good afternoon. i'm katy tur. six days since ian swallowed the western coast of florida. six days of what feefls like the end of the world to survivors of that hurricane. just look at what's left. 600,000 people still do not have power. even more don't have running water. and with every hour, the worries continue to grow. and veteran search and rescue, we will speak to in a moment. the good news is that 1600 survivors have so far been taken to safety. many of them by helicopter as you just saw on those cut-off barrier islands. the bad news is that there are serious worries that others are still trapped.

and as you would expect, time is running out to get to them. there are also questions about what officials should have done before the storm, and regrets from those who stayed. >> we were just about ready to take her out. and you so don't want to see this. you're right. you're right. >> three days. >> three days. >> the water came up to me on here. and when it got to there, the way they were saying on the news, i thought it was going to eventually go over our heads. i called my daughters and said goodbye. >> it was very traumatic. i actually, i went into the water and saved three people, and i lost one friend, i couldn't save her, she got washed away. >> the devastation is unbelievable. you know, i was a paramedic fireman for 25 years, and it's just devastating. >> the confirmed death toll is 88. state medical examiners say many of ian's victims were older than

the age of 60. bodies in flooded cars and inside destroyed homes. the president will see all of this with his own eyes on wednesday, but first he is in puerto rico today, where another storm, hurricane fiona ravaged the island. that storm passed two weeks ago and yet there are still 100,000 people on that island who do not have power. we will go there live in a few minutes. joining me now from the ground in fort myers beach in florida, our nbc's shaq brewster and liz mclaughlin. thanks for being with us. i'm seeing the aimages from my seat. what is it like on the ground to see the devastation? what you are hearing from folks? >> definitely a lot of devastation. and also we're seeing a lot of help come in. where the situation is slowly, slowly starting to improve, and when you look at the numbers and get a sense of why this is. this is an historic effort by fema, some 1300 people from fema, personnel from fema, here

on the ground, and that includes some 17 urban search and rescue teams, and more than 100 boat teams here, trying to execute that top mission. their priority right now, which remains to be the search and rescue, and that's what you're hearing from county officials and local officials here, that this is still very much a search and rescue mission, and unfortunately, that search and recovery mission, making sure that those who were left behind, who perished in this storm, that they're recovered, and so those families can have that closure that they seek. and what we're seeing from fema, they shut down the entire fort myers beach area right now and they're going house by house, door by door, where doors still exist, going in and making sure that first the house is unoccupied, or if people are there, asking if they need anything, if there is any emergency situation, if they need any supplies, and in the event that there are those situations, you're still seeing those rescues take place. sometimes still by air, with the roads remaining impassable. you're hearing from local

officials about what residents, not just here in this area, and across the region have to look forward to or look ahead to, and a key date on the calendar is sunday, and that is when they expect the vast majority of power to be restored to many people, where the infrastructure can support power, and that's when they're expecting running water, to come back, so there's some signs of progress, of hope on the horizon, but there is still so much devastation here and so much work that is yet to be done. >> can you sense where the doors still exist, knocking on those doors, not a lot of them left over there, thank you. >> liz, you've been talking to people, a lot of people decided to stay, to ride out the storm, and what are they telling you? >> they said they didn't know it would be so bad. and now, you can see behind me, what used to be a bait shop now a shell of a building, and they were actually apartments on top of it, that whole top floor level, and you can see that boat

there, just on the pavement, there are other boats, i should say ships, up to 62 tons, scattered throughout the mangrove, and i have bobby donzi who rode out the storm on one of those boats, and tell me, what was that like? when did you know that this was really serious? >> at the moment of seriousness, when i can tell how fast the occurrence was coming in, it was coming around the building, and trying to keep up with the lines. and then of course, we had to try to get some people that were trapped on the street and we were doing pretty well until the boat broke free and it was a moment of terror, just shear panic, but then i realized i have guys on my boat now, that their lives are under me now, so i have to kind of keep it together. and i don't know, we train for man overboard drills and all kinds of stuff and we don't train for hurricanes with winds like that, so hard to say, just

