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NJ Gov Updates on Irene Plans; Irene's Impact; Flooding Concerns in New Jersey; New York Recovers from Irene; Gauging the Government Response

Aired August 28, 2011 - 19:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Lives have been lost, power disrupted, homes and businesses damaged or destroyed, but as tropical storm Irene spins into southeastern Canada, millions of Americans in the northeast corridor are thankful it wasn't much worse.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: That they are. Between Cape Lookout, North Carolina where Hurricane Irene first made landfall yesterday and northern New England, where the brunt of the storm just, left they'll remember Irene for the rain; 16 inches or more in some spots, with tidal surges battering beaches and rivers, inundating roads and bridges and in some cases whole communities.

KAYE: More than four million are without electricity tonight. And from Florida to Connecticut at least 19 deaths are being blamed on Irene, among them an 11-year-old boy killed by a falling tree.

President Obama spoke to the nation late this afternoon. He said the storm may be ending, but the impact of Irene is ongoing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do want to underscore that the impacts of this storm will be felt for some time and the recovery effort will last for weeks or longer. Power may be out for days in some areas, and we will support our state and local partners in every way that we can as they work to restore power in those areas.

And so I'm going to make sure that DHS and FEMA and other federal agencies are doing everything in their power to help folks on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Over the next two hours, we will show you what those folks are having to deal with.

But we're going to start with the very latest facts and figures from CNN's Chad Myers in Hurricane Headquarters. And Chad, Irene is leaving even faster than it came, right?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes exactly. In fact she's almost up to 30 miles per hour now and just kind of screaming on up into southern Canada right there. I'm just looking at all of the new warnings coming out because as soon as we know and we think, oh, that warning for that county is going to expire at 6:45, at 6:44 the Weather Services puts out another one and says no that can't expire. Those numbers are still completely out of their banks.

And we've talked about the flash flooding, which means going up quickly, going down quickly. Just a few counties now, because the rain has essentially slowed down but when you talk about flooding, whether the river, creek, stream or something out of its banks, almost, literally almost every county, from Maine all the way down to southern New Jersey, some type of flood warning or flash flood warning in effect for the rest of the night.

And that's happening because the rain is still coming down. Take a look at some of these numbers. This just from 24 hours: Monroe, New York, 9.26 inches; Newark had 7.89 inches of rainfall from this storm, and they had 13 inches of rain for the month of September -- August before that; Burlington at 7.45 inches of rainfall just from the storm alone.

It is still moving away. There are still some very gusty winds, though. And this is going to be the problem for tonight, knocking down some power lines probably and some trees. There are still west- northwest winds coming into the city. JFK just had a wind gust of 58 miles-per-hour and Newark just had a wind gust of 61 miles-per-hour.

All of these trees are sitting in saturated mud, and these roots, some of them, won't be able to handle it and the trees will fall over. If you are planning to go out tonight at all, I recommend you do one thing. You go to a Web site called Traffic.com because this is just New York City proper, and every little red dot here, from that tech traffic (ph), every little red dot has something wrong. There is either flooding, or a tree down, or lanes blocked or whatever.

I'm telling you, if you don't have to go out tonight, don't it is not the -- the city is not ready for you to come back yet. Maybe tomorrow; maybe the afternoon, whatever; but right now especially with night falling and water still running over roadways, it is not time to go back to the city yet -- guys.

SAVIDGE: Thanks, Chad very much.

I've covered a lot of flooding, but that flash flooding is absolutely the scariest.

KAYE: Yes.

SAVIDGE: So fast. All right, thank you.

KAYE: Well as Chad said, Irene is not done yet. And we are going to hear from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. He's going to give us the very latest on that situation in New Jersey which was very hard hit. He will take to that podium. We'll bring it to you live as soon as it happens. In the meantime, southern Vermont has taken a big hit in the few hours and we've gotten reports from small towns are covered in water. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin joins us now on the telephone. Governor what is the situation in your state right now?

GOV. PETER SHUMLIN (D), VERMONT (via telephone): Well, we're being absolutely pummeled here in the state of Vermont. Irene is just dumping huge loads of water on us. We virtually have flooding from the southern end of the state to the northern end. And it's now running up to the northern end of the state.

And virtually the entire state is impacted. We have over 100 roads closed. We've had extraordinary washouts of bridges, roads, homes. We've had one loss -- what we believe to be a loss of life. We're still hopeful but a young woman was standing next to the Deerfield River In Wilmington and was last seen by her boyfriend floating down the river. We haven't -- we haven't been able to locate her, or her body.

So we're just really in tough shape up here as so many other New England states are.

KAYE: And we understand from your office of emergency management -- we spoke with Mark Bosma last hour -- and he told us that -- that high water vehicles are being used to get into these areas to -- to help those folks who really could use some of that help. Can you tell us how that's going?

