it is when i am in florida and 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 colleague carry sanders

earlier demonstrated just how powerful those winds can be. >> there is the wind speed, as i am standing next to the building. -- i will take a knee. oops. i'll have to take a knee there. >> -- >> okay. you guys got it -- i'm going back out. >> the powerful winds created record level storm surges in areas like fort myers and naples, florida. over 2 million are without power tonight. and flash flooding is still a major concern, with potentially up to 30 inches of rain predicted in some areas. let's go now to nbc news meteorologist michelle grossman for the latest on hurricane in. michelle, hurricane ian has been downgraded to a category one storm. what should residents in its path expect over the next 24 to

48 hours? >> i, they're great to see you. they can expect flood and rain we. need to prepare for that flash flooding. when it comes to water and hurricanes, that's the number one reason for deaths in hurricanes, it's the salt water, the storm surge that we talked about, and also freshwater that falls from the sky. so, we are going to see heavy, heavy rain falling. this is the worst-case scenario. we had a category four storm, a really strong, one almost category five storm. also, really wide, about 500 miles. and then we had those damaging winds. they all came together, moving very, very slowly. and that is why we have the high winds. we have the heavy rainfall. we are going to continue to see heavy rainfall. let's look at the strongest winds. because we saw winds gusting up to 135 miles per hour, almost hard to wrap your head around that. also 125 miles in punta gorda -- this is all the way up and down the west coast. we are seeing strong -- in -- 90 miles an hour. that was at the 11:00 advisory, we will get a new when it to clock in the morning.

we also saw a lot of rainfall in a lot of spots. we continue to see rain falling because it is moving very, very slowly. it is this was really a water s, a big water, sorry and it will continue to be a big water story of the next days. over 17 inches of rain fell in some spots. most spots will see over 15 to 20 inches. and some spots may even see 30 inches of rain. let's take a look at the latest hurricane. a category one storm, 70 mile south of orlando. winds with 90 miles an hour. there was a really strong winds. the lights are out in many spots if they are not that we are going to see more power outages with those winds gusting tonight. we are going to hear those winds howling almost like a freight train. if you need to get to interior portions of your house, closets, bathrooms -- put a mattress over you if you need to, if you hear those winds really strong. because those are almost tornado like winds. eight miles an hour -- that slow, not quite as slow as we thought it might be, we thought it would slow down to three or four miles per hour. by this is still crawling across southern and south florida and it is still

allowing a lot of rainfall. we have a lot of tropical alerts, storm phase, this is really rare to see a hurricane warning going across the entire peninsula. we've got warnings from southern florida all the way up to portions of georgia, into the carolinas. because this will be the next story as we head through our time here. but we do have tropical storm warnings. still, that means we are going to feel tropical storm winds. we are feeling them right now. also hurricane warnings, that means we are feeling those hurricane winds right now. so the radar showing us that we are looking at heavy rain falling. this is what the story is going to transition into, a heavy rainfall event, flash flooding. we could see some deaths. it is life-threatening. over the next 24 to 36 hours. where you see these darker colors -- the reds, the oranges, the yellows -- that is where we are seeing the heaviest rainfall, along i-95, i-75, i-four, especially, hopefully you are not out, but if you need to be out -- if you are personnel that needs to be out -- you need to be very, very careful because we are looking at heavy rain falling. this was just drop. this is good news. this we do have the threat for

severe weather. we do have the tornado watch this has been since been dropped a couple minutes ago. but still, we could see some strong storms and thunderstorms that is going to add to the rainfall totals. flood threat -- we do have a flood watch. this is in the green. so we are looking at portions of central and northern florida into georgia also south carolina, including charleston, because we do have expect some heavy rain there. and eventually will shift into the mid-atlantic. d a flash flood warning, that is in the red. here and as a human level closer, we do have a flash flood emergency. and this is very rare. and this is what you need to take really seriously. because this is a threat to life. so, if you are in this flash flood emergency, you probably hear your phones going, off you hear all those alerts, you want to get to the highest level of your house. and avoid that water that is probably piling up. flash flood risk, that continues today. because it is thursday. we made that jump here. we are looking at a high risk in daytona beach, just south of jacksonville, into melbourne. and then you see that moderate risk -- that is still really strong as

