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Irene Brings Flooding to NYC; Heavy Rain Ended in Newport, Rhode Island; Fierce Gusts Hit Providence, R.I.; Interview with New Jersey Mayor Booker; NYC Mayor Bloomberg Press Conference; Irene Leaves Mark on D.C.; Irene Pounds Rhode Island; NY Gov: Worst of Irene Over; Flooding, Power Outages Across New Jersey
Aired August 28, 2011 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Brooke Baldwin. Nice to be with you for the next five hours -
WHITFIELD: Right. Good to see you.
BALDWIN: -- live hurricane coverage here. I want to get you caught up here on what is now Tropical Storm Irene after lashing New York City, Irene now is dumping heavy, heavy rainfall in parts of Upstate New York and also New England. The storm made landfall overnight as a hurricane in two stops, first on the landfall on little egg inlet, that's in New Jersey, and then it hit another landfall, Coney Island, New York. And at that time, Irene had weakened to a tropical storm.
WHITFIELD: On Long Island, Irene's storm surge flooded downtown Long Beach. Some streets in Manhattan also flooding, but the water really has started to recede already. It is sweeping up the East Coast.
Irene has killed at least 15 people at last count as it started, as it fist made landfall in North Carolina, more than four million people as a whole without power. Irene moving north now. Its biggest threat is inland flooding.
BALDWIN: Still the word is "caution," and we have CNN crews up and down the East Coast for you just to bring you all the up-to-the- minute coverage on Tropical Storm Irene right here live on CNN.
And, you know, the storm pushed the Hudson River over its banks and into Lower Manhattan. I know Soledad O'Brien has been there covering this thing for hours and hours. You're in meat packing. I saw the cars stuck behind you, Soledad. Now you're there along the Hudson at Battery Park. Talk to me a little bit about the water level. I know it was over its banks for a while. Is it better now?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it's significantly better. Actually, all you really see right now frankly, Fred, are puddles, and that's great news, because over here as well the water was - was topping over the banks, basically. We saw the same thing in the West Village and in the meat packing district. And it was making things quite a mess.
But then the winds slowed and also the rain slowed and that seemed to help a lot after the tide had risen. That's really good news for New York because the worst has definitely passed.
What you see now is the high winds, which I know you can tell behind me. This is where a number of tourists have come, obviously, the Statue of Liberty right over my shoulder. So there are a lot of people out, even though occasionally a police officer will go by and sort of shout out to people, listen, the danger is not over, there can be live wires. Be cautious. But for the most part people are kind of ignoring that and they're milling around, bringing their kids out. But so far it's actually not been terrible damage or at least the bad damage that we were expecting.
As we drove through the West Village earlier, you could see - and I have some videotape of this, Fred, some of the damage that happened there. In a lot of cases, you saw those newspaper boxes, you know, toppled over by the heavy winds, in some cases a tree, and not so much from the high winds but really because of the ground. Once it gets saturated it tends to just sort of, you know, the trees just can fall, kind of collapse over, so that seemed to be some of the biggest problems there. We've got some of that.
And then as you mentioned, when we were right along the Hudson River, we saw the river topping the banks. And we were there, it was probably about two feet over the banks, the pathways that follow the river were completely covered in water and some cars also got stuck under water. But then, quite quickly, within I'd say 90 minutes or so the water drained and things really got back to normal.
A little bit of damage for the folks there because some apartments where they didn't have pumps pumping the water out on the first-floor level got three feet of water or so from what we could see - Fred.
BALDWIN: Soledad, it's Brooke in Atlanta here, tag teaming with Ms. Fredricka.
I do have a follow-up question for you. As I see people milling about behind you and we heard from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano saying, look, if you're in North Carolina or if you're in Maine, stay inside. Clear the roads, because, you know, you have the EMS personnel, et cetera, needing to get out and about.
What's the directive? I know we're waiting for a news conference from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but what's the directive from city officials? Are people fine now to stick their heads out their apartments and assess or they should stay in?
O'BRIEN: Well, we are - yes, we're waiting for - to hear from Mayor Bloomberg in that press conference we'd heard is going to be around 12:15 and it's it's running late. Many people expect it because they're going to be able to update us on the status of the subway. Once they open up mass transit, that will really change things, as well.
For the most part, people are not worried about any - any risk. People are out and about. If anything, there's wind, we have not seen downed power lines where we are and most people don't seem to be worried about that. And, again, even the police officers who roll by telling people to be cautious are basically saying that, be cautious. But they're not saying go back inside.
BALDWIN: Got it.
O'BRIEN: They're not saying that something is very dangerous. They're saying keep your eyes open.
BALDWIN: Got it. Good words of advice from the police officers there that are out and about in New York. Soledad O'Brien, thank you very much. Fred, to you.
WHITFIELD: Irene at this point expected to dump a whole lot of rain. Of course, it's leaving the New York City area, but making its way to upstate New York. They're already starting to feel the effects as well as Connecticut.
