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Hurricane Irene Rumbles Alongside the East Coast; Evacuations In Force From Carolinas To New York; Tracking Hurricane Irene; Inside Gadhafi's Secret Tunnels; Obama to End Vacation Early

Aired August 26, 2011 - 14:05   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Irene is getting closer by the minute. The outer bands of rain and gusty winds are coming on fast in the coastal Carolinas. Hurricane warnings are posted from the South Carolina border to just south of New York City, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia also suspending public transportation. And President Barack Obama is ending his Martha's Vineyard vacation one day early. Late this morning, he called Irene a historic storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I cannot stress this highly enough. If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now. Don't wait. Don't delay. We all hope for the best, but we have to be prepared for the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Irene is on track to follow the Northeast Corridor to New England and beyond. CNN is there. Reynolds Wolf is live from Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Jason Carroll is at Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Athena Jones in Annapolis, Maryland. We'll begin right here in the Weather Center with CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

Chad, give us an idea of what Irene is doing right now.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: One of the first real warnings was just issued in parts of North Carolina, south of Myrtle Beach. It's a flash flooding. There will be many flash flood warnings. If Irene is known for anything 15 years from now, it will be about the flooding that Irene caused. You have to understand in the Northeast how much rainfall has already come down in August. It's completely saturated. Then you get some wind and you get 10 more inches of rainfall. You're going to knock down trees and you're going to get significant flooding. Charleston, you just had a wind gust there of about 40 miles per hour, all the way from Wilmington all the way up into Myrtle Beach, that is where the flooding is occurring right there near Georgetown. We'll keep watching that.

Something else I have been just watching is, I believe, no confirmation yet from the Hurricane Center, this is my eyeball looking at it from 27 years experience. This thing has now picked up speed. I think that if you thing tomorrow you're going to be able to wake up in North Carolina and then get out, it's too late. If you're going to get out of North Carolina, from Morehead, Atlantic City, Ocracoke (ph), you need to get out right now. There will be no time tomorrow. The storm will be on top of you. Even though it's forecast to be 8:00, 10:00, I don't know, noon for landfall. I'm telling you what, it might be as early as 5:00 in the morning.

It's going to be a quick mover now. It's being picked up by upper level winds that are much faster. It's going to shove this thing to the north. If you think it's going to be 8:00 or 10:00 or noon in New York City, got another thing coming on Sunday, too.

You need to be out of there. If you're going to be out, do everything on Saturday. It's moving faster and it's going to be an 80 miles per hour storm in New York City. But it's going to move a lot quicker, that means the right side of the eye, Long Island, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, you may have more of a storm surge because of the quick movement it has now.

WHITFIELD: Let's zero in on the North Carolina, on the coast there. That is where we find our Reynolds Wolf is at Kill Devil Hills.

Reynolds, what are you experiencing now from your vantage point?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The latest are getting right now, the winds are picking up quite a bit. Few more raindrops in the fray. Few more interesting characters on the beach. We have looks like an emergency vehicle up here. Then you also have, you'll notice, looks like a sail board. This gentleman was just out on the water a few moments ago. Now he's out, maybe someone told him to get out. I don't know the situation, but he's taking a break. And he had some pretty good height on some of those waves. Why wouldn't he?

My gosh, when you've got a massive system like Irene stepping closer, you're going to see the conditions deteriorate. We talked about the raindrops coming in. If you look to the south, it's more gloomy back there. Even then, the most alarming thing of all is the empty beaches. Because this time of the year, Fredricka, you'd have up to 250,000 people along the Outer Banks enjoying the beauty of the water and the elements. But they have the evacuations starting yesterday in Dare County. I can tell you, to the north, you have had other counties that have had evacuations.

Today they've had mandatory evacuations to the residents. The interesting thing is, even though it's a mandatory evacuation, it's not like they're going to go into the house and force you to leave and make you go out the door. If you want to stay, you can stay. They strongly advise to pick up and go inland. But for the people that do plan on sticking around, they give you every caution. This is going to be a heck of a storm. One thing Chad mentioned, of course, it is going to have a very long duration of this strong winds, the heavy rainfall, the potential flooding, and of course, the high storm surge. Let's head back to you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Reynolds Wolf. Thanks so much from Kill Devil Hills. Let's head to the north, New Jersey, the coast there where we find Jason Carroll at Point Pleasant Beach. Well, it looks sunny and nice there. People are enjoying that calm before the storm, right?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly what it is. You've heard the warnings coming in. Everyone from New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to the president, Chad. You've heard the warnings. If you're under a mandatory evacuation, you pay attention.

