you know, this is a time for choosing. we choose democracy over hytocracy, love over hate. these are the questions of our time that i ran for president to try to help answer in dr. king s life and legacy and many i view shows the way forward. just have to look back. you have to be prepared. president biden marks the holiday with a look at his legacy and the work still to be done to ensure voting rights for all americans. meanwhile, house republicans spent that day upset that president biden doesn t have visitor logs for his private homes in delaware. information they never had any interest in when president trum health care plan hundreds of classified materials at his mar-a-lago country club. and from ridiculous lies to russian ties. the bizarre george santos saga takes another turn with new reporting that links him to the family of a sanctioned russian oligarch. good morning. welcome to way too early on this tuesday, january 17th. i m jonathan lemire. we begin on cap
earlier demonstrated just how powerful those winds can be. there is the wind speed, as i am standing next to the building. i will take a knee. oops. i ll have to take a knee there. okay. you guys got it i m going back out. the powerful winds created record level storm surges in areas like fort myers and naples, florida. over 2 million are without power tonight. and flash flooding is still a major concern, with potentially up to 30 inches of rain predicted in some areas. let s go now to nbc news meteorologist michelle grossman for the latest on hurricane in. michelle, hurricane ian has been downgraded to a category one storm. what should residents in its path expect over the next 24 to 48 hours? i, they re great to see you. they can expect flood and rain we. need to prepare for that flash flooding. when it comes to water and hurricanes, that s the number one reason for deaths in hurricanes, it s the salt water, the storm surge that we talked about, and also fre
miles an hour. it down trees and power lines, even without power. created storm surge in areas like fort myers and naples, florida. officials are warning residents about potential for flash flooding overnight, some areas inland could see over two feet of rain. let s go now to nbc news meteorologist michelle gross. michelle, you have been following the storm all day. what is the latest? i, there we are looking at really strong storm still. it is moving inland but we are still seeing winds at 90 miles an hour. so it s still moving on to his strength. it was a very storm strong category four storm, almost category five, really wide in distance as well and moving very slow. so, it s three things that kind of came together to make the worst-case scenario. we saw a really strong winds up to 135 mile an hour wind gusts in cape coral. and i was the story with the storm surge. what storm surges is a push of wind. it s a push of water, salt water, onto dry land. so, we saw feet,
category 4 storm leaving a huge path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we ll have a live report in just a moment. meanwhile, rescue crews have been busy trying to get people who decided to ride out the storm to try and save them. they re stranded now by rising flood waters and we re still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida. at this hour, it still has more to go. good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it s thursday, september 29th. joe is off this morning. along with willie and me, we have the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. without power this morning, first light this morning will begin to show the damage in florida. that s right. that s when we re going to start to see the story of what happened last night, what happened overnight. tropical storm now ian downgraded from a category 1 hurricane. in just the last hour, but still wreaking havoc across florida as it made landfall as a