days. last night they found him. gentleman vars crittendon is accused of killing a mother of four in atlanta. the fbi arrested crittendon before he boarded a red-eye flight from orange county, california to atlanta. he was in the news about two years ago when he played for the washington wizards. he and a teammate pulled guns on each other in the locker room. the power is still out for about five million customers courtesy of irene. today a white house team will visit some of the hardest-hit areas, including the state of vermont. floodwaters were still cresting there late last night. waters have damaged more than 200,000 in their communities. intense flooding wrecked the town of pratsville in the new york skill mountains. it took crews four trips and a helicopter to get a man out. a reporter told cnn that she can't get out of prattsville now. >> we'll give you an idea of the flooding so you understand why we were trapped here. if you can follow me over here. can you see where the creek is right now? imagine where i'm standing, that creek flooded to this point and actually a mile out of town even more. so definitely this is flooding that no one has ever seen here before. and yes, all the other smaller roads around this area have been flooded. so we're being told that there's no way for us to get out. >> so the residents got out, but the reporters are now stuck. the storm is blamed for at least 27 deaths in nine states. and some people like those in prattsville and parts of vermont have lost everything. if you'd like to help, check out the impact your world section on our website, that's at cnn.com/impact. warren jeffs is out of prison and is in a hospital, in critical condition. he has no the been eating since his conviction in texas on sexual assault charges. the polygamous leader was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. he told prison officials that he wasn't on a hunger strike, he was just fasting. august of 2011 is now the deadliest month for u.s. forces in afghanistan. 66 american troops have died this month. that's the most since the war began nearly ten years ago. until now, july of 2010 had been the deadliest when 65 troops died. in other news this morning, just imagine nobody home at the international space station. that might happen for the first time in more than ten years. the crew has to leave in november, but they're not be anyone to replace them. russia has also had problems with its rockets. the rockets that would help bring up a fresh crew. if those problems are not fixed before the astronauts have to leave, the station will be empty. if you ever find yourself having lunch with michael vick, let him pick up the tab. the philadelphia eagles has signed him to a six-year, $100 million contract. not bad for a guy who was in prison and bankrupt just about two years ago. the deal makes vick the highest paid eagle ever. rob marciano, that's an amazing comeback. >> yes it is. and philly recently was hit by a hurricane or at least grazed by one. so i don't know if that was anything to do with michael vick's contract. but congratulations to him and congratulations to nfl fans who have themselves a season. for a while this past summer, it didn't look that great. we are looking at something that has our interest. first off, let's show you what's going on in the tropics. irene is gone, remnants are gone. it's dry and the clean-up effort is under way, which will be painstakingly slow. this is tropical storm at that timia. winds of 40 morps. moving west-southwesterly as 17 miles per hour. >> katia is forecast to become a hurricane fairly quickly as it makes its way across the southern atlantic off towards the west. potentially becoming a major hurricane, category 3 by sunday. but note the trajectory of this path is a little bit farther north than that of irene. which made its way into the caribbean. and then peeled off towards the north. so there is some hope that this thing may be a gutter ball. if it shoots the gap between the u.s. and bermuda. still a long ways off to make that call, obviously. let's take a look at the track of irene. this is some cool imagery showing you the beginnings of irene. making its way across the northern caribbean, the bahamas and northerly right turn. you notice that the cloud canopy doesn't shrink at all. even when it makes interaction of land, even when it gets downgraded from a category 3 to a category 2. the cloud canopy, the size of this thing only expands when it hits north carolina and all the wind and moisture as we've come to see across northern new england where they are the hardest hit there across the state of vermont. still a head-scratcher to think that a hurricane hitting so many miles of coastline, and so many millions of people, the hardest hit, the most impact its had, is the furthest inland it was and the second northernmost point. carol in. >> poor vermont, thank you, rob marciano. to cope, we joke about things that are sometimes tragic. and of course, the comedians had a field day. here's your punch line. >> hurricane irene came whipping through here, 800,000 residents of new jersey still without power. but it's okay, they've hooked them up to governor christie's back-up generator on his refrigerator, everything will be fine. anyway, good news after hurricane irene, wall street is up and running as usual. the bad news, wall street is up and running as usual. and you folks in the balcony, are you here for the show, are you just here looking for high ground? what is going on? time for a brand-new segment, ladies and gentlemen, when we call this hurricane warnings are better in spanish. hurricane warnings are better in spanish. take a look. [ speaking spanish ] >> that was truly strange to watch, new york's mayor bloomberg trying to speak spanish. beyonce and jay-z's baby news is all the talk. and i'm not kidding, it is all the talk. their announcement breaking all kinds of records, we'll explain. but here we go, here is your quote of the day. quote, he's completely out to lunch. coming up in 90 seconds, find out who said that about ron paul and his criticism of fema. it's seven minutes past the hour. 