Of Flights Canceled. Our team is on the ground this morning tracking every development. President trumps stunning decision striking a deal with the democrats on Harvey Relief and the debt limit. Now the new backlash from his own party. Houstons hero. Oneonone with nfl star j. J. Watt. Now hes making sure hurricane victims get the nearly 30 million hes raised first on gma. Its back to school time for the little prince. George hand in hand with his dad this morning. Why mom princess kate is sitting this one out. Good morning, america. Hurricane irma showing no mercy right now. Lets take a look at what it looks like on the ground in the Dominican Republic. This morning there it is. Thats just the outer bands of the hurricane. It is not going to be a direct hit on the Dominican Republic but you can see how powerful those winds are. Those first images of the storms power are extremely scary. Just listen to it and also this morning were seeing so much destruction already and hopefully everyone is evacuated and safe. Thats right, michael. So far the category 5 storm has killed at least ten people. Winds are now 180 miles an hour. States of emergency have been declared in puerto rico and florida and parts of georgia and South Carolina, as well. The Hurricane Center says a direct hit in south florida is likely. Amy is live in miami and shell have more just ahead. Yeah, we want to look at the traffic. There you see the highways in south florida right now. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in much of the southern part of the state and we have Team Coverage from puerto rico all through florida. Chief meteorologist ginger zee starts us off with the latest on irmas path. Good morning in good morning. Hurricane irma can now be said to be the strongest for the longest period of time on the globe. That is a huge statistic that brings us to the power of irma. You can see it moving awayy puerto rico now and toward the turks and caicos. Those would be the next in the direct line. Dominican republic will certainly be brushed as that more ragged eye moves north but west and northwest is the general trend and thats why we see hurricane warnings for surge up to 20 feet in places like turks and caicos and southern bahamas. Now a hurricane watch that includes freeport and nassau. Now, i want to watch this track. The timing, its tonight through early tomorrow that turks and caicos, southern bahamas gets hit, saturday and sunday it starts to close in on the florida key, sunday night into monday as we move through the southeast portion of florida. This cone now reaches all the way into South Carolina, charlotte is included. Linzie janis has been watching this storm from puerto rico and we watched that pass right by you. So glad you are standing there this morning. Reporter thanks so much, ginger. Puerto rico was battered by Hurricane Irma. We had wins here in san juan up to 70 miles per hour. Debris flying through the air. Trees down, widespread Power Outages but it has been nowhere near the total destruction seen in other parts of the caribbean where at least ten people are dead this morning and dozens more injured. This is what the caribbean is waking up to this morning. Utter devastation as 185mileperhour winds tore through st. Martin, an island paradise decimated. This resort near the airport now buried under shattered glass. Parts of the ceiling scattered on the floor. Justin cummings catching it all. Glass had gone through the walls. Reporter on gma we met a group of american Fitness Instructors on vacation. They spoke to us as water poured through their villa. The flooding is kind of amazing because the wind and rain are just bringing it through the sliding doors. Reporter this morning they tell us theyre happy to have survived the night. You dont want to be in the middle of this. We left our hotel room yesterday and just the amount of damages is horrible. Reporter these newlyweds were forced to spend their honeymoon in their hotel bathroom. Got the wind going about 100 miles per hour. You can really hear it outside shaking the doors. Reporter although the hotel says everyone is safe their families say theyre worried because theyve yet to hear from them. On the tiny island of barbuda, officials reporting at least 90 of structures damaged. What we experienced is like something you see in a horror movie. Reporter at least 60 of the islands 1400 residents now homeless. The extent of the deaths and injuries still unknown. Here in puerto rico where nearly a Million People are without power, the storm sending debris flying all over the streets. The head of the Power Company here says it could be months before some parts of the island get power restored. We spoke with two members of the Justice Department this morning. They told us of the u. S. Territories, st. Thomas and st. Croix feared the worse and seeing if they need additional Response Teams deployed there. Those caribbean aisles trying to recover from all that destruction as florida braces for whats coming. People racing to get gas before its too late. At least 30 of gas stations in west palm, ft. Myers, naples and people are already out. Amy robach is in mime with more on the rush to escape. Good morning, amy. Reporter hey, good morning, robin. Not only are tens of thousands of people trying to escape south florida right now, the coast guard is having to evacuate or reposition its planes, its helicopters, its aircraft. Right now the plan is to take them to mobile, alabama, to get out of the path of Hurricane Irma and then as soon as the monster storm clears theyll be bringing these aircraft back to this area for any search and rescue mission for those who chose to stay behind. You will not bring another water out. Reporter Hurricane Irmas impending arrival creating chaos. Attention, please. Right