SHUMLIN: Well, I've called out the National Guard obviously and they are doing an extraordinary job. They are getting into areas in small -- small communities. Don't forget we're a very small, mountainous rural state and therefore, when we get downfalls of six, seven, eight inches of rain in a short period of time, we have very few large tributaries spread to exit from.

So what hits at the top of our green mountains then ends up down in our larger rivers and they haven't crested yet. But we have gotten our high water vehicles into some of the communities. We've had trouble getting them into some locations where they are needed. So we have our hands full, but the guard, our men and women in uniform are doing an extraordinary job for us.

SAVIDGE: Governor, are you feeling that you didn't get the proper information maybe from -- from the weather folks? Or is it just one of those things?

SHUMLIN: It's just one of those things. We had great information. We've been preparing for days. The only good news is that we didn't get the high winds we anticipating but we knew we were in for a lot of water. And actually the projections for weather were quite, quite accurate. The storm tracked a little farther west. And we thought it was gone (ph) but we knew we were in trouble some days ago and we've been preparing.

The fact of the matter is, this storm is so devastating, It's turning so much water, it has so much punch that it's not like anything the we've ever seen before. And like so many other states we're just under water and trying our best to get people to safety, get them away from our raging rivers and trying to deal with minimizing any loss of life or injury.

As it clears out tomorrow, we'll go in and then start assessing damage and the rest. But we're just trying to keep people on safe. And I know the other governors join me in sending this message. Stay home. Stay buttoned up. Don't go out now. Don't go out to soon. It's -- lost of life happens when you drive your vehicle into standing water you didn't realize how deep it was. When you hit downed power line, they still have juice running through them.

So there's -- there's still a lot ahead of us up here in Vermont and in northern New England and we're urging people to stay put, stay safe and only go out if you have to reach out to a vulnerable neighbor or someone who needs your help.

KAYE: Governor I think you said that the weather report got it right. So why not evacuate, why didn't you evacuate your residents?

SHUMLIN: Well, you evacuate the whole state. I mean, it's just not in the real world.

KAYE: Well, not the whole state but those in the areas most at risk?

SHUMLIN: Well, the problem with Vermont is that we are -- all of our downtowns are in the lowlands. So our population centers are located near rivers and streams. And you know, you just can't get away from it in a little state like Vermont. We are a state of mountains with rivers flowing through them. And it's -- it's not like a mid-western state or some of the big southern states where you have huge areas of dry land. We just don't have that here in Vermont State -- it borders (ph) New Hampshire.

KAYE: And what do you need right now in terms of aid?

SHUMLIN: Well, you know one of our challenges is we have a lot of power lines down. We brought in crews from around the country and we're dealing with that pretty effectively. But really, our challenge right now is simply getting to all the people who are in trouble and need help. And we are doing a pretty good job of it, but frankly, it's a -- it's a -- we're stretching our resources.

KAYE: All right, Governor, we appreciate your time and we certainly wish you the best of luck getting -- getting to those folks whose need help there in Vermont.

(CROSSTALK)

SHUMLIN: Well, thank you.

KAYE: Thank you very much for your time.

SAVIDGE: Yes, you look at that video. I mean it's just mesmerizing to see that water.

KAYE: Yes, the power of it.

SAVIDGE: Yes.

Irene hit parts of New Jersey particularly hard. The storm killed two people: a woman whose car was swept away by floodwaters and a firefighter attempting a water rescue.

CNN's Poppy Harlow is in Milburn, which is also in New Jersey, where the Rahway -- am I saying it right, Rahway River overflowed its banks today, Poppy?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes absolutely. It was astonishing to -- to -- to see that. I'll just take my ear piece out I'm hearing myself, but astonishing to see that Martin. The river here right by all these businesses just like Bob business here Bagel Chateau. It just came over. It crested about 2:00 a.m. in the morning. It flowed in to all of these businesses.

And let's just talk about what you experienced here. Obviously it's in cleanup mode. You said you can't afford to be out of business for very long. But what it is -- what has this been like for you? What happened?

BOB ZAMBRA, OWNER, BAGEL CHATEAU: Well, it's been a nightmare. It's like Floyd all over again. It's just -- it -- it's really a shame.

You know, the mud was like two inches, three inches deep in here. I have to check out my ovens now and make sure that they're running. I know the burners have to get drained out and stuff. You know, I've got to get back in business.

HARLOW: Take us into the kitchen. And as we go there, guys, all the business owners that I talked to here tell me this is just like ten years ago, Hurricane Floyd, that was 1999. So a little over ten years ago. And that was even worse actually. So the only good part of the situation on business owners is that it wasn't as bad as Hurricane Floyd when it literally flooded to the ceilings, right?

ZAMBRA: When -- when Floyd came in, Floyd was like 16 feet of water in the store. All of my equipment was up against the doors; they broke the doors, the windows, everything. The devastation in the back was just -- there was nothing left.

