so some good signs, it's a body blow for owners of businesses. this restaurant had two feet of water in the store. a sense of a body blow a the lo of hard work ahead to recover. but the overall mood is really one of determination. the biggest challenge so far really has been two things. one thing water has been blocking the way when it was up waist high, we actually saw a fire truck that could not get through. there was a barge on fire behind me and some eager and frustrated firefighters could not get to that plume of smoke. and saw electric power trucks unable to get through the water. we are seeing a difference now, the power trucks are able to flow and perhaps most importantly, the national guard is out and about. we have seen helicopters overhead as well as their high water vehicles. they have more than 2,000 of them. so they are not only performing search and rescues and welfare checks on people, but also clearing the roads to make things easier for folks to get

around as the water continues to recede. john, back to you. >> john: did the boats, steve, stay where they were supposed to? >> most of the boats did stay where they were supposed to. we had several people actually sleeping in their boats to keep an eye on them. and to let out slack as necessary. a lot of anxious boat owners just looking with fear as that water rose and rose. we had one good over the seawall but the rest are in good shape where we are standing. >> john: big difference from ian in fort myers. steve from tarpon springs, florida. thank you. hurricane idalia setting its sights on the southeast, already blasting parts of florida and georgia and forecast to barrel through the carolinas later on tonight. any moment now, the south carolina governor henry mcmaster will be providing an update on the state's response. continuing coverage as "america reports" rolls into hour two. i'm john roberts in washington, good to have you with me. >> aishah: good to see you again. i'm aishah hasnie in for sandra

smith. so the cat 3 hurricane left behind a path of destruction in florida's big bend, strongest storm to hit that area in 125 years. we have been watching catastrophic storm surge and heavy rain flooding roadways and bridges in florida. >> john: stunning drone video of a home that last its entire roof, completely blown away in keaton beach, which is where the national hurricane center says the eyewall came ashore. let's get right to fox weather as katie burns, live in charleston, south carolina, where the storm is headed and looks like the weather has been deteriorating since we last spoke to you. >> having a little trouble as we have the heavy band of rain moving towards us in charleston. this is the battery, the wall that protects the beautiful homes when you picture charleston, the people who live here, businesses, everybody has sandbags trying to hold off some of the rain we are getting but

it's not even the worst of it. we are expecting the real impact to happen here really from the 4:00 p.m. to overnight hours, and what people are especially worried about is high tide. that's going to happen around 8:30, and some are worried the water here in the charleston harbor, the ashley and the cooper rivers connect, some are worried the water could reach the seawall and crash over it. we have not seen that just yet, but we have seen it really not move down at all, we are approaching low tide and the water is not changing much, not a good sign for people concerned about the possibility for flooding, storm surge, we are in a storm surge warning here as well as a tropical storm warning and really we are one of the last stops for this storm. it's making its way through georgia before it makes its way toward us. we are definitely feeling it now, and you can hear the rain and wind around me, john. >> john: it stings pretty good, too, when it slams into your

face. katie at the battery in charleston. aishah. >> aishah: i've had my share of that when it hits your face. >> john: sand is the worst. >> aishah: oh, yes. storm surge has flooded parts of the florida gulf coast. robert ray in clearwater beach. what are you seeing there now? looks a lot better than what katie is experiencing. >> yeah, no doubt. yeah, what katie is experiencing we went through predawn here on clearwater beach, and that's when the surge came in. this is what we expected, i'm in a neighborhood on clearwater beach. take a look all the way down as steve trains down the street. block after block of storm surge in this neighborhood and many of these homes have taken in on the first floor water. here is the good news, if there is any in the aftermath of a hurricane. there is no major structural damage, at least here on clearwater beach to report. lieutenant told me earlier they

have pretty much surveyed the entire barrier island and no injuries either. a lot of people listened to the mandatory evacuation orders and they left. that is according to the clearwater police. now we still have the wind gusts pulling through here, the rain is done in earnest, the system is just massive and moving across and the remnants still are happening here. now guys, there are power outages all over florida, hundreds of thousands and up on the big bend, that is where the storm came in, idalia, at 7:45 a.m. this morning as a cat 3, it was a cat 4 just before it came ashore and 10 to 15 feet of storm surge on the bend in those fishing villages going in for perhaps even miles, knocking

