nice to be here with you for the next five hours. tropical storm irene after lashing new york city, irene is dutching heavy, heavy rainfall in parts of upstate new york and also new england. the storm made landfall overnight as a hurricane in two stops, first on the landfall on little egg inlet in new jersey, and then it hit another landfall, coney island, new york. at that time irene had weakened to a tropical storm. >> on long island, irene's storm surge flooded downtown long beach. some streets in manhattan also flooding, but the water really has started to recede already. it is sweeping up the east coast. irene has killed at least 15 people at last count as it started, as it fist made landfall in north carolina, more than 4 million people as a whole without power. irene moving north now. its biggest threat is inland flo flooding. >> still the word is "caution," and we have cnn crews up and down the east coast for you to bring you up-to-the-minute coverage on tropical storm irene live on cnn. the storm pushed the hudson river over its banks and into lower manhattan. soledad o'brien has been there covering this for hours and hours. i saw the cars stuck behind you. now you're along the hudson at battery park. talk to me about the water level. it was over the banks for a while. is it better now? >> oh, it's significantly bert. all you really see right now are puddle, and that's great news because over here as well the water was topping over the banks, basically. we saw the same thing in the west village and in the meat packing district. it was making things quite a mess. but then the winds slowed and the rain slowed and that seemed to help a lot after the tide had risen. that's good news for new york because the worst has definitely passed. what you see now is the high winds, which i know you can tell behind me. this is where a number of tourists have come. the statue of liberty over my shoulder. there are a lot of people out. occasionally a police officer will go by and sort of shout out to people, listen, the danger is not over, there can be live wire, be cautious, but for the most part people are kind of ignoring that, milling around, bringing their kids out. so far it's actually not been terrible damage or at least the bad damage that we were expecting. as we drove through west village earlier, you could see -- and i have video of this, fred -- some of the damage that happened there. in a lot of cases you saw those newspaper boxes, you know, toppled over by the heavy winds, in some cases a tree, and not so much from the high winds but really because of the ground. once it gets saturated it tends to sort of -- the trees just can fall, kind of collapse over so, that seemed to be some of the biggest problems there. we have some of that. as you mentioned, when we were right along the hudson river, we saw the river topping the banks. we were there, it was probably about two feet over the banks, the pathways that follow the river were completely covered in water and some cars also got stuck under water. but then, quite quickly, within i'd say 90 minutes or so the water drained and things got back to normal. little bit of damage for the folks there because some apartments where they didn't have pumps pumping the water on the first-floor level got three feet or so of water. >> soledad, tag teaming with fredricka. i have a question for you. we heard from homeland security secretary janet napolitano saying if you're in that area, stay inside. what's the directive? we're waiting for a news conference from new york major michael bloomberg, but what's the directive from city officials? are people fine to stick their heads out and assess or they should stay in? >> reporter: we're waiting to hear from mayor bloomberg in that press conference we heard would be around 12:15. it's running late, many expect because they'll be able to update us on the status of the subway. once they open mass transit, that will change things, as well. for the most part, people are not worried about any risk. people are out and about. if they think there's wind, we have not seen downed power line where is we are and most people don't seem to be worried about that. even the police officers who roll by telling people to be cautious are basically saying that, be cautious. they're not saying go back inside. they're not saying something is dangerous. they're saying keep your eyes open. >> good words of advice from the police officers there in new york. soledad o'brien, thank you very much. fred, to you. irene at this point expected to dump a whole lot of rain. of course it's leaving the new york city area making its way to upstate new york. they're already starting to feel the effects as well as connecticut. onto rhode island. that's where rewill find our gary tuchman in newport. you and i spoke yesterday and you talked about there were some who were actually considering riding out the storm in their boats. you're feeling the effects now. have they second-guessed that by now? >> reporter: the battle is not over here at new por, rhode island. it's great a lot of people did decide to ride out this storm on their boat bus this is the newport, rhode island, marina. but as you can see there are beautiful pleasure craft and fishing boats. people slept on them overnight. overnight it wasn't bad. but the rain has stopped. we had heavy rain for several hours that ended about an hour and a half