now we are currently out of drinking water. Reporter as florida residents scramble for basic necessities. Crowds lined up ten deep outside this publix hours before it opened its doors. Someone on the treat corner trying to sell generators that would normally sell tore 250 for a thousand dollars. Reporter theyre warning potential price gougers, the courtrooms may be closed but the jails will remain open. Overnight gas lines stretching miles. Im very nervous. Ive been driving around for 30 minutes and its been on e for the past hour. Reporter waiting for hours only to find out there is no gas. Just scary what could happen. We can rebuild your home, not your life. Reporter as miami residents board up home and business, and officials issue mandatory evacuations for lowlying areas, Law Enforcement is urging residents to get out now because interstate 95 already a parking lot. At the Miami International airport, a mass exodus and for many, the destination doesnt matter. So you drove to the airport hoping you could get a ticket here at the ticket counter. What did they tell you . They just told me all the flights are full and they dont have flights for today anymore. Reporter American Airlines announcing its last flight out of miami will be at 3 49 friday to dallasft. Worth. Now, south florida, of course, is no stranger to hurricanes but the people we spoke with say theyve decided to stay put for the past ten years or so as those hurricanes swept through. This one is different. They have seen the images and the destruction from Hurricane Harvey in houston and a lot of people say this time they are not taking any chances, they are getting out and speaking of harvey and houston, this is pretty remarkable. Miamidade First Responders just returned home yesterday from all their hard work there. We hope they have the next couple of days to rest up for what will unfortunately probably be a very busy weekend for them. No doubt. Back to you. Thank you, amy. I know being in houston a lot were saying they were getting ready to go to florida next. Now to the florida keys where residents are facing those mandatory evacuations and gio benitez is in key west with more on what could be coming. Good morning, gio. Reporter hey there, michael. Good morning to you. Those mandatory evacuations are in place, you mentioned that but you know what, they have a bus service. Theyve just added a free bus service. Theyll pick people up here in key west, take them over to a shelter in miami just to make sure they are safe. Thats at noon today. The concern right now is storm surge so i want to take a live look right now at our drone so we can show you what this is all about. You have the possibility of a storm surge here because the average key is just six feet above sea level. Thats not very much because were expecting some keys to experience storm surges of some nine feet. Now lets go over that way because now youll see all those homes that are over there. So many people live here in key west. So thats why theyve had to evacuate and a lot of them have evacuated. Whats interesting about this particular storm is that you have these storms that go over land masses and they weaken because of that. Well, it turns out that these islands are so tiny if this storm were to come through, it just wouldnt weaken. It would feel the full force of this particular storm. I want to show you some video now because the hospital has had to evacuate. Theyve actually sent people over to alabama and flown them over. They are taking this very seriously here, michael. And, gio, all the residents of Monroe County which includes the key, theyve been ordered to evacuate. Do you have a sense of how many people have evacuated and if any plan on trying to ride this out. Reporter you know what, i have covered a lot of storms down here in the florida keys and for the most part people stay put. They like to stay in their homes. But in this case theyve been told youve got to get out because if you dont, youre on your own. This storm is too strong so thats why they are taking this seriously, michael. All right, thank you, gio. As i said you can rebuild a home. You cant rebuild your life. I have spent a lot of time in the keys and im glad to hear they are providing buses because not everyone has car there is to be able to evacuate so good news there. Now to homestead, florida, the city devastated by hurricane andrew in 1992. Now theyre bracing for the possibility of another major impact and rob is there with more on what how theyre preparing for this storm. Good morning, rob. Hey, good morning, robin. Hurricane andrew decimating this area in 1992, a category 5 storm with winds of 165 miles an hour. Now 25 years later another cat 5 is threatening the residents of homestead. Take a look at our drone shot. Theyve rebuild the town including the water tower but if you look at this same shot 25 years ago, the day after hurricane andrew hit these homes were pulverized. The picture speaks for itself. Hurricane andrew one of only three category 5 storms to strike the u. S. , irma is stronger than andrew. You see what it did to st. Martin. These are violent storms, florida has stepped up its game as far as the building codes are concerned. Much stronger now. Residents even using impactresistant windows and hurricaneresistant roofs and were looking to see how that holds up. I asked a Police Officer who grew up here, is there any complacency or storm amnesia. He said if you lived through hurricane andrew thats something you dont forget. They have a healthy respect for hurricanes here. All right. Thats good to know. As well they should. We want to bring in the mayor of Miamidade County. Carlos gimenez. Looks like youll get a direct hit over the weekend. Are you ready . Were ready as we can be. Weve learned a lot from different