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CNN Saturday Morning News
Hurricane Irene Coverage: Hurricane Irene Makes Landfall in North Carolina; More Than 200,000 Without Power; New York Braces for Irene
Aired August 27, 2011 - 11:00 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're at the top of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
Welcome to our viewers watching us in the U.S. and around the world, as we continue to follow a category 1 storm, Hurricane Irene that is threatening about 20 percent of the U.S. population. Some 65 million people in its path. It has been hammering North Carolina with heavy rains and fierce winds for the past several hours.
It was just a couple of hours ago that it officially made landfall in North Carolina. More than 200,000 people are without power as we speak, and the path of destruction is spreading as this storm continues to move north. Major northeastern cities are in its sights, cities that aren't used to being tested for their hurricane preparedness. Talking about Washington, D.C., Boston, New York City, as well.
In fact, in some low-lying areas of New York, there has been an unprecedented mandatory evacuation in several places. That evacuation order is still in place, and some of those evacuations still underway. Hospital patients, residents, tourists are getting out while they can. Many are remaining behind and they're bracing for the possibility of massive flooding and dangerous storm surges as well as in about an hour, they are going to shut down the public transit system in New York City. So if you've got somewhere to be and you don't have a car, you need to get on a train or a bus soon.
Also, FEMA, expecting to hear from them, get an update at a press conference this hour. A live picture on the left side. We're expecting the Homeland Security Secretary as well as the FEMA director to step to that podium in just a moment, scheduled for the top of the hour, which would be right now. But when they step out, we will bring that to you live.
But first, there has been an urgent message sent out once again from the New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He delivered it to his residents this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: Let's stop thinking this is something that we can play with. This -- staying behind is dangerous, staying behind is foolish, and it's against the law, and we urge everybody in the evacuation zone not to wait until there are gale-force winds and driving rain to leave, and not to wait until the public transportation system starts slowing down today. It's going to be too late. The time to leave is right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The time to leave is right now. He issued that warning. The storm expected to make it to New York some time tomorrow, early tomorrow.
We have our reporters and live crew all over the place this morning. We have them in North Carolina, where they have been getting battered along with the people of North Carolina this morning.
Also, keeping an eye on Washington, D.C., and yes, in fact, New York City.
But let's start with our John Zarrella, who is in North Carolina, where he has been at Atlantic Beach throughout the morning. You have run the gamut there, actually. It has been crazy, it has been calm, and now it looks like it's kicked up on you once again.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I tell you what, T.J., this is as bad as it was on the front side of the storm, and this is the backside. Now, you can see, you were talking about that flooding in the reports, here it is. Now, this is not the Atlantic Ocean, T.J. The Atlantic Ocean is on the other side.
What you're looking at here is houses that are about underwater in places, and this is the Bogue Sound, you can see that. You're looking out right now at the Bogue Sound that has come inland here, and there goes the camera, you can feel the wind and the rain. We have waves literally racing inland.
Now, this is what we call reverse storm surge. The wind direction changed, T.J., so now the sound is being pushed from the west to the east here, and driving all of this water inland here along Atlantic Beach.
The road is impassable now in a lot of places, you can't traverse the island in many, many places and the water's getting higher. Two houses down over here, T.J., the garage is about a third underwater -- not this house, but that next house over. You can see as how I'm standing out here, the water is up above my knees here. So I'm literally, now, standing in Bogue Sound.
And I can tell you that there may be places, T.J., down on the western side, where it is dry land in the sound. That happens with hurricanes where they will literally push all of the water out of the sound or the inlet and I have seen crab traps up (AUDIO GAP)
HOLMES: Well, it looks like we may have finally lost that signal there from our John Zarrella. He has been in Atlantic Beach. There he is. We got him back up. I don't know if you can hear me still, John, we lost your signal there for just a second. So we can see you and hear you once again. So pick up on that last couple of sentences and wrap things up for me. ZARRELLA: I was saying, T.J., that we're literally in the Bogue Sound and the water's being driven from the west to the east. And I have seen in hurricanes up here in the Carolinas where this storm will literally dry out one side of a sound or an inlet and I've seen crab traps sitting on dry ground because of this kind of a surge pushing the water out of the bays and out of the inlets when storms go by. And that's what we're experiencing right now here.
I don't know if you caught it earlier, I was saying a third of the way up on the second condominium house next door, the water was about a third of the way up the garage. The back of these first story (AUDIO GAP)
HOLMES: All right. We will leave it there, though. But, understandable that they're having some technical issues. Things have been holding up fairly well from a technical standpoint. Our reporters have been out there in it throughout this morning.
But amazing to see these pictures, really, many of you not with us starting the morning, we started at 5:00 a.m. on East Coast this morning, and John Zarrella, that reporter you just saw, was really getting whipped around this morning like you're seeing, but a few hours later in between around the 8:00 and 9:00 hour, things were calm where he was. And now here we are, a couple hours later and it has kicked up once again.
