tonight, what we know about the damage, the loss of life and the rescue efforts plus the daunting prospect of rebuilding in an era of climate catastrophe. and as ian regains hurricane status, what we know about preparations beyond florida. senator raphael warnock of georgia. and what we are learning about what ginni thomas told the january six committee. did you speak with your husband when all in starts right now. good evening from new york. i m chris hayes. more than 24 hours after hurricane ian slammed into florida s west coast, it s not clear it will go down as one of the most destructive storms in the state s history. he came ashore just shy of a category five hurricane bringing 150 mile per hour winds, more than a foot of rain in some areas over just 12 to 24-hour period. that is a one in 1000 rain moment. we also saw record storm surge bringing the water level up 12 feet in some parts of the state. tonight people are coming to grips in florida with widespread
threat across the state. residents are urged to stay inside. our team is on the ground and crews mobilize and janice dean is tracking ian in new york city. todd: lauren, we begin our coverage with you in st. pete. in st. pete beach, they were prepping for the worst, but it struck more southeast. let me show you what is looked like yesterday in the naples, fort myers area. ian came with category four, wind speeds 155 miles per hour, dropped a foot of rain and life-threatening storm surge turned roads into rivers and left homes on the other hand water. take a look at the radar, ian has weakened since making landfall as it moves to florida. latest update has it 75 miles per hour, making it a category one hurricane, officials warn communitiess in central and northern florida, they are still in danger from flooding and hard to process amounts of water. central and northeast florida, 12 to 20 inches of rain possible, some areas according to national hurricane center, looking at
cuba saw significant flooding and, is just now getting power back in some areas after nearly the entire island was plunged into darkness. now this morning, is ethan s world toward tampa, residents woke up to this eerie sight. nearly all the water had receded out of tampa bay. the storm pulled all the water from the shore as it s winds whipped around, counterclockwise, before shoving it back towards land hours later. around the same time, the natural hurricane center increased their predictions for how much storm surge ian will bring. the revised estimates stand 12 to 18 feet along the coast, from inglewood to benin a beach. you can see here in the purple section on this map. you have seen waters rise to record-breaking levels throughout the day. that s naples. naples, florida, the water road six feet above the normal high tide, nearly submerging cars. in fort myers beach the storm surge has driven the water 8 to 20 feet, flooding homes, leaving some residents trapped. one fam
miles an hour. it down trees and power lines, even without power. created storm surge in areas like fort myers and naples, florida. officials are warning residents about potential for flash flooding overnight, some areas inland could see over two feet of rain. let s go now to nbc news meteorologist michelle gross. michelle, you have been following the storm all day. what is the latest? i, there we are looking at really strong storm still. it is moving inland but we are still seeing winds at 90 miles an hour. so it s still moving on to his strength. it was a very storm strong category four storm, almost category five, really wide in distance as well and moving very slow. so, it s three things that kind of came together to make the worst-case scenario. we saw a really strong winds up to 135 mile an hour wind gusts in cape coral. and i was the story with the storm surge. what storm surges is a push of wind. it s a push of water, salt water, onto dry land. so, we saw feet,
and water is rising. were you looking at the screen? just some of the scenes as hurricane ian made a devastating land fall in southwestern florida. the category 4 storm left a large path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we ll have a live report for you. rescue crews are busy trying to get to people who decided to ride out the storm and were then stranded by rising floodwaters. and we re still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida at this hour. welcome to way too early on this thