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CNN Saturday Morning News
Hurricane Irene Coverage: NYC, D.C. Prepares Ahead of Irene; Hurricane Irene Makes Landfall in North Carolina; Long Island Prepares for Irene; Interview With North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue
Aired August 27, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: We are at the top of the hour here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Good morning to you all and hello to our international viewers who are joining us right now as we cover this massive storm.
Hurricane Irene has now officially made landfall as a category one storm on the East Coast of the United States. The most up-to-date satellite image we can show you now of Irene. It is showing some wear and tear, described by some as a sloppy storm, not very well organized, but starting to get a little more disorganized.
You can see it there, it was a more organized storm over the past couple of days but as it's making landfall now and making its way up the East Coast maybe not so much so. But it has been lashing out at the Carolina shoreline for the past several hours. That is where, again, it has officially made landfall. The storm surge there is expected to take a toll on the Outer Banks and other coastal communities.
Concern shared all the way up and down the East Coast right now, more so in cities you can imagine that aren't used to dealing with hurricanes, like New York City. It's been some time since they've had to deal with a hurricane, a direct hit from a hurricane. But right now, according to some of the projections, this storm could be headed toward parts of lower Manhattan, could be inundated with floodwaters.
The president, President Obama, sounding pretty serious about this storm and warning folks to take this storm seriously.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All indications point to this being a historic hurricane. Although we can't predict with perfect certainty the impact of Irene over the next few days, the Federal government has spent the better part of last week working closely with officials in communities that could be affected by this storm to see to it that we are prepared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: We do have our reporters out this morning, several in North Carolina, like I mentioned, that has been getting battered by this storm this morning. And right now, that is where it has officially made landfall. We also have reporters in D.C. and New York where the storm will be heading.
Let me start in North Carolina, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. That is where our Reynolds Wolf is now.
Reynolds, it's official, it's made landfall. What are you noticing there? And we see your picture there Reynolds. It seems like it continues to kick up every time we come talk to you.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, T.J., I've got to tell you that I've been lucky enough to cover tropical weather at CNN for about six years now, covered about 17 on the beach. I've been lucky enough to cover them in the Pacific ocean, in Hawaii, covering hurricanes (INAUDIBLE), been in the Gulf of Mexico and now obviously on the Atlantic. And each and every one of those storms is a little bit different, but there is one common thread. They each have one key moment in whatever location we happen to be in. That key location, that key moment, right now with Irene at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, is right about now.
The strongest wind we've had so far and the rain has just been blinding at times, coming through not only is it just rain coming through, but also a lot of sand being picked up right behind us and being thrashed right toward the lens cap of the camera high upon the balcony.
Irene right now is gearing up. As you mentioned, it's already made landfall but the top half of this storm is going to give a right hook to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It's going to be within the next 20 minutes or so when the power outages start coming up. It's going to be the next 35 to 45 to 50 minutes, the heaviest rainfall will also strike this part of the island and start moving into other parts of the Carolinas. Then it will make a quick advance towards parts of Virginia and northward. When that happens, watch out for that flash flooding. I'm telling you if you're driving out there, out and about, you don't need to be.
You need to be safe in your homes if at all possible. If you happen to be tuning in and you're actually on the Outer Banks, stay in your shelter. Don't get out whatsoever. Thankfully we're in a fairly safe location. But there are going to be other parts of the island where there could be some destruction, roofing tiles that could get knocked off.
When those things are in the air and when they are moving, those are deadly projectiles. When you get hit by one of those here on the island, guess what, there's no way to get out. There's no way to get any first aid. There's no way to evacuate until this storm passes. Again, power outages, there have been thousands on parts of the island (INAUDIBLE) on the Outer Banks. I would expect those numbers to increase steadily.
What we've also had reports of in terms of the water, the water tide is coming in, coming right up to the sand dunes we have behind me, very angry seas. You're going to have the issues of rip currents, riptides all the way from the Carolinas clear up to the Jersey shore line, perhaps even farther north on Long Island. Guys, that's a quick synopsis of what's happening here. We do expect it to get worse possibly the next several minutes. We're going to sit tight and you get back to us. We'll then provide you the latest.
Let's pitch it back to you T.J.
HOLMES: Reynolds, we appreciate that.
Let's head down now to our John Zarrella. He's in Atlantic Beach.
Give us your vantage point now. It looks a lot different there, frankly, John, from the last couple of times we talked to you.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it sure does, doesn't it?
I feel for Reynolds. That's what we had a couple of hours ago. What he's getting is totally different. In fact, within the last 20 minutes or so it got fairly calm here so I know we were fairly close to the center of circulation and the wind has completely shifted directions now. When we were talking last, the wind was coming out of the north and the east, blowing this way.
