the power went out, some 30,000 customers without power now. you can hear and see the wind gust happening as we speak and then it calms. that is what we have been experiencing throughout several hours here in naples. we are safe, hunkered down in a garage where we are protected from the extremities happening outside. obviously, precarious situation as the storm is passing through florida. earlier today, we were at naples beach where surfers were still in the water catching waves before milton came ashore. people say this is something that surfers do, they want to catch in on the waves before the hurricane hits. >> day, i hear loud banging behind you so i urge you to go inside, thank you for the update. for us in new york city, that does it. i wish you all a safe night.

from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up with me. let's all think of florida tonight. i will see you again tomorrow. millions of people under threat from a monster -sized hurricane milton. the powerful category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles an hour has come ashore, the eyewall made landfall half an hour ago in siesta key, which is a barrier island off of the coast of sarasota. right now, the storm with a diameter of 450 miles, is bringing life-threatening winds and potentially devastating storm surge up to 13 feet. earlier today, the national asiana and atmospheric administration, noaa, released a video by so-called filmic

drones on the surface of the gulf of mexico. they show 40 nautical miles away from milton's eye, the winds are gusting 76 miles an hour and waves were cresting 28 feet high. that powerful storm is hitting land. for those not in the eyewall's direct path, there is reason to be vigilant as much of florida under tropical storm watch or warning the national weather service issued warnings in parts of south and central florida where milton has spawned 10 tornadoes. airports, schools and businesses closed earlier today as more than 5 million people were urged to leave their homes under mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders. those that heated warnings faced shortages at gas stations as they scrambled to get to safety. not everyone has been given the choice to evacuate, according to local reports, some prisons and jails in flood prone areas decided not to evacuate despite orders to do so. the evacuation window closed early this afternoon and the

national weather service announced around 2:00 p.m. today that it is time to shelter in place. the national weather service warns that hurricane milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for the state of florida. joining me is nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch, who is in sarasota, florida. what can you tell us about the latest on the ground? we hope you are staying safe to >> we are doing our best, thanks for asking. five minutes ago, it was silent, i could hear birds chirping, it was dry, the leaves were not rustling. look at what is happening, we were in the eye of milton and now losing the eye, losing what will be essentially the dangerous phase of the storm for where we are in sarasota right now. you can see the leaves lowing more, bands of rain. i have our photography quickly go left, you can see headlights moving

off of a barrier island area, that is something we continue to see throughout the night. there have been people on the roads, i'm not seeing anything that is a first responder vehicle in any way. at minimum, the police department of the city suspended having officers on the roads because of the risk. what we were just in, the eye, gives a false sense of security. we heard people cheering outside, we heard people with the cars arriving -- riding, burning rubber, the sense of people driving recklessly in the streets. we have no idea when the eye will end, when it will evolve, as it is now. people putting themselves into harms way as these conditions are unpredictable. waiting for potential 13 feet of storm surge and sarasota bay just beyond those buildings. also looking at wind gusts close to 100 miles an hour in this area and all that comes on the heels of hurricane helene which left mountains of debris all over these communities. goggles are at the ready and

why we are at a parking garage. typically we are out there reporting from the streets, as long as we are far back from where the storm surge was a threat, we are elevated because of the storm surge. we are inside the garage because of the wind threat combined with the brief which is not able to be secure in time, glass, splintered wood, pieces of furniture, all of that could become lethal projectiles so that is something first responders and these communities are contending with beyond what is typically in mind when looking at a major hurricane. at this point, everyone should be hunkering down because he can hear it and see it, conditions are deteriorating rapidly. >> nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch, thank you for that update, do what you have to do to stay safe. we are thinking about you. let's turn to meteorolgist bill karins, what can you tell us about hurricane milton's path at this hour but it made landfall? >> were at the point of the storm we know there's destruction happening, we can't