And then onto Rhode Island, that's where we're actually going to find our Gary Tuchman in Newport. And, Gary, you and I spoke yesterday and you talked about there were some people who were actually considering riding out the storm in their boats. You're feeling the effects now. Have they second-guessed that by now?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The bad weather is not over here at Newport, Rhode Island. And indeed it's great a lot of people did decide to ride out this storm on their boat.
But this is the Newport, Rhode Island marina. And as you can see over here, there are a lot of beautiful pleasure crafts and fishing boats, and people slept on them overnight. Fortunately, overnight here, it wasn't so bad. The winds now are at the highest point, but the rain has stopped, though. We had very heavy rain here for several hours that ended about an hour and a half ago and it seems like the worst is over, yet the winds have picked up. They're still.
And in this State of Rhode Island, the smallest state in the country, 150,000 customers without power, including most of the people here in Newport. The power is out here. So we have lots of people coming out, asking us, hey, is the worst over? Can we go outside?
And we can tell them, despite the fact that there is a mandatory evacuation order, most people have stayed because there's really nowhere to go. It's so far to drive get out of the hurricane/tropical storm force zone last night. The people up here and we're telling them the worst is over, but the winds are going to pick up. So just be careful when you go outside.
So lots of people have gone outside. The fact that they are not used to hurricanes here in southern New England, the last hurricane that came was 20 years ago, that was Hurricane Bob, and this is not a hurricane now, it's a tropical storm. But they're not used to those either.
They get the nor'easter, but I want to make sure I'm (INAUDIBLE) and doesn't fall into the water here, because we're in a narrow pier. I want to - we want to make sure no one has any problems, including the people I love and respect and work with. I don't want anything to happen to them. But I can tell you, although it's very windy right now, we've got the minor flooding but there are no injuries whatsoever, just 150,000 customers without power.
Right now, it appears like much of the East Coast, not all of the East Coast, much of the East Coast, people consider themselves relatively lucky.
WHITFIELD: OK. Well, that is good news.
TUCHMAN: (INAUDIBLE).
WHITFIELD: That's good news. Gary Tuchman, thanks so much, State of Rhode Island, very small. However, we kind of fanned out in that state. We're going to move on to another region of it.
BALDWIN: Yes. Let's stay in Rhode Island and now let's go to Kate Bolduan. She's in Providence where Kate is apparently at a floodgate. Let's get the picture of Kate and let's see where she is. Kate, paint the picture for us. Tell us what it looks like where you are.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Brooke.
Well, a similar story on what Gary is seeing and feeling in Newport. The real story here in Providence is the strong tropical force winds, some fierce wind gusts that we've been feeling throughout the day. The rain has tapered off, it's picking back up a little bit here. That's really not the problem. It's the wind damage that's been a great concern for all of the residents here in Providence. And we've been feeling those gusts throughout the morning. Very strong at point.
But we are in downtown Providence, you can see over my shoulder, this is actually a hurricane barrier that was built in the 1960s to protect the city from some serious storm surges if they would come through. That barrier, when all three of those barrier gates are down and deployed, they can protect the city. They're supposed to be able to protect the city from storm surges of some 20 feet.
Well, that's clearly not what they've experienced. We've actually seen in the last couple of hours is that one of these gates is actually at least - at least partially being opened up to let the water flow more freely into the Narragansett Bay. But what we're seeing now is obviously these strong winds are continuing. We're watching this - this hurricane barrier to see how things are going here.
We're seeing a lot of residents kind of coming out after being hunkering down for much of the morning. Many people coming out to kind of see what they can see as we know that's not what FEMA or any federal officials or state officials have been advising, Brooke, but that's what people are doing. And then, of course, the chance of some - of those strong winds picking back up again this afternoon.
And so, we're tracking much of that. We're seeing a lot of trees down throughout the City of Providence. And we've heard about many trees and storm damage throughout the State of Rhode Island because of that. And it's the fierce wind. These tropical storm-force winds that are still a serious concern that we're watching right now - Brooke, Fredricka.
BALDWIN: Kate, while I have you, this is Brooke. We're looking at - we have a split screen of you and we also have some other images. You mentioned, you know, downed trees, but we also saw some images. They look like rivers but I know they're roads. Can you give me a quick assessment of just damage and any injuries in the State of Rhode Island?
BOLDUAN: We haven't heard about any major injuries in the State of Rhode Island. We do know that, you know, with the rain, with the wind being here on the coast and with all the rivers and the bays that are in Rhode Island, that clearly the water is getting onto the roadways.
And we are seeing some of the roads are quite tricky and many impassable because of the trees that are going down. I mean, you know, the northeast has seen a lot of rain already this season and this is just adding to it. Some of the power out for some 150,000 to 175,000 people in the State of Rhode Island without power. Clearly, the National Grid is going to be working to get that back up.
