another quick check on hurricane irene with our own chad myers. chad, where is irene right now? >> irene is about 160 miles south of atlantic beach. that's exactly where one of our crews are right now. there's 65 -- we had about a 36-mile-per-hour wind gust. 36. over to wilmington, 32-mile-per-hour wind gust. something else that's happening tonight, too, with the spin down to the south, some of the storms, the individual storms that are coming on shore are spinning. some could have tornados. one tornado or onslow county, camp le jeune main gate. that's what you get when you have a spinning storm to the south and that spin pushing these cells, the little cells right on shore, each one of them can actually spin on their own. there's the wind speeds for parts of jacksonville, wilmington. those wind speeds will definitely come up over the rest of the night. in fact, this is ale large wind field. almost 300 miles from top to bottom. and those winds are still going to be moving up toward atlantic beach right about 7:00 in the morning. and then onshore right at about i would say the op

chad myers, thank you very much. that's all for us tonight. "ac 360" with anderson cooper starts right now. breaking news right now on hurricane irene. north carolina will be next to encounter it. the warnings went up this afternoon, then after that more than 50 million people, the entire northeast seaboard right in the storm's projected path. chad myers joins us with the latest. >> the pressure is going down, anderson. and that's bad. the lower the pressure, the higher the wind speed. now, there's hurricane hunter aircraft in there right now. it did not find any increased wind speed yet. so sometimes the pressure goes down and then the winds build. but there's the eye right there from the miami radar site. so it's not all that far away. we've had outer bands coming onshore in florida for most of the day. there's another outer band offshore right now if you're standing on the beach you may be able to see the lightning in the distance. i hope you're not on the beach at this point, though, because the waves are getting much larger. you get that

i do want to begin with chad myers who just got his hands on a fresh update from the national hurricane center. chad, what have you learned? >> i've learned the storm has turned to the north-northeast. that is the continuation of the right-hand turn, anderson, that we talked about so very long. there's the eye on radar. there's our john zarrella right there, brian todd right here. this is a very wet storm right now. wind gusts are 45, 47 miles per hour. and that's going to be the story. the winds will stay between 40, 50 and even up to 60 all night long before landfall brings it in as a category 1 hurricane. maybe a slight small category 2 hurricane as we make our way into atlantic beach for 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. that's where john zarrella is right now. but you have to notice the size of the green. that's the size of the tropical storm rainfall. almost 300 miles east to west, 400 miles north to south. that means when it gets close to you, when this storm is within 300 miles of you, you are going to feel the wind of a tropical storm. and you're going to feel that wind for the next

let's have another quick check on hurricane irene with our own chad myers. e right now? >> irene is about 160 miles south of atlantic beach. that'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 of the storm down to the south, some of these storms, the individual storms that are coming onshore, are spinning. and so some of them could actually have tornados. and one tornado warning for onslow county right there on the way to the camp lejeune main gate right there indicated by doppler radar, the 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 onshore, each one of them can actually spin on their own. there's the wind speeds for parts of jacksonville and wilmington

the last nine states it went through it was a tropical storm. >> let's go to chad myers. you have heard what joe has to say. he thinks basically you're wrong. what do you have to say? >> i looked at the other storms that were the same pressure. wilma, gene, ivan, charlie. i covered them all. i was on the ground watching those come on shore. when i saw the pressure was 955 headed to new york city i'm glad the hurricane center didn't let the guard down. >> brian, i will bring you back in here. we are on the sixth anniversary of what happened in katrina. i can only begin to imagine what would have happened if the media had underwarned people and had a katrina scenario in new york city. >> six years ago the media was late to find out about the flooding. that's a case like vermont actually where they were too focused on the coast, on the beach. that was the same -- the same was true in this story. too much attention on the beach. if we had more meteorologists, trained scientists in journalism they would have been looking at the inland flooding, the sound, places like vermont.