keeping them say was my main concern, and then we came through here, we were so high that we actually crossed the street without touching anything. >> even the power lines? >> well, we were so high that the top of our boat was up at the very top of the power lines, and by the time i came through, they went down and we crossed the street, eight or nine feet of water across the street. all the way from there. at least there. and we're 66 tons. 130,000 pounds. >> did you think you were going to die? >> when we got to the power lines, that was the moment where i was praying pretty hard. i didn't want the lines to come through. we had a guardian angel. we had god on earth and a guardian angel on our side. i don't know we did not take on any water. and not one person on our boat had a scratch on them. >> your home here, your jeep, you know -- >> let's not talk about that.

let's talk about the boat. >> how does that feel though, to see all of this? >> i don't know, it's just, working so hard to build up, and it's just gone in an instant. but my family is alive. i mean my family is alive, so all that other stuff can be replaced, you know what i mean? i mean we got to start from scratch, this whole town will have to be rebuilt. >> is your family, how sur family doing, your grandmother? >> we're getting, these people just lost everything and i understand it is hard to just say, this is what i'm taking and i'm doing, and we're just trying to get them together, you know, get them up north or get them somewhere, this is just not safe, and nobody has clean water, or clean clothes, and we're just trying to get my family, you know, to a safe place. we have family to open to, and

the same people who are stubborn to stay here are the same people who are stubborn, they don't want to leave all their stuff. what do you pick out of your house when you're leaving it forever, you know? >> what does this community need right now? it needs a rebuild? >> oh, yeah. just all of the help. i've seen so many. like it is just little things that make me emotional like this, probably on 75, with fuel and lines and lines of people, and the national guard, it is touching, you know. i get little split moments at night, when i'm tinkering on the boat, working on the boat and i get split moments of service and i see all of the outreach and people trying to contact and i love you all and i thank everybody for reaching out. it is hard to say where to start at right now, to start rebuilding, you know. >> i think katy had a question, too. >> yes, i mean i feel for him, and so glad that he's okay. i just wonder when you got those evacuation orders, why didn't

you go? >> when you heard the evacuation orders, why didn't you go? >> i tried to round up all my family. my main concern was getting them out of here. unfortunately, i just, me and my father were leaving, and we were going to try to ride it out and my family was not going to on the boat, and we were trying to get the boat to safe harbor. but the plan was to get the line secured and get in a vehicle to get out of here, and make sure everything was tied and get out of here, and i don't know, thank god we were here, we rescued two people and got them out of the water and on to the boat. >> did the evacuation orders come soon enough? did the evacuation orders come soon enough? >> do you think the evacuation orders came soon enough?

do you think you had enough time? >> i believe so. >> he and i know he said this earlier, that the, you tried to evacuate, to take your boat to somewhere safe, and you didn't receive communication that the bridge would be down. >> the railroad bridges were locked down before the storm. so we were two miles from safe harbor and got turned around and sent back here and i actually sent in that house all night, the night before the storm, not looking at it now, but it is hard to put it into words really. i mean that's 130,000 pounds over there thrown around like a toy. >> and in the woods, we had to go in the woods to get on the boat and you probably were on the water the whole time, and how does it feel to have it floating above the mangroves right now? >> i don't know. like i said, i think there's moments when i am holding it together and one little thing, just looking out and being in the trees will set me off. i don't know.

