live in dewey beach, erica gonzalez, news 4. >> erica, thank you. we're happy that you survived it all. >> and she's right. the temperature is here too. it's about ten degrees cooler than it was this time yesterday. tom kierein is keeping an eye on not only the temperatures but still a little moisture out there, tom. >> we still have rain falling. good morning. >>> right now storm team 4 radar showing a huge area of rain. it is raining from maine all the way down to north carolina, and from the atlantic seaboard all the way into ohio, indiana, michigan, and all this area in white is snow. it is snowing across parts of indiana into ohio, eastern kentucky, much of west virginia and into western maryland. all of these areas getting snow. some of the high ridges here right west of the blue ridge and shenandoah valley, they're getting snow. even mountain peaks are getting a little bit of wet snow right now. locally for us, we're still dealing with passing bands of light to moderate rain. anything from light yellow to orange is the light to moderate rain.

stuff like this is all over the roadways in dewey beach and rehoboth beach. the past couple of days, rehoboth beach had eight inches of rain. there are more than 6,000 people without electricity in rehoboth, and there's still a driving ban on the roadways, which is why nobody's out here. nobody is supposed to be at work until after 4:30 this afternoon. thus far, things have remained boarded up. windows seem to have remained intact, and it looks like rehoboth and dewey beach have weathered sandy fairly well. in dewey beach, erica gonzalez, news 4. >> erica, thank you. >>> 6:09. 43 degrees. coming up, the latest on when airports in our area will get back to normal after hurricane sandy brought air travel to a halt in the northeast. teacher: this is west virginia, pennsylvania, delaware. and. every year marylanders spend five hundred and fifty million gaming at casinos in these other states. question seven will build a new casino and bring table games to baltimore... generating hundreds of millions for schools. and that money has to go to education. it's the law

we are starting to see a significant amount of flooding on the bay side of dewey beach, rehoboth beach, not to mention significant road closures. route 1, delaware route 1, the road that gets fru here to dewey -- from you -- you from here to dewey beach, completely closed. the other big thing we're hearing is from the governor of delaware. this whole area is under a mandatory evacuation order which means if you decided to stay, chances are if you get in trouble, nobody is going to be able to help you. but the governor of delaware just tweeted out that some folks are stuck in oak orchard which is about 15 miles south of here. actually let's take a look right down here. you can see the waves really coming in. that's what i'm talking about. these are some of the bigger surges we've seen back to what's happening in oak orchard. the governor was saying they had to send in the national guard and several local law enforcement, local fire department, they all had to go in and help rescue several people that were trapped in oak orchard. hopefully they're doing all right. i haven't heard back ab

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

on sunday, the major route through the beach area is route 1 between dewey beach and the indian river inlet became flooded and a number of areas. that road was closed and remains closed for an indefinite period as motion of the portion of that roadway is flooded. a seven-mile stretch. >> have you had a number of rescues that you know about? will there people still trapped. >> there may be people who chose to not evacuate but we have not been made aware of any rescues that have gone on across the state. a lot of people, it seems, took seriously the governor's order to evacuate and got to higher ground to shelters or to friends and relatives' hope. >> what will be the first order of business of your office of the office of emergency management in the morning when the sun comes up, gary. >> damage assessment will begin and the recovery effort, we have downed power lines. we have trees that are down. we have flooded roadways. crews will go out and start to alleviate those situations at the same time assessing the extent of the damage. >> well, good luck to you, gary laing communications o

