Transcripts For FOXNEWS FOX And Friends Sunday 20110828

to worry about, there's debris flying to worry about and the great thing about this is, mayor bloomberg during the winter storm of christmas time. >> a couple of years ago. >> really got hammered. >> and exactly. and the preparations and lack there of. this storm has really, again, it's been a tlot lot of warning and preparation. >> an excellent job. >> they have. >> everybody nos and has known for a couple of days, it's coming. a couple of minutes ago the high of the staeye of the storm made landfall near the jersey shore. and the effects are feeling at time square, while we're speaking, north carolina, delaware, yesterday. maryland and virginia, already nine people confirmed dead, including two children, one 11-year-old boy was killed when a limb fell through the roof of his apartment. another person drown while swimming off the coast of new jersey. and of course, one of the biggest concerns, flooding. people in north carolina, through delaware, literally having, as you can see there, boats through their neighborhood and on top of that. more than 3 million peoples without power and what we can expect here in new york city, expecting a direct hit in just a couple of hours, as we mentioned, michael michael bloomberg held a press conference overnight reminding people this was not-- >> tomorrow morning when you wake up, whatever the conditions are, please, stay inside. there will be going down, tree limbs, porch furniture blown away, it's just not safe to be outside. it's cute to say i was outside during the storm, but you're much better off staying inside. >> the surfers and looky loos need to take that warning seriously. the outer band new york city and long island and some under a tornado watch, but the worst is yet to come. >> let's get out to rick reichmuth. he's going to give us an update on the latest on irene. >> we've already had four inches of rain in new york city and winds 60 miles per hour in the city. he so, and that's not what the center is here just yet and landfall. in new jersey, made land fall 65 miles per hour winds and first there's been a hurricane in new jersey. and in nock, amazing pictures one of the feeder bands, there is one rotating in towards the coast line and great getting th pictures and send them to you at u report, facebook, but the information helps us tell the story. take a look at the model. we talked about the computer models that he we look at and we get an idea exactly where a storm is going to go. this mod sl one that's a reliable one and it all along has been across the state of new jersey and you saw landfall here, this keeps is inland and if they're inland, over land, it will weaken more considerably and more quickly, it doesn't matter, any kind of a storm surge effect is going to be the same and the wind is going to be extremely strong and the totals are exactly the same and we are talking about significant flooding and 4 p.m. the showers along long island and the heaviest parts of it and it new england, gone by the overnight hours and they're pretty good. i want it talk about storm surge across long island and new york city and give you an idea exactly why we're concerned about that and four to eight foot storm surge and what that does and i think, take a look at the animation, category 1 hurricane, which is what we're dealing with, this animation shows you any place in the the red and it's areas that there was a storm surge and parts of manhattan an and the tip of the island and the fire islands and the dunes and heading out across areas of the hamptons and montauk, anyplace you see the red. not just on the coast here, water that comes into the long island sound and back across the bays and farther down across the long island sound and even in connecticut. wherever you see the red it gets worse and stronger storm happens and category one you expect to see more storm surge along that area and coinciding with high tide and the main on top of that. inland flooding which is going to be a huge problem and we are seeing the pictures across the northeast, because it's dark and rain is it falling right now. by this afternoon there will be significant flooding problems on going across the far reaches of the inland areas and across new jersey, pennsylvania, new york, across parts of new england as well. >> and rick, going back to the picture you had that looked like out after disaster movie. what was going on there? was that, there it is right there. that windy, comes true, is it cold, rain. >> it's not cold. it's rain, as soon as that hits you it's rain and along with that comes the wind. any one of the bands that is sick clg around the hurricane has wind and rain associated with it and columns ever air going up and down and getting the wind along with it, but each band successively gets stronger and stronger. an amazing people coming in in north carolina and it helps us, we don't have camera crews every place and helps us. >> wild. >> hey, rick, we're not just a show, international and a viewer watching in the u.k. this morning that wants to know the difference in a watch and a warning for those people sitting at home this morning. >> a great question and depends on what the event is that we're watching or we're warning on, but a watch says, conditions are favorable for something to happen or conditions will be happening down the road. a warning is it's happening right now, and in a tornado scenario we have a tornado watch across long island and including new york city and parts of connecticut, conditions are favorable for tornados to develop and a tornado warning is it's developing right now in an isolated area. >> gotcha. >> thank you very much, rick. >> a little while ago we were talking about how there seemed to be a preponderance of women who may deliver during this time because of the low-- >> barometeric pressure. >> a number of people have taken of course, in the past, wind up getting the name of a hurricane as a middle name or something like that. just got an e-mail from diane meyers in fort worth she was named after hurricane diane in 1955. she was supposed to be elizabeth until the big storm scooted through. >> you gave away your age, diane! >> we'll he see a lot of middle names, irene. >> this morning i woke up, a few minutes later out the door and when i woke up, there was a little drizzle. when i went out the door, sheeting rain and you can see the developing, how quickly these, i guess the generation of the weather happens and julie banderas went out this morning and julie, it looks like it's worse and worse and worse. >> yeah, the rain is definitely coming down harder and harder and we're definitely seeing a lot more winds now. all morning long just been seeing. you can tell by the direction of the wind,ed wind is coming straight down from north to south and tell we're not getting as much wind. as soon as you see that rain take an angle, the wind is started to pick up right now. and it seems that the wind is headed eastward and we're going to be heading south down to battery park right after this live shot to show you, incredible storm surges reported down there and wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour in area airports, central park, downtown at about 50 miles per hour, and out at the airports as wellment and the storm surge which rick and myself have been talking about, a really, really big issues. these storm surges are expect today get up to eight feet. what is a storm surge? they're a large wave rushed in by the wind the heavier the winds the larger the storm surge, the larger the surge, the more flooding. more flooding in manhattan chance of power outages and cripple the financial district, and tens of thousands. new york city 8.6 million residents, underground cables stored underground in battery park, will potentially be shut down, if flooding is a problem. con edison will nip that in the bud before it has a chance to flood. knocking out power to manhattan and the surrounding five boroughs, out of power, 40,000 residents. in new jersey, 160,000 people without power and this thing hasn't come and supposed to get here around ten o'clock in the morning and we still have several hours to go. i should mention that historically this has been an unprecedented storm, it's a category 1, a lot of people in florida, new orleans, down south are probably thinking, 60, 70, 80 miles per hour winds, no big deal. in new york city it's a huge deal and that's why the mandatory evacuations for zone a lower manhattan went into effect as early as friday and evacuating some 370,000 people and as far as the public transportation system, that's going to be completely out until late monday, the financial district essentially paralyzed comes tomorrow morning. at this point, we're not sure exactly how long people are forced to be without power and however the longer the power is out obviously the bigger the problem here in new york city. transportation is at a stand still and hopefully people will heed the warnings and stay indoors. it has been 1821, believe it or not, that a hurricane has actually made a direct hit n 1985 hurricane gloria actually swept through new york city, but it wasn't a direct hit. back in 1821, i don't know if you remember back then, but let me remind you a 13 foot storm surge, there were 13 foot high flood waters and started at battery park and made their way to canal street. this is no 1821 storm, nevertheless the flooding could be significant. in jersey city, parts of underwater and walkways in queens, many roads are closed and bridges and speaking of bridges, i should say that the good news that all of this, and up to 60 miles per hour speed in order for the bridges to be shut down and bridges are open except for the george washington bridge and the lower level right now shut down. so if you're in new york city or out, you need to get in or out, the bridges and tunnels are the only way to do so, obviously, the trains and buses are out and all the hospitals and nervous homes have been evacuated in had a zone a. they actually were using school busses, the fire department was, in order to g actually at central park, and bridges remain open and these could be sustained winds of 60 miles per hour for a period. >> like she said they closed the bottom level of the george washington bridge and if you have a high profile vehicle like a semi tractor-trailer or an rv. they're suggesting you find another way into the city and perhaps the tunnels or something like that. if you're on a motorcycle, you're not goings to be taking the bridge. >> and the power outages number in 3 million. that number is going to skyrocket and the worst of the storm won't be in manhattan. so, around ten o'clock, we're already in connecticut which is well north of us, 100,000 people are already, already without power. so, this thing is going to knock out several million more. well. >> and one of the problems is, rick was talking about, we've had so much rain in this area recently and so, the ground is pretty mushy, and then you've got all of this wind blowing against the trees and it's the trees that take out the power lines and you know, if you didn't buy a chain saw yesterday, you're too late, but they are he' going to be buzzing tomorrow. >> or apparently a flashlight. >> all over the place. >> all right, our next guest was standing her ground in the wake of irene and decided to leave last night. holly cochran, schreiber salt water taffy fudge. and she's changed. why? >> the tidal floods, it gets higher and higher and i live about two blocks away from the shore, so, i had to go. i couldn't wait any longer, it was killing me to leave the store. >> didn't governor chris christie pretty much order you out anyway. >> that's what we've heard the other day. we all watched the news and we all talked to the officials and there were some people that were still staying as long as they could and when i left there were still some people leaving. >> oh, yesterday, at 4:30 chris christie had a press conference and he said get the hell off the beach, you're tan enough. >> i didn't hear that 'cause i was watching, interview somebody on the boardwalk yesterday. >> what we are learning is that more than 600 senior citizens are staying behind in the atlantic city, new jersey area, more than 80 in an apartment complex. what are you saying to those who have not chose n to leave, did not listen to chris christie, do they feel more comfortable in their own home than a shelter or somewhere else? >> well, i know they evacuated the nursing home and the manor homes in new jersey. i think the people that are staying are the ones that have homes from 1912. my house was built in 1940. so, i can only hope for the best. and i think that's what a lot of people are doing. they judge by how old the house is, how long it's been there, where their location is on the island. >> one the of the things i've been hearing from a the lot of folks who died decided not to evacuate different areas all around, you know the hurricane prone region or hurricane vulnerable region. once they leave they worry not getting back in, not even so much about the home and whether or not there's going to be damage, but able to get back in, are they going to close the bridges and tunnels and we're going to be stranded somewhere far in jersey or pennsylvania. he so, how are conditions where you are right now? >> right now, it's just windy, it's not even raining, and it looks pretty good outside, you wouldn't really know there is he' anything going on. >> where exactly are you, give us the-- >> i am about five miles away from the resort, so, i'm literally, a straight line across the bridge. >> and your store, schieber salt taffy and fudge at the jersey shore it's been there since 1927. it's weathered many big storms. are you worried about this thing doing some damage to it? >> welcome, we have pretty good footings there and we're all made of cement so, you can't tell on some of the pictures, but the, we have a basement and we're fully surrounded by cement and so, i hope-- >> sound like a salt water taffy bunker. >> a lot of people don't realize we have a basement and a pretty good ground underneath us, but we have some pictures actually that we're showing as you're talking, the pizzas, down there along the boardwalk? >> that's a long boardwalk. >> and thanks so much for joining us, we're glad you decided to get out and send us some of that salt water pfaffy, good luck to you. we want to encourage you to send your pictures, foxnews.com/u report. ff weekend on twitter, fox and friends on twitter, e-mail us, as long as you're safe, what it looks like outside your window. we have some pictures now. >> about a block from where we are, times square. >> oh, boy. >> look at the subway flooding there. we can't tell exactly how, what time that was taken, but there was a train in it, so, probably yesterday at some point. >> that's not, that's not a good sign. >> this one in what, norfolk, virginia, and this is-- >> a police officer. >> a police officer in a driveway, if you can believe that, almost up to his waist and incredible pictures coming in from you folks across the country. >> an suv on a-- a tree on an suv in virginia, also tweeted to us and then this one, a car trying to make it through. >> not the car you want to be trying to drive through three, four feet of water in, looks like a small compact vehicle, not the best move. again, keep the pictures coming to us, foxnews.com/u report or tweet us individually. whatever you've got to do. >> as we saw in the last picture. if you see standing water and you don't know how deep it is, don't drive through it. unless somebody has just driven through it in a great big four by four and only that deep, that's okay. but it gets three, four feet deep, in big trouble. >> as you pointed out, steve, this already being an already wet season we've broken the all-time wettest month here in new york city with some saying more than ten inches still to come in the next 24 hours, we've already broken the wettest month here in new york city. 16.85 inches, so, it's going to shatter the all-time wettest month here in new york city. >> you saw the pictures from virginia. elizabeth has been in virginia beach covering the hurricane. elizabeth, we're starting to see daylight out there. not looking too bad. >> a pretty day. >> you look lovely. >> thank you. >> that's the update there. >> i know you guys have a long road ahead of you. look behind me, auf long day of wind and rain what we're seeing now is what you will eventually see and i have good news, when we first started this morning, winds were about 50 miles per hour and they have he' dropped to 29 miles per hour, an indicator that hurricane irene is moving and look at the stand behind me, we saw 24 foot waves at the peak of the storm and the water was all the way up to the boardwalk, you can see how quickly it is receding, that being said we did experience an eight foot storm surge because it hit at high tide and officials here are very concerned about people's safety when they leave the shelters, or when he they go back to their homes today. we know places like sand bridge hit the hardest and hit first, 6 to 8 inches of rain. we have more than 100 road closures today and the department officials in virginia department officials say that you cannot go out on the roads unless they are he' approved and inspected by state officials and worried that people won't be able to see debris under the water. although we are out of the woods, so to speak, it's still a long road of assessment and cleanup here. like i said, look behind me, i know you guys are getting the brunt of it, but it will pass. >> thank you very much. we just have-- sorry for being distracted one of the bosses walked in with a flashlight and everybody is prepared here in the building. >> nice to see that image. >> what we are he' seeing outside the windows here, that helps to see what lies ahead for us. >> a little nerve wracking, a lot of people writing in, saying, we're start to go get really nervous. >> and there is he' a big storm. it's a category 1, 500 miles across, but as elizabeth said from virginia, the sun will come out tomorrow in new york city, but today is going to be a rough one. >> one tweeted in and said, wait, you guys are telling everybody to evacuate or penal are urged or officials are urging people to evacuate, why do you have reporters down there? >> well, the thing, part of our job, we have to do this and bring you the information otherwise it would be difficult to-- >> and trust us, they are in safe locations we don't put anybody's lives in peril. straight ahead on the rundown for this special sunday forecasting irene from space. nasa flying into the weather to see how these things work. our kafrj continues after a quick break. 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[ female announcer ] whitening without the wait. 3d white two hour express whitestrips...from crest. life opens up when you do. and try 3d white toothpaste and rinse. >> take a look at the video. that's a guy in jersey, the jersey shore tried to get close to the water and as you see, it took him down and lucky it did not suck him out to sea. one thing in new jersey, new york, if you chose to not heed the warnings from the governor, from the mayor, well, at this point, they are not going to put you you on the highest priority list. the first respond he is are not going to get straight to you. if you chose not to listen. >> steve: that's a good point. and mayor bloomberg said, yesterday, if you surf during a hurricane, we will not jeopardize our lives to save you. so, just don't do it. >> dave: some of the best surfers on the planet are here in new york for a huge competition for this coming week and a lot hit the waves yesterday trying to train for the competition, they're here and makes it worrisome. >> juliet: let's go out to rick reichmuth, an update on irene, 27 past the hour. >> it made landfall in new jersey first time since 1903, the center point is where the low pressure is made landfall, and it's just to the north of atlantic city. zoom out there you can see atlantic city and that's the little egg inlet and rain falling across the areas to the north and west of it and now rainfall over 20 inches in north carolina, over ten inches in delaware and we have rain to go so there's going to be massive floodingoing on and we have all kinds of flood warnings across all of new jersey, all of delaware, parts of pennsylvania and getting reports of widespread flooding in long island. of course, it's dark right now. when the day night comes i think a better idea and better pictures of what exactly is happening. if you have any pictures you can take, get to it and please do so we can tell the story on twitter or face book, something like that. heavy rain across parts of upstate new york and tornado concerns across the areas as this comes on shore, parts of long island and in towards connecticut. heavy rain in new york city and clips around 18 miles per hour and i think it will start to move quicker over the next couple of hours and the wind speeds we are he' seeing, 23 in new york city and 47 at laguardia, 39 in newark, you see why the airports are closed and remain close. darker color, significant winds, long island and towards bridgeport, connecticut, 52 miles per hour. wind concerns clearly in the storm surge and where the flooding is. all of that dark red. is flash flooding going on. it's dark and flash flooding going on and a big concern to people who clearly need to stay inside and daylight comes up and they're going to be scared with this amount of rain. >> you're probably right. and rick, a question for you, you talk about the storm surge and it's a thing where the hurricane pushes the water up and it bubbles up and makes a dome. is this the same time as high tide and that adds to the misery. >> it does. you have to think about that. you have high tide and maybe your sea is four or five feet higher than low tide and end up with a storm surge, and then wafeves on top of that. we're looking at high tides across a lot of the jersey shore, anywhere between the 7 and 8:30 range and same across parts of long island and coincides when we are he' seeing most of the storm surge here and it's very, very concerning. one thing i think we're potentially going to he see because of the storm is tracking a little farther towards the west and that means more of a surge and coming into new york harbor and parts of areas like lower manhattan and that's why they've been so concerned and we're potentially going to see a bigger surge and happens with more impact and as julie gets down to the battery park area, it's great to see the pictures and what's happening there. >> we have reporters up and down the eastern seaboard all day long and by the way, tweet us, tell us what's happening in your area and kind of. if you give us a city or a town and let knauss, in comparison to a larger city. >> you know, something else, if you were told to evacuate from new york along the low lying area or one of the million people in new jersey, you were told to evacuate by your authorities and you didn't and now you're having second doubts, second thoughts. we want to hear from you. friends@foxnews.com. e-mail us. >> one of the reports, juliet and mike tobin, they're watching for a storm surge and he is soaking wet this morning. mike, what are you seeing? >> hey, mike. >> i can tell, good morning, mike a. i can tell you a man with a barometer on his wrist watch. 