Now the wind has shifted around, it's coming from the north and almost from the west, back this way, which means the storm has kind of gone by us and we're on the left side of the circulation of the storm.
Now, what you can see here, obviously down. This is Ft. Macon Road, the main drive on Atlantic Beach. In the distance a little to the left is a big bridge, the one bridge that leads over to the island.
As the viewers can see, we appear to have gotten at least that first brush right in this general area, very, very fortunate here that things weren't a lot worse during the height of this, during the course of the overnight hours into the early morning.
Now, we shot some video, our photographer Mike Miller was down at the water, which is just to my left, that's south just on the other side of the hotel we're at here. And you can see the waves still crashing right up against the sand dunes and as far up as they go, covering about 50 yards of beach. And a portion of the pier that leads out off the back of the hotel, the end of that pier, is already gone.
Now, with the subsiding of the storm here, they'll probably be able to save the rest of the pier, but that part is gone. A section of the facade on the side of the building, just a little bit of the hotel facade, can't see it from here, but that was ripped off during the overnight hours as well. We heard it and I said to my photographer Steve (INAUDIBLE) , I said, what was that that I heard and it was right around the corner from where we were standing that the section of the facade had ripped off. Now 26, 27,000 people in North Carolina without power right now, but as you can see and as the viewers can see, very, very fortunate here in Atlantic Beach, Morehead City, because this thing could certainly, the understatement is, could certainly have been one heck of a lot worse -- T.J.
HOLMES: John Zarrella, thank you this morning.
Let me turn it over to Jacqui Jeras, our meteorologist keeping an eye on this storm.
It's amazing, both of those guys we just saw there are in same state not too terribly far from each other, but two totally different scenes as this hurricane makes landfall.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Reynolds has a long way to go. He'll continue to get lashed by this storm for the next say five hours or so. Yes, we did see landfall. It was right here on Cape Lookout. It was about 7:30ish. But it's kind of taken more of a Northeasterly turn so it almost looks like we're seeing almost a second landfall potentially taking place over in this area here, continues to be a strong storm. You say to yourself, hurricanes weaken a lot after they make landfall, don't they? This is the Outer Banks, not a lot of elevation here. It's very flat. It's very marshy with a lot of water in this area so very little weakening is going to be expected, just minor.
Let's show you the official update here as of the top of the hour. Hurricane center putting it out, 85 miles per hour. That was the intensity of landfall. That's the intensity right now. It's moving north-Northeast at 13 miles per hour, so it will continue to move in that direction throughout the Outer Banks, throughout the day for today.
The threat of tornados, this is something we've been dealing with the last number of hours. We've got a tornado watch in effect for parts of North Carolina into Virginia, up toward the Delmarva here. That's until 11:00 local time. There is a lot of friction, a lot of vortices with these storms and so as they move onshore, we get those spin-ups and they can cause a lot of damage.
Let's talk about the forecast track here and timing for this thing. It's going to be moving through the mid-Atlantic through the day today with the peak of it coming at a place tonight for you folks and then the Northeast tomorrow with your peak, say, sometime late morning to midday-ish. By Monday morning, it's out of here. It's going to be off, the center anyway, the U.S. That's the little bit of good news.
Eventually, we're going to get through all of this, but a really big storm, those winds sitting well inland. We're getting reports now of Wilmington, North Carolina, about 60,000 people without power and those numbers just keep going up and up. So a lot of damage in North Carolina, a lot of damage being reported in Virginia as well.
HOLMES: Jacqui Jeras, we appreciate you. We'll be checking in with Jacqui plenty throughout this morning. We need to head to New York now because that is where the storm is headed. Poppy Harlow is standing by in Manhattan for us.
And, Poppy, you're one of a number of folks who were told you need to leave your homes.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: That's exactly right. I packed up at 4:00 a.m. I want to point you to some tourists from Europe, T.J., we're seeing right here, T.J. They are coming to this evacuation center. They were supposed to fly out tonight. No way that's happening. JFK, all the airports here are going to be closed for quite a while.
I had to pack up, as do 370,000 New Yorkers right now. They are all under mandatory evacuation. This is a shelter, one of 91 emergency facilities in Manhattan right now. Inside I saw about 500 cots. They've got blankets from the city of New York, pamphlets telling people what to do to prepare.
I want to play you some video so you can see all the food and supplies that are coming in here right now, water, food to feed at least 500 people, that's how many beds they have. They actually tell me they have capacity for about 3500 people, obviously not enough beds for all of those people.
