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. i am coming to you live from

fort myers beach, florida, one of the cities that was hardest hit by hurricane ian, hurricane ian made landfall on wednesday afternoon in florida as a category four hurricane. it was just a few miles shy, two miles per hour shy of being a category five storm, the likes of which have only been experienced four times in u.s. history. at this hour, more than 1.2 million people across florida are still without power, and as of late yesterday parts of the county where i am now, where ian did make landfall, did not have access to clean drinking water. in fact, much of where i am now has no access to power either. hard to know exactly how many people are displaced this time, officials are estimating it is in the thousands, possibly tens of thousands, at least 34 people have been confirmed dead so far, 12 of them here in lee county. after hitting florida eons rain grain strength over the atlantic ocean. what across florida, went out in the atlantic, and made a second landfall as a category one hurricane in south carolina

yesterday afternoon. the damage is currently being assessed in the carolinas and does not compare to the devastation that he en route throughout west southwestern florida. you can see the aftermath, you can see the broken things like this behind me. the houses, buildings, boats, all destroyed. it is going to take time and eventually the state and federal government will have to assess the infrastructure, bridges, roads, ports, trains, broadband, and everything else that connects people and allows them to live, i am joined now by the u.s. deputy secretary of transportation. thank you for being with us, we appreciate it, there is a big mission here that has to be taken care of in florida, some of it is the recovery and the rebuild, which are going to have some rolling. and, some of it is the consideration of all of the things that go wrong when these massive, destructive forces hit our country. tell me, tell me how you are thinking about this right now. >> yes, well, first of all,

thank you for having me and let me just say our thoughts and prayers are with all of those who suffered such devastating losses in this terrible hurricane. lost homes, livelihoods, and in some cases lives, the u.s. d.o.t. are proud to be part of the whole government effort. both getting on the ground, particularly to assess what is happening on the transportation front, to work with reopening airports and making sure we are getting critical supplies to the area. but, you are right, there is going to be a much longer process to assess all the damage and start to work with state and local officials to see how we recover and rebuild. >> let me ask you about the things you are thinking about right now in terms of infrastructure, in terms of transportation, as we drive around southwestern florida you come onto a road and it is close because there is a vote on it. or there is a tree across it, or there are power lines down. while there are power lines that are down in the street, you cannot re-generous those because people get electrocuted. one of the things you are

thinking about? one of the things the department of transportation is doing immediately to facilitate rescue and recovery? >> right, i mean, first of all we are partnering with fema, as you know, you are on the ground and there is still a lot of urgent rescue work happening, but we will also be starting the process of florida d.o.t. and state and local officials to do the assessment of those roadways. obviously to first focus on the critical arteries where we need to get supplies, medical care through, and, as i mentioned focusing on getting airports open and functional again so we can get rescue personnel, supplies, fuel, we are also working with the trucking community and the shipping community to make sure they have all of the legal authority they need to be on the ground as needed. >> what is your sense, obviously, during hurricanes there are requests to help private organizations or do what people want to do in terms of sending funds. they always tell you, do not send stuff because logistically it becomes very hard to send

stuff, but the government and fema obviously have to send stuff. we see roads filled with these electrical cherry picker trucks that helped put the lines back and. that becomes part of your priority, right? making sure that these vehicles that need to move goods and supplies, and emergency workers can get around. what does that look like for you? >> absolutely, again, that is working closely with the tracking community to make sure they have all of the legal authorities in place, bringing heavy loads and focusing first on those key arteries. helping with fema, the locals on the ground to make sure we get that is cleared, start to get the supplies in place. we recognize it is a big challenge, you are on the ground in such a large area of devastation and we want to be right there, with fema and other partners making sure we're doing everything we can to get fuel, food, medical supplies, everything that is needed on the ground. >> holly is the u.s. deputy secretary of transportation, we

