Transcripts For MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes 20170912

Good evening from naples, florida. Im chris hayes. Irma may have been downgraded to a tropical storm, but it continued to wreak havoc as it crawled up the gulf coast of florida today. Bringing flash floods to downtown jacksonville, florida, where storm surge and high tide pushed the st. Johns river to record levels. But most of florida bore the brunt of the storm yesterday as irma came ashore with tripledigit winds and torrential rainfall, knocking out power to 6. 5 million customers across the state, around a third of the states population. Here on the west coast of florida, where we are, the damage thankfully fell short of the worst forecasts, but its still expected to take months, if not years for the area to recover fully. Up in washington, white House Homeland Security adviser tom bossert lloyd out the relief efforts. What we have now is a large scale area of operations. What were trying to do is marshall the resources where they are needed. Its a prioritization effort. We are worried about flooding, housing, debris, and power restoration. Well will have to clear debris from roadways so people can gain reentry. Right now were not rushing reentry there are still dangerous conditions, downed electric lines, flood conditions, problems that would be compounded by your reentry. Listen to your local officials not about evacuation, but when and how to stagger your reentry. Well, mainland florida largely spared the worst, the same cannot be said for the florida keys where irma made landfall yesterday morning as a category 4 hurricane. And where today residents remained largely cut off from help. We have no water, no power, no electricity, no internet. And i have land lines especially for this. And the land lines went down. Damage reports are still coming in from across the caribbean where irma had the strongest impact. Cuba was especially hard hit with catastrophic flooding expected to last into tomorrow. As of today, 38 people in total have died as a result of this storm. A number thats expected to keep rising as relief efforts progress. Lets go to nbcs catie beck who is up in jacksonville, florida. Catie, whats it look like there . Well, i am actually in a lowlying neighborhood where obviously all of the storm surge has collected. The entire neighborhood is basically under water at this point. But whats interesting about this is the water levels keep changing as the tide goes in and out. This is probably actually the lowest the water level has been all day. But that could change around 2 00 a. M. When the tide comes back in. So what people are dealing with here is storm surge, record storm surge and rainfall and wind that has all found its way to these lowlying areas. The st. Johns river is at the end of this street, and that is where all that water has been pouring in and will soon be pouring out. As i walk through the streets, you can tell all of the houses are pretty much evacuate and dark. But interesting enough, i see small fish swimming in the streets. And that is just a sign of the fact that all of this is water that came from somewhere else, and hopefully will go back to somewhere else in the near future, as you heard the mayor saying there. It could be several weeks before all of this is cleaned up, before all of the tide has been pushed out and these streets returned to normal. Chris . All right, catie beck, thanks. Msnbc weather contributor sam champion joins us live from miami. And sam, its interesting talking to catie up there in jacksonville and you down in miami, which are two areas when you look at the path of the storm you dont think are going to get it the worst. But when you look at flooding implications. Yeah. It does seem like those are the two spots that did get it the worst. Yeah. And chris, the one thing, even though this storm certainly did wobble from one side to other, the thing that was true, that was forecast to be true is that this is an all florida storm. Every bit of florida was impacted by this storm. From the tip of miami with the very strong winds and the tough wind damage here and the heavy rain and the flooding, right off our shoulder here in base skein boulevard, to the actual hit on the southwestern tip to that flooding that goes on in north florida. We wanted to give you a shot of downtown miami tonight, the normally bright lights because about, well, the largest percentage of those, more than six million Power Outages in the state of florida are right here in Miamidade County. About 74 of the customers in Miamidade County do not have power tonight. So its normally bright. Tonight its about kind of bright. Some of these areas, downtown areas are kind of looking toward the building, brickell, the financial center. Some of those areas do have power. Lets go to some numbers here tonight, because i know a lot of people are talking about it. Big questions are who has water, who has power, who has gas, and whats open . Where can we get some food. What weve been able to say right now is fpl has one of the largest, and they control most of the power in the southern part of florida. They have amassed they say one of the largest armies ever put together in American History to put the power back on in south florida. About 30,000 people are coming in to do that. And they started in earnest, they said, today. They first have to look at the situation, then theyll try to do it all. They are saying, though, that it may be weeks for some customers, and thats weeks with an s for some customers. As we saw some people coming out of the shelter and trying to get in we did a survey of damage. We were told gas lines were open in some areas in