center with the latest on irene. >>> go straight to chad myers in the cnn hurricane center. the latest on irene. chad, give me what's going on right now. >> piers, the eye is back. that means this storm is getting bigger. this will be a much bigger storm by morning. all day today the eye was torn up here in the bahamas. you couldn't find it. and when you don't have an eye, you don't have the circulation, you don't have the lift and you

chad myers from the cnn hur can center. jim, they're describing this as the hurricane of a lifetime. you've been in the middle of this. describe for me the power of what you've been through. >> reporter: yeah, all day we got a preview of what the east coast is going to see, just pounding wind hour after hour, 15 straight hours of heavy wind, heavy rain, just lashing against this island here. fortunately, it was just far enough offshore that it didn't do any major damage to the tourist areas. a lot of viewers will be familiar with paradise island, all those survived just fine. some of the smaller islands, still waiting on confirmation, i understand there has been serious damage there. the they have to get better communications set up to do that. listen, this was a very serious storm. i had trouble standing up in it. it was really a glancing blow. the population center is on the east coast, it's going to be the real thing, piers. >> chad myers, the latest reports i think came out a few moments ago. bring us up to date with th

chad myers what is the latest? traing got smaller and the window, cone got smaller. only 15 miles away we would know within a mile where it was going to hit. the cone offshore, potential miss but right over long island, maybe no boston and into northern new england. look at that 100-mile-per-hour storm. >> chad, thank you. we were holding our breath today, all of the events unfolding around libya from the outskirts of the gadhafi compound where it seems sara sidner hadn't seen the end of the shelling to the drama unfolding inside and outside that rixos hotel as producer, senior international correspondent matthew chance and jomana karadshen. >> reporter: gunfire going off, they feel very, very excited, very excited. we're going to go in a little bit further. if you look over here to the right, you are seeing the fire inside of gadhafi's compound. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: all right, i'm going to back up. let's pull back a little bit, let's just pull back because i'm getting hit by some of the shells. [ gunfire ] see

thanks so much, chad myers. we'll check in with you. let's go -- let's zero in on that area that chad says is in the most danger. we're finding reynolds wolf in kill devil hills. it has been tough trying to get a signal to talk to you because of the effects you're feeling right now. >> these effects we're getting now again, mostly wind. haven't had a drop of rain in quite a while. we're beginning to see some of the roofing tiles, a bit of insulation here and there from buildings as the gusts pushes them along. these are easily some of the strongest we had so far. this whole thing, this began basically as a cluster of thunderstorms off the coast and swept across the atlantic, and sure enough right here to the doorstep of the carolinas. we're feeling the fury at this point, but basically wind. wind, in some i was, detrimental by the debris it carries and the power outages it will cause. hundreds of thousands of people without power as we speak. it will take a while to restore everyone's power and with all the downed trees we anticipate tha

we'll go chad myers. we can see there from brian todd the power of this hurricane and it is clearly heading as you've been predicting now for a while right down the east coast. tell me exactly what we are looking at as we speak now. >> we're looking at a hurricane that's actually getting a little bit stronger tonight. it's getting its act together. there's the eye of the storm. brian todd right here wrightsville beach, wilmington. this is the closest pass he'll get. the storm will move on up towards cape hatteras region which is northeast of him. but he's really now -- look at all these waves, wave after wave of significant rainfall moving into brian's location. that's why it was so difficult much he's right there at that point. so difficult to get that communication. wilmington now has picked up over five inches of rainfall and literally hasn't even started. we still have 12 or 15 more hours, piers of more heavy rainfall. there cube foot of rain right where brian todd is. you have the water coming in fro

chad myers just snuck this over here. it's important. it's a flooding event. it's also a wind event. he says wind is picking up again over new york city from the backside of the circulation of the storm. trees are again toppling down. if you think you're out of the woods, as janet napolitano said earlier today, you're not quite yet. >> all the more reason why they really prefer people stay indoors. so first responders or emergency preparedness crews can actually do what they need to do and make sure things are safe before everybody else ventures out. >> let's continue on with rhode island. we know the storm rolled into that small state earlier today. gary tuchman was there to ride it out in the beautiful area of newport. gary, i know we talked to the governor early today. big smile on his face. he seems to think that, you know, the state missed the brunt of the storm for the most part. is that what you seem to have experience zbld we're 40 miles south of cape, brooke. the winds have been picking up the last couple of hours. certainly not as bad as we thought i

