♪ [ cheers and applause ] this is "nightline." >> tonight, paradise lost. the caribbean islands ravaged by hurricane irma. the category 5 monster destroying thousands of buildings and homes. now the newest tool in search and rescue, drones, offering more than just eyes in the sky. tying safety lines in floods. how this high-flying tech could save lives in florida as irma approaches. plus -- ♪ she give me money -- fake shoes. they might look like kanye's yeezies but these shoes have no sole. inside the world of counterfeit

gold digger's dream. but it's not a victimless crime. >> it's a big business that's controlled like criminals. >> we're on a raid with lapd. >> police. >> cracking down on alleged black market dealer with an expert sneakerhead teaching you how to spot a fake. and american women dominating the u.s. open, filling all four semifinal slots tonight. who will move on to the championship final? but first, the "nightline" 5. num fios is not cable. we're a 100% fiber optic network. num

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good evening. thank you for joining us. we begin tonight with the destruction in the caribbean. hurricane irma, a category 5 storm leveling homes and leaving hundreds of thousands without power as it barrels towards florida. abc's linzie janis is in puerto rico with some fortunate survivors. >> reporter: tonight hurricane irma bearing down on turks and caicos. after leaving a string of caribbean islands in ruins. buildings and trees ripped apart. this communications tower snapped. hundreds now homeless. >> it was the worst time in my life. and i would not want anything like this to happen again. >> reporter: barbuda's prime minister telling ab news itc ne as if a bomb

tiny island. >> my main concern right now is how we're going to survive after this. >> reporter: st. marten next in irma's crosshairs. shipping containers tossed like toys. boats crashing together. at least 14 now dead in the storm zone including 16-year-old xander venezia drowning in rough surf off the barbados coast. irma's death toll expected to rise and scores more injured. teams like this one have been flying in and out of the virgin islands rescuing people. our cameraman on one of those choppers, capturing scenes of destruction as irma moved across the caribbean. we met canadian college student alex demore badly hurt in a fall in st. thomas, airlifted to puerto rico for treatment. we lent her our phone so she could call her family. she and american student matty gortat leaving the island with one pair of flip-flops between them and little else. the pair describing how they rode out the storm. >> we just didn't know if the roof was going to come off at any moment. >> we were praying.

whole time. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm linzie janis in puerto rico. >> our thanks to linzie. and for breaking news alerts on hurricane irma download the abc news app. it's one of the most intense storms in history heads toward the east coast, our first responders are equipped with one of the newest life-saving technologies, drones. no longer just used to look around, now they're actually assisting in critical rescue operations. here's abc's gio benitez. >> reporter: a bird's eye view of the devastation of the british virgin islands today. the scope of hurricane irma's destruction captured by a drone. and in the wake of hurricane harvey in texas more aerial images showing structural damage prompting an evacuation. >> the roof was caving in. and there were people in there working. >> reporter: these aircraft deployable in just minutes are used by more than 300 state and local agencies across the country. now goin

down. drones are also saving lives. from flying a safety line for this swift water rescue of two stranded boys in maine to south carolina, where a drone's thermal imaging found stranded kayakers in the dark. in the lone star state the public safety u.a.s. response team was one of the first groups to dispatch drones in emergency situations. >> if you get five or six of these things in the air, there's pretty much nothing that we can't cover with these things from the air. >> this man and this woman are in this home that is totally surrounded by water. >> reporter: they are the team on the scene of this flash flood. >> it's just -- it's crazy. constant water. >> reporter: that's william and tracy castel stranded back in 2015. >> all i could see was water. and it wasn't just standing water. it was flowing water. the feeling of helplessness was overwhelming. >> reporter: with the danger swelling by the minute pilot garrett brill attached a safety line to his drone. >> we were

deliver it right to his hand. >> we've seen a brilliant use of a drone here. >> i pulled that heavier rope across the water and secured it to the porch, and the porch beams, and they were able to use that to use the rescue raft to try to get out here. >> reporter: a helicopter eventually got the kastels to safety. but that first drone offered a look at how this high-flying technology could be a lifeline. >> everybody realizes that these are more than just eyes in the sky. this is a multipurpose tool that every department needs to have. >> reporter: abc attended one of the response team's training exercises. >> let's go. >> reporter: simulating an active shooter scenario. [ gunfire ] volunteers playing frightened school kids and teachers. mannequins on the ground representing the wounded. and the mansfield police department in north texas, their weapons, paintballs.

