s been to develop the minds and improve the hearts of its students. as a commitment to this mission, every student signs an honor code. a hillsdale college student is honorable in conduct, honest in word and deed, dutiful in study and service, and respectful of the rights of others. through education the student rises to self-government. >> lawrence: this is "fox and friends." fox weather alert. live look at sanford, florida. hurricane milton is category one storm packing wind gusts up to

80 mile per hour. >> ainsley: the storm destroyed countless houses like this one in miami. houses and businesses are without power and rescue is underway, responders are helping people trapped in flood waters. we have footage of what unfolded ove overnight in tampa. >> grab her arm. >> grab her arm. i'm going to grab her arm. >> good to -- it is okay. bubba. it's okay. you're okay. >> that's it. >> that's it. >> let's go. >> steve: wow. >> ainsley: so sweet. >> brian: st. petersburg, strong winds ripping the roof off --

caught everybody by surprise. >> steve: before the storm made landfall, it unleashed a record number of tornados, leaving people dead in st. lucie. >> ainsley: this was used to house vehicles. >> lawrence: janice dean is here. first we go live to cocoa beach. the sun is up, bob. >> let me show you what is going on, lawrence. we have last rain ban moving through cocoa beach. we have winds in last hour clocking 63 miles per hour. space coast is last coast that gets big batch of wind as it peels through. should see wind die down, here over next several hours for sure. it is broad storm, tropical

storm force winds go out 205 miles from the center. we have another couple hours of tropical storm force winds. then we turn our attention to storm surge that is going to come up. we have a lot of problems yesterday. a tornado ripped through where i was. i got the back end as it peeled out of the parking lot behind me and ripped off the roof of a couple houses and the wells fargo building. it had formative stages in the parking lot, it knocked down my photographer as he was trying to get the camera. heavy wind comes straight down on backside of a tornado, a lot of rain. it is pouring down the side of the building. amazing shots.

i did not see the twister, i heard it. it knocked my frofr dphotographr down. it took it here, tornado threat. rains calmed down yesterday evening. main feed er band moved off shore. now back edge peeling through behind us. as it continues to move, wind out of northwest blowing that storm surge up three to five feet. that will be major concern for areas north of here, especially st. johns river. st. johns river is north of orlando, they picked up 12 to 15 inches in the i-4 corridor. everything drains into st. johns, it goes south to north and will be halted because winds are pushing it in. salt water coming off atlantic ocean not allowing that to drain

into the ocean, which means major flooding around st. johns river for several days. >> steve: bob, the wind behind you, where there are power lines above ground, that is an issue. in florida, there is three million people without electricity. good thing about florida, we'll hear from the governor in 25 minutes. 20 other states are helping florida down in the region, dispatched there. they have 50,000 linemen from the united states as far as from california, 500 law enforcement from around the country, out of state. 51 counties under state of emergency. people on the streets at this point are law enforcement or power people waiting for the okay assign to energize that line. >> yeah, i would say so. numbers keep going up and early

this morning we were seeing power flashes behind me. that is 28% of florida customers are without power. they go to hospitals and fire departments and police departments and hardest hit to least hardest hit. 28% of customers without power. >> ainsley: a lot of kids out of school tomorrow and monday, that is case for a lot of new yorkers. many were planning go to florida, will they be able to go to these areas with power out and issues now? >> it will be weeks, at least weather will calm down later this afternoon and wind get below tropical storm criteria, weather wise back to normal and dryer and cooler next couple days, that will help. it is october storm not like

early august, where it is hot and humid after. that is some silver lining. people without air conditioning will not be sweltering. >> lawrence: excellent job, bob. wind is still whipping in jacksonville beach, that is where we find michael esteme, what are you seeing? >> yeah, lawrence, good morning to you. not seeing any more rain, although from time to time, raindrops feel like needles on your face. here is the thing. the wind in jacksonville beach gusting over 60 miles per hour at times. you see what that is doing to the ocean behind me, it looks like a washing machine. those white caps out there. there is rip current risk and still a storm surge warning in

effect just because winds are pushing that water onshore leading to some erosion, especially along the coastline. that is a concern in downtown ja jacksonville, we did not see a lot in terms of storm surge, which is great news. shout out to our photographer, wind is whipping around. thank you for trying to keep the camera steady. downtown looks good. airport, there are some cancellations and delays, you can expect taking off and landing from the airport -- wow, the winds are incredible. taking off will be bumpy. through this afternoon, expect winds to die down around dinner time tonight, thank goodness. back to you. >> steve: michael, are people surfing behind you or gawking?