down some of those big lob lolly pine trees and life oaks and power lines. hundreds of thousands of workers are ready to go into the areas to clear the debris and address. pinellas county where i'm at is assessing this area, including tampa, tampa bay and the barrier islands. the storm may be gone and the good news is surge did not hit the potential, which was seven feet, that was the prediction. we went just under four feet and that is the silver lining, at least here in clearwater beach as the assessment continues here in florida, and unfortunately, i never like reporting this, two people have lost their life, that is confirmed, here in the state, as the system treks to savannah and charleston. back to you. >> we appreciate it. >> john: take a moment before we

go to the next thing, the two deaths he was talking about, one was in pascoe county, a 40-year-old man travelling eastbound on st. joe road, apparently he was driving, according to police, too fast for the road conditions, slid off the road, probably hydroplaned and slammed into a tree and a 59-year-old male, very much the same thing. was driving a toyota, went through a ditch, crashed into a nearby tree line. both of them losing their lives in traffic accidents. the governor, ron desantis, had said so far no fatalities, but looks like we have at least two now. both of those traffic-related. we have been keeping our eye on the low key hide away tiki bar in cedar key, florida. at one point, the water level here, was as high as the bar itself. the owner evacuated but he is making his way back after seeing video of the damage. we are going to speak to him live in just moments.

but first of all, let's bring in storm chaser mark sudiff who shot the video. what's the situation like now? >> it's better better there, but it's a relative term, it's a big mess. you say i shot that video, we shot it with a remote camera similar to this one right here, because scott was going to evacuate, we brought in the technology to see what happens on the inside. there is all this video outside, i've done that the better part of 18 years trying to develop this technology. we wanted to have something inside to see what the impacts were, and there you have it>> so you set this up before the storm came in, and then just watched the footage as it was coming through. >> that is correct. we have developed this technology using off the shelf products for the better part of 18 years now. we met scott by sheer chance at cedar key setting up equipment on the outside of places, and he

said he owns the tiki bar, and i wanted to do it for a while, finding the right person and right circumstance, to put a remote camera inside and that is exactly what happened and we got to see and hear as all of this unfolded today as idalia made landfall. >> aishah: mark, talk to us more about that, the meteorologists were doing a fantastic job tracking the intensity of the storm and it was a cat 4 when it made landfall. you were living through it, you were within the storm. talk to us about what that felt like when a cat 4 hits land. >> i've been in, and my equipment has been in numerous category 3 and 4, and unlike anything else. the weather in the eyewall is as different as the weather on jupiter, very violent, the down

drafts, the stabs of wind, the instant destruction of property. i think about hurricane michael in 2018. for this one, i went up to tallahassee after finishing upsetting the equipment with my colleagues and went to madison florida, there is also a madison, georgia, and i get them confused, and when the eyewall, what was left of it, that area. >> john: my big first hurricane was hugo in 1989, and everyone thinks of the wind blowing. when it got above 130 miles an hour, it's like a high pitched whine. almost sounds like a turbine engine. that's incredible video. thank you for sharing it with us. >> i can't wait to hear scott's side, what an amazing person and appreciate letting him do this. >> john: stay tuned. he's coming right up. >> aishah: life to scott larson, he's a bar owner, hopefully

there is not much damage. thanks for making time for us. you are on the side of the highway. tell me what you've been seeing on your way back in. looks like you have some traffic behind you. what are you been seeing on your way back in? >> i'm basically on the first bridge that crosses over to the island and they are not letting anybody pass at this point so we are stuck here until they let us over. we are just going to sit here until it happens, or i'm going to paddleboard my way over, something. >> aishah: do you mind panning to show us what the traffic situation looks like? yeah, pretty much at a standstill. >> john: we see some jet skis iend you and airboat. what did you think when you saw mark's footage from inside your tiki bar? >> it was hard to watch, but i watched it last night until the power went out, but you couldn't see much, and i was up this morning at 6:00 waiting to be