It's just a matter of that storm and how it behaves and how it moves and you get winds from one direction or the other, just depending on where that storm is and how it's heading.
We told you also short time ago that we were waiting for a FEMA press conference. It looks like they're about to get under way. And yes, the Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, stepping to the podium.
Let's go ahead and listen in.
JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We'll update you on the storm. We'll hear from Craig Fugate and the efforts from FEMA and Gale McGovern from the Red Cross and major Hood from the Salvation Army. So thank you all for joining us on a Saturday morning.
As expected, Hurricane Irene made landfall early this morning along the North Carolina coast. I have spoken with Governor Perdue this morning. She said they were now, quote, "hunkered down", closed quote, but they are ready to do damage assessments as soon as possible, especially for assets like the bridges and the roads.
Irene remains a large and dangerous storm. People need to take it seriously. People need to be prepared. As we have suggested during the week, think of this in three phases: preparation, response, and recovery. Some of our states are now moving into the response mode, but other states, as you are further north along the Atlantic seacoast, are still in preparation mode.
So if you receive a warning to evacuate, please do so. Even if you haven't received a warning during the storm, please stay inside, quote, "hunker down", until the storm passes. Stay off the roads so the roads can be clear for emergency vehicles, for our first responders.
We anticipate heavy rain, potential flooding, and significant power outages throughout the area of the storm, which means all up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
So with that, let me turn it over to Bill Read; he'll give you an update on the storm itself. And then you'll hear from Craig Fugate. Bill?
BILL READ, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Thank you, Madame Secretary. I've got it on the image here, the satellite loop, the visible loop of Irene, the center of which is now about 30 miles to the west of Cape Hatteras, moving to the north-northeast at about 15 miles an hour. The Outer Banks, Nags Head Outer Banks, areas are going to be impacted over the next several hours.
Next in line is the tide water Hampton roads, Norfolk area. They're already having adverse conditions there. I've talked to several relatives in the area, where the rainfall has been incredibly heavy and the water levels are coming up now.
I'd like to also report that a good story coming out of that, the information they've gotten in advance of this storm from the local officials on what to do or not to do in the event of this storm has just been outstanding. It fits right in with what they should be doing.
Next picture, please? Radar imagery of this -- where you see these bands coming around the top here, every now and then, one of those will take on a characteristic on radar that allows our local forecast office to issue tornado warnings on those. They're fast and furious.
They're not going to give you the long lead time like super cell tornadoes, which end up working in the Great Plains, like we had back in April across this area.
We've had storm surge tides in the upper ends of Pamlico Sound here in the 7 1/2 foot range, 5 to 9 feet is the forecast depending on where you are on the upper ends of the sounds here. Storm tides will be high also on the coast, and you add to that the effects of the high waves and the beach erosion and what not that's going on out there, it's a very dangerous time, if anyone's left out on the islands.
Heavy rain -- large areas have been getting rain since late yesterday afternoon, we're going to see 5 to 10 and maybe some isolated 15 inches across North Carolina before the storm exits there later today.
Next slide, please? Here's the latest forecast track with some wind field information on it. By late this evening, it should be moving past -- the center should be moving past the Norfolk area. The winds will be east and then northeast and north and then around the northwest as the storm comes past Norfolk. I'm sure we'll see hurricane force wind gusts through a lot of locations there. The sustained winds may be mostly over the water, with the now-saturated grounds. Those kind of winds. Remember Isabel, we had a lot of tree damage in that area. I expect we'll see reports in that regard, in that area also.
Then this evening, overnight hours, it's going to go right along the coast on the Delmarva, past places like Ocean City and Rehoboth, impacting the Delaware Bay, with storm surge and high winds then by early morning, be near Cape May, New Jersey, moving up the coastline of New Jersey, affecting all the resort areas in New Jersey during the morning hour and then making its next big landfall across Long Island into New England very near New York City.
I don't want you to get too carried away with that exact point on there. As you saw in the radar satellite imagery, the center is not a tight little eye. It's a broad area, right now, of hurricane force winds and we're going to keep hurricane force winds in the forecast at least for now, right up through final landfall into New England.
Next slide, please. The tropical storm wind probabilities, as we talked about for several days now, this gives you an idea of how large an area that's going to be likely to be impacted by at least tropical storm force winds while Irene makes its trek up the Eastern Seaboard. And wherever those tropical storm force winds last for hours and we have the saturated ground, that's the areas we're going to be focusing on for the wind damage associated with trees coming down and the like.
Next slide, please. This is our probability of storm surge gauged off our 4-foot excedance (ph). If you're going to get higher than a four-foot storm surge, tight now the highest probability storm surge is you might expect is where it's actually happening. But I also want to point out the likelihood of exceeding 4 feet in the upper ends of the streams that come into James River and then the Chesapeake and the ocean in the Norfolk Hampton roads area, and then some parts of the lower Chesapeake have a chance.
