good evening, everyone. we begin "the reidout" with breaking news. florida is being pummeled by a storm of catastrophic and historic proportions. hurricane ian, the first of its caliber to hit the sunshine state since 2018 made landfall just hours ago. for many floridians, the worst may still be to come. here's what we know at this

hour. the category 4 storm is currently barreling across southwest florida with winds up to 150 miles per hour. more than 1.5 million people in the state are currently without power, and that number is growing. but the most imminent and life-threatening concern is the storm surge. some areas seeing 12 to 18 feet. to give you an idea of just how severe that is, a meteorologist for the national hurricane center says no one alive has seen 12 feet of storm surge in that area, and many areas could take years to recover. just take a look at this surge today. the dangers are a reality for many who chose to hunker down and wait out the storm despite the evacuation orders. take a look at what family told nbc affiliate wbbh as their house flooded. >> so this is ft. myers beach on cutlass drive. >> it's four of us. >> four of us?

on cutlass drive. and you're on the second floor already? >> yeah. >> six of us in here. >> do you have -- do you have a roof? >> 15 feet of water now. >> there's 15 feet of water and it's still kmirng? -- coming in? >> yeah. >> meanwhile the federal government has thousands of resources at the ready, fuel, water, meals, and thousands of national guard troops standing by. florida governor ron desantis is also asking president biden to grant a major disaster declaration for all 67 counties in the state. >> we have now officially sent the letter with the request to the biden administration for a major disaster declaration for all 67 counties requesting the federal government do 100% reimbursement for this recovery phase. >> let's bring this meteorologist to mar theodore

with the latest on the path. so mara, give us an idea. 12 to 15 feet would be off the screen. it would be above your head, just so everyone understands what that means. so please go ahead. >> absolutely, absolutely. you know, storm surge the deadliest aspect of a hurricane. as night falls, this is when we'll see the storm begin for some folks. my hearted goes out to southwestern florida because for a lot of folks it's going to be the longest night of their lives. let's take a look right now. 125 miles per hour. so hurricane ian is now a category 3. this just happened. it's starting to weaken, but it is still packing a punch. traveling to the northeast at 8 miles an hour right now. let's take a closer look. right now we're seeing some of the strongest winds hitting parts of florida, including arcadia and right now they're experiencing some heavy rain along with those strong winds. we're seeing colors like pink

and red show up here, and that is very heavy rain falling. still seeing some strong winds as well in punta gorda. we'll continue to see that in florida. here's the winds that have come in so far. we've seen 135-mile-per-hour gusts when it was hitting cape coral. down towards naples, 112 miles per hour. 105 at port charlotte. sanibel island, 106 miles per hour. this has been a strong storm and it remains strong. the red is denoting the hurricane-force winds that will continue to extend into central florida. near lakeland we're talking. as we push forward, even southern tips south of orlando could see hurricane-force winds as we head into thursday. beyond that with the latest updates, we are seeing the threat for a hurricane watch that's been issued for parts of south carolina and georgia

coastline, as we could see re-energizing. it could be a tropical storm as it moves into the carolinas, bringing heavy, wet, chilly rain into parts of the carolinas through the weekend. and beyond that, you know, the power outages, that's going to be a big concern tonight. we're expecting power disruptions throughout much of the state, as you've already seen. that could stick around for weeks in some isolated regions, but especially the swath here in red from the coastline to day toe in a beach. we could be looking at extensive power failures. we're tracking the severe threat with chance of multiple tornadoes through days to come. >> let me ask you, for those who have never lived in a hurricane, i lived in florida for 14 years. there are two different ways hurricanes can be dangerous. there's the wind hurricane, the wind damage that can be caused. and then there's the rain, the water. in this case, this is a very watery hurricane. talk about how the speed of the

hurricane makes a difference, because you have some that are really super slow. this seems like a super slow one, and then you have others that whip through really quickly. >> exactly. one that comes told that was extremely slow was harvey. you remember the visuals from that. for this one, we're moving right now to the northeast at 8 mles per hour. it has has a chance to slow down. once we see a hurricane getting to 3 to 4 miles per hour, that's usually the average walking speed of a human. this is going to meander and take its time, and this is going to dump copious amounts of rain through central florida. possibly 2 feet in some areas. like you said, that's the next tier of the storm. there's lots of components to a hurricane, the wind, the tornadoes ahead of it, and then we have the soaking rain. this is just all-encompassing. really much of the state of florida is being impacted by this hurricane at this point. >> yeah, it's pretty much a statewide hurricane. look how big it is as well. thank you very much. really appreciate you, somara

