the threat would be long island. ould be for montauk and boston and even into rhode island. can you imagine if you get all that water into like narangaset and newport and then you funnel it into providence, we're talking about the same type of funneling effect in providence that you would have in new york city from a landfall just about 60 or 80 miles farther to the east. >> steven, you think this may be a day or two of convenience. if it is a direct hit in new york, folks in the city could feel the impact for some time to come. >> it could be for many days. the good news is we do have time to prepare. the basics are people should have a kit. they should basically have the things they need that could camp out in their home or apartment for throw days. that's a good plan. the second is to have a plan, to know where they would go should they have to evacuate and that kit should be a go bag. then they need to stay informed. just these variables, a little bit to the left, a little bit to the right could make a big differe

the threat would be long island. threat would be from montauk, for boston, and into rhode island. can you imagine if you get all that water into newport, and funnel it into providence, we're talking about the same type of funneling effect in providence that you would have in new york city, from a landfall just about 60 or 80 miles farther to the east. >> and stephen, you think this would be a day or two of inconvenience. if it's a direct hit in new york, the folks in the city could feel the impacts for some time to come. >> it could be many days. the good news is, they have time to prepare. the basics are, people should have a kit, basically have the things they need to camp out in their home or apartment for three days. the second is to have a plan, to know where they would go, should they have to evacuate, and the kit-to-go bag. they need to stay informed. a little bit to the left, a little bit to the right, could make a big difference. but we have information now, minimum thing for new yorkers, they should go on th

the threat would be long island. be from montauk, for boston, and into rhode island. can you imagine if you get all that water into newport, and funnel it into providence, we're talking about the same type of funneling effect in providence that you would have in new york city, from a landfall just about 60 or 80 miles farther to the east. >> and stephen, you think this would be a day or two of inconvenience. if it's a direct hit in new york, the folks in the city could feel the impacts for some time to come. >> it could be many days. the good news is, they have time to prepare. the basics are, people should have a kit, basically have the things they need to camp out in their home or apartment for three days. the second is to have a plan, to know where they would go, should they have to evacuate, and the kit-to-go bag. they need to stay informed. a little bit to the left, a little bit to the right, could make a big difference. but we have information now, minimum thing for new yorkers, they should go on the office eme

reports from the eastern end of long island, central end of long island all over brooklyn and queens,is still blowing up in newport, rhode island where our new england-based correspondent molly line is. >> reporter: still morning, we've got a long way to go. winds still kicking up. a lot of people coming to look at the sights. along the storm wall the water is kicking up. kids and dads checking things out. that's the concern the authorities have because of the number of downed powerlines. 480,000 people go through the grid, 160 without power. >> shepard: molly, thanks. we are interrupting because of a fema briefing. we feel like there will be important information. janet napolitano the homeland security secretary speaking. >> we encourage individuals to listen to their state and local authorities as we move to the response for irene. we just concluded briefing president obama on our ongoing efforts to support state as affected by the storm. he has instructed us to continue leading forward on our response. on the call with the president, were other members of his cabinet, including the

the united states, she packed enough punch to down trees and power lines from cape hatteras to long island, 8 people died. much lower than feared because the hurricane arrived at low tide. then bob in 1991. which made landfall between new york and rhode island narragansett bay. thousands packed shelters. yet others refused to leave. >> it's better to be here and take care of the house if anything happens. >> a decision many came to regret. >> virtually all the beach-front businesses and homes suffered water or structural damage. >> bob left massive destruction. >> we have sent a written request to the federal authorities and the head of fema will be in the state this afternoon. >> 17 were killed. $1.5 billion in property damage suffered. in 1999, hurricane floyd forced 2.6 million people in five states from their homes. triggering the third largest evacuation in u.s. history. but it was north carolina that bore the brunt of the storm. >> just water. nothing but water. >> i saw even the roofs were under the water in the last safe refuge was standing on the chimney. >> torrential rainfall hi

long island will probably be a category one before it gets there. as far as the computer models go, if anything, they shifted just slightly east. that's why the hurricane center did the same. the western most computer mod hall it going over the chesapeake, the righter most over long island and cape cod. as far as the forecast goes, hurricane force winds will be hitting the coast of north carolina tomorrow. about 24 hours from now is when the destruction will begin. >>> stocks stumble, gold rises and the car most likely to be stolen. your business headlines straight ahead. >>> coming up, jim thome is heading home. your fantasy football approach, and a record for the yanks. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're help