ago and it seems like the worst is over, yet the winds have picked up. in this state of rhode island, the smallest state in the country, 150,000 customers without power, including most of the people here in newport. the power is out here. we have lots of people coming out, asking us, is the worst over? can we go outside? we can tell them, despite the fact there is a mandatory evacuation order, most have stayed because there's nowhere to go. it's so far to drive get out of the hurricane/tropical storm zone last night. we're telling them the worst is over but the winds will pick up. be careful when you go outside. lots of people have gone outside. the fact they are not used to hurricanes in southern new england, the last hurricane that came 20 years ago, hurricane bob, and this is not a hurricane now, but a tropical storm. they're not used to those either. they get the nor'easter. ip to make sure we don't fall into the water here. it's a narrow pier. we don't want any problems, including the people i love and respect and work with. but although it's very windy, minor flooding but there are no injuries whatsoever. just 150,000 customers without power. right now it appears much of the east coast, not all of the east coast, much of the east coast, people consider themselves relatively lucky. >> okay to. that is good news. gary tuchman, thanks so much. state of rhode island. very small. however, we kind of fanned out in that state. we'll move on to another region of it. >> let's stay in rhode island and go to kate bolduan in providence where kate is apparently at a floodgate. let's see where she is. paint the picture for us. tell us what it looks like where you are. >> reporter: hi there, brooke. a similar story what gary is seeing and feeling in newport. the real story here in providence is the strong drop kag force winds, some fierce wind gusts we've been feeling throughout the day. the rain has tapered off, picking back up here. that's not the problem. it's been the wind damage that has been a great concern for all of the residents for providence. we've been feeling gusts throughout the morning. in downtown providence, you can see this is a hurricane barrier built in the 1960s to protect the city from some serious storm surges if they would come through. that barrier, when all three of those barrier gates are down and deployed, they can protect the city, supposed to be able to protect it from storm surges of some 20 feet. that's clearly not what they've experienced. we've seen in the last couple hours that one of these gates is at least partially being opened up to let the water flow more freely into the narragansett bay. what we're seeing now is obviously these strong winds are continuing. we're watching this hurricane barrier to see how things are going here. we're seeing a lot of residents kind of coming out after hunkering down much of the morning, many people kind of coming out to see what they can see pap that's not what fema or officials or state officials have been advising, but that's what people are doing. then of course the chance of some -- those strong winds picking pack up again this afternoon. we're tracking much of that. we're seeinging a lot of trees down throughout the city of providence. we've heard many trees and storm damage throughout the state of rhode island because of that. it's the fierce wind. these tropical storm-force winds are still a serious concern. >> kate, while i have you, we have a split screen of you and other images. you mentioned downed trees but some images look like rivers but i know they're roads. can you give me a quick assessment of damage and any injuries in the state of rhode island? >> reporter: we haven't heard about any my jor injuries in the state of rhode island. we know with the rain, with the wind being here on the coast and with all the rivers and the bays that are in rhode island, that clearly the water is getting onto the roadways. we are seeing some of the roads are quite tricky and many impassable because of the trees that are going down. the northeast has seen a lot of rain already this season and this is just adding to it. power's out for some 150,000 to 175,000 people in the state of rhode island without wpower. the national grid will be working on that. one of the problems they face in terms of remedying the situation and getting the power back on, not safe to be sending out crews to fix the problem when the wind gusts remain so high. they need the wind to die down a bit. obvio obviously, that would help a lot in trying to get the power back up for many of these residents. so a lot of the damage that we're seeing seems to be clearly from the strong wind gusts. the hotel we were in, i was up on the 14th floor. i'll tell you the windows were shaking at many points throughout the night and this morning, brooke. >> kate bolduan in rhode island, thank you very much. pretty significant in the northeast. that's the big problem. in addition to the power outages, because there's been so much rain, it has seen a lot of rain in the month of august, the ground is saturating, which means the big trees, root systems are weakened as well as the power lines. >> it's the days to come. >> that's right. >> even though we'll say good-bye to irene, it's the fallout from the storm and the rains. chad knows more about that. we'll check in with chad. >> let's move on to new york, shall we? >> let's. where irene