i mentioned it earlier being inside the superdome. settling when you bring just a few belongings with you not being sure if you can return to your home after storm hits. they're all huddled here. >> david, great interview. if there's a silver lining from whereat is going on in napeles is that that did heed the warnings. the residents got out or went to a shelter. they listened to the warnings. david, thank you. >> the point he makes about the anxiety of the folks who evacuated, there's a lot to worry about right now. and for more on where this storm is right now and where it's heading, up north of where david is. david is in naples. rob is in sarasota. it's calm. but not for long. give us your sense, rob. >> you asked me where it's going. it's coming here. coming here tonight. where sit right now, dramatic, >>> exclusive accu-weather for fall-like, highs around 74, no humidity. to be inundated, if not over my head, in this sarasota area. >>> we're going to continue to cover hurricane irma righere on "gma." we'll be right back. i have

i mentioned it earlier being inside the superdome. settling when you bring just a few belongings with you not being sure if you can return to your home after storm hits. they're all huddled here. >> david, great interview. if there's a silver lining from whereat is going on in napeles is that that did heed the warnings. the residents got out or went to a shelter. they listened to the warnings. david, thank you. >> the point he makes about the anxiety of the folks who evacuated, there's a lot to worry about right now. and for more on where this storm is right now and where it's heading, up north of where david is. david is in rob is in sarasota. it's calm. but not for long. give us your sense, rob. >> you asked me where it's going. it's coming here. coming here tonight. where sit right now, dramatic, dramatic, right over sugar loaf key. the eye, the calm. but the winds gusting over 90 miles an hour at key west. no report from them for awhile. the anemometer may be down. winds 120, 130, maybe 140. the surge over the keys, devastating. i

i remember the top of the superdome beginning to peel off. when you're talking about winds surpassing 100 miles per hour, we could see significant damage. the winds and the storm surge can take lives. naples is only three feet above sea level. they're expecting a storm surge of between 10 and 15 feet. you heard the governor warn that that can take houses. cars. can certainly take lives. team that i'm with, we're going to make sure we're safe. going to do our very best. and during those very difficult moments later on, we'll be hud. ed deep inside this building. >> good to hear you're going to stay safe. this bad joke the universe has played on folks who went from miami, thinking that's where the storm damage was going to be most concentrated. they go to the west coast. places like naples and tampa. now that's where the storm is headed. >> speaking of where the storm is. feeling the worst of it and the winds right now. we want to go to zack. he's riding out the storm with his family of five in key west. good morning to you. you're in a three-s

and the top of the superdome began to peel off in the winds. i was there with all of these families who brought their belongings, the few things they could carry. i feel for the people who will spend hours of enduring these winds of 100 miles per hour or more. that is expected. the last advisory we received was 115 miles per hour, gusting perhaps even higher than that once irma gets closer. and you can see behind me here we are broadcasting as many have broadcast throughout the day from a building. we are up a safe distance from any surge that would be below us and surrounded for the most part by these concrete walls here. obviously once the winds get up to 110, 125 miles per hour, we might be talking to george from a telephone inside a stairwell inside this building. we talked the entire crew through these safety procedures. obviously we don't want to put anyone at risk. we're here to inform. but if it gets to be as bad as they're telling us, we might have to take precautions here. >> no unnecessary risks. thank you very much. up the coast now

good that could not did not could not in that superdome but meant that in the. note of this equipment i will get an electric and could not stay to the father but through me just two distinctly different no helping america today should come come i'm always sure god know that i got another voice had to do it to get your nails and i didn't hold. safely i mean you know i shot him and i thought no one told us but the woman who got the question the way. the bloodletting. the. new just about it isn't fair to the. only. person that i am tom. villa tankers are within the country should not i mean those at the ms go just on i'm going to go to the guys on time when you get down and you know it sneaking suspicion said to which you can use official over the. still missing in the room. when you are gone william is going to talk and able to let you read. the graph paper for now what's up. i missed the train that was on you. and you really i mean a crew of my brats and they still could. be on you going you really said of bill. and that this will be the baby's. she said. detroit

i think of the thousands of people trapped at that superdome and we watched them day in and day out and the federal government didn't do enough. let's not let them leave behind 3.5 million people and not do enough. we're not doing everything we can and notwithstanding what the president said today, the governor of puerto rico understands that this is a humanitarian crisis. we are in contact with elected officials throughout the island. they are pleading with us to send water purification. they said we cannot keep our first responders on the street because we don't have fuel to put in the vehicles and to keep our operations alive. >> all right. so i wanted to be clear and concrete here. telecommunications that you think the u.s. has the capacity to deploy there. water purification boats. potable water is -- i keep hearing about potable water, diesel generators to keep refrigerators going because people are running out of food as well. so diesel, water. here's another thing i want to get your opinion on. there's something called the jones act which is a piece of legislation that essential

