♪ live from the cbs broadcast center in philadelphia this is cbs3 "eyewitness news". right now at noon, a race against time in mexico. frantic searches for earthquake survivors are underway across the country. as the death toll continues to climb. meantime another national disaster is unfolding in the carribbean. hurricane maria hits puerto rico head on as deadly category four monster. good afternoon everyone i'm jim donovan.

>> i'm natasha brown. rahel is off. maria meantime came ashore this morning with winds of 155 miles per hour. it is one of the strongest hurricanes to ever strike the island. >> cbs correspondent david filed this report as the storm hit. >> reporter: the building about 100 yards behind me there are pieces of that building that have flown off and are now flying through the air like projectiles. this video was taken just outside of our hotel room showing the force of maria's violent winds. it was enough for the hotel to order guests down to the lobby level. the region was still rebounding from the last storm. irma when maria rolled in. >> we've never had any back to back hurricanes before. >> reporter: yolanda maldonado has been without power since hurricane irma two weeks ago much she's in a shelter in san juan. >> i passed through hurricanes but this one it's going to be very hard. >> reporter: eddie and his allege year old daughter riding out the storm in hotel room. >> we are trying to dot best we

can to survive. >> you can see this one as well it's wood. >> reporter: we were with puerto ricco's governor when he walk the streets yesterday personally pleading with people to evacuate to a shelter. >> can the island of puerto rico survive a direct hit from category four or five? >> we'll take a big hit but our people are resilient. they're strong. we showed it after irma and we were there to help other us citizens in their their time of need. now we're going to need a helping hand. >> reporter: we're being evacuated into the hotel we're staying. the guests are current until an emergency stairwell and that's where we're headed right now. >> that was david begno reporting this morning. ccnn reporter got a first hand look at hurricane maria's furry in san juan. >> i want to take you up a little bit so you can see the palm trees being stripped of their leaves. and let me take you a little further north so you can see these buildings. that is an apartment complex and you can tell that those windows will not sustain these winds and

this rain. i can hear, i can hear the roofing of buildings here in san juan coming off as i look -- >> hurricane maria is blamed for nine deaths so far in the carribbean. well in other tropical system churning in the atlantic has left its mark on the jersey shore. now officials and residents are assessing the damage. "eyewitness news" reporter cleve bryan joins us live now in ocean city with how jose impacted that shore town. cleve. >> reporter: jim, the storm surge from jose absolutely gashed the dune right here at fifth street in ocean city. you can see it's created a cliff here as all as i am because this was days of surf from irma and then from jose bringing storm surge and very powerful waves in fact i used to sit on the beach here as a lifeguard at fifth street i've never seen these rocks before. they've been exposed because of all the erosion that's going on and you can see it's size of the surf. when this is just pounding over and over and over and very high tides it takes a toll on the beaches. so much that as i come around

here, there is no more dune at this section of fifth street. so water was actually going under the boardwalk something that i haven't seen since i a little kid coming to ocean city. now, in the fall, this fall they are planning on having some beach replenishment in ocean city. the crack has been awarded according to city officials but they're still trying to get on the timeline so of course this can't happen soon enough and we're going to be looking throughout the shore to find out some other areas with heavy erosion from jose. live in ocean city, cleve bryan, cbs3 "eyewitness news". >> all right, cleve, thank you. well search and rescue teams meantime are combing through collapsed buildings looking for survivors of yesterday's powerful earthquake in mexico. >> more than 200 people were killed and the death toll is expected to rise. the magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck near mexico city the country's capital. correspondent manuel, is there. >> reporter: at least 25

students and teachers were killed when an elementary school collapsed in mexico city. all but four of them were children. mexican president visited the wreckage last night where rescuers were digging for the missing. >> it was really violent. i never experienced anything like that. >> reporter: u.s. citizen brittany keyser was giving a presentation in mexico city when it struck. she and thousands of people fled to the streets as the air filled with smoke from collapsed buildings. >> came outside. you can see everything moving from the street lamps and the trees and like anything even like the cars that were on the street. there were some buildings that are completely and utterly demolish. >> reporter: rescue teams and volunteers searched through the rubble for victims. they found several people trap. and lifted them to safety on stretchers. >> there was one hard jolt and then the ground began to roll. >> reporter: the deadly earthquake happened exactly 32 years after the 1985 mexico quake that killed thousands. mexico's president is calling

