destroyed. this didn't end when the wind died down. this was and continues to be a very big deal and water is the reason why. you are looking at where the town of prattsville, new york used to be. parts of it washed away. everyone got away safely. they don't have much to return to. the correspondent who shot this compared it to joplin, missouri, after the tornado. she was stranded by rising flood waters. she joins us shortly. still stranded there actually tonight. irene dumped as much as a foot of rain on the northeast onto waterlogged ground and full rivers and reservoirs. look at that truck trying to get through the water. the water has to go somewhere. it doesn't care what or who is in the way. this scene in new jersey where big military trucks were even having trouble getting around. from virginia to vermont rivers and streams overflowing. some above record flood levels or soon to be, largely because of flooding damage from hurricane irene could hit $7 billion making it one of the ten most expensive disasters in american history. up to 5 million people are still without power. lines are down nearly everywhere irene hit. several people were electrocuted. some drowned. the death toll rose to 27 when we learned of three deaths in vermont. more on the danger shortly, but first how we got there. saturday morning, 7:00 a.m., hurricane irene makes landfall as a category one hurricane. waves slammed the north carolina coastline as the storm had winds up to 85 miles per hour. >> look at this. nothing but foam. the sea is white. just all churned up. whipped by this wind and, again, we are getting hit with some of the strong gusts right now. what you are looking at here is houses that are about under water in places. this is the bogue sound. you are looking at the bogue sound that's come inland here. there goes the camera. the wind and the rain. we have waves literally racing inland. >> irene drops 15 inches of rain causing massive flooding before moving north. in virginia, rivers swell, neighborhood streets fill with water. >> this is normally a road but it is a huge lake. it's a few blocks long and about three to four feet deep, way too deep for your car. >> irene is still a category one hurricane when it hits new jersey sunday morning and winds and driving rain pound the shoreline. >> these waves are scary. >> in long beach, new york, waves surged beyond sand barriers to protect the city. >> you get a sense of the winds on the coastline. this boardwalk now -- it's breached it. street flooding is still a huge issue. >> a very serious storm. a category one storm. there have been fatalities. >> whoa. let's get out of here! let's get out of here. >> new york city is spared the brunt of the storm. only heavy rain and flooding in areas of lower manhattan. as irene continues, north vermont is pummelled. >> i was just woken up 15 minutes ago. the policeman knocking on my door telling me to get out of town. we are flooded. >> hotels and residents are evacuated as waves crested the banks of the river. >> looks like the wetstone brook is flooding on route 9 in west brattleboro. bridge is out. main street is closed. haven't seen it like this in a long time. >> with waters continuing to rise and rivers increase in many states, heavy flooding could be a problem in the days to come. >> amazing how fast the water is moving. that's breaking news now. rivers still rising. vermont faces the worst flooding since 1927. 260 roads affected. numerous bridges including some straight off a picture postcard. this is a covered bridge just getting overcome with water. gary, what's the situation? >> reporter: we are in the northern part of vermont near the state's biggest city of burlington. these are waters from the winewski river but the river is behind me about a quarter mile. this is a street and the flooding in northern vermont is just starting to crest as we speak a day after the tropical storm came through. but the worst damage and worst devastation is not in the northern part of the state. it's in the south where we spent much of the day. that's where creeks and brooks became raging rapids. hundreds of places that in some cases were just ponds where children used to swim became rapids. in three cases, there were fatalities. three people dead in vermont, another missing. it was incredible the sights we saw. at one place we saw rapids going through a building that had collapsed and was hanging over the waters. old timers we talked to have never seen anything like this. the state hasn't seen flooding like this for more than eight decades. fortunately the waters receded but what we see during these catastrophes, the water recedes but problems don't. many of the homes, hundreds of homes in the state of vermont are full of mud now. here in northern vermont as soon as the waters start to recede homeowners will see their homes are full of mud, too and there are repairs to make. vermont is known for skiing, green mountains. it's not known for hurricanes or tropical storms. people are suffering greatly today. back to you. >> how long has the water been at that height at that location? >> right now it's really in the process of cresting. within the next couple of hours, authorities believe it will diminish. by tomorrow all this water, and there is a huge amount of water with a strong current. they think it will be gone. that's amazing about hurricanes and tropical storms. you see the water. we spent a lot of time in new orleans after hurricane katrina because of the levee failure. that water stuck around a long time. this water will stick around but the problems here will remain for a long time. >> appreciate the update. a few hours west, a small town has suffered major damage. more video of the area around prattsville new york, established 1824. briefly a boom town for hemlock trees used in leather processing. there were 300 occupied homes here. now that's anyone's guess how many homes might be able to be occupied. megan cruz and her photographer from cable news are responsible for the video you are seeing. you said the town looked like it was wiped off the map. >> definitely. we arrived here probably late afternoon. this is not in our usual coverage but