welcome back, everyone.

-- top of the hour, we will take you back to the fema directors that are going on right now. this news conference and we will listen to the very latest from winter park, florida, and get an update on recovery and rescue operations there. >> -- fema back to flood insurance. what kind of turnaround or how long until you expect people to be able to receive -- to face what's needed in their homes? how long do the inspections and claims take? >> yeah, one of the very first things that everybody should do

is contact their insurance company to see what is going to be eligible. this includes flood insurance, which is -- by fema and also some of the other insurances they have for wind damage, et cetera. they are going to have to file that claim. one of the first thing that's going to have to happen is an inspection of that home, so they can determine the extent of damages. that will depend on the availability to access the homes. we know that there are still many homes that might be underwater. and so, the first step is to contact their insurance company and file that claim. get that process started. every individual have a very unique situation, so very is depending on their needs. >> mister mayor -- [inaudible] >> i just want to let you know, this will be the last question. we will be going out with the administrators to do some tours of the area. so, this is the last question. >> [inaudible]

>> yes, there's still a need for shelter and we still do have shelters that are open. again, access to information about the shelter locations by calling 311. as it relates to all of its, olivia is an area that has, for decades, has an experience of being a flood-prone area. we have a planned project with an orange county to improve the infrastructure within the ola vista area. we will be making applications for some matching grants from the federal and the state level, and hopefully very soon we will have definitive plans to kind of accelerate the improvements in that area. as it relates to the persons who are currently dealing with the flooding situation, that's an ongoing process that we have today. we have evacuated a significant number of the residents out of

the area and to other locations, and we will continue to work with our social services here within orange county to provide and -- their needs. we are working with american red cross and all the entities here to make certain that if they are in need of housing, that we will take appropriate steps to ensure that they are housed. thank you all very much for coming in. thank you to the administrative for being here today. >> okay, everyone. we were listening there, you have jerry demings, the american orange county florida. he was proceeded there by diane criswell, the fema director wrapping up the news conference for today. giving folks all the information they have, at least other hands. he did mention they are going to go out and show the fema director give a tour of the devastated areas there in that community. so, we will see on top of details from there. we want to give you right now the latest images of post-tropical cyclone ian. it's now making its way north

along the east coast, and we have perhaps a new look here at the havoc that's been left behind in parts of florida. that's where ian made landfall as a category four hurricane. check out these satellite images. they are from fort myers beach and the pictures tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the lives lost, the homes destroyed, and life completely upended. coast guard rescues are ongoing. at least 38 people are confirmed dead. one and a half million households remain without electricity at this hour. some survivors are concerned that the most vulnerable communities are -- getting any help that they need. >> i don't want to say it, but you know, they're worried about sanibel and, you know, got bless them. they earn their money and everything. but you fly around here and you look at this devastation right here, nobody is worried about us a little people that don't make 1 million dollars a year. i do good, make $25,000 a year, you know? and right now, most everything

i got is wet. >> just heartbreaking there. also a hospital in fort myers has been -- water since [inaudible] bathroom facilities have been affected by this. now for some on the ground reporting, we have nbc's jessi crist joining us from sarasota county, florida. and shaquille brewster is in charleston, south carolina. guys, welcome. we are going to start with the breaking news from you, jessie, where people have been warned about a possible levee breach, i understand. what can you tell us about this and the kind of danger to the area? >> that's right, alex. actually, we have a new aerial image. i don't know if it's into the control unit room yet, so i will see if they can tell me if we have it. but i'm just so the side of the community, you can see there's some flooding in the background here. so, it sounds like we do have this image, so if they can pull up this photo that we received from, oh, this looks like, okay, that's chopper video.

i'm looking at the trainer alex and his people may be able to tell, in a car, it's a very fluid inches situation out here. we've had a lot of trouble with cell phone signal and with navigating because of the ongoing issues with floodwaters. we've seen roads literally washed away. we've seen other roads still flooded out and here on the eastern side of sarasota county, we heard from the sheriff's department that there was this threat of a levee possibly reaching that could have flooded out a community. we are told that this is about 70 homes. it's not going to cause more expansive damage beyond that, according to the sheriff's office. i just got another update from the sheriff's department here saying that they do not have any reports of missing people or fatalities. that, of course, is good news, alex. all of this, just for context, is unfolding more than two days after ian first struck this area. we are talking about a potential breach of a levee that occurred overnight in the early morning hours. that's when police started

