in my state in delaware, and eastern shore of maryland. we're 3 feet above sea level, man, you worry about what those surges do. and the same thing is still happening in florida because you're talking about the high tide, low tide, adding 3 feet, and so on. so i found them all to be laser focused on what their needs were, and ask them, but i think they're reassured that we're going to be there for whatever they need, including search and rescue offshore of the coast guard, and coast guard helicopters and the like. >> reporter: mr. president, a question for you, we talked a lot about power lines and having stronger poles, i was curious some power companies have talked

about potentially shutting off power when there's high wind incidents. i'm wondering if this deserves an appropriate response from the power companies or do you think they should be working to -- the power structure rather than just ending the power? >> i think both. it's very expensive to secure these power lines. both in terms of actual structure, you know, we look out there and we see large towers carrying multiple wires, and the wires are like that thick, and you know, they're carrying an awful lot of energy. sometimes those entire towers come down. i am not expert enough to know when it's appropriate to shut down that line. that's one of the reasons why i think having the technology to

have these meters on each of these facilities tells you where the danger is. so i can picture, i'm getting beyond my expertise here. >> reporter: you're talking about huge numbers of americans suddenly not having power because the company makes the determination that -- >> well, we also know the huge number of americans that have died. for example, more forests have burned to the ground in the time i have been doing this than the entire square miles of the state of maryland. actually, the entire state of maryland burning to the ground, that's how much has already burned to the ground, so i think as we try to harden the capacity to transmit energy, it's not irrational to shut off the

power. i don't know enough of the detail of how to do that, where that decision is made. that's why we're starting off, i was talking with sherman randall who handles this for me, about the need to put these meters along, so we know where the power is going down. may be able to shut off parts. i don't know enough to know that. >> mr. president, are you concerned at all about the potential of a shutdown would impact the recovery efforts and what is your reaction to house republicans who say they are launching an investigation into the federal response in maui? >> i welcome a federal response in maui. i think that they should go out and talk to every elected official from the mayors to the governors to the united states senators to the congresspersons. i welcome them. once they go out and see it, they'll provide the money. thank you all very much. >> reporter: any concerns about -- >> by the way, i just heard literally coming out and mitch

is a friend, as you know, not a joke. people don't believe that's the case, but we have disagreements politically, but he's a good friend, and so i'm going to try to get in touch with him later this afternoon. i don't know enough to know. >> reporter: sir, is he running for reelection? >> are you running. >> i am not sir. >> thank you. our coverage is focuses most on the hurricane. for all of you just tuning in. that was the president at the last moment there being asked a question about the state of the health of senator mitch mcconnell who had another one of those freezing moments in front of the camera just a short while ago. that is a recently developing issue. there you heard the president, everyone. he says he has spoken with four major state governors to be affected by this hurricane, reassuring them that the administration will work in partnership with them to give them all the resources they need

to recover from what is be falling them right now. as i bid you a good day. it's good to be with you. i'm alex witt in for katy tur. at this hour, hurricane idalia is certainly bearing down on georgia. it is now a category 1 storm with winds as high as 90 miles an hour. officials there warn residents that they could see flooding and storm surge between 3 and 5 feet. a tornado watch is also in effect. then south carolina is next. idalia is moving very quickly, and expected to weaken further to a tropical storm before it reaches that state this evening. the damage idalia has left in its wake is just beginning to be assessed. it made landfall as a category 3 hurricane on florida's west coast, carving a path of devastation across northern florida, which forced millions of evacuations and left right now about 300,000 without power. this storm is being blamed for the deaths of at least two people thus far. this is what idalia looked like when it came ashore in florida's

big bend. keaton beach is one of several hard hit coastal towns that has never seen a hurricane like this one. the island of cedar key is disconnected from the mainland. the buildings have been flattened, condos, fully submerged in what residents call almost apocalyptic. down the coast in tampa, idalia's rival coincided with a super moon, catching residents who thought they were out of harm's way a bit off guard. coastal flooding could get worse as high tide returns in some areas, and this image just shared to social media by the first lady of florida, casey desantis. you see it, it's a 100-year-old oak tree. it's collapsed on the governor's mansion in tallahassee, the winds forcing the giant trunk to split. fortunately no injuries have been reported.

