Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Record Flooding Inundates New Jersey; Notting Hill Carnival Arrests; Lockerbie Bomber is in a Coma; Outer Banks Cut Off by Irene; New Yorkers Feel Lucky After Hurricane; Irene Damage Estimates Start Arriving
Aired August 29, 2011 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we do begin this morning talking about the aftermath of Irene, the massive storm that paralyzed and pummeled much of the east coast. Today it's blamed for at least 21 deaths in nine states from Florida to Vermont, and at last count, about 3 million homes and businesses are still without power.
More than a billion dollars in damages is blamed on the storm's winds. The flooding damage will be much more costly. And three Navy ships should be positioned to aid relief efforts from New York to New England.
Well, CNN crews are in place, measuring the storm's impact and the struggle for the millions of Americans trying to move on now.
We're going to take you from North Carolina to New York to New England and give you the big picture from the CNN Weather Center right here in Atlanta. Let's go ahead and begin in Vermont, a state that's reeling from some of its worst flooding in decades.
Gary Tuchman, there in Brattleboro, so, Gary, what's the latest from there?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, they don't deal with hurricanes and tropical storms in this inland state on the Canadian border. At least they didn't deal with them until yesterday. That's when Tropical Storm Irene came through.
And we are standing in Brattleboro, Vermont, in southern Vermont, next to what was yesterday, and for generations, a peaceful brook. This is a brook called the Whetstone Brook, but it's no longer a brook. It's now rapids. It was 10 feet wide before yesterday. It's now about 90 feet wide.
And you can see the powers of the waters, more than 260 streets underwater in the state of Vermont. But the powers of the water basically exploded this brook into four or five times its normal width.
And look at this building right here. This is an art studio, a three-story art studio, the land under the right side of the art studio disappeared when the water started flowing through. It is now hanging precariously and could collapse at any time. The saddest news here in the state of Vermont, one woman fell into one of these brooks yesterday, about 20 miles west of here in the town of Wilmington, Vermont. Her body was recovered today, at least one person killed in the state of Vermont, from Tropical Storm Irene.
Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Gary Tuchman, OK, we'll be checking with you throughout the next couple of hours. Gary, thanks.
And flooding is also a huge problem in New Jersey. Some rivers are still on the rise. Poppy Harlow, cnnmoney.com, is in Millburn for us.
So, Poppy, even though a million people were evacuated from the coast there, the problems reach far inland, right?
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Absolutely, Kyra. We're seeing some record inland flooding in new Jersey. The mayor, Chris Christie, took an aerial view of all the flooding. We're going to show you pictures of that, across New Jersey, major, major problems, even away from big rivers and even away from the coast.
The mayor is warning still of some possible record flooding in the next two days. You had a lot of rain here before the storm. It soaked the ground. The dams here are still at risk. So we could see even more flooding in New Jersey. Here in Millburn, they certainly got the brunt of it. I want to show you why.
We are by this river in the middle of town, Kyra. This actually crested. If you can believe it, it came all the way over, gushing into the street, gushing into all the local businesses here on Main Street. I had a chance to spend the whole day yesterday inside of them, with the business owners, dealing with the devastation. Take a look at one.
We're going to go see the basement. If we can look at the floor here, it's full of mud. You've got a lot of sewage and grass and leaves that flew into these 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 a big concern here is that oftentimes flood insurance doesn't cover basements. Can you imagine that? Wait till you see this basement, and you'll see what we're talking about.
All right. Look down here. Dana, how many feet down does that go?
DANA CROWE, BUSINESS OWNER: Well, that's about -- that's about 10, 10-11 feet.
HARLOW: So you got 10-11 --
CROWE: It's right up to the --
HARLOW: -- feet of water in there?
CROWE: It's right up to the ceiling, yes. All the -- the office, all of the walk-ins, all the food's gone.
HARLOW: And, Kyra, it's just a nightmare like that for all the businesses here in Millburn, New Jersey, and I got to tell you, an even bigger headache for the residents here is the lack of potable water.
There is no drinking water here. It is all contaminated right now, at least for the next 24 hours. They can't shower. They can't drink it. And on top of it, a million New Jersey residents don't have any power, so Irene may not been as strong as many had thought, Kyra, but it certainly hit this town very hard.
