Welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining me. Im Omar Jimenez in for fredricka whitfield. We start this hour with breaking News Hurricane Milton is now a category one hurricane threatening floridas West Coast with devastating Storm Surge, flooding, and damaging winds. Its forecast to intensify into at least a category three storm before making landfall in just a few days the team covering this dangerous storm, Cnn Correspondent RafaelRomo And Cnn meteorologist Elisa Raffa are here. I want to start with you, rafael, though what are we learning as far as preparations and other things go . Hey omar, this is a very serious situation in addition to the clearing of State Of Emergency and 51 counties, florida governor Ron Desantis has ordered Management Sites to remain open 24 7, so that many areas covered by debris after Hurricane Helene can be cleared before the arrival of milton, which became a hurricane this afternoon more than 800 guardsmen are currently deployed for debris removal, but the san has said, there will soon be up to 4,000 available. We also heard from Florida Senator Rick scott, who earlier said that milton has the potential of causing much greater damage than helene which pummeled florida only ten days ago with Helene Scott said over 1 Million households were left without Power Milton has the potential of having an impact that will be much worse it seems like a lot of storms have become water events. Weve got an all with this one were going to have Storm Surge. Were going to have flooding. Were going to have massive winds and guess what means youre gonna lose power . We heard a similar assessment from Governor Desantis earlier today, who also said that florida is going to see a lot of Power Outages and that is something that people should prepare for adding that crews are already getting staged to restore electricity as soon as possible, he has Emergency Management Director warned people that evacuations well be necessary to have some probably seen since 2017 when Hurricane Irma hit the peninsula. Florida attorney general, Ashley Moody says, people should realize that evacuating is a Life Or Death decision. If they say get out and its going to hit us like this and they cant predict exactly that Storm Surge. And you are an Evacuation Zone you probably need to write your name and permanent marker on your arm so that people know who you are when they get to you afterwards more than 500,000 people in Pinellas County where people were getting sandbags ready earlier, it could be ordered to evacuate monday as well. Many of these people, omar, were also impacted by helene and have yet to recover for from it. And Manatee County located just north of sarasota, earlier announced that they will begin evacuations Monday Afternoon in preparation for the storms arrival, omar. As you mentioned, coming right on the heels of helene rafael romo. Thank you so much. I want to bring in Elisa Raffa in the Cnn Weather Center because where is milton now . What should we be expecting with this so its sitting in the Gulf Of Mexico right now. And that is fueling its intensification. It was able to rapidly intensify from yesterday. And we are expecting its rapidly intensify again because it is sitting in Ocean Temperatures that are incredibly warm winds at its center right now are 80 miles per hour. That makes it a category one hurricane and its sitting about 800 miles west and southwest blast of Tampa Bay. It will continue its trek in these very warm gulf waters, which is why we are anticipating it becoming a major category three hurricane and it could maintain that major Hurricane Status as a whole its towards the West Coast of florida. Notice to how the cone really just swallows the entire peninsula. Were looking at impacts, no matter where that ai goes across the entire Peninsula Imaging Winds and Heavy Rain, Storm Surge up and down the coast as well. And i want to point this out to what i mentioned. Were looking at an intensifying again because we have these very warm Ocean Temperatures in the middle and upper 80s, thats what caused the rapid intensification over the last 24 hours and will cause it again over the next 24 hours. But when you look at the spaghetti plots, as we call them, look at the spread. This is just where the center michael, you see as far north this Cedar Key are as far south as nichols. So this is what were really meaning to eyeball very closely because this will determine who gets the worst Storm Surge no matter where the hurricane goes, everyones going to get it on the outer bands of the Heavy Rain and damaging winds so that Storm Surge forecast will be incredibly important and really determined by where that center goes. So well continue to find, again, its skirting across the gulf as we go through the next two days kind of scrapes past the yucatan peninsula. Then by Tuesday Night were already finding the outer bands coming in rain already coming in Gusty Winds as well. That landfall, that center most dangerous Heres Part of the storm starts to come in by wednesday. And again, somewhere on that West Coast of florida, if that ai goes Just A Little Bit to the north of tampa, that would mean a Worstcase Scenario as far as Storm Surge for Tampa Bay . Again, either way, no matter what the winds do, were looking at Heavy Rain, were looking at Heavy Rain on the order of five to eight inches. And again, look at how a covers the entire peninsula. Some isolated totals could be ten to 12 inches of rain, which would cause flash and urban flooding, not just on the coast, but even places further inland. Omar Police Raffa and rafael romo. Thank you both. Now, while Hurricane Milton strengthens residents across several states are still struggling to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Now the Death Toll from the storm has risen to at least 227 people. Nearly half of those killed were in North Carolina, where entire communities remain cut off by landslides and collapsed roads and bridges. President biden is deploying an additional 500 troops to help with Recovery Efforts in that state. And fema is putting up a website to stop rumors, including one claiming aid one claiming that Aid Trucks are being blocked. Fema says that is not happening. Joining me now, doug jackson, chairman of operation, airdropped and matt mcswain, founder of operation. He low and alongside matt is dr. Lindsey duke, the vp of Health Policy at alj senior. Theyve been a lifeline to many of the desperate Storm Survivors in North Carolina so thank you all for being here. Doug, i want to start with you because officials say hundreds of people are still missing or stranded in the wake of this storm can you tell us what you saw . You just returned after days in the Disaster Zone . Yeah. Its its devastating. I have done been doing this now for quite a few years with done about 13 missions in i was not prepared for what i saw out there and the people that ive talked to, i interviewed couple of individuals that and are very, very hard hit area and what they had to tell me was just it was their homes are gone theyre living what what they have is what they have around them as all they have left