so the first few blocks of long beach, long island, is seeing serious flooding and a flow rate of what looks to be rapids across the river that's flowing down national boulevard and into the streets of long beach. that's the situation behind me. the surf here is so intense, we will see this surge continue not only for the next half hour and high tide will be within the hour but because the winds will continue to be onshore, as the storm itself moves north of us, we're not going to see -- >> i think we lost rob marciano. he was talking about how the winds and rain will be with us for a long time, the rain will be with us for as long as 12 hours, that will have a lot of affect, not just high tide now but over the next 12 hours. let's listen to our affiliate, wabc, seeing what they're seeing in the city. >> it's not bad. it's passable. but on any of the streets off of the main road, they go down very quickly and a lot of water really covering those waterways. you can't tell, people are driving right up to that water thinking he h ining they can ma through. they may have made it through a

and among them were the residents of long beach, new york, on the south shore of long island. despite the danger, some chose to ride out the storm at home. byron pitts is among those who rode out the storm purpose tell us what's happening in the long beach this morning, byron. >> reporter: scott, we just got an update, thousands of homes and businesses have lost the electricity on long island. that appears to be the worst of it. on long beach there was a mandatory evacuation order but many people decided to stay behind. they waited until the 11th hour, but by early this morning, the lasitter family in long beach. seen enough. >> we're expecting this place to be pretty washed out when we get back. >> reporter: long beach got its first taste of irene at 6:00 this morning. this time yesterday, 100 yards of pristine beach separated the board walk from the ocean. not now. with the ground long saturated by a month of record rainful, trees fell easily, pov lines and street signs bearing the signs of high winds. in these conditions, ordinary objects can cause damage and create danger.

bland tries to leave, but the long beach police have another plan. >> put your hands up. lm beach police, put your hands up. stop right there. stop. put your hands all the way up. straight up. turn around. >> even though bland didn't come inside, his explicit online chat and showing up at the house are enough for him to be charged with one count of an attempted lewd act upon a child. he later pleaded no contest. >> i think this is our musician, sugar davis. >> at our undercover house other men keep arriving. >> his name is matty. >> this is matthew nash, a 36-year-old musician, screen name sugar davis. he drove about an hour to get here. >> how are you doing? >> not bad. >> good. >> nash was told he was chatting online with a 13-year-old girl. he talks about getting naked in a hot tub with her, smoking marijuana, and putting oil all over each other's bodies. that's apparently why he has decided to come inside. >> come on in. are you excited? yea! i'm excited. >> yeah. it was definitely a long drive, you know, coming down here. >> did you bring any weed? >> huh-uh. >> no? >

this time we're in long beach, california, where the long arm of the law has reached out and grabbed more than three dozen men in just three days. >> chris hansen has the latest. again, we want to warn you, some of what you will see and hear is explicit. >> hey, come on in. how are you doing? >> looks like you fell asleep. >> kind of. how was your drive? >> long. >> 22-year-old cory blagg is walking into our undercover house in long beach, california. a house with 15 hidden cameras. they're recording every move he makes. blagg, an ex-marine, works for a computer company in san diego and just drove 100 miles to get here. why? he chatted online with someone he thinks is a 13-year-old and says he wants her to be his girlfriend. >> all i'm missing is a sweetheart to share my love with. >> but he is really chatting with a decoy working for perverted justice, an organization that exposes men who sexually target minors online. perverted justice works as a consultant for "dateline," setting up computer profiles and pretending to be underage teens interested in sex. remember, he is 22. and th

so surf in parts of the town here in long beach. over a quarter of the power lost in long island. irene makes its way towards the beaches on the south shore of long island. >> reporter: rob, how big were the berms they made on the beach that you said are now completely gone? we're having a problem with rob. let's check in with jacqui jarvis. >> we just got the advisory, and it's still a hurricane. 75 miles per hour. i will say i am surprised to see that. perhaps they are getting some of the winds that strong offshore. it's still a threat and we're expecting to see bad conditions in the next couple hours. 40 miles away from new york city, that's where the center of the storm is right now, and the big burst of rain that i was talking about, anderson, this shifted a little further off to the west. this has gone over towards the hudson and over into new jersey, and heading up towards the ft. lee area. and the winds are strong near that center, and where rob is, here is long beach. you're not seeing much rain right now, but we have the strong east wind that continued to come in here, an

