nbc's tammy leutner is live in san juan. ople of puerto rico wait that long for more aid to come through? >> reporter: nicolle, absolutely not. you ask anybody here on the ground they'll tell you, no. we are seeing cleanup under way in portions. this is downtown san juan, but there are many communities where there are still rescues being made. communities still cut off. people don't know if people survived the hurricane or not. we've traveled all around the island in the last week, and we are hearing that water is the big thing. people are still desperate for water. we went to one town about 90 minutes outside of san juan and they jerry rigged a pvc pipe to collect water from a mountain stream and were filling up buckets and water bottles telling us they are just doing what they have to do, because there is such a short supply of water on the island. gas is another thing. the lines for gas during the day run a mile. people are waiting three hours, four hours, five hours for gas, and this is gas for their cars but also gas for

nbc's tammy leutner is following the aftermath on the ground in san juan and joins us now. en hearing this is worse than the worst-case scenario. take us through what you're seeing there. >> reporter: absolutely, steve. you're hearing correctly. everywhere we go, every town we go to, people are waiting for help. they're waiting for aid. you see cleanup going on down here in san juan, but in other towns, rescue workers have not even been able to reach certain communities. they don't know if people are trapped. if they need medical attention. that's one of the biggest problems. part of it is because of the roads. the other part is because of the lack of communication. there's only cell phone service spotty a across the island. we see people pulled over on the highway trying to get a cell bar, call out and get some type of help. another big problem, the bake necessities here. talking about gas, food and, of course, the big one, water. there's no water on about 60% of the island. no drinking water. now, imagine that. people are going to great lengths to get water wherever and ho

i think we've got tammy leutner back in puerto rico. about the stuff that's not there. the supplies they're going to need to rebuild but they don't even have basics. apparently out of bottled water in much of puerto rico? >> reporter: we have three houses in a row completely destroyed. not a whole lot there. come this way. you take a look down this road -- you can see how far the water -- has come up. -- cars that are stuck in the water. then you get a second, come over this way pup see this -- [ inaudible ]. >> all right. i've got to learn to pay my phone bims on time so we can continue to talk to our correspondents. we'll try to get that worked out and get back to you. >>> all right. still staying with hurricanes, though. this is now about irma. we've learned a tenth person died in that nursing home in hollywood, florida, after it lost power to its air conditioning unit following hurricane irma. police say a criminal investigation is under way and the state of florida temporarily shut down the facility. firefighters were called to the

joining me on the phone from san juan is tammy leutner with us. my colleague over there, and tammy, i saw we got gabe on camera last hour. we know that people are just now sort of assessing damage. we know it's bad. what are you seeing? how bad is it? >> reporter: hey, chuck. you're right. we know it's bad, but we don't know how bad it is. that's because correspondents have not been able to assess damage yet. i know this because we rode out the storm at the fema operations center, with about 300 first responders and they have not been able to leave the hotel and go out on to the streets. part of the reason is that they a blocked in and working on that. across the lined. 100% power outage that will take months to take care of. also a curfew in place from 6:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. this goes until monday. the airport is closed until at least saturday. and now president trump is promising federal resources. chuck, the big question is, what is the tent of the damage? we know it is going to take time to figure it out. working on it. possibly much is ahea