrow. coming up a little bit later the second half hour, we go back and talk to the governor more. he has receiving advice for people living in the washington area who have homes here. don't bother to come here until after all this is over, he said. then he's got a few other things to add. back to you guys. >> i saw the sign, we ain't scared of sandy. i wish i could say that. we go to dave owens, hunkered down at chesapeake beach. how scared are the folks there? >> reporter: i'll tell you what, they know a little bit about hurricane sandy, that's for sure. i will say this much. it's really starting to pick up in the last little bit, we've seen the rain really start to pelt in. the winds, i would say, about 15, 20 miles per hour sustained. i've got my wind meter here. certainly that's what we're dealing with. this is an area of concern though, guys. as i move down here to this pier, we're right on the water, this is an area in ye

right there, yeah, the surge, we have wonderful beaches and between dewey beach and bethany beach we there are a lot of others we had to close throughout the state. the bay communities were hit hard but we've got people out looking right now. we think we escaped the worst of it. >> and total cost for delaware, any idea yet in. >> we don't know. we have people as we say looking right now, i think it will take us a little while to figure that out. certainly concerned about the 44,000 families without power but we're obviously looking forward to utility crews getting out there as soon as, once conditions permit them to be out there. they can't be in harm's way if the winds are too high. >> for your state was this not as significant or not as negative of an outcome as irene, governor? >> well, i mean i'd put it this way we have a lot of flooding and we do have 40,000 plus people without power. that's a lot. i don't remember the figures with irene. i'd say this is more than irene but perhaps not as bad as we had feared. all the countings not done yet, but hopefully we've escaped the worst

. >> have there been evacuations in rehobeth beach, bethany, ocean city, maryland, the whole area where you are right now, brian? >> reporter: absolutely, wolf. mandatory evacuations were ordered. they were ordered to get out by 8:00 p.m. last night. and the city manager of rehobeth beach told me a short time ago, he believes that about 90% of the people who live here year-round, heeded that call and got out. they know what it's like when one of these storms come. 20 years ago, they had a nor'easter that tore this boardwalk apart. people here know about that. the population of this area decreases significantly after labor day. summertime population is 30,000 to 40,000. the number of people who live here year-round, only about 1,300. and most of those people, the city manager believes, got out of here. >> when you're watching what's going on, do you see people walking around, do you see people driving around? or is it basically empty, rehobeth beach right now? >> reporter: well, i've covered a lot of these things. a lot of the time you see one or two people driving around and walking aro

beach town is now silent and shuttered. still oddly reassuring that rehoboth will roar again. bethany, by the way, if you are in bethany or you know someone in bethany, they're not trapped. there are other ways to get off bethany that require going inland and going around. it's a little bit of a longer detour but it is safe and they can get off. you just can't go on that coastal road anymore and that started this morning. reporting live from rehoboth, we will be here all evening, back at 11:00 tonight. >> storm 4, wendy, thanks. states ever emergency in the district and all the states around us and with that police, government leaders, and utility companies have all hands on deck. >> derrick ward reports on that angle of the story. >> this storm is unique, large, dangerous, and unlike anything our region has experienced in a very long time. >> reporter: more sandbags were distributed to help keep those who will stay inside dry, but they should be wary of trees. >> you know there's one outside your apartment or your house or whatever, you need to make sure you're away from where that p

beach resorts are under a mandatory evacuation order. the state is telling people who live in parts of bethany, dewey, all other coastal areas to move out by 8:00 tomorrow night. the word from ocean city, maryland, is anybody planning to visit should postpone their travels and people who live in the downtown area should be prepared for evacuation. rain and winds from the massive storm have been pounding the north carolina coast. hurricane sandy is threatening some 60 million americans in the eastern third of the united states. residents in maryland and virginia are spending the weekend getting ready for this storm. at rfk stadium today, residents picked up sandbags from the public works department. they were also piled up in old town alexandria. residents also headed to hardware stores and grocery stores. some found they were already too late. >> looking for a flashlight, because i'm really not sure what kind of flashlights i need. and i didn't see exactly what i want here. >> the majority are sold out. >> yeah, most are gone so maybe we're going to have to go somewhere else and look. >> maryland, d.c. and virginia have already declared

beach is between the bay and the ocean, those are connected at this point. the water has overtaken dewey bee. the coastal highway has been closed since sunday between due whip and bethany where it goes over the inlet that has been closed and it's continuing to get worse as the narrow areas start to meet. here in rehoboth what they're looking for is it appears to be coming in. we'll keep an eye on that we're live in rehoboth beach, christian schaffer, abc2 news. >>> all right. following the storm up there in rehoboth, atlantic city boardwalk. you ve this go online. the eater -- water is overtaking the boardwalk. let's go outside now. jeff hager is outside. an area that kno flooding very well. let's see how the folks are preparing. >> reporter: earlier today we were along the chesapeake bay. we touched basin millers eye land even though they went through the bankrupt of it, they're seeing things they've never seen b sandwiched between the back river and chesapeake barks the millers island community may be one of the most exposed neighborhoods to surging water. >> we had a shore house right there that we're more concerned about because it's lower and on the water, but i t

beach, anywhere in the county unless you're essential personnel. that is because so much of the roads, especially route 1, delaware heading down into bethany and dewey, all of that completely flooded out. you see these big waves. this beach holding up very well. but i tell you what. atlantic city just farther north up the coast of new jersey, we're hearing that the waves there have already taken out an 80-foot section of the boardwalk. that is going to be where the storm is expected to make its direct hit. we're just a little bit south of that but as i'm standing out here, the wind gusts are intensifying. we have sustained gusts about 40 miles per hour now. the rain really picking up. no widespread power outages to report, although we are hearing some reports of folks getting stranded in their homes at oak orchard. that's about 15 miles south of here. but so far no injuries, nothing too terrible to report from here in rehoboth beach. back to you, jc. >> thank you very much. >>> needless to say there is no absentee voting today in fairfax county. sandy is wreaking havoc with our political system. the county has also set up an emergency information li