hit the big bend region since the 1800s. and this is what that looked like . >> you have to wonder who stuck around to be close to that as it was happening. both florida and georgia are experiencing significant power outages. we heard from fema of 300,000 and counting. serious flooding as well. areas in florida are now undertaking search ands are cue missions assisted by the national guard. we're going to go to simons island in south georgia. jimmy marlo is there. tell us what you're seeing as the storm moves through? >> reporter: i have been in the glen county area since yesterday. i started off the day in brunswick where folks were preparing for the storm by filling sandbags. a lot of people worried about localized flooding. we haven't seen any of that in the area. i started the day in brunswick. the story of the day really in the county has really been the wind. there's been a steady wind going from 20 to 30 nauts and i'm in an area that has a lot of trees. i want to show you what the wind has been doing to this area. we haven't seen very many downed tree limbs or trees. but you can see there's quite a bit of debris. and this is broadway street. we can take a look down this street. not very much debris or many trees down until we got a report about this. a massive oak tree that has fallen on power lines. you can see that it is being held up by those power lines. i actually spoke to the homeowner in the house to our left just now. he said the tree fell down at 11:00. thankfully, they still have power on this block, but this is the type of issue this area will be experiencing. we know there's a high water table and southeast florida and northern georgia. if we look at the base of the tree, it did not break. it actually came up from the root, which means that the ground is soft. and the high winds that have been blowing through the area is what caused this massive tree to topple over on the power lines. the whole owner told me this happened around 11:00. the fire department also came out to assess the situation with city works and the homeowners not given a timetable when the massive tree will be removed from the power lines. the same homeowner that gay this information told me that over the last hour, they have seen the power lines that this tree is being held up begin to sag by about a foot. the story of the day here in southeast georgia has been the wind. it's more of a wind storm. as i'm sure you can hear, the wind blowing through the trees. we're going to be out here covering this for the recollection of the day. this is really more of a wind storm than it is a water storm. we'll continue to have updates when available. back to you. >> thank you so much. that's the story everywhere. big winds meeting those big beautiful old trees and you're going to have them coming down on power lines. it's why in neighboring florida, there are 30 to 40,000 technicians mobilized from other states to try to restore power. it's a very serious thing. with the storm's worst impacts now making their way across southeast georgia, coastal communities are bracing for idalia. we have ryan young, who is in sa va na monitoring the conditions there. tell us what are people seeing, what are they expecting? >> right now, they were expecting early on heavy rains. but that habit happened so much. right now, it's been mostly a wind event. if you look behind us, the bridge right now is becoming part of the story. that's a beautiful bridge here in savannah that's been closed as of 2:0037 we watched the crews go across the bridge for the last time. also the port of savannah, all boat traffic has been shut down for the temporary time being they are worried about flooding later on. we have seen businesses put these bags up to make the water can't get under the doors here. they put the tape just in case to keep it from piercing into the building. so really the story so far is no emergency so far. they had some heavy rain further south about 16 mile was from here. but they are worried about the impact of the rain coming in later on this evening. so all emergency crews are getting ready. they were talking about a curfew. not sure if that's going to stand in place because they are not getting the heavy rain that everyone was talking about before. it's become the anticipation of getting the heavy winds over 70 miles per hour. when you think about a holiday weekend like we're approaching, so many people have been flooding into town. the airport hasn't ceased operation, but there has been cabslations. when you look back this direction, we have seen the water drop here in the river. last night it was a lot higher. we haven't been impacted by the rain. but we're still waiting because they say around 7:00 tonight, that's when things could get hairy around here. >> keep your team safe. thank you so much. >> i think what we're also seeing is a lot of people who left and they are not where some of the storm has been the worst. so we're not seeing -- >> that's good news. we heard from one of the communities that folks did largely listen to the evacuation orders, which we have covered a lot of these storms, often timesen doesn't happen. also as we heard, one of the cameras was over topped at 10 feet. so they don't have video of the worst of the storm because it hit a record there. and there are search and rescue efforts underway. that's crystal river, which is where ivan rodriguez is live for us on the scene. we know the high tide there is happening right about now. can you tell us what you're seeing? >> reporter: we have been standing in at least ankle-deep water for the last two hours. in fact, in the last 30 minute or so, we're starting to see some of the water recede. what's been interesting here with krus tall river, the fact that we're seeing these rescues by boat. an hour and a