PHILLIPS: Well, have you seen support coming in, Poppy, with bottled water, you know, groups like the Red Cross?
HARLOW: Yes, it's a -- it's a good question. We were here all day yesterday, Kyra, until midnight last night. I didn't see any of that. I saw a few PG&E trucks, trying to get the power back on, residents complaining to me that they are not going to get their power -- get this, Kyra -- until next Sunday or next Monday, a week from now.
When you look at the businesses here, they're actually the last to get help because the fire department technically has to go to all the residences first, pump out their basements, get them back in order. Then they come to these businesses. Think how hard-hit the economy is right now, and imagine being out of business for a month or more because of this storm. Not a good thing.
PHILLIPS: No, not at all. All right, Poppy Harlow, well, we'll keep talking to you throughout the morning as well. Poppy, thanks.
And in New York, as you know, commuter trains and subway lines are slowly returning to service. Now Jason Carroll is actually at Penn Station.
So, Jason, how challenging has the morning rush hour been?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it depends upon where you're coming from. If you look at Penn Station here -- and you know this particular area, Kyra. It's normally teeming with people.
But take a look at what it looks like right now. This is just the tail end of rush hour. This place would still be inundated with people on a normal day, but not today. I think a lot of people just decided to take a three-day holiday.
Let's review the transit situation as it stands right now. As of this morning, 6:00 am this morning, the subway system is actually, Kyra, back online, all 22 lines up and operating. New Jersey Transit, not a good situation there right now.
The trains from the state of New Jersey still suspended. Those who have to come in and out of Long Island, some service has been restored on the LIRR, but some of the trains have been suspended, so you want to check on that.
Good news for the area airports, as of 7:00 am Eastern Standard Time, all three of the major airports, Newark, LaGuardia and JFK, all open and operational for incoming and outgoing flights. But you still want to check with your individual carriers.
My colleague, Deborah Feyerick, is trying to come in from Europe. She's still having some residual delays and problems there. All of the area tunnels and bridges are operational and clear and open. Where we're seeing the most problems is on Amtrak. Amtrak says much of the northeast lines are operational, but we spoke to commuters, trying to get to Washington -- to Washington, D.C... still having some problems there.
When we checked downstairs, we saw cancellations all over the board, especially to destinations such as Boston and Philadelphia. New York City's mayor basically saying that the commute was going to be, quote, unquote, "a challenge." That might be an understatement for some.
Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Yes. OK. Jason Carroll for us there at Penn Station. Jason, thanks.
And, Jacqui Jeras, Jason was talking about all the delays and in travel, and the fact that a lot of things are up and running. You're doing the same thing, but with power outages. We talked about how the storm -- and it not being as big as we thought, but it's still impacting millions of people, travel and getting to and from home.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And it's not going away today or tomorrow either, Kyra. This is going to be a long-lasting storm that people are going to be feeling the impacts of, not just days, not just weeks, but probably even months ahead.
As power outages -- we'll start there. At the peak of the storm 4 million people were without power. Now that number is just shy of 3 million. And look at the states that are still involved, all the way down there from North Carolina through the Mid-Atlantic.
And everybody in New England is dealing with some of those issues. And it will take a long time to get everything back in line. And while this wasn't a major hurricane, its impact was very far- reaching, from the Bahamas through those 17 states. And ultimately, i think it will be most remembered by the majority of the people for being such a flood maker.
And this is the animation that shows you the accumulated rainfall or how much rain came down. And look at the far-reaching area, where we saw more than five inches of rain. In fact, some of the numbers will astonish you, as we take a look at them, up to 15, 16 inches in some places. Maryland, we had nearly 13 inches there at some point, stretching down into Delaware. As we take a look at some of the other cities down the line, it will show you as much as 16 inches into the Carolinas.
Flood watches and warnings are going to stay in effect across the northeast over the next several days, the worst flooding since 1927 in parts of Vermont. And a lot of people still not in their homes yet, Kyra -- the Red Cross is reporting that 8,600 people woke up this morning in shelters.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui, thanks.
And Irene is getting a lot of play on the political circuit, of course. Michele Bachmann joking about it, and Ron Paul saying why the heck do we all need FEMA. Here to lay it out for us, Jim Acosta in Washington.
