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CNN Saturday Morning News

Hurricane Irene Coverage: Hurricane Irene Now Over Land; Interview With Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Mayor Michael Bloomberg Appeals to NYC Residents to Seek Cover, Heed Warnings; New York Prepares for Irene; Category 1 Irene Drenches Wilmington; MLK Memorial Dedication Ceremony Pushed Back Due to Weather

Aired August 27, 2011 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: We're at the top of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

We have special coverage of Hurricane Irene for you. It did make landfall just about an hour ago as a Category 1 storm. It made landfall in North Carolina, as expected. This is the most up-to-date satellite we can show you here.

It is showing some wear and tear, however. It's not as organized as it once was, even called - described as sloppy by one of our reporters this morning. It's been lashing out on the North Carolina coastline for hours this morning.

We're expecting storm surge on the outer banks and other coastal communities, expected to be significant. That's a concern we are going to see up and down the East Coast today. People are getting ready.

And in so many cities where people are getting ready, these are places folks aren't used to dealing with hurricanes. They're going to be tested in their hurricane preparedness in places like New York City. Yes, they are getting ready there for the storm to come tomorrow, hundreds of thousands in low-lying areas of New York told to evacuate.

Also, the president chiming in, so if you wouldn't listen to me about how serious this storm is, maybe you'll listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All indications point to this being a historic hurricane. Although we can't predict with perfect certainty the impact of Irene over the next few days, the federal government has spent the better part of last week working closely with officials in communities that could be affected by this storm to see to it that we are prepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And we do have our cover - our reporters out covering every angle of this storm. We several reporters in North Carolina. They have been getting battered, like the people of North Carolina have been getting battered by the storm this morning.

Also in D.C., where they're expecting some of the storm to come that way. Also D.C. is where a lot of plans had to change for the weekend, including that MLK memorial that was going to be dedicated tomorrow. That's not happening.

And also, we have a couple of reporters in New York.

But let's start once again with our Reynolds Wolf in Kill Devil Hills, on the outer banks. Reynolds, hello once again. Give us the update. Every time we come to you, the picture seems to change.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, T.J. And, I've got to tell you, right now we're getting a combination of both the rain and some sand that are just blasting right through us.

I'll tell you, at the same time, up on the balcony, up on the third floor, we've got CNN photojournalist Orlando Ruiz.

Orly, I know you're up there. Folks, pardon me. This is a little inside baseball stuff. Orly, if you need to wipe the lens - there you go, chief - you do it as much as you have to. I think the world knows we're in a hurricane.

At the same time, Scott Garber, our truck engineer, has done an amazing job with audio. So, T.J., if you have any questions, you ask right away.

But, let me tell you what's happening. Obviously the rain is coming in. The rain has just been relentless. Everything's coming up onshore.

Jacqui Jeras mentioned a while ago that there was a fatality farther off the coast, farther down, someone surfing the other day. They couldn't rescue him because the conditions were too rough.

If we can - I know it's going to be difficult for you to see, (INAUDIBLE) coming in, you can see everything is just white foam out there. A few waves here and there in some places, other places the waves you can't even see. It's just one solid mass of water that continues just to come right on in, all the way up to the dunes. It's gotten considerably higher since our last update. I expect more of the same.

With that water across the island, the main boulevard that covers parts of Kitty Hawk, you got water that's coming up there. More water, heavier rainfall will fall across part of the Tar Heel State, the result, at least, of widespread flooding. It's not - couldn't happen. It is all but certainty. So, please be advised, you're going to be dealing with this, more of this, up the Eastern seaboard.

You know, T.J., tell you about the outer banks, really no stranger to this kind of weather. It's typical. You get this kind of stuff. Basically, it's what you can - you come to expect of the outer banks. Something else you expect on the outer banks, Southern hospitality. Let me tell you, Southern hospitality was not a big thing the other day when they told people, the 250,000 people that normally are out here on a day in August, they told them to get out. People were able to heed the warnings. They took out from the - from the mandatory evacuations.

Just yesterday, just over 24 hours ago, they had the mandatory evacuation for the 57,000 residents that call the outer banks of North Carolina home. Many of them heeded that evacuation. Many of them left days before. But there are a handful that will remain on the outer banks.

They were warned, though, if it there's any kind of medical emergency, if there's any kind of situation where they're flooded, they need to be rescued, that will not happen until after the storm subsides.

T.J., I'm going to pitch it back to you. But if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

HOLMES: That's all right, buddy. We will let you continue to keep it together out there.

That's our Reynolds Wolf that has been on Kill Devil Hills for the past several hours. And, if you weren't here with us first thing this morning, when we started, Reynolds had kind of a - a calmer position there. It certainly changed dramatically since we - he started reporting about four hours ago from there.