Mayor Mike Bloomberg warning the city saying this is an unprecedented event. You have to take caution. There's a lot of concern here in New York that not enough people are taking this seriously. They're not used to hurricanes and that they're not evacuating as needed.
Take a listen to the mayor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MIKE BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK CITY: We hope New Yorkers living in these areas find places to stay with relatives or friends who live in safer, higher areas. But, if they can't, we are ready to accommodate anybody that needs shelter. There will be, unfortunately, a serious storm coming in and it's better to take precautions and get out of the way of the storm. Mother Nature is much stronger than all of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That is exactly right. This storm stronger than even the toughest New Yorkers, T.J.
I want to roll some animation here to give you a sense of what could happen. We don't know if this will happen, but this is what the city is preparing for. What you'll see is lower Manhattan, parts of Brooklyn, Staten Island, that have been evacuated and what you can see is that the water could rise very high and it could flood a lot of lower Manhattan, especially that is right at sea level. My apartment right there as well. The mayor's office telling me last night what they are preparing for is a possible storm surge of anywhere between six to 12 feet.
The water coming in from New York Harbor over right into Battery Park, right on to Wall Street, right into South Street sea port and other areas. That is why it's so important that people evacuate.
I want to really press the urgency of this. All public transit in New York City, that is, the buses, subways, the Long Island Railroad, you name it. It is all shutting down for the next few days starting at 12:00 Eastern today. If people need public transit to get to shelters like this, there are shelters. The city is prepared, but people need to take action and get out of their homes.
HOLMES: Can't imagine New York without the subway and public transit. People depend on it.
HARLOW: Right.
HOLMES: Things are going to be different here in a few hours. Poppy, thank you so much. We're going to be checking back in with all of our folks in North Carolina and D.C., New York as well throughout the morning as we keep an eye on Hurricane Irene.
Also, you folks trying to fly today, you probably know by now you're going to have a problem. Take a look at some of the airlines, just a few of the airlines here with the cancellations, 2,300 with United and Continental, Delta about 1,300, JetBlue about 1,000, AirTran several hundred as well. Southwest, American, U.S. Airways also canceling flights.
Amtrak canceling some East Coast trains with service reductions beginning today, also New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports.
Also, New Jersey's Newark International Airport all going to be closed to allow arriving passenger international and domestic flights beginning at noon today in just a few hours. Folks will not be able to fly into that area.
Also in New York, something unprecedented. Evacuations from the city hospitals? Hospitals in the city have just not had to do this before. At least five hospitals and more than 15 nursing homes were given 12 hours to get every patient out. Looks like they were able to get their job done.
Also, picture to show you this morning, Lady Liberty, can you make it out? You just have to take me word for it folks, lady liberty is in there. The statue of liberty closed today. This is, of course a precaution in the wake of Hurricane Irene. The city wants to assess the storm's impact before trying to open it up again to visitors again. They do expect it to reopen on Monday.
We're about 14 minutes past the hour now and it's a name and a face you know well. We know the name and face because of Hurricane Katrina. It's General Russell Honore. He was really down there controlling the military response. Got a lot of credit, got a lot of praise for how he handled that situation. Now he's here talking to us this morning about how he would handle this one, Hurricane Irene. Stay with us this morning for our continuing coverage of the storm.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, 17 minutes past the hour. We of course are monitoring Hurricane Irene. It made landfall just about 30 minutes ago.
Also want to give you an update on another story that's been making news certainly for the past several days, weeks even. But rebel forces have gained control around more of the capital's airport overnight. Moammar Gadhafi's forces fled a village nearby. That allowed rebels (INAUDIBLE) to one of Gadhafi's sons. United Nations, widespread shortages of food, water, fuel and medical supplies could further destabilize the region.
Also, an American journalist who escaped from Libya's infamous prison, went back for an emotional visit. Matthew Vandyke was his name. He was held in solitary confinement for the past five months. He was freed during a jail break led by rebel fighters this week.
In the meantime, rebels who have been trying to find Gadhafi are exploring an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers built underneath Gadhafi's compound. Our Sara Sidner got a peek into what she called Gadhafi's inner sanctum.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just to get an idea of how big it is. This is a golf court and obviously it can fit all the way down these corridors so I'm sure it was used, because this place is so big, to get back and forth, unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right, 18 minutes past the hour. We get back to our coverage of Hurricane Irene. Again, we were just saying minutes ago it officially made official landfall. So we shall see.
Here is a live picture of the coast of North Carolina right now, several of our reporters are there. We'll continue to check in with them.