pushed the east and hudson rivers over their banks. cnn's mary snow is in queens, new york. mary, yikes. i see a huge tree over your left shoulder. looks like on top of a car. >> reporter: yeah. you guys were just talking about the saturated ground. what we see is this tree just ripped from its roots, breaking through the concrete sidewalk. fortunately, no one was injured. this tree came down in the middle of the night about 2:00 in the morning. here's the dane rouse par, though. you're seeing all these power lines down. and there are several of them. and then if we could just pan up a little bit further you'll see is that power line, there's a transformer on top of that, and that is leaning. this is the dangerous part. there is a police line up here, so cars can note come through. there are several lines that are down and people are walking on the street. dangerous situation. obviously, the police have been here because they've put up that tape. as you can imagine, residents we've been talking to are pretty nervous about this situation here. as we made our way through queens, we're trying to check out reports of damage. we've seen some downed trees. you know, we're talking to soledad a few minutes ago. we hadn't seen widespread damage that had been anticipated. but you do see spots like this one where people are really shaken here. >> we've got to ask about the car behind you, mary. was anyone in it when the tree fell? >> reporter: no. no. fortunately, they were not in it. and the people who are in this house fortunately were not -- no one was injured, shaken, they say, and they're nervous about this power line with this transformer because it is leaning and these downed power lines. but fortunately, no one was hurt. >> thank goodness. mary snow, thank you very much in queens. >> it really is a significant worry because with these trees coming down we know that irene has already claimed some ten lives in five states. >> yes. some of which involved downed trees. >> a big concern in the washington, d.c., area, of course, was -- >> the national cathedral. >> that's right. earlier in the week last week there was a 5.9 earthquake. that caused a little bit of damage. >> a little bit. >> to the national cathedral as well as the national monument. to washington to find out what this recent weather from irene may have done to further compromise these buildings, these historic structures. >> we'll take you to d.c. first, a look at some of the best images of hurricane irene pounding the northeastern coast today. take a look. >> whoa. let's gets out of here! let's get out of here! grab the mike. grab the -- go-gurt? 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>> you know, we haven't, but we've got an tremendous level of cooperation through multiple government agencies from new jersey transit to our local housing authority to county government. you know, it's really good to see how much people are working together, and a lot of that goes really by what i consider good judgment, by the president, our governor, calling states of emergency early enough and really getting everybody to start coordinating action early. we were out there preparing for this many, many hours if not days ahead. and we're able to get most of it right. again, we're learning a lot right now. early this morning i discovered we had people going out looking for homeless folks. i found more this morning. we got 41 people to move off the streets into our shelters. we'll learn what we can from this and be even more prepared should this happen again. >> mayor booker, it's brooke baldwin in atlanta. you had gone door to door, a bit of a wake-up call for folks in newark, my mayor is at my door, i should be leaving. you're tweeting about bridges and tunnels. can you give us a quick update as far as transportation goes? >> yeah. the port authority in my last update and the transit and new jersey are still going through deliberations about when exactly they're going to open up. we live in a tightly knit tristate area, so the bridges and tunnels going into manhattan are all opened up. the good thing is we're slowly returning back to normal, but i'm asking again as a governor that today people leave today be and let it be a day where disaster relief people can really get working and emergency people can get working. i've seen a lot of just dumb behavior, and that has caused me to have to engage rescue workers to do things. the smartest thing to do is stay in. as for again the people working and the work that was done, we were out there knocking on doors asking people to evacuate areas. there have a lot of caution for people saying what they needed in a tristate area, my philosophy is always better to be prepared for a crisis and not have a crisis and not be prepared. >> absolutely. mayor booker, cory booker, newark, new jersey, busy man today. we appreciate you being on the line. no longer is irene a category 1 hurricane. it's now a tropical storm. it's still the big issue, and i think chad myers may agree, the issue really is flooding. >> yes. without a doubt, flooding. that will be the key for the next few hours, except for maybe eastern massachusetts and maine, where trees are still falling down and winds are still gusting to 81 miles per hour just in the past half hour. but there is still water uphill from newark. there is still water uphill in binghamton, scranton, schenectady. all that water