they see nothing but suckers. they wrote prop 27 to give themselves 90% of the profits from online sports betting in california. other states get much more. why is prop 27 such a suckers deal for california? because the corporations didn't write it for us. they wrote it for themselves.

ian now setting its sites on the south carolina coast, as we come on the air, with the tropical storm expected to strengthen back into a hurricane as it moves, look at it there, very slowly across the atlantic and back towards the east coast, after a trail of destruction in florida. people there are reeling now from one of the worst storms that has ever hit them, and doing what they can to start picking up the pieces. sanibel island, captiva island, a storm surge, with a huge chunk of the causeway there, that is the only way in or out, in a state overall, more than two and a half million people are without power and look at where that deep red is, some counties in southwest florida are totally we're live with officials, from across florida, as well as somebody from part of the federal response to this storm. cabinet secretary, homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas, hallie jackson in washington and we have the team covering every angle, and every location, and steve patterson and pinellas park, florida and blayne alexander is here to

start us off, along with somara theodore with us as well. let me start you with, steve patterson, because you have seen some of the destruction in pinellas county where you are. and as we've seen newspapers across florida today reporting on what is one of the worst storms in the state's history and look at low fast it made landfall, just 24 hours ago, we watched it here on this show, and talk me through what you're seeing. >> how fast, and the amount of rain, halle, just devastated and that is miles south of where we are. this area dodged a bullet, all of the models a few days ago, had this in the bull's eye, this making landfall here in pinellas in, hillsborough, the bay area, that doesn't mean there wasn't significant storm damage. here is a tree behind me, down into the road, and cutting across this power line and the line is live by the way, into the house behind me. it seems like it scattered across this area.

this area, about half a million people without power. and power companies, you know, the line operators, they're going house to house, and street by street, assessors trying to figure out how much damage has actually been done on the ground. meanwhile the mayor and local officials and state officials telling people in these areas to try to stay in their homes because there are so many crews out, they need to get to areas like this. and this is cut off right now because they can't get to it. it is lower on the priority because they know it is unstable. and they have to assess the most dangerous situations. there are several of them littered around an area like this. all of that being said, the real damage, the real devastation, while pockets of it are here, is about 50 miles south of us, fort myers, that area, it is so devastating here, we are lucky that we're not seeing the catastrophic flooding that is first predicted, scattered damage, but it is bad, and it will take some time to recover

here. >> blaine alexander, i want to get to you, you are seeing the rain bands where you are in the central part of the state. >> i'm looking at the rain bands right here, as you can see, i'm standing here in downtown orlando, and i think this is important to kind of illustrate just some of what we're seeing around the city, this here is one of the main streets that runs through downtown orlando, but you're also looking at lake eola, and clearly, thanks to the rain, the nonstop rain over the past few hours has spilled into the basin and spilled into the street and flooding part of the area here in downtown orlando. this is something that somebody just walked by, and told me that he lived here for about 15 years or so and never has seen a flood quite like this. i can tell you, as we've driven across other parts of the city, we're seeing similar things. and one of the images that has really struck out, stuck out to me today, is the fact that rescue crews had to work for about seven hours or so, to evacuate more than 100 senior

residents from a senior living facility. this is an area where people had to be evacuated by wheelchairs, and i spoke with the commander who was in charge of overseeing that rescue, not too long ago, in the past hour and she told me that it took them seven hours to do because they were trying to work out logistics and delicately move people out all while the water was continuing to rise and getting higher and higher. telling me that she worked for orange county fire and res cau for 24 hours. and this is the worst she has seen during a hurricane are, simply because of the number of different evacuations happening at the same time. and while they were working on that, from that elderly living facility, we understand there were rescues in a different part of town, mobile homes had to be evacuated. another neighborhood, that had 30 or so evacuations there. so really, the culprit in all of this, has been the rain. and the record-breaking rainfall that we've seen here in orlando, and i will however, end with good news, the water is receding quickly. i think that's important to point out. certainly while it rose very

quickly and we saw that devastation, this place where i'm standing, not too long ago, this was under water and i could not be standing here not too long ago. the nursing home that i was telling you about, it started -- >> you are not imagining things. we have lost her audio, perhaps not surprising given the conditions she is talking about and how difficult it has been, not just for news crews out covering the storm but for the people who are living this, who have been living through this for the last 24 hours. we have talked about how powerful ian has been as it first made landfall off the coast of fort myers and cape coral and moving its way across the state and you can see the radar here, and the headlines, boy have we seen, that right? here are the recent headlines out of florida papers, which are all in, of course, on this coverage. from orlando to tampa bay and beyond. everything is all about this hurricane. somara, now it is headed toward south carolina. it is headed toward the carolinas coast. there is a hurricane warning there. it is kind of unusual that we would see a storm pick up steam