half ago, we saw two fire rescue boats come out and perform at least two separate rescues of groups. and as i'm speaking, i can still hear that buzzing of the boat going around these nearby neighborhoods, but that's how deep the water here has gotten. and this high tide is concerning as well. now i mentioned those two groups that were rescued, one of them rescued with all their blonings. then taken to highway 19 behind me where it's a lot more shallow. if you can hear that noise ramping up, that's the noise of a boat that is approaching. i'll step out so you can take a look. this is a group that appears to be rescued again by citrus county fire rescue. they have been performing these rescues for several hours and you can see how much more shallow it is. we have seen this over and over again. one of the rescues involved a massive bird cage that they were able to take out of one of the homes. once they are able to get them out of their home, they take them there, and emergency crews will assess them, assist with anything they may need. and then they are able to escape. but many people have been waiting for hours. takes us back to the conversation of those able to evacuate, chose to evacuate and those who decided to stay behind. we heard from officials, none of this is necessarily surpriseing but the images are shocking. >> no question, good to see teams out there making those rescue us. ivan, thank you. joining us now is ken frank, on the city council in crystal river, florida. good to have you on. we were speaking earlier to the mayor there, who said that he was hopeful the waters might be receding. have you seen anymore evidence of that? >> i appreciate you guys looking out for us. the water has dropped about a foot in the last hour. so it's definitely receding, but it's all physics. we have a high tide supposed to be coming in right now, but the water is going out. so god willing, the weight of the water will outrun the tide and we'll be okay. we stayed in our home for. we're well above the flood s stage, but the homes around us are around under water. >> how high up is the water come? what kind of damage is it doing? >> we can just see from looking a at it from the outside some of the homes probably have at least a foot of water in them. which at that point, pretty devastating for the individuals that live there. >> we spoke earlier, as i was mentioned with mayor joe mooek, we have heard this in a lot of communities, that most residents did heed the evacuation orders. can you give us any updates on folks left behind and whether any rescues are underway? >> well, we stayed behind because we're well above the flood elevation. we did lose power, but we can hear airboats doing skperge rescue looking for people. most of the folks i know in lower-lying houses did get out. they did heed the warnings and got out. we have been keeping thunderstorm abreast of what's kwing going on whatever means we can talk to them. mostly text messages at this point. >> i think a lot of people are gone. that's the good news. they might not be there to survey the damage to see what's happening in their homes when it's flooded with a foot or more of water. when do you think it will be safe for people to return and see what's happening? >> that ultimately is going to be call of the emergency management officials. but what we can see, probably in two or three hours the water should be passable. although at least on the streets where people can get back in here. but there's going to be emergency management officials at the point of where the flood starts to let people in or not. >> we'll be looking for that after that high tide comes through the area. council member, thank you so much for being with us. best of luck. we know that, obviously, the recovery ahead is going to be huge there in your community. let's get now an update on where the storm is expected to travel next because it really is a georgia story at this point, even as florida is going to be dealing with the cleanup. we have chad myers in the weather center with the very latest. >> right. the whole storm surge issue really is kind of back burner problem. the problem we see right now are flash flood problems. we have had 9 inches of rainfall in one county in southern georgia just over the past 8 hours. so that's obviously the problem. these areas that are still in red, they are 75 mile per hour winds bringing down trees and power lines, but the threat of 140, that's all gone. all we're seeing now is the threats of some tornadoes that could come down and also the very, very heavy rainfall that's yet to hit charleston, yet to really hit sa va narcotics but it's on its way. and that tornado threat. some spots there, 8 inches of rain on the ground already. and alsos southeast of the area, the same story. so flash flood warnings and some emergencies are likely today. look at the power outages. i just checked google earth maps. it is shut down for miles and miles and miles with all the signs saying debro. no travel going through there. some of the smaller highways are open, but if you take a look at all these red lines that are the highways, traffic flow, there's no reason to go east or west today. it will be a very big nightmare with all of the trees. we showed that everywhere. every picture, there's a tree or branch or something down. that's what all of florida and southern georgia is dealing with. but it's the heavy rainfall, that's the next real threat here. temperatures the flash flooding. if you're in a flood-prone area, you already probably know it here across the carolinas and georgia. that flooding will be going all day long. >> so chad, i know it's early and we're still going to be dig ing out from this for a number of days and assessing for a number of days. but based on the forecast going in in terms