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that is tonight's last word. the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. good evening once again, i'm stephanie ruhle. we are closely tracking deadly hurricane milton as it hammers the state of florida. the storm made landfall just hours ago as an extremely dangerous category 3 near siesta key. within the last hour, it was downgraded to a category 2. federal and state officials urge residents to shelter in place as the storm continues to unleash dangerous conditions. at least two people have been confirmed dead as a result of the hurricane. i want to bring in nbc news meteorologist, my friend, bill karins, with the latest on the storm. what do we know? >> reporter: we know the storm has taken a couple of lives. we have the landfall itself, now possibly historic storm surge that's taking place at this hour, sarasota southward down to naples.

we know there's water in the downtown area as we speak. naples just crested and it's starting to recede, but it will take a while because high tide is still on its way in. yes, tampa missed out on the storm surge. that's great. but they've had an incredible rain event. we know there's water issues under the flash flood emergency from clearwater to st. petersburg. st. petersburg picked up 16 inches of rain with this storm. in one hour, five inches of rain. that's unheard of. and for that area in st. petersburg. as we go throughout the night, we're going to track this south of i-4. it will have incredible rainfall rate. we have a lot of people losing power in central florida and northeast florida, where we still have intense wind gusts. the black line is the center of the storm. just to the north, right on i- 4, torrential rain. even a couple lightning strikes right here. this backside has been

incredible. we've had 102 miles per hour wind gusts. sometimes these storms don't have much to a punch on the backside. you can still see these bright red and yellow on the radar, bringing down very strong wind gusts here from st. petersburg to sarasota. i-4, that's when you'll start to see power outages out if you haven't already. almost the entire state of florida has wind gusts that are now in excess of tropical storm forced. we're getting the hurricane gusts in central florida. so st. petersburg, 91 miles per hour gusts. what a day for you, right? and 16 inches of rain. how about daytona beach? hurricane forced gusts on the north side of florida now, causing damage and power outages. not just that, but a little bit of a storm surge issue too to volusia county, palm bay, up to

st. augustine. sebring still 72. and the highest we're seeing is from sarasota. still a category 2. it will lose its punch, but it will exit the space coast maybe 7:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m. i mean it will fly across the state. so the good news is tomorrow, the storm will mostly be over for everyone. first responders can get out at first light, we can see how bad the damage is and who needs the most help. at least 17 reports of tornadoes were severe, a wedged tornado. one we would typically get in the springtime or southeast. but a lot of life threatening efforts as the storm is making its way through the heart of florida. >> bill, thank you so much. let's bring in jesse kirsch had. what's going on where you are?

>> reporter: yes, i'm still in the eye wall. conditions are spreading out. what i mean by that, these powerful wind gusts are still coming through. that's a shed that you can hear it clanking. parts of the metal have been scraping across the parking deck, creating a chilling sound that'll have us turn our head to make sure we're seeing what we are seeing. you can see the water shooting off this parking deck, where we are for cover right now. down below, it's receding, but we have a feet of storm surge water. so much so i can feel and taste the sea water as if i were at the beach right now. we all know that feeling if you've been to the beach by the ocean. you can feel and taste the sand because of the sea water. you can taste the salt. that's what we're dealing right

now. it's not the rain that's down below us, but a lot of sea water. i want to talk to you about where we are right now. we've got a lot of insulated walls in this parking garage, which is a deliberate choice we made for this storm. this is less than two weeks after helene made landfall in the same area. that means people have been cleaning out their homes. i've seen waist high water in some areas. that means couches, mattresses, picture frames, food, planks of wood, on people's lawns. as a result, there is a lot of debris that could not be cleaned up on time and potentially blowing in the air. we've got water on this side, and then water in the main street as well. you can see the reflection in the few lights that are available downtown. as we appear to be power outages and a big wind gust coming in right now. point down, david. you can see the trees whipping, you can see the water moving as well. that's the power of these winds

that are coming through, even well past the time when the eye wall started moving towards our area. that's why we're in a parking garage instead of out in the element. we're in the garage because it's elevated. the storm surge below is a feet of water, and it doesn't come in slowly. it can be deadly, so we needed to make sure we're elevated, also the added debris concern because of the leftover from hurricane helene. we'll head back over to our main position right now. but to give you a sense, we are prepared to sleep in this garage because we're not sure we're going to be able to get back to where we have rooms thankfully in the area. just the last point, i want to point out because this is so soon after helene, there seems to be a different sense here about preparation. seems like more people were getting ready faster. we had a harder time finding things like gas cans. and it felt like more people were getting stuff sooner this time around. i spoke with the mayor here in sarasota yesterday.