well. we are looking at moderate risk for heavy, heavy rainfall. that includes tampa. and as you move further inland, it gets to be a little bit less but still we are looking at the chance for some flash flooding. the severe threat continues tonight, 5 million at risk. hurricane-force winds. could see a brief tornado or to. they will be brief but they could be powerful. we had nine tornadoes yesterday -- or tuesday -- yesterday we had some. thursday we are looking at the chance for some tornadoes as well. and as we go into tonight we are looking at the same threat. especially in daytona beach, into this yellow here, that is a likely spot, or orlando, you can see the threat for severe weather as well -- and addition to that heavy, heavy rainfall. so, let's talk about the rainfall. because that is going to be a big impact. we saw all the live shots of ali and ellison, and we saw those roads being turned into rivers, parking lots. and that will be the case of the next couple of days. so, when you see what, or you we hear that zone drive through it, you have to turn around, turn around don't drown. houses will be damage, houses will be washed away. we've already seen pictures of

that. once that sun does rise, we are going to see all the devastation. people are going to return to their homes, and eventually is going to take a while -- it may look very different. their house may not even be standing. this will take days, weeks, even months. it could be into the new year before we start to restore everything that was damaged. because we did see catastrophic damage. locally, because it's 24 inches of rain, even higher than that in some spots, isolated 30 inches of rain. that is two and a half feet of rain. they will receive two and three months of rain in two or three days. that is really significant. because the groundswell grounds are already saturated. they had a very wet september -- they being the state of florida. we are adding to that. trees are going to come down. more power lines are going to come down, power outages are going to extend as we go throughout the next day or so. wind -- we are looking at winds. winds gusting up to 72 miles per hour, st. augustine, 73 miles in daytona beach. that is gonna cause structural, damages who is going to bring shingles off the roof. it is going to bring down power lines and also trees in addition to that really

wetland. so, let's stay trackers for you. category one storm, it's still really strong. remember, it's been overland for quite awhile. then as we go to our time, here later on this morning, tropical storm force winds. then it is going to move into the atlantic. it's not going to strengthen. that is a good news. it's going to make it northwestern. and then it is eventually going to impact portions of the southeast into the carolinas. so, by friday evening, making that landfall into south carolina. we are going to see a storm surge, lots of trees in south carolina. a stor so certainly some power outages -- it's gonna continue to move to the north and we're going to see the rain move to the north mid-atlantic -- alicia, back to you. >> michelle, thank you for reminding us that this is an ongoing, developing threat and that is going to have a long tale, it's important for all of us to keep that in mind. joining us now msnbc public health analyst and disaster expert, dr. erwin redlener, thank you for being with us. the first hours of daylight, thanks for being with us.

so much to process. how do the officials prioritize? what did they tackle first? >> alicia, thank you for having me. this is a really, really rough storm. and we are really just in phase one. that is the initial flood, that's a storm surges, and the winds, and all of that -- is just the beginning of what is going to have to be dealt with. so the very first job come daylight and even maybe starting before daylight is the search and rescue operation. we have to find where the survivors are and get them to safety. this is a very arduous and a dangerous job for the first responders. but it obviously has to be done. and then it's layer upon layer of other things that we need to worry about, like we are the people who have evacuated going? how long are they going to be able to stay there, as michelle pointed, out we are going to have some serious issues with the housing. that people left. when they get back they are going to see wreckage for many people. and it is going to take quite a while to recover, to repair. we see not just months, but

years -- we've seen many years in the case of, for example, hurricane harvey in texas in 2017. and certainly what we saw in puerto rico in 2017. maria. and hurricane michael, actually, in the florida panhandle. so, lots of work to do. and the other thing, the gruesome job too, alicia, is determining how many people lost their lives in this tragically huge storm. and this is not so easy and first of all we have to find people that did not survive. and second of all, there are going to be people who die from medical -- from exposure. from they don't have their medications. their medical treatments that they need -- they are not in hospitals where they should be. there have been some very dramatic and i think pretty successful hospital evacuations. but the fact is that we don't really know yet. a lot of assessment is going to need to take place.