appreciate you joining us and thank you for the work you and your team are doing at the department of transportation and in the federal government to help this recovery. recovery efforts here in florida are underway as we were discussing, they're going to continue not for hours and days but weeks to come, maybe months. in the immediate aftermath of hurricane ian, some of the most desperate residents in this region are concerned that help is not being doled out equally or fairly. here is what some residents from a poor community of shrimp fishermen that i spoke with yesterday had to say about it. >> i do not want to say but, they are worried about santa belle, god bless them, they earn their money and everything. you know? but, you fly around here and you look at this devastation, right here, nobody is worried about us a little people. the people that do not make millions of dollars a year. i would be doing good to make $25,000 a year. and, right now, everything i have is wet, so i am having to keep that both floating and going in and out in 105 or

hundred 50 mile an hour wind. but, today, they are seeing sanitation before it gets really ranked down here. and we just have nobody, we do not have anybody to call, no officials have come down here. you know? they have not come down and said we can get this or whatever. they said, you are the second reporter i have talked to since yesterday. >> that is it, nobody else has come? >> nobody else. we are out of water, we have not taken a shower and three days, i am surprised you are standing here. nobody is holding their nose. >> you smell like humanity, like the strength of the human spirit. don't worry about it, i will come real close to you. i will come really close. do not have to shower for a week or a month or i would still stand right here. i mean, we had a light moment there and people were making the best of it, but it is not light. it is serious, they have not had water, food, power, cell phone connections, they do not

have their cell phones charged, they do not have the identity that they require an order to start making claims for money that they might be entitled to, and they are not in a shelter. for miles city councilman, and fort myers is a different cities in fort myers beach, a different place. he is a native of the town, fred, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it, you are not a city counselor in fort myers beach, but there are these situations all over the place. there are people whose existence was on the margins of society, and, they need help. what is your sense of how this is being addressed? >> well, i think the rescue people are doing everything they can to assist everybody, it is not just fort myers beach that was devastated, or sanibel island. a lot of these inland cities are devastated as well. fort myers is seven or eight miles inland, even though we

are on the river, we are still inland from the coast. at the same time we ended up with both in downtown fort myers on the street because of flooding. and, fortunately they never came into the house but, my neighbors did not have water in their house, the people that i live next door to had four and five feet of water in their home. this is a wide swath of destruction, not isolated to just a couple of islands. it is devastating, kind of a war zone, here. >> yes, i mean, no question about that. it really, as i have been trying to convey it, we try to convey and pictures and we can see this building that is right behind, me right now, it is hard to believe that this is happening. but, do you believe that the authorities, whether they are at your level at the city council or the state level, or the federal government. do you believe they're well coordinated and doing everything they can right now? is there something else she

would like to see happening? >> i believe they are doing everything that they can, you know, the federal government has already offered help, the state has offered help, we have military in here, we have, i do not, now i do not live that far from the airport here in downtown fort myers. i do not know how many helicopters came over the house yesterday, heading toward the islands to remove people that are stranded. they're having gas trucked in as quickly as we can. the 75 a shutdown in both directions, now. so, that is going to hinder gas and people. both eyes 75 and i-31 up in sarasota. rising, so, it is going to be a long time to return to normal,

around here. >> fred, it is going to be a long time and there's a lot of work today, you are looking at the screen of the building, where you're certain to clean that up. fred is a city councilman for fort myers, florida, representing the fifth ward of that city, neighboring to where i am, here, in fort myers beach. we talked about the volunteer groups that are helping to feed hurricane and survivors, volunteers from other states are also pitching in. united cajun navy has talked to the boat captains who go and rescue people won in a boat rescue. or a rescue that has to happen by about. first, so many floridians left their homes and came back to nothing but a foundation. nbc news spoke to a few of them. >> pretty much, i think i have lost everything i own. i'm trying to be brave, and know that my family and i are safe. and i will worry about all the other stuff later. >> i am 67, lived here five