HARLOW: Obviously, your big Bagel oven is gone right now.

ZAMBRA: My big Bagel oven is right here. But we have to make sure it's running.

HARLOW: Right, it's out of service. It's gone in that -- in that sense right now. When did you figure out that your store -- you store had really been -- been decimated? When did you realize? Did you come down here in the middle of the night? ZAMBRA: I really didn't know until I got here about quarter to 5:00 in the morning. I had to way of getting here and I knew I was in trouble.

HARLOW: What do you need right now in terms of help? Because you were telling me earlier in this economy, you can't -- you can't afford to stay out of business for a long time, right?

ZAMBRA: No, you can't. You know I mean I still have ten feet of water in the basement. I need that to get flooded, you know pumped out. I need a lot of stuff. I just you know, I got to get back into business.

HARLOW: You know a lot of business owners here have been telling me all -- all night there, they are little worried that flood insurance might not cover their basements.

ZAMBRA: Well, let's hope so. Because I have flood insurance, you know we didn't have it when we had with Floyd and it really -- it really hurt us a lot. And hopefully insurances will be nice.

HARLOW: I'm sure it's going to be a battle with insurance companies.

ZAMBRA: Which I don't know.

HARLOW: For people across -- well, guys, one thing to tell you here, this entire town in Milburn, New Jersey, it's not right by the water but it's sort of in a valley, it's inland and again, you've got the big river that crested here. It has contaminated the water here. So anyone here who wants to drink water, eat any food, they've got to boil the water. And that's really hurting people here.

I've got people in town telling me, we can't go out to eat. We can't -- we don't really know what we can eat. We can't necessarily drink anything at home, so that's a big challenge.

ZAMBRA: Right. Right. You know, I'm looking to open up in a couple of days but I need the water to settle and everything be fine before I can do that because it's a water bagel.

HARLOW: That's true. Bob, we'll let you get back to it. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

ZAMBRA: You're very welcome.

HARLOW: Guys, we'll send it back to you. We're going to continue to report live here all night.

SAVIDGE: All right Poppy. Thanks very much, Poppy. Nice to see Bob still has retained his sense of humor.

KAYE: He certainly has, yes.

Planes, trains, bridges, roadways all came to a standstill.

SAVIDGE: In two minutes, all the travel updates you need for your Monday morning commute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: The good news is the worst is over and we will soon move to restore and return mode.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: The transportation nightmare is almost over, but Monday could be pretty rough for some commuters. Flights, trains and subways shut down all over the East Coast in preparation for Irene, but we have some good news for you travelers out there. New York area airports will be reopening tomorrow morning. Newark and JFK plan to open again at 6:00 a.m. Eastern. LaGuardia will open an hour later at 7:00 Eastern, that's according to the FAA.

The New York City subway system is also expected to start running again tomorrow afternoon, and the Staten Island ferry and Holland Tunnel had both re-opened.

And yes there is more good news. Flights out of Philadelphia and Washington have also started up again.

SAVIDGE: Now that the worst of what's currently Tropical Storm Irene has passed over the New York area, the evacuation order has been lifted and some city buses are back on the streets.

CNN' Carter Evans is live in New York by the Hudson River with more on how things are improving. Carter?

CARTER EVANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Martin and Randi. You know, here's the thing. They're trying to get things back up and running but it takes some time. This is a very big system.

So we've got some buses in New York City running right now; still no subways running in New York City at all. A lot of this has to do with the flooding that we saw earlier today. You know, I'm down at Battery Park right now. You can see the wind's still blowing; water, very rough behind me.

But earlier this morning around 8:00 this morning, at the height of high tide; it was a new moon so it was an extra high tide. With that storm surge the water basically came right up to where I'm standing. Not much damage here; in other parts of the city significant damage, significant flooding.

I want to show you some video from one of our CNN iReporters here. This is video of the Bronx River Parkway. Take a look at that; both lanes under water completely. David Schilling shot this video from Yonkers.

I mean think about it. This is what some of the roads look like when you have to make your commute in here tomorrow morning. It's going to be a tough one. That's if you're driving. If you're on the subway, you're pretty much out of luck.

I mean think about what that's going to be like. A mass transit system that's serves millions of people every day, to and from this city, still shut down with lots of people trying to get to work. I can tell you, getting a taxi tomorrow is going to be very tough.

You know, that one piece of good news that you were talking about earlier the airports opening up tomorrow morning. That's good news. They need mass transit as well to get people to and from the airport and they've got to get all that equipment back in place.

The other piece of good news that you mentioned a little while ago -- and I think we've got some video of it -- which is kind of incredible when you think about it. The Staten Island ferry up and running again, in a harbor that is as rough as this one is, after a hurricane just came through with its storm surge, the Staten Island ferry, back up and running. Martin and Randi -- back to you.