Right now, actually, Frederick, Point Pleasant Beach is under a mandatory evacuation for all of the tourists. If you look on the beach, we've seen and talked to some of them out there on the beach. We've seen them here on the boardwalk. Some people from out of town, still here, still waiting to leave. I want to bring in a family very quickly if I could.

These are the Webbs. They're from Virginia. I've got Mark (ph), Robyn (ph) and Madison.

I know you're in from out of town. When are you planning to leave?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tonight.

CARROLL: So you are planning to leave tonight?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

CARROLL: You heard about the warnings before. Yet you still came down to the beach. Tell me the decision-making process involved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I promised my daughter we would see a Yankees game. That's what I wanted to do. That's what we did last night.

CARROLL: But redirecting when you are hearing the reports coming in right now? Any concerns about having enough time to get done what you need to get done?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I would like to leave now, but he wants to stay until later tonight. We'll head out probably around 10:00. We'll see what happens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. We'll get home by then.

CARROLL: You think you'll get home. You think you are going to listen to your wife on this one?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll get there in time.

CARROLL: You have heard the warnings, to get out earlier is probably better. I think this time we should side with your wife on this one. Hopefully, you guys will make it out safe and sound, right, Madison?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

CARROLL: Thank you very much. Appreciate you joining us.

Once again, they're asking everyone to heed these warnings. Actually, Fredericka an hour from now, at 3:00 o'clock there is going to be a meeting to determine whether or not that mandatory evacuation will extend to the residents here as well.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Jason Carroll.

Let's head a little bit south. Let's go to Maryland, Annapolis, Maryland. That is where we find our Athena Jones.

Athena, you talked about the sandbagging that people are doing, quite aggressively there. What else?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we saw since earlier this morning people coming in and bringing their boats out from behind these slips. Usually you would see it fall around now. People since this morning have been taking their boats out to find safer harbor. Really the message here from the city has been not to take any chances. We spoke with the mayor this morning. They're expecting a three-foot storm surge.

If you look around this area here by the dock, it's a very low- lying area, quite flood-prone. These are businesses that saw several feet of water after the last storm, Isabelle in 2003. If you talk to businesses, you talk to residents, you talk to tourists, you talk to the mayor, they want people to be prepared. There's right now only a voluntary evacuation order for people in low-lying areas. We're talking about maybe 500 to a 1,000 homes that they'd like to see move to higher ground. Back to that whole sandbagging issue, we talked earlier with a man who works at a restaurant just up the pier, about how important it was to get sandbags. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK BASIL, ANNAPOLIS RESTAURATEUR: Right over at High Point Seafood, we got a big vestibule. If we don't have about 60 bags to pile up about hip high, then it's not worth even doing. You have to have a nice high stack. Isabelle came up to about-where we're standing right here was about waist high. This might be a little bit worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And so we've been standing here. We've been here since early this morning. At the beginning of the day, we saw truck after truck coming with sandbags; maybe every 20 minutes or so. Then we saw a bit of a lag time, maybe 40 minutes. We haven't see a truck in a little over an hour, hour and a half.

Just anecdotally, we talked to Chuck Basil, the man you just heard in that sound bite. He said the last load that came through, they were saying we're running out of sandbags. They were only allowing individuals to take six at a time and business toss take 10. I've reached out to the city to find out what the latest is on the whole sandbag situation. It does show you the people are really trying to do all they can to protect homes and businesses.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Six sandbags, 10 sandbags, that doesn't sound like a lot. I can understand why some folks would try to take more than just that. Athena Jones, thank you so much. We'll check back to you throughout the afternoon.

Of course, we're are tracking Hurricane Irene, covering this monster of a storm from every angle. We'll be right back with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hurricane Irene is project today hit the Northeast in less than 48 hours. This is a major concern to the New York City area since the region is not accustomed to storms of this magnitude. New Yorkers in low-lying areas are already under a mandatory evacuation order.

Here are the top five dangers New York City would face if Hurricane Irene were to hit the area.

