Transcripts For WRC Today 20110827 : vimarsana.com

live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. and welcome to this special edition of today on this saturday morning, i m amy robach. i m cafilling in for lester holt. hurricane irene is basically the size of europe. take a look, there is the pier at atlantic beach in north carolina. as you can see there, part of it has already been washed away, ripped apart by the pounding waves from irene. now the eye of the hurricane is expected to make landfall at atlantic beach somewhere between 8:00 and 10:00 this morning. forecasters say it will arrive as a powerful category 1. the projected path has not changed, it will move up the east coast with washington, d.c., new york city in its path. it s expected to make a second landfall before heading toward new england. new york city is bracing for major flooding in low-lying areas and manhattan specifically. the city has ordered 375,000 people to evacuate. across the east coast, millions have left or are now leaving their homes for higher ground. supermarkets and stores are overwhelmed by crowds buying up emergency supplies, and irene is having a ripple effect across the country. at least 7,000 flights have been canceled this weekend. we have team coverage of the hurricane from north carolina all the way up to massachusetts. we begin with al roker, live on long beach, long island, here in new york. al, good morning. already looking bleak out there. reporter: it is, the waves are up. we ve seen surfers trying to come in here. make no mistake even though this is a category 1 storm, it is still a powerful storm. tropical storm-force winds extend out 260 miles from the center. hurricane-force winds out 90 miles from the center. here s where it is right now. it s 95 miles southwest of cape hatteras, north carolina. it s got 90 mile-per-hour winds. picked up forward motion. the winds it s now moving north-northeast at 14 miles per hour. hurricane warnings are up from south carolina all the way to new york. we ve got tropical storm warnings and tropical storm watches inland into new england. here s what we expect as far as the path of the storm. you can see by 2:00 this afternoon, it s right along the outer banks with 85 mile-per-hour winds. it continues up the coast just about heading to the new jersey coast by 2:00 a.m. with 80 mile-per-hour winds. it comes in to long island just east of new york city as a category 1 storm with 80 mile-per-hour winds continuing on sunday afternoon into new england. now again, the big problems we re looking at here, the storm surge. anywhere from five to nine feet above ground level from the carolinas on into atlantic city where it will be about four to eight feet above normal as we get into new york city, long island, connecticut. we ve got a high risk of a storm surge going all the way up into new england. we ve also got to worry about the possibility of a good portion of it moving further north. we also have flood watches in effect because we re looking at heavy rain. we ve already over the last week gotten heavy rain in the northeast. well, over this weekend, we could be looking at anywhere from 10 to 15 inch of rain within the next 71 hours. we ve still got a lot to go before we can breathe a sigh of relief here. amy. al, people hear that this hurricane has been downgraded to a category 1 and think, oh, it s not so bad. that s not necessarily the case, correct, al? reporter: that s absolutely right. even though it s a category 1, it s got a very, very deep low-pressure center. instead of concentrating its power near the center of the storm, it spread out over the width of this storm, almost 700 miles across in diameter. we re talking about a storm that can still as it comes into the megalopolis of washington, d.c., philadelphia, new york city, on into boston, we re talking about the possibility of structural damage. more structural damage than if it were a category 2 or 3, absolutely not. make no mistake, there s still damage done. the storm surge can cause big problems. we re talking about flooding possibilities really up and down the coast. and not just along the coast. folks inland as much as many as 200 miles away from the coast will be feeling the effects this storm due to a lot of rain and a lot of wind. just because it s a category 1, don t think we re out of the woods yet, amy? al, thank you very much. as al mentioned, when the center of irene comes ashore this morning, it s going to arrive on north carolina s atlantic beach. kerry sanders is in the thick of it there. kerry, good morning. reporter: well, good morning, carl. tropical-force winds. at sunlight here we can really see the power this storm just out there. that is the pier, and a section of the pier has already been washed away. some of the winds that we felt here this morning are around 60 to 65 miles per hour. now we got out just before sun-up and went to look at some of the conditions. the police are out patrolling the areas. most of the area has been evacuated. fortunately people following the warnings to get out of the way. now, as i make my way a little bit away from some of the protected area, this is where we felt some of the strongest gusts. although right now it seems to be calm. that s a good sign. we do know that the hurricane-force winds could be here within about an hour or so. meantime, residents up and down the carolina coast have been prepared, and now they re just waiting to find out how bad this really will be. state of emergency and evacuation has been ordered for reporter: as police enforce mandatory evacuation orders, a massive exodus turned north carolina s beach communities into ghost towns. at the height of the tourist season, irene chased more than 100,000 people inland. hotel workers wrapped up lawn chairs and umbrellas that could become flying missiles. there could be damage reporter: kevin kerwin came all the way from ohio to help his north carolina parents survive the storm s fury. down here, i m taking care of my parents. they re unable to leave their condo. so we came down, boarded up, and we re going to weather it out. reporter: gilbert muntillet says he s riding irene out, too. ain t gonna leave. reporter: the owner of the fish company survived the great hurricane of 1944, and he plans to survive yet another storm right in his home. i ve been at all the storms that s ever been here, so every one, i never left. reporter: near nags head, bob quinn rebuilt after a hurricane 11 years ago, and this time he s taking pictures in case he has to file insurance claims because of irene s damage. we raised it up to about 9 1/2 feet. so hopefully to keep the water from getting in our downstairs. reporter: up to the last minute, bob s neighbor, frank bionde, trimmed trees so the branches wouldn t slam into his home. the trees don t tolerate the wind. reporter: he s riding out the storm with his golden retriever, zeddy, who got a little play time in before irene came ashore. and so the idea is that everybody is prepared whether they re hunkered down in their homes early this morning or they headed inland. beach erosion is very evident right now. and of course, it looks like the timing of all of this could not be any worse because you have irene coming in here to atlantic beach at the same time that you have a rising tide. that is not a good mix. i m holding up the wind gauge there. you know, these are gentle winds right now. the one thing i can tell you, though, is the rain, it s stinging as it s blowing. and we re not even in the hurricane-force wind yet. kerry sanders in what is quickly becoming a bull s eye for the storm. thanks. the outer banks also feeling the impact of irene. mark potter is along the outer banks in nags head. good morning to you. reporter: and good morning to you. we re having a very strong rain band coming through here right now from the east. the wind has been blowing all night. and we re told that it s going to get worse, considerably worse as the storm approaches us. but it s pretty bad now. and it s been going like this for quite some time. the surf has also been coming up steadily. and you can see behind me that it s on to the beach. the one bit of good news that i can see is that even though we re at a high tide, the water is not reaching yet the sand berms on the side here. and so that is relatively good news. the good news also here is that there is no damage reported yet. we have teams out along the roads. they re saying the roads are clear, they re not seeing much damage. some trees down. a little bit of things tossed around, but nothing serious. some flooding. and the power is still on, that s good news also. emergency managers here confirm the reports from our photographers but also warn that worsening weather is still to come, and that it s going to be a very, very long day here. the concern of emergency managers is one that they had yesterday. it s one that s playing out today as the eye of the storm is now appearing to cross to the west of us. that could mean in terms of storm surge that there could be a double hit. first the leading winds of the hurricane are pushing water from the atlantic on to the eastern shoreline, and then as the eye pushes water into the sound just behind us, that will stack up the water there flooding those areas. and then as the eye passes, the west winds at the tail end of the hurricane eye, it will push water on to the western shoreline. that s the flooding that they re most concerned about. right now the island is evacuated of its tourists. but many of the residents are still here, and they are hunkering