They say 95 of the island was utterly destroyed. Started crawling. Were stopped right now. And more than a Million People in south florida have been told to get out as the hurricane closes in on the United States. Good evening and thank you for joining us. Hurricane irma has claimed at least 13 lives in the caribbean and its expected to reach south florida this weekend. Floridas governor has declared a statewide emergency. In florida with a look at irmas impact and the preparations underway tonight. Marcy. At least one shelter in south florida is already attica pasty. People are taking these warnings seriously, especially now after seeing what the storm is capable of. Hurricane irma cutting a catastrophic path through the caribbean. How we going to survive after this. Reporter the monstrous category 5 storm damaging nearly everything on the tiny island of barbuda and leaving half of puerto rico. Hospitals taking in some of the injured rescued from neighboring islands. The governors what will be a historic disaster. This storm is much worse. From the gulf to atlantic coast, more than a Million People ordered to evacuate. Im very scared so im trying to get as north as possible. Hours long with stations running out. Pretty much on full but i want to top off just in case. More lines for ply wood and essentials. Many store shelves left empty in the rush to get ready ahead of this deadly storm. All you can do is be prepared and be ready for it. Reporter to give time to evacuate, classes at every Public School in the state are canceled for tomorrow. Live, marcy gonzales, abc 7 news. Thanks so much. And of course meteorologist is tracking irma. And shes with the storms Current Location and strength. Lets check out hurricane i are, irma. And the eye is very well defined. I want to take you in closer to show you the eye of the massive category 5 storm. It has torn through the turks caic caicos. Hurricane warnings and storm surge warnings have already gone up for the keys and florida. Category 5 still but the winds have come down 165 miles per hour. Dont get me wrong this is still a very dangerous storm. It is moving towards the bahamas. Will maintain its strength of a category 5 and expected to close in on southern florida impacting the entire state as you look at the cone here going into sunday evening. Storm surge is going to be the biggest problem with this hurricane and it will continue to weaken as it moves inland. Heres a look at the rainfall potential and thats going to lead to some flooding consrntz in addition to the storm surge. Its not just irma were watching. We have hurricane jose and katia in the gulf of mexico. This is a major category 3 hurricane. And it is headingislands. So thats the last thing they need. It it is going to move northeastward eventually away from the islands. Not expected to booe a direct h. We are keeping a close eye on Hurricane Irma. Could prove to be very deadly to florida. Thanks very much. Tourists in the British Virgin islands explored the capitol city. He shared the video on twitter. Everything seems to be destroyed. No one in church. No one is protecting anything here. Absolutely no one. No police in front. Seems like theres been an invasion. As of this coming saturday no one will be able to leave the miami and Fort Lauderdale area on a commercial flight. The airport will be closed through monday, maybe later. Reporter marcia travelled to the bay area for her nieces wedding. She doesnt know when shell be able to return to Fort Lauderdale. It is just a mess there. Everybodys panicking. The neighborhoods all boarded up. Reporter youre crying because youre happy to be here . Im happy to be here and worried about what goes on at home. Reporter shes from murin county but now lives in miami. My moms going crazy you need to get out, blah blah blah. Reporter and you came here . Yes. Reporter thats a long flight. But youre with mom. With mom so worth it. Reporter as of saturday all airports will be closed. I dont know what im going home to. I hope that everyones safe down here but im here in california away from the storm. Reporter stacey hills, a travel agent says it may take passengers a long time to return hme. Theres always the option of flying as close as you can, driving a car, getting down that way. But the further you can push out those flights, the better for now. Reporter hurricane andrew 25 years ago. We cry and cry because everything was destroyed. Okay. Reporter shes now staying with her daughter in burlinggame. If youre thinking of changing your flight, theyll do it for free but better to do it over the phone with the live person. It may take a few hours. Abc 7 news. Bay area utility workers and firefighters are making their way to florida to help with relief efforts. One group of pg e workers set off today for south florida. They say they feel a sense of duty to help other communities that could experience such terrible