Catastrophic 20 inches of rain along the west coast there it. A tourist hub before pushing inland. Officials are saying get out. Jennifer gray is standing by in the weather channel. Have you ever seen anything like this . No, never. This is stronger than katrina, stronger than andrew. Its stronger than any storm the National Weather center has ever had to deal with. One of the reasons for that is the warm temperatures in an el nino year brings more active pacific than the atlantic. We have seen a quieter atlantic season. The pacific has been very active. Especially with the intensity of these storms. Thats exactly what were seeing here with sea surface temperatures in the 80s. Winds of 200 Miles Per Hour. The latested a vuz ri came out at 2 00. Nothing has changed except its moving to the north a little bit faster at about 12 Miles Per Hour. Its expected to make landfall in the next couple hours. It could be a category 5. It is going o to continue to weaken. The terrain is mountainous so were going to see a lot of raun. The flooding thats associated with it and winds over 100 Miles Per Hour. If you were going to see incredible storm surge just to put this in perspective, the gulf. Coast had a 27foot storm surge. We could see storm surge higher than that. You can see 10 to 20 inches of rain on top of falling down the mountains on top of that surge pushing against it. Theres going to be major flooding. This could be catastrophic for the coastline. Jennifer gray, well stay in close contact with you. Thank you so much. I want to go straight to this area that will be likely hardest hit in mexico. We have a resident on the phone. Hello, good afternoon. I just went outside and took some pictures and sent them over to you guys. Theres actually no people outside. Theres few traffic. All the stores are closed. Its not raining. It was raining very light like an hour ago, but now theres not even wind. Its cloudy. And a lot of people that live here, 90 people that i know they left. And they are encountering right now heavy traffic heading out of the city. So i just stayed here because i didnt want to get into any panic. Also want to take care of my house in case theres a major disaster as they are saying. So they are saying potential for major disaster. Why not heed the warnings . Why stay put . Well, i have lived almost all mu life in beach areas like cancun. I have encountered several hurricanes and they havent been that bad. I dont like to panic. I dont like to hear the media, but sometimes i just like to stay put. Whatever i know, if something is going to happen, i just rather stay here where i know where i can move and know people. I understand. Im not going to try to make you panic but you heard our meteorologist explaining the historical sigs kans of this incoming storm. For people who have never been there, what is it like . This is a massive resort city, tons of tourists. Yes. Is this a low season or high season . This is the high season. And i heard from several people actually they sent all their tourists to gau da la ha ra. They are trying to prevent in case theres a catastrophic event. I should probably move around, but right now its too late because the traffic is horrible. The airport is closed. So actually i cant move anywhere. How do you plan to ride this out . What do you plan to do for the next 24 hours . Well, im staying at a friends house with my kids and their kids. And with other friends as well. Also they have an electric generator and they are going to cut the electricity in a few hours and the water. So here we have plenty of supplies. So if we dont have any light in town, at least with my friends we do for the next day or two. At least youll have your generator and the friends. Barbie, good luck. Let me bring in another guest who knows better than anyone how bad this could get. On the phone is roger hill, storm chaser. Hes also the world record holder for having witnessed more tornadoes than anyone else on earth. So roger, were you listening to my last conversation with barbie . The fact she plans to stick it out, smart move . Theres no way you could get e me to get down there and chase this hurricane. I have chased a lot of hurricanes over the last couple decades. When you get a storm thats basically of biblical proportions, the strongest storm ever recorded, its a fairly compact hurricane but my goodness, what a wallop this is going to punch. It basically has a threeprong fort between the storm surge and the 200 mile an hour winds plus the intense rainfall is going to cause just catastrophic flash flooding. Anybody that would stay there if you want my opinion is crazy. Listen, i know there are a lot of skeptics out there. They hear folks like you or me talk about the biggest storm ever, biblical proportions and think this it will peter out. Your response to that . As a hurricane approaches land, just its interaction with the land mass will cause it to weaken. Just like hurricane wilma and gene did in 2004 and 2005, as it approached land, both of those hurricanes were quite powerful category 5 hurricanes in the gulf basin. As they approached land, they weakened. Theres a chance it will rapidly weaken before it makes landfall, but the