irma. on this issue of running out of money as the storm approaches, i heard the fema administrator speaking to you last hour, wolf. he says he will not let money get in the way of his operation reminds me a lot of hurricane irene. they were in a similar situation. they were forced to essentially operate with ious. >> all right. we'll stay on top of this story for all of our viewers. stay with cnn for continuing breaking coverage. erin burnett outfront starts right now. next, breaking news, hurricane irma, one of the strongest hurricanes in history now aiming straight for florida and two more hurricanes churning in the atlantic at this hour. would irma be just the second storm? plus president trump making a shocking deal with democrats, leaving his own party speechless. let's go out front. good evening. tonight the breaking news, deadly and historic hurricane irma tearing through the

caribbean, setting its sights directly on florida. one of the strongest forms ever to form in the atlantic. there is a dangerous storm surge, trees falling. power cut to thousands. also just coming into cnn we have brand-new video. this is just in from the caribbean island which has been completely without communications all day. take a look. devastation as far as the eye can see. the prime minister says upwards of 90% of the island that has within destroyed. nasa releasing brand-new images. it is incredible to look at this. this is stunning as you watch it scroll for just a moment. this is the eye, including the most damaging winds outside that eye. those winds right around the center there moving at an astonishing 185 miles an hour. when you see it like this, it's almost a beautiful and ser reen thing, but we want you to hear, to hear what it's like to be

caught in the middle of those powerful wind bands. that is saint martin. the interior minister there telling cnn that some of the strongest buildings in that island have been destroyed. just north of that location that you are looking at, cars flooded, boats tossed. three people have been killed so far. and as the storm tracks west towards florida and possibly miami, of course one of america's biggest cities, thousands are on the move. gas stations running dry. the governor of florida rick scott says tonight no one should ever estimate the danger of this category five monster. >> this is serious, and we cannot take chances. this is life threatening. i cannot stress this enough. get prepared. know your evacuation plan. listen to the local officials. this storm has the potential to

devastate our state and you have to take this seriously. >> tonight, state of emergencies have been issued of course for florida. you heard governor scott but also georgia and north and south carolina. there is so much uncertainty about the strike. tom is out front live in the weather center tonight. i want to begin first with you, laila in puerto rico. the storm about to come where you are. what is the situation where you are? >> erin, as you can tell, it's becoming different in some areas so just stand because those winds are picking up so heavy, are becoming so heavy here on the northern part of the island. behind me you can actually tell the palm trees are waving. the water is certainty coming in and becoming a bit more aggressive, giving how close hurricane irma is. i just got off the phone with emergency management officials.

they tell me they have had to carry out one rescue thus far this evening. no major injuries. so that is the good news. but now they are in a wait and see what's next type of situation. this is the governor has said expected to be a catastrophic form -- excuse me, a catastrophic hurricane of a magnitude they have never experienced on this island. remember, we are in hurricane season, so they are used to, as much as one can be, these type of situations. but not of this strength. power outages are already coming across the island as well. people dealing with that and no word on when that will be restored, given the economic crisis on this island right now. the power system itself could be out for not just days but we're talking about weeks and months. so the fear that we are seen in the last 24 hours as we talk to people who said this is now in

god's hand, the people who called this a beast of a storm is now playing out here in puerto rico as these winds pick up, trees come down, power goes out and emergency officials begin rescue operations. erin. >> thank you very much. as the storm approaches where you are, please stay safe. we will be checking back in with you as the storm approaches this hour. i want in the meantime to go to our meteorologist in the weather center. tom, obviously, you can hear the wind and rain. what is the lather you a elates seeing? >> conditions are going to continue to deteriorate in puerto rico. they're not looking at a major land fall. but this is the second strongest hurricane we have ever had in the atlantic, only by 5 miles an hour in 1980. but this has surpassed allen in another devastating category. allen didn't churn for 30

straight hours with winds over 180. this is the strongest that has ever made land fall in the islands and it is lev stadevast island after island. notice the eye still. this is where the strongest winds are. but you will notice a secondary eye in yellow here. we may be going through a reorganization process. but one thing we know for sure, that secondary eye, that's heavy rain fall. again, devastation in its wake. but let's look forward right now. warnings now for turks and caicos. the northern island of purr ter rico maybe six, six and a half. the track from the national hurricane center changed a little bit from last night to this morning. this afternoon's run pretty much like this morning but it shifts everything east ward about 60 to 70 miles.