First, storm surge, water pushing toward the shore by high winds.

Second, debris and lot of it. Downed trees, power lines, cluttered streets, are dangerous anyone trying to get out of harm's way.

Third, this is a big one, no subways. Heavy rain and storm surge from Irene would cause major flooding and potentially bring New York City's public transportation to a halt.

Fourth, economic paralysis. The financial district could easily be flooded by the storm surge. That could paralyze that part of the city for weeks.

Fifth, it is very difficult to evacuate New York City. We're talking about moving more than eight million people on short notice and some wonder if that's even possible.

You've got your emergency kit, food, water, all of that. But is that enough? You'll need to hear the answer from one of the leading experts in disaster preparedness.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Local, state and federal agencies are all coordinating for what's about to come once Hurricane Irene makes landfall. But the other side of that preparedness equation comes down to you.

Take a look at this new CNN poll: -- 45 percent of all Americans say they have had a stockpile of food and water in their homes. About the same say they have emergency kits with new batteries, a radio and first aid supplies.

Let's bring in Doctor Irwin Redlener, who is the head of National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University joining us from New York.

All right, Doctor, that same poll did find, however, that people in the Northeast and living in the big cities, like New York are the least prepared for disasters. So with the hours that remain, what do those unprepared residents need to do right now? What do you best advise?

DR. IRWIN REDLENER, NAT'L. CENTER DISASTER PREPAREDNESS, COLUMBIA UNIV.: Yes, Fredricka, so actually the main thing is to make sure that the essentials are available. And that means in a situation like this, food and water for at least three days, some people are recommending seven days. But a very important note, is two things. One is to make sure if you are on a medication, if you have a medical problem that requires daily medication, make sure you have a sufficient supply of those medications so whatever illness you have does not get out of control.

The second thing, if you have in your family or among your circle of people that you're caring for, children or senior citizens or people with disabilities, please -- people should make sure they have what they need to take care of the babies, or grandma, whoever else might need special attention. Including baby formula, diapers, things to occupy the children if the electricity is out and so forth.

WHITFIELD: OK. Talking about people with disabilities or if you're dealing with the young children, or perhaps the families are kind of spread out, your recommendation to get everyone together under one roof?

REDLENER: It might not be practical to get everyone under one roof. What you can do is make sure that wherever mom or dad or grandma is that there's somebody there to make sure that they have what they need. Or you should make sure yourself and go back to your own place if that's possible. Those are the people that are going to be most vulnerable, the disabled, the elderly, and kids.

WHITFIELD: Let's talk about sustenance, food, the things that people need to get. Sometimes they aren't sure what to get. They start thinking about what they may want to eat. But then you have to be able to either prepare it, you have to be able to open it with a can opener, not the electric kind. Give kind of your recommended list of the kinds of food stuff that people need to get at this late notice.

REDLENER: Sure. Let me just say first of all about water, staying hydrated is extraordinarily important and the recommendation is one gallon per day for every adult; less so obviously for children.

As far as foods are concerned, you can keep bread, you can keep peanut butter, keep canned goods as long as you have a can opener. It's got to be, as you pointed out, very rightly, a manual old- fashioned type of can opener. You can open a can of tuna fish or sardines, vegetables, many, many things could be kept in cans and then opened when you need them. Also, things that are nonperishable inboxes; so cold cereal, even if you don't have milk or there's plenty of milk available that doesn't need refrigeration. You want things that won't spoil. That won't require electricity to get to. There's a wide range of choices like that. I think if we plan to be able to feed ourselves and our family for three, four, five days, that would be more than enough.

Now, are there going to be situations where electricity may be out for seven days or longer? Yes. But I think people need to do right now what's reasonable. When you're shopping, don't forget the batteries, and don't forget that you may have to leave wherever you are. You may have to be evacuated. In which case, you'll need to have pre-thought-have thought about in advance what it is that you want to take with you. Including not only some food and water and things that are essential for the family, but maybe important papers you don't want to leave behind.

WHITFIELD: If you have a car and that transportation is something you rely on, hopefully you get a chance to fill up the gas tank today as well. You know, back to that water. When you talk about the amount of water that each person should have for a period up to seven days, you best advise as well just filling the freezer, even if you lose power. At some point you may have some cold items in your freezer.

