we begin this morning, talking about the aftermath of irene, the massive storm that paralyzed and pummeled much of the east coast. today, it s blamed for at least 21 deaths in nine states from florida to vermont. and at last count, about 3 million homes and businesses are still without power. more than a billion dollars in damages is blamed on the storms winds. flooding damage will be much more costly. three navy ships should be positioned in relief efforts from new york to new england. cnn crews are in place, measuring the storm s impact and the struggle for the millions of americans trying to move on now. we ll take you from north carolina to new york to new england and give you the big picture from the cnn weather center, right here in atlanta. let s go ahead and begin in vermont, a state reeling from some of its worst flooding in decades. gary tuchman there in brat tleboro. reporter: they don t deal with hurricanes, at least not until yesterday when tropical storm ire
a quaint, new england street turned into a torrent north of new york city. this is the legacy of what was tropical storm irene, once hurricane arna across the northeast u.s. cars are no match for these waters. this car was battered like driftwood. fortunately no one was inside. whoa. get out of here! grab the mic. a reporter with wcbs was covering irene in new jersey when a large wave nearly swept her off her feet. she and her crew thought they were far enough away from the water but they were wrong. on long island, large sand berms were piled up to protect the life guard station and it worked, for a while. the waves smashed the building into the pier. good evening. i m martin savidge. don is off tonight. irene made landfall again this morning in new york city as a category one hurricane. from there it made a nonstop march north as a tropical storm sweeping through new england with high winds and heavy rain. what s left is now crossing into canada. at least 19 people lo
i m ali velshi, one of irene s last stops dealt one of its hardest blows. parts of vermont completely unreachable as rivers start to roar. one official describing the aftermath as awful. cut off in carolina. i m carol costello. thousands who ignored evacuation orders stranded on the outer banks. emergency supplies heading there by ferry today on this american morning. good morning. it is monday, august 29th. you lose track of it on these type of weekends when so much happens. there is a lot going on for a lot of people who say we missed we dodged the bull letsz, a lot of people who didn t dodge any bullets. whoever says that is not listening to the chainsaws humming in connecticut, vermont, new jersey, all the way up and down the northeast coast. i think people thought it would be worse. we re lucky we dodged the bullet. i expected so much worse. nobody in western jersey dodged the bullet when you look at the towns and water still raging. everyone is clear there