for calm after the earthquake saying the priority remains rescuing survivors and getting them to medical facilities. that could take some time. as many as 44 buildings have collapsed in the capital. manuel, cbs news, mexico city. of course stay with cbs3 for continuing coverage of the deadly earthquake in mexico. we'll bring you the very latest developments on "eyewitness news" and you can also get details any time online at cbsphilly.com. in other news this noon a man caught on camera sucker punching a man with cerebral palsy is in court today. barry baker was expected to immediate guilty this morning but as "eyewitness news" reporter joe holden tells us things didn't go exactly as pl plan. >> reporter: good afternoon to you. this has been very unusual morning here at the chester county courthouse. barry baker was set to plead guilty. his lawyer even showed us his signature on the documents. well you'll remember baker he is the guy police say sucker punch

add man with cerebral palsy outside a west chester 7eleven in may. baker also mocked the man imitating his struggle to walk. any way in court an assistant da began reading the facts of the case. the judge turned to baker asked him if he agreed with those facts, baker replied quoting absolutely not ". those words through the morning into some brief chaos. the judge told baker and his lawyer who appeared to be shocked that the case would head to trial. now, baker's lawyer just came out of the courthouse and toll reporters don't go anywhere signaling that it looks like barry baker is again going to try and enter guilty pleas on two open counts. those counts would be assault and flight to avoid apprehensi apprehension. again, he would be looking at some two to four years. it is yet to be determined, though, if baker is going to proceed ahead with this guilty me or do what he did earlier this morning and try and change

the alleged facts of the case he claims there is some video out there that shows that he and the victim in all of this saw each other before that encounter at the 7eleven. a lot to unpack. we'll have the latest starting on "eyewitness news" at 5:00. in west chester, outside the chester county courthouse, joe holden, cbs3 "eyewitness news". the bucks county man convicted of sexually assaulting six girls from the same family is also due in court today. 52-year-old lee kaplan sentencing is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. police say the girl's parents gifted their oldest daughter to kaplan because he helped them financially. kaplan fathered two children with one of girls. stay with us. still to come on "eyewitness news" this noon, the images are quite shocking. hospital employees post disturbing videos of babies online. >> coming up where this happened and what action the hospital is taking to punish the workers. matt? >> and we're talking about summer like heat as we get ready to start fall on friday and we'll have update on what's

going on in the tropics all coming up. ♪

you each drive a ford (all) yes.ght? i'm going to show you a next generation pickup. awesome. let's do this. the bed is made of high-strength steel, which is less susceptible to punctures than aluminum. stronger the better. and best of all, this new truck is actually- (all laughing) oh my.... the current chevy silverado. current chevy owners and lessees get a total value of ten-thousand, six hundred dollars. or, 0% financing for 72 months on this silverado all star. find new roads at your local chevy dealer.

we're following breaking news in philadelphia's east oak lane neighborhood this noon. authorities have evacuated the area around the 6100 block of north fair hill street after two pipe bombs were found inside a home.

we're told the sheriff's office was conducting an eviction when they made this discovery. the bomb squad and atf are handling the disposal of the explosive items right now. and no injuries have been reported. also classes are canceled once again in the methacton school district as teachers roll into day three of their on-going strike. a school board meeting was held in eagleville last night. the board asked the teachers union to meet with them so they could try to hash out deal. now teachers started striking on monday morning. that's after weekend negotiations failed between their union and the school boa board. the two sides are at odds over salaries and medical premiums as well. well employees at a florida hospital are facing potential criminal charges after posting disturbing videos of newborn babies online. this snap chat video shows a staff member at a military hospital in jacksonville making a newborn baby dance. there are other images showing the worker making obscene gestures and calling babies mini say tans.