OK, Jim, where do we begin? Both headlines getting a lot of attention.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, it's no surprise, Kyra, that as Hurricane Irene was making its way up the East Coast that the political rhetoric was getting close to category 5 status.
Consider what Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said down at a rally in Florida yesterday. She was joking about the natural disasters to have hit the nation's capital in the last week or so, including Hurricane Irene.
Here is what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELE BACHMANN, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Washington, D.C., you would think by now they would get the message. An earthquake, a hurricane. Are you listening? The American people have done everything they possibly can. Now it's time for an act of God, and we're getting it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Of course, Irene hit other parts of the East Coast, not just the nation's capital. So, you know, there might be some Republicans scratching their heads this morning, wondering what Congresswoman Bachmann said.
Of course, her defenders will say she was of course just kidding and talking about government spending in Washington.
And somebody who is also always talking about the issue of government spending and the national debt is Ron Paul. And he was making the case, as he has in the past over the weekend, Kyra, that the federal government could do without the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This is something that Ron Paul has said repeatedly in the past. He's of a Libertarian stripe, you know, as in the Republican Party. And he was saying on one of the Sunday talk shows yesterday that FEMA really developed sort of a dependency, he says, among Americans for government relief when disasters strike.
So it's going to be interesting to kind of go through, you know, we have been focusing on this hurricane so much over the last few days, to go through and sort of, you know, comb through what some of the politicians have been saying about these disasters in the last week or so.
We've certainly had our share of a lot of weather and a lot of disasters up and down the East Coast. We haven't had a lot of time to really focus on what the candidates have been saying, but we're going to now.
Kyra?
PHILLIPS: All right, we'll be following it with you, Jim. Thanks.
We'll have your next political update in just about an hour, and a reminder, for all the latest political news, you can always go to our website, cnnpolitics.com.
Well, hated and now possibly taking secrets to the grave, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The plane with 270 people on board, the majority of them Americans, was headed to New York. They were all killed.
Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison two years ago and returned to Libya. It was believed that he had only months to live. Well, there was international outrage over his release.
Now our Nic Robertson, covering the war in Libya, found him in a coma, being fed through a tube with no professional help, and possibly on his death bed. That exclusive from Nic this hour.
But first, let's get the Libyan headlines from our Zain Verjee in London.
Good morning, Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Kyra. Let's take a look at the headlines, then. Let's go straight to The Daily Telegraph. This is what it says: "While Gadhafi is free, Libya cannot move on."
It goes on to say this, "the NTC," -- that's the National Transitional Council -- "faces the daunting task of disarming a country awash with guns, and of integrating those militia members who want to continue bearing arms into a national army."
Check out the "The Sydney Morning Herald". This is the headline: Libya after Gadhafi. It says, "The various groups comprising the rebels were unified mainly in their common desire to get rid of Gadhafi. Making the transition to representative government will be harder."
On the military front, Kyra, the rebels, both on the east and west side of the city of Sirte, are closing in. This is a real Gadhafi stronghold. This is where many of his loyalists are. There are about 100,000 people approximately that live in this city.
And Gadhafi himself could be there. Nobody knows for sure exactly where he is. But there are negotiations to get his loyalists to surrender, because rebels can pretty easily overrun this town.
Kyra?
Zain Verjee out of London, Zain, thanks.
From North Carolina to England, people taking stock of the damage left behind by Hurricane Irene. We're going to hear from them right after the break.
Rivers in New Jersey still rising. We're going to talk to the mayor of Secaucus about what he's facing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. Stories cross country now:
People are assessing the damage caused by hurricane Irene, flash flooding in Pennsylvania caused lot of damage there. And the worst may still be yet to come. Swollen rivers aren't expected to crest until later today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN DALY, RESIDENT: Overnight, this is pretty impressive storm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And Irene tore through Virginia Beach, Virginia, with torrential rains, high winds, even a spin-off tornado. People ventured back into their neighborhoods, saying they're glad it wasn't worse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just devastating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never happened before. I've been down here close to 30 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We dodged a bullet. I think God did us a favor this time.
