34 victims, 34 victims. but the extent of injuries or deaths is still unknown. we expect a briefing from officials at any moment and we're going to bring you that livedorian, though, where we're getting new information at this hour on the storm slowly pushing west and wreaking havoc along the way. there are currently hurricane watches and warnings along the florida coast up and down as millions of people down the atlantic are bracing for the unknown. state and local governments are taking every single precaution with mandatory evacuations in florida, south carolina, and georgia ahead of what could be a massive storm surge which could really cause the most havoc. and we're getting new images from the bahamas where tens of thousands of people are in what the national hurricane center is calling a life threatening situation. hoping their homes can withstand the catastrophic conditions, including major flooding and

sustained winds above 150 miles an hour. our team is in place with the latest from critical areas. i want to begin with nbc meteorologist michelle grossman with new details on this storm. i know we're getting an 11:00 a.m. update. we have new details on how this storm is progressing. take us through what we know so far. >> hi, there, yasmine. we got our 11:00 advisory. it's down to a category 4 storm by a hair because it's at 155 miles per hour, 156 miles per hour puts it into the category 5 zone. the good news is we're seeing a decrease but it's painfully slow and still moving painfully slowing. it's over the grand bahama island, we've heard of homes being washed away, cars being washed away, rivooves being ripd off. this cwill continue over the net 12 hours. it's dropping 12 to 24 inches of rain and we're seeing a water wall up to 24 feet in some spots.

so let's take a look, 155 miles per hour, that's a very powerful storm still, wind and rain machine, seeing that still over the next five days. moving still at 1 mile per hour, moving very, very slowly. i want to talk about the movement. it's terrible for the bahamas. it's a nightmare situation. it's a better situation, though, that is moving slowly for florida because that allows the players to get in place. the steering mechanisms that will hopefully turn it off to the north and also the west. let's talk about the track, category 4 storm but again right on the cusp, only needs one mile per hour to be a cat 5. now the cone of concern is off the coast here, west palm to fort pier. moved further to the east and we're still getting consensus, advisory after that it's staying off the coast. do not let your guard down, still. we could see tropical storm force winds. listen to your county officials. they know what elevation you're at. they know the right call to

make. now, as we go to the north and also the east, the cone of concern does include the coast at this point by wednesday, thursday, friday. so now by thursday we're getting into south carolina, category 2 storm, right off the coast. i mean, painfully off the coast. and, you know, with this storm it's been very inconsistent. the consistent thing about it is that it's been so inconsistent. so they wobble back and forth. and we do need to have those players in place that's going to steer it and they could break down a little bit slower or the trough could come in a little bit slower. the trough is kind of a fishing net that pushes it off to the north and east and that's what we're waiting for. throughout time on friday we are still talking about a category 2 storm, we could see landfall near or over cape hatteras and then we move off to the mid-atlantic as we go towards saturday. still talking about it on saturday. as we look for hurricane warnings, we're looking at over the bahamas back to the east and along the coast. a lot of us are very concerned along the coast here. hurricane tropical warnings,

watches in place. listen to your officials. throughout time here, here is radar, looking at heavy rain. the yellow, that's the heavy rain there. and we have those outer feeder bands now touching florida. so we could see some severe thunderstorm warnings, wouldn't be impossible to see an isolated tornado along the coast in florida. and we are looking at heavy rain. we are looking at gusty winds along the coast of florida today, especially tonight and especially on tuesday. storm forecast, we are looking at anywhere from 4 to 7'2" to 4 feet and this is the most dangerous part of a hurricane. it is a push of water. it is a wall of water that comes quickly on shore and inundates so you want to be out of the way of it. water is very powerful and 49% of all deaths from atlantic tropical systems occur because of storm surge. now let's look at the potential here, we are looking at 6 feet inundation and we're going to watch this closely next several days along the coast, including georgia into south carolina, north carolina. and i bet you the mid-atlantic is going to be included in this too. the wind force is getting bigger and bigger.