but finding survivors and helping them as job number one. >> that is the individual piece of, it you also, of course, alluded to this institutional piece of, it when it comes to hospitals. you said there had been successful evacuations. i wonder if you can give us a sense of what they look like. but then the other challenges that the hospitals are up against in these moments? >> yeah. first of all, you remember years ago we had problems with katrina, where the generators, the backup generators, were located in the basement, and the generators were put out of order and that was a big problem -- and people were not pre-evacuated sufficiently. even in 2012, with super storm sandy, in new york city, bellevue hospital, they put the generators on a high floor but left the fuel pumps in the basement. so, that power went out also. but also, this is very tricky business, to evacuate people from an acute hospital. we've got babies and newborn intensive care units and adults in icus.

this is a very delicate process. so, even the decision -- police had to pull the trigger and evacuate an acute care hospital, it's fraught with danger. as far as we know, it went pretty successfully, and the evacuation of some hospitals from the tampa area. but we will still need to see what data, when information people can provide about how successful in terms of saving lives as evacuations we're. but it is a nightmare for people in the hospitals who have to pull the trigger and say, okay, we have got to leave and it is a day or two or three before the storm is expected to hit. >> yeah. >> that is a really big problem. and then other issues -- people are psychologically traumatized by this thing. they don't know when they are going to go back home or how. and people who are marginalized -- low income people, undocumented people -- they are going to have serious problems in trying to figure out how to survive this. hopefully, there will be enough health from state and federal

government. >> right. that is why this is important for state and federal government will also make it that the other people can come forward in this moment of need without having any fear of retribution. we have heard from every meteorologist we have spoken to tonight -- we have heard from every correspondent, that the real danger here was these floodwaters from a medical perspective can you just talk to us about the risk of disease, health problems, and damage caused by these lingering waters? >> it really is a problem. obviously, there is the drowning issues. people trying to leave too late -- and they get cornered in their cars in a flooded area. but besides that, standing water breeds mosquitoes and other illnesses that can come from standing water and people have to be attentive to that. they may not be able to reach it dr. easily either. they may be sick. and they may have problems with that. the water puts out electricity. without electricity, people who are dependent on certain kinds

of medical devices where they need to power for kidney dialysis or respirator or oxygen machines at home -- these people also face risks. and that is why when we are looking at the long term fatalities, unfortunately it is not just the people being hit by flying objects or people drowning. it is what happens to the medical care of people who really need it and cannot get it during the aftermath of a storm like this. >> right. and to that point, in the last hour i spoke to state lawmakers you talked about marginalized people who did not have the means to evacuate and the need for a just recovery from a medical vantage point what does that look like? >> yeah, so this has been a problem. in the first hurricane i went to to help was hurricane andrew in south florida in 1992, category five, and the late general colin powell where is responsible for the immediate

reaction, the responses. and every single that i've been to -- harvey and michael and maria and etcetera -- people who are marginalized, people who are really low income have a lot of trouble, they are having trouble before the storm. and it all gets exacerbated after the storm. the other thing is that insurance companies will go broke. not insolvent insurance companies. people really, really need to get their homes repaired and their goods replaced. may not have the insurance that they were counting on. again, another burden for the government. but i really hope that this time will be different. and that governor desantis and fema will make sure that we've emphasized caring for the people that we've had the least. and america can afford to do this at that, i think -- disappointed -- event after event, people who have been behind the eight ball remains so during and after a