right now in long beach, new york. we saw some of that footage, rick, of the lifeguard stand and we knew it came ashore around there. what are you seeing even though it's dark? >> rick: yeah, you know, long beach is one the harvardest hit areas there is a lot of damage come out of here. i want to show you that in a second. first, i want to go and take a look at wyndham, new york. so many areas inland dealing with devastating flooding right now and communities have a very, very scary night. wyndham, new york, a beautiful town in the scat -- cat skills. it took on a lot of rain in a short amount of time. 8 to 10 hours. get so much rain in a mountainous terrain and it causing massive flooding. community inundated. roads ripped out and bridges knocked out by other buildings that hit the bridges and then knocked those out. people there dealing with all of the flooding and then the winds came. the winds came after the rains stopped. so power then done gone. residents doing with a rough night, very scary night for people. sti

this is the barrier protecting this town, long beach.cerns -- i'll walk back this way. bear with me as i walk away. i'll show you the other side here. it was built to stop this. instead, the water has started to pour through again. this was completely dry an hour ago. the water is more than a foot deep. i know there's rain blocking some of the shots. but this town is beginning to get substantial flooding and the brunt of the storm is still some distance away. the winds on the board walk have picked up quite dramatically. with the waves churning and the winds coming, there is no doubt if long beach will have flooding. will the wrath of irene bring similar flooding to much more populated areas, anderson? >> it seems, john, from what jacqui jeras is saying, what we're seeing is the beginning of flooding. we're seeing strong waves. it seems like for populations that are living in the cities in new york city, away from the water, at this point it doesn't look like it's going to be that bad. obviously things can change. how far is the water co

he's in long beach on long island in new york. and john, what are you facing there? what are you seeing so far? >> suzanne, you heard mayor bloomberg talking about the worries, the storm surge. we're in tropical storm winds, probably somewhere in the 30s. you're starting to feel the winds picking up, some of the gusts you mentioned, the storm down a little bit south of here near atlantic city. the big fear here in these low-lying communities, this community has been evacuated, a mandatory evacuation. you can see the sign behind me for the route out. there's water in the streets. you think not so bad. if you look out on to the water, the waters are very high, high tide about 2 1/2, 3 hours from now. the storm is making its way here, 2, 2 1/2 hours away, high tide, 2, 2 1/2 hours away. that is the big fear here. you head out of the town as you'd go to go into new york city, some of the streets are flooded. most of it is about ankle deep. in the middle of the street, it's still dry. the big fear is as the high tides come in here over the next couple of hours, the storm

after long beach it went to fresno. >> compton, garden grove, lennox and oakland. vice president yee: commissioner norton. commissioner norton: i just wanted to add that actually i'm bringing this to curriculum for the september meeting, that we're going to be talking about math instruction in the district and the curriculum we're using. so i just talked to mrs. desmond about it. i'm sure she'll get back to you about it. but people that want to hear more about this, we can do that in september. i appreciate that. commissioner fewer: i have one question. is it the very descriptive program because we've had that before with temporary results and were not able to sustain that. >> it is not really scripted, it is the approach. it teaches teachers how to teach. so that if the teachers are teaching the formula, there's some consistency in the way it's taught. there's still creative license to do some things but there's consistency so that all of the points that need to be touched so that the child has a complete understanding of it are used. >> just so the board -- i'm g

so we are in long beach. and we are in the middle of the street here.catch the traffic light swaying in the breeze, as they say, and you have got the power lines starting to shake and rattle and roll just a little bit now. so, here in long beach, we are on a barrier island here, and this could be the impact point for hurricane irene, and that is still several hours away from now, but it is a barrier island to the south of long island and we are about 25 miles east of manhattan. it is really coming down now. now, we are only about two the three feet, three the four feet actually above sea level here, and some parts of long beach are below sea level. the boardwalk here is 15 feet above sea level, and that is just beyond us now. and now, look at, this all of the sudden, it calmed down, and that is how the squalls go. one of the big concerns here, drew and natalie, is that as the storm surge comes up, and the ocean is this way, that it will be wrapping around so it will cause not only flooding they suspect here in this low-lying obviously closest to the bea

there's residual flooding in long beach. there's some power outages, and may i also say, i love pat battle. nobody is better than pat battle. >> she's great, right? >> we love her. and it was my great honor to work with her when i worked at wnbc. that said, here along the shoreline there's less damage and consequences than there are inland. we're talking about a lot of flooding. the higher amounts of rain, anyway from 5 to 11 to 12 inches of rain, actually those were inland parts of new jersey and new york and connecticut. so the good news is we are -- we've kind of dodged a bullet. this could have been a lot worse, but the good news also is that people heeded the warnings, and the evacuations got done without a hitch, and i think for the most part, as pat said, i don't think you're hearing a lot of people complaining about the precautions, but the potential was there to have a category 2 or 3 storm come into the northeast. as it was, you know, look at least ten people have lost their lives, there's a lot of phones without p