i'm a very positive guy. i will stick with the positives. we will rebuild. we will be back. just how long, i don't know. but we have a hell of a strong community here. we'll make it together. >> and so glad your family is okay. >> yeah. >> like you said, you know, these material things can be replaced, but i mean three weeks before, putting your life savings into this, this isn't just a boat. >> it was a worst case scenario for us, yes. yes. we'll see. i don't know where the future goes from here. right now, my biggest concern is getting that boat lifted up and out of there, but we can't do anything, right now, the rescue crews need open roads to get down here and get to the people that need help, and we'll wait as long as it takes. that's the main concern here, is to get in and make sure everybody is door to door, whatever it needs and keeping these roads clear. after that, we'll worry about getting the boat up and out of there. it will be a challenge. >> you're asking for help so if anyone has a crane that they can bring, i mean i think that any

help -- >> any help would be great. greatly appreciated. >> it would be welcome. >> there are numerous boats that are still seaworthy that would like to get out of there and get this infrastructure ready to rebuild. >> and we're hearing that could delay the power getting restored here, so it's going to be a long road certainly. thank you so much for sharing your story with us. >> i really appreciate it. >> back to you. >> liz, chai. and thank you robbie for us. we are so glad he is okay and thank him for coming on and telling us about his experiences. definitely harrowing. thank you. joining me is the vice chairman and commissioner for the district two of charlotte county, chris thompson. thank you very much for being with us. when you, where do you begin, i guess, with all of the devastation? is the town going to get rebuilt? should it get rebuilt? what happens next? >> we're going to rebuild. i was there when we were hit by charlotte 18 years ago. and you know, it was devastating there, it was much narrower

band, a much narrower storm, so people to the north and south could help us. this whole region has been devastated now. so we really appreciate all of the outside help that's coming in. you know, i heard your last gentleman from fort myers beach, and you know, it's a really sad situation. we got all of the wind, they got all of the water, and no matter how you slice it, everybody is under considerable amount of pain, i did heed the evacuation orders, i left with my family tuesday night, at about 10:30 and dodged big bands of ian that were crossing the state and crossing tornadoes. but i was very concerned that this storm was slowing down, and coming upon us, and having lived through charlie and irma four years ago, we knew that we needed to heed the warnings. and i will say this, there was no traffic on the roads at that time. so people who did heed the orders did get out. and the rest decided to shelter in. and so the aftermath, you know, we're dealing with hospitals that are shut down. we're dealing with, you know,

power getting restored, i will give kudos to florida power and light, because they have restored 45% of charlotte county. now our biggest situation is people need to understand that there is a downed power line that is probably live and please take caution with that. we've seen some house fires out in west county. a lot of them are from reelectrification of the system with the facilities that aren't set up to take the power, and there are some generator fires that are happening, as people are refuelling while they're running. so every day comes with new challenges. we had a lot of flooding from the middle of the state, coming down on our area. yesterday and the day before. that seemed to have waned. but we're still going house to house. we're getting now into the back neighborhoods to try to make sure that we give everybody the opportunity to say whether they need help. and unfortunately, we have had deaths in charlotte county. our death toll is up to 29, with six of those being in the city of punta gourda. they may not all be, obviously,

storm surge or wind-reeled but it is just when you have such a long period of time when emergency services are not available, people will not get to the necessary services they need, and they succumb to the environment. >> you know, hindsight is 2020, but when you're looking back, do you think that the state of florida needs to give another look to its emergency protocols and its mandatory evacuations? i know it came a bit late, not for lee county, but it did come a bit late for folks to get out. and does this need to be considered, reconsidered? >> well, look, i think we're dealing with mother nature and when we we cease storm paths coming in over time, and the computers are very sophisticated and tracking software is getting and better and knowing about the storms is improving and hours before it was headed to tampa and it slowed down and started to turn and we didn't know if it would be manatee, or sarasota or on us, lee county and it picked a place to turn and when it came

in, you knew from the south, the people in the south were going to get a huge storm surge, with that counter-clockwise rotation, and the people in the north were going to probably sort of skir the bullet and that's what happened. and irma passed to our east, we got very lucky with tree damage, four years ago, and power lines down, that's about it, and having to restructure that way. so we really can't tell, you can't evacuate half the state so you say there are hurricane watches and hurricane warnings and it is approaching and take the right precautions. if you think you can shelter in place because you have a hardened facility, make sure you have enough water and food for three days and so forth, but most folks have gotten good at this and they know if they're in a weakened structure or something that can't take the wind, don't take the chance. get out of there. look in farther. >> and a little higher, too. make sure you're not on the first floor. for storm surge. christopher constance, thanks

