good morning, it is saturday, october 1st. i'm coming to you from fort myers, florida. this is one of the cities that was hit by hurricane ian. calling it a category four storm is putting it lightly. ian was just two miles per hour shy of being a category five hurricane. the likes of which have only been experienced four times in u.s. history. hurricane ian made landfall on wednesday afternoon in florida. maximum sustained winds measured at a stunning 155

miles per hour. those winds caused storm surges. a major hazard for this low-lying region. at this hour, more than 1.2 million people across florida remain without electricity. as of late yesterday, parts of the county, where i am now, where it made landfall, they did not have access to clean drinking water. many people have no running water whatsoever. it is hard to know exactly how many people are displaced right now. officials estimate that it is in the tens of thousands. at least 34 people have been confirmed dead so far. 12 of them right here in lee county. after barreling through florida, you can regain strength over the atlantic ocean. it then made a second landfall as a category one hurricane in south carolina yesterday afternoon. the damage there is a fraction of the devastation that ian brought through southwest florida. you can see the aftermath.

-- what you can see in the images are the broken lives. these are people on the margins whose homes, jobs, bodies, and health is precarious. people don't have insurance or the resources to rebuild. -- this is the associate minister. this is the federal emergency management agency. thank you for joining us this morning. -- this is in southwest florida where the storm came ashore. -- this is in fort myers beach. the damage looks different. the people are very different. >> absolutely. thank you for having me on. thank you for talking about this storm. epic proportions. -- there is no doubt the needs are numerous right now.

search and rescue efforts continue. door to door efforts continue under the unified structure for the land, air, and see certain rescue. there will be needs throughout the recovery phase. folks start -- there trying to get the resources they need to do that. they will be with florida. it is impacting communities throughout. >> let me ask you about the low hanging fruit. i have been out there on the streets. i've seen the electrical workers, the line workers. they have done a great job. there's a lot of power back on their. and that, i am staying in naples. the drive here to fort myers beach, they were traffic lights. things were orderly. you get closer into fort myers beach. it was much harder hit. there is still downed trees. there are boats in the street. there are traffic lights that are gone. there are isolated communities. one of them that i visited

yesterday was probably last than a mile from here. they don't know where to go, with whom they should register, how they get money, how they get food, how to get close. how do you people, many of whom are caught off, their cell phones artwork me and they don't have power, how do they know where they are supposed to go, what they are supposed to do? >> absolutely. first off, if you have not heard from a family member or friend in the impacted areas, please register at the website. that will provide registry. folks ten ensure that as the search and rescue crews are out in the field, they can make sure that the needs of folks that are out there can be met. if you are able to use the phone, there is a few things. there are shelters open with food, water, clothing. all those basic needs it can be met. there is a capacity to help the folks that need it. beyond that, there will be a longer recovery. the president has approved 17

counties at this point for individual assistance. if you are in one of those counties, please call 1-800-fema. they can provide assistance and services to housing loss and other personal property. >> how does that work? by the way, i want to make sure that we put that out on twitter. i know there are people whose phones are not working. they don't have internet. at least we can get it to other people in the region. they drive around like we did yesterday. they need this health. you can make the phone call on their behalf. they can try to get that information. i literally met people yesterday who had lost their homes, their clothes, their money, their identification. what are the kinds of things that you mention? shelters, food, clothing. where in those 17 counties that you just talked about -- they have authorized aid to.

does that aid go through individual people? >> it does. one of the very important things is that we were on the ground yesterday insult was florida. we are going to be an orlando today. we really assessing the damage. we bring the full force of the federal family to disaster areas. we have disaster survivor assistant teams. we are on the ground working with folks in shelters to make sure that the needs can be met. as well as the neighborhoods. that full focus supports the survivors recovery through cash assistance and other supplemental services and programs as they begin the road to recovery. >> talk to me about fema's rule as it released to the states and other other organizations. there are still rescue is underway. we are not fully done with that. we are not moved into recovery yet. >> that is right. it is really a simultaneous

