carolina coast. as many as 65 million people all along the eastern seaboard are going to be impacted in some way, shape or form by irene. and many people are already trying to find shelter where they can. take a look at the size of this storm. eight states from north carolina to massachusetts are under states of emergency. and right now, this first hurricane of the season that is impacting so much of the east coast is pummeling north carolina. it barreled ashore on the outer banks of north carolina just after dawn this morning, about five miles northeast of cape lookout. it is now down to a category 1 hurricane with maximum winds of 85 miles per hour. still very significant. make no mistake, it is a very powerful storm. and it is still very dangerous. there have been two storm-related deaths in north carolina reported so far. and we're seeing a lot of fierce winds and drenching rains there. parts of the region haven't seen a storm like this in decades. we're talking about along the eastern seaboard. cnn has crews up and down the east coast. take a look right there. dotting the map along the east coast there. you'll be hearing from many of them this afternoon. right now, president barack obama is at fema headquarters in washington. that's where all the disaster and relief efforts are being coordinated. officials say they're expecting everything from flooding to power outages and possibly tornadoes along the eastern seaboard. >> these will not be on the ground very long. they won't be the type of tornadoes we saw this spring. but they can very devastating. we ask people outside the evacuation zones during the storm to stay inside, stay away from exterior walls and windows, interior areas, just like you would prepare for tornadoes. >> irene remains a large and dangerous storm. people need to take it seriously. people need to be prepared. as we have suggested during the week, think of this in three phases -- preparation, response and recovery. some of our states are now moving into the response mode. but other states further north along the atlantic seacoast are still in preparation mode. >> there's reynolds wolf in kill devil hills being smacked around by some pretty significant winds. tell us more, reynolds. >> reporter: i'll tell you, it really has been intense. if you check out the sign, it says, please do not remove deck furniture. they have one thing of deck furniture here. i'm glad the hotel moved the rest because irene would do it for them. the wind has been the most intense thing we've noticed over the last couple of hours. not a whole lot of rain. there's been some water picked up and brought onshore. but it's really just the sand and the wind we've been experiencing. something else we've been experiencing across the outer banks has been something caused by the wind, widespread power outages. at this point, hundreds of thousands of people, possibly upwards of 300,000 people without power across the tar heel state. i would expect that's going to get worse as time goes on because this is not just going to stay here. at it pulls northward, we're going to be affected by the back half of this system. that's going to knock down a few more power lines, a few more trees and more power outages. drinking water is fou an issue, too. there's already been a boiled water alert for parts of the communities along the outer banks. that may also move to other parts of the region. another issue we have to help keep people safe, in the community of duck, north carolina, we have a mandatory curfew that will last until monday. in terms of people getting out and about, there have been a few people like us -- there haven't been a whole lot of people out and about. they want people to remind inside if at all possible. irene is certainly moving. she's going to be moving way up the coast, right to new york. right to my friend, poppy harlow. poppy's got the latest. let's send it over to her. >> reporter: reynolds, you've got the wind. i've got the rain. this is the heaviest rain we've got in new york city yet. but, folks, if you're in new york and watching, expect a lot more for a long time. we're at the southernmost tip of new york in battery park city, part of zone "a" that's being evacuated. you'll see a lot of taxis waiting here. they've been filled with people throughout the day. you've got massive, massive apartment buildings here with mandatory evacuations. 370,000 people in new york city, mandatory evacuation for them, the first-ever this city has seen. i myself live a few blocks from here. i had to evacuate at about 4:00 this morning. so this is no joke. just a little while ago, we had a chance to talk to the manhattan borough president. he's in charge of this whole area, right under mike bloomberg, the mayor. take a listen to what he said, especially to those people that are not heeding the warning to evacuate. take a listen. >> you should take this very seriously. you should heed the recommendation, which is if you live in a vulnerable zone, in this case, battery park city in lower manhattan, now's the time to pack up your belongings and hit the road because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. and we are working all day today to make sure that people understand that this is a very serious situation. no need to panic. no need to get unglued. but if you follow simple recommendations, we will get through this. >> reporter: the