>> well, it has been an incredible storm fredericka. i'm in the east falls section of philadelphia and looking at the schuylkill river which is just about cresting, maybe about 14, 15 feet. it is almost up to where a traffic light is. that's how high the river is. i just took a photo of it. we're concerned about flooding in a variety of areas across philadelphia. many of our creeks and rivers and streams already at flood stage and we may see some reseeding this afternoon. that's an issue. power outages of course in philadelphia, about 10,000 right now but it was at 21,000 earlier today. our energy company peco is doing a great job in philadelphia but there are many outages across the region. part of the problem is that the rain has gone away but significant winds that whip around and take down trees, i heard on the earlier broadcast, trees are falling down as at the this had no roots primarily because we've had so much rain and combined with the wind. tough situation, we're going to move through it. our teams are out and as the rivers r

don gives us a preview. >> fredericka a little -- >> fredericka, sarah palin spent about ten minutesquestions here in iowa by giving advice to the candidates that participated in the debate to whether or not she's stealing in spotlight by being here in iowa even though she hasn't declared. >> i don't think i'm stealing the spotlight, in fact if i am stealing the spotlight, go find the others and say hello. >> if i weren't for the tea party, the discussion would never have gone where it went so i appreciate the tea party's passion for getting the federal government to realize it needs to live within it's means. the last party to be blamed for the downgrade is the tea party. i think the question that should be asked is the president responsible for the downgrade. the leadership of our country starts from the top. >> reporter: why haven't you declared? >> i think it's i'm not the only one who has not decided yet and not ready to announce one way or the other yet. there's still a lot of contemplation that needs to go into such a earth shattering life changing decision for a family. >> re

isn't it, fredericka? the question today, are rick perry's treason accusations against the fed out of line? i know. the this whole treason thing has been dragging on for days now and it won't tie because his critics won't let it and neither will he. he ain't backing down. he said it would be treasoness to continue printing money. yesterday he upped to ante. >> they should open their books up. until they do that, i think there will continue to be questions about thart aeir acti and what their true goal is for the united states. >> critics are appalled. that includes some republicans. tony fratto tweeted perry's remarks are unappropriate and unpresidential. although perry has his supporters, too. >> the fundamental points he makes is totally true actually. we are devaluing the currency. it's happening because of the fed's policies and it is benefiting in a short-term way, i think, the white house. >> still, treason? as defined in article iii of the constitution? if you don't have your pocket-size constitutio

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. >>> hello, everyone, i'm fredericka whitfield, with our continuing coverage of hurricane irene, north carolina and virginia are being pounded right now by the category 1 storm, and millions of people up and down the eastern seaboard are already taking precautions as the storm heads their way, irene made landfall this morning in the outer banks of north carolina, take a look at how big it is. some calculate that this is about equivalent to the side of europe. so far we know of four storm related deaths as a result of irene. nearly a million people in north carolina and virginia are without power. irene is expected to arrive in new york city sometime tomorrow morning. the big concern there, flooding from this storm surge. president barack obama visited fema headquarters just a short time ago, earlier today and he said the government is ready to deal with whatever happens. the president has already declared state of emergencies in nine states, they are north carolina, virginia, maryland, new jersey, new york, connecticut, massachusetts, rhode island and new hampshire, these states now ca

you've got a couch, chair, the bed back there laundry room, all completely flooded fredericka.is the traed mill, everything down here completely destroyed. this is the mayor's house and one of 50 houses in this area that are completely full of water. so the storm wasn't as bad as what we expected fredericka, but folks are dealing with this with the aftermath. >> most of the water came in from sort of basement windows or did it actually come in through the first floor then flow down? >> reporter: she's asking where the water came in. you told me the water came from both sides to your house, right? >> it came in from both directions. in the rear of my house is a part of the wetland of the hacken sack river, 50 feet from my back door. in the front of my house up the road a couple hundred yards down is the hackensack river. it came from the front three or four over my front door and same thing towards the back door. >> they had a chance to put the furniture up on higher floods which is good but this area secaucus, like a lot of new jersey is marshland. that's why they are dealing w

. >>> you're in the cnn newsroom, sunday august 7th, i'm joe johns in for fredericka whitfield, tim geithner will discuss the u.s. downgrade during a conference call with representatives of other g-7 nations. the financial world is waiting to see how asian markets will react to the downgrade announced after the end of trading on friday. it's already monday in eastern asia and financial markets will open in a few hours. there's already evidence that downgrade is making some investors very nervous, mid eastern markets were open today and prices fell 3.7% and israeli market closed down more than 6%. kevin flower is in jerusalem. >> what analysts are telling us, this is not only a market reaction to the credit downgrade in the united states but also a response to broader losses posted last week and on friday on global markets. >> coming up in about a half hour, richard quest will join us from london to talk about the global markets. more than 45,000 verizon workers from massachusetts all the way to d.c. are on strike. their union contract expired at midnight and they are arguing the company refu