down, doing their best in this storm. and knowing very well to be true what the emergency managers are saying, that this is going to be a long, long day here on the outer banks. back to you. mark potter in nags head. mark, thank you for that. amy? let s move up the coast to ocean city, maryland, a popular vacation spot now transformed into a ghost town. nbc s tom costello is there live. good morning. reporter: amy, good morning to you. we are seeing just now, just the beginnings of the rain starting to hit us. came in about an hour or two ago, and the surf has started to get a lot more choppy. it is high tide or was about 20 minutes ago. we ve seen that ocean start to churn more and more and more. we have a mass exodus, as you mentioned here, on the ocean city and the delmarva peninsula area. 200,000 people evacuated yesterday under a mandatory order from the authorities here. all along the marva peninsula, delaware, virginia, people getting off the island as quickly as they can and moving inland. just 200,000 people here in the ocean city area where they are expecting 10 to 12 inches of rain. we think that it s really going to hit us hard sometime between 6:00 p.m. and midnight. and they are expecting significant flooding here, especially in ocean city where they re already concerned about the wastewater supply and also about what s going to happen with the electricity grid here on the island. again, they re thinking 6:00 to midnight, then we ll see this pick up steam. amy, back to you. and tom, because of the enoermt of this storm and its bands stretch so far out, what are the conditions that we re expecting specifically in the nation s capital, in d.c.? reporter: yeah, d.c. at the moment is under a tropical storm watch. that s what they re expecting. there s significant rain, significant flooding, and high winds. they ve been stockpiling sandbags, especially around the metro system, the subway system. it remains open. but they re most concerned about alexandria, virginia, right across the potomac river where they always get flooding in old town alexandria, that s an area of concern. tom costello, thank you very much. we ll head to carl. working up from the east coast from maryland to new jersey now where governor chris christie s already declared a state of emergency. michelle franzen is in asbury park. good morning to you. reporter: good morning, carl. from the start, governor christie has taken a hard line here warning people throughout the state to take this storm seriously, and here s why some of the low-lying areas, the seaside jersey shore communities, are expecting a surge here from three to six feet in this area where i m standing on the boardwalk here. it could be under water come tomorrow depending on what irene brings. for the last 48 hours, they have prepared people trying to encourage them through mandatory evacuations and also telling them through voluntary evacuations to seek other areas, get a plan, and get prepared. and that seems to be exactly what people have been doing over this course of the last few days. they ve evacuated those communities such as long beach island, as well as cape may county. all of it, mandatory evacuations. there s been a run at the stores for everything from essentials like water and milk, of course, and batteries. and certainly the concern here along here is as the day goes on, these waves are just going to get start pounding this area. they re worried about people who are going to come to the shore here. the governor says stay away. all right, michelle franzen, thank you for that in as bee pa park, new jersey. amy? in new york the largest city in the country is bracing for the largest storm to hit in decades. in an unprecedented move, mayor michael bloomberg has ordered nearly 400,000 people to evacuate their homes. also the entire city s mass transit system will be suspended. nbc s peter alexander is in new york s battery park. good morning. reporter: amy, good morning to you. we want to show you exactly where we are. we are really at the southern tip of lower manhattan, right along the harbor here. in the distance the statue of liberty. this is the spot where tourist come for a chance to see that. that obviously is not going to happen this weekend. the problem is you see this entire plain, it s so low. this is one of the low-lying areas that they re referring to. close to 400,000 people evacuated from their homes throughout the area. those areas closest to the water. if we bring the camera all the way up around this direction, i want to show one of the concerns here that exists. if the winds come in to this area at hurricane force, the fear is that shattered glass, showering down from the skyscrapers could be a problem, as well as tree limbs and debris that is flying throughout this area. to give you a better sense about the shutdown taking place, an unprecedented shutdown of the subway system begins at noon. buses will stop running, so will trains. if you re trying to get out by air, that s likely not to happen as well. at noon, the airports, jfk, newark, and laguardia will shut down receiving incoming flights. that will likely affect outgoing flights, as well, over the course this day. to give you a sense, the subway system averages five million people on a weekend day. roughly twice the size of chicago. that will be shut off to so many of those people over the course of the day. in a sense, this is the city that never sleeps. the mayor, michael bloomberg, is telling people to take a very big nap. that s what they re going to have to do as water floods the area just a half mile to ground zero from here. that s one of the concerns, as well. the cranes there have been secured. aim? peter alexander, thank you very much. let s head to carl. thanks. up in massachusetts, the governor activated the national guard as irene churns closer. on cape cod, thousands on vacation are on their way home. president obama even cut short his vacation on martha s vineyard. nbc s ron allen is live in falmouth, massachusetts. ron, good morning. reporter: good morning to you, carl. yes, there s a tendency in this part of the country for people to say these storms also peter out before they get this far north and there s nothing to worry about. that s what happened last summer with hurricane earl. this time around, officials are going out of their way to tell people this time it s different. be prepared. and they seem to be heeding those warnings. by the time it reaches here, we ll probably have a tropical storm, but forecasters are warning that still can be deadly and destructive. one by one, governors in new england, as far north as maine, have declared a state of emergency. some activating the national guard. others warning mandatory evacuations in coastal areas may be next. there is no doubt that rhode island will be affected by hurricane irene. reporter: traffic on cape cod is slow and heavy. thousands heading home. leaving islands like martha s vineyard where extra ferries are helping with the exodus before possibly shutting down as the storm hits. i think most people just want to get off the island. it was kind of empty this morning anyway. i think a lot of people left. friday, we want to get home and settle in. we have two children. so we want to make sure we re safe. reporter: some are seriously considering literally throwing caution to the wind and staying. we re just crossing our fingers. we re going to have to go for it. we ve been trying to decide. we re excited until we get a weekend to not having hot water and refrigerator and running around for ice and no electric power. the excitement wears off quick. reporter: harbor tech john caulberg started pulling boats out of the marina two days ago and says so many ships on dry land is the last thing boating businesses need. we do hundreds of thousands of dollars, i don t know if it s a week or months, in fuel sales. that definitely affects us. reporter: some folks here still think it s just not going to be that bad. i personally think that we re not going to get hit with the hurricane. more optimistic. hopefully it will just scoot right by. reporter: well, the odds of it scooting around new england are very, very small. so good luck with all of that. the bottom line is that we think it s going to start raining heavily tonight through the night. the storm hitting on sunday. we ll have to see where things stand after all of that. carl, back to you. ron allen in massachusetts. thank you. as irene approaches, we are also following other stories making news this morning. for that let s turn to ron mott at the newscast for us. ron, good morning. carl and amy, good morning to you both. a very busy weekend. we begin this morning with the nation s economy. on friday, fed chief ben bernanke expressed optimism for long-term economic growth, and wall street responded. nbc s mike viqueira live at the white house with the good saturday morning. the clouds have moved in and it feels tropical soupiness outside. temperatures are in the mid and upper 70s already. here you can see on radar that the center of the storms just now entering the lower part of the out h. outer banks of north carolina, already the first raindrops have entered southern parts of st. mary s county. those raindrops will continue moviing north, so rain and that s your latest weather. amy? thank you very much. still to come, continuing coverage of hurricane irene from up and down the east coast. first, this is today on nbc. [ male announcer ] washington, d.c. a landmark of liberty and opportunity. at bank of america, we live and work here, with thousands of