for joining us. we will talk about this a little bit more. why it took so long to issue a mandatory evacuation order. new reporting on what lee county which bore the brunt of all of this did not do despite its own emergency strategies and what the officials down there are now saying about it. plus, president biden has just landed in puerto rico. we're going to bring you his remarks, and what he is going to say to that state, to that region, which has just been completely devastated by hurricane fiona, two weeks later, and still hundreds of thousands of people without power. and later on, the former president says mitch mcconnell has a death wish. what one of mcconnell's republican colleagues says about that. ♪♪ giorgio, look.

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i sleep better, i eat better. took my shirt off for the first time in 25 years. it's golo. it's all golo. it's smarter, it's better, it will change your life forever. before hurricane ian made landfall, forecasts were predicting a deadly storm surge. on monday, 48 hours before ian arrived, many low lying areas of florida's west coast issued mandatory evacuation orders.

but in lee county, emergency management held off until tuesday morning, just hours before the storm hit. with the majority of the loss in lee county, officials are now having to answer for their delay. >> everyone wants to focus on a plan that might have been done differently. i'm going to tell you, i scanned 100%, i stand 100% with my county commissioners, my county manager, we did what we had to do at the exact same time, i wouldn't have changed anything, and i know being in those meetings, from the very minute, this storm was very unpredictable. i also understand that there were some people who don't want to leave their homes. we cannot force them to leave their hems. that's their homes. >> joining me, hurricaning ian, the lee county delayed evacuation order mike baker and former fema southeast regional director. >> first, mike, i want to talk

to you about what the plan on the books was for lee county. what was the strategy for hurricane preparedness? when were the evacuation orders supposed to come? >> it's a detailed plan. they have been working on this for years, coming up with a strategy when to make the call and when to make the evacuation happen and particularly in this case looking at storm surge and for storm surge, they're looking at as an example, a detailed plan as an example, if the community is looking at a 10% chance of a six foot storm surge the plan proposes that that is the time to start evacuating the lowest-lying areas, the ones closest to the water and it scales up depending on the amount of the storm surge and the likelihood of it happening and expand the evacuations as that information comes in. >> all right. you just heard right now, right there, that official, john, say that he wouldn't change a single thing. getting pretty defensive about

the response. kind of hard to take. you wouldn't change a single thing, given what happened to lee county. and how many people stayed behind. >> i think that's not an unusual response. i think that a lot of times, with an operational review of what was done, what was not done, what could be done differently, there are decisions that are made that people will look at and say we could have done that better, but at the time, based on the information that they had, you have to say, is it an unforced error is it an error in judgment that they did not evacuate as early as some of the surrounding areas, and it's a more difficult judgment call. and i think that more data needs to be gathered, more facts need to be gathered, before a real judgment call can be made. sure, monday morning quarterbacking says they

probably should have been evacuating a little earlier, but let's find out a little bit more before we make that judgment call. >> let me ask you this. it's hard to predict where these storms are going. as the conversation i had a moment ago pointed out, the modeling is pretty good. >> right. >> but it's modeling. and this storm can turn on a dioxide. -- on a dime. we saw it here with this storm. we saw it in previous storms. and when you're looking at an assessment when to get people out and when to issue the mandatory evacuation orders and it is not worth taking the risk and take a drive for the day and even having a vacation you plan on going to, is it better to consider a wider area, a wider zone, going forward, given that we just don't know? >> typically, yes. but again, if you look at the models for this storm, the models 48 hours before the storm hit had it going into the big