out in long island and east long island usually. so this will be a new experience for virtually everybody that's alive in the new york city area. >> chris, you talked about the structural integrity of sky scrapers and high rises. people who live above the 10th floor, is it okay for them to stay in their apartments or do they go to a lobby, the stairwell? >> it's definitely okay to stay in your apartment. don't be near the glass. i think everybody needs to help out their neighbors. because basically what you have, if you have balcony furniture or anything that you have on a patio, that could be the projectile into your neighbor's building. so everybody needs to help out each other. i know people could be away on vacation. it's a little bit of a hazard that they wouldn't be back to secure their furniture. stay inside. stay away from glass. don't let the projectile be an issue. >> stephen flynn, appreciate you being on. chris, you as well. thank you for your advice. >>> up next, a few rare times the hurricane has hit the northeast. wha

certainly long island. both on long island sound.h this. and the wind knocking down trees. which will knock out power lines. this is a graphic we're going by as far as a category 1 storm getting into this highly populated area. we expect to see anywhere from a quarter to 500,000 people without power from 3 to 6 days. keep that in mind. we heard from one of the officials saying you can tell new yorkers, but they don't always listen. >> right. >> i can pound the desk here and tell you to buy at least some batteries. they don't go bad. >> batteries, food, medicine. >> jets and giants are supposed to play tomorrow at 7:00 and they have moved it up in anticipation of the storm. big deal last night at yankees stadium. the yanks -- >> unbelievable. >> did you see that? >> yeah. >> not just one grand slam, not two, but three grand slams! rob robinson cano gets thinged started. looked like yankees were out of this. >> oakland! >> carol costello with some perspective there. >> clearly we don't have a lot of viewers in oakland now. >> oakland i

usually long island, east long island.s will be a bit avenue experience for virtually everybody who is alive in the metropolitan new york city area. >> you stalked about the structural integrity of sky scrapers. for people who do live in high rise, above the 10th floor, is it okay for them to stay in their apartment? do you suggest they go to a lobby or a stairwell? >> it's okay to stay in your apartment. don't be near the glass. i think everybody needs to help out their neighbors because basically what you have if you have balcony furniture or anything that you have on a patio, that could be the projectile into your neighbor's building. be needs to help each other. i know people could be away on vacation in a hazard that they wouldn't be back to secure their furniture. stay inside. stay away from glass. don't let the projectile be an issue for you. >> thank you for your advice. coming up next we'll look at the rare times a hurricane hit the northeast. what happened back thenning might give you and indication what could ha

take a look at the rain making its way right up toward long island. sporadic rain and start seeing constant rain that will continue, but we're still 400 to 500 miles away from the center of the storm. these are the models you were talking about, right here. a little bit of changes and it does make a big difference when you have so much population, a storm in one direction or the other can make a difference. a couple model runs ago, everything was going right over new york city. this model was way over here. it corrected itself and they are spreading out a little bit across parts of long island add in areas of new jersey. that has big implications toward new york city. farther to the west, much more water pulling in the hudson river and that is what new york city doesn't want to see, but that is why they ordered all these shutdowns of mt have a and so on. >> shep: i guess you have to ready for a worst case scenario. for mayor bloomberg, a potential real headache. >> reporter: worst case scenario and you have to be prepared if it doesn't happen. people

towards the tip of long island, 40. the ma'am tons aren't reporting. falmouth, 63 miles and hour. ry windy across cape cod and the islands still yet. also, very significant rainfall totals that are causing a lot of problems ayo across interior sections. the red is 4 to 8-inches. in some spots over 12. tuxedo park, new york, almost 1.5-inches. wayne, new jersey, 10.2. that kind of rain falling in short time on saturated ground causes all kinds of flooding and we knew that would happen and that turned out to be the case. parts of pennsylvania, a lot of upstate or the northern part of jersey up towards the delaware water gap. and look at all of the counties. parts of maine. a lot of vermont, a lot of vermont. around massachusetts and the berkshires. the rain still falling at rapid rates and causing big problems for them still. >> shepard: rick reichmuth live in the fox extreme weather center. we are supposed to go a town break and we are going to. sea side heights new jersey is a place you might have heard of on that tv show and appears that they are coming back to sea side heights so

