michael holmes is live in toms river, new jersey. ichael. >> reporter: yeah, erin, that whole area has been battered so badly. we've been out there twice in two days. we've seen house in the middle of the street. gas lines that are just now being brought under control and one of the worst hit areas we got to today, an area familiar to many viewers. that whole new jersey boardwalk area. those entertainment piers. of all the damage brought by sandy, these images are among the those that stand out the most. take a look at before and then the heartbreaking after. this is the casino pier and amusement park in seaside heights. three quarters century old. to television viewers who watched "the sopranos" or the jersey shore or listen to bruce springsteen sing about this place, there might be a sense of familiarity of it. but for millions of americans, this is a deep personal loss. >> that pier was beautiful. it had great rides. every one of you people or half you people has been on that pier. >> reporter: summer memories, a place where their

i want to get to michael holmes.efore you talk about the interview and the interview with the mayor, what's happening where you are? >> reporter: yeah. we just got back an hour or so ago from going over to the barrier islands for the second day in a row and this time we had the police take us to those iconic amusement parks known to millions of americans who spent summer there is. the pictures are just horrifying. the casino pier, it's roller coaster dumped out to sea. still largely intact, bizarrely and the fun time pier and well-known to so many people around the united states, particularly in the northeast. that's utterly destroyed on the seaside front. just an extraordinary amount of damage, entire businesses have gone. we have talked to one of the business owners out there and he was telling us, you know, he grew up there. had a business there for 20 years and standing on the sand and he said, my business was above us. it's all gone now. the amount of cost that could be involved in this is staggering. i want to

cnn's michael holmes is joining us now by nearby toms river. thand, michael. describe it to our viewers. >> reporter: it's catastrophic, wolf. yeah, we went to casino pier, we also went to the nearby fun town pier. and, yeah, casino pier is 300 meters out into the atlantic. and now it is just gone. the roller coaster, the slide jet roller coaster familiar to so many people, the pier disappeared from under it and it fell into the atlantic where it sits remarkably in tact given what it's gone through. extraordinary scenes. and for americans who aren't familiar with it, of course this is a touchstone place. this is a place that is summer for so many americans who have gone there because their parents went through who now take their children there and now it's all gone. anyone who's watched "sopranos" or "jersey shore" or bruce springsteen song, they've heard about the jersey boardwalks, 16 blocks of them, are either splintered or they've been undermined or buckled and they will all have to be replaced. 16 blocks worth of that famed boardwalk. the r

i want to check in with michael holmes in tomsriver, new jersey. michael? >> yeah, anderson, you remember the aerial drops of the barrier islands. today we were able to get on the island and see from a ground level the destruction brought by sandy.is consideratable. these areas are popular with tourists. when sandy hit the full brunt hit some of those houses. hundreds of them had been destroyed or knocked off their foundation. sinkholes that had a pick up in it. one of the problems was see iin gas leaks and fires. we saw houses that were burned to the ground and the gas fires were burning. there are still efforts on going to get the leaks switched off. you could smell the gas in the air you could hear it hissing from the wreckage the houses. you think about the sand dunes. they are gone the water smashed into them the rivers of ocean water taking the sand with it. it is quite a sight. you can't imagine how much work needs to be done to get that place back think it's feet. >> it is going to be a lot of work. appreciate you reporting. joining us now is the bu

toms river where michael holmes witnessed the destruction up close. michael is there now.you got a first-hand look at new jersey's barrier islands today. what was that like? what did you see? >> we are one of the first ones in there among the media. what we saw was pretty shocking actually. we expected it to be bad and we have heard from the first responders who have been in there that it was bad but it was extraordinary. one of the first thing we saw driving through was an entire intact house in the middle of a street. it literally had been blown off and forced off by the water off the foundation and put about 30 yards away from those foundations. the other extraordinary thing we are standing there looking down the road and noticed a puddle of water. it was actually a sinkhole that had a full-size pickup in it that you can barely see above the water line. these are the scenes that greeted the first responders, as well. houses had collapsed on to themselves and others had been blown off their foundations and others did not look to be damaged but then you saw the frame was

also toms river where michael holmes witnessed the destruction up close.a first look at the new jersey's barrier islands today. what was that like? what did you see? >> one of the first ones in there among the media, what we saw was pretty shocking actually. we expected it to be bad, and we heard from some of the first responders that it was bad, but it was extraordinary. one of the first things we saw driving through was an entire intact house in the middle of a street. and it literally had been blown off and forced off by the water off its foundation and put about 30 yards away from the foundations. the other extraordinary thing, standing there looking down the road at something else, and i noticed what i thought was a puddle of water. it was a sinkhole with a full sized pickup in it that you could barely see above the waterline. these are the sorts of things that greeted the first responders as well. houses that are just blown off their foundations, others that did not look at first blush to be badly damaged, but you saw they were twisted. the frame was

