on the gulf coast of florida. hurricane ian just made landfall in the last hour. this hurricane, which is currently just shy of a category 5 with winds of 155 miles per hour is exceptionally dangerous even by the standards of hurricane-battered florida. the storm measures 600 miles across which means hurricane-force winds will be face across 80 miles of coastline. the storm is moving so slowly that parts of the state are expected to get two to three months' worth of rain in two days. the big threat right now, that massive storm surge. areas just south of where ian has made landfall are bracing for 18 feet of water. here is the scene in hard-hit naples, florida, where cars are submerged in florida waters. this video from sanibel island just south of where ian made landfall shows water rapidly flowing into the streets. officials say the storm surge coupled with the rain are the top safety concerns for the

millions of floridians in this storm's path. those who have not evacuated are urged to shelter in place immediately. almost 800,000 people are already without power. that's according to florida utilities. the director of fema has warned that recovery from hurricane ian will be a very long road. that agency has already begun to pour resources into the state. in an event earlier today, president joe biden said he spoke with florida governor ron desantis and added he already requested aid saying, quote, the federal government is ready to help in every single way possible. ali velshi who has been doing the heroic job of bringing the story to all of us from naples, florida, is our first guest. ali, tell me what you're seeing. i've been watching all day long. please tell me how you're

staying safe. >> reporter: we always appreciate that. what did we just lose there, peter? something has come off the building that we're in. in fact, we're seeing a lot of that. moments ago we saw a fridge. you can see overturned vehicles. this is a roadway. this is the parking lot of the hotel we're staying in. nicole, you and i have done a couple of these where normally i'm on the beach and we're facing the ocean. we're facing the other direction. this is toward eastern florida. that's all supposed to be land. there were cars lined up on either side of this parking lot three hours ago. now look at them. the water has moved them over. we've got water probably in about five feet now. if you look across here, these apartments have -- they've got carports underneath them. the water is a little lower. we just passed high tide about 3:20 this afternoon. you're actually seeing the water levels a little lower. randy can show you what storm surge looks like. you can still see it. this is the gulf of mexico

pushing in and pushing cars and pushing people. you're right. there's a seek shelter, shelter-in-place alert in place. you can't move and emergency crews can't get to you, they can't fix the power outages. in the six counties around here we had in excess of 612,000 people without power. so that's the situation. we're now seeing a lot of waves coming in. they're still quite powerful. i will say, though, we are starting to see the turn of this. now that we've seen the storm land and we've started to see high tide pass, we are stully seeing the water levels come down a little bit, but just a little bit. this is still going to be an active situation for many, many hours. maybe by late tonight we'll have seen water levels recede. we have to see wind levels come down before emergency services gets out. this storm is still over florida and still moving a little faster than a human can walk, which means it's going to dump a lot

of rain, loosening the crowd which means poles and trees will come down and take down more power lines. about 40,000 power workers standing by. they've repositioned here already. but that is for the coming days. right now this is still what we have, a lot of wind, a lot of water, a lot of damage. nicolle, thank you for asking. we're always staying safe. we have our head on a swivel because there's so much stuff flying around. we're on a second floor and we're considering going to a higher floor because of the level that the water is at right now. if you're on a single level place in southwestern florida, obviously you know this already, but people need to be on the second level. >> ali, what does that mean? i imagine the power is already out. so people are in the stairwells. i imagine you don't have any power there and no working elevators and you're under a water alert. tell me what the conditions are like. >> the good news is you get the alerts on your phone. we had tornado alerts yesterday

and then we got the shelter in place. do not attempt to move alert. you can see the first level of everything is inundated. it's probably about 1.5 feet lower than an hour ago. you knew this hours ago. in other words, most people who have remained in place, and in a place like naples where the construction is of pretty good quality, a lot of people probably did stay. this is the problem. your car was in a carport or your parked your car. i saw people in the neighborhood yesterday as i drove in having covered their cars with those car covers so that something doesn't scratch it or fall on it. they weren't banking on the fact that the water was going to float their car away. that's what it means. the power of water, it's hard for us to imagine in hurricanes, but the power of water generally speaking in an american hurricane is more important and more dangerous than the power of the wind. >> ali, what is the sense that you have from being there of how many people just anecdotally --

i know you can't go door to door. do you sense that people heeded the evacuation orders or are you hearing other signs of human activity where you are? >> well, anecdotally, no human activity here at all. cars have been moving around. nobody is around here. there's nowhere to walk. i tried to get somewhere a while ago thinking it might be a few feet of water, but it's quite dangerous. there's debris in here. by the way, when the surge comes in, like one coming down, if there's debris in that, that wood, it can hit you and hurt you. you can't wander around at all. we have heard in some of the barrier islands they're trying to get a poll or sense of who didn't leave because some people didn't leave. the problem with the gulf coast of florida, they haven't seen a big hurricane like this in a very, very, very long time. so in some parts of florida and other parts of the south like louisiana and texas, they're more accustomed to it. it's possible people didn't

leave. that said, i think people got out of the first level. we've heard, touch much wood, no reports of tragedy thus far. there have been warnings about the flooding. the authorities here were really, really emphasizing the flooding and storm surge. we don't know if anybody stayed behind and is going to need rescuing, we won't know until boats and/or trucks can get out to help them. >> ali, you are a seasoned war correspondent, a seasoned sort of firsthand witness for all of us in natural disaster -- >> nicolle, i've got to interrupt you. we have a serious problem with communications. we haven't had satellite for hours. we're communicating on cell phone power and that has just gone out. iful can't hear you, we'll get back in touch as soon as we get coms back. >> ali velshi in naples, florida, bringing us the story of this truly historic

hurricane. before we lost him i was about to ask him that i'll put to our next guest. nbc news meteorologist somara theodore. i wonder if you can address this question i tried to throw to ali about how this hurricane compares. >> we were talking about that earlier. looking at the historical perspective of ian, it didn't quite make cat 5 status, but it hit 150-mile-per-hour winds. it only takes getting to 157 before you're a cat 5. this is going to be the fifth strongest hurricane to make landfall in the u.s. before that we had andrew, michael might ring a bell, if you can think about those visuals and how strong that storm was. look at the sheer gravity of this image on the visible satellite right now. it's covering all of southern florida. this is a huge storm, and when we see lightning like that, that type of density around the eye,

as we did a few hours ago. that really is indicative of a very strong storm. you don't see that a lot of times with hurricanes making landfall. so let's go ahead and get into the latest on this. even though it's made landfall, it's still at cat 4 status. we are going to continue to see this drop. we're at 145 miles per hour right now. don't be fooled. this is still a very strong system we're dealing with. let's go ahead and see where the strongest winds are. you still want to go around that eye. we're starting to see it shrink a little bit. we're seeing the stronger winds towards punta gorda, into port charlotte. that pink color is very heavy rain coming down out towards areas north of port charlotte and venice. then south of boca grand we had the actual landfall at 3:05 p.m. they're starting to see the strongest winds right now. the eye is making its way just to the north of ft. myers along

i-75. if you're accustomed to driving that area from ft. myers to punta gorda, that i-75 corridor is now in the you of the storm which can be deceiving because you get that calming effect and the back of the storm drives in. still strong storm surge in sanibel. let's take a look at the hurricane force winds and where they're headed next. tonight, we're still looking at this maintaining itself and that strength pushing into central florida. lakeland, areas like sebring, into into parts of orlando, this is going to be quite the storm to ride out in the next 24 hours. by 8:00 a.m. on thursday, we're still seeing 70-mile-per-hour wind gusts, so tropical storm force winds in the coming days. the biggest impact from the wind or one of the big impacts, should i say, is power outages. we've been seeing a lot. you heard them talking about it.

we're talking extesive power outages, communication is going to be very difficult for friends and family who live in areas like sarasota and even as far as daytona beach. with irma, it brought flooding into the back end of the system, up into areas like jacksonville. we'll see that as well. heavy rain in the back end of the system. the other risk at play is severe weather. tornado has been an issue the past few days. they'll continue to linger especially as the form drives into central florida. we'll continue to see the chance for tornadoes in areas like daytona beach. we eat get through the winds with you through the next couple hours and the storm surge, the deadliest aspect of the hurricane. but in the coming hours and days the rain is going to become an issue. the storm will meander, dumping a deluge of rain into areas like tampa and orlando and daytona beach. so flooding is going to be a

concern even if you weren't near the bullseye. >> amazing. nbc meteorologist somara theodore, we'll continue to check in. thank you very much. let's bring in nbc news correspondent steve patterson live in st. petersburg, florida. steve, tell us what you're seeing. >> as somara said, even if you aren't close to the bullseye, you're still definitely feeling the effect. the wind, the rain has been hot and heavy for the last few hours. the wind gusts have been increasing as time has gone on. the worst of it not even here yet. we expect that to be 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00. you can see the tide. this is tampa bay. we're at st. pete's pier right now. the tide has pushed out towards the storm into the gulf of mexico, where that storm is generating all that hydropower as it's made landfall south of us.

