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Damages of Hurricane Irene; Hurricane Irene Speeds into Canada; Al-Megrahi to remain in Libya;

Aired August 28, 2011 - 20:00   ET

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

(JOINED IN PROGRESS - LIVE COVERAGE)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, NEW JERSEY: No, he is in intensive care, is my understanding. But is still very much alive and we're glad for that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

CHRISTIE: No, transit rail is suspended. Bus service is on modified weekday schedule with fewer trips operating during peak hours on the same routes. So, transit service is suspended except for the Atlantic City rail line. Hudson, Bergen, light rail and the liver line will also be operating but on a weekend schedule. And bus service is on a modified weekday schedule.

So the only thing that is suspended is all the New Jersey transit rail service except for the Atlantic City rail line. Everything else will be operating but on a reduced schedule, fewer trips.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sorry, that confuses earlier information we got earlier. There would be service on the northeast corridor -

CHRISTIE: No, it's under water. Nothing. The Trenton rail station is four feet under water. No Amtrak. So happy to be of assistance. Beth?

QUESTION: How will people actually get to work? The fact that they can't take the train.

CHRISTIE: Well listen. Here's what. I'm not closing the state tomorrow. Now, if there are people who have particular problems in commuting to work, they need to communicate with their supervisors about those particular problems. I'm not going to make a blanket closing state government. We have things that we have to do and I can't just close the state government. People expect us to be at our desks operating, getting ourselves to recover from this.

Now, if there are particular problems that employees have in not getting to work, they need to communicate that with their supervisor tomorrow and do what needs to be done. I'm not saying that we're not going to be understanding of people who can't get to work. What I'm telling people, if you don't have to go to work, don't. But on the other hand, Beth, I don't want to just close state government. I think that's a really bad thing to do in the aftermath of this problem. I think state government has to be seen as being at work. If people have certain problems, call your supervisor and deal with those problems directly with them and communicate what your particular difficulty is at getting to work. Julia.

QUESTION: Yes. (Inaudible)

CHRISTIE: We don't have anything yet so we'll look into it and if we have something we'll get back to you. Lisa.

QUESTION: In speaking with officials in the New York about the river they're flooding, specifically the Hudson River - what effect does that have coming down?

CHRISTIE: Well, we've been in conversations with. I've been in conversation with Governor Cuomo; Commissioner Martin's been in conversations with his colleagues in New York government. At this point we're not concerned about that issue. But we're in constant communication with our neighbors in New York to make sure that we know what's going on up there and visa versa. But obviously we're downstream so it is a little bit more of a concern for us, but Commissioner Martin is in regular contact with his colleagues there and I've had conversations with Governor Cuomo in the last 24 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a lot of reports out there of casualties or possible drowning -

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: You're listening to a news conference by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, describing a state that clearly has got a lot of problems, is now transitioning from what was a hurricane to a tremendous flooding event. He's talking about what we discussed which was, the commuting problem that many people up in the northeast are going to face tomorrow. He's actually urging people if you don't have to go to work, don't go to work. State workers do have to go but it appears that that state is going to be suffering for some time.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: It sounds like it. The transit system he said is four feet under water. So, they certainly have some problems to figure out there.

Meanwhile, it is just a few minutes after 8:00 p.m. in the east where the long and art with us preparations for hurricane Irene are nothing compared to the clean-up and the recovery work that is already getting started.

SAVIDGE: From the Outer Banks of North Carolina where Irene first made landfall yesterday to northern New England, they'll remember this storm for the rain. Sixteen inches or more in some spots with tidal surges battering beaches, rivers, inundating roads, bridges in some cases, whole communities, especially the case in Vermont where one official sums up the flooding in one word - awful.

KAYE: More than four million people are without electricity tonight and at least 19 deaths are now being blamed on Irene in seven states. Among the victims, 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.

(BEING VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 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. 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: Some signs of normalcy are returning to New York City. Limited bus service resumed this afternoon and airports should reopen tomorrow. Evacuees are returning to low-lying areas but don't count on the subways for some time.

KAYE: Yes. We also want to bring you up to date on some new information we're just getting in from Montpelier, Vermont. We can tell you from the city manager there, we talked quite a bit about the flooding there, we showed you incredible pictures of the flooding there. But now, we are getting this word from the city manager that between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m. Eastern Time, we can expect a crest of 18 feet. They say it is very likely that the river could rise there as high as 20 feet.