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[ male announcer ] find your program at phoenix.edu. [ male announcer ] it's been a good year for the chevy silverado. and not because of the awards or the accolades. no, it was good because you told us so. the chevy model year wrap up. get in on our greatest model year yet. just announced -- celebrate labor day with an additional $500 bonus cash. with all other offers, including the all-star edition discount, that's a total value of $6,500. ♪ our greatest model year yet is wrapping up. if something is simply the color of gold, is it really worth more? we don't think so. chase sapphire preferred is a card of a different color. unlike others, you get twice the points on travel, and twice the points on dining, and no foreign transaction fees. call now or apply at chasesapphire.com/preferred. so, actually let me give you the time check, because i know it's important, it's 13 minutes past the hour. this is your "a.m. wakeup call." have you heard about former vice president dick cheney's new book? he dishes on washington and shares his take on policies. this didn't sit too well with david letterman. your punch line. >> former vice president -- this is great. dick cheney, you all remember, vice president dick, kaboom cheney? he's written a book and in the book he says he would do it all over again, the same way. he would make no changes. he said he really, he would still honestly, he still feels strongly about this, he would still invade the wrong country. he is so confident that -- dick says that the reason he wrote the memoir is because friends encouraged him to do it. what? this guy has friends? what? remember, dick cheney had the, he had the heart attack? and during one of the heart attacks, he was unconscious for two weeks. two weeks. he was clinically dead for two weeks. i know a lot of you are saying, that's not long enough. that's not long enough. >> time now for your political ticker with tim farley, host of morning briefing on sirius podus, live from washington, good morning, tim. >> how are you this morning, carol? >> i'm good. let's not talk dick cheney, because we know how polarizing he is. let's talk about someone else, shall we? texas governor rick perry, his campaign is taking off. a new poll out, a cnn/orc poll shows he leads the field by a lot. over mitt romney. >> double digits, this follows up the gallup poll that showed the kind of the same thing last week. what's interesting from the numbers from the cnn poll, 27%, that's an awful lot. what's more fascinating is when you drill down. this is from republican voters, people who call themselves republicans. this isn't just the general public. is if you take away the numbers, if you include sarah palin and rudy giuliani, you see the numbers there. but if you take away rudy giuliani and sarah palin, you see that the numbers are even better for rick perry. he's like at 32%. i think what you're seeing of course is you and i talk about this, national polls don't mean as much. what it does mean is that mitt romney is going to have to look at that strategy that he's had of playing long and look at iowa, new hampshire and south carolina and figure out where he can do well. i don't think that the typical model of having to win at least one of the first two, either the caucus or the primary, that's usually proven to be a winning ticket, if you will, for the presidential candidate eventually. you have to win one of those two to get the nomination. i'm not sure that's going to hold true this time around. >> i think you have a bit of sound for us, is it from mitt romney or from rick perry? >> yeah, i actually -- i'm not sure. >> well let's skip over that. i think the strategy is, is that his campaign people say that let rick perry dig his own hole. we don't have to work very hard to defeat him. because he's going to make mistakes. >> again, this is something that it may or may not be that rick perry is able to sustain what he's done. there are some people comparing this to what happened to say, wesley clark when he was going for the nomination for the democrats. you remember 2004 and howard dean was the leader at this point, too. so i'm not sure if these national polls are indicative of anything except it makes it a lot more exciting to talk about the back-and-forth between the candidates. >> we do have some sound from white house spokesman jay carney. he was thrown a question about hillary clinton being a primary challenger for barack obama. let's listen. >> he has no -- >> running away from this