>>shepard: good afternoon at 2:00 on the coast of north carolina and up the eastern seaboard. this is fox news channel's continuing coverage of the march of the hurricane. i am shepard smith. the national hurricane center updated the strength and direction. still a category one hurricane producing maximum sustained wind of 85 miles per hour. the storm made landfall in the outer banks of north carolina and pounding that state. relentless pounding. it is moving so slowly up the

coast. the storm flooding parts of the outer banks and the sound knocking out power to half a million people. crews have tied two deaths to the storm. they say a tree fell on one man and another man had a heart attack putting plywood over his windows and a traffic collision caused a third but that is not confirmed. the center is closing in on the state of virginia where the governor is warning the next 12 hours "are going to be very, very bad for virginians." people who have not evacuated the coast could face prosecution. the storm is later said to sweep the new jersey shore and past atlantic city where the casinos are closed and irene will make landfall very close to new york city. the belief is probably just to the east of the city, that is the hope, in preparation new

york city ordered hundreds of thousands to evacuate. the train and bus services are shut down. millions of people who are here and do not have cars are stranded. this afternoon, the president visited the command center for the federal emergency management agency and told the workers they are doing a great job. here is a look at what they are doing. a listener on satellite sent this image. his truck is in line half mile long waiting to get loaded with emergency supplies at the air force base in new jersey. the defense secretary panetta is ordering 6,500 active duty drops to be ready if they have to help out. again, we have reporters spread across the storm's pact. and now, our cheat -- chief meteorologist. no change in intensity over land? rick: interacting with land

and still with the sound but no change in intensity. what i am noticing on radar and satellite how it is very much intact, early we had dry air across the southern end of it and it was breaking apart but not the case as were now. it has filled in. when you look closely it made landfall at cape lookout this morning and the center right there and that is only 50 to 60 miles, 6 1/2 hours ago so would you think 15 miles per hour is moving fatter but i don't think it is moving as fast as we say 15 miles per gallon -- miles per hour, that is my point, so accumulated rainfall across north carolina and the area north it that is getting heavy rain, raining heavy across the southern part of new jersey, delaware, delmarva and washington, dc, and baltimore. a lot of rainfall with totals

piling up. if you get 12" of rain, that causes flooding. and we had that last week. it will be a big problem. the models, still, where they have been but for the wharf, and we are not worry about this, but it is right over new york city in 10 or 15 miles from there and when they all agree and they have been for days you feel confident. and now the gusts, hurricane force winds and the dark blue are tropical form store winds and tonight at 10:00 p.m. we are talking about hurricane force winds around the outer banks pushing the water the other way from the bay to the atlantic. hurricane force winds across delmarva up the shore, 8:00 a.m. to morning, and long island, one p.m. tomorrow, still parts of long island into connecticut, so, a slow mover for a storm like this and the effects and the impact will be a long lasting effect and that means more and more rainfall totals

piling up and more and more flooding. >>shepard: still pounding on north carolina, delaware, maryland, virginia next. what should people on the coast expect? rick: it will get worse. it will not get better for another 12 to 18 hours if you are in jersey. you have a long road ahead of you. whatever you are looking at now, and you think it is scary, do it fast because your time is running out to get out. it will not get better. >>shepard: thank you, rick, from the fox weather center. and the state of new jersey is readying for the storm and the governor, there, chris christie, is speaking right now. this is live news conference. listen. >> officials in atlantic, and ocean, and cape may counties have had phone calls to about them to communicate to us issues of concern where they did not get response from the county or

from the state o.e.m. and get reports on conditions in the ground where we have ordered a number of mandatory evacuations. the good news is, people heeded my subtle advise yesterday and are off the beach and left the shore and the evacuation process is successful. over a million have left the jersey shore in the last 24 hours. and it has been done with very little traffic disturbance, very few reports of people having to sit in long lines of traffic. and that's a credit to the local officials who helped with the evacuation and a credit to the d.o.t. commissioner and the state police who put together the traffic plans to execute that and i thank all of them and all the people of new jersey, both folks who are residents of the jersey sure and those folks who were there vacationing for

heeding our warning and for leaving. we have, now, according to ocean county officials 95 percent of long beach island vacated. there are few remaining residents who have refused to evacuate. but 95 percent of the folks on the island are evacuated and reports from cape may that 98 percent of cape may county is now evacuated. again, few stragglers but over all a majority are evacuated. and atlantic county a report from the barrier island that 90 percent of the people are evacuated from the barrier areas of atlantic county. the concern right now is atlantic city. let me talk to you about that. we have been extraordinary successful in evacuating most of atlantic city, we have had some remaining people who have refused to lobby. these are senior citizens

predominantly, 600 that live in high-rise buildings in atlantic city. we are concerned about them in the high-rise buildings because of their able and the winds projected at 75 miles per hour plus later tonight and tomorrow morning and we have concerned about flying glass that could cause great injuries. here is what we have done. at my direction, the state police, led by cornell fuentes, and the new jersey transit have sent additional buses to atlantic city. we will put the buses circling in front of these particular buildings in atlantic city and send both county o.e.m. officials at the direction of county executive and personnel to speak to the individuals and try to get them to leave.

