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Libya Refuses to Extradite Al Megrahi; Hurricane Irene Now a Tropical Storm, Leaves Flooding

Aired August 28, 2011 - 18:00   ET

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

RANDY KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN's coverage of tropical storm Irene.

Hello, everyone. I'm Randy Kaye at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Martin Savidge.

The federal government has begun mobilizing emergency response and response to deal with the destruction that's been caused by hurricane Irene. Emergency aid is going to be critical to countless communities where Irene, now a tropical storm, is causing catastrophic flooding. This is Margaretville. It's a small village in the Catskill Mountains, that's about two and a half hours north of New York City. Within the past hour, President Obama addressed the government's response to this natural disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do want to underscore that the impacts of this storm will be felt for some time, and the recovery effort will last for weeks or longer. Power maybe 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 on 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: Irene is now over central Vermont and moving north at about 25 miles per hour. It is still, though, got plenty of juice to make life miserable with 50-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rains.

Some of our best images have come from you, our iReporters. Fred Moore took this video of Irene as it washed over West Haven, Connecticut. All up and down the East Coast, we are seeing the impact Irene has had. At least 15 are known to have lost their lives in the storm, more than 4 million homes and businesses are without power.

The federal government estimates wind damage alone totals now more than $1 billion.

KAYE: And Chad Myers, of course, is in the CNN weather center with the very latest for us. Chad, what is the latest at this hour?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The rain just has not stopped for the northern half of New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire, and even into Maine for now hours. Finally, though, I think we are getting a slight break, drier air coming in. But major flash flooding in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, parts of Massachusetts as well, New York, even into Pennsylvania.

Let me show you, though. That's the flash flooding. Here's the flooding just in general. Some river, some creek out of its banks. Almost every county, from Maine, the tip of it, all the way down into the Carolinas with flooding going on right now. We even know of significant breaches or potential breaches in dams in parts of New York, maybe even Vermont -- we just talked to the emergency manager there -- into New Hampshire.

Water has swelled every reason up there in the northern half of those states. And even down into Massachusetts, parts of Connecticut as well. And all of that water has to get all the way down either into Long Island Sound or back into the Atlantic Ocean somehow. That is not going to happen without an awful lot of time with it to run off and also with a lot of damage. You think it's over. This thing has not even started.

Even yesterday, we said this will not be a wind-maker, this will be a flood-maker. And that's what this storm is right now, a flood-maker. The amount of water that came down on top of saturated ground, and we still have winds at about 40 miles per hour knocking down trees. Last number I heard, more than 4 million people without power. That may take weeks to put those power lines back.

KAYE: Hmm, that does sound like quite a project.

All right. Chad, thank you very much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

SAVIDGE: As you just heard, the urgency at this hour is Vermont, a state that ordered no mandatory evacuations.

Take a look at the fury the state is facing. An emergency official tells CNN that flooding is, quote, "everywhere and conditions are awful."

Joining us by phone now is the Vermont resident who took that video, David Cadran, who lives in Brattleboro.

And, David, first of all, did I say that, right?

DAVID CADRAN, VERMONT RESIDENT (via telephone): It's Cadran, and it's Brattleboro, Vermont.

SAVIDGE: All right. Thanks. Got right on both.

You shoot that footage, I guess, between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. So, tell us the situation now.

CADRAN: It is still just as bad up here. The water is still going. I just talked to a friend of mine who said they saw an entire house go down Brattleboro, and the town was worried that it might take out the bridge.

KAYE: Are people leaving the area? Those who aren't, are they getting help? I mean, are rescuers getting to them?

CADRAN: There have been some mandatory evacuations of downtown areas, particularly residential areas around that brook as it runs down through the entire valley before it meets up with the Connecticut River.

We heard that things are far worse in town west of here, particularly Wilmington. People are stranded on their rooftops and emergency personnel are trying to figure out how to reach them because towns have been completely cut off from the outside world.

SAVIDGE: All right. David, we're going to bring in Chad Myers, too, in this conversation.

And, Chad, I'm wondering -- you know, is there something specific about Vermont that creates the kinds of conditions we're looking at here, especially when people didn't seem to anticipate it to this extreme?