SAVIDGE: There we go -- signs of hope. You just described what sounds like a commuting nightmare there, Carter. And I'm wondering, are they warning people, are they telling people here's what you should do? Delay your approach to town or hold off coming in Monday?

EVANS: You're on your own. You know? I mean that's basically what it is. You're on your own. You've got to go for a cab. You got to the go for a Liberty cap or a town car or you have to drive in somehow.

You know, a lot of people that I've talked to down here say that work is being very flexible. Some people are allowing people to telecommute into work. A lot of people I talked to plan to walk to work tomorrow, and walking to work. Even if you have to walk 30 blocks, it's still better than trying to flag down a cab.

KAYE: Yes.

SAVIDGE: We'll be on that with you. I've tried that so you're absolutely right.

KAYE: It's hard to get a cab on a good day in New York. So Carter, appreciate it.

EVANS: Yes, on a good day. It's going to be very hard.

KAYE: Well, North Carolina's Outer Banks took such a hard hit some areas are only accessible by helicopter.

SAVIDGE: CNN's Brian Todd is back from a flight with the National Guard and those pictures and the latest from that area will be up right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: More amazing images coming to us from our iReporter. Thank you very much. Do keep those coming. We also want to remind you that New Jersey's governor Chris Christie should be speaking. There we have a shot of the podium there in New Jersey -- a little bit of a shot, breaking up a little. But we will have that press conference for you as soon as it happens.

Meanwhile, President Obama, his director of homeland security and the FEMA director all spoke with reporters today at the White House.

SAVIDGE: The President said that he was pleased with the government's response so far. Presidents often say that. So let's talk more about the storm's response and recovery effort with retired general and CNN contributor Russel Honore.

General, let's start and ask the very obvious. Should he be happy with the response?

GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes but they've dealt with the easy part.

SAVIDGE: Yes.

KAYE: Yes.

HONORE: That is, to prepare this and evacuation.

The hard work is about to happen. When you think about the millions of people without power; when you go from preparedness and evacuation to recovery, the hard work is in recovery, because the reality is, people are going to wake up the next few days. They're going to talk to their insurance company. And small businesses are going to figure out that the insurance is going to raise, the rent's going to go up.

40 percent of small businesses fail after a disaster. If it got wet and the equipment got destroyed, this is going to be a significant impact on people trying to recover at a time that when we're faced with economic challenges.

KAYE: You certainly know about recovery, economic challenges and flooding having been in charge there in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. So talk to us a little bit about what needs to be happening right now. You saw those pictures in Vermont of the flooded waters there. They didn't evacuate. We see flooding in New York although they seem to be getting back on track, and many other areas. What should those cities and states be doing?

HONORE: We've got a significant search and rescue that's got to continue and a sustainment of life. My concern right now is all the leadership was very proactive in the evacuation and giving orders. Right now they need to give orders on who needs to stay home. If they don't set those priorities -- now many of them will back off and so let the commercial -- let the economy go to work.

The problem is the very thing that they need to get power, open roads, will be a hindrance when thousands and thousands -- millions of people in this case -- head into work in a very concentrated area. This is going to be an issue tomorrow. While people were happy with the evacuation and the preparedness, a lot of frustration is going to start tomorrow, because folks have an expectation to be able to go to the office, where government needs to be encouraging businesses, or use their emergency powers to keep some businesses closed -- non- essentials.

SAVIDGE: You know -- and I thought about that when I was listened to Mayor Bloomberg, where he said, look you know, city offices are going to open. Maybe they should have said, look let's try and delay things one day and not race back because of just what you said.

HONORE: Big issue: city offices closed. Schools open -- schools closed. Buses -- some open, some closed. Some roads open. Major chaos and more. People will be a lot more frustrated after the storm than during it. Particularly those that didn't take direct damage to their home and they have power.

People need to be able to stay home and take care of the kids and the elderly people and be able to volunteer near shelters to take care of people who have been evacuated. I think it's a little premature to send everybody on their own tomorrow.

KAYE: Yes. What about FEMA? How long does it take FEMA to fully close an event like this?

HONORE: It will take up to five years.

KAYE: Five years?

HONORE: That's what history shows. This is a long, deliberate process, negotiated process. When you look at everything, when you get to the mitigation phase; things that might be done to try to control water, to try to raise some of the houses and try to improve bridging and a lot of claims will be made for a lot of infrastructure that was just at the end of its life span anyhow and people will be asking FEMA and the federal government pay for that.

KAYE: Wow. All right. General Russell Honore, always appreciate your expertise. Thank you.

SAVIDGE: He's right about that. Frustration is going to set in.

KAYE: Oh, yes.

Well, we are coming up on the half hour, and we want to bring you up to speed on all the latest on this storm.

SAVIDGE: After a quick break we'll recap everything, plus Chad Myers joins us with the latest on where the waters are still rising.

