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what the hurricane centers are seen. the meteorologists are part of the briefing. usually it is the director and finally, it is about when the

storm and start tuning and making sure all the pieces are getting as much information they can because we know the hurricane's -- the former director was famous of saying don't focus on the skinny black line and what hurricane ian is showing us, communicating uncertainty is difficult even in torm as parallel though florida coast, slight changes can be a big difference and the emphasis on evacuations. there is a lot of work that goes through the storm. during the storm, it is simple. they anticipate state requests and moving in additional search-and-rescue teams. at the aftermath, this is the recovery after the camo sleepwear fema is working to

support local governments in rebuilding their uninsured losses and that can take years. it is other agencies that are required to support this and fema's -- they are the first money but they are not the less money. that is the rest of the federal agencies looking at the long-term. host: you mentioned the last color. he was talking about that experience during hurricane hazel during the 1950's saying they have no warning. talk about tracking and how much farther can we go in tracking storms? do you think we will get to a place where we will know when the storm starts from the coast of africa, pretty much well --

where it will end? guest: goes back to committee -- it goes back to computer modeling. i have been in the business long enough where originally, they only gave a three day forecast in the 50's and 60's, there was little lead time. when you look at loss of life, the biggest killer was storm surge. that number has gone down with forecast warnings. hurricane katrina hit and the numbers went up. hurricane ian, the numbers went up. how do you communicate uncertainty that you are at risk, even if the skinny like line is a coming to you and the tendency to focus on where we will think it makes landfall. he -- ian was a huge storm and i don't think people were saying this but -- u.s. storm surge

down in the florida keys while away from the center -- well away from the center and that is what the challenge was the hurricane center talked about. we will have impacts well away from the central circulation. that is a shower area and the water can get high and the water is -- unless you go through it, it is hard to explain. i wonder how may people think about devastation and say that was when. most of the damage of the coast was water damage. host: that is your sense as you may have seen more recent numbers. 80 people dead. it is expected to rise. that storm surge was a killer, mostly? guest: it was part of that. one other thing is after the

hurricane, it is dangerous and the way they count five tallies -- fatalities, they look at what was caused by the hurricane and indirect deaths that was caused by falls and carbon dioxide. you look at how did people lose their lives? what was that so we can understand that? there are questions and this is the perfect opportunity to point out that in congress, they have a bill. this is something i have advocated for. we have a national transportation safety board goes under -- for plane crashes. they will find out what happened and what people thought but trying to get down to what decisions were made? why did that crash occurred? our air traffic is so much safer compared to where it was in the 70's and 60's.

that is something, -- congress has a bill right now to ask if we should -- look at these things and try to get the answers of why these things happened. why did it happen? how can we change that so the next disaster, we are not repeating this and improve systems? host: why can't fema do that? do they have their hands full? guest: you have to plan the perspective -- i have been part of the after action parts in fema and it is a national -- natural tendency issue to get further away from the disaster. you are not getting to the uncomfortable answers and i think we need someone independent -- you don't want to be in a position to be critical of everything.

having an independent agency that does not work for fema or homeland concert -- security. like that national transportation board, they don't work for the faa. the opinions are based on what they found and what they recommend and that is an dependence -- independence. >> we are talking to craig seagate. our program ends at 10:00. if you are in the time zones, it is -- eastern time zones, "washington journal" continues. --(202) 748-8001 --(202) 748-8000.

if you have been impacted by hurricane ian, it is (202) 748-8002. guest: i get asked this question, why do we have to wait for a disaster to find how bad it will be? machine learning is used to have a better understanding on how disasters impact. how does it affect the infrastructure? we look at the function versus the building and go, -- earthquakes and high winds, how are they impacted and as we saw florida with the extreme rainfall, one of the things we looked at is how do you forecast the impact of extreme rainfall that goes beyond the flood insurance rate reps -- rates maps. places that have never flood it

will flood and can we identify that and look at hospitals and other infrastructure. host: you mentioned the flood insurance program. that program has a borrowing authority of a $30 billion limits but it is a rope and that is often in -- program that is often in the red. why is that and explain how that program works. guest: it was created by the federal government in the 60's when the commercial industry got out of flood coverage. congress acted to protect mortgages and created the flood insurance program. one of the challenges has always been -- it is very difficult as a government based insurance