MYERS: Topography. Mountains. You have valleys, you have rivers. You have a steep -- almost steep cliffs taking that water and putting it down into these creeks and streams?

Are you safe where you are right now? Because I don't want to, you know, take you too long on the phone call here. David, are you OK?

CADRAN: Yes, I'm up outside of the valley.

SAVIDGE: And, David, I'm wondering, how do you think Vermont has handled this situation at least so far? Because as we said, we understand there were no mandatory evacuations.

CADRAN: No. Initially, there weren't. You know, we've always kind of had this attitude with hurricanes up here, oh, this is the mountains, we're so far inland, nothing is going to happen. People took some precautions. They bought water, batteries and stuff.

But no one thought the flooding was going to happen down here. None of the businesses are prepared. They are scrambling to get as much inventory out as they can. People are trying to get stuff out of their houses before it is swept away down this brook.

KAYE: David, we're looking at this -- sorry, go one.

CADRAN: I was saying, my mother said she remembers when Hurricane Andrew came through, and she said this has been worse.

KAYE: As we watch this water rushed through, I mean, we can only imagine what it's carrying with it. What preparations did you make? Do you think that others there just thought it wasn't going to be this bad? That they didn't get that warning?

CADRAN: Well, honestly, I made some preparations. I got some water, but mostly just snacks. We were just preparing to stay inside all day for a rainy day and nothing really big. But some of these people with their houses along that brook, I don't think they could have been prepared for this. Nothing could have prepared them for whole houses being swept away down the brook.

SAVIDGE: And, Chad, so I understand this -- this is flash flooding, right?

MYERS: Correct.

CADRAN: Yes.

MYERS: Yes. The rivers could go up 12 feet in two hours, and then back down 12 feet in two hours. It just depends on how the rain falls on the plain, falls on the area north of where you are, or higher elevations to where you are. North, of course, in this city and the state of Vermont.

Let's go to some river video, because I believe you'll find this equally as compelling. This is a babbling brook pouring over this low water dam here. And under, there's a bridge that the photographer is actually standing on. This is what every single creek and stream looks like in Vermont, New Hampshire, parts of Maine, Massachusetts, even Connecticut, northern Rhode Island, but really, again, even into parts of central New York, the Catskills and Adirondacks due to the topography.

Do you see that in the background? Those hills back there. Those are the hills that the water hit. Eventually, the rain was on top and then it rushed down into these valleys. And people are going to be in trouble tonight if they try to move around.

If you're in a valley and you are in trouble, you need to get out, of course. But if you are just going to go outside and go do something at night, don't do it. You can't drive and see this water in time to stop your car. It's time to be inside and stay there. If you have to evacuate, that's another completely different thing. Know where you are, know if you live by a creek or stream and know whether it's going up.

KAYE: Let's talk about what's being done to help these people. We want to bring in Mark Bosman. He's with the Office of Emergency Management in Vermont.

Mark, are you with us on the line and can you tell us what's being done here to try and connect with these people who might be in trouble?

MARK BOSMAN, VERMONT EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SERVICES (via telephone): Well, we have several swift water rescue teams deployed throughout the state. They've been going from the southern part of the state up north. The Vermont National Guard was activated with high water vehicles that can also be used for rescues. And there are people who are just having to wait it out because we frankly don't have the resources for the people who have been stuck because this is -- the flooding here has been so massive.

KAYE: And so, which areas are you focusing in on?

BOSMAN: Well, we've had folks on the entire state. Usually it's isolated when we have something here in Vermont, but because of the storm track, we had a lot of heavy rain. And it's moving its way north right now. And there are reports -- the reports are coming in geographically.

First thing this morning, it was southern Vermont, and then central Vermont and now it's heading to northern Vermont. I'm looking out the back window of our emergency operations center here, and the field behind us is flooded and approaching our building. But we have a little bank there, so we should be fine.

SAVIDGE: Has the rain stopped up there, Mark?

BOSMAN: Nope, it's still raining. The National Weather Services says we have a couple more hours to go. And we just -- that was one of the scary parts this morning when we got the first calls of flooding. We knew the heavy rain had not even started yet -- well, heavy rain being a relative term here.