But one of the problems they face in terms of trying to remedy the situation and get the power back on for people, is it's not so safe to be sending out crews to fix the problem when the wind gusts remain so high. So they need the wind to die down a bit. Obviously, that would help them a lot in trying to get the power back up for many of these residents.
So a lot of the damage that we're seeing seems to be clearly from the strong wind gusts. I was - the hotel we were in, I was up on the 14th floor. And I'll tell you the windows were shaking at many points throughout the night and this morning, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Yikes. Kate Bolduan in Rhode Island, thank you very much.
WHITFIELD: Pretty significant in the northeast. That's the big problem.
BALDWIN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: In addition to the power outages, because there's been so much rain, it has been - it has seen a lot of rain in the month of August, the ground is saturating, which means a lot of the big trees, the root systems - BALDWIN: Absolutely.
WHITFIELD: -- are weakened by all these as well as the power lines.
BALDWIN: And it's the days to come.
WHITFIELD: That's right.
BALDWIN: Even though we'll say good-bye to Irene, it's the fallout from the storm, from the rains. I know, we know, Chad knows a little bit more about that. We'll check in with Chad. That's also the next issue.
WHITFIELD: That's right. All right. Let's move on to New York, shall we?
BALDWIN: Let's. Where Irene pushed the East and Hudson Rivers over their banks. CNN's Mary Snow, there she is. She's in Queens, New York. Mary, yikes, I see a huge tree over your left shoulder. But it looks like on top of a car.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You guys were just talking about the saturated ground. And what we see here is this tree just ripped from its roots, breaking through the concrete sidewalk. Fortunately, no one was injured. This tree came down in the middle of the night about 2:00 in the morning.
Here's the dangerous part, though. You're seeing all these power lines down. And there are several of them. And then if we could just pan up a little bit further, you'll see that power line, there's a transformer on top of that, and that is leaning. And this is the dangerous part. There is a police line up here, so cars cannot come through.
There are several lines that are down and people are walking on the street. Dangerous situation. Obviously, the police have been here because they've put up that tape. And some of these lines have been tied up. But still, you know, as you can imagine, residents that we've been talking to here are pretty nervous about this situation here.
As we made our way through Queens, we're trying to check out some reports of damage. We've seen some downed trees. You know, we're talking to Soledad a few minutes ago. We hadn't seen widespread damage that had been anticipated. But you do see spots like this one where people are really shaken here.
BALDWIN: We've got to ask, though, about the car behind you, Mary. Was anyone in it when the tree fell?
SNOW: No, no. No, but fortunately, they were not in it. And the people who are in this house fortunately were not - no one was injured. Shaken, they say, and they're nervous about this power line with this transformer because it is leaning and these downed power lines. But fortunately, no one was hurt. BALDWIN: Thank goodness. Mary Snow, thank you very much in Queens.
WHITFIELD: It really is a significant worry, because with these trees coming down we know that Irene has already claimed some 10 lives in five states.
BALDWIN: Yes. Some of which -
WHITFIELD: Some of which involved some coming down.
BALDWIN: -- downed trees. Exactly.
WHITFIELD: A big concern in the Washington, D.C., area, of course, was -
BALDWIN: The National Cathedral.
WHITFIELD: -- rain, as well. That's right. You know, earlier in the week last week there was a 5.9 earthquake. That caused a little bit of damage -
BALDWIN: A little bit.
WHITFIELD: -- to the National Cathedral as well as the Washington Monument.
I want to go to Washington soon to find out what the weather, this recent weather from Irene may have done to further compromise these buildings, these historic structures.
BALDWIN: We'll take you to D.C. But first, let's just take a look at some of the best images of Hurricane Irene pounding the northeastern coast today. Take a look.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoa. Let's gets out of here! Let's get out of here! Grab the mike. Grab the -
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WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back to our continuing coverage of now Tropical Storm Irene. It's been downgraded from a Category 1 hurricane which we saw yesterday, but nonetheless it's still potentially dangerous. In fact, we've received a lot of images already -
BALDWIN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: -- to kind of show, yes, exactly the power of Irene. Take a look at some of the images coming from many of our viewers, our iReporters. This from Brooks Lancaster sending this video of the flooding near the East River in New York, the river walk area. It's popular as a hiking, jogging trail. Not yesterday, not today perhaps, it has six inches of water overflowing it right there. A number of street signs are blown down, as well. Lancaster says that people are not freaked out by the flooding. They actually reacted rather calmly.
BALDWIN: Nice to hear.
WHITFIELD: It is. All right. So perhaps that Tri-state area didn't get the brunt of the storm like they expected. I'm talking about New Jersey, Connecticut, New York. However, it has been a threat nonetheless.
Let's go to Newark, New Jersey, with Mayor Cory Booker joining us on the phone right now. So, Mayor Booker, I understand you have a lot of trees down, which means you have a lot of streets that are closed and many people without power. Describe the situation in Newark.
