pictures, and live pictures now, and he is going to be bringing in a jobs pro to tackle the crisis, and we will have that live from the white house. you are looking at the rose garden there, and we will bring it live when it happens. the president is set to nominate allan krueger to chair the council of economic advisers, and he is a professor at princeton and served as assistant treasury secretary until next year. and stewards of hurricane irene are expected to cleanout to day. it is not what many predicted, but irene did leave a severe scar. the storm took 24 lives and more than 4 million homes lost power, and $10 billion in estimates of cost. >> talking about hurricane irene, i want the make sure that the folks have the support they need as theys a s.e. s assess a the damages from the storm. that will continue in the days ahead. lit take time it will take time to recover from a storm of this magnitude and the effects are still being felt in the country in new england and states like vermont where there is an enormous amount of flooding. the response continues, but i will make sure that fema and the other agencies are doing everything in their power to help the people on the ground. now, even as we deal with this crises of the moment, our great ongoing challenge as a nation remains how to get this economy growing faster. our challenge is to create a climate where more businesses can post job listings, where folks can find good work to relieve the financial burden they are feel, and where families can regain a sense of economic security in their lives. that is the urgent mission, and what i am fighting for every single day. that is why today, i'm very pleased to nominate allan kr krueger to chair the council of economic advisers. he has studied economic policy inside and outside of government. in the first two years of th thissed aistratithis administration as we were dealing with the fast-moving effect os of this crisis and a crisis that threatened a second great depression, alan's council as chief economist at the treasury department proved invaluable, so i am pleased to appoint alan and i look forward to working with him. as i told him, it is tough to fill the shoes of austan goolsbee who is a great friend and adviser who i have relied on for years, but i have nothing but confidence for alan as he takes on the important role as one of the leaders of my economic team. i rely on the council to give unvarnished recommendations not based on politics or narrow interests, but based on the best evidence, based on what is going to do the most good for the most people in this country. that's more important than ever right now. we need folks in washington to make decisions based on what's best for the country and not what is best for any political party or special interest. that is how we will get through this period of economic uncertainty, and that the only way to do what is necessary to grow the economy. so, it is that spirit that i'm going to be calling upon in the coming days. next week, i will be laying out a series of steps that congress can take immediately. that will put more money in the pockets of working families and middle-class families to make it easier for small businesses to hire people and put construction crews to work to rebuild the nation's roads and airports and all of the measures to help grow this economy. these are bipartisan ideas that are proposals that everybody can get behind no matter what the political affiliation might be. so my hope and expectation is that we can put country before party and get something done for the american people. that is what i will be fighting for. and we have to have a good team to do it, so alan, ap preepreci your willingness to take on this assignment, and i look forward to working with you once again. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you, everybody. i want to go directly to alison kosik at the new york stock exchange to talk a little bit about mr. krueger, the man he has chosen and selected to be a head of the economic team here. alison, what do we know about the economic policy? >> well, we know that he, before he was nominated to this position, he was at the treasury department and once he was there, what he did was he analyzed a lot of the programs like tax incentives and the cash for clunkers program to give incentives for americans the buy cars and those kinds of things and the incentive-filled programs to get this economy moving and the focus that you heard the president speak about is jobs, because, you know, jobs is really what's the job sector is hurting this economy right now, and you know, if americans don't have jobs, they are not going to spend money, and spending the money is really the engine of economic growth to get us moving forward. we have a big jobs report coming out friday and it is expected that 73,000 jobs were added in august, and obviously, that is not even enough to keep up with the population growth, so you will see that there is a lot of focus on krueger, and he will wind up being more of a public voice as the president lays out his steps in how to move the economy forward. >> is there any response, reaction from wall street to this election? >> well, you know what, i did ask several traders on the floor whether or not that is really moving the market right now, and it is not a main driver on wall street, but one thing that wall street is going to be listening for is that big jobs speech that the president is going to be having right after labor day. that is also why we saw the market rally on friday when fed chief ben bernanke was at jackson hole, wyoming, and didn't propose any stimulus package, but the way that wall street interpreted that is that bernanke was not looking to sort of steal the thunder of president obama on his big jobs speech that is expected right after labor day, so there is that expectation here that president obama will come up with something that could help americans, 15 million americans at least get some of them back to work. >> all right. alison, the stock is up this morning as well, so we appreciate a little bit of good news there. thank you, alison. some of the worst flooding took place in a landlocked state. irene dumped six inches of rain on saturated ground in vermont. babbling brooks became rushing rivers. the force of the water washed away four of vermont's historic bridges. the flash floods touched every corner of the state and receded as quickly as they arrived. >> it was amazing within a matter of maybe 45 minutes that the water went from knee-high to hip-height. it was amazing. it was powerful. the power of nature is amazing. >> rescuers are hoping to reach seven families in upstate new york today. they are trapped by raging water in prattsville. they fled new york city to escape irene, but the flash floods washed out all four bridges leading to the vacation house. the family says they are running out of food and have a gallon of water for 23 folks. >> there is no way to come in or come out, and no one can help us, and we are practically stuck here and nothing, nothing to keep us going. we can not use the bathrooms or wash hands or eat or drink, and there is nothing and it is pitch