Heres the problem. His judgment was then called into question immediately by an answer he gave thereafter. The question was what did you learn from Hurricane Maria . He then answers it was an incredible unsung success. What happened in puerto rico . Can he say that and still be trusted to manage whats coming . Will congress ever demand answers about what happened during maria. The senates number two democrat is here. What do you say . Lets get after it. All right. Heres what we know. Its bad news. Florence slowed down. All that warm water. We know what it does to a hurricane. It makes it stronger. Its now a category 4 storm. What toss that mean . Sustained winds of 145 miles per hour. Sustained, gusts even higher. The National HurricaneCenter Labels it extremely dangerous. Tonight were learning important new information about the timing and the track. Cnn meteorologist tom saider is watching florence. Lets talk science first. What do you see . Well, ill tell you what. This is a crazy bee live of a mess in the atlantic. Ive got to point out, oblige me if you will, by the time florence makes landfall we could have a tropical depression or storm in the gulf. They are watching it. Heres the latest. Early this morning in the Early Morning hours of california a watch was posted. That means the Hurricane Center will start issuing updates every three hours. Since then it didnt take long to upgrade the hurricane watch to a warning from santee river, South Carolina, up to duck, North Carolina, including pemlico. With that said, weve got some changes going on here. The last advisory not much. Thats to be expected. It still has not reached its peak intensity. We believe this could get close to category 5 tomorrow and maybe only 2 miles per hour. The soundtrack is still the same, but there are some changes. The big concern i have is because the system is so large, so far away, its going to bring with it a wall of water. When katrina came out of the gulf, it was a category 5. When it hit new orleans, it was only a category 2, but it brought with it such a surge of water when it was a 5, we had alltime record surge of 28 feet, so thats why this is a big concern. Now, this is interesting. The european model is in blue. You cant see it because its underneath the u. S. Model. Yesterday and the day before they are in total disagreement. The u. S. Wanted to kick it up near the outer banks. You cannot see the euro because they are in agreement. This is what we want to see. We want to see some consistency. Watch what happens. It doesnt make landfall. It the slides to the south staying just offshore. This is different. Now, this is not going to be carved in stone here, but its something that we need to Pay Attention to, because if the future we may see changes to the advisories. Let me break it down a little bit more, and this is a good detail. This is the european model bringing it where we expect it just to the north and near wilmington. This is, of course, at 5 00 or 6 00 in the morning friday. Lets go a little further in time. Dives down to the south now and still offshore near charleston at saturday night. Thats several hours of this onshore beating of a winddriven almost tsunamilike atmosphere increasing the surge. Believe it or not, just moments ago we found out that the american model, chris, is now saying, you know what, i kind of like this. I kind of think this may happen, but we need to have consistency and go with the National Hurricane centers track and for good reason. They still believe landfall at a strong category 3 or a weak 4. Youre not going to note difference. Its not about these winds at this time. Right. But they continue to make this progress inland. It still stalls. If you look at the time stamps, they get shorter, so were looking at maybe rain friday morning and lasting 72 hours in this area. The reason they are continuing to keep this track inland and the computer models, the spaghetti plots do carry it that way, so you can see where well start to see some hem hawing around about whether it is going to stall or not. When they increased the watch to a warning, they increased the amount of rain and the surge up to 13 feet. We believe this may be conservative. They dont want to come right out and say several days in advance its going to be a 20foot storm surge. We may see increments with each and every advisory, and thats why this is pretty interesting to note. Also, people get caught up in the top speeds and numbers. That eye is one set of problems, but you have hundreds of miles out from it. You know, winds, even if they are 70, 80, 90 miles per hour, thats totally enough to change your community, so just because youre not getting hit with it directly, doesnt mean its not going to be bad. I was taught when i first got into this business, got to look tat in the phasis. Youve got the purge, people needing to get out. The surge, what comes with the wind and water. Youve got the merge when land and storm become one and everything is destroyed and then you have the dirge, you know, the ugly aftermath of who is gone because of it. Yeah. We are dealing with the purge. Are the people getting out, were being told a million are set to evacuate, and what is the coefficient of time and opportunity . How long do they have until they have waited too long. All