yesterday. we're going to have complete coverage on "morning joe." elected officials, mayors from the sunshine state will join us, talking about what happened in their state and what they need now. thank you for getting up way too early on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. this is storm surge, this is the ocean coming into naples. there is no delineation anymore between the gulf of mexico and naples at this point. >> there's the wind speed as i'm standing next to a building which is somewhat protecting me. so i'll take a knee. whoops. if i can take a knee. >> we both had to take a knee out there. signs falling over. debris flying around. >> about 90% of our city is without power now. the winds are extremely high. and the water is rising. >> some of the scenes as hurricane ian made landfall in southwestern florida as a strong

category 4 storm leaving a huge path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we'll have a live report in just a moment. meanwhile, rescue crews have been busy trying to get people who decided to ride out the storm to try and save them. they're stranded now by rising flood waters and we're still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida. at this hour, it still has more to go. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." it's thursday, september 29th. joe is off this morning. along with willie and me, we have the host of "way too early," white house bureau chief at "politico," jonathan lemire. without power this morning, first light this morning will begin to show the damage in florida. >> that's right. that's when we're going to start to see the story of what happened last night, what happened overnight. tropical storm now ian downgraded from a category 1 hurricane. in just the last hour, but still

wreaking havoc across florida as it made landfall as a massive category 4 storm. there's widespread flooding and damage as the powerful storm batters florida with torrential rain and winds. more than 2 million people are without power in florida. in naples, authorities say more than half of the streets were not passable. this video released by the naples fire department shows a power line bursting into flames as the hurricane tore through that city. there also was this video from tampa, near tampa when a tree fell on to a house. we're told the family was able to get out of the way just in time, thank goodness. ian has grown steadily weaker as he moved toward the central part of the state. officials say it's dangerous and life threatening. the national weather service issued a flood warning from daytona beach to cape canaveral. some areas under to 3 to 4 feet of water. over the course of the day, ian

caused storm surge of 2 feet, submerged cars causing significant damage, rescuing hundreds of people from flooded houses and cars. all this as governor ron desantis once again urging residents to stay indoors. >> we know that this has been a big storm, and it's done a lot of damage. we know that there are folks who are in the really high risk zone a, evacuation zones, who did not evacuate. some have called in and those people are being logged, and there will be a response. but it's likely going to take a little time for the storm to move forward so that it's safe for the first responders to be able to do. >> officials say ian is among the most powerful storms to strike the united states in decades. let's go straight to msnbc's jose diaz-balart. he is in bradenton, florida, for us. jose, the sun not up there, but you have been out and about. what does it look like there?

>> reporter: good morning. the sun is going to come up about an hour and 20, and of course we will all be able to see just how devastating hurricane ian was to this part of the florida. we were just battered by winds all through the night, and that horizontal going rain. i would say about an hour ago is when things started to lower intensity here in the bradenton, sarasota area. there are still some gusts, but some amazing statistics like we're just hearing the manatee river in the bradenton area. normal water level is 6 feet. just overnight, it got to 17 feet, willie, a major flood. the wind gusts here were at about 85 miles an hour at one time. but the -- and we just heard from the governor talking about now what happens afterwards, when people come out and survey

their land and what happened to their homes, et cetera. this is, willie, probably the most dangerous time after the storm passes because a lot of power lines. those power lines are down are covered by debris and grass and trees, branches, and so when people come out of their home to see what's going on. they done even know that there is a power line. a downed power line where they're stepping because it's been covered by leaves and debris. when that power gets reconnected, you know, that's where you get a lot of dangerous situations occurring. we are right here in front of sarasota bay. behind us is the gulf of mexico of and sarasota is just to my left, and i see a lot of light in the sarasota area. some parts of bradenton did not

lose power. i have to tell you, 2.5 million people are still without power at this time here in florida. >> just to orient people, obviously jose bradenton is a little bit south of st. pete, but still in the tampa bay area. the mayor on monday said get out now, issuing that evacuation order. is it your sense covering the story for the last couple of days that most people did, in fact, leave and hopefully the loss of life might be reduced because of it? >> yeah, i don't know if enough people did. i know a lot of people did. we were coming up here, and willie, you're so right, if you go from tampa to st. pete beach, and you start going down from the coastline, you're going to get to bradenton and sarasota. we are coming in here where we are, which is in the bradenton area, just out maybe ten blocks

from where we are is a large and a lovely mobile home park, and i've got to tell you, yesterday when we were surveying before the most intense part of the storm hit, there were a lot of people in those homes. my concern is, well, how did those homes do. because 85 miles an hour winds low temperature an impact, and so, you know, i have been thinking about those folks a lot, and we'll be seeing in just a little over an hour how they did. >> yeah, let's hope they're safe. jose we'll be back to you as the sun comes up. we'll let you look around a little bit and check back with you. jose diaz-balart in bradenton, florida, thank you so much. mika. we want to bring in meteorologist michelle grossman for the latest on where hurricane ian stands now. michelle, what do you have? >> hi there, mika. everything came together in the worst way yesterday. we had a very strong category 4 storm. 150 miles per hour winds a

category 5 storm. it was huge and also moving very very slow. we saw the storm surge, we saw heavy rainfall and gusty winds. i want to show you one thing. this is what we warned you about yesterday, roads turning into rivers out of fort myers, a time lapse of the roads being filled. we saw ali velshi doing such a great job hour after hour, showing the parking lot that he was standing in just filling up with water. so many scenes like this. people are going to come back to the neighborhoods once the sun does rise and we're going to see a different story. homes washed into the ocean, and lots of damage out there. let's take a look at the latest. we are looking at a strong tropical storm. look at the wind gusts we saw yesterday, over 100 miles per hour in so many spots. cape coral, 140 miles per hour. certainly causing damage. naples, too, at 112. it wasn't just the wind. it was the rain as well. 20 inches in spots in punta

gorda. 2 1/2 feet of rain once it's all said and done, could be orlando as we go throughout the afternoon, heavy bands continuing to move on shore. the heaviest rain are the darker colors, reds, oranges, yellows, and you can see it swirling over the same spot. september is a wet month for them, we're adding feet of rain in some spots. the latest, 65 miles per hour winds. that is a tropical storm but a strong tropical storm. we're look agent winds gusting higher than that, near hurricane force winds. we're still seeing damage, and keep in mind, this was over land for 13 hours, 14 hours, maintaining that hurricane strength, so that tells you the strength of the storm, really just weakening an hour ago to 65 miles per hour. it is 40 miles in florida. it did not slow down to 3 to 4 miles. double walking pace right now.

still slow, but not as slow. we're seeing the heavy rainfall. tropical alerts stretching from central florida to portions of georgia, south carolina. we haven't even started here. ian will be a story not even today, but tomorrow, saturday, and also sunday. with the potential of more flooding rains. doppler radar showing us where the heaviest rain is falling. you can see the storm coming off the ocean, seeing the lightning as well. that's telling you the energy associated with the storm, enhancing the rain bands. we have been following jesse all morning long, friends on nbc, with early today, and we're watching the water rise where he's standing. winds gusting near 62 miles per hour. that will be a concern, and we'll end it here because this is the biggest story for today, a flash flood warning in orlando. a flood watch from charleston all the way down to portions of florida, and we could see life threatening flash flooding as we go throughout the day. back to you. >> meteorologist michelle grossman, thank you very much for your coverage. we'll talk to you once again

soon. president biden will visit fema headquarters in washington today. he'll receive a briefing on the storm's impact, along with the ongoing federal response efforts. the white house confirmed yesterday that president biden quote made separate calls to the mayors of fort myers, cape coral, sarasota, and the chair of charlotte county, florida, to let them know that their communities have the full force of the federal government behind them. during an event yesterday, president biden warned of the storm's danger and warned oil and gasoline companies against trying to take advantage of the situation. >> this storm is incredibly dangerous, to state the obvious. it's life threatening. you should obey warnings and directions from emergency officials. don't take anything for granted. use their judgment, not yours. evacuate when ordered. be prepared. storm warnings are real. the evacuation notices are real. the danger is real, and the storm passes the federal government is going to be there

to help you recover. and forgive me, i want to add one more warning, that's warning to the oil and gas industry exec executives, do not use as this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the american people. >> joining me the mayor of st. petersburg, florida, ken welch. first of all, tell us how your city is doing, how high were the winds, how much water did you get, fatalities, injuries, what do you know? >> good morning, mika. we were spared in pinellas county. as you know a couple of days ago we were the target of this hurricane, and we were expecting a storm surge from 10 to 15 feet, and 10 to 15 inches of rain which would have been overwhelming. i think what this storm showed us again is that these storms are very powerful, but actually

the track was actually accurate, if you looked at the entire potential track and not just the single point of the forecast, and these storms are known to take a turn as charlie did in 2004. that's exactly what happened here. we were spared. we have about 190,000 power outages and our focus at 7:20, at sunrise is to get our teams out for a first push to clear our roadways and allow duke energy to come in and start restoring power. certainly to our neighbors in lee county and charlotte, they bore the brunt of this storm. >> yeah, what are you hearing in terms of how bad that was, the brunt of this storm, and in terms of your conversation with president biden, water damage, getting the power back online, do you have what you need. >> we were very assured to hear from the president back on tuesday, along with fema

secretary criswell, and they reassured us that they had the assets on stand by, and basically anything we needed they were there to support us. and the good thing, mika, and i watch the show every day. both sides of the aisle, governor desantis that's the way we should work all the time in our government, and it was good to see that happen this time. but, you know, we were -- the other big thing is that the infrastructure bill has dollars in it that we need to shore up our infrastructure. no water system in the state of florida could withstand 10 feet of storm surge, and we would have had to shut down some of our systems if that storm had hit us directly, and so this really shows us what we need to do to be resilient moving forward with the strength of these storms. >> good morning, amen to your

comments about bipartisanship there. it's nice to see once in a while, and i'm glad to hear you were spared the worst of the storm that your city was. hopefully there's no major damage or fatalities there. to your larger point at the end, as the mayor of a city, a coastal city like st. petersburg in florida who knows there are going to be bigger and more ferocious storms coming in the years and decades ahead. what kind of long-term thinking, what kind of preparation do you have to undertake as the mayor. >> we've got the research and the data, willie, and now it's time to put that into action. st. pete has an integrated sustainability action plan that shows the investments we need to make to be resilient, and also needs to impact our planning, where we build, how we build going forward. climate change is a reality, and st. petersburg and pinellas county is a peninsula within a peninsula. one of the most vulnerable areas in the nation for sea level rise. we've got to put that information into our planning, into our capital spending going

forward or we will just set ourselves up for failure going forward as we face these kind of storms. >> and mr. mayor, good morning, i just want to -- you touched on climate change there. i was hoping you could detail how you've seen things change in your city over the decades. are the storms getting worse, are the seas rising higher. tell us the impact of climate change and how concerned you are for the future. >> we're seeing flooding just from a normal thunderstorm in parts of the city and county that we've never seen before, and so that blue sky then is becoming the norm in our city and all across the state of florida on the east coast. miami has had that salt water intrusion happening for some time now. our climate is changing. i think we've gotten past the argument of whether that's happening or not and we need to apply the smart planning

concepts going forward and not set ourselves up for continued impacts from salt water intrusion, from storms of this type that bring record levels of water inland, and our systems are old, infrastructure systems that haven't been kept up, now is the time to make the investment going forward. we've seen the impact of climate change in florida and throughout the nation. >> mayor of st. petersburg, florida, ken welch, thank you so much for joining us this morning. we want to give you now a firsthand look from a family trapped by flood waters inside a home in fort myers beach who spoke with our affiliate in fort myers. water was up to the second floor and was rising quickly. >> can you show me how much the water, how high it is up. can anyone get up on the furniture as well. you're up on everything up high. due a way to get into the roof? >> go to the roof.

don't go in the attic. >> don't go in the attic. do you have a way to get on the roof. >> we're going to have to find out a way here soon. >> and the rest of the neighborhood is under water as well. >> yeah, i'd have to swim out of my house. my house is too low. my house is pretty much gone. >> your neighbor across the street. >> my neighbor has a more recent house that's up. i had to swim over here. i'm glad i did because my house is under water. >> i'm so sorry. is everyone out of your house. >> yeah, everyone's out of there. it's getting worse by the second. >> i don't think it's safe to go outside. >> he doesn't have a choice, he has to be ready to get on the roof. >> you need to be ready to get on top of the roof and grab something that will help you stay afloat.