let's bring in our severe weather expert chad myers, chad, the hurricane, they have just released a new update, a new forecast, is that right? >> that is correct, wolf, they have reduced it from an 85-mile-per-hour hurricane to an 80-mile-per-hour hurricane and they have reduced it to a category 1. but just forget about the winds, do not fear the wind as much as fearing the water. sure the winds will blow down the trees, but the water will cause flooding, it will cause surge and fresh water flooding in rivers. and all of this saturated ground, from d.c. all the way to new england, tree also fall on houses, trees will fall on cars, trees will fall on streets with all of this wind, and saturated ground t root also not be able to hold those trees up. the hurricane right now is just about exiting north carolina and will move back into the gulf stream. it may generate itself just a little bit. it not expecting any regeneration. in fact as it moves off and just very close to virginia beach, it will travel right along the jersey shore and right into new york harbor. why do i say fear the water

chad myers. it continues. >> it does. only because the water is still running off. are people literally going to their backyard, looking at their rain gauge saying it only rained for two hours. how can it be so full? when it comes down that fast, it can't run off. plus there's always this concre concrete. plus you get trash and debris in the gutters and you can't get water to go down the drains properly. that's why we call it flash flooding. because it happens in a flash. >> that quickly. let's get the video if we still have it from the hotel. we talk to the young man who shot the video, all the water that had come crashing through the ceiling. here it is. look at this. coming through, remember he said to your point, flash flooding. flashing through the ceiling. came very quickly. just to show the tremendous force of this water. >> this scares me because the water is running through power lines. >> the lights. >> obviously the lights are still on, the power is still on. if you're walking in that puddle, you may very well have been shocked. they were keeping all the

chad myers, if we can hone in on specific regions where the rivers are still rising. where are you seeing? >> that would be vermont, northern parts of new york and the cat skills in the add ron decks into maine. it's not going to get better in the next 48 hours. in the mountains and basically in the entire appalachian chain, there's a continental divide like in the rockies. in the rockies, if you're west of the continental divide, all the water goes to the pacific, if you're east, it goes into the mississippi and eventually into the nugulf of mexico. it's the same thing. therefore waters and floodwaters that may get into quebec because of this. so not only of the american flood warnings, but there may be flooding going on up into parts of canada as well. all of the green counties have some river, some creek, some stream out of its banks. the counties are going to continue. this map will be green for at least another week or so. the rainfall totals were tremendous. they were all the way from here in the carolinas to over 14 inches on up into d.c. and delaware where the

let's have another quick check on hurricane irene with our own chad myers. ight now? >> irene is about 160 miles south of atlantic beach. that'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 of the storm down to the south, some of these storms, the individual storms that are coming onshore, are spinning. and so some of them could actually have tornados. and one tornado warning for onslow county right there on the way to the camp lejeune main gate right there indicated by doppler radar, the 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 onshore, each one of them can actually spin on their own. there's the wind speeds for parts of jacksonville and wilmington an

we want to check in with cnn meteorologist chad myers. it seems to me the danger of this storm -- its strength is mighty but it's the breadth and width that is the most dangerous part. >> that is correct. the size, the north, south, east and west side of tropical storm force winds, something i haven't seen in a big storm like this. typically you get a storm maybe 50 miles around it will be a tropical storm and down in the middle will be hurricane-force winds, maybe 30 miles from the center this. thing goes literally for 200 miles in each direction. there is where david mattingly was. there is john zarrella, 37 right now. brian todd heading down there, 46 miles per hour. all this rain coming onshore. you can see band after band of rainfall. this will cause flash flooding in the next couple of days all the way up the coast. this is, although not a slow mover, it's not as fast as typically these will be in the mid latitudes like we are. a storm like this should be doing 20 miles per hour up the coast. right now it's 13 or 14. that it's size.