In fact now this represents pretty major flooding actually in downtown because the may flood in comparison, Martin, crested at 17.5. Now they are talking 18 to 20. And we know that we spoke with the governor earlier from Vermont and he told us that he chose not to evacuate because it is a very mountainous area. Very difficult to evacuate, they can't evacuate the whole state he says.

SAVIDGE: And that it is potentially violent as well because of flash flooding, the water just surges so incredibly strong. It is amazing to see.

We're going to go to Chad Myers right now to get a check on not just this situation in Vermont but elsewhere up in that region.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I have friends that live in Killington or at least around Killington and literally what the governor was saying was exactly right. Look, we have mountains and some people live on them but everybody else lives in the valley. And so that's why people were in the way because that's where we live. And the valley is where the creeks and where the streams are so not much you can do about that.

Brand-new information on Irene though. Fifty-mile-per-hour winds still. It is still a tropical storm. We even had some wind gusts in New York City to about 50 miles an hour just in the past half-hour or so. Just got a tweet from Nova Scotia from Halifax, it says it feels like it is a tropical ocean out here, what is going on? Feels like it could thunderstorm any time. And you are on the warm side of the storm. This would be the cold side or back side. Still very windy everywhere.

And the flooding continues. I mean I know we kind of just brushed on what Vermont was seeing but we're talking about New York and New Hampshire and Maine and Massachusetts and even into parts of Connecticut. Every county from Central Delaware, all the way up to northern Maine has some type of river either out of its banks or will be out of its banks before all this water either runs into the ocean, into the Saint Lawrence, or eventually maybe even into Long Island sound.

There's a lot going on. The reason things are kind of calming down is because precept is really calming down as well. Now that the eye or the center of the storm is not over water, it's not picking up moisture, not picking up humidity, so therefore the rain amounts will begin to come down so as it gets up into northern and central parts of Maine and into Canada, there won't be the amount of rain that we saw down here in New England up there. Simply the source is gone.

KAYE: All right, Chad. Thank you.

SAVIDGE: Irene hit parts of New Jersey particularly hard. We just heard that from the governor there a short time ago. He said most, but not all, coastal evacuees are now heading back home but there are serious concerns about river flooding.

CNN's Poppy Harlow is in Melbourne, New Jersey. Poppy, what's the situation?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We saw a ton of that river flooding here. Millburn, New Jersey - it is not by the ocean you know, but it got hit very hard because it did sort of a valley. Dana Crow (ph) owns this Mexican restaurant. Dana, just devastation. I want to show you what he's going through. I was here at 5:00 when he first saw what his restaurant went through.

Look at this, the water came in. It flooded under the floor of his restaurant. Lifted the floor. Dana, come on inside with me, show me what else happened here. I mean it is just full of mud and sewage water. How bad is it?

DANA CROW (ph), RESTAURANT OWNER: Well, it looks bad. I think most of the damage is below about 12 inches. There is a big canal in the back. The water came in up through the basement actually and it actually knocked over most of these large pieces of furniture which I put back up about an hour ago. Fortunately, most of the stuff that I built by hand is intact.

HARLOW: OK. I like the mirror over here and some of these guys. Come back into the kitchen, guys, so you can see, just exactly what's going on here. It is interesting you know some of this stuff above a few feet stayed intact. We were here earlier this margarita machine was on the floor. This freezer had tipped over. Show us the basement, what's going on. Because this is what is stunning to me is the amount of water, Dana, in the basement. How much are we talking about here?

CROW (PH): About ten feet. It's right up to the ceiling. We're waiting for everybody on the block has the same situation and we're waiting for the fire department to show up.

HARLOW: Here's the problem, guys. When you're a business owner here, you have to wait for all the residences to get pumped out, the fire department to pump out the residences, right, before they're going to come help you here.

CROW (PH): Help the people in their homes and stuff in case there is a dangerous situation, yes. So they get priority.

HARLOW: But guess what? Here's the bright spot. We've got light. There's power here. That's astonishing to you.

CROW (PH): Can't figure out why the electrical panel is under water and for some reason we still have electricity.

