Nightly News   |  August 25, 2011

Massive storm projected to sweep through large cities

The Weather Channel’s Bryan Norcross, a veteran hurricane specialist, joins Brian Williams with more on Irene.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> with us now weather channel 's brian norcross. 1944 had a storm on the jersey shore , cut long beach island in two pieces, it rearranged the map, is that what we're talking about potentially here?

>> it's very possible. 1944 , a great atlantic hurricane was actually well offshore and this hurricane is forecast to be closer to the jers si shore. we have been looking at that 1944 hurricane , we have also been looking at an 1844 hurricane that ran right into new york city and caused tremendous flooding all around the fledgling city at the time.

>> is there any good model of the spaghetti noodle graphics, the hurricane projections you can cling on to for folks who need a little bit hope? is there anything that's going to come along and steer this thing out, perhaps something coming across the country?

>> we don't think that a significant probably hurricane of a lifetime event can be avoided, brian , but it didn't mean that every single spot is going to get that kind of a disaster. we can't pin down exactly where it's going to be, but the way the u.s. coast kind of juts out and the path the hurricane is on and every indication is that the atmosphere pattern is going to be when we get to the weekend, we don't see how a major, major significant hurricane event can be avoided.

>> i guess we'll end on that note, brian norcross, we'll be talking quite a bit