Morning Joe - Morning Joe 8/30/23

Episode Date: August 30, 2023

Idalia strengthened is expected to remain an "extremely dangerous" hurricane when it makes landfall.

This is crunch time right now. We're going to get hit with a major hurricane. If you're there while that hits, it's going to be very difficult to survive that. It's critical that the people that are in the path of this storm are also prepared. Very few people can survive being in the path of major storm surge, and this storm will be deadly if we don't get out of harm's way and take it seriously. Hurricane Idalia, now a Category 4 storm as we wake up this morning, forecast to make landfall sometime in the next couple of hours along Florida's Big Bend, where the peninsula merges into the Panhandle. The National Hurricane Center says Idalia will sustain winds of 130 to 156 miles per hour with a very high risk of injury, death, and it will produce catastrophic damage inevitably. Another major concern, an expected record-breaking storm surge of 12 to 16 feet in the landfall zone.

Florida officials warning the surge could impact areas up to 200 miles south into the Tampa area and may leave areas uninhabitable for an extended period of time. Several areas of Adalia storm surge expected to be higher even than Hurricane Ian's last year, which devastated the Fort Myers area and killed 149 people. In addition, hurricane force winds will extend 25 miles outward from wherever the storm makes landfall. The Tallahassee National Weather Service says wind likely will cause significant damage there, too. As the Dahlia tracks inland, officials are warning of major coastal flooding between Savannah, Georgia, up into Charleston, South Carolina, due to a tide already expected to be higher than normal due to the occurrence of a rare blue supermoon. Let's go right to meteorologist Bill Cairns for the latest on what is shaping up, Bill, to be a very, very serious storm. Yeah, good morning, Willie. Idalia has done exactly

what we feared, intensified for the last 24 hours, up to now at Category 4. This is the Tampa area, and Tampa has not gotten the brunt of the storm. They have their high tide this morning at 4 o'clock. The water is high. The waves are splashing. This is the Tampa area. And Tampa has not gotten the brunt of the storm. They had their high tide this morning at 4 o'clock. The water is high. The waves are splashing. This is Tampa General near the hospital here. And you can see the causeway here. That's the kind of things that we're getting in the Tampa area, more the overwash.

We're not hearing about any destruction or anything like that. So that's the good news for Tampa. For you, it's just a glancing blow. But for other areas, unfortunately, it's going to be much worse than that. So here's the latest from the Hurricane Center. 130-mile-per-hour maximum sustained winds. It's a little small eye. That 130 mile per hour winds is not widespread. It's about a 30 mile wide eye where we're going to have that concentration of extreme winds everywhere else like Tallahassee, Tampa, more tropical storm force winds. And the

storm is moving quickly, 17 miles per hour. So it's going to be moving on shore within the next two to three hours. Here's the forecast path from the per hour. So it's going to be moving on shore within the next two to three hours. Here's the forecast path from the hurricane center. So we have the landfall coming up. And then we still think it's going to be a Category 2 into southern Georgia. So even well after landfall, it's still going to have a lot of wind damage here into southern Georgia. By the time we get to late tonight in between Savannah and Charleston, this will be about midnight or so. Maybe possibly still a Category 1 or a strong tropical storm.

We have concerns up here not just for wind and trees, but also the high tide this evening at about 830. So the winds right now, we're not seeing a ton of power outages. We're seeing about winds up to 50 miles per hour in the Tampa area, 30s inland. But now the core of the storm is beginning to move onshore. This is when we start the destruction portion of the storm. This eye, you can see how small it is here, all the lightning in the center of it. This is where the extreme winds are. It's almost like a tornado moving on shore.

It's about 30 miles wide. Here's a zoomed-in view of it. I did a little thing about 27 miles from the west side to the east side of it. And this area here, this is not beaches. This is not cities. This is not cities. This is not like E.N. and Fort Myers. This is swamp land here. This is like a wildlife management area. You have to go inland about 20 miles or so to start getting to some of the towns in the cities like Perry, Florida. We're going to talk a lot about today. Population 7,000. They have

the best chance of going through this eye. And whoever goes through that, even 20 to 30 miles inland, that's where the extreme wind destruction will be. To the right of this landfall, this whole area in here from Cedar Key to Horseshoe Beach, the water is coming up dramatically as I speak. That's where the storm surge is going to be. Again, there's not a lot of population centers in here, not a lot of towns. It's swampland. There's a couple of fishing areas, villages. Cedar Key has about 800 residents. That's the biggest of any coastal area up here. And that's why there was a lot of concerns there in the last couple of days.