The upper Chesapeake, on this track in our current forecast is not looking like it will have the kind of a flood issue you saw with Isabel. Maybe some small water rise as the storm approaches, but then winds will actually swing the other way and you'll see a lowering of water levels there.
Not so fortunate for Delaware Bay. The areas from north of Delaware all the way down to Bethany and then, of course, into Ocean City, we have a high probability of exceeding 4 feet in storm surge. That coupled with the waves, a lot of damage and any property at low level is going to be damaged also.
And further up the coast, we're still looking at about the same issue on storm surge, when you get up into the Long Island Sound, and the New York metropolitan area. Our forecast is going to carry from the hurricane center a broad forecast in that range of 4 to 8 feet.
Your local offices, your local forecast offices will have detailed information to pinpoint the problem areas along your coast and in the bays and rivers and what not, because this has a lot of variability in there within that 4 to 8 foot range.
Next slide, please. And of course, the rainfall, it's starting to show that now. As the storm moves northward, the rainfall shifts from being mostly in the northeast quadrant of the storm to actually the northwest because it's coming under the rental features that are pulling it off to the north. So we're expecting now a swath of 5 to 10 inches of rain right across the mid-Atlantic, centered over the Philadelphia metropolitan area and then into the New York metropolitan area and the western part of New England.
All of these areas have had excessive rain in the past, so the ground's saturated and we'll have issues with flash flooding and we're probably going to have some issues with river flooding before it's all over.
Craig, I'm going to turn it to you.
CRAIG FUGATE, DIRECTOR, FEMA: Thanks, Bill. As Bill talked about the various hazards, I want to kind of key on a couple of points. When we talk about category of hurricane that does not explain all of the risk. You deal with basically four principle risks with a hurricane. The high winds, storm surge, and these two are very much tied to the category which describes how strong the winds are at the center of circulation. But also as Bill talked about, rainfall and tornadoes. And they are not tied to the category of storm. So even though this may be a category 1 hurricane, rainfall amounts are not tied to category storm. It is due to the size and the forward speed of the storm. Some of our most devastating floods have occurred in tropical storms.
The other thing is the tornados are going to be very quick, as bill said. These will not be on the ground very long. They won't be the type of tornadoes we saw this spring, but they can still be very devastating. That's why we're asking people that are outside the evacuation zones during the storm to stay inside, stay away from exterior walls and windows, interior areas, just like you would prepare for tornadoes, but you'll be there for a much longer period of time during the storm. So make sure you bring your supplies with you.
The other key issue here is an immediate aftermath of the storm, as the secretary says, we're going to start the response phase in North Carolina as Irene moves north. The best thing people can do is stay home, stay inside.
A lot of people like to get out and travel about. It's very hazardous with downed power lines, trees down, plus the responders and the utility crews don't need to get behind you when they're trying to go help.
HOLMES: All right, we're at 15 minutes past the hour, listening to the update from the officials, federal officials, FEMA, as well as the homeland security secretary, reminding people just how dangerous this storm is, and it is just getting started in some places.
North Carolina in particular is getting battered by this storm. Reminding people here of the risk, even though you hear it's a category 1, this is very important, even though you hear category 1, it sounds like a storm that's weakening, some of the biggest threats, though, are going to come from the rain, which will result in flooding.
And also the storm is going to create tornadoes. That's another major risk of this storm. Don't let Category 1, the fact that it was weakened, the fact that it was downgraded, don't let that fool you. And as it makes its way north, it's going to eventually, at least as the model shows, get to New York. That's a place not used to having to be prepared for a hurricane.
And the New Yorkers, maybe they are listening. They have been stocking up on the essentials there and many people who are in low- lying areas have been told to get out. They need to evacuate.
We will be live from New York. Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. 19 minutes past the hour now. You're watching special CNN coverage of Hurricane Irene, which did come ashore, made landfall just a few hours ago in North Carolina. It has been pounding the East Coast and it is making its way to that place. Can you make it out back there, folks? That is central park in New York City. You see they're starting to get some rain.
They said they were worried, some people maybe weren't taking the storm seriously enough, because for the past couple of days, they had pretty nice weather. Even this morning, it wasn't so bad. But now it looks like something is coming. Residents there are hustling, trying to stock up on supplies ahead of this storm. Others are facing a mandatory evacuation order in some of the low-lying areas.
Meanwhile, in the Carolinas, Irene has already hit some of those areas hard. One of our iReporters, William Gaskin, sent us this video from south of the spot where Irene made landfall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're on the creek side of Pawley's Island. As you can see, there's an incredibly high tide and a very fast-moving current. Probably 15 minutes have passed since I was last on this roadway, and it is already covered. The roadways on Pawley's are not safe anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right. That's just a taste of what could be in store for a lot of people up and down the East Coast. But, again, North Carolina has been battered for the past several hours.
