more now from yai craig leeson. >> the biggest ships in the u.s. fleet, the u.s.s. bonhom richard, is moving out. this storm formed in the pacific earlier in the week and has tracked west northwest influence the luzon strait that separates the philippines and taiwan. in the philippines 100 families were moved from islands as torrential flooding. in taiwan, waves as big as buildings smashed the coastline. flights and per yi ferry service cut. china's residents have been prepared for the worse. 23,000 fishing boats returned to port. hong kong is in its sights. 100 people died and major storm damage to the city. sunday airlines say they will hold all flights in and out of among congress. thousands are in the area to celebrate the mid autumn festival. for those who remain the weather observatory has raised the typhoon flag to signal the need to begin preparations and it's told the city to brace itself for what could be the worst storm to hit here in 34 years. craig leeson, al jazeera hong kong. >> for more now on this supertyphoon, let's bring in meteorologist glee jele

. >> craig leeson is live for us from hong kong. it's past midnight and has been a restless might there. >> it sure is. we are in the grip of the storm. luckily it was not a direct hit as predicted. it made landfall 100 miles north-east in another area, killing two and cutting off electricity. it's above hong kong, 60 miles to our north, and we are feeling the effects of the strong winds and rains, particularly here in the al jazeera studio, which is on the waterfront here in hong kong. we are expecting that those winds will increase as we get kicked by the tail of this storm as it moves inland and is expected to cause a lot of damage through the rainfall that will come as a result. >> when i saw the storm, the first thought that came to mind was katrina, based on the size it showed up on radar. did they take the storm seriously in china? >> well, they certainly did. they are used to typhoons, they get 20-odd. they haven't had a big one scoring a hit on hong kong. there was one that brushed hong kong, making landfalls 400 miles to t

craig leeson joins us live from hong kong. craig tell us more about the preparations. >> well, it was a beautiful day here in hong kong. you wouldn't have expected that a super-noon was on its -- supertyphoon was on its way. the flag was hoisted about today but people went about their business as though nothing was happening. but that wasn't the case in the philippines and taiwan where the super-typhoon they were the first land masses for it to hit. the might of the u.s. navy's pacific fleet, the u.s.s. bonhomme richard, pulled out 24 hours before the typhoon usagi's arrival. it formed in the pacific early in the week and has tracked northeast through the luzon strait that separates the philippines and taiwan. in the philippines 100 families were evacuated from islands as torrential rain caused floodings in four regions. waves as big as buildings began smashing seaside and evacuation of thousands of people. china's southern coast is being prepared for the. worst. 24,000 fishing boats returned to port. so as we can see there, t

for the latest we go live to hong kong where craig leeson is standing by. where is the storm right now? >> well, it's managed to make its way past hong kong. it has been downgraded from a severe typhoon to a typhoon, and typhoons in this part of the world are graded by wind speed. it has disrupted transpodisrupt transpore tags. >> it is mid-autumn festival. it would be like if a hurricane hit new york at thanksgiving. many of them are stranded at airports, many flights have been cancelled, flights are likely to be disrupted up until thursday been the backlog is clear. a significant storm but did not score the direct hit anticipated by the weather bureau. >> are we seeing damage right now, craig? >> there has been no structural damn, which was expected because of the direct hit. we are seeing a lot of flooding. the mid-autumn festival coincides with a full moon. there's high tides. hong kong is made up of 266 islands - many are experiencing storm surges. not as bad as what they experience in china, as the storm moves into guangzhou. it's slowed down. because

