from new orleans with the latest on conditions there. casey, what can you tell us? well, uma, thousands of people are still without power in and around new orleans and the damage i have to say is very random because the major part of this tropical storm actually made to the east of us. sort of changed course a little bit at the last minute because as we know, for the better part of last week new orleans was set to take a direct hit. however, the outer bands of tropical storm lee bringing heavy wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour. enough to topple a few trees. this one on a house in saint landry parish. the residents we understand were home at time. they heard a loud thud. fortunately, no one was injured. now, flash flooding is, of course, the primary concern all throughout the south especially with rain forecasted for much of the day and even into tomorrow because the system is moving so slowly.
hour. peter doocy standing by with more on this and other top stories. reporter: new jersey governor christie is taking the president on a tour of paterson, a town hard hit by the flooding. christie has had harsh words about obama s leadership in the past. he s had nothing but praise for the president s handling of irene. fema had craig fugate and the president keeping a close eye on tropical storm lee, bringing strong winds and heavy rain to the gulf coast. we ll have a live report from biloxi, mississippi where the storm has already caused damage, coming up. rebel military leaders say they expect gadhafi loyalists to surrender in the town of sirte. they ve given the opposition until next saturday to turnover the city. the nba telethon will air without is star attraction. nancy o dell taking the place of longtime host jerry lewis.
first off, give us a sense of the damage and where relief efforts stand at this point in your state. the relief efforts are ongoing. the eastern portions of the state, the outer banks was hit very, very hard with high winds and heavy flooding. roads washed out. people are homeless. there are shelters are being emptied now but people are still without power in some of the more remote areas. and the governor has estimated the damage at around $100 million and we know that number will go up. meanwhile, fema has been on the scene here and the federal, state, local cooperation, the red cross, the nonprofits, the cooperation has been excellent. people are pulling together but it is a tough storm. it is a tough, tough situation, indeed. recently, though, congressman eric cantor said that we need
a body boarder in australia died after being astacked by a shark in a popular surf spot. the first time an attack has happened in the area over 20 years. those are the top story. back to you. peter, thank you very much. what is left of tropical storm lee is inching north and katia turns towards the coast. chief meteorologist rick reichmuth is more. the peak of the hurricane system is next saturday. we have a long ways to go and we are already at the 12th storm. this is what lee is doing. barely moving and bringing a lot of rain and tornado threats across the central gulf coast and rain now spreading inward. along with it that tornado threat will continue to go northward as well and that will continue to be the case as we move forward the next couple of
as you can see the flood stage there. look at the flood indicator stick on the right-hand side. you can tell it only goes up to 6 feet. that entire thing was under water. this vehicle here a resident obviously coming in to survey the area but not getting much further than where he is right now. we have video in fact that we shot earlier today that pretty much shows you a similar sight throughout the entire area. streets covered in mud. cars left in the middle of the street. some 5,000 homes without power throughout, new jersey, which is great news considering that at one point 1.5 million people were without power. but the lives that have been disrupted by this tropical storm is beyond words. in fact, we spoke with a couple of residents that describe exactly the hell that they have been through since this storm came through seven days ago. listen. all it this mud you see on the ground is all the mud we had in the house. it ruined all my appliances. all my furniture.