Plus, the mayor of new York City. Eric adams. Refusing to step down despite indicted and charged with bribery, Wire Fraud and seeking favors from foreign governments. The former Deputy Chief who served in the same office that charged the mayor will join us to explain what it could mean for him and the city he leads. And Vice President harris sits down with my dear Colleague Stephanie Ruhle to flush out her economic proposals. What she promised to do if she is elected. But we start with Hurricane Helene. Expected to grow into at least a major category 4 storm possibly a 4. Who knows. Before It Collides with floridas Big Bend a few hours from now. The hurricane could be strongest in recorded history to hit the city of tallahassee. Local Paper Tallahassee Democrat calling it a nightmare scenario, the worst Hurricane Impact in living memory for many. This is video from Tampa Shot earlier today, and the epicenter is still hundreds of miles away. The national Weather Center is warning of damage to critical infrastructure, blocked roads, Power Outages lasting days even weeks and a unsurvivable Storm Surge for people near the coast. This isnt just about the Big Bend area. Mandatory Evacuation Orders in place for all or part of 19 florida counties across a distance of nearly 300 miles. I want to bring in nbcs Kathy Park in tallahassee. Time left for people to get out . What is the city doing . How does it look right now . Reporter jose, good afternoon. Well, that window to prepare is shrinking. A few hours ago before Hur Tain TainHurricane Helene makes landfall could look at a positive direct hit. Driving around Tallahassee Woe we can tell you businesses are closed. Not a lot of time to buy lastminute supplies. Officials encourage you if you dont feel safe in your Home Turn to one of these Emergency Shelters that opened up as early as yesterday. We were at one a few moments ago and theyre not at capacity just yet but filling up quickly. One of the organizers, he was telling me if you do plan on hunkering down in one of these shelters, they are not letting people in and out during the height of the storm. They will let you out once the coast is clear. Safety first. Jose, i can tell you here in tallahassee, really, the concern is going to be the wind damage. Not so much Storm Surge and flooding, Flash Flooding obviously is a concern as well, but here in tallahassee, 55 of the city to is under a tree canopy. Combine that, that fact with these hurricaneforce winds were looking at downed Power Lines downed trees and prolonged Power Outages. Go to a shelter, a good idea. The Window Opportunity to prepare is shrinking, jose. Kathy park in tallahassee. Take care. I want to bring in John Daly Mayor of the city of tallahassee. Mayor, thank you for being with us. Thank you. What are you telling folks about what they can expect tonight . Were preparing for the worst. You mentioned it already, jose, yes, could well be the most intense and destructive storm in the history of the city of tallahassee. The city is an institution the past week working really hard to prepare for this storm. Shoutout to the great Men And Women on front lines of the city, county, state, out there trying to keep us safe now, but now is the time to take shelter. Lets be safe. Lets be smart. Were going to weather this storm together. Its just how to weather a storm like this. This is so massive. Do you think is there anything that the state or feds should have done or could do to help at this moment . Just wondering, maybe, how you are going to be dealing with this afterwards . Sure. So unfortunately we have a lot of experience in North Florida with hurricanes and learned a lot over the decades. How to prepare. One of the things weve done called in mutual aid agreements. Nine states sent electrical trues to tallahassee tripled workforce, assets and personnel staged all over the community. They are going to be safe during the storm as well. Look, we are prepared. The question is, you know, as much as you prepare, you dont know exactly what Mother Natures going to bring your way. So, look, when the storm comes through, when its safe to get out were going to roll up our sleeves do the professional assessment and get to work. We expect more mutual aid to come in after the storm. Once the path of the storm has been defined. The state of florida will send communities in the state of florida will send resources as well as the southeast. No doubt about it, though, extremely intense. Theres going to be a lot of destruction. We are prepared for a Marathon Recovery not a sprint recovery. So we have been making sure that the residents understand exactly what we are facing, and, yes. There is potential for category 3 direct hit. If not a category 4 direct hit in the city of tallahassee. Just the size of