. >> craig leeson, we will continue to follow this story. craig, in hong kong, thank you. >>> now, the death toll from the flooding in colorado has risen to 7 and could go up even more. the flood is proving to be a huge financial hit for colorado because so many of the victims are uninsured. as tamara banks reports, some are turning to fema to hurt. >> jessie and will collins were among the first people allowed back in >> i cried. i mean it was utter devastation. >> they found four feet of mud inside their residence. what's left? >> we owned our business outright. it took me 30 years, 30 years to get to here. >> just down the street, fema's swift water search and rescue team was going through the neighborhood, trudging through high water to make sure everyone has been accounted for. these boots on the ground are part of the rescue process. but now, a week after the floods, fema's attention is turn to go money to help people get back on their feet. >> this is a street here there is not supposed to be a river running down this street. a lot of

craig leeson live for us in hong kong, craig thank you. for more on the path and the strength of the typhoon let's go to meteorologist dave warren. >> reporter: i am meteorologist dave warren tracking the typhoon, flooding rains in taiwan but the center of the storm not nearly as defined. maybe not as intense winds over 100 miles an hour and it will continue to track towards china and hong kong. we are looking up at a closeup view. the bands of rains moving through taiwan lead to go flooding and wind speeds gust to go 50 miles an hour the wind speed wilin crease. it's forecast to be a category one with winds less than 100 miles an hour but making impact directly over taiwan sunday morning local team. now we are looking at tropical moisture across the southeast united states, very heavy rain and flooding possible throughout saturday and sunday as this area of rain moves from west to east. this is a cold front, so cooler temperatures to the west of it. but still a warm day in the northeast followed by some cooler temperatures there on saturd

we are joined live now from hong kong by craig leeson. is hong kong prepared for this? >> in the philippines, they are beginning preparations, stock paying food, moving people out of villages that are quite exposed in the northern part of the island. in taiwan, they are issuing travel alerts and in china, they're issuing maritime alerts. the problem we have is that today is the mid autumn festival, a traditional holiday where people go away from the long weekend, from hong kong to china and visit relatives in taiwan. this is expected to hit hong kong on sunday, disrupting travel plans. >> i have lived in hong kong. there are tall buildings there, it's a relatively small island. are the buildings there built to withstand that type of storm? >> they certainly are. they're even designed to sway and i've been in the top of one of these buildings when it is moving. it's an unnerving experience particularly in a big storm like this one. this is a beast of a typhoon, a super typhoon is equal to a category five atlantic hurting. it's been packing winds up to 160 miles per hour,

that is because we have craig leeson, standing by live. has the eye of the storm made landfall yet? >> if it hasn't, as luck would itv it, it just missed hong kong, which is good use for hong kong. it is the most densely populated city on the planet and damage would have been severe. it's gone just 100 miles to the northeast of us. at this point, it's directly above us. and the wind is whistling around the building of our studio, right on the harbor front now. the windows are rattling. it caused the deaths of two people as it mind landfall in sha shantal city in guandong province. it is expected to do more damage. the entire region has about 55 million people and it's expected mainly the rainfall will cause the problems with landslides and the like in that particular area. guhe but here in hong kong the have been few reports of damage and certainly none of injury. >> joining us from fujon province. stay safe. >> those storms in mexico and hong kong are a he reminder of how fortunate the u.s. has been so far this storm season. let's check on the current tropical conditions with our m

. >> craig leeson joining us live from hong kong. thank you very much. mexico, also cleaning up from a devastating pair of storms there. more than 100 people were killed after tropical storm manuel hit the pacific coast. that is where hurricane ingrid pounded the west coast. mo destroying homes and roads. mexican president touring some of the damage on saturday. he promised to help survivors rebuild in a safer location. the storms in mexico and hong kong just a reminder of how fortunate the u.s. has been this storm season so far. so for the latest on the conditions in the tropics, we turn to julalh acmedium. >>kmed. >>. today marks hurricane hugo made landfall in south carolina and certainly caused quite a bit of devastation there since that storm name has been retired. we have dealing with usagi as it continues to push north and northwest. it's going to continue to turn here, and the next 24 hours, i believe, will be very trying for the folks living in the rural areas just to the north of hong kong and certainly in hong kong as well. we will continue to

