i'm jose diaz-balart in bradenton, florida. one day after ian made landfall as a category 4 hurricane. this morning people up and down florida's gulf coast are assess ing the devastation left behind by one of the strongest storms ever to hit the state. president biden has declared florida to be a major disaster, and what is now tropical storm ian continues to move extremely slowly, about 7 miles per hour across the central part of the state. the president and governor ron desantis spoke again this morning and the fema administrator is expected to visit the state tomorrow. strong winds and heavy rain are battering the orlando area as the storm moves its way toward the atlantic ocean. the storm created catastrophic flooding that left entire communities under several feet of water and sent cars and debris floating down streets. take a look at these images. the water was just relentless. crews are still carrying out emergency rescues on land, air and sea. in bonita springs, a group of good samaritans rescued an elderly man stranded

we are here reporting in bradenton, florida, this is bradenton and sarasota are side by side.now a category four storm. it's moving on shore right now, taking aim at the fort myers area just south of tampa bay. take a look at these images. this was fort lauderdale earlier. all the way down in south florida. winds were reaching -- very high winds. the storm itself is now reaching 155 miles per hour and you can see the wind speed, 155. the movement, that's of such concern. the movement is at 9 miles per hour. the wind gusts, 190 miles per hour. and we're here in the bradenton area. you're seeing right behind me, this is sarasota bay. and then behind sarasota bay is the gulf of mexico. we've been experiencing some very, very intense wind gusts and the rain has been nonstop. but, but take a look at that radar image. it's showing you the most intense part of the storm and yet to arrive to florida. it is a potentially life-threatening storm. and as you can see, the eye is hitting right in fort myers. julia ainsley is with us this morning. i want to kind of go over what federal offic

bradenton, a lot of areas without power. yesterday the governor of florida said that there were 42,000 people ready to step in and different -- 30 different locations in the state of florida waiting to immediately come into the area that have suffered power outages as soon as possible. and it's already starting to get possible for areas like sarasota, bradenton when we see strong winds. but certainly not as strong as we were seeing just an hour or so ago. i want to turn to someone who has flown into the eye of the storm. nick, i was struck by video that had gone viral that you put up. and it is something you wrote. when i say this was the roughest flight of my career so far, i mean it. another thing you said, i have never seen so much lightning in the eye of the storm. describe like what you saw and what you experienced. >> yes. so we flew through hurricane ian yesterday morning as it was intensifying up to its peak category four strength. it was the longest eyewall penetration i ever had. i never saw so much lightning in th

on the barrier island west of bradenton south of st. pete.you're riding out the storm. we're showing a map showing where holmes beach is. why did you decide to stay? >> i. >>> -- wasn't going to stay. i evacuate at the same time as the police every time since i've been in office to offer my support. at 9:30 this morning the police decided that the gusts got up to 40 or 45 miles an hour that they decided they would leave and at that time, everything showed that the santa maria was in the clear from that storm surge. that storm surge would have been devastating to the santa maria island. they were talking anywhere between 10 and 15 feet. people couldn't have survived. so i'm very, very, very proud of our residents. i believe we have probably a 95% evacuation. it was a ghost town here. i'm very, very proud of everybody. >> what i think people might not know from the map that we showed, which was rather a large map is that anna marie is on the top of a many peninsula near brthe beach. it looks vulnerable. do you know how many other residents chos

we are in the bradenton area, just north of sarasota. and you can see that the wind is picking up here. this is the bay of sarasota. behind it is the gulf of mexico. we're seeing some movement there of the wind. i'm going to tell you, just coming into where we are in this location, we're already seeing how there are a lot of areas that are boarded up. there are a lot of, quite frankly, homes that don't have any lights in them and no cars, so i would think that a lot of people took heed of the governor's warning and went to places closer inland. there are a lot of centers that have been opened up throughout the state. but especially in the west coast here. and a lot of people are going to it. we just drove up last night from miami and the way up here, on alligator alley, crossing up, and going up 75. you know, we were pretty much the only car heading up north, but there was traffic all the way down south. and i'm worried about areas here in bradenton and sarasota, unta gorda, ft. myers. there are so many areas that are low lying and could