HARLOW: That's amazing because so many people here are struggling with no power. How long until you get back in business? What kind of economic hit do you think this is going to be?

CROW (PH): I - you know, I think about couple hours ago I said I didn't know so I'm going to say I don't know again. But I'm hoping about three weeks we get back up on our feet.

HARLOW: That would be astonishing, three weeks guys. I got to tell you for all the businesses here in Melbourne, New Jersey, I just drove around the neighborhood, saw the houses, the downed tree. This is a double whammy because a decade ago, 1999, they got hit with hurricane flood which was even worse.

CROW (PH): Water up to the ceiling.

HARLOW: Water up to the ceiling. This is not as bad as that was?

CROW (PH): Right. Right. No. And we have had a lot of support for community, people coming by. So, I'm very upbeat. I think we're going to survive. We're going to be fine.

HARLOW: Talk about an attitude to get you through this one, right guys.

SAVIDGE: That's what it takes. You got to have a positive outlook. Thanks very much, Poppy.

KAYE: We want to get now to our phone call with the Vermont office of emergency management. Jill Remick is on the line with us. We've been talking about this possible cresting of the River 18 to 20 feet there. Some time in the early morning hours, Jill, can you bring us up to date and what the possibilities are? JILL REMICK, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICE, VERMONT (via telephone): Sure. I'm at the emergency operation center in Waterbury. This is where emergency management's located. We've watched the river steadily rise and it is definitely, you know, we've all moved our vehicles out of the way because they're under water now. Also our state capital, Montpelier, which is the short distant away has been evacuated. That gives you the situation here in Vermont.

Our biggest concern is now that nightfall has come and water is continuing to rise, because even though the rain will be ending in the next few hours, we expect the water will continue to run into rivers and streams. So, we're definitely still very actively battling this storm.

KAYE: And Jill, I understand that the governor had chosen not to evacuate the state but now there are some evacuation orders being issued for some of these lower downtown areas. How is that going to work?

REMICK: That's right. You know, for example, like at the state capital, they have a few rivers that converge right in the city so they're used to this. This is a little bit higher level than what they're used to but they do have evacuation plans in place and citizens are made aware. Luckily we did have enough notice about this storm so you know we're implementing those across the state. That being said, our emergency folks are certainly being stretched very thin right now which is why we're really hoping that people if they're safe can stay where they are and definitely try not to walk through or drive through any of these flooded areas.

KAYE: Why weren't these areas evacuated before now? Why wait until now?

REMICK: Well, certainly we encouraged folks to do so if they were in any danger. You know, we've been anticipated this for a while. For days folks have been asked to store up water, get batteries, get food. Not only for the flooding but also for what we expect for some pretty widespread power outages. So, our hope is that folks would heed those warnings and take the appropriate precautions. Because like I said, we did have notice this was headed our way.

SAVIDGE: You had some bad flooding back in May. How is this going to compare to that?

REMICK: That's right. Well as I mentioned, the capital city is a good example of that. They had 17 feet above flood level back in May and we are expecting that could get as high as 20 feet. So this is more and, frankly, it is across the entire state which is making it that much more, you know having that much bigger of an impact on the entire emergency operation.

KAYE: Jill, can you bring us up to date on the National Guard's efforts? When we spoke with the governor earlier and also another of your colleagues from the office of emergency management, they told us that these high-water vehicles are being used by the National Guard troops to try and help those who are stuck. Have they rescued anyone and how is that going?

REMICK: Yes, they do have those high-water vehicle that we have deployed six of those across the state and also some swift water rescue teams and they have been traveling frequently across the state. We have one person who is, has been missing. We haven't found that person but we are concerned about the outcome of that. But yes, the National Guard has folks here at the emergency operation center and they are being deployed state wide.

KAYE: All right, Jill Remick from the office of emergency management there in Vermont, Jill, we appreciate your time. We now how busy all of you folks are.

REMICK: Sure.

KAYE: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: North Carolina's Outer Banks were slammed so hard that some areas are accessible only now by helicopter.

CNN's Brian Todd just back from a flight with the National Guard. Those pictures and the latest from that area after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Thousands of people who evacuated North Carolina's Outer Banks are now cut off from the mainland. National Guard did an aerial tour of Hatteras Island today where 2,500 people stayed behind.