she told me because helene had hit harder than other storms have in this area, it seemed like more people were taking this more seriously in a different kind of way, which is great. we are seeing that reflected in the numbers. according to the last check we had from sarasota county with close to 10,000 people at their shelters. and they had so many people where they had to move them to other shelters. it's the highest volume of people they've had in their center. >> and for you, you covered helene two weeks ago, right? you were in perry, florida when we spoke. how does it feel tonight verses where you were pretty close to the eye of that storm? >> reporter: yeah. i think that for me, the amount of time we're seeing these stronger winds seems to be a longer duration. but i also feel like the wind gusts are not as strong compared to what we saw with helene. i'll defer to our friend, bill. all of our friends in the climate unit for the exact

stats. but i know that when this storm made landfall, when milton made landfall, it was a category 3 hurricane, where they made landfall. what that refers to is the power of the winds, the miles per hour behind the wind gusts. but that doesn't mean it's a less powerful storm. we know at one point, or i should say a couple of points. milton was a category 5 storm. a real gnarly hurricane when it was out in the gulf. what we're seeing in terms of storm surge is always the biggest concern in terms of the threat to life during the hurricane. what we're seeing, it is not impacted or lessened. when you had that full force, that category 5 strength, that influences the storm surge. what we're seeing in terms of the threat to human life in this storm, i believe will wind up being greater. but in terms of what i have been witnessing, the winds already stronger where i am. it is also hard to do a

complete comparison, taking extra shelter from the storm because of the added concern about all the debris that was out. that's a variable that we don't truly know the impact they will have yet. but at least one county official that i spoke with just north of here was worried about the possibility that could impact first responders' ability to help people as quickly as possible in the aftermath of the storm. right here in sarasota, police are off the streets. >> my gosh, jesse. looking at the rain behind you, it's like buckets coming down. is the rain behind you coming from the sky or off the side of the building? at some point, it's like we just see winds and water is coming down? >> reporter: yeah. you can see a couple drops coming out. there are levels above us. you're getting the combination. obviously our lights are hitting this. but there is definitely rain that is pouring down as well.

you know, moving sideways in some direction, it's kicking off. it's not just the water we're seeing off of here. but hard to see how much rain is falling. it's not really about pounding rain right now because i'll be getting stoked if it were pounding rain. but the story right now is a lack of visibility from what rain there is with all the standing water. >> thank you so much. please stay safe where you are. i want to bring in pete buttigieg. secretary, thank you for being here. this is obviously a busy and worrisome night for everyone. we just got the latest update. clean up efforts from helene were barely getting underway. now florida's gulf coast is being brutalized yet again. what is the administration doing to help? >> there is a real increased focus now on having those early assessments start to come in.

when the sun comes up tomorrow, more of that recovery phase. the administration has been preparing this for days. having a field incident response team prepositioned in jacksonville, ready to help with steps that will bring airports back online and address anything else that needs attention on the aviation side. there's examples like that from across the administration, as we have thousands of personnel, hundreds, just from our department alone. both involved in the preparations from milton that will evolve into recovery efforts. from a transportation perspective, we're looking at surface, air, and sea. each one of those has its own dynamics, of course, not on the surface side. we are looking at roads and bridges, and we'll start to get the damage assessment in the morning. and with regards to aviation, it is about making sure first emergency operations were able to fly and then seeing normal

aviation restored at the airport as soon as possible. and then the mirror time side, they were particularly focused on conditions for port tampa bay because that one port accounts for about 40% of the fuel serving the entire state of florida. we'll want to see conditions at the port to get a sense of how quickly that could be brought back online and back to normal. >> and misif information has become a huge one. i want to share just a bit with biden speaking earlier today about the information problem. watch this. former president trump, the surges have been made and property being confiscated is simply not true. they're saying people impacted by the storm will receive $750 in cash and no more. that is simply not true either.