black. >> a tough monday for a new york city commuters. no trains to the northern suburbs today, because irene ripped up tracks. all subway lines are now operating, but with fewer train cars. that means certainly delays. new york's three major airports are returning to normal schedules today. the winds, the waves are gone, but the flooding danger from what was hurricane irene, it is not over. in vermont heavy rain on ground that was already saturated caused some of the worst flooding in decades. our cnn national correspondent gary tuchman is in brattleboro, vermont. and gary, unbelievable pictures that we have seen and a lot of people did not expect the kind of water and flooding that they were going to get. what is it like now? is the water starting to recede a little bit? >> well, the river is receding a lot, but the damage is now able to be seen. this building for example is an art studio and five minutes ago, it was officially condemned.con? for a dramatic reason. the ground is muddy and that is because last night this was knee-deep. this is why, this used to be a quiet brook right here, and this is the art studio, and the building right over here, and this is why it is condemned. this brook used to be about ten feet wide, and children were swimming in it as late as two days ago, and now it is a rapid, and it eroded the ground under it, and this building could collapse at any time. it is sad for the artists inside, and there is a yoga studio inside, and painters and sculpt ors and the people on tht part of the building have not recovered their works burk the people on this part were. they loaded up a truck just before they officially condemned the building. this is vermont and a landlocked state and borders canada. the last time they were affected by a tropical storm was 1938. people are not used to it here. they have flooding, but they don't have tropical systems. all throughout the states, creeks and brooks are rushing with powerful water causing immense flooding. most of the water has now reced receded, but what you have now is millions of dollars in cleanup and worse yet at least one person was killed. the body of a woman was discovered in a creek 15 minutes west of here this morning. suzanne? >> i understand as well that there was someone who died. and tell us how the community is actually dealing with this? clearly, they were quite surprised and caught off guard by what had taken place. >> yeah, and people are shocked. they are stunned. remember, this tropical system of irene began off of the coast of africa, and then it went to the caribbean and people thought it would hit florida and ended up hitting north carolina and then everyone talked about new york city and all of the sudden the strangest and the most elaborate destruction in the state of vermont, the green mountain state, and so that the fact is that you might be saying, okay, they knew it was a possibili possibility, and why didn't they evacuate? well, because most of the population lives near streets and brooks and you cannot evacuate to ontario or quebec or new hampshire, and it is not practical. some people were in shelters, but it is not practical to evacuate a whole state. >> we appreciate it, gary tuchman. we are getting in video from an aerial tour that was takenb from new york governor cuomo who decided to get on and take an aerial tour to get a sense of the damage in the area. we are told that this is scoalhari creek and mohawk river, and you can see how swollen it is and expanded over the last 12 to 24 hours as they fly over to get a better sense of what this looks like. we understand, too, that the area includes pratsvil s pratts york, and that is where we are following a story of several families who are actually abandoned there. they had sought to leave the city, and went to a vacation home and are trapped because of the four bridges that have collapsed around their location. they are in prattsville, new york, and this is an arena includes prattsville, new york, and you can just see the amount of water that has occurred a on the flooding that has occurred as this has taken over. you see the shadow of the helicopter as this has taken over areas of new york. we will have more on this and the story of the families trapped in that area after a quick break. 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[ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. lets go... haha. if you have high cholesterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. i want to take a look at cnnmoney.com lead story happening now. damage may reach billions. irene was not as bad as expected, but the billions off dollars that the storm may cost us. taking a quick look at the markets here, up 151 points which is good news. we want to see some good news here. there is a lot of expensive repair work going on right now across the northeast because of hurricane irene, and some homeowners have their insurance companies picking up the tab, and some folks who have to pay out of pocket. i want to bring in alison kosik standing by at the new york stock exchange. alison, let's start off with the insurance companies, and big cleanup job ahead and repairs ahead, and how does that impact their stocks? >> okay. suzanne, we are watching shares of some of the big insurance companies like allstate, metlife, travelers and chub, and they are up from 4 to 7% today, because you know what this is? they are breathing a big sigh of relief because the damage from the storm wasn't as bad as expected. and one analyst said that irene had much less bite than bark. and much of the damage from storm is from flooding so that the insurance companies are getting off easy here on that, because most americans don't have flood insurance, but once again, it is good news for the the insurance industry, and the insurance industry believe it or not needs good news, because it has been a rough year. look at metlife and allstate and for the years the shares are down 20% to 30%, and because of all of the storms and th tornad that we had in the spring, and remember the southwest and joplin, missouri, and they took a beating in the spring and getting off easier this time around, suzanne. >> i know when it used to rain my basement would flood in maryland, and i would go out to the retailers like lowe's and home depot and you have to pay out of pocket, so you go the these places and what about in terms of the numbers for them? >> well sh, they are flat, and the opening bell we saw shares of home depot and lowe's popping in the early trading, but now one is trading lower and one higher, and it is kind of the same thought process as the insurers and with the damage, it was not as bad as expected so that the thinking is less to repair or rebuild and fewer supplies are needed and people won't keep on buying all of the things at those stores, but what we did see before the storm hit, suzanne, is that shares of home depot jumped 5%, and lowe's up 7%, and that time people were loading up on up a bit on supply, and so you can see how that affects the trading here on wall street. suzanne? >> yes, thank you, alison. next we will talk to a woman who saw everything that she owns get washed along with the bridges