right there. what's going on is you can see the wind and the wind away from the center of the storm are the strongest wind. and when you talk about tropical systems, you want the strongest wind around the center but that's not happening so that hybrid effect is starting to take place. this is moving to the north at 12 miles an hour. north i say. it hasn't takeent westerly jog and will do so as the day goes on. and once it does that, that's when it will set its eyes around southern new jersey. that's where it will make landfall and we will start to feel the effects even more. we are feeling it for this morning. in terms of rainfall and heavy rain we look at maryland's most powerful radar right now. heavy rain along the eastern shore. this is beginning to pushover into baltimore county. you shouldn't be on the roadways this morning the this is going to get worse before it gets better. now over to you. it doesn't matter where the eye of the storm strikes those in port deposit and cecil

county know they will probably get flooded jeff hagger spokes tothose over there doing all they can before the flood watters arrive foot flood is coming -- >> the flood is coming i have to get out. >> reporter: they couldn't move the stuff to higher ground fast enough with hurricane sandy on the way. they know all too well what will happen when the susquehanna river spills over the banks. >> it went to the ceiling. one room i replaced the washers and dryers. and this one here, it's going to be a lot worse than that one was. >> reporter: as if the gusting winds and drive rain is not enough as snd yea pushes inland the water will filter down to the north in the aftermath that will force operators of the conwingo -- conowingo dam to open the gates. >> when the gates open you are talking about 2 or 3 million gallons a second coming through the dam. that's a lot of water. and water from my experience is the most destructive force in

the world. you can't control it. >> reporter: just up the hill at the water which fire department swift water rescue crews from texas and vermont will help with the expected flooding and rescue. >> it would take 2 or so hours for a commercial jet liner to fly over it. >> reporter: the townspeople prepared well for the high water moving out furniture and piling up sandbags. but now comes the tough part, waiting out the storm. >> we will get a lot of storms we want people to stay inside and don't come out. we stressed that because what looks like maybe a dead power line may be in fact be live. >> and that's jeff hager. >> the situation in port deposit not good but they are used to flooding and hard to do anything about it. stay with us this morning, we are work for you as good morning maryland at 5 gets ready to roll on. >> we will have continuing

coverage on the latest getting ready for hurricane sandy. we will look at most air -- areas most prone for flooding. >> and if you rely on public transportation to get around, we have important information you will need to know about. the buses and trains and plane cancellations. we will be right back.

impending hurricanes forcing officials to make big changes for today. gorgeor o'malley canceled -- governor o'malley canceled early voting and the president and mitt romney canceled rallies in key bate ground states. we have more coming your way as we continue to track hurricane sandy. >> what you need to know to keep yourself and your family safe. good morning maryland at 5 begins right now. >> you're watching the station that works for you. now, good morning maryland. >> sandy churns over the atlantic but she is making her presence felt here.

we are working for you this morning with information you need ahead of the storm. this one could prove to be historic. >> that's the big story today. hurricane sandy as we get ready to get hit and get hit hard. thanks for joining us i am megan pringle. >> i am charley crowson. let's go over to lynette charles who is monitoring the storm and letting us know the path. >> we got the advisory and it strengthened. so hurricane sandy the winds now sustained at 85 miles an hour. and this is because it is beginning to move over the gulf stream. the warmer waters moving to the north at about 13 miles an hour has picked up steam a bit and look at pressure. 946 so it has gone down. usually when the millibars go down the wind go up. and we are dealing with a hurricane that is going to really give us a one, two punch going through time here. so, let's show you what's going on in terms of what it's dropping across the area. it's not even close to beginning to bring us the real

