jim cantore, another long night in new orleans. jim, thanks. >>> now to the event unfolding behind us here. the second night of the rnc convention in tampa. last night was all about ann romney and chris christie. mrs. romney will be here live with us just in a moment. tonight we hear from paul ryan. ron mott covers the vp candidate for us. he is down on the convention floor with what will be the hottest ticket tonight. that's in the prime of the wisconsin delegation. hey, ron. >> absolutely. hey, brian, good evening to you. in a lot of ways, paul ryan is a bridge, a conduit to the gop of tomorrow. at age 42, he's injected a lot of youthful energy and enthusiasm being felt far and wide. a count-up to the countdown of the gop's hottest ticket. paul ryan's sales pitch to america that he's ready for the world stage, despite his age, a youthfulness evident on this stage by his young family. but it's precisely his lean and mean physique and warnings about a bloated government threatening generations to come that have quickened a new spiri

let's go to meteorologist jim cantore in new orleans tonight. you keep reporting this is a very slow mover carrying so much rain and water. >> reporter: yes, brian, so much so, that by tomorrow night at this time by the time we talk to you the, the form will be off to our west. it's going to pinwheel around, we're in that intense yellow and orange band which is producing rainfall rates at over an inch an hour. what are we going to wind up with, could we get as much as 12 to 20 inches of rain before this is all said and done. power outages continue to mount, not too far from me, i can see the transformers already blowing in the sky. back to you. >> jim cantore in new orleans. we're thinking about the folks tonight in new orleans, alabama, mississippi. and in the city of new orleans, we're about to see what $14 billion worth of improvements has paid for there. that is our broadcast on a tuesday night, thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams, a reminder weather channel coverage all night. we're back on in prime time tonight with the tw

jim cantore in atlanta at headquarters, we'll be talking again. jim, thanks. >>> and speaking of weather and florida, the almost super human marathon swimmer, diana nyad had to make an early end to her quest today to swim to florida from cuba. tonight she's disappointed but talking about it. our report from nbc's mark potter. >> reporter: hours after halting her attempted 103-mile crossing from cuba to key west, diana nyad still swam ashore in key west, although not the way she had originally planned. after suffering from exhaustion, hypothermia and swollen lips, she was brought to florida by boat. a major disappointment. but she was philosophical about why she had tried to concur the sea. >> all the mountains have been climbed. all the deserts have been crossed. but this piece of ocean has never been done by a swimmer. >> reporter: from the start, her trip was plagued by problems, and nyad said she was mostly in survival mode. it all came to a head last night when she had to be pulled from the water for her safety during a fierce thunderstorm, suf

for that we want to start off with meteorologist jim cantore of weather channel headquarters. jim, good evening. >> good evening, brian. we don't have to think too far back to tropical storm debby, a tropical storm which put bayshore drive under water here. we're talking about a potential hurricane here, or something even stronger as we go on in time. let's talk about this. first of all, the only thing that's really changed is the fact that we have really a big hurricane body here that is still -- a very small tropical storm is trying to fit into. it may take two or three days as it moves to the north-northwest. the path has changed a little bit today but importantly for the gulf coast this has been cut off but this has been added almost all the way to new orleans, now the alabama and mississippi coast also very much in play. let's take tampa for example. regardless of where this winds up in track whether it be very close on the east side or far to the west, there is such a big storm here we're going to be watching what we call the fetch. that's the area of wind over the water.

let's go back to al and the weather channel's jim cantore both of in new orleans.uys, you guys are hanging on there for good. >> we really are, natalie. we need each other. we've always liked each other but today we need each other. >> it's gone to a different level. now you're starting to feel what i'm feeling. the first time. oh my god. >> guys, where we're standing here, down this street. we measured here, winds as high as 84 miles an hour, which is really representative of this hurricane. >> that's right. right now it's moving to the northwest at about seven miles per hour, 80-mile-per-hour winds, not going anywhere any time soon of that's right. the path of it is going to come up, make its way inland as a tropical storm sometime later tonight, early tomorrow. but in the meantime we are in for a world of pain. a lot of rain, storm surge still a big deal. 6 to 12 feet above normal. and oh, my gosh, the rain. the rain is going to -- >> so far nine inches at the airport in new orleans. from what we see here, a huge worry. so far, so good. >> some areas could pick

jim cantore, weather channel headquarters. >>> in northern california tonight, more than 2,000 firefighters are working a dangerous, unpredictable fire that started this past weekend. some of them, along with our own correspondent miguel almaguer, found themselves in the path of monstrous flames today when the edge of the fire made a fast run right at them, at the worst possible time. miguel reports tonight from the fire line. >> reporter: exploding across forest land, moving towards homes, northern california's ponderosa fire blew up this afternoon. >> coming hot and hard. >> reporter: firefighters scrambled, 50 structures have been destroyed, 240 more threatened. with help from a steady air attack and aggressive push on the ground, crews have contained half this blaze. but flair-ups forced firefighters to retreat. breeding on dry forest land for five days now, this fire continues to make runs. crews are worried the next one will be into a neighborhood. this afternoon the mountain town of mineral was placed under voluntary evacuation. at this christian campground, most of the 200 people ar

we begin tonight with weather channel meteorologist jim cantore in new orleans. hey, jim, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this storm all day has tried to intensify into a hurricane and it's really moments away from doing so, with 70-mile-per-hour winds. the satellite again just exhibiting this large sprawling storm through the eastern gulf of mexico which has already caused the water to rise. there's no getting around that. over the next 24 hours that water rise pushes up toward the northern gulf coast and as you can see the track bringing the center west of new orleans, the worst possible scenario for bringing the water up the mississippi delta, and then it will crawl through southeastern louisiana potentially as a category 1 hurricane with winds at 90 miles per hour. the surge, that's the first thing we're going to have to deal with and it's not just southeast louisiana. it's mississippi. it's alabama, all the way over to the florida panhandle, 6 to 12 feet and then the rainfall which could the biggest problem of all, we're talking about 6 to 12,

back to you. >> jim cantore on the riverwalk in new orleans. jim, thanks. >>> up next, after a break here, some unexpected news tonight about our diets via the animal kingdom and the tv show that is about to leave tv. >>> a side effect of isaac being felt all across this country right now, gas prices are the highest they've ever been on this date. nationwide the average is now $3.82 up seven cents in just the last two days as isaac has disrupted both oil drilling and the output of refineries. experts expected some of that will reverse soon but not before what's going to be a more expensive labor day weekend for a lot of folks on the road. >>> sad story out of l.a. today where a hundred-year-old man at the wheel of a car backed up into a group of school children. preston carter was backing his cadillac out of a supermarket parking lot when he lost control, plowed into the kids. they were standing at a snack stand. 14 were injured. some were trapped under the car. they're all, thankfully, expected to recover. carter had a valid license, doesn't e

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we want to check in with jim cantore. he's in new orleans. this is no katrina. this is a category one hurricane. bad news is, of course, nobody needs this, especially not right now. it's going to be the first test of all the new plumbing behind you there in new orleans? >> yeah, absolutely. let's take a look at this thing, brian. the satellite picture shows us how big it is. we've had flooding rains from the outer bands of this in charleston, south carolina, for goodness sake. it's still raining in florida, look at the radar. we can see the beast we're dealing with. mike, of course, in one of those yellow/purple bands. that's where the most intense weather is going to be. that's what's going to be moving up across mississippi and louisiana this evening. the surge, 6 to 12 feet, we're already getting 7 feet in southern louisiana, that's only going to go up as the storm comes on shore. then the rainfall, 12 to 20 inches for any city, is going to flood it. pumps or no pumps, that's the concern in new orleans tonight. you can see, it will probably be close to the ci

jim cantore at weather channel headquarters, thanks. >>> the almost super human marathon swimmer, diana nyad had to make an early end to her quest to swim from florida to cuba. she's disappointed but talking about it. our report from nbc's mark potter. >> reporter: hours after halting her 103 mile crossing from cuba to key west, she still swam ashore in key west, although not the way she originally planned. suffering from exhaustion, hypothermia and swollen lips, she was brought to florida by boat. she was philosophical about why she had tried to concur the sea. >> all the mountains have been climbed, the deserts crossed, this piece of ocean has never been done by a swimmer. >> reporter: her trip was plagued by problems, and nyad said she was mostly in survival mode. it all came to a head last night when she had to be pulled from the water for her safety during a fierce thunderstorm, suffering from jellyfish stings. >> i'm not a quitter, but the sport, and this particular ocean are different than they used to be. >> reporter: after the storm passed, she and her crew decided the prospect

