Chief executive officer volunteer florida. Florida National Guard, john president and chief executive officer of walmart, welcome to florida. We are happy that you are here. I just got back from surveying the damage in charlotte and lee counties. Some of the damage was almost indescribable to see a house just sitting in the middle of the bay. It literally mustve gotten picked up, flown because of the massive wind of water. There were cars floating in the middle of the water. Some of the homes were total losses. I would say the most significant damage i saw was on fort myers beach. Some of the homes were wiped out. The sun was just concrete slabs. Coursers damages some of our infrastructure. Particularly the sanibel causeway. There are breaks and that of multiple different areas. It was interesting the pylons on the water you had that part of the bridge that was actually good. It was the point it was on a sand bar the got totally wiped away. Or from the mainland there is breaks there. That will require major, Major Overhaul and potentially a complete rebuild. Theyre going to look at and see. That is the only way on the island. The operations to help people there has been mostly by air. And all told surgeon rescue operations are in the wee hours the morning. As soon as the winds died down enough to where it was safe you had coast guard assets to an urban search and rescue teams event the National Guard out assisting people. Theres been more than 700 confirmed rescues theres likely many more than that that will be confirmed as more data comes in. People have been rescued from places like fort myers, fort myers beach, sanibel, marco island as well as the Barrier Islands in Charlotte County. Obviously there is a lot of calls coming in as the storm was really raging yesterday. People did not evacuate were hunkered down. There was storm surge, there is a lot of apprehension understandably went initially the First Responders came this morning, people would wave them down. With their by helicopter, boat, high water vehicle. Now theyre finding place like sanibel mostly residents are waiting thank you for coming but they say they are fine. They are staying put now. I think theyll be issues with being on some of those islands theyre not going to have Services Like we expect from given quite some time given that limitations of transportation. But nevertheless thats a sign some of the folks who did ride it out are stabilized in their home. The First Responders are doing targeted search is just going home by home checking to see if people are okay. And then responding to specific reports if they are missing loved ones. There will of course the many rescues added to the tiller. We absolutely expect immortality from this hurricane. I just caution people there is a process by which that is confirmed. And i know people of said certain things. In terms of confirmed that will be made apparent over the coming days. But i think things have been said out there that is not something confirmed at this juncture. Of course we have thousands and thousands of people on the ground working to restore power, opening the roads, bring in food and water, restoring communication. Talk with local folks in lee county probably the biggest immediate hurdle they are facing in their county Water Utility had a big water main break. That is necessary to be fixed to provide basic Water Services for the residents of the county. They have been working to troubleshoot it. They requested the state and less federal support to diagnose and potentially fix the problem. We worked with fema and the army corps of engineers came in. They came in pretty early. I think kevin called them at three in the morning there in southwest florida from jacksonville by early this afternoon. And so they are hoping to diagnose and hopefully will be able to remedy that. Thats something thats very, very important for the county to get fixed. In the meantime we are assisting Healthcare Facilities to provide working water because they need that to be able to take care of their patients. We are shuffling water from lakeland Healthcare Facilities. Another about 20 trucks with 60 gallons of water for one point to million gallons of water. I think they have been able to fix some of the water. One of the three hospitals has been able to fix the water problem there. That is good news. Port tampa, Port Everglades the fuel is flowing into some of our major ports. Until your sink a lot of fuel flowing throughout the state. More than three and 30,000 gallons of fuel have already been moved into southwest florida. I actually saw a couple gas stations open in the fort myers area and we were there today. With this fuel the state of florida set up six fuel depots to help all First Response efforts. We think the remaining ports in the state of florida will open sometime tomorrow and sometime on saturday. There is been a massive amount of supplies staged. Were also bringing more into the region. More ambulances, more food, water, ice, or generators, or actually bring into full Service Mechanical shops to help to repair and maintain emergency vehicles. They are and rugged conditions when going through water and others. Bringing in more tarps bring kits for parents and toddlers to give them ten days worth of support. Bringing in more high water ladders. As of 6 00 p. M. 2. 6 million approximately reported Power Outages throughout the state of florida. That was anticipated. So far compared to this morning, 200,000 accounts have been restored in southwest florida. 