idalia is now a category 1 hurricane and rap idly intensifying. winds are picking up in florida as the state's governor is urging people in the path of the storm to make their final preparations. also, new key decisions could drop any day after a day of legal drama for donald trump and his federal trial date is set as the georgia trial date is in limbo. and plus, the wagner boss, the funeral that is to take place as the burial was held privately. i'm boris sanchez in with rahel solomon for kate and john and sara. this is cnn "news central." just into cnn, the national hurricane center releasing an update on hurricane idalia moments ago. the storm is a category 1 hurricane expected to intensify rapidly into a potential category 3 hurricane when it slams into florida's big bend area tomorrow. we have learned that the maximum sustained winds have increased to a maximum 85 miles per hour. this is as hurricane idalia is moving towards the shore. this is the southernmost point of the united states. a picture usually taken by tourists at the cone, but not a good time now to take pictures there. time lapse pictures are showing that havana has disappeared as idalia has slammed into cuba this morning. the damaging winds will reach more than 100 miles inland, and with a storm surge of more than 12 feet, one sheriff is reminding people of what hurricane ian left behind in fort myers last year. >> it cannot be said enough, hide from wind and run from water. the thing that we saw and learned from fort myers that people were okay with the wind and rain, but it is the storm surge that took their lives. keep you and your family safe. >> cnn is tracking the storm from all angles. meteorologist derek van dam is live in clearwater for us. he leads off the coverage. derek, what are you seeing? >> yeah, boris. it is the calm before the storm, right. but the latest information that we can pass on to the viewers is that idalia is strengthening with 85-mile-an-hour sustained winds and lashing the southern portions of florida already. you saw the live view, and we will take et again from key west, and this is the indication of 50 miles per hour winds look like. that the outer band, and remember, the center of the storm now gusting over 100 miles per hour, and the official track is calling for a category 3 making landfall along the big bend, but the winds are going to be 125 miles per hour, and that is just shy of a category 4 hurricane. so we are anticipating and so does the national hurricane center, continued rapid strengthening, and it is a concern, and it is all because of the warm waters that we have behind usment storm surge, and we talk about it frequently, and the water here is literally, well, it is like a hot tub. it is not bathtub anymore, but it is like a hot tub, and running two, three, four times above average for this time of year, and this is like jet fuel for a hurricane. this coastline is so susceptible to storm surge, and let me tell you why, because we have cnn aerials, and drone to show you the miles and miles of flat beach. if i were to walk miles out into the gulf of mexico, several hundred feet hereb it w, it wou up to my knees or perhaps my waist which shows you tow shadow water which is the opportunity for idalia the push up the water and create the storm surge. at the time frame is wednesday into thursday, and the storm surge push is going be greatest across the big bend, and that is called the catcher's mitt of florida where we will see the 8 to 10-foot storm surge, and looking into places like tampa bay, that is going to cause problems in a highly populated area. >> indeed, 5 million people now in the path of the storm facing hurricane warnings. now, discussing with an official in the path, josh boatright is an official for pin nell lie pinelles county. >> yes, we are a peninsula, on a peninsula, and we have folks living along the water and in low-lying areas on all sides of our community, and we are really urging the folks in those areas to evacuate to get to a safe place that is well above where the storm surge waters are forecasted to rise to. >> and to that end, are you finding that residents and people there are taking evacuation orders seriously? >> we are. we had one shelter that opened last night, and majority of our shelters are public shelters that are opening this morning, and so we are getting some information from the ground as how many people are going to the shelters, but it was going to the public shelters that are open, and also encouraging people to stay with friends and family outside of the evacuation zone, or to a hotel, and people don't have to leave pinellas county to get out of the areas that are vuler inible to the storm surge. >> josh wash, i want to put up a picture that we have of the southernmost point of the united states at key west, and i do so, because it is not a good time for someone to go out to take a picture, and literally, that is what someone is doing right now it appears, and i don't know if you can see the video, josh, and i'm a florida man, and floridians is a special breed, and they shrug if it is not above a category 4, and what is the message to folks who are stubborn for preparing for this storm surge. >> well, you