some parts of bradenton did not lose power. i have to tell you, 2.5 million people are still without power at this time here in florida. >> just to orient people, obviously jose bradenton is a little bit south of st. pete, but still in the tampa bay area. the mayor on monday said get out now, issuing that evacuation order. is it your sense covering the story for the last couple of days that most people did, in fact, leave and hopefully the loss of life might be reduced because of it? >> yeah, i don't know if enough people did. i know a lot of people did. we were coming up here, and willie, you're so right, if you go from tampa to st. pete beach, and you start going down from the coastline, you're going to get to bradenton and sarasota. we are coming in here where we are, which is in the bradenton area, just out maybe ten blocks from where we are is a large and a lovely mobile home park, and i've got to tell you, yesterday when we were surveying before the most intense part of the storm hit, there were a lot of people in those h

i'm cnn meteorologist derek van dam from bradenton, florida. >> thank, you derek.unty, just south of the city of naples -- 12 foot storm. search right, now powers out from the 250,000 homes and businesses. a mandatory curfew has been in place for one or two hours now, since 10 pm local time, and will be left by 6 am. -- castro is a commissioner for -- county, he joins us now for on the line from marco island. commissioner, thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me, john. it's been a day. and we've got a lot ahead. of us >> is their -- sense of damage especially caused by that storm surge? >> as italy, and this hurricane was all about storm surge. everybody was kind of focus on where the i was going to land. but as your previous meteorologist will tell you, a lot of people were reporting that whoever was just south of that i, sort of in that dirty part of the storm, was going to get some horrific storm surge. and we got every inch of it. you know, we lived through irma here in 2017. and a lot of storm surge was predicted. but at the last minute, that stor

i want to go to bradenton, florida, now. derek van dam is on the streets. like there, derek? >> reporter: yeah, wolf, it was like this storm was a spinning top on its final approach to the florida peninsula. it spun up, it really started to strengthen near the center. it rapidly intensified and then it pushed its way inland and brought the most intense winds at its peak point and that was the worst-case scenario that we had all feared. the national hurricane center fearing the same thing using the words like catastrophic in the lead-up the to storm and now we are starting to realize those words are coming if you think about a hurricane of this magnitude, you got a tornado, right? those things are 500 yards wide, and their winds are over 110, 111 miles per hour. that would make it an ef3. a hurricane of this magnitude has winds that stretch over 80 miles in diameter, hurricane-force winds. so we literally have an ef2 or an ef3 moving through a large portion slowly crawling through the southwestern florida peninsula as that spinning top that i talked about a

jerry is in bradenton and jeremy the weather center. bill, ace understand you're on lockdown tonight. you ever seen some of the biggest action with the wind and rain. what are you seeing where you are right now? >> well down it's calmed dion. there is a 9:00 curfew in punta gorda including media and a blackout with well over a million customers florida power & light. we saw the back end of the eye of the storm. once the eye passed over we thought we saw pretty stiff winds but the bag end of it we were trying to hold the hotel door shut because the power had gone out and the mag netted i can lock was failing so we were tying cords to keep the door shut. we are lucky to be in a hotel with category 4 windows which were tested but big news the sigh of relief was we didn't see the massive storm surge that was predicted when we woke up this morning. >> i bet you didn't. so, listen. we are since 2:00 where i am, they have been asking people to get off the roads. most people bill have been heeding that warning and doing it officials have said.

we're in the historic district of bradenton.ved into an almost sheltered area so my team can stay somewhat stable during our live shot. that's not the most important thing here. the idea is to pass along to e . we are showing people what they evacuated from. manatee county and further south towards fort myers and pu punta gorda. this is the reason why. these conditions are grueling and it has been a snail's pace with this monster, monster storm that continues to grow in size. you know, as a meteorologist, looking at all the available tools that i have at my disposal including radar imagery and what it's telling me is that this storm is still feeding off of the gulf of mexico right now. we're on more or less the northwestern side of the strongest part taking energy from warm, shallow waters from the gulf of texas and allowing for thunderstorms and intense wind and rain bands to form over manatee county where i'm currently located now. this storm hasn't weakened just yet even though we've had increate mental decreases in the wind.