able to see again and yeah, it was heartbreaking watching the glass bottle walls go down. everything what you don't see under the water, those were glass bottle walls, they are down, we can put them back up. we have a great island here, a great community here, great mayor, keith davis, he's amazing, been here for generations. thankful for all the people. as far as i know, nobody got hurt, that's most important, everybody is safe. >> scott, has your bar ever flooded remotely to this level before and have you had to repair and rebuild before? >> old owners did, it's gone through several hands before i took over. it has, this is what happens and it's part of living down here on the water. it could have been worse. they said up to 16 feet, we would have been -- it would have been a complete loss. so, that didn't happen, we are happy, now just a lot of work

but we'll come back. >> john: one more quick question. those who choose to live by the sea sometimes have to live with the sea. that's obviously the case here. it's bad enough when freshwater intrudes, this is salt water. so, what kind of a job have you got ahead of you in terms of rebuilding and cleaning the place up? >> yeah, definitely complicates things. we are a brick building, this happened before, it's a little different. we'll do our best. we boarded up every window, used gorilla tape on every door which has proven to work in the past. besides the bar, i have a motel there and my house right behind it. so hopefully i'll go back and an inch of water on the ground or go back and five foot wall of water but i don't know until i get back over there. we'll see. >> aishah: scott, assuming you have really good flood insurance? >> it's as good as you can get,

but you know, it's never that great. >> aishah: scott larson, owner of the low key tiki bar in cedar key. hope the bar is just fine. >> john: jump to south carolina, governor mcmaster is talking about the preparations for idalia. >> again, this is not something we haven't seen before. there may be newcomers to the state who have never seen a hurricane or a flood, but those of us who have been here for a number of years have, and again, we have seen -- we have seen some bad ones. one of the worst was hurricane hazel back in the 1950s, another of course with hugo in 1989, and that really hit us. this does not appear to be in that category at all but it is still dangerous and we are prepared. we have some shelters that have already opened up. we'll explain that more. some are open now, more

available to be open, and i would advise everybody again and you ought to do this all the time. this gives us another opportunity to did it, get all your papers, important papers together if you have to leave the house and can't come back. get your pills, your prescriptions, your pets, get -- have a plan for all of that, and understand that you may be trying to get those things together when the power is out and you need to get out of the house. but until you have to get out, stay home, stay home tonight, don't go sightseeing to see what's happening, don't go driving around, there's nothing good going to come from that. so, again, we have been through this before, been through a lot worse than this one appears to be, so we are ready, your team across the state is ready and we want everybody to be as ready and prepared, don't panic, but be prepared and get your information from official

sources. director stinson, emergency management division. >> thank you, sir. team south carolina has had a lot of experience with preparing for and responding to and recovery from hurricanes and tropical storm over the last few years and probably our greatest strength we have as a team. as the governor mentioned he issued a state of emergency yesterday, included activation of the state emergency operations plan. activation of the plan allows us to coordinate state resources more efficiently and under the emergency management framework that has worked well with many disasters in the last several years. the state emergency operation center here has been activated and staffed 24 hours a day for the duration of this event to coordinate state response efforts. and current priorities here at the state emergency operations center includes support to counties, our primary mission and contingency planning for possible transportation

additional sheltering, supply and equipment missions. we started conducting county coordination calls monday to share information, identify any issues, and we have had a robust logistic system to assist local authorities and that system has been validated again extensively over the last several years. we have only received a few questions, rather requests so far for support, and that includes sandbags and shelter management. and those have either been filled or are being filled. as the storm moves through south carolina, residents should keep in mind a few key points, some of them the governor has already mentioned. stay tuned to local television and radio stations. >> john: there is governor henry mcmaster talking about the plans that are being made to prepare citizens in south carolina for the arrival of hurricane idalia, in the next few hours there, it

will track sort of through columbia, just southeast of columbia, where the governor is right now and then along the coastline through charleston, myrtle beach and exit around wilmington, which has seen so many hurricanes over the decades. i was there for bertha and felix a long, long time ago. >> aishah: too much. >> john: it's a beautiful place to live. >> aishah: once in a while you have to deal with this. we are going to continue to watch the path of this storm as it heads east. dramatic video still ahead after this break, it's going to show a moment that a boat house collapses and washes away in the floodwaters. veteran homeowners checked your credit card rates lately? many are over 22%, near 30% if you pay late. why not do what thousands of veteran families have done. call newday and pay off that high rate debt with the lower rate newday 100 va cash out loan.