process. you can register for assistance. there are life-sustaining activities continuing. >> the search and rescue teams all come together under unified command to make sure they are going door to door. they are ensuring that anyone is in need of any life-sustaining resources. get them immediately. that effort is ongoing. it is like you said. there are some communities that are isolated. commodities are being airlifted and dropped in. there are others where we just need to make sure that we sweep the entire area systematically. those searches, whatever niger uncover, they need to undress. >> let me ask you about the other part of the story. many things to many people. it was a wind storm over central florida. there was an inundation. they went out to sea and came back into south carolina. what is your e to the extent of the damage in south carolina? it was obviously a much smaller storm of the time i got you there. 80 mile per hour winds.

a category one storm. >> yes. absolutely. a category one hurricane into the hurricane. this is one that produced significant damage. there are impacts to south carolina. president biden also approved of the emergency declaration as well. as well as the north carolina declaration overnight. that provides the structure that allows us to provide emergency protecting measures. things like temporary power for critical facilities. things like search and rescue efforts if necessary. folks are on the ground today. they are assessing the damage, assessing the impacts as we speak. >> this is the associated minister of the office of response and recovery at fema. we thank you for your time this morning. i know you have a lot of work ahead of you. it is important to get the majesty message out as to what help is available and how to get it. thank you. we appreciate it. i've been here in southwest florida for the better part of

the week. we are reporting on the devastation caused by hurricane ian. i have seen a lot of damage like this. you can see it over my shoulder firsthand. i've spoken to many people who have experienced immense loss. one of the most heartbreaking places i have been to was a small community just over here. it is made up of shrimp fishermen at fort myers beach. their homes, their livelihoods are not decimated by the storm. they without basic necessities like food, water, money, pwrcell, service, even bathroom access. right now, they are stranded. on top of that, some of them feel as though they have been overlooked by their own local government. here's what they have to tell me. >> we couldn't get out of you. we were up in the shop. we were trying to take cover. we could not get out of here because of the flooding. we were up in the attic. we had us, we had a guy on crutches. in our 60s. our dog was out there. we thought they were gone. the water came up all the way.

this is peoples live. our boss does not know whether it is going to be -- we have a family. they have kids. the boat flipped. it crunched another boat. luckily, we're nice. >> everybody made it. >> yeah. everybody. teamwork. >> this is my seventh one. >> your seven hurricane? >> andrew, charlie, harvey. now ian. this is by far the worst. >> why? >> the wind. the tide. this surge. with harvey, we had a tie to surge. we were seven miles inland. we are half a mile right now. >> everyone always tells me this. people feel like this was the

one -- >> you think about. it you see the big crowd on the tv thing. what do you think? >> it looked serious. >> over the biggest crowds i had seen in my life. >> do you know where to get help? has anybody said? >> she was mentioning something. >> westminster in pennsylvania is the only one's been able to get any information. it is on line. we don't have any internet. >> no access. you can get in and out here. >> and still alive. we are stuck here. i don't know. i hope something. we are family. >> what is your livelihood? what has happened? where is your boat? >> right here. we are crossing over. >> will it still work? >> it is not done completely. it is bad. >> how are you feeling? >> i am all right right now.

i hope that nobody sees this anymore. wow. >>. . >>. >> that is my boat right there. . what was going on on the boat during the hurricane? the pope broke loose. it pushed up and hit it. that is how strong the wind was. until it was gone? >> yeah. that is on the boat here. you are sleeping on his boat? >> yeah. there is no food or nothing -- people come bra and bring us food.