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who i've just found because this is how you find when you spend a lot of time at disasters, natural disasters and unnatural ones like wars, he is the founder of the organization called world central kitchen, which has mobilized to florida, as it always does to feed those in need, so far they have doled out upwards of 60,000 meals, but you are in puerto rico right before this. >> turks and caicos, reena, alaska, canada. >> yes, because fiona wants canada as well, i would love to stop thinking of you as a chef at fancy restaurants because this seems to be your life mission now, but i want our viewers to understand, i was

with your operation in poland, we were both in warsaw at the same time, i was in ukraine. what do you do? how do you get in here faster than even we do as journalists and aid workers, and you are able to figure out, in places where you do not have infrastructure, have to make it work? >> hurricanes, we try to arrive before the hurricane, the issue is that now people are complaining if we have enough people around here, they say we need to live, even for us following this hurricane is impossible, we tried to position ourselves and start in tampa, all the way south, trying to close over the hurricane, if you are able to know where it is going to hit and quickly you move the resources, but what are the resources? it is not things i bring, when i can and i activate the local infrastructure. what that means, if i have food trucks that we can start feeding, we partner with them. >> yes, if i can be helping

restaurants, and say hey can you join us, we have the, we do it. we have a big kitchen in tampa, where about to open another big kitchen right here tomorrow at the sport complex, right here in lee county, tomorrow we already have it, we have restaurants, food trucks, helicopters, for the last two days we have landed every day and sanibel island, and bring supplies. >> yesterday i brought in myself, i was able to bring a helicopter with water a few times. hot meals, sandwiches, for, and today we are going back, now we have local people that are becoming volunteers, using the local resources allow us to be quick. it is not as we do it, we have the locals and we empower them to have a good response. >> you can't start out a day before a hurricane, do you have people working with disasters in places that could hit days weeks before?

we will come in, we will help you with infrastructure, we need your stuff. how do you find the local food truck, just walk up to it and say do you want to join our mission? >> the restaurant community is very broad, we are very together, at this point many people know about us and they had people who reach out, but yes, we have people trying to say. i go to a place and the first thing i do is, where the food warehouses? you cannot call them, there is no cell signal. where the restaurants? what is the biggest kitchen? i was calling the owner of the tampa buccaneers, he was very nice and responded because i was thinking, if this is hitting tampa than i need the biggest kitchen. what is one of the biggest kitchens anywhere? the kitchens in a football stadium. obviously, things did not happen, they're unfortunately they happened here. but this is a mindset we had. during the pandemic we will have the stadium of the nationals because it was a lot of people that we had to be feeding during the pandemic in washington. you see, that is the way we think, what happened in katrina at the superdome, thousands of

americans that went for days without food and water, that should never have happened, why? because the best restaurants of america or new orleans, the best chefs or new orleans. and, they warehouse that fades new orleans was only 27 miles from the superdome. if i was there, and i was not, i was supposed to go there and start feuding inside the superdome, that is the moment that i thought, wow, in emergencies you send firefighters to stop fires, rescue to do the days. you should be sunday in the middle of a hurricane to feed a hurricane. who do you think is the best papal? get people to know where the food is, where the kitchens are, and then start searching for people in the. >> so, in the same way they are called firefighters because they have experience fighting fires in they know how to do it, and if a person has a fire in their home the prairie starting the fire off, but in the hurricane if you have lost your home and it flooded, you evacuated your car is gone. all that kind of stuff. you had discussed this in europe, you need food. you cannot thank, you cannot

make plans or think about what the next step is to find your paperwork if you do not have food. >> you are right, this is deeper than that. fema has done great work, prepositioning the meals, ready to eat, water,. >> but, we need to remember that the important thing is not to have the assets, the important thing is not to have the food, then you have to go looking for the people, that is why what we do, more than cooking, as hard as it may be after hurricane, what we really do is create systems of distribution. i already have them in santa belle, i have medicine for three more days, he said can you help me get medicine, today i'm meeting with him, he is going to save me the list that he has other friends, you see this when you get a distribution system, not only bringing food and water. you are contacting the locals, you go back every day and they know you they can rely on you.