MAYOR CORY BOOKER, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY (via telephone): That's exactly it. We actually have a number of trees hit homes. I just visited with a family in a homeless shelter, they had to be displaced because of that. We had a lot of flooding in our streets and we've had about 11 drivers that we've had to (INAUDIBLE) get out to go into the water, to pull them off of cars.
So we've got some serious situations and a lot of open hazards still and we've got a lot of clean-up to do the over the coming days. And we're just asking resident to still use their better judgment and stay inside.
WHITFIELD: And talk to me about the potential danger to your residents there. No reports of injuries but, you know, the Governor Chris Christie also reiterating your words, asking people to stay off the streets because you're not completely out of the woods as yet.
BOOKER: We're definitely not. There are a lot of hazards out there. You know, there are manhole covers that have been moved off of their holes and have skewered by flooded water. Anybody wading through could end up slipping and falling to a very, very deep hole. We've got electric wires down all over the city. And if those go in the water, just by you wading into the water you could end up getting electrocuted.
And, of course, we have just the driving hazards from debris on the streets to - to the the flooding itself, and people thinking, you know, that the water is not as deep as it looks but it actually is.
So with all of that going on, it's helpful to us and our emergency crews if you just stay off the streets, (INAUDIBLE) hazards if you don't.
WHITFIELD: Did you also have some National Guard assistance in your city?
BOOKER: You know, we haven't, but we've gotten a tremendous level of cooperation through multiple government agencies from New Jersey transit to our local housing authority to county government. You know, it's really good to see how much people are working together, and a lot of that goes by, really, by what I consider just good judgment, by the president of the United States, our governor, calling states of emergency early enough and really getting everybody to start coordinating action early.
We were out there preparing for this many, many hours if not days ahead. And we're able to get most of it right. But, again, we're learning a lot right now. Early this morning, I discovered we had people going out looking for homeless folks. I found more this morning. We end up getting 41 people to move off the streets into our shelters. So we'll learn what we can from this and be even more prepared should this happen again.
BALDWIN: Mayor Booker, it's Brooke Baldwin in Atlanta. I know I had read that you had gone door to door, that was a bit of a wake-up call for folks in Newark. Look, all right, my mayor is at my door, I guess I should be leaving - leaving my home.
Let me ask you about this, so I'm on your Twitter page, you're tweeting about bridges and tunnels are open. Can you give us a quick update as far as transportation goes in and around Newark?
BOOKER: Yes. The Port Authority in my last update and the transit and New Jersey are still going through deliberations about when exactly they're going to open up. We obviously live in a very tightly knit Tri-state area, so the bridges and tunnels going into Manhattan are all opened up.
So, you know, the good thing is we're slowly returning back to normal, but I'm asking again as a governor is that today people really do leave today be and let it be a day where disaster relief people can really get working and emergency people can get working. I've seen a lot of just dumb behavior, and that has caused me to have to engage rescue workers to do things. So the smartest thing to do is to stay in.
And, you know, as for again the people working and the work that was done, we were out there obviously knocking on doors asking people to evacuate areas voluntarily. There was a lot of caution, but people said what they needed in a Tri-state area, my philosophy is always it's better to be prepared for a crisis and not have one and have a crisis and not be prepared.
BALDWIN: Absolutely. Mayor Booker, Cory Booker, Newark, New Jersey, busy man today. We appreciate you hopping on the line and talking to us, you know?
And as we watch, as we mentioned, no longer is Irene a Category 1 hurricane. It's now a tropical storm. It's still the big issue, and I think Chad Myers maybe about to agree with me, the issue really is flooding.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
BALDWIN: Flooding, Chad.
MYERS: Without a doubt, flooding. That will be the key for the next few hours, except for maybe Eastern Massachusetts and Maine, where trees are still falling down and winds are still gusting to 81 miles per hour just in the past half hour. But there is still water uphill from Newark. There is still water uphill in Binghamton, Scranton, and Schenectady. And all that water has to run places and run eventually into the ocean.
I know of a high-water rescue going on right now in Fleischman's New York, and they've had to call up the National Guard helicopter to get people off the top of their house because they are on the roof and the helicopter is going out there to get them right now. So serious situations in some spots and there is flooding going on all the way from Burlington, Vermont, all the way back down into pars of Central Massachusetts, including Western New Jersey, Scranton, Binghamton, and all the way back up here. That entire area of flooding going on. And even though the rain has stopped in some spots, the water is still running off.
Take you to one more spot here because we just had Blue Hill, Massachusetts, report in with a 74-mile-per-hour gust. And Milton, Mass. just had an 81-mile-per-hour gust. Trees are falling left and right with wind like that. Here's what's going on here. We hadn't had that much wind across parts of New York and Vermont now because we're on this side of the eye, but this is the bad side of the eye. Plus there's no friction in the ocean so the wind just gets to come right off the ocean and plow right into New Hampshire, into Maine, and into Boston.