28000 in lee, 62000 sarasota, 14000 in collier, 33000 amenity, 12000 in charlotte and 44000 in hillsboro have been restored. No course precision for this was over 42000 linemen. They are there on the ground really in different parts of the state but particularly in southwest florida. When they first got in the course are looking to see what is the damage . How much of our infrastructure has been destroyed . How much of it has held up . I can tell you but we were in charlotte the reports were generally positive. A lot of the infrastructure was able to weather the storm. You still have to work obviously to reconnect the power. But in some areas unit may need to rebuild from the ground up. Other areas were infrastructure maintain integrity you would be more trying to re hook everything. That is a 24 7 process. If anybody see some of the utility trucks pulled over somewhere and maybe some and getting rest understand they are working constant shifts and everyone is on the clock the whole time. They dont ever action of a time people are not working. We really appreciate that. We understand how important it is for folks to have those basic services resume. There of course have been damages to cell phone towers. Particular places like lee county. The Telecom Companies have brought in the earmarked 100 cell phone towers being set up. Many of those are being set up in southwest florida. Ive spoke with ceos of at t mobile there been damages a lot of the infrastructure has weathered the storm fairly well. There may need to be repairs, they feel good about getting up service. And i know some people do have service in those areas. We were able to see that. Fdot and more than 1200 personnel on the ground. Im happy to report the road situation is by and large really good. I was just talking with kevin before he came out here, if we were here yesterday at like noon thinking that what the road situation would look like, i think we thought there would have been a way, way more roads blocked by debris. Of course we did have the sanibel there are issues but theres also a lot of roads where the traffic is flowing on i75 without a problem. Most of the other roads are doing really well. Sunshine skyway bridge has reopened. We were happy to see that. Most School Districts are at this it will be reopening either friday or monday. Obviously lee and some of those areas may be a little different calculation for them. We are thankful fema has activated individual assistance for floridians that have been affected by the storm. If you are in need of help recovering visit disasterassistance. Gov or call 186213362. Fema has our approve requests for at Central Florida counties into the individual assistance. Kevin will have more details on that. But we appreciate that because you look at the images you can see a house that is been totaled on fort myers beach. Obviously its a very sad thing to see. You can see boats have been flipped over cars flipped over. Those are very striking images. But as a storm within the state it has caused a lot of problems with really historic flooding in parts of Central Florida in northeast florida. Its important those folks have the ability to get assistance if they needed. Odie over 87 or people of already registered with fema. If you are going to make a claim take a picture but if youve had flooding take a picture of the floodlight on your house. Make sure your document the damage. Our chief Financial Officer is going to be doing insurance villages on these Disaster Recovery sites. It does not need to go into get fema assistance you can do it online if you have questions and go in you can have people from different insurance carriers, jimmy is also going to help people have an ifp flood policies be able to file those claims and get those claims paid as soon as possible. We expect that will be done without much delay from the insurance carriers. We are happy a lot of businesses have committed to provider First Responders with sustenance. Colors, forever smoke house, anna maria oyster bar texas test we think many, many more want to, and also offer assistance. For those were coming in its First Responders or linemen, buggies is giving away meals and soft drinks if you stop in their daytona location you will be able to avail yourself of some really good stuff there. We are continuing as kevin has said this for 72 hours are really life safety. And then working to restore the Main Services power, fuel, communications. Their massive numbers of people on the ground working 24 7 to do that. Its too early to know exactly what the needs of everybody is going to be pretty obvious anticipate some of floridians may end up being displaced from their homes. The first lady is spearheading efforts with volunteer florida to activate the Florida Disaster Fund where people can donate part its much better to donate financially then to send items. We really push at the thought when people want to send water or send these things, but florida at dem and others have been contracted for this. This stuff is they are paid the best thing you can do if youre going to give a financial contribution that can go to some of these organizations that are a little bit more nimble with how they help people. Fema will say you have statutes and regulations pretty have things to either qualify for certain types of assistance or you dont. Theyre not able to go outside of what congress has decreed on that. Private organization if you have