i'm alicia menendez, and this is msnbc's continuing breaking news coverage of hurricane. it is midnight in florida and in just a few hours, on the southwest coast, -- first look at the aftermath of hurricane ian. how many people are trapped, how many of them can be rescued. that while parts of central florida are bracing for impact, a storm that hit the southwest coast of florida this afternoon, and -- just shy of a category five hurricane, with winds up to 150

miles an hour. it down trees and power lines, even -- without power. created storm surge in areas like fort myers and naples, florida. officials are warning residents about potential for flash flooding overnight, some areas inland could see over two feet of rain. let's go now to nbc news meteorologist michelle gross. michelle, you have been following the storm all day. what is the latest? >> i, there we are looking at really strong storm still. it is moving inland but we are still seeing winds at 90 miles an hour. so it's still moving on to his strength. it was a very -- storm strong category four storm, almost category five, really wide in distance as well and moving very slow. so, it's three things that kind of came together to make the worst-case scenario. we saw a really strong winds up to 135 mile an hour wind gusts in cape coral. and i was the story with the storm surge. what storm surges is a push of wind. it's a push of water, salt water, onto dry land. so, we saw feet, double digit

feat, of some storm surge. right now we're looking at heavy rain falling, we're looking at those winds, 90 miles an hour, that was as of the latest advisory at 11:00. the next one comes at 2:00 in the morning. it's moving northeast at eight. that is slow but we are expecting a slower pace at 3 to 4 miles per hour. we don't think it is going to get that slow, but still, calling across the state of florida. and what that means is, it's going to light for more rain to fall. you could see all this heavy rain here, the brighter colors, the reds, the oranges, the yellows, that's where we are seeing the heaviest rain falling and we will continue to see heavy rain falling at only tonight but also tomorrow and friday before start some about the coast and affect portions of georgia and also the carolinas. so looking at radar again, category two, that was before the 11:00 advisory -- category one storm with that heavy rainfall. we have a flash flood threat. that is going to be the major story over the next day or so. so we will sort of transitioning into that rain story. still seeing really gusty winds, still we will see some shingles coming off of roofs, some trees

coming down, because the ground is so wet. but really, we are very concerned about the heavy rain falling. we could see up to 30 inches in some spots. some spots have already seen 17, 18 inches of rain. flash flood warning, not in the red, is that it is orlando, you are seeing a flash flood warning, also portions of southern florida. we are going to see these in and out as we go through the next couple of hours. this is really dangerous. we don't see this that often. it is life-threatening, it is a message to take a warning. get a higher level, if you can, a flash flood emergency. that includes the ring, all away to arcadia. it includes a big area. and that is because we are seeing very heavy rain falling and will continue to use over the next several hours. olivia next there so. so as we go through our time here, we are expecting a lot of rain, where we see these brighter colors. and we are going to see these roads turn into rivers. we saw an allen shot earlier where it was just water rushing down the roadways. as will be damage. houses have been washed away. especially in those coastal

communities. and we could see again, up to 24 inches of rain. d we couldwhen i say that i wany snow because i'm used to saying snow -- as we get through our time, here's that swirl. you could see where that center is and right around that that's where we are seeing the heaviest rains. the red. that is the heaviest in sebring. that is why you are under a flash flood emergency. on top of that we have the threat for severe weather, not only tonight. we do have an enhanced risk. that's three out of five on the scale. we typically don't see that. but we have that in effect tonight. and we are going to see the threat for severe weather on friday and saturday as well. so, right now we are looking at that tornado watch. this is through the next couple of hours. for the eastern side of florida that includes melbourne to fort pierce. and we have seen some tornado warnings. we saw some tornadoes last night was nine reported tornadoes. but that will be the threat as we go through our time. there's a lot of energy and the atmosphere. 5 million at risk, i mentioned that enhanced risk. that includes daytona beach down to fort pierce. we could see hurricane-force