we're going to start with the latest facts and figures from cnn's chad myers in hurricane headquarters. chad, irene's leaving even faster than it came. right? >> exactly. almost up to 30 miles per hour now. screaming on up into southern canada right there. i'm looking at all the new warnings coming out. as soon as we know and we think, oh, that warning noor county is going to expire at 6:45, at 6:44 the weather says they can't expire. completely out of their banks. the flash flooding, going up quickly. going down quickly. a few counties now, because the rain essentially slowed down. had you talk about flooding, whether the river, creek, stream or something out of its banks, literally almost, almost every county, from maine down to southern new jersey, some type of flood warning or flash flood warning in effect for the rest of the night. and that's happening, because the rain is still coming down. take a look at some of these numbers. just isn't 24 hours. newark had 7.89 inches of rainfall from this storm, and they had 13 inches of rain for the month of september -- august before then.

chad myers joins us with the latest. chad, what does the new bulletin say? >> the pressure is going down, anderson. and that's bad. the lower the pressure, the higher the wind speed. now, there are hurricane hunter aircraft in there right now, did not find any increased wind speed yet. sometimes the pressure goes down and then the winds build. but there's the eye right there from the miami radar site. so it's not all that far away. we've had outer bands coming onshore in florida for most of the day. there's another outer band offshore right now, if you're standing ong the beach you may be able to see the lightning in the distance. i hope you're not on the beach at this point, though, because the waves are getting much larger. you get the 115-mile-per-hour winds out there, there's going to be a lot of rip currents going out into the ocean in the next couple of days, all the way into cape hatteras, even into ocean city, maryland. let's break it down for you. 120-mile-per-hour storm tomorrow afternoon south of the cape. by tomorrow, about saturday, 2:00, you ge

chad myers joins us with the latest. chad, what does the new bulletin say? >> the pressure is going down, anderson. and that's bad. the lower the pressure, the higher the wind speed. now, there are hurricane hunter aircraft in there right now, did not find any increased wind speed yet. sometimes the pressure goes down and then the winds build. but there's the eye right there from the miami radar site. so it's not all that far away. we've had outer bands coming onshore in florida for most of the day. there's another outer band offshore right now, if you're standing ong the beach you may be able to see the lightning in the distance. i hope you're not on the beach at this point, though, because the waves are getting much larger. you get the 115-mile-per-hour winds out there, there's going to be a lot of rip currents going out into the ocean in the next couple of days, all the way into cape hatteras, even into ocean city, maryland. let's break it down for you. 120-mile-per-hour storm tomorrow afternoon south of the cape. by tomorrow, about saturday, 2:00, you ge

we'll have the latest from chad myers tonight.nd former imf chief dominique strauss-kahn off the hook. the sexual assault charges dismissed against him. jeff toobin weighs in. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy? >>> reports of aftershocks in virginia tonight after a 5.8 magnitude quake hit the northern part of the state this afternoon. tremors from the quake were pelt in washington, new york north carolina, toronto and montreal. no major reports of injuries. there are a few reports of damage in virginia and elsewhere. the east coast is on alert from hurricane irene on its way. i spoke with meteorologist chad myers about it a short time ago. >> so chad, virginia is a place you don't normally associate with earthquakes. is it an active quake zone? >> reporter: not at all. the map shows active quake zones, c

we'll have the latest from chad myers tonight.imf chief dominique strauss-kahn off the hook. the sexual assault charges dismissed against him. jeff toobin weighs in. ♪ ♪ i like your messy hair ♪ i like the clothes you wear ♪ i like the way you sing ♪ and when you dance with me ♪ you always make me smile [ male announcer ] we believe you're at your best when you can relax and be yourself. and at thousands of newly refreshed holiday inn express hotels, you always can. holiday inn express. stay you. and now stay rewarded with vacation pay. stay two weekend nights and get a $75 prepaid card. that's how it is with alzheimer's disease. she needs help from me. and her medication. the exelon patch -- it releases medication continuously for twenty-four hours. she uses one exelon patch daily for the treatment of mild to moderate alzheimer's symptoms. [ female announcer ] it cannot change the course of the disease. hospitalization and rarely death have been reported in patients who wore more than one patch at a time. the most common side eff