>> the most intense hurricane force wind are starting to, you know, pull off to the north of where you are, so the worst of the winds will start to relax over the next hour or so, but it's going to remain on shore for several more hours. the water levels are likely going to be rising over the next few hours. it will likely get deeper from where you are now. you need to make your decisions as soon as possible but expect the water levels to continue rising from where they are right now. even though the winds won't be as strong, they're pushing water on shore, so whatever you can do that would -- something like a life jacket or something that would be able to float is what you want to, you know, keep with you as close as possible. >> so many homes in fort myers like that under water. the news team reports that the call drops before the family could get to a safe location. we're hoping they're okay. there have been numerous reports of residents being stranded on roof tops.

at the height of the storm, county officials said it was too dangerous for crews to respond but they were coordinating with search and rescue units using boats, helicopters and high water vehicles to rescue those they could. more than 75% of residents have lost power. officials in lee county says their community is decimated and, willie, this is what i fear we're going to see as the sun comes up today. the impact of the amount of water that these cities and towns across florida and even over orlando now as the storm goes down to a category one, it's the amount of water that could cause death and destruction. >> it's the storm surge everyone's really worried about. we've got about an hour before the sun comes up and we'll get pictures to show everyone what the storm looks overnight. here's a look at how some of the papers are covering ian. the ”chicago tribune” shows the view from a parking garage, as

category 4 crashed into southwest florida. the los angeles times has this photograph of a meteorology student at mississippi state university measuring wind gusts in sarasota. in florida, the miami herald leads with this image of flooded streets in downtown fort myers, and the tampa bay times has this photo of a displaced sailboat near a roadway. as we're covering what some are calling the storm of a lifetime, "the washington post" has a feature on why florida is more prone to hurricanes and it's got a lot toot with the state's unique geography. as the paper points out more than 41% of hurricanes in the united states have made some sort of landfall in florida. the state juts into warm tropical waters directly in the paths of storms barrelling through the caribbean. florida also suffers some of the highest financial damage from

hurricanes. that's due in part to the rapid coastal development where roughly 76% of the state's population lives by the water. according to the post, quote while storm frequency has not trended upward, research shows hurricanes in the atlantic have become more intense, partly driven by higher sea surface temperatures linked to human-caused climate change. we have a lot more ahead here on "morning joe." more on the impact from what now is a tropical storm ian, but still a lot of water coming down over orlando. we'll get live reports from across florida all morning. the head of fema will join us. we'll discuss recovery efforts with the vice president of disaster programs for the american red cross. we'll have a look at other stories making headlines this morning, including the latest legal drama between donald trump's legal team and the special master they helped appoint. and the january 6th committee is

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♪it takes two to make a thing go right♪ ♪it takes two to make it outta sight♪ ♪one, two, get loose now! it takes two to make a-♪ get double rewards points this fall. book now at bestwestern.com. so obviously we're following the latest developments with hurricane ian who is over orlando right now. it's downgraded to a category one but there's going to be major issues with the amount of water that's going to come down over the city in orlando, and of course throughout the show we'll be getting a first look at the destruction left by the storm across the west coast of florida. it will be the first look since the hurricane hit, and at its peak, it was practically a category 5, the amount of wind and rain and water and reverse storm surge. we'll get to all of that and also get a sense from city officials and from the head of

fema as to what the extent of the damage was. at least a first sense of that. we'll get back to all of our storm coverage in just a moment, but first a little bit of politics for you. with the midterms less than six weeks away, mitch mcconnell appears to have a greater degree of optimism about his party's chances in november take a look. >> stand by your comments about candidate quality, or has your outlook changed? >> in every election, every year, this year, past years, it's great to have terrific candidates. we're in a bunch of close races. i think we have a 50/50 shot of getting the senate back. it's going to be really really close either way in my view. >> okay. jonathan lemire, what do you make of mitch mcconnell's assessment? >> it's a slight change in tone from mcconnell who a few weeks back let it be known that he was pretty unhappy with some of the republican candidates running for senate.

he has been critical of the process in which former president trump more or less hand picked dr. oz in pennsylvania, herschel walker in georgia. and the republicans of course had a really rough august. we saw the poll numbers drop there. they feel a little better now, people close to mcconnell. this is a toss up. he's not going to say, hey, we're going to lose. a handful of states, remarkably close. nevada stands to be close. democrats have a bit of a lead in arizona, new hampshire as well, north carolina looks close. the fact that ohio is in play speak to the facts that democrats feel good. that's become a red state in recent cycles. we've got six weeks to go, and as we have learned anything in the last handful of cycles, willie, politics can change in a moment, we have whatever october surprise may be in store. there's time for the race to change, and also some key debates.

there's a question whether debates matter that much anymore. and in a couple of races they will. a lot of people want to see fetterman and oz debate. some votes may come down to that and as bad as some of the candidates are, those races are very close, within the margin of error. less than a month into the special master process, attorneys for former president donald trump are pushing back against judge raymond dearie. they're resisting, whether they believe the government's list of property taken from the fbi search in august is accurate. according to a letter filed by trump's lawyers yesterday, the former president's legal team stated it does not believe the special master has the authority to require them to make such a filing. at the same time trump's legal team is arguing it has not been able to retain a vendor to digitize the document to be handed over to judge dearie for

review because there are too many files and too tight of a deadline. it stated it needs until mid october to get the job done. a special master judge dearie is tasked with reviewing the materials taken during the search of the property in august when the fbi seized 11,000 documents trump had taken with him after leaving office. it's fair to say the special master process is not going the way the trump team thought it might. they thought they might have an edge, we like this judge dearie guy, and they're having to reveal everything that was taken from the white house to mar-a-lago. >> the trump team picked the umpire and is complaining when the umpire called them out. that's what happened here, and this is one of the two names they put forth, doj said, sure, he's a respected individual. those in the legal world say he's a no nonsense judge. he's going to be a straight shooter. he accelerated the timetable.

he's asking for the review to be completed faster than doj proposed. it's possible he'll grant that. no one anticipates a major ruling until after the midterms anyway. this is another effort by the trump team to game the system. it's not working. meanwhile, ginni thomas is expected to talk to the january 6th committee either today or tomorrow. yesterday committee chairman bennie thompson confirmed to reporters the panel will speak to her later in the week. thomas is the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas. the committee has evidence she exchanged e-mails with john eastman. she also texted with trump's then chief of staff mark meadows, after the election, pressing him not to concede to joe biden. a little bit of history in baseball last night in toronto.

>> and the 3-2, drove deep to left field, this could be it. see ya. he's done it, number 61. he's been chasing history, and now he makes it. he and roger maris are tied with 61 home runs, the most anybody has ever hit in a single season in american league history. >> aaron judge did it, after a bit of a slump that had some people tense, he hits home run 61 tying roger maris's all time american league single season record. roger maris jr., aaron judge's mother were front row. judge had been stuck on number 60 for seven games. he now has seven more games to get to 62 and break the record. yankees off today, back in the bronx tomorrow for a three-game series with baltimore, then four more in texas, if he needs it. jonathan lemire, here are the new york tabloids, "daily news,"

all rise and the ""new york post has a reference to roger that. >> i'm going to take the high road and say that's pretty cool. i do believe we should be honoring the major league record at 73. we can say barry bonds used peds, he did, and aaron judge has said 73 is the major league record. in 61, they come home for three days. it would be quite the scene if he were to do it at yankee stadium. he currently has the american league triple crown. he leads in batting average, home runs, and rbis. it's a remarkable season. >> he's leading the american league in hitting, rbis by a worried margin. walks, on base percentage. he's putting together one of the greatest seasons of all time. roger maris jr. said the record

is 61. and that barry bonds, sammy sosa, mark mcguire should not be included in the list. >> it's a healthy baseball debate. >> mika, big night last night. if joe were here, he'd be forcing you to appreciate what aaron judge has done this weekend. he would, and i would not relent. actually, it looked great. we're going to jump back to the storm coverage here on "morning joe." coming up, hurricane ian is downgraded now to a tropical storm. it's over orlando, florida, but it is drenching the area central florida right now. straight ahead, what is next for hurricane ian, could it regain strength as it turns north. we'll be looking at power outages and how are hospitals holding up through this, and what about the people who decided to stick it out. we'll have all of those questions straight ahead on "morning joe." ll of those questions straight ahead on "morning joe."

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welcome back to "morning joe," it is 40 past the hour, and we are right now tracking what is now tropical storm ian over orlando. we'll be getting to nbc's blayne alexander in just a moment. the big question right now is what is next for hurricane ian. could it regain strength as it heads north. how long does it hover over orlando and other parts of central florida. there are some reports it will be most of the day for sure. power outages up to 2 million people without power and state officials are saying that number is expected to grow. there will be big questions as to how long it will take to get the infrastructure back on track. and get the power back on. another big question is how hospitals are holding up. a lot of hospitals put out advisories saying we cannot

shelter people but we will stay operational for our patients. how they fared during this hurricane, especially on the west coast of florida. the forecast is for severe rain, and wind all over the state of florida, then it will move north. some cities on the western side of the state got up to a foot of rain in a very short amount of time. airports in the area cancelled everything and shut down those reports of flooding in major airports. we fear what we will see today as the sun comes up. there are reports, for example, out of naples, florida, where half the streets are completely impassable. things like that cause consequences, people that can't get the help they need. people stranded, people whose homes may have been flooding up to the roofs with one family in fort myers and heard reports of

all that over fort myers. today we'll reveal a lot of answers as to how epic hurricane ian was on the western coast of florida. let's bring in nbc news correspondent blayne alexander, live now from orlando, which is seeing the brunt of this tropical storm, blayne, what can you tell us? >> reporter: right here in orlando, really the big concern, even though you see it's very windy. every now and then we'll get a gust of wind that knocks me off balance. the big concern is the rain and the flooding. you can see it is raining here, and it has been raining here constantly for hours. in fact, they have seen about 12 inches of rain in parts of orlando overnight. that's double the amount that they typically see in the entire month of september, so we're talking about a tremendous amount of water, and it's going to be continuing until at least noon. that means that the thing that officials are warning about is really flooding here. in fact, just as we were driving to our live shot this morning, mika, we came across flooded

