fell on julie's house. this is the fourth time she had one fall on her house. the other three were in previous storms. virginia's governor spoke warning the worst is still ahead. >> it's bad timing with winds at their peak at high tide. storm surge is very dangerous. we urge nobody to go down anywhere near the water right now because it's extremely extremely hazardous. this is a very dangerous situation. the flooding is going to be significant in many areas around virginia. it won't just be tomorrow. it will take a while for rivers to crust and enter a flood stage. so we're expecting days or longer of challenges when it comes to high water. >> we have reporters all over the place from alexandra to annapolis to ocean city. we'll start off with doug. >> we will continue to see very similar conditions we're seeing right now. this is not going to be the biggest wind or rain event we've seen but you put them together, you have lot of power outages and trees down. that is the biggest problem across our area. let's take a look and show you exactly what's going on. we have seen winds busting upwards at 50 miles an hour at the airport. the latest gust is at 43 miles an hour with winds out of the north at 32 miles an hour temperature now of 73 degrees. it is warm outside and extremely wet. we have a lot of rain to go before this is said and done. hurricane irene giving us a tropical storm warning. i was just looking at the national service page to see when that goes through, what time that will end. i think that will end once we see that storm begin to move out of here and hurricane warning through ocean city. we have seen that eye coming close to the southern section of the delmarva peninsula. the current wind gusts over 50 miles an hour at andrews air force base, 33 at annapolis and 49 at baltimore. 29 at martinsburg, 30 in hagerstown, 30 in frederic. those are the strongest we have seen all afternoon and evening lo long, about as high as you will get. 39 miles an hour and a brief gust of 40. that's about it. you're seeing your first rain towards the west and winchester and clark county and loudoun and freder frederick and washington count. it some locations to the south and a report out of st. mary's county over 11 1/2 inches of rain and why we have the flooding out there throughout the afternoon. somewhere else we've been looking at, towards annapolis where pat collins is, 5-6 inches of rain and a couple more inches most likely throughout the evening. future weather showing at 6:00 tonight we had the have a rain but heavier rain continues to move on in and i think it will continue to move out after 12:00. we're almost there. we'll start to see things generally improving by the next six hours and then seeing things move out of here. veronica, you have a few more hours before that eye gets there so a lot more down time before things start getting better in four hours. prepare yourself for the worst. >> reporter: that i will. i will get bigger rocks to put in my boots here. to give you a perspective here, i'm leaning this way. that way is the east wind. that way is the ocean. running straight down 37 street, we continue to see these waves of rain coming through, right down the road, kind of rippling and ponding out right around coastal highway. we've gotten 6-7 inches of rain and expecting 12 upwards in parts of the area. you saw we interviewed guys there with the cropper's towing. they were able to grab some images of some of the flooding that's taken place in the oldtown area, as well as down talbot street, significant flooding and st. louis right at the route 50 bridge, there is flooding. if that water doesn't recede, even if there's not significant damages, officials will go out sometime probably late sunday and early monday and assess when folks can start coming back in here. route 50, a significant causeway for folks to come into the area. meanwhile, that way again, the beach, john and i earlier, we got a chance to check out just how high the waves have gotten and how frothy the beach had become. take a look. >> reporter: i can tell you for most of the day, we've actually been doing our live shots out here on the sand dune, about 10, 15 feet high. it's really the only protection these hotels and condos on the beach have from irene as she churns the surf and beings it closer on shore. because the winds have picked up so much, it's actually not safe for us to do the shots on top of the sand dune anymore and why we decided to being the crews inside the garage and cables and cameras and lights. i want to make sure you get a good idea what's out here. i'm now with my professional veteran photographer, i am in good hands. i will take a look at this ocean and walk town down to the beach show you what it looks like. you can see as we walk down to the beach, the ocean is quickly approaching the sand dune. earlier today, if you can imagine a football field 100 yards, the distance between the sand and ocean was about 75 yards. right now, i would say this distance is no more than 15, 20 yards. if we can get a little closer to the ocean, you can actually see the effect that irene is having on the water. it's basically the best analogy i can give you is like a washing machine. she is just churning and churning and churning. these waves are going every which direction right now. if i can get a little closer to where the water is coming up here on the shore, you can even see, look, i will bend down, this is the kind of stuff you'd see in the top of a washing machine, this foamy sandy saltwater material. that's how much the water is chunk right now. you can see with each wave coming up on shore, the water keeps getting closer and closer to the sand dune. what we're worried about at this point is flooding. we have to back up as the water is getting closer to us and the foam is brushing on the shore. even as we get our feet in the water as the current comes, we don't know what will happen, it