rough stuff. so super storm sandy dropping some ran across baltimore. the heaviest is the eastern shore and points southward. you shouldn't be on the roadways this morning and should be hunkered down ready to ride the thing out. it should be making landfall going through the next 24 hours or so. so late this evening early tomorrow morning, that's when we will start to see the worst of things but with all the rain a flood watch warnings are up for the entire viewing area until tuesday. also, coastal flood warning in effect for the areas shaded in the blue. we are looking at western shore also the eastern shore eastern shore you are get the worse of -- worst of things but everybody will feel the high tide as we go into tomorrow. let's check the abc2 timesaver traffic with lawyeren cook. good morning. >> reporter: good morning -- lauren cook. good morning. >> reporter: all mta service has been suspend until further notice. governor o'malley is encouraging everyone to avoid the roadways. in ocean city a lot of flooding and route 50 as we look live

here at the draw bridge. you will notice a heavy wind shaking that camera. there's a wind advisory in effect for the bay bridge. if gusts exceed 55 miles per hour that will be shut down. for those of you closer to baltimore checking in at 95, at 395, very slick conditions throughout the region and you do want to watch out for a crash on 95 upin harford county. it's along the southbound lanes at route 152. remember never to drive through standing water. it's extremely dangerous and can be a lot deeper than it appears. megan and charley over to you. it's 3 minutes after 5. and when we have a big storm like this you worry about losing power and flooding. and that's going to happen to some of with hurricane sandy. >> one area that's a place of concern is fells point that we saw with isabel and irene. sherrieionson is live. >> reporter: -- sherrie johnson is live with more. >> reporter: people are not taking any chances. they are taking full advantage

of this huge pile of sand that you see right here. you know they are bracing for hurricane sandy. and fells point is no stranger to flooding. they have experienced problems with other storms in the past and on friday and saturday, many people loaded up on sandbags to help protect homes and businesses in the area from flooding. the city dumped a pile of sandbags at the broadway pier. city workers gav away 6 backs -- gav away 6 backs -- gave away 6 bags per person. the mayor wants people to be ready because of the magnitude of the storm. there are three sandbag centers opened to the public. a number of businesses in the area, we walked up and down the street and a number of businesses have sandbags in front of the store windows and front doors trying to protect themselves from heavy flooding. so people in fells point are taking major precautions here trying to protect themselves and bracing for hurricane sandy. reporting live in fells point,

sherrie johnson, abc2 news. four months ago today a million bge customers were left in the dark after unexpected storm pounded merrill. >> we remember that. bge took a lot of heat for that with the response restoring the power and they were working to make sure history right now won't repeat itself. >> linda so is live at a bge staging ground. the utility company called in help from almost a dozen states. >> reporter: ten states to be exact. some as far as texas. and you said it, the big difference here with sandy as opposed to the storm in to rachel in june, that caught a lot of people off guard. so those out of state crews didn't get here until after it and people were dealing with power outage. here with sandy because of the warnings we have had, those crews have already arrived. they start aid risk this weekend -- they started arriving this weekend and will remain here until the restoration work is done with

sandy. bge is preparing for massive power outages as sandy makes her way to the area. strong winds and heavy rain are expected to bring down a lot of trees and power lines and leave thousands in the dark. crews from out of state started to arrive this weekend coming in from florida, georgia, oklahoma, louisiana, mississippi and five other states. bge says altogether they have 3,000 people manned and ready to go once the storm starts to feel the impact of the storm. now crews will be working long shifts to remove trees and repair power lines as soon as it is safe to do so. but one thing to remember here, because of the winds and how strong they can get, utility crews might have to wait it out until it's safe enough to go out in the trucks. because you can see they have to go up in buckets and if the wind are too strong it will be unsafe to do that. but again, this morning, and this past 30 minutes we have seen some crews already report to work yet -- get in their trucks and head out and be