roads and that's expected to get worse as this continues. the other thing, of course, that we're watching and looking at is the fact that, you know, we've got a number of theme parks here. disney theme parks, universal, all of those are closed at least through the end of today, but there were a number of families that already made the trip down here to florida. those families are asked to shelter in place if they're staying at disney resorts, and we're looking at a number of people who evacuated from areas that are closer to the coast or people who came down here for vacation. we're expecting to hear from the mayor at 11:30 this morning. one other thing that officials are warning is if flooding concerns weren't enough, they're also warning people to stay away from flood waters at all costs. that's because they're concerned, quite frankly, about alligators, about snakes, other creatures that people don't want to be around, come up and coming into the flood waters. it's something we see often

because we're warning people away. we're hearing flash flood alerts and warnings, the rain, as it continues is going to make things worse through noon, mika. >> so difficult for those that need help. what are we hearing about power outages, people that decided to stay. was this area under an evacuation order and how concerned are officials that there are people out there who are stranded and there's no way to get to them. >> we lost ifp. >> no problem at all, blayne, thank you very much for your great work. we'll get back to nbc's blayne alexander in orlando, the big question as she pointed out and the big concern is water, willie. the storm has slowed down. it's a tropical storm, and it's moving slowly and causing more and more of a concern of massive flooding, power outages and of

course people staying at hotels who are cooped up and trying to ride it out. that's the big concern, if anybody needs help. >> let's bring into the conversation, admiral james stavridis. you have family up in north florida as we speak, as that storm makes it turn north and swings back out toward the atlantic. i'm curious what you make of what you've seen and what you know in your experience about what the military can do, deployments that can be made, aid offered at a time like this. >> thanks, willie. first and foremost, i've got skin in the game here. my wife laura and basset hound are in jacksonville, florida, i breathed a sigh of relief as i saw the storm jog out to the sea. we ought to be thinking about particularly southwest florida, my native state, this morning, and you know, mika just said we'll know more when the

sunrises. i'll give you a guarantee something you'll see when the sun rises, it will be first responders, florida guard, military, surging into that area. we're lucky to live in a country that has those kind of resources, so you'll see particularly the on the ground response from the florida state guard, the national guard, the coast guard, and then if this thing really is a major once in a century event, you could see navy come in, air force flying relief, you could see army deployed, all of those capabilities are there. look for the first responders and those military folks to be out there. >> and it really is a massive and have to say impressive operation. governor desantis was talking about it yesterday, the state knows how to do this. it is a historic storm, just behind the scenes, okay, you see

the storm coming on the radar. what begins to happen in a place like florida. >> again, so much of the response is in the binder on the shelf. and so governor desantis and his team are working off a script that has been honed for a century, and we're pretty good at this, but at the end of the day, when you see one of those massive storms come in, and you know more are coming, you know we're going to be dealing with this, as a nation, going into the future, if we can't get climate under control. but in terms of behind the scenes, it's a combination of feds, you know, the fema crowd alongside our state responders, alongside first responders, local municipalities, i was so impressed with the mayor of st. petersburg on a few minutes ago. that's the kind of quality leadership we have to deal in the state of florida. >> we're going to talk to many more leaders and reporters in a moment. i want to ask you about russia,

admiral. we got news, russia confirming it formally will annex parts of occupied ukraine after those staged referendums, something the west announced as a legal rig. this was the gig, hold the sham elections, get 99% to say we want to be annexed and now make the formal announcement that russia is going to bring them back in. putin is going to make a speech, have a big celebration, he says in red square tomorrow, all the theatrics so they can show some kind of victory here. >> what putin wants is to pull some kind of prop out of the middle of this tragic stage play he's put on that he can then turn to the people of russia and say, look, it's all worth it, the 80,000 dead and killed, the 300,000 who are being mobilized who are going to be used as cannon fodder. we talked a moment ago about pulling the binder off the

shelf, this is russian binder number one, annex crimea. now they're going to say, oh, now that land bridge between crimea and mother russia are also part of russia and putin will then, willie, to conclude here, putin will then really rattle that nuclear saber and say, if you attack donetsk or luhansk or kherson, that's part of russia, i reserve the right to use anymore. this is entering a pretty dangerous space. >> u.s. officials i spoke to yesterday say to this point, they haven't seen russia change its nuclear posture. we have had putin saber rattle before. at least so far they're not seeing that either. you mentioned the mobilization, 300,000 reservists being called up. we're seeing images of protests, men refusing to go, hopping on airplanes to get out of the country. committing some acts of violence at military recruitment centers because they don't want to go. what does that tell you about

the state of the russian military and how much longer putin can keep this offensive going. >> first and foremost, jonathan, we can look at this and see a military that doesn't work. and we know that from seven month ago when they tried to invade and they couldn't put together simple logistics, combined operations, the ability to keep their soldiers warm and secure and fed on the front lines, let alone supplied with ammunition. we continue to see a failing flailing military in front of us, and that extends to the home front, if the israelis called up the reserves or the swiss or the fins, there's a well ordered path that brings them forward. they're equipped, trained and ready. that's not what's happening in russia. this is like pulling bartenders off 5th avenue and sending them out to the front lines. it's not going to work, and it's going to only provide more

fatalities and grievous wound to these individuals. i think putin has his hands full not only in a failing effort in ukraine but also in his own nation. >> i know a lot of those bartenders, you want those men and women on the front lines, trust me. we have more news into us, admiral, sweden announced the coast guard they have discovered a fourth gas leak in the nord stream pipeline. i'll let you characterize it the way you want to. russia going so far as saying, it's these explosions, these leaks are occurring in american controlled, western controlled areas, suggesting sabotage from the west. what is putin up to here? >> yeah, i think it's pretty clear that what's happening is not a coincidence, not an accident, and, you know, bonus, who gains, putin gains. so i think you can pretty well use akam's razor, the simplest

answer is the right one to say that at the end of the day is what's happening here is russian sabotage. i don't know that with certainty. i'm sure our intelligence agencies will pull this apart working with the europeans. what putin is up to is threatening the europeans. he's saying, you know, i could go after your offshore oil and gas rigs, norway. i could go after your critical infrastructure on the high seas. i could go after pipelines ashore or underway. i could go after under sea cables that carry the entire internet, only about 300 globally carry the internet. he's just trying to show us he's got more cards to play because his conventional war in ukraine is failing. he's looking for unconventional ways to shift the conflict. >> admiral james stavridis covering a ton of ground. thank you so much. hope your wife and young penelope are doing well at home. . >> the greatest basset hound

ever. thank you, admiralment whistleblower going it turn back to hurricane ian. some chose not to evacuate, others in need may have to wait it out, and that could be a while. crews have been rescuing residents who chose to ignore evacuation orders or some just couldn't leave. throughout the entire storm, this video shows the coast guard saving seven people who are out on a boat in key west in hard hit charlotte county. all law enforcement and emergency response has been suspended and this is the real worry for people in need. residents in need of assistance can still call 911 but herp will be triaged and responders will assist as soon as weather allows them. any residents who chose to stay on marco island will not be able to leave. officials said all roads and bridges were impassable. look at this.

as of 3:30 yesterday afternoon, all residents there will have to shelter in place, and in some cases, who knows where that is. it might be a rooftop. joining us vice president of the disaster programs for the american red cross, jennifer pipa. jennifer, thank you so much for joining us this morning. what are you hearing about where the greatest need is? i'm assuming you'll be hearing a lot more as the day progresses. >> thank you for having me. yeah, right now, you have to think of this response kind of as a play in three acts. the first act is the southwest coast of florida where there's massive flooding, and we know there's going to be an immense, immense amount of need there. as the sun comes up today, as first responders get in and do their rescues. after that, the second act is what we're in right now, central florida and northeast florida. we're going to have massive

flooding. major impacts here as well to communities and families and individuals, and then the third act which has yet to be written, once hurricane ian goes off the coast and potentially makes a second landfall, there will be additional needs from communities that are going to be impacted in georgia, south carolina, and potentially north carolina. we're going to see a massive amount of folks and communities that need the red cross help for the coming weeks and months to be quite honest with you. >> how possible is it to have people on the ground to help or how exactly are you staging this? >> we did this in two ways, prior to the storm coming on, we predeployed hundreds of red cross volunteers that are in those preland fall evacuation centers nowment as the storm started to move, we started to bring in additional volunteers through miami, and as the storm clears and emergency officials tell us it's safe, we will begin to set up shelters near the most highly impacted areas so we can

provide comfort and care for those families who understand at this point in time they might not have a home to return to. >> vice president of disaster programs for the american red cross jennifer pipa, thank you very much. and up next on "morning joe," we will stay in florida for live reports on the damage caused by hurricane ian. what will daylight reveal, and what is next for the area still in the storm's path. "morning joe" is back in a moment. "morning joe" is back in a moment oh, davante adams! what's up, man? we need to talk about that lucky jersey. haven't washed it in years. multiple years? i don't see any stains. it's lucky. mmm, i don't see any luck. it's dirty. lucky. dirty. but we just scored a touchdown. crowd: yeah! not we. me. ohhh! touche. you need to deep clean that. you know what to do. good luck out there! bro, no. listen.

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when a truck hit my car, ♪the insurance companyed, wasn't fair. eight million ♪ i didid't t kn whahatmy c caswa, so i called the barnes firm. i'm rich barnes. it's hard for people to k how much their accident case is worth.h barnes. t ouour juryry aorneneys hehelpou it is the top of the hour. hurricane ian was downgraded to a tropical storm this morning, but the threat is far from over. especially in the state of florida. the storm is drenching parts of central florida right now after

making landfall as a powerful category 4 storm. leaving a path of destruction in the southwestern part of the state that first light today will be showing what exactly it is. there's major flooding. we do know about, and widespread damage reports across the southwestern parts of the state. officials in lee county say their community is devastated. and the storm is also impacting health care systems, taking a look at this hospital in port charlotte, completely flooded, leaving those in need with no place to go. with more than 2 million people and counting without power, and the national weather service saying life threatening storm service and flooding to portions of central florida and the coast of northeast florida, georgia, and south carolina and beyond. welcome back to "morning joe," it is thursday, september 29th. jonathan lemire is still with us

and joining the conversation, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. we want to get right to bradenton, florida, and msnbc's jose diaz-balart standing by. what do you have. >> reporter: things have changed so much in the last 24 hours. just about an hour or hour and a half ago, conditions here changed. it's no longer raining and that was just something that we witnessed just hour after hour, is horizontal rain pelted the area. winds have subsided, tropical storm heading toward the orlando area. the damage here in the bradenton, sarasota area was substantial. the manatee river at bradenton, the water level there normally 6 feet. we got to 17 feet. that's a major flood. some wind gusts up to 85 miles

an hour, we have reports from sarasota, bradenton, parts of the airport were heavily damaged, and parts of the roof of the airport were severely damaged. i've got to tell you, the fact that we have two and a half million people in the state of florida that are without power. the sunrise is about, i don't know, about 20 minutes from now, we'll of course be able to see how devastating this storm was. but, boy, it was a monster, mika. it was really really a phenomenon of rain and wind combined with such depth and such length, it just slammed into this part of florida and, you know, just waiting for sunrise and 20 minutes to be able to show you some of the pictures of how devastating this was. >> and that's the big question and what sunrise will be showing across the state of florida.