devastation. Im excited, nervous. Theres a lot of unknowns and looking forward to facing the unknown hurdles as they come towards us. 50 oakland firefighters with the urban search and rescue team flew out today. Another two dozen are driving. They were headed home from houston when they got the call to turn around and head for florida. Well, Hurricane Irma is record breaking storm on so many levels. Youll find a video explaining how and why on our website abc 7 news. Com. Shocked and angry, thats libbys reaction. Reporter mayor libby shaft pulled no punches. It is disturbing and disgusting that a public servient has engaged in these types of alleged activities. Reporter shes talking about the arrest of Oakland Fire Department captain c hrkts u on two counts of possessing child pornography. Heres his reaction when he realized what he had had. Shock. Reporter copt rucost rucounty detectives searched chus home and on fire street where he worked. Nobody answered the door when we stopped by the station. Quote i am appalled by the disturbing nature of these charges. I immediately placed the employee in question on administrative leave. If the alligations are true, this criminal behavior violates our Community Standard of decency and breaches the standard of conduct we uphold in the Oakland Fire Department. Not only are the charges deeply upsetting to her but the men and women who put their lives on the line every day. This is oakland. We are tough, we will get through it and insure we are weeding out anyone who does not deserve to be in public service. Reporter richard chuwas bailed on 200,000 bond. Stay with us you may have been the victim of a major security breach. Up next hackers get access to millions of security numbers and more. Also watch out for Yellow Jackets. They are aggressive and leaving them alone may not work. Them alone may not work. Food. Water. Internet. We need it to live. But what we dont need are surprises, like extra monthly fees. I see you, fee, played by legendary actress anjelica huston. You got me, mark. Internet for one everyday simple price and no extra monthly fees. Food. Water. Internet. We need it to live. For all the streaming and the shopping and the newsing, but most of all. For the this. Internet for one everyday simple price and no extra monthly fees. Equisfaks says it involves names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and addresses. The number of victims is just staggering. 143 million. Thats nearly half the country. Compare that to the target breach of 2013. Remember when there were 31 million victims. The hackers exploited a website vulnerability. Theyre reporting the fbi is already investigating the case. The Company Discovered the breach on july 29th. Theres no explanation on why it waited so long to report it. Michael finny says you can go to equifax security 2017. Com, click on potential impact, equifax says it will tell you if youre epected by the breach. Youll need put in your last name and last digits of your Social Security number. Youll receive equifax service free for one year, even if youre not effect fwhied breach. They want to find a man who reportedly told a woman jogger quote be my friend before reportedly groping her on union city boulevard. We have a sketch. You can see it here. She says she had seen him several times before. Frrsz he ran off. Dealing with a surge in Yellow Jackets. The pop ylshz hassed big time. Abc 7 News Reporter has the story. Reporter its not an easy job but rived prepared for the pain staking task. She suited up ready to treat this Yellow Jacket ground nest. It was a pretty active nest and they were starting to let us know that they didnt really want us around their nest. Has seen an 83 inhad crease in calls from home owners requesting service for yellow jack tsz. On this call the home owners left a map. Officials advise staying away from any ground nest. Dont try to treat it yourself and it seems like they get even more upset and aggressive once theyve been treated with a spray or soapy water concoction. Reporter it created just the landscape to draw more Yellow Jackets. Unlike a honey bee, the Yellow Jackets can sting you over and over and over. As the months get colder theyll die off but right now theyre in full swing. Abc 7 news. Reporter Governor Brown declared a state of emergency because of fires wild fire is threatening a grove of majestic sequoias near yosemite. Theyve also widened nearby trails to protect redwood trees that are about 1,000 years old. They face evacuation orders in fish camp. One is staying in his home. Its one of 500 in the fires path. They have interest in a good deal of concern about otherer people whose homes are here. The fire has burned more than 18 square miles. Its 43 contained. The weektd is almost upon us. Meteorologist here with that. You know the weekend will feature an improvement in our humidity. So i think many people will be happy to hear