making the evacuations, according to the sheriff's department. just to give you an idea of how much water is here, it was still putting pressure on infrastructure. more than two days after this storm force struck. i can tell you, it's still very difficult to navigate these areas. because of the cell phone issues, i can imagine it's even harder for people to try and find their way back to parts of these communities. the images just say it all, alex. >> so, i'm being told, jessie, that specifically these are, this is video that happened just this morning and we are showing the levee issues right there. it's my understanding that where the levee to break, although i've got to say, it looks like it has been inundated at this point, given the amount of water in the region. what, about 15 feet of floodwater could be unleashed? it does not look like a heavily residential community. i mean, i think you said about 70 homes would be affected. but wow, i mean, can you

confirm that levy has not broken? >> well, so, you know, there is a new image that has just been sent to be by the sheriff's department. i know we are trying to get it in, into the same system to be able to show it. it appears to show a portion of this, this earthwork, so this, you know, if you can imagine, like, a green strip. it appears to be partially submerged underwater. this image i have on my phone, i know we will work to get that under the control room. this is largely not a residential area, but that appears to be a private development. it says, it's an airport community, so it appears to be some kind of civil, you know, aviation community. everything else around here is pretty much farmland. horses, cattle,. we are not far from the sarasota suburbs. but i can tell you, even there, we had to wait upwards of ten minutes probably to be able to

pump gas at a rather large gas station. so, there are certainly still infrastructure issues out here, and it's slow going on the roads. but yeah, to underscore what you just brought up there, alex, you are not looking at a heavy residential area. so, thankfully it does not appear that there are as many homes that would be impacted here as it would have been in some of the more populated areas that have been hit by these storms. all of that said, we are looking at farmland that is currently underwater and surely, there's damage to plenty of peoples property out here. just adding to the headaches that are ongoing out here. and at minimum, it's not going to make it easier for people here to clean up. i can imagine it's going to make it harder for people to bring in help. just for context, we were saying in orlando as the storm made landfall. and we know that there were workers there who were waiting to be directed, presumably, where to go to help with cleanup. the recruits staged their.

we have not been able to make it a fort myers very easily today, and we have been moving up towards sarasota. this is just our experience. you can imagine how many people might be trying to bring supplies or even go and check on loved ones in these communities. >> yeah, a herculean effort and really a lot of roadblocks in the way, to say the least, if you can call them rhodes these days. okay, jesse kirk, thank you so much for the details. do travel safely. thank you for that. let's go now to kilberg's running as from charleston, south carolina. let's talk about the damage for you, where you are, and give me an overall look at how south carolina is doing generally. >> yeah, alex. before a jury the damage that we are seeing here in charleston, just remember, we are about 16 miles from where the eye of that storm made landfall. you get a sense of how wide the impact was and why so many people in south carolina and north carolina are dealing with those power outages. here in charleston, they got a historic amount of rain and they got those strong wind gusts. what that turned into was a lot of trees falling down.

this used to be a full tree. it was uprooted, but then look, we had workers and crews here cleaning it up. it was completely blocking this road now. -- the roads have been cleared off, but this is a sign of the work that still yet to be done in this charleston area. a huge tree toppling over because of how saturated that ground is. you go across south carolina, yes, they are still talking about tens of thousands of people without power. there are other areas further north, closer to where that storm made landfall that are being impacted more heavily than the charleston area. then there's the story that we have from hilton head, where a couple actually had a wedding scheduled yesterday on an island. that wedding venue was scrapped, but instead, they came inland and decided to have the ceremony anyways in hilton head. listen to a little bit of what they said. >> i mean, it was awesome. it's, like, a really cool vibe. not exactly what i expected as my bridal vision, but we are

rolling with the punches and, i mean, it was fun. >> is there a sense that if you can get through this, you can get there anything that? >> i think so. >> yeah, definitely. >> whether the storm. >> i wanted to and on that positive tone there because that's the spirit here, hearing from so many people in charleston. all throughout the day, we've been going around and people have been clearing out. they've been going up, getting rid of the debris that has been left behind. but you've been seeing smiles on peoples faces. they understand that when you see the images coming out of florida, when you see the devastation and the full communities that were leveled in that area, you have many of them here saying they are breathing somewhat a sigh of relief knowing that what they have here and the damage that they see, they can recover from, alex. >> well, i have to tell you, i thank you for the first time putting a smile on my face relative to coverage of this hurricane. i'm going to put money on that couple making it a long distance for exactly the points that you were making. >> i think so. >> i think so too. they got through it, great job, thank you. so, right now, the florida