SAVIDGE: Our Brian Todd was on that flight and he joins us now on the phone from Kinston, North Carolina. Brian, what did you see up there?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Marty, we saw a lot of damage, a lot of washed out roads, a lot of flooded roads, people trying to drive through them. But I think the most dramatic image was of highway 12. And this highway that runs north and south and it connects Hatteras Island with some of the Outer Banks islands to the north of it.

Now, from those islands you get bridges to the mainland and that's the only way to get from Hatteras Island to the mainland and back. That road, highway 12, is completely washed out and it is more than that. It looks really like an earthquake and a hurricane hit it simultaneously. The road is completely shot to pieces. There are downed power lines there and there is an ocean current essentially running over it. I mean, this road is not going to be up to capacity probably at least for a week I would say. And some of the locals think it will be closer to two weeks, if not longer.

That means in about 2,500 people on Hatteras Island who ignored the governor's orders for a mandatory evacuation earlier this week did not make it out and they are now stranded indefinitely. Now there is a ferry service, we're told, an emergency ferry service that may be able to start over there tomorrow, but that is probably going to be there to bring supplies to those who need it and they will make an assessment whether anybody needs to be evacuated out for medical care. So far we done believe there have been any calls for that but you do have 25 people there who are essentially cut off from the rest of the world, at least temporarily.

KAYE: And Brian, how long do you think they can stay there with what little supplies they had?

TODD: Randi, the governor and governor's office have told them that, they told them days ago that they had to have enough food and supplies for at least three days. Now, with the people we talked to said they have that. But if you calculate this back to when the hurricane hit we're going on a day now, at least a day and a half now so they've got another day and a half maybe of supplies.

Some of them of course have more, but you know, even stocking three day's worth of supplies is a pretty tall order in this part of the country where you know getting supplies to and from can be problematic and you're very isolated. It's going to be a struggle for them. Now again, that the ferry service we're told is going to shuttle some goods and supplies to them starting tomorrow but that's a slow process.

We only saw one ferry dock nearby and that was idle. Again we're told the emergency ferry will start tomorrow but again, that may only be one vessel and it may be slow going. So, you've got 2,500 people there who are going to have to survive on very little maybe for a little while longer.

SAVIDGE: Brian Todd on the Outer Banks where it is clear they've got problems that are going to last some time.

KAYE: Oh, yes.

SAVIDGE: Pretty much all modes of transportation in the northeast came to a halt.

KAYE: So where do we stand on the planes, subways and trains as well? All the travel updates you need for your Monday morning commute, we will have it for you there after a very short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't underestimate the Daniel 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)

MALE ANCHOR: How about some good news? We are going to get some movement literally at the airports that were shut down because of hurricane Irene.

Alexandra Steele is at the travel wall with an update including what business travelers can expect tomorrow. Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Travel beginning to get its legs back. Right now as we speak, heading to Washington we've got 80 flights to Philadelphia, there are six, to Boston there are three. And the one exception - the New York City, of course, still no flights coming in or out. Of course we know the unprecedented nature of the stand-still that has been New York City. Let's walk you through it and tell you if you can get to work or not and what is still offline.

New York City airports, LaGuardia tomorrow, arrivals and departures fully operational at 7:00 a.m. JFK and Newark, arrivals beginning at 6:0 a.m. but departures commence at noon. So, you'll notice that finally by the afternoon everyone will be up and running.

In terms of mass transit in the subways, we are going to see some kind of opening up by noon. Trains one through seven, those are the earliest, they should open by noon, the remainder expects to open by the earliest at 3:00. So subway service kind of getting back on track as we head toward the afternoon.

Bus service if you do that, two million people a day in New York take the bus while four million take the subway. So, if you are one of the two million, bus expected to get back online. Right now there is some limited service. They are restoring service and they're going to do it in this area and this order - Manhattan first, then the Bronx, Queens and then they tap into Brooklyn.

All right, also in terms of the Staten Island ferry, that's currently open. I you take that tour, the Holland tunnel open as well. And Amtrak, that has been the one caveat. As we look tomorrow, also New York City, New Jersey, the path rail will open tomorrow at 4:00 a.m. if you take that. But Amtrak the northeast corridor, fully operational between Washington and Philadelphia tomorrow but not tomorrow. South of that between Boston and Philadelphia, no Amtrak service.

