Did someone use the storm to cover up a crime . And reunited. Thousands of pets displaced in houston, the families desperately trying to get them back. Michael is there for an emotional reunion, how to keep your animal safe as Hurricane Irma approaches. We do say good morning, america. And a lot of news to get to on this wednesday morning. Were getting our first look at Hurricane Irma hitting the caribbean islands right now. One of the most powerful storms ever in the atlantic. We want to show you the image of the hurricane from space right now. There it is, it shows the eye of this now category 5 storm. It is moving toward puerto rico right now then florida, states of emergency are already declared and some cities have ordered mandatory evacuations. Officials call this a worst Case Scenario for the florida keys. As you can imagine the lines are growing in florida to get gas and many of those stations, unfortunately, are sold out. People desperate to stock up and hit the road and thats the highway out of the keys right now. Theyre getting out of there. Only one road out of the keys. Our team is spread out across the storms path from puerto rico to florida. And our chief meteorologist ginger zee is tracking all the latest. Good morning, ginger. Good morning, george. As that storm, that monster passed over barbuda 108 max sustained winds records, 155mileperhour gusts and the anemometer broke. Thats how strong the storm is now over st. Martin. Its the type you may not even be able to record because its just that strong. The hurricane warnings that extend to puerto rico, turks and caicos could see 15 to 20foot storm surge. Puerto rico could see up to 15 inches of rain. The potential for landslides in some of those more hilly mountainous areas and watch as it moves north, the worst side is in the northeast quadrant. Thats why turks and caicos will take the bankrupt. The dominican republic, still touching on a little of cuba. Sunday into monday is the timing when the florida keys and eventually south florida, miami could pick up significant storm surge with this type of path taking it directly from south to north up the state of florida. But, of course, before we get to sunday into monday we have a lot to get through. Before it affects potentially South Carolina, North Carolina or georgia it will affect puerto rico and thats where we find our linzie janis in san juan. Reporter good morning, local media warning people not to be fooled by this relatively calm start to the day. The lifethreatening winds and rain are on the way and the governor here warning the impact could be catastrophic, but right now, irma is ripping through the island of st. Martin with terrifying force. This morning, winds, rain and fury as Hurricane Irma bears down on the caribbean. The category 5 storm packing 185mileperhour winds and gusts up to 220 Miles Per Hour. This Hurricane Tracker flying right into the eye of the storm. This satellite image shows the sheer density of irma. Overnight irma decimating the island of bar baud da and now hitting the tourist favorite st. Martin. The government there telling people not to go outside under any circumstance. Holly morris and lauren mayo are fitness bloggers on vacation. The flooding is kind of amazing because the wind and rain are just bringing it through the sliding doors. Reporter theyre holed up on the sixth floor of a villa. Water inside the building and rapidly rising. Newlyweds scott and sara riggans are spending their honeymoon locked in that hotel bathroom. Its 3 20 a. M. We just moved into the bathroom. Weve got the wind going about 100 Miles Per Hour. We can really hear it outside shaking the doors. We have some water coming through our front door. Reporter the National Hurricane center calling irma potentially catastrophic. Here in puerto rico an island that experts say hasnt seen a storm of this magnitude in 100 years, and Evacuation Order under way in parts. Windows boarded up. Shelves bare. People loading up and hunkering down. Irma is expected to next hit the u. S. And British Virgin islands this afternoon. It arrives here in puerto rico later tonight. Again, everybody being told to take this very seriously. Robin. That they are. Many okay, jinlinzie. Now to the florida keys where theyre starting mandatory evacuations. The chain of islands is home to 80,000 residents and a destination for thousands of tourists and gio benitez is there on the only road in and out of the keys. Good morning, gio. Reporter hey, robin, good morning to you. You said it. Mandatory evacuations for visitors in place right now started at sunrise. I want you to take a look at this. This is the reason why those evacuations are already in place. You see all this water here. We are at the waters edge. But walk with me because i want to show you this. We are also at the roads edge. This is the overseas highway here. You can see people already getting out of here. This is the only way in, the only way out of the florida keys and so this actually floods because on the other side of this you have water too. I want you to take a look at some video shot earlier. This is a birdseye view of this overseas highway. There is a reason why its called the overseas highway. Ive seen storms come through here far less powerful than irma and flooded the place. It becomes very difficult to do anything then because now youre talking about only traveling in boats. So it is a serious situation if this becomes flooded, robin. Key west, of course, has an airport, gio. But flights there have been canceled beginning tomorrow morning. The storm is not hitting until this weekend. So why so early and are people concerned thats that may be a people wanted to evacuate. Reporter thats right. You know, theyre actually closing it tonight after that last flight out 5 50 p. M. Takes you to atlanta. Thats the last flight out. Doing it early because as you know, residents here in the keys like to stay put. They dont like to leave the keys