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

that was our bruce johnson on dewey beach. after the break the latest on power restoration efforts in our area. >> plus, how social media is playing a major role in this disaster storm. >> let's get the latest on power outages across our region. >> investigative russ ptacek knows exactly where to find that information. >> reporter: we're 24 hours into this since this really started heating up. are you ready for a headline? this is the headline i just sent out while you guys were getting the 7:00 news underway here. that is most power now restored. 248,000 people remain without power right now, but at the height of this storm this morning and the early morning hours, we were at more than a half a million. let's take a look at where some of these people are located. boy, folks in northern virginia, you're having a tough time. there is some good news. one of the points we made when we were talking about this as we were looking into this area trying to identify what the red dot means. the red dot means more than 2400 people withou

coastal highway dewey beach, it stops and you can't go further because of flooding. it's been that way the past 24 hours. come back around this way, the atlantic ocean. you have got the surge everybody is talking about that will be several feet high when sandy comes through. add to the surge the tide, add the waves and you're talking a lot of water that's going to be coming over the dune there onto these roads and all of this you can imagine will be impassable later this evening 5 p.m. through tonight. [ audio difficulty ] >> bruce johnson, amazing stuff all day long. thank you, bruce. >> everybody pushing the boundaries of technology through the storm. we're going to take a quick break. we are still tracking sandy all night long. we'll be back.

let's take you out live and show you the seas are getting very violent out here at dewey beach in delaware. 100 miles away from this location and feeling the impact of the brunt of the outer bands of sandy. hurricane sandy gained strength after crossing the loop current. it is a warm current in the atlantic. they move north bay and they lose that intensity. she has strengthened. maximum sustained winds up to 90 miles per hour. landfall expected late this afternoon. along the jersey shore at 125 miles south of new york city. the power of the storm is unprecedented. we look at the pressure. the pressure will drop to 970 or 980 millibars with the category one storm. sandy's pressure is 940 millibars rivaling a category three or four storm. high waves and winds. you know the buildings are so tall in new york city and boston and philadelphia. we have never seen wind events with winds in this area. it is hard to gauge the area. the aftermath could be more expensive than the damage from katrina. we are watching this one very, very closely. just a huge storm sprawling storm at 1,000 miles. >> oh,

some areas of delaware, especially just south of here, dewey beach, are impassable at this point. they say because of the heating of the -- or the 3457ndtory e c evacuation order, 50,000 residents were cleared out. there are no reports of deaths or injuries and the governor is attributing that to their heeding of that warning. he so far he says the infrastructure is holding up but he says they can't get complacent because between 8:00 and past midnight they say that's going to be the true test of the infrastructure here. these when the high tide rolls in and that's when a lot of action could happen, chris. >> we're going to have the governor on later in the program, the governor of delaware, to give us an update himself. what's happening with the traffic down there, route 1, for example? is everything shut down? >> reporter: it's basically a ghost town right now, chris. it's hard to find anybody at a store. the governor actually ordered all the businesses in and around this area to be shut down at 6:00 last night. there are roads that are impassable. if anybody did decide to stay,

but dewey 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.

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

you showed the viewers footage from dewey beach, lots of that type flooding throughout the area because of all the water in coastal delaware, over 50,000 people ordered out, evacuations. it's a lot more than that now because a lot of people have left on their own. >> we'd like to see bruce a bit closer in. >> someone was giving him grief for being in a shelter earlier. we won't do that ever again. we also saw pictures out of atlantic city where the storm actually went ashore. you have entire sections of the boardwalk atlantic city washed out to the ocean, haven't seen anything like that. >> it's a powerful storm. we always tell crews in the field on days like this safety is their top priority. here's why. cbs' chip reid is in ocean city covering the storm. he and his camera crew were taken out by a rogue wave. we're told everybody is okay and they were able to save the camera, too, but when bruce johnson and kristin fisher and all our other colleagues out by the beach talk about the significance and the power of that storm and how quickly it can take you, you could see by that video it

in delaware, the storm wiped out beaches in several communities and rehoboth beach and dewey beach, thousands of people were evacuated from wilmington and delaware city. now one final word, there is some word that the potomac river, specifically the area between hancock, amaryland and washington, d.c., could begin flooding to night. the national weather service says it could be worst flooding that area has seen in 16 years. nbc's michelle franzen is at battery park city on the lower tip of manhattan. that is where the storm surge hit a record high over 13 feet. she joins us on the phone. how are things looking there? >> reporter: good morning, chris. yeah, that is record high. nearly 14 feet, as you mentioned. this is where all the troubles began for lower manhattan where that water surge came in during that high tide and peaked last night at 8:30. at the same time, near the same time, sandy was ramping up here. it's still going strong with her winds here in lower manhattan. of course, that water surge coming up all throughout lower manhattan flooding parts of battery park as well as gushing