Completely canceled still for tomorrow. They have not kind of gotten back on track. What they have are a lot of problems with power, flooding on the rails and also a lot of debris in the rails. It's certainly a lot of work to get Amtrak up and running. And in that important quadrant of the country between Boston and Philadelphia which Amtrak moves a lot of passengers. Not tomorrow, not yet. Back to you guys.

SAVIDGE: Alexandra thanks very much.

STEELE: Sure.

SAVIDGE: of patience needed for traveling tomorrow.

KAYE: Well, our week long our ireporters have been sending us their videos of Irene ripping through their towns and CNN's Josh Levs is here now to highlight some of their best images. So, tell us what you've got.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know we've been getting some photos and videos through this hour. It's really been amazing. It's actually helped us tell the story in a whole new way. You've seen the ireports basically follow the path of Irene.

Let's look at one of the most powerful videos we've seen, this one coming to us from Brattleboro, Vermont from David Cadran who took this shot. Footage is raging water. He sais that this is usually a really idyllic Vermont "brook" feature that, an idyllic Vermont brook turning into that and it flows through the downtown area, normally very quiet and peaceful. And you can look at what it has turned into today.

Also we got an ireport from a young man, 16-year-old, a she should not he, who sent us an ireport that shows flooding in his town in Hightstown, New Jersey. We want to bring him in right now and talk to him a little bit about what he saw. Are you with us?

ASHISH NAGI (ph), CNN IREPORTER: Yes, hi.

LEVS: Listen - set the scene for us here. You're 16 years old. You went out today and saw this. What are we looking at here?

NAGI (ph): We're looking at a fire station on Hightstown Main Street basically; basically under three to four feet of water and it is basically insane. Like the lake nearby is probably never full. It's probably like maybe never overflowing and today after like - after ten years maybe it's like devastating. The water actually spilled out.

LEVS: Goodness. Now, you're 16 years old and you tell me you've never seen anything like this before in al the time that you've been alive, you've never seen this kind of flooding.

NAGI (ph): Yes.

LEVS: Just to set this thing for everyone. I was looking at where you are. You are pretty close to Princeton, right as you said, ten miles southeast of Princeton. Talk to us about what it was like. Maybe, we can go back to that video. When you go out there and see three to four feet of water where some people especially young people your age tend to go play and walk around in it. Were officials saying stay out of this? Be really careful? What happened there? Were there people keeping you away from it, what happen then?

NAGI (ph): There were a lot of people there. About 100 to 120 people there. A lot of them were taking photos. And officials did a good. They job taping up the place making sure no one got in and basically it was a good sight to see, once of a lifetime opportunity.

LEVS: OK, that's a way to see it. I know that there is lot of tremendous concerns going on right now for people in flooded areas, really devastated and damaged, lives could be lost and we could be hearing more who are roar in the coming days. Something you told me before we came on the air I found very striking. I was asking you if younger people, you know that's your age group, took the evacuation order seriously. You told me there was one thing that your governor said that suddenly got a lot of young people you know to decide, you know what? We should get off the beaches. What was that?

NAGI (ph): That was when he said stop trending. Your tending's over. Get off the beach now.

LEVS: When he said you've got enough tan already.

NAGI (ph): Yes.

LEVS: That's interesting. Hashish Nagy (ph), 16 years old, one of our ireporters doing a fantastic job for us today, obviously stay safe and be careful. Thank you very much and Martin and Randi, I will tell you, our ireporters have really been pulling through.

We always make sure they don't go to any crazy dangers to take these photo images and pictures but they certainly telling a story. We can't be everywhere and thanks to our ireporters we pretty much are.

SAVIDGE: Yes. Like we re all in one community, very nice.

KAYE: Thanks, Josh.

SAVIDGE: We won't get to far from Irene, her impact and the information you need, but there have been developments in Libya.

KAYE: After a short break, CNN's Nic Robertson joins us live. He spent part of his day with the man who brought down pan am flight 103. His exclusive story next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Myers joins us now from the hurricane center, where Irene is is the real question and I assumed it's up north.

MYERS: It is moving very close to the Canadian border right now and over it. And I've been on the tweet deck with the weather network out of Canada and they are reporting that glass is actually falling from a couple of buildings in Montreal and the boulevard Rene Levesque is actually closed and we'll see if I can confirm that with other people but that is from the weather network.

