Summary
Rescue efforts underway in southwest Florida hardest hit by Hurricane Ian. Nine fatalities have so far been reported. Former FEMA administrator Daniel Watson joins Ayman Mohyeldin to talk about the FEMA efforts on Hurricane Ian and the catastrophic damage across Florida as Ian moves to North.
Transcript
NICOLE WALLACE, MSNBC HOST: "THE BEAT" with Ayman Mohyeldin in for Ari Melber starts right now. Just a little bit of news for you today, my friend.
AYMAN MOHYELDIN, MSNBC HOST: Yes, a very busy and sad day coming out of Florida, Nicolle. Thank you so much. It`s good to see you.
And welcome to you, welcome to THE BEAT. I`m Ayman Mohyeldin in for Ari Melber this hour.
Catastrophic destruction, reports of substantial loss of life. President Biden saying it could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida`s history. At least nine confirmed fatalities so far. That number expected to grow. This is what Hurricane Ian did across Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis calling it historic, and we are awaiting a news conference from him at this hour.
Ian is the fourth most powerful hurricane to hit the state ever. Right now search and rescue teams are on the ground in hard hit areas all along the Gulf Coast. More than 500 people rescued in Charlotte and Lee Counties today so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the Orange County Sheriff`s Office. If you need to be evacuated step out of your front door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOHYELDIN: Now the Fort Myers fire chief says they conducted about 200 water rescues overnight. Lee County on the southwest side of Florida was the hardest hit. This is a home on fire after the storm. Fire crews as you can imagine unable to reach it. This is a neighborhood in Punta Gorda, Florida, completely inundated, as you can see floodwaters there yet to recede.
There is new video from the Lee County Sheriff`s Office confirming the worst. Whole towns decimated, completely leveled, mayors giving us details about their towns throughout the day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KYLE BATTIE, VICE MAYOR, SARASOTA, FLORIDA: I came here in the mid-70s. I was on the police department for almost 25 years, saw a lot of storms here. This is by far the worst storm I have ever witnessed. There`s just debris everywhere. My yard looks like a war zone, you know, it look disastrous
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOHYELDIN: As of this hour there is some places impossible to reach by road. This is the only bridge to Sanibel Island destroyed in multiple spots as a result of Hurricane Ian. This is Fort Myers Beach, a popular tourist destination. Debris now litters the entire street and we are hearing emotional stories from some of the survivors.
All right. We unfortunately don`t have that sound bite but we will get it for you as soon as we can. Of course FEMA is warning that Ian is still a life-threatening storm. It is now back to hurricane strength as it heads north toward South Carolina.
MSNBC`s Ali Velshi joins us now live on the phone. He is driving from the hard-hit area -- he`s going from Naples to Fort Myers, rather, in Lee County. He joins us now.
Ali, it`s good to see you, my friend. It`s good to speak to you actually. Bring us up to speed on what you`ve been seeing on your journey from Naples to Fort Myers?
ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST (via telephone): Well, it`s a bright sunny day, which is good. A lot of the water is gone, most of the water. In fact I`m not seeing any standing water in Naples at all. Right now as I`m driving I`m next to an electrical truck, one of those trucks that go out. In fact I`m looking across the intersection, I see another one, and these are these trucks that are able to go up and repair the electrical lines. They needed the winds to come down in order to do so. So they have begun their work.
In fact, Ayman, as I`m talking to you I see probably five of them all around me. There are lots of electrical workers out here starting to get the power grid back up. But there are still more than two million people without power in the state, and more losing it because of the heavy rain that are over central and northeast Florida right now.
We`ve just had an update on the official death toll which is 10 now. Most of them are in Lee County and Charlotte Counties. Lee County is of course where I`m headed right now.
MOHYELDIN: Ali, what has been the path of destruction, if you will, that you have seen as you have driven from Naples to Fort Meyers? Is Fort Meyers more decimated in your anticipation or estimation than Naples?
VELSHI: Yes, definitely so. Naples, the highest winds we got were 112 miles per hour and that was a gust. Not sustained wind. So this was much more of an inundation storm, storm surge. We had about six feet here. It was higher in the barrier islands and the Fort Myers area. That was of course closer to the center of the storm. And there have been images that have come out of their drone and fixed wing images that indicate far more structural devastation than we`ve seen in Naples.
