see if it anything that could go to the fitness of hillary clinton being president of the united states. he claimed that he was skeptical of it in the first place and even if it was given to him that he would consult with lawyers. now senators on capitol hill, democratic senators are pushing for an open hearing. >> thanks, pamela. and thanks for joining us. anderson starts now. good evening. one of the strongest atlantic hurricanes ever, one of the longest lasting category 5 storms ever, potentially the most destructive hurricane to hit in decades. and where exactly will hurricane irma hit hardest. we'll try to get closer to answering that question over the next two hours. we already know what it did to the islands in the caribbean, st. martin. you can see the damage extensive there. four people we know have died. four dead in the u.s. virgin islands. another person died on angila and one on barbuda, now under a new hurricane watch for category

3 jose. the island chain of turks and cake icos getting hit right now. this looks pretty threatening. you'll hear from the turk and caicos governor. an american trapped on the island with her family including their 11-month-old son, it has been a horrible three days for the caribbean and a taste, just a taste of what could lie ahead in florida. today florida's governor had a simple message for anyone facing evacuation orders. >> once the evacuation order, get out. we cannot save you when the storm hits. if you're in the keys and still home, leave and get out. if you're told to evacuate, get out quickly. we can't take care of you in the middle of a storm. >> again, turks and caicos getting a beating right now. let's go to tom sater in the weather center. >> not much of a change, anderson. we found a slight drop in the pressure. typically that happens as this

goes maybe through some strengthening. takes a while for the winds to speed up to catch up to that pressure drop. that's really the only change right now. we're going on hour 60 that this has been a category 5. that really staggers the imagination. we went 24 hours without a landfall. although in the turks and caicos now, around cookburn harbor, they're getting pounded pretty hard. there will be a fewer smaller islands that take landfall. but it's still mainly over the open waters. a big thing happened today, do not take this lightly, national hurricane center placing a hurricane watch. this is a big, big deal. they don't do this lightly. they don't slap one somewhere on the u.s. because it costs millions and millions of dollars to do this. with the federal and state and the local resources, and the money that pours into this for evacuations, for getting gear in place, this is a big deal. they've studied it, analyzed it. this is going to become a warning. the other watches will be posted up both coasts, as we watch the new plots coming in, some still want to interact, of course,

with cuba. but mainly the computer model, at least these, the spaghetti plots, still kind of favor that east coast. but when we look at the track now from the national hurricane center, instead of shifting eastward again like it did yesterday, it went back to the west about another 15 to 20. that puts miami, unfortunately, anderson n the worst possible position. >> let's talk about how the various models changed the risk for florida depending on which way they return. >> let's look at the european, which consists of over 50 models. and the u.s. is another 21. these are ensembles. last thursday, the european was exactly the same position, just amazing how it handles the environment. but it shifted back westward. landfall, pretty close to key largo, just to the west. we have the keys, in the strong winds as well. miami is in that front right quadrant where you do not want to be, where the winds are the strongest, storm surges are the worst wrapping around the system. up through possibly all the way to orlando, through the entire center part of the florida

peninsula. the u.s. model, which was offshore, anderson, yesterday, has shifted significantly, almost in the same location. now, the possibility exists here tomorrow they may shift backwards. that's why every day is critical. both of this, this is right on key largo, biscayne bay, miami, hugging the coast a little bit more. that would mean the catastrophic damage will hug the coastline. this is critical to watch both of these. >> hurricane jose is coming along, hard to imagine thinking about anything else right now but irma, but hurricane jose is coming up along the same islands. >> the 5:00 advisory, they upgraded jose from a category 1, which yesterday just at 5:00, we got katia as a hurricane, and jose is a major category 3. katia will slide down to mexico thanks to a cold front. too bad that cold front wasn't moving through on friday. now we've got a major category 3 hurricane. it is sliding toward the northern islands of the lesser antilles. can you imagine if you were in