But as we watch this picture, we can leave this up, I want to bring into the conversation General Russell Honore. You, of course, know the name and face from Hurricane Katrina, led the U.S. military response to that storm.
General, when you see us now get ready for storms, for hurricanes, do you look at it and say, that's a post-Katrina preparation?
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Oh, very much so.
HOLMES: We learned a lot. HONORE: We learned a lot, been applied to governors, National Guard working together, working with National Guard teams from other states, collaboration between first responders. There's a lot of capacity right on the edge of this storm from Red Cross. All of government is prepared to respond.
As I see this picture right here and the disturbance along the coast, what's happening 60, 80 miles inland right now, trees are falling, lights are going out on people. It is at this point in time over the next few hours, National Guard in North Carolina is all set to go. Right now, they're hunkered down waiting until the weather passes so they can go in and start helping people, opening roads, getting first responders in.
My biggest concern is the elderly and disabled people who would be isolated at home and really have not paid a lot of attention to the warnings that have been given because, in many cases, they are comfortable in their home. If somebody tell them to leave, it's like giving them an order they don't want to hear.
HOLMES: Some of this, do you ever see that we have a bit of this cry wolf mentality in that people say, OK, it's after Katrina. They want to make sure they get the warning out and maybe it's not as bad as they say it is? Is there some of that in us as well?
HONORE: Some of that go on, but it's the execution. People with jobs, people with cars, people with credit cards, with money in the bank, they can respond to this. It's the people that -- it's the end of the month. You've got about four days left in this month before your government assistance check, whether you're disabled or elderly, come in. They don't have the options to respond the way people who have cars, have credit cards, have the option to move have. So in that vulnerable area right now, we're talking about in the Norfolk, Virginia, area, and south, people who live in mobile homes that's did not evacuate.
You know, the government has done the right thing. The mayors have done the right thing with the warning. We still haven't got the execution. The execution is the most vulnerable population living in the most vulnerable homes.
HOLMES: Let's go to New York right now. A lot of people concerned about what could happen there because you have so many people first of all but also they're not used to dealing with hurricanes.
In your opinion, New York prepared for something like this and how bad could it be if yes, this storm surge, this water, this rain, whatever it may be comes into that city with that many people?
HONORE: You know, watching the media over the last couple of days, I've never seen this explained any better. I've never seen government more proactive as the mayor of New York. That's a big call. That's a tough call he made. There will be a lot of people after him if nothing happened. But the mayor understands there would be a lot of people after him if he did not take action and he had people flooded in subway cars and he didn't take action. He did the right thing. It's a tough call. But, again, it's the actions of the people who are in vulnerable positions where (INAUDIBLE) get to them. I'm telling you there are people that are vulnerable that are in those homes and they did not evacuate.
HOLMES: Now, some of this is personal responsibility. If you have the ability to get out, you know, we see that video all the time, those sound bites you hear folks. I've been here 30 years, you've got that group of folks. But you're talking about people who just don't have the means to go. What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to protect them? Do you know that somebody even needs help?
HONORE: You know, we've made a big quantum leap since Katrina. I think our next step is resiliency in the community. We worked on a task force this year for Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano on how we build preparedness in the community and resilience in a community. That's a result of a presidential decision on preparedness.
This is the first one we've had one issued just last year, presidential decision number eight. As a result of that, this entire community led by Homeland Security and FEMA, is pulling together, how do we get a culture of preparedness in our communities so when people leave, they take that vulnerable neighbor with them? Because government isn't good enough to do that. This is going to take a community response built around our churches, built around nongovernmental organizations to get that vulnerable population out because, right now. they're still in there.
HOLMES: And maybe that takes some time to build up that culture. Maybe we're in the right direction. You mentioned Secretary Napolitano. She'll be our guest here live next hour, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. You'll be with us throughout the morning. Always good to have you. Good to have your expertise. Thank you so much, General Honore.
We're 24 minutes past the hour now. This storm continues to batter the North Carolina coast right now, but it's making its way north. We'll continue with our coverage of that.
Also, Josh Levs here with us. Good morning, Josh
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again to you. Good morning everyone.
Take a look at this. We have a team here monitoring all of the latest videos, stories, photos coming in from throughout Irene's path. I'll tell you what that roof was, where it was, what happened when it blew off, plus new images of a hospital evacuation. All of that coming up in about 30 minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Bottom of the hour here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Welcome back to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
We're giving you extensive coverage of Hurricane Irene, a category one storm that did make landfall just about a half hour or so ago, made landfall in North Carolina. That is where our Brian Todd is; he is in Wilmington.