they will not be complaining about it. >> jim cantore with us here in new orleans, thanks for your coverage all these many davis days of the big storm. >>> mitt romney came here today to view the damage which brings us to where we were last night the big climax of the republican convention in tampa. a night that had its moments both surreal and emotional. peter alexander who covers the romney campaign is here with us tonight. welcome. >> reporter: good evening to you. as you know at one point this storm isaac threatened to cancel the republican convention. ultimately it shortened it by a day. mitt romney today just accepting the republican nomination wanted to project the image of a national leader so came here to meet with victims and tour some of the damage. mitt romney arrived in flood ravaged new orleans today to survey neighborhoods mired in misery after isaac the water come from the sky, ocean, or rivers with the tidal surge or all of the above? invited by the republican governor bobby jindal romney thanked first responders and tried to focus attention on the storm's victims. >> it ha

let's get to the weather channel's jim cantore. he's on canal street in new orleans. jim, good morning to you. >> reporter: yeah, good morning, savannah. we're taking it big-time with these winds. you've got several streets where the wind can funnel through like this one in through here. the fact this is going to be such a long duration event means we will deal with this pounding for a good and better part of the day. you're talking about horizontal rain in through here. we have already had debris coming down in terms of the lights, bus stations, people wait for cars, plastic ripped out of those. other than that, the power is out on canal street. several hours of this now, three to four, in fact, making it very hard to stand up in these horizontal rains. again, confirming what lester is saying. some of the heaviest rain has actually been right in this area here. the pumps are taking whatever mother nature is dishing out right now. that was the biggest concern going in yesterday and the biggest concern throughout the day today. but relentless wind, relentless rain. even

the weather channel's jim cantore. jim, thank you, sir.lissa harris joins me, host of melissa harris perry right here on msnbc and the tragedy out of all this, talking about it earlier in the week, to get out, get your family out. then the new home you just bought. it was destroyed by this storm. >> it was. you know, the loss that we suffered as a family is nothing compared to what our neighbors in slidell, plaquemines parish, the house we just bought across the street from where we currently live, all in blight condition from katrina. we bought it, planned to renovate and isaac came in with the winds and took it. so it's now gone. i will say, you know, my husband is still in the city. he was riding it out with his family, some elderly relatives who wouldn't leave. he sent me a text promisaled we would still find a way. it's a lot of dreams that passed there, but we are in a very good circumstance. people at lax mins parish and slidell are in much tougher circumstances. >> our hearts of with you. >> thank you. >> certainly for all the peop

. >>> at stonehenge, meteorologist jim cantore back in town. what's the action down there, james?'s a lot action. i think everybody that's not in olympic park is right here on portobello road. when you see this, sea of humanity out here. what is abon absolutely forecas day. the market, goes way back to 1870 cuts into the heart of nottinghill, remember the movie with julia roberts and hugh grant. even more popular than it already is. and antiques, flea market -- while i'm out here. go shopping, look around. wearing van patrick shirts all week. maybe something in the green would be nice. go well with my skin color. maybe a little leather. get a little leather on. it hasn't been cold enough. maybe tomorrow night we'll chill out. all in all, absolutely wonderful. you can't go anywhere without smelling food. great food smells everywhere. we just had some jamaican jerk chicken. my frent doug friend dougy is . he's going to play -- can we have a little marvin gaye here? there you go. that's it. thanks, bud. appreciate that. all sorts of things. there's the marvin gaye. whew, that's twice