Poppy Harlow, though, is in New York City for us. So mandatory evacuations there, and also, we have been watching this clock. We've been making this point, but the clock is ticking and people only have 40 minutes left if they need to use public transit.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. All public transportation here in Manhattan, the buses, all the subways, all the railroads out of this city are closing in 40 minutes. New Yorkers rely on public transit perhaps more than anyone in America and they need to heed the warning from the mayor's office.
If you live in lower Manhattan, in Zone A and you need to evacuate, you need to do it now. I am in lower Manhattan, Battery Park. This is the southernmost tip of the city. It is surrounded on three sides by water. Everyone in this build, you see the huge apartment complexes, they are told, they're under mandatory evacuation; 370,000 New Yorkers in total need to evacuate. I'm one of them, left my apartment, put stuff as high as I could and wait for the waters to come.
This is why people need to get out now, T.J. See that line of folks? They're all waiting for these New York cabs. That's really their only way after public transit closes. Those cabs were lined up this morning, there were tons of them, now, look, there's the cabs driving away. They're going to have to wait here.
So to try to get 370,000 people evacuated, it's tough. Some people are taking it seriously, some are not.
I want you to take a listen to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He talked just a little while ago about how serious the situation is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLOOMBERG: Staying behind is dangerous. Staying behind is foolish, and it's against the law. And we urge everybody in the evacuation zone not to wait until there are gale-force winds and driving rain to leave. And not to wait until the public transportation system starts slowing down today. It's going to be too late. The time to leave is right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: And I think I just lost connection. Hopefully you can still hear me, T.J. Let me know if you can.
HOLMES: Yes, we can. Yes.
HARLOW: I'm going to bring Marcello in. Marcello lives in this building. He is helping people move out.
You say you're staying here until the last moment, you're trying to help people evacuate. You were here on 9/11, you did the same thing. How's it going?
MARCELLO: Hi, everything's fine. I just want to make it very clear that I'm supporting Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly. Please evacuate if you need to. And as I was talking to you before, I was here September 11th. We evacuated, the last ones to evacuate. I left at 2:30, I guess, on September 11th, and I'll be here today.
And we have a lot of older people here, a lot of animals, and a lot of people who have never lived through anything big like that. I mean we hope for the best, but that's not going to come --
Reporter: So he's staying here, and the reason he brings up 9/11, T.J., is because we're right by -- two blocks away from ground zero. You see the Freedom Tower behind me. Of course, they're working to secure the cranes on the Freedom Tower because they're hoisted up to about the 50th floor there. They don't want any wind knocking any cranes down, et cetera.
But people here are getting out. There's a lot of families. I've lived here for a long time; families, little kids, babies, they are getting them out of here right now, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Interesting picture back there as well; but that's what people are up against. You've got less than 40 minutes, public transit is shutting down, folks. And the people who need to get out, that don't have a car or don't have a friend that could come get them, this is really your last shot.
Poppy, thank you so much for that.
This storm is having a huge impact on travel. The five airports serving the New York metro area will come to a close as far as the incoming flights go. That's starting at noon today. We're talking about JFK, Newark International, LaGuardia, Teterboro and Stewart International -- all of them. You're seeing pictures of people kind of getting themselves prepared.
Also I need to let you know that thousands of flights have been canceled. Look at United and Continental, some 2,300 already; Delta as well, 1,300; JetBlue, about 1000; AirTran a few hundred as well. Amtrak, meanwhile, cutting back train service in the heavily traveled northeast corridor today suspending the service tomorrow. Train service south of Washington also canceled through the weekend and transit systems in several major cities as far as New York and Philadelphia will be shutting down.
Well, you know that the elderly, people who are very sick, also new born need some special attention right now and some help to get out of harm's way. At least five hospitals and 15 nursing homes have been evacuated in New York City. The mayor there says about 7,000 people were affected in all. Hospitals in the city have never had to do something like this before.
And New York City landmarks closing because of the storm. Among them, the Statue of Liberty. Park officials say the site will be closed through Monday. Lady Liberty has weathered several storms, as you know, since she was dedicated back in 1886.
Also, Irene pushing gas prices higher? Listen to this. Nearly 10 percent of the nation's oil refining capacity is in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Delaware. Produces about a.35 billion barrels per day. Those refineries could be offline for several days due to this hurricane.
Barge routes are also disrupted, combining Hurricane Irene and the upcoming holiday weekend, analysts predict gas prices will rise 15 to 20 cents over the next couple of weeks.
Well, Irene is now moving up the East Coast after making landfall in North Carolina, and boy, it battered North Carolina for a number of hours. We'll be live in the storm zone straight ahead. Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We're at about the bottom of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. And what a morning it has been. North Carolina getting battered for the past several hours by this hurricane. It came ashore a few hours ago. Made landfall as a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 85 miles an hour.
