mary, thanks. this is cnn's breaking news coverage of hurricane irene. i'm martin savidge at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. >> i'm keira phillips. thanks for staying with us for the hurricane coverage. a massive category 1 storm is what we're talking about, slowly churning up the east coast. it it's large, dangerous and relent areless. at least nine deaths are now blamed on this hurricane, more than 1 million customers have lost power. >> right now irene is closing in on ocean city, maryland. like every other beach resort along the mid-atlantic, it is just about deserted. winds have decreased slightly to 80 miles an hour but it remains a hurricane as it it pushes north toward new york. >> irene is especially dangerous because it's moving slowly. we've talked about this all morning, all afternoon. it's almost certain to create a tripling storm surge. as you just heard mary mention, new york transit officials earlier today shut down the city's mass transportation system as a precaution. live pictures now from times square, similar moves have also been made or will be made, we're told, in philadelphia and baltimore. >> and joining us now on the telephone, jeanne meserve who is in ocean city, maryland. jeanne? >> reporter: martin and keira, still dark where we are in ocean city, the lights went out a bit ago in this part of the city. we saw a couple of explosions to the south and think there were probably some transformers that had some problems. but this appears to be localized. we can see other buildings to our west and to our south that still do have power on at this point in time. as for the storm itself, we're still getting very heavy wind, butter for the mome-- but for tt it there is no rain falling. i just took a brief walk on the street to see what conditions are like. where an hour ago there were standing water, for the most part now the streets are drained. that's not saying the worst is over at all. we're expecting the storm to come onshore in a more serious way in the hours to come. in addition to the rain, they're worried about the ocean. the waves here have been huge. they have been ferocious. they have been eating ining up beach and traveling up the dunes and occasionally over the dunes that were built by the army corps of engineers built to protect the real estate here. this is a vacation town, the beach town. the ocean front is very well developed with many, many many hotels and small businesses. but in addition to the ocean side, there's some development on opposite side of the island which faces to the west. and there's also water on that side and, in had facfact, some flooding that the mayor tells me is already happening in the city is occurring because water cannot get out of that bay and is coming up onto the streets of the city. thus far, as far as we know, the flooding is not widespread but it is expected to grow wider as the storm surge continues and the rain resumes here in ocean city. back to you. >> and, jeanne, i presume -- i think you reported earlier -- that the emergency personnel had been pulled off the streets for now. >> reporter: that's right. they were pulled off a while ago because of the deteriorating conditions, particularly the wind. what the mayor told me at the time was that they would be evaluating emergency calls on a case-by-case basis. we've been listening to the police scanner. those calls are still coming in. they run the gamut from children who have been bitten by bugs and appear to be having an allergic reaction to other things relating to alarms goi ining of the smell of smoke or gas. they're getting the calls, evaluating them on a case-by-case basis and making decisions carefully about which ones to respond to at this point in time and which can wait until conditions are safer for the first responders. >> jeanne meserve in ocean city, maryland. thanks very much. >> talking about the water rising and the erosion in chessches chesapeake beach where chris lawrence is joining us live out of maryland. you've got some new information, chris? >> reporter: keira, you know, here we're not that far from jeanne, we're on the other side of the chesapeake bay. we're more on the other side, the western edge of the chesapeake bay. and i can say, you know, although we are still getting rain, you know, jeanne mentioned it it pretty much stopped raining there briefly. we're still getting rain but not to the extent we were. i think as we pan around, the wind is still whipping up and, you know, we do get occasional gusts that bring a lot of rain in, but not to the extent we did an hour ago. i wonder if our meteorologist chad myers is standing by, chad, maybe if you could help us to sort of make sense of this. does this mean sort of we're kind of caught between bands of the storm at this point? >> that is exactly right. there is another band right across the bay on the eastern shore, north of the chop tank, and it is going to come across the chesapeake bay right at you within the next 30 minutes. so what you see now will be doubled, your wind speed will double, your driving rain will be at least twice, maybe three times as hard driving sideways at that point in time. you're now getting closer to the eye. you're pass to the eye -- the closest you'll get is about six hours from now. things still get worse for the next six hours. then they get better. but as that rain band comes in, chris, you know this is going to start getting rather whippy out there for you. >> reporter: that's right. as we continue to just look around and pan around and show you, you know, some of the effects of the wind, one of the things, chad, that a lot of people here, including the mayor, have been very, very conce concerned with is that you have so many homes here that are built on a cliff. they've been very worried about soil erosion, just because it it's not so much the wind they tell me but they say they're just really worried about the combination of the storm surge and then the high tide that will come in about 3:30 in the morning. >> well, the good news where you are now is that the surge will not come up the chesapeake like it will be in the tidewater. the tidewater of virginia down here, move this around for you, get