residents and local leaders have begun talks about rebuilding after the massive devastation, and one financial services company estimates that the insured cost losses in florida could be anywhere from 25 to 40 billion dollars. joining me now from fort myers is florida chief financial officer and state fire marshal, jimmy patronis. jimmy, welcome. i know that you've said this is the worst hurricane you've ever experienced. talk to us about the devastation, like that collapse sanibel causeway. i mean, that silence only access to florida's mainland. that's going to obviously have to be rebuilt. but overall, give me an update on rescue and recovery efforts, and where they stand today. >> sure, so what we've gotten is we have eight teams in florida, that's our urban search and rescue teams. all eight of those are in place right now. we've got an additional three teams, plus, coming in from other states. virginia has been in florida, texas is on the way, ohio, so we've got over 1000 urban

search and rescue teams working 12 hour shifts. working alpha, bravo. but what's happening right now, they are still, kind of like speed mode. they are literally going house by house, you know, hello, anybody there? they react, they are trying to just do a massive canvassing as much as possible. as of yesterday, i don't have the day numbers, as of yesterday, they've touched over 6000 dwellings. so, that's a herculean effort. now, to your point about the island, because the causeway is damaged, i can't get the heavy front and loader equipment on the ground there yet to clear the roads in order to go from house to house, structure to structure. so, it's a little more challenging there, but the national guard, the coast guard, everybody, has been so supportive with their air support and getting our equipment, our man on the ground there, including the leadership of kevin gun three at florida --

and governor desantis. >> i sure do love how irvine comes in to help. it's a really heartwarming thing to see. let's talk about the more than 1.2 million customers, jimmy, who are across the state there. they still don't have electricity. some areas need power grids entirely rebuilt and those won't be reconnected for at least weeks. what's being done to help those people? >> sure, i don't have the duke energy latest number as of yesterday. they underscored power to 650,000. i talked to florida power and light this morning. florida power and light, they had 2 million customers. that's the biggest in the state as of this morning, they've restored power to 1.4 million floridians. so, i mean, to be able to do that, they leaned forward with 42,000 lineman. so, to be able to lean forward those guys are working feverishly through the night. but here is a challenge. you've probably heard about i-75 has been stopped because of the flooding. we saw this with irma. historic rains bringing

historic flooding, historic flooding has to be able to get to an area of lower resistance. so, it will go east, it will go west. sometimes, the flooding will impact transportation. that's going to challenge gas, it's going to challenge supplies, like replacement pulls. so again, the water is going to recede some, so we can continue this massive supply chain to support peoples lives, yet it put back together. >> jimmy, this is a tough question to ask, but do you think that state, local officials, should consider not rebuilding in these areas that are prone now to such powerful storms? if you look at the devastation, look at the billions of dollars that we've been required to rebuild. is that at least a conversation that should be had? >> so, this is i think what's exactly happening. so, panama city was my hometown when hurricane michael, mexico beach used to be in my latest legislative district.

so, mexico beach was scraped off the map, okay? just like someone took a shovel to the sidewalk. fort myers beach is very similar. just much bigger. but the devastation is still just incredible. the structures that were built with a new building codes, they survived, okay? the structures that were built, say, from 65 to 85, those were obliterated. if you were made out of wood, you are gone. you are just left with pilings. so, what you will see happen, just like what's happened in mexico beach right now, is the construction code will be increased. and it will just be, you will have to be with the fema flood maps. your structure will have to be somewhere probably from 7 to 10 feet off the ground if you want to live there. and that will be a cost of business if you want to live in that place, in order to ensure that storm surge, which can be so deadly, it's not going to kill you, hurt you, or destroyed your assets. >> yeah jimmy, how confident are you that those who suffered

are going to get the financial aid that they need after filing insurance claims? because about a dozen florida -based insurance companies, they've shut down in the past couple years. six of whom were listed as bankrupt this year. >> so, a number of factors i want you to consider. we saw this after michael. samaritans come in within days. the predators, they come in with an hour's. so, the challenge that often happen is that you have these unscrupulous contractors, unscrupulous public adjusters. they will start to complicate those claims. they will take people and take advantage of them while they are so vulnerable, with no communication, no cell service, no internet, and they will make port decisions based on somebody's offer of help and need, which is actually not very true in intent. so, that makes the interest process also just the worst to humanity. it really is. but that is what also makes some of the insurance claims

