today, florida governor ron desantis reminded all in idalia's path to shelter from wind and run from water because idalia will bring both and time to prepare is running out. >> you've got time. you've got the ability to do. i know all these counties have opened up shelters. you can go stay with friends, family. i know there's deals on hotels. you still have time to do that if you're in this big bend area but time is running out very, very rapidly. >> and the slightest shift in its path could have huge impacts along florida's west coast where nearly two dozen florida counties are under evacuation orders. more than 20 shelters have been opened for those in the low lying areas. over 500 star link internet devices are ready to deploy to keep that state online and 450,000 gallons of fuel have been staged along evacuations in case of interruptions. in tampa, the timing could not be worse. the arrival coincides with a king tide that brings some of the highest ocean water levels of the year. officials at tampa general hospital have constructed an aqua fence in an attempt to protect against what may come there. joining me now from crystal river, florida, guad and from tampa, nbc news correspondent, marisa. she'll be joining me by phone. guad, what's happening where you are? how are preparations going? >> reporter: alex, this is one of the evacuation zones. . zone a. florida has an evacuation zone that's been set. more than 20 counties have evacuation orders in place. we've been getting messages on our phones, a message says here, life threatening storm surge expected. evacuate citrus county zone a now. take action. so we've been talking about the storm surge. just mentioned the king tide. i spoke to some of the people in this area to see what they can expect. so you can see some of the water behind me. this is water going up because of the tide. they told me what we have to keep in mind, if they see more than 6 or 7 feet of a surge here, then the water will be going into some of these houses into a hotel that's right next to us and they've already said we could see maybe 12 feet of a surge in florida. so if that's the case in this area here in citrus county, we would be getting the water inside of these buildings and we know what can happen when the storm surge has that water going into the residential areas as we saw with hurricane ian. so the people here have been preparing, understanding there's a mandatory evacuation order in place. we saw a lot of people in the stores. home depot, buying what they could, evacuating the area. others told us they're going to wait because they're not in zone a but as of now, authorities are informed residents in evacuation zones to leave the area. to go to a friend's place, a family member or to take advantage of some of the accommodations that the state is providing for those that don't have a place to go. again, keeping in mind that the surge can be very dangerous and that of course this area where the forecast indicates that the hurricane might be headed to in this part of florida they call the big bend, this is an area we have not, we have no information of a recorded hurricane hitting that area so there's nothing to compare it to. so as of now, we're waiting for this storm to make landfall with all these evacuation orders in place and resources also in place to respond. especially for the power outages that the governor already said are expected. so thousands of workers standing by around the state for any power outages that might result from this storm, alex. >> something to remember again, shelter from wind and run from water. and it looks like there could be some water heading that way there in crystal river. thank you for that. marisa, give us a sense of what you're seeing on the ground in terms of preparations and evacuations. that area may not be in zone a but nonetheless, it's very low lying. >> exactly. hi from tampa. yes. let me set the scene here. i've been here for about 24 hours. and it's interesting to compare the differences between the feeling in the air between yesterday and today. yesterday, there was a lot more seemed like a frantic rush from people trying to get those last minute prep. lowe's said they saw a lot of traffic. we were out where people get sandbags. when i was talking to people picking up sandbags just at one location, they gave away 10,000 just in one day. it was 50/50 in terms of the concern people had. there were some people telling me they don't normally take tropical storms, cat 1s, 2, 3, they don't take them that seriously normally but they said because of what happened with hurricane ian last year, which really devastating just south of tampa. the fort myers, sanibel area. that strengthened at the last minute and it really caught residents in the area off guard. there were people i spoke to yesterday that said they normally wouldn't evacuate and they chose to because of what they saw happen. today, totally different story. what i also saw was a lot of people walking outside. taking their boats and jet-skis on the water. i saw people biking, walking their dogs. and i asked as many as i could, how are you feeling? they were saying they were unbothered, unconcerned. i went to a couple of residences, people living in trailer parks. you mentioned zone a and b. there's a zone a here and that is under mandatory evacuation. the low lying areas most at risk for those surge concerns. but zone b, everyone i spoke to there was saying they were totally