So here's a look at the potential storm surge flooding. This area in red is the area I just showed you, this Horseshoe Beach. There's the Cedar Key. And this high tide that we experienced as we go during the day today was at 145. So we're almost at low tide right now. So it's actually helping us a little bit. The tides are not extreme in the Gulf Coast. It's only a difference of like maybe two or three feet. Where on the East Coast, the difference is like eight feet. So it's not quite as extreme, but anywhere where this red is is where the inundation is going to happen. And that's where the nine feet plus. And you can

see how far inland some of this water is going to go. It's hard to picture a storm surge that could go up to 16 feet. I mean, that's a two stories. You know, you go out and you look at your house and you look at where like the second story is up towards the roof. That's how high the water could get in some areas. And then later on this evening, we now have hurricane warnings issued for the Savannah area because it's that intense moving that quickly. It's going to maintain that intensity. So people waking up from Brunswick, Georgia, to Savannah, to Charleston, are now looking at this storm a little more seriously as far as the winds are going. So, you know, Willie, all these storms are different. This is not going to be an EM.

This is not hitting a major metropolitan area. But this has its challenges for those little small. Instead of hundreds of thousands of people in extreme risk, we've got thousands of people. But for those people watching this forecast and knowing what's going to happen to their town, it is still heartbreaking. Bill, you mentioned Perry, Florida. Let's go there right now. It's about 50 miles southeast of Tallahassee. It's where we find NBC News national correspondent Gabe Gutierrez. Gabe, what are you seeing there? Hi there, Willie. Well, we're starting to see the wind and the rain here really pick up in the last half hour or so, and we're expecting it to really intensify over the

next hour or so. As you mentioned, Perry, Florida is near where this storm is expected to make landfall. Now, we still have power here, Willie, but again, we're expecting these conditions to deteriorate over the next hour or so, especially and really throughout the morning. Now, Taylor County, where we're at, it actually closed its emergency shelter yesterday because it was a mandatory evacuation order in effect. A curfew was imposed overnight. Residents in the shelter were bused to a nearby county. And the police here in Perry are saying that once the wind speeds here reach 45 miles an hour, they're not going to be able to help you. So they're urging everybody, they urged everybody to get out right now.

It could be soon where, you know, it's not really a smart idea to be out on the roads. Again, as you said, this is in the Big Bend region. Local officials here say that this storm is unprecedented and Perry is actually about 20 miles inland, but still expecting some of the worst wind damage from this storm as it comes ashore. So again, we still have power at the hotel where we're staying. But as you can see, we're starting to get hit with rain. And really, we're expecting those winds to pick up in just a short while, Willie. So tell me a little bit about Perry, Gabe, if you would. We know that, as Bill said, that Big Bend area is a natural wildlife area, as a matter of fact, kind of swampland, the nature coast, as they call it. Where exactly is Perry situated and what have they been doing to brace for what's coming here?

Yeah, Willie. So this is actually just southeast of Tallahassee. And as you said, this is not a very populated area of Florida. It's, you know, wetlands as the storm comes ashore. So that's different from other major hurricanes that have come to Florida. Perry is about a population of about 7,000, the entire county about 20,000 or so. I can't tell you whether it was actually in Cedar Key just yesterday, and they're getting hit really hard with that storm surge. They're expecting 10 to 15 feet of storm surge, and early reports out of there is that they're already starting to see some storm surge in the Cedar Key area. Residents there, there was about 100 or so, the mayor said,

that were trying to decide whether to leave or not and had decided to stay. The mayor in Cedar Key was warning them to get out because it's possible that those series of islands could be completely underwater. Here in Perry, again, the concern is not storm surge since it's inland. However, the concern is wind. And that is what could cause a lot of damage, especially as we saw this hurricane intensify overnight to a Category 4 storm. We should see, again, those winds pick up really here throughout the morning. But this is near Tallahassee in the Big Bend region where Florida's panhandle meets the

peninsula. And again, this area has not seen a storm this strong ever. Willie? Hey, Gabe. This is Bill Cairns here. I know a lot of people watching this and they see you guys. And for the most part, about three hours from now, four hours from now, it's going to be like you and your crew is going through a tornado. A lot of people are wondering, what is your plan?

What is your safety plan? Once you get to that point where that eye wall is approaching, what are you guys going to do to get safe? Yeah, that's a good point, Bill. And we always try to be very transparent with our viewers. You know, this is a concrete structure. It's a hotel here in Perry. We still have power and you can't see this, but off camera right now, there's a concrete wall really here to my left. That's kind of blocking some of the winds. We can easily go inside as three floors in this hotel. And there's other media here. There's other people that are here as well. And so if the conditions get too bad, we do plan to head inside. My crew is under a covering right now.

I'm out here in the elements trying to show viewers what's actually happening here. But as you can see, back here, it may not pick up on camera, but the winds are really starting to pick up here. And the rain is starting to blow sideways here um you know this parking lot is full you see trees in the background kind of swing again bill you mentioned over the next couple hours the wind is really going to be intensifying and i've been seeing your forecast the concern here wind speed could cause significant damage to some of the structures here really incredible because normally you know we're covering the story from um from the beach you can't really do that here where the eye where the eye wall is going to cross because it's not populated those wetland areas and here we go as we get one of these uh these gusts right here uh the wind speed

again picking up police say that once this reaches 45 miles an hour we're not quite there yet but we will be soon. They're not going to be able to help anyone who decides to stay behind. So this, again, conditions expected to deteriorate here in the coming hours, Bill. Yeah, and we've watched them, Gabe, deteriorate even in the five minutes that we've been talking to. Please be safe with you and your crew. We appreciate your reporting there from Perry, Florida, which, as we say, is expected to take a big hit when this thing makes landfall shortly. Gabe, thanks so much.

