hurricane irma bearing down. a massive category 5 storm is continuing on a path toward the southeastern united states. people in florida specifically are gearing up for the potential

of a direct hit. yes, the track is shifting. right now they're still saying there's a need for mandatory evacuations in parts of that state ahead of a possible landfall this weekend. >> irma is already lashing puerto rico. the island dodged the worst of the storm. still more than 19 million people are there without power and more than 56,000 do not have any water at this hour. the tiny island of barbuda did not avoid the rath. 185-mile-per-hour winds destroying everything in its path. you can see the aftermath on the ground there in barbuda. the prime minister says the island is barely habitable. 95% of the buildings either damaged or completely destroyed. the death toll is rising. the united nations the hurricane could impact up to 37 million more people. we begin with chn meteorologist chad myers. what is the latest? >> the latest is that the storm

lost a little strength overnight, but i don't want you to folk cows on five miles per hour because i can't tell the difference between 185 and 180. the big story here for florida is that everyone in florida, it doesn't matter what side you're on, except maybe pensacola will see a hurricane-force gust, 75 or greater. will you see 150? that's the true question. where does it go from here? everybody gets a hurricane. but who gets devastated? there's the storm right there. the dominican republic towards the turks and caicos. that's where it's going right now. that's what we already know. here is the question. after it makes its way all the way through the islands here, when does it turn? or does it turn? the turn is very important to miss the u. schs. skirting through the bahamas, if it's east of the u.s., that's

better. through and into the gulf of mexico would be terrible because it would hit the back side of florida and still be a category 4 or 5 storm. the real threat is if this storm moves right over monroe county, let's say ocean reef which is the top of key largo, into key biscayne and central florida right through the middle -- let me tell you, that's the middle of the cone. we always say don't look at it but we need to look at it because that's where we'll talk about the greatest possible loss of life, significantly higher amounts of damage when you have all those cities all the way up the coast, all the way to here. let's back you up a little bit. there are other people that want to know what else can happen. if the storm stays to the right, where does it go? it's going to smash into north carolina. it will still be a three or four, savannah all the way to myrtle beach, you need to watch for that turn and you don't want

that turn. florida does want that turn. it's going to hit the united states somewhere. there's no a question in my mind that someone in the southeastern united states gets smashed from this. where does it turn and how soon does it get into the florida peninsula. if it is right there in south florida, this will be likely significantly worse than andrew because the storm surge would be 20 feet. there aren't many places in miami all the way up to ft. lauderdale that are higher than 20 feet tall. >> that's a sad but true category there. if we're hoping for the shift to the east, it doesn't mean the storm misses florida altogether. as we saw from puerto rico, it doesn't have to be a direct hit to be a bad hit. chad, thank you very much for the information. what are the big concerns? flooding. that's why you prompt evacuations along the south florida coast. once those waters come, you can't get out. cnn's rosa florez is live in miami. what are you seeing? >> good morning, chris. well, what we're seeing here in

miami-dade is the list of evacuations keeps on growing. a very stressful time for people in south florida. as you might imagine these folks are patching their homes with plywood, grabbing their kids and pets. then long lines at gas stations, empty shelves. the florida highway patrol says they've seen a lot of disabled vehicles heading north. remember, you can't go east, can't go west to evacuate florida. you have to go north. now, when it comes to evacuations, miami-dade started evacuations. starting today anyone in mobile homes are under evasion asian. in zone a, including this island to the south and also the barrier islands. where i'm standing right now in miami beach, mercy hospital is under evacuation, they're moving out, about 200 patients, our friends to the south in monroe county, about 25,000 people have already evacuated.

more are set to evacuate and our friends to the north in broward county, those folks are under evacuation, too. everyone living in a mobile home or low lying area is under evacuation, anyone who is living east of u.s. 1, and that includes ft. lauderdale, hollywood, pompano beach, deerfield beach. so a lot of folks, alisyn, very stressed today in south florida, trying to grapple with the fact that there's a ginormous storm coming this way and trying to figure out what to do and the safest way to do it with their families. >> rosa, thank you very much. keep an eye on it for us. joining us now the mayor of miami beach, phillip levine, he's urging anyone who lives in miami beach or visiting to get out. i know it's going to be a busy day for you. when do you want them to get out? >> we want them to start making plans right now to get out and start moving off miami beach. i've been telling people the last few day, if you have