978 millibars of pressure the edge of a category 1 hurricane according to the barometer. the wind gusts are considerably less than that. the strongest i've heard measured at 59 miles per hour. jfk off in the direction you're looking at now. shy of the 75 miles per hour leaded to make this a category 1 hurricane. what people are concerned about right now is all of the water that was coming in. i heard you talk with rick. high tide here is expected at 8:24 a.m., we'll see when the eye of the hurricane, when the peak of the storm surge shows up. right behind me here, where the water's edge is now. a beach back there yesterday where people could walk out a considerable difference and that water has come up this way and city workers are telling me that this parking lot a flooded in a short period. we've got water on the street right now. got a lot of different reports of streets in this area, and with as much as three feet of water on top of that. if you look behind me, these dump trucks are closing off the cross bay boulevard and that's the boulevard that connects an area known as rockaway, rockaway beach to the mainland and the area around queens, that's closed off and we saw a lot of people out, in the rockaway, saying that they placed greater reliance, greater trust in their neighbors of many years, as opposed to the emergency services crews, but they're electing to have few drinks and ride it out on the other side of that causeway, you can see now the trucks are in the way and they haven't make it back. a the lot of reports of power being out and transformers blowing, in this particular area, and you can see by the signs that are up and cars moving around we have power, but the water is starting to pile up on streets and it's only expected to get worse. >> guys. >> all right. mike tobin. mike, what else does your watch do? does barometric pressure, does it tell time? >> it does tell time, but you have pea got to do a lot of of functions to figure out what time it. >> that's sweet. >> quite the dweeb. and hurricane irene is hitting new jersey hard, jersey shore as we call it. he drives an hour south of new york, east, and it's where the river and ocean meet, is that right. pat? >> that's correct, yes. and between the ocean and the river. >> well, that's between them. sorry, steve, but what is the chance the ocean does meet the sea in that storm? >> that most likely will happen. with the storm surge, that's expected we fully expect that to happen. >> steve: when is the last time that happened? >> in my memory, probably '92. >> steve: and what was the effect of it? what happened? >> well, we had several feet of water in the entire town, you know, downtown area, and store fronts were flooded out. >> juliet: i spent a lot of time down in that area and it's teeming, at this time, usually in the summer. obviously, you're going to be losing a lot of tourism there, but you have to of course in the situation. are you prepared? are you prepared for what's about to happen? >> we're prepared as best we can and ordered a mandatory evacuation yesterday and had a very good compliance rate and the town is virtually empty. we have emergency workers staged at the firehouse and we've been here all night and we have been handling things as they come along, but the water is starting to come up very quickly, the rain is getting heavy again and winds are starting to pick up. >> dave: pat. what does it mean for folks like myself in that area? i have a friend who did stay behind in seabright. i'm trying to reach right now. what in fact does it mean if in fact the ocean meets the river. what does it mean. >> it means the water, it's going to fill the town up like a bowl of water and four or five feet of water in the middle of town. that's really it. we will not be able to get to anyone if they are here, if there's any call for assistance, that's the biggest problem. >> steve: that's what i was about to ask you. you said you had the evaluation order issue and a pretty good compliance rate. how many people do you estimate are at their house right now in seabright, new jersey, when they should be inland. >> a good estimate 75% of the people left the town. >> steve: that's pretty good. >> juliet: if you have the ocean meeting the river and have the flooding you're pretty much prepared for you say, what then? what happens tomorrow when the sun is out and skies are blue. what can people expect and when can they get back there in your estimation. >> my estimation is probably late tonight. we have to see monitor the second high tide tonight. the second high tide of the storm suusually the worst. we'll take a look and make decisions based on that what's going to do. >> steve: how bad are the wind. >> 45 miles per hour sustained with strong gusts and getting stronger and the weather service expect the worst between now and eight o'clock. >> steve: we know you've got a very busy day ahead of you today and tomorrow. and you've got a call coming in right now. pat mason from seabright, new jersey. >> juliet: thanks, pat. there's a lot of science behind tracking the storm like irene and casey stegall with a firsthand look. >> reporter: well, nasa is about more than just space exploration. in fact, science, always had their eyes on the sky and armed with high-tech equipment to both document the birth and progress of hurricanes. here is a look inside nasa's jpl or jet propulsion lab in southern, california. weather data is analyzed and storm monitors updated and the information coming in from the air instrument. the atmospheric infrared sounder, attached in space and it has the ability to beam back three dimensional maps from the atmosphere, temperatures and water vapor traces and cloud property. it's used in conjunction with the global hawk aircraft similar to a drone that's floated in storms to collect had a host of information, and information that can be used to track tropical disturbances and also, warn the public. >> it's a vertical distribution, which can tell us about whether an america is going to, to strengthen, if there is he' a lot of humidity or weaken as there's dry air coming in to the hurricane. >> nasa often teams up with noaa, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration to conduct joint field campaigns that study the dangerous and monstrous storms, guys. >> steve: all right. casey, thank you. >> juliet: thank you. >> steve: straight ahead when most americans head for the hills, this guy go straight to the shore. . >> igor is really starting to pick up now and things are start to go get pretty crazy. >> steve: he's the storm chaser and he will be live from long island next. naturals from delicious, real ingredients with no artificial flavors or preservatives. naturals from purina cat chow. share a better life. how'd you learn to do that? 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[ male announcer ] the davis twins... ...are alike in nearly every way... ...right down to brushing their teeth. so w did only o get gingivitis? well, one in two people do. so i told kareabout new crest o-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 thse other areas dentists check most. looks like the tws are even again. new cst pro-health clinical toothpaste. life opens up when you do. >> welcome back to our special coverage of hurricane irene as this thing bears down on the east coast headed directly for lower manhattan. >> juliet: let's get right out to wnyw reporter john huddy, he's my brother, point that out. west long branch, new jersey, is that right? >> yeah, we're in long branch. juliet. where, we were yesterday. in fact, over my shoulder here, at the gazebo, we are he' standing there. and the-- on the beach here, the boardwalk, this is all the beach and now, it's all swells. and the photographer struggling a little bit. but-- (inaudible) >> oh. >> he's translating with a video. >> speak up a little louder. >> the storm surge, i'm trying to hold the mic up to me and trying to block it, saying that the storm surge is moving in here and that's been the concern among officials is the rain crumbed with the surge flooding and we've already seen some flooding in the area, earlier, from just up the, just up the road at ocean avenue and seabright. that's a low lying area and that's prone to flooding even with a less intense storm than this. right now the wind gusts sustained 40 miles an hour and it could increase, we've seen the weather, deteriorating throughout the morning, and we started along the evaluation route, route 36. more shelter there ent. it wasn't as bad, coming out here, a lot of down trees, tree limbs, we're hearing about power outages, whoa, the wind really picking up there, but again, take another look at the swell, i mean, it's really picking up here, guys and that's the concern this is going to cause a lot of flooding as the storm surge continues to increase. >> john, john, are you holding-- we might have missed that, are you holding onto the rail because of the wind gusts are that strong? >> yeah, it's pretty strong. i mean, there's some intensity every now and again it picks up. you know, definitely not a hurricane level. but if we were at a hurricane level we wouldn't stand here right now. so, and by the way i should mention there are some people that dependent heed the advice, this particular area was a voluntary evacuation and some sections of long branch were under mandatory evacuation orders and at the hotel we were at we did notice it filled up overnight. so some people did get out of here and others remained n fact, take a look, and this is some lights on, in some the apartments up there. so, you know, yesterday. you may also remember, guys, a lot of people coming out here, kind after hurricane party atmosphere, but we haven't seen that this morning, i don't think we are he' going to see that. >> dave: all right, john, stay safe out there. and thank you for joining us, i can tell you i've been in a wind tunnel, 100 miles per hour winds and don't go outside. i had to be chained down and against a metal pole to stay on the ground. it's dangerous. >> juliet: it's going to get worse ap that's the beginning in long branch and hopefully check in later with john and see how it's developing, degenerating. and hopefully he is he' going to be safer next time. >> steve: while most people are heading away from the storm, our next guest heads toward it. storm chaser george karunas. joining us from new york. >> good morning. >> steve: george, i know you follow tornados and now a hurricane, where are you going toed? >> well, i'm in broad channel, new york right now, and i am heading south towards rockaway beach. the location where i'm at right now shall the power has gone out and we actually had a power transformer, basically blew, explosion, very close to our location and tree branches coming down and the police and fire department are on the scene dealing with that right now and conditions are just continuing to deteriorate here. >> juliet: what is it in you, what is it about you that makes you want to go where other people don't want to go and shouldn't go? >> well, i've always had a passion for nature and science and the weather at its most extreme and af been doing this for 15 years, chasing tornados and taking people on tornado chasing tours and this is my 16th tropical cyclone, so i have a lot of experience doing this and i know exactly what the hazards are and where the safest places are and dangerous places are. so, i'm staying safe out hire and just trying to document the storm as best i can and trying to stay dry, but that's not working so well. >> dave: george, this being your 16th as you just discussed. tell me whether it's your experience out there thus far or what you're seeing on the television, on the radar, what makes this truly unique? >> well, the reason that irene is unique is the impact it's going to have. and even though it's weakened, it's a large storm and affecting a densely populated area and that's really what is making this such a big news item and there's going be to be lots of power outages, and coastal flooding, lots of fresh water flooding from the rain as well, new york could see ten inches or more of rain and they've already had a lot this past week, so, it's wild. >> steve: of course, irene did come ashore down in the carolinas, as a category 2 at 150 miles per hour, now it's a category 1 right at the threshold of 75 miles per hour. but, and look at how big it is. the 500 miles across. george, the thing about this though is its historic for new york, new york is pretty much closed down and, you know, the subways have stopped, trains have stopped, buses stopped and people are told to get out. and this is a view of new york that few see where the streets are absolutely, excepting of a few vehicles, pretty deserted. >> it is, it's like a ghost town across the borroughs and it's not just manhattan. a lot of people have heeded the evacuation. yesterday when i was scouting out different locations, there were a few people that were still in the mandatory evacuation zone and they were sort of partying it up a little bit, but the party is now ended and everyone appears to be inside, taking it in stride as best they can and hunkering down as they should be. >> we look forward to seeing your pictures from out there. and george, we thank you very much. and of course, the storm chaser. >> and he knows where the safe areas are, but i saw some of that video, george. looked a little nerve wracking to me. >> coming up. we've got our eye on irene, smashing into the new jersey coast right now and long island, new york, as well. and that's up next. and we will he' talk to someone there when we come back. where do you go to find a busess backed by the superguarantee®? 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>> what we are he' experiencing tropical storm winds and rains that, along with that, have some downed power lines and downed trees, and in our roadways and we have two fire service that's responded to. have done a wonderful job as usual, protecting our residents, but teas what we're dealing with right now. and we're most concern about the storm surge which is expected to come with high tide at 8 a.m. and that would expect the storm surge zone. >> nassau county, by the way is portions of long island. so there are national guard troops, i understand, that are poised and ready to go, at any moment. >> and national guard troops are at the ready. and they have advised us, they were out and just gone back to refuel and whatever protocol they have and they are, they have assisting our police department, which is doing a wonderful job right now. >> i know, the word went out to a number of people along the low lying areas, get out. if they didn't, it's too late. >> at this point they ought to stay tuned with the media and follow instructions and stronger winds and we asked people to stay indoors and fool the instructions and plenty of emergency personnel. in the area to provide instruction. >> i think that nassau county, thank you very much. and best of luck, it's a busy day for you, just like all of us in new jersey, long island, connecticut area with hurricane irene hitting, actually, right now. >> good luck to you, ed. just moments ago, you saw fox's john huddy nearly blown away by the fierce winds striking long island and we'll go back live to another location there and check with mike tobin minutes away. stay with us, special coverage of hurricane irene all day. wow. it's the mr. clean magic eraser bath scrubber. 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what else is new? you get the blood, hope it's enough, it's-- what's this? freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip. sure, i'll try it, but-- [beep] wow. yep, that's the patented freestyle zipwik™ design. it's like it-- [both] targets the blood. yeah, draws it right in. the test starts fast. you need just a third the blood of one touch.® okay. freestyle test strips. i'll take 'em. sure. call or click-- we'll send you strips and a meter, free. can't i just have these? freestyle lite test strips. call or click today. >> here she comes, irene. we've known for a couple of days she was headed to new york city and that's why over the last 48 hours the shelves have been picked clean of batteries and flashlights and tarps and bottled water and don't forget the toilet paper. >> we have plenty of warning for this one. she's a slow moving storm and massive and hitting the jersey shore area and headed towards long island and new york city. >> went right through where clayton morris was vacationing and he was in ocean city, maryland, he had to evacuate, a very dangerous storm and let's give you the latest. >> and juliet said it was big and it is, this storm is the size of the state of arizona. parts of maryland, all the way up to connecticut feeling the effects at this hour and it's already proven be to be deadly. nine people so far have died in this storm. >> dave: scary stuff and also incredible new video out of philadelphia which we haven't talked a whole lot about. irene's strong winds and rain reportedly causing this apartment, this whole building to collapse, incredibly. nobody was hurt in that. >> juliet: unbelievable. as we mentioned, by the way, the storm has killed nine people. two were children, one died when a tree lamb collapsed on the house and irene leaving more than 3 million homes without power and that number, obviously, is expected to rise as the storm moves north into the new york area, also, new england, new jersey as well. >> okay, in the last hour we discovered that mike tobin, a bit of a weather watcher, has got a watch that actually has the barometric pressure on it and he's the perfect guy to post at howards beach in queens, new york, good morning, to you, michael. >> good morning, the barometer is going down and we moved into one of the back channels. a quick look around. you can see a little bit of wind damage in terms of that awning that has been pulled down off the dock. a lot of the docks are floating docks. as the water comes up, the boats on top of the floating dry docks are okay and jostled around quite a bit. what i want to draw your attention to is this sea wall here and you can see that the water is already coming up over the sea wall in the last 20 minutes wife' seen the water come up about three inches. if you're the owner of that, you'll want to get out here and move it, that thing is going to be wet and water inside the doors and floorboards right now. as we are he' talking about, it's a short trip for the water to now start getting up into the buildings up here. and this is pretty flat in terms of getting out and to across the boulevard and the street out here, you've got the water coming up, we're still an hour and a half away from high tide. so the water is only going to rise from this point. where i'm standing we are he' a little protected from the winds because of the houses on the other side of the canal there. but we're seeing some of the wind gusts pick up, but still haven't felt anything along the lines of things like 75 mile an hour winds, the kind of things that would make these conditions category 1 hurricanes. >> yeah, steve? dave. >> dave: just speaking to the chief meteorologist, apologize. >> reporter: that's it. some of the wind are picking p up and haven't seen the strong fierce gust that is we expect, particularly, as i show you, back to geeky barometer on the wrist watch. there's a graph and the last six hours and the droment has been doing