during storms so what officials are saying is, listen, this is a very strong storm. Take it seriously and get out. I imagine that soon were going to see a mandatory evacuation for residents too, robin. All right. Gio, thank you. Only three category 5 storms hurricanes have made landfall in u. S. History. The last andrew in 1992 which prompted florida to make its Building Code some of the toughest in the nation. Those structures could now face their biggest test yet and abcs alex perez is in miami with more on how everyone is getting ready. Good morning, alex. Reporter hey, good morning, george. Some of these hopes right here along the ocean could be the first to get slammed by the hurricane. Officials here in miamidade say evacuations could be begin as early as this evening. Overnight, a run on gas. Well, the gas lines are crazy. Reporter station after station across some of the sunshine states biggest cities out of fuel. They put up caution tape. Nobody has any. Reporter some drivers sitting in bumpertobumper lines in some cases waiting a half hour or more just to get to the pump. If youre at a gas station without fuel there will be fuel coming. Reporter and critical supplies also running short as floridians stock up. Absolutely crazy. The lines wrapped around the entire inside of the store. Reporter emptying stores of plywood and water, even filling sandbags. Its very important that everybody in our state gets prepared. Three days of water per water and food per person. Make sure youre ready. Reporter many residents are boarding up their properties with wind speeds expected to hit a powerful 145 Miles Per Hour. Here in miami, some of the first targets, these beachfront skyscrapers. Hurricane andrew flattened parts of southern florida 25 years ago. Highrises here are now designed with some of the strictest Building Codes in the nation. Nothing is 100 hurricaneproof. The only thing that is 100 hurricaneproof is a bunker but who would live there. Reporter balconies and windows a danger zone for flying debris and increasing on the upper levels where the wind can be much more violent. Any items left curbside as the storm approaches can become harmful project ties in high winds. Reporter and at this point fuel shipments are still coming in restocking those empty gas stations. Officials here are telling tourists who are here on vacation to go home. Robin. All right, alex, thank you very much. Joining us now from tallahassee is the governor of florida, rick scott. Governor scott, thank you very much. I know its a busy day for you. Earlier this week you declared a statewide emergency. What are you most concerned with, sir, at this hour . Well, i want every floridian to be as aggressive as we are preparing and i want every floridian to be aggressive. I we dont know where it will hit. Likely mt. Meyers and naples as is miami and the keys are already evacuating. Were going to have wind, rain and storm surge. This is a massive storm. Water could cover your house, so i want everybody to understand the importance of this. This is bigger than andrew. Andrew we just had the 25th anniversary. This is bigger than andrew. It will have more storm surge than andrew and it sure looks like it will barrel right down the middle of the state of florida. Many certainly do remember hurricane andrew and for you to say that really means something. We have heard reports of gas stations running out of fuel. How dire is the situation and what is being done, governor . Were working with our retailers for food, water and for gas to make sure that we have all those resources, were asking everybody in our state to get a plan. Right now we dont believe we have any shortages, but if youre out, if your store is out of water theyll restock soon, the same with nonperishable food and same as if youre going to a gas station theyre bringing in more gas. We dont see any widespread shortages and dont believe well have them right now. Im asking as you get prepared three days of water per person, three days of food. Take enough but take only what you need. Dont take more. So we make sure we can take care of all of our neighbors. We can rebuild your home. We cant rebuild your life. Take care prepare and take care of your family. Be aggressive. We are at the state level. Great advice there and are you concerned . There are some mandatory evacuations in the keys, others voluntary at this moment. Are people complying . Well, as you see right now, people are leaving the keys. We will start to see more evacuations. Miamidade did their special needs individuals today and theyll be doing more. So as we see the storm getting closer there will be more mandatory evacuations around the state. Listen to your locals. Listen to them. Just remember, this could be an unbelievable storm surge. Were talking about water that could be ten feet, can go over your house, can go further inland. Way bigger than andrew. Andrew was now a big storm surge storm. This could be much worse so and its both coast right now right up the middle of the state so everybody has to be prepared. You cant rely just on government. Everybody has to be prepared. Good to know how proactive you are being and, of course, you have to prepare for the worst and we are all praying for the best possible outcome. Governor rick scott, thank you very much for your time this morning. You take care. Thank you, robin. Have a good day. Thank you, sir. Kept referring to hurricane andrew because he wants people to really take heed because sometimes when you grow up in an area where theres storm after storm after storm. Oh, im not going to leave this time. This one you dont want to mess with. Doesnt seem like anyone is being complacent. Back to ginger for more. I thought it was so great he was talking about impacts across the state. You could see inland flooding from tampa up to, say, orlando, anywhere throughout the state of florida, even into the carolinas eventually but storm surge, just as the governor was