Our Brian Todd has been with us this entire morning, from Wilmington, North Carolina, and it started out about the same as we're seeing it now. It's been kicking up on you throughout the day, but it's been pretty consistent where you are.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very consistent, T.J. You know, it's very deceiving, though, there are a couple of moments throughout the morning where you think maybe the worst of it has passed and it's moving away, but then as John Zarrella showed you, that reverse storm surge can be just deadly when it comes back at you. We're kind of getting some of that now.
A little while ago, it looked like maybe it was moving away. But these hurricanes, very, very deceiving. We're told in the last 24 hours here, 7 inches of rainfall have come down and they're expecting a lot more before it's all said and done. Maybe as much as 10 inches here and in areas near here, before the day is done.
Here in the Cape Fear River, pretty large swells, white caps all over the place. There's one death reported in North Carolina, so far, but there may be a report of another. There was a man sighted in the water not too far from here in the Cape Fear River.
Authorities have had to temporarily call off the search for that man, because of the conditions in the water here and the conditions outside. They hope to resume that, again, very soon, but conditions here have really not allowed them to try to find that gentleman who was seen in the water not far from here.
Flash flooding, we've talked about it all morning, but it is a huge problem. With the rain pretty unrelenting all day and the storm slowly moving through here, and it does move -- it has moved pretty slowly through here, and because of that, the rain just kind of hovers, there have been flash floods all over the place here.
One interstate near here has been closed down, at least temporarily, not sure how long that's going to last. A stretch of road not too far from here, a two-mile stretch of it, has been flooded, T.J.
Downed power lines also a problem. More than half this county is without power right now. So they haven't even really been able to start the cleanup or the recovery yet, because the storm surges just kind of keep coming back, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Brian Todd in Wilmington, North Carolina, thank you once again.
As we come up on the bottom of the hour now, it's not just our reporters out there who have been helping us with this story, you have, as well. Our iReporters have been sending in video to us. It keeps coming in, and we thank you for it. You'll get the view from our iReporters. That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, welcome back. We're just past the bottom of the hour. Hurricane Irene has made landfall and it is now on its way, heading up the East Coast after making landfall just a few hours ago in North Carolina.
Now, this is some of the stuff we're expecting here -- heavy rain, high wind. Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout. That's about 60 miles from Cape Hatteras on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Just gives you an idea there. You can hear -- you can certainly see, but you can hear the force of this storm and those waves as it came pounding in. This is in Atlantic Beach. This is south of where Irene made landfall. And more high winds and heavy rain in Wilmington, on the southern end of the North Carolina coast.
Our reporters have been up and down that coast for us today, bringing us the very latest. They have been getting tossed around pretty good this morning, especially our reporters in North Carolina. But we're getting ready for the preps (ph) in D.C., also in New York this morning. But let's check in with a couple of our reporters now, if we can.
Reynolds Wolf, it seems like, has been getting this pretty steadily throughout the morning. And there you are once again, Reynolds. Good morning. Tell me how it's going.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And what a morning it's been, T.J. We're getting the incredible impression from this system as it chugs its way to the north, that impression being with occasionally some heavy rainfall, winds that have been just buffeting the island, winds picking up the waves, smashing them against the shore, the water piling up, and at the same time, sound just being blasted right across this barrier that I'm on, and right towards the lens cap, closer to your viewers at home, right up there.
By the way, Orlando Ruiz (ph), who was our photojournalist early, you got wipe the lens cap again. As always, do what you've got to do, man. I know it's blasting.
Latest information for you. T.J., what we have in Duck, North Carolina, one of the communities here along the Outer Banks -- they now have a mandatory curfew that will be in effect until Monday. Also, some other information. Power outages still continue to mount up all across the Outer Banks, and of course, right back towards the mainland. Would not be surprised to see the power go out here at some point as these winds continue to intensify.
Something more. We've got, obviously, some flooding that is going to occur in a few places. And as a matter of fact, farther south along the Outer Banks, along highway 12, near Rodanthe, the road is considered impassable. this is not a surprise. You've got to remember that when it comes to the Outer Banks, there are only some places that are only from seven to 11 feet above sea level. So it stands to reason that when you have one of these systems -- here comes the rain! When you have one of these systems that comes on shore, the winds are going to pick up that water, push it right against that storm system -- the storm is really going to kick up quite a bit of a storm surge, which is going to be a big difference maker for a lot of people.
As the center of this circulation gets closer to us, T.J., I would imagine that things are going to get quite a bit bad -- quite a bit worse. And then as it pulls northward, we're going to get water coming in not from the Atlantic, but from the sound, coming in the opposite direction. The winds will also push in this direction.
Keep in mind that where we have light poles that have been pushed quite a bit by the wave coming in from the Atlantic, we're going to have that second batch come in from the opposite direction, further weakening them. And I would not be surprised if we see a great deal more power outages occur when the winds kick in from the southwest.
That's the latest I've got for you, T.J. Let's kick it back to you in the studio.
HOLMES: All right, Reynolds, thank you once again. That's Kill Devil Hills where he has been throughout the morning.