as it returns, it will come back with the storm surge. in the wind phase is when things get truly dangerous. not to say they aren't already. about 100,000 power outages where i am right now. there have to be thousands more as the calculations come in. meanwhile we're thinking about power poles, thinking about wind damage and the deluge of rain to follow all this, in that crawl as ood wind gust comes in, that crawl of the storm as it dumps rain steadily for the next few days. that may be the most dangerous part of that for an area like st. petersburg, for tampa bay in general, as we get a really good strong wind gust -- in areas around this area. it's all up and down the west coast of florida that's in trouble with the storm surge that's predicted. that's no matter if that storm surge is ten feet or five feet. it depends on how low the land is. the land is very low here outside of tampa bay.

back to you, nicolle. >> steve, i don't know if you can hear us for a question. do you have us? >> i have you, yes. >> can you tell us what the conditions are right now? you talked about the power outages. is power out in all of tampa? i'm thinking of our viewers who may have friends and family in that part of the state. can you tell us whether people evacuated, whether you've run into people and what they're saying to you? >> so we've been here for a couple days now. we spoke to the mayor yesterday. the messaging was hot and heavy for people to leave this area. by and large, people have done that. mandatory evacuations basically cover this whole rim. st. petersburg, of course, surrounded by water especially in the barrier islands just south of here. very dangerous area. most of that has been evacuated. we've seen people that are curious, that want to see the waves, want to see the tide, want to see the wind like this.

very dangerous thing to do. it's too late to escape now. meanwhile power outage, yes, there are large pockets of those outages. i can't necessarily put eyes on it because we've been here and we've been locked down because we have to be. there are many pockets. duke energy covers this area. they estimate about 70,000 within st. petersburg alone. it gets into the hundreds of thousands when you get out to tampa bay entirely. can't give you a full estimate, we'll check that. i know it's a lot. nicolle. >> steve patterson, i'm going to mother hen you and ask you to please, please, please stay safe. it seems like the conditions have been getting worse as you've been talking to us. >> will do. they are. expected to get much worse than this. this is just the beginning. >> please stay safe my friend and colleague. let me add rick lacasse stroe, florida's collier county

commissioner. the roads and bridges have been impossible for several hours. tell us how you're doing? >> nicole, your correspondents have been talking about where the storm is. let me tell you where it was and it's still here. my district makes up a big chunk of naples, marco island, a lot of those picturesque beautiful low lying areas. in times of hurricane, these are horrific locations. i'm a retired air force colonel, served for 24 years. this is a very serious storm. i chose not to jump in the car and drive to orlando and then come back here to see what things look like because i have constituents that stayed. i'm used to be a front line, first responder type. we have a lot of infrastructure here. the minute the storm passes we need folks to start to turn things around. i can tell you, right now i'm in

my house. i have a home command center set up here. i have walkie-talkies, i've been talking to key citizens and leaders and first responders. the water in my canal is about an inch from spilling over the edge and coming into my house from the back. the water is already lapping up against my garage door and my front door. while i'm talking to you, although my feet are dry right now, we expect in the next 30 minutes that my house is going to be severely flooded, not unlike a lot of other people. as one of your correspondents said, these areas suffer from very low lying areas. this storm was totally different. nicolle, i lived through irma here in naples, and it was a totally different storm. i think people really got a strong lesson that path, track,

size, the force of the wind and everything in between really does matter. that small little increments of the storm when it's thousands of miles away, even south of cuba, over time those little increments turn into a big muscle movement. irma was totally different. i'll tell you, even after irma, a lot of people incorrectly said, oh, they forecasted 15 feet of storm surge and i had 5. they always overestimate. i think that storm surge would have been close had that storm not turned, jogged. it actually went up the state over land a bit more, didn't come out sort of perpendicular, and lots of other things. i will tell you marco island, where i am right now, i'm looking out the window at a horrific scene in my front yard and my back yard, not unlike everybody else. we did a great job i think evacuating. ali could have helped me. as a retired military guy, ali

is on my team. i would recruit him. we did a really good job, we have an incredible emergency manager who has gone through an innumerable amount of storms. we have an emergency operations center that senator scott visited the other day, the governor was here locally prior to the storm. we get a lot of attention. as you learn in the military and even in government, you can only do so much to impede wind and water. really, all you can do is really prep folks for it and then get a lot of people out of town. i can tell you a lot of my constituents will come back to horrific scenes on marco and the surrounding area. >> rick, what are you scared about as you describe a horrible scene? do you have any power? are you out of power? >> oh, yeah, we've had no power, no wi-fi. you lose that stuff immediately. march kpoe island is a little piece of paradise, but this whole surrounding area tends to

be very fragile during storms like this, not unlike a lot of other places. i'm not saying tampa is not going the take a big hit, but their infrastructure tends to be much more robust. this is a resort island, although i live here fuel time and a lot of other people do. what you'll find is this isn't orlando, this isn't jacksonville. we can only absorb so much negativity or impact. things really implode here when you get something of this magnitude. a few days ago even, people expected that we would have the intensity of the storm. what i'm really learning about and what's really on my mind, wind is one thing. during irma everybody lost their roofs, a lot of people evacuated the island. but water is a totally different thing. so it's going to leave behind damage that is quite a bit different than what irma had.

you had folks that replaced their roof. they redid their pool cage, they replanted landscape, but they didn't get water in their houses for the most part. i'm hearing reports of homes in my district that immediate had water up to the counter tops in the kitchen. my house is an older home, so it's a low lying area. i'm looking at the water now, a few more inches it's flooding my patio. three more inches and it's in my living room. those are the things we live with here. i know that the island and the surrounding area, we did a great job getting people out of here. perfect example is the shelters actually don't have that many people in them. i look at that as a good thing because i think people either went to a friend or family -- like we told them, you don't need to jump in a car and drive to michigan, the way this storm is, you don't have to go as far as you can really get yourself out of serious harm's way. there's nowhere to hide on marco

island or aisles of capri or parts of naples. you have to hunker down and live with the consequences or get out of town which is what a lot of people did. >> rick, you mentioned your military service. i'm sure you're drawing on that. you're the most calm person i've heard from today. i wonder if you can talk about -- i'm sure your brain is already moving to the recovery. what will that look like? >> oh, absolutely. i'm really itching to get out of my house. i actually have a kayak and i have a plan. trust me, i have multi contingency plans. i've done this once or twice, whether a hurricane or something else. i'm really itching to get out and assess the damage. i'm talking to folks in key areas of my district, and my district is very large, encompasses a big chunk of collier county. i'm anxious to get out and see exactly what the damage is. nicolle, it's not rocket science. i know what the damage is going

to be. there's going to be areas that have never had 12, 15 feet of water. there's areas that never had three feet of water and now they have nine. so there is going to be an awful lot of catastrophic damage. we're going to suffer the same thing that a lot of places suffer, similar to what we had with irma. you can only get so many contractors to descend on this place. if everybody needs sort of the same type of either water mitigation type of repair work or drywall or need to tear down their house and build something new, there will be a lot of companies that descend here and charge a hefty price. as an elected official, that's something we have to make sure doesn't happen, that people aren't gouging folks. there's only so much to go around. even after irma, you saw blue tarps for well over a year. some of that was insurance cattles. i think we'll have a lot of that. you can live in your house if

you have no shingles on the roof. a lot of people had wood on their roof and a blue tarp. but if you have four, five feet of water in your house, it's not livable. i think the water damage here, much like when you have fire damage or the tragedies -- i was stationed in nebraska and we had plenty of tornadoes. the thing about those is you don't get the same kind of warning you get from a hurricane. those are catastrophic and unfixable. water does a lot of the same thing. i'm worried about our abilities and our infrastructure in the county. a lot of length cal things that can't stay submerged in water. i already know what we're going to find. there's going to be a lot of our infrastructure that is not going to be repairable. it's going to have to be replaceable. that is very expensive. so hopefully we get the relief from our president, from our governor. we've done a lot of smart things

in our budget here because we know these storms come regularly. it hasn't caught us off guard, but this one did some wanky things for lack of a better term that even surprised me. you're sort of always hoping for that last-minute turn or what have you. it did all the wrong things to exponentially impact collier county. although i know your reporters in st. pete or tampa, everyone is following the eye, the way this storm hit this area of southwest florida, the surge and the turning of the storm and the way that it drives water back up onto the coast, even though the eye is well past us, i'm telling you i'm looking out of my window right now and you would think the hurricane was still here. and it is here because there's so many layers of it, and the position of it is forcing water onto the coast where irma and

other hurricanes hadn't done that in the past. i think that's why we have such horrific damage right now and such a large amount, deep amount of storm surge. >> collier county florida commissioner rick locastro, we'll continue to check in with you as your community and home recovers. please stay safe. >> you know where to find me, nicolle. >> we do. >> we have a lot of work to do. this is what we do. this is one of the things about florida. like you said -- ali even said, how many storms has he covered. this one is going to have some horrific consequences afterwards once we start digging out of this. that's going to be the sad part. a lot of people have a lot invested into dream homes here. this is just -- it is a real piece of paradise if you've ever been down here. it's going to take a long time for this place to recover. irma was quite a bit different and that even felt like a long recovery. this is exponentially different.