this storm, mayor. You and i are speaking, youre in the North Part of the state and were showing an image of the southernmost part of the state. Key west. Its already, you can see in this camera, i dont know if, mayor, you have return, but Key West is feeling this. Right here in South Florida where i am in miami, theres the Tornado Watch going on. I mean, this is massive. I want to ask you, mayor, about the infrastructure of your city. I remember when Hurricane Andrew Hit, 1992 here in South Florida. The City And Miamidade had a building code. Right . A wind building code. I think it had 165 mileanhour winds that Hurricane Andrew Hit us with, but what is your city like as far as Building Codes and structures . Sure. Of course, we followed the state of Florida Building codes as well our local Building Codes. A university city. University population 70,000 we were able toll evacuate as well. Look, Hour City is ready. Again, when you take a direct hit from a category 4, sustained winds strong as they are going to be, yeah. Were go to have some damage. Damage to the infrastructure, to the electric grid. We are prepared. Been preparing residents. We have told them and will reiterate, if you are not comfortable at home, please, go to one of the Emergency Shelters. For your safety. And were going to get through this. A saying in tallahassee were tallahasseestrong. No matter what Mother Nature brings were going to get at it and were going to restore. I talked to the mayor in Tampa Today and communicating with the mayor in st. Pete and aware what their communities are going through and other communities up and down the West Coast of florida. And were all going to pull together and were going to make it, but its going to be a lot of work and we have a huge storm heading our way. And, mayor, thats the seat of government for the state where you are. Just the coordination with the state has been, you know talking about how tallahassee is unfortunately used to how we prepare for this. The state is unfortunately very well versed in these kinds of incidents. Yeah. And let me tell you. Hats off to all the levels of government. Ive had the opportunity to speak with the White House and i know other communities have as well. I had a chance to speak to governor desantis yesterday, a great Working Partner during these Storm Events as well. I spoke to secretary perdue, Florida Department of transportation about an hour ago. We are blissblessed to have incredible working relationships during straining times when the storms come and extremely appreciative of the state, resources and government and what they continue to pledge after the storm as well. Mayor, thank you very much. Take care of yourself, and its going to be a very long and difficult night. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Yes, sir. Turning to nbc Meteorologist Bill karins. Boy, following what youve been putting out and its just to see that shot out of Key West. Bill, then were talking tallahassee already seeing sarasota, florida, already seen flooding. Look at these images. Whos that crazy person there in the left . Get out of that area. I know. Ridiculous. But this is Key West. Southernmost point of the united states. And sarasota flooded. Tampa. The whole area. How massive of a storm is this . Calling this in the 90th percentile. A lot of times we dont get storms this big. Theyre rare. Major hurricanes before. A lot of times smaller. The size of the storm causing so many lifethreatening problems already. We got Flash Flood warnings up the appalachians. Numerous Tornado Warnings today. Even before the high winds and the surge peaks later on this evening. You see the spiraling bands here. The storm is picking up speed. This is going to blitz the coast later tonight. This isnt like your gradual Hurricane Rampup with other storms. This is moving 20 to 30 miles per hour almost like a tornado when the eye comes through in and out in the a hurry and a mess left behind. Thinking landfall is later now. Now leaning more towards 10 00 to 11 00 p. M. This evening. Somewhere between Tallahassee And Perry florida. Dont know yet which of the two towns go directly through the eye and have all the Destruction And Devastation of the extreme winds. Thats still yet to be figured out but kind of, tallahasseeperry, the middle part there. Tonight race the storm through georgia. Power outages trees down. More concerned with Flash Flooding in area of georgia. A new update. Tornadoes, highrisk tornado day. Know deadly tornadoes. What we call a highrisk of Flash Flooding incluing 11 Million people. Biggest ive seen from mountains of North Carolina to Landfall Ittal near tallahassee including atlanta. We expect lifethreatening Flash Flooding tonight through Tomorrow Morning and had reports already of almost a foot of rain in areas in the mountains of North Carolina and getting an additional foot. River forecast in nashville, highest River Total ever recorded and goes back to some historic floods in the early 1900s. Warning people to get away from those lowlying areas even as far inland at North Carolina. 