international, who are watching our special coverage of hurricane irene, a category 1 storm, a massive storm that is on its move, up the eastern seaboard. it came ashore a couple of hours ago, making landfall near camp lookout, north carolina. there's new video we are getting from nearby, atlantic beach shows you what irene has left behind already in some areas. the hurricane storm surge swamping the town with ocean water. also, irene is spinning its way northward to some of the biggest cities on the eastern coast of the united states. cities like new york, washington, baltimore, boston, cities that aren't used to being prepared for a hurricane. they could all get slammed by this storm this weekend. right now, irene, a category 1 storm, it is pushing sustained winds of about 85 miles an hour. irene has also claimed at least one life in north carolina. we do have special hurricane coverage for you this morning that spans that coastline, from north carolina all the way up the atlantic seaboard. we're live in washington, new york city, both big cities are in the hurricane's potential storm track. but we need to start with where the hurricane made landfall, and that is in north carolina. i spoke with the north carolina governor, bev perdue, about an hour ago about the damage she's already seeing from this storm. >> we expect the whole east, just about 43 counties, to be affected in some way or the other. 3.5 million people are the total number who is live in that area. so they've all battened down their hatches. we are also in the middle of a robust agricultural season, and so later this afternoon, we'll start trying to figure out the crop damage. we are very concerned, still, about surges and flooding through many of the communities of eastern north carolina. >> let's move back to north carolina. there's our reynolds wolf, who has been in these elements for the past several hours. reynolds, hello to you once again. >> reporter: hi, t.j. great to hear from you. i'll tell you, the situation here on the outer banks, specifically kitty hawk, the rain is intermittent, but one thing that's just been continuous for the last ten minutes, at least since i've been out here, is just blasted, absolutely blasted by the sand. it's like a stinging sensation, almost like these microskrcopic bits of shrapnel, just blowing into us. what i can tell you, if you were look at this from high above, it looks like a giant atmospheric saw blade marching its way to the north. what it's doing at ground level, picking up that moisture behind me, bringing those waves right along the shore, and i can tell you, they're coming right up to the very, very edge of the sand dune. now, you have to remember that this island, the outer banks, it's not made on limestone or some sort of coral reef. this is just pure sand. and with that in mind, it's very, very subject to serious erosion. it was back in 2003 that hurricane isobel cut a channel through parts of the outer banks that was nearly 2,000 feet wide and at the same time a depth of about 15 feet. army corps of engineers came back in, did the great job they did and fixed that problem. we might see more problems develop up and down the outer banks. got some good news, though. some of the good news that we have to report, t.j., that's new this hour, our photojournalist of cnn went out and about, did a little bit of reconnaissance in the neighborhood here, couldn't find a soul. not a single business is open, but most importantly, you don't have people out and about exploring things. that's the great news. whoever happens to be here in kitty hawk thankfully is doing what the state and the local governments have recommended. they've sought shelter, they're in safe spots, and that's the way we like it. that's the good news. conditions are probably going to get worse over the next couple of hours. i would expect right around noontime, maybe around 12:30, perhaps even 1:00 is when we should get the full furry y of s system. then things will rapidly improve as they have a bit farther south where john zarrella is. things are certainly getting worse up towards the north over the next several days. >> reynolds, we appreciate you once again, hang tight. we'll check in with you again shortly. let's move now to our jason carroll. he is in atlantic city, new jersey. good morning to you. are people there listening to the warnings and getting out of the way of this storm, jason? >> reporter: so far, i think they have been, t.j. as we drove through atlantic city, it was really like a ghost town. as you know, atlantic city under a mandatory evacuation. right now i'm standing on atlantic city's famed boardwalk. as you can see, ocean right out there is still not looking too bad at this point. we have a light rain that's coming down, but obviously, things expected to get much worse as the hours wear on. lots of concern about how the city will fare and how the boardwalk will fare. right over there is the famous steel pier. during 1934 when there was a major hurricane that came through here, it was badly damaged. the boardwalk was badly damaged, in fact, and there's of can concern about how it's going to fare during hurricane irene. i want to bring in vince jones with me right now, t.j. he is the emergency management coordinator. i want to talk to you about a number of things. first of all, the mandatory evacuation. looked like a ghost town when we drove through here. obviously, a lot of residents decided to leave. a lot of the guests in the hotels were forced to leave. how many are left and how did it go in terms of evacuation? >> up and down the barrier islands in atlantic county, again, like you said, we had a mandatory evacuation that went into effect yesterday, 6:00 a.m. all the -- for the most part, most of the residents are gone, have evacuated the barrier islands. there were a few resident who is did opt to stay behind. when we met with those residents, and we did meet face-to-face, we explained the storm, explained the severity of the storm, explained why it was very important that they do leave. some did change their mind at that point and agreed with our local officials and did leave. some still opted to remain behind. we explained the circumstances of them staying behind and they fully understood that. for the most part, as you said, most of the barrier islands, if anybody's watching it on the media, these are ghost towns, which is exactly what we wanted to accomplish. >> reporter: also, all 11 major casinos here in atlantic city closed -- forced to close, in fact. this is the resorts casino right behind you, t.j., this is all boarded up. this is what the casinos are doing. they're boarding up their front -- to the boardwalk. they're also putting sandbags down. this has happened twice before. once in 1985, i'm told, and once again in 2006, when the government shut down. in '85, it was another hurricane. that's got to be a big hit also for the city itself to have shut down these casinos? >> it is. but i've got to tell you, the relationship we have with the casino industry, with the state, the governor's office, city of atlantic city, we use the term "partnership" and it truly is a partnership. every one of the casinos already had their preparations well before we even met with them, and we met with them again for a final meeting yesterday afternoon. a lot of them had already started closing, already taken care of their employees. and that was their primary concern, was the visitors that were in the room, more so, their employees. and they wanted to make sure that people were safe. >> reporter: and vince, you've been through a lot of storms. and we talked about, t.j., actually, where we're standing right now here on the boardwalk, again, things look not too bad right now, expected to get much, much worse. i had asked you if it would be all right for us to stand here as the storm gets worse, and you said no. because you expect the ocean which we see out there, the water, to actually come beyond where we're standing right now. >> based on the forecast, with the hurricane-force winds we're going to feel, the high tide, the storm surge on top of that high tide, where we're standing right now, we would be underwater. the waves are going to come crashing over this boardwalk. they're going to end up with water and waves pounding the other side of these buildings out to pacific avenue, atlantic avenue, the torrential rains that are going to fall. we are going to have more water -- it's going to almost look like the ocean is sitting in town. >> reporter: so it sounds to you it's the storm surge that you're more concerned with rather than the wind? >> the reason for the evacuation is we need to get the people away from the water. that wall of water that's going to come over in the next few hours and into tomorrow, we need to get people away from that water. because that water would kill more people, you know, and of course, the wind as well, but more people would have been severely injured and killed from that wall of water and we needed to get the people out of harm's way. >> vince jones, emergency management coordinator, we really appreciate you coming down and doing this for us today. i know you've been through a lot of storms. once again, the concern is that the ocean that you see out there, the water out there will eventually be where we're standing now. t.j.? >> all right. jason carroll, good to have you with us this morning. we appreciate you. also, a little north of where he is right now, hoboken, new jersey, that's a little bit closer to new york city, the mayor there, jacqui jeras, we reported a short time ago, issuing a mandatory evacuation order for the ground unit for people in hoboken. so they're expecting that water as well. and like you mentioned, you've got somebody who lives on the sixth floor, you might want to knock on the door and say, hey, can i hang a little bit? >> don't bother your friend on the 16th story, by the way, because then you start worrying about wind issues and wind damage, possibly. probably flying debris that would break open were window, not the strength of the winds. this is a category 1 storm now, 85 miles per hour. and in the next hour, we're going to have an update on this intensity from the hurricane center. so make sure you stay tuned, because we likely see some more changes. but as this thing is making its way through the pamlico sound, very little change in intensity should be expected. you'd normally think, landfall, okay, it's going to weaken quite a bit. this is very marshy, very swampy, so we're not expecting a whole lot of weakening. here you can see, here's that red box, the tornado watch that's in effect. this thing's moving north-northeast very slightly. it's going to be hours and hours and hours that you're in this in the virginia beach area. hours and hours and hours across the delmarva. look at this, washington, d.c., you're already starting to get right on the cusp here of that rain beginning to move in. you're going to be in for a very wet day with the worst conditions coming in later on for tonight. and look at up here, into the northeast. we're starting to see those first rain bands. you heard rob marciano mention it across new york city and long island. there's really no time left for you to get out of the way. let's talk a little bit about impact and how strong these winds are. the tropical storm force winds extend out 260 miles from the center of the storm. so as we take a look at this map, this shows you who's going to be impacted. we're talking about 40 million people in the u.s. are going to be impacted by 50-mile-per-hour winds or greater. we'll zoom in, there you can see the strongest of winds are expected into the eastern carolinas, and then as we head on into the northeast, you can see a couple of those peak areas where they're going to get a little bit stronger, and then we're going to see it here. and this is all based upon the current forecast track, which, by the way, has been looking very good so far. it's really following what we thought it was going to do, at least over the last 24 to 48 hours. so there you can see, through connecticut, just west of providence, through massachusetts, just east of the boston area, on up into new hampshire and even into maine, where we're going to see potentially those category 1 winds. that's why we're going to see so many people without power and why you need to have those emergency kits. and let's go ahead and show you that official forecast track. and more on that timing. this is going to be moving through the outer banks today. it's going to be heading on up towards virginia tonight and the delmarva. as we head into tomorrow, we'll watch for this to move near long island, potentially up into connecticut. and by sunday morning -- or, i'm sorry, monday morning, it's going to be out of here altogether. so we've got the weekend, this is