good morning. it is 10:00 eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm reporting here from new york. hurricane milton now a dangerous category 4 and directly aimed at florida. the storm expected to double in size before making landfall overnight. on track to be potentially one of the most destructive hurricanes on record. and there's little time left for anyone to evacuate. amid the mass evacuations and

hurried preparations, there's also a new worry. limited resources. gas stations literally running on empty, and grocery store shelves picked clean. nbc's marisa is joining us from tampa. jay gray is standing by in ft. myers. and meteorologist michelle grossman is tracking the storm for us. the track of this storm has shifted slightly since yesterday. where do we expect landfall now? >> yeah, this has kind of wobbled back and forth, ten miles north or south. as we go throughout time, we are anticipating that west-central u.s. coast impact on the state of florida. we are looking at a category 4 storm. this is catastrophic. people are going to lose homes. there's a threat to life and property. so we're going to watch this very closely, we are about 16 hours away from landfall. we're looking at winds of 155 miles per hour. yes, it weakened to a category 4, but keep in mind a category 5 is 157 miles per hour, so this is a very strong category 4

strong. it's heading northeast at 6 miles per hour, now 210 miles southwest of tampa, florida. on top of this, the outer rain bands are reaching the state. we're looking at the reds, the oranges, the yellows where we see the heavier rainfall. we do have a tornado watch until 9:00. where you see this pink outline on the map here, you see the red boxes in southern florida, tornado warnings, as well. this will be a concern as we go throughout the day, as this makes landfall later tonight in the overnight hours. let's track it for you. a category 4 storm, moving through a super charged gulf, really warm waters, record warmth. it will stay a category 4 storm, anticipating that throughout the next 12 hours or so. as it gets closer to land, we anticipate it to interact with dry air, and weaken it a bit. but still a major hurricane as

it makes landfall between tampa and ft. myers. a category 1 storm by thursday. at 2:00 p.m. still over florida, and then moves over the waters of the atlantic. it will bring heavy bands, we'll see the storm surm increasing, the heavy rainfall up to 18 inching. as a result, 17 million people are at risk for flash flooding, river flooding. we'll see street flooding and road closures as we go into tomorrow. let's end it here, because this will be the legacy of the storm. we could see a storm surge of 15 feet above dry land. that is unsurvivable and catastrophic. we'll see winds gusting over 100 miles per hour, bringing power outages for weeks maybe. we're going to check this all day long and watch this closely throughout the night. >> obviously, it's going to be a big 24 hours here. michelle, thank you for staying

on top of this. marisa, in tampa, officials are warning large portions of the city will be uninhabitable. how are residents preparing? >> reporter: well, for the past couple of days, we have been gathering all of the information on that. just for editorial information, we are reporting from where we're going to be hunkering down during the storm. it is much further inland, we have plenty of walls. so what you're seeing right now, what we're broad casting right now and the difference between 12 or so hours from now when it makes landfall. we have watched the progression out of st. petersburg and the barrier islands, out of the tampa area, and we have seen such a marked difference between what we saw right before helene and what we're now seeing as hurricane milton is approaching closer. a lot of the reasons we're seeing so many more people evacuate, what we have heard is that helene opened a lot of

eyes. we think the messaging really started to get out there, that people told me they couldn't find transportation to the shelters or couldn't afford it, we understand they were able to get the message on different resources, because there were and are still free uber rides. there are still shuttles that can take you to a shelter. that's so important to communicate. look on the florida department of emergency management for those resource it is you are watching and you still need those. it's not too late. officials are hoping everyone has made it out, but it is not too late. that is the messaging tomorrow, but time is really running out. you need to hit the road as soon as possible, because they're hoping by noon, any time within an hour or so of noon, people are out of the area, because they're not sure what people are going to find when they come back. it will be too dangerous for first responders to do rescues as hurricane milton is here. >> marisa, stay safe as we ride this out together.