still leaves that cone of uncertainty into the gulf of mexico and well offshore to the east. again, when you look at this, i want everyone to understand, this does not mean you are going to get hit with a category four. get yourself prepared because this still can happen. we've got several days. but the models have been in agreement. maybe no longer will we have interaction with land in cuba. that would help cuba out tremendously if it did not reach their mountains and squeeze out torrents of rain fall. but it will sustain its strength now moving into monroe or miami dade. these are models and some are trending off the coastline, which is a lot like hurricane matthew last year that devastated this area and moved on to the carolinas. there are many islands right now that are uninhabitable. >> let's try to get an understanding when you talk about the damage. can you show us, tom, you know, where the hurricane has hit so far? what has actually happened thus

far as it started to go island after island? >> last night we figured this eye, 23 miles in diameter. majority of the buildings totally destroyed or partially destroyed. and then with go on to around saint martin. there is a french section. the french foreign minister is saying the four largest buildings in saint martin have been completely destroyed. the majority of their buildings are either totally destroyed or partially. we have had very little communication with these islands, so that is a concern. communications, power are out. the british virgin islands took a hit to the north. there has been flooding in saint croix. we will continue to keep our eyes on puerto rico tonight as the winds pick up in intensity.

then we will follow it through to the southeastern u.s. >> thank you very much. everyone hoping for that outcome where it skirts the u.s. coast, does not have that direct hit. but we just don't know. you just heard what tom said. all eyes on puerto rico right now. 3.4 million people right now are in the path of that storm in puerto rico. i'm joined by the governor of puerto rico. governor, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. i know that all eyes are on you and puerto rico. right now the storm about 50 miles from where you are. what is the situation right now? >> well, thank you and thank you for the opportunity. you know, we've been preparing mightily for this storm for the past week. we have activated protocols and been designing for the past couple of months. we have been moving people into shelters and activated 460 shelters around the island and our message was simple, let's

put people out of harm's way and make sure our families are secure because the winds that we are experiencing right now are like nothing we have experienced before. they are very severe. you know, it is getting -- they are getting harsher right now in san juan and we have already seen some of the damage. not even the part that's connected to the center of the storm has hit in the northern east part of the island. so our main focus right now is to make sure people are safe. but we're seeing strong gusts of winds and they expect to get a little more intense. >> and we look at the models. obviously we see those winds outside the eye at 185 miles an hour which they have been churning at for more than 30 hours. and then you see that second band with strong winds that could strike you in puerto rico. we saw the images. 90% of their structures are

gone. are you expecting massive loss of buildings? are you prepared for that? >> well, puerto rico has many of its structures have been designed in hard concrete. we expect some of them to withstand. but of course there are some lower level infrastructures that we expect to lose. that's why we make such a big effort to mobilize people into safe, hard concrete structures, so that they could be safe. so but there is no telling right now what the -- what it would look like. i can tell you from our per view, from the center of operations that we have over here in san juan, there is a pretty significant damage already done and we have been getting -- we have been connected to the social media and so forth. so we expect a lot of damage. perhaps not as much as was seen

there. they essentially got a very heavy winds. we're getting wind gusts up to 100 and 110 miles an hour. but certainly some destruction and as i stated all along, erin, you know, infrastructure, we'll work on that after the storm goes by, but right now our focus is to keep people safe. >> you have got the crisis of the form and the bigger crisis you face in puerto rico right now. governor, thank you so much for your time. we are all thinking of you tonight. there is also a state of emergency in florida. residents lining up to get out of irm a's way. we are in miami. and we heard the governor. he is not mincing words. >> and they are certainly hearing him loud and clear here, erin. what they are doing is trying to take care of the essentials like gas. i am at a corner with three gas stations. the one over here is completely out of gas. the one across the street as we

were talking here just ran out of gas. i had to take all their numbers down. and the one over there, the marathon, half their pumps are dry. they are the only gas station in this corner that is still able to give gas to people. people here bracing for this hurricane. >> irm a's force already slamming the korecar r caribbea. how much is harvey hanging over everything that's happening to you today? >> i think because we all just saw the images of devastation and loss and heart break and assistance people were giving each other, people are really taking this seriously. >> florida counties and state government taking the barrel of the category five hurricane seriously. mandatory evacuations began out of monroe county.

