i m christine romans. hurricane forecasters feeling the heat because the wrath of irene didn t live up to all that hype. and i m carol costello. like a hurricane, rick perry stormed to the front of the gop presidential pack. the latest cnn polling gives him a double-digit lead over mitt romney. is the texas governor built for the long run? well, good morning. it is tuesday, august 30th. we are still dealing with the after effects of this hurricane. things for a lot of people starting to get back to normal. the river still cresting and could happen over the next day or two in some spots. water is still rising in parts of the country. we begin with hurricane irene. the storm s impact will be felt for months after the winds died down. the death toll rising to at least 27 people. along with the estimated cost, the cost of cleaning up this mess from north carolina through new england, obama administration officials will visit three states today that were hit hard by hurrican
good morning. we begin with lingering misery caused by hurricane irene. you re looking at live pictures now from patterson, new jersey, where crews are actually going door-to-door rescuing people from their homes. that water, by the way, coming from the passaic river is supposed to crest today at its highest level since 1903. a pretty eye-catching image of how massive the storm was. this is coming to us from nasa. it s an animated satellite of irene as it s churning up the eastern seaboard like a buzz saw. at last check, 5 million people are still without power. throughout the morning, the death toll has been jumping as well. 38 people are now confirmed dead in 11 states and it could get even higher. three navy ships off the coast of new york to help with search and rescue missions and reps from the obama administration are going to fan out across three of the hardest hit states, virginia, north carolina, and vermont. let s go ahead and start there where floodwaters have dest
who may be in need of damage control after irene? plus graphic new evidence of brutality by moammar gadhafi and his inner circle. this just as we re hearing his wife and several children have now escaped libya. the pressure now growing to make sure gadhafi himself doesn t get away. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. raging water in the northeast so powerful it can sweep away cars and swallow up homes. right now vermont is devastated by the worst flooding in decades. cnn s amber lyon joins us from brattleboro in vermont. set the scene a little bit, amber, for what s going on. what are you seeing? what are you hearing? reporter: well, out here, wolf, had i been standing out here earlier yesterday, i would be completely under water. i want to come here and show you this brook right here, this is pretty much representative of what s across this state. this is wet stone brook, flowing more like a river now. it s about four feet wider than usual and look over her