nothing, but dropping and kind of looks like the dow jones, doesn't it? the pressure is really low and not seeing the violent wind gusts, as predicted the water is coming up, coming up, coming up. >> juliet: that's why they're telling the broke not to go ahead and fake a look ooh to see what's going on around the neighborhood. mike, we'll check with you later on. >> steve: from howard beach. over to rick reichmuth, here she comes. >> i'm so mad i don't have that watch. i'm getting one right away. storm made landfall across new jersey and cutting close along the jersey shore, whether or not it could make the landfall or stays over water, kind of has big impacts depending if it weakens steadily or quickly over land than over water and also, we can potentially see more storm surge coming in towards the new york harbor. heavy rain falling across a really big area and that's causing big flooding concerns and take a look, it looks like on the last few areas right there. we are he' probably going to see the center of the storm, extend back over water again and then maybe go right over new york harbor, making a second landfall around new york city and maybe someplace like brooklyn, kind of hard to imagine. want to talk about why this is concerning for new york city and talking about wind seeds and wind speeds still at 75 miles an hour and wind gusting around that range and those are winds on the surface. take a look at animation, to give you an idea how this changes. the 75 mile per hour wind at the street level is very different if you go up about 30 floors. that wind it can translate to around 85 miles per hour and go up around 60 to 80 floors and another 5 or 10 miles per hour higher. even if we're talking about a 75 mile per hour winds in the storm, cat one hurricane, you go up to some of the taller buildings in new york city, not just empire state building, winds are 25 miles per hour higher and has big impacts potentially for windows that can be blown out and one of the concerns about a storm hitting a city like new york city or philadelphia with some of the tall buildings and boston, which later on today is going to be getting a lot of the wind as well. wind one story, rain the next story. the rain is done places like north carolina after about 20 inches, but some areas in the north of new york city, upstate new york, parts of new england, are still going to be seeing another possibly 8 to 10 inches of rain and by the time it's done this afternoon, we are going to see sad pictures of flooding coming out of the areas, especially you get mountains up here and brings out more moisture and water funnels down and will cause a lot of of flash flooding. big concerns for that. guys, one last thing. i want to talk just about the red cross, done such a great job and there's an app on your shown. shelter view and i took this picture from the app on my phone, look at the shelters, they have open right now. from places north carolina down to new england. if you're without power, but have the app on the phone. get to the red cross, great information to have. >> dave: and you can zoom on your street. it may look like a blob, but. everyone is mentioning high tide, mike tobin and the executives. eight o'clock this morning, how significant is that for what's about to happen. >> very significant, your biggest storm surge, in the case, it's going to be 8, maybe 9 feet. if that happens at low tide. not as big a deal and we're seeing it occurring right now, and adding to the storm surge right now, when we're the at high tide across the jersey shore and parts of long island and that means we're going to be seeing the storm surge on top of the tide and then you have waves on top of that. 10 to 15 feet so any kind of places, beach areas, you have your typical waves, and you have your high tide, you've got your storm surge and bigger waves and that causes so much damage to the areas, coastal areas. >> juliet: reich reichmuth, thank you very much. julie banderas, her blackberry is working and loves to tweet. battery park, the lower manhattan area, and via the parkway, one side of manhattan. lots of rain and some flooding. that's only going to get worse. >> dave: she will join us in the next half to give us live updates. >> steve: and babylon new york, one of the areas in the path. steve malone is the town supervisor in babylon. he joins us on the phone. >> good morning, good to be here. >> steve: are you ready? >> we're ready. we are he' cautiously optimistic and the storm appears to be more inland than we thought it was going to be, lower sustained winds and a little less rain than we thought it was going to be. however, the worst in terms of the flooding is still out there. so, we are he' carefully monitoring that, particularly for our barrier beach communities, that are the most threatened, but, even our main line communities, we've gottens of thousands of homes, they're right at sea level. so, any, any storm surge, particularly at high tide, can cause massive flooding down there. >> juliet: in the aftermath of hurricane-- especially for those who have never been through them before. a the lot of folks wonder when can i come back in and when will the lights be on. all that have business. if you give us an estimation, your best guess? >> yes shall the big thing is downed trees. we have over three dozen downed trees confirmed right now, that means they're in the t wires tangled up and takes an operation to get those cleared, but we're prioritizing the areas evacuated south of montauk and the low lying flood areas, what we're getting immediately. one of the things with the lower wind speed we will he' be able to get our trucks out there as soon as this passes and we are hopeful the end of tonight. we'll clear the roads of the downed trees. >> all right. steve, are you able to get a sense of how well people did heed the warnings? various reports of people staying behind, despite being ordered to evacuate, all over the region, specifically in new jersey, but what are you hearing? did a lot of people stay behind? >> absolutely. you know, i actually suspected this, you know, we issued the mandatory evacuation order for all the homes, about 25,000 homes below montauk highway and the low lying flood areas and i would say the majority of people stayed of and ride out the storm. they've been through a lot of storms and turns out, we may be lucky that we escaped the worst here, but you never know when that one is going to hit. >> steve: always better to be safe than story. steve, from babylon, new york, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> juliet: thank you. well, not surprisingly the airports are closed in this area and travel across the country is it a mess thanks to the storm. as we have told you, the new york city subways and trains shut down. if you're in new york city and you walk into a subway station you won't be getting on a train for sure and they're expect today remain closed well into monday according to officials, there's no way in or out of the city, via mass transit. you cannot take buses and trains and pass, basically the subway from new york to new jersey. >> dave: trust me, folks, you have never seen grand central station quite like this, i go through there every day, normally it's packed. almost wall to wall with people. and almost something like out of a movie right there. there you get a great sense of what it's like on a typical afternoon, a morning and it's a ghost town throughout the entire. >> steve: and the storm is causing massive delays across the kund. and new yorks, boston, all the way out to california canceled and hard to take off from los angeles when you know you can't land in new york. millions of people expected to be stranded the next couple of days and some airlines already canceling flights for early next week, so, if you're going to be making a trip somewhere, check with your airlines. there could be, there could be a couple of extra days on the ground and where you're at now. >> dave: call ahead, check online. if you have power, which millions of don't have power to check that. coming up, we have been showing you pictures from the hurricane all morning long and we really need to see your images. stay safe, but send them when you can. foxnews.com/you report. we're at twitter at fox report and ff weekend all three of us individually are also on twitter as well. just search that. >> juliet: our hurricane irene coverage continues in two minutes. the former director of feema, took over right after hurricane katrina. 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[ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one. i'm a film star. well, i'm a film, left behind by a floor cleaner i thought was going to take me places. wait! now life is dull... darling! ♪ i believe in miracles [ male announcer ] swiffer attracts dirt. swiffer wetjet's new upgraded solution loosens and lifts off dirt to help prevent streaks and residue. and reveal more shine than a mop or your money back. you had me at "bzzzzz". >> there's been a big effort across the east coast that the hurricane does not turn into something really bad. and they try to get it as prepared as possible quickly. on the phone right now is former feema director david paulson, he took over the agency right after hurricane katrina. good morning, dave. >> good morning. >> given your assessment how the the federal government did in warning people in the path of irene, that a big storm was coming their way? >> i think they did a great job. i really do. and what they were doing, and the administrator is doing an outstanding job of carrying on a lot of the things that we learned after category that feema has to be much more proactive organization instead of reactive when we inherited-- we've got a pretty good storm, as good as a category one and good to stay off shore, but we have to watch it closely move up into new york city. >> and without getting how local officials in new orleans handled this, it seems this time around was very different. chris christie, michael bloomberg, just to name a few, very firm, stern in their warnings, how well do you think they did in getting out their message. >> i think they did a very good job. and also, you're seeing that most people paid attention and you look at video up ap down the coast, a few people didn't for the most part. we saw a great smooth evacuation, people listened and they understood what they've seen in the past and hurricanes can do and this is a category one, could have been a three or four early on. and i'm very pleased with how people react. >> it's still a category 1 and serious, it's a hurricane, it's a serious thing. for those who are watching right now. if you have power and able to hear you, and heed your warning, what, do you want to say to these folks who are thinking, yeah, it's a category 1, and-- >> you know, still a very dangerous storm and talking winds, 75 miles per hour and we have a tremendous tidal surge, don't forget we're going to be at high tide in new york city by eight o'clock this morning and not too far from here, about the same time that the storm is going to make landfall, so the storm surge and land fall at the same time. going to have a lot of flooding and don't know what the winds are, could be tropical storm force winds, if they do, there could be damage. people need to stay into place, wherever they are now, you know, shelter place, hunker down and stay there until the officials tell you it's safe to come out. >> you know, david, one of the things people do, when they watch a hurricane on television they watch the wind speed and kind of gauge how big it is by that. yesterday was 115 and earlier today. 85 and now it's 75. still, a very powerful earthquake as things go. >> juliet: hurricane. >> steve: hurricane, thank you very much. >> juliet: an earthquake though. >> steve: got that on the mind. but it's a storm surge that you touched on a moment ago. and that's the thing that can really cause a lot of devastation. >> absolutely. the pounding of the water is remarkable. we've seen hurricane andrew here and we had freighters pushed across the street and saw with hurricane katrina with the gambling barges that moved blocks away, tremendous amount of power and water moved into an area that hasn't flooded in a long time. again, my advice, is to stay in place, listen to your local officials and don't go out on the street to watch the thing until after winds died down. >> steve: the images we were looking at from hurricane katrina and the aftermath back then. juxtaposed as to what's happening right now. the former head of fema. thank you for joining us live. >> thank you, you guys doing a great job. >> juliet: thank you. all right. please start sending your pictures, if you could. we don't want you to go outside and do any crazy things like walk down the street or anything like that. go outside of your window, kind of what we're asking for here. hoboken, new jersey, i'm concerned about, you live in new jersey, you're in connecticut and we'd like to see and be updated on what's happening there from you. >> dave: we will update you with the latest throughout the morning and america's largest city at a virtual stand still as we've told you and as you can see in the images. travelers across the country, bound to feel the effects. a live report on the mess this storm has created when we come back, special coverage of hurricane irene. 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[ male announcer ] if you're in a ford f-150 and you see this... it's the end of the road. the last hurrah. it's when ford's powertrain warranty ends. but in is ram truck, youe still got 39,999 miles to go. ♪ guts. glory. ram. ♪ >> welcome back to 0 special coverage of hurricane irene. she is bearing down on new jersey, jersey shore and headed into the new york city area. a warning by the way, that the world trade center site could be washed out. >> we're joined on the phone by steve coleman, a spokesperson for the port authority of new york and new jersey and they are in charge of at that site. and we are two weeks from today, from the anniversary of-- from ten years from 9/11. good to see you, good to talk to you this morning. sir. if you could, give us the latest on that ground zero site and what you're doing to try to protect it? >> sure, so far the site is holing its own. in fact, we've had people camped out there all night long. putting up sand bags and barriers and from a flagged problem. so far they've worked and several more hours of storm to go, and we're waiting and watching and praying and hoping that survives. >> juliet: can you explain to folks not familiar with what the site looks likes at this point. what's going on down there and why this would be a vulnerable site? >> you know, obviously it's located in new york city and a vulnerable area in manhattan. and the deep base of the area of the world trade center site, below sea level and a security area and an excavation area, an area of most concern. like i've said we've had people all night long, filling sand bags and putting up jersey barriers and trying to protect any kind of flood prone areas of that site. >> steve, i would assume, there are several cranes around the area. now, i haven't been down there in a couple of weeks, but if there are, how big a concern are those, because of the winds that are going to come through, whipping through manhattan? >> i think we've had most of the cranes tied down pretty good and my understanding that those cranes, and most winds coming in, i think our biggest concern right now is flooding and that's why we've spent the entire night out there with our staff, trying to shore up areas and make sure that as best we can from any flooding possibility. >> the port authority doesn't cover the ground zero area, i mean, when we talk about port authority. we're talking about buses and trains and all sorts of things. can you give us an update what's trapping with the transportation system here in new york, what isn't happening for that matter. >> right, right, i think it's more importantly what's not happening. and it's been shut down and the mta system isn't shut down soon yesterday. so far our producer faring well with the exception of the lower level of the george washington bridge, with the lincoln and holland tunnel, our bridges and tunnels doing well and hoping that battle will continue. >> dave: i understand a mudslide are blocking part of new york i-87 in. and the merit parkway closed. if people are considering driving, i must admit i was considering driving later this morning, i will not. what would you say to them. and when do you expect the airports to reopen and public transportation and buses and trains to start moving again? >> i think a lot of factors, number one, when the storm moves through and when the wind decides they're at the point and f.a.a. and planes can fly, in fact, you have to think, and consider is when the transportation system back up and running. a lot of your airport workers, you know, the tsa agents, the baggage check ecounter checkers are people that typically take public transportation to get to jfq. laguardia, newark. there will be no way to get the passengers to the airport and we need to wait for the wind to subside and transportation system, and things start getting back to normal at the airport. >> juliet: that's a good point. you hear the airport is shut down or this is shut down. not necessarily because of some sort of damage at the airport or these other areas, it could be again, as you just said, because the people that work there can't get to these locations, so, thanks for pointing that out. all right. thank you very much for joining us, we appreciate it, busy day for you, good luck. >> dave: thank you, steve. you bring up a good point. once they say, all right. the airport is reopened, it's going to take a long time to get back up and running, to get the people out there, the planes back, this will be a several day process. >> juliet: are you really not going to be-- >> i've changed my mind that and my wife saying, you're not driving. >> juliet: oh. >> dave: coming up new york city next in line for the record flooding and those powerful winds and we'll check with julie banderas, who is live in the flood zone coming up. >> juliet: and then more families having babies this weekend compared to any other weekend this year. what does that have to do with the hurricane? you know, and i mocked him yesterday, but dave briggs was right. a new mom, a picture and hear from her when our special coverage continues. [ gnome ] ahh... [ male announcer ] this is what it's like getting an amazing discount on a hotel with travelocity's top secret hotels. the easy way to get unpublished discounts of up to 55% off top hotels. harpist not included. ♪ >> hurricane irene is what we've been talking about nonstop the last couple of days. for the latest if, your a just getting up. rick reichmuth has the stats on irene and there she is, just twirling right out there. >> that's actually a little animation, that's not the storm. this graphic, it tells the story. the storm goes farther to the east and you end up with more of the surge of that dome water on long island and reports coming in a second. if it goes farther to the west and bigger problems in new york city and take a look at the other animation we can talk about and we have been talking about zones that are evacuated and zones that are not evacuated. and it's all phased off in elevations and seat the darker color there, that's zone a and the that's the area with a mandatory evacuation and includes places at jfk and the areas on manhattan. the island of manhattan had to be evacuated. and you were just talking with a guest about ground zero and potentially, in that construction site being flooded. and all of that is bordering this zone a area. now, we're about to see the storm get very, very close, in towards manhattan harbor and the hudson river and we are he' already around four feet above the average, dealing with four feet above average of storm surge right out here in battery park and we have not seen the worst of the storm surge and see more water rushing into the hudson river off the big east river and that's the big concern about the kind of flooding that we can see here. it happened back in the 1800's where the two rivers met. and flooded the island of manhattan around canal street and the lower area of manhattan. big time flooded and there weren't as many people there, it wasn't as big of a problem and now there's a lot of people and why they have to get all of the people out of harm's way and that's a concern and we'll see the worst of the surge getting here within the next couple of hours as the storm is going to move, very, very closely into that and now, go back to the maps and see exactly why we're talking about that. the center of the storm made landfall and it's moving much more quickly now and probably talking in the last frame. looks like that center of the storm right here in the western side of long island. right around, kind of going over manhattan and people get some sort after report from the national hurricane center very shortly here and talking about maybe another landfall, exactly where that storm is. none of the less, very heavy rainfall all the way to the north right now and that's going to continue for the next number of hours, in fact, tonight before it's gone now, across parts of new england and we'll deal with heavy rainfall around the philadelphia area and now, areas to the north of