Transcripts For MSNBC The ReidOut 20241010 : comparemela.com

Kamala and i will be there for as long as it takes to rescue, recover and rebuild. President biden sending a message of support to floridians as Hurricane Milton barrels towards the state with landfall expected in just the next few hours. Plus, biden condemned the un the quote unquote, unamerican misinformation about the federal Storm Response calling out Trump And Marjorie Taylor Greene by name for dispensing those lies. And trumps attempt to deny the Bomb Shell reporting that he sent Covid Tests to putin was unbelievably thwarted by the friends and the kremlin himself who said, yep, he did that. We begin tonight with Hurricane Milton barrelling towards the West Coast of Florida And Set to make landfall in the next few hours. This is a Nightmare Scenario for more than 3 Million people who live in the Tampa Bay area. Which could see widespread destruction. 15 florida counties that are home to more than 7 Million people are under mandatory evacuation orders. Local officials have been preparing for the worst. For those of you that were punched by Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. There will be trees down. There will be Power Lines down. It will be dangerous to move around. If you dont have a second story, youre going to die. There are 149 shelters open across the state, but the window to evacuate has closed. Roadways are no longer safe to travel, and people are now being directed to shelter in place. Emergency services have been suspended in at least five counties. The storm is set to cross Central Florida and will dump up to 18 inches of rain, which could lead to up to 15 feet and Storm Surges. The hurricane is bringing tropical Storm Force winds with Wind Gusts near ft. Myers, hitting almost 70 miles an hour. Many cities up and down the coast have spent the Day Racing to collect and dispose of the 3,000 truckloads of debris left after helene because they could become projectile dangers once the wind picks up. Over 100 tornadoes were recorded throughout the state, a Record Number for florida in a single day. President biden and Vice President harris spent the Damon Toring The Situation as they received briefings from national emergency officials who are ready to deploy. Late this afternoon, biden had his message had this message for floridians and those affected by helene. Currently milton is a category 3, with Wind Speeds up to 120 miles per hour. But no one should be confused, its still expected to be one of the most and worst destructive hurricanes to hit florida in over a century. Milton still carries incredible destructiveness, can wipe out communities, can cause loss of life. President biden sent the head of fema to tallahassee to assist governor Ron Desantis during the storm. However, every Disaster Response starts at the local level and ends at the local level. Florida governor Ron Desantis deployed 9,000 National Guard members, the largest in the history of florida, as well as over 50,000 Utility Workers and Highway Patrol to escort Gasoline Tankers to refill gas supplies that have dwindled as people evacuated. Ive spoken to the president. We remain in regular contact with fema. And we are marshalling all available resources to be able to prepare and respond to Hurricane Milton. If there are a lot of people that do stay behind, unfortunately there will be fatalities. I dont think theres any way around it when you have Storm Surge that could be 10 feet. He joined the president and the Dhs Secretary in slamming the lies that are being spread about fema. The last few weeks theres been a reckless irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that are disturbing people. Its undermining confidence in the incredible Rescue And Recovery work that has already been taken and will continue to be taken. We live in an era where if you put out crap online you can get a lot of people to share it and you can monetize that. Thats just The Way it is. We certainly do have all of the resources we are well positioned to continue to respond to Hurricane Helene, to respond to Hurricane Milton. Mr. President, we are meeting the moment. Im joined now by Nbc News Correspondent Sam Brock in ft. Myers, florida. Sam, i know this is a generic question, but its important. What are you seeing on the ground right now . Are people off the roads . Are all restaurants closed . Or are there still people sort of milling about, trying to get their last preparations together Before The Storm hits . Reporter yeah, its a simple question, jason. Its a great question. Far too late right now for folks to be first hitting the road to try to get to those shelters. Where we right now in Lee County, there are 13 of them. We got an update from Lee County Officials Today the day before, it had been 1,600 people populaing their shelters. As this afternoon, 7,000. Good thing in the sense, they have been pleading with a lot of the residents to not stay in the lowlying area. Where i am in ft. Myers to orient you, over my shoulder is the River And Bridge there that takes you to North Ft. Myers. This is still inland, jason. If you go 8, 10 miles out, theres a cluster of Barrier Islands, exactly what people sort of think about in their Minds Eye when they envision paradise in florida, long beaches, glistening water, thousands of people that live on these clusters of islands, ft. Myers beach, tragically two years ago suffered a huge hit from hurricane ian. But there are so many others. Right . The Storm Surge, you talk about the primary factor right now of concern, is 8 to 12 feet. Thats the projections out there where theres some images right now we need to confirm them, from specifically ft. Myers beach and Times Square the Heart Beat of that area, where youre already seeing the water, jason, come up to the point where, you know, theres buildings, coastal businesses that are sitting right there that have all been rebuilt, its already rising and early reminiscent of what we saw a couple years ago. Im not saying it will be to the same extent at all. The river other my shoulder right now, we were reporting for Nightly News a second ago, that was rising to street level. High Tide Isnt until 8 00 in the morning tomorrow. So, you just wonder what the next few hours are going to have in store for people here. In terms of just the total population, 800,000, 416,000 are under mandatory evacuation. Here is the key right now for those folks that did not listen, our desk has been doing an amazing job reaching out to all the different governments and municipalities to find out what their first responders are doing. In sarasota, manatee county, charlotte county, they are no longer providing Emergency Response right now because they have exceeded their threshold of 45 miles per hour sustained winds. They dont want to risk their lives to try to save people the middle of tropical storm conditions much less when they deteriorate beyond that which is to say the folks out there now in these lowlying areas in their homes, sadly theyre on their own for the next day or so. Thats the latest on the ground. Getting back to your question of where things