they need soil lights because it is pitch black, they need to charge their phones, we are about to get soil lights, tens of thousands of them. this is what we do, if they need medicine and they are saying i need help, it is not with cell phone signal yet and we bring him the medicine. what we do is distribution. we make sure we reach everybody. and ukraine, as ukrainian troops are liberate in the cities, with no infrastructure, with no supermarkets, what do i do only feel it is safe? and enemy troops, and the russian soldiers, we go to them, why? because they can't come to us. that is what we do, distribution is what wins the day, and planning. and planning put aside, you need to be there because if you plan too much, what happens? nothing goes as you planned, then the teams phrase. when you teach everybody to adapt to chaos and mayhem, that is an opportunity to serve, that is what we do. >> i will say, when i was in

ukraine i interviewed one of your senior people and it was supposed to be this conversation about food distribution in ukraine and a missile hit right outside of one of your places where you preparing food in kharkiv. he became a reporter for us in that moment. he came up, describe the whole thing to us. you put yourselves in dangerous way, i am always grateful to you, my friend, thank you for doing what you do, i am going to put up on my twitter how people can support the work that you do, the more they can give you the more work you can do, the more people you can reach, okay, this is chef jose andreas, he is literally everywhere. the other huge an immediate basic nate in southwest florida right now is shelter. not just for those who have lost their homes but for all of these people whose homes are uninhabitable, people without power or whose homes are flooded, roads and hotels and resorts, based in florida has opened its doors and is offering reduced rates. get this, reduced, so the people can safely and affordable shelter in the

storm. this is the opposite of what typically happens, by the way. we see a lot of price gouging, hotels, places that have food, anything you actually need, they are offering reduced rates. joining me now is the director of guest contact for rosen hotels and resorts, based here in florida, jennifer, this is a philosophical and ideological decision that one has to make. in a moment of stress, and a moment of scarcity, people jack prices up, there are laws against doing it but the bottom line is it happens all over the place. you have actually, at rosen hotels and resorts, made the opposite decision, tell me about this and why. >> 100%, for 48 years we have said people have unexpected expenses, this is not a staycation, their livelihood is on the line and we were like, it is not the right thing to do, it is not the moral thing to do to make money off of them, what is rioters for neighbors to take care of neighbors, and that is what we do, we are in the hospitality industry and we want to help our neighbors, the

people that are there for us the rest of the year, ranting rooms, visiting, disney visiting universal, spending their vacation with us, we want to make them feel as comfortable as possible during these uncertain times. so, we always reduce our rates during the hurricane so we can take in as many people as possible and help them out, it is the right thing to do. >> we often say one of the reasons people do not leave, particularly those in distress areas who are on the margins of society, maybe low income, is because you are thinking about that extra tank of gas at times when gas prices that die are high, we think about accommodation because you may not make it final to stay with family or you may not have families who are closer than a bye. so, you are thinking about all of those extra costs, you are trying to help people, when it comes to accommodation we are at least going to help you manage that part of it. you ever meet people or do you know of people who come to your hotels and say that that made the difference? that let me get out of my house which ended up being either destroyed or flooded? >> 100%, we have people storm

after storm, unfortunately i wish i did not have to say that, but i do in florida, they say we came back again because not only did you take care of us, you allowed us to bring our pets, you did not charge us to bring our pets, you talked to our children, you made us feel welcome, you kept us informed and we felt as though as we were safe at an unsafe time. . >> when i say at a hotel, and i say a lot of hotels, that is not the obligation of the hotel, they give me room, service, maybe food do your staff think about this differently when they are receiving guests who are taking advantage of a distressed rate because they're leaving their house? they have a different set of needs, including pets, but, their needs and their fears are different than when i go to a hotel, or one of my viewers goes to a hotel for a vacation or a business trip. >> 100%, i think there is an arm players are so empathetic