biggest change right now since we've been reporting since 5:00 a.m. this morning, fredricka, is that all of new york city public transit is now completely shut down. the mta, the subway which carries 5 million new yorkers a day, it is shut down for the foe seeshl future, until the storm passes and they can take care of any flooding. the buses are all shut down. people are relying now on yellow cabs and they're relying on their feet to walk wherever they're going to go. i will tell you that it's been interesting to hear from people here that say, we think this is hype, we think it's overblown. we don't think that we need to evacuate. we will see what the recommendation is from the mayor's office. you've got to get out. when i talked to the mayor's office last, they said that there could be a storm surge anywhere between six and 12 feet. we're a block here from the water. you can imagine what that water from new york harbor would be like coming in. all three sides where i'm standing are completely surrounded by water. if you're not from new york, manhattan is an island. we are particularly vulnerable. people in low-lying areas need to move out, fred. >> so, poppy, i wonder, too, for a lot of the cabbies lined up behind you to take people out, mayor bloomberg also mentioned all the bridges are going to be closed at some point, too. are a lot of the cabbies concerned that they're only going to take you to perhaps upper manhattan as opposed to taking you out of the borough completely because they may not be able to make their way back in? >> reporter: we're not there yet, fredricka. what will happen is the major bridges and tunnels into new york city will close if the wind hits 60 miles an hour. if the storm says a category 1, obviously that wind could be well above 60 miles an hour. so that will happen. people need to move inland. they can go right now -- they can cross the bridges into new jersey, et cetera. or they can move to -- i'm staying in midtown manhattan, for example, near central park. that's considered a safe area. you're on much higher ground and away from the water. but the bridges and tunnels will close if winds exceed. this is important, when it comes to power, electricity, if there is significant enough flooding in lower manhattan, we're told by con edison, the power company that provides the power here, they may have to cut off power completely to lower manhattan. they're having a press conference shortly. we're monitoring that. what that means is that elevators in big buildings like this, shut down. this building behind me, they're cutting their elevator service off at 5:00 p.m. that is another reason why people need to evacuate, fredricka, is the loss of power. >> that's right, poppy harlow, thanks so much, in lower manhattan. it may seem very unusual and it is, but it isn't the first time a hurricane has actually taken aim at new york city. it's just been quite a few decades. take a look at these pictures from the great new england hurricane of 1938. it was a category three storm. at least 682 people were killed. and the damage estimated at $4.7 billion in today's dollars, that is. and six years after that took place, another hurricane lashed new york, 390 people died in that one. most of them were out at sea. early warnings and evacuations spared hundreds of lives onshore. so as you heard poppy harlow just report about an hour ago, new york city began shutting down its public transit system. and it is bracing for this direct hit. the city's mayor says airports are also closed to incoming flights. new york's mayor, michael bloomberg, says he simply doesn't want people to take any chances. >> you can't prepare for the best case. you have to prepare for the worst case. and that's why yesterday we issued a mandatory evacuation order for the more than 370,000 new yorkers residing in the low-lying areas called zone "a" areas and in the rest of the rockaways, which is classified as zone "b." the difference with zone "b" and zone "a," zone "b" is higher, but the rockaways are a special case because if the bridges get closed, there's no ways off the island. and it would be very difficult for us to provide emergency services. >> so just a little bit more on those bridges. if the wind hits 60 miles an hour, the city says it will start closing bridges, including a couple of the big ones. the george washington and the tri-borough bridge. tolls in and out of new york have been suspended to ease the flow of cars out of the city as people need to evacuate based on those warnings, particularly in that zone "a"-type area. the statue of liberty, that, too, of course, will be closed today as a precaution in the wake of hurricane irene. the city wants to assess the storm's impact before opening it up again to visitors when that happens. is in e cnn hurricane headquarters. she is tracking irene's path. still hovering around north carolina. but those cities and states northward are still putting their preparations in place because we're talking about the most populous portion of the entire nation. >> let's go ahead and focus in on new york city for a minute and some of those closures. right now, i want to tell you the news today for new york city does look a lot better than it did yesterday. that said, this is still a major storm and we're going to have major impacts for it. we think the storm will be east of new york city. that's going