Gabe, I was interested to hear Governor DeSantis say yesterday, and we will hear from the governor again in just a few minutes here live, Bill, that this is a storm unlike we've seen before. And by that, he meant that the Big Bend area, actually, for all the historic hurricanes that Florida has seen over the decades doesn't get hit like this. The big bend, that turn that we see between the peninsula and the panhandle just doesn't get these kind of hurricanes typically. Yeah, it kind of just fit right in that little tucked in corner there. And yeah, historically, going back to the mid-1800s, we've never had a major hurricane go in this area. There was one, Dora, that was much weaker, but nothing that has looked like this. And just to give you an idea, we'll try to keep, you know, Gabe's shot and going back to him as much as we possibly can through the morning. But at one point, it will get too dangerous. A lot of the storm chasers, you know, their goal is to try to get in the center of this

thing. And a lot of them are in Perry because that's like going to be the closest to getting in that eye. So to give you a perspective, Gabe is in that location where people are trying to get to to see the worst of the storm possible because there is no location right down here on the coast that you can really go to get in the center of the storm. The storm chasers do this, by the way. They want to give us the historical context. They want to measure the pressure in the center of the storm. And a lot of people do this professionally.

So typically, they know how to do it safely, too. As the storm does move on shore, though, we'll probably get what they call an extreme wind warning issued any time now. And they only issue that for really intense hurricanes. And it's the equivalent of like a large tornado warning when they give these extreme wind warnings. And we're likely to have that for the location where Gabe is now. And it's important to point out the big population centers, Tallahassee has roughly about a quarter of a million people in that area here and also Gainesville. It's kind of splitting the middle of these two areas. The highest winds we were concerned could sneak up towards Tallahassee. Anyone's ever been to this portion of Florida? It's forest. I mean, Tallahassee is a beautiful city surrounded by

trees and in the middle of trees. And so we are concerned with how much tree damage and power outages we'll have and how long that power outages could potentially last for. The National Weather Service in Tallahassee, the forecast for this area, they were saying if you're near that eye, you know, prepare not to be without power for possibly up to a month, maybe two months in some areas. That's how serious the winds could be and how extreme the damage would be. In areas of the storm surge, I mean, they were saying it could be, you know, uninhabitable for weeks to come, Willie. So that's the potential that we're dealing with.

You know, Category 4, Category 3s, they leave behind extreme destruction. This one's a little different because of where the landfall is, not hitting a beach, not hitting populated areas. But it'll probably take a day or two to show you the pictures of where the worst is on this one. All right. Let's go to Crystal River, Florida, about 80 miles north of Tampa, likely also to be hit by Hurricane Adalia as it makes landfall here shortly. That's where we find MSNBC's Jose Diaz-Balart. Jose, it's good to see you this morning. What are you seeing on the ground there and what are the people expecting over the next several hours? Good morning, Willie. Just about five minutes ago, we were getting pelted with one of the

feeder bands of this rapidly moving hurricane. And now it just kind of died down. Now, you know, the water is up. This is one of the canals here in Crystal River area. This is an area that, again, and Bill was just talking about this, you know, where they're used to storms. But what is coming down is something that they hadn't really ever seen. idea of where we are just south of here is Homo Sassa and just north of here is Ingles and Yankee Town. And I've been talking to people here all morning. Some of the people who are at the place where we're staying at, at this at this area, have gone to their homes. I was speaking last night to a lady who lives in a mobile park home, and they're just saying this is the only place we have. Now, there's been a lot of information out.

People have been told they have to leave this area. This is an A evacuation zone. Many of them have, but many have decided to stay. What I can tell you, Willie, is that in a matter of seconds, we're going from pretty peaceful as far as rain is concerned with some wind to all of a sudden these feeder bands coming in. And it is just horizontal rain and horizontal wind. So far, we took about a power hit about 30 minutes ago. There's about 60,000 people here in the state of Florida, mostly obviously in the West Coast, that have lost power.

The governor is expected to hold a news conference shortly. About 23,000 alliance men have already been put on alert and are all over this place. Coming in yesterday, we crisscrossed this area. We saw maybe 10, 12 sheriff's patrol cars. These electric vehicles, the linesmen, are also crisscrossing much of the state. It's really a situation where everybody is on pins and needles to see what comes next. And what they do around here, at least, is these feeder bands come in and then they just blow everything through. Jose, what is your sense of the way that people are preparing for this as you get blown around there?

Obviously, they've been through a lot on the Gulf Coast. They've been through they've seen hurricanes in the Tampa area and north. How seriously is everyone taking this, people you've talked to there? People are taking it seriously. A lot of the folks that I was speaking to here last night say that they have determined, for example, an extraordinary woman that I got a pleasure to meet yesterday, was telling me that her sons that are grown are actually a little bit south of Tampa. She's staying in her mobile home because, she says, she has a lot of animals.