friends, family, please begin moving off miami beach. even though it wasn't mandatory at the time, we issued letters, please cut your vacation short, leave miami beach. this is a serious storm. i've called it a nuclear hurricane. >> what does that mean? >> the power that a hurricane like this has is so powerful, so strong, i want people to understand this is not something you want to ride through, not something you want to be in your house or apartment and think somehow you're going to be a hero and stay on miami beach. >> so you have obviously a considerable amount of senior citizens in your community. how are you going to get them out? >> we've been working with our seniors the last couple days, also our homeless population as well as special needs folks. we've identified where they are. we have buses, we have trolleys, we're going to make sure we can get them safely to a shelter. one thing i want to say, alisyn, that's very important. if you have a pet, bring your pet with you. we have special shelters in main land miami where you can bring your pet. we don't want to see people

leaving their pets at home. you can bring them with you. we have certain shelters that will allow you to bring your pets as well. >> such a great note to tell people. obviously they're often so torn about leaving because of their pets. so where are you taking everybody? where are these shelters? >> we have multiple shelters on the mainland that can protect people in the event this hurricane has a hit. they're operated by dade county. we do not have shelters on miami beach. i'll be staying on miami beach with a command staff all the way through the storm, but we'll be actually in one of our hospitals which is a hardened location. >> mayor, you're obviously no stranger to storms in south florida. why does this one feel so different to you? >> i think the intensity, the way it's lined up. it's had so much opportunity. there's warm water around us to gain strength. most importantly, this is a barrier island, we're a low island. the storm surge, the potential flooding could be catastrophic. we are expecting and planning

for the worst, hoping for the best, but we need team to understand, we want them to be safe, not sorry. >> mayor, i sense this is a mandatory evacuation you're calling in your area. if people stay behind, what are the legal repercussions to them? if emergency responders have to go out and get those folks, after the storm pass, what's the responsibility of those people? >> that's a very good point. what's going to happen is we'll have a reduced staff as the hurricane approaches. at a certain point, our first responders will no longer be able to go out during the brunt of this storm. we want people to understand there will not be public services available. you will be on your own. it's not a place you want to be. i can't stress it enough. get off miami beach, whether you're a visitor or whether you're a resident. find shelter, we have shelters. if you have friends you can stay with. this is a serious situation. we should not play around. >> after hurricane andrew so

devastated south florida, obviously you all took notes, you made corrections, you beefed up the infrastructure. so what's changed since then? >> well, first of all, the construction standards since hurricane andrew are much greater, much stronger. all the new facilities, all the new buildings that have been built since andrew have a code that's bay higher which should be able to withstand all types of storms up to category 5. so that's a major, major improvement. on beach, we began raising roads, putting in pumps. i stress to our folks that what we've done is no much for a hurricane. people have to realize that. we have pumps, portable generations. when it comes to the massive amount of water a storm surge can bring, there's no pumps in the world that can handle that. >> mayor philip levine, you could not straframe it in more k tones. thank you very much for being on "new day." >> thank you. we have irma bearing down on

haiti right now. cnn's paula newton joins us live from there. mudslides the big concern. that storm, we're told by chad myers is expected to hit that northern spine of the island and send flooding downward. what are you experiencing on the island? >> reporter: we've had a few rain storms, but now, as you can see, it is clear. we expect more effects from hurricane irma within the next few hours. here is the thing, chris, all that prep you just heard from the mayor, not going on here. the government here, no one has the capacity or resources to do that. that's really unsettling. the thing to remember is, in haiti, you don't have to have a direct impact from irma in order for the consequences to be absolutely dire. we haven't seen much prep here, although the government has basically done things like send out radios. you've not seen the prep you've seen in other places with the water and the food. you make such a good point about the mudslides. less than a year ago, hurricane

matthew devastating the southern part of this country. you had people swept out of their homes by those mudslides and flooding, right into the ocean. really incredible scenes of devastation, that is what they are bracing for here. even, as i say, alisyn, if they're not taking a direct hit. we have seen very little in the way of preparation going on here where we are in cape haitian. >> paula, thank you very much. we'll check back with you. we're keeping a close eye on this storm, but there is other news this morning. president trump making a deal with democrats. why he reached across the aisle and why republicans say they are shocked. for tech advice. with one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. ♪

