hurricane ian shifted its track this, week sparing to nab a direct, it let's bring in alison barber who's on the ground there. it is community tampa bay, and the communities immediately around it and they're gonna wake up and have a sigh of relief, because they were largely spared, it seems, from significant damage with the storm. they knew that the storm had shifted, and was not gonna be a direct hit to tampa that became clear late in the afternoon yesterday. not being, said there was the, cohn those impacts the news impact went beyond, cohn so far everything we've seen the damage to tampa and area around it has been relatively minimal. there were some tense moments overnight, where wind picked up, and rain felt heavy, the retrieves line into peoples houses, as well as powerlines collapsing in the street. and even traffic lights. but all in all, this community, according to the mayor that dodged a bullet, and will be -- move the resources we have here to help other communities, there were not so lucky. >> these resources will definitely need it in other parts. i also want to ask about, t

from this we bring in alison barber who is on the ground right there. alyssa, good morning, give us a sense, do residents feel the they've dodged the worst of the storm now? >> francis there were some very scary moments in the days, hours moments leading up to hurricane ian making landfall. but last night you had the mayor of tampa saying even though it was early in the evening and while she didn't think the impacts of the hurricane had totally cleared out from this area, she felt like tampa bay area dodged a bullet. those were the words that she used. ultimately what we saw happen here is what did happen in the early evening, 5 pm early in the evening. we do feel some intense winds and heavy rain. but all of that fairly quickly seemed to die down, instead sending zeroed simply come. where we are in this county hills berry county, over 200,000 homes and businesses without power. it seems like that pales in comparison as to what other parts of the state are dealing with. ultimately what could we could see here into happens that this becomes a vital first

for more on this, let's bring in alison barber, who is on the ground there. alison, good morning. feel like they've got the worst of the storm? >> yeah, they really do. look, there were some scary moments in and around tampa from street lights falling, collapsing, live wires, electrical power lines down, also trees and other debris falling on some people's homes. but ultimately, the sense here in tampa, and the mayor said it in an interview last night is that they feel like they dodged a bullet here. that certainly cannot be said for other parts of florida. their neighbors further south. but here in this area, what started a few days ago as an incredibly ominous very risky situation for this area changed once the storm started to move. and even the outer bands, so, far it seems like this area has really avoided any significant damage. everyone will get a better sense of it once the sun comes up. we'll be able to see more. but from what we have seen tonight, apart from earlier last night, around 5:00 where there were some heavy winds and a lot of rain, things have really calm down.

. >> all right alison barber in tampa, florida. start signing a sigh of relief, down power lines. be >> especially double digit storm surge as well. all right, in charlotte county on florida's east coast, -- officials warned of severe and threatening storm surge 8 to 10 feet above. here's a public information officer for charlotte county. thank you so much for being with us at this hour. when i ask you about pensacola and there was -- it was slam so hard yesterday and today. what are you hearing about a threat to human life, injuries and damage assessments so far? i know it's early, but what are you hearing? >> we are starting to hear some of the damage coming into. our first responders are off the streets right now and we are just waiting for the winds to subside, so where it's safe for us to go out there. once that happens, we'll hit the streets, we'll have our public words departments there. they can go in and know the main artery, so they will get those clear. our first responders will be right behind them doing assessments, doing search and rescue operations and that's the ty

. >>> joining us is von hilliard, and alison barber in georgia. e been any response from the walker camp about that new ad? >> hersh the walker tweeted earlier today saying this, in part -- i don't need debade topics. i accepted the savannah debate without conditions. let's do this debate for the people. look, we're debating debates here. we have been for a while. let me run sort of the timeline of events. you had herschel walker after he won the republican primary saying on a number of different occasions, he's willing to debade senator war knocks, the incumbent, and would do so at a choosing of the senator's place. senator warnock said he had agreed to three different debates -- one in atlanta, one in macon, one in savannah, georgia. then hersh the walker said he had agreed to a different debate in savannah, georgia, this one hosted by nexstar. they've gone back and forth criticizing each other. today the senator's campaign said we will participate that hershel walker has already agreed for, if you are willing to, one, say you won't accept any to

tunis in the, nbc news correspondent alison barber, who's been in tampa all day. inds, wind gusts, so powerful it pushed water into the gulf of mexico, effectively draining massive amounts of water from the bay. how are things now in tampa? >> it was amazing to see some of those images around that same time we are on the tarmac at tampa international airport. and just getting whipped around by the wind and the rain. you could see it just kind of pelting your face. now the rain is very light and so are the winds. it has been this way for the last couple of hours here in tampa. officials, even the, mayor they have talks about how they feel, in some, ways like the city, this area, might have dodged a bullet, because things have gone in a more positive direction, at least for residents here. that being said, they are still warning people one, that there's a risk of flash flood, and to, you have areas where there are down pieces of debris, the trees. we have seen in neighborhoods, communities not far from here, images of trees collapsing on peoples homes and there also

