and it's easier than ever to get your projects done right. with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. and when you book and pay throug you're covered by our happiness check out angi.com today. angi... and done. good morning, i'm philamena, -- we thank you for joining us for the special edition of early today, as we continue to track hurricane ian. the storm has been downgraded to a category one as it moves through central florida, but it made landfall as the fifth strongest storm to ever hit the u.s., and a plane through the eye together information on the storm, and an engineer said it was the roughest flight of his career. take a look.

there goes the vet the beds, holy cow. whoa. >> 2 million power outages and counting, being recorded across florida right now. about 2000 flights already, all flights are canceled out of jacksonville today. we do have count correspondents find out across florida, in this live updates on's path, and our communities are responding. one of the biggest areas of concern overnight has been orlando, where they're facing dangerous flash flooding. when you get to nbc's jesse courage, who is there in orlando and has experience that first hand. jesse, tell us how things are there now. >> yeah, the lobby of the

property where we are staying is almost entirely covered in a layer of water a couple of inches deep and you can see the back deck is getting threaded as well, it is just a pool. the water has made its way -- you can see it as now, all the men's top level. we can right now, the rain is -- as they say, that it's picking back up. it had been in a little bit of a low, this is not as hard as we've seen the deluge, but at this point it's a piece of the puzzle. we're expecting an as much as 30 inches of rain, people were asking people to evacuate

certain areas, particularly of consumer mobile homes,. the other thing that officials have been stressing was to get off the roads by 2 pm wednesday. we're well past that now, people should not be on the roads they should be hunkering down where they are to ride out the storm. even before those orders were taking effect. there's no order there from what we heard, there's just a request from officials, a recommendation even before that went into effect, the roads were pretty much ghost towns. we even saw a gas station was closed, thankfully we are able to peel up and we -- are getting into another band of rain. we're still an hour away from

it hitting, us that's expected later this morning, so we'll be keeping an eye out for that. and you can see all the impacts, from ian already, and it is still heading our way. guys, back to you. >> a long night ahead for you, jesse kershner, orlando, thank you jesse, stay safe. >> we have to watch, when it comes to a threat, let's talk about right now, and nbc meteorologist grossman is watching this. we heard from him, the rain is a concern, the flooding is a concern. but he's saying, hey, we haven't even gotten worse to be at. >> that's right, they're gonna have a long day ahead of, them they're hoping for sunrise soon, because we're looking at some very heavy rainfall, could see some flash flooding. and we're looking at the chance for some life-threatening flash flooding, as we look back yesterday we saw a really strong winds, we saw heavy rainfall, winds gusting over 100 miles per hour, we -- rainfall, totaled nearly 20 inches. in many spots, over a foot of rain, when it's all said and

done today, we're gonna see nearly two and a half feet of rain in some spots. that is a, lot and that is dangerous. looking at this right, now you will see heavy rainfall near where jessie. is jacksonville, daytona beach, looking at that category one storm. that was as of 2:00, we'll see what happens in the next advisory. we are south southeast of orlando florida. so it continues to move very, very slowly, across the peninsula of florida. that is part of the problem, because it allows a lot of rain to continue to be dropped in one spot. we do have a lot of tropical are still in place. a hurricane warning, meaning hurricane conditions are still happening there. you can see, it takes that the whole coast, coast to coast and central florida. we're also looking at the stretching in the georgia and north carolina and south carolina. and we'll probably see them expand beyond it in some spots, we're looking at heavy rain where we saw jesse's live spot, that rain is falling. he's gonna be in and out of these really heavy rain dance,

we're also looking at gusty winds, about 67 miles per hour, you could find really wet ground with those gusty winds, trees are gonna come, down power lines are gonna come down. that's gonna cause additional power outages, that's gonna be a concern as we go through the day. up to 51 in melbourne. so we have a flood, watch that extends from south carolina through georgia into most of florida. we also have a flash flood warning, that is very dangerous, you want to heed any warning, do not try to travel outside especially this time when it's dark, and even tomorrow because we're gonna have a lot of flooded roadways. so we're looking at orlando seen that flash flood warning right now. the flash flood risk does continue throughout today, looking at the highest risk where you see these pink here, just south of jacksonville into daytona beach and melbourne. back to you guys. >> brian, michelle thank you so much. >> let's talk about the population of pope county, florida, it's swelling on account of hurricane ian.