we are already seeing widespread flooding throughout rehoboth beach, dewey beach and down into ocean city. check out the surf behind me. i know it's dark but you can still sort of make out some of the waves as they come crashing into the shore. we're seeing about 14-foot high waves right about now. it's only going to get worse. high tide still about three hours away. you can see the got toe's pizza, -- grotto's pizza, one of the landmarks of rehoboth beach. it's boarded up as are all the businesses along the boardwalk. they are under a mandatory evacuation order starting yesterday at 6:00'. all businesses required by state law to be closed. most folks have either gotten out of town or they're hunkering down, although a lot of folks here are still sticking around. i'm little bit surprised by that because yesterday i was talking to the governor of delaware. and he was saying that yesterday -- keep in mind this was around 4:00 yesterday in the afternoon. he was telling me that at that point in time, it was just as bad as hurricane irene and we were still so many hours away from getting

i would say yesterday around 4:00, we were over at the bayside of dewey beach. already starting to see some flooding there. that was before we'd even started to see any of these kinds of wind or any of this kind of rain. also seeing a lot of road closures already this morning. route 1 down to ocean city completely shut off, although we've seen lots of folks throughout the night trying to get out there, take some pictures. we've seen lots of boogie boarders trying to hit the surf earlier yesterday afternoon but of course this is so dangerous. this is under a mandatory evacuation order still which means you're not being forced to leave but if something goes wrong, there's no guarantee people can come in here to help get you out. another thing we've been hearing, there's been a lot of talk on social media about ocean city, the ocean city pier possibly being down. just got a report from law enforcement officers over there. they say the ocean city pier still standing so good news now but again still, this is a very, very beginning of hurricane sandy. i know right now

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

. >> at dewey beach, a massive sand plow was rumbling up route 1 to get ready to clear the roads. this man says that sandi is all anyone is talking about. >> we are trying to gather water and extra food for the house. businesses are preparing. we think we will get hit. this is no joke and we are not taking it lightly. >> yet, there is the contrast. the halloween festival is expected to bring nearly 200,000 people to town tomorrow while the weather is still good. >> then we will probably have a pretty good access after that. >> at the beach and ocean, the waves are still calm and tranquil. the beach was just replenished within the past two years or so, with a lot of sand. the sand dune is in good shape. the hope is that will protect the town. in rehoboth, brad bell, abc 7 news. >> city is responsible for at least 39 deaths across the caribbean, from jamaica to the bahamas and cuba, knocking out power and flooding roads. many of the deaths came from people being swept away or trying to cross flooding roadways. track the storm any time of the day at wjla.com or the weather app. if yo

heavy rain and pounding surf continue to hit dewey beach where nearly all roads off of route 1 to rehoboth are flooded. it's quickly approaching houses now. there were mandatory evacuations for coastal communities, but some people refused to leave. we talked to a few of them earlier. >> there are always a few. when the power goes out, there are many safety concerns to consider. >> liz crenshaw is here now with what you need to know about things like smoke detectors, phones and generators. let's start with the phones. cell phone and land lines, too. >> the fact is, a lot of us will have only a cell phone. most folks rely only on cell phones if the power goes out. make sure they're fully, fully charged. if you have a land line phone, that comes with your internet service, remember, when the power goes out, there may be a battery backup but not for long. you may lose internet phone service. if you only have a cordless phone connected to the land line, those aren't going to work when the power goes out. so you'll need an old-fashioned hard-wired phone with your old-fashioned hard line phone se

>> 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.