show it because it is too dangerous to be there and everyone evacuated from those areas. there is no power at the areas anyways, it is not until the sun comes up in the storm is gone and helicopter showing us the destruction that we realize how bad it is on the ground. unconfirmed reports of 10 foot storm surge south of sarasota. in naples, confirmed five foot storm surge so there will be damage in all of those areas. those areas from helene five to seven feet, some areas hit a second time and in some cases, worse. extreme wind warning, wind gust 90 to 100 monon hours the last two or three are from tampa to bradenton to st. petersburg, a lot of population centers here. three-quarters of 1 million people without power and that number is growing quickly with extreme winds. there's the storm surge still going up, onshore flow continues, tampa bay had no storm surge at all, the winds are blowing out, these numbers are negative because the wind is taking the water from the bay and sending it out to sea. the current costco, 90 at st.

petersburg, 82 at tampa, typically lose power when you hit 50 or 60, max power outages this is roof damage, trees falling on cars and homes, that sort of thing. we lost another 5 miles an hour but a category 3 hurricane tracking inland. overnight, we take it south of interstate 4 so the highest winds and heaviest rain will be from tampa going to the disney complex, universal studios to orlando and over to titusville, melbourne area, palm bay, that is to get the power outages to the middle of the night. 10:00 a.m., it is gone and heads out to sea. all of the wind and rain should be done with it a lot of flash flooding issues, the eye, daytona beach to tampa, expecting catastrophic flooding. not from the storm surge but inland rain. we saw the pictures from what it looked like at the mounds of north carolina, this is not

that, florida is flat, the water will pile up and sit there, it may be in homes but not a rushing river because of the terrain of florida. still predicting additional 5 to 10 inches of rain. we also had tornadoes earlier today, huge tornadoes, in turn, took homes, mobile homes on the east coast of florida. major hurricane like this, we won't know, it is like the fog of war type of thing, we won't know until tomorrow how bad the damage occurring is right now. >> nbc news meteorolgist bill karins, thank you for the update. with us is ken welch, the mayor of st. petersburg, florida, 45 miles north of where hurricane milton came ashore tonight. thank you for being here, i notice a busy, hectic and chaotic time, we really appreciate your time. what can you tell us about what you're seeing at st. pete? >> alex, we were blessed that the storm did not hit 50 miles north of where it did, we were looking at 15 feet of storm surge, catastrophic wins and

looking down the barrel of the gun 24 hours where's the community down. we are not out of that yet, we still have really high winds and we are coming off of just two weeks ago, hurricane helene and still trying to recover from that. i think the storm opened a lot of eyes, much better response from our community and we asked a half million people in st. pete and pinellas county to evacuate. we think that overall, they were very responsive to that. this is an example of our new normal, the storms are becoming more powerful, moving more quickly and really testing our infrastructure. >> can we talk about that because of the one-two punch between helene and milton? granted, you're not in the direct path of the storm right now but close to it, dealing with managing the cleanup from the last very recent monster storm. what is your expectation about how long it will take to get things back up and running fully after these two storms or do you even have an estimate at

this point? >> we don't, just from the debris standpoint from helene, looking at months of debris pick up and one of the problems we run into is trying to compress six months of debris collection into a few days before hurricane milton hit us we also have infrastructure needs, we believe in climate science and have been investing in our cip infrastructure for years. but the pace of change we are seeing and strength of the storms is outweighing our capital investment. we have to relook at everything from our sewer plants to wastewater to see walls, all of those have to be improved at a more rapid pace because a change is coming that much more quickly than we thought it would. >> this might be premature given we are still grappling with this, do you think these storms are inflection point in terms of how the state things about the climate crisis and how it manages its mitigation?