KAYE: And when you look, Mark, at this rushing water, I'm not sure if you're at a television, but we are showing this rushing water from one of our iReporters -- what concerns you most about conditions like this?

BOSMAN: You know, we are always focused on public safety. We want people to stay safe, stay clear of certainly waterways like that, but any time you encounter water during a flood, even if it's on your road, you shouldn't drive over it, you shouldn't try to cross.

In fact, we had a young woman swept away by floodwaters today. She has not been found. And she's feared dead.

SAVIDGE: Mark, any idea how long you're going to have to deal with these kinds of conditions?

BOSMAN: We expect the flooding to last through the night. And then, of course, we will be in line for another round of recovery. We got hit pretty hard with some floods in areas around the state this spring. And just as we were starting to get back to some sort of normalcy, we got hit again. So, we're going to be in the recovery phase for quite some time on this one.

MYERS: Hi, Mark, it's Chad Myers here in the weather center. Do you have the resources that you need tonight? Are you getting what you need from the state or the federal government? Do you have enough men?

BOSMAN: Absolutely. We have FEMA liaisons here. We have 120 FEMA employees who were already staged in Vermont for the flood recovery. And, of course, our governor declared a state of emergency yesterday that availed us to the services of the National Guard. They have proven invaluable today in their helps with the rescue efforts.

MYERS: Mark, thank you. We also know that the National Guard had a helicopter rescue not that far from Schenectady, New York, earlier today when rivers were rising there.

Guys, rivers are rising all across New England and people have to be aware of this for not only tonight but tomorrow as well.

SAVIDGE: You know, David, you're still on the line with us?

CADRAN: Yes, I am.

SAVIDGE: You might have a question for Mark, since he's out there firsthand.

CADRAN: Hello?

KAYE: I'm not sure if Mark is still with us. Mark, are you with us?

SAVIDGE: Sounds like he's gone.

Well, David, thank you very much. The footage is extremely compelling. What are you going to do now for the next 12 hours or so?

CADRAN: Well, I'm at my friend's house now. We went out, bought some beer and we've got some food and we're just going to hang out here and ride out this storm.

SAVIDGE: Well, we wish you and everyone else who is in Vermont very good luck. We hope the waters recede soon for you. Thank you so much. We'll stay in touch. Thanks, David.

KAYE: Those are tough conditions there. And also some tough conditions actually in Virginia where there is major power outages. More than 1 million people without power in Virginia.

SAVIDGE: Yes, it's -- being without power after a storm is miserable.

Also, a programming note, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and former President Clinton explore the signs, the test and the lifestyle changes that could result in the very "Last Heart Attack" tonight at 9:00 Eastern.

We'll take a break and be back with more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Let's get out of here. Let's get out of here. Grab the mike.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Certainly some scary moments trying to cover hurricane Irene.

For millions of people, though, along the East Coast, the priority now is getting the lights back on.

Paul Koonce is CEO of Dominion Virginia Power, where at last count, more than 1 million people are without electricity. He joins us now by phone.

Paul, thank you for your time.

So, tell us, where are your customers without power and what's being done to return power to them?

PAUL KOONCE, DOMINION VIRGINIA POWER (via telephone): Yes, Randi. Thank you very much.

Right now, we have about 780,000 customers without service. That's out of a total impact from this storm of about 1.2 million. So, we have restored service to a number of customers but we have a lot of hard work ahead of us.

SAVIDGE: What was the main reason for the lights to go out? Was this water getting into power circuits or was this tree limbs coming down and that sort of thing?

KOONCE: It really was a lot of tree limbs, a lot of tree damage. This storm entered our service territory at about 10:00 p.m. on Friday evening and did not exit until about 4:00 a.m. yesterday -- this morning. So this storm sat on our service territory for about 30 hours. And both the wind and the rain really did a lot of damage to our system.

KAYE: And what's been the greatest challenge in getting to these people to help them?

KOONCE: Well, today, you know, the number one challenge is to make sure that we provide for public safety, make sure we don't have any downed power lines that could come in contact with anyone. So, that was our first priority.