winds. we will see hurricane-force winds. and we will see a brief tornadoes. typically with hurricanes we see brief tornadoes. we're thinking back a lot of power, so that is something we are concerned about. winds, destructive winds, of course, when you think of hurricanes why we think the winds. and we still do have a wind story. not quite as strong as we had a couple hours ago. it's going to weaken over the next several hours. but we are still seeing winds gusting up 72 miles per hour in st. augustine. 73 miles per hour wind gust in daytona beach, orlando. 89 miles per hour. orlando, you're going to have a tough night, you are hearing those winds help. i know it is dark maybe you don't have power. or likely you are going to lose your power if these winds continue. but you're going to hear those winds howling overnight. it's going to feel like a freight train inside like a freight train. and that is gonna cause some problems. so, structural damage -- we already had something like -- we are going to add to those totals. then as we go through that time, we will continue to see those winds gusting as well. let's track it for you because we do expect to stay overland.

still, this is really where that race are seeing category storm force winds won, 90 miles per hour. and as we go through our time here, this is tomorrow morning at 8:00. we are still seeing some winds at 65 miles per hour. it is going to jump into the atlantic. it is not going to strengthen. that is the good news. but then it is going to take a turn towards northwest. this is tonight at 8:00. still seeing winds gusting up to 75 miles per hour. and then we are turning our sights to georgia and also the carolinas eventually into the mid-atlantic. solar stop for you friday 8:00 -- charleston we could see some flash flooding here. lots of trees to in this area. certainly leading to some power outages as well. some surge of that wind. the storm pushes on land. still talking about the storm into the weekend. and then eventually we will see that weather push into the mid-atlantic. so that track will take us into the southeast. we are going to move it farther off the coast. this is going to be a story that we are still gonna talk about for days to come. and the impact in terms of storm surge. we saw feet of storm surge on

the west coast. we are not going to see storm surge quite as high on the east coast. but still, we could see some flooding as well. so, storm surge is a wall of water, it gets pushed on by wind, and it is salt water moving on to dry land. so, you have that in addition to the freshwater -- deadliest -- number one reason why -- giant hurricanes, it's always due to the water. especially in low-lying areas -- fellowship of these, that's why we saw that flooding, especially on the west coast. that can certainly happen in portions of the carolinas into the east coast of florida and also portions of georgia as well. we are going to see dangerous beach conditions. hopefully you're not thinking of going to the beach. you want to heed any warnings. i know there's not a lifeguard working at this hour. dangerous rip currents. we are looking at winds, also tropical storm force winds. as we go throughout time here, that's going to continue to go through our trees and also lines. tropical hours. 21 million people still at risk.

this is really rare when you see a hurricane warning going coast to coast. we still have that, in effect we are still seeing the impact of hurricane-force winds. and it is nighttime. i know a lot of -- we haven't seen a lot of the recovery yet. we are going to wake up and see that once the sun rises. but we are still going to add to this. this is not over, especially in central florida, especially in orlando. and all these alerts stretch all the way up into the carolinas. we do have a tropical storm watch in portions of south carolina. back to you. >> michelle grossman, you are the best, thank you for being with us. let's go to my colleague ali velshi, we joining us from naples, florida. ali velshi, as you know, they are viewers who have been with us, with you, all day. for those who are just joining now, talk me through what the scene was like there earlier, what it is like now and what you are anticipating in the coming hours. coming hours >> it's been exactly 12 hours since i started. and i always in a hurricane, find a place that's on the beach, we are right on the beach. the gulf of mexico is 25 feet

from here. and i was on with andrea mitchell and i positioned myself on the beach. but there was a lot of big waves coming in, and so i found myself a safer spot as possible, it wasn't the greatest shot on the camera but it was a place that could be safe. and all of a sudden this massive wave came in and cover the entire beach. and i've been doing this for a lot of years, and i thought myself, this doesn't feel right. so, we repositioned quickly to a second story. and weirdly, because there was some signal and satellite problems, we sort of decided to face this way, which is inland. this is east. the gulf is there, which is just unusual in a hurricane to be looking in the other direction. but the story with here because that wave i was so bothered by was the beginning of an inundation of the gulf of mexico into naples. and it wasn't flooding, it wasn't rising water, it was the gulf of mexico overcoming naples beach and flowing into