the landlocked county has become a haven for people evacuated from hillsboro, pinellas, and all other nearby counties. when i bring in pillbox, a commissioner for the, and polk county's largest city, appreciate your time being on the phone with us, because you're on the phone and anna skype, tell us about the conditions there, right now, that may affect all the residents and the people you've taken in. >> well good morning, and i'll tell you that we've had a rough kind of night, and this storm is heading into lakeland i am about maybe ten to, we went down to cabin one. we experienced quite a bit of gusts of wind and rain. and we have pretty much over 55,000 people, there's power outages. we could hear the wind gusting, outside against my home this. but thankfully, i did not lose power.

we -- have in that, we've done very well here. >> best-case scenario, as you mentioned, 55,000 still without power, what can you tell us about how long they can expect to be there in the heat, it's almost 80 degrees there i believe they're in the day, and very muggy during all this. it's pretty unbearable conditions to be in. >> oh say that again, at a point we had about 55,000 power outages, how many of those would be stored with. -- we have first responders back, with the wind gusts, to do that kind of work. we also see a few moments ago,

those places of lost power and were restored, as of about 9:00 or so, that evening, how many of those were in the storm i can say. certainly we were there, to make sure it's resources quickly as you can. good to hear, that given where we are with -- philip walker, commissioner there, thank you for time. >> at least today's back in a, minute with more on this historic storm. but, first time to time again, we have seen natural disasters. we had the best in this. people this is the one man who decided to stay in help others. >> this is my home, so i think i have, i mean my mother, you don't mean, if that goes then, what do you do.

if you knew my life, this is nothing. if you know my past and my life, that's right here is nothing, you know demean. at least i get a chance, to go ahead and help people. d and help people.

hurricane ian shifted its track this, week sparing to nab a direct, it let's bring in alison barber who's on the ground there. it is community tampa bay, and the communities immediately around it and they're gonna wake up and have a sigh of relief, because they were largely spared, it seems, from significant damage with the storm.

they knew that the storm had shifted, and was not gonna be a direct hit to tampa that became clear late in the afternoon yesterday. not being, said there was the, cohn those impacts the news impact went beyond, cohn so far everything we've seen the damage to tampa and area around it has been relatively minimal. there were some tense moments overnight, where wind picked up, and rain felt heavy, the retrieves line into peoples houses, as well as powerlines collapsing in the street. and even traffic lights. but all in all, this community, according to the mayor that dodged a bullet, and will be -- move the resources we have here to help other communities, there were not so lucky. >> these resources will

definitely need it in other parts. i also want to ask about, this we were reporting about the reverse storm surge, we heard about the threat of a storm surge. there is a reverse, describe that a little bit because when we look at these images when we look at the land where there was no water or should be interesting how it pulled from that. >> the images, they sort of take the words away for me if you will, because the water retreated so far back in what is known as a reverse storm surge. there was a moment in the evening where tampa police were pleading with people to stop going down there, to in their words, sightsee, because there is sane while there is this big pull back, eventually all that water that has to come back, and we don't know exactly how or what that would look like, -- not to get down close to it to see what it looks like, as the sun comes up. as soon as we have the

opportunity to do so. >> some eerie images, there i can see people collecting their to sightsee, alison barber there for us in tampa florida, thank you alison. >> we've got the day's other top story straight ahead, as we continue tracking hurricane in, as it barrels across florida. els across florida i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget

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hurricane in continues in just a moment, but first here are some of today's other top stories. vice president kamala harris is visiting the demilitarized zone between north and south korea. the vp will tour the area, after receiving a briefing from commanders of the nato and u.s. soldiers, this is like the last leg of her u.s. -- attending the funeral of slain -- looming large over the trump, if the nuclear military threat for north korea. on saturday, that kim jong-un regime fighter short-range ballistic missile off the east

coast. they pop world is following the death of robert coolio, his manager confirmed the rapper passed yesterday, at a friends los angeles home. according to the ap, no cause of death has immediately been made public. some of wraps biggest names are offering their condolences. ice cube remembered he rise to the top of the industry, and flavor flav tweeted resting gangsters paradise, my friend. julio rose to fame in the 90s, with his grammy winning gangsters paradise, also recording the theme song for the nickelodeon sitcom canadian cal, he was 59 years old. >> new york yankees slugger aaron judge swung his way into the record books last night. >> and the 32. judge the left field, this could be, at sia, he's done it. number 61. >> he was chasing it for seven

straight games, without a home run, but judge blasted that won his 61st of the season, tying roger maris 61 american league record, and that lifted them over the blue jays today, three proud mom of there, he started seven games love to break the record, the yankees will return home tomorrow to break the three game series against the baltimore orioles. >> in continues and hammering the sunshine state, almost two and a half million have no power at this hour. flash flooding remains a major concern, we are covering that, all of people right here. people right here