question. i mean, can you guarantee that, i mean are you sure that -- hillary is not going to run? >> you'd have to ask her. >> i don't think hillary clinton is going to run. do you? >> no. and i think if you look at the two names there, bernie sanders, a senator, not considered a mainstream democrat with the quote and lester skoling, asking the quote. he's considered the kicker story in each briefing each day, because he asks those kinds of questions. it's funny, it's interesting, but there's no way that hillary clinton is running for president in 2012. she's said that and that would be a disaster for the democrats, if even anything like that were to be considered. >> yes, it probably would. it certainly would split the vote. maybe not in a good way for barack obama, but that depends on the economy. if the economy gets better, then maybe barack obama is okay. who knows? >> this is not ted kennedy and jimmy carter in 1980. this is two people who work in the same administration. this is just, this is a little goofiness getting out of hand at the white house briefing room yesterday. >> all right. tim farley, host of morning briefing on sirius podus, thank you so much. a penguin who ended up 2,000 miles from home is heading back to antarctica and hitching a ride. and we're plotting his trip. but before we go, make a campfire and make some s'mores. ♪ [ male announcer ] sitting. waiting. hoping. that's a recipe for failed investing. open an e-trade account and open doors, seize opportunities, take action with some of the most powerful yet easy-to-use trading tools on the planet all built to help you maximize the potential of every dollar you invest. successful investing isn't done by throwing ideas against the wall and hoping. it's done by lowering your costs and raising your expectations by using unbiased research and powerful screeners to build a diversified portfolio with stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and every etf sold. and we'll help you every step of the way. with 5-star research and free education covering everything from the basics to advanced investing strategies. start now and we'll give you up to $500 and let you trade free for 60 days. visit our website, call us, open an account. e-trade. investing unleashed. visit our website, call us, open an account. woman: day care can be so to save some money, i found one that uses robots instead of real people. 'cuz robots work for free. robot 1:good morning... robot 1:...female child. sfx: modem dial-up noise woman: are there flaws? yeah, um, maybe. anncr: there's an easier way to save. anncr: get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. ♪ ooh baby, (what) can i do for you today? ♪ [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? align can help. only align has bifantis, a patented probiotic that naturally helps maintain your digestive balance. try align to help retain a balanced digestive system. try the #1 gastroenterologist recommended probiotic. align. 21 minutes past the hour. this is your "a.m. wakeup call" here are three things for your radar today. at noon eastern, the president makes a speech before the nation's largest gathering of veterans. and the congressional black caucus hosts a job fair in los angeles. record numbers of people is bee slowing up at previous job fairs in cities like detroit and atlanta. and more details about michael vick's $ 100 million deal with the philadelphia eagles at a news conference at 2:30 eastern this afternoon. moammar gadhafi's family members have reportedly crossed the border out of libya. the wife of the fugitive leader is believed to be in algeria. let's go around the world with zain verjee live in london. moammar gadhafi remaining behind? >> we don't know. and if i knew the answer to that, carol, i'd be, i'd be the most popular person in the world. but nobody knows where moammar gadhafi is right now, whether he's in algeria or still? tripoli. the family, wife, kids, grandkids, all taking an armored convoy across the border into algeria. algeria saying that they allowed them in on humanitarian grounds. the national transitional council in libya that the rebels are basically saying that that was an act of aggression by algeria. against libya and the libyan people. the other thing that the rebel commander, carol, has said is that one of gadhafi's other sons has been killed. now he headed or heads up the 32nd brigade, that's this brutal and feared brigade that was effectively believed to protect the gadhafi regime. we need to take this with a little bit of a grain of salt. we don't really know, this could be just the rebels trying to psych out the gadhafi loyalists to say that kamis is dead. >> let's talk about something good now, shall we? and a little light. there's this emperor penguin named happy feet and apparently he's heading home after getting lost in a big way. >> yeah. happy feet ended up in new zealand, he wasn't supposed to be there. he was sick, weak, he ate sand, thinking it was snow. had to go under a massive operation, he's taken a couple of months to recover. but now the scientists are taking old happy feet on a boat, about 420 miles or so. heading back towards antarctica. they're going to put him there. they've put a tracking device on him as well. just to make sure. happy feet ends up okay. and we maintain our relationship with the