But then, on the other side of that, John Zarrella has been in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, today. And, John, you all have kind of switched roles, because earlier this morning it was really whipping up where you are. Now things have calmed down there as they've kicked up where he is.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. That's - that's exactly right. So I know what Reynolds is going through right now. We went through that same thing about three, four hours ago.

Real interesting, you know, as the hurricane (INAUDIBLE) toward us, we were getting winds out of the north and the east as the storm was approaching us with a counterclockwise circulation. Now, as the storm has gone by us and we're on the back side of the storm here, the wind is coming out of the west, coming across us this way.

Now, we know that about 26,000, 27,000 people at last count in North Carolina who lost power. We had an opportunity just a little while ago to get in the car and ride down Fort Macon Road, which is the main drag. I don't know if that video is in-house there in Atlanta yet, but what we were able to see is a lot of standing water.

Yes, we got - we had a lot of standing water. You can probably see some of the damage. Maybe what you're seeing now, that storm surge impact, that's about two miles away from here along the beach, and pilings from piers, piling from docks, wood - all has been pushed ashore there. And right up against the seawall, over the wall there, the sand is on the road, and I noticed - I went over and I marked about a foot up on the buildings, just about a foot, no more than that, about a foot up on the buildings is where the water level was.

So, not a real, real high surge, but they definitely had storm surge there, and the sand was washed across. And a lot of debris washed even further, probably about 100 yards in from the beach. They had 150 yards of the beach. The water came up all the way over there, came up over the piling, over the wall, and then washed about 100 yards inland.

So we're going to try and get over to that location in a little bit to bring you some live reporting from there so folks can get a real good idea of how - and this is a Category 1 hurricane. When you see that damage and when you see the standing water, that's just from a Category 1 storm. Thank goodness that's all we ended up with here, or it certainly would have been exceedingly worse than what we've seen here.

No structural damage that we were able to see, which is very good news. A couple of trees down, and, as I mentioned, a lot of standing water on the roadway. And then that storm surge damage - impact. Let's call it impact, not damage, that we saw down - down about two miles from here - T.J.

HOLMES: All right, John Zarrella for us in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Thank you once again.

We're about 10 minutes past the hour now. We're expecting in the next 10 minutes to hear from the New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the preps in a city that's not used to having to prepare for a hurricane. They're preparing now because right now the projections look like it could - it could go right through New York.

We'll get to that when he steps up. It's supposed to happen about 9:20 Eastern Time.

But first, let's talk about the federal response right now. Federal officials have been urging people to listen to them and get out of the way of this storm.

Well, I'm joined now by the Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. She's at the FEMA headquarters in Washington this morning.

Ma'am, I know it's a busy morning for you all. We appreciate your time. Do you have any updates right now about what's happening in North Carolina as far as power outages and any damage reports coming back in to you?

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Those will come in to us, and I expect to speak with the North Carolina governor, Governor Perdue, very shortly.

But the storm has made landfall. It is a Category 1, which is, you know, above 79-miles-per-hour. It is now beginning to move up the Atlantic seaboard, as had been predicted. And so it's all about preparation, then response, then recovery.

That window of preparation is quickly closing, but we are urging people, if you are in an area where your governor or mayor has said there's a mandatory evacuation order, please abide by that order. And even if you're not in an evacuation zone, please know this is a big storm that covers a lot of territory. Be prepared. Have some food, flashlight, batteries, extra water, the source of things that will help you get through in case particularly power is out for some period - some period of time.

HOLMES: And, Madam Secretary, I have here with me General Russel Honore. I've been talking to him this morning. Of course you know him. A lot of people got familiar with his and his response with the military down in Katrina.

And something he said today, this is certainly a post-Katrina response. There were so much that was learned and we prepare so - so much differently now. And he said the federal government, military has prepared and done what they were supposed to do here, but some of it now is the people and the responsibility of the people and preparing themselves for it.

Do you think North Carolina and up the East Coast, as you see it right now, have the people done their job and either, one, evacuated like they were supposed to; or, two, you know, get that water, get that food, do what they're supposed to do? So - so have the people done their job?

NAPOLITANO: I think by and large the people realize they're part of the team here. It's every - it's every person. It's the communities, the states, and then the federal government. So I think, by and large, people have been very careful, very responsible.

And then I - I also think that once they see the coverage of what happens when landfall actually occurs, it emphasizes that this is a big storm; it has a lot of impacts, not just during the period when the storm is there but also in the aftermath.

Now, we're also urging people to make sure that you have enough for a - a few days because, as - as much as we are coordinated at the local, the state, the federal level, it does take time over this huge swath of territory to make sure that you repaired everything that has been affected by Irene.