side to tell you, that you don't know the full extent of the damage that we counted right now, we are beginning to get a sense that our community has been, in some respects, decimated. >> hurricane ian spread destruction across southwest

florida, let's go back to nbc meteorologist michelle grossman track in its path. where is it now michele? >> plus and central florida, we're seen very heavy rain, we've seen hurricane-force winds at this point. so is a big, storm taking up a lot of space, and that was the problem yesterday. it is big in size, begin strength, and continues to be, strong although weakening as it continues to move overland. so this is a track over the next year few days, this is today, it's gonna emerge into the atlantic, and we're gonna see a tropical storm status. it's not gonna strengthen in the atlantic, it's good for heavy rain from -- north carolina. it's gonna take a turn towards the northwest, as gonna head towards portions of georgia, also south carolina. we do expect a landfall, that will be the third landfall over south carolina on friday, it will move over and will bring with soaking rains. portions of the carolina into the mid-atlantic, it's not they're done there yet though. we're looking at still some wet weather over the weekend, into

the atlantic portions of the committees, and downpours -- seems foreign sunday, we're gonna see some rain, still lingering, showers continuing from tennessee to new jersey. this is what it looks like right now on radar, heavy heavy rain falling, so i-95, i-70, for i-four, hopefully people are not traveling, it's dark outside is dangerous, or looking at that rain, we're gonna continue to see that as we head throughout this thursday, into the later part of thursday, or you see these darker colors especially around orlando. that's why we're seeing the heaviest rain falling, and that's where we're looking at the potential for some flash flooding. so we do have a flash flood risk today, where you see these darker colors, especially close to the coast, we're looking at roads that can turn into rivers, we saw all those pictures yesterday that were just rushing water, and we can see some homes damage further, once the sun comes out we're gonna see a different picture in some neighborhoods, and also looking at a chance for 30 inches of rain in some spots, back to you guys. >> tough to hear, michelle

thanks, when we come back we'll go to a florida animal shelter to look at how they're keeping animals safe during that mass evacuations and flooding.

it is crucial for everyone to get safely out of danger, as hurricane ian slams florida, including our animal friends. this is in st. petersburg, shared this photo of their flamingos taking shelter. they said the birds were safe. now we want to see how our friends at the lake county animal shelter and central florida are doing as the storm ramps up there. we are joined by whitney wilson, the shelter director. and whitney, when we know there's the threat of any storm, the situations for families, which includes pets.

tell us more about the situation there, and how you've all been handling it. >> so, the weather is really picking up here, so we're getting a lot of wind and rain. most animal shelters, i think, across the country, support a couple of different functions during emergencies, so not only a retest for caring for the animals we have here at the shelter, but we have a number of staff that are out in the community managing the pet friendly portions of emergency people shall visit schools, in addition to supporting the emergency support function over 17 which is animals port services. >> we have heard from plenty of people who did not want to evacuate certain situations, because they wanted to stay with their pets, that's their family. the of anything about whether to decide, tuesday or with their pets at home now. so anything you can do to keep your pets calm during the storm is going to help to reduce their stress levels, and then it's really important post storm to understand it some

markers can be moved, fences can be downed, and we see a large increase in our intake, right after a storm event. so keep an eye on your pets, keep them on their leeches, make sure they have tags, and of course if you have microchip information, it's a great time to get them up to date, because we don't want to see all these paths sitting animal shelters waiting for the families out of the storm. >> it is telling the situation behind you now. we see some of your stuff cuddles petting some of her friends right there. we have to understand, tell me more about the sacrifices that you guys have made, because they can very easily go to their own homes and deal with their own family members now, with their choosing to be at home with you. >> we have over 250 animals are carry here, so our staff of course is dedicated and passionate. and we would not want to be anywhere else other than with our pets during this difficult

and a little bit unsettling time. >> you can tell how much they enjoy this right here. >> we thank you for watching the special edition of early today, i'm frances rivera, and i'm philip meta. >> don't go away, our continuing breaking news coverage of hurricane indian continues right after this. s right after this

good morning. welcome to this special edition of early today. we bring you the latest on hurricane ian. storm has weakened from a category 4 to a 1. it is still packing a powerful punch as it slowly turns north. 2 1/2 million power outages report add cross the sunshine state. plunging cities into darkness as a flooding threat rages