Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20181010

Her and her own political future. And the growing crisis and outrage after an americanbased journalist is going missing at the Saudi Embassy in istanbul. And will the saudis confront one of the closest persian allies . Im Andrea Mitchell. And now, Hurricane Michael is unleashing fury on the coast, and we could see the landfall this hour of the hurricane. And it is a urgent problem for the panhandle inhabitants who have not evacuated will be facinging storm surge of up to 18 feet, and causing Power Outages and damage that these communities have never seen. Okay. Michael is a deadly category 4 storm. This is the worst storm that the Florida Panhandle has seen in more than 100 years. Remember, we can rebuild your house, but we cannot rebuild your life. Take this seriously, and keep your families safe. Joining me now is nbc meet yourologist bill karins, and gabe guterres in ap lach kalach and bill bradley in tallahassee, and i was in a hurry to reach tout you, and while gabe, i think that he is coming to us first. Gabe, what is the latest . Hi, there. Andrea, i can barely hear right no now. We are here and feeling the wind pick up over the last hour or so, and as you can see, the rain is really pelting me, and it has been for the last several hours now. And right behind me is the most dramatic images that we have seen. This road is flooded, andrea, and earlier on water street which is right by the apalachicola river, and we have moved inland a block or so, and this is not a river or any sort of roadway, but it is a road completely flooded and the storm surge here in apalachicola is rising by the minute. The authorities here expect 9 to 13 feet of storm surge and the downtown areas and parts of it are flood and many of the businesses here will be destroyed, andrea. As you can just get another gust right now. There are many businesses that have been sandbagged, and this entire town is basically clear ed out. Earlier we were forced to evacuate from our hotel, because we were, we were going to be trapped, and so we moved further down the block, and we are okay for several hour, and now we are having to move further inland and this is within the last hour and a half or so, this road has gotten completely flooded. It is a devastating storm, andrea, and intensified so quickly overnight. And this is now a category 4, and the most intense storm that the Florida Panhandle has seen on record, and again, the authorities expect it to get worse over the next three hours. Andrea, back to you. Gabe, thank you. And please, move as quickly as you can obviously. Mariana atensio is in st. Joe, and what about the flooding there . Andrea, the flooding is picking up here. We had to the leave the area where we were last, and move over here, because the roads were impassable. Im about 30 minutes northwest of where gabe is, and you can see the wind gusts picking up here, and 50 Miles Per Hour or so from where gabe was, because this storm is moving this way, and headed to panama city where it is likely to make landfall in the next couple of hours. I want you to check out the marina behind me. You can already start to see many of the boats there, 35 degrees, and you can start to see many of the boat covers, and then you the roofs starting to peel off, because, again, the wind gusts are really starting to come in in this city, and the m mayor is saying to everybody, it is now time to hunk r down, and the next couple of hours will be critical in this area, and as we have been discussing, unprecedented storm for the Florida Panhandle. Andre andrea . Mariana atensio, Everyone Needs to take shelter. And now, Kerry Sanders in panama beach where the landfall is bracing for a direct hit on landfall and what do you see, kerry . Well, andrea, i am blocked by a building and the wind has picked up. What is most instructive and demonstrative from the picture and i am coming down the stairs and i will certainly not go down too far or turn my back on the gulf of mexico here, but the waves crashing here, and this is normally as flat as a lake where youd go skiing, but right now, the waves are krashg and some of them top are crashing and some of them topping out at 18 feet. The distance of the sand dunes out to the gulf of mexico on a normal day would be 100 feet. Right now it is about 50 feet, but we have actually seen the beginning of the storm surge, and that is the water making its way n and i will stand here for a moment, and you will see the sense of the waves crashing in how it is coming right where i am. Mostly foam at this point, and the reason i dont turn my back, is because there is a possible of a rogue wave coming in. To give you the idea of the community as we rare waiting to see the action back and forth of the gulf of mexico here, about 24,000 people decided to stay put, and they chose to stay put, because they thought that it was a category 2, and that is a good place to hang out, and we wont have to worry about it. And we are matt bradley is in tallahassee and Kerry Sanders is fine, and i should assure everyone, but it is the transmission there. And matt bradley up the coast in tallahassee, and this is going to be extreme wind, correct . That is right, andrea, and just in the last couple of hours, tallahassee issued the very first ever extreme warning, and we have been seeing the wind picking up, and one of the main things, and the concerns here as i was speakinging with the m ii Andrew Gillam and many of the trees are with the spanish moss here, but 50 are with tree cover, and so in past hurricanes, you will see a number of these trees and especially the old growth ones like the oaks falling on to cars and houses, and they are especially going be falling on to powerlines. Last time with the