water. if another low-lying neighborhoods now under mandatory evacuation orders, mayor bloomberg tonight saying the city transportation system will shut down at noon tomorrow. all five local airports in danger of flooding. they're being closed arriving flights starting at noon. now this is what they're concerned about. pictures here of irene hitting the bahamas. new yorkers are used to seeing this on tv, not up close, though. but they might see a version of it in about 36 hours from now. all day today irene was making its way north. and as it did. emergency plans started kicking. in warnings went up. people boarded up, stocked up and either hunkered down or took off. in a moment we'll check in with anderson and our entire team on irene. first chad myers and that late bulletin from the national hurricane center. chad what's the latest? >> not much change in the forecast and not much change in the track, isha. we're still at 100 miles per hour. we're still forecast to get slightly weaker as we run the storm over north carolina and then on up into the northeast. and that's good news. i still think because of the size of this storm that that flooding potential in downtown new york, in manhattan, in parts of hoboken and even toward rockaway beach and long beach in new york still there as those waves will be pushing, those winds will be pushing water up against that shore for a very long time. here's what's happened to the storm and what happened earlier today and also during the day yesterday is the turn happened. and during that turn, there was enough wind shear that was pushing the storm from a different direction that the storm didn't like it very much and the storm really disintegrated for awhile. it was very low pressure. it was extremely low pressure. in fact, right now the pressure is low enough to make a category 3 hurricane. it's just not organized enough to get those category 3 winds. we could wake up tomorrow morning -- one of the things the hurricane center will tell you is that the forecast for hurricane wind speed is harder, much harder than hurricane direction. and so we can wake up tomorrow morning and see that, too, be something maybe even bigger than that. we'll see. i don't think that that's the forecast and that's certainly not what anybody else here thinks as well. but it will drive itself right over north carolina, very close to ed lavendera right there in wrightsville beach. probably farther to the east now over okroko. just to the west of the cape hatteras light and then back over to the west there of -- that's about duck and kerrara and over to the east of virginia beach. so really back into the ocean here. the problem is that we will have such a large wind field with each one of these circles, each one of these spins, that the waves and the wind will be pushing in one direction for a very long time. so just like kind of pushing water for 12 hours in all one direction here around and around and around. you start to pile up the water. and that could actually be a wind-driven surge all the way into parts of the chesapeake as the water runs in there, although even backing up the james a little bit, or maybe back up toward the delaware into wilmington. and then you could even see -- everybody's been asking me tonight, what about philadelphia? we haven't been talking about philadelphia. what about philadelphia? i guess you haven't been talked about very much because you're just far enough to get 60-mile-per-hour winds, 50-mile-per-hour winds. but certainly not the eye. the big threat with all of this as we get rid of the winds, the big threat, the biggest threat on this side will be the rainfall potential. and philadelphia, i think that's your biggest potential for rainfall, your biggest potential for damage would be flooding. you could see ten inches of rainfall, philadelphia. same story from brooksbury back up into parts of the southeastern parts of new york city and new city and all the way back up toward scehenectady. manage what those areas would do with ten inches of rainfall. the threat for new york city if you take all that water and pile it up in the harbor and take it and push it around into the north part of long island. long island sound there. that all is going to have to go to one place and that's all going to be the east river. the east river goes up and all of the eastern parts of manhattan flood. you get to williamsburg, get water there. that's right where laguardia is. water coming up as water's trying to rush from two separate directions. it can't do it very long without that water rising. where anderson cooper is standing on battery park i suspect will be wet not with rain but salt water because of the water getting pushed in from the ocean by tomorrow. isha? >> different areas to be worried about. chad, thank you. we'll continue to check in with you. now let's go to brian todd in wilmington, north carolina. brian, what are conditions like where you are? >> well, isha, we're just getting hit with the outer bands of hurricane irene. you can see how bad it is here. we're getting really whipped by wind and very strong rains here in wilmington. we're on the edge of the cape here with the vehicle path. they're very worried about flash flooding. we've already seen traces of it here in wilmington getting hit pretty hard. the emergency management director of new hanover county. i spoke to him just a little while ago. already some 6,000 customers are without power. this area of the city they've got some power but they're very worried about power lines snapping down. we came from wrightsville beach over here and saw a lot of power lines whipping very violently in the win. not coming down yet. but that's a big concern in this area. power lines being down, losing power in this area. flash flooding a huge worry here. experts have told us that a lot of time when people die during and after hurricanes it's because they're trying to drive through flooded gullies, flooded roads that are a lot deeper with water than they think it is. so experts are saying you've just got to