Good morning, its wednesday, september 20th. We are following a number of stories. President trump was America First se u. N. And steps up his warnings to north korea meanwhile, republican as far as see daylight on Health Care Reform. Some gop governors arent so sure about that. The Russian Investigation rolls on with new details on whos paying the president s legal bills but first, two Natural Disasters unfolding in real time. Rescue efforts happening right now in mexico after a powerful earthquake ripped through that country yesterday and Hurricane Maria about to slam directly into puerto rico. Well go straight to meteorologist bill karins with a check on the storms latest track. Bill. Power knocked out. Roof damage done, structural damages beginning as the strongest weekends are moving on shore in puerto rico. Overnight, can you see the storm, 124mileperhour winds in st. Croix. Now the storm is about to make
landfall. Lets get into the zoomed in radar. You see san juan to the north
us. pieces of roof has been peeled off and so we had to take sheltary little bit out of the elements, but we re still getting it. i can tell you that there are about 500 shelters set up across the island, 50,000 people have taken refuge in them. some people we spoke to told us they are hunkering down in their homes. they ve boarded up. hopefully, they are okay. we know there are tourists out here on the island that are trapped. that were not able to get 0u6789 out, that are at hotels, fema set up a command post. $300 people search and rescue from the occupation, they re here, fema will be passing them. as soon as the eye of the storm passes over, they will be making rescues. undoubtedly, there will be rescues to be made. to let you and your crew know, have you four hours until that eyewall is expected with
megyn: a fox news alert. awaiting a crucial briefing at the white house. the director of fema set to join press secretary robert gibbs on the preparations for what could be a storm for the history books. dark clouds are covering 2,000 miles of american soil, affecting 2/3 of the country, dumping 2 feet of snow from new mexico to maine and the could be yet to come. trace gallagher is following it all from the breaking news desk. reporter: we have something cooler we got from nasa. see that purple that covers much of the top half of the country? look at the view from space. look how much of the country is kind of cloaked in thick, white clouds. that s causing the problems across is country. we are talking about 2,000 miles of storm there. nine state remain under a
u.s. virgin islands and puerto rico later tonight. the effects will be larger than any of us really anticipated. look at the size and scope of this storm system, 420 miles in diameter. the tropical force winds extend out in diameter 300 miles. now along the florida peninsula, it s only 140 miles across. it will have more storm surge than andrew and sure looks like it will barrel down. a mandatory evacuation is under way for tourists and residents in the keys this morning. this is not getting smaller. it s getting bigger. prepare now. stock up on emergency supplies. how worried are you about the storm? extremely worried. on a scale of 1 to 10. probably 13. one family narrowly missed harvey in houston and came here for vacation and now stranded. with fema set to run out of disaster relief money by the end of the week, the house of representatives is scheduled to vote on the hurricane harvey and aid package later today. the backlash is building over