bryan norcross, our friend the veteran meteorologist at the weather channel. bryan, has the course changed at all? has the severity changed at all as it marches up the i-95 corridor on the east coast? >> brian, after spending 11 hours, the center has weakened slightly. it's an 80 mile an hour hurricane now. we expect further weakening, but it's not important as you said. there's so much energy in this massive storm that it's moving the water and when you have that big of a storm, the energy takes over and the wind near the take a look at the radar here and let's look close up. you see where the center is. it's the center of the rotation, 30 miles off of norfolk. it's piling wat into chesapeake wy. here's the bay right here. flooding is going to ensue is under way, we'reke sure, in the tidewater and hampton roads area of virginia. in williamsburg, up the road, 76 mile an hour gusts within the last half hour. moving north, we have cape bay, new jersey with a 62 mile an hour gust just in the last few minutes and we have a tornado watch for the new york city, new j

i would call it a risk. >> bryan norcross, you have been doing this for a long tile. you were the guy who predicted that 1992 hurricane andrew would come and be a monster, it was. for people who are going to look at irene and see it begin to soften somewhat. how do you avoid complacency in the future? for people who say, it didn't get do me so bad if you're in connecticut, potentially boston? the challenge is that the next time that a hurricane is coming, people respond to it. the fact is that the modern science did a lot of things very well, it predicted you know, way back, how many days ago that a hurricane was going to come right over new york city. modern science does not have the ability to know exactly what shape the hurricane is going to be in. i don't want to minimize this thing. because for millions of people, this is going to be very bad. this is going to be some of the worst flooding ever experienced in the certainly in the top three, if not the top two, in pennsylvania, and new jersey and other areas. so you know, i don't want to minimize it just because i

we got the warning from bryan norcross about the wave heights. what are you seeing at beach level? >> reporter: they're kick up. we know it's going to get a lot worse. in the timing workings out, it looks like irene will be hitting this area here at a lower tide. so that's good news because of the surge that comes. it may be up to ten feet. mother nature has a little bit of a protection here. i'm going to take a look right over here with you. this is the protection that mother nature has in place. those are the dunes here. as that surge comes in, it will hit these dunes. it will wash over. nonetheless, that's the first line of defense. just beyond you can see the homes that have is shutters there. they're gone. those people got out because they heeded the mandatory evacuation orders. the mandatory evacuation orders are in place. the police are now out telling people that they need to if they don't know yet get out. the reason the cops are out there they're on their public address systems telling people it's a mandatory evacuation. there will be a curfew that will go into effect at

let's go from al to weather channel's bryan norcross. brian, looking at the camera shot that was provided by al's crew, looking at the ocean,er talked about it being the angriest. it doesn't look like the storm surge has let up at all. >> reporter: it's just beginning to let up but the tide has been going out as you guys were talking about for the last couple of hours. we had the storm pushing in, the tide coming out and then crossing over. the storm came in sooner at high tide that water would have been another foot or two higher and those cars would have been in trouble and we would have had that much more water at the battery. everything with this, we really have been lucky here even though we'll see widespread effects from this. but just a foot or two or an hour or two one way or the other. a little bit more organization with the center so that the winds weren't so spread out, more consolidated. it's all these little things that worked in our favor here to keep this at the coastline anyway from what we know although we haven't heard

. >> let's get right to the latest from the weather channel hurricane specialist bryan norcross and give us the latest on the path and the time line here. >> okay, tamron. the bottom line right now is that this is still an extraordinarily dangerous storm. the top winds have come down just a little bit in the new advisory, but the wind spreads out over such a large area, and the power of the storm and the movement of the water at the coast to cause to wreak havoc up and down the east coast is undiminished. looking at the satellite picture, and i will show you the size and scope of it. it is off of jacksonville, florida and georgia now, and there is the size of the hurricane and keep it in mind as we move up the coast that it is heading right in the direction of the forecast track to arrive tomorrow at the outer banks or the eastern part of north carolina, and we are fearful there that it is going to be a very bad life-threatening day in the eastern part of north carolina from both the ocean water coming over the outer banks and from the very heavy rain causing major flooding and from the

the weather channel bryan norcross breaking it down for us. thanks for that. as brian was telling us right now the epicenter of things with regard to irene as a hurricane. it's flight. long beach, new york, al roker has been positioned. see that white building in the center. that's a life guard tower. that's been compromised. you can very easily see for yourself it's tilting slightly to the left. it wasn't there about an hour and a half ago. it was placed elsewhere. it smashed into that boardwalk. we'll give you a look at peter alexander's camera. that's cone y island. lots of wind and rain. flags are in tatters because it's feeling the full force of hurricane irene barreling up the eastern seaboard. new york city, again in the cross-hairsing right at this moment. we're at the worst of it right now for everybody in new york city. got to have some concerns about these high rise buildings and if the wind as they make up these sort of tunnel routes of new york city, if they could have problems with glass and the windows and all these many high rises we'll keep a

for the very latest on where irene is head on the how bad it might be, we're joined by bryan norcross, what's the very latest modelling? what can you tell snus. >> unfortunately we see no change in the forecast tract. right up the coast. we've read about in textbooks but never seen in our lifetime. this very well could be the hurricane of a lifetime. let's take a look at it right now as it is approaching north carolina. it's big, big circulation. extraordinarily large circulation, the kind we saw in hurricane ike that did so much damage three years ago as it came into texas. this is a much bigger deal. it's heading right for north carolina. we think life-threatening conditions along the coast of north carolina along the day on saturday and affecting the entire eastern part of the state. on up to the chesapeake. the am of water tremendous amount of water being pushed into chesapeake bay over the delmar have peninsula along the beaches there life-threatening conditions through delaware and then to the jersey shore with tremendous water pushed into delaware bay all along the jersey shore

bryan norcross is following it all from the weather channel's headquarters in atlanta, and we have gotten a update, what is the latest? >> well, it is pounding the bahamas right now, and unfo unfortunate unfortunately, there is no change in the track and it is headed for the east coast of the united states, and we don't see where we can avoid this one and you will turn out to see it is not in the cards. so we look at the satellite right now, and there is great abico right therek and going right over that now, and we are fearful for what is happening on that island at the current time. now, here is the track heading north. so it is going to head off of florida and head toward the carolinas, and saturday, we are talking about approaching eastern north carolina. now, will this be near a worst case for eastern north carolina? near cape hatteras or out to sea? hard to say, because even if it goes out to sea, it is a big hurricane in size that it would still take a toll on the outer banks, but then we get here to where we don't see a scenario where from norfolk up to new england, a significant

. >> bryan norcross, thanks so much for the warnings and thanks for being there. >>> president obama on top of the concerns spoke with the head of fema this morning as federal officials make their emergency plans. nbc's kristen welker is in martha's vineyard, where the president is trying to wrap up a ten-day trip. what a vacation. star crossed indeed. what are their plans there now? >> reporter: hi, andrea. it certainly has been, what a vacation indeed. officials tell us president obama is still planning to leave on saturday, which was previously scheduled. they say at this point the hurricane is not going to change its plans in terms of when he's going to depart. as you mentioned, the president spoke with fema administrator craig fugate earlier today, as well as secretary janet napolitano. they are getting out in front of this hurricane. they have dispatched crews from carolina all the way to maine. they have also set up a number of warehouses in the region, which are housing things like massive generators, generators that are big enough to power hospitals, as well as, of course, f