i have to say there's a sense of calm after the storm here in long beach, right now. alk busier than average summer sunday. people come back to this city now and take a look at the damage that was done. out on the beach, the waves have receded a gate deal. still churning but receded. there were 20 foot sand berms, the waters came over this morning, swept under this boardwalk there is a lot of flooding. while everybody is enjoying a sense of fun right now about in, a lot of people will have suffered a lot of damage. any ground floor, basement homes and apartments on broadway will have suffered very bad flood damage. >> shepard: jonathan hunt, thank you. bill hemmer and martha maccallum, after this. about fiber while you are eating a candy bar? you enjoy that. i am. [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one. how'd you learn to do that? what'd you use? every project we finish comes with a story built-in. it's how our rough ideas become "you did that yourself?" so when we can save more on the projects that let us fix, make, and do more... that just makes the s

there's a look out tower in long beach. look at that move. it's being dragged literally through the water near a pier there. al roker has been broadcasting from there. we'll move back to al shortly and talk about that. let's go to the high waves in westerly rhode island. that is an area that's very far up the coast. it's the northeast corridor of the long island sound. it shows you how far this storm right now, how far it reaches. that's rhode island. we're broadcasting from new york city where we're just getting now the full brunt of this storm. we're expected to be in that status for another couple of hours. new york city is virtually shutdown can hurricane irene making landfall this morning. typically along the, officially along the new jersey shore, near the little egg inlet, shores estimated at 75 miles per hour. the big apple is being battered with heavy rains and lashing winds. at of this hour officially there are at least ten deaths blamed on this category 1 storm. connecticut's governor also said one person died in that state after a

long beach, long island. >> the news that new york's airports are reopening is music to the ears of stranded bay area travelers. another 41 flights at s.f.o. were canceled today as irene's ripple effect continued to be felt. so far no flights at s.f.o. have been canceled for tomorrow. all those grounded flights could be good news for drivers. analysts say the diminished demand for gas and couped up storm victims could bring prices down. it is not clear how much prices could drop. we have posted the latest on the storm along with pictures and videos. damage left behind at cbssf.com. checking other bay area headlines, a san francisco battalion chief is recovering after her rescue vehicle was broadsided while responding to a call. the chief was on bryant street about to get on the bay bridge when the truck was hit by a pickup truck causing the truck to overturn. the two drivers went to the hospital. both expected to recover. >>> two people were injured when their small plane skidded off a runway at napa county airport and collided with a car on highway 29. investigation say the single engine be

, through the research and her leadership team, they found long beach had adopted this program and it was expanded districtwide, and then it went to fresno, compton, and oakland. w

, through the research and her leadership team, they found long beach had

long island. when the water started pushing over the beach on long island... >> go, go, go! >> reporter: ...steve iorio scrambled to save the property he manages. >> reporter: how is it going, no water right now? >> no, no, no, we've been managing it all night. just trying to stay ahead of it. >> reporter: but in the low- lying community of long beach, new york, irene arrived at the worst possible time, high tide. that lead to several feet of flooding in some areas, though the waters quickly receded after irene moved past. >> another hour we would have been-- this whole street would have been totally filled with water. probably two feet plus in every house. >> reporter: irene indirectly hampered long beach hire fighters who had get past boarded up windows to put out a house fire. and earlier firefighters were called to remove debris from a rooftop, the hazard to the crowds below. >> there is a lot of people, even though there is a mandatory evacuation, they are still mulling about here. it's a spectacle to them a danger to us. >> reporter: the fire chief urged people to stay

. >> shepard: jonathan hunt live for us in long beach, new york. the governor of new york is speaking with our colleagues from fox 5 new york. speaking with the governor. let's listen. >> yesterday afternoon i was in new york city. last night, long island. this morning altamont at the dam, the new york power authority dam. and today i have been in mid hudson and i'm coming down to new york city and then i'm going be in long island. >> by the way, did you hear the evacuation zones will be lifted in about 50 minutes, folks can go back to the zones in new york city where they had the mandatory evacuation order? >> new york city, i ironically, i know a lot of the conversation the past few days has been about new york city but most of the damage we are talking about has been outside of new york city. it is long island, it it is upstate new york, the mid hudson. that is where we clearly the preponder arancance of the dame clearly is. >> you have a place in west chest evewestchester county. >> and obviously i stay in albany. both places. i have seen days -