unbothered about weathering the storm from inside their mobile home, their apartment, wherever they might be. the thing to remember, we talked about the storm surge. we're expecting about 4 to 7 feet. things can always change in the tampa area. we just got a round of rain, we're seeing the outer bands in tampa. you look at the radar, you'll probably notice we're seeing those outer bounds here. we're already seeing the streets start to flood a bit. it was maybe a couple of inches of rainwater we were driving through. you can only imagine this has not even begun and we're already starting to see that. the other concern here is tornado risks. outer bands tend to see a risk for tornados. so officials and authorities are stressing even if you're living in an areas that is not zone a and even if you feel like you're in a place of confidence where you're living, remember there's of course the surge risk but the risk for tornados. authorities are asking people to take it seriously because they don't want to have to rescue people because it's already too late for rescue crews to come out. >> i appreciate you meeting those hearty souls but they have to do so responsibly as they approach the storm. appreciate all that. we're going to bring in bill karins. okay, bill, looks like it could be a one-two punch. lots of wind, water. we know that the wind speeds have picked up. you heard marisa talking about potential tornadic activity. what can we expect the next 24 hours? >> all these storms are different. this is going to be a powerful hurricane. maybe a category 4 by the time it makes landfall. it's going to be an extremely unpopulated area. there's a couple thousand people there. the damage effects will be a lot less than say ian, but for the people that live there, this is as scary as it gets. this is our visible satellite picture map. tampa's up to the north. this is the fort myers areas and this is naples. the storm is roughly parallel to the coast. the florida peninsula. if we did a like coming straight off of naples, you'd go out to the center of the storm. it's going to pass about 150 miles off the coast of tampa. tropical storm force winds, isolated power outages and the potential for tornados. we had one around marco island. the nasty band of thunderstorms has pushed through the fort myers area. with these thunderstorms, we can get small spin ups of tornados. tampa had a brief one but this main batch will be over the tampa area in about an hour or two. the hurricane center said still a category 1 bordering on a 2. they think that will happen with the 5:00 or 8:00 p.m. the landfall looking like 8:00 to 10:00. beaches really stop after you get past pinellas county. cedar key is here. that would be in the worst storm surge area. about 800 people call that home. and that's where we could see the 10 to 15 feet of water. that's when we see the pictures afterwards, the area's going to be devastated. hope not, but with the track, that's what you would expect. inland areas like perry and cross city, valdosta, this is where the wind damage will be. a lot of people possibly losing power for one or two weeks. don't have to worry about storm surge. they have to worry about the winds. that's why i said the storm is unique in every area. then coastal south carolina, north carolina and georgia, tropical storm force gusts on the coast especially. isolated power outages but we could deal with problems at high tide tomorrow night especially in savannah, charleston, maybe even top ten water heights because we have a full moon. it looks like the big bend. there's the map that shows you the story. alex, i just saw the fort myers and naples area. right now, they have a 1 to 2 foot storm surge and that's going to head up in the tampa area so the water is beginning to rise. >> do you consider this a fast-moving storm because a lot of times when they linger, they just keep dumping the rain. >> didn't focus a lot on the rainfall. we'll see isolated flash flooding but the storm is moving pretty quickly. 15 to 20 miles per hour as it goes over the southeast. so at that speed, i don't think we're going to get the horrific rainfall totals. >> to do to know. thank you very much. i'm joined by tampa mayor. you heard big describing tampa is about an hour or two away from the big branch of that storm sweeping tampa. where do things stand now? what are you looking out for? >> we've had a couple of bands of rain as you heard earlier. but we are in preparation for those hurricane force winds and then just as critical for us in the tampa bay area is that storm surge tomorrow morning as was explained. if it comes in during that king tide, that's the worst possible moments. we're looking anywhere from 4 to 7 feet for the storm surge in our area. >> and what would that mean in terms of levels of devastation? how far it might go in and what kind of damage you would expect as a result? >> right. it would cause damage in our lower lying areas and what we're looking at and most concerned with right now clearly is our community in, our residents and visitors. so we have been focused on getting them out of that area as we say every year, you can hide from the wind but you need to run from the water. don't have to go far, just need to get up to higher ground. that is the main concern for us right now. but we are prepared. as you heard, also. it's been a century since this area has been hit directly with a hurricane so there's no muscle memory for that. and we're