the beach, but we didnt feel that smell of gas or notice that smell of gas. But it was mess, chaos on the causeways where people were trying to get their cars across the beach. And Police Officers were saying you cant come on the beach. Now the mayor of miami beach, Philip Levine now says they hope to open it tuesday by noon, if not sooner so that residents can get on the beach. But let me tell you, chris, whats waiting for them when they get there. We know because we drove every bit of it today. Most of the buildings have no power. Most of the buildings have no water. Most of the buildings really have no connection to anything. So you dont have internet. You dont have elevators. You dont have stores arent open. So there is not a lot to go home to. And thats why theyre hoping people really dont head in that direction right away. Its just going the take some time before they can get that power back on. Again, we are comforted a little bit here in miami by the shot of the dancing girl. She is a fixture here in miami at the intercontinental hotel. And to see that back up and running kind of lifts your spirits to let you know that this is day one of miamis recovery, as it is the state of floridas recovery from irma. Chris . All right. Sam champion, thank you for that. The florida keys were among the worst hit parts of the state. And nbcs Miguel Almaguer made it there today to survey the damage. This is one of our very first looks at some of the damage. And it really does stretch neighborhood to neighborhood, homes in the water, boats in the water. Reporter tonight this is the way in to the hardest hit islands in the keys. Irmas path of destruction obliterating homes, swamping neighborhoods and likely taking lives. It looks like a nuclear bomb went off. Brian holly rode out the storm among the 10,000 who refused to leave. Its going to take months, maybe years to get this cleaned up. Reporter irma made landfall here sunday. Her eye swirling right across the keys. Packing 130mileperhour winds, waves up to 15 feet high. With such widespread damage below, some of the keys are only accessible by air. There is so much debris in the ocean, even reaching this location by boat can be dangerous. Reporter tonight the National Guard deploying searchandrescue missions into the keys. Local Officials Say a humanitarian crisis is looming in the lower islands. Big pine and cujo keys among those hardest hit. No water, no power, no phones. They need fresh water. They need gas. Mostly they just need manpower to get clear passage through their yards. Reporter its not just homes damaged across the keys. So is vital infrastructure, roads and bridges. Repairs could take weeks, even months. Irma hitting with fury. And now its left a sea of destruction. That was nbc National Correspondent Miguel Almaguer from the florida keys. I want to bring in congresswoman Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands. Have i read some very, very dire first person dispatches from the u. S. Virgin islands. What can you tell us about the situation there . Well, thank you so much for having me on the show. You know, im back here in the Virgin Islands and have been to st. Thomas. Today i was on the island of st. John as well. Were really in a very difficult situation here. Fema is on the ground. Our governor, Governor Kenneth Mapp along with the local Emergency Management agency are doing a tremendous job along with the National Guard. And fema has been working with coast guard, dod, others we have, a number of marines here. The navy has sent three vessels to this area. But irma, of course, hit us as a category 5, and it was almost a direct hit on the island of st. Thomas and st. John. And because of our isolation as an island, the recovery is much slower and is going to be quite a bit of work for both the local people and the engagement of the federal government. Weve lost practically 70 of our infrastructure in terms of utility systems on the island of st. Thomas. Whoa. And all of the utility systems on the island of st. John. So the rebuilding thats going to have to occur is not only for building for homes. Many of the homes on the island had their roofs, homes were lost. But also vital infrastructure. The roof came off of our hospital on the island of st. Thomas. Weve lost fire stations, police stations, our airport, while it appears from above to really look great, if you look inside of the terminal, it would appear as if a bomb has gone off on it. Irma just literally sheared off the metal on the and ripped it to shreds at the terminal and wrapped it around poles. So there is some enormous amount of work that has oh to occur here on the island for us to come back on board. Are people there able the people that have been on the island, its a very hard place to evacuate. It took a bad hit. It was almost about a week ago i think it made landfall there. Are people there able to get the access to the basics, things like food and shelter at this point . Well, along with the military and fema and our own local government, i just got off of a call with private sector individuals. We have, you know, more than the amount of Virgin Islandsers that live on this island live in the united states. So virgin islanders in atlanta, houston, new york, the metropolitan d. C. Area, other areas have banded together and are bringing goods down, as well as virgin islanders that are in st. Thomas and elsewhere that are working with the private sector to bring relief efforts to the islands as well. Yes had quite a challenge because our coast guard had to clear out the port for a number of days, sunken debris, vessel in the port that was making it difficult for those things to come down as well. But