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for the latest on the race, let's bring in alison barber in emmerson, georgia.s left in the campaign. maybe movement in that debate over whether there will be a debate. what's the latest? >> reporter: yeah, i mean, we are debating debates at this point in georgia. essentially what you've had happen here is remember if you go back to the republican primary, you had a situation where herschel walker did not participate in any primary debates. he said when i asked him about this when i interacted with him around primary election day, he said i'm far ahead of my candidates why would i have done that and asked whether he'd participate in debates he said yes, of course i would. different months in months that followed, weeks and months that followed that he would be willing to participate in a debate wherever, whenever senator warnock wanted to debate. senator warnock said i agreed to participate in three different debates one in atlanta, one in savannah, georgia you had herschel walker on sean hannity agreeing one evening to participate in a different debate in savan

. >> thanks to nbc's alison barber for that report.ek, in american held captive in afghanistan for two years was released, in a prisoner swap. american, mark free rich was freed, an exchange for an afghan warlord, with ties to the taliban, who had been imprisoned in the u.s., on drug trafficking charges, since 2005. friedrich's is a navy veteran, captured, while doing contract work in afghanistan, in 2020. less than a month before the u.s. signed a peace deal with the taliban. just a few days after the deal is reached, the u.s. fully withdrew its troops from afghanistan, it ended the two decade-long war in that country, and the taliban regained control of the country. in the final weeks of that withdrawal, there are a lot of questions about what happened, but it is now the subject of a brand-new hbo documentary, escape from kabul. it goes inside the traumatic, and harrowing last days of the u.s. occupation there, as troops try to evacuate thousands of afghans, who fear for their lives, under taliban rule. >> pushback, pushback! you nee

would be an understatement to say puerto ricans, americans -- here is a portion of what nbc's alison barberrom people simply trying to find water on the side of the road. >> -- we are stop-ing in time. we have nothing from maria. the government doesn't lend nothing from. maria the united states is saving money. we are still the same. >> louise is filling up buckets of water on the side of the highway. from pipes jerry rigged to get rainwater. he is not alone. >> [speaking non-english] officials say most people will have full service and a matter of days. there was without power are not so sure. >> i do not have faith in the government. we have to make our life ourselves. >> they are working together, expecting the worse, but praying for better. >> they join me now from puerto rico. he's a research director at the center for new economy. thank you for being with us. i want to be transparent. we wanted more voices from puerto rico, part of we are contending with, a lot of folks do not have electricity. they are not able to connect to the internet. i'm glad that we are able to get you on. i ha

. >> alison barber, thank you very much for that report. we really appreciate it. us now is nikki, she is florida's commissioner of agriculture and consumer services. that is an elected position in the only democratic -- thank you so much for joining us. i want to go right to your jurisdiction in agriculture. florida is an agriculture state, it has images of having all sorts of other resort aspects in a retirement community, but you have the orange groves there, you have so much agriculture, especially in central florida where this hurricane is headed. what is going to meet for the agricultural industry in florida? >> thanks for having me on today. as you just said, florida is number two in regards to agriculture, second largest driver for a state. we have been monitoring it. it is not just for all commodities, we don't have a lot that has been harvest, but whatever is in the ground right now, we see so much of this hurricane, it is a water event. i was talking to individuals that oversee all of our animals and livestock, transporting them into safe areas. we also

msnbc's alison barber spoke with secretary of transportation. >> we definitely are in a response phase into recovery phase, but we are still having these incidents throughout the island. we have had landslides, road collapse, bridges, so we are still in this emergency response phase. i know that the pictures are sad and we are having these issues, and we do want everybody to stay close to a family and communication if they hand can. we're working through this, and the department of transportation public works, we have staffing who all over the island, opening up the roads and are planning on the recovery part, at least for the emergency part. so there is a lot of things we have to work with. it is definitely a sad time for us, because we have been here before, and we were recovering, and now feels like we're starting all over again. >> alison barbara in pork greco for us. , there is dÉjÀ vu across the island right now, eerily similar to five years ago, where the island was torn apart by hurricane maria. ready in the new york times, quote, puerto rico was unraveling economically politic

. >> leading us off this hour ellison barber in tampa and nbc meteorologist bill karins here to track the storm for us. >> alison, start with you. mandatory evacuations in place for parts of the area. how are people preparing. >> reporter: part of this county under mandatory evacuation odors known at zone a. about 20,000 people. this store where we are home depot in tampa, really all that's left of the hurricane supplies at least right now. batteries and a little bit of lanterns that remain. first here this morning, around 6:00 a.m., there was just an entire floor full of hurricane supplies. we have a gopro video to show you sort of what happened over the next few hows. people came in, came in came in, came in, soon all of those supplies, all of those generators were gone.