the hurricane of our lifetime. it looks like just this massive storm is going to rake the east coast of the u.s. so are the critics right? was irene overhyped? i m joined by bryan norcross, and also preparedness aton edwards. and so any difference of what you told us before the storm? no, all of the scientific evidence said that the northeast corridor would be hit with this storm, and it was. and the expectations, and the difference between the forecast and the expectations were over a broad range of what happened to something much, much more thanp scientific evidence available. that is what we prepared for, and not the least, but what is reasonably expected worst. indeed. but do you accept the criticism that this is a made for television moment that we found
get away to the farthest area, you have to be prepared to be away from that. aton edwards the preparedness network. the national weather service has a 58 mile an hour wind gust clocked at jfk, hurricane irene closes in on the east coast. i
report from nags head yesterday, it went on and on. at one point you had people thinking it was stalling out. it wasn t, but it was like, end already. really. that is it, end already. thank you roche. greatly appreciate it, bill. you ve been doing a fantastic job. we ll bring you the latest that you need to know on msnbc.com to keep you and your family safe. up next, aton edwards will join us. did we overprepare? that s what some people are asking. he says, no way, we ve done the right thing here. [ female an] kiss everything you know about cookies goodbye.
of course. this is going to be crucial here for a lot of the inlets and the harbors as it s really pushing up some wind-whipped waves, anywhere from 15 to 20 feet as we have heard in some of our reports. once again, a secondary landfall according to ap at little egg inlet, new jersey. here is the thing, veronica. as this rides right up the new jersey coastline, we might even have a third landfall and a fourth landfall and then it makes it into long island, new york. that s definitely something that s making the storm yet again all too unique here. jeff, thank you for that update. of course, we re going to be checking back with you throughout the morning. joining me live in the studio is aton edwards from the discovery channel, and also the author of preparedness now. the storm definitely not over. saying it could make a couple landfalls there. i want to get your take on all
days. so i think we have to prepare for the inevidenceability that people need to get around for a few days if threes damage sustained. not just the flooding. a lot of power outages. how long do you think it will take for utilities to be back up and running again? i think because it s such a wide area affected by this, in some areas, some place also be quicker than others. generally speaking, it s going to take a little longer to restore power because the utilities have a limited amount of people, a limited amount of equipment and because it s over such a wide area, that it might take some time. i think some people will see a pretty rapid response, and some people two, three weeks, maybe more than that. quickly, aton, i know people are scared with the water situation. do you know if the water treatment facilities are operating properly? i would presume that they re going to shut a few of them down