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>> john: fox news alert, mitch mcconnell speaking at an event in covington, kentucky earlier this afternoon, appearing to freeze again when asked a question. look here. >> what are your thoughts on running for re-election in 2026. >> what are my thoughts on what? >> running for re-election in 2026. >> that's -- >> did you hear the question, senator, running for re-election in 2026? i'm sorry, we are going to need a minute. senator. >> you want to head outside? you want to come with us? ok. >> john: this is the second time something like this has happened

in a very public setting in just the past month. you'll remember mcconnell freezing during a press conference on capitol hill in late july. his office says leader mcconnell felt momentarily light-headed and paused during his press conference and an aide tells fox news the senator will be consulting a doctor before his next event. >> aishah: that's the key take away. you'll remember the last time this happened, he did not go to the emergency room, doesn't sound like he went to the emergency room this time around, too. so, clearly not an emergency situation, almost feels like the office, the staff knows what's happening and are just going to connect with his physician. we don't know what the situation is, the office has not been forthcoming about what ailments he might have, what conditions he might have, but i do know that lawmakers on capitol hill, including republican senators do wish him well. some have asked him to release more information about what might be happening, but we'll

wait and see. we'll see. >> john: you have to wonder, too, if it's happening publicly, is it happening in private settings as well. >> aishah: this now, white house correspondent peter doocy at the white house press briefing, he was a couple moments ago and in the briefing he pressed karine jean-pierre on the response to hurricane idalia, compared to the president's response to the maui wildfires. take a listen to this. >> ok, and it seems like the hurricane response so far is robust. did you guys realize that the initial hawaii wildfire response was not that good, or is it just easier for people to get help from the white house when the president is not on vacation? >> so the premise of your question and the way you pose the question i disagree, just for the record. so, if you talk to, if you were to do your reporting and speak to the governor of hawaii, the senators of hawaii, the folks on the ground, they would say that the president reacted in record

time when he came to dealing with the wildfires. when it came to dealing and making sure they got everything they need on the federal level to deal with what was going on on the ground. let's not for great, more than 600 federal employees on the ground already to assist with the wildfires in maui. so, your question is wrong, it's flawed in many, many ways and i would -- i would advise you to go speak to the governor and the local and state officials in hawaii. >> john: can read it, if you talk to the democratic politicians in hawaii they will tell you the president did a good job but some of the people on the ground were very unhappy with the response from the federal government to what happened and they feel they went days without an appropriate response. >> aishah: and i think words are very different than actions. actions speak louder, right, and we are watching what's happening in florida and how governor desantis is responding.

i'm interesting to hear from some political pundits out there how they make the juxtaposition between how the governor is responding to this situation, this hurricane, and how the president is, we are supposed to hear from him at some point today, we haven't yet. we'll bring you that as soon as he makes his way to the podium. >> john: and people in the lahaina area were not just complaining about the federal government, they were complaining about the local response as well. and also the power company there. we expect at some point this afternoon to hear from the president. we'll see when he comes out. california's corner general taking on a school district over its new policy on transgender students in which schools are required to notify parents if their child requests to change their gender identity. william is live in los angeles with more on this, and this is very similar to the situation in new jersey with three county school boards wanted to do the

same thing. obviously popping up across the country. >> john, i think it's just the beginning and if it's not happening at a school near you it soon will be. here in california it could be headed to the ballot. we'll find out as voters, blue as democrats in sacramento, the governor say any school violates the privacy and puts the student in danger by outing them to their own parents. >> the deep troubling reality transgender face disproportionate levels of abuse and harassment and are at great risk of suicide. >> i think the plan to fight back is just stand our ground. we are not going to cave into their bullying tactics. >> so chino valley is 1 of 3 districts to notify parents in writing within three days if

they become aware of a student using a name, a pronoun or bathroom that don't match their biological sex. >> they waged a war on parents. saying we do not want you, the parents, to be involved in your children's lives. >> who's right, we'll find out when it goes to court. file papers on the ballot an initiative that requires schools to notify parents when students alter their gender identity, restrict girls to locker rooms and sports teams based on biological sex and bans surgery or hormone therapy for transgender minors. if it comes to fruition, the results could change the way the state is treating this issue right now. >> john: and as we saw in new jersey with the school boards, a judge placed an injunction on them enforcing their policy. we'll see what happens here with this court challenge in california. william, thank you.

aishah. >> aishah: so hurricane idalia struck florida's big bend sweeping storm surge inland and flooding the streets there. life in the capital city of tallahassee where they saw the strongest storm in over a century.