i have no clothes. >> we need someplace that has shelter. >> if anybody told you where you can go? >> yes. especially the families with kids. >> i don't think they want to leave. they are in the other building. >> they don't know. anyways. >> what happened? what do you do? >> -- >> a lot of these votes are done. >> our boss says they are not able to be insured because the year they were built. they are not able to be in insured. >> a lot more of that conversation with the folks on fort myers beach. we are gonna hear more from them later in the show. all right, presidents in fort myers and throughout southwestern florida are only starting to comprehend the

devastation that behind the way could be in. thousands of people displaced. they are feeding those in need. that becomes a massive logistical undertaking. you just heard the people that i was talking to. they don't have any hot food. they have not had any awhile. they don't have any power to make of the. what i will talk to a group of volunteers. they are serving thousands of meals per day across the state. plus, back in 2005, he wrote that the relief efforts in the aftermath of hurricane katrina. there is no one better to lend the wealth of mitigating disaster knowledge than this man. he is retired lieutenant general. you are watching a special edition of velshi. we are live from fort myers, florida. residents are picking up the peach pieces after this colossal storm. >> it was scary. it was the worst feeling in the world. we felt helpless. two feet of water in my mom's apartment. in her house. my grandma's house was destroyed. these are houses i've lived in my whole life. it is gonna be a long road. it is definitely going to be a long road. long road. (vo) the older. the physically challenged.

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we are going to check back with you to see how things are going. that's bob, he is actually the owner of this whole operation. my crew is yelling at me, i know i'm on tv, i was talking to bob. this is bob's place. i was asking him what the situation was. this is a bait shop, it was a retail shop. where i'm standing right now was actually a restaurant and it kept a. this is what is left of right now. two minutes ago, you might have seen bob and shot that we had, he was up on the roof. he's trying very hard to find his safe because safe has all the documents. he has four different insurance companies that deal with the situation over here. he was trying to find safe. you could see up there, i don't know if you can get a good shot of it because the sun is up there. there was a bathroom, they were to erin b. -- this was a very big enterprise, big shop, restaurant, café, a couple of retail shops, and an airbnb, and the office for the

whole building. you can see all the stuff that is around here. by the way, some of this bob says is his, some of it he has no idea. there's a sofa over there, he doesn't know where that sofa is from. bob, like everyone else, when people ask me about covering the story, i'm almost fascinated within hours of a storm, folks like bob come out here on their own, yesterday i found him on the roof, and they're just clearing up, they are starting. they understand that there is insurance for these things but he is actually just getting going. whether you are a business owner or a homeowner, this is what you see across the nation when you see these tragedies. i asked bob how he feels about everything that is going on, he says this is a business. some people lost their lives. if there's any message to this, it is that you have to take these warnings seriously, particularly when it comes to water. these are all slips, there is votes here, there was one vote left. all the votes are across the road now. in fact, not all the votes or across the road, some of them are across the road. some of them are actually entirely gone.

just a few miles from here, not even a few miles from here, maybe a mile from here there is a little gathering, you saw some of the video, of those tempers. numbers live on their boats. in fact, my next guest is from new orleans, he's from this. when the storm comes, do you know where the shrimpers rideout? on their boats. now the boats are on dry land, that is one place a boat is not supposed to be. they're still sleeping there but there's no power, there is no fuel, there is no bathrooms anymore. there's nothing for them. these are the people in natural disasters who fall through the cracks, they are the ones who are living on the margins of society in the first place and now they don't know what to do. there was a man there who told me, he said i know everyone is worried about sandal island, i hope everyone there is safe but he said, in a good year i'm shrimper, gas prices are up, shrimp prices are up i might make $20,000 a year. i asked him if his boat is injured, he said it's not.

joining me now is a retired lieutenant general russell honoré. in 2005 russell on wright was brought in by the bush administration who managed the federal response to hurricane katrina in new orleans. he led a team of roughly 30,000 national guardsmen. 20,000 more federal troops, 50,000 people with a dozen navy ships and more than 200 helicopters. lieutenant general, welcome, good to see you, thank you for being with us. i would like, before we start talking, to play some sound for you. this is the resident i was just talking about, you know shrimpers. this is a small shrimping community here in fort myers beach, their situation right now is very bleak. these are some of the people who need the most help, listen to what they told me. >> how are you doing, how are you feeling, how long are you going to stay out here? >> we don't have anywhere to go. this is our family other than our families at home. this is how we support them. i've got a granddaughter on the

way, a grandson on the way. my husband, his mom, she has health issues, she lost her place. we all pull together in times like this. thank god we are all alive. >> thank god you are all alive. it's important that people know the story. this is something else. general, i actually stop that interview at one point because i said i need to get back and we need to added the story so people out there, whether they are local officials or america at large understand that this is just one example of people at the margins. this is a story that you tell me every hurricane, that is what we have to worry about. we have to find these people, we have to fix it for them, and then we have to fix our infrastructure so people like this don't keep on falling off the edge. >> absolutely, elie.