So that was the big fear that we had in New York is that that was what was going to possibly happen here and in fact it's happened significantly farther to the north of where this actually made landfall. Major flooding from main all the way back down to New Jersey, even one county in Delaware still having flooding right now and it stopped raining there 24 hours ago. This is a big flood event.

Pictures will be ugly tomorrow, I'm afraid. Because now that it is dark people can't see it very well. We're not going to take very good pictures. But tomorrow when daylight comes out we are going to get this back on the satellite and you are going to see the devastation that has occurred had New York, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut tonight.

KAYE: All right, Chad. Thank you very much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

SAVIDGE: New York has moved into recovery mode but that clean-up could take a while. Susan Candiotti is in Long Beach. Susan, what's the damage like there?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, mainly we're talking about localized flooding. The biggest problem, however, power outages. At its height, more than 400,000 customers on Long Island are in the plaque tonight.

In addition to that you have upwards of 500 downed trees and power lines so there are repairs to be made. For the most part people are out and about tonight just kind of looking things over. Here in Long Beach, again this is a barrier island, we're about 25 miles east of Manhattan, and you have people taking a look at the main attraction here which is a hotel that got flooded out on the ground floor so at this hour they're still pumping out power and sweeping out the muck. Marty.

SAVIDGE: The governor came by there and knowing you as I do, you wouldn't let that opportunity pass. What did he say?

CANDIOTTI: He said he was actually mainly congratulating New Yorkers for being prepared for the storm and saying that there's nothing wrong with telling people to go to the lengths that they did to get out, to evacuate, and many people did heed that request. So, he was congratulating people for doing as well as they did in bet getting ready for this storm. Here's what he said.

(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: Now some good news we just learned a moment ago. The governor has also said the subway in New York will be back up and running tomorrow morning, Monday morning, so that should be a huge help for commuters who, let's say, want to go back to work? Back to you, Marty and Randi.

SAVIDGE: Good news indeed. Susan Candiotti, thank you very much.

KAYE: We won't get too far from the Irene story but there are some developments in Libya we are following. The walls continue to close in on Moammar Gadhafi's forces. The Libyan leader still has not been found but there is another man that many Americans have been waiting to find. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing.

Libya's new government announced today that they will not be extradited al-Megrahi. The NTC justice minister justifies the decision saying, "We will not give any Libyan citizen to the west." Al-Megrahi may be one of the last men alive knowing who knows precisely who in the Libyan government authorized that bombing.

CNN's Nic Robertson managed to track him down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We found Abdul Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's villa in town in an up market part of town. At least six security cameras and flood lights outside.

This is his house, where he's been living for the last couple of years. We're going to knock on the door, see if we can get any answer. Hello!

For 15 minutes or so, nothing. I'm not sure if they've heard me so let's try the last-ditch means which is just, shout over the wall. Hello! Hello! Hello! Then all of a sudden, someone comes. Nothing prepares me for what I see.

Megrahi apparently in a coma. His aging mother at his side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We been given him oxygen and some food by injection. If you see his body, he's weak.

ROBERTSON: He had been expected to die almost two years ago but convicted Pan Am 103 bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi lives. This wasn't the way he looked when he was released from a Scottish jail two years ago. He came home to a hero's welcome, freed on compassionate ground because doctors said he would be dead in three months.

Almost immediately, he began renovating this palatial house. Money no object. It doesn't take long walking around this building before you begin to realize and looking at the marble here on these expensive fittings to realize that it appears Megrahi was being paid off handsomely for all those years he spent in jail.

In the two decades since the bomb exploded on board Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie killing 270 passengers, crew and towns people it seemed the secrets of the attack would die with the bombers. Megrahi always maintained he was innocent.

Just a month ago in a rare public sighting, Moammar Gadhafi had him literally wheeled out for a pro-government rally. I'm seeing him now for the first time in two years. He appears to be just a shelf the man he was, far sicker than he appeared before.

Has he been able to see a doctor?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. There is no doctor and there is nobody to ask and we don't have any phone line to call anybody.

ROBERTSON: What's his situation right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He stops eating and he sometimes is come in coma.

