all right, brian todd, thanks very much for that report. brian todd, here in "the situation room."e. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. >>> "outfront" next, breaking news. massive earthquake in mexico city. at least 116 dead at this moment. this as a dangerous category 5 hurricane heads straight for puerto rico. we're on top of both of these breaking stories this hour. >>> and paul manafort fighting back after our exclusive report he was wire tapped. trump's former campaign chairman calling on the department of justice to release all of the intercepts. >>> and rocket man. trump's nickname for kim jong-un, giving elton john a whole new following. let's go "outfront." >> good evening, i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, two major breaking stories. a powerful earthquake with

. >>> first to cnn's brian todd, he is in beaumont, texas. brian, tell us what the situation is there now. >> reporter: jim, tonight engineers here at this water treatment facility in beaumont are working around the clock frantically trying to get the water flowing again in this city. they are battling a raging river that is well over its banks. just a short time ago groerch greg abbott of texas said the river is 7 feet above its records and it is going to stay that way for probably about a week. this comes tonight as officials throughout this region are still responding, assessing trying to get their minds around the scope of this disaster. >>> a first look at the destruction harvey has left behind, roads destroyed, homes nolkd off their foundations, boats precariously perched. lives and livelihoods destroyed by dploods. but in beaumont they are desperate for more water. the roughly 100,000 residents have been without drinking water since early thursday morning. now they are lining up for a bottle supply. the motors on the main water pumping

i want to go to brian todd. brian, what have you been seeing today? >> reporter: anderson, this is part of the southern part the island. this is the sandy cove condominium complex. look at what happened to this. we'll have our photojournalist david brooks go in on this. what you're looking at here is the third floor of this condominium complex. the first two floors including the garage were completely buried. this is the third floor. this is a 12-unit condominium complex that was crushed in the storm surge. not exactly sure how this happened, but we're on the southern tip of the island here. we talked to one of the owners heek, tom ross, he's 73 years old. he's had this place for 18 years. his unit is that middle one on the third floor. and he said he believes everybody got out of here and evacuated, and it's a good thing. if they hadn't, they wouldn't have survived this. we saw him earlier today. he just looked kind of shell shocked, he was standing there looking at this. we walked around to the back and we talked to him there. he was rational and fi

our brian todd has the very latest. >> i'm brian todd in beaumont, texas. there are indications the crisis in southeast texas is not over. in crosby, texas, the site of arkema fires broke out on friday in trailers where chemicals were being stored. these were deadly and toxic peroxide chemicals. they were stored in chemicals that caught fire. officials at arkema expected this to happen. they said there are going to be maybe six trailers that will catch fire in the coming days. that's because the chemicals have not been cooled in days. they had severe flooding in the plant which shut down the cooling systems. but they do say that so far there's no danger to the public. the epa said they flew a plane through there to monitor airborne toxins. there's no dangerous toxic substance in the air. but they'll keep monitoring that. here in beaumont at the water treatment plant behind me, they are working to get the water supply back online. they've been without water for a couple of days now. and they brought in engineers from exxon and other companies to try to get w

i want to the go to brian todd on the eastern side of florida. an, the images there, i mean, you are still getting hammered there. >> reporter: we really are, anderson. this has been going on for close to eight hours. people thought they might be late in the process by now, but it has been very intense for about eight hours now and it doesn't look like it's letting up any time soon. just about anything you can see -- whoa, i just -- i just have to tell you we saw a huge blue light over the distance. it looked like an explosion. we saw a similar event just down the street here and it was a transformer explosion and i just saw one very intense over to my left. so it looks like -- yeah. it really is. it was a large one. it was behind a building, but i can see it. these lights have been going on and off and we're talking about projectiles, anderson and there are so many things that have turned into projectiles and large palm fronts that weigh 20 pounds or more. there was a modern art sculpture that weighs hundreds of pounds and it was weighed down by

brian todd is in west palm beach, that is an island just off the main coast of florida. one of those barrier types of islands, makes it more vulnerable. brian, not hearing about a curfew there yet, but you have been seeing the police going door-to-door to talk to people who are supposed to evacuate. how is it now? >> well, chris, i think a lot of people have listened to the police because there aren't a lot of people out. but you talked about a curfew. they're going to start enforcing a curfew in a few minutes about 3:00 eastern time the curfew goes into effect. they do not want to see these cars coming across the bridge that we've seen earlier today. they do not want to see these cars on flagler avenue that we've seen and people out walking that we've seen. the wind has started to kick up here in the last few minutes causing some white caps over here on the intercoastal water way. storm surge is going to be a critical concern here. it could be up to four feet, maybe higher. and with the high tide and weight activity on top of it that's going to be a concern, chris. we go