know, here in tampa bay area, we have had a lot of near misses in terms of the storms, and this is also not forecast to be a direct hit, but what we are trying to tell people is, you know, these storms hit in different ways, and particularly with the last couple of major storms coming close, hermine and irma, and we saw the storms drain out of tampa bay and people might be used to the idea that we won't see a lot of the storm surging, but what we are trying to emphasize to people is that this storm is not like that, and the forecast has been clear if you are in those areas, you will be seeing the water rising up, and depending upon how high your house is above the ground, you will get water coming into the house at the height of the storm surge. >> josh, it is a complicated decision for people, people who have pets or people who cannot afford a hotel or who don't have friends and family in the region, so for folks who decide to stay, what should they be doing right now there to prepare. >> we hope that people who are in the evacuation zone know that there is free transportation on the public bus system here, and many of the shelters allow pets, and they are pet-friendly shelters, and we also have accommodation for people who have special medical needs or who are electrical dependent. >> it seems that we are having technical issues with josh there, and perhaps not a surprise, because the bands are getting closer and closer to that area, but our thanks to josh boatright of pinellas county. >> and tampa international has suspended all operations in the st. pete/clearwater airport which is in the mandatory evacuation zone, and they will be closing this afternoon. we will bring in our evacuation zone reporter, pete muntean, and this is coming in a labor day travel weekend, and how disruptive could this be? >> we are in the beginning othis, and you mentioned travel rush, and the triple-a says that thursday is the beginning of the travel weekend. they have held a teleconference once today specifically about the hurricane, and another one at 6:00 p.m., because it could have a nation-wide impact, but checking flight aware, over 480 flights cancelled is across the 900 delay mark in the u.s., and those numbers are going to be going up. right now, most of them are at tampa international airport, which as you mentioned closed at 12:01 a.m. today. they are really concerned about a preemptive strike about the employees and there are 10,000 of them there at the airport and the passengers bur, but also th storm surge, and that could have a big impact, and also, the vice president of operations there says that they are concerned bt the water of the airport and projectiles and the infrastructure of the airport. listen. >> we are looking at storm surge of 4 to 7 feet. at high tide which has the potential to bring water on the airport. so, we are taking all of the measures that we need to, to make sure that we mitigate as best we can the impact of water on to the airport. >> a hive of activity right now. they are moving the airplanes, moving equipment, and they want to make sure that the airport can open again when the storm potentially passes. they believe they can do damage assessments there at tampa international airport as early as tomorrow morning, and open up again some time thursday, and lot people are questioning why they would do it this early, but they need to do it especially at tampa international airport, because it is so close to tampa bay. the good news here for travelers is if you have flights into or out of florida, pretty much every airline is offering a travel waiver meaning that you can change your flight free of charge. no change fees for pretty much every major airline right now, and even united airlines knowing that the tampa is closed they are offering extra flights out of sarasota, rahel. >> thank you, pete muntean. and now, with the powerful storms that have deadly impacts, and hurricanes that are especially damaging, they have the name retired. of the 96 storms whose names have been retired, those starting with "i" have been retired morep that any other letter. 14 in all. if idalia strikes the land at a cat 3 or stronger, it will be only five who have been a category 3 at landfall except for one, the catastrophic 1935, labor day hurricane. it was unnamed storm that hit the florida keys as a category 5 and then made its way up the west coast passing 30 miles west of tampa bay while still a category 3, and that hurricane killed at least 485 people, including 260 world war i veterans on an evacuation train that was derailed by the high winds and storm surge. by several measures, it remains one of the most intense hurricanes to ever hit the united states. rahel? >> thank you, boris. will the former chief of staff turned co-defendant mark meadows win his court battle in florida? how that decision could affect former president trump and the other co-defendants in the subversion case. and now, a dozen migrants who were allowed cross the southern border with the help of a smuggler who has ties to isis. we will explain. our r ears connect us to the moments that matter. give them the nutrients they need with lipo. it's formulated with ingredients clinically shown to protect your ears from dizziness, ear ringing, and even hearing loss. never miss a moment th lipo flavonoid. we were loading our >suv when... crack!e choose safelite? safelite came right to us, and we could see exactly when they'd arrive with a replacement we could trust. that's service the way we want it. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ what do we always say, son? liberty mutual customizes your car insurance... so you 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this morning after a dramatic day of legal developments in donald trump's election subversion cases. in georgia a judge is weighing the mark meadows' case to move his case from state to federal court. this is after the former chief of staff took a big risk to testify, and his ruling could greatly impact this question, when is the trial in fulton county going to happen? fani willis, the fulton county d.a. wanted it to start march 4th, but that is now the trial start date in washington, d.c. we will discuss this with the lead investigator for the january 6 select committee and also former u.s. attorney harry litman. and harry, first to you, trump put out a statement saying that he would appeal the trial start date, and is that at all realistic? >> no. you can't appeal this kind of thing. it is an interesting aspect of many of these trials. there is only very few decisions that can be appealed, and one of them however is a decision not to remove a case. meadows will have an appeal if he loses this, and trump when expected makes a removal motion also will. >> and tim, trump's team wanted to delay the start of this trial, because of evidence that you were very familiar with working on the january 6th committee, some 12 million pages of discovery. do you think that with her decision, the judge downplayed the concerns from trump's attorneys? >> no, she didn't, but she did not downplay the government and the public's interest in a speedy trial. she felt that the millions of pages of discovery the president had access to, social media posts or documenenent were available to him and his campaign, and it was not new information to him. and she made clear that the central facts have been public for a long time. the select committee's materials were posted publicly at the end our work in january. so no big surprise in the government's discovery. so she gave them six months which is the far extent of what the speedy trial act contemplates, and it seems to me to be a reasonable ruling. >> and harry, the other big development yesterday had to do with mark meadows, the former chief of staff, and he was quiet over trump's legal matters a long time, but yesterday, he testified and he took the stand. what stood out to you about his testimony? >> yeah, i mean he has been shrouded in mystery for a long time. in general, you want to stay that way if you are a possible defendant. you don't want to give prosecutors a shot at you. you don't want to have to tell your story and fix it. what stood out to me, boris is the account of the january 2nd phone call. he gave a credible account that in the main after the election, he was doing chief of staff sort of duties, but that phone call, and the preface to it where he basically joined with trump to pressure raffensperger, that was the hardest part to justify in order to get removal and the hardest part to say that i was acting under my federal office, and that's, i think that is the linchpin of judge jones' ruling when it comes to in ten days, and jones' himself said it is an issue of first impression, and it could go either way, but it is going to center on the january 2nd phone call. >> and tim, given what you uncovered about meadows' efforts leading up to january 6th, and the phone call of january 2nd, and the other events, what did you make of meadows' testimony? >> i agree 100% with harry. meadows said that he was essentially an observer, and his job was to monitor the president's activities and he was a gatekeeper, but he was more than a gatekeeper, but he was a person who raised facts that secretary raffensperger rebuts, and there were instances where he was not an observer, but active participant, and there are many parts where he was planning to join this obstruction. so there are questions of a passive observer or whether the more credible prosecutor's rebuttal that he was an active participant. i agree with harry, it is something that the judge will take time to think about it, but it is going to be difficult for meadows in my view to move it to federal court. >> tim and harry, we hope that you will come back when the developments unfold to let us use your expertise for the discussion. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> rahel. >> hurricane idalia is expected to make landfall on the florida coast as cat 3. we go to am pa, florida, where they are also bracing for what could come ahead. ♪ ("please dodon't go" by hary casey, richard raymond finch ) ♪ (ping) ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ please don't go ♪ ♪ please don't go ♪ ♪ plee don't go ♪ ♪ pase don't go ♪ ♪ don't goooooo! ♪ ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ don't go away ♪ ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ please don't go ♪ right now get a free footlong at subway. like the subway series menu. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. for freeee. that's what i'm talking about. order in the subway app today. trying vapes to quit smoking might feel like progress, but with 3x more nicotine than a pack of cigarettes - vapes increase cravings - trapping you in an endless craving 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this morning, and by the end of the day, we anticipate that to be between 30,000 and 40,000 linemen that will be here prior to the arrival of the storm. then we will move in to restore power as soon as the storm passes. now, linemen are staging as far south as tropicana field in st. petersburg, and as far north as the florida/georgia line and as far west as chipley in the panhandle. in addition to the linemen, the power companies are staging the folks who are ready to clear debris and set the poles and lines and augment the efforts by the florida department of transportation. the power restoration is going to be a joint effort, an all municipalities should be prepared to accept aid, and the linemen will be prepared to get power on as soon as possible that. the ultimate goal, and the rapid restoration of power. this is a major hurricane, and there is going to be a lot of debris, and particularly in the big bend area, and you will see a lot of power lines that are down, and there is going to be a lot of need for all hands on deck, so please, accept the mutual aid. we were able to in hurricane ian do a rapid restoration of power in terms of affected customer, and i believe at times it took longer, because of the major structural damage closer or some co-ops who did not accept the mutual aid and so it took longer. please accept it, so we can get the job done. we won't be able to restore power to all of the rural areas in particular, and so, we do want to make sure that if you have a rural company, make sure that you get the help that you need an accept the help that you need. we know that the storm is going to hit the state of florida tomorrow. it is going to be a major hurricane, and possibly a hurricane 3 hurricane. it is tracking into the big bend area pretty consistently with a few variation, and at the same time, we have to watch where it goes, and how it could impact. it could go west and hit places like tallahassee and go further east and impact more directly other parts of the florida peninsula, and make sure that you are heeding the warnings from the local emergency management officials and doing what you need to do to keep yourself and your family safe. wehave been working with the counties very closely, and received more than 450 active mission requests that the state is coordinating, and those requests have been either fulfilled or will be fulfilled some time during today. we have staged a lot of gasoline. 420,000 gallons of gasoline. sometime you get fuel interruption, and sometimes you don't. but we will be prepared if there are fuel interruptions to fill the gap. we have all eight of the urban search and rescue teams activated which is close to 600 search and rescue personnel. we hope not to need those folks, and we hope that nobody is in distress once the storm hits, but we will have folks who will be out there, and kevin guthrie has mentioned today that a storm hitting late morning or early afternoon, you will end up getting calls as get into the evening hours, and we're going to be doing the rescues at night as well, and this is typically not the way that you want to do it, because there is going to be downed powerlines and certain hazards to make it more difficult for the personnel, but we will be there and we will get the job done. we are already delivering things like water and mres and tarps to local communities and shelters are opened or will be open and can be accessed across the florida gulf coast and beyond. we are deploying the star link devices, and they have been deployed and over 500 stage and ready to go as needed to go forward in the future. so we want to thank everybody who is a part of the power restoration efforts. we appreciate what our electric utilities from duke and fpl and teeco as well as the municipal electrical outlets and the co-ops, and we thank you for taking this seriously and the preparation. when you prepare and ready to go, you can accomplish that mission. this is likely going to be a storm that is going to leave an awful lot of debris. i think that there is going to be a need to do a lot of the road operations n. hurricane ian, there weren't really as many of the cut an toss operations. there were some, but when you are looking at where the storm is going to hit, there is a lot of heavily wooded areas, so you will see a lot of the trees knocked down, and you will see the powerlines knocked down, and it is going to require a concerted effort. so what duke is doing, and what the other companies are doing is recognizing that this is a significant task, and it really will impact how we respond to this and how quickly we can get all of this stuff back up and running. i wanted to thank everyone who has been involved and i can tell you that the people of florida really appreciate