nice to be here with you for the next five hours. tropical storm irene after lashing new york city, irene is dutching heavy, heavy rainfall in parts of upstate new york and also new england. the storm made landfall overnight as a hurricane in two stops, first on the landfall on little egg inlet in new jersey, and then it hit another landfall, coney island, new york. at that time irene had weakened to a tropical storm. on long island, irene s storm surge flooded downtown long beach. some streets in manhattan also flooding, but the water really has started to recede already. it is sweeping up the east coast. irene has killed at least 15 people at last count as it started, as it fist made landfall in north carolina, more than 4 million people as a whole without power. irene moving north now. its biggest threat is inland flo flooding. still the word is caution, and we have cnn crews up and down the east coast for you to bring you up-to-the-minute coverage on tropical storm
standing could be under water, covered in floodwater. here s what hurricane irene looked like when it hit the bahamas. new yorkers now of course are used to seeing this on tv. not up close but they might see it here and soon. here is the view as irene began moving up the eastern seaboard. as it did emergency plans started to kick in. airlines began cancelling flights. hospitals moving patients and here in new york mayor mike bloomberg be issued the first evacuation orders in city history for low-lying areas including the area, including the one we re standing in tonight. a hurricane warning is in effect for new york city. meantime as we speak north carolina s outer banks are getting hit. we have reporters all over the region. i do want to begin with chad myers who just got his hands on a fresh update from the national hurricane center. chad, what have you learned? i ve learned the storm has turned to the north-northeast. that is the continuation of the right-hand turn, ande
here s what hurricane irene looked like when it hit the bahamas. new yorkers might see it here and soon. here is the view as irene began moving up the eastern seaboard, and as it did emergency plans started to kick in. airlines began cancelling flights. hospitals moving patients. and here in new york mayor mike bloomberg issued the first evacuation orders in city history for low-lying areas, including the one, the area that we are standing in tonight. and for the first time in modern memory, a hurricane warning is in effect for new york city. meantime as we speak, north carolina s outer banks are getting hit. we ve got reporters all around the region. in a moment we ll check with correspondent on the ground there. i want to begin with chad myers who just got his hands on a fresh update from the national hurricane center. chad, what have you learned? i ve learned now that storm has turned to the north-northeast. that is the continuation of the right-hand turn, anderson, that
here. we re standing, a lot of this was beach. we got here this morning. quickly it s already risen several feet. i was talking to the mayor. he said one of the big worries in this area is when you go past here, there s homes that s built on a cliff. at this point their worries not so much the wind, this is not going to be the kind of storm here where the wind is going to do catastrophic damage, but what they are worried about is, it s moving so slowly, and it s going to hit right before high tide which comes about 3:30 in the morning here, that they are worried that there may be so much water brought into the areas quickly that it could erode a lot of the soil that these homes are built on a cliff. so he s been going around today trying to make sure, you know, people have left their homes or if they haven t that they are at least aware of the risk that they are taking by staying inside. wolf? even though everyone was strongly urged to leave where you are as you say, chris,
a troubling new assessment. they are expecting the storm surge to flood the area with anywhere from six to 12 feet of water. other low lying neighborhoods on a mandatory evacuation orders. the mass transit system will shut down as of noon tomorrow. this is what they are concerned about. pictures of irene hit the bha mas. not much change in the forecast and not much change in the track. we are still at 100 miles per hour. still forecasting to get slightly weaker as we run the storm over north carolina and on up into the northeast. that is good news. i still think because of the size of this storm that that flooding po sensual in downtown new york in manhattan in even towards rockaway beach and long beach in new york still there as the waves will be pushing and the winds will be pushing water up against that shore for a very long time. here is what has happened to the storm as the turn happened. it was very low pressure. right now the pressure is low enough to make a catego