rockport and you were devastated by harvey, and 24 hours later you get another hurricane watch. that's what's happened for barbuda, angila. i don't think it will take a direct landfall, but it doesn't have to be this close. those hurricane force winds are going to spread all that debris from all the damaged homes across these islands, they can't evacuate, it's barely habitable according to the prime minister, and they do not have a houston convention center. they barely can go anywhere. this is extremely a sad situation when you have forces of a category 3, that's major, and most of the buildings can barely give anyone any shelter. we'll have to watch it closely. let's hope it stays away a little bit. >> thank you, tom. to underscore, miami is in irma's prime target right now. first, more from the caribbean islands. because turks and caicos is getting hit right now, communications are difficult. just before air time i spoke with the local governor, john

freeman. governor, what are the conditions like right now in turks and cake os? >> well, it all depends which part you're in, actually. i'm on the biggest island in terms of population. the hurricane winds are followed with a minute or two. we've had tropical winds before that. other parts of the island, grand turk, was the first to hit in the eastern part of the island. it's been having hurricane winds for some time and there's quite a bit of damage on that island already. 15 roofs have come off, and there's damage to part of the roof of the hospital. >> are many of the buildings in the islands, are they prepared in terms of how they're constructed for this? obviously hurricanes are something that have happened before, but nothing this size. >> it varies. i mean, the more recently built, yes, because they meet contemporary standards of hurricane proofing. the older the buildings are, the more vulnerable they are.

of course, people try to improve and renovate them and make them stronger. there's been quite a deal of preparation for people to secure their houses, and where they're not secure to leave their house and go to the shelters the government has provided. >> do you know what time it's expected to be at its worst? >> well, again, it depends island to island. but for this island, providencial, it's between now, 7:00, and 2:30 in the morning our time. >> and have people evacuated, or are there shelters for people to go to? >> there are. we put out evacuation orders on two islands on tuesday and wednesday. where there is a smaller population. and others in low-lying areas, where there's a high risk of inundation, they've been encouraged to go to family or friends to higher up on the island or go to the shelters which are open and now getting pretty full. >> do you have any sense of how many people are in government supplied shelters?

>> i don't know the exact number, i'm afraid, off the top of my head. but for example, in grand turk, where there are two shelters operating, the figure must be of the order of 300. >> national shutdown i understand was declared today in the turks and caicos, freezing emergency services until the storm has passed. that's obviously a common move in many places, because it can be just too dangerous for emergency personnel to go out during the storm. is the message to people now just, stay where you are? >> yes, it is. it's hunker down. stay where you are. because you can't go out, because the winds are just far, far too strong. nobody can get to you either. so, you know, they're a little while on their own, or with their families or in the shelters. we took some steps before the storm came, of course. in terms of the shelters. for example, yesterday i was visiting hospitals.

so we brought in women who were pregnant and at risk of having confinement over these three days, we brought in all of those who needed to have dialysis, which only lasts three days. they were in from 4:30 in the morning all day having that dialysis done. so things have been done to prepare as best we can. even against those kind of medical emergency-like things. >> just in terms of supplies of gas, petrol, of water, of food, how are things? >> well, water production, the pumping goes down, of course, with the electricity. so in grand turk, which as i say is the first island hit, water pumping went down quite early. but people stocked up a lot on water. just as you've seen in cuba and florida and elsewhere, people have been collecting water. people have been collecting water. you know, just to drink and for other purposes, too. >> governor freeman, we wish you the best in the hours ahead. thank you. >> thank you very much for your time.

>> some of the information on irma comes from storm chasing planes flying above and sometimes directly into the storm. just before air, i spoke with air force reserve flight meteorologist jeremy dehart. you flew in the hurricane last night. you still have planes up tonight. is the storm maintaining its strength? >> it is, actually. it's kind of unprecedented that it is maintains a strength, for such a strong storm, a category 5 for almost three days now. it's the strongest category -- strongest storm to come out of the atlantic on record, in the atlantic ocean. so it's pretty amazing that it's been able to maintain a strength for this long. >> what about its organization? any signs that it may be slowing down at all? >> the forecast track is pretty spot-on the last couple of days. national hurricane center has it

