our social media and nbcbayarea.com. have a wonderful monday. >> take a moment to wish scott mcgrew a happy birthday. >> thank you again. >> have a great day. ♪♪ good morning. breaking overnight, ian reaching hurricane status. >> setting its sights on florida. millions racing to prepare. it's september 26th. this is "today." >> taking aim. ian swirling in the caribbean and expected to rapidly intensify. all of florida now under a state of emergency. long lines at grocery stores and gas stations. the first storm watches and warnings just issued. complete coverage and al's full forecast. catastrophic consequences. the biden administration

delivers a dire warning to vladimir putin, and across russia heated new protests against putin's decision to draft hundreds of thousands of additional troops. one military recruiting official was shot point blank. the latest from the region. and still on the streets tanding demanding justice for a young woman who died in police custody. the government cracking down hard. our report live from tehran ahead. collision course. nasa's hollywood moment just like the movies. an historic crash of a spacecraft into an asteroid. that's now just hours away. >> it's like a small golf cart runs into the great pyramids. >> inside the first test of its kind aimed at one day averting a global disaster. all that plus -- 'tis the season. ith christmas creeping closer, we have the dates to mark on your calendar for early sales. we'll help you find the biggest

and best holiday deals. and mile high battle. >> on the run. lost the football! denver's got it! denver's got this one. >> the broncos hang on to win a sunday night nail-biter against the 49ers, and mr. roker is there to take us inside the game with the real star of the show. >> go get 'em, big boy. this is your night. today monday, september 26, 2022. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with savannah guthrie and hoda kotb from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. and hi, everybody. good morning. welcome to "today." monday morning. glad to have you with us. hoda's got the day off. >> how did you sleep last night? >> all will be told. we did this experiment for the show where we slept on camera. this morning we will look at how sleep affects our memory and

productivity. tomorrow you have the effects of light on your sleep. >> yes, looking forward to explaining that contraption on your head. breaking news this morning. what is now hurricane ian. >> let's look at the image we will be watching closely all week. ian's projected path. as you can see, it is posing a major threat to florida. >> in fact, all of the state's 67 counties are under a state of emergency this morning. the shelves at many hardware and grocery stores already bare as millions are stocking up. >> al has everything we need to know. first, sam brock is in tampa where people are already preparing for the storm. sam, good morning. >> reporter: good morng. it's been a busy one already here in tampa as millions of floridians are concerned this morning with good reason. there is some 600 mile-long coast lynn line where theoretically ian could come roaring ashore. i am at a sandbag distribution

site. right now as residents in florida are bracing for whatever impacts comes next. overnight ian now becoming a hurricane, barreling towards florida. store shelves in tampa are already empty as concerned residents stock up on essentials like plywood to protect their windows and water to drink if ian strikes a major blow. >> we are trying to be ready. who knows? it may be bad. may be not bad at all. if it is, then we want to make sure we are ready. >> reporter: everyone's getting ready for possible direct hit by this intense storm, projected to reach category 4 strength powered by the ultra warm gulf waters after going by cuba tonight. the governor of florida declaring a state of emergency for 67 counties and activating thousands of national guardsmen. >> anticipate power outages. that is something that is likely

to happen what hurricane of this magnitude. anticipate fuel disruptions. >> reporter: the lines at gas stations across the state are already long. emergency management officials say they are preparing for the worst. >> more than 2 million meals and more than 1 million gallons of water to be ready to be sent into impacted areas. >> i just got here and it's been insane that there's no water here. >> reporter: supplies running low as people heed the warnings. were you surprised to see empty store shelves? >> yes, i'm from chicago. this is my first year down here experiencing a hurricane. people are taking this way more serious than i thought. >> reporter: tampa hasn't taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in 100 years. the mayor is preparing. you have dodged bullets in the past. what's the level of uncertainty and, i guess, concern that maybe this time is going to be different? >> we look at it from a worst-case scenario every time. so again, we prepare for the

worst and hope for the best. >> reporter: and that's exactly what these floridians are doing. >> i don't think we should panic. i don't think, you know, it's part of living here in florida. we should definitely be prepared for the worst, of course, but not panic. >> reporter: the mayor of tampa tells me evacuations are certainly a possibility but that is a decision that will be made jointly among the counties. what she did say is they want to give people enough time to evacuate and not too early and if the storms shifts they would be in trouble. that's the latest. back to you. >> sam, thank you very much. >> all of florida right now on alert. mr. roker is tracking ian's projected path, the timing, as well. he is with us from denver, colorado. al, good morning. >> hey, good morning, guys. this is tricky one because of weak steering winds and wind shear. first of all, right now ian a category 1 storm, 90 miles south of grand cayman, 75 miles an

hour winds, moving northwest at 14 miles per hour. we have got hurricane watches up for parts of the eastern -- i should say the western coast of florida, tropical storm warnings for the keys. we have hurricane warnings up for cuba, western parts of cuba. the path of the system brings it across cuba tuesday morning. by wednesday it slows down to a crawl about four miles per hour coming onshore, we think friday morning as a category 1 storm.