thank you again, pedram. we'll talk soon. cnn's patrick oppmann and his crew have been riding out the storm in freeport, bahamas, one of the hardest hit areas by dorian. they watched as ordinary citizens banded together to rescue survivors. here's patrick's report. >> reporter: we were walking out to a staging area where they're bringing people in from the communities out here that have been flooded. sometimes one at a time. you can see there are still hurricane force winds and rain coming down on us, and yet these people are going out and pulling people from their houses, on top of their houses and saving their lives. there is a little baby here, a boy, they're covering up and protecting. here i assume is his mother. come through. come through. come through. good job. and they're going out on jet skis because sometimes the boats -- ma'am, how are you doing? you made it. you're safe. how high did the water get? >> up to the first floor. >> you're safe now. >> yeah. >> as she was saying, the water was up to the first floor of

our meteorologist pedram javaheri joins us with the very latest on dorian's track. so what are you seeing and when might we see landfall here? >> we're getting close. 11 days. how long w've been tracking the storm system. and now on its closest approach to landfall across the mainland u.s. and you look at the storm system coming in as a strong category 2. so 110-mile-per-hour winds sustained at this hour. that is just one mile per hour shy of what would be a major hurricane, a category 3. what's most impressive about the storm system at this hour is the scope of the storm. you measure the cloud field fritz western periphery toward its eastern side. that is some 500 miles across. you can drop this into the incredible state of alaska there and also texas as well and it would span nearly the entire state from its western periphery toward its eastern periphery. again, speaks to how large of a storm that is, and why that's significant is the tropical storm force winds extend hundreds of miles away from the center. so the system itself, the eyewall, the area with those 11

meteorologist pedram javaheri in the "cnn newsroom." what are you seeing on the maps? >> good morning, christine. within the next 12 or so hours we're seeing the closest proximity towards charleston. right now the eye wall, the area with the 115 mile per hour winds sits 60 miles away from charleston. it is getting uncomfortably close across the region. it's dealt with quite a bit of land on the western periphery. maintaining the intensity and the major hurricane. wind gusts into the next couple of hours could push towards hurricane strength there in places such as charleston, savannah, beginning to see the tropical storm force winds. if you go from 6 to 7 and eventually 8 a.m. the wind gusts will exceed 80 miles per hour. the storm system approaches the coastal region later on thursday night into the early morning hours of friday where landfall will be over the banks. winds potentially upwards of 115 miles an hour into the early morning hours on friday. this is what derek was talking about. western periphery of the storm on approach producing a tremendous amount of rai

first i want to hear from pedram javaheri on the storm's path. pedram, hi. just talk us through what's happening right now. >> robyn, it's still a menacing storm system. as you said, it is a category 2, 110 miles per hour at this hour with the storm system. notice the eye, the symmetry, that organization that was in place the last couple of days really becoming ragged. at least we're losing some symmetry with the storm system. but unfortunately it has what it takes to maintain at least a category 2 status inside the next one to maybe two days here as it approaches to the north and potentially areas around the carolinas. and the storm itself, when you kind of look at the scope or the size of it, it has really broadened up. a week ago it was smaller in size than areas around, say, puerto rico. now you put it in place to a state the size of alaska, the storm spans some 500 miles from west to east when you measure the cloud field, which encompasses nearly the entire state of alaska. so it is an incredibly large storm system now, which means an incredibly large c

so pedram, what are you seeing?now, it's getting uncomfortably close to some of the regions across the coastal area of the carolinas. wind gusts expected to push towards hurricane strength within the next 30 minutes to an hour across places like charleston, places like around savannah as well. you'll notice as the storm really closes towards land, 6:00, 7:00, 5/8 a.m., we think these gusts could exceed 80 miles an hour in charleston. that's ushering in a significant amount of water. storm surge right toward these communities. the storm real closes in on its approach to landfall here we think some time into the overnight hours of thursday and friday. places such as moorhead city, cape hatteras, 70 up to 115 miles per hour once the storm cruises out of here. with it we're going to have significant coastal erosion and storm surge damage as well. notice very broad reaching feature here, spanning some 500 miles from end to end. it is a category 3, as you mentioned. it is been very organized in the last couple of hours. i

