. >> we're live in ludlow, vermont. i think things are tough but it helps when your neighbors are around you working together. there's a great deal of that in ludlow but all over vermont. we are main street ludlow and people cope fairly well. people are in better spirits, and here's the thing a short time ago we heard that the national weather service is the flash flood watch for ludlow and for many of the other towns that were just absolutely hammered by irene about a week ago. ludlow and 12 other towns were completely cut off for about two days. that's because there were 260 roads badly damaged. they were scores of bridges that were washed away, and again, word that we're going to probably be seeing a fair amount of more rainfall over the next few days and that's exactly what people who live here do not want to hear because the rivers are so swollen. the folks who really don't want to hear it are the workers who have spent the better part of the past week repairing those bridges and roads. not just the workers here pi

>> well, we saw a lot of destruction and a lot of human despair.l yesterday i was in ludlow, vermont, that's a small town, central part of the state.l five bridges in that one small town are out.l today i was in waitesfield, vermont, and a lot of home were severely damaged and town offices were severely damaged.l nearby there's a trailer park where 80 trailers were severely damaged.l so, we're seeing a lot of pain in the state, and, in fact, what we understand the case to be is this is the worst natural

also want to make quick mention of a concert that was held last night here in ludlow. there was a free concert for folks. money went to the black river foundation. one of the many rivers that flooded here. it was an opportunity for folks who live in this area to sort of take their mind off of the damage, off of the destruction that has so plagued vermont over the past week. >> okay. we'll talk with you later this morning. thank you so much. you heard craig talking about the power and indeed one of the biggest problems following irene continues to be the massive power outages nearly a week after that storm hit, fewer than 1,000 homes and businesses are without power in vermont where craig was but in connecticut we got 120,000 still in the dark there. the state's utility company hopes to get that number down to 100,000 by sometime this evening. moving to new jersey, fewer than 25,000 remain without electricity. new jersey's governor says the board of public utilities plans to hold hearings on the performance of the state's electric companies and then here in new york, 11

that is the very latest from here at ludlow, have vermont. see you back here, alex. s. >> i'm listening to you talk, and i'm picturing people on those beautiful little roads where you feel like you're in the middle of forests, and those are the ones wiped out. yikes. this is going to be a problem. okay. craig melvin, thank you very much. see you again. >> one of the biggest problems following irene continues to be the massive power outages in addition to those road problems. nearly a week after the storm hit, fewer than 1,000 homes and businesses are without power in vermont. then in connecticut 123,000 are still in the dark there. the state's utility companies say they hope to get that number down by sometime this evening. moving to new jersey, fewer than 25,000 remain without power. then in new york 97,000 are still not connected, which include 66,000 on long island, and another 29,000 in upstate new york. let's go now to the economy where the dow took a hit friday in response to the august jobs report. vera gibbons is joining us now with a deeper look at all those

here in downtown ludlow, we're on main street.n see behind me, businesses here, followings here starting to get back to life as usual. this is one of the 13 towns where just a few days ago it was completely cut off from the rest of vermont in terms of electricity and in terms of the ability to get supplies in there. that was, of course, due to the 260 roads that were damaged throughout vermont. scores of bridges as well wiped away by those floodwaters. workers here have spent all week sort of rebuilding that infrastructure. then last night there was a charity concert not far from here, and the idea was to give folks who have been dealing with all of dhaj athat damage and destruction to give them an opportunity to get away from it all. but signs here, literally signs that life starting to return to normal. there are two major concerns right now. the first concern being that tomorrow they are calling for rain. in fact, there's flash flood watches in effect for parts of vermont, which are certainly not what folks around here want to

>> well, we saw a lot of destruction and a lot of human despair.l yesterday i was in ludlow, vermont,hat's a small town, central part of the state.l five bridges in that one small town are out.l today i was in waitesfield, vermont, and a lot of home were severely damaged and town offices were severely damaged.l nearby there's a trailer park where 80 trailers were severely damaged.l so, we're seeing a lot of pain in the state, and, in fact, what we understand the case to be is this is the worst natural disaster in the history of the state of vermont.l roads out, bridges out, many, many homes damaged.l so, there is some serious problems in our state today.l >> the pictures are awesome in the bad sense, senator.l what is the latest information you have about the number of people you might have in vermont that are isolated, that are cut off from any kind of supplies? >> well, i think we're making progress, candy, and breaking through that isolation.l and my understanding is that by the end of today, we should have it broken through and people will be able to get in and out.l in virtually

it is also the full runner of james ludlow's work. he talks in the book about the atmosphere and why the atmosphere works, the way that does which is often created by living things, is important in regulating the earth's climate system. it is an extraordinary lucid, what do i say, prissy prescient work really bad many aspects of our current science particularly holistic science and theory and so forth. what we learned from wall is and his work is that evolution's legacy is not nasty, brutish and short. it is not a survival of the fittest world. instead this mechanism has led to a world of extraordinary intricacy come interconnectedness and cooperation and i just want to run through a few examples of that cooperation. this slide just shows mitochondria, the small organelles that exists in all of ourselves and the power packs for ourselves. it has been realized in the last 30 years or so that this mitochondria actually have nothing to do with us in terms of their origin. they originated as free living back area over a billion years ago