HOLMES: All right, Madam Secretary, I have to let you go now. I know you've got a lot of rounds to make, a lot of people wanting to talk to you this morning. But we appreciate you taking some time with us and talking to our viewers. Thank you so much.

NAPOLITANO: Thank you.

HOLMES: And we're 13 minutes past the hour. Let me turn to Jacqui Jeras now here at CNN's Hurricane Headquarters.

And is this storm behaving how the Hurricane Center and other meteorologists predicted it would behave? JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, I would say it is, other than the intensity. It's a little bit weaker than we thought it was going to be when it makes landfall. But the thing you have to keep in mind with a storm like Irene is its size, because size really makes a difference.

A bigger storm impacts more people and a bigger storm has greater storm surge, that water that comes up along the coastline and raises up. And we've seen that across the outer banks, anywhere between five and eight feet. I mean, hello, I'm 5'6", so that - I mean, that is a lot of water that's coming onshore, flooding this area. A lot of beach erosion. The power outages already in the hundreds of thousands in Virginia and North Carolina combined, and we're getting reports of hundreds of trees which have been downed.

So people are going to be without power for days. The flooding is occurring. We've seen five to seven inches in this area of North Carolina as well.

And it's a Category 1. It's 85-miles-per-hour, and so, you know, we're hoping for the best, as we've been saying all along. And it's better than we thought it was going to be in terms of intensity, but that doesn't mean that it's no big deal. This is still a big storm, it's still very high impact for a whole lot of people.

Let's show you the radar picture here. We had landfall about 7:30 on Cape Outlook right here, and you can see that core, the center of the storm. It's making its way north, northeast now. And this is where the strongest of the winds are going to be and the heaviest of downpours - New Bern, down towards Havelock. Jacksonville had wind gust reports of 115 miles per hour, so you know that's causing a lot of damage.

We've had a number of tornado warnings. No ground truth just yet other than one late last night, causing some damage. But Chesapeake is under a tornado warning once again. We've had a lot of these little spin-ups, so that can be expected throughout this entire storm.

The other impact, the rainfall is going to be so heavy with this thing, six to 10 inches, locally heavier amounts within the path of this storm. So look at this, from North Carolina all the way up through New England, and that is going to be a big flood threat. We've already seen a lot of flash flooding, more can be expected.

Winds are going to be a problem. We're going to talk a little bit more later on this hour when I see you again, T.J., about how many million people are going to be impacted by these winds, how far out they're going from the center of the storm, and just how much damage we think that that's going to cause. That's coming up in another few minutes.

HOLMES: Looking forward to it. Jacqui, thank you once again.

We're at a quarter past the hour now. Coming up next, I want you to stick around and hear what General Russel Honore has to say. You know his name, know his face. He was the one in charge of the military response at Hurricane Katrina, and he says, yes, we do a pretty good job now preparing for hurricanes, but there's one area we still need to improve on.

He's with me, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Twenty minutes past the hour now on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

You're seeing a picture here from Duck, North Carolina. We'll get to New York here in a second, but this is still in North Carolina, where the storm made landfall just a short time ago, about an hour ago. You see one reporter, a local reporter there, out there reporting for his local station. But, just to give you an idea, this thing is still whipping up. It's really been battering North Carolina for the past several hours.

And landfall has made difference in - a difference in some places, with winds kicking up, and it's made a difference in some other places. They're starting to get a little quieter right now. But, really, it has really been under the gun for the past several hours there in North Carolina.

Now, again, like I mentioned, New York - New York is getting ready because the storm, at least from the projected path, is on its way.

Poppy Harlow is there in Manhattan, where a lot of people are not used to being prepared for a hurricane. And you were told - you got a little reminder yourself not too long ago about hurricane preparedness and you were told you had to evacuate.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: That's exactly right. Yesterday afternoon the mayor said if you live in Zone A - that means a lot of Lower Manhattan - you got to move. My apartment is about a block from the ocean. I am surrounded by water on all three sides, T.J., so I had to get out after we got off the air late last night, packed a bag, left about 4:00 this morning myself.

And 370,000 other New Yorkers are now under mandatory evacuation here in the city. It is the first time in the history of this city that the mayor has issued a mandatory evacuation. That - that gives you an idea of the severity of it.

And the folks that I have with me, the Pirela family right now, from Far Rockaway. That - that, to give you some perspective, in Queens, right out by JFK, right by the water. Elizabeth, the mother of these two girls, her grandchildren here. This is four-year-old Christopher, obviously his first evacuation.

Tell me about the process this morning, getting here on the subway very, very early, trying to get here before public transit shuts down at noon.

ELIZABETH PIRELA, EVACUEE FROM NEW YORK: We packed this morning a couple of bags, mostly for the baby, took the train before noon because we heard - I thought it was at 5:00 P.M., but my daughters told me it was 12:00. So we left 7:20 on the A train and came over here to Manhattan, to the evacuation center.