to those who are coming up is because we are taking in our employees families as well, when i'm plays come with us and they are part of the rideout team, we have them bring their families and pets along, we take care of their families while they are there, we feed their families, they see what we are doing for them and in turn they want to do the same thing for our guests, i think that is what makes it such a beautiful relationship. then they have a better understanding of what the hospitality industry is all about, and you just said it, we do not have an obligation but really we do, it is our obligation in the hospitality industry to take care of others. i think we at rosen hotels and resorts do that best, we want people to remember us when they come back to central florida, that we treat you fairly all the time. >> jennifer is the director of gas contact at rosenthal tells and resorts, this is a hotel group that offers to stress rates where they lower their prices in times of destruction and tragedy. thank you for joining, us thank you for keeping people safe and

letting them evacuate their homes. up next, as millions of americans are in need of relief after hurricane and i have the perfect person joining me, craig is the former head of fema but when he served as the director of the florida emergency management division he largest the largest florida disaster response in the state's history, he is just the guy to talk to and he is up 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? people remember ads with young people i thhaving a good time.les. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's a pool party. ♪ good times. insurance! ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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largest federal disaster response in a state's history one fader for major hurricanes rocky state in the span of just six weeks into thousand four, currently at a chief resilience officer at one concern, thank you for joining, us you did not get much sleep last night because we were talking late last night, the third good day in florida, good weather and the ability for things to move, right behind me there are people taking care of the structure that has been severely damaged. but, as you and i discussed last week there is a lot to do, there are people isolated in the state, some are still trapped in a house, they need a boat to get them out, and some it is unclear of where they are supposed to go for help, and what kind of help is available to them. for anybody who knows one of those people, what should they know? what should people know about what they should do now if they have suffered destruction to their home? if they are homeless, if their vehicle is gone and their livelihood is eliminated? >> for those people that had

insurance, get a hold of your insurance agents, they will give you a check a lot of times to get out there, like you said in the last break. places like rosen hotels, other places outside the area of our great partners. this is why we talk about whole communities, it is not just the government but it is about people coming together. if you do not have insurance, you are not sure about your insurance, you cannot get hold of them, you can contact fema and call their 800 number, if people have communication numbers in the area. somebody outside of that area has that information, they can start getting that with that assistance. a push right now for certain rescue is continuing, really start addressing the temporary housing. for a lot of people if they're able to get out of that area and to get somewhere safe, fema does provide temporary housing. that is basically giving out the ability to state hotels and motels. this is important, you do not have to have money. this is not about whether you can perform for this, this is

what fema provides, this is what taxpayers in congress intense for fema to provide. again, for a lot of people that did not have much, that is really the fema focuses on because they are the ones who did not have insurance, or did not have enough insurance, and that is really the design of the program. if insurance can take care of you, that is how you go, if you can afford a loan they listened to the small business administration. for a lot of folks who did not have anything left, those are in the fema program. right now the big focus is providing temporary housing assistance to those people. >> one of the things that we still don't have a handle on right now, craig, is how and people are actually without shelter, how many people are homeless? we know that a lot of people shelters are full, now they need more shelters, i was talking to -- an hour ago and they were saying, fema can establish tense if they have to, they can keep on procuring places for shelter, but, for some reason we do not yet have a handle on who all needs this days after that.

part of that is a communication problem, part of it is itself on towers go down and they run out of power for their phones and cannot communicate. this is obviously this is something you have seen develop a lot since your days in florida and as head of fema. how do we think about the communications infrastructure and how we can use that to get help from people who need it faster? >> yes, that has always been a challenge, when i was state director at fema really focused on the broadcasters, radio stations that can get in, congestion, internet is down but radio can still get in. radio stations, both the commercial and the npr stations are trying to get this information out. fema will start getting teams in their. where we are at right now, we are on day three and people are like, what is next but we are still focused on search and rescue. fema, and this is what i did when i was at fema and when we were in state, we sent teams into shelters to start registering people for assistance and finding out what they needed for housing, and

whether or not we needed to provide them assistance and start getting that. this is going to be, people are going to be indifferent phases because we still have people we have not gotten to. there are now people day three who are going where do i go where do i stay? the whole response is still very much in this response phase with lifesaving. as they start pivoting to longer term care. so, basically, if they are somewhere safe that was the first goal. now, the second goal will be, once they are somewhere safe what are they going to need to move to the next stage. for a lot of folks, like we see what the mobile homes and other things that have flooded and wiped out homes, they cannot get back in there and where do they go? the other thing. and this makes it more of a challenge. not something a challenge so much but something we do need to know. a lot of these structures we need to determine who where they full-time permanent residents and who have people who come down in the wet winter? have they come down yet? this is before a lot of the folks have come down.

