pictures of and the storm is still going strong. chad meyers is standing by with the latest on the track but we begin with laila santd ysantiag on the scene for us. reporter: on the southwest part of the island hurricane fiona made landfall. we are dealing with rains and wind gusts and flash flooding right now on the ground. but the big story in terms of impacts to the u.s. citizens on the island is there is an island wide power outage going on for an hour and they don t expect that power as this natural disaster comes in. the timing here is part of the story. remember nearly five years ago to the day i stood here as hurricane maria left the island without power for months. the video is dark because there s no power but listen to the exchange. [ speaking nonenglish ] she says when the power goes out she gets real anxious and tense and worried. she is worried what she will find at her house. reporter: the governor saying that mud slides are part of the concern and urging
night ahead of us and just keep your fingers crossed. people need to hunker down. those who are figuring out how they want to help, one of the organizations is the red cross. they ve sent 500 people in, as well as the cajun navy, dozens of boats that come in from other states and catholic charities. they ll play a big role in taking care of people in days to come as we have to move people to shelters. and componded with the shelters because the shelters can t hold as many people because we have such a big covid outbreak here because people refuse to take the shot and all the hospitals are full. and that s another dimension of this catastrophe that we re going to be feeling for days to come. lieutenant general russel honore, thanks for your expertise, as always. it s greatly appreciated. it s going to be a long night in louisiana and a long night in the dark for many of the residents, your neighbors there, because of all those power outages. russel honore, thanks so much. our specia
miami-dade county alone, ari. it s going to be a long night in the dark. clearly. thank you so much. we want to turn now to a phone interview with the executive director of the new florida majority. this is a grass roots organization that engages in progressive politics. but we are not here to talk politics tonight. this weekend they have decided to go door to door trying to get people to shelters, obviously an important cause. what can you tell us? yeah, i mean, it s a time of high stress and anxiety while you re waiting out a storm. but many of us have been preparing not only our homes but helping our parents and neighbors and friends prepare and we have been helping prepare for storms and get to shelters especially in low income communities where people may not have the resources for the supplies they need or for