at a pretty continuous speed, forward motion. it's held that. it looks like it will begin to slow as it approaches southern florida before it makes that turn. but that's being forecasted by the national hurricane center through their products as well. >> what was your flight like? >> pretty intense. category 5 storms are rare. some of us could go our entire careers in this line of work without seeing one, flying through one. so just immediately, as you start flying through the storm, you recognize the power of it. and you know, you're flying through, it can be relatively smooth until you get to the eye wall area. and that's when you really start getting jostled around, completely obscured with cloud cover and rain. what's unique about these major

hurricanes is, as soon as you hit that eye wall, punch through that, it just opens up into a clear blue sky, and calm winds. pretty incredible. >> you talked about, you could feel the power of the storm as you were flying through it. how do you feel that in an aircraft? >> well, one example is, there's something that we call slip. so when you're flying through the storm, you know, you're trying to fly in at a straight line. but you're getting blown from the side so much, so we have a slip. so we were at about 35-degree slip, which means to maintain a constant heading we had to fly 35 degrees pointed the other direction. that's just one example of how extremely strong this storm is. >> the eye is incredibly large on this storm. and everybody i've talked to who's flown over it has just talked about how perfectly formed the eye is.

>> right. yeah, we measured it at 25 miles across, which is a large eye, and perfectly symmetrical, perfect from a meteorological perspective, yes. they are rare. especially in this part of the world. so quite a unique and amazing storm. >> we've seen, you know, two basically different tracks, the european model, the u.s. model. how confident are you in the tracking so far, that it likely will hit miami? >> well, it's important to note that with the hurricane hunters, we're primarily data collectors. the national hurricane center that's putting out those official forecasts, it's our job to gather that realtime reconnaissance data that's so crucial to them, to be able to make those forecasts. so the hurricane center, the true experts when it comes to

forecasting the storm. we provide the data they need to be able to make those forecasts as accurately as possible. >> major, i appreciate all the work you and others are doing right now. thank you very much for talking to us. >> okay. thank you. >> we're going to be hearing more shortly on the dimensions of this. from someone crunching the data, major dehart is actually gathering information for the hurricane center. it already pummeled islands leaving complete devastation in the wake. a woman says her homeland looks like a nuclear bomb was dropped on it. i spoke with her a short time ago. josephine, what was it like for you when the storm was at its worst? >> i think it's so incomprehensible. the significance of feeling the immense pressure at the time when it was at its worst. you know, we live in the

hurricane belt. we are very familiar with hurricanes. and we prepare every year. we're happy when we go through a year and when there's none. and when we do have, we've developed a really serious good construction industry. and we feel proud of how we're able to withstand these winds. but i think it was very, very clear when we heard the warnings from the national hurricane center that this was going to be the worst recorded storm in history. and it was the first time that even i myself needed to hunker into a bathroom when the winds got as tremendous as they did. they were every bit the 225-mile gusts that we anticipated. >> what sort of damage have you seen? >> oh, angulla is a completely different place at the moment. if you talk about, for example, essential services. our hospital, one hospital on

the island, it's lost a good portion of its roof. one police station on this island, it's lost its roof. the courthouse lost its roof. the prison has lost its roof. all our schools are sorely damaged. they are basically open shells. our churches seriously damaged. and we've had, you know, we pride ourselves on one church that was built back in 1830. one of the oldest churches here in anguilla. completely destroyed. and it's a shell. it's just -- the magnitude, anderson, is just -- it's -- i keep saying incomprehensible, because that's what we're seeing on the ground. >> you actually ended up in your bathroom to try to ride out the storm? you felt that was the safest place? >> you know, literally, what we were hearing outside, it felt -- you had to -- you felt the need, you had to move.

the winds, i can't begin to tell you the zinging of that -- at that -- that sound. it was just all-encompassing. and it really became at one point a question of whether we would live to see through it. that's literally how it felt. >> you actually were worried about that, you actually thought this could be it? >> absolutely. this was a few hours of such intensity, that you worried, you literally worried, and you listened to the people in anguilla, you talked to people on the road, everybody had a story. who wasn't holding down a door, who wasn't witnessing, you know, projectiles coming through their house. i, for example, have seen a situation in which concrete and rebar was sliced -- sliced -- and it's just incredible.