matter of moments. >> they got him. >> reporter: let's watch again. this time with our cameras fixed on that aircraft. the first eyes inside. speeding down the hallway. officers following close behind. >> the hallway's clear. >> reporter: the drone's pilot relaying what the drone sees to his team inside. >> suspect left. suspect left. >> reporter: then the takedown. the entire time that drone was watching what he was doing. that's how they knew where to go. the man behind the sticks, barry moore. before the drone goes through those doors, what's going through your mind? >> keep the officers out of coming inside. make sure i can keep eyes on the bad guy and make sure they're not walking into something that's going to get them killed. >> reporter: for firefighters the drone brings a clearer picture than the naked eye. we are suiting up because we're actually going to go in there and show you what the drone can

fire. >> let's go. >> we're doeg igoing in, guys. we're going in. >> reporter: with members of the joshua fire department i'm led into a smoke-filled building. i see the fire but i can barely see anything else. >> reporter: i crouch in the corner, playing a trapped victim. even from the outside the smoke is blinding. no way for rescuers to know if anyone's inside. but a quick view of that thermal camera, and there i am. >> all right. we are out. >> reporter: you can see the thermal camera is what saw what was happening inside. and really for any firefighter that's what's going to make the difference. they're going to be able to see who's in there, who's walking around. how often are you using this technology? >> we're using it every fire we have. >> every fire. >> every fire we have. >> reporter: high-tech firefighting. that's the way to do it. these first responders also go high-tech for search and rescue. recently in colorado a drone

spotted these two lost hikers and their dog in just two hours. >> the perspective that it give differe gives you from the air is completely different from a searcher on the ground. when a searcher walks through woods like this all they see is thick woods. when you get up above you realize there's a lot of patches, a lot of holes. you can see all the trells. >> reporter: as night falls i head into cleburne state park. it's up to the first responders to fall me. so now it's getting really dark. we're running out of light here. and hopefully they're going to get that drone to me soon. within minutes the drone appears, carrying a raid crowe and glow sticks so i can see their special delivery. >> i see the drone right there. make sure he sees me. i see the glowstick. he's going to drop this. but he's got to get close. let's see if he can see me. >> he's got it. >> i have the walkie-tale.

but i'm a little lost back here. it's dark. >> we will send a search team in for you right now. >> reporter: finally, a drone with a spotlight appears, guiding that search team. >> they have a spotlight on a drone. this is the kind of spotlight you might expect from a helicopter. >> wave to the camera and say hi. >> you found us! i can't believe it. >> reporter: a light in the dark for me. and as hurricane irma looms, drones may be called to action yet again in florida. for "nightline" i'm gio benitez in cleburne, texas. next, these kanye west shoes seem real at first. but a closer look and it all falls down. police busting an alleged supplier of counterfeit sneakers. dless shrimp is back at red lobster and we went all out to bring you even more incredible shrimp and new flavors like new nashville hot shrimp

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not take it away. kanye west's yeezy sneakers are produced in small batches. they sell out quickly and are often resold at high mark-ups. so it's no wonder that an entire industry has sprung up around counterfeiting them and other hard to find designer brands. tonight, abc's nick watt joins the lapd in bringing an alleged black market footwear supplier to heel. >> reporter: today we're on the hunt with the lapd on a raid in inglewood, on the hunt for one of the most counterfeted commodities coming into the u.s., sneakers. >> so they're in there right now? >> that's correct. two undercover officers just walked in, posing as customers. >> there needs to be a sale, right? >> yes. or at least an attempt sale.

working for nike have been surveilling this store for months. they say they've already bought fake sneakers here. and now they're bringing the lapd along, hoping to make arrests. >> that's our undercover officer now. >> good? >> we're going to come in. >> police. open the door. hapd. hi there. >> reporter: fake nikes for sale. >> as of right now you're under arrest. >> reporter: and why should we care? >> those dollars are not going to some legitimate business. those dollars are going to support drug trafficking organizations, organized crime, and in some cases terrorist organizations. >> reporter: yes, he said terrorist groups. officials say that terrorists who attacked french magazine "charlie hebdo" financed their weapons partly by selling fake nikes. >> counterfeiting is big business, and it's big business that's controlled by criminals. >> reporter: authorities are tracing the money through wire transfers. they say a lot of it

through france and then on to the middle east. here in a warehouse in new jersey the feds say they are trying to make sure fakes never even make it into the country in the first place. >> we're looking every single day. >> reporter: this is customs and border patrol. they partner with other agencies, the fbi, the d.e.a., sharing intel on counterfeit shipments. mainly from china. >> we got information that it's possibly counterfeit. so we're going to take our time and go through piece by piece. >> reporter: last year cbp seized over $32 million worth of counterfet goods. >> after you've done this 5,000 times you start to get the feel for what legitimate nikes might feel like. >> chinese. >> are you serious? >> these are not real. >> reporter: and adidas yeezies may be the pinnacle of this exploding illegal industry. red carpets, runways, all over instagram. these kanye west-designed kicks are everything. knit upper, chunky sole. but buyer, beware. genuine yeezies retail for around 200 bucks a pop, but