new york city, and up across new england. we're going to have very dramatic flooding and unfortunately, i think more fatalities because that's what you see when you get that kind of flooding happening across very saturated ground and the mountainous region. >> all right. rick, you see fatalities in a lot of different ways and there was one in connecticut, a fire because of downed power lines and they say the storm, a couple of steps down the road, eventually caused that fatality. real quick though on the ground zero situation, two weeks away from the anniversary, the ten years, how likely is that area to flood? >> i tell you what, it's a good thing that the storm has weakened. a stronger storm, would have been a much bigger concern and that's where a day ago, two days ago, the storm was stronger, a bigger concern. i think we will likely be okay, but the next hour, to two hours, is when we'll see the worst in there and have a much bit better idea and looking forward to pictures out at battery park as julie gets there and exactly what it looks like and i think we'll know shortly what affects there are. we're not too far away from knowing what will happen. >> as soon as she gets the shot up. >> rick, thanks very much. >> let's go to laura ingle, in long beach with an update there. >> mother nature is flexing her muscle as we come to you from the boardwalk and long beach, there's a mandatory evacuations here and you can see why. take a look at the massive waves, that are crashing over the beach. a beach that normally on any given sunday, would be filled with people, relaxing it and enjoying themselves and you can see just how bad it is here. we've got the sand berm that's built up and several of these along the boardwalk, built to protect the boardwalk and the structures that are here. these waves are absolutely massive. and those, too, have been left behind here, and who decided to stay behind. they had to fill out wavers for the police and so he will know where to find people, if there is an emergency. as we were driving here, to the boardwalk location, we could barely get through some of the streets, there were huge puddles in some areas, trees that were down. all over the place and some streets had just, it looked like a green carpet shedded leaves all over the place, and as you can see, there are a few people that have been along the boardwalk, and seeing some people trying to take in the wind and it's extremely dangerous, very strong and certainly nowhere you want to be right now. back to you. >> all right. thank you very much. giving birth, not easiment giving birth during a hurricane, a nightmare, for andy curtis, it was worth it, during the storm in north carolina, she delivered a beautiful baby girl, parker elizabeth. mom joins us live on the phone from north carolina, hello, andy, a beautiful baby there. >> thank you so much. >> before this hurricane, had you heard the story about how, when a hurricane goes through, there's such low barometeric pressure that for some reason that seems to prompt a lot of women going into labor. >> and i thought, just a wife's tale, no way. >> juliet: i thought the same thing and making fun of dave yesterday. >> dave: i took a lot of flak for that. >> juliet: i apologized. >> dave: there's science behind it. new hanover medical center sow a 30% spike over the period that the hurricane had hit. just talk about the chaos, it's already, as she described, chaos delivering a child. tell us how crazy it was doing it all in the midst of a hurricane? >> it was wild. they were very busy. but they took great care of me. really, as soon as i had the baby. as soon as they could get me out of the room, there was a woman behind me trying to get into the room. so, it was wild, but they did a great job and she's healthy. >> juliet: when you started to go into labor, what were you thinking? were you thinking, oh, fantastic? or were you nervous? obviously you're nervous, what mothers would be like, but were you scared because of the situation? >> a little bit. but the hospital was on lockdown to visitors, and you know, it was driving rain and windy, but you know, luckily, we ended up staying two blocks away from the hospital, so, i knew we were close. it was so unexpected and i thought there's no way. just no way it can happen right now. >> steve: as there's a reason, andy, at a hotel you'd been evacuated from your house, if we're going to a hotel, better be close to the hospital, right? >> yeah, absolutely. we live in carolina beach and the bridge is the only way to get off the island so we just figured you know, rather be safe than sorry, and i thought, well, i might as well be next to the hospital just in case. >> dave: well, congratulations to you, andy. last question, would you consider irene for a middle name. >> no, never. (laughter) >> i've been told at least two people in north carolina that did so. andy curtis, congratulations, a beautiful child. >> thank you very much. >> juliet: parker, a cute name. congratulations. and straight ahead the other impact of irene, could the storm also deliver a devastating blow to our economy? we will he' talk about it coming up. 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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. >> hurricane irene not only dangerous, but down right expensive. we're talking perhaps, 8, 10 billion dollars worth of damage and joining us now from washington d.c. is wall street journal, steven moore. >> i survived. the storm has moved through washington d.c., with a little bit of challenge getting here this morning with all the trees down, but you know i think that the worst prediction did not happen the at least here. >> steve: that's a good thing. of course it's the storm surge that you've got to worry about as well after the winds die down a little bit. what about this? when you look at the stats, for instance, katrina costed something like 81 billion, maybe as high as 100 billion dollars. clearly this is not in that league. but, still, our economy is sputtering around right now. this couldn't come at a worst time. could it? >> it couldn't. you're right. the economy is so fragile right now. and basically, the economy growing at less than 1%. this is going to do real damage to consumer spending and when we think about this, this is one of the biggest resort weekends that the beaches all over the east coast and those were essentially closed down for the weekend. and here in washington, i'm sure it was the same in new york, all the restaurants have been closed this weekend. so it's going to do some real damage to the consumer spending and the businesses that need that, those customers, but you know, we're probably looking at a storm that's probably closer to 8 billion, we don't know yet, because it hasn't hit your area yet. the main point you made, the more important one, steve. when you put it in the context of what katrina did. 1/10 the impact of that horrible storm. >> exactly right and back then, after katrina, a number of insurance companies that dropped a lot of people with the coverage and stuff like that. the insurance companies are solvent now. they can make 10 billion dollars worth of payments, can't they? >> yeah, they can. and you know, obviously, they don't want those kinds of casualties losses and they don't want to he see, but they have the reserves to deal with those. you know, one of the myths, steve, i've got to get this out. a lot of the people, you know the famous myth in economics, the fallacy of broken windows and the way that you create jobs on stimulus for the economy is break windows and rebuild them and we know that's not the case and the toll of this storm and all of the damage that's done. you don't want to have to-- you don't create wealth by destroying wealth and that's essentially what the terrible storm has done. >> steve: we're keeping an eye on it to see what happens the next day or two. stephen moore, from washington d.c. >> thank you. >> steve: going through the downed tree limbs, he was-- >> stay dry, take care of. >> steve: we're going to take a quick timeout. when we come back, the rescue crews who put their own lives on the line, headed into the damage to rescue those who stayed behind and supposed to get out. plus, you saw fox's john huddy, there he is right there. nearly blown away from the winds in long island. the situation worse now. we'll check with him after the break. lap! slap! slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums here's what you can the expect from regions. a bank that provides you with real business expertise. check. a professional optimization of your cash flow with a regions cashcor analysis. check. cash management solutions and the smart lending options you need to grow your business. check. plus, it all comes with award-winning service to help you achieve more balance. interested? let's talk. looking good. (bike bell) >> welcome back to "fox & friends" and other special coverage of hurricane irene baring down on the entire new england coast, right now about to bear down on lower manhattan. >> juliet: yeah, down in long bridge, new jersey, my brother, john huddy is there, and getting some really nasty conditions. and john, we saw you, i think twashgs last hour, and you were holding onto the railing and you had the gusts of winds and everything, how are things going now? >> well, the wind has died down, but, the storm surge is moving in and you know, you have to kind of being the bands of winds that flow through and some can be intense, but the water is moving up and i think we're coming up on high tide and this is the kosh along the shore, by the way, we are he' kind of in the northern part, northern tip of the jersey shore and long branch, new jersey, you can see the swells coming in, i mean, they're pushing through and this all was exposed beach yesterday and you can see the difference now, and there's already damage, the really just to my left. the cameras left there, has been torn away by the swells coming up and at points the water comes right up below the boardwalk here on the pier. and we're about 20 feet up. so, there's some sections of the jersey shore, in this area, that are now flooded out, and we're also hearing about damage, roofs, proving and apartment complex just south of us, sheered off. also a lot of downed trees and power outages that we're start to go hear about. some people are kind of showing up and you know, taking pictures of the water, of the swells, not a good idea right now. because it's still very dangerous and our location, where we're staying tonight at the hotel along route 36. an evacuation route going inland and we notice a lot of people overnight showing up and getting rooms and that's a good thing, because a lot of the areas are mandatory evacuation and we did see people leaving town, but a lot of the locals here decided to stay, and a couple of people walking by said we've seen worst storms. this is nasty and we're hearing it could get worse and continue to move in, but again, the storm surge, coupled with the rain, is really, really the big concern among officials and of course, chewing away at the beach and causing all of the flooding. what you're hearing, i don't know if you can hear that, looks like the fire alarm at a restaurant is gone off and we felt a pretty, pretty significant jolt before he we went live on this pier, so hopefully the pilings aren't coming loose at this point, guys, down to you in new york. >> a great job out there. if you could, by the next time we talk to you, talk to the folks behind you and like to know what the heck they're doing. are they just taking pictures and maybe we can get that in the next-- >> go get him. get him, john. >> okay. >> thank you, john. >> we will he' get back to you, okay. >> stay safe. >> thanks, john. >> right now, let's bring in coast card commander, the chief of response for the entire new york city area. good morning, chief? >> good morning, how is it going. >> steve: okay for us, how about you? >> well, everything seems to be doing great and we expect to be prepared for the storm and with the markers out here, the whole community has prepared for the storm. >> steve: you've got a number of vessels in the new york city area, when a storm like this comes into the new york harbor, i would imagine you don't want to have the boats there then. where do you put them? >> well, we have moved everybody up to a harbor, right by west point and they're up there, they're in the safe harbor and right now, we're watching the storm very closely, and the minute that it abates enough that we can start coming back down the river, we'll get back down here and get back to work. >> commander with every hurricane, there's some idiot that wants to surf, swim, boat. whatever it may be. have you seen any that have? and with all of your boats out west, how complicated is that rescue? >> well, we're not able to respond right now, because of the way the weather is. it's been beyond our parameters and even if we had boats here in new york, wouldn't endanger our crews to go out in in kind of weather. >> sure. >> once the storm abates, we'll be right back. we've got the cameras all over t the-- our traffic service and we are he' watching, there's no activity out there and we feel confident that everybody's done a great job to heed the warnings and moving back on to the shore and everything is going well right now. >> what's the next 24 hours look like for you? >> the next 24 hours, we'll get riding out the storm and as soon as it begins to abate. we're going 0 work to resume normal operations and working with our facility operators, and the port authority of new york and new jersey, the vessel operators coming together with a plan to just start to see when to shoot back in, the cargo ship, and the tankers back in and get the port back to resuming normal operations. >> well, with any luck, you'll be able to head back down river, through new york city later on tonight. if things go according to plan. commander kenneth pirro, thank you. >> thank you. >> juliet: well, as john huddy told you, beaches are being wiped out and saw the beach at long branch. a looky loo taking pictures of the waves, not a good idea. we have three crews standing there, and you're looking at jersey now, the restaurant. hi, go back home. the latest conditions and an update from the national hurricane center. >> nice day for a jog, people. we'll be back. almost tastes like one of jack's als. fiber one. h, forgot jack cereal. 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[ dramatic soundtrack plays ] this picture stars you and savings. but mostly savings. out there with a better way. now, that's progressive. >> folks, special edition of "fox & friends," we are he' up early to talk about what's going on with hurricane irene. just starting to move into the new york city area, and got an e-mail from my wife, we lost power at midnight, trees down and the yard's flooded. >> juliet: there's 48th and 6th. known as avenue of the americas if you come into town and radio city music hall shall the lights are still on here, obviously nmidtown, but hopefully they'll stay that way. >> dave: more than 3 million people without power along the east coast, more than 9 people, or at least 9 people killed due to the storm. a brand knew advisory from the national hurricane center coming out moments ago and the eye of the storm now dangerously close to new york city. and it's still considered a strong category 1 and irene may be responsible for another death. a person reportedly died in connecticut when a downed power line sparked a fire, that was unfortunately, would be the 10th fatality. attributed to irene, since she made landfall about 24 hours ago in cape lookout, north carolina meanwhile, this is what it looks like in east rutherford, new jersey, now. where the football-- the video is shaky there and yes, you can he see the roads are flooded, a similar situation in parts of north carolina, swear, virginia, maryland. more than 3 million people without power and that number is expected to rise and one of the reasons the storm is so significant, because it's hit so many states and a lot of times they come from the ocean and they slammed into one particular area. >> sure, this is a gigantic storm, 500 miles across. let's go to long beach, new york, where laura ingle is standing by to make a live report. she has to make it fast, she's being evacuated. hey, laura. >> reporter: hey, you guys, some dramatic pictures, we're on the boardwalk and this ocean is pounding. the surf is pounding and waves come up high the area is under a mandatory evacuation and you can see why. look at the size of those waves and rob, pan over there, a big one coming in right now. this is an area where usually, you'll see a whole bunch of people laying out in the sun and enjoying themselves. we saw the water splash underneath the feet, through the boards and we know that high tide is definitely coming and the storm is moving over us, obviously, and we were over at one of the hotels, the only hotel in this section right here where water was cascading down the steps and people in the hotel are starting to evacuate and we'll he show you quick, swb coming out on their balcony, a bird's eye view and show you here in the parking lot and the people are probably going to lose their cars, eventually as the water continues to rise and you can see the water coming under the boardwalk, and through where those cars are, and around the wheels and using that water as a gauge how high it gets on the tires and see how long we have to stay here. mandatory evacuation ins long beach. and we've got some similar situations around suffolk county and nassau county and continue to watch the waves, the most dramatic part of this. we've got a station that's down. the lifeguard station is down and sand berms built up, trying to protect the boardwalk and some of the you structures as best they can. there are a few people on the boardwalk and i saw one guy going by in a tank top and short and i don't know what he's thinking and those are the type of people that police and fire officials are very concerned about and want people to heed the warning, the storm is here and they want people inside, doors locked. windows shut. if you can put masking tape on them for the obvious reason. for now we'll probably get out of this location and to higher ground. >> dave: a good idea, laura, stay safe. >> juliet: thanks, laura. >> steve: exactly right. it's a dangerous situation there in long beach, in fact, take a look, see that building right there? it wasn't there yesterday. that apparently is a police post that had been on the beach, but with all of the tide and surf and everything, it's driven it into the boardwalk. >> juliet: did you see behind laura, joggers there, too. >> dave: it's almost like streakers at professional baseball games, don't want to show them. these people are so stupid and you're afraid people mime emulate. we saw one behind your brother, john, and behind laura, jogging at high tide. >> steve: and those are the kind of people who chris christie yesterday when he had the 4:30 news conference, he said get the hell off the beach you're tan enough. >> dave: fit enough this this case. >> juliet: and your see the tanning hours. look at that, that's a parking lot. those people did not move their vehicles, and see the live truck, they drove there. >> you would assume that people didn't move their vehicles because they weren't in town. i guess, that's, that would be the assumption. >> there's somebody carrying a child into the water. and to the left of the-- looks like the guy in the orange shirt is carrying a child. >> in the intersection, appears to be carrying s, a couple of cars soon to be washed away. let's bring in our chief meteorologist, rick reichmuth watching with us, we know high tide right now. >> let's look at that picture again. what you're seeing happening with that picture, that live shot that air seeing is the storm surge is coming on. the storm surge comes on quickly as you're watching the waves, especially that satellite truck you're looking there. the satellite truck knows better than to park its truck right there, in a place that's taking water on. it comes on quickly and the storm is so close to the coast and majority of the surge is very, very close and tightly packed and we're seeing the storm surge come on, coinciding with high tide and all of that has risen. that water has risen quickly and guarantee the satellite truck would not be there if they slowly see the water rising. >> that comes on quickly and does it move out just as quickly on will this stick around and continue to build even though high tide just passed? great, great question. no, it did not move out that quickly. >> wow. >> even he though we're the center of the storm is going to move inland. farther to the north and passing through new york city, but there is still that same southerly wind, is going to continue to pummel water in, so the majority of it is moving in right now, but there is still that flow, that's going to keep it from receding quickly, so, it's not going to recede as quickly as it comes on shore. >> steve: we should point out, this parking lot is not, you know, it's adjacent to fire island and it is amazing just to watch the waves come through. and hey, rick, crossing the wires according to the national weather service isolated tornados possible in new york city and the region over the next couple of hours. that is to be expected when you have the crazy