"jimmy fallon" happening right [ cheers and applause ] this morning on "early today," monster storm. hurricane irene lurks in the caribbean preparing to bear down on the eastern u.s. aftershock. how the east coast is reacting to tuesday's rare earthquake in virginia. and hot water. a woman who forced her adopted son to eat hot sauce is now a woman who forced her adopted son to eat hot sauce is now facing her own punishment. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello, and good morning. welcome to our viewers across the nation including the pacific time zone. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with a gathering

storm. as predicted, hurricane irene regained strength overnight growing to a category 2 storm. and high above the earth you can see in this harrowing image that was taken from the international space station just how huge hurricane irene is as it passes over the caribbean. experts say the storm could grow to a category 4 monster by the time it makes landfall this weekend. in fact, some forecasts predict irene could become the most powerful storm to hit the east coast in more than a decade. let's go right now over to meteorologist todd santos. he's tracking irene for us. todd, good morning. this is going to be a big one. >> good morning. yeah, it does appear that way. the picture we saw from nasa is very large with the system but the hurricane winds only extend about 40 miles out from the center. you can see the eye making its way through the bahamas. you are talking about a category

2 storm. right now max sustained winds at 110 miles per hour. one more mile per hour and you are already a major hurricane. it won't take much. you can see the intensification. even by later today. that would be a cat 3. then the track at least through saturday potential landfall at least looks in the direction of north carolina. but sunday and monday we can see effects across a huge piece of the atlantic, northeast coastline. if you're traveling a lot to talk about. >> todd, thanks so much. as the eastern united states keeps a watchful eye on irene, the region is still recovering from the shock of another of mother nature's phenomenons, a rare earthquake. some of you on the west coast may be laughing at our reactions. eye ai side from some slight damage to the washington monument and atop the national cathedral in the capital, the biggest toll the rumble seemed to take was on people's nerves. kristen dahlgren has more. >> reporter: it was an

unexpected afternoon shock along the east coast, unused to earthquakes, the shaking sent panicked people into the street. >> i thought the building was about to come down. so i didn't wait for anybody to tell me to evacuate. >> reporter: this is video from a virginia grocery store. in washington, d.c., even the white house shook. the capitol and national monuments were evacuated. the national cathedral closed after losing chunks off its center spire. the 5.8 magnitude quake was centered northwest of richmond, virginia, and was felt from georgia and south carolina to maine, even michigan. >> tremors like everything was just shaking, the whole building was shaking. >> reporter: trains and planes were delayed. now experts warn more rumbling could follow. >> we will have earthquakes that will occur over days and weeks ahead from an earthquake like this. unfortunately, most often than not the aftershocks are smaller. >> reporter: good news for

people along the east coast already shocked enough. kristen dahlgren, nbc news, washington. well, elsewhere moammar gadhafi's fate appears to be all but sealed after rebels stormed and looted his tripoli compound yesterday. just hours ago with the elusive leader's whereabouts unknown, gadhafi released an audio address rallying loyal residents against rebel forces. brian mooar has the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. gadhafi may have lost his seat of pow every, but he certainly hasn't lost his fight. in this audio message released in the last couple of hours, he sounds subdued but clearly defiant as he calls on libyans to pour into the capital and eliminate what he calls the traitors and the rats. gadhafi said he made an undercover foray into the capital and downplayed the chaos. libyans have overrun his compound literally striking at the heart of the regime.

they've killed loyalist troops, looted the armorers, even beheaded a statue of gadhafi, but they walked away without the ultimate prize, the man himself. >> brian mooar for us in washington. thank you. here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. in connecticut, high speed driving came to a crashing end for one driver. witnesses say that the driver was speeding before losing control and slamming into a home. no one inside the home was hurt, but unfortunately, the person behind the wheel wasn't so lucky. the driver was removed from the car and taken to the hospital with serious injuries. thick clouds of black smoke billowed from a fiery wreck on a texas highway. the raging inferno erupted after a jeep collided with a tanker truck carrying 5,600 gallons of jet fuel. officials shut down the stretch of highway until the blaze burned itself out. one passenger in the jeep was taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. and finally, in arizona

dozens of animals needed help slithering out of an ugly situation. residents removed over 30 malnourished reptiles from a home of an animal hoarder who is scheduled to be featured on a cable tv show. so far no charges have been filed against the homeowner. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here once again is meteorologist todd santos. he has your weather channel forecast. good morning. >> those animal folks, the animal control that collected all those snakes had to deal with substantial heat. that's one thing we'll continue to see today, especially down towards yuma, phoenix. wit to take you out to the satellite radar composite. we go in closer to central and northern california with a few showers going on. but if you're traveling to the east, interportions of ohio and extending down to southeast missouri with showers headed into memphis. at least across the west, you do see that one area of low

