who may be in need of damage control after irene? plus graphic new evidence of brutality by moammar gadhafi and his inner circle. this just as we're hearing his wife and several children have now escaped libya. the pressure now growing to make sure gadhafi himself doesn't get away. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." raging water in the northeast so powerful it can sweep away cars and swallow up homes. right now vermont is devastated by the worst flooding in decades. cnn's amber lyon joins us from brattleboro in vermont. set the scene a little bit, amber, for what's going on. what are you seeing? what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, out here, wolf, had i been standing out here earlier yesterday, i would be completely under water. i want to come here and show you this brook right here, this is pretty much representative of what's across this state. this is wet stone brook, flowing more like a river now. it's about four feet wider than usual and look over here where it just washed away the ground underneath this art iist studio building. no one was inside at the time, no one was hurt. we're waiting for the building to collapse and fall into the water. another problem, because the governor says every waterway in the state of vermont is flooded is that they're worried about the roads. 260 roads in this state currently flooded and they're warning people not to get out and drive on roads even if they look okay because although the top of the road might look okay it may be eroded underneath and if you're out there on your car you could sink into what would be circular to a quick sand road. right now the governor of vermont says that they are moving into a stage of search and recovery. they say there are still people missing, believed to be swept away by some of these waters. they also say that waters at higher elevations are starting to recede, good news there. however, waters, streams in lower elevations are continuing to flood and the waters are continuing to crest. big worry today, wolf, for the state of vermont and emergency crews here is how residents are dealing with the water. we have a sewer line north of here busted, the water is dirty, they're telling people to boil your water. we even have reports people monitoring twitter traffic that have complained of gassy smells in their town because propane tanks have been sucked away by the streams and just two blocks from here the town was cordoned off by emergency crews because there was such an intense smell of gas in the area. they're also warning people not to get into the waters, and above all, if you can, just stay home unless it's absolutely necessary to leave. and 50,000 people across the state of vermont are currently without power right now, and due to the fact that 260 roads are flooded, emergency crews and electric crews can't even give any type of an estimate as to when they're going to have this power back on, wolf. >> horrible devastation for vermont. amber we'll get back to you and also speak to the governor and senator from vermont as well. amber lyon reporting for us. we're also seeing very, very dangerous flooding in parts of new york state and elsewhere across the northeast. this hour after the remnants of hurricane irene blew out of the region and out of the country. analysts predicted the storm caused up to $10 billion in damage during its rampage along the east coast. at least 25 deaths have been reported in nine states. 5 million customers still, still don't have power. >> it's going to take time to recover from a storm of this magnitude, the effects are still being felt across much of the country, including in new england, and states like vermont, where there's been an enormous amount of flooding. so our response continues, but i'm going to make sure that fema and other agencies are doing everything in their power to help people on the ground. >> and let's talk to the head of fema right now, the federal emergency management agency, craig fugate, is joining us. mr. fugate, thanks very much for coming in. >> thank you, sir. >> you just heard the president, he wants to make sure you're getting everything you need. are you getting everything you need? normally we hear from states, if fema's doing everything they can. do you have everything you need right now? >> yes, the support and response again we've been talking with the states, we have daily conference calls. one of the things we've been working on is trying to stay ahead of what they may need as we move from response to recovery and as you said in some parts of the area of impact we're very much still concerned about the flooding and what the weather service tells us may be another two, three days before some of these rivers will crest. >> but money is becoming an increasingly big problem for fema, you're telling us. you're running out of money in short, right? >> well, we reached a point where we felt it was prudent not to continue to fund new work and older disasters but to continue funding support for the survivors of previous disasters as well as being able to ensure that we could undertake this response to irene. >> how much money do you need now in order to really do what fema was created to do, given the tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes? you got a lot of problems, floods out there, what kind of money do you need from congress during these tough economic times? >> well, part of this will be as we do the assessments for irene, you know, some of the numbers that are being put out there about damages oftentimes include insure costs. we look at fema costs borne by the taxpayer in support of either survivors or uninsured losses or you know, cost the government has to respond and rebuild from this disaster. >> because if we're saying $10 billion in damage as a result of irene, how much of that is fema going to be responsible for? >> well that's part of what we'll find out as we begin damage assessments. you've heard some states are very much in response mode but particularly in north carolina as we look at the damages and start counting that up we'll have a better idea of what the federal share will be for some of these costs. >> i've heard from a lot of governors who were in a direct hit from hurricane irene the governors of maryland, virginia, new jersey, new york, elsewhere, they're very pleased with the federal response specifically the fema response. what do you say to congressman ron paul, though, who says really the federal government should not be in the business of what fema is doing? >> not much. i've pretty much focusing on the job at hand and undertaking the