like this, and essentially get a double whammy in the united states. >> if there is one word that i could use to describe ian, i'm going to go with relentless, because with open water, it will reenergize at this point. we are starting to see sot some strengthening happening. it is up to 70 miles an hour and pretty soon we could see is strengthen to a cat one hurricane. and if that is the case, the coastline of south carolina is looking at a potentially hurricane landfall. let's look at the rainfall we did experience. this is a one in a thousand year rain event in parts of florida. 28 inches has come down in new smyrna beach. this is not even at its strongest. it is just the positioning, the amount of rainfall and the moisture along with the surge. this has made for a disastrous situation along the coastline here, staying close to daytona. upwards of 25 inches of rain there. 30 inches of rain out that way. so here is the latest track. we're going to see this continue to traverse over the water

tonight, and by friday morning, around 8:00 a.m., we're starting to get some of the heavy bands moving into charleston. at which point we're expects friday, around lunch to see that landfall, and then it will continue its trajectory right into the center of south carolina there and then making its way into north carolina and this is a cone of uncertainty, yes, it could fall, between this cone, regardless, you got hilton head down there tybee island, off the coast of savannah, georgia, there we could see very heavy rain and flooding being an issue nonetheless. here is the track, with the future cast super imposed. this is what the radar could look like this time tomorrow, and we could be looking at bands with deep reds and pinks. that heavy rain, on top of the surge and that's going to be prompting the issues for flooding, and the timing for that would be closer to lunchtime, and i'd like to also say high tide just after the 11:00 hour, near charleston. so here is the surge map. this is something else we've seen that was up in the latest update from the national hurricane center around 11:00

this morning, four to seven foot storm surge on top of the deluge of rain with the system in parts of charleston. and even from savannah, down to brunswick and jacksonville, we're going to see heavy rain, and then one area that i'm going to be talking a lot about this afternoon is st. augustine. they have experienced a ton of rain and flooding, and a bit of storm surge down there, and that could be on par with hurricane matthew from a few years back. here is a look at the flash flood risk. you can see st. augustine there in the most elevated with this, the high risk, and two-plus inches an hour. daytona beach, also experiencing some extreme flooding. so this is just, it is really uncanny. and we're going to be here all night tracking this. >> thank you. we will check back in with you later on this hour and check on the track and what is ahead, et cetera. for now we will bring in the commissioner of collier county, which includes the city of naples. thank you so much for being on with us this afternoon.

>> absolutely. thanks for having me. it's been a busy 24 hours and then some. >> i can only imagine. tell me what it's been like for you and help us understand the massive power of this storm. >> i just heard your last person talking, and others talking about what the storm is doing now, and lots of rain and everything. and for us, it was a totally different experience. it was a storm surge that worked, with the meteorologist talking about the eye making landfall in fort myers and if you're in that southeast quadrant, that's where you get active storm surge, that's where we were, and it wasn't an overexaggerated storm surge. sometimes the way people think of it, they think that it is six to eight feet and it is three feet and we got every inch of the storm surge and it is because of the very unique way the storm pivoted and some people say the most perfect storm and i would say the most imperfect storm for all of those wrong reasons and we're dealing with massive flooding of canals, and sea water, and people

literally got multiple feet of water in their house. and thankfully, i think we did a great job evacuating people. but it did not obviously stop the water, so we have some people that are trying to come back, and they don't realize the amount of damage that we have here. >> i want to ask you about evacuations. has is mostly been, as you assess the damage, property damage, water in houses, et cetera? rather than damage, obviously, it impacts some people, let's say. >> you know, the comparison i will make, the last one hurricane irma was all about rain. we did get rain and flooding but that's standard with a hurricane, but we lost trees, and some houses with significant structural damage. and we had strong gusts here. but the gusts hit north of us. the surge, it was something totally different. one of the things that we hear a lot about is you can protect against the wind and you can be in a stronger structure and go to an evacuation center and you

can lose your roof and not your house and you go back inside and wait for the power to come on and make a sandwich. and when you have four or five or six feet of water inside of your house, that is catastrophic, you know, the house is condemned with damage, with the water damage, and you're hearing some of the heroics from some of our first responder because not everybody evacuates, you know, we have elderly, that sometimes they don't think it is worth the effort, or the forecasts are overexaggerated so we've got pockets of first responders here that are fanning out and trying to find those people in distress. because the other challenge is, when cell phones go out, the internet goes down, everything is totally shut down, if you're an elderly person and you're stuck inside of a house and you need help, you have no way to contact that person, so that's why we rely on neighbors to get information where people may know of someone who is stranded or literally knock on doors of mobile home parks and things like that.