hurricane hermine, it was in tallahassee, and so the governor is going to be trying to show how the city can get back on its feet after these historic wind levels. And it is the last days for the Voter Registration there, and lot of the cross currents right there in tallahassee, and not just that race of course, and the most urgently the eme e Emergency Management and how he handles it. Matt . And lets matt bradley is apparently not hearing us. We will go to bill karins in the studio. Bill, talk about the historic storm, and the panhandle has never seen anything quite like it. No, once in a generation or lifetime and we have been keeping the records of the hurricanes since the late 1800s and we have never seen anything like this in the panhandle. It has the pressure of the equivalent of a category 5 and pressure of close to katrina and andre andrew, and those are storms that the bar is set so high that you say the name and it gives people the chills. This is the bowling ball and that is what i am calling it, because it is going to feel like a bowling ball has slammed into the region over the next two the three hours. This area in blue is extreme wind warng and the equivalent to the Tornado Warning and expecting winds of 130 Miles Per Hour over the next couple of hours equivalent to ever2 or ever3 tornado over the entire region. They are telling everybody to bunker in place, because there s is no one coming to rescue you. And no power. And now, look at the lightning strikes around the center of it, and the pressure is continuing to drop. If this had more time the over water, it would guaranteed a category 5 overlandfall, but rig over landfall, but it is still a chance to jump to catt 5, but when they go back in the final report and look at the damage, they may say it is a cat 5, so that is just for the history books, but now we are worried about who is going to be seeing the most damage out of this. As we are zooming in. We have been talk abouting a lot panama city, and this is what looks like to be the brunt of it. This is northern eye and the Northeast Quadrant where the strongest wind s will be if we get the 150mileanhour gusts, it is in this vicinity moving in shortly. It is going to bring panama city, population 75,000 when you combine panama city and panama city beach, and the smaller areas around mexico beach and point st. Joe, and if you live here, you dont like it, because you are in the worst portion of the storm as it comes on shore. And the winds, and you can see the portion of the storm right now, andrea, where we have the reporters and get in and out and we are losing the transmission a little bit, but in the next hour or so, we wont be able to talk to them, because it is too dangerous for the crews or anyone to be outside, period. The winds are 71 in apalachicola, and panama city about 48 and this is when we will lose the power when the winds are into the 50, 60, 70, 80mileanhour range. And as far as the storm surge, the area to be hardest hit to the right of the center where they will be 6 to 10 feet, and in some areas 14 feet of water. That is an incredible number. If you are look at the beaches and the houses, they are usually on the stilts, and nobody is up there past 14 feet, and especially with the wave action on top of it. This is how the winds will play out as we go through the rest of the afternoon, and going through 2 00 p. M. , the landfall and the 90mileanhour winds and then we will watch the winds ramping up. Tallahassee by 4 00 p. M. , around 79mileanhour winds. That is going to knock out the power on the interior section. But andrea, from the wind and the destruction from the storm surge, it is now through 4 00 p. M. This afternoon. The only thing that i can equate it to is a bowling ball, and the pana panama city here and the panhandle to apalachicola is the pins, and it is going to be so sudden and so destructive over t the next couple of hour, and people will equate it to a tornado that came through. And just to review what really happened here. The water is as hot as 90 degrees here, apparently, and the wind i guess that the wind sheer that could have slowed this down did not happen. So it came and it is getting stronger and stronger, because of the hot water . Yes, the fuel for the hurricanes is the warm water. And that is the process that they need and that is why the peak of the season is end of the summer and into october, and the wild card with this one was the wind sheer. And the wind is up where the jets fly, and they can tear the thunderstorms apart and so all along over the last week, it was supposed to have enough shear to keep it at weaker storm, and we were saying four or five days ago, tropical cat 1, but when it ramped up in the begin, we knew we were in trouble, and two the three days ago we thought that it was a major category 3 hurricane, but overnight, it never stopped intensifying, and it is still intensifying, and this is why it is close to being a category 5. This is, andrea, going down as the seventh lowest pressure for any storm in the u. S. At landfall, a tnd the winds are going to be somewhere in the top ten, too, and this is going to go down as one of the worst hurricanes we have ever seen. And if there is a small sliver and obviously, horrible for where it is hitting, but at least it is not hitting a big huge major city, because then it would be a katrinatype disaster, but it is going to be horrible for a small area, and we will see how bad tomorrow morning when we get the hel k t helicopters up i flying to see what is left. Bill karins, thank you for that. And gary jarvis is the major of destin, florida, on the florida coast and in the storms past, and joining me now. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much, and i know that you have been doing the preparations, and plenty of warnings, but no way to protect your coastal city, your community from this. Good afternoon, andrea. That is correct. All you can do is to prepare, you know, the families and the businesses for the impacts of the storm that the previous folks have been talking about the wind and the storm surge. Fortunately from our community, just now, we are receiving 40, 45mileanhour winds. We will miss the brunt of the storm, and the winds even though they may get up in the 60mileanhour range, the net benefit to sus that we are getting a north northeasterly wind on the west side of the storm to reduce the storm surge dramatically which is going to help a lot of the businesses and our homes along the beach. So we really feel for our friends to the east, but we are breathing somewhat of a sigh of relief on the west side in destin, florida. Well, we still wish you all of the best and thinking of you and all of the neighbors in the other communities there along the coast in the panhandle. Thank you so much, and mayor gary jarvis from destin, florida, and we with will continue to monitor the very latest. And the hurricane is about to gain speed as it heads toward panama city. And who is next to replace nikki haley up next here on Andrea Mitchell reports. Follow that bright star. Because brightstar care earns the same accreditation as the best hospitals. And brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan that evolves with moms changing needs. woman because dad made us promise wed keep mom at home. vo call 8444brightstar for your free home Care Planning guide. If your moderate to severeor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio®, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio® works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract, and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. 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Ambassador nikki haley and he has confirmed nbcs report that the former National Security adviser dina powell is on that list. She was a former secretary to Condoleezza Rice in the Bush Administration and also reports that Joe Lieberman may be under consideration and he was seen at the white house yesterday. Joining me now is White House Correspondent kelly odonnell, and michael beschloss, president ial historian and the author of the new book president s of war. Welcome both. Kel kelly, first to you, and we understand that the president is meeting now with brock long his fema director and other officials on the storm obviously, but nikki haleys rather surprising are resignation effective at the end of the year certain lu opens up a lot of oquestions about her motivation, and who is coming next. I have been told that dina powell is on the short list, and the president then confirmed that yesterday. And first of all, why now . Why leaving before the election . Well, some of the people that i have talk ted to in the republican circles have said that by announcing now, but she will depart her role by the end of the year, she is effectively have served half of the president s term, and that is a considerable a amount of time not unusually short given the larger issues of the pressures f of being a part of the trump administration, and by announcing now, it is before any verdict is rendered by the voters in the midterm election, so if there is any kind of the shakeup or the changes after the midterms which is a typical practice for white houses, she would not be swept into this. So it is really calling the shots in her own time and giving the president the opportunity to have another high profile appointment. Now it is obviously a negative to the trum administration in that she brought a lot of credibility in the republican circles and the more traditional realm of the a party to the job, and has been part of the prominent events of the Trump Presidency everything from sanctions on north korea and the ongoing talks about denuclearization and moving that forward and the change in the Embassy Location in israel, and she has been a person who could split the difference at times taking a position somewhat different from the president without taking the blows that other officials have had when they have done that. The and so, another theory is that she is leaning heavily toward moving into the private sector for a period of time. She has been in public life for a long time, and she could raise her own Financial Health but i getting a private sector job for some people, and then perhaps she would reenter public life at some future date, and we dont know for certain what her plans are, but she is high profile, and certainly at a point where she could leave the administration without as one official said much scar tissue which might make her more valuable in the private sector on the short run. And on the short list, you are right, andrea, d the ina powell is in new york already, and that may be helpful, because she left the administration in part, because she did not want to be away from her family who remained in new york. Andrea . And she has Foreign Policy experience, and the parents are from egypt. And this is someone who is very well regarded in the int International Community and the business community, but there is also pushback, and michael, people like the former aid to john bolton, and some of what we are hearing from some of his people, allies saying that the ambassador the germany now would be a good pick, and he is not well thought of by the european ally, but well thought of by john bolton and now talk of Joe Lieberman. Straight the out of the blue, and all over the place, but from nikki haleys point of view, and anybody who doubts this is a shrewd politician, look at what she has done. If donald trump is in office and say he serves two