employees and hundreds of branches and atms. every day, we re working to help set opportunity in motion. from supporting the arts and howard university to helping revitalize anacostia and downtown d.c. because when you re giving, lending, and investing in more communities across the country, more opportunities happen. more opportunities happen. somewhere in america, a city comes to life. it moves effortlessly, breathes easily. it flows with clean water. it makes its skyline greener and its population healthier. all to become the kind of city people want to live and work in. somewhere in america, we ve already answered some of the nation s toughest questions. and the over sixty thousand people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers. still to come, bracing for irene. the eye is getting closer to the east coast. we are tracking the storms. plus, the preparations, what s being done to prepare people and property. first, these message. you are look he at the very early effects of hurricane irene on ocean city. the wind picking up and water starting to crash more on to the banks. we ll have more on that for you throughout the morning. it is saturday, august 27th at 7:26. i m aaron gilchrist. hurricane irene is on her way to our region. let s go straight to chuck bell tracking the storm. yes, indeed, we re still keeping a very close eye on irene just about ready to make landfall on on the outer banks of north carolina. temperatures to us on an early saturday morning are in the middle and upper 70s right now with full overcast outside. the first drops have already arrived in st. mary s county, it s already raining in ocean city, raining across much of the delaware coastline, as well. so we ll continue to see an increase of rain and went during the course of the afternoon. conditions will go downhill very rapidly by late afternoon into the evening hours. still looks like the worst conditions will be here during the overnight hours tonight into the early morning hours on your sunday morning. here is the way i see the impacts breaking down. around d.c. metro, prince george s, fairfax, northern parts of charles county, be on the lookout for two to four inches of rain, worst conditions between 6:00 p.m. tonight an 9:00 a.m. sunday morning. could get winds around d.c. between 20 to 40 with gusts over 50 miles an hour and power outages, as well. blue ridge, one to three i thinks of rain with power outages also possible. around the bay, four to eight inches of rain. back into you. and stick with news 4 all day and all night for continuing coverage of hurricane irene. y morning, august 27, 2011. this morning, breaking news on hurricane irene. you re looking there at live picture from atlantic beach, north carolina and nags head, north carolina, where the effects from irene are easy to see. it s expected to make landfall later this morning. we ll have live reports from north carolina and the heart of the storm in just a few moments. back inside studio 1a, i m amy robach with carl quintanilla who s in for lester holt. a state of emergency has been declared in 11 states as the hurricane moves up the coast. the numbers are staggering. at least 2.5 million people under mandatory evacuations. in new york city alone, nearly 400,000 residents have been told to leave their homes. president obama has said irene could be a hurricane of historic proportions. he s urging americans to heed the warnings from authorities. while irene might not be as powerful as other storms, it s the size and storm surge that have so many concerned. we re tracking irene and have team coverage from north carolina all the way to massachusetts. want to begin with al roker who s live on long beach, long island, for the latest on irene. al, good morning. reporter: okay, good morning, carl. thank you very much. and again, just because it s a category 1 storm, don t think that we re out of the woods because it s a massive storm. it is more than 700 miles in diameter. tropical-force winds extend out 260 miles from the center. right now it s 95 miles southwest of cape hatteras, north carolina. we re going to get an update on this coming up at 8:00. winds are 90 miles per hour, it s moving north-northeast at 14 miles per hour. now here s the path. here s what we expect. sometime this afternoon, in the next few hours, it s going to cross across nags head and the outer bank at 85 miles per hour. then it continues on up the coast early tomorrow morning. it will be just south of new jersey. it should make its way into new york or long island, we should say, by sometime tomorrow afternoon. it should be to the west of new york to the east of new york city. if it was west of new york city, that would be even worse for new york. then as we move on into sunday afternoon, it continues everything you learn as a pilot is to leave bad weather. and we do just the opposite. reporter: we re about to show you something that very few ever see up close. the hurricane s eyewall. we are now three minutes away, 15 minutes from will. the wind speeds outside the aircraft are more than 100 miles an hour. minutes later, we finally enter the eye and get our first glimpse of blue. those white capped waves are more than 30 feet high, the storm itself more than 200 miles long. they come in all shapes and sizes and this is a big one. this is a large wind field. so this is going to affect a huge area. reporter: by sunset, we head home. another set of hurricane hunters already in route to meet irene. and help detail the next forecast. and those hurricane hunters really do critical work. they improve the broadcast, its accuracy, by about 30% about, tightening up the cone of uncertainty. we also mentioned those drop sounds. we took one to show you. looks like a cardboard paper towel roll. this is the appear shoot that falls behind it. parachute behi. it sinks to the bottom and provides critical, vertical snapshot, an x-ray of all the information in the sky. it s amazing all that work is the reason we know about as much about it as we do. peter alexander in battery park city. we have late breaking news. the eye of the storm has just made landfall off the coast of north carolina. want to go to miami where bill reed is director of the national hurricane center and is tracking the storm. bill, good morning to you. good morning. hats off to your guys that got to go up with my friends at the hurricane yes, no frequent flyer miles, but it s still worth it. we know a little about the track this morning. what is your biggest concern? is it the storm surge? is it the wind speed? is it the rainfall or some combination of all of those? yes. right now of course, it is the storm surge. we ve had reports of tide levels as high as 7 1/2 feet. we re going to see that sort of affect all the way up the coast of north carolina where the upper ends of the sounds, where the creeks and rivers come out into the sounds there, that s where the water piles up. and if people didn t get out of harm s way, they could be in trouble in there. and of course the beach erosion and high waves on the barrier island is also a significant effect. you see these rain bands coming in like this. each one of those is dumping large quantities of rain, five to ten inches of rain will be common reports along the track. we ve also had reports of tornadoes overnight. so every aspect of the hurricane is underway now in north carolina. based on the latest charts you ve seen, bill, is the storm shifting east or west of that i-95 corridor between, say, washington, philadelphia, and new york? i don t think so. i think we re on track on the forecast very tightly now to run a beeline along the coastline. it doesn t matter much if it s 20 or 30 miles either side of that. the impacts to the communities are going to be about the same. the hurricane conditions confined mainly to the coast. but the long periods of tropical storm-force winds and heavy rain are certainly going to be in store the next two days as the storm tracks northward. the surge is obviously a concern for people along the coast. even if you re inland, the amount of rain, the fact that the ground has already been rained on this weekend is pretty soft. and the storm is moving slowly, as well. not good news for those who live away from the coast. that s correct. from the mid-atlantic through new england, they ve had five to ten inches of rain in some areas over the last month. saturated ground, hours of tropical storm-force winds, the large canopy, hardwood trees of the northeast. a lot of those trees will topple down. trees hit power lines. if they land on your house, they do damage. so we do anticipate a lot of power outages and then the flash flooding and river flooding in the areas where the heaviest rain occurs. that was bill reed. appreciate that update. joining us from miami. now for a check of the national forecast, want to go to language beach and forecast, want to go back to long beef aach and al. reporter: in fact there are over 120,000 people without power right now in north carolina and southeastern virginia. and this thing s just getting wound up. so gives you an idea. of course there s other weather going on across the country. let s show you what s happening out west. beautiful skies. 84 degrees in portland, oregon. 77 and sunshine in seattle. 95 in l.a. got a little bit of a heat wave going on. 91 st. louis. look for 92 degrees in sunshine in atlanta. we ve got 79 in orlando today. sunny skies and 71 in alpena, michigan. and look for a beautiful day in las vegas. a high getting up in to to the mid-90s. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning, everybody. i m chuck bell. tropical storm warnings are up for all the metro d.c. area as well as the bay side locations. st. mary s county, maryland under a hurricane warning. temperatures right now in the mid to upper 70s. highs today will only move into the upper 70s to near 80. there you can see on the radar the earlier raindrops already starting to move into southern maryland and a few raindrops around up to, as well. so we ll be keeping a close eye on this. we should be left with spine un late tomorrow and early next week. and you can check your weather anytime of the day and night weather channel online. we can t put too fine a point on it. it is dangerous to be out. surf. about five minutes ago go, there were a group much of surfers right behind me and in five minutes, they were pulled in that current. so it is dangerous out this. anybody who thinks about going out in that is tak thank you, al roller coasterer in lo al roker in new york. coming up, we re tracking the storm s path. is the big apple ready? [ female announcer ] kiss everything you know about cookies goodbye. new newtons fruit thins. real blueberries and blueberry brown sugar. crispy whole grain. newtons fruit thins, one unique cookie. and new pampers cruisers with 3-way fit helps them do it. they adapt at the waist, legs and bottom with up to 12 hours of protection. pampers. it s time to play. how d you learn to do that? what d you use? every project we finish comes with a story built-in. it s how our rough ideas become you did that yourself? so when we can save more on the projects that let us fix, make, and do more. that just makes the stories even better. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. add some style to your sink, with this moen banbury faucet for the new lower price of $79. as we said earlier, irene made landfall a few minutes ago in cape lookout. kerry sanders is in atlantic beach. he joins us with the latest. good morning. reporter: good morning. and it s remarkably calm here right now. and there s a reason for that. i just got off the phone with some meteorologists at the weather channel. we re in what is an ill-defined eye of irene. i ve been in the eyes of other hurricanes where you can look up and see blue skies and seagulls flying around. don t see that here, but it is remarkably calm because of the ill-defined eye passing over the area now. doesn t mean at that angry seas are not still showing their force here. the pier at the end, the last section, has already been taken down by the power of the waves here. we ve seen the waves here from eight to ten feet consistently. some of the waves have come in, rogue waves, upwards of 15 to 17 feet. the area up the coast here is without power, without cable tv. people who have sateite dishes are unable to penetrate through the rain and the clouds to get any sort of signal on their tvs. remarkably, the cellular phone system is still up and holding. people are able to communicate. the police have been up and down patrolling the area. they see no indications of any severe problems at least here in atlantic beach. no calls for assistance. most of the area did evacuate. of course, some say they ve seen hurricanes before, they weren t going to leave. they ve stayed put. it will take some time before we get through the hurricane event to determine fiif everybody got through okay. kerry sander, thank you. let s head to nags head along the outer banks. mark potter is there. he s been feeling powerful effects of the hurricane as it makes landfall. mark, good morning to you. reporter: good morning to you, amy. we are still feeling those effects of the hurricane. we ve been feeling them all night here, and we re told that we re going to have these conditions here for many hours today. things will get worse before they get better. you can see behind me also that the surf is rolling in, assisted by a high tide. we re told that there was a 14-foot wave just offshore recorded to the north of us. that water is coming in all the way up the beach. the good news is that i m not seeing any area where the water is cutting through the sand dunes. so it s being held off from the populated areas. more good news is coming from our crews who are out now, north and south along the roads. they re not seeing any substantial damage there. the roads are clear. they re talking about some tree limb down. a few thing in yards knocked down. no substantial damage to homes. the power is still on. and so that s that s good news. emergency managers here confirm the reports from our photographers but warn that this is just the beginning. and that we ve got a long day ahead of us. their main concern here is the storm surge and the conditions they were worried about yesterday are actually playing out today. and that s to the west of us. that means a one-two-three hit in terms of storm surge hitting the area. the first hit is the one we re getting now where winds are coming from the east pushed by the top of the hurricane as the eye goes into the sound behind us. that stacks up water against the inland shoreline. that s the second hit. the third, that water pushed to the west, hitting the western shoreline here. amy, it s going to be a very wet day and a long weather day here. back to you. yeah. and i know, mark, storm surge is the deadly part of a hurricane. but i m curious about the winds there. it looks like you re taking on some pretty stiff winds. what does it feel like for you out there? reporter: yeah. it s it s indeed a stiff wind. but this is not a hurricane-force feeling. the weather channel folks are here, and they ve been measuring it. they say that we re in the tropical storm-force winds right now. we may be getting some hurricane gusts in the near future. but this is a serious business, and nobody can diminish a category 1 hurricane. it can do a lot of damage. these winds can do a lot of damage, and as you pointed out, the water is the big concern here in this thin strip of land in the atlantic. all right, mark potter, stay safe, and thank you. still to come, the reality of irene. are we ready for a storm of this size? i m laura, and this is my cvs. i just transferred a prescription to cvs because they have care 1on1. it s where the pharmacist stops and talks to me about safety and saving money with generic prescriptions. laura, let s talk about possible side effects. it s all about me. love that. get care 1on1 and talk savings, safety, and side effects when you transfer or fill a new, ongoing prescription. i m laura, and this is my cvs. it s all mine. my vet thinks my insides are in mint condition. 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[ dog ] i am an iams dog. woof. so we were coming in with our supplies in the city. we re in soho. we re not evacuated, but we ve got our watered. we were hauling up all this, granola. i m looking at everyone else going to restaurants and partying last night. like not many people are prepared. i think one of the good things, at least in new york, they made the early call on closing the subways. so you know they re going to be down at noon. some of these mandatory evacuations which you ve never done before in the city was important. i do know that the line at the liquor store last night was 50 people long you were in that line? my wife said, go get some wine. but i think people are going to be spending the weekend at home. you have water, flashlights, and batteries and wine. very important. people getting ready for the storm. all along the east coast. we ll have full coverage as we continue. first, this is today on nbc. still to come on today, bracing for irene. the hurricane slams into the east coast. from the first impact to the fears of the disaster, we ll have the latest developments. plus, sounding the alarm. the warnings, the worry, what millions need to do to prepare. first, these message. the davis twins.le annou] .are alike in nearly every way. well, one in two people do. thankfully, there s new crest pro-health clinical gum protection toothpaste. it helps eliminate plaque at the gumline, helping prevent gingivitis. it s even clinically proven to help reverse it in just 4 weeks. and it protects these other areas dentists check most. looks like the twins are even again. new crest pro-health clinical toothpaste. life opens up when you do. it s made with tender white meat chicken. zero grams trans fat. mcdonald s chicken mcnuggets. crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and made just for you. 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[ female announcer ] new quaker chewy smashbar. kid-loved ingredients, smashed together. with 33% less sugar than the leading sweet snacks. kid-loved ingredients, smashed together. your favorites, in pieces. it s 7:56. you re looking at a live picture of ocean city where the winds are starting to pick up. we ll have live coverage throughout the day. hurricane irene is heading to our region. let s go straight to chuck bell in the storm somewhere who cent racking the storm. good morning to everybody battening down the hatches and getting ready for a real big hit of rain and wind that will last for much of the evening overnight into early tomorrow. right now temperatures in the mid to upper southwest. a real tropical feel to the air mass. already raindrops arriving into southern st. mary s county. we have a few drops in and around metro washington, as well. the center of the storm just how coming on shore near cape hookout, north carolina. the heavy rain bans will continue to spread northward through the rest of this morning and into this afternoon. metro impacts, a moderate impact around town. worses of it between 6:00 tonight and 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. 