they may assess any damage to the mansion itself. joining me now, marissa parra, who's in tampa for us. welcome, idalia is in the rear view for folks in tampa, what are you seeing where you are right now? >> i will tell you, i have been out here since about 3:00 in the morning, and it has been, i will start first with what we saw around then. at that time, the water was just below my knees. we saw several vehicles stranded, including that white one over there, which seems silly when you look at it now. that person inside of it driving it, had to be rescued and that is not the only car around here. we've seen several instances of cars that needed rescuing, and people that needed rescuing, not just in tampa. here's an example of someone. this is a great example happening right here. these waters have receded quite a bit. it's still difficult to drive through. she's shaking her head i think in agreement, and so you have a

lot of waters that have been flooded and a lot of streets number just here in tampa. this is bay shore boulevard, by the way, a main thoroughfare for those who don't know. we're seeing this in places, clear water, st. petersburg, lots of streets flooded. a lot of streets that remain closed, bridges that remain closed. i'm going to point out how much has changed since i have been here. we talked about how much the water has gone down. you see a lot of people out and about. i see people fishing behind me. there have been people kayaking, people taking their paddle boards, which has been really interesting to watch but i will point this out, authorities ask that you don't do that. one, it kind of clogs up the roadways as they're trying to tow the vehicles that were stranded like the one next to me. it also means that if someone hurts themselves, that's one more rescue crew member that has to go and help them when they're trying to take care of cleaning up the area, and then on top of that, as you're about to hear,

they're worried about what's in the water. take a listen. >> what's the reason for kicking them out? >> this water is contaminated. >> reporter: with what? >> all the plumbing that's leaking out into the water. we have pollutants, it's just trash, trash water is all up in here. so we don't want people, that's why we are wearing suits, galoshes, it's not because we don't want to get wet. we're protecting ourselves. when they're out here, they don't know. we just want them to have knowledge and get them out of the water. >> reporter: i'll finish the sentence for him, he also said there's sewer in here. this is something that we see often when there's flood waters. you have to remember, too, there might be a downed power line that you can not see. we also saw a photo that was tweeted by the county sheriff's office of a rattlesnake swimming

in the waters. it may look like fun to play in for some people, but it is also something authorities ask you do not do. we talked about the rescues, when we talk about how nice it looks, i will add one last thing, the tampa mayor said don't let your guard down. it looks like the coast is clear. we thought that 20 minutes ago, and got hit by one of the outer bands and slammed with rain. so we could still see some flooding around here. we do not know what the next few hours are going to look like. and those outer bands really create prime conditions for tornadoes. we know about half the state was under tornado risk earlier. there's things to keep an eye on here. >> there are. when you mentioned rattlesnakes, i gave a quick look to my floor director, oh my goodness stay out of the water. we're getting word that the tampa airport has sustained minimal damage. apparently they plan to reopen in about an hour, just for arriving flights, so folks who

were planning to take off to go ahead and check the airlines and see what's going to happen there. thank you, marissa parra for that, joining me now is msnbc anchor, jose diaz-balart in crystal river, florida, under water with high tide just over an hour away, jose. and here's the issue. i heard you tell chris jansing in the hour before us here that the water you experienced came rushing in, and yes, it's receding very slowly, though, by comparison. so with the peak of high tide coming, what are you expecting? >> reporter: we're worried about that. it recedes so slowly and comes in so quickly. at one point this morning, we were saying 6 inches of water every 20 minutes where we were. we were forced to earlier this morning, just because of the incredibly quick nature of the water that was coming in to move locations twice because it was

just too much water at one time. think about that. 6 inches every 20 minutes. and taken forever for this to recede. we're seeing airboats behind, alex. and then there are also some cars. we just saw a caravan of the national guard pass by. florida national guard, there is a lot of activity going on here, and there are also people now that are going back to the homes they left yesterday. this is an area here that is zone a for evacuation, including phil and brenda who left their home, and kept in close contact with their neighbors. this is something they describe that was happening there. we're talking about just 3 1/2 miles, a little island right off us. >> water on the hood of any jeep. people swimming out of their windows down in the islands right number. >> reporter: phil, are you

talking about people swimming out of their windows? >> swimming out of their windows, literally, from their homes. >> reporter: brenda was telling me that she fears that maybe they lost everything in their home. they're now going back. phil's brother has an airboat, and they are heading over there now to see the condition of their house, but the good thing of it is that they have lights. everyone they know survived, and even the people that stayed there and were forced to swim out of their house are doing okay, and you know what, that's good news. and the waters recede, alex, let's hope they don't bring that back up when the tide rises in just about, i guess about an hour and ten. >> i know you're keeping a close watching on all of that for us. can you imagine, though, the description, having to swim out of your home, out through a window. hard to believe.