think of an ice skater. they get real tight and spin real fast. when they start to loosen up it gets a little bit longer. that's what happens with a hurricane. we're going to watch this up and down the coast. this is a big story, yasmine, one for the record books, we're going to talk about this in just a few minutes -- or keep talking about it all day long. >> michelle, i have a couple questions for you as we're watching the radar activity. first and foremost we're talking about the fact it's ticked down to category 4 here, 5-mile-per-hour difference between cat 4 and cat 5. >> one mile per hour. 155, 156 denotes. >> one mile per hour. what's the likelihood as it gains ground and moves towards water, away from grand bahama island that it could tick back up to a cat 5? that's my first question. and then what predicts these really dangerous storm surges which could cause the most amount of damage along these coastal lines, despite the fact that maybe the storm is not ticking as close to the land as

once had been predicted a couple days ago. what is the likelihood and what is going to cause whether or not this is a storm surge of two feet or eight feet. >> right. so let's talk about the first things first. so there could be a little bit of reintensification. it's going through an eye wall replacement, i think. we'll have to talk about that. that's to be determined. i think there was land error action, friction. there's a little bit more wind sheer. i think at this point it's going to stay steady in terms of the strength, in terms of the winds. we've seen it decrease with every single advisory since 5:00 a.m. yesterday we saw an increase with every single advisory pretty much for 24 hours. that is changing. we could see a little bit. it could pop up to a category 5 but again it's right on the cusp. then it really just comes down to semantics. we're just talking about numbers at that point. it's still so powerful at this point. with every single run we've been pretty consistent with it keeping it pretty darn close to the coast and painfully close. so where the track is taking us

now, that's why we're concerned with storm surge. it has to move still further to the west to not see that storm surge. again, it becomes about location, location, location, too. we say that a lot and that's true with weather. you have low lying areas, the bahamas is so low. new orleans is below sea level. they're more vulnerable to these type of things. that's why it's so important to listen to your county officials, listen to the governor, they know their county inside and out, better than anyone. that's why you need to heed the warnings if your local officials. >> good message there. michelle grossman, thank you so much. want to go down to mariana atencio who's in cocoa beach, florida. i understand the wind is picking up behind you, as you can see the waves getting bigger as this storm tracks closer and closer to the florida coastline. take us through what you're seeing so far. >> reporter: well, yasmine, when you hear michelle talk about that push, that wall of water

that's going to push on shore it's going to come from the ocean right here behind me. look at the height of these waves. even though cocoa beach between daytona and west palm beach, popular surfing destination, locals and surfers tell me the height of those waves is not normal. you're already starting to feel that water coming in, and if you walk along the beach there that sand is starting to pound your face and body. a premonition of things to come. it is today most likely when the storm is expected to make the weather turn here in the northeastern coast of florida. i want to bring in my friend greg over here, you own this resort, owned it for decades now, greg, and you've left for every -- you've stayed for every single storm but you're considering leaving for this one. why? >> just the severity of it and the direction it's heading at this point in time and with i've been through in the past and seen that we're a very close to making a decision, which way to

go. if it turns we'd consider staying. the way it's doing now we are preparing to leave if necessary. it's just different than any one we've seen so far. >> reporter: what makes it different, what concerns you specifically? >> the category 5 and the direction -- >> now it's down to a 4. >> oh, okay, that helps. and even a 4, direct hit here, we've never experienced. the tide right now is extremely high. it's approaching our ramp. and it's not even a hurricane here yet. so we don't know what to expect and it's just better to be on the safe side. >> reporter: when will you make that critical decision for you and your family? >> well, we have to make it before they close the bridges. that's the main thing. we'd like to -- we usually wait until the last minute until we can still get off the barrier island. that's kind of the determining factor. >> reporter: how have you prepared your resort here behind me? >> not like i used to do in the past. board up, go up the ladder and

put the plywood on. at this point in time we kind of secure everything as best we possibly can, furniture inside the rooms. keep any flying debris secure. and hope for the best. we have insurance. and -- >> reporter: i am hoping and praying for you guys, gregg, and evacuation orders were mandatory here on barrier island. please make that decision, quickly. >> thank you so much. >> reporter: history is on their side. there hasn't been anything higher than a cat 1 according to local authorities that's ever made landfall here since they've been keeping hurricane records but again dorian has just been so unpredictable that everyone here hopes that it sticks with what the history books have said and, you know, holding their breath and making those final decisions in these critical last couple of hours before the weather turns. yasmine? >> i want to give people context if you're looking at a map here as we are seeing on our weather wall here in studio, mariana,