bend section of florida and almost all of the models did. so once the models start to diverge, once you see a change in the models, and they seem to indicate that the hurricane is going to take a right turn, which has happened before, as happened with hurricane charlie, then that's a trigger point where you really begin to accelerate your emergency response efforts. and it's really difficult to say that a major mistake was made. i think based on the information that they had at the time, we're going to have to look into this, i think more deeply, just to really come up with an ultimate judgment, but it's -- evacuation is a tough, tough call to make. it always has been and always will be. >> just the element of this, people study when you're supposed to give people warnings or evacuation orders, they do

this with tornadoes, when will people most listen to the tornado warning, how many minutes before the tornado comes, same with hurricanes, and you encountered this in your reporting, that will leave no matter what, and they have ridden out homes before and the models are overhyped, they're wrong, it is not that bad, you have to take the human psyche into consideration when you're doing this, and that's a hard thing to do. >> yes, absolutely. i mean there's a real challenge to figure out how to, you know, thread the need toll find out when to move people, and sometimes these are last-minute decisions, based on, you know, the changes in the forecast, and how you moat vite people to move -- motivate people in this area and especially in this area, lee county, they know this is an area with a limited road system. a lot of people. and sometimes if they're going to evacuate, they have to evacuate a lot of people into that system, and sometimes that is a difficult choice of whether it is too much to evacuate in the time left to make it happen.

>> mike, john copenhaver, appreciate your time. >> i thought i had it right but it is spelled wrong on my sheet. >> thank you. on trial for seditious conspiracy. what the oath keepers said in opening statements today. a big deal. and susan collins told "the new york times" she wouldn't be surprised if a senator or a house member were killed. the latest fears about political violence after another verbal attack from the former president. what he said next. ent. what he saidex nt. avoiding trl get migraine attacks? qulipta™ can help prevent migraine attacks. qulipta gets right to work. keeps attacks away over time. qulipta is a preventive treatment for episodic migraine. most common side effects are nausea, constipation, and tiredness. ask your doctor about qulipta. we really had our hands full with our two-year-old. so naturally, we doubled down with a new puppy. thankfully, we also have new tide ultra-oxi with odor eliminators. between stains and odors, it can handle double trouble. for the #1 stain fighter and odor remover,

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in reference to mcconnell's wife, when asked about it, senator rick scott refused multiple times to condemn donald trump's language. >> a member of the senate gop leadership. are you okay with this? >> well, i can never talk about, or respond to why anybody else says what they said. >> the language is what i'm talking about. isn't that dangerous? >> i think we all have to figure out how do we start bringing people together, and have a common goal to give every american the opportunity to get a great job, get their kids to have an education they believe they can be anything. >> joining me now is congressional reporter for "the new york times," so luke, you whoet a whole article about this, and did a lot of digging into what politicians have been facing especially over the last few years. walk me through your reporting.

>> right. so over the past five years, we've seen about a 10-fold increase in the number of threats against members of congress, as tracked by capitol police. rising up to nearly 10,000 last year. and in the article, we walked through some of those examples, some of which have not been reported before, about, you know, senator susan collins, someone smashing through her storm window, you know, a man coming into queens, from across the country, to try to confront alexandria ocasio-cortez in new york, and hanging out across the street from her office, and then obviously, you know, some of the very dangerous things that happened with congresswoman jayapal, and more and more we're seeing this kind of violent rhetoric ramp up across the country really the past five years. obviously we've had a terrible incident, the shooting of gabby

giffords, the congressional baseball shooting, steve scalise was injured in that shooting but the climate seems to be more and more heated according to the data. and congress people are spending a ton of money on their own personal security in ways that they had not had to do in the past. >> what do you think the solution is? you just heard that senator then a moment ago, you know, saying this is not about, finding a way to come together and refusing to condemn donald trump's language, and mcconnell has a death wish, not a political death wish, but a death wish, and journalists coming out and condemning that, are lawmakers saying that this is something that they can help try to fix by policing their own language and maybe policing the language of some of the members of their party? >> i haven't seen a lot of calls to, on the right, to check donald trump for what he said

