Evacuated and theyre hopeful theyll not see as bad of conditions as they were expecting from dorian. Off course. Vice president mike pence staying on the wrong coast of ireland during an official visit in order to stay at the president s golf resort. Standing in for the president to stay home to monitor the hurricane, in part from his virginia golf course. The opportunity to stay at Trump National to accommodate the unique footprint that comes with our security detail and other personnel made it logical. And inferno. Unanswered questions about what caused that boat fire off the coast of Santa Barbara, killing dozens below deck. A passer by rescuing the crew. They told me there was another exit but the exit was blocked. There were two ways out . Blo . Both of them were blocked. And well have a lot more on that horrific boat fire coming up, but good day, im Andrea Mitchell in washington. We have details on Hurricane Dorians small push toward the atlantic coast. The storm just downgraded to a category 2. There are hurricane and storm surge warnings from floridas Jupiter Inlet all the way to charleston, south carolina. Joining me now me, al roker in our weather center. Nbcs Morgan Chesky and Gabe Gutierrez on the florida coast. Al, tell us about the storm and its extraordinary path and its speed, or should i say its slow march. Its crawling. Its picking up forward speed. Right now, category 2 storm, but we tell people dont Pay Attention to the category. While its important, you can get a lot of damage with storms that are not a 4 or a 5. This is a category 2. 105 miles east of ft. Pierce, florida, with 110 mile per hour winds. And now its forward speed moving northwest at two Miles Per HourWest Palm Beach all the way up past charleston. Weve got hurricane watches all the way to Cape Hatteras. Inland weve got Tropical Storm watches as well. That speaks to the size, the growing size of the storm. Even though its in a sense weakening down to a category 2, it actually its wind fields are growing. In fact, heres the official path from the National Hurricane center. By thursday morning, it is a category 2 storm just outside of charleston. Then Cape Hatteras by friday morning and then out and past the new england area as we get into the weekend. Lets compare the american model and the european model from the National Hurricane center. All very, very similar until we get to the North Carolina coastline. There the american model gives some possible landfall late thursday, early friday around wilmington. Then across the outer banks of Cape Hatteras. Whereas the european model is a little slower with a landfall possibly early friday morning and then continues on out. So were going to watch that very closely as we get into that. But heres what i want to talk about right now. Hurricane force winds extend out 60 miles. The Tropical Force Winds from the center extend out 175 miles. So look at this. You can see theyre starting to as this makes its move right along the coast, were seeing the possibility of Tropical Force Winds. And if it makes a little bit of jog to the west, that becomes even stronger. By wednesday evening, kingsland, savannah, charleston, all within that tropical force wind possibility. Then we move into thursday. Wilmingtons involved. So is myrtle beach. As we continue to move to the east youll see as we get into thursday night, early friday, Cape Hatteras, even norfolk around that counterclock wise flow which adds to the storm surge. The Hurricane Force winds just barely off the moorehead city. Thats how tight that will get. But the Tropical Force Winds extend out fairly widely. With that counterclockwise flow against the land mass, thats where you have why you have surge warnings from charleston, savannah, jacksonville, daytona, melbourne, even West Palm Beach. That will continue through wednesday. As the system moves up and along the coast, those storm surge warnings will be extended out. Were expecting through friday generally about anywhere from three to seven inches of rain, andrea. But we could see upwards of a foot of rain as well. And with the strong winds, we have to worry about Power Outages. A potential for four Million People without power. Widespread to extensive Power Outages from daytona up to jacksonville, savannah, charleston, myrtle beach, wilmington and even Cape Hatteras. While, again, its starting to lose some of its strength, it f the slowest moving storms youve seen . It is at least in recent memory. Again, now that its starting to pick up strength, weve had a ridge of High Pressure kind of take the depress it a bit. The ridge is starting to break down and we expect it to shoot out. Until that happens well wait for the next advisory to see if its forward speed increases. The last 24 hours, its only moved about 12 miles. Thats nothing generally speaking for a storm of this magnitude. Al roker, thank you so much. Gabe gutierrez is along the florida coastline. Gabe, youre seeing the winds picking up there now . Are people going to be evacuating . Reporter hi, andrea. Well, youre now talking about that slow moving storm. For the people along the florida coast, this has been an agonizing wait. We are starting to see some of those rain bands. Weve been seeing them for 24 hours. The wind has been pretty much sustained. Were expecting it to continue throughout the afternoon. You see the choppy surf behind me. Local authorities have been worried about storm sturge here, six or seven feet. Thats been revised a tad down