>> i can tell just from this conversation that your constituency do, so please do everything you can to stay safe. thank you so much. here's what we're going to do, we're going to sneak in a quick break. if you're in florida or you have loved ones in florida, we're going to stay on this story for you and with you. top of the hour, florida governor ron desantis will hold a news conference. up next, former democratic congressman david jolly will be our guest. stay with us. ♪ well the sun is shining and the grass is green ♪ ♪ i'm way ahead of schedule with my trusty team ♪ ♪ there's heather on the hedges ♪ ♪ and kenny on the koi ♪ ♪ and your truck's been demolished by the peterson boy ♪ ♪ yes -- ♪ wait, what was that? timber... [ sighs heavily ] when owning a small business gets real, progressive helps protect what you've built

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okay. can you show me how far the water, how high it is up? can anyone get up on the furniture, too as well? so you're already up -- you have everything up high. do you have a way to get to the roof? >> don't go in the attic. do you have a way to get on the roof? >> we'll have to find a way. >> hopefully somebody is seeing this -- >> a harrowing moment captured by a reporter with local station wbbh on the phone, on facetime with a family in ft. myers beach, florida. that family's home has been inundated by floodwaters. we'll follow up. joining our coverage, former florida congressman david jolly. he left his tampa home earlier this week after the evacuation orders came down. when he was in congress he represented pinellas county along the central coast along

the gulf. david jolly, we talked a lot about how accustomed to the preparations that go into a storm like this, but this is at the end of the day a traumatic event. it is unpredictable. even people who know the most about it have seen them are talking about the last-minute turns that this storm took. just tell me what it's like preparing for a storm like this as it hits. >> well, and covering it as well, nicolle, because this is part of the human story. we're kind of fascinated with the power of mother nature and the weather and the rising seas and the winds. but we still right now very much are in the active stage of preserving human life and providing for human safety. all of the preparation over the last several days, and florida is a state that is well experienced with this preparation, was to address humane safety and human life.

we're still very actively in that stage. what does that require? it requires first and foremost evacuations. you saw mandatory evacuation begin earlier in the week. as a great example, our communities were issued an evacuation and were told this could be a direct hit. within about 36 hours it shifted south, the storm did. so those communities had very little notice then to engage in the preparations required for what they're now experiencing. when we talk about what they're experiencing, the level of surge from the ocean and, frankly, rising rivers in some of the inlet areas. when you talk about five, eight, ten, twelve feet of water, many of these coastal communities, nicolle, sit at only three or four feet above sea level. i think that's a very important context. that amount of water into a community that only sits three

to four feet above sea level is devastating. in those communities where you have people who did not leave, we begin to concern ourselves with images that we sea out of katrina and other storms, people going to the roofs of their houses looking for rescue. we hope that the cost of human live and injury will be minimal, but we're still in that stage, and we will see first responders hopefully before they lose daylight today be able to respond, but certainly at the break of day tomorrow morning, that will be where our eyes turn. where are the most devastating communities and where do we see the human cost of the storm? >> david jolly, i'm so glad for your eloquent framing of this as sort of why we watch. i grapple with it myself. are we covering storm porn or are we really trying to capture something really important so people know about the fate of our fellow citizens who live in the storm's path or people that

have loved ones that are there, know what the response looks like. i want to ask you what kind of person stays behind. you gave us one category. the path changes and so the order comes down with 12 hours to prepare. your pets, your kids, you belongings. sound like you had more than 48 hours to leave the state. who stays behind even if they do have time to prepare? >> is a state with a lot of experience. we have had three major hurricanes in the last five years. hurricane irma was in '17, michael, a category 5, hit the panhandle in '18. the state since andrew has invested in new codes that require hardened infrastructure. so there will be billions of dollars of property damage. honestly, because of some of that false security of more hardened infrastructure now, you have individuals that i guess fall into a couple of different

categories. some just don't take it seriously. others don't have the means to leave and don't have the access to communication, and that's real. nicole, i sit here today with the means to having evacuated and in safety. that's not true of everybody. then you have those who don't take the threat seriously. it's a two-edged sword. they deserve a rescue just as much as anybody else, but they're using law enforcement and response resources that might be better positioned elsewhere. florida is one of those states that likes to say we're just going to ride it out. a lot of people say we're just going to ride it out. this is not one of those situations. >> this president, this white house has already approved whatever aid is requested by the state of florida. i don't even think those disaster declarations have been made but the aid has been promised. it feels like in our badly

broken politics, this president doesn't see any sort of shades of anything political. he's already pre-promised whatever aid is needed to help the state recover. obviously a governor will seek whatever help and assistance, financial or otherwise, his state and constituents need on a day like today. what is that state-federal relationship like over the course of the kinds of hurricanes that have hit florida? >> nicolle, i've had the opportunity to work a lot of recovery -- storm recoveries including on capitol hill and in federal service. so you will see tomorrow, as i mentioned, local law enforcement aided by the florida national garden gauge in the immediate recovery and stabilized

distressed infrastructure resources. you'll see utilities come in in a week or two weeks and try to rebuild the power grid. you'll also see the personal property losses. the truth is between wind, fire, water and flood, there are different coverages. ultimately the state of florida will ask for federal assistance. governor desantis is declaring we'll announce in the next hour an emergency declaration for all 67 counties. joe biden has suggested that the federal government will be there for whatever is needed. this process takes years. hurricane michael in the panhandle, fema's coordination with that recovery just ended in the last 12 months or so, i believe. we will see a lot of significant loss. in terms of the politics of all of this, i'm not sure we live in a world where national tragedy brings us together. the florida governor will be judged based on his performance over the next six weeks. what we do know is the resources of the federal government will be required and it will require coordination between governor

ron desantis and president joe biden. thus far we've seen a willingness of each of them to work together. >> people for the great state of florida, i hope that continues. david jolly, thank you for being one of the people we can have there conversation with. let's bring in josh boatwright from the pin nellis county emergency operations center. this is a very busy point in the day for you. tell us what you're seeing and what you're contending with. >> up here in the tampa bay area in pin nellis county, we have been spared some of the worst of the storms. our hearts go out to the neighbors to the south of us. we're starting to experience a lot of the outer bands of this massive storm, getting 60-mile-per-hour winds. your viewers are seeing images of the howard franklin bridge in our area. 3 to 6 feet of storm surge. some of our property owners along the coast are experiencing

floodwaters. we did order mass evacuations along the coastline over the last few days. just a couple days ago we were facing the exact same threat that our neighbors to the south are now facing. >> josh, tell me what your sense is -- everyone on the meteorology side describes this as an incredibly slow-moving storm. how long do you think it will be before you can really get out there and assess the damage? >> i know in our area the weather service is predicting, we're going to see strong tropical storm force winds until overnight tonight, until probably 4:00 in the morning. it will be probably around noon tomorrow when the winds start dying down and crews can get out and assess the damage, see about downed trees, downed power lines. we're obviously right now seeing pretty significant power outages. tens of thousands of customers. i know other parts of the state are seeing even worse power

outages. it's likely going to take days to get that, if not much longer in our area. again, our hearts go out to our neighbors to the south where the recovery process is going to be a lot more significant. >> florida is known not just for being in the path of hurricanes every hurricane season, but for, as many people have already noted this hour, its ability to withstand and to rebuild stronger. just tell me how pin nellis county was prepared and how it might be different from past hurricane seasons. >> we certainly just a few years ago were prepared for a big hit from hurricane irma and were spared the worst of that as well. we tell people every year, you know, it only takes one hurricane to be the big one that changes everything. so we tell our residents year-round to be ready to have your storm kit ready if you live in a non-evacuation zone, to be

prepared to hunker down. if you live near the coast in a vulnerable area, really to be ready in a pretty short amount of time, as we've seen with this storm, to get ready to move out of harm's way. a lot of people coming the the state are learning that's one factor to living here this time of year. it's a beautiful place to live, but it is a concern in an area where our residents have to be cognizant all the time and take those precautions. >> josh boatwright, thank you for jumping on and spending a few minutes with us on what is a very busy day for you. thank you very much. please stay safe. >> thank you. nbc's kerry sanders will be with us, reporting from punta gorda. if you haven't seen him yet today, you will not want to miss this. don't go anywhere. moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin.

