New phone. This is iphone x. This is the cbs evening news. Mason good evening. Im Anthony Mason. The destruction in the florida keys, population 75,000, is staggering. Fema reported today that Hurricane Irma destroyed a quarter of the houses. Nearly twothirds of the rest have major damage. President trump will go to florida thursday to see for himself what irma did to the state. The storm is blamed for least six deaths in florida, three in georgia, and four in South Carolina. We begin tonight with Elaine Quijano in ramrod key, just east of where irma made her initial u. S. Landfall sunday morning. Reporter it is miles of destruction, house after house, block after block, roofs torn off, boats on the road, and r. V. S mangled in trees. Irmas path of destruction cut through the florida keys. Residents in islamorada, who didnt evacuate, came out to look at the damage. This was a big part of my life for 15 years ive lived here. And its just you know, in one moment its gone. You know, its hard to figure out where youre going to start over. Reporter the florida keys are 112 miles long, but citing safety concerns official officie only allowing residents who evacuated to go 33 miles in. Those who did evacuate are trying to get in. At a checkpoint near the upper keys, residents slept in their cars and wait forward hours to just to see if they still have a home. This is bull reporter but as anxious residents lost patience, tempers rose. I have water, i have food, i have dogs and i cant get to my house. This should have been thought out 20 miles away. Reporter sam nuccio drove down to check on his house in big pine key but was told to turn around. We cant get in the way of emergency vehicles and cleanup crews and everything like that. I believe thats whats going on. Reporter this is what youre feeding the e. O. C. . In marathon, Restaurant OwnerSimone Mullis stayed behind to feed First Responders and others who didnt leave. She let boat owner carl spavold stay in his condo, which he said saved his life. Everybody will take their shirt off their back to help you. If you hang around long enough, youll see that. Reporter they saw each other for the First Time Since irma. Here in the lower keys, it is not clear when residents who evacuated will be allowed to return to their homes. And with one look at this neighborhood here in ramrod key, it is easy to understand why. Residents here reported multiple tornado warnings when Hurricane Irmas eye passed overhead, leading to the destruction of homes throughout this area. Anthony. Mason Elaine Quijano in the devastated florida keys. To get a wider picture of the damage in the keys, Mark Strassmann took to the skies. Reporter this is big pine key, just below marathon. The monster storms category 4 winds churning 130 miles per hour, shredded this neighborhood. It turned this trailer park upside down, stacked these r. V. S as though a child had thrown his toys across the room, and turned this boat yard into a jumble of insurance claims. Fema estimates irma destroyed 25 of homes here. Another 65 have major damage. Theres almost no power, no water. By any measure, especially in the lower keys, this is a housing and humanitarian crisis that will go on for weeks. The keys, which largely emptied out ahead of the storm, will remain desolate until that water and power is restored. All right, guys. Reporter erics job is to turn the lights back on. Hes the c. E. O. Of Florida Power and light. F. P. L. , floridas largest utility, has to restore power to 1. 5 million homes and businesses in sout south floridas three mr counties. This is the first time in our companys history that weve had all 35 counties, 27,000 square miles of our Service Territory hit. Reporter this is one of 14 f. P. L. Staging areas in south florida, and its a massive one. Linemen here are working 16hour shifts to fix the outages. Anthony, a utility spokesman told us all the power should be restored on the states east coast by sunday night, and on the west coast in about 10 days. Mason Mark Strassmann, thank you, mark. Irma stranded american tourists on a number of caribbean islands, including, shared by france and the netherlandses. Tony dokoupil has been following their ordeal. Reporter a flight from st. Maarten to puerto rico takes less than an hour, but for some families stranded by Hurricane Irma, the trip took nearly a week. Weve just touched down in st. Maarten with the Puerto Rico National guard where they expect 300 to 400 americans to be waiting for rescue right here at this gate. Since friday, u. S. Embassy officer Lee Hilgartner has been vetting passengers at this makeshift security gate. What were doing is trying to process the american citizens that are here on st. Maarten. We have been getting the medical, like, emergencies out but there are still people who have been staying in relatives houses or other peoples homes. Reporter irma smashed into st. Maarten and left a massive trail of destruction, but the misery didnt end there. Susan coquin says she has nothing left. Got looted and robbed, place blew up. 40 years of my life was here. Reporter in neighboring st. John, thousands of americans are still waiting to be evacuated. 