REDLENER: Right.

WHITFIELD: Or fill up the bathtub or sinks with water, too?

REDLENER: That's all doable. The one thing is that whatever happens, you want to keep the refrigerator and the freezer doors closed as much as possible. Open it up, grab what you need and close it. Actually, cold will be sustained for quite some time, but not forever. The freezer, of course, it's even colder. So food should actually stay pretty good in there for 24 to 48 hours if you're careful and judicious about opening the door, for not too long a period of time.

So there's lots of things that you can do. Fill up any safe jugs with water, the bathtub with water is fine. And we're going to make it through this. I think a lot of is going to depend on all of us understanding our own personal role as the most important first responder.

One of the things we found in our survey, for instance, is that there's a very unrealistic expectation that people have in major disasters. You know, you call 911 and a lot of people think that in an hour or two or three help will be at the door. That's not going to be the case. Because systems get overwhelmed.

WHITFIELD: Right. Yes, well, people will have to remember that big snowstorm in New York and how it took a long time to get that kind of response. Dr. Redlener, something tells me a lot of people will be visiting you over the next few days knowing how prepared you'll be. Thanks for your time.

REDLENER: Please don't give out my address, Fredricka, please.

WHITFIELD: Your friends know already. REDLENER: They already do. You're welcome, of course, to join us.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much for the invitation. Appreciate it. Have a good one. Appreciate it and stay safe this weekend.

Meantime, mandatory evacuations all up and down the East Coast. States of emergency from New York to North Carolina. Leaders there are warning residents to simply get out. Find higher ground. Even the president of the United States has an urgent message about what he calls an historic hurricane. More updates straight ahead.

And how one man turned a deadly diagnosis into a new mission helping Haiti's poorest kids. This week's CNN HERO after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: When this week's CNN Hero was diagnosed with incurable cancer, he sold his business and started living his dream of helping children in his native Haiti, where many still live in tent cities after last year's deadly earthquake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICE MILLET, CNN HERO: Haiti, every day of your life you are seeing poor kids. When the earthquake came, it became harder. There is no water, no electricity. You have to fight for everything.

In 2006, the doctor told me that I had cancer and it was not curable. I wanted to do something good for my country, for the kids.

My name is Patrice Miller and I do education to soccer with Haitian kids. In soccer, you have everything in life. You need to give. You need to receive. You need team spirit, discipline, sportsmanship. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

This is the way you win in life. Whatever I can do, I have some of the kids I pay the school for them. We also have a food program. We can eat for two days. This is a lot for them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (on screen translation): Mr. Patrice gave us food. He helped us a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've given me all I've ever needed.

MILLET: I want the kids to be very good citizens. They can do something. They can believe in themselves. I enjoy so much to teach them, to learn from them. I prefer to die on the field than die at the hospital. To see the joy on the face of a kid, you know, that makes me happy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And he makes a lot of people happy.

You can learn more about Patrice's work or make a donation at CNN heroes.com.

And a reminder: Wednesday is the last day to nominate someone you know as a 2011 CNN hero.

All right. Thirty minutes after the hour. Checking the headlines and other news you may have missed.

We're closely tracking Hurricane Irene as it moves along the East Coast. This is the projected path. The powerful storm is brewing just parallel to the South Carolina coast right now. Irene is expected to make landfall in North Carolina tomorrow morning.

And here's a satellite image of this monster storm churning in the Atlantic. Tens of millions of people could be affected by the destructive fury.

And communities along much of coast are bracing for a hit. Irene is hitting travel. Several airlines, including AirTran and American Airlines and JetBlue are canceling flights to cities along the East Coast.

And mass transit systems in Philadelphia and New York are shutting down starting tomorrow, Saturday.

All right. Several states, including Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut and North Carolina have declared states of emergency. A number of counties in North Carolina are under mandatory evacuation orders. A caravan of school buses in fact left one coastal county this morning carrying evacuees to shelters as far inland as Raleigh.

And Maryland residents are leaving low-lying areas ahead of what the governor there called a very dangerous and potentially deadly hurricane. Residents were warned that if they ignore the evacuation orders, police officers may forcibly remove them. And the U.S. military is preparing. Dozens of Navy ships are being ordered out to sea and military aircraft are also being relocated ahead of Irene.

