Hurricane Irma "Potentially Catastrophic" Storm
ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: The president continues to push for tax reform, something investors have been cheering since the election. This meeting of the minds taking place at the White House yesterday. President Trump was joined by Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, economic advisor Gary Cohn, one as well as House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Now, Trump is slated to meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers today and then President Trump is going to fly off to North Dakota today to continue his push for tax reform. And the administration is saying they want a bipartisan tax reform proposal, but so far, talks have only been in Republican circles. So --</s>DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: They've got a lot on their plate. All right. A major update on Hurricane Irma when EARLY START continues right now.</s>BRIGGS: Hurricane Irma is churning through the Caribbean. U.S. territory set to get hammered by one of the strongest storms ever. Now, a new update from the National Hurricane Center shows Irma could hit Florida head on.</s>KOSIK: Just hours after his administration ended the program to protect DREAMers, President Trump says he now may revisit the issue. What's the next move for Congress? Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik, sitting in for Christine Romans.</s>BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. It's Wednesday, September 6th. It's 5:00 a.m. in Miami and Puerto Rico where there are concerns about this monster storm on the way. That's where we begin, with Hurricane Irma, the most powerful Atlantic hurricane in a decade, hitting the Caribbean with an eye on the United States. Right now, Irma, a category 5 hurricane, packing 185-mile-an- hour winds and the latest update shows Irma could hit Florida head on this weekend.</s>KOSIK: President Trump declaring emergencies for Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to help with storm preparations. We're going to have the full hurricane forecast in a moment.</s>BRIGGS: Now, the most immediate concern is for people in the north eastern Caribbean. Overnight, a 36-hour curfew was issued for the entire territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands.</s>KOSIK: And the biggest evacuation in history, in the history of the Bahamas has been ordered. Residents of six southern islands have been told to evacuate. The potentially catastrophic storm bearing down overnight on the northern Leeward Islands. Those islands are under hurricane warnings as are other areas including Puerto Rico.</s>BRIGGS: Several South Florida counties are operating in emergency mode hoping for the best, but indeed preparing for the worst when and if Hurricane Irma hits. The mayor of Miami-Dade County signing an emergency declaration. They'll start evacuating special needs residents today. All county offices along with schools will be closed Thursday and Friday. Officials also expected to issue evacuation orders for Miami Beach later today or early Thursday.</s>KOSIK: Neighboring Broward County is planning to set up dozens of shelters that will be able to accommodate as many as 33,000 people. Broward schools will also be closed on Thursday and Friday. And in Monroe county, that's home to Key West, there's been a mandatory evacuation of visitors, tourists and nonresidents, that taking effect in just a few hours at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The evacuation of residents, that begins tonight at 7:00.</s>BRIGGS: Florida Governor Rick Scott ordering the deployment of 7,000 National Guard members, 1,000 high water vehicles, more than 700 generators on stand by. The governor suspending tolls across the state, allowing people to more easily and safely evacuate. More than 5,000 people based at Naval Air Station Key West have received mandatory evacuation orders.</s>KOSIK: Meantime, Florida residents are stocking up on storm supplies. You look at aisles there at some stores. They've been left bare by the mad rush. Lines of people wrapped around the Costco and Pembroke Pines. They stocked on fuel, water and materials to protect their homes. And NFL's opening week has been impacted. The Miami Dolphins home opener for Sunday has been postponed.</s>BRIGGS: They might find a neutral field for that. Let's get the latest track on the storm, with meteorologist Pedram Javaheri. Pedram, what's the update from the National Hurricane Center?</s>PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the update just coming in here, changing the track a little bit here and you want to break this down because you look at this, and a lot of people tend to really focus on the center of that track, really important to not do that and to keep in mind that even the western periphery could be a possible point of this storm, or the eastern periphery could be a possible point of this storm. But you can break down model by model and see exactly which one it is favoring and we go through that and you notice, here we go, the concentration very strong belief around Cuba sometime Friday night into early Saturday morning. But beyond that, look what happens, we have a high concentration shifting more toward eastern Florida. In fact, when you break this down based on these models, I would even venture to say this could skirt the coast of Florida, potentially making the hardest point a second impact on portion of the Bahamas and then go somewhere north in towards parts of Georgia, into the Carolinas early next week. So, significant variations between all of that. Here is where we stand with one of the strongest hurricanes on record and into the Atlantic Ocean, Anguilla, St. Martin, St. Barts, 100,000 people in the direct path of this storm that has gusts well over 200 miles per hour. And with the storm surge, of course, in islands that are at essentially as flat as they come, just sandy beaches and very little elevation change. You know, most of these areas, that would be directly impacted by such a storm would be uninhabitable for a period of weeks, if not months. So, breaking down this further, looking at the American model and also the European model, the European in blue and American in red. Notice the incredible confidence in where this would be going into Friday and Saturday. Directly on top of one another so we think parts of Cuba could be in line for this storm system. But at the turn, still a lot of confidence in here. So this has changed in the last 24 hours. This time yesterday, one model was taking it back toward western Florida. Another one wanted to go to the east. Continue this going from Sunday into Monday. Just little difference on timing on where it would be. But again, same general location potentially favoring the eastern side. And I leave you with this hear, looking at the specific models under the umbrella of those models and again, high concentration shifting it to the east. So, this could potentially put parts of eastern Florida on the outer bands of this and take it up toward the Carolinas. So, we'll continue to monitor this.</s>KOSIK: All right. That track just continues to change. We'll keep an eye on it with you. Thanks very much, Pedram.</s>JAVAHERI: Thank you.</s>BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, President Trump says ending protections for DREAMers is necessary.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Really we have no choice. We have to be able to do something and I think it's going to work out very well and long-term, it's going to be the right solution.</s>BRIGGS: So, why then is the president now suggesting he may revisit the issue next year and legalize DACA?