thank you so much, my friend. stay safe down there. right now, georgia and south carolina are both under a state of emergency. hurricane idalia's damaging winds are barrelling through southern georgia as that state braces for heavy flooding. although idalia is expected to weaken to a tropical storm before it hits south carolina sometime later today officials are certainly preparing for major damage. joining me now from savannah, georgia, msnbc anchor lindsey reiser, so it looks like you're in the thick of some bad weather right there. what's it like? >> reporter: we have been getting with heavy rain and wind. schools have gone virtual. city services have stopped, including sanitation, but we are still expecting some of the worst of it. luckily idalia is expected to downgrade to a tropical storm by the time it reaches us. this is what the mayor told our colleague, andrea mitchell about the path and what we can expect. >> we know that our impacts will really start coming this

afternoon. the conditions here will deteriorate as the day goes on. between 5:00, and 10:00, we're expecting to be over us, and again, obviously we're very concerned about the wind. we're already under a hurricane warning, a storm surge warning, always very dangerous. low lying land like savannah. >> reporter: as of right now, many flights have been cancelled but the airport is still open. we'll continue to monitor that. hunker down, ride it out, get to somewhere safe if you need to. all the concern that we are surrounded by water in a low lying area. alex, other areas of georgia have already realized, rather, some effects when it hit georgia as a category 1 hurricane. 90 miles an hour winds. 9 to 10 inches of rain in spots. flash flood, tens of thousands without power. hopefully when the winds die down in those areas this afternoon. crews can get out and repair. alex, the top line here in savannah as we have yet to see

the worst of the wind and rain. that's expected later this evening before hopefully it continues to weaken and head to south carolina. alex. >> and to your point, 114,000 people without power at last count. thank you so much, do stay safe as that storm is heading your way. let's go to hard hit perry, florida, where governor desantis and florida officials are holding a press conference, let's listen to this florida official with an update. >> i want to thank the governor for sending in the troops and helping us. hep sent us national guard. we have a great leader, and we want to thank everybody that's come forward to help us. we took a lit from an almost cat 4 hurricane. it feels good to know that you can -- >> it looks like we may have lost that signal, everybody. that can happen in the midst of a storm, that is for sure. that area of perry where the governor and officials are

addressing what happened. it was kind of a ground zero of this storm as it came ashore as a category 3, a very powerful category 3, almost a category 4. if we have meteorologist angie lassman stand big, let's go to her and find out what people can expect, regarding the brunt of the storm, those of us in its path over the next couple of hours. >> we've got a category 1 hurricane happening right now, we're likely going to see this eventually weaken to a tropical storm here in the next couple of hours. either way, still a whole lot of moisture associated with it out ahead of the system as it works farther to the north and east. it's still moving at a good clip, 20 miles per hour right now, and holding on to winds of 75 miles per hour as it works its way through georgia. we saw really torrential, even heavy downpours working through parts of douglas, valdosta earlier today. we lessen up, intensity wasn't

quite as much as it was earlier today, as it moves through eastern portions of georgia, savannah seeing some of the lighter showers working through, plenty of lightning still associated. and it stretches up the coast as well. 17 million people included in this, stretching from the north carolina area, down through south carolina, georgia, and parts of florida. notice the west coast of florida still dealing with flooding concerns we're going to see lasting before we start to see the water recede, completely through the rest of the day, and into the evening hours. we've got flash flood warnings in effect for the areas that saw the really heavy rain, parts of valdosta, upwards of 7 to 8 inches, just to the east of it, we had reports higher than that. incredible amounts of rain in a short period of time. there's the latest track, takes through a cat 1 in savannah. by the time we get into the early morning hours tomorrow, 8:00 a.m., we're going to start to see it move offshore,

eventually see it continue away from us, and taking the rain with it. between now and then, we've got heavy ran to deal with, the potential for tornadoes. we've already had reports of those through the carolinas, and a tornado watch that's going to remain in effect until 10:00 for parts of the carolinas, even after the sun goes down, even after we get, you know, into some of maybe not quite as heavy of rain for this region, we have that potential and the ingredients will be there for brief spinups, nonetheless, tornadoes. if you live in wilmington, charleston, savannah here through the rest of your afternoon and into the evening hours. let's talk about storm surge. i know the west coast got a lot of attention over the last 24 hours because of the storm surge they were expecting. impressed stuff coming out of the southeast, and we potentially just got an updated forecast. we could see the tide levels about 8 feet here, for places like charleston. that would put them in the top ten of highest water levels, and we've got to get to savannah

around 7:30, and charleston around 8:30. those are the high tide times for both of those locations. we're still going to have a big push of water on shore with those winds coming on shore. forcing that water up against the coast. still a lot of potential for storm surge for folks there. this is going to be something we'll have to watch through the evening hours tonight, alex, and on top of that, we're not going to see quite as impressive winds but we could see tropical storm force winds, maybe higher than that. maybe not so much the low 70s through places like charleston, but the closer they are to the center of the system, especially if it holds together as a hurricane, we could see higher amounts, downed trees, power lines, those are all on the table here as we get through the rest of the afternoon and into the evening hours. we eventually will finally get rid of the system as we get into the later parts of our day tomorrow. it will be winding down, and that will be of course the time we have to see the damage left

