. >> we're going toe head to eric fisher in norfolk. boy, the rain is coming down and the winds are picking up. >> reporter: absolutely. we had a very intense rain band about half hour ago that came through here. when you're next to a building, the wind can really accelerate. on the side of the building here, that came right down and you have pieces of that roof now. the wind is not as intense as right next to the building, but once the air hits that structure, it accelerates. we've seen tree limbs coming down and one of the stop signs is in the road. the eye is still a long way away. we'll have several hours of intensifying weather before it gets better. one thing we've also noticed, there's been a ton of traffic, people who have been going up and down the street just taking a look at the weather. they want to be out in it, just urging people don't travel today. they've shut down the tunnel and shut down the hampton road bridge tunnel. if you go out in the road and you're driving around looking for a good time, the rescue crews have to

we want to get right to the weather channel's eric fisher. he's been following this, watching the storm's track right now. what's the latest? what do we have a sense of what it might do? >>> well, good morning, peter. the bottom line with this storm is it doesn't really know what it wants to do. it's not very organized. tropical storm emily has been drifting westward and we've seen flare-ups of thunderstorms and they dissipate and flare back up again. right now, 50-mile-per-hour winds. the stationary movement. that's kind of at the time of the advisory, a stationary movement just slowly drifting westward. the pressure is at 1,005 millibars. here are the first visible shots of the day. you can see the cluster of thunderstorms with the center right about in here as it slowly works its way west, and it doesn't look impressive, but sometimes you don't need that perfect-looking hurricane or tropical storm to create a high-impact event. some of that rain starting to come ashore across hispaniola, and we could see some big-time rain totals as this s

eric fisher from the weather channel has been trying to hang on there all day and all night. eric, how are you? >> well, thankfully, brian, things improved a little bit at our location in virginia beach since the last time we spoke. i wish i could say that about many locations in the tidewater. we have a crew in norfolk. there are people literally swimming in the streets right now because of some of the surge flooding. it's one of the deadliest aspects of land falling hurricanes that is our big concern tonight. a tide above what we would normally expect. high tide is right now. the worst will last for a couple more hours before the water levels go down. we're also getting report coming in, perhaps another fatality here in the state of virginia. in the town of chesterfield. you heard bryan norcross, wint gusts upwards of 70 miles per ho hour. rainfall totals will be approaching a foot if not topping it before the rain works its way out. the wind gusts tonight will continue as well. in terms of the other fatalities that we've seen here, an 11-year-old in a two-story building whe

we go to weather channel's eric fisher, and eric, are you hearing a similar thing from people like mark who some folks for some reason just don't want to leave? >> yeah, absolutely tamron. in every one of the situations, there are always going to be people who wish they can stay, and we wish them the best, but that is often not the case, but the safest place is 15 miles inland. and here in virginia beach, you can see a sand berm they built all night long to protect a part of the boardwalk from part of the storm surge and you notice a couple of the white tents on the beach, and one of the largest surfing championships in the country and the east coast surfing championships is going on and that is all that is left from a festival that stretches 10 city blocks here and they will take those down this evening and they will not be surfing in the day tomorrow. let me show you the waves here and the beach is not as crowded as it normally would be, and the swells starting to come in, and we went into town early on and it is a mixed vibe inside of virginia beach. one business completely boarded u

let's get the latest from eric fisher. >> reporter: good afternoon, contessa.ll a couple of days away from east coast impacts. we're inside the 48 hour window, once you're there, you have to think about where gour doing to go, if you're going to get money out of the bank, stock up on food and water, if the worst happens you're in a much better spot. if you don't prepare, we know the result. you take a look on the beach ash few people outside enjoying the sun. much fewer than what we saw yesterday. if you look down to my left here, my right, the pier this was rebuilt after the last major hurricane made landfall in north carolina. that was fran in 1996. so some memories here for a place that sees a lot of action from the tropics. in terms of what they're doing right now the governor has issued a statement of emergency for hide county and put the national guard on standby. she is urgent residents to visit their state website to find some of those tips to prepare for irene's approach. some of the information coming in from this morning's models indicating a little

. >> eric fisher. stay safe. we'll check back in as the next hours unfold, i'm sure. >>> coming up, torrential wind and rain here. torrents of change in the arab world. gadhafi's regime all but toppled. could syria be the know, fall? we'll ask the former ambassador to syria that question. >>> plus the memoir that will have heads exploding. that's dick cheney's opinion. not ours. >>> and one-on-one with ralph nader. what the man blasted a presidential spoiler thinks is first-party movement now. boy, i'm glad we got aflac huh. aflac! oh, i've just got major medical... major medical. ...but it helps pay the doctors. pays the doctors, boyyy! [ quack ] oh yeah? what about your family? ♪ we added aflac, so we get cash! it's like our safety net... ♪ to help with the mortgage or whatever we need! so my family doesn't feel the pain too. ha! [ male announcer ] help protect your family at aflac.com. [ pigeons ] heyyy! hooo!!! constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your col

it was kobe, the rose, kevin durant, and eric fisher.reached out to derek and he put the plan together and told them what they needed and they made the plan. a kind of opened their eyes and they begin to open -- understand more about the business. they clearly know what their own personal worth is on the international and global market. i do not think there are any players in the world who are better known globally that nba basketball players. i think it clearly had an impact. i do not encourage them to go, but by the same token, we are not quite to stand in their way. >> at this point, i will open it up for the audience. we have been going for a while. can i give one caveat to the audience, particularly as it pertains to billy hunter, when we were attorneys and if someone asked what his strategy was, he would not tell them. you may want to avoid asking him what his negotiating strategy will be. >> i am a retired judge from cleveland, ohio, howard law class of 1970 along with billy hunter. my question is this, we had a sports seminar on