trying to you know, ensure our community that we're prepared but they need to know their responsibility as well and they need to get out of harm's way. >> you make a really good point about the fact residents there have no really firsthand recollection of a major hurricane. do you think residents are taking precautions and taking this one seriously? >> i do. i do feel that you know, our community, we have gotten the word out there. let them know. but i think probably the most impactful for our community was ian. as you know, we were in the cross hairs for ian and it took that dog leg turn into fort myers beach and devastated that area. so that really i think hit home for a lot of our community that what if ian had come in to our area at that same speed. the devastation that we would have seen. so that's probably the closest to a real life scenario that our community has seen in a while. >> again, that is fresh in your memory because that was only a year ago. let me ask you about the reports. contaminated gas in the region as people are trying to fuel up to get out of the storm? how concerned are you about that? >> we've actually taken care of that. we have incredible relationships here in the tampa bay region. i found out about that contaminated fuel early on. we were able to identify the stations that that fuel went to. and really curtail the distribution of that pretty quickly. so that hasn't been an issue for our community but again, we're prepared for the storm surge, for the electrical outages, but my concern is with our community that they are taking it safe. you know, we've continued to provide that information and the necessary warnings but we are prepared here in tampa to do what we can to keep our community safe. >> well i'm going to end on that very positive note. wish you the best of luck. again, another hour or two really critical time for tampa. we're going to keep a very close eye on things. coming up, new details from jacksonville. how a security guard might have prevented more deaths in that racist shooting rampage at a dollar store. plus, president biden unveils the first round of prescriptions that will have lower costs. what medications will be covered and how quickly you could see those prices fall. we're back in 60 seconds. those prices fall. we're back in 60 seconds ♪i've got home internet from t-mobile.♪ ♪it only costs $50 bucks at t-mobile.♪ ♪just one cord to set up.♪ ♪say goodbye to that truck.♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful mornin'...♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful day...♪ ♪they won't raise your rates at t-mobile...♪ ♪you'll get a great deal every day!♪ home internet from t-mobile... just $50 bucks a month. the man accused of opening fire on the chapel hill campus has been named and charged. he's facing one degree count of first degree murder after allegedly shot and killed a unc associate professor. so far, his motive is unclear. joining me now, dana griffin to report on the latest. welcome. what do we know about the suspect and what kind of a connection he may have had to this professor. >> moments ago, we saw the suspect appear in court. it was a very quick. he was in an orange jump suit and shackled. he spoke through an interpreter. we've learned he is a citizen of china. we're also waiting to hear whether or not police have found the weapon. we're expecting to hear from the unc police chief in less than ten minutes. there's a press conference scheduled soon. we were told they were going to be questioning him overnight to try to learn more information. we know they at least worked together in some capacity in a since deleted profile, we have learned the professor was the suspect's adviser and they worked closely together on some research projects. the professor had been at the university since to 2019 and the suspect had worked in a group with him since january of 2022. obviously a very heartbreaking scene for students. many of them their first week in school but you also had nearby elementary schools where students were there for the first time and had to wait hours wondering what was going on as their parents tried to get to them. we hope to learn new information soon. >> that was extraordinary the fact all those public schools in the area were also closed down. can you imagine first day of school in kindergarten and can't leave because of a shooting nearby. we'll stay on top of what happens with that suspect. come up, what victims told the judge about the impact the capitol riot had on their lives as the proud boys trial enters its sentencing phase. s trial ens its sentencing phase ♪ tourists tourists that turn into scientists. tourists photographing thousands of miles of remote coral reefs. that can be analyzed by ai in real time. ♪ so researchers can identify which areas are at risk. and help life underwater flourish. ♪ (fan #1) there ya go! that's what i'm talkin' about! and help life underwater flourish. 