omar is going to start us off from hard-hit bradenton.arting to hear that people are trapped. >> reporter: the sheriff in naples are telling us their phone lines are flooded with 911 calls of people trapped in their homes by water and the deputies are going out to rescue them. this as the massive storm continues to pound florida's gulf coast. this was fort myers as hurricane ian made land fall this afternoon. what was beach front property now underwater with fears of more catastrophic flooding to come. in 24 hours, these before and after photos showed the worsening conditions. >> so this is going to be a nasty, nasty day, two days, probably we think now it will be exiting the peninsula sometime on thursday. >> reporter: santibel island was among the first to feel the wrath as it came ashore causing major flooding. residence dens here were among the 2.5 million people told to evacuate. some decided to stay. >> we're 15 feet off the ground, so the bottom floor is i believe 12, but we're going to be safe. >> reporter: as ian came on shore, i

cnn chief climate correspondent bill weir is in bradenton, florida. much is the climate crisis to blame for any of this? >> reporter: a lot. mainly the one word you mentioned there. intensification. warm water is hurricane fuel. it's vitamins, steroids to a hurricane and we saw this over the weekend when the typhoon went from 85 miles per hour to 155 in 6 hours. it's unlike anything our team at cnn, the weather unit has seen in their careers. ian started to churn and picking up speed to get stronger eating up that warm water. in bradenton near sarasota. the path seems more vulnerable. we were up north in st. petersburg. we saw the line to get sandbags of ten. that won't be much help. we saw a family at the beach volleyball court using trash bags to use sandbags. we are in that part now. this is not the grand daddy's hurricane. these storms now are stronger and wetter than before. we have the population of florida i think goes up by 900 or 1,000 people a day. putting themselves in this situation some for the first time. this time tomorrow this part of

>> derek, thank you, we appreciate that update there from bradenton, florida. let's go to pedram javaheri, falling all this at the cnn weather center. ian was expected to make landfall in venice, and then around the bradenton area where derek is. now it's around -- , further to the south. why is it keep changing? and what are we expecting right? now >> john, every time we get an update from the national hurricane center, precisely showing exactly what you. said just avoid it further towards the east or the south. and -- atmosphere certainly changed. you'll notice the storm surge threats remain large. and energy now shifted able further to the south. just to show you how things have played out, we're talking about a storm that is a strong category 3, forecast to get up to possibly a category 4 here. maybe 12, 14 hours before landfall. 100 miles or so south of naples at. this hour but the concern is that this comes a short far earlier, far stronger than what was initially estimated here. possibly as early as 1 pm on wednesday afternoon, as maybe late as five or 6

and omar villafranca is going to start us off from hard-hit bradenton. we are starting to hear reports that people are trapped. what can you tell us. >> reporter: good evening, the county sheriff in naples are telling us they are flooded with calls of people trapped in their homes by water. and th deputies are going out to rescue them. that is as the massive storm continues to pound florida's gulf coast. this was this was fort myers as hurricane ian made landfall this afternoon. what was beachfront property, now underwater, with fears of more catastrophic flooding to come. in 24 hours, these before and after photos showed the worsening conditions. >> so this is going to be a nasty, >> so this is going to be a nasty, nasty day, two days. probably we think now it will be exiting the peninsula some time on thursday. >> reporter: sanibel island was among the first to feel ian's wrath as it k5 residents here were among the 2.5 million people told to evacuate. some chose to stay. kyle sweet decided to ride out the storm with his family. >> we're 15 feet off th

i'm cnn meteorologist derek van damme from bradenton, florida.ht well the full extent of damage done by ian remains unknown. it's the middle of the night. with we are now getting an idea of what to expect in its wake. from more jeff buchanan joins us now. he led the u.s. army response to five major hurricanes. thank you for being with us. >> thanks glad to be in your program. john >> you bet. we've heard some people talking about a power grid that needs to be rebuilt in some parts. 12 foot storm surges. multiple rescues, many people trapped in the attic of their homes. from your experience how bad you think this will be in the light of day? >> i do think it'll be bad for the next three or four days. the activities of the first responders during this initial period will be focused on what we call search and rescue. that's really dominated by saving peoples lives. so everything they can do to save lives is gonna be very important. and i would stress to anybody who might be in the area who's listening to this broadcast, please follow the orders of y

