east coast floods. reporting rainfall as hurricane joaquin gains strength. russia targets isis strongholds. i'm glad to be here. welcome to "early start." i'm boris sanchez. >> i'm christine romans. breaking news this morning.

a dry september in dramatic fashion. up to 4 inches rain. a woman got stuck in the flood waters in her car in boston. the driver gets to relatively dry land and stalls. the weather is snarling traffic across the region. >> it is bad. it is gridlock everywhere. it is flooding everywhere. i have been on the road for two hours. >> in maine, the national weather service says more than 5.5 inches fell on portland. one of the ten all time wettest days in history. it knocked out power and knocked down trees. only trucks and suvs getting through. >> the problem west of baltimore. knee deep flash flood water rushing through the streets. a love ymca was flooded out. check out the car in this

picture. listen to the owner. >> i really did not know that flash flood went quick. >> it looked like a river. >> this is not over. this is the beginning. the heavy rain is a prelude to hurricane joaquin. where will it hit? let's get to meteorologist pedram javaheri this morning. this is just the early innings of what we could endure on the east coast. >> well said, christine and boris. this is a wet forecast. category three hurricane joaquin is east of the turks and caicos. the difference this year, some are taking it to south carolina and others to massachusetts. widespread differences in the models. the european model had

tremendous accuracy with super storm sandy's forecast. it was precisely on target. the vast majority of the other models want to take it to the mid-atlantic. the meteorology pattern is set up here. a negatively tilted trough. it sounds fancy with the weather pattern reaching full maturity with friday afternoon to evening. we have this pattern with tropical storms offshore. they want to draw the feature in toward the eastern seaboard. some other models want to take the storm system away from the coastline over the open waters. the national weather service wants to favor more of a coastline sunday afternoon to night. category two for north north carolina into the chesapeake bay region. this brings in winds up to 100

miles an hour and tremendous rainfall on top of what has come down. when you look at the rainfall potential in the region in excess of 10 inches in the carolinas and working to the east up to 4 to 6 inches. you know the trees have plenty of leaves on them. gusty winds in excess of 100 miles an hour. all of this plays out in power outages in the forecast track takes it in this direction. this is why we are saying preparations should be taken. if the storm guides to the east, we are prepared for the worst-case scenario. >> i like the euro model. everyone here is giving us thumb's up. no one wants disrupted activities next week. a lot of rain in the northeast already. is that associated with the system or is that a different system dumping a lot of rain and you have the threat from

joaquin? >> the state of virginia is related to the rainfall seen in the past four to five days from the gulf of mexico. not this storm the and particular o ocean. >> the water has no place to go. >> thank you. no government shutdown at least for now. breaking overnight. congress passing a stop-gap spending bill to keep the government funded through december 11th. that is when republicans are pushing hard to defund planned parenthood. president obama calling this good news and cause to celebrate. even if the bar for congress is quote somewhat low. a high ranking secret service official facing disciplinary action this morning for allegedly trying to smear the reputation of jason

chaffitz. an e-mail released was to send private and embarrassing information. that he tried to apply to the secret service 12 years ago as was rejected. he admits these revelations have him rattled. >> it's a bit scary. secret service diving into my background as a sitting member of congress? it is not about me, but it is about what are they doing over there? these people are entrusted with guns by the president. they are the secret service and we give them police powers and dive into confidential information. >> congress member chaffetz slamming kevin mccarthy for suggesting the benghazi was paying off politically for republicans. he thinks mccarthy should

apologize. he is the leading candidate to replace john boehner. he says it is a success because it is now contributing to the hillary clinton poll numbers. >> when i hear a statement like that that this was always meant to be a partisan political exercise, i feel like it does a grave disservice and dishonors not just the memory of the four we lost, but everybody who served our country. >> we should mention that chaffetz will support mccarthy's bid for the speaker. hillary clinton's staffers were concerned about her use of a private e-mail server worrying it may invited hackers. the span revealed five phishing accounting while she was secretary of state. it is revealed that two months

of the e-mails from the start of the state department are missing. feder federalfficials confirmed they have not recovered them. trump hotels hacked. potentially stealing consumer data for an entire year. the hotel chain warning those may be affected. how hackers placed special software as customers or employees typed in credit card information. the company updating the network to make it more secure. if you don't have free identity fraud protection by now, doing something with a credit card, you are lucky. >> not even the mighty trump. send them back, he says. donald trump explains what will happen to syrian refugees in he is elected as bernie sanders

breaks a fund raising record next.