for those that don't know the state of florida quite well. if you're looking at melbourne, florida, cocoa beach for margwh mariana was coming from is north of melbourne, florida. if this hurricane tracks a little bit west off the east coast of florida cocoa beach could see some major damage there. possibly seeing a cat 4 hurricane. on the shores of cocoa beach. so certainly important for all the residents there like the individual that mariana was talking to, to heed the warnings. we'll check back in with you throughout the day, appreciate your reporting, mariana atencio. we've been seeing places hit hardest by this powerful storm and the reality facing residents right now. morgan? >> reporter: here in nassau bahamas the worst of dorian may have made its way through but right now this chain of a

islands faces two distinct problems, one hand you have grand bahama with a population of 50,000 people weathering the brunt of dorian's power as it slowly churns its way over that island where it's been reported that the airport there is already under five feet of water. now, just to the east of that you have abaco island, where dorian first made landfall yesterday, several thousand people living there in desperate need of help right now but the conditions in the sky and on the seas, still too dangerous for crews to move in there and help as many people as possible. we've seen pleas on social media as those people trapped on the island from those rising waters are asking for anyone to come help them, resulting from that dangerous, dangerous power that dorian brought to that island yesterday. as it stands right now we expect to hear from the bahamian prime minister for an update about 5:00 p.m. this evening but until then the reports of the damage are still trickling in. communication very difficult right now. phone service has been impacted,

especially on abaco island and that certainly doesn't make people here in nassau feel comfortable with friends and family in that area that they're unable to reach. >> morgan chesky, thank you so much. i want to bring in lawrence anderson. appreciate your voice on all this. >> yes. >> take us through the priorities right now for fema when it comes to getting the word out, and coordinating with state and local governments waiting for this storm to hit along the florida coast specifically, as that's the first state that's going to see some of this storm? >> that's key, you know, right now fema's had folks with all the state emergency management officials in florida, in georgia, in the carolinas. they prepositioned teams to respond to the disaster. they've prepositioned materials. and really, it's, you know, right now the local officials making the call. and some of the previous folks you've talked about, these local officials do not make these

evacuation orders. they don't make them lightly. and so you may be thinking, well, should i evacuate, should i not? the local officials are saying evacuate. evacuate. because if you think about it once the storm hits they will not be able to get to you until after the storm. and you're really putting, you know, first responders' lives at risk as well. when you don't evacuate. >> you know, the decision to evacuate is difficult for any individual. but let's talk about the most vulnerable people, lars, people in hospitals, retirement homes, that sort of thing, nursing homes, people that can't get up and leave their home, who can't get in their car and drive up the highway north, who can't get on an airplane, who can't get to the evacuation centers. what coordinations are being done to help these most vulnerable individuals? >> that's the primary focus right now, which hospitals and

nursing homes they need to make a priority. doing their best to lock them down and get as many people out as possible. another piece of advice for neighbors, if you have an elderly neighbor that might not be able to get out but you're looking to evacuate yourself, check in on them, see if you can give them a lift or help them get out of town as well. >> let's talk about the aftermath of all of this before we see this thing get started, whether it's fema or health and human services are there teams on the ground right and what kind of manpower can the government bring into these areas that can see the worst damage to deal with the cleanup from all this? >> yeah. soph so fema has teams on the ground, incident management assistant teams, teams on the ground already in a bunch of these states, search and rescue teams are all across the country on stand by. you know, the government will bring in supplies. they've prepositioned supplies. really, though, people should be prepared to have -- you know, we used to sigh when i was at fema,

have 72 hours worth of materials, food, water, medicine. now officials are saying have a whole week available at home. >> wow. a tough reality to swallow, to say the least. your life is the most important. lars anderson, thank you so much. stay with us as the category 4 storm continues to pound the bahamas. breaking news out of california, 34 people are unaccounted for after a boat caught fire off the coast. that's next. that's why, your cash automatically goes into a money market fund when you open a new account. and fidelity's rate is higher than e-trade's, td ameritrade's, even 10 times more than schwab's. plus only fidelity has zero account fees and zero minimums for retail brokerage and retirement accounts. just another reminder of the value you'll only find at fidelity.