storm. you can't have that in our country. we just can't have a. >> it strikes me to hear you reference hurricane andrew and think about the fact that that was more than 30 years ago, which means you have been doing this important work for more than 30 years. >> i hope i -- but yes, i've been doing this along time. >> it is important because it gives you a sense of context and the lessons we have learned -- and the lessons we have, not unfortunately. >> one more quick thing. this storm, in a way, it is kind of bad news for the people that are trying to deny climate change, in fact. you have another example of the increasing severity and ferocity of the storms that we are getting. this is not going to stop. there is no more excuse for trying to ignore the fact that the warming of our planet and the seas is causing more water to be absorbed into the -- evaporated the atmosphere and

then for that to be flung down in these monumental rainstorms that we are getting, that michelle is describing. it is going to be a long haul, alicia. >> dr. redlener, as always, coming up, how climate change is making the storms even worse. that's next. 's next. now, there's skyrizi. with skyrizi 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save.

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you want to flip it. welcome back to our breaking

news coverage of hurricane in. my colleague ali velshi is in naples, florida. he's been doing walkable putting on the ground, all day, all night, experiencing the storms impact, and it is causing workers storm surges, where you are tonight in naples, you are, since, ali on the, ground did people feel more threatened by the storm? >> this is a confusing one. the western coast of florida had not had a storm in sometime, although they've had very serious storms in the past. but we've become jaded to these things and we still think, although increasingly the forecast a very accurate we begin to think that it is not going to be the big one and we also misinterpret the danger in some of the storms. we think about categories and we think about this coming as a category four, almost category five, when we first are talking, about was -- a category one but we forget that the storm surge, which is probably going to be responsible for more the damage in florida, when all is said and done, is the important

part. and as erwin was just telling you, the fact of the climate change, -- and we are more prone to flooding makes waterborne threats more dangerous than windward threats when it comes to hurricanes. we don't grow up thinking hurricanes are big wind storms, but -- more damage and deaths occur because of big water. so i think this was a puzzling went to a lot of people and depending on where you were in the state where you were, this is going to be worse from water perspective and worse from a wind perspective. it may not be the same for everybody except for on fort myers and lee county florida, just north of me. >> ali velshi, you are staying with me. i want to bring into the conversation, meteorologist and contributor to yell climate connections, he's the author of the thinking person's guide to climate change. so, we keep calling this storm historic. we do not mean that as a compliment. what does that say about the moment we find ourselves in that a storm like this is arriving in florida.

>> hurricanes naturally very. hurricanes are naturally kind of freakish phenomenons. so we've always had with our hurricanes -- when you pull back and look at the number of hurricanes over recent years and decades, that's where you begin to see the climate signal is come out, the climate change signals. so one thing about ian that jumps out right away is the rapid intensification. it jumped from a cat one to cat three just before it hit cuba, came off cuba, and then vaulted last night from a cat three to nearly a cat five. so the burst of anticipation appear to be happening a little more often especially as far as racing toward the coast. so, that's one signal against the emerging in some studies. and general hurricanes that are stronger are getting stronger. we not really seeing more hurricanes globally. when they develop they tend to be stronger. and that's obviously warmer oceans because it's tough and

up. also, heavy rain has come up in the last few minutes. there is more oceans, it's more water evaporating and into warmer atmosphere. there is more rain to fall when it does develop. so all these things they do ramp up the water aspects of the storm, as ali we saying. and one aspect, it's fascinating because andrew -- in 1992 -- memorable storm in florida, horrible storm. most of its damage was wind damage. and so florida ramped up its -- way that doesn't really help much when you have surge from -- i think with yeah i agree that most of the damage by far will be surge damage and waterborne threats we will have to -- prepare for going forward for sure. >> bob, thanks for that, for breaking it down that way. because i think it's really important. we thought wind was the problem in florida and they largely fix

for that, after katrina, and the gulf coast, they largely fix or wind damage, where they could. here's the question. to the extent that water is a problem, and increasingly a more serious problem, what is the correlation between that and the fact that we have rising water levels in the first place so that in places like miami you see water coming through the drain sometimes in good weather -- in places like charleston floods with very little rain -- what is the correlation when it comes to climate between already rising water levels and intensification of these storms, the sweater, rainy, more powerful storms? >> absolutely, ali. i'm glad you brought that. up that's one of the most basic functions of climate change, foundation of water is rising. -- about a foot in the last hundred years. you can legitimately say the top -- compared to say 100 years ago. they have a.

