suzanne malveaux. i want to get you up to speed for wednesday, august 31st. firefighters are calling in air tankers to battle wildfires outside of dallas. more than two dozen homes have burned in palo pinto county and firefighters say the fire is 25% contained. several hundred people had to pack up and run as fires spread. texas is in the middle of an epic drought and heat wave that is dragging all summer long. reporter: more than 100 homes are in jeopardy and those who lost their homes are devastated. it happened so quickly and i was thinking not again. this time it happened like, now. before we knew it was coming, it was taking time. a brush fire overran several homes and this church in oklahoma city. crews say the fire, it is contained, but they re working hard today to make sure it doesn t flare up again. irene, long gone, but folks are still feeling miserable in parts of the northeast. forecasters say the pasaeic river in new jersey has peaked but it probably w
tonight, hurricane or hype? vermont reeling from the worst flooding since the 20s, but was irene overblown? it could have been worse. we are not out of the woods yet. did government and the media go too far? better safe than sorry. we want to protect people and protect people s lives. this was the best scenario. we took the appropriate precautions. i ll ask a woman who may be new york s next mayor if the city get it done and cory booker from the front lines. and maverick billionaire mark cuban is not afraid to say what he thinks about the economy, sport, politicians, just about anything. tonight he says he ll raise hell. watch out, america. this is piers morgan tonight. good evening. of all the places to be hit by a tropical storm who expected vermont to take such a pounding? the creeks and rivers are a raging torrent tonight, one the governor fears will take many more lives. 27 people in nine states have died in hurricane irene. millions are still in the dar
41 people now confirmed dead from hurricane irene. this hour vermont is still trying to pull people out of the rushing rivers. i ll speak with several people still trapped there. including a groom got married saturday, hoping to leave on his honeymoon in 48 hours. we ll get a live update pr him. also from fema and the governor of vermont. stay tuned for that. in addition to the wildfires, there s talk about a formation off the coast of the yucatan peninsula. chad myers, who is racing back out here. chad myers, as we re looking at this formation, do we need to be worried? we don t need to be worried at this point in time. although, this may be the nicest tropical storm, i hope, that we ever see ever. you consider what we just showed you, all the pictures in oklahoma, that s really, other than the fire, that s what all of texas looks like. completely tinder ground. if we can get a 40 miles per hour storm over the gulf of mexico and run into louisiana and texas and spread ra
this is prattsville in the cat skill mountains. officials say the volume of water rushing through the riverbanks is more than what s flowing over niagara falls today. just think about that. it stranded people in their homes and hotels. no way for rescuers to get to them. next, i want to share video from rhode island. 300,000 people there in the dark. no electricity. several of these, you can see them downed trees, just sheer wind power took them down. half the state is affected here. listen now as rhode island s governor is speaking a short time ago. really what we re focusing on is getting the power back. rhode islanders without power getting antsy. they want to that s really where our focus is. we ll assessment damage and the cost and everything else. that s our priority right now. and in vermont, that is where it looks like the flooding is worse today. you know, some towns in the southern part of the state are completely underwater. others being battered by raging ri
island in new york. on long island irene s storm surge flooded downtown long beach. some streets in manhattan also flooding but the water started to recede and new york s evacuation order is being lifted this hour. in its sweep up the coast irene has killed 15 people across six states. more than 4 million people overall without power and these amazing pictures show some of the damage when irene made landfall as a hurricane. for place like new york city, the storm wasn t as bad as many feared but as janet napolitano said earlier today, it s not over yet. no matter where you are from north carolina to maine, we encourage you to stay off the roads as much as possible so that we can keep them clear for first responders and for vehicles who are working on power restoration. we also encourage everyone to continue listening to the instruction of their state and local officials and to advice the ready.gov for tips on how to stay safe after the storm. we want to show you more of