In fact there`s very little of that in Naples. It`s mostly debris. It`s cars that were floating around. Fort Myers definitely looks more serious. They have conducted over 500 rescues in both Lee and Charlotte Counties. So, you know, I`ll just give you an example. Naples is Collier County. As of last night I think they have conducted 30 rescues. Some people who were trapped on a higher level. We`re talking about 500 in the areas that I`m going to.
So there`s still not -- they don`t have a complete handle on who`s there, who`s remained versus who evacuation. You know, these mandatory evacuations only mean that if something happens they won`t come rescue you.
[18:05:14]
MOHYELDIN: All right. It seems that we may have lost Ali Velshi there. We`ll keep in touch with him throughout the day and see, as he makes his way to Fort Myers, if we can reestablish that connection.
Let`s go straight now to Jesse Kirsch who is live in Orlando for us. Jesse, tell us what you`re seeing in Orlando and how Orlando has fared throughout Hurricane Ian over the last 24 hours.
JESSE KIRSCH, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Ayman, for context we are more than 100 miles from where the hurricane first made landfall yesterday but you can see behind me even here there are neighborhoods now underwater. The biggest concern here was rainfall, not the wind gusts so much as the possibility for upwards of two feet of rain. And we got about half as much as was expected but still enough to create catastrophe.
You can see often in the distance here, as our photographer Tony pushes in, there is a basketball hoop out there, and we know that the standard basketball hoop is 10 feet high. So that should give you a rough idea of how high the water level is here so many hours later and it`s misting right now. The wind is starting to pick up again a little bit. But it has been mostly dry in the recent hours and I`m looking at the water level not receding much from when we got on the scene here a couple of hours ago.
Authorities say that they made approximately 30 rescues from this community, and behind me some of the homes here are mobile homes. And those were the types of homes that officials were most concerned or among the homes that they were most concerned about yesterday because they wanted people who lived in those types of homes to get to hardened structures for shelter during the storm.
We know that there are about 1300 residents in shelters according to officials here. That number is fluctuating because some people are leaving and returning to their homes, others are first arriving because of the flooding aftermath according to officials. And right now we`re looking at more than 200,000 customers reportedly in the dark. But thankfully it`s cool out right now and I say that because obviously we worry about in the aftermath of these kinds of storms people being in the heat without air- conditioning.
And at this point I don`t think that`s going to be as big an issue as it might have been. We`re actually wearing warmer layers now than we were yesterday because it is kind of cool out right now. So there are a lot of people, though, without power that can create complications for food. But thankfully no reported outages of water right now. So people hopefully here are still getting access to clean drinking water at home.
But again this is just one neighborhood, one community right now that is going to have to deal with the devastation of trying to rebuild, salvaging what you can from their homes. And thankfully rescue crews were able to get some people out. But the wind gusts are still with us here, Ayman, and that is going to make cleanup and recovery harder because crews have to put pause on what they are doing depending on what is going on here with this situation.
And one other note about where we are. These waters are definitely something you don`t want to wade into because you don`t know what is under there, but what we think could be in these waters are alligators. So you definitely do not want to be going in there to try to get anything out. It is not worth your life.
MOHYELDIN: Jesse, there was probably, perhaps a misguided belief that because Orlando is in central Florida that it was somehow going to be a little bit immune to this hurricane. Do you get a sense of whether or not the city heeded the warnings for people to evacuate? Were there mandatory evacuation orders that deep into central Florida given the path of Hurricane Ian?
KIRSCH: Yes. We did not see the full force of what was left of Ian here until this morning. But I can tell you overnight we were getting pounded with rain. Where we were sheltering the lobby was flooding because water was coming into low-lying streets and making its way into buildings. A pool deck where we were reporting live from overnight became just outright a pool, Ayman, there were so much rainfall here.
And again that was all happening with Ian still on the move. I can tell you that officials were holding press conferences yesterday. They were encouraging people to seek shelter as of 2:00 p.m. Yesterday afternoon, they did not want anyone driving on the roads anymore. And it largely did look like a ghost town so I think people either got out of town or were sheltering in place. Largely, by that time one of the gas stations we hit on our way into town had the pumps shut.
So, you know, there was definitely a raised level of alert even here in Orlando. And we talked about those mobile homes, this is the kind of community that was top of mind for officials and they said that they had -- made door knocks, had visited these communities a couple of different times to try to encourage people to seek shelters.
We know of at least one shelter that hit capacity yesterday and others were open throughout the evening, Ayman. So this is a developing situation. You can hear some kind of response from emergency crews off in the distance here right now.