(END VIDEO CLIPS) PHILLIPS: The storm roared through Providence, Rhode Island, uprooting thousands of old trees. More than a quarter million people in Rhode Island lost power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard a big crash and this big tree came down. Telephone pole, street lights, all the electric knocked out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Flooding is a big problem in New Jersey today as well. Torrential rains away from the coast caused rivers to flood. Many have not even crested yet.
Michael Gonnelli is the mayor of Secaucus. CNN got to see some of the flood damage in his home yesterday. He's joining me on the phone now.
Good morning, Mr. Mayor. I know you're a mile away from the river. How bad is the flooding right now?
MAYOR MICHAEL GONNELLI, SECAUCUS, NEW JERSEY (via telephone): Well, the flooding now has receded. We're pretty lucky. You know, the Hackensack River is a tidal river. So, we're at low tide. And all the water has gone out. But the damage is still here and it's still being found as we go along, every minute of the day.
PHILLIPS: So, what's your plan for the next 24 hours or so?
GONNELLI: Our plan is to clean up. We've had hundreds of calls last night. And, you know, as you said earlier, I can witness it myself. I've been in this home for 20 years and never have had flooding.
And, last night, yesterday, my home was devastated. We lost our basement, our den and we still have no power throughout the whole house. So, it was pretty bad.
We had about two-thirds of the town without electricity. We're back up. All the power is back on. We're still getting calls, several, several calls a minute, actually, for flooded basements and flooded homes.
PHILLIPS: So, where are -- do you have enough resources there within your area or are you having to call out for outside help?
GONNELLI: Resources, we're fine. We have a 100-man volunteer fire department who worked all day yesterday and through the night. We have a fabulous Public Works Department. We had a lot of help from our county and our local OEM. So, we're in good shape.
It's just the cleanup now.
PHILLIPS: Now, we were looking at your house just a second ago. What's the status of your own home? GONNELLI: Well, the water is out. I cannot turn my power or gas on yet. Waiting for the insurance company, like many others, and we began to clean up. We got a task ahead of us. We probably won't be here for several days, be able to live in the home.
PHILLIPS: Did a lot of people have to evacuate besides you?
GONNELLI: We evacuated three different areas of the community and most of them were low-lying areas right along the Hackensack River. The river crested. I would have to guess, just by looking at my property, we had an astronomical tide and it probably went at least four to six feet above that. It was pretty devastating.
PHILLIPS: Michael Gonnelli, mayor of Secaucus there we're monitoring the progress you're making. Mayor, thanks for calling in. Appreciate it.
GONNELLI: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: You bet.
The storm is over, but the damage assessments, as you can see, are just beginning. We're going to try and tally them all up for you.
And also, on edge after the London riots, Scotland Yard beefing up security as a million people descend on Notting Hill for its annual carnival. We'll go live in London coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Let's have some showbiz headlines for you.
The weekend's top movie was "The Help" for the second straight week. But Hurricane Irene seemed to wash away box office totals. As many as 1,000 theaters were closed because of the storm. "The Hollywood Reporter" reports Irene may have cut ticket sales by $30 million.
Sunday night's MTV Video Music Awards, Katy Perry picks up Video of the Year for "Firework" and Lady Gaga, dressed there as her alter ego gets best video for born this way. Best male video went to Justin Bieber for "You Smile."
And a nice surprise at the VMA -- after her performance, Beyonce pops the vest, yes, baby, shows off the baby bump. In the crowd shot, her husband, Jay-Z, getting a little love from Kanye West.
Well, it's one of the largest street festivals in Europe. Notting Hill's carnival, music, parades and now, stepped up security.
Zain Verjee in London.
Second day in, already some arrests, Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes. Hi, Kyra. At least 88 people have been arrested far for things like robbery, theft, possession of drugs and things like that. But so far, this big street party that is so popular here, as well as around the world -- people are here from all over the place -- is actually pretty peaceful. But security is stepped up. There are 6,500 people just in Notting Hill alone. And there's an extra 4,000, Kyra, that have been dispatched all around London to maintain security and just to have a much stronger presence around the city in case there are any awful riots that break out again.
I just want to show you a picture of a neighborhood in Notting Hill.
You know, you've been here, Kyra. You know Notting Hill.
PHILLIPS: Yes, I do. Beautiful.