has to run eventually into the ocean. there's a high-water rescue in fleischman's new york, and they've had to call out the national guard thoerpt get people off the top of their house pause they are on the roof and the helicopter is going out to get them right now. serious situations in some spots and flooding going on all the way from burlington, vermont, back into pars of stall massachusetts, including western new jersey, scranton, binghamton, and all the way back up here. that entire area of flooding going on. even though the rain has stopped in some spots the water is still running off. take you to one more spot here because we just had blue hill, massachusetts, report in with a 74-mile-per-hour gust. and milton, mass. just had an 81-mile-per-hour gust. trees are falling left and right with wind like that. here's what's going on here. we hadn't had that much wind across parts of new york and vermont now because we're on this side of the eye, but this is the bad side of the eye. plus too there's no friction many the ocean so the wind gets to come right off the ocean and plow right into new hampshire, maine, and boston. in boston, don't be walking around. let the weather settle down a little bit. let that wind die off because trees are falling left and right. we've had a very wet august and the tree roots are completely saturated and they're going as fast as i can find them on the reports here, coming in one after another after another. stay off the streets. >> dangerous. just because it hasn't come down yet don't mean it won't come down ever. >> absolutely. >> that's right. let's check back in with soledad o'brien, who's still standing by along the hudson. there she is. you can see the wind whipping, but the water there in the hudson not too bad now. talk to me bigger picture, soledad, lower manhattan, how does that look? >> reporter: lower manhattan i think looks better than many people predicted it would look. as chad pointed out really it's the flooding. we've had many people and seen many instances where people have several feet of water in their basements, which is not insignificant, which means quite a bit of cleanup in the days ahead. so that is nothing compared to what some people were worried that they would get, especially with a combination of high winds and the water that was predicted to be blowing right off of the hudson here, certainly on the west side. it could have been worse, but there are people trying to figure out how to get three feet of water out of their apartment. we saw driving down the tip of manhattan, you know, typical wind damage, which is mailboxes and newspaper boxes, you know, tossed over, some trees down, but nothing really major. in a lot of ways i think people who were out and about feel they have missed a brutal hit that was predicted at some point. we'll take a short break and continue to update you with everything that is happening with hurricane irene. here at quicken loans, we take special pride in servicing clients that serve our country. my name is marjorie reyes. i'm a chief warrant officer. i am very grateful and appreciative that quicken loans can offer service members va loans. it was very important for me to be able to close and refinance my home quickly. i wanted to lower my mortgage payment. quicken loans guided me through every step of the process. the whole experience was amazing! 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>> you're listening to the press conference involving new york mayor michael bloomberg saying, you know what, he's rather proud of new yorkers, that they all seemed to hang in there just fine during what was hurricane irene, now tropical storm irene. he says of course tomorrow will be a little difficult, some people getting to work. no mention of what will happen with the mta. however, he said the new york stock exchange will be open. >> will be open. >> business as usual. and some city office buildings will also open accordingly. we'll continue our coverage of tropical storm irene. we're going to take you to rhode island, where governor lincoln chafee will be joining us momentarily. the nice thing about the tempur-pedic is that no matter which position i am in i wake up feeling good. it fits you so perfectly... it fits you. you wake up and you're revived and rejuvenated. it's just like wow! tempur-pedic the most highly recommended bed in america. tempur-pedic is rated #1 in comfort. sleep satisfaction. and back support. it fits the curvature of your body but you don't sink in and it is firm. proprietary tempur material suppresses motion transfer. this means that when you get in or out of bed, you won't disturb your partner. that's amazing. that's amazing. tempur-pedic, the most highly recommended bed in america. call the number on back to our continuing coverage of tropical storm irene. i'm fredricka whitfield with brooke baldwin. we're talking about some 4 million people without power all along the east coast in the mid-atlantic area in the nation's capitol, maryland, d.c., va, 1 million without power, a lot of people still shaken by the earthquake. >> what was it, last tuesday? 