speaking of water, it's a problem here in bradenton, because one of the plants is out so the city is urging people to try to conserve water. we are starting to see some severe tree damage but people are indoors. that's the good news. they are riding it outs. norah. >> o'donnell: omar villafranca, thank you very much. ian's hurricane-force winds and record storm surge is dangerous for the millions of residents across florida's west coast and for those covering the monster storm. meteorologist jim cantore from our partners at the weather channel learned that firsthand covering the storm this afternoon in punta gorda. >> reporter: just came flying by. all right, you know, what? i think i'm just going to come in here for a second. just give me a second. >> jim, you all right? >> i'm all right. i'm fine. i'm fine. i just-- you can't stand up. all right. >> o'donnell: well, we're happy to report that jim is okay, and we spoke with him earlier from punta gorda. >> reporter: believe it or not, we are in the dirty eye of ian right now, which is the break between the eastern eyewall that we ju

you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" from bradenton on msnbc. from bradenton on msnbc by asking your healthcare provider if an oral treatment is right for you. oral treatments can be taken at home and must be taken within 5 days from when symptoms first appear. if you have symptoms of covid-19, even if they are mild, don't wait, get tested quickly. if you test positive and are at high risk of severe disease, act fast. ask if an oral treatment is right for you. covid-19 moves fast, and now you can too. ♪♪ ♪ a bunch of dead guys made up work, way back when. ♪ ♪ it's our turn now we'll make it up again. ♪ ♪ we'll build freelance teams with more agility. ♪ ♪ the old way of working is deader than me. ♪ ♪ we'll scale up, and we'll scale down ♪ ♪ before you're six feet underground. ♪ ♪ yes, this is how, this is how we work now. ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> we are going to president biden who is speaking. >> had hurricane ian and its impact it's going to have on our fellow americans in florida. yesterday i spoke with governor ron desantis for some time. my team has been i

derek van dam is in bradenton tonight. and, derek, what are you seeing there?w, erin, we're seeing now the city streets go dark, aside from some generated lights from generators. i'm fearful for people tonight in the central portions of the florida peninsula with what they're going to experience as we are plunged into darkness. i think over 1.5 million customers are now without power. and that number is going to continue to climb as these ferocious, dare i say, violent winds continue to just batter this area. i know the eye has moved inland, but it still feels like the storm is feeding off the warm waters of the gulf of mexico, giving it some energy. because the eye is east of us now. it should be relaxed in these winds, but it has been relentless. maybe it's the slow nature of this storm. think about what it did when upon its arrival, another rapid intensification at the worst time possible, spinning itself up like a top and then releasing its energy in the form of cat 4 winds over 150 miles per hour. just an incredible gruesome and grueling day for the people

. >>> joining us is the mayor of bradenton, florida. your city is in a really extremely dangerous area, obviously. are you confident with the residents that they heeded warnings and have evacuated, sought safety and shelter? >> thank you for having us. we believe that everybody is where they need to be, hunkered down. we have to ride out the storm. it's going to be wind. we are going to get as direct a hit as we first thought. the wind, flooding, we don't want people to get complacent and think it's over in the next 24 hours and go out. our team is ready here in the city and the county as we work with them. we have our teams ready as soon as the storm is over to get out and clean the roads and get things back to normal. >> talk to me about the storm surge, what you are expecting in flooding. >> they talked at one point up to 12, 14 feet. right now, we are seeing our rivers are low because of the water being sucked out the way the storm is going. then it's going to come back. we definitely hope people will heed that and not get out there

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you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" from bradenton, florida. ok, so what exactly does it mean for you? out of pocket costs for drugs will be capped. for seniors, insulin will be just $35. families will save $2,400 on health care premiums. energy costs, down an average of $1,800 a year for families. and it's paid for by making the biggest corporations pay what they owe. president biden's bill doesn't fix everything, but it will save your family money. kevin: i've fought wildfires for twenty years. but it will here's the reality we face every day. this is a crisis. we need more firefighters, more equipment, better forest management to prevent wildfires and reduce toxic smoke. and we need to reduce the tailpipe emissions that are driving changes to our climate. that's why cal fire firefighters, the american lung association, and the california democratic party support prop 30. prevent fires. cut emissions. and cleaner air. yes on 30. >> i got to go home and feed my husband and clean him up and start my day as a caregiver, take my trusty flashlight