obviously he would say your house you are 100 years ago that say the house was never 100 years ago -- maybe just barely above the flooding. and you have the one picked up. so every storm is going to have that inclement. and it's a function of both melting up glaciers and ice shoots but also largely in many cases it's something to the expansion of the ocean. warmer temperatures, you know water expands. and so both of things are kind of a bit of a landing. for sea level rise is not going down. and in fact a lot of the coastal flooding you are referring to is what we call sunny day flooding. and that sounds a little optimistic. -- it's devastating over the long. when it is grinding toll of flood after flood after flood, especially during the king tides, which happen to be going out this week, i'm in the east coast of florida. so we are factoring to see quite a bit more surge flooding of the next couple of. base e as it makes its way offshore f tomorrow. and then circles back around and reaches florida georgia

south carolina, probably as a tropical storm. we are actually looking in places like -- down in georgia, perhaps the third highest water levels on record. you know it will just be a tropical storm. so, again exacerbated by the king tides and those are all being picked up by climate. change and by land substances well in parts of the gulf atlantic and sunny day flooding, this type of non storm flooding is increasing at an extreme rapid rate. and i think we will see it all along the gulf atlantic coast is going to hit -- increasingly. >> bob henson, there was your finest out over and over again today and social media, people popping into each other's comments, saying, it's not climate change, it's called weather. what do you say to those folks? >> hurricanes are natural phenomenon and they are happening in the climate that is being warned by human activity, greenhouse gases. there's no reason has to be one

of the other. two things can happen at the same time. that is what is going on. with natural weather playing out in the change that mr.. and that changes the envelope, in -- as a whole are evolving. when storm could've occurred 50 or hundred years ago with -- when it looked at all the storms and aggregate them in the study them, you see trends pop out. and there are real trends and in effect actual storm. it's never just one of the other. it's weather playing out in a changing climate. >> bob henson, thank you so much for joining us. ali velshi thank you for all of your reporting today. >> coming up we will get a live report from orlando as it braces for impact as our breaking news coverage of hurricane in continues right after this. ter this

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hurricane ian is not finished with florida. and right now, people in central florida are bracing for the hit. and we see nbc news meteorologist michelle grossman -- >> it's going to be a tough. night it's already a tough night in portions of central florida. we are going to see heavy, heavy rainfall. we've seen 15, ten inches in some. spots we could see up to 30 in some spots. that is gonna be the big story. also seeing some really gusty winds as well. you have the saturated ground

with all that rain falling. we could see some trees coming, down some power lines, that wind is howling, with that rain falling. so, we could see more power outages. here is the latest. and the next advisory comes out and about 20 minutes. winds are at 90 miles an hour. it's -- south of orlando, florida. so, those winds are kicking. we have been overland for quite awhile. notice all this rain falling as well. it is moving very slowly, so we are going to see crawl across the peninsula of florida over the next 36 hours or so. that's why we are going to see so much rain. we are still under so much tropical alerts. that's really indicating that this weather is still here. and we still have a lot to contend with as we go through the next couple of days, not only in florida, it's going to move to the southeast portions of florida, also south carolina and north carolina, and then eventually into the mid-atlantic. we are not done with a, story we are gonna be talking about this through the weekend. all right, so here's the future cast, as we go through our time here, category one storm right now, we do expect it tomorrow, and later on today, actually, to pop into the atlantic, still