just incredible. >> what is the situation right now in terms of supplies, access to water, access to food, you know, law enforcement? what's the situation there right now? >> it is very disorganized, anderson. you know, we are a british overseas territory. and i personally am very saddened with the response. it should have been different. and i must say, there weren't boots on the ground. our electrical services are completely gone. even if you have a generator, as we did, you were advised you couldn't turn it on, because of such severe electrical failures islandwide. poles on the ground. trees. it's incredible. >> josephine, i'm so sorry for what you and everybody else is going through. we wish you the best in the days ahead. >> thank you for the call. >> just ahead, as we continue to

get new information on irma's path, we take you to the miami international airport. up against trying conditions to say the least. will any structure in south florida be safe? a lot has changed since hurricane andrew. a look at that, and more on the big question, the storm track, where exactly will irma hit. we'll talk to someone at the national hurricane center. advil liqui - gels work so fast you'll ask what bad back? what pulled hammy? advil liqui - gels make pain a distant memory nothing works faster stronger or longer what pain? advil.

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out? >> reporter: it's jammed, anderson. it's actually really a mess. it's calm. people are staying in control. but it's a mess. there are lines just to get checked in. they're kind of ebbing and flowing throughout the day. there are lines, security, also for people trying to get out of town. right now, the biggest evacuation in miami-dade county is under way. so everybody, a lot of them at least are coming to miami international to try and get out. and it is just a mess. the airport itself says it will stay open until the winds get to about 35 miles per hour. they're not taking any chances. that's not even tropical storm winds. people are trying to evacuate with their families, their pets. one gentleman and his dock micka. you can't even get on a flight, right? >> i can't. i waited an hour in line at the agent office. i don't have the pet carrier. they won't let me on without a pet carrier. >> airlines are saying there isn't a pet fee because they want people to be able to evacuate.

you went to how many stores? >> i went to ten stores. >> what are you going to do now? >> i'm heading back to kendall. just ride out the storm. >> with your dog? you're not going to leave her behind. >> of course not. >> she wants this microphone. listen, we wish you luck. we met with a lot of people waiting in line, anderson. one guy from here in town is trying to get to toronto. he just wants to get as far away as he possibly can. another family, they're actually originally from brazil. and they are trying to get to anywhere they can get four seats on a plane. so they're going to memphis. they had no desire to go to memphis, but it was the only plane that had four seats. but we checked out the board. there are delays for hours. many of the flights, of course, to the caribbean are being canceled. so it is still pretty messy even at this hour, anderson. >> so frustrating for him to wait in line so long, for there to be a flight he could get on, but not allowed on because he doesn't have a carrier for the dog. it's not a huge dog. you would think they would make an exception.

joining us is the miami beach mayor. mayor levine, this updated path showing a direct hit for miami, i'm wondering at this point, what are the biggest concerns, the biggest challenges you're facing? >> the biggest concerns that may not have left miami beach. i was on ocean drive today, which as you know, anderson is a place of parties and clubs and bars and restaurants. it was empty. that's a good sign. the streets are empty. we have been telling people to leave for about three days now. i called it a nuclear hurricane because of what we see happening in barbuda and st. martin and the united states virgin islands. the good thing is, people are listening. my concern is, are there certain people who will hole themselves up in these buildings. i don't want to see that. of course, with this hurricane, low-lying island that we are, the storm surge is very concerning to all of us. >> yeah, obviously there could be a very big storm surge. how do you prepare for that? i assume you have pumps and things like that? >> i'll tell you, we've experienced sea level rise,