weather like this. >> yeah, certainly is, more of the tornados now, farther towards eastern long island and parts of connecticut, but you know, af got to tell you the latest from the national center coming in right now. and their official statement the center of hurricane irene, still a hurricane, is nearing new york city and we're going to be talking about a landfalling hurricane, the lowest point of pressure, very near new york city, maybe towards brooklyn, maybe jfk. but, the official forecast says, nearing new york city. >> juliet: when, when are we talking? >> they're saying right now and the official location is 40 miles south-southwest of new york city, but it is moving faster now, around 25 miles per hour, which means, even by as i'm making the center the center of it coming kind of right by here within the next few minutes, but these pictures quite dramatic as you're seeing the storm surge, high tide and the waves all coming in at the same time right in long beach. for people who don't know where long beach is, that's one of the nearest in beaches that people from new york city go out to on the weekend and have their weekend whom and a lot of the people live there, come in and work in the city. so, this is, you can get here in 45 minutes on the train. and that, and that's what they're doing here. >> dave:. >> steve: rick, you're looking at a big pile and another pile in the distance of sand. one of the things they've been worried about here, not only in the new york city area, but jersey shore and elsewhere is beach erosion and those things are about 15 feet tall, but irene has been working on them. and as you can see right there. the shot of the now portable police station that banged up against the boardwalk, and this surf is absolutely pummelling that region. >> yeah, that's not a beach now, that's ocean and used to be beach and it costs a lot of money, they put a ton of money in repairing the beaches after a regular nor'easter or any kind of storm that comes up here, but this is going to cause a big toll across all the beaches of long island, not just right here in long beach, but this is, presenting pictures like this going on the the entire 110, 120 mile length of the island. >> and you talk about the money that's going to take to rebuild. >> these are states that are broke, the not states that are in great fiscal situations right now. rick, earlier, we were talking about that shot of that parking lot. is that a situation where the ocean could in that case beat the bay, if it continues at that rate? >> no, i think at least right here in long beach, a pretty good distance before you get to the other side of the bayh where i think you might be talking about though is a little bit farther west of here, when air talking about the place like the rockaways, the spit of land out there is not as wide as the beach. when we started seeing the pictures where laura ingle started out here about five minutes ago and look at this now, there is significantly more water than there was then. >> juliet: this is why officials say don't get out there and jogging on the boardwalk, even though you may be training for the marathon. >> steve: although juliet the guy in the center of the screen you can see them. he's wearing a hellment. that guy right there, and he's wearing a helmet. >> yeah, those guys are officials making sure everybody is okay not like the jogger going by. >> steve: and that's crazy surf out there. >> juliet: all right. wonder-- thank you very much, rick. where mike tobin is, he has the barometric watch we know that, but what's going ton there, looks like it was starting to get a bit flooded and i'm sure probably continuing. >> yeah, we are he' definitely seeing the wind picking up here, juliet. seeing lot of water coming in. if you look behind me here, this parking lot of course was dry yesterday and the edge where you see the water past that guardrail, that may be it for the beach, which had a four foot drop and about 20 feet of beach behind it, now all of the water is coming in right now and the wind gusts are picking. i haven't clocked anything beyond 25 miles per hour, we're not seeing the big hurricane force winds at this location, but it's definitely getting stronger and reports that the eye is closer and closer to this area. and to give awe idea where we are, we're close to jfk airport. now you look out on the main drag, the cross state boulevard. all of it filled with water and those dump trucks are there to close off the causeway. that's to keep people from going out to that area, called the rockaways. the rockaway beach. there are a lot of people elected to ride out the storm out there on the barrier type islands. and we heard earlier, that they were just going to be stuck out there, but we have seen evacuations taking place, emergency vehicles going tout there, and also, the bus that is went out there and picked people up and bringing them to a local high school and now you see one of the emergency vehicles, new york police wrecker going out over across the 'causeway and quite a drive, in that wind the guys have ahead of them. and going presumably for the vehicles trapped out there to do some kind of work and going so they can drive a very heavy vehicle like a wrecker if they're going across. got reports in the queens area, of about 21,000 people without power. not that significant. and considering the size of the storm, kind of a small number. as far as further out on the barrier islands we've heard that the long island power authority, what they are reporting now, they voluntarily shut down a lot of the power, and because lot of what we heard from the mayor yesterday. if the water is coming in, the salt water comes into the cables in the ground the situation becomes much worse if there's hot current running through that half the time. so we are he' looking at a lot of water coming in, the wind is picking up as we're hearing and looking at the radar images showing that the eye now is somewhere in this vicinity. guys? >> all right. mike tobin live at howard beach, new york, where the water is rising. >> dave: coming up next, incredible pictures coming from long beach, long island. what you're looking at right now. that was a parking lot, just a couple of hours ago, still is, but it's under a lot of water and more is coming by the minute. we'll go back there live where conditions are getting worse as you can see, every second. 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with progressive, it's easy to cover all of your favorite rides. progressive has truck insurance? number one in truck and motorcycle. is that a golf cart? yep. we0also cover rvs, boats, atvs. anything0else i can help you with? can i take a ride? you need a ticket -- i'm first! and that's by the water slide. okay. no(running. oh, dear. save on all your rides. now, that's progressive. call or click today. >> all right. welcome back to our special coverage of hurricane irene. something i want to show you quick. rick reichmuth has fancy toys to watch this hurricane, but you get them on your ipads, on your iphones and i have one for three bucks that shows you incredible images, i mean, you're talking about animation, and flt photos, this one right here is called hurricane tracker, three bucks, it's hurricane hd. if you want a good look at what the storm looks like, it's amazing, the the tech following available to smoes like me. >> steve: and that three bucks, julie banderas is creating for the country, live in battery park of where julie, we're worried about the water down there. >> it's wet. >> steve: what about the storm surge? >> yeah, well the storm surge is a huge concern because last check it was at about four feet, but the storm surge, what a storm surge is, essentially large waves brought by heavy winds and the good thing we don't have a heavy wind situation right now. we're protected because the mobile, microwave and satellite trucks and lower manhattan right here, battery park, where we are on the corner of bridge and state treat are all covered by buildings and you don't have the same as if you're on long island on a beach, however, if you're west of the storm, it's mainly a rain event. northwest of the storm and if you're southeast of the storm, it's mainly a wind event. the rain is a huge problem. number one the power supply that powers all of new york city and manhattan essentially, con edison said if these storm surges become too much of a problem they'll go ahead and see any flooding situation, in the volts underground cables and electric and all that have is stored. they'll shut off the power to 17,000 people just as a precaution and that's could take town three days to restore. right now we've got reports of widespread outages throughout new york city, not manhattan yet, but some 40,000 people without power in the new york city area, 160,000 people without power in new jersey. the bridges are still open, that's the good thing, so if people haven't heeded the evaluation warnings, these are actually n.y.p.d. vehicles armed with the studio equipment that are essentially, letting out the sirens, telling people if you haven't gotten out yet. please do. the flooding situation has begun here in lower manhattan and will only expect to see more of it, considering the main rain event is far. over and the wind will be kicking up as well and the is situation close to the water once it's safe enough. as for the local transportation, all of the the new york city subways are going to be shut down until at least late monday. and a flooding situation underground in the subway is a huge problem in new york city, and they have to use hundreds of pumps in order to get the water on and safe for residents to go in. new york city at a stand still and the financial district obviously, will not be business as usual come tomorrow morning. back to you. >> julie banderas in the rain in lower manhattan. thank you very much. >> juliet: hurricane irene is leaving millions of americans on the east coast without power and 3 million plus, how long before service is back online is what everybody wants to know? it's not fun after hurricane when it's hot out. to have to deal with this and is the worst behind us? we're going to talk about it coming up next. looking good! you lost some weight. you noticed! these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. 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[ male announcer ] swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. >> take a look at the images from long beach, new york. >> juliet: getting worse. >> steve: that was the beach yesterday and right now, the surf is up to the boardwalk and the beach is not to be seen. the same spot where we showed you a while ago. a temporary police station had slammed against that particular boardwalk and the cameraman not showing us that right now, but you can see all of that sand that they have piled up in anticipation of irene, arriving and well-- >> those used be to be some 15 plus feet high and bulldozers all preparing for this yesterday. and now, they look like two or three feet high. some maybe four or five and clearly washed away like everything else. there in long beach, new york. >> juliet: when you saw the waves back there, too, we saw that in long branch, new jersey. john huddy telling us the waves were massive and you can see them on the beach. if the camera man would show you. and keep an eye on that, those waves are huge. and let's bring in from the new york state office of emergency management, thank you for joining us, i know you're a busy guy. bring us up-to-date on what's happening in your world. >> our world is busy and the storm hasn't struck the state yet. the eye hasn't. that's a couple of hours away. and presently, we've got 400,000 people state wide out of power. and a majority of that is, on the island. long island and only 72,000 in the city. but, long island is 225,000 people. and as you know, as the wind pick up, trees are coming, going to come down, bring down the line and ours is going up, before the storm passes. >> yeah. >> and-- >> and that's mike tobin we're showing you by the way, one of our reporters, gauging the wind speed. >> i know that a state of emergency was declared a couple of days ago. >> that's correct. >> steve: in new jersey and points south. okay, now, what's the next step to getting some disaster aid or federal disaster? >> well, it's a complicated process, but we're going to push to make it as easy as possible. we've already pre positioned, we have personnel in all the operation centers, including new york city, and the two counties on the island. and we're lining up our inspectors, we've already have in the state. they're down in new york city, and as well as on the island and we will start doing damage assessments as soon as we can get people on the ground out there, and this is only on public property, which is required by feema regulations and then the magic number, state wide, we have to have 24.7 million dollars in damage before we can make the request. and only the governor can make the request. >> dave: 24.7 million. >> in damage. >> dave: we're imagining you would pass that number probably in the next hour or two. and you said 400,000 people without power, a number soon to rise. how fast in your guess would you be able to start getting out and trying to fix some of the power outages? probably not until tomorrow? >> remember, the state doesn't-- as the power crews and the companies, the con-eds, national bridge, they're the ones that brought in hundreds of external crews, they're going to be out there as soon as-- they're not putting their people in harm's way. what they can fix and get up and the battle is, just restoring that power. so, you know, it's right now, it's in their hands. >> and dennis, we're looking at some of the images and a guy is walking with what appeared to be a child in his arms and obviously, if people are along the areas, where they were told to get the heck out. and they didn't get the heck out, now, that the storm is surging, they should hunker down, right? >> they most personal should. and if they're out there. they're going to put the first responders, they have police, fire, rescue these people. they're putting their lives in jeopardy. stay home, get away from the beaches and watch it on tv. you've got the footage or your show right now. >> certainly do, right. dennis, thank you for joining us this morning and very good, we'll let you go. >> be safe. >> juliet: thank you, you, too. bye-bye. we've shown you the incredible images the last hour, massive waves overtaking into the streets on long island. the latest damage and an update on irene's track, as it enters new york city and by the way, she's speeding up. ♪ why settle for a one-note cereal? get more with honey bunches of oats. four nutritious grains come together for more taste, more texture, more healthy satisfaction. have a bowl of happy. a living, breathing intelligence that's helpi drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities... committed to delivering the most advced mobile broadband experience to help move business... forward. ♪ to help move business... forward. i'm ready. let's do this! i'm so ready. 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[ female announcer ] introducing new crest pro-health invigorating clean rinse. its invigorating action lets you know it's working to fight plaque and gingivitis. and provides all these other benefits. new crest pro-health invigorating clean rinse. clean, protect and invigorate your way to better dental check-ups. >> okay. upon further examination, perhaps the guy carrying something there, not a child, it could be a pet. none the less, he did choose prance the worst time to decide to evacuate as the storm is surging. that's long beach, new york, which is part of fire island. and as you can see from that the wind is blowing, if you were to pan completely to the left, you would eventually see the ocean and where the beach used to be. >> yeah, that's-- >> that was a beach until a few hours ago and now it's basically ocean. >> it's submerged. >> yeah, joining us on the phone, nassau county executive. a busy day for you, bring us up-to-date. any new developments from the last time you spoke? >> right now we're focused on the high tide right now. and as you can see, the flooding is getting more significant, we have flooding in, you know, the barrier islands, the freeport area and bayville and other areas that are significant. from about three feet of water on a popular spot in nassau county and we are at the ready. and we have our fleet employees and our firefighters at the ready, and-- >> how do you begin to prioritize, when you have to start thinking about rescue, recovery, about going out and helping people? how in the world do you begin to prioritize? >> we have protocols in place, to help us prioritize. you know, there's obviously, one, an area has to be safe to work in. downed power lines and our ability to get in there and clear trees and do certain things and they have to get in there first, you have to have a safe working environment and there's a number of protocols that we use. but we're at the ready and we bring in all of our forces and we have our equipment poised to help. our objective is to return to normalcy as quickly as possible. >> absolutely. ed, as we look the images of long beach, new york, currently, it looks a lot like venice. we were looking a moment ago at the actual beach and we saw that there have been piles of sand placed there by bulldozers, we understand, in the last couple of days, what are you trying to achieve? and what did all for naught. because it looks like it's washing away. >> the intention was to protect the lighthouse that was there. you had it on the screen a while ago and the structure more there. and you know, you can't-- this is an example where you can't stop mother nature and the water is coming on shore and the winds are behind it and the tide is up. so, it's dislodged and into the boardwalk area then. >> and that was a police outpost of some sort? >> that's lifeguards for the beach. >> lifeguards that-- >> and we're looking at that right now, as a matter of fact. it looks like there are moorings, it's hard to tell, obviously, we're not experts at this particular thing, but it definitely looks like it's traveled a few feet. >> yes, oh, yeah, that's not the-- it's beyond that, and it may be a little visible up in the right-hand corner, but in that area. >> wow. all right. ed, a busy day for you, thanks for checking in with us, we appreciate it. oh. >> let's get now to julie banderas, live in battery park, new york city, she has some developing news this morning. julie, what's going on? >> yeah, actually, we're hearing more stories about flooding, in fact, the hudson river, which is just off to my left, has apparently started flooding into lower man hand. that was con-ed officials and new york city officials nightmare. once that comes in unusually high tide due to the new moon and the high tide starting at kl this morning with all of the added rain, nonstop downpour, you're dealing with the flooding situation that could potentially affect the power supply for some 17,000 new yorkers around manhattan. right now, the power supply is actually cut off, for about, i'd say 60,000 new yorkers, throughout the five boroughs, not including manhattan in knubling, they've got over 230,000 people without power. so, there's flooding there and also flooding along the hudson river apparently made it into the meat packing district and that's a bit ways north, that's not a good sign. as i'm standing here and the rain bands are definitely moving in and wind is picking up. we're sheltered between buildings here and we will he' take you closer to the water in the next hour or so, as the rain bands continue to come in and the storm surge picks up, which are the large waves that are carried by winds, and we'll he see more flooding in downtown manhattan and n.y.p.d. has been driving around all among long and the police patrol, mandatory evacuations, and everyone out by five o'clock last night. by noon if they didn't get out. the chances getting out by public transportation, impossible because everything is shut down in the city. and so, until at least late monday. so if you haven't gotten out by now, you should expect potential power outages because of the storm surge and this is obviously not over yet. so, there's going to be a lot more rain and wind to come, back to you, guys. >> and julie banderas in battery in new york. rick, we just heard the bad news, she just reported apparently the hudson river is flooding. >> and reports of the east river flooding on the other side of the manhattan and two rivers on other side and that's the concern all along, enough storm surge, flooding. and east river, you can also get flooding from water that comes into the long island sound and we're certainly flow of the water is going to push water down the long island sound and goes back into the east river and this is a look where the hurricane is right over new york city right now. which is quite remarkable. the path quickly will make it move faster and parts of new england by tomorrow morning, breezy across the parts of the northeast, and all the video out of long island. long beach, long island, a look at the radar picture, but the center of the storm right there, cutting right across new york city and moving in a little closer, and get an idea. this is new york city, long beach right here where we were