were beginning to have aircraft making continual landings here. Well are being allowed to leave, evacuated as much as are willing to go. I have to give you an example. Today i came from the more Distant Island of st. Croix, and i went over with a private person in their fast boat that was going over there. I have to tell you, it looked like a flotilla of boats that were making their way. And these are private individuals. These are virgin islanders from the island of st. Croix that are making their way across the island to st. Thomas, st. John, bringing generator, bringing baby food, diapers, basic support to the people on those islands as well. Were all family here. And so people are really banding together and working as hard as possible to get the relief and the basic needs to the people on those islands. All right. Congresswoman stacy plaskett, thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. And just letting you know, i want to thank msnbc once again for really bringing to light whats happen nearing the Virgin Islands. Were very concerned that ual although the federal government is doing its part, the National News is not really taking note of whats happening in another part of the united states. So thank you. All right. Congresswoman Ileana Roslehtinen joins me by phone. Congresswoman from pine crest, florida. Congresswoman, you and i talked before the storm. It does seem that the track of the storm that missed miami, and yet for all the reasons that you and i discussed and that we reported on the show and because of the exposure of south florida, miami still took some pretty significant damage. Well, it sure did. But we just heard from her, what a dire report what is going on in the smaller islands like the Virgin Islands. So were in no mood to compete against that misery. Yes, were without power. Some of us who are on not connected to the city and county system, we dont even have Running Water. But boy, what she paints is a really dire situation because they got hit, direct hit by category 5. Miami was spared most of the wrath. But still, when you look around this darkened neighborhood all around me, its pretty dire as well. But not as bad as some of the folks visit. So you compare you have a misery index like a la jimmy carter. Boy, some people are really worse hit than others. And we cant complain. But everybody is so anxious about the lack of electricity, the lack of Running Water in our homes. So its a problem, chris. But its not an insurmountable problem. And its just going to take us a long time to get our juice back, back at the fp l. They have a lot of trucks they have lined up down dixie highway by the university of miami. Well count 25 trucks that are just in that location ready to surface. But 70 , although the state of florida is without power, we cant complain when you compare the misery to what is going on in other places. But it is going to take a long time. I was participating in a press conference with Governor Scott and marco rubio. So theyve been all over the state. And its pretty bad all over. Im glad that your excellent reporter sam talked about whats going on with miami beach. The bridges are going to open tomorrow. People want to go home. They want to see how their place fared. But hen they get there, what are they going to do . You have very few stores that are open, and they dont have electricity. And im afraid that the rush to get back to their homes is not going to lead to much satisfaction. Congresswoman, let me ask you this question. This is the period after disasters for folks that werent injured in it or didnt have loved ones that were injured that can be the most difficult for all the reasons you safe. No power, no gas. Youre very constrained in what you can do. Are there protection for people who may not be able to go to work for say being fired from their jobs or for protections for folks that are struggling to recoup to make sure theyre not going to be penalized by their employer for having to miss work to pick up the pieces . Excellent point. And thats really something that we should be keying in on. When i was in miami beach right before irma struck, the cashiers at the supermarket were saying can we go home . We have families too. We want to get our places fixed. But if we leave, were going get fired. There is a lot of anxiety with the working class and restaurants want to be open. But if they dont have folks to be working there. Right. But they cant get out of their homes. There is literally no gas in dade county. I havent found one gas station that is open and that is available for filling up your tank that doesnt have a line of three blocks and is manned by the florida National Guard to make sure that nobody shoots one another. So what about the workers . How can they get to their jobs . And should they be fired because theyre unable to get to their work or employment . Thats really too sad. All right. Congresswoman Ileana Roslehtinen, thank you very much. Thank you, chris, we appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Much more to come tonight from naples, florida, where we will cover both whats happening here in the wake of Hurricane Irma as well as whats going on in d. C. Stick around. You push yourself every day. Tempurpedic helps you recover every night. Tempur material provides up to twice as much pressure relieving power. So you wont toss and turn. Savings end soon through september 17th, save up to 500 on select adjustable sets. Entertaining us, getting us back on track, and finding us dates. Phones really have changed. So why hasnt the way we pay for them . Introducing xfinity mobile. You only pay for data and can easily switch between pay per gig and unlimited. No one else lets you do that. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit or go to xfinitymobile. Com. We are back live from naples, florida, with our continuing coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. After the break, well have my interview with a republican local official here who literally burst out laughing at the claim by epa chief and oil and gas industry darling scott pruitt from right before irma hit that it is, quote, very, very insensitive to talk about Climate Change. And later on, the white house is once again playing defense after another high level dismissal. Someone said to me that you described the firing of james comey. Youre a student of history, as the biggest mistake in political history. That would be probably that would probably be too bombastic even for me, but maybe modern political history. More from that interview, and much more from here in florida as the state continues to deal with the devastation brought by irma, right after this. Ahead of the hurricane, the Trump Administrations epa chief scott pruitt said that now was not the time to talk about Climate Change. Quote, to have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm versus helping people who are actually facing the effect of the storm is misplaced. To use time and effort to address it at this point is very, very insensitive to the people in florida. But today i spoke with the chair of the Collier County commission here, penny taylor. She is a republican who accepts the consensus on Climate Change. She says once noaa undertook a study on how Collier County will be affected by Sea Level Rise, people there became more open to the issue. And then Hurricane Irma happened. The folks that say oh, you know, it ebbs and it flows and whatever, well, it does. But this ebb might be longer than we have ever experienced. And so to me, there is much more openness, there is much more willingness to work. And as horrible as this event has been, what an extraordinary opportunity to gain data. In fact today were flying over the county, mapping where the flooding is. There is still flooding in a lot of areas. So were doing that today. And that, you know, all of the sudden oh, you mean you live on a hill, you dont flood, that doesnt always hold true. So how do you talk to fellow republicans about this issue . Youve got the president of the united states, you know, sort of dismisses it. Scott pruitt said now is not the time to talk about this. [ laughter ] you think thats not true . [ laughter ] you know, we where is this man . Get him here there has never been a storm acting like irma did in the atlantic. Weve never had such a strong storm acting like irma. The Scientists Say our storms are going to get stronger. Theyre going to come at us more, with more frequency. There is more water pushed in. The water is going to come up. There will always be the doubters, you know, but i think rational people in quieter moments will understand that this isnt the end of the world, but my gosh, we have to prepare there has to be an adaptation technologically to accept the fact that the sea level is going to get higher. Maybe you guy can engineer your way out of four feet of Sea Level Rise, but maybe not eight. Right. At a certain point, do you feel we need to be doing something on the cause side . Oh, my gosh, yes. Its a duet. Right. You cant just say oh, we can handle this. Bring it on. We can do it. Weve got some good engineers here. If its a question of engineering, thats never going to happen. No, no, no. We have to make changes. And its so difficult with people to make changes to understand that they need to adapt to the changing times. And thats part of the challenge we have. And that takes time, but you have to be persistent. You cant go and pretend like, you know, it doesnt exist. So youre a rare Republican Office holder who has this set of beliefs. I mean, its true, you know. I wonder when you talk to other people, youre running a county here. So i get the feeling that youre not involved in particularly brutal partisan fights down here. Right. Right . I imagine the politics here have to do something much more with local and municipal issues. Yes, yes, yes. Than big blue versus red issues. Yes. But i guess like do you feel like does it frustrate you that the leaders of this party are just whistling past the grave on this . Yes, frankly. Its nonsense. And i think that, you know, i think they say oh, no, we cant say this because people will be afraid to come. Ive heard this. People will be afraid to be here. It will take care of itself. Well, maybe if youre 88, you know, and you have another 20 years in your life, if youre lucky, it might take care of itself. But were looking for our children and our grandchildren to be able to live in a place that we love and cherish, and we want to work with the climate. And we want to be able to not master, but adapt to the change. Because its an old story. Mother nature bats last. Hello, i remember map. Right. We really need this is a wakeup call i think for everyone here. And i think its a wakeup call for the state of florida. And i think as we move, you know, hopefully we dont have to have too many of these wakeup calls to make those adjustments. But gosh. Will it wake up you have a governor who literally said and told people not to use the phrase Climate Change in the states planning apparatus, right . Yeah. Is it going to wake him up . You know, that might have been i dont know why that was said because he is a highly intelligent man. And what he has done in mobilizing for this storm and how yeah, he has done a very impressive job. And how extraordinary we have, you know. I think its part of that mindset