this area. this whole area behind me, which i was talking about on tv earlier today, is a parking lot, it's a parking lot of the hotel we are staying at and there are cars parked next to each other, all the way down the right in the left. suddenly those car started getting lifted up by the water. it's got to about three feet, four feet, you could see the moving and you could see it higher and you see them bobbing and then finally there was -- they've all been moved. there were all piled up at the back there. this place was under six feet of water ultimately. and then about three in the afternoon, it all just went away, it went back, that was low tide, by the way, so that was stuck in some of the water back. the storm has started to hit so that was pushing some of the water and we started seeing some competing between water going in and water going out. and now it's. gone and what you see here is not the tarmac or not the tar of a parking lot. it is the sand of naples beach. this is covered in sand. you can see this actually some holes in there. it's quite a lot of sand that is behind us. but that is not the whole story naples. in fact, most of the storm

behind us -- i think, i'm guessing these winds are about 25 miles an hour now. but the -- are saying stay off the streets because about half the streets in naples are still undated dated by water and the need to get out there in time rescue people. they've got about 30 rescues here. but the call center, if you call 9-1-1 in lee county, which is where fort myers is, they were hit much more severely than we were, the calls are getting rerouted to collier county, so collier trying to help other neighbors to the north. so it is calmer here. we don't know the situation is. we know about 30 people rescued and we don't know who else is trapped, who still in a house. but what have we, know it's worse off north. and we don't have a full sense of what that is. tomorrow morning, when the sun comes up, we will start to understand. >> ali velshi, we're so happy lucky to have you with us. -- i want to go to collier commissioner, commissioner castro, on the phone from marco island.

thanks so much for being with us. i know it is early. but any sort of damage assessment at this point? >> it has really been horrific here. if you listen to the meteorologists, they were talking about where the storm is going to hear, many of them often said, whoever is just south, into that dirty part of the storm, is going to get significant storm surge. and we got a try and shove it in naples and marco island and port of the islands, i hoses supery, basically the top of my district have a big chunk of naples and all those pieces of paradise that everyone loves to live and down here, but then the trade-off is, unique storms like this. this one was less about wind and more about this storm surge for us. in 2017 we had irma that came through here and a lot of damage, a lot of wind damage, and there was a strong cat four. and we also had some storm surge. but the storm surge at the last minute was -- because the storms change

directions and there was a lot of people -- i was listening to your meteorologists. there is a lot of people that through some of the meteorologists under the bus afterwards saying, oh, if they tell us about 12 feet of storm surge and we only had five. they always overestimate and the reality is they weren't overestimating with irma. but irma made some shifts. ian made some significant shifts as well, but this time it made for some very aggressive storm surge. so the numbers there were predicting we -- saw every inch of it here on marco island and all that we've got some gusty winds and things like that, with high winds you lose a roof, wheelies a pool page, you have damage to your house and you have a few feet of water in your house and it makes it unlivable -- and we have a lot of real tragedy here in a beautiful community. in a short amount of time. before the storm moves further north. >> commissioner, to that point, earlier the sheriff's office was getting calls about people

being trapped by water in their homes. what still latest you can tell us about people are stranded calling for help in your county? >> i think what happened is that people saw that the winds weren't going to be any horrific, people have lived through other her game, so when it looked like it was gonna be north of us -- but the folks that underestimated the storm surge, i mean, here on marco island, even homes that are at such an elevation that wouldn't normally see flooding saw it. and if you wait too long to exit, to evacuate, rather, then you have got to sort of hunker down. and we did not have quite a few folks trapped. but that was -- i know a lot of those stores are getting coverage. but we have so many people that are evacuated. the sad thing is, a lot of them are going to come back here. and i don't think they realize the damage that they are going to see to their homes into the communities. because water can really do unbelievable amount of damage. and we have plenty of that here,

