bye, everyone. ♪ i won't bealone wild weather in south carolina, water spouts continue in the wake of irma with another hurricane looming at the atlantic as hurricane jose continues to churn toward the u.s. >> while much needed humanitarian assistance is being focused on the florida keys where the destruction is still being realized. >> next to politics, where president trump's former top advisor is stirring the pot and changing political futures. >> and apple gets ready to unleach their most advanced aggressive iphone ever, so they say. "early today" starts right now. and very good morning to you. i'm richard lui in for phillip mena. >> good to be with you. i'm frances rivera. now a tropical depression irma is still threatening southeastern states. its heavy winds and rain pummelling savannah, georgia. the governor expanding an

emergency declaration across the entire state where one person died after a tree fell on their house. the death toll from the storm now at 40. irma brought extensive flooding to charleston, south carolina. look at the downtown area covered in water and nearby an isle of palms the winds whipped up a spout from the atlantic spinning into the beach, dump ping even more water on the flooded shore. >> over 8 million people remain without power meanwhile, while new footage comes in, thrashing homes and vehicles. surging in a lobby in miami. one of the many cities devastated by flooding. the florida's governor gave an update on the response. >> everybody is going to work hard. the way i think about it, we have to keep everybody safe. we have to get, we've got to get our hospitals back open. we have to get our fuel back here. we have to get our roads open. we have to get everybody electricity back. and i can't tell you anybody that's not working. my experience is everybody is working their tail off. and unfortunately everybody is

going to have to be patient because it's going to be a lot of work to get this undid. >> the coast guard is helping out meanwhile rescuing over 100 people in jacksonville, florida. they saved more than 100 more in other states making a vast area of evacuation for federal response teams. >> we are marshaling the federal response for alabama, georgia, louisiana, tennessee and all of those wonderful places and states in harms way. when americans are in need, americans pull together, and we are one country. and when we face hardship, we emerge closer, stronger, and more determined than ever. >> the u.s. is also helping out in the storm ravaged caribbean with the navy sending an aircraft carrier along with multiple ships and hundreds of marines and sailors to help provide humanitarian relief. many are already there part of first response efforts evacuating those in need via

helicopter. while the coast guard has already delivered over 100,000 meals and other needed supplies like generators and baby formula. >> he let's turn to my co-anchor fi phillip mena at fort lauderdale airport. today is likely the day everybody gets to come in and out. at least that's the hope. >> reporter: yeah, that is the hope, frances. good morning. today everybody is looking forward to right now miami and fort lauderdale international airports, they are set to reopen today at 9:00 a.m. we have been seeing steady trickle of tsa employees and airline employees and even the handful of passengers who have shown up hours before the first flight is scheduled to depart at 9:00 a.m. many of the people here are just excited to try to either get back to their homes, and there's also plenty of people who evacuated during hurricane irma or prior to it, hoping to be safe from it. and now they're trying to get back and there is going to be some issues getting back.

it's going to be slow going. the big stories here are that the travel in and out of here as well as the clean-up effort, driving around neighborhoods yesterday, that's what we saw, just a lot of damage in those neighborhoods. but mostly we spoke to a lot of people who were thankful that irma spared not only their lives, but their homes. and we spoke to one of those individuals yesterday. take a listen. >> when andrew happened, all my roofs went. i had to put my daughter, my two daughters and my wife in a closet. that was the only thing that was left. i had to stand outside the clos et holding it. and watch everything go by me. and the wind. every time the wind went, it just felt that feeling when it's going to happen next. is it going to happen to me? and you know, i prayed a lot, and i will continue to pray because, thank god, that's why i'm here. >> reporter: just a harrowing experience for that man and so

many others who survived this thankfully. now, traveling in and out of here for the next few days is going to be tough. flights are limited as well as rental cars and train service is still not available yet. so, patience is going to be a virtue today, frances. >> all right, philip, best of luck to the people there. thank you. >> before barrelling across florida, then hurricane irma swept across the caribbean leaving nothing but utter devastation in its wake. relief is arriving in the region, but many remain in desperate need of help. nbc's ron has more from san juan. >> reporter: the usually lush green u.s. virgin islands are a lifeless dull brown paradise torn apart by irma. many homes damaged or destroyed, looting and burglaries reported from american service members arriving to help clean up. >> it's still a mess. home invasions have been high on property. that's a big concern. lots of people are walking around armed. >> reporter: britney gonzalez who evacuated to mississippi worried about her husband still