Following that, well, we really want to make sure that our extra half voltage or our backbone system is up, and working. And then from there we just start the restoration process. So, all of those things have been done. But, you know, with a lot of downed trees and limbs, getting around the state has been a challenge. But the Virginia Department of Transportation has done a terrific job making the state passable so that we can do our work.

SAVIDGE: And what did you do to prepare for this? How did you -- you obviously knew you would have a problem.

KOONCE: Oh, yes. We sure did, Martin. We've got a long checklist of things that we do, making sure that we have the proper inventory, the materials, making sure that we have the staffing appropriately sized for the different parts of the state. There are some things we can do to take facilities and reconfigure them so that when we bring them back, we can bring them back more quickly.

This was a big storm. And we planned for it and Irene didn't disappoint.

KAYE: No, she certainly didn't. Paul Koonce of dominion power there in Virginia. Thank you very much for your time. Best of luck.

SAVIDGE: And he is right. It is a big storm.

We want to check in with Poppy Harlow. She is in Millburn, New Jersey, where it's not the lights so much. It is the flooding that is a concern.

So, how bad is it right now?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's bad. We are on just the main street. It's called Millburn Avenue. Every single small business I can see here has been hurt a lot from significant flooding.

The reason is there's a river over there, very close to all these businesses. It crested. It rose more than six feet. It came over, poured over the street and flew right into these businesses.

Dana Crowe, Tinga Tanqueria got hit. Pretty much the worse from what I can see. Let's head inside and just -- I mean, guys, if you look down here. Look at what's going on. The floor was literally lifted up by the water.

Tell me how you would assess the damage here, Dana?

DANA CROWE, STORE OWNER: Well, I'm trying to look on the bright side. The bright side is all of the stuff that's hard to replace, the decorations stuff, the murals, it's not destroyed. So, it's basically -- the basement is completely flooded up to the ceiling. So, it's a lot of stuff.

HARLOW: We're going to go and see the basement. If we can look at floor here, it's full of mud. You got a lot of sewage, and grass, and leaves flew into the restaurants. This stuff can be -- go ahead and take us there -- can be cleaned up, but what Dana was telling me earlier, it's going to take about a month and the big concern here is that oftentimes, flood insurance doesn't cover basements. Can you imagine that?

Wait up until you see this basement and you'll se what we're talking about.

All right. Look down here. Dana, how many feet down does that go?

CROWE: That's about 10 -- 10 to, 11 feet.

HARLOW: So, you got 10 feet of water in there.

CROWE: It's right up to the ceiling. Yes. All the office, all of the walk-ins, all the food is gone.

HARLOW: All of it?

CROWE: Yes.

HARLOW: Guys, do you have any questions for Dana and the folks here in Millburn?

SAVIDGE: (AUDIO BREAK) during all of this.

HARLOW: I'm sorry, Martin. What did you say?

SAVIDGE: I was just asking. Where was Dana and his crew when all of this was happening?

HARLOW: They're asking where were you when all of this was going on? I know you own a number of restaurants across New Jersey. Where were you?

CROWE: I was at home, battening down the hatches in my own house. It's a two-family, so I was kind of taking care of -- there were tree limbs blowing, and windows smashing and stuff. So -- and I tried to get over here and the roads were closed. And then I got into an accident. So, I had -- I spent the whole day trying to get here actually.

HARLOW: You know what's interesting, Martin, we were here at about 5:00. And we saw the damage. We didn't want to come inside without the owner here. And right at 5:00, Dana showed up and he walked in and seen the damage for himself.

And I got to give him a lot of credit, you handled this so well. You take it in stride because actually this isn't as bad as the damage that was done to this town and these businesses in 1999 during Hurricane Floyd, right?

CROWE: Floyd, it went right up to the ceiling. All of the stuff that's hard to be replaced has not been damaged. So, I'm looking on the bright side. I hope within a month, Tinga will be back.

HARLOW: All right. Business will be back in a month. Guys, I send it back to you.

SAVIDGE: Yes. We thank you very much. We wish the owner good luck there and the clean up. It is a very tough job.

KAYE: Yes, it certainly is.

Well, after the storm, now comes the cleanup, as you saw there, for many areas that were in its spot. We'll check in with General Russel Honore who knows very much about what to do next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: And welcome back. We want to take you now to Providence, Rhode Island, where Kate Bolduan is standing by.