recently about mitch mcconnell. i mean saying that someone had a death wish, that's pretty obvious language there, to some of donald trump's most extreme supporters. and we know they do respond to his extreme language. not only around towards politicians but towards the fbi as well. of course, on january 6th, some of his most extreme supporters stormed the capitol building, looking at threats against the members of congress. i have heard from people close to mcconnell, looking at this, but we think it was very unhelpful, but we haven't seen those voices in the republican party come out and condemn this rhetoric, and obviously, we played the clip of senator scott trying to avoid the question, but you know, in this heightened climate, when you do see, i will say that not just coming from the right, you see a fair amount of threats from the left, against the republican members of congress, and you know, i don't think anybody is helped when you see that type of rhetoric come out from the

former president, targeting a specific member of congress. >> more commonplace, certainly, as we saw back in 2015, when donald trump was running for office. luke broadwater, thank you very much. and joining me is the director at the center for the study of hate and extremism, brian, thank you very much for being with us. donald trump calling for a death wish. what is the right way to respond to that, according to your experience and expertise? >> well, it's not only 35-plus years in this business. it's looking at data. so for instance, looking at social cohesion, whether it's more broad trending, like confidence in institutions, and before the supreme court, for instance, by the way, which is also seeing threats as well, as well as local officials, public

politicians, people on scoreboards, election helpers, this is very unhealthy. and the data is very clear, we have several moves here, one is a catalytic, anger-inducing, divisive event, and that could be like an election, or something that is happening, a what we found going back to bobby kennedy's talk, the night kennedy was assassinated, in and i, indianapolis, we know comments from leaders makes a difference and the language that escalates makes a difference, and we saw this with regard to the social justice protest, we saw this with regard to covid, the worst day for hate crime, up to that point in a decade was the day after elections. in 2016. we saw it on 2020.

similar type of activity. and social media and politics plays a role. you know what, i will put the data because there is so much of it, on my twitter account and you can look at it yourself as well. but we must come together and tamp down the rhetoric, and also promote bipartisan. look, i'm speaking as an individual. but i was just appointed to a state commission on hate. i want to see bipartisan and hopefully a republican person appointed. we need to exercise. that and just one quick thing, this is senator scott's testimony from last year. we went over the threat of political violence. and how this rhetoric is part of the part of evil that promotes good. >> and there was a "washington post" university of maryland poll back in january found that one in three americans, one in three americans said that violence against the government

can be justified. violence against the government can be justified. one in three. it says this is a year after the insurrection. that is a strikingly large number of people. can that be fixed? can that be addressed by politicians themselves, being very forceful in condemning members of their own party, even a powerful member like donald trump, coming out in unison and saying we are not going to accept this, this is not okay? >> yes, and i think the country does better when we have political points that adhere to certain norms of a civilized democracy. look, we saw president lincoln talk about a house divided, fred rogers talked about it, we saw eisenhower help deseg rate little rock high school,

president bush number one signed the hate crimes statistics act and here is another thing, for president bush, when president bush spoke to tolerance with respect to muslims, an explosion of hate crimes against muslims dropped the very next day and into the next year. leadership is important. but we also have to police social media. which has been unfortunately a wink and nod oblivious. >> how do you police social media? how do you police free speech like that? because people are going to start screaming that you're censoring them? >> absolutely. and you should not censor viewpoints but what we can do is what the supreme court has said, time place and manner, with regard to governmental institutions, but private companies have their own terms of service, and things like threats and out-and-out bigotry get tolerated at certain strata, and we saw this, when i saw the movement, in 2020, take off, and put out a conflict advisory, and then in short order, we saw a civil guard come up and we saw