if those seniors now watching this on tv i ask you to, please, allow us to help protect you. you are correct i can't make you leave your home and i am not going to place you under arrest to make you leave but we really do have your safety, first and foremost in your minds. lit us walk you downstairs and put you in a bus and take you to a shelter, you can have food, something to drink and a cot and ride out the storm and we return you to your homes you will. if you stay you are placing yourself in greater danger and your loved ones, as well. we will try to make a last ditch effort this afternoon to get them to leave but when we get later this afternoon it will be dangerous to operate buses with the high winds and we cannot do anything to assist them until

after the storm has passed. other than that issue in atlantic city the rest of atlanta county is over 90 percent evacuateed. in mammoth county, the office has done an extraordinary job in evacuating those municipalities under evacuation orders including the lt. governor to evacuated. to an undisclosed location. we are meeting the first requirement you have in any situation like this, to do everything you can, to preserve human life. the best way to preserve human life is for there to be no human beings on the jersey shore given what is to come. the tracking continues to be ominous for our state while there has been some minor weakening to a category one storm as it hits landfall in

north carolina and headed up the coast increasing the wind speed by 10 or 15 miles per hour will make little difference on what causes harm to the folks in new jersey. we are still looking at from 6" to 12" of rain, high winds throughout the state and extraordinary damage to barrier islands both with private property and public infrastructure. flooding issues that will happen throughout the state. that could not have changed with a minor weakening from a category two to category one. we did not if it will pick up speed by the time it hits new jersey but people should take no comfort if you are watching the weather channel that there is a slight weakening. it is not changing the fundamentals of what makes the storm dangerous for new jersey. so, please don't think that means, well, we can have dinner tonight and we should be off the

road. i thank the owners of the giants and jets for exceeding to my request to reschedule the game this was scheduled for this hour today. it was my judgment in private conversations with them having those folks at the stadium and having them on the road, since we intend to use the center as a staging ground for more sheltering of folks as this event continues, that it would not have been in the best interests of the people of the state for the games to continue. i thank the commissioner and the owners with whom i had conversations yesterday, for agreeing to do this and rescheduling the game for monday night at 7:00 at the stadium. in preparation for the expectation the storm will have substantial impact across the state the national guard under the direction of general reese

has deployed 1,500 national guard soldiers and airmen throughout the state across 12 armories in addition to helping staff evacuation sites and shelters. the national guard has stepped up in an extraordinary way adds they always do, citizen soldiers and airmen who have answered the call, put on the uniform and working now, in partnership, with the folks at the state police under the direction of the colonel fuentes. for those who do not have a place to go our shelters are the place of last resort. many are open and prepared. wear currently housing an estimated 5,300 people already. we are prepared to accommodate pore as time goes on. so far there have been a few hiccups moving folks around but mostly it has run smoothly. with our main goal being getting

people placed where it will be safe, dry, and they can be fed and hydrated. 1,200 people from atlanta county were overunited at the sun national bank center in trenton. they were brought there last night and throughout the early morning hours of the morning. this is a transitional point, a staging area, where they were given food and water. there were no cots. so folks were there overnight had to sleep in seats in the arena but we assured them there was a temporary situation. all the folks have been moved out of the sun center and there is known as far as i know currently housed at the sun national bank center. they have been moved to two places: to rutgers campus in new brunswick and the arena in morristown, new jersey.

i thank the president of rutgers. when we called, they stepped up immediately, not only are they providing shelter to the folks but they have provided food to them. >>shepard: governor christie of the state of new jersey giving us an idea what is going on in the garden state, now, as the storm moves north before it gets to jersey, though, it will pass by maryland and doug is in ocean city, maryland. what is the situation? >> a friend of my registered 45 miles per hour and it has been increasing all day and it will continue until about 7:00 p.m. when we will get hurricane force winds running through the early morning hours of sunday. the good news, and i know the beaches quit well coming here since i was a kid i have never seen surf this high on the delmarva peninsula. the television ill imagine does not do justice. probably 10' or 15' waves.

