this rain is the storm surge. i need to emphasize this because the storm surge, the flooding is what could essentially knock out power. a lot of times in hurricanes you deal with winds that knock down trees that knock down power lines, that knock down power. well, in new york city it works a little different. because our power and our cable supplies are locked up in a vault under ground. that vault ask in the southern tip of manhattan in battery park city. so, what does that mean? well, the flood that could come into battery park is about con edson s biggest and worst nightmare. once that storm surgeon comes in right now it s 3 feet. it could reach up to 8 feet. once that water comes in con edison will come in and basically supersede the situation by shutting off power and closing it all off in order for those ceabletion not to get damaged. that would essentially cut off 17 thowrnls people in new york city. right now 35,000 people without power around the five buros in new york city.
so far. hurricane irene hasn t even reached new york city not projected to make landfall here until about 10:00 in the morning. so far already, 40,000 people without power in the new york city area. not in manhattan yet. but that is the big question as to when. and if our power is going to be intently shut off by our electric company con ed disson all the cables and electric supplies that supplies the electricity that we are standing in now is powered downtown in battery park. meaning underground in these vaults they have all the cables. if that water surge reaches up to where they are thinking it might 8 feet it could potentially flood thatter i can t. to prevent that have happening, con edson will shut off power to 17,000 people. take three days to actually restore that power. obviously paralyzing the city more than it already is. 160,000 people i should say without power right now in new jersey right across the hudson river. speaking of the hudson river, the george washington bridge
good morning. it is friday, august 26th. welcome to american morning. it s all about the hurricane today. i wish i could say happy friday, happy friday for those not living along the northeast coast. and whom it hasn t reached yet. exactly. let s talk about hurricane irene. now said to be a massive and powerful category 2 storm sitting just off the east coast. 50 million people could feel its force by this weekend. new hurricane warnings are now up, they stretch from north carolina to new jersey. states of emergency have been declared as far north as new england. irene totally hammered the bahamas yesterday with torrential rain, 115-mile-per-hour winds, north carolina like i is next. in atlantic beach a surf shop boarding up, mandatory evacuations under way along the outer banks and could be the biggest storm to hit new york in decades. people all the way up the coast are being asked to leave or to get ready. i understand sometimes folks think that people overreac