weather channel's jim cantore joins me now in new orleans with the latest. jim, it's got to be good news that it's still not a hurricane. i think there was some fear it would already be one. >> reporter: yes. >> by now. at least we've got that going for us, do we not? >> reporter: yes. 48 hours ago, we were supposed to be looking down the barrel of a category 2 hurricane. we're not. we're look at a tropical storm that may be a hurricane. there's really no difference between a 70-mile-an-hour tropical storm or 75-mile-an-hour hurricane except a promotion, if you will. your time something impeccable. this is the first rain that we are now getting from isaac just moving into canal street on the big easy. you can see behind me some of the palm trees blowing pretty good. wind gusts 30, 40 miles per hour here. when you're in a city, all bets are off. the wind will get funneled and pushed through these buildings pretty quickly. that means, certainly, a chance of getting into, you know, stronger winds than the storm is producing itself. the big fear in new orleans is

whether channel meteorologist jim cantore joins me live from new orleans. jim, the nugget i heard this morning is that this storm, while not a powerful hurricane, could sit and not move for almost 12 hours while battering new orleans? is that right? >> that is exactly right. and that means two-fold threat, chuck. you're going to be pushing all that water up the mississippi. and rising the surge level, and then you're durping fresh water into the city of new orleans so it has to be an intricate dance of pumping the water out of the city while you're trying to let the water get through it with gates, like you see behind me. this is part of the $15 billion gate and levee system that surrounds new orleans. not everybody is protected. where we are in jefferson par h parish, we're not. we're outside those gates. you see how much higher those rusted areas of the gates are? if it rains like it could and we get the surge we expect, that truck and where we are would be under water probably come wednesday morning. this will be a delicate dance certainly. if the track s

we want to turn to al roker and jim cantore there, i just see al. >> unfortunately, jim is about threees down canal street, we lost him. just kidding. the fact is right now the tomorrow is still a dangerous storm that is not going anywhere any time soon. the forward motion is not that fast. it's between five and ten miles per hour. the problem, of course, is this slow motion of this system. we're in the northeast quadrant of the strongest part of the storm. that is what will bring the storm surge. we have flash flood watches and warnings. we have a tornado watch out for much of the area. we're looking at a storm surge of about six to 12 feet before this is over, and that's a lot of flooding, and we also have rain to contend with. we're talking about generally from six to ten inches of rain. they already had that here in new orleans, sachs 20 inches. and it will continue through the >>> the sunshine already in santa cruz and we hit a high of 76 degrees there, 91 in con card and 72 in san francisco today. one of though days where you hit the 70s in the city by the bay. as you know, they

weather channel meteorologist jim cantore joins us at weather channel's headquarters. jim, today this finally realized its potential and became a pretty serious tropical system, right? >> yes, and it's not done yet unfortunately, and this thing is going to be large enough to impact areas that aren't even in what we call the cone or the forecast cone and certainly looks like it's going to impact tampa. let's talk about it. here are the tropical storm watches which by tonight or even tomorrow morning could become tropical storm warnings. we fully anticipate that. i'll tell you why those watches are on the east side in just a minute, but here is the storm, as you mentioned, david, this thing kind of grew into its shoes today so to speak and it's going to continue to travel up off into the northwest as we go through the next 24 to 48 hours before emerging on the north side of cuba. it is going to be kept tropical storm strength we think, the land is going to inhibit that but once it emerges north of cuba, probably passing over havana, eventually key west somewhere west of t

the weather channel's jim cantore is in new orleans, where they are watching isaac very closely. new orleans is absolutely on high alert. looks like this storm will pass off to our west and even though it's not katrina, it will present its own set of problems. the good news is, they are very confident, you see part of this $15 billion levee system, that will hold back the water. that's the surge part of this. however, what about the rainfall? what if we get two to four inches of rain or two times as much rain as we got with katrina, and that is a very high likelihood. can we keep the water out on both ends? that's yet to be determined. >> thank you to jim cantore. storm clouds could also be heading toward tampa in the form of the republican party. we will look at blustery weather that might just make its way inside the gop's tent after the break. managing my diabetes is part of my life, between taking insulin and testing my blood sugar... is this part of your life? freestyle lite test strips? why, are they any... beep! wow, that hardly needs any blood! yeah... and the unique zipw