>> i think that everyone sees the impact these storms are making to our economy. we have to rebuild in resilient way and a way that makes sense given our new realities, we focused on mitigation, not contributing to the problem of carbon emissions and sea level rise but now we have to focus on adaptation and do that and everything we do in terms of capital improvement. that needs to happen, i'm seen across the board folks understand the need to change the way we look at our environment and the way we build in the state of florida. >> are you talking to other mayors? i assume recently you're dealing with the same crisis, the hurricane coming through the area, do you have a sense of what the needs are more broadly in the region where milton is hitting? >> i think mayors from all across the state of florida are on the same page. i heard from mayors from tallahassee down to south florida, we call each other

when we are in the target of these storms. at the local level, mayors, county commissioners, understand the levels of investment we need to make given the reality of the storms and the impact they can have on our community, they are becoming more powerful and don't give us time to react. one of the issues here is milton went from a tropical storm to one of the most powerful hurricanes we have ever seen in a matter of 24 hours. that is the new reality i think new local governments get that and we are working together and hopefully the state and federal government will continue to partner with us to make those investments . >> st. petersburg mayor ken welch, great to hear from you, thank you for taking time during this busy moment. we really appreciate it. >> thank you, have a good one. coming up, continue to get lab reports from reporters on the ground as hurricane milton hit florida. first, republicans are now saying democrats control the weather. the infinity of

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hurricane milton, a category 3 storm, made landfall less than an hour ago in siesta key, florida south of tampa

bay. joining me from tampa, where residents bracing for magnitude of a storm unseen there in a century is nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk. what can you tell us? i can see from the shot that the storm is whipping around and a lot of rainfall, what can you tell us about where you are? >> reporter: we are feeling the brunt of hurricane milton right now, while tampa bay may not get the surge that would have made this historic and catastrophic, this is going to do a lot of damage. what we are experiencing right now in the city of tampa, we have winds at times gusting as ferociously as 100 miles an hour, torrential rain falling for hours. we were speeding with meteorolgist bill karins earlier, he says they are recording two to three inches an hour of rain right now in tampa that will last another three or four hours. looking at roughly up to a foot of rain falling on this city that already experienced the

rain and flooding and surge from hurricane helene. now they have this on top of it and the wind. when you factor in the wind, there will be wind damage, damage from the debris already in the streets scattered across roads as well as the flooding that is incredibly going to happen, flash flood alerts, shelter in place alerts. it does seem people are heeding the warnings, we don't see people out on the streets. we are in the parking garage, sheltered on all three sides. standing here, i can tell you the wind picks up and i'm getting not around. >> stephanie, what is the expectation for when tampa may be in the clear? >> reporter: at least three or four more hours of this, perhaps the wind will die down in a couple hours and things will calm down.

you have emergency officials warning people, it will be incredibly dangerous to go out, in part you have things like downed power lines, roads that are blocked off, the bridges may not be open yet that lead to st. petersburg, for instance, there won't be gas. it will be very difficult and uncomfortable in this area for many days to come. >> nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk, please stay safe where you are, we appreciate the reporting and update. let's go to sarasota mayor liz alpert. thank you for being here, i hope you are safe wherever you are, what can you tell us about how you are managing this moment and what is your top concern at the hour? >> i am. first, the top concern is the safety of all of our rides and hope that everybody gets through this safely. it looked like the eye came ashore on siesta key, which is

right off the coast of of sarasota. it was quiet a little bit because the eye was going over us. now we can see the rain starting to come, the higher winds. this is the part of the storm that we will see the worst of it and start seeing the storm surge everybody has been predicting. >> do you have a sense of how many people were told to evacuate and actually evacuated, how many people stayed behind and are sheltering in place? >> i don't know what the percentages but my sense is the majority of the people did evacuate. we feel like 90% or more of the residents of the barrier islands evacuated and the people who stayed felt like they were in a location where

they could ride out the storm and be safe. >> for people that did decide to shelter in place, they felt like they would be able to ride out the storm, what should they expect in the next 24 hours? >> i think in the next several hours, obviously there will be a lot of rain and a lot of wind and it is going to get a little scary. but we are encouraging everybody to stay sheltered, stay in place and wait until the storm passes. once the storm passes, don't go out if there is standing water or trees down, wait until the situation is clear that it is safe to stay out wherever you are sheltered. sorry, we will be out first