the u.s. countering russian claims that its first air strike in syria targeted isis. russia's first word when a russian official appeared in baghdad warning the u.s. to stay out of syrian air space. cnn's barbara starr asked ash carter about this unusual move. >> reporter: you have been dealing with the russians for years. a russian general shows up this morning at embassy in baghdad and apparently reads you your people a note saying air strikes begin in one hour. what do you make of that? as secretary of defense, is that acceptable military relations with you and where does this leave you if you sit down and talk to the regime military about the way ahead? is this not bizarre? >> i have been dealing with them for a long time and this is not

the kind of behavior we should expect professionally from russian military professionally. that's one reason why i think it is a good thing to have an avenue of communication that is less unprofessional than a drop-in. >> remarkable. the u.s. accusing russia of misleading of the target of air strikes. american officials say the war planes were not flying in isis held regions. the washington post reports that the strikes hit rebel areas in the area and trained by the cia. carter accusing russia of quote pouring gasoline on the fire of syria's civil war. for the latest, let's bring in matthew chance live in moscow. matthew, i have questions for this. why they went in with little notice for the u.s. and what it means for any kind of

conversation with the united states and russia to try to deescalate the situation in syria. bring us up to speed. >> reporter: complicated questions to answer. in terms of how they can stop shooting each other, the u.s. and russia, there will be military to military conversations taking place early today to make sure that they can deconflict, which is the word they use to describe not killing each other and also to get clarity on the targets that russia is hitting. publicly, russia is saying categorically we are striking isis targets. the reason it is doing that, i think, because no one is a friend of isis that will get international support if it stresses the isis targets it hits. we have seen from video evidence from reports on the ground that there were other areas which are controlled by other rebel groups, non-isis groups that were hit in the russian air

strikes. the russian government is ambiguous on this. the russian foreign minister speaking with john kerry yesterday. saying we were invited by the syrian government to assist against isis and other terrorist groups as well. so clearly the russian objective here is to support the assad government and to fight the enemies or those that provide or propose the biggest threat to the government. that is clearly what is going on on day two of the russian/syrian war. >> if they are striking moderate syrian rebels. the very people the united states has tried to support and train up to fight isis and to blunt the assad regime, that is russian at odds with the u.s. interests in the middle east. >> reporter: right. it won't be the first time that happened. i think it is important to remember that the kremlin don't draw distinction between isis

and other rebel groups. there is a plethora of groups. the kremlin doesn't draw distention between them. it sees them all and describes them all as terrorists. from the kremlin point of view, the force is syrian government. bashar al assad is a long-time russian ally. russia has strong interests to make sure it does not fall and he is reestablish control over the whole of syria. that's what now is being played out and that may well bring russia and the united states into some kind of confrontation, political, if not actual military. >> the word of the day, decon flix. how to make sure they are not shooting each other. back to the u.s., donald trump and jeb bush butting heads on the campaign trail. this time over the subject of refugees fleeing the civil war in syria. trump telling the town hall and cnn's don lemon, as president,

he would send refugees back because they could be isis sympathizers in disguise. >> why are we accepting? i heard a number of 200,000 today. are these people isis? we have no idea who they are or where they come from. i'm telling you right now, they may come in through the weakness of obama, but they are going out if i become president, they are going back to syria. whether it is safe zones or whatever. they are going back to syria. >> we have a noble tradition of taking care of refugees. we have done it since the beginning of time. we need to maintain that. having said that, we need to screen people and do the things that are appropriate to make sure the people coming here are legitimate. send them all back to a hell hole? this is the same guy that is also advocating what is supportive of putin and his

emergence in syria. >> and there are calls from others who say the u.s. is not bringing in enough to its refugee process. the political jabs from jeb did not stop there. bush campaigning in new hampshire. he said donald trump needs to put on his quote big boy pants. marco rubio edge the past him in the polls, was also a target. bush sat down with dana bash. >> reporter: there has been so much talk of donald trump and how he has affected bush's campaign. the other story line is how marco rubio is effecting jeb bush's campaign. rubio is not only seemingly doing better here in new hampshire and even nationally, but it is a personal issue for him because the two of them knew each other very well in florida. the two are friends. jeb bush was his mentor. there are a lot of republicans who we talked to who are actually torn between the two. i asked jeb bush about that.

