Morning Express with Robin Meade

When today's 'True Champion' Cyclist Phil Southerland was just a baby, doctors told his parents that he'd be dead by 25... and before that, he'd go blind as a result of his diabetes. Well, Phil is now 29, and he's eyesight is perfect.

Phil has written a book titled "Not Dead Yet" where he talks about diabetes being his gift, and how he's used exercise to help him focus and keep this disease in check. I spoke with Phil about the importance of educating kids about diabetes (video above).

You may read with your child every day... but are you making the MOST out of that time together? Tiny changes in 'story time' could make a big difference in how your child does in school when it comes to reading.

Here are some tips that "Morning Express with Robin Meade" correspondent Ryan Smith picked up while reporting on cutting edge methods educators at the Atlanta Speech School are using to help kids overcome all kinds of reading disabilities. Each student at the school gets individual treatment to help him or her get over their individual literacy hurdle, but there are some general things every parent can do to improve a child's reading ability.

Hope you had a great weekend! Here’s some Sports with Tiny Winners, Biggest Losers and athletes who are K-I-S-S-I-N-G…

The kids from Huntington Beach, California are the Little League World Series Champions, and they grabbed the title in super-dramatic fashion. With 2 outs and the bases loaded in the final inning, the coaches son Nick Pratto drilled a bases-loaded single which sent Eric Anderson across home plate giving California the 2-1 victory over Japan. The start of the game was delayed more than three hours after the outer bands of Hurricane Irene brought more rain than expected to the Williamsport area. But the sun came out half way through the game, and it was quite fitting that the team from California celebrated in the sunshine.

This is one you are going to want to click "Share/Recommend" on. Robin called this military reunion "breathtaking" and Carlos says, "THAT is how a man kisses a woman!" Army Sgt. Justin Smith just off the plane after several months in Afghanistan gets hugs from his daughters, and then seals this reunion by giving his wife Shirley a "Hollywood" style kiss... good stuff. Welcome home Justin.

Submit a salute of your own by visiting the special Morning Express with Robin Meade Salute To Troops assignment page at: iReport.com!

Hurricane Irene’s impact is going to be huge. I’ve been following along with the National Hurricane Center the path and strength of the storm, and it looks inevitable that it will make at least one landfall on the US East coast. The timing goes like this: It will probably gain a little strength this afternoon south of NC. Tropical storm force winds will start to come into the state this afternoon. Hurricane force winds (over 74 mph) will build through the nighttime hours with the center of the storm reaching the shore by Saturday afternoon. It will chug across eastern NC for a few hours and emerge just off shore from VA, encountering the cooler Labrador Current. At this point the winds will be knocked down a bit, but since the storm itself is so large (tropical storm force winds extend nearly 300 miles from the center, with hurricane force winds extending 90 miles out) it really doesn’t matter much. There will be tons of power outages starting in NC Saturday, VA, DE, MD on Saturday night. The storm will roll past or over NJ on Sunday and into the NYC area Sunday afternoon, with numerous outages and flooding. From there Irene will rain through the Hudson Valley and into New England with 6-12” of rain and fast winds through Monday.

One of the biggest concerns is the storm surge for the NYC metro area. It’s likey that Irene will be a Category 2 storm once it reaches the area, and that means the storm surge will envelope and submerge the Brooklyn water front (including the Naval Yard). It will most likely put the FDR under water, flood portions of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, submerge Lower Manhattan (Battery Park, Wall Street), cover a good deal of Governor’s Island as well as Liberty Island and Ellis Island. The West Side of NYC will have flooding up the Hudson. Over on the Jersey side Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken up the base of the Palisades will have flooded roads. The Lincoln and Holland Tunnels will most likely see flooding too.

Hurricane Irene is a powerhouse of a storm this morning. It’s been plowing through the Bahamas Island chain since yesterday, and I’ve even seen an unofficial 100 mph wind gust in Nassau. The storm should continue to roll over warm sea surface temperatures which will allow for more strengthening this afternoon (the warmer the water, the more energy the storm can feed from. 80°F is the magic number for the storm to gain strength). The NHC ramps the hurricane up to a Category 4 storm by tonight (8/25) with winds around 135 mph but then buzzes the wind down a bit just before it closes in on the NC coast Saturday. As the storm emerges off the Mid Atlantic coast, it will be steered northward over the cooler Labrador Current waters that are off the VA/DE/MD/NJ coast. This should help to weaken the storm further before it reaches the NE coastline, but not by much since it’s so large that it will take time for it to wind down.

The big waves, rough water and outer most rain bands are in south FL this morning, and they should spread to the Jacksonville area by late today. Winds will probably top out near 40 mph for Miami today.