good morning. it is friday, august 26th. welcome to american morning. it s all about the hurricane today. i wish i could say happy friday, happy friday for those not living along the northeast coast. and whom it hasn t reached yet. exactly. let s talk about hurricane irene. now said to be a massive and powerful category 2 storm sitting just off the east coast. 50 million people could feel its force by this weekend. new hurricane warnings are now up, they stretch from north carolina to new jersey. states of emergency have been declared as far north as new england. irene totally hammered the bahamas yesterday with torrential rain, 115-mile-per-hour winds, north carolina like i is next. in atlantic beach a surf shop boarding up, mandatory evacuations under way along the outer banks and could be the biggest storm to hit new york in decades. people all the way up the coast are being asked to leave or to get ready. i understand sometimes folks think that people overreac
in tripoli as opposition forces continue their manhunt for the fugitive muammar gadhafi. and hurricane irene churning up the u.s. east coast. hundreds of thousands have already fled. 16 million americans are in the path of this monster storm. we ve got all the angles covered on both stories. right now on world report. it s early morning in tripoli where rebel forces control most but not all of the capital city. there s sporadic but fierce fighting in several parts of tripoli. cnn journalists report hearing a nearly constant chorus of gunfire as rebels root out gadhafi loyalists. that sets up gruesome scenes of bodies strewn across a field. no one knows which side is responsible for the killings. as for muammar gadhafi, nato announced it s helping in the hunt for the libyan leader. on thursday rebels said they thought they had him cornered but were wrong. he is still missing. but another audio recording has surfaced. listen. translator: do not leave tripoli for the rats.
their own future as the political tide really changed in tripoli and it got very tense at times. we really wanted to leave. there was heavy fighting around the hotel. we were worried about a confrontation at the hotel as they made their way to tripoli. just because the compound surrounding it really wound up being one of the very last places that gadhafi controlled. missy ryan with the reuters news agency, thanks for joining us this afternoon or evening and do stay safe as you enjoy your new found freedom. thank you. and now to the latest on the hurricane. right now the east coast is preparing for what may prove to be the biggest hurricane threat in years, perhaps even decades. hurricane irene is expected to make landfall this weekend. let s get right to weather channel meteorologist and hurricane expert bryan norcross,
especially the east coast of florida and wheat talk about evacuations possibly, stuff like that later on this week. the hurricane should be closest to south florida going throughout thursday afternoon and evening and that will be moving northwards up the coast. anywhere from new england through the mid-atlantic, this looks to be a big rain storm. a lot of flooding concerns. a very wet august, around philadelphia, new york city, up through southern new england. it looks to be a soggy mess regardless of the strength of the storm. other forecast concern, the heat continues in texas. willie, this is our first real big hurricane threat in three years and this ones looks like it will be affecting millions of people. we ll keep an eye on that. bill, thanks so much. the preseason nfl, jets and bengals playing at the meadowlands and plaquxico burre making his jets debut. mark sanchez will play action. welcome back from prison. a 20-yard catch from burress. second quarter, sanchez reads
richard engel, great reporting, as always from the ground in tripoli. truly an historic day in that country. take care. coming up, the libyan ambassador live also david ignatius. andrea mitchell rejoins us along with the financial times jillian tett. think oil. first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. hello. good monday morning willie. good morning, everyone. all the weather attention is on the east coast. the most significant hurricane threat in three years. we have not been hit in the united states for awhile. this is the first time. too early to tell who is going to get the worst of it. puerto rico is getting the worst of the storm. almost 1 million people without power. they were hit harder than they