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president trump will get a full briefing on hurricane irma this weekend. there's a different storm brewing on capitol hill. the president shocked gop leaders by cutting a shower or thunderstorm deal with democrats on the debt ceiling. cnn's joe johns is live at the white house with more. >> reporter: the president getting three important agenda items off the list, very pressing agenda items including

hurricane relief for the gulf coast. in the process he aligned himself with democrats leaving the republican leadership in the congress shellshocked. >> we had a great meeting with chuck schumer, nancy pelosi and the whole republican leadership -- >> in a stunning move, president trump bucking his own party, cutting a deal with democrats co-provide disaster relief funding, extend the debt ceiling and fund the government for three months. according to a senior white house official republican congressional leaders cautioned the president a day earlier that his tax reform plan would have to wait given other legislative priorities in september. president trump eager for a win struck the deal by knocking off three major issues. house speaker paul ryan blasting the proposal just hours before, pushing for a more long-term solution. >> i think it's ridiculous and disgraceful that they want to play politics with the debt

ceiling at this moment. >> a senior republican source described trump as being in "apprentice" mode, making the deal on the spot. a second source saying he cut off treasury secretary steve mnuchin mid sentence. at the height of a tense meeting sources say first daughter ivanka trump entered the oval office to pitch her agenda on the child tax credit, throwing the meeting off topic, republican leaders visibly annoyed by her presence. >> his feeling was that we needed to come together, to not create a picture of divisiveness. >> i will tell you that i gasped when i heard it. i think he felt like this with was the best deal he could get. >> we walked out and everybody was happy, not too happy because you can never be too happy. but they were happy enough. >> seemingly also on the president's mind, opening the door to working with the president on the dreamers bill as more than a dozen blue state attorneys general threatened to

file suit on the decision to rescind daca. trump denying he's sending conflicting messages after tweeting he will revisit the issue in six months. >> congress i really believe wants to take care of this situation. chuck and nancy would like to see something happen, and so do i. >> the president is planning now to return to camp david with his entire cabinet to sit down and talk about a range of issues including tax reform, and the growing crisis in the korean peninsula. this comes at a time when his son, donald junior, is headed to capitol hill for a closed-door meeting to answer questions before congress about that mysterious meeting in june of 2016, last year, with the russian lawyer. chris? >> joe, thank you. joining us is senator angus king, member of the senate intelligence committee. we'll talk to you about the russia investigation. let me get your take on a couple other headlines. one, the president going directly to democrats, getting a deal on the debt ceiling and

harvey relief. good move? >> well, i think you've got to put it in a little context. this wasn't going directly to democrats. the democrats were in the room, but so were the republicans. it was a discussion and negotiation. i can't read the mind of the president, but i think he wanted to clear the debts. he said let's take care of these three things this the next four or five days and then we can move on to some of the other important issues like daca and tax reform. i think that's what his thinking was. i think perhaps we're over thinking this a little bit. the president is a pragmatist. let's clear three things and move on. >> senator, what do you make of the republican leadership telling reporters in abundance they didn't like it? >> whenever there's a deal, one side or the other isn't going to like it. i think that's the situation. but irt enables us now to try to get these three items off the table literally, if not today, in the next two or three days

and then we can start talking about some of the other issues. there's also bipartisan talks going on on health care. there's plenty to do. clearing the table on these three issues at least at this moment because of the deadlines looming -- we've got four or five deadlines in september. the faa reauthorization, the children's health program, the funding of the government. september 30th is a big day, and i think what the president has done has enabled us to work in a more orderly way through september and into the fall. >> you bought three months on the debt ceiling. he's given you six months on daca. what do you think of that move, giving it to congress and saying you've got six months to save the dreamers? >> i think the fact that he tweeted what he did yesterday indicates that he was actually having a hard time with this decision. i don't like the decision that he made. on the other hand, he has said to us, here is the time, you have time to work on this. he's clearly indicated he wants to work on this. chris, there's an interesting opportunity here for him.

this could be nixon goes to china. if anyone could make a deal on comprehensive immigration reform and make it work nationally, it would be this president. i think he's setting us up to try to get something done. the question is what do we have to add to the daca bill, to the dreamer bill that's already pending that lindsey graham and dick durbin have in order to make it work on a bipartisan basis and sell it to the president. i suspect it's going to have something to do with border security. i suspect it's not going to have something to do with a wall. >> but that's not what we're hearing, right? we're hearing it may involve the wall and that's certainly what the president would want. senator markey said yesterday any bill that has daca and the wall in it is a non-starter. how do you feel about that? >> i think that's probably the case. >> but why senator? why is the wall so important to the left that it's just a non-starter no matter what else is in the offing?