Kate, I'm curious what the situation is there now? How bad was the storm surge?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think as you heard from many other places on the East Coast, many people are breathing a sigh of relief to use the now overused phrase, Randi.

Here in Providence, Rhode Island and throughout Rhode Island, they very much moved into cleanup and recovery mode. As you can see, the rain has tapered off.

If you came to me five minutes ago, I would also say the winds subsided, but they kicked up significantly in the last five minutes. It's not surprising. We had heard that on the tail end of the storm, we may get pretty some significant gusts, a good reminder of what we actually -- where the damage we have seen really was coming from.

Now, we are hearing crews are out on the streets having to work with a lot of debris that we have seen as we have been driving through Providence, as well as in the neighboring towns. Downed trees, and significantly large trees down as well as downed power lines.

But it appears that things they are trying -- really, the focus is getting people back online. The local power company, the National Grid, the last update is that they're working on trying to get half of the state that has been without power, some 257,000 customers are still without power. And they're obviously working on that, and that's probably priority number one right now.

Some of the local towns, some of the restrictions that they had in place, especially Warwick. They had a travel restriction in place saying that only emergency vehicles can be on the road because of they are too dangerous, because of the power lines, because of the trees and the roads. They had lifted as they said. They were lifting that as of 6:00. So, that's happening as we speak.

You can see the gusts we are getting here. People are going to be keeping an eye on high tide that's going to be coming in, they say, between 7:00, 8:00. We're keeping an eye on that.

But I think, all in all, people are definitely breathing a sigh of relief. One example of that, one of the local businesses here, the local waterfront business, they are up and they are open. They were earlier today. They are open with quite a few customers out here considering they are working off generator power. They still don't have power, Randi. But it seems a lot of people needed to get outside and they are on the waterfront trying to now enjoy these gusts of winds that we are getting again. But we're watching this closely.

As we heard from other people, Randi and Martin, they seem to be breathing a little easier now knowing that we are getting the tail end of this storm and it's moving north -- Randi, Martin.

KAYE: I'm sure, though, with the downed power lines as we head into the evening hours and darkness comes -- are they concerned about people being out and about like that thinking it's safe?

BOLDUAN: I will tell you that's definitely a concern of some of the local officials, especially when they say, you know, after all the rain we have seen, all the saturation from the rain already here in Rhode Island and then from the storm and then these gusts that we are experiencing now, they are concerned that some of the trees, as they called them, "weakened trees," we could see some more damage, and more trees going down. That's why the governor as well as local officials continue to say, even though it seems that the worst has passed, that they are asking people to stay off the roads and stay in their homes and stay safe. That's the advice that they're giving and the request they're making, I guess we can say, Randi.

SAVIDGE: All right. That's Kate Bolduan. She's reporting to us from Rhode Island.

You could probably tell there's a huge delay. But you know what? It isn't the technology that really matters, it's the information.

And thank you very much, Kate, for that. We really do appreciate it.

KAYE: Yes. Excellent point.

Well, coming up next, you do not want to miss this. We have a CNN exclusive for you. Our Nic Robertson catches up with the Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing.

And a programming reminder, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and former President Clinton explore the signs, test and lifestyle changes that could result in the very "LAST HEART ATTACK," a special CNN PRESENTS. That's tonight at 9:00 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: We are staying on top of all the latest developments for Tropical Storm Irene, but we want to let you know about other events outside of that, including Libya. The Transitional Council announced today it will not extradite Abdelbaset al Megrahi. He's the man convicted in 1988 Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: NTC justice minister, Mohammed al Alagi, insisted, quote, "We will not give any Libyan citizen to the West."

Megrahi may be the last man alive who know who precisely who in the Libyan government authorized that 1989 Libyan bombing.

CNN's Nic Robertson has been looking for Megrahi and, today, he managed to track him down. And here is Nic's exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

(on camera): This is Megrahi's house. This is where he has been living for six years. We will knock on the door and see if we can get any answer.

Hello?

(voice-over): For fifteen minutes or so, nothing.

(on camera): I'm not sure if they heard me, so let's try a last-ditch means, which is just shout into the wall. Hello? Hello? Hello?