which is on 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 chec

it is in new york city and portions of long island.in long island and new york city 4-8 feet. that is significant. there is two scenarios. one if it at as west of the new york city. that is worst case for new york harbor and all of that water will pile up and battery city. that was evacuated because of this reason and potential storm surge there . what i think will happen. i think it will drift over central portions of long island and we'll look at a storm surge of 4-8 feet. and that will help things out in new york city. but again, looking at impact with storm surge and a lot of heavy rain and threat of tornados, there is a tornado watch that is issued out until tomorrow morning in new york city and much of morsion - portions of new jersey. i hope you are safe and hunkered down. there being be a tornado right now on the ground and big rain maker 6 ov 12 inches and locally 20 inches. >> shepard: 6-12 and some spots as much as 20. >>> and then add the storm surge. >> it is a lot of water. >> complete updates throughout the night and we

>>> 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 s

usually out in long island, east of long island.oing to be a bit of a new experience for virtually everyone who's alive in the metro new york city area. >> chris, you talked about the structural integrity of high-rise buildings and sky skrarps. so for people who do live in high-rises above the 10th floor, is it okay for them to stay in their apartments? do you suggest they go to the lobby, go to a stairwell? what would you recommend? >> it's definitely okay to stay in your apartment. don't be near the glass. i think everybody needs to help out their neighbors. because basically what you have if you have balcony furniture or anything that you have on a patio, that can be the projectile into your neighbor's building. so everybody really needs to help out each other. i know people could be away on vacation, which is a little bit of a hazard in that they wouldn't be back to secure their furniture. but stay inside. stay away from glass. and don't let the projectile be an issue for you. >> yeah. steven flynn, appreciate you being on. chri

usually out in long island, east of long island. be a bit of a new experience for virtually everyone who's alive in the metro new york city area. >> chris, you talked about the structural integrity of high-rise buildings and sky skrarps. so for people who do live in high-rises above the 10th floor, is it okay for them to stay in their apartments? do you suggest they go to the lobby, go to a stairwell? what would you recommend? >> it's definitely okay to stay in your apartment. don't be near the glass. i think everybody needs to help out their neighbors. because basically what you have if you have balcony furniture or anything that you have on a patio, that can be the projectile into your neighbor's building. so everybody really needs to help out each other. i know people could be away on vacation, which is a little bit of a hazard in that they wouldn't be back to secure their furniture. but stay inside. stay away from glass. and don't let the projectile be an issue for you. >> yeah. steven flynn, appreciate you being on. chris ceren

we have john king on long island. jason carroll in atlantic city, new jersey. >> of course we've got up in philly, don lemons for us, d.c., athena jones and wolf blitzer will be joining us for coverage this morning. he's on the outer banks. >> i want to bring in our own john king. 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

, we are looking at greater storm surge in long island. hars -- you have every governor in all 12 states reporting some sort of it looks like a twister or could be a twister and we will not know until daybreak. thank you. >> harris, mayor bloomburg spoke a minute and updating residents on the city's hurricane response. residents, if you want to leave, guess what, too late. time for evacuation is over. everyone should go inside and be prepared to stay inside until weather conditions improve which will not leakly be until sunday afternoon. we'll get through the next 24 hours, i assure you. the new york mass transit system subways and buses and trains are all shut down at noon eastern time. many bridges could also close soon as the wind speeds began to pick up. >> hurricane irene's whipping winds spawning a twister in maryland. that is the secondary part of the story all of the twisters being reported and in a wooded area in the lower shore. there are no reports of injuries or damage in maryland. huge storm surge battering city. talked about

jersey shore and close to new york city and crossing along -- long island.nd monday morning, 1:00 a.m., we have wins and the rain is gone and by monday morning, we'll be looking good at sunrise. it is moving slowly for a storm this far north. it is a sloudly moving over the sound and hugging the eastern sea shore and rain spreading up to 600 mipes away. where is the storm. it is all over the entire area. not just where it is crossing land and a lot of areas . because was that and a large storm. so many people are getting rain from this. and rain along with wind that are in the 60 or cent miles per hour range and that will topple trees and be without power for a while. >> great job on this and we'll be with you throughout the weekend. >> in the meantime, this is virginia beach, virginia, right? >> look how dark that is. through the haze and look being at the pier. you can see the waves come one after another and how high the surf has grown. we talked to the governor an hour ago and he was getting ready for this part of the state to take a walop. southeastern