more unique need covered by that. Providing the cash assistance is the best way to do that. If you want to contribute www. Florida det disaster. Org or text disaster to 2022. Actually what is that . Its more than that. 20222. I will let first lady do that she does it better than me. They put tax to 2022 and that i know its more than that. I am not a tax guy i do know you need more numbers than that. Those who want to come volunteer person thats another way you can be helpful and volunteer florida has a website for that www. Volunteer florida. Org if you want to see volunteer opportunities. We certainly welcome individuals that want to give obviously there many but also their personal time and effort. Art Kevin Guthrie is here are some additional updates. Quick thank you governor. Thank you first lady for going out to the area today and doing some onsite assessments. We are entering that phase of the response where we start to really get is to what. Myself and the governor have been mentioning this now for quite some time. Generator safety, generator safety, generator safety. Never going to start adding chainsaw safety. Getting on ladders, getting on roofs. Watching out for power lines that are mixed inside of trees. People need to be extremely careful. If you do not know how to use a chainsaw but if you do not how to climb a ladder up if you do not know what the differences between a cable line and a power line, be doing that. Leave that to the professionals. Again, as the governor indicated two days ago we have significantly more indirect deaths from disasters that are one 100 avoidable than we do the disaster itself. So please be safe. Drone pilots were starting to have issues with drone pilots in areas. Please do not operate your drones in the areas where we have military aircraft, search and rescue aircraft working. When you go in there with your drone, they have to stop working. Please stay out of the area and let us do our job. Similarly, we sought down in fort myers today people are wanting to go out and look at the damage. For every car it is going down the street that is preventing a powerline crew from getting in there and working part its preventing it search and rescue crew from getting in there working. Please stay outside of these areas so that we can get in there. Power outages are being restored. The government rather a laundry list of individuals having power restored. We did hear question earlier today but still 2. 6 million it was. 6 million this morning. Jacksonville has been hit pretty of Power Outages in duval county, st. John county, baker county, those are going to all sit here for a little while. Fpl the Municipal Association and its partners, the cooperative electric programs are getting their stuff turned back on. Please be patient. We have every faith and trust in them to restore the power. However in places are going to have to rebuild infrastructure, that is going to take longer as the governor mentioned. Fort myers beach, sanibel, pine islands, that is going to take some time. In those areas we do have other challenges for their potentially vehicles in the water that are potentially boats in the water theres potentially debris in the water. Will be working with our federal partners to Mission Assignments special resources to go in there and start looking under the water to do an underwater survey to ensure we can actually get the necessary barges and heavy equipment into those areas to respond effectively. I think this is an appropriate time to say thank you very much for all of your assistance. Admiral pierson as well on tag in general has been with me day one. 0700 which means he had to leave Saint Augusta at zero for something. Thank you very much. We continue to mobilize Additional Resources to impacted areas. Specifically today we did more than 40 bottles of oxygen, 100 ambulances additional 120 utility trucks. For mobile triage units for these are specific units to help triage patients. If somebody becomes insured we do have hospitals that have some issues and cannot intake patients. This is the ability to triage individuals for that parade succeed truckloads of water, 40 truckloads of meal, 48 truckloads of ice has a question earlier couple of days ago. We have brought in additional pet food, supplies, for displaced pets. 5 truckloads of blankets, 5 truckloads of cots and i believe requested earlier by someone, nearly wondered thousand tarps. The recovery staff are now beginning the process of a rapid Damage Assessment the impacted counties. To expedite all available federal assistance for the Disaster Recovery. The governor mentioned earlier that additional counties have been added to the category a debris removal expedited declaration. And ia are individual assistance with those counties are orange, osceola, seminole, and polk. Again these counties are available for 30 days at a one 100 federal assistance from going to turn and ask what is that website when need to direct everyone to for mobile intake . For registration . Disaster assistance. Org. Disaster assistance. Org. Again were proud 87 people who went continue to do as much as we can via web registration governor, first lady, thank you so much for your Leadership Today but. Okay first lady. Alright, flying over the devastation and destruction firsthand all i can say is our hearts and our prayers are with so many people who are suffering. Which is why about 24 hours ago we launched the Disaster Relief fund. I am happy to say after 24 hours we have raised more than 10 million into that fund. If you remember that 8 00 oclock a. M. , we came on here and talked with you. Think of us at 1. 