michael bloomberg and new york state s governor, andrew cuomo, who both held briefings today. we re in battery park, southern tip of manhattan. if you have ever been as a tourist this is where you board the boats to go to the statue of liberty. this is a huge residential area, combined with the other boroughs in zone a, that michael bloomberg, the mayor, has ordered to evacuate. 375,000 people have been told to make plans to leave the area. that s because they are expecting bigger surge than what we were last year during irene, when they same through, and they are making preparations for worst-case scenario. new york s mass transit, getting ready to shut down. new york s governor, giving us an idea of why they are moving forward with shutting down mass transit. it is unsafe to operate the trains in high winds.
just twirling right out there. that s actually a little animation, that s not the storm. this graphic, it tells the story. the storm goes farther to the east and you end up with more of the surge of that dome water on long island and reports coming in a second. if it goes farther to the west and bigger problems in new york city and take a look at the other animation we can talk about and we have been talking about zones that are evacuated and zones that are not evacuated. and it s all phased off in elevations and seat the darker color there, that s zone a and the that s the area with a mandatory evacuation and includes places at jfk and the areas on manhattan. the island of manhattan had to be evacuated. and you were just talking with a guest about ground zero and potentially, in that construction site being flooded. and all of that is bordering this zone a area. now, we re about to see the storm get very, very close, in towards manhattan harbor and the hudson river and we are
very, very heavy rain and wind. the rain just to the west of boston. starting around the worcester hills and around the berkshires and same connecticut. very heavy rain. the eastern side of it will have heavy winds. boston strong winds as well. i m glad you say that because all the storm surge it s not just one little spot. the heaviest of it is in one spot closest to the storm. a lot of water has been pushed to the north as well as up in towards places like buzzards bay. they are getting big flooding from this as well. the rain though, you can take a look at this model. a lot of rain has fallen already. this is additional rainfall. a lot of places another four in some cases 12 inches. you don t see that as much over on the boston side of that it s off towards the western side. so that s where we are going to see the heaviest of the rain. do we have that animation? i want to show why we have been talking about new york city so much for this when you talk about the threat to such a big
that drive. doug mcelway rocking the cost. new york city seemed to have escape most of the storm s fury, irene gets one more job when new yorkers head back to work or try to without the transit system. flooded some train and subway tracks, including this one you re seeing in coney island. the city slowly restarting bus services, but officials warn commuters will not be able to rely on the subway tomorrow. and julie banderas filed this report a short time ago. shep, hurricane irene downgrade today a tropical storm, has left the big apple. she leaves behind some pretty intense winds, but that s all for now. a lot of flooding, also, in the new york city area. and evacuation orders finally lifted as of 3 p.m. on sunday afternoon. the zone a, which included about 370,000 people, those people allowed to come back, and also, staten island ferry service resuming as well. as far as public
pretty heavy flooding in manhattan, lower lying areas. many evacuations in effect right now. zone a which is all of battery park. battery park city has been evacuated. 370,000 people. they were told to get out friday. so the new york city area obviously being warned well in advance for all of this. obviously you know that the subway systems. metro new york railroad. new jersey transit. the buses. they are all gone. there is no way to get around the city except for by your feet, car or taxy. which, by the way, there are taxis out there informs those of new the city trying to get around. that s about the only way you are going to do so. i want to actually show you because i m surprise sod see traffic out here. it is the city that never sleeps but right now that s the new york post truck of course they never stop because we have got to get our papers. moments ago i actually did see many cars coming up the street and taxis, believe it or not, so they are still running. obviously they are