we still have the tornado watch in effect for long island. also into central connecticut, rhode island and portions of massachusetts throughout the morning. we did have a tornado warning in brooklyn. that expired. no damage and no injuries that we have heard of that have been reported. some heavier rainfall still continuing across long island. we saw peter alexander, amy robach in lower manhattan and natalie morales in hoboken. the rain bands are going to continue to impact them with winds gusting on and off again. it's all about the interior northeast right now. getting pummeled with the rain. that is already totalled over seven to ten inches in some cases with the storm system for the northeast. let's move on to the winds, 20 to 45 miles per hour here in new york city. and down to atlantic city, 31-mile-per-hour wind gusts. still gusting to 41 miles per hour in baltimore, we've been focusing on the extreme northeast. but the mid-atlantic, still reeling from the storm system that's kind of getting the left side of the storm. >> yeah. okay. j

you'll notice the storm surge in new york city probably more or less 2 to 4 feet out of long island, possibilities of up to 6 feet. that's very historic for the locates along with rhode island and the storm should weaken after that. i think we'll have the all clear in southern new england by the time we get to sunday at 6:00 p.m. the storm, as i mentioned, thomas, it is coming in now and it is coming in soon. our computer models are an excellent agreement on this. we don't think that will change. i want to show you the radar. charleston, south carolina, getting bands now. this is about to move into wilmington. as i said, we're going from almost done with the forecast, now we'll watch the event unfold. >> as we do watch it unfold, if we can get back up that shot open your radar with the different streaks of where it potentially could go, when do you know the prediction when it will fall into the models? at what certain point? >> we're getting there. now we're within 48 hours, i'll fast feerd to that map yforward you were talking about there. the cone of uncertainty is the yellow. now i

usually long island, east long island.for virtually everybody who is alive in the metropolitan new york city area. >> you stalked about the structural integrity of sky scrapers. for people who do live in high rise, above the 10th floor, is it okay for them to stay in their apartment? do you suggest they go to a lobby or a stairwell? >> it's okay to stay in your apartment. don't be near the glass. i think everybody needs to help out their neighbors because basically what you have if you have balcony furniture or anything that you have on a patio, that could be the projectile into your neighbor's building. be needs to help each other. i know people could be away on vacation in a hazard that they wouldn't be back to secure their furniture. stay inside. stay away from glass. don't let the projectile be an issue for you. >> thank you for your advice. coming up next we'll look at the rare times a hurricane hit the northeast. what happened back thenning might give you and indication what could happen this weekend. it's the high w

we were talking to the nassa uconn executive being the western part of long island. he said they are just beginning assessments and he believes that the damage costs will run to easily millions and millions of county in nassau county alone. so they begin the process of trying to see how much damage is done. these residents begin the process of coming back looking into their homes and seeing how much damage is done. it's hard to believe that a lot of people haven't suffered a great deal of damage. there are a bunch of people looking to see has gone on. they seem to be smiling in general. a lot of them have taken a long walk and in the last 45 minutes and they have been caught by the outer band. message from officials, if you don't need to leave your home, please don't. stay inside. wait until this thing is completely gone. >> shep: jonathan, this is exactly as predicted. you watch the last loop of the radar. you don't see it on this particular picture. this is why officials said please stay home. god knows let's hope nobody gets hurt after all the flooding. somebody t

you don't have to evacuate long island total. you into some traffic issues and getting over some bridges. but you've got to go a little bit further into the inland, get slightly above where i stand right now, which more than likely will be underwater tomorrow. now, what they're doing to protect long beach is they've taken man and machine and built these dunes 15, 20 feet high in some spots to protect the town from the surge that's anticipated come tomorrow. we will probably see not one, but two high tide cycles, which are extenuated by the fact that we're in a new moon. so astronomically high tide, a surge that's going to be at least 3 to 6 feet, and 15 to 20-foot waves on top of that that are going to eat away this man-made berm and likely get into this small town and other small towns across long island. not only will you see surge here, but you'll see surge on the backside of long island, on the sound side, on the bay side, where it's normally calm, you'll see northeast waves there that will pile up the water there. and on the