penguin. carol? >> that's good, i'm so glad to hear that. you're such a humanitarian. zain verjee, live in london, thanks. >> i am. >> you are, yes. thanks, zain. show up at work, chill out in the break room and then head home, it's a sweet deal for some employees, hear how many millions the postal service is paying for workers to do just that -- nothing. good morning to you, it is tuesday, august 30th, this is your "a.m. wake-up call." i'm carol costello joining you live from new york. hurricane irene's legacy in the northeast, not punishing winds, but gushing water. fema director, craig fugay heads to vermont today. irene blamed for 27 deaths up along the east coast. millions still without power this morning. critics still calling dire warnings about irene overkill, though. newark mayor, corey booker responds with a jay-z lyric. >> for us in the trenches trying to help people out. there's a song that is called "i've got 99 problems and that's not one." we still have people still without power, dealing with sewage in their homes. there's a real crisis on our hands. >> white house officials are heading to north carolina and virginia today to check out the damage. dick cheney says he still backs waterboarding, secret prisons and wiretapping with appropriate approval. the former vice president is promoting his new book, "in my time" and talking to "dateline" about his private dealings with president george w. bush on september 11th. cheney defends his recommendation that the military be allowed to take down domestic hijacked planes. >> i think there's no question but what the president wasn't charged on that day. my version is in my booken his version is in his book. we agreed that we would authorize our pilots to shoot down hijacked aircraft that refused to divert. >> but you recommended it to him. >> i did recommend it, that's my recollection of it. his is somewhat different. but that's not surprising. i mean there were fog of war that morning, all kinds of things going on. >> another revelation, cheney says he kept a secret signed resignation letter stashed away, to be delivered if he suffered an incapacitating heart attack in office. a grizzly bear mauled a hiker to death at yellowstone national park. it's the second deadly bear attack so far this summer. 59-year-old john wallace was found friday in a closed-off area less than ten miles from the last mauling. most muslim-americans feel singled out by terror policies. more than half say they're targeted by more surveillance and monitoring. three in ten say someone has been suspicious of them in the past year. two in ten say they've been called a name. even though, most muslims in the u.s. say they're satisfied with their lives and they like the communities in which they live. according to a survey by the pew research center out today. the final day of ramadan. evidence in the michael jackson manslaughter trial is looking a little thinner than the defense had hoped for. the judge has banned several witnesses from jackson's inner circle. it hurts conrad murray's defense, according to his lawyers. his lawyers are working to paint jackson as a drug addict and say the banned evidence shows that jackson had a drug at his house as elly as 2003. the surgical anesthetic was part of the drug cocktail that killed jackson in 2009. murray is accused of administering it. the u.s. postal service is expecting about $9 billion in losses this year. but still paying thousands of workers to do nothing. labor agreements keep the post office from reassigning workers if there's a lull or if equipment is broken. so workers show up and lounge around at a cost of about $4 million so far this year. that's according to the inspector-general. sounds bad, but it's less than last year. which i guess is still really bad. coming up in 60 seconds, fema making some tough choices when it comes to handing out disaster funds. it's 32 mince past the hour. thanks to the venture card from capital one, we get double miles on every purchase, so me and my lads earned a trip to san francisco twice as fast! we get double miles every time we use our card... i'll take these two... ...no matter what we're buying. ...and all of those. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it's hard to beat double miles! whoa dude. [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? 33 minutes past the hour for morning money news, let's check in with christine romans live in new york with me. fema almost out of money to help disaster victims. can you put this in perspective for us? >> we had spring storms, remember, we had a horrible winter. we had joplin, missouri and terrible tornadoes there, actually a spate of tornados in several different states. and then you put a big hurricane, the first big hurricane of the season, and rob marciano would say it's not even a major storm, and you have a real test of the funding that we have in the federal emergency disaster relief fund. now, craig fugay has said before and he said this is the kind of country, we are the kind of country that we're going to be able to make repairs, we are going to be able to rebuild when something like this happens, when mother nature happens. but when you look at the climate in washington and you look at what some people say that this is an agency that is quote-unquote running on fumes, you have some concerns