category three storm and headed for the bahamas after ripping through the carribean eye lawns. jon: that was a category one when the center blew through but it was strong enough to rip up waves, knock out power and unleash torrential rain and flooding. jen yuen first brush, haiti, dominican republic, folks in the mid atlantic of this country are now bracing for the worst, authorities are already ordering all visitors to one of north carolina's barrier islands out. with more evacuations to come, folks along the east coast are taking precaution, moving boats to drydocks and doing what they can to protect their homes. jon: it's always a struggle, i'll tell you. irene could be a real monster, a potential category four storm by the time it hits the united states. emergency officials are urging folks to take this one very seriously. >> a big storm, even if we don't get a direct hit, trop cat storm force winds are going to be on top of us for an extended period of time, so i expect we'll have infrastructure damage, i expect we'll have a considerable power outage. expect the worst. it could happen. jenna: janice dean is live at the fox weather center with more. 11:00 is when we get updates. j.d., what do we know about this storm? >> reporter: no significant changes in the strength now, jenna, however, i heard jon scott said this could become a category four and it looks like with the new advisory that could indeed could happen in the next 12-24 hours. certainly the satellite presentation of the storm is wonderful in terms of looking at a storm itself, a hurricane, and how strong it is. obviously, this is a very destructive storm, but in terms of the aesthetics, this is a beautiful looking hurricane, or starting to -- you can see the four quadrants and the colder cloud tops and the darker shades of red, you can see that well defined eye, something we haven't seen in the last few days. category three right now, 115 miles per hour sustained winds, this is going to barrel through the length of the bahamas and possibly be very destructive and devastating for them, we could see easily 6-12 inches of rainfall, 7-11-foot storm surge for them, so this is going to be one that they really have to watch out for. now, in terms of timeline, this is the new track as of 11:00, and look at that, category four, 135-mile per hour sustained winds, we think there is a lot of warm water to travel through and not a lot in its way. these islands are flat, so the land masses are not going to interact really with this storm. it has really a free path for the next several days in terms of warm water and the fuel that it needs as it continues to move towards the u.s. so category three as of saturday, looks like it comes closer on top of cape hatteras but remember, this cone of uncertainty, four days out, there's a 200-mile margin of error so a wonel to the west could mean the difference, literally, between a tropical storm force winds and hurricane force winds. and as we head further out in time, still a category two as we head towards the northeast corridor, up towards new england. really, we have not seen a hurricane like this in some years. and i don't know if a lot of people are prepared for this. so jenna, obviously we're going to start to see watches and warnings going up, people, 80 million people could possibly be affected by this storm along the east coast. jenna: j.d., i know you're at the monitor here, i'm looking at the news wires crossing and here's what the national hurricane center director said, he said this hurricane is a big threat, that's the quote, big threat, to new england, and perhaps, also, long island, right outside of new york city. big threat from the hurricane director. when have you heard that? >> >> reporter: absolutely. people across the northeast really need to start making their plans, know your evacuation routes, long island, a lot of long island is at sea level, so any kind of storm surge, it could be potentially devastating from a category two, category one hurricane. i just want to show you the simpson -- the saffir-simpson scale, it goes up to category five, but we're thinking, 11 -- 131-155 winds, it's going to affect power out aves, several inches of rain possible, and at least tropical force winds for a period of time. jenna: big story. one we're going to continue to watch. thanks j.d. >> thank you. jon: millions of people felt that earthquake yesterday, and workers are right now assessing the damage of this historic event. people all along the east coast are still adjusting to the reality that the earth was shaking underneath them. take a look at this map. it shows all the states from georgia to maine in which that quake was felt. the epicenter, right there where the bull's eye is in virginia, the 5.8 magnitude quake, shattering windows and wrecking some grocery stores like this one in mineral. this surveillance video shows the moment that the quake hit. shelfs, top ling over, glass bottles, smashing