it's been rising republic beach, delaware, in dewey beach and 50,000 have been ordered to evacuate including in parts of wilmington. the ripple effect is being felt in the travel industry with 13,000 flights being canceled. laguardia, jfk and newark airports are closed indefinitely so that will rise quickly. and after a generator went out, 215 patients had to be evacuated as we said from nyu medical center. nbc's rehema ellis is live at new york university medical center with the very latest. have they finished those evacuations now, rehema? >> reporter: as a matter of fact, chris, no, they have not. i was just at the front door of the hospital only moments ago and saw two patients being brought out on stretchers with oxygen masks on and being put into ambulances. and this is still ongoing. it's still interesting. it takes a long process to bring people who are in need of great care down from these floors of the hospital on these stretchers and into the ambulances. we have to say, it has been going very smoothly, very orderly. there's been no reports of any kind of chaotic behavior. what you

we saw a few residents in dewey beach. the governor said that's a foolish move to make, because he can't guarantee anybody will be able to go out there and help them. he believes they are endangering other people and possibly those first responders by needlessly responding if these people get in trouble that they have to come out here. he says right now, if you need to get out, your window has passed. now is the time to hunker down, stay inside, don't do anything foolish. it's a beautiful sight if you look at the waves. but it's not worth coming out and looking and taking pictures. >> nbc news with us tonight from the beach. thank you for joining us. >>> coming up, live reports throughout the hour along the east coast as hurricane sandy has made landfall. stay tuned. you're watching "the ed show" on msnbc. >>> coming up, live reports from along the coast. we get updates on the impact of the storm. mitt romney continues to push the jeep outsourcing lie and he does it with a new ad. the obama campaign is responding. former g

i can tell you, for people in of the beaches, beautiful beaches, but around dewey beach debate is noweeting boeotian right on top of route one, so it is significant. fortunately we have a fantastic team of emergency responders throughout the state who are working round-the-clock. neil: governor, while i have you, and i no you're pressed to time, let's take power outright through election day, any contingency plans, either you or your folks coming up with up to deal with that, what to do? >> we will be turning our intention to that in the next here to act. we have so much to deal with right now. we're turning our attention to what happens next. you know, the idea that it could go another eight days without power is obviously a big deal, but it is something that we cannot ignore. neil: all right. you have your priorities right. >> thanks a lot. neil: all right. we have w t xf reporter david treadwell is there. i hope i got that right, and atlantic city. what can you tell us? we have different reports on the side of the boardwalk. how are things looking back. >> let me give you a quick u

talking about only one major city, wilmington, you're talking about four beach towns, rehoboth beach, dewey beachock islands. 45,000 people without power after the storms came through. in addition, 30 roads are impassable or are partially blocked. so that's relatively good even though it's a relatively small number compared to new jersey and new york city. new jersey and new york city in that direction. only 45 miles away. that's where the center of this hurricane passed. but the weaker part of the storm hit rehoboth beach, and that's why they seem to be lucky here. the big news, the most important news here, rehoboth beach, delaware, the state of delaware, it appears there are no casualties. no deaths, no injuries. and that is awfully good news for this area. >> that is good news. but there is inconvenience instead by way of power outages, right? >> reporter: yeah no, question about it. the problem with the power outages, we've been talking about this, this is a very important point to stress. it's a very cold evening, and the people without power, most of them don't have heat. it's a very cold

they've had over seven inches of rain there, and in dewey beach. there has been significant flooding and i think it's probably still going on. go ahead, what do you have? >> reporter: chad, we're about 50 miles south of atlantic city, where ali is. right now the weather is continuing to be quite treacherous here. i have never seen, all the hurricanes i covered, such intense waves in the atlantic ocean. i have seen waves like this in hawaii. i've never seen it in any of the atlantic hurricanes i covered before. here at rehoboth, often considered america's summer capital, it's a beautiful beach resort very close to washington, d.c., so lots of politicians come here, bureaucrats, workers in washington every summer. it's a small town of about 1300 people year round but tens of thousands of people in the summer. it's very environmentally fragile. right now we have a lot of houses that have been flooded, a lot of streets under water, a lot of vehicles under water. major problems here but as of now, no casualties, and that's the good news. rehoboth is on