of wind speeds, it strengthened to a category 4. has this been as bad as you expected? >> i think we knew that it wasn't going to be as bad as it could have been simply because of the population or lack thereof in the area. if you only have to evacuate 500 people, you can get 500 people out. but trying to evacuate a population around tampa, you have millions of people that have get on the highway and the highways are clogged, that's when it really is a problem. so yes, this hit the least probably coming into damage and also personal property damage, there couldn't have be a different place that this hit in florida and made less damage. so it was a big storm, it was a lot of surge, a lot of people are suffering here, we probably expects loss of life. we just haven't found that person yet. this was a major beevent. population density between 300,000 compared to 3 or 4 million. >> that's a good point. as you said, there's a lot of danger of trees coming down. chad myers, you'll stay on top of it. thank you so much. any moment now president biden is going to speak at the white house about hurricane idalia. we're going to bring you that live when it happens. our breaking news continues after a short break. om big cities, to small towns, and on main streets ross the us, you'll find pnc bank. helping businesses both large and small, communities and the people who live and work there grow and thrive. we're proud to call these places home too. they're where we put down roots, and where together, we work to help move everyone's financial goals forward. pnc bank. my brain. so i choose new neuriva ultra. unlike some others, it supports 7 brain health indicators, including mental alertness from one serving. to help keep me sharp. try new neuriva ultra. think bigger. we are continuing to follow our major breaking news, which is hurricane idalia churning across south georgia right now as a category 1 hurricane. hundreds of thousands of people without power in florida and georgia. along the big bend, we're seeing a lot of evidence of destruction, search and rescue operations are underway. here's a keaton beach resident who did listen to the evacuation warnings. >> i don't know if it's there or not. >> he's a couple miles up off the coast. he said it's horrible. he said trees are falling in the yard. he's scared. we have never seen this before. usually category 1, we come and ride it out. this right here is bad. this is bad. >> category 4 strength, let's go down to tallahassee. the city commissioner joins us now by phone. good to have you on. we know you have a lot on your plate. there's been a the lot of concern about trees around tallahassee. a big element of pride, but also a danger with the high winds. what's your assessment the of the damage at this point? >> thank you for having me. we really got lucky. wind gusts were up to 53 miles per hour. definitely have seen significant debris, some trees that have fallen down. but we really dodge d a bullet here. we're very lucky. >> that's great to hear. >> it certainly is. do you think people at this point in time have left the area? wha what's the status right now? >> i think several people did evacuate. i heard of people coming back. about a third of our residents are without power right now. we're doing a great job getting people back online. we have had a lot of support from other utilities across the country that's made all the difference. >> we did hear from fema earlier. 300,000 people without power. not just in tallahassee in all the affected areas. we expect that number to rise. do you have a sense of how quickly you can get power back and impact ly exactly how many customers in your area in tallahassee lost power? >> i think that upwards of 70,000 customers lost power in tallahassee. my power is out. i just got it back a couple hours ago we're making steady progress. it is a concern, though. but so far, we were very well prepared. we did a great job of preparing for this. so we had crews work ing all night restoring power. as early as 11:00 last night, power was going out and people were responding. >> i think that maybe the story is just how prepared people were for the storm and that it hit areas that were not as populated as some of these cities farther down the coast of florida. what do you need at this point in time? >> frankly, i think at this point for tallahassee, as we continue to restore power, i think we want to focus on our friends in neighboring communities who have experienced the truly devastated effects of the storm. we have agreements with folks. we're going to help them out and come together as a community and just be grateful we were spared. >> we thank you so much. tallahassee city commissioner, thank you for join ing us. >> thank you. so when we come back, we'll be speaking to the director of the national hurricane center about the latest on idalia. really at this it point, it's a georgia story, a south georgia story inches and inches of rain, lots of flooding risks there not out of the woods certainly for georgia. our breaking news coverage continuing after this short break. could save $700 dollars just by switching. ooooh, let me puput a reminder on my phone. on the top of the pile! oh. only pay for what you need. ♪ libertyty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ if your moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms are stopping you in your tracks... choose stelara® from the start... and move toward relief after the firsdose... with iections every two months. stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. pres, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. feel unstoppable. ask your doctor how lasting remission can start with stelara®. janssen can help you explore cost support options. 