damian, what did we learn? >> reporter: such a tragedy, jessica. the news conference sendended a 25 minutes ago. we were able to get the raw numbers from the rescue members in santa barbara county. we do know that eight crew members were on board. five of them made it safely and 30 passengers. one is still missing. they've recovered four bodies and they can see four more bodies on the ocean bed. effort are underway to recover those bodies at this time. it is still unclear if the remaining victims are still inside the boat. we're told the boat is very unstable right now. it is inverted and it is also on the ocean bed. emergency crews say the chance of an immediate rescue was minimal. >> this is probably the worst-case scenario you could possibly have, to be in a remote

location, have a fire that occurs, have limited, if any, firefighting capabilities to address that, and then to have all of a sudden a fire that spreads very, very rapidly. you couldn't ask for a worse situation. >> reporter: the age of the victims or passengers is still unknown. the four bodies that were recovered included two adult men and two adult women. this is still an active investigation. it is still a search and rescue operation. but the focus right now remains on the victims and the families of this tragedy. >> reporting for us live in santa barbara. we'll go back to you throughout the evening. thank you, damian. >> a catastrophic scene and one garbled distress call. >> i can't breathe. >> it came from a 37-foot dive boat with 30 paessengers on boad

and triggered a response in san diego. the mayday call went out and the boat sank while crews were trying to put out the fire. >> the crew was actually already awake and on the bridge and they jumped out. >> reporter: a hover craft rescued those crew members in the water. they were due back on the sea landing early this evening. >> reporter: and again, this remains a search and rescue operation and the captain of the coast guard in santa barbara county says we should probably prepare for the worst. in santa barbara, i'm damian trujillo, nbc news. >> families are rushing to santa barbara, praying for the best, but the coast guard warning everyone to be prepared for the worst. among the eight people who died, christie finstat who lived in santa cruz.

she was an instructor with a degree in aquatic biology. she was an instructor of scuba divers. she had plenty of dives under her belt. her family is asking for privacy tonight. as for other families, this is a painful process. tearful and scared, these family members are arriving looking for answers. this is in oxnard not far from santa barbara. the brother of one of the crew members briefly spoke with reporters. >> you know, i'm very concerned, and yeah, i hope the best for everybody on there. >> reporter: most of those crew members did jump off theoat and were rescued. he added that his brother regularly worked on that dive boat. >> let's show you what the charter boat looks like. it turns out that the conception was really well known by area divers, many which had given the charter company nothing but

glowing reviews when we spoke to them today. mary ann savro continues our coverage. i understand you talked to people who had been on the conception. >> mary jo was one of them and said she was shocked about the fire on that particular boat, because she said the captain was meticulous about safety. joyful matheson said she had such a great experience diving for lobsters on the conception, she kept coming back year after year, in part because she said the boat was well run and she felt safe. >> it was like a well-run machine. he always did an exceptional job on top of his crew members, checking on crew members and checks. i know he was watching the boat and keeping us safe every night. >> reporter: so she was stunned when she learned the same boat went up in flames early this morning, with dozens of passengers unaccounted for. >> i was in shock and disbelief, absolutely denial that this could be the boat that i

frequent twice a year for the last five years as a scuba diver with my friends. absolute shock. >> reporter: alan pinzotti of campbell has been on more than a dozen dive trips on the conception. he said if there was a fire, people sleeping down below would have two options to get out, up the stairs in the galley and up an exit. >> i wanted to know where that ended up, so i specifically took that route to ensure that it worked. >> reporter: he said the escape hatch did work and got him about 10 feet from the rear deck and open air. the conception was set to return to santa barbara harbor tonight at 5:00. now instead of sharing photos of dive adventures, the bay area community is mourning the loss of friends who loved exploring the sea. >> alan said there were no

details said on the boat before the trip, but passengers were given a sheet on safety. joyful said she was scheduled to go back on the boat next month. >> we invite you to stay with the bay area for more information on this fire. we'll be live from santa barbara and we'll update you between newscasts on n brks krrbcbayare. hurricane dorian is now a category 4 storm. dorian weakened slightly after slamming into the bahamas. five people have died. tonight the hurricane is still hovering over the bahamas and is expected to turn north. evacuations continue from florida to the carolinas. we're getting a look now at what the hurricane did to the bahamas. this video shows whipping winds which were clocked at 170 miles per hour and all that flooding as well. we begin our team coverage with nbc's jamie garolla who begi.