we've been raising our roads, and putting in pumps. but they're no match for hurricanes, let alone the most powerful hurricane in atlantic history. we hope it will hit gate over days and get the water out. but there's no match. how do you prepare for a storm surge. i don't think there's a textbook written yet. i'll tell you one thing, we'll make sure we protect the lives of our people and that's what we're trying to do, to get to the shelter. >> if people have not evacuated at this point, obviously there is still time for them to get to shelters, how many shelters do you have? is there still room in shelters for people? >> there is still room. there are shelters all over miami-dade county. we have shelters geared toward people with pets. if you have a pet and want to bring it to a shelter, we have shelters for that. we have multiple shelters. they're not totally full right now. and if you somehow don't want to go into a shelter, at least go to the mainland or go somewhere, where you have friends or family that you feel safer. but being on a barrier low lying

island of miami beach, that's what we don't want people to do. some visitors are -- some of them are staying. we're getting them all out as aggressively as we possibly can. >> there are long lines at the gas station, the governor talked about police escorts for gas to try to keep stations open longer, and get gas to people. is there enough gas there for people who are trying to drive north? >> yeah. we're seeing right now the gas lines seem to be getting a lot less. i've heard from different friends of people, they are able to get gas. as you leave miami-dade county and go to broward, north in the state it becomes more challenging. i know there's a lot of traffic. but getting off miami beach is not challenging right now. the causeways are open. people are going in, actually leaving the island, so it's easy to leave miami beach. >> mayor phillip levine, thank you. >> thank you. >> we'll be back with another update from the hurricane weather center. we're going moment by moment to show you exactly when and where

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>> we continue to get updated information on irma, and

category 3 hurricane jose behind it. tom sater is back, and joining us acting director of the national hurricane center in miami. ed, let's start with you. the latest irma forecast, where do you think is the most probable path? >> most probable path is what we've actually been saying for the last several days now, looks likely the hurricane will continue to move to the west-northwest passing toward the north coast of cuba and turn to the north. what we're uncertain about is where it would occur, whether it's offshore in the atlantic, the gulf, or over land. increasingly, the threat is for the turn to come along land and up through the florida keys potentially and the peninsula all the way up through the state. >> just in terms of for florida, that's probably the worst case scenario, isn't it? >> that's right. this track, in fact, if it were to play out as shown, will be the worst possibility certainly for the eastern half of the state. the entire state would experience hurricane force winds

with a forecast like this, verifying, and the area very near the center, the core of the hurricane, expected to still be a category 4, potentially category 5 at landfall. and that would make it the strongest, most destructive potentially, certainly for florida, since hurricane andrew. >> ed rappaport, the northwest east quadrant of the storm, that is the most powerful, so for that eastern part of florida, that would be the hardest hit? >> that's right. and in fact, that's where the storm surge will be the highest. the winds will be coming onshore there. that's what will blow the water on to the land and the inundation we're expecting could be five to ten feet along the shoreline. the water will progress inland until it reaches that elevation. in fact, we have a hurricane watch up now for the southern florida peninsula, as well as the florida keys. this is the first year the national weather service issued a storm surge warning, a storm surge watch, where we have a

threatening storm surge in the next 48 hours. it's likely we'll upgrade that to a warning. >> tom, ed just referenced this, the last category 5 storm to hit florida, hurricane andrew. talk to us how it compares to what we're looking at with irma? >> first and foremost, there are many ways to compare them. the track is a major comparison. coming up from cuba, from southern and due north direction, you're going to really have more damage across the entire florida peninsula. if you take a look at what andrew did 25 years ago, it came in from the west. and so, again, just kind of like a buzz saw, shaving off a smaller piece of real estate, doing major damage to homestead as we know, in fact, the number of fatalities was over 500, most of those were from -- or excuse, 65 with this one, matthew was about 500. but 65 fatalities alone. it changed building codes coming in from the south. i want to show you a photograph, here's another one, too. because the size difference is

amazing. when you look at what andrew was, much smaller, you can fit probably two of these inside irma, really this is what we call with andrew more of an annular hurricane. it's smaller, it's compact. like a little cannonball as it moves through. but with irma, the winds are so spread outward, that's where the catastrophe comes in. much more damage can occur. especially if it's sliding from the south to the north instead of just cutting off a smaller slice of the southern florida in toward the everglades. >> tom sader, ed rapoport, thank you very much. one island nation that has been through so much over the years is about to face more. talking about haiti. paul is there for us tonight. i believe you're in the capital of haiti. >> reporter: absolutely on the north shore. we were supposed to be hit with the southern, and we've been lashed with wind. but it's heavy downpours that have been an issue. we've got a few more hours to