to put us on what we call the good side of the storm. means much of our winds will be offshore and that our impact is going to be a little bit less. we're expecting the winds to be near that 60-mile-an-hour threshold. i'm thinking somewhere between 50 and 65-mile-per-hour with possible some gusts greater than that. timing wise, you can already see we have the showers and the thundershowers. this is just the start. and the tropical storm force winds, they think, are going to be ri reifing by this evening with the peak of this storm early tomorrow morning, probably starting before dawn and continuing into the early afternoon before things start subsiding by storm. in the latest statistics, in case you're just checking in, this is a category 1 storm now. winds at 85 miles per hour. for this to be a hurricane, it has to have 74-mile-per-hour maximum sustained winds. we're in the middle of that category. there's been weakening for a couple of different reasons. dry air has been training into that storm. a little bit of wind shear on the southwest side of the storm. and some additional weakening can be expected. that said, it is still forecast to be a category 1 as it makes its way upshore. normally you don't think category 1, how bad is it going to be? part of the reason why this one is going to be worse than your typical category 1 is because of its size. when you get a storm this big, this thing stretches out more than 800 miles across when you look at just the cloud field of it. when it's that big, the storm surge gets to be greater. we're looking at the latest forecast for new york city and up into long island, probably somewhere between three and six feet. that's the most recent projection that we're expecting with that water. but it depends on how high it goes on whether or not it coincides with high tide. right now, it's looking like it's going to be close to that. it will be moving through parts of the northeast and new england, let's say, by the afternoon here. on sunday and by monday, the whole thing is going to be out of that. in addition to the water from the surge and those wind impacts that i was talking about, the rainfall, this is going to be a bigger story than anything else for the large majority of the people that are being impacted by the storm. not necessarily the number one life-threatening thing for those of you on the coast. but look at this in the interior. talking about 6 to 10 inches of rainfall easy. isolated amounts up to 15. if you live in a low-lying area, if you live along a river or small creek that tends to go out of its banks on a regular basis, we are going to see those begin to rise once again and a lot of flash flooding. we've already had reports down here into the outer banks, as much as 10 to 15 inches. and that's just happened in the last 24 hours. so we think that this forecast is going to verify and that will be a major threat. so washington, d.c., philadelphia, new york, on up into boston, all are going to be dealing with these concerns. this is a long impact storm, fredricka. unfortunately, a lot of times these hurricanes will accelerate a lot as they move through the northeast. this one isn't going to pick up that much forward speed. that's why the rainfall is going to be so heavy. new york city, they're going to feel this storm for a good 24-plus hours. that's not the hurricane conditions. but they're going to feel it for at least that long. >> and folks along the north carolina coast are feeling it in a very big way, particularly the very low-lying areas of elizabeth city, north carolina. let's take a look right now. our affiliate there, news 14 carolina, is covering that area right now. look at the live pictures they're getting of the wind and the rain right now. let's listen in. >> reporter: we're starting to see a lot of flooding. that's really the main concern that we're dealing with here in elizabeth city. they're worried about storm surge about three to five feet above ground. there was a mandatory evacuation issued yesterday for all those residents living in the low-lying areas. we hope that people living by creeks, rivers, took precaution and evacuated yesterday because it would just simply be unsafe to be out riding around in these conditions right now. believe it or not, a lot of people from the outer banks escaped inland here to elizabeth city. hotels are booked throughout the weekend with people who escaped the storm from there. they'll try to ride it out here along with us. >> we have crews spread out across the state. one of the areas hardest hit was the crystal coast. right now, the county manager -- >> we continue to bring you affiliate coverage along the eastern seaboard so you can get a better idea of exactly what people are experiencing in some of these areas, particularly in north carolina, where they're already feeling and still feeling the brunt of hurricane irene. more of our continuing coverage of hurricane irene after this. [ male announcer ] where'd you get that idea? 