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Tropical Storm Irene Lashes at the East Coast; Thousands Without Power in Connecticut; Stamford Connecticut Mayor: We Dodged a Bullet; Irene Slams Ashore in Northeast; Rhode Island Evacuations; Irene Drenches Northeast; iReporters Cover Irene Aftermath; President Obama on Irene Recovery
Aired August 28, 2011 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAPT. NICOLE MITCHELL, HURRICANE HUNTER (on the phone): And I love a little adventure. So for me being able to fly inside a hurricane and see everything up close, it is just awesome. And it's a really, good, helpful job that we know saves lives. So all those things are good. You look forward to it in that respect. Of course, then when you're in a storm that you know is going to hit land and cause damage, you don't want that side of it. So you know, it's kind of a mixed feeling.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Sounds kind of fascinating. I might like to tag along sometime, Captain Mitchell. Thank you so much. Seven times flying through that hurricane. Thank you.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Tropical storm Irene was lashing New England with powerful winds and rain. Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
BALDWIN: And I'm Brooke Baldwin. Let's get you caught up now on what we know right now at this hour on this storm. First, President Obama an hour away from making the statement about the storm. He will be doing so 5:00 Eastern from the Rose Garden. We'll bring it to you live as soon as we see the president.
WHITFIELD: Irene continues to lose power since making landfall this morning. Floodwaters are receding on New York's Long Island and downtown Manhattan. Evacuation orders for low lying areas including the Rockaways were lifted just last hour. And residents are venturing out to examine the storm damage.
BALDWIN: The storm has proven to be fatal. At least 15 people across six separate states were killed during the storm. And Irene's powerful winds toppled trees, knocked down power lines, damaged homes. Early wind damage estimates alone are expected to top $1 million. More than four million people are still without power.
WHITFIELD: So for places like New York City, the storm wasn't as bas as many had feared. But as Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano said earlier today, "we're not out of the woods yet."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANET NAPOLITANO, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: No matter where you are this morning, from North Carolina to Maine, we encourage you to stay off the roads as much as possible so that we can keep them clear for first responders and for vehicles who are working on power restoration. We also encourage everyone to continue listening to the instructions of their state and local officials and to visit ready.gov for tips on how to stay safe at the storm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: We know Irene made her way up the coast all the way from North Carolina now up to Maine and left quite a trail of destruction in its path. Put a lot of people in harm's way. And even with all the events, planning, the warnings, some people were caught in very dangerous situations like this family here. This is video. It shows rescue crews in these boats essentially helping these folks who live in that home get out safely. They had to be rescued by boat here in Elmsford, New York, when the floodwaters just came rushing in.
And this Irene storm surge sent this life guard station, watch this, tumbling along the waters. This is Long Beach, New York. We're told a small building with the force of the water lifted it off its foundation, pinned it there against that boardwalk.
And a boat off the coast of the Atlantic highlands in New Jersey, not at all fairing well. We're told this boat sunk because of Irene's floodwaters.
WHITFIELD: Of course, we have crews all up and down the East Coast bringing you the very latest. Chris Lawrence in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, looking very, very different. Almost sunny today. Gary Tuchman in Newport, Rhode Island, where the winds have died down quite a bit. Kate Bolduan in Providence, Rhode Island. All right. We're going to check in with all of our crews there giving us a different perspective of things.
Let's begin with Kate Bolduan in Providence.
BALDWIN: Kate, what are you seeing?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Brooke. Similar to what we've been seeing throughout the day, kind of a general trend of the rain dissipating as well as we're still getting some pretty strong gusts. The wind does seem to be dying down quite a bit. It seems the focus now and the challenge now is to try to get people back online, get the power back online. We're hearing that about 50 percent of the state, the state of Rhode Island is without power at this time.
We know the company, National Grid, is working very hard to get crews out there to try to fix this problem and start getting people back online. Some of the trouble that they're going to have to be dealing and we've heard this is part of the challenge is that there is a lot of debris in the roads. We've seen it ourselves as well as in some here in Providence and some neighboring cities, Warwick, especially.
Trees down in the roads all throughout the state. Power lines in Warwick to the point where the town is saying that travel must be restricted to only emergency vehicles until further notice, really. They're trying to clean debris up off the road. We heard from the governor a few times today saying that much of the state as you know and we're hearing from people all across the East Coast, saying that while they're still dealing with these strong winds and the aftermath and the cleanup, that they're going to have to be dealing with, everyone breathing a sigh of relief. We keep hearing that over and over again as their worst fears did not come true with Irene, hurricane and now tropical storm.
