rolled back by the supreme court and now they are putting in very strict, i think the strictest voter i.d. laws and restrictions down there. then, of course, with abortion, it very much has taken a right turn. i think typically north carolina has been viewed very differently than south carolina. i think that s changing. you see pat mccrory having a republican legislature down there, the legislator is more conservative than he is and he s having battles down there with that republican party that is much more conservative than he is. i m amazed by this. i thought north carolina was on the move here because of the research triangle, unc, nc state and, of course, duke, all that. all the thinks going on down there. all the sort of natural nationalization of the state. everybody fwogoes to north caroa to get educated now, go to the beaches. they love the place. you have the retro thing going on. what is the retro thing all about? let me put a good word in for okakoke island in north ca
time. so if the eye doesn t move too far away, on the back side, the storm has been pushing all the water inland, laces like new burn and elizabeth city. that water is starting to make its way back out. it will be soon and i walked out there myself. in kitty hawk bay. it s a surreal thing to do. you have shifting three, four feet water and there is nothing. people wait for these storms and they retrieve the item. here is what we know what is going in hyde county, we talked to emergency county management, i think you mentioned 400,000, there are no reports of injuries. there is minimal flooding there. there were reports that a dike or levee had been breached in swan quarter which is one of ferries from okakoke island,
could still feel irene even if it doesn t make a direct hit, and that s one of the big things in this, category two, three, even one, doesn t necessarily make that much of a difference, gregg. it s the wind, it s the rain, it s the area that it impacts. so everybody really has to be ready for this one. gregg: those folks in hataras, okakoke island, it s largely unprotected and always seems to get hit first. all right. one of the stunning things about irene is the sheer size of this thing. take a look at the storm from space courtesy of nasa astronaut, the international space station snapping this pic, showing the swath it covers. look at that. as soon as we get the next update from the national hurricane center on irene, we ll be bringing it to you live. martha: irene on track to become the first hurricane to hit the u.s. in three years, that s more than 1000 days. ike was the last one, that was back in 2008. it s also the first major storm to hit north carolina