that's what is in full force right now. and a big bulk of that is in my district. collier county, i've got marko island. the isles of capri. and a big chunk of naples. these are pieces of paradise that people come to. this is the trade-off for these terrific once in a lifetime storms that really humble all of us, and even with a $20 million home, you can't stop the water, you know, with it. so we have damages, from mobile homes to some of the most, you know, expensive homes in our community on the beach in naples. >> i which say, you talked about hearing the stories of first responders making some of these dramatic rescues, as you were saying, we were watching one of those rescues happening from naples earlier, people, somebody in a car, the fire crews getting folks out. >> yes,i did see that video. and that is the exception, not the rule. but every one of those rescues is amazing. the other thing i will commend our collier county first responder is because i think we did such a great job on

evacuations, and been able to help our neighbors in lee county quite a bit, so we've been sharing a lot of resources, up and down the coast, you know, you go a little bit further north, you have horrific wind damage, and totally different types of effects from the storm, and you come down here, and it is heavy storm surge, and other things, with the water, so we have a lot going on between collier and lee county, which but up against each other, and you watch a video and you are thankful, i'm a retired colonel, and batten down the patches and driving around the district, and we're seeing some really significant damage that it is going to take quite a while to clean up. >> collier county service, thank you for being here and thank for your service and i appreciate your insight into the recovery process. and a little bit of news with capitol hill, the last few

minutes, the last half hour, the gnat has passed a bill that would avoid a government shutdown. the democrats and republicans agreeing to a short term spending bill, with billions of dollars of help with ukraine and keeps the government up and running through december and the house has to pass it, and that's where it is headed now and we expect the lawmakers to keep it going there. the head of fema, heading to florida to see the damage where power and water are out for 2 about 5 million people. what else can the federal government do to help? i'll ask. and we have kerry sanders speaking with somebody in charlotte county, talking about protecting her husband who has cancer, who is paralyzed, as ian ravaged their home. >> i put pillows along the side board and a life jacket on him, so that if the water came, he wouldn't drown. he would float.

>> do you feel kind of -- >> he's alive. >> >> d. and juicy steak. let's get some more analysis on that, chuck. mmm. pepper jack. tender steak. very insightful, guys. the new subway series. what's your pick? oh, that i can't believe i scored this price feeling! well believe it baby! very insightful, guys. because wayfair always delivers. the look you want at the prices you want. so you can have the home you want! see we told you. wayfair always delivers small prices for big dreams. ♪ wayfair you've got just what i need ♪ think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no, he's seizing the moment with merrill. moving his money into his investment account in real time and that's... how you collect coins.

your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company.

. a major disaster declared by president biden today in it could be the largest hurricane in florida history. the numbers are still unclear but we're hearing reports of

what may be substantial loss of life. >> the federal government saying 30,000 line workers are restoring power, and 5,000 national guard troops and 128,000 gallons of fuel, and you'll hear about that in a moment. and we have more about when president biden will be heading to florida. >> he says when the conditions are right he will make a trip to florida and his intention is to travel to puerto rico, which is also recovering from the hurricane. and for now, what the house is saying that the trip, any trip by the president in florida, close contact with state and local officials and we heard from the president saying that he spoke with the mayor, and all of the relevant mayors in florida, and democrats and republicans, and saying now is not the time for politics and that those mayors are being told that they can reach out to him at any time and can call him directly if they have something

they need and spoke within governor desantis several times and the message is there is that the federal government is here for the long haul to help florida see this flew. -- see this through. the disaster declaration identified nine counties in florida to help with federal funds with debris cleanup and individuals with parts of their homes that are not insured or assets that they have, that could be applied for help from the federal government and that could be something that is helpful for them and the president saying he is going to stick with this and whatever it takes, as long as it takes. >> carol lee, thank you. i want to bring in julie, the mayor of dunedin floorpd, florida, right outside of st. petersburg. you can hear me? >> yes. >> i know your community has been dealing with the after-effects of ian. tell me about that. >> we did the damage assessment

this morning, and our city is really sitting well, and a few downed trees and things like that, and we have damage of some homes and duke energy is the power provider here, in the county, so we're working with them diligently. they're going to obviously address hospitals, and nursing homes and things of that nature first, and then go to the largest power outage areas that we have in our city. >> i want to let people know here, mayor, that they're looking here, this is a live picture, this is live, of the sanibel causeway that we told you about at the top of the show, this is how destroyed it is, the mainland connector, and it is destroyed as you can see, in large part here, and this is part of why there is such an urgency about getting help to

lee county. mayor, i wonder, what plans do you and your community have to try to get help for people who are south of you, who did get hit harder as we can see just from this one image. >> we already have, we're already working on, we're calling it a caravan, along with some other cities, putting together both employees for boots on the ground, as well as supplies. and of course, the governor has been announcing the, call it the volunteer florida.org fund, and they're not asking for supplies, they're asking for money. in 24 hours, the state has raised $2.5 million. and it's for folks on the ground there, in southwest florida, to be able to target the money for the needs versus waiting on deliveries. >> are you satisfied with the help that you are getting from state officials, from federal officials? do you want more?