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>> idalia is throwing hay makers right now into clearwater beach. >> what a remarkable sight it is as we watch these very strong wind gusts continue still this morning to push all of the water from tampa bay on to bay shore boulevard. >> the flooding is so bad right now that you can't see where the river ends and the floodwaters start. >> aishah: unbelievable. hurricane idalia unleashing its fury across florida after making landfall in the state's big bend region, not too far from the capital city of tallahassee.

the mayor say likely the strongest storm in the city's history. brandy campbell is live on the ground there for us. hi, brandy. >> good evening. look, you are talking about it being a strong storm, i just spoke to our meteorologist and said the top wind speed gusts in the tallahassee area was recorded at 54 miles per hour. the wind speeds, that was one of the main concerns here the mayor told me yesterday because as you can see behind me, we have a lot of greenery but the trees, as you can see, a lot of them, and they are tall and right next to them is a lot of power lines. so they were concerned the high wind speeds would knock them down and cause a lot of power outages. so, i just checked, there's about 39,000 in this county, but across the state, thousands of people are impacted and about 260,000 households still out of power. thankfully we still have daylight on our side.

hopefully more people will get their power turned on. some areas were deeply impacted. one even being the governor's mansion, governor ron desantis, his wife, she actually posted this photo saying their 100-year-old oak tree fell on the governor's mansion in tallahassee, she said they were home, her and the kids but thankfully no one was injured. also we are just hearing about trees that have fallen down around town, but crews have been getting out already cleaning them up to get traffic flowing, you know, to clear up the disruption that idalia caused in the tallahassee area. back to you. >> aishah: brandy campbell live in tallahassee. thank you, brandy. >> john: the weather looks good there now. it's not just the immediate impact that can cause worry but the long-term impacts a ripple effect, damages from infrastructure, healthcare, water systems, cause a domino effect for years to come. not to mention the psychological

impacts as well when you come back to an area that's along the coast where you lived and had a beautiful life and it's gone because the hurricane washed it away and don't know what's happened on keaton beach. let's bring in dr. marc siegel. these things can affect people in so many ways, doc. >> absolutely, john, and what i worry about the most long-term is the mental health issues of being uprooted and having to go back. but we are seeing with this storm some immediate effects will have a lot of impact in terms of displacement. power outages up into georgia, hospitals are being evacuated as you know in the area. tampa general staying open but have to build a big wall against the water so thank god they'll be there, a level 1 trauma center. when you are uprooted, people forget to take their medications and they may be lifesaving

medications. a lot of problems with insulin in previous hurricanes and here, hurricane ian caused a lot of that. and if you are running or evacuating, you can get injured on the way out. you can hit things. you know, especially if you are under storm surge conditions and waters, and power lines down mean a lot of electrical damage, and in the wake of the storm, john, you are going to see a lot of infections because the waters themselves get contaminated with bacteria, especially in the area there is sea water and also the water from sewer water get come baned and a lot of diarrheal diseases, and then dehydration. talking mid 80s down there, and with the power outages, people are going to get dehydrated and be at risk of infections. >> aishah: why, dr. siegel, it's so shocking to hear stories about how people are trying to go swimming in some of these flooded areas. i don't know what they are thinking because you are talking

about possibly sewage and other chemicals that are floating around, rat feces, got knows what is in this baert water, you know, that people are just walking and wading through, what kind of precautions do people need to take when they do go back home and walking around in a foot of water? >> i agree with what you just said, aishah. totally. you don't know what's lurking under that water. you can actually bang into a pole or some kind of wood or nails or -- these things can cause wounds and if you get contaminated wounds and you are in conditions like this where the power is down, you are not going to be able to wash them out. where do you get the antibiotics if the pharmacies are closed and potable water. i met down at hhs command center

