>> i would say if you only heard what happened in the commercials, "happening now" starts right now. >> we are awaiting the white house briefing set to start about 90 minutes from now, we expect an update on the government's response to the devastation caused by hurricane irma. >> jon: we anticipate hearing more about a big dinner at the white house tonight hosted by president trump to address tax reform. we are covering all the news, "happening now" ." >> our number one concern today is saving lives. >> jon: up crisis unfolding in places like florida keys and jacksonville after hurricane irma strikes. across the sunshine state, there are warnings that a return to

normal could take weeks or even longer. plus, the united nations slaps north korea with fresh sanctions as concerns loom about another nuclear test by the rogue regime. it's all "happening now" ." but we begin with a fox news alert, florida residents beginning to return to parts of the state slammed by hurricane irma and boy did they get slammed. fema estimates 25% of the homes in the florida keys have been destroyed. welcome to the second hour of "happening now," i'm jon scott. >> melissa: i melissa francis. cruz allowing people to return to the northern end of the keys to go days after permanent pummeled the island. access to the lower keys is still blocked with the major highway blocked by the storm.

crews trying to restore access and connect the bridges. >> if you are in the keys, you've seen the pictures, you're just praying everybody is alive. i've been talking to the people down there, we are still getting the water started back up, sewage and power backup. >> melissa: that is really the case all across florida. heard earlier today on the west coast of florida, they were saying it could be as late as the 22nd before they get power back fully restored. they hope to have power restored on the east coast by this weekend. that is a long time when you don't have power. food is getting more and more scarce. >> jon: when i lived in miami i once rode my bicycle from homestead to key west, i know that chain pretty well, they are very low-lying. that storm surge came up and obliterated so much of the

housing along the florida keys. >> melissa: phil keating's live in the keys with the latest on the destruction there. the gates opened at sunrise? >> some days it's great to be home, other days it is not. otherwise, it's of gorgeous day in the keys, blue, very unusual for september. this scenic highway scenery is dominated from north to south by tons and tons of debris, wreckage, and homes totally lost for good. right before sunrise this morning, the most seven-point on the the mainland, hundreds of cars lined up to finally after being evacuated and exiled from their houses for a week, finally came back home. they could come down as far as halfway to key west, they have not been here for six or seven days. today is the day, they finally

see if it is as bad as they thought or not. we hooked up with the business owner who does parties and events, he also has a hot sauce, florida keys hot sauce company. he got to his house and sure enough the storm surge got him. >> it's not starting from scratch but it's not far from. we've been in the off-season, we are starting to get into the busy part of the season. for the events and weddings, it's been highly jeopardized. that whole revenue stream just went down the tubes. >> the florida department of transportation has been inspecting all the bridges, more than 40 of them connecting the mainland down to key west. they've cleared all of them as being safer drivers until you get to the lower 17 miles.

they've been inspected but haven't been officially cleared yet, perhaps that will happen as soon as tomorrow or the next day. people are certainly hoping that in fact does. you must member that cell phone service and power is spotty from key largo all the way to key west, from islamorada to key west expect a zero cell service power, no drinkable water and a zero sewage. you can go in and see the damage but most likely, most people are then returning to head back to the mainland and stay at a hotel or friend's house, wherever they've been writing out this very devastating category 4 hurricane irma. >> melissa: look at all the debris around you. we heard a small may be is down there as well? what are they doing? >> it's a small strike force.

you've also got the uss abraham lincoln, an aircraft carrier, a destroyer and a cruiser and they are all here for humanitarian relief, positioned right off of key west. the main thing they can provide since commissioners say nobody needs to be rescued, he doesn't even think a full 10,000 people stayed in key west, he thinks most of the keys to evacuate. the best these ships can be used for his platform so you can vary in and helicopter and supplies and everybody who is down here are going to need those things, water, food, all of the essentials because finally the convoys of food trucks and supply trucks will probably start coming in today. the overseas highway runs coming down south, we have seen superlong convoys of utility trucks as well as fema convoys.