If you're out there in Boston, don't be walking around. This is not the time. Let the weather settle down a little bit. Let that wind die off because trees are falling left and right. You've had a very wet August and the trees, the roots are just completely saturated and they're going as fast as I can find them on the reports here, they're coming in one after another after another. So stay off the streets.
WHITFIELD: Yes. It's dangerous. And just because it hasn't come down yet it -
BALDWIN: It doesn't mean it wouldn't come down ever.
WHITFIELD: That's right. You should be very careful out there.
BALDWIN: Chad, thank you.
MYERS: Welcome.
BALDWIN: Let's check back in with Soledad O'Brien, who's still standing by along the Hudson. There she is. You can see the wind whipping, but the water there in the Hudson she said not too bad now. Talk to me bigger picture, Soledad, Lower Manhattan, overall how does that look?
O'BRIEN: Yes. Lower Manhattan, I think it looks better than many people predicted it would look. But as Chad pointed out really it's the flooding. And we've had many people and we've seen many instances where people have several feet of water in their basements, which is not insignificant, which means quite a bit of cleanup in the days ahead.
So that is nothing compared to what some people were worried that they would get, especially with the combination of high winds and the water that was predicted to be blowing right off of the Hudson here, certainly on the West Side. It could have been much worse obviously, but there are people who are trying to figure out how to get three feet of water out of their apartment today. That's just going to be a bit of a mess.
We saw as we were driving down from our last live shot which was in the meat packing district, it's about 10 minute drive from here. It's where we are now. The tip of Manhattan, you know, typical wind damage, which is mailboxes and newspaper boxes, you know, tossed over, some trees down, but nothing really major. So in a lot of ways I think people here who were out and about feel like they really have missed a brutal, brutal hit that was predicted at some point.
We're going to take a short break. We'll continue to update you with everything that is happening with Hurricane Irene when we return right after this commercial break. Stay with us.
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BALDWIN: And welcome back to our breaking coverage here of Tropical Storm Irene. You are looking at New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. We're going to dip into this quickly, though. He has just said he will be lifting the evacuation order at 3:00 P.M. Eastern Time. Take a listen, Mr. Mayor.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK: I did want to thank all the volunteers helping fellow New Yorkers, particularly 2,500 city employees who helped staff our evacuation centers. And I'm especially grateful to our fire police, first responders, correction officers at Rikers Island and other city employees who really gave it their all. And a big thanks to the taxi drivers, livery drivers, bus companies and others who answered our call and helped transport some of the most vulnerable neighbors to safety.
Now, as we've seen so many times before, this emergency is really about bringing out the best in New Yorkers. I'm happy to say overnight crime activity was below normal. Ray reports 45 arrests overnight compared to, on average on a typical Saturday night in August, 345. So 300 fewer arrests.
And if that doesn't tell you about New Yorkers, I don't know what does. People said, oh, you were going to have a problem. Quite the contrary. New Yorkers do come together.
The plan for tomorrow, we understand that some people will have difficult coming to - times coming to work. City government offices will be open, with some disruptions, I'm sure, because people can't get there. Now, the New York Stock Exchange and the other financial markets plan to open on time and have a normal day.
I'm sure most businesses will, with some minor quick adjustments, get right back to keeping the economy going in the city and giving people the opportunity to share in what's great about New York. And the tourists will be out there again, and all of us can look back and talk about where were you on the day of Irene.
Let me, in Spanish just say, (SPEAKING SPANISH).
And, with that, Ray, anything else on crime you want to add?
COMMISSIONER RAYMOND KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE: No. The only thing I would say is that the 911 -
WHITFIELD: All right, you're listening to the press conference involving New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. saying, you know what? He's actually rather proud of New Yorkers, that they all seemed to hang in there just fine during what was Hurricane Irene, now Tropical Storm Irene.
He says of course tomorrow will be a little difficult, some people getting to work. No mention of what will happen with the MTA.
BALDWIN: The subway.
WHITFIELD: However, he said the New York Stock Exchange will be open -
BALDWIN: -- will be open.
WHITFIELD: -- as business - as business as usual. And some city office buildings will also open accordingly.
And we're going to continue our coverage of Tropical Storm Irene. We're going to take you to Rhode Island, where Governor Lincoln Chafee will be joining us momentarily. We'll be right back.
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WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back to our continuing coverage of now Tropical Storm Irene. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, along with my colleague. Brooke Baldwin.
So we're talking about some four million people without power all along the East Coast. In the mid-Atlantic area, in the nation's capitol, Maryland, D.C., Virginia, one million without power, and still a lot of people still shaken by that earthquake.
BALDWIN: With the earthquake. What was it, last Tuesday?
WHITFIELD: Just two weeks ago. That's right.
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BALDWIN: 5.8 magnitude.
WHITFIELD: That's right. The National Cathedral among those structures that was shaken.