HARLOW: So you're here with about 50 other people. They can hold about 500 people, T.J., in this evacuation center.

What was interesting, your daughters - you guys were telling me that a lot of your neighbors, your friends, a lot of your family, they're not leaving even though they're in Zone A, in the evacuation zone. They're even talking about it on Facebook.

ROSALYN PIRELA, EVACUEE FROM NEW YORK: Yes. They're making jokes, commenting how it's going to be a little bit of rain. They're going to sit in the house and eat popcorn and laugh at everyone being scared.

HARLOW: Really?

R. PIRELA: Yes. And me and my sister was discussing, like, wow, they're really not taking this any seriously.

HARLOW: You have a - a 10-month-old daughter here. Did you have any question in your mind if you wanted - that you were going to get out and - and get to - get to a shelter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was going to leave. As soon as I heard it, I was like, oh, we got to pack our stuff and go to a safe area. Like a - in (ph) the kids' sake because it's not just thinking about yourself. You got to think about kids, too.

HARLOW: I think that's a very important point, T.J., is that families need to think about their kids, get their - get their kids moved out, T.J. As you know well, we've been saying all morning, public transit here, the subway, which is exactly how the Pirela family got here, that shuts down completely at noon, so if people don't have a car, like lots of New Yorkers, it's going to - they' re going to have a very hard time getting to the shelters.

Meantime, you got 91 evacuation shelters all over the city. Food has been coming in here since 6:00 A.M. this morning, water. The city is prepared, but people need to get here, T.J.

HOLMES: It's important for us to reiterate, Poppy. Very important. People got about two and a half hours if they need to get somewhere via public transit in New York. You're running out of time if that's your only mode of transportation.

Poppy, thank you. We'll check in again.

We're about 23 past the hour. We're expecting to hear from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. I'm keeping an eye here on the picture, the live picture, but he's not ready just yet. But when the mayor does start, Mayor Bloomberg, going to be updating the people of New York, we will go to him live when that does happen. But, right now, I want to continue my conversation with Retired U.S. Army General Russel Honore. You know the name and the face from Hurricane Katrina, led the military response to that storm. And, again, starting - just looking at this picture, see, it looks like the mayor has shown up. But when he starts talking we'll go to that here, General, so if I have to interrupt you, I apologize.

Give me your reaction to what you just heard from those viewers. Oh, excuse me, from those New York residents -

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Absolutely.

HOLMES: -- saying that people were laughing, to hear that people are not taking this seriously. Just, you looked at me and you pointed, like, huh.

HONORE: That's the reality of the situation, in preparing, that the first casualty of any disaster is the plan, that people expect since we published the plan that the citizens will react.

If we get a 50 percent evacuation in this area of New York, I'll be very surprised. It will probably be more like 15 to 20 percent evacuation. That's just the way the numbers work out, on average.

Now, people who need this message the most right now are down in the Virginia Beach area. But the ones that need it the most probably can't hear us now because they don't have power.

HOLMES: And let me jump in here -

HONORE: So if you've already been hit, get ready.

HOLMES: All right, let me jump in here. It looks like the mayor is getting ready. Do we - I'm not sure we have sound, but I can tell he's at least - he's talking.

I'm told we don't have the sound of him talking. Now, I hear a little something. Not exactly sure what he's saying and what he's trying to describe in the picture here. I'm hearing a little something. We don't have the actual microphone on him.

So he's just getting himself ready. So I'll continue my conversation with you, General Honore, and that is what we need to reiterate here.

You talked about the most vulnerable among us and this culture we need to build. It might take some time, but this culture of before you hop in your car and take off, that elderly neighbor of yours, or the other person down the street that's less fortunate that doesn't have that means of transportation, go check on them. Give them a seat. Get them out of town with you.

HONORE: Absolutely. We are all our own first respondents, and we take care of our families, look for our neighbor, our friends and our relatives. That's the only way this is going to work. Government will never be good enough to execute this. This is something people will have to come to grips with, that when the mayor says evacuate, those people we just talked to on the street there that it came to the center, think about all their friends that didn't come.

Look, we didn't put anybody on the helicopter after Katrina, when they got on the helicopter and looked down and said, look, I'm leaving my Cadillac. We picked up poor, disabled and elderly people.

HOLMES: The - the government, as you mentioned - that you've been saying, there's only so much the government can do. And, you know what? This storm has come up as a Category 1, and afterwards, hopefully, we all pray that the damage will be minimal and there will be no loss of life or it's certainly minimal. And it might look like the government and everybody did a great job.

But if this was a Category 2 or 3 or a stronger storm, we'd be talking about a different scenario now, and things wouldn't look so rosy.