thing in the morning assessing the damage and letting people know what they can do, whether it is safe to venture out of their homes. >> sarasota mayor liz alpert, thank you for taking time to talk to us, we are sending our best wishes to everyone down in sarasota and florida as they weather this monster storm. stay safe >> thank you. we will be back with more coverage of hurricane milton. stay with us. (man) these men of means with their silver spoons. what will become of them when they discover robinhood gold allows others to earn their very liberal rates on idle cash. they would descend into chaos.

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all of this with the global warming, a lot of it is a hoax, it is a hoax, moneymaking industry. it is a hoax, a lot of it. the climate hysteria hoax. it is a hoax, the whole thing is total, it is a crazy. within 300 years, we will gain 0.01 inches of ocean, more beachfront property, terrible thing. the oceans will rise 1/8 of an inch over the next 100 years. more beachfront property, not the worst thing. the ocean will rise over 300 years, 1/8 of an inch, more seafront property if that happens. is that good or bad? isn't that a good thing? >> as hurricane milton makes landfall, it is important to remember that is how the republican candidate for president thinks about the forces that are intensifying these storms.

donald trump is so far out on the fringes of climate conspiracy he even denies the existence of climate phenomenon republicans accepted decades ago. remember back in the george h bush administration? the federal government took bold action to fix the hole in the ozone layer caused by harmful pollutants called cfcs? decades later, decades after that, donald trump continued to rail against those ozone reducing regulations because it resulted in a ban on his favorite hairspray area >> you can't use hairspray because hairspray is going to affect the ozone. i want to use hairspray, don't use hairspray, it is bad for the ozone. sitting in this concealed apartment, concealed unit, i do live in a very nice apartment, but it is sealed, it is beautiful. i don't think anything gets out and i'm not supposed to be

using hairspray. >> trump has 1 million of these, somehow windmills cause cancer, they don't. he thinks that democrats want to replace your regular windows with tiny windows, they do not. trump has been repeating this nonsense for so long, it is hard not to become numb to it. a decade into the trump-era of the republican party, trump's acolytes are taking climate conspiracies to greater extremes. for the past week, congresswoman marjorie taylor greene has repeatedly promoted the basis conspiracy that the federal government is secretly controlling the weather. she keeps repeating this claim, doubling and tripling down on it in the past week alone. now it is being amplified on right wing media. >> has the government figured out how to build a storm into a super storm that will destroy everything in its path and have it aimed right where they want to aim it? it happens to miss south florida, where all the democrats live.

>> it just so happens. things have spun so wildly out of control here, even some republicans are feeling the need to push back. florida republican congressman carlos gimenez posted on x, anyone who thinks they control the weather needs to have their head examined. north airliner republican senator tim tillis told his supporters in an email, the last thing the victims of hurricane helene need right now is political posturing, finger- pointing, or conspiracy theories. even florida governor ron "i'm not a global warming person" desantis, has felt the need to push back. >> we live in an era where if you put out crap online, you can get a lot of people to share it and monetize that, that is just the way it is. if you are hearing things, something that is outrageous, just know in the state of florida, none of that stuff whatever fly. >> and yet, none of that has

been enough to stop the flood of conspiracies coming out of maga land. today, north carolina republican congressman chuck edwards sent a press release specifically aimed at conspiracies concerning chimney rock state park, which is a park in his district. these are quotes from the actual press release from actual member of congress. hurricane helene was not geo- engineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in chimney rock. local officials have confirmed the government is not seizing chimney rock local officials are not abandoning search and rescue efforts to bulldoze over chimney rock. it goes on and on and on like that. today, president biden addressed this wave of insane conspiracy theories and directly called out the maga politicians responsible for promoting them. >> these lies are un-american,