>> yeah, great question. right now everyone is out of the wate water. we received emergency alert tones that say get out and stay out of the water. i don't see anyone surfing, folks walking along the beach right now. we will say, i saw surfers out there yesterday. i couldn't believe it. they were young. two students we spoke with from northern florida university. they got in and got out safely. in this type of weather, i think it is best to admire from the shoreline. >> brian: all right. >> ainsley: that poncho is blowing all over the place. how breezy it is. >> brian: check in with janice dean who is tracking entire region and path of milton. >> janice: can i give shout out

to fox weather and reporters on the ground. i worked overnight last night doing simulcast. we have the best in meteorologistrology and best reporters bringing the story and bringing humanity to viewers seeing what is happening in florida and to carolinas. we can't forget them from helene. a lot of problem on west coast, t two-foot surplus of water. anymore water moving from this storm is going to exacerbate an already bad situation. jacksonville, michael is on the beach, winds are gusting more than that. 29 miles per hour. st. augustine 39 miles per hour. daytona. 85 mile per hour sustained winds, this is 8 a.m. advisory, center of circulation is offshore, but we're still

getting counter clock wise motion and some cases could see storm surge along east coast of florida and shout out to national hurricane center, really predicted this storm almost to a t. we gave the warnings days in advance and hopefully everybody did heed the warning, getting video of tampa, st. pete, and 29 flash flood warnings. north of circulation, heavy rainfall, south of that was storm surge and we won't know how much storm surge we got until probably this week and next couple days when they measure the water line. 18 inches at st. pete, that will cause problems and we saw high water rescue in clearwater beach, over foot of rain. sun coming up, we will see scope of damage and someone will have

catastrophic damage today. >> steve: indeed. thanks. >> brian: lieutenant governor nunes joins us. we were surprised to see damage in miami. did it catch you by surprise? >> no, actually we had seen this was going to be a far-reaching storm. the governor and his emergency order had 51 of 67 counties included, especially those far from direct impact supposed to be. the tornados were something of concern throughout yesterday. we were encouraging people to stay safe, stay indoors. we are waking up to devastation and damage. hurricane helene packed a punch, florida is ready under leadership of governor desantis and we'll continue to help people rebuild. >> steve: we see damage there, one problem for floridians is insurance. you can get flood insurance

through federal government but problem is these days, there are a lot of insurance companies that no longer write hurricane insurance. if you can get it, it is quadrupled in last 10 years. for people looking at damage and thinking, should i be insured, what is the message? >> well, certainly we want to c contend with the issue and under the governor's leadership, we worked with legislature and did legal reform. then we've stabilized the market and seen nine companies come into florida and are writing policies and that created competition. we are far from where we would like to be, this is wind and water event and multiple areas were impacted. we'll continue to work to make sure people can afford, rebuild and do everything we can to assist. >> ainsley: what about

fatalities? sheriff of st. lucie say there were deaths in fort pierce, he thinks four there. any other fatalities? >> we're still assessing that, the governor will do a press conference soon and will probably announce additional fa fatalities. a lot of times fatalities occur after the storm, we are encouraging people to be careful in ensuing days, many times that happens well after the storm has left. >> lawrence: it is not quite time for people to leave shelters, everybody should be shelter in place? >> absolutely, we want people to stay where they are. we want people to get back to their homes, that needs to be done in a timely manner.

there are still emergency and national guardsmen and search and rescue, allow the linemen opportunity to start trying to restore power. we hope to get that back on quickly, nobody does it better than governor desantis, stay home and be safe. >> brian: 55,000 went to the shelters, six are totally full. quarter of gas stations are out of fuel. thank you so much. >> ainsley: i love ron desantis said in florida, we run the show, fema is not running the show, i'm the sheriff and we'll protect you. his press conference coming up in about 15 minutes.