HONORE: Absolutely, and particularly with the water and wind damage, as this thing come through North Carolina and Virginia. And Virginia is more vulnerable right now because when you think Hampton roads and all of the inlets and the water churning, pushing in there, it could have a lot bigger impact as we speak in terms of tidal surge damage than it had on North Carolina, which is mostly an outer banks, tourist area along those - the beach areas.

HOLMES: What do you say to those folks? Some may be watching right now - and it looks like actually Mayor Bloomberg is stepping up to the - the podium here, so I'll have - maybe have to wait to ask you that question in just a moment.

But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepping up to the podium to update us all and certainly his residents about the preparedness of his city, a city that he has ordered a few hundred thousand evacuations.

Let's go ahead and listen in. (JOINED IN PROGRESS)

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK CITY: -- of the elevated train, that's not going to be here after noon, and I think that's the message that people have to start understanding. But, starting at noon today, which is in only two and a half hours, mass transit is not going to be available if you have to leave. You have to start right now.

Now, we've heard that lots of people are leaving, and that's great. And we're joined here by some people who can help us get the message out. We have Council Member Domenic Recchia, Council Member Mike Nelson, State Assembly Member Alec Borkowski (ph), Congressman Jerry Nadler and Borough President Marty Markowitz, of course, is here. We can't come to Coney Island without Marty being here. And I did want to thank the Inspector Peter DeBlasio, the Commanding Officer of the 60th Precinct, for hosting us today.

The hurricane has hit ground in North Carolina. New York City is under a hurricane warning. We expect a strong Category 1 storm to hit us tonight, with winds between 55 and 75 miles an hour.

Now, people get confused and say, oh, that's down from 115. The great danger to us here is from the storm surge, and there's no evidence that that is - that the forecast for that is changing. It is going to be a very serious thing as far as we can tell now.

If the storm were to head directly east and get away from us, nothing could make us happier. But you can't prepare for the best case. You have to prepare for the worst case. And that's why yesterday we issued a mandatory evacuation order for the more than 370,000 New Yorkers residing in the low-lying areas called Zone A areas, and in the rest of the Rockaways, which is classified as Zone B. The difference with Zone B and Zone A, Zone B is higher, but the Rockaways are a special case because if the bridges get closed, there's no way off the island and it would be very difficult for us to provide emergency services.

The steady stream of New Yorkers leaving these areas have been coming into some of the 91 evacuation emergency service - shelter facilities we've set up throughout the city. We have a capacity for something like 70,000 people. Having said that, capacity is a little bit misleading. We do not have beds for 70,000 people, but we'll make do with whatever we can.

To ensure security and safety, we've increased the police protection throughout the evacuation zone. We also have 10 teams of firefighters, two in each borough, using school buses to help evacuate homebound elderly and nursing home patients. And we still have a few hospitals and nursing homes and adult care facilities in zone A and the Rockaways to go, but some 7,000 patients and residents have already been evacuated.

And I just wanted to point out that the management of those facilities, the senior homes, the nursing homes and hospitals, have been phenomenally cooperative. It has gone so smoothly. They all deserve a lot of credit.

Hopefully, this will have been for naught, but we cannot take risks, particularly with the most vulnerable. We wanted to do those first, and that's basically been accomplished.

We do not, incidentally, recommend that anybody wait for a bus to evacuate. The best thing to do is to use your own or public transportation to get yourself to a shelter, and that means you've got to do that right now, two and a half hours left for mass transit.

City employees, if you volunteered to help serve in the shelters today, we need you to report to your sites now. It is going to be very difficult to get to or from these sites, and when with people show up really are going to make a difference.

To those city employees who volunteered, thank you so much for doing so, but we need you to start making that trip. Bring some stuff with you if you have to stay for a while, but you really are going to make a difference for those in this city who aren't as fortunate as of rest of us.

The NYPD is also sending vehicles with sound equipment throughout the area to broadcast the message that this is a dangerous hurricane that is approaching and residents must evacuate to safety. They will be doing that all afternoon, into the evening, but keep in mind if you want to evacuate later on you're going to be on your own. You'll have to walk or you'll have to find some way to use a car or taxi.

For those residents in the Rockaways and low-lying areas of zone A who have not yet left, I want you to take a look at the pictures which the press just took of these small boats. You've probably seen boats like this before. There's lots of news footage after Hurricane Katrina that was certainly full of images of these boats and the emergency responders that rode through the flooded streets rescuing stranded residents.

We hope we won't need these boats here, but just let me point out it's not the same as Katrina where you have a lot of water that stayed around for a long time. Here what we're expecting is a tidal surge that comes in with the storm surge on top of it. It would flood an awful lot. It would do a lot of damage to mechanical equipment.