jose diaz-balart, thank you very much. we're going to be talking to the head of fema in just a few moments and we'll have lots of questions about, of course, the most important thing, the threats to human life, injuries, deaths and whether or not it might be some time before we know those answers. you know, we're looking forward at where this storm is going, but also looking back. hurricane ian is expected to exit florida later today. the big question will be what's next and other southern states, all the way up to virginia. could it regain strength, regain to hurricane strength. and we'll be talking to experts about that. also, what's in its wake, the flooding was massive. the winds were incredible. this was close to a cat 5. it was a strong category 4 when it made landfall in western florida. the flooding itself can be life threatening. especially for inland florida where the storm is right now. infrastructure will take a hit. it will be put to the test and

nothing can really compete with massive amounts of water, and that is what is expected. so florida is not out of the woods yet. on the coast, add the massive amounts of water, up to 12 feet in some areas, the storm surge and what's called a reverse storm surge and wind up to 155 miles per hour. all is expected to have caused serious damage, expensive damage to the coastline, to the beautiful coastline in western florida, and of course so much concern about loss of life for those who had to stay and try and ride this out. let's bring in meteorologist michelle grossman. michelle, what are you hearing about what has happened so far with this hurricane and where it's going? >> catastrophic damage, you fear what we're going to see and not see. some people will return to their

homes, it may be days or weeks. their house may not be there. or severely damaged. it's florida, september, humid, there's so much water out there, and we're going to take a look at that. this is a rescue out of naples, florida. it looks like it's out of a movie, we always say, turn around, don't drown, water is fast, it's furious, and it rises very very quickly. there's people who have to go out and rescue this person, and it puts them in a dangerous situation. look how high that water is. it only takes 6 inches to stall a car. it only takes a foot of rain to move a car. that is a dangerous situation. let's get you the latest on ian. this is not over. we're looking at heavy, heavy rainfall. we could see life threatening rainfall, heavy rainfall falling right now. the latest, winds at 65 miles per hour. i know it's a tropical storm, i know it weakened. there's a chance it's going to enter the atlantic later. we'll definitely enter the atlantic later this afternoon. it could strengthen before it

makes a third landfall. let's take a look at radar. we're looking at bands of heavy rain. i have been working since 9:00. watching these bands go on shore over and over and over again. this is why we're seeing the flooding. this is why we have flash flood emergencies out there. the winds are howling at 69 miles per hour. at least the sun is coming up. winds are howling overnight. 53 miles per hour wind gusts in orlando. daytona beach to jacksonville, orlando, where we're seeing the heavy rain, and we're going to continue to see the threat for heavy rain. tropical alerts, the hurricane warning was dropped. that was red from coast to coast, now just a tropical storm warning. still feeling tropical storm wind gusts, the ground is wet from so much rain. it's wet from september and wet from the storm, that's going to add to the power outages out there. and just adding kind of the trouble out there. so we're looking at winds gusting. we're looking at the rain coming on shore. that would be the story throughout the day. because of that we have a flood threat, a flood watch that is in

the green that includes portions of south carolina into georgia, portions of florida, and we do have a flood warning. that means flooding is happening right now. it's been happening for hours because i have been watching it and will continue to happen as we see the heavy rain bands coming on shore. orlando, titusville, we are looking at really dangerous conditions. as we go throughout the time here, we're looking at the chance for more extensive flooding. we saw hour after hour of flooded roadways. roadways turning into rivers. the sun is up, rain has stopped, power lines could be on the roads, roads could be flooded. take your time. listen to the warnings. get back when you are told you can do so. we can see localized up to 30 inches, 2 1/2 feet of rain. that's going cause problems. i'll finish up here. i want to show you quick. going to enter the atlantic, restrengthen as a hurricane, and enter south carolina.

we're going to see a third landfall, we're going to see heavy rain and also gusty winds back to you. >> so michelle, we are 11 minutes from sunrise in fort myers and other places where we'll finally get a look at what things look like on the ground, what kind of storm surge we saw, what's under ground, what's under water, all of that, what will you be looking for here in the next couple of hours, and where does the storm go from here, there's concern in south carolina now, in georgia about what the rest of the week may look like. >> willie, that is so true. we had, you know, the hurricane yesterday during daylight hours. a lot of destruction came overnight. the sun is rising. people are going to see their neighborhoods not looking like it did yesterday. we're going to see devastation, there was catastrophic storm surge, people are going back to their homes that do not look the same or maybe they're not there. we saw images of housing being watched into the waters from coastal communities. we're still going to see heavy

rain in orlando. water is the number one reason people die in hurricanes, whether it's the storm surge, salt water from the ocean, a wall or water or fresh water from the skies. you saw the heavy bands of rain, and secondly, we haven't started with georgia or south carolina. that will happen later on friday into saturday. flooding, very gusty winds, could see some power outages. south carolina has a lot of trees. the ground is going to be very wet. we're going to see power out annuals there. and the weekend in the northeast, we can't complain but we're going to see the rain in the northeast saturday into sunday. we could see flooding as well. it's not going to be the heavy rainfall we're seeing right now. >> michelle, i read yesterday that the water temperature in the gulf was 87 to 88 degrees. is that like kindling to this hurricane? >> yeah, by the way, it's my bath water temperature, i do like that with some bubbles. yeah, really really warm, and that really just adds fuel to the fire. we have that, what we thought

would happen originally earlier in the week, wind sheer cuts off storms, we thought there was dryer air. it wasn't quite as warm. it didn't make it quite as north. it's so so warm. the atlantic also is so so warm. so far north, you saw fiona and canada. we don't see them strengthen that far north. we have a marine layer. that's part of the climate connection. we're warming earlier, longer and, that's why we're seeing these really powerful storms. >> michelle, you know, 2 million plus people without power and state officials saying that that number should go up and it could be a while. also, how many -- is there any way you can give us a sense of how many areas, towns, cities, that are still somewhat underwater, like, for example, reports out of naples florida that hatch the streets are impassable. are there situations where it's worse, homes are under. >> fort myers, that was the hardest hit.

that is a terrible situation. sanibel island. bill karins sent me a picture where a bridge is washed away. we're seeing roads washed away, bridges washed away, and that's just on the west coast. what's happening as we go throughout the day, and what's getting started now is in central florida. we're looking at a band of heavy rain that keys going over the same areas. it's going to move over the atlantic, south carolina, georgia, not out of the woods, and certainly we'll see damage as we go throughout friday, saturday, and also sunday. >> meteorologist michelle grossman, we'll be talking to you again. thank you very much. michelle mentioned the record-breaking and life-threatening storm surge violently forcing the ocean inland. nbc news continue kerry sanders has more on that. >> reporter: this is what storm surge looks like, the bathtub warm waters of the gulf of mexico inundating the streets of

naples, pushing some cars out of their spaces, causing waves of water to rise over the roofs. so there's the wind speed as i'm standing next to a building, which is somewhat protecting me. i'll take a knee. whoops, if i can take a knee. there we go. meanwhile, here in punta gorda, the treats are cluttered with limbs and debris. this parking garage has become a refuge for residents. james brown with his dog oliver. >> we had 2 feet of water. >> reporter: if it was 16 or 17 foot? >> we're happy to be here. >> reporter: this is the charlotte harbor marina here. the wind has sucked all the water out. that's just the bottom of the seabed, and over there, that's heading south towards the hurricane. the counter clock wise motion pulling the water from the peace river in charlotte harbor away. experts say the warming waters

of the gulf may be attributed to climate change, 40 years ago, the average temperature was approximately three degrees cooler, that small increase makes a huge difference. the warm water fuels the monster storm. in just 24 hours, includesing wind speed by 35 miles per hour. a phenomenon known as rapid intensification. ian jumped from a category 3 to a strong 4. scientists say that will become more common as the earth's oceans continue to warm. with the second longest coastline in any state, the florida peninsula is vulnerable to storm surges. especially on the gulf coast where ian is slamming the coastline. the shallow seabed here, less than 100 feet deep, makes it easy for a storm with strong winds to push an enormous amount of water in the coast. rushing water destroys almost everything in its past. >> if you think about a wall of water 10 foot high being pushed

by 155 miles per hour winds, that's like repeated impacts by a large vehicle. an suv hitting a structure every five seconds. we are following what is historically one of the most powerful storms to ever be recorded in u.s. history. this is hurricane ian, now downgraded to a tropical storm and hovering over orlando, but still moving north and raising many questions as to what's to come and also what is in its wake. southwest florida is literally swamped right now. one coastal sheriff and this is probably repeated many times over reporting many people calling saying they're trapped in their homes. fort myers, sanibel island, areas around there, completely under water. a local tv station in fort myers had to literally long beach and find another place to broadcast because they were flooded out. in naples, a fire station was

completely flooded out. the water is causing widespread damage and of course concern about injuries and death. fema has prepositioned a lot of supplies. the u.s. coast guard is in place but the question for southwest florida this morning is as the sun comes up, how to assess where the damage is and where the greatest need is. our coverage continues on "morning joe" after a quick break. verage continues on "morning joe" after a quick break. it's the all-new subway series menu! 12 irresistible new subs... like #11 subway club. piled with turkey, ham and roast beef. this sub isn't slowing down time any time soon. i'll give it a run for its money. my money's on the sub. it's subway's biggest refresh yet.

our coverage of tropical storm ian continues, we have a live picture here out of jacksonville, florida, where you can see the winds are still high. the camera is shaking a bit. the storm, tropical storm level right now is over orlando. headed north throughout the end

of the day. but the biggest issue is what hurricane ian left in its wake. this is one of the most powerful hurricanes to be recorded in u.s. history. and it hit southwest florida at a very strong category 4 level. let's go straight to fema administrator, deanne criswell, thank you very much for being on. i would like to start with the most important thing here, which is human life, and we are hearing from the lead county sheriff in the fort myers, florida, area saying just moments ago that casualties could be in the hundreds. can you tell us anything more about that? what do you know? >> yeah, good morning, mika, what i know right now is lee county was basically ground zero for the impacts that were seen from hurricane ian. and we know that we are going to have catastrophic impacts to that area. my heart goes out right now to

everybody in lee county as well as people that are in the storm's path. we have a few reports of some fatalities. we know from the sheriff and other reports that they expect the number to go up. we have had search and rescue teams out since 4:00 this morning going through the county now trying to determine where people are, who needs to be rescued so we can save the most lives that we can. >> administrator criswell, thank you for being with us this morning. can you tell us what happens now, the sun is officially up as of one minute ago, what is your next move, how quickly will you be out assessing the damage. >> our crews were working through the night as individuals were calling 911 to report that they were being trapped or that they needed help being rescued. our teams worked with the state and local officials to assess and prioritize where the highest area of need was and so the search and rescue teams that went out at 4:00 this morning, they're going to where the local officials had said their

greatest need was. i would say that what we did is flew some flights together, imagery before the storm. as soon as it's safe for them to fly. they're going to gather post storm imagery, so we can define where the greatest impacts are, and get boots on the ground in the areas of greatest need. our priority is life safety. we want to make sure we have crews to support people that need help being rescued. we're going to continue throughout the day, all the while preparing for what may happen on the eastern coast of florida today. >> ms. criswell in lee county, and collier county, florida, fort myers, naples area, the sun is about to come up. could you please for those who still have power who might be watching or listening, could you talk about the dangers of the day after. there are a lot of wires down, i assume, places like that. people are going to want to

venture out of where they are, escape from where they are. could you please talk about dangers of the morning after. >> it's important for people to stay vigilant and listen to their local officials. we talk a lot about the dangers of water and storm surge and the intense rainfall that we were going to see, but this water is equally if not more dangerous after the storm. there is debris in the water. there's hazardous chemicals that may have been dumped into this water. there's potential of downed power lines and even if their not down know, we don't know if they're stable or might energize the water. people need to be extremely careful. i would say there's no water that's safe to wade through right now. there's still a lot of violent movement in the water as well as the debris, and so people just need to take extreme caution as they are venturing outside of their home today. >> ms. criswell, i'm curious