a lot of this impact and we do not know, it maybe people who had not come home. we saw this with hurricane charlie, we saw this tremendous devastation to mobile home parks but the permanent full-time residents was a much smaller number because a lot of folks have not come down for winter yet. >> that is a very interesting point, i had not thought about it, a lot of authorities here in lee county are trying to get a count and a census of who was there and i do not have a full handle of it. of course, that is a valid point that we are still a little bit early for some people who otherwise winter here. greg, thank you, that is why it is always great to have your expertise. your specific airspace, not just at fema but here in florida. he is the former head of fema and the chief resilience officer at one concern. the storm has passed, it is gone from florida, there are many dangers to consider, state officials are warning residents to stay out of floodwaters and there is a very good reason for that, live electrical wires. check out what my colleague encountered in orlando. >> can you see it?

that is an alligator. we believe, yeah, so, that is what is in the waters and obviously whenever we cover floods we are always trying to stress that you don't want to go into the waters we, this is about as good a reason why as you should not go in the water. we do not know everything that is in there right now, but we know that that is a problem and i do not know if that is the same alligator that has been hanging out in the front yard near us, but that is a situation in orlando right now. ando right now twelve irresistible new subs. the most epic sandwich roster ever created. ♪♪ it's subway's biggest refresh yet!

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the moment you continue to excavators, one is close to us on the right side of your screen. let's building was a bait shop, a charter operation for boats, a café, a retail store, and office and a structure on top was an airbnb. it has to apartments, you can see the thing i'm standing on in the bathroom. these excavators are now taking this down, on the left side of your screen you can say three men on top. last i checked, i have not visited with them in about half an hour, but last checked they were still trying to find the safe, that is the office of the operation and they need to find a safe because there are documents in there, the documents are useful and they need them for insurance purposes. that is what is going on.

that is just one scene of dozens or possibly has it hundreds of like this. the excavators are here on saturday morning because that is the earliest they can hire. they are not local, they are from somewhere many miles north of here. you've heard many of my ghastly this morning the ongoing rescue our efforts in florida, there's no rescue going on behind me, this is just a building that is destroyed. but, the ongoing rescue efforts are going to take an all hands on deck approach at the local, state, and federal levels. but, all of this work requires helping hands from grips having to do with government. the cajun navy, that is a nonprofit that organizes search and rescue teams are naturalists astors, assisting ongoing rescue efforts made by land, air, and see. truly one of the more fascinating organizations around because of the way they are able to integrate with local authorities and state police. the coast guard, and all of these different groups. joining me now is a search and rescue captain with the united

cajun navy. the organization has received more than 500 tickets, which just in search and rescue assistance. they are on their way to pine island, nearby, to give aid. jordy, tell me about the situation you are and, now wear your head, and what you are about to do. >> we are in fort myers, heading to pine island now. i was not in pine island yesterday because we were split up. there were still so many tickets coming in like you mentioned. there was a team over there. so,, i am going back there with them this morning. >> tell me what a ticket means, who is the person who gets to the information about where you need to go where you need to do? >> so, we have integrated an online system through our website that you can go online and fill out a ticket, as we call it, to be rescued, or a wellness check, and then you can fill up the information, address, things of that nature,

so we have an idea and it auto-populates to a map. they are sinus tickets in the area and we go into the area and work from there. >> how do you figure out or establish what ways you are helping local authorities and not duplicating the work that they have? because, in theory, somebody could flood a ticket for you and call 9-1-1, and figure out some other way of getting a rescue, how does that get coordinated, if at all? >> unfortunately, it does happen that it is double booked, so to speak, best we can we try to work with law enforcement and behind them, to not get in their way, and when we go into these areas usually there is someone station close by, where the water is blocking roads and we will talk to them, see if maybe they have an update or an all clear from the area that we can write the ticket off, or there are still people back there. usually they are pretty good idea for the exact situation,