. >> brian todd, i want to look at another e vac helicopter. that's an urgent situation and clean drinking water. for that town, as if they haven't been hit hard enough. they had no water and electricity and about 10 to 15 foot of water. as we see here the next question is the release of the water out of the dams in the big city here in and around houston. my fear is that we lose the great. >> even in a neighborhood like this, they were affected by the release of the water. >> right because you take the grid out or we have a plant with a major significant event. >> it's one thing to be flooded and stuck home, they have water without electricity. >> without electricity, all of them are a disaster. i think the prudent thing to do now is to encourage people who can take the extended five or 10-day vacation until this goes down. until the water clears, this met col ban area is at the verge of a major disaster f. we lose electricity, it's a gauge changer. >> some people have been able to move up to the second floor and turn it off in the first floor

our brian todd is on the lower keys for us. what are the conditions like over there? >> reporter: wolf, this is a scene of frustration and in some cases desperation right here behind me. a long line of cars all day long as residents, hundreds of them, have come up to this checkpoint before long key and turned away by sheriff's deputies. a lot of them are angry, frustrated. the weather is playing a part because it is 90-plus degrees. they're sitting here in hot cars waiting for any word they may be able to get past the checkpoint into their homes. sheriff's deputies have no timetable for it. we spoke to a sheriff deputy who explained why they're turning people away. we videotaped a confrontation between a sheriff's deputy and a man who was waving a bottle of medication who tried to get around it. take a look. >> this guy's showing medication. now he's letting him -- this guy's trying to get through with some medication. >> no! stop! you're going that way! >> you know why they're not letting residents in, palm? >> right now we're still trying to get everything together,

brian todd on the scene for us. good work.nk you so much. >>> let's get an update on the conditions north of naples, which was thrashed by hurricane irma. we're joined by the city manager, bill moss. bill, thanks so much for joining us. as you know, naples is facing right now enormous clean-up. most of the city is still without power. what are your most urgent needs? >> well, wolf, we had all of our employees stationed here in the city all day yesterday and throughout the storm. so that we were able to mobilize quickly at daybreak this morning. our priority was to clear streets of downed trees and tree limbs so we could provide police and fire rescue to our communities and more importantly so we could allow our residents to rush to the city as close as possible. today we made great progress. we did have tidal surge but it wasn't the level we predicted. we were right rat the eye wall. on the backside, the winds dropped down dramatically. that spared us the worst of the storm surge. so, we had a surge of about three feet but it

first, let's go to cnn's brian todd in the lower florida keys for us. brian, residents there and in other parts of the state, they are still facing extremely dangerous conditions tonight. >> reporter: they certainly are, wolf. south florida still very much on edge tonight, three days after hurricane irma passed through here. you've got some angry, frustrated people at this checkpoint in the florida keys, being turned away as they try to get to their homes. and tonight, law enforcement officials are looking into the deaths of multiple people at a nursing home. tonight, an investigation is underway into the deaths at a nursing home facility in hollywood, florida. the deaths are believed to be related to power outages, caused by hurricane irma. >> we're conducting a criminal investigation inside. we may -- we believe at this time that they may be related to the loss of power in the storm. but we're conducting a criminal investigation and not ruling anything out. >> reporter: about a dozen residents of the rehabilitation center in hollywood hills are in crit

brian todd is in west palm beach. off the southeastern coast here in florida, very vulnerable. evacuation mandatory. police have been going toor to door. brian, what is it like now? >> well, chris, we just got our first touch of rain from the earlier bands of this storm coming this way. the rain has stopped now, but winds are kicking up, and i heard you and kyung lah talking about storm surge in miami. we're on a pier in west palm beach surrounded by water. this is just the intercoastal, not the ocean. the ocean is on to the other side of palm beach, that barrier island. that's vulnerable to storm surge. storm surges here could be several feet and once that happens all of this could be inundated up onto flagler drive over there on west palm beach, and what we have just been told by west palm beach and palm beach county officials is that in a little over two hours they are really going the start cracking down on a curfew, 3:00 p.m. eastern time is when they want people definitively off the roads. they wanted them off t

and brian todd, cnn, is on the scene. in west palm beach across the water over there from palm beach. how is the evacuation process going? >> reporter: well, wolf, a complicated process, and very anxious process. we'll show you what it means physically to see all this. trying to get people off the barrier island. that's palm beach right there. low lying. mobile homes there. a lot of vulnerable population trying to get them across the bridges and here to west palm beach, a slightly higher elevation where we are and get inland into general population shelters if they can get them. the mayor of west palm beach says they want to try to get people off the roads by tomorrow. that mandatory evacuation for palm beach started this morning at 10:00 a.m. three hours ago, about. in parts of west palm beach, wolf, they're still adhering to volunteer evacuations but also parts of west palm, they are instituting some mandatory evacuations in some low-lying areas. storm surge will happen here. five to ten feet. i'm only standing five fee