And, you know, people here everywhere consider, you know, their pets part of their family. And so there's a lot of concern for pets. And there are shelters that have been opening up throughout this area that accept pets. But in her case, she said, listen, I want to ride it out. I hope I'm doing the right thing. I have cats, dogs, ducks, and she just doesn't want to leave them behind. So people are taking it seriously. There's been a constant flow of

information here by state authorities. And I think it's been really helpful to see how much information people have. The decision on whether to leave or not is a tough one for a lot of folks. Yeah. And the governor has been pretty clear. It was time to leave yesterday, at least. Jose Diaz-Villar, thank you so much, sir. We'll be back to you, I'm sure, throughout the morning. And joining us now is the director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Dr. Michael Brennan. Dr. Brennan, thanks for being with us today. What's the latest information you have on what is becoming and now is a Category 4 storm, winds 130 miles an hour? Yeah, Dahlia, the worst effects are now moving into that Big Bend region of Florida. You can see the eye here moving steadily toward the north-northeast now, quickly at 17 miles an

hour. Maximum sustained winds are around 130 miles an hour. And we're now starting to see that catastrophic storm surge start to take place across portions of Dixie, Taylor, counties, places like Cedar Key. Those water levels are going to come up here very, very quickly in the next hour or two as the eyewall of Adalia moves onshore and brings those catastrophic winds that you see in the core of a Category 4 hurricane to the coast here in the next couple hours. And so landfall is expected about what time, Dr. Brennan? It'll be sometime in the next few hours. It's hard to tell. You can see the storm sort of wiggles and wobbles of the eye here. But I would expect by early to mid-morning hours, we'll have the center moving on shore somewhere in this Big Bend region. And as you look at the map, it's just the

staying power of this storm, the projected staying power anyways. It moves up through Florida, continues to be a hurricane, maybe even a Category 2, up into Georgia and South Carolina. This is going to be a long haul with this storm, isn't it? Well, yeah, because it's moving so quick and it's so strong, it's not going to have time to weaken. We're still forecasting it to be a hurricane later today and even into this evening. And you can see we have hurricane warnings in effect well inland across southeastern Georgia and now extending into Savannah and Hilton Head, South Carolina. So it's going to be a substantial wind event, significant power outages, tree damage,

a lot of dangerous conditions that are going to unfold here across North Florida and into the coastal southeast as we go through the day today. Dr. Brennan, our meteorologist, Bill Cairns, is here with a question for you. Bill? Thanks for joining us. And hats off to your team on a fantastic forecast up to this point. It's been amazing. Talk a little bit about the

concerns for Savannah and Charleston later on this evening with that high tide right around 830. Yeah, you know, we have a storm surge warning in effect from portions of Savannah, Hilton Head up to Charleston. We're expecting inundation of three to five feet above ground level. So that's why we have that storm surge warning in effect. So that has that high tide comes in later today and the circulation of a dahlia moves over there. We can certainly see that life- we have that storm surge warning in effect. So that has that high tide comes in later today and the circulation of a dahlia moves over there. We can certainly see that life threatening storm surge develop. So folks in those areas, if they've been asked to evacuate, take other precautions by their local officials. Please rush those to completion this morning.

And one thing I'm already getting questions on this, too. And everyone's like, is it possible the storm is really going to go off the coast and do a loop to loop and come back? What are your thoughts on that? There's a lot of uncertainty as we get into the longer time ranges. Right now, we're expecting sort of a slow southward to southeastward motion. Storms that typically move that much over land is going to weaken. We're still expecting a tropical storm, but we'll see what unfolds. We have time to watch that play out over the next few days.

Our focus is really now here on what's going to transpire in the next 48 hours. Director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Dr. Michael Brennan, we know how busy you are today. We appreciate you stopping to take some time with us. Thank you. Thanks so much. Still ahead on a busy morning, we'll continue our live reporting from across the state of Florida as it braces for Hurricane Adalia set to make landfall within the next couple of hours. We'll be joined by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. We're also awaiting an update from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just within the next few minutes. We will take that

live to get you the latest information. Plus, we'll speak with the mayors of Tallahassee, Tampa and St. Petersburg about the expected impacts from this massive storm. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. I think we're worried about the surge, the ocean surge. We don't know exactly yet. It's hour to hour we're watching this. But I told the governor and the mayor and the regions that are likely to be hit first that we're there as long as it takes. We're going to make sure they have everything they need.

