The winds were whistling and howling. It was so powerful that we couldnt leave the building for hours and hours. And once you did think it was okay to leave, the winds were so strong you had to go back inside. And youre going to get a sense of how bad that is with daylight. Im sure in the coming hours as tammy was saying, as we see the daylightimages, its going to be devastating. For more, lets bring in our meteorologist, bill karins. What can you tell us about the storm as it passed over puerto rico and makes its way north . The misery is not done. The storm itself shows the satellite, is north of punt a cana. The bands have set up a heavy torrential rain over puerto rico, even though the eye is well away from the island. That has caused the entire island to be under a Flash Flood Warning. Right now all the way to the areas of west coast, the entire island is under a Flash Flood Warning, an catastrophic flooding is ongoing. Rivers are well above record stage. Mud slides are an issue. Its important to know that we have just begun to see some of the damage thats out there. Usually after a huge hurricane like this, it can take two, three days to get a good proper assessment of just how bad it is and especially areas away from the cities are. Those areas are all weve seen are mostly pictures from san juan and some of the bigger islands. Right now still 115 Miles Per Hour winds. Theres a huge way. Its a major category 3 storm. The forecast takes it dangerously close to the turks and caicos. That will be the next area. Right now we know were getting the hurricane type gusts in the Dominican Republic and hurricane warnings for the turks and caicos. Its supposed to go just east of the turks and caicos. Its not a direct hit, but they could get gusts. This is the current wind field. The return force winds are in red. Theyre near the coast of Dominican Republic. Theres a sliver here in the yellow of puerto rico. The winds are not an issue for the most part anymore. For those wondering about the east coast, its a path similar to jose. This means a lot of large waves, dangerous rip currents. The same thing weve been dealing with. It does not look like a direct threat to the outer banks or the bahamas or new england. The forecast looks getter away from the u. S. East coast. But the flooding in puerto rico, the wind damage is way down. No more storm surge or anything like that. Theres a lot of water damage and a lot of life threatening flooding still ongoing. I feel like were reliving a hurricane nightmare every day. Just a slightly different path. Theres nothing behind this one. Were going to get a little bit of a break. Were still in the peak of the season. Well get a week or two break. All right. Bill. Thank you. I want to go to the other Natural Disaster were following. Rescue crews in mexico race to find survivors buried under the rubble in the wake of a 7. 1 earthquake. Officials say the death toll has been raised to at least 230 people with 100 of those deaths coming in mexico city alone. Crews have been searching for those trapped in collapsed buildings, listening in silence for sounds of life. In the capital city a ray of hope after 52 people were rescued from the rubble of a building there yesterday. Elsewhere in mexico city, a more grim scene as teams have been working throughout the night to save a girl under her school. 21 children and 4 adults were killed when the building caved in tuesday afternoon. Mexicos foreign secretary discussed materially role the u. S. Is playing in the countrys response. President trump and the mexican president spoke. The u. S. Is already providing support and help. We have very specific needs as you know, as you can see the images for mexico city, our most important priority is rescue operations the u. S. Government is about to send a group of people with strong backgrounds and expertise and also equipment to help in the rescue operations. Were extremely thankful to the International Community and particularly with our friends from the u. S. Joining us now from mexico city nbc news steve patterson. Talk to us about the ongoing rescue efforts there, particularly at that school we were just discussing. I understand thats where you are right now. And thats exactly where we are. We need to be very quiet. This is a sensitive scene. Youll see behind me periodically theyll raise their fist in the air. That means complete silence, because theyre working obviously in a very sensitive scene. Theres a lot of communication that has to go on. And theyre trying to reach people that are trapped in that rubble. The sound is very important here. We have to keep our voices down. As you mentioned, what happened during that earthquake on tuesday, that building that you see, that is an Elementary School, yofour stories, trappin people in that building. And killing at least 21 Elementary School young students, and then four additional administrators or teachers also trapped in the building. Now, look at this. The rescue effort is bustling. This scene has been like this for at least 30 hours straight, and it continues to be you see volunteers and rescuers and crew members bringing these large beams. Theyre carrying this debris out of this scene so they can get further back in there. All of this has to be done, by the way, by hand, because of how sensitive the scene is, because if they think people are alive in there, they have to be extremely sensitive with what theyre doing. So all of this has to come together in a very sensitive manner. And it all has to happen very quickly, because as weve been mentioning, as this goes on, its a race against time, and were coming down to the wire here. Back to you. Steve, are you seeing any family members of survivors sitting by waiting to see if theyre going to hear from their children that may be trapped in the rubble . Reporter we did think we saw a mother of possibly a child