there is simply no place for them, not now, not ever. former president donald trump has led this onslaught of lies, the claims are getting more bizarre. marjorie taylor greene, the congressman from georgia, is now saying the federal government is controlling the weather. it is beyond ridiculous, it is so stupid, it's got to stop area >> joining me is the only member of the united states congress who is also a meteorologist, representative eric sorensen of illinois. thank you for joining me tonight. i wonder, both as a u.s. congressman and meteorologists, what you make of the absolutely insane conspiracy theories that the government can control the weather? >> it is amazing, it is good to be with you. first things first, thinking about the folks in harm's way in florida today and tonight as it is night, the hurricane has made landfall and these are the most dangerous times for people.

we have to make sure that we have a country where we look up to the smartest people, the meteorologists at the national hurricane center, the national weather service, because it is essential that these remain the authority on such life- threatening events that they don't get pushed aside and force people to make poor decisions. it is unconscionable, to me, who worked as a meteorologist on broadcast television for 22 years, now we actually have elected leaders that are not just leading americans astray, leading their own constituents astray. >> it reminds me, i note my colleague was speaking of this, the covid pandemic, service of

political agenda, anti-vax, anti-science agenda, republicans dissuaded supporters, allies, voters from getting life-saving covid vaccines. again, putting politics above humanity. here you have politicians, once again, trying to champion political agenda over the safety of their own constituents. i have to bring up the fact, if trump is re-elected, part of the plan, as outlined in project 2025, is to dismantle noaa and privatize the national weather service. as a meteorologist, what does that mean to you? >> i serve on the space, science, and technology committee in congress. we have some of the brightest minds working at nasa, at noaa to make sure that we are learning more about the science then we have in the past so that we learn from our mistakes. if these things go away, one of the things the national weather service, it is so trusted for

those folks, especially talking about chimney rock or we think about the folks down at bradenton, florida tonight, they have heard from these experts on what to do. what happens if now we have a populace that does not understand what to believe? that is to their point, on the other side, exactly what they want to do. it is the same thing as what you just said about the pandemic. there were so many people, my own neighbors, that made poor decisions. here is the thing, i got mad at my neighbors, it would not help solve the problem. they had bad data coming into this equation. it was tucker carlson giving them the bad data and they were making a bad conclusion. it goes over and over again because now they are realizing on the other side, that was effective. now they want to do it and politicize the weather. >> the one thing, it is also

complete moral and ethical lapse, it is also cutting off your own nose to spite your face , to undermine the sort of ability of noaa and the national weather service to predict historic, monster storms that affect a lot of part of the country where there happened to be republicans, also democrats. you know, florida is a red state, why would you want to put the people of florida in harm's way to a greater degree by not getting accurate data to predict what might be coming next? i feel like defunding these agencies would do that. >> right, or even the fact that we left washington, d.c. with a short-term continuing resolution with a lower projected funding amount for fema knowing that helene was going to come into florida, georgia and two weeks later, here we are with another catastrophic hurricane hitting florida. what is next? we need congress to do its job.

the folks at fema doing the lords work tonight and in the days to come, we need to make sure they are supported. instead, now we have these great workers, these federal workers that are being threatened because of conspiracies on the internet. it is this absolute destruction of the good communication that we need more people to be connected to. >> illinois congressman and the only meteorologist in the house of representatives, eric sorensen, thank you for your time tonight. really appreciate it. >> we will check back in with jesse kirsch on the ground in sarasota, florida. what can you tell us about the latest? >> reporter: conditions have deteriorated rapidly, i will have our photographer come over

to the edge of the garage, we are three stories up right now and this is why. look at all the water, the water level rushing in and continuing to rise, just blocks away from sarasota bay, you can see the first level of the garage across from us submerged in water, i saw trash can floating around. even the last 15 minutes, this has been evolving, i have still seen headlights on the road. you can see how the wind is whipping the trees around, ripping off the tops of the palm trees and the rain is coming in more heavily. the biggest concern always in a hurricane is the storm surge. we are blocks from sarasota bay and this is the impact of hurricane milton. remember, within the last hour, it was silent, nothing was moving. i could hear birds chirping, now we are contending with the backside of milton as it makes its way inland. this is what we expected to be the earliest part of the storm and it is living up to