thank you. jay, we'll get to you in just a second. right now, florida governor ron desantis is giving a briefing. let's listen. >> we are prepared, and we will respond. i have spoken to the president. we remain in regular contact with fema, and we are marshaling all available resources to be able to prepare and respond to hurricane milton. i also want to thank the 20 other states who are assisting florida ahead of the storm. this is just what we, as americans, do. we have had opportunities to help other states in the past, including most recently in western north carolina, and i think it shows the spirit that these states are stepping up and providing really valued support. we still have a state of emergency for 51 florida counties. hurricane milton is still a major, very strong hurricane. it's currently a category 4 hurricane, with maximum

sustained winds of 155 miles per hour. that is just a whisker shy of a category 35. while there is the hope that it will weaken more before landfall, there is high confidence that this hurricane is going to pack a major, major punch and do an awful lot of damage. as you can see behind me, the florida division of emergency management is fully deployed, fully active. this has been a footing now for over two weeks, given both of these storms. the state is activity fulfilling over 1500 missions. we've delivered massive amounts of supplies, meals, water bottles, sandbags, tarps, generators to help our local communities respond to this storm. we've also deployed more than 11,000 feet of flood protection systems to hospitals, waste water treatment facilities.

generators have been deployed at shelters and to support sheltering operations. star link internet has been deployed across the entire state of florida. we have surged an additional 600 ambulances, currently in operation helping in the effort. the state of florida has considerable fuel reserves ahead of milton, and it'sstaged and will be utilized. we have dispatched a lot of fuel, but we still have on hand 1.6 million gallons of diesel, and 1.1 million gallons of gasoline. there is no, right now, fuel short an. however, demand has been extraordinarily high and some gas stations have run out to be able to help ameliorate that. the florida highway patrol has facilitated 106 long-distant fuel tanker escorts with sirens, getting through traffic,

totalling almost a million gallons of gasoline from ports in tampa, jacksonville, everglades and manatee. and they are continuing with the fuel escorts as we speak. i've been in contact with the ports on the west coast of florida. we'll see how this storm impacts those. clearly, there's a chance that you could have a major impact on port manatee as well as on port tampa bay. that could interrupt their ability to receive fuel shipments. so we are working on contingencies to keep fuel flowing throughout the state of florida. as we saw this new storm develop, it was clear that a lot of the hardest hit areas on the west coast of florida, from hurricane helene, had not had major, robust debris removal contracts in place or operations in place. some of these contractors were good, some were not getting the job done. so you had a major hazard on barrier islands in sarasota county and other places.

so this weekend, i authorized -- mandated 24/7 debris removal. we took all the florida department of transportation and other agency vehicles, brought them from across the state and they are engaged in other missions as their normal course of business and dedicated it to debris removal. so in a little over 48 hours, and they were working all through the night, in the wee hours of the morning in manatee, sarasota and pinelis. they were able to remove 55,000 cubic yards of debris. so that's over 3,000 truckloads of debris, and it's our estimation that on those barrier islands, they were able to make a dent in the debris and reduce it by over 50%. so i want to thank everybody that's been involved in that. it did not stop since this weekend. we're now in a position where it's likely conditions are going

to deteriorate. so we're going to have to wind that down. there will be less damage from this storm as a result of getting that debris out than there otherwise would have been. the florida department of transportation is staging the following assets. 156 bridge inspectors, 328 cut and toss personnel and over 1500 pieces of heavy equipment, florida state national guard, and the highway patrol have activated additional personnel in advance of this storm. we have hundreds of state rescue personnel on hand. 26 total teams. they are embedded in the potential impact sites along the west coast to begin immediate rescue operations as soon as the storm passes. the national guard is deploying 6,000 florida national guardsmen, as well as 3,000 national guardsmen from other states. so we thank them for the support

on that. we have 34 search and rescue crews brought in. we have 500 tactical vehicles, aerial water and ground national search and rescue teams. this is the largest florida national guard search and rescue mobilization in the entire history of the state of florida. our florida state guard is also deploying almost 200 soldiers, ten maritime crews, two uh-60 black hawk helicopters, four drone teams, 15 cut and toss crews, two amphibious rescue crews. we want to thank them. this was just a dream a couple years ago that they would be involved, and there was a lot of unfair criticism when we stood it up, but they have made a huge difference in this hurricane season and will continue to do it here. we have also worked with the utilities to have the largest staging of utility workers and