the big concern with irma, the storm surge. >> so these are pretty much state-of-the-art flood panels. >> you are expecting a five foot storm surge. >> potentially, yeah. >> what is already bad, trying to get the basics. some gas stations already out of fuel. this one told us they don't know when they will be able to get more. trying to get bottled water. this sight greeting shoppering. >> no water up there at all. no home depot. cvs had no water. walgreens had none at all. >> catherine finally got some water after seeing people fight over it in other stores. here's what she heard. >> make sure you get some. but i'm not giving out my water. people were asking to buy from him. >> people are fighting for water? >> yeah, for water.

>> and what you're looking at is the line of cars pulling up and getting bad news as they wait. you know, we have talked to some of the people here that waited an hour to try to get gas. and this gas station is just out. trying to get those to sensuaes is what it is about. >> people need that gasoline in order to follow the rules and the requests to evacuate. more breaking news coverage next. people are fleeing irm a's path. one hurricane hunter is flying into it and he is our guest. two more hurricanes behind irma. you can see them. are they headed for the u.s.? and more breaking news, president trump stuns republicans with a major deal, siding with democrats. celebrating with a senator he's called a crying clown and ads purchased on facebook during the election linked to russia.

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one of the strongest storms in history. my next guest made several flights into irma. outfront now is hurricane hunter commander. i appreciate your taking the time. i know you literately just went from barbados into florida. what is it like flying into this storm? >> it is a very powerful storm and i'd say it's -- i've flown in a category five before and this is my eighth hurricane season. this is by far the strongest most turbulent storm that i have ever been in. >> it is incredible when you say you have done eight years and that this is by far the strongest. we're looking at video right now commander that your crew filmed in the storm as you were going through the clouds. and right above them, i mean, it does. it is that beautiful silent

serene picture. and then you go inside and it is that chaos and destruction. the devastation as you can see off your wing there, what is it like inside that storm? >> it is -- as you mentioned, it can be very violent. a lot of up drafts and downdrafts. the crews are well-trained and you put the aircraft in a safe position where it won't damage the plane but we're still able to get it off the plane for the public. it can be a very chaotic environment. but we fly it safely and efficiently. so it can be hair raising to say the least. >> when you say this is by far the worst you have ever seen, what is it that makes this one so different than all the other category fives you have experienced? >> i think our last flight, which was tuesday morning, it was just a -- it went from a cat

four and a cat five while we were in there and just the amount of rain that we saw, the amount of turbulence that we saw in not only the eye wall but on the outer bands, you know, 60 to 70 miles away from the eye, it was just a lot of bouncing around and a tremendous amount of rain and wind. >> when you talk about 60 to 70 miles out from the eye, i think that giving everyone a sense. but you mentioned you are trying to gather data. you are not going in here on a lark. you are going in here to get information that could save lives and more. this is some of the equipment you are using when you are up there. what are you gathering from this storm? >> so the biggest things we're looking at are the exact location of that eye, that center. that very much helps with the track forecast and we're going through -- we drop things that come out of the bottom of our plane that are measuring temperature pressure and wind

speed all throughout the storm and then we have a whole suit of radars that help us basically take a cat scan of the hurricane itself and all that data gets put out by the national hurricane center and really helps us nail down that track and that intensity forecast. >> thank you. i appreciate your taking the time. >> no problem. absolutely. >> and pretty stunning what he said, that he had never seen anything like that in terms of eye wall. 60 to 70 miles out from the center of that storm. that storm of course bearing right now for florida and i want to go now to the mayor of key west. and your governor, governor of florida just said this is a life threatening storm. you just heard the commander saying he's been flying for eight years into hurricanes. he has never seen one like this. what do you expect? >> well, i totally agree.