aside from residence, the rebuilding is getting going but i've got to tell you, there is so much bulldozing and scooping up and hauling away that has to be done. >> melissa: phil keating, thank you for that. >> jon: president trump who knows florida pretty well commenting on the devastation in that state this morning, praising those involved in the response to this disaster, saying "the devastation left by hurricane irma was far greater than anyone thought, but amazing people working hard." let's bring in a white house correspondent and the editorial director for the daily column. jeff, the president is generally getting pretty high marks for the handling of the hurricane response. >> i think that is true. i think the federal response as

well as the cooperation with local and state officials has gone well. he's been very proactive on twitter which is his favorite mode of communication to communicate with the people who have been affected by those storms throughout the country. i think the response both by the white house and the other state and local officials has been quite positive. >> jon: the bush administration was tagged with an abysmal response, what happens after hurricane katrina, this administration taken that lesson? >> i think the president looks back to any sort of response on american history that hasn't lived up to the standard and thought he needed to be aggressive. he's communicating minute by minute on twitter, regularly talking about that. he's already been to the harvey

disaster area, now he will have a chance to go to florida as well. we may see a visit to the u.s. virgin islands, an area americans should pay more attention to because it's one of the hardest hit areas as its residents go door to door looking for food, a location that was absolutely savaged by irma. the white house making clear that they are very much paying attention and extending disaster relief efforts there as well. >> jon: it is still early, that's another lesson this white house needs to take to heart. we are a couple of days in, the storm has moved up into the more northern states but a lot of power out and a lot of flooding and damage left behind. if there isn't some kind of organized effort to help the people who are still in need of age, those attitudes could turn south pretty quickly. >> recovery is going to take long time.

that could be a communication challenge and a funding challenge for this president going forward. >> jon: the president is inviting senators from both parties to dinner at the white house tonight to talk about tax reform, we are told. is this a sign that some kind of a bipartisan deal could be happening? >> i wouldn't over read inviting three moderate democrats to the white house for dinner but i will say both parties were shocked by the three-month budget extension. many now believe the president may be a wild card on his willingness to work with either party. he is not in anyway hard line on working with republicans. if he can get a couple democrats to cross, he can begin working towards the reconciliation process to get tax reform past.

>> jon: there has been a real partisan logjam on capitol hill for about a decade or more, it's hard to say exactly when it got as bad as it is. could this be something that begins to break that logjam? >> i think it's very strategic on the part of the white house. they would like to have bipartisan support for tax reform and they can't count necessarily on getting republicans to get it over the finish line. it's interesting contracted with the strategy that was employed for health care reform, you didn't see the president going out and doing the sales pitch around the country, you are seeing him planned to do that now with tax reform. >> jon: jeff mason, vince, we will be looking for some information out of this meeting tonight, it's interesting to se

see. >> melissa: the powerful remnants of hurricane irma bringing record flooding to jacksonville, florida, washing out many of the city's streets. coming up, the mayor of jacksonville joins me to talk about the daring rescues that may have saved hundreds of live lives. >> you need to put a white flag or something that represents that where we can see you and our public safety workers, our firemen, our policemen have stepped up. (vo) when i brought jake home, i wanted him to eat healthy. so i feed jake purina cat chow naturals indoor, a nutritious formula with no artificial flavors. made specifically for indoor cats. purina cat chow. nutrition to build better lives.

>> as we get closer to the river, you can look here at this hyatt regency underneath it, it's basically a canal. the water is still coming up, there are basically whitecaps here in downtown jacksonville where officials for the last several days have been urging everybody in certain evacuation zones along the river to get ou out.