the beach here is very, very broad and probably like 100 yards wide and i have not soon the water come up beyond where i am, high tide is at 7:00 p.m., so we will see where that goes. the sand dunes, it is important, need to stem the flow of water and further down to the south of where i am stand 20 blocks, the boardwalk, and the water guard there holds that and after gloria in 1985 it destroyed the boardwalk and they erected a wall, there, which is 2.5' of credit. (inaudible) >>shepard: it is windy and knocked our signal off. so they build that up. doug, we got you back, go ahead. >>reporter: is, this is the first test of the 2.5' thick wall to see if it holds, the rain is picking up. the other major concern at 6:00 p.m. they will shut down the

wastewater treatment plant and they say after that, everyone is granted one flush. and then stop. this is a town of 7,000 people in the wintertime. in the summer that population goes to over 200,000, and anywhere from 200 to 300 people remain in ocean city aside from the group of reporters. so we see what will happen with that. a big concern is flooding here because in the best of times, you get a short downpour and the main streets, coastal route one, is underwater for a brief period. they cannot handle 1' of rain. it is not the subbut -- not the surf but the rainfall totals. it will be a true test of the infrastructure whether the roads, electricity, plumbing, all of that. we will keep you posted. >>shepard: thank you.

and now to the storm chaser next on the outer banks in north carolina and we will look at the weather lop which is showing this particular hurricane month ago north. watch the last motion in this loop. hey, the new guy is loaded with protein! really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? [ female announcer ] as you get older, protein is an important part of staying active and strong. new ensure high protein... fifty percent of your daily value of protein. low fat and five grams of sugars. see? he's a good egg. [ major nutrition ] new ensure hh protein. ensure! nutrition in charge!

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>>shepard: and now to the center of the storm and a storm chase certificate with us in carolina. jeff, my, you have a mess there at cape hatteras. >> we do, i made my way up to this. and this is going up to nagshead and you saw this is down and based on radar i am very concerned, the eye actually is closed off and much more intense than when it made landfall, and very concerned north of me, but, the damage here, the roof has been ripped off the b.p. gas station and it has gotten ripped off to the northwest and there is minor damage in avon but the

damage will be worse going north based on radar. >>shepard: what is the general situation with the winds and the water? >>caller: that is dynamic. right now, there are winds of 70 to 80 and we got a blizzard of sand and this is all along cape hatteras and north and south of nagshead is a sandstorm with damage now occurring from south of there to the cape, and the water, and the sound, that is still not surging in yet but you can tell the eye is very strong and if it passes this water will come rushing back in and i am very concern we will have major problems in the next couple of hours with the eye intensified based on radar from the last two hours. >>shepard: it looks that way to me. i am curious about roads.

is everything you passed, passable? >>guest: no, west of cape hatteras is not passable and the last call on the phone with you, the corps of engineers, they say this has only happened three times to be completely closed so the situation is the people realize there has been breaks and the water break, and the high, west of hatteras, and the outer banks, on the western tip is not reachable and the houses and businesses took a moderate storm surge but now the winds are coming back from the west out there and the water is surging back in to the when side of the sound and this whole thing has changed. from one side, back to the other side, and now back to the first side, everyone from nagshead up

to new york is to take this storm extremely serious. it doesn't matter if it is category one or two or tropical storm it will cause tremendous storm surge and problems along the eastern seaboard as you have been reporting all day. >>shepard: that is the message from governors and emergency managers and departments of regulations up and down the seaboard. this is not acting like a category one storm, the storm surge is serious, and rick has been telling us that because it is so much stronger and the storm surge has not died down and there is no sign of it doing so. and john roberts is up the coast from the outer banks in kill devil hills, north carolina. you are still getting it. >>guest: and we will for hours. the wind has coming from the southeast previously, and, now

the wind has shifted to the south and that is brings sand across. (inaudible) >>shepard: technology is good but it brakes -- breaks up a lot. with the digital signals we have it or we don't but we do have some material he sent to us a short time ago. >> a remarkable aspect of the storms. this is the west side of the outer banks, kitty hawk bay, looking into the sound, when the storms come up from the south the wind going and this way push the water out of the bay. typical day i would stand in 2' or 3' of water and the local residents wait for the storms so they can find things they have dropped in the bay. here is someone's halt that has been missing. as it moves north and the winds

back around from the northwest all of the water this is piled up and held off by the winds in the sound will come rushing back and it will refill the bay and that is what will get back up on shore and cause a reverse storm surge. we have heard of the storm surge coming from the ocean, this will come in from the sound. fortunately the storm surge that comes from the south is nowhere near as high as that from the ocean, but we have heard of storms, where you get maybe 4' or 5' on shore that goes 100 yards inland so it is a double risk from the hurricanes you get it from both sides on outer bank. >>shepard: john roberts from north carolina, kill devil hills the loop on the lower right-hand corner, the last thing looks like it took a jog to the right, to the east, and now to rick in the weather center and talk about him strengthening.

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