the highest number of hate crimes against blacks, while the social justice protests took place, and the formation, the algorithm, of these various militia groups. so i think what we have to do is stand up to the norm. bigotry, the threat of violence. this kind of stuff, it does not have a place. now, there is a certain normative standard we can do. we can't force our way out of it. but i remember the republican party, of people of goodwill, who might argue during the day and come together in the evening and talk about this stuff over dinner. we are not doing this. and senator scott knows this. we have to reach out to those in the center, to say violence is unacceptable, bigotry is unacceptable and this kind of incitement must be condemned irrespective power. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up, opening statements in the oath keepers

trial began trial. right now. stewart rhodes and other members of the group are facing seditious conspiracy charges. it is the most serious trial of any january 6th defendant to date. if convicted, these people will face 20 years in prison. all five of them, all five oath keepers have pleaded not guilty. joining me now from outside the courthouse, i'm curious about the opening statements from the defense today, the a. p. was reporting that stewart rhodes' lawyers would start arguing that donald trump was i guess essentially the one who was responsible for this. >> yes, donald trump is really looming over this entire trial. and essentially what stuart rhodes's will argue is that all of this he believed was legal because he was awaiting an order from donald trump to take action. we will talk about an order about this alleged call on

january 6th in which stewart rhodes was trying to reach donald trump directly and had a donald trump intermediary. and from the government today, they revealed this new audio, you can see a lot of text messages from the oath keepers but they trotted out this new audio a few days after january 6th and sort of debunks a lot of what the defense is trying to roll out because on that audio stape, he said his own regret they didn't bring rifles and indied the government says rifles were stationed outside of the district of columbia. in virginia. at a low tell there. and ready for ak. a quick reaction force, ready in case donald trump called upon them and invoked the in recollection act and under their believe coo believed it could be called upon to act as a militia on donald trump's behalf to help him retain power. >> thank you very much. and as we said at the top of the hour, president biden is in puerto rico to see what hurricane fiona did that to that island. two weeks later, and again, 100,000 people still do not have

power. there's the president right there, but let's first go to nbc's gabe guiterrez who was in southwestern puerto rico. what is it like down there? what are you seeing? and what is the expectation for what the president might be announcing today? >> good afternoon. president biden landing in puerto rico a short time ago. expected to give remarks shortly. in the second largest city here. and we were just there this morning as power crews were urgently trying to restore power to some neighborhoods. but we're maybe an hour west and some of the hardest hit areas of this island, you can see behind me, this is a partially-collapsed bridge that washed away, during the height of hurricane fiona, more than two weeks ago. we just spoke to residents here that are still without power. one woman says she has now been without power for 16 days, she's been on hold with fema by phone for hours, and she says her insulin has been damaged. so that is some of the stories we're hearing from on the ground

from people, and luma energy, the private company that took over power transmission here in puerto rico last year says it has restored electricity to 93% of customers on the island. that's good news for many puerto ricans. but some of these communities, and some of the hardest-hit regions, in the southwestern part of island, they are still dealing with no power and they don't know when it might be restored. and some local mayors even took it upon themselves to contract private electricians to actually restore the power in these municipalities because they did not want to wait for luma energy. i spoke with a company official this morning, he said that was not a good idea. he says that was unsafe and put his crews in danger. but it gives you a sense of just some of the frustration among puerto ricans here. president biden walking into that. he is expected to announce another $60 million in funding to shore up some of the defenses that this island has, to better protect against future storms.

>> so what i see is rebuild levies, strengthen walls and install flood warning systems to prepare for future storms and we will get more of this but what i don't see is strengthening the power grid and that has been a problem for storm after storm in puerto rico, infamously from a few years ago when donald trump was president, and the power went out and there was scandal and controversy who was hired to fix the power lines. what is the deal with that? is the money going to go to any of that? >> there are so many questions regarding the power grid in puerto rico. as you know, this has been something that has been controversial not just for several administrations but decks here in puerto rico. those who may not be familiar, prepa is the government-run public utility that ran the power grid up until last year. preppa is still responsible for generating power but luma energy, the private consortium was brought in last year to

