good morning to you. it is tuesday, august 23rd. this is am: wake up call. i m carol costello live in new york. let s get started with that big storm crashing through the atlantic ocean right now. irene is getting ever more powerful and may be heading toward the united states. people in south carolina already getting ready for irene. the hurricane is near the dominican republic right now. take a look at the storm from the international space station. irene is now a category 2 hurricane, but jacqui jeras says it could become an enormous category 4 later this week as it gets closer to the southeastern united states. it s already left about half of puerto rico without power. cnn will take a closer look at the storm s path in a few minutes. how is the battle for tripoli going anyway this morning? that depends on whom you ask. rebel leaders say they have control over most of the city. there s still some fierce fighting in some neighborhoods. moammar gadhafi s son saif, the o
kentucky. some people lost everything they had, and the estimated damage could top $1 billion in nashville alone. the real cost of the flooding is the human toll. in just a matter of seconds one tennessee woman lost her husband, her daughter and her home. on sunday morning the creek near the family home began to rise, overflowing its banks. in just minutes it went from leg level to chest-deep waters. bob knew it was bad. he moved quickly to get his son to higher ground and he tried to rescue his 15-year-old daughter who was hugging a tree just to avoid the water. listen to what his wife had to say. from his neck up, staring at me and she was screaming for her dad toe help her and the by the time the rescue squad got here i didn t see him no more. i didn t see him float away. he was a hero. he sacrificed himself for his
so far we have ten of those counties by fema and the president you almost can t describe it in many other terms than katrina and there s no other equipment moderate in the u.s. they ve helped so many people still in trouble in desperate straits in tennessee. one woman lost her husband, her daughter and her home to the floods. the creek behind her house swelled into a raging river that swept the home away. her husband moved their son to higher ground and then tried to rescue their teenage daughter. she was hugging a tree in the rushing water. from his neck up, just staring at me and he didn t say anything, he was just staring at me and she was screaming for her dad toe help her and the then by the time the rescue squad got here i didn t see him no more. i didn t see him float away. it s the last time sherry calls saw her husband and