positioned to go. again crews from at least 10 states are here to help with the restoration efforts. hive in linthicum linda so abc2 news. bge will need the help because power outages will probably happen no matter what or how many people you bring in. rachel is here from bge thanks for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> i bet you are tired. >> okay right now we will see in a couple days. >> how hard is it to prepare for something like this and get thousands of people to come to restore power when we lose it. >> the hardest thing is although we have several days to plan, it's still an unpredictable storm and we are watching it and we will see how severe the impact is on us. that is why we bring in as many crews as we can. right now we are at -- requesting about 3,000 out of state assistance including overheadlinemen and support personnel. >> one benefit this time around you didn't have in june is is a heads up. were there lessons learned from that because people were furious about the power outage

situation especially for how long they were without power. did you learn any lessons that from -- from that whole thing you can do differently. >> so the ability to plan is very helpful for us even if it's an uncertain storm. being able to plan several days out having the storm plan in advance and having the utility crews here prior to the storm hitting will help us. however, you are going to see crazy damage and high winds and a lot of flooding and tree damage on the electrical distribution equipment. you will see the crews this morning. they are out there an though it's raining and the wind is blowing. you may see trucks sitting around but they are waiting forsafer conditions. as soon as it's safe to do so they can restore power. >> one thing to remind people don't assume that bge knows you lost power. you are encouraging people if you lose it call us immediately and tell us. >> absolutely. even if you think your neighbor called in give us a call 877- 778-2222. and you can use the number to report an outage or downed wire. >> we will pass the until along

all morning long and put it on the website. you will stick around for another interview nile be here. >> rachel thanks for coming in this morning. >> thank you. stay with us, another story we have been following public transportation. of course that's not going to be an option for many of us today. that's because sandy shut down amtrak operations along the east coast indefinitely. so if you have paid for a ticket, the company is going to give you a refund or a voucher. and that will be for future travel. dc metro and light rail suspended service as well. >> abc2 is working through the super storm that's sandy. when you are not following us on the air stay up to date at abc2news.com or down load the weather app available for all smart devices and ipad. a lot of rain if you looked out the window this morning, of's seen it. it's raining out there and it's windy. the wind woke some people up this morning. >> it did. james weland is live out there. what will we see. >> reporter: yeah it's windy.

wind gusts coming up and they blow the trees around and leaves everywhere and it's a chilly wind out here too and the rain is coming down. it's picking up. when i first got out it was light but now it's coming down good. this is york road behind me. cars are increasing a little bit. it's a dump truck and a garbage truck and 18-wheelers. if you don't have to go anywhere, preparations should be complete already. just stay hungered down and hopefully -- hunkered down and hopefully you have the supplies and grocery store and gas for the car and got some cash in case because if there are power outages, those are the things that you are not going to be able to do later here for at least a couple days before power can be restored. a couple trucks turning around here. wind gusting over 30 miles per hour. no flooding on the streets i am seeing right now bui've seen from the national weather service chat that there is minor flooding on the eastern

shore so they have issued a flood advisory there until 6:15 this morning. and that's on the eastern shore and i am sure that will be extended or upgraded to a flood warning as the rain continues to come down. right now, about a half an inch has fallen. >> popular vacation spot along the delmarva is off limits this morning. >> rehobeth beach has been shut down ahead of hurricane sandy. we will go over there with abc2 news christian schaffer and show you how store owners are getting ready for the storm. >> as we head to break, we will go live to virginia beach this morning. right now, sandy is hitting that area evacuations as you can see it's ghosttown there. and if you look closely, you can see the wind is blowing the trees around in virginia beach. we will be right back. ah.

fire bad! just have to fire roast these tomatoes. do you churn your own butter what? too? this is going to give you a head start on your dinner. that seems easier sure does who are you? [ female announcer ] new progresso recipe starters. five delicious cooking sauces you combine with fresh ingredients to make amazing home-cooked meals. ♪ ambiance [ female announcer ] new progresso recipe starters. your head-start to home cooked.