our brian todd reports from the keys. >> reporter: florida keys recovering from winds of 130 miles per hour. further down of the delicate chains of islands, some homes have their roofed ripped off. water and sewer and cell service is out. >> my heart goes out the keys. there is devastation and i just hope that everybody survives this. it is horrible and we saw it. i know especially for the keys it is a long road. there is a lot of damage. this is what's left of a three story c story condomiun complex. >> what you are looking at right here is the third floor. >> third floor, top floor. that makes it the second floor and the garage. all of this collapsed. >> reporter: a near by, a picture of how boats are destroyed by hurricane irma. >> sail maker takes us out and showing us his home is gutted. >> here is an illustration, the owner of the property says the storm dragged it has 45 foot sailboat, the maria, all the way up here. the large buoy was dragged along with it and it narrowed hit this house. >> reporter: the side of some houses were ripped up. >> we stayed in the bathroom and for t

but we begin with cnn's brian todd. brian, what are you learning?> reporter: london very much on edge tonight. british prime minister theresa may announced the threat level has been raised from severe to critical. that means that another attack may be imminent. we're getting new details tonight on the bomb itself, which, if it had detonated completely, would have brought much more carnage on that train. flames emanate from a crudely built bomb placed by the doorway inside a train in london's underground. officials say this ied sent more than two dozen people to the hospital with wounds like flash burns and singed air. witnesses say it caused a stampede of commuters. >> it was every man for himself. >> this wall of fire was coming towards us. >> reporter: tonight, the suspect or suspects still at large. the full resources of scotland yard and counterterrorism forces engaged in a manhunt. >> hundreds of detectives are involved speaking to witnesses and looking at ccv. >> the bomb itself did not go down. the bomb in and of itself is sort of a fingerpri

our brian todd has that. >> he has been called a ghost and the invisible sheikh. so mysterious, only this one video from 2014 exists of him. for months, the russian government had had said he was dead. now the shadowy leader of isis is apparently alive and calling on what's left of his terrorist army to attack the u.s. and its allies. >> carry on your jihad and your blessing prayings. let not the crusaders enjoy life in their homelands while your brothers are subjected to bombardment and destruction. >> the new audio message, running more than 45 minutes is, experts say, a clear directive. >> any doubt that that is a call for isis to launch attacks inside of america? >> what isis wants to do is show that they are a virul, powerful organization and what better way to show that is to launch attacks wherever these folks are, whether it's in the middle east, the americas or elsewhere. so this is bagdadi in the bunker. >> the message does appear to have been recorded recently. it references the nuclear threat from north korea and current syrian peace talks. what's not

cn correspondent brian todd has this report for us. >> reporter: a first look at the destructi destruction har i have has left behind. homes destroyed and knocked off their foundations, lives and live lie hoods destroyed by floods but in beaumont, they're desperate for more water. the residents have been without drinking water since early thursday morning. now they're lining up for a bottled supply. the motors on the main water pumping station shorted out when the rivers spilled over its banks. so the city rushed specialists in who are working urgently to get the water flowing again. right now that's the water lifeline. it's set up pby exxon engineers and others up to the pumping station. it takes a long time to get it there to treat the water and that's what residents here are counting on. >> reporter: the engineers understand how desperate they are to have their water back, but they've got to make sure it's safe to use. >> there are a lot of steps that still need to be completed. they need to go through the water treatment phase and work through all of the treatment facilities you need i

brian todd, cnn, florida. >>> joining me now on the phone is cammy clark. she is the public information officer for monroe county in florida, which consists of the southern most tip of florida and the florida keys. thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> now, hurricane irma made landfall in your area on sunday. what has happened since then to ensure that the community has access to clean water, clean food and, of course, power? >> it is amazing what has been accomplished in 48 hours here. it literally looked like a disaster zone, when i emerged from our emergency operations center on monday morning. here it is tuesday night, and we already have the entire roadway of u.s. 1 cleared, almost all of our side roads are cleared of debris, too. those will be removed later in the week. they've been working to restore power throughout the keys. right now, we've got some power in the upper keys and they're working to get it in the lower keys. same thing with water. we've got some water in the upper keys. and then, they're working to restore i

brian todd has been looking into this for us. brian, you're getting new information. what are you learning. >> we are, wolf. tonight, just duodays before the trial of the women who allegedly killed kim jong-nam begins, we're getting a new angle on the case. he tells us that kim jong-un wanted this murder to be a very public spectacle to send a message to north korea's rivals all over the world. don't cross us. for a cry that has several spy novel plot twists, this was the most public and brazen of murders. and tonight, one analyst tells cnn that's exactly how kim jong-un wanted it. february 13th of this year, in the middle of kuala lumpur's international airport, kim jong-nam, older half brother of north korea's dictator, has his face rubbed by two women. police athe substance on the women's hands was a chemical weapon, vx nerve agent. kim jong-nam suffocates and dies in less than 20 minutes. tonight, a professor named nam sung wook, a former analyst with south korea's intelligence agency, tells cnn in a phone interview, kim jong-un wanted the world to see his brother