>> no, listen, i cannot complain at all. i mean we went through irma. we learned a lot. we were facing down what fort myers and southwest florida is going through right now. we're thankful for what we have. and we were prepared. our city employees, our county employees, were prepared, so i've got no complaints there. and i think all, with everybody's focused, besides getting electricity here, and you know, getting the streets cleaned and lights back on and all of those things, is to provide that help for our neighbors and friends in southwest florida. we know they would be here to help us, and now it is time to focus on them. >> mayor, thank you very much for being with us. i know a lot of people around the state and the country are listening to what you have to say. much appreciate it. >> thank you. still ahead, staying on top of this destruction in florida, with millions of people picking up the pieces, so what else can the government do on this topic? i will ask our homeland security

secretary alejandro mayorkas. >> first, a woman got stranded in the eye of the hurricane with her husband and 20-month-old baby. we're joining her with more on the incredible story next. r witn the incredible story next. incredible - meatballs, fresh mozzarella and pepperon- oh, the meatball's out! i thought he never fumbles. the new subway series. what's your pick? (vo) with their verizon private 5g network, associated british ports can now precisely orchestrate nearly i thought he never fumbles. 600,000 vehicles passing through their uk port every year. don't just connect your business. (dock worker) right on time. (vo) make it even smarter. we call this enterprise intelligence. kevin: i've fought wildfires for twenty years. 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.

tropical storm ian, of course, strengthening, expected to, back up into a hurricane, heading toward the carolinas, look what happened in naples, one of the first cities to be hit, and firefighters moving a woman to safety with water up to their chest. that is not the only extraordinary video that we have seen so far. look at what has been happening in port charlotte, where ian made landfall, this image, these videos, taken by bailey, who rode out the storm with her husband and 20-month-old son, look how intense it is. bailey joining us on the phone from port charlotte to tell her story. bailey, thanks for joining us.

first of all, how you are, where you are? >> i'm doing okay, in my inlaws house in port charlotte and doing the best we can right now. >> is that where you rode out the storm? >> yes, we rode out the storm in their house, which thankfully is boarded up. >> tell me about that, because i understand, you didn't have enough gas to try to get back to where you lived just outside of tampa. tell us what has happened and what this experience has been like for you. >> yes, well, we thought we were doing everything right, we got, you know, the mandatory evacuation in tampa, and it was supposed to hit us and we went south to our inlaws in port charlotte and we couldn't find gas on the way, it was sold out in tampa and when we got here, it was sold out here as well and then we realized the storm had turned, and by the time we started to look at, you know, going to shelters, we were getting conflicting reports with shelters being shut and others saying they were open but wait

until the morning, and then, you know, with all of the information, it just became a situation where we kind of felt trapped, that we were stuck at home. >> wow. >> and we had to stay here, because we didn't know where else to go. >> to be clear, you left tampa to try to get to safety, when you thought, when everybody thought that ian would slam tampa and when the storm took a turn, you ended up right in the storm's cross-hairs. >> yes, yes. and a lot of our friends and family were urging us to go even farther south to fort myers and naples and i'm thankful we did not do that because i don't know what would have happened. >> tell me about the experience trying to ride out the storm. because it sounded incredibly intense, to the point that you had kayaks in the house, just in case. >> yes. when we learned that there was a possible 12 to 18 foot storm surge, you know, my inlaws and my husband, i told them my child

is number one priority to everybody in this house, and if you need to let me go, if you need to let, you know, anybody else go, to save that little boy's life, everybody's priority, until we got passed that, you know, that was our main goal, to make sure that he survived, and we had a kayak to make sure that he could float, if it did start coming into the house, and we had his life jacket, but it was very, very scary for a while. especially as it got dark. because we couldn't see if the storm was still coming in and there was a fear of whether it is coming in and it is nighttime and you didn't know where to go or what to do. >> it sounds incredibly intense what you're describing. you at the point where you made, it sounds like the point you're saying, almost like a pact, that if anybody could be saved, it needed to be the baby, even if it meant a loss of life for you

and your family. >> uh-huh. that's exactly what it was. it was everybody was on board with it. and my husband and i pretty much felt that we were going to pass away. and obviously, we were so thankful that we didn't. but we were prepared to do that for our son. >> that was because of the intensity of the storm? did the house stay intact? >> yes, so we watched, as a couple of our neighbor's roofs blew off and we were unable to check on them, and after seeing that, and then the winds picking up even more than that, we were worried about our house, but then, you know, the last report before we lost power was that we were looking an 18-foot storm surge and we're right off of charlotte harbor and the canal is in their backyard, so -- >> i'm putting myself in your shoes, bailey, and it just sounds like it was a terrifying experience. >> yes, it absolutely was. and i don't think a lot of