VERJEE: Yes, yes. It is, right?
PHILLIPS: We'll talk about the book store in just a second. But go ahead.
VERJEE: So, I just wanted to show, you know, all these homes have been boarded up. You can see the cops cycling by. But this is how nervous people are in the city today -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: It's serious stuff. They've had issues before, in the past.
But the movie, "Notting Hill" -- you saw the movie, right, with Julia Roberts?
VERJEE: Yes, of course, I did.
PHILLIPS: And the book store there. Now, what's the deal? It's closing down?
VERJEE: I know, Kyra. I know you love watching romantic comedies with bon bons and popcorn, you know? And I know this would have been one of them that you watched back in 1999, the big blockbuster movie.
But, yes. Can you believe it? The travel book shop is actually going to be closing down. Basically the owners have run up thousands -- hundreds of thousands of pounds in debt and they just need to sell it.
So, you have all these people that are going, wait a minute, no. You can't. Julia Roberts, the bookstore. No way.
So, they want to try to save it. But the owners actually themselves really want to try to sell it. But it's caused a pretty big deal here as a result just because of the movie "Notting Hill."
PHILLIPS: Sure. Got a lot of attention.
VERJEE: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Bon bons are so passe. Come on. It's milk duds.
VERJEE: What is it now? Oh, sorry.
PHILLIPS: I'm still old school, OK? Thank you, Zain.
VERJEE: All right.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, back here at home, Irene sure hammered the outer banks of North Carolina. Now, 200 people are still stranded because of the washout roads. We'll have a live report just after the break.
And it caused international outrage when the Lockerbie bomber as released. And with the chaos in Libya, we lost track of the dying terrorist until now. CNN tracked him down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking top stories now.
Libyan rebels pushing toward Moammar Gadhafi's home of Sirte. NATO forces have actually been bombing Scud missile sites in the town ahead of the rebel offensive.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell accusing former Vice President Dick Cheney of taking cheap spots. Cheney claims in his new book that Powell preferred expressing his views publicly rather than to the president.
And President Obama is set to nominate Alan Krueger to be the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He's the former assistant treasury secretary. We'll have live coverage of the announcement starting around 11:00 this morning.
Now, more on Irene and its deadly aftermath. The storm is a little more than a post-tropical cyclone right now, blowing over or blowing out over Canada actually this morning. It's blamed for at least 21 deaths in nine states from Florida to Vermont. Vermont saw some of the worst flooding in decades.
And it's not over yet. Swollen rivers in New Jersey are expected to crest until possibly later today into tomorrow. And North Carolina's Outer Banks were slammed so hard, some areas are only accessible by chopper right now. The main highway washed out, stranding 2,500 people who didn't leave.
CNN's David Mattingly is in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina -- David?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, we experienced more than 30 straight hours of rain from this storm and just as many hours from tropical-storm-force winds and hurricane-force winds. And now officials are finally being able to step back and see the big picture to look at all the damage that's out there. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY (voice-over): A stunning view of the power of Hurricane Irene. North Carolina's Highway 12 chopped into pieces on Hatteras Island. The estimated 2,500 residents who stayed behind now stranded with no way to drive out.
BOBBY OUTEN, DARE COUNTY MANAGER: We're probably 24 hours away from being able to get there, other than by helicopter.
MATTINGLY: Hit first, North Carolina felt Irene's strongest punch, bringing what is described as epic flooding to waterfront communities around Albemarle Sound. House and roads that had weathered storms in the past were swamped like never before.
(on camera): Hurricane Isabel in 2003 was an incredibly destructive storm. When it hit here, the winds were such that it actually blew this water in the sound away from here. The water level was much lower. But this time, when Irene hit this time, the exact opposite happened.
(voice-over): Entire neighborhoods were inundated in a matter of hours. One resident caught the flood on camera with winds whipping the water onshore.
Just hours later, the waters receded, leaving a mess behind and weeks of cleaning up.
KEN PAQUREX, NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENT: It's part of living in a slice of paradise, you know.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTINGLY: People of Virginia now cleaning up as well. 1.2 million were without power from a full day of damaging winds and up to 10 inches of rain.
Governor Bob McDonald is asking for patience.