stay out of this stuff during and after the a hurricane. don't try to drive through it. that's going to be a big concern here where flash floods cause that kind of danger. the wind is kind of whipping at us now from the north. but a lot of the times it will change direction during these hurricanes and come from different directions. so this is kind of what we're dealing with here. just again the outer bands of hurricane irene coming ashore here in wrightsville -- in wilmington. this is one of 20 counties in north carolina that are going to be impacted by the storm, about 3 1/2 million people. nobody on the street here tonight. people are hunkering down, isha. >> indeed, brian. i've got to ask you what's your sense of the level of preparedness for the storm there in north carolina? >> reporter: i think the preparedness has been very good. they're well-versed in hurricanes coming up right into this area, through these rivers on the southern and eastern coast of north carolina to the outer banks. they know how to get people out of here. they know when to warn them to give them enough lead time to leave places like wilmington and wrightsville beach and the outer banks. it does take some time because a lot of these places are across inlets and the only way to get out is maybe with a two-lane bridge. so you've got to give people enough lead time and they're very well-versed at doing that. so it seems from all appearances here that they've been very well prepared. >> and with that in mind we see the driving rain right now. what's the sense of when this thing could get really bad? >> reporter: well, i think in the next few hours it's going to get a lot worse. they anticipate landfall sometime between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m., a little bit east and a little bit north of here. so it's going to be very bad probably in the next few hours. and again you're looking at about seven to eight hours from now is when it's going to be at its worst peak here in wilmington and east of here in wrightsville beach and slightly north outer banks before it starts heading northward. >> the mandatory evacuations were put in place. do we know how they went, how well heeded those were? >> they went pretty well. the emergency management director here in new hanover county said that it went very well. and again they gave people enough lead time in a lot of these counties to get out. again if you're inland we're a little bit inland from the coast. if you're inland you have a much better chance of getting out quickly. but in the outer banks and in some of these beaches that you have to cross these inlets to get to you've got to give them enough time and they did that. by all indications the evacuations went very well. but there are still some people who hold out. and i've heard governors from here to maryland say that's just not a very smart thing to do. don't do it. one governor in maryland, governor o'malley, was very blunt about it. he said it's just selfish and stup toyed do that because you're taking resources away when they really need it the most. so they really are urging people to get out. still maybe not too late to get out of here, but if people are going to leave they'd better do it soon. >> brian todd, wilmington, north carolina. brian, stay safe you and your entire crew. let's go next to jean mazerv in ocean city. jean, what's it like where your? >> reporter: we are not feeling the weather effects yet. a little bit of wind, a little surf. they're really not expecting to feel the storm here for another 12 hours or so. but the city itself is eerie. this is a party town, a beach town on a friday night in the summer. you'd expect people to be in the streets, for there to be a lot of noise, bars and clubs open. it is completely quiet. you drive down the streets here, there are no cars, there are no people. it reminds me, isha, of a zombie movie before the zombies make their appearance. that's how totally quiet this place is. they're really worried here about flooding, although the army corps of engineers did put in these dunes and extended the beaches. they're expecting that perhaps as much of a sixth of this city could be underwater by the time irene comes through here tomorrow and tomorrow night. back to you, isha. >> jean mezerve in ocean city, maryland. jean, stay safe. thank you. now back to anderson joining us now is ed rappaport of the national hurricane center. he joins us from miami. how does this hurricane compare to others that we've seen? >> what's different about this hurricane is that the forecast track which is pretty much locked in now at least through north carolina through the eastern part of the state is going to be a little bit farther to the west than what we've seen for other hurricanes in the northeast. and for some folks that means this will be the most significant event perhaps in 20 years from a tropical system. so normally when we have a hurricane out here approaching north carolina we see the track move on out to sea, missing new england, missing the coast to the south. in this case the forecast track comes up through north carolina, the eastern part of the state, but doesn't turn right away. instead it moves very close to the shoreline, perhaps in across long island and southern new england. that means all the weather that is usually in this case worst to the east will be much closer to the metropolitan areas this time around. and in fact will definitely hit the southern new england area. and since there are strong winds, high surge right near the center of the storm, we'll see some of that along the east coast as well. >> so for a city like new york, i mean, what strength do you think the storm will be when it comes into this region? is there any way to say definitively? >> at this point what we have is a category 2 hurricane that's very slowly weakening. we think it will still be category 2, perhaps category 1 as it crosses north carolina. and then that continued slow weakening will persist through the landfall in new england. by the time it gets up to the