these linemen being out there. i can tell you that after hurricane ian is like they'd see the folks racing into fort myers and the other areas, and they were very, very appreciative of all of the hard work being done, and this not easy work in late august in florida. it is going to be nasty. it is going to be hot. there is going to be a lot of moving parts and so this is really important work for the state of florida who really appreciates everybody, and particularly those who have come out of state to help the people in florida, and the floridians appreciate it as well. thank you, and god bless you. okay. we will be hearing from kevin guthrie. >> thank you, governor. again, thank you for the leadership. i think that i want to start with picking up where the governor was going with, you know, electrical companies being willing to accept the assistance from each other, and it is something that has not happened very well under any other governor. this governor pulled it off with his leadership. you are listening to governor ron desantis and his second press conference and to our estimation, because he gave one at 9:00 a.m., and it is look like a major hurricane event, and saying that those who are in the mandatory evacuation zones, heed the warning. >> yes, he is warning that it is a major hurricane, and one that is headed in a direction that is a little bit unusual for the storms of this magnitude, and he pointed out there are some 25,000 linemen on the ground in florida, and it could balloon, and so they are preparing for the worst. >> and they are to heed the warnings and evacuate ahead of hurricane idalia, and joining us is kevin welsh who is the mayor of st.petersburg, and we have been heard that use this time between now and 4:00 p.m. to prepare for what is to come, and what more do you want people to know? >> well, fir pst of all -- well good morning. first of all, we have so many new residents to florida who may not know what to do, and the example is with what happened to hurricane ian, and it was at the cone, and the trajectory changed in the last few hours and they had devastating results which is 100 miles or so south of us. so the message to the folks is that if you are in an evacuation zone, heed the call to go to higher ground. you don't have to move 100 miles, but a few miles to safety that. the message out to folks in our area. >> mayor, i remember that we spoke you and i last year around hurricane ian, anded you are right, it moved in a direction that was just outside of the cone of uncertainty, and it really caught a lot of people off guard. i am wondering how you would prepare for something like this, and another large storm that is headed in your direction, close to your direction, and in an area that is often not going to see storm of this size. >> well, i do remember that. that was just about a year ago when we were talking about ian coming in. and we have still, and our thoughts and prayers do go out to brothers and sisters in south florida, but their recovery is one of the best the show people what can happen with the storms, and how storm surge can really devastate neighborhoods. folks have seen that example on video. i think that they are responsive to it. it is a great object lesson there. >> is that the primary concern right now, mayor, the storm surge? >> yeah. you know, our saying is run from the water, and hide from the wind. folks in our area in pinellas county, we are a city of 200,000 of almost a 1 million. out of the 1 million, 338,000 or so have been asked to evacuate from the areas, because we are a peninsula within a peninsula, and we are very susceptible to storm surge. folks need to move now, because of the next 12 hours, we are expecting to see 4 to 7 feet of storm surge. >> for those in the mandatory evacuation zones and decided to hunker down to get water and other goods, what is your advice to them? what should be on the top of their list? >> i think that we lost him. >> mayor, can you hear us? mayor walsh? unfortunately technical difficulties and the second official who has had technical difficulties in that area, and that happens as the wind is getting closer and closer in that area, and folks are having to decide at this very moment if they are going to stay or get out of harm's way. >> with every hour mattering. the police chief said that you have until now until about 4:00 p.m. to make your preparations, and so every moment matters. and now, coming up next, we have new cnn exclusive reporting. a smuggler with ties to isis helping migrants come into the united states from mexico. we have more details when we come back. so they can stop ththe spread of wildfires. now's the time to see what america's largest 5g network canan do for your business. will you pause it real quick? 