>> i don't consider it important to the left or right. for me it's not an ideological issue. it's a practical issue. there are ways to secure the border. in some places, it may make sense. we have a wault in mcallen texas. there are places where you have sensors and guards. building a 2,000 mile wall is not practical it's expensive and there are a lot better ways to achieve the same goal which is to provide border security. >> why don't you like the decision that the president made with daca in the initial instance to cancel the program if that's the way to get congress to act? >> well, the unfortunate part is, it's thrown hundreds of thousands of people's lives into absolute chaos, fear, uncertainty. these are people who have been here literally all their lives or since they were 6 years old, they were brought here, had no choice in the matter. think think of themselves as americans. they're working and paying taxes. it's created this enormous

uncertainty. i think there are other ways that he could have handled it. but i'm not -- i think congress ought to step up and deal with this. i think the pattern of the last -- i don't know, you could say 30 or 40 years, has been for congress to abdicate its responsibility to the executive. i don't think it's a bad thing we have to deal with it. but the uncertainty created in those people's lives is really unfortunate and unnecessary. butti think the good news is i sense there's a real opportunity here and some bipartisan interest in solving this problem. >> i'll tell you what, it would be political kryptonite to anybody that is on the wrong side in terms of getting this done in six months because if these people fall into isis hands, we all know how that process goes. i know people are saying they're not an enforcement priority. if you're a law and order person you'll be in a tough position if you don't create law to protect the dreamers. >> that's exactly why the decision was so hard because

it's going to put people in that shadow situation which is just not right. >> senator, give us an update on the status of essential items within the russia investigation. you've got don junior before senate staffers today, obviously being questioned about the meeting where he went to this open solicitation to get bad news about hillary clinton. you have news about facebook saying that i guess it inadvertently sold ads to sites that wound up forwarding russian propaganda attempts against the united states. what do you make of these two headlines? >> they're both very significant and very representative of what may be more to learn. first on that meeting, we know from that meeting that donald trump jr. was ang shus to have that meeting, he knew where it was coming from. that in itself is disturbing.

the real question, were there followup meetings and was that part of the beginning of a relationship, and we're not yet ready to determine that. that's got to be examined. on the facebook thing, that's also a big deal because that verifies what we had been told by the intelligence community as far back as october of 2016, and this is that the russians were actively trying to intervene in our election by disinformation, by fake news, by planting stories, trying to undermine people's confidence in the election and the candidates. here it is, we know they did it. my suspicion is there will be a lot more to this story. there are two bes. one, is there more of this kind of ad buying by the russians? and number two, and this is the question obviously our committee will be digging into, was there some relationship between the trump campaign and the russians

in terms of where they planted those ads, where they put them, who they were targeting? did the russians have their own political consultants saying do this in a certain county in wisconsin, or did they get that information from somewhere else. that's an important question we've got to dig into. >> the president says it's a witch hunt, and there are people saying we haven't heard anything about the russia investigation, they haven't come to any conclusions. it proves there's nothing there. what do you say to critics? >> number one, it's not a witch hunt. we know that, and we know that from the unanimous opinion of the intelligence committee in october. we know it again from their opinion again in january, we know it from voluminous data that the russians were involved in our elections, that they were trying to defeat hillary clinton, help donald trump, that it went all the way up to putin. that is well established. what isn't well established is whether there were indeed contacts and cooperation between the trump campaign and the russians. the other thing we know, chris, is the russians were trying to get into state election systems

and registration roles. i think that's the point people are missing, by focusing so much on trump and the russians, we're missing the fact that the russians were doing this, they've done it in the past and they're going to keep doing it and we've got to be prepared for it. that's what i consider our major mission in this investigation is to prepare the american people and things like our voting systems for what will inevitably come in 2018 and 2020 and beyond. >> regardless of the involvement with the trump campaign, these issues matter, and they're going to matter in the upcoming elections. senator angus king, as always, a pleasure. thank you for being on the show. >> thanks, chris. back to irma. the caribbean already seeing the power of hurricane irma firsthand. look at these pictures. we have a live report for you from puerto rico next.

