Welcome back. we ll show you live pictures of nags head. you see the beach on other side of the screen. of course, that is times square in new york where hundreds of national guard troops are being deployed. many are heading to long island where hurricane irene is expected to hit around noon tomorrow. a federal emergency has been declared in the state, and millions of people are bracing for the worst. nbc s mike tiebi has the latest. reporter: if irene brings her punch around late noon it could be bad news for freeport, long island, one of the fishi inin i. thousands of boats fish out this town. by late tomorrow with a new moon, one thing, a high tide around 11:00 in the morning, and the winds perhaps as high as 75,
You, luke. reporter: yeah, tamron. very much so in the last 20 minutes. the winds have gotten sizably more intense. more than they have been all day. the most amazing thing is behind me the potomac river, you now see white caps in the potomac river similar to the ones you would see in the ocean on a blustery day. definitely rough water out there. there are no boaters out there. all we ve seen is a coast guard vessel go by. in alexandria where i am, old town harbor, they are expecting flooding about possibly as much as three blocks into the city. a lot of local businesses are putting up sandbags. you heard what bill said about this storm surge. going into chesapeake bay and virginia, possibly five to seven feet. during isabel the water rose between 6 and 12 feet. that is a possibility in alexandria. that is the biggest fear among residents. folks are still not panicking.
Through north carolina. the last report from the national weather service placed the center of the storm near the town of fairfield. that s about 50 miles south of nags head. the powerful storm left nearly 500,000 east coast residents without power. the number expected to rise as irene s winds head north. eric fisher is in virginia beach. what is the latest there? looks better than when we were last with you. reporter: certainly we are in a bit of a lull compared to earlier today. we had the heavy rain, strong gusty winds, as well. now it s not the rain, but wind is staying with us. we are waiting for the center of irene. what is striking me about our coverage today, as i look around i see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven 18, 19, 21, 23 people around my shot right now. we ve seen a lot of people being reckless with their own lives during the day today. i realize i m standing out here.
The evacuation areas. liveries also are to pick up street hails anywhere in the city. this is also for the rockaways and areas higher up. if you had a medical emergency, it s not clear we could get to you. as the winds build up, the bridges may very well close down. it may not be possible to get off staten island or to get off the rockaways. so it s a good time right now to say, okay, better to be safe than sorry. we ve been saying this all day. time is running out. it s going to get dark in a little while and the rains will start getting heavier. winds will make it dangerous to be outside. airports are basically all closed. staten island ferry is still
Closer to us, it s a few miles south, we ll get one good band of rain and the back side of the storm and winds farther to the south have been just as strong on the back side of the storm. fortunately once it passes, it will push water out of the area, but the flooding a big concern especially between 5:00 and 9:00 this evening. and eric, we re getting word virginia, newport news officials say a second person in virginia has died from a tree that toppled as a result of hurricane irene. earlier we reported the 11-year-old boy was killed when a tree crashed into the apartment building he and his mother were inside. his mother escaped. sadly the boy lost his life. now two people in virginia have lost their lives as a result of trees toppled by hurricane irene. we ll be back with more updates for you on hurricane irene and the storm s path. hi, i m doing my back-to-school shopping and i saw another store s ad for these crayons at a lower price. no problem i can match that right here.