Brian, we have two other reporters there who gave us two very different pictures. One reporter was being whipped around, the other was fairly calm. How it is it there with you?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., the sustained winds around where we are between 60 and 65 miles an hour. I mean, you can stand in that. You can walk around in that. It's not comfortable, but you can kind of deal with it. What is really the telling factor, I think, is the rain. It is unrelenting. It's been unrelenting since late yesterday afternoon, overnight. It has intensified this morning.
We see the Cape Fear River behind me with this very large swells of white caps. There are fears that this river may spill over its banks a little farther north of here, not necessarily here because it's wide enough to maybe prevent that. Farther north where the river is narrower, they are fearful that this river may spill its banks when the storm surge sticks around.
The fact that this storm may not be the fastest moving hurricane in the world is also a problem. Pretty much the reason why the rain just hovers over you for long periods of time. I think this is what the Northeast is about to get in the next 24 hours or so. The major danger here is flash flooding in the streets.
Emergency management staff is here, warning people just because we may not be getting the very most intense bands of the storm here, don't assume that this is not dangerous, very dangerous to drive in. These ponds of water in the roads, puddles are much deeper than they appear, T.J. They're warning people, do not try to navigate this stuff, not now and not in the hours right after this.
HOLMES: All right, Brian Todd for us again in Wilmington, North Carolina. Thank you once again.
And as we come up on the bottom of the hour. I want you to stick around because coming up next, our Jacqui Jeras, our meteorologist is going to be here with the information you need and certainly the information you want to know.
Yes, you know where the storm is right now, but a lot of people are concerned about where it's headed. We're talking about 20 percent of the U.S. population under the gun from this storm.
Jacqui Jeras, with the forecast next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water is going to be this high. I'm 6'4" so you're looking at, you know, eight feet high tide. It's -- we're done, man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: "We're done, man." You hear that. And look at this, there's a couple of pictures we can show you -- you see a reporter on the right side there appears to be getting ready to do a live shot there. But you see the winds and whatnot whipping around and just a couple of live shots we can show you and share with you from folks from around the country.
We can also share this with you right now. This is the latest radar we can give you from this hurricane. It is a Category 1. It did come ashore a little over a half hour ago. It is pounding North Carolina right now. Storm surge expected to be an issue on the Outer Banks and other coastal communities.
And again, this is a concern up and down the East Coast. We are kind of just getting started with this thing. It just made landfall like I mentioned about a half hour or so ago. But it has a ways to go. It should be a rough weekend for a number of folks.
Some of the video you're seeing here, we know there's going to be a lot of winds now whipping around, a lot of rain. We could see a lot of flooding. We also have reports of a number of power outages talking about tens of thousands of people already without power. The President tried his best to warn folks to take this storm seriously.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All indications point to this being a historic hurricane. Although we can't predict with perfect certainty the impact of Irene over the next few days. The federal government has spent the better part of last week working closely with officials in communities that could be affected by the storm to see to it that we are prepared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right.
And we do have all reporters all over the place today. We've been checking in with our guys in North Carolina, Reynolds Wolf among them. But they have been getting blown around for the past several hours but also we have a couple of reporters in New York and D.C. as well.
And our meteorologist as well here, here in town -- here in town, here in studio right here with me, Jacqui Jeras.
But right now I want to listen in to another reporter. We showed you this picture a short time ago of a reporter getting ready for a live shot. Let's just listen in as she tries to report this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of that sand kicking up, making it rough for folks. But most people really are heeding these mandatory evacuation orders. We don't see a lot people out here right now. I did see one guy come up and park his truck right up here just so he could get a shot of the surf.
But you know he pretty much found out what I did, and that is when you walk up on that pier you don't want to stay up there for very long because you're going to be caked in sand. Not too long after. And I actually I've had sand in my ears now, everywhere. I'm it's just -- its head to toe. Mike, Andrea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And again, that's one local reporter reporting there from Duck, North Carolina.
And, Jacqui. as I bring you in we both kind had a -- a smile on our face as she was covering there. Stuff getting blown and yes she is getting whipped and all kind of stuff is hitting her in the face and getting a little something in the ears there. It happens.
JERAS: And in the ears yes, it does happen. And it's actually very painful if you've ever been in that situation, getting sandblasted literally does not feel good and it's not the facial you are looking for, I guarantee you that. A very wet, very windy, this is a very powerful storm. We had landfall about an hour ago.
And I want to show you how this storm structure has been changing quite a bit for the better. So we have been dealing with a Category 1 in the Outer Banks as opposed to a Category 3, which is one of our worst fears. And so that's the good news out of all of this. The bad news of this, even a Category 1 we're looking at a lot of damage.