jim cantore is in a different location. this is when a squall came through a short time ago. winds were gusting up to 74 miles per hour, hurricane strength. the wind coming down at the same time. it was definitely one of those winds you have to lean into. this storm, the worst of it, right over the top of new orleans as we go throughout the early morning hours here. it's starting to lighten up a little around pensacola. nothing as strong as what we're seeing on that north and northeast quadrant of that eye going through new orleans. already almost up to nine inches of rain in new orleans. it could rain for another 24 hours. incredible amount of wet weather in this area. still, wind gusts just recently in new orleans at 70 miles per hour. at the airport just to the northwest side of new orleans, 61. we're still dealing with some extremely strong winds with this storm. you can see it on the very edge of the screen here coming up. there's louisiana. you notice how all of the west is calm. most of the rest of the country is calm. >> bill, thanks so much. >>> well, elsewhere farth

i want to show you jim cantore, weather channel weather expert.is in the center of these storms. he's on canal street in downtown new orleans right now. just to show you the intensity of this storm in new orleans. a lot of people there are, over 300,000 people have lost power. with winds continuing like this, they're going to continue to watch it. the big question is are the pumps going to hold up? they've already had seven inches of rain in new orleans. so far, so good. the pumps are working. everyone's safe. the levees are operating as they should. we're past the worst of the surge, so that's kind of leaving us. now it's just a matter of can the pumps keep up with all the rainwater. we'll find that out during the day today. you can see on the radar, the storm is still a hurricane down on the coast. you can see this cleared-out center of the eye. new orleans is on the dirty side. will stay in it much of the day. flash flood warnings. now flash flood warnings in between gulfport and mobile. pretty nasty on the east side of the storm. just in the l

joining me now, overlooking tampa bay, our expert on severe weather, jim cantore. jim, they've canceled monday. they hope to get in tuesday afternoon. based on this track, do you think that could be delayed further? >> it's going to be a close call. even if we begin to ramp things back up here tuesday and improve tampa, on many people's minds, what's going to be happening in the northern gulf coast? are we looking down the barrel of a category two hurricane? here i am on the kosway, but the problem is, we're only three to five feet from that kosway. thousands of delegates are out there towards clearwater beach. the decision to cancel all activities for monday is a good one. it's a very interesting situation. when you look at this cone here, you think, tampa, if you're not in that red cone, why are you so concerned? it's because when you drop a rock in a pool, the waves that it produces are going to the end of the pool and the wave that is isaac will affect tampa. then the wind is going to push that water up in through here. so the surge, as we call it, will be as hi

sheets, this is jim cantore. yeah, jim, did you set up another three-day forecast to three day forecast for andrew? i said yeah, it keeps going the direction it's heading it will go between the outer banks in south florida. because we'll don't ever do that again. i decided for emergency manager from cape hatteras to south florida call me. sorry, sir. i will not do that again. after i hung up the phone is that i think i learned a little something about the tropics. and i learned fact you've got to go with your gut sometimes. sometimes it's wrong, but in retrospect, the storm moves faster and we all know the rest of the story. katrina was severally the worst storm ever went in. with us about information about a place to set up at how high they were above sea level. we lost four vehicles. i eat many wheezes cream cheese on them for two days, slept in the car and fun stuff or beaten the field. but of course i did matter. it was the hardship of seeing people's lives torn from them just like that. the whole mississippi

bay, just about ten minutes from where i am, our expert on severe weather, the weather channel's jim cantore. jim, they canceled monday. they hope to be able to get in tuesday afternoon but based on this track, do you think that could be delayed further. >> reporter: yeah. it is going to be a close call. even if we begin to ramp things back up here tuesday, and improve in tampa, on many, many people's minds is what's going to be happening in the northern gulf coast. are we going to be looking down the peril from new orleans or mobile at a category 2 or 3 hurricane. here i am on the eastern end of the causeway, the same water that eventually leads up to you, david. problem is we're only three to five feet from that causeway. thousands of delegates are out there toward clearwater beach. decision to cancel all activities starting monday afternoon and tuesday morning is a wise one because that's when we'll feel the impact. the wind will begin to push the water. when you look at this cone here, you think, okay, tampa, if you're not if that red cone, why are you so concerned? it's because when you