who was either trapped here or who may be alive in that trouble behind me. We dont have positive identification on that. We can just get a sense for the scene here. Its a very controlled scene. The military members where we are, we have to be in a back corner very respectful because of how much is going on and how huge this operation is. We have to stay back and be observant. It does appear that family members remain on scene here. Back to you. All right. Live in mexico city for us, steve patterson. My heart is breaking for the parents. Lets go to the russia investigation. This morning very twin reports about the advancing mueller investigation. They appear to be getting closer and closer to the oval office. The New York Times was first to report bob mueller has asked the white house for documents about some of President Trumps most scrutinized actions including the firing of Michael Flynn and jim comey. The time sources white house officials who also say that mueller is interested in the Oval Office Meeting with top russian officials. Documents described to the times in may quoted the president telling the russians he was not under investigation, end quote. I just fired the head of the fbi. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of russia. Thats taken off. The special counsels office made a response. The Washington Post also reports mueller also asked for any email or document the White House Holds that relates to manafort according to who sources briefed on the requests. The paper also reports less than two weeks before trump accepted the president ial nomination, his Campaign Chairman offered to provide briefings to a russian who is closely aligned with the kremlin. Manafort wrote to a go between, quote, if he needs private briefings, we can accommodate. A spokesman for manafort confirmed the authenticity and said they had been turned over to a congressional committee. As the paper notes, there is no evidence in the documents showing that manaforts offer was received or any briefings took place. The spokeswoman for the man dismissed it as little more than a consulting scheme Chuck Grassly chairs the judiciary committee. We have tried to talk to manaforts lawyers for weeks, and we dont get a phone call returned. That would mandate that we have a subpoena. But now my question that i cant answer for you i dont know whether its worth issuing subpoenas when somebodys been indicted, if theres any value in that, if you get any outcome out of it. And one more headline, the chairman said hes getting subpoenas about the firing of james comey. Its been resisted making an appearance saying it would be unwise without muellers okay. Still ahead, the latest on the Health Care Debate in washington. Republicans are expected to consider a legislation next week, but do they have enough votes for it to pass . Plus Hurricane Maria pummelling places, and were following the ongoing rescue efforts in mexico after the massive earthquake. Well be right back. Puerto rico under water, roads turned to raging rivers. Roofs ripped off. Trees toppled. Cars overturned. Power out to virtually the entire island. Have you ever seen anything like this . Me, never. Reporter this man said he feared for his life. As the relentless storm slammed into his home as a ferocious category 4 hurricane. The situation here in san juan is dire. The winds here have been intensified and the worse is yet to come. Officials warning either get out or die. Its going to be that intense on puerto rico. Welcome back. That was some of gabes reporting from puerto rico. I want to get another check on Hurricane Maria and the status. I want to bring in bill karins for that. I know im not supposed to compare hurricanes, but we were tracking irma last week. Thats top of mind. The rainfall with maria is a lot more than irma ever delivered. Yes. Floridas flat. When we get tropical systems with mountains, thats when they really ring them out almost. The mountain sticks up into the circulation and can create the storm just to sit there and create the feeder bands that sit over the same areas and the mountains have the runoff. Flooding is a bigger issue. The storms move about 10 Miles Per Hour. Irma was moving faster. Of course, we saw it happen with harvey when the system stalls out. Heres where the eye is located. Its a major category 4 category 3 storm. Theyre getting worse than they were thinking they were. Theres also flooding concerns with some of the higher mountain regions. We have tremendous amounts of rain still falling over the state. Theres a Flash Flood Warning for the island of puerto rico. Theres not one spot not under a Flash Flood Warning. Its either occurring or imminent. Heres the catastrophic is how theyre saying the flooding thats going on right now. We dont see that. A lot of our reporters and a lot of the pictures where theres cell service is coming out of the big cities. Its the areas outside the big cities that were seeing a real huge concern for life. This is some of the mountain areas. We did an animation how the mud slide threat is a huge problem in the region. You get this amount of 10 to 20 inches of rainfall concentrated over the mountains and some of the hillsides can give way. The wind field is leaving puerto rico. Theres no more wind damage taking place. The only wind damage occurring especially in the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Well watch and see what happens with the turks and caicos. The storm is supposed to miss to the east. It would keep the worst of it out of the turks and caicocaico. Were safe on the east coast too. No problems whatsoever for the storm. Just more huge waves out there like weve been dealing with from jose. The rainfall, we have to remember now that were almost 24 hours since land fall, it sometimes takes two to three days to even see how bad it was. It wasnt until yesterday that we saw the pictures