tropical storm status at that point. it's going to merge over the atlantic and then it is going to make a turn towards the northwest. and that is when it will impact portions of georgia, also south carolina. so the center of the storm makes a third landfall, the first one being in cuba, the second one in florida, the third one -- also georgia, soaking win -- florida for the mid-atlantic. we're looking at heavy, heavy rain falling. again, up to 30 inches in some spots. not quite as much as we head toward the mid-atlantic but it's gonna be a wet weekend for many. back to. >> michelle grossman, as always, thank you. let's go live to orlando. that's where nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch is right now. jesse kirsch, give us the very latest. has hurricane ian reached orlando? >> yeah, alicia, i'm sure you can hear it, the rain is pattering on top of us right now. this is some of the heaviest straight down fall that we have seen throughout the hours that we have been here in orlando. we are expecting as much as 30

inches of rain in some localized areas around here. and there's a flash flood warning in effect in this area for about another hour. so, that may be extended. we will be keeping an eye out for that. but certainly the rate is still kobe in droves. it's also draining off the side 's property where we are at right now. and yet it continues to pour into what should be a pulled a. o by the time just overflowed into one giant who will. and we checked in with you in the last hour. for people who saw that report as well you might notice that the water level is creeping upwards. so frankly, i don't know how much longer this location is going to be tenable for us. the water continues to choke inward. i checked the front door of this property a short time ago in the sand bags that are in place are no match for the water, which has started to seep into the mats. i suspect the lobby of this property will soon have water across the floor.

so that is what we are dealing with here. this has been the concern in orlando. it's been, this rainfall, causing flash flooding, with so much water. and obviously, it's a three run out of places to go, as we are seeing here in orlando right now. -- wind gusts are going to top 60 miles per hour. that estimate has dropped off from what we were expecting earlier on wednesday evening. so obviously, the track and the damage expected being caused by hurricane ian as it develops into whatever kind of storm it will be when it reaches us here. that has changed over the hours. but what has not changed is the expectation for significant amount of. rain and that is what we continue to see. here obviously, we are going to continue to keep an eye out for the need to move to higher ground and obviously, officials have been stressing to people who didn't have the safest place to be to get to shelters, which have been open. we know of at least one that

reached capacity. by the others were opened into the evening. one of the biggest points of concern for officials here in the orlando era where people living in mobile homes. they wanted this people to get hardened structures, to ride out the storm. at this point we are well past the point where officials warn people on the roads. and obviously we are starting to see some roadways, whether be slipping driveways or possibly higher roadways, because we have now left this location in hours. certainly roadways, and some of these paths are starting to flood over with water as well. so it is definitely not the kind of situation you want to be out on the roads, i don't about a no. and you definitely want to be trying to get to high ground or at least keep an eye out for that. i suspect for a lot of people tonight it's going to be a sleepless night because even as the wind in the rain continue to hell here, there's also that stressor of being aware of what is going on outside you. because we talk about flash flooding, keyword there being flash, can go from bad to

impossible before we realize the situation you are in, alicia. >> you jesse kirsch talked a bit about evacuations, he talked about the shelters being at capacity. i do wonder, when you are speaking with officials there in the run up to today, their sense of how prepared orlando was as a city fall of the hurricane affects. >> so we sought to weave things today from local officials here. and i can just tell you from what we saw at the shelters, that there was one that seemed to be pretty busy. another one that had intermittent attendance, if you will. so i think that is something we often see, it's people making those decisions, as we see the storms developing. and obviously hurricane ian kept changing paths -- the development of the storm as well. when we got on the ground here in florida we were expecting it to make landfall at one point, and at one time, that changed even in the overnight hours.