43 Million people in flood watches. That Highrisk Area of greatest concern. Then tonight as we get that landfall well see who gets the worst of the Storm Surge. This will be probably after the sun sets too. Looks like to be to the right of the Landfall Areas like Cedar Key, horseshoe beach, areas talking about later tonight when we pinpoint who gets the devastating effects. As far as winds, tallahassee to perry 90 to 110 possible Cedar Key up to 100. A glancing blow from winds. Isolated Power Outages. The Storm Surge this evening, youll see high tide this morning over Sea Wall in sarasota. Tonight after this afternoon low tide even higher. Winds even in atlanta could be 40 to 55. We think Power Outages right up through georgia as we go throughout the day. What we think. So much going on. You mentioned the Tornado Watch for you in miami. These Tornado Watches go from miami all the way up to central south carolina. One, two active Tornado Warnings at this time, jose. So much with this storm. Its so big. Just so many issues in so many locations. Bill, ask you a few questions on that. Sure. You say traveling maybe 20 to 30 miles an hour . This is a just a supersonic storm but its size, not seeing a real kind of pattern emerge now i see it right there. The last are kind of frame of this, of your radar does seem like its becoming much more clearly formed. But 20 to 30 Mileanhour Movement . Yeah. Whats one of the fastestmoving major hurricanes if we get to major weve ever experienced in the gulf. Typically they move 10, 20 miles an hour take as while for the eye to go through. The difference at 120 miles per hour at landfall here. Different Computer Models showing excellent agreement between Tallahassee And Perry. Why you have valdosta, georgia. The storm doesnt have time to weaken much. 60 to 90 miles inland only three hours after landfall. Youll still get like, unusually strong winds. What will surprise people. The storm will be in, out and its going to be like days like, what happened . Bill, its not only a wind issue. Its a water issue. Combine it you know, i remember, remind everybody were really kind of in the peak of the hurricane season. Right . Yeah. A week ago, two weeks ago was the average peak of the hurricane season. June through november, but its just, it seems as though, bill, this is unusual. Whats unusual about this one is, not the fact we have a category 2 or 3 hurricane this time of year in the gulf. Almost going to happen, seems lately every year. Unusual about this one is how huge it is ands the rainfall we had before this. We had that cold front. Rain and thunderstorms from atlanta into the mountains of the appalachians for two days before this event. That primes the ground. When the hurricane actually arrives rivers are already high. Grounds saturated. All that rain flows quickly into the streams and rivers. Then thats why were expecting historic flooding. We may lose more lives in the appalachians and North Georgia than at the Landfall Position because of that the water. More people die from water than wind in almost every hurricane. Absolutely. Before i let you go, sorry going on and on. So much important information were getting. Folks, if youre watching or listening to us on satellite radio, bill, this is something not to take lightly in the sense that, oh, ive seen this before. It comes and then its weakened. Then all of these preparations i mean, seems like this is a real one . Yes. The only i mean, jose, looking at where this landfall is with that Storm Surge especially. I mean, go and look in a Population Density map. Lowest Population Density in almost all of the gulf for that matter is right in this area here from appalachia to cedar. Swampy, marshy areas. The storm 20 to 30 miles maybe 50 miles east, tampa. One of the destructive in history. Playing a game, seems. Climate change, see more strong Storms Year after Year And Weve been avoiding hitting major cities like miami, savannah, charleston, pick your poison along the gulf. But this is going to be bad. I have to say, if this was a little shift, this could have been so much worse for the West Coast of florida. Sooner or later one like this will come. And all the models are pretty much consistent, this is where its coming, going to end up . Yes. Bill karins, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Yep. And in 90 seconds, what we now know about the federal charges in new York City mayor Eric Adams case. Were back after this. Arlem . So i started my own studio.