that, oh, gosh, if we talk about Climate Change, its going hurt our economy. People arent going to come. I think nothing is further from the truth. I mean, were here in the beach. Its sunny. People love this weather. They can kind of put it out of their mind. Theyre going come. Right. The way i look at it, oh, theyre not going to come . Oh, thats pretty good. But right now we have to build for them. And when we build, we have to build for the future. And its very, very different, but its not impossible to make this happen. We just have to be persistent. My great thanks to opinion any taylor for taking a bit of time to talk to me today. As rebuilding begins here, as it is in texas, who that work who does that work often depends on who is available. That may surprise you. That after the break. Doesnt st. Roc®s formula adapts to delicate skin areas. My fine lines here . Visibly reduced in 4 weeks. Chest, neck, and face cream from roc®. Methods, not miracles. ™ as houston and florida now begin to rebuild, there is a question of who will do the rebuilding. After Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, as vox pointed out, quote, unauthorized immigrants were crucial to rebuilding new orleans after Hurricane Katrina. They are likely to be desperately needed as texas rebuilds to clean streets, demolish buildings, reconstruct homes and offices. Undocumented workers made up about a quarter of the construction workers after katrina devastated new orleans. Now its houstons turn to pick itself up after a massive hurricane. And in florida, the work has already begun. But as one undocumented immigrant in texas said to the washington post, if they deport all of us, who will rebuild . Its a good question, particularly if the Trump Administration has its way. Last night as Hurricane Irma was hitting florida, the man President Trump brought to the oval office with him was telling the country that immigration had nothing to do with the building of america in the first place. You couldnt be more dead wrong. America was build on her citizens. Were all immigrants. America was built on her citizens. Dont this is the thing of the leftist. Charlie, thats beneath you. America is built on our citizens. More from that Bannon Interview next. Most American Homeowners would be shocked if they knew just how rich they were. The average American Home value has increased 40,000 over the last 5 years. But many dont know you can access that money without refinancing or selling your home. With a home equity loan, you can pull cash out of your house for anything you need home improvement, college tuition, even finally getting out of credit card debt. Come to lendingtree. Com to shop and compare home equity loans right now. Because at lendingtree, when banks compete, you win. Do you have a reaction to Steve Bannons comments on 60 minutes saying that the firing of james comey was the biggest political mistake in modern history . Certainly i think it has been shown in the days that followed that the president was right in firing director comey. Since directors firing, weve learned new information about his conduct that only provided further justification for that firing. That was White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders today responding to Steve Bannons comments to 60 minutes that President Trumps decision to fire comey was an error of historic proportions. I dont think there is any doubt that if james comey had not been fired, we would not have a special counsel, yes. So we would not have the Mueller Investigation . Would not have the Mueller Investigation. Would not have the Mueller Investigation in the breadth that clearly mr. Mueller is going. Former white house chief strategist and breitbart chairman is reportedly now plotting primaries against a slate of gop incumbents. And last night on 60 minutes, he targeted the republicans who support the president needs. Theyre not going to help you unless theyre put on notice theyre going to be held accountable if they do not support the president of the united states. Right now there is no accountability. They have totally they do not support the president s program. Its an open secret on capitol hill. Everybody on n the city knows it. And so therefore, now that youre out of the white house, youre going to war with them . Absolutely. With me now to digest all this, olivia nunsy, the washington correspondent for new york magazine, an msnbc contributor and radio show contributor charlie sykes. Charlie, let me start with you there are two ways you can think of the primary threat. One he is basically talking trash like the primary threat to paul ryan that breitbart backed and paul ryan won by 50 points or when right wing media got behind brad and knocked him off. Which do you think it is . I think its a combination of the two. But look, this is what he does. This is breitbart does. This desire to sow discord in the Republican Party is in the dna of the Trump Campaign and the Trump Administration. It is interesting. We talk about how little governing experience trump had when he came into the office. Steve bannon, the guy whispering in his ear until recently, what was his experience in governing, in actually getting things done. The guy ran a website. And i think is more interested in chaos and getting clicks than actually getting anything done. Yeah, olivia, my big impression from the entire interview was okay, all right. This is your persona, your brag doeshcious. Youre bombastic. You logistic at breitbart, they had the 25 best quotes from Steve Bannons interview on 60 minutes. Theyre very proud of it. I think they believe that their readers care. I think its steve bannon is aware perhaps that there have been