damage is already going to be done. Once that storm surge starts building up along the coastline and the rain starts falling, its too late whether it weakens or lot not. The damage is going to occur. How did it get so strong so fast . It was just an absolute fluke of nature how rapidly this thing intensified. You had to have the right conditions under a ridge of High Pressure where there was little to no wind shear and had to have very warm sea surface temperatures to generate the energy. Its just one of those flukes that basically go from a Tropical Storm to a category 5 hurricane in half a day. Thats almost unheard of. Roger hill, storm chaser, thank you for downing us on the phone. Coming up, breaking today, politics, donald trump finding himself in second place. But get this, one writer who has done the math says he knows the reason trump could be elected president. He joins me next to explain. Plus Hillary Clinton is smiling. Why . Because her campaign may have just had its best week ever and we now know the name of the first soldier killed in iraq since 2011 and he died coming face to face with isis. New details on that operation ahead. This is cnn. Hi im heather cox on location with the famous, big idaho potato truck. Our truck . Its touring across america telling people about idaho potatoes. Farmer lets go boy. Again this year the big idaho potato truck is traveling the country spreading the word about heart healthy idaho potatoes and making donations to local charities. Excuse me miss, have you seen our truck . You just missed it. Ahhh aw man are you kiddin me . 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Not only did our support provide another mass killing, we enabled our partners of ours to deliver defeat and prevented them from broadcasting a horrific massacre to the world. Meanwhile across the border, Coalition Aircraft recently hit a key node in isils Oil Enterprise destroying a pump station and crude Oil Production and cash collection. After extensive conversations with the chairman and leaders of the coalition in recent weeks, were ramping up our assault on this critical pillar of isils financial infrastructure. We will also work to disrupt isils distribution of oil in the lucrative marketplace, one that includes customers, by the way, from the assad regime. And we will continue to work on all of the socalled nine lines of effort of the counter isil Campaign Including countermessaging and foreign fighters. Also in syria, we continue to target terrorist leaders. We dealt a blow to the carson group which continues to plot against our homeland by killing a leading financial figure and is the fifth highest level operative we have killed in the past four months. As i review the pace of recent events and the multiple ways were bringing pressure against isil, i would like to command a pioneer of the sunni awakening, who i recent lu appointed the commander of our counterisil efforts. Rather than three generals responsible of different aspects of the campaign as had been the case, i have enl powered general mcfarland as the single commander of counterisil activities in both iraq and syria. His efforts will be critical in the coming months as we continue to provide support for capable partners fighting on the front lines. In iraq thousands of fighters have now passed through Coalition Training sites. The contributions of more than a dozen Coalition Nations have provided capacity to train thousands more. It is essential that more iraqis, sunni and shia, arab and curd be recruited, trained and equ equipped so that iraq eastertorial integrity is restored and the country returned to the full control of the its people. As i have stressed were committed to supporting these partners but cannot serve as a substitute for them. Were watching recent mill tower advances in beijing and ramadi, can which suggest that iraqi forces may be regaining the nushtive. As local forces continue to prove their medal and a commitment to an inclues iive future for their country, we are committed to enhancing the support we provide. The challenges of developing capable and motivated forces in syria have been painfully clear. But here, too, they have provided air support for coalition for our fighters as they prepare for a difficult drive towards isil. This is one example of how were adjusting our approach in syria to focus on equipping existing groups rather than training new recruits. Though we will continue to be open to all approaches. Were strengthening our partnerships with moderate Syrian Forces who have fought fiercely in recent months and hope to advance the gains they have made with our help. The Additional Support i mentioned today does not represent a change in our strategy, but it does represent a change in our approach to achieving it. Im determined that we continue to adapt to get results. So we will continue to work closely with the Prime Minister and his command of the Iraqi Security forces. The department of defense will support the Syrian Opposition and we will continue to meet our commitments to friends and allies across the region. Especially israel. That connection i look forward to consultations with israels defense minister when he arrives in