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you get the idea. that's power. that's mother nature and that's what's going to be potentially taking off some roofs, peeling back shingles, knocking down tree limbs, taking out power. it's all of that. we're going to see that for showers here. it is not a pretty picture. unfortunately it's going to get worse, guys. >> nbc's kerry sanders a couple hours ago in punta gorda, florida, just as ian was coming to shore. kerry, it was impossible for us to watch that. it makes me sweat when i see it a second time. i know you've been there and youd eve covered hurricane andrew. tell me how you're doing, what you're seeing and take us through how this ranks. >> right now we've actually gone through the eye. it's been a dirty eye. it's been calm. we didn't see the classic blue

skies. when the eye comes through, it's not uncommon for people to come outside and take a look. you can see over here, you can see a couple people wandering around. this is the one thing authorities said they were hoping people would not do, that people would come out of their homes during the eye. we're beginning to feel some of the winds from the back side. right here in punta gorda the back side of this eyeball will likely be stronger than we had on the front end. one of the things that we've noticed is we didn't have that storm surge on the front end because of the counterclockwise rotation. in fact, the water was sucked out of charlotte harbor. what we're likely to see on the back end is some of that storm surge here similar to what happened south of here down in naples. so the wind is beginning to pick back up. you can see the power of that wind that we had on the front end. it actually bent the stop sign down here, right there, that metal pole going down.

that gives you an idea of how strong the winds are. there are, as i look around, some tree limbs down, but remarkably, that way, heading just a little bit east there's still power. as i look this direction, that is no power. we're sort of on the cusp here where the power has been knocked out. we're probably going to go through this back side of the eyeball and really heavy winds around 7:00 tonight and then the damage assessments, so it's going to be windy, still going to be rainy. the true damage assessments will wait until tomorrow when the sun is up and a good portion of the rain is gone. there's already a curfew that's been established in charlotte county. that will be replicated in many counties. it's not so much about people who will be out looting at this point. it's really about the safety of individuals, if they have a

curfew then you don't have people out there potentially stepping on a live electrical line or, as we've seen so often, people get injured on the back side of a hurricane. because there is so much rain associated with this storm, it's going to be raining for a while, there's going to be fresh water flooding and that also can become a serious problem. nicolle, you know, this is an ongoing story, it's still developing, it is not over, and for all those who are hunkered down, going through this, it can be incredibly scary. they hear the sound of the wind, they hear the creeking, they hear shingles coming off the roof, but you probably have about another three, two hours of the really strong winds that will do the heaviest damage in the area where i am. >> kerry, can i ask you, there seems to be a few things that make this storm scarier. especially if you don't live in florida, all hurricanes are

absolutely terrifying. i'm from california and they say what about the earthquakes, but those are far less frequent. hurricane season comes every year. tell me, is it the size of this storm, is it the slow motion of this storm? tell me what makes this storm so daunting. >> well, you know, first of all, the size. that, of course, and when the winds were up at 155 and i suspect are still at that and gusting in some cases, you know, 200 miles an hour, you have tornadoes, everything else. but i think what really got people's attention and i don't want to speak in the past tense, because this is still ongoing, is the storm surge. when you're talking about storm surge, five, six, eight feet, that is actually not unusual. but when it jumps up into the 12, 15, 17, 18 feet, that becomes a whole other story. now, i know to the south, we think we had in naples about a six-foot storm surge. we're still waiting to see how this all plays out again, so, there could be a significant

storm surge where we are right now. so, i think that's what really got people worried. you know, there's a parking garage just a couple blocks from where i am and i met some residents here from punta gorda and they were like, you know what, we stayed put, even though we were in the evacuation zone, some of us were in the a red zone, some were in the b orange zone, but when we heard that storm surge go up, we got in the car, we grabbed our cats, we grabbed our dogs and they drove down here and they went up into the second and third stories of the parking groj and they're going to ride the hurricane out in their cars, because they know that, you know, if that storm surge comes, it would be inside their homes. and of course, if it was a 16, 17-foot storm surge, they might actually drown. so, there's all of these fear factors that went into this. so this is a massive storm, nicolle. you mentioned hurricane andrew. we had different building codes in the state, so, it may not look like the aftermath of hurricane andrew, but trust me

when i tell you, this is a serious, category 4, who knows, maybe it will wind up being a category 5 by the time it's all done, a serious, destructive, catastrophic storm here. >> kerry, i -- you've been so generous with your time. i have one more question for you. when you look at what florida does, it is this rare slice of collaboration and almost preemptive teamwork and backup between the federal government and the state. as far as you know, what is the state going to need in terms of resources in the aftermath of this storm? >> well, sort of a nod to what you spend a lot of time talking about, i think it's going to be interesting to see republican ron desantis standing next to president biden at some point when this is all said and done. but yes, the federal government and fema, which is now a very professional organization and the state agencies, all the

counties, we have 67 counties in the state of florida, there is mutual aid, there is an effort to get what needs to be gotten to the people quickly. you know, one of the biggest surprises that so often happens after a hurricane is homeowners who, if they don't have a mortgage because you're required to have flood insurance or if they have a situation where they somehow didn't understand and their mortgage company didn't understand that they had to have federal flood insurance, they may not be covered if their home is flooded by homeowners insurance. and so, that then leads those who have lost so much to have to turn to the state to help organize with the federal government, a loan, usually around 3%, 2%, but that's still a cost, you know? so, you get money from the small business administration and -- yeah. there are a lot of coordinated efforts after this, and, you know, in the news, we will see the aftermath of the storm, everybody will look at it and then the nation's attention will go somewhere else, i mean, we

saw that after hurricane michael, in fact, there were a lot of people who suffered after hurricane michael who felt that the nation forgot about them, but there is ongoing need for local, state, and federal coordination to make sure things get done. i mean, some of the problems will be the power companies, they're pros at this. florida power and light, tampa electric, they know what they're doing, they have mutual aid with other companies, pike electric has made its way down from north carolina, they have their trucks pre-staged. all of that will get into place, but i mean, after hurricane will ma, i had three weeks at my own home in fort lauderdale without any power. it takes a long time for those things to get back into shape. so, yeah, the water systems can take awhile to get restarted, so, you know, you become like an expert camper in your home of how you're going to have to deal with all of this. and if you don't have power, maybe your food is going to spoil and, you know, you doubt realize the value of a warm meal until you've gone for days after days would a warm meal. >> it's incredible.

and you're the very best at bringing it all to all of us, so, we can understand it and know what people there are going through. kerry sanders, thank you so much. the best of the best. we're grateful to you. >> sure, thank you. a quick break for us. we'll get another update from our meteorologists on this storm and waiting for a news conference with florida governor ron desantis. quick break for us. don't go anywhere.

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the population, you know, we saw andrew in '92, we saw katrina, we saw harvey, a lot of rain. but the concentration of this category 4 as it is now coming to landfall and then with predictions to cross the state and literally go north through florida, this has the potential of being something we have not seen before in terms of destruction to the infrastructure, where there's so many people living. >> hi, again, everyone. it's 5:00 in new york. in the last 30 years, only two category 5 hurricanes have made landfall in the united states, both of them in florida. hurricane andrew in 1992, which we've been discussing and hurricane michael in 2018, which we have also been discussing. and now hurricane ian, which made landfall just under two hours ago on a barrier island

west of fort myers, is pummeling the sunshine state. wind speeds reached up to 155 miles per hour. it was just two miles per hour shy of being officially a category 5 storm. the water level in naples has reached six feet above normal tide and continues to rise. noaa has warned some areas could see surges of up to 18 feet. 2.5 million floridians are under evacuation orders. according to florida utilities, more than 1 million floridians are already without power. in another demonstration of the storm's historic nature and strength, an engineer with noaa who has thrown into storms for six years says his flight earlier into hurricane ian was undoubtedly the roughest flight of his career. in minute now, we expect to heard from florida governor ron desantis. my colleague ali velshi is back with us live in naples, florida.

ali, as we lost you in the last hour, i was about to ask you, as a hardened war correspondent and journalist, on the front lines of huge stories, how this storm, just the sheer power of which you're able to see with your eyes, compares. >> reporter: i was fascinated. i'm with a team here who has covered a lot of hurricanes and we were fascinated to watch that storm surge that we were showing you earlier, the rapid flooding. i will tell you, look how things have changed in the last hour. we can see the cars that were submerged probably five feet or so. you can see debris now. we can actually see the ground. i was almost thinking that i might go down there to to this report for you, but it's still not enough. you don't want to step on stuff that you don't know where it is. as a safety concern, we're probably going to leave it for another half an hour or so. when i talked to you, those carports were almost completely full. that's large because high tide has passed us, so, you got water going out competing with the

water coming in. but i want to ask randy to just show you what the ocean looks like at this point. that's -- we're facing southwest at this point into the gulf of mexico. the water direction has completely changed. it's not moving from the right of your screen to the left. all day, it's been moving toward us from the left to the right. so, we're on the other side of the storm. i'm going to ask randy to tilt down here and look at this waterway that we looked at earlier. i was just water going from the right, you can see a little of it, it's about to come in now, that's the surge, over to the left. now, you'll see it comes in and within a few seconds, it will just start to recede. it will start to go back. it doesn't reach all the way up. that was the same water that was moving all those cars that you can see now piled up at the entrance to the parking lot of the hotel. you can see this was actually a parking lott it looked like a river when we were talking earlier. so, that's the nature of it. what you're going to see through florida and you can see things flying around and we're hearing things and stuff coming off of builds.