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>> steve: hurricane milton left a path of damage across the state of florida. you look live in downtown orlando. >> ainsley: america's news root co-anchor is live. bill, what are you seeing?

>> bill: we have power, had power throughout entire night, good assign for people in orlando. main question is what happens here coming up 8:30 eastern time. governor ron desantis will be out and city officials in tampa will be out. why is that important? we have yet to get asesment of the barrier islands of sarasota and sarasota island and venice down to boca grand and sanibel. pine island two years ago, hurricane took out the bridge to pine island. governor desantis was getting ready for a primary race for republican nomination and there was a prediction that bridge would take two months to repair and they got it open within two weeks of time. last night we were given indication that bridge had been knocked out again.

no reporters have been able to get to the barrier islands. we do not have an assessment yet about how they survived through the night. that is key one. key number two, st. lucie county. if you go southeast from where we are in atlanta. there is mobile home community for seniors that got hit with tornados yesterday afternoon. leading band of the storm was massive. everybody watches where the eye is going and try to make a projection, the eye was coming west to east. the area in st. lucie is on the other side of the state. we had more than 100 tornado warnings yesterday afternoon. you get tornados with hurricanes, two, three, five, more than 100 in a day is extraordinary. check with our meteorologist at

fox, that might be a record. keep an eye on st. lucie, and where officials release information at daybreak. >> steve: looking live at flooding in the orlando area. screen right, you can see the bottom. thing about florida, they prepare ahead of time. they flew in generators, they have starlink and they do fences around hospitals and electric infrastructures so flooding doesn't knock them out. >> bill: great point. that is part of preparation the governor put in. he told his state to get raedz for seven direct hits. florida went 10 years without a hurricane. 20 years ago this fall where you

had three hurricanes in span of six weeks. summer/fall of 2004 and i think it was charlie and jean and fr frances coming east to west. this storm was west to east, which is rare. desantis yesterday said they prepositioned 20,000 electric teams and members to be ready to attack this storm. and going to be a big job getting power back. you see the video, lines are down everywhere. we'll wait to see what happens on the west coast, steve. >> lawrence: what do you expect to hear from the governor during this press conference? >> bill: my expectation, he'll have a pretty good handle on where hardest hit area is. you know, i'm very familiar with florida. i'm especially familiar with the west coast of florida. way the state grew, air conditioning came first and then

you had interstates. on east coast, it was i-95. folks in new york and new jersey went to east coast of florida. midwesterns went down 75, where it used to end and city of tampa. so all the midwesterners now are on islands i mentioned a moment ago, holding their breath to find out is my property okay. we spoke with a woman, did a show late last night. her name was ashley, she and her husband chose to stay. they had hurricane proof shutters that helped protect the house. she was on with us, it was pitch dark inside of their home. she was concerned with the sounds she heard outside. that is what is sinister about this storm, it hit in the dark of night. when all you have is your ears as your best sensation, the mind

does strange things with imagination. we'll be left to find out the reality soon. >> ainsley: you wake up not sure what you are going to find, is your roof in tact? do you have flooding? outside, the backyard? thank you, doing a great job out there. >> bill: thank you. i will leave you with this, there is a giant stadium in st. petersburg, i don't know if you saw it. it has a roof that got ripped off. they had cots on the floor of this arena stadium for thousands of first responders, i don't know what they will do now. >> ainsley: tropicana field. >> i'll see you coming up with dana for full coverage and fall out of hurricane milton. >> brian: emergency update from florida governor ron desantis, he will bring the facts and figures in 10 minutes.