people trying to discredit this idea that he was in fact the great manipulator, that he was in fact somebody who was sort of pulling the strings behind donald trump. And i think its important to breitbarts future strength that that kind of prepares, that narrative about steve bannon being all powerful does prevail. So i think doing these interviews is maybe a strategic way of keep perpetuating that narrative. But he is taking steps to, you know, sow discord in the Republican Party beyond the rhetoric. Sarah Huckabee Sanders today sort of just dismissed what he is saying as typical steve bannon bombast. But he is taking steps. There is a superpac. He is working with the mercers to perhaps challenge people in the midterms. So i think there is reason for people to be concerned. And politico has the story out right now where they talk to some republican senators who do sound quite worried about what steve bannon is potentially going to do in the midterm. So i dont think its right to dismiss it all as just rhetoric. But slalt bit silly to listen to him talk that way now outside of white house to. But he does really believe that he will be more powerful outside of the white house than he was inside of it. He said as much last night. I just would say that he talks a very big game for a guy who got canned after eight months at the white house. Usually you get fired after eight months in your job, you sort of slink away a little bit. Let me ask you this, charlie. The comments on immigration i felt were notable and worth substantively engaging with. Here is what he had to say, some further bit about the immigration response when charlie rose was going back and forth. Take a listen. Economic nationalism is what this country was built on, the american system, right . We go back to that. We look after our own. We look at our citizens. We look after our manufacturing base. And guess what . This country is going to be greater, more united, more powerful than its ever been. Okay. Thats all well and good. Hes sort of had this bizarre. He is talking about polk and he is talking about hamilton. Thats fine as far as it goes. The idea that america is built by its citizens, is completely ahistoric, right . Remember when john dean said watergate was a cancer on the presidency . Steve bannon and the altright and this hyper nativism is a chancre sore on this presidency and on the conservative movement. Though of course its ahistorical. He is literally being nostalgic for the economy of the 19th century. I want you to think about that. He is talking about the 19th century and the way the world was operated. But also this notion that we are not a nation of immigrants is ludicrous. Just look around. Look around any office. My great grandfather came here from russia and started the family and built a business. You know, who doesnt have a story like that in this country . Im guessing even steve bannon does. So its not only narrow minded and bigoted, it is ahistorical. Yeah. Just to make this clear, the reason that it was built by citizens, that we basically had open borders until the 1880s at which point we shut things down to the chinese and kept open border. Anyone who came were citizens, yes, they were citizens, but they were citizens because we basically had the nightmare scenario for bannon is that anyone could come and you would basically become a citizen. Olivia, it also it seems to me that the economic nationalism thing, i think he believes it, but there is sort of more shtick than substance to it. In terms of what weve seen from this president , its been nothing there is no there there. He said in the interview he thinks his Approval Rating is so low because he hasnt built the wall. I dont think that that has any basis in reality. The fact is that they havent really gotten anything done period beyond the wall. And even if they were to build the wall now, which, you know, we can debate whether or not that makes any sense at all. I dont think it does, i dont think it would result in his Approval Ratings improving at all. All right. Olivia nuzzi and charlie sykes, thank you both for taking some time tonight. Thank you. Ahead, we talk to some folks at a shelter up in lee county just a bit north of here which had to get secretive when they ran out of food. Plus, witness what we saw as the hurricane passed over us last night. Stick around. Can experience leaks discover always my fit. Find the number thats right for your flow and panty size on the top of any always pack. The better the fit, the better it protects. Always. When only the best will do. Tempurpedic delivers. Tempur material provides up to twice as much pressure relieving power, so you wake up feeling like a champion. Savings end soon through september 17th, save up to 500 on select adjustable sets. Floridians are returning to their homes and assessing the damage from the powerful Hurricane Irma which left six Million People without power in the state. I spoke with some folks who waited out the storm in the germain arena near naples, which was pressed into service as a shelter. 