when we came it was all water. i would not have known there was an established community unless somebody said, do you see that house there, there are supposed to be other houses there. >> you have been trapped there since last night, right? >> i have. let me give you an idea of the flooding. if you could follow me over here, can you see where the creek is now? imagine where i'm standing, that creek flooded to this point and a mile out of town even more. definitely this is flooding that no one has seen here before. the smaller roads around have been flooded. we are told there is no way for us to get out. >> for residents there, what comes next? when can they go back to their homes? >> it's on a case-by-case basis. some homes have been flooded in the basement. others, not so much. even more actually. they are saying some of the areas, two shelters or they are staying with family and friends on higher ground. it's different for every person. a lot of people have been affected. you can see the video we shot. this town has just been devastated. there are parts of the main street that there are plots of land people are like, you know, there was a gas station there. there was a home there. it's just land that's been swept away. right now it's just recovery. >> have officials -- do they have a toll of how many properties have been destroyed. how many homes. >> they are still serving the area. of 800 residents in town, all have been accounted for. they did have to rescue 31 people on sunday. in terms of people they are still evaluating the property. >> you will stay there tonight for the same reason? >> that's what i heard. our assignment desk called me up and said they have spoken to the sheriff and the roads around us haven't been opened yet. i hope i can try to figure something out. at this point, yes, it seems we may have to stay another night. >> it's great they were able to rescue all the folks and no one lost a life or was injured. megan cruz, good luck to you. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> let's turn to the bigger picture and chad myers in the cnn weather center. what does it look like? >> a lot of flooding still to go. we have all these purple maps now. purple spots. i want you to go to water.weather.gov tonight. if you are in these areas where the water has to run downhill to get to the ocean or the sound whether it's new jersey or into vermont or lake champlain, you can go and see what your creek or stream is forecast to do. it's a great website. you may want to take a hard look at what you might have to expect. something else people in north carolina had no idea they would expect today -- tornadoes. spinning storms headed to the outer banks where they can't even get out of there at this point in time. next i want to show you rutland vermont. can't even get out of town. our ireporters said all the bridges are gone. and then tropical depression number 12. i know you want to hear about it. it's katia -- k-a-t-i-a -- kah-tee-ah is the pronu nunnunp. it's for hurricane katrina. they recycle names every six years but not if it is a memorable storm. tropical depression 12 forecasted to be a category two in five days. not far from where irene was. this looks more like a right-turning gutter ball than a land falling hurricane. obviously, anderson, we all know about the forecasts, how they come and go, turn left and right. too early to tell. we'll be watching. >> you see the pictures, hear the reporting and wonder what you can do. of you can get involved on cnn.com/impact. we're going to stay on the story throughout the hour. update you on new developments. let us know what you think. we're on facebook. follow me on twitter. up next, a cnn exclusive in libya. nic robertson locating the pan am 103 bomber. the only person held responsible for the bombing of that plane and for all those deaths. stayed alive for two years after beg released from prison. you will hear what his family has to say about libya. and self-proclaimed prophet and child rapist warren jeffs. the latest on his condition. we'll tell you why he's now in a coma and he looks different than he did at trial. and whether the state can keep him alive against his will. >> new reports tonight in the disappearance of robin gardener who vanished in aruba. reports the man she went with made what sounds like a stunning admission. see what we found out and what authorities are doing about it. that and more when "360" continues. anananananannouncer ] this...is the network. a living, breathing intelligence that's helping drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities... committed to delivering the most advanced mobile broadband experience to help move business... forward. ♪ to help move business... forward. or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're helping set opportunity in motion. whether it can be done safely and responsibly. at exxonmobil we know the answer is yes. when we design any well, the groundwater's protected by multiple layers of steel and cement. most wells are over a mile and a half deep so there's a tremendous amount of protective rock between the fracking operation and the groundwater. natural gas is critical to our future. at exxonmobil we recognize the challenges and how important it is to do this right. handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? 