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>> hello everyone i'm denise koch. >> and i'm vic carter. welcome back to our extended coverage of hurricane irene. >> irene is gone but we will be feeling the storm's effects for very long. fallen trees are causing big problems with the state's power grid. take a look up at millston the

ston. if you were ordered to evacuate, you must be out by 7:00 tomorrow morning. bob is tracking irene's path. but we're going to start with adam may with the efforts to get customers back up. >> reporter: the main concern is power restoration. it is electricity, that is the focus right now here at mema. the priority rate now is to get electricity back on for hospitals and 911 centers, a handful of those across the state are running on generators and back up power at this time. then after that they are going to start focusing on commercial buildings and they're going to start focusing on residential. after that although they'll be doing residential clean up, they'll be getting help from fema getting the generators for people. that's going to start coming in

tomorrow. the lieutenant governor along with the head of m.e.m. a. they took a helicopter tour of the damage. >> we're having some teams with the generators to help us accomplish power in certain communities. that will be our focus for right now. we'll certainly be operational for a couple of days in recovery mode. we're still assessing. so we've done an aerial assessment. we had some more ground intelligence but we're not completing everything yet. so we're not going to say exactly where we know we are yet. >> we had that one fatality where an 81-year-old woman was crushed by a tree. a tree collapsed and that tree fell on top of a sun room she was sitting in. and the fact that so many marylanders decided to stay off the roads yesterday and stay at

home really helped possibly save a lot of lives. we're live at m.e.m.a., adam may. >> certainly there was a lot of bad news out there, but a lot of good news as well. right now bob turk is following the path of irene. bob. >> right now it's in new jersey. but all they're seeing is heavy rain. there's still tropical storm warnings for those folks because the winds are still about 50 miles per hour. let's go back to when the rain was really hitting the maryland area. as you can see, west of the area you can see just cuts off pretty much west of fredrick, not a whole lot of rain in

western maryland. but look at that heavy rain. i think the bullet area is eastern shore and southern maryland. take a look at some of these number that is we've compiled for you. lednardtown about 11-inches. ridge about 10.5. salisbury almost 8-inches. sparks 3.67-inches. and fredrick only 1.20. and bwi-marshall came in at 4.70-inches of rain. that is more than we get for

the entire month in baltimore for the region. >> thank you, bob. our live complete coverage continues. derek valcourt has a look at efforts to clean up downed trees. >> irene's winds really did topple thousands of treeless. trees. as those trees come crashing down they can do so much damage. the tree struck a chimney in queen annes county anne county causing it to fall into a sun room a woman was sitting. a tree crashed into another couple's bedroom. tonight they're lucky to be

alive. in pikesville, a tree narrowly missed a bedroom where carissa green slept with her fiance. >> we knew it was coming, we seen the tree coming at us. we had to jump out of our bed and we were like. oh my god the tree is going to hit us. but the wind blew the tree into the skylights. so we could have hit by that tree. >> that kind of story heard by a lot of folks around maryland. as those trees came crashing down not only on homes but on cars as well. we've seen dozensover images of trees on top of cars. only one fatality from trees down here in maryland. and the clean up is going to continue for days and days. >> thank you. all those down trees and high winds and hundreds of thousands

of marylanders still without power. we have megan mccorkel. >>480000 b.g.e. customers were still without power. 180,000 people already had power restored. b.g.i. brought reinforcement prior to today, they brought them from around the country and tonight they are assessing the damage. >> our focus is on a few things today. public safety facilities like water pumping stations and 911 centers making sure that they have the power that they need. then we're looking at down wires. and we have hundreds of reports of down wires. and we have to make sure they're all safe. now bge is still focusing on large blocks of power outages. those are big areas that are still in the dark. then they're going to focus on those individual scattered homes. they are warning people it

could take several days to get the lights back on denise. >> north carolina of course was the first hit from irene, the storm is now cleaning up. bulldozers are cleaning up the outer banks after a massive storm surge from irene. >> it's a devastating thing because you can't stop it when it's coming in. >> reporter: the kesslers decided not to evacuate. once they eye had past, they thought they were done. but then the water started coming. the flooding was literally feet high. and towns like these depend on

tourist dollars. and a holiday weekend they are working to get back to work. >> this boat is supposed to be by that orange building. >> irene dumped feet of water throughout the area. more than 2,000 people are now cut off from the mainland and crews will use ferries to bring them supplies. this entire clean up effort is under way while hundreds of thousands of people are still in the dark. crews are working to get power restored, and a lot of folks are pitching in to clean up irene's mess. karen brown, cbs news, manteo, north carolina. >> irene is blamed for at least five deaths in north carolina. several of the victims were killed when trees came crashing down. wjz now has the latest on the aftermath of hurricane irene. hundreds of thousands of people without power right now.