brian todd is there. brian, palm beach county, a high concentration of elderly residents there.y getting special help to get them out of harm's way. >> reporter: jim, they have a special shelter for these people to go to. as far as special help, it looks like many of them will have to rely on their caregivers for that. there might be public transportation for them, but it's kind of scattered because they have to get as many people to these shelters as they can. they want everybody to get to them and not just have a special emphasis on the he would erld b -- elderly do need special care. that's tough because some of them don't want to go. those that do are tough to move. i just talked to a person who runs a small in-home care center. it's a care center for alzheimer's patients. he's got only four people in that care center. it's not much bigger than a small house, and he's moving them from one of his facilities to another, not to one of the special needs shelters. but they do say if you're going to a special needs shelter, you have to bring your caregiver with you because they do

brian todd, thank you very much. millions of people hoping to make their way home in the next few days. the situation complicated by shortages at gas stations. ports across tampa prioritizing fuel shipments. ryan young is in tampa. good evening, to you. appreciate you joining us. you're at the port of tampa where tankers have been arriving. fill us in. >> reporter: as we've been driving around we've seen lines for two things. fast food or gas. anytime people would say hey, this gas station is open, people would rush in there, fill up their cars and try to get some fresh, hot food. especially since it's getting so hot here, those cars aren't cooling them off. when you talk about those fuel lines getting open, you get behind me with and you can see those large shipping containers. there is no pipeline to florida. what they do is bring the gas on those large ships. today we watched as three dame in. we know seven more are coming in. and those are going to be a priority for the next several days. not only was there unpre

here's cnn's brian todd. >> reporter: he's been called a ghost and the invisible sheikh. so mysterious, only this one video from 2014 exists of him. for month, the russian government had said he was dead. now, al baghdadi, the shadowed leader of isis is apparently imam and calling on them to attack the u.s. and allies. >> translator: carry on jihad and blessed operations. let not the crusaders enjoy life in their homelands while you're subject to bombardment. >> reporter: the new audio messages running more than 45 minutes. any doubt that's a call for isis to launch attacks inside america? >> what isis wants to do is show that they're a viral organization. and what better way to show that is launch attacks wherever these folks are, whether middle east, europe, the americas or elsewhere. this is baghdadi in the bunker. >> reporter: u.s. intelligence tells cnn they have no reason to doubt the tape's authenticity. the message references current syrian peace talk us. what's not clear why the message was released now. could baghdadi be trying to regain command and control. >>

let's get to brian todd. he is in west palm beach. mandatory evacuation zone.atching them go door to door, asking people to leave. many remained there. he is now seeing why they were supposed to get out firsthand. brian, how is it now? >> chris, really violent storm surge here all morning long. debris, flying debris, is really a danger right here. right off flagler drive in west palm beach. what we're told by our cnn weather team is that we are on the so-called dirty side of the storm. violent push of energy and violent activity. pop-up tornadoes, we're told, will be occurring all day at and where we are now. it's very violent on the street right now. palm treem trooes are under severe strain here. we're keeping a close eye on them. i'm sure you note from being out there, what you have to do constantly is look up for flying debris, watch out for yourself and your team as things are flying around on the street. we're keeping a close eye on these power and telephone lines here. another danger, these massive palm fronds. this thing probably weighs 25 pounds or so.

but first, we need to get to cnn's brian todd. brian joins us from west palm beach.mething that prompted a very dramatic rescue, right? >> right, don. in palm beach county, which, by the way, has been pounded by hurricane force winds for coming up on 11 1/2 hours which is a sustained barrage here of wind and rain. palm beach county not far from where we are, a dramatic rescue, 50 plus people pulled from the stonybrook complex in riviera beach, florida. the mayor of that town, thomas masters, told us he had to go there with fire and rescue teams and police when the roofs got ripped off of two units in that apartment complex. they went door to door and made sure people got out. but they pulled more than 50 people out. they got them to a shelter and higher ground and a safer area including several children. and he reported that none of them were injured, but this is kind of the product of what we've been going through here, again, close to 12 hours here in palm beach county. over on this street, flagler drive along the intercoastal waterway, we saw three transformers bl

our brian todd has been digging into the challenges faced by the u.s. intelligence community. n is joining us now. brian, what are you learning? >> reporter: some analysts believe the u.s. intelligence community was caught off guard by how rapidly kim jong-un's nuclear and missile programs advanced. intelligence officials deny that but they do acknowledge north korea is a difficult target. tonight we've got new insights, excuse me, into the challenges of hacking, surveilling and gathering human intelligence inside this nearly impenetrable regime. he's never met with a foreign head of state, never even set foot outside his own country during nearly six years in power. some of the best intelligence on kim jong-un comes from the unpredictable former nba star dennis rodman who says he's held kim's baby daughter in his arms. that in a nutshell shows the challenges of gathering intelligence on the secretive regime of america's increasingly powerful enemy. >> it is very difficult. and the intelligence community we refer to north korea as the hardest of the hard targets. >> reporter: u