We're getting reports of a couple hundred thousand people without power in North Carolina into Virginia, lots of tree damage reports. We're getting also reports of some damage of some mobile homes and at least one person we know has been killed from this storm in the United States as well. They were trying to do some surfing off of Virginia Beach yesterday and they were not able to rescue them.
Eighty-five miles per hour, that's the maximum sustained winds, but we've got higher gusts. Take a look at these numbers, just in the last two hours. These are the reports that we're getting for gusts in North Carolina: Cedar Island 115 miles per hour; Jacksonville, 94; 79 in Beaufort; Morehead City, 78 miles per hour. But that was before this thing got knocked out at the police station there. So it could have been higher. Greenville, North Carolina, 73-mile-per-hour winds.
Here is the radar picture now. And this is showing you the swirl of the storm, the threat of tornadoes from Virginia Beach. In fact, we did get one tornado warning, which is in effect right now and that includes the Chesapeake area.
We'll zoom in to give you a better idea of what it looks like into the center of that storm. And we still have a lot of structure around the center of it so this is where we're going to be seeing those very strong winds. This is where that surge was. You saw that video a few minutes ago of that guy saying, yes, it's way up here, we're going to be under water. We have confirmation of that, six to eight foot storm surge has been reported common right in this area throughout the Outer Banks and some of these bays is where some of the worst of it has been.
No doubt our Reynolds Wolf which has been up here in the Kill Devil Hills and they've been seeing those winds continue to come in from the east like this. So that water is piling up. That rain continues to be heavy. And we are going to be seeing a lot of flooding with this storm. This is going to continue to move through the Carolinas today, up through the mid-Atlantic states for tonight, with the brunt of this storm hitting the Northeast for tomorrow.
Monday morning you can take a bit more of a deep breath, but we've got a long ways to go with the power of this storm.
HOLMES: All right, Jacqui Jeras, thank you so much. It's good to have you here with us this weekend.
And we're at 38 minutes past the hour now. Our show was not supposed to be here in Atlanta this weekend. We anticipated being on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., because it was a Memorial to MLK that was going to be dedicated this weekend.
Well, that is not going to happen because of Irene. Let's go to D.C. now where Athena Jones, like I said, planned to be up there with you, Athena, but the weather had other plans.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. It was going to be a big event. Thousands of people were going to come and now that's been postponed T.J. The D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has declared a state of emergency. He did that yesterday after joining a conference call with other mayors and governors with President Obama.
But city officials here say they're prepared. We don't expect to see rain really begin here until later this morning, pick up in terms of wind and rain and intensity in the afternoon. And city officials say that they're ready for it.
Just a little while ago we spoke to D.C. Fire and EMS chief Kenneth Ellerbe about preparations. Let's listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNETH ELLERBE, D.C. FIRE & EMS CHIEF: We feel extremely confident we're prepared. I don't know if you know about it, but I'm sure you do, we had an earthquake earlier this week and that helped us get prepared. We were already been doing an exercise. We've transferred from exercise to real world now.
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JONES: And so they -- they say they're ready now. Yes, the fire chief told residents they should have batteries, they should have flashlights, they should have plenty of food and water.
And also cash, which was an interesting reminder. People may not be thinking of, if a lot of the power goes out for a long time, then people may not be able to get cash out of ATM machines. And so he suggested people go ahead and get the cash they need on hand.
He also mentioned that earthquake earlier in the week. Workers have been working on the Washington monument behind me and the Smithsonian to try to repair any damages, plug holes, secure the turrets on the Smithsonian castle to prevent any further damage after the earthquake earlier this week.
And one more thing the city is doing for residents is providing sandbags. They gave out 7,000 sandbags yesterday, ran out, had to stop handing them out at 5:00 p.m. That's supposed to start up again at around noon at a stadium nearby.
So residents can come by, five sand bags per household. And one last nugget the fire chief, the fire EMS chief told us, T.J., he said, don't expect to see him in a rain coat. That doesn't really inspire confidence. He's going to be wearing that fancy uniform all the rest of the day -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. I guess the optics all -- always make a difference in Washington, D.C., right?
Athena Jones, it's good to see you as always.
We're at 41 minutes past the hour. And a lot of our focus this morning on this Hurricane Irene that's been on North Carolina; North Carolina is the first to get hit hard by this storm. And right now it is under the gun. That is where the storm made landfall just about half hour or so ago as a Category 1 storm.
And in just a moment when we come back, we're going to be talking to the governor of North Carolina. She'll join me live, let me know how her state is doing. Stay with me.
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HOLMES: Well, about a quarter of the top of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Welcome back.