we turn to our meteorologist pedram javaheri.ram, talk to us about the path, talk to us about who is experiencing the worst of dorian right now. >> yeah, rosemary, after almost two weeks of tracking the storm system, we're really at the 11th hour with the impending landfall across the united states. unfortunately, it is a strong category 3 and a strong storm on approach towards places such as charleston. sits about 90 miles south of charleston at this hour. we expect the wind gusts to really pick up with intensity within the next couple of hours. we're going to get very close to hurricane force gusts. notice shortly after sunrise thursday morning, we'll see winds push up closer to 85 miles per hour as the storm remains just offshore of charleston. the forecast models will parallel this up towards myrtle beach and eventually wilmington where winds could be upwards of 100 miles per hour. this will be later on thursday night and we think landfall thursday into friday morning, potentially around moorhead city or the outer banks of no

let's get to our meteorologist, pedram javaheri, in the weather center. seems to be a bit of a sigh of relief for most of florida. but not so much in the carolinas. good morning. >> yeah, good morning. you know, it's an incredible storm here when you consider it was a category five just on monday. and of course the storm system now twice the size as it was this time last year. as far as the cloud field is concerned and the tropical storm-force winds, they're well away from the center. they're already lashing the coastal region of florida. about 105 miles per hour. we're talking about a strong category-two system, 111 is what dictates a major category three. negligible difference. dorian is the fifth category five in the past three years, since 2016, from mike told irma to matthew and maria, all of these storms rapidly intensified and reached category-five stori storms. it makes it widespread across the region. we're watching this about 70 to 80 miles off the coast of florida this hour. tropical storm-force winds e extend 175 miles away from the center. yo

let's bring in meteorologist pedram javaheri in the weather center. what is happening?> an exciting time. sounds a little funny listening to them but i can relate a little bit what is happening out there. incredible weather here in the past couple of days. about 80 reports of severe weather the last couple of days across the country and two of which to tornado that particular one across areas of yello county in california, near davis. the first one since march 2014. first tornado in that region since that time. when you take a look at california tornado history, on average ten per year often happens in the winter season and in the spring season. still not unheard of here to see it across this region here in the fall as well. you put the numbers together and 430 since 1951. you small that compared to oklahoma where they see upwards of 4,000 in that same time period and only 5 of these 430 tornadoes have been considered large tornadoes ef-2 or greater. that is the tornado action across california and that is much, much smaller. notice montana. significant snowfall in rece

we have more from pedram j javaheri. >> temperatures in boston, 81 degrees. average high, closer to the upper 60s for this time of year. this unseasonably warm pattern continues for a few more days. there's a frontal boundary that will bring in showers later this evening. and with it, slightly cooler temperatures going into towards friday. that is about it. we rebound rapidly. and we bring in the month of october. the first week of the month of october, well above-average temps on the eastern half of the u.s. below-average temps on the northwestern corner, as well. here's what's left of karen, very unorganized and weak system here. quite a bit going against it. models suggest it will loop around over the next up tole of days. potentially weaken further. if you look at what's happening upstairs, and the wind shear, and dry air ahead of the storm, we expect it to rain itself out before it arrives across the bahamas. >>> while you were sleeping, late night took on president trump's reaction to the inquiry. >> there is no president in the history of our country t