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(announcer) change your life at golo.com. that's golo.com. three of the 19 co-defendants have entered a plea. their attorneys have also filed a waiver of arraignment indicating they will not appear as scheduled on september 6th and we have a new filing from the judge overseeing the mark meadows plea to move to federal court. meadows took to the stand yesterday in his own defense for almost five hours during a hearing in atlanta. joining me now from outside the fulton county courthouse is nbc news correspondent, blayne alexander. in d.c., ken dilanian. also with me, former u.s. attorney and msnbc legal analyst, joyce vance. welcome, all. let's get into it. blayne, walk us through these not guilty pleas. will he avoid arraignment? >> well, they've waived their arraignments. that means they don't have to appear but yes, we've already seen the three not guilty pleas and we expect we'll see more before the arraignments are scheduled to happen next week. we saw ray smith. the first of the people to waive his arraignment and enter a not guilty plea. we saw two more come later today and you know, we've spoken with some legal experts who say it's likely we could see others follow suit. that's their right. you can waive arraignment here in georgia. there were a number of different ways it could play out. it could play out virtually. and of course people can come down and appear before a judge in person. now, of course the biggest question is former president trump himself. remember, you saw the huge logistical considerations and security considerations when he came down last week to turn himself in at the fulton county jail. so the question would be if he were to appear before a judge, it would be something similar. when we speak to legal experts, they say it is likely a lot of them will choose to waive those appearances. another thing we're matching is watching is what a federal judge says in the case of mark meadows. he says he's not going make a decision until he gets more information from both parties. he's given them until thursday to submit that so that means we're not going to see a ruling in that situation until friday at the very earliest. >> quickly, when these other three have waived their arraignment, does that mean they don't appear in person but could appear by zoom or skype or something like that? do you know, blayne? >> it means they're waiving their appearance all together. >> thanks for that. ken, let's move on to the insight we may or may not have on brad raffensperger testimony in the mark meadows case. what do you know on that? >> so, it was interesting. prosecutors played that infamous recording of the call mr. trump made to raffensperger and then they took him through it and had him debunk various false statements mr. trump made. for example, mr. trump said he won georgia by 500,000 votes. raffensperger said he obviously didn't. the judge also heard meadows on the recording telling raffensperger his office was wrong, saying that only two dead people were recorded as voting in georgia saying i promise you, there are more than that. raffensperger testified investigators found four people statewide who were deceased but reported as having cast ballots. he said you add that up, none was able to come near the total of votes and mr. trump famously said was needed to change the result. there were limits to raffensperger. for example, he declined to call that call disturbing. he said he didn't think it was appropriate. nonetheless, the upshot was raffensperger raising questions about whether mark meadows was in fact acting as a government official in that phone call. >> here's a question. request for more information by this judge from both sides, is that common in a situation like this? and also will meadows still have to surrender on september 6th? it's not uncommon. as for his surrender, my understanding is that this case is moved to federal court, it doesn't change the fundamental nature of the case. so it seems likely that that surrender would stand or a separate surrender would be arranged but the d.a. would have a say on that. remains to be seen. >> so, joyce, in advance of all this, many legal experts predicted meadows would not take the stand. he was up there almost five hours. how do you read that move for him? was it risky? >> it is risky and the fact he was willing to take the risk suggests that getting out of state court and into federal court is extremely important to him. this is something of a hail mary although the law in the area is very friendly to defendants, meadows isn't the typical defendant who tries to get removal because they're charged with conduct they committed while executing an arrest warrant or a search warrant. that's sort of the core case here. meadows has more of a difficult path forward to obtaining removal in the first place. so this decision to subject himself to cross-examination at the hands of prosecutors although they're limited by the scope of the direct examination in what they can ask was still a risky move and it's clear his lawyers have a legal strategy here that they believe there's a benefit likely their ability to try on home turf in federal court to argue that charges against him should be dismissed because of immunity or supremacy clause. >> i can also ask you what kind of defense is it for any defendant, mark meadows and any of the others, who say they believe what they knew, what they said at the time was actually true? i mean, even in the face of fact being told otherwise but they believed it. is that a strong defense? >> so for starters to the extent people are unclear about meadows' stat with federal prosecutors. does he have a deal from jack smith. he puts himself on dicey territory every time he tries to limit his own culpability because the deal he would have to have with jack smith if he's not ultimately a defendant in the d.c. prosecution is that he told the entire truth. but putting that aside for a