So we're still feeling the strong gusts. We will throughout the day. We're here with this hurricane barrier, that was actually built in the 1960s. It's supposed to withstand surges of some 20 feet. Clearly that was not tested this time around and they're very happy. But we have been seeing some - we're hearing there's some very strong surf all up and down (INAUDIBLE) bay and all throughout Rhode Island. We're watching that very closely. Brooke, Fredricka.
BALDWIN: Kate Bolduan, thank you very much. I do want to just read quickly here this post. Chad Myers just snuck in this over here. Because it's important. It's a flooding event. It's also a wind event. He says wind is picking up again over New York City from the backside of the circulation of the storm. Trees are again toppling down. So if you think you're out of the woods, as Janet Napolitano said earlier today, you're not quite yet.
WHITFIELD: All the more reason why they really prefer people stay indoors. So that first responders or emergency preparedness crews can actually do what they need to do and make sure things are safe before everybody else ventures out.
BALDWIN: Let's continue on with Rhode Island. We know the storm rolled into that small state earlier today. Gary Tuchman was there to ride it out in the beautiful area of Newport. Gary, I know we talked to the governor early today. Big smile on his face. He seems to think that, you know, the state missed the brunt of the storm for the most part. Is that what you seem to have experienced?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're 40 miles south of cape, Brooke. Here the winds have been picking up the last couple of hours (INAUDIBLE). Certainly not as bad as we thought it could be. I'm standing on these steps of this Greek Orthodox church not because I'm a loiterer, but because we were here last night explaining that during Hurricane Bob 20 years ago the water came right up to here.
During the great hurricane of 1938 which killed more than 600 people in southern New England and Long Island the water was even higher. We're happy to say that this church which was built in 1924 and is now 87 years old is doing just fine. That's the key thing. The flooding has been very limited here. There's a lot of concern that this area which is very vulnerable to flooding (INAUDIBLE) where the beach is which is down there faced to the south and this hurricane/tropical storm was coming from the south so there was a lot of concern about the flooding. Instead what we've seen throughout this city of 25,000 year-round residents and more than 100,000 people on a weekend like this is a lot of downed trees, some downed power lines. But fortunately, there have no injuries, no deaths and very little property damage. That's a great relief.
We're expecting that these heavy winds to be over within the next couple of hours. And then the Newport residents can come out again. You can kind of see, people are kind of walking down the streets right now because they see that this is not as bad as they thought it could be. Back to you.
BALDWIN: Amazing how high that water was from 20 years ago with Bob. Gary, thank you very much.
TUCHMAN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: All right. More of Irene now and what it's doing. It is being blamed for at least one death in Maryland. But the state largely escaped the storm's wrath. Emergency crews are assessing the damage there. And many Marylanders are in recovery mode today. Some venturing out.
Our Chris Lawrence is live at Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, where nearby people are already at that restaurant enjoying sort of clear skies, partly sunny skies right now. Was there much damage to the area where you are?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think the - the refrain, Fred, has been the same as it has been everywhere. Not as much as people expected or feared, really. There are a tremendous amount of trees down. There are some power lines down. Some of the roads in and out of this area and even leading back up into Washington, D.C., are still closed down while the crews are out there. We didn't see the level of catastrophic damage across wide areas that you do see with some hurricanes. I remember just, you know, yesterday afternoon and into the night where the water was up a few feet from here. It was just lapping over with the waves really crashing in. Now, sunny, calm.
The hurricane is so strong it just pulls all that bad weather out with it and you get a sunny day the next day. There was some damage, though, from those winds. You know, a woman's chimney collapsed on her home and killed an elderly woman in Queen Ann's county. We spoke with a couple who a tree literally crashed right into their home, splitting it right down the middle of their home. But the thing that ended up saving them was the fact that the power had gone out just a couple of hours earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAT HOLSON, STORM VICTIM: The lights went off. I went downstairs to work a crossword puzzle, you know, in the basement. And I was going to go upstairs a little bit once, you know, I was getting tired. All of the sudden I hear wham, wham. And all of the sudden coming through the floor are the branches. Scared me to death. Otherwise I would have been in my bed. I would have been crushed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: Amazing to hear that. You know, just one little action and it changes everything about how you look at the storm. Right now, though, you still got a tremendous amount of people without power. I think around 800,000 in the state of Maryland. So they are obviously hoping that the power gets turned on as quickly as possible. And the road crews are still saying try to stay off the roads as much as you can. Because they want to get those roads reopened and move some of those power lines and trees blocking access to some areas.
WHITFIELD: All right. Great advice. Thanks so much Chris Lawrence in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland.