As preparations continue, FEMA has been deploying teams up and down the coast and is warning power outages that could last a week or maybe even more, especially in the big cities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing we can't change the outcome on is loss of life. That's why the evacuation orders that are being issued in the coastal areas are key. People need to leave early. Travel a safe distance, get somewhere safe. Not wait for another forecast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: As we watch Hurricane Irene churn, concerns are heightening in the Northeast and into New England where a storm of this magnitude and forces very rare. You can see Irene is still expected to make its way, way up the coast, large cities like New York and Boston still in its direct path. We heard from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg who announced mandatory evacuations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK CITY: Repeat the word, mandatory, evacuation order for all New Yorkers who live in the low- lying Zone A coastal areas in all five boroughs that are at greatest risk of damage relating to Irene. We've never done a mandatory evacuation before and we wouldn't be doing it now if we didn't think this storm had the potential to be very serious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: We're tracking the storm as only we can. We have reporters dispatched along the East Coast and our weather team is tracking every move. An update from them is coming up in just a few minutes.

And we're also watching evacuations along the North Carolina coast, specifically. Air and ground travel disruptions on the busy Eastern corridor. Live reports, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We're tracking Hurricane Irene with reporters up and down the East Coast. Meteorologist Alexandra Steele is watching the storm's impact on air travel. John Zarrella is on Atlantic Beach in North Carolina where the storm preparations are in full swing there.

Let's look at some of the other cities along the East Coast, New York, Washington, Boston, Philly -- home to some of the busiest airports in the country, all could be I am packed by Hurricane Irene.

CNN's Alexandra Steele here with the host of cancellations already, right?

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's an understatement, really, Fredricka. The enormity of this incredible shutdown of so many mass transits is really unbelievable, unprecedented and certainly historic.

You know, I just want to reiterate some of these breaking news. You heard the mayor from New York City. System wide shutdown, meaning no buses, no trains, no subways -- including Long Island railroad, Westchester, for New York City beginning at noon tomorrow. He wants you out.

Give you perspective. New York City -- half of the families that live in New York City don't have a car. So, they're really cutting of their legs, really wanting them to get out of town or do what you have to do, but certainly not to ride those..

Also, the first time they've ever offered mandatory evacuations -- never been done before in New York City. Low-lying areas, including Zone A, which is Coney Island, Battery Park City. But you know what else is Zone A? Two huge airports, Kennedy and LaGuardia in Zone A. The expectation, to kind of put a picture on it, we could see the runways there underwater. That's how severe this could be.

Also, New Jersey, road closures already. Garden State Parkway south of exit 98, closing at 8:00 tonight. And there's also no eastern access into Atlantic City beginning at 6:00 tonight.

So, it's getting serious. We're just beginning to watch these waves of cancellations and certainly will paralyze 65 million people potentially, Fredricka, from New England all the way to the mid- Atlantic.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Alexandra.

Already millions being impacted, particularly in the North Carolina coast where mandatory evacuations are in order. Most people have heeded that.

Let's check in with our John Zarrella. He's at Atlantic Beach -- where you're feeling the initial bands of the storm. It's raining. It's a little windy. It's starting to deteriorate, isn't it?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You hit the nail on the head, Fredricka, that's exactly the situation is. Steady rain bands now, really pretty much light. We had a little bit of a heavier squall come through about 45 minutes ago, an hour ago. But we've seen the steady rain.

Now, you can see out there to the ocean is really starting to boil and the waves starting to roll in.

Now, this interesting beach here. This is an east-facing beach. So the storm is actually coming directly at us from the south. You see there are folks that are still here hanging out, coming down to kind of see the situation. See right behind him here, these boards that they've put up to keep the water from coming up from the ocean which is about a hundred, 150 yards away.

But you could see storm surge come all the way up to here and over-wash this entire area. I just talked to -- you were talking about tips a little while ago. Some all state representatives were just here a little while ago and they said what they've been doing is going to some of their customers ahead of time and telling them make sure you get your documents in order, have your papers ready in a safe place. Because if, God forbid, you have a claim, you want to get your hands-on your papers.

And, also, make sure you have a camera and take pictures of the house on the outside, making sure you got pictures of all your belongings on the inside. Document those things --

WHITFIELD: Right.

