flooding concerns, the rain concerns, the wind concerns. it s clear you have some wind action still. they ve asked people to stay off the roads. the governor sell his thinks the entire commonwealth will be affected. they re expecting to get a lot of rain out west, a lot of wind out east, and then off the coast, the island of martha s vineyard and nantucket. the cape is also exposed. we ve heard records of gusts of wind all right this morning, so, yes, a very serious situation. people you know, when you come out and stand in this, all of that is meaningless, because it s pretty bad, whatever the meteorology cal label is you
juliet: hurricane irene is in north carolina and rick is following this. wreck rick: this picture from nasa shows you the size of the storm. it is such a large storm which is a big concern. it is not impacting just a couple of people but a very big area. and because it is such a large storm the energy of the storm surge is very large and very wide. that is why this is concerning. the satellite images we have been saying, you can see weakening, back here on the southwest quadrant and that is the case as it interacts with land but the energy to the northeast continues to bring all this wind action toward the coast so at the love water will be pushed into the chesapeake
the boat was built in korea, modified in portugal and sent here over the last few weeks. it arrived in the gulf of mexico yesterday and will be put to work immediately trying to scoop up as much oil as it can. they have been flying reconnaissance flights along the coast today, surveying the damage from hurricane alex and the waves and the wind action. anne thompson was on a coast guard helicopter today and said she saw a lot of boom still in place. some broken in places but most of it still in place. that s good news. we hope to get an update later in the day on how well that is going. jeff? the problem now, this weekend especially, it is highlighted, the business that is being lost there. this is a holiday weekend, louisiana coast, the florida coast, places that should be busy on a july fourth weekend. reporter: absolutely. this place would be teeming with sport fishermen this time of year. but it is not. you see behind me the shrimp boats, they would be out shrimping and catching