out of dominica how bad it was. Ultimately to get to some of the cities and villages in the middle of puerto rico will be difficult with the flooding that we were seeing. Think about that. Nobody on the entire island has power and people saying it could take months to restore power. When you lose electricity, you feel like you can call your local electric and say restore my power. Months. They said four to six months, and the population is about the same as the state of iowa. Think of the state of iowa going 4 to 6 months without power. Bill, thank you. Lets talk about politics. Mitch mcconnells office said the latest effort to repeal and replace obamacare will be considered on the senate floor. Republicans are fighting for the 50 votes needed to pass the measure in the reconciliation time. 60 votes are required to avoid a filibuster after that. But critical senators like from alaska are still in doubt. Are you ready to support it . Nope. Why not . Th diligence that i committed to doing yesterday. What i have had an opportunity to do is sit down with my team who has sat down with hhs and were getting lots of numbers. An active walk and talk. Senator mccain continuing to call for regular order to consider the Health Care Bill and President Trump reacting an twitter to another republican tweeting rand paul is a friend of mine, but he is such a negative force when it comes to fixing health care. Yesterday evening the president spoke about the bill from republican senators Lindsey Graham and vented his frustration with the process. I believe that graham and cassidy will do it the right way. Theres tremendous support from republicans, certainly were 47 or 48 already senators and a lot of others are looking at it positively. Mike pence has been working on. Our Vice President has done a great job on health care and knows it so well. I thought that i would go to the oval office, sit down at my desk, and there would be a Health Care Bill on my desk, to be honest, and it hasnt worked out that way. I think a lot of republicans are embarrassed by it. All right. So still ahead, Rex Tillerson is weighing in on President Trump, iran nuclear deal. He doesnt have a lot to add. Well explain when we come back. Stay with us. Good thing because stopping never crosses your mind. Bandaid® brand. Stick with it™ getting our first pictures from a Remote Island of dominica. The hurricane roared ashore as a category 5 storm. The Prime Minister saying they are devastated and dazed. Well have more on maria with a live report from puerto rico in a bit. Still ahead, its a race against the clock in mexico as rescue crews race to find survivors after a massive earthquake. Well get a live report coming up. And well talk to a former homelands security about femas response to Hurricane Maria. Stay with us. Welcome back. It is the bottom of the hour. We continue to follow the latest with Hurricane Maria lashing the eastern Dominican Republic after pounding puerto rico and throwing the entire island of 3. 5 Million People into darkness. The hurricane smashed into the struggling u. S. Territory as a category 4 storm. 70 of homes had their roofs ripped off. It could take four to six months to restore electricity. Im 54 years old. Ive never seen devastation like this one. Puerto rico and san juan we had yesterday is no longer there. We have to reconstruct, rebuild, reinvent it. We have to be resilient, and we have to push on. Not with our bodies, with our hearts and soul. Im concerned that we may not get to everybody in time. And that is a great weight on my shoulders. I imagine a lot of people are feeling like that this morning. Joining us now is our correspondent tammy lightener. Good to talk to you this morning. Give us your assessment from the ground. I can tell you that we really dont know the extent of the damage. Until officials do a flyover of the island, theyre not going to know how bad it is. But this will give you an idea of what people will see when they wake up this morning. This is just a crumbled mess of metal that was once a building here shattered clasglass wrappe around trees. This is the scene block after block. Roofs ripped off of homes. Homes flooded. Streets flooded. Freeways under water impassable because of trees and power lines. It really is from what we have seen, devastation. Tammy, as some of our viewers who might be watching might also be asking about the shelters that are in puerto rico. And i know that you managed to find shelter with fema and rescue workers that have been there. What is it like for people right now in terms of where most of them are finding shelter or finding refuge . What is the electricity situation there . How bad is it for the people that are there on the ground . Reporter its awful. From the people that we have spoken with, power is out 100 across the island. The only reason that we have power right now is because were running on generator. And there are some places, some hotels, where some tourists who got trapped here are running on generators there. As far as people that are in the shelters, the shelters are soon going to be overflowing. There are about 500 shelters set up here. Keep in mind theres 3. 4 Million People that live in puerto rico, and guys, they just havent been able to get to everybody to assess who really needs help at this point. And it comes up there, and theyll have the opportunity to assess more of the damage on the island. Just completely devastating from what weve seen. Tammy lightener, thank you. Lets bring in our meteorologist, bill karins to talk about the path of this storm, and what it continues to do in the path. Right now were still in the fog. Were still trying to figure out how bad it is in puerto rico. Weve seen the pictures around san juan. Theres tons of tree damage as expected in a category 4. Were waiting to see what areas outside. Im concerned with the river. I was l