20 to 40 miles per hour american winds. power outages likely. bay side locations, be on the lookout, a high impact from 3:00 this afternoon until 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. and so be ready for it. again, flood watches are up, tropical storm and hurricane warnings are out. it will be a very quick deterioration of weather today. chuck, thanks so much. thousands of people in our area could lose power. here is a list of phone numbers you should keep handy. another news update in just 5 woman: downloading music can be expensive. so to save money, i trained my dog and this cockatoo to play all the hits of the 80 s woman: hit it, mr. butters. take on me. ..take on me take me on. anncr: there s an easier way to save. get online. go to geico.com get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. we are back on this saturday morning, august 27, 2011. this morning, breaking news on hurricane irene. the storm mead landfall about a half-hour ago. it happened near atlantic beach. this is a live picture from there. it s somewhat calmer now than it was earlier today. the eye is directly above this area. we have the scenes from atlantic beach as the wrath of hurricane irene hit the shore. winds were whipping up. there you see the waves slamming into the shore, taking away part of the pier. there is flooding, and there are power outages. we have a live report from both locations in a moment. first back inside studio 1a, i m amy robach with carl quintanilla filling in for lester. good to be here. there are reports of heavy rains and flooding. right now more than 100,000 people have lost power. the hurricane slammed into shore as a category 1 storm, but get this it s as big as europe with a massive surge that could bring upwards of 12 feet of rain to areas. irene s path will bring it up the east coast, zeroing in on virginia, washington, philadelphia, new york, and new england. then from north carolina to massachusetts, people are under mandatory evacuation orders. for the first time ever in new york s history, hundreds of thousands have been told to leave their homes and seek higher ground. we have complete coverage of irene with correspondents up and down the east coast. we want to start with al roker, live on long beach, long island, with the latest on the path of this storm. good morning. reporter: well, good morning, amy. and again, yes, while it s just just a category 1 storm, it can still do quite a bit of damage. this hurricane irene, right now as you said, it made landfall south of flick beach, north carolina. it s currently 60 miles southwest of cape hatteras. it s got 85 mile-per-hour winds now. so it s lost a little steam as it s made landfall. 85 mile-per-hour winds. moving north-northeast at 14 mile-per-hour. the tropical storm-force winds extend out almost 270 miles from the center. hurricane winds out we have hurricane watches and warnings up and down the eastern seaboard from south carolina all the way up and if you include the tropical storm watches to northern new england. the path, as we said, it s made landfall. will be making its way across the outer banks through this afternoon as it chugs forward. it will also then still be a category 1 storm with winds of about 80 miles per hour as it approaches new jersey late tonight, early tomorrow morning. continues up the coast. comes in on shore somewhere here along long island. in fact, probably very close to long beach. it will be east of new york city which is good news for the city as far as the storm surge is concerned. it continues to on sunday afternoon moving up to new england and out into the canadian maritimes as we move into early monday morning. the storm surge a big problem. that s why a lot of folks are concerned. anywhere from five to nine feet as you get along the carolinas and virginia. then as we move up into the d l delmarva peninsula, the surge is four to eight feet. this is a barrier island along the south shore of long island. and again, the water, four to eight feet, about the height of the boardwalk that our camera guy is shotgun from. plus, we also have to worry about tornado watches. we ve got tornado watches out in the mid-atlantic states. that may cause problems because we may see tornadoes. we ve also got flood watches in effect, the northeast and mid-atlantic states have seen massive amounts of rain in the last week. now in the next 72 hours, anywhere from four to 15 inches of rain could fall in the next 72 hours. so we re not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. amy? all right. al, with the latest for us on long beach, long island. now to irene and the federal response. with us from washington is secretary of homeland security janet napolitano. thanks for joining us this morning. thank you. i know that you ve been preparing all you can for this storm. you ve had advanced teams up and down the east coast. now that it s made landfall and we re in the thick of this, what are you hearing that local officials need most, governors, what are they telling you they need from the federal government? right now i think we re very well coordinated. we ve got ten emergency management teams prelocated in the emergency operations centers. all along the states that are going to be affected by the storm. we ve got assets that are ready to go, that are outside the storm area. as the storm passes, they can come in and provide whatever assistance is necessary. so right now, i m not hearing from mayors and governors about their needs other than many states have requested predisaster declarations, prelandfall declarations, and those have all been moved and approved by the president. and secretary, you re well aware this storm is massive. it s headed toward major metropolitan areas. 2.5 million people have been ordered to evacuate. at this point, are you confident that everybody who needed to get out has done so? well, i think what we ve seen for the most part is a very orderly evacuation. people have had lots of warnings, lots of time to get their things together and get out of the zone of danger. there are always a few people who decide that they re going to ride it out. for those i would just reiterate the message. you know, please, we want to be able to focus in terms of response on those who have special needs. we may need to be evacuating hospitals, nursing homes for the elderly. that sort of thing. please participate. if you get an evacuation order, those are not given lightly. and make sure that you get out of harm s way. and secretary, for those who have decided to stay put, who have hunkered down, we ve been paying a lot of attention to the stats. maybe some people made the decision based on the down grade of hurricane irene. they think, well, this is just a hurricane category 1 hurricane, it s not going to be that bad. what s your message to them at this point in terms of what to expect and what to prepare for? you know, it s just a a hurricane. it s a big storm that covers a lot of area. there s going to be a lot of wind. there s going to be a lot of precipitation. there are going to be a lot of trees falling and power outages. so all of those things can creates a dangerous situation. right now we re waiteding for landfall. we will see the storm as it moves north. but if puerto rico is any indication and we look to what happened in puerto rico, there s a lot of damage, some power not restored days after the storm. people need to have proper supplies, they need to have water, they need to have food, batteries. those sorts of common sense things in anticipation that it takes a while to restore power when you have outages that cover large areas. and speaking to that, secretary, obviously the the huge, the size of this storm and the number of people in that impact zone what are your concerns about once the storm passes through, getting power restored, getting help to people who need it? that s right. and that s what we ve been working with the states and communities on. they re obviously the first responders. they ve got the initial response. we help and provide the backup when they are overwhelmed. but we fully anticipate that this could cause power outage and other impacts for a large number of people up and down the atlantic seaboard. now we can t say with precision today what those impacts are going to be. but we are preparing for the first. secretary napolitano, we appreciate your valuable time on this very busy day. thank you. thank you. now back to carl. thanks. as we ve been saying all morning, north carolina s taking the first lashing from hurricane irene. joining us is the governor, beth perdue. governor, good morning to you. good morning to you. she s made landfall i m delighted to be sitting i was going to ask, based on the what are the conditions so far as you can tell? we re in the middle of landfall as we speak. she s right over cape lookout. we ve had a night full of rain. there s about 160,000 power outages. the wind is from 70 to 90 miles per hour. we re going to have rain for six or seven more hours. our planning was fabulous in north carolina. we re hurricane alley if you have forgotten that. it s important to know we know how to do this. our planning was great. our plan is executed now. our shelters are open. our research and rescue teams are all over the state. and so now we wait for the storm to pass. and we begin to respond and recover early tomorrow morning. people still talk about hurricane fran back in 96 which killed 21 people