ZARRELLA: -- in case you've got to have that insurance adjuster come. A couple of other quick thing here. You can see the building here is boarded up already. And they've got sandbags down here. They're ready here.

And the police just went by about an hour ago with their bullhorns, Fredricka, and told people, no cars, no people after 8:00 p.m. tonight. They're going to shut this place down, because it is an island with just one bridge to get over here.

So, after 8:00 tonight, mandatory curfew in effect here as well. So, they're shutting this place down -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Wow. And great reminders there, John, for any of those folks who were listening, other parts of East Coast. You're going to evacuate. Grab those important documents because if there is damage to your home, you want to be able to call your adjuster, have your policy number. And those are things that people leave behind, and then they get back there and find out their home was either damaged or washed away, et cetera. So, good advice.

ZARRELLA: You know, during Katrina, a lot of people had these safes, and they had their paperwork in their safes. Unfortunately, those safes went underwater and a lot of their documentation was lost.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. All right. John Zarrella, thanks so much. Appreciate that.

All right. Just how paranoid was Moammar Gadhafi? We're also still watching what's taking place overseas in Libya. Wait until you see new pictures of his vast underground city, a live report from Tripoli after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Now, some news you may have missed.

A ceremony to dedicate the new King Memorial in Washington this weekend has been postponed because of Hurricane Irene. The ceremony had been planned to coincide with the 48th anniversary of the march in Washington when the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream Speech." The King Memorial opened to the public on Monday and includes a 30-foot granite sculptor of the civil rights leader. Organizers have not announcing new date for the dedication.

An Amtrak train flowed into a farm vehicle in southwestern Nebraska today. The train with 178 people on board derailed. At least three people were taken to a hospital. Their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. And the train was headed, by the way, to Chicago.

But, first, the question, is how prepared are we? The answer from the latest CNN and Opinion Research Corporation poll is a little unsettling as it pertains to disasters. Roughly half of those interviewed say they have made some preparations for an emergency like Hurricane Irene. But you can see right here, the regions that are least prepared are the urban areas, like in the Northeast, which are still in Irene's direct path. Only 36 percent of Northerners have emergency supplies. Those figures are highest in the South and West which hurricanes and earthquakes are more frequent.

Also, people who live in rural areas are more prepared than those of us who live in big cities. Forty-two percent of city dwellers are prepared versus 51 percent of rural residents.

So, as we track Hurricane Irene, we're also following developments overseas in Libya where the battle for Tripoli isn't over by a long shot. The same can be said for the entire country. By all accounts, the rebels do have the upper hand but fierce fighting continues to break out in some areas of the capital.

Tripoli's international airport is one hotspot. This burning plane was hit by loyalists' fire yesterday.

And to the east of Tripoli, a battle rages for control of Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte. British warplanes pounded a large loyalist headquarters bunker in the city overnight there. And loyalists forces say these pictures show damage from NATO air strikes on Sunday. Gadhafi developed Sirte into a second capital and a key military center.

Our Sara Sidner is actually there in Libya. Let's try to touch base with her right now.

Sara, you got a chance to see this underground city as well. It's been rumored for years. And now, it's clear, it is in existence.

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It exists. One of the issues is we could not get down all of these tunnels. Some of them went so far back you couldn't see the end of them. But it was so dark inside because all the lights had been cut that we couldn't see where we were going.

The rebels who led us inside said they had not been able to sweep the whole area. They think it goes really, really far into the city and out of the city. We don't know if that's true or not. But we can certainly tell that it's quite a large space in there, an amazing sort of labyrinth really of different little pods.

There was a place where you could sleep. There was a place where Gadhafi would sit and do his television broadcasts and record those. You could clearly see it was a television studio. There was a light and there was a whole library of tapes, professional videotapes -- just a fascinating look into the life of a man who has been quite an interesting character, if you will. A lot people wondering if he had built this to -- like a survival shelter. I think that's really what it was.

If you look at the doors themselves, there are massive doors with these incredibly strong locks. Nobody, you would think, would be able to breakthrough that. As we walked through the very beginning, we looked over to our right and there was light coming in and we were trying to figure out what that was. It turned out, it was where NATO had bombed the compound right near his TV studio. And we remember there was a point in time when no one knew where Gadhafi was. He hadn't sent a video message out, I think that may have been the time when that bomb hit, burned up the studio and he had to find another place to send out his messages.