we can work with them and get in their way, cause more problems, they are a very good tool to work with. >> tell me, for folks who do not know, who you are people are and what kind of barrier half, and how you travel with that stuff. how do you position yourself when there's something like this? do you wait until it happened or do you pray position? >> we do both depending on where the storm is coming from, we have new volunteers every year which is awesome, sometimes people can help and sometimes they cannot. we will usually position a team or two, or state police close as possible to the storm, and then out from home and to some logistics, come and once we have an idea of the situation, we do not want to overshoot what might be in that hand. some say last year when it hits around the block, there was flooding but it receded very

quickly and there were rescues we made, rail one thanking everyone immediately with boats. we will be awhile before we can start on the recovery side of things, donations, things like that, food, medical supplies. >> okay, we are going to tweet out information about how people can donate to you, sender the donations that you need of food or money. and, people who want to get involved with the united cajun navy, jordy is a search and rescue captain with the united cajun navy, they are not on tv because they are nearby undertaking rescues. i want to look at the building nearby because this is an effort to get this cleared up. we are seeing excavators on both sides of the building i think we have a shot of one over there at the moment. right now it is fairly steady but we have the owner and some people we know who are trying to clear up as the excavator is now taking the lumber and the parts of this building. now there is no repair to be

had to this building. it has to come down and insurance will deal with the rest, the winds from hurricane and were just a few miles per hour shy of a category five hurricane, a very, very powerful category four. today number on the power grid. we will get an update from duke energy, working around the clock to get lights back on in florida. florida. ny, the new outlaw's got double pepper jack 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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without power in the state of florida, parts of florida's electric grid are completely destroyed any to be rebuilt in the ground up after the storm slammed into the states southwest coast on wednesday. some parts are okay and just need repairs, one company is working to restore power across the state, it serves 35 counties in florida, nearly 2 million customers, with me now as a florida state president for duke energy, which supplies electricity to 1.9 million residential customers and

industrial customers around the state. what is the situation with the areas and the customers that you've service right now? >> good morning, as of this morning we have restored power to over 835,000 customers. we still have about 242,000 that are off. about half of those are in central florida, in our hardest hit areas. >> let's talk about how this goes when you recover power, when you see the power truck anywhere, all over the place, on this particular street that i am on all of the polls are 40 degrees to land, you cannot fix as powerlines until the polls are back up and you can send electricity to them. what is the order of operations and who can expect they get it first? who gets it last? >> it starts with planning,

that includes bringing incurs, a lot people have talked about seeing crews staged all over the state of florida but, where we are right now is having completed the damage assessment, which is a really critical part of what we have to do because it tells us how to deploy our resources efficiently and effectively, and, at the same time we are still able to restore, we are in full blown restoration process, now, but, for example we may have to bring injury crews to remove vegetation, that is blocking polls, downed wires, we have to get that out of the way but what we can get crews and their to start putting those polls back in the ground, and why are back in the air. >> tell me about the relationship between say water flooding and electricity generation and distribution. >> we have seen part of our service area that have

sustained flooding, it creates a unique set of circumstances when it comes to safety, and when it comes to restoration, so, we are assessing those areas, working with our local emergency authorities, to make sure that it is safe to go in and began restoring. but, flooded areas tend to be some of the last that we can get into. we have a grid that allows us to reroute power to get the most customers on, but flooded areas do present a real challenge for all utilities. >> yeah we're trying to get some renewables out there, is that just because we should be using renewables and solar? or, does that actually help you at disaster preparedness? is there some sense of the house powered by solar panels is potentially going to get their electricity back or not lose it in a hurricane? >> so, with renewables or any