BOB MCDONALD, (R), GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA: It will be a matter of days or perhaps longer before power is fully restored.
MATTINGLY: It is the second-worst power outage in Virginian history.
Two states that will remember Irene as a hurricane for the record books.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: An emergency ferry system will soon be fully operational to re-establish contact with that island that's been cut off here on the North Carolina coast, while state officials figure out how long and how tough it will be to replace that highway -- Kyra?
PHILLIPS: David Mattingly there in Kill Devil Hills. David, thanks.
We're getting a closer look at Irene, thanks to your iReports. We appreciate it very much. They've been sending images of the wild weather and also the wide-spread damage.
Jesse Stone of White River Junction, Vermont, documented the massive flooding in his area. He says the raging river is normally very slow and peaceful. But on Sunday, the rough wars nearly destroyed the bridge.
Check this out. Jeff Liroff captured a flash flood in Woodstock, Vermont. You can actually see the propane tanks being carried by the powerful waters.
Please, keep those great iReports coming. Go to our web site at CNN.com, click on iReports, or go straight to iReport.CNN.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Your "Cross Country" is all Hurricane Irene this time around. Starting in City Island, New York, downed trees and flooding littered the Bronx Island. Some people felt, though, they dodged a bullet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIC SNAPP, CITY ISLAND, NEW YORK RESIDENT: We spent the night above ground, as we were supposed to, but came down here. I saw the broken tree. My first thought is, oh, my god, my house is in really terrible shape. Then my eyes follow up, and I see the rain gutter is the only significant thing damaged on my entire house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: He got lucky all right. Then in Boston, transit services were shut down on Sunday. More than a dozen shelters were open. But still, this Boston resident says she got pretty lucky.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRSTEN BRIEVE, BOSTON RESIDENT: We were thinking Irene was going to be a lot worse. So I guess we're lucky in that respect, but we would like our power back.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And she's not the only one. Power is now one of the biggest problems for a lot of people. The National Grid's Timothy Horan has never seen anything like it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIMOTHY HORAN, NATIONAL GRID: When you look along the whole east coast, it's millions of customers out of power and it's -- it's pretty -- pretty impressive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And now we're starting to see the first damage estimates actually coming in from Hurricane Irene.
Alison Kosik, you've been crunching the numbers here and there. What do you think? How bad is it?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what, Kyra, it's not as bad as everyone feared yet because the numbers are still rolling in. The damage that's estimated from the government is at about $1.2 billion. Keep in mind, this is only including wind damage. You have to realize much of the cost is actually going to come from flood damage, and we don't even know how bad that is because a lot of the water hasn't even receded yet. Not to mention the downed power lines. That costs money to clean up and get back up and running. So if you go ahead and factor all that in, estimates are ranging anywhere from $7 billion to $20 billion. Now, keep in mind, once again, these are early numbers. All this damage still being tallied, so I'll come out with new numbers in the coming days -- Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Now, we know that lower Manhattan suffered a lot of damage or a good amount of damage. What about there at the New York Stock Exchange, opening for business? Is it business as usual or what's your feel?
KOSIK: It is business as usual. When I walked up to the exchange today, you would never know that a storm came through here. I don't know how it looked over the weekend. But everything looks pretty good right now. Volume is expected to be light because a lot of the subways and trains aren't running, which means not everybody can make it in.
All for stocks, they're looking pretty good. All the major averages are higher. The Dow up 170 points. If the Dow holds to this, it could add to the Dow's 4 percent jump last week. We have our eye on insurers, like Allstate, Travelers, MetLife today. They may rise because damage from Irene wasn't as bad as expected. So you may see investors buy into those stocks -- Kyra?
PHILLIPS: OK, Alison, thanks.
Irene may be gone, but this story is far from over, as you know. So stay with CNN all day. We'll get you the latest on the storm's aftermath, the cleanup and what's happening state by state.
It caused international outrage when the Lockerbie bomber was released. But within the chaos of Libya, we lost track of the dying terrorist until now. Our Nic Robertson tracked him down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: He was sent back to Libya to die. The terrorist known as the Pan Am Lockerbie bomber was diagnosed with terminal cancer so the Scottish government released him from prison, defending its decision amid international outrage followed. Since the chaos that erupted in Libya, we lost track of Abdelbaset al Megrahi, one of the last men alive that holds the secrets behind the 1988 Pan Am bombing above Scotland that killed 270 people, 189 of them Americans.