theodore. joining me is steve patterson in st. petersburg, florida. geographically that is near tampa. tell us how things look where you are. >> reporter: yeah, joy, much further north from the eye of the storm. make no mistake, this area dodged a bullet yesterday. they were predicting that the eye of the storm would actually be somewhere close to here, a storm in which we haven't seen in 100 years a direct hit to this area. thankfully that didn't happen, but that doesn't mean this area has been spared. the wind has been significant. the rain has been significant. we're nowhere near the worst of it, joy. in three, four, five hours, we expect to see really the brunt in this area where this storm surge of about 4 to 6 feet. that is tremendous for this place because of how many areas along the bay that are low lying, which may mean potential for flash flooding, the potential for that surge to come over and cause a whole lot of damage. we're talking millions.

it's still in this area, which is putting officials on edge. in the meantime, they're mainly focused on the wind damage, the flash flooding, the power outages and power poles that have gone over, started fires. and first responders can't get there because it's too dangerous. that's the situation that could happen here, especially as it gets dark and makes it that much more dangerous. already more than 100,000 customers in this area without power. there could be several more as the night goes out, but we're just getting started. >> that is one of the issues, right? this is hitting in broad daylight. a lot of times these hurricanes hit overnight and you wake up in the morning to see what the damage is. this is a daytime hurricane. are you seeing in that area where you are in st. petersburg, as you said, the wind-type damage? we've seen some tornadoes which can be ahead of it. or is this more about storm surge because it's so low lying? >> reporter: despite what you're seeing on camera right now, this

is all about the storm surge. it'll be after that storm surge all about the flooding that comes after it because we're expecting somewhere around 24 inches of rain, which is as much as you might expect in a month in a few hours. imagine that, the amount of flooding we could get from that on top of the storm surge could be monumental, especially in this area, this bay area. it hasn't taken a direct hit in about a century or so. it won't take one now, but on the back end of it we may see an incredible amount of rain and water. and the flooding that could result, the images from that, the pain from that, the amount of money that has to be spent with utilities and people trying to clean up from that, it's expected to be immense. hopefully we dodge it, but what we're seeing now, it could go either way. joy? >> did you get the sense -- i don't know how long you've been on the ground and i don't want you to move around too much, but did people in that area generally evacuate?

we know there were some places that were under evacuation orders. we heard reports of up to 2 million floridians on the road trying to get away from the water, move inland as far as they could. was this an area that was under an evacuation order and do you get a sense there are a lot of people who are there still trying to sort of ride it out? >> reporter: this most certainly is an area under an evacuation order. the messaging is, if you haven't left, now is the time to hunker down. you shouldn't be trying to evacuate as we speak. i spoke to the mayor yesterday. he told me that most of the people did heed the warning, they did get out of town. if they stayed, they were either in a higher area or they knew how to hunker down. so we heard that. despite that, we're at the st. petersburg pier right now. this is not the place you want to be. luckily we have a shelter above my camera guy up there. that's why the shot is so stable. i'll run up there as soon as this is over. but a lot of people have come down here just to take pictures, try to get the lay of the land,

see the storm come in off the bay. not advised. we've seen a bunch of that. but for the most part, when you talk about volume, you're driving through this town, it's a ghost town. most people heeded the warnings, that's a good thing because it's going to get a whole lot worse tonight. >> don't go and take pictures. it's not a joke at all. i mean, not at all. don't go take pictures. bad idea. steve paterson, thank you very much. i'm joined by msnbc anchor ali velshi in naples, florida. i've been watching you all day, and you were on a roof where you were just getting higher and higher to get to higher affiliations. earlier when you were talking with our colleagues here, tell me what it's look like now, ali, where you are. earlier it looked a little frightening. >> reporter: it's getting dicey, i have to say. it's been very rare in the hurricanes i've covered that i had to go above a second story. it has happened once before.