80 of buildings are thought to be damaged, road roads are impassable, and some residents had to walk miles for food and water. Back in st. Maarten, theres finally a glimmer of hope for coquin. She just learned shes getting off the island, along with dozens of others. Smiling through their fatigue applause . And go greeted with applause, back on american soil. Mason Tony Dokoupil is back in san juan tonight. Tone edescribe the conditions you saw on the island. Reporter anthony, Hurricane Irma hit st. John with such force that the land looks burned. What was green is now brown. There are no leaves. There is no shade. At cruise bay which should be hopping with tourists, all the tourist bars are closed. Some have sailboats pushed through their front doors. A ferry jump the on the curb and a Customs Office is has david in and closed. But there is good news its u. S. Navy is there in the air and on the ground. Perhaps now the looting, which has been report there, will stop. But now matter how you measure it, anthony, this is a recovery that will be years in the making. Mason and people look pretty shaken, tony. Reporter indeed. But, there is also grit there. There is hope. Everybody has been evacuated off the island with the exception of diehards and old timers. They tell us they are going to rebuild, even if it means rebuilding from the jungle floor up. Mason Tony Dokoupil, thanks. All the major airports in florida have reopened, but most are operating at about half the normal capacity, and there is still a huge backlog of travelers, more than 17,000 flights in the u. S. And the caribbean were canceled because of irma. The Miamidade PoliceDepartment Shared this video of sister Margaret Anne helping in the cleanup after irma. The meek shall inherit the earth, but not until the bold clear the brush. Residents of florida, georgia, and South Carolina are going through what the texas gulf coast has lived with since hurricane harvey. Omar villafranca now reports from houston. Reporter nearly three weeks after harvey drowned the city, people, like mike gregg are, still digging through the debris and realizing just how much they lost. Two feet of water soaked everything, including the family piano. It was. My wifes something that was very valuable to my wife. Reporter life remains difficult for many. 5,000 are still sleeping in red cross shelters. More than 130,000 properties are damaged. Overall, some 223,000 people have applied for federal harvey assistance, with 305 million already approved. But what lies beneath the floodwaters is becoming a growing concern. Along with exposure to mold, toxins are floating around, too. Testes of floodwaters conducted by Baylor College of medicine and Rice University show some neighborhoods are contaminated with lead and arsenic, as well as bacteria like e. Coli, found in one area at levels 135 times whats considered safe. Baylor college of medicines winifred hamilton helped lead the research. What were seeing are bacteria levels that are roughly 20 times, sometimes 30 times higher than what were seeing right outside the same place. Reporter is it going to get worse . Yes, i think so. Reporter there are also 43 toxic superfund sites, and the e. P. A. Says two need furgts evaluation, including the one half a mile from greg moss home. Hes worried about any runoff. And what would that do to your property . Its going to poison it some more. Reporter another concern are the mosquitoes that breed in stagnant pools like this one and also carry west nile and zika. Now, ground spraying has started in certain neighborhood wheres the water has receded, but in other neighborhoods, theyre going to have to spray by the air. Anthony. Mason Omar Villafranca with the long road back in houston. Thanks. Cbs and the other Major Television networks will simulcast a telethon to help victims of harvey and irma. Gayle king and Norah Odonnell will be among the hosts for hand in hand, a benefit for Hurricane Relief tonight at 8 00, 7 00 central. Congressional leaders are demanding a detailed explanation from equifax about the hack that exposed Sensitive Information of 143 million customers, including Social Security numbers, birth days, and drivers licenses pure gold to thieves. Anna werner spoke with a victim. Reporter business professor David Andersen fell victim to two other major hacks, and now equifax, as he showed us so they still think that youre impacted. Im equifaxs product. Theyre taking my information about me and selling it and they they released that out to who knows who. Reporter Eva Velasquez of the nonprofit Identity TheftResource Center says theyre getting an earful. Were hearing from folks who are complaining they dont understand what this means and that they dont understand how they are supposed to react. Reporter the best step to take a credit freeze. Thats where you instruct the credit reporting agencies to stop anyone from accessing your Credit Information, for