what the heck are they talking about? marjorie taylor greene, the congresswoman for georgia, now saying the government is literally controlling the weather. we're controlling the weather. that's beyond ridiculous. it's so stupid. it's got to stop. >> it is ridiculous, it is stupid, but most importantly, it's dangerous. how dangerous is this misinformation right now coming from public officials? >> well look, in an emergency, you need good information just like you need water, power, transportation. the only way to deal with these king of lies and false things being put out is to confront them as president biden did today. while we see some of these incredibly harming hurricane victims with their lives. there have been bipartisan responses to that with a lot in

the republican party, saying the same thing about what the actual truth is and making sure we are talking about fema or about local voices like mayors. police and fire departments and other responders. if those lives are allowed to hang out there, that leads to harm. imagine if somebody hears that false statement, that $750,000 that is the first funding fema gets out to help with immediate needs. if they hear the message that's all they're going to get and they believe it, then they might never access other funding that they absolutely can and should get. that's just one example of how somebody could be harmed by this. obviously when you hear some of the more outlandish suggestion. i mean i don't know where to start on this weather control assertion from one member of congress. it is concerning because as wild and wacky as that sounds,

people might be inclined to take something seriously. but again, in the conversations that i have been having with the republican and the democratic mayor, senators, governors, it's not political. you would never know listening to our, the same political party as i am. of course, most serious people, just want to work together to get something done here. >> secretary, thank you for joining me tonight. i appreciate it. >> thanks. when we return, breaking news coverage continues. a close look at what's happening on the ground. we'll talk to our colleague, stephanie ruhle, live in tampa. we will talk to a former fema administrator about how the lives are hurting the agency and americans. the 11th hour just getting

underway in a very busy and serious wednesday night.

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back to our breaking news coverage of hurricane milton hitting florida. a flash flood emergency has been issued for tampa, north of where the storm made landfall earlier tonight. i want to bring in stephanie gosk, live in tampa. steph, i'm glad you're safe. i saw you earlier in some major winds and rain. what's going on where you are right now? >> reporter: yes. really for hours now. you know, tampa may have missed that historic and potentially catastrophic surge we were talking about a few days ago in tampa bay. but the city has not escaped this storm. and in any way, shape, or form. really for hours now, it has been heavy rain and heavy wind gust of 78, and the rain has been coming down. there could be upwards of a

foot of rain that has fallen on tampa. we've been watching just water around us gathering on the streets. this is an area as you know after being hit by hurricane helene, inundated with water and surge from that storm, now being hit with a very different type of strong storm. a wind event and a rain event. now they've got to try to recover from both of those storms. stephanie? >> all right, steph. thank you so much. stay safe where you are, my friend. right now, there's a lot of eyes on fema as it responds for helene and prepares for what devastation milton will leave behind. i want to bring in the former administrator for fema. before that, he served as director for florida's emergency management. so glad you're with us tonight because unfortunately more and more people are confused about who fema is. help us understand what is the first thing fema is going to do

once the storm passes? >> work with the governor. i think that's the thing people keep confusing. the theme is not the initial response, but the governor, the state, local officials. fema has deployed 13 search and rescue teams that will be going out as the state directs them. but the initial response is really the responder for fema supporting that. then as they start getting assessed of how bad and where the heavy hit areas are, i would imagine they would ask for more assistance from fema, the president, and fema will be working to administer that. it's really important fema is not the initial response.

what did you think of how they handlinged that part of the crisis? getting people prepared, out of the storm's eye, but not getting people overly panicked if it is not necessary and risk losing their trust? >> yeah, sometimes we worry too much about panicking people. getting them to the higher ground, keeping them alive is the message. it was a message you would have for mayors, the governor, to the white house. that's how it's suppose to work. it's not that we're all competing, but we work as a team. you heard the same message from st. pete. hillsborough county, tampa, to the governor desantis to the president. it is all about keeping people safe, giving them good information, so they could make informed decisions. and now as we're in the storm, it is really important people stay home, stay off the roads. this is still a dangerous storm moving through the area. as conditions begin to improve

on the west coast. , you will see what the damage looks like. >> but specifically about fema and the response. for fact sake, president biden did not take fema relief money and spend it on migrants. but donald trump did when he was in office. can you help us understand? fema has a hard enough job already. i have to imagine these lies make it even harder? >> congress is pretty strict. fema can't move money around and they fund disasters to use it for something else. in congress, they watch that very closely. i remember when i was fema administrator, the appropriations committee staff

were literally looking every time we were spending money to make sure where it was going, what it was going towards, that we were not, when you're speaking to the audience. all they want to know is help is coming. and you're talking to an outside audience. think of how many people right now are losing power and won't even hear this message. same thing with helene up into the mountain areas. much of this conversation, they didn't hear it. they were down to if they got a radio, they might have gotten on the radio, but down to no communications. so a lot of this noise is directed outside with a different audience. we have to be careful we don't confuse the people who are trying to help. because of the noise. >> especially because the only audience that truly matters are those people who need help. craig, thank you for all that

you do, and thank you for joining us tonight. >> thanks for having me. when we return, we'll have an update from a top meteorologist at the national hurricane center on hurricane milton's path when the 11th hour continues. target the source of pain with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source. voltaren, the joy of movement.