look at the difference now. now you can see the ground. you can't actually see the ground. this is the parking lot i was showing of pictures all day that was completely flooded. you see sand because this is naples beach that has been pushed in by the storm surge. there's still water at the end there. look at those cars. those were all the cars that were lined up in the parking lot. the water just picked them up and basically pushed them into each other. we are first starting to see people walking around. this is the first time in six hours i've seen people. i just went downstairs for the first time in six hours. it's remarkable how the water has just pulled out of here. these condominiums across from me -- i was talking to our colleagues and we were seeing the water overtipping the balconies there onto the second story above the car ports, well above ten feet on this particular side. now it's all gone and the gulf of mexico now looks like a beach. you can see naples beach and sand. i haven't seen that for six hours. and the water is actually moving from the right to left, which is entirely a different direction. it was coming toward us for the

entire day. here in naples we have the back end of it. there's 1.3 million people reportedly out of power in florida. that number is going up by the minute. and remember, this storm is now moving northeast very, very slowly. the rain is being dumped, the ground is being softened, the trees are falling, more power lines are going down. so they're not even going to get started on fixing that power until at least tomorrow in places like this when the wind dies down. it's still very windy here. the water has got to recede and they got to get cars out of the street and then they start working. we heard emergency calls from people who are trapped. lee county, ft. myers, they've redirected some of their emergency calls here so the police here are saying please don't call us unless you actually have an emergency. we can't do anything for you. we're trying to help those meme in ft. myers where things are

much worse. >> the thing about it, ali, i can remember riding out a category 3 hurricane wilma, which was a couple months after hurricane katrina hit in new orleans. we were in south florida with wilma. >> reporter: that's right. >> the thing that's terrifying is the sound. it was us and the little kids playing the flashlight game because we had no power and trying to ride it out. you remember hearing what sounded like hell on earth. everything whipping and whipping. this is a watery hurricane. it's slow and causing lofts surges. >> >> reporter: you're right. >> reporter: that means when the water recedes, your car is destroyed, your my house flooded. this is a lot more to me like the kind of damage you saw with katrina. >> reporter: that's exactly the right point. one of those big hurricanes sounds like a constant freight train for hours. >> yes. >> reporter: it gets into you. it's terrifying. that's not what we heard today. this is mostly a water storm. in america water storms are more

dangerous than wind storms are, and that's what we've seen because you don't have the same sense of terror inside you. it's slow moving. this came upon us quickly. i was literally walking around on this ground level and an hour later it was so dangerously flooded that i wasn't able to get down for another several hours. that's because the high tide turned around. you're absolutely right. that's the first car we've seen moving since noon. it's a truck and they're trying to get through it. that is actually what the police caution against because your vehicle can float in six inches of water. that's way more than six inches there. >> exactly. people get tempted to come out because they don't hear the whipping wind and the horror, so you think you can go out. but no, drowning is a real thing. that is what happened in katrina. >> reporter: it's a real thing, yes. >> you can't drive in that. i cannot stress enough, do not go out. don't be looking at it or check it out. stay inside.

or stay up high. >> reporter: that's what they're trying to tell people. this place is under mandate evacuation order and a curfew. hopefully everybody stays in tomorrow. tomorrow they'll start fixing this up. >> reporter: ali, get somewhere safe. i wish we could show a video of what you were seeing earlier when that parking lot behind you was completely flooded, how high that water was, 12 to 15 feet. >> it was a river. >> reporter: it was a river, and we're now seeing the aftermath. ali velshi, you're the best, man. thank you very much. all right, our live coverage of hurricane ian making landfall in florida continues moment. stay with us.

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last night they were talking tops 9-foot surge. the house i'm in went through charlie. i got a new roof on, i'm good, we'll hang in there. now we wake up in the morning and it's 19 feet. so it kind of changes my reality. there's no choice. we're late in the day, yeah, i screwed up, but i got to do what i got to do with the reality that i have, which is get the hell out of the house. >> back now with more of our breaking coverage of hurricane ian making landfall and leaving devastation on the gulf coast of florida. joining me now is the mayor of st. petersburg, florida, ken welch.