And that's pretty much, Jacqui -- as I bring you in -- what his picture has looked like. It's amazing to see our three reporters up and down the coast of North Carolina, how the scene has been different for each of them. In some cases, it got a little calmer, and then got worse, and it's been steady in some places. And there with Reynolds, it kicked up and it hasn't stopped.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I know. He's been in one of the worst places. I mean, we're talking about 12-plus hours that they're going to be dealing with these hurricane-force and tropical storm-force winds. And while it was tough to see conditions where Reynolds is, and he was talking about those power lines -- this is a live picture I want to show you. This is from Hurricanetrack.com, from Mark Sudduth, and they've got those little cases that they sit on the ground to watch areas of concern. And he's also driving through some of these areas -- of course, a very experienced, trained storm spotter. So he knows what he's doing. We don't want you to go out there.
But take a look at that. Look at those power lines. Look at how things are swaying here. And the wind gust reports that we've been seeing out of New Bern, anywhere between 50 and 66 miles per hour.
Now, to put this in perspective, take a look at how bad that is. We've had reports up to 115 miles per hour. So really just even a weak tropical storm causes a lot of damage. And that's what you need to keep in mind as this thing heads up the coast today and into the Northeast, even if we do see some of that weakening.
It's a Category 1, 85-mile-per-hour maximum sustained winds. It stayed that way even after landfall, and we're expecting it to do that -- you know, this is a very marshy area. We've got the Pamlico Sound here. And so there's really nothing to make this weaken a whole heck of a lot, other than some of this interaction with some of that land off to the west.
The core of this storm remains very strong. We're continuing to get a lot of reports of flooding and damage. We just got a report from Swan Quarter, North Carolina, which is up into this area. And apparently, the water now coming up over the levee and major flooding is occurring.
We're also getting reports of damage and flooding in New Bern and Beaufort, as well as into Aurora, all clustered within this area, and Morehead City, also. We'll continue to see those come in.
Here are some of the estimated wind speeds. Now, these are sustained winds, not to mention the gusts. And we're seeing that in the 60-mile-per-hour range across much of the Outer Banks. So dangerous conditions here.
Forecast for timing and what you can expect as this moves up the coast -- the worst of it -- these times are when the peak of the storm comes in. Remember, this is a 12 to 24-hour event for some of you -- 4:00 to 7:00, Virginia Beach. Overnight tonight in Ocean City, Maryland. Long Island tomorrow, we're talking about mid-morning to say mid-dayish. Boston, mid-afternoon. This thing's going to be out of here by Monday morning.
And so we've got a long way to go with this event. Expect a lot of power outages, a lot of inland flooding. We've had as much as 20 inches of rain now being estimated by Doppler radar near the core of the center of where Irene has been hitting -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Jacqui, thank you once again.
We want to check in with our Rob Marciano. He has been up in New York, on Long Beach in particular, this morning. Give our viewers an idea, maybe haven't been watching throughout the morning, but how things have progressed and changed there, the conditions have changed for you over the past several hours.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're in that -- we're in the in-between stage there, T.J. About an hour ago, we had a pretty good squall come through, probably the first of many feeder bands that will spiral in. We've got a little front that's going to act to steer this storm a little bit, and that'll will help intensify those bands as they come in. But right now, we're in a bit of a dry spot. But there you go. The surfers are out there. The guys that just want to get on TV are out there. And the waves are out there, and they continue to roll in. Big sets of them, too. And the surfers out here have been taking advantage of it.
This is -- any other day is a normal -- is a surfing community. As a matter of fact, they were going to have a huge surfing competition this coming weekend. That has since been canceled.
This place, believe it or not, no stranger to hurricanes over the long haul, although it's been decades since we've seen one, the worst of which came back in 1938, also 1934. But 1938, the "Long Island express" -- that was a Cat 3 that hit this area, tore it up pretty good, 50,000 homes or so damage and 600 to 800 people were killed with that.
We don't expect that here, thank goodness. But evacuation orders have been posted. As of 5:00 this afternoon, they'll become mandatory. That doesn't mean they'll throw you in jail, but it means that you won't be helped overnight tonight if you decide to stay.
And we asked a lot of folks who live here whether or not they're going to stay or they're going to go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am definitely evacuating. And I'm a risk taker, and 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: And that's the key. You don't have to evacuate Long Island total. That would take you into some traffic issues and getting over some bridges. But you've got to go a little bit further into the inland, get slightly above where I stand right now, which more than likely will be under water tomorrow.
Now, what they're doing to protect Long Beach is they've taken man and machine and built these dunes, 15, 20 feet high in some spots, to protect the town from the surge that's anticipated come tomorrow. We will probably see not one but two high tide cycles, which are extenuated by the fact that we're in a new moon. So astronomically high tide. We've got a surge that's going to be at least 3 to 6 feet. And then you've got 15 to 20-foot waves on top of that that are going to eat away this man-made berm and likely get into this small town and other small towns across Long Island.