let's go to brian todd in west palm beach. that's further south here in the miami area, on the eastern part of the state. they got hit plenty hard there. let's check in with him now. brian, what's the latest from where you are? >> reporter: well, chris, the wind has not decreased in intensity at all. it is incredibly intense here. hurricane force winds have been going on for hours and they've only been intensifying. we're at the dirty end of the storm, the northeast quadrant. and the danger that we have here in addition to the storm surge and the wind is tore had haddna activity. we're under warnings from the north, the west and the south. you can see how it's buffeting me right now. i have our photo journalist david brooks pan over. you can see -- david has got to be steadied by our producer here. you see the art sculptures there. the one on the far right, that just got lifted up and moved 40 yards to where it is. that is what we're dealing with here with some of these almost to tornado like activity and tornado threats. we've

i want to check in with our own brian todd in west palm beach where police are going door to door telling people to evacuate and evacuate now. brian, what have you been seeing there? >> reporter: wolf, there is a real scramble tonight to get people out of this area. they're trying to get them off palm beach island, this barrier island to my right, your left. they're trying to get people from west palm beach into shelters and into higher ground. that's a very vulnerable area for storm surge. we saw police coming down this street we're on right now telling people over the loudspeaker, door to door, evacuate now. they're trying to avoid the devastation, the loss of life, that just occurred in the caribbean. entire hillsides wiped out, like this one in the british virgin islands. roofs blown off. coastal buildings shredded. this devastation in the caribbean is what florida could be facing as soon as saturday. in the dominican republic, residents looked shell shocked with the destruction. in barbuda, one hid her family of seven. >> everything is completely damaged and gone. >> reporter: coasta

that's about an hour's drive from where i am now to brian todd in west palm beach. lse the county is preparing. we saw those police officers out telling everybody that it's time to evacuate yesterday about this time. in the afternoon hours as well. >> reporter: that's right, victor. they were out telling people to get out then. they want people out now. we saw a lot of police officers patrolling this morning. they want people off the roads right now. they don't want them out. they've told us, at some point as the dynamics of this storm start to deteriorate in the area, they're going to shut down the bridges like this that connect west palm beach to palm beach. a couple of significant threats that they're monitoring here, victor. storm surge is one of them. we've heard chad and other experts tell us 5 to 12 feet of storm surge possible. we're at low hide in the intracoastal waterway, when the tide rises, 12 feet, this could be inundated. palm beach could be inundated. here's another threat. the construction sites and cranes. look at this, this is a very large crane al

brian todd made his way to beaumont. brian, most of the problem is this water system. are crews close to restoring it? >> reporter: we're not sure, brianna, and we got some bad news from the government. we'll show you as we take a look at this facility here. the nachos river right here alongside beaumont is continuing to rise. it's 7 feet above its record stage and the government says it may stay at that level for the next week. that has triggered an emergency action here at the water treatment plant in beaumont. they brought emergency crews from exxon and other crews trying to pump water from the nachos river into this facility. can they treat it in time to get water to the people of beaumont? that is the key yquestion tonight. officials here are still processing and assessing, trying to get their minds around the devastation of hurricane harvey. a first look at the destruction harvey has left behind. roads destroyed, homes knocked off their foundations, boats precariously perched, lives and livelihoods destroyed by floods. but in beaumont, they're desperately for mor

bri brian todd has more. >> we're just southf islamorada.nk this is a single level family home that got gutted by hurricane irma. this is a three-story condominium come flex with 12 units that got crunched down to one level. right behind me is the third floor. below it is the second floor and the garage. 12 units in here. we talked to one of the owners. he's had a unit in here for 18 years. he believes that everybody who lives here evacuated. thankfully they did because they probably wouldn't have survived this and he says he actually wants to rebuild. he says if they do come here and rebuild it they'll build it to a better code. he thinks he can get it rez built to a better code and survive these strong hurricanes. a lot of frustration on the part of keys' residents as they're coming back into their homes or trying to. we've seen a steady stream of cars, steady streams of military, police, utility vehicles all trying to get past check points. at certain points south of us they're not letting even residents past the check points because it's

brian todd is in "the situation room."nother missile launch could be imminent? >> that's right. south korean officials say that we are within a window of another test of a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile and this shows how powerful kim jong-un's last nuclear test was. the dictator now has a bomb with more explosive power than he's ever had before. kim jong-un's state media issues blustering new threats, saying japan should be bombed until it sinks into the sea. >> translator: let's reduce the u.s. mainland into dark and ashes. >> reporter: after the latest nuclear test appears to be more powerful than estimated, perhaps 17 times of hiroshima. >> obviously the blast was much larger than previous ones. the data is showing that the size of the blast was in the range of 250 kilotons. >> reporter: strong enough to create a crater in the mountain for the first time. activity is continuing at the test site and even spreading to a new location. >> there's a truck in front of the tunnel entrances and what's important

i want to bring in cnn's brian todd. this expanded hurricane warning for parts of southern florida. >> reporter: what we're seeing is a lot of people walking round very concerned. officials telling us ne'er particularly concerned of the elderly population. mandatory evacuations are going to start in palm beach in earnest at 10:00 a.m. eastern time tomorrow. we're standing on west palm beach across the intercoastal walter way. this is the intercoastal, it's about five feet below where i'm standing. we're told we're going to be able to expect five to 10 feet of storm surge when the storm hits in earnest. lot of time we talk about storm surge and not about what it really means. that means five to 10 feet above normal levels. plus wave activity on top of that. so they are concerned here. mandatory evacuations are going to take place across the water way at palm beach tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. because that's a lower lying area, a barrier island. it's going to be a voluntary evacuation at 10:00 a.m. in some areas it could be mand