terms, she is in a good position to be a president ial nominee in 2024 if she wants to, and if for some reason trump doesnt run again or he resigns from office for some reason, whether it is legal or otherwise, she has established enough distance between herself and donald trump that she can sort of, you know, come in after the damage is done, and be a new face for a party which is criticized right now as being the party of angry white old men. By the way, the president is in the oval office right now with brock long from fema and Kristen Nielsen from Homeland Security and he saying that it is going to hit the entire gulf the size and strength of the storm. So you are a student of president ial leadership, and we saw of course different approaches, and this president with puerto rico not good despite what he might say, and this president with florence, a lot better in terms of the management, and we know what happened with bush and katrina, and the book, president s of war on leadership. The ability of the president to set the tone in a National Crisis is totally essential. Has been studied. And as you and i have discussed for years, the most important thing that the american president does is to put Young Americans in harms way to die in a major war and that is what the book is about, the saga of the eight president s who have waged major wars all of the way back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and the a war of 1812. The amazing thing is that in so many of the cases, and in some cases, and they were wars that did not need to be fought, and a lot of lies told the at times, and what drives me crazy is that in every single war, our american soldiers are on the battlefield and first rate and kour a ray jo courageous, and gave their lives men and women, and it was not matched by the leaders in the white house. And you spent time working on th this. Twice the length of world war ii. And you have come up new information and page one of the New York Times is the new breakthrough information that l. B. J. Stopped general westmoreland from introducing Nuclear Weapons to vietnam . Well, with the book, and all of the way through, and maybe not a page one news item on every page, but going through all of the 200 years, and tell it in a new way with new scoops. In the jobson case, great example of what you can find even 50 years later you had studied johnson and listened to the tapes. Ad nauseam. And you came across the memos. Yes, memos and tapes and tables declassified in the last couple of years and johnson who monumentally made horrible mistakes to lead to the catastrophe of the vietnam war for ten years, and the one good deed is commander westmoreland said that we are bogged down in vietnam and suffer a can defeat in battle and bring in tactical Nuclear Weapons which gets to johnson and johnson is basically irate, and he says that i have tried hard to keep this war from going nuclear, and shutdown those plan, and everybody who has been talk g aing about thisu be quiet and i want all of the documents put in the safe. And the documents were not entirely open up till i got t opened up until i got a hold of them a couple of years ago. And this is when the president s can start wars and Nuclear Weapons without a chain of command, and this is a big issue with the fire and fury of the epic escalation against north korea. And it is a current issue, because donald trump so far has given no sign of wanting to start a major war, but unlike with the founders what they wanted nowadays the president can start a war almost single handedly, and donald trump will be tempted, because if you are looking at the tweets in 2011 and 2012, he is keep on saying that barack obama will start a war against iran or someone else in order to get elect and not a great thing for the president to kcon next the ideas of startinga major war with political success that may get you reelected or raise the poll ratings. And by the way, the president is still planning to go to pennsylvania on a political trip today, and he is telling the pool, Kristen Welker that the pool is in the oval office with them. And he is still planning to take the trip today that. Could be a decision that he changes once this hurricane hits landfall. He should have changed it already, because it is clear that this event is a major ev t event. And the optics matter . Yes, and the people down there on the path right now are looking to see if the government is going to help them and if their president is giving a political speech, it is not a great message to send to them, and not fair. The book is president s of war and it is extraordinary and compelling. You bring it to life. One quick factcheck, the president has been saying that Abraham Lincoln was criticized for the gettysburg address at his rallies in defending his own ability for history to prove that he is going to surmount the critici criticism, and was he are criticized . Yes, he was criticized for to get tisburg address by the opponents of lincoln, and not too unusual, but there were huge numbers of newspapers who understood lincoln and even alt that moment knew that gettysburg address would be a great document in american history. So it was not all fake news. Not all fake news. Michael beschloss, thank you. Monumental. And kelly odonnell, thank you for reporting from the white house and the president will be making a decision and will he stick it to, as he said to Kristen Welker and the others that he is going to be taking the trip to erie, pennsylvania. Stay tuneed as they say. And coming up, the historic storm, and how the rez denlts of the the Florida Panhandle is bracing for the michaels impact, and the other michael, the storm. We will bring it to you. And more reports from the white house as soon as we get them. You are watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. My love has come along my lonely days are over at last. Applebees new neighborhood pastas. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. You might or joints. Hing for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. 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We are doing great and all hands on deck as always when it comes to the storms. It is in zone a, and getting the folks off of the beach, but it is going well right now, and we have been through this routine many times, and obviously in northwest florida and florida and so we have it pretty much down, and most important ly, we want to keep the residents safe. And now, the beautiful white sand beaches there that pensacola is famous for, and how is this storm going to affect the quall toy of the environment . Well, if you are thinking of northwest florida, there is about 1. 7 Million People west of the capital of tallahassee and a lot of visitors over the last weekend, but we are resilient and we know what it takes to get prepared for the storm like this, and when we be bouncing ba back. Many people know where we are and what a great asset pensacola and florida is, and the friends to the east we are praying for in panama city, because you know, and you have been reporting on this morning, the storms are going to be coming on shore in the next couple of hours. And of course, you were hit with katrina, and what are the warning levels for pensacola co compare to what you have been through in the past . Well sh, this storm crept up on quick hi in the last 2 1 2 days. We were watching it and i had direct contact with Governor Scott and the team inle tallahassee, and katrina to the west of us, and we were watching it, and it was coming on as as a cat 4 and we had to be prepared and you want to be proactive and not reactive and as you have been reporting many times, we are very prepared for these storm storms, and you know, our residents know what to do in a time like this. And well, we wish you all of the best, mr. Mayor, and thank you for joining us. Batten down and stay safe and thank you for being with us today. And best of luck. Thank you, andrea. Joining us is craig fugate, the former fema edadministrator and we understand that brock long is in the president s oval offic office, and talking to the president about it, and saying that the entire gulf area could be hit with the storm. Yeah, i think that if you are looking at where the storm is going to be hitting landfall, we are really worried about the an panama city and everything to the east of there, and brock is keeping the president inform and he has the team moving. They were moving people, supplies and search and rescue teams in the last couple of days to get ready to support the state as the locals are ready for one of issues has been what to do about panama city where you point out it is going to hit landfall. I watched a report this morning, and Kerry Sanders was reporting on the enormous construction cra cranes that were not taken down and it is kind of surprising to me, because i guess it takes a lot to take them down, but how much wind can they withstand . Well, we are about to find out. If you are reading the last hurricane advisory, it is talking about the catastrophic winds and several people reporting that it would be like, you know, tornado activity except that it is not for minutes like a tornado, but it is going to be over hours with higher gusts and sustained winds of 150 Miles Per Hour. So, too late to do anything. We will see what the designs are going to stand up to, and unfortunately, i think that michael is going to be testing a lot ofs assumptions that people have been making in the panhandle. And there is that conare vuk shun of the long bridge, that long causeway, i guess that the our correspondent kerry with who is so experienced in covering the hurricanes was showing us the way it has been constructed after the last storm, and so, as you are point iing out, it is going to test everything. What about the supplies and the electricity and how long could this potentially knock out the electric power, and other key utilities . Well, you are going to be losing power for days to weeks, and in the more rural areas, weeks. The other thing that is going to happen is the number of trees going down, the roots are wrapped around water and sewer mains, and so i expect that the municipal supplies are going to be impact and the Cellular Service disrupted and so pretty much all of that is going to happen, and tremendous debris on the roads, and u. S. 98 which is a lifeline highway for the coastal cities like panacea and st. Joe and carebell, and last storm dennis took it out completely, and this is a much more storm. So i imagine that the coastal areas are going to be cutoff and heavy devastation, and very little working infrastructure, and hopefully people did heed the evacuation orders. And the other problem, i guess that in florida, of course, you have a lot of older residen residents, and retirees and the people who may need constant medical care, and may need electricity for the medical devices as well as might be trapped inside some place. Well, yes sh, a greater conc to me is that much of it is old florida. These are the older fishing communities and the rural parts of the state and low income areas ark and lot of mobile homes homes, and people who have lived there all of their life and never faced a hurricane like this, and we have reports that many of them chose not the evacuate, and the concern now is about the life threat and the life hazard and hopefully people have done what they can to get ready, but it is going to be on top of them now. It is going to be a, i think, a rather significant response so get into the areas