in your state alone. you issued a bunch of advisories and evacuations earlier in the week for several counties. are you seeing a lot of holdouts at this point? there s always some holdouts in a state like this where we have hurricanes so frequently. but the good news is our tourists evacuated very quickly and expeditiously. we feel comfortable that the safety of that population has been sustained. we do understand there are people who refuse to leave, and that s their right in america. the good news for us is that as much as we respect irene, it appears we can keep holding our breath that it may not be nearly as bad as anybody predictsed. so we continue to wait for the storm to abate so we can go in and look for our response and recovery. we just spoke to secretary napolitano. are you asking for much assistance from fema or the federal government at this point? well, i did the early declaration to the request. president was great and did did day before yesterday. the secretary s been fabulous. we have a relationship here with fema because of all of the incidents we ve shared over the past decade beginning with hurricane floyd. and we don t exchange business cards on the day of the incident. we know each other. it s relationship based. as a result, fema works very well with north carolina. and our system is very robust. we go from every county in the state, from the state to the feds. so it s fairlyseamless. our model s an american model. this happens to be one time where we executed for well and the people of the state listened which is good news. my advice for people who haven t seen or met irene yesterday is to get ready. she s still a hurricane, and people need to respect her. finally, those who generally stay are often worried about getting back into town after the storm. what do you think the cleanup process is going to be like? well, the cleanup process is always irritating to some, and i understand that. with 160,000 home without power as we speak, and we know more will come today because we ve got the surges to worry about, the flag to worry about, and more gusts of wind. so i would think that people will be irritated. the bottom line for the local municipal officials, county managers, is the fact that public safety is the undergirding premise. it s not the convenience of people. we must be sure that people who are re-entering an area that they left can be safe. we ve got power lines down. we know that trees are in the road. there s a tree here in the road in raleigh. so right now folks just need to stay inside and endure what s going on. but at the end of the day, hurricane irene appears to have not destroyed north carolina. we feel hopeful that this has been a storm that we respect, but it s not been what we worried about. some of the best news so far, governor. appreciate your time, governor of north carolina. thank you. and there is other news to tell you about this morning. ron mott has more on. that good morning. good morning, everyone. we begin in libya where rebels have taken control of a keyboarder crossing as the search continues for moammar gadhafi. nbc s stephanie gosk is live in tripoli for us with more. good morning. reporter: good morning, ron. the rebels have two immediate goals right now. first and foremost, find moammar gadhafi and his sons. right now there are just rumors about their whereabouts. no one knows where they are. the second is to clear out or at least negotiate with remaining factions that are still loyal with gadhafi. in tripoli that has meant fighting in the area. a gruesome discovery on saturday. as many as 200 bodies in that city. mostly fighters but also civilians and children were found in the hospital abandoned. the international community is trying to help out, but they re not sure what happened. the suspicion is that the violence grew so great that hospital workers had to abandon their patients. the ongoing instability has meant that council leaders have yet to arrive in tripoli. they say they re eager to get here to start governing this area. ron? all right. thank you very much. nbc s stephanie gosk in tripoli for us this morning. now to the economy. on friday, fed chief ben bernanke talked optimististically about long-term economic growth and wall street responded. we have more live from the white house with the latest. mike, good morning. reporter: good morning, ron. some rare good news from wall street after four consecutive weeks of losses ending on an up note, breaking that streak. the dow up 135 points yesterday. largely a reaction to a speech by ben bernanke at a conference out in jackson hole, wyoming. typically ambiguous, he did leave open the possibility that there could be further fed action to try to get this anemic recovery back on its feet when the fed meets next month in september. he also chided congress and the president for the big fight that we saw around the debt ceiling, saying that could do real harm to the economy if we continue to see that kind of behavior out of washington. of course, the president returning early last night ahead of the hurricane. he has a big speech on jobs and the economy after labor day, ron. all right. thank you very much. finally, one of the world s most perfect gems can be yours for the taking. this giant 43-carat diamond will be auctioned on line next month. bidding for the flawless canary yellow diamond seized in a money laundering case, will start at $900,000. i wonder if they take layaway. i like how they had a quarter next to it. in case you didn t get it. want to go back to long beach, long island, new york, reporter: obviously there is more going on than irene across the country. we have a beautiful day out west. sunny skies in the pacific northwest, 84 in portland, 77 in seel seattle. toasty in los angeles, sunny sky, 95 degrees. 1 we 112 in fphoenix. warm weather down through atlanta. cleveland, partly cloudy, 82 degrees. plenty of sunshine throughout the northern planes. here s what s happening in your neck of woods about. good saturday morning. i m chuck bell. already full overcast outside this morning with rain showers moving in to the area. there is the view from our sky watcher camera on top of the tower. clouds and mugginess outside this morning. temperatures are generally speaking in the mid to upper 70s right now. so we re looking for more in the way of rainfall to come our way as we go through the rest of the day today. could see indeed several inches of rain before the end of the da that s your latest weather. amy? thank you very much. still to come, packing a powerful punch, is new york city prepared for irene s wrath? we ll find out after these messages. if you have painful, swollen joints, i ve been in your shoes. one day i m on p of the world. the next i m saying. i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i m surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you ve been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don t start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you re prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. get back to the things that matter most. good job girls. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. much of the east coast has never experienced anything like this before. in new york, hundreds of thousands are being evacuated. the city s entire subway system is being suspended. the hurricane is a threat that the city is taking very seriously. is the city that never sleeps ready for irene? our own lester holt found out. reporter: the naked city has never felt so exposed. tens of thousands of new yorkers in low-lying neighborhoods now under orders to get out. i feel nervous like i don t know what s going on. i don t really know what s going to happen. that s always a scary feeling. reporter: the city has produced a map showing the relative flood risk in the five boroughs. for now, those closest to the coast, zone a, are under an evacuation order. seniors at this brooklyn hospital were among the first to be relocated. i can t stress it enough. please, nature is a force more powerful than any of us. and it really is better to be safe than sorry. reporter: this is battery park at the lower tip of manhattan, sitting virtually at sea level. it s less than a half mile from the financial district. would be the first area to be overwhelmed by a storm surge. experts say the entire area could be buried in water, even flooding the holland tunnel that carries car traffic between lower manhattan and new jersey. new york city is perhaps the most vulnerable mega city in the wor world. if a major hurricane comes through new york city, our tunnels are vulnerable. reporter: wind is the other big threat. today construction crews are making plans to secure the scores of towering cranes that dot the skyline here at the world trade center rebuilding site. larry davis has 11 rigs in use. if they re not secured, they could collapse. yeah. in the high, high winds. they re designed for 100, 110 mile-per-hour winds. reporter: the subways are the lifeblood of new york city, carrying over five million passengers a day. nearly twice the population of chicago. the tracks are susceptible to flooding. like 2007 when rain falling at two inches an hour from a tornado-related storm did this. irene is expected to drop rain at more than twice that rate. tonight with train service shutting down soon, those new yorkers not under evacuation orders are gaming out when and how they ll get out if and when the time comes. you have to start preparations to leave right now. reporter: for today, lester holt, nbc news, new york. our complete coverage of hurricane irene continues. first, this is today on nbc. still to come, a storm of historic proportions. the latest update on hurricane irene. plus, getting the word out from flood insurance to emergency assistance. what you need to know. first, these messages. it s game day, buddy, and, boy, are we in for a doozy. oh, man. mr. clean is dominating the competition! mr. clean is tackling mess like some sort of mess tackler. oh, and what s this? 