to countless communities where irene, now a tropical storm, is causing catastrophic flooding this is margaretville, a small village in the catskill mountains, about two and a half hours south of the city. within the past hour president obama addressed the government s response to this natural da disaster. i do want to underscore that power may be out for some time, perhaps days. i want to make sure dhs, fema and other agencies are doing everything in their power to help folks on the ground. reporter: irene is now over central vermont and moving north at 25 miles per hour, it s still got plenty of juice to make life miserable with 50-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rains. some of our best images have come from you, our ireporters. fred moore took this video of irene as it washed over west haven, connecticut. all up and down the coast we are seeing the impact irene has had. more than 15 people have lost their lives in the storm, more than 4 million homes and businesses a
tonight about 65 million people from north carolina to new england are in the path of hurricane irene. ten governors declared states of emerge system new york city officials ordered the first mandatory evacuations in city history, but along the jersey shore, drivers can testify trying to get out of harm s way is a slow nerve-racking process. the hurricane isn t waiting. right now, the storm, a category 2 with 100 mile-an-hour sustained winds is heading for the north carolina coast. our coverage starts with john in north carolina. we probably don t need to ask you to set the scene for us. what does it feel like there? reporter: we are getting the winds as you see right now gusting and picking up a little bit. the rain has been constant. periodically heavy and then it lightens up a little bit. the past couple of hours or so here on atlantic beach, a mandatory evacuation, obviously, this is an island. the atlantic ocean is that way. that s actually south the way this beach fac
fine. then after north carolina, irene could hit new york and new england late this weekend. keep watching for latest turns in the hurricane s track. right now, a firefight is under way outside a cluster of buildings in tripoli. libyan rebels believe they have moammar gadhafi pinned down. they believe he is hiding in apartments in his compound. rebels have put $1.5 million bounty on gadhafi. he is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes. moammar gadhafi s son, wants a cease-fire to stop the bloodshed in tripoli. saadi contacted nic robertson by e-mail. reporter: he said he wants to negotiate a cease-fire. he doesn t want it to be syria. he wants help in the negotiations. he says he has reached out to washington and reached out to nato. he wants help in doing this. rebels claim they captured three of gadhafi s sons this week, including saadi. but saadi s status is not clear. the number of americans filing first time jobless claims is up agai
the sea walls, but i think the worst here is orr and it passed. amazing how well they ve weathered this here. we have not seen any damage. just a quick ride through downtown nassau, and it seems that they ve got lucky and their preparations really worked. some of the southern islands in the bahamas didn t make it well. we have reports of serious did he have tags in some of the settlements down there and even some of the biggest islands, cat island that are both popular tourist islands had just gotten hit there. still trying to get communications back up to get word and a look at damages on those islands as irene moves through. right here tentatively in nassau people are pleased that the worst didn t happen here and they made out relatively okay. randi. jim, we got reports of one community that was the 90% destroyed. are you hearing anything about injuries or even deaths? reporter: we haven t heard anything about injuries or deaths, but those communities in the settlements
who is in harm s way needs to prepare for the worst and pray for the best. let me assure you that we are not overreacting. we need to be ready if you live in one of these areas, spend time with precaution. battering the bahamas. in nasa, jim, what has the damage been there? reporter: candy, a little a little bit of palms here with high wind and strong rain. here in nassau, the main tourist areas, no damage or floods whatsoever. the power lines [inaudible] they are so confident that the tourist areas [inaudible] jim, i m sorry. i m going to have to interrupt you here. we have really bad i can t hear thaw well. from what i can tell, not that much damage where he is in nassau. we will get back to him we can e audio problem. the latest forecast from the national hurricane center says irene will approach the north carolina coast saturday. cnn meteorologist chad myers is here to fill in more of the details. chad, you and i have talked for a couple of nights now, and