>> melissa: just incredible. when you look at the water in jacksonville, that was one place people were not talking about. jacksonville wasn't even really on the radar and as the storm rolled in, look at that water flooding the streets. >> jon: the i came ashore pretty close to key west, jacksonville is a five hour, maybe six hour drive away from there, on the northern end of the state. the eye came ashore on the southernmost part of the state, this is a monster storm. look at all that water. >> melissa: the jacksonville sheriff's office tweeted out... they did feel like they had warned their residence to

evacuate, to be serious. some of us did not think of this as being an area that was a prime target. they are saying we told you to get out and people had to be rescued. >> jon: 35 deaths at least in the caribbean, the number likely to go up. it is a killer storm and you know, they haven't gotten to some of the worst hit areas of the keys, it is possible that they may find other victims that have not been located or recovered in the most damaged areas of the florida keys. >> melissa: i think we have peter doocy standing by now live in jacksonville jacksonville, t

is it like at this hour? >> we just got word from city officials at the shelter population is down to about 1400 people, roughly half as many people as they had in the shelters during the storm because the mandatory evacuation order has been lifted. many are returning, the st. john's river is still occupying entire streets. water gets really deep, we've actually seem some folks show up where it is still dry, calm as far as they can and realize they can't get close enough to go inspect their homes because the water is too deep so they have no idea how bad things actually are at the end of the road. this is one of the neighborhoods where officials spent most of their time yesterday responding to 75 different emergencies.

the coast guard was here as wel well, units from tennessee, west virginia and kentucky all contributing. when you hear about people coming here from out of state to help, you get a sense of that with the coast guard response. to give you a sense of how -- the water is receding but it is still a problem. the streets are flooded, the river is all the way over there. about a football field away, it came all the way up onto the streets, through houses, clogged up storm drains and a lot of the water is still standing there. a big problem today in addition to flooding becomes the bugs and snakes. they say they've already had more reports than normal of people getting bit by snakes and water where they are not to be. >> melissa: another thing to worry about. peter doocy, thank you for that. >> jon: do i see your skin crawling there? snakes. the international community

uniting and hitting north korean leader kim jong un with more sanctions. coming up, we will take you live to south korea. and later in the hour in case you missed it, our first time around, an american tourist escapes and island hit extremely hard by hurricane irma. the terrifying moment inside a resort and how he was able to get out. >> we heard people were coming into different resorts, stealing people's jewelry and belongings, it wasn't just taking water and food, it was just really scary.

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>> melissa: here's an example

of a neighborhood pulling together in the aftermath of hurricane irma. this is where most residents are still without power, including my extended family, that's how we got this video. the owner of this market moved the grill out front and started cooking eggs and bacon, anything he had inside. you can see a hungry crowd quickly formed. we are told they charged a nominal amount but quite a contrast to the looting we are seeing elsewhere and we wanted to show that to you because we want to celebrate the better things that have happened with neighborhoods coming together. my in-laws were driving around looking for something, they are out there cooking on a grill in front. the market did not have power either. >> jon: these situations bring out the worst in people but they also bring out the best. that's really cool. >> melissa: absolutely.

>> the department of transportation down in the keys to inspect all the bridges, you can see people are traveling, you are not sure on the bridges they can take any significant weight. our department of transportation is working on that. >> melissa: that's scary. rick scott speaking on the safety concerns with most of the bridges and railway systems in the florida keys after hurricane irma wreaked havoc. officials believe serious damage was avoided to the 42 highway bridges that link that small string of islands together. folks living in the upper keys were allowed to return home today but crews continue to inspect systems across the state before giving the all clear for people to travel. joining me now is a retired lieutenant robert flowers. thank you so much for joining u

us. they go in and survey this damage and try to make sure everything is safe, let's job one? >> job one is to make sure the search and rescue operations are ongoing, it is important to get an assessment of all the critical infrastructure because one of the things that's most important is to get essential services up and running for people. that includes the ability to move power, water, it's very important. >> melissa: another problem is the standing water everywhere. it showed up all over the place, there is snakes and other things in the water, is that something the army corps of engineers can help with? >> yes, it is.