brian todd is standing by in west palm beach. brian, how are things there and how are the preparations going? >> well, anderson, we are two hours into the curfew imposed by palm beach county authorities. this is the royal park bridge. authorities and police are telling us that the bridges like this will be shut down in the coming hours. they're not giving an exact timetable of when, but when this storm hits in earnest, you will see bridges like this shut down because they are of course elevated. they don't want people on the bridges. i can give you a sense here to your right, my left as we pan down on the intercoastal waterway. you get a sense of the approach of the storm. the clouds are darkening. the wind has been kicking up gradually all afternoon. look at, you know, we have been talking about storm surge. look at all the water on the intercoastal waterway. it's high tides tomorrow, you can see how on the right-hand side that's west palm beach how that could be flooded. if you go to the left-hand side that's palm beach. the bar

up the dproeft whecoast from wh west palm beach where brian todd is hanging on. brian? >> reporter: we are hanging on, john, and getting it just a about as severely as you are. the most intense wind and rain we've seen all day. look at the palm trees here swaying strongly in the wind. just a few feet away from the intercoastal waterway. the mayor told me she's very concerned aboutant streets right next to waterway getting flooded. that could happen at any moment because the storm surge is intensifying. i heard chad talking about a tornado at the airport south of here at fort lauderdale. we're in the middle of possible tornadic activity all day long pap threat, told by the weather team, pop-up tornadoes hitting, or could threaten us for most of the day today. look at just how intense this wind is. look at the flagler street holding the traffic light that's swaying. these regular traffic signs are swaying violently. all of this stuff, these are all potential projectiles. the palm trees here have been really swaying almost vile lnov, in some cases almost snapping. palm fro

brian todd is live in beaumont. brian, you just got into beaumont a few moments ago.e just heard from kaylee that a two-hour drive in those parts might take you six and a half hours. tell us about some of the complications you're running into. >> reporter: we had complications getting into town, jim. but it's not as bad a drive today as it was yesterday. from houston here to beaumont. here is kind of ground zero for the efforts to try to get the water pumping again in beaumont. this is the water treatment plant here in beaumont, texas. of course, the water has been out since 1:30 a.m. thursday. this is what they're doing. there are engineers from exxon/mobil, a company called echo, a company called tiger industrial. came in along with city experts to try to get the watered pumping again. look here. photojournalist will zoom into that pump. a temporary pump set up coming from the neches river, which is normally the water comes from the neches river to this pumping station. but because the main pumping station up river, it has three pumps inside it is flooded and under

brian todd, cnn, washington. >> joining me now is cnn lauchlt contributor steve moor who is a formeranks for talking with us. >> thanks for having me. >> what does it mean that the threat level in london has gone from severe to critical? >> natalie, what that means is that they know a lot more than they're letting on. you don't do that if you just see a bomb that went off low order or an ied that went off low order unless you know the source of that. and what that tells me is they know or at they at least have a suspect and likely know that there is more explosive material out there that hasn't been used or there could be people who are unaccounted for. >> i see. and so as for the device, analysts say it appears to be crudeel made. it did have a timer. it may have contained explosive ta pt. what does that say? how does that give them information? >> it gives them a wealth of information. first of all, ta pt is very hard to make without killing yourself. and it is very hard to get to go off when you want it to. the and what it says is this was an amateur. this is not someone who train

i want to bring in brian todd and jim sciutto.ot a surprise but, once again, the north korean regime of kim jong-un poking their fingers in japan's eyes, u.s. eyes and others. >> we're in the midst of continued escalation of the north korean crisis. you've had 22 missile launches this year alone, the pace much greater than kim jong-un's predecessors, his father and grandfather. you have rhetoric coming from the u.s. about the possibility of a military reaction. in the past 24 hours, you had reports coming out of south korea acknowledging the formation of a decapitation unit to go after north korea. that was followed with south korea saying they'd never have nuclear weapons on the peninsula. regardless, though, you have north korea increasing the frequency of its missile tests, showing the world that it is advancing in technology, both in terms of missile technology and only a couple weeks ago they had their sixth nuclear test underground by far, perhaps by a factor of six, their larger nuclear test so far. each time, a greater dem

brian todd is there. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: kate, as we go through the final hours until the hurricane hits, these are anxious moments. you mentioned the mandatory evacuation order that started one hour ago. that is for palm beach. the area to my left, your right, david brooks is panning over there. that's palm beach. that is the barrier island. that mandatory evacuation applies to palm beach with low lying areas and mobile homes. they are trying to get people across the bridges to west palm beach, which is behind me. they have to get people across the water and over here to west palm beach. it's a challenge because a lot of people want to stay hunkered down. some think they can ride it out. authorities say that's a big mistake, get off that island. they expect five to ten feet of storm surge. what does that mean? the water level is five feet below where i'm standing. it's going to come up at least to where i'm standing maybe above it. the barrier island is going to be worse. they are telling people that they canno