what we see here is the devastating impact of a cat four. that took down the grid, destroyed businesses, destroyed homes, destroyed the entire infrastructure to be able to move around, to be able to to do business, to be able to have a place to live. this is going to be a challenge that the federal government and the state has never faced, we have never faced this many homes and small businesses affected by hurricane in modern times. we have had strong hurricanes before but we never had this many people inside the hurricane zone where it came to shore as a cat four. this is going to be a rewrite of history. this will be life-changing for the elderly and the poor. history will show that many of them will not get back into their homes, and small businesses will never start again. we have to figure out how we

rewrite the script between state and federal government so we can get these people back in business and get them back in homes. the challenge is going to be, how do you find homes for hundreds of thousands of people in the interim and whether they live, ali. >> one of the things you dealt with in 2005 with katrina is that there were so many people without homes. there was so many people whose homes were flooded in a serious manner which meant they weren't going to get in in a few days. here, the water is largely receding, but there is damage to homes, there is mold, there's things like that. he said on thursday that it actually costs a lot of money just to get a trailer in place, the power necessary, the sanitation necessary for people who have been displaced. that moves from being an uncomfortable position into a crisis, and possibly a oscar crisis. one of the things that the folks at the shopping area were telling me is, there are no toilets, they need something as basic as porta-potties. >> those things will come,

they're mobilizing, they are on the way. the first 3 to 5 days to get the mobilization and get the basic lifesaving needs in. they will probably have to be an encouragement for people to evacuate. it will be hard to maintain that number of people on site in the community with debris removal, no drinking water, no electricity, no sewage. they are going to have to do a evacuation, get people to a safe place where they can live. it will take days and weeks to put what we call camps up in the area. where do you put them? in that area along the coast, the challenge of responding to a storm is logistics. when we ran task force katrina

we work on the neighbors, we used every element of government to get water up, to get sewage running, to get electricity home. there is a great team to do that. but that is going to have to be managed at the city and the county. it will need the resources to do that, just keep people alive who want to stay. but the government is going to have to encourage people, they may have to move, some of them will never get back in their homes again, they are going to have to figure out a plan on how to get people to come in and get closure and leave. this is going to be the challenge of government. there's an old saying, the front end of messaging and warning people, ensuring them that help is on the way, that is easy, that is political, it is a big promise. the challenge of starting to recover is a challenge of logistics and communications. they have to get comes in. then they know where people are

and how they can apply for assistance. they need to get the t's in their. as of yesterday, there was many places that government officials haven't been yet as you reported on tv. >> this is the interesting thing, i'm going to bear on your history and louisiana because it is a big fishing community. these people, these shrimpers are on the economic low end of the fishing community. they were telling me that their gas prices are up for their boats, their cars. the prices of trump's are down. their boats were not insured because there are really old boats. these are not folks who seem to have a lot of options outside of this. what they were telling me is that not only their lives and their money is gone, but their livelihoods are gone. that is not an easy thing for us to structurally accommodate or figure out. we can get the camps, we can get them a place to live, but how do we think about that when storms destroyed livelihoods? >> those small businesses are

key to the community. there are sba loans and shrimp falls under the usda. they are going to have to come up with new ways to handle recovery so we can get the small businesses and restructure these families so they can survive. all of that is available. the question is, will the people in washington find work-arounds to help those small businesses to get the loans that turn in the grants, ali. the first challenge is, they're going to -- most of them are under insured or not ensured at all because the cost of insurance. the insurance industry is broke when it comes to recovery from hurricanes. we lost ten companies in louisiana after hurricane ida hit louisiana last year. it is a mess, the people in congress don't have to sit down,

