prepare now. harvey strengthens overnight to a category two hurricane. rest detz are evacuating. gasoline prices spiking. extreme rainfall is expected to lead to flooding. >> a brewing battle between the president and gop leadership is becoming a political clash of the tight ans. >> the fist were flying not once but during three bench-clearing brawls between the yankees and tigers. fines an suspensions could happen look who is back from summer vacation. >> one person who has done so much for us is steve bannon. i wanted to give him a proper goodbye. come on up here, steve. ♪ "early today" starts right now. >> good morning.

i'm phillip mena. >> i'm frances rivera. millions are preparing for protein shal devastation as harvey up gramted to category two hurricanes, hurdles to the gulf coast. powerful winds reaching over 100 miles per hour expected to bring torrential rain and flooding. energy companies are scrambling to prepare for the hurricane. some refineries are shutting down completely. gas prices have been spiking since wed winesday with one exp saying a 10 cent increase look at what the folks aboard the international space station see as they look at the storm from space. it could be the strongest hurricane to hit the u.s. in over a decade. maya, what is the latest on hurricane harvey, from corpus christi, texas. >> reporter: right now we're seeing all of the signs a major storm is approaching the area. you have people filling up their cars and getting out of tune. you have some of the courts that are closed today, and you also

have garbage pickup suspended. on our way into corpus christi we saw a steady stream of cars making their way out of town. when we stopped at a store in the houston area, it was completely devoid of any water. lots of people in there stocking up on essential also they are going to need for the next couple of days. of course, the concern here in texas is a double disaster. not just the winds from a major hurricane, but also the possibility of flash flooding because of the torrential downpours hurricane harvey is expected to bring. it has not started raining yet, but the winds are starting to pick up. we had houston police practicing water rescues yesterday just in case that is needed. of course, there are voluntary evacuations in place here in corpus christi. the mayor of corpus christi had something to say about that. take a listen. >> we are going to in the strongest possible terms encourage the residents in the low-lying areas, as they say,

get out of dodge. >> reporter: now the city is basically putting together assisted evacuations starting today at 8:00 a.m. going until noon. what they're doing is bussing people out of low-lying areas to san antonio if people have no other way to get out of town. phillip. >> watching a lot there. >> absolutely. thank you, maya. meteorologist ben kenneth joins us, tracking the storm. where are people in the most danger here? >> corpus christi north wards today and then victoria to houston. we're about to see what happens when a hurricane stall also over a region for four, five, maybe even six days. you can see no surprises overnight. it slouwly increased in intensiy but no big jump. i can take category four off the board. still chance of getting to category three. but most likely category two as it makes landfall. 105 are the winds, so still a formidable storm.

we're still going to have storm surge and wind damage. we will deal with the epic historic flooding after that. friday at 7:00105 mile per hour winds heading towards corpus christi. so that's what we'll be watching. that is kind of the telltale signs of this storm, is really when we're said and done will be historic flooding. >> thank you, bill. a lot to look at now to president trump, who also is monitoring the hurricane. speaking with texas governor abbott, even putting out this video showing him touring feem 'headquarters three weeks ago and meeting with administrators, urging the public to prepare. as harvey looms large for texas this morning, it is the white house preparing for an all-out political storm as the president hunkers down, promising to fight republican lawmakers and shut down the government if his much-promised border wall isn't funded. here he was vowing just that earlier this week. >> now, the obstructionist democrats would like us not to

do it but, believe me, we have to close down our government, we're building that wall. >> mr. trump is even calling out republican lawmakers by name, taking direct aim at speaker paul ryan and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell on twitter. they say trump is holding law majorers feet to the fire. >> we're going to make sure the wall gets built. >> no one wants the government shut down. the president made clear he ran on the wall, won on the wall and he is dead serious about building the wall. >> edward lawrence is following this political clash of the titans. how is washington reacting this morning? >> reporter: we have the making of a dysfunctional family here. a lot of mixed messages flying around washington. we have the president specifically attacking the leadership of his own party as well as specific republican senators. the white house press secretary then saying they can all get along and work together. now, political insiders say it is a political strategy by the president to appeal to his base

because congress is more unpopular than he is. look at new polling, shows that senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is just at a 19% approval rating. that makes him the least liked politician in the country according to a harvard harris poll. the president is trying to get a campaign promise fulfill by asking for funding along the -- for a wall along the mexican border and threatening a government shut down to get that funding. republicans in congress pushed back. >> shutting down the government would be a terrible mistake, completely counter productive. >> i'm never willing to shut down our government. no one elect us to go to washington to shut down the government. >> i don't think we should be thinking of shutting the government down as a tool for anything. >> we should be using technology and manpower in order to secure the 2,000 miles of our border, and that is a fraction of the cost of building a concrete structure. >> and white house sources say the president is serious about shutting down the government but would consider funding the

government without wall money for three to four months as a stop-gap and then fighting that battle later. frances, phillip edward lawrence, thank you the sole winner of wednesday night's monster powerball jackpot has come forward. mavis wanczyk of massachusetts claimed the winnings worth $758 million, one of the largest in history. the 53-year-old mother of two says it has not quite sunk in. >> as i'm driving here i'm still like, oh, this isn't true, this can't be. and then now it is like, ah, i am a winner. >> yes, she is. nafe nafe says after 32 years working at a hospital she is ready to sit back and relax america's favorite passed time turned into a brawl between the yankees and tigers. language-standing tensions rose higher when sanchez was hit by a pitch. one inning later this happened.