responsibilities that congress has given to fema and under the lead irship of the president. we're just focused on trying to deal with the disaster right now. >> are you getting any serious complaints from anyone as a result of what you did or didn't do this time around? >> not yet but again we'll do after actions but really we're still very much focused on the disaster at hand. particularly as you heard the impacts from river flooding, possibility of more impacts so really right now we're trying to stay focused on what's happening in front of us and then when we get to the other side of this we'll look at lessons learned and always try to improve our response before the next disaster. >> you've heard some of the criticism mr. few gaugate that hurricane irene was overhyped, expecting enormous disasters for example in new york stock exchange cinew york city, that didn't happen, the federal government, states, local authorities were hyping this whole hurricane irene? >> well, my condolences to the families that lost lives, to the homes that have been destroyed, to the communities that have been flooded. part of this is we work from a forecast, there's not so much precision we can say whose house will be impacted and who is not. i've been involved in a lot of hurricanes where we've evacuated and fortunately there was no damage and people could go home and that's good. there are going to be folks who can't go home, folks who lost homes and still don't have power and unfortunately there's people who lost lives. we prepare based upon the forecast and that's how we respond. >> under the theory better to be safe than sorry. >> you can't change the outcomes if you're not ready. >> good advice, federal emergency management agency administrator craig fugate thank you for the work you're doing. we'll stay in close touch. you can help those devastated by hurricane irene, visit our "impact your world" page at contributnn.com/impact. you're learning more about the fate of moammar gadhafi's family and seeing disturbing new evidence of his reign of terror and the latest on where gadhafi may, repeat may be hiding. verbal jabs between two titans of the george w. bush administration. did dick cheney take a cheap shot at colin powell? 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>> reporter: that's right, wolf, and these atrocities are absolutely hair raising. in fact they're so disturbing some of the rebels according to one site asked we wrap it up quickly because they were disturbed by what we had seen. we warn the images they're about to see some could find them very disturbing. they heard screams, gunshots, but it would be days before people discovered the magnitude of the horror within these calls. walls. he was picked up with gadhafi forces along with his brother in early august. "my brother and i were in the street, they grabbed us, blindfolded and cuffed us" he remembers. the detainees ranged in age from 17 to 70, he says. they were beaten, penned up like animals, and in their last days, deprived of food and water. he says he survived by dreaming of freedom, "that one day i would leave this place." early last week he thought that day had come. "the last day informed us they are going to release us. we all started planning," he says, "preparing to reunite with loved ones." this warehouse is around 10 by 10 meters, 45 by 30 feet and he says there were 175 people crammed inside here. at sunset, he says, the guards came and opened the door. he and the other prisoners thought they were going to make good on their word and set them free. instead, he says, the soldiers threw a grenade through the door and opened fire. monid made a run for it. "i ran away, i jumped over that wall but i don't remember anything else." though he survived, his younger brother and most of the others trapped in this hell did not. the warehouse is located in a lot on the back end of khamis gadhafi's 32nd brigade headquarters, the most feared and loathed unit of his father's military. when rebels finally secured the area and people felt safe enough to approach the warehouse, this was all they found. voluntary workers have pulled out the remains of at least 150 bodies. >> some of the bags, there are more than one body, some of them four, three in one bag. >> reporter: because the bodies you can't recognize the bodies? >> difficult because they are burned. can't recognize them. so we have some papers. >> reporter: the i.d.s of people from all over libya. do you know why these men who were here were detained? >> they are detained for some of them for nothing, just to sega dafie go out or just to raise the new flag with the new color, different color, not the green, not the green flag, this one. >> reporter: and in another corner of the lot, the people who have gathered report yet another atrocity, we're being told a number of bodies were also dug up right here, and the dirt, it's just, it's filled, it's crawling with maggots. the cost of freedom in libya, many of the victims will remain unknown, their families left without answers to their fate. and wolf, there are widespread fears that many similar sites, sites of such massacres, sites of mass graves will be uncovered in the future. the military spokesman for the transitional council was saying that they believe that 57 people were detained by gadhafi's regime but so far they've only been able to find 10,000 to 11,000 of them and there's now a search effort under way to try to uncover more mass graves, wolf? >> does the national transitional council, the group now in charge of libya, suspect, arwa, they're any closer to finding moammar gadhafi? >> reporter: well, at one point they thought that he was just to the area east of the airport, and they were basing that on the intensity of the fighting there but then the commanders told us that the gadhafi units there withdrew, moving to the southeast and the predominant belief right now is that he is in the south, that is where his tribe is from, but there is no concrete information as to exactly where he may be, so the search for him is certainly on. they hope since some of his family members did, in fact, flee this could discourage loyal is from continuing the fight although he himself is still believed to be in libya. >> arwa damon in libya for us, thank you. hurricane irene's powerful journey up the east coast may be over but many states are just now beginning to feel the full blow. ahead we'll take you on a chopper tour of new jersey's mass damage and flooding. plus new concerns the international space station may have to be abandoned. we'll tell you why. 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