process a challenge. this is what we are leaning for with our insurance -- centers this week. what happens is we will bring all the carriers together, they will immediately, just like fema, start writing sustenance checks. they will give you, here's 10, 000, $15,000. go find a hotel, go find a house, and put yourself together so our insurance adjusters can get out and start assessing the damage. so again, we've done a number of pretty significant measures over the last year to short the insurance industry. but you know what? we will need to do more. it's a moving target and we will try to lean ford with solutions. >> given all your experience, jimmy, the rebuilding effort. i mean, after hurricane katrina, it cost the u.s. about 186 billion dollars. do you have any early estimate of what it could cost to rebuild across southwest florida? i mean, how does this compare to past hurricanes? >> in my opinion, this will be the most expensive hurricane in the history of the state of florida. i don't know if it will be a katrina, but when you add

inflation to it, you know, andrew was huge. michael was huge. irma was huge. but this son of a gun was just devastating. that storm surge that went into lee, sharpened, and collier counties. it was just devastating. when you look at fort myers beach, it's a little hard because again, it's these horrific images of what happened to mexico beach. our office leads the urban search and rescue teams, and these heroes, they left for miami at 2:00 in the morning the night of the storm, and they've braved hurricane-force winds. they are going through home to home and i'm sitting there, talking to one of the task force leaders, i'm saying, you know, how is your team handling it? they are so upbeat, and i'm thinking the opposite. they said jimmy, we are saving lives. he says, you have no idea how we feed off of that.

when you save lives, we pull people out of the rubble, and they are going into cardiac arrest, we save their life, we get them to safety. so, we are seeing in that case some of the best of humanity. >> jimmy, jeez, you're gonna bring tears to my eyes to. let me just say, you are the man for this job. >> you got me! >> you are the guy for this job. you have so much expertise and you are coupling it with your heart. that is what is going to get this job done. so, bless you for the work you are doing, jimmy patronis. okay, good luck my friend. >> let me add one thing. because we are having this moment right now. you know what's going to happen? this is another global predator, national predator, is how people will brave these horrific stories and it will put them on gofundme, and they are not true. so, all i'm telling you is, don't take the bait. if it sounds too good to be true, don't give the money to somebody's gofundme scam. there's no transparency there. give it to the salvation army, give it to the red cross, go give it to affordable disaster

funds. there's just so many better places, more noble places, then a potential scam through gofundme. that's all i've got. thanks. >> so, so glad you said that. thank you, jimmy, good luck. meantime, the former president is pushing the envelope. in fact, against his own party. up next, what's with donald trump's death wish comment on social media? and the racist insults aimed at mitch mcconnell's wife. i want to talk about this next with someone very familiar with threats and exactly how to handle them. reats and exactly how to handle them.

now to breaking news on the war in ukraine. russia's ministry of defense says, it is withdrawing forces from lineman after ukrainian soldiers hoisted the ukrainian flag, having surrounded it and trap some 5000 russian troops. new satellite images show gas gushing into the ocean and the atmosphere, as russia and the west point fingers over explosions that loopholes in the nord stream gas pipelines.

it was a delivered act of sabotage and now the russians are pumping out disinformation and lies. we are going to work with our allies to get to the bottom of exactly and precisely what happened. just don't listen to what putin is saying. what he's saying, we know, is not true. >> joining me now, john brennan, former director of the cia. now msnbc national security and intelligence analyst. his book, undaunted, my fight against americas enemies at home and abroad, is now available in paperback. and it's a great read. john, welcome. so, we heard both leaders there. why do you and others in

intelligence believe that russia did this, blew up these two pipelines? i mean, what evidence has the u.s. and europe been able to gather so far? >> well, alex, it's still unclear who actually carried out these explosions against these pipelines. but i think the nature and scale of the attack clearly indicates not only that it was an act of sabotage but that it was most likely, some type of state actor that did this. -- took place several hundred feet below the surface of the water. it involved several hundreds of pounds of explosives as well. and so, three of these pipelines were struck by what was four explosions. again, it had to be a state actor. maybe had some underwater robots or other things that could places explosives. so, i do think that the most likely suspect at this point, according to many, is russia as a way to signal to europe that it has this capability. and not because these pipelines were pumping gas, they were