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. [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them. cops are cracking down on drinking and riding. drive sober, or get pulled over. we want to continue our look of hurricane irene. sometimes it's difficult to get some perspective about what the wind and the waves might be doing. take a look at this image right here. you see that sailboat being kind of bounced around quite a bit there. this is moorhead city, north carolina. earlier this morning, all eyes were on this particular area as the outer bands of the hurricane were moving in. you can see the wind, the rain and then, presto, out of nowhere, you no longer see that sailboat, presumably it being taken over and overcome by the wind and the waves there. moorhead city, north carolina. once again, hurricane irene still hovering along the north carolina coast. it's making its way north. when it does, it will impact the nation's capital, washington, d.c. already starting to come to a grinding halt in anticipation of hurricane irene. pictures right now kind of ominous look there of the washington monument on that washington mall, not far from the monument there. there was to be a pretty sizable dedication of the martin luther king memorial to take place this weekend. all that now on hold as a result of hurricane irene. people are also throughout the city being relocated. specifically from walter reed medical hospital to the naval hospital in bethesda, maryland. that's where a number of military injured have been for a long time at walter reed, now being relocated in anticipation of this state of emergency now declared by the mayor of the city. athena jones is also live in washington, d.c. athena, the relocation of a number of those veterans, that was to take place anyway just from some restructuring of how the war injured are being treated. but they just accelerated it quite a bit because of hurricane irene, right? >> reporter: that's right. they've been planning to close down walter reed. this is the last transfer -- the last set of patients to be transferred. they were planning on doing it tomorrow. but instead, they moved it up by a day. this all took place this morning between about 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. they transferred 18 patients in 18 ambulances from walter reed to the navy medical center in bethesda. this closing of the hospital has been long planned. they just want to shift the transfer up to get ahead of the storm. several different kinds of inpatient-type people, people who may have been critically injured. i believe there were four critically injured, nine wounded warriors among the people who were transported. as you mentioned, of course, this postponement now of this big deal ceremony that was to take place tomorrow, the dedication of the martin luther king, jr., memorial. this is a memorial that is more than 25 years in the making. there are thousands of people expected to descend on the mall at that memorial site down there by the tidal basin for this dedication. that's going to have to be postponed. but people here in the city are preparing as well as they can for the storm. the city's been handing out handbags. yesterday they distributed 7,000 sandbags and ran out by about 5:00. so they've been distributing more of those sandbags today. i talked earlier with the d.c. fire and ems chief about what people should do to prepare for the storm. let's listen to what he had to say, fred. >> the message for them is make sure they have "d" cell batteries, have food, have water. and get enough cash in the event they need money. if power goes out, the atms might not be working. >> reporter: that point about getting cash was a good one, the kind of thing people may not be thinking about. last point is that pepco and other electricity companies have been warning people you may lose power for some period of time. i got a flyer under my door last night saying it could take as much as 24 hours just for crews to go out and assess the damage and who needs to be reconnected. so people are being asked to stock up on food and batteries. >> and don't forget that manual can opener. if you don't have power, you can't use your electric can opener to get to that canned food. that's something people always forget. >> reporter: exactly. >> athena jones, thanks so much. much more of our continuing coverage of hurricane irene as it makes its way up the northeastern coast right after this. right now, much of the eastern seaboard is now bracing for hurricane irene. pictures right now from our affiliate wavy out of norfolk. let's listen in to what they're saying about the damage that's been caused already. >> you're getting to the point now where the water is reaching up to your headlights. that's a mixture of salt water and that's very bad for the vehicle. it's also downright unsafe for you. >> reporter: eventually what my plan is, tom, is i'm going to try to work my way back to my friend in town. he called us and alerted us to this in the first place. a lot of thanks to him for that. but that's probably -- if i can make it back there, that's probably where i'm going to try to seek shelter for tonight. jim, if you're listening to this, i hope you're expecting me. >> art, thanks so much. we appreciate you joining us. we'll talk to art a little bit later. >> so our affiliate coverage there from wavy based out of north carolina. it's unclear where that damage was from. meantime, so many states under a state of emergency, including new jersey. and the city of hoboken as well is a city not accustomed to this kind of storm. evacuation orders in new jersey and new york, in connecticut. we'll get to that whole tri-state area. let's zero in hoboken, new jersey, right now. mayor don zim ser on tmer is on with