BALDWIN: And that evacuation order for what was it, zone a, parts of lower Manhattan, that was lifted just about an hour ago. We'll give you a live look at the damage left by tropical storm Irene and how the city of Manhattan is now trying to recover.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: We're getting lots of stories and pictures about wind damage, about water damage. That is what has come from what was Hurricane Irene, now tropical storm Irene. Take a look at the latest ireport that we've just received. This right here. This was the favorite reading spot for Kerry Quinn in (INAUDIBLE) Connecticut until a tree came crashing down on this atrium in her home. Thankfully nobody was there at the moment. So she and everybody else doing just fine. But this is the kind of wind that came through and swept through Connecticut causing lots of damage.
We heard from the mayor of Stamford earlier who talked about a lot of trees coming down and some puddles of water as well. Some standing water. And about 600,000 people without power in the state of Connecticut alone. So quite severe in terms of - and scattered kind of damage, right?
BALDWIN: So they're looking at that. There are several areas of New York that are of really of grave concern to the governor. We spoke to the governor, Andrew Cuomo, earlier and he talked to me about the Catskills area because of the flooding and also Nassau and Suffolk counties along Long Island. Let's go to Long Beach, New York, where Susan Candiotti is standing by and hopefully set the scene for us here. Susan, let's start this again. Tell me what you're seeing.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, two predictions came true. There is flooding. And there are power outages. That much is true. If you happen to be in one of those areas, you're not feeling too good about things right now. If not, officials are saying from their early estimates, no injuries, no damages. (INAUDIBLE) There is flooding in some minor areas that they always get flooding. But a lot of the water has already receded. No serious reports as we said of heavy damage.
However, 450,000 customers on Long Island are without power. We're reporting to you from Long Beach. This is where we were staying. You can see they flooded in the first floor of this hotel. If you look down the street, you can see that they're pumping water out. You can see that water gushing out of that hose right down there to the left of the police vehicle. Then as we drove around town, we saw some issues, minor flooding.
But honestly, it wasn't bad at all. Walking over here just a step or two, I just want to show you that this is one area (INAUDIBLE) right here at the end of this dock. This is the highest point on this barrier island called Long Beach. It's 15 feet above sea level. But many other areas here are actually (INAUDIBLE)
WHITFIELD: Clearly a testament there to the winds that are still kicking up in any number of the five boroughs of New York. It's still part of, you know, tropical storm Irene. Chad Myers is in the weather center to give a better explanation as to why people are still feeling these kinds of interruptions.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We're on the other side of the circulation now. The east side of the circulation pushing winds up into Canada going that way. But now the other side coming in from the northwest. And winds have already gusted to 50 miles per hour at JFK. I could easily see 60 mile per hour gusts for the rest of the evening. That means that trees that were standing may actually be falling from the other direction now.
And our crews that had the satellite trucks positioned behind buildings to protect it from a south wind, now those trucks aren't protected anymore. And the satellite dish swaying. It can't hit the satellite anymore. So that's why we just lost Susan on that live shot. That's exactly the reason. Let me move you on down and show you there's still rain in Rutland and Burlington. There's an awful lot of flooding. There is significant flooding going on in New York, and parts of Vermont, also the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Flood flooding in all, in every one of these red zones is at least significant enough to cause fast water or swift water rescues to go on right now. Some even including helicopters where people are on top of their homes. And we said this yesterday. This will not be remembered as the windiest storm. But a lot of people, especially up here, will remember it as the big flood maker.
Because the water is still going to - it's going to take days for this water to get all the down into the ocean. It's going to take days for all these rivers to finally go down. We have flooding rivers in New Jersey, in Virginia, in North Carolina and also into Maryland. And that's just the rivers that caused - rainfall caused these floods. Not even this flash flooding that we're seeing now. The rain is almost over. But let me tell you, the flooding will continue for at least five or 10 more days, depending on where you are on that river system.
BALDWIN: Chad, I have a question, though. Back to the wind, if you're talking about how this one is part of the back part of the circulation of the storm as it's right now kind of over Manhattan, are we then to believe that's the trend and it's already moved northward? Will those northern cities also experience the back circulation of the wind as well?
MYERS: You bet. That's exactly what's going to happen. All of these areas that had - well, we've had 15 to 20 inches of rainfall here. All this wind that we're seeing here, when this band of rain, you can see that band. That's the backside band of rain from the entire circulation. That will eventually get up here toward Schenectady and into these areas that are already seeing all this flooding. You have flooding. Trees with their roots just sitting in mud. Those trees are going to fall down and significantly more power lines are going to come down. Watch yourself if you're - if you have a house here and you have a tree on the west side of you. Because those trees are going to be falling down left and right tonight.
BALDWIN: That's why I asked.
Good warning. So many people need to watch out. Chad, thank you very much.
MYERS: You're welcome.