to the floor, the shock waves, also rocking washington, some cell phone video here taken from inside a building just in front of the capitol. people there saying the floors were shaking, and then came the alarms. authorities evacuating a number of buildings, including the white house, and the capitol. some scary moments that people along the east coast are all still talking about. >> my chair rolled out from underneath me, and i heard in the background, is the building moving, and yes, it definitely was. >> i was in front of my computer and all of the sudden my computer started swaying and i looked outside to see if a storm was here or something, and they said evacuate the building! we building in north carolina, we've never had an earthquake before. >> it started to rumble. we thought the earth was ending. >> just freaked out, just weirded out. a was a surreal experience. >> i was on the phone with a customer and it started to shake and i hold her to hold on and it started shaking our computer so bad it almost came off our desk. >> we didn't know what it was until we came around the back and seen all the rocks and everything laying around. jon: scary stuff. just 5 miles from the epicenter of the quake, a nuclear power plant, two reactors at the north anna power plant were automatically taken off line when the tremors hit, the plant declaring an alert and now teams are there assessing any potential damage. doug mckelway, live in mineral, virginia, you're at the local high school near the epicenter. what's the damage there, doug? >> reporter: well, jon, it's really interesting, because if you take a look at this county high school, louisa county high school, there appears to be nothing wrong with it, but you look inside the halls and you see the extent of the damage, big cracks in the walls, debris strewn about, ceiling tiles down, light fixures down, we spoke with a teacher, chuck hoffman, who just wrapped up class when the quake struck, he was walking past the principal's office. listen up to this: >> the first thing i thought when i heard the rumbling, it was oh, are they working on the roof again? and of course, it got louder and the shaking, and then it sounded just like a freight train was coming down the hall. >> reporter: at that point, he realized it was an earthquake, and got out of the building as quickly as he could. there were two injuries here, a teacher was struck by a falling bookcase, and a child was struck by falling debris, taken to a medical center nearby. hoffman believes that the reopening of this school, it has been closed, you can see now, is going to be delayed until well after labor day. the school system in louisa county has now decided it -- they reopened, they decided to keep them closed for two weeks until after labor day but hoffman thinks that's an incredibly ambitious timeline. we'll see as the structural engineers examine this facility. jon: what a mess. talking about structural damage, the north anna nuclear plant, now -- they're looking at it for structural damage, it automatically shut down, but that wasn't the only plant that shut down, right? >> reporter: that's right. you know, that plant did exactly what it was intended to do, the computer shut it down when it sensed the earthquake and as you said, the nrc is examining all the functions of that to make sure everything is okay, there was no leakage of radiation whatsoever. as you mentioned, jon, there were ten other nuclear up and down the east coast, ten plants in four different states that also shut down, the nrc will have to examine that before they go back skwhraoeupb. very lucky a cold front has come through the east coast at this particular time because if it was a heat wave you'd have to wonder where you'd be getting the electricity from with all those plants down. one quick footnote, i suspect and i'll make a prediction, this is going to be a quiet kind of disaster. we just had a woman approach us who was complaining about the national media coverage, saying all the focus is on public institutions like all of this, she says go into any homes around here, my son's house shifted off its foundation, she lost her chimney. a lot of people have lost important antiques or mementos in their lives. i expect it's going to be a quiet tsunami of insurance claims. we'll see as the weeks progress. jon: lucky it wasn't stronger than it was. doug mckelway, thanks. jenna: we're joined by seismologist dr. john ebil out of the east coast, did you feel this earthquake in massachusetts? >> unfortunately while i was at weston observatory, i didn't feel the earthquake but within a few seconds after the seismic waves arrived at the observatory, i was standing with my staff at the instruments, just watching the needles go back and forth. jenna: that must have been an interesting moment. >> it was very interesting. because we didn't know where the earthquake was, so we were trying to find out its location an its magnitude. jenna: now we know the epicenter was in mineral, virginia where doug mckelway was. there is so much talk about how rare this earthquake is. we haven't had an earthquake on the east coast dating back some 114 years. why did this strike now? >> we don't know when earthquakes strike when they do, on the other hand, this was not unusual, we've seen earthquakes, magnitude 5.86 in the eastern u.s. before. this was an active seismic zone, well recognized by seismologists, so the location, the size, we're not surprise -- was not surprising to us. the timing, we couldn't forget. jenna: i'm a native san francisco sis can so i've been to a couple of earthquakes and if there's an earthquake on the coast it's not likely someone in l.a. would feel the earthquake, a 7-hour drive from san francisco, but all along the east coast, folks felt this earthquake. why was that? >> if you were to go down to california, drill down and measure the temperature, then come to the east coast, drill down 20 miles, measure the temperature, the temperature is much hotter in california. it's cooler in the east. so the hot rock absorbs seismic energy so it dies out very quickly, the cold rock transmits seismic energy very, very tkeurbtly and that means the earthquakes are felt over a much wider area east of the rockies than in the west. jenna: it's interesting. dr. ebel, we've talked about earthquakes, a few of them over the last years or so and we've talked about aftershocks and foreshocks, foreshocks that are before a larger earthquake comes. do you think this was a foreshock and a bigger earthquake is on the way for the east stkphoeft. >> the odds are heavily in favor that it is the main shock. it is the biggest one that will happen. but we can't rule out the possibility that it's a foreshock. you look at japan, we had a 7.2 earthquake. normally, that would be the main shock, but two days later there was a 9. o earthquake, so there was a case where a very large earthquake ended up being a foreshock of a truly massive earthquake. we don't expect that here in the east but we can't rule out that possibility. jenna: science only brings us so far. as a scientist, you nethat well. always nice to have you with -- to have you with us, dr. aefplt bel, thank you for joining us today. jon: i hope he's right about that! jenna: where's the doorway? we've got all these lights overhead. jon: people were scared at that one yesterday at 5.8. libyan rebels putting a bounty on moammar qaddafi's head, they want him dead or alive and foreign journalists, one of our own producers, just released from the rixos hotel. we'll talk to tadek markowski about that. jenna: and watching a fire in california, fire balls could explode in a matter of moments. jon: a fox news alert and we're just getting word that a rocket bound for the international space station containing tons of supplies has failed, it was launched by the russians. rick foal pwaupb has the latest. >> reporter: i just got off the phone with an official from nasa and here's what i can tell you this, is called the progress 44 supply ship, it was not a manned craft and launched from kazakhstan, and minutes after launch, houston received reports of an abnormal situation during the third and final stage. this is a videotape of some of the prepare leading to the launch today. we don't yet know if the entire ship is lost or not. there are reports of an explosion over cy beera and some debris landing there. we can't confirm that. but here's what this ship was carrying, between two and 3 tons of food, oxygen and fuel for the international space station. there are six astronauts on board the space station now, including two americans, mike fossum and ronald garan. we are told by nasa that the space station has enough supplies now for at least a year. so even if this supply ship is lost, and it's unable to connect with the space station, it might not be a dire situation because they seem to have quite a bit of supplies on board. the next resupply mission is set for october. so that's the latest from nasa. there is a possibility that this ship is okay. we just don't know yet. as we get more information, we'll bring it to you. back to you. jon: it raises questions obviously about the safety of sending the astronauts up on the russian rockets. now, this may be a different type of rocket. i'm not sure. >> reporter: it certainly raises a lot of questions, with the end of the shuttle program, the russians are the only supply link to the international space station, so we'll be relying on them more and more and you're right, a lot of questions. jon: they bill us each time, too. rick folbaum, thanks. yeonpyeong -- jenna: there's plenty of talk about the earthquake on the east coast and we have lots of great photos to share. john in virginia sent us this photo, it shows what happened in a giant grocery store in alexandra, you can see plenty of damage there, also kristin in davidson, north carolina also felt the