you can see tonight on "nightline," steve jobs resigns. tonight, the wizard behind some world has ever known resigns as chief of apple in a surprise announcement. we've got the very latest. hurricane warning. the first major hurricane to take aim at the u.s. in years. irene smashes through the bahamas and bears down on the mainland. we're out in the storm. and hunger at home. a year ago, he would not have believed he would be feeding his

family on handouts. >> i wasn't living above my means. had a job, put food on the table. >> we go inside the quiet american crisis. good evening. i'm terry moran. steve jobs once said that people n't know what they want till yoyoshow it to them. with incredible, almost spooky, consistency, jobs has produced new products that consumers discovered they really, really wanted. well, now just hours ago, steve jobs has resigned as chief executive of apple, the company he built. just a month after apple announced astronomical third quarter profits of more than $7 billion. here's abc's neal karlinsky. >> reporter: it was the resignation heard around the world. that's because steve jobs isn't

just a ceo. he's been called one of the great visionaries of our time. a man on par with thomas edison for a new generation. >> the news is pretty shocking. i didn't expect this was going to come today. we know steve jobs has been sick for the last several months and been on leave. but it came out of nowhere. >> reporter: in a letter to apple's board of director, jobs writes, i have always said if there ever came a day when i could no longer meet my duties, i would be the first to l l you know. unfortunately, that day has come. if you have a cell phone, if you listen to music, if you use a computer at all, steve jobs has made a difference. but in the midst of all that, jobs has quietly been in the fight of his life for years. he beat a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004 but came back to work to bring apple to new heights. after appearing extremely thin at a conference in 2008, there was new concern about his health. >> i just wanted to mention

this. >> reporter: jobs claimed it was nothing more than a hormone imbalance at first. then took a leave of absence. it was only after an appearance in 2009 the world learned he actually needed a liver transplant. a fact kept under wraps till after the procedure. >> i now have the liver of a mid-20s person. who died in a car crash. >> reporter: the tech world feared this day was coming. even though he'll stay on as chairman of the board, the steve jobs era is effectively over. apple's chief operating officer tim cook will replace jobs as ceo. a brilliant insider who's kept the company on track and successful during jobs' earlier medical leave. but as just about every analyst on the planet has pointed out before, he's no steve jobs. everybody you talk to at apple is going to tell you steve jobs is one guy and one his of greatest skills is a talent scout. he's assembled the greatest team in the world, blahlau blah.

but the truth is steve jobs is a notorious micromanager. an overbearing boss with a reputation like nobody you ever heard of in your life and he is part of the reason apple is -- he is most of the reason apple is what it is today. >> reporter: the reclusive billionaire always let his products do the talking. his signature black shirt, levi's and new balance tennis shoes were generally only on display once or twice a year. as jobs took the stage to announce the company's newest product. >> we are calling it iphone. >> reporter: he agreed to sit down with us in 2007 after announcing the very first iphone. while he appeared relaxed, his iron grip on all things apple was plain for us to see as he kept things short and seemed to have his pr people on edge. no one bats a thousand. you've been called the babe ruth of silicon valley. are you worried there isn't another killer piece of hardware to come out with to wow the world? >> we don't worry about stuff like that. we just try to build products

that we think are really wonderful and people might want and sometimes we're right and sometimes we're wrong. but i think we're going to hit a grand slam with this. >> welcome, mr. jobs. looks like you have a fan club here. >> thanks, yeah. >> reporter: in a strange and surprise move just a few months ago, jobs himself was front and center in, of all places, the city council, pitching the construction of a new world headquarters for his company to star-struck local leaders. steve jobs founded apple, along with steve wozniak, back in 1976, where he was best known for the macintosh computer. he was out after internal conflicts. the company was far from the leader in personal computers. a little over a decade later, he returned with a vengeance. just look at apple's stock. from $5.48 a share on his 1997 return to $378 today.