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 fire caused by downed wires. nearly 4 million people remain with power up and down the eastern seaboard. 9,000 flights have been cancelled through monday. the effects of hurricane irene being felt across this nation. plenty of potential dangers to come out of the eye of this storm. we have meteorologist bill kar

and long island, we think this is going to be moving in tomorrow morning, say, midday.ston, midafternoon. and then this thing is out of here and looking a lot better. that's a couple of the wind gusts we've been getting reported, 115 miles per hour. that's the worst we could see. so we're going to have the worst wind damage into the carolinas, but we're still going to have a lot of power outages and a lot of water. we'll talk more about that and we're also going to talk about how far out you can expect to see. you know, with people in d.c. and philadelphia, they're asking me, what's up with me? we'll answer that a little bit more in the next hour. >> jacqui, thank you once again. >>> we're getting close to the top of the hour. when we come back, we will be checking in with our reporters in new york as well as in d.c. as we continue to track this massive storm. weakened a bit, sure, but it's still a big sucker and it is still a strong storm and it is just getting started. ♪ with diabetes, it's tough to keep life balanced. i don't always haveve time to eat like i should.

calling it the mts is suspending all service that i know clouds new york city subways, the buses, the long island railroad, ne troe north railroad and the statin island railway. at noon, new jersey transit will stop running trainings through trips in progress. they will finish their routes. then the path trains to and from new york city will also stop running at 6:00 p.m. eastern new jersey transit will suspend bus and late rail service. philadelphia, the trains to the city are going to stop running at 11:30 tonight. trains from the city to new jersey are going to stop at 12:05 a.m. sunday morning. at 12:30 a.m. sunday the septa service is to be suspended. further north to connecticut, there's where the governor plans to close the merit and wilbur cross parkways. further north in massachusetts bay transportation authority buses and trains will operate on a normal weekend schedule unless the conditions deteriorate. there was a lot of information there. we're going to try to get that up on our website for you. president obama is monitoring the storm from a white house. he returned a day early from

to the south shore of long island.will provide some kind of protect to the south shore of long island when hurricane irene arrives. you wouldn't believe the number of people who are here as the sun is setting, but yes, if they are old enough these people might remember the great hurricane of 1938 nicknamed the long island express. it was a category three storm that claimed the lives of 200 people from here all the way up to new england. compare that to hurricane donna which was a category two storm. no lives reported lost and forecasters say because people heeded the warnings given to them. the question is are they paying attention this time? people who lived here are going to be underhand tori evacuation orders. some of them are in place. we are hearing from people who are getting ready doing everything they are supposed to do. gathering water and food and cash just in case. the thing everyone knows for sure according to forecasters, there is going to be flooding in low-lying areas and there will be a high storm surge

moves east it will make people certainly in new york and long island breathe easier. but it leaves boston, rhode island, massachusetts that could bear the brunt. we're tracking it closely. our models contributed to something called the hurricane evacuation models that have helped inform state and local leaders and federal agencies as they made recommendations and then course those state leaders made decisions. >> poppy harlow, my colleague was saying earlier she's in lower manhattan, people are suggesting it cube surge of water between six and 12 feet high in parts of manhattan. including ground zero. is that a likely prospect, do you think from everything you're now looking at? >> in a worse case scenario, 12 feet is possible. right now given the track the storm is oranges given the wind speeds we're measuring, the speed of the storm itself, what we see in our projections are sadly there's a timing issue. timing is everything. there's a high tide, a moon tide if you will that will be occurring in new york at the time that the hurricane is about to make landfall. so,

they called it the long island expres [ grandma ] why do relationships matter?randpa ] relationships are the basis of everything. [ grandma ] relationships are life... if you don't have that thing that fills your heart and your soul, you're missing that part of your life that just fulfills you. ♪ [ male announcer ] for us at humana, relationships matter too. the better we know you, the better we can help you choose the right medicare plan. that's why humana agents sit down with you to figure out your medicare options. and we have nurses you can call anytime, even at 3 a.m. because when you're on the right humana medicare plan and taking good care of yourself, then you can be there for the people who matter most. [ grandma ] my family is my joy, my hope... they are my heart. it's the reason we get out of bed in the morning... [ grandpa ] the reason we fall into bed at night sometimes. [ grandma ] yes. that's right. [ male announcer ] humana. [ grandma ] yes. that's right. sometimes life can be, well, a little uncomfortable, but when it's hard or hurts to go to th