So you look at a live picture of Tampa. That was President Biden yesterday on the federal response to Hurricane Adalia. Forty nine of the Florida's 67 counties are currently under state of emergency. At least 30 have issued evacuation orders. Governor Ron DeSantis says resources are being made available throughout the state to help to restore power, respond to threats of life if needed. That includes placing tens of thousands of electric workers on standby and the state deploying all 5,500 members of its National Guard. Texas, Pennsylvania also have sent personnel to help with rescue and recovery efforts. You can expect many more states to contribute from here. DeSantis warning Hurricane Adalia could be one of the biggest

storms to hit Flores Big Bend in more than a century. This is going to be something that will that will leave significant impacts and particularly in this part of the state. You really got to go back to the late 1800s to find a storm of this magnitude that will enter where this one looks like it's going to enter tomorrow. So we don't really have a historical analog in anybody's memory. So it's likely to cause a lot of damage. And that's just the reality. So be prepared for that. Be prepared to lose power. And just know that there's a lot of folks that are going to be there to help you get back on your feet. This storm surge, this is one of the highest risk parts of a hurricane and is especially problematic along the west coast of

Florida due to the underwater geography. The coastal shelf gets shallow very quickly, which increases the amount of the storm surge, putting more people at risk. Very few people can survive being in the path of major storm surge. And this storm will be deadly if we don't get out of harm's way and take it seriously. That is FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell speaking at the White House yesterday. President Biden says he's been in constant communication with Governor DeSantis and other state officials. DeSantis expected to deliver remarks, the president, excuse me, on the federal government's response to Hurricane Adalia, as well as the wildfires in Maui later today. Let's bring in the host of Wait to Early, White House Bureau Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire. So obviously, Jonathan, the federal government and the state of

Florida know how to do this. Unfortunately, they do it all too often, including last year with Hurricane Ian, which hit the southwest coast of Florida. An interesting dynamic, though, and another layer this year is that Ron DeSantis, of course, is running against potentially Joe Biden to become the next president of the United States. Right. At least for a few days, Willie, both sides will try to set politics to the side, to focus on the response here to this storm. You'll recall that President Biden has met with Governor DeSantis before in terms of when after that last hurricane that hit the Fort Myers area, killed nearly 150 people, as well as when there was those apartment building

collapses on the other coast of Florida. The president traveled there as well. So he and Governor DeSantis have spoken several times. White House officials tell me in recent days, their staff's also in constant communication. We're going to hear from the governor very soon this morning with a storm briefing. We'll hear from the president later today talking about how the federal government is helping surge help to that area. The president's already signed a disaster declaration for Florida, which which speeds up the process, getting federal funds, getting federal assets to the ground there. And we should note, Willie, that soon enough there'll be debates in Congress about disaster funds, relief aid to rebuild the areas there, and of course, in Maui with those wildfires. And that may go political far more. Politics may return to that venue sooner than we all want.

It has happened before in the wake of storms like this. And we already know a fierce spending fight is on the horizon, which could include even a government shutdown, Republicans and Democrats far apart on many issues. But hopefully they can come together at least quickly on this. Well, for now, anyway, politics rightly goes to the side as the federal government coordinates with the government there in Florida. As John said, Governor DeSantis will hold a briefing here in the next couple of minutes. We, of course, will bring that to you live as we continue to follow the path of Hurricane Adalia. Powerful category four storm barreling toward Florida, said to make landfall at any moment this morning. Morning Joe's coming right back. on the Santas is briefing the media now on Hurricane Adalia. Let's listen in. Our lines are still hot and live, and there's going to be people working to to remedy that.

And we've got a lot of people stage. But that is very hazardous in the immediate aftermath of the storm. We currently have 54,000 households that are out of power throughout the state of Florida, but there have been over 100,000 households that have already been restored through hard work all through the night, and those restoration efforts are ongoing. Any place it's safe to do. People are there working to get that done. As soon as it's safe to do so, when the winds die down to a sufficient level, search and rescue efforts will begin. We have eight urban search and rescue teams staged, ready to go. Thirty three ambulance strike teams, fifty,500 National Guardsmen. We also have the Coast Guard on standby should that be necessary. There will be an immediate effort to restore power to people who lose power. There's 30,000 plus linemen stationed and ready to go to commence restoration

efforts. For local municipalities and electric co-ops, please accept mutual aid. These are folks that can come supplement your efforts. And again, the goal is just to get everybody back online as quickly as possible. There will be a lot of debris from this storm. There's going to be a need to have all hands on deck to be able to do. And accordingly, our Florida Department of Transportation, we have 650 pieces of heavy equipment and trucks staged for cut and toss operations post-storm. We anticipate there to be a lot of debris, a lot of downed trees, a lot of downed power lines, and there's going to be a need for this. We also have 1,100 generators staged for traffic signal restoration. We anticipate that that's going to be a need for this. We also have 1,100 generators staged for traffic signal

restoration. We anticipate that that's going to be a problem in a number of communities as well. Fuel, we have 1.2 million gallons staged. We're also arranging more fuel to come in by truck just to make up for whatever may not be coming in through the normal course of business with things like the Port of Tampa being closed. And so there's a lot of fuel that has been arranged to be here, and our goal is to not have any major fuel interruptions. In terms of communications, there's 500-plus Starlink internets ready for deployment to places that need to be. There's already been almost 250 that have been deployed. So as affected areas need that connectivity, Florida Division of Emergency Management is going to work to provide that. They also have 3,000 generators staged and

ready to surge for areas that need some power. Now, if you're using a generator in your personal home, please do not run that generator inside your home. Do not run it inside your garage. It must be run outside your house. It needs to be at least 20 feet away from doors and windows, and you have to point the exhaust away from your home. We do not want to see any fatalities as a result of misuse of generators. So there's a lot of people that are on deck right now. There's going to be a lot of efforts as this storm passes. But this thing is hitting really within the next hour and a half, most likely. It's going to make landfall. It is a major hurricane, as we've been saying it was likely to be for the last couple days.