looking at the video coming in from laura ingle. all of the barrier islands, that hit long island, and all the way, through the length of the island and taking the battering now and inlets throughout that caused the water to go out across the inside and a lot of people at that live on interior sections, and the marshy land as well and the fire ireland, tons ever people go out for the weekend? and all the way out to the south hampton and the beaches taking the beating like the videos out of long beach. this new video coming in and shot just a couple of minutes ago, the heaviest of the storm surge coming in and coinciding with high tide and then the winds, the waves on top of that, you're seeing it hit the boardwalk and going underneath it, going into structures underneath where people live, the parking structures underneath and flooding the streets out of there and that's why these areas had mandatory evacuations. of course, when these happen. you see the video and the first video you see, because it's where we have cameras and later on throughout the day, more and more cameras and the video starts to pop up and we'll see pictures like this up and down the coast there, as well as the coast of new jersey and reports in manhattan as well and exactly what you fear and why officials took the precaution to shut down transportation and evacuate in the low lying areas and some of the fears coming true. i don't think we will he' be talking about the flooding too much into the subways, and that salt water corrosion at that they were concerned about, but you know, a couple of hours, clear, guys. >> thank you so much, rick. >> almost 3 million homes without power at the moment, along the east coast and the number is expect today rise. alfonso is a spokesperson for the power company. and i had information r my producer in my ear, a concern definitely. tell us the situation with power in new york city, the potential threat that we may be facing now because of what julie banderas, our reporter was-- the information see was giving us about the flooding? >> right now we're looking at about 84, 85,000 customers throughout new york city, and they're mostly focused on staten island where we've got 18,000 and queens where we have about 25,000 customers out. brooklyn, we've got about 8500, and the bronx about 6900, so, right now, we're waving the system, we're watching, we've got whoo is called storm riders and they are located at every one of our facilities, especially in the low lying areas that mayor bloomberg has spoke been and they're watching the water levels and waving it in lower manhattan and the meat packing districts and the areas we're concerned with. what they'll do, watching to see how high the water goes. if the water gets to a certain level where we feel that the customers are going to be out anyway, we will take them down. but that is something that we have to wait and we have to wait to see where the water is at and coordinate it with our folks here at our headquarters and make a decision. >> dave: to reiterate. there is the possibility of cutting power for all of new york city? >> it would be in certain specific areas, certainly not going to be every one. it would be in the very low lying areas and it would be in the areas that we have spoke been before that we have concern with, it's not going for the entire city, it will be for specific areas, maybe in lower manhattan or other parts of brooklyn. >> can you tell-- sorry, go ahead. >> obviously, this is predicated on areas becoming flooded. then how do you pump them out if there's he no electricity? >> well, we have generators. >> okay. >> and what the reason why we do shut the power down in some areas is due to the flooding and flooding in our substations and we take this action, if necessary, to protect the equipment and to help expedite restoration, once this storm is over. >> steve: good plan. it goes to show you it's just not the wind in the hurricane, it's the storm surge and could be causing problems right now. >> that's right. >> steve: alfonso, thank you for tell us what you're up to. >> thank you, stay dry. >> steve: you bet. especially earlier you saw fox news john huddy, nearly blown away by the powerful winds striking long branch. the situation there now even worse. we will he' check in with him after the break, special coverage of hurricane irene, all day long on fox news. you know when something's bad -- but you do it anyway? 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[ female announcer ] swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. >> well, you've seen some of the worst conditions in the conditions so far, waves nearly 20 feet. and let's go to john huddy, long branch, new jersey, good morning, once again. >> good morning to you, hey, guys, take a look, we are he' out on the pier and showing you earlier. you can see the swells, you know, one thing i want to point out. yesterday, this was all exposed beach and down the line, you can get a shot and see the jetties down there. usually that's covered by sand and that section there. so, already a the lot of instances and been chewed away by the swells coming in and a lot of the flooding and the storm surge and parts of long branch, this location, and other parts northern, the northern part of the shore, and the county where we've been the last few days and talked about earlier, we were talk about a lot of folks coming out and here are some right here checking out the swells in the background and i was talking to my man, how you doing? i was talking to you earlier. tell me your name quick. >> vinny. >> vinny, you live in pier village, the apartments behind the camera there and you said it got pretty heavy last night. >> yeah, like two, three o'clock in the morning really bad. windows were buckling. >> and your girlfriend at one point suggested possibly leeching. >> let's go, yeah, we had-- >> why did you stay? >> just wanted to see ti want today see it, didn't think it would be bad and people were overreacting, you know, just a lot of rain and a lot of wind, it wasn't too bad. >> yeah. >> it was about a handful of us that stayed and hung out in the back. >> fortunately, it wasn't too bad, but this could be bad in the flooding and power outages and some of the damage now we're seeing as well and hearing about, guys, it could be pretty bad. back to you in new york. >> steve: all right. john huddy with one of the guys that decided to ride the storm out. >> juliet: good job, john. >> dave: a lot of people pouring out on the boardwalk, great job, john. and how to queens, and it's better where john was. . >> steve: look at that. >> dave: mike tobin is. >> we've seen the wind pick up the last 45 minutes or an hour or so and clocking gusts at upwards of 40 miles per hour. if you look the at the park the lot i showed you, so much more water has now blown into this area, that gets whipped up by the storm surge and kind of churned up, and driven further inland and it's going the main drag here and you can look above us, you can see the power lines and see the street lights blowing about in the wind and the strength of these street lights, and tested. but it's usually the not the wind itself. but knocked out the power lines and power. and what you see, the trees get blown over and those are the power lines and takes out the power. occasionally, you do see again, a couple of cars out here, and people who want to drive and brave the elements, they'll come out from time to time. and it's a dramatic scene as they go through, because the car will kick up the water and spin drift through this. as you watch the storm, the wind wasn't that strong, but definitely picking up this stage in the game, guys. >> steve: you're right about that. and the people in the cars behind you, all they've got to do is get into water keeper than the tail pipe and they're in trouble. they're pushing it out. >> juliet: quickly, we were talking with hobokehoboken, new jersey, evacuated and low lying areas and they were evacuated on the first floor in certain areas. >> mandatory. >> juliet: mandatory situations. and flooding happening in hoboken and jersey city along the waterfront. so, you know, keep following the story throughout the morn and shep will be on shortly and we'll finish our segment of the day shortly, a quick break and back to long beach, new york and talk to the fire department after the break. stay with us. please. almost tastes like one of jack's als. fiber one. h, forgot jack cereal. 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[ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com. 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 evn 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. >> welcome back to "fox & friends," our special coverage of hurricane irene. ten people already killed as a result of this storm. five in north carolina, we're looking now at video from long beach, new york, some of the most incredible we've seen yet and we want to go live to the assistant fire chief in fire island, new york, good morning, to you, sir. >> good morning, how are you doing. >> dave: we're doing okay in a dry, warm studio. are there people still on fire island and what are you hearing fire island populated by 150 people right now. some are emergency personnel and we're having a lot of rain, water, flooding, big waves, trees down, we're doing the whole gamut. >> steve: you mentioned big waves, how big? >> i mean, right now, we have probably 20 foot waves hitting our beach. >> steve: ooh. >> juliet: this is a storm that moved very slowly and had a lot of time to prep for it. do you feel you're prepared for whatever the storm brings? >> well, i can tell you we're an hour after the high tide on the ocean and we're an hour till high tide on the bay and right now our bay is at the top of the docks so we're going to experience major flooding in a little while. >> dave: is there some concern that the bay could meet the ocean? >> we have a couple of areas sort of in our district, and cottage walk, we had some overwash and in overland, we had some overwashes and water state park, overwashes, there's a possibility. we hope not, but there's a pocket. >> steve: when the evacuation order went out, were people reluctant to leave? >> well, you know, people stayed for storms and didn't want to leave and you know, look at what happened in new orleans and stuff like that, and i think a lot more people left than last time, but there are a lot of people on the beach. >> steve: a lot of people wanted to stick around. hey, summer is almost over, i've got a share out there. i've paid for a place, want to get my money's worth. >> well, you can come back tuesday or so, once the island is repopulated, but if you're off the beach, that's the right thing. >> juliet: i want to ask you, obviously, many folks who have never been through a hurricane before especially in this area and don't know what to expect in the aftermath and the flooding, roads are closed, what's happening. power off. we're anticipating that nine o'clock on monday morning, there's going to be a cavalcade of trucks going on of emergency personnel. and they'll do an inspection of the poles and once the the poles are determined to be safe they'll turn on the power. and once there's power, they can be back by tuesday or wednesday. >> steve: i hope you're riechlt continue to batten down the hatches there on fire island. the fire chief there, thank you. >> you've got my number, call me if you need me. >> dave: more than 4 million people now without power because the storm, at least right now, ten people have been killed as a result, five in north carolina. our coverage much hurricane irene continues in two irene continues in two minutes. captioned by closed captioning services, inc. try smart balance buttery sead. 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[ female announcer ] only flood insurance covers floods. for a free brochure, call the number on your screen. >> the most incredible video coming in now, upper left-hand corner, new jersey. >> long beach, howard beach, long branch, the worst to come in many portions, upwards of connecticut, upwards of boston, where subway and commuter rail service is shut down. >> good luck to you, stay safe and, please, stay inside your homes, don't go out. >> we'll start "fox & friends" 5:00 a.m. tomorrow and see you then. >> good morning, america! it is 9:00, on the east coast and in america's largest city it is range, i'm shepard smith with continuing coverage of hurricane irene, a category one storm, still, now starting to slam into the city and if you are waking up this sunday morning, maximum sustain winds are still 75 miles per hour. 74 miles per hour, makes a hurricane. so, for all of the people all over the city who are guessing it is coming ashore as a tropical storm, you were wrong. it broke up windows and whipped in good rain and picked up the pace where, last night during our evening coverage the storm was heading at 1 or 13 miles per hour, and -- 12 or 13 miles per hour and late coverage, 15 miles per hour, forward progress and now moving 25 miles per hour, north and northeast, stay in the loop for a second at 25 mimes. now, if you were with us last night you watched that's storm started to fall apart on the back side of the storm and the southern part of the eye where it is crossing at new york city and it used to be round and enormous, 400 miles across, of tropical storm-force winds and dry air started to come from the south and the west last night and began to erode the clouds and the rain and now, look below new york city on the map, atlantic city, prediction here, if i may be so bold, within the next 30, 45 minutes, maybe an hour, it is sunny in new york city. but the worst of this is far from over, long island is getting hit, the areas and coastal outlying areas around new york city are still being hit and flooding happening in so many different places. and hours before the center was scheduled to reach new york city we had reports of wind gusts in excess of 50 miles per hour an jfk airport, and the borough of queens and a storm surge more than 3 feet in new york harbor. if the storm surge keeps coming it could eventually cover parts of lower manhattan, wall street, chinatown, the south street seaport and in addition, parts of the west village on the lower west side of the island of manhattan. that is long island. which you are looking at now, the ideas about what sort of storm surge could bring about. in the south street, seaport and lower parts of manhattan the water is up at the bottom of the city and we'll show you that a short time from now and cranes have been taken down in and around the world trade center, and crews have stopped construction there, dismantled the crane and secured their equipment and national hurricane center, also reports isolated tornadoes, are possible in the new york city area, and beyond. so far, the storm is blamed for killing at least 9 people, up and down the east coast and most of the deaths coming after falling trees and branches landed on people in their homes, or in their cars. hurricane irene knocked out power at last count to more than 3 million customers in states from the carolinas to connecticut. and it could be a while before a lot of folk get the lights back on. the real problem now is the sheer destruction of the force of the storm, especially the storm surge. this is long beach, new york. long beach is a near suburb, on long island and you can see that is the lifeguard tower and the pictures of the tower which has been there for decades, it is my understanding, headquarters there, enormous beach, a middle class place, cops and firefighters have homes there and sits three feet above sea level and the storm came in at high tide this morning, 8:00 or so, one of the highest tides in ross months because of a new moon and it was already high and we had a storm surge of three feet, maybe more, we'll know later in the day how much and waves on top of that and this is the result. three feet above sea level, a three foot surge means the ground and sea are at the same height, why flooding is widespread and a lot of people decided to stay behind, new yorkers are mighty good folks but don't like being told what to do very often and some of them were told to leave and decided against it and they've ridden it out, hopefully. we'll get a better damage assessment as the time moves on. you saw the lifeguard tower swept in and that's where the fox report's chief correspondent jonathan hunt is now, but, first the latest on the storm, where it is going and what it has done and what it will do, rick reichmuth begins a long day of reporting and last night we watched the back side of the storm and the dry air coming through and sure enough... >> rick: you get the storms this far north and they'll fall apart, sheer, dry air and that is why you forecast the weakening, the forecasted weakening was part of the forecast. and bringing it down to a 75 mile-an-hour storm and looking at the lifeguard station, broken apart, a lot of people are seeing the three foot storm surge it doesn't seem that big and is probably bigger, for one thing and that is -- lifeguard station withstood all kinds of noreasters and tropical storms and, we get severe weather up here and it withstood that and this takes it out. a significant storm, and, shep, look at that. where the latest advisory is and the statement from the national hurricane center said, nearing new york city. that as a landfall point and the center probably north, moving much faster, 25 miles per hour and will continue to pull towards the northeast. this is the radar picture, and, the bold prediction of the sun in 30 minutes, a little bit bold and we'll see more rain, bands come through today and clouds... and definitely see sun by this afternoon and it will remain breezy and there is manhattan, right here, long beach, where the video is coming out of, all of these barrier islands, right here, continue to run down the course of long island, all the fire islands, and so many people head out to in the summer and towards the tip, in the hamptons and, the rainfall totals are extreme and many areas have seen 17 to 18 inches, and the worst of the rain will be farther north, your around areas of new england and parts of upstate new york, another 8-10 inches. and, major flooding by the time we get to the end of today. a lot of the mountainous area, getting rain and will funnel down into the streams and rivers and a lot of rivers are probably going to blow past the all-time record, flooding will become a really big concern. i want to talk about one other thing we'll be dealing with, obviously the flooding, you see the flash flooding concerns, all of the maroon, the flash flooding occurring and that will spread towards the north and one other thing happened, a tropical storm was named so, this is irene and you will hear people mention jose. not a big story. it will form and people will hear another storm and think, oh, no, don't worry. it will not do anything. however, you can't see it here but coming off of africa, another wave, that one will probably become a significant storm, probably named katia, and we are getting towards the peak season, september 10th, september 11th, the height of season and we'll see tons of these coming through. >> all right, stay with us. west port, connecticut, and we are able to see the storm, moving north, you can see a reporter there in the shot, at the moment, but, we can see the waves there, as we watch west port, connecticut, i can tell you this: areas just to the south of new york city, down the jersey shore, starting to have dry conditions and winds are coming out of the west now because as the storm moves north, up and down the coast, when you are ahead of the storms, the waves and water and the wind coming from the sea, when you get up past it and the eye of the storm passes you, the winds come from the other side. because it is a counterclockwise flow and down atlantic city, new jersey and up the jersey shore it is much quieter now and there's not as much rain and in fact almost none, local radar -- in fact let's switch to the picture from fox 5 new york and the pictures at fox 5 indicate that there is no water south of the city. out on long island we have interesting reports, we showed you long beach there. long beach is the first sort of beach to the east of the city. after that you get to fire island and, only two feet above sea level, because it is a barrier island was fully evacuated and police and firefighters were taken off of it and we don't have reliable reports from there yet but i can tell you that east of there, in west hampton beach, there was some... had to leave do you know road but, do you know road right about there in the center of the picture, there was a bit of a breach at pike's beach and more in a moment. first, though, west port, connecticut, wfxt, fox news from boston is there. listen: >> reporter: because the storm is centered west of us and we're getting a side of the storm right now. high tide was about 45 minutes to an hour ago. and, we got a ton of splashover but nothing terrible. a few of the roads are washed out and impassable now. in westport and some other parts of the south coast but for the most part, you can't get around. but i wouldn't necessarily be venturing out, driving today. because you'll have a lot of tree limbs that will go down and you could have power lines going down, and, it is probably safe to stay indoors and watch it on t.v. we traveled a