and look at what they do during these hurricanes, it's pretty amazing. they track using medicare information, you would think they are not allowed to do this but they can. they track who has what, and so when they start doing rescue attempts they know who has a ventilator, they know who has a battery-operated piece of equipment. so sometimes you literally have to show up at the door with batteries to keep people alive. a lot of chronically ill people in these areas at risk now and to john's original point, a lot of post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of this even when you do get back home. >> john: i want to ask you about that, doc, you talk about the water, i remember after hurricane katrina i met a fella taking shelter up on i-10, he had a knee operation 2 or 3 days prior to the hurricane and he walked a mile through that flooded water with the scar still fresh and staples across his knee and his leg, and i said to the guy, have you had that

looked at? and he says i haven't had a chance yet. you have to think that could get infected so easily. but let me ask you, you know, i mentioned before -- a place like fort myers and your house got blown away or you know, atlantic beach as we saw before, people's homes got blown away, again, we don't know what's happened on keaton beach, there were a lot of mobile homes there, i'm sure a lot of those succumbed to the storm's fury. just the fact that the alert goes out, you have to pick up, you have to leave, you have to go find a hotel somewhere, you have to find a way to safe ground. as aishah and i said, these are beautiful places in the world to live but you also have to learn to live with hurricanes and being uprooted, and that's going to take a psychological toll on you. >> yeah, that's assuming that you do everything the right way, and as you and aishah both say when you leave, and i say you take your medications that you go slowly, that you try to limit your exposure to contaminated

waters. these are contaminated waters, and then maybe you are staying at a shelter, or staying at a hotel, and all of that is going down the line to cause post-traumatic stress and the immediate period following this you are numb, in shock, you are not going to be thinking clearly and may make wrong decisions. then where are you going to go to for your healthcare? like your man with the knee in katrina, i'm sure his first thing was to say i don't know where my orthopedist is, if he will be back in the office. and all the hospitals in the area except for two are closing and thank god tampa general is open, one of the top hospitals in the country, that is open. but you are not going to know where you go for your regular medical care and the therapist, who knows where your therapist is, if you are seeing a therapist and your socialization network is frayed by the hurricane as well. >> aishah: dr. siegel, thanks for taking the time, appreciate it. we hope there are a lot of

doctors like you down there ready to help. >> i'm ready to help. thank you very much. thank you. >> john: thanks, doc. >> aishah: idalia still a hurricane cat 1, going about 20 miles an hour. i'd like to take a moment to address my fellow veterans, because i know so many of you have served our country honorably. one of the benefits that we as a country give you as a veteran is your eligibility for a va loan, which lets you buy a home with no down payment. now, there's no reason to rent when you can own. helping veterans buy homes. that's newday usa. ♪ entresto is the #1 heart failure brand prescribed by cardiologists.

it was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. moved overland, it has now

shifted to category 1 but still very dangerous with winds up to 75 miles an hour. and the impacts of the storm are being felt throughout the southeast, even as it moves up the eastern coast of the united states, affecting georgia, south carolina, north carolina, and we have to remain vigilant and there's much more to do. i just came from the oval office where i met with the fema administrator, standing to my left here, and our federal response folks, and early monday morning long before the storm made landfall i spoke with governor desantis, and approved an early request for emergency declaration to enable him to have the full support ahead of time to protect the people's lives in the state of florida. we surged personnel to florida to help the state move people quickly to safety and out of the danger zone, and to help the governor and his team to the greatest degree possible in advance, in advance of the

hurricane's arrival. and i directed the fema to redeploy personnel throughout the southeast. and stay in close touch with the color, she was with me when i was speaking to him as well and i guess he's tired of hearing from both of us but he seemed like he welcomed it. as a matter of fact, i have asked that she get on the plane and leave for florida this afternoon. she'll meet with governor desantis tomorrow and begin helping conduct the federal assessment at my direction. federal teams on the ground are going to continue to work with the first responders in florida, georgia, south carolina, north carolina, to get people to safety. you've all been reporting this and seen it on television, number of rescues already taking place. as i walked out of my office a moment ago to begin to recover from the impacts of the storm.