about you say that lee county is ground zero for this hurricane. how wide an area is that? how populated is it? and i know we only have you for a short amount of time. what can you tell us about how hospitals are holding up in the area? >> yeah, we know that there's a few hospitals. there's nine hospitals that we are focused on right now in lee county. the reports that i have this morning is that lee county's water has been disrupted and so we're focused on a couple of things. we're supporting the state in assessing what the extent of that damage is, how quickly it can be repaired and whether we're going to have to do additional evacuations if we can't get it repaired quickly enough. so it's a focus area, but that's just one spot, right. we know that there were impacts along the western coast, and so i don't want to make it sound like we're just focused there. we know there's impacts across the western coast, and we're focused on all of the areas that were in the path of the storm. >> okay. and you said there's a hospital that may need to be evacuated or

what was that specifically? >> we know there's nine hospitals in lee county that the state is looking at right now to determine whether or not we're going to be able to get ot water restored to them, or whether or not they're going to have to be evacuated. >> they have no water. >> correct. >> okay. and what are you hearing about casualties in other areas in southwest florida at this point? >> i think what we're hearing through the night, not a lot yet, but i think as soon as daylight comes and the first responders continue to get out there, we're going to continue to get more information. these numbers are going to be very dynamic throughout the day today. >> all right. fema administrator deanne criswell, thank you very much for the update. i'm sure we'll be talking to you again. a lot coming out of that interview as we're trying to get the information as the sun comes up over southwest florida which just endured an epic hurricane. now we're hearing nine hospitals have no water, and they are

concerned about these hospitals and concerned about the potential for the need to evacuate patients if they can get water restore. that's just one snapshot of what the hurricane has left in its wake in one county. lee county, florida, which is taking a big hit from this, many areas in the county under water and a local sheriff saying casualties could be high. we're going to have much more on hurricane ian, including a look at why the cost of the damage could be astronomical. up next, we're going to move to politics real quick, new data revealing how self-distrust and resentment have become the norm among republican voters. that's straight ahead when "morning joe" returns. ers. that's straight eaahd when "morning joe" returns. subway's drafting 12 new subs for the all-new subway series menu the new monster has juicy steak and crispy bacon. but what about the new boss? it looks so good it makes me hangry! settle down there, big guy the new subway series. what's your pick?

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the state of florida. it is downgraded to a tropical storm and hovering over orlando, headed up, as you see daytona beach, jacksonville, and of course it will leave the state later this evening, and then there will be questions for what happens next as it goes up the coast and approaches other states. does it regain strength. there are fema and u.s. coast guard officials getting ready in the northern states above florida as this storm goes on: the big question this morning and the answers are terribly disturbing in terms of what has happened in areas of lee county, florida, which some reports from local officials is that county has been decimated. parts of it completely decimated, completely impassable. they put a curfew in effect because of widespread looting.

one of the ground zero areas of this storm. the sheriff reporting there could be mass casualties in lee county. we're talking about fort myers, naples where streets are impassable and fire stations have been literally flooded out. sanibel island under water. 2.5 million people without power, and no word on when it's coming back. we also heard that nine hospitals in the lee county area have no water. do not have the basic of water. that fema is looking at whether or not to evacuate patients from one or some of those hospitals, so that is a potentially escalating situation in lee county, florida. the head of fema also says that this county is not the only county that has been devastated by hurricane ian. she expects casualties and

widespread destruction across southwest florida. many areas are impassable. so even as the sun comes up, the roads are impassable, there's no power, and the coming hours will show just how difficult the desperation is for those who decided to stay. the destruction will be astronomical in its cost and its impact on the lives of people in southwest florida. so we will be continuing to cover this and getting reports from different areas outside of southwest florida as we slowly assess what has happened from hurricane ian. as the sun comes up, we have fema teams, the american red cross, the coast guard all stand big to help, but the question is how quickly they can get to areas that have been damaged by high winds up to 12 feet of water. infrastructure severely impacted

so many different areas and different types of danger that rescue workers will be approaching as they get into these areas to try and help people who rode out the storm and the question for the weeks to come, how to put everything back together, how to get power back, how to assess the damage from this epic hurricane. let's do a quick dose of politics right now, and we'll get back to the storm coverage, but we do have the midterms rapidly approaching, and studies are showing voter distrust of the opposing party is near or at its highest point in years, but how do voters feel about their own parties. for democrats, that answer has been consistently positive over the past few years. for republicans, however, things have been a little more complicated. here now with his take on why that may be. data analyst for the "washington post" david byler. his latest piece examines the gop's hidden disadvantage, an

unhappiness with self. so is this self hatred, david, in your new piece. the gop's run of restlessness began almost ten years ago. at that time, barack obama was president. democrats had passed the affordable care act, expanded regulation of the financial industry, and spoke often about their supposedly permanent electoral majority. democrats were happy with their party, and they didn't rock the boat much, but republicans felt differently. the gop's antiestablishment populist wing blamed its own leaders for the disappointments of the obama era. the critique from this part of the party was simple, the republican ruling class compromised too much, lost elections too often and was insufficiently conservative so grass roots republicans started voting against their own leaders. the early victories shocked the gop establishment. the result, self destruct and

resentment became features rather than bugs in gop politics. so where does it stand now, david, over that ten-year course? >> right. so the republicans right now really really like donald trump but they still don't trust the rest of their leadership. like you saw with the two lines you showed on the screen, the republican line is all squiggly at the first defeat, the first sign of danger, republicans are ready to vote against their leaders, register an unfavorable view of their party, and oftentimes they end up backing candidates who are extreme and experienced and this comes back to bite them in the general election and this is exactly what we're seeing in the key 2022 races and republicans have the backing of the populist insurgent wing and are not polling well in the general election. >> how much of this is about donald trump and when you have

the base of the republican party watching its leadership, mitch mcconnell and others not supporting donald trump, not going along completely or far enough with the big lie about the 2020 presidential election. does this pre-date donald trump or is this about him? >> it's a both and situation. trump is a cause and an actor. trump has pushed a lot of the republicans' most problematic and least effective candidates in the cycle. he had no electoral experience, and the same sort of tea party wing that nominated some, you know, not so great candidates in 2010 and 2012 backed him too so he is sort of one of the original candidates from this sort of sector of the party, and he sort of gave them strength through this presidency. >> so david, what can we glean from this now just six weeks until the midterms.

midterms in particular are often disguised as base selections they don't draw the casual voter who comes out for a presidential election. if republicans are unhappy with their party, perhaps unhappy with their party's candidates, might that lead to more than staying home this november? >> that's certainly a danger for the republicans. it's interesting because this looks like among midterm elections it might be a little bit higher turn out. midterm elections to presidential elections, fewer people turn out. what you have seen is democratic turnout shooting through the roof. a lot of people are upset about roe v. wade being overturned. they feel very strongly about the dobbs decision and so democratic turnout is really really high. republican turnout, not so much. without trump on the ballot, they feel like they have less to vote for, and in some of these key races in pennsylvania, in arizona, in georgia, in new hampshire. you have republican candidates who are really punching below their weight, and i think aren't

quite driving voters yet in the way they would want to if they want to win. >> so, david, i have a rather simple but pejorative question for you, could we boil this piece down to the following, if you could answer it. what percentage of republicans are we talking about? is their complaint that the party around them is just not crazy enough? >> i wouldn't exactly frame it that way. what i would say is that at this point basically any republican voter feels the right to register some complaint with the party. you notice that sort of wiggly trend line, if you break it down by non-college educated versus white collar republicans, you know, when something goes wrong, anyone feels willing to sort of head for the hills, and you know, be upset at their own party. so i would say that it's hard to pin down an exact number, but

this is real and the fact that donald trump won the 2016 primary and is massively popular and is from this insurgent wing says a lot. >> "the washington post," david blyer, a fascinating look at trends in politics right now. mika, turning back to the storm, president biden has declared a major disaster declaration for lee and sarasota counties all fall under that emergency. major disaster declaration, as we're getting reports we're working to confirm from the sheriff in lee county of many many casualties there. but again, we're still working to confirm that information. >> that's what we're going to hear in the next few hours as the sun comes up. it's going to be very difficult to assess such a wide swath of damage, so much water. maximum sustained winds of over 150 miles per hour. to get a sense of the power of in monster storm, this category

4 hurricane was 7 miles per hour shy of being a cat 5. the destruction is going to be astronomical, and there is massive worry this morning about loss of life, and injuries and also the ability to get to people in need. up next, as willie mentioned, moments ago, president biden signed off on that disaster declaration for florida. our next guest says that damage estimates could be close to $70 billion. we'll be right back with continuing coverage. ntinuing co. the tenth pick is in the new all-american club. that's a “club” i want to join! let's hear from simone. chuck, that's a club i want to join!

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it is 7:45 in the morning in florida right now, and we promise as the sun comes up we would get a better assessment o. of the damage, and you're getting some of it, the sanibel causeway, leading into cativa, the only way to get out there and a 50 to 60 foot section, there's no way back to the mainland right now, at least by road. mike barnicle, you've spent time out there. obviously a beautiful part of our country, but my gosh, as the sun is up now, we're seeing just how serious the damage is. >> sanibel captiva island, one island, a spectacular place, as is much of southwest florida, much of florida, actually, beautiful. home to many snow birds from the north who go down there for the winter, spring training sites around fort myers. that's going to be some trouble to reconfigure that road.

>> a reporter for the "tampa bay times" made his way out there. as you pass through the tool bother, you step just beyond it and the road disappears, one of the first big sections of the span is just gone. so no way in or out this morning, and you can expect to see more damage like that as we move our cameras around southwest florida. we'll bring that to you shortly. >> that's a fairly new bridge, too, it was rebuilt in the past decade. >> the rest of the bridge, as you can see, is still there, but you can't get to it because of the missing section. look like people are out walking around assessing the damage themselves. we'll stay on that. get more information there. our guest now says damage could be close to $70 billion. chuck watson, the founder and director of research and development at endkey research. thank you for being with us. what are you seeing that leads

you to believe $70 billion worth of damage is what we could be looking at. >> if you look at that part of the florida coastline, it's a lot of very expensive property, expensive structures, buildings, right on the coastline. the bridge you were talking about, that's tens of millions of dollars to repair or possibly replace if the bridge nuts are scoured out underneath. those kinds of things add up quickly, and when you add it all together, the other factor, too, is this storm kept its intensity inland. so you've got damage all across central florida. there's, of course, we have to focus now on the humanitarian aspect of it, but the economic aspect is this comes to as we start to get the days, and it will take days, even weeks to get a better picture on the ground of what's going on here. it's easily pushing $70 billion. >> put that into context, if you don't mind, a massive number,

what are some of the other numbers we've seen from previous storms. >> if you look at florida, for instance, the storm people compare this to is hurricane charlie from 2004. and charlie in today's dollars, if it hit today, would have probably caused about 25 or 26 billion in damage. you think of hurricane andrew. that would have been about $60 billion in damage. there was a big storm that hit miami in 1926. if it hit today, that would be about a hundred billion. so there's been explosive growth in florida over the last few decades. of course this storm tracked right across the tourist areas, you think of orlando and of course tampa is on the fringes of this, and you know, the important thing to remember with wind speeds is that 125 miles per hour winds causes twice as much damage as 100 mile per hour winds because of the physics of wind damage.