michael holmes is just across the bay in toms river, new jersey. you were in seaside heights, you toured it, what did you see? >> reporter: we went right up and down a number of towns there, ocean beach, normandy, and we spent a couple of hours there with the local police chief and i can tell you, it was absolutely extraordinary, the amount of damage that was done by hurricane sandy, erin. you know, there's gas leaks there that have continued to be a problem. we've seen a stream of gas trucks go across the bridge onto those islands to try to shut off the gas. there was one particular area up there in the area of brick where about three or four football fields' worth of houses had been burnt to the ground by fire started by gas leaks so it's a big problem. you can smell it in the air. this was the first opportunity we've had to get over there with our cameras, we were among the first to do so, and there were houses literally in the middle of the street that had been picked up by the force of the ocean and dumped in the middle of the road, still inta

want to bring in michael holmes here. you knew yasser arafat well. see him at the white house once during the clinton administration. you sat down at least on six different occasions d got to know this guy. >> i did over the years. i covered the second intefadeh around that time and early 20000, late 1990s and intervi interviewed him a number of time, april '02, surrounded by israeli forces, and we followed a bunch of protesters who defied that, went in to see him, and warning shots were fired in front of our group and behind our group and we got in and saw him. and got the exclusive interview. that was a memorable occasion. i was at his funeral as well. >> why is there suspicious surrounding his death. >> there is always going to be predictable there would be suspicion how he died, he was that kind of figure. before he was dead, when he was sick there were conspiracy theories swirling around. a lot of the doctors didn't know what he died of. and there was only one medical report that came out that said that he died of a stroke caused by a blood diso

michael holmes has the latest from the coast. >> reporter: these communities holiday meccas, unrecognizable. surf club pounded into pieces, main roads are buckled, famed boardwalks splintered. those who remained and survived wondered and rued their decision to stay. >> we just couldn't believe the devastation, sick to our stomachs and pray that everybody is safe, and we're safe. >> reporter: more and more evacuated to the mainland. many still in shock. >> as i was down in the basement, debris hit one of the windows and burst it open. the water started rushing in. all i could hear was jack say run, run, run! >> reporter: this man, whose wife had alzheimer's, gave in to her pleas to stay in familiar surroundings. >> i really would have gotten out. like i said, with my wife, her condition -- >> jim clancy is also with cnn. jim is in that area right now. jim, is there a sense that the danger has passed? >> reporter: there's a sense that they faced down the destruction that has been caused. they've now seen those images that you showed, you saw the faces of those evacuees, what they've been thro

well, michael holmes here to explain some of this.nk it's viewers, it's helpful to remind them. you have two different sections and you've got hamas that essentially it's not the palestinian authority but hamas responsible for the back and forth with israel and rockets. >> they won the election back in 2006, kicked out fatah, the palestinian authority party in 2007 in a bloody way and ruled the gaza strip ever since. ite ronnie on the west wabank, with abbas, you have a moderate palestinian leader ever in the history of the palestinian cause. and he's essentially sidelined by wall of this. he's irrelevant. he's not involved in the discussions, no power. palestinians are looking for leadership essentially. they're not seeing it from the palestinian authority. and i'm not talking about just the wall that's happened, expansion of settlements but things like a moral bound economy. and hamas is seen as doing something, whether challenging status quo, getting hundreds of palestinian prisoners released through the swap and what's worrying is

mitchell, michael holmes jumping in here.o has looked big picture at this whole region, this whole issue for years now. i am curious, one of the big problems that faces the whole palestinian question is the scism between fatah and palestinian authority and hamas. i wonder if there's a potential out of all of this for some sort of reproachment between the two because that's what's needed to move any kind of negotiation forward. hamas is not going to be able to deliver peace with israel. keep in mind that skism has gone on for several years, and efforts to reconcile have gone on for several years. egyptians have been central to that effort as well. rying to bring the two sides together. there are a lot of policy and other considerations, personality differences, but at the heart of it has been that hamas has always insisted on retaining the right to use force in behalf of their policy goals while fatah under president abbas took the position that nonviolence was the path. now, one of the dangers here is that many people, palest

michael." today, from the new broadway play "dead accounts," katie today, from the new broadway play "dead accounts," katie holmes