>> reporter: we've already experienced rain bands with dorian. wind gusts behind me are at 135 miles an hour. some of the counties behind us are experiencing a hurricane warning, which means they can experience some of those hurricane force winds as early as tomorrow morning. daylight reveals a path of destruction left in the wake of hurricane dorian, making landfall three times in the bahamas. >> god be with us. >> reporter: rains and storm surge up the islands. the catastrophic cat 5 when it made landfall is the first hurricane of that intensity to hit the area. >> the windows are broken. now water is coming through those big windows you see over there. >> reporter: they were recording the damage in disbelief.

>> everything is just in ruins. >> reporter: now dorian is taking its time in the atlantic, barely moving. this satellite image shows the magnitude of the storm. residents of the east coast urged to remain on guard. >> we are in a situation where the storm is stalling very close to our coast. it is going to make a movement, and the movement that it makes will have a lotf impt on floridians. >> parts of south florida sees the change in weather as the first bands to arrive. >> err on the side of caution and leave if you can. everything is replaceable. your lives are not. >> the coast guard on stand-by as things begin to deteriorate. it prompts an evacuation in south carolina as the region braces for impact. >> reporter: schools in florida are already canceled because of the holiday, but those cancellations are extended into at least tomorrow, and possibly

the rest of the week depending on the exact impact dorian has in our area. if anybody is planning to travel to florida, you might be aware of some travel alerts. the florida international airport is shut down. miami international is open. and orlando is expected to shut down tomorrow. reporting live tonight in pompano beach, florida, jamie garolla live. president trump's estate is in the mandatory evacuation zone in south florida. boards are covering the window and at other businesses as well. this time from the inside. hurricane hunters flew a plane into the eye of the hurricane yesterday. that's video from that flight. the hurricane hunters' mission is to gather information like wind speed and force so they can better predict what's going to happen next. this is this morning from the camera on board the

international space station. so the question is, where is dorian headed next? chief meteorologist jeff ranier is tracking it. do we have an idea of where it will pick up again? >> we do have an idea, and it will be the entire eastern coast of florida that will get lashed with these rain bands, wind gusts as well, and that is the big problem we're looking at, at least at this very second. look at the eye of the hurricane. that's where the heaviest wind is located. it is stationary and raking over shreveport creating more catastrophic damage for the bahamas islands. looking out wide here, currently 140-mile-an-hour winds. you can see in miami on their radar the worst of the rain is over freeport with some of these rain bands now reaching pompano beach, melbourne and daytona

beach. so what about a path? we're waiting on a key turn to the north, also into tomorrow morning. once that happens it will really signal to us that everything continues to be in line here with a category 3 storm going parallel to florida with winds anywhere from 120 to 130 miles an hour. we'll show you what happens after it's parallel to florida. that's coming up in about 10 minutes. up next here about 5:00, a whale hit and killed by a boat near alcatraz. what witnesses said they saw right after the strike. plus traffic slowly getting back to normal in costa contra county. the hit that caused an awful lot of backup.

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yup - with room for the whole gang. ♪ ♪ see how investing with a j.p. morgan advisor can help you. visit your local chase branch. power is finally back on for hundreds of pg&e customers in the east bay, 12 hours after a crane working on a project tore out a power line that crossed highway 24. an accident created an all-day problem for a lot of people trying to come back from the labor day weekend. we're joined in lafayette where crews did manage to restring that power line across highway 24. that was a long time ago. how is traffic now? >> reporter: it looks pretty good now. you can see it's flowing very well. they did have to close down highway 24 not once, but twice, before they could get that power line strung from that pole on the south side of highway 24