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[ male announcer ] introducing mr. clean with gain original fresh scent. victory over dirt s never been easier or smelled so great. live pictures now as hurricane irene prech approaapp. this ocean city. they re already experiencing light rain in that area. we ll say good morning, it s saturday, august 27th. now to hurricane irene. we ll go straight to chuck bell in storm center4. good morning, everybody. as you get ready to start your weekend, the minute you go out the door, you ll know that it s the tropics outside for sure. dew points are in the mid-70s. actual air temperatures in the mid and upper 70s. 79 down up to. here is a look at doppler radar. you can see moderate rains starting to enter southern st. mary s county under a hurricane warning for later this afternoon and tonight. the rest of the d.c. metro area is under a tropical storm warning. so we can still see winds between 30 and 40 miles an hour even in downtown washington. you folks out toward the blue ridge, not quite as much of a wind and rain threat, but still a very rough night. there you can see the real heavy rain moving in to parts of the delmarva peninsula do you knwn tidewater. winds again between 20 to 40 miles an hour. it will end by about lunchtime tomorrow. aaron, back in to you. and we invite you to stick with news 4 all day long and all night for hurricane coverage. you can also logon to nbcwashington.com. we ll be streaming hive the ini. if you have a smart phone, scan the qr code you see on your screen. it will take you directly it we are back on this saturday morning, august 27, 2011. i m amy robach along with carl quintanilla in for lester this morning. we want to update you on our breaking coverage of hurricane irene. this is the scene on atlantic beach and nags head, north carolina, where irene has just arrived and made landfall at 7:30 this morning. it s a category 1 storm with a force that will soon be felt along the entire east coast, including new york s long island where the waves are already churning. incredibly we ve seen surfers out in the ocean this morning. not a good idea. no. meanwhile, states of emergency have been declared from the carolinas to new england. there are also mandatory evacuations in process including for the first time in new york city. president obama warns that irene could be a storm of historic proportions. and preparations are underway across the east coast. families stocking up on supplies, food, and water. there are also concerns of widespread power outages. our complete coverage of hurricane irene begins with nbc s kerry sanders who is right now in the eye of the hurricane in atlantic beach, north carolina. it s eerily calm there, kerry. reporter: and it s a rare experience really to get an opportunity to be in the eye. this sigh a little less defined than other eyes of hurricanes. nonetheless, i want to take you into the cloud cover here. there are some spots where i can see even a little bit of blue sky. but if we look way out there, you can see that dark cloud, that s what s known as the eyewall. that s the most powerful winds of the hurricane. and that s moving this direction. we ve been in the eye for a little bit more than an hour now. the wave action is really what we ve seen more drama, though, from than anything else. if there s going to be any good news, at least on the front half of the hurricane that has passed over us, is that the damage is minimal. the power is out, but the power lines are still up, the power poles are still up, there s opinion a little bit of street flooding, a few fences knocked down. homes that put up the shutters and more importantly those where folks did no preparation and put no shutters up, there s no damage. we re only halfway through the hurricane. we still have the back half to come through here. it s really good news thus far, and it might be a signal to folks who live further up the coast here that at least from the wind, it appears that the damage is not going to be that bad. we still have, as i said, a long way to go, though. all right. kerry sanders, thank you very much. and al roker is on long island with a look at your forecast for the entire country. good reporter: yes, we have activity here in the east obviously. but the rest of the country enjoying fairly decent weather. out west, we have beautiful weather. in fact a little bit of a mini heat wave going on this los angeles with plenty of sunshine there. a high of about 95 degrees. this is the latest, though, on irene. you can see right now irene looking like a category 1 storm as it makes its way up the coast. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good saturday morning. i m news 4 meteorologist chuck bell. thick overcast outside this morning and a real tropical feel to the air mass. temperatures are in the middle and upper 70s right now with dew points also in the mid southwest. there you you can see on doppler radar light to moderate rains entering in to far southern maryland, also a few showers out toward the blue ridge. so rain lk on the increase. heavy rains moving in to the delmarva peninsula. that s your latest weather. carl? thank you. now to the relief effort to those in harm s way. with 65 million people in the storm s path, the american red cross is ready and opening shelters along the east coast. gail mcgovern is the ceo of the red cross and joins us from washington. gail, good morning to you. good morning, carl, thanks for having me on the show. if i m trying to evacuate, i m somewhere along the storm s path today, is there still room at these shelters? and how do i find out where one is,in from? one is, for instance? there is room. last night we had 13,000 people staying in shelters. and all your viewers need to do is get on redcross.org, and they ll see our shelter maps. they can find one that s closest to them. the other option is we have an app on the iphone where they can see where the shelters are, too. if they re asked to evacuate, we urge them to heed that warning. it s essential that they listen to the officials and do whatever they recommend. for those who are in the immediate path of the storm, what should we go through this reminder list from time to time. what should people be doing before irene arrives? everyone should assemble an emergency kit. in fact, they should have one on hand as just a regular thing to do in their lives. and the kids should have about 72 hours worth of supplies so that they can live out of the kit in case they get stranded. they should have their important papers, a first-aid kit, prescriptions, maybe their child s teddy bear. the things that they think they cannot do without for 72 hours. you make other points fill your gas tank, turn your refrigerator to the coldest setting so it can stay cold as long as possible. obviously bring the lawn chairs inside. and unplug some of the small appliances. what if you re in an area where you re unaffected but you want to help those who are affected? what s the easiest way to help? well, the easiest way to help is this operation is going to be costly, just handling all the people that are evacuated, feeding them, making sure that they re in shelters. so people can help by making a donation. they can go on to redcross.to go do that or can text red cross to 90999. when a storm this magnitude hits such a large area, the blood supply also reduces. so if people are eligible to donate blood, that s another way that they can help out, too. gail mcgovern, good advice for those of us along the east coast or anyone watching around the country. thanks for your time. up next, communication breakdown. what irene could mean for your cell phone service. first, these messages. n, gentlemen! we re going back to training. a stain, vaughn?! a ketchup stain?! how dare you disrespect me, your country, and your mama?! i guess the guy just wants to bring his lunch with him. do you have something to say about the stain, vaughn?! sir! what stain, sir?! vaughn, that oh! what d they do, send me a daggone houdini?! 