minute, there's so many sources of proof when it comes to the former president that he knew he had lost. that he knew these allegations about fraud in georgia were false. and mark meadows had a child on the ground looking at some of these allegations. he made at least some statements indicating there was not widespread fraud that impacted the outcome. so these will come down to very fine lines for decisions. it will be interesting to see how much it impacts surrounding issues. >> thank you all three very much. this morning, a d.c. federal court judge heard directly from three current and former capitol police officers, all victims on january 6th, ahead of the sentencing of former proud boys activists. four of the five were convicted of seditious conspiracy including the group's leader. the justice department is asking for what could be the longest sentence yet, looking for 33 years. ryan riley is at that courthouse following developments for us. welcome. walk us through the victim impact statements and how they were delivered in court this morning. >> we heard from three capitol police officials. essentially one was talking about losing a friend that day. referring to brian sicknick who died of natural causes caused by the january 6th attack and some of the events he went through. talking about how this had had a long impact. one officer was saying she had a lot of trouble speaking about what happened on january 6th and felt it was important at this point. as you're looking at these historic sentences. the members of the proud boys really did anticipate a lot of that. the judge has been going through some rulings just now in court denying some of the motions the proud boys have made and going through a lot of the evidence. there was a lot of talk the proud boys had ahead of the attack about what could happen that day. this phrase riling up the normies, referring to the conservatives that -- excuse me, has come up frequently. we could see a pretty lengthy sentence. >> okay. thank you so much for that report. meantime coming up, we have new details about the jacksonville shooting. what one security guard saw in the moments leading up to that attack. guard saw in the moments leading up to that attack my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. i told myself i was ok with my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms. but just ok isn't ok. and i was done settling. if you still have symptoms after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that can dramatically relieve ra and psa symptoms, including fatigue for some. it can stop joint damage. and in psa, can leave skin clear or almost clear. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious 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in praying for their loved ones as they are certainly hurting at this time. in honor of dr. yen's memory, we will ring the bell tower here on campus tomorrow at 1:02 in a moment of silence during this time is what we're asking everyone on our campus. we shared resources for the people affected by this traumatic event and will continue to share updates on unc.edu and through alert carolina. we will not have classes tomorrow so the community can continue the healing process and have access to the many resources we're providing to the campus community. we will return to classes normal operations on thursday this week. over the past 24 hours, i've been grateful for the countless ways in which our community has come together. i've spoken with faculty and students who sat together through the lockdown yesterday. and our emergency operations center and the unc police have been working tirelessly throughout these past many hours to gather information and find answers as we continue this investigation. together, our faculty, staff, and students followed the protocols in place and worked tot to ensure each other's safety in accordance with our emergency management policy and our carolina ready campus preparedness program. something that again, we've worked hard to put in place over the past few years. finally, i just want to thank the many people who have reached out to us from around the world who have come together to support our faculty, our staff. and certainly our students. i especially want to thank the unc system and our fellow unc system schools in the way they've reached out to message their support for our community. i want to thank our board of trustees and governors for their steadfast support in this time of profound sadness, i'm grateful for the strength of our community. i urge us to continue to build and strengthen our community together. i'm going to thank you for all you're doing and now i'm going to turn it over to chief james for an update and we'll be happy to take some questions. >> thank you, chancellor. i'm brian james, chief of police for unc police department. i want to start by offering my condolences to the family of the professor, the victim in yesterday's shooting. we are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our carolina community members. on behalf of all unc police, i extend my deepest condolences to the family. you will continue to be in my thoughts and prayers. here are the updates we have to share from yesterday's shooting. the suspected shooter is a graduate student at the university. he is being held without bail at the orange county jail. through the investigation in the last 24 hours, we have determined that the victim and suspect knew each other and