could pull us in and how dangerous that is out here. we're worried about flooding conditions, if it reaches the sand dune, we're told strong water currents could get as high as 6-10 feet high. if it reaches the sand dune, we have to think of a backup plan because it will start flooding the first floor of the hotel. i'm john schiffton, news4. >> reporter: we are getting close to the witching hour with the eye of irene the center expected to pass at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and we'll have pictures to show everybody of the actual flooding taken place on the roads of talbot and philadelphia and 17th street. >> and i tell you what, you will start to get it the next couple of hours. here's ocean city, the center of circulation. look at this western portion of the eye wall. it will make its way north and they will get pummeled into ocean city and i think we will see more dramatic pictures over the next couple of hours as it looks like it will pass 20 miles offshore and this area of very intense rainfall and intense wind will be over ocean city. we will have amazing pictures coming out a little later on. as they mentioned, they're taking every precaution to stay on the safe side. >> i have a question. 24-48 hours ago we were talking about flooding and saying it's not expected to be as bad as people remember from hurricane isabelle. do we still feel that way even though the storm surge seems to be increasing? >> the mouth of the chesapeake bay is seeing similar conditions to hurricane isabelle but our regions of the chesapeake bay we saw tremendous floodingen in downtown annapolis, six feet of flooding and towards baltimore, we're not seeing anything like that. i think the water will stay in the banks of chesapeake and annapolis, so nothing like that in our region from irene as she is passing to the east. very good news for us. >> good to know. thank you. check back with you in a few minutes. pat collins has been monitoring the weather in annapolis all day. the big concern is flooding although the rain and wind have been picking up. pat, what's going on in annapolis right now? >> reporter: at this hour, doreen, annapolis is getting pounded by this storm, this hurricane irene, the winds have picked up, the intensity of the rain has picked up. look at the street. you can see how the water is just being blown across the street here, compromise street at the city docks. the water is starting to collect on the street. they say they've had about 4-5 inches of rain so far. they expect maybe as much as 12 inches of rain before it ends. that's a lot of rain. they expect some flooding, power outage, the route 450 road has been closed. the sevin river bridge has been closed and the mayor came out and asked people to stay home. you can see how treacherous it is here with the water building up on the roadways. they want to keep the paths clear so the emergency people here can get out and deal with any situations that come up as a result of the storm. they have an evacuation center set up at annapolis high school, that is there for people who need a place to stay. most people down here are staying with friends and relatives that have homes on high ground. another thing to take into consideration here is that around 5:00 tomorrow morning, is when they're expected to have a high tide here, and this is a new moon, so the high tide, i'm told, is expected to be higher than a normal high tide. you have all the rain, you have the storm surge, well, you have the high tide, so you ha have -- you know, the perfect, like formula, for something that could being a lot of problems here early tomorrow morning here in annapolis. we're keeping an eye on things and we'll keep you informed. but please stay home. >> very good advice, pat collins. we appreciate all the work you've been doing in annapolis for hour after hour and hope you dan take a little bit of break. >> and mentioning bridges closing, they have also closed the bay bridge because of high winds there. i want to go to the nbc network studios in new york city. brian williams is there. brian, i understand there are parts of that town including time square that do not look like they normally would on a saturday night. >> jim and doreen, thanks for having me. this explains a phone message i got from gorton's, the gorton's fisherman is missi missing -- something about a missing hat and he needs it for a weekend event, so if you've seen it -- >> we're hoping he will being us back some fish sticks from annapolis, making us hungry watching him. >> i don't mean to make fun. who among us will forget pat's coverage of the 1938 hurricane that ravaged -- i've known pat for years. all in good fun. i want to show you something. this is time square. look at that. there's no curfew. police haven't told people to stay away. there's no warning to not come to time square. this is the last saturday night of august 2011, after 11:00 at night. this would normally be so teaming with people that those of white house have to drive home from here after work will do anything to avoid that stretch of real estate in mid-town manhattan. that is an unbelievable catastrophic picture. catastrophic for the economy, for all the plans of all the good folks who were going to spend the ragged edge of summer here in new york city with us. it's been an otherwise terrific summer. but we're going to wake up tomorrow morning on this end of the storm, oddly, the kind of the tail end of its progression up the east coast may turn out to be the business end of this thing because of what that storm surge is going to do to new york harbor when it gets through. we're hearing landfall in long island. the story isn't through when it goes through new england and long island and massachusetts. at one point it was raining in harrisburg, pennsylvania, and in canada, from this same storm. it's really been unbelievable to watch. >> this is a monster, brian. as we understand it, it's