. thank you. >> brown: from north carolina to new england today, much of the east coast faced a weekend assault by hurricane irene. up to 65 million americans were in its path, and even though top winds dropped to 100 miles an hour, officials warned the storm could be one of the most damaging in decades. the warnings came from the very top, with president obama saying irene could be "a historic hurricane." >> i cannot stress this highly enough-- if you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now. don't wait, don't delay. we all hope for best, but we have to be prepared for the worst. >> brown: images from space showed the big storm churning north at a relatively slow 14 miles an hour. the eye was expected to strike along the outer banks of north carolina by early saturday morning. from there, it could skirt east of washington, before crossing near philadelphia, and blowing through new jersey and new york city late saturday night and into sunday morning. for north carolinians, the threat intensified through the day as winds began to build. thousands of p

caribbean: the eastern seaboard of the u.s., especially the north carolina coast, where people were already stocking up on emergency supplies. >> last time, we had an outage, the tornado, we had no radio. so we thought now's the time to make sure we do. >> brown: along with year-round residents, large numbers of late-summer visitors from around the country were at the carolina beaches this week. some were forced to leave by ferry from ocracoke, after a mandatory evacuation was ordered for everyone on the tiny barrier island along the outer banks. >> well, it's a low lying island, and if it's a bad storm that hits directly it won't take much of an elevation of sea level to create a lot of havoc. there aren't many high spots on ocracoke island. >> brown: north carolina governor bev perdue warned people not to take irene lightly. >> we know she, hurricane irene, is a big storm. 115 m.p.h. winds is a big wind. get your evac kit ready, get your meds ready, take insurance docs and have plan to get out if you have to. treat this seriously. but then pray real hard that north carolina will b

after hurricane irene, assessing the trail of devastation from north carolina to new england with the worst flooding in vermont and upstate new york. good evening, i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight, we get the latest on the death toll, the damage and the power outages and we talk to homeland security secretary janet napolitano about the federal response to the storm. >> it's been very costly. there have been questions raised about the amount of monies that we have available now that irene has hit. let me just assure your viewers that the survivors' needs will be met. they are our number one priority. >> ifill: then margaret warner gets an update the conflict in libya from simon denyer of the "washington post" as rebels advance toward moammar qaddafi's hometown. >> brown: we debate a proposed oil pipeline that would carry crude 1,700 miles from alberta, canada to the gulf coast in texas. >> ifill: betty anne bowser reports on prescription drugs in short supply forcing tough choices for patients and doctors. >> it really cripples our ability to t

south carolina grew, as new forecast tracks showed irene wobbling back to the west. north carolina governor bev perdue warned more than 200- thousand people to head for higher ground, with four coastal counties ordering mandatory evacuations. >> we're asking people all over eastern north carolina and our coastal regions to take this storm very seriously and to begin to implement their plans. >> holman: as always, some people decided to stay put, despite the warnings. >> we got chased off last year by the storm and it amounted to nothing so we're not going to go anywhere this year. >> holman: up the coast, u.s. navy ships at norfolk, virginia headed out to sea to ride out the storm in calmer waters. and new york city mayor michael bloomberg said he may order evacuations in >> if the worst scenario is going to happen this weekend, we will activate other elements of our coastal storm plan, including the possibility of evacuating new yorkers who live in low-lying areas that could be affected by the storm surges. >> holman: but much of that was contingent on where the storm ultimately tracks. so

, and in the south, down through north carolina and into georgia. in washington, the pentagon was evacuated for a time, as was the state department. office workerflooded downtown streets >> when the floor started to shake, i couldn't stand. my friend turned around and said, "i haven't been drinking." >> sreenivasan: and in this age of terrorism, many initially thought the hand of man, not mother nature, was at work. >> it started shaking violently. everyone stood up. we thought maybe a terrorist thing. >> i didn't make the connection, between 9/11 being a few weeks away, but my first thought was a terror attack. my building shook too violently for it to be anything normal. >> i was in my office and i thought it was terrorist attack, and so i was pretty scared. >> sreenivasan: and even with congress on recess, thousands of staffers still at work fled buildings on capitol hill. >> firstyou heard the shaking and the stuff moving, and then you felt the ground move a little bit. but then, everything just shifted all of a sudden, you heard people screaming, just "get out, get out, get o

in the dark, from new england on down to north carolina. and, as the states continued to tally the damage from irene, president obama declared major disasters in new york and north carolina. he also planned to visit paterson, new jersey on sunday, to view the damage there. >> ifill: still to come on the "newshour": topping the merger of two wireless giants; celebrating in libya at the end of ramadan; feeling the heat in texas; growing illegal marijuana in california and assessing national security after 9/11. but first, with the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: president obama now plans to lay out his jobs plan next wednesday night in a prime-time speech. an announcement today said he is asking to address a joint session of congress at 8:00 p.m. it would overlap a republican presidential candidates' debate the same evening. but white house spokesman jay carney said today that is not why the president chose the time slot. >> once you decide you want to do a speech to congress and you have to deal with congressional schedules and other... there are othe

, but that was down from nearly 7.5 million at the height of the storm. and in north carolina, where irene first made landfall in the u.s., some 1,000 people were still in emergency shelters. the homeland security secretary, janet napolitano, visited today, promising help. >> we're going to take care of immediate needs of all states and communities affected by irene, and we're going to be leaving or having in all the affected states, fema coordinators to facilitate movement of disaster movement of disaster declarations, damage assessments. >> suarez: for now, early estimates put the storm's damages between $7 billion and $10 billion, far smaller than the $100 billion caused by hurricane katrina. >> ifill: for more on the situation in vermont, i spoke with senator patrick leahy, a democrat, earlier today. he joined me from burlington. senator leahy, thank you for joining us. >> good to be with you, thank you. >> ifill: you were able to tour your sat today. what did you see? >> i've seen since the flooding i've seen a great deal of the state. yesterday i went with the governor by helic