there are 12 committees that oversee homeland security and fema response. the book is going to have to be re-written. the way it is now, this will be a living hell during recovery for these people. we have to make some changes, ali. >> general, the number of people who i spoke to in the last few days who say that cars weren't insured, their boats won't ensured, we are gonna figure this out. times are tight, that's where people cut corners, we're gonna have to find a way to make insurance affordable and usable for everybody. general, good to see you, good to see you. former commander of joint task force katrina, the founder of the green army. we are gonna have much more from fort myers beach as residents here and in surrounding areas start to pick up the pieces and start the long process of rebuilding. after the break, returning from a natural disaster to a very unnatural disaster. vladimir putin moving ahead with the annexation of ukrainian territory right after

his russian troops have retreated from it. a live report from kyiv, the capital of ukraine, that's next. capital of ukraine, that's next next 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?

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almost a week now, southwestern florida covering the natural disaster that is hurricane ian. i want to step back, i spent several weeks in eastern europe covering a disaster of an unnatural type. russia's barbaric invasion of ukraine, it is now in day 220. despite ongoing heavier battlefield fighting and despite continued to lose ground back to ukraine by the day, despite not being in total control of any of the four regions vladimir putin has announced that russia is annexing the ukrainian regions of luhansk, donetsk, zaporizhzhia, and khorasan. it comes following a farce of a referendum including forced people being forced to vote at gun point, that is if those votes were even counted at all.

in reality, russia knew the result well before voting began. putin -- after a ridiculous and angry speech in which he framed his war of choice as a holy war that he now called against western satanism. a stance which, believe it or not, has got the backing of the russian orthodox church which says that dying in ukraine is a quote, sacrifice that quote, washes away also means. you more disturbing, putin appeared to lay the groundwork for a potential nuclear strike in ukraine, saying that united states set the president back in 1945. on the contrary, it is sober level headed remarks responding to putin, zelenskyy announced that his country is officially applying for accelerated membership into the nato alliance, saying quote, de facto we have already completed our path to nato. de facto, we have already proven interoperability with the standards, they are real for ukraine, real on the

battlefield, and in all aspects of our interaction. we trust each other, we help each other, and we protect each other. this is what the alliance is. joining me now is jay in kyiv, the capital ukraine. jay, there's been a lot of talk over the last few days, there was a boat we were talking about last week, and then there has been a lot of talk from vladimir putin. what is happening in ukraine right now? >> we can talk about the political back and forth of all of this, we might use nuclear weapons to defend what is now our country. we are going to respond partially and quickly, that back fourth continues. the reality of the response to this annexation is on the ground and it is happening right now as the counteroffensive continues to move forward. it is basically kyiv saying, you can sign whatever papers you would like to, you can make whatever proclamation would like to, our job is to reclaim our country and we are going to continue with that.

major victories in the donetsk region, five sediments that were taken and now you have ukraine forces completely surrounding lehman, which is really a major russian standing point. it is where they have house a lot of their logistics, a lot of their transportation. that is an area that is surrounded right now by ukraine fighters. 5000 or more russian fighters are in that circle, so they are moving and there is a lot of battling going back and forth. it looks like ukraine is going to take that. what that does, ali, is give them a bridge right into luhansk. that is where russia has made its most bold stand. this gives them leeway to get into that area and continue moving forward. that is exactly what they say they are going to do. all of this, remember 24 hours after that grand proclamation and the celebration in red square. what is russia doing? they are continuing to log

aerial attacks at civilian targets across ukraine right now. we have heard of major strikes in both kharkiv and zaporizhzhia. just today, convoys of civilians trying to escape the shelling, 20 or so killed yesterday including children. we don't know the complete figures from today's strike of another convoy but it looks like it may be more than a dozen. again, children involved so that is really escalating over the last few days, that russian attack into these areas. but, the response to the annexation has been clear, we just don't accept it, it doesn't hold any standing with us here. >> jay, thank you my friend. jake gray in kyiv, ukraine. joining the conversation is heather connally, she is the former director of the europe russia and eurasia program, the center for strategic and international studies. thank you for being with us. our friend ian bremer posted something on social media