here's what he said. >> i'm a proven leader. i disrupted the old order in tallahassee. i realilied on marco rubio and others to follow my leadership. we lead the state on job growth. we reformed what was broken. i could be that in washington, d.c. we had a president who came in and said the same thing. new and improved. hope and change. he didn't have the leadership skills to fix things. he has been the most divisive president in modern history. we need someone with proven leadership to fix things. i believe i have those skills. >> reporter: that line talking about his own leadership, that is something that he is trying to press more and more. we heard it here at his town hall and maybe more importantly his campaign is now spending money, big money, on ad talking

about his bio. his aides believe this is something he can actually pull off because he has the money and organization as long as people actually know that he's just not another bush. the question is how long that will take. they said they are in it for the long haul. >> both jeb and trump have events in new hampshire. we will see what other attacks they launch. dana, thank you. on the republican ticket, ben carson and despite comments about muslims, he had a big third quarter haul for his campaign. they raised more than $20 million over the past three months. carson speaking to a group of fellow physicians in new hampshire on wednesday. sounding like trump when funding his campaign. >> i have made it very clear that i'm not going after the billionaires and the special interest groups. i'm not licking anybody's boots. i'll not be beholden to any

special interest groups. >> on the democratic side, hillary clinton's fund raising take was $28 million. also a sharp drop from the record setting take of $47.5 million in the spring. the pace of donations for sanders campaign picked up dramatically over the summer. he collected $25.5 million in the last three months. his campaign touted the fact it reached 1 million online donors faster than any candidate. it turns out the big crowds are reaching into his pockets. >> he has a lot of support online. we have breaking news overnight. afghan forces taking back part of the city seized by the taliban, but where do they head next? we are live next.

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breaking overnight, afghan forces say they have retain the city of kunduz. the operation still ongoing. forces working to clear taliban fighters from a few districts within kunduz. i want to bring in cnn's nic robertson. he can tell us what is happening on the ground. how reliable are the reports that the special forces are able to oust the taliban from the strategic town? >> reporter: the taliban are tweeting they have pulled back

from the town, but they still control the two districts inn side kunduz province. it seems unlikely the government will be in continuous operation there and retake the areas. the taliban have had them for months. what turned the tide here are two things for the government. one is they were able to get reinforcements through to the outskirts of kunduz and the second thing, nato and u.s. advisors on the ground who were involved in calling in air strikes when their own positions were being threatened by taliban forces. they have that combined effect and nato/u.s. advisors helping the log jam. can they really clear out all of the taliban? the towns people decided to side with the taliban against the

local police and government. we heard reports from residents in the town that the electricity was cut and water was cut. food prices going up two or three times for the price of regular food i tems. the government has to get the basic services up and running. the taliban will not give up entirely. we can see them mount counter attacks. now the government does have control over most of the city. >> the help with the u.s. and nato advisors on the ground. thank you for that, nic robertson. the u.s. spending trillions in afghanistan and iraq. the investment is not a great look this week. east coast flood. record rainfall happening as hurricane joaquin gains strengths. we are tracking the storms next.

the east coast flooded and it could be just a preview of what's to come. this happening and hurricane joaquin gaining strength. an unpredictable new phase in the four-year long civil war. russia launching air strikes in syria, but isis doesn't seem to be who the kremlin is targeting. we are live. welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm boris sanchez. we are half past the hour. we have breaking news this morning. joaquin now a category three hurricane. as of last night, we had no idea where it was going. it is bearing down on the bahamas right now. another storm produces record rain up and down east coast.

>> it has been raining and it is very wet here. separate, but unfortunate before joaquin. in massachusetts, a very, very dry september ending in dramatic fashion. 4 inches of rain. north of boston, a woman had to be rescued from the flood waters. and watch this in worcester, mass. she stalls out and boom. the weather snarling traffic across the region. >> it's bad. it's just gridlock everywhere. there's flooding everywhere. i've been on the road for two hours. >> and in maine, the national weather service says more than 5.5 inches fell on portland. one of the ten all time wettest days in the city's history. rain knocking downpo power line. and west of baltimore, knee deep flash flood water rushing through streets.

a local ymca flooded with three feet of water in frederick, maryland. >> i really did not know that flash flood went quick rain, everything. >> it looked like a freaking river. >> this could be followed by hurricane joaquin. where will that storm hit? let's go to meteorologist pedram javaheri. >> good morning. with so much uncertainty of a storm system of a category three, all of the cruise ships have been diverted because the storm is so powerful. you can get outside on land if you were to be in this region and run past the storm in a faster speed. the model disparity is remarkable. this time yesterday, the models had it going to the carolinas and mid-atlantic. now we are seeing more widespread action here with the models to south carolina and

some to new england and portions of massachusetts over the next 48 to 72 hours. i want to show you why this is a complex forecast. we have a negatively tilted trough moving in. these like to do with a tropical feature, they draw it to the north. steer it to the united states. offshore, we have an area of high pressure. this will want to draw the hurricane back offshore. we want to see this play out. the models having a tough time differentiating with the storm system. if it is close enough to the eastern seaboard, we pause it and show you the trough that digs in across the united states. here is the category three hurricane parked off portions of the eastern seaboard. notice the interaction. we fast forward and it pulls on this tropical feature and dives right to the northeast. this is sunday afternoon to sunday night. you see the european model. wants to take the high pressure offshore.