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(vo) ask your doctor about once-weekly mounjaro. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the subway series menu. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. for freeee. that's what i'm talking about. order in the subway app today. bold. daring. expressive. contra costa college allows me to be whoever and whatever i want to be, providing the stage, the canvas, the tools to use my voice and write my story. find your passion and create your future at contra costa college. start today at contracosta.edu here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch, it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. welcome back to our breaking news coverage of hurricane idalia, which charged ashore in florida early this morning as a dangerous category 3 storm. pictures you're seeing here are from keaton beach, exact ly whee the hurricane landfall. >> much of the big bebd area has seen disastrous flooding, and that includes cedar key, which san island that has seen record water levels. just a short time ago, florida's governor pledged state support to help the less-developed counties cover the cost of cleanup. >> i would imagine that the state would want to help these fiscally constrained counties. the legislature has wanted to do that. we maybe seeking betters cost share as well, but there's going to be things that are going to need to be take care of and these are the counties among that big bend that just have very small budgets. and expenses like this are not things they could absorb the way some of our wealthier counties could. >> the storm also hitting close to home for the governor, you see that there. this is a tweet from his wife. that is a picture of a massive oak tree that toppled. it looked like on to the governor's mansion. delaware sab fits said it was sort of adjacent to the mansion. that's certainly good news. no one injured. >> joining us now is the deputy director of the national hurricane center jamie rome. thank you so much for joinings us. a busy day for you. it's still churning as we watch the radar screen. it's weakened, as it does, when it makes landfall, but what are the remaining dangers? >> the focus now is shifting to this heavy rainfall threat that we have been talking about. you can really see it unfolding in the radar behind me. look at the heavy rain just developing out in front of this sucystem as it races across southern georgia and south carolina. this is going to fill in over the next several hours. you can already see the flood warnings come ing with it. >> as we talk about that, we're looking at those bands a little more inland there. what are you expecting? what are people needing to keep in mind? >> i'm really concerned about this area here along i-20 from augusta to columbia. i think the heavy rain is going to just set up right in there and just going to get rainfall rates that are just so strong that you're just going to get immediate flooding as the center sort of pulls along. at the same time, you see the southerly wind wrap ping around the east side. that's going to start shoving the ocean up these rivers in the form of storm surge. so these two forms of water are going to collide and produce very heavy rain and flood potential over eastern south carolina. then ultimately extending up into southeastern north carolina. >> is this the storm you expected when you were looking at this as we were discussing yesterday? and do we know yet, it's still moving through there. >> we don't know yet. but what little bit i have seen from down here in florida from this morning is unfortunately it materialized as forecast. >> as we expected. i also wonder at it point in time, we're hearing from a lot of people who left the area, which is great news, but there's still some people who decided to stay in that big bend area. we may not have heard from them because power is out. they are among the floridians who power is out for or people have not been able to get back to their homes in those areas. what are you expecting here in the coming hours as the high tide dissipates and people are able to get back and survey the damage? >> so immediately, we'll be try ing to support search and rescue to enable them to get back into those communities as quickly but as safely as possible as the conditions start to subside on the backside of this system. and that is really urgent. it's imperative we get into these communities that are probably completely cut off. this is low-lying area. some of these places are islands. so they are probably just completely cut off roads are impassable. so getting these first responders in fast to help anybody who stayed. >> still a lot to learn about this storm, but we're just entering the peak of hurricane season and there are a lot of indicators these seasons are only going to get worse with the warm ing of the wears. what do you expect? what are you predicting for the three months ahead? >> we're still very much at the peak of hurricane season. september is typically our busiest month. so i thus we still have a long ways to go and need everybody to remain vigilant and prepared. >> be vigilant and prepared. that warm water certainly there in the gulf is just intensifying everything. it doesn't cause the storms, as we have heard so many people say, but it certainly makes it worse. thank you so much for taking us through that. we appreciate it. >> thank you. from the national guard to the coast guard, thousands have been deployed to help in the aftermath of hurricane idalia. we'll have a live report from gulf port, next. >> woman: why did we choose safelite? >> vo: for us, driving around is the only way we can get our baby to sleep, so when our windshield cracked we needed it fixed right. we went to safelite.com. there's no one else we'd trust. their expertreplaced our windshield, and recalibrated our car's advanced safety system. they focus on our safety... so we can focus on this little guy. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ we handcraft every stearns & foster® using the finest materials, like indulgent memory foam, and ultra-conforming innersprings, for a beautiful mattress, and indescribable comfort. for a limited time, save up to $800 on select stearns & foster® adjustable mattress sets. ♪ ("drumroll" by lónis, little league ) ♪ ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ this just in ♪ ♪ got the keys to what you want and what you need ♪ ♪ something new something sweet ♪ ♪ moving to a different beat ♪ ♪ okay now (what?) ♪ ♪ can i get a (get a) drumroll? 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>> i got to go. >> good to see folks were listening to the evacuation orders. idalia is now barrelling through georgia. about 300,000 households currently without power in both florida and georgia, but fema expects that number to rise. carlos suarez is in florida. it looks like folks are starting to survey the damage. >> reporter: that's exactly right. so right now, the cleanup effort is well underway here in gulf port. we are in peinellas county. the mayor tells me they are still waiting for the water to recede so that officials get a clearer picture of the kind of damage that they are dealing with here. if you can show them just up the street from where we are along the coastline, you can see one emergency crew is out here on a pickup truck. they have been driving up and down further up the street out here. some streets up there are pretty blocked off. cars can't get in and out of that area. we are in gulf port, where we expect that a lot of this storm surge to take hold. it's what it was the one thing really that emergency officials across the tampa bay area and the county were worried about. they didn't want folks to be out here doing exactly what they are doing becausewet still were going to have all this water coming off the coastline out here. we have had a the little bit of rain, although much of that has cl cleared. so officials really were just telling them to stay away from this part of town. we are still dealing with significant flood ing. the mayor tells me that a the lot of the damage does seem to have been more storm surge related than anything else. there was one bridge that reopened earlier today connecting pinellas county and hillsborough county, which is home to the tampa bay area. but again, right now at least where we are, restaurants have started to open their doors, although they are not serving food. they are looking at the damage. they are sweeping some of the water and debris out, as this part of the county tries to get on with things considering the last 24 hours. >> looking at the palm trees, you wouldn't even know a hurricane whipped through there, but you lock the at the street and see this was really a water event for gulf port, florida. thank you so much for that report. florida governor ron desantis confirming search and rescue teams have been deployed with help from the national guard. we have oren liebermann live at the pentagon for us with more on the military response to this. what can you tell us? >> reporter: governor ron desantis had thousands of florida national guards members ready to go ahead of the storm. that means they wait in armories throughout the state, waiting for the storm to pass until they can come out and see the damage and find out how they are needed. they can be used in any number of roles from clearing trees to helping with power lines to helping local law enforcement with traffic or anything like that. it's really where they are needed. buzz of the severity or the worry about the storm, governor right side rd made sure to have thousands of guards members on standby. meanwhile, governor brian kemp in georgia also said he's put 1,000 national guards members from his state on standby, so he, too, is ready for this. and if the damage is that severe, there's the possibility based on the agreement to move some florida guards men to georgia or vice versa. the question, let's see where the damage is and find out where the national guard is needed. the navy moved several ships and aircrafts out of florida, including out of a naval base outside of jacksonville ahead of the storm. those expected back later this week. and two commands in florida moved some of their personnel to a different location just to get them away from the storms. again, we'll keep you posted on when that's expected to come back to normal. you can see how serious ly the military is taking this not only with the national guard assistance for the recovery efforts, but also active duty being careful on where this is going to hit and how severe it could be. >> i just want to let our viewers know, as you stay with us, we're waiting the president speaking here about hurricane idalia. he is focused very much today on the hurricane. also he's focused on the recovery there in hawaii, too. big natural disasters that his administration is dealing with. but as you see the military participating in these efforts, what are you expecting as this is a georgia event now at this point in time? so what is sort of the long-term commitment there? >> so first, we have seen the military -- >> i'm so sorry to interrupt you. but let's listen to president biden at the white house. >> i made a point to speak to all the governors likely to be impacted by the storm. i spoke with ron desantis several times, governor kemp, governor cooper about the impacts of the storm and it made landfall at 7:45 as a category 3 hurricane. and it's moved over land. it's now shifted to category 1, but it's still very dangerous with winds up to 75 miles per hour. and the impacts of the storm