But now, in a CNN exclusive, CNN international correspondent, Nic Robertson, tracks down the convicted terrorist in Libya on his death bed -- Nic?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we knew roughly which neighborhood of Tripoli he was in. We set off to that neighborhood. We had a photograph of what we believed to be his house. We asked some storekeepers nearby. They gave us directions. We located the house. Neighbors said he had been there recently. We knocked on the door and were polite, persistent. And nothing, though, could really prepare me for what I found inside.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): We found 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 the past couple of years. We'll knock on the door, see if we can get any answer.
Hello?
(voice-over): For 15 minutes or so, nothing.
(on camera): 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?
(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 give him oxygen and we give him 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 103 bomber, Abdelbaset al Megrahi, lives, only just.
This isn'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 on these expensive fittings, to realize that it appears Megrahi was being paid off 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 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 nobody to ask. We don't have any phone line to call anybody.
ROBERTSON: What's -- what's his situation right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He stopped eating and he sometimes he's in coma.
ROBERTSON: Coma -- he goes unconscious?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. We just sit next to him and --
ROBERTSON (voice-over): All that's keeping him alive, they say, oxygen and a fluid strip. I ask about demands he return to jail in Scotland.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My dad, he is still in the house and if you send to him 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 will stay alive, nobody knows.
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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And Nic Robertson, once again, joining us live.
Nic, it's actually remarkable that you were -- you were able to get inside this house. And I'm curious because I know it was a delicate situation and you're -- you have to be careful what you say and what you don't say because of the access you just got.
But did the issue of the Pan Am bombing come up in any way, shape or form? I noticed you asked about being extradited. You kind of went there. But were you able to in any way, address that to anybody?
ROBERTSON: In many ways, Kyra, it was the elephant in the room. It was the unasked question. I was allowed in. And I was told I could have two minutes. They gave me ten minutes in the end.
The family clearly didn't want to answer those sorts -- those sorts of questions. They said, look, he is sick we want his last days or weeks or whatever to be in peace. We don't want to deal with this issue. This is a family that's dealt with this for many, many years.
And Megrahi himself, despite saying he would prove his innocence, has stayed silent. Probably because he knows if he would speak out against Gadhafi or point the finger of blame at other people, that it would -- it would all end very, very badly for him. And the family is likely still very afraid. Anything they say could jeopardize his current situation -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And Nic, we -- we've talked so much about his release and the outrage it created internationally. I mean, this is a convicted terrorist that killed Americans. And he was let go out of prison to go home and obviously, die in a very luxurious way. And that outraged a lot of Americans, of course, the fact that that happened.
So when the issue of extradition comes up, obviously he's in a coma and it would be nearly impossible to do that. But you -- you mentioned there are other factors that are playing into that as well, right?
ROBERTSON: Right. The National Transition Council here, the rebels are saying, look, we're not going to extradite him either because we have no extradition treaties. The reality is Libya did sign an extradition treaty with Britain and the protocols are there to do it.
The likelihood is that they -- that the rebels, the National Transition Council will not extradite him because Megrahi is from a very important, influential tribe and right now they need to win that tribe away from supporting Gadhafi. They need that tribe to come over to the side of the new government.
The reason Gadhafi went to such great lengths -- rumored, not proven to have pressured the British government, threatening to cut off business contracts unless he was released. The fact that Gadhafi went to those lengths to get Megrahi back to Libya was because he was from that important tribe. And Gadhafi did need to keep that tribe's support, something I was told that it was promised to do to bring him back.
So right now, it seems, the rebels want Megrahi left alone because they want to bring his tribe on board for the new government and finish off Gadhafi's regime forever -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Wow. And pushing forward, it would be -- that will be interesting to see, of course, how that combination of tribes in the new government will impact relations with the United States. That will be the next part of the story.
Nic Robertson, amazing work, I appreciate you joining us live. Now, you want to know what it's like, going up against Irene? You showed us. And we've got some of the best CNN iReports and pretty amazing pictures. We appreciate them, and we're going to show some more just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right, we're checking stories making news later today. The White House briefing at 12:30 Eastern is expected to include an update on damage and recovery efforts from Irene.