10 00 a. M. We opened up as a shelter, and we run the food and beverage for the arena. So we were notified last night and had to break into the food and pretty much play iron chef to figure out how we were going to feed all these people that were coming in. Threw everything in the car. Went to one shelter, couldnt get in. They sent us down here. The line was. Three, three and a half hours. Yeah, it was really long. We were the last people in. I was very proud of my people of florida. I was very, very proud of my neighbors. Because, i mean, we all just came from every. Were not everybody of naples. Ft. Myers, cape coral, you name it. I was here in naples over the weekend as Hurricane Irma was approaching. On saturday, shelters in the area were already beyond capacity. Authorities and citizens alike were worried about the damage the storm surge was going to do, particularly the huge amounts of saltwater pouring over all of gulf coastal florida from naples all the way to ft. Myers. Come sunday around noon, it was basically the proverbial calm before the storm as the eye wall was about five hours away. A little after to the project of modern human civilization. Reporter youre seeing architectures and engineers struggle with the reality of maintaining a society in the civilization and waters whose levels we are every day increasing the levels of. Were here three quarters of a mile from the beach. We rode out the storm here in naples. Were here three quarters of a mile from the beach. We rode out the storm here in naples. You can see the massive downed trees. Thats a big cypress tree. There has been a lot of that down here. I was talking to a resident, a mile from the beach there was water from the storm surge up to his knees yesterday. Luckily, that water got sucked out and the storm surge wasnt the 15 feet we fear but around 6 feet. If the people of south Florida Coastal florida, as well, share one common enemy, its water. The area had long been a swamp. It was susceptible to flooding. You couldnt farm it. You couldnt build on it. Through the marvel of engineering and the desire to make a buck, developers and army corps of engineers made a way. The problem is, the water still comes and as we just saw over the weekend, south florida is still in harms way. Michael wrotes about this in a remarkable piece, the paradise that should never have been. He joins us from orlando and in new york, contributing writer for rolling stone. He has a book called the water will come, rising water sinking cities. Its fascinating because, you know, miami did not get hit by the hurricane in this direct way people feared and yet, you see precisely what you talk about, which is the susceptible it has to flooding. Well, when you build in a floodplain, sometimes it gets wet. We talked about how they are called floodplains because its plain they flood. It wasnt that long ago people thought it was absurd that anybody would want to build a house, much less civilization in southern florida. Yeah, to follow up on that, i was saying to someone today as we drove around in the wake of the storm. Its in the wake of the storm where you can see very clearly what the land wants to be, it wants to be a marsh. It wants to be a swamp because after a storm, you can watch where all the water settles down and imagine without pumps and dredges and canals and everything, this is what its natural state would be. You got to do a lot of work to make it not be that way. Thats right. There was about nobody in south florida. The u. S. Army soldiers came down here in the 19th century chasing the indians were appalled by the entire region. They called it hideous and monstrous and god forsaken and didnt understand why they were fighting. They said we should leave it to the mosquitos and indians. Of course, half the everglades is gone. The other half has been sliced and diced and engineered so its a mess. And weve made a very nice place. You know, for the four people in my family and 20 million friends live in florida and it really is an awesome place to live except in those occasions when it isnt. Jeff, in your book youve got a chapter on miami where i learned a lot how it was developed. One thing the book communicates, its just not a miami issue. The threat posed by Climate Change and rising sea levels is is intensely global and were talking hundreds of millions of people in harms way. Yeah, i mean, every city has its own challenges, but it is every coastal city in the world. Sea level rises is a global phenomenon. Its different regions. Sea level rise is different in south florida than it is in the Marshall Islands or Something Like that, the rate of Sea Level Rise. Miami is in a really tough spot because its very low topography. The lower half is only about six feet above sea level on limestone. Its difficult to build defenses against this rising sea. When you think about what the projections are, you know, noah, the top Science Agency in the u. S. , you know, their top Sea Level Rises eight feet by 2100. When you think about when a place like miami would look like with eight level of Sea Level Rise, thats a scary scenario. It was interesting talking to penny today, she acre cements the scientific consensus, noah has a Million Dollar study. I think, jeff, youre going to see more and more people approach the architecture and engineering problem of this. I wonder if they will disconnect from the element, the idea well engineer our way out of the Sea Level Rise but if we keep doing what were doing, the sea rise will get higher, right . Sea level rise not like you can put a number on it. If we knew that we were going to have three feet of Sea Level Rise, thats what we were dealing with, can we build a city to deal with three feet of Sea Level Rise . Thats something engineers can deal with. Nobody knows. There is evidence in the history of, you know, 13 feet of Sea Level Rise in a single century and dealing with Something Like that that, you know, could happen. You dont know. There say question of economics and spending 500 million on pumps and drainage and trying to elevate the city. What level do you do that . Do you do it to two feet, one feet . Are you engineering for . Becomes a very expensive process if you have to keep rebuilding and rebuilding. Nature as penny said. Thank you both for joining us tonight. Thank you. All right