are being felt throughout the southeast. even as it moves up the eastern coast of the united states affecting georgia, south carolina, north carolina, and we have to remain vigilant. there's much more to do. i just came from the oval office, where i met with a the fema administrator, who is standing to my left here, and our federal response folks. early monday morning, long before the storm made landfall, i spoke with governor ron desantis and approved an rl request for emergency declaration toen able him to have the full support ahead of time to protect the people's lives of the state of florida. i surged personnel to florida to help the state move people to safety and out of the danger zone. and to help the governor and his team to the greatest degree possible in advance and in advance of the hurricane's arrival. and i directed the fema to redeploy resources, including up to 1,500 personnel and 900 coast guard personnel throughout the southeast. i directed the administrator to stay in close touch with the governor. she was with me when i was speaking to him as well. he maybe tired of hearing from us, but he seemed like he welcomed it. as a matter of fact, i asked that she get on a plane and leave for florida this afternoon. she will meet with governor desantis tomorrow and help conduct the federal assistance at my direction. federal teams on the ground are going to continue to work with the first responders in florida, georgia, south carolina, north carolina, to get people to safety. you have all been reporting this and seeing it on television, a number of rescues already taking place, as i walked out of my office a moment ago to begin to recover from the impacts of the storm. i let each governor i spoke with with know if there's anything, anything the states need right now, i'm ready to mobilize that support with what they immediate. i don't think anybody can deny the impact of a climate crisis anymore. just look around. historic floods, more intense droughts, extreme heat, significant wildfires have caused significant damage like we have never seen before not only throughout the hawaiian islands but in canada and other parts of the world. we have never seen this much fire. while we're dealing with this. rebuilding efforts and county and many of you you were there. i directed my team to raise our game in how we lead and coordinate our responses to natural disasters. because i have been around awhile, i have known how these when they need our help the most. because of the devastation of wildfires from california to mexico or idaho, louisiana, we have learned a heck of a lot. in the meantime, we have learned a heck of a lat loath. we are putting the lessons we learned to work. and in a few moments, i'm going to meet with my entire cabinet in the next room over who are are leading the federal recovery in rebuilding efforts to report on their progress in providing urgently needed support for the people maui. if i can note for just a moment, when you have your home washed away, when you are a fire that's taken your home away, when your school has been destroyed and you can't send your kids to school, these are urgent needs. and no matter how bright and informed and how wealthy or poor they are, you just need reassurance. how in god's name are we going to get through this? we saw the devastation in maui firsthand. i want to thank governor josh, who is dealing a hell of a job. and for everything they are doing to support the recovery effort. i directed my team to do everything we can for as long as it takes to help maui recover, rebuild in a way that respects hawaiian traditions and cultures and the needs of a local community we're not going to turn this into a land grab or see homes on the beach. we want to restore that part of the island like it was before. only better. to that end, when i was on the island last week, i appointed bob fenton, one of the leading emergency managers. and i mean that not as hyperbole, who has been on the ground in hawaii since before the fires erupted as our chief federal response coordinator to lead our long-term recovery on maui. i have charged him with making sure the community does everything the government can offer to build back better as fast as possible. he will be giving me a report on maui when i walk out of this room and go to the cabinet room. and as an example of our commitment, we're not only building back, but we're going to build back stronger and more resilient, which means we need to be ready to withstand any challenge heading our way in rebuilding the way maui wants to rebuild. i'm announcing a $95 million from the bipartisan law is on the the way to hawaii to harden the ground power, harden the grid. i know when we start talking about the grid, the average american thinks what are we talking about? the ability to transmit electricity. let me tell you what it means. it means investments to make sure electricity can continue to reach homes, hospitals, water stations, even during intense storms. funding will be used for stronger, better poles holding up the wires that transmit the electricity. it will means stronger material. it means burying these lines that transmit the electricity underground. it's more expensive to do that, but we're positive we should put them underground. they are safest. it means clearing brush. like the kindling that exists out there, that's what it ends up being when one of the wires comes down. this is going to pay for installing technology like smart meters that can tell you where the problem actually is when the line goes down. that's part of the problem. a lot of these maui is not that big, but in parts of california, oregon, where did the wire go down. we're going to be installing meters to let the person sitting back at headquarters know it went down at such and