long beach, long island, this family grabbed as much as they could and got it. >> this place could be pretty washed out help we get back. >> reporter: the streets are already beginning to fill with water on long beach. once this storm strengthens it is believed 150,000 homes are at risk for flooding. irene ripped through north carolina and virginia with 100 miles per hour winds. thousands of homes damaged. more than a million people are without power. now the storm is soaking the mid-atlantic as it moves up the east coast. many airports are shutdown and some 9000 flights have been canceled. in boston the red cross is preparing for the worst. >> i think all the planning that we have done state wide is really going to show how ready we are to respond to something like this. >> reporter: a storm of this magnitude is rare in the northeast and the worst is yet to come. according to the latest update right now in the northeast more than 1.8 million homes are now without power. on long beach, long island. back to you. >> let me ask you. how he's -- easy to get out of harm's way? >> if you ha

jonathan hunt live in the suburb of long beach. we're following the issue with this dam up in the catskills. level "b" emergency going on. governor of new jersey multiple billions of dollars of damage, potentially tens of billions of dollars. that is quote from the governor of new jersey. 15 deaths are confirmed and a man who calls himself idiot in austin says it's a tea cup. unde. i found out that connected to our muscles are nerves that send messages through the body. my doctor diagnosed it asibromyalgia -- thought to be the result of overactive nerves that cause chronic, widespread pain. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i learned lyrica n provide significant relief from fibromyalgia pain. and less pain means, i can feel better and do more of what matters. [ female announcer ] lyrica is not for everyone. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell yo doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior, or any swelling or affected br

this is off the long beach in new york. it's -- we're told a small building but the forgs of the water there, you see it lifting off the foundation, pinning it against the boardwalk. also a boat off the coast of the atlantic islands in new jersey, not faring so well in the storm. irene's floodwaters caused it to sink. of course, we have reporters all along the storm zone to bring you the latest. gary tuckman in newport rhode island and soledad o'brien is in new york city. the evacuation orders for parts of new york was actually lifted minutes ago, hundreds of thousands of people left for higher ground ahead of irene but today the storm pushed the rivers on either side of manhattan over their banks and into the streets but good news now, a lot of water receded but just a little bit of wind they are still experiencing. >> just a little backdrop from soledad o'brien. it looks like a few people have left now. >> they are all on this side. you know, the wind has really picked up. it's funny, when you cutaway from me, the wind bl

while there is a long beach, famous one in california, we also have a long beach here in the new yorkit's on long island and specifically forecasters believe that what passes for the center of irene is going to make landfall on or near long beach, new york. al roker has been stationed there all evening long. al, good evening. >> reporter: brian, this is a barrier island. long beach is situated on a barrier island like the outer banks of the carolinas. this is really going to take the brunt of that -- of hurricane irene as it comes on shore. and make no mistake, it is going to be a big problem because right about the time irene comes on shore, it will be the time of high tide. so you take a high tide of about six feet, you add four to eight feet on top of that, in this low-lying barrier city and you're going to have big problems. we're getting the rain, the rain bands already. ahead of the storm. it's 300 miles to the southwest. it is still churning this way. we haven't even begun to see the worst of it. we've been getting lightning and thunder. the rain is picking up. the winds are bl

what's flood insurance cost somebody in long beach? >> i'm going to say if you're lucky, if you're lucky, it's costing you about $1,700 a year. >> reporter: and what's your deductible? >> your deductible is probably at least $5,000, at least. at least. >> reporter: so how does that sit with people? >> not well. >> reporter: after hurricane katrina inflicted $80 billion in damage, insurance companies dropped hundreds of thousands of policy holders along the east coast. many were forced to buy more expensive policies or look to the federal government for coverage. >> virtually no private insurers are writing the policies any more. they're only through fema. they're at fema's rates, at fema's terms, and it's pretty much take it or leave it. >> reporter: population and property values here are among the highest in the nation. according to fema, policy holders along the northeast coast are insured for more than $124 billion in flood protection. >> you don't look at market value. you look at what it is going to cost to rebuild these homes? a

terrell. >> susan mcginnis in long beach new york for us this morning. thank you so much. >>> city officials and residents agree it could have been a lot worse. there was some flooding in manhattan, but nothing like what would have been feared. during the storm some ignored the warnings to stay inside. they had a little fun playing street hockey in times square. but this morning one big problem remains. transportation. tony guida reports. >> sit's going to be tough. >> reporter: new york mayor michael bloomberg could have been speaking for travelers up and dound the eastern seaboard. >> i was supposed to be flying back to chicago tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m., and that's canceled, so my next flight home is wednesday morning. >> reporter: irene hammered rail lines to new york's grand central terminal and penn station. fallen power lines blocking some tracks, mud slides others. half a million commuters will need another way to work. >> i plan on biking to work tomorrow. >> i'm going to have to walk. >> reporter: 5 million people depended on new york's subw