We're giving you continuing coverage of Hurricane Irene which did make landfall just under an hour ago, made landfall in North Carolina where it was expected to, came on as a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of about 85 miles-an-hour. Now it is making its way north- Northeast up the East Coast of the United States and should be making its way all the way up to places like Boston, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey sometime tomorrow.
So North Carolina, though, the state right now taking the brunt of this storm. Governor Bev Perdue is the governor of North Carolina. She joins me from Raleigh.
You all have been preparing for this thing for some time now. So what is your biggest concern now that it has officially made landfall? What are you most worried about?
GOV. BEVERLY PERDUE (D), NORTH CAROLINA: Well, we're most worried about getting through the landfall and getting through the next three or four hour as the rain continues. We've got floods and surges all over the coast. We've got a couple hundred thousand people without current right now. We don't know the damage from the utility poles or the trees on the road.
North Carolina is known as hurricane alley so for years we've had a really system in place that's very robust, starting at the local county level, moving to the state response team and then working closely with FEMA. So our system has worked really well. We feel very good about execution. And now we're just in the holding period after we have deployed our forces all over the state to decide what the recovery plans have to be based on the reports we get when Hurricane Irene leaves our shores very soon, we hope.
HOLMES: Governor, you called it hurricane alley there. People who live in that state are used to hurricanes and hurricane warnings and watches and whatnot. But do you have sometimes an issue with people think you're crying wolf and sometimes people take it upon themselves and think they're the weather experts and they say, ah, just a Category 1? Or do the folks in your state listen and did they listen this time to get out of there?
PERDUE: Well, the tourists really listened. We were almost 100 percent effective in evacuating tourists up and down the coast of the beach in what is the last huge week of the summer vacation season. So there were thousands and thousands of tourists on our beaches.
The residents, many, many, many of them have evacuated because they've learned over the years that a 1 is still a 1. It's a hurricane and you have to really respect the ferocity of a storm; and so many of them left. Obviously we have some hangers-on who want to see the storm, but I have not had a report of any one person all night long being out -- venturing out to do a video for you guys or trying to get to the ocean to surf.
We've locked down the hatches and our citizens have stayed in and we hope they'll continue until we say it's safe to come out.
HOLMES: And how far inland are you expecting issues as well? We talk too much about the coast and people evacuating the Outer Banks, but you're probably going to get a lot of rain, you could get some flooding, already saturated areas up and down the East Coast. But also you could get some high wind. So how far inland are you expecting problems?
PERDUE: We expect the whole east -- it's about 43 counties -- to be affected in some way or the other. 3.5 million people are the total numbers who live in that area, and so they've all battened down their hatches. We are also in the middle of a robust agricultural season and so later this afternoon we'll start trying to figure out the crop damage.
We are very concerned still about surges and flooding through many of the communities of eastern North Carolina. But, again, we feel like that we have a system in place and that folks have executed really well. So now we'll just wait until the recovery reports start coming in. Say a prayer for us in North Carolina and we will for the rest of the East Coast.
HOLMES: We'll I hope everybody is listening to that. The last thing, I know the human life is the biggest issue but here just quickly, do you have estimates of just how much damage this could do, cost estimates of what it could actually do damage-wise and also the economic impact it could have on your state?
PERDUE: Well, we don't have any preliminary assessments and I know there's been terrific damage to the infrastructure, both power lines and some of the water systems. We have this partnership with FEMA, we've got the declaration in place, and they are our financial partner as well as our support partner during an incident.
And so we'll know those figures by late tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll begin to tabulate. Again, the loss of human life, at this point time I only know of one death. People have heeded the warnings and done what we've asked. Now we'll pick up the pieces and hope that because the hurricane has been reduced, she went down from a 3 to a 1 when she hit our shores, that the economic impact will not be horrific. But who knows until it's over?
HOLMES: Well, Governor Perdue, we appreciate during this time that you were supposed to on vacation as well, I believe, you have to leave. You couldn't make it to the Outer Banks like a lot of people and I know it's a busy time for you all. So we appreciate you being here and giving us an update; and yes, prayers for your state and the people of your state.
Thanks so much.
PERDUE: Thanks, T.J. Come on down and visit us.
HOLMES: We sure will.
You all don't know, during the commercial break she was really telling me I need to get to the Outer Banks. I haven't been for a vacation there. So when the storm passes I'll get on down.
We're about 10 minutes of the top of the hour right now.
We were talking about evacuations. You heard the governor talking about people evacuating the Outer Banks. There are some mandatory evacuations in some places around the country, including up in New York, a few hundred thousand people.