5.8 magnitude. >> that's right. national cathedral among those structures shaken. athena jones, give us an idea of what kind of damage. a lot of toppled trees throughout east coast. >> reporter: well, exactly. as you can see, rather a large tree fell here at the national cathedral overnight toppling another tree. this is one of the 200 or more trees that have fallen in the d.c. area, brought down by the storm. but i've got to tell you, as you guys were mentioning, this site, this cathedral has seen a rather interesting week in terms of natural events. the earthquake on tuesday toppled some of the main spires you see at the top in the back of the cathedral on the backside, toppled those so, the cathedral has been closed. on a normal sunday like today they would have four church services. that was combined into one and moved to a synagogue nearby. this is what we're seeing in the d.c. area. we were in alexandria this morning, didn't see flooding there. haven't seen a lot of flooding in d.c. mostly about people who have been out of power. about 1.5 million or more if you count virginia, maryland, d.c. in the last couple hours. those numbers are changing a lot as repair crews get out. we also know of no confirmed fatalities here in d.c. but four in virginia, all caused by fallen trees and one woman was killed in queen ann's county, maryland, when a tree fell on her home. for the most part in terms of flooding it seems like this area has managed to escape the worst, but there have been some fatalities. back to you. >> thanks so much, athena jones at the national cathedral in washington. we're watching the mid-atlantic and watching farther north and rhode island is one spot. we'll speak with the governor eventually. it appears that so far that state has missed the brunt of irene, which is certainly good news for you in rhode island. let's go to kate bolduan. she's standing by in providence with a little bit more of an assessment where you are. i know you mentioned before, you're standing in front of a floodgate which seems to be holding strong. >> reporter: which is very good news for everyone here in providence. that floodgate is called a hurricane barrier. you can see those massive steel gates. those were put down -- or this was built in the 1960s with this exact purpose of trying to protect the city of providence from storm surges. that's said to be able to hold back storm is surges of up to 20-some feet, and they've clearly reached nothing to that as it has passed through. as we said earlier, the story here, you can probably see in my face is the strong winds. we have been getting some rain but nothing like the downpours that we've seen in other parts of the northeast as the hurricane, then tropical storm irene has passed through. the strong winds they're dealing with here in providence and will continue to deal with. it sounds like at least well into today. we've been seeing some sustained winds, 30-some miles an hour. we're hearing xwuss are near 60 miles an hour in places earlier today. reports of even stronger gusts in other pars of rhode island and mass. really where the concern of residents has been. i don't know if you can likely here it, but that bridge behind me, i'm seeing a lot of car traffic that's been picking up for the last hour or so. we're seeing a lot of people, the rain has tapered off, a lot of people getting a little stir crazy, if you will, getting back out on the roads, which is not advisable as we have heard from many federal and state officials to this point. but strong winds still remain a concern here as we've been seeing a lot of downed trees that have not been removed from the roads yet. i'm sure that emergency crews have a lot they're dealing with here throughout providence as well as throughout rhode island as well as the rest of the northeast. so right now that's a lot of what we're seeing at this point. brooke, fredricka? >> i can see some cars passing. thank you so much. let's ask the governor if that's a good or not. we'll speak with officials in rhode island, saying nearly every single community in that state feeling the effects of what's now tropical storm irene. on the phone as promised rhode island governor lincoln chafee. governor, are you breathing a sigh of relief yet or not quite? >> yes, we're getting there. certainly the power outages we have to deal with now and some of the roadblockages with the trees down, but out here in newport is really the boating capital you might see internationally if not nationally here in new por harbor. we're getting through that pretty well, also. i've traveled to various harbors and despite the high winds i think we've come through it okay so far. >> what are some of your top concerns, sir, as we are further along here into our sunday? we were talking winds, we're talking toppled trees. are you advising people to stay home? >> yes. it's the power lines that come down, the electrical wires you have to be careful of. falling trees, have to be careful about that. the winds are still strong in rhode island. >> just looking behind you, a lot of folks have come out already, kind of assessing things, there's no rain. for the most part people are going to feel like the danger is gone, they'll want to venture out. are you going to manage that? >> that's one of the things we're concerned about, the strong gusts still could occur and have a tree come down. people are getting out. you can't see behind me, new but newport harbor is just off to the west of me here and the boats are still rocking out there. the water is all white with foam. still strong winds. >> i know people are concerned about their boats, so to the boating community, how did those vessels do during