across the highway to the pole on the other side, on the north side. pg&e crews worked through the morning and into the hot labor day afternoon getting ready to finally string a power line from one side of highway 24 to the other. >> the overriding concern, of course, is we don't want to have a huge backup on 24 in either direction. >> reporter: businesses in a neighboring shopping center had to close their doors because they had no power. >> it's unfortunate because it is a holiday. it's a nice day, it's a beautiful day out, but sometimes you have to roll with the punches. >> reporter: the owner of this yogurt store forced to run a generator to save what he said but lost a lot of business that would normally be streaming through his store on a hot summer day. >> we did lose whatever we had loaded in the machines. we couldn't do much about those, but we were able to keep whatever we had in inventory cool so we could use it. >> reporter: travelers returning home also disappointed the yogurt store and the whole foods

store were both closed. >> it's kind of odd. we're a 24/7 society, right? everything is open all the time now, but minor inconvenience. >> b.a.r.t. says it's still investigating how it happened but breathing a sigh of relief. traffic backups were not as bad as they could have been, and power is back on to all the businesses and more than 100 pg&e customers before 4:00 this afternoon. that b.a.r.t. spokesman told us that those businesses who lost product like that yogurt shop owner and others and who lost customers on one of their busiest days can file claims against their subcontractor and that crane operator for the damage caused in that power outage that may have cost them a lot of money. we're live in lafayette, tom jensen, nbc bay area news. the wrong place at the wrong time. a stray bullet killed a mother of five as she left a mother reception. family members say 44-year-old martha casiano was hit after she

left a party on east 22nd street at 4:00 a.m. there was an argument nearby and someone fired a gun. they pled the public to come forward with any information. >> my dad said she felt whl whee got hit, she fell to the ground and told them to call 911. the ambulance did cpr on her, but on the way to the hospital, her heart couldn't take it, so she passed away. >> very sad for that family. nine months ago, you might recall, a stray bullet hit and wounded a six-year-old girl on new year's day. new calls for all ships to slow down in the bay after a humpback whale was hit and killed near alcatraz. pictures taken from a whale-watching boat yesterday showed the humpback bleeding heavily as it floated on the water's surface. you can see it there. several members from the whale-watching boat said it was struck by a large ship entering the bay.

the carcass was last seen in alcatraz with a big flaslash acs its body. a company took to the streets to protest at oakland hospital. the workers say that kaiser is using unfair labor practices and that it puts profits before patients. the demonstrators held a rally at mosswood park before marching to the oakland kaiser hospital. the union members say they represent janjanitors, receptionists and housekeepers. kaiser said they want to start outsourcing the jobs to the lowest bidder. >> you don't want to talk about money. the cdc is making millions of dollars, but you don't want to talk about medical care that can impact a lot of people. >> we remain committed to negotiating to the highest level

of care. >> there was no disruption to care. we need some good news and we've turned to jeff raniri for the forecast today. >> i do want to start off with a quick view of hurricane dorian to let you know we'll have the full path here coming up. if you're like me, you have friends and family in florida, your nerves are kind of on edge, feeling a little afraid. winds at 140 miles an hour, and as a lot of us have heard, the bahamas have really been raked over with catastrophic damage. there are a lot of landmarks and things that people have come to know in the bahamas will be completely wiped out when all of the damage has been able to be looked at. we'll have more of this coming up in about two minutes. let's take you back to the bay area weather. we are looking at some changes. the good news is it will keep

some hot 100s away. i see two little systems and that will basically keep morning fog going and things not too hot for the afternoon. as you get going on that tuesday morning, the fog is going to be contained right near the bay and also the coast. i still expect a lot of sunshine down here in the south bay. a mighty fine start. 67 in the peninsula, 63 in the tri-valley. 68 in san francisco with that fog and patchy low clouds in the north bay and 64. numbers will be on the warm side, but we can handle this as you move through your tuesday forecast in the south bay. 83 south bay, 90 in gilroy. no 100s in the east bay, as we have mentioned. 90 in antioch, 90 in livermore. looking good in oakland at 79. 81 in palo alto. san francisco the ocean breeze going pretty good at 20 miles an hour. that keeps us in the 60s from the marina to the mission, and