BALDWIN: Also, Irene leaving behind a soggy, soggy mess. We'll check in and get the latest from our different affiliates who are on the ground covering this as well up and down the East Coast. Special coverage tropical storm Irene back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All of these images really paint the picture of just how damaging and threatening tropical storm Irene has been. Especially since it started as a hurricane category 1 along the coast, hitting North Carolina and then making its way north. Take a look at these images right now from our ireporters out of Jersey City, New Jersey. You can see right there the accumulation of water going right over the embankments there onto the walkway. Pretty remarkable. Folks are seeing this many times over in New Jersey, also in New York. At least in New York we understand in Manhattan the water has receded quite a bit. But still the remnants of tropical storm Irene are evident in so many different places.
BALDWIN: Let's go ahead as we also are keeping our eyes on many different monitors. You can't see. Our folks behind the scenes. We want to just dip into some of our coverage from our affiliates. Here are a couple. Let's listen in to our New York affiliate WCBS.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that's kind of what we're seeing here and there in Fresh Meadows. Some branches here. Some limbs here. Once in a while downed tree really falling victim to the wind and the water beneath it. Guys, send it back to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) thanks so much. Just to get you an idea of how strong those winds were earlier this morning, CBS's Christine Sloan was nearly swept -
BALDWIN: Now to WABC out of New York as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning. And one family, six people, they had enough. They said, "You know what? We need to get out of here." They called for help. The fire department showed up, took them three trips to get the six occupants out. They had two elderly people there. A couple of young girls. Two adults. They were brought to safety. Then there were a number of trips after that as residents - they've been through floods before. So they thought they could make it through.
There was a little discrepancy there. The fire chief says they were given notice to leave. Residents say they didn't. But a lot of residents said we've seen flooding before. We're going to stay. And it was even too much for them. You know, they'd been through these floods and just couldn't hang in there. So they needed to be rescued. You know, once the water comes in, even if the basement is empty and they've got the house up on stilts, you've got to cut the power once it starts to come up to the first floor. That's when they knew they were going to be stuck. And so they called for help and they were able to get there. Power is out in this area. There are a lot of outages. I'm out of power at home. I know that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where we stayed in the hotel, there were crews already in from out of state. From Ohio. From Kentucky and West Virginia.
WHITFIELD: All right. Let's check from New York to WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island, and dip in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How big do you think the waves were?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Probably eight to 10 feet. The highest I've ever seen here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's pretty impressive. Eight to 10 foot waves and a strong wind. But take a look. The sun trying to crack its way through the clouds here on Watch Hill. (INAUDIBLE) eyewitness news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eyewitness news has been all over the state.
BALDWIN: That is just a look at some of your different affiliates here as they are covering the storm from the ground all throughout the eastern seaboard. Let's go back to WCBS out of New York.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is some damage, but not as bad as she initially thought. Now you see this big truck getting in the way. That's OK. Because the remnants, what's left of that 40-foot cedar, in there. Everyone's very happy it's in there. It is being trucked away. The next part of the job here on Fredrick Avenue in Shreveport is to get the power back on. Of course, that big tree downed lines. And that is repeated all over this area, all over Nassau County. The trees down. This is one of the bigger ones that we saw. The work crews here did an amazing job doing it quick, getting this tree removed in about an hour, hour and a half. Now moving on to tree after tree in this area. WHITFIELD: All right. Nassau County, Suffolk County, and of course, the Catskills there in New York all experiencing a lot of downed trees because of so much floodwater as well as high winds that kicked in when tropical storm Irene came through.
So now it's making its way farther upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine as well. We continue to get a lot of video in from our ireporters and from our affiliates. We're going to continue to show you new images and get you new information about the damage from hurricane and now tropical storm Irene.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Tropical storm Irene having a tremendous impact on states up and down the northeast today including major cities like New York, Philadelphia and Boston. In fact, let's jump into coverage from our affiliate in Boston, affiliate WCVB.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) jumping into it as well. Until we see it's actually peak that's what we're they're really going to be very, very concerned about. This is a river that drops very quickly. But still, it's on its way up right now, it's not on its way down by any means.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's one that drops quickly. But clearly it's one that rises quickly as well. Well as an experienced meteorologist, is that unusual for a river to go from four to 17-plus feet in 12 hours?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's pretty impressive. But each river has its own personality. You know, there are some that just fill up very quickly. There are some that take a long time, especially some of the bigger rivers, it takes a long time for that water to come down. So that's why we're going to be talking about this I think for several more days. Because this water is going to be moving into a bigger river. And we're going to have some flooding there. So the Connecticut River is probably going to be giving us big issues.
BALDWIN: Water, water everywhere.
WHITFIELD: They're talking about the East Milton area. Not far from the shore of Massachusetts. Kind of close to interstate 93 for a lot of people living there. But you know, they're experiencing a lot of the winds. You've already got some of the rain. Not as much as some of the other areas and states farther south. They did get some wind. You're seeing some people out there, kind of the looky-loos out there to see what they can.