stand. Sam brock, thank you so much for that detailed analysis. Please stay safe out there. Reporter thank you. Appreciate it. Im joined now by Nbc Correspondent Jesse Kirsch in sarasota, florida. Jesse, same question. I know this sounds generic, what are you seeing on the ground . How are people preparing . Are folks still milling about or is Everyone Sort of locked in for the night . Whats on the ground . Reporter yeah. Well, first off, jason, were actually not on the ground. Were multiple stories up explicitly the concern of Storm Surge. Just beyond me, thats Sarasota Bay beyond the buildings. Were looking at potentially as much as 13 feet of Storm Surge sweeping inland. There are Barrier Island areas out along causeway that have been shut down or i should say were shut down. We saw Police Lights flashing throughout the day. I dont know if you can see that. Were getting green flashes of light, an indication of an issue with a Power Transformer here. As im looking back, im actually yet again seeing a car coming over the causeway, back to the inland to the mainland from this area that officials had told people should be evacuated and they have been blocking off access to even cut off the water. But if you can believe it, i have actually seen multiple vehicles heading out on to that Barrier Island area and we are at this point within hours of landfall. And its, of course, a bit of a Guessing Game in the timeline has been accelerated. Ill now point this way. I dont know if you can see because its starting to get darker. Theres a series of Palm Trees pretty tall, pretty wide palms right here along this side street. And weve been seeing the Winds Ripping Individual Palms Off of those trees. And theyre scattered around. Ill ask my photographer, david, to pull out a little bit. And you can see a wall right next to me. We are inside of a parking garage. Typically we go out even in these conditions and frankly far more deteriorated conditions, but we are explicitly spending time in a more covered area for this storm because of the concern about debris. Weve been talking about that for days now. We are less than two weeks since Hurricane Helene made landfall in the same area. That means people have been ripping things like mattresses, furniture, floor boards, ruined picture frames, all of that and more has been placed on peoples lawns. And according to the governor of florida, only around 50 of that debris was able to be retrieved, even with Crews Working 24 7 in recent days. If you can imagine, all of that becomes projectiles in the high winds and a Battering Ram for the Storm Surge, which again is expected to be well above my head if i was standing on the ground at where it crashed on to shore. Jason . Wow. Thank you so much, Jesse Kirsch. Please, please, please be safe out there. Much appreciated. Im joined now by Nbc News Meteorologist angie lassman. Angie, this is horrifying. And i can say both not just in watching the news but having family that are fleeing the area, going as far north as charlotte, many people have evacuated what they think is going to be the main path of the storm. What are the people who are either incapable or refuse to leave the area, what are they potentially facing tonight . Yeah, jason, i like you have lots of family and friends and people i care across that live across this state. Unfortunately, youre right. Its a wide area of people that will be impacted now through essentially early tomorrow morning. And the conditions havent improved a whole lot. We kind of have our Forecast Set in stone for some Storm Surge. The heavy rainfall, of course, the strong winds, all of those will be baked into this forecast here from now through the rest of the night. As we get closer to landfall. We still got a category 3 hurricane. Notice its not looking as healthy as it did if you were watching maybe earlier this morning. Its north loaded, its front loaded. All of the heaviest of the rain, all the strongest of the winds are on the North Side of the Eye Wall and points north of that. We have unhealthy looking structure to the south of that Eye Wall, but that doesnt change the fact that weve got really strong winds on the backside of that that are going to shove a bunch of water up towards the coast. But south of where that system comes on shore, where the eye comes on shore, we still got the winds at 120 miles per hour and its moving northeast at 15 miles per hour. So we moved up landfall time. If you havent been paying attention over the past 24 hours, we expected it to be a little later. But this thing just didnt slow down like we thought. So were going to see probably landfall here in the next couple of hours somewhere around the sarasota to venice to up to st. Pete area. Here is what were dealing with right now. Really deteriorating conditions across the Tampa Bay area. We have heavy, heavy rain, Torrential Rain Happening from tampa to points south of that. Sarasota not quite as heavy of rain. Notice, youre only 30 miles away from the center of that system. But this is essentially you know youre not seeing a whole lot out of the window if anyone did stay in this area. Were only going to see it deteriorate more and more as the night goes on. One thing that were going to watch closely is where exactly the center of that comes on shore. As i mentioned, its the right side of The System where all of the worse of the Storm Surge is expected. So, whether we have 9 to 13 feet of Storm Surge for the Sarasota Area and points south of that, lito, key, i know a lot of people love to visit those spots, that will be if we see the center of The System come on Shore Right about here. If its a little farther to the north, which we know it has taken those wobbles all day long, a little north, a little south, if it goes farther to the north and crosses in the mouth of Tampa Bay, that would mean we would be looking at more of that kind of impactful Storm Surge for folks across the Tampa Bay. We still have a little bit of time until that kind of comes into better focus, but were going to be keeping a close eye over the next two hours as we gear up for landfall. The Wind Field is more confined than what we saw with helene when it comes to Hurricane Force winds. They extend 35 miles out from the center. Notice the tropical Storm Force winds across the entire state at this point essentially. Weve gotten 66 miles per Hour Wind gusts already in st. Pete. This is going to be something we see continue to worsen, jason, as the night goes on. 127 mileperHour Winds are possible for sarasota. Well know that Wind Damage will come with that and on top of that we have the flash flooding the heavy rainfall and, of course, those tornadoes that well be watching through the night as well. So multiimpact event. Angie lassman, thank you for breaking down what the dangers are that people are facing in florida right now. Thank you. Of course. Im joined now by michaelman, president ial distinguished professor of earth and environmental sciences at the university of pennsylvania, director of the Penn Center for Science And Author of our fragile moment how lessons from Earths Past can help us survive th