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welcome back, everybody, we're following breaking news out of southern california where officials have confirmed multiple deaths after a 75 foot dive boat caught fire off the coast of ventura county, gadi schwartz is at the channel harbor in oxnard, california. good morning to you, gadi. what more do we know about this? >> reporter: we've started to see boats involved in this rescue come into the harbor, going into a protected area over here where the u.s. coast guard is. now, this is something that happened overnight, this vessel is a large vessel, 75 feet, called the conception, based here on the west coast and they were off on the channel islands on a multi-day excursion. we understand this was a diving excursion and there were people below deck sleeping. this boat accommodates up to

three dozen or so people down below decks. and all of a sudden around 3:00 in the morning there was a fire that started on board. we're told by some people that were around the area that there might have been some explosions from that boat and then the coast guard had to respond. but the boats around there were the first on the scene. it takes a few hours to get out to the channel islands from the west coast from here in oxnard. so the response was a little bit delayed. there was an all out call for anybody close by to help that boat. unfortunately only five people so far we know were rescued. we are told there were 34 people that may have been on that board -- on board that boat that may have been trapped by fire. we don't know their status at this point but we're expecting an update from the coast guard here in the next hour or so. at this point it does appear as though that boat has sunk.

but again, investigators are still trying to figure out what happened and there is still an active search for any survivors out there on the water. yasmine, back to you. >> gadi, we're hearing a lot about this being a diving excursion. i think there's some confusion as to what type of people were on the boat, not necessarily sure if you have that information yet. so just say if you don't. but was this like a civilian diving excursion, a tourist boat that went out, or were these coast guards, give us clarity on that if you know. >> reporter: yeah, so the -- there are excursions out of oxnard and out of santa barbara where they have divers from all over the world come here and they sign up for like a three-day excursion. it seems as though this is one of those excursions that was going on over the holiday weekend. and those three days, that includes dives throughout the days, hikes on the channel islands and then at night they prepare you food and again there is room for over 30 people below

deck. so they have different bunk beds, they have single bunk beds, double bunk beds but again there is a lot of room down below deck for people to berth. but this was one of those situations where it appears as though there were many people on board. we know that the five crew members, at least five people that were rescued, were crew members. we don't know the status of the other people that were below deck but again firefighters were trying to put water on that boat because they were trying to get on the boat to see if they could search for survivors. so it was that very tricky situation of putting water, enough water on that boat to put out the flames but not sink the boat. we have now -- we now know that that boat appears to have sunk. yasmine? >> i know you'll be staying on top of the story for us, we appreciate it, gadi, thanks so much. we'll have a live update from the coast guard later on in the show to get more information on this developing story. coming up next, the latest on the west texas shooting spree

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welcome back, seven people are now confirmed dead, and 22

others, including a 17 month old girl, were injured in the deadly highway shooting spree in texas over the weekend. fbi and local officials are combing over evidence from more than 15 crime scenes along a 15 mile stretch between the cities of midland, texas and odessa. officials say the 36-year-old suspect who terrorized the two towns with an assault style weapon had been fired from his job hours before leading police on a -- it started after a routine traffic stop. garrett haake is in odessa texas with the latest. good morning to you, garrett. let's talk about the most important thing here, the status of so many of these victims. >> reporter: hey, yasmine, good morning from odessa, texas. i'm standing in front of a

hospital where most of the most severely injured patients were taken in the wake of that shooting on saturday. i can report now they still have ten patients here, one in critical condition, one in serious condition, and eight in fair condition. those conditions continue to get upgraded here since this shooting has ended. now, today, the focus is largely on the investigation here in texas. we know the identity of the shooter. we are still trying to understand much more about his motives. he's a 36-year-old white man, as you point out. we've been able to learn he was recently fired from his job. what we're not able to do definitively is connect the dots. was the firing any kind of motivation for the shooting? of course, the first person he shot was a texas peace officer, someone who had pulled him over in a traffic stop. that started this running gun battle, the suspect shooting at civilians along the way, ending up at that movie theater. another question that law enforcement officials are trying to figure out is why that movie theater, was he looking to target large amounts of people, was it just a parking lot he ended up in?