not. but there were other pipelines that go into continental europe and into the uk from norway. i think there were seven underwater pipelines that do that right now. there's also a lot of undersea communication cables, so this part of russia's efforts to intimidate and try to bully europe into relaxing or reducing its support to ukraine. so, i do think this investigation, i hope to think, it's going to identify who actually was responsible. but this at this stage, russia does seem to have the motivation. i do not believe that any nato country would have carried out these attacks. >> yeah, so you say it's likely a state actor. is there any chance, john, that it was some sort of a separate bad actor? because it's not as if a state actor would be exclusively able to do this. i mean, there could be others out there. do you think it's possible? >> well, i guess it's possible, but i think unlikely. according to the experts that i

have heard from, it's most likely a state actor because, again, the size of the explosions. i think they were talking about 500 pounds of explosives that were brought in in a very precise areas to attack these pipelines. doing this at a depth of 200, 300 feet really takes quite a capability. russia certainly has that capability. it also, according to many, has the motivation to do it. so, while it's possible that it's not a state actor, i think it was likely a country that was involved in this attack. >> germany -- has reported that the cia warned the government in advance that there were signs of a planned attack along these gas lines. someone kind of signals what cia would've picked up, john. >> it could've picked up a number of signals. either from human sources or -- systems that the intelligence community has about some possible plans by a state actor, russia or others, to strike these pipelines, in terms of some type of sabotage

operation. i don't know what the cia had, but i'm sure that if they had these intelligence reports, that they would pass them on not only to the white house, but to our european partners as the way to try to take measures against it. >> these remarks we heard from vladimir putin, they came yesterday at that ceremony. it was definitely heavy -- pageantry where he signed the so-called accessing treaties to annex for regions of ukraine. who was his audience for this show and what was he trying to convey in that? >> i think it's principle audience's domestic supporters. all of those elites that were gathered in that large auditorium there. that has continued to provide support to putin. this is part of the elite superstructure of the oligarchs and parliamentarians, and others, that continue to be -- to putin. so, i think as putin's territorial ambitions in ukraine have been recently thwarted as a result of the very heroic work of the

ukrainian military, i think he's trying to point to some accomplishments. you know, the sham election, this territorial annexation, and then talking about, you know, mother russia and its fate. i do think this is national narcissism at its worst. demonstrating that he has this view of the world that he's going to pursue. so, i think he's trying to ensure that the support structure within russia stays strong for him. but as we've seen with some of the demonstrations and the reaction and opposition to the partial mobilization, he's losing support inside of russia. so, i do think he's going to look for more opportunities to be able to at least try to signal with misrepresentations of accomplishments in ukraine. >> let me change topics with you here and talk first about what happened on truth social, the polls that donald trump put on intensifying his attacks on mitch mcconnell for supporting democrat sponsored bills. but then going further, john, to say, quote, he has a death

wish. then adding, the xenophobic rhetoric about mcconnell's wife, who served in trump's cabinet, by the way. trump's spokesperson says, it's absurd to suggest this could be construed as dangerous, and that mcconnell has a political death wish for himself and the republican party. so, the question to you, john, where is the line between political rhetoric and then inciting political violence? >> i think donald trump has long since passed that line. we saw what happened on january 6th of 2021. because of what donald trump was saying publicly, i think we've run out of words in the english language to describe trump's behavior as rhetoric as unhinged, unstable, delusional. but also, i think, increasingly dangerous. when he uses terms like death wish, i think he's signaling, and i think quite intentionally, that he really has this vendetta against mitch mcconnell and others. unfortunately, there are still

too many individuals who really just wait for donald trump's guidance and directions, and then interpret it in a way that's unfortunately does bring acts of violence. so, this, i think, these very, very dangerous words against mitch mcconnell and his wife, this should leave all the republican members of congress in particular to be outraged and to lash out and back against donald trump. and finally try to separate themselves from what is, unfortunately, this very dangerous demagogue that continues to undermine our foundations of this great country of ours. >> yeah, as you know, trump is still, of course, fighting the doj over presidential records that were seized at mar-a-lago. doj got access to the classified documents that recovered, john. but then last night, filed a motion to expedite its appeal over the appointment of a special master. doj lawyers say, lack of access to unclassified documents is what is now hampering significant aspects of its

investigation. what kind of documents could those be and what do you think investigators would learn from an classified documents that were found there at mar-a-lago? >> well, there could be some correspondence. there could be some documents that relate to what might have happened to those classified documents. what types of papers were they with when they were found? might there be some other indications of who might have unauthorized access to these classified documents? so, i do think the department of justice is pursuing it very appropriately, their appeal, because their investigation really rests on trying to get as much information as possible about what was happening to those documents when they were left unsecured at mar-a-lago. the intelligence community needs to do its risk and damage assessment about how donald trump's very reckless handling of these documents might have harmed our national security. so, i do think that the department of justice needs to pursue all avenues of appeal to