ROBERTSON: He's unconscious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just sit next to him and -

ROBERTSON: All that's keeping him alive, they say, oxygen and a fluids drip. I asked about demand he return to jail in Scotland.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My dad he's still in the house and if you send him to Scotland he will die by the way here or there.

ROBERTSON: You know how long he has left?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody knows how long he will stay alive, nobody. ROBERTSON: It seems I've arrived too late. He's apparently in no state to talk. Whatever secrets he has may soon be gone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: And Nic Robertson joins me now. Nic, first of all, how did you find this guy?

ROBERTSON: We drove to a neighborhood where rights of that he was living. We asked around, asked at a corner store. We were given pretty accurate directions. Drove up the street. We had a photograph of the house. Talk to the neighbors next door. Once we found the house. They confirmed that that's where he lived. And knocked on the door and a little persistence and politeness, we try to be polite, brought them out to talk to us.

KAYE: And why this decision, by the national transitional council to not turn him over to the west?

ROBERTSON: Well, I think there's actually some pretty big significance in that. Gadhafi wanted to get Megrahi back into Libya before he died because Megrahi is from a very important tribe that Gadhafi need to maintain his power base and support in the country.

So for the national transitional council right now, if they were to say we're going to send Gadhafi back to jail in Scotland that would send a very negative message to this very important tribe that right now they want to win away from supporting Gadhafi and bring over to their side. Now the national transitional council is saying the reason they're not going to send him back is because they don't have an international extradition treaty. Britain and Libya actually did sign a special extradition treaty just a couple of years ago. So it does seem rather that the national transitional council is trying to curry favor with Megrahi's tribe, which is hugely important. Remember, a lot of this country in the south is still tribal and some of it still quite loyal to Gadhafi right now. Randi.

KAYE: And Nic you know, in so many families affected by the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 and we saw al-Megrahi at a rally not too long ago for Gadhafi in a wheelchair wearing what appeared to be an oxygen mask. So can you put any doubts to rest here for us or for know of those families who might have been impacted by this, how sick did he truly appear to you?

ROBERTSON: I saw him two years ago, the last appearance where sort of public appearance that he had two years ago was on a stage just after he had been brought back to the country and I was a few feet away from him then, about ten feet. And he looked pretty sick then. But when I compare what I saw back two years ago with right now, he looks far sicker. I have to say, and have you to be skeptical in these situations, could this have been prepared for us. I was outside for 15 minutes. They perhaps wanted to make it look like he was still sick.

So it's very hard to say, to answer that categorically. I think you would have to be a doctor to be able to check up and say, no, this man is medically very ill but his family said he was in a coma. It's clear that he's not in a hospital right now. The medical facilities in Libya are collapsing at the moment. The country's in a very bad state. They say he hasn't seen a doctor. They say he has stopped eating, that his medical supplies that were in the house have been looted in the past few days when rebels have come through and looted this very up-market neighborhood.

So there does seem to be evidence to support what the family is saying but it would be hard for me to say categorically exactly how sick this man is. At the end of the day I'm not a doctor, Randi.

KAYE: Sure. We certainly appreciate the access that you got and the incredible reporting that you've done there, Nic Robertson, thank you very much.

SAVIDGE: After the break, what's next for all the communities affected by Irene? The man who commanded the military response to hurricane Katrina will join us.

And a quick programming reminder, at 9:00 tonight, just 15 minutes or so from now, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and former President bill Clinton explore the signs, tests and lifestyle changes that could result in the last heart attack.

It is a special "CNN presents" and it is coming up at 9:00 Eastern next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: President Obama spoke with reporters this afternoon at the White House.

SAVIDGE: The president said that he's pleased with the government response to Irene so far but he said that there is still a lot of work to do, which is obvious.

So let's talk more about the storm response and recovery effort with retired general and CNN Contributor Russel Honore. General, it is not the first 24 hours as we know after the storm it is the days and frustration that comes next. Right?

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely and a continuation of the search and rescue. You know? We have what? Four million people without power. Those first responders are going to have to go to all those homes and check on everyone to see how they doing. Big task.

The good news is the affected states have about 100,000 National Guard troops assigned to them plus troops from other states that have come in. What you're going to see happening over the next few days is those troops going out on the country roads and isolated areas and checking on people to make sure they have contact. And then they will have to set up distribution, water and food and ice so people who have refrigeration. So, that's a big task particularly in the rural parts of the states.