they're so rare, sell out so fast that what amount to sneaker speculators are selling them with massive mark-ups. >> how much are we talking for these? >> 12. 1200. 700. maybe 700. 1,000. 1500. >> 1500 bucks for those? >> yep. >> reporter: i'll explain the mask in just a minute. >> it's like the stock market. one day it's worth 500. next day it's 1,000. and just it all comes down to how many are available. >> reporter: these are all real but that shortage now fueling a counterfeiting explosion. and some fakes so good that many consumers are turning to unofficial authenticators online. >> there are certain things the fakes have that real ones don't. >> reporter: yeezy buster calls out the fakes daily to his hundreds of thousands of followers. he says the mask hiding his identity for fear of being sued. >> i'm a 19-year-old from los angeles and i'm a med student. >> it's not a crime to buy this stuff. so you're going to have the consumer demand. people like nice things. >> i mean, you walk around l.a., you'll see a

wearing these. probably eight or nine of them will be fake. >> reporter: mostly made in china, factories churning out thousands of counterfeits. the differences are subtle. like labels, color variation, and sole thickness. >> what's the difference? >> well, basically, this pair you can get off fake chinese websites and these ones are authentic. >> reporter: he offers a yeezy authentication service. for ten bucks he'll tell you if the yeezies are legitimate or not. the request arrives by e-mail as we're talking. >> this label looks good to me. you've got to see if the serial numbers match up. everything looks good. a lot of the fakes the line ends over here. see how it kind of fades out over here? and then i would just send them real and just my initials and send. and that's just how it works. >> good little service. >> reporter: some people know their yeezies are fake and don't care, they just want them real or not. but if you do care, how can you tell? >> are these both real? >> no. one of them's fake and one of them

look at them. >> i think these are fake. >> those are actually the real ones. this is a decent fake, yeah. if this is on someone's foot it would be pretty difficult to tell. >> reporter: there are plenty of how-to tutorials on youtube. >> i'm going to be talking about how to spot a fake sneaker site. >> reporter: basically, look at the detail. the suede on the real one is a little nicer and the -- >> adidas logo is heat printed on the real one. whereas on the fake it's like glossy. >> reporter: and the sole. >> you could even feel it with your hands. like this is like much more squushy. and you can tell this is legit and this isn't. >> i could not tell the difference. >> really? >> no. >> reporter: all of this easier to do if you have them in your hand or on your foot. >> the fakes aren't nearly as comfortable too. >> i think they're kind of ugly? >> you think so? >> reporter: for the sellers of the fake ones it's a lucrative game. >> an average distributoror makes anywhere from 80,000 tods 150 thousands a month. >> reporter: a month.

a year. >> reporter: and the punishments if caught are a lot more lenient than, say, for narcotics trafficking. >> at the end of the day this is a property crime so, it's not a big deal. and our judicial system, obviously it's lenient toward property crime. >> i just work here. >> reporter: back at the raid in inglewood the store clerk is under arrest. the clerk is cited for selling counterfeit goods. she cooperated. >> we corroborated what she said and we did some undercover buys. >> at different stores? >> at different stores. specifically the supplier. >> so you managed from that raid to get to the main supplier? >> correct. >> the store's owner, an alleged supplier, was later arrested. the police tell us they found a storeroom packed with fakes and they will pursue charges. >> it was a lot. hundreds. >> hundreds. >> yeah. the whole back end was covered with sneakers. >> all of them counterfeit. every single one. >> every single one. >> reporter: i'm nick watt for "nightline" in los angeles. and next, the triumphant winners at the u.s. open. two american women moving on to th

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and finally tonight, for the first time since 1981 all four semifinalists in the women's u.s. open were american. and they did not disappoint. it was an extraordinary battle between the veteran favorite venus williams and sloane stephens, who just four weeks ago was ranked above 900 in the world. tonight she's advancing to the u.s. open finals after beating williams. and she'll be facing a ferocious opponent, madison keys. making it look easy with a quick win over coco vandeweghe. she and stephens will battle for the championship this weekend. it's the first grand slam final for both women. good for them. it was american track star wilma rudolph who said, "never underestimate the power of dreams." thank you for watching abc news. and as always, we're online at abcnews.com and our "nightline" facebook page. thanks for the company, america. good night.

>> today on our show, contestants will be playing for the kind of money that can change their lives in an instant, and we're about to find out if one of them can make it happen. let's play "who wants to be a millionaire." [cheers and applause] [dramatic music] ♪

to the show. are you guys ready to play "millionaire" today? [cheers and applause] me too. you know, people come to vegas for a lot of things, but at just 20 years old, the only thing on our contestant's mind is winning $1 million on this show. from the bronx, new york, please welcome back paul papantoniou. [cheers and applause] what's up, paul? hey, buddy. good to see you again. welcome back. [cheers and applause] >> [sighs] >> what's a 20 year old gonna do with $1 million? >> well, chris, i want to buy a farm. >> all right. what do you want to do on this farm? you want cattle or you want, uh... >> free-range chickens. >> free-range chickens. >> bunch of produce. >> all right. >> [laughs] >> for a million bucks--i don't know what chickens are going for these days--you could probably buy at least three, i would think. >> maybe four if i kind of weasel it in right. >> right, and if you just buy the breasts and thighs. oh, you want the whole chicken. all right. well, let me tell everybody where you are up to this point in the game. you're at $2