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[coughing] copd isn't pretty. i'm out of breath, and often out of the picture. but this is my story. ( ♪ ) its path and did bring much destruction and damage. tornados ravaged east coast and flooding occurred on west and east coast and strong winds

lashed pinellas, manatee and sarasota counties. heavy rainfall 10 to 15 inches observed across tampa bay, nature coast and spreading along north of i-4 corridor toward sanford. isolated pockets of 18 inches observed in pinellas and postal hillsboro and gainesville, along eastern portion and south of i-4 corridor toward sarasota. several rivers reached major flood stage and flooding continues along the st. johns river and water levels forecast to continue rising along northeast rivers and waterways with many forecast remain within or reach mod erate to flood stae over next day or so. 80,000 people were into shelters

overnight as the storm hit the state. we will better understand extent of the damage as the day progresses and you have people assessing damage right now. first responders have been working through the night to help people who were in distress. what we can say, the storm was significant, but this was not the worst case scenario, the storm did weaken before landfall and storm surge has not been as s significant as observed for hurricane helene. right now it looks like sarasota county is the most significant storm surge, likely between 8 to 10 feet and with helene, we had 15 to 20 feet in taylor county. rescue missions are underway and 48 individuals have been rescued. national guard search and rescue

worked overnight and successfully executed rescue of families and pets on west coast and from introduction of tornados in the central and eastern part of floor. guard will work into the morning and have 31 aircraft operational and hundreds of rescuers engaged in 125 missions and 26 different counties. 6500 soldiers are deployed. florida fish and wildlife has made rescues. state guard has been engaged in search and rescue assisting with flood water evacuations and damage assessment. there are currently 3.1 million accountings without power. 635,000 restorations since hurricane milton hit florida. the areas with most significant outages are hillsboro, 75% out, hardy, 97% out, manatee, 82%

out. pinellas 68% out and sarasota 75% out. of course there are 50,000 plus linemen prestaged. a lot of what they will do this morning is assess damage and then begin restoration operations very quickly. we appreciate everybody that is in that fight, that is very important for a lot of people. cut and toss have begun at first light by florida department of trans portation. active in the field with 350 pieces of heavy equipment and trucks, 150 bridge inspectors dispatched at first light and performing inspections to open bridges across the impact areas. ig put in executive order, residents have a right to be back in their homes as soon as roadways are deemed safe. in tampa, bridges have been

inspectd and cleared and open and sunshine sky way inspection is underway. there is debris on the sunshine sky way and courtney campbell, once cleared we anticipate those will open later this morning. other bridges will be open as soon as inspection is completed. tampa airport should be open no later than tomorrow. as of now initial assessment is they will resume operations very quickly. we still have a lot of school closures for today. i think floridians should keep in contact with their local officials about what that will be. a imagine a lot of schools that were not in direct path of the storm will be open tomorrow, it may take a few days for places harder hit. as you survey damage and clean up, please be cautious of

hazards. we have post-storm fatalities almost every storm and a lot of fatalities are avoidable. be cautious of downed power lines, don't touch them or remove tree debris entangled with downed power lines. standing water can conceal downed par lines, please be mindful and never walk through storm waters. standing storm water can carry bacteria that can lead to fatal infection. this was responsible for a fatality following hurricane helene, please avoid wading through stand ing water. use proper ladder safety. please use proper generator safety. do not operate the generator inside your home, must be outside, safe distance from doors and windows. visit florida modules on

expediaand priceline, when returning home and sustained damage or in need of other type of shelter. these models will continue to provide realtime hotel availability and lodging resources, making the experience easier for users. if traffic lights are out, drive with caution and treat each light as a four-way stop. remember, if you use a chainsaw, be careful, we have mishaps with that after every store. we are extending hope florida line 24 hours seven days a week. if you need assistance or resources call 1-833-get-hope, program designed to help people find help following a disaster such as a hurricane. y can call hope line and visit

hope bus, which will be in some areas very soon and they'll be announcement about that. florida commerce and state emergency response team activated business damage assessment survey in response to hurricane milton. self-report physical and economic damage caused by the storm. businesses can complete the survey online at florid floridadisaster.biz. florida commerce activated small business emergency bridge loan program, we have 50 million available to florida small businesses, zero interest loan, flexible repayment option. apply for loans up to 50,000 through the program. loans for 100,000 are available for agriculture and loans of 150,000 available for citrus and cattle operations.