especially my district. >> to that question about recovery, any sense of how long until power might begin to be restored there? >> you know what, earlier in the day, i was basically operating a command center on marco island and, given a lot of direction, and power with >> the problem. we have full tv and wi-fi. it was because the winds really went that bad. and that's what normally knocks out a lot of those things. but as the water came in, and then we got hit with was a bit of everything, and then we've been in the dark for a while. i was without power here in marco island here for ten days. and so there's a lot of little communities around here, and it takes a lot a while to get back, especially when one of the poles has gone down. we won't really know a full assessment until tomorrow, as to how quickly -- restore power. there's a lot of people that did evacuate, so we might have a lot of homes without power. but not necessarily a lot of people. but i know we will work really hard to get power back so that when they return you know

they've got for utilities restored. >> rick, i'm sure those people that are evacuated are you eager to get home to see their -- what are you telling residents around when it is going to be safe to return? >> i think we will know more about that tomorrow. i'm actually stranded here on marco island. i lived here and i got stuck in my house, today and much like others, and i was directing the traffic, through myself phone and things like that. but all surrounded around me is water that is not passable. so i'm hoping the water recedes a bit tomorrow. and then those of us that can get an assessment, we don't want people to come back prematurely. i will tell you on marco and the surrounding communities, naples, as you probably, heard we have curfews, because most of the roads are not even passable. the water is just filthy -- and was from the storm surge. not really rain. it was a very, very unique type of storm surge that came up on us quickly, so there's a lot of

seawater still -- a lot of these roads in these neighborhoods and communities. >> commissioner rick locastro, i know it has been a busy 24 hours for you. thank you so much for taking the time to join us. coming up next we will get a live report from tampa and talk to someone from the cajun navy with the search and rescue operations. our breaking news coverage of hurricane ian continues after this break. afte this break 80% of couples sleep too hot or too cold. because quality sleep is vital, the sleep number 360 smart bed is temperature balancing, so you both stay cool. our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. save 40% on the sleep number 360 special edition smart bed.now only $1499. only for a limited time. research shows that people remember ads with young people having a good time. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's a pool party. look what i brought! liberty mutual! they customize your home insurance... so you only pay for what you need! ♪young people having a good time with insurance.♪ ♪young people.♪

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intensity in these storms over the past couple of years. and really, when you are talking 14 to 15 foot tidal surges, there is no way to wait that out or to see it through. you can only get out of the way of that water. >> you can only get out of the way. that was the mayor of tampa earlier today. tunis in the, nbc news correspondent alison barber, who's been in tampa all day. alison, hurricane, winds, wind gusts, so powerful it pushed water into the gulf of mexico, effectively draining massive amounts of water from the bay. how are things now in tampa? >> it was amazing to see some of those images around that same time we are on the tarmac at tampa international airport. and just getting whipped around by the wind and the rain. you could see it just kind of pelting your face. now the rain is very light and

so are the winds. it has been this way for the last couple of hours here in tampa. officials, even the, mayor they have talks about how they feel, in some, ways like the city, this area, might have dodged a bullet, because things have gone in a more positive direction, at least for residents here. that being said, they are still warning people one, that there's a risk of flash flood, and to, you have areas where there are down pieces of debris, the trees. we have seen in neighborhoods, communities not far from here, images of trees collapsing on peoples homes and there also have been instances where you have had issues with power lines coming down, live wires in the street. they're really telling people to stay put, because the night in the scheme of things is still young. but ultimately what we saw here, for five hours hours ago compared to, now things in tampa, at least, have gone much better than they thought they were going to go, particularly two or three days ago -- that being, said there is still