people that, you know, you don't evacuate on purpose, but i had a lot of friends telling me, that they didn't have the resources to evacuate, or simply just couldn't. and so i think it's just important to remember that look, regardless of how you feel about people that didn't evacuate, there are still people and there are going to be a lot of lives lost with how scary and dangerous this storm was. >> how sur baby boy doing? >> he's doing really good. he is definitely scared, i think he is pretty fussy, with the pressure changes, we all are having major migraines and sinus issues, so i think it is affecting him as well. >> what's your plan to try to get back to tampa, back to your home? you have been able to find gas? do you expect that happening any time soon, or no? >> no, so we drove a little bit this morning, and a lot of gas

stations are pretty much leveled, or out of service right now. so we're hoping that, you know, help comes in soon. our generator here actually died on us today, so we don't even have a generator running. so we're really having to look at how to get gas, and see what our house in tampa looks like and also that my inlaws can get a generator because they anticipate being out for at least a week. >> and other folks around? other folks out seeing the damage and doing an assessment? >> yes, there are a lot of people out, because of the traffic lights being down, there's a lot of people that don't understand that it's a four-way stop, so i anticipate that there's probably going to be quite a few traffic accidents, which, you know, it is unfortunate. but i mean, we even passed an accident 15 minutes ago, when we were out looking at our friend's house. >> bailey, on the ground for us,

in port charlotte, i so appreciate you coming on to share your story. i'm so glad that you and your family and your son 20 months old are all okay and here's hoping you will get gas soon and get home soon. thanks for having us. >> thanks for having me. and homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas, thank you for being back on the show. >> thank you so much for having me. >> i don't know if you had a chance to hear my previous guest, right before you, a woman who was stuck in port charlotte basically with her family and inlaws terrified overnight as the storm was coming through and they basically made a pact to save the baby's life before their own lives an and they have no gas and looking for it and what is the pledge to her and other floridians, other americans who are in her situation? >> i did have the opportunity to hear the interview you just concluded, and it speaks so powerfully and poignantly about the fact that we are dealing with a natural disaster of significant proportion and

strength that impacts people's lives. we are talking about people's lives. we're talking about people who have lost their lives. people whose leaves will be changed for -- people whose lives will be changed forever, who have seen a tremendous amount of destruction, but what we do is we do not stand by and just watch, we have been pre-positioned in anticipation of hurricane ian, we have deployed our fema personnel, in addition to those already present, and we deployed our united states coast guard, and their tremendous assets, and aircraft, and cutters, you know, fast-moving boats, be ready for search and rescue operations, to be able to provide prevention capabilities, and when the storm, so the storm wouldn't devastate as many people as it otherwise would. and of course moving quickly to response and recovery. we are engaged, not just fema, not just with the united states

coast guard but our cybersecurity infrastructure security agency, and tsa, the army corps of engineers. noaa. this en is all of government effort. -- this is an all of government effort to. make sure that we are saving as many lives as possible. our commitment is to the safety and security of all impacted floridians. >> do you have any sense of the potential loss of life here, mr. secretary? are you hearing any number? what is the expectation? what do we know? >> i think it would be irresponsible of me to guess how many lives were lost. our commitment is to make that number as few as possible. that is what we are committed to do. >> what is the greatest need right now? what you are most focused on, as we speak? 3:30 eastern time, in florida. >> i would say, hallie, it is two-fold. number one is search and rescue operations, and number two, it is assessments of damages, so

that we know what capabilities and resources to deliver exactly where they are most needed. we want to make sure that we are prioritizing life safety needs, most responsibly, and most effectively. and i will say, we're not doing it alone, the federal government, we're working with our state, local, nongovernmental, and tribal partners, and this is really a communal effort to a communal disaster. >> are florida state officials working with fema in a productive way? do you see any road blocks to delivering that aid? >> we are working hand in glove. this is not a time for politics. this is a time for a united response to the lives of people whose lives are in peril, and the needs of people whose homes have been destroyed, this is all-in, this is an american response to a natural disaster. the president spoke very powerfully earlier this morning about the fact that he has

spoken multiple times with governor desantis, and i have been in touch with the office and i have spoken with senators and members of congress and local officials. we all have to be in this together. this is what we and the government are responsible for, the care and the well-being of the american public. >> we understand the coast guard is still searching for more than a dozen cuban migrants who were in a boat that capsized during this storm. can you give us any update on the rescue efforts? do you know anything else about that? >> i don't have any update on that specific challenge. and hopefully it doesn't materialize into a tragedy. i will say that the coast guard, as of i think 8:00 a.m. this morning, had saved or rescued more than 27 lives. so we are really engaged in a 24/7 operation. our first responders and the first responder community as a

whole, is just simply heroic. >> we were on the air 24 hours ago, when hurricane ian, then hurricane, made landfall initially. here we are 24 hours later and as a reporter at the time, wats fifth strongest hurricane as measured by the wind speed that hit the u.s., 155 miles an hour plus, what is the time line for recovery like this. i have to be talking, i imagine you are thinking on a scale of years and not months. >> we are defeated to recovery however long it takes. this is not going to be days. this is not going to be weeks. this is not going to be months. but the people of florida, anyone affected by hurricane ian, should know this, that we will be with them, throughout. and you know, just yesterday, i signed a waiver, a jones act waiver, for the people of puerto rico, to make sure that they have the diesel they need to run their operations, their recovery