[18:10:02]
Certainly a good sign, though, to see that they`re able to be on the move right now because I know that`s always a concern in this kind of storm. There are windows when first responders aren`t even able to get to people because of a developing weather situation. So overall, Ayman, I can tell you that officials were putting out warnings, were aware that the storm could have a serious threat here. And again it was always about the rain here. It wasn`t so much about the wind gusts, and the type of wind tapered off from what we originally expected to see here. It`s this. A flood threat. That was the most concern and obviously in some parts of this community those worst fears have come true.
MOHYELDIN: All right, Jesse Kirsch, live for us there in Orlando, Florida.
From there we go to storm-battered Naples, Florida, where we find Sam Brock.
Sam, obviously a different situation there than the one that we saw in Orlando from Jesse, but tell us what is happening now on the ground there in Naples as people begin to assess the damage.
SAM BROCK, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Ayman, I think right now it`s just the shock is setting in. We`re now 24 hours after and what we saw in Naples which was a historic storm surge for them, 7.26 feet which was doubled the previous record set years ago.
You look over my shoulder right now. It looks picturesque and pristine here in Naples right now which is why so many people come here in the first place. It is gorgeous. Waterfront properties and of course this iconic pier over my shoulder. That pier is now half as long, Ayman, as it used to be. It was a thousand feet. It`s been around for decades, it`s now 500 feet. They`re getting calls to the city`s mayor. People crying, worrying that it actually had been swept away.
Obviously that`s not the case but it is in some cases or some ways, I should say, kind of a metaphor for what Naples has been through in general, which is to say you have people that have been battered and bruised. $200 million plus worth of damage for personal property alone according to the city. They expect it to be far higher than that. But it`s the emotional, the psychological, it`s how this changes your day to day.
We`re on the streets of downtown Naples today. I interviewed a business owner who was one or two days away from opening up her brand new shop. It`s for customed suits and shoes. They have been saving, she and her husband, for years pouring their personal savings into that. She`s right down the street from the fire station which you saw that viral video of firefighters out there with four to five feet of water in front of the trucks, not able to get out.
She sees that video and realizes that exact instance I`m not going to have a business anymore. And then she arrived this morning, survey the damage at her business, and hours later they`re pulling and waking the mat off the bottom of the floors because it`s damaged and it`s done, and unless you heavy levels of insurance which is extremely difficult to obtain here in Florida, you`ve got a big problem on your hands.
So right now you`re just seeing a community coming together 24 hours later from what was lush and pristine and beautiful and it`s return to that visually but the psychological damage and the impact and of course the damaged homes, people`s lives changed forever. That`s kind of what folks are trying to grapple with right now in Naples.
MOHYELDIN: Sam, given the level of destruction that is there, that you`re describing, is there a humanitarian challenge as well in getting supplies to people? We know, as we`ve been hearing throughout from all of you guys, two million people without power throughout the western part of Florida, and obviously it raises questions about the humanitarian situation for people in terms of getting supplies, medicines, taking care of those that are in need. Do you have any reporting on that front?
BROCK: The biggest issues we`ve heard about here are electrical, Ayman. This is Collier County right now like so many other counties around here you`re looking at three quarters of all customers with no power whatsoever. They do have ample amounts of shelters here. They take care of folks, meals I`m not hearing is an issue. But here`s another crisis that`s popping up right now. Neighboring Lee County, well, we know that nine hospitals confirmed today are shutting down, having to evacuate all of their patients.
Sarasota certainly is one of the areas but also Naples here in Collier County is taking on some 400 patients from their neighbors. So now it`s a question of resources for the hospitals, how they`re going to be able to accommodate all of those new patients and new people with the resources that they currently have. That`s what I`m keeping my eye on right now. But in terms of water issues which we`ve also seen in Lee County where they`re asking folks to just drink bottled water or to boil your water, that has not so far saturated its way over here.
But certainly they`re right on the edge, and there`s been all sorts of challenges the city government is trying to tackle right now.
MOHYELDIN: All right. Sam Brock live for us in Naples, Florida, at this hour. Sam, thank you.
Let`s go now to NBC News meteorologist Somara Theodore at the big board for us.
Somara, Ian is back to hurricane strength as it clears Florida. It turns, goes back to the U.S. coast in South Carolina. Where is the storm headed and how concerned should residents in South Carolina be?
SOMARA THEODORE, NBC NEWS METEOROLOGIST: Very concerned especially since we have highly populated areas like Charleston right in the bull`s eye as far as the cone of uncertainty. And remember, we`re seeing a lot of flooding and damage on the east coast of Florida as well. And that was just a tropical storm at the time. And so we have a pretty moderate hurricane category 1 coming in. So let`s get right into it. 35 million people could be impacted by this. Where you`re seeing this red shading we do have hurricane warnings.
[18:15:02]
So off the coast of Jacksonville, it`s mainly the maritime there, but on land we`re talking from really the entire land coastline of South Carolina is under a hurricane warning right now, and we`re seeing tropical storm warnings push deep into the Carolinas in the areas like Columbia, South Carolina. Charlotte seeing those tropical storm force winds. So this is the Doppler radar. This is what it`s doing right now.
It`s out to see as soon as it got out there decided to strengthened back up. And so we`re at 75 miles per hour. Just on the cusp of the cat 1. Heaviest rain bands still haven`t really pushed in yet. But Savannah, things are going to start picking up, Brunswick as well, down towards Orlando, probably going to start seeing some sunshine coming out pretty soon. And moderate rain fell out in Jacksonville should taper off.
But things are going to get a lot more uneasy in the coming hours for South Carolina. The bigger shift in the storm right or track, should I say, from the National Hurricane Center, interestingly enough brings us a little bit farther to the north and east. So initially we had this main line going to Charleston. This is why you have to be on alert. Remember we saw it at the beginning of Ian, with Tampa versus Sarasota, versus Naples. Well, for the South Carolina coastline even Myrtle Beach just be on high alert and be prepared in case we get those hurricane force winds in your region.
Timing on this. We`re anticipating this arriving around lunchtime tomorrow. We could see it as early as 11:00 a.m. but I`m really thinking this is going to hit just after lunchtime between about noon and 3:00 p.m. Really depends on where it decides to hit. And this is the future cast. This is showing us, hey, this is how much rain we could be seeing with the system at the time it decides to hit. Pushing inland by Friday midday. We`ve got heavy rain, moving in first to Charleston and then those winds starting to pick up.
And just look at the gravity of it. The fields alone. We`re seeing heavy rain up towards Norfolk and then we`ll see this push into parts of the mid- Atlantic for your weekend. OK. So here`s the flash flood risk. And this is really dangerous. Flash flooding it happens in a flash. Charleston, South Carolina, much of the state of the South Carolina and parts of Charlotte are all under a flash flood risk as this storm takes its time.
It`s a slow-mover. It`s going to meander. And it`s going to dig in to the Carolinas, dumping tons of rainfall. And then of course we have the storm surge to deal with. We`ve seen storm surging farther south as a tropical storm pretty bad down in St. Augustine. We could get four to six feet in areas like Savannah and Brunswick. Charleston, Island of Palms, Hilton Head, so we`ve got a lot of hotspots up there, four to seven feet of storm surge is possible.
And I just want to kind of wrap it up with looking historically or -- not historically really, a few hours ago we started getting these numbers in. New Smyrna Beach, just south of Daytona, 28 inches of rain with this system, and then St. Augustine, if you get online and you see these visuals coming out of St. Augustine a lot of downtown was underwater because as the storm was even leaving on its way out the door decided to flip the table and push water into St. Augustine, so you know, there`s a lot of moving parts to this, Ayman. And as I said earlier it seems like we`re all over the place on the map but it`s just because this storm is so big, so massive and so relentless.
MOHYELDIN: All right. Somara Theodore live for us here, tracking Hurricane Ian as it picks up steam and moves back towards the U.S. coast and South Carolina.
We`ve got a lot more ahead in this hour, including live interviews with a search and rescue leader and a man who literally flew through the hurricane. We`re going to show you his video when we come in just 60 seconds.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got out the door, swam out the door, the water was here. And then we around to this, and then we walked our way around the whole side of the house from the roof line. And then swam over that on (INAUDIBLE).
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[18:20:06]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jacob.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, tell me when you need help. Watch. It gets really deep over here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOHYELDIN: All right. So a massive rescue efforts like that one that you just saw there continue across southwestern Florida. In Orange County officials searching for survivors following catastrophic flooding and distraction from Hurricane Ian. Over 100 nursing home residents was evacuated in Orlando. Citizens in that city now also jumping in to help. Here a local reporter rescued a woman that was trapped in floodwater.
State officials now saying more than 500 people in Charlotte and Lee Counties have been rescued since efforts began this morning.
Joining me now is Rob Gaudet, founder of Cajun Navy, a volunteer disaster relief organization from Louisiana, now on the ground in Lee County, Florida.
Rob, thank you so much for making time for us. I know you have your hands full with the rescue efforts down there so we greatly appreciate you giving us some insight. Just tell us how long have you and your team been on the ground and describe for us what the situation looks like.
ROB GAUDET, FOUNDER, CAJUN NAVY: Yes, my team came to Fort Myers early this morning, and by the time the sunrise had -- was up they`ve done about 30 rescues in this area. And we`re here now in Fort Myers where we are looking for a location to set up our safe camp which is a long-term distribution center for the public.
MOHYELDIN: What has the volunteer response been overall like? I mean have you on your way down to the area, have you seen other like-minded volunteers going in to try and help you -- help you and help others rescue people? What are the overall rescue efforts like based on what you`re seeing out there?
GAUDET: We have another rescue group. We`re working what`s called Aerial Recovery. A well trained group that we work with frequently and then for today and then going forward we`re working with Operation Barbecue Relief, Operation Airdrop, (INAUDIBLE) bank, SRP which provides services to businesses, and it`s a very collaborative effort. We`re honored to be a part of such a great group of nonprofits. We see each other almost every disaster so we`ve gotten to know all of these groups very well.
MOHYELDIN: You mentioned that you had done 30 or so rescues in the early morning hours. Can you give us a sense overall how many you`ve done since you`ve been on the ground and do you have a sense of how many calls are perhaps still pending or calls that you`d like to respond to?
GAUDET: You know to answer the last part of your question, we had over 350 requests for rescue at the peak, and what people do is they reach out to multiple groups and so (INAUDIBLE) formed by first responders and others. I think we`re at over 50 rescues since we started. We had 30 by the sunrise and I think they`ve done about 20 so far. We don`t have an official count, though.
MOHYELDIN: Can you tell us about how you`re approaching that? Meaning how are you prioritizing? Are you going sector by sector or just based purely on accessibility, the first people you`re able to see your rescuing?
GAUDET: Well, we have various organization that social (INAUDIBLE) to spread the word about our capabilities, and then provide information to the public that would like to have us come rescue them so we actually dispatch our guys specifically to that area to go be rescued. You know, imagine a police officer or a fire truck driving around looking for fire or a crime, not very efficient. So we are dispatched in the same way that police are dispatched.
MOHYELDIN: And very quickly, how does this compare to other rescues that you guys have been involved in, other hurricanes or natural disasters?
GAUDET: You know we haven`t done these many rescues probably since Hurricane Harvey. Hurricane Ida was not so much of the full (INAUDIBLE). There was certainly a storm surge but a lot (INAUDIBLE) evacuated and it wasn`t as bad as far as the storm surge goes. It was more of a wind disaster. So Hurricane Harvey back in 2017 (INAUDIBLE) we`ve done anything like this. Now Hurricane Harvey lasted for many (INAUDIBLE). We did over 4,000 rescues there. Here having 50 under our belt for a single day. (INAUDIBLE) ours that does rescue but also assist for (INAUDIBLE) citizens. I don`t rescues is an achievement in and of itself.
MOHYELDIN: Yes. Rob Gaudet, our best to you and your team that are doing the hard work there on the ground. Best of luck to you, sir. Thank you so much.
GAUDET: Thank you. Thank you very much.
MOHYELDIN: Let`s go straight now to NBC`s Blayne Alexander in Orlando.
Blayne, what are you seeing? What is the situation like there?
BLAYNE ALEXANDER, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ayman, we know that right now rescues are continuing. In fact I just got off the phone with the PIO for fire and rescue here in Orange County. Some 500 rescues happened throughout the day here in Orange County. Some of them happening right now.
[18:25:04]
Well, you talked about that nursing home facility that was being evacuated earlier, we just got word that there`s another evacuation currently underway with some 200 residents so it really just underscores how the initial concern which is that continuous rain really is coming to bear and even though we`re seeing water continue to recede and recede rather quickly, it is still a concern here, Ayman.
MOHYELDIN: All right, Blayne Alexander, live in Orlando for us. Blayne, thank you for that update.
I want to go now to Angela Eady, city commissioner for Kissimmee, Florida.
This is new drone footage -- excuse me -- that we just received that we get a sense of just how bad the flooding there is. We`re going to show that to our viewers. You see it now on your screen.
Angela, what are you seeing in Kissimmee there?
ANGELA EADY, KISSIMMEE COMMISSIONER: Well, it`s been a busy day. It`s been a really busy days from rescuing residents. We had several apartment complexes that got literally just inundated with water. And we`re doing all that we can to rescue. We`re going to triage starting tomorrow from a process of rescue to now recovery. It`s a lot, our first responders have been on that spot on. We`ve rescued hundreds, hundreds of people today. We`ve gotten power restored to thousands, thousands today.
We still have a few hundred people still without power but our utility company is working with that. We`re making moves with all of that so we`re getting there. This was a big, big storm I compare this, someone asked me earlier, well, what do you compare this to. I said this is on the same scale somewhat like Katrina that happened in New Orleans several years ago, with all the water damage.
And the problem, one of the major problems that we have here is we have a lot of wildlife so people have to be very careful. That`s why we had to institute a curfew to keep people off the streets because it`s still dangerous to be out on the road right now. And we need people to stay in so we decided to institute a curfew from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and that`ll be going on until further notice because our priority is public safety.
MOHYELDIN: Where you -- do you feel you in and the city prepared for the severity of what befell the city?
EADY: I think that we did all that we could do. We just -- I think, me personally I didn`t think it would be to this magnitude.
MOHYELDIN: Right.
EADY: I really don`t think that it would have turned out. You know, if you were to ask me this yesterday or the day before, do you think that is going to be like this catastrophic, there will be people statewide that are just like literally inundated with water. I heard this morning an apartment complex right here in Kissimmee where a resident had to basically swim out of their living room. And I said I`ve never heard of that. I`ve never heard of that. I`m 58 years old, I`ve never heard of something like this magnitude other than what happened with Katrina in New Orleans.
MOHYELDIN: Can you tell us what -- how the decision is made to go from a rescue to recovery? Do you feel that you have rescued everyone that needed to be rescued and now it is a recovery phase or how do you make that determination or first responders make that determination?
EADY: We are still working on rescuing our citizens here. We`re still right now as you and I speaking, and we are still rescuing people and hopefully all of that will be taken care of and then we can move forward with another process of the recovery, but right now the focus is on rescuing everyone. Get everyone out and make sure everyone is safe because a lot happened and it happened real quickly.
MOHYELDIN: Yes. We certainly hope everyone is in fact rescued.
Angela Eady, thank you so much in Kissimmee, Florida. I thank you. I appreciate you making some time for us this evening.
EADY: No problem.
MOHYELDIN: Tracking the search and rescue operations and the ongoing threats. We`ll tell you about that next.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody`s RV came in our backyard. That`s our pool. That`s our deck. That was my house. Our house is gone.
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[18:34:14]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, I did regret that move and I promise you I`m never going to stay for another storm ever again here. However, I am one of the lucky ones.
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MOHYELDIN: That is a Sarasota resident vowing to never stay for another storm. The destruction from Ian scene across Florida revealing more and more, hour by hour. The west coast of the state hit hardest, extensive flooding in Punta Gorda, rows of houses just simply submerged in water as far as the eye can see. The aftermath in Lee County, that is home to Fort Myers, simply devastating.
Rooftops, ripped off buildings, trees down, and debris everywhere. The Fort Myers pier completely destroyed. Neighborhood, after neighborhood ravaged. More than 2.5 million people without power across the state as of this hour. Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm this morning. It is now back up to a hurricane. Violent winds hampering any cleanup efforts.
[18:35:00]
There are waves slamming over a seawall in St. Augustine, that was before sunrise. Parts of Orlando remain flooded as we heard from reporters earlier. Streets and parking lots resembling, rivers completely impassable in some places at this hour. And other areas like Sanibel Island, well, they`re completely cut off entirely.
The only causeway in and out of the island as you can imagine, destroyed. Those who did not evacuate, unfortunately, they are now stranded. 10 hurricane related fatalities have been confirmed. President Biden is warning that number is expected to rise with a potentially record-setting death toll.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida`s history. The numbers have still -- are still unclear, but we`re hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOHYELDIN: Joining me now is Daniel Watson, former female spokesperson during Hurricane Sandy. Daniel, it`s good to have you with us. Let me just get drawn your expertise for where we are in this moment. What is the immediate operating concern, if you will, for both FEMA and those that FEMA has on the ground?
DANIEL WATSON, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Sure. So, this is really a catastrophic event. I think as FEMA administrator can occur, as well said at that briefing today. There are going to be some serious challenges ahead. There`s has widespread impact. But the federal family of agencies, including FEMA, along with state and local officials, had a lot of resources prepositioned ahead of this storm.
We`ve seen the utility trucks that were set up ready to help with restoring power. Palettes of water and any other essential resources. I think we`ve seen the combined forces of the state, local, and federal government doing everything we would want them to do ahead of time, but it`s going to be tough to get ahead.
And remember, this storm is still going, right? There are still millions of Americans are in the path of this. It`s not as strong as it was when it came ashore in Florida. But it`s a hurricane and folks need to remain vigilant against those risks.
MOHYELDIN: So, you bring up an interesting point about the hurricane strengthening now off the coast of South Carolina, as we heard from our meteorologist moving its way up to the South Carolina coast. Does FEMA have the resources to deal with both of these simultaneously? I mean, you certainly know better than me. But is this unprecedented to have a hurricane hit the western part of Florida, crossover Florida, so quickly pivot and become a hurricane and back towards the U.S. coast again.
WATSON: Emergency managers plan for this. And it`s important remember that the way that response works in this country is -- it is led by the states and supported by the federal government. So, the emergency operations centers in the Carolinas are preparing for this activated. And there are liaisons there from the federal government to support if there are any unmet needs.
MOHYELDIN: How does Ian compare to your experience with Hurricane Sandy, when you look at what we`ve seen and heard about hurricane Ian so far?
WATSON: Well, every storm is different. But there are a lot of similarities too, right? This was a much stronger storm coming across than Sandy was, but Sandy impacted the most densely populated areas in the country. So, there are -- you know, there are differences with every storm, but -- you know, we learn as a country after every storm and have programs in place to support it. So, I think that is reflected in the massive preparations that you saw before this storm, there`s been a lot of learnings from the past.
MOHYELDIN: What would you say have been some of the biggest lessons or perhaps the biggest lesson from Hurricane Sandy that might have been applied to how FEMA responds to a situation like this?
WATSON: I think they`re going to be thinking about housing and you know, what we do for folks who have been displace. You know, the best thing we can do is when it is safe, you know, getting folks back into their communities.
So, if -- you know, if their homes are OK for them to be and so, you know, if people in their houses and local businesses can operate, kids can be back in school, but that`s not going to be the case everywhere. And so, I`m sure that they`re thinking about longer-term housing solutions for those who`ve been displaced.
MOHYELDIN: All right, Daniel Watson. Daniel, thank you so much for your insights. I greatly appreciate your perspective.
I had live reports from the ground as the search and rescue teams fan out and I`m going to talk to a hurricane hunter who`s playing literally flew through the eye of the storm.
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[18:40:00]
NICK UNDERWOOD, NOAA AEROSPACE ENGINEER: Oh! There goes the signs. There goes the beds. Holy cow.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) but devastating thing. But what are you going to do? I think where -- we didn`t fare as worse as some people did. I guess all you do is put everything back together and try again.
[18:45:00]
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MOHYELDIN: So, as Hurricane Ian continues to barrel towards the Carolinas, we are getting a rare look at the storm. In this video from the International Space Station, you can see it there simply massive. We`re also seeing this footage taken from inside a plane that flew through the eye of the storm.
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UNDERWOOD: Oh. There goes the signs. There goes the beds. Holy cow. Oh (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) back there?
UNDERWOOD: Ah, yes, we`re good.
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MOHYELDIN: So, Nick Underwood was on that plane. He is an aerospace engineer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And he flies through hurricanes as part of his job. Nick, first of all, it`s great to see you and your crew safe and sound back here on the ground. First of all, tell me about that flight. I`m sure you had done it before. But what was going through your mind as you were experiencing this in real time?
UNDERWOOD: Yes, so going into that first eyewall pass, we had gotten word from our friends at the Air Force 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron that they had had a rough pass through the northwest part of the storm. We were down at 8000 feet going through the western part of the storm. And that was the most turbulence that I`ve ever felt on one of these hurricane flights in the six years that I`ve been doing this. We were getting tossed left and right, there was lightning all outside, it was intense.
MOHYELDIN: What is -- this may sound simplistic, but what is the scientific purpose of what you`re doing in that moment?
UNDERWOOD: So, the aircraft that we`re flying is outfitted with a whole host of scientific instruments, radars, were able to launch data gathering instruments from the aircraft that collect temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, all of that data gets sent to the National Hurricane Center so that they can improve their forecast models and let people know when they need to get out of the way.
MOHYELDIN: And as you mentioned, you`ve done this before, this was one of the roughest if not the roughest experiences you`ve gone through. Just elaborate on that for us. How does Ian compare to the other storms that you have personally been involved in researching?
UNDERWOOD: Ian specifically, normally when we fly through hurricanes were anticipating up and down turbulence as we`re flying through updrafts and downdrafts. Ian had a lot of lateral motion and that is a lot more unsettling than the standard up and down that we get.
MOHYELDIN: Can you talk about the pilot in the crew? Is this the first time you work with this crew? Is it the same people every time? How confident are you in the machinery itself to withstand what you`re describing as these, you know, lateral movements and the pressures that you were seeing?
UNDERWOOD: The aircraft itself, although it is pretty old, at this point, it was made the 1970s, we have fantastic maintenance personnel that take great care of it. And the crew on board, the pilots, the flight engineers, the meteorologists, the engineers, the technicians, all of us are trained, all of us are absolutely capable of doing this kind of work and doing it safely.
MOHYELDIN: How do you prepare to fly through a storm? I mean, mentally and psychologically, even physically, how do you and the crew prepare for such an undertaking?
UNDERWOOD: Mentally, the first time you go through it`s tough to really understand the amount of turbulence that you`re going to experience, and these are long flights to. We`re in the air for usually about eight hours. Physically, it`s important to stay hydrated, it`s important to get a good night`s sleep before you go up. And every crew member has their selections of what snacks to bring on board. Since like I said, we`re here for a full workday.
MOHYELDIN: I was going to say an absolutely incredible effort by the team and certainly one that we all appreciate for all the research that you guys do. Nick, it`s great to see you in the team safe back on the ground and thank you for all of your work. Nick Underwood.
UNDERWOOD: Thank you.
MOHYELDIN: Stay with us as we track the storm and the rescue efforts. We`ve got a lot more to tell you.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy is professional-grade damage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was your first reaction when you came out and you saw this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Jesus. That it didn`t go -- because it could have fallen on my house, it could have fallen on the apartment that I have here.
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[18:54:10]
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we can replace buildings, we can replace structures. We can`t replace people. So, we`re looking at people first. Then we`re moving to (INAUDIBLE) such as the water, such as power.
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MOHYELDIN: All right, let`s cross over to NBC, Shaq Brewster live on the ground for us in Jacksonville. We`ve been talking about what is happening across the state. Shaq, tell us what you`re seeing in Jacksonville.
SHAQUILLE BREWSTER, CORRESPONDENT, NBC NEWS: Well, Ayman, here in Jacksonville the mayor told me earlier this afternoon that they are breathing a sigh of relief but he`s warning his citizens that they are not in the clear just yet. Throughout the storm, going into the storm. The concern was the river that you see behind me, the St. Johns River.
They were getting the tropical storm force winds, the tropical storm force rains, but the concern was what it did to that river there and they were fearing that they were going to get the level of flooding that they got about five years ago with Hurricane Irma. After surveying and after most of the storm has passed through, they did not get that. That`s not to say they were completely spared.
[18:55:00]
There were downed power lines, down trees, about 22,000 people were without power. But that number is down to just about 10,000 people right now. It`s a sign that the wind gusts are not at that high pace. So, the crews were able to go out immediately to help people get the power restored. Bottom line, mayor here in Jacksonville saying they think they will be in the clear, but they`re not --
MOHYELDIN: All right, Shaq, I think we may have lost your audio, but we got the gist of what you were saying about the overall situation there in Jacksonville with the mayor telling you that in fact, they are not yet out of the wood. But certainly, feel a sigh of relief that the damage that we`re seeing in other parts of the state like what we saw in places like Fort Myers and Sanibel Island, did not manifest or realize or were realized in Jacksonville.
So luckily for the residents there of Jacksonville. But as we`ve been reporting throughout the hour, a very different circumstance developing in the western part of the state. Obviously, we`re getting a better assessment of just the incredible scale of the devastation and the damage as cities and towns continue those rescue efforts.
That does it for me this hour. Make sure to check out my show Ayman, Saturdays 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. We`ll be covering all the very latest on Hurricane Ian. "THE REIDOUT" with Joy Reid is up next after the break. Don`t go anywhere.