we have seen it favor more back to the west. again, a lot of uncertainty between the storm system will do and if it is anywhere near the coastline, the heavy rainfall could be life threatening. keep in mind, the flash flooding is the number one related killer. when you talk about this rainfall on top of saturated soils. not to mention the gusty winds over 100 miles per hour from sunday night and overnight from cape hatteras. when you consider the impact here, it could be large. >> i do not like your forecast. pedram, i like you. i do not like your forecast. >> i like you, too, christine. we hope for the european model to take this offshore and this becomes a preparation. >> this is so recent from super storm sandy. that was disruptive and dangerous. it is not forecast to be anything like that. >> you know, christine, it is

interesting. the last time we had a weather pattern and typically, you don't get hurricanes impacting this side of the country. they guide storms offshore. this trough is resembling what sandy did to try to guide the tropical feature to the northeast. the model despaisparity is larg right now. we are hoping that plays out here. >> thanks for that. >> i usually say i'm a fan of the european model for different reasons. thank you, pedram. the eyes of the world are on syria, of course. the u.s. countering the russian claims that the air strikes targeted isis. the word first came when the russian appeared at the american embassy in baghdad with a note that warning the u.s. should stay out of the air space.

barbara starr asked ash carter about the move. >> reporter: you have been deal with the russians for years. the russian general shows up in baghdad at the embassy saying the air strikes begin in one hour. what do you make of that? is that acceptable military to military relations with you and where does this leave you if you sit down and talk to the russian military about a way ahead? is this not a little bizarre? >> you are right. i have been dealing with them for a long time. this is not the kind of behavior we should expect professionally from russian military professionally. that is one reason it is a good thing to have an avenue of communication that is less unprofessional than a drop-in. >> the u.s. accusing russia of misleading of the target of its air strikes. american officials say the war planes were not flying in isis held regions.

the report is some of the air strikes hit areas backed by the united states. the united states accusing russia of pouring gas on the fire in the civil war. let's bring in our matthew chance live in moscow. they were set to sit down today and deconflict the status of the war in syria there. what do you think will come of that? >> reporter: there will be military to military contacts on a very formal level that will be implemented as soon as today so the two militaries can deconflict and make sure the various war planes flying in the skies over syria from both the united states and from russia don't shoot each other down. which is what everybody wants to avoid. there is a lot of unclarity if

that is a word, about what targets the russians are hitting. it said yesterday on day one of the campaign, it targeted eight specific isis targets, including fuel dumps and ammo dumps. that is conflicted by the united states and their intelligence work saying other rebel groups have also been in the firing line. it is also to some extent contradicted or questioned by the foreign minister. he had a meeting with the secretary of state last night and after that, he told reporters that we were invited by the syrian government to help fight isis and other terrorist groups as well. that is something the kremlin is saying all along. they don't draw distention with the isis and other rebel groups.

>> matthew, has there been any word from saudi arabia? they remain strong. they probably don't like what russia's doing. >> reporter: no and i expect they don't. of course, there is no love loss with the russians and saudis. they have been on opposite sides of the syrian conflict for some time now. yes, it is unlikely the saudis will be happy with what the russians are doing. the united states as you mentioned, have been backing certain aspects of the rebel x factions as well. everybody has a finger in the part of the pie in syria. russia is coming forcefully on one side in that conflict. its objective is to support bashar al assad and anyone who stands in his way is likely to

become a target. >> should be interesting to see what happens next. thank you. no government shutdown at least for now. breaking overnight. congress passing a stop-gap spending bill with hours to spare keeping the government funded through december 11th. that is when republicans are expected to push hard to defund planned parenthood. president obama signing the measure as soon as it reached his desk calling it good news, even if the bar for congress is quote somewhat low. e-mails show hillary clinton staffers were worried about her private e-mail server. the e-mails reveal five phishing attempts targeting her while she was secretary of state. now it is revealed that the start of the tenure at the state department e-mails are missing from the first two months. time for a look at your money. u.s. stock futures are starting the fourth quarter strongly after a rally yesterday.

the dow rose 235 points. a powerful start. watching hurricane joaquin getting closer to the u.s. investors are hoping companies will capitalize on preparations and clear-up efforts. owens corning and lowe's shares are up as well. flashlights. paper towels. >> wine and beer. wait. they don't have that. he says send them back. donald trump explains what happens to syrian refugees if he is elected, but bernie sanders sets fund raising records. is it enough to beat hillary. that's next.

