rob gould, good luck to you. good luck to the 16,000 restoration workers who are going to have a big job ahead of them. we appreciate it. >>> let's go back to msnbc's phillip menia who is in ft. lauderdale. how are things looking since we talked an hour ago? >> reporter: well, the weather conditions here have deteriorated. it's doing so rapidly. there were gusts of wind that were just blinding for a long time, but i want to show you something that we noticed just in the last few minutes here. that parking lot behind me that was full of cars and -- when we started just a couple of hours ago, we can see the pavement and now there are vehicles where their tires are halfway covered in water. and to the right there's a concrete barrier where they have -- not barrier, but containment for trash bins usually. that is all filling up. and that is a blast of wind and rain that we got. and that is a big concern out here is the wind and the rain that has picked up. we had been seeing it in bands but those bands are becoming -

countless evacuees are eager to return home, authorities are calling for patience - and caution rob gouldlorida power & light: "if you are out and about, especially at night, especially with all this flooded water, there could be a line that you don't know is there. it might not even be moving and if you step on it, it could be energized and that could be fatal."natsas a weakened irma fans out across the eastern u-s -- its impact being felt across nine states, including georgia -- where a million customers are without power.so far at least eight u-s deaths are being blamed on the hurricane and its aftermath.that's in addition to at least 36 people killed when irma tore through the caribbean as a category five hurricane. (grant) now to our four zone forecast... as we take this live look outside at the embarcadero... joining us embarcadero...outside at the live look we take this forecast... as four zone now to our (grant) (grant) now to our four zone forecast... as we take this live look outside at the embarcadero... joining us now is chief meteorologist brittney shipp... another round of s

rob gould, florida power and light company is with us. rob you look at this, troubles they're having getting power back on. it could be we're told in some places up to months. how is that possible? >> well, you know, to be honest we've been so focused on our restoration but to have a storm of that magnitude hit the islands and affect the grid, it is just, mother nature is a humbling force and, it is something that we know all too well what we had to to through. we've been very fortunate here because we spent roughly $3 billion over the past decade hardening our grid. within the first basically, first day of the storm with it still on us, in the northern florida portion of our territory, we had already restored one million customers. that is largely due to automation. so we're at a point now, we're now in dade county, we're virtually 100%. we're almost on. neil: that is amazing. that is amazing. one of the things i heard, puerto rico like florida, built up more stronger hurricane resistant buildings, not to the degree florida did. but what

rob gould, good luck to you. good luck to the 16,000 restoration workers who are going to have a big job ahead of them. we appreciate it. >>> let's go back to msnbc's phillip menia who is in ft. lauderdale. how are things looking since we talked an hour ago? >> reporter: well, the weather conditions here have deteriorated. it's doing so rapidly. there were gusts of wind that were just blinding for a long time, but i want to show you something that we noticed just in the last few minutes here. that parking lot behind me that was full of cars and -- when we started just a couple of hours ago, we can see the pavement and now there are vehicles where their tires are halfway covered in water. and to the right there's a concrete barrier where they have -- not barrier, but containment for trash bins usually. that is all filling up. and that is a development we just noticed after this latest blast of wind and rain that we got. and that is a big concern out here is the wind and the rain that has picked up. we had been see

. >> we're heard from rob gould from the commission over there it could takes en or 11 days for the western part of the state to have power. they are doing better on the eastern side. by this weekend. at one point, parts of the town of naples were under water for at least four feet of water. some predictions were much higher. they have a higher storm surge. did naples escape the worst of it? >> you have to think so. that was one of the things and we were here in the 24 hours before the storm. you got that sense that people were number one moving away from the coast. there was mandatory evacuations and we spent time in marco island, about a 20 or 30 minute drive south of where we are. those folks were really preparing for the 10 to 15-foot storm surge and the police chief said yesterday that they really only saw to four feet. that's welcome news. on that particular island, one of the dramatic thing they saw is a lot of single family homes, the water was creeping up and came within six or seven inches of flooding many homes on the island. since that surge didn't quite reach where it was predi

according to "the new york times," rob gould said at a news conference on wednesday that when the company met in march with broward county officials to discuss hurricane preparations, the officials had not flagged the nursing home as a top tier critical infrastructure that would need power first. so they're basically saying when they were doing the preparations, they never said this was a critical facility, so it's not our fault we didn't respond immediately. >> and sadly in cases like this, you see this happen. you see all of the entities that potentially have liability pointing the finger at each other. and, again, when civil lawsuits are filed, when the discovery process begins, we'll get more of the facts. ultimately if these cases go to trial, jurors will have to decide who is ultimately responsible. but i can't help but get back to that nursing facility because, again, if you take your loved one to a nursing facility, your understanding, your belief, your reasonable expectation is that they will take all the necessary precautions to prevent your loved one from being subjected to, yo

joining us now, chief of communications, rob gould is with us.you go back to the last hurricane, there was a lot of damage to the nuclear site. and i guess my main question is, this is such an important issue. how safe are those sites? are they able to sustain 160 mile-per-hour winds on the coast? >> yes, sean. let me set the record straight. there really was no damage to the site at all. just south of miami, the actual nuclear facility itself was not damaged. the eye of it stored went right overhead. a cat 5 hurricane andrew in there was no damage to the nuclear facilities. nuclear facilities are the strongest in the world as far as construction. we are talking about 6'6" concrete surrounding the integrity. you have redundancy upon redundancy upon redundancy after that. again, if you go back to the fact that we had and i go directly over hurricane andrew in 1992, go over the site of hurricane andrew and had no damage to the facility itself, i would add in 2004, st. lucie site up north of west palm beach, we had a hurricane and jeanne overhead an

rob gould/vp & chief communications officer, florida power & light: "certainly there were pockets ofadic activity, severe flooding and other debris that we - you know, cause issues. that may delay restoration. but on the west coast we would expect to have essentially all restoration complete by next friday."farther north, floridians are dealing with flooded homes and roadways. jacksonville is still recovering from record- breaking storm surge - with more than 300 people rescued in the city alone. mayor lenny curry/jacksonville, fl: "we have no reported casualties as a result of the storm, that we're aware of at this time. so yeah, i'm incredibly grateful."and florida isn't the only state impacted by the massive storm. residents in georgia and the carolinas faced torrential rainfall and deadly floods of their own. in jacksonville, florida, i'm natasha chen. ( pam ) meanwhile... the situation in the caribbean remains dire ... nearly a week after irma hit. this is the island of tortola... which is part of the british virgin island chain. you can see the devastation at this marina. peopl

now, come on in, rob gould, he's the vice president of florida power and light.ulous interview, let's do something serious here. you're in charge of restoring power to florida. which part of florida -- where do you start? who gets the juice back first? >> well, we actually are making progress, and it really depends on where you live in the state of florida. let's just take it right down the middle of the state. to the eastern part of florida, the east coast service territory -- and we run from the georgia line all the way down toward the tip of the keys and come around up toward tampa. we expect that we'll have all customers essentially restore by the end of this coming weekend for that eastern portion, the eastern seaboard portion. the western portion which we know took a much harder hit, what we're saying is we expect to have all customers essentially restored there by the end of day on the 22nd of september. so it's a long restoration, but we've been getting out there, we've been getting a good sense of the damage, and now we are, we're able to put a little bi