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>> so, boris, this is essentially a case of bad timing. months ago, this cohort of uzbeki nationals came across and released into the united states pending a court date. it was not until later and recent weeks that the united states intelligence community allowed them to understand that the group of migrants had traveled to the united states with the help of a human smuggling group including a member who had troubling ties to a isis group. so that set off a scramble to find the different migrants who had traveled to the united states with the help of this group, and the u.s. moved to break up the group. turkey at the behest arrested members of the group including isis-linked facilitator to allow the u.s. government to get a sense that the person was not actually a member of the isis, but he is more like an independent contractor who had personal sympathies with the group. so quickly the biden administrators understood this as run of the mill snuggling and less than a potential terrorist threat. the u.s. officials say no evidence that any of the migrants are involved in any isis plot or planning, but still it is a deeply troubling evidence of some potential trouble there at at the texas border. >> yes. thank you for that update. and now, drug manufacturers have already filed multiple lawsuits against a program suggesting price c changes. we will have more when we come back. how you feel, and how you enjoy life. it changes your smile and how others smile a at you. clearchoice network doctors have changed over 100,000 lives with dental implants, and they can change yours, too. because a clearchoice day changes every day. schedule a free consultation. my brain. so i choose new neuriva ultra. unlike some others, it supports 7 brain health indicators, including mental alertness from one serving. to help keep me sharp. try new neuriva ultra. think bigger. today's the day you graduate from southern new hampshire university. i've been waiting for this day my whole life. the fact that i get to walk across the stage and get my degree, it's honestly unreal. don't ever stop. keep on believing in yourself. it is never too late. if you're out there to wonder if you could be an snhu graduate today is the day to find out. visit snhu.edu. our ears connect us to the moments that matter. give them the nutrients they need with lipo. it's formulated with ingredients clinically shown to protect your ears from dizziness, ear ringing, and even hearing loss. never miss a moment with lipo flavonoid. - [narrator] every day, our lives are filled with choices, both simple and life-changing. what's not a choice? addiction to opioids like fentanyl. but even with opioid use disorder, you still have a choice. by choosing treatment, you choose family, your career and your life on your terms. choose change, california, and find medically proven treatment options at choosechangeca.org. welcome back. an historic move this morning. the biden administration named the first ten drugs that medicare will target for price cuts. it's move to lower the cost of the reduction act that was passed last year. let's bring in arlette sooinz. this is the first time medicare will be able to negotiate d directly with these companies what prescriptions are on the list? >> reporter: this is a significant step for the biden administration, as the president has tried to show he's aimed at lowering prescription drug costs. it's really targeting some very common drugs that people know well including blood thinners and diabetes medications. if you look at the ten names that's included in the negotiations, that will include these drugs and 9 million people used these drugs in the last year and paid $3.4 billion in out of pocket costs. the hope is that as the administration enters into negotiations with the drug companies, they will be able to lower the price. how exactly this will work, heading into next year, the goal is for these negotiations and prices to be set by september 1st of next year, but the actual new negotiated prices won't go into effect until 2026, well after the presidential election. the cbo estimated this could save medicare around $100 billion, but still there are a number of lawsuits that are current underway from drug manufacturers and the pharmaceutical industry saying this provision is unconstitutional. but the biden administration is pushing forward with these negotiations announcing the first ten drugs that will be up for negotiations under medicare. what this also does is it highlights president biden's efforts to try to lower health care costs and also prescription drug costs at a time when economic, kitchen table issues remain top of mind heading into the election. even though these new prices wouldn't take effect until 2026, the president is hoping that this type of program will pay off with voters. >> ar >> thank you. we want to track the hurricane we have been watching all morning. we heard from ron desantis a short time ago. he said this is a major hurricane. there's going to be a lot of debris particularly in the big bend area. he said we're going to see a lot of power lines that are going to come down and this is going to be an all-hands-on-deck situation. >> the national weather service put out a statement the not long ago saying, quote, this has the makings of an unpress dentsed event for this part of the state they say there's no precedent for it. there's no historical context for a storm of this size going in this direction. important to keep an eye on. >> thank you for joining us. this is "cnn news central." 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