an estimated 200,000 customers who have lost power in this county alone. we were standing here when a transmitter just behind the treeline here blew a few hours ago. so, there are a lot of different issues in fact are still a play in tampa, even though, in terms of just the wind in the rain, things have certainly slowed down in the last few hours. felicia? >> alyssa, as always, please stay safe. joining us now, marty lang, he's a city manager of fort myers, florida. thank you for being with us. what is your situation now in fort myers, now, your sense of it? >> we have had a long day today. we got bounded with a lot of rain and wind and storm surge. and as of about an hour and a half ago, the wind and rain stopped for the first time. so we are interested in getting our teams out. andy some preliminary damage

assessments and see what that looks like. >> understanding that the teams have -- any sense of the initial damage. >> we know that practically the entire city is without power at this point. we have not had internet here in the city facilities since early afternoon, so we have not been able to watch news coverage, it's that, or at center. so, really do not have a good feel for that. we know the storm surge is maybe a little higher than it's ever been here in the city. but we have seen some minor damage to city facilities here in the downtown area. but beyond that, we don't have a good feel at this point. >> so when evacuation order was issued for portions of fort myers. do you have any idea how many people fired the evacuation order or do they try to ride it out there? >> we had quite a few people that tried to ride it out. some people did follow the orders. the lee county and city did a really good job of trying to

encourage people in the evacuation zones a and b to evacuate. they had plenty of time to do it. many did and many did not, and we received calls from many of those they chose not to evacuate. but as of about midday today, i think the lee county opened up 15 shelters. i think there were about 4000 people in the shelters. >> fort myers city manager marty lawing, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> as you just heard, the first thing force responders will be doing once the situation is safe, and the sun comes, up a search and rescue. let's turn now to brian, a spokesperson for the united cajun navy. for those who don't know, what is the united cajun navy? o don't know, >> united cajun na collection of volunteers. we are based out of louisiana but we have going to a national network of folks with their own boats trucks and high water vehicles and now increased to aircraft, drones.

we are just in puerto rico doing cargo drops out of airplanes to the southern parts of the island that were still inaccessible by. vehicles and like i said we are a first response organization -- we do what people think that fema and other parts of the government to, but don't really do,. we get there first and try to take care of media needs and try to save lives. >> right. it's my understanding of teams position throughout the area. what are you hearing from your teams on the ground? >> when we first started looking at the track that ian was taking, especially the wobble it took to more of the south and east, from a little bit south of tampa, which a lot of people thought tampa was going to be ground zero -- it turned out to be port charlotte. we knew this would be a very bad storm surge. being from new orleans and most of our network from south louisiana, and we've been through a lot of these storms. we knew that the surge was gonna be that. we --

from our sar teams on the ground, a lot of homes and vehicles underwater. hopefully that we're seeds now that the -- has passed through to the other side of the state. but it never fails. as soon as the sun goes down, that's when people start trying to call 9-1-1, when they can't get through tonight when one, they start calling us, just heartbreaking tales of people stuck in their, homes hiding under mattresses in a closet and house with no roof, sitting on top of their cars, whatever they can to get away from the water. and our essay are teams already trying to make their way to the naples area, where we've got most of those calls. >> to your point about the line of calls, how can people get in touch with the cajun navy if they need assistance. -- social media, facebook, twitter, instagram, and if you are able to get on our website, unitedcajunnavy.com --

there's a formula and that will be rather to the closest team member that we have, to wear your is a coating coordinates are. give us as much information as possible and we will try to respond. >> brian trascher, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. >> thanks for having us. >> coming up, we'll have more of hurricane ian's expected path. what it means for florida's residents. that's next. 's next. ♪ ♪ luxury exemplified. innovation electrified. with apple music seamlessly integrated.