And we just hope everybody stay safe. Don't put your life at risk by doing anything dumb at this point. This thing's powerful. If you're inside, just hunker down until it gets past you. You don't want to be messing around with these winds. There's going to be things flying all over the place. Obviously, if you're in a place that's close to the coast and you see that surge, that's going to be a legitimate surge. It's going to be a big, big deal, and it's going to be very, very dangerous. And there we go with our power here. We're back. So I'm going to have Kevin Guthrie come up. We'll also hear from Major General Haas, Admiral Schofield, and then

one of our Leon County Commissioners, Christian Caban, will be here. So, Kevin. Right on time. Five-second delay and kick those generators in. So, thank God that's working. As the Governor said, the storm is here. It is here now. It is just off the coast of the Big Bend, looking like Keaton Beach is going to be the location in which we have landfall. Stay off the roads. If you're sheltering in place at home, stay inside your home. If you're at a shelter or hotel, please do not leave at this time. Conditions are deteriorating outside in the impacted areas. Shelter, again, as we said, shelter in place as safely as you can where you can.

We are seeing two to three foot of storm surge in the Tampa Bay area. We're seeing about four foot of storm surge right now at Cedar Key. Because of this high tide, because of the high tide which is coming, the tide is starting to come back in throughout the, all all the way from Tampa Bay all the way up through Apalachicola Bay. Storm surge will dramatically increase over the next couple of hours. We are seeing a lot of tornado warnings. So far, there have been 11, as the governor has said, of the four or five that have happened since about 3 a.m. this morning. At least three of those by our meteorologists have indicated radar-indicated tornadoes. In other words, they have seen debris in those rotations, but that will all be confirmed by the National Weather Service local forecasting

offices throughout the day. We will obviously see more tornadic activity as the day goes along. If you are in a tornado warning in your area, get to an interior room free from windows. Consider putting mattresses and things over your head, even to include helmets. We can replace a lot of limbs, but we cannot replace your head, obviously. So please protect your head, cover your head at all costs. There will be also life-threatening winds in the Big Bend today. We could see gusts over 100 miles an hour. We could see sustained winds well over 130 miles an hour as we have this Cat 4 landfall. All of these are life-threatening conditions, so please do everything you can to stay safe where you are because first responders may not be able to reach you during the storm.

You need to be prepared to take care of yourself and your family while you're sheltering in place. Ambulances, search and rescue teams, other first responders will get to you just as fast as we possibly can once the winds die down to a point where we can respond to you. We do not want you putting first responders at risk unnecessarily. In southwest Florida, as the governor has already mentioned, we've already restored over 100,000 accounts with power. I want to thank the men and women of our utilities, both or all three independent-owned utilities, municipal electric associations and cooperatives.

Really appreciate the hard work that they've been doing, even here in Tallahassee. As I was coming back to the EOC in the early wee morning hours, Tallahassee Electric was out restoring power here in the capital region. So, again, very much appreciate what they're doing. We will continue to respond as we can. As, again, as I said, we're doing. We will continue to respond as we can. As, again, as I said, we've already started responding to issues in southwest Florida. I talked to Representative Adam Botana from Fort Myers Beach this morning at about 3 a.m., and he has said it's very Irma-like conditions, not a lot of storm surge, not a lot of damage, but certainly not Ian.

But he said it's very reminiscent of what they experienced in Hurricane Irma. So we're happy to hear that. And I appreciate him giving me a call and giving me a ground truth. We are here. We are ready. We will deploy our response and recovery teams just as quickly as we possibly can. You know, we like to move very quickly here at the division. We are ready to provide the needed support to our

Big Bend communities, as well as communities with standing impacts from the other bands of the storm. Under the governor's leadership, we have certainly amassed a great team here at the division and with state agency heads that have moved bureaucracy and red tape to get things done to where we're restoring 100,000 accounts in less than eight hours. So please rest assured, we will do whatever it takes to help our communities recover from Adelia. I got General Haas, or we have General Haas here this morning. Again, John, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you and your team, Admiral Schofield, the same way. I appreciate everything you guys are doing. They have helicopters ready to go. As soon as they're going to be able to get back into this area, they are going to be flying. They're going to be in the area. So again, thank you for both of you being here. Governor.