us. you ordered some evacuations. were people paying attention? were they respecting that order? >> reporter: some people are heeding the warning. but people are most concerned about right now -- we are very focused on our seniors and making sure that they understand that it's very important that they go to the shelters. those that are on -- the situation we have, we have a number of seniors who are on oxygen and they don't understand that the electricity could go out and if the electricity goes out, we won't be able to get to them and help them and save them. so we're focused on saving lives right now in hoboken. we have teams of people going out. we've already knocked on these people's doors. but we're continuing to go around, bringing in the police. we want to make sure they're safe. we're providing transportation for them to our shelters. but we have those back-up generators. especially in the housing authority area, where i am right now, we have severe flooding here all the time. so it's very likely that the back-up generators for these buildings are going to flood. we're doing everything we can to prevent that. but if the floodwaters get to those back-up generators, and we have a lot of seniors down here who are on oxygen, we won't be able to save them. so we're trying to save them right now in the critical hours. >> what are people saying when people answer the door? are they taking it seriously or do they feel kind of complacent about it all? >> they're scared. we're trying to reassure them -- i know it's an inconvenience to go to a shelter. but this is the safest place for them. and it's better to have a little bit of inconvenience than to risk your life. that's the message i'm trying to take to them as urgently as i can and trying to persuade them. it's going to be okay. we'll provide you direct transportation to those shelters. we'll take care of you at the sherlt and bring you back when everything is back to normal, when we get the electricity back. we're trying to to make sure to keep our residents safe and keep our seniors safe. that's what we're very focused on right now. >> hoboken mayor dawn zimmer, thanks so much. we'll check back with you throughout the day and perhaps tomorrow to see how things have been faring. more now on that whole tri-state area, new jersey, connecticut and then soon new york. connecticut, too, is in irene's path. the state's governor is urging residents to take this storm very seriously. he says that people should feel the impact not just for days, but for weeks. joining us right now by zone from stamford, connecticut, the city's mayor, michael pavia. how are you getting the word out there and how are people reacting? >> we are, fredricka, using every means possible to get the word out. we have, as you know in the city of stamford, some low-lying areas, a number of areas along floodpla floodplains of our rivers. we'll have police details riding up and down the streets. we have our electronic message boards out at key intersections. we are using twitter. we're using our website. we're using every conceivable method to get the word out that high winds, tremendous amounts of water and coinciding with high tides are about to beset us. and we need to alert everyone in primarily low-lying areas and flood-prone areas that they should get out. if they don't get out, they could be -- find themselves isolated and that's the biggest risk that they have right now. >> for the most part, people in that area have their own vehicles. they may not be relying on mass transit just like your neighbors in new york city might be. but for those who perhaps don't have vehicles, can't get to higher ground, can't get to the shelters, what kind of assistance if any is your city able to offer? >> we have situations like that right now that we're about to implement. stamford fire and rescue, our fire companies will be removing people from elderly housing, particularly those that are lying within the floodplain of our rivers here. we're going to be taking them away so that the worst-case scenario doesn't happen. and that is that they actually get flooded and we have to rescue them during that flood event. so we're taking that precaution. and anyone else that needs assistance getting out of their homes or getting out of certain areas where they were, we're happy to do that. we will provide that evacuation. >> i lived in your lovely state back when hurricane hugo was threatening the coastal area there. and i remember people were very die hard about wanting to stay in their coastal communities there in connecticut. is it different this time around? >> provincial connecticut as they call it, no, that's one of the things we faced. in fact, when we were talking about ordering mandatory evacuation versus just strongly advising evacuation, we came to the conclusion within a few minutes that many people don't want to leave their homes and that's something that i don't know how we get through to. but it is a problem. if, in fact, there's going to be a flood and we ask people to leave their homes, there's going to be a serious event that occurs, we cannot guarantee that they're going to do it voluntarily. >> mayor michael pavia, thanks so much. we know you have your work cut out for you in the northeast there. all the best. the director of the national hurricane center is joining us live next here on cnn as we continue to watch