enormous wealth built off a changed the world we live in. >> you lack at jobs and what he's done, there's only a couple of people in the past 100 years that can really be analogous to that. you've got walt disney, henry ford and steve bs. and, you know, those companies still thrive. they don't do it in the same way they did when their leaders were around. but they still manage to make it. >> reporter: in the cold, hard world of technology, analysts believe this will eventually mean an opening, an opportunity for the competition to take on apple. but that will have to wait. because today isn't just a surprise. it's sad. sad for the man who's fought with every fiber of his being just to go to work. to keep running the company he founded and loved so much. he wrote today, i believe apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. i'm neal karlinsky for "nightline" in los angeles. >> steve jobs steps down. thanks to neal for that report. just ahead, we're going to take a look at what we're in

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hurricane irene is coming cloelgser e ery minute with hurricane or tropical storm watches likely for portions of the carolinas as early as tomorrow morning. the storm's so big that the navy's moving its ships out of the way in virginia. a county in north carolina has ordered the evacuation of as many as 150,000 people. the images we're alrlrdy getting out of the bahamas show this hurricane's power better than any number can.

abc's linsey davis is there. >> reporter: good evening, terry. no doubt about it, hurricane irene is here. we're getting hit hard. in addition to the torrential rain, we have these punishing winds and increasingly rough surf. the storm surge is expected to get to 10 feet. that could cause significant damage here. the main concern for the u u. is what happens to irene as it moves out over the atlantic and reaches the east coast. tonight, officials i i dare county, north carolina, have declared a mandatory evacuation for all visitors. we're talking about as many as 150,000 people, effective tomorrow morning. as hurricane irene approaches. this is hurricane irene as seen today from the international space station. >> it's hard to believe that it's that big. >> it is big, but we're actually flying over some of the outer bands right now. >> reporter: irene's powerful winds stretch out over 400 miles.

the same width as the entire state of arizona. it's a massive hurricanene thats quickly intensifying into what forecasters are calling an extreme storm. already a category 3 with sustained winds of 120 miles per hour and carrying with it up to a foot of rain. irene is expected to strengthen further to a category 4 as it bears down on the mid-atlantic coast of the united states and threatens the major metropolitan areas from new york city, all the way to boston, with torrential rain and dangerous winds. >> this is a largege powowful hurricane. currently category 3. but it's expected to strengthen to category 4 here. that's just a very large system. going to have a wide-scale impact on the east coast of the united states. >> reporter: irene is currently tearing through the bahamas. the storm surge is expected to be as high as 10 feet. but it's not only churning up the surf, rain is coming down in buckets. and howling winds only expected to intensify.

some tourists were forced to evacuate. what did they say about how dangerous it would be to remain on the island? >> they said catastrophic.c. i'm pretty sure that was the word they used. >> reporter: irene has already hammered its way through the caribbean. gathering energy as its carved its destructive path, destroying buildings, leveling trees and flooding homes. it claims one life inuerto rico and had its way with the dominican republic. that was just when it was a category 2 hurricane. the storm is predicted to gather strength. >> winds perhapspsusting up to and above 125 miles per hour. we're talking storm surge over 6 feet. so massive flooding. damage from the winds as well. it's going to be a very dangerous situation. people need to take this very seriously. >> reporter: officials are warning that along the southeastern shores, life-threatening surf and rip currents will develop as early as tomorrow. irene is expected to deaea a glancing blow as early as this weekend to north carolina's

barrier islands. thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate. federal officials warn irene could flood streets and knock out power lines as far north as new england. more than 65 million people live along irene's projected path. it could be the first monster storm on the east coast in 12 years. >> we're expecting hurricane-force winds perhaps gusting to 80 miles per hour in the city of boston and providence. something that people haven't seen for a very long time. this will more than likely go down as a very historic storm. >> reporter: current modelss shw irene kicking out east and pe l barreling down on long island and new england. the last hururcane to hit the u.s. was ike in 2008 which hit galveston, texas, as a category 2, killing over 100 people and causing billions of dollars in damage. residents along the eastern seaboard have had a busy year. record snowfall this past winter. and record heat waves earlier this summer. >> who would have thought we'd

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17 million children in america today are food insecure. that means their parents often don't know where the next meal's going to come from. counting adults, 1 in 6 americans simply don't have enough food. those may sound like statistics from another time but they are today's reality. here's john donvan for our series hunger at home. crisis in america.