right. Great question. Now, we talked about hugo the other day. 29 years ago. The population has increased over 25 in the coastal area. Thats important to know. More cars on the highway to get out. Lets take a look. They got the day tomorrow, chris, especially for those who want to put plywood on their doors and windows, because at the end of the day and use every hour, because by friday morning or thursday as we get into thursday morning, that is, the Tropical Storm force winds are going to be Strong Enough that youre not going to be able to put the plywood up, so youve got the day tomorrow to get the things you need. Get on the road and if youre going to, you know, shore up and prep like that with the plywood do it, because these winds, and i want to get in a little bit closer and you get an idea of what were expecting. Tropical Storm Force Winds hit thursday and 8 00 p. M. On thursday, by friday morning well inland and by friday youre back out to areas all the way to west virginia. I mean, this is massive. That is Tropical Storm force winds that extend outwards 1735 miles. People have to remember, look, you guys are living down there and note local traffic better than we do. I was looking at the maps today, and there arent a million ways out. You are going to be hitting traffic. Budget time for that and ive been cheating in on the local newscasts. They are doing a great job in telling you what the traffic delays are and how many time you need to budget so, please, Pay Attention. Last question for you right now, tom. The unique characteristics of this coastline that make it vulnerable to this, what is it like along there . Well, ill tell you what. There isnt a more vulnerable spot in the entire u. S. Than this area. Lets look at an inundation map so can you get an idea of what youre talking about as far as the surge into certain areas. All right. Lets go in towards areas down towards the south. Savannah, when you see the colors of yellow youre over six feet of storm surge all over to charleston blues one to three feet and all the sounds. Across the Barrier Islands. Here we go down to southport and you get to Carolina Beach in wilmington, the Barrier Islands ant the intercoastal and a high bummer and youre still talking over six feet. Further to the north though, youre starting to see six to nine, maybe ten foot, and thats up not just the cape fear risk but youve got the noose river and the tar river. That is well inland. If this storm stalls off the coast, thats hour after hour of just pushing more and more of this water in than just making its way inland, so once the storm surge reaches this spot, the heavy rains fall. That, too, then, all that flooding will come back out from the rivers to this area, so they are going to get flooded on both sides. Extremely vulnerable. That whole area of the country, if you want, just to give yourself some confidence in what youre hearing, look at the coastline, the south coastline of long island, and it got hit by one bad storm. Im not talking about sandy but back in the 1930, and it changed the topography of the area. It created massive bays and inlets and the need for engineering that is still there a generation later. So tomorrow, thank you very much. You and i are going to be spending a lot of quality time. Ill be in position soon enough to give you the best information that i can from the ground. You got it. Be well. Now, the big macro question is are we ready for florence . Are all levels of government ready to go . They should be. Fema, state and local authorities. They have had time. They have had opportunity and they know what the unique characteristics of this place are. Its new information for a lot of you, not for those who are in charge and the president said today what he should have said. Were totally red, as red ed as ever, and then he gave something that gave us really good reason to doubt whether he knows what he is talking about. 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You do you and get rewarded. stop dancing around the pain thats keeping you awake. Advil pm gives tossing and turning a rest and silences aches and pains. Fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer with advil pm. Everything we say on this show has a reap. The reap i keep pushing lawmakers to look into Hurricane Maria when you doesnt look back and scrutinize you run the risk of septembering mistakes. Those who dont learn from history are doomed to repeat it and thats where we are today. Trump was asked what did you learn from last years storms, including Hurricane Maria, the unmitigated disaster in puerto rico. This was his answer. What did you take from what happened in puerto rico, and how will you you a ply the lessons you took from puerto rico . I think puerto rico was incredibly successful. Wow. All right. The president has been invited and refuses to make his case to you on this show. Hed rather hang out with his fox family, but the obvious pushback is you told us 16 died and then said it was 64. Here is the closest sense of numbers we have. 2,975. The president used katrina as a benchmark of what a catastrophe is. Look at difference. Look at the difference with all the storms. This was the worst in a generation, and he calls it a success . Who says hes right. This is his answer. The governor