linemen in advance of the storm at any time in american history. we will have in florida, by the time the store arrives, over 50,000 linemen, and they will be brought in from places as far away as california. so as soon as that storm passes, you're going to see the assessments and the power restoration efforts commence immediately. additionally, the state of florida has assisted in the evacuation of 352 sites. 16 hospitals have been evacuated. the state veteran nursing homes that are in the cone are all accepting families of their residents to shelter with them. all of those are hurricane proof and all outside of flood zones. so if you do have a family member in one of our state nursing homes, you can shelter with them. that's a safe option, and i know the veterans would appreciate it. the florida department of law enforcement is directing

deployment of additional 500 out-of-state law enforcement officers. they will help respond after the storm to maintain law and order. there is going to be a lot of damage from this storm. there's going to be opportunities for people to try to take advantage of that. my message is, don't even think about it. we are going to come down hard on you. you are going to regret that you tried to do that. so i appreciate all of the other folks from out of state coming in to supplement this effort. we need to maintain law and order. the mutual aid team is managing more than 70 active law enforcement missions, including identifying post storm response squads. and these are really important missions, and we're happy for that. so we're preparing for hurricane milton, but we're also still recovering from hurricane helene. when hurricane helene hit, we reactivated the florida disaster fund. we are now accepting donations into the florida disaster fund for both storms. both helene and for milton.

this is a private fund. it's affiliated with the state in terms of disaster, but it's tax deductible donations. we distributed $63 million after hurricane ian to help people largely in southwest florida. this is something that is really important. so i have directed volunteer florida to keep the fund activated for hurricane milton. there's already been millions raised for helene. i want to thank wells fargo, and others for making significant donations and there will be a lot more to contribute. you can text disaster to 20222 or visit floridadisasterfund.org. now we're bearing down on where the storm will arrive in the next 24 hours. you still have time to evacuate

if you are in an evacuation zone, particularly if you're in manatee, sarasota, charlotte, those areas. this track can bounce around. it's not guaranteed it's going to hit there. a lot of the solutions have it going there. you have time to do that. now, conditions aren't going to be great today. i would say that the roads and the interstates are flowing. we have waved tolls, but the best option would be just to evacuate within your own county to one of the shelters. all those counties have multiple shelters that are open. there's a lot of space in those shelters right now, and certainly it would be safe to do a very short evacuation tens of miles, rather than get on the interstate and go. the roads are still open. people can do that. but i just want to warn people that the conditions are likely going to continue to deteriorate throughout the course of the day. we had, of course, on monday when the initial evacuations were coming down in the tampa bay area, had a lot of traffic

on i-4 and i-75, fdot did the emergency shoulder plan. that helped. but it was slow. those roads can be very slow anyways. by the time we got to the end of the night, it was going quickly. yesterday was not as bad on those roads as it was on monday. but what we did see is alligator alley in southern florida was about 150% its normal capacity. i think that's because as people saw the storm potentially bending a little further south, a lot of people in southwest florida decided to evacuate across the state. and so that's that. the roads now are good. but i would just caution the conditions are not great now, and they're likely going to get worse as the day goes on. of course, we have a lot of mandatory evacuations in place. if you want to get a hotel, you can go to visit florida.com/priceline, expedia.com/florida. that is the emergency

accommodation module that is there. i'm not sure what availability there's going to be in a lot of these places at this point. but if that's something you're interested in, you can try that. of course, we have worked with the florida restaurant and lodging association for distress rates for hotels, as well as waiving pet fees. i know a lot of the hotels in florida have responded positively for that. we have partnered with uber, for hurricane milton to provide free rides to and from shelters in the counties with evacuation order. so when you do the ride, you do the promo code milton relief. just one word, milton relief. onstar has activated crisis mode, which provides free crisis assistance services and in-vehicle data. schools, most of the school districts in the state are closed today.

obviously, if you get out of the path in the panhandle, not as much, but in the peninsula virtually all schools are closed. i want to thank all those for their great work. we have 149 general population shelters that are open throughout the state. the current total shelter population is just 31,000 individuals. we have room in those shelters for a total population of almost 200,000 individuals. so there is space available in these shelters. i know a lot of people would rather stay in a motel, and that's fine. but especially now as the storm is getting closer, you may be able to get in your car and drive ten miles, get to a shelter, ride the storm out, and then be able to go as you see fit and hopefully you can get back to your place very quickly. but space is available. so there are 36 county owned