operations, and we are in it for the long haul, as long as the need is there, we will be there. >> before i let you go, can you talk about the concern, the impact on the insurance market here, because there are people in the interior part of the state, for example, who may not have had flood insurance, et cetera, this is a huge concern for people who are looking at a massive extension now, as you well know, of trying to to, in many ways, rebuild. >> the president has acted so very swiftly, we had -- he declared a declaration, before ian actually hit. it was pre-landfall, an emergency declaration, so we could pre-position our assets and we can deliver resources in advance of landfall. now, since then, he has issued a major disaster declaration, which allows us to provide individual assistance to those whose insurance does not cover the extent of their losses, or

for those who might not otherwise have insurance. we have funds available to assist them in rebuilding their lives, replacing their homes, or restoring their homes to their previous condition. so the president has acted very, very swiftly, in unlocking the government resources that we could bring to bear. >> homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas, thank you for coming back on the show on what is a critical day for so many people down south. appreciate it. turning back now to the county being described by fema as ground zero of ian's impact, lee county, look at it here, this was it, this is where ian slammed ashore, and houses flooded, power lines exploding, look at that fire. bridges collapsed. we showed you that live shot of the causeway connecting mainland florida to sanibel and captiva, 90% of the county has no power. and some hospitals that do not have running water. they are evacuating patients. i want to bring in now the head

of one of those hospital systems, lee health's president and ceo, dr. larry antonucci, thanks for being on with us. >> thanks for having me. >> and are your hospitals up and functioning? >> we are functioning but two of our hospitals do not have running water and as you can imagine, we cannot take care of patients without running water, not only is it essential for the care of our patients, it is essential for our safety when we look at higher protection, et cetera, so we have been working with the local authorities and our statewide regulatory agencies to begin the transfer and the evacuation of two of our hospitals. and we will do that until we can make sure that water is restored to those facilities. it's not a decision we made lightly. we are here as the major health care provider for over 100 years and it is the safest place for the patients. >> that's a huge undertaking. how do you evacuate two hospitals. what is the logistics on that? how long will it take?

you are trying to move through roads, because i understand many of the roads are not passable right now. >> we will use whatever means are necessary working with the health care administration in florida and providing ground transportation, air transportation, what of it takes. not only do we have four adult hospitals, we have a children's hospital imbedded in one of our hospitals, so we will be having to transfer the young ones, also. >> is that a hospital that doesn't have running water? is that one of them? >> it is. >> as you said, you can't manage that. how do you have a nic-u, how do you have a hospital with no clean running water? >> that's right, that's the challenge and yesterday afternoon, we began to see pressures dropping and when we tried to work closely with our utilities, and our county resources, but they're facing unprecedented losses, there's multiple water line breaks,

within, throughout the community, and this is not something they can trace overnight. they got to identify where the leaks are and replace them, but when that pressure drops, it eliminates the water supply, and we need the water not only to take care of our patients but also to cool the facility. so we are actually pumping water out of lakes and ponds to run it through our air conditioning chillers so we can at least maintain a viable temperature. but as you say, you can't run a hospital without running water. >> yes. i know that you have patients at the hospitals, in the system, that had already been there prior to hurricane ian, and making landfall, now a tropical storm, have you seen other patients come in? what is the extent of injuries you've seen since the storm started? can you help give us any guidance on that, and help us understand that? >> we had about 1,400 patients in our hospitals before the hurricane hit. and now, we're starting to see our emergency departments begin to fill up. one thing that we will do, even

as we transfer patients out, we will maintain our emergency departments and run them, so we can evaluate patients and triage them as necessary. it's really early to tell how many patients we're going to save, because we have to remember, that the roads are not completely passable, and people have only been on the roads, ems, emergency medical services, have only been on the road a couple of hours, a few hours, so as a result, we just don't know what the extent of injury are. but as you can see from the devastation aerially, we anticipate there will be significant injuries. >> and this is such a dig question, but i wonder if you anticipate what a lot of life it will be, and do you have any sense of what is yet, the doctors and the workers in your system? >> we really don't. i think this is such an unprecedented event, it is impossible for us to come to an estimate of that. our vision, our focus is to take care of the people that are sick and get them back on their feet. >> doctor, there are so many

people around the country thinking about you and obviously the patients in your system as well. thank you for checking in with us. we will stay in touch with you and your team. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. thanks for your thoughts, too. i want to go to nbc's shaq brewster live for us in jacksonville and i understand you were with the mayor, as jacksonville is bracing for some of this coming their way. >> that's exactly right. we're still getting some wind and rain. we are under a bridge with the mayer who has been going around and seeing what is taking place in your community. your concern going into this storm, that it was going to be seen similar to hurricane irma about five years ago. what ultimately happened with ian? >> well, yesterday, i thought we were going to have what would look like hurricane matthew and irma combined, and a big significant storm surge at our beaches, our beaches communities, and at the same time rivers, flooding of streets and flooding of homes, and that didn't happen. and it looks less likely today than it did yesterday. but we're not out of it yet.