Our Athena Jones is there. Athena, give us an idea of - oh, boy, what kind of damage may have happened right there. We see a lot of toppled trees all throughout the East Coast.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly. As you can see it, rather a large tree fell here at the National Cathedral overnight, toppling another tree. This is one of the 200 or so or more trees that have fallen in the D.C. area, brought down by the storm.
But, I've got to tell you, as you guys were mentioning, this site, this cathedral has seen a rather interesting week in terms of natural events. The earthquake on Tuesday toppled some of the main spires. You see at the top - in the back of the cathedral, on the back side, toppled those, and so the cathedral has been closed.
On a normal Sunday like today they would have four church services. That was combined into one and moved down to a synagogue nearby.
So this is a lot of what we're seeing in the D.C. area. We were in Alexandria this morning, didn't see flooding there, where you usually see it. Haven't seen a lot of flooding in D.C. It's mostly about people who have been out of power, about 1.5 million or more if you count Virginia, Maryland and D.C. in the last couple hours. Those numbers are changing a lot as repair crews get out.
We also know of no confirmed fatalities here in D.C., but four in Virginia, all caused by fallen trees. And one woman was killed in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, when a tree fell on her home.
So, for the most part, in terms of flooding, it seems like this area has managed to escape the worst. But certainly there have been some fatalities. Back to you guys.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Athena Jones, at the National Cathedral in Washington - Brooke.
BALDWIN: So, as we mentioned, we're watching the mid-Atlantic, and we're also watching farther north, and Rhode Island is one spot. We're going to be speaking with the governor eventually. It appears that so far that state has missed the brunt of Irene, which is certainly good news for you in Rhode Island.
Let's go to Kate Bolduan. She's standing by in Providence, with a little bit more of an assessment where you are. I know you mentioned before, you're standing in front of a - a floodgate which seems to be holding strong.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It does seem to be holding strong, which is very good news for everyone here in Providence. And, we'll tell you, that floodgate is called a hurricane barrier. It's actually right behind me.
You can see those massive steel gates. Those were put down in there - or this was built in the 1960s with this exact purpose, of trying to protect the city of Providence from storm surges. That's said to be able to protect - to hold back storm surges of up to 20- some feet, and there is - clearly reached nothing near that, the storm, as it has passed through.
But, as we said earlier, Brooke and Fredricka, the story here, as you can probably see in my face, is the strong winds. We have been getting some rain, but nothing like the downpours that we've seen in other parts of the northeast as this - as the tropical storm - well, Hurricane and then Tropical Storm Irene has passed through.
It's the strong winds that they're dealing with here in Providence, and will continue to deal with, it sounds like, at least well into today. We've been seeing some sustained - strong, sustained winds, 30-some miles an hour. We're hearing that gusts are near 60 miles an hour in some places earlier today, some reports of even stronger gusts in other pars of Rhode Island and (INAUDIBLE).
Really where the concern has been for residents, as people have been driving through, you can - I don't know if you can likely not hear it, but that - that bridge right behind me, I'm seeing a lot of car traffic that's been picking up for the past hour or so. So we're seeing a lot of people - as the rain has kind of started to taper off, a lot of people maybe getting a - a little - a little stir crazy, if you will, and getting our back on the roads, which is not advisable, as we have heard from many federal and state officials on to this point.
But the strong winds still remain a concern here as we've been seeing a lot of downed trees that have not been removed from the roads yet. I'm sure that emergency crews have a lot that they're dealing with here throughout Providence as well as throughout of - throughout Rhode Island, as well as the rest of the northeast. So, right now, that's a lot of what we're seeing at this point - Brooke, Fredricka.
BALDWIN: Yes. I can see some of the cars passing over your shoulders.
Kate Bolduan, thank you very much. Let's ask the governor if that's a good idea or not. As we mentioned we're speaking with the governor.
Officials in Rhode Island saying nearly every single community in that state now really feeling the effects of what's now Tropical Storm Irene. And now on the phone, as promised, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee.
And Governor Chafee, are you - are you breathing the sigh of relief yet or not quite?
GOV. LINCOLN CHAFEE, RHODE ISLAND: Yes, we're getting there. Certainly the power outages we have to deal with now and some of the road blockages, with the trees down.
But, out here in Newport is the - really the boating capital, you might say internationally, if not nationally, here in Newport Harbor. And we're getting through that pretty well also. I've traveled around the state to various harbors and despite the high winds I think we've come through it OK so far.
BALDWIN: What are some of your top concerns, sir, as we - as we are further along here into our Sunday? We were talking winds, we're talking toppled trees. Are you advising people to stay home?
CHAFEE: Yes. The (INAUDIBLE) people are getting out and about. It's the power wires that come down, the electrical wires, you have to be careful of. And I heard some deaths in Virginia on falling trees. Certainly have to be careful about that.
The winds are still very strong here in Rhode Island.
WHITFIELD: All right. Governor, this is Fredricka.
It looks like, just looking behind you, a lot of folks have come out already. They're kind of assessing things, there's no rain. For the most part people are going to feel like the danger is gone. They are going to want to venture out. So are you going to manage that?