but now you're going to start to see this side of things at least here. north of me, nicolle, it's a different story. it's become a slow-moving storm that is still going to uproot power poles and lines and trees and still continue to cause more damage. we on the most southwestern end of it are starting to see the back end of it. >> ali, what specific dangers or distinct dangers come from the back of the swirl, the back of the storm? >> reporter: well, the wind direction changes, so it's always something you have to be conscious of. you know if the wind is coming this way, guess what, i have a solid wall here in a building so, as long as i'm here, i'm generally safe. well, the back end of the hurricane, the wind's coming the other direction, so, the perils that you think about as a resident, you know, you think you've dodged a bullet because that tree didn't fall, well, the tree on the other side might be getting ready to fall. power lines are still going to come down. if there are power lines down and you walk through water and the power lines are live, that's

a real danger. you need six inches of water for your car to float. we had five feet of water. there's still a lot more than six inches everywhere. this is where you get that false sense of security, things are okay, let me check things out around the neighborhood, you can't do that. this area still under mandatory evacuation. not everybody evacuated. so, for the rest of the people who didn't, it's under a mandatory curfew. there are cops out there who are probably going to stop you if you going around, but they're not going to help you if you get into trouble. if you go out in this kind of stuff, there's far more danger, even when the wind's not whipping up as it was earlier, even when the water has receded probably by four feet, the bottom line, this is actually more dangerous, because an hour ago, it looked dangerous and most people wouldn't even venture out. now it looks slightly calmer and safer. you can see the trees whipping around, but it doesn't seem to be as dangerous. it still is. >> ali, what are the local officials talking about in terms of a point where they begin to assess the damage?

and i'm so glad that you did not go down there for this live shot, i mean, i -- i think anything -- any standing water terrifies me with the downed power lines that you're talking about. >> it's dangerous, yeah. and i tell you this only to sort of draw the curtain back and tell people about how -- because people are tweeting, are you safe, how do you stay safe? we do put a lot of thought into it. local authorities, couple of things. the wind is still whipping up here, right? i go over here, you'll hear it in my mike, you'll see it. there's a lot of wind. we are behind a wall, which is why you don't see it. they can't start repairing things until winds are below 40 or 50 miles an hour. they can't get trucks out until the water has receded. and they tend not to do it in the dark unless it's a critical emergency or a fire or something like that. so, they're thinking about tomorrow at the very least. the biggest issue is we now have well in excess of 1 million people without power and that number is going to grow in florida. and of course, you know, on one hand, it's september, it's -- in

florida, it's not all that serious, you don't need air conditioning, you don't need heating, but a lot of critical things run off power. fridges and food and dialysis and, you know, things like that. hospitals still have power, police stations have power, but that's the kind of thing that they're thinking about right now. how to restore the power really quickly. 40,000 people standing by to repair the power lines. that's the most important thing. i saw one report about a waste water plant that's about to overtop, which causes all sorts of problem. water, power, if you don't have power, you can't boil your water. and medical emergencies, right? people still, unfortunately, have heart attacks and break things and need to go to the hospital and need dialysis, so, those are the places that they're in, which is why they want people off the roads. they don't want you getting stuck because you were galavanting and trying to sightsee about what's going on why they are trying to solve emergencies. and if you look over there, there are roads through naples that are like that, cars in the

middle of the road. you couldn't get out of this parking lot if you needed to, because cars have float into the way. that's the stuff they're going to be thinking about over the next 12 to 18 hours. >> ali velshi, after every appearance that you make, my phone lights up with people grateful for your reporting but concerned with your safety, so, thank you for pulling back the curtain. >> thank you for all of their concern. we take a lot of care in making sure that we stay safe while telling other people about the dangers. >> thank you and randy, thank you so much. we're going to move further inland, where we're now seeing heavy winds and rain in the central part of the state. jesse kirsch joins us live from orlando, florida. jesse, tell us what you are seeing. >> reporter: yeah, so, nicolle, you can see the wind is blowing overhead. we've got the rain starting to move in, the conditions have been deteriorating here. and what is important to stress about what we are seeing right now is that this is far from the worst of what we are expecting from ian here.

it made landfall 100 miles from where i am right now and we are expecting the worst to be in this part of the state in the overnight hours. and officials are expecting wind gusts up to 90 miles per hour here, we're concerned about the potential for two feet of rain in some isolated parts of this area, which could lead to flash flooding. and of course, we've seen the devastation that can cause in other parts of the country in recent months. earlier today, officials asked people in mobile homes in this area to move to hardened shelters to ride out the storm, as of 2:00 p.m. eastern time. officials did not want people on the roads. so, people should be where they are going to ride out ian in this part of the state. and again, the worst of this storm is expected in the orlando area in the overnight hours. and right now, we are still in the outer bands of this hurricane, which gives you an idea how powerful this storm is, even miles and miles away from where it recently made landfall. even beyond the direct path of this storm, we've already seen a dozen potential tornadoes

touching down here in florida. we've also seen small airplanes tossed around. so, much of this state is obviously at a standstill right now. and it's important, again, to stress what we're seeing right now is just the warmup in this part of florida, so, as people begin to see cleanup beginning to develop, people returning to their homes in the hours and the day ahead, we're going to still be seeing the worst of this hurricane and storm as it develops in other parts of florida. and obviously it is continuing to make its way up the east coast after that, nicolle. >> jesse, what sort of special warnings are there for an overnight impact? i know it's a lot more difficult to assess what's actually happening, people tend to get more frightened and alarmed when they can't see, obviously. but tell me what sort of special precautions are needed, because of the timing of when it will hit orlando. >> reporter: yeah, so, obviously, officials have been beating the drum, telling people, please, you know,

shelter, get off the roads. i think that's the biggest thing we heard is, get off the roads, get to a hardened shelter, from officials here. the winds we're expecting here are far lower than what we've seen from ian as it has made landfall. again, the bigger concern is that flooding, and obviously that's something that's going to keep people up overnight, nicolle. i'm personally thinking about our own experience and, you know, we're going to be with down here reporting throughout the night, but if we were staying on a ground floor somewhere, we would be staying awake throughout the night, because you don't know where those flash floods exactly are going to pop up necessarily. so, i think that is something that people are going to be keeping an eye on. i met a man who was bringing his family, including a days old baby boy, his young daughter, his wife, they decided to go to a shelter. they live in a third floor apartment, but when he said there were tornado threats in the area and the other concerns and the potential risk of what could happen, he did not want to take the chance, and i think that's something that we've been seeing from people in this community and obviously throughout other parts of the state, but at this point, the biggest message from officials

is, if you can, get off the road. we are driving in those big suvs, a chevy suburban, and that car in these wind gusts, miles from where ian is right now, that giant suv has been wobbling in some of these gusts. that is how powerful ian is and it is still hours from reaching us, nicolle. >> jesse, just tell me, i think so many people rely on their phones for updates, do you still have power, do you still have communications, are you still getting alerts from the state and news alerts? >> reporter: yeah, yeah, and we've been getting those alert tones on our cell phone throughout the day, so, those functions are still working. we are thankfully at a hotel that has generators that they told me should kick in. obviously, you keep on eye on having enough fuel to keep the car going so you can charge the phone and all of that equipment. and so far, we have gotten minimal reports of outages in this area compared to other parts of the state. and again, the worst of this is hours from now and it may not

necessarily even be the wind that does it, it could be the cascading effect of flooding, nicolle, which obviously is quite unpredictable. >> jesse, we don't know each other well enough for me to tell you where to sleep, but please do not sleep or spend time on the ground floor. get to higher ground. stay safe. thank you so much for your reporting. we're really grateful. >> thank you. let's bring into our coverage our friend, nbc news meteorologist bill karins. he's here with the latest on the path of this storm. bill, i have to ask you, give us the path, but then put this storm into some context for us. >> yeah, good to be with you, nicolle. unfortunately, a lot of our predictions, wasn't hype. it was as bad as we expected and we'll find out in the days ahead just how horrible, especially when i'm talking about areas like fort myers, bonita springs, the northern happen of naples, because that's where the worst of the storm surge is and we know we have water in homes, people calling 911, asking for

rescue. that's what's happening now. the winds are still too strong, helicopters can't fly to get them. there's been some reports of people on roofs. i don't have any confirmation of that, so, we'll find all the details out in the hours ahead, but there's a lot of people that are in need that didn't evacuate because of the storm. so, let me -- as nicolle requested, let's take you through the new 5:00 update from the hurricane center. it's a category 4, right over the top of punta gorda. the eye is right over the top of where kerry sanders is. and then tonight, we weaken it down to a category 1. still going to cause damage here. this is 2:00 a.m. and then as we wake up early in the morning, it will be closest there towards the orlando area and just to the right of orlando, cutting through seminole county here. and then right there volusia county. that's where the center would be. we would still see strong winds north of this. enough for power outages,

definitely possible. so, from orlando northwards, power outages, tree damage is your biggest threats and also, however how much rain we get. how about in? because it is going back over the water, we have hurricane watches that are up for south carolina through georgia and into north florida. we could be watching this make a second landfall as either a strong tropical storm of hurricane as we go through friday. charleston to savannah, to brunswick, georgia, they're like, all right, we need this thing to weaken as quickly as possible. we're going to have some problems right through friday, all the way through the coast. there's the hurricane watches i was mentioning just north of charleston, all the way down through daytona beach. we don't have confirmation yet, if we did get into this 12 to 18-foot. i saw, i know from one of the storm chasers, on a pole on a road, they attached a camera so, they could get video and they knew it would be safe to be there. at one point, that camera was in

eight foot of water and there were watches that were submerging the camera at times. and this is on one of the streets in fort myers near the beach near fort myers. so, we know we had at least eight with wave action over the top of that. and then the camera stopped working. so, it could have been worse than that. we won't know until we get to the morning hours. and nicolle, let me go back and show you the closeup radar to kind of where we're at right now with the storm. here's the center. the eye is right over the top of punta gorda. this is the back side of the storm. roughly about, i don't know, three-quarters, maybe a little more of the storm is inland. this strip is still over the water. that's where the highest winds are, so, the wind is ripping once again over captiva and into sanibel. as far as history goes, how about this little nugget? so, this is where we had landfall at 3:05. this is a little state park, kind of -- not many people live there year round, a very popular place for people to pull their

boats out, you have a good time with people. and in 2004, hurricane charley made landfall as a category 4 in the exact same location. 18 years later, we had another major hurricane hit the same exact spot. that's like winning the lottery twice type odds, so -- it's pretty wild. and just a couple other stats i'll throw at you. >> please. >> this is the fourth-strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in florida and tied for fifth-strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in our country's history. we're going to put this up there with some of the big names in the past, the katrinas, the lawyers, the michaels, the sandies, the andrews, and it's going to be on that list somewhere probably in the top ten for the most damage ever caused by a hurricane. we won't know that, you know, for a couple months ahead, but this is not just a billion dollar weather disaster, this will probably be, you know, one estimate was $35 billion, but that was a 3. now it's a category 4, i wouldn't be expected if that

were $50 billion to $70 billion. >> you said something i have to come back to on. you said you heard reports that we haven't been able to run down, of people being on rooftops. >> yes. >> do you have anymore information on that? >> i know when i was on the air earlier, we were talking to one of the supervisors in lee county and they were saying they've had calls from people in attics asking for rescue and help and they were told it's not safe. they can't be rescued at this time. and that was in the areas here, from fort myers southwards where the worst of the storm surge was. so, you are probably talking about people in single floor dwellings, probably didn't have any idea that the water could get that high or they didn't look up the research or listen to emergency managers, they wanted to ride it out and they had the water going through their house. there are going to be stories like that. tragic stories. nicolle, one of the biggest things that was concerning to me about how the forecast track. three days ago, we were like,

okay, this looks like a tampa storm, first time in 100 years and that 48 hours after that, it shifted south, ssarasota, shiftd south to venice, and then today, it went into fort myers. so, three days ago, people in fort myers were like, maybe it could hit us, probably not. so, the complacency and that change in the forecast down the shore, a lot of people may not have evacuated that normally would have if they knew that this was going to head to them. you have a lot of elderly residents, nursing homes. people have to make arrangements for their pets. where am i going to go with my pet? so, i think we probably had a lot more people try to ride this out than would be typical of a category 4 hurricane and those are the people that likely need rescue now, because the storm surge is still up. the water is still in their living rooms and they're trying to figure out what to do and they don't have any idea, there's no power, there's no meteorologist telling them, just hang out for three more hours and then that water is going to start to recede, you can survive this. they don't know that. they are just scared and calling

911. but that's what's happening right now. >> bill, i asked you, because we aired a clip earlier of what looked like a newscaster facetiming with a viewer or resident who had water quickly filling up in their home, so -- it certainly consistent with some of the things we've seen and it's just -- the nightmare scenario. bill, thank you so much for your coverage, we'll continue to call on you. joining our coverage, florida democratic nominee for governor and former governor of florida charlie chryst. charlie, tell me what's happening in your state. >> about awful lot, unfortunately. i can tell you that here in tampa bay, looks like we dodged a bullet, but the fact that the storm came in south of us, which essentially takes water out of tampa bay instead of filling it like a giant teacup. but i'll tell you, this morning -- i'm in a hotel in

downtown st. petersburg, i live own a canal in st. pete, we lost power earlier, then went out, saw the power lines were down, so, decided to evacuate and get out and get to safety. i hope most of my fellow floridians did the same thing, because this is one heck of a storm. the magnitude of it -- the intensity is much like hurricane charley in 2004 that's been discussed a lot today, but the size of the storm is so much bigger. it's virtually covering the whole state, except for the western panhandle. and is going to go up to orlando, then up probably through jacksonville and then as bill was just saying, probably go off the coast and head up into south carolina or georgia. it's a massive storm. and i'm really concerned about all the damage that we may suffer in florida as a result of this tragic event. >> charlie, what bill was talking about was the last-minute, you know, change in the path and as

hurricane-hardened as floridians are, you can only make a plan for elderly parents or for your pets or for an evacuation if you know to do so. what are your specific concerns about the change in the hurricane path? >> well, whenever that happens, it does give you a much less amount of time in order to get organized, pack up the stuff that you probably think you will need and be able to get out safely, frankly. and like i said, the same thing happened with hurricane charley, with irma, it did the same thing, coming up the west coast, heading, you know, like a direct shot towards tampa bay and then, you know, at the last minute or a little bit before the last minute, takes a turn to the right, goes in south over the fort myers area, caya costa. you don't have as much time to be prepared and ready. fortunately, i had time and i hope that most of my fellow

floridians did, as well. but we got a little bit more notice. a little build further north in st. petersburg, so, that made that opportunity available and thank god for that. >> there are a plethora of things about this storm that scare even people who watch these storms and who have lived through them. the surge, the winds, the amount of rain that is expected to fall in large swaths of the state. when you weigh those dangers to life and property, which ones make you most concerned? >> frankly, all of them, to be honest. i mean, you know, the wind has been pretty extraordinary. when you get the bands and it gets up to the gusts that we've heard a lot about today, you know, i saw what they call the washingtonian palm trees, they are very tall, they put down power lines. so, the wind has been extraordinarily significant. the flooding and the surge they're seeing south of us, south of tampa bay today, we've seen some of the pictures that

you all have broadcast down in naples and fort myers area, very disturbing to see what's happening with the water, the flooding. and then the sheer fact that this storm is so slow. i mean, it's just sort of squatting right on florida. and, you know, it's going to be with us for a few days, it looks like. that just adds to the water saturation. we're already sach waited. we're just getting to the conclusion of our rainy season, which is the summer, and so we've had an awful lot of rain and a lot of water soaking up into it right now. all these things concern. >> you have been the governor of the state, you have any advice for the current governor of the state? >> just do the best you can. stay on top of this thing. focus on doing what's right for the people of the state. they're going through a hellacious tragedy and carry them in your heart. >> charlie crist, thank you very much for spending some time with us today. stay safe. >> thank you, thank you nicolle. joining me on set, our

friend dave price. so, tell us what you see. we see this as this horrifically terrifying -- i just keep thinking, you know, i -- my son just started school and i'm thinking, if i were in florida and it was back to school and instead of worrying about pencils and notebooks, i'd be worrying about evacuating my family and the family pets. >> you have to step away from the science. you just nailed it. it is terrifying. that's what these people are going through right now. and by the way, that's what first responders are going through right now. they want to be able to get out, they want to be able to help. that's what meteorologists and those geared towards atmospheric science in south florida are going through. they want to be able to help. but at this point, we're somewhat paralyzed. it is indeed the hour at which everyone needs to stand down. you need to continue to do whatever we can, but that is

somewhat limited. you have so many people without power and really, one of the most -- as we use your term, you know, scary or terrifying, one of those issues is that we're entering nightfall soon. >> yeah. >> and, you know, the storm is slowing down. it's going at 8 miles an hour. now, on average, florida gets narrower and wider, but on average, you can say it's about 200 miles wide. this is working to the northeast, so, not in a straight line. going at about 8 miles an hour. that's, you know, that's a brisk jog. dumping immense amount of water. >> yeah. >> churning a massive amount of water. what do you do at night when first responders can't get out, when all of a sudden, the water is coming up, and there's no place to go? and that's where we are arriving to right now. and that's why we're all in the same predicament of wondering what we can do and being

frustrated that there may not be a lot right now. >> as you watch this, you know, what do you see that the rest of us don't? what do you see in these bands? >> you ask an interesting question, and we're at the point now where the science we have is the science a lot of people have. we've been tracking this for days. and on people's iphones, including right on our own app, you can go on and see where it's jogging to. >> where the bands are. >> so this is the point where, you know, information and action need to come together to save lives. and where we see it begins to just creep downward southward ever so slightly and the people in tampa breathe somewhat of a sigh of relief, well, that's when we needed to see people really jump into action and get out of the way. so, what i see is a very, very painfully slow journey across

the state of florida. what i see is a storm surge continuing to play a massive role and take a tremendous toll and keep in mind, during a hurricane, most deaths are attributed not to debris flying, but to drowning. surge, water continuing to gather. add in the fact that we're going to be during the overnight, add into the fact that people can't come out and rescue you. and it's completely disorienting. that's what -- that's what i see, but interestingly enough, that's what we can all see right now, so, if anyone has alternative power right now and is watching us, get to the highest point. get to an area away from the water and make sure that you -- at some point, let someone know where you are in some way, shape, or form. >> jesse kirsch is in orlando,

they expect to have the affects of the storm hit them overnight, said he is still receiving alerts on his phone, but he also talked about being fortunate enough to have a place to charge his phone. >> right now. >> right. it's amazing how dependent we are on these. >> it is. what's also tragic in a situation like this is that everyone thinks -- or so many people think they're storm chasers. so many people think, in some parts of the state right now, well, you know, what it's a 4 currently, but it will be a 1 by the time it gets to us. well, a 1 or a 2, you're still talking about wind speeds of 90 miles an hour. and the results can be catastrophic. and that's what our biggest concern is. >> stay right there. let me bring in our conversation fema administrator dian kris well. just tell us what you are able to do and what you have in place to help florida.

>> yeah, for the potential impacts from hurricane ian for several days now. and we knew that the storm was going to be sigficant in size and as we continue to see it increase in the potential strength into what we're seeing now, we made sure that we had pre-positioned resources to support what we were going to know we were going to see with the ill pacts from storm surge and from the rain, with search and rescue being one of our first priorities, making sure we had enough resources to go in and help people that didn't evacuate or inland with some of this inland flooding. we know people are going to need assistant and so we have a great team positioned, ready to support that. then we're going to focus on power. we know there are so many critical facilities in florida, so many individuals that are medically dependent on power, we want to make sure that we have the right resources to get that

restored as quickly as possible, but we've also brought in generators to support critical facilities as needed. >> when you think about, or try to get your brain around how much water is moving over so much of that state, what sorts of -- sort of medium and long-term housing can be put in place for some of the most vulnerable floridians impacted by this tomorrow? >> yeah, we are going to see tragic impacts as a result of this storm and the water is just going to be significant when we're talking 10 to 15 feet of storm surge, on the coast. and we're talking about 20, even 24 inches of rain on the inland, where it doesn't actually have anywhere to go, we are going to see impacts to the housing -- to the homes across the state. we've been working really closely with our partners at the american red cross, such great partners that are providing that immediate shelter and capability right now for -- as the storm

passes. they'll provide additional sheltering capability as soon as the storm passes. and then we've got a housing task force that has been planning for several days now on how we're going to be able to support the medium and long-term needs that have probably just lost everything. >> kerry sanders, longtime florida correspondent, has cover covered many hurricanes, when people like me stop covers this story, people in florida are trying to put their lives back together. talk about the long-term commitment you make to a state and a place that endures something like this event. >> yeah, it -- what you said makes such sense, right? i started as a local emergency manager and one of the things that we've always said is, all of these disasters, they start and end with that local community. fema is going to be there right now to support the response and stabilizing the incident, but

we'll be there through the recovery. we still have teams supporting recovery efforts in louisiana and puerto rico. we're going to work side-by-side with our state partners in florida as we understand what the recovery needs are going to be and help people get on their road to recovery and through their recovery process. >> you know a lot about natural disasters. what about this one stands out to you? >> you know, i think every disaster is very different, right? and we can't really compare disaster to disaster, because one, every community is unique. every community is going to have unique needs and the impacts from these disasters affect them differently. but i will say, this is a large storm. it's large in size, it's moving slow, the winds are excessive. and we're going to see a significant amount of rain. and so, the footprint that this storm is going to leave is going

to be catastrophic across the state of florida. so, it's going to be a very complicated recovery process, so, we're going to focus right now on saving lives and what we can do to stabilize this incident. but we have already brought teams in, because we know this is going to be a complicated recovery. we have planning teams already talking about what it's going to take to recover from this storm, because we know these are going to be some really compicated impacts. >> and obviously bill karins is talking about this hurricane going back out and coming back and ravaging potentially more states and more communities. is there limitless bandwidth at fema to deal with all of that? >> well, i wouldn't say limitless, but we have enough people to support this response and the recovery efforts. i know we're going to see impacts as it goes into the georgia and south carolina coasts. i talked to the governors of

both of those states and my region four team has been in contact with the emergency managers there throughout so we can understand what their needs are. we have a really dedicated work force and we will make sure that we have enough people to support and also have what's called a surge capacity force, where we can bring in people from across the department of homeland security to help support our response needs as needed. >> deanna criswell, thank you for joining us. >> you're very welcome. thanks for helping us get the message out. >> so, just a monumental task made all the more monumental by this specific monstrosity of this storm. >> well, and take into account now that one word she said. interagency. first, everyone needs to stage, so, in other words, utilities, emergency management people, the folks who are providing the emergency homes. they need to set up and hopefully have done so, so they

can go right in and begin their assessment as soon as it's done. but remember, for all of this to work, you need federal, state, and local authorities to work hand in hand. and we have seen in the past what happens when that didn't -- when that effort does not coeless. that's when we run into real problems, where resources sit idle, there are delays getting into some locations. time is of the essence. as we saw this storm begin to approach, a stop clock started, and we are running against time to not only save lives, but to help begin to put this process in motion to rebuild those lives. we saw with superstorm sandy, as we approach the anniversary, so many years later, there are people who still are not back in their homes. people who are not still whole. lives which have been ruined. and right now, on the minds we hope of all those government

officials is, how do we work together, how do we eliminate politics and how do we work most effectively to serve the people that we are charged with serving? >> i mean, i just -- i can't help thinking of that image, it became fraught on all sides of chris christie embracing president obama. >> think about that. >> became a political -- i guess it was to his detriment in the republican party. i know that aid has been promised by president joe biden. we have no reason to suspect that that aid won't be -- by the governor of florida. but what concerns do you have if that relationship breaks down? >> you know, my concern -- there is such public attention to this and it is fraught with such risk for both president biden and the governor of florida, that i think they will work as

effectively as they can -- >> serves everybody. >> serves everybody. everyone gets credit when it works right and fingerpointing gets very ugly when it doesn't. so, there is a motive for this cooperation. but the planning is one thing. the excuse is something quite different. this is a storm now with hurricane-force winds which extend 40 miles out, where tropical storm-force winds extend 175 miles out. and everybody is on haunches, hopefully, to get there safely. how fast will they get in and cooperate and play in the sand box together, local, state, federal, democrat, republican, to get the aid to the people who need it? we're going to have so many

different issues, from infrastructure, which will be destroyed, to homes and livelihoods, to federal loan programs that are going to need to be initiated. the storm is, as odd as it is to say right now, as intense as it is, is just the first part of a very, very long story for the people of florida. >> it will impact the lives of so many people living there. thank you so much for being part of our coverage. >> you bet. when we come back, we are expecting a news conference from florida's governor ron desantis. we'll bring it to you live. please stay with us. once upon a time, at the magical everly estate, landscaper larry and his trusty crew... were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire.

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obviously local responders make decisions, but by and large, until the storm passes, you know, they are not going to go into a situation for rescue and put their own folks at risk, and so, we know that there are folks who are in the really high risk zone a evacuation zones who did not evacuate, some have called in and those people are being logged and there will be a response but it's likely going to take a little time for this storm to move forward so that it's safe for the first responders to be able to do. we are getting reports, but it's going to take a little bit more time to know exactly in terms of structural damage, but we are getting some reports of structural damage in both lee and charlotte counties, but i would say overwhelmingly, it's been that surge that hassen be

has been the biggest issue and the flooding that has resulted because of that. in some areas, we think it's hit 12 feet. now, it is our meteorologist view that the storm surge has likely peaked and will likely, you know, be less in the coming hours than it has been up to this point, but we know that this has been a big storm and it's done a lot of damage as it is, is going to continue to move through the state of florida. you're going to see hurricane-force winds in places in central florida, perhaps. clearly a very strong tropical storm all the way until it exits the florida peninsula in the atlantic -- atlantic ocean. there are, as much as we're focused on southwest florida, very important, obviously, when you have a storm of this nature, i think at landfall it's going to be behind only the labor day hurricane, hurricane andrew, and hurricane michael in terms of intensity. i think we're going to end up

seeing that. it may end up being a category 5, but at a minimum, it's going to be a very strong category 4 that's going to rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula, so, that damage is ongoing, it's very, very important. but the fact is, there's going to be damage throughout the whole state and people in other parts of the state, be prepared for some impacts. and you are seeing counties in different parts of the state issue evacuation orders. clay county in northeast florida, which we do anticipate some major, major flooding events in northeast florida. i think folks that are familiar with the st. john's river know that when you have weather like this, you will see this. so, clay county has issued mandatory evacuations of low-lying areas along the st. john's river, flagler county has issued mandatory evacuations of its barrier islands, low-lying areas, and mobile homes.

nassau has issued evacuation orders for low-lying areas, st. john's county is evacuating coastal and low-lying. st. augustine as well as the city of st. augustine beach. putnam county has recommended evacuation for low-lying areas and areas with a history of county. and sumter county is advising evacuations of mobile homes. so, those are places that are hundreds and money shundreds of from the initial impact in southern florida, but they are evacuating folks. we have over 1.1 million reported power outages. now, there are crews that are still working outside of southwest florida, but just understand, that number is going to grow. you're going to see more power outages as the storm moves across the state and before it exits on the atlantic coast. there are 100 portable cell

phone towers ready to be deployed into southwest florida once it is safe to enter and should that be needed. we want to make sure people are staying out of the way of emergency crews and out of flood waters and away from all downed power lines. as soon as emergency crews can get in, they're going to get in. as soon as it's safe to go and clear the roadways, florida department of transportation is going to go in and clear those roadways. these are all on stand-by. they are ready to go. they understand the importance of a really, really quick response. as i mentioned earlier, we have now officially sent the letter with the request to the biden administration for the major disaster declaration, requesting the federal government do 100% reimbursement up front for 60 days to ensure we can quickly move forward into this response and recovery phase. and i know sometimes they wait until different damage assessments are made, but in this situation, you've got a massive category 4 storm that --

you compare charley to this, this is way, way, way bigger than charley. it was as strong as charley coming in, but charley was much smaller, so, this is a big one, and i think we all know there's going to be major, major impacts. we are not only -- 42,000 linemen are positioned all over the state of florida. as soon as it is safe to go, those personnel are going to go in to resume power and that's something that's very, very important. in terms of rescue efforts, obviously, there's robust efforts in each of these counties, i mean, some of these are major counties in our state, like lee county, collier county. they've got great response teams. the state of florida, you know, we are providing a lot of support that's staged and ready to go. question have almost 250 aircraft, more than 1,600 high water vehicles, and more than 300 boats of all drafts and sizes, including 250 already

stationed in the major impacted areas and nearly 50 that are staged and immediately ready to come in. so, with water this high, you know, these operations may need to be waterborn operations. there are some where you need to use the water to get to the barrier islands anyway. you look at collier county, downtown naples is flooded. that's probably going to subside as the time goes on, but 1 they're prepared for a lot of different eventualities, so, we're thankful for the states that have sent us resources and we're very, very appreciative of them stepping up and helping florida. as this storm passes your community, understand, it's still a very hazardous situation. you're going to have downed power lines. you're going to have a possibility of harm's way because of standing water. misuse of generators. i asked the department of emergency management, kevin, to produce for me the rundown of

the fatalities through direct impacts of storms versus the aftermath, and in hurricane irma, there were seven fatalities directly because of the storm and there were 77 that were a result of post-storm and a lot of that is standing now >> activated the florida disaster, offensive time chivas say they want to help. what can we do? >> there's really two things that you can do. one, send some donations. the other can be to donate your

time. what is not helpful is sending items and sending things. we have a lot of stuff prepositioned. if there's a need for other stuff, kevin and his team will work. all these other teams can provide. that if you provide money to some volunteer organizations and charity groups, they can make a big impact on peoples lives. there's gonna be ways that you can be put to work. a lot of hypocritical put the back end of this. if you want to contribute, go to florida or disaster friend that org. you can text disaster to 20 2 to 2. for those who want to come volunteer, we have an official volunteer portal and volunteer florida www. volunteer florida got work to find volunteer opportunities. the storm is doing a number on the state of florida. it's going to continue to move through the state today and much of tomorrow. they're gonna continue to have

a number of adverse effects. i can tell you that as soon as it moves beyond southwest florida, you're gonna see a massive surge of personnel and supplies to be able to help those who are any need. it's gonna get people back on their feet, you can help rebuild those communities. kevin? >> thank you governor. i think everybody should know that the governor is extremely committed to being involved in this response. he was here with me until late last night. he was here with me early this morning. he has not been anywhere but near me this entire time. governor, thank you so much for your leadership in that area. means a lot to me and leadership. hurricane ian asked made landfall this afternoon. winds of 155 miles per hour. i'm not gonna read all of the statistics that the governor's mansion, but i will bring a couple of new ones here.

1100 resource requests. we received 1100 resource requests. we fulfilled 900 of those. again, the difference is the stuff that we just cannot get out on the road right now. we are working as quickly as possible to address those needs. we have well over 200 shelters open. we have 42,000 restoration personnel. we literally have, with first responders across the state and additional ones coming, and there's well over 10,000 responders statewide ready to do stuff. as the storm makes its way across florida, i remind floridians to stay indoors if you are in the mouth of the storm. if you are sheltering in place in the path of the storm and use of power and wi-fi, please visit florida disaster dot org slash info to fellow with the shelter in place survey. we have had a lot of people

answer that and give us some information. it helps us provide critical information to first responders about the demographics of your household so they can aid your family as soon as possible. keep in mind that first responders may not be able to immediately enter impacted areas to assist you due to safety hazards. we are planning a three pronged response to handle that specific issue. we have personal stages coming in vehicles. we -- have certain rescue assets. let me also of the coast guard and florida official wildlife commission ready to come in with those barrier islands to the beach front property. we will have a response mechanism that involves all three of those arms. i just reiterated this for disaster slash info.

if you need immediate assistance please dial 9-1-1. that sets not a replacement for 9-1-1. if it is calm outside, you may be in the eye of the storm. as the eye of the storm moves inland it's getting ready to enter areas such as henry county, blades county. do not go outside of all of a sudden the wind stops. and the situation, that means you and i have the hurricane. seek shelter and get into an interior room to protect yourself. don't walk or drive through flooded areas. floodwaters can stall your car, should be on your car away in the blink of an eye. the rise slated tornadoes across essential florida. if you have a tornado warning, again seek an interior room free of windows. get low and put something over the top of your head to protect yourself.

solve deployments, we don't want individuals solved deploying out on their own. that is very dangerous. leave it to professionals who are trained on how to do that. do not take a personal bowed out in these situations. we do not want to have to respond to yet another problem. the governor mentioned that there are more deaths as a result of indirect situations than the actual direct situation of storm surge at the beginning of a storm. so, what we want you to do more than anything else is stay safe, please be careful out there. governor, thank you. >> there are reports of the navy is on the way. >> so, i think the cajun navy is on the way. okay, there we go. we really welcome them. it's been battle hardened folks. so, florida welcomes their

support. honestly, particularly louisiana because they dealt with so much. so, the governor has been great. but look we have a long way to go before the storm leaves the state. there will be a lot of need to get into these communities and southwest florida. we have to offer immediate assistance. but i think the three prong strategy going in from ground, air and sea means all hands around deck. there will be people that will be in harm's way. what i have said is folks are told of the hazards. they were given time to make arrangements into leave some will. a few chose not to do that. they probably would've been better off to do that. nevertheless, if you are in harm's way we are going to go to cover whatever we can to help those folks. those operations are going to commence as soon as it is safe to do so. certainly. i would say no later than first thing in the morning? >> yes sir.

>> as soon as it is light outside and people are able to do. and then it begins with the clearing the roads. making sure that electrical folks can get in there. i was able to think number of these lineman. we went over to lake city where number staged. these are great folks. they're coming from all across the country. 11 from alabama, texas, louisiana. they're all coming to florida. when we were driving back from tallahassee from lake city, i saw this beautiful sight of all this electrical vehicles coming. that all the electrical equipment. on folks are gonna put peoples power back on. a procession of them. i bet you after today there's gonna be significantly more you're putting all hands on deck in this response. any questions? we >> getting calls, how many

cars were talking about here? >> right now, i do want to give you a solid number because earlier today the report was 21 and then the southwest florida area, we had one small rural county answering calls. so, i can't really quantify that right now. this is just for the local level told me. >> you've been listening to florida governor ron desantis. the head of florida's diversity management there with a briefing. thank you for being part of our breaking news coverage. it continues now. hi ari? >> hi nicole, welcome to the. be amari melbourne. we are tracking hurricane ian. we have been listening to this press conference from ron desantis. the storm is the fifth most powerful estimated to hit the united states. a category four hurricane made

landfall formally three hours ago on southwest florida. flash in the gulf coast, life-threatening storm surge global flooding. they expect as you have heard up to 18 feet of flooding and some areas. you are looking here now at naples. you can see the storm surge 1 million without power. another video from naples florida where you see the refrigerator floating in the middle of a parking lot. as tossed around by waves. here's a satellite image of the and making landfall. what you can appreciate here, we are told by the experts, is that the storm from this perspective you can see more clearly that it runs didn't sweat about 500 miles at certain points. that is formally wider, a larger area than the entire state that it is currently in. and then as