i can't stop talking about this with chad myers.ne -- imagine being able to fly anywhere in the world in under an hour? sounds unreal, right? think again. the pentagon's new ride, called the fall ton hypersonic test vehicle 2, this experimental unmanned aircraft could travel from new york city to l.a. in a cool 12 minutes. today's test flight, attempt number two here, lifted off earlier today from vandenberg air force base in california. an airs rocket boosts the htv-2 to the edge of pace, it reenters the atmosphere and reaches speeds up to 13,000 miles an hour. bar ra starr is standing by, also chad myers is standing by. barbara, first to you, it sounds amazing, but today's test flight not a success. they lost contact. >> it didn't work too well, did it. basically they did lose contact with it, no electronics signals going back and forth between the vehicle and ground controllers. their working assumption is it basically sort of self-detonated and splashed down in the pacific ocean, exactly how it's supposed to, but brooke, 13,000

chad myers here in the weather center as well. you, too, were listening intently to what the president had to say. >> i don't think people really until they get in the water understand the power of what this rain is going to do to the northeast and into new england. if you're in north carolina, i understand you felt that power. here's the map behind me of all the flash flooding that's going on. here's the map behind me of all the flooding that's going on. all the rivers that are flooding. every county except for cape cod, every county from maine all the way down to new jersey, has some type of flood warning fwoing on right now. let me take you to just the latest. we're getting so many flood warnings coming in. here's just the latest that came in from -- at 4:48, the campton pond dam has been breached. in grafton, county. this is new hampshire. so many dams in trouble or at least water going over the top. the water is filling the dams. the dams are in risk of breaching, falling apart in some spots. you have to understand whether yo

>> you're one of them, thanks very much, chad myers. appreciate it. you tomorrow. >>> all the projected paths for the hurricane take it very near, if not over north carolina's fragile outer banks. tonight evacuations are under way. we have north carolina governor bev perdue on the phone. thank you for being with us. what are you doing to get residents ready and out or hunkered down? >> and thank you, candy, you all are doing the best job by reporting it and getting people to realize that this may be a very big storm. we are planning for the worst and we are praying for the best. that's how we do things in north carolina, so as i speak, ocracoke, hide county has been evacuated. we're standing up the emergency centers all over the coast. we understand tonight that dare county has decided -- dare to the far end of north carolina, up in the northeast, has decided to evacuate there starting tomorrow. lots of tourists on our outer banks and we're trying to be safe, but we're also trying to be very, very systematic. and so we have everything in place. our sh

chad myers going to give us the latest track. hi there! that's not going to satisfy you. for a better snack. here, try this. it's yoplait greek. it has two times the protein of regular yogurt. you'll feel satisfied. [ female announcer ] yoplait greek. it is so good. it's pretty good! [ doug ] i got to figure this out. i want to focus on innovation. but my data is doubling. my servers are maxed out. i need to think about something else when i run. [ male announcer ] with efficient i.t. solutions from dell, doug can shift up to 50% of his company's technology spend from operating costs to innovation. so his company runs better, and so does doug. dell. the power to do more. >>> on its current track welcome hurricane irene will hit new york's long island tomorrow. our susan candiotti is in the town of long beach. she joins us now with the latest on conditions there. susan? >> reporter: hi, marty. the winds have picked up just a bit. of course, they ebb and they flow, but right now we're in the middle of it. i've got my trusty wind meter with me here and we recorded a gust of

chad myers has the latest facts and figures, and we'll get to those in a moment. jim spellman is weathering the worst of irene right now in nassau in the northwest bahamas. how bad is it right now? >> reporter: hi, randi. it appears that maybe the worst of it has passed in nassau. still a lot of high winds and still some rains and high surf here occasionally coming over the sea walls, but i think the worst here is orr and it passed. amazing how well they've weathered this here. we have not seen any damage. just a quick ride through downtown nassau, and it seems that they've got lucky and their preparations really worked. some of the southern islands in the bahamas didn't make it well. we have reports of serious did he have tags in some of the settlements down there and even some of the biggest islands, cat island that are both popular tourist islands had just gotten hit there. still trying to get communications back up to get word and a look at damages on those islands as irene moves through. right here tentatively in nassau people are pleased that the worst didn'