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hurricane irma is happening right now and puerto rico is feeling the power. the storm did not hit the island directly. but remember, you don't need a direct hit to have a bad hit. power knocked out to more than a

million people. thousands -- tens of thousands left without water and who knows for how long. cnn's leyla santiago is live in san juan with more. what is the situation on the ground? >> reporter: chris, the governor right now speaking at a press conference and he has told the people of puerto rico now it is time to work. he says, of course there is quite a bit of problems coming from irma, power being one of them. more than a million people without power right now, and that alone isn't the issue. this is an island with an economic crisis. they are very much in debt, and so the power system here lacks maintenance and funding. so they are saying that it could take not days but rather weeks, possibly months to restore the power for the people here in puerto rico. then there is the flooding. a lot of people dealing with that, especially on the eastern part of the island.

overnight there were several rescue, at least several dozen people had to be rescued as a result of that. it's not just the flooding and the power, but also water. more than 56,000 people right now on this island without water. so certainly there's going to be some damage assessment today. fema has already said they will begin that as soon as possible. but they are feeling somewhat lucky because compared to other islands in the caribbean, it's not as bad. you look at barbuda and 95% of the buildings there have damage, estimated to be $100 million. and an infant died. in saint martin, you also have six deaths. certainly the governor is right, they'll have to go to work, but they're feeling lucky compared to other islands in the caribbean. >> they do seem to have dodged the worst bullet there. thank you very much for that reporting. hurricane irma is causing thousands of flight

cancellations, also major traffic delays. that raises questions about price gouging. christine romans is here to explain. >> we've seen big airlines slashing prices to get people out of irma's path, but only have sky high prices caught attention. a delta fair from miami jumped from $547 to more than 3 grand. she later tweeted that the airline reached out and helped tremendously. delta blames that on an expedia issue, not its own problems. it says it never raised fares due to irma. delta says it won't charge more than $399 from flights out of florida or the caribbean including first class. american airlines has main cabin seats for $99 one way. jetblue offering reduced fares from $99 to $159. those driving out of town are

raisi raising facing higher gas prices due to hurricane harvey. there's reports of price gouging. walmart trying to combat that, sending 1300 truck loads of bottled water to its florida stores. >> thank you very much for all of that. president trump siding with the democrats, angering republicans. one republican says the decision could cause serious problems. he's here next to explain. super-cool notebooks, done. that's mom taking care of business. and with the "25 cent event", office depot officemax takes care of mom! now, all this just 25 cents each! ♪ taking care of business hey, i'm the internet! ♪ i know a bunch of people who would love that. the internet loves what you're doing... ...so build a better website in under an hour with... ...gocentral from godaddy.

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were happy enough. >> well, conservatives this morning expressing shock over president trump's deal with democrats. the white house says the deal gives the president flexibility to increase military spending which, of course, is the major concern because of the increased threat from north korea. joining us is congressman matt thornberry, chairman of the house armed services committee. congressman, great to have you. >> thanks for having me. >> why do you think the president did the deal with the democrats yesterday? >> maybe out of frustration. i don't know what his motivations were, and frankly i don't care who makes a deal with whom. what i care about are the results, what the consequences are, and unfortunately, this does not help fix our military situation. we have increasing number of accidents. our people are increasingly under stress and strain. we have a world that's going more dangerous such as north korea. so this will just have the

stop-gap funding measure that makes none of those problems better. >> why do you think the president thought that nancy pelosi and chuck schumer had the better deal? >> i don't know what the president thought. clearly to get things done, you have to get them past the senate, often by 60 votes. so that is a political reality, no question. but again, what matters i think are the consequences. what the country needs, what the military needs, what the world needs is some stability. so a three-month debt limit does not provide stability for the financial markets, and it certainly does not provide the funding stability that the military needs to solve these readiness issues, to increase munitions, to beef up our missile defense as threats grow worse and worse. >> one of the ways it was explained, one of the rationales, was that, if the

president could clear the deck for september and -- first of all, get harvey relief funding, kick the can down the road for the debt ceiling, that then you can focus on tax reform. what do you think of that plan? >> of course it's important. we've got to put money in fema immediately. yesterday the house passed a bill to do that. that is absolutely true. but i don't like the kicking the can down the road for any purpose if kicking the can down the road means greater danger, more maintenance problems for our military. i'm for tax reform, but in the meantime men and women who serve our nation are risking their lives to help keep us safe and to hold back these adversaries. and just look at what's happened in the past two weeks with, of course, the two naef i have accidents. we've also had helicopters go down, airplanes go down. accident rates are going up, and