Good morning. And Governor, thank you again for your leadership and your continued support of your Florida National Guard. Director Guthrie, thank you again for your leadership and your continued support of your Florida National Guard. Director Guthrie, thank you again for your tremendous work and the work of your team to protect our Florida citizens. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those in the affected areas of the storm, those that are being affected already. As I mentioned yesterday, the Florida National Guard is fully mobilized with over 5,500 soldiers and airmen ready to support hurricane response efforts. We expect that throughout the day we will and staging areas throughout the state of Florida, as well as support the 26 county emergency management operation centers with liaison specialists. The Florida National Guard currently has on hand 2,400 vehicles available, including high mobility and high water vehicles, 14 rotary wing

aircraft with additional aviation assets coordinated with our neighboring states through a mutual aid agreement, and 23 small watercraft to support search and rescue operations and delivery of supplies to flooded areas. Your Florida National Guard is prepared to accomplish any missions required by the Department of Emergency Management, and we stand ready to support our neighbors and fellow citizens in need. Thank you. All right, good morning. Governor, Director Guthrie, and fellow Floridians, the Coast Guard is standing the watch to support our state and federal partners. Our highest priority is always saving lives. We pre-positioned 15 aircraft and more than 25 cutters and 20 flood response teams

prepared to respond in the wake of the storm as soon as conditions safely allow. We have pre-positioned aircraft in Miami and West Palm Beach and they'll be the first ones to respond in the wake of the storm. Yesterday these flight crews conducted overflights of the western Florida area up to the Big Bend area and made call-outs to mariters to seek shelter, as well as to really familiarize ourselves with the landscape pre-storm arrival. So we're ready to go. We're also assembling our flood response teams from both inside and outside the state so we can assist both the Florida team and FEMA with the urban search and rescue. We're also ready to launch aircraft for urgent maritime search and rescue in the vicinity of Tampa and the Big Bend area as the storm passes.

Our second priority is the reconstitution of ports and waterways, really critical to our marine transportation system, so urgently needed so that resources can make it to the communities in need. We expect to begin overflight damage assessment of the west coast of Florida at first light as soon as the storm passes and safe flight conditions allow. We will follow in the wake of the storm to also assist with impacts on the east coast of Florida. Our buoy tenders and units will conduct port assessments and reconstitution efforts with our aids to navigation teams and the Army Corps of Engineers. Depending on sea conditions and port conditions,

we hope to have those cutters near shore in the next several days. Our third priority is environmental response to address pollution or contamination concerns as a result of the hurricane and the storm surge flooding. The marine environmental response to mitigate and clean up potential pollutants and damage infrastructure will be a long committed effort. We're entering the response phase of this operation. This is one of the most critical and certainly the most dangerous of our operations in response to the hurricane. Because these are dangerous conditions, we need to ensure that our aircraft and rescue

crews can operate safely, especially as they may encounter downed power lines, surging and receding floodwaters, and other visible and subsurface hazards. Our crews are really highly trained and fully equipped to meet this challenge. Once again, our highest priority is to save lives here for fellow Floridians. If you need assistance but are in a safe location, we ask you to communicate your distress for first responders by dialing 911 or calling on VHF Radio Channel 16. And definitely stay where you are. We will come to you. If you don't need assistance, we ask you to stay put in safe shelter. Please allow the emergency responders to do their job safely without interference. Thank you to our local, state, and federal partners working together in this hurricane effort.

We really appreciate the partnership. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Christian Caban. I'm a Leon County Commissioner. I'm here today to assist in the briefing of our community on the impacts of Hurricane Adalia. Leon County residents, Hurricane Adalia has moved slightly east of Leon County. This storm will have a lasting impact on surrounding communities. This is a historic Category 4 storm predicted to have life-threatening storm surge, hurricane-force winds, and heavy rain. Leon County residents, you should expect downed trees, blocked roads, power outages, flooding, and overall dangerous conditions. Now more than ever, you must be informed and follow all emergency orders.

Everyone must shelter in place until the storm has passed. Please continue to follow Leon County on social media, our website, and local radio station, WFSU. I encourage everyone to stay safe until the storm has passed. Once the storm passes, we may have many people without power and there may be lots of debris in the roads. Public Works, along with its partners, will be working 24-7 on the recovery effort of restoring power and clearing roads. Many roads will be blocked by trees or flooding. Water is dangerous to drive on. Please do not use roadways unless it is safe or an emergency. Stay home if you can. Please give first responders time to clear the way and restore power. Folks, Leon County staff is the best of the best. I'm thankful and confident that our team will be working around the clock to restore normalcy to our community. I'd also like to

thank the governor and state staff for their ability to respond quickly and assisting not only Leon County but our neighbors on the Gulf Coast as well as we prepare for impact this morning. Thank you and God bless. So we are going to have the full landfall impacts very, very shortly within the next couple hours, most likely probably by 0800. It's going to make landfall on Florida's Big Bend. So please hunker down wherever you are. Don't mess with this storm. Don't do anything that's going to put yourself in jeopardy. And there'll be a lot of help coming on the back end of this storm. And we're ready to go. As soon as it's safe to do so, you're going to see all these different assets deployed.