considering how isolated some of the areas are going to become. Is fema ready for this challenge . Well, for fema in support of the state, and surround it with resources and then get in. The bigger challenge for the state in mobilizing the resources across the state is to get in there physically. I know that Governor Scott has called out the National Guard hel ko helicopters and other crews readied, because in some communities that may be the only way in at least initially as the crews are work ting to get the roads open and make emergency repairs. In this case, the coast guard may become critical as well. Thank you, craig fugate, and it is always great to see you and get your expertise as we wait and watch. Stay right here on msnbc, for the latest on Hurricane Michael. Of course, coming up next, well talk about the disappearance of journalists Jamal Khashoggi who was killed or may have been killed inside of the saudi consulate in turkey. Conflicting reports today. You are watching andreab mitchell reports on msnbc. With such a long history, its easy to trust geico thank you todd. Its not just easy. Itsbeingamasterofhypnotism easy. Hey, i got your text sleep doug, when i snap my fingers youre going to clean my gutters. Ooh i should clean your gutters great idea. Its not just easy. Its geico easy. Todd, you will go make me a frittata. With lower Expense Ratios than comparable vanguard funds. And were now offering zero Expense Ratio index funds. Thats value youll only find at fidelity. One thing leads another and heres the tape of the president moments ago in the oval office talking about the storm preparations. I wanted to update you on Hurricane Michael, it is about 40 miles off of the coast and starting to feel the effects now. It is a very dangerous category 4 and just to remind the press, that hurricanes harvey, irma and henry were cat 4s and these are big storms that we are looking at. It is going to hit the panhandle here as you can see, sir, and then going through the georgia and the carolinas and unfortunately on the tail end, we do expect addition aal rain in the carolinas which could lead to the additional flooding. Fema is leaning forward as we are with the interagency partners and in close contact with the local and state authorities and spokewen the governor and the local officials, and turn it over to brock. Thank you. Unfortunately, this is a gulf hurricane of the worst kind because of all of the elements associated with hurricanes come into play. As you can see on the left, the storm surge estimates are anywhere from 9 to 14 feet. Storm surge is going to be the worst where the eye makes landfall from the south to the east of where it makes landfall and right now, it is projected between panama city, and apalachicola and pushing forward. So not only 14 feet of oocean water and coastal flood inundation, there is flooding on top of that which is the primary driver of why we vac wait, and coupled with that, the wind, and structures built before 2001 are not designed to handle that type of wind typically, and it is going to unfortunately push through the state, and so we are asking the citizens in georgia and southwest georgia to be vigilant and understand what is about to come, because this area is going to be seeing a cat 1 or cat 2 storm as it is moving inland and with the vegetation there what we are anticipating is a lot of downed trees impact ing the power grid, and you know, here again, we will see a lot of devastation along the coast, structurally and then as it moves in, you will see the Power Outages throughout the state. Then unfortunately, you will be seeing the rainfall into South Carolina and North Carolina and cape fear was projected to are recede from Hurricane Florence two days ago and this is going to be exacerbating the problem and add to it, and it is going to keep the waters from receding as it exits the state by friday. They are reporting that it is one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit our country, and is that actually a fact . Well, for this area, this is the most intense hurricane that has struck this area since 1851, if i remember correctly. So, this is the it is a big storm. Intense. Very intense. And this is one that is going to be heavy rain or the winds that are the problem. Storm surge and winds. And for georgia, they will be seeinging the high inland winds and you can see the sustained catego two winds with gusts, so we are expecting a lot of damage inland as well. But we have leaned forward with Governor Scott and his staff and director down there, and they are leaning forward as well. Right now, no identified shortfalls when it comes to prepositioning, and so we have the teams, equipment, and personnel not only with and embedded with the state of florida staff and some of the local county emergency managers, but we have equipment and teams stage staged in maxwell to atlanta to orlando ready to move in once we can, and once the elements subside and push through, and then we can move in and attack. And we are working closely with the private sector and 14 states, and utilities from 14 states are ready to help with any energy outages. I like that. And people from all over the country are lined up as soon as it goes by, they will be working, and we have got Food Supplies and food chains and working with all of the states, and let me ask you, this started out innocently a week ago, and this is a small storm in an area that they never thought that it would be, and then it grew into a monster. Yes, the implications started to come in saturday and they picked it up and started to the raising the flag that, hey, this system is going to go from the wave to the depression and potentially could rapidly intensify, and unfortunately, that is typical of the gulf coast and