a weekend storm, it's a long duration event. you're going to have a hard time sleeping tonight in places like d.c. on up into philadelphia and new york city. the winds are going to be strong, the rain's going to be heavy, and we're going to see a whole lot of flooding with that 6 to 12 inches of rain. >> jacqui jeras, thank you once again. at 12 minutes past the hour now, i want to turn to coast guard rear admiral william lee. he's a commander for the fifth district of the coast guard. that's, essentially, he handles the mid-atlantic. his responsibility runs from north carolina through new jersey, so this is the guy to talk to who's right now handling things over there where, exactly where this storm is and is headed. sir, we appreciate your time with us this morning. tell me, have you jumped into action just yet? you were prepared, but have you had to react to anything in north carolina just yet, and what do you anticipate? >> yes, good morning. we have repositioned all of our forces that were in the path of the storm, and we are postured to respond as the storm passes and we're going to swing around behind it. what the general public needs to know right now, though, is that where the storm is actively brewing, and just ahead of it, the coast guard is offline. we had to move our assets, our ships, our boats, our airplanes out of the path of it, so that they wouldn't get rendered inoperable. my advice for everybody upwind of this storm is to stay home, use some common sense, don't do any fool-hearted things. the surfers need to stay home. we're working a case right now off of ocean, virginia. we have a 30-foot sailboat with two people on board, that is running -- that is being battered by the storm, and we don't have any boats to get to them. the locals are trying to do their best, but they need to stay home. >> sir, is that the only situation you do have, like that? the one you just mentioned, where two people in this boat are getting battered? do you expect more to come? is that the only active one you're working on right now? >> to my knowledge, that's the son-in-l only one that's active right now. we anticipate there may be more upwind as this thing works its way up the eastern seaboard. these may be people who decided to ride out the storm on their boat and they broke free from their mooring or started dragging anchor. people upstream need to learn from the lessons that they're seeing that are current right now and get off the boats and seek refuge elsewhere. >> and like you said there, sir, you're offline in the area right where the storm is, and i believe you said, just north. i guess, how long does it take you to reposition yourself and get back in there as needs be? >> well, i'm in charlotte right now with my air fleet from elizabeth city, north carolina, and as soon as the storm passes, the weather lays down enough for us to get airborne, we're coming right in behind it. we're going to start doing surveillance, we're going to look at the damage, we're going to be looking for search and rescue wherever and whenever it may happen. >> and you say you're looking for that search and rescue, and i had general honore here talking to me about it a short time ago. he said, that may be the one thing we don't do so well just yet, is to make sure that we know where the most vulnerable people are, people who couldn't evacuate, the elderly. i guess how do you go about? are you literally out there searching for people, or are people, those distress signals in some way, form, or fashion coming to you all via calls and saying, hey, you need to go ahead here and get to this person, head to this neighborhood. how does it work? >> it comes to us in a litany of ways. obviously, people, people -- everybody has a cell phone these days, but the problem is cell phone towers may be inoperable. so that mechanism may not work. boats, many of them, have eperbs on them. these are beacons that light off and let us know that somebody's in peril and give us their exact position. other people may report it, they see something amiss from the beach, but we're not going to know where they are until somebody notifies us, that's why i say, it's absolutely critically important that people understand that there's nobody to go get them right now if they're doing foolhardy things in the midst of this storm. >> you say foolhardy things, you mention that boat and those two people on board being battered right now, y'all can't go get them, don't know what their situation is. but do you have confidence that maybe you won't be that busy because people listened and they're doing what they're supposed to do and they evacuated and they're not on a boat and they didn't hunker down in their house and try to ride it out foolhardily? >> well, we hope for the best, prepare for the worst. i'm hoping we won't have any busy in the next three days. >> and how long will you be hanging tight there? i know you're watching this storm? but how long before you anticipate y'all will be on the move? >> well, given the progression of this storm up the coast, i predict that we're going to have to stay hunkered down here in charlotte until late this evening or at first light tomorrow morning. but we're going to be airborne just as soon as we can get over there and be postured to respond to search and rescue. >> well, rear admiral william lee. sir, i hope it's all right if we call on you once again. you say you're hunkered down maybe through the night, maybe first thing in the morning you might be back at it again. hopefully we can call on you and get an update if that's all right? >> absolutely, sir. >> thank you for your time this morning, i know it's a busy time for y'all. that's rear admiral william lee in charge of essentially that fifth coast guard district that covers the mid-atlantic, essentially the area that's being hit by the storm and had been hit throughout the weekend. we're at 18 minutes past the hour now. taking a look at one of the cities in irene's sights, they're getting ready in, yes, washington. a city in a state of emergency now. people live there are going to be needing sandbags possibly. storm preps in the nation's capital when we come back. i remember the days before copd. my son and i never missed opening day. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better, and that means... game on! symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. 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