keeping everything the way it is, kicking the can down the road does not solve those problems. >> i know you have a hearing on all of that later this afternoon, and i do want to get to that. help me understand how it's different. he went with pelosi and schumer for a dee-month deal instead of a six-month deal or an 18-month deal that the republicans were suggesting. how could your problems have been solved in six months that can't be solved in three months? why do you see this current deal as so much worse? >> i think we're talking about two different things. you're focused a lot on the debt limit which i think is important and i think we should increase the debt limit for 18 months to provide stability. what i'm really focused on is the military budget and how we can provide that certainty so that companies can make the investments, increase their production, military leaders can plan so more -- more than three months so they can begin to solve these problems.

you're absolutely right, we won't solve our readiness problems. we can't fix our ships and planes and so forth in three months or six months, but we can get on a good trajectory. in july the house passed a defense bill by the largest bipartisan majority in the last eight years that does exactly that. unfortunately what this three-month, stop-gap measure will do will cut the funding by more than $50 billion that was designed to fix those problems. so you can't just say -- i'll put it this way. we're doing more of the same that got us into trouble and that's what my primary objection is. >> in that case, do you agree with speaker ryan's assessment that the plan that the democrats were pushing is, quote, ridiculous and disgraceful? he said that before the president closed the deal. would you use those adjectives? >> i'd probably use those adjectives and more, but i wouldn't put democrats on it. the truth is there is bipartisan

responsibility for the cuts in the defense budget and for not giving the military planners the stability and certainty that they need to do the job we expect them to do. so we cut their budget, but we say, you've still got to defend us from north korea, still have to protect us from terrorism, you still have to patrol the south china sea and watch the russian exercises, et cetera. we expect no less of them, and yet funding has been going down. airplanes and ships have been aging. they have not been getting the training they need, and that's just wrong. >> let's talk about those catastrophic crashes we saw with the u.s.s. john mccain and the fits rarld. what do you think went wrong? >> i don't know the specifics. what i do know is two years ago the general accountability office warned that we were asking too much of our pacific fleet. just as i was describing, the

threats are not going down, the ships are staying at sea longer. the crews are not getting the training they need. so they are being stretched thinner and thinner and gao warned that we were on a bad path. so we'll look at the specific cause of each of these accidents, but i think some of the responsibility comes back to this dysfunctional budget process that both parties share responsibility for. >> so you have this hearing this afternoon. what can congress do about this? >> well, number one, we can ask questions about what we know about the accidents. we can also understand the shape of the navy today, and i think you will hear testimony this afternoon that shows it's worse now than it was two years ago. fewer of our ships are certified

as ready for action than there are two years ago. so the problem is getting worse. what congress can do about it, working with the president, is to pass an adequate military budget on time. and that's one reason i'm just disheartened by what we were talking about earlier. we have an opportunity to begin to fix these problems. unfortunately they're just getting worse, and all we're doing is delaying and the same old thing. >> congressman thornberry, thank you very much for coming on and sharing your viewpoint with us. >> you're welcome. >> chris. back to florida. not taking any chances, gearing up for a potential direct hit from hurricane irma. how is the state preparing? are the right people getting out? we have an emergency official next. i count on my dell small business advisor

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your voice is awesome. the x1 voice remote. xfinity. the future of awesome. . so monroe county which intluds the florida keys has declared a state of emergency. they issued mandatory evacuation orders pushing every to get out before irma hits. now, did everyone get out? will everyone get out and what happens to those who remain behind? joining us to talk about the situation is monroe county straiter from key west this morning. >> good morning. >> we should take advantage of the good connections while we still have them. what do you know about the state

of play in your county? are the people evacuating, do you believe people will stay behind? >> yes. they are evacuating. as a matter of fact, i drove down yesterday from marathon down to key west, and the keys are pretty empty, looking pretty good down here in key west. i drove around and probably 90% of the businesses are closed, and things are looking pretty good. the keys residents were very connected to the weather and they know when no take things serious. >> what do you believe the reality is about whether or not everyone will evacuate and what does it mean for those staying behind? h. >> i think as it gets closer i'm sure more people lettaving. this is a big gold storm that's causing a lot of havoc throughout the caribbean, watching those images that you've been playing and thinking that could happen here, i know