i was in the superdome.ngings they could take ow their homes in time. katrina, right tax wilma. this year 15 with this succession of hurricanes. you mention irma. puerto rico, we had an amazing team there. one night in particular, we were headed into the keys, all of a sudden we see this barricade. they were stopping all these families who didn't know if their house was still standing, a lot of them had families still there in the keys, and they would not give. i thought, we can't get any further, pull the truck over, we'll do the newscast at this intersection. that night you could see the lights behind us. the anguish in the faces of the families. we stayed there overnight to get in the next day and go down and take that route with the families. >> jimmy: the govern ever's on television telling everyone, you must evacuate now. and you guys are head to headed into the hurricane. >> yeah. >> jimmy: that's a bad message. [ laughter ] >> it's a bad message to send, >> jimmy: evacuate now! unless you're part of

it reminds me of being inside the superdome inside of katrina. i remember being there with the families. the roof beginning to rip off over our heads. i can't imagine what it is like to be in there. 100-mile-per-hour winds for several hours. it will be a tough ride. >> it will be a harrowing afternoon. want to move up to coast to rob marciano in sarasota. they're feeling it already. >> just when i said it would be a cake walk here, the winds and the rains started howling here. we're a good 10 to 12 hours from the core. we're near the bay. the entire west coast of florida is susceptible because they have bays and bays and bays. ft. myers has it, punta gorda. naples. very us susceptible from all ofe water. they have barrier eislands. the water here will get up and over this area, potentially up and over my head. panning over here. it is water as for as the eye can see, obscure bid some of the rainfall. that's not the ocean, my friends. that is the bay. beyond that, the gulf of mexico. all that water will push up. not the mention, the rainfall start

we remember what happened in katrina, the superdome compared to what is happening here in the convention the convention center is happened very well and you see police and doctors and food. so i think the learning curve is there but it is obviously room for growth and for learning. so next time something like this happens, we are ready to be -- for example, feeding everybody in the right way. >> i know you've had a long day and a lot of kitchens. >> more to cook tomorrow. >> jose, thank you. >> god bless you. >> breaking news at the top of the hour here in houston. where floodwaters from hurricane harvey may have peaked but new dimensions of the disaster are coming into view and others exploding back to light. the chemical plant was rocked again today. what began as flooding became a power outage and chemicals heated up and new explosions are all about certain. we'll have more shortly. it is just one of the string of different developments here tonight that should signal loud and clear this is not over. i know people think the weather is fine and the -- the rest of the country is moving

. $190 million of investment just from that one initiative by putting down just 30 million superdome 30 committed 190 and investments. it's helped in food deserts and it's also a program where there's a substantial personal investment up front but it's worked out well in a lot of states. my question is how do you see that initiative in the department of agriculture going forward because it's been battle tested, road tested and i want to get your sense of it. thank you for raising an important issue. it's certainly a piece of economic prosperity. when we look at the healthy food financing initiative i think you see an exciting model of the public-private partnership. we are looking at solving a long-standing challenge and rural america is not immune from that. we are looking at the national fun manager that has been designated for this program as they move forward with implementation, as an opportunity to learn from their experience to leverage the relationships they have working to enhance further investments in this area particularly in the low income communities. >> are there thing

and after hurricane katrina, and the superdome had a hole in it, the saints came and the opening game, i went to it. it kind of pulled the city together. so i think mayor sylvester turner and city council and the rest thinks this is a good thing to do. and it very well might be for morale point of view, but it is still a very dicey situation in southern texas. and you got to watch you don't try to gild the lily too quickly. >> president trump, a lot of criticism about his earlier visit. what do houstonians, what does texas need to see from him today? >> i'm glad you asked. i think donald trump came up short on his first visit there was the lack of empathy, everybody has been talking about today. he needs to meet first responders. real citizens who are heroes of the past week. he needs to go to a shelter, he needs to walk a street and really inspect the floodwaters. and these be seen engaging with citizens. he ran as a populist person, meaning you like people. but he seems to always be at arm's length with them. it might be part of a germophobe thing. he's got to get over that. he is r

we remember what happened in katrina, the superdome compared to what is happening here in the convention center. i would say the convention center has been handled very well. you see a lot of organization. you see police. you see doctors. you see food. so i think the learning curve is there but it is obviously room for growth and for learning. so next time something like this happens, we are ready to be -- for example, feeding everybody in the right way. >> i know you've had a long day and a lot of kitchens. >> more to cook tomorrow. >> more to cook tomorrow. jose, thank you very much. >> god bless you. >> breaking news at the top of the hour here in houston. where floodwaters from hurricane harvey may have peaked but new dimensions of the disaster are coming into view and others exploding back to light. late today the arkema chemical plant in crosby was rocked again. you see the fire there's. what began as flooding became a power outage. cooling equipment shut down. chemicals heated up and erupted in flames. thankfully that fire has died down. officials warn new explosions are about cer