BALDWIN: Those who go stir crazy.
WHITFIELD: Marveling over the rise of the - the very rapid rise of the river.
All right. From Massachusetts, let's move on to Connecticut. It too dealing with the effects from tropical storm Irene, widespread power outages as well as a few puddles of water here and there. Earlier, I - I spoke to the mayor of Stamford, Connecticut, a city that was projected to get a direct hit from Irene but, thankfully, it didn't. Here's what Mayor Michael Pavia had to say about the conditions in his city.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAYOR MICHAEL PAVIA, STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT: The surge, we were worried about the coincidence of the surge and the peak runoff with the - the heavy rainfall, and then combine that with the winds that are pushing water back on land.
We were able to dodge that bullet. We saw some surging. We saw some high waves. It was a very angry Long Island Sound. We saw flooding of roads. We saw some - many, many trees down. In fact, in the northern country, the streets are littered with branches and leaves. It's almost like a leaf confetti all over.
So, the third leg of this storm, the tripod, is the cleanup and restoration, and that's going to take us quite a while, from what I saw and what I can see. We are currently without power. About 20,000 of our residents, which is about 20 percent of our residents, are without power throughout the city of Stamford, primarily in the northern section. We're waiting for the utility company to dispatch the crews that we were promised that would be here Sunday, haven't yet arrived.
Unfortunately, we're all ready to go, and we're waiting for the most important people to show up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And so states all along the eastern seaboard kind of share Connecticut's pain, waiting for some help to arrive. More than four million people are, in fact, without power right now.
And in just a half an hour from now, President Barack Obama will be making a live statement from the White House. Officials say that he'll be providing an update on the storm conditions and, of course, we'll be taking that statement live from the White House, 5:00 Eastern Time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Welcome back here to our extended coverage of Tropical Storm Irene. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
So in less than half an hour from now President Barack Obama is scheduled to talk about the storm. He'll be coming to us live from the White House Rose Garden, and of course we'll be covering that live as it happens.
So meantime, now Tropical Storm Irene has turned into a major rainmaker as it moves through the northeast. We've seen record flooding in parts of New Jersey, New York City and even Philadelphia today.
BALDWIN: But we're also getting our first look today at the damage all along the North Carolina coast. Look at these images. You see the water. Some of these roads are just disappearing.
This is where Irene first came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane. We're now learning today bridges are out, roads are ripped apart, entire communities there along the coastal areas underwater.
At least 15 people in six states have died, some of them crushed by falling trees. The storm has also knocked out power to more than four million people, and we're being told it could be an entire week before it's all restored.
WHITFIELD: So of course we have live crews all across the storm zone to bring you the very latest on Irene. Let's check in with all our folks there from Battery Park to Chesapeake Beach to right here in Atlanta. Carter Evans, Chris Lawrence and, of course, our Josh Levs.
BALDWIN: And Carter Evans, let's begin with you. Carter is there, along with perhaps some tourists, some folks who I know have been stir crazy, ready to get out and about.
I know that where you are, that's the Hudson River behind you. Is it now back to normal?
CARTER EVANS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it's back to normal, in the sense of river height. As far as normal, though, you can see all those white caps behind me reaching all the way out to the Statue of Liberty. It's pretty rough. We normally don't see it that rough. But it certainly is a lot better than it was earlier today.
When the flooding was at its peak here, the water came up to about where I'm standing, well past those benches over there. And I would estimate that it's a good eight or 10 feet down to the water level right now. So that gives you an idea of how high the water was.
Here in New York City, though, water wasn't the only problem. There were falling trees. I was near Central Park this morning. We heard a loud bang. It sounded like an explosion, really, and then this gigantic tree came down.
The scariest part about that was - is there was virtually no wind or rain at the time. It's all because of the saturated ground out here. There's nothing to hold these trees in. So it is still dangerous in that sense.
But, all along, Mayor Bloomberg said the storm surge would be New York City's biggest problem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK: We are seeing some very serious consequences of the flooding or of the storm, including flooding and downed trees and power outages. And, as we anticipated, the storm surge has caused serious flooding across the five boroughs, including here in Lower Manhattan where the eastern Harlem and Hudson Rivers are flowing over their banks and into the parks and low lying streets at the water's edge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
EVANS: So it was both rivers, both the East and the Hudson. We're on the Hudson now. I want to take you a little - little way up the west side highway.
Now, there's a jogging path, a bike path along here. Over the last couple of years it's been renovated. Again, the water at normal times well below.
You can see here just railings sticking out of the water. These are some of the piers that stick out into the Hudson River. So the water comes up over those, across the bike lanes, across the west side highway of Manhattan, and it makes its way into the trendy meat packing district and into some apartments there.