there are a lot of pieces of this that are not yet being connected. one of the pieces, when you broaden this out, is, again, the weapon that was used. we told yesterday by the police chief in odessa it was an ar style weapon, we're hearing this time and time again, these are the weapons so often used in these mass shootings. high fatality shootings. these are, as many describe, designed to be a weapon of war. and in texas, where you've now had two mass shootings in the last month this is a front burn herb issue all of the time. i asked the state's governor whether the state is doing anything to combat this problem when the federal government so far has not. here's what he told me. >> is texas doing enough to -- guns like ar-15? >> what we have been doing, especially in the aftermath of the shooting in el paso, we've been meeting daily. in part with members of the legislature, in part with victims, in part with members of the community, in part with our federal counterparts. and we've been hammering out on

a daily basis new additional solutions that we will be working to offer up. some by the governor, some by the executive branch, some by the legislature. but these will be new and different solutions that will work to deescalate gun violence in texas. >> does it increase the sense of urgency to have two incidents like this in a month? >> absolutely. >> reporter: so yasmine, you hear a lot of talk about solutions there but nothing specific. it's worth pointing out that the texas legislature only meets every other year. the governor has so far resisted calling them back to deal with this gun violence problem here in the state of texas in a more aggressive manner. we'll see if the commission recommends he do anything differently on that front. >> there's a them on a lack of specificity when it comes to changes in gun legislation, it seems. garrett haake, appreciate it. and i'll bring in a former senior adviser to president

obama, and an msnbc political analyst. susan, start with you, since you're sitting right next to me. what needs to happen for republicans to take a step in the direction of changing gun reform legislation in this country, for mitch mcconnell to get on board to actually change something, heavy been calling for mitch mcconnell to bring back congress into session early, since the el paso shooting, since the dayton, ohio shootings. that didn't happen. mcconnell said he wanted to get everybody on the same page before that were to happen. it didn't happen. what's it going to take? >> it's not going to happen anytime soon. it's going to be a result of losses, political losses. perhaps losing the senate over a state like north carolina where certainly that state is now in play for the senate, so is maine, so is colorado. when you have the gun safety advocates out there right now spending more than the nra, putting forward together a much better argument and making their

case when we see these shootings monthly now, or sometimes even more frequently. so on the federal level maybe we'll see some weakened down background checks. i'm not necessarily sure about that but i don't think it will be very influential. but the work that needs to get done needs to happen at the state level. and as we just heard, the texas legislature isn't meeting until 2021. that's absurd. in florida when they were in session after parkland they were able to pass legislation 23 days after the shooting. so it's a matter of mobilizing and having influence. >> nira, let's go into that for a moment, the point susan brings up, is this about making changes on a state by state level as was done in florida after the parkland shooting, as was done in connecticut after the newtown shooting and not necessarily looking to the white house for

leadership when it comes to federal change on gun legislation reform, especially when we're hearing from the president downplaying background checks and reiterating the nra and their points. >> well, i think that's really just not good enough because the problem with that solution is that states like florida or connecticut can pass their laws but a state like texas, where we have these mass shootings. >> yeah. >> and seemingly monthly basis, nothing happens and nothing's expected to happen. these mass shootings are a national phenomenon, and they call for national legislation. and the truth is that mitch mcconnell likes to wait these things out. he likes to hide away from the -- these kinds of -- this kind of news and he just hopes it goes away but the truth is we have to hold the entire senate accountable. cory gardner, in colorado, is up this year in 2020. he has a reputation for being a

moderate. but so far hasn't pushed mcconnell to do anything. same with susan collins and a whole host of other senators that are up. mitch mcconnell wants to keep his senate majority so he does listen to the senators who are up. and frankly we have to do a much better job of holding them accountable. and i -- my hat is off to many of the gun groups which are ensuring that there are ads against cory gardner. but the pressure really shouldn't just be on mitch mcconnell, it should be on the senate candidates, the senate republicans up this cycle. >> you know, in speaking of putting pressure on him, you say that this is -- that it's not good enough to keep it on a state level, neera, you say it has to be federal legislation. but what realistically here can get done at this point seeing the back and forth, seeing the sort of standoff between the republicans and the democrats on these gun issues? >> well, i'd say that, you know, in the aftermath of this -- of the last devastating shooting,

donald trump did talk a little bit about background checks, folks talked about red flag laws. once you get people into a conference, once the senate passes a bill, there's a conference. the house has already pass add bill. it seems to me then we can have a lot of different pressure. once trump sees that there's something emerging from the senate, emerging from congress who knows what will happen? but some steps are better than zero steps. and i'm not saying we shouldn't focus on the states. we should. but if we just focus on the states then, you know, there are millions of people who are going to be left unprotected because they have entirely republican legislators. >> susan del percio, nera tanden, thank you so much. a former hurricane hunter joins us right here, coming up. so ...how are you feeling? on a scale of one to five? one to five? it's more like five million.