long island sound. and like the north-facing beaches of long island. as the system pulls away, you're going to get the return flow. so that's going to push water up against the north-facing bays. and beaches. so the south may be out of the woods in a couple of hours. but the north is not yet. so this is going to be an all-day event, alex. >> okay. how about the winds there, al? it sounds a little better from your microphone. last time we came to you, we couldn't hear anything. >> it depends, it really depends on where you're standing. right here, i'm protected a little bit about the hotel and the apartment building where our crew is shooting from. but if i walk across this way, and you'll see my colleague, stephanie abrams from the weather channel, the winds are a little stronger over here. so again, there, a little bit of a break, here we're out in the open and the winds are, there goes the hat. the winds are a little stronger. >> al, thank you for speaking with us, i'm glad you and stephanie are there with us together, the dynamic duo. and we'll check

rob marciano is with us now from long beach, new york. long beach was evacuated as of last night.oking from your vantage point? >> we have seen a slow increase in winds, but obviously, fredricka, the big show is not coming until later on tonight and in through tomorrow. if there is anything we have learned from what we have seen across north carolina and parts of virginia today is that this category 1 storm now is nothing to be trifled with, that's for sure. the size of this thing is going to be the big story and we have already seen rain bands come through here over 400 miles from where this center is as it marches in our direction. behind me is the atlantic ocean, give you an idea where 40, 50 miles tops, southeast of new york city. these waves have been breaking big and hard all morning long. right now it is low tide. that may be one of the reasons the suffer surfers, they have s gone home. but the storm watchers are still here. this area is under a mandatory evacuation order as of 5:00 tonight. we have seen some people taking care of their belongings, boarding up around town,

through the long beach area today. driving down street that have trees all over. power was out in some places. some of the rain crowds for a current can be virtually rivers. some people could not get through. a lot of the area local businesses have boarded up and sandbags in front of their businesses literally have waves lapping at their front doorsteps. i want to show you what's happening on the beach. the waves are crashing when wefrm here at 8:00 a.m. when the tied was high water was up to the board would you being pounding across these poured into the panels into the parking lot. some of the cars had water all of the way up to the wheel wells. man pee people coming back today to find their car in different places. the fatality also sustained major flooding lots of trees down there as well. all of this means it will be a busy day for crews trying to get the branchs limbs and bigotry trunks up and out of the areas affected so we can get power restored on long islands. >> general where do you stand on beach punishment

let's go to long beach where susan candiotti is standing by.ell me what you're seeing. >> reporter: two predictions came true. there is flooding. and there are power outages. that much is true. if you happen to be in one of those areas, you're not feeling too good about things right now. if not, officials are saying from their early estimates, no injuries, no damages. there is flooding in some minor areas that they always get flooding. a lot of the water has already receded. no serious reports of heavy damage. however, 450,000 customers on long island are without power. we're reporting to you from long beach. this is where we were staying. you can see they flooded in the first floor of this hotel. if you look down the street, you can see that they're pumping water out. you can see that water gushing out of that hose right down there to the left of the police vehicle. then as we drove around town, we saw some issues, minor flooding. but honestly, it wasn't bad at all. walking over here just a step or two, i just want to show you that this is one

and certainly the reason that we are positioned here in long beach, which is a barrier island off long one of the possible targets for the eye of hurricane irene. so we may very well be straight in the path of that eye passing right over us, you see the surf kicking up here, it's been building each day, but remember the storm is at least 340 miles due south of here so we have quite a ways, not expected to hit as chad was telling you until sunday morning most likely, so that storm surge will really be coming up. these barrier islands are very close to sea level. only about three to four feet above sea level. so one of the things i've been doing along the beach here in the last couple of days is to take some of this stand, move it around and try to create more of a barrier, so you see these dunes that they're building up here, i would say, i'm five feet tall, so at it's highest, it's built up to maybe 20 feet here. so trying to protect the buildings that are on the opposite side in front of me here, some of these buildings are about 10 stories high, probably at their highest and the thin

a long beach, long island, more than 160,000 homes are at risk for flooding. the family grabbed as much as they could and got out. g we're expecting this place to be washed out. >> as you can see, many people are disobeying the order. many want to wait and see what irene brings. a handful of surfers took advantage of the waves. >> i was like okay, we have to leave, absolutely. the waves are going to be good. we are absolutely staying. >> but stay throughout the northeast and new england are in emergency mode. atlantic city looks like a ghost town now that the casinos are closed. many airports are shut down and 9,000 flights have been canceled. irene's winds are expected to bring down power lines and leave millions in the dark. in boston, the red cross is preparing for the worst. >> i think the planning we have done statewide is going to show how ready we are to respond to something like this. >> a storm of this magnitude is rare in the northeast and the worst is yet to come. for cbs news, long beach, long island. >> air travelers and the bay area are feeling t