special needs shelters that are open and operating in counties that are in the path of the storm. schools and other facilities are now also being used as supplementary state supported shelters across the state. the state of florida has now opened six state operated supplemental shelters. these may not be ultimately needed, but you have a lot of people in the evacuation zones. most people decided to leave and find something on their own. we still have a lot of run in the traditional shelters. but out of an a -- abundance of caution, we have 5223 orient road in tampa, city furniture, 3205 south frontage road in flant city. bay care, 1802 highway in tampa. light science logistics, 310 north galloway road, lakeland. babcock ranch, cyprus parkway in

punta guarda. the wire grass sports camp, in wesley, chapel florida. that site also has capabilities to service special needs individuals. and kevin is also working on setting up a seventh site. now, the state-supported shelters do have generators, so you will have access to power. they have star link internet. so it's not the four seasons. you can find the shelter options at floridadisaster.org/shelters and your county's em page at floridadisaster.org/counties. so people have time now to evacuate if they are in the area

of an evacuation zone. we see the storm is very strong category 4. i've said from the beginning, it's likely going to weaken before it gets here, but it may not. but even if it does, it's still going to be a major impact. so you still have time now to make decisions to protect yourself and your family. massive amounts of space at these shelters. the roads are flowing. conditions are going to get bad, so you have to be very careful with that. certainly these shelters are a very live option. i want to just finally thank everybody. when you have these emergencies with a major hurricane, it's a huge deal. we spin up all state agencies, everyone here working basically around the clock. you have all the counties and cities that were in the path of hurricane helene, and it wasn't just the big bend where you took the blow, it was massive surge up and down the west coast of

the florida peninsula. a lot of damage was done. there were thousands of rescue missions immediately after the storm. huge things done, like sr-76, helping with the bridges, there was so much that was done in the immediate aftermath and is still being done in that, then you have another storm that's developed and immediately you're back on that posture, around the clock, no time to rest. no time to sleep for a lot of these folks. and it's not easy. and so i just want to say on behalf of the state of florida, thank you for discharging your duties. thank you for accepting this mission. it's not going to be easy. but there's no better group of people that i would want responding to this than the folks that we have doing it throughout this state, whether you're talking about the counties down on the gulf coast of florida or the people that we have here assembled in

tallahassee. these folks have proven themselves. they're working hard, and we will get the job done. >> okay. we're going to break away now. that was the florida governor giving an update on preparations and response plans, as the whole state of florida prepares for hurricane milton, expected to hit now in less than 24 hours. i think the most important thing we just heard there is there is still time to evacuate. there's still room in shelters for people who haven't evacuated just yet. and he really emphasized the strength of this storm. he said it's just a whisker shy of category 5 right now, expected to make landfall as a category 4. he said there are 6,000 national guardsmen ready to respond. he said states are sending in other people for search and rescue efforts, call thing preparation for the largest national guard response in the state's history. i want to go to jay gray, who is there in ft. myers.

part of the storm zone here. what's the scene like there this morning, jay? >> reporter: well, as you just heard from the governor, limited time to continue to prepare or to get to higher ground, get to a place where you would rather be, so we see that happening. a lot of people doing what they can in the final hours. we know that sandbags have been filled and put into place. boards have been put up, and a lot of people were weighing, do i stay or go? fortunately it looks like, especially in the mandatory evacuation zones, and we have about 400,000 in the lee county mandatory evacuation areas, a majority of the people have decided to get out of the way of this storm and wait and see what happens, where it makes landfall, and what milton leaves behind. i talked to one of the families evacuating last night, and what they basically said was that's going to be some of the toughest hours for us, waiting to see, leaving everything we have, leaving our home behind and

waiting to see how all of this turns out. talk to another family that was looking for a hotel, and couldn't find anything until well past atlanta. so as the governor talked about, if you are going to move, you've got to move now. and there are 13 shelters here in lee county that are open, many that allow you to bring a pet. a lot of people are concerned about leaving a pet behind when they leave. so the quickest access to safety would be one of those shelters. again, the time to do all of that is quickly running out. we expect to see conditions really start to deteriorate sometime in the evening, and then going into nighttime, it's just going to be a real mess for quite sometime. as you guys have talked about, this storm is growing as far as its foot print is concerned, as far as the wind field is concerned. so this is getting bigger as it moves towards the eninsula, so it's going to affect more areas on the ground here.