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[ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. talk to your doctor, and take care of what you have to take care of. a lot of late news from libya tonight. a claim that thomas gadhafi is son. he was head of the 32nd brigade. that's video of him visiting children in the hospital. reportedly killed in battle. an opposition official say he was wounded, died in a local hospital and was buried nearby. meantime his wife, his daughter and two sons, hannibal and mohamed have fled to algeria according to the foreign ministry of algeria. the new foreign government wants them back. they left behind a decadent life. officials uncovered case after case, hundreds of bottles of fine bordeax and cristal champagne and the family's nanny, horribly burned. she said she was tied and tortured by hannibal's wife who poured boiling water over her. her failing was refusing to beat hannibal's toddler who wouldn't stop crying. over the weekend nic robertson located the pan am 103 bomber. here is his report. >> reporter: we found abdelbaset al megrahi's villa in an up scale part of town. at least six security cameras and flood lights outside. this is where al megrahi has been living for years. we'll knock on the door, see if we can get an answer. hello? for 15 minutes or so, nothing. i'm not sure if they have heard me. let's try the last ditch means to shout over the wall. hello? hello! then all of the sunday, someone comes. nothing prepares me for what i see. megrahi apparently in a coma, his aging mother at his side. >> we just give him oxygen and nobody give us the advice and some food by injection. >> reporter: mm-hmm. >> if you see, his body is weak. >> reporter: he'd been expected to die almost two years ago, but convicted pan am 103 bomber abdelbaset al megrahi lives, only just. this wasn't the way he looked when he was released from a scottish jail two years ago. he came home to a hero's welcome, freed on compassionate grounds because doctors said he would be dead in three months. >> the only man in libya held responsible for the bombing so far. nic robertson joins us from tripoli with arwa damon. his son commanded the feared militia in libya. reportedly, according to opposition, he's been killed. do we know about the circumstances surrounding his alleged death? opposition forces claimed before they have captured or killed people and it turns out not to be the case. >> that's right. in fact they have claimed khamis was killed on a number of occasions and that turned out not to be true. they are saying now he was killed in battle on sunday around 40 miles to the southeast of tripoli. they say they buried his body in the desert but they have put forward no real evidence. there are no images to corroborate their claims. they have in the past made allegations that certain members of gadhafi's family were detained. they then admitted it was part of the psychological warfare. until there is concrete evidence that he was killed this should be treated with a certain level of skepticism, anderson. >> other members of the gadhafi family have fled to algeria. do we know how they were able to get there? it's not just women in the family. there are also two gadhafi sons -- mohamed and is it -- unis, i think his name is. hannibal, i'm sorry. >> mohamed and hannibal. and their children fled. i think most people believe gadhafi and his family were in the south and would have driven westward to the border with algeria. the crazy thing about the situation now. algeria is the only country that still recognizes gadhafi as a legitimate ruler here. they say they have taken the family in on humanitarian grounds. already the national transition council here says we want them back, we want to put them on trial -- unspecified charges so far. beyond that, they say if algeria doesn't hand them back, they will treat it as an act of aggression against the will of the libyan people. they are drawing a line in the sand here. you get the impression that they don't want moammar gadhafi and anyone else going there. it's a message to al jeer ygeri too. >> we have seen a number of sons like saif, khamis who was allegedly killed with an active role in the militia, the government. are these the playpoissoboplayb. i know a bunch gave money to entertainers in st. bart's and clubs. are these people living off the state getting money from businesses and traveling the world. were they playboys? >> it would appear to be the case. hannibal had instances of allegations that during various visits to europe he was beating up police officers. on a number of occasions he was accused of breaking his wife's nose. mohamed is gadhafi's oldest son, if i'm not mistaken, from a different mother from hannibal. neither of the sons have charges brought against them in the international criminal court. algeria saying it is allowing these specific family members access to the country on humanitarian grounds, but this is something that the national transitional council doesn't want to be an option for moammar gadhafi or saim or khamis. they do not want them escaping justice. >> we have pictures of hannibal's home, now occupied by opposition members. the nanny said she was burned with boiling water from hannibal's wife because she refused to beat their toddler son. quite a scene there. nic, you had remarkable images. you got into the home of the lockerbie bomber who was released by the scottish government two years ago. he looked in really bad shape. i feel like i had seen pictures of him a few months ago in which he was at some sort of event. it looks like he's declining quickly. was that legitimate? you don't think -- he wasn't faking it while you were there, was he? >> you know, when you go into a situation like that you think in the back of your mind, are they faking it? i saw megrahi two years ago. he was ten feet from me on a stage at an event after he came back to libya. he looked much better than he does now. i got the impression that his family were tense, nervous. you got the impression they were low at that moment. just sitting in the room waiting for him, in a way, to die, if you will. he didn't look -- i kept looking. i went back to look at the video, did his eyes move, how was his head on the pillow, did it look like the pillow had been there a long time. his thin looked skin. when you looked at his wrists they were thin. this did look to be a man perhaps on his last days. but not being a doctor, not doing proper medical checks you can't say with certainty his real state of health here. >> i know the u.s. still thinks megrahi should be behind bars. the national transitional council said they wouldn't extradite him but they are backtracking now, aren't they? >> they have left a bit of wiggle room here. they said, look, okay, when a government is formed they can decide and determine here. but there does seem to be a political element. they want megrahi's tribe to join the national transition council away from gadhafi. gadhafi went to great lengths to bring megrahi back to