hurricanes that weve had, especially hurricane andrew. I was a fire chief of the city of miami during that time and in charge of Emergency Operations and so we are well prepared here in Miamidade County. Our state partners are also better prepared and our federal partners are also better prepared. We learned a lot of the lessons of the past but this is a hurricane that ive never seen before. So we are preparing here. Were telling some of our people they need to evacuate some of the areas. We may have to issue additional evacuation orders today depending on some information that we get from the national Hurricane Center. But, you know, we are prepared and but we are also praying that it doesnt come our way. Yeah, you did decide to order some evacuations in some of the Barrier Islands. How widespread could the evacuations get across Miamidade County . We could have up to 400,000 people being ordered today. Again, it all depends on similar information im waiting for from the national Hurricane Center. The initial evacuations were about 150,000 people. The Barrier Islands and some lowlying areas of next to biscayne bay, some of the same areas hit by hurricane andrew back in 1992. Is there enough gas . Yeah, well, you know, the issue isnt that we dont have gas, its that everybody is buying it and everybody is topping off their tanks and so theres plenty of supply. Theres the gas stations are going to be resupplied today. We also changed some of our codes and laws that mandate that a number of our gas stations actually have generators so that we need to tell folks that after the storm if we do get hit it wont be like andrew, we will actually have gas stations that will be able to operate and we also have supermarkets that will be able to operate because what we also want is our us to get our residents to be back in as normal life as possible and as selfsufficient as possible so we tell our all residents they have to be selfsufficient for three days. Food and water so theyre heeding our warning. Mayor jiminez, thank you for your time and good luck this weekend. Thank you. If you want to get out of florida by air, the window is rapidly closing. More than a thousand flights have already been canceled and david kerley has more. Good morning, david. Reporter good morning, michael. The seriousness of this storm highlighted by the swift action by airlines to cancel flights and get their aircraft out of harms way. Three days before landfall an American Airlines took the extraordinary step of canceling every flight in and out of miami and south florida both saturday and sunday. Thats 640 Flights Canceled by American Airlines. Theyve just told us they are canceling any incoming flights from europe and south america starting tomorrow. Now, a lot of airlines over the last couple of days were adding flights to try to get passengers out and evacuate tourists. Thats coming to an end and of layings to increase today. Already more than 1800 flights have been canceled. Around the caribbean and around the florida area. Michael, the only good news in all of in that irma is hitting during the weekend but you can still expect this to ripple through other parts of our aviation sector. Michael. All right, thank you, david. George. Yep, in washington President Trump keeping a close watch on the hurricane. On the phone with the governors of puerto rico and florida and he stunned his gop allies on capitol hill by making a quick deal with democrats yesterday securing emergency funding for harvey and irma in return for a threemoemocrats were seeking. This as the russia investigation moves forward. Donald trump jr. Will answer questions behind closed doors at the Senate Judiciary committee today. The focus his june 2016 trump tower meeting with a kremlin connected lawyer promising dirt on hillary clinton. Our Congressional Correspondent mary bruce tracking it all on capitol hill. Lets begin with that surprise deal the president made with the democrats yesterday. He really blindsided Republican Leaders in congress, even his own treasury secretary. Reporter yeah, george, many republicans here are shocked and frustrated. This was a major blow to the gop. The president defied leaders to side with democrats for the first time agreeing with their lann to raise the debt limit and fund the government for three months. Republicans were looking for a longerterm solution hoping to avoid future fights. The house speaker, in fact, blasted the democratic plan calling it ridiculous and disgraceful but the president , well, he disagreed this. Is a surprise move that prevents a shutdown and a big fight for now but sets up a bigger battle in december. Gives democrats more leverage down the road and could potentially make the president s agenda even more difficult to become a reality. Meantime, on that russia investigation don jr. Answering staffers questions. The first time he will appear before congressional investigators, also the first time the Judiciary Committee will have a chance to grill him about that meeting at trump tower. That discussion between a russian lawyer who promised dirt on hillary clinton. Now, this meeting is happening all behind closed doors, the staff asking questions but members tell us they want to know exactly what was meeting. George. Okay, mary bruce, thanks very much. Back to ginger. George, i wanted to show you this, hurricaneforce winds cir 127 projected in the westernatn , keyargo. This comes a strong storm surge. Thats a major concern. Sunny cities brought to you by macys. Reporter overnight rain is gone, Storm Tracker 6 live double scan showing you that as we head 0 outside, sunshine has made a quick play back into the region. Temperatures are cool, most of us in the 50s. This afternoon we stay below average, but nice. Were going for a high of 74. Sun and c