threat across the state. residents are urged to stay inside. our team is on the ground and crews mobilize and janice dean is tracking ian in new york city. todd: lauren, we begin our coverage with you in st. pete. in st. pete beach, they were prepping for the worst, but it struck more southeast. let me show you what is looked like yesterday in the naples, fort myers area. ian came with category four, wind speeds 155 miles per hour, dropped a foot of rain and life-threatening storm surge turned roads into rivers and left homes on the other hand water. take a look at the radar, ian has weakened since making landfall as it moves to florida. latest update has it 75 miles per hour, making it a category one hurricane, officials warn communitiess in central and northern florida, they are still in danger from flooding and hard to process amounts of water. central and northeast florida, 12 to 20 inches of rain possible, some areas according to national hurricane center, looking at
florida governor ron desantis warning floridians should expect a major impact. there really doesn t seem anything to prevent it from continuing to strengthen. this is going to be a major impact. and floridians should expect that this storm will be a major cat 3-plus hurricane. nbc s meteorologist michelle grossman is joining us for the latest. what do we know about the path right now? it looks like it s going to hit the west coast of florida within the next 48 hours. overnight it was stationary. starting to pick up speed, 7 miles per hour, 8 miles per hour. once it gets into the gulf we ll see it blossom. right now it s a strong tropical storm at 65 miles per hour, 90 miles south of the western tib of cuba, east of the yucatan, west of cuba. keep in mind the gulf waters are bath-like, not just at the sea level, but deep down. that s really going to ignite this storm. it s going to be the fuel that the storm needs. as we go throughout time today,
more than 10,000 people were hospitalized. there were no vaccines availabl so the state s largest healthcare system are limiting patient visits. the highest single day total ever in florida with well over 21,000 new infections the agriculture commissioner who wa hoping to run against governor rhonda santos and 2020 to warning floridians this search will affect everyone if it continues on the current track. it is pushing our hospital system to capacity which has dimmed dangerous implications beyond be on covid 19. the governor is pushing back against vaccine and mask requirements, threatening to strip funding from florida school districts with mask mandates in place when students return for in person learning i soon week.
mobile homes, homes and low-lying areas. shannon: police officers cruising the streets and armored vehicle telling residents in martin county it s time to leave. millions of residents are under mandatory evacuations from florida to south carolina. it let s bring florida s attorney general ashley, way too happy you with us tonight. good evening, shannon, thanks for inviting me. shannon: i want to talk with the issues that i know you re going to be dealing with and already have, this idea of gouging. everybody is out there trying to gather up supplies, water, gas, whatever they can get their hands on. in one account i read says that you got more than 2,000 reports already of people price gouging. how big of a problem is it in this kind of situation? this is such a dangerous storm. as you know, we ve been warning floridians for days to evacuate from coastal areas and get supplies needed for at least seven days. food, medicine, water and as that happens, there are always
good direction. let s build off the success we have had on governor scott. the last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. ainsley: warning floridians not to monkey this up by picking a socialist agenda. people did say. so headlines calling him a racist. he was on with sean hannity last night to clarify. listen. it hat has zero to do with race, sean it has everything to do with whether we want florida to go in a good directions. i m not going to let the democrats and andrew gillum try to object secure a debate about whether his tax increases, his single pair hurricane plan, hipayirhealthca. i don t care what it is or what color you are. brian: people saying it s a dog whistle. it s a race. andrew gillum says hey, you know what? it s not a dog whistle, it s