behind. the water levels will finally start to recede as well, as we get closer to the low tide times into the overnight hours for folks in the southeast, alex. >> i think it's going to be still a number of long hours for people in the path of idalia. thank you so much for all the heads up and things people need to watch for. we're going back to perry, florida, let's listen to governor desantis and other florida officials on where things stand right no. >> so, look, we'll see as the day and tomorrow goes on in terms of what we are looking at in terms of fatalities. i can tell you with hurricane ian, as soon as that storm hit, within an hour after it hitting, there were frantic phone calls to 911 locally there of people that were literally drowning in their house. and it was something that you just, when i was talking to the sheriff, i remember talking to the sheriff in lee county on the phone, just the feeling of dread

that those phone calls represented. you knew there was going to be a lot of problems. we have not seen that in the same way on this storm. and i think part of it is that when you see storm surge of that nature, a lot of people heeded the warnings that their local officials issued because, you know, you can't hide from the storm surge like in your house. like if it comes, and it's 10, 12 feet, you are going to be in a world of hurt. and so it's not worth the risk. a lot of people understood that. you got to run away tr that water. get out of the area. get to higher ground and you can hunker down in a safe structure. that can mean saving your life. a lot of people understood that. we had significant storm surge in cedar key and steinhatchee

and clearly the storm surge there was enough to potentially be life threatening if people didn't take proper precautions. but i think most of the people did, and i think they probably really protected themselves and their families as a result. >> governor we saw some personnel, can you give us insight to what the state guard -- >> the guys behind me for our state guard, they came in and they're assisting with damage assessments, and that obviously is important information to be able to get back to the state so that we know what we need to do from a transportation perspective, from a fish and wildlife perspective, anything in terms of what needs to be done. so they've done a good job, and of course we have many hundreds of national guard just right here in taylor county. this is kind of the ground zero deployment for them. and if there's more that's needed, we'll be able to surge more accordingly. we have activated 5,500 members

of the florida national guard. we also have some of our members of the state guard, and then we have eight urban search and rescue teams, so we are well equipped to be able to respond to whatever comes down the pike today into tomorrow. and we're hoping for the west. we're hoping there's not going to be a need to use all of those resources to effectuate rescue operations but we would rather be safe than sorry. we'll see you guys soon, thank you. >> okay. everybody. that's florida governor ron desantis, and really, saying that they are prepared doing the best they can, and think that people have really heeded those evacuation orders and take precautions in advance of the storms. and 5,500 national guard have been activated and they're getting a lot of support from as far away as california national guard to help in the clean up

and rescue and recovery effort as a result of this storm. up next, a citrus county resident whose business and home are under water. how he got out. we're back in 60 seconds. ot out we're back in 60 seconds ♪ tourists tourists that turn into scientists. tourists photographing thousands of miles of remote coral reefs. that can be analyzed by ai in real time. ♪ so researchers can identify which areas are at risk. and help life underwater flourish. ♪ have fun, sis! ♪♪ can't stop adding stuff to your cart? get the bank of america customized cash rewards card, choose the online shopping category and earn 3% cash back. i used to wait to run my dishwasher 'til it was super full.

now— i run it daily. weekdays— weekends— you might think that's wasteful, but it's not. even half loads use 80% less water than handwashing. saving $130 on utilities. cascade. dare to dish differently. thousands of people evacuated ahead of idalia's landfall. they are still unable to return to assess the damage. joining me now is citrus county resident aaron hefty. welcome. here's the irony as i was reading about your background, you're a charter boat captain, you make your living on the water, but this much water, that might damage your livelihood, at least temporarily. first of all, how did you prepare for the storm? >> i evacuated everything that i could. got everything to higher ground. and of course got our family and friends to higher ground.

that was the most important thing. materialistic is one thing, but friends, family and pets. >> yeah, and that includes, were you able to get your boats out of the water and to higher ground as well? >> yes, ma'am, that's the first thing we did. we went around the island and got everybody's boats off the island. >> have you spoken with your neighbors in i believe it's azello, a small community i know, only about 600 residents live there full-time year round, but do you have any sense of anybody being in danger right now? >> the ones that were in danger, there was a couple that didn't get out. we sent airboats in this morning to go get them out as the tides were coming in, and we rescued, well i didn't personally, but gary bartell rescued a couple of people, including a lady, susie who only had one leg and couldn't get out. >> but everyone seems to be safe at this point at least that you're aware and havsproad, mil

1 1/2 is where it stops and the police obviously have it blocked off. >> i have to ask, i mean, i imagine you're a hardy guy, you have lived by the water your entire life. was there at any point where you thought, i'm just going to ride this out, the evacuation orders are not going to apply to me? >> yeah, we're a little hard headed, floridians, absolutely, it crossed my mind quite a few times, and then i look at my wife and my dogs, and, you know, family and i have to just do the right thing and leave! well, yeah, sounds like you did absolutely the smart thing, despite calling yourself hard headed. let me ask you about your home. i understand it probably has sustained some water damage? >> yeah, i got about 5 to 6 feet of water in my house. >> oh, wow. >> any idea how long it's going it take for that to recede?

