i was on the police department for 25 years, saw a lot of storms here. this is by far the worst storm i have ever witnessed. i promise you, i m never going to sit through another storm ever again here. i am one of the lucky ones. just some of the survivors of hurricane ian after the storm decimated wide sections of florida, and now the storm is on track to make a second u.s. landfall threatening the carolinas and georgia. good morning, and welcome to morning joe, it is friday, september 30th. joe is off this morning, but we ll get right to the latest with ian. intensing into a hurricane again, heading to south carolina after leaving a trail of devastation in florida. it is expected to make landfall near charleston around noon today as a category 1 storm. the national hurricane center is warning it could unleash life threatening storm surge, floods and strong winds. a state of emergency is in place for the carolinas, georgia and virginia. the damage from hurricane ian is
spinning toward the west coast of florida this morning. bringing with it life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds and flooding. we ll have a live report from tampa in just a moment. and also ahead, a former d.c. metro police officer does not hold back at a sentencing for a capitol rioter. plus, we ll dig into new data that suggests significant covid waves could be coming this fall and winter. good morning. and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, september 28th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us and we re going to begin in florida where millions of residents are bracing for hurricane ian as the powerful storm barrels towards the state intensifying every hour. the storm is expected to make landfall on the southwest coast of florida, as early as this afternoon. just moments ago, it reached the status of category 4 hurricane. the center of the storm is then forecast to move over the central part of the state, with winds likely re
that takes up, and the reservoirs out west that are down to almost zero, where we re in a situation where the colorado river looks more like a stream, and there s a lot going on, and i think the one thing this is finally ending is a discussion whether or not there is climate change and we should do something about it, but folks, i also want to, jill and i have had you all in our prayers, and i mean that sincerely, and we re here today, but we wanted to tell you in person, that we re thinking of you, and we re not leaving. we re not leaving until this gets done. i promise you that. and you know, when you walk around here, what s left of fisherman s wharf, and you don t have to have much of an emergency nation to understand that everything, everything is that is historic and titanic and an unimaginable type storm has ripped it to pieces and start from scratch and build again and it will take a lot, a lot of time, not weeks or months, it s going to take years, for everything to
all right. breaking news overnight in ukraine, where a devastating months long battle in the key port city of mariupol, ukraine, has officially ceded control on russia. we ll have more on the deal that is right now allowing the city s final defenders to safely evacuate that steel plant. we ll also go live to buffalo this morning as president biden prepares to visit the grieving city in the wake of saturday s deadly mass shooting. it comes amid new reports about the suspect s alleged plan to turn the massacre into a spree. we will talk to a top member of the white house national security council on that. and it is primary day in pennsylvania. the senate race there has been rocked by twists and turns in the key final days. for the democrats, the leading candidate, john fetterman, is recovering from a stroke. on the republican side, an unexpected surge on the far right from kathy barnette. we ll be watching to see how trump-backed dr. oz performs tonight. good morning
plus, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell leads a delegation of senate republicans on an unannounced visit to ukraine even as one of his own members slows progress on military aid that washington has been trying to fast-track. we ll tell you where that legislation stands now. and a key component of russia s propaganda machine at risk, as bloggers imbedded with russian troops are fed up with the repeated failures and are now voicing concerns. good morning. and welcome to way too early on this monday, may 16th. i m jonathan lemire. thank you for being with us. we begin with the latest on the deadly shooting in buffalo over the weekend. the white house says the president and first lady will visit the city tomorrow, to quote grieve with the community. speaking at the national peace officer s memorial service in washington yesterday, president biden addressed with the justice department investigating as an act of racially-motivated, domestic extremism. a lone gunman,