go, anderson. officials have told us point blank all day today, they are not ready for this storm. they are not ready for the aftermath. you know what's going to happen here, in the next few hours, although thankfully haiti escaped a direct hit in the ensuing hours, depending on how bad the flooding is going to be, and those mudslides, still a very dangerous situation. and authorities here really at pains to explain, look, we haven't been able to get the people who need to be in the evacuation centers, in the evacuation centers. in the low lying areas behind me, there are 100,000 people at risk at this very hour. people still do not know exactly what it means for them, especially since we have seen some surge. anderson, you know better than most, the government here is quite dysfunctional. they did the best they could. but it really wasn't a sense of urgency you wanted to see from a place really being hit with this kind of a storm. >> the danger of flooding, the danger of rainfall, you know,

moving mud off mountains, we've seen this time and time again in haiti, it can be truly, truly devastating. >> reporter: absolutely. and hurricane matthew, when you're comparing it, that was a category 4, hit the southern part of the country last year. anderson, as you know, you've seen these homes, tin roofs, plywood, there are entire families swept away by mudslides. the people think the danger is over when the torrential rains and winds go, but the danger is just coming from the side of the mountain. and that's why i'm saying, as you know, it will take several hours, days to really figure out the impact that this storm, even the back end of it, has had on haiti, already that has dealt with so much in the last few years. >> paula, be careful. everybody on the island of haiti tonight. take a look at this. the dot is a plane, a commercial airliner flying through bands of hurricane irma, flying through an outer band. it got out of puerto rico at the last minute.

it was the last flight out of puerto rico. it was harrowing, as you might imagine. we'll talk to one of the passengers coming up. we'll also get an update from barbuda. homes and buildings on the island are just flattened. the island is decimated. we'll hear again from the pilot who flew the prime minister on that trip. he's now carrying supplies in. we'll find out the latest from there. chances are, the last time you got a home loan, you got robbed. i know-- i got a loan 20 years ago, and i got robbed. that's why i started lendingtree-- the only place you can compare up to 5 real offers side by side, for free. it's like shopping for hotels online, but our average customer can save twenty thousand dollars. at lendingtree, you know you're getting the best deal. so take the power back and come to lendingtree.com, because at lendingtree when banks compete, you win.

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one of the most remarkable images to come out of irma so far is this radar image. that little dot is an aircraft that got people out of puerto rico as hurricane irma approached just in the nick of time. just before air i spoke with a passenger on that flight. sheila, you were on this remarkable flight. first of all, explain how the airline ended up racing against the clock. and what it was like for you. >> well, initially i was on a

flight, on american airlines. it was delayed. and then it was canceled. so we were seeking shelter inside the airport. they had, you know, getting the cots ready, getting the food ready and they said wait until 1:00. we have one more flight and we want to make sure that flight gets out. if not, we'll have all the passengers come with you for shelter. we said, what extra flight? we didn't know about any other flight. so it was a delta rescue flight. that's how we ended up there. didn't know anything about it. >> what was the takeoff like? the winds were already, you know, getting strong. >> you know what, we boarded the plane, it was barely raining. it was like drizzle. i think by the time we actually hit the runway, that's when the wind really, really started. you can see the rainfall -- we swayed a lot. as we ascended into the air, you could feel the pressure. i don't know if it was wind or what it was, you could feel the plane having resistance. >> i understand you actually put

your head in your lap and kind of covered your ears. >> i did. initially i was at the window. you want to see what's going on. that's a big deal, the last plane taking off. everybody else is delayed. you feel like, you know, let me see everything i've got to see in this flight. i couldn't take it anymore. you can look down. i see the water. i see the water, everything turning white because of the wind pushing the waves. you see wind. it was a lot. a little nerve-racking. and you hear people moaning, groaning. you hear people crying. there was two kids crying, a mother trying to console her children. and it's a lot to hear. and you know, i'm in the same state of panic. so at that point i closed my window shade and put my head in my lap and covered my ears. the plane was turbulent for maybe an hour. it never really stopped. it might have subsided a little bit, but not a lot. >> they were flying between a gap in the outer band of the