expectations. we are in elevated parking garage, elevated because of storm surge and the garage shielding around us, i will point to the walls here, fortification on either side of the window where i met because there's added element of concern with the storm. less than two weeks after landfall of helene in the same area. up the road from where we are, i saw holmes with waist high water line marks from helene, that means all kinds of stuff was ripped out of those homes, furniture, picture frames, shards of glass, wooden planks, envelopes, food, you name it, it is on people's lawns and it was not clear in time. the governor says only 50% of the debris was cleared from barrier islands despite 24/7 operation to get it out of here. in addition to everything else we expect from a major hurricane, we are looking at a variable we don't fully know what the impact will be, that is all of this debris, projectiles could exacerbate the storm surge impact. you can see the lights flickering, all of the power is

going out where we are right now. the power is out at the garage where i met. david, spin around, the lights are back on, the only lights that are on our our lights powered by a generator, not the electricity. the lights are coming back on, flickering on and off, we are in the impact, we clearly have cell signal because able to communicate with you. you can see the lights flickering, there is this eerie sense this is going to keep continuing right now. a generator seems to have kicked on over here, according to my producer, show you one last thing, take a look over there, you can see the flickering lights on that building. i don't know if it is reading, the eeriness, the lights are flickering around us, the wind howling, the rain coming down, i saw flash of something, i don't know if it is a transformer or lightning. as all of this evolves, the water level below continuing to rise .

>> jesse, i want you to stay safe, do what you got to do, if you need to go somewhere, please do that. >> reporter: we are good, we have eyes in all directions. >> we really appreciate what you're doing right now. in terms of the water level rise, when we talked to you at the top of the hour, you could not seawater, it is hard for us to understand, hard for you to estimate too, it looks like it is rising rapidly. you have a sense of where it is versus where was when we talked to you half an hour ago? >> reporter: yes, i will have david come over here, i will try to keep my finger in the frame to show you, off to the right, the water level around here, the last 10 minutes, 15 minutes, look where it is, this is a rant so that is an incline. it is going up or ramp, even with a little bit of rain earlier, the flooding was overwhelming, the storm drain with some rainfall hours before landfall. the fact this is happening is by

no means surprising. we heard from people in the area, this happened with hurricane helene, we were expecting twice as high of a storm surge this time around and because we are to the right of where the storm made landfall, this is the side of a hurricane that typically sees the most powerful winds and powerful storm surge. right now, we are seeing this in real time. i keep watching the water level inching up, i know based on what i've seen and what the producer is in the water over here, water on that site on the street and water on the main road over there, at least three sides and we cannot get safely over the main road by the marina to see if it is surrounding it completely. we are partially on what appears to be an island right now. i want to stress that we are elevated, multiple stories up for that very reason there are people that live in one, possibly two-story homes on those barrier islands and if they have not evacuated, this is what they're contending with and probably not the end of it.

>> invaluable perspective, really brave reporting, nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch. safety is paramount, do what you need to do and thanks for the update. still ahead this evening, how did we get here? i will talk to jeff goodell, the new york times best-selling author of the "heat will kill you first" how hurricane milton intensified so rapidly and whether this is the beginning of the new abnormal. that is next. we say you still do. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ it's nice to know you're free to focus on what matters, with reliable medicare coverage from unitedhealthcare. ♪♪

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before hurricane milton made landfall earlier this evening, the hurricane center warned it could become one of the most destructive hurricanes on record. scientists have been alarmed by its size and strength and the supercharged rate at which it grew. what is known as extreme rapid intensification. the cause is straightforward, unusually hot ocean water on the surface provides fuel for the storms and this year the gulf of mexico saw a record high temperatures. scientists are clear that the primary reason for that is climate change. climate change made the record- breaking water temperatures that fueled hurricane milton up to 800 times more likely.