ensure the fastest and most expeditious review. all these documents to give them as much insight as possible into, again, the damage that would've occurred before the national security. >> john, as you speculate on that, does this kind of thing keep you up at night thinking about these kinds of classified documents and who may have access or may have them now, copies of them? >> ever since donald trump was in the oval office, i had real nightmares about some of the things he might have been doing. but certainly, ever since i found out that so many of these highly sensitive, highly restrictive documents dealing with sensitive intelligence, national security matters were brought down to mar-a-lago and were left unsecured for 19 or 20 months really has given me a greater concern about what might have happened. so, therefore, i do think that all americans should be outraged. members of congress and others and trump supporters who continue to make excuses for him, trying to justify and

rationalize, you know, the keeping of the documents, i really do think that they should be quite ashamed of themselves because we interest our public officials. and especially presidents of the united states with this country's most sensitive, most highly restrictive secrets, and information and intelligence. he was blatant, raising, flagrant abuse of those privileges. the handling, the very reckless handling of these documents. i mean, it just demonstrates that donald trump never again, nor should he have ever been, trusted with the public's trust. >> it is a heck of an investigation underway, seeing the extent to which they are making -- around his occupants. but john brennan, many thanks for your insights, sir. we want to remind everybody, undaunted is in paperback now. it's a great read. i thank you for coming on the show. see you again. looking through the twisted damage left behind by hurricane ian for any survivors. why these next few hours are the most critical. >> law enforcement!

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i've never experienced winds, the howling, you're popping. it was, i will never forget it. >> well, right now, the full scope of hurricane ian's damage and destruction is still coming interview this weekend. here's some brand-new satellite images showing fort myers beach, florida, both before and then after the storm. the city was one of the hardest hit, facing massive storm surges, putting that low lying region completely underwater. that is where we find nbc's guad venegas. guad, welcome. i know fort myers beach was among the first side by the storm when it made landfall on wednesday. where is the recovery now? what are we? three days later or so?

how are the folks handling things? >> alex, one of the first and also one of the hardest hit areas here in southwestern florida. you look at those images you were mentioning, it's just incredible to see how much of it is now gone after the storm passed. so, for the people here, there's a lot of help coming this way for all of those affected. i was in miami this morning and as i made my way into the western part of the state, the caravan of vehicles, vehicles coming in from miami, trucks, pickup trucks, larger trucks. just bringing in the help, coordinating efforts. a lot of traffic, so that's all coming to help the people that keep telling us, as we speak to them, that many of them have lost everything. you know, there's food distribution happening, salvation army workers are right over here trying to coordinate the effort to help the people in need. it's very interesting how that effort has been organized. i have never received so many public safety alerts or those alerts you get on your cell

phone that will give you vital information. as soon as you arrive in the area, you get a message that says, if you have no internet or phone service, you can dial 211 to find out about water and food distribution centers. so, that coordinated effort using technology, it's going to be helpful for the people that have lost everything. we are going to hear from a local neighbor here, who spoke to us this morning, about how they feel. >> my mom lost everything. my girlfriend lost everything. so, it's tough. >> everybody is safe. we are live, we could've been much worse, you know? but we were here for irma and this is ten times worse. >> you know, when you see the numbers, alex, we know that at least 38 people died during that storm. so, people are obviously happy to be alive. they know that they can rebuild. they know that they are going to be getting a lot of the help that's coming in from organizations and from the government.

so, it's just going to take time to recover and we can already see all the work. i don't know if you can hear, but there are machines working everywhere. the votes are being cleared off the streets. so, you know, we are going to see progress in the next few days, alex. >> it's going to be a long time effort, though, as you've made that point. thank you so much, guad venegas. let's go from there now to sanibel island because today, it is in ruins. police, rather, people rescued from the barrier island described the horror of the rising floodwaters. >> the water started coming in and within five minutes, the water was nine feet in the house. and i was up on the third floor. i sheltered in a closet until part of the roof came off. and then the wind came in there. so, that i just went behind the bed. and stayed there. >> i know we are lucky to be alive. >> do you feel that? >> i do, i do.