(voice-over): 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 just give him oxygen and -- nobody give us the advice. And some food by injection. If you see, his body is weak.

ROBERTSON: He had been expected to die almost two years ago. The convicted Pan Am bomber, Abdelbaset al Megrahi, lives, only just.

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 grounds because doctors said he would be dead in three months. Almost immediately, he began renovating this palatial house. Money no object.

(on camera): It doesn't take long walking around this building before you begin to realize -- and looking at the marble here and these expensive fittings, to realize it appears Megrahi was being paid off- hand handsomely for all those years he spent in jail.

(voice-over): In the two decades since the bomb exploded on board Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, killing over 270 passengers, crew and townspeople, 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 shell of the man he was, far sicker than he appeared before.

(on camera): Has he been able to see a doctor?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, there is no doctor. And there is nobody to ask. We don't have any phone line to call anybody.

ROBERTSON: what is his situation right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's stopped eating, he's sometimes is come in coma.

ROBERTSON: Coma. He goes unconscious?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We just sit next to him.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): All that is keeping him alive, they say, oxygen and a fluids drip. I asked about demands he return to jail in Scotland. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My dad, he just sits in the house. And if you send him to Scotland, he will die by the way, here or there.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Do you know how long he has left?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody can know how long he is staying alive. Nobody can know.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): It seems I've arrived too late. He's apparently in no state to talk. Whatever secrets he has, may soon be gone.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Tripoli, Libya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: And next, we'll go to Maryland where residents are cleaning up and then watching the waters rise.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: These waves are scary. If Jimmy -- I'm with Jimmy Coto, our photographer. Don Collins, who is actually behind him, holding him back because of the wind.

KAYE: There's some challenging times there trying to cover this hurricane.

SAVIDGE: There are some moments, yes. There are.

KAYE: Meanwhile, we are learning of more deaths from Irene as New England feels the brunt of it right now. Four deaths now blamed on Irene in Pennsylvania, bringing the total to 19 people dead in seven states.

Irene is now a tropical storm with winds still reaching up to 50 miles per hour, but flooding is the main concern now. Irene is now over central Vermont and moving north at about 25 miles per hour. The storm is creating widespread flooding up and down the east coast.

Some of the most striking images are coming to us from our iReporters. We've been showing these to you throughout the hour. Just look at these floodwaters rushing through Brattleboro, Vermont. All of that debris you can see with it. Proof that while Irene has weakened since it first hit the U.S., conditions are still dangerous. More than four million people are without electricity right now. And it could be a week before everyone gets power back on. Estimates from the wind damage alone total more than $1 billions so far.

President Obama is promising a quick response to victims from Irene, but he warns that this event is not over yet and recovery will take weeks or longer.

SAVIDGE: One of the 15 deaths from Irene happened in Maryland. The woman was not outside, but in her home in Queenstown. A tree crashed into her chimney which then crushed her. Now that the hurricane has passed, Maryland is cleaning up while watching for the waters that -- well, maybe that will rise.

CNN's Chris Lawrence is live in Chesapeake Beach -- Chris?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Marty, you mentioned it, and I think people are breathing a real sigh of relief tonight. You mentioned that one death, but what we've heard just from talking to a lot of people here is how close other people came. Though today, they're saying, look, this wasn't as bad as we thought. We came out of it OK. It really could have been down to one decision. Like the man we spoke to who had a tree literally fall right on top of his house. The only reason that he was able to avoid it was because the power went out just a few hours earlier and he went downstairs looking for something to do.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAT HOLSON, STORM VICTIM: They say things come in threes. We had the earthquake Tuesday, this, and now God knows what else. Hopefully, nothing else will happen. But God just helped me and -- that I wasn't in that room because I would have been killed.

LAWRENCE: Yes, just an amazing story.

Right now, what we're seeing out there, not too bad. Damage hasn't been that extensive, but there are some trees are down that are blocking some of the roads. There are some power lines that are still down. And there's a lot of people out of power, about 800,000 people without power here in Maryland alone. A lot of people we have been speaking to say that's their big hope. They want to get the power back on. They want to get some of those trees cleared out so they can get back to their homes and just make sure the damage is not more extensive than they initially feared -- Marty?