the author of the best-selling book the heat will kill you first puts it plainly, hurricane milton is a fossil fuel fueled catastrophe. jeff is a journalist that has covered climate change for decades. i will note that asheville is not a place that is known to need to brace for these storms. it is a testament to climate change that you are eating having to grapple with this. my thoughts are with you and those in flooded having to deal with hurricane milton. let me start i saying climate change is making a storm like milton 800 times more likely, is that sound accurate? >> yes, the study you are talking about suggests global warming is making it 800 times

more likely to reach surface temperatures hotter 800 times more likely. it is making the hotter waters much more likely that are driving these storms. we do know because of the hotter waters, hurricanes are not only more likely but more intense, more destructive and we have seen that with milton, with the rapid intensification of the storm and going from a tropical depression to a category 5 in 48 hours. what we are really seeing is a sign of the new climate we are creating by continuing to burn fossil fuels. we will see more and more of these kinds of storms. this is not a freak storm, this is not a random event.

this is the kind of world we are creating for ourselves. >> we talk about rapid intensification because it is a hallmark of hurricane milton but it seems like it is a characteristic of several hurricanes we have weathered in the last two years, hurricane otis in 2023, he dahlia in 2023, ian in 2022, those are category 4-5 storms that intensified rapidly. for people that do not understand why it matters, can you explain the phenomenon and why it makes the monster storms more perilous? >> let me start with the idea, about 90% of the additional heat we put into the atmosphere with cot which traps heat in the atmosphere goes into the ocean, the ocean is like a giant heatsink. as we get the hotter oceans, hurricanes are like heat

engines, they work off the differential, they get their energy from the differential between the ocean temperature and cooler temperatures at the top of the atmosphere. so as the ocean temperature increases, the heat engine spins faster. a faster spinning heat engine like that is very dangerous because it is much more difficult to predict, these things happen very quickly and come out of nowhere. they spin with a large larger diameter. the hotter air carries more moisture so they are wetter. that is important as the rain begins to fall. for every one degree of warmer atmosphere you get 7% more

water in the air so you get more intense rainfall which is something we saw in another unlikely place like vermont last summer. it was not a hurricane but it was because of this hotter atmosphere carrying more water. when you add the final thing i to this which makes these more destructive is sealevel rise. the golf coast sea levels are rising twice as fast as the rest of the u.s., we have seen five inches in the last decade and that will just accelerate. all of these together makes the storms much more destructive. >> jeff, author of the heat will kill you first, thank you for explaining a terrifying phenomenon that may be the new abnormal. appreciate your time. we will be back with more of our coverage of hurricane milton. stay with us. ay with us. untuckit makes

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a flash flood emergency has been declared in st. petersburg, tampa, riverview and paul mello as hurricane milton rages. multiple fatalities have already been reported in fort pierce after a tornado touched down. over 1 million are without power as hurricane milton gets downgraded to a category 2 with winds as high as 110 miles per hour. joining me now is stephanie. what can you tell us? >> reporter: it is bad. we are getting the brunt of those winds now and dig good sense as to why hurricanes like this are so damaging. we were standing here for a long time and the wind was going that way and then it started to pick up and it

shifted direction and started coming right at us. that is one of the things about hurricanes that makes them damaging. on top of that the flash flood warning in tampa, the alert not only tells them that it is a flash flood warning but it is a life-threatening situation. the only reason you should leave where you are is if you are experiencing those flights and need to escape the water. i can tell you now, the winds, 80-90 mile-per-hour gusts, we have seen the intensity ratchet up in the last half hour. that historic search we are worried about in tampa does not look like is going to happen, the wind we are getting on top of this event means there will be damaged tomorrow and it will take a while for them to get back on their feet on top of hurricane helene as well. >> please stay,