So stay safe. Any questions? Do you feel like the state and residents here are prepared for this strength of the storm, you know, potentially in Category 5? I know we're in Category 4. I think if you look at the counties, I think that they mobilized very quickly. I think that they've been very clear about the storm surge threat and all these zone A's across the Gulf Coast. And probably more so than any storm that I can remember in recent years.

So people understand. We've said from the beginning it was going to probably be a major hurricane. And that's what it is. And so we're here and we're ready. And we're going to work hard on the back end to make sure everyone gets back up on their feet. Is the message to shelter in place for all 49 counties that are under the state of emergency? So if you're in a part, there's counties where the storms pass. So there may be some outer bands. That's not necessarily saying shelter, saying if you're in the path of where the eyewall is going, you know, at this point, you've got to hunker down.

And so those big bend counties, as we get into north central Florida, you know, you're in jeopardy at that point. And so it's really those places where it's going to hit the eyewall, where the eyewall is coming in, to be able to not mess with it. It's going to be a significant, significant impact. Any concerns about the 100 that decided to stay on Cedar Key? Well, sure. I think that it's a hazardous situation. If you end up with storm surge that even approaches that 16 feet, the chance of surviving that is not great. You would need to be maybe even like on a three-story building because it is going to rise very, very highly. Now, most people did heed the warning, but there were some that just, that's what they wanted to do. And so once this passes, there will be rescue efforts done if need be.

And hopefully it's not necessarily. Hopefully they knew what they were doing and they have a spot. But it's potentially very, very hazardous when you're talking about really anything even approaching 10 feet. But when you start talking about potentially 16 feet, that is a huge, huge deal. Yesterday, the expectation was that there would be 40,000 electrical linemen in state to respond to the restoration effort. What are the numbers? We said up to, we said probably between 30 and 40, and that's where we're at? We're between 30 and 40. We haven't talked to the crews this morning because they're actually out in the field doing what they're doing.

So I'm not so much worried about the numbers right now as much as we are getting the power restored. Yep. Do you think that Florida caught a break here in the fact that this is hitting the Big Bend and not areas like the Tampa Bay area? Well, it's not a break for the people that are in the pathway. So I think it's any time you have it, it's difficult. If you just look at the way Florida is cut, to have something go in this Big Bend, and it's going to be to Georgia relatively soon, whereas we've had some hurricanes, I mean, like Ian, it rams into Southwest Florida, and then it cut across the entire state and really impacted many, many millions of people. So you don't want to get hit at all. You want it to be as modest an impact as is humanly possible. And I think that there's

different paths that some of these storms that take Ian was one that was a really bad path just because it impacted so many people. Like, you know, People saw the images of Fort Myers Beach, and obviously, those were catastrophic images. But you would go hundreds of miles away, and you had major, major flooding. You had erosion on the east coast of Florida in places like Volusia County, the beaches and things like that. You had structures falling down because of that. So it had massive, massive impacts. And so anytime you do this, you know, you would want it to impact as small amount of places as possible. What do you think about Trump? You know, he's a resident here in Florida and he hasn't commented on the doubt at all yet. It's not my concern. My concern is protecting the people of Florida

being ready to go. And we've done that. And look, we in Florida, you just have to do this. I mean, this is something we put a lot of time and effort into throughout the course of each year, knowing that there's going to be time where you're going to have to activate it. Now, we had a major one last year, one of the most expensive on record. We were hoping not to have any this year, then maybe we would get off lucky, but that just wasn't in the cards. So you deal with it. But that's been our focus, getting all this stuff ramped up. I think the counties, by and large, I think have done a really good job with this. And there's going to be things that are going to happen over these next few days are going to require a lot of support.

And we want to be there to be able to support folks. So we'll be back with doing some more briefings. And then as soon as the storm passes, I think we'll probably end up trying to get on the road and figure out where the where the damage, the worst damage is and get down there and see what we can do to be able to help those folks. Thanks. All right. That is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis leading a briefing in Tallahassee, Florida, a briefing that illustrated the power of this storm when the power dipped out briefly while the governor was speaking before the generators kicked in just a few seconds later. That's a live picture right now at six fifty four in the morning of Perry, Florida. Just since we came on the air a little under an hour ago, that picture has changed pretty dramatically. That's Gabe Gutierrez, our reporter.

That is his position there. The winds have picked up. The rains have picked up. What we learned from the briefing is that Keaton Beach, Florida, according to FEMA, will be the place of landfall there on the Big Bend. That's about 180, 200 miles north of Tampa, 75 miles southeast of Tallahassee, Keaton Beach, Florida, making landfall just over an hour from now. Governor DeSantis saying 8 o'clock Eastern time is when they're looking for this storm to hit land. At this point, they say, if you've decided to ride out the storm, you've got to stay inside, hunker down, and hope you survive it.

They gave warnings for days to evacuate some of these areas. At this point, you've got to stay inside and hope for the best. We'll be right back with our continuing coverage of a powerful Category 4 Hurricane Adalia when Morning Joe comes right back.