short-term zero interest loan. get cash in your hand, repayment terms are flexible. apply at floridajobs.org/ebl. we have also activated florida disaster fund for those that want to make tax deductible charitable contributions to help floridians in need, go to floridadisasterfund.org, if you have questions. we'll continue to support all remaining rescue missions that are underway and may be needed in the near future and continue to assess damage that was done from the storm. we also anticipate because of amount of water, you may see flooding happen not just now, but in the subsequent days. everybody responded quickly, i'm

proud of everybody's hard work. we have more work to do, we will get through this. kevin guthrie. >> good morning, governor, thank you for your leadership, time and time again. i know you and the state emergency response team will lead the charge as we recover from this storm. hurricane milton made landfall as you heard the governor say impact from the storm are being felt across north and east central florida as last banding train of rain starts to move offshore. if you are in the areas, in those areas of northeast florida, east space coast, please make sure you're sheltering in place until furthermores determine it is safe to leave. first 72 hours after a storm, there is parallel effort to search, secure and stabilize the area. search and rescue missions continue in response to milton,

please do not go visit impacted areas, right now we need those roads clear for electrical crews, fire crews, ems, and urban search and rescue crews. we have 20 something crews that will move into the area and do a door-by-door search. you heard the governor say this was not worst case scenario, we still had damage and we'll go door to door to make sure everyone is okay. please stay off the road. listen to local authorities for updates when it is safe to go outside and when it is safe to return to your homes. a lot of people evacuated and we appreciate that. do not be in a hurry. check in with local emergency management and sheriff's office to see if they are posting on whether it is safe to return home. please do that. we will open roads and bridges, but there may be extenduating

circumstances at the neighborhood level. check in before you come back home. major flooding continues along hillsboro, st. john and rivers. there will be another phase to this incident, similar to hurricane ian. we have a lot of rainfalling over central portion of florida. st. johns river basin comes to sem seminole county, portions of brav brava rd and volusia. that river takes 45 days to completely flush itself out to the atlantic ocean. what we'll be seeing is impact in seminole county and sur surrounding county and move on up into areas and st. john, flagler, duval county.

that will be a long-term effort on the st. john's river and hillsboro, and little wakiva. some roads are flooded, that is not safe for everyone. please do not attempt to walk or drive through flood waters. accidents due to that are p preventable, turn around. if you shelter in place or return home and look at damage around your home now, do one thing for us. take out your phone, take pictures. inside and outside. all four sides of the house, every room inside the house, what are things you should document? document just physical damage and also since this was flooding, we want to make sure you capture high water marks on your home. for point of reference, outside the home, get doorknob of outdoor house to give point of

reference how high water got. on the inside have electrical socket or door handle on the inside of your home in picture to get a reference as to how high that water is coming. if you are cleaning up, wear appropriate safety gear, do not clean up hazardous dibebris or power lines. report that to local authorities. do not cut electrical lines. you don't know what is a cable line or electrical line and probably more importantly these days, you don't know what is fiber optic line. most 911 lines run across fiber optic. do not cut lines, let the professionals identify what it is before it is cut. some roads are dangerous due to flooding, debris and potential downed leans.