fourth generation here in key west and we have never seen anything like this either. we're watching very closely. i see the damage it's done due to caribbean on its way towards florida and we're depending on it turning up within 100 miles of us and he was saying how the storm is so powerful 60 miles from the center. so we're worried but we're preparing for it absolutely. >> i know there are mandatory evacuations. are you confident everyone is following your order, that they get it? >> yes, more than ever. they are been following the order. the town is almost empty. all of the tourists are out of town. but our issue is we also are evacuating closer to where the storm could possibly go, so

we're trying to decide if we want to continue the rest of the evacuation when the hurricane could hit in miami and that's where our shelter is. >> i guess the big question for you in terms of getting everybody out, they could ply if they could. do you have all the resources that you need right now to make sure everything gets out and gets out to some where safe? >> the airport will stay open until tomorrow evening, but a lot of cars are driven out. although we're basically out of fuel down here because the rest of south florida is using so much fuel. they are delivering as fast as they can but a maximum amount of fuel is being used and also we are going to run our busses starting tomorrow. 14 of our busses will be going to our shelter. but we also have concern of sending residents to our shelter where they can't leave from there if the storm comes to miami. those are things that we're dealing with and we're trying to make the right decision for our

residents. >> mayor, i appreciate your time. we wish you luck and thank you again, sir. >> thank you very much. >> outfront next, more of our breaking hurricane coverage. take a look at this. a commercial plane from san juan to new york right in the middle of those bands. we're going to hear from a couple holed up in puerto rico. and irma not alone. jose and katia turning this hour. and the president makes a shocking deal wiand his own administration reeling tonight. look no further than chevrolet. this is a fast car. i feel like i left my soul back there. wow. this has power! head to the chevy labor day sales event and ride out the summer in a new chevrolet. now use labor day bonus cash to get four-thousand dollars total cash allowance

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breaking news, we're watching the massive deadly hurricane this hour. irma right now heading, it appears, for the coast of florida. it is already devastating island after island in the caribbean. we're going to keep you updated throughout the hour. our other story breaking right now, though, the president blind siding, well, republicans. that's how republican officials are describing how mitch mcconnell and paul ryan felt after the president sided with democrats on a major deal. take a look at this picture. it says it all. to the oval office window you see the president mid hug with chuck sum chumeschumer. the photo was taken in a meeting this afternoon where the president cut a deal with schumer and nancy pelosi to a

three-month extension of the debt ceiling in exchange $8 billion in relief for hurricane harvey. this was not the deal republican leaders wanted. an hour earlier from that picture, paul ryan called the deal ridiculous. sara murray is out front. sara, this was fascinating, unexpected by the president. it was a back stab, a slap in the face. it took republicans by surprise. >> it did, erin. we saw a president who is not ideological generally reach across the aisle and it blind sided mitch mcconnell and paul ryan, members of his own party. sources tell cnn they were shell shocked by the president's decision to do this, to go along with what democrats put on the table, rather than what republicans were hoping to get out of this. the president went into this room in deal cutting mode and obviously he has made clear that he is very frustrated with republicans in leadership positions. he made that even clearer today.

>> and by the way, ivanka trump, everybody loves ivanka. can we bring ivanka up? come on. >> and this is yet another vignette in the president's day-to-day. we also heard that ivanka trump caused visible annoyance among some gop leaders. clearly the president went out of way to lavish praise on his daughter and a spokes american for paul ryan's office says it's not true that leaders were annoyed. >> thank you very much, sara. let's to go gloria borger, rick san tor yeah. oh, a picture can say so many words. the clown, crying chuck schumer. the president has called him twice on twitter and here they

are in the midst of a loving hug. >> i'm kind of wondering if you extended the lens of that what the faces of the republicans would look like because they were not so thrilled as chuck schumer. they believe that chuck schumer was bluffing the president and that of course the democrats could have gone for a debt ceiling behind three months. they believe the president threw them under the bus, to say the very least, because they didn't want to vote on the debt ceiling again. it is a politically toxic vote. they didn't want to vote on raising the debt ceiling again in december. they wanted to get it out of the way. his own treasury secretary had suggested that they ought to have a longer deadline on this, and the president paid absolutely no attention to him. so what we saw today clearly was a president who wanted to cut a deal, period. he wanted to cut a deal. he wanted to win something.