the hospital has issued an apology and says the workers involved have been removed from patient care. well, republicans on capitol hill engaged last ditch effort to repeal and replace the affordable care act. senator lindh day graham of south carolina and senator bill cassidy of louisiana coauthored a new bill that would shift the health care burden from the federal government to the states. it would eliminate insurance subsidies mandated by the affordable care act and give states money to create their own health care systems. a vote on the plan could come as soon as next week. well, still ahead on "eyewitness news" -- >> a cat overcomes the odds and inspires humans. meisha. >> that's right. they're something about our phil little furry friends that make us smile and today's little guy is no exception in today's love it we're meeting a young cat giving us humans a great example perseverance an great attitude regardless of the situation. that story is coming up many matt. >> and we're talking about the weekend as we're halfway through our work week.

it doesn't look like it's going to be very fall like even though fall does officially start on friday but lots of sunshine out there. high temperatures staying in the mid to even upper 80s. i'll have a look at your forecast for saturday and sunday coming up.

new jersey born and raised. like his father before him, he served our country with honor in the navy. came home and worked his way up from floor technician to supervisor at the salem power plant. as a husband and father, grenier knows how families struggle to make ends meet. that's why he'll fight to cut our taxes, and stand up to career politicians like steve sweeney. if we want to change trenton, there's only one way.

fran grenier. welcome back everyone. i'm not going to complain about the weather because i mean people are dealing with much worse. >> oh, my goodness. >> look at puerto rico. >> crazy stuff right now. >> places that already been hit once by irma now getting it again. it's just lots of people in philadelphia too have family. they have friends down in the puerto rico area. so again a big problem. still dealing with the effects again of irma now getting hit again with maria here this morning.

we'll dive into what the folks down there in the tropics are experiencing in just a little bit. we'll start with taking a look what's going on outside here. a little bit closer to home. at first this is out in margate. the surf is still up. because jose is still off the coast of new jersey. so again we're start little bit of rough surf as you saw with cleve earlier in the show we had beach erosion in areas and it does look like there is still the potential for maybe a little bit of beach erosion through the day today because of that high surf and we are still going to be looking for strong gusty winds throughout the afternoon hours today. now we're also not completely out of the woods with our coastal flooding. we have a coastal flood advisory for all of the new jersey shore points back down into delaware, too, and this goes until 1:00 o'clock in the morning tomorrow. so with high tide coming little bit later on into the evening hours tonight, we could again look for those areas that are pro prone no floods low lying areas every were along the shore low lying but you know the areas that are little bit more prone

to that flooding. that's where we can have especially at the high tide time a little bit of that coastal flooding could flood out roadways. do be careful out and about as we go through the evening hours. now here's our tropical satellite. start with jose continuing to just churn off the coast of new jersey at this point, and again it's churning up the sea, churning up the waves, now little bit more of the stronger effects are being felt up through cape cod but as we work our way back down the eastern seaboard here there is just a little bit of cloud cover for the most part across more than new jersey shore points but again still plenty of rough seas as you head further south through south jersey and into delaware. let's head down even further south this is maria. it is still an extremely strong extremely powerful category four storm but it has changed a little bit since it made landfall at 6:00 15 this morning along southeastern puerto rico. the eye the of the storm not nearly as declined as it was at points this morning. it was over 35 miles wide. it was clear. you can see all the way down to the bottom of our satellite

picture you can see the ground through it but again now it's a little bit more closed off and actually it's pick up speed as its weakened a little bit as it's traveled across puerto rico again still plenty of effects still very very strong storm so we are not out of the woods in puerto rico by any stretch of imagination. sitting at 140 miles an hour so as i said it's still category four storm it made landfall as category four storm this morning at 6:15 and we'll continue to see this work its way off to the north and west at first. so you see here by 8:00 o'clock in the evening tomorrow it's moving through the turks and caicos, towards the bahamas again still looking at a strong category four. 145 miles an hour winds because it's going get out into the open ocean it will skirt hispaniola we'll get a little bit of strengthening. by the time it gets to the turks and caicos bahamas category range maybe stronger than what it is right now but then it gets a little bit further north and starts to weaken as we get into upper level environment that