storm. they were working with, i understand, their meteorologist to kind of find a little channel that they could fly through. when you landed, what was that like? i've been on flights where people burst into applause. i assume there was probably some applause? >> and it was. i don't know why i didn't anticipate it, if i had, i wish i would have had my phone out. but everybody clapped. people were like standing ovation clap. it felt good. you feel like you beat the odds. i don't know what devastation was behind me. i just was happy to be ahead of it. we landed about 30 minutes early. >> wow. >> and safely. even during the flight, you know, we even had cabin service. at some point, of course, the flight stabilized. but the initial -- from about takeoff for about one hour, it was rough. >> did you get a cocktail at least on the flight? >> i had one. >> just one? >> you know what, just one. because the turbulence, i wasn't

sure what was going to happen. you know what, i wasn't the only one. >> you deserve it. listen, sheila, thanks for talking to us. i'm glad you and everybody else onboard that flight and the crew and everybody working there. sheila sellers, thank you so much. >> absolutely. thank you. >> quite a thing. puerto rico was spared the worst it of it. tens of thousands without waur, hundreds of thousands without power. yesterday we spoke to pilot greg scott who flew the prime minister over the island in a helicopter. nearly all structures he saw were damaged, completely flattened or just gone today. today he's flying supplies in and people out. the focus on rebuilding and preparing for the next one, jose. greg scott joins me again tonight. you described last night the destruction that you saw, just the extent of it. i think the prime minister said as much as 95% of the structures were damaged or destroyed. today what was it like flying there? >> today much better. the weather was better.

although we still had clouds and rain showers passing through from outer bands at the back of the storm. so we had to dodge a few rain showers there. but the flights were fine. you know, mostly your normal caribbean weather. just a little bit breezier. >> you talked yesterday about the damage to the runway. which you said could be easily repaired. i'm wondering, has that begun? so at least aircraft can start landing at the runway? and what sort of relief is being brought in at this point? >> yeah, i think we've got a couple of guys got some concrete from an tiga, and patched a few holes. and a team patching a couple of holes in the runway and it will be ready to go, probably tomorrow afternoon. and we flew people from red cross, the national office of disaster services here in antigua. and who else did i fly? emergency personnel.

>> have some people been evacuated? >> yeah. we managed -- our company, our helicopters managed to evacuate about, oh, i'd say maybe a dozen, dozen and a half, two dozen people. about a dozen and a half, 18 people or so. but the -- a couple of boats came over. one was a tour boat. he was the first one over there this morning. and he took -- i'm not sure, about 10 or 12 i'm guessing. another tour boat that does normal trips between barbuda for tourists, they showed up and took 100 back and they'll go back again tomorrow and do it twice. a few other smaller boats were also there. i'm guessing we've probably moved by the end of today, maybe -- could be as many as 150 were taken off the island. of course, initially it was get the sick, the elderly, the young babies, and injuries off the island. so we, myself, i carried one lady who was kind of in distress.

but she was -- she reminded me of an old hollywood movie star. she had a good spirit, and cool way of talking even though she was sick. >> we were looking at the images from yesterday from when you were flying over. is communication still an issue? can people communicate from the island? is there cell service? >> still down. still down. the only thing is satellite phone is the only thing that's working over there right now. we communicate with our companies, cell phones for just times, the arrival and departure times, we weren't even able to do that. >> there's a hurricane watch in effect for an tig washington, barbuda, for hurricane jose. are people able to prepare for another storm right now? i'm not sure on barbuda where they would stay. >> this is the problem. that's why i think the move is to get them off. there are no roofs over their heads. nobody has been able to get any kind of shelter set up there yet. i think that was the rush to get people off. i think we'll see another 200 or more get taken off barbuda

tomorrow. here in antigua, myself, i left everything pretty much, because i knew the next storm was coming. >> greg, again, we wish you the best. you're doing great work for a lot of people over there. thank you. this is last night what we saw in puerto rico. by this weekend, the same kind of wind, if not stronger, will be threatening high-rises, construction sites in miami. the question is whether the buildings in miami can stand the impact of this. details on that next. when you have allergies, it can seem like triggers pop up everywhere. luckily there's powerful, 24-hour, non-drowsy claritin. it provides relief of symptoms that can be triggered by over 200 different allergens. live claritin clear.

