Black Market Dealer with an expert sneakerhead teaching you how to spot a fake. And american women dominating the u. S. Open, filling all four semifinal slots tonight. Who will move on to the championship final . But first, the nightline 5. Number 1 in just 60 seconds. Good evening. Thank you for joining us. We begin tonight with the destruction in the caribbean. Hurricane irma, a category 5 storm, leveling homes and leaving hundreds of thousands without power as it barrels towards florida. Abcs linzie janis is in puerto rico with some fortunate survivors. Reporter tonight Hurricane Irma bearing down on turks and caicos. After leaving a string of caribbean islands in ruins. Buildings and trees ripped apart. This Communications Tower snapped. Hundreds now homeless. It was the worst time in my life. And i would not want anything like this to happen again. Reporter barbudas Prime Minister telling abc news its as if a bomb was dropped on the tiny island. One of the first hit. My main concern right now is how were going to survive after this. Reporter st. Marten next in irmas crosshairs. Shipping containers tossed like toys. Boats crashing together. At least 14 now dead in the storm zone including 16yearold Zander Venezia drowning in rough surf off the barbados coast. Irmas death toll expected to rise and scores more injured. Teams like this one have been flying in and out of the Virgin Islands rescuing people. Our cameraman on one of those choppers, capturing scenes of destruction as irma moved across the caribbean. We met Canadian College student alex demore badly hurt in a fall in st. Thomas, airlifted to puerto rico for treatment. We lent her our phone so she could call her family. Mama . Reporter she and american student matty gortat leaving the island with one pair of flipflops between them and little else. The pair describing how they rode out the storm. We just didnt know if the roof was going to come off at any moment. We were praying. Yeah, we were praying the whole time. Reporter for nightline im linzie janis in puerto rico. Our thanks to linzie. And for breaking news alerts on Hurricane Irma download the abc news app. As one of the most intense storms in history heads toward the east coast, our First Responders are equipped with one of the newest lifesaving technologies, drones. No longer just used to look around, now theyre actually assisting in critical rescue operations. Heres abcs gio benitez. Reporter a birds eye view of the devastation of the british Virgin Islands today. The scope of Hurricane Irmas destruction captured by a drone. And in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in texas more aerial images showing structural damage prompting an evacuation. The roof was caving in. And there were people in there working. Reporter these aircraft deployable in just minutes are used by more than 300 state and local agencies across the country. Now going beyond just looking down. Drones are also saving lives. From flying a safety line for this swift water rescue of two stranded boys in maine to south carolina, where a drones thermal imaging found stranded kayakers in the dark. In the Lone Star State the Public Safety u. A. S. Response team was one of the first groups to dispatch drones in emergency situations. If you get five or six of these things in the air, theres pretty much nothing that we cant cover with these things from the air. This man and this woman are in this home that is totally surrounded by water. Reporter they are the team on the scene of this flash flood. Its just its crazy. Constant water. Reporter thats william and tracy kastel stranded back in 2015. All i could see was water. And it wasnt just standing water. It was flowing water. The feeling of helplessness was overwhelming. Reporter with the danger swelling by the minute pilot garret bryl attached a safety line to his drone. We were able to precisely deliver it right to his hand. Weve seen a brilliant use of a drone here. I pulled that heavier rope across the water and secured it to the porch, and the porch beams, and they were able to use that to use the rescue raft to try to get out here. Reporter a helicopter eventually got the kastels to safety. But that first drone offered a look at how this highflying technology could be a lifeline. Everybody realizes that these are more than just eyes in the sky. This is a multipurpose tool that every Department Needs to have. Reporter abc attended one of the Response Teams training exercises. Lets go. Reporter simulating an active shooter scenario. [ gunfire ] volunteers playing frightened school kids and teachers. Mannequins on the ground representing the wounded. And the Mansfield Police department in north texas, their weapons, paintballs. Taking down the bad guy in a matter of moments. They got him. Reporter lets watch again. This time with our cameras fixed on that aircraft. The first eyes inside. Speeding down the hallway. Officers following close behind. The hallways clear. Reporter the drones pilot relaying what the drone sees to his team inside. Suspect left. Suspect left. Reporter then the takedown. The entire time that drone was watching what he was doing. Thats how they knew where to go. The man behind the sticks, barry moore. Before the drone goes through those doors, whats going through your mind . Keep the officers out of coming inside. Make sure i can keep eyes on the bad guy, the suspect, and make sure theyre not walking into something thats going to get them killed. Reporter for firefighters the drone brings a clearer picture