instance as they would to offer you a new credit card. The credit freeze will lock the criminals out of opening financial accounts in your name. But there are other types of Identity Theft, and that includes medical, criminal, and governmental. Reporter at first, equifax was charged hack victims a fee for freezing their accounts, but after so many complaints, its now free. But its still not a solution for andersen. He has to keep his Credit Information accessible as hes in the process of selling his house. Do you feel like youre a little more vulnerable because of that . Yeah, yeah, yeah. Its definitely, definitely concerning. But even then, freezing it is still no guarantee. Reporter but velasquez says at this point its still the best option consumers have. But it really is worth that little bit of inconvenience in order to basically lock it down and keep the thieves out. Reporter equifax declined to do an interview but says it acted immediately to stop the intrusion. An investigation is also under way, but, anthony, some members of congress have sent a letter to the company asking for answers to a lot of questions that they have about how this happened. Mason there are a lot of questions out there. Anna werner, thanks. Coming up next on the cbs evening news, the dream team of prosecutors in the russia investigation. Ugh. Heartburn. Sorry maam. No burning here. Try alkaseltzer heartburn relief gummies. They dont taste chalky and work fast. Mmmm. Incredible. Can i try . She doesnt have heartburn. Alkaseltzer heartburn relief gummies. Enjoy the relief. Depend silhouette briefs feature a comfortable, sleek fit. As a dancer, ive learned you cant have any doubts. Because looking good on stage is one thing. But real confidence comes from feeling good out there. Get a free sample at depend. Com. Well, what are you doing o take care otomorrow 10am . But. Staff meeting. 3 45 . Tai chi. 6 30 . Sams baseball practice. You are busy. Wouldnt it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do . Yeah. Introducing essential portfolios the automated investing solution. A farmers market. Ieve whats in this kiester. A fire truck. Even a marching band. And if i can get comfortable talking about this kiester, then you can get comfortable using preparation h. For any sort of discomfort in yours. Preparation h. Get comfortable with it. Mason special Counsel Robert Mueller now has more than a dozen seasoned prosecutors investigating russian interference with the u. S. Election and whether anyone in the Trump Campaign was involved. Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department after the president fired f. B. I. Director james comey for pursuing the russia investigation. Former trump adviser steve bannon told charley rose that that firing should never have happened. Heres Jericka Duncan. Mr. President , do you have any response to Steve Bannons interview on 60 minutes . Reporter President Trump did not respond today, even though his press secretary said he watched parts of his former chief strategists interview. I dont think theres any doubt that if james comey had not been fired we would not have a special counsel, yes. Reporter bannon called that decision the worst mistake in modern political history. You would not have the Mueller Investigation. Would not have the Mueller Investigation, would not have the Mueller Investigation in the breadth that clearly mr. Mueller is going. Reporter special Counsel Robert Muellers team of allstar prosecutors speaks to that. 16 in all, they bring experience in longterm investigations, going after organized crime, money laundering, cyberterrorism, and foreign bribery, some even speak russian. This is a group of people who have a deep, deep level of experience with complex federal cases. Reporter former federal prosecutor sam buell there really isnt anything that this team is going to come across that theyre not going to be equipped to deal with. Reporter Andrew Weissman headed up the fraud section at the Justice Department. In the 90s, he worked on a case linked to the mafia and russian organized crime that involved felix sater, a trump business parter who is now of interest to muellers investigation. Andrew goldstein moved to washington this summer. Hes with the u. S. Attorneys office in manhattan, where he was overseeing an investigation into former Campaign Chairman paul manaford, which mueller has taken over. And one of the more experienced members of the team is james 84les, a former law partner of muellers who cut his legal teeth in the 70s when he served on the Watergate SpecialProsecution Task force. This is a highly elite team and, you know, if there arent cases here at the end of the day its going to be because there arent cases there. Reporter today White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders repeated that the president was right to fire james comey. Mueller and his team are also investigating where that was obstruction of justice. Anthony. Mason Jericka Duncan at the white house. 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