. >>> let's get perspective from mayor dean brown, the mayor of b bradenton, florida. mr. mayor, grateful for your time. you heard chad myers talk. you talk to your emergency management team. what are you being told to expect today compared to maybe earlier today or yesterday? >> thanks for having me. at 9:00 this morning the track had it coming right towards us. it's continued to shift to the south. we're still taking this very seriously. we want all of our citizens to continue to prepare, prepare, prepare because complacency might end up hurting us in the long haul. what we want to do is just keep track of it and tell all of our citizens to stay safe, hunker down and do what's told when you have to be evacuated or go to the shelters. >> obviously, you're in a very low lying area what are you being told is the greatest threat? storm surge, wind, rain? all of the above? >> all of the above. when you know, depending on what side of the storm you're on -- if you're on the south side, you'll get a lot more surge. if you're on the north side, you might not get as much, just so

. ♪♪ >>> we're back in bradenton. i want to bring in andrew sullivan.is with the oceola fire rescue. what you have heard as far as tornadoes touching down. describe what you've been dealing with the last 24 hours. good morning. thank you for having me on. yeah, my day started actually yesterday at 5:00 a.m. my wakeup call was a tornado warning for the southern part of oceola county. so spreading that word and getting safety information out is the last 24 hours for me. our emergency operation center here has been activated at a level 1 since yesterday morning. so we've had a full day of response to this storm. we're thankful to see it start to dissipate somewhat. i think it's just hanging ton a category one status right now. so thankfully those heavy winds and damaging winds weren't as much of a factor in osceola. but we are still going to face serious flooding as this goes on. we're waiting for, you know, day break to happen. that's the main threat to us. so tell us a little bit about osceola county. what kind of industry, what kind of structures, tell

barrelling into florida in br bradenton, south of florida.mers exploding? >> reporter: erica, yeah. that happened moments ago. just directly behind us. the transformers blew out, knocking out communication to some of my team. some of the lights flashing and also some of the familiar sounds of a hurricane. we've done this so many times. the alarms inside of the buildings surrounding this particular area. we are on the verge of a historic landfall here in the western coastline of the florida peninsula and we are currently in an ongoing disaster. the winds here are gusting hurricane force and it is, we know where the storm is going. i want to talk about what's happening at the manatee river, just over my left shoulder. it's too dangerous for us to go to that location. brian todd is about 40 miles to my north in tampa bay. he saw a negative surge. the water pushing out from the strong, powerful, northeasterly winds. that same thing happened here on the manatee river just over my shoulder because of that incredible force of the wind. but just to t

>> between naples and bradenton we are closed and we have a couple -- many open around tampa as well.n. stuart: what is your insurance position like? >> our insurance, all of us out here trying to take care of everybody. stuart: good for you. we are self insured. stuart: we got it. thanks for being with us. congratulations on being a man with the index in the middle of a hurricane, not sure if that is good or bad but good to have you on the show. >> thank you. stuart: tough it out. still had. the governor of new hampshire, chris sununu, martha maccallum and four times general jack keane all coming up. in in 1970s, stocks went nowhere. i know because i with you. dead flat for a decade. problems back then similar to what we have now, inflation, rising rates. hard to see what will get us out of this mess. that is "my take". we will get into it after this. ♪ ♪ another busy day? of course - you're a cio in 2022. but you're ready. because you've got the next generation in global secure networking from comcast business. with fully integrated security solutions all in one place. so you're cov

sarasota, bradenton. this is coming through and weakens significantly and also moves to a less populated area. should be a hurricane this evening or overnight. >> wow. okay. keeping an eye on it. thank you. we appreciate it. carlos is also watching the storm for us in tampa. and carlos, tom was talking about this. if this heads to tampa a storm of this size as it looks like right now in the forecast that could be big, big trouble for that area. >> reporter: yeah. that would present a huge problem for this part of the state in large part because of the bay that sounds this part of florida and then the panhandle. in anticipation and the preparation of the track city of tampa opened free sand distribution sites. the mayor of tampa echoed the governor today that folks across florida need to be prepared now. florida governor desantis said the florida national guard is put on stand by and the entire state is under a disaster emergency declaration and folks need to make sure they have everything they need. >> ma