program to act like an insurance program. historically, that has been a conflict of if you start raising prices, it causes either people to drop insurance our congress is concerned if they are making it unaffordable. fema has been implementing risk 2.0. we tried to move to basing the rest by the home and pricing it -- the risk at the home and pricing it accordingly. we turned back to the treasury -- the taxpayers to make up the difference. congress has periodically forgiven debt. don't think of flood insurance is as -- insurances as commercial. host: from florida, this is

connie. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i went to speak with someone who has worked for fema -- i wanted to speak with someone who works for fema. -- worked for fema. i was in in florida -- and land in florida --inland in florida. i am between tampa and florida -- orlando and i was surprised to see in a wooded area behind my home, there is a human use -- humongous flood zone. there is no river back there. it must be a low-lying land. i did not see any explanation.

there are all sorts of areas in in land florida -- and how frequently are these maps updated and why are there no other designations than the one gear --year left -- -- flood -- our governor said the flooding that took place is the once in a 500 year period. i have a feeling that i am in the zone. guest: we call those maps flood insurance rate maps and the zone is based on areas and it doesn't have to be on a river or lake. it is low-lying areas that exceeds the risk for 1% based on historical data and the reason the zone a is so important, that

is where it triggers. there were carter meant -- the requirements -- there is a requirement to purchase flood insurance and it is optional for people outside of that. we talk about the flood maps and we don't identify it is a rates insurance map. if you are not in zone a, the insurance doesn't cost as much but it doesn't mean you don't have a flood risk so there was an article a month ago that talked about 5000 year flood events. working backwards is going to challenge and the, schrader of -- prime minister -- administrator up --of fema -- we are finding out in florida and we will see this in other states. probably less than 20% of people

that had flood damage have flood insurance. the fema system will not make them whole. we ran into this in better rouche 2016. saw this -- you saw this in hurricane harvey where the flood is getting so bad and exceeding the 1% risk that just because it is not a mandatory purchase requirement, is probably a good idea to purchase what insurance outside of flood in because if you do flood, your homeowners policy covers it. be insurance risk is much lower. host: it is time to do away of these terms like a 500 year flood? do people understand what these terms need -- mean? guest: no. the terminology, -- we are

trying to convey uncertainty and getting people to understand the probability of something happening but we are talking about the terms of insurance. instead of being upfront and saying, generally, when you live in these areas, when you get extreme rainfall events which are not always going to be hurricanes. rising water, the average home, the water is $25,000 plus damages. financially, we have put a lot of people that are at extreme risk low on these maps, saying i don't live near the flood, it doesn't mean that and we have to be clear about flood risk and that is changing. what i have heard, it doesn't

get that bad, i don't need flood insurance and i go back after the hurricane and they say i don't think it would -- i didn't think it would bps -- be this bad. fema does not supply funding to people that have full coverage from their insurance. they provide coverage to people that don't have insurance and they primarily assist people who don't have insurance and don't have the means to get a loan from the ball -- small business administration so when you talk about the billions of dollars they go out the door for fema, it is often going to people that have a loss that was not covered by insurance. flood is when of the fastest growing risks -- one of the fastest growing risks. host: it is -- is it time to

think -- re-think where we built -- we built -- the building --r ebuild? guest: and other places, it is looking at how you engineer but the thing i know is building the back -- it back the way it was will just result in the next disaster. from some damage from superstorm sandy, some communities said we will take the properties on the front of this and we will buy those out and turned them into parts and a buffer area and built behind the areas but we will elevate and increase the building codes. at means it is looking at how do you take advantage of natural, defensive spaces and

deconstruction that allow storms to go in and come out. host: atlanta georgia. this is calvin. --kelvin. caller: my question is what does a person that don't have resources to be able to just up and move and maybe don't have a car and maybe you are elderly, what does a person like that do to try to get out of the way? guest: where tornadoes, -- with tornadoes, you won't have much time and when you look at fatalities at -- and various types of natural hazards, the portion of the loss of life is elderly people. what we can do about that is probably more than i have time