Not only will you see surge here, but you'll see surge on the back side of Long Island, on the sound side, on the bay side, if you will, where it's normally calm. You'll see northeast winds there that will pile up the water there and on the western edge of the sound, over towards LaGuardia and JFK. By the way, those airports are about to shut down. We are in the glide path of JFK, and come this time tomorrow, planes won't be running. Buses, trains, they're shutting down this afternoon, as well. So for the most part, this city and this -- Long Island, both Nassau and Suffolk, will be coming to a halt.
And as this storm comes into town tonight and tomorrow, we expect conditions to go downhill tonight, T.J. And then height of this storm, as Jacqui probably has mentioned, will be here probably between 8:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the afternoon. Back out to you.
HOLMES: All right, Rob Marciano on Long Beach, thank you once again.
And we're at 42 minutes past the hour, and our iReporters have been capturing some video that, you know what, we haven't been able to get to and get ourselves. We do appreciate it, to our iReporters. We'll take you to the front lines of their coverage. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. We're about a quarter of the top of the hour here. And we've been reporting, our reporters have been reporting throughout North Carolina today, Several of them, David Mattingly among them. He gives us the view from Nags Head, North Carolina, now.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE) a couple of hours ago. You can see how high the water got, which was up to here. Take a look over this way. The surf is breaking about 50 yards back in this direction. But the wind is so strong and it's pushing so much water over the dunes, we've actually got what looks like a lake forming right at the edge of all these houses.
You can see down here, there's one house -- the deck that extends out is actually -- the water is actually coming up underneath it. If this continues for much longer, that's going to be an erosion problem and possibly later problems for that property owner.
Right now, the problem, above anything, is the wind. It's difficult to stand up out here. It's blowing sand and water so hard that it stings when it hits the skin. Without these protective glasses, I wouldn't be able to see out here at all. But right now, this storm clearly making its mark on the Outer Banks as it passes through. The stinging rain, the blowing sand, and of course, the pounding surf that's tearing away at the beaches and the dunes.
HOLMES: All right. As we get close to the top of the hour, we're actually just a few minutes away from the New York public transit system shutting down. The mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has been warning people, You only have a short time if you need to get somewhere. You know a lot of New Yorkers, they walk everywhere. They take public transit, don't have cars. Well, in just a few minutes, if they haven't gotten to where they need to be, they won't have public transit to get them there.
Morag Frager is one New Yorker who is there on the Upper West Side right now. And Morag, tell me how you are holding up? And what is your plan for this storm that's on the way?
MORAG FRAGER, NYC RESIDENT (via telephone): Well, T.J., my plan is to stay at home and do a lot of reading, and you know, just having a good time looking out my window. I was out this morning, and the streets were somewhat busier than normal, but our favorite neighborhood grocery stores were closing down, you know, at 10:00, and our favorite cafe at 11:00. So people were rushing to get all their supplies in, you know, before things close down.
HOLMES: Now, it sounds like -- you said, you got a nice little plan for the weekend, and it sounds like you're almost going to be, I guess, enjoying the view of some things. But do you have -- are you concerned about something, including the high winds? I don't know if you're in an area -- I think you live not on the ground floor or anything, so flooding might not be an issue for you. But are you concerned about the high winds even?
FRAGER: I'm not so much concerned about the high winds coming, you know, to my window. But I'm looking out at the back of some townhouses, and most of them have cleared the furniture off their decks. But one of them, you know, right across from me, has not. I think the people have gone out of town, and they have all sorts of furniture and grills and beautiful flower pots there. And nothing has been moved. That's the one thing that, you know, I might be concerned about.
HOLMES: Did you ever consider getting out of there, going to stay somewhere else for just a couple of days?
FRAGER: My daughter, you know, has a house on Fire Island, and there was a mandatory evacuation from Fire Island. She was so reluctant to go, but they had to leave and they've gone up to Connecticut. And she invited me to go with them, but I just thought I would stay here and wait through it. I've never been in a hurricane before, and I don't think that, you know, where I am in the city it's going to be particularly dangerous at all.
HOLMES: All right. Well, Morag Frager, you hold on, all right? Like a lot of New Yorkers are, been through a lot, and certainly believe they can make it through a hurricane, as well. Thank you for taking time with us. And again, good luck to her and many other New Yorkers, who many of them only have a few minutes left if you need to take to take public transit.
Isn't that something? Can you imagine the subway system not working in New York? Well, it is going to stop here in about 10 minutes. And don't know when it will be up and going again, but through the weekend, you can expect people won't be able to get around through public transit in New York City.