SAVIDGE: Chris, the weather looks dramatically improved. It looks very nice.

(LAUGHTER)

LAWRENCE: It's an absolutely beautiful day. That's what a hurricane does. It has so much energy, it sucks all the weather out behind it, so generally the day after a hurricane, the sun comes out. It's a beautiful day. Here, it's amazing when I look around, and where yesterday I was looking and the water up on top of the pier. The waves crashing into us. Today, we're looking at the beach, which we didn't even -- we didn't even see dry land down here at all yesterday. So, dramatically big difference. I think a lot of people down here are breathing a real sigh of relief because they were not so concerned about the wind, but they sure were concerned about some of that storm surge and how much water could have been flooding into this area. What happened was the winds were such a way that when the hurricane came through, it more sucked the water out of this area, pulling it the opposite way instead of pushing it right up on shore.

SAVIDGE: All right, Chris, thank you very much. We are glad for them, too, that it did not turn out as badly as many might have feared.

Thank you very much.

KAYE: Yes. And there is some good news, by the way. It looks as though some of the New York City area airports will be reopening tomorrow. That's very good news. LaGuardia will be reopening. We'll tell you the very latest on the other airports as well.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Irene leaves shoulder-high waters in Pennsylvania where four deaths are now reported. We'll take you there live next.

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KAYE: And welcome back to our special coverage of Hurricane Irene. We do have some updates on the New York area airports we want to tell you about. According to the FAA, they are telling us Newark Airport will reopen tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. eastern time. JFK International will also reopen at 6:00 a.m. Monday morning. And LaGuardia as well will open Monday morning once again at 7:00 a.m. So we have Newark 6:00 a.m., JFK at 6:00 a.m. and LaGuardia at 7:00 a.m.

It's interesting, Martin, because apparently they have to actually get the planes back. Because they got all the planes out of the way.

SAVIDGE: They sent them away.

KAYE: They sent them all away. They first have to bring them back in which is why it takes some time before they can start the flights.

SAVIDGE: I think it's actually pretty good. They got them away fast.

KAYE: Yes. I agree. Well done.

SAVIDGE: Getting to the airport could be another challenge --

KAYE: Yes. Yes.

SAVIDGE: -- depending on how you plan to travel.

In Pennsylvania, we have learned in the last hour of four deaths in that state. That brings Irene's total death toll to 19 in seven states.

The flooding is now a major concern for Pennsylvania. Take a look at this iReport of a stream that dramatically overflowed its banks in the Poconos. The land has been saturated with previous rains, which makes the problem worse.

KAYE: And in the Philadelphia area, some neighborhoods have water reaching street signs.

CNN's Sarah Hoye is there.

Sarah, Philadelphia's mayor actually lifted the state of emergency around noon. What is the situation there now?

SARAH HOYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, that state of emergency was lifted. Guys, what a difference a day makes. If you look around me, the sun is kind of popping out over my shoulder. When we were coming to you earlier this morning and even last night, we were getting pounded with rains and winds. The winds really have not died down. I'm standing here in Center City, smack dab up the street from city hall, and it's windy. You can see it come through gusts here and there. People are holding on to jackets, umbrellas that they have taken down from the rain.

But in this area, if you just got here today, you would have been tardy for the party and you would not have thought that Irene had come. However, up the street a little bit, there's been some good flooding. Like you said, the water is up to street-sign levels in some areas. So the effects are still being felt in Philadelphia, guys.

SAVIDGE: What is the hardest-hit area?

HOYE: The hardest hit area at least near downtown would be near the Schuylkill River, which is on the other side of City Hill where, at flood stage, I believe it kind of got to. The water had crested around 2:00 and had come completely over. They had shut down some major areas of roads. So, near downtown would be some of the hardest hit areas here, in terms of flooding. However, those areas do have a tendency to flood any way, so it was kind of expected. They did have people evacuate. Right now, people are getting back into their homes.

SAVIDGE: All right, Sarah. Well, that's a positive look at a storm that's had a major impact all across the east coast. Thank you very much.