we are in bradenton.are using vehicles, seeking higher ground, into safer shelter as well. sweat spoke on a woman at the harbor, which is not safe for us at the moment, but the water is exiting the manatee river in anticipation of the storm surge that will move into this particular location. the water level has come down that the keel of her boat is literally visible from the bottom of her boat. i want to stress this. this storm is coming in, and it is very likely this will be our next billion dollar disaster in the united states. the ver rossity of this storm, what it has, just literally from a meteorology ial perspective. we've been around the block, john. we know this. this territory is dangerous, and for anybody who decided to ride out the storm, it is time to be in your safe plate. right now minutes matter. this storm is coming, john? no question about that derek van damme, with the storm surge where you have in south, like nothing they have ever see. in the hillsborough river, it's going out into ta

it would be horrible news for anyone who lives south of here in bradenton, venice, down to fort myers. western lee county which is sanibel, they have ordered evacuations of more than 250,000 people. there will be huge impacts be on the surge, tornadoes, 15 to 25 inches of rain. we are all over it here. reggie: that was really helpful. i feel like i understand more what is happening. what are you saying on the ground? ginger: good. reggie: floridians are used to having tropical storms and hurricanes, but how are they reacting? ginger: i would say in tampa, because they have had a century since they've seen anything like this, there is a mix of would say appropriate preparation and evacuation. a lot of folks still saying, let's wait and see, because they have not had it. there are even some pirate old wives tales i've heard so kind of a mixture. down at the shore, anywhere at the beaches i think they take that seriously because they have major erosion problems here. we shot a story in sunset beach a month ago and we are talking about the worst case scenario where the beaches fully erode

i'm cnn meteorologist derek van damme from bradenton, florida. >> as we've been valued parts of floridaing a long difficult recovery after one of the most destructive storms in the state's history, a report from hard-hit and naples is ahead. we have new information aboua possible russianole in the we're hearing russian navy ships were in factn the area around the time when the leaks began. that is ahead. >> this is gonna be one of those historic storms and it is going to really shape the communities in southwest florida and have a profound impact on our state. we just as people for their thoughts and prayers. >> florida's governor there commenting earlier on historic nature of hurricane ian in the lasting impact it will have. downgraded now to category one it is still a powerful storm that will exit florida in the coming hours the forecast calls for it to make a second landfall along the southeastern u.s. coast with north carolina being the latest post hurricane watches and warnings are along the carolinas, it includes georgia. florida is no stranger to destructive hurricanes, but ian i

the wind will be whipping up to venice, sarasota, bradenton. if it does, it will be one of five storms in recorded history that have been at 155 plus at landfall. we'll be watching ian throughout the day. amy? >> ginger, we know you are a veteran at covering these storms and know you will be staying safe and we'll check in with you and the rest of the team all morning long from florida. george? >>> we'll get the latest on a young woman seriously injured when police handcuffed her inside a cruiser parked on railroad tracks and we saw that disturbing video when the train slams into the vehicle. t.j. here with details. good morning, t.j. >> george, you see this video. it's terrifying for us to just watch. imagine how terrifying it was to be in that vehicle. more terrifying still to be in, screaming. the train is coming towards you and you can do nothing about it. that's the position she was in. she survived but now investigations are under way. lawsuits being filed, and officers on leave. the question being asked, how in the world could this happe

meteorologist are tracking the storms for us, tom, seders in the senior weather center, derek madam, is in bradenton, florida. good evening to both gentlemen. tom, i want to speak with you first in new storm forecast is just coming out. what is the latest on hurricane ian? >> the latest advisory tells us this. this is a major hurricane. we know that. it is going to expand into its size. in the last advisory we had now have a center 110 miles southwest of naples. it begins to move at ten miles an hour, it's been moving at the speed all day long. even yesterday, it was a much stronger in cuba. they've had massive flooding, in western cuba, without power in havana, we've got our first hurricane gusts now being reported in key west. a couple of significant things to talk about. this eye is collapsing. which means it's undergoing some restructuring. it's an eyewall replacement cycle which means each time it does that the winds expand outward. now right now, the winds have not changed. hurricane-force winds extend outward 40 miles each direction. that's an 80 mile a wild swath of hurricane winds. tropical

