category 4 storm leaving a huge path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we ll have a live report in just a moment. meanwhile, rescue crews have been busy trying to get people who decided to ride out the storm to try and save them. they re stranded now by rising flood waters and we re still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida. at this hour, it still has more to go. good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it s thursday, september 29th. joe is off this morning. along with willie and me, we have the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. without power this morning, first light this morning will begin to show the damage in florida. that s right. that s when we re going to start to see the story of what happened last night, what happened overnight. tropical storm now ian downgraded from a category 1 hurricane. in just the last hour, but still wreaking havoc across florida as it made landfall as a
children and two teachers. and this evening, adding to the tragedy, we have now learned the husband of teacher irma garcia who was killed at that school, that husband has now died of a heart attack. married for nearly 25 years. and what the family is saying tonight about what they say was a broken heart. and the children here tonight, what their families want the country to know about them. mireya villarreal on the scene for us again. tonight, the call for action across this country. texas senator john cornyn, after returning to washington from the heartbreaking scene, now directed by republican senate minority leader mitch mcconnell to now meet with democrats for a possible bipartisan solution. so, tonight here, is there actual movement with the vast majority of americans wanting something done? rachel scott live on the hill. good evening. we are just back from texas tonight, and the pain in that community we carry with us. and i can tell you, it is as difficult and deva
through the florida panhandle. there have been tornado warnings issued north of the santa rosa beach. rainfall rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour across this area, severe weather threats going to continue from the florida peninsula right through the coastal areas of the carolinas. heads-up, savannah, charleston all the way to wilmington today. then we focus that rain threat, the potential of flooding all the way up the east coast as heavy rain falls on top of the recent snow pack across the northeast. heads-up new york all the way to the nation s capital. bobby. pretty much everywhere unless you re in fargo, thank you very much. there s a review now underway at the defense secretary s office after lloyd austin was hospitalized and didn t tell his deputy or the president. we re going to have the details next. and what officials believe caused a sudden explosion at a hotel in fort worth, texas. just l look at that. wewe ve learnened more detetail ovovernight.
hey, rob. reporter: hi, david. this storm system really organizing over the central u.s. we ve had a tornado on the ground in indiana. wind damage in illinois. the front all the way down to the gulf coast. there you see it, pressing up over the appalachians tonight. we do have a severe thunderstorm watch out for parts of the carolinas. these will weaken some what overnight and refire tomorrow afternoon. look at this, right around 5:00 travel time, all along i-95, d.c. to new york. really the danger zone is going to be from charleston all the way through philadelphia. stormy start to this holiday weekend. david? rob, thank you. when we come back here tonight, paying tribute to a well-known actor.
correct it. it s a concept. al, throwing some shade there. i feel some shade you are throwing. no, no. just saying. what? i m just saying. okay. all right. when you make a mistake you correct it. they corrected it. we re back to a 2. we re humans. we make mistakes. we correct them. all right. tell us a bit more. now, let s take a look. one of the things ali was talk k about, the rain, the storm surge, the wind. we also have to worry when we see these systems especially when they re this close to shore we have to worry about tornadoes. we have a tornado watch right now stretching along the coast of south carolina, north carolina, all the way from cape hatteras, kingston, fayetteville, wilmington, myrtle beach. and we do have a tornado warning right now between fayetteville and probably will see more. this line here coming in is probably going to be generating some more tornadoes. you can see the wind speeds, talking tropical force winds from charleston all the way to cape ha