we've got another high tide late tonight early into the morning and you see how high it is right now, and there is still some risk. >> this is not normal that we're seeing here. >> if this is like this with a storm, i've never seen, it maybe i'm not down here at that time, but that is high for me. >> you said you're breathing a sigh of relief but not out of the woods yet here in jacksonville. explain that risk to come that we understand comes today and really into the weekend. >> so it was explained to me by the weather service, we have a nor'easter wind that showed up, a rain event, and high tides, we could get a flood risk, the flood risk still exists through the night and potentially through the morning. so i would say to people, you know, watching, if they evacuated, as we asked them to, just stay out for now. it will be easy to get back home tomorrow. >> a voluntary evacuation in certain zones before the storm. and those people should stay back. >> yes. >> and in terms of a big picture

of the impact that ian had on jacksonville, i mean what did you see as you were going across the city here? >> so far, trees that are down and roads that we've had to close out, and we're cleaning up, trees down on homes, and some power outages, and there could be more to come. but not nearly as bad as it could be. now, if it was your home that had a downed tree, that is a significant event. >> absolutely. >> and if your home is without power, that is a significant event. so we're doing everything we can to get those people affected back to normal. >> yes. >> and at one point, the dridge is not closed at all. >> that's right. the sustained wind speeds, we close the bridges and that hasn't happened at this point. i would say seeing the devastation that is happening, that has happened in other parts of florida, it is tragic, it is heart-breaking and family's lives have been completely disrupt and we've sent crews to

help certain parts of the state and we're prepared to help in any way we can to get through this. >> mr. mayor, i will let you keep going and surveying what is going on. thank you very much. >> and i think to underscore that last point that he made, the city of jacksonville has been able to send some of those urban search and rescue teams to orlando, to central florida, and that gives you a sense that they're not out of the woods but they're feeling much better than they did just yesterday. >> shaq brewster live for us in jacksonville, with of course the mayor, thank you very much. and next up, ian set to become one of the most expensive storm recoveries in u.s. history. so how do officials even begin to rebuild? we'll ask florida's democratic nominee for governor, coming up. nominee for governor, coming up. 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? >> tech: when you have auto glass damage... the nchoose safelite.. we can come to you

and replace your windshield. >> grandkid: here you go! >> tech: wow, thank you! >> customer and grandkids: bye! >> tech: bye! don't wait, schedule now. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ doesn't your family deserve the best? eggland's best eggs. classic, cage free, and organic. more delicious, farm-fresh taste. plus, superior nutrition. because the way we care is anything but ordinary. ♪♪ ♪ hit it!♪ ♪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. think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no, he's seizing the moment with merrill.

moving his money into his investment account in real time and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. (vo) get the new iphone 14 pro on us. right now t-mobile is including apple business essentials, so you can easily manage your team's devices. on the network with more 5g coverage. only from t-mobile for business. 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! i literally just said that. i like her better than you the new subway series. what's your pick? want to show you some new video coming in now from sanibel, florida, again, in that area has been just destroyed by ian. this is a new view of the section of the causeway that collapsed. the only path to and from the

island that has been destroyed. that is what it looks like from the air. that gives you -- it starts to give you a sense of the scope of the damage here. somebody who understands what it is like when florida gets hit by a hurricane is former florida governor, charlie crist, a former congressman representing florida's gulf coast. thank you very much for being on us with. as we mentioned, you were governor during hurricane matthew back in 2016, slammed the east coast. help us understand what the biggest focus for you, for the state is right now. >> well, it's to protect life. it's all about safety, and you know, it's about rescue, recovery, doing everything you can, and so you know, having said that, it's important to really thank the people who are trying to get the power lines back up, the first responders that are going in as we speak, hallie, the job that they're doing to literally save lives, unfortunately, there's more likely not going to be loss of life here, but the fact that people are working as hard as they are to try to get people out, to try to rescue, do as

much as they humanly can to make sure that we minimize that kind of impact, it's a godsend. >> we are in the phase now as you all know of sort of the urgent triage, now that we can see the damage from the storm, now that the immediate threat has passed. it's about the rescue, the recovery, it's also going to be about the rebuilding. what is the time line for something like this as we talked about, ian, an incredibly powerful storm. >> when you compare this to hurricane charlie, similar strengths, obviously, but the massive size of this storm, ian is incredible. you listed earlier in your broadcast, the five major storms that are hit the united states. three of the five have hit florida, and so one factor in all of this is climate change. these storms are getting bigger, they're getting stronger, and they're affecting that many more lives as a result of it. it is remarkable what we're witnessing, and as we get

