Summary
Monster Category 4 Hurricane Ian lashes Florida with life- threatening storm surge. Hurricane Ian becomes the fifth strongest hurricane to hit the United States.
Transcript
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST (on camera): All right, stay with MSNBC throughout the evening as we continue to bring you live coverage of the devastating impact of Hurricane Ian in Florida. That is tonight`s "REIDOUT". I now turn it over to my colleague and friend Chris Hayes. Chris, off to you.
CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST (on camera): Thank you so much, Joy. I really appreciate it. At this hour, one of the most powerful storms to hit the United States in decades is roaring across Florida, bringing massive amounts of water and catastrophic winds. Hurricane Ian was just downgraded to category three storm, maximum sustained winds of up to 125 miles per hour. When it made landfall on Florida`s West Coast nearly five hours ago, Ian was just shy of a category five.
As you can see from these satellite images, the day began with Ian`s massive bands approaching Florida from the south where it wreaked havoc across the Caribbean. Cuba saw significant flooding. It`s just now beginning to get some power back in some areas after nearly the entire island was plunged into darkness.
Now, this morning as Ian swirled towards Tampa, residents woke up to this eerie sight. Nearly all the water had receded out of Tampa Bay. The storm pulling all that water away from the shore as its winds whipped around counterclockwise before shoving it back towards land hours later. Around the same time, the National Hurricane Center increased their predictions for how much storm surge Ian will bring. Those revised estimate standard up to 12 to 18 feet along the coast from Inglewood to Bonita Beach as you can see here in the purple section on this map.
We`ve seen waters rise to record-breaking levels throughout the day. That`s Naples. And in Naples, Florida, the water rose six feet above the normal high tide, nearly submerging cars. In Fort Myers Beach, the storm surge has driven the water eight to 20 feet, flooding homes, leaving some residents trapped. One family spoke to a reporter on FaceTime showing her their first floor underwater.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, can you show me how far the water -- how high it is up? And can anyone get up on the furniture too as well? OK, so you`re already up on -- you`re everything up high. Do you have a way to get into the roof?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go to the roof. Don`t go to the attic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don`t go in the attic? Do you have a way to get on the roof?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we`re going to have to find a way later soon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, so hopefully, somebody is seeing this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYES: Several cities including Fort Myers Beach suspended emergency services this afternoon as conditions were too dangerous for first responders to go out. You look at that and you understand why. The wind of course a big factor in that whipping up to 110 miles an hour. In Punta Gorda where the street signs were blown down, local officials are asking residents who decided to ride out the storm to shelter in place.
The Naples Fire Rescue Department shared this video of a fire sparked by a downed power line, warning people the roads are not safe, urging them to stay home until the storm has passed. This afternoon, the department have found their station and their trucks submerged. They tried to save some of their equipment from the water.
Tonight, millions of Floridians are under evacuation orders or advisories. Thousands are sleeping in shelters. 5000 National Guard troops are on the ground ready to react along with hundreds of FEMA personnel, and 30,000 electric workers are ready to deploy to repair the grid once the storm has passed. More than 1.7 million customers across Florida are without power tonight. But it`s going to be a long road with the worst perhaps not yet over. The National Hurricane Center does not expect Ian to weaken below hurricane strength anytime soon.
We`re going to start with Bill Karins, veteran meteorologists from the NBC News Climate and Weather Unit. Bill what`s the latest of where the storm is at right now?
BILL KARINS, NBC NEWS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it almost feels like there`s this low but not if you`re in areas inland. I mean, it`s about as brutal as it gets. We still have a major hurricane category three overland producing dangerous winds, like almost like a tornado strength and flash flooding too. So, let me show you the latest.
Landfall was at 3:00. Landfall was at 150 miles per hour. Now, we brought those winds down to a category three a little bit. So, it`s not as extreme, but still bad. There`s still trees breaking. There`s still roofs losing shingles, things like that, and trees falling all over the place. But this area in here is what we call an extreme wind warning. This is huge. It goes from Acadia all the way to Sebring here.
And this is where it sounds like there`s a freight train outside your house. You`re in your safe room with your kids, which usually is typically an interior room, a closet, or a bathroom, and you have blankets and pillows on top of yourselves and you have a mattress on top of you. And you`re sitting there listening to the wind and probably lost power and probably have no internet so you`re just waiting, just waiting it out wondering when this is going to be. So, that`s what`s happening right here now in south central portions of Florida.
So, the other thing. There`s three things we`re worried about being life threatening. The storm surge, which is now beginning to recede and we still don`t even know exactly how bad. We know it was the worst from Fort Meyers, Bonita Beach, Bonita Springs all the way down to Naples. That was where the peak storm surge was. We don`t know exactly how high. The State of Florida is saying somewhere possibly 10 to 12 feet in the Fort Myers area. And if that`s the case, that was catastrophic. And we`ll see those pictures tomorrow. The water will be gone but you`ll see how high the water was in all the damage it did.
[20:05:19]
So, now, we worry about the rain. They just issued a flash flood emergency. This goes from Sarasota to Sebring. This is on that north and west side. Now, we`re starting to rain portion of the forecast. That is very concerning what they were calling widespread life-threatening flash flooding. And that`s why we have a flash flood emergency. They`re telling people in this area here to get to higher ground because the water is rising quickly, already reports of 17 to 20 inches of rain, and it`s still pouring in that region.
That`s what happens when you have a slow-moving hurricane. It`s only moving at eight miles per hour. That`s only about double the average person`s walking speed. So, we`re doing that tonight from Fort Myers all the way up here somewhere near the Space Coast by the time we go through tomorrow afternoon. And that portion of the storm, the northern sector of it in the Northwest is where all that heavy rain is all that long. It`s beginning to arrive in the Orlando area, the Disney complex, Universal Studios, that`s where we`re going to see the heaviest rainfall during the overnight hours.
And we -- Chris, we had some crazy winds. I mean, this didn`t -- this didn`t underachieve. Cape Coral, 135 mile per hour winds. Captiva, 126. Even in Punta Gorda, we had a wind gust up to 124. And as I mentioned, the rainfall totals have been up there 17 inches, and now there`s some reports as much as 20 inches. And by the time we`re done, the Hurricane Center said we could have somewhere with 30 inches of rain, two and a half feet. Even with the sandy soil, that`s going to cause a lot of flooding.
And here`s the current wind gusts. So, it`s not like it`s done. I mean Sarasota still almost 70, Sebring 74. Even on the east coast of Florida, the winds are still howling. And overnight peak winds in Orlando, Daytona Beach, the Space Coast, Titusville area, all the way up here to New Smyrna Beach could be upwards of 50 to 70 miles per hour. That means additional power outages.
And then, Chris, here`s the cruel part with this. We`re not done. The storm is not going to want to die off quickly. It heads off the coast tomorrow night and then possibly a strong tropical storm or a category one hurricane makes landfall Friday afternoon evening, from Savannah, to Hilton Head, to Charleston. It doesn`t sound like a big deal after you just got done with a category three or four. But if you`ve been in these cities, and you`ve seen all the trees in these areas, that`s a lot of power outages and the possibility of some storm surge on top of it. So, yes, this storm has lived up. Some people wanted to call it hype beforehand. It wasn`t hype for a lot of people. Unfortunately, it was reality.
HAYES: Yes, Bill, it does seem like a bunch of things really did come together to make this towards the end of the spectrum of worst case, just in terms of storm surge, wind shear and also right now how slowly it`s moving. I remember with Harvey, of course, you know, in Houston, the catastrophe there was that the storm just sort of stuck around and move very slowly, dumped a lot of rain. It sounds like there`s a real -- we`re still in the sort of teeth of the risk here from the rain perspective.
KARINS: Yes, it`s just beginning. So, we`ve -- you know, we`re kind of going through stages. It was the initial what`s the winds going to be when it makes landfall? How bad will that damage be? Will it be like a big tornado went through? And we`ll still find that out in the morning. I haven`t seen any pictures of like structures destroyed by the wind.
Now the storm surge, I`ve seen many pictures. I mean, I saw pictures of storm chaser hung up a camera on a street in Fort Myers Beach, about eight feet high. And it was given us video and pictures of what it looked like. And there was waves that were swallowing it up at one point. And so, we know that the Fort Myers area had an extreme storm surge.
I mean, Chris, that`s going to be the story going forward is that how many people are going to have homes that they`re going to come back to that are uninhabitable. How many people no longer have a place that they can live in until it`s fixed or repaired? And it may not be thousands, it may be tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands. That`s the question we`ll see tomorrow.
HAYES: All right, Bill, Karins, as always, thank you so much. I want to go now to my colleague Ali Velshi who has been reporting from Naples, Florida all day. To give you a sense of what`s been going on there, this was a scene in Naples 12:46 p.m. this afternoon. That`s right, as that storm surge began to overwhelm the city, with water flooding in from Naples Beach. This is how it looked just a few hours later. That`s around 3:00 p.m. Those same cars you saw push partially submerged now almost completely underwater.
As about an hour ago, the storm surge has receded significantly. The city is still being pummeled by strong winds. Tens of thousands are without power in Collier County, which includes Naples. And Ali Velshi joins me now live from Naples. It`s good to see your face, ALI. Tell me what you`ve seen today. It`s been -- it`s been quite a day there.
ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST: It`s been remarkable. You and I both covered a lot of hurricanes. I`ve never seen a storm surge like this in my life. I`ve never seen it happen. In fact, this is the strip that we were talking about. That`s what you were just showing. These cars were all lined up. They were parked properly. The storm surge whipped them all out to the end there. You can`t see them now. It`s in the dark.
[20:10:08]
It was -- it was amazing to see and now it`s gone, but it`s all sand now. This is Naples` beach that has been pushed into this parking lot. Collier County -- there`s still flooding in downtown Naples. Collier County is under mandatory evacuation and curfew. And the county has put out a notice to say please don`t call us. If you`re -- we`re getting called people are trapped. We`re also getting rerouted calls from Fort Myers which is -- was hit -- as Bill was saying, much more seriously, much more badly. And those 911 calls are coming here so that these guys can try and help those folks up there.
So, they`re saying unless you`re in dire trouble, we can`t come to help you anyway. The wind is still whipping up. I mean, it`s sort of a secluded area here, so you can`t really sense it, but there`s still a lot of wind here. Too much wind for rescuers to get out there. Certainly, too much wind for those 42,000 electrical workers to get out here and start fixing the power lines.
We have reports that 1.8 million people are already without power. And as Bill said, this storm is above Orlando now, a highly populated area. It`s going up to Jacksonville. It`s going through the St. Johns River which always floods and puts people out of power. Then it might turn -- make a turn and come back as a category one. This is a remarkable storm, Chris. It has done a great deal of damage.
Probably the worst is over, but for some people, they haven`t even had a taste of it. There are some people in Florida who haven`t had their first drop of rain yet. And it`s going to take out their power, it`s going to take out their trees. So, this is a very, very serious, very serious storm. Chris?
HAYES: The vehicle over your shoulder there which looks like an RV of some sort or a van was presumably parked there, lifted and thrown over. Tremendous amounts of damage just from cars. Are the homes in a similar sort of situation? What is your sense of that assessing that damage?
VELSHI: Well, we definitely know -- we don`t know what`s gone on in the barrier islands, first of all. We don`t know whether everybody who was there got out or meant to get out. This kind of storm hasn`t hit Western Florida in a long time since Charlie, so we don`t know. Police are trying to figure out. They`re saying if you have internet service or you have phone service, please let us know if you are on some of these barrier islands. We don`t know.
But we know Fort Myers was hit by 155 mile an hour winds and we`ve seen structural damage. I actually have structural damage right here, a cinderblock wall that`s taken down. I`m in Naples and I`m in a part of Naples where construction codes are probably well-maintained, and homes are a little more expensive. So, we`re not seeing a ton of structural damage. We saw doors and siding and things like that flying off around here, a lot of timbers. But we -- there`s got to have been structural damage from that kind of wind, 155 miles an hour.
Here in Naples, it was 112 miles an hour as a gust. It wasn`t sustained winds, and we have this kind of damage. So, we don`t know until morning. Until rescuers can get out, until they can evaluate what`s going on. They can`t do that until the streets are clear. That`s why they`ve asked people not to drive around. But police have made it very clear. They don`t have a good handle on what`s going on in the state. And they won`t until at the very earliest tomorrow in the southwestern parts of the state.
The central part of the state might take another day because that storm still on top of them. Can you believe that? It`s inland and it`s a category three.
HAYES: Yes,
VELSHI: 125 mile per hour storm. This is remarkable.
HAYES: Yes, it`s extremely powerful storm and enormous in its footprint, which you can see from that satellite image. One more question for you, Ali. Just -- you know, the evacuation can always be difficult for people. A lot of times it`s folks with either disabilities or elderly or people with pets, or people who don`t necessarily have disposable cash on hand and are worried about all that.
In terms of your sense of the evacuation, how many people were evacuated. If you saw remnants of people around. Just give us a sense of what you saw.
VELSHI: I didn`t see -- what I often see, because I drove for many hours to get here -- and normally when I see it, I see traffic going the other way and I see that. Now, look, Florida is a big place so people could have been going east to Miami. I didn`t see that sort of thing. I only saw convoys of those electrical cherry picker trucks coming in.
I will say, a lot of places in Florida have this building code which causes you to have a carport underneath your house like all those places across the road from me. If you were there, you were generally OK and maybe you didn`t leave because you knew it was going to be eight, nine feet tops of a storm surge. A lot of places don`t have that. And if you were on a single- storey place, you were in big trouble here.
So, I didn`t -- I don`t know. I didn`t get a sense of who evacuated. Just a few blocks from here are single-storey and double-storey homes where I knew people were there, their cars were there. They actually covered their cars in, you know, those fabric covers to -- in case anything got on it. They didn`t imagine that their car would be picked up by the -- by the water and float it away. So, I get the sense that maybe more people stayed than plan to. But if you had a second story, you`d be OK.
It`s always the same story, Chris. It`s people who are vulnerable, elderly, or impoverished. I mean, times are tough. It`s inflation. You`re going to fill up an extra tank of gas and stay in a hotel for a store storm you`re not sure what it means because everybody often thinks these things are hyped. It`s going to be hard to tell. We won`t know that story till tomorrow at least and maybe for a few days because of the power outages that we`ve got.
[20:15:22]
HAYES: Yes. Hoping that people in the worst parts did get out, those -- the images we saw from places like Punta Gorda and Cape Coral are pretty worrying. And we`re hoping that that people were -- that was a ghost town by the time that storm surge came in and the storm hit.
VELSHI: Yes.
HAYES: Ali Velshi, it`s always great to have you in the thick of it. I remember five years ago, I think I was talking to you from Naples. You were here in 30 Rock during Hurricane Irma. So, it`s good to talk to you and stay safe, all right.
VELSHI: Thanks.
HAYES: This afternoon in Punta Gorda, Florida as Hurricane Ian battered the Gulf Coast, my colleague Kerry Sanders got caught in intensely strong winds as the storm moved in. We`ve got more after this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KERRY SANDERS, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: There`s the wind speed as I`m standing next to a building which is somewhat protecting me. So, I`ll take a knee. Whoops, if I can take a knee. Let me just listen to the storm for a second. OK, you guys got it. I`m going back up. This is really strong. You get the idea. That`s power. That`s mother nature.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:20:00]
HAYES: This afternoon, in Punta Gorda, Florida, high winds buffeted street signs and trees. And my colleague Kerry Sanders was on the ground as Hurricane Ian approached land.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: Well, you can see right now. Take a look at that stop sign just blowing around as the wind is picking up there. It`s a very, very strong hurricane right now. And I understand that we`re going to see quite a bit more here as the evening gets on us. Right now, the winds probably, maybe 90, 95 miles an hour. I`m going to move out just for a moment so you can get an idea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYES: NBC News Correspondent Steve Patterson is farther up the coast in St. Petersburg and he joins me now. Steve, how`s it how`s it looking out there?
STEVE PATTERSON, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): You know, Chris, you could say that this area dodged a bullet. All the modeling, of course, have the eye of the storm here as of yesterday, just 24 hours ago or so. This is where the brunt of the storm was supposed to land. That didn`t happen. That doesn`t mean that this couldn`t -- this area couldn`t face the disaster.
We are feeling it right now, the wind and the rain significantly picked -- picking up as the sun drops. And we expect more to come. The surge is still possible here. 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 as the hydropower generated from that storm basically sucked it into the Gulf. Well, that has to go somewhere coming back.
And so, we expect about maybe a four to six foot -- four-to-six-foot surge or so. That`s after this wind event, though, in this wind of that expected to last through the night, essentially. 9:00, 10:00 are some of the worst hours through this storm in St. Petersburg where we expect to hear more about the wind damage, more downed power lines, more trees that have been uprooted.
And the biggest concern, the flash flooding, of course, with that surge coming in, and then a deluge of rain to follow. We`re talking something upwards of maybe 20 inches of rain over the next few hours spread out over the next few days because as we all know of how slow-moving this storm. It`s expected to be slowing down to a crawl, something like, you know -- you know, three to four miles per hour or so. That could be disastrous for an area where you have low laying structures built up along Tampa Bay, billions of dollars invested in real estate in this area. And all of it at threat when you have a storm like this and when you have a rain event like this.
So, I spoke to the mayor yesterday, he expected there to be boots on the ground as early as tomorrow morning to get sunrise on the damage, go street by street to make sure that first of all, nobody is trapped, and second of all, that, you know, there isn`t catastrophic damage, downed power lines that could cause even more problems.
In fact, our hotel, it`s about 20 minutes away. It`s in a safe zone. There`s about 100 or so utility workers ready to roll out tomorrow. So, we should see that work and know a whole lot more about what the night brings after that. But right now, the night is bringing much more wind. Chris?
HAYES: Steve, if you`ll stay with me for just a second. St. Petersburg was not under mandatory evacuation as I understand it. That wind gusts there hitting you guys pretty well. What is your sense of how populated it was? And it looks like the storm surge there has not yet hit, and so we don`t know what that size is going to be. That that part of it is going to come later in the night, is that right?
PATTERSON: Yes, that part of it is up in the air. I mean, we could -- it could be very minimal. But then the surge could come back and do some damage. But it`s really combined with the fact that we`re going to get so much rain.
HAYES: Right.
PATTERSON: And this area already saturated with rain, and we`ve watched the rain for essentially all day long. You combine just those two factors alone and it could lead to substantial flooding. Yes, so evacuations have been heavily advised. Not everybody took that advice as we know, and I think we`re going to find out in a few hours. But for the most part, just driving through St. Petersburg, and really the whole of Tampa Bay, this area specifically is a ghost town.
Most people heeded the warnings. Most people got out of the area. And I think the people that stayed knew that they were going to have to hunker down. The worst thing that you can do right now is move either coming back to this area or is simply trying to escape it. At this point, it`s not happening. It`s time to hunker down and wait this thing out.
We`ll get a little bit of a lull state here as you can see. It`s a false sense of security because it`s always followed by another wind gusts, Chris, and that`s what we`ve been seeing. Back to you.
[20:25:51]
HAYES: All right, Steve Patterson, thank you so much for being down there and reporting for us. And please do stay safe.
So, this is a live look at Orlando Florida. Of course, that`s not on the coast at all but where rain is absolutely pouring down as Hurricane Ian moves inland. I think we`re maybe lost our Orlando shot. We should note that this storm is moving across the peninsula right now, moving very slowly, and we`re expecting that it will continue to dump a lot of water across the entire part of Florida, and then it`s going to bank off into the Atlantic and says we said re hit again.
I don`t think we have anyone to go to in Orlando right now. All right, we`re going to go to break. We got lots more as Hurricane Ian makes its way across the peninsula in Florida. Lots of lots more to get you up to speed on after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:30:00]
HAYES: We are following the devastation of Hurricane Ian made landfall as a category four storm nearing category five, since been downgraded to a category three storm with maximum winds at about 115 mile per hour. It`s heading north towards Orlando in the States east coast. I think we have Jamie Rhome, who`s the Acting Director of the National Hurricane Center.
And he looks like he`s right there. He joins me now from Miami. I don`t know if we have sound on him. Jamie, what can you tell us --
JAMIE RHOME, ACTING DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: I do. I`m here.
-- about this storm which does seem like not -- I mean, near a worst-case scenario, just in terms of size, speed, and strength?
RHOME: It is. The huge size is just spreading the impacts across good chunks, if not all of the Florida peninsula. And the slow speed as it just sort of crawls across the Florida peninsula is increasing the duration of the damaging winds and the flood potential. Look at this radar reflectivity right here. We`re getting estimates of four to five inches per hour in those heavy bands.
HAYES: Give us some context for that. I mean that that sounds like a lot. This seems near the high end of the amount of water it`s physically possible for a storm to dump.
RHOME: Those are incredibly heavy rainfall rates. And, you know, I don`t have any reports, but my suspicion is that flash flooding with that -- I mean, flash flooding is probably occurring. And you can see the warning sort of lighting up here as the system marches. I mean, those are rainfall rates you don`t typically see.
HAYES: How long do we anticipate this is going to take to get out of -- move quickly enough that you can deploy both emergency personnel and folks who start working on the grid?
RHOME: It could -- and that`s one of my biggest fears is normally you would, you know, deploy assets immediately on the back end of a disaster. Because of the slow motion of the storm, you can see it basically takes all the way to Thursday afternoon, maybe even, you know, into Friday to pull away from the Florida peninsula. And you know, the lingering flooding that`s going to be left behind is going to make the response and recovery really, really difficult.
HAYES: There`s talk now I`ve seen that this could be among the most damaging storms just in dollar value that Florida has ever experienced. Where does this rank in terms of the hurricanes that you`ve monitored and seen?
RHOME: You know, we`ve had a lot of impactful hurricanes over the last couple of years, but this one is really striking several densely populated centers. The storm surge came ashore down here around Fort Myers and Naples. And now, the wind and flood potential is impacting Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, essentially the I-4 corridor.
HAYES: What accounts for a storm like this moving as slowly as this one is?
RHOME: Basically the steering current. So, the atmosphere will push it along. And if the steering currents slow down or there`s not enough wind in the upper atmosphere to push it along, it kind of just slows down to a crawl as is in the case with this one.
HAYES: And we expect what will -- it will re-strengthen once out over water again and make another landfall later in the week?
RHOME: Yes. I`m glad you bring up this point because I don`t want the -- all the coverage to forget about what might happen here in coastal Georgia and South Carolina as the center moves back over water as a tropical storm and then hooks back into coastal Georgia and South Carolina. These port -- this portion of the coastline is very susceptible to storm surge so we should get another round of storm surge here along the coastline of Georgia and South Carolina.
[20:35:22]
HAYES: All right, Jamie Rhome with the National Hurricane Center, thank you so much for spending a little time with us tonight. I really, really learned a lot.
Let`s go now to Orlando Florida where as you just heard from Jamie Rhome, we`re going to get a ton of rain and rain is already pouring down. MSNBC Correspondent Jesse Kirsch joins me live. Jesse, what do you see in there?
JESSE KIRSCH, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Yes, Chris, we`re seeing right now some of the strongest wind gusts we`ve seen in this part of the state of Florida. What I want to emphasize is people are watching what`s going on behind me here with this rain pummeling this area of the state. This is still hours before the worst of Ian`s impact is expected in this part of Florida. Which should give you an idea of how powerful this storm is that even in the northern bands is we are getting the outer sweeps of and right now. This is already this bad.
We are currently seeing some lightning. We just moved under a shelter to protect ourselves. It has largely just been rain and wind and I am telling you that right now we are seeing the strongest gusts now and they seem to be a little bit more sustained too. Earlier, there were these little pops. But right now, the winds are definitely picking up more consistently here in Orlando. As of 2:00 p.m., officials had said they did not want anyone left on the roads here.
We did continue to see a couple of cars, but largely, the roads here have been ghost towns. In the evening, they have opened more shelters here. We know of one that is at capacity here in Orange County. The major theme parks Disney and Universal here are shut down right now. We`ve talked with tourists who are here to go to the theme parks. They`re obviously hunkering down at hotels. We talked to people who live in the area and went to shelters to seek safety because one of the threats out here is the potential for tornadoes. Tornado watch is in the area.
And again, all of this before Ian has even hit us or near us, I should say, because we appear to be dodging the direct path of the storm at this point. But already outside of Ian`s direct path, we`ve seen nearly a dozen potential tornadoes touched down in Florida. There have been some small airplanes tossed around. And all of that, again, I cannot stress this enough, outside of the direct path.
And obviously, there are people who have lost power in large numbers, people who may not have good cell phone communication right now in the west coast of Florida. So, I don`t think we`re going to get a full scope. And people are locked down too, so I don`t think we`re going to know the full scope of the damage for hours, if not days from some of these areas.
But this should give you an idea of how bad it can get. This is in an area where the storm will have weakened when it reaches us at its full force in the hours to come. And it`s still hours away and already we`re seeing this. And I can tell you, just in the last 10 minutes or so, things have deteriorated rapidly here. Though, thankfully, at this point, Chris, we still have power cell phone communications are holding strong, and power outages in the area appear to be minimal.
But at this point, as officials have warned throughout the day, wherever people are, they should be planning to bunker down. But the threat here isn`t so much the wind. We`re not looking at storm surge here. There will be gusts as high as 90 miles per hour. But the bigger concern here in the Orlando area is potentially more than two feet of rain which could lead to flash flooding. And as we know, from previous natural disasters, we have covered when flash flooding is in front of you, when you see that flooding coming, that potentially could be too late to get out of the way, Chris.
HAYES: Yes, it`s an important point. And as we just spoke to Jamie Rhome, when you`re getting this water dumped, I mean, you can -- we can see it on our screens right now -- when you`re getting water dumped at this rate, it is always shocking when you`re around it, how quickly that water will get up on you. Whether you`re in the car, or whether you`re out, the flash flooding gets to people before they realize what`s going on.
You can see just the sheer volume of water and as you said out of bounds -- I mean, Orlando is going to get a ton of water before this over. And that`s an obviously densely populated area in which people haven`t evacuated and are going to be sitting this out. You hope the power holds, which it looks like right now it is.
KIRSCH: Yes. And again, we`re talking about -- the track changes, and obviously you may have something back there that I still haven`t even seen since the latest update. But we`ve been watching the development and obviously the storm accelerated as it made landfall in the U.S. just in terms of that timeline. We`re talking about I think 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 a.m. is around when we are expecting the worst of Ian in this area. This is hours earlier and that`s what we`re looking at.
And I can also tell you that I`ve been looking at water on the ground, Chris, because they`re concern about flooding. That applies to us too. Thankfully, we have access to higher ground where we are at a hotel right now. But as I look around on the ground, I am actually -- you know what, I`m looking down and I`m probably looking at three to three inches of water creeping up to the rims of the tires. You can see the hubcaps -- the bottom of the hubcap of this car right here is being touched.
This is a Jeep, a Compass, so it`s a lower-level Jeep -- you know, a lower height. But the water is starting to inundate this area faster than it can drain away. And again, we`re talking about several more hours of that. And you can just see -- I don`t know if you can see it on the screen there, Chris, but we just had another burst of lightning. This appears to be a band of lightning, so potentially that is moving out of the way. But already, it is dark. Nightfall has come. And you know, with how heavy this rain is falling right now, you do not want to be on the roads. And you certainly want to avoid lower levels if you can.
[20:40:50]
HAYES: All right, Jesse Kirsch, I`m glad that you are under -- you`re shielded in some way and out of the exposure that lightning. Thank you so much for doing your work and reporting for us.
Of course, if Florida has been battling water, as long as Florida has existed for longer before when indigenous folks live there and of course in the history, as a U.S. territory and state. Climate change will exacerbate, of course, the rate of disaster. We`re covering this just three weeks after Pakistan was submerged to up to a third of the population evacuated.
Earlier today, before Ian made landfall, my colleague Katie Turner spoke to a man in Sarasota, Florida about his decision to stay against evacuation orders and ride out the storm as it made landfall in the Gulf Coast. We`ve got more coverage next.
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I`m feeling the fact that we`re going to get some flooding. I`ve already seen some flooding. So, I am somebody who`s new to Florida. I just moved here a year ago. I thought I can ride it out. And I`ll tell you, Katie, never again. Once I hear that warning, I am going to get in the car and get out of Florida.
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[20:45:00]
HAYES: Punta Gorda is a small city of about 20,000 people. It normally looks like this, typical, scenic coastal city in Florida. Today, Ian made landfall near Punta Gorda, hit the area with winds of 140 miles per hour. Fierce winds which as you can see knocked down trees and utility poles, and apparently tore off parts of some buildings. It was the exact scenario of the city of Tampa had fear just 24 hours ago.
Ellison Barbers is an MSNBC Correspondent in Tampa and she joins me now. What`s the latest in Tampa there, Ellison?
ELLISON BARBER, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Hey, Chris. Yes, you can see some of the rain coming down now, light wins. All in all, most people here in Tampa seem to think that they have dodged a pretty big bullet, so to speak. They are in many ways kind of looking south, seeing how at least in terms of officials, how maybe they can help some of their neighbors because they do think that all in all, things are going to be much better here perhaps than they were initially expecting.
That being said, they`re not out of the woods just yet. And the mayor has said that it is going to be a very long night for Tampa residents. We`ve seen sort of the rain and the winds fluctuate where at times it`ll feel heavier, stronger, more like you expect of a hurricane. And then at times, it`s sort of like this. It seems like a kind of a not a -- not a massive downpouring, not heavy, heavy wind.
But again, it fluctuates. And that`s why officials here really wanting people to not get complacent. One thing that is still a high possibility in this area is flooding from all of the rainfall and also storm surge. We`ve seen images of the bay here where there`s what`s known as reverse storm surge. And you see the water has just been sucked back. Eventually, that will come back in. So, there is still a potential for what officials have described as catastrophic storm surge in this area.
Tampa Police earlier this evening sent out a notice saying that their officers have noticed a lot of cars parking illegally on the highway outside of debate, going down there just to sightsee. And they say hey, that is a terrible idea. It is still incredibly dangerous. Do not do that. So, they`re asking everyone to just stay inside whether they feel like they`re getting a little bit of a window of relief or not, because we just don`t know what`s going to happen from here. Chris?
HAYES: All right, Ellison Barber, thank you. Stay safe.
Yes, Tampa was in the track of that hurricane about two, three days earlier. It moves south and they have dodged a bullet in terms of how bad it could possibly be. As Hurricane Ian approaches Orlando, I want to speak to Florida Congresswoman Val Demings. She`ll join me next.
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[20:50:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, here goes signs. There goes the beds. Holy cow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you good back there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yes, we`re good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYES: That`s one of those infamous NOAA hurricane flights. It`s what Hurricane Ian looked like in the air. Earlier today, it made landfall as a category four storm, now been downgraded to category three, making its way very slowly through Central Florida right now, towards the Orlando area on a path of the state`s east coast. Conditions are deteriorating there with more than two feet of rain possible. Right now, we`re getting five inches an hour in some areas.
Congresswoman Val Demings represents Florida`s 10th District which includes parts of Orlando, which is where Ian appears to be headed. She`s the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Florida and she joins me now.
Congresswoman, first, how are things holding up in the parts of your district that are now entering the zone of the storm?
[20:55:10]
REP. VAL DEMINGS (D-FL): Well, Chris, look, things here in Orlando are pretty dire. And we have not seen the worst of Hurricane Ian yet. As you know, is not really expected -- the eye of the storm is not expected to get to us until around 2:00 in the morning and some hours thereafter. But you`re right. Wind is about 55 to 77 miles per hour, wind gusts about 100 miles per hour. We`re expecting about 12 to 24 inches of rain. We`re certainly concerned about some areas in the district that are prone to flooding.
And right now we`re just trying to make sure that people have the information that they need, have shelter down so we can -- we can ride this storm out.
HAYES: What are you looking for in terms of federal response, which is going to be necessary? I mean, as we`re looking through some of those areas on the Gulf Coast, some of the really highly populated ones, there could just be a tremendous amount of destruction. Obviously, the grid is going to have a lot of problems. What are you - what are you looking for in your role as a congresswoman representing that area in terms of federal response?
DEMINGS: Well, you know, Chris, I chair the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery. And look, we just got back from Puerto Rico assessing the damage from Hurricane Fiona working very closely with FEMA. And look, we know that during times like this, in times of disaster, we rely on government to help us survive, to help us recover, to help us rebuild. There`s really no substitute for the services that government provides during this time.
You`re absolutely correct. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. We have called on the presidential certainly grant the major disaster declaration here in Florida. We see how hard the west -- southwest coast has been hit and the storm is moving very slowly, which also as you know, just exacerbates the situation.
So, this is an all-hands-on-deck moment. We have over 5000 national -- members of the National Guard on standby. We have the Army Corps of Engineers. We have multiple local state and federal agencies ready to respond, whether that`s restoring power. Your right, rebuilding and improving our grid system, providing medical attention, food, shelter, all of the things that government does and does well during times like this. And so, again, it is an all-hands-on-deck moment.
HAYES: Obviously, we live in an era of increased weather disaster. That`s the era we live in now and will continue to be as climate change continues into the near future. And Florida is uniquely exposed to those disasters. That was true before we started heating the planet, even more true now. In your role from the policy level, have -- has a place like Florida gotten better at resilience, at making sure that it`s ready to withstand a storm like this?
DEMINGS: Well, I think we`ve certainly taken some steps to improve our resiliency. But Chris, we`re not going to be where we need to be until we acknowledge climate change and take it extremely seriously. It is something we`re certainly looking at through the Committee on Homeland Security at the federal level. But look, I mean, how much more do we need to experience before we accept that hurricanes are becoming more intense, more severe.
We have several tornado watches going on right here in Florida. We see extreme flooding particularly in South Florida with the rise in sea level. And so, you know, it`s time to stop talking about it. We all need to come to the table and realize that climate change is real and better prepare for the next hurricane season and the time moving forward.
HAYES: Do you have faith? Obviously, there has been a lot of polarization in Washington politics, although some real progress on some bipartisan piece of legislation. The previous president sort of tended to see disasters through a kind of partisan polemical lens about who is getting hit and who is not. I imagine you have some confidence that there`ll be pretty broad unity about the response to Florida here.
DEMINGS: Well, it has to be. As you will know, Ian is one of the largest more intense storms that we have seen in the history of Florida. And look, I grew up in Florida. I worked as a first responder for almost 30 years. This is certainly not my first storm. But certainly, the intensity of this storm should call all of us concerned.
And you know, I`m so glad that we were able to pass the Inflation Reduction Act which, you know, a large portion of that will go to addressing climate change. But we`ve got to come together as I said at the local and state level, have got to join the federal partners and deal with this issue particularly in the state of Florida.
HAYES: Congresswoman Val Demings whose district includes parts of Orlando which is just about to get some of the worst part of this storm, particularly from the rainfall perspective. Congresswoman, thank you so much and stay safe.
DEMINGS. Thank you. Take care.
HAYES: That is ALL IN on this Wednesday night. Live coverage of Hurricane Ian continues now with "ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT." Good evening, Alex.