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hurricane in continues. nbc news meteorologist michelle grossman is back with us. michelle, what are we watching for, in our overnight news hours. >> great to see. we're gonna be watching for heavy very heavy rain. that's gonna be the biggest concern tonight. also the threat for severe weather. we have -- that's concerning and i. when you have a tornado, it's double deadly at. night we are going to continue to watch. that let's give you the latest on a, and because we are looking really at a strong storm still. it is in the middle of florida. it moved inland. still affecting good portion of south florida. we're looking at a category one storm. this was as of 11:00 advisory. the next advisory comes at a 2 am. the location is 70 miles south of orlando florida. winds at 90 miles per hour, still really, really strong, and it is moving northeast at

eight miles per hour. that's a snowstorm. we thought it would slow down the 3 to 4 miles per hour, that walking pace. but it's a little bit faster than that. still crawling, though, across the state of florida. the reason that the problem is because it is dropping a lot of rain and will continue to drop a lot of rain. so we are concerned for flash flooding as we go throughout the night. when you think of hurricanes, water is the deadliest region reason why both people die in hurricanes. looking at radar, we are seeing some heavy rainfall, and when you see this -- yellows, reds, origins, that's where we are seeing the heaviest rain. falling and this is just a huge swath. it's all the way through portions of southern and central florida into northern florida, to daytona beach, i-four, i-five, i-75, hopefully you are not out and about on the roadways. what we are gonna see some flooding as we go tonight. and also florida thursday. -- tons of rainfall right now. and that's going to be the big concern. a flood threat, we do have a flood watch in effect, we see the green. so for most of the state of

florida, into portions of georgia, also south carolina, because we are going to see this moving north as we head to the next four days. and we have a flash flood warning. that includes orlando and that is particular dangerous overnight. back to you. >> michelle. thank you much. let's go live to orlando. that is where nbc news correspondent jesse courses right now. jesse, it's our understanding the storm is about 70 miles south of where you are now. what is the latest on the ground? >> so alicia, based on what we felt throughout the evening, i can tell you we are in a bit of a lull. we had some pretty strong gusts of wind and some pretty heavy rain spurts at times, right now it is calmer but it is steady. and here's the latest development. you can see here we have about 18 inches of water pooling here. this should be the pullback of our hotel. and said it is just the pool. the water level has risen just above where the police act here in the what is creeping toward

us. this is the back of the hotel. the founders of the hotel had water inching closer and closer. they've had to sandbag the front doors. -- on the front lawn throughout the evening. we made the decision to move inside and move much foggier to upper levels if we need to continue retreating further. and this is what has been the concern for orlando for the -- efforts we were worried about -- 90 miles per hour. we are now expecting gusts around 60 miles per hour here. however, we are looking at localized possibilities of around 30 inches of rain, but that said. in more than two feet of rain. -- we are seeing this, the drainage systems, at this hotel, and mind, you we are in an area that slows down a little bit. so we are looking at an area that would be predisposed to flood more quickly than other parts of the orlando area. beauregard lists we are, looking at drainage systems,

already starting to be overwhelmed by the deluge of rain. and we are still -- nine or ten hours away, from the worst of what is left of in hitting us. and approaching this -- we have a lot more rain to come. i'm not going to be surprised if we see water entering the lobbying of this hotel. thankfully, we have an escape plan in mind to get to, much higher ground. and we have supplies that we have put in place. why this is no joke. we are dealing with this in a hotel. we have the means to protect ourselves. and there's certainly going to be people in these communities that may not have that access and may have been choosing to bunker down in their homes. but they do know we have met people today that are either staying in hotels or staying put or people who made the choice to go to shelters. as of 2 pm, yesterday afternoon at this, point officials had told people in orlando to get off the road. so at this point, people should definitely be in the place they

are planning to ride out the storm. and of the we are feeling a lull in terms of the wind, gusts that, again is not going to be the biggest concern. it's what you are hearing and seeing behind me. that constant deluge of rain, which is creeping closer and closer to our hotel, charlotte other structures here. and again this is just really just the preamble to what is expected here. because this rain is going to continue for the better part of another 12 hours. and we could see flash flooding throughout this area with so much rain and nowhere for much of that water to go, alicia. >> jesse kirsch, as you said, two feet of rain. we really do need to just take a moment and process what that means, with that looks like. jesse kirsch, in orlando, florida. thank you and stay safe. join us now for the state representative michelle rainier and florida state senator -- thank you both so much for being with us. representative crews, i want to bring in with you. bring us up to speed on how