saying, a huge deal. We wanted to give you an idea what it may look like. Storm surge comes from water piling up in and in front of a storm as it approaches land, approaches some of those coastal towns and homes, you see how quickly the water can overtake and actually even move from the foundation some of those homes. All it takes is four to six feet in some cases depending what the elevation is and we know that miami floods easily. So we just did a worst Case Scenario here with storm surge to give you an idea who would be flooded. If you had a threefootplus storm surge youd see those areas in yellow go underwater and higher than that we see the areas in red go under. This is a lot of miami beach and a lot along the coast and around those lowlying areas. Well have details on more impacts and inland flooding in just a couple of moments. Thanks very much. President trump says hes watching the hurricane closely. Hes issued emergency declarations for florida, puerto rico and the Virgin Islands and this afternoon hes going to head to north dakota to push for tax reform. As he faces backlash over his decision to phase out protections for the d. R. E. A. M. Ers, the nearly 800,000 undocument the immigrants who came to the u. S. As children. A lot of pressure now on congress to step in and save the protections and our senior White House Correspondent cecilia vega is in washington with all the fallout from the president s decision. Good morning, cecilia. Reporter george, good morning to you. Fallout across the country. That is what the president is waking up to this morning. He had Given Congress a sixmonth deadline to come up with a fix for these d. R. E. A. M. Ers but now it seems like he may not be entirely leaving this up to congress after all. Overnight, President Trump said hes not done with the d. R. E. A. M. Ers just yet. After initially punting to congress to make the next move, he tweeted, congress now has six months to legalize daca, something the Obama Administration was unable to do. If they cant, i will revisit this issue. This on the heels of fierce backlash over his plan to rescind protections for those nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children. Protests from chicago. To albuquerque, to right outside the white house. Some republicans like Lindsey Graham saying the president has to do more than push this off on capitol hill. My challenge to the president is that youve talked very glowingly about these kids. Help us. Get involved personally. Work the phones. Try to find a consensus here. Reporter President Trump insists he is acting with compassion. I have a great heart for the folks were talking about, a great love for them. Reporter but his attorney general struck a much different tone calling them illegal aliens who take american jobs. We cannot admit everyone who would like to come here. Its just that simple. Reporter it was enough to bring two former president s back into the spotlight. President obama called the move to rescind daca cruel, wrong and selfdefeating saying ultimately this is about basic decency. President clinton called it irresponsible passing the buck instead of offering sensible solutions for Immigration Reform. The message from the white house, theres no guarantee those d. R. E. A. M. Ers are safe from deportation. The president says that d. R. E. A. M. Ers wont be a priority for enforcement but thats not a guarantee of protection. Is this white house willing to offer one . Those are certainly again theyre not a targeted priority. But the goal here is that Congress Actually fixes the problem and then that isnt an issue. Reporter leaving people like niella lopez terrified about what comes next. Do you envision your life in another country . I dont. This is my home since i was 13 years old and, yes, mexico in is my heart but this is myhome. Reporter yeah, among the opponents to this move the u. S. Chamber of commerce says resc d rescinding daca is bad for the American Economy and is, quote, contrary to fundamental american principles so now its up to congress and theyve got a full plate on their front burner funding the government and preventing a default, george, Immigration Reform is not at the top of their list right now. Of course, this has been on their agenda for years and, cecilia, you talk about Everything Else on the congressional agenda. On top of that you have the recovery from Hurricane Harvey, this new Hurricane Irma is hitting and the federal Disaster Fund runs out of money on friday. Reporter it does, the clock is ticking. The house will vote today on this relief for harvey, nearly 8 billion package that is expected to go forward there but could hit a roadblock in the national there if, in fact, this is tied to debt ceiling to raising it. The Big Questions about that. Theyll meet on that today with the president. Cecilia vega, thanks very much. Hard to hear that knowing what could possibly be happening there in florida. Yeah, Hurricane Force winds right now in that hurricane can be felt 50 miles outside the center and we wanted to make sure you understood if it gets to florida if you would take it at that point with 50 miles it will stretch longer. As you go north in latitude youll see Hurricane Force winds stretch. All over the southern tip on sunday evening. A big batch of rain pushing past philadelphia now getting past trenton pushing up the coast but theres another cluster of thunderstorms crossing the delaware bay. Most of the northern and western and rain is staying well to the north and west. As we take a look outside everybody has the clouds and everybody is damp and theres cape may and roads nearby also on the damp side. Your exclusive accuweather 7day moving from the 60s to a high of 73. Temperatures not going very far today. Periods of rain at times, some of which could be heavy. And then tomorrow we dry out. Now fear that the storm may have been a coverup for a crime. And the car dealership employee caught taking someones car to a d