such k coordinates to quickly identify which lines are damaged or down so repairs can happen as quickly as possible and prevent damage from occurring. nanything else at our disposal. and the department of energy, secretary we're going to be talking about this in a minute accelerated the anoubsment of this funding to meet the moment. all this can help maui and the entire state of hawaii better withstand future disasters. itch watched some of you folks standing in front of me on television in dangerous circumstances report ing on thi stuff. you know it. it's one thing to look at it on television and hear someone else report, but you're standing there and you're wondering, whoa, what's that behind me. it makes a difference. we have done it before. under the obama and biden administration, we invested hundreds of millions of dollars. in the state of florida, replacing wooden power poles and steel poles and buried these electric lines. i wonder what happened now if we hadn't done that. i'm not sure. but the point is, we did it. it helped withstand and recover from disasters more quickly. it costs a lot of money, but it works. it saves a lot of money long-term. when jill and i visited maui last week, we saw firsthand the magnitude of the loss. lives had been dramatically changed. you lost everything. we're doing everything we can to help you recover, rebuild and return to your lives. we have dedicated $24 million to removal of hazardous material left behind in the fire's wake. you can't clear it all out. you have to take the bad stuff o out. once we have done that, it's going to be frustrating for people. why can't i go back and look and see if i can find that wedding ring or that album. i can't find that thing i lost in the house. it's really tough. lightning struck my house and we had to be out for seven months because so much damage was done to the house. and you wonder what's going to happen. we have already dedicated $400 million to pay for the debris removal. once we get the toxic stuff out to take all the removal, the federal government is going to pay for that. the state is not paying for that. we're going to dedicate more if necessary. but you want to be clear with the people of maui about what to expect. the work we're doing is going to take time. in some cases, a long time. we're going to make sure we're respectful to the people of hawaii as well. the process of removing hazardous material and cleaning the damage means folks can't get become in the area right away. the start of school has been disrupted. it's painful. i get it. what can can i tell you? the one thing i can tell you is we're going to be with you every step of the way. we're not walking away. when jill and i visited, we were struck by the courage of the people there. people who lost loved ones,s lost everything. people are just trying to find out whether the ones they lost are gone or missing. where are they? they have lost everything. everywhere we turn, we felt the spirit. it's true. turning pain into purpose. keeping the faith. you are healed and in better shape. i said last week, we're not leaving until the job is done. and we'll be there as long as it takes. i know there's a lot of questions you probably have. i'll take a few, but i have a cabinet meeting coming up. >> can you assure americans that the federal government is going to have the emergency funding that they need to get through this hurricane season? >> the answer is if i can't do that, i'm going to point out why. how can we not respond? my god. how can we not respond to these needs? so i'm confident, even though there's a lot of talk from some of our friends up on the hill about the cost, we have to do it. this is the united states of america. >> governor ron desantis is also running for president. you are running for reelection. do you sense any politics in your conversations with him about this issue? >> no, believe it or not, i know that sounds strange, especially how the nature of politics today, but i was down there with the last major storm. i spent a lot of time walking from village to community to community. making sure he had what he needed to get it done. i think he trusts my judgment and my desire to help, and i trust him to be able to suggest that this is not about politics. it's about taking care of the people of the state. >> in your conversations with the governors, is there anything that gives you pause? things that need to be there that are not there yet. and are you making any con contingency plans on your own schedule either with this labor day for your own personal travels and international travels are that are coming up that need to be reshuffled? >> i may, i just don't know yet. first of all, each of the governors seem to be focused. i think what's changing, particularly the governmors fro north carolina and south carolina and georgia is there wasn't an anticipation that it would be moving up the coast. they were hopeful, and initially it looked like it was going to go further east. so i think they are all in the process of rapidly focusing on what may happen, what may not happen. and what i hope the people of those states listen to is the warnings when they come from -- they may not see 130 mile an hour winds coming through, but guess what, you may also be on the shore of low-lying area and have an 8-foot surge coming from off the ocean. but they have all determined and focused. there's a lot of low-lying country. i was joking with him. my state in delaware and eastern shore of maryland, we're three feet above sea level. you worry about what those surges do. you're talking about tide and adding three feet. so i found them all to be laser focused on what their needs were and i asked them, but they are reassured that we're going to be there for whatever they need. including search and