Nightly News   |  August 27, 2011

Irene’s rain, winds tour nation’s capital

High winds and intense rain has been falling for hours in and around Washington, D.C., forcing residents to hunker down and brace for the worst. NBC’s Luke Russert reports.

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>>> we're back. our continuing coverage of hurricane irene and there is the location of the storm right now. 60 million-plus americans affected by this. by the time it is all over. largely because of the metro areas and the fact that it is hitting right in the middle of vacation season. think of the big cities including but not limited to washington , philadelphia, new york, boston. part of washington , d.c. , a beautiful part of washington , d.c. , low-lying, near the water, alexandria , virginia . luke russert is there for us tonight. luke, what is it like there?

>> well, brian , right outside our nation's capital, irene is making herself herd. high winds , torrential rain, pouring for the last nine hours. residents are hunkered down, braced for the worse. told to expect to lose power later tonight as well as possibly flooding in the central part of alexandria , virginia . the commonwealth of virginia and district of columbia are in state of emergency . the national guard told to stand at the ready in case local officials need their help. that is the situation here. and the real ush to, brian is the water. as you mentioned, the low-lying areas around the potomac river , storm surge from the chesapeake bay , feeding the river, high tide said to come at 8:00 p.m . tonight. we spoke to the mayor, he said it is a real possibility three blocks from this pier there could be flooding. similar flooding possible in low lying areas of washington , d.c. so, the main gist here, alexandria , v.a., washington is water, water, water, brian . a lot of folks are fearing isabelle in 2003 and could have flooding here for a couple days.

>> luke russert , whatever you are on, i trust you to know to get off it when the winds increase too