here in long beach, business owners start removing boards from their store front and many have no idea how much damage they will find inside. this long beach resident returned to find his refrigerator on its side after the basement apartment was flooded. >> everyone is floating on cinder blocks and it toppled off. >> reporter: the new york subway is running again as the nation's largest city returns to normal. mosaic ordered massive evacuations and closed to get ready for irene. some are saying he went too far. >> this was the best scenario. we took all of the appropriate precautions. and some of them in retrospect were not needed. >> reporter: at the airport, travel schedules are in shreds. about 9,000 flights were canceled before arena arrived and now the -- irene, arrived and now the work begins to get it back on track. >>> for the most part the damage from hurricane irene is not as severe as some officials said it could be. but up and down the east coast, the white house started preparing for the storm a week ago removing sources to military bases and local and state politicians sa

he is in long beach, new york. al, what's the latest there?ews is, david, the torrential rains, at least here along the south-facing shores -- we're in long beach, as you say -- this is a barrier island, basically, a south-facing barrier island. the biggest problem now, the winds. as we look at our anemometer, we have a sustained wind of about 65 miles per hour at this time. the seas very angry, but high tide isover. we had a storm surge. there is flooding here. there has been some flooding in lower manhattan. in fact, interestingly enough, it seems like the areas away from the coast have taken the brunt of what was then hurricane irene, now tropical storm irene. new york city now having its wettest month ever. over 17 inches of rain. we've got more heavy rain in central pennsylvania, massachusetts, interior massachusetts, upstate new york. the new york state thruway is closed in places because of flooding and because of mud slides. so, we're talking about a lot of activity. but the good news is, it could have been a lot worse. it started to w

. >> susan mcginnis joins us live from long beach on long island. so what's the latest? how are things out there right now? >> reporter: good morning, frank and grace. here's the latest. long island and a lot of the east coast waking up to a very beautiful day. the sun is out, sky is clear, the ocean is call. people are out. they're out talking to one another. they are out getting their morning exercise, this is after quite a pounding that this area took. the other thing that they are waking up to though is certainly quite a mess that going to take quite a while to clean up. >>> >> how about new yorkers? how are they handling this? this is a little new. you get your fair amount of rain there, but nothing like this. >> reporter: i'm sorry, i'm not hearing you but let me just tell you that new yorkers are facing a rough day today even though, you know, they are very relieved that the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been. this is long island so long island railroad is very limited service. trains, buses, subways for new yorkers are slowly getting back up to speed so t

we turn now to our byron pitts riding out the storm in the town of long beach on long island. >> we gotmorning. she's only intensified since then. we felt wind guffs north of 50 miles an hour. we're along the board walk in long beach. this time yesterday about 100 yards of beach separated the ocean from the board walk. as you can see, not now. there have been widespread power outages across long island. 160,000 homes have lost electricity. we've seen trees uprooted and power lines bearing the signs of high winds. we've only seen a handful. long beach has been under a mandatory evacuation. about two thirds of the city has taken that warning and left town. the biggest concern now is the flooding that will follow. >> mason: byron pitts on long beach long island. the "mystery spot". not a mammal in this household is willing to lay claim to its origin. >> the mystery spot. not a mammal in this household is willing to lay claim to its origin but now is is not the time for blame. [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables? maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them

>>> you are looking at long beach, long island. watch this, eye lifeguard tower comes unhinged. gets hit right there. come office its mooring and crashes right into the boardwalk. that's long beach, long island. go down to point pleasant, new jersey. the suffer is kicking up. we heard from governor chris christie, everyone is told to stay inside and hurricane irene heading right now for america's biggest city. breaking right now, the monster storm. wow! crushing its way up the east coast overnight. hurricane irene, howling wind, ferocious waves. several of america's bigigge cities hunkered down to face the furry. now the rapidly rising sea water with swamp the streets and subways. >> its path of destructionon fr north carolina to delaware. we have the dramatic rescue, terrifying tornado now will irene's epic rainfall rewrite the record books this morning? sam and our entire abc news team is in the eye of the storm. >>> ourontinuing life coverage of hurricane irene, you see montauk irene. look how huge the waves are. we have john berman out there. thankfully he come up a bit. he

roads flooded in long beach, long island, just due east of man shoot.ul the life guard tower washed away by waves. two stories tall. it was surrounded by sandbags but they did not stand a chance and either did the tower. laura ingle did. >> the boardwalk is slowly coming back to life, i should say quickly at this point. people slowly trickling in through the morning after that storm passed out us, the of it i should say. this is usually a busy boardwalk on the weekend. the beaches usually packed. have our cameraman pan over and show you the waves. earlier today they were huge, pounding the surf. scary stuff which is exactly why this area was under a mandatory evacuation. now, right now as we see people enjoying the surf and enjoying the beach we have been watching people going up very close actually and taking pictures next to the crashing waves. not advised. there has been massive flooding along the streets that had waves lapping up against businesses that were boarded up and sandbagged before the storm. a redundant scene up and down long island as tre