And to protect us-and awful lot of buildings including all of nitro facilities are turning off their elevators. Because they don't want people stuck in them if, later on, the water, or the wind-or what's possible also, that Con Ed has to turn off some of its power in lower Manhattan because if salt water gets on these cables when they are being used, the damage is substantial. There's a lot less damage to cables if salt water gets on them when they don't carry any current. Con Ed will make that call later on, but it's conceivable in downtown Manhattan, for example, there will be no electricity as well as a lot of water in the streets.

Let's stop thinking this is something that we can play with. Staying behind is dangerous. Staying behind is foolish and it's against the law. We urge everyone in the evacuation zone not to wait until there are gale-force winds and driving rain to leave, not to wait until the public transportation system starts slowing down today. It's going to be too late. The time to leave is right now.

We just won't have the resources to get everyone in the evacuation zones out after the storm hits. We'll need our first responders to respond to life threatening emergencies. So to those who need to evacuate, should do it now.

It this, incidentally, means that now to business owners as well, if you have a business in the evacuation zone, you should close up shop and evacuate along with everyone else. Please take necessary precautions, including turning off propane tanks, gas and electrical utilities at the main switches.

New York City doesn't have a lot of real-life experience with hurricanes. We've watched them from afar, as they've ravaged other parts of the nation. Thank God we've never really experienced that kind of destruction here, but that does not mean that it can't happen. It can, and we must be prepared. That's exactly why we developed our Coastal Storm Plan back in 2006,to prevent the kind of problem that's we saw during Katrina.

So, please, heed these warnings and get yourself to safe to before the bad weather hits.

As I mentioned earlier, the MTA will be shutting down the public transportation system at noon. What that means is the last train leaves the station, but you can't count on being on the last train. It may be overloaded or maybe it's already passed you. You must assume that after noon there's no public transit.

Staten Island Ferry Service will be suspended by 10:00 p.m. tonight or earlier if the winds come earlier. City bridges may close if high winds make driving across them dangerous. The TBTA (ph) and the Port Authority Bridge, which tend to be the bigger higher bridges may close even earlier.

The beaches are closed for the weekend, as will all cultural institutions. Once the storm hits, it's just not safe to be in the parks either. The risk of falling tree limbs is serious, and people can get killed there. And for the surfers, we all know that it's a lot of fun to catch a big wave. This storm is dangerous and we just don't have the resources, we don't want to put our first responders' lives in jeopardy to try to save you.

During the storm, please stay off the streets and sidewalks to prevent injury, and stay away from the windows if you live on the tenth floor of a high-rise, or above that. The risk of window damage is greater so be smart to stay away from the windows, or go to a lower floor. If the low-lying areas, of the city begin to flood, I mentioned Con Ed may have to shut down power lines. Nitro buildings will be shutting down their elevators, as will other buildings. If you're using generator power, please do not have a generator inside your house or apartment. Carbon monoxide fumes kill.

In terms of our city buildings, all construction has been stopped. Our inspectors are working to make sure the construction sites are locked down.

Homeowners and residents, if you haven't done so already, please bring outdoor furniture inside, plywood, trash cans, any loose items that can blow around. In conclusion, if you live in the low-lying areas, A areas, or the Rockaways, you have to leave and you should start right now. Do not delay. Do not wait for the weather to be bad.

It's starting to rain here in Coney Island right now. This is just the beginning. You say it's a few drops. This is going to be a very serious storm no matter what the track is, no matter how much it weakens. This is a life threatening storm to people here.

For our Spanish speaking audience - (speaking foreign language)

HOLMES: All right, 37 minutes past the hour.

You've been listening to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaking for the past 10 minutes or so giving an update, doing it in Spanish now. To our viewers and to specifically the folks in New York, he started for a reason talking about public transit because the clock is ticking on you folks. We know in New York a lot of people don't have cars, people don't drive because there is such a great public transit system there.

People depend on the buses and the trains, the subways. Well, you have got about two and a half hours before all of that is shut down. So if you need to get somewhere and get away, to flee this storm that's on the way, you only have about two and a half hours to do it, literally. The clock is ticking on you.

He said staying behind is foolish. Another point he made, which I'm going to bring Jacqui Jeras on in here in just a minute, we talk about that cone of uncertainty. Maybe the storm will go to the left a little, maybe it will go to the right, maybe it won't do exactly what it's projected to do. But still, no matter what it does, even if it veers off a little bit, the mayor is saying -- and maybe Jacqui will agree -- you still have a storm that's coming. You still are going to get something from the storm, even if it's not a direct hit. So he's warning people to get out, several hundred thousand, 370,000 specifically, people were ordered to evacuate some low-lying areas of New York.