when you start to talk about numbers of 150, 160 mile per hour winds, you're talking about completely destroying structures. a picture of a condominium, the concrete structure may be there, but with the windows blown tun anything on the interior would have been blown out the other side. water infiltration. sometimes even though the structure is still standing, it has to be rebuilt. >> chuck, let's talk about another aspect of the economic toll of this storm. we heard from president biden earlier warning oil and gas companies to not gouge customers in the region there. we know there's the possibility fuel prices could go up. food already high in the era of inflation. what impact could we see on consumer goods and food in the wake of the storm? >> one -- if you want to look for the bright side of this, at least it avoided the oil and gas

fields in the gulf of mexico. some of them had to shut down temporarily. there should not be nationwide issues. the problem is getting that fuel into the disaster areas with obviously roads down, with the transportation infrastructure damaged. that's going to be a big issue. getting supplies into the disaster area, you can see the pictures of the trees down and roads undermined. it will be moving across central florida and the disaster area, it will be extremely difficult. when you look at the bigger picture, citrus -- something like two-thirds of the orange groves in florida probably saw tropical storm-force winds and half of them may have experienced hurricane-force winds. this is the worst possible time because the fruits are still on the trees. harvest is a week, two weeks away. the crop's lost and the trees may be damaged.

from an agricultural standpoint, the effects will ripple throughout our economy. costs in florida because of transportation, infrastructure, that ripples not just out of florida but the entire country. >> you were talking about the explosive population growth on the west coast of florida, from sarasota down through marco island over the last 15, 20 years. it's been enormous, thus a lot of people who moved down there, built homes, many of them without cellars, single-floor, first floor homes. what impact does that have on the damage assessment we'll be making, the state will be making over the next few months and perhaps years? >> that's a great question and that gets to regulatory costs and recovery. you tend to think my house gets knocked down, i'll just rebuild it the way it was. it doesn't usually work that way, especially if you're in the

coastal zone. if you have a structure built 20 years ago or more recently because of the increase in flood zone regulations in the sense of having to build higher, and now we're incorporating climate change numbers into building higher, so what tends to happen, you think, my house, i'll just rebuild it the way it was. you can't. you have to build it higher so there's more room for the water to get underneath, if you can even rebuild in that area at all. you look at something that may have cost $300,000 to buy or build, it may cost you 500,000 just to put it back the way it was because you have to elevate the structure. those kinds of expenses mean even if you just tallied up the value of the properties, you wouldn't get the right number because we have to rebuild

better because hopefully -- this will happen again. we want to make sure the impacts are not so bad. that's something we have not been very good about doing because we do tend to just rebuild things and not take into account all of these structural changes and, again, looking down the road 20 years from now, hurricane frequencies, looking at water levels with sea level rise, we'll have to take these into account. even though climate change may not be a factor in this particular storm, we have to plan for that down the road. >> chuck, to that point, as someone who assesses damage from hurricanes and other catastrophic events like this, down to the dollar, what more can be done and should be done going forward now as we just know, based on science, that these storms will be more frequent, perhaps more ferocious, last longer. this one will take a turn up and hit the atlantic and go closer to where you are up in south

carolina and in georgia. what are your thoughts and recommendations about what needs to change to prevent these massive, massive figures we see after the storms? >> one thing, we need to reconsider whether we want to be building these huge communities right on the coast. from mitigation standpoint, maybe we need to back off and build things out there that we don't mind if we lose it. that's a hard thing to say, but that may be what we're looking at. >> chuck watson, thank you very much. of course, we'll be throughout the day and the days to come assessing the astronomical damage from this historic hurricane. but right now, we're looking at two things, and that's where it's going, it's right now over central florida, it's headed north, but, for example, the governor of virginia has already declared a state of emergency in advance of this storm. that gives you a sense that this is not over. but the big story at this moment is what this hurricane, when it

was hurricane strength, left in its wake as it pounded southwest florida with sustained winds of over 150 miles per hour when it made landfall. we're getting reports of areas decimated. we're getting reports of casualties, one local sheriff saying there could be mass casualties. that's where we'll go next as we take a look at what hurricane ian left in his wake. we'll be right back.

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our continuing coverage, a live look at cape canaveral, florida as we're covering what was left in the wake of hurricane ian, now downgraded to a tropical storm, but still continuing to pound the state of florida. welcome back to "morning joe." it is thursday, september 29th. jonathan lemire and mike barnicle are still with us. president biden has declared florida a major disaster area. daylight revealing utter devastation and decimation in the wake of hurricane ian, which

made landfall on the southwest coast of florida as a powerful category 4 storm. so powerful it was seven miles per hour shy of a cat 5 when it made landfall. we have pictures coming in of damage to the sanibel causeway in lee county which bared a major brunt of the hurricane. more than 50-foot section of the bridge has fallen into the gulf of mexico. the bridge is the only way for vehicles to enter or exit that island. >> those pictures this morning with the sun up, you can see the devastation. there's sure to be more of that as we look across southwest florida. roads and bridges also washed away in fort myers. people trapped inside their homes by raging floodwaters. the sheriff of lee county reportedly saying this morning the number of fatalities there could be in the hundreds. we're working to confirm that. the administrator of fema telling us the last hour, water

has been disrupted at nine hospitals in lee county and those could have to be evacuated if repairs cannot be made quickly. 2.5 million people are without power in the state of florida. cell phone service is weak as well. >> they say texting might go through and calls are just not even a question. also to the nine hospitals you mentioned without water, there's a hospital in port charlotte, florida, where the roof was ripped off the icu and the er was flooded. severely ill patients had to be evacuated. some on ventilators. the storm has now been downgraded to a tropical storm, but the danger is not over. central florida is being drenched and there are concerns that the storm could gain strength after moving over the atlantic with south carolina possibly in store for a second u.s. landfall of this hurricane. sam brock has more on some of

yesterday's dramatic scenes caught on camera. >> reporter: it's devastation predicted, but the grim reality defies the imagination. ian shredded homes apart in placida, florida, tearing off roofs and splintering trees. in the tampa area, extreme winds causing this tree to crash through a home. in one of the hardest hit areas, fort myers, there were storm surges nearly seven feet high. nearly double the previous record more than 20 years ago. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: the massive surge of water leaving entire communities under water. roads looking more like the ocean for block after block. ian packed catastrophic 150-mile-per-hour winds, knocking out power to more than 2 million customers. >> we have seen life-threatening storm surge as was predicted.

we've seen major flooding that will rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. >> reporter: this team of emergency responders unable to respond. a massive wall of water swamping their fire truck. >> now we have a truck yir and the guys are pushing the truck out of the bay. >> reporter: in port charlotte, hospital staff working through the storm to protect patients. other first responders struggling to help those in need. unable to start rescues until after life-threatening conditions subsided. despite warnings to leave, some people did not or could not. they found themselves stranded by a 12-foot storm surge. this couple grabbed their air mattresses and hunkered down in this office. >> here you are with air mattresses in an office space. your home is 50 or 100 miles away, but you consider yourself lucky. >> yeah.

we are. >> is that because you're safe from the storm? >> yes. yes. because somebody helped us. >> reporter: others stayed behind trying to help those unable to leave. >> i wanted to help the people in here, they're good people. >> reporter: this morning, the destruction left behind by this massive blow from mother nature is just starting to come into focus. >> that was sam brock reporting for us. doctors, nurses, first responders doing incredible work to protect human life in the wake of this historic storm. i mentioned the lee county sheriff said elsewhere on a different outlet that there were perhaps hundreds of fatalities in lee county. we want to point to he is just scratching the surface, he doesn't know the numbers, but they're concerned about the number of people unaccounted for or still in harm's way. we'll talk to that sheriff in the next hour on "morning joe." let's turn to meteorologist michelle grossman. what does it look like this

morning? >> you know, we hate to hear that. our fears that we were thinking of yesterday with the hurricane hitting, it was dark, what we would see when the sun rose, and we're hearing stories like that. we're seeing images like this, roads are tore up. water is powerful. it's fast, furious, it's hard to outrun, it can break up roadways and bridges. these are one of many scenes we'll be seeing as we head throughout thursday. it will take days, weeks if not months to uncover what damage has happened. catastrophic damage. we had winds of 155 miles per hour. it strengthened at the worst time. it was a large storm. and we saw storm surge that caused a lot of damage. also moving really, really slow. you want a hurricane to move fast, in and out, but it was moving at 7 miles per hour allowing a lot of water to drop. let's look at the latest. we saw winds gusting well over 100 miles per hour. that alone can cause a lot of damage. 140-mile-per-hour wind gusts in

cape coral. naples seeing 112. grove city, 110 miles per hour. that was one piece of the puzzle. then we saw a lot of rain. we're continuing to see a lot of rain. that story is not over. rainfall totals over 17 inches in punta gorda. we saw over 12 inches in lehigh acres. we saw 20 inches in some spots. we could see isolated amounts of 30 inches of rain. that's 2 1/2 feet of rain. that is going to cause much damage on its own. this is what radar looks like now. still really active. you can see where the swirl is here. all that water on land. heavy bands of rain. we've been watching this for hours, at least since overnight. i've been on air since 2:00 in the morning. i've been watching this same image, that's why we're seeing this life-threatening flash flooding. if you see water, don't drive through it. you don't know how high it is. we're seeing that lightning.

that's just an indication of the energy this system has. the heavier rain bands, reds, yellows, oranges, that's the heaviest rain falling. it's a tropical storm. it stayed at hurricane strength for 13 hours, about 15 hours, now a storm tropical storm. it doesn't matter. winds are part of the puzzle, but the bigger piece is the rainfall today. it's moving slow at 8 miles per hour. this is what we're looking at in terms of tropical alerts. we have them from central florida, georgia, south carolina. these are going to expand as we go throughout time here. we will see this head into the atlantic to make a turn towards south carolina, make a third landfall friday. we'll see the threat for flash flooding continuing there over the weekend. >> meteorologist michelle grossman, we'll be back to you shortly. thank you very much. joining us now, the sheriff of charlotte county, florida, bill president trump.