distribute power. there has been a lot of controversy how luma energy has done its job. some residents have said their power bills have gone up and power outages have gone up and protests here in puerto rico over the last several months. and there's a lot of frustration, too, about whether the local government did not learn its lesson following hurricane maria, and how much american taxpayers, taxpayers on the mainland, which by the way, in puerto rico, there are american citizens here, too, but american taxpayers on the mainland will have to foot the bill for billions of dollars in repairs to the power grid. and some activists here on the island say there that there should be more focus on renewable energy and solar power, but right now, there's still so many questions about how to adequately rebuild this power grid to prevent future storms. every hurricane season, this comes up. and once again, communities like this one, more than two weeks after hurricane fiona, are now having to deal with the uncertainty and the frustration

of not having basic power to be able to cool their insulin. >> it's amazing that this conversation is happening every time there is a hurricane and yet it's like a new conversation all over again. gabe guiterrez, thank you very much for being with us. thanks for showing us what's going on down there. and protests continue to flare up in iran, as officials cast blame and crack down. what this uprising might signal about the future of that country. this is the moment. for a treatment for moderate-to-severe eczema. cibinqo — fda approved. 100% steroid free. not an injection, cibinqo is a once-daily pill for adults who didn't respond to previous treatments. and cibinqo helps provide clearer skin and less itch. cibinqo can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections and do blood tests.

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after a 22-year-old named mahsa amini died in custody of police. and iran followed an hours long violent strandoff between students and the police according to state tv at least 300 students were detained. joining me now is senior fellow with the carnegie endowment for international peace, good to see you, the supreme leader is blaming this on the united states. any word how that is going over in iran? >> that's always the play book, to blame any indigenous unrest, protests, discontent on america or israel, and that certainly is not going to quell the protests. i think when you look at the images, they're pretty remarkable. they remind me of the movement against the anne-apartheid movement in south africa and rem nisz ent of our own civil rights movement in the united states,

it is essentially a very old reactionary government that is suppressing very young modern society, so that, that dynamic is not sustainable forever. >> we get such a small window into iran. we really, it is hard for people here in the united states to understand what is going on, because it is so hard to get into that country, and also to see news coverage of that country that is honest, because it's so dangerous to cover the news honestly there, the unrest that we're talking about following the death of this 22-year-old by the morality police, is this different? is this moment different than the last protest we've seen in the past few decades? >> well, what's different about it is the role of women, especially young girls, coming out and removing their compulsory head scarf, which is really a tremendous act of bravery, because there are women that, as you mentioned earlier, mahsa amini was killed, she was beaten and she died because she wasn't wearing a head scarf.

there are other women who are serving decks long prison sentences for not wearing head scarves. that's one thing that is unique about this protest, young women in particular. and something unique about iran, even by the standards of the authoritarian regimes, it is not only politically authoritarian and also economically and socially authoritarian. so that's one reason you see these protests happening in a diverse array of cities, and a diverse array of social classes, because there are political, economic and social grievances against the institution. >> how does the united states respond to this? >> i think the best role the united states can play in some ways is a technical role. obviously, you want to offer moral support, very similar to what ronald reagan did during the cold war, he didn't -- he was negotiating arms control deals with the soviet union but did not hesitate to denounce

them as an evil empire or imploring gorbachev to tear down this wall. >> and i think it is an important technical role for the united states which is to inhibit the iranian regime's ability to quell the protests, and cut off iran from the rest of the world and prevent iranians from communicating from one another and the rest of the world. so technically i think it is an important role for the united states. >> star link is available for use if they can get those platforms into that country. thank you very much. always good to see you. and that's going to do it for me today. hallie jackson picks up coverage next. don't mind me. i'm just the flu. i'm quite harmless, really. and when people ask, “but aren't you linked to dangerous flu complications,

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any minute now, we are watching for president biden set to speak in puerto rico, you can see it on the left-hand side of the screen, he will step up to the microphones and make remarks two weeks after hurricane fiona knocked out power to the whole island