i was talking with chad myers. he says it's been a number of years since the east coast has seen something of this magnitude. we'll talk more about that momentarily. i want to go straight to the epicenter of this quake. if you noknonova va -- amanda, me, since you are where this happened not too long ago, what did it feel like, how long did it last there? >> caller: well it happened not that long agoment time is flying by in louisa county. we're under an emergency alert. it really felt, the building started to shake. all the employees, under their normal day, just went outside and the ground continued to rumble for probably five or ten seconds. >> i don't know where you are in the county. tell me if you know of any reports of damage to any buildings, structurally and also injuries. >> we currently -- i'm in the town of louisa, which is about 10, 15 miles outside of the town of mineral in louisa county. and we have received numerous calls for structural damage and some structural collapse for residential structures.

our meteorologist, chad myers, is going to try and explain what caused this deadly accident. we will continue to follow the president as he will hold his town hall meeting. we will be back right after this. dle up with your soreness and give out polar bear hugs. technology. [ male announcer ] new bengay cold therapy. the same technology used by physical therapists. go to bengay.com for a 5-dollar coupon. what makes us number one in motorcycle insurance? we love bikes. we love riders. and most of all, we love to ride. perfect hair every time. leading the pack in motorcycle insurance. now, that's progressive. call or click today. >>> well, the most anticipated town hall meeting ever, it seems, is about to be held in cannon falls, minnesota, with the president. we're expecting it to start anytime we're told. it's the first stop on president obama's three-day bus tour of minnesota, iowa, and illinois. >>> the indiana state ferry opened today with a moment of silence. >> please join in the moment of silence for all of those that were impacted. >> that was held as a memorial to the

chad myers x thank you so much.g up here, i want to take you back to the developing story out of libya. it's no secret that moammar gadhafi is a bizarre character. up next, you're about to hear what this man is really like behind the scenes. including a apparent drug use and warm camel milk. jim clancy has been all around the world. he has come face to face with moammar gadhafi. multiple times. he's going to join me live. his own experiences in libya in a tent with colonel gadhafi after this break. li, say one. for toys, say two. toys ! the system can't process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 central standard time. he's in control. goodbye. even kids know it's wrong to give someone the run around. at ally bank you never have to deal with an endless automated system. you can talk to a real person 24/7. it's just the right thing to do. whether it can be done safely and responsibly. at exxonmobil we know the answer is yes. when we design any well, the groundwater's protected by multi

chad myers talking about heat.s. 1% of the water supply remaining. >> he was saying you could take a three-minute shower. i was thinking 30 seconds. that's what the lake looks like that they're using to drink out of. it's literally that bad. other towns were actually taking water from there and stopped and thank goodness because that lake is almost gone. 114 degrees right now in ft. smith. that's not heat index. that's just, that's the temperature in the -- that's an all-time record. ft. smith all the way over to little rock. 114 to 113 and feels like 118 in memphis. >> show me the map. >> it doesn't stop. >> show me these numbers, chad myers. >> it just keeps going. when will the temperature just finally cool off. i am thinking we need a tropical storm or something to break this. ft. smith 114 yesterday. 114 today. now, i expect phoenix to be hot and i expect kansas to be hot. remember, weather service takes the temperature in the shade. it has to be in the shade for the temps to be real. can't just stand out ther

storm plan, including the possibility of evacuating new yorkers who live in low-lying areas. >>> chad myerscking irene. chad, the forecast track is definitely solidifying, it seems to me. >> it is because we're getting closer to landfall time. the closer you get to landfall time from where we are now to where we're going, the error over the cone gets smaller. so we know where irene is right now. right over the island. there's the bahamas. here's florida. the outer bands are actually affecting florida right now. this may affect some air travel, especially later today, as a lot of planes try to get into either for the lauderdale or miami or west palm. you have a couple of these storms to come in. some of them could even spin. some could have a small tornado warning on them. not talking giant but water spouts that come onshore. and that could certainly slow down the airports. this will eventually travel on up to the north, get away from the bam hamas and get stronger. it's the strength of the storm, drew, that is the hardest thing to predict. hurricane center will be the first to tell you we k