6 million were over 10 million. I just want to say thank you to all the great floridians who stepped up to support our efforts put all people across the country for helping floridians. Thank you, we are going to make a big difference to help get resources immediately to those people who need them most. Amazon, we want to thank them. Florida blue, linear, walmart will be hearing from them and just a second donated 1 million. Boeing, publix, simply healthcare, air b b, teco energy, wells fargo, verizon, cvs, duke energy, goldman sachs, rumble, Florida Power light, National Christian foundation the pga tour and hornet just to name a few and that does not even going to all the generations that came in from people are given five and 10 and thank you, thank you so much for what you are doing. I also want to say thank you to tom brady put on his website a special shout out to our funds. The Florida Disaster Fund that got a lot of attention raise a lot of money. So thank you for your support of your community. Also thank you to visa, amex, paypal and braintree. They are waving their fees so all this money will go directly to service and the people in need. And again, as governor mentioned where the important things understand about this fund and why it is so important is because we are getting a needs, instantaneously into the eoc the Emergency Operations center. We are able to then communicate those needs did the nonprofits on the ground so we can meet them quickly. Until these funds make a big difference to help micro target what we are seeing. Again will we are flying over lee county and some of these areas that were just devastated they are going to need things like food, tarps, what have you. What is not big supplemented by the state, which is a lot we will be able to in the private sector. So again to give florida webbs entrance Florida Disaster Fund. Org trade also text disaster 20222. And god bless you and thank you for your support. Okay. All right, volunteer florida, josie. Good evening everyone productive thank you on behalf of her being here in percival the first lady and the governor for their leadership in this. And i must say its a record amount of money we have now received for the disaster fund. And i want to thank obvious their partners are Corporate Partners i will say to you we have been on the phone calling people and theyve been giving to people in florida specifically with needs. We plan to make very good use of that money. I want to thank each and every person that has reached out, called, specifically for those in the storms path that are now recovering. And so these funds will go for response and recovery. Well be doing that, looking at all that very carefully. The think our Corporate Partners specifically walmart who has in fact is on our foundation. This fund is administered through our volunteer Florida Foundation britt on behalf of everyone with the thank you all for being specifically what to think the first lady for her leadership on this. And the governor and everyone who is called in need. In play is if you want to volunteer, please go to our website volunteer florida. Org. We have someone standing by that can connect you with nonprofits that are in need of volunteers. And also debbie ww florida Florida Disaster Fund. Org. Or text disaster to 20222. I will say that we banner at the Football Game this weekend with Florida Disaster Fund and also has a way to do that. And at my mind im going to get every college team to do that in florida as long as we need them. Thank you so much and thank you first lady and governor. Okay, were happy to have john ferner president and chief executive officer of walmart. Good evening and thank you governor and first lady for coming together today. And also for your teams Quick Response following just the devastation we are seeing from hurricane. So im proud to be with you here in florida tonight representing walmart to further discuss how walmart will continue partnering with all of you and your team but we continue to respond to the devastation of the storm. Supporting communities as court to walmart. Florida is our community. Many of our associates, customers and members all across florida are feeling the effects of the extensive damage caused by the storm. And like all of you we have been closely monitoring his track to make sure we stay in tune with what our stores, our clubs, supply chain team seem to be doing to serve before, during, and after the storm. Some preparation for the sponsor recovery with strategically placed things like generators, refrigerated trailers, merchandise and additional personnel and the right locations to give us the best opportunity to resume operations as soon as it is safe to do so. We have three to 85 stores and clubs here in florida nine Distribution Centers and at one point today 244 of those were closed. We think over the next day or so will have the majority of those back open and operating. We have helped relocate associates living in mandatory evacuations as were carrying out wellness checks for those living in the other impacted areas. Throughout all this our thoughts and our prayers remain with those who are impacted. We are moving quickly to help. Too that end, on behalf of walmart, sams club on the walmart foundation, im announcing our commitment of of up to 6 million to recovery and relief efforts. This level of support does include a first lady now 1. 