to three or four feet perhaps in this area. The local authorities are warning people to be careful here to remain vigilant. They say this is a test of patience. Now 85 emergency shelters have opened throughout florida, here in martin county, a mandatory Evacuation Order is still in effect. About 1,400 people were told spent the night in shelters. Theyre now considering whether to keep some of them open tonight as this storm moves up the coast. Andrea, as you heard al mention, this could potentially bring Tropical Storm force conditions throughout the afternoon and into the evening for parts of florida as it continues to threaten georgia and the carolinas perhaps later in the week. Perhaps making landfall in the carolinas as a category 2. Right here we may not be seeing the category 2 or 3 strength conditions here, but here in the coast of florida they do expect Tropical Storm force conditions and thats why local authorities are warning people not to think theyre out of the woods just yet, andrea. Gabe gutierrez, stay safe there there meanwhile, Morgan Chesky have been in the bahamas talking to Prime Minister and other residents about the aftermath as weve talked about how slowly the storm is moving. It sat on top of the bahamas. And were just reporter sorry, we had a communication issue here. I can tell you were standing at nassau airport. Coast guard choppers, a team of four are working hand in hand, getting those people off abaco island. We know the first place they made contact was specifically a clinic that was used as a shelter in marsh harbor. They were able to bring several pregnant women and several people who were suffering from medical ailments from that clinic here to nassau where they were taken to a nearby hospital where theyre receiving much needed medical care. Its been a nonstop process ever since the conditions allowed them to move in starting yesterday. You mentioned dorian being a slow moving storm. While theyre doing this rescue operation its dropping feet of ra rain. Roo right now the Prime Minister, were told, is flying over abaco island to witness the devastation to try to come up with a plan that will be a month if not yearlong process of recovery here. I can hear one of the helicopters about to take off right now. This is going to be very much a busy place here in nassau, bahamas, ground zero of the recovery effort. Thank you so much. Al roker as well, and Gabe Gutierrez, thanks to all. Craig fugat joins me now from gainesville, florida. Its good to see you again, craig, as you help floridians and the rest of the people of the coast prepare for this. What should we be telling them in terms of obeying the orders for emergency evacuations and preparing for something thats been so anticipated and so slow moving that people might become sort of too kfcomfortable. We need to keep reminding them its not over yet. Al put it pretty clear. Were not going to see a lot of Hurricane Force winds inland. But along the coast we may get gusts. The principle threat and biggest killer is always water. So storm surge and heavy rainfall, beach erosion, we have to remember as far as back as Hurricane Matthew coming up the coast, a little bit further east, but caused a lot of flooding up in st. Augustine, and jacksonville, florida. Again, a landfall in the carolinas, particularly North Carolina, the outer banks and those areas are very vulnerable to storm surge. Dont focus on the category of the hurricane, focus on the forecasted impacts and continue to heed the evacuation heard a transfers that money was taken from fema, put into other categories. Is fema on top of all of this . Femas had teams. Theyve moved quite a bit of resources into florida and georgia, south carolina, and North Carolina getting ready for this. I imagine theyll start shifting resources from florida as the storm begins to move north if they dont have impacts. But theyve been working very closely with the states. The transfer of funds has nothing to do with the response, and quite honestly was a distraction over the message of getting people to prepare for the storm. What should people in North Carolina people are still preparing for vacations in North Carolina heading down there, still in these weeks of september and now should people back off and figure that North Carolina is going to be off limits . I would say if youre traveling in the next couple days your best option would be to hold tight, wait and see what happens. It may be, again, the storm doesnt impact the area and later on this weekend things are better. Right now youre in a situation where the best thing to do if you cant postpone your trip is postpone it, wait, let the storm get out of the way. I think weve got to remember, this is not the peak of hurricane season. September 10th historically has been the peak. Were seeing the tropics crank up. This may be the first of several storms this year weve got to be prepared sfor. Theres nothing you can do about storm surge except prepare . Yeah, and evacuate the area. If you look at the deaths from hurricanes, all the data from the National Hurricane center, the biggest cause of death are drownings. The best way to prevent that is to evacuate the areas and dont drive through flooded areas. Craig fugat. Thank you so much. Knows about what he speaks. Be sure to stay with us for the latest on Hurricane Dorian coming up this hour as well. Coming up also, irish exit. Vice president pence defending his decision to stay at a trump golf resource more than an hours flight away from his meetings in dublin. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports, stay with us on msnbc. L reports, stay with us on msnbc. Big dreams start with small steps. But dedication can get you there. Easily set, track and control your goals right from the chase mobile® app. Chase. Make more of whats yours®. On a scale of one to five . One to five . Its more like five million. Theres everything from happy to extremely happy. Theres also angry. Im really angry clive actually, really angry. Thank you. But what if your business could understand what your customers are feeling. And then do something about it. Turn problems into opportunities. Thanks drone. I do i do i have a really good feeling about this. As Hurricane Dorian approached the u. S. , President Trump canceled his weekend trip to poland and to the netherlands. He said to monitor the storm. In between presiding over an emergency hurricane briefing at camp david on saturday and visiting fema headquarters on sunday in d. C. , the president spent hours at his golf course in virginia. While tweeting up a storm of his own. More than 100 tweets on everything from dorian to attacking the news media. Vice president mike pence took over the boss duties overseas sparking criticism by going well out of his way in ireland to stay at a trump resort and flying on air force 2 back and forth to dublin on the opposite coast. Joining me now is peter baker and ed price, former special assistant to president obama and Msnbc National Security analyst. Welcome both. Peter, this was an unusual decision by the Vice President s staff. Tell us about it. He was staying on one coast of ireland and commuting back and forth to dublin where his meetings were and staying at the trump resort. Yeah, thats exactly right. It is an unusual decision, its 150 miles from the trump property to dublin where the Vice President will be having his meetings. Flying back and forth doesnt seem as convenient as you might imagine. His staff acknowledges the Vice President took the president s offer to stay there. This is in the context of all of the things weve seen lately with the president s properties. Hes now considering his florida property, the Doral Golf Club as the site of the g 7 for next year. Attorney general bill barr is working out 30,000 of his own money to host a Holiday Party at the trump hotelton saying there was no other venue available. This raises the issues weve seen for two and a half years between the president s personal and political interests. This is taxpayer expense going back and forth across ireland. I was confused seeing all these reports this weekend saying hes lifted off, arrived in dublin. And in fact its because he commuting. It does seem unusual and but this president its par for the course. This president routinely profiteers off his presidency. Its not that he rutuoutinely g to his own resorts. Most of them at golf resorts. That is about a third of his time in office. He brings with him entourages, foreign dignitaries. We all remember the scene where north korea sent off missiles and the maralago dining room became the situation room. It was early in his presidency where the membership fee to maralago doubled to 200,000. Foreign dignitaries flock to his hotel in d. C. T one firm that was representing the saudi government spent 200,000 there early in the trump administration. So to have president pence by the way, the president doesnt suggest anything. When he issues a suggestion, its close to a command. To have president pence Vice President pence. Travel to the president s club its more of the same. I wanted to talk about the hurricane preparations and the president s management of all that. There was an extraordinary statement by a white house aide suggesting sort of putting out there that the Vice President is not antigay, that the proof is that he is meeting with the leader of ireland who is openly gay and married. Well, of course, Vice President pence has been at outspoken opponent of some gay rights legislation, in particular as governor of indiana, he resided over that states legislation, you know, that was meant to establish religious freedom for people who didnt want to serve same sex couples getting married. That became a National Storm of controversy. Its an issue that has long been at the core of Vice President pences political ideology. Hes not in favor of gay rights. I think that the president the white house is trying to make that point. But it seemed a little bit off i dont know. A little bit off tone to put that out there. Nobody raised the issue, right . Of course. Hes in ireland, meeting with the leader of ireland. Back to the president and what he was doing in terms of hurricane management. Understanding he doesnt want to be out of the country when we didnt know what size and shape the storm was going to be. Hes in a meeting with fema and he says that alabama will potential potentially be affected. The National Hurricane center put out a statement saying alabama is not in the zone. At one point he also said that hes never heard of have been s category 5 storms since hes been president. You know, i think we often confuse the president s most important and his most powerful tools. We often think that our military, that the Nuclear Arsenal are the most important and the most powerful. The most important tool the president has is the bully pupppu pulpit, his ability to speak to the world to deliver important messages sometimes of life or d