to talk about but talking about hurricanes, this goes back to local programs and what we saw after hurricane andrew, doing better planning for institutions like nursing homes and hospitals, making sure the shelters are survivable and people have ways to get there and when we talk about evacuation, people don't have money and gas is expensive and don't have a car. that is why we open up and they look -- work closely with organizations. they have shelters so people have somewhere to go and they provide various forms of transportation, including sending ambulances out for people that are medical depended or needs -- need some wheelchairs or other needs. these are things that counties and cities work on. the challenge is getting people

to understand if you don't have the resources, the way to the storm is threatening to find out how you get transportation. try to find out where you can get an ambulance or a wheelchair accessible vehicle and in counties, they are opening up shelters, and they are more pet friendly. it used to be, they tell you to leave your pets behind. a lot of places are pet friendly and the images i was pleased to see are the search-and-rescue operations, they are taking pets. host: officials face questions over the late evacuation order in lee county. this is lynn on twitter who asked, do you think they gave week -- lee county enough

advance warning and she says no. she says the administrations have blood on their hands. guest: i have been doing this for a long time and i am not in the emergency center listening to the conversation and seeing the data. it is hard for me to tell and that is why i think something like a national disaster safety board can look at what happened. we want to go back to the decision-making. making decision and ordering a evacuation is not risk free and when we move evacuations in frail populations, we have loss of life. you also have to look at and moving people, particularly in southwest florida. those counties are dependent on i 75 going north and south and going into the miami area and i-4 fourth-quarter.

there is an -- not a lot of big transportation. there is a lot of moving pieces and there are a lot of questions and i am not in the position to provide answers and observing from the outside, i am not there and i could not tell you where -- what they are doing and bring a national disaster safety board is a way to find out what was the decision-making. host: jeff is in arizona. caller: c-span keeps putting me in douglas. that is not where i am. you are talking about the follow-up investigation and i like the idea. one of the things we should consider is that we have an infinite command structure.

we have some things we can use for forensic analysis. we are not taking advantage of that. machine intelligence, i like your [indiscernible] considering i know something about that and i have to point out that the racist trading data we use in the country is a considerable drawback. there is nothing more races in the country and the way we construct the kinds of facilities that are particularly damaged and they flood and living in the [no audio] talking about the role of evacuation and fire, making that evacuation decision is not easy. people lose their lives.

my hats off to come up following up on that -- my hats off to, falling off -- following up on that -- guest: we use this command to manage the -- there is a lot of information that they are collecting. there will be an opportunity to look at the data and the recorded information. these are things we will see happening afterwards. high point to challenge this -- i want to challenge the question. people go, what happens? that is the easy question. why does it happen? how can we provide information and support tools to get to better decisions based upon what we are learning? if we say, here is what happened

but don't change anything, we will repeat this. host: a question from somebody in maryland asking is there a webpage that lists documents that fema and insurance companies will need and where should the documents be stored since in disaster, they might get blown away. guest: if you go to fema -- they will tell you about the documentation and they accept various forms of documentation to ensure people get help about screening out people that don't have a drivers license and other things. one of the best tools -- is if you have a camera, take pictures. if you have a phone, take pictures. the able to record information. if you look at evacuation writings, one of the things they

tell you is put all your documents, including your insurance stuff, on backs and take them with you. when you're in a hurry, you may not be able to find that stuff and don't waste time looking for it if you have to get out but fema has information and particularly for the fema assistance under the individual household programs, they are looking at the uninsured losses so if you don't have insurance, that is where fema will be working. if you do, go file your claim to see if things that are not covered that are eligible for fema systems and we will look at the process. host: to braden in florida -- south of tampa. this is bill. caller: my question is not really a question and i am wondering if, for every foot, of

surge, a standard could be developed that each foot has a certain power, meeting push -- meeting push forward -- meaning push forward and develop standards for building coastal housing. it is somebody concept pressure coming to blow off and take a house down. i know you have to guess that the search will happen -- surge will happen but if you have a scale that says, 1-20 feet and each foot is x number of pounds and you better have your anchors on your house this deep or whatever. i wonder if that could be

possible to develop. host: thanks. guest: this is a great point and there was a theme that i remember when senator scott was governor of florida and it was a tale of three houses. there was three houses in the florida keys and one house was destroyed in the 70's -- and was built in the 70's of 80's. one was still standing but had damage. the homes after -- built after 2004 were standing. they were elevated. they had pylons -- so the storm would go through the home under the pilings and not do damage and things like elevating the air-conditioning units of higher so they are not wiped out and that is something we do know and