who better to ask than the mayor of the city of long beach.evacuation order? do you have a sense of it? >> we see that the majority of people have left, and that is gratifying, that will obviously make our job easier, that many less people that might have medical emergencies or what have you, that will be very hard to deal with in the hours that come. >> reporter: now you're not closing off the bridges that join this barrier island to the mainland, but will people be able to get off the island, come on to the island? what are the restriction. >> you will always be able to leave the island, but after 5:00, the nassau county police are only going to let people come back here if they have a electr legitimate reason, if he're fir first responders or they're going to have to have a pretty valid reason for coming back. the real problem is that we're hoping that the water doesn't get trapped in the bay, which might mean prolonged flooding in our canals area and the bay front area, that's our greatest concern and the other thing is that, you know, wit

it gives you a flavor of the character of long beach here. >> well, okay. we love that. we characters always go at the height of the storm. al, the fact that these waves that your cameraman was showing us. they are pretty. treacherous. you couldn't consider surfing or doing anything silly like that. is that because of high tide that crest ad couple of hours ago. that's working in our favor. mother nature is helping a little bit. >> reporter: high tide -- yeah high tide was just about as you said two hours ago. so we're talking about these waves that are just out there and just breaking. i mean they are actually more impressive now than they were a couple of hours ago, but the good news is as you said high tide is gone, and looks like we've survived for the most part the surge here along long beach island, city manager was just with us. a lot of trees down. on this island, as you might notice there are a lot of power lines that are up. unlike a lot of places in the city where the power lines are submerged, because of course on an island there's still a lot of power lines.

in long beach, 0 a barrier island 25 miles east of manhattan.ple are up on the boardwalk 15 feet above sea level. for example, this hotel, in fact, where we were staying and a lot of reporter was staying as well, got flooded on the first floor, below sea level. pumping the water out and sweeping out the mud. that appears to be the worst of the damage in this particular area, but as we said, localized flooding through much of long island and a lot of power outages about, well, more than 400,000 customers are in the dark tonight. >> and, susan, i understand that -- it's randi here. you had a chance to speak with governor cuomo while he chris itted long peach earlier and managed to get a one-on-one with him. what did he telly? >> reporter: he surprised a lot of locals, showing up, looking at the damage. many thanks him for the preparation by the state. we asked, do you think the next time people will wond whether authorities are asking them to overprepare? his answer, i don't think so. this is his response. >> don't underestimate the damage that ha

let me show you how they have the pair here on long beach. city of long beach, you see they have built these sand dunes around the lifeguard stand. you can see lifeguards are standing on top of them right now, as well as surfers. a ton of surfers in the water here, but i need to caution everyone because we have already lost some surfers in the south due to them being in the water with hurricane irene. some numbers for you here. i heard jeff giving you numbers. i want to talk about the latest numbers i just got in on my e-mail from the weather channel. cedar island, north carolina, a wind gust to 115 miles an hour at the cedar island ferry office. alex, even though this is a category one, we are still gusting higher than that into that category two range, and also the rain report i have seen here, 7.42 inches and sustained winds of 90 miles per hour at cedar island, also in north carolina. everyone is kind of, like, oh, it's weakening. we'll be okay. absolutely not the case. katrina making landfall. its first landfall in florida was a category

beach. overnight tonight in ocean city, maryland. long, we're talking about mid-morning to say mid-dayish. boston, midafternoon. this thing will be out of here by monday morning. a long way to go with this event, expect a lot of power outages, a lot of inland flooding. we've had as much as 20 inches of rain now being estimated by doppler radar near the core of the center where irene has been hitting. t.j.? >> jacqui, thank you once again. we want to check in with our rob marciano. he has been up in new york on long beach in particular this morning. give our viewers an idea, maybe haven't been watching throughout the morning, but how things have progressed and changed there. the conditions have changed for you over the past several hours. >> well, we're in the in-between stage, t.j. about an hour ago, we had a pretty good squall come through. probably the first of many feeder bands that will spiral in. we've got a little front that will act to steer the storm a little bit and that will help intensify those bands as they come in. but right