rid of this and drag this farther up. hold on, guys, push the word "pan." down here in the tidewater, virginia beach, this is where the water is coming in. right now i have five-foot surge all the way through the tidewater here. but, now, that water is not going to get all the way up to you, up here in the chesapeake beach area, because by the time it tries to do that, the winds will be from the north and it will actually push the water away from you. so your surge will be nothing compared to what they're seeing now down in hampton roads, in chesapeake, virginia beach and all the way down. at five feet, another high tide, three feet above that is an eight-foot surge coming for them but not for you, chris. >> reporter: in some ways that's very good to hear. i know people here who we've been talking to are sort of hunkered down here with us, a lot of families, a lot of people who are in town for weddings and had family in town. they'll be happy to hear that. the one thing they won't be happy to hear is to know we haven't even felt the true brunt of this storm yet, that everything we're experiencing is a preview for what's to come. one of the -- has been the storm surge. the one good point i will say, as i look around here and we've been sort of walking around, is that up nil now, keira, marty, we have not lost power. i hope that i haven't just jinxed us here in chesapeake beach. >> we hope that's not the case, too. chris, thanks very much. we want to get back to chad. he's got an update on the hurricane itself. >> brand new update just out of the hurricane center. still an 80-mile-per-hour storm. i know i've been getting all kinds of tweets about this, telling me how bad this storm looks, how there's no red, there's no purple. but you know what? it's back over water again. it's not hot water, but it's still warm and it isn't land. i believe the storm could regenerate at least a little bit tonight and be still that same storm that we expected in new york. it did lose a lot of energy over north carolina. it truly did. but now as it spins around tonight, i believe there's a new threat developing, tornado watch was issued, all the way up to new york city. now i have four tornado warnings, the latest one out of this mt. hawley, new jersey, area. it's for the surf city area. now, surf city kind of a big area at toms river, about 20 miles south of there. but the issue is you're not going to be able to see these storms coming. i want you to just stay in a safe place. everybody sleeps in a safe place away from windows tonight. maybe you just camp out in if your house somewhere. camp out in the bathroom. you said it earlier, five houses were demolished by this it small tornado. so it's not a tuscaloosa-sized tornado or birmingham or joplin, missouri. but it only takes one house if it's yours. >> right. so very true. thanks, chad. >> you were talking about how it lost energy there over north carolina, but it did cause a lot of damage, including deaths. we're going to take you live to both spots, coming up next. we want to show you some live images now from two very different places. on the left, chesapeake beach, maryland, where the chesapeake bay bridge has been closed, and the weather is looking grim. >> and then on the other side of the screen, times square, new york. as you know, new york is expected to get those hurricane-force winds and rains tomorrow. we've told you about the mandatory evacuation order that was issued for some of the low-lying areas there in new york city. also, martin, we reported 1900 national guard troops dispatched by governor qualm m or cuomo. >> also a tornado watch is put out for new york city. let's check out a.mber lyon. she's in virginia beach, virginia. how are things at this hour? >> reporter: just a couple of hours ago my producer and i tried to walk out where we are right now. we almost had to crawl outside and now i'm pretty easily standing here. we're about a football field from the ocean, and the surge was creeping up and there was fear the water would come across the boardwalk and rush into the streets and flood parts of the city. but we're not seeing that right now, not seeing the dee brebris. the eye of hurricane irene is directly east of virginia beach. so for the next hour we'll see the last of the major wind gusts and storm surge and things will start to die down a bit around here. good news, too. we're starting to see some of the power come back on. the power in our hotel turned back on. at one point the majority of the city was without electricity. as we all know, when we think of the city of virginia beach, it's definitely a tourist destinatiodestination martin and keira. it hasn't stopped some tourists from coming down here just to witness the hurricane. haerl earlier we were in the catch 31 bar in the hotel. we were talking to a guy just enjoying a burger and fries as he was overlooking the ocean and watching the hurricane because he had never seen a tropical storm before. >> a burger and fries with a side of hurricane. how about that? >> how's that for an order. >> reporter: with a side of hurricane. you know, he's never seen a storm and for him it was a vacation. a thrill. an adventure-cation. >> if t it's true. if you've never seen one, they're amazing forces of nature if no one gets hurt and there's no damage. that's usually not the case. it is great to hear the worst is past, amber, the second report of the evening where things aren't as bad as they feared. >> even chad said it ended up with less force in virginia, north carolina. as we continue to follow the live pictures, where it doesn't look so great now as we know, our chris lawrence was saying it wasn't as bad as he expected. we are monitoring live pictures from there at chesapeake beach to new york city, ocean city why where jeanne meserve is. amb a. amber was talking about one perspective, one guy sitting in the bar enjoying it. alexandra steele, a little different perspective. >> yes. no alcohol here, but i'm going to show you something i bet on these plane there will be plenty of drinking because it's scary. we've talked about travel and the unprecedented nature of travel and all the airport closures in the northeast because of a hurricane, certainly