What you're seeing right there is not just some guy straggling along checking out the storm for the fun of it. That is our Rob Marciano. He is reporting for us up on long island. We will check in with him once again and see how New York is doing and are they ready for what's coming.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: About 6 minutes off the top of the hour. That's Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. It looks fairly calm there, looks gorgeous to be quite honest with you. Not the case up and down the North Carolina coast.
We've been checking in with our reporters in three different locations up and down that coast. Some of them getting blown around to the point they could barely report, others it's gotten calmer now and other places got a little rain, little wind. So it's a little different depending on where you are on the coast.
I do want to go to New York now, Long Island. There are hundreds of thousands of people in some low-lying areas have been ordered to get out of New York.
Rob Marciano is on Long Island for us. And Rob, we had a picture of you a moment ago before we came to you during our tease into the break, and you were just kind of walking up and down the beach. Is this a nice day to just go out for a stroll on the beach?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's starting to spin a little bit; the winds are starting to pick up. It's cloudy so I wouldn't be out here just catching some rays, that's for sure. But there are quite a few onlookers that are just coming here to check out the surf because it's pretty impressive.
Check it out behind me. You know, as a kid I'd go to the beach quite a bit down the road there at Jones Beach. I thought maybe one day I'd cover a hurricane out here. But I figured it would be closer to Montauk. I never thought a hurricane would get this close -- a potential hurricane this close to New York City
Nonetheless, this is it the spot where the surfers hang out any day of the summer. But when you get big waves like this, they're coming out in masses. I'm told, you know, there's some force behind those waves and, you know, some don't at all like riding in it but there's a dozen or so that are out there right now.
We do expect the surge to be great around this time tomorrow, talked to a few folks who live around the area and many of them have different opinions as to whether or not they're going to stay or go when the storm comes later tonight.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The best that we can think about is a very strong nor'easter that we had in the early '90s. And we really couldn't get off Long Beach. We couldn't drive through the West End. It was totally flooded. There was no way to get over the Long Beach Bridge. That was scary.
But I have -- I think I live on one of the luckiest blocks in all of town because right where we are, we have never flooded. So I hate to say that now.
MARCIANO: Keeping your fingers crossed. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keeping my fingers crossed, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am definitely evacuating and I'm a risk taker. I'm not taking a risk this time because I feel like there's a good chance that we'll be stranded here without electricity, and I'm hoping to find safer ground somewhere else, maybe north on Long Island.
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MARCIANO: There you go. Evacuations have become mandatory at 5:00 this afternoon. Not necessarily getting off the island via tunnel or via bridge or ferry, but just go a little further into the island, little bit higher ground. This is fairly low ground.
What are they doing to beat back the waves? This is not a natural sand dune that they have further down the island. This has been built up by man and machine to protect Long Beach, the town itself. Because it kind of sits in a bit of a hollow and there are access points to this beach that are going to be suspect to flooding. So bulldozers and frontloaders have been busy the past few days, building up manmade sand dunes in the hope of holding back this water.
But I'll tell you what, it's going to be -- we're not going to just get one but we'll probably get two high-tide cycles during the height of the storm, both at around 8:00 in the morning and then tomorrow night.
But this storm is so large, even if it gets downgraded to a tropical storm strength, the wind-field of this thing is so large, it's going to have huge impacts. We are in the glide path of JFK, which is one of the five metro airports that's going to be shut down later on this afternoon. Of course, mass transit shut down as well.
So the folks who want to get to safer ground have to do so during the daylight hours today because conditions will begin to deteriorate as soon as tonight. And I think by this time tomorrow, T.J., the waves and the surf will be right to this point eating away at it this manmade protective berm. Just how far inland that water gets is as yet to be seen. But there's certainly curiosity and, yes, some concerns from the residents here along the Long Island coast.
HOLMES: All right. Rob Marciano, we'll check in with you again. Thanks so much.
Well, we're getting close to the top of the hour. And coming up next hour, expecting in just about 25 minutes to hear from the New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, give an update on how his city is preparing for Hurricane Irene, which is making its way up to New York, at least according to the projections, sometime tomorrow.
Already we do know New York airports are going to be shutting down to incoming flights here at noon today; so in about three hours; and also subway system, public transit, going to be shutting down in New York as well. We will hear from the mayor live coming up in about 20 minutes or so. Also, our iReporters also -- always, always help us in big stories like this. We do appreciate it. You're seeing here Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, some of our iReporters sending in this video they took. 90-mile-per-hour winds we were talking about, ripped off the roof of a building there.
We'll share more images from our iReporters coming next. Stay with us.
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