Now, we've been seeing a lot of video, getting some -- where is this picture, guys? Is this a live picture I'm seeing here? This is a live picture I am seeing now, some strong winds. Not sure where this reporter is reporting from necessarily, but this camera is moving around. This is Norfolk, I'm told now. But you see the reporter there in the distance. We got reporters all over the place, local reporters, our CNN reporters, but all up and down the coast, give you an idea of other places starting to be battered, not just North Carolina. This storm is making its way north. Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, just about eight minutes until the top of the hour now. The Northeast, the coast right now, doesn't usually come to mind when you think about hurricanes. But the region has had its fair share. Anderson Cooper takes a look back at the major storms that have hit the region.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're watching pictures of the last major hurricane to hit the northeast coast exactly 20 years ago. This is Hurricane Bob back in August of 1991. The eye of the storm passed over Rhode Island before making landfall as a strong Category 2, with winds of 115 miles per hour.
Bob was blamed for over a billion dollars in damage and 18 storm- related deaths. Just two months later, Hurricane Grace also threatened as a Category 2 storm before being absorbed by an unusual weather system that led to the Halloween nor'easter of 1991, later called a "perfect storm."
This storm lashed the East Coast of the United States with pounding waves and coastal flooding, causing significant damage in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and New Jersey. Nine people were killed in the storm, which produced 100-foot waves, equivalent to a 10-story building. It inspired the novel by author Sebastian Junger, which later became a movie.
And then there's the so-called "storm of the century." Hurricane Gloria in September of 1985, recorded winds of up to 150 miles per hour. Gloria made landfall as a powerful Category 3 storm in the Outer Banks of North Carolina before rapidly moving up the East Coast, making a second landfall on Long Island, then another in Connecticut, causing significant damage up and down the East Coast and eight storm- related deaths.
Hurricanes in the Northeast are rare, but as Hurricane Irene approaches, meteorologists warn it could turn northward, threatening much of the East Coast with another potentially dangerous storm.
Anderson Cooper, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not too concerned right now. I don't know, man. Maybe I'm a little ignorant, but there's nothing I feel right now from the storm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're doing something we've never done before. We're getting ready for the big storm. You know, it's not like anything we've ever had.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Two competing opinions there. Let's say hello to Josh Levs once again. He's giving us a look at what our iReporters out there are capturing, some good video.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just for the record, saying that you don't feel the storm yet is not -- you know, a perfectly invalid opinion, right, in the sense that we don't want people to think just because they weren't feeling it yet, they're safe. You're not. Please go by the forecast and what your local authorities are saying.
Meanwhile, T.J. -- and I got to tell you, we keep getting new videos. This is fantastic. Look at this map behind me here. Everywhere you see a red mark here, we have a new iReport. Our iReport videos are following the path of the storm.
Let's go to this first new one that we've got for you right here, coming to us from Chesapeake, Virginia. Take a look. Keep watching this. I'll tell you what we're seeing here. You're seeing the water come under the pier there. Chesapeake, by the way, right near Norfolk, in that section of Virginia. And our iReporter, Kathy Vanpeeren, says usually, it's pretty calm there, the waves never more than six to eight feet. But it's much higher today. She said they're just beginning to get the storm. But the point -- she sent us this this morning. The winds were really starting to pick up. She said it was very hard to walk along the beach since the wind was so violent.
All right, next video, take a look here. (INAUDIBLE) next one. This one is going to be from Cort Sturdevant. Here you go. Now, you look at this, it pretty much looks like rain, not too heavy yet. But what this is, is the very beginning for this section of Virginia Beach. He says he's about eight miles inland from the shore and says it was really quiet this morning, and then the hurricane started trickling its way in. And the rain got to this point. And residents were aware that they need to hunker down. He says they're aware it's going to get a lot worse from there. This is his -- what he's calling "so it begins."
One more dramatic video came to us very early hours this morning. I want you to see this. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Hurricane Irene, and we're now getting (INAUDIBLE) winds over 40 miles per hour.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: I know it's hard for you to hear what he's saying, but what's happening there -- this came to us from Jeremy Michael early this morning, very early hours. There's a boat docked in Atlantic Beach over in North Carolina. And he's a student at UNC Asheville, took these images. And he says that someone had a rather large boat that was tied down and appeared to be riding out the storm, said he was amazed to see how strong the wind felt.
As we look at this, I want to emphasize to our viewers we are take your iReports and sharing them. We're vetting them. I also want you to know, do not go to any danger ever to take videos to get them to CNN. We vet these things first to make sure the people who took them were not denying evacuation orders and certainly were not putting themselves or anyone else in danger by getting these.
But if you are in a position to safely get videos, photos, share them with us at iReport.com. And then our main page right here, where you will see this map, I'm telling you about -- it's called "Open Story" -- you are helping us tell the story of what's going on today. And we expect a lot more of that coming up, T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Josh, thank you.
And the moment I've been waiting for this morning is to say good morning to Fredricka Whitfield. We missed our moment just a few minutes ago. We have our little chat.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I know!
HOLMES: -- about 11:50. We can get (INAUDIBLE)
WHITFIELD: We'll do that another weekend.