when they do this, you know, the citizens have less time to prepare or heed the warnings. We are concerned that many citizens chose not to heed the warn warnings, but we are prepared with the search and rescue teams to go in to do what we can. Any questions . Please. Yes, are you concerned that the one in georgia and this one and they are following yesterday, we were concerned that we did not like the level of evacuation activity that we were seeing. And you know, Governor Scott, kudos to him, because he leaned forward and used the new wireless emergency capabilities that we have, and sent out texts, and text messaging last night and leaned forward and said, hey, get out of there, and so we were trying to get the performance continuum module to really take it seriously, and lot of people did heed the warnings, but then there are those who chose to stay behind, and unfortunately the First Responders may not go in there who rescue 911 at this point. And mr. President , can you give us a sense of the officials that you have spoken to and contacted . I have. I have. And the other governors and depending what happens here, and they have either been contacted or are in the process. I had a long talk with rick scott, Governor Scott of florida and very well coordinated with all of the states. And one of the things that must be said is that it is not so easy for some of the people to leave. Some of the areas are very poor. Not easy for a person without the necessary money to leave. So what we have done is to have sent a buseses and a lot of the Different Things to try to remove people from the area, but a lot of people are very poor in certain of the areas, and it is very tough for them to leave. It is one tof the problems that you are finding, i guess, huh . Yes. In some of the cases, what we have asked to do on the blue sky days is to ask the people who may not have the means or the mechanisms to get out of town to register with the local Emergency Management agencies and florida has been robust to do that so that we have an idea of how the replan for, that and we do what we can to support the movement of people, and when it isp coming to georgia, we are not evacuating for storm surge in georgia, and this is high winds, and so we are asking to get within a facility to withstand the winds and shelter in place or seek out public shelters that may be open in southwest georgia. But looking at the size and how long it and looking at the red area, it is the area to where it is going to hit heavily, and that is a lot of shore. That is a lot of land. It is going to be four feet of storm surge all of the way to tampa bay which as you know is low lying and floods and to give you an idea of the breath of the path it is quite large. Almost the entire size of the gulf when you look at it top cli and they havent seen that maybe they havent at all. Nobodys seen that before. The eye diameter is pretty wide which unfortunately is not good yous making landfall so some people may say its similar to an ef3 tornado making landfall in areas close to the eye. Did last years hurricanes in the area impair the infrastructure or weaken that they would struggle to deal with this hurricane . Not necessarily. Irma did not heavily impact the Florida Panhandle. Most of the hit of irma in the southwest portion of florida and moved up through and created issues in the jacksonville area, northeastern portion. This areas been a long time since its hit and the vegetation isnt stressed and well see a lot of damage and devastation, unfortunately. And we have to set the citizens expectations that the power will be out for a while and what femas role with the partnership with the private sector is to work with florida gulf power, georgia powers to be able to help them, you know, facilitate their mutual aid to come in and they have power crews coming in from multiple states of the country and when were hit we work with them for first push debris to get the roadways open to get them down the roadways to start fixing the power but that will take sometime. Mr. President , will you change your travel schedule we dont know. I was going to pennsylvania. Looks like there are thousands of people already lined up. And probably well do that tonight and were going to go down here as soon as we can. We dont want to interfere with anybody and go as soon as possible. You have, you know, right nearby we have thousands of people going tonight. Many are there already. What time are we were you going to be there . What time are we planning on that . On the schedule for 7 00. Yeah. About 7 00. [ inaudible ] you have so many people already there and unfair to them. Its a mix. Ill be totally focused on this but well make a determination over the next little while. Is it for difficult for you to no. Because i have great people. Including these two. But i have great people. Thank you. It wouldnt make any difference in that sense but i would like to be seeing whats going on and get down there as soon as possible and same time i dont want to go down where were interfering with the people First Responders, the fema people. I want them to focus on the storm, not me. So well probably look to sunday or monday to go down. And meet with the governors, meet with everybody and do what we have to do like we did in North Carolina, South Carolina, where that worked out really well. Now, theyre going do get hit, also. North carolina and South Carolina are going do get a lot of water. Nothing like they had two weeks ago but theyre going to get a lot of water, also, and that waters still draining out so this is a pretty big problem. I really worry a little bit about South Carolina, North Carolina from the standpoint theyre already saturated and theyre going to get a reasonable hit. Right . Yeah. They will. You will