accusations of voter suppression are all the more pressing for people who think they could impact thousands of voters. good report. jessica dean, welcome to cnn, by the way, your first report of what s probably going to be a very long and distinguished career. well, i hope so. thanks for having me. good to have you here. thank you. and that s it. thanks very much for watching. erin burnett outfront starts erin burnett outfront starts right now. captions by vitac www.vitac.com outfront next, breaking news, the death toll from hurricane michael keeps rising. it now stands at 17. many still unaccounted for. and new details tonight about the missing washington post contributor, did he use his apple watch to record his own death? and president trump s ties to saudi arabia running deep. how he s been doing big business with the kingdom for decades. let s go outfront. good evening, everyone, i m kate bolduan in for erin burnett. breaking news, the death toll from
that her husband had made. they didn t find the table, but they were overjoyed that they found a bench that he made for that dining table. she said her grandkids are going to be so happy. she found some of her son s fishing rods. she said we drove to the edge of the world and it looks like mexico beach fell off but we will build back like we did after opal. two months before power is back, unbelievable, thank you so much. now let me show you another view, what s left of a campground in mexico beach. just another view of how much this town is in ruins. this is what it looked like before hurricane michael. what home also looked like for my next guest, tandy horton. but it isn t just where she lived that was ravaged by the hurricane. this is the el governor motel, the beachside motel where she worked and this is what is left of the motel. the roof walls, even rooms themselves, torn apart.
just outside of town. mangled metal, flipped over, it shows, again, how powerful hurricane michael was. outfront now is mark mcqueen, the manager of panama city. mark, thank you for coming in tonight. thank you, kate. appreciate you allowing us to share our story. thank you. what is the latest from there tonight? do you have a clear assessment yet of how many homes were damaged and destroyed in the city? yeah, kate, i would estimate that we probably have in the vicinity of 85% to 90% of the homes and businesses in panama city have been destroyed. it s been just total devastation. 85% to 90% destroyed? that is and this is a city we re talking of 37,000 people, right? that s correct. absolutely. and what you see behind me is indicative of what you see about most of the community of panama city. i mean, what portion of this city are you thinking can sleep safely safely sleep in their
states and officials expect that number to go up still. you are looking at the devastated remains of mexico beach, florida. the town that took michael s first and most damaging blow. late today, 16 people across mexico beach were rescued. one survivor was literally pulled out alive from underneath the rubble. one of the biggest unknowns, though, how many people are still missing tonight. local, state, and federal officials not offering an estimate but acknowledge not everyone is accounted for. today, some residents risking their own safety once again by trying to head back home to mexico beach. before the storm, this was a little sleepy beach town. that on the left, mexico beach before the storm. homes, businesses, dozens of boat slips. on the right, just after the storm, they re all gone. and look at this. on the left, the curved building is panama city s bay city