>> it is a monster storm. jay gray, we know you are going to cover every detail. thank you so much for that reporting. and joining us now is the police chief of clear water, florida, eric gandy. thank you so much for standing by as we were listening to the governor's briefing there. we know the president spoke to clear water's mayor this morning. we are in the final hours now before this storm hits. what are you finding right now, has everyone evacuated there? >> thank you for having me, anna. so yes, i think the experience of helene encouraged many people to evacuate that wouldn't have ordinarily done so. clear water has been very fortunate. i've been at this for over 30 years, and we've never taken a direct hit before. this circumstance, this -- we've been in the cone since the onset. so it's very concerning for us. we have hundreds of police officers and first responders and city workers doing

last-minute preparations. and then we'll be in recovery mode as soon as we can get back in the field. >> what are you expect thing in clear water specifically? is this the kind of storm anyone can ride out? >> absolutely not. if you are in one of the evaczones, it's been repeated here many times, you need to move miles. go to a shelter, go to a location that's not in an evaczone. you don't have to leave the state or cross the state. just get out of the evaczones. in terms of what to expect, it's a matter of miles. if the eyewall doesn't touch us, we're still going to have significant winds and imagine as we did with irma and some of the others. so it's a matter of miles that determines what your city looks like afterwards. but a cat 4 is -- >> you're still recovering from hurricane helene, so how does that complicate your efforts? >> absolutely. we've been at this for two

weeks, and, you know, the conditions are still bad out there. you know, we have had to move mountains of sand, the debris fields are everywhere. you know, that becomes problematic in the face of another storm bearing down on us. >> the national hurricane center is projecting a 10-to-15-foot storm surge for tampa and the surrounding region. what is that going to do to clear watter? >> the problem with clear water, we face the gulf and we also have the east side of the city on tampa bay. so either scenario, 15 feet in tampa bay or along the gulf is ahuge problem for us. that's not survivable. that would be about double what we had with helene, and you won't survive that. home also be destroyed and ripped off their foundation it is we get a 15-foot surge on the

beaches. >> what are you planning to do personally? i know you have such a heart of service for the people there and wanting to get back out as soon as the storm passes, but staying close by, i'm concerned for you. >> well, thankfully, i'm in a cat 5 emergency operations building. my family is not in an evacuation zone. that's what we do with all of our officers, have your plan at home. every city employee should have a plan if they're in an evaczone, get out and have your family in a point of safety so you can focus on the mission. >> according to gas buddy, more than 43% of gas stations in tampa didn't have fuel as of midnight. we did hear the governor address that, saying they have considerable fuel reserves. they're trying to escort big gas tankers to these gas stations. we have seen the pictures of grocery stores with empty

shelves as people stock up. are you worried about having enough resources for everyone? >> well, i think, you know, at this point most people that were going to leave or fuel up have done so. some of the stations that i've seen this morning have been resu blied and they're open. we don't have the tremendous outflow of traffic we did early on, so that's a good thing. what concerns us, in you talk about 15 feet of surge in tampa bay, we have three bridges that connect the county to the rest of the state. if we lost any of those, then the supply chain gets affected. with irma, you know, and the windfield we expect from this, we were without power for many days. we had hundreds of traffic lights down. so the supply chain could get interrupted in the aftermath of the storm. so that's also critically important. if your local grocery store isn't open for three or four days, hopefully you have supplies for yourself and

family. >> this is live pictures of st. petersburg, florida. it looks like pete are off the roads as that rain is beginning in the florida bay area. thank you so much, clear water police chief eric gandy, for joining us. stay safe and good luck. >> thank you. >> more on hurricane milton all hour, including one hospital's special technology to guard from a potential 15-foot storm surge. plus, they're going to need a bigger arc. how tampa's zoo is preparing the animals for the storm. orm. in your own life with chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they start. and treatment is 4 times a year. in a survey, 91% of users wish they'd started sooner. so why wait? talk to your doctor. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection

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♪♪ learn more at dexcom.com wherever that storm surge comes, if it's 10 to 15 feet and people are trying to ride this out in single story structures, there's no place to go. once the winding get up to hurricane speed, there's nobody to come get you. >> a grim warning from tampa's mayor. the biggest danger from this monster hurricane will be the storm surge waters. unlike anything residents have seen before. that pink and that red, that is the biggest danger zone. we have a look at just how quickly the deadly waters can rise. angie? >> reporter: when storm surge moves into your neighborhood, the initial rush of water can come suddenly. quickly cutting off your chance to evacuate. by the time the water depth

reaches three feet, it can be too late. this is now a life threatening situation. flooded roads will cut off emergency services. at six feet, the force of the water can blow out the walls. at ten feet, retreat to the upper floor is the only option. above ten feet, houses will be swept off foundations and destroying neighborhoods. in the worst hurricanes, the surge can reach depths of over 20 feet. with rising sea levels, it's likely to be a greater threat in the years to come. >> angie, thank you to much. joining us now is the mayor of bradenton, florida. we just saw the dangers of this storm surge. bradenton is right on the coast, forecast to get some of the

highest levels, up to 15 feet. what's going through your mind with landfall now just hours away? >> well, thank you for having me. i think we saw two weeks ago we had a six plus foot storm surge, so our residents in the waterways know what that is. so, you know, most of their houses were damaged or destroyed. so you look at doubling or tripling it, it makes you say get out now. because if you're in it, most of ours are single stories, they would not survive it. as far as it went in a couple of blocks, another six to eight to ten feet would go a lot further. so we need people -- you still have time to evacuate, and there's plenty of shelters open. >> have you heard from any residents who haven't left? >> well, there's a few people that always want to ride it out. our police officers and firefighters have been going out. unfortunately, we're going to have to stop soon and we're not

going to be able to get to you. as that model just showed, if you go up to 15 feet, it's above most houses. if you don't have a second story, you're going to die. and that's not something you want to do. i did have a friend that stayed in the last storm in helene and it got up to about three feet in their house with a six-foot storm surge. he had a 6 and 8-year-old and he didn't know if it was going to stop. so i hope people take this serious. if you are in a flood zone, there are shelters open at the school. we opened five more today at 10:00. so we're stressing, we can replace your things, but we can't replace your life. >> so true, so scary. yesterday, we saw the bridenton police department with these images of the downtown area boarded up ahead of the storm. how did the preparations go? are you all ready? >> you always prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

right now, everybody has done it. over the years, my family, my grand kids are a seventh generation manatee county and i've lived here my whole life. a lot of times we get a little lackadaisical. after what we had two weeks ago, people aren't lackadaisical. so if you are still home, get out. but we're as best prepared now, now we have to ride it out and then be ready for recovery tomorrow or late tomorrow afternoon. >> you have elementary schools and middle school there is in bradenton that have been turned into emergency shelters. what kinds of capacity and protection do they have? >> well, the schools that are all shelters are very high rated, because they're newer schools, and one of the schools that's close to where we are, miller elementary, can hold up to 2200 people. i think there are about 1,000. so there's plenty of space. it's not going to be like a hotel, but you have a safe space. and they're all in high waterway

areas, so you're not going to be getting the storm surge towards you. and they're all over manatee county, the city of bradenton, you know, it's a team effort by all of us in this community and it's been great to see everyone come together. where we are at our public safety operations center, we have our in-teams, we have about 80 people on the west side of bradenton that when this storm is over is ready to get out and try to help the people. when the winds get up to 45 miles per hour with our police and 35 with our fire, we can't come out and save you at that point. you have to wait until the storm is over. so if you are thinking it could be close, you better get out now. >> always better safe than sorry. what kind of strain do you anticipate this is going to put on your city? >> well, we have prepared over the years, and we're going to work hard. we have a great staff, great police and fire, great public

works. you know, we're getting everybody rested today as much as possible, and we're going to work hard. you know, we're one city, one team, and we're one community with the governments around us. we're going to work together. we have had calls, we have called others. if it doesn't hit us, we're going to help them. so florida is a great community state, and we have great government help. we'll be there for each other. >> major gene brown, we are all there with you in spirit and wishing you the best and safety to all of your residents and staff there. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. now to some breaking news out of washington this hour. joe biden and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu are set to speak by phone any minute now. this call, ahead of an israeli cabinet vote on how it should respond to the recent barrage of missile strikes from iran. kamala harris also expected to join this call virtually.