been a long time since new york city has taken a direct hit from a hurricane, as i understand it. >> normally, jim, as you may know, we're used to nor'easters here, very strange animals that are cruel and churn up our beaches. this one will ends up doing the same thing. as a jersey shore native who still hangs out there as recently as my attempt at a summer vacation this past week, i'm telling you, there's no better spot. all these beaches and business, forget about the real estate, what it does for the economy and gives people a place to go and have a genuine family vacation, all the way on out to the hamptons, this will do in your region, ocean city, this will do some cruel things to these summer hang-outs. >> we have taken an economic hit with the postponement of the martin luther king memorial. >> i was supposed to be the co-host and that was a tough call for them. >> it hasn't been canceled only postponed. we look forward to seeing you down here. >> i'll come knock on your door. tell collins i'd like to see him. >> you're welcome at any time. >> good luck with your coverage as the storm gets closer to new york. >> thanks very much and for having me. >> brian williams from nbc news, talking to us from the studio in new york. you know, they shut down all the transportation systems in new york, the subway, all the trains, closed down -- we saw a picture earlier of grand central station completely empty, something you don't see. in washington on the other hand, our metro is running on a normal schedule right now, plans to continue to do so into the day tomorrow. metro spokesman, dan stessel, joins us by skype right now. are there any problems for metro tonight and what are you anticipating is coming ahead for metro? >> we continue to actively monitor the storm from our control center here. at this point, we're very pleased to report we have no major delay, no major detours or disruptions to report. the system has performed very well today. metro rail is open and will continue to be open until 3:00 tonight. we suspects, based on what we're seeing tonight, the system will reopen at its normal time tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. >> the problems metro has suffered in the past is water running down and disrupting the operations of the escalators. has that been a problem so far? >> the advance work we have done has been intended to mitigate that. 72 hours before the storm we had crews placing more than 2 thousand bags at those stations that have a history of flooding. you're right, floodwaters in the past have come up and down the curb and made their way into stations by the escalators. we haven't had any reports of problems, continuing to monitor it and looking for downed trees and power problems. there have been a handful of very minor incidents and we have had crews there within minutes to knock them down in each case. >> you got anybody using metro tonight? >> ridership through most of the day today was about 50% lower than you would expect on a saturday. since 7:00 p.m., it has taken a nosedive. between 8:00 and 9:00 last saturday we had 26,000 riders and tonight, during that same hour, we had about 7,000. >> people are staying indoors. dan stessel from metro. must be nice to have good news. >> absolutely. >> and electricity is important to keeping heat and food cold in the refrigerator. there have been a number of problems. clay, a spokesperson from pepco, what is the report? >> we are reaching maximum impact winds as far as irene. our outages have topped the 52,000 mark. we talked earlier this evening, prince george's county was taking the brunt of the storm because it is closer to the bay, closer to the circulation of irene and about 42,000 customers are out in prince george's county. montgomery county 2400. district of columbia, 6400 and because we're looking at winds 34 to 50, we have to make a determination whether whether some of the linemen and women have to stand down until the strong winds subside. >> you won't be able to attack some problems until after this thing calms down, correct? >> what we will do, for emergency responding, we continue to respond. fire and rescue, downed wires, hazardous safety situations we will patrol throughout the night, that will not cease. as far as bucket trucks, we will keep an eye on the winds and the next two to three hours will be precarious. after that, winds will be subsiding, we'll be back in the air but continuing to restore power. >> clay, we need to repeat something. you said earlier, i guess it's still true, people need to call you when their power is out, is that right? you don't automatically know where it is? >> caller: absolutely. we have a control center and know the large feeders and substations. the residents and commercial folks as well, 1-877-pepco-62, call us and tell us your power is out. don't expect your neighbor to tell us. you have to tell us. safety tonight is the number one concern for residents. hopefully flashlights and battery operated radios are in order. we will work again throughout the night once the winds subside and they will and continuing to be in full force and hopefully the outages will not last and this event will not last too long. >> we certainly hope so. clay anderson with pepco. >> we'll talk soon. >> if you do still have power, make sure your cell phones are charged up so you can make that call. we will go to eric fisher live in virginia beach. the last time we checked with eric, things started settling down in that part of the world. what are you seeing right now? >> reporter: doreen, you're right on the money. things are winding down a little bit. it will be a slow process. we look to the outer banks quite a bit reof mied from hurricane irene still gusting at 50 miles an hour. our storm even though it has category 1 winds has category 3 pressure that drives the wind and will keep going through the overnight hours into tomorrow morning. the bottom line is