that. As you take a look at live doppler 7 right now. Still dealing with left over moisture from a Tropical Storm. But this is basically going to be exiting towards tomorrow afternoon. This system is starting to move. Its shifting up and out of here but well keep it on the humid side. Heres a look at the dew points. Still in the muggy range. Humid i should say. 62 in oakland. Some areas are beginning to see improvement. It was responsibility for moisture we saw today. You may have run into some showers in santa rosa 200ths of an inch. Heres a look autoyour temperatures hp right now mid60s San Francisco oakland. Another look at those numbers santa rosa, napa youre in the 60s. Concord, 69 degrees and a live look from our kgo roof camera, we do have a breeze that is coming through. Itas cooler today and in some cases double digit drop. Boom bridge camera. It is going to be muggy through tomorrow morning. A chance of showers again early next week. Hour by hour forecast tomorrow at 11 00. Well have the same sort of clouds weve been seeing today and as we head towards your morning commute, cant rule out a little bit of drizzle. So slippery spots not out of the question. Its not going to be the kind of showers we saw today but at least some drizzle. Its dryer air moving in across the bay area. Low clouds lingering near the coast. Will be a brighter day away from the beaches. Upper 50s to the mid60s. Look out for the drizzle near the coast. And through afternoon hours you will be seeing brighter conditions. 77 in san jose. On the peninsula low to mid70s to palo alto. You will hang on to the gray skies. 67 downtown San Francisco. Santa rosa, calistoga. In the east bay its going to be quite comfort b8. 72 in oakland. 74 in union city. If you think its been feeling too sticky, hang in there its going to improve. In our inland areas 82 fair field and in livermore. Download the accuweather app and keep track of live doppler 7 as we see another potential for showers. Well show you mild weather for friday. Midskiktsz to the mid80s as we head towards the weekend. Those temperatures are going up but luckily the humidity is going down. Mid60s to low 90s saturday. Your sunday plans will include heat near 100 inland, 70s at the beaches. Might just want to head to the beach. Monday well keep it beach weather and a slight chance of a few showers. Tuesday certainly cooling it down heading into the midweek time period. A new twist on the shark tank. How its now living up to the name. The next round of implosions is scheduled for saturday. Thats what it looked and sounded like lasts saturday when they imploded two of the old foundations. There are 13 total to be removed. During the imploegdss car traffic is blocked and bart stops running trains causes delays of 15 to 30 minutes. This is the final demolition of the old bay bridge. Now has an actual shark tank. The San Jose Sharks unveiled a 2,000 gallon salt water tank in they are brand new bmw lounge. There are live sharks and other fish in the tank. The sharks begin preseason play in less than two weeks. Tickets go on sale tomorrow. It really is now the shark tank. First responders return from the bay area. Theyre back from helping texas recover from its hurricane. You feel for the people seeing they lost everything. And donald trump jr. Answers five hours of questions on capitol hill. Did he leave more questio live where you live this is abc 7 news. And we begin this hohalf hour with Hurricane Irma. Most are heeding the advice to get out of its way. Abc news estimates more than a million south florida residents have already evacuated. This as resident said rush to homes. Still despielt the sheer size of Hurricane Irma, some people say theyre not leaving. Maybe its stupidity of the first class but nevertheless i want to stay at home and see if i can survive it. Mandatory evacuations have been issued for the keys and parts of miami dade and broward counties near the soegz. Ambulances are stacked up outside a Miami Beach Hotel waiting to take the last patients away. Farther north georgias governor ordered mandatory evacuations starting on saturday. A team of bay area First Responders returned home tonight. They understand what lies ahead for their fellow team members. Abc 7 News Reporter has the story from men low park. These firefighters are glad to be home. They have turned in their gear. It needs to be decontaminated and handed off to the next crew. The trucks rolled in one by one. Inside heroes who spent the last week and a half helping rescue victims from hurricane harvey. Fire chiefs from around the bay area came to welcome them back home. It was a long drive, long trip and were glad we were out there and had had a great experience given the unfortunate circumstances we were there to help which was awesome. Reporter some are retired, active. Theyre all part of an elite team fema uses to respond to natural disasters iround the country. They