your vacation hot spot in the summertime but rehob it beach looks different. >> northbound tolls were suspended to speed up the evacuation process in -- rehobeth beach looks different. >> northbound tolls were

suspend to speed up the evacuation process. >> reporter: the beach is covered back to the sand do you know barrier that's the only thing that's protecting this now empty downtown in here protected by buildings. sometimes the wind doesn't feel as strong. it is. out here on the boardwalk there's nothing to block the gale force winds and sandy is not expected to arrive until this time monday night. many of the businesses along and near the boardwalk here have been boarded up. >> we did it last year for irene. >> reporter: yep. >> and we decided to board it up then. there was no damage. >> reporter: the evacuation order from the delaware governor is in effect. the time for getting ready is just about over. >> this could be long lasting and we could be without power for a while. obviously we hope to see a minimum of property damage but there could be a bunch. no that was christian -- that

was christian schaffer reporting. >> like chris points out this is the calm before the storm. if you can imagine something like that, lynette you saw the image from the package. the storm is not here yet. >> exactly. exactly. and we are getting lashed rehobeth beach. temperatures at 51 and gusts up to about 51. we are getting to .20 of an inch of rainfall. let's talk about what's going on closer to home. we are getting some heavy rain now especially along the eastern shore. this is making its way off towards the west. baltimore county is getting in on this. and the city let's zoom in and we can see what's going on closer to home around easton and cambridge and severna park yellow and reds back down to the south. this is heavy rainfall and this is just going to continue. we are not going to get rid of this any time soon. we are going to have days of this wet weather and also this

windy weather. so let's track this storm right now. and we can see center of the storm really brings it around delaware as we go into the overnight. so early tomorrow morning, i am going to say the next 24 hours should be making landfall and we are going to really feel it then. this is strengthened. the wind sustained at 58 miles an hour-- 85 miles an hour with the storm. with that, we have high wind warnings already in place. look at this, up and down the east coast all the way heading into newening lan -- england. this be new england. this is -- new england. this is stick around. we will talk about power outages with this. but before that, check out what we have as we go through the storm winds arrival. so we are talking about this morning the winds sustained at about 15 miles an hour. and gusts up to about 25, 30 that's what we are feeling like this morning. and as we go a little later into the morning around 10 and 11 the winds sustained now at about 30 miles an hour with gusts up to about 40 and we will have the rain all day long and then by this afternoon, we

are talking about the winds sustained at 35 miles an hour with gusts up to 50 miles an hour. already going to be in the tropical storm force wind as we go through the afternoon. so this is what we are dealing with monday through wednesday. 45 to 60-mile-an-hour with gusts up to 70. and then the further off towards the north and east you go, you are seeing sustained wind at 70 miles an hour with gusts up to about 80 miles an hour. that is is a hurricane-force winds. so we are in store for some wendy conditions and with that -- windy conditions and with that we have the power loss potential. it's going to happen. we have a high threat as we look at the oranges here. and then as we go inland back off towards the west, we have a high threat there as well because we have some heavy wet snow coming down this that area. let's check the abc2 timesaver traffic with lauren cook good morning. >> reporter: good morning. governor ohaly is urging everyone to not drive. avoid the roid roadways throughout the state. in ocean city, we are dealing

with some flood and route 50 is going to be shut down as we look live at the draw bridge. traffic closed right now heading into ocean city. something to keep in mind. wind is going to be strong. there's a wind advisory in effect on route 50 traveling across the bay bridge. it will be shut down if gusts reach 5 5 miles per hour. conditions are only going to get worse closer to baltimore as we look live at the beltway. notice very slick conditions right now here at baltimore national pike. we have a crash on 95 that you you -- that you want to watch out for along the southbound lanes at mountain road. that's a look at your traffic. megan and charley over to you. sandy's rising waters could spell trouble for those along the eastern shore not just with the homes but with the boats. >> so we are going to take you to kent island and show you how some are getting ready protecting the boats and their homes before the flood waters roll in. >> and as we go to break a live shot at kill devil hills north carolina. along the outer banks, once again you see the waves rolling

in and beach erosion is a problem and those living along the outer banks have gotten out. teacher: this is west virginia, pennsylvania, delaware. and this is maryland. every year marylanders spend five hundred and fifty million gaming at casinos in these other states. question seven will build a new casino and bring table games to baltimore... generating hundreds of millions for schools. and that money has to go to education. it's the law. so vote for question seven. so we can stop spending all that money here, and keep maryland money in classrooms like mine.