CHAFEE: Yes. I think that's one of the things we're concerned about, that strong gusts still could occur and have a tree come down. And, yes, people are getting out.
And you can't see here, I guess, behind me, but Newport Harbor is just off to the - the west of me here, and the boats are still rocking out there. And the white - the water is all white with foam. So it's still strong winds.
WHITFIELD: And I know people are concerned about their boats, so, to the boating community, how did those vessels do during that storm overnight?
CHAFEE: I'm surprised how well they've done. I've visited several of the ports and I haven't seen yet a single boat up against the rocks or against the shore, which usually you see. They - they chafe through the mooring lines and get cast free and end up on the shore.
I have not seen that. I'm very surprised.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well - very good.
Well, all the best to you and your efforts and whatever cleanup you have to do there. And glad so far, so good.
Governor Lincoln Chafee, thanks so much.
CHAFEE: Yes.
BALDWIN: And we - of course, we're going to be on the air for another multiple hours, talking to you about the aftermath, really, now of Tropical Storm Irene. We're going to take you to New Jersey. Poppy Harlow, who has been there as well, getting really a firsthand look at some of the flooding there.
But first, I want you to take a look at some of these amazing images of Irene as the storm, once a hurricane, now a tropical storm, slammed into the northeast today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back to our continuing coverage of now Tropical Storm Irene.
Take a look at the images that many of you at home have been sending in to us. This from Milburn, New Jersey. Flooding is the big problem in a good part of the northeast. This iReporter happens to be a professional photographer for the New Jersey Devils hockey team, and he says the water reached above his knees and that he saw a park bench -
BALDWIN: Look at that.
WHITFIELD: -- that had moved - that's right. He saw that bench, right there, had actually been lifted and moved across the street. That is the force of the water that so many people along the eastern seaboard have experienced.
New York, still getting a good brunt of Tropical Storm Irene. It is still coming down. It also is serving up some pretty severe winds, as well.
We've got on the phone with us right now New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. You've had a chance, Mr. Governor, to get around your state, your state already experiencing some - at least a million people without power. What have you assessed?
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, NEW YORK (via telephone): Well, as you said, the storm -the worst of the storm has passed, but we're feeling its damage all across the state. Flooding, power outages, about a million people, a number of people - we've lost a number of people to fatalities from flooding.
So, the worst has passed. It's not as bad as some predicted, but the damage is extensive.
WHITFIELD: And now, what about rescues? There have been quite a few rescues that have taken place in some parts of your state. Give me an idea of all that's transpired there, what kind of assistance you've been able to get from both the state as well as the federal level on those searches?
CUOMO: Well, one of the advantages that we did have is we had advance notice. We had a few days to prepare. And the level of intergovernmental coordination has really been exemplary. The federal government was very helpful and they expedited - expedited the process.
The relations between the state government and the local government have been very good. And I think that's one of the reasons why we've been able to reduce the amount of damage that we actually had, because we did prepare.
But, look, it's a million people without power. That could go on for days, in some cases. That number could grow.
The storm is not done with us yet. Rivers are still cresting, the ground is saturated, so I wouldn't be surprised that we don't have more trees down and more people losing power. So we're going to be dealing with this for days, at a minimum.
BALDWIN: Governor Cuomo, it's Brooke Baldwin in Atlanta.
I know just in order to - to really bolster the state's response, you made the call to deploy double the number of New York National Guard soldiers. Can you tell me where the majority of those are responding? What are the greatest areas of need in your state and your biggest concern?
CUOMO: Well, there are two areas. You know, we were trying to gauge where the storm was actually going to hit, and there were different models and different tracks.
The greatest damage has been done on Long Island, actually, Nassau, Suffolk counties. That's where the - over half of the all people in the state have lost power. That's the predominance of the flooding. That's on Long Island.
We also have a problem in the Catskill area of the state, mid Hudson. A lot of creeks, a lot of rivers, they've been cresting, they've been flooding. We've had a loss of life there.
Going forward, I don't want New Yorkers to get over confident and think that it's over. It's not over. There's no reason for New Yorkers to be coming out of their homes. They shouldn't be on the streets, they shouldn't be on the roads. Let the emergency personnel do their jobs.
Stay in your home and enjoy your family. Read a good book. But it's not over until it's over, and Irene is not yet done with us.
WHITFIELD: All right, Governor Andrew Cuomo, thanks so much for your time.
A lot of images we were watching, not just from our affiliate coverage, but some of the pictures that you actually snapped this morning as you were assessing the damage. Thanks so much for your time.
BALDWIN: Thank you, Governor Cuomo.
Now, not too far from New York, we have New Jersey. And a lot of what the governor described, the issues and the fears of flooding, also a huge fear in New Jersey as well.
Let's go to Poppy Harlow. She is live in Secaucus, New Jersey with the mayor.