>> reporter: it's grocery day for don orange ofbenita springs, arizona. >> a couple of those? >> reporter: picking up what he needs to feed his kids at the only price he can afford which is nothing. since june, don has been a regular at the benita springs assistance office food pantry. >> see you wednesday. >> reporter: joining a swelling number of once safely middle class americans who now need the most basic kind of help to make sure they can feed their families. only because he's got the food pantry to go to, his kids have never once been hungry. he's a single dad who does the cooking. their mom lives a few towns away and has the kids on weekend. but it has come close to that. >> my unemployment ran out in april. we lived on the money in may. then june -- >> reporter: you went to zero? literally zero? >> nothing. >> reporter: you couldn't walk into a grocery store? >> no. >> reporter: five years ago, he managed a string of shoe stores.

the houses are big and many of the neighbors had boats. he had no doubt whatsoever this is where he belonged. with the kind of money he was pulling down. >> in excess of 50,000 a year. >> reporter: was it enough? >> yes. >> reporter: then you went down -- that job ended, you were laid off? >> yes, correct. >> reporter: did you feel trapped in this situation? >> a lot, yes, yep. it's pretty rough. we wonder from d d to day where we'll get money from. >> we increased, one year, like 60%. >> reporter: a year, 60%? >> 60% in one year. >> reporter: of need? >> yes. >> reporter: this man runs a food bank that supplies nearly 200 food pantries in southwest florida. 60% is the increase in the number of people signing up to get food when the recession started. theyey have a huge warehouse he. outfitted to store all kinds of food. what's the temperature? >> it's about 38 degrees. >> reporter: feels good today. thanks to relationships with local supermarkets, that donate food they're otherwise not going to sell. >> people don't buy it within 24

to 48 hours, they freeze it and give it to us. >> reporter: and with the fleet of trucks making the rounds daily to pick up that food, this is one food bank that is very well stocked. they also send trucks out into the community.y. this was on tuesday this week. a 60 mile drive to a park where people were waiting in 95-degree heat. as the trucks are quickly unloaded, an assembly line forms. 14,000 pounds of food given away 900 people.ree hours to nearly many of f em, the long-term poor. but now a new group of people using their services. people who were doing well before. >> former construction workers. former real estate people. >> reporter: people who had jobs? >> oh, yeah. people supported those industries. >> reporter: it's people like don orange who, back on that june day, when they were almost out of food, swallowed his pride and went to his first food pantry. what was that feeling like? >> like a lower class that i didn't -- wasn't able to keep up

to standards of everybody else. especially living in thi neighborhood. >> reporter: how do you explain to your kids why you're going to a food pantry? >> well, i explain to them right now that daddy's out of work and it's tough. when they ask for stuff that they want, tell them that dad doesn't have any money right now. when dad gets back to work and is able to get money, i'll buy it. >> reporter: this week, right now is especially bad for don. his electricity could be cut in just a day or two and the water. as we sit here now, do you have any credit cards left? >> no credit cards. >> reporter: do you have a bank account of any kind? >> yes. >> reporter: any money in it? >> no. >> reporter: do you have any money in your wallet? >> no. >> reporter: dry? >> dry. i've got some change in the kid's piggy bank. >> reporter: that's it? >> that's it. >> reporter: which means he is selling what is left to pay the bills. his living room set. is listed right now on craigslist. you still have a big flat screen

tv. does that v thave to go? >> possibility. i've been over to the electronics store. what they want to give me for it is a little bit of nothing. if it comes down to food on the table, that's what i've got to do. >> reporter: before, feeding the kids was costing him $150 to $200 a month. now at least that is money if he gets it, he can put towards some other necessity like the electrical bill to keep the house air conditioned in the florida heat. he has just applied for food stamps and he's stilil looking for work. >> even fast food's hard to get a job. before, fast food, you could walk in and if you had experience, they would hire you. now they turn everybody away. >> reporter: you'd be willing to work fast food? >> yes, whatever it takes to keep the bills paid and the roof over the kid's head. >> reporter: somehow don says he will get it back, his place in the middle class. meantime, for his kid, there's the hot breakfast and lunch at school and what he's still getting from the food pantry. the safety net that is the only reason those kids are not hungry tonight.