he had been to texas and was clearly affected by that and what's going on in florida and he was kind of sick of it and he feels like he owes the republican leadership absolutely nothing. >> right. >> he spent much of his summer dissing mitch mcconnell. >> when you look at mitch mcconnell, they haven't met for a month. the first time they met in a month was yesterday. no love lost between the president and the majority leader, who opposed this deal, along with speaker paul ryan. and in fact just an hour before that picture, before this deal that slammed them in the face or stabbed them in the back, i can't determine the better word to use, paul ryan slammed the plan before the president signed it. here he is. >> i think that's a ridiculous and disgraceful they want to play politics with the debt ceiling at this moment when we have fellow citizens in need to respond to these hurricanes so we do not strand them. >> ridiculous and disgraceful

and the president goes and cuts a deal with the people they just called that. will they get revenge on the president and make him pay for this? >> i don't know if they will get revenge on the president. i think the president is frustrated. i think he wanted a win and he doesn't hold the leaders at this point in time in very high steam because they haven't been able to deliver on the things they promised they could deliver on. i am surprised the democrats didn't do more of this. he's a transactional guy. if he can get votes to get something done, he'll do them and, so, i think it is a shot across the bow to republicans. you have so start putting together winning messages and votes if you are going to get this president to support what you are doing. so i think up next, you know, you have a tax bill, health care on the table. there is still opportunity for republicans to get out of september with a win.

but i think this is a message to the president. you don't start putting things together and getting your votes together, there is another way for me to get things done. >> on those issues the senator is talking about, certainly he's not going to get chuck schumer on board of his tax reform plan. but is this a possible alliance he could use against the gop? >> i wouldn't hold by breath this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. i think as gloria eluded to, he wanted a deal, he got a deal. however, i do think it means that what democrats got here is another chance to add something to a must-have bill in december. that's something that trump and the republicans are going to have to plan. i don't think it is the beginning of deal making. i do think on tax reform, democrats are for tax reform, too. everybody is for tax reform. the problem right now is we have no idea what the deal is and what the details are. once we know more about the details, people are hate some

things, like some things. >> but he handed the democrats leverage, which is -- he handed them leverage in december because he knows he will need democrats votes to pass the debt ceiling in december. so the democrats again, you know, have some power that they didn't have before. >> and i guess we'll see who wins but generally speaking you never give up leverage if you have it. ivanka trump, can we pause here for a moment. you heard sara murray saying some of them were visibly annoyed. then this afternoon the president brought her on stage at his speech on tax reform. let me just play a little bit of this. >> everybody loves ivanka. come on. should i bring ivanka up? come on. sometimes they'll say he can't be that bad a guy. look at ivanka. come on up, honey. she wanted to make the trip. she said, dad, can i go with

you. she actually said, daddy, can i go with you? i said, yes, you can. >> okay. putting aside the strangeness of a 35-year-old asking her daddy if she could go with her daddy anywhere, what is her presence at these events accomplishing? >> i was at an event with ivanka trump this morning, which is a conservative group. she spoke in front of a group, along with senator mike lee and me. she was there to talk about how we need to do more pro family type of tax reforms. it should be focussed on the little small businesses called the american family. so and she was by the way very warmly received and i think it went over very well. look, i think there is a little typecasting going on here with ivanka. but i can tell you on the things she's working on with respect to family leave and respect to the tax credits for families, there is a warming to her message and

to the message, you know, from a lot of conservatives. >> i will say, senator, with all do respect, it is her father who is typecasting her. he is talking about honey and daddy. >> i mean, he's talking about his daughter. i guess you could say. i give a little liberalization when you talk about my daughter. i call my 21-year-old -- excuse me, 20-year-old daughter sweetie-o. so he could get away with that, even at 30, i hope. >> look, i think there are elements to a dad-daughter relationship, that's for sure. that would have been embarrassing if my dad did that to me, no doubt. but i think the difficulty here is the awkwardness of trying to be daughter and first daughter and be a surrogate, which is entirely appropriate while also being an advisor. it is which are you. it is difficult to be both. there is a reason we haven't had

family dynasties rule in democracies and i think we're seeing the awkward ness play ou here. >> next, coverage of hurricane irma heading for florida and two more powerful hurricanes now as you see in the mix. tom going to talk about those, where they are headed. and more than three million p r puerto ricans bracing for irma at this hour. we will talk to a couple riding it out tonight. ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. keeping the world of business connected and protected. that's the power of and. been trying to prepare for this day...