very uncommon. kind of want to give you a new, interesting perspective. this is called flight explorer. what we're looking at, all of these blue are planes in the sky at this very moment. right now we have about 5,000 planes. of course, this is the hurricane. this is the outer banks to give you a little perspective. and this is long island. so as we go a little tighter, look at this, the western periphery of the hurricane had. look at these planes flying right on the western -- can you imagine the drinking going on, how bumpy this is, can't wait to hear from some of these people once they land. also, let's take you to atlanta, the world's busiest airport, right now about 80 flights flying to atlanta. certainly it is a saturday night and a little lighter than normal. now let's take you to boston. boston, the airport is still open. how many flights going there? only about six at this hour into boston. and also, of course, all day long we've known all of the new york airports have been closed, closed due to incoming traffic and incomining planes. why? because there's no way for people to get around and they'd be stuck. into boston, of course, five planes into new york no planes flying here, the airport certainly not seeing any business at this hour. so kind of an interesting perspective. i'd be very curious, keira, to talk and see and hear from those people coming in on this incredibly bump py ride. can you only imagine? >> oh, that's some pale faces and knuckles -- >> white knuckles and heavy on the scotch, please. >> exactly. alexandra, thanks. david mattingly is in kill devil hills, north carolina, for us there, part of the outer banks. how is it now? we were watching this morning. it was pretty intense. we could barely see you. it's calmed down quite a bit. >> reporter: well, keira, we've been hearing reports tonight of people saying the storm was not as bad as it could have been. that may be true, but it was still a very serious event here in north carolina. as of tonight, we have 500,000 people without power, 5,000 people living in shelters, 4, possibly 5, fatalities associated with this storm. and at this hour the problem is flooding. more than 24 hours after the storm made landfall here in the outer banks we're seeing some significant flooding for communities along the sound. that's that large body of water between the yourt banks, the barrier islands here, and the mainland of north carolina. communities along that sound experiencing flooding, some houses being flooded, three, four feet of water in some areas we're told, also roads being cut off, flooded, impassable right now by floodwaters. one resident who had to wade through the waters to get away from his house tonight told me that the water came up in a matter of just an hour, with the winds shifting we had winds pushing the waters away from these communities while the hurricane was working its way north. but as soon as it got up above us here to the north, the wind shifted and all of a sudden it was pushing all of that water it was holding back and now it came rushing up to these communities, had flooding the homes, blocking the roads, catching people by surprise when they thought this storm was just about over. now we're going to wait until tomorrow morning. damage assessment teams all over the place are going to be fanning out to find out what they've got to work with here, what they've got to do to get everybody back on their feet. but there's a long way to go, a lot of work to do now because of the widespread damage here. here where we are in the upper areas of the outer banks, county officials are telling people that they will not be allowed back on this island tonight until they've had those damage assess the ments done. they want to make sure the residents here don't come back until they're ready for them, to make sure all the roads are safe. still a lot of work to do after a very long and arduous problem with this hurricane. it it was really an endurance contest for everybody who had to ride this out. now it's a waiting game for the people who evacuated waiting to come back and get their property back together. >> question to you quickly, david. general honore was saying one of his big concerns there in north carolina and also virginia are the elderly, the disabled, the poor that did not have the means necessarily to get out. is there a concern there? have you heard from emergency management types or response types that they may not know what they'll be going into when they come in to assess the damage. it's ve ae's very possible peop have been trapped or in bad decisions rnchtsz kei decision. >> reporter: keira, good news. communities around here, their emergency management people have been networking, going to conferences, learning what to do to take care of everyone in emergencies like this. this particular county started for the very first time a program where they were offering assistance to people who needed it to get out of here. this would be people with medical problems, the elderly and others who maybe just didn't have the transportation or a place place to go. they were concentrating on these individuals making sure they all knew there were programs and services available to them. surprisingly for this county here in the outer banks, all but about 50 people took advantage of that, and most of them were exchange students from other parts of the country. they were working here on the outer banks when the storm came in. they didn't have cars. they didn't have a place to go. they didn't have family to go to. so they took advantage of this program to take them off to shelters. i talked to some of those students, one from jamaica. he said he had lived through category 5 storms on his home island, and he says he knows that this is something you need to respect. so he was very happy that that program was available. >> david mattingly there in the outer bainkz dz of north caroli. thanks. >> that is lesson learned from hurricane katrina there. we're going to take a break. when with we come back we're going to check in with mayor bloomberg in new york and check in at lower manhattan where there's a real concern for flooding. 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