. >> ainsley: terri, one of our viewers, her loved one was in a nursing home in bradenton and she wasng, where do we send her. if you don't have family around but your mother-in-law or someone in your family is in a nursing home, where would they go? >> that's a great question because many areas around the state of florida are opening up their hurricane shelters. i know that we did here in the city of key west last night at 5:00. we opened up the key west high school, and that's primarily for the special needs individuals in the city of key west and also we will a situation where we have a number of live-aboards, with the affordable housing crisis people are living on boats and so we were very concerned about them being out on the water in a tropical storm condition. >> steve: as we look at the swirl of ian, we know it is expected to pass to the west of us. mayor, thank you very much for joining us live and telling us how the people of key west are hunkering down. >> appreciate that, and our best wishes and prayers go out to the people in central florida and particularly in the tampa

some of the most beautiful beaches in the area, bradenton, venice, anna maria island. these routinely make some of the top 20 beaches in the world. they're all in this neck of the wood. of course cape coral along with pine island and fort myers itself, the target, ground zero if you will for all of this. as this has been building, people have been losing power, even without the storm formally hitting the area here. of course we have got the eyewall of the hurricane coming onshore. that was about 40 minutes ago but the kablooy, if you will just about an hour 45 minutes away. they're following this very closely, particularly my next guest. melissa sacey, i'm hoping that, duke energy florida state president. i'm told a lot of folks already without power. but you're making preparations dealing with what you can. what can you tell us? >> yes, good afternoon. thank you for having me. we have been preparing over the last several days and as of today noon, we had about 10,000 customers that had been without power and we've restored almost 16,000. so we're absolute beginning to

it would be down toward bradenton or sarasota, it could be a mess. so big discrepancies still, but this will be the first hurricane to really make landfall in the mainland u.s. we have a couple scenarios and we'll have to watch them all for the next couple days. but it won't take much longer. >> glad you're on top of it. and i want to go to carlos suarez in tampa. tom was mentioning where you are, the city is in the storm's path potentially and one forecast model. are they preparing at this point, maybe they are so battle hardened i suppose that they wait a little longer until it gets closer, but i suppose they need to start getting ready. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. folks across the state of florida, they are really keeping a close eye on the latest track. yesterday's forecast had the storm moving a bit further west of tampa here, but then this morning's forecast had it moving a little bit closer east. and so that has left a large number of folks across much of the state getting ready for some sort of impact with regards to ian. now, here in ta

i'm jose diaz-balart in bradenton, florida.a category 4 hurricane. this morning people up and down florida's gulf coast are assess ing the devastation left behind by one of the strongest storms ever to hit the state. president biden has declared florida to be a major disaster, and what is now tropical storm ian continues to move extremely slowly, about 7 miles per hour across the central part of the state. the president and governor ron desantis spoke again this morning and the fema administrator is expected to visit the sta

resumed with tim tullis, who lives in the sarasota bradenton area when hurricane ian was less than 40 miles away, just beyond the hurricanes, core strength we just industry and in, uh, shatter resistant windows, so we're very comfortable with that. we have not lost power shortly after this interview, mr tell us lost power and internet . they're telling us that we're far enough away that we will certainly see tropical force. yeah hurricane force is live in tampa less than 150 yards from tampa bay. and just a few feet above sea level. i was terrified , and i really felt that we needed to get anything of value out of here because i didn't know whether we were gonna come back and find anything or not old oaks all over the neighborhood and high winds all around a lengthy power failure is of great concern. we have a couple of coolers with some dry ice in them sitting just in case we lose power so we can offload some of the stuff from the free these are in the fridge. not even considering the other parts of florida. just wear hurricane made landfall in a place with 500,000 people. 30 to $50

i want you to listen now to the head of the sarasota bradenton international airport.was on the roof, able to see the roof from his office when some of the roof just came clear off. he said it peeled off like a piece of paper. that is when a rush of water came into the terminal there and he said that workers scrambled in to help. even some off-duty firefighters to try to clean things up so the airport could get reopened once again. >> it was a little scary, because of what happened. that, you know, i knew right away that we were going to get a lot of water damage and the fact is that i knew that the storm still had a good 12 hours to go, with a lot of rain. >> just check flight aware. we've seen about 1,700 flight cancellations so far today. yesterday, take that back, wednesday was the worst day for flight cancellations we have seen in the last six months. this all means that since wednesday, we've seen more than 5,000 flight cancellations in total. there's the number, 5920. we're just shy of 6,000 flight cancellations in the u.s. because of the storm since wednesday.

joe is on the line from bradenton, florida. how confident are you in the supreme court?aller: very confident, 100%. host: what makes you so? caller: ok, let me speak my mind and i will tell you. i have a lot of confidence on the supreme court. the far right conservatives, they will vote against roe v. wade, they will vote against voting rights, they will vote against civil rights. i mean, on sunday, pedro asked the question, what do you think about maga? well, when i hear that word maga, i hear the word insurrectionist traitors. i hear the word confederate traitors, the word fascist, the word adolf hitler. i mean, there's a lot of words. putin is a good example. putin. hey leader from north korea is another good example -- a leader from north korea is another good example. we're talking about dictators. and trump wants to be one of those. and let's make sure trump will not be a dictator. host: you mentioned these political figures, nationally and internationally. do you think that the u.s. supreme court has become more politicized? caller: i mean, sir, come on, the judge

>>> and then later steve kornacki kicking off a big nfl weekend, already talking super bowl, and bradenton

this is joe and bradenton, florida.his assessment that the supreme court is an activist court, what do you think? caller: i agree with the first female president in the future. she supports women's rights and she supports roe v. wade. she supports voting rights. she supports human rights. she protects democracy and women. when i say she sports democracy -- supports democracy, she is against trump and he is a hitler-wannabe. he is a dictator want to be -- wannabe. the rich do not pay not even a penny when we are minimum-wage workers or middle class and pay more taxes than the wealthy. no wonder they are wealthy. they do not pay not even a penny. insane. host: joe and florida. this is cindy in connecticut on that line for those who disagree with the vice president's assessment. caller: host: host: hello. go ahead and turn down your tv and go on with your comment. caller: i do disagree. i agree with the caller about merrick garland, but that does not have anything to do with what is going on now, but i feel like this is al

. >> let's get to jose balard in bradenton. how are conditions now in your area >> reporter: boy, they have changed just in the last hour, i would say. i mean, when we were up and around two hours ago, the winds were still very, very strong that rain that had been insistent is now over. we're getting some bands of wind, but, boy, things have changed here in the west coast, where we are in bradenton-sarasota area enormously the wind speed is down to 55 miles an hour. the movement is still extremely slow, 7 miles an hour, but it is now a tropical storm tampa appears to have been spared the worst of ian. it had initially, as you said, been forecast to hit possibly the city head-on, but ian ultimately shifted eastward before making landfall i want to bring in morgan chesky in tampa what is the situation where you are? it seems as though for a lot of places, but tampa specifically, their fears that it coulgo directly to them, well, they were, you know, they were lucky. >> yeah, you're absolutely right. so many people in tampa though

. >>> this is nbc "nightly news" with lester holt, reporting tonight from bradenton, florida. >> good evening, everyone, from the southwest coast of florida where we are still being buffeted by hurricane ian, just hours after the eye of the storm made its much dreaded landfall south of us this afternoon. blasting ashore near cayoosta, winds at near 150 miles per hour. a major category 4 storm, now tied for the fifth strongest hurricane in u.s. history. and continuing to sow damage as we come on the air. a jaw-dropping storm surge still sweeping ashore. officials say it is peaking, leaving waters flooded in naples, inundating homes and cars. new damage pictures from the storm testifying to its strength. power outages affecting more than a million customers, but its american landfall just the beginning of ian's strike on florida. the now slightly weakened storm marching towards florida's east coast where massive rain could spell the next leg of this long-play disaster. hurricane ian barreling ashore midday as a catastrophic category 4 storm near cayo costa, florida. 155-mile-per-hour wi