let's crews get everything up and running. call state assistance information line, 800-342-3457. flo floridadisaster.org/updates for information on the web and of course, follow us at flsert on x and instagram and facebook at fsdn. we have several people helping on posting on social media, that is going to be best and fastest place to get stuff from us. thank you, governor desantis, together we will overcome in storm. >> morning, ladies and gentlemen. and thank you, governor desantis, for reestablishing and resourcing this state guard. we can deliver critical emergency response capabilities

to point of need. personnel moving rapidly in order to save lives, rescue our citizens and minimize human suffering. throughout the night and this morning, special mission unit with search and rescue, canine, paramedic and swift auto rescue team moved throughout severely impacted areas through pascal and sarasota county. working to provide on water and over land search and rescue capabilities. maritime unit is engaged with fwc, with 10 boat teams and high water vehicle teams to expand capacity of ability to conduct water born reconnaissance and search and rescue. blackhawks and drones with live stream and 3d map rendering will be begin conducting air

operation in coastal and inland community areas to allow local authorities to focus resources. we are laser and focused on search and rescue today. >> good morning, everyone. like to thank governor desantis for unwaivering support during times of critical need. we are blessed to live in a state that puts floridians first. i want to thank dem director kevin guthrie, and his team for coordination and communication with all stage agencies making us leaders in the nation for emergency response. responding to hurricane and natural disasters is what we do. as officers we have unique equipment, training and support from governor desantis and director guthrie, to provide support in wake of natural

disasters and hurricanes. this is through use of specialized equipment like boats, air boats, swamp buggies and other equipment to provide high-water rescues. that is what we're doing right now. we deployed 135 officers with guard, finance services, ag law, florida national guard and law enforcement and local sheriffs offices up and undo the coast and across the state to provide search and rescue to those in greatest needs. teams across the state are hard at work now. our search and rescue efforts, so far this morning reported 42 rescues in several counties. in pinellas, seven land rescues, three water rescues, two arrested for looting with our teams in pinellas county sheriff office and 21 rescued from an apartment building.

rescued started yesterday, seven local officers responded to tornado event and rescued six and evacuated by vehicles and conducted 30 welfare checks. paskalt cal county, responding to multiple intersections, clearing debris, allowing emergency vehicles to respond to calls for service. hillsboro county, vehicle in ditch, one pulled from flooded vehicle, three individuals removed from flooded apartment and another 100 evacuated at an assisted living facility and 20 from senior facility in tampa. so again, these efforts are ongoing across the state, there is going to be flooding events across state in central and northern florida. please be aware, if you are in a flood-prone area, be aware, our teams will be able to respond

and alert throughout this time. again, thanks to governor desantis for leadership and support and fwc will work with partners to keep floridians safe during this event. thank you. >> we'll continue with the rescue operations as needed, there is a lot of damage assessment going on today. and we're very obviously supportive of the power restoration operation and glad all those folks were staged and also, ensuring fuel is flowing. hopefully we get our gas stations and big box stores open quickly. i imagine that will likely happen and just get people back on their feet, that is our focus. any questions? >> governor, can you talk about pinellas county, deputies are restricting access to the area, do you have insight into that? >> i don't, we'll open the bridges. i know a couple of open.

other two, debris will be removed and those bridges will be open for traffic and floridians can use those as they see fit. yep? >> -- >> not yet, i know there have been reports, we have not confirmed any. there is process where this happens with the state. i know with tornados, it seems likely there were some with the tornados, that is only reports wooy have received. no confirmation, i imagine there will be confirmations, too soon to tell with respect to the west coast and storm surge and everything. so stay tuned on that. >> governor, wall street ana analysts -- 50 million -- >> how would a wall street analyst know? it has been dark all day. give me a break on some of this stuff, they are doing damage

assessment now, they say this or that or whatever. what i said in original talker, we had certain worst case scenario in terms of going into tampa bay. a lot of places in pinellas had negative storm surge, it sucked water out of the bay. in terms of that, that did not happen. the storm surge, most acute in sarasota and i think more than sarasota got for helene, but wasn't like so much more, 8 to 10 feet. helene got almost to 20 in taylor swift county. not saying there won't be damage, there will be, this cut across the state in way helene did not. in terms of right now, morning after, if i think back to hurricane ian, i don't think you

