decision must be made today in order to provide enough time to withdraw the 5800 troops on the ground in kabul, as well as equipment and weapons. minutes from now, leaders of the group of seven nations are set to hold a virtual meeting where u.s. allies are expected to ramp up pressure on the president to extend that deadline. we are covering this story from all angles, like no one else can. let s begin this morning on the ground in kabul where that dramatic increase in evacuations is unfolding as we speak. and sam kiley is there live. sam, tell us what you re seeing there. this is an enormous number of flights in the past 24 hours. reporter: yeah, it s a gigantic number and they have been continuing all day today. of course as well, jim. so, as of about two hours ago, military officials here were telling us the u.s. alone had flown out some 9,000 evacuees. when i was on the main area where the refugees and the evacuees were gathering yesterday, jim, there were about 10 1/2
flooding killed at least 20 people, leaving behind what one resident describes as a war zone. our reporters are live on the ground with the latest. in afghanistan, violence at the airport threatens an already precarious evacuation plan with thousands trying to escape taliban rule, 18 u.s. commercial airplanes are called in to help. the white house signaling it could extend the deadline to leave the country. we have to start with game changing developments in the battle against the coronavirus. new york times reporting the fda is set to give full organization for pfizer s covid vaccine today. at the same time, across the south, icu beds are filling up fast, so bad in five states they re within 10% of reaching capacity. alabama is already maxed out. grim numbers out of florida where the number of coronavirus cases has now surpassed 3 million. the cdc says nearly 42,000 have died from covid-19 related causes in that state. and just in the past week alone, florida reported mo
the pfizer vaccine can come as soon as next week. the news comes as hospitalizations reach their highest levels yet . good morning. we are thrilled that you are with us, this saturday, august 21st. thanks for waking up with us. good morning, christi. good morning, boris. good to see you and good to have you all with us this morning. 5 million people in long island and connecticut in the eye of the storm of tropical storm henri. the storm expected to strengthen into a hurricane later today. it s likely to make landfall on new york s long island tomorrow. if henri stays on the course, it will be the first hurricane to directly hit that area in 36 years. connecticut and massachusetts, for example, have both activated their national guards in anticipation of the life threatening storm surges and widespread power outages that are expected ahead of henri s land fall. sc massachusetts governor charlie baker said this about what people should expect. we re activating 1,000
also, westerly winds take hold. that s what is going to help push the storm back out to sea. the thing is, regardless of where it ends up going in the short term or where exactly it makes landfall, you have a lot of heavy rain expected for this area in the northeast. rip currents also going to be a concern from north carolina all the way up through massachusetts. we talk about the heavy rain and, yes, it ll be heavy along the coast. even inland, upstate new york, envir vermont, new hampshire could get several inches of rain. you have the moderate risk of flash flooding across several northeastern states. the ground is very saturated, not only from the rain they expect from this storm, but the remnants of fred earlier this week dumped a tremendous amount of rain in this area. so because that ground is saturated, it does not take very strong winds to bring down trees and power lines, but you are going to have strong winds. 60, 70, 80-mile-per-hour winds possible for several sta
surge as henri is set to become in fact it is the first hurricane to hit new england in 30 years. plus chaos in kabul. a dire situation continues to unfold at afghanistan s main important. and imminent approval. cnn has learned the pfizer vaccine could get full fda approval as soon as monday. what this could mean for the fight over vaccine mandates. hello again, everyone. thank you for joining me, i m fredricka whitfield. we begin with this breaking news this hour as hurricane henri gathers strength and takes aim at the northeast. more than 40 million people could be impacted, henri became a hurricane just last hour and could be as strong by the time it makes landfall which is expected on long island, new york. cities are preparing for massive storm surge, flash flooding and strong winds into next week. alisyn chinchar is tracking this storm for us. what more do we know about the potential impact? there s a lot of impacts to go around. let s begin with the basics, sus