about whether or not you have the political unity to make sure that you keep this a fully-funded disaster relief fund. now we'll see if politics gets in the way. but i will say that craig fewgate has told us many times, that he told us he thinks we're the kind of country that will be able to pay for its natural disasters. no question, that we can afford to repair the damage. it's rebuilding, will there be enough money in the funds to rebuild, that's what we have to make sure. >> i guess we'll have to see. let's talk about tablets and e-readers. this statistic really surprised me. >> this is from "wired" magazine. and carol, you think of the early adapters of new technol y technology, as young, men in particular. guess what's growing pretty quickly? more seniors. seniors are buying tablets and e-readers. i'm not surprised. for a couple of readers, one, you can make the text big. can you have a lot of different books or material and newspapers on one device, easy to carry. very organized. but 13 to 18% more seniors getting to tablets, it went from 13 to 18% from 2010 to 2011. there you go. technology infusing all parts of the demographic, women and seniors starting to get more into these, into these gadgets, carol. >> they're pretty hip. >> i still have an old blackberry. >> me, too. >> i want get myself aen e-reader. michael vick will be able to buy himself a lot of cheese steaks. philly has signed him to a new deal that pays him more than the 12 cents an hour he made in prison. check out today's smart question. earlier in the show we told but beyonce's baby news breaking records for the number of tweets per second. what was the last tweets per second record holder? a, u.s. versus japan. b, osama bin laden's death, or c, the royal wedding? we'll have the answer for you in two minutes. hey, the new guy is loaded with protein! really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? 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[ male announcer ] sitting. waiting. hoping. that's a recipe for failed investing. open an e-trade account and open doors, seize opportunities, take action with some of the most powerful yet easy-to-use trading tools on the planet all built to help you maximize the potential of every dollar you invest. successful investing isn't done by throwing ideas against the wall and hoping. it's done by lowering your costs and raising your expectations by using unbiased research and powerful screeners to build a diversified portfolio with stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and every etf sold. and we'll help you every step of the way. with 5-star research and free education covering everything from the basics to advanced investing strategies. start now and we'll give you up to $500 and let you trade free for 60 days. visit our website, call us, open an account. e-trade. investing unleashed. 38 minutes past the hour. this is your "a.m. wake-up call." back to today's get smart question. earlier we told you about beyonce's baby news breaking records with or than 8,000 tweets per second. what was the last tweets per second record holder? was it a, b or c? the answer is -- it would be a, the women's soccer game between the u.s. versus japan. it had more than 7,000 tweets per second. now you know. now it's time for a political ticker. so let's bring in our deputy political director, paul ste steinhauser, live in manchester, new hampshire, with a gop poll that's good for rick perry. >> i tell you, our brand-new poll just out yesterday, this is rocking the seal. rick perry, a late entry into the race, has changed the race, our gallup poll last week, same thing, rick perry is on top. 27% in our poll for support from republicans, inds pents who lean towards the gop. 13 points ahead of mitt romney. ahead of all others. carol, listen, palin and rudy giuliani have been flirting with the race, but not announced. what does it look like without them? perry at 32%, romney at 18%, bachmann at 12% and gingrich, 7%, and ron paul, 6%. perry has definitely changed the dimension of this race. >> bachmann, i guess her percentages are kind of good, but she's fading. >> isn't this interesting? when she won the straw poll, which is pretty crucial. it was important enough to knock tim pawlenty out of the race. we thought she would bask in the media spotlight after that race. but after that straw poll, rick perry has stolen her spotlight. they're going after a lot of those tea party activists. grassroots conservatives, battling after the same voters. right now he's grabbed the spotlight. but there's a long way to go. we've got five presidential debates over the next two months, including two cnn debates. a lot could change. >> michele bachmann did pretty well in the first debate. we have not heard rick perry in a debate yet. what do you think? >> and that is the big question. how will he do? he's just jumped into the race and he's got big splashy numbers, he's the shiny new guy. he's going to have to prove himself now. five debates in two months. we will see if he can keep those numbers up. this will be a huge test for rick perry over the next two months, carol. >> paul steinhauser, thanks for waking up early. we appreciate it as always. if you ever find yourself having lunch with michael vick, let him pick up the tab. the philadelphia eagles have signed vick to a