Poppy, talk to me about what you're seeing right around you and how big of a concern is flooding in Secaucus. POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's so deceiving, Fredricka. The sun is out. This is the first time I've seen the sun since Friday afternoon. We've been reporting throughout the weekend.
So it's deceiving because you the think the storm has passed. It's all fine. That's not the case. Major flooding.
We are standing here with Mayor Mike Gonnelli of Secaucus. We're going to go into his house in a minute, because it is severely flooded. But just give me a sense of how many people were affected by a lot of flooding here, their power out, et cetera? I know it's most of the town.
MAYOR MICHAEL GONNELLI, SECAUCUS, NEW JERSEY: We had about two thirds of the town without power, at least a third, probably more, has been affected by severe to moderate flooding.
HARLOW: Just to situate us, we are five miles from New York City. We are 100 feet right now from the Hackensack River, which is a very big river. That literally flowed right into the back of the mayor's house.
Do you want to take us inside and -
GONNELLI: Sure.
HARLOW: -- and we can see the situation?
You've got obviously emergency personnel here. We're hooked up to a lot of wires here, obviously. But we're going to go down into the basement, which is his son's room, and give you a sense, Fredricka, of how bad this flooding is.
They did have some time to prepare, which is good. They got some of the furniture off the ground. But come here with me and you're going to see.
Let's go down.
Here, Fred. This was his son's bedroom until yesterday, when the storm started. I'm in the water now. It is at least up to my waist. You've got a couch, chair, the bed back there, the laundry room - it is all completely flooded, Fredricka.
This is the treadmill. You've got everything down here completely destroyed. This is the mayor's house, and it is one of they expect at least about 50 houses right in this area that are completely full of water.
So, you know, the storm wasn't as bad as what we expected, Fredricka, but, you know, folks are dealing with this - out of this as the aftermath.
WHITFIELD: So most of the water, then, came in from sort of basement windows, or did it actually come in through that first floor and then flow down? HARLOW: She's asking where the water came in. You told me the water came from both sides to your house, right, Mayor?
GONNELLI: It came in from both directions. In the rear of my house is actually a part of the wetland of the Hackensack River, about - well I guess 50 feet from my back door. In the front of my house, if you look up the road, a couple of hundred yards down is the Hackensack River. So it came from the front, about three or four foot up of my front door, and the same thing towards the back door.
HARLOW: And, as you see, Fred, they had a chance to sort of put some of the furniture up on - on higher floors, which is good. But - but this area, Secaucus, like a lot of New Jersey, is basically marshland. That's why New Jersey's dealing with such severe flooding.
WHITFIELD: Wow.
BALDWIN: Poppy, it's Brooke. I just have one quick question. I'm just curious for people who live in New Jersey and New York, do they have hurricane insurance?
HARLOW: That's a good question. She's asking if people have hurricane insurance.
I know you're covered by flood insurance. What should people that are going through this right now, trying to get through to their insurance companies - do most people here have hurricane insurance? We - you lived here 20 years. We haven't had a hurricane.
GONNELLI: This is the first hurricane I've had, but we do have flood insurance. Anyone that lives in a flood zone would have flood insurance -
HARLOW: OK.
GONNELLI: -- and that would be through FEMA. So -
HARLOW: So they'd be covered?
GONNELLI: They should be covered. Yes.
HARLOW: All right. Thanks.
Fred, we'll send it back to you. We're going to go all around this town and see where else there's some severe flooding.
WHITFIELD: Good news. All right. All the best to the mayor there and all his neighbors, because if he's suffering that on his street, all his neighbors are.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: You know his neighbors are.
WHITFIELD: Appreciate that, Poppy Harlow.
BALDWIN: That's the first time we've really seen the damage done, you know, by this hurricane.
WHITFIELD: Yes. In one person's home.
BALDWIN: In one person's home.
WHITFIELD: We've got a - kind of wide sweep of the kind of damage you're seeing in the northeast particularly, really along the East Coast.
BALDWIN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: You got all of these big trees have come down. The ground has been very saturated from a very wet August, and now this.
BALDWIN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: We're going to continue our look at now Tropical Storm Irene. More amazing pictures that you have been sending us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Of course we have our crews everywhere, but a lot of your images have helped us drive this story forward. Your iReports have been integral really in getting us a better perspective on Irene's progress and impact.
Alexandra Steele. She's been watching all these different iReports coming in, and we know there's a lot of inland flooding around New York, New Jersey. Is that what the iReporters are sending us as well?
ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. And you guys know what the biggest killer in a hurricane is?
BALDWIN: High water?
WHITFIELD: I'll have to go with high water.
STEELE: It's right. You're right. It's inland flooding, believe it or not. So let me show you some of these iReports and talk about the power of water.
Look at this. Rich sent this in. Now, this is from Millburn, New Jersey. That's about nine miles west of Newark, New Jersey.
To give you perspective, six inches of water, that is this, that is it, can drown a person.