the path of hurricane irene. ♪ [ mrs. davis ] i want to find a way to break through. to make science as exciting as a video game. i need to reach peter, who's falling behind. and push janet who's 6 chapters ahead. ♪ [ male announcer ] with interactive learning solutions from dell, mrs. davis can make education a little more personal. so every student feels like her only student. dell. the power to do more. [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them. cops are cracking down on drinking and riding. drive sober, or get pulled over. are you wondering about your options? with over 30 years of medicare experience, unitedhealthcare medicare solutions can help. just give us a call. the annual enrollment period to switch your medicare coverage is earlier this year, from october 15th to december 7th, so now is a great time to review your situation. i'm looking for help paying for my prescriptions. [ male announcer ] that's a part d prescription drug plan. choose a stand-alone plan, or combine it with a medicare supplement plan. it's all in our free guide. is there a single plan that combines medicare parts a & b with medical and drug coverage? [ male announcer ] absolutely. many medicare advantage plans can give you doctor, hospital and prescription drug coverage all in one plan. remember, the annual enrollment period is earlier this year. call unitedhealthcare now or visit us online to get this free answer guide from unitedhealthcare medicare solutions. call right now. more of our continuing coverage of hurricane irene right now. take a look at these images right here. we're looking at a pier that has been battered for more than 24 hours now, atlantic beach. if you recall seeing some of the earlier images yesterday. perhaps you could see that pylon way in the rear. that pier extended to that point. it's been battered from hurricane irene, getting chopped off a little bit there. that's how fierce the wind and the waves and the rain is thus far. let's find out exactly where hurricane irene is. we know that it's been battering the north carolina coast and perhaps now even the virginia coast as well. bill reid is the director of the national hurricane center in miami, florida. give us a better perspective about where it is and where it's causing the most damage right now. >> yes, fredricka, it's centered here, just coming out -- the center is just coming north from the eastward out of pimlico sound. you can see the color bands of rain moving around that all of eastern north carolina is being impacted. the highest winds will be in the area center there, certainly gust to hurricane force and widespread sustained tropical storm force. a lot of reports of tidal flooding from the storm surge all through the area around the sounds and on the immediate coast. it's moving northward across northeast north carolina and the impacts will shift northward into the tidewater area of virginia, norfolk, hampton roads and then the eastern shore and up the delmarva. >> in about 15 seconds or less because we're about to hear from the president of the united states from the white house, is this storm doing about what was predicted? >> yes, ma'am, it has. we've had reports of over 17 inches of rain near new bern. it's on track for the rest of the northeast. >> bill read, director of the national sushg centhurricane ce. thanks so much. and now to the white house and this taped images and sound from the president of the united states. he actually was at fema headquarters. let's listen in. >> begin tomorrow morning at 7:00 and run 24 hours as long as we need to. our fema liaisons are here with us and they have been a super help for the last week. our electric utilities are bringing in extra crews from the west and out of canada to help them. our two largest utilities have actually doubled their number of crews using the private contractors from the u.s. and canada. the weather service is saying that every river in the state will probably flood over the next two days. so we're preparing for that, our swiftwater rescue teams will be in place by noon tomorrow and the national guard is also standing by ready to support us. >> any additional items that you need or any additional support from fema that is still -- you're still waiting on? >> no, there isn't. everything we can ask for and have needed has been right there. been a great relationship. >> terrific. well, before we leave the regional reports, let me just mention the folks from maryland had asked about the pre-landfall declaration. and i wanted to confirm that that has been approved. when the governor shows up, you can tell him that that's gotten done. >> thank you very much for your support. >> some states have been impacted. north carolina is getting ready to respond. virginia is getting the heavy rain. the rest of them are either getting very close to the response or they're still in the preparation phase. we'll follow this storm up the i-95 corridor. but your team here at fema, we're in support of the governors and secretary has been in contact with the governors. we didn't start this today. we've been doing this since earlier this the week. as we start the response, we're not starting new. we've been working these issues as a team. >> i just want to say to janet and craig, to everybody seated around the table, each conversation i've had with state and local officials, they've confirmed to me that