pressure tracking northward along the coastline. that's providing a few showers across the four corners again today. chance for some monsoonal showers but nothing overwhelming extending back through southern california. northern california the better chance for intermittent thunderstorm activity possible. there's a look at temperatures this morning. by later this afternoon medford getting in on some of the showers and clouds and fog to start off in and around the bay area. w >> so at least a few spots there in the west that might see a chance for showers today. we'll talk about what we can two into tomorrow and coming up. >> thanks so much, todd. bad news is good news on wall street. sort of. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, she's out to gain weight and rid herself of bad

karma. coming up a first for the red sox and a basketball great makes a shocking announcement.

good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here are some of your top headlines this morning. a study finds the postal service could save $1.5 billion annually if it slows down its two to three-day delivery schedules for first class and priority mail deliveries by a day. casey anthony must report to a florida probation office by friday after losing an appeal in her check fraud case. the court disagreed with her argument that she completed the probation sentence while in jail awaiting a murder trial for her daughter's death. she was acquitted in that case. this is disturbing. an alaska woman who squirted hot sauce into her adopted russian

son's mouth as punishment has been convicted of misdemeanor child abuse. she recorded the incident and sent it to the dr. phil show in a ploy, prosecutors say, to get on the show. she faces up to a year in prison. amy winehouse's family says tests show no illegal drugs were found in the singer's system when she died last month. there's no word whether prescription drugs were present. alcohol was found, but it is yet to be determined if that contributed to her death. and a new study estimates earth has almost 8.8 million species. discover so far scientists have only discovered about a quarter of them. the dow opens at 11,176 after spiking 322 points yesterday. the s&p jumped 38 points. the nasdaq shot up 100. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo

the nikkei fell 93 points, while in hong kong the hang seng dropped 408. believe it or not, bleak economic news actually drove stocks to impressive heights tuesday, and that's because investors hope more weak data will force fed chair ben bernanke to step in with some sort of stimulus. that's despite no one fed official saying anything to encourage such speculation. bernanke gives his speech this friday in jackson hole, wyoming. a local manufacturing survey that pointed to a down shift in activity helped fuel those rescue hopes, as did fresh housing data showing sales of newly built homes hitting a six-month low in july. exxonmobil and chevron both shot up more than 4% as oil settled up more than $1 a barrel. tech stocks nvidia and jds

uniphase were among the big gainers. both rising about 10%. while american express and jp morgan chase added 4%. bank of america was the lone blue clip in the red sinking to a 2 1/2 year low on growing concerns the nation's largest banks lacked enough capital to meet new global standards. meanwhile shares of swiss bank ubs rose on news it's cutting back by slashing 3,500 jobs. overseas moody's has cut japan's debt rating by one notch, thanks to growing government debt. "the wall street journal" reports sprint nextel is next in line to sell apple's iphone 5 when it's released mid-october. finally, if recent market crashes have you reaching for the nearest burger and fries, you're apparently not alone. a new study suggests that bad economic news can trigger a survival instinct that causes you to pick high calorie, life-sustaining foods over low cal alternatives. i'm glad i now have an excuse. thank you. coming up, the red sox ride

the long ball, the yankees die on the warning track and the braves slam the cubs. plus earthquake at the ballpark in cleveland. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. and from earthquakes to hurricanes to rain showers, we'll check in your wednesday and thursday travel forecast coming up.

good morning. if you are just waking up, this is "early today." in sport, unfortunately, we have sad news to start with. it's regarding one of the greatest coaches in american sports. here nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. pat summitt is a hall of famer and the winningest coach in basketball history. she's 59 years old and announced yesterday that she's suffering from the early onset of demen na, but that will not keep her off the bench. tennessee coach told reporters that she started feeling erratic early this year. she plans to rely on medication and mental exercises to manage her condition. she'll continue to coach the lady vols, quote, as long as the good lord is willing. baseball, the red sox haven't won in texas until now. adrian gonzalez starting to heat up. he had a pair of homers. sox win their first game in arlington 11-5. to the bronx, the yankees were down 6 and rallied in the eighth. nick swisher cut the lead in half.