let's say you want to get ahead how do you get from here... to here? at university of phoenix we're moving career planning forward so you can start figuring that out sooner. ln fact, by thinking about where want your education to lead, while you're still in school, you might find the best route... leads somewhere you weren't even looking. let's get to work.

people like along the bay had their houses ready for the storm but they have had to get the boats ready to. >> absolutely. this is what it looked like on kent island. boaters rushing to the marinas to secure the boats but if you are not on the water you might not want to bring anything outside they say take everything into the house. >> this event we anticipate sustained high winds that 40 to 50-mile-an-hour range that will loosen up anything and start to fly in around the air and that's what we don't want to have is missiles. >> boaters told us that damage from the storm could continue long after the storm leeks and that's because -- leaves and that's because with the run off and upstream it will make its way down the bay. there's no doubt about it with sandy on the doorstep people are living in low lying areas and will be aing to get out. -- and are planning to get out. >> one town knows about that. we will go to port deposit to look at how those are bracing for the possible flooding. >> so sandy is staying strong. i will tell you if it gets

stronger as it makes landfall and more of the impact coming up. >> reporter: well, hurricane sandy shut down a portion of route 50 in ocean city. i will let you know when it could strike baltimore coming up on good morning maryland. eggs, bacon, and pancakes.

denny's everyday value slam is four dollars every day. wait, is that right? eggs, bacon, pancakes. yeah. that's right. the four dollar everyday value slam. only four dollars every day.

only at denny's. how you doing? alright, alright. now this is a party. what is that? go, go, go. mmm. give me some of that sauce. i don't know, i think i might bail. yeah, it's pretty dead. [ male announcer ] one is never enough. new kfc dip'ems. freshly prepared tenders dipped in irresistible sauces. this is it. now this is a party. [ male announcer ] try a 3 piece combo for just $5. today tastes so good.

thanks for staying with us. they are not strangeers to flooding and when news of sandy coming in, those around port deposit starred started to pack up -- started to pack up. >> they know too well what happens if the susquehanna river spills on the banks. the high wind and rain is not the only problem for those living there. after the storm that's a huge concern for the area and now as the river rises operators will be forced to open up the gates of the conowingo and that means flooding will happen in the small town. >> when all the gates are opening you are talking about 2 or 3 million gallons a second. that's a lot of water. and water from my experiences water is the most destructive force in the world and you can't control it. >> you can't. crews from as far away as

vermont and texas came to help out with the expected flooding. there was only one gate opened along the conowingo sunday as operators allowed the susquehanna to hit low points as they get ready for the water levels to rise because of the flooding is more than likely going to happen when sandy makes her way to landfall and she is just miles away. we are talking about sandy hours away but many are feeling her impact. >> we are. it's rainy and windy out there. but what happens after the storm passes? we will have an expert from the better business bureau angie barnetwith tips on how to keep your property safe and money safe so you don't become a victim to the scam artists. >> reporter: good morning topping america's money the cost hurricane sandy airlines are canceling flights and analyst says it will cost hundreds of million of dollars and the new york markets will be closed and even the online operation. this is the first closure for weather conditions in almost

three decades. swiss banking giant ubs may cut a third of the jobs in the invested banking division and possibly 10,000 overall. the wall street journal reports the announcement could be made tomorrow. retail stores this holiday season are taking aim on the online competition among weapons in-store deals and matching prices and picking up good order online. and argo moved to the head of the line at the movie theater. it made 12 million dollarsa finishing second the -- dollars after finishing second the first two weeks. that's america's money.