i will never, ever, ever not evacuate again. >> wow, what a story there. there is also another rescue in the barrier islands to share. a man stranded on his boat in mangrove's trapped in floodwaters with hurricane ian. u.s. coast guard aircrews surveying the area hoist him to safety. i'm joined now by vice -- admiral, rather, kevin london. i should say an admirable man, the. commander of the coast guard atlantic area. thank you so much for being here, admiral. i appreciate that because as we look at these powerful images of some of the coast guard's efforts following this harrowing storm, how many rescues has your team been involved in at this point? are there still areas that you have yet to reach? >> alex, thanks for having us on today. and we are actively engaged in ongoing operations to search and rescue. over the last two days, the coast guard has saved or assisted over 400 people and 88 pets. those active operations to help others in need continue today.

we are doing that not only with helicopters, but also because small flood rescue boats right now in lee county, we've got 30 coast guard flood rescue boats that are working together with sheriff's department, other first responders, state agencies like the florida national guard, and also other federal fema led partners that are in support of the state. so, those operations continue not just on sanibel island and fort myers area, but other areas where people are in need, including up in south carolina, where in came ashore yesterday just north of charleston on the georgetown area. and we've got helicopters and flood rescue boats out there. we've already done one rescue, for people of fishing boat as ian was coming ashore yesterday off myrtle beach, south carolina. and so, those operations are active and continuing. >> admiral, it's remarkable. you look at what those people have been through and then have to be hoisted up into a helicopter. that was probably welcome relief, even if they are afraid of heights or anything like that. as you look at we have more than 1 million people, they are

still without power in florida. there's spotty cell phone service, not to mention the extreme flooding. how hard is it to find people in need? >> well, we've got a very coordinated team that is run by, at the federal level, by the federal -- management agency and it's fully in support of the state of florida. they have a broad array of resources that they use. and so, it's a coordinated effort to determine, where do people need help? the best way to get help is to call 911 if you are on a boat. if you are on a boat, called vhs channel 16, fall for help there. social media is not the best way to get help and so, when you get asked for help, it's triage through the public emergency response system, and then we are tasked to go out if we are on patrol flying a helicopter out on our boats and we see someone need, we respond right away. >> as these guards, men and women, are serving the devastation, are they speaking about what gaps they have and the resources? are there certain needs at the

moment that you wish he could have? or that people could help? >> well, we flooded, in terms of coast guard resources, we flooded more into the area over the last several days, well before he made landfall in southwest florida. and so, we brought in cruise and helicopters, covers and boats, from all across the coast guard atlantic area. even some from california, to make sure we have the resources in place to fully respond to what was coming. but there are all sorts of volunteer agencies. you mentioned the american red cross, salvation army. others that are volunteering, pitching in to help people in need. even well beyond the devastation that we are seeing in sanibel island, or even in lee county, there are other areas where people need help and the resources are poor. to provide that assistance as needed. >> vice admiral kevin lundy, i have mixed up admiral with admirable, but i think those two are synonymous on these days like this. thank you so much for your time. best of luck in all of your

efforts. -- coast guard and americans who need your help. thank you, sir. >> thanks, alex. we are really proud of our team and they are the admirable ones. so, thank you very much, alex. >> well, glad to speak with you. thank you. gone and leveled is the headline on the front page of fort myers daily newspaper. you see the picture of devastation there at the marina. the very latest on widespread impact of hurricane ian coming up. but up next, the justice department is asking for help from a higher power in its legal tug of war with donald trump. g of war with donald trump.

hey, everyone. florida governor, ron desantis, is holding a news conference or in fort myers. let's take a listen in. >> -- be able to go shop and get groceries, to be able to do those things. so, we were in charlotte county before i came here, and we went and visited one of the waffle houses that's open, serving first responders as well as the general public. and so, i just want to say we

spoke about the people doing search and rescue, god bless them. we talk about the folks doing logistics, bringing the stuff here. i will talk a little more about that in a second. god bless them. but, you know, folks just doing their role in the private sector means an awful lot. and i was really pleased to see that. we didn't know when some of those places would be open. i was chiming in, i saw walmart open again. so, that's going to make a huge difference as we go forward here. over the last 72 hours, there have been over 1100 confirmed rescues made by first responders. and likely many more than that. those are the reported ones as of 6:00 this morning. we have been in lee county now three days in a row, and we will continue to work with everybody to get people back on their feet. we were able to, of course, inspect the day after the storm some of the catastrophic impacts in places like fort myers beach. i was also able yesterday to get a closer look at places like sanibel and see some of the destruction there.