little bit earlier today and noticed that a lot of stores were closed. even, you know, fast-food restaurants are open all the time, especially down here in the south coast, not a lot of places are open for business and a lot of people have been heeding the warnings and police are keeping a close eye on the beach areas down here and want to be sure there is not a lot of spectators and we have own seen, really, half a dozen people who have come out to watch the waves and they are doing a great job of keeping people off the beaches here. gooseberry beach is close and if you tried to ac down here i think the police will stop you. there's a shelter, located in west port, the council on aging, only a half dozen people decided to stay there... >> i said it was westport connecticut and, it is westport massachusetts. and, the biggest concerns around the city of new york are coming from long beach, new york. the first suburb on long island and jonathan hunt is there and jonathan i hear you have a lot of flooding? >> reporter: shep, this is a really desperate situation now, high tide coming in and look outside, there, beyond the boardwa boardwalk, the waves have been coming through for three hours or so now, and, huge waves and they are going beneath the boardwalk and the bottom floors of the building we're on are completely flooded now and, if frank comes into the safe area i have here you can see the water coming beneath the boardwalk, flooding out onto broadway and i would say that it is probably something like a foot-and-a-half to two feet deep right there, right now. we are on the -- up a couple of levels, on the building we're in, above it for now but it is coming through and i have heard warning reports, shep, parts of the boardwalk, not here but further along in long beach are showing signs of fatigue and there is real concern that some of it may even collapse, and we don't know, obviously, how long it will continue for, but these winds are really powerful, right now, and they are whipping up huge waves, quite clearly, and it is sweeping in here, long beach, this side of it, the streets nearer the ocean have all been completely evacuated and we have seen some people hanging around. ignoring the evacuation orders and clearly, it is too late for them to get out now and they'll have to hunker down and do the best they can. but, the situation is becoming worse here by the hour, the floods are building and the floodwaters keep coming across underneath the boardwalk, sweeping through and the water is getting deeper and deeper here, shep, we are hearing that on long island in total, some 200,000 people are already without power. i can only imagine that number is going to increase significantly in the coming hours. and, then, obviously, when everybody gets through this, there is going to be a major, major cleanup operation they'll have to go through here, shep? >> jonathan, one point of information for you. the eye of the storm is passing by you which means the winds which are now coming off the sea, are soon going to be coming off the land and the winds will turn around and from our calculation that will happen inside of an hour, probably inside of a half-hour from now. >> reporter: yeah, and obviously, when those winds turn, shep, the problem here is that we're essentially on a barrier island. so, those winds turn, and, then you get the problem of the waters from the -- on the mainland side, from the bay side, are coming back onto theside as well, so then you have the double whammy. the pinscher movement if you like of the ocean waters being halfway across the barrier island and then you get the bay waters coming from the other side. and that is going to make it an even worse situation. clearly, everybody here who has evacuated did exactly the right thing, listening to officials, doing what they were supposed to do. for those who are left here it is going to be an extremely stuff 24 to 36 hours. there is no telling, of course, when emergency service will be able to get back in here, to help people, and they are doing what they can and we saw a couple of police cars on the boardwalk earlier today. but, they -- even they've disappeared now and that may be a concern over the structural safety of the boardwalk, they go on and have vehicles on it right now and you can see over to my left, some people still sort of out for a hurricane stroll, which seems, i have to say from the power of the winds, nouts me but there are always those people who want to get out here and experience this, shep. >> jonathan, our viewers should know, points of information, only, this storm is no longer a hurricane. as predicted here, by rick reichmuth and the rest of our meteorologists, when it came over land, downgraded to 65 mile-an-hour maximum sustained winds and be that as it may it looks hurricanish to me. long beach is a flat area, three feet above sea level, house after house after house and do you have a sense how much water has gotten into the residential neighborhoods? >> reporter: yes, shep, look, come with me, frank, come this way, over here. look at this, shep. we are going to show you now the water that is flooding through from underneath the boardwalk. i was down on ground level a short time ago. and i would say it is about a foot-and-a-half that has come through right now and it is sitting in the roadway there, and right there, that used to be the parking lot for the hotel we're currently in, where a lot of satellite trucks were parked last night and, they've had to move... that is why we are streaming to you now, apologies for the quality of the technical picture but that is the way we have to do it in these situations but i would say a foot-and-a-half came in and appears to be building, shep, when i first went down to the lobby level of the hotel this morning it was about 6 inches of water, and now, as i say, it has gone up to at least a foot-and-a-half and is about... getting close to my knees when i go down there, right now, shep. so there's a lot of water, flooding onto the island, that we're on right now, and, when those winds turn, as you say, and i have to say they feel hurricane-force right now. i know it's not technically one but they are feeling pretty strong but when the winds turn and whip up this bay waters on the other side, bring it back in it will only become much more desperate, shep. >> jonathan, i had information last night from some friends who have places down there, they indicate a lot of people decided to stay behind. >> it does appear to me, but a lot of people evacuated and got out of their homes and have gone onto the mainland to get a modicum of safety and a fair number of people stayed in long beach and some actually checked out of their homes and into this hotel. the allegro hotel we are stayingen now and at the moment seem to have taken the decision, trying to get off the island now as officials always said, it is far more dangerous than hunkering down here and trying to ride this thing out and if you didn't get out when officials told you to, which was yesterday, by 5:00 p.m. yesterday, that it simply is too... [no audio]. >> that is our signal from jonathan hunt. i know you want me to go to mike tobin but i want to go to atlantic city, new jersey. fox 5 is live there and i have new information which has just come to us from governor chris christie. these are live pictures, along the boardwalk, the day's inn at atlantic city and the casinos in the back and governor chris christie has spoken on a morning show and the governor tells nbc that damages in the state of new jersey are at least a billion dollars, most likely in the billions. and, quote, if not tens of billions of dollars. end quote. that is from the governor of the state of new jersey. new jersey got spanked all night and let's listen to fox 5, what new yorkers watch, listen: volume up on fox 5, new york, please. >> reporter: has come down again and they are not made to withstand winds of 40 miles per hour and steve, if you have never been to atlantic city in a storm, i don't recommend it. a lot of stuff is flying through the air and you have to worry about flooding, too, but the stuff in the air is also dangerous, because, the last time i was here we had parts of the ocean club condo coming down like balconies were blowing down and no damage there and a lot of people stayed there. a lot of people stayed here and they said, 90% of the residents left and the other 10%, every one of them said, i told you so, i knew it wasn't going to be anything. >> gloating. >> you have good instincts, by the way, steve and i'm glad you got away from the big thing that came crashing down. we talked to a woman earlier... >> leading the coverage for fox 5 in new york city. as they indicate it didn't look bad to them there and governor chris christie, thanks, rosanne. and the governor would speak otherwise and we'll ask the governor how bad the damage is from way down in the south shore of new jersey, all the way up to very near new york city, and all of those beach communities, there, we know so many of you have visited the jersey shore in the past and we'll get an update from the governor of new jersey, in just a few minutes, as he joins us live and another point we have been watching, closely, is howard beach, that is in new york city, in the borough of queens. a big summer destination for the locals in queens, especially, and mike tobin is there. mike, what is the situation on howard beach? >> reporter: got about -- >> go ahead, mike. >> reporter: the wind has gotten about... (inaudible). downgraded to a tropical depression or tropical storm. as i look at my barometer it is 965... (inaudible). >> it is in and out. you know? we're going to have to listen carefully as we try to get mike tobin's signal adjusted. drop the banner, please. the problem with the mike tobin signal is, the winds and the cloud cover are so intense, that it is just hard to keep a stable signal. the moment we can, we'll go back to him, in fact i'm told he's good now. go ahead. >> reporter: okay. anyway, i talked about the intensity of the wind out here. and, that is testing things, like as we look at the power lines, overahead and all of the street lights and the street signs it is testing their mettle but what is painfully obvious, the wind whipped up, you talk about the storm surge and hitting high tide and this is the main drag here and the cross-bay boulevard, that connects the mainland with the rockaway and it is all under water now and we have reports of so many streets, under water at the moment. and we have people out here, driving through it. trying to get... (inaudible)... but, look behind the jeep cherokee you see the big dump trucks that are here to close off the causeway that connects the mainland with the area of the rockaway and people who wanted to tough it out there, thought they were better off on their own an heeding the call, they are on their own now and we have seen a few emergency... and they are riding out what appears to be the storm, now, all on their own, shep. >> mike, i see vehicles there, kind of stranded. has that been part of the order of the day there in howard beach, in narc? >> reporter: you know, these cars are in the stranded... (inaudible). >> all right, we have lost that for the moment and we'll get back to it. fox 5 new york is in the middle of heavy flooding themselves. let's switch over to fox 5. this is long beach, again. where jonathan hunt was, a short time ago. a different look down where the folks live. listen. >> reporter:... trying to get through and have been stopped and people have to get out and push through the road and a guy is coming at a high rate of speed and i guarantee you this person will slow down, right now, which is exactly what i anticipated. and this person, like so many others is turning around. because, the road right now is really impassable. even if you are in an suv. i'm going to take you to this side, kind of an industrial area. and this parking lot, over here, is completely covered in a good amount of water and there's a bit of a tide in here, believe it or not, going on now. and the water gets much deeper, on the back end and there are pallets, it is an industrial area, and loose material but the wind is whipping around here, so you have to be pretty careful. and to be honest, we just got up a short time ago and got to our location but as i didn't it we still have the whole back end of the storm to go and people are, you know, adventure-seekers, we had storm chasers out here and they were assessing the damage and are obviously professionals, but, you don't want to be out here, wading through the water which people have done. the person running our truck, today, keith, a fireman as well and he cautioned me to stay away from the manholes because when there is so much pressure with the flooding, they can shoot up and that can be under water projectile and be dangerous as well. trying get to a little more heavily flooded areas, if you can believe that or not but now, a lot of the roads are impassable. we were actually out on long beach, new york, yesterday, and here we go, another car, trying to get through the water. looking at a live shot, right now, of what appears to be a land rover, range rover and you see these guys get to the edge of the water, on live tv and he's going to see if he can try to get through the floodwater, but... they are using extreme caution and the better part of valor now and deciding, the bigger truck deciding he can't make it through and is turning around. and, it is a mess, and what we are told is further out, on america road here, the flooding gets much more extensive, much deeper, much more severe. so, you know, when we heard governor cuomo and mayor bloomberg and governor christie and president obama say, hey, don't leave your house, evacuate, might not have been so much the rain pelting down and the wind swirling which is also a huge factor but look what goes on, the morning of the storm, morning irene has passed through, this car is also turning around. i thought the person was going to make a go for it. but no, turning back around. we'll probably see this all morning long, people waking up, thinking it is not so bad and people are waving to us, thinking it is not too bad and i'll grab a sunday morning bagel and a coffee. but, as you can see, it is pretty extensive. and there is really no way to pass through here. again, as i said, earlier in the day, when we first arrived, saw a few people trying to get by, and they were having an extremely difficult time, a van that screeched in front of the camera now and that person will have a very difficult time and as i suspected, the white van is turning around, also. but, this is the stuff we'll be dealing with, for the days to come, this sort of flooding. we haven't heard of any power outages in this area, but, you can already see what irene has done and again we are about to see the second half come through here. the wind is whipping around strong. steve and rosanne? >> that is long island, east of the city of new york and that is fox 5 and their reporters fanned out all over the place and the storm has now been downgraded, as i said a short time ago, to a tropical storm with maximum sustain winds, drop the banner, please, thank you, 65 miles per hour, and the reason i keep saying drop the banner is because, that area, there, below new york city is on the way and will be very welcome relief for people all around the tri-state area, they made the warnings and demanded people leave and put out evacuation notices and insisted you are a fool if you don't leave, let us know, we'll send you body bags, for new yorkers who are notoriously stubborn, to please move and the vast majority did and some didn't. and those who spent the night in fwheech community and watched the waters rise before the sunrise this morning, all of them may be sorry today as the in coming continues, now. fox 5 in new york, giving -- from the traffic authority there, showing us where the flooding is in and around the five boroughs and listen for the flooding warnings in the city. >>... is closed and the hutch is closed to connecticut and the new york state line and the parkway and bronx river parkway between westchester, towards the bronx, and, heard about flooding, 230th street and long island, seeing problems and, the lie, closed by jericho turnpike and the sunrise highway... >> the western end of long island, and that is the city itself, hoboken, new jersey on the left. and this is the bronx, major... listen. >> a lot of spots between the 100s, towards the 90s and flooding down the fdr drive and upper manhattan, i hear a lot of issues with downed trees and flooding be a lower manhattan, things are okay. and, finger board, eastbound flooding conditions, closing it down and the belt parkway, normal gladded spots, flatbush avenue... >> i'm totally aware most of the streets don't mean anything to you but i'm trying to give you an idea of what the locals are dealing with here. nobody is out and about today them. big picture of the city there, manhattan in the middle, hoboken new jersey on the right, and brooklyn and -- i mean, the left and brooklyn and queens on the right and long island, there is flooding everywhere, downstream, mass transit is closed, new jersey turnpike is closed in some areas and long island expressway is flooded near the city and long island railroad closed. metro north train station, closed. all of the buses in the city of new york are down for the day. the subway stations are closed. every, single one of them and 8:30 this morning i walked to our studios from the hotel where they put me up at 54th and 6th and walked 8 blocks, and passed not a single human being for the first time in my life. rick reichmuth in the fox extreme weather center you said when it came ashore it would be downgraded and it has and you said we'd have area flooding around long beach and we have and it has gone right to prediction. >> rick: crazy how good the models were and the storm right over new york city, hard to imagine it would happen except we thought it would the last couple days and now is moving quickly. there will still be probably a few rain bands that go through on the back side of this. some of these will pinwheel through and we'll see maybe a shower or two more, a brief quick downpour and we'll see strong winds, all afternoon. so, that is going to continue, look at some of the pictures we're still dealing with and seeing around the new york city area. i think we have pictures out of westport, connecticut, on the north side of the long island sound. so, runs parallel to long island. and that is not open ocean. you are seeing those kinds of waves, that is the sound. that is water that doesn't typically have that much wave action. but they have very significant wave action going on, because of all of the wind going through there. and seeing some -- oh, excuse me, westport, massachusetts. this is actually quite a ways away from where the storm is. and they will continue to see strong rain bands move through that area. i tell you what. such a big storm, shepard, not just affecting where the center is, widespread and i have to got my maps and see where westport massachusetts is. >> and while you do that i'll take our viewers to sheep's head bay and, vick brennan, look at this picture, take it away... >> reporter: way worse. >> they didn't call that a hurricane, but, yes. >> the wind wasn't bad but the storm surge was bad. >> reporter: it seems like when it clears out it will be a mess, quite a cleanup, huh. >> i guess so but i will not be doing it. >> reporter: are you hiring someone? getting the heck out of town? >> yeah, i mean, i am getting soaked talking to you. >> reporter: sorry about that. you don't have any shoes on. >> shoes are right there. >> reporter: why don't you have your shoes on. please be careful. i can't tell you what it is like... oh, happened... excuse me, i'm sorry, happened with gloria, i'm told, that is 1985. way back. >> 1994. >> reporter: 1994. we have an expert here, folks, everyone knows here. 1994. and do you have any damage inside your house. >> no, none whatsoever. >> reporter: and you are hoping it flows out. >> i'll wait and look and watch the water line and if it keeps dropping down i will not be too concerned. >> reporter: you are a casual bunch. >> you see it a few times, and, you look at the weather and the wind and the way the things are facing, direction of the water is pretty much going. so i'm assuming from everything it is going down. >> reporter: do you have a feeling it will happen based on all the reports. >> not that bad, no. no. i figured it it would be a blow, a lot of wind kicking around and maybe a little water in but, a woke up and opened the door for to this. >> reporter: surprise! >> and i see people leaving, going like, get out and i said, let me have my coffee first. >> reporter: how many houses? 12, 15, 20 houses. >> 20 houses. >> reporter: 24, the man over here is the expert. 