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one smart way to use it outside of normal calling is text messaging. uses less capacity on the network and frees up resources for local police and fire. the plan to let someone know i m safe. reporter: while phones may be down, the internet could be working. send an e-mail to let loved ones know you re okay. for today, kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. and as we ve been reporting all morning, hurricane irene is taking aim at the east coast this weekend. if you ve taken all the precautions to safeguard your home, now would be a good time to review your homeowner s policy. here to tell us about hurricane coverage and flood insurance is sharon epperson, cnbc s center energy and personal finance correspondent. good morning. good morning. a lot to get to. you say right before the storm hits, something people might not think about you should grab all of your important paperwork. we re talking about your homeowners s policy, renters insurance shoal. also birth certificates, social security cards, immigration documents. anything that you think is a vital piece of paperwork that you ll need. make sure you have your bank account numbers, as well. and if you can, get the cell phone number for your insurance agent. make sure you have a number for someone to call in case of emergency. all those important numbers to have. good advice. as you review your homeowner s policy now, you say there are two important words to look for. windstorm deductible. what does that mean, and why is it important? everyone knows about their deductible, that s what you pay before the insurance claim kicks in. but then you may have a windstorm deductible on top of that. that s going to be different than a general deductible. that will be based on how much your house is insured for, not your loss. so if you have a house that s insured for $300,000, you may have a 2% or a 5% windstorm deductible, we re talking $15,000 deductible before any insurance claim will kick in. that s significant. and in terms of what kind of damage you suffer, some of these homeowner policies are very specific in terms of what it covers. let s start with the wind. is that typically covered or not? in the case of many of the states that are going to be affected by irene, it should be covered. again, you need to check your policy to see if you have the windstorm deductible. some states will require a separate wind policy. so you want to make sure that you look into that. if you have a became or your home s in a low-lying area, obviously flooding might be a problem. knowing what s in your flood insurance policy and whether or not you have one obviously is very important here. well, you definitely want to have a flood insurance policy if you re in one of the low-lying areas. if you don t have one, you ll be out of luck if a lot of cases in getting some of the damages covered, particularly when you re looking in the basement. if you re in the basement area and that gets flooded, the flood insurance policy will cover the washer and dryer, portable air conditioning unit, deep freezer, and valuables if you have them up to about $2,500. then what s typically not covered? well, anything that is damaged by mold or mildew, that is not going to be covered. stock certificates, things like that are not covered. you may not have some of the property outside of the building, your house covered like a pool or fence. and here s an important one are there any resources for folks out there for hurricane damage if they re not covered under some of these specific policies? well, if you re not insured, you may be able to get some relief from the federal government if your area is declared a federal disaster area. that will probably be a loan. again, it has to be declared a federal disaster area to qualify. a couple of places people should go to for help, go to trustedchoice.com to get an independent insurance agent, get advice about your policy. also go to floodsmart.gov to find out about your flood insurance coverage and stay safe and hope for the best. all right. sharon epperson, as always, thank you very much. we ll be back with more breaking news coverage on hooirhooir hooihooirk on hurricane irene. as the east coast braces for hurricane irene, it s not too late to make a few last-minute modifications to make sure your home is safe. john ander it wh er iterry whit show brothers on call, on diy. thanks for coming in this morning. obviously people talking about this in the northeast. what s the one thing, john, that people often forget in advance of the storm? one of the most important thing that homeowners need to know is how to shut off their gas and water. they should find their water meter, they should find their gas meter. it s probably located somewhere in the basement. there s a shuttle you ve valve next to it shutoff valve next to it. when you shut it off it turns off the gas and water to the entire house. this is important when you evacuate the house or if there s an emergency and you get a burst pipe so gas and water is not flowing into the house. if there is flooding eventually, there are things you can do about it, right? absolutely. the first thing that you want to do is have a pump available. you want to get it before it happens. what we have an example of the sump pump, you put it in the basement, you plug it in. when the floodwaters rise, this float switch will kick on and eject the water out of the house. if the electricity goes out, this won t work. what you need to do is pouf power it with a generator like this. this will not only power the sump pump, but the refrigerator, freezer, lights. how about windows? i see supply wood. people say, oh, tape it up. other say that does not work. it s not going to keep windows from smashing. with the hurricane comes heavy winds and flying debris. the best way to keep flying debris from smashing through the window is with storm shutters. if you don t have those installed on your house, the next best thing is 3/4-inch plywood secured to the frame. you put this in place, zip six screws around the outside, and you re good to go. that will prevent flying debris from smashing through the windows. anybody with a house probably has a gutter. i guess it s important to make sure it doesn t fly away and it s clean. keep it clean and flowing. this is a great example of a gutter bracket that you can put on. you stick it in place, clip it down, zip the screw in, and the gutters will be locked securely in place. another component is your downspouts and leaders. this is so important that water doesn t pool up. you got to keep these flowing away from the house. the best way is to attach an extension pipe like this one and get it as far away from the foundation as possible so to doesn t flood into the basement. that s a good tip. documents, important papers you have, what s the best way to protect those? get yourself a dry box. things like passports, burst certificates, insurance policies, keep in a dry book. if your house starts to flood, it s going to protect them. another great tip is to take photos of all your valuable items, furniture, thing around your house so if god forbid you have to make an insurance claim, you ve got the photo documentation. another good way is video. taking videotape. something to show the insurance agent later. absolutely. finally, everybody s saying you got to clear your furniture off of your patio. all items, chairs, all of that. get it away. put it in the garage, in the shed. large items like this, weigh them down with something heavy. it s that simple. if you can t get sand? if you can t get sand kitty litter? kitty litter, mulch. i m sure the cat will understand. explain later on. great advice. thank you very much. we ll be right back. first these messages. 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[ female announcer ] kellogg s® fiber plus™. taste the plus. hurricane irene has reached the north carolina coast this morning. al roker is here with the latest on what we can expect for the rest of the morning. al? reporter: we re in long beach, long island, amy. we re starting to get some light showers now as the outer rain bands start to make their way north. and it s just going to go downhill from here. we ve got a new image in from nasa. this gives you really a sense of how big this storm is. take a look at this thing. it is massive. i mean, more than 700 miles from the center, it expands out, we re talking about the distance from miami to north of atlanta. and right now, it s about 60 miles southwest of cape hatteras, north carolina. it s it s got winds of about 85 miles per hour. it s moving north/northeast at 14 miles per hour. the tropical force winds extend out 260 miles from the center of the storm. hurricane-force winds about 90 miles from the center. here s the path. basically cutting across the outer banks in the next few hours and making its way up the shore by early tomorrow morning. it s coming near new jersey, and then sometime late tomorrow morning, early afternoon, it cuts across probably not too far from here, along long island and on its way on up into new england. it s moving quickly but is still a category 1 storm and can do plenty of damage. back to you. all right. thank you very much. and that s going to do it for us on this saturday morning. msnbc will have continuing coverage all day of hurricane irene. be sure to watch nightly news for the latest on this massive storm. stay safe wherever you happen to be. stay safe wherever you happen to be. and have a great day. captions by vitac www.vitac.com good morning. straight ahead on news 4 today, hurricane irene has made landfall and is now pounding the north carolina coast. we ll have a live report from inside the teeth of the storm. irene could leave you thousands of people in our area in the dark. what power companies are doing to prepare for her arrival. and i m meteorologist chuck bell. the rains have already arrived across parts of southern maryland as well as parts of the eastern shore. could get an awful lot of rain here in metro washington area today and especially overnight tonight. that will be the real danger zone that we re watching out for. a complete check of your forecast for an irene filled weekend is coming up. complete live coverage coming your way on air and on nbcwashington.com. news 4 today begins in less than you re looking at a live picture of atlantic beach where the winds and waves are pounding on to the pier there. part of that pier washed away as the storm continues to move up the east coast. welcome to news 4 today. hurricane irene has officially arrived. that category 1 storm made landfall near cape lookout, north carona