six-year, $100 million contract. about $40 million of that is reportedly guaranteed. i think he gets that up front. $40 million. not bad for a guy who was in prison and bankrupt just two years ago. the deal makes vick the highest paid philadelphia eagle ever. the u.s. open is under way in new york. the men's defending champion, rafael nadal plays tonight. i got to talk to nadal about playing in new york at the u.s. open. >> i love the cup here. i had the big support from them last year and hopefully this year i will have to. i feel a lot of passion when i go on this court. it's the biggest court on the tour. and the crowd is hard. so i love playing in new york. >> he was the fittest man i have ever seen. i also learned a lot more about rafael nadal. he told me he's shy and actually scared of the dark. i'm serious. you can see more of rafael nadal's interview coming up on cnn's "american morning." now maybe the most important story you'll hear all day long, the cast of this season's "dancing with the stars"." women's soccer goalie, and chaz bono. we'll see how much "grace, nancy grace had on the dance floor. he talk eed to mark cuban about nancy grace. >> more power to her. she has a nickname, it's tot mambo. >> i had to learn how to do a booty shake. so nancy, good luck with her booty shake. >> it's a scary thing, isn't it? space could become a lonelier place this fall. nasa might bring home the space station crew but not replace them. because the u.s. astronauts aboard the international space station. we'll have more on that story after the break. before we go, this day in history back in 1967, thurgood marshall was confirmed as the first african-american supreme court justice. 44 minutes past the hour. there's another way to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder to help neutralize odors in multiple-cat homes. and our improved formula also helps eliminate dust. so it's easier than ever to keep your house smelling just the way you want it. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home. good morning to you, it is tuesday, august 30th, this is your "a.m. wake-up call" i'm carol costello live from new york for you this morning. moammar gadhafi's family members have reportedly crossed the border out of libya. the wife of the fugitive lead certificate believed to be in algeria, along with two of gadhafi's children and some of his grandchildren. so let's head around the world with zain verjee, she's live in london. so what, i mean, put this in perspective for us. what does this mean that the libyan rebels allowed gadhafi's family to escape? >> they took an armored convoy, which was heavily protected, over the border into algeria. the rebels are saying that they're really angry with algeria that they've actually taken them in. they say this is an act of aggression against libyans as well as libya. now the algerians themselves, carol, are saying that they took the family in on humanitarian grounds, what everyone is asking is, where is moammar gadhafi? is he in algeria? u.s. sources said that's not the case, they have no information to indicate that moammar gadhafi has left libya. the other thing that one rebel commander said, too, carol, was that kamis gadhafi, one of the other sons of moammar gadhafi had been killed in battle. we need to take this with a little bit of a grain of salt. it would well just be that the rebels are trying to psych out the gadhafi loyalists and say that the guy is dead, and he may not be. so we don't really know, but we do know that he commanded what was called the 32nd brigade. that was really brutal force and is still being used to protect the gadhafi regime. carol? >> it's not like we've had, we've not had bad information from this rebel opposition group before. so we are taking it with a grain of salt. let's talk about the wikileaks cables they've hit the internet now. these are different because they contain uncensored names. >> yeah. this is a really worrying development. over the last few days, wikileaks has put out more documents about a little over 130,000. and the difference is, is that sources and names where it was labeled strictly protect them, have actually been revealed. so you've got people around the world that have confidentially spoken to u.s. diplomats, doing their job around the world, and now their names are out there. and the fear is there could be some kind of retribution, they could lose their jobs, they could be killed. they could be some kind of a target. so this is what's different. because a lot of the other documents that came out, the names were redacted. and these are not. >> zain verjee, live in london, many thanks to you. the power is still out for about five million customers courtesy of irene. today, a white house team will visit some of the hardest-hit areas, including the state of vermont. floodwaters are still cresting there. water has damaged or destroyed more than 200 roads and bridges, trapped hundreds of people in their communities. intense flooding also wrecked the town of prattsville, in new york's catskill mountains. >> let me give you an idea of the floodings that you understand why we were trapped here last night. can you see where the creek is right now? imagine where i'm standing, that creek flooded to this point. and actually a mile out of town even more. so definitely, this is flooding that no one has ever seen here before. and yes, all the other smaller roads around this area have been flooded. so we're being told that there's no way for us to get out. >> storm is blamed for at least 27 deaths in nine states. and some people, like those in prattsville and in parts of vermont, they've lost everything. if you would like to help, check out the impact your world section on our website, at cnn.com/impact. august of 2011 is now the deadliest month for u.s. forces in afghanistan. 