will we go back and rebuild, you will see those types of elevations and that engineering. we know it performs better and that will be the key requirements. you will have to build for the newer codes. the question will be, as florida's building commission looks at the impacts, both there be any additional elevation requirements based on their findings? the florida building code takes in account the increasing storm -- surge. to a certain point, that his wife once we get out of the storm surge area and get to the elder construction. newer construction looks like bruce and other things that have failed at high rates. who are dealing with flooding and that -- you are dealing look flooding and that is why we look

at buildings and areas that may not be at the high risk of flooding insurance but still has flood risk and in florida, we don't have basements.

>> flood insurance is so important for people. the other thing we are seeing, more recent, increase in extreme rainfall. we talk about the storm surge on the coast, the freshwater flooding from the heavy rains. we saw this back in harvey, we saw this with thunderstorms and with hurricane ian. this is, from the national weather service perspective, something they were forecasting, the storm was moving fast, the waves were coming in and it was going to bring a lot of rain. it would bring rainfall in many areas along its past. -- along its path. in many cases, it is evacuating aftereffects. we are still seeing the impact.

rivers to get out to the atlantic or the gulf of mexico, you have flooding going on in the state. host: this is kathy in wisconsin, good morning. caller: i am wondering how much fema, a couple of years ago i had family in st. charles, louisiana. the rain was coming in. they evacuated, they came back that night, rain coming in. there are these people going around, builders, even local. does fema oversee any of that? guest: it is a two-part question. the first thing is, local and state government -- local

workers and contractors. either their insurance companies, or helping people who don't have insurance. fema has another program they did launch in lake charles called operation blue roof. that is what they contracted through the core of engineers to bring in contractors to protect the contents. the more moisture we can keep out, the better chance we have of recovering the home. when it comes to the big roofing operations that they needed, that is something often called operation blue roof. that will bring in more resources. they are working on the primary residence.

getting those roofs covered to really stop the loss. host: we do always appreciate your time. the chief emergency resilience officer had one concern on twitter, you can find him on twitter. it is our open forum. any political issue you want to talk about online, you can do so. we have about half an hour for mid open form. it is (202) 748-8001, four republicans that want to call in. (202) 748-8000, for democrats. (202) 748-8002, for independents. a major role in cases before the justice department ships. they say it is the opening day of the 2022, 2023 term of the

supreme court. you can watch arguments beginning at 10:00 a.m. on c-span.org. we will be covering those opening arguments. it is a case with the environmental protection agency that you will be hearing at 10:00 a.m. with -- hearing at 10:00 a.m. as the justice takes the bench. along with the devastation you can see in that photo. the headlines southeast affect the damage after hurricane ian. will -- we will be joined in about 25 minutes to talk about the federal government's role in disaster response. another front-page headline that has been in advertisements in the wall street journal, "cuomo is back." chris cuomo returns with an all new show.

that advertisement in today's wall street journal. chris cuomo, according to -- starting the second chapter of his career after being picked up by news nation. cuomo seeking a million dollars in damages after his firing from cnn. terminated by -- after advising his brother andrew cuomo about allegations brought against him. jim, out of tom beam, texas, good morning. caller: i just wonder, i am retired. there is no mention in the news,

television or in the paper about this terrible situation we have with the stock market. it just comes to collapsing. why doesn't anybody talk about it? i would really like to hear somebody say something about it. and hopefully try to fix it. that is my comment for today. host: this is tommy in belcher, kentucky. tommy, good morning. caller: i worked in the coal mines all my life. i worked for a living. biden, they tried to act like trump is a strong man. if he was so strong, why didn't he go into the military when he

was younger? if he was still in there, i don't ukraine would change. she would have gave us to russia because he loved sputum. we was in danger all the time that trump was in as president. that is my comment and i thank you. bye. host: that is tommy and kentucky's speaking of records in mar-a-lago. in the wall street journal, the record administration says it hasn't conduct -- it hasn't recovered all of the residential documents that were supposed to be turned in from the trump administration.