5 Million Investment to support the Florida Disaster Fund. Donations of essential supplies and grants to local and National Organizations who are here on the ground supporting the relief efforts. And what we do know is walmart customers, members and our associates are the most generous people we know. Its part of this investment we are also launching a National Customer and member giving Campaign Editor stores and clubs. An associate to donation to the associate giving program. We understand our responsibility to the communities we serve and will probably work sidebyside with each and every one of you to ensure we are doing everything we can along with our First Responders to restore our communities as quickly as possible. This includes mobilizing resources and services to the people who need them. So the company and its fellow for radians when our friends, our neighbors, our loved ones need help we will gladly step forward to support them. Thank you. Okay, we are very much in monitoring the impacts that we are seeing in other parts of the state other than southwest florida. And i know kevin is working on we are obviously going to have a big response in southwest florida. You talk about fema and some these other things theres going to need to be a response and some other parts of the state on an individual basis. I know he is working on that. We are going to be backed out in all of these areas and working hard to make sure we can get people back on their feet without will take some questions. Is a lot questioning the casualty count and i know you addressed it. Is there a large casualty situation given what we heard from the lee county sheriff earlier today . Well i think it is a massive storm. We anticipate casualties. I think kevin made a good point how many are going to happen from the time it hits on. We have stress to try to minimize both obviously. But we are now on the situation where theres going to be hazards out where people can be in harms way still. Just because the storm has passed does not mean theres not additional hazards. Operative things like generators, standing now fortunately i was looking there was not as much standing water as i was anticipating. I think the storm surge that they feared in charlotte, while they did get water there was flooding. I dont think its quite the level that was initially feared. Obviously in late you have a massive storm surge at the Barrier Islands. You did have some on the mainland. I saw the roads by and large clear for their couple nice roadways where i saw there was water. So hopeless and those hazards are minimized. I think if you look at the most significant storm in the history of florida was okeechobee in the 20s for you guys can look it up. I dont think we would be anywhere approaching that. To be heard from various local officials the total will be above 60 people right now dead. You are not confirming that. I am wondering if youre getting out to the Barrier Islands now, are you getting people off these islands . Youre not finding massive numbers of dead people . That is correct. At the same time theyre going to see people that may be visibly in need or knocking on doors. Most member saying i am five or if there no answer im. Theyre going into those homes. Many of those homes or vacations on the seasonal residents. We will see. What will be confirmed as storm related that will happen relatively soon. I can tell you there have been some non storm related fatalities as well but for example in Charlotte County they reported a suicide during the storm. They also had somebody pass away from a heart attack because you do not have access to Emergency Services for certain period of time. That couldve been someone who would have gone to the hospital. Theres a lot of things they are working through it. We will see. I can say, i think kevin theres not been these rescue efforts deceased people found as of yet. Now that may change of course as they do more. But theyve been able to lift a lot of people out of the islands. A lot of those people have been happy. But increasingly there are people who are happy to people are looking out for them as a thank you, we are good. I do not know theyre necessarily going to want to get over the longterm. If there structural damage with the underlying service is going to take a little longer for the utilities get that up and running. But nevertheless at the posture im being taken. Cato sweat can recover look like in the hardest hit areas it sounds like lee county. Are we talking months and months on end . Are they going to have to send kids to different schools, other schools just not able to open . Theyre still assessing them. Theyre looking to see exactly how many people are going to be displaced. Clearly, you have some homes are a total loss theres no question about that. How many of us were rental homes . How many were permanent residence . I think some are looking at how many were seasonal homes were seasonal residents. I think theyre sorting all that out. As more people come forward they are keeping the shelters opened in lee county in have been displaced and they need a place to stay but obviously with fema offering individual assistance people and Housing Assistance are going to build and sign up and get that. I think youll have a better sense at that point. My sense would be looking at it, sanibel had serious destruction. A lot of destruction on some of the underlying