we are still tracking hurricane milton in florida after it made landfall in

siesta key earlier this evening. what can you tell us? >> yeah, some of the hazards we were predicting have unfolded as respected. milton is just south of lakeland, florida. lakeland, florida, to the east of tampa bay area. maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour for inland storm. that's pretty impressive. and what has happened over the last couple of hours as the heavy rain developed on the north side impacting the densely populated i-4 corridor of florida. that's the interstate that extends from tampa to orlando. and these red areas behind me that are flashing on the screen indicate where flash flood emergencies are currently in effect. >> jamie, thank you so much. now i want to turn to sam brock in fort myers south of where hurricane milton made landfall. sam, what are you seeing

tonight? >> reporter: yeah, i can't believe, steph, this system right now. milton is in lakeland. we're in fort myers along the coast at a temporary respite right now in terms of the wind speeds. but we have been getting clocked the last couple of hours with so much water on the ground. and i can't even see patches of street anymore. i'm looking down to set the stage for you, we are in a parking garage right now on the fourth floor, looking down. there is a river nearby, and you can see the sort of gaps of where they were coming up, the surge from the river onto the streets. now there is nothing, but it's just a river. so you're really looking again at five or so feet of water. we talked about the projected storm surge of eight to twelve feet. no way, that's not going to

happen. it's literally playing out before our eyes right now. here is what worries me, steph. you're looking at the population centers affected. i'm in lee county, 800,000 people. and half of those are under mandatory evacuations. the tampa bay area is 2.5 million people. then you have sarasota, which also has 400,000. and our latest is for those familiar with florida, as you think of the beach. there are all these had barrier islands that just line up and down the west coast of florida, not just fort myers beach and sanibel, if those sound familiar. they were all decimated a couple years ago. but continuing upward from sienna, siesta key, thousands of people who are completely vulnerable. you wonder what kind of conditions they're in right now with those areas because this

is the downtown core where i'm standing. high tides until tomorrow morning. and it means it will continue to rise. i'd also like to paint a picture for you. this is st. lucie county, the other side of the state. multiple confirmed deaths from one tornado. governor desantis said there was in the neighborhood of 19 that it touched down as of a couple of hours ago, but reports of dozens more. we have no idea how much damage has been inflicted from just the tornadoes and how much fatalities might be associated with that. you're looking at a scenario where it will likely take days, if not, longer to sort this all out. very scary. lastly also, shelters across the state about 150 of them. last check, 150,000 people in shelters as you have roughly a quarter in the state of florida that's affected by the warning

of some kind. a mandatory evacuation, stephanie. we'll send it back to you. >> sam, i have more questions for you, but do you need to step inside? it is so windy and loud where you are. did you need to move in a little? are you safe where you are? >> and where is the fun in that? i was just trying to illustrate. i was going to illustrate for you the depth of the water below, but i realized all the moms out there that might include this, this is probably a little too close, and i will go inside. >> yes. >> and so i want you to move in a little bit. but you were mentioning people in sanibel in fort myers, many of whom just moved back to their homes, rebuilt their homes in the last year after the hurricane, what was it two years ago? those houses, had they been built differently this time because so many of them were wiped out two to three years ago. are the structures different

now? >> yes, they're different, the foundational building pieces and how tough they're making the roofs as well when you see these winds, penetrate homes and they were able to lift these roofs right off. i know it is different now. i did have some conversation months ago with engineers about that. but the reality of this is you have so many homes damaged in the process of being rebuilt just from helene a couple weeks ago. that was like six feet of storm surge. for those folks that were trying to build their lives up and over again. [ inaudible ] those projects have not been seen to come to completion before helene. there's been four hurricanes in florida the last year, not accounting ian a couple years ago. so it's a great question to have. the construction standards have to change, but still very difficult. homes are being affected by 130 miles an hour winds, and storm surges that go from sixty to

feet to twelve feet of storm surge. >> i'm not leaving this shot until you walk inside. you're so close. keep moving, another two feet. okay. i'm going to leave you there. sam, thank you so much. please stay safe. it's hard to even watch you there. i want to bring in jason deckerty, the fire chief in tampa. chief, what a 24 hours this has been for you and your team. what's the situation there right now? >> it has been about 72 hours of preparation for this. so the last24 hours, certainly you know a lot of guessing when we're looking at where it will land, you know we're looking at the models. a lot of stress on our folks. that landfall in siesta key about 60 miles from where we're about. and a lot of rain, heavy winds.

