Keep it here on msnbc. Well be here throughout the storm for you and ill see you here tomorrow, same time, same place. For now, im Ana Cabrera reporting from New York. Jose diazbalart picks up our coverage right now. Good morning. 11 00 a. M. Eastern, 8 00 a. M. Pacific. Im Jose Diazbalart. We begin with breaking news. Hurricane Milton Closing in on floridas gulf coast, expected to make landfall early tomorrow as a devastating major hurricane. Right now, milton is a category 4 storm, churning 100 Miles Southwest of tampa, set to bring damaging winds and a dangerous and potentially historic Storm Surge. Schools, airports and many businesses are already closed in florida as People scramble to evacuate in the final hours before the storm hits. And take a look at this, miltons powerful winds shaking up a team of Hurricane Hunters flying through the storm. Meantime, right now, in South Florida, a tornado has broken out near i75. Joining us now from tampa, nbcs Marissa Parra. And also with u
down, you have trees that are down, you have a lot of hazards right now. we do anticipate a lot of the water will subside in some of the barrier islands, in some of the coasts, but some of those inland places off rivers and off these inlets, you know, you re likely to have standing water there throughout all of today and even in the days ahead. so that is a hazard and just please be aware that that is something that you if you weathered the storm to this point, going and doing and getting involved in that is just totally not worth it, and we want to minimize any harm to anybody as a result of what we re seeing right now in the streets. we have had 26 states provide support. we really appreciate that. it s going to be put to use. this is i don t think we ve ever seen an effort mobilized for this many rescues this quickly. but we appreciate it and we will make good use of it. we want people to be safe. those who have who are in need of life support right now, help is on t
morning. we re probably still another three to four days left in search and rescue and recovery, so that s a rough time frame that could go in either direction. these are not numbers. this is family members, people didn t just lose their homes. we can rebuild a home. we can get another boat, but when you lose a loved one, there s just no words that can describe how we feel for that family. so we hope and pray those numbers stay as low as possible. more than 430,000 people remain without power across florida, and some in places like fort myers beach and sanibel island could be without power for more than a month. crews are already trying to reconnect the hurricane ravaged barrier islands to the mainland, a temporary gravel bridge to pine island could be done by the end of the week. cnn s boris sanchez is there in lee county. boris, we know that it will take months, if not years to put these communities back together. what s the latest on that path that you know now? re
think it s more or less you have to work for it. reporter: her hard work paid off with a lifetime of awards, including the presidential medal of freedom in 2013. as for inspiring future performers, she said they needed to be one of three things. great, different or first. and i just happened to be different because i started writing my own songs and didn t really realize the things that i was writing about nobody wanted to talk about them. they were just doing them, you know? top of the hour on cnn newsroom . i m victor blackwell. and i m alyson camerota. it s been six days since hurricane ian made landfall. the death toll up to 106. 102 are in florida. and that makes hurricane ian the state s deadliest storm since 1935. one sheriff described the challenges still facing search and rescue crews. we have a difficult time identifying property at times because the property is no longer there. get us the information. and the second we re able to, these strike teams will
Do, we have a Customer Service hot line that we turned into a nonemergency call center, and weve asked the residents if they need to be rescued and its not an emergency, or if they think they might need to be rescued, that they call that 311. Most of the people unless they get hit later or are near the river. W we are prioritizing those, the residents that can get out of their homes, like i said, were prioritizing them. And also we they do know that we will wait until daybreak. Because of the standing water, so many of the streets and the
typically shelter in beaumont. We have three shelters open, they will not at capacity until they started to get at capacity, well look at opening another shelter. A shelter, you dont just put up there and ask people to come. You have to have supplies, cots, blankets, and someone that knows how to run it. And the red cross, because of all the devastation in texas is very, very limited resources for them, too. So i think that would be our biggest issue,