in this world. And its absolutely devastating for them. I its hard to describe never seen anything like it and, you know, some of the images that have been coming out of there are just as you talked about, may are hard to describe, just the magnitude of what weve seen here. And matt you took this really powerful picture of a couple sitting in front of a store i believe we have it here if we want to put it up here what did they what did they tell you friend of mine tony marx, who were out on a mission. I think him and brad was able they encountered this Couple Remote Town after lz was found hannah walked up to the building and and this elderly couple was setting there and refused to leave because theyre great grandson, 8yearsold, was dead in the rafters. They had no way to get him out or didnt know what to do with him . And i mean, just just to see them sitting there with so much destruction around them. I mean, its a reminder of how much people are dealing with behind images like this, but also when you see it on a big scale, these are individual people whose individual lives have been completely torn apart in many senses. And some of the most vulnerable here here are some of those seniors and dr. Duke. I know you work with seniors specifically based on the conversations youve had interactions with folks in the area do our seniors getting what you think they need here . No i do not ive been able to go out on several of these missions myself, as well as coordinating the efforts on the ground here and every time we Land And Sea a community, they do the best they can to support the seniors, but they have no sustainable Water Supply they have no sustainable power, even the power they do have is intermittent because the Power Lines are still down. Its not that the lines are down. The polls are gone these seniors are coming into a Cold Snap they have no way to regulate their body heat. They have no sustainable way to get there medications and theyre in the staff, even if they were able to shelter in place and stay at a Community Center assisted living. The staff have no homes so now we have no staff to take Care Of the seniors because the staff have nowhere to live. It is no, its not a sustainable situation. And it shows just how this ripples out and into so many different aspects of society. And doug, i want to also go back to some of the work that you and matt do as well because how did the two of you get involved in this . I mean, really incredible. What can be lifesaving work here well, our Team Operation Airdropped was deploying over to concord, which by The Way, they when they finished up, they had flown 673 flights livid over 400,000 pounds by air to 700,000 compounds about trump for a total of almost one to 1. 2 million pounds of supplies out of one airport. But what it has we were deploying there. I call my good Friend Matt and i said matt, this is not something we can we can deal with. Whats fixedwing aircraft like were doing over concord were going to need helicopters. Can you get some . He said absolutely so ill be there how i packed my bags, left the next morning. Ive got two on the ground there sometime around noon on sunday, i believe it was i was absolutely blown away mad already had like 30 helicopters on the ground. They were already fine supplies out that he had gotten donated just literally overnight and from there this its just exploded. Matt can give you the phone numbers, but theyve had something like 70 Year Craft over 70 over 70 helicopters and matt, let me bring you in on that. Can you just tell me about about the effort that its taken to stand up some of the work that you all have been able to do there yes. So doug arrived on the scene sunday and me and my good Friend And Cofounder of operation hello, Aired Robinson and tony marx were in the meeting. We would came up to the hickory airport, which was the closest to the the dz line. Im going to call it the closest airport they had Fuel And Sustainability because we knew were about to base out of here. So during this whole mission we didnt know what we didnt know, right . So we started calling friends, start calling buddies, Social Medias were pilots were in that world. People started showing up. How can we help . There was no military presence, there was no military help. There was no fema. There was no nothing. Still no fema still no military still no nothing were begging. This is day 89. Now we were tired. Man, where weve been but if we go home, my mom and pop all dont get their medicine and they die. So thats why were still forging on, but going digressing, going back to the helicopter operations. This Isnt Something that weve ever seen before. This is the communities that were trying to get two we have forged over 400 lzs into the mountains, into the remote locations its not that these people dont have power. They dont have windows and doors on their home. If they even have a home. So were flying over 400 missions per day. We have over 90 helicopters registered. We got 40 walk codes. Faa gave us. Were doing the best we can to keep these people alive. We need to military here. We want to go home, we want to turn this over to an operation. We wont some help. We need some help. I dont know what else to do to get it. And as he i reiterate, imr let me just reiterate, omar, were not only are we foraging these new lds that were mapping new typography . Yeah, but rutland, i want to speak we have a we have a officer behind us that has been taken Care Of. We got over marked lzs, we got true movement on the ground. Weve got Helicopter Movement on the ground. We can fully track were integrated. We are integrated with the military. They are watching what were doing. But for some reason they wont show up so yeah, i hope that answered your question well, and as you mentioned, that President Biden has mentioned, hes going to be sending around 500 more troops to help with some of the efforts that you guys are talking about . How does well and famous continued to build up its presence, but there are gaps that only people like, you have been able to fill especially in the initial stages of this. So it really appreciate the work you guys have been doing. Doug jackson, map mcswain, dr. Lindsey duke really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you alright. Still to come the Israeli Military ramps up troops near gaza and Hit Southern Beirut with airstrikes ahead of the events that will mark one year since Hamas Hamass attacks in israel were live in the region, stay with us all Day Streaming College football on directly tv. Can you blame them . Theyve got the biggest rivalries and bowl games speaking. Frank, run a slant to the bowl of chips. Bobby been hooked to the salsa. What are you going to do . Coach prime, dont question you. Coach man all right. Sandworm is out of the basement in the furnace has been exercised. Another progressive Holman Auto Bundle fully protected from the unexpected Beetlejuice Cause wider ruckus. Jamie knows his Name Beetlejuice saying his name three times is how you summon him right what if i say other words inbetween . Does that restart it . 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