brian todd in a county north of miami, one concern keeping older residents safe. how are they going with evacuations? what do local officials say? >> reporter: a very complex and frankly tense evacuation scenario. they have to -- mandatory evacuation for palm beach went into effect two hours ago. trying to get people from that barrier island. palm beach, across the intercoastal waterway and across the bridges soon as possible. before tomorrow. they want people off the roads by tomorrow. a lot of people are staying. hunkering down. it's dangerous to stay on that barrier island. get across positive west palm beach where we are. 15 general shelters in west palm beach. none we know of in palm beach because they want people to get out. they're locking down this bridge so no boats can go through. a given. won't be boats on the water then but also manning checkpoints on these bridges. police checking to see if anyone coming across during the storm has proof of residence of palm beach. you don't have that, you can't get on to palm beach. they won't want anyone coming in j

cnn correspondent brian todd has this report on the investigation. >> reporter: flames eminent from aside a train in london's underground. officials say this ied sent more than two dozen people to the hospital with wounds like flash burns and singed hair. witnesses say it also caused a stampede of panicked commuters, desperate to get out of the parsons green station. >> it was ever man for himself. >> it was fire just coming towards us. >> reporter: the suspect or suspects still at large. >> a further attack may be imminent. >> reporter: the full resources of scotland yard and british counterterrorism forces engaged in an intense manhunt. >> there are many inquiries with hundreds of inspectors involved looking at cctv and bombs. >> the bomb itself did not go off which for law enforcement say great thing because the game finger print of the individual who made it. >> reporter: a british source tells cnn a timer was found on the device, though it's clear it was a crude bomb it was intended to cause much greater damage. >> we're only aware of one device. and that device examined by our e

brian todd also live from beaumont, texas. i know you're live there in front of the plant. what efforts are being made to get it up and running again? >> reporter: some very frantic efforts, jim. this is kind of ground zero for the effort to get beaumont's water up and running again. we're here at the water treatment facility. i can show you over here, these crews are unloading these huge plastic mats. they're going to be used to place underneath temporary pipes that are going to be coming from this area over here. just beyond here, we were over here earlier. the natchos river is right here. they set up a temporary pumping station. exxon engineers and other engineers set up a temporary pumping station over there to pump water from the natchos river, which is just over there, into this water treatment facility. these pallets will go underneath these pipes because the ground is so saturated, they need support. as we take you along the perimeter, i can tell you what happened last night. the city has been without running water for about a day and a half now. about 1:30 in the m

our thanks to brian todd. we'll check back with him in just a little bit. >>> and you know, there are a lot of considerations here. and the first responders all say, we get that it's a hard choice. but sometimes just because something is a difficult choice, doesn't mean it is one you should not make. we're going to take a break here. when when he come back, there's a whole variety of reasons to stay and shelter in place. we're going to introduce you to a man, a chef, who has a very unique reason to stay. stay with cnn. super-cool notebooks, done. that's mom taking care of business. and with the "25 cent event", office depot officemax takes care of mom! now, all this just 25 cents each! ♪ taking care of business take 5, guys. tired of your bladder always cutting into your day? you may have overactive bladder, or oab. that's it! we really need to get with the program and see the doctor. take charge and ask your doctor about myrbetriq (mirabegron) for oab symptoms of urgency, frequency and leakage. it's the first

our team with brian todd up near i'll amore add a.were there and saw az woman trying to get home and couldn't quite make it. >> what happened when you get to the checkpoint. >> so when we get to the checkpoint, we had the re-entry sticker to get back in in homestead they told us we could come in and once we got here, no, no, no. they looked at the sticker on my car and once we get here, we're told no. >> did they explain that? >> no, they didn't. no residents -- i said even if you're medical personnel. he was like nope, nobody can come in. >> one of the deputies told us that it still may not be safe. if they let you through and something happens to you, you're not going to be call. there are no comms. is that satisfactory to you at all? >> that's fine with me. >> you don't mind not being let in. >> i don't mind being let in and being told it's at my own risk. but we're homeless. we're being told go on fema and fill out for fema. you can fill out for fema, but then you don't have any more cell service and not only do you not have any m

brian todd, we're thinking about you all in beaumont. thank you so much. hopefully they can get that fixed and quickly. we're going to stay, obviously, on the story on harvey and the aftermath. but i want to get you to some breaking news here out of the "new york times" today here. >>> reporting that the special counsel, bob mueller has obtain third-degr ed this letter that president trump and a top political aide drafted in the days before the president officially fired the now former fbi director james comey. karng according to reporting, the counsel opposed sending the letter and won, successfully blocked the president from sending it. the contents of the original letter appears to provide the cleare cleare clearest rationale that the president had for firing comey. it is significant that don mcgahn opposed it. do we have any indication of the contents. >> "the new york times" does not have the contents but what's significant about this as it pertains to the mueller investigation, brooke, is that this could reveal the president's real reason for firing