you know, you look when you are flying over on helicopters at some of these other communities. you look, you know, a lot of the homes seem fine. but you don't know how much water that they had just when the storm was hitting. i know some of those communities, you know, had a lot of flooding that happened. so, there's gonna be a lot of work that needs to be able to do to be able to salvage peoples homes. but if you think about what's happened here starting this morning, i mean, obviously this stuff was pre-staged. there are seven pods like this opened in lee county. three pods open in charlotte county, handing out food and water. this is less than 48 hours from the storm leaving our state. it left the state thursday afternoon, thursday evening. and so, and they're going to be 20 opened by the end of the day. usually, this is a 96-hour evolution. but here, because of the pre-planning and pre-staging, getting it open much, much better. in englewood, we've delivered one mega generator that was able to bring their water

system back online. we are supporting operations for three different hospital systems to make sure they have the services they need. we are also supporting operations with three logistical staging areas. >> okay everyone, we will keep monitoring for the governor, ron desantis, as he gives an update on recovery efforts, rescue efforts, all of that right now throughout the state of florida. so, monitor that from the control room. we'll bring you somewhere intermission. we want to get your quick shot in on last night court filing by the department of justice that was asking for an expedited hearing of its appeal against the appointment of a special master in the trump mar-a-lago documents case. so, i'm joined by msnbc legal analyst, danny's of all this right now. danny, we've got a few minutes to get this in. so, was this filing in the pipeline or is judge cannon's overriding of the special master's rulings, is that what prompted the doj to now ask a higher court to move faster? >> doj seems the entire time it's, can we just get this over with as fast as possible? and of course, the trump team's

argument is, let's slow everything down. to what that endgame will achieve, i'm not entirely sure. it seems inevitable that at some point, this will end. but doj's filing here is essentially asking the court of appeals to expedite its appeal. normally, if you are regular person appealing in a circuit court of appeals, you can expect the court to move at its usual glacial pace. now, federal appeals courts move faster than state appeals courts, but nonetheless, the appeals process takes months and months, usually years, to complete. and that means just to set a briefing schedule. the government here is saying, hey, can you hurry up and do this really fast? their strongest argument, in my opinion, is basically, look, court, you already did this. back when we argued to a three judge panel that we wanted you to take away the state and lower court, you did this already. you handle this in six days. you looked at the record and

you summarize the record in your order. this issue has already been brief. we don't need a monthlong briefing schedule court. get it done in a matter of weeks. >> so, the doj lawyers, danny, they claim that a lack of access to the unclassified documents are now hampering its investigation. here's the quote. records that may shed light on, for example, how classified materials for transfer to mar-a-lago, how they restore it, and who may have had access to them. and then records that may constitute evidence of potential obstruction or concealment, or removal of government records. are we back, then, to that point where none of these records were trump's property? >> the government here is going for as much as they possibly can, which is to be expected. they are basically arguing that, look, while we are talking about these classified documents, if we want to see everything, everything that we seized from that property and that search warrant, we, the government, they were entitled to look at it. and to look at it to determine,

even whether it's classified or not, whether or not it goes to any subject of our investigation. this is standard government practice. when they execute a search warrant, they want as much as they can and who knows. there might be evidentiary value in the knick-knacks and things that they seized. whether it be a time magazine cover or some memos, or some post it notes. anything could bear back to those classified documents, like a post-it that i'm just making something up, says, hey, take classified documents and stick them in a closet. that would be an extreme example, but the governments arguing, look, who knows. we need to take a look at everything because everything could be potentially relevant. can't blame them for trying. they want to look at everything they seized. >> yeah, absolutely. danny, i apologize. i said it was going to be quicker than all the breaking news out of florida, a thank you so much for joining me. that's going to do it for me on this edition of alex smith reports. i will see you again tomorrow at noon eastern. my friend, yasmin michigan, continues the coverage.

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i am yasmin, we are continuing to track in which is now claiming the lives of at least 38 people. florida governor ron desantis is holding a news conference right now updating the situation that we have been monitoring for the last couple of days. he updated a number of power outages in the state, as well as relief efforts that are ongoing to the most devastated areas. more than 1.5 million americans remaining without power right now and that state of carolina. and virginia as well. which is where we found in at this hour as the storm is continuing its northward track. thankfully losing some steam along the way but still bringing some serious conditions along with it. the storm leading devastation in its wake wherever it heads. we have new videos that you see on your screen there, showing