one of our crews went just south of here near dewey beach, and he's reporting he's seeing that a lotwater is actually coming above the boardwalk and coming and approaching homes as well. there's a lot of utility workers, roughly 2,000 regional utility workers, that are on standby as we get hit with this water, as you can see, chuck. this is going to be all day here. utility workers are on standby because they're anticipating that the power outages will be widespread. so those that haven't evacuated, they'll have to hunker down. it's going to be a couple miserable nights here in the power does go out. chuck, back to you. >> thanh truong in delaware. now i want to move over to the weather channel's mike seidel. he's in point pleasant, new jersey, where this thing could be the highest impact, the biggest storm surge. mike, explain the fears of the storm surge there in new jersey and along the jersey shore. >> reporter: well, the fear is it's obviously going to be worse than irene because this storm is tracking to our south. it's going to go inland south of here. so that's going to pile

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

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

and route 1 has been closed for ten miles, between dewey and bethenny beaches. >> prince george's county, barrier around the county administration building. heavy rain flad eflooded the bu last year. tonight surrounded by flood sacks. oversized sandbags. hydrobarriers put up to keep the water out. meanwhile, some fire fighters are prepared for any possible walter rescues. we have a couple different areas that we are going to be concerned about. obviously, the flooding that comes from heavy rain conditions. the flooding causes a lot of problems with people driving through the water. and, just -- just being out in the flooding area. >> firefighters are also preparing for trees that will be coming down. they have especially outfitted vehicles, for collapsed rescues and for walter rter rescues. federal government is shut down. all nonessential federal employees are told to stay home. all major school districts in the area closed tomorrow. we have a listing of all school and business closings on line. at nbc washington.com. >>> the state of emergency services are currently at full activation.

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

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

the areas hardest hit so far have been rehoboth beach and dewey, delaware. the storm surge is creating huge waves down there. wendy rieger has been watching events unfold from rehoboth beach. wendy? >> reporter: wow, jim, we're sitting here, we're going to push out. look at these waves. they looked like they've gotten to be about 20 feet. look at that. it is amazing. we'll just be sitting here talking, and then we'll go, oh, my god, look at that! it is something to see this. and here's the other thing. i don't know if you guys were watching a couple of hours ago when i was down on the beach. the tide is coming in, and it is now coming up to that point. so we've got high tide coming up in a bit. we've got a full moon. and we have this storm pushing stuff in. it's going to be really ominous at this point. feeling kind of ominous, because it's starting to get dark. this day has been quite an interesting little day here on both sides of this beach. the winds, we're on the rooftop of the atlantic sands hotel. so it's unobstructed. some of the waves have come over,

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

dewey. water has breached the road north of the indian river inlet bridge as this state trooper found out the hard way. this bustling 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 outsi

dewey and out of ocean city as well. and dunes have been breached when the storm surge comes in later we could get serious coastal flooding and right there in the downtown area, rehoboth beach, it could certainly happen. most of the people who live here heeded the mandatory evacuation. i saw some people walking around earlier, and spoke to them about what they're still doing here. >> i think it's spectacular. you got to still respect it. you have to really respect it. >> yeah. you really got to respect it. especially when you look back here and see just how big these waves are. it's really unprecedented, to see 20 foot waves out here in the ocean behind me at rehoboth beach. once again, the walletting game now has -- waiting game now is a lot quicker. we will see the storm impact the coast of new jersey, just across the delaware bay from rehoboth here and then we'll see how the storm surge impact rahs hoe beth within the next few hours, guys. >> all right. stay safe out there, christian schaffer bringing us great coverage. take a break and we'll be right back. was faster than at my o. i literally wanted to say "did you see that?" [ male announcer ] when people switch from c