reporting at massapequa park, long island, abc news. >> biggest power outage in long island in 20 yearsf course, affecting transit systems as well. boston's transit system is supposed to be back on at normal at 8:00 a.m. we'll see how that works out. >> as we said, the first time new york city shut down the subway system for a natural disaster ever but expected to be running at 6:00 a.m. like we said, pack your patience because long lines and crowd trains today. a rocky day. >> and still not clear how back to normal tomorrow's transit situation will be. we have a lot of wait-and-see going on. >> probably for the good part of the week, too. we'll see. >> absolutely. >>> keeping with irene, as irene blew into new england, the soaking rain paralyzed much of vermont, flash flooding shut down dozens of roads and washed out bridges across the state. at least one person was swept away and killed. and even more flooding is expected over the next few days. more evacuations are likely in the capital city of montpelier. it the river was expected to crest at 2 20 feet. in greenfield, massachusetts,

let's go back to long island now where mike is.rd from jeff that it looks like long island will get a direct hit from hurricane irene. what are the preparations? >>> the preparations are considerable but not as though people here feel or are acting as if they're in the middle of a bulls eye. i went to a general store, there's plenty of water, batteries, there's not a run on plywood. you talk to people it's a sea going town. they know what happened with hurricane gloria in 1985 and hurricane bob which didn't have a direct hit on the island in 1991. the big problem as adam was saying is the swell. the rise of the tide. if they get a four or six or eight-foot swell the flooding can be immense and the all of the boats will lift their moorings and be driven against each other. we have seen those pictures in the past. about 60% of the fleet here have left. the other 40 are hoping. one guy said we're going to wait it out, cross our fingers and make sure our insurance is paid off in full. >> the calm before the storm looks so nice in sag h

a few years an long island flooding. here at the boardwalk along the battery we're hearing of flooding. from this point that's about it. back to you. >> weather channel's jim cantore telling it like it is. thank you, jim for that. let's head over to darby, pennsylvania. melissa, good morning to you. it actually was a good morning because i believe your camera operator provided us a beautiful shot of a rainbow that was right over that building there behind you. >> reporter: that's right, alex. it lasted just a minute. it's raining again. it's been raining pretty consistently all morning long. we're not out of woods. you can see this parking lot and this intersection in darby borough completely under water. one of the good things that's happened over the last hour or so, the water at least in this immediate area has gone down quite a bit. right behind the shopping center here and underneath this intersection out in front of me, darby creek, it's famous for flooding. this has been hit very hard, you know, several times, esp

then making a beeline, it looks like right for long island and cape cod as we go through the weekend. the latest we have, storm now turning a bit to the northeast at 14. a path that will take it, as jay gray mentioned, over the outer banks of north carolina. likely as a category 2 hurricane. winds close to 100 miles an hour. as it approaches long island, moves off to the east of philadelphia, this is where the storm surge or the waltter pili up and the perpendicular coastline along long island, cape cod, we could see a surge coinciding with high tide. this is a worst case scenario. if the two things come together, the inlets or bays could see a storm surge or rise in sea level close to ten feet in some spots. you're looking at almost 15 inches of rain in the inland and hilly terrain in the coastal northeast and winds going from a category 2 eventually to a category 1 hurricane crossing over long island it looks like early sunday afternoon. just an incredibly large system, too, almost 500 miles wide. hurricane-force winds extending almost 80 miles away from the storm's center. back to

you mentioned long island. i want to go to the report laura angle filed. here's the latest from long beach. >> geraldo the governor certainly got an eye full as he was zig bagging 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 bi

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

also, here is long island and we arenticipating the tides right across here and this is an area that we are focused on and this is an orange shaded area, but it is telling us that the water is going to continue to pile up across this area, and lesser so into the sound and this is where the perth amboy area is and manhattan, and this is where noods could be six feet above where they are and we are seeing higher than normal and astronomical tides across this region, so this is in peril here, but the pressing situation here continues to be focused on now critically on the st. mary's st. park area that we showed you right as you begin to enter the chesapeake bay area, and as i said 7 inches of rain, but because the system is just repeatedly putting rainfall across the coastal sections of north carolina and in some cases as much as 14 inches, but in this particular region, the ground has been saturated. so plenty of power outages to tell you about and i took a look at one area the vanwick parkway in new york. if you have ever been there going on to jfk, they are saying that they have shut