So a major concern for that city, even though the storm right now is still 24 hours away from the city. It's battering North Carolina right now. But New York, it doesn't have a lot of practice with this quite frankly. And the mayor admitted as such. So people right now, even this morning the sun was out a little bit, and certainly it was yesterday. People not thinking bad weather or bad storm is coming. Don't wait until the storm gets bad, until the weather gets bad and then think, oh, maybe I should get out of here now. He's saying now is the time to do it.

It's 40 minutes past the hour. We'll be talking to our Jacqui Jeras, our meteorologist and also our reporters up and down the coast today, including in North Carolina. We have extensive coverage for you of Hurricane Irene, which made landfall just over an hour or so ago in North Carolina. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. 43 minutes past the hour. Let's say hello once again to Brian Todd.

Brian, can you hear me all right out there? He's in Wilmington, North Carolina, for us this morning.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can hear you fine and give you a quick update what's going on here. The rain and wind hasn't let up since Irene came ashore. Top winds over 60 miles an hour, sustained winds in the 30s. I don't think it's gotten down into the 30-mile-an- hour range. This river behind me, the Cape Fear River, I'm going to walk toward the edge of it here with the swells and whitecaps this is expected to flood later today in the northern areas of the river, just upstream a bit where it's narrower.

Half this county is without power right now, more than half actually. Two-mile stretch of road down here on Carolina Beach, not far from here, that is flooded. We wanted to give people in the Northeast a sense of what it's like here. You heard Mayor Bloomberg with all his warnings about the precautions to take. For people in the Northeast and New York, in those areas who may not have experienced this yet. If you're going to try to go outside, I can tell you what you're going to experience. It's going to feel like thousands of needles are hitting your face every second. Your body is going to be waterlogged to the point where it feels like the rain water is actually inside your body, dripping from your bones it's a given your clothes will be drench within seconds. And I'm afraid rain gear doesn't help that much in these situations.

It's very difficult to walk just a couple of feet. Then walking gets very, very dangerous because you could walk into squalls or puddles on the road that are deeper than you think they are. Trying to cross a street or near a road is dangerous because you better pay extra attention to the traffic because they're likely not looking out for you. So these are just some of the dangers people in the Northeast, who have not experienced this yet, may experience if they try to venture out into this, T.J. We wanted to give people kind of a sense of that.

HOLMES: Thank you for that, our Brian Todd in Wilmington, North Carolina, we'll continue to check in with him and our other reporters up and down the coast in North Carolina, New York, D.C. as well.

Coming up in a moment, the forecast you need to hear from our Jacqui Jeras, our meteorologist in the hurricane headquarters for us this morning. We'll tell you exactly where this storm is, where it's headed, and when it may get to you. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We're about 12 minutes of the top of the hour.

You were hearing from Michael Bloomberg a short time ago, the mayor of New York, talking about the storm that's on its way. Well, just across from New York in New Jersey, Hoboken in particular, they've issued an order there for people to evacuate, a mandatory evacuation, of all ground floors.

If you are on the ground level of some building they have issued an evacuation order, a mandatory evacuation. So essentially what they're saying is, you need to seek higher ground. So all ground floor units in this Hoboken, New Jersey, need to be evacuated. To give you an idea, Hoboken just north of Jersey City. This is just across the way from New York, just across from Manhattan. Telling people they need to get off the ground floor. Jacqui Jeras here with me, giving me a forecast. We have I said 24 hours earlier, but the projection, is it something like that, when the storm will probably get to New York/New Jersey, that area?

JERAS: Yes. If you heard my microphone open up, sorry. Somebody was just asking me off camera, what now, they're issuing that evacuation? Is that enough time? The peak of the storm for Jersey is probably not going to be until tomorrow morning. There is a little bit of time that way.

And think about it, you don't have to go that far inland. Right? To get away from this. You have to run away from the water and you don't want to be flooded if you're on the low floors, right? If you're in a high-rise building, you have a friend who lives up on six, that would be good. Right? Those are things you can do in terms of that evacuation. That water is going to start rising, later today. It's going to be a very long, a very slow process. This storm will be us through the entire weekend.

Here's the stats, just to update you, if you're just waking up and joining us, I hope you had a nice sleep-in; 85 miles per hour, that is the maximum sustained winds, a Category 1 storm, but it is a strong storm. We have a lot of intense winds, a lot of damage with trees, mobile home damage being reported and storm surge between 6 and 8 feet throughout the Outer Banks. We had landfall about 7:30. And there's the core of the storm, where the worst of the conditions are at this time.

Let's walk you through the steps here and talk about some of that timing, as you mentioned, in the Northeast and New Jersey. We'll start you out, where this heads on up through the Carolinas today. Virginia Beach, this evening, I don't want you to focus on the time stamp that I'm giving you here. You need to give yourself a window. Maybe, say, three hours or so, either side of that. Ocean City, overnight for you, that's the worst time. And Long Island, we think this is going to be moving in tomorrow morning, say, midday; Boston, mid-afternoon. 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.