they are at their best when they are responding to disasters like this, these are unprecedented. two category for 4 hurricanes s close together is unheard of. you can inspect that the water is being drained as quickly as it can, it becomes a critical operation. >> melissa: you talked about the fact that we had these to go back-to-back hurricanes devastating into different states, how thin does that stretch the corps of engineers? >> it really stretches that, particularly when you throw in the u.s. virgin islands and assistance there. it's a stretch but they will do the job. i have absolutely no doubt.

the department of defense is really committed to being in there, you will see a full court press. no one can respond with the communication, the energy, and the abilities that the department of defense brings. >> melissa: there was a discussion recently about having someone on hand to improve new permits quickly so folks can get going with the rebuilding effort, what's your opinion of something like that? >> i absolutely think anything you can do to expedite the process will be great. whether you are a government entity at any level, a private corporation, a utility or even a private citizen you have to abide by the law and if the law that requires a permit to do something it has to be obtained. it can be done in an expeditious manner, there's been a lot of talk about expediting the permitting process while harvey and irma give the nation an

opportunity to put that to the test and demonstrate it can be done. we did it after katrina and to some extent after sandy. i know it can be done. >> melissa: thank you for joining us, we appreciate your insight. >> jon: another big story out of washington, president trump talking tax reform with three democratic and three republican senators tonight over dinner at the white house just days after he struck a deal with the democrats on hurricane relief and the debt ceiling. why our next guest says this could demonstrate a new strategy for this white house.

>> melissa: a fox news alert, the u.s. security council taking unanimous action against north korea, imposing new sanctions as the house foreign affairs committee holds a hearing on the regime. one witness slamming china for not doing its part, possible topic of conversation for secretary of state rex tillerso rex tillerson. >> i cannot tell the committee today we've seen sufficient evidence of china's willingness to expel the various north korean middlemen and brokers that are continuing to establish webs and front companies. we need to see that happen.

>> melissa: a senior foreign affairs correspondent does live in south korea, what's the reaction? >> we are in the southeastern part of the country, there has been a swift reaction to the u.n. security council resolution against north korea, predictably from the regime of kim jong un, you can imagine the reaction was negative. one official coined them evil, saying north korea would inflict the greatest pain on the u.s. after the sanctions. china and russia calling for talks, analysts are not too sur sure. if diplomacy does fail, the u.s. and south korea already at least for a military option, take a look at what we saw today. >> this is about as close and feel as you are going to get to

war on the korean peninsula. south korea and u.s. marines and a live fire exercise, machine guns, grenades, all aiming down that valley at an armored division. >> analysts say a conventional war with north korea would not be pretty at all, casualty figures easily in the hundreds of thousands. while war and the korean peninsula seems remote, the possibility does exist and why these folks do train, take a listen. >> a lot of people are focused on the peninsula, for us it's been business as usual. the marine corps is the nation's 911 force and we are ready to answer the call. >> everybody we spoke to said

this was purely defensive and they pay no attention at all to the rhetoric or the actions north of the dmz. >> melissa: does it feel like the tension is mounting there? i know you've been many times, does a few different this trip? >> it does feel different. there is greater caution from the south koreans, they are use to a lot of rhetoric, a lot of maneuverings by north korea but i think this nuclear test a little more than a week ago really focused attention, evacuation plans being looked a at, certainly as we saw today, the military and the government itself taking on a much more proactive approach to the whole situation. >> melissa: thank you so much. >> jon: this fox news alert,

president trump inviting senators from both sides of the aisle to talk tax reform over dinner at the white house. three republicans from the senate finance committee and three moderate democrats set to join the president and vice president this evening. this bipartisan dinner comes just days after president trump struck a surprise deal with democrats on hurricane relief and the debt ceiling. james rosen is live in d.c. with more on this. >> the question confronting washington right now was whether the compromise was a one-off event or represents a new normal for a nonideological chief. congressional leaders insist despite some whispers on capitol hill, they were genuinely surprised when the conversation ended with caving