KAYE: And a reminder, at 9:00 tonight, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and former President Bill Clinton will explore the signs, tests and lifestyle changes that could result in the very last heart attack. It's a special "CNN PRESENTS" and you can catch it tonight at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE HAUBRICK (PH), CNN IREPORTER: Jane Haubrick here reporting from Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

My puppy -- I'm concerned about this (INAUDIBLE) just like my puppy. It's definitely raining more because it's 5:00 now. Back to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: I sense -- I sense a very bright future.

KAYE: We need to hire that girl. She's concerned about her puppy and the rain -- very sweet.

Well, the storm may be over. The impact is not. And recovery has barely even started actually. What's left of Irene is speeding into southeastern Canada, leaving much of the eastern U.S. under water in the dark or worse power is out to more than four million homes and businesses and 19 deaths are now being blamed on Irene in seven states. New York City is letting evacuees return to low-lying areas and is planning to re-open airports tomorrow. Limited bus service resumes this afternoon. But don't count on the subways for some time. The flooding in Vermont, one official, Martin.

SAVIDGE: It's awful. And the water is pretty much everywhere. President Obama spoke to the nation late this afternoon and he said that the feds will stay on the case for weeks to come.

Let's check in now with CNN's Chad Myers for the latest on Irene's whereabouts. And again, flooding was something to see. Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It truly was. Now the rain has finally stopped but that doesn't mean the runoff has stopped. Because this entire area had too much rain in August to start with. Looks like a foot of rain just about everywhere. And so all the ground was completely saturated. And now you put more rain on top and you put some wind and trees are just falling down left and right. Even some people twittering, tweeting me claiming how all the rotted trees in their neighborhoods are just falling down without even any wind at all now. It just - the ground is so saturated, it has no holding ability whatsoever.

Flash flooding all the way across most of Vermont up into northern New Hampshire as well. Parts of Maine, some reports of Maine, almost a third of the entire state without power at this point in time and big time flash flooding here. West of Boston. Right there, those are the Berkshire mountains, and they had some significant flooding earlier. I'm going to change this out. Just kind of show you that the rain has moved away. But if you take a look at this graphic right there. That's just not flash flooding. That's all flooding. Rivers that aren't flashing which means they're not going up in one hour and down in one hour. Almost every county from Maine all the way down to almost Boston down into New Jersey. There are some place there that has flooding going on at this point in time.

Now, the storm's wind is starting to slow down for the most part. Although I just saw a wind gust to 48 miles per hour at Newark and 44 miles per hour at JFK. So the storm is still spinning like this where most of the southerly wind coming into Nova Scotia up into the Bay of Fundy, the wind's coming down across Lake Ontario across and then trees are falling and specially in the higher elevations there of the Catskills, where most of the trees that I'm hearing about now falling with wind gusts at 50 miles per hour. Guys?

SAVIDGE: Thanks Chad, very much.

Thousands of people who didn't evacuate part of North Carolina's outer banks are cut off from the mainland. The National Guard did an aerial tour of the Hatteras Island today with some 2,500 people stayed behind. Our Brian Todd was on that flight and joins us now live from Kinston, North Carolina. Brian, what did you see up there?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Marty, we just came back from Hatteras Island here in Kinston. The only way you can get to Hatteras Island right now is by helicopter. We took off in two OH58 helicopters from the North Carolina National Guard. They're doing a damage assessment, and a recon mission out there. What we saw was incredible. I mean, you're right. Thousands of people, about 2,500 to be exact, cut off from the rest of the world.

They ignored the governor's mandatory evacuation order to get out. That order issued earlier in the week, well before the hurricane got here. They ignored it, they wanted to stay and now they are cut off. I mean, the reason is Highway 12 which leads north-south into Hatteras Island. The part that kind of connects it to other islands in the outer banks which then connects to the bridges to the mainland, that highway, completely decimated. Washed over. It's not just washed over. It looks like an earthquake hit it. It's completely chopped up. The storm and the storm surge completely just chopped up the road.

Now it's not just flooded. The ocean is now washing over it. There are ocean currents washing over that road. It is in very bad shape and there are also downed power lines out there. I don't think that road is going to get up to speed maybe for a couple of weeks at least, and some of the local citizens there agreed with me when we kind of walked around that area to assess it. These people may be cut off for a while.

They are going to send an emergency ferry we're told that may not get out there until tomorrow. People out there were told to have enough food and supplies for about three days and the people we talked to out there said they did have that, but they took a real chance in riding this out. They dodged a bullet, looks like we didn't see any reports of serious injuries out there, but right now these people are very, very isolated, Marty. SAVIDGE: So, Brian and I understand there's a delay here. But what is the plan of action, then? Repair the roads or simply get everyone out of there?