earthquake. check out the road. she said where she was, chandeliers were swaying, that water tells the story. seismologists just told us he thinks this was the main earthquake, not a preview of a bigger one to come but no one can really say for sure, so we depend on your great photos, when news happens in your area. go to foxnews.com,/you report to upload, make sure you're safe while getting your picture, earthquake or otherwise. jon: colonel moammar qaddafi says he will not surrender and rebels in libya are offering a reward for his capture, either dead or alive. so where could that dictator be hiding out in colonel oliver north joins us moments from now. plus, eye on irene as we track this monster storm that is growing as it heads for the united states. the hurricane gaining strength now, hovering over the bahamas. we are live with the newest projections on irene's path. jenna: welcome back, everybody, to this fox news alert, a burning rail car, forcing evacuations and present ago real chal toning firefighters out there in california. rick, what do we know about this? >> reporter: it's quite a scene in california, we've got live pictures we're going to show you while we talk about this. firefighters are trying to keep this train car from blowing up, jenna, and if it does it could be a major problem since it's near a lot of houses and businesses. there are schools nearby. there is an evacuation order in place so luckily there aren't any people nearby, which is good. here's why this is so serious. first of all, what's burning, those flames you see, they come from 29,000 gallons full of liquid propane. a tanker that is burning. it caught fire somehow yesterday afternoon, in lincoln, which we showed you on the map, is north of sacramento, firefighters are keeping water on it. that should keep it from getting too hot while the propane burns off. if they try to just put the flames out, which was my gentlemen -- question, why don't they put the flames out, that i'm told could create a giant propane gas cloud which could cause an explosion and fire ball. there's also a gas pipeline that runs right through this area, jenna, making the whole situation even more dangerous. we're going to keep our eye on this situation, as you can see, the people nearby have been sr-bgate dollars, as we said. again, live pictures on the left. as we get more information, we'll bring it to you. jenna: it's been burning for several hours at this point. rick, we'll have more as we get it. a very dangerous situation. thank you. jon: this fox news alert, as rebels put a bounty on his head the world is left to wonder where is moammar qaddafi and pentagon officials say authorities there believe he's inside libya. there's been speculation he might have already high tailed it out of there, anywhere from algeria to venezuela, earlier today he told supporters to flee the devils that have overtaken tripoli. some worry about a lengthy global man hunt much like the search for saddam hussein, when he was pulled out of that rat hole. lieutenant colonel oliver north joins us, a fox news military analyst, host of "war stories", also author of "american heroes in special operations". colonel north, good to have you -- have you on. >> he could be anywhere from a to z from angola, algeria, all the way to zimbabwe, we know that uganda has offered him refuge in the past, so it's possible he could have gone to chat, nigeria, he has sympathizers in those place, mu gabie, down in zimbabwe, has been offering refuge to all kinds of despites because he himself is one. if you bring money you can find a nice place to stay and it's entirely unlikely we'd be able to extradite him to the international criminal court. jon: his buddy hugo chavez has been a long time supporter in venezuela, although hugo chavez not doing so well on the health front, but that is one of the places he could go. the question is would he be able to get out of there without spy satellites or some kind of technology noticing? >> no, he could not get to venezuela because it's a long airplane trip and you can't drive there. but he could certainly have fled in one of those motorcades that was crossing the desert. you have to remember that we look at tripoli as being the hub of everything and benghazi, the second largest city, but the rest of libya is largely open desert, there's oil well facilities south of there, you look down close to the border of chadworth, in the 1980s, he invaded chad, and what you're looking at is the possibility, he may well have escaped early on in this effort to close in on his compound. what's also alarming, jon, we still don't know where stockpiles of surface to air missiles, nuclear materials, and chemical precursors have been staged and how much of that may have found its way into the hands of radical islamists, because there is no law and order being established by this so-called transitional national council i jon: we're looking now at video of the rebels that raid