So, a very fascinating day for us to look into sort of the inner sanctum of Moammar Gadhafi and his closest allies.

WHITFIELD: And very fascinating, too -- apparently, you got a chance to see this villa, this location where one of his daughters once stayed. I would imagine any of the information from any of these locations that are related to Gadhafi, this is information that the international tribunal, The Hague, would want to seize upon as evidence if indeed Gadhafi is found alive, if indeed he were to go to trial.

SIDNER: Yes, I think one of the things that's a little bit interesting is that there were citizens that were wanting to go down and sort of check out what was going on down there. It's not all that controlled to be honest. We went down with two rebels who were armed. We weren't sure what we were going to see. We knew it was dark.

But, yes, there are people sort of walking around in there. There are bits and pieces of information that are on the floor. We saw some files on the floor inside these tunnels. And so, I'm sure there are pieces of information that certainly folks would want to look at. Just a fascinating look into a world that people suspected was there and now we know is there -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Wow, fascinating indeed. Sara Sidner, great reporting from Libya. Appreciate that.

All right. Back to the storm coverage here in the United States. All eyes are on Hurricane Irene.

So, it begs the question, how prepared is the most populated city that is in the bull's eye? We're talking New York City for such a hurricane Irene. The storm could shut down subways and airports within the next 48 hours. We'll talk about preparations there, next.

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WHITFIELD: In today's taking the lead, Hurricane Irene is projected to hit the Northeast in less than 48 hours. It's a major concern to the New York City area since the region is not accustomed to storms of this magnitude.

Joining me on the phone is Professor Nicholas Coch from Queens College.

Professor, you have warned New York City resident about this exact scenario for years. What are your greatest fears now? PROF. NICHOLAS COCH, QUEENS COLLEGE/CUNY (via telephone): Well, the city has done a great job and I have confidence that will continue to do that. But what I'm concerned about is the New Yorkers themselves. Will they take the directions and trust their experts and do what is supposed to be done?

We don't exactly know how it's going to affect the city until the system gets up to around North Carolina. And we see what other systems are around, how fast it's moving and how big it's getting.

WHITFIELD: All right, because we heard from Mayor Bloomberg not a long time ago who said, you know, mandatory evacuation areas include those lowest lying areas.

So, talk to the people who have this evacuation order, if they don't get on public transit before tomorrow noontime when everything shuts down, what do you expect them to do?

COCH: I expect them to do a lot of praying -- and hoping that they will survive this storm. That's what we've done all this work to set up these centers and have an evacuation plan and anyone that stays in an area under 30 feet with a storm this size moving up the coast. New York City is the worst possible place to be when a hurricane enters the area between New Jersey and New York because all the water for the ocean gets pushed into the harbor.

WHITFIELD: All right. Professor Nicholas Coch, thanks so much for your advice. All the best as you weather the storm as well.

COCH: OK.

WHITFIELD: So, Irene has forced a change of plans for the president of the United States. Dan Lothian joins us next with details.

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WHITFIELD: All right. Along the East Coast, they're bracing for Hurricane Irene. That includes Martha's Vineyard and that's where we find our Dan Lothian who's been traveling with the president.

So, he's cutting his trip short.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You know, we've been asking for days whether or not this was a possibility. In fact, at the last minute, the White House decided to cut the president's vacation short. Initially, we've been told that the president would leave late tonight, that the first family -- the rest of the first family would be leaving sometime tomorrow. They've now revised that.

So, the president, along with his family, will be returning to Washington late tonight. But the president very much on top of the situation from here in Martha's Vineyard. He held a conference call with his emergency management officials. He also spoke by phone with mayors and governors from those states that stand to be heavily impacted by the storm.

What the president in his remarks tried to convey was that the administration has not only been preparing for the last few days but for weeks and even years in getting ready for such a possibility of a major hurricane. The president saying that the administration, the federal government, is prepared to respond not only now but after this hurricane passes by.

And the president also issuing a warning to those who are in this storm's path, saying to listen to any kind of evacuation warnings, to act now before it's too late, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. The president heading back to the White House today. Thanks so much, Dan Lothian, in Martha's Vineyard. Thanks so much.

And I'll see you throughout the weekend. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Drew Griffin up with more of the CNN NEWSROOM -- Drew.