have you been given any advice by officials or are you prepared to get that water out? >> i have nothing to go back to. i'll have to rebuild. >> wow. aaron hefty, we wish you the very best of luck through all of this, both with your business and getting back to what looks like a beautiful home there, glad you, your wife, your dogs, neighbors, are all safe. thank you so much for spending some time with us. we'll keep you in our thoughts. >> thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> we appreciate it. meantime, gainesville, florida, everybody, concerns are growing over the extreme wind asks downed power line, and officials are warning residents, including the 50,000 students at the university of florida that while the rain may be over, the danger is certainly not. joining me now from gainesville is nbc news correspondent guad venegas. welcome, so idalia may have moved but the outer bands, apparently, they can still reach where you are? they haven't moved quite out of the way? so talk about the conditions on

the ground where you are and what will residents who left the area as advised, be returning to? >> reporter: we're about 75 miles east of where the hurricane made landfall here in florida, so idalia is gone, but we do still have a little bit of wind, and we've had some rain, very light rain. so it's really the end of it. now, authorities here want people, residents, students for the university of florida, which make a large part of the population here, and other residents, they want them to be careful when they go outside because they did report some fallen trees, and also the possibility of any kind of damage to the power infrastructure. now, as of now, the last time i checked, we're almost at 275,000, maybe more customers in florida that have power outages. that number, of course, has grown as the storm made its way through the state. we have some of those customers here throughout the day. they have been working on restoring power.

we have less than 10,000 customers in this county that had power outages. so as i said, you can also see most of the wind has passed and the rain has also passed. we were under a tornado watch, which has also ended here. so conditions have improved tremendously. what authorities want is for people to be careful when they go outside because of debris that is on the roads, and we have also wet roads outside and there was a report earlier from florida highway patrol that there was an accident during the storm. the result of a driver driving under rainy conditions that could have contributed to this accident that resulted with a fatality. so it's always dangerous to drive on the road with debris, and wet roads. we still have the end of this wind, but people are coming outside. i just went down the street to one of the main shopping centers near the motel where we stayed and people were coming out to get food. everyone was glad this wasn't as bad as it could have been. they hunkered down since last

night. this was a ghost town with officers waiting for the storm to come through. as of now, like i mentioned, residents can come out and be careful when they make it out, and there's still a couple thousand customers waiting for the power to be restored. there are thousands of workers and vehicles from the power companies making their way to the affected areas, before the storm, we saw the images of thousands of trucks that made their way to florida getting to the areas to restore power, alex. >> that's incredibly important to get that done as these people try to get on with their lives and start the cleanup process. guad venegas, thank you for that. joining me the mayor of gainesville, harvey ward. to all the residents sheltered in place, is it safe for them to step outside and look around and assess things? >> alex, thank you for having me on today. i appreciate it. yes, things have improved

drastically here in gainesville. we're very fortunate not to have been in the direct path of the storm. it looked like when we went to bed last night, when i left the emergency operations center, it looked like we were going to be in the path of the storm. when we got up this morning, the path. the emergency we were very fortunate. not that we didn't have some damage. we certainly continue to have some trees down here in gainesville. power lines down, but compared to what happened both north and south of us, with the storm surge around crystal river and further south, the enormous damage in the path of the storm north of us, we certainly came out on the better end of this. i have an update on our total utilities customers out. our municipal utility, we have about 100,000 total customers

and only 250 of those accounts are still without power. >> that's good. >> so fantastic work by gainesville regional utilities to restore power as well as they have. working to get the last 250 back on as soon as possible. but really tremendous work by our line workers, and by all of the emergency workers here at the city of gainesville. >> i got to tell you, every time i hear that kind of thing that power is being restored during a storm or immediately thereafter, how do you to that. so much admiration for those people, sometimes at their own risk. all of those students, 50,000 at the university of florida, many have not been through a hurricane. what is your message to them, and how prepared are campus authorities to deal with this storm? >> so the first thing i will tell you is that my daughter lives in the dorms at the university of florida right here in gainesville, and so i have a

special connection to uf. >> i'll bet you do. >> nothing but admiration for the storms services and overall public safety at the university of florida. they work very well with the city of gainesville, with the alachua county. one thing to all the mamas and daddies of university of florida students in south florida and everywhere else who are not nearby, we are taking good care of your kids. they are safe here in gainesville. we have a metro population of a little over 200,000 people. it's not just students here but we certainly do take our guests and residents who are part of the university community very very seriously, and, you know, a lot of the students at university of florida do come from other parts of florida and other parts of the southeast, and many of them have been through storms before. but as you say, this is often the first time without being