yesterday which was quite funny, it said russia before putin's announcement, i'm sorry, ukraine before putin's announcement and ukraine after putin's announcement, it is exactly the same shape. can you tell me a little bit about that the stated aim of this war is to prevent expansion of nato, he is already lost that battle with respect to finland and sweden. tell me about the history of ukraine's desire to join nato, why has it not happened already? why didn't it happen in 2014 and what is likely to happen with now? n 2014 and wh>> hi, great to be with y. there is a really difficult history about ukraine seeking nato membership. it began in 2008. this is really where the nato alliance was not coherence. it did not know whether it should continue to press further or whether it should hold that line. that confusion in part led to

russia's invasion of georgia in august of 2008, occupying 20% of their territory. subsequent ukrainian governments change their constitution to prohibit ukraine from joining nato, they thought that would be a message to moscow not to fear nato's enlargement. of course, yesterday with president zelenskyy's very dramatic announcement, he wanted to seek accelerated membership. in many ways, that is a message to putin, to the kremlin to say that we are free people, we decide our alliances. that is a strong message. but honestly, what is happening, why we have 32 members joining nato is because of russian aggression. it is because of putin's acts that nato is a very popular alliance to join right now. right now, ukraine is the, i would argue, the most capable fighting nato member we have.

this decision, i'm not going to come -- it is not going to be a sweden and finland fast-track membership because of the complexity. let's not let that be on our way, let's help ukraine win this war, a war that putin cannot win. >> on one hand, you have dictators around the world who were, for the first few months of this war, taking solace in the idea that russia got to go into this other country and nobody had the ability to push them back. now it looks very, very different. now it looks like nato's help in ukraine but along with the resolve of the ukrainian fighters could push them back. now you have interest from all sorts of people, as you've been mentioning, about joining nato. how should countries like america, nato members be thinking about this? is nato going to be better to have lots of other countries that aren't actually connected to the north atlantic or to europe, but countries that can come together when another

country invades one of them or tries to attack one of them, is that a good way to think about? it or should nato be kept as tight as it is right now? >> well, clearly vladimir putin is making nato great again. you have to admit that. what we are seeing now is nato stronger, more focused and dedicated on his core task which is collective defense, the defense of its membership. you are absolutely correct, if feature of the international system truly runs through ukraine. are we going to have a system where larger countries invade their smaller neighbors and dictate to them? or are we gonna have an international system that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity? what you are seeing is partner countries like japan, like australia, others that are forming strong partnerships with nato because we have in security in the indo-pacific as well. while we concentrate on the

task at hand, which is transatlantic security, we understand that this is really a global challenge. we want to make sure that all of america's allies and partners, whether they are in the middle east, the indo-pacific, or in the western hemisphere are working together to defend sovereignty and territorial integrity. >> heather, thank you for your analysis and your expertise on this. obviously, it's not a conversation that two years ago of us thought we were going to be having about the expansion of nato and how we should think about it. now it becomes a crucial one to have. heather connally is the former director of the eurasia program and the center for strategic and international studies. she is the president of the german marshall fund. i've seen it time and time again while covering these national disasters. it is the bare necessities that into being the hardest to come by. food and water. finding clean drinking water and warm food can be extremely daunting in stressful. luckily, there are groups which specialize in providing these types of services. the founder one such group

