from an mess nbc rolled headquarters, welcome in new york. welcome to alex witt reports. we begin this hour with the big story of survival and recovery, mostly in florida that state hit hardest by hurricane ian. the total death toll from that storm is estimated 78 people. power outage numbers are down from reporting last hour, now it s over 21,000 in north carolina and just over 7000 in virginia without power. 1200 in south carolina. search and rescue operations are still underway, with the coast guard leading most efforts as 100 of thousands struggle with basic necessities like power, water, cell phone service. here is fema director demon chris just short time ago. we have well over 2 million people without power immediately following the storm and the power companies there have done a numbing job of getting the majority people back online. i think where the difficulty comes in, jonathan, is that there are so many homes especially in fort myers beach, area that are compl
from an mess nbc rolled headquarters, welcome in new york. welcome to alex witt reports. we begin this hour with the big story of survival and recovery, mostly in florida that state hit hardest by hurricane ian. the total death toll from that storm is estimated 78 people. power outage numbers are down from reporting last hour, now it s over 21,000 in north carolina and just over 7000 in virginia without power. 1200 in south carolina. search and rescue operations are still underway, with the coast guard leading most efforts as 100 of thousands struggle with basic necessities like power, water, cell phone service. here is fema director demon chris just short time ago. we have well over 2 million people without power immediately following the storm
the toll stands at 78 from that storm with the number expected to rise. power is beginning to be restored as these numbers show, 78,000 customers in florida. 19,000 in north carolina, 7900 in virginia, and 1200 in south carolina. joining me now is jared moscow, it s florida s former emergency management director and the 23rd congressional district. welcome, glad to have you talk here about this. i know you saw oversaw the emergency response division. gauge for us the severity of hurricane ian. how does it compare to the other storms you have responded to? yeah, looks good to be with you. i mean. the severity is significant because of the size of the storm and the size of the eye wall in addition to the strength. years ago we had the category five storm in the panhandle, everybody will number the pictures of what mexico beach looked like.