all right. >>> martha: long beach, new york, where they are assessing the damage after yesterday's big storm, hurricane irene battering the beach town just outside new york city. laura ingle has basically been in long beach for, what -- for what probably feels like an eternity. laura, you know, so many places are out of power. it's difficult to get on or off of the place where you are right now. let's start with the power situation. how's that going out there? >> okay. you know, today, it's a beautiful day, it's certainly been a lot nicer than we've seen over the last 24-36 hours, of course, and as far as the power is concerned, in new york state, nearly 1 million people, still without power. here on long island, over 400,000 people are still in the dark. man, it really is a huge cleanup. you mentioned kind of one of the visuals of the weekend was the lifeguard tower that was knocked off its foundation. it's right here behind me. that is the long beach lifeguard headquarters for the entire beach, where all the radios are kept, it's how the lifeguard along this beach keep in communicati

we're on the boardwalk at long beach.one reason we're here, marty and kira, is this could be where irene makes landfall, right here in roughly this spot. of course, we'll have to see. it could jog one way or another. it also gives us a very good vantage point here to see and keep an eye on the surf, which is getting stronger and stronger with each hour. as mary mentioned, we're still a good 11 or so hours away from high tide. certainly, that's going to get much closer. you can also see the sand dunes. they have bulldozed a lot of sand up here to try to create an extra barrier. believe it or not, the boardwalk is the highest point in long beach. it's 15 feet above sea level. many parts of the city are below sea level. and in fact, some of the highest spots away from the boardwalk are only 3 or 4 feet above where the ocean comes in. this area is under now a mandatory evacuation order for the low-lying areas on the south shore of this barrier island, on the north shore as well, and then there's the main long island. and also

no apparent a static value back in june and individuals snapping a photo of a refinery for the long beach post when the camera man it was detained by a local police officer and the press confronted the police department about the issue chief jim mcdonald confirmed the detaining photographers is within their policy apparently it's part of l.a.p.d. as a special order number eleven which details suspicious activity reports and the policy reads that the l.a.p.d. should make every effort to accurately and appropriately gather record and analyze information of a criminal or non-criminal nature that could indicate activity or intentions related to either foreign or domestic terrorism so when law enforcement catch somebody trying to take pictures they want to make sure that they're not collecting data on local infrastructure to commit acts of terrorism and the criteria to determine whether or not images or film have no apparent it's got a value or the person has talked taking part in criminal activity that's all left up to each officer to decipher himself so it's not just wonderful we're giving c

we're on our way out to long beach and we just drove up from d.c.f the good things that we've noticed on the way up is that most people seem to be heeding the advice of officials. the roads are largely deserted. very few people on the roads. stopped at a rest area and the lights were flickering a few hours ago. storm is still behind us as you talk to the correspondents down in virginia and maryland beaches. do you see some evidence of power outages likely to come. you've been talking to chad repeatedly about one of his concerns that there's already so much sat rigs. as we've been driving through the city, you know how you come up and over the bridges, you're on the edge of brooklyn. you see a lot of water on the side of the roads already. low-lying areas. again, the storm is several hours behind us. it's raining. the heavy winds and rains are hours behind us. not a lot of places for the water to go. if you have that huge surge in low-lying areas you can see the problems. for house and businesses in these areas and then the larger problem as you've b

long beach, long island. >>> as s.f. os, a total of 41 flights to the east coast were canceled today leaving passengers, thousands of them stranded. but despite the long wait some travelers aren't complaining. >> i think it is better to lay on the ground and sit on a bench than be in new york because i expect there is no electricity. >> according to airport officials no flights for tomorrow have been can he would. >>> well, some of the worst storm damage is in north carolina where thousands of people remain stranded. karen brown is in north carolina with how the state plans to move forward. >> reporter: irene washed out the only road in or out of hattaras island. damage to highway 12 cut off more than 2000 people from the mainland. they defied mandatory evacuation orders now emergency crews will use ferries to fete the stranded food and supplies. communities all along the outer banks are starting to clean up. in maneo they swept sunday sweeping water from their stores and checking out the damage. >> i lifted everything o

let's head out to long beach, long island. peter alexander is driving through that area. he's on the phone with us. peter what are you seeing there? >>> we've been driving for most of the last hour. we spent our morning at coney island where the eye came over us, for the last hour or so we've been driving 18 miles to the east to scan out and give you a perspective of what the rest of this area looks like. long beach, you should know, is one of the outer islands, barrier islands for long island here in new york. to be honest with you, we have seen scattered trees down over the course of the day, but in the last hour or so we have not seen much damage, which is the good news. right now there's heavy cloud cover, it seems to us we are getting the back end of this storm. no rain. it's been dry for the last several hours, but there is some whipping winds, not enough to cause damage but to let you know something may have happened earlier today, that being irene passing through. many people are trying to get back to their organized routine. coney island specifically we saw quick