infrastructure which is obvious importantly is to not have a bridge to take a ferry back and forth. Now youre back to before the causeway was there. Fort myers beach really, really serious damage. Some of the other places when youre in a helicopter looking over i see the homes are intact. I did not see massive debris in some of the neighborhoods. You also do not know how much flood damage they had put water couldve been 4 feet at this time yesterday. Then it subsided. That will all be things people will determine as the days goes on. I think the folks in lee are prepared for some level of displacement. I know kevin has worked and fema has worked on some solutions. I do not know that we know exactly how many. Kevin doing to add what you are seeing so far . Agree with the governor wholeheartedly on the Damage Assessment. This was ariel Damage Assessment flying into the area. Flying around a little of the Ground Transportation we are doing. I will just add to it, the next step in this Recovery Process is we will i say we, we in support of the local counties will open up points of distribution where we will have food, water, potentially ice depending on the situation. I want to manage that expectation. Ice is usually given to keep cold medications cold. That is a situation you will be given ice. We will be providing tarps this counties that have requested tarps they can use some emergency repairs but we are looking at turning on a program called the Blue Roof Program which is slightly different than a tarp through fema. Im sure fema will action that to the u. S. Army corps. The next phase at that will be the Disaster Recovery centers will open up an individual counties. This is a place where the Governors Mansion before we will team up with individuals with the department of economic opportunity. The highway of Motor Vehicles the department of health, vital records, id cards, drivers licenses and things like that have been lost. The other state agency and helpless others. There is a laundry list of human services. Childrens and families and so on. All of those will start to be set up over the next probably a week or so. And when we can get power restored. As those things happen we will remove quickly with recovery services. I do not want to steal it from the governor but the governor will be dispatching me to the area. We talked about this on the plane print ill probably be down in the area, the most impacted area for 30 days or more to ensure the recovery is being handled effectively. And remove any type of bureaucratic issues that might be going on. Conversation xi dont know if he announced hes coming are not part of the fema administrator and his team will be here tomorrow if not today. Im know she spying traveling with us on her itinerary. She is welcome to do that but we will back on southwest florida. We also worked with the other impacted areas throughout the state. At the end of the day strengths need local, federal, state we have two Work Together correct tell you the way the locals have worked really hard for it has been impressive to watch. Its not an easy thing to deal with its also not an easy thing when you have forecasts all over the map. Naples and fort myers were out of the cone 72 hours before that. Before the storm actually made a landfall present change they pivoted and put their plans in action. Some things are preposition for every request we have asked from fema has been approved. We appreciate that and want to make sure. Cox is he coming . From what i understand he will be here tomorrow but. You know that . I do not know thats the case with fema administrators here may be will see. At the end of the day we went all the support we can get. We understand theres a lot of need out there. These are good communities. The thing is these are resilient folks these are really, really good folks down there. They will bounce back we need to make sure to pave the way for them but well see you guys in the morning, thank you sees bands washington journal sees bands washington journal. We discussed policy issues that impact you. Coming up friday morning, we will talk about tomorrows deadline. And with sconce and democratic congresswoman gwen moore on the possible government shutdown. Watch washington journal live at 7 00 eastern. Join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text and tweet. Sunday on indepth, author, tv host and media founder and ceo, dan abrams will be our guest talking about u. S. Legal history and the american legal system today. He has the author of several books including kennedys avenger and his latest, alabama versus king. Join in on the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, texts and tweets for dan abrams live sunday at noon eastern on indepth on book tv on cspan two. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more including comcast. They do think this was just a Community Center . Comcast is partnering with Community Centers so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Comcast supports cspan as a Public Service along with these Television Providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. It discussion about the history of Political Polarization heading into the final stretch of the midterm elections. Former obama secretary kathleen and republican pollster Neil Newhouse were among the speakers. The discussion was hosted by the dole institution of politics at the university of kansas. Welcome to the Dole Institute of politics. Discussion groups aree