see as much as possibly eight inches in isolated areas through North Carolina, South Carolina, and it is all about the rivers being able to process the water from florence and then some of them havent had the time to do that and this doesnt help. President trump release the administration i will have to take a look at it exactly. Whether you say release the journalist, who are you talking about . [ inaudible ] that i have to look into. Can i ask you about Jamal Khashoggi . Yes. Are you concerned hes dead . I would be certainly concerned. His wife wrote us a letter. And addressed it to my wife and myself. And were in contact with her now and we want to bring her to the white house. Its very sad situation. Its a very bad situation. And we want do get to the bottom of it. Do you think hes dead . I dont want to make i dont want to say that. I hope hes not. I hope hes not. Is the saudi government responsible . I have to find out who did it. But people saw him go in and didnt see him go out as they understand it. Well take a serious look at it. Its a terrible thing. Have you spoken to the saudis . I would rather not say but the answer is yes. Can you give us a sense of when his wife fiancee might i would say fairly quickly. I would say fairly quickly. Theyre in touch. You speak to the first ladys folks because theyre in touch and shell be most likely coming the white house. Well work on it together. Its a terrible thing. Says there will be hell to pay if the saudis are, in fact, responsible. Lindsey can speak for himself but this is a bad situation. We cannot let it happen to reporters, to anybody. We cant let this happen. Well get to the bottom of it. Okay . Mr. President you may want to speak to the first ladys office about the talked to the saudi government but at a high level. Highest level. Its the highest level. Okay . Last couple of days . Yeah. You mentioned that you talked to more than once. You mentioned you spoke with so again i do anyway. Ive always found him to be a fine man. We have had a good relationship. Im not happy about this. We have to see what happened. You know . We have to see what happens. Nobody knows what happened yet. They dont know over there but its a very serious situation and its something were taking very seriously. Okay . Sir about china from what is the message well take care of that. Well take care of that. Yeah . Said today that considering some sanctions well, they wont do it without our approval. They do nothing without our approval. Yes. They do nothing without our approval. Okay . Can you more people like well talk to you about that later. Otherwise the message picking a replacement. Getting alice johnson, a great person, such a great case. Id like to find a lot of people like alice johnson. And there are a lot of people that are in a situation like that. And we are actively looking for those situations. She is she is a terrific woman. Ive been watching her a lot and what a great spokesman she is for that situation. And thats covering a lot of people. There are a lot of people like that. That will unfortunately be locked up for many, many years and theres no reason for it. Well we are looking for we are actively looking for other situations exactly like that. Mr. President , any no. But shes somebody were talking to. Deanna did great here and then went back into the private sector for a while and always wanted to come back. She loves this administration. We are certainly looking at deanna and others. Tremendously talented people. Nikkis going to be here until the end of the year. She is our friend. Shes been great. I want whoever it is to spend time with nikki before she gets herself a job and hopefully will make a lot of money and i think nikki will come back in some form, too. But she is an extraordinary person. Good person. And but were looking at many people. Many people want that job. Mr. President are you concerned about the fact that she announced the departure no. Theres no good time. There really is no good time. The president as hes wrapping up his comments in the oval office about the storm, the devastation anticipating. Femas preparations and also talking about nikki haley and departure and the fact that there are looking to have someone appointed soon. Joining me by phone from panama city is state trooper hows it going . Yeah. Im so sorry. Youre from the highway patrol. Public affairs officer. Lieutenant eddie yes. Just quickly give us a fix as to whats happening down there. Okay. Currently what we have got is the storms making its approach. We are urging everybody to just kind of stay off the roads at this point. The winds are picking up. And most of the Law Enforcement officers with the highway patrol, we have limited our responses. Were only going to be responding to Critical Incidents at this point. Just to make sure that we keep our members safe. And outside of the weather at this point. And im going to let you go but i know that i saw large construction cranes in your city in one of our reports this morning. Are those safe with these kind of wind velocity, officer . Well, all the equipment, everything else, im not 100 familiar with the crane that youre referring to. But all of the precautions should have been taken care of prior to today. Thank you so very much. That wraps it up for us today. Here is ali, stephanie and ali picking up the coverage with velshi ruhle. Thank you, andrea. Well pick it up from here. Devastating, devastating winds hitting the gulf coast, panhandle coast, the big bend and the nature coast of florida. It is really, really storm that a lot of people not expecting and didnt make it out in time for. Good afternoon. Im ali velshi. Im stephanie ruhle. Were covering this story on october 10th. Breaking live coverage of Hurricane Michael starts right now