So there is going to be some cleanup involved here with flooding. That's for sure.
As far as the damage that it did to the inner workings of New York City, if you will, the subway, the underground power, the underground communications, that's still unclear. We know public transit is still shut down through tomorrow morning. They're going to try and get it up and running tomorrow afternoon, but no guarantees from the mayor right now.
The good news for the people that lived down here where I am is they can now come home. The evacuation order is lifted.
BALDWIN: Carter Evans -
EVANS: Fredricka.
BALDWIN: -- thank you very much.
WHITFIELD: I like how an occasional jogger -
BALDWIN: Jogging on along.
WHITFIELD: -- or biker go on through.
BALDWIN: Got to get that exercise along the Hudson. It is a beautiful jogging path.
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: -- a little normalcy. Trying.
All right, so Irene rolled across Maryland earlier as well.
BALDWIN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Our Chris Lawrence is live from Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. They, too, are trying to restore some normalcy, folks eating on a kind of patio restaurant not far from where you are, Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Fred. I mean, nothing like - will help you get back to normal like a beautiful sunny day like we're having here at Chesapeake Beach.
You know, if you take a look over here, you can see this restaurant right over here where people are sitting out, really enjoying the day. But it's somewhat of a mirage in that we've spent a lot of time in there talking to folks. A lot of these folks are from other counties here in Maryland, and none of them have power. In fact, a lot of people in there were saying, man, this is the only restaurant within miles and miles that we could find that was even open.
So they're running off a generator, were able to get power and keep power. But a lot of folks in Maryland, about 800,000, are still without power. And the problem is, you've still got a lot of downed trees, downed power lines and some of the roads that people would normally use to get around are simply inaccessible.
Even going all the way back up to Washington, D.C., we've been told, it's going to be a very roundabout way back because a lot of the main roads that people would use to get back there, the most direct routes, are simply covered in branches and tree limbs and power lines that are down - Fred.
WHITFIELD: Extraordinary. All right. Well, glad folks are in the clear weather-wise. Now it's just a matter of restoring that power to so many people there in Maryland.
BALDWIN: Right. But then you have New England, and a lot of you probably looking out your windows and saying, yes, I'm still seeing rain, very much so, out my window right now. Heavy rain on New England.
And, you know, there are still mandatory evacuation orders for parts of Rhode Island. Michelle Katafiasz lives in Bristol, Rhode Island, one of the - the lower lying areas, I'm told. She's now on the phone.
And Michelle, I understand you live on the coast. You were told to evacuate by 10:00 this morning. You didn't. Do you regret that decision?
MICHELLE KATAFIASZ, RHODE ISLAND RESIDENT: Hi, Fredricka. No, I don't regret it. I wish I could be watching CNN right now. But we've been without power since about 6:45 A.M., so I'm going on almost 10 hours without it.
We haven't seen the coastal flooding that we really thought we might see. We were really worried about some coastal surges. But we are getting the relentless winds, and it just seems it's non-stop.
There's a lot of boats that have broke away from their moorings in the harbor and they're now onshore. And I've seen - there's been a lot of power lines down and trees down, which is a bit surprising. They took down about 30 of our trees that were diseased or they deemed, you know, dying in town just two weeks ago, and on this main road, we're still seeing more healthy trees that have just come crashing down.
BALDWIN: Michelle, it's - it's Brooke. My only other question is what about any flooding issues? Are - are you high and dry in your home?
KATAFIASZ: Yes. Happily, I can say right now, high and dry. The high tide will probably be around 7:00, so if we can get past that tonight, I think we're all going to feel a little bit safer.
BALDWIN: Michelle Katafiasz, we'll be thinking of you. So many people we're thinking about here.
KATAFIASZ: Thank you.
BALDWIN: A lot of people not as fortunate as she is, as we saw - witnessed in New Jersey, Poppy Harlow, and all that water in those basements.
WHITFIELD: Right. Still a lot of winds, still a lot of water, in some cases it's an issue of standing water, in other - others, the matter of rivers cresting.
Our Chad Myers is going to give us an overall view of things when we come - oh, there you are. Poof. OK.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: (INAUDIBLE).
WHITFIELD: So, give us the latest.
OK, you were talking about winds that are still kicking in.
MYERS: Yes.
WHITFIELD: And it is dropping still some rain in some parts.
MYERS: Yes, especially up north here. Up north into northern New England, still raining. And the winds are still coming in from the south here in Providence and that's why they're still seeing a slight surge there. But coming in from the east, for the most part up north of Boston and also into Maine and into Nova Scotia itself.
The rainfall is to the north, and there's also a bit of rain right through here. And it's not significant when it comes to rainfall, but it's significant to show us where the backside of the eye is, where the backside of the circulation is. And that is bringing the new wind into New York City.