to nancy pelosi's request. a chief executive, desperate for legislative successes and the failure of his health care overall efforts achieve smaller objectives. they believe he sees the big picture, particularly the economy from their perspective, not the democrats and they believed tax reform will wind up as a particular case where the democrats will not be receptive to triangulation. >> this president somebody wants to get results for the american people and so do we end that can happen in a way that involves democrats support, that is absolutely something we are for. at the same time, we are going

to try and move an agenda we think is good for the american people based on central right solutions. >> right after the segment i will tell you who coined the term triangulation to describe bill clinton's approach. >> jon: i think i know the answer to that. >> do you follow me on twitter? that is the important thing. >> jon: of course i do, who better to follow? >> melissa: an american tourists trapped on a caribbean island during hurricane irma, how he got out and what he learned from the experience. plus, the stock market could have a record-setting day, people living in irma's path aren't so lucky. our next guest talks about the cost of recovery. ithout the car.

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>> melissa: during the first hour of "happening now," we spoke with an american tourist who was rescued from the island of saint maarten. he said he was trapped inside a resort while hurricane irma moved through the island. he and three others stayed in a bathroom for close to eight hours, holding the door closed. heavy wind and rained sounded at resort. the storm damaging 75% of the hotel. he said eventually they got a ride to the port where he got on a royal caribbean cruise ship on sunday afternoon, he called it a surreal experience. >> surviving the hurricane put everything in perspective, there were 190 guest at that resort, mainly americans. i think there was safety in numbers with all of us there. we learned after we got out from some of the resort staff, we were able to contact, as soon as

we left it really got substantially worse. >> melissa: he says photos of the destruction did not do justice, the earliest he will be able to get home now is thursda thursday. >> jon: this fox news alert, the dow in record territory after investors breathed a sigh of relief in the wake of a mob. this as some airports in florida are reopening and the average price of a gallon of gas -- the economic recovery after the storm, former deputy of commerce secretary and president and ceo of the insurers association of america. it's hard for me to believe wall street is relieved about what happened after her mouth, it looks like such a mess in

jacksonville down to the florida keys. >> when you remember that prior to landfall, projections are based on the path of the storm at that time, we could be seeing losses of $150 billion. today the best estimates are around $40 billion of insured losses. i guess you have to factor expectations into the equation of how bad things could have been. >> jon: the market doesn't like uncertainty and the uncertainty of an oncoming hurricane sends a market into a tailspin. now that we've seen to have at least an early handle on the damages, do you think this market is going to continue to turn north? >> i don't predict the markets but what i can tell you is that property casualty insurers are prepared to surge an army of the claims adjusters into the affected areas just as soon and we are given at the all clear sign by state and local

officials. our number one priority is getting checks into the hands of policyholders so families can begin rebuilding their homes, getting cars back on the road and businesses open again. >> jon: that brings economic activity in and of itself. that's one of the silver linings of a storm like this, all those people who have lost property and had their cars flooded out will be running down to their neighborhood dealership or their neighborhood a super store to buy the supplies they need to fix things up. >> projections are at is going to have a short-term impact on gdp, we can expect to see that when the figures are produced. there will probably be a spike in a number of areas in construction related businesses and home furnishings as well as in automobiles for a while. it is certainly caused by historic storms harvey and irma

are not something that are going to have a net positive impact on the u.s. economy. >> jon: but about the refinery capacity in the wake of harvey in particular? gas prices spike after that. >> it's going to take a while for the all those refineries to get back up to full speed, this is one of the great concerns we had right after 9/11. when you looked at 30% of all u.s. refining capacity is in houston, we were worried about what would happen if that refining capacity was taken out. now we can begin to see when that refining capacity is disrupted, at the it has on supply as well as prices. this is a situation where they will get those refineries back up. all those people who evacuated are going to now have to get back home.