than the naked eye. We are suiting up because were actually going to go in there and show you what the drone can do to help save people in a fire. Lets go. Were going in, guys. Were going in. Reporter with members of the Joshua Fire Department im led into a smokefilled building. I see the fire but i can barely see anything else. Reporter i crouch in the corner, playing a trapped victim. Even from the outside the smoke is blinding. No way for rescuers to know if anyones inside. But a quick view of that thermal camera, and there i am. All right. We are out. Reporter you can see the thermal camera is what saw what was happening inside. And really for any firefighter thats whats going to make the difference. Theyre going to be able to see whos in there, whos walking around. How often are you using this technology . Were using it every fire we have. Every fire. Every fire we have. Reporter hightech firefighting. Thats the way to do it. These First Responders also go hightech for search and rescue. Recently in colorado a drone spotted these two lost hikers and their dog in just two hours. The perspective that it give gives you from the air is completely different from a searcher on the ground. When a searcher walks through woods like this all they see is thick woods. When you get up above you realize theres a lot of patches, a lot of holes. You can see all the trails. Reporter as night falls i head into cleburne state park. Its up to the First Responders to find me. So now its getting really dark. Were running out of light here. And hopefully theyre going to get that drone to me soon. Within minutes the drone appears, carrying a radio and glowsticks so i can see their special delivery. I see the drone right there. Make sure he sees me. I see the glowstick. Hes going to drop this. But hes got to get close. Lets see if he can see me. Hes got it. I have the walkietalkie. Im not hurt. But im a little lost back here. Its dark. We will send a search team in for you right now. Reporter finally, a drone with a spotlight appears, guiding that search team. They have a spotlight on a drone. This is the kind of spotlight you might expect from a helicopter. Wave to the camera and say hi. You found us i cant believe it. Reporter a light in the dark for me. And as Hurricane Irma looms, drones may be called to action yet again in florida. For nightline im gio benitez in cleburne, texas. Next, these kanye west shoes seem real at first. But a closer look and it all falls down. Were with Police Busting an alleged supplier of counterfeit sneakers. And we went all out to bring you even more incredible shrimp and new flavors like new Nashville Hot shrimp drizzled with sweet amber honey, and new grilled mediterranean shrimp finished with a savory blend of green onions, tomatoes, and herbs. Feeling hungry yet . Good, cuz theres plenty more where these came from. Like garlic shrimp scampi, and other classics you love. As much as you want, however you want em. But hurry, endless shrimp wont be here long. Okay, iunderwear thatsd say this, bactually pretty. Er leak surprised . Its called always discreet boutique. It looks and fits like my underwear. I know what youre thinking. How can something this pretty protect . 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Kanye wests yeezy sneakers are produced in small batches. They sell out quickly and are often resold at high markups. So its no wonder that an entire industry has sprung up around counterfeiting them and other hard to find designer brands. Tonight, abcs nick watt joins the lapd in bringing an alleged black market footwear supplier to heel. Reporter today were on the hunt with the lapd on a raid in inglewood, on the hunt for one of the most counterfeited commodities coming into the u. S. , sneakers. So theyre in there right now . Thats correct. Two undercover officers just walked in, posing as customers. There needs to be a sale, right . Yes. Or at least an attempt sale. Reporter undercover agents working for nike have been surveiling this store for months. They say theyve already bought fake sneakers here. And now theyre bringing the lapd along, hoping to make arrests. Thats our undercover officer now. Good . All right. Were going to come in. Police. Open the door. Lapd. Hi there. Reporter fake nikes for sale. As of right now youre under arrest. Reporter and why should we care . Those dollars are not going to some legitimate business. Those dollars are going to support Drug Trafficking organizations, organized crime, and in some cases terrorist organizations. Reporter yes, he said terrorist groups. Officials say that terrorists who attacked french magazine Charlie Hebdo financed their weapons partly by selling fake nikes. Counterfeiting is big business, and its big business thats controlled by criminals. Reporter authorities are tracing the money through wire transfers. They say a lot of it goes through france and then on to the middle east. Here in a warehouse in new jersey the feds say they are trying to make sure fakes never even make it into the country in the first place. Were looking every single day. Reporter this is customs and border patrol. They partner with other agencies, the fbi, the d. E. A. , sharing intel on counterfeit shipments. Mainly from china. We got information that its possibly counterfeit. So were going to take our time and go through piece by piece. Reporter last year cbp seized over 32 million worth of counterfeit goods. After youve done this 5,000 times you start to get the feel for what legitimate nikes might feel like. Chinese. Are you serious . These are not real. Reporter and adidas yeezies may be the pinnacle of this exploding illegal industry. Red carpets, runways, all over instagram. These Kanye Westdesigned kicks are everything. Knit upper, chunky sole. But buyer, beware. Genuine yeezies retail for around 200 bucks a pop, but theyre so rare, sell out so fast that what amount to sneaker speculators are selling them with massive markups. How much are we talking for these . 