with family. >> yeah. mayor, i know that you have been awfully busy, but did you get a chance to talk to your daughter? did she tell you how her friends, roommates, anyone she was hanging out with during the storm, how they were fare something. >> the university of florida does a great job taking care of the students and making sure they are safe. and that's the impression we got from her as well. we picked her up last night, she spent the night with us last night instead of in the dorms, but the dorms are hardened, they are shelters themselves, so no questions at all about the safety of university of florida students or anyone here in our community. we did have a traffic accident as was just noted before i came on there. early this morning as part of the storm. bad things happen when people go out in storms. we encourage everyone, when

there is storm activity, please just stay inside. thankfully the bands have mostly passed us now. people can get to the work of cleaning up tree limbs and all the other debris that may have come down during the storm. >> indeed, and we note the person you're speaking a 40-year-old man who died about 6:15 this morning, venturing out in his car in the storm. mayor of gainesville, harvey ward, it's good to talk with you. i'm glad you dodged a severe situation, but there is clean up ahead. thank you so much for the time to talk to us. storm surge and high tides could still bring major flooding. how much damage residents are looking at and what officials there are preparing to do. looki there are preparing to do. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. [sneeze]

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heavy wind and rain have battered florida, but the storm surge brought by hurricane idalia has been the biggest threat to coastal communities today. pinellas county, home to clear water and st. petersburg is a peninsula in the gulf. officials there say they were spared the worst of the damaging winds but flooding may get worse this afternoon and into the overnight hours. joining me now is lead public information officer for pi lel -- pinellas county, david, it's high tide still for another 20 minutes or so. what are you experiencing in terms of flooding and any surge? >> yeah, not only is it a high tide, it's a king tide, which is

one of the highest of the high tides. we are still seeing some of the impacts of the flood of the combined storm surge and high tide. that's one of the reasons why we have not yet lifted our evacuation order. we evacuated our zone a residents, that's several hundred thousand people right along the coast. we are waiting for those flood waters to recede, and then once they have safely receded, then we can send in our damage assessment teams to take a look at road, make sure the roads are structurally sound, make sure there's no dangerous debris on them, and we can start letting residents back into their homes. >> when you think about how long that's going to take? is that a matter of hours? are we looking to tomorrow? what do you think? >> our best case scenario is that we are looking to try to start lifting those evacuation orders this evening. it's hard to predict exactly. sometimes the water doesn't do exactly what you want it to do, and sometimes you don't know what you're going to find, but we are working closely with our

sheriff's office, the florida national guard and all of the municipalities in the county to make sure we get that done effectively and safely. >> those evacuation orders that went out to a couple hundred thousand people who you say evacuated, what about those that did not. how many do you know did not heed the warnings, and have you heard about sos rescue calls from them? >> we have been doing rescue calls throughout the day. both folks who were not in immediate danger but just were not able to leave their homes, and some folks who may have been experiencing some medical conditions and so we were able to access them with a combination of sheriff and local emergency responder assets like high water vehicles, boats, things like that. >> anybody left behind, anyone you're still trying to get to, david? >> you know, i don't have the up-to-the-moment information, but i know that we are able to respond to the calls that we're getting. >> so assessing the damage, what are going to be the big

challenges of that? because if you have a lot of water, it's hard until it completely recedes for you to be able to figure out exactly what may be left behind. >> absolutely, and it's really a team effort. we have a number of cities in our county, so they have teams going out. we've made damage assessment tools available to our residents, so as people do get to return to their homes, what they're seeing, they can take photos. they can share with us, and that helps us build really the big picture of how much help we're going to need, and how much effort we're going to have to put in to start making our communities whole again. but it actually started first thing this morning. we started doing helicopter over flights of those flood affected areas with the sheriff's office to try to get the first light view from above of where we're seeing the greatest flood damage. >> big picture, pinellas county overall, give it a grade of how well you think things went. honestly, you guys were super prepared and all the details i

have read about you that you're also sharing as well. do you think you passed with an a in terms of your preparation. >> it's hard to say that for the folks that have flood waters entering their home. it hurts to get hurt by a hurricane, even a glancing blow, which is what we experienced, and really, if there's anything we can emphasize, it's that as much damage as we did sustain, we were lucky. you know, we're definitely thinking about folks up north in the big bend area and in those counties closer to the panhandle. i'm hoping personally that we don't suffer the same fate next time but hope is not a good option. we are asking our residents to stay prepared, keep your hurricane kits packed, keep those sandbags, if you can store them safely at your house. we're just at the start of the busy point of hurricane season. >> public information officer lead in fact for pinellas county, david connor, thank you so much, best of luck as you wade through and see what you have as a remnant of idalia.