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breaking news on the historic threat of hurricane irma. the deadly storm churning through the caribbean. winds topping 185 miles an hour now for more than 30 hours. miami dade county issuing a mandatory evacuation for all mobile homes and a number of communities along the coast. just to show you, that's the strength here. already doing that and days away from it happening or knowing if they are getting a direct hit. right now we are getting new pictures in from saint martin. take a look at this, the before and after. they are just starting to assess the damage. these are pictures of a marina before and now destroyed buildings, boats destroyed by the category five winds. we check in with you again, tom, as these forecasts continue to move. you are looking at hurricane irma and two other hurricanes

right now. >> and then there were three. hard to believe. we knew jose was going to become a hurricane. we saw it following irma for some time and we saw, okay, this will become a hurricane. but this was a little bit of a shocker. a cluster of storms developed to a tropical tomorrow this morning and by 5:00 it was a hurricane. three hurricanes, three is a crowd. but take a look. we have a cold front dropping through. it is too bad this front was not moving through this area come friday or saturday because that would really help push irma away from the u.s. but timing is everything. it will help katia stay down south. those of you in texas, louisiana, it is not going to affect you. let's talk about jose. we knew it was going to follow suit. we had an idea it was going to slide into the open atlantic. but looking at the rain pattern from irma, that's even southern

florida, you can see the rain track for jose. it does slide off kind of follows irma and moves to the north. but it gets dangerously close to the northern islands and it could be a major hurricane at that point. what we have going on right now are conditioning deteriorating in puerto rico. erin, this storm, again, continues to make its way toward the tirks and caicos. you have all seen the track. the new track comes out 11:00 tonight. >> we'll be watching for that in the hoping it inches off that coast. tom, thank you very much. facebook admitting to congress it sold ads, political adds during the presidential election to a so-called russian troll farm that was trying to target, trying to influence the election in american voters as congress continues to probe interference in the election. facebook has been facing heavy

criticism for being a platform for fake news and the company said 99% of the information on their site was true. they said only a small amount was fake. now we're learning at least $100,000 of ads were sold. others talking about issues like guns and immigration. >> the top democrat on the intelligence committee, which of course is conducting a major investigation into the election, senator mark warner. thank you for your time tonight. i know you say this facebook news is important to your investigation. why? what does it tell you? >> for months i have been wondering facebook, twitter, how much were they used by some of the russian trolls? we have asked these questions. we got a preliminary answer today. i think maybe we saw the tip of the iceberg where facebook acknowledged that they found about $100,000 of russian placed ads and a number of pages that

they will subsequently in groups that they will take down. i think that's a good first step, but it really pails in comparison that facebook took down 50,000 accounts before the french election that had misinformation and disinformation. i think facebook is learning along the way. i think it really raises a series of questions, though, about a number of social media firms and we have to talk to twitter as well about making clearer about public disclosure. i think the public needs to know what kind of misinformation and disinformation might be appearing on their facebook news feed or twitter. >> and you think this is the tip of the iceberg. do you think facebook could be finding more money from russian trolls? >> this was a staff interview today. i have a lot more questions to ask. i believe this was a fairly narrow focus. they discovered one of these internet troll farms that was based in st. pete er rspetersbe.

there is reports that there are more. as you broaden the scope of this inquiry, you might find for evidence. i am happy facebook came in. i've got more questions for them and twitter and this is an area that will require a lot more examination. >> the president's oldest son is preparing to testify on capitol hill tomorrow about the meeting with the russian lawyer who promised him dirt on hillary clinton. i know you are also going to be speaking with him. is he right now central, crucial to this investigation as you see it, senator? >> well, i want to make sure that we get a chance to talk to everyone else who was in that meeting. we have talked to mr. manafort, but there are a number of other individuals we want to talk to. i'd like to get their sides of the story first before we get a chance to talk to donald trump jr. but obviously me, as a member and i know other members of the committee from both sides of the

aisle we're going to want to talk to him >> we're getting a look at hillary clinton's new book, senator. she talks about why she thinks she lost the election and blames herself but has plenty of blame for others, including the president. in her new book, clinton writes, and i quote her, what makes me such a lightning rod for fury? i'm really asking. i'm at a loss. i think it's partly because i'm a woman. do you, senator, think it's partly because she's a woman? >> erin, i've not read the book. i hope to read it at some point in the future. i'm a lot more about how we move forward as democrats that can try to take back some of the folks that were clearly disaffected in 2016. a lot of folks who hillary won, virginia, i'm proud of that. but there were wide swaths of rural virginia that didn't support her this past election. i would hike to find messages that reach out to them to make

sure that they can support democrats in the future. >> senator warren, thank you for your time. i appreciate it tonight. >> thank you, erin. and next, more our breaking news, hurricane irma. we'll go live to puerto rico and talk to a coup that will is rle it out. iness so well that is feels like he's a part of our team. with one phone call, he sets me up with tailored products and services. and when my advisor is focused on my tech, i can focus on my small business. ♪ a dell advisor can help you choose the right products with powerful intel® core™ processors. ♪ welcomhi!how's it going? hi! okay, so you've got two friends here. yes. this is the j.d. power award for dependability. now, i want you to give it to the friend that you think is most dependable.