24 houses, joe is the expert here. we have 24 thousands, i'm walking gingerly because i'm not quite sure what is under here and i don't want to spill in here. >> it would make good television but we don't want him to fall down either, dick brennan from fox 5 and all the fox 5 team and an opportunity to go to the governor of new jersey, chris christie who told nbc news the dang is billions if not tens of billions. governor, good morning. how are things looking. >> not great from the flooding, flooding will be the problem, not just coasting flooding we have experienced but the northern half of our state is covered by the storm and our inland flooding from fresh water rivers is going to be the real problem. as we move forward monday and tuesday. but the good news is, we have a million people moved off the jersey shore, 24 hours, and, without incident, and, think that really minimized whatever loss of life we may sustain, on the jersey shore. we're now into the jersey shore, making an assessment on damages, and, trying to check on those folks who did disregard the evacuation order to make sure they are okay. >> i know you have been doing damage assessments and some sort of monetary calculation, just to get the bean-counters ready there in new jersey. what have you come up with? >> we have done the calculation yet, but we have to believe, as i said, that at least in new jersey, this will be in the billions of dollars. >> billions of dollars. >> yep. >> when you look up and down the jersey shore and all of the vacation communities and all of the rest, governor, is it your sense that this storm did about what the meteorologists were projecting, that you have low-lying flooding and tree damage, but, beyond that, it is pretty good? >> yeah, it looks so far, i mean, we're doing preliminary surveying of the area by helicopter, and, so far, it looks as if the damage is there, but not as devastating in terms of the damage, we want to get on the ground and look at that, which we'll be doing in the next couple of hours when it is safe to drive in there but i think we'll find property damage and infrastructure damage and we have over half a million people as i said, without power in the state and that number is going and that is the kind of damage we'll see. but i think the biggest thing -- when you are governor the thing you are concerned about the most is preservation of human life and that is why we're aggressive, moving people off the jersey shore, residents and tourists, because we just did not wants to take the chance of significant loss of life. and i think we have been able to accomplish that and i'm proud of the fact we're able to do that. >> you should be. as we look -- just got word, governor that the lincoln tunnel is now closed. which goes from 34th street in manhattan over into new jersey and there is low-lying flooding there, people shouldn't be on the roads anyway but that is clove and leaves the holland tunnel south of there and i know a lot of people, especially business owners up and down the shore and beyond are concerned about these last two weeks. the yankees have to make the playoffs, to make any money, this is the playoff. last two weeks of august, is it your sense the jersey shore is up and running for labor day weekend? >> well, we're going to hope so. i mean, shep we'll go in and make the assessment this afternoon and this evening, how things are going and make decisions about allowing people back to the shore communities and their county offices of emergency management and cape may an atlantic ocean are on the ground now making the assessment and waiting for reports back from them and the state will come in as well and we know it will be beautiful weather next week and we are hopeful things will be, you know, moving towards normal at the jersey shore, so that people can come to new jersey and enjoy the labor day weekend here. but, first things first. we need to get through the phase and i want folks to understand, who are watching in new jersey, please, still stay in your homes. the danger is being outside. trees are coming down, downed power wires and deep water, sometimes flash floods. we do not need you outside. allow the storm to completely move out of new jersey before you start moving around outside again. remember we have over 250 roads closed. so, it will be difficult for you to get anyplace anyway. >> governor, sounds like good advice, congratulations on the good work and we'll be watching, gordon, thank you, half a million people without power. i want to go to fox 5, howard beach queens and greatest new yorkers in all the world live in the part. >> we have a flood here, 60th avenue, andharles park and, a little basketball in the rain and, i'd like to say thanks for coming down and, i have heavy breathing and get the weight off of me, with airbrush, i would appreciate it. 160th is available. >> reporter: all right, tell me about the water. cold? warm? >> i have to tell you... >> this guy was swimming down the street as governor christie was talking, listen. >> it was brisk but refreshing. >> reporter: peter you lived here 30-plus years. ever see anything like this? talk about -- describe how fast it came up this morning. >> only thing i seen like this is my bathtub and i have been out higher and you have been out here since 4:00, i have to tell you, strong community good together and made it through and, thanks for coming out and supporting us. >> reporter: how grateful are you -- there were brand versus down and limbs down and the flooding but so far looks like this is pretty well done? >> not a lot of damage. the fire department, supported everybody and, the water is deeper and my knees are going to be a little bloody. thank you. >> look behind, the water is already receding there as the storm, center of the storm passed by howard beach and the water will go out. new assessments coming from long island, part of the word we're getting is that the first beach in long island, did' lot of damage, three feet above sea level -- now we're on the pictures. this is actually from west hampton beach. this is pikes peak for those of you familiar, an area that floods during noreasters and the rest and there is a bit of a channel cut. from early this morning, first light, and there is one other picture i think from the sequence. and that is it. do you know road, at pike's beach and if you go past the flooded area, west hampton beach and two miles done the road, west hampton dunes and we have no reports from there yet as the police had to evacuate the entirety of the road there. in west hampton beach and had to evacuate it because the winds got 50 miles per hour and here's the spot, the first hampton, if you will, right after fire island and west hampton and the snootier ones, that go past that and there is a little water over the roads and no inlet cut but the police had to get off the roads while this winds were there, and we'll have a new assessment from our friends at west hampton dunes police in a little bit. rick reichmuth in the extreme weather center. it is going fast -- rick's mic. turn your mic on, brother. try and get that fixed and i can tell people, last night as we were watching the storm, let's listen into... fox 5. mike woods, the local meteorologist giving us great information, listen. >> all right, so there is a little more additional information, we need to fill you in on, shea ryan has the latest. >> yes. we have had lots of questions, how much rain and wind and flooding and we have talked about the flooding and you have seen pictures of it, the atlantic coast, lindenhurst, 4.5 feet and the flood stage 3.5 feet and we are seeing a lot of that along the coastline with the coastal storm surge creating flooding along the coast and we have 7 inches of rain in bellmar, newark, all motion 9 inches to the north and west and 6.5 inches and lower totals aspectsa aspeas expect expected. and the totals were lower than anticipated but... >> expected the rainfall total lower on the eastern end of long island. higher down the jersey shore and also, a good number in central park. 7 inches of rain. in central park over the period of this and i've gotter word from long island, the bay is touching main street in west half hampton beach, getting an onshore flow and you can see the counterclockwise circulation and jonathan hunt, where was he again? long beach, new york. which is the first of these barrier island sort of areas on long island, and fire island and west half ton beach, looks like it is still a mess? >> reporter: still a real police and it is come through, from the ocean side here, and has been for three or four hours now, huge waves, and they built high... (inaudible) as high as 15 feet on the beach to try to prevent the water coming overdue -- doing absolutely no good, and i'm 15 feet off the ground, looking down here and there's at least two feet of water now, flooding through beneath the boardwalk, and straight out onto broadway. the main sort of ocean front thoroughfare here in long beach. so it is a very bad situation and seems to be getting worse, rather than better. i think we have now passed the high tide mark and that may begin to help things but, certainly, anybody who lives on the ground floor along this entire stretch of long beach, the broadway thoroughfare is going to suffer pretty significant flooding. we're on the second-story right now, of the hotel, where we have all hunkered down and i can tell you the lobby level is completely impassable. about two feet of water in there, at least it will be a similar story, across thousands of homes, along this ocean front part of long beach and as i say, the winds seem to be dying down a little bit and we are stuck right here because of cabling issues in a sort of wind tunnel and looks worse than it is and once you're on the boardwalk here the wind are certainly decreasing a little bit and it may be that in terms of the wind at least, and the wind with water things have calmed down but as the tropical storm winds pass over us they'll spin and bring the bay waters we believe back onto the other side of this barrier island and that could bring water into that side, creating a pincer movement. >> i look at the maps and you will continue to get wind but i think you'll get sunshine or clearing skies not long from now and is it your sense everybody was prepared? or was it more than people thought was coming? >> reporter: i think it was more than a lot of people thought was coming, and there was a blase' attitude, where people thought it wouldn't be bad but this was as bad as officials warned, and everybody on the barrier island and long beach, they were told to get off the island and get to mainland long island by 5:00 p.m. yesterday and a lot of people did that and some did not. i would say a significant number in fact did not. a bunch of them now walking out there, on the boardwalk and there are always people who want to experience these kind of weather phenomena and if you stayed and on the ground floor of any of these buildings, along several long miles of the long beach ocean front you'll have a very, very wet home right now, and, people are going to be struggling and some of the people we talked to, west hampton beach, here, some people say, that that is why they want to stay and fight the waters and, see how bad it is and move possession, if you like as they go and need to do it. so you get some people staying here for curiousty and others saying because that he think they can do a better job of protecting their property the emergency services can and that is a point to that in the sense of the emergency services, they are not protecting people's homes now and simply don't have the manpower to do that. checking structural dang here as well, actually, shep and we heard a couple of reports, parts of the boardwalk have collapsed because of the pressure of the water. i have not seen that personally and can't confirm it. the police are unable to give us information but we did hear about one reporter, along the boardwa boardwalk, when it started to collapse and this got off safely but it seems the reports of some structural problems with the boardwalk are accurate. so there there is still a long way to go, a long way for long beach to get through and then it will be a case of picking up the pieces as they say, a lot of people's homes will have suffered a great deal of damage, shep? >> clearly. i want to show our viewers the local radar loop and we are showing it now, that is not the one. the one that says radar at the top. coming out of -- oh, fox news, hd, says radar. a banner. there you go. that is the local radar from new york city. and, that is the first loop, goes back an hour, up tom's river and marlboro and the entirety of long island, except for the eastern tip, last top, past southhampton, the rain is gone, at least the moment and is not to say it will not rain again, but there is a big, dry mass and viewers say right there, you haven't had rain i guess the last five or 10 minutes, or it is light rain, that's right? >> reporter: here, shep the rain appears to be stopping, right now. just about 10 minutes ago. you are absolutely right. we saw that and as i say the winds, if i could get out to the actual boardwalk, even the winds would be a lot better but we cannot quite get that far, we're trying to back up as far as we can go and you know technical issues with cabling and the like. but we're in the tunnel here and that is as far as i can go but the winds are decreasing a little and the rain stopped now and that doesn't mean they can begin the cleanup, though, shep. there is far too much water flooding through and, let's see if frank can take you over to the side, a river of water, through here, frank. the river of water that is coming right underneath the boardwalk there, shep, is the -- about two feet deep i would say, right now, depending on exactly where you are, ranging from probably a foot to two feet and as we pan back to the left and the boardwalk you can see some of these people who simply didn't want to get out of long beach, not heeding the warning and a lot of people are here, looking at this and laughing and think they are through the worst of the it, people who don't live on ground floor apartments or have ground floor homes here on the ocean front. and seem relaxed about it all, and as i say, a lot of people heeded the warnings and got out and, some would say, just to experience this extraordinary weather events, shep? >> we're looking at a different camera at the moment. right there at long beach, where you are, as the waves come rolling in, i've never seen this kind of wave, we get the nor'easters in the wintertime and you would get the waves, but you would never venture down here. but in the summertime, i've never seen anything like this. >> reporter: i don't spend a lot of time here like you do, but i've never seen anything like that and we're not used to it and officials have warned us for days and days now to get off the barrier islands that line pretty much the entire length of long island and, yeah, when you look at these waves and i woke up warning, around 6:00 a.m. and looked out the window and those were i have to say the most extraordinary ocean pictures i've ever seen. you and i have covered hurricanes in north carolina. and i don't remember the waves being as big and as fierce as they were when we first looked out, of our hotel room window this morning, and they still as you look out now, shep, still very intense waves, fierce and that is why the water is still pouring underneath the boardwalk and, looks like that is going to continue for some time. even though the rains have stopped, a bit of good news and the winds seem to be coming down, slightly and... (inaudible) flower boxes, wedged between now and i can stand more easily and the weather conditions appear to be improving but the klein-up will go on for a very long time, shep. >> jonathan hunt live on scene. jonathan, one thing i heard about, one of the things, concern around here, at least, was our understanding, the television crews had vehicles floating down the streets and we were a bit worried about yours. what is the word? >> reporter: yeah, well, we have not been able to get out to the street where our vehicles are, in the last couple of hours, shep. and they -- there was a -- probably a foot-and-a-half of water. surrounding them the last time we checked and they could be in trouble, we may have big rental bills to pay but we'll check on them as soon as we can. >> notifying finance now it could be expensive down along long beach but it is well forth, yeoman's work. freeport, long island, fox 5 new york, what new yorkers watch, wnyw, the live feed coming in, out on long island and the localized flooding. listen in. >> this crew, waving to you guys. but we've seen cars stalling and people living in the nearby apartment buildings are coming out and taking photos, not the type of picture you see on a daily basis here in freeport. meanwhile i saw some manhole covers, starting to gurgle. and, the pressure from all of this flooding, that can be dangerous, and can cause the manhole covers to fly up. from beneath the ground. and while you could be walking through the water, so, we are careful as to where we are walking, but, for those people who don't know that, flooding can be extremely dangerous, not to mention electrical currents and that sort of thing. so, you don't want to be walking through the floodwaters at all. you want to be extremely cautious. now, getting a whole stream of cars here, as you can see, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... >> what we don't like seek is a whole stream of cars and they are asking people stay home. >> reporter:... even the taller vehicles, this toyota sequoia, back here... >> wnwy's truck, where the signal went out but that is a bad thing for emergency managers to be seeing, these days, because that he don't want people back on the streets. consider if you are watching in the tri-state area, new york city area, the emergency folks need to get out and assess damage and some people may be trapped in areas, they have grave concerns and want to get out and do that and if people are out and about and in the way, they can't do that. our laura ingle is live, long beach, new york, the same spot where jonathan hunt was, on a different side of town. oh, my, looks like the mud has come to town. >> reporter: yes. this is very foamy sand film i should say. we're on east broadway in front of where jonathan is, that is the building he has been coming to you from on the boardwalk side and you mentioned earlier. what does it looks like, tv crews having to evacuate and the whole street earlier was filled with satellite trucks and everybody had to pull out when the water, ocean start coming in. and we're really getting whipped around with the big mess, but you can see, like a big spongy mess people are rolling through and you can see how messy people's cars are, at least they are still here. check out the window, the front of an apartment complex. i'll sludge over here and you can see the front of the building, is it open? you can still get in. looks like people are going in very muddy. or i should say sandy. into this place, here. we have heard and you may have heard jonathan mention the national guard is rolling in, we are actually trapped a bit now and tried to get off to get to island park to give you shots there but the streets are flooded and we can't get through and people are riding out the storm, we've seen a lot of people, some people here say they want to check out the waves and the wind. we have talked to one of our producers who lives on long beach, for example, his neighbor, his mother is bedridden and they cannot leave for medical reasons. and i can tell you the water at least has gone down a little bit since we have been out here, and we'll send it back to you, shem. >> thanks very much, long beach, new york, and the first suburb along long island, pictures from fox 5 again, new york city, as you can see, 6 minutes before the top of the hour, 10:00 here on the east coast, 69 degrees... watching the waves roll in, this is freeport, long island and we have a lot ahead, continuing coverage, the storm is making its way north and we showed you pictures from our boston station a short time ago. from the state of massachusetts, where we saw a lot of in coming weather and this is the satellite and visual loop going up the coast and you can see, the back half of the storm now with not a lot of water, but, still a lot of wind. you get that offshore flow so that you get the wind coming from the land and out to the sea. all of the trees and such that have been pushed over to the left as you look at the map, have been pushed over to the left, all of that and the ground is loose will be pushed back the other direction as it goes by and dick brennan is in manhattan beach in brooklyn, new york where we saw the characters a while ago. >> don't get me nervous. >> reporter: find all sorts of things floating by. a shoe over here. all sorts of great stuff. so, plenty of... there is oil in the water and, who knows what else. the good news is, though, since we have been here, you guys remember we were here a couple minutes ago, the water has gone down further and that is a good sign and the tide is going out... >> it is in a that area and to the north it is coming in along with the seas and we'll continue our coverage, we have brand new damage estimates from the state of north carolina. we have a weigh in from virginia, the governor of new jersey says, billions of dollars, we'll get assessments from long island, new york including the town of west hampton dunes in a moment. fox news continuing coverage, right after this. get enough veg. so here's five bucks to help you buy v8 juice. five bucks. that's a lot of green. go to v8juice.com for coupons. you can count on us. carol. fiber makes me sad. oh common. and how can you talk to me about fiber while you are eating a candy bar? 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