we had to stop making calls because of the high winds. >> you urged residents to evacuate the area. but you're staying behind. how bad can this be? had your team had to do rescues tonight? >> i'm really rouse of our sit yens as they heaved the warnings. we made approximately 30 rescues up until 9:00 this evening. as we compare that to hurricane helene we had about two weeks ago, tomorrow, we made over a thousand saves that time. i'd say our residents have heaved the warning and a lot of them have evacuated. >> we are also thinking about first responders tonight. we saw the roof get pulled off in tampa. that's where many first responders were planning to shelter there tonight. what can you tell us about where they're going to go?

>> so that is in pinellas county. i have not been in contact with them, but they did lose some of the roof at the tropicana. that's about 30 miles away from us. so i'm not sure, but i'm sure they have a backup plan. >> what advice do you have tonight for folks who have not evacuated? how should they protect themselves? >> so a great question. my advice is to stay put where they are at. as much as you want to get outside, after you might feel like the winds went down, we are still looking at a possible surge. we have a nice reverse surge that's going on right now, so water will come back into the bay. what i would caution everybody, don't go out and about. we don't know where the electrical lines are or where the trees are down. so allow the daybreak for fire rescue and the first responders to get out and clear the roads to make sure they're safe to stay where they are at, don't move around add daylight. >> what will be your biggest

challenge after the storm clears? >> we'll need to see what damage we have. and with that, we have the cleanup we've been working on from hurricane helene. we will have to look at our businesses and our residents and see how we can help them for road recovery. >> all right, jason, thank you. good luck to you and your team. stay safe out there. >> thank you. thank you for having us. when we return, we'll get the latest on hurricane milton's path across florida and talk to the leader of the group that's ready to jump in and help people after the storm passes. one of my favorites, team rubicon joins us when the 11th hour continues.

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we continue to follow hurricane milton. earlier tonight, winds severely damaged the roof on tropicana field in tampa, florida. no injuries reported, but we were told there were people inside at the time. i want to bring back nbc news meteorologist, bill karins. give us the latest. >> yeah, we must have had about 105 miles per hour wind gusts there at tropicana field in st. petersburg, home of the rays. yeah, it just tore the roof apart. it was like a canvas type roof that it was reported, but it should have been graded higher than that. they will need to figure out what happened. st. petersburg right here, the epic center of the incredible heavy rain event. one part as you notice with helene and a lot of our storms, they're delivering more rain.

that's what climate change teaches us. we are getting these storms that are doing more things like this. now we're up to 18 inches plus rain in st. petersburg with this storm alone in the last 24 hours. five inches fell between 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. classified as a 1 in 1,000-year rainfall event in st. petersburg. going into every year, the odds of this happening are like .01. so as far as, you know, what's going to happen the rest of the night, the rainfall is letting up. there's a chance they could get over 20 inches by the time it's all said and done. the most rain in 24 hours is in the keys and key west. 23 inches. not that far away from it. we have roughly about a third to a quarter of the state of florida under flash flood warnings. this pinkish magenta color here, this is under a flash flood emergency. we know we have high water all throughout the region. we know there's water rescues that will be needed. but once they die down enough,

this is exiting quickly. this storm is off the coast, it's gone. you can see now, it's just south of i-4, not too far from orlando. this is where the heaviest rain has shifted. it is also very windy and nasty all the way up to volusia county here. so the high risk of flash flooding will continue through the night tonight. a couple interesting things, we are still watching the water rise in fort myers, where she crested in naples. that water is going down. but five feet of water is in the streets in the building in fort myers. up in tampa, the water is still low. this is incredible. in east bay, they actually had an anti-surge. it's the opposite of the water. it went out. it dropped five feet. people could see the bottom of an entire bay in this area by the shoreline. now that water is beginning to creep back up. they're warning people don't go walking around out there, don't go looking around. that water will return.

