least half over land. take a look at fort pierce. melbourne has a high tied at midnight. worst possible outcome for this. west palm is going to have hurricane force winds but on the backside it should not have the storage surge. everyone from the eye northward is going to have hour of hour of pounding surge, heavy rain and hurricane force winds that extend from the coast inland 60 miles. that s well past i-95. here is jacksonville. never in the history of the tropical season in the tlabtic have a hurricane that makes land fall north of daytona. if the system stays over water it is going to continue the fuel the storm. that is its gasoline. if it moves inland it could create wild impact. catastrophic area but only for six or eight hours. this is going to stay over
good morning to you all. welcome to this cnn sunday morning, a special edition here. suzanne malveaux joining me, t.j. holmes here with you. we have special coverage of hurricane irene which is getting closer and closer and closer to new york city. anderson cooper is live in greenwich village there. john king on long beach for us this morning as well. already what a morning it s already been. very well foreshadowing the day that s in store for new york and north. an incredibly massive hurricane, rain-making hurricane irene, continuing her trek up the eastern seaboard. take a look at this. still a category 1 storm, 75 mile-an-hour winds. take a look at these pictures, though, the eye could be moving over atlantic city, new jersey right about now. we are keeping a close eye on that. the current track has irene moving towards, of course, new york city. all eyes on new york. they ve seen some flooding in some areas already. a number of power outages at least, 400,000 reported
they are in a low risk class. they have made the choice to take the risk. what kind of storm surge can your home take? my realization of my home is 15 feet. i am a black block back from the sound which is an expecting an eight-foot storage surge. i may have water under my house, but it is unlikely i am certain i won t have any in my house. how about the houses in the area, are they on stilts or at a high elevation, or are there houses that will be flooded? yes, ma am, they recall by law required to be built on pilings at least to an elevation of nine feet. ever been in a hurricane before? yes, ma am, this is about my 6th. what s it like? it is no fun. it is miserable. it is very noisy and uncomfortable during the night of the storm and the winds. the next day are you likely to be without power.
to 8 feet of storage surge in an area that s been pretty heavily saturated this month of august. right there. look at that. it heads off to the north, so you get it moving adjacent to the inlets, the chesapeake bay and the water has nowhere to go. it rushing into a lot of base, also the inlets and the harbors, and that s why that storm surge definitely could be a lot stronger than you would normally see with a category 1 storm. thanks for that and standing by as you have been all morning. let s go to luke russert in alexandria, virginia where things are jovial because of the folks in the area because they re a number of hours away from this coming their way. you have boat owners concerned about the safety of their boats. good morning, luke. reporter: good morning, alex. that s a point we re talking about. boat owners right now who kept their boats in the harbors here are doubling down to secure
major threat for states in elsa s path. the coast guard rescued 15 people and is searching for nine others, missing after a boat capsized off the coast of key west. utility crews now trying to restore power to 26,000 customers in the state. i put up a pvc board. we sandbagged. reporter: this motel owner in sunset beach grateful it wasn t needed, not this time. reporter: you breathing a sigh of relief today? absolutely. no doubt about it. a lot of work before, a lot of work after to put everything back together, but better than having to deal with storage surge. reporter: but across the eastern seaboard, millions are still bracing for wind, rain. and the threat of tornadoes through the end of the week. catie beck, nbc news, tampa. also in florida, a difficult day in surfside. the mission there shifting from rescue to recovery after the biggest one-day increase in the condo collapse death toll. morgan chesky is there. morgan, what are officials saying? reporter: yeah, kate,