there. >> it's not going to be the same saint john and we don't know if it can even be our home again. >> reporter: further south on st. maarten, the hurricane is said to have destroyed 90% of the island. american medical student mike shot this video of the damage where he lives. cars tossed around the parking lot, finally able to leave on an american military plane. he's in puerto rico. >> there were plenty of times, you know, that night and also throughout the week where i really wondered, gees, you know, how is this going to end? >> reporter: now cruise ships are arriving to take others out. on bar bud a nearly 100% destroyed, tour operator craig ryan, ferrying people off the island. families on nearby antigua taking strangers into their homes. >> these families have lost everything. you couldn't believe that there was a town there before. it's surreal. snoosh officials seri construction in barbuda alone could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. billionaire richard branson posting these images of destruction at his island home. branson already helping with the relief effort. >> that was nbc's ron mott

reporting. as the president continues to monitor irma's path of destruction, his former chief strategist steve bannon is busy making headlines that have roiled the west wing saying the biggest mistake of the president and warg on the gop. >> someone said you described the firing of james comey, you're a student of history, as the biggest mistake in political history. >> that would be probably -- that's probably be too bomb bass tick even for me, maybe modern history. the establishment is trying to nullify the 2016 election. that is a brutal fact we have to face. >> bannon's website breitbart followed up going after trump, the vice-president, jeff sessions and others. for more we'll go to nbc's tracy potts. bannon is showing how much pressure he can put on the white house now. >> reporter: pressure on the white house, pressure on the party just as they are facing some big decisions, frances. but here on capitol hill,

bannon's message not resonating so much. listen to what john mccain, a republican, said when asked about steve bannon and his comments on the firing of james comey. >> [ inaudible ]. >> steve bannon, these are things that all he does is provide gossip. i'm supposed to comment on [ inaudible ]? good night. >> reporter: mccain not wanting to deal with this at all, tim kaine a democrat called it inside baseball. he said it doesn't really affect anything that has to do with americans, things like tax reform that the white house wants to focus on now, except they're peppered with all these questions about bannon at the white house briefing. sara huckabee sanders, the president's spokes woman defended firing james comey,

saying that he did what he wasn't supposed to do, that he talked to reporters. and so now the president is dealing with this backlash from the man who used to run things on the inside. meantime, tonight a dinner at the white house focusing on tax reform, he's invited in two republicans on the finance committee and three democrats -- these are the three democrats that did not sign onto their party's tax plan. >> tracy potts for us. tracy, thanks. >> it's going to be a long dinner, long, long dinner. let's check in with meteorologist bill karins on the remnants of irma, my friend. >> there is only a little bit left. the rain we're dealing with, the current conditions, 35 mile per hour winds northwest at 15. and now it is just drifting its way through georgia. and we still watch the rain. it's made its way all the way to the mississippi river, through mississippi and also through tennessee. that's kind of rare. you don't usually see that with tropical sis temtz especially heading onto florida. the paths of what's left of it will head up into tennessee, again, the winds won't cause any more issues. we did lose a lot of power in georgia.

almost 2 million people lost power just when it was a tropical storm. the rain forecast has bands still bringing heavy rains in the areas from wilmington towards fayetteville and lumberton, rain in mississi lñ@

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stolen. names, social security numbers, dobs, addresses, driver's license numbers, and 200,000 credit cards. >> really disconcerning because equifax is trusted. >> reporter: across the country frustration and anger at equifax's security lapse. >> i don't think there is any good excuse and i think their response is poor. >> you don't know who you can trust, where you can use your information, your credit cards. >> reporter: amid a public backlash, equifax said customers who sign up for one year of free credit monitoring and theft protection will not sur render their rights to sue. but the hack means we could all be at risk our whole lives. >> your name, address, social, date of birth, that information is not going to change so it has perpetual value to a fraudster. so, in five years, the threat is not gone, in ten years, 20 years, the threat is not gone. >> reporter: credit experts say every american should take immediate steps to safeguard their credit. sign up for fraud alerts from equifax and other two spearian and transunion.