donald trump and jeb bush butting heads on the campaign trail. this time over the subject of refugees fleeing the civil war in syria. trump telling the new hampshire town hall and cnn's don lemon as president he would send refugees back because he says they could be isis sympathizers in disguise. >> why are we accepting? i heard today 200,000. are these people isis? we have no idea where they come from. i'm telling you right now, they may come in through the weakness of obama, but they are going out

if i become president, they will not stay here. they are going back to syria whether it is safe zones or whatever. they are going back to syria. >> we have a noble tradition of taking care of refugees. we have done it since the beginning of time. i think we need to maintain that. having said that, we need to make sure we screen people and do all of the things appropriate to make sure people coming here are legitimate. send them all back to a hell hole? this is the same guy that is advocating what seems to be supportive of putin in his emergence in syria. >> some of the supporters of more refugees to the united states say the u.s. is too stringent already. now to the democrats. hillary clinton's third quarter take is $28 million. that is a bit more than bernie sanders. a drop from clinton's record setting take of $47.5 million in the spring.

the pace of donations for sanders campaign picked up over the summer. he collected $25.5 million in the last three months. his campaign touting the fact it reached 1 million online donors faster than any candidate ever. he is drawing the huge crowds across the country, but a lot of energy for sanders, he is getting money. >> joe biden, if he jumps in, he has catching up to do. taking back part of the city seized by the taliban. what's next in this fight?

breaking overnight. afghan special forces have retar retainir retain a city in kunduz. cnn international editor nic robertson joins us. we learned there have been air strikes launched there. what are you hearing? >> reporter: we know the taliban by and large do seem to be pushed out of the city of kunduz. the province is a bigger issue. two districts controlled by the taliban. they have been for months. no indication the government will go ahead and take control of those. no indication that the taliban completely drop their fight for

the city. one of the two key things, change the dynamic and order the government to retake the area. one getting reinforcements here and the other was having nato and u.s. special advisors on the ground who were able to direct and bring in air strikes on positions that threaten ed them. the government trying to restore electricity and water. the people short of food and food prices have been sky rockets. hundreds of civilians at hospital. people in the corridors and on the floors there. a big mopping-up operation for the government. in the midst of that, taliban will continue to try to move back in. boris. >> nic, thank you. we thought it was under control. the afghan forces outnumber the taliban, but obviously that did not help.

>> with so much the u.s. has spent in the area. and your credit card is getting a security update. why that might cause headaches at the checkout. next. re than 20,000 different proteins in the human body. they fuel our energy, support our metabolism, amplify our performance and recovery. they're essential for good health. your body's best source for protein? gnc. now get the world's best protein formulas at an astounding price. buy any gnc protein powder and get 1 half off. everyone needs protein, every day. and now all gnc protein powders are buy 1, get 1 half off. only at gnc.

it's thursday morning. i'm christine romans. let's get an early start on your money. european stocks higher this morning. u.s. stock futures pointing higher. a strong start to the fourth quarter if it holds. the dow rose 235 points. not enough to save the worst quarter in four years. a lot of uncertainty. china slowdown and political gridlock. this is a big day for your credit card. today marks the milestone for the shift to new more secure chip enabled cards. banks used to cover bogus transaction. if you have a chip enabled card and used in a store that upgr e upgraded the payment system, the retailer is on the hook.

you will have a few more seconds at the checkout that could cause confusion at checkout. facebook users, ready to get creative? the site will let you upload a video as mobile profile picture. you can set a temporary one as well. if you want people know you are on vacation, you can upload a beach photo for a week. >> will they come up with a feature to tell you why people have not responded to your friend request? >> are you kidding me? >> we are still waiting. >> you are my friend. i'll look. "early start" continues right now. east coast flooded. record rainfall happening as hurricane joaquin gains strength and barrels to the u.s. will this be a one-two punch?

and russia launching the first air strikes in syria, but isis may not be who they are targeting. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm boris sanchez. it is thursday, october 1st. 5:00 a.m. in the east. we are following breaking news. joaquin now a category three hurricane bearing down on the bahamas as another storm produces record rainfall up and down the east coast. >> look at massachusetts. a very dry september ending like this. 4 inches of rain. north the boston, the woman had to be rescued after being stuck in the flood waters. this driver in worcester, massachusetts, gets to dry land and stalls out. opens the car door and all the water. the weather snarling traffic across the region. >> it's bad. it's gridlock everywhere. it's flooded everywhere. i've been on the road