i let each governor i spoke with know if there's anything, anything the states need right now i'm ready to mobilize that support of what they need. i don't think anybody can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore. just look around. historic floods, i mean historic floods, more intense droughts, extreme heat, significant wildfires have caused significant damage like we have never seen before. not only throughout the hawaiian islands in the united states but in canada and other parts of the world. we have never seen this much fire. and while we are dealing with this latest extreme weather event i remain laser focused on recovering and rebuilding efforts in maui. we were out there and many of you were there as well. it's devastating what happened there. when i took office i directed my team to raise our game in how we lead and coordinate our responses to natural disasters. and because i've been around a while and i've known how these

function. to ensure we met the people where they are when they need our help the most because of the devastation of wildfires from california, new mexico, oregon, washington state, idaho, louisiana, we have learned a heck of a lot. a lot damage in the meantime, we have learned a heck of a lot. in a few moments i'm going to be meeting with my entire cabinet the next room over leading the federal recovery and rebuilding efforts and report on their progress providing urgently needed support to the people of maui. if i can note for just a moment, you know, when you have your home washed away, when you are, a fire has taken your home away, when your school has been destroyed and can't send your kid to school, these are urgent needs and no matter how bright, how informed, how wealthy, how

poor they are, it's -- just need reassurance. how in god's name am i going to get through this? jill and i saw the devastation in maui firsthand and i want to thank governor josh green, doing a hell of a job, total unity out there and for everything they are doing to support the recovery effort. i directed my team to do everything we can for as long as it takes to help maui recover, rebuild in a way that respects and honors the needs of the local community. we are not going to turn this into a new land grab, we are not trying to see multi-million dollar homes on the beach. we want to restore that part of the island like it was before, only better. to that end, when i was on island last week, i appointed bob fenton, one of the leading

emergency managers, as the chief federal response coordinator to lead our long-term recovery on maui. i've charged him with making sure the community has everything, everything the federal government can offer to heal and build back better as fast as possible. you know, he'll be giving me a report virtually on maui when i walk out of this room and go to the cabinet room of our meeting in a few minutes. as an example of our commitment, not only building back, but we are going to build back stronger and more resilient future which means we need to be ready to withstand any challenge coming our way and rebuild the way maui wants to rebuild, nature of the rebuilding. i'm announcing $95 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law is on the way to hawaii to harden the ground power, harden the grid we talk about. i know when we start talking about the grid, the average american out there thinks what are we talking about.

well, the ability to transmit electricity. well, let me tell you what it means. it means investments to make sure electricity can continue to reach homes, hospitals, water stations, even during intense storms and extreme weather. funding will be used for stronger and better poles holding up the wires that transmit the electricity. it will mean stronger material. it means burying these lines that transmit the electricity underground. it's more expensive to do that but where possible, we should put them underground, they are safest. clearing trees and brush around these wires. like the kindling that exists out there, that's what it ends up being when one of those wires come down. and this funding is going to pay for installing technology, technology like smart meters that can tell you where the problem actually is when the line goes down. that's part of the problem. a lot of these other, not

hawaii, maui is not that big, but in parts of california, oregon, those places where these fires were, where did the wire go down. we are going to be installing meters to let t person sitting back in headquarters know oh, it went down at such and such a coordinate, such and such a pole. to enable emergency responders to more quickly identify which lines are damaged or down, so repairs can happen as quick as possible to get the power back on and prevent damage from occurring and anything else at our disposal. the department of energy, we'll be talking about this in a minute, accelerated the announcement of the funding to meet the moment. all of this is going to help maui and the state of hawaii better understand future disasters. it's not going away, it's not like oh, these are the last disasters. i've watched some of you folks standing in front of me on television in dangerous circumstances reporting on this

stuff. you know it. it's one thing to have someone else report it, but you are standing there and wondering oh, what's that behind me, you know. it makes a difference, you know. because we've, you know, we've done it before. look, under the obama-biden administration we invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the state of florida replacing wood poles with steel poles and burying electric lines. wonder what would have happened now, but we did it. help them recover from disasters more quickly than they otherwise would have. it works. it costs a lot of money but it works. it saves a lot of money in the long-term. when jill and i visited maui last week, we saw firsthand the magnitude of the loss. lives had been dramatically changed, if anybody in maui is listening, you lost everything.