the relationship with fema has been outstanding. the interagency communication at the federal level has been outstanding. they recognize this is going to be a tough slog getting through this thing. but they are appreciative of all the outstanding work that you've all done. i've not yet heard from any of the regions as we just listened to anybody who's suggesting that we haven't done everything we can on this front. that's a testament to the good work you guys have done. we obviously have to make sure on the response and recovery phase that we are just as effective and on top of it. but fortunately because i think of the strong relationship that has been formed now, they don't seem to be hesitant about asking for stuff and we're turning it around pretty quick here. i appreciate it. it's going to be a long 72 hours. obviously a lot of families are going to be affected. what we heard, the biggest concern i'm having right now has to do with flooding and power. sounds like that's going to be an enormous strain of a lot of states. that may take days, even longer in some cases depending on what the storm does. so we're really going to have to stay on top of the recovery -- the response and recovery. janet, anything you want to add? >> no, mr. president. i think you've nailed it. we're just at really the end of the beginning and now going into phase 2. >> anything else us? >> no, sir, mr. president, just on behalf of the team, i appreciate that you came over. i get to represent the unseen faces. i just appreciate that. it goes a long way. we have a long ways to go. they know it. they're going to be here to support you and the citizens. >> thank you very much, everybody. >> it's just the beginning but just a look there at the coordination between the executive branch of government, the federal emergency response and even state governments as they prepare and respond to all that's taking place up and down the eastern seaboard as hurricane irene continues to threaten the east coast. we'll have much more of our continuing coverage of hurricane irene after this. hurricane irene is battering both the north carolina coast and virginia coast right now. let's zero in on atlantic beach, north carolina, where we find our john zarrella. john, how's it looking right now? >> reporter: well, you know what, fredricka, the wind is not as bad. the rain is not as bad. it's still coming down and it's still blowing but not as bad as it was a couple of hours ago. and you recall where i was standing just an hour ago, hour and a half ago, the water was up above my knees. so it has receded dramatically. and where it came from was right out there. that's the bogue sound. and the wind, when it changed directions, instead of the water coming up, the storm surge from the atlantic ocean, which it did overnight, the water started to come up from the bogue sound. you walk this way a little bit, my farmman, all these houses, you can see this house back over here. that garage on that second house over there was about a third of the way under water just a couple of hours ago. take a look at this. this is the debris that blew up all the way from the sound. this is somebody's dock, fredricka. piece of someone's dock out there in the sound. another piece of debris. and look out here. all of this -- we've got to watch for nails. all of this debris blew all the way up here from the sound and across the road. that's how high the water was here a couple of hours ago. but you can see also how quickly the water can recede and go down, which is fortunate. but it's important to point out for all of the viewers, your viewers along the middle atlantic coast and the new england coast, if you live near the water, this is something that you may not see. but you might see in the next 24 hours or so. and we've been going through these conditions here since yesterday afternoon. so we're closing in on about 24 hours that we've had these kinds of conditions here. fredricka? >> things tend to get out of place with these hurricanes. and even there, just looking at the map because we were talking to mr. read of the national hurricane center and he was saying that, still the north carolina coast is still getting kind of the tail end of this hurricane. you're not quite out of the woods yet. >> reporter: no, not at all. and the tidal flooding, as he mentioned in that interview with you, that's what we saw here was this tidal flooding that came in from the bogue sound. no, by no means are you out of the woods here in the carolinas. and certainly it's not the time for people to be out assessing the damage on their homes or their property. in fact, most everybody here has evacuated. this little neighborhood here, there's a couple of folks we did see standing in their windows earlier. but for the most part, everybody in this area did what they were told to do, mandatory evacuation here on this island. curfew in place on this island. and most of them heeded the warnings and they did get out. fredricka? >> still a dangerous storm, still a potentially deadly storm. in fact, john zarrella there at atlantic beach, we're getting information from officials -- from state officials in north carolina confirming now that three people, in fact, have died from this storm. and, again, storm not over yet. very sobering information coming from north carolina state officials. john zarrella, we'll check back with you. we