craig leeson, al jazerra, hong kong. >> here is more inside about the typhoon. the winds are still very strong. >> yes, this storm is considered a category three hurricane as we track in to the next 24 to 48 hours it will down ground to a category one hurricane. let me talk about the winds for a moment. whatever we sit on the front porch and you feel a light breeze typically that's about 19 to 24 miles an hour. whenever you have a stronger storm and trees can be uprooted typical the storms speeds are 255 to 63 miles per hour. still nowhere near what we are looking at with usagi, a violent storm can provide widespread damage, but we are talking about a typhoon, a very strong area of low fresh their will barrel in to hong kong, countryside is looking to be devastated as wind speeds are expected to be right around 100 miles per hour. now, there was a storm that took a similar track -- take it back to the ma the for a moment. this was wanda, it did a very similar thing that we are looking at with usagi, it tracked across the straight, impacted both taiwan and the ph

our craig leeson in hong kong. we will be right back after this. but should you be made aware if you are consuming them. that's next on "consider this." >> more than 1 million japanese took part in a nationwide drill testing that country's preparedness. shinzo abay. they mark it on the anniversary of the earthquake. this mock disaster drill dealt with the scenario of a massive earthquake south of tokyo. >> some of the most active fault lines, the country has been rocked by more than 10 earthquakes in the past year ago. tehran has been 340e689 spared but as siriah liney reports, it's just a matter of time. >> welcome to tehran, one of the world's most dangerous cities. not because of crime but because of nature. more than 250 earthquakes have hit the city in the past four months. it's a worry tehranis live with on a dailies. >> it is an earthquake prone country. we don't have low-risk areas. all faults are average or high-risk. tehran's earthquake risk is high and the city has been destroyed several times. we should not predict it. but we expect an

obviously having technical difficulties reaching craig leeson in hong kong. we are going to be taking a look at weather when we come back. before that, we want to talk about the congress shutdown, that big battle that is looming in washington. we'll tell you what services you might be able to rely on that you might not be able to rely on if the shutdown occurs. >> a new report on global warming. we'll tell you what's expected on the state of the environment. ] >> some of the world's leading scientists are meeting this week to put the finishing touches on a u.n. report on climate change. the last time a report like this was published was in, seven, finding that the evidence of global warming was undeniable and caused by humans. we have more. >> from the sun's rays to the polar ice caps, from the deepest oceans to the vast tropical forettes, this climbs is a complex and dynamic system. that's why measures changes to it and understanding what's driving them is important and challenge be, which is why every six years, the united nations brings together hundreds o

. >> craig leeson live from hong kong. thank you, craig, for joining us this morning. president obama caught many by surprise when politically speaking, he punted, asking congress for its approval to launch strikes on syria. the rest of congress will take up the issue when they return from a break in just over a week. david shuster has reaction to the president's decision >> reporter: the president stepped into the rose garden and delivered a political shot: >> i will seek authorization for the use of force from the american people's representatives in congress. >> reporter: that means there will be no attack on syria for at least 9 days. it will depend on votes in the senate and house. >> today, i am asking congress to send a message to the world that we are ready to move forward together as one nation >> reporter: lawmakers who demanded immediate aggressive action against syria were stunned. republican congressman peter king accused the president of quote abdicating his responsibility. senators john mccain and lindsey graham signaled the president will not get their

leeson reports. >> reporter: the might of the u.s. name i's fleet pulled out of hong kong's port a day ahead of schedule and 24 hours before tie spoon usagi's arrival. it's said to be the most powerful storm on the planet this year. 1,000-kilometers wide and with wind speeds gust to go 300-kilometers per hour. it formed in the pacific earlier in the the week and has tracked northeast through the lou san strait that separates the philippines and taiwan. in the philippines 100 family were evacuated. in taiwan, waves as big as buildings began smashing the coastline, flights and ferry services canceled and flooding and land slides have led to the evacuation of thousands of people. china's southern coast is being prepared for the worst. for you thousand people have already evacuated ahead of the storm. and 23,000 fishing boats returned to port. usagi is moving setly towards hong kong but even if it doesn't score a direct hit on this city, it will still cause lots of problems for people who live in this financial center. this long weekend i