has been very nice. If you ask the governor hell tell you what a great job. Now, was the governor very nice . Yes, he was. He praised the initial response as it was underway. Most famously youll remember with the president promising him to praise him in the oval office, but that was then and this is now. Theres the governor. Here are his words. The historical relationship between puerto rico and washington is unfair and unamerican. It is certainly not a successful relationship. Our basic infrastructure was devastated. Thousands of our people lost their lives. So what does trump do when confronted with this . What no good leader he does. He blames the victim. They had no money. It was largely, you know, largely closed, and when the storm hit they had no electricity essentially before the storm and before the storm hit that took it out entirely. One, if that were all true, why didnt you prepare for it . Why didnt you take that under consideration. Reporter these arent someone you were doing a favor for. This is an american territory and secondly he isnt right. Hes grossry exaggerating the situation. The power grid in puerto rico is not like it is in indianapolis. It was in poor shape, no question, but to say it was dead before the storm and the island had no electricity demonstrably false. Tourism brought 4 billion into the island the year before. Hotels, shopping, malls, restaurants were all booming. So now what . Listen to this. I think the puerto rico was wan incredible unsung success. Weve gotten a lot of receptivity to the job weve done in puerto rico. Certainly unsung because you know who is saying it, just the president and people who agree with whatever he says no, one else. Even president george w. Bush said he took responsibility for the federal governments failures wan month of hurricane katrina, and there were failures. They were on his watch. That was what he was supposed to do. Were not getting that with this p. We can only hope that when President Trump says that the Disaster Response to florence that we should be in great shape, we hope that that is the assessment of people who actually know what they are talking about, and that they have told him that. Truthful hyperbole that he wrote in his book, thats one thing. His line, thats a problem, but this, what he said, calling puerto rico part of an unsung success is a level of delusion that must be checked by those around him and by congress. You must meet, find facts and fix congress. Thats your job and once again like the oped and the book from woodward that came out today, both tell us we need to depend on those around this president to make sure people are safe. So the phrase of the day is unsung success. My question, setting up the great debate. Hats president finally found a level of bs that simply cannot be defended . And this woodward book out today, is it a Tipping Point . Great debate next. When youre particular, you want things done right. Thats why we test all of our paints and stains for months. Or even years. We dedicate 175,000 square feet to getting it wrong. Because you deserve paint thats done right. Thats proudly particular. Benjamin moore. The standard for paint professionals. Only at local paint and hardware stores. This wifi is fast. I know i know i know i know when did brian move back in . Brians back . He doesnt get my room. Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. Today the president spoke from the oval office assuring everyone in the path of florence that the federal government is prepared and ready to handle whatever comes their way. This as trump also touted his administrations response to puerto rico as incredibly successful. A job that fema and Law Enforcement and everybody did working along with the governor in puerto rico i think was tremendous. I think that puerto rico was an incredible unsung success you see the little graph there on the side that looks like a gauge. Its supposed to be florence and the strength of the storm. That was like a bs meter there. You see how the needle was like hitting the edge because thats what it takes to call puerto rico any kind of success. These comments come of and reasonable police stand as proofwise President Trump owes approval rate having taken a dramatic dip. Lets discuss all of this with our great debater van jones, david urban. David, help me with this. How do you call what happened in puerto rico a success . Chris, so, look. Youre a facts first guy. Youve got the board up there, and i know facts matter to you so lets look at the facts, right . Initially whether its 64 or 3,000 deaths, too many, right . Its too many. Its tragic. Its a disaster on a scale that no one should have to endure, but the facts are what the facts are, and you are deriding the president for his comments about puerto rico not being prepared. I mean, if you look at it, puerto rican electric Power Company was in bankruptcy. 70 this is prior to the storm. 70 of the puerto rican population didnt have clean Drinking Water according to the 1974 Drinking Water act. 80 you talk about the president lying and say 80,000 Puerto Ricans were without power before maria hit because of irma which had hit right before that so with the president saying it was an unmitigated success, you know, look, theres no way to say Disaster Response is go