TODD: Well, I talked to a National Guard official about that before we left, and he told me that unless there are distress called from Hatteras Island, if people are in bad shape, if there are serious injuries, they will not sent rescue teams out there to get them off. And the people we saw on the island seem to be in good shape. I mean they've got food they say for probably, at least, a couple of days. Maybe in the interim, you'll see a ferry coming out there. They expect that to get out there by tomorrow. But again that's going to be a slow process and you know, with 2,500 people stranded to get enough food and supplies to last them what may take a couple of weeks to build back this highway, that's kind of a tough row to hoe.

SAVIDGE: Right. We know that this is always a vulnerable area. So I'm wondering, has this happened before?

TODD: Not that I know of, Marty, and the people out there said they hadn't seen anything like it before. Now given that, they have ridden out category 2 hurricanes. One guy told me he's even ridden out a category 4 there. It's hard to imagine because that place is very, very vulnerable. But people there said they have not seen anything like this before. As far as flooded roads and flooded neighborhoods and now these roads cut off. So it is a new situation for them, and they hope to be able to kind of outlast the isolation.

SAVIDGE: All right. CNN's Brian Todd out there, and, yes, those folks have a tough road to hoe, as you just pointed out. It's going to be a long wait for them.

KAYE: About 2,500 people or so trapped there now.

SAVIDGE: Long island was one of the hardest-hit areas in New York, at least.

KAYE: Yes, just a short time ago Governor Cuomo made a surprise appearance there at Long Beach. CNN's Susan Candiotti caught up with him and will join us live in two minutes to the share some of that conversation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: The worst of Irene has passed over New York, but the cleanup, that can take a while. Susan Candiotti is in Long Beach. Susan, what's it's damage like there?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is at least one thing that Long Islanders can enjoy tonight. And that's a beautiful sunset that you can make out over my shoulder, but they are still getting bits of rain and I must say some pretty high wind gusts, some probably reaching tropical storm force as a lot of people are out and about tonight.

Fortunately - well, I guess or unfortunately - two things did come true. There is flooding. However, it is mainly localized flooding. Nothing major according to officials, but there are plenty of power outages and that is unfortunate. To give you a quick look around, a lot of people are getting out and about surveying the damage up close. In Long Beach, we're on a barrier island about 25 miles east of Manhattan. So people are up on that boardwalk 15 feet above sea level.

But for example, this hotel, in fact, where we were staying and a lot of reporters are staying as well, got flooded on the first floor, which is actually below sea level. And they're pumping that water out and sweeping out the mud. That appears to be the worst of the damage in this particular area, but as we said, localized flooding through much of Long Island and a lot of power outages about, well, more than 400,000 customers are in the dark tonight.

KAYE: And, Susan, I understand that - it's Randi here, Susan. I understand you had a chance to speak with Governor Cuomo while he visited Long Beach earlier today. You managed to get a one-on-one with him. What did he tell you?

CANDIOTTI: That's right. Well, he just surprised a lot of locals by showing up here and taking a looking around, surveying the damage, going up on the boardwalk, talking to locals. Many of them thanking him for the preparation that was done by the state. But we did asked him, do you think the next time people will wonder whether authorities are forcing them to over prepare? In essence, (INAUDIBLE) said "I don't think so." This is his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, NEW YORK: Don't underestimate the damage that has been done here. And this will go on for days, literally. So I think it was very prudent that we did what we did, and it would have been worse if we hadn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Well, there is economic damage throughout the state. He said about a million customer, throughout the state, are without power, as you probably have heard by now. They're still tallying up the rest of the damage and are very grateful that they're getting help from the federal government and FEMA to help clean up this mess. He did say there is horrendous flooding, but not in this area and other parts of the state. So a lot of cleanup work, of course, is left to do. Back to you, Randi and Marty.

SAVIDGE: And Susan, we were just trying to estimate the commute tomorrow. A lot of people saying they're going to go to work?

CANDIOTTI: Yes. They're planning on going back to work, but others who have a bit of a cleanup to do, of course, won't be. What, of course, is going to be one (INAUDIBLE) how soon will transportation be up? How soon will that be operational again. That's going to be the main hitch. If you got a car, it has not been all that difficult to get around here. Aside from dodging some trees that are down, of course, some wires, and, of course, a lot of linesmen are out trying to get those out of the way tonight.

SAVIDGE: Yes. Still, beautiful sunset. Thanks very much. Beautiful - beautiful imagery to see at the end of a bad storm.

KAYE: Oh, yes. Thanks, Susan.

Well, in one state nearly every community was affected as Irene tore through today.

SAVIDGE: CNN's Kate Bolduan is live in Rhode Island where water surge concerns have everyone on alert tonight. She'll join us in two minutes stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: We want to take you straight to New Jersey now where Governor Chris Christie is speaking.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: ... told us that he thought it was about a foot to a foot and a half of beach erosion, that cape may county officials related that things went very well with Cape May. They were happy that we did the evacuation that we did, and they have some work in Cape May. They were happy that we did the evacuation that we did, and they have some work to do to get things ready, especially on the power side for the rest of this coming week and weekend, but they are looking forward to having folks come back to Cape May county this week and weekend to complete their summer vacations.