haveyou. thanks so much. we have correspondents all up and down the east coast. we're getting a lost images too from many of you. i reporters sending in pictures and stories as they have been preparing for irene, as they're now witnessing irene do its thing along the east coast. josh levs has been going through all of this new material. what do you have for us, josh? >> we're getting sobering news from north carolina. we're hearing so ing from some in north carolina saying not as bad as they feared. check out this video from nashville, north carolina, from a computer. this is from dan fields who says that he saw some flooding, but that overall it has been relatively mild, what he saw. he said a lot of tree limbs are down and debris and that where he is, in his area, not over yet, we're going to repeat that, it is not over yet, we don't want anyone who is still in the path of irene to think it is not a big deal, but for his experience, and for this particular area, they said it did not strike them as badly as they had feared, that one coming to us now, brand-new i-report. we have this story called open story. the way it is working is we're taking your i-reports as they come in and they're following the path of irene, bringing us photos and videos from inside. let's look at some of the photos that have come up. this one, i tried to show you last hour, let's take a look here, really striking. this is a boat parked outside a hospital in baltimore, they wanted us to know the officials there are taking this threat very seriously. they have a boat ready outside the hospital. we have more images coming to you from i report and social media. i'll have more images for you next hour. >> we look forward to that. thanks so much, josh. jacqui jeras will be along to give us an idea of where hurricane irene is now and what it is expected to do over the next 24 hours or so. we'll be right back with much more of our continuing coverage ofirene. 123450 all right, hurricane irene continues to make its way up the coast of north america. jacqui jeras now in the hurricane headquarters. this is impacting a whole lot of people, not if you just live along the eastern seaboard, but this will impact people across the country. >> this goes well inland. it is a very large storm. in fact, the cloud field is about 850 miles wide right now. and as you look at this image, you can just see how huge and how massive this thing is and as it makes its way out of the pamlico sound and up north towards elizabeth city and eventually up towards virginia beach, it is a category 1 storm right now, maximum winds 85 miles per hour. it is in the midrange of category 1 storms and it has weakened a little since earlier this morning. but we're expecting very little additional weakening, so we need to be prepared for that cat 1 as it moves through the mid-atlantic today and heads into the northeast as we head in tomorrow. let's look more about this impact, okay in this is a computer model that we get from the government. and what this does is it assesses wind damage. so this doesn't include the damage from things like storm surge or those rough waves coming in or anything like that or the flooding that we're expecting which will be a lot of. this is primarily wind and we're expecting it anywhere between 35 to 40 million people are going to be impacted with 50 plus mile per hour winds. so most of the damage then is going to be occurring on when we call the bad side of the storm or the dirty side of the storm. as the storm travels to the north, the winds accelerate and the right front quadrant and the back side, the winds are weaker. you can see as the path goes through, much of that damage up towards the coast, that was up towards norfolk. one thing to point out here as you head to the mid-atlantic, washington, d.c., look at that, they're not even in the low range of $100,000 in terms of damage. however, we do still expect to see some tree damage there and some power outages. take a look up towards philadelphia, again, the worst of it over here into jersey, as we head on up towards new york city, that's where we'll see some of the worst of it over here into long island, over towards the hamptons, montauk, new york city itself, less than $100,000, but as much as a million dollars worth of damage as you head up to parts of massachusetts and into rhode island. this is a massive storm, total economic losses potentially $1.1 billion. that's a whole lot of damage for a whole lot of people. >> a ripple effect in so many different ways. we'll get back into that later on. thanks so much, jacqui jeras. appreciate that. live coverage of hurricane irene continues in two minutes. i remember the days before copd. my son and i never missed opening day. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better, and that means... game on! symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. [ whistle ] with copd, i thought i might miss out on my favorite tradition. now symbicort significantly improves my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. and that makes a difference in my breathing. today i'm back with my favorite team. ask your doctor about symbicort. i got my first prescription free. call or click to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, you could save a bundle with geico's multi-policy discount. geico, saving people money on more than just car iance. ♪ geic