specialize in water rescue. Theres always the safety hazards we have to worry about. Electrical wires, cars we couldnt see under the water, fences. Theres always the unknown and use caution. Reporter he said goodbye to his wife at San Jose National armnt. They were just deployed to florida to get in position for the wrath Hurricane Irma may bring. Our job is to react to whats happening arounld us and find a way to take care of those people sfwlrks hes responded to four hurricanes as well as katrina and helped in the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombing collapse. Each takes a toll. We keep pictures in our helmet and its of our family. Reminds you why you need to keep yourself safe and get them home to their families. Reporter but for now he will keep his focus on helping other families trying to survive. Abc 7 news. Preparing for Hurricane Irma in florida includes making space in shelters for lost and surr d surrendered pets. They now have a chance to find their forever homes here in the bay area. Abc 7 News Reporter in walnut creek and dogs and kalts were welcome to california. Seven hours and 3,000 miles later these four legged evacuees arrived in the bay area. Moved out before Hurricane Irmas expected to slam into their home, the florida coast. These adopted animal said, 150 flew Cross Country from Broward County to hayward to make room for all those expected in shelters there once irma moves through. One of the lessons was that you needed to allow people to take their pets to evacuate or they simply wont. Broward is getting ahead of the curve, getting their animals, adoptable animals cleared out. The plane ride was funded by greater good and the Animal Rescue foundation. Here in the bay area these dogs and cats will be give an thorough check up and dispersed to three different shelters, the berkleley Humane Society and toy lurusaus arf, which has had a 20year relationship with the Humane Society of Broward County. All of us could use additional fosters, donations for medical supplies for the animals as well as larjs crates. Australian cellpy 39 pounds. Reporter many should be available for permanent adoption starting next week. All five living former president s of the United States have launched a joint effort to help raise funding for relief. George bush, carter, george w. Bush and barack obama announced their one America Appeal to help the victims. Hurricane harvey brought terrible destruction but it also brought out the best in hume tanny. As former president s we want to help our fellow americans begin to recover. Our fellow americans including president bush frin and 43. Weve got more love in texas than water. We love you texas. Donate to one America Appeal. Org. Were all in this together. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The video appeared during tonights nfl opener and the ninth Circuit Court of appeals ruled grandparents, aunts, uncles should not be included in the trump administrations travel ban. They struck down that key part of the order this afternoon and said refugees accepted by resettlement agencies should not be banned. The president s son, don trump jr. Answering questions behind closed doors for hours. His focus was a meeting with a russian lawyer during the campaign that was set up with the it prommase of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton for the campaign. Heres mary bruce. Reporter this is the only glimpse of donald trump jr. We got today. Reporters cramming for a closer look. But his five hour meeting with shrouded in secrecy. A prime focus. That trump tower meeting with a russian lawyer. Set up after an acquaintance told don jr. The lawyer had dirt on Hillary Clinton. The president s son responded if its what you say i love it. Today don jr. Told the committee he took the meeting because to the extent he had information concerning the qualification oofz president ial candidate i believed i should at least hear them out. Don jr. Has described the meeting as par for the course in a political campaign. He says nothing came of it and sources say he told investigators there was no collusion. And he never told his father about the meeting. Did donald trump jr. Sway some of your consrntz . There are still a lot of gaps and a lot of questions to be answered. Reporter mary bruce, abc news washington. Former White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer will make his first public appearance since leaving the white house. He posted this picture on twitter with the caption dear sean spicer if i promise to look at the camera this time will you come to my show next week . It airs week nites right after abc 7 news at 11 00 over on channel 7. Lyft tries to play catch up. The Company Plans to launch selfdriving cars on bay area for millions of baby boomers theres a serious virus out there thats been almost forgotten. Its hepatitis c. One in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most