we thought irene had passed long island. look where we are right now. earlier today sustained winds of 65 miles an hour. right now still some pretty significant gusts. there had been giant dunes here. they werethe angry roaring seas. pan the camera and see how strong that surf is even at this hour. earlier today that storm surge picked up the beach patrol headquarters, literally rearranging the furniture as it were, throwing it against the boardwalk here. the surge also forced its way through one of the walls here beneath the boardwalk going into a parking lot here. that used to be a parking lot. a good spot for beachgoers. instead right now it is a murky, muddy mess. the same story down from us farther east in freeport. a lot of people dealing with heavy flooding tonight, brian. a short time ago i spoke to the governor of this state, andrew cuomo. i asked him what he thought about the mandatory evacuations. he said he was satisfied and said new yorkers are tough and they're smart and they're smart enough to know to get out of the way of mother nature.

then it's heading straight for new york city and long island. that's where you expect it to really whack the island where i live, joe? is it zeroing down on my house here? is there a grudge here against me? >> no. i have no grudge against you. as a matter of fact, bill, i never get invited to parties out in the hamptons, so maybe that's why this is going out there. but the -- look, it's a serious situation. i think this will the most destructive storm from the outer banks of north carolina up it into new england since gloria in 1985. could rival the great storms of the 1950s. even back to the 1940s. >> bill: let's hope not. >> a nasty situation. >> bill: long island continues to go northeast into cape cod and boston and that would be on sunday night? >> sunday afternoon and sunday night i expect it to accelerator. i also expect, look, it's a pick your poison, if it hugs the coast and go straight north to jersey. southeast winds side of it water is warm strays strong. tremendous amount of rain in the northeast. ground is saturated and trees loade

and we are looking at a category two hurricane and 11:00 sunday impacting long island, new york. big concern is the storm surge. we are talking about storm surge and raising water levels 5-10 feet above the ground. that will be a major problem in the area. and not only that. rainfall totals in the area expected to be 6-10 inches of rain and a powerful winds. some flights may be delayied or cancelled because of the major hurricane. if you have travel plans to head there keep this in mind. temperatures in the bay area are on the pleasant side. and cooler and 90 in antioch and low 60s near the coast and plenty of sevenths - 70s and 80s. temperatures rise tomorrow. we are looking at a warmer pattern in the weekend. here's a look at water vapor imagery. we'll see the temperatures fall as two areas was low pressure keep us in a cooler pattern. the lows will move on out of here and once they do, tomorrow higher pressure starts to nudge west ward as it continues over the weekend. we'll see warmer conditions this weekend. circulation around the high clock wise, that will draw up high ouds

along long island. way from wildwood right to long branch as an 80 to 85 miles per hour storm. that could tear up a whole lot of people. the amount of money that this thing could damage could really be significant. >> i want to show you that video i teased up last time. talking about knuckle heads doing dumb things. these are people who are in boynton beach. they thought they could hold on to that rail and ride out these waves. i think eight of them were flipped into the water. they couldn't believe the force of the water. i think a lot of people after this weekend nurturing broken arms and legs or worse will be saying the same thing unfortunately. max mayfield, former national hurricane director, he's with us right now. you have called this, sir, a nightmare scenario, one you thought about for a long time. why this hurricane? why this warning? >> well, you know, i think that's certainly one of my nightmare scenarios i had when i was at the national hurricane center. one reason is just the population at

you know, we have now according to ocean county officials 95% of long beach island is vacated. there are few remaining residents who have refused to evacuate, but 95% of those folks on long beach island are evacuated. we have reports from cape may county that 98% of cape may county is now evacuated. again, few stragglers staying over, but overall in the majority are evacuated. atlantaic county, we have a report from the barrier islands that about 90% of the people are evacuated from the barrier areas of atlantic county. the concern in particular right now is atlantic city. let me talk to you about that. while we have been extraordinarily successful in evacuating most of atlantic city, we have had some remaining people who refused to leave. these are predominantly senior citizens, about 600 of them or so that live in high rise buildings in atlantic city. we're particularly concerned about them in these high rise buildings, not only because of their age, but the winds projected at 75 miles an hour plus to be coming to atlantic city later tonight and into tomorrow morning. we have

no major reports of flooding on long island.re is enough work here that has some people working even at this late hour. one of the interesting questions we have as you indicated is the subways will be back in business. the long island railroad that happens here will be carrying people or will they? this is a bedroom community for new york and a hub for tourists. you have to wonder how much money the city has lost because of the storm. what kind of economic impact will there be because of the preparations? i put the question to governor cuomo who came to visit this afternoon. >> don't under estimate the damage here. it was prudent that we did what we did and it would have been worse. >> reporter: power outages are a problem here. more than 400,000 customers are still in the dark. about a million customers throughout the state. so as you indicated, marty, everything isn't completely back to normal yet. back to you. >> susan candiotti, thanks for your hard work. good luck to everyone there. it could be days before major cities like