isn't really all that conducive for tropical moisture that will continue to weaken as we go through the early portion of next week. here on monday into tuesday and wednesday you are computer models start to spread out a little bit it does travel up the eastern see bore and there's little bit of spread there so we have to keep an eye on what is going on as we get into next week and how it could effect here in the mid atlantic. temperatures for the most part warming up quickly we're in the 80s right now it's going to get even warmer this afternoon we see here plenty of sunshine for us through wednesday and into thursday. and then even into friday as well. it will be very hot and very humid end to our work week. 84 degrees for the high temperature today. we'll get up to 87 for our high then on thursday. keeping it warm for the first day of fall high of 83 degrees. plenty of sunshine and looking into the weekend looking really good for the birds game on saturday. it's going to not feel like football weather at all, guys. >> a little hot. >> thank you very much, matt. appreciate it. >> meisha found a new friend. he's a cat who's inspirational

tale is taking social media by storm. >> meisha is here introduce him to him today in love it. meisha. >> ladies and gentlemen, i want to meet you introduce you rather to my little friend nailed earl. this injuring net jet nick one year cat has places to go, people to see and thing totter and his owner says despite this bubbly personality on camera and in real life, earl's live hasn't always been an easy one. take a look. [ laughter ] >> she found earl living out in fleet michigan at about five weeks old. and new right away something was wrong. a veterinarian confirmed that earl had a spinal cord injury which caused his back legs to turn outward adding that he would never walk normally. but romanelli was determined to rescue the homeless kitten any way. >> when i saw his face i thought what am i going to do with paralyzed cat i knew he needed me and i just -- i had to help him. >> romanelli wasn't the only one who stepped up to help earl. a company called c3 ventures also set out to make his life a little easier.

by designing him accustom wheelchair. >> searer was behind the creation that took a few months to build. but she says it was worth every minute. >> i hope that he's able to enjoy the outdoors a little bit more with his pet brothers and sisters because he's been pretty much restricted inside. >> doesn't seem to be an issue any more. earl is now getting around just great and he needs to because he's busy. he's got a budding modeling career to attend to. >> what a study. he is more than 80,000 followers on facebook and romanelli says he even traveled across michigan feeding homeless animals. that's so great. she says she can't wait to see what good they'll do together next as a team. >> high tech device there. >> isn't that cool. >> really cool. >> now he's mobile again. >> i need to adopt another cat. [ laughter ] >> we were talking about this little kitty overcoming challenge as great message for all of us sometimes it's the

challenge that makes us special and strong. so keep going. well, if you hear or see anything that you love send it my way on either twitter at cbs3 or facebook at meisha p johnson and together you guys no matter what's going on, we can turn our day around. stay right where you are. cbs3 "eyewitness news" will be

coming later today on "eyewitness news" at five it's the perfect purchase of your lives hackers have found way to

interfere when you buy a home. victims can lose their homes and often their live savings. get ready for some wonderful displace at next year's philadelphia flower show. >> wonders of water will be the theme of the 2018 show. the pennsylvania horticultural society unveiled both the theme and the new show poster this morning at the independence seaport museum. the now show will feature a special exhibit on the delaware river water shed. the show runs from march 3rd to the 11th. that's "eyewitness news" for today at noon. i'm jim donovan. >> i'm natasha brown many for meisha, matt all of us here thank you so much for watching. >> "eyewitness news" continues at 5:00. >> you can always visit us online at cbsphilly.com. >> have a great day, everyone. the young and the restless is coming up next. ♪

you'busted tail.rd. and impressed the boss. maybe, it's time to be your own. transform your career with strayer university's mba program today. let's get it, america.

>> nick: oh, no. oh, man! hey! dude! help, help! grab this one! this one! this one! >> noah: agh! oh, that's -- >> nick: [ laughs ] >> noah: yeah. ya goof! >> nick: here. take this. >> noah: well, you're in a hell of a mood today. >> nick: yeah, i just got off the phone with our realtor in ann arbor. apparently our fast-track liquor license is the stuff of legends. >> noah: cool. that should work in our favor, right? you know, generate some buzz for the new club... >> nick: that's it? that's all you got? just "cool," man? come on. that's disappointing. >> noah: the way things went down with the liquor board, grandpa using his clout... i know that's not how you like to do things. >> nick: look, it happened, all right? i'm over it -- mostly. we needed that liquor license to begin our expansion, and now we have it. we're gonna charge right ahead. you know? this thing is all ours. we don't owe anyone anything,

including your grandfather.