the suspect went directly to the victim and then left. right now, the suspect is facing felony charges of first degree murder and possession of a firearm on educational property. his first appearance was earlier today at 2:00 p.m. he is being held without bond. additional charges may be added as the investigation continues. the suspect was arrested yesterday by our partners at the town of chapel hill police department on williams circle in chapel hill. the suspect's car was located on campus and has been impounded and is being processed by the fbi's evidence response team. the firearm used in yesterday's shooting has not been recovered. we continue a thorough search for the firearm and any additional evidence. fbi victim services has been providing services to the victim's family and identified witnesses. at this time, it is still too early to establish a definitive motive. this will be something we will continue to determine throughout the course of the investigation. the labs will be closed as the investigation continues. we are increasing visibility of our law enforcement officers on campus, especially during peak times of the day to provide reassurance to our campus community. if anyone has any additional information regarding this case, we ask that you please contact the unc police department at 919-962-8100. i again would like to thank all of our partners that assisted all the first responders yesterday and we are forever grateful and we will continue to do everything that we can to insure the safety of our unc community. turn it back over. >> like yesterday, we'll have time for a limited number of questions. if you have a question, please raise your hand. we're going to get a wireless mike to you. identify yourself, your media outlet and ask your question. >> aaron thomas. i had a question about the shooting. were there any other people in the room and secondly, were there any previous threats between yen and chi? >> not prepared to speak on if there was anyone else in the room but we know the building was occupied by a number of people at the time of the incident. as far as any kind of conversation that happened between the victim and suspect, we are still working to determine what that may have been. so that is still under investigation. >> julia with nbc news. what can you tell us about the relationship between the student and professor? were they in a class together and did this happen in a classroom? >> we are still exploring the relationship between the professor as well as the suspect. we cannot be specific at this point about where it happened. it is still under investigation. we still have the building secured as we are still looking at evidence as well as doing multiple searches. >> you're listening to the police chief there at the university of north carolina talking about the campus police and their recovery or lack thereof. they said they have not yet found a weapon. it's interesting the suspect has been charged with first degree murder and possession of a weapon. there are a couple of loose ends for them to tie up. you heard our reporter asking about the relationship between the suspect and the deceased professor. they are not yet ready to give any information or confirm what that do or do not know at this point so we're going to follow all of this and as we bring more information, we'll bring that to you, of course. up next, what the white house announced it's doing to make medications more affordable. doing to make medications more affordable i go to spin classes with my coworkers. good for you, shingles doesn't care. because no matter how healthy you feel, your risk of shingles sharply increases after age 50. but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. shingles doesn't care but, shingrix 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rinvoq as serious reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you are or may become pregnant. put uc in check and keep it there with rinvoq. ask your gastroenterologist about rinvoq and learn how abbvie can help you save. medications might soon be more affordable for millions of americans because today, the president announced medicare will begin negotiating the price of several drugs used by americans under a new program. on the list, commonly described blood thinners, diabetes treatments and more. it marks a shift in the government's ability to hold down drug prices. joining us now, nbc news political reporter, monica alba. welcome. so how quickly will negotiations again and the big question, how long before prices are expected to come down? >> as president biden said this afternoon, this is a long time coming. for decades, presidents have tried to take on big pharma in this way and the white house was able to do this by passing the inflation reduction act. he signed it into law over a year ago but that's how long it's taken to go through these very bureaucratic processes of trying to decide which drugs specifically. that's why we know about these first ten. this first batch but it's still going to take a little bit of time for anybody to really see the effects of this. so about a year from now, we'll get a sense of what the new prices will be for those ten drugs on your screen that you see there. these are very commonly known drugs that help with blood thinners, medication that's for diabetes, for some blood cancer type of drugs. really essential things particularly for seniors. and that's what we're talking about here. when