City that never sleeps in an anxious slumber

>> is here in new york. battery park , southern tip of lower manhattan , where a lot of new yorkers don't know if they should believe these projections of a storm surge coming up and over on the sidewalks and infiltrating city. ron?

>> hey there, brian . s you know this is a city that thrives on hustle and bustle. all it takes is a quick glance around tonight to see that the pace is decidedly different fofrpt a lot of folks that alone is cause for concern.

>> reporter: though not exact asleep, new york city is in an anxious slumber. fifth avenue window shopping shuttered. on broadway, the next show will not go on.

>> a train will be the last.

>> reporter: subway platforms deserted. grocery stores running off customers to bar their doors.

>> go, go.

>> just a little surprised and kind of bewildered. this is new york nothing ever closes.

>> reporter: as irene closes in on the nation's most populous city, residents and visitors scramble. a california businessman whose flight was canceled to a tennis pro here for the u.s. open holed up in a hotel room and off the court.

>> it's not a good thing. because you don't have possibilities of practice.

>> reporter: jacqueline andrews worries about thought glass in her 55th floor manhattan apartment.

>> if a window breaks at this high up it is quite possible it could have the suction effect and pull everything out too. if it gets that bad i'm just going to go sit in the stairwell.

>> reporter: flooding and not wind damage remains the primary concern of city officials especially in lower manhattan where the power will be pulled if water comes rushing in.

>> our concern is making sure that the only thing that comes out of this is inconvenience and maybe a little bit of property damage . we don't need people to die.

>> reporter: at noon, mayor bloomberg ordered the city's entire transit system halted the first system wide shutdown in its history the impact is staggering. a 24/7 operation. dozens of ferries thousands of buses 840 miles of rail out of service leaving half the city, 4 million new yorkers without cars essentially stranded. evacuation orders have forced 370,000 to find shelter elsewhere.

>> i thin tick k it will be pretty bad. nearly 1,000 flights grounded to day. this north carolina woman's cruise to canada is over but the saga to get back home as only just begun.

>> we are just going to have no choice. we have to stay here until monday morning. tickets out monday morning. hopefully we will still have jobs when we go back.

>> reporter: this part of the city is under a mandatory evacuation order tonight. brian . you can see the tide is rising high tide , 8:00 pment eastern. a lot of the folks have headed to friends and family for the night, others headed to shelters. we could see a long line to get into one shelter this afternoon. brian .