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jeff master is the director of meteorology and co-founder of weather underground. jeff, appreciate your voice in this situation. as a former hurricane hunter you have an incredible understanding of the power of this storm. what is your major takeaway from the updates we have been getting so far as dorian progresses towards the east coast of florida? >> you don't see many storms like this. i mean 185-mile-per-hour winds at landfall in the bahamas. they took an unprecedented pounding there. i mean, 12 hours the eye has been over grand bahamas island, there's never been a category 5 hurricane that's caused that kind of a stall over a populated area. but it's stalled out. it's going to weaken. there are signs it's making the northwest turn towards the united states, about on track. so i think the national hurricane center forecast is looking like a good one. >> the speed of this storm, as you were just talking about it, is delaying the potential impact

and causing a lot of concern as you well know more people are seeing what's been taking place in the bahamas. what are the keys here for coastal residents and officials at this hour from your perspective? >> okay. the storm is predicted to track about 50 or so miles off the coast of florida tomorrow. the average air in a 24-hour forecast from the national hurricane center is about 40 miles. so this storm could deviate closer to the coast, bring some hurricane force winds, regardless it's going to bring a large storm surge to the coast. we're expecting four to seven feet along the central coast of florida, perhaps higher getting up towards northern florida and georgia in the coming days. >> jeff, what's it like to fly over the eye of a hurricane like this one? >> it's both terrifying and spectacular. i mean, you get in this bowl of clouds surrounding you on all sides. you look down at the ocean and see white caps and 50 foot high waves and you just feel really sorry for the people down below,

that's for sure. >> we're hoping they're able to stay safe amidst this terrible storm happening right now. jeff masters, thank you for your voice, appreciate it. coming up, the latest on a massive search operation off the coast of california as dozens remain unaccounted for after a boat fire. update from the coast guard next.

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welcome back, we're following that breaking news out of southern california where officials have confirmed multiple deaths after a 75 foot dive boat caught fire off the coast of ventura county. joining me now on the phone is u.s. coast guard petty officer mark barney. thank you for joining us on this. trying to get as much clarification on the situation as it develops. we appreciate you joining us. i'm hearing there were 38 people on board this vessel. five people were evacuated. 33 people are currently unaccounted for and we have a boat that is basically sunk. aside from the bow, which as you know is the front of the boat basically sticking out of the water. how does something like this happen? >> caller: morning, ma'am, we are not at the phase to

determine what caused this incident, what caused the fire. from what i can tell you at 3:15 this morning we received -- we overheard a gargled may day call over the band radio, a vessel engulfed in flames. we took that, ran with it, launched two coast guard helicopters, one from san diego, one from san francisco and two boats from the channel harbor, the nearest station to santa cruz island and we immediately responded to it. so from the information that we have 38 people were reported to be aboard the vessel. 33 people are still unaccounted for. the five people who were able to evacuate were crew members of the commercial dive boat and those five people, two of them are reported to have sustained leg injuries. so that is the information that we have right now. there will be more information that will be released in approximately 10, 12 minutes from now.

i believe it will be scheduled to do a press conference with our partner agencies. >> we're going to be awaiting any updated information we'll hear from that press conference as you just said at the top of the hour, around noon or so, eastern standard time. talk to me about the rescue operation here, how that takes place, if you've got 33 individuals unaccounted for, i'm hearing this is an area that has strong and swift currents off the coast of southern california in ventura county. you've got these pacific waters that are pretty cold, to say the least, even during this time of year. so what goes into the rescue operations here to rescue these 33 individuals that are currently missing? >> caller: so these are things that we take into consideration when doing a search and rescue case. so whether it's the water temperature, the current, the wind or the winds blowing, these are all things that we take into consideration when doing a launch.