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the dangerous conditions and debris created by irma turned deadly in sandy springs, georgia. that's a suburb just north of atlanta. >> yes. >> joining us by phone is the mayor of that town, rusty paul. mayor, we thank you for being with us at this early morning hour. i want to ask you unfortunately, you are dealing with that one fatality. what happened? what were the circumstances there? >> we had a gentleman 55-year-old male who was laying in bed and a tree fell across his house and right across his bed. and unfortunately, he died almost instantly. so, yeah, it's been a real mess here. in fact, the wind and the rain continue even as we are speaking. >> and, mr. mayor, what's the level of water that you are seeing? is there any concern there? >> we haven't had much flooding, but we have had -- we're a city that's literally in the forest. if you get above about five

stories, you can't see our city because of the tree coverage. so, when we have storms like this, we have a tremendous problem with trees coming down across power lines. we've got over 80 calls in right now with power lines down. several houses have been damaged by falling trees and limbs. and a lot of electrical outages and georgia power, which is the primary electrical provider here, can't send crews out until the storm ends. so, we expect when the sun comes up in about an hour and a half, that the damage around here is going to be very substantial. we've asked people to stay off the roads. we've asked businesses to delay opening until we've had a chance to assess how bad the damage really is overnight. >> mayor paul, we're looking at the damage in your town. did you ever think that when we first started covering this storm over the weekend when everybody in miami, in the caribbean, and the keys and when it started tracking west, were

all fearing for their communities and their lives, that eventually that you would be the victim and seeing this aftermath from irma? >> well, we started preparing on monday. we were working very closely with the national weather service to track the storm, and we had a feeling that this may happen. this is the first time we've experienced tropical force winds in recorded history in this area. >> wow. >> so, we began to anticipate it. and, so, the good news for us is people went about their business preparing and getting ready for it very calmly, and we haven't had a lot of panic or problems and people are just hunkered down right now in their homes waiting for the sun to rise and let us do the evaluations we need to do to see how quickly we can get it cleaned up. today is going to be focused 0 n on clean up. >> we're thinking of you and the one resident who lost his life in the storm. mayor rusty paul in georgia, thank you for your time. >> thank you for letting me

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so, a lot of you have been wanting to help. here's way to do it. tonight tune into nbc at 8:00 p.m. eastern for hand in hand benefit for harvey and irma. the star studded telethon will have stars like beyonce, ellen degeneres. all of this was about harvey before and we started seeing irma, they shifted and said we need to bring in irma. >> the math is just daunting. over $100 billion for hurricane harvey, over $100 billion for irma. and so every dollar will count. obviously we'll be tweeting about it on "early today." so folks can get in on this and put in a dollar or two if they can. >> one of the many ways to help. just ahead we'll tell you what's in store forepresident trump at a very important dinner at the white house, who is invited and who is not. you're watching "early today." dates. you look amazing. and you look amazing...ly comfortable.

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irma's impact. people across florida are trying to pick up after the storm. airport passengers are trying to return home. a touch of evil. details about the man accused of killing a father in front of his own daughter. and making a case. the man behind the controls during that deadly amtrak derailment wants the charges against him dropped. today his attorneys will face the judge. a lot of ground to cover u. just before 4:00 a.m. this is nbc10, and i'm tracy

davidson. >> i'm via sikahema. meteorologist krystal klei has the forecast. >> a crisp start. i like that i don't have to say 40s on the map, at least currently. wilmington, 38. the same in atlantic city, mt. holly at 53. temperatures in the 50s for the most part this morning. as we go later into the day, we're talking some of us into the upper 70s. some of us flirting with around 80 degrees for the high temperature in our afternoon. we've got this kind of southwest flow which is going to help warm our temperatures up. it's also pulling in now the clouds that are way out ahead of irma. the leftover of irma. we've got clouds to start. we will have clouds throughout the day. more of a mostly cloudy forecast. not the big, thick, puffy cloud coverage necessarily, but high clouds. take a look. the rain not too far off. the outermost bands, sprinkles possible for delaware. most of us, the rain not coming in until we go tonight, tomorrow morning. then we'll have on and off showers in the forecast for several days. we'll talk more about that coming up in a few minutes. right now, we'll go to traffic

with jessica boyington. we're watching the boulevard now. our cameras around 9th street. we actually have a construction project underway here. on the southbound side. in between 9th and summerdale avenue, lane restrictions. they're partially blocking the intersection. some traffic is moving by here, maybe the outer lanes. for now, definitely watching some of this construction project. hopefully that clears by 5:00 or so. we'll keep our eyes on that for you. also watching the schuylkill expressway. there's a construction project in between belmont to gulf mills, lane construction westbound. a 12-minute drive time westbound from the vine and center city to the blue route. speeds high, into the 50s. 4:00 a.m. 52 degrees. breaking news in wilmington. a house fire kills a man and leaves his wife in critical condition. a third person who rushed in to help was not seriously hurt. the call came in around 11:20 west