For a long time, you were in this basically a black hole of no wind across most of New York. Now, that black hole is gone and this surge or this backside wind is coming through at 45, 50 miles per hour. Even a couple of gusts not out of the question at 60 miles per hour with this. So you have to understand that this may not be over when it comes to falling trees.
It may not be over when it comes to significant flooding up here in New York from Syracuse back to Schenectady. I know that there are evacuations going on in Utica and evacuations going on in Rensselaer County. And also, up here, you see some very, very heavy rain in Burlington, Vermont. And Rutland, we have our Gary Tuchman on the way to go chase some of this flooding.
The problem is it's flash flooding. It comes up very fast. It may come up 12 feet in an hour and then goes back down 12 feet the next hour. You have to be ready for it if you live near water.
And now that it's going to start getting dark, you don't want to be driving near creeks and streams if you don't know where they are and how much of the rain has come down, because there's been 10 to 20 inches of rainfall across parts of this area just from the storm alone. And there was a dozen inches of rain before that in August, so there's no place for this rain to soak in. It's all running off and it's all causing flooding.
And we will have great pictures tomorrow. Right now we have words and talking about it, but I know we will have pictures from all of our affiliates across the upper parts of New York and New England tomorrow. And, let me tell you, they will be dramatic.
WHITFIELD: Yes. You know, and it reminds me, just looking at that WABC affiliate, the video that we're running while you were talking of seeing that standing water, people, don't drive through that standing water because you really don't know what's in there. It could be a live power line or it could be debris.
There could be a lot of things and sometimes you just don't know how deep it is.
BALDWIN: You don't know how deep it is.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
MYERS: Correct. You don't even know if that road is still there.
WHITFIELD: Right.
MYERS: The road may be washed away -
WHITFIELD: That, too.
MYERS: -- and you just drive down in a hole.
WHITFIELD: All right. Chad Myers, thanks so much.
MYERS: You're welcome. WHITFIELD: All right, straight ahead, some of the video and pictures that people have been sending. Our iReporters all kind of giving us their perspective of Hurricane Irene, now Tropical Storm Irene. We'll have much more straight ahead, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Welcome back. Our developing coverage continues of Tropical Storm Irene, right now moving over New England.
WHITFIELD: Yes. But it has left a lasting mark on states much farther south as it roared ashore in New York and New Jersey today.
Here now is CNN's Jonathan Mann.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Irene made landfall again Sunday morning, windy, wet and destructive. But it was slightly more subdued, quickly downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm as its wind speeds fell below 75 miles an hour.
As it hit New York City, the worst problem was flooding. Storm surges in the East River and the Hudson submerged low lying areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Waterfront walkways actually underwater.
To the east, in Long Beach, the advancing Atlantic swallowed 10 to 15 foot berms built to hold it back, pushing at least one building into the boardwalk.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Those winds are massive. That surf is absolutely pounding the shoreline and has completely wiped out the manmade berms that they put up to protect this hotel, this boardwalk and that town.
MANN: People in low lying areas had been told to evacuate in advance of the storm. Those who chose to stay quickly found themselves in situations like this, trapped by rising waters.
Rescue crews used boats in Elmsford, New York Sunday morning to ferry people to safety. In New Jersey, water even inundated a marina, and the governor said flooding was by far his state's biggest concern.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, NEW JERSEY: We're talking about not only coastline flooding, but also inland flooding of our rivers that are swelling to - to record levels. And so that's going to continue for another couple of days after the storm passes.
MANN: Farther south, Ocean City, Maryland reported no major flooding but still plenty of water, at least 11 inches of rain by early Sunday. Elsewhere in the state, a woman in Queenstown died Saturday night, crushed by the chimney in her home after a tree fell on it. And a nuclear power reactor in Calvert Cliffs went offline automatically late Saturday after a piece of aluminum siding struck a transformer. Power was a big problem everywhere the storm spread. More than three million utility customers spent some part of the weekend in the dark.
EDDIE HOPLINS, MARYLAND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (voice-over): We're - we're trying to obviously help people manage their expectations by getting that information over to utility companies and helping in any way we can to prioritize the critical infrastructure and such to get power restored to those - those communities. But our expectation is this is going to take days - if not hours, it will take days to get that done.
MANN: The storm hit the south even harder when it first struck on Saturday, taking lives in North Carolina, Virginia and Florida. The extent of property damage is anyone's guess, and it's not over yet.
Jonathan Mann, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Gosh. And as if these images aren't powerful enough, there are more. We continue to receive a whole lot of images, whether it be pictures or video from a lot of iReporters. We're going to review a few more to you.