KAYE: And, of course, we have been getting so much incredible video, many pictures coming in from many of you. We will share with you the best iReports coming into CNN within the last 24 hours when we come back.

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SAVIDGE: All weekend CNN's iReporters have helped fill the gaps and provided some extraordinary images of photos, videos of Irene's wrath at every stage.

KAYE: And CNN's Josh Levs is here right now to highlight some of the very best ones.

Hi there, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there to you, guys. These pictures, folks, have been coming in all day, over night last night. We are tracing through them and finding you some really striking images.

I want to tell you this. We've jut gotten new video we'll open for you right here, coming to us out of Connecticut. Take a look at this one first.

OK. We just jumped over to this one. This one is also out of Connecticut. Let me tell you about this while we're seeing it. This is from Robert Cavanaugh. And he says the building is moving. At first, I didn't understand how we're supposed to believe that until you take a look. Look at that. Look at that's going on there. This is out of Bristol, Connecticut, and the water's gushed up so far onto land it got underneath that building that was apparently a store.

Let's go over to West Haven, Connecticut. This is another one we've been looking at throughout the day. A really powerful video there that shows you Irene's wrath. We've been looking at this throughout the day. Fred Moore sent this. He says the atmosphere full of curiosity as local witnesses gathered to witness Irene's wrath as she passed by. He said, believe it or not, after the video, some people were actually taking a dip in the sound. You can see there what appears to be a restaurant. It is a restaurant, that is apparently very popular and usually very busy, and what is a busy commercial area there turned into -- geez, look at that -- absolute gushing for hours on end today.

Now we're going to go over to Far Rockaway. This is another one we've been taking a look at throughout the day. Folks, this is a part of New York that officials were concerned about in advance. There were some evacuation orders in that region. And we're not surprised to see some flooding happening in this area. Still, when you take a look at the pictures, you can see that it came up, in some cases, pretty high, affecting people's homes, affecting homes on the street. And we've been seeing some damage from some places along Irene's path throughout the day.

One more thing I want to show you now. Jersey City. Take a look at this and listen into the beginning of it.

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(WIND BLOWING)

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LEVS: As we look at this I want to remind everyone that part of the sound that you hear, if it's not obvious when you hear this, is what happens when wind hits the microphone of whatever is recording. It doesn't mean it would have sounded quite that loud to everyone standing there. That said, the winds were very, very loud.

I want you to know what you're seeing here. Adam Rice took this and he's in Jersey City. One thing I check before I show you any iReports -- let's see if we can go back to that -- was that I want to make sure no one was denying any evacuation orders. Where he is, there were only evacuation orders for the first floor of the building where he is. He was not rejecting or refusing any evacuation orders by being in this area. He said some curious people did step out to see the waters as they came gushing in. That in Jersey City, New Jersey, right there.

All right, let's come back to my screen. I want everybody wants to know about Open Story. Open Story has been doing an unprecedented job of telling the story here. This is it. It's on the main page of CNN.com. And we're getting IReports that are telling you what is happening throughout the path of Irene. If you take a look, everywhere that you see and "I" along here, we have gotten and approved some iReports that show what Irene has been up to. You click on any one of them and it instantly brings you over to some of these images. Right here, you're looking at Atlantic City Beach with the waves just crashing on to the beach.

What I'd like to do is jump over and just talk you through some of these over here. Every time you take a look at any one of these pictures, you see another place. This is a place that had boarded up windows. And we've been seeing a lot of that. It keeps going and going. If you click way up here, I'm going to zoom you up to some of the most recent pictures we've been getting. And this is -- look at that. Look at that. This is in Bronxville, New York. That car, submerged under water.

I have time to -- one more here. South Beach sea wall. This is in Rowayton, Connecticut. This was a sea wall all along here. Boom. It's been turned into crumbles of giant rock. You can just see Irene's power right there.

We're not only following your iReports. We're also following your Twit Pics, you Twit Bids, everything you're sending on Facebook. You're reaching out to us every which way. You got me, I'm @JoshLevsCNN. Go ahead and send whatever you've got and we'll be sharing some of those next hour.

Guys, back to you.

SAVIDGE: All right, Josh, thanks very much.

LEVS: Yes.

SAVIDGE: Our coverage continues right after this break.

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