And then Senator Jimmy Inhofe of Oklahoma will endorse Texas Governor Rick Perry for president. That's at 3:00 Eastern.
And Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's doctor has a court hearing 4:30 Eastern Time.
We're following lots of developments in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's check in first with our Gary Tuchman in flooded Brattleboro, Vermont -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the landlocked Canadian border state of Vermont is suffering terribly from a tropical system, Tropical Storm Irene that came through yesterday.
Take a look at this art studio, heavily damaged because of a raging rapid that used to be a creek. We'll have the story at the top of the hour.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Jason Carroll at Penn Station, the nation's largest transit system was shut down over the weekend. So how are things getting back on track? I'll have the full story coming up in a live report.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange. The slide has stopped. A new survey shows gas prices they have been holding steady for two weeks, but now how will Hurricane Irene impact the prices at the pump? Kyra, I'm going to details in the next hour.
PHILLIPS: All right. Guys, thanks.
And after Irene for about three million people, there is no lights, the fridge is getting warm, the TV is dead. Next hour we'll talk with someone from Con Edison to find out just how long it's going to take to get all the power back on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. Jeff Fischel, the test scores are ready. U.S. Open?
JEFF FISCHEL, HLN SPORTS: Just in time, too, right?
PHILLIPS: Yes. FISCHEL: They're supposed to start this morning at 11:00 a.m., and yes, they will in Queens where the Open is played. Got just under three inches of rain, there was some concern about that, but the U.S. Tennis Association planning to start the U.S. Open in an hour. The top seed this year for the men is Novak Djokovic, the joker; for the women it is Caroline Wozniak. Golf fans, like Kyra, know her as Rory McIlroy's lady friend.
PHILLIPS: That's lady friend.
FISCHEL: That's right. And this note about sports in New York: the Giants and Jets also played tonight; their game was washed out but they will play tonight.
You can't get any closer to the heart of America's favorite pastime than the Little League World Series.
And here is Nick Pratto at the plate for his team from Huntington Beach, California, right near my hometown. Score: tied, 1-all, bases loaded, two outs in the bottom of the last inning. The single scores it, U.S.A beats Japan 2-1 for the Little League World Series' title.
Nick's dad is the coach. Nick he says he likes having his dad as a coach, but hey every now and then dad does get on his nerve nerves. Just wait until you're a couple of years older in high school and then you will be getting on your dad's nerves. But congrats to the team from Huntington Beach.
Usain Bolt, he's the world's fastest human, he's the world's record holder in 100 meters, but yesterday he was too fast at the starting line in the final of the world championships. He jumped the gun, was disqualified from defending his title. Look at his reaction; yes, he knew it right away. Usain Bolt out of 100-meter final.
We have one more and it is a lesson in determination. This is Tom Willis who was born without arms, but as you can see, it is not holding him back. He used his right foot to throw out the first pitch at the Cincinnati game yesterday, and it was a perfect strike. Tom Willis says he wants to throw an opening pitch at every stadium. He also wants to encourage others with physical challenges, his message is "Yes, you can". It was incredible. He steps up on the mound and throws a perfect strike right to home plate. It's incredible.
It did not hold him back in the least. I was wondering where the pitch was going, and it just lands right there.
PHILLIPS: Holy cow.
FISCHEL: Look at that.
PHILLIPS: That is pretty awesome. I can hear the sportscasters too lending so much support. That's pretty awesome --
FISCHEL: Yes, it was great.
PHILLIPS: What a great story. Thanks, Jeff. FISCHEL: Take care.
PHILLIPS: For all the dramatic stories that we have heard over the few days, many of the best pictures have come from you, our viewers.
So here's the highlights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANE HAUBRICK, CNN IREPORTER: Jane Haubrick here from Doylestown, Pennsylvania. I want to show you some of the damages that we have sustained right in our backyard. Take a look at this tree, the trunk -- it fell right off of that tree, because of all the wind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. The fire station is all flooded. Look at that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see that this is normally a road, but it has turned into a huge lake. It is about a few blocks long and about three to four feet deep. That's way too deep for your car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