we heard punta gorda, 17 inches of rain. port charlotte, other places in your county got similar rain totals. what can you tell us about damage, fatalities, injuries in your county? >> we're in the early stages right now. we've only had daylight for about an hour and a half now. we're just starting to get out there. we're finding a lot of the roads are impassable. we have a lot of power lines down. a lot of flooding going on. i don't want to speculate on fatalities, but we've had some reports called in to us in relation to some potential bodies being found. we're trying to make our way to those areas. we have aircraft in the area now to do an overall assessment of the county. >> sheriff, this storm did take a turn in your direction. the initial projections were for the tampa/st. pete area, it moved south right towards you. do you believe most of your residents followed ordered to evacuate or are you concerned a

lot of people were still there? >> i'm very concerned that a lot of our residents did stay. a lot of people get complacent because we get hurricane notices all the time and it always passes by and misses us. the last time we had a hurricane was charley in 2004, which i was here for that one, too. people get complacent and they end up staying. we have reports that people stayed out on the barrier islands, and we're trying to get out to that. >> can you give us an update in the hospitals in your county? whether they have power or are able to operate and how many people might be there seeking assistance? just what is the expectation as to when power might be back on for most of where you are? >> that's an unknown right now. we have one hospital that's online, but they are at capacity. they took on patients from other hospitals. the other three hospitals in the

area are all down right now. we will be setting up triage units, so as we pull people from the rubble, we can get them triaged and sent to the nearest medical facility. >> sheriff, are the islands reachable out there? and the amount of elderly in your county that you have to be worried about, do you have any sense of that? >> with regard to the islands, three islands are only accessible by boat. we have boca grande, that does have a bridge. from what we're told, that bridge is intact. with regards to the elderly population, that's always a concern for us. we have been working with the department of health to try to get as many of those people as we could evacuated prior to the storm. there's no telling how many did

stay back. >> the sheriff of charlotte county, florida, bill prummell, thank you very much for being on with us. we wish your county and the rest of the state of florida the best this morning. joining us, the mayor of tampa, florida, jane castor. what do you know about death, destruction, and injuries in your jurisdiction or beyond? >> we don't have any reports of any deaths. we thought we would be in the direct path of hurricane ian when it took the easterly turn down south. so, we have trees down, probably around 100 trees down throughout our community. thousands without power but nothing compared to what our neighbors in south florida endured and we're rallying our troops to be able to send them

down. our urban search and rescue, all of the resources that we can send down to help our neighbors to the south. >> that's what i was wondering, beyond your jurisdiction, you say you're sending your urban search and rescue to other jurisdictions. what are they? what are the reports you're hearing? what are they responding to? >> they're responding down there to assist in any way they can. usually we send our police department down to direct traffic, take care of those issues. get people back into their neighborhoods. anything that our neighbors need, we're going to send down that assistance. of course, we have search and rescue dogs, tampa fire rescue group will be sending down their teams. whatever we can do to help them out. we have damage here in our community, but it's really nothing compared to what they have endured in southern florida. >> mayor, good morning. thank you for taking some time

with us. there was a phenomenon yesterday in tampa bay that i think caught peoples eyes, where the water effectively was sucked out of tampa bay by this storm. can you explain that and what impacts may have happened because of this? >> that's the second time this happened in tampa bay. i was with the tampa police department for over 30 years. i've been through a lot of these hurricanes. actually because of the storm down in the south, ian, and the way that it rotated, it pulled the water out of tampa bay and out of the hillsborough river. clearly that came back, came back with storm surges, and a great deal of rain. but we did not see the widespread flooding that we thought that we were going to see. from 10 to 15-foot tidal surges, i said i never thought i would be thankful for a forecast of

widespread flooding and tropical storm grade winds. but we certainly were spared the fury of hurricane ian. >> mayor castor, you heard from president biden earlier this week. thankfully your city was spared a direct hit from the storm. but what was the indication from the president in terms of how the federal government would help not just your community but the rest of the state as now other parts of the state really are devastated and it looks to dig out and rebuild? >> yes. the president personally reached out to a number of mayors with the fema director in his office to let us know that they are prepared, they're staging resources. it's not like they are getting ready to come. they're here. we have incredible storm response plans, preparation and response. he wanted to assure us they were staged and ready to come in and do whatever is necessary.

>> all right. mayor jane castor, thank you very much for joining us this morning. i know you've been working night and day on this and this storm continues. there is a lot still to cover here. we have learned some as the sun has come up over the state of florida this morning. and it is not good. the tropical storm continues to pound the state. it is now a tropical storm, hovering over central florida, but literally swamping that part of the state. one of the strongest storms in u.s. history, this hurricane, when it made landfall in southwest florida, was 7 miles per hour shy of a cat 5 when it made landfall. some of the heaviest hit areas, fort myers and the outlying islands of fort myers, there were curfews in place, there was looting, many reports of people on roofs, and no way to get to people in need at the height of the hurricane. the situation in lee county,

florida, which has a lot of these cities and towns in it, is described as dire. we're looking at fort myers, naples, bonita springs, marco aisles, venice, punta gorda, port charlotte where a hospital sustained heavy damage. the er was flooded, a roof was ripped off of part of the icu. and severely ill patients on ventilators had to be evacuated. we're also looking at sarasota, florida. the hurricane made landfall overnight as a monster category 4. almost a cat 5. there are reports of people trapped in their homes. no word on how many people. some areas got up to 12 feet of water. 12 feet. so, the reports of people in their homes and on their roofs makes sense given that amount of water. that will put cities and towns and some roads and some areas, entire homes under water. this hurricane has completely

flooded and decimated communities. i'm reading reports across southwest florida and the word dire, the word decimated keeps coming up as a description of what's been left in this hurricane's path. along with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, the storm surge, the reverse storm surge, the damage is expected to be and is already showing to be astronomical. airports were shut down. there wasn't a lot of traffic in and out during this hurricane as there was an evacuation order of up to 3 million people. 2.5 million people are without power. that number is expected to go up. lee county, nine hospitals in lee county, nine hospitals do not have water. fema is trying to decide whether or not to make evacuations there or what to do. that along with damage and flooding in these hospitals. these hospital workers, doctors, nurses, will be doing their best

to preserve life under dire circumstances. let's wrap up this block with kerry sanders and his new reporting on this historic disaster. >> reporter: slamming into florida overnight, hurricane ian left communities like sanibel island under water, damaged and in the dark. florida's coastline bearing the brunt of the storm. the wind so dangerous in punta gorda, i had to grab this street sign to stay on my feet. cape coral also severely impacted by ian. making it difficult for emergency crews who did not evacuate. >> the minute the winds subside below 45 miles per hour, our crews will be responding out there, clearing the roads to make sure our first responders can get to those individuals that are trapped in their homes and in their vehicles. >> reporter: through all of the

uncertainty, neighbors, friends, even complete strangers do whatever they can to help. rescues onshore and on land. some even crossing state lines to pitch in. >> we had all these power workers, these line workers from all these different states. i saw them from texas, louisiana. >> reporter: new york's national guard sending two heavy left helicopters and a contingent of soldiers to assist with rescuests. the coast guard assembling a small armada of ships for off-shore rescue missions. in hard-hit naples, firefighters helping a woman escape floodwaters. but the fire department thanking local jet skiers for helping out, writing sometimes we need a ride to the rescue ourselves. in bonita beach, one good samaritan braving the elements to save a cat trapped outside on an air conditioner. in st. petersburg, staff at a botanical gardens hunkering down

with flamingos to see them through the storm. >> that was kerry sanders reporting. still ahead on "morning joe," we're going to be taking live pictures of where this storm is now and talking to state officials and any minute now florida governor ron desantis will provide an update on the recovery efforts as well. later, the threat is not over yet. this is not over. even though ian is now a tropical storm, it continues to make its way towards georgia, south carolina and even in virginia, the governor there declared a state of emergency in advance of the storm. the deputy director of noaa will be here with what we can expect. you're watching "morning joe." the new subway series menu. the greatest sandwich roster ever assembled. for more on the new boss, here's patrick mahomes. incredible - meatballs, fresh mozzarella and pepperon-

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president biden will visit fema headquarters in washington

today. he'll receive a briefing on the storm's impact along with the ongoing federal response efforts. president biden made separate calls to the mayors of fort myers, cape coral, sar toyota and the chair of charlotte county to let them know they have the full force of the federal government behind them. during an event yesterday, president biden warned of the storm's danger and warned oil and gasoline companies against trying to take advantage of the situation. >> this storm is incredibly dangerous, to state the obvious. it's life threatening. you should obey warnings and directions from emergency officials. don't take anything for granted. use their judgment, not yours. evacuate when ordered. be prepared. storm warnings are real. the evacuation notices are real. the danger is real, and when the

storm passes the federal government is going to be there to help you recover. and forgive me, i want to add one more warning, that's warning to the oil and gas industry executives, do not use as this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the american people. >> joining us now is the mayor of st. petersburg, florida, mayor ken welch. first of all, tell us how your city is doing, how high were the winds, how much water did you get, fatalities, injuries, what do you know? >> good morning, mika. we were spared in pinellas county. as you know a couple of days ago we were the target of this hurricane, and we were expecting a storm surge from 10 to 15 feet, and 10 to 15 inches of rain which would have been overwhelming. i think what this storm showed us again is that these storms are very powerful, but actually

the track was actually accurate. if you looked at the entire potential track and not just the single point of the forecast, and these storms are known to take a turn as charley did back in 2004. that's exactly what happened here. we were spared. we have about 190,000 power outages and our focus at 7:20, at sunrise is to get our teams out for a first push to clear our roadways and allow duke energy to come in and start restoring power. certainly, our neighbors in lee county and charlotte, they bore the brunt of this storm. >> yeah. what are you hearing in terms of how bad that was, the brunt of this storm, and in terms of your conversation with president biden, water damage, getting the power back on line, do you have what you need. >> we were very assured to hear from the president back on tuesday, along with fema secretary criswell, and they

reassured us that they had the assets on stand by, and basically anything we needed they were there to support us. and the good thing, mika, and i watch the show every day. we saw something that we should see every day, we saw both sides of the aisle, governor desantis that's the way we should work all the time in our government, and it was good to see that happen this time. but, you know, we were -- the other big thing is that the infrastructure bill has dollars in it that we need to shore up our infrastructure. no water system in the state of florida could withstand 10 feet of storm surge. and we would have had to shut down some of our systems if that storm had hit us directly. so, this really shows us what we need to do to be resilient moving forward with the strength of these storms. >> mayor welch, good morning.

amen to your comments about bipartisanship there. it's nice to see once in a while, and i'm glad to hear you were spared the worst of the storm, that your city was. hopefully there's no major damage or fatalities there. to your larger point at the end, as the mayor of a city, a coastal city like st. petersburg in florida who knows there are going to be bigger and more ferocious storms coming in the years and decades ahead, what kind of long-term thinking, what kind of preparation do you have to undertake as the mayor? >> we've got the research and the data, willie, and now it's time to put that into action. st. pete has an integrated sustainability action plan that shows the investments we need to make to be resilient, and also it needs to impact our planning, where we build, how we build going forward. climate change is a reality, and st. petersburg and pinellas county is a peninsula within a peninsula. it's one of the most vulnerable areas in the nation for sea level rise. we've got to put that information into our planning, into our capital spending going

forward, or we will just set ourselves up for failure going forward as we face these kind of storms. >> and, mr. mayor, good morning, i just want to -- you touched on climate change there. i was hoping you could detail how you've seen things change in your city over the decades. are the storms getting worse, are the seas rising higher. tell us the impact of climate change and how concerned you are for the future. >> we're seeing flooding just from a normal thunderstorm in parts of the city and county that we've never seen before. and so that blue-sky event is becoming the norm in our city and all across the state of florida on the east coast. miami has had that salt water intrusion happening for some time now. our climate is changing. i think we've gotten past the argument of whether that's happening or not, and now we need to apply those smart planning concepts going forward

and not set ourselves up from continued impacts from saltwater intrusion, from storms of this type that bring record levels of water inland. and our systems are old infrastructure systems that have not been kept up, now is the time to make that investment going forward. we've seen the impact of climate change in florida and throughout the nation. >> the mayor of st. petersburg, florida, ken welch, thank you very much for being on this morning. fire and rescue teams in florida have been working to save people stranded by floodwaters from hurricane ian. we'll look at lee county where the storm made landfall yesterday. "morning joe" is coming right back. it's the all-new subway series menu! 12 irresistible new subs... like #4 supreme meats. smoky capicola, genoa salami and pepperoni! it's the dream team of meats. i've still got my uniform. it's subway's biggest refresh yet.