>> whoa! that ball thrown behind miguel cabrera. cabrera now will -- oh, look out. there's a fight at home plate. >> both benches there come out, the park cleared as cabrera traded punches with yankee's catchy. both were ejected along with the pitcher who threw behind mickey but bad blood continued. james mccann was drill in the head. the benches would kill. four batters were hit and eight people eject. the tigers took the game 10-6. major league baseball is expected to hand down suspensions and fines on both sides. all right. turning to sarasota, florida. an amazing site caught on camera. two water spouts next to each other. hundreds of these sea twisters strike florida each year, a double water spout like this is pretty rare. now nbc meteorologist bill

karins has more on the powerful hurricane threatening the gulf coast. >> the rainfall predictions are atroe no, ma'am cal. even when mathieu came ashore we didn't have widespread huge amounts of rain predicted like with this show. the pink shows 15 inches of rain plus. from corpus christi to victoria to houston, san antonio and austin it has improved a bit for you. both our long-range forecast, both target that area from victoria to corpus christi to houston. that's where the astronomical flooding is potential of two is causing major

hearing damage in diplomats from cuba. "early today" is back in two. that moment you suck up all that doubt that fear all those reasons why not and decide to begin.

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♪ why did you do it? >> fast forwarding into friday, in detroit a former volkswagen engineer will be sentenced in the scandal. he pled guilty to defraud the u.s. government. >> the first span of new york's new mayor m cuomo bridge is set to open to traffic. the bridge took five years to build on a four billion dollar budget. >> the national park service turns 101 years old. to mark the occasion park entrance fees are being waived.

this is last weekend for people age 62 and over to get a $10 lifetime price before the price increases to $80 on monday. >> floyd mayweather jr. and connor mcgreg or will face off tomorrow night. blake mccoy is here with us with a preview. >> reporter: i know you're excited about this one. it is called the money fight, expected to be the most-viewed combat sporting event in history. why all of the hype in this fight? mayweather is the greatest fighter, undefeated. record of 49-0. the much-younger connor mcgreg or is someone he wouldn't normally fight. a mixed martial art sport, which allows kicking. with this fight mcgregor will have to play by boxing moves which puts him at a disadvantage. mayweather is to win six to one.

check out this going viral. connor is wearing a three piece suit and he has a mini me. the two fighters came face-to-face at a press conference this week. >> we are prepared for 12 three-minute rounds of non-stop pace. i will go forward and put the pressure on him and break this old man. trust me on that. we are more than ready. >> one thing that i can do, i can fight. i can give it and i can take it. but for me to be 49-0 it is obvious i'm not receiving it. i'm giving it. >> if you're trying to pinpoint mcgregor's accent, he's irish. tomorrow night's fight is not coming cheap. to watch at home it is $89.99 or $99.99 for hd. simply put, both men get very rich no matter who wins this fight because the purse will be massive. they are talking maybe $700 million in pay per view money out of this. >> just the publicity alone, the trash talking that start weeks ago. >> mcgregor has all of these

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night. the title "look what you made me do." the track is the first in nearly three years. fans were quick to speculate on whether it would reignite her feud with kanye west. the feud may continue on this weekend with the vma. >> she has beef with everybody these days. as if the horror movie couldn't get any creepier, a theater in austin texas is planning a clowns only screening of the upcoming movie which features the appearance of a clown to terrorize children. you have to be dressed as a clown to get in. the movie hits theaters september 8th. it is terrifying. >> it is, adults and for kids. keep them away. they will be traumatized for life. >> i will be skipping that for sure. this is "early today." new charmin ultra soft!

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shut it down. the norristown high speed line. locked out. aimed at people driving drunk. how it could make the roads safer. we have a busy friday. we got eagles to talk about. coming up at 4:00 a.m. good morning. this is nbc news today. >> we have the weather to talk about. it is going to be spectacular. let's get right to meteorologist, bill henley. most accurate forecast in town. going to be spectacular. that's the operative phrase. this morning, i'm tracking a few

showers. inching into easton this morning. see the first rain drops arriving in easton, but light rain is falling in allentown. there are a couple of spots of moderate showers. most of the area just getting light rain showers. that line extends through chester county and into south jersey and delaware. these will move through and die out this morning. then it's back to sunshine and nice weather this afternoon. nothing heavy about the rainfall moving into cumberland county. temperatures cooled into the 60s. pretty close to where we were. not seeing the 50s at this time in the suburbs. thanks to clouds and showers and rain coming down in the lehigh valley. temperatures coming up into the 70s to right around 80 degrees in new jersey. 76 in the suburbs. 78 in delaware. break it down hour by hour. show you when the showers move out. first, find out how the traffic looks on a friday morning. jessica boyington has your first alert traffic. >> starting this morning, watching a crash, this is out in west norriston.

still watching that. vine street expressway open again. full week of the vine being open and being able to get on the vine street expressway with no detours is a good thing. we're watching it from the camera just around 24th street westbound here moving towards the schuylkill with no problem. eastbound no problem there either. also speaking of the schuylkill, watching construction on the eastbound side. from the blue route to gladwyne seeing lane restrictions. 14 minutes on the eastbound side from the blue route to vine. speeds into the mid 50s. 4:00 a.m. right now. breaking news, a police chase ends in a crash in chester, investigators tell us people have been hurt. still not clear if they were involved in the chase. nbc 10 pamela osborne is the only news crew on scene. what are you learning. >> well, we're as close as we can get to that scene right now. this is east williams