>> thank you. fema administrator, brock long. i'm going to ask you about fema and what the type of help that it can provide on day one after the storm. those folks in pinellas county with whom i was just speaking. say tomorrow, what can fema do to help the residents there? >> well, fema has been pretty involved the last few days, you know, prepositioning teams in equipment, commodity, and various locations. what they have done over the last 48 hours is move those teams to air force base, positions in atlanta, they have people in columbia, for example, they don't want to be in the path of the storm, but they want to be able to move in very quickly after the fact to support the governor and the state of florida's efforts to help manage the disaster, and you know, response is really a team sport. all fema is there to come in and help the states overcome gaps or take on missions that the state

and local governments don't have the capacity to do at this point. >> what about residents who have lost everything or certainly returning or not be able to return to uninhabitable homes. how quickly can they get housing? how can they go about getting that? >> housing doesn't come quickly in terms of the manufactured homes and those types of things. what will happen is a disaster declaration would be put in place by the president of the united states, which would include individual assistance, which would help to offset initial costs that disaster victims are experiencing. but the goal would be how do we make the home safe, sanitary, and functional, right, and try to keep people where they are. if the home is obliterated and gone, most likely they're with friends and family or a county shelter, which is not ideal, and so you want to eventually turn on transitional shelter assistance, which would allow, you know, allow fema and the state to be able to move and

mobilize people to local hotels or areas where there's rental vacancies to get them in a more suitable, stable situation. long-term housing may not come for months. you know, the number of trailers, for example, just don't exist. they have to be bought or mobilized or brought into the community, and it takes some time. >> can i ask you about rebuilding, though? does fema encourage or require residents to rebuild homes that could withstand future storms or do they suggest relocating all together? i mean, to what extent does fema get involved with that when people say, hey, look, what are we going to do, what kind of advice can you give us? >> this is a conversation that needs to be had with congress, the insurance industry, emergency managers and local and state leaders. the bottom line is that as a nation, we need to wake up and realize that we have to do more when it comes to proper land use

planning, passing proper building codes and a lot of people don't like that, but they work. anything built after the 2001 florida building code typically survives these types of events, and anything before that doesn't fare very well if you're in the path of these hurricanes, so and proper insurance. and there is a big debate where insurance companies may be pulling out of parts of florida or california. but we've got to get them back to the table because the insurance piece is really the first line of defense for the citizens. they go through these things. and when they pay into a system, it should be there for them in times of like this. it is a combination of thing has have to be happening. sometimes wooer our own worst enemy, allowing too many people to live in vulnerable areas without building properly. we put people on the moon. we could build correctly for the future disasters. >> brock, it is almost as if you were ease dropping on a conversation i had outside of the studio and it was flood

insurance and the access for obtaining those in vulnerable areas. it is a huge issue. does fema, does the federal government have an official position on that? you say you want to get insurance companies back to the table? >> yeah, sure. you know, the fema is forced to run a program that is not financially solvent. the bottom line is that fema cannot charge an actual rate. it does not have enough money coming in from premiums to pay out the claims that occur and they continue to go bankrupt because congress doesn't fix it. honestly one of the things that have to change, we have to stop focusing on a flood map. when you're in a map or outside of a map, what i've learned in my career and most emergency managers will tell you, any house could flood regardless of where it is. a basketball shoved in a drain

could change the flood zone of a neighborhood. or large commercial construction could change the floodplain and the maps can't keep up. so we have to stop talking people out of flood insurance because they're not shown in a flood map and we need to push forward the campaign that any house should flood and anyone should consider it. the more policies you have, the more nationwide, the more stable the program comes and its ability to pay out when needs. and so there are some simple fixed in my opinion. we're not having the conversation and can't get the ball rolling from a fema perspective to fix the nfip. >> i know we focused mostly on the folks needing immediate assistance but that bigger picture is extremely vital going forward. thank you for your time. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me on. meteorologist angie lassman, let's talk about what folks could expect and where in the next few hours, angie?

>> alex, all of this is really focused towards parts of the southeast. we're wrapping things up in florida when it comes to the heavy rain and the strong winds and surge will move out. we'll see the water leaves recede after we get past high tide which comes somewhere between 3:00 to 5:00 along the west coast. but notice, we've still got the heavy rain across parts of georgia, into the carolinas. charleston already seeing a couple of tornado reports this morning. we're going to continue to see right now those winds sustained at 75 miles per hour with a category one at that. and i expect it to become a tropical storm with the next up day. but either way, the rain continuing to work through parts of georgia. we saw ample amounts of rain across southern georgia. so much so that it prompted the florida flash flood warnings that we told you about earlier in the hour. we still have 16 million people under the flood alerts from the carolinas down through florida. parts of tampa and cedar key still involved in the flood watches. but you see the red for the