your constituents are faring after. facing the strongest hurricane in state history. >> i think that many of us will agree when folks are speaking about the bullets that we didn't just thoughts about what we -- grenade here. we are still seeing some bullets in our area. and we have areas that are experiencing flooding and the widespread power outages. and tampa police department is stretching stressing the importance of staying off the roads. we know that power lines will be down and that trees are down. and unstable limbs are hanging from trees. tampa police department just recently put some footage out of traffic lights crashing to the ground. so, they are stressing to folks that they need to stay home, and there's no need to go out and take a look. we still have high winds and rains. we have live wires that are down. the next step from here is

helping our folks and our floridians important understand the importance of food safety if they're without power, and understanding the use of generators and making sure that they are using them outside or away from windows -- they should never use an outdoor grill inside. it sounds like a good idea if it's raining but it's very dangerous. we move into that mode here in tampa, trying to restore power and repair the roads. >> right, the storm itself is only the first stage of the danger. representative rain, a mandatory evacuation order was -- i want to play for you governor desantis's message to people who did not heed that order but may need help. take a listen. >> obviously local responders can make decisions but by a large until the storm passes 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 in the really high risk zone a, evacuations, owens who did not evacuate. some have called in and those people are being logged and there will be a response but it is likely going to take a little time for the storm to move forward. >> representative rainier, when you talk to first responders what are they telling you about what that response looks like and how they assess a hierarchy of need given that there will be so much need. >> i, alicia, i think it's a wonderful to be with you. one of the things that i actually represent st. petersburg and parts of hillsboro county that fallen zone a. it's a one, i think we have to understand first and that -- we have people, especially people of, color specially people who are economically challenged, who are

marginalized, who are not able to evacuate. that doesn't mean that one don't want to evacuate because various reasons, medical reasons, they're not able to actually leave. and so when i'm talking to first despondent talking to law enforcement and when i'm talking to fire and rescue, one of the things it is that, one, to the governor's point, there they are asking folks if they're able to, to colin, to go online, to log that they are there, and also to keep calm and try to stay where their app. this is not the time to try to figure out how to get somewhere else. but right now we are in a situation that i think that as we are looking to the aftermath of this storm, we have to talk about in florida what just recovery looks like. and not just a recovery for somebody recovery for all of us. and what does that mean? of us the legislature has advocated

$500,000 -- $500 million, rather, too hurricane relief and disaster leaf. but we also need -- we have a 15 billion dollar reserve. so, what is this just recovery look like in the aftermath of this of this disaster? >> santa cruz, i take the representatives point about the just recovery. as i'm sure you both very familiar with, this concept of resilience building, that is not after something like this that you take a community and you build it back to where it was. you need to build it back to a point of resilience where something like this does not have the same effect, can't, happen again. obviously that's incredibly complicated with climate change looming in the background. but i wonder for you, and how you see it affecting your work moving forward. >> i think that we are going to have to allocate -- when we see a rising temperatures, this past winter,

-- i'm sorry, this past summer, it is brutal. and we see rising temperatures -- which heats -- we've for to see some very violent storms coming through, even afternoon rains are no longer just the afternoon rain said i grew up with. they are serious storms that come off the waters. so we have to prepare as a state. we have to fortify ourselves and be ready for the eventuality of this happening every year on one of the co-signs. and especially in the tampa bay area, we are kind of a horseshoe shape. so if the water rushes in or pushes in to tampa bay has nowhere to go but down to the land and into the homes and we just see tides that are changing the flow of water. and we have a lot of work to do and it's nothing that we have

not talked about in the past. now we have to get the leadership of this state to put some money toward recovery and toward fortifying our state. >> there's no running away from it, there's no denying, it florida state senator janet cruz -- and representative rayner -- coming up, we're gonna take on that question of climate's impact on the storms. stay with us. with us