we look at the calendar of these drug companies have about 30 days to really agree to this or they will face some very stiff tax penalties and then negotiations will continue for about a year. we'll know the prices september of 2024 but those prices won't take effect until january of 2026. so there are some lawsuits that have already been announced and in the works. the white house says though they're not very concerned about that because they do believe that this is well established law that they're able to do this. that they just really needed the political capital to be able to get this across the finish line. the president wanted to do this for everybody but in the end, this is only going to affect again those over 65 and rely on medicare, alex. >> it is a start certainly. ten drugs and perhaps more to negotiate in the future. thank you so much. the parent company of facebook and instagram says it just disrupted the largest known, widespread, covert, disinformation campaign in the world. meta linked the influence operation to china and says chinese law enforcement managed to infiltrate nearly every popular social media platform including -- nbc news senior washington correspondent, eamon javers, has been covering this story. it is extraordinary, eamon. so let's talk about the kind of information that meta says china was illicitly spreading. >> what meta says is that this was an operation that was enormous. more than 7,000 facebook pages involved. they had to take all those accounts down. they took down pages. other things on instagram they saw as well as part of a vast and coordinated conspiracy. people associated with chinese law enforcement. they were basically trying to spread chinese government talking points about the united states, western government, covid. all of the things that are sort of hot button issues for beijing. these accounts were just flooding that out in a huge way into all of these different internet vehicles to get the government's word out there. >> so given the just huge number of documents and messages sent out there, is there a sense of how many people the campaign reached or how effective it was? >> well, that's what's so interesting about this because the sense that the meta analysts have is that this was not as effective as you might think given the vast size of this. and that's because it was done sort of in a pretty rough way. they didn't really try to hide their tracks. in some cases, it looks like they bought a lot of facebook accounts that were out there in vietnam and bangladesh and other countries and simply switched the topics of those accounts. you had cases where facebook accounts were posted ads for lingerie they say that ultimately the number of real people who engaged with this was probably pretty small. they say it is important though to watch these things and take them down especially ahead of the upcoming presidential election here in the u.s. >> and according to reporting, this started back in 2022. but china was not the only target, right? i mean, there was another disinformation campaign that was talked about in the latest report. you could talk about that one? >> aand this is a russian disinformation campaign that was more sophisticated. they were putting up spoofs of news articles with russian talking points mostly about the war in ukraine, it needs to should be stopped and russia should keep what it has and ukrainians should back down. and spoofing fox news articles with look-alike web pages and washington post articles with the names of real authors in a way that might be much more genuine and feel real to a reader and that was more nuanced and a lot more nimble. responding within 24 hours to thinks going on in the news cycle. >> do you remember in manhattan there was a report about a chinese undercover police or law enforcement station. did this having in to do with that? >> it did, actually. and some of the cases, these chinese bots were out there pushing the line that that was all a lie, that was all american propaganda, there is nothing wrong with that. there is a whole effort here by the chinese government to track dissidents around the world who are speaking out against chinese government policy. a lot of those folks ethnic chinese, whether american born or otherwise. and this tracks with a feeling in the chinese government that they need to tamp down on criticism of the chinese government inside of china but also around the world among dissidents who may be of chinese ethnicity. >> thank you so much for sharing it with us. >> you bet. coming up, hurricane idalia is heading straight for the coast. what you need to know ahead of the storm. i'll speak with the former head of fema next. i'll speak with the former head of fema next (fan #1) there ya go! that's what i'm talkin' about! 