. >> reporter: the storm surged onto the shores of new jersey and long island with strong waves. irene's storm surge was so powerful it ripped this life guard tower from its location on long beach and slammed it against the boardwalk were homes around long beach are flood and people are bailing out the water. in new york city water rushed into the streets of lower manhattan. there is flooding up and down the east coast and in some areas the water is still rising. >> i want people to understand that this is not over. >> reporter: the storm forced airlines to cancel some 10,000 flights but there's good news for stranded travelers. most major airports will be back open on monday. 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 vic

so we are going to be looking at landfall there across the area, new york city or western long island, sustained winds right now, aiblght miles per hour. it is expected to weaken before that, to 75 miles per hour. but, guys, very significant storm system. and because this is such a long duration event, areas are looking at rain in the local areas over 24 hours. that's what we saw in north carolina. and unfortunately, that's going to be the story across the rest of the northeast. >> maria, i'm getting comments on facebook, one from joseph noto who says, ask the meteorologist, what advice do you have for us after the storm hits our area? >> after the storm, that doesn't mean head out, start exploring. there is a lot of flooding. we reported about the flashflood warnings, meaning that's ongoing, d.d c., baltimore. once the storm is gone and, you know, you look outside and things look pretty good. there will be flooding and a lot of things hidden in the water. power lines could be down, it's extremely dangerous. we do get reports, once the hurricane is gone of fatalities after the landfal

whoa. >> okay, oh my god. >> reporter: and about 418,000 people are still without power here on long island. just a short time ago at a news conference here in long beach, new york governor andrew cuomo said it could remain that way for many residents for five or six days. >> mitchell: i want to point out that that reporter that you saw there is okay. elaine quijano on long island, thank you very much. irene was the first hurricane to strike new jersey in more than a century. it could cause severe flooding there, well into the week. shaban is in atlantic city with the latest. good evening. >> reporter: here in new jersey, 650,000 people are still without power and along the jersey shore more than a million have been evacuated. and the strong winds, they're still here. irene's eye may have passed new jersey, but the storm's outer band still have its sights set on the state. the governor says threats of flooding could continue for the next two days. >> some rivers haven't crested yet and it's still raining in various parts of the state. >> reporter: in atlantic city irene's storm surge overfl

we go first to elaine quijano in new jersey's long beach island. >> reporter: hello, scott. well, here in long beach, people are just beginning to venture out, and officials are just beginning to assess the situation. and while the worst certainly appears to be over here, at its height, this storm system a harrowing ordeal. >> go, go, go! >> reporter: as water from irene pushed over long island, steve tried desperately to push it back. you have how many people working just this one building? >> we have three people here right now. we have another three people at other properties. we have probably 15 people all together working tonight. >> reporter: the only thing separating the property he manages from a wall of irene-driven water is a sand dune that's holding for now. could you feel like you might be fighting a losing battle here? >> well, this is the reason why we're setting up these pumps now. we're trying to stay ahead of everything. so i have another building i need to go to similar to this building, where we'll set up another pump and try tow stay basically ahead of it.

jersey shore, long beach island and now they have both lanes westbound off of long beach island and a long history of violent destruction along the jersey shore from past hurricanes, and this is mimicking those past hurricans.s in the new york city area where where we have the elbow between new jersey and long island, the water is going to pile into the elbow and that is why the mayor is ordering the evacuations, and that is going to mack the water high in lower manhattan and in the southern part of brooklyn and the rockways and up the hudson river to some degree although the hudson river side is higher. and the south shore of long island, extreme danger right at the coast as the water and the full force of this thing will pile against that south shore, and then points north. the main issue inland and this is going to go all of the way back into north carolina inland is that tremendous amount of rain is expected, up to a foot of rain on top of the saturated soil and the trees there are not able to withstand this kind of wind and trees will come down and power out and coastal flooding