so that is something that i'm sure factored into people's decisions. we know that officials made a point here in orlando. we talked about this mobile home parks. officials talked about 79 different locations for those mobile homes that they had been making these two. so there seems to have been a proactive approach specifically to that community, which was seen as one of the more vulnerable groups of people who needed to get out of their homes in the ice of officials here. >> jesse kirsch, thank you so much for joining us. and stay safe. let's turn to nbc news correspondent alison beverly. alison, the mayor of tampa, jane castor, one residents wednesday evening that despite the hurricane weakening, things are still far from safe. and likely won't be until thursday evening. what a conditions in tampa like right now? >> yeah there was a lot of concern here heading into the storm. and what hurricane ian might bring to this area. we spoke to people in the days

leading up to this you are evacuating. some of them were lifelong floridians for the very first time despite experiencing a plethora of hurricanes prior to this. but this one different, a lot of them decided to move further inland. people who wouldn't normally make that choice. right now, it seems like this area has gotten quite lucky and things have not been nearly as severe as initially there was the potential for high severity levels and lack of damage. we have not seen a whole lot of damage so far. once the sun comes up in the morning, we will be able to better get a better assessment of things. but in terms of just rainfall, winds, there were moments where it felt like much more powerful -- you could sense, you could feel very much that you are getting some of the outer bands of the hurricane. but for hours now, things had been -- in a situation where moving ahead in the days to come, with the city, this area, becomes a place that, and a lot of, ways

got lucky. and now they shift to being a vital hub to helping the rest of the state. we were at the airport earlier today, tampa international airport, it is closed. they suspended flights yesterday evening in speaking with the vp of operations there, we saying that they were going to make an assessment tomorrow but they hope to reopen the airport on friday. and that would just be for commercial flights. he said based on where the storm was looking at, if they weren't particularly hard here -- they were in talks with the -- as sort of a hub, so they can deploy resources for them to stay, to help people who really need it. so right now it looks like there has not been a significant amount of damage in this area. i'm assuming that that remains to be the case. i think we could see something in the days ahead. again, this is a city that really got lucky and they are going to kind of become an incredibly important stop for people, for the helpers, for the helpers getting to people and harder hit areas. alicia?

>> alyssa, it strikes me just a few days ago you were in puerto rico reporting on the hurricane there and there are still reeling for that storm. -- alison, thank you so much. it's a rescue conditions are likely to start as soon as the -- here's brian trascher -- spokesperson for the united canadian navy told me earlier -- for those who don't know what is the united cajun av? >> united cajun a visa collection of volunteers, who are based out of louisiana, but who have grown to a national network of folks with their own boats, trucks, high water vehicles, now have increased the aircraft, drones. we are just in puerto rico, two and cargo drops out of airplanes, to the southern parts of the island. that was still unaccessible, by vehicles, and like i said, we are a pro approach 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 their immediate needs and try to save lives. >> right. it's my understanding you have teams position throughout the area. what are you hearing from your teams on the ground? >> when we first started looking at the track that aim was taking, especially the wallet look took to more of the south and east, going a little bit south of tampa, which a lot of people thought tampa was going to be the ground zero. it turned out to be port charlotte. we knew this was going to be a very bad storm surge, and being from new orleans, most of our network from south louisiana, we've been through a lot of these storms. and we knew that the surge was going to be bad. we have gotten videos and pictures from our sar teams on the ground. a lot of homes and vehicles underwater. hopefully that water recedes, now the storm has passed through to the other side of the state. but we are getting -- 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 to 9-1-1, they start calling us, just heartbreaking tales of people stuck in their homes, hiding under mattresses, in a closet, in the house with no roof. people sitting on top of their cars, what have they can't get away from the water. and our sar team to rotc are to make their way to the naples area. where we have gotten most of those calls. >> to your point about the line of calls, how can people get in touch with the cajun navy if they are a loved one need assistance? >> if you are not able to connect and get to our social media, facebook, twitter, and instagram, and if you are able to get on our website -- unitedcajunnavy.com -- you can fill out a form. there is a get in touch form that you can fill out. and that will be routed to the closest team member that we have to wear your zip code and coordinates are, and give us as much information as possible. we will try to respond. >> that was brian trascher of