HOLMES: All right. 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.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: We're getting close to the top of the hour. We continue to track Hurricane Irene, which came ashore, made landfall here just probably under two hours ago now. Made landfall as a Category 1 storm in North Carolina. We are going to be checking in with our Athena Jones. She's in D.C. for us. Rob Marciano in New York for us this morning.

Athena, let me start with you. D.C., it was supposed to be a big weekend.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was. They were supposed to dedicate the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial tomorrow. It was going to be a big deal on the anniversary of this March on Washington and his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, but that's been postponed. There's a state of emergency here in the city. We don't expect to see the strong winds and rain come until the afternoon, although the winds have picked up.

But city officials here say that they are prepared. We spoke earlier with D.C. Fire and EMS Chief Kenneth Ellerbe and I asked him about the whole Category 1 versus Category 2 situation and whether people should still be concerned. Let's listen to what he had to say, T.J..

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF KENNETH ELLERBE, D.C. FIRE AND EMS: Even a tropical storm can do a lot of damage, so people need to be vigilant. We're prepared and we want them to rest assured that we're prepared for anything that comes up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So one of the ways that the city is helping residents prepare is by handing out sandbags. That's going on today. They handed out 7,000 yesterday and ran out, had to stop around 5:00 p.m. So that's getting started back up again today so that residents can help protect their homes. They're being limited to five sandbags per household, T.J..

HOLMES: Athena Jones for us in D.C., thank you.

Rob Marciano in Long Island for us this morning and you put the jacket on.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I did. You know what, the first official rain bands of Irene have arrived on the Long Island coastline, and quite frankly, I didn't expect it to be that intense. I wanted to put the pants on as well. We'll continue to get these throughout the day. It's starting to lighten up just a little bit.

No lifeguard on duty today on the beach. The looky-loos that were here before, a lot of them have left now that the rain has moved in. But the waves have certainly continued to pick up, and the surfers have not gone home, although it looks like this latest set has taken a little bit of a breather. You talk about Long Island. It's been a long time since we've seen a hurricane come through. In 1991 Bob made landfall east of here, Gloria back in '85, right around here landfall was made. In 1938, take a look at some of these pictures. That was a major landfall. The Long Island Express, it was called, and it did all sorts of damage, cut inlets that weren't supposed to be there. Over 50,000 homes damaged, between 600 and 800 people were killed with that one. We don't expect that to be the case here, but widespread flooding, wind damage in some of the higher buildings, and a lot of tree damage.

And that's going to knock out power for more than just hours, T.J.. It will be days and some folks here on the island will likely be stranded because of some of that inland flooding, which they tried to battle back with some of the man-made berms that they built, but right now, we're watching the seas begin to encroach. By this time tomorrow, they should be well beyond where I stand right now.

HOLMES: All right. Rob, thank you, once again this morning. And those are CNN's reporters you're just hearing from, but we have our iReporters have been sending in pictures and telling stories as well. Josh Levs going through that for us.

Good morning, once again, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. So many videos coming in. Some of our own people are even sending us iReports today. We got this from our own Kim Siegel. This is from Atlantic Beach. I'll be telling you more about it next hour, but you can see a lot of flooding in the streets and the impact it is having. And we're seeing similar images coming in from elsewhere as well. Let's do this now. I want you to see this video. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There went the roof of something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: "There went the roof of something," he just said. That's part of a roof blowing off. That's in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This is from Travis Campbell, who's staying there at a resort, and saw part of a roof over a swimming pool just blow away.

And before we hit the top of the hour here, I want to go to one more video. Take a look at this. This is from a hospital that was evacuating and here's what I want you to see this. We were just hearing from Mayor Michael Bloomberg minutes ago during our hour here on CNN. He was talking about areas of the city that are being evacuated. Well, I spoke with this hospital, Peninsula Hospital Center, which is in Queens. They're being evacuated. They told me 173 beds in that hospital done, evacuated; 200 beds in the nursing home, they're in the process of evacuating now. And listen to this, these 200 people are being taken to 17 different facilities including some in Poughkeepsie and Westchester. I'm from Albany. When you are talking Poughkeepsie, you are already getting pretty far the city. These are facilities all over that section of New York, taking in people this morning.

Obviously, we want to hear from you. You have your iReports, if you are in a position yourself safely send us your images. Go and join the OpenStoryCNN.com. And you have my Facebook, and Twitter, CNN.com/josh. Every which way, we are hearing your stories this morning.

T.J., back to you.

HOLMES: All right. Josh, thank you.