>> steve patterson with that air mystery near seattle steve, thank you >>> we head overseas now to the united kingdom and its new prime minister liz truss will replace boris johnson after he announced his resignation in july. the new pm formally meets with the queen tomorrow but in a way that breaks years of tradition. keir simmons explains. >> reporter: chosen as britain's third female prime minister today, tonight liz truss is being compared to margaret thatcher, facing inflation, strikes and a recession and promising tax cuts >> we will deliver, we will deliver, we will deliver. >> reporter: soon to be former prime minister boris johnson tweeting congratulations. his scandal-ridden tenure ending with a long good-bye this summer with stunts like flying in a fighter jet. now liz truss looking at a long, hard winter with skyrocketing energy bills, fueled by the war in ukraine. she may need billions just to stop british businesses like pubs from going broke all this as the nation's queen is increasingly frail, unable to make it to london because of mobility issues. for 70 years prime mi

steve patterson is surveying the damage in fort myers beach. steve, last time i checked more than 400,000 people were without power in lee county where you are. what's the situation and, my goodness, it looks terrible behind you. >> reporter: he can't hear us. we have some technical difficulties, which is actually surprising wit don't have more given the situation on the ground. our thanks to kathy and steve. we'll get back to steve if we're able to reconnect with him. let's bring in meteorologist samara theodore, who is tracking the storm for us. >> right now, we are talking about landfall. and at the moment, it's getting a little muddy as far as the eye is concerned. so it will be interesting in the next hour or two to see if we have an official landfall. regardless, we're getting that landfall type of impact. so is out towards charleston where you just saw in the live shot, that's where the heaviest rain is coming down. they actually have an outflow pushing through. a lot of the water is pushing outward. you head up the coast in georgetown an

our friend steve patterson takes us inside the mysterious world and natural habitat of art moore.n live! and now here are your holiday hosts, kelly ripa and ryan seacrest. [cheering] ♪♪ well. [cheering] all right. well, i can't believe i'm saying it, but i am. and i am. it's monday, september 5th, 2022.

nbc news has more from steve patterson. we'll start in california.refighters working to contain the fires we knew the threat was increasing after the storms last week any progress being made so far >> reporter: yeah, 11 fires burning in california. 18 across oregon and washington state. overall 92 large active wildfires burning across the country, covering more than 720,000 acres. fire season here in full effect. stoked by the incredible heat wave over last week. spreading across the driest vegetation, really the west has ever seen because of this mega drought that we're in, fanning the storms, coming with that tropical storm also the region hit hard by that, as well. now firefighters battling across multiple state lines luckily the storm brought rain and much cooler temperatures, but it also caused winds to sort of fan the flames out. the one fire fairview nearing 30,000 we got auw e people therg with the rain, the flooding? how's the city responding to it? >> reporter: yeah, worst flooding the city has seen in two years. the city getting six inches

nbc's steve patterson is live this afternoon steve, another round of triple digit heat >> reporter: it is 102 degrees here in los angeles. i can tell you from experience, it has been about this way for the last few hours and right now, right as we come on air, we are entering our eighth straight flex alert exactly as you described between 4:00 and 10:00 p.m. when the grid is vulnerable messages telling people to conserve as much energy as they can. last night, as said, california heeded that call we saved 2,600 megawatts we broke 52,000 megawatts last night. that is the most california has ever used in state history as you said, it is not over. we are expected to reach 51,000 meg megawatts in the next few hours. that could happen again on thursday and friday. this crisis may now stretch into the weekend. it is fuelling so many problems. including the wildfires. there are 4,000 firefighters on the frontlines of more than a dozen major fights that's just the major fires. there are dozens more if you count every brush fire that cropped up since sunday. when we started day, it was 2,500 ac

steve patterson joins me now. steve, it's going to be 90 degree temperatures in l.a.ure is that putting on the power grid? >> reporter: tremendous amount of pressure. but first, let's talk about how it's fuelling the fires. firefighters in northern california have their hands full near the oregon border. firefighters are contenting with two separate fires just a few miles apart. that mill fire started friday and moved very quickly. the same pattern we've been seeing since this climate crisis started. it started in a neighborhood, so instead of taking free after free, it was home after home. more than 100 structures burned, at least 1,000 people displaced. firefighters again, dealing with that second fire, the mountain fire to the north. much larger, about 9,000 acres. thankfully in a much more rural area. these two fires combined burning about 20 square miles, and all fueled by this extreme heatwave that we're in. so andrea, it's expected to now go into the week, at least thursday or friday, putting a tremendous, a tremendous amount of stress on the power grid. grid m

steve patterson joins us from st.also under evacuation order. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: we're going to show you people sandbagging, boarding up, clearing the shelves of water and generators. that's what we have seen. but the number one thing we have heard that people need to do to prepare is to leave. particularly if you're in one of these mandatory evacuation zones, to get out of here. this area hasn't been hit directly like the waves expected to be hit in about a century since before queen elizabeth ii was born. so not only do possibly floridians in that area left accustomed to it, but billions of dollars of real estate has been built up along the bay since then in areas that are much more susceptible to storm surge because of the wide coastal shelf that this area sits on. so no matter what, if this is a category 3 or a 2 or 1 or even just a strong tropical storm, the storm surge still has the potential to be catastrophic, if not deadly. we spoke to the mayor about that and asked if he's prepared. here

nbc's steve patterson joins me now with more. progress right now as far as battling them and trying to contain them? >> a bit too early to tell how this started. these are still two incredibly active scenes even with significant containment, even with the way the weather is right now is so ccombustible. part of that element i, can feel right now. it's so incredibly hot. that heat is like a furnace. the kindling is almost like the ground that we're standing on because it's so incredibly dry. the stoker is the wind, and that's what we see, a pattern on pattern of these fires, especially in this current heat wave. so dangerous right now. about 4,400 firefighters across 14 large fires, just the large ones that we can tell right now. that fire proving deadly as you mentioned. we heard from a press conference earlier today the two people that died in that fire were trying to escape. the winds simply too erratic. there are still 3,500 people displaced from their homes. the fire only about 35% contained. there's another fire burning, the

. >> nbc news correspondent steve patterson is up the coast and st. petersburg. he's up joining me now. steve, how is it looking now? >> you know, you could say that this area with all the modeling, of course, i have a storm here as of yesterday, 24 hours ago, this is where the brunt of the storm was supposed to land. that didn't happen. that doesn't mean that this, that this area couldn't face it is a faster. we are feeling it right now, the wind in the rain significantly picking up as the sun drops. we expect more to come. a surge is still possible. you can't see it now, but tampa bay is basically just over my right shoulder. earlier we saw this crazy event where the bay essentially drained out and the hydro power generated from that storm sucked into the gulf. that has to go somewhere coming back. so we expect between of 4 to 6-inch surge or so. that's after this wind event, expected to last through the night, essentially, nine, 10:00. some of the worst hours for this storm in st. petersburg. we expect to hear more about the wind damage, more downed power lines

steve patterson is in los angeles and has been tracking these fires for us. there, steve, when it comes to controlling these fires and what folks have had to really deal with. >> yeah, very difficult when you're talking about this amount of heat. when it's so dry and it's been so dry for so long, any amount of wind picks up the spark and carries it. this morning, we're having eyes on the fair view fire in inland california. that fire just exploded 2400 acres, now it was doubling in size as it moved along. just yesterday, two people who were trying to get away were trapped and killed in that fire. seven homes have been destroyed so far. but i believe that's only because it's so hot that the true damage assessment hasn't been done. there will be more that they'll discover there at well. 3500 homes evacuated in that situation. there are about 4400 firefighters across 14 major fires across the state. they are dealing not only with these explosive fires, but the incredible heat, 103-degree days and we expect to see records broken in sacramento, records broken in th

sam brock, michelle grossman and steve patterson, thank you very much for being with us. i want to bring in chief of emergency services in sarasota county. thank you for -- what's your biggest concern -- can you hear me? can you hear me? >> yes, i can hear you now. yes, sir. i can hear you now. >> sorry. what's your biggest concern with this storm right now? >> well, i believe that many people underestimated this and did not take it seriously. that's my concern. but we're at a point now where i'm looking out my window, i can see the winds are probably up there in 45 sustained. we don't send emergency vehicles out there anymore. if they're not there, we're getting really close. whoever did not go to an evacuation center, that's my concern. if they have power and they're watching this, they need to find a safe location in their home, a safe room to move to if things start going bad. if they didn't leave, i'm very concerned about folks that did that. >> yeah, let's talk to those people who still have power and they're watching us here on msnbc and saying, all right, i stayed

let's go to nbc news correspondent steve patterson in st. petersburg. steve?ence, yeah, search and rescue, the primary operation in the order of operations. meanwhile, the rest of the state digging out, assessing the damage, and maybe most heartbreakingly, assessing the loss of life. we still don't know the extent, as we speak tonight, but the loss of life could be immense and that's what we are hearing from local, state, federal officials -- from -- the avoided the brunt of the hurricane, we did not avoid the storm damage, however. trees are down, power lines are down. strewn across roads. and it moves have homes have been stripped off. the assessment, the utility, all of that operation is a mess. and it is going to take a long time. we are talking days, if not weeks, if not months, in some cases. luckily, this county really dodged a bullet, modeling had the storm system come this way -- before it made that turn and slim into those counties that you just mentioned. but that does not mean that they're still on thousands of people without power -- within 100,00

steve patterson joining us from los angeles. what's the latest on the wildfires and the heat wave?in california, including obviously those fires. there are about 4,400 firefighters battling 14 large fires across the state. if you include the smaller ones, you'd see them by the dozens every day since sunday. of course, the most deadly, the largest ones of primary concern including the one you mentioned, the fairview fire. we had an update from a press conference there. that fire now 2,400 acres. it was just a few hundred when it started. it's burned so bright, so large, so fast. 5,000 people still evacuated. two dead. we're told the two people that died were fleeing the flames in what was a tragic situation t. winds so erratic, the ground there so dry, it's just a match stick in so many communities. this one, of course, counted among them. also 110 degrees the daytime temperature at the fire, expected to be 103-degree day there as well as firefighters try to contain it. we're seeing obviously triple-digit temperatures across the state. 110 when you move more inland. all of this putt

>> steve patterson, blayne alexander, and bill karins, thank you so much. it looks like it was leveled in many parts. as i mentioned, urgent rescue efforts are under way. take a look at this. this is santa bell island. look at the two roads that go in and out. take a look at some of the structures destroyed. what i can describe is just if a bomb went off. there's nothing, everything has been leveled. we're talking concrete, wood, masonry. things are just on the ground. there's some concrete pilings that held a house, but the house just got blown out. that's in santa bell island. that includes, for example, fort myers where the storm surge peaked over 7 feet. the mayor tells nbc news there that he has met several dozen people who stayed behind in need of assistance. with officials overwhelmed for calls for rescues, groups like the cajun navy are stepping up to help. i want to bring in bob gaudet. i'm wondering when you're out and about, how does this compare to other storms you've been at? >> this one was scary. it was a slow-moving storm. we've been watchin

steve patterson, live in los angeles. another round of triple digit heat, there. >> it's about 102 degrees when standing. from experience, it has been this way for the past few hours. right now, as we come on air, we are entering our eighth straight flex alert, exactly as you described when the grade is most vulnerable, the independent operators, the government office, telling people to conserve as much energy as they can. as you said, we saved about hundred and 26 megawatts after that messaging went out. we broke 52,000 megawatts. that is the most energy california has ever used in its state history, but as you also said, it's not over. we are expected to reach 51,000 megawatts in the red zone. that could happen again on thursday and again on friday, because as the governor has said, this crisis may now stretch on into the weekend. it is fueling so many problems, including these wildfires across the state. there are 4000 firefighters on the front lines of more than the dozen major fires. that is just major. there are doz

i want to go to steve patterson now on the ground in st. e you are, steve. >> yes, the wind is so strong and that bridge is not operational. >> steve, i'm sorry, i'm sorry to interrupt you, steve, stand by one second. because i want to share with folks, this storm has officially made landfall. the eye of hurricane ian has made landfall 3:13 eastern time in florida as a category four, just shy of a category five storm. you can see the latest satellite track there, and steve patterson, you are in the thick of it there, in st. petersburg, where the wind is the biggest issue. >> the wind is picking up. and we're not near the eye of the storm. i want to make that clear. i was talking to you yesterday, we may have mentioned that this was the direct path of what that storm was going to make landfall, and the models shifting. >> shifting south. >> and looking at the european model and the america model merged showing the storm now. and that doesn't mean that areas such as st. petersburg up the coast are not in danger. there is so much to go in the s

for more, let's bring in nbc news correspondent steve patterson, live in los angeles.rt with what that extreme heat is currently fuelling. the two devastating wildfires in northern california. just burning a few miles apart at this point. fueled by that extremely hot weather. the bone dry vegetation and the wind picking up, devastating communities, the mill fire in particular responsible for two dead so far. at least 100 homes have burped. but maybe more is the estimation. that fire started on friday. picked up by that wind. expanded to 4200 acres. that is where it is at right now. thankfully it is 40% contained. so firefighters have gotten a little bit of a hold on it. but they're still dealing with the separate fire to the north, the mountain fire. much larger. close to 9,000 acres. thankfully that fire burning in a much more rural area. but imagine fighting these fires in 100 plus degree heat. that is what firefighters are dealing with. we're not even in the worst of it and speaking of that heat wave, it is across the entire west, 50 million under excessive heat war

steve patterson is in st.ida, where today is the last day to get everything in order before hurricane ian makes landfall. thank you both for being out there for us. people across the island without power, thousands already evacuated. i see the incredibly strong winds you're facing. give us the lay of the land. i know you have been traveling through that area. >> reporter: we left havana this morning as we move west. the idea was to see some of the damage that we have heard of. you can see the wind right now. i'm in the town west of havana. we're still more than 100 kilometers east of where the hurricane hit with a category 3. you can see this is supposed to be the end of the hurricane. and we have already seen polls that have been taken down. we have seen power lines on the streets. you can feel the strength. it just took down part of the roof. the roof on the building next to us is falling apart. fortunately, there's nobody there. and we are in a structure that is made out of concrete. this is not the categor

let's go now to nbc news correspondent steve patterson in st. >> lawrence, we are 100 miles from where that storm made landfall and yet, the wind and the rain here in st. petersburg has been tremendous. it is expected to continue throughout the night, leading to possible wind damage, we are looking at downed power lines, we're looking at flash flooding. these are all things that local officials are concerned about. we have heard scattered reports along with widespread power outages, about 140,000 customers in the st. petersburg area alone. expand that out to the entirety of the metro bay area and it is hundreds of thousands of people. utility trucks, squad cars is what we are expecting tomorrow going street by street for a few reasons. one, to make sure that nobody is trapped, everybody is okay. but also to check for those downed power poles. fires could spring up when first responders, tonight and -- to also see if there are those scattered instances of flash flooding in neighborhoods, maybe throughout the county. we expect possibly much more o

let me start you with, steve patterson, because you have seen some of the destruction in pinellas county where you are. and as we've seen newspapers across florida today reporting on what is one of the worst storms in the state's history and look at low fast it made landfall, just 24 hours ago, we watched it here on this show, and talk me through what you're seeing. >> how fast, and the amount of rain, halle, just devastated and that is miles south of where we are. this area dodged a bullet, all of the models a few days ago, had this in the bull's eye, this making landfall here in pinellas in, hillsborough, the bay area, that doesn't mean there wasn't significant storm damage. here is a tree behind me, down into the road, and cutting across this power line and the line is live by the way, into the house behind me. it seems like it scattered across this area. this area, about half a million people without power. and power companies, you know, the line operators, they're going house to house, and street by street, assessors trying to figure out how much damage has actually been done on the

joining us now is steve patterson and catherine, chief scientist at the nature con ser vennsy. e there is? >> reporter: firefighters have their hands full really across the west and california, but particularly, especially in this small area in northern california. firefighters battling two fires just a few miles apart in the same county. both the mountain fire and the middle fire reeking havoc. we'll start with the mill fire as you mentioned responsible for two deaths, tragically. two bodies pulled out of the rubble there after that fire sparked on friday. really expanding extremely fast. picked up by these heavy winds, carried by this bone dry vegetation and in this extreme heat. it tore through neighborhoods like a normal fire would tear through forest vegetation. chewing up house after house after house. at least 100 structures, maybe more, as firefighters and crews assess the damage. 4200 acres so far. that fire doubled this size since it started and again, these two deaths, firefighters busy trying to contain that fire. 40% contained. so good news there. simultaneously dea

joining me is steve patterson in st. petersburg, florida. geographically that is near tampa. tell us how things look where you are. >> reporter: yeah, joy, much further north from the eye of the storm. make no mistake, this area dodged a bullet yesterday. they were predicting that the eye of the storm would actually be somewhere close to here, a storm in which we haven't seen in 100 years a direct hit to this area. thankfully that didn't happen, but that doesn't mean this area has been spared. the wind has been significant. the rain has been significant. we're nowhere near the worst of it, joy. in three, four, five hours, we expect to see really the brunt in this area where this storm surge of about 4 to 6 feet. that is tremendous for this place because of how many areas along the bay that are low lying, which may mean potential for flash flooding, the potential for that surge to come over and cause a whole lot of damage. we're talking millions. it's still in this area, which is putting officials on edge. in the meantime, they're mainly focused on the wind damage, the flash f

let's start with nbc's steve patterson in california. >> reporter: the dangers of this heatwave in effectd to continue into the week and right now. fueling two of the worst wildfires that we have in the state. they're happening in northern california, right next to the oregon border. two fires burning this the same county. the mill fire sparking friday, spreading quickly, doubling in size, now 4200 acres. two people found dead in that fire, and the wreckage left over, that fire carried by high winds, spreading across bone dry vegetation. through a neighborhood, so home after home, just torched, more than 100 structures estimated to be lost in that fire. the fire 40% contained. but firefighters dealing with that second fire, the mountain fire, very nearby. just a few miles north, close to 9,000 acres, that fire 10% contained. much larger but in a much more rural area, so firefighters hoping to keep that away from homes. all of that fueled by this heatwave we're in. historians estimate this may be one of the worst heatwaves the west has ever seen. 100 degree temperatures expected to stretch

joining me now from los angeles, steve patterson. your ac entirely during this heat wave. steve, lay out what's happening in california. you look hot. >> reporter: i don't want to be hyperbolic, but i think we're entering right now the most intense part of what could be the most decisive day for california utilities in something like 150 years. it is going to get so much hotter. sacramento will be about 114 degrees. there are parts of the bay area totaling around 116. it's 110 at some of these wildfire sites. about 4400 firefighters fighting fires across the state. the most dangerous thing is this utility battle. will the grid survive this amount of heat with this amount of people trying to stay cool all at the same time? on a normal summer day we use 30,000 mega watts of energy. today we're expected to go over 51,000, which this state has never done before. that would mean, unless the power grid operators can tell people to conserve as much energy as they can. something like two to three times what they were already conserving. they

steve patterson is live from burbank, california with more. officials asking people to do to protect the state's power grid. >> reporter: thankfully what they did last night because we so narrowly avoided rolling blackouts. it was on a hair trigger. hot summer day, 30,000 megawatts the worst of what we've seen since before last night, 50,000 mega watts last night 52,000 megawatts of energy usage, most the state used in a day. it was so close again. we're not only emergency energy usage it was eea 3, which is the worst designation, which means demand is out stripping supply. but thankfully people heeded the warning, the messaging was heavy during the hours of 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. because it can't utilize the solar power people come home from work want to get cool, blast the air conditioning, just to scale back on that, turn the thermostat up a little bit to maybe 78 or beyond that. unplug some of the dozens of things you have in your wall outlet. all of that helps. it helped last night and warnings are going to be hot and heavy through the week b

. >>> nbc news correspondent steve patterson is in pinellas park, florida.you seeing there? it looks like the sun is coming out. sgrr. >> reporter: the sun is coming out, but sun on a lot of damage in this area. 24 hours before the storm made landfall, some models had it directly hitting this area. that didn't happen, but the coinciding storm did. the result is what you see behind me. this tree down taking out a power line. and behind it crashing into that tree. emblematic of the damage we have seen around this county. power lines down, trees down, tree branches, transformers below blown. the main mission today is assessment and clean up, especially in dangerous zones like this. this is a live wire. we have seen this all around this community. meanwhile, still about 170,000 customers in this county alone out of power. before power restoration happens, not only do they have to get this cleaned up, but some of the wind gusts kresing cresting over 30 miles per hour have to die down before kbrou get line workers in buckets to fix some of the outages. so a lot of

let's bring in nbc news correspondent steve patterson live in st. petersburg, florida. steve, tell us what you're seeing. >> as somara said, even if you aren't close to the bullseye, you're still definitely feeling the effect. the wind, the rain has been hot and heavy for the last few hours. the wind gusts have been increasing as time has gone on. the worst of it not even here yet. we expect that to be 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00. you can see the tide. this is tampa bay. we're at st. pete's pier right now. the tide has pushed out towards the storm into the gulf of mexico, where that storm is generating all that hydropower as it's made landfall south of us. as it returns, it will come back with the storm surge. in the wind phase is when things get truly dangerous. not to say they aren't already. about 100,000 power outages where i am right now. there have to be thousands more as the calculations come in. meanwhile we're thinking about power poles, thinking about wind damage and the deluge of rain to follow all this, in that crawl as ood wind gust comes in, that crawl of the st

for more expertise, we turn to nbc news correspondent steve patterson live in st. . steve? >> ari, the calm before the storm here growing a whole heck of a lot less calm by the seconds. the winds picking up. the surf, the tide coming in more violently than it was even just a few minutes ago. but you're right. the mandatory evacuations now under way for millions here in florida. hundreds of thousands up here in tampa bay. because this area is so susceptible to what's called the storm surge. that is when that storm brings the tide in more violently, the shelf here, which is basically the sea floor, is more shallow. it is wider, which essentially dumps water on to the shore. we could see a storm surge in this area anywhere from 5 to 10 feet, which has the potential to be catastrophic, because so much here has been built up in the last 100 years or so. that's the last time that we've seen a direct hit in tampa bay. that's the worry from officials, although officials do believe they have a handle on the situation for right now. fema has been activated. the national guard

let's bring in nbc news correspondent, steve patterson. he's live in pa nell las park, florida. steve, tell us what's happening today, but also share with our viewers how you got through the night and what you saw. >> yeah, nicole, look, less than 24 hours before hurricane ian made landfall, some models had it directly hitting where i'm standing. you know, the counties that surround tampa bay essentially. people here are so thankful that that did not happen. however, that does not mean the storm damage escaped them. take a look behind me. you can see this tree down across the street taking down this power line. i'm going to walk towards it, but not too close. this is an active live line, and then into the house behind that. this scene has been up pretty much for the last three or four hours. they can't get to it because there are more priority targets than just this. so we've got power lines down. we've got trees down. we've got, you know, some instances of flash flooding, some roofs that have been sheered off. but for the most part we've avoided the main hurricane damage in the

ellison barber is in tampa, steve patterson in st.ersburg ellison, the governor could not stress the threat enough today, warning people should not stay behind it could take a while to get rescued. what are you seeing from people there, and are they taking warnings seriously >> reporter: we're pretty much the only ones here we saw briefly the manager of this restaurant finish making the final preparations to board