nbc's gabe gutierrez is joining us from the white house now. gabe, how high are the stakes for this call? >> reporter: incredible hi. good morning. we're just learning that joe biden and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu were scheduled to speak at 10:30 this morning, and as you mentioned, according to a source familiar with the matter, kamala harris is expected to join virtually. this would be the first call between the two leaders since august 21st. again, almost two months since that last call. this comes as the president and the biden administration is trying to deescalate the situation in the middle east. so we expect the discussions to happen during that call on any potential retaliation from israel against iran. again, that phone call between benjamin netanyahu and joe biden was scheduled to start several moments ago. we're hoping to get a readout of

this call once it wraps up. it comes as joe biden is juggling not only world crises, but also the response to hurricane milton here at home. he just canceled his overseas trip to germany and africa, as we reported earlier this week, to monitor the hurricane. but this morning at least, he is focused on the tension in the middle east with that phone cal with prime minister netanyahu. their relationship, of course, has become even more strained over the last couple of months. >> that's right. that bob woodward book had some new recording with revelations coming from the recording about what joe biden apparently said behind closed doors about netanyahu. i'm wondering could the revelations have any impact of what we know has been a bit of a tense relationship between the two. >> reporter: the white house has repeatedly said that the prime minister benjamin netanyahu and joe biden have known each other for decades. so they work together as best they can. they stress that the president

has made his voice known and tried to minimize civilian casualties in gaza as the israel-hamas war has dragged on. i asked the president whether he thought that netanyahu was playing politics by dragging on this war. the president came back and said he didn't think so, that netanyahu he said was dealing with several domestic issues. but certainly, according to the reporting by bob woodward, yes, the president using answer expletive when describing benjamin netanyahu. the white house not confirming that, saying to leaders have had an ongoing relationship, as i said, but this all comes again the stakes as you said could not be higher, given the tension in the middle east and given the expectation that israel could retaliate against iran and escalate this war even further. >> we'll be watch fogger the read out after that phone call today. gabe, thank you very much. coming up, we are going to refocus our attention back on hurricane milton.

one tampa hospital has an aqua fence to prepare for the potential life-threatening storm surge. how they're protecting patients ahead of landfall as fema shares this to people in the path of the storm. >> you need to prepare for catastrophic impacts. this is going to be a serious storm. one that could forever change communities that are still recovering from helene. please continue to listen to your local officials and seek safety immediately.

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have. an a 16,000 square foot energy plant located 33 feet above sea level, and a well providing water if the city supply fails. joining us is the senior director of public safety attacha general hospital and joining us now. tony, thank you for joining us. we went through the capabilities you have there, the aqua fence, the power supply above sea

level, the well water, how confident are you that the hospital can keep operating even in a once in a century storm? >> i think that we're confident here. you know, the things that you talked about, the mitigation efforts that we have done over the years to get us to this point, the fact that our fuel, our boilers, our generators are elevated, we bring in supplies, we have a warehouse in central tampa about ten semi trucks full, 300,000 supplies, that's food, water, medical supplies, medical, gas, all the things we need to be sustainable here if we lose power or water. >> we mentioned the aqua fence designed to handle 15 feet storm surge, which is the high end of estimates. if it's at those high levels or higher, is there a concern water could still breach the protections there, and do you have a backup plan? >> sure, we don't know what we

don't know. but we feel confident the fence will hold. if it doesn't, we have pumps behind the fence and we'll turn those on. they're high output pumps and we feel continue we'll continue to stay dry. we understand the rainfall, but we feel good about where we are in those contingency plans if we get a breach. what is are staffing levels at the hospital and how are other doctors and staff planning to ride out the storm? >> we activated our hurricane team. they came in this morning early. we have our normal staffing levels. and so we talk about hurricane teams, our a-team is here, which will ride out the storm, and that comes in two different teams, our a team is here, which will ride out the storm and that kind of comes in two different phases, the team that will work during the day and the team that comes on at nighttime, so we're providing them with rest, the physicians are all in place, supplies. really the patients really won't

notice anything different here. we're going to operate as normal through the storm. >> tony venezia, best of luck to you. thank you for taking the time to share with us how you're preparing and we wish you all a lot of safety and strength for the journey ahead. >> great, thank you very much, take care now. >> you too. we have this just in, as people are trying to get out of the storm's way, take a look at this, the national weather service out of miami tweeting out this picture of what they say was a tornado that just formed near florida's i-75. i'll bring back nbc news meteorologist michelle grossman. so, what do we know about the tornado threat, michelle? >> well, we're going to see this all day long. this is very typical with landfalling hurricanes, even as it is approaching the coast. these things have a lot of energy, a lot of wind shear and we're seeing tornado warnings. we have two of them in southern florida until 11:00. and we have a tornado watch until 9:00. most likely that will be extended and we'll go through tomorrow as well, especially with that landfalling.