i lived there. people ride it out, and you think i can handle because you're thinking wind. i think too few people think water. water is so damaging. just give us what you think the damage is going to look like when that water recedes in your city. >> well, joy, good to be with you. as you know having lived in florida, you run from the water, you hide from the wind >> yeah. >> ian has stayed on its projected track and hit st. pete head on, we would have been looking at 10 feet of surge on top of 10 to 15 inches of rain, and no infrastructure in the world can handle that. and so we were blessed that it didn't hit us, but our prayers go out to our neighbors to the south, sarasota, ft. myers area. we still have six hours with the outer bands of the storm and we'll experience

tropical-storm-force winds, maybe hurricane-force winds, and 10 inches of rainfall. we're still not out of the winds yet in st. petersburg. >> not by any means. the governor has asked for a full compliment of federal help. we're lucky he's the governor version of ron desantis rather than the congressman who back in the day didn't want to send that money to hurricane sunny day victims in new york. he's definitely learned a lesson. talk about what that federal money could do. st. pete is not out of the woods yet and you're probably going to need it. >> absolutely. and i had the opportunity to speak with president biden and fema secretary yesterday. they pledged their total support, anything we need, we always our state government. it's good to see folks working together for the benefit of our community because lives are literally at stake. and certainly our community and certainly those communities to the south will need a lot of support going forward. >> yeah, absolutely.

i should mentioned it wasn't just ron desantis, marco rubio was on the same page as far as funding. talk about what you think are going to be the immediate needs of folks in your city. >> the impacts to our water system is first and foremost. we ask folks to be prepared with food, water, medication for seven days, but just looking at the video of what's happening in south florida, there's going to be a lot of damage to the infrastructure, i believe, the portable water system, the sewage system, the reclaimed water systems, i think, are all going to be overwhelmed. and so they'll need help with the basics, with food and water. for our community, you know, we'll get to clean up right away, but one thing i want to stress, as you well said, you know, a lot of folks make it through the storm, but then they have injuries or death because they try to get back on the streets too quickly and they step on a downed wire or try to drive their vehicle through water or use their generator

incorrectly. we ask people to shelter in place tonight, let our crews get out first thing tomorrow and get power restored to more than 100,000 people who are without power right now. >> yeah, absolutely. people forget that the aftermath includes if your power goes out, everything in your fridge is bad, everything in your fridge goes bad. whatever food you thought you had, you don't. so it becomes an immediate need for sustenance and all the basics. if you didn't store water before, make it to publix, you're in trouble. it's a lot. a lot of support is going to be needed. thank you very much, mr. mayor, for taking your time, st. petersburg mayor, we appreciate you. up next, the challenges millions of floridians are facing after evacuating their homes. we'll be right back.

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. we're on the back end now where the back eyewall is coming through. we've had some of the strongest winds here so far. i'm inside a parking garage area, so we're somewhat protected, but the winds are furious. as the winds are blowing, there are certain points there are things flying in the wind like roofing shingles. it's going to be a very long time to get an assessment of what's happened here because

it's starting to get dark. when this storm finally passes through and the rain quits around midnight, then we'll wait for the sunlight to really see how bad it is. >> my god, go inside, kerry. go inside. this is one of the most powerful storms we've seen and hurricane ian is tong batter florida at this hour. we bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins. kerry sanders, i'm afraid for him. i want to rerack this again. hurricanes are two things. they are wind that is terrifying and the sound of it blowing around and what it's doing to you, and then there's the water you can drown in, that if you try to drive in it, your car could skid into the ocean if you're in florida. they're both. is this primarily a windstorm or it seems like it's more of a water storm and it hasn't slowed down? >> it all depends on where you are. some areas like ft. myers, it was both. i mean, it was historic storm surge plus winds that were

likely 120 to 130 miles per hour. so you got extreme wind damage and you had catastrophic, historic storm surge. that's kind of like when we see the pictures tomorrow of, okay, what area was hit the worst, it's cape coral and ft. myers, both low-lying areas where the water went miles inland during the peak of the storm surge this afternoon. the water's still up, but it's on its way down finally. that's kind of the stage we're getting at. and then as far as the winds go, anywhere from port charlotte northwards, it wasn't a surge event because the storm made landfall over you. so you had mostly the tide -- the wind was blowing the water out to sea. from arcadia to venice, inwood -- i'm not talking about surge. we have to deal with flash flooding concerns. that hasn't developed yet, but that will tonight as the storm tracks up towards orlando. so just in the last hour, this