66 american troops have died this month alone. that is the highest number since the war began nearly ten years ago. until now, july of 2010 had been the deadliest, when 65 troops died. warren jeffs is out of prison and in a hospital in critical condition. he has not been eating since his conviction in texas on sexual assault charges. the polygamous leader was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. told prison officials he wasn't on a hunger strike, he's just fasting. whatever, he's in the hospital now. federal agents have arrested a former nba basketball player, javaris crittendon was arrested in atlanta for killing a young mother of four. he boarded a red-eye fly from orange county, california to atlanta. crittendon was in the years two years ago when he played for the washington wifrdss, he and a teammate pulled guns on one another in the locker room. just imagine, nobody home at the international space station. that might be the case for the first time in more than ten years. the crew has to leave in november, anyway. but there might not be anyone to replace them after they leave. russia has had problems with its rockets and those rockets would help bring up a fresh crew and fresh supplies. if the problems with those rockets are not fixed before the astronauts leave in november, the international space station will be empty. now let's head to rob marciano. i know -- pardon? >> and then what happens? >> they turn the lights off, who comes to water the plants? how is anybody going to go back there. i'm curious about this now. >> all that research equipment up there and all the work they've been doing may come to a screeching halt. i think russia will figure out the problem with its rockets and things will be fine. but who knows. >> we've gotten some amazing pictures of some tropical systems from the international space station, astronauts taking snapshots, it's impressive. because our satellites are so much higher than the orbit of the space station. so you get a different perspective. these pictures coming to you, infrared style from about 22,000 miles up. and the international space station is around 600, so it's a lot closer. by the way, katia has born, or is born. it is a tropical storm with strength of winds of 40 miles per hour. it is way out there between the caribbean islands and west africa. but it's moving rapidly to the west-northwest at 17 miles per hour and it's already a fairly large circulation. it's got decent organizationth and we do expect it to strengthen fairly rapidly to a hurricane. potentially becoming a category 2 or 3 storm by the time this weekend rolls around. there's the track. maybe getting just north of the caribbean islands. we like to nudge that further north if that's the case, it would become a better chance of becoming a official storm. until it does, we've got to watch this thing carefully. it could take aim at the u.s. at some point. >> any flight delays this morning? >> volume issues, yesterday was a big deal with that. but the weather will be relatively quiet today, especially across the northeast, calm there. maybe spots out west and chicago and down across houston is where we might see some travel delays. other than that, it should be a better day today, traveling by air, sea or train than it was yesterday. >> a better day. but i think amtrak service from new york city to washington is still canceled. so i would call ahead. >> all day long? >> well, it is as of right now. so i would call. other amtrak, like if you take the north to boston, you're fine. but i think south is still having a problem. so i would call ahead if you're taking an amtrak train today. >> good advice, carol, i know you're familiar with the amtrak train. >> it's my second home. >> thank you, rob. let's take a look at the word of the day, shall we? actually not exactly a word. it's h1n1. find out what it means and what you need to know about it after the break. if something is simply the color of gold, is it really worth more? 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[ kimberly ] and university of phoenix made it possible. learn more at phoenix.edu. two minutes to the top of the hour. this is your "a.m. wake-up call." now back to the "word" of the day. which is h1n1. that's actually another name for the avian bird flu. when it mutates, it can infect humans. you need to know this term today, because the united nations is warning about a possible resurgence of the deadly avian flu virus, they tell us that a mutant strain may be spreading in asia. not in the united states so far. don't worry. now let's head to carter evans for a look at your money this morning, he joins us live from the nasdaq this morning. >> hi, carol, things aren't looking as good this morning as they were yesterday. we're going to get the 20-city case-shiller home price index and a report on the