We then traveled up to Atlantic County, met with Atlantic County officials led by the County executive Danny Levenson, talked also there about the evacuation of Atlantic County. The county executive said that he is convinced that lives were saved, the fact that we evacuated the towns in Atlantic County that we did, and we then, after leaving Atlantic County, took a tour of the entire coastline from Atlantic County all the way up to Sandy Hook. What we noticed was that clearly some beach erosion has occurred. Some worse than others in various places along the shore, but the good news is we didn't see any type of visible destruction to homes along the beach. And it was encouraging to see that many had prepared and protected their homes, either through hurricane shutters or through plywood.

We then traveled across the center of the state where you see a lot of flooding. And entire roads taken out and unpassable. The rail system unpassable. Due to flooding. And so while the initial concern for everybody was about the shore communities, as I've been saying for a couple days now, the aftermath is really going to be a concern about the rest of the state where we have some significant flooding.

Shelters, we had 50,000 people sheltered now in 53 different shelters. However, our goal after effectively evacuating people is to get them back home as soon as possible. We've already begun to do that today. By the end of tonight, the state shelters will be basically empty. That's an incredible tribute to folks at human services under Jen Velez and to Commissioner Simpson for providing all the transportation to get people home tonight and then in (INAUDIBLE) in Mars County, 20 buses were deployed to bring people home.

At this time everyone who is staying at Mennen is on their way home. Rowan University, 10 buses were sent to Rowan earlier today. The 400 people who were staying at the university are also on their way home tonight. At Rutgers University, buses headed to the university were slightly delayed because of the flooding at roads I talked about in the central part of the state.

However, at this time over 600 people who are staying at two locations on campus all are on their way home. And the mental disability center, buses have already begun arriving at Woodbein (INAUDIBLE) to return evacuees to their homes. As of 4:00 p.m. today, (INAUDIBLE) was completely empty and Woodbein is on its way of being empty by the end of the evening. Ninety percent of the people from these facilities were from Atlantic County. They're all (INAUDIBLE) at the reception center where they will have transport home once they get to Atlantic County.

We have reports from the American Red Cross that there is still approximately 5,000 New Jerseyans in shelters this evening, mostly locally run. We'll have an updated count by midnight about the folks who will be overnighting at those shelters tonight. The storm already transitioned into a flooding event. The hurricane is over but as I said we have serious things to deal with. Rain estimates at this time range from three to 12 inches depending on where you are in the state. No surprise we're concerned about major flooding. It appears we're going to see record levels.

The (INAUDIBLE) rivers are already flooding or will begin to flood tonight. The Delaware River, (INAUDIBLE) Rancocus Creek could flood tomorrow and could remain at flood stage for several days or the entire week. Of concern is potential record flooding in the (INAUDIBLE) river basin. The (INAUDIBLE) and its tributaries are expected to result in substantial floods in that region. The river continues to rise rapidly. State police and the National Guard are bringing in special rescue equipment and vehicles to help assist the situation.

The Delaware river at the state capital and New Hope Lambertville is expected to approach major flood stage tomorrow morning and then gradually subside although remain at above-normal levels probably through Tuesday. We're prepared for what this means for shelter and transportation and infrastructure and our positions with our urban search and rescue teams are coordinating with local OEMs to deal with their areas of concern.

There is also some areas of evacuation now. I'll give you a list of towns with area of evacuations. This does not mean that the entire town has been evacuated - just areas of evacuation. Patterson, Pompton Lakes, Manville, Bound Brook (ph), Fairfield, Belleville, Maple Wood, Old Bridge, Monroe, Stockton, Lambertville, Lincoln Park, and Cliff Side Park. If you're in one of these areas I want to encourage you to listen and abide by what your emergency managers are telling you. This is serious and severe flooding can not be taken lightly and in fact it can worsen rapidly. Flash floods are one of the things that killed a young woman in Salem County during the morning. Flash floods can happen very quickly, as the name denotes.

And so please, don't think that this crisis is over just because the storm has passed. If your emergency managers in your municipalities tell you that you are in a dangerous area, then please evacuate the area. The county municipalities have been doing a very good job of communicating all of this to people about flooding and timing and the American Red Cross and the county shelters that have been opening in preparation for the hurricane are remaining at the ready to receive an influx of evacuees due to this flooding. Also our two state shelters at Mennen and at Rutgers will continue to stand by and at their ready if we need to used those for overflow facilities.

Please call 211 to find out where your local shelter is. That's 211. Call 211 to find out where your local shelter is. If you're unsure, other potential for danger, if you're unsure, then leave your home for a safer place. Tomorrow is going to be a very difficult day. Let me start off by saying, if you don't have to go to work tomorrow, don't go to work tomorrow. Traveling around the state is going to be incredibly difficult. Now DOT is fully mobilized to try to improve this situation, but there's no place to go with the water, everybody.