new york area into southern new england we're probably looking at a lower end category 1 hurricane, perhaps upper end of a tropical storm conditions. what's important about this particular storm is not so much the peak intensity but the duration. it's a very large hurricane. and in north carolina they're going to experience hurricane-force winds for as much as 10 hours. and the whole east coast near the center of the storm will experience tropical storm conditions for as much as 24 hours. that's a long period to have a battering of wind as wells as higher levels of storm surge. and because it's so long we're going to go through a full tidal cycle in the northeast as well. and there are going to be relatively high tides coming this weekend. so the high tides this weekend plus the storm surge has us concerned for the shoreline. >> yeah. there's no doubt about it. a lot of damage no doubt probably in long island. i mean, i had no -- i didn't realize it was going to be lingering around for -- those tropical storm winds for 24 hours. that's with the tidal surge, that could be really very unpleasant for an awful lot of people. ed rappaport. appreciate it. follow us on facebook and twitter @ anderson cooper up next you'll hear from a hurricane hunter who just got back from a flight through the storm. we'll tell you what he sauchlt also we'll talk to the storm chaser who captured this moment as hurricane irene hit the bahamas and hit it hard. we've also got new video of the damage for you there. let's also check in with isha sesay right now. as the hunt for muammar gadhafi goes on, searchers have been uncovering his network of escape tunnels and secret bunkers. cnn's sara sidner got a look. you'll see what she saw tonight when 360 continues. 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[clucking] [clucking] [ding] [clucking] announcer: separate raw meats from other foods by using different cutting boards. 3,000 americans will die from food poisoning this year. keep your family safer. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. breaking news tonight. of course hurricane irene the outer rain bands hitting north carolina on a path heading straight up i-95 right of the east coast straight to the new york city where we are tonight. a hurricane warning in effect for the city. mandatory evacuations where i'm standing right now and in other low-lying areas around the city. i'm in battery park in the southern tip of manhattan. moments ago new york marry michael bloomberg spoke to residents here. >> mta, our local mass transit system, is shutting down bus and subway service tomorrow at noon. and when scale force winds arrive later in the evening it is just going to be too late to go anywhere. so the mandatory order requires you to be out by 5:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. but from a practical sense if you're not out tomorrow morning you're going to find it very difficult to get out. >> well, earlier new york city -- excuse me, new jersey governor chris christie had one last warning for anyone who's still at the jersey shore. >> get the hell off the beach in asbury park and get out. you're done. it's 4:30. you've maximized your tan. >> warnings takes many factors into account including detailed information from aircraft flying through the storm. a few minces ago i talked to the noaa hurricane hunter ian sears who's just been right in the middle of irene. i asked him what it was like. >> yes. i'm on a p 3 aircraft. we just passed through the center of tropical storm or excuse me hurricane irene. the south part of the storm is kind of benign but the north site of the storm here just south of morehood city is quite bumpy and quick hectic up here. we had to set the seat belt light for an extended period of time, we got knocked around pretty good. and i've been in a few other storms prior. this is about par for the course especially with a storm at this stage in a category 1, category 2 hurricane. hurricanes can be rough and parts of it are smooth. but right now we're on the north side just out of morehood city probably about 20 miles north or south of morehead city and getting knocked around pretty good. >> hurricane hunter ian sears. some people chase hurricanes from 30,000 feet. others do it on the ground up close. sometimes they get video like this. take a lock at this. we showed a portion of it to you at the top of the broadcast. this is what hurricane irene looked like as a category 3 storm when it hit the bahamas. storm chaser jim edge shot this video. then take a look. this is some of the damage that storm did in new jersey. new jersey's governor chris christie and just about everyone else in a leadership position has said you do not want to be there when stuff like this happens. jim edge was. it's his job. he joins us now. jim, you were on the island when the storm smashed into it. what was it like? >> it really hard. it wobbled to the west and it came right over us and we got the worst part of the eastern eye wall. >> how badly was the island damaged? >> we had some power lines down, some roof structures that were damaged. the south part of the island was breached. some boats sunk in the harbor. some sails were -- on the mast. but overall it wasn't too bad. but they build houses a lot stronger here versus the united states. >> yeah. they've certainly learned the lesson of past storms. jim, appreciate your time. thank you very much. i'm glad you did okay in the storm. the first hints of hurricane irene are being felt right now in the carolinas as we've been telling you tonight. coming up we'll take you again live to north carolina where the storm is expected to make its first landfall. we'll have the latest on that next. still ahead, bracing in new york city. the hurricane is already a historic event, the first ever mandatory evacuation order in effect for parts of all five burrows of new york city. we're going to take a look at the rare times the northeast has take an direct hit from a hurricane and what kind of impact that has had coming up. hurricane irene is ex