the biggest problems stemming from fallen trees. >> ocean city is back open once again. public transportation is experiencing some delays. but all bridges are back open. some schools are closed tomorrow. if you would like to see those closings, we have them posted for you on wjz. and for the latest and the impact on maryland, go to wjz.com and click on the special section on the top of our home page. and wjz's extensive coverage of irene continues after this. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

significant damage across maryland tonight following the wrath of hurricane irene. a tree came tumbling down crushing this house in baltimore, the house is condemned. after pounding maryland and the carolinas, her affects and aftermath are still being felt by millions along the entire east coast. >> reporter: ominous skies over new port, rhode island meant that irene left most of the east coast behind sets sights on new england.

sparing the city from a first case scenario. >> i think we took steps to prepare for whatever came our way. >> reporter: but falling trees and flooding were major concern in the city's borrows. and there was flooding further inland. governor christie say residents should stay off the roads while damage is assessed. >> i cannot urge people strongly enough. maybe i can, stay inside. please stay inside. >> further down the east coast philadelphia dealt with flood waters. here in the nation's capital, 200 trees were brought down by the storm including these at the national cathedral. along the chesapeake bay, these maryland residents were among many dealing with damage. >> this is pretty catastrophic but thank god everybody is okay. >> janet napolitano warns that

the dangers are far from over. >> hazards still persist in community that have already seen the storm pass. >> reporter: in washington, i'm karen caffa. despite the storm the new york stock exchange will open on time tomorrow morning. our weather conditions are improving tonight. >> a live look outside right now. the sun is shining but the impact of irene still is lingering. lingering. bob w[ male announcer ] looking for a complete picture of your money?

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mother nature puts things in balance. you have extremes and now you have this beautiful weather. it's all part of the scheme of the atmosphere. this is way mother nature can get rid of the heat that builds up in the tropics. that's why we have hurricanes. all that heat has to go some where and all that energy with the wind and rain. let's take a look at temps and conditions in the region. very pleasant, 82, 82 ocean city. only 68 in oakland. the dewpoints way down to 58. much drier, a lot drier air will continue to come in the area. that will dry things out a lot. 78 in bell air, 83 over in

annapolis. right now the winds west- northwest from eight to 13 miles per hour. so not a major factor. the winds gusts at 22 at b.w.i. marshal they had a wind gust of 57-miles-per-hour last night. and at cobb island they had a wind gust of 73 miles per hour. just two shy of hurricane force winds. ocean city did not report winds even that strong. generally in the 55 to 65-mile- per-hour range. even was even stronger at the bay. here in the northeast a few thundershowers in north dakota and a few showers out west. but that's about it. this is the main weather factor. it's moving up toward new england. up toward canada -- right now irene is moving up toward canada. still bringing rain.

high pressure moves in. beautiful night tonight. comfortable sleeping, next couple of days, light sunshine and comfortable weather. and jose, look where it's going. no way. no way jose. and if you don't have air- conditioning, open the windows. partly sunny, 84 on tuesday. 86 on wednesday, 86 thursday and perhaps a shower thursday night. 84 as we end the week dry it looks like. denise. >> thank you, bob. still ahead some other local news. the baltimore mayoral race heats up. >> what voters are saying about,

the wrath of irene. take a look at the aftermath.

18 deaths are being blamed on the storm. new poll from our media partner the baltimore sun finds that more than half of voters plan to place their vote for mayor stephanie rawlings-blake. an early morning fire rips through an apartment building killing an elderly woman inside. fire crews were called to straw hat road about 8:00 this morning. firefighters found the body of the 80-year-old woman. rebels are closing in on gadhafi and it appears he is getting desperate. today rebel leaders rejected offers from gadhafi. gadhafi wants one of his sons to lead the talks, a request

rebels cause delusional. gadhafi's hometown is his last major area of support. complete coverage of hurricane irene continues now with tony guida reporting for wjz from new york. it's going to be tough -- >> reporter: new york major michael bloomberg could have been talking for travelers up and down the east coast. >> i was supposed to be flying back to chicago tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. and that's cancelled. my next flight home is wednesday morning. >> reporter: irene hammered rail lines to penn station. half a million commuters will need another way to work tomorrow. >> i plan on biking to work tomorrow. >> i'm going to have to walk. >> reporter: 5 million people depend on new york subways every weekday. not tomorrow.

some lines are still underwater. new jersey commuters will see their rail lines to the city reopen tomorrow night. >> they're stuck and they don't tell you anything. >> reporter: limited service out of washington and charlotte. flights resuming around midday in philadelphia and boston. but new york's three airports will not open until monday afternoon earliest. amtrak is inspecting tracks which has been closed all weekend it still expects delayed service. the governors of pennsylvania and new jersey urge drivers to be careful. >> the real issue that we're going to have to deal with right now is flooding. this storm is transitioning into a flooding event. we're going to experience major flooding. >> tolls on many bridges and

roads were suspended, you might say the bargain was gone with the wind. >> here in maryland most public transportation will be running tomorrow, but you might want to leave some extra time for your commute. >> thanks for joining us for our special coverage of irene. i'm denise koch. >> and i'm vic carter. we'll have our regular programming this evening. we'll see you tonight at 11:,,,,