>> hurricane ian continues to batter florida with a catastrophic trifecta of high winds, heavy rain and historic storm surge. now over 2 million people are left without power. ali velshi is back with us from naples, florida. ali, have we seen the worst of the storm? >> >> i think we have. i think the point is, there is more to come. and four hole out of people in central florida and northeast florida and then in either the caliber line is or georgia, they haven't seen any of it. so for them, if your house floods, that is the worst of it. so the idea, there's been a whole lot of other houses floods were flooded or lot of other people without power, two or three days before you, he's not relevant.

so i think for some people, the worst is yet to come. but i think in totality, yeah, we have seen the greatest damage we were going to see. a category four storm, 155 miles an hour, almost a category five. and some of these hurricanes are wind events and some of them water events and some are really both. if you are in fort myers or those areas, this was a big wind hurricane. if you are here in naples where we had record setting flooding and storm surge, we see more of a flooding event, a storm surge, a water event, then it was a wind event. but to your point about 2 million people being out of power, you can see -- this is our light by the way powered by a generator by the way, there's no other power here -- color county, you talk to the commissioner but they've asked people stay off the roads, have the roads in the county are still in some fashion submerged. and i have -- rescues. they've got about 30 rescues in this county -- but they're helping us because there are more people who are trapped there.

so yeah, i don't think we are going to see worse effects, we are not going to see a stronger, so we are not going to see more wind, and we are not going to see more water than we have seen, but we are going to see more trees falling and more power outages. alicia? >> ali, you are going to stay with me, i want to bring in dennis smith, veteran resident of florida state university -- i saw it continues to see these catastrophic weather events, is florida built to withstand the major effects of climate change, sir? >> thanks for having me and first off, my heart goes out to all those folks that have been impacted by the storm. and to all the first responders that are out there right now, helping everybody. be safe, but yeah, in florida, we have very strong building codes to help protect against events like this. but i think as ali pointed, out this is a heck of a storm. this is a category four hurricane with massive storm surges, so really, there's

really only so much you can build against to protect from disasters of this magnitude. >> l.a., after you have questions of a myth on the ground there, having seen what the infrastructure looks like for dennis. >> again, i'm in a part of naples that is well-built, everything here -- a lot of things are moderate, they're built to code, even the homes that are not, up raised above ground, are built in a manner that what we're stand a lot of the wind. and they will deal with the flooding. but ultimately -- people live in a lot of places where bad things happen. we are going to see the storm heading up to the st. johns river. it is going to flood because it always floods. how much of this is building code in the things you can do to build around climate change versus how much we think about the environment and what it does and how we settle it? >> right. that's a great point, ali. i think about 40% of all

americans live in a county that has some coastline. so as a population, we like to live along the coast, we like to live in places -- frankly, here in florida, it's beautiful. that's why we picked this as a place to live. but we build in places that are naturally vulnerable to storms like this. and so like he said, this really only so much we can do to kind of plan our way out of this. why there are things that we can do to make our community safer. and i think that just understanding what the vulnerabilities are, understanding where we have events like this, we are going to see the most catastrophic flooding, and prepare for that, and we can really kind of get a leg up on preparing ourselves for the next event. and there will be a next event. >> dennis smith, thank you so much for joining, us we still have much more ahead in our next hour, including much more ali velshi and msnbc's

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this is msnbc's continuing breaking news coverage of hurricane ian. i'm alicia menendez. the sun comes up in just a few hours in florida. we will begin to get a sense of the devastation left in the wake of hurricane ian. how many were trapped when the waters rushed in around them, and will search and rescue teams be able to save them? right now hurricane ian is battering central florida as it moves across the panhandle as a category one storm. it made landfall along the southwest coast of florida yesterday afternoon, as a powerful category four storm, 150 mile an hour winds. not my co