chad myers, thank you very much. that's all for us tonight. >>> the top stories right now -- in libya, fierce battles continued thursday in areas controlled by gadhafi loyalists. mostly in southern tripoli. meanwhile the rebels national transition council plans to relocate its headquarters from benghazi to tripoli. the leader of libya's national transitional council called for more financial support for the new government from other nations. >>> japan's about to get another new prime minister. kan announced his resignation. parliament will vote on tuesday to choose the country's next leader. kan was struggling for approval even before the march disaster struck japan. his ratings have gotten worse since. >>> people along theest east coast are getting ready for hurricane irene. six states are in emergency mode. thousands of toof tourists and residences have been evacuated. >>> it's been 11 days since the hunger strike began, but he says he'll keep going until death or until parliament approves his version of tough anti

chad myers is tracking the storm. so, chad, when does it hit the u.s. coast?, if it does, it will be thursday or friday for florida. or friday or saturday for the carolinas. or saturday or sunday for massachusetts. it could be a very big turn as the storm continues to get stronger. and turns to the right as they always do. that big right hook. but right now, the storm is much stronger than it was just three hours ago. it was 80 miles an hour. now it is a 100-mile-an-hour category 2. this literally justup da update we got on the air. that means it will probably be a category 2 tomorrow and into that category 3 which means major hurricane status making a run either at south florida, got to look at this cone, it could miss the u.s. all together, it could run right into south florida, or somewhere probably more likely in the carolinas. maybe northern florida or georgia. but these storms tend to keep turning to the right. and as it away, in fact it may completely miss the u.s. that's not the forecast. the forecast is for a u.s. landfall of a major hurricane on frid

chad myers, of course, is in the cnn weather center with the latest for us what is the latest at this hour? >> the rain just has not stopped for the northern half of new york, vermont, new hampshire and maine. finally, though, i think we are getting a slight break, drier air coming in. major flash flooding in vermont, new hampshire, new york and pennsylvania. that's the flash flooding. this is flooding just in general. some river, some creek out of its banks. almost every county, from maine, the tip of t down to the carolinas with flooding going on now. we even know of significant breaches or potential breaches in dams in parts of new york, maybe even vermont. we just talked to the emergency manager there. new hampshire. water has swelled every reason up there in the northern half of those states. even down into massachusetts, parts of connecticut. all of that water has to get down to long island sound or back into the atlantic ocean somehow. that will not happen without an awful lot of time for it to run off and also with a lot of damage. you think it's over, this thing has not even

i spoke with meteorologist chad myers about it a short time ago chad isn't normally a place we thinkkes. is it active there? >> not at all. the active quake zones are shown on this map. the earthquake was there in the middle of a blue and green spot. literal literally, no threat or risk. there have been a few earthquakes, nothing like 5.8 and nothing with aftershocks for a very long time. the last earthquake that was close to this was over a hundred years ago in virginia. that's not saying there weren't earthquakes that we don't know about. but not app active zone sniefrjt how widely felt was the quake? >> it was felt from montreal was my farthest tweety got on it today, back into toronto. here and then. back through knoxville into alabama. that is because there's one big plate on the u.s. on the east coast. in california, there are just a bunch of plates. the plates are broken up into a million pieces. when this shook in western virginia, it's like the whole bell rung, the eastern part of the u.s. rung all at one time. when you talk about the west coast, if you break all this, let's

let's go back to chad myers. s a unique part of this hurricane that our viewers will appreciate. >> the unique part is how winds changed direction from one side of the eye to the other. let me take you all the way down here to north carolina. earlier today as the storm came in right at about, there that's about atlantic beach, the winds were on shore. blowing these sand, blowing all of the water and the waves right along the outer banks. now the winds have shifted direction and they are now pushing around the back side and pushing out so all of this water, which is the pimlico sound and other areas of water are now pushed back out and the dramatic picture to that is right here from hurricane track.com and someone thought parking their volkswag fwon on the sound side would be safe. now that sound water is pushing back over the island and the outer banks are covered in water again but from the other direction. there's nobody in that car business the way i checked with our photographer there as hurricanetrack.com. he