manage an evacuation, that abandoned people in new orleans for five days on their rooftops, in the superdomeand then the response is, well, let's get rid of the public sphere together, right? what i documented around katrina people taking a few days before they said, well, let's demolish the pubublic housing. let's nonot reopen the schools. maybe 10 days, maybe two weeks, amy. thee trump surely beat that record by calling -- i using a hurricane that had yet to make in the continental united states to say, well, this is why we need to speak up -- speed up my tax cuts. bill mckibben said, in the same world, you would be calling for covering cuts,s, not taxax cuts. it is once again a world upside down. in a m moment like this, where governments are about to be handed a multibillion dollar cleanup bill and reconstruction bill and have already been handed that because of harvey, surely, you need more money from corporations. let's rememberer, his tax plan would give the biggest tax cut to corporations that they have had in many decades. we will see what ends up happening through the negotiations,

i remember being in the superdome in katrina as that storm barreled through the roof, sort of ripping off as we were all inside and i can only imagine what it was like for the thousands of floridians inside these shelters throughout the state and that track shifted very quickly over the weekend, many people had to very hurriedly get out of their homes and to the nearest shelter. >> what was it like being in that high-rise? >> reporter: it was stunning to see on the balcony protected but the top of the roof began coming off and tiles going through the air and that's when we went in the stairwell and as ginger and rob predicted the eye was over us and this lull in the storm. sort of extraordinary to see the science overhead and should point out nearly 6 million people in florida without power this morning and likely waiting to come home to see the damage. >> yeah, that number could grow. david, thank you. hurricane irma raced through tampa. the first hurricane there in nearly a century. t.j. holmes was there for it all. good morning, t.j. >> reporter: hey, good morning to you, robin. so

we remember what happened in katrina, the superdome compared to what is happening here in the conventionas been handled very well. you see a lot of organization. you see police. you see doctors. you see food. so i think the learning curve is there but it is obviously room for growth and for learning. so next time something like this happens, we are ready to be -- for example, feeding everybody in the right way. >> i know you've had a long day and a lot of kitchens. >> more to cook tomorrow. se more to cook tomorrow.

i remember being in the superdome in katrina as the roof began to peel off, and what that was like with the families waiting. these families will come home to the damage after being in the shelters overnight, and i have to tell you, robin. so many families had so little notice because of the track over the weekend. it gave them just saturday to evacuate and try to find a safe spot to ride out this storm. >> what was it like for you being in the high-rise with the winds in huge force? >> reporter: it was something, robin. it crossed right over our heads as we were reporting live during our breaking coverage and parts of the roof peeled off. our tiles were sent soaring along with the other debris, and that's when we knew we had to get over to the stairwell when it was finished. just as predicted, as the hurricane passes through, and you get that lull, that calm before the back end of the storm hit us then, robin. >> that number could grow. okay, david. thank you. hurricane irma also raced through tampa. t.j. holmes was there for it all. good morning, t.j. >> reporter: officials here this

though we did that in katrina, nobody wanted to talk about that because we were distracted by the superdome you can't move those supplies in a bridge or a highway is out. so they will have to be as a patient as everybody else to move those things in. some stuff can be airlifted, but most of the things have to be moved in across roads and highways. stuart: do you feel somewhat vindicated? you took the blame or a lot of the blame for katrina -- [laughter] you did. the world came down on you, mike brown. how do you feel now? >> well, it did, stuart. and i've got to tell you, what i find fascinating is watching this people talk about the post-katrina reform act. the things that congress did post-katrina were the things that i was saying inside the department of homeland security that you needed to fix or that fema would fail. that these were the things you needed to do or fema would fail. so i think over the years those lessons have been learned, and does it mean vindication for me? that doesn't really matter. what matters is that it works, it does what it's supposed to do, and i'll stand up an

that night in the superdome, mr. president, a young man named steve gleeson became a legend. i know it was just a football game, but he blocked a punt deep in the territory of the saints' opponent, the atlanta falcons, for a touchdown. it was more than just a touchdown. it was a declaration that louisiana was going to come back, that our spirit was not broken. today steve gleason is battling a.l.s. the medical term is amiotr ophic disease. it is a into your neurological e that destroys nerves in the brain and spinal cord. there is no cure. regrettably, mr. president, there is no cure. steve, however, is determined to thrive and help others who have a.l.s. and in the past few weeks, mr. president, we have learned that another louisianan that is well known of baton -- a baton rouge television news anchor donna brett has a.l.s. i will tell you they have true grit through this disease. most of us would probably curl into a fetal position and cry if we were told we had a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is almost always fatal, but not steve and certainly not ms. donna br