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are without power in florida, many residents of the county where i am and where ian made landfall still have no running water. funding next meal under the circumstances is difficult. but luckily, there are several volunteer groups who have come here to help feed those in

need. mercy chefs was found in the wake of hurricane katrina now the organization is in fort myers where it serves of hot meals and comfort to victims, to volunteers, to first responders. they plan on distributing up to 30,000 hot meals a day. with us now, gary, founder and ceo of mercy chefs. he's a native of new orleans. he started mercy chefs after seeing his hometown devastated by hurricane country night in 2005. since then, his organization has served over 22 millions in 27 states and 11 countries. his crunch -- his team was in puerto rico serving meals to victims of hurricane fiona. jeff, thank you for being with us. i want to try, i think our audience gets this because they have seen enough of what you do in america and around the world, but what i'm talking to people who have lost everything, their homes there, close, the money, they're transportation, their vehicle, you can think about your next decision until you've eaten.

food is what you are searching for, you will not move forward. >> well, we think amazing things happen over a shared meal which is why we put so much love into it. we see a lot of people who have not even had a moment to contemplate their circumstances. that hot meal is love, it is compassion, it is hope in the form of a meal. we have a lot of tears and a lot of breakdowns over our meal. >> tell me about the logistics of what you do. it sounds impossible that you can get into these places that -- it is a very big undertaking. what is the logistics of come to a place like southwestern florida where there is no water, there's no power, there's also some things going on, and yet you are able to prepare hot meals, how does that work? >> we have to be fully self-contained when we get onsite, we want to make sure that we are not a burden to the community in any way. we bring our own water, we bring our own food, we bring

our own equipment, everything we need is self-contained. i have three trucks of food here on site, we have three more that are on the way. i have two of my big mobile kitchens, i have a third on the way. when it is all said and done, it is this huge operation. imagine a caterer or hotel that was able to serve 30,000 meals a day and put wheels under that and move it into a zone with absolutely no support. that is what mercy chef does on a daily basis. >> i want to ask you about, you are talking about a hot meal, a good quality meal, we often think when people are in these dire straits that they are going to get something equivalent to a military ready to eat, protein bars, something like that. why is it important to give, to put effort into the quality of the meal that people are getting who are just desperate for calories. >> that was the genesis of

mercy chef. i volunteered after concia, i saw the meals that were being sent out, god bless anybody did that, but i thought there was a better way. i thought you could do handcrafted, chef prepared meals in volume under the same circumstances and do it with love. that is what we put into these place that we serve, our heart is in there, our mission is in there. if you are going to serve somebody that has just lost everything, you should do it to the very best of your ability. that is our challenge and that is what we work so hard to do. >> what do you need? if our viewers are watching right now, how can they help you do what you are doing? >> first of all, people can know that the folks here in this part of florida are suffering greatly. our hearts are breaking for the people in florida. everybody that comes, please send your prayers out to the folks here in florida that they

will be okay, that they will know that they have not been forgotten in their time of need. beyond that, if folks would like to give behind some of the organizations that are here on the ground, that is what they need to do. the cost of everybody down here that is working is incredible. if you want to fall in realtime or ask questions, see what we are doing, our website at mercy chef.com is a great place to go. there are links there to volunteer with us, there are links there to support us financially. just don't forget the people here in florida, and our friends in puerto rico, the dominican republic, many other places that hurricanes have hit. we are working also. >> we are going to tweet that oh by the way, how people can support you. since being touted you have served over 22 million meals in 160 disasters, 27 states and 11 countries.

thank you for what you do, thank you for the people who work with you and thank you to the people i know are going to be supporting your mission. gary, founder and ceo of the mercy chefs. about 30 miles north of where i am in fort myers beach is the small town of port charlotte. it is across the charlotte harbor from putin gorda. eons winds left most of port charlotte in shambles. a lot of neighborhoods are entirely flooded. if you look at video taken by bailey, that's what you're watching right now, who waited out the storm with her in laws, her husband, and a 20 month old son. take a look at this video she took when the eyewall of the storm hit on wednesday. remember, the eyewall is the strongest part. the eye is relatively calm, the eyewall is the worst of the storm. she took this video in that. bailey joins me, she's in st. petersburg after waiting out the storm in port charlotte. bailey, thank you for being with us. that is a lot of people that