are looking at similar amount of damage to ian. with helene, there may be moreoverall damage, there may not. definitely the surge did not reach helene levels. helene was producing major surge all across the west coast of florida and big bend, it was biblical. that was not here. anything north of the storm had minimal surge on the west coast and really that sarasota, charlotte harbor down into lee, collier, compared to hurricane ian, that is not on the same level. so we'll see. there will be a lot more need to be done to assess the extent of damage. what i think we can say, we have a lot of resources in play in florida to be able to mitigate and get people back on their state and get the state moving again. people want back in their homes, they want roads cleared and bridges reopened, that is our

sole purpose to get people back. >> tropicana field -- relocated on wednesday. >> yeah, they were relocated, tropicana field is routine staging area for things. the roof is not rated, i think it is rated 110 miles per hour. it became clear there was going to be something of that magnitude that was within the distance, they redeployed them out of tropicana, so no state assets were in tropicana field. i think duke removed all their assets. as well. the roof is like a fabric almost with that. that was something we understand and acted accordingly. >> how much time -- >> they were moved before the storm, there was no issue with anything with that. >> -- my understanding early

this morning the city had -- >> we can talk about that, kevin has been engaged in that. >> 1:40 this morj morning, i received a phone call. got over here and started working the issue. right now, there are several water main breaks throughout pinellas county. different water systems -- >> steve: we've been getting an update from state of florida on what happened with milton so far. somebody who knows about hurricanes is governor youngkin of virginia, you had to worry about helene a >> we're supporting across the whole region with personnel. not just virginia, but a lot of states. governor desantis has led incredibly well here and i want

to recognize the first responders who rush in in order to save lives. we can't underestimate the peril that individuals are facing when a storm of this magnitude blows through. we saw it in virginia when hurricane helene blew through. we knew we would have extraordinary water challenges. we had 70 plus water rescues, people pulled out of drowning circumstances. so that team particularly our helicopter and personal are florida now and we sent national guardsmen on their way or there already. i spoke to governor desantis earlier this week and tell us what you need and we'll get it to you. being prepared matters. and they had a really great preparation for helene and i know their folks are tired and why it is so important we respond to help them now. >> brian: the theme was it was significant but it could have been a lot worse. you were in contact with the governor of florida and he said

he saw a slight jog right before. >> the storm according to my conversation with governor desantis moved slightly south and that moved it away from particularly the tampa region. as you have just heard that changed the whole storm surge pattern. there are 3 million floridians without power and let me be clear, the number one thing we have to do in response is get the power back on. it feeds the communication systems, the water systems, and then we have to clear roads. and get access. so in virginia we had over 480 of our roads that were impassable and we have to get the debris cleared and put temporary bridges up. we had bridges out. they are facing the same kind of challenges in florida today and what we've seen with the foundation of the devastation in georgia, south carolina and north carolina as well. response efforts have to move quickly to establish power, communications, water and transportation. >> lawrence: you talk about the relationship. how does that work?

do you call him? does he call you and say governor, i need your help? >> states have an agreement called emac and when we need help we can most for help. so a menu gets listed, i need swift water rescue teams and aerial rescue teams and trucks and general purpose teams. the states come together and meet those requests. i'll send 235 people. texas said they would help earlier this week. louisiana said they would help. they pull down the resorrurces from the other states as needed. we're all in this together. we have folks from louisiana in virginia today helping us with our after-emergency response. this is how we share expertise and make sure we're responding as quickly as we can. >> ainsley: governor desantis said we run the show.

i'm the sheriff in charge here and make sure to protect you. a lot of people are blaming fema for what's happening in north carolina. what do you say? >> governors are responsible for keeping our citizens safe. the initial lifesaving preparation and action is led by the state. we have to pre-position assets and send in resources, use our national guards capabilities, use our state police, use our department of forestry and v.s. fema comes in afterwards. our experience is virginia has been good with fema and answered our requested and fulfilled them and getting the response we need. >> lawrence: here is bill and dana. >> bill: good morning, everyone, from orlando our coverage continues. i'm bill hemmer live as we start to assess the fallout from hurricane milton still a very dangerous storm on the east coast of florida. it will be something we're dealing with throughout the day.