his 16th homer of the year. new york is back in business. to the ninth. down one. swisher again. deep to right. but not deep enough. a's won it 6-5. yanks and sox tied for first in the east. a couple of kids helped the braves increase their lead in the n.l. wild card race. 22-year-old jason hayward hit a grand slam then craig kimbrel. that tied the rookie record. braves beat the cubs. martinez with a fly ball to shallow right. look like it would drop in for a hit. then carlos gonzalez came out of nowhere to make the diving grab. from a sing toll an out in the bling of an eye. rockies blind side the astros. mariners and the indians when that earthquake hit the east coast. it rattled upper deck for nearly a minute. shin-soo choo sent an after shock through cleveland.

indians flipped their doubleheader on a wild day in the east. that's an early look at sports. i'm fred roggin. early today sports the brought to you by just for men hair color. live forward. reports that one of hollywood's biggest power couples son the rocks. your headlines are straight ahead. summer heat got you longing for sights like this? in texas, of all places, it's closer than you might think.

welcome back. just want to give you an update on the forecast. portions of the southwest still hanging on easily to triple digits. 115 in phoenix. even hot by, let's say, southern arizona standards. albuquerque chance of showers and thunderstorms. m medford may see a chance of rain. long the island chains, showers in the chain. if you're watching in reno, nevada, see how one printmaker chose to illustrate charles darwin's groundbreaking book on the origins of species at specimens. todd, thanks so much. now here is an early look at headlines in entertainment. this year megan fox plans on losing more than her role in the transformers franchise.

"the l.a. times" reports after more than a year and a half of a strict vegan diet she's quit because she lost too much weight and wants to pack on some pounds. she's also removing a marilyn monroe tattoo due to its negative energy. after "in touch weekly" reported that will and jada pinkett smith are splitting, the couple released a statement saying we are still together and our marriage is intact. a rep admitted throwing gas on the fire by denying rumors of an affair between pinkett smith and marc anthony. anyone that hadn't heard about the rumor now has. 85-year-old tony bennett will perform at the music awards for the first time since 1993 in a tribute to his friend amy winehouse. finally, you knew it had to happen sooner or later, right? lady gaga is going to be

visiting springfield. the simpson's episode lisa goes gaga airs next spring. >> can't wait. >> can't avoid lady gaga. >> a huge credit to be done up on the simpsons. >> very true. this comes to us from nbc 5 in dallas. where one university welcomed back students with the perfect way to cool down after one of the hottest summers on record. the campus of southern methodist university was transformed into a winter war zone as hundreds of students participated in a massive snowball fight. the coeds formed attack squads launching 8,000 specially ordered snowballs, for a brief moment ducking and dodgering the lingering dog days of summer. i'm lynn berry. this is "nbc early today."

a zoo in vienna threw a very special first birthday party. for one of its residents this week. zookeepers presented the panda cub and his mother with wax boxes of his favorite foods. bamboo, carrots and sweet potatoes. he's one of only two giant pandas ever naturally reared at the zoo and a member of one of the world's most endangered species. more than 1,000 teens gathered to compete in china's first annual robo cop. showing off the latest in robotic technology. their robots competed in dance competitions, played soccer, and climbed obstacles. the smartest of them all is said to have the iq of a 3-year-old child.

developers hope all the robots will someday be able to help humans. well, they say most people have a twin out there, someone who looks just like you with no relation. apparently brett favre is no exception. at least that's what some are saying about this favre look-alike who became an internet sensation after showing up to watch a green bay packers practice. he says he never had any intention of attracting so much attention, but he was just supporting his team. nevertheless, he did stick around. he actually signed autographs. >> he's the perfect candidate for getting favre's name back on the -- >> you think he looks a lot like him? >> yes. >> i agree. there were some people on the fence. but he should work that. >> he's single, i guess. it's time for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. attorney general eric holder will meet with family members of 9/11 victims following allegations that news corp reporters tufrd pay for the victim's phone records.

a former police officer claims "news of the world" journalists contacted him to get those records. american red cross and national weather service officials will be on hand during a facebook live event to detail americans' use of technology during disasters. they'll discuss how individuals and responders can use the internet and social media during emergency situations. and happy birthday to baseball ironman cal ripken jr. who turns 51. all day long you can stay on top of the latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc, and tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." here's a look at what's coming up on the "today" show. the east coast gets ahold of itself after the rare earthquake that rattled the region, but could there be more on the way? and dominique strauss-kahn is a free man today with charges against the former imf chief dismissed. his lawyers speak out. and now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports, and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop

today on your nbc station. today," just your first stop today on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com