keep coming. willie? yeah. start in florida, though, this hour, mika. millions of residents are bracing for hurricane ian as that powerful storm barrels towards the state getting stronger by the hour. just this morning it became a category 4 hurricane expected to make landfall in the southwest coast of florida as early as this afternoon. the center of the storm forecast to move over the central past of the state with winds reaching more than 130 miles per hour. the national hurricane center also warning of dangerous storm surge and flooding with up to 18 inches of rain expected in some areas. more than 2.5 million people under evacuation orders along parts of coastal florida. the powerful storm passed the florida keys last night causing a couple of tornadoes and some damage there. officials say there also is significant flooding across that area. yesterday the hurricane battered western cuba knocking outing the island s electrical grid, causing a nation-wide blackout. offic
possibility of obviously life-threatening weather. storm surge they ve never seen before. everything you get with a category 4 landfall. all right. bill karins, thank you very much. and, of course, fema is already on the ground in florida getting ready for this, and we ll watch it throughout the entire four hours of morning joe. also the how select committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol postponed today s public hearing because of hurricane ian. the committee announced the move yesterday writing we are praying for the safety of all of those in the storm s path in respect is no word yet on when the hearing will be rescheduled, but the committee appears to be winding down its investigation. one committee member speaking on the condition of anonymity tells nbc news the panel is transitioning its focus to a written report outlining the panels findings over the past 14 months. joining us now, justice department reporter for the new york times, katie benner.
department. that conversation was happening at a time it did not seem the justice department was moving quickly to investigate january 6th and now we see they are moving ahead and does not need a referral from the committee to act. the committee s report i think ultimately what they ve all said. fullest accounting to the american people of what happened leading up to january 6th, why the january 6th attack happened and what to do afterwards. there may or may not be a criminal referral. may or may not refer some activity regarding funding to the s.e.c. that s to be seen. ultimately they want a document to read that tells us exactly what happened and why. and, katie, obviously the hearings and the report, too, captured the country s attention. polling shows in a way even the committee didn t expect. it has been compelling and will be in this last one. take it from the other side of it. the justice department. how closely are they watching these hearings? how closely are they watching
this last hears and read this final report when they consider whether or not to take up criminal charges? top officials always maintained the departments leaders are watching extremely closely. absurd not to. you never know what evidence can be brought in this forum. maybe not evidence to hold up in a court of law but could lead to interesting questions, leads, investigative steps. watching closely. scan the report for any information they can find that matches what they ve seen, contradicts what they ve seen and contradicts what their own witnesses told them. they will be key. and keep in mind, they have never come to a full cooperation agreement. for the department, some information they see in the report whenever it comes could be information that they re seeing for the first time. katie, we had, we continue to have convictions in the january 6th trials that are taking place.
first of all, do we know when the next hearing will be? that does appear to be the final one, but how long will they hold off? so talk is it could be soon as next week but i think should be cautious here, because they can reschedule this hearing, just saw them reschedule this hearing s we won t know for sure until the committee puts out an official announcement. katie sorry. the written report they re working on. what are we hearing about what exactly they plan to do with that? talk about what it would take for them to actually, you know, do a criminal referral to the justice department by unanimous vote, perhaps. is that at this point just surmising, or is there legitimate undercurrents? i think one of the things about this committee, as they reach near the finish line it starts to get fuzzy in terms of what their mission is and intent is. i think the report is a really great example of that. you re right. there was originally talk of criminal referral to the justice