If we chart to pump all the water out, we have no place to pump it to. Every place across New Jersey is in difficult shape with all the water that we got. So let me review quickly again. We opened the parkway southbound at 1:00 today. Traffic is flowing again on the Parkway southbound south of exit 98. However between 91 and 98 there is still closure in both directions because of extreme flooding. We have detours set up that will get you back on the Parkway in either direction but you should expect that it is going to take you some time. It is going to be congested. Let's keep our cool and not lose our temper. We're going to just have to deal with it.

And speaking of not losing your temper, as of 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning tolls will be reinstated. So for those of you who have been driving and enjoying toll-free driving on the free tolls at the garden state parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway, that's over. The tolls go back into effect at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. However, as flooding increases, there is going to be additional road closures beyond the 300 roads we previously talked about. Interstate 80, 280, route 17, route 23, all have partial or complete closures that require detours.

With regard to tomorrow's commute, as I said, if you don't need to go to work tomorrow, and you're driving, don't go to work tomorrow. Tomorrow's going to be a very difficult day to travel around the state of New Jersey. In addition to that for those of you who are New Jersey transit riders, not going to be a good day tomorrow either. The system is flooded all over the state. In fact, we're going to take some additional time to get the system back up and running. In part, because of the flooding, and in part because of a series of down trees that are on tracks and are forcing us to have to deal with that first before we can effectively put the system fully back in place. So tomorrow New Jersey transit, all transit service will be suspended. Ironically, except for the Atlantic City rail line, the Hudson, Bergen, light rail and the river line will operate but only on a weekend schedule. So a reduced schedule.

Bus service is expected to operate on a modified weekday schedule with fewer trips operating during peak periods on the same routes. So tomorrow's going to be very difficult from a New Jersey transit perspective, bus or rail. We hope to have that better by Tuesday, but again, part of this is literally there's no place to go with all the water that we've gotten. Path trains for those of you who take the path going into Manhattan, path trains will begin regular service tomorrow morning at 4:00 a.m.. And Newark Airport will be open at 6:00 a.m. for arrivals and noon for departures.

For those of you who use JFK airport, the schedule will be the same. La Guardia will be open for arrivals and departures at 7:00 a.m.. So that's Newark at 6:00 a.m. for arrivals and at noon for departures. Same for JFK but for LaGuardia, they'll be open for arrivals and departures at 7:00 a.m. as I said earlier today, I really want to thank the folks who are standing behind me for the extraordinary work that they've done over the last number of days being here.

The lieutenant governor and I are very, very appreciative of what they did and have done and will continue to do as we work together on these issues. I also want to thank the people in the state. They once again renewed my confidence in them. And I want to make one thing really clear. For those folks who will now say, well, there wasn't abject destruction up and down the coastline, therefore we shouldn't have left - let me tell you, those type of second-guessers will not be tolerated.

The fact is that by moving a million people off the Jersey Shore, we saved lives. And there can't really be any debate about that. And so my job as governor first and foremost is to protect the lives of the people who we serve and we accomplished that goal first and foremost. We're going to learn a lot from this storm. It is only the beginning of hurricane season. I hope we don't have to go through something like this again but if we do we'll be having after-action meetings with all of the different agencies involved to figure out what we did right and what we could do better.

But, we met our main mission, which was to preserve the life of the people who live in this state and for all those people who we did evacuate, who didn't leave on their own but needed to be taken places because they couldn't, think about this - they're all back at home tonight. I think that's a pretty extraordinary accomplishment. It is one of the things that I said to the folks at Rutgers yesterday. I said, just sleep here tonight, ride out the storm and we'll do the best we can to get you home as soon as possible. Well, I don't know if they expected to be home tonight, but they are and I'm glad that we were able to get that done. Questions.

QUESTION: Governor, will state workers will expected to show up for duty tomorrow?

CHRISTIE: The state workers are expected to show up for duty. Beth? QUESTION: Governor, there seemed to be some confusion earlier at a news conference whether or not a firefighter had died. Can you clarify that?

CHRISTIE: You know, just got bad information. I got briefed. Folks who briefed me had bad information. I repeated the bad information. I apologized if I caused any upset among the family of that firefighter. I did not intend to do so. I was informed that he had passed. I'm absolutely relieved that he did not. But you know, with all of the different information that's falling in and out of here, some mistakes are going to be made. I apologized, it is my responsibility, I made the announcement and it was based on a briefing that I got. You know, which just happened to be wrong. I'm glad we were and I'm sorry if we caused any upset or consternation among the firefighter's friends and family. Now he is in intensive care, to my understanding but is still very much alive and we're (INAUDIBLE) for that.

(INAUDIBLE)

CHRISTIE: No, transit, rail is suspended.