Particularly, we're going to take you to North Carolina. That was the first place hit by once Hurricane -
BALDWIN: Hurricane Category 2 Irene at the time. We'll get Josh Levs in on the action. He's got all kinds of videos he's about to share with you. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: While Tropical Storm Irene makes its way into New England, let's zero in on Connecticut where right now about 600,000 people are still without power.
And then, here's some new images coming in from our iReporter Fred Moore. This is West Haven, Connecticut. The surf may be coming up right there, as you see, and possibly into the restaurant that you saw a little bit earlier.
Well, Fred says after he put the camera down, he and a few others felt a little bold. They decided to take a swim.
BALDWIN: Take a swim in - did you see those waves, Fred?
WHITFIELD: Yes. Pretty significant waves. But clearly they did OK, because they were able to send us these images.
BALDWIN: I guess so.
You know, some of the most compelling, though, dramatic video has come from you, our own CNN iReporters. I know Josh Levs has been sort of combing through these different videos, and judging by the map behind you, Mr. Levs, I know they're coming in from all up and down the East Coast. But I think it's so important - I don't want to forget North Carolina.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.
BALDWIN: What are you seeing from there?
LEVS: No, good point. In fact, we just got a new picture from North Carolina we just teased before the break.
Take a look at this. I'll tell you about it and you can just witness destruction before your eyes. Let's look at this.
This is from our iReporter Chad Stewart (ph), captured this photo of furniture and debris from his neighbors' homes that washed up in his front yard. This is over in Nags Head, North Carolina.
Now, think about that. You know, I've covered flooding in North Carolina before, times when there was just - time - one inch of a stop sign sticking out of the water. I could tell you, there's nothing like seeing the destruction after these gushing waters have come through and realizing these were people's homes, livelihoods, parts of destroyed businesses.
He reports that at least one home in this area was completely destroyed, and that picture you can multiply in hundreds or thousands of cases around North Carolina.
And that's not the only thing we're seeing. We've got some new video here from one of our superstar iReporters in Virginia Beach. Let's take a look at this. And he's showing -
BALDWIN: What is that?
LEVS: -- what was an auto shop right there.
BALDWIN: Really? (INAUDIBLE) like a brick structure.
LEVS: Exactly. It's William Bernstein.
So that - that was an auto shop. Fixed up cars, mechanics in there. And he says now look at that. Just completely, completely destroyed, beyond any kind of use. And, I'll tell you, some surprising things happen when you see these storms come through.
Another thing we found, surprising people become reporters. Check out this five-year-old girl.
WHITFIELD: Oh, I love this video.
LEVS: I think this is a new one. There you go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANE HAUBRICH, DOYLESTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA: -- Doylestown, Pennsylvania. I want to show you some of the damages that we've sustained right in our backyard.
Take a look at this tree. The trunk, right? It broke off that tree because of all the wind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: It's - her name is Jane Haubrich. I love her too. She's terrific. Five-year-old - five years old. And - and, I'll tell you, in her area where she was hit, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania they've obviously been facing, you know, plenty of problems right there. It also gets to be adorable because of the extent of the damage that she faced there was that tree that did not crash into her house.
But those are just some of the kinds of things we're getting.
And let me show you what Brooke was just referring to, this screen behind me. This is called Open Story, and it has taken off like never before in the history of CNN.
What we have here is on the main page of CNN.com people have been sending in their iReports, and their iReports have followed the path of Irene. So, at any point along the path, you're able to just click on a picture and it automatically brings you over to what one of these pictures or videos is. You can then take a look at that area. If there are people you're concerned about in that area, want to see what's been going on, it's all at your fingertips there.
I am also (INAUDIBLE) - by the way, you're looking at here, this is flooding in Far Rockaway in New York, which is one of the areas authorities were particularly concerned about. And this video came to us this morning around the 10:00 A.M. hour.
We are also following your twit vids and we're getting videos on Facebook. Take a look at my page there. Keep them coming.
Facebook and Twitter, I'm at JoshLevsCNN. We'd love to hear from you. And obviously we're looking at ones that were taken safely. We're not going to show you things in which anybody did anything completely crazy they should not have done.
Brooke, Fred, back to you.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: -- next to you halfway in the water.
WHITFIELD: Yes. Even though we saw someone who was kind of street surfing. That was crazy. But, thankfully, all worked out OK.
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: Yes. That was pretty nutty.
LEVS: I don't recommend it.
WHITFIELD: No. Not at all. BALDWIN: Josh Levs, thank you very much.
We are three minutes away from the top of the hour, where we are expecting to hear from President Obama speaking specifically on Tropical Storm Irene, speaking from the White House, from the Rose Garden. We will bring that to you live.
WHITFIELD: And more iReport images, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Here we go.
WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I want to take you straight to the White House and the Rose Garden - President Barack Obama.