the north bay, 87 in novato. do be on the lookout here for some humidity on wednesday with some sierra thunderstorms bubbling up. right now it looks dry for us but a little sticky for us on wednesday, and a beautiful weekend moving in with upper 60s and lower 70s. those two little weak systems i've been talking about will have us in the 80s wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday and also on sunday, so really nice weather ahead. no reason to complain with that bay area forecast. if you do have family on the east coast, you're traveling there, you have work plans, whatever you have going on, i wanted to give you the latest on hurricane dorian. this is expected to make a key turn tonight, early tomorrow morning, and then take a path here parallel to florida as a category 3 storm. winds from 120 to 130 miles an hour. beyond this it could make a u.s. landfall around cape hatteras

once we get thursday into friday, then this would continue to move on out to sea. so it's a very close path. that's why there are still evacuations in florida because there is a little bit of a jog 50 to 75 miles to the west, and it could be very devastating. right now everything we have shows it going parallel to the coast at this point. >> amazing all those states impacted here. thank you, jeff. up next here we continue to follow that breaking news near sant a barbara. 26 people still missing after a popular dive boat caught fire.

we want to get back to our breaking news, that tragedy near santa barbara. eight people are dead, 26 people

still missing after that dive boat caught fire. a mayday call went out around 3:30 this morning. five crew members jumd into the water from the boat's top deck and they were rescued. 34 other people were sleeping on the lower decks. among the questions tonight, did those people have an escape hatch or a route to get out safely? this is a look at the sleeping quarters. these photos are from a similar boat on the same fleet. the coast guard has been looking for the missing people, those passengers, all day. they have recovered four bodies ask say four more bodies can be seen on the ocean floor. other victims may be inside the boat but rescue crews say it's too unstable to search right now. we're also hearing from an actor familiar with the boat. that's rob lowe. he used to own a home in montecito which is in ventura not far from santa barbara. he says, quote, my heart breaks for those on board the conception. an unspeakable horror on a boat i've been on many times. my prayers and thoughts are with the families. our own reporter damian trujillo

is in santa barbara for us. he will rejoin us on our 6:00 news with more updates. a mangled mess after a reckless driver drove through a neighborhood. it happened south of willow glenn. police said he sped through the streets, hitting cars. he then crashed his own car into a pole and ran. officers were able to catch up with him. they did arrest him. luckily no one was inside those cars at the time that he was hitting them. tomorrow back to work, back to school. jeff ranieri has an updated forecast for us. we are here to discuss jessie's online time. and out of respect, we will let you make the first offer. thirty minutes. thirty minutes? objection! overruled. one hour. sweeten the deal by doing the dishes and i'll consider it. i wouldn't do it. i hate the dishes. one hour with the tablet,

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finally at 5:00 tonight, the jonas brothers are "suckers" for a big surprise. check this out. >> oh, my gosh. >> thank you for inviting us to come see you. >> thank you for coming. hi! >> yes, thank you for coming. lily jordan is a 16-year-old jonas brothers superfan, but her cancer treatment had her missing their concert. a little treat they couldn't resist. the jonas brothers gave her a night she will remember.

how cool. >> that is really cool. the forecast is great, jeff. >> we're going to cool down thursday, friday, saturday, the 80s returning. we'll have more on hricane dorian at 6:00. >> next is "nbc nightly news." air this labor day the disaster at sea, a boat sinking in flames off california, multiple people killed, the inferno erupting as they slept, trapped below deck five crew members jumping into the water to escape. jumping inr to escape. tonight families desperate for answers. breaking, hurricane dorian turning deadly, the category 4 carving a catastrophic path in the bahamas, torrential rains, massive floods, homes monster carving a catastrophic path in the bahamas, torrential rains, massive floods, homes shredded, cars underwater. tonight the southeast is bracing for impact much of florida's east coast virginia.