I was speaking with the Adjutant General from the state of New York, Major General Patrick Murphy and his challenge now is dealing in rulers because municipalities have a lot of support. He and his troops out there now trying to get into people who might be isolated because of now power and roads closed. That's going to be a challenge throughout New York and remainder of those states to get distribution points set up and right now there's about 27,000 people until shelters supported by the Red Cross.

KAYE: When you think about how everybody hand this. Vermont didn't evacuate, and then others say maybe in New York they shouldn't have shut down the subway system so quickly. What do you think some of the highlights at least, what was done right and maybe what wasn't handled so perfectly this time around?

HONORE: I can tell you based on what the science told us, the storm's coming and the time it takes to evacuate people based on warning, and we really didn't know until it hit landfall, and it did not continue to increase in pressure in Hatteras, that people really knew what was going to happen. And you can't wait until it is two or three hours out to decide you are going to evacuate.

I thought they made great decisions, as far as timing and evacuation and keeping people informed and having the guts to close the transportation system to really drive that point home I think was a great decision. But again that's the easy part of dealing with the storm. The tough part is deal with the recovery and we'll see what these leaders are made of in the coming days and they deal with the frustration people have to try to stay alive in homes with no electricity.

SAVIDGE: Yes. I think it is quite clear that frustration is something that sets in after the storm and politically it can be a real problem as well as the logistics. General, thank you very much.

KAYE: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: We are coming up on 9:00 p.m. on the east coast. We'll have the latest information on Irene in just a moment.

KAYE: Plus, we'll look at other stories in the news tonight. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: We are keeping a close eye on Irene tonight as the storm makes its way through New England. But first, let's get you caught up on some other headlines.

The man convicted of the 1998 Pan Am bombing is not going to be extradited out of Libya, that's according to the NTC, the newly minted government in the wore-torn North African nation. The country's new justice minister justified the decision saying we will not give any Libyan citizen to the west. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was last seen at a pro-Gadhafi rally in Libya a month ago, but today our Nic Robertson found him in his home, as you see there, in a coma.

A vey violent day in Iraq, a series of bomb attacks throughout the country killed 35 people. At least 28 died in a suicide bombing attack in a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad. At least 37 others were wounded in that attack.

Former secretary of state Colin Powell is swinging back at criticism from Dick Cheney's new book. Powell says the former vice president took what he calls cheap shots with his characterizations of some who served under former President George W. Bush. Powell says Cheney in his biography accuses him of not sharing his opinions with President Bush ahead of the Iraq war in 2003. Cheney's book hits stores on Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scoreboard is not right. Game over!

And while much of the country was getting rained out by Irene, these little guys were out playing ball and basking in the warm glow of victory. The team representing California defeated Japan today in the world championship round of the little league world series. California won it all in the 2-1 victory. Way to go, guys. See? Something to celebrate today.

SAVIDGE: Yes. Good news. Very good.

We want to leave you this hour with the very latest on tropical storm Irene. A fragment of its former self but a rainmaker of historic proportions. Long after hurricane Irene slammed ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and plowed up the northeast corridor, we're seeing the worst devastation of the weekend in Vermont. The southern half of that state essentially under water. Talking hundreds of roads, entire communities.

Authorities assume there are casualties but have no idea how many or where. Montpelier, the capital is bracing for major emergency out of the river crest early tomorrow morning. More than four million people are without electricity and at least 18 deaths are being blamed on Irene in seven states. Among the victims, an 11-year-old boy killed by a falling tree.

It is far too early for an accurate estimate of damages. But the wind damage alone is projected to top $1 billion. As hurricanes go, Irene was not especially windy. A private risk assessment firm estimates storm-related losses in the Carolinas alone could reach 400 million. By way of comparison, private insurance pay outs from Hurricane Katrina totaled $45 billion, not including flood losses.

And where is Irene now? Speeding into the southeast portion of Canada with top sustained winds still clocked at 50 miles an hour.

SAVIDGE: I'm Martin Savidge at the CNN center in Atlanta.

KAYE: I'm Randi Kaye. Our special coverage of Hurricane Irene will continue at 10:00 p.m.

But right now, Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports with "THE LAST HEART ATTACK." Thank you for watching.