i wonder if our meteorologist chad myers is standing by, chad, maybe if you could help us to sort of make sense of this. does this mean sort of we're kind of caught between bands of the storm at this point? >> that is exactly right. there is another band right across the bay on the eastern shore, north of the chop tank, and it is going to come across the chesapeake bay right at you within the next 30 minutes. so what you see now will be doubled, your wind speed will double, your driving rain will be at least twice, maybe three times as hard driving sideways at that point in time. you're now getting closer to the eye. you're pass to the eye -- the closest you'll get is about six hours from now. things still get worse for the next six hours. then they get better. but as that rain band comes in, chris, you know this is going to start getting rather whippy out there for you. >> reporter: that's right. as we continue to just look around and pan around and show you, you know, some of the effects of the wind, one of the things, chad, that a lot of people here, including the mayor, have been

i have just checked, and you can go on to my twitter feed if you like, chad myers, cnn and you can find the tidal gauges and i have found now that the tide surge into virginia beach is already four feet. there really wasn't a low tide because the wind has just pushed water into the chesapeake bay. now i do not expect that to get all the way up to the potomac or all the way up to baltimore, because by the time that would happen, the storm will be far enough away, the winds will push it offshore. and i have also found that the waves, and this is how far we are away, almost 800 miles, the wind has pushed almost eight inches into is battery park. we are already up to three-quarters of a foot in battery park. and we are nowhere near battery park. and so in hours and hours of this storm coming in, that water will begin to surge into battery park, up to battery park city. and that's why that area has to be out of there. the same thing has to happen in long island and this bubble of water all being sucked in here gets pushed up into the northeast. and that's the biggest threat right now. let's

. >> cnn meteorologist chad myers is with us at the cnn weather center. w rare to see a storm that can come along. they build these things, these stages, to see a storm come out and take that out with such devastation. >> i cannot remember one year ever where three stages have collapsed and literally within a month. i don't know if you remember this, cheap trick had a stage collapse on them up in ottawa, canada. winds came through and knocked the entire stage down. back in oklahoma, in tulsa, there was a stage that fell down. this was the big one. obviously, this was the one where people were seriously injured. it happens because you put state fairs right in the middle of towns and in states that now are in severe weather season. in basically tornado alley or at least northern tornado alley. what do we have coming up, illinois, minnesota, iowa. we just got done with ohio, that's a very popular fair there. these midwest fairs, they put things up quickly, including the rides, they bring things down quickly and put them away for a year. here's what happened w

. >> absolutely, chad myers, tell us why irene is right now? >> the potential now as the storm moves up into connecticut and even the rain up into vermont and new hampshire, the potential is still for the flooding. and so the flooding remains and the heavy rain remains from bangor northward, into vermont and even into pennsylvania. this little tail end of a blue rainfall band right here. not that significant when it comes to rainfall but that's where the heaviest wind will coke back into new york city in two hours. this is where the heaviest wind is. it will move back into the city about 5:30, 6:00 tonight, that's when the winds will blow from the west. if anything is on the ground, that debris will fly around again. may want to be inside for that. there's an awful lot of rainfall still coming in from syracuse into burlington and springfield. significant flooding going on. i'll change the map to our flood warnings and there are just flash flood warnings all the way from maine back into vermont, new hampshire and down into even pennsylvania. i s

in a moment we're going to talk to chad myers about what we can expect and when we can expect it.t happens when a hurricane makes a rare stop in the northeast. >> you're watching pictures of the last major hurricane to hit the northeast coast exactly 20 years ago. this is hurricane bob back in august of 1991. the eye of the storm passed over rhode island before making landfall as a strong category 2 with wind of 115 miles per hour. bob was blamed for over $1 billion in damage in 18 storm-related deaths. just two months later, hurricane grace also threatened as a category two storm before being absorbed by an unusual weather system that led to the hallowe'en nor'easter of 1991. later called the perfect storm. this storm lashed the east coast of the united states with pounding waves and coastal flooding, causing significant damage in massachusetts, maine, new hampshire and new jersey. nine people were killed in the storm which produced 100-foot waves equivalent to a 10-story building. it inspired the novel by author sebastien younger which later became a movie. then there's the so-c