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ask your heart doctor about entresto. and help make tomorrow possible. ♪ you're only a day away. in south florida, they have tried to learn from the past, especially from hurricane andrew, which was the last category 5 hurricane to make land fall. since then, builders and developers have put prevention measures in place. but there's still no telling what will happen when irm ampa s place. >> reporter: workers scramble to tie down and sweep up, anything and everything that could be a destructive projectile in a storm. these are heavy, yes? >> these are heavy, yes, even toe they are heavy and you would not expect them to fly away. we want nothing to roll away and we strap it down.

you can see, it's a metal tie. >> reporter: construction cranes, and extra steel added, the hoist allowed to swing free like a weather vein. >> this is open to the bay. >> reporter: so the standards today are as meticulous as they can be? >> absolutely. >> reporter: much different than what? >> different than pre-andrew. >> reporter: not since hurricane andrew in 1992 has south florida prepared for such a potentially destructive storm. tall buildings like the 62 story, 1,000 museum, far different in design and engineering than single family homes. the windows alone over an inch thick. >> this is tested up to 150 miles an hour in a testing chamber. so it withstand a 2 by 4 at this level at 150 miles an hour. >> reporter: that's a lot. and even if it breaks, because there's a protective layer

inside. >> it should not shatter. >> reporter: i guess we will find out shortly. >> hopefully not. >> reporter: andrew destroyed 63,000 homes across south florida, today, most of the homes have been rebuilt and andrew came on shore as a category five storm, winds in excess of 175 miles an hour. it buzz-sawed through homestead and other south florida towns. the price tag, $26.5 billion. high speed winds and homes do not mix. it wants to tilt and rotate and twist and up lift, lift up. >> reporter: all at the same time? >> sure. >> reporter: that's a lot of pressure on a house. >> it is. >> reporter: he inspected homes and helped to write the post andrew building codes, requiring better design, materials, construction, and inspection. >> if we get the full force of category four or five, that

storm is what we call inexcess of a design event. in other words, our design requirements are less than a category 4 or 5 storm. >> reporter: a 2012 study shows a direct hit on miami by a storm as powerful as irma, could cost an estimated $125 billion in insurance althoulosses alone. it could be a disaster dealt bay single storm. >> does that mean we will get those kind of damages? well, we have not been tested for that particular event yet. and hopefully we won't be. >> reporter: tonight, construction sites, homeowners and families across the state hardening defenses in preparation of a storm that could break all records. >> now, miguel that is incredible that the windows of the high rise you were in, can take a 2 by 4 moving at 150 miles an hour slamming in to the

window. >> reporter: yes, t -- during t wind, it's blowing that fast, but the 2 by 4 may be going slower. but they can get airborn in those winds. they would be moving slower but the impact on the glass would be just enormous and they are designed. you know, that glass is about that thick, and they are designed that no matter how hard it hits it. even if it shattered it or breaks it, it will not shatter, spreading debris across a room. it will just break but not shatter because it has the protective layer in the center of the glass. >> again alate -- a lot of buildings, they have not been tested, obviously, in a cat 4, cat 5? >> reporter: this is the big serious question out there. all of the standards are up 140 miles an hour, and anything beyond that, we will see how miami does. >> all right. let's hope. the latest on what we know coming up on where the storm is heading and when, we will get an

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breaking news, tops the hour, it's all about irma, heading directly at miami, possibly as a category 5 hurricane. the storm, a strong category 5, showing signs in the latest update of growing stronger and the death toll in the islands in the path, is rising. it stands at ten,