the united cajun navy. we will be right back with the very latest on hurricane ian as it churns across florida, headed for orlando. aded for orlando woman tc: my a1c stayed here, it needed to be here. doctor tc: ruby's a1c is down with rybelsus®. man tc: my a1c wasn't at goal, now i'm down with rybelsus®. son tc: mom's a1c is down with rybelsus®. song: a1c down with rybelsus® anncr vo: in a clinical study, once-daily rybelsus® significantly lowered a1c better than the leading branded pill. anncr vo: rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. anncr vo: don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. anncr vo: stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. anncr vo: serious side effects may include pancreatitis. gallbladder problems may occur. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. anncr vo: taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. anncr vo: side effects like nausea, vomiting,

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president biden has now signed the inflation reduction act into law. ok, so what exactly does it mean for you? out of pocket costs for drugs will be capped. for seniors, insulin will be just $35. families will save $2,400 on health care premiums. energy costs, down an average of $1,800 a year for families. and it's paid for by making the biggest corporations pay what they owe. president biden's bill doesn't fix everything, but it will save your family money. >> hurricane ian is now headed for orlando. but for those on the southwest coast, -- when the sun comes up. i spoke to collier county

commissioner rick locastro, who is on marco island tonight, just a short time ago. >> -- there have been significant shifts as well. but this time it has made for some very aggressive storm surge. so, the numbers they were predicting, we saw a -- of eight on marco island. although we've got some gusty winds and stuff like that, for high winds, you lose a roof, you lose a pool -- you have the damage to your house. 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 trapped, by water in their homes. what's the latest you can tell people about those who are stranded, calling for help, in your community? >> -- people saw that the winds were not going to be any horrific -- people have lived through other

hurricanes. and when it looked like it was going to be north of us -- the folks that underestimated the storm surge. i mean, here on marco island, even homes that are at such an elevation that would normally see flooding saw it. and if you wait too long to exit, to evacuate, rather, then you have got to hunker down. and we did have quite a few folks -- that was really the intention, not to rule. -- i know a lot of those stories -- this head thing is, a lot of them are going to come back. here i don't think they realize the damage that they are going to see to their homes into their communities. because water can really do unbelievable amount of damage. and then we have plenty of that here, including my district. >> to that question about recovery, any sense of how long until power may begin to be restored there? >> you know what, earlier in the day, i was initially operating a command center here

on marco island, and giving a lot of direction. and power was not a problem. we had tv and naval and wi-fi -- and it was because the winds really went that bad. that's what is normally knocks out a lot of those things. but as the water came in, and then we got hit with a bit of everything. we were in the dark for a while. i was without power here on marco island through ten days. and there's a lot of little communities out there, -- it will take a while to get them back. -- we won't really know -- until tomorrow as to how quickly we can -- more power. there's a lot of people that they'd evacuate. we might have a lot of homes without power but not necessarily a lot of people. but i know we will -- return. rick i'm sure that all those people evacuated are eager to get back home to see their properties. what are you telling residents about what it's gonna be safe to return? >> i think we know more about

that tomorrow. i'm stranded here in marco island, i live here and i got stuck in my house today much like others saw him directing the traffic through myself phone and things like that. but all surrounded romney is water this not passable so i'm hoping the water recedes by tomorrow and then we'll get an assessment. we don't want people to come back prematurely. in the surrounding community of naples we have curfews because most of the roads are not even passable. the water is just so huge. who is from the storm surge, not really the rain. it was really unique type of storm surge that came up on us quickly so there's a lot of seawater and a lot of these roads and neighborhoods. >> canister rick locastro i know it is been a busy 24 hours for you. thank you for taking the time to join us. stay with msnbc all night and

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good to be with you i'm frances rivera and welcome to the special edition of early today as we bring you the latest on hurricane ian. storm as we can from a category four to a one. it is still packing a powerful punch as it slowly turns north. more than 2 million power outages are being reported across the sunshine state plunging cities into darkness as the storm flooding threat rages on. and amid landfall in the fort myers area, storm surge