brian todd is there, brian, what's the situation? >> you talked about the police going door to door. we just spoke with officials in palm beach county saying they now have a curfew in effect for about four hours from now. after 3:00 p.m. eastern time, they don't want to see anybody on these roads, even walking. if you are on the roads here, walking or driving you could get arrested, and official with palm beach county just toll me that, they're going to start shutting down these bridges in a little bit when the storm hits here in earnest. we get the brunt of it tomorrow. these bridges, according to the police, like this one connecting west palm to your left with palm beach to your right are going to be shut down and police are going to be manning check points. you mentioned a high tide where you are, chris coming soon. it's coming here and the good news from chad we just heard is that the storm surge here may not be quite as high as we thought. but if you look at how close the intracoastal waterway is to here, you know the storm surg

for an update i want to go to cnn's brian todd. first of all, what do we know about this fire? >> well, anderson, the fire was pretty horrific looking. huge plumes of smoke and fire in the air from the arkema plant starting this afternoon. we do know what caused. it i'll talk about that in a second. but we need to tell you about the epa. they just posted a statement saying they flew an aircraft right through that fire this afternoon, looking for any airborne toxins. and they said despite the intensity of this fire, and this is the epa's words here, no high levels of toxic chemical have been detected. but everyone in the area should still follow the safety instruction of local authority, especially staying out of that evacuation zone. no high levels of toxic material have been detected airborne from this fire, according to the epa. but they're still recommending that officials keep that 1.5 mile radius evacuation zone in tact. what arkema incorporated and local fire officials said just a short time ago in a news conference was that these are two trailers that caught on fire. one

all right, brian todd, thanks very much for that report. brian todd, here in "the situation room." that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. >>> "outfront" next, breaking news. massive earthquake in mexico city. at least 116 dead at this moment. this as a dangerous category 5 hurricane heads straight for puerto rico. we're on top of both of these breaking stories this hour. >>> and paul manafort fighting back after our exclusive report he was wire tapped. trump's former campaign chairman calling on the department of justice to release all of the intercepts. >>> and rocket man. trump's nickname for kim jong-un, giving elton john a whole new following. let's go "outfront." >> good evening, i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, two major breaking stories. a powerful earthquake with a rising death toll. and that death toll has been rising very quickly over the past hour. this is the scene in mexico city. the magnitude 7.1 quake struck there, tall office buildings shaking. large pieces of debris,

now where brian todd was talking about earlier and i want to show you the east coast. this is what's interesting. you've seen the video, transformers blowing. south of sebastian, north of west palm, the st. lucie nuclear power plant had a wind gust of 99 miles an hour. that's quite some distance from the center. that is that onshore flow that continues to be quite strong in the feeder bands as we watched them come in from the atlantic and sweep around so again, they're the same bands that plowed into the south, and were feeding of course all that rainfall up in biscayne bay and parts of miami and making their way northward. it's been raining some time up in jacksonville and we talked about that, it's been raining there from yesterday. we have a few inches on the ground, not the heavier amounts to the south. with the eye now starting to deviate to the east it's going to be one of those games again that we've been playing with for the last couple of days so we have to wait for the new track that will be issued a little bit later. we're still going to watch the heavy band

so right now, i want to go to brian todd, he's in west palm beach. police there are going door to door to see whether or not the residents are heeding the evacuation calls and if those who remain have a plan and have supplies for 72 hours. brian, what are you seeing? >> reporter: well, chris, those police just came by here with a loud speaker, going door to door, saying this area is under a mandatory evacuation, please evacuate. across the intercoastal waterway at palm beach, they've already done that. but we're with people here who are going to ride this out. this is emanuela and mark. they're here on the south flagler drive. you're going to stay. you've heard all the warnings, you've heard everybody on tv and the governor, everybody saying you've got to get out. why are you staying? >> we have, we feel, a very secure home. concrete block, hurricane shutters, sandbags. it's been around for 45 years. there's never been any damage. we have a lot of friends in this so-so neighborhood that are staying. we all feel confident and they're all floridians. i

brian todd is in the thick of this in the keys. bryan, what are you seeing? >> reporter: brooke, this check point here has become kind of a de facto refugee camp. we can come and go as we please through this check point. the media is being let in out but local residents are being told they cannot get through. sheriff's deputies are turning people back here and it's really causing a lot of frayed nerves. a lot of people very upset with this. people told us that they were told in homestead by sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement that they could come here, that they could get home today and then when they get to this check point several miles down on u.s. one they're being told they can't go back. so we've talked to some people who are very upset. one guy says, look, i've got 20 miles to go. i know my home is in good shape. they're teasing me. he's very upset. one woman was afraid that her home is going to be lootd. they're basically at the end of their rope, brooke. one gentleman who was on a motorcycle, we just witnessed a confrontation. he came up on