with us now is ken welch, mayor of st. petersburg, florida, which is about 45 miles north of where milton came ashore tonight. thank you for being here. i know sis a busy and hectic and chaotic time for you. we really appreciate your time. what can you tell us about what you're seeing in st. pete? >> well, alex, we were blessed this storm isn't hit 50 miles north of where it did. we werehe looking at 15 feet of storm surge, catastrophic winds, and looking down the barrel of that gun for 24 hours kind of wears a community down. we're not out of that yet. we still have really high winds, and of course we are coming off just two weeks ago hurricane helene and still trying to recover from that. but i think this storm opened a lot of eyes. we had much better response from our community, and we asked about st. pete and pinellas county to evacuate, and we think overall they were very responsive to that. this is just an example of our new normal as storms are becoming more powerful and moving more quickly and really testing our in

with us is ken welch, the mayor of st. petersburg, florida, 45 miles north of where hurricane milton came ashore tonight. thank you for being here, i notice a busy, hectic and chaotic time, we really appreciate your time. what can you tell us about what you're seeing at st. pete? >> alex, we were blessed that the storm did not hit 50 miles north of where it did, we were looking at 15 feet of storm surge, catastrophic wins and looking down the barrel of the gun 24 hours where's the community down. we are not out of that yet, we still have really high winds and we are coming off of just two weeks ago, hurricane helene and still trying to recover from that. i think the storm opened a lot of eyes, much better response from our community and we asked a half million people in st. pete and pinellas county to evacuate. we think that overall, they were very responsive to that. this is an example of our new normal, the storms are becoming more powerful, moving more quickly and really testing our infrastructure. >> can we talk about

with us is ken welch, mayor of st. petersburg, florida, 45 miles north of where hurricane milton came ashore tonight. thank you for being here, i notice a busy and hectic and chaotic time, we really up appreciate your time. what can you tell us about what you're seeing saint pete? >> we are blessed the storm did not hit 50 miles north of where it did. we were looking at 15 feet of storm surge, catastrophic wins, looking down the barrel of that gun 24 hours where's the community down. we are not out of that yet, really high winds and we are coming off of two weeks ago, hurricane helene and still trying to recover from that. i think the storm opened a lot of eyes, much better response from our community and we asked about half 1 million people in saint pete and pinellas county to evacuate, overall, we think that they were responsive to that. this is an example of the new normal as our storms are becoming more powerful, moving more quickly, really testing our infrastructure. >> can we talk about that because of the one-tw

mayor ken welch, thank you for your time.ave not been able to leave? we have not left or have not been able to leave? ~ , , , to leave? we wish them the best. clearwater — to leave? we wish them the best. clearwater is a _ to leave? we wish them the best. clearwater is a sister— to leave? we wish them the best. clearwater is a sister city - to leave? we wish them the best. clearwater is a sister city about i to leave? we wish them the best. | clearwater is a sister city about 20 miles north of my city st petersburg, but throughout the county we have issued evacuation orders in levels a and b and c because of the threat of a storm surge, we have asked people to either leave their city or their county or go tens of miles, not hundreds of miles, to a high safe ground and people have really responded to that. about a million people in the evacuation, those affected about 500,000 people, and most of the people that have heeded the warnings, we have had a very impactful hurricane hurricane helene that showed the power of even six f

amna: that is mayor ken welch of st. petersburg florida. , mr. mayor, please stay safe. pe you stay well. mayor welch: thank you. ♪ amna: we begin the day's other headlines in gaza where israeli strikes on the center and north of the territory have killed dozens of people. one of the attacks struck a hospital in a gaza refugee camp where palestinian officials say at least nine people were killed , including women and children. today, president biden and prime minister benjamin netanyahu spoke by phone for the first time in seven weeks. vice president harris also took part. the white house called that 30 minute call productive and direct, and said the u.s. remains supportive of israel as it weighs how to respond to a recent missile attack from iran. >> i think what you have seen from this administration is the continued support of israel's security. you saw that over the past couple of days, past couple of weeks, when iran attacked israel. the president directed his military to protect israel. he was proud to be able to do that and that support continues. amna: on the iran

mayor ken welch said that he knew the condo cranes would be a problem as these hurricane force windse through the area. and yes, we did see that crane come toppling down overnight. no one was injured in that and read apple real estate group. the developer says that they are working with city officials as they assess the damage. but pinellas county very much in the danger zone. the sheriff blocking off all access to the county this morning, citing downed power lines, flooded roadways, saying it's just really not safe for anyone to drive through. they are responding to emergencies and they really need to make sure that they have access to the roads. we will have many more updates from the city of st. petersburg at the same time. they're also responding to a water main break that has caused so much damage that it has shut down water throughout the city. we also understand that lealman and gulfport are without water and sewer. so a lot happening here. they're asking everyone to stay off the roads as much as possible. we'll keep you updated every step of the way reporting in saint pete le

mayor ken welch said that he knew the condo cranes would be a problem as these hurricane force winds tore through the area. and yes, we did see that crane come toppling down overnight. no one was injured in that and read apple real estate group. the developer says that they are working with city officials as they assess the damage. but pinellas county very much in the danger zone. the sheriff blocking off all access to the county this morning, citing downed power lines, flooded roadways, saying it's just really not safe for anyone to drive through. they are responding to emergencies and they really need to make sure that they have access to the roads. we will have many more updates from the city of st. petersburg at the same time. they're also responding to a water main break that has caused so much damage that it has shut down water throughout the city. we also understand that lealman and gulfport are without water and sewer. so a lot happening here. they're asking everyone to stay off the roads as much as possible. we'll keep you updated every step of the way reporting in saint pet

. >> mayor jane castor and mayor ken welch of st.urg, have all of the local partners have been outstanding? >> they i mean, they fire rescue and the police department and the coast guard i just went through thousands of water rescues. >> so they folks understand how dangerous this is going to be because they say the surge is going to be higher than hurricane helene of the partnership with the federal, state, and local level, notwithstanding all of this misinformation that has been exemplary i want to talk about the misinformation in a second, but before we do president biden is pushing congress to approve more hurricane relief aid the speaker of the house, mike johnson so far is resisting calls to bring congress back before election day. here's how speaker johnson explain to take a listen we'll be back in session immediately after the election. that's 30 days from now the thing about these hurricanes and disasters of this magnitude is it takes a while to calculate the actual damages and the states are going to need some time to do th