Nightly News   |  August 28, 2011

New England didn’t escape Irene, flooding

Flooding is already happening across New England towns, and the water promises to persist. NBC's Brian Williams talks to NBC's Ron Allen in New Bedford, Mass.

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

>> by water. the storm moving on up through new england . wild conditions for a time on the cape. nbc's ron allen in new bedford, mass, tonight. ron, what's it like?

>> reporter: well, brian, it's still a bit blustery up here. we're expecting wind gusts up to about 50 miles per hour into the evening. we've been monitoring this harbor all day. one of the safest on the east coast . those commercial fishing boats back there have been rock solid all day. but if you look over here, you can see a couple of sailboats tucked against that tug boat . they shouldn't be there. earlier today they were out in the harbor loose from their moorings, floating around, bobbing around. the coast guard , a number of other dockworkers had to go out there and rescue the boats, bring them in and tie them down. the last thing you want out in this harbor where these boats have come for safety are sailboats bouncing around like it's a pinball machine . some of the most interesting pictures, however, come from even farther north up in vermont . bratle borough, vermont . these scenes of a river running through the heart of downtown bratleborough, vermont . certainly not the kind of place you think of where hurricanes are going to have a big effect. that's how big and bad this storm was today. just torrents of muddy water rushing into the center of town. all that water is rushing into the connecticut river . which runs through new hampshire, massachusetts, where we are. all that water is coming this way and into the flooding problem that's happening up and down the east coast and certainly here in new england . brian?

>> all right, ron, you're right. i think the story now becomes new england . it's a matter of getting our camera crews, getting people in there and then conveying the pictures of just how bad it is there. ron allen in new bedford, mass.