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back now to our breaking

news. hurricane irma is now striking puerto rico, about 50 miles off the coast of the u.s. territory. about 3.5 million people right now facing dangerous rain and storms. the governor of puerto rico telling me that, in his words, this is like nothing we have experienced before. 400 shelters have been activated in puerto rico. rich howell is in san juan. the governor said there's significant damage. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: right now, what we have seen is power outages. we know that is a big problem. this island is quite vulnerable to power outages. we've seen many strong storms come through. but this is a category 4 storm, so there's a question about how long it will take to restore pow tore this island. another concern, erin, storm surge. that can be from two to three feet. and later storm swell, the swell from the ocean, 25 to 30 feet high.

so that's two to three stories high of water that could come rushing in on any part thof island. wind gusts come and go. winds so strong they can knock you right back. this situation that we're showing you here in puerto rico, if you take anything from it, here's the thing. this is a historic storm. if you're in the path of this storm, and i say this with the greatest of sincerity. take shelter, prepare. this is not one of those storms you want to ride out. i have covered several of these, and i've never experienced the wind gusts quite as strong. >> thank you very much, george howell. so significant what george is saying, because this is about 50 miles off the coast. when you talk about that double eye, it gets even stronger and stronger as these hits continue and you are seeing such damaging winds never seen before in history. i want to go to my next guest that owns a local bar in puerto

rico. dennis, let me just start by asking where are you, how are you doing? >> well, we're doing okay. we're starting to get a lot of wind, rain bands moving in every so auvenl. but we ended up moving out of our home and moving down to where our business is. we have some cabins, and we're in a more secure area here out of the wind. >> obviously, that is so crucial that you're safe. they're talking about a storm surge that could be two or three stories and so dangerous. are you prepared for that, dennis? i know you're with your wife, are you prepared and safe? >> well, we're not as prepared as we could be, but i feel pretty safe where we're at. we're not really in an area prone to flooding. but most of the restaurant is in a low lying area. right now it's dark here, so

it's really -- we won't know the extent of the damage until the morning. >> and i know you are not a newcomer here. you have a business there, you have vacation rentals. you've lived inpuerto rico since 1980. you have seen a lot of storms. the governor told me earlier he's never seen anything like this one. have you? how is irma different? >> well, like i said, it's dark right now, so we can't tell what's going to happen. but this is by far the worst thing that's hit puerto rico since hurricane george back in '98, i think. and i have some friends on the south side of the island that said they were having winds over 100 miles per hour, uprooting trees. they haven't had power all day. so yeah, puerto rico is getting hit really hard right now. >> dennis, are you worried about what comes next? obviously there's an economic crisis on your island.

there's been a lot of issues for power. power could not come back for a long time. are you ready for something like that? >> well, actually, we are kind of ready. we have a backup water and power supply for our restaurant and bar and our business. i think that's probably where we'll be living for a few weeks or a few months if this doesn't get sorted out. but we're just hoping for the best. at this point, we can't tell what's going on except the wind seems to be picking up every minute, it's stronger and stronger. and we're supposed to really start getting the full force around midnight. >> dennis, good luck. i know you said you've dwogone a place that is safe.

please stay that way. you heard him say he's never heard anything like this. the full brunt expected to hit around midnight. but you heard him say, on the south side, friends reporting winds of 100 miles per hour, and that storm is still about 50 miles off the coast of puerto rico. our breaking news coverage continues now with "ac 360." good evening. people tonight are finding out what a strong category 5 hurricane, the strongest ever recorded over the atlantic and growing even stronger, can do. millions more either on the move or hunkering down because of what it might do to them. the images already speak to how destructive hurricane irma is, and so does the sound. just listen. [ wind howling ] >> that image is from st. martin, the island got hammered. so did nearby st. bart's. officials reporting two fatalities so