good morning to you all. i m t.j. holmes. welcome to our viewers watching us in the u.s. and around the world, as we continue to follow a category 1 storm, hurricane irene, that is threatening about 20% of the u.s. population. some 65 million people in its path. it has been hammering north carolina with heavy rains and fierce winds for past several hours. it was just a couple of hours ago that it officially made landfall in north carolina. more than 200,000 people are without power as we speak, and the path of destruction is spreading as this storm continues to move north. major northeastern cities are in its sights, cities that aren t used to being tested for their hurricane preparedness. talking about washington, d.c., boston, new york city, as well. in fact, in some low-lying areas of new york, there has been an unprecedented mandatory evacuation in several places. that evacuation order is still in place, and some of those evacuations still underway. hospital patients, res