flash flood watching including into douglas. they're finally starting to see quieter conditions. that surge will be something that we watch for in the coming hours. alex. >> okay, angie lassman, thank you so much for that. i'm told we're going right now to tallahassee and maggie vespa who is standing by for us. welcome. let's get the very latest on the damage there and the recovery though i'm very encouraged to see a sunshine on you instead of the rain we saw earlier. >> reporter: yeah, tallahassee and the sheriff here in the county telling us they feel like they dodged a bullet and thanking their lucky stars, those were the sheriff's words seeing how little damage they have. they were affected. a lot of people, tens of thousands still without power in this area. we just got an if update from the governor, more than half a million statewide still without electricity at this point. following kind of the worst of the storm. as it made its way through florida. so governor ron desantis had to do one of the hardest hit areas,

perry,florida, and noting that officials here are feeling lucky especially how populated tallahassee is. and the worst seems to have have skipped over the city. this is the state capital and this is a college town, florida a&m, all of the campuses shut down as well as the government buildings. so you have to think about it the state officials coordinating the emergency response were here getting hit by the remnants of the storm in the cross-hairs of the storm and typically this sit is far enough west that it is not getting hit by storms of this strength. and if you go farther south, that is where we're seeing the rescues and multiple deaths today. two car crashes according to florida highway patrol. both of which at least partially caused by the weather. both of which turning fatal. and then again we've talked about serious damage to homes and to properties. that is also farther east and south of us. so you could tell, as you point out, in tallahassee, it seems to have moved on and further inland toward georgia and the

carolinas. that is next mark. but here in florida, statewide, officials are scoping out damage and preparing to ask for help local officials say from cities like tallahassee, who feel like they were thankfully largely spared. >> and understandably a few are still without power we're told last hour count and you may have an update, maggie, it was 40,000 in the area without power. do you have anything new on that? >> reporter: that is last update from this area. the latest number we have statewide is that more than a quarter million. so that being said, we point out a lot of crews are going across county lines as far as emergency response goes. so we're seeing that statewide response kind of fan out to get the hardest hit areas back online as well. it is an all-hands-on-deck mission. >> thank you. and joining me now, retired lieutenant general russell honoray. i'm sorry about the conditions under which we're talking.

you have dealt with a storm of this magnitude and greater before. what level of damage could we expect from idalia? >> as the previous reporter was talking about, a lot of power outage. and a lot of flooding along coast. the difference here between -- katrina was concentrated in mississippi and new orleans. this storm stretched damage out from tampa north into tallahassee. that is a 250-mile travel distance between those two points. that is a lot of terrain to go through search and rescue. and there is going to be very difficult as you have to go into that coastal area, the five people that may not have evacuated. so the search and rescue is going to be a lot plor demanding, alex. >> let me ask you about the

first couple of days, post storm. is it the most crucial time for recovery efforts certainly for human recovery efforts and in terms of property and the like, is it really something that you could focus on as well at the same time? >> you have to. you have to do that search and rescue as soon as the winds go down. and the quicker you get in there, the better. because in many cases, the people that didn't evacuate as we saw during katrina and the trend continues, are the eltderly, the disabled and the poor who structures are not as strong and people's health is not as good. so you have to get to the eldler people within a day, a day sand a half before we lose them before the time you get in and all of the places that had mandatory evacuation by the code, all of those houses have to go right now and knock on the doors to make sure anybody is in there or not to verify so we could get them out.

>> lieutenant general, for those people who still need help and they may not have evacuated or those people that your describing right now, who, sir, do they contact first to try to get help? >> they should contact the local 911. >> that is it. >> they should be pinging on their phone, saved their phone, don't talk on the phone. use text. save those batteries. if the power is out, keep pinging. help it on the way. because they're also pinging the cell phone hits to see where people are, alex, if there is concentration or if there are people trying to call out. so keep those cell phones alive and keep calling. they're on the way. >> last word from you, sir, as you look forward to another storm which will certainly come the way of florida and everywhere else in the gulf, what is the biggest thing to keep in mind in preparations? >> stay prepared. as we see this storm cranked up in a few days, the state of florida did a great job of

preparing and well organized and well trained state prepared, the government is doing their job, people have to be prepared. >> very good advice. from you, retired lieutenant general russell honoray, and that will do it for me. i'll see you right back here tomorrow. "deadline: white house" starts right now. hi there, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york. there are developments this afternoon across a number of those investigations into ex-president donald trump. we'll get to those in just a mit. but first we pick up live coverage of hurricane idalia. the strong efrt storm to make land fall on the big bend region of florida in generations. actually going back 127 years. right now it is a cat 1 hurricane. thankfully that is an improvement. when it first made landfall and it slammed head on into florida as a cat 3 with 125 mile-per-hour winds.