you were waiting with, you are in office, your husband, and you're 20-month-old son. was that a conscious decision to stay or to dissing start bearing on you before you had had a chance to get out? >> we live in tampa and we thought we were doing the right thing, we evacuated to port charlotte, it looks like it wasn't going to hit. as we were watching we were actually in his own be, almost see. we didn't realize we had to evacuate until last minute. when we were about to get on the road, a lot of the new stations were starting to say there is a lot of tornado activity, it is nighttime out, you need to wait until the morning. we did, i woke up at 5 am wednesday morning and at that time we started notifications from our friends and family, from the stations that because of the force of the winds right now all of our shelters had shut down and we're no longer accepting people. ha i don't know if that was true or not, but because i had my son with me, we just don't want

to risk it and get stuck in our car in the middle of the storm. >> two things, before the storm landed there were nine tornadoes, nine actual tornadoes touched down. you don't want to be moving while it was happening. once that rain starts, i wasn't able when it happened, within 20 minutes it was impossible to move. if you are not moved before and you are not going to be able to get in your car because we went from 6 to 3 features -- where you were, it was even harder, at that point you are actually seeing the warnings and doing the right thing, you ended up getting stuff. how do you feel through all of this? you were in port charlotte, you want there to be safe and you are basically in the armstrong. >> we were terrified, but before we lost power, we gotta notification that we were looking at storm surge where we are. at that point, we tied a rope to our boat enough now and

bought our tax in. we thought we were going to be floating. i had had a conversation with my husband and my in laws and say, everybody's priority is to protect my son. if you need let me go, if i need to die for him then i will. everybody was on the same page. it was terrifying, especially the second half of the storm. most of my videos were filmed in the first half of the storm. we had p.i. in ten minutes, the second half, i couldn't even go outside. it wasn't even outside. the doors, we had to hold shut to prevent them from caving in. neighbors roofs will being ripped off and we were storm shuttered for most of the way. we had two doors open in case we had to get out because of the flooding. honestly, the most terrifying experience that i've been through.

i'm a native floridian so i've been to hurricane charlie, i've been through many hurricanes, this is by far the worst one. >> tell me about your situation now in terms of power, water, and light. power, water, and gas? >> yesterday we waited in line for four hours to get gas. we were able to get gas and start of the generator there. because we live in tampa, my husband and i drove up here to see what our house looks like. our porch is kind of wrapped, but other than that it is okay. we don't have power here and we don't know when we are going to get power. he was trying to get it up as fast as he could. we were going to go back down to port charlotte but now we are getting notifications that the highway shut down because it is flooded. there is not a safe way back. when we were driving up, we had to go to north port and there are county construction signs that say turn around or you

will drowned. it is a very sad gary situation, we can get back to our family and we can contact them sporadically but a lot of the cell towers are down so there are still friends and family we haven't heard from. >> bill bailey, you made a pact with your family that you would all die for your son. i can't believe that you had to do that, i'm so grateful that none of that came to fruition. bailey, i'm glad that you are safe. it is a remarkable story. you did all the right stuff and you got caught right in the hurricane. that is what is so difficult about the situations. i'm glad you are all safe. our love and our thoughts to your family. i want to show you what is going on here where i am. you can see this building behind me, a few minutes ago i was talking to bob, the owner of it. you can see they have heavy equipment coming in to try to get this building taken down. what you can see on the top there is a number of the families and friends of the owner, they are still looking for the safe, the state has the

documents in it. this owner's business is supported by four different insurance companies. they would like the documents out of the safe, they just don't know where that safe actually is. that is why they are on top of the roof while the heavy equipment is starting to clear what is going on. they're hoping to have that building torn down by today. when i asked the owner of it how he feels bolting, he says it is just a business, no one lost their lives. we're gonna have much more on the situation here in fort myers beach and across florida as residents begin the long process of taking stock and rebuilding. the next hour, i will talk to the deputy secretary of competition creation and the administrator under obama, another hour of velshi live from fort myers beach florida, starts now. s beach florida, starts now good morning to you, it is saturday, october 1st, 9 am in the east and 6 am in the west.