fortunately we had basically launched two helicopters, two boats to respond alongside our partner agencies with the ventura county fire department and the santa barbara fire depa and isn sa and santa barbara fire as well. so we have as sets in the air and on water. upon arriving on scene, we had coast guard crews, ventura county and santa barbara fire county teams trying to put out the fire. >> what type of safety precautions are taken on a commercial boat like this with 38 individuals on board going out for a three day diving excursion well oof te excursion well off the coast of california? >> there are regulations in place that aare designed to -- n the event of emergencies. standards for about commercial vessel will more stringent than

a recreational vessel. they need a certain amgt of life jackets on board, a amount of life raft, life rings, radios, a lot of equipment, a lot of protocols that are put in place on that in the event something like this does happen that they are able to respond. once we overheard the mayday call on channel 16, we were able to -- this is not something that you mess around with. so we launched every available resource that we had that was in the area alongside our partner agencies. but you this is definitely something that is a pretty gir situation. >> all right. thank you so much. coming up, bracing for impact. south carolina and georgia order mandatory evacuation of coastal communities. we'll have a live report from the states preparing for dorian next. n next

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welcome back. we're back with the latest on hurricane dorian. in a few minutes mandatory advantages will begin for at least 1 million people. governor kemp speaking just moments ago. take a listen. >> at noon, the mandatory evacuation will be in faibl effect for those east of i-95.

and i would like to ask everyone to heed those warnings especially those that are on our barrier islands. you may be on your own if first responders are unavailable to get to you. >> so evacuations there happening in a couple minutes. joining me now, kathy park in charleston and also catie beck in savannah. catie, i start with you. tell us how the community there in georgia is handling the storm and the upcoming evacuations. catie, you got me? all right. seems like she didn't hear me. so let's go to kathy now. take us through how the community there is he reacting in charleston, south carolina as it awaits the arrival of hurricane dorian. >> reporter: yeah, so we are actually on the overpass of interstate 26 right now, so we

are having some audio issues. but i do want to point out that lot of people are taking the warnings pretty seriously. so i'm going to pan over to my left over here, this is i-26 that you are taking a look at. and the traffic pattern has shifted so all the traffic can mnuchin in one direction. a lot of folks who are visiting this area for the holiday weekend, they are cutting their vacations short because of the mandatory evacuation order that goes in to place. in a few minutes around noon today, there is a press conference that is happening no more information about what they are doing. but a lot of people are using this time to prepare, get ready. we saw basically the same thing play out last week as folks were getting ready in florida. so now seeing it here in charleston, south en an anticip flooding.

this region is prone to flooding. so we anticipate some of that. folks here in this area, they are bracing for potential impacts of hurricane dorian sometime wednesday morning into thursday. but officials are telling folks to use this time while the weather is still favorable to get ready to have a plan in case they have to evacuate and this becomes a major disaster. >> even though the hurricane seems like it might just be a cat 2 by the time to gets to charleston, major damage could still be done. but hoping for the best. want to go now to catie beck who it seems that her audio has been fixed. talk us through how that community in savannah is dealing with the mandatory evacuations in the area in a couple minutes. >> reporter: yeah, we are in historic downtown savannah and this is an area that is very popular for about tourists especially during a holiday weekend and the hotels down here

where closing their doors. they are telling folks you need to evacuate, you need to get out. a lot of low lying areas here in the historic district, so make concerns about flooding especially given that this storm is moving so slowly. savannah has been through the storms before and they know what happens when a storm stalls over this area especially with so much low lying ground. so folks are headed out of town, they are checking out of hotels. there is mandatory evacuation in place for eight coastal counties. specific targets are the barrier islands. if you are on one of those barrier islands, he says don't take it lightly, you need to get out. and we are also in that watch and wait period to see just how much damage savannah could suffer, how far offshore the storm is going to stay. but here at gas stations, pulls are staying full, folks are gassing up and hotels are

closing their doors. >> all right. thank you both. appreciate it. that does it for me. now we hand it off to geoff bennett who continues our coverage. >> we'll see you back at 2:00. i'm give bennett at msnbc headquarters in new york continuing our breaking news coverage of hurricane door arian. and the boat fire off the california coast with 33 people unaccounted for at this hour. first to hurricane dorian. national weather service warning florida residents of life-threatening storm surge as this massive system makes its way to the atlantic coast. those warnings are being taken seriously from west palm all the way to jacksonville and into georgia and south carolina where we're already seeing mandatory evacuations and calls from officials to make the right decision before it is too late. >> people need to remain vigilant. if you are ordered to evacuate, you need to do that. from palm beach county all the way up to nassau, the