washington next week. On tuesday i will also appear before congress. Our testimony in the senate will provide an opportunity to discuss in more detail the execution of the counterisil strategy and how to pursue the next phase of the coalition campaign. One final note. I know that each of you is wait ing for the civilian casualty report from general campbell on the tragic incident in kunduz. My staff and i are in frequent contact with general campbell as his team completes their initial report. We want to get this done, but we want to get it done right. And remember the r more complete report will come from the socalled 156, which is the expanded military investigation. I want the answers to the questions in those investigations. Accountability is part of our obligation to those who died in kunduz and must inform everything we do here at the department of defense. With that, i will take a few questions here. On your comments about the rescue mission, you said that the people that have faced execution that their graves had been dug. Curious how you know that . And also you said there was significant intelligence gathered. Can you describe that . On the first point, first of all we have 70 people rescued who told us what they were facing. The graves were right next door to the compound. It happens that we had seen them beforehand. We were watching this compound once the peshmerga informed us they were prisoners of isil there and so that was another indication to us what appeared to be basically the digging of graves. You cant be sure by looking at it, but it looked like that. Then we had other indications as well u cant go into, but the main thing is that our peshmerga partners were the ones that had information that this particular location was being used basically as a prison camp and seemingly planned to be an Execution Center by isil. I forgot the second part. This is the stuff you get and the great value, by the way, of raids of this kind and i expect well do more of this kind of thing. But one of the reasons for that is that you learn a great deal. Because you collect the documentation. You collect various electronic equipment and so forth on top we have 70 individuals who spent a lot of time there and who were in turn captured by isil in different ways and thereby had different perspectives. So the sum of all this will be valuable intelligence and saving the lives that were about to be sacrificed is the main thing and supporting our peshmerga fighters and have been wonderful in iraq. You just said you expect there will be more raids like this in the future. So could you please explain how more raids fits with no combat troops . Well, i say we will do more raids remember, if you remember the raid, we have this capability. It is a Great American strength. It doesnt represent us assuming a combat role. It represents a continuation of our assist mission. I said from the beginning, and we mean this, when we find opportunities to do things that are effectively prosecute the campaign, were going to do that. And this is an example of a case where we could do something we alone had the cape can blt to do and im absolutely prepared to do that. So raids is one of those categories. I suspect well have future opportunities in the future. Can you clarify the rules of engagement . Its my understanding that the special Operations Commander made a decision and entered a compound in the middle of a fire fight. They can do it in selfdefense. They can do it when partners come under fire as well. If so, how is that not combat . I wonder if you think the administration is being misleading when he says u. S. Forces are not in combat . Let me explain what happened in this particular event. Everything i know about this incident was that as the compound was being stormed, the plan was not for the u. S. Advise and assist and accompanying forces to enter the compound or be involved in the fire fight. However, when a fire fight ensued, this merp did what im very proud that americans do in that situation. He ran to the sound of the guns and stood up and all the indications are it was his actions and that of one of his teammates that protected those who were involved in breaching the compound and made the mission successful. So that is an inherent risk that we ask people to assume. It wasnt part of the plan, but it was something he did. And im immensely proud e he did that. Were very saddened that he lost his life, but nobody should be in any illusions that americans are at risk. Americans are flying combat missions, thousands of combat missions over syria and iraqi territory. There are americans involved in training and advising security can forces around the country. We do not have combat formations there it the way we had had months upon a time in iraq or the way we but we have people in harms way and shown a willingness to put themselves in harms way in order to have mission success. I think thats very commendable. Just for a follow up. The administration has taken great pains in various permutations to say its not Ground Combat. Just as you said, its not the same size as it was during the iraq invasion. But if youre saying there are going to be more missions like this and if