current wind gusts, 79 in winter haven. orlando, 54. we saw some of our gauges broke here when sarasota hit 102 and the power went out, we lost this wind gauge. the backside still slapping pretty hard. by about midnight, tampa should be, you know, at least getting done with the hurricane gust. by the time we get to 2:00, 3:00 a.m., the tropical storm forced winds should be dying off too. mostly in orlando, probably about 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. and stephanie had, we're still getting these pictures in, hearing about reports of numerous fatalities earlier today. and so this storm has kind of done it all. it will be gone by tomorrow. we'll never have another milton. almost guaranteed this will be another storm like helene, we'll retire that name. we'll need to have a new m named storm next year. >> bill, thank you. many americans along the gulf coast are dealing with signify had cant destruction

from hurricane helene less than two weeks ago. one of the groups on the ground helping survivors is team rubicon. a veteran led humanitarian organization. it serves global communities before, during, and after disasters in crisis. joining me now, the ceo of team rubicon, art dela cruz. help us learn how your team is preparing for recovery. after milton, you have many teams on the ground dealing with helene. what's the plan now? >> yeah, you know, it's a bit of an extraordinary circumstance. we actually have about 14 different teams spread across the southeast from tennessee south all the way to florida. we retrograded the team here in florida to keep them out of harm's way. i'm actually here in atlanta, georgia, where we constituted two more routes that will help out after the destruction there. but this is a time when we rely on our volunteers who come from all over the country to meet

this incredible need. >> what is your team's top priority come tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m.? >> yes, number one, the priority is to keep our volunteers safe. to ensure we could do with our part to move debris. first responders and emergency personnel and recovery crews can begin to do their work. so we're taking a bite out of some of the barriers that people have experienced tomorrow. >> you have been on the ground for so many disasters. help us understand helene compared to other disasters you've faced before. it's unlike many recovery groups they've seen. >> yeah, i think helene was extraordinary, number one. it's just the rapid intensification, which we also saw with milton. the second thing that was unique about it is how quickly it made landfall and moved

through georgia. the wind feel damage was absolutely extraordinary. then when it parked over north carolina, it brought back memories of hurricane harvey, you know, which essentially bounced off the coast of texas and houston. dumping huge amounts of rain. for milton as well. one of the things we'll never forget is the sequence of debris that will clock up damages to tornadoes. these two events, it, it is unbelievable. >> all right, before we go, how can people help team rubicon? >> people support our mission. trusa, we would love to have you donate to team rubicon, and we'd love to have you sign up to volunteer. we have a lot of work for months to come. >> i've had the opportunity to volunteer with rubicon in fort myers, florida.

it's an extraordinary opportunity. thank you for what you do, and thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you for having me, stephanie. when we return, we'll check in with reporters on the ground as milton continues to hammer the state of florida. (man) look at this silly little sailboat... these men of means with their silver spoons, eating up the financial favors of the 1%. what would become of them when they discover robinhood gold allows others to earn their very liberal rates on idle cash, unlimited deposit bonuses and handsome retirement matching?

they would descend into chaos. merciless chaos.

we are still tracking hurricane milton in florida as we just saw a few moments ago, wind severely damaged the roof on tropicana field in st. petersburg, florida. no injuries were reported. but we're told there were

people inside at the time. i want to bring in nbc news correspondent, dana griffin, in naples. what can you tell us about where you are, dana? >> reporter: hey, stephanie. so where we are, we are experiencing 50 miles per hour winds gusts. you can see the trees behind me. at one point, they were kind of sideways. so they come and go. they pick up and they saw experienced rain at the moment. but you can see it and hear it. i want to show you some video from inside the garage where we are stationed. there are these metal parking signs that are hanging up above. and the wind is forcing them against the congress. you can probably hear it if you're listening. this is just how powerful the winds is. several hundred miles south of where the impact is where some of the other reporters were going from near tampa and sarasota. so the storm surge here in

naples has reached more than five feet, approaching six feet. it's likely that amount of rain will increase. the footage of the storm surge will likely increase between 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. what local officials are reporting. we have had some power issues in the area. there was, as you can see behind me, this light that was lit. also in the distance, you can see more areas that were well lit. the power went out, some 30,000 customers without power. now you can hear and see the wind gusts that are happening as we speak. and then it calms. that's what we have been experiencing throughout several hours here in naples. we are safe, we are hunkered down in a garage, where we are protected the from the extremities that are happening outside. but obviously still as a precurious situation as the storm surging. we were at naples beach, where

surfers were still in the water catching waves before milton came ashore and people say this is just something that surfers, they wanted to catch in on those waves before the hurricane hits. stephanie? >> dana. i hear some loud banging behind you, so i'm going to urge ewe to go inside. thank you for giving us the update. for us here in new york city, that does it. i wish you all a very safe night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late. let's all think of florida tonight. i'll see you at the end of tomorrow. we are going to go straight to bill karen's msnbc meteorologist for the latest on this situation there. bill, what can we expect now in florida?