that storm overnight? >> i'm surprised how well they've done. i've visited several ports and i haven't seen yet a single boat up against the rocks or the shore, which usually you see. they chafe through the mooring lines and get cast free and end up on the shore. i have not seen that. i'm very surprised. >> very good. all the best to you and your efforts and whatever cleanup you have to do there. glad so far so good. governor lincoln chafee, thanks so much. we'll be on the air for multiple hours talking to you about the aftermath really of tropical storm irene. we're going to take you to new jersey, poppy harlow, who has been there, as well, getting really a firsthand look at some of the flooding there. first take a look at some of these amazing images of irene as the storm, once a hurricane, now a tropical storm, slammed into the northeast today. vrrooom...vrrroooomm vroom vrrooom vrrroooomm vrrroooomm vrroom vrrrooomm vrrroooooooommmmmm mmmm mm. setting that goal to become a principal. but, i have to support my family, so how do i go back to school? 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[ boy ] slurpably fun and a good source of calcium. discover customersl are getting five percent cashback bonus at the pump... and at many of the places their summer plans take them. it pays to switch, it pays to discover. what makes us number one in motorcycle insurance? we love bikes. we love riders. and most of all, we love to ride. perfect hair every time. leading the pack in motorcycle insurance. now, that's progressive. call or click today. welcome back to our continuing coverage of now tropical storm irene. take a look at some of the images you've been sending to us. in new jersey, flooding is the big problem in a good part of the northeast. this ireporter happens to be a professional photographer for the new jersey devils hockey team. he says the water reached above his knees and that he saw a park bench that had moved -- he saw that bench had been lifted and moved across the street. that is the force of the water that so many people along the eastern seaboard have experienced. new york still getting a good brunt of tropical storm irene. it is still coming down. it also is serving up some pretty severe winds, as well. we've got on the phone with us right now new york governor andrew cuomo. you've had a chance, governor, to get around your state, your state already experiencing at least a million people without power. what have you assessed? >> well, as you said, the storm -- the worst of the storm has passed, but we're feeling its damage all across the state. flooding, power outages, about a million people, number of people -- we've lost a number of people to fatalities from flooding. so the worst has passed. it's not as bad as some predicted, but the damage is extensive. ? and now what about rescues? there have been quite a few rescues that have taken place in some parts of your state. give me an idea of all that's transpired there, what kind of assistance you've been able to get from both the state as well as the federal level on those searches. >> well, one of the advantages we did have is we had advance notice, we had a few days to prepare, and the level of intergovernmental coordination has really been exemplary. the federal government was very helpful. they helped to expedite the process. the relations between the state government and the local government have been very good. and i think that's one of the reasons why we've been able to reduce the amount of damage that we actually had, because we did prepare. but, look, it's a million people without power. that could go on for days in some cases. that numberdays. in some cases. that number could grow. the storm is not done with us yet, rivers are still cresting and the ground is saturated. i wouldn't be surprised we don't have more trees down and more people losing power. we're going to be dealing with this for days at a minimum. >> governor cuomo, it's brook bald win, i know to bolster the state's response, you made the call to deploy double the number of new york national guard soldiers. can you tell me where the majority of those are responding? what are the greatest areas of need in your state and your biggest concern? >> there are two areas. we were trying to gauge where the storm was actually going to hit and there were different models and different tracks. the greatest damage has been done on long island actually. nassau, suffolk counties where over half of the all people in the state have lost power. that's the predominance of the flooding. that's on long island. we also have a problem in the cat skill area of the state, mid hudson, a lot of creeks and rivers have been cresting and flooding. we've had a loss of life there. going forward i don't want new yorkers to get over confident and think it's over. it's not over. there's no reason for new yorkers to be coming out of their homes. shouldn't be on the streets or roads. let the emergency personnel do their jobs. stay in your home and enjoy your family. read a good book but it's not over until it's over. irene is not done with us yet. >> governor andrew cuomo, thanks for your time. a lot of images that we were watching, some of the pictures you snapped as assessing the damage, thanks so much for your time. >> not too far from new york we have new jersey. a lot of what the governor described also a huge fear in new jersey as