through this, hopefully we'll have an opportunity to make sure that we do things so we can address going forward to try to reduce the size of these massive storms that florida has suffered from so brutally. and so that will be a focus as we're moving forward. it's going to take a lot of time to get through this because it's touched almost every corner of the state, on its way now to the atlantic and heading up to the carolinas. the magnitude of this is hard to imagine, but this is what we're facing. it's not going to be weeks. it's not going to be months. it's going to be longer, and it's going to take a relentless concerted effort by the federal, the state, local government, all hands on deck, and those who can help the private sector as well to do everything we can to not only pray for our florida, but to do everything we can to help those affected throughout the southeastern united states. >> as we were talking, i want to just let our viewers know on the other side of the screen, these

are live images coming in from the air on sanibel island, florida. which is the epicenter of where ian made landfall. it looked like there were perhaps some national guard troops that landed on the coast of sanibel. you saw people that looked like they were either going to or from the chopper on the beach there. this is live coming into us. it is an aerial shot from a distance. when we had seen that causeway shot before, it gives you a sense of the scope of the destruction. the federal government sending in national forward troops, sending in meals, et cetera. do you anticipate any road blocks to aid? is that a concern at all when it comes to the response from state officials? >> well, i certainly hope not. i wouldn't think so and i'm so pleased that president biden has already signed the emergency declaration, the necessary funds are going to be coming down to florida, and hopefully everybody works together. this is an american problem. this is an american issue. certainly i'm focused on florida. it's my home state. my goodness, what's happening

here is going to take all of us working together. it's no time, obviously, for any kind of politics. it's a time for humanity. it is a time for decency, for caring. and all the love we muster for these people going through such a horrific tragedy. >> here's the latest in case you're just tuning in. right now hurricane ian -- i'm sorry, tropical storm is out to sea right now. 70 miles per hour, but there's a chance that as it sits over these waters before banking into south carolina, we could see this strengthen to a cat 1 storm again. what i want to do is i want to put those living in charleston, south carolina, from seabrook island up towards georgetown under a little bit of high alert here. even though it's not as strong as it was when it made landfall on the western coast of florida,

look at what it's been doing just as a tropical storm to areas like st. augustine. we're going to be on high alert in the coming hours. this is looking like a landfall around lunchtime tomorrow in south carolina. >> thank you so much for being on top of this track. thanks to all of you for watching this hour of msnbc. we'll have more coverage over on our streaming channel for nbc news. nbc news now, we're on there tonight ask every weeknight at 5:00 eastern. "deadline white house" with nicole wallace starts here on nbc right after the break. marte. we call this enterprise intelligence. ever notice how stiff clothes can feel rough on your skin? for softer clothes that are gentle on your skin, try downy free & gentle

downy will soften your clothes without dyes or perfumes. the towel washed with downy is softer, and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today. ♪ hit it!♪ ♪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. 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. think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no, he's seizing the moment with merrill.

moving his money into his investment account in real time and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. (vo) with their verizon private 5g network, associated british ports can now precisely orchestrate nearly 600,000 vehicles passing through their uk port every year. don't just connect your business. (dock worker) right on time. (vo) make it even smarter. we call this enterprise intelligence. when people come, they say they've tried lots of diets, nothing's worked or they've lost the same 10, 20, 50 pounds over and over again. they need a real solution. i've always fought with 5-10 pounds all the time. eating all these different things and nothing's ever working. i've done the diets, all the diets. before golo, i was barely eating but the weight wasn't going anywhere. the secret to losing weight and keeping it off is managing insulin and glucose. golo takes a systematic approach to eating that focuses on optimizing insulin levels. we tackle the cause of weight gain, not just the symptom.

when you have good metabolic health, weight loss is easy. i always thought it would be so difficult to lose weight, but with golo, it wasn't. the weight just fell off. i have people come up to me all the time and ask me, "does it really work?" and all i have to say is, "here i am. it works." my advice for everyone is to go with golo. it will release your fat and it will release you. hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. a herculean rescue effort is currently underway in the state of florida after hurricane ian now a tropical storm off the atlantic coast left a trail of devastation across that state. by day break today, it was already clear the impact of the storm would be, quote, historic

in the words of governor ron desantis. some areas have been inundated with up to 30 inches of rain. two and a half million people are currently without power with two major counties essentially off the grid according to desantis. one county sheriff described the conditions he and first responders are faing on the ground this morning on "morning joe." >> we're finding that a will the of the roads are impassable, a lot of power lines down, a lot of flooding going on. i don't want to speculate on fatalities. we have had some reports being called in to us in reference to some potential bodies being found. >> some communities effectively cut off from the outside world. the bridge connecting sanibel island to the mainland has been severed. it was washed away by the storm surge, and this is the scene in bonita springs. it can only be described as catastrophic damage, with