more power outages adding to an astronomical number, over 2 million people in the dark tonight and could continue to rise. talking to emergency management officials in virginia, some folks could expects one to two weeks before their power comes back on. that's why we're out here days in advance saying stocking up is the way to go. if you don't see the worst of it, you have extra water in the house, use it for soccer practice. if you lose power for two weeks, you need supplies to keep you going until you can get it running. we have seen three fatalities so far, several others in the state of north carolina and fear what will happen up the coastline as it continues to track through new jersey, delaware, maryland, and you had rain from north carolina to canada, the scone of the storm is what we will remember when all is said and done. >> that's eric fisher covering the hurricane live from virginia beach, virginia. thank you. >> in alexandra, virginia, are you seeing considerable flooding down there yet or what's the situation? >> reporter: no. we haven't seen any flooding yet at least down here by the potomac river at oldtown. i did get off the phone with the mayor. he does have an update for our viewers. he wants to say the worst of the storm is yet to come. he talked to his emergency officials and they all decided it's supposed to get really bad between 2:00 and 3:00. that's what they're watching. watching the story on news4. going through the stations and say it will get bad then. come right over here, you can see these branches. the wind's coming down. blowing at times and not blowing. it's unpredictable, comes off and on. i'm joined by dave. you decided to come out here. tell me why. >> i wanted to see what the storm was doing down here on the river and check out how severe it was. it's pretty severe. as we're talking, it's gotten more severe in the last 10 minutes. >> reporter: that's just it. sometimes it's calm and sometimes picking up. why are you fascinated with this? >> i like to see the elements in the rawest form. i was here with is bell and saw that boat that was like tipping over and wanted to see how it's handling this situation. it seems a little better now but at 2:00 in the morning, that will be worse. >> isabelle in 2003, officials tell me nine feet of water roared through oldtown. how would you say it compares to what we're experiencing so far? >> right now, not as severe. with isabelle, like a canoe rowing down south main street and union street here. that's not yet but we'll see tomorrow. that ship almost looked like it would tip over at that time. not quite so bad yet but we'll see. >> reporter: i want to thank you for joining us. speaking of ships, a gentleman walked over here to look at his boat. what he told me was he took extra fenders, put it around his vessel and also grabbed extra line and wrapped it around the pillar so his boat would be secure. he drove with his suv and said my boat looks pretty good as of now, not flipped over, staying pretty intact. i did ask him about insurance information because a lot of insurance companies, according to what i found out over the last couple of days, will pay 50% of the damage but only if you remove your boat from the water and put it in a safe area. so he would have to go through his insurance papers if something were to happen to his boat. as for the boat on the water, nina tandy. the captain told me he took that thing, went all the way up here on the potomac river and decided to turn around and put it in a safer area because the waves were getting so strong and you had the rain pounding that thing and he wanted to take it to a safer area. the sheriff, i talked to him and he told me that it's pretty bad out here, in terms of on the roads. the best advice they can give people is they want you to stay inside and weather the storm there. >> thank you. >> we have new video coming in the newsroom. a tornado much toed down in louisville damages 16 or 17 homes. take a look at this. almost the entire roof was blown away in lewes, delaware, as hurricane irene makes its way the east coast. crews in fairfax county are bravering the elements, monitoring the flooding, already about four feet above sea level and expected to get much higher, up to eight feet. crews say they will work through the night to try to keep the waterway from houses in those neighborhoods. >> back to washington, northwest d.c., dan is standing by and trees are beginning to get uprooted and a really big worn came down, i think on jennifer street, wasn't it? dan, can you hear me? >> reporter: yeah, i can hear you. can you hear me? >> works better when you turn it on. >> reporter: you have to turn the mike on. the magic of television. i've been doing this for a little while. there's a tree falling on your house -- >> that was a nice try. dan was trying to tell us about a tree that felton a car on jennifer street sometime earlier this evening. it was big tree. the car was no match for it. >> nobody was hurt. nobody injured. >> it did take down power lines so people are suffering. we have dan back -- never mind, we're just kidding, dan is not back. that's how it works sometimes when we're trying to get something done in the middle of a storm. redskins, no chances today, did you know that? >> i did. go ahead. >> they took down the old posts at ashburn which means what's his name couldn't practice his kicks. they moved up practice to beat the storm. redskins will hold their final preseason game on thursday. you can watch that right here on nbc4. meanwhile, up in boston tonight. wet weather kept a lot of people at home. so many in fact that the boston red sox sent a tweet to their fol lowers that if they happened to be in the neighborhood of fenway park, why not drop by because they let them in free to watch the rest of the game. that's the way to operate. >> that's a good use of twitter, i'd say, free baseball tickets. >> it's nice to know there's at