i spoke with the mayor of groton, connecticut, a short time ago, his name is keith hedrick. he talked about mandatory evacuations in two neighborhoods of groton. >> the thing i'm worried about here is if you look at the concrete beach that we have here, the tide is going to come up and over. if you're talking about a three to five-foot storm surge, that's higher than the top of the concrete beach. and then that will flood this street and then go over to the houses that basically the way they're landscaped, a lot of times they're going to form a bowl. >> reporter: what are you most worried about here? >> well, i'm worried that once we get flooding, i can't get access to them. so if they have a medical emergency, i can't get my first responders here. and that's my concern. if somebody has a medical emergency or they have a fire or anything else, then if the water's flooded, we're not going to put a boat on there to go to somebody's house. >> reporter: so groton is expecting a lot of storm surge, at least three to five feet, a lot of flooding, a lot of power outages expected he

this is an area they call the concrete beach here in groton.ur photojournalist is going to pan over and show you the concrete beach. now, is this enough to hold back the storm surge and the high tides? there is not much that will keep that surge back from flooding this road. this is shore avenue here in groton. and these homes are vulnerable. the mayor yesterday ordered a mandatory evacuation of this neighborhood and an adjacent neighborhood. they had police knocking on doors telling people to get out because the low-lying area here, you have got also a lot of these neighborhoods along the connecticut, massachusetts, rhode island coach, you have water on two sides. the thames river over here and beyond that point of land there long island sound. so again low-lying areas, lots of water surrounding these neighborhoods. storm surge three to five feet in the next three to four hours. you have got the high tide within three hours from now and you have got two high tides you are dealing with today. so again real concern here along the connecticut coa

this is what people, the local officials were worried about here in new london and groton, connecticut rain, the ground was saturated. any small amount of wind could pick up a tree and bring it down on a house like this one. that's what happened here, but by and large, officials here in new london and in groton are pretty thankful right now that they dodged most of what they anticipated would be major damage from this storm. brian todd, cnn, new london, connecticut. >> let's talk about all of this with pedram javaheri. tell us what is happening now. >> still seeing periods of heavy rainfall, even in new york city, even in philadelphia at this hour. as the system essentially pushing on to the west, northwest, and gradually moving in that direction. we do expect it to make a sharp right turn and move off towards the east within the next 24 hours. but as you noted -- as brian noted in the previous story there, we were seeing winds close to hurricane force, strong enough after the historic rounds of rainfall to bring down plenty of foliage and plenty of trees across this region. we are sti

brian todd is in groton, connecticut, and shimon is in new york on long island. brian, let's start with you. mandatory evacuations underway for several communities there in connecticut. what's the latest that you are seeing? >> reporter: that's right, boris. they issued a mandatory evacuation for the neighborhood in groton, connecticut. another neighborhood adjacent as well covering about 40 homes. not clear how many people took that call and heeded the call and got out. that covered about 40 homes. you are talking about maybe 100 people under mandatory evacuation. they cannot force people out of their homes, so they had police knocking on doors here and in another neighborhood and trying to get people to leave. part of the concern here, guys, is these are low-lying areas and some of these areas are surrounded on two or three sides by water. here in groton, you have the river into long island sound right there, low-lying areas, businesses, industries along this river. a pfizer plant, a submarine manufacturing facility and a u.s. naval submarine base, and then pri

in connecticut, new london, groton, we're seeing those flash flood warnings right now.different areas. people who were watching the concern here on cnn last night, when you saw that tremendous rain band come into central park, we now know it was the w wettest hour in new york city history. almost two inches, a record going back more than 100 years. it might tell us something about the new normal of climate extremes. you see the dash cam here, nothing major to report in the city. the governor and the mayor are pretty pleased with the response. no drama or major flooding to report. we will see as the rain bands come in this afternoon if that changes. chris, i do want to thank you. you gave me great advice for covering a storm last night. you said bring towels. i already had to use a couple towels when we were out here getting ready to broadcast. thank you for the tropical storm advice. >> always be prepared, brian. doing a great job. thank you very much. double duty for you today. this has been thankfully very easy for us in east hampton. this is where i live, so it's a g

the mayor of groton keith hen drk we talked to him for a mandatory evacuation in this neighborhood and another neighborhood in a low lying area of town. the water can be pushed up and he is worried about the areas getting flooded. we talked to him last night about his concerns. what are you most worried about here? >> well, i'm worried that once we get flooding, i can't get access to them. so, if they have a medical emergency, i can't get my first responders here. and that's my concern. if somebody has a medical emergency or they have a fire or anything else then if the water is flooded, we're not going to put a boat on there to go to somebody's house. >> the mayor concerned about that. he did tell us when this storm passes, but that's not going to be until probably after midnight on sunday, then he's going to send his first responders out, his police and fire and see if anybody here is in need of assistance. a lot of people have elected to ride this out. we talked to some residents here and in another neighborhood. part of the reason, guys, they just don't get hurricanes here very muc