dont even know it. Because it can hide in your body for years without symptoms, and its not tested for in routine blood work. The cdc recommends all baby boomers get tested. If you have hep c, it can be cured. For us its time to get tested. Ask your Healthcare Provider for the simple blood test. Its the only way to know for sure. Amazon says it plans to build a headquarters. Hes taking proposals and says hes open to any city in north america. Theyll employ 50,000 people. More than the number that currently work at the headquarters in seattle. They have expressed interest. A spokesperson for San Francisco says its evaluating whether to submit a proposal. Lyft has announced plans to move into the world of sempdriving cars. Theyll soon debut a fleet of selfdriechk vehicles in the bay area. Abc 7 News Reporter has the story. Reporter no matter where you go throughout the city a ride sharing vehicle is typically available within minutes. And that way of thinking is likely behind the launch of a new self driving Vehicle Pilot Program announced by lyft. I feel like honestly i might trust it more than my own drivers. I think i would. Lyft is now partnering with a sillicon vallestart up funtded by former class mates. I think Autonomous Vehicles are definitely the way of the future. So excited to learn more, make sure theyre safe of course. Reporter drive ai has developed retrofit kits to allow businesses to kujvert traditional vehicleinize to selfdriving mod recalls and been approved to conduct the testing which is what uber ran into trouble with when it announced plans to inter the selfdriving realm. Its plan is go forth without asking permission, whereas lyfts mo is the nice guy. Reporter drive ai says the applicable lyft riesds wiel have a trained safety driver inside the car will ch will involve up to six vehicles. I wouldant say im scared but i know ill still have a choice. Reporter lyft and drive ai could Start Testing in the bay area not years from now but possibly in the coming months. Chris nguyen, abc 7 nusz. And meteorologist is next with an update on irma. And the rush to crush. Whats making this grape crush. Thrjs grape harvest is in full swing. Last weeks strike and short tj and exser baiting the situation is the immigrants. According to wine searcher some wineries are being forced to out bid each uther to get crews and in some cases pay in advance. Its got very competitive. Certainly has. Time for one last check on our weather. Weve got the hurricane, of course, to follow, irma. And our weather. Lets start first with Hurricane Irma. Well defined eye on the storm and it is so large. As you take a look at the map youll notice it stretches for hundreds of miles across so the winds across this region feeling it and not only the winds but heavy winds. It tore through the turks caicos. Still a category 5 as we mentioned. But winds are beginning to come down a little bit. 165 miles per hour. North it will cross the bahamas and then hit the florida area as we head towards the weekend. The biggest threat is going to be the storm surge. A pile of water coming on shore low lying area in florida. Were still dealing with the humidity from what was a former Tropical Storm and thats why the cloud cover is still with us. Average high for liver more is kwikts degrees. Tomorrow youre going to be running a little behind and towards the weekend sunday and monday in particular it wilt heat up inland. No big heat wave. Highs for your friday mid60s to mid80s. A few high clouds, lingering low clouds. From mild friday to lower saturday. Lower humidity and the heat is on. Near 100s inland. Cooler next week. We do have a slight chance of showers on tuesday next week. Got a little bit today. If youre looking for something fun to do this weekend we as always have you covered. We do. Some ideas from our partners at hoodline. Its the skav chger hunt that will have you going all over San Francisco. Youll run, walk, bike or use public transit. Youll be sent to a mix of iconic places as well as hidden gems. We consider this the best day ever and thats kind of what people have told us of their experience of playing and so we take that as a challenge to give people the best day theyve ever had in San Francisco. You and your team will get cloous through an app on your phone. Yowlver to answer riddles like this. Caring neighbor set out waa plan to built a community in sannon for. So they toild and tired. So you could enjoy these steps which you view soez grand. You can get registered now. California rum fest is back for the third annual rum extravaganza. Sample from over 40 premium rum Brand Expressions that soma arts cultural centers. Theres fun for all. And proceeds benefit a great cause. The operation helping people foundation. Celebrate the llgbtq festival with a parade at broadway and 14th, followed by an all time broad festival. And the parade is free, 10 will get you