an account that work towards their official electronic accounts and ssent further to the house oversight and said the national archive would consult with the justice department on whether to initiate action to recover records, that they had been removed. that is just another one of the stories you will be finding today in the wall street journal. taking a look at the major papers as we shift from you in our open form. any public policy, any speech issue you want to talk about, it is (202) 748-8000, for democrats. (202) 748-8001, for republicans. (202) 748-8002, for independents. back to our phone lines. caller: do open form at the

beginning at the 7:00 hour for one to four hours so if you want to call in, you have plenty of time to call in and just have open topic for anybody who wants to talk about something. waiting around for 30 minutes or 20 minutes at a time to have open forum doesn't seem to work out so good. host: why is that? you having trouble getting into our foreign -- you having trouble getting into our open form? caller: i had trouble right now. i cap being cut off or dropped. do it like once a month or something. host: now that you are here,

what is on your mind? how did you get here? caller: dayton, ohio is the groundswell of vacant building- ism. we have so many vacant buildings. they promised they would start to tear down some of these vacant buildings. we have got a stretch of roadway down main street, it is all vacant. they have boarded up and they have been promising and promising to be torn down. they have money in the works to tear down these buildings and nothing is happening. and yet, they tore down my hospital within months after they closed it down.

they tore it down right before the pandemic hit. [laughter] so i just wanted to say, start tearing down some of these houses and businesses that are boarded up. when they get a chance, go in there and clear it out. host: gary in ohio. this is david from virginia. independent. good morning. caller: good, c-span. i give her taking my call. i have got a couple of issues i want to bring up. number one, the division in washington is so bad that i am not sure it could ever be repaired without something like term limits for congress. maybe even car -- maybe even term limits for supreme court. that would be the first thing. the second thing, i know during

the last campaign, the 2020 campaign, biden brought up the fact that if any president had 200,000 deaths, he didn't deserve to be president. in the biden administration, there has been 800 thousand deaths. we are up to a million deaths now. he is four times worse than trump was on handling covid-19. and one final comment. on roe v. wade, it has been such a controversial issue for all of these years, never codified in congress, i would like to see a national referendum on that issue in 2024. thanks for taking my comment. i appreciate c-span. host: kyle, republican.

good morning.

host: as you continue to call i do want to head to the sunshine state to the tampa area. i am joined by congressman kathy castor. thanks for coming on and we were showing viewers pitches earlier from the damage from hurricane ian. how was the 14th district? guest: here in tampa, where wap where, one week ago, i was boarding up my house and checking out for my neighbors

and there was evacuation issue here for the tempe up -- for the tampa area for the coast areas along tampa bay. we were getting ready for a total evacuation and by tuesday, the storm inched to the east a little bit on the track. our good fortune in the tampa bay area, really, -- a lot of folks are feeling almost guilty this monday morning because of destruction, devastation and the death toll in the lee county area. 's while, tampa bay -- while, tampa bay is getting back to normal. the tampa buccaneers played a big football game and the kids are back in school. down south, it is an entire

ly different story. host: what is your assessment and efforts for recovery efforts down south and argue headed down -- are you headed down there? guest: when we past -- passed the government funding bill to prevent a government shutdown, we front end loaded the disaster relief fund to ensure that there are no hiccups and the first responders and all the local communities in the disaster zone have the resources necessary until well after the election and so they can plan. what is happening is an extensive search-and-rescue effort. first responders from all across the state of florida, many from here in the tampa bay area and others from our local police department, from fire rescue, are down there helping with recovery.

we expect president biden to be here this week to survey the damage and meet with local residents. it has been very heartening to have the fema administrator on the ground and what i have seen along the interstate highway systems, enormous amounts of aid pouring into lee county and other counties to the flooded areas in the center part of the state that don't get as much attention as the coastal areas. it is a all hands on deck moment. host: coming back to the 14 district in tampa and you were talking about the fear of a worst-case hit on tampa and there is a lot of talk about the destruction that could cause. has this changed the way people are going to be viewing and preparing for hurricanes in tampa and is there more that can be done to prepare for and move

people out of the most dangerous parts of the area? it is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and only continues to grow. guest: there are a number of action items. first, because of climate change and warmer waters in the gulf of mexico and along the atlantic -- [applause] >> good afternoon. mr. president, i went to officially welcome you and first lady jill biden to puerto rico. we are honored to have you here. the le