trouble. plus, china nears a covid breaking point. an outbreak over stretches hospitals and pushes its precedent to take a new step in that country s fight against the virus, and how soon is soon? the committee investigating donald trump s taxes promises to release them any day. this is what we are watching at this hour. good morning, everyone. thank you for joining me. kate bolduan is off today. we begin this hour in western new york where a, quote, generational blizzard is pummeling the city of buffalo and all of erie county. the death toll has climbed to 25 and the county executive says that number is likely to grow. i just have to offer my deepest condolences to those that lost a loved one as a result of this horrible situation. i never thought i would face this. i thought the storm we faced in 2014 would have been the worst in which we had 14 deaths and this far surpassed it and there are probably more deaths that will be announced later today. the city of buffal
alert to southwest florida, president biden has just landed and is set to get a first land look at the devastation there unleashed by hurricane ian. the president will also be meeting with governor ron desantis of florida during the trip as the region faces what could be ears of rebuilding. hello, welcome, sandra smith in new york. and a big welcome to bret, i m sure you heard the voice and thought that s bret baier. bret: good to be with you, bret baier here for john roberts. one week since the category 4 hurricane ian made landfall with historic winds and storm surge. damage estimates are staggering, as high as $50 billion. sandra: the numbers continue to climb. the president expected to reaffirm the commitment to rebuild during remarks a short time from now. bret: the storm killing at least 109 people in the u.s. so far. sandra: so heartbreaking. alexandria hoff is in fort myers beach, what is the president s plan? yes, he s going to get a unique view of this off
supplies. and today governor desantis activated 2500 members of the national guard and cnn correspondents are every angle. let s get started with tom sater. this looks like a very powerful storm that could unleash a lot of fury on the gulf coast, something we haven t seen so far during this hurricane season. and it sounds like people need to wake up and pay attention. everywhere from pensacola to ft. myers. we didn t haven would named storm for the entire month of august and now we have four of them. if it wasn t for ian, we d be talking about fiona, massive damage up in canada. notice how wide it is, the sun is out here and getting the reflection, but you can see the circulation. there is the yucatan. but the infrared satellite imagery is a mess. it doesn t look impressive at all. at 8:00 a.m. this morning, hurricane hunters had a hard time finding the center. they did find it. it can jump around a little bit. and if that center jumps around, it will change the track. and
issue for all families. the governor and mayor pointing finishes about who is at fault, but a lot of residents want to know when will it get fixed. mikhail gorbachev is credited with bringing down the iron curtain and bringing together unity in europe. after 12 years under putin, gorbachev was in charge. he wasn t alone. welcome, it is wednesday, august 31, 9:00 a.m. here in london, 4:00 a.m. in washington and palm beach where donald trump s legal team has until tonight to respond to some explosive new allegations from the justice department. federal prosecutors claim government documents were likely concealed and removed from storage at mar-a-lago s resort as part of an effort to obstruct their investigation. the justice department was responding to trump s request for a special master to review materials seized from mar-a-lago. the department also says the former president lacks legal standing to intervene in its investigation since the documents belong to the gover