it gets my attention. i'm sure it gets the attention of the rest of the residents. i certainly expect people to leave. if they don't leave, where we're telling them' they're on their own because we're leaving. you can't expect our first responder to risk their lives for their ir responsibility. we're telling them now. very boldly, very straightforward. if they're going to stay u he' on your own. >> why is irma different? people down there are so storm dr savvy, we've seen them supposed to hit and don't. seen him hit and not be as bad. even when they are bad, it's still an advantage in some people's minds to be able to get through the work of rebidding and recovering right away instead of being locked out. what do you say to that. >> well, i say that is the biggest storm ever. i mean you guys have been covering that. the strongest ever in the atlantic. and then the way it's coming

through the straits of florida, usually have to hit cuba, hit the bahamas. a bank that slows them down a little bit. breaks them um. but in this case, it's tracking right through the little slot, open warm water. going to continue to stay strong. if it does that, that doesn't happen very often. usually, hits cuba or puerto rico or something to slow it down. i hate to say it but the perfect storm. >> one of the best situations to make people do the right thing is to make them realize what the real alt is if they don't. how much the services will be left in place? >> there will be no services. if it you decide to stay, and people are listening. this is very, very serious storm. if you decide to stay in the keys, you are on your own. hospitals are closing. if it's coming to key west we're going to go up and vice versa. there's no need to stay here.

when you see it coming, we're providing you transportation, helping you get out of here. it's just no need to risk it with such a big powerful storm. >> roman, listen, if there's information you discover as the process continues, and you want to get it out, see us as a resource. be well, be safe. >> thank you. well, as hurricane irma barrels towards florida, fema is running out of money. as of tuesday, a spokes woman says the agency's disaster relief fund has been depleted from nor than $2 billion down to $1 billion. that's being used to for hurricane harvey. and another $7 million is now included in the harvey aid package passed by the house awaiting senate approval. an emotion start to the federal corruption trial of bob

menendez. a sitting senator being on trial. he was choking back tears proclaiming his innocence. let's bring in cnn justice reporter laura jarret live from new ark. the defense, at least for the dentist involved in this saying we're not disputing the facts, disputing the intent. >>reporter: good morning. day two of opening statements getting under way here. yesterday, the lawyers did most of the talking, we did hear from the senator very briefly as he went into court. take a listen. never, not once, not once have i dishonored my public office. the i started my public career fighting corruption. that's how i started. and i have always acted in accordance with the law. and i believe when all of the

facts are known, i will be vindicated. >>reporter: now, chris, the implications of this case are obviously very serious, if it he's convicted he's facing some serious prison time. but there's also political consequences to think about here. the if he's convicted, and forced to step aside for whatever reason before january, then republican governor chris christie would be the one to select his replacement. the other interesting thing to watch here is that the facts are not in dispute. defense attorney says this is about what happened. about what didn't happen. and we will see opening statements continue here in new jersey later today. chris? laura, thank you very much. very high stakes, not just for menendez himself but for all the implications. >> interesting reflection whether or not the judge cares. i mean this in a positive. they put in motion. the judge said no.

the this is a trial. this is about your guilt or innocence. and we're not going to i a lou that to affect this process. that was a big deal. and we'll be following this. we're following a lot of news for you this morning including the latest on hurricane irma. >>announcer: this is cnn breaking news. good morning everyone welcome to new day, thursday, september 7, 8:00 in the east. hurricane irma is tearing through the trop ices. right now the massive category 5 hurricane is bearing down on haiti and the dominican repub c republic. people in florida gearing up for a possible direct hit. there are mandatory evacuations under way in parts of the state ahead of this expected land fall this weekend. >> port reuerto rico slammed by. we keep telling people you don't have to get hit by the eye to get a bad hit. more than a million customers

are without power, more than 56,000 people don't have water and who knows how long it will take to have it restored. the tiny island of barbuda did not escape the storm's powerful wrath. this is what 185 miles an hour wind does to standing structures, it's a disaster zone. the prime minister flew over the island, says 95% damaged or destroyed. barely habitable. remember, there are more storms coming. the death toll rising. the united nations say the hurricane could impact up to 37 million people. cnn has this hurricane covered like no other network can. let's begin with cnn meteorologist chad myers. we're also seeing that you don't need to have a complete hit to have a complete disaster. >> absolutely. because this is so wide. everyone on the florida peninsula the