i mean, they lost anything. and we are doing everything we can to move heaven and earth to help you recover, rebuild and return to your lives. we have already had dedicated $24 million to removal of hazardous material left behind in the fire's wake. there is pollution in the material, a lot of that just can't go in and take bulldozers and clear it out. you have to take the bad stuff out. you have to take out the polluted and dangerous stuff. and once we have done that, and we are able to remove all the debris, but it's going to be frustrating as the devil for people. say why can't i go back? the storm is over, why can't i see if i can find the wedding ring or that album, can't find that thing that i've lost in the house. it's really tough. really, really tough. i don't know anything like that but lightning struck my house, we had to be out of the house about seven months because so much damage was done to the house and half the house almost

collapsed and you wonder what's going to happen. we have already dedicated $400 million to pay for the debris removal. once we get the toxic stuff out to take all the removal, and we are going to -- the federal government's going to pay for that. the state is not paying for that, and dedicate more if necessary. i want to be clear about the people of maui about what to expect. the work we are doing is going to take time, in some cases a long time. we are going to do it in a way to make sure we are respectful to the wishes and traditions of the people of hawaii as well. the process of removing hazardous material and cleaning environmental damage means folks can't get back in the area right away. the start of school has been disrupted, it's painful, i get it. what can i tell you? the one thing i can tell you is we are going to be with you every step of the way, we are not walking away. when jill and i visited we are

struck by the absolute courage of the people there. people who lost loved ones, lost everything. people are trying to find out whether the ones they lost, are they gone, dead, are they missing, or just not accountable. where are they? they have lost everything. everywhere we turned we saw and felt the aloha spirit, neighbors helping neighbors. i know this sounds kind of corny but it's true. it's true. everybody is reaching out, trying to help the other guy. trying -- keeping the faith. administration will work with urgency and focus to help the people of maui on the journey to recovery and healing and we are going to make sure you are healed and in better shape than before. i said when i was on the island last week, we are not leaving until the job's done. and we'll be there as long as it takes. i know there's a lot of questions you probably have, i'll take a few, but i have a cabinet meeting coming up right

away. yes. >> mr. president, can you assure americans the federal government is going to have the emergency funding that they need to get through this hurricane season? >> the answer is if i can't do that, i'm going to point out why. how can we not respond? my god. how can we not respond to these needs. and so i'm confident, even though there's a lot of talk from some of our friends up on the hill about the cost, we got to do it. this is the you state of america. yes. >> mr. president, governor desantis is also running for president. you are running for re-election. do you sense any politics in your conversations with him about this issue? >> no, believe it or not, i know it sounds strange especially the nature of politics today but you know i was down there when the last major storm, i spent a lot of time with him walking from village -- from community to community, making sure he had what he needed to get it done. i think he trusts my judgment

and my desire to help and i trust him to be able to suggest this is not about politics, it's about taking care of the people of the state. >> mr. president, on the hurricane, in your conversations with the governors, is there anything that you've heard from them that gives you pause, things that you think need to be there that are not quite there yet, and secondly, are you making any contingency plans on your own schedule, either with this labor day, with your own personal travels and also international travels coming up next week, are you going to need to reshuffle things? >> well, i may, i just don't know yet, and first of all, the -- each of the governors seem to be focused and i think what's changing, particularly the governors from north and south carolina as well as georgia, is there wasn't an anticipation that it would be moving up the coast. they were hopeful and initially looked like it was going to go

further east and not affect them. so, i think they are all in the process of rapidly focusing on what may happen, what may not happen, and what i hope the people of those states listen to is the warnings when they come from the -- a lot of it -- they may not see 130 mile an hour winds coming through but guess what, you may also be on the shore in low-lying area and have an eight-foot surge of -- wind surge coming from off the ocean. but they seem -- they've all went through it, the guy furthest north, cooper, governor cooper, he's really focused on that. they all are, i don't mean to pick -- but he is the least likely to have the most impact occurring on his shores, but it's a lot of low-lying country. i was joking with him, i mean, my state is, you know, anything

like a hurricane in my state, in delaware, and suburban -- the eastern shore of maryland, we are three feet above sea level, man, you worry about what the surges do and that's the same thing still happening in florida because you are talking about the high tide, low tide, adding three feet i found them all to be laser focused on what their needs were and i -- i asked them, but i think they're reassured that we're going to be there for whatever they need, including search and rescue off the shore, the coast guard and coast guard helicopters and the like. >> mr. president, a question for you about -- we talked about power lines and how strong are