asset that is out there and generates power, renewables, for example, would have to rely first and foremost on the availability of the sun, so during the event cloud cover, rain can interfere with that. but, certainly, once the weather passes, someone who has that type of asset on their home can benefit from that. they would need to have battery also, once the sun goes down at night, also look are still connected to the grid, they are not completely, 100% separated from the electric utility grad. it is a combination of both and we look at all of our generating assets on how severe weather can impact those, which try to plan for those and also try to communicate with our customers about what we are expecting, so that they can prepare, including those

customers that have renewables up their respective hope. >> thank you for your time, good luck on continuing to restore the power to those customers, still do not have it from duke energy, this was the florida state president riddick energy. we have more after the break. he break it's the all-new subway series menu. twelve irresistible new subs. the most epic sandwich roster ever created. ♪♪ it's subway's biggest refresh yet! i want to show you a video of

the coast guard rescued and sensible, florida. amanda started on his boat. the coast guard sent an aircrew and caused him to safety. this is just one in many of people in need of rescue especially in hard-to-reach places like santa belle, it is a very small island that is once a popular vacation spot. now it has been torn to shreds. it is effectively cut off in the rest of the state. there is a single causeway that connected to the mainland and that causeway isn't pieces. morgan chesky got an up close view. >> to view the damage up close is almost frightening. to see just how easily into truther tons of concrete and steel. but, to hear the damage from above it's heartbreaking. when you realize this is the only way and entire community can reach the place they call home. >> let me show you a little bit

about what is going on behind me before i go. as we said, we have been watching this all morning and talking to the owner of this charter operation for fishing boats, the boats, by the way, we're all here. there are no boats, you can see, there are no more votes. i will show you where some of the boats are, look across the road. these are some of the boats that were in this pier, in these slips. there is a building across the road that was part of this operation, this chart arundel operation. they have some excavators in here, they had to wait a couple of days to get them and start taking this off. this is the owner of the operation, come over here for a second for the end of our show, i want to get an update. i see him if you excavators in here. what is the plan? >> the plan now is to gather all of this, take it to the town, if they are open today they will reopen on monday. get everything safe so they can make some partnering parking if they need to park stuff for beach rescues and the

construction. they can cleanup and we can start over. >> you are out here right at the beginning, i saw you on your roof, it was such a big job and a big mass but you started. you have started to clean up and look for things. >> yes, look for little things, nothing all important that we are alive. the stuff that got destroyed, finding little stuff, some things we are not going to save. but just to pick up and see what was there in case there was anything in there. and, that is it, now we will check and start over again. >> you are going to start over again. are you feeling all right? >> yes, feeling good, optimistic about everything and sometimes you to look at stuff like this and say okay. we can start over again. >> we have great solace and energy out of watching you for the last couple of days, your team in the people you have working with you. >> they are also dedicated, that was the big thing, this is

an operating marina. they were really dedicated to it, it is like a family and their business. and so, that is why they are here now, cleanup and start over. >> we are going to keep on watching what you are doing, thank you for taking time talk to us. >> thank you, gets us out a little bit because we are hearing about a lot of damage down here. we look at this, thank you, guys. >> this is his place, they are cleaning it up, all across florida they are cleaning up and getting going. a lot of people still need help, who still have not seen the hope. they need authorities, money, desperate for shelter, and water, and clean food. hopefully as the word gets out they will start to get it. i will leave it there for, now i will see you again. it is up next.

good morning, welcome to the cross connection and right now south carolina isn't its first full day of recovery, hurricane ian made its second landfall as category one storm yesterday, they storm surge brought several feet of intense flooding is damaged and destroyed four patient fears. fishing fairs across the south carolina coast, including this one that you see near north myrtle beach. now, tens of thousands of south carolina residents still remain without power this with a post-tropical cyclone, and is pushing north the national hurricane center warns that record flooding will continue through next week in florida. now, that state is on its third day of recovery from eons destruction. homes have been leveled with entire neighborhoods wiped out. here are some of the residents explaining the nightmare that they have been through. >> i watched my house disappear.