you get the winds over the friction of the earth, that's where you're going to get the churning and we'll see those tornadoes. typically they're smaller, typically they don't last as long, but they could be strong. this is what we're dealing with in terms of tornado threats. we're looking at several tornadoes likely to develop. we're seeing that right now. some could be strong, possible in the afternoon, also the evening when we really get that energy going, we get closer to the coast, and especially with that landfall overnight tonight into thursday morning. where you see the lines right there, that's an ef2 or greater. that's the risk, the likeliest risk for strong tornadoes including melbourne, seabring, arcadia, fort pierce. that's in addition to heavy rainfall. and we do have those two tornado warnings, we have the tornado watch for most of florida until 9:00 tonight. we're going to keep on top of this as we go throughout rest of today. >> let's look at that picture, because you can clearly see that big funnel coming down, again

this is what we're told along i-75 in florida, where we haven't seen any reports or any reporting of damages or deaths or injuries related to this. we'll keep an eye on that and bring new information as we get it. michelle grossman, thank you for that update. it is a zoo down in florida, literally. how giraffes, flamingos and manatees at one tampa zoo are getting prepared for hurricane milton's wrath. milton's wrath daddy, hi. speaker: goodness. my daughter is being treated for leukemia. [music playing] i hope that she lives a long, great, happy life and that she will never forget how mom and daddy love her. saint jude-- maybe this is what's keeping my baby girl alive. [music playing] narrator: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. for just $19 a month, you'll help

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come take a look at this. it is the eye of hurricane milton seen from space. floridians up and down the coast are racing to safety and that includes penguins at the florida aquarium, seen here being moved to the second floor of that facility. while at zoo tampa, workers have been boarding up buildings, packing animals into crates and moving some, like giraffes and elephants, into barns designed to withstand hurricane-force winds. and a dozen employees are volunteering to stay behind with these animals during the storm. joining us now is tiffany burns, senior director of animal programs at zoo tampa. tiffany, thank you so much. it is hard not to be thinking about noah's ark as we look at these pictures. having all the animals gotten to a safe spot? >> yes, and we spent the last few days moving hundreds of

animals to safe locations, making sure each animal has what they need, they're all very different, so, really it took many animal departments to really ensure that our animals were safe for the storm. >> zoo tampa is home to everything from elephants to frogs to giraffes. i'm curious, which animals are the toughest to get ready for a situation like this? >> it is always the giraffe. every storm the giraffe, they definitely -- they give us a challenge sometimes, but they are safe in their barn, and we are prepared as we can be. >> pet owners, we all know, dogs and cats can get pretty scared during a big storm. and can act out. what kind of concern is stress and the potential stress reaction from the animals during a storm like this? >> we try to identify any

animals that might need some additional attention or a quiet location. we certainly give them what we can to ensure that they are as comfortable as possible. and as minimal stress as we can in a situation like this. >> we know the facilities there were built to withstand hurricanes, but they have never seen a storm like milton. how long are the workers ready to ride this out? >> so, rideout team is something pretty standard for us. and although we haven't seen a storm in quite some time like milton, they're prepared, and if it takes a few days, if it takes a few weeks, you know, we want to make sure that for any storm we have the means for the staff that are there and the animals to stay as long as they can until it is safe to bring other people in. >> and zoo tampa, we know, serves as a rescue and rehabilitation center for wild manatees, which are a threatened

species. what risk does milton pose to them? >> they are in their pools, their concrete pools. and really we are looking for any sort of overhead debris so everything is either completely removed or ratcheted down to ensure we don't have anything flying into their pools. but other than that, they have been given as much lettuce as they can possibly eat for several days. so, they should be -- have everything they need at least over the next couple of days and, again, we have that team on site to just keep eyes on all animals and make sure everyone is safe. >> we saw that giraffe there, you say they're the challenging ones, especially in moments like this, but they sure are cute. we hope everybody stays safe, all the animals are healthy during all of this, thank you, tiffany burns, for joining us and best of luck