because of loyalty to the government and its military professionalism a softer grass that goes the pedram out element is visible and the fact that they have 2000 generals that is more than all the countries of nato combined. meet has been researching been in armed forces and their relationships with their ally russia he says that when commodity prices were high the oil rich country bought some impressive pieces of equipment such as 2 dozen state of the art jets but received little training on how to use them if we look at the us will navy on the 1990 s. it used to be a reasonably sized force with somewhat advanced equipment and now we know that if 6 frigates 3 have sunk out the pier and the other 3 might be moralists immobilized as well. as roughly 120000 troops less than half of the colombian army with the reasonable number of armed vehicles but no aircraft carriers or destroyers the government says 2000000 citizens militias have been armed and trained to protect the country a number nobody can confirm. and while high level officials remain loyal to president a number of soldiers as dese

pedram, thanks very much. >>> a broke.ming up, a royal visit will put the spotlight on some of south africa's most dangerous townships, back in just a moment. this is his family, the world he's built, for 72 years. ♪ this is hal's heart. it's been torn. broken. and put back together. this is also hal's heart. this is the cardiologist his brother recommended. and this is hal's relief, knowing he's covered. this is hal. his heart and memory keeper, and it's beating better than ever. this is what medicare from blue cross blue shield does for hal. and with easy access to quality healthcare, imagine what we can do for you. this is medicare that cares back. this is the benefit of blue. >>> welcome back to cnn newsroom. i'm rosemary church. i want to check the headlines. more than half a million travelers are stranded worldwide after thomas cook declared bankruptcy. all of the british company's flights have been canceled and the uk will launch its ever repatriation to bring home more than 150,000 of thomas cook's british customer

let's see if there are other areas of concern with our meteorologist pedram javaheri. >> this was a storm the potential to be a devastating storm in an area that the last thing you wanted to see is more rainfall. tourists looking northbound where this storm was just off shore. it took a very interesting tract. meandered between the islands. talking about 120 millimeter winds. this is the region around abaco islands. rainfall still coming down across some of these regions with this particular storm system. strengthening is unfortunately what we're looking at. this is the track of humberto. it got close proximity towards the abaco region pulling away becoming a category 1. models suggest this will move towards the east and notice there is one area of land and that is the island of bermuda in the path of a storm, potentially category 2. there is a bit of variability for the storm to move away from the island. that's not the only system we're watching. there's one system in the gulf of mexico just for thunderstorm activity and one farther in the east in the atlantic. this is the one that's mo

>> pedram, thanks. >>> big papi is back. >> number 34, david ortiz. >> former red sox slugger david ortizirst public appearance since he was shot in june in the dominican republic. he threw out the first pitch to former teammate catcher jason varitek. ortiz offered thanks on the field, even to his long-time rivals. >> i want to thank the yankees. a lot of my boys over there came to check up on big papi. thank you very much. i appreciate it. c.c., and y'all, man. appreciate it very much. god bless you all. go, sox. >> that love existed during his playing days when he would hug several of the yankees player. they worship david ortiz in boston. >> most beloved player. >> david ortiz, just ahead of tom brady. just ahead. scream at me on twitter. >> thanks for joining us. >>> "new day" starts right now. see you tomorrow. >> the do-over election in north carolina's ninth district, offering a glimpse into the future. >> we got a chance to change this country. >> the polling indicates a very tight race. >> it's possible democrats will turn out in force. trump is hugely worried. >>> the u.s. succe

let's go to meteorologist pedram javaheri. he joins us live. as a meteorologist yourself, we would both be interested to get your reaction to this direction given by a top official to staff at noaa not to contradict the president when it comes to the forecast. what did you think? >> yeah, absolutely. of course, you know how the funding is set up in place when it comes to the national weather service. noaa and how the white house dictates where the funding is transferred to. it makes sense you don't want to bite the hand that feeds you. it is a first a forecast being swayed one direction or another when it comes to something like this. we know models, of course, storms can end up in various locations many days out. but the official forecast the hurricane center puts out, that was at the heart of the discussion in the meteorological community. that was never directed into portions of alabama as potentially it was depicted. again, that is a long day -- many days ago. we're going to talk about what's happening at this point because there is still w