kevin: i've fought wildfires for twenty years. i've still got my uniform. here's the reality we face every day. this is a crisis. we need more firefighters, more equipment, better forest management to prevent wildfires and reduce toxic smoke. and we need to reduce the tailpipe emissions that are driving changes to our climate. that's why cal fire firefighters, the american lung association, and the california democratic party support prop 30. prevent fires. cut emissions. and cleaner air. yes on 30. we'll get back to our storm coverage in a moment. first a bit of politics for you. with the midterms less than six weeks away, mitch mcconnell appears to have a greater degree

of optimism about his party's chances in november. take a look. >> do you still stand by your comments about candidate quality or has your opinion change? >> it's great to have terrific candidates. we're in a bunch of close races. we have a 50/50 shot of getting the senate back. it's going to be really close either way in my view. >> okay. jonathan lemire, what do you make of mitch mcconnell's assessment? >> it's a slight change in tone from mcconnell who a few weeks back let it be known he was unhappy with some of the republican candidates running for senate. he's been sharply critical of the process where trump essentially hand picked dr. oz in pennsylvania, herschel walker in georgia. the republicans had a rough august. we saw the poll numbers drop there.

they feel better now, but this is a toss-up. he's not going to say, hey, we're going to lose. this will be close. strategists on both sides think it is a handful of states, remarkably all of them close. georgia and pennsylvania, nevada stands to be close. democrats have a bit of a lead in arizona, new hampshire, north carolina looks close. the fact that ohio is in play speaks to the fact that democrats are in play. that's become a red state in recent cycles, but we still have six weeks to go. if we learned anything in the last handful of cycles, politics can change in a moment. we have whatever october surprise may be in store for us. what we're talking about today is not what we'll be talking about in a week. also some key debates. there's a question on whether he did baits matter anymore. in a couple races they do. a lot of people want to see fetterman and oz debate. some votes may come down to that. >> as bad as those candidates are, those races are still very

close, within the margin of error. less than a month now into the special master process, attorneys for donald trump are pushing back against raymond dearie, the same person they pitched for that position. trump's lawyers are resisting the order to submit a sworn declaration on whether they believe the government's list of property taken from mar-a-lago during the fbi search in august is accurate. according to a letter publicly filed by trump's lawyers yesterday, his legal team stated they do not believe the special master has the authority to require them to make such a filing. at the same time, trump's legal team is also arguing it's not been able to retain a vendor to digitize the documents to be handed over to judge dearie for review because there's too many files and too tight of a deadline. as the special master, judge dearie is tasked with reviewing the materials taken during the

search in august when the fbi retrieved about 11,000 documents that trump had taken with him from the white house after leaving office. it's fair to say this special master process is not going the way the trump team thought it might. they thought they may have an edge. we like this judge dearie guy, and now they're being exposed and having to reveal everything taken from the white house to mar-a-lago. >> the trump team picked the umpire and is complaining when the umpire called them out. that's what happened here. this is one of the two names they put forth. the doj said sure, he's a respected individual. those in the legal world say he's a no nonsense judge. he's a straight shooter. he even accelerated the timetable. he's asking for the review to be completed before -- faster than doj proposed. it's possible he'll grant that and say you can have a couple more weeks to be done. no one anticipates a major ruling until after the midterms. this is another effort by the

trump team to game the system and it's not working. we turn back to our lead story this morning, that's tropical storm ian. we'll be joined by the mayor of sarasota florida. we'll speak with the sheriff of lee county where the storm made landfall yesterday as a powerful category 4 hurricane. "morning joe" is coming right back. back

this is a live picture from the state capital of tallahassee, florida. any moment now governor ron desantis will hold a press briefing to update on recovery efforts after his state was slammed by hurricane ian. we want to pause now because joining us in studio is eve hewson who is the star of a show. >> those can be done through liquid fungal cultures. it causes liver and kidney failure that can be fatal. can. >> will. if we extract enough, one of these little bad boys will kill

you. >> how? how do we do that? are these library books? you know there will be a record of what you borrowed. >> no there won't. i stole them. >> you stole books from a library? >> i'm going to bring them back. >> eve, good morning. great to see you. >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> we have a new episode tomorrow. >> we do. >> for people who have not yet discovered the series, it's dark but very funny. is that fair to say? >> yes, that's fair to say. it's -- it is joy, i promise, but it's got a little bit of a darkness to it. yeah. we're trying -- it's about five sisters, five irish sisters who hate one of their sister's husbands so much, he's quite abusive to their sister, so they decide to kill him. >> an amateur plot. >> an amateur plot. they're not good at it, they're terrible at murder. that's where the comedy comes in.

>> tell us about your character. >> i play becca, the youngest in the clan. she's probably the most underestimated. she is treated like a baby. she really wants to prove herself. in the next episode, you see her attempt to do that. >> so you're plotting a murder and apparently stealing library looks. tell us about -- willie asked you about the character, things about the character you identify with? is this something that you were just -- >> aside from the murder. >> yeah. i really did connect to this character. first of all, it's irish. sharon horgan is a genius, she writes irish characters well. being irish, i connected to it. she's also a character in her late 20s, she has not had it all figured out. she doesn't know what she'll do with her career. and i have so many friends and

particularly female friends that kind of like that, i connected to her. definitely. >> five irish sisters. a total mess together. planning a murder. what part of your own life can you relate to? >> yeah. there's four of us in my family. we've never plotted a murder, i promise. i think it's connecting a lot of irish families together. i've seen a lot of people on instagram dress up as us already and it's not even halloween. i think people who are in a big family are in love with the group. >> what part of growing up do you take into your role? >> all of it probably. i think as an actor you take all of your life experience. i think being in a big family, i definitely identified with a lot of her.

>> you said -- >> i was going to talk about the nick, another great show you were in. what did you learn from "the nick?" >> so much. that was like my sort of masters degree in acting. i did two years with steven soderbergh. so i learned pretty much everything you can learn. and i have taken it with me for the rest of the projects i've done. >> you said your parents probably would have preferred you were like a lawyer, a doctor, an architect. something like that. have they accepted now that you've done pretty well? >> now that i have a number one show, yes. they accepted it. >> that will do it. i think you made the right decision. "bad sisters" streaming right now on apple tv plus. it is a great series. eve is so good in it. eve hewson, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. any moment now, governor ron desantis will hold a news

conference on the devastation from hurricane ian. we expect new information on that. we are getting reports from lee county about possible fatalities. the sheriff saying we only scratched the surface, we don't know for sure, but they could be in the hundreds. we'll talk to that sheriff coming up in a moment as well as our live coverage continues on "morning joe." "morning joe." it's the all-new subway series menu. twelve irresistible new subs. the most epic sandwich roster ever created. ♪♪ it's subway's biggest refresh yet!

we want to give you now a firsthand look from a family trapped by floodwaters inside a home in ft. myers beach, who spoke with our affiliate in ft. myers. water was up to the second floor and was rising quickly. >> can you show me how far the water, how high up it is? can anyone get up on the furniture, too, as well? okay. you're already up on -- everything up high. off way to get into the -- >> the roof. >> the roof. >> don't go in the attic. >> do you have a way to get on

the roof? >> yeah, we're going to have to find out a way soon. >> the rest of the neighborhood is under water as well? >> yeah. my house was. it's pretty much gone. >> so you're a neighbor across the street? >> yeah. my neighbor has a more recent house. we walked over here. had to swim over here. glad i did because now my house is under water. >> i'm so sorry. is everyone out of your house? >> yeah, everyone's out of there. we have to make a decision. this is getting worse by the second. >> florida governor ron desantis has taken to the podium. let's listen in. >> from the local, state, federal level, descended on southwest florida. the coast guard has been performing rescue missions on the barrier islands consistently since the wee hours of the

morning. we have florida guard assets on the ground participating in efforts, and we have our teams who -- they got there even while the winds were going. they wanted to get in there, get on the ground across alligator alley. and they are performing rescue efforts, again, starting with those barrier islands, but also looking at the places that had the most inland flooding, and these operations are ongoing. in total, there's 28 large mostly chinooks and black hawks, helicopters, between the national guard and coast guard that are already performing these active rescue missions, and there will be more air assets brought in as the day goes on. we've also been working with hospitals overnight who have been on generator power. we're in the process of evacuating two health care facilities. we also are getting more medical

personnel into the area. as of 6:00 a.m. this morning, we have 2.02 million reported power outages, but outside of southwest florida, we may have additional outages from central and northeast florida impacts and people should anticipate that. if you look, there's 1.5 million outages in seven southwest florida counties. lee and charlotte are basically off the grid at this point. sarasota has a quarter of a million without power, pinellas, 150,000, manatee 129,000. the charlotte and lee reconnects are really going to likely have to be rebuilding of that infrastructure, and so there are linemen and crews on their way down right now, but that's going to be more than just connecting a power line back to a pole. the other counties likely are

not going to require the extent of the structural rebuild, but of course that's going to be assessed as the day goes on. we have huge amounts of resources that are en route and are going to work to get people's power on as quickly as possible. we've also had interruptions in communications as a result of the storm, particularly in southwest florida. we have 100 portable cell towers being deployed into the area, and those would be put up once it's fully safe to do so. fdot is on the ground working on making sure that the roads and interstates are open. alligator alley on 75 across into collier and into lee county is open. the traffic is flowing. i-75 south through charlotte county is open and flowing. portions of lee county, they're still looking at. as you know, some of those areas, cape coral, stay of ft. myers, they got really, really inundated and really devastated

by this storm. so the hope is that all of 75 will be open. but most of it is open and it gives us what we need to be able to continue to move supplies into the area. we have 100 engineers on-site to do bridge inspections, and they work in teams of two. as they assess the damage and they can ensure safety, then bridges can be safely reopened. now, of course, we do have reports of structural damages to bridges such as the bridge going on to sanibel island and i anticipate others will have suffered damage. once bridges arement inned and determined to be safe, they will be reopened as soon as possible. we know sanibel causeway and pine island bridge, those two are not passable and they are going to require structural rebuilds. right now, if you look in central florida, you're looking

at potential major flooding in orange and seminole counties, st. john's river, all the way up potentially into northeast florida and jacksonville. the amount of water that's been rising and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing is basically a 500-year flood event. i know seminole county has done evacuations. i know they've opened shelters, but we're going to see a lot of images about the destruction that was done in southwest florida, and obviously we have massive assets there. people should understand this storm is having broad impacts across the state and some of the flooding you're going to see in areas hundreds of miles from where this made landfall are going to set records, and that's going to obviously be things that will need to be responded to. we have of course massive amounts of food and water in the area that we're going to have probably close to 300 truck loads of food and water in the

area today. fortunately, most of our school districts will be able to reopen on friday or monday. you know, lee county is in a very difficult situation. charlotte. so we're going to work with them and see when they can get back on their feet. but the damage there has been just so extensive that it's a very difficult situation. we have received a major disaster declaration for nine counties, but we do expect more. i spoke with the president this morning. he offered support. i told him thanks for this, but because the storm has moved inland and caused a lot of potential damage in the center part of our state, that we were going to be asking for those counties to be expanded and included there. for you we have approval for charlotte, hillsborough, lee, manatee, pinellas, sarasota. that will allow individual floridians to seek individual assistance from fema, and that will be something that as you have people that have been displaced due to the

catastrophic impactings of hurricane ian, if that's going to be something that's going to be necessary. we have been granted 100% federal assistance, category a and b up front for 30 days to ensure we can b quickly move forward into this response and recovery situation. fema has, as i mentioned, activated individual assistance for those in need of help who qualify. you go to fema.gov or you can call 1-800-621-3262. make sure you take a picture of the water line in your home because if you can show that we're able to get assistance to you faster. as people have emerged this morning, particularly in the areas that were hard hit, just understand this is still a hazardous situation. those folks that were in there in the wee hours of the morning were taking big risks as first responders navigating this. you have power