. >>> hello, again, everyone, i'm fredericka whitfield. >> and i'm brook baldwin. here we go at the world headquarters in atlanta cover s tropical storm irene. let's talk new york city after lashing manhattan irene is barreling through new england where it is dumping heavy rain. the storm made landfall twice overnight, both cases -- actually the first case is a hurricane in new jersey and then as a tropical storm at coney island in new york. >> on long island irene's storm surge flooded downtown long beach. some streets in manhattan also flooding but the water started to recede and new york's evacuation order is being lifted this hour. in its sweep up the coast irene has killed 15 people across six states. more than 4 million people overall without power and these amazing pictures show some of the damage when irene made landfall as a hurricane. for place like new york city, the storm wasn't as bad as many feared but as janet napolitano said earlier today, it's not over yet. >> no matter where you are from north carolina to maine, we encourage you to stay off the ro

fredericka wilson warning them not to complain about president obama. why?n. >> he has serious issues because these are serious times. our real concerns -- let many all remember who the real enemy is. and the real enemy is the tea party. [applause] >> there is no compromising with them. there is one goal in mind,. megyn: the chief strategist for the tea party express, sal, we heard the comment from maxine waters, now we heard from wilson saying the tea party is the real enemy. we heard barbara boxer the senator from california talking about hostage takers referring the tea party and jesse jackson said the tea party should be called the fort sumter party that out to preteblght slavery. >> what we saw in this last congress is people are fed up with the excessive spending and the debt. i think 70% of mayor cans think the spending is excessive and our debt is excessive. president obama and the democrats had two years, big majorities in 2009 and 2010. they continued to grow the debt and burden us with taxes and regulations that slowed down the economy. megyn: why

. >>> hello, everyone, i'm fredericka whitfield, we have breaking news we're goin to continue tofollow here. virginia tech, right now it's on lockdown, three kids apparently at a summer camp taking place on that campus say that they saw a man on campus possibly carrying a gun. this was just about two hours ago. here's a description they gave authorities of that person. they say that they saw a white male, six feet tall with light brown hair and no faal hair or glasses carrying what they believe was a handgun covered with a cloth. he was wearing a blue and white striped shirt and brown sandals. officers responded but have not found anyone matching that description. the sighting was reported outside deitrick hall. a lot of sensitivity right here. we want to make it clear that this is not confirmed, it's not a confirmed sighting as of now, but instead authorities are acting on what eyewitness accounts have directed them on. we have kelsey hiter who's on the phone with us, she was the managing editor of collegiate times at virginia tech. so kelsey, what more can you tell us about what is b

>> hey, fredericka. yeah, it seems like mortgage refinancing may be back in vogue.gage bankers association says the number of applications rose 8% last week compared to the week before. greg mcbride from bankrate.com says with interest rates sitting between 3% and 4%, refinancing may make a lot of sense for a lot of homeowners. >> wow! so there are a few things to consider before you take the plunge, so to think, to refi. >> exactly. so to get the best terms and rates for a refinance, mcbride says if you've got a credit score of 700 or better and 20% of equity in your home, those things are ideal. if you have less than that, he says look into an fha loan or check your eligibility with the government's home refordable refinance program known as h.a.r.p. there are calculators you can use, at cnnmoney.com and bankrate.com, figure out if it pays to refinance. if you do this, you want to identify your goals. if you're if your 30s, starting a family, you may get more money into your family and savings. if you're close to retirement, mcbride says consider refinancing into

>> reporter: well, these construction jobs, fredericka, there's 200 projects across the country, a couplef them here at o'hare that have been completely stopped while this impasse continues and while congress is out on their august break. so you're talking about not only hundreds of millions of dollars that aren't being spent and being put into local economies around the country, but you're talking about real problems from people who have lost their jobs, not only the faa workers but these 70,000-plus construction workers who are not going to work and are not getting paid. what we should point out for people who are planning to travel, you see the security line behind me here at o'hare airport, this is not affected and safety is not affected, according to the faa, the people in the air traffic control towers are maid from a different pool of money. so if you're traveling, you don't have to worry about delays or anything else. >> all right, a lot of people watching, you know, ted, want to know if this situation could affect the safety on their flights as well. what are you hearing? >> like

. >>> live from studio 7, i'm fredericka whitfield in for suzanne mral sorrow. let's get you up to speed. dow stocks tumbled almost 100 points at the open told, but investors cut their losses as the morning wears on. right now blue chips are up thankfully about 12 points, the dow plunged 419 points thursday on fears of a new recession, driving most asian and european markets lower today. >>> at a time when politicians are