into the festival. For details on these events and more go to our website, abc 7 news. Com. Well lirng you up with hoodline. Something else this weekend and tonight. Football. Theres very happy people around. I will tell you that. I was tackling people in the newsroom. The Patriots Fans came for the corination and the start of another championship season. They did not expect to see alex smith, the one time niner airing abc 7 sports brought to you by your local toyota dealer. Fine that he will 2017 nfl season kicked off tonight and the question wasnt whether the new England Patriots would win their opener but could they go undefeated throughout the entire year . Were talking 190 through the super bowl. Hold on a second. How about luszing in the opener to the chiefs. Yes. In foxborough, home of the champions it starts as you would expect. Second quarter bulling his way to the second touchdown. 177 pats. Carr mars them up. I got your touch down right here 75 years to hill. This is the new alex smith down the field 78 yards to kareem hunt. Smith 368 yards and four touchdowns and huntd had had three tds and that was the look on everybodys face. Most yards most points a Belichick Team has ever given up. 4247. When the 49ers open sunday at home against carolina two stanford rookies will make their debut. Sulman thomas has a chance to be great. Part of a niner dline loaded with high picks while Christian Mccaffrey was the eighth overall pick, a match up nightmare who cant wait to run by his old college roommate. It will be a pretty cool little homecoming and should be lot of fun. So it will be cool to see a lot of my former teammates and coaches and playing against solomon will be a lot of fun and my roommate, one of my best friends. Hes never been able to tackle christian. We dont let him in practice. Im sure christians very eager to break that tackle. Its a big moment for stanford football. A big moment for both those two families that there outstanding families. I hope to see them all that sunday. The raiders open a season on the road in tennessee. Got a lot of question marks ibtheir secondary. There was some surprise when khalil mack missed practice with what was reported as a knee inhadjury. The reigning defensive player of the year did practice today and should be a go sunday against the titans. Last time there were four american women, Venus Williams was one year old. That was 36 years ago. Tonight venus against Sloan Stevens in one semifinal. Sloan ranchged as low as within57th this year. Venus just cant put stevens away and sloan with a lob over venus for the winner. Very next Point Williams with a net court here and no idea how stevens gets to it and does that to take a 65 leave. Stevens serving, venus into the net. Its over. Sloan stevens really from out of nowhere to win 61, love, 675. And coco vandeweghe, rematch of the bank final. Keys won that one and tonight basically started the car and never looked back because she won this thing easy. Keys also making her first major final. In new york at the u. S. Open. One of the reasons we love warriors general manager is hes a smart guy that understands the media has questions. Some he will or wont answer. You will never see bob maiers do what we did in cleveland. The cavs were introducing Isaiah Thomas and the new gm kept trying to top reporters from asking about thomass hip injury which is a huge deal because you got to know the guy youre getting is had healthy. Heres a guy, the gm, a crash course in media 101. When did you know you had had suffered a torn labum last year . I dont want this to be Isaiah Thomas hip conference and so im just going to with all due respect shut down the hip questions. If we want to talk about isaiah, lets talk about isaiah the all star. No. Not the way you conduct business. Thats amateur hour right there. You have to handle it and say well deal with the hip, take a few questions and then well move on. Or dont get up. Or dont have that news conference. Yeah. Coming up tonight on abc 7 news at 11 00 tracking Hurricane Irma of course. We have live team coverage. Here from the weary team back from texas, headed to florida in the morning. What steps you need to take to check if your personal information was compromised. Finally tonight theres a guy in sweden who really likes to pull things up. Erick is a professional dynamite expert. Hes blown up hey bails rksz piano. This time hes blowing up a raft. Watch. Haha. He says his love of blowing things up started at age six when he would use fireworks to blow up toy cars. Hes used dynamite professionally since he was 16 years old. Its a guy thing. What would you blow up if you could . Thanks for joining us. For all of us well see you in one hour. Narrator today on corrupt crimes. It begins as a straightforward accusation of assault. Police have no idea. Absolutely no idea. Narrator but a resourceful policewoman believes theres more to the story