up the east coast all the way to canada. this is a huge storm, folks. just check out the view from the international space station. we re all over irene, where it is, where it s going. we ve got jim spellman riding out the storm in the bahamas. john zarrella is in wrightsville beach, north carolina, and jacqui jeras here in the hurricane headquarters. jim, let s start with you. what s the situation there? reporter: good morning. the winds have been blowing like this for hours now. about an hour and a half ago they really picked up a lot. you can see the sea is being blown over the sea walls here, a lot of the low-lying roads along the coastal areas already have water on them. fortunately so far we have yet to see any major damage to structures. reports coming in just within the last hour of widespread power outages across the island, as you may expect, as lines get blown down. so far they have avoided that main blast. just about all of the tourists in the area that could ge
catastrophic flooding. new bern, we just rescued a man who was a cancer patient stranded in his home. we brought him to safety. we have shallow water rescue teams deployed with the local and the state partners. you have seen rescues in new bern. coast guard activity is picking up. we have had a coast guard c-130 over flying north carolina to get a better assessment of the circumstances on the ground, martha. martha: so explain in terms of new bern, are these rooftop rescues that you are doing? how deep is the flooding in that area? how do you, you know, people are signals to the coast guard as we have seen in the past to let them know there is somebody down here, please help? well, martha, to this point the rescues in new bern have been mostly by local response agencies. swift water experts in from other states. we are the one level depth and the strength there. we are ready to come in. there hasn t been roof rescues yet. but as we get in the space, we
we ve reconstituted our coast guard forces still responding to rescues, 120 rescues working along other in jacksonville with the flooding. our helicopters and planes are back in florida and today we re focused in on reopening florida s seaports. petroleum fuel ports and that will be very important to the state. tremendous level partnership with all the agencies. bill: you just described something here that is extraordinary. you are working a story in the keys in southern florida and you are working a story in jacksonville, florida, the far eastern northeastern corner of the state. that s the stretch of 500, 600, 700 miles. what do you need today and how great is the need this morning? first and foremost i think folks need to listen to their local response agencies. there is still potentially risky scenarios with wires.