12. 1200. 700. Maybe 700. 1,000. 1500. 1500 bucks for those . Yep. Reporter ill explain the mask in just a minute. Its like the stock market. One day its worth 500. Next day its 1,000. And just it all comes down to how many are available. Reporter these are all real but that shortage now fueling a counterfeiting explosion. And some fakes so good that many consumers are turning to unofficial authenticators online. There are certain things the fakes have that real ones dont. Reporter yeezy buster calls out the fakes daily to his hundreds of thousands of followers. He says the mask hiding his identity for fear of being sued. Im a 19yearold from los angeles and im a med student. Its not a crime to buy this stuff. So youre going to have the consumer demand. People like nice things. I mean, you walk around l. A. , youll see at least ten people wearing these. Probably eight or nine of them will be fake. Reporter mostly made in china, factories churning out thousands of counterfeits. The differences are subtle. Like labels, color variation, and sole thickness. Whats the difference . Well, basically, this pair you can get off fake chinese websites and these ones are authentic. Reporter he offers a yeezy authentication service. For ten bucks hell tell you if the yeezies are legitimate or not. A request arrives by email as were talking. This label looks good to me. Youve got to see if the serial numbers match up. Everything looks good. A lot of the fakes the line ends over here. See how it kind of fades out over here . Right. And then i would just send them real and just my initials and send. And thats just how it works. Good little service. Reporter some people know their yeezies are fake and dont care, they just want them real or not. But if you do care, how can you tell . Are these both real . No. One of thems fake and one of thems real. I dont know if you can take a look at them. I think these are fake. Those ones are actually the real ones. This is a decent fake, yeah. If this is on someones foot it would be pretty difficult to tell. Reporter there are plenty of howto tutorials on youtube. Im going to be talking about how to spot a fake sneaker site. Reporter basically, look at the detail. The suede on the real one is a little nicer and the adidas logo is heat printed on the real one. Whereas on the fake its like glossy. Reporter and the sole. You could even feel it with your hands. Like this is like much more squshy. And you can tell this is legit and this isnt. I could not tell the difference. Really . No. Reporter all of this easier to do if you have them in your hand or on your foot. The fakes arent nearly as comfortable too. I think theyre kind of ugly. You think so . Reporter for the sellers of the fake ones its a lucrative game. An average distributor makes anywhere from 80,000 to 150,000 a month. Reporter a month. Thats over a Million Dollars a year. Reporter and the punishments if caught are a lot more lenient than, say, for narcotics trafficking. At the end of the day this is a property crime, so its not a big deal. And our judicial system, obviously its lenient toward property crime. I just work here. Reporter back at the raid in inglewood the store clerk is under arrest. The clerk is cited for selling counterfeit goods. She cooperated. We corroborated what she said and we did some undercover buys. At Different Stores . At Different Stores. Specifically the supplier. So you managed from that raid to get to the main supplier . Correct. The stores owner, an alleged supplier, was later arrested. The Police Telling us they found a storeroom packed with fakes and they will pursue charges. It was a lot. Hundreds. Hundreds. Yeah. The whole back end was covered with sneakers. All of them counterfeit. Every single one. Every single one. Reporter im nick watt for nightline in los angeles. And next, the triumphant winners at the u. S. Open. Two american women moving on to the finals. Poallergies . Reather. Stuffy nose . Cant sleep . 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Zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. Nexium can take 24 hours. When heartburn strikes, take zantac for faster relief than nexium or your money back. Take the zantac it challenge. And finally tonight, for the First Time Since 1981 all four semifinalists in the womens u. S. Open were american. And they did not disappoint. It was an extraordinary battle between the veteran favorite Venus Williams and sloane stephens, who just four weeks ago was ranked above 900 in the world. Tonight shes advancing to the u. S. Open finals after beating williams. And shell be facing a ferocious opponent, madison keys. Making it look easy with a quick win over coco vandeweghe. She and stephens will battle for the championship this weekend. Its the first grand slam final for both women. Good for them. It was american track star Wilma Rudolph who said, never underestimate the power of dreams. Thank you for watching abc news. And as always, were online at abcnews. Com and our Nightline Facebook page. Thanks for the company, america. Good night