well. let's go to poppy harlow live in see caucus. talk to me about what you're seeing around you and how big of a concern is flooding in secaucus. >> reporter: the sun is out. this is the first time i've seen the sun since friday afternoon. we've been reporting throughout the weekend. it's deceiving because the think the storm is passed and it is all fine. that's not the case. we are standing here with the mayor of secaucus, we'll go into his house in a minute was it is severely flooded. how many people were affected by flooding here and et cetera? >> two thirds of the town without power. at least a third probably more has been affected by severe to moderate flooding. >> just to situate us, five miles from new york city. we are 100 feet right now from the hackensack river. that literally flowed into the back of the mayor's house. do you want to take us inside and we can see the situation? you have emergency personnel here. we're hooked up to a lot of wires obviously but we're going to go down into the basement, his son's home and give you a sense of how bad this flooding is. they did have some time to prepare which is good. they got the furniture off the ground but come here with me and you're going to see. let's go down. here, fred, this was his son's bedroom until yesterday when the storm started. i'm in the water now. it is at least up to my waist. you've got a couch, chair, the bed back there laundry room, all completely flooded fredericka. this is the traed mill, everything down here completely destroyed. this is the mayor's house and one of 50 houses in this area that are completely full of water. so the storm wasn't as bad as what we expected fredericka, but folks are dealing with this with the aftermath. >> most of the water came in from sort of basement windows or did it actually come in through the first floor then flow down? >> reporter: she's asking where the water came in. you told me the water came from both sides to your house, right? >> it came in from both directions. in the rear of my house is a part of the wetland of the hacken sack river, 50 feet from my back door. in the front of my house up the road a couple hundred yards down is the hackensack river. it came from the front three or four over my front door and same thing towards the back door. >> they had a chance to put the furniture up on higher floods which is good but this area secaucus, like a lot of new jersey is marshland. that's why they are dealing with such severe flooding. >> poppy, i'm curious for people in new jersey and new york, do they have hurricane insurance? >> reporter: she's asking if people have hurricane insurance? i know you're covered by flood insurance. what should people that are going through this right now trying to get through to their insurance companies. do most here have hurricane insurance? you lived here 20 years we haven't had a hurricane. >> this is the first hurricane i've had but we do have flood insurance. anyone who lives in the flood zone would have flood insurance through fema. >> they would be covered. >> they should be covered, yes. we'll go all around the town and see where else there's severe flooding. >> all the best to the mayor and his neighbors. >> we appreciate that. >> that's the first time we've really seen the damage done by this hurricane. >> in one person's home. >> in one person's home. >> we've got a wide sweep of the kind of damage you're seeing in the northeast particularly, along the east coast. all of these big trees have come down and the ground is saturated from a wet august. we'll continue our look at now tropical storm irene, more amazing pictures that have been sending us. one call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit... with all you need to enroll. put their trust in aarp medicare supplement insurance. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. the prices are competitive. i can keep my own doctor. and i don't need a referral to see a specialist. call now to get a free information kit. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. and the advantages don't end there. choose from a range of medicare supplement plans... that are all competitively priced. we have a plan for almost everyone, so you can find one that fits your needs and budget. with all medicare supplement plans, there are virtually no claim forms to fill out. plus you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare. and best of all, these plans are... the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. when they told me these plans were endorsed by aarp... i had only one thing to say... sign me up. call the number on your screen now... and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. ask me. if you think even the best bed can only lie there... ask me what it's like... when my tempur-pedic moves... ...talk to someone who owns an adjustable version of the most highly recommended bed in america... ask me about my tempur advanced ergo. ask me about having all the right moves. these are real tempur-advanced ergo owners! find one for yourself. check out twitter. try your friends on facebook... see what they have to say...unedited. it goes up... ask me what it's like to get a massage ---any time you want. ...it goes down... ergo...nomics... ergo...nomics... tempur-pedic brand owners are more satisfied than owners of any traditional mattress brand. 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