>> jon: i'm surprised they are talking about getting the power back on state wide in the next ten days or so. hurricane andrew was a less intense storm, covered a much smaller quadrant of florida and it took ten days at least to get all the power back on after that storm that only crisscross the state. this one mode all the way up to the north from the south. >> i think it's important to learn that for everybody who is involved in a response to a disaster like this, we learn from every disaster, we learned from andrew in terms of building codes, the kind of responses that take place. we learned from katrina so all of those learnings are built into everyone who has to respond. i think you're also going to see one of the largest deployments of electrical company lineman, there are service agreements with states all across the country and other countries will be surging.

>> jon: people who are in short, should they inspect their insurer to write them a check on the spot? >> companies want to respond as quickly as possible. my advice is as soon as you can, call your insurance agent and let them know about the damage you have. be sure to take pictures and video of the damage. many insurance companies have mobile apps and online ways to file claims. for the first time in a major disaster you are going to see companies using drones to help survey damage. all of that is going to speed up the process of getting checks into the hands of policyholders. >> jon: david sampson is the president and ceo of the insurers association of america.

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>> hello everyone, i'm sandra smith. first responders from tennessee helping one of florida city with recovery after its loss. we have live reports from across the state. we are awaiting the white house press briefing with sarah huckabee sanders, the president expected to make a major push for tax reform. how does this unfold compared to health care reform? could the north korea sanctions passed by the u.n. reflect the power of russia and china? we will explain on "america's news headquarters" in a moment.

>> jon: right now, bangladesh is prime minister is urging burma to take back hundreds of thousands of muslims who crossed the border to leave violence in the nation. >> we cannot do that. >> jon: at least 370,000 refugees have flooded into bangladesh in the last two and a half weeks. this fox news alert, after hurricanes harvey and irma, forecasters are watching yet another storm. >> melissa: hurricane jose is moving across the atlantic ocea atlantic ocean, the fox extreme weather center, what can we expect? >> we are looking at a category

category 1 hurricane at this point, the motion expected to do a little loop out in the atlantic and turn and head back towards the u.s. you can see a final turn, it looks like it is turning away from the u.s. but any time you get that close we will be paying very close attention. this is a whole bunch of models plotting the potential movement of the system, you see it making that loop and running back up along the east coast. none of them having it going into the east coast but when you get this close to new york, boston, we start to pay attention to it. we have a little time for these to move and we will be paying very close attention. back to what we are seeing with this before, it is becoming a widespread, large rainmaker. we are looking at rain running through the ohio river valley.

a huge storm reaching the entire eastern half of the country. we are looking at flood watches and warnings in several locations, mostly because of rainfall as some of that water continues to try to get out of the region. obviously out in a lot of communities the power is out, heat index today, plenty of spots getting up to triple digits and at least the middle 90s, it is very uncomfortable today in the sunshine state so our fox are with people who don't have any power in that region. >> jon: we are awaiting the white house news briefing, that is set to begin about half an hour from now, the president gets ready to host a bipartisan dinner on tax reform at the white house. we will bring you that briefing when it begins.

>> thank you so much for joining us. that was a tour of the hurricane

ravaged area. we see all that's left to be rebuilt, fixed. >> hang in there florida and texas. "america's news hq" starts now. >> sandra: fox news alert. we are awaiting a white house press briefing. we're expecting to hear important updates on the recovery ef forts. tropical storm irma weakening, but the danger is far from over. its path still threatening floods, damaging winds and severe weather. meanwhile, folks in florida are searching for the road to recovery. >> we got really hit pretty hard. we've got lots of wind. lots of broken trees. a tree that fell on to our neighbor's roof and actually caved the roof in. in the middle of the storm he was running to our house to safety. it was pretty terrible. we don't have any water in our house, but all our neighbors around us do.