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(vo) football season is here. get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy z flip5. only on verizon. the fema administrator gave a stark warning today that hurricane idalia could be deadly if people do not evacuate. here is a live look right now from our camera down by fort myers beach, florida. storm surges there could reach more than 12 feet in some areas which fema now said could be the most dangerous part of this storm. let's bring in once again nbc news meteorologist bill karins. what do folks need to be prepared for. >> another hour we'll get another update from the national hurricane center including the intensity and the path of the storm. it is still strengthening and the path, i this i they'll shift is to the west. a lot of our computer models are hinting at that. just a slight nudge. but for the people that are up here in the big bend area, from perry to tallahassee, they are saying don't send the eye to my community. it rips roofs off of homes and power outages for weeks and that is not out of the question for this area here. from cross city to perry toward tallahassee. the storm surge is moving in today and tomorrow morning. we've have about a 2 foot storm surge in naples and now the water levels are starting to drop again. so they won't come back up again until roughly about 4:00 a.m. in the tampa area. so that will be kind of the next peak high tide with the storm surge that we'll watch in this area. up the coast a little bit more, it will be more toward the landfall at about 8:00 a.m. as far as winds go. obviously the core of the hurricane, wherever that makes landfall, that is where the destructive winds will be. so mainly roughly 30 or 40 miles inland and then it should weaken significantly. strong gusts and the fear of isolated tornados in the areas of central florida. as far as south carolina winds go, charleston could get some squally weather and savannah. this is minor damage to trees. these winds with storms probably almost every hurricane season like storm strength. so it shouldn't be widespread power outages. and as far as rainfall, the heavy rains have begun in tampa and sarasota and will spread north words tonight and tomorrow we'll track that rain. this storm doesn't exist the wilmington area until thursday. so we're going to do this for the next 48 hours. >> i love to have you on the show. i say that facetiously. but thank you my friend. and joining me now craig fuch. talk about fema and how it is helping people prepare. what could it do in advance? >> well what they're doing is supporting governor desantis's team and the florida response team by getting additional personnel, adding more search and rescue and sending the urban search and rescue team and just getting prepared, moving resources. and again this won't be just florida. it is florida and georgia and potentially the carolinas. so fema is actually trying to make sure that one, they're in every state, and the emergency operation state center working with the state team as they may require federal assistance. and again the president, president biden has already issued the emergency declaration that governor desantis had requested. >> so, craig, let me ask you about this, which is you shelter from high winds and you run from high waters. what if you are facing both? what is the best thing you could do to protect yourself? >> get oust of the evacuation zone. we talk about this but kind of sanitize it. what we're talking about is people that drown or die of what trauma as cars an boats are pushed into their home with the waves that are going to occur. this is what we saw in hurricane ian and this is the hard for people to understand. this is a high tide an this is not the normal flooding you would see. storm surge is very powerful and this part of the coast, if you go back to 1993, what we called the storm of the century, more people drowned in this coastal area than they did combined from hurricane andrew and hurricane hugo and that was not a hurricane. that was just a low pressure system that caused blizzards in the northeast. >> but, craig, were the drownings as a result of people being pulled under by water or to your point when you could have blunt trauma from things that will be tossed your way? >> many of them drown because the water came up so quick. in fact, back then there weren't any evacuation orders. nobody really knew how bad that storm was. and they had issued the standard coastal flood warnings, but it really didn't make sense to people there that have been through other storms and that wasn't bad and that is again our challenge. people who have lived here for a long time, they've always gone through this and said it is never that bad. you have to go back to a storm that occurred in 1896 to see some of the type of impacts that this storm will bring to this part of the coast. >> yeah. real quick, in about 15 seconds. what will be first on fema's mind once the storm passes for support? >> search and rescue. any gaps there and then getting infrastructure back up. >> okay, craig, you know this story very well. thank you for joining us and giving us the heads up. that is going to do it for me today. i'll see you right back here tomorrow. "deadline: white house" starts right now. hi there, everybody. it is 4:00 in new york. i'm ali velshi in again for nicolle wallace. i have my phone in my hand because we have brand if you news in out of fulton county, georgia, that i'm working with my producers and our legal experts to make sense of for you. i want to read it for you. it is a filing just uploaded by the fulton county district attorney. it is a request to the court, the salient part here is that the court -- the fulton count district attorney is asking that the trial for all 19 defendants get underway on october 23rd. this was the date that was set for cheesebro's trial and it was a speedy trial request and there are a few other defendants who are making the same request. fani willis is saying we want to try everybody together and we're ready to go and no longer say that the request that was granted to ken chesebro a