extreme wind warning, this area of purple heading to the northeast of punta gorda, what that means it's the equivalent of a tornado heading your way. everyone's phones are going off. if they're watching tv, they're getting the message alert on their tvs telling them to get to their safe rooms, an interior room, put pillows on top of you, blankets. put the twin mattress on top you in the bathtub. we still have a major category 3 hurricane that's moving over. you get that feeling of we don't have the reporters getting blown around anymore at the coast. but for the people inland from the ft. myers, cape coral, port charlotte area, this is still a very significant event and a very scary evening where it sounds like a train, the house is shaking, the windows are shaking and the power is out, so you don't even know what's going on. it's scary and that's what's happening right now, joy. i know you were wondering about the water situation.

you mentioned the storm surge. but that heavy shield of rain is now near winter haven on top of orlando. orlando will have gusts up to 80 to 90 miles an hour. that's enough to knock out power and 2 feet of rain tomorrow morning. things ugly on the i 4 corridor. joy, how cruel is this going to be that we're not just done with this storm because we have to track this thing for two more days. our friends up in jacksonville to brunswick, georgia, all the way up through savannah, hilton head, charleston, they could possibly see a strong tropical storm or a category 1 hurricane landfall on friday. ian is not done yet. i'd say 80% of the damage from this storm is done, but there's still that 20% to go. >> yeah. it's unbelievable. i'll tell you, i lived through earthquakes, tornadoes, i've lived in colorado and hurricanes are the scariest.

it sounds like a freight train. wishing folks well down there. joined now again by our good friend, anchor ali velshi in naples. i don't know if you could hear bill, ali -- >> reporter: i did, yeah. >> there is a lot that has changed about the earth that has made these things worse, right? these things are thriving because the water is getting warmer. we stopped calling it global warming for political reasons, but that's what it is. our earth is getting warmer and there's just no doubt, i think, left that it is feeding these beasts. >> reporter: and where it comes out is the intensity. people say there have been hurricanes for millennia, but sometimes we get ones that are so much more damaging and so much more intense. and then there's the complicating factor like the saint johns river in florida, charleston. charleston, like miami, gets

water that comes up on a good sunny day. that's climate change, and water levels are rising. on one hand you have more intense storms because of warm weather and the patterns that cause these storms to form, and then you got greater damage because we've got a rising water level. it's good we talk about these things in the moment because lots of times over the years when i brought it up, people say now is not the time to talk about it. now is the time because people are paying attention to how damaging these things are. that does mean taking into account how you build things and how you account for it, which is fine in places like naples here where you can build stuff that's off the ground. what about in poor areas where people don't have the money to rebuild? what about what happened in new orleans during katrina? this is why we have to think about climate change in relation to severe weather, in relation to how people can actually mitigating it >> by the way ali, we talk about these things. you do a brilliant job. we're talking about when

migration is happening around the world, a lot of that is also driven by this stuff. as these places that we've chosen to live, or where people have no choice but to live become inhospitable, you have to move. >> reporter: total right. >> when katrina happened, people moved. we're not saying that's going to happen now, but humors are literally running from what the climate change that we're pretending isn't happening. >> it will actually be the single biggest cause of migration. we typically think of migration being caused by conflict and wars and things like that in syria and ukraine. it's actually going to be migration because people can't move. generally speaking, prosperous people can move because they can afford to, but eventually when the grains stop growing and

fields keep flooding, people are going to move. that's the major cause for migration around the world and here in america. it is really hard to live in places that get hit by tornadoes and get hit by hurricanes on an ongoing basis. you can't make a living out of it. that's a really important and necessary consideration. >> i got to have you come back because we could do a whole hour on where people with money choose to live because they live in low places. it's a whole other topic. stay safe, my friend. you're brilliant. thank you very much, ali velshi. appreciate you alyssa basher is in tampa. elson, it's quiet. i don't hear rushing wind, but how are things there because i don't hear rain? >> there's definitely a steady flow of rain. louise this fluctuation in the last couple of hours where sounds like the wind was a lot more intense, maybe an hour or two ago. right now you can see there's rain, but nothing too crazy. we did just in the last 40 minutes or so hear and see a

transformer explode just past the tree line here. it was in some ways a reminder of what officials in tampa are telling people who live here right now. while some people might be feeling optimistic saying it looks like the cone of the hurricane has shifted, it looks like we're not going to take a direct hit in tampa here, there are still broad impacts to this storm and officials have said repeatedly it will be felt in the tampa area. they have told people who did not evacuate -- there were about 2.5 million people in all of florida around 300,000 in this county alone that were told they should evacuate. they were under mandate evacuation orders. this afternoon you had officials saying it's too late if you didn't evacuate, you just need to stay in place and hunker down. one thing, joy, that officials with the police department are sending notes out on right now is their frustration and concern that a lot of people in this area are going down towards the

bay to go sight-see and look where the tide has receded and they're saying that's incredibly dangerous because they're still expecting significant storm surge here. >> it's so ill-advised. if you get in trouble, that means somebody has to risk their life to rescue you. please don't do that. this is not a tourist thing. this is dangerous stuff. weather is dangerous. nbc elson basher, thank you so much. let's bring in jesse kirsch in orlando. you are aware of where the storm is headed. what is happening where you are. >> reporter: a perfectly timed wind gust coming through right now, joy. we got what is really just stronger bands of wind and rain coming through sporadically. it has definitely deteriorated here throughout the afternoon into the evening. what i want to stress is what you're seeing right now are just the northern bands of ian. we're still hours away from the worst impact of this storm here

in the orlando area. but already officials have made it clear they don't people driving on the roads. they said the time for that was before 2:00 p.m. at this point people should be where they are going to be riding out the storm. the biggest threat here appears to be the rainfall. we're going to see wind gusts around 90 miles per hour potentially. but the bigger concern is the potential for measure -- more than two feet of rain. that could contribute to flash flooding as ian continues to crawl across florida. we have more strong winds coming through. it's been sporadic so far, but we're hours away from the worst of what we'll see here. thankfully power outages are minimal compared to what we see on the west coast of florida. our cell reception has been holding strong. at this point officials do not want people on the move. for context of how strong these little bursts of wind -- i say little because they're quick and short. i haven't seen anything too crazy so far.

i emphasize too crazy because a couple wind gusts did catch my attention because i was sitting inside a chevy suburban, a massive suv, and the car started to wobble a little bit, joy. >> wow. yeah, powerful winds indeed. stay safe. nbc's jesse kirsch, thank you very much. coming up, storms like hurricane ian are only going to get stronger and more dangerous as the climate crisis progresses as we were just talking about a short time ago. we'll talk more about that next. before we begin, i'd like to thank our sponsor, liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. and by switching, you could even save $652. thank you, liberty mutual. now, contestants ready? go! why? why? only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪

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can you show me how far the water 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 into the roof. >> go to the roof. don't go in the attic. >> don't go in the attic. do you have a way to go on the roof? >> yeah, we're going to have to find out a way soon. >> hopefully somebody is seeing this. >> back now with more breaking coverage of hurricane ian taking a devastating toll in florida right now. joining me now is a reporter for the "miami herald." you just saw that, nick. a lot of people rode it out. is there any sense, you know, even if talking with city officials of how many people in the affected areas might be in

danger? do we have nick. that's all right. we'll hold off because we don't have him yet. i will just tell you -- oh, i think we got him. nick, do we have you? >> so sorry about that. >> no worries, no worries. we just saw a clip, which i don't know if you were able to see, this was one of the couples who rode things out, tried to ride out the hurricane. the water is now rising and rising and rising. this was earlier today. that video -- hopefully those folks are safe. that is story we'll probably see a bit of. is there any sense of just how many people actually listened to the evacuation orders versus how many tried to ride it out? >> yeah. i mean, that is going to be the story in the next couple days. we know that about 2.5 million people in these low-lying coastal areas got a mandate evacuation order. that's many fewer than hurricane irma in 2017. in hurricane irma we saw a real

evacuation catastrophe with people stranded on the highway for 20, 24 hours, gas shortages. it was really -- seeing those kind of jams on the highway this time. >> did you get the sense -- i'm going through my list of the hurricanes going back to 1992, the mother of all hurricanes, category 5 hurricane andrew, which really changed the face and politics of florida, particularly of south florida. you had hurricane charlie in '04, wilma in 2005, irma in 2017 and michael in 2018. was there any indication the desantis administration was prepared for something as catastrophic as this? >> well, i think everyone noticed that the governor was a little quiet in the days before the storm, but that has certainly changed. just on my drive down here, i

saw a convoy of 15 to 20 utility trucks from pennsylvania and missouri making their way down here. there are not widespread gas shortages like last time. the highways have been clear. it seems like florida was better peoples homes destroyed, real potential refugee. situation >> absolutely. we do know that for those that know florida history, essentially jeb bush's career was made by hurricanes. he had this guy who was the greatest, probably, local director for emergency management there ever was. i want to play president biden. he did issue warnings. he issued a warning today to whelan gas companies. take a listen.

>> i want to add one more warning, the last warning to the oil and gas industry. do not, do not let me repeat, do not use this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices and gouge the american. people [applause] >> and you're mentioning that you're not seeing gas spikes in gas prices because i know that has been a thing when these disasters have happened. so far what you are saying is, you are not seeing any spikes. but we have just begun this. the >> state officials and local state attorneys have, i'm sorry, they will prosecute price gouging if they are presented with evidence. >> got it. thank you very much for putting up with our technical glitches. let's bring in eric kleinberg, professor of social sciences in why you.

thank you for being here. this is a story that is about what happens when we make choices. humans live in all sorts of places. in this place there are a lot of low-lying parts of florida that are vulnerable to these kinds of storms. when they happen there is only one thing you can. do you have to get up and go. you have to move out. but you have seen, over the last few years, lots of stories about florida making choices about whether to keep building in places that are low lying. i know in the keys there have been buybacks of property to say maybe it's not a good idea to keep rebuilding there. but the movement into florida, including into low-lying areas, man-made built out into the water, it's actually accelerating. >> it is remarkable, our will to keep on building in places we know are fragile and dangerous. and so we have this formula for disaster right now, where we have the sea level rising, we have hotter air, so we have all

this energy that storm systems trap into. and there, supercharged and we have more people in dancers settlements with infrastructure we are not always building up appropriately so we create situations like this in a way that make them potentially catastrophic, and we are just going to have to see what happens. >> florida is particular parts of florida it happens to be some of the fastest-growing places in the country. the population is surging. this is a map showing the storm surge is near fort myers alone. and this is some video if you can see. it this is what it looks like when water claims back land. it is terrifying to think about being in one of those places. you see fort myers and cape coral, that blue washing over it. in your expectation, afterwards, when the rebuilding starts, if insurance covers it, because by the way insurance companies are

fleeing the state, what next? should we expect more building? >> well, unfortunately, all evidence we have tells us that we are going to continue to rebuild and to build more. in fact, there is a world of people who are serious about climate change who are suggesting we start to think about how we retreat productively to prevent catastrophes like this. instead, we continue to subsidize development on a massive scale, and frankly, i don't think it is sustainable. one of the really big issues we have right now, whether it's a disaster, or we spend billions of dollars building back what we had before. unfortunately the earth that we live on now is a different earth. the climate we have is a different climate. if we build back what was there before, it's just going to go under one, year five years, 100 years. we need to build differently.

we need to build smarter. we can only do that if we take climate change seriously. to be honest, i am concerned that giving the leadership in florida right now, they're going to be making some bad decisions about what to do. next >> the previous governor, banned even the mention of climate change by his government. i'm not sure of the current governor is doing much different. it's terrifying, but we are praying for the folks down there, hoping they will be safe and that they will move in time. professor eric klinenberg, thank you very much. we'll be right back. right back.

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throughout the evening as we continue to bring you live coverage of the devastating impact of hurricane ian in florida's florida. this is the readout. i turn it over to chris hayes. chris, off to you. >> thank you so much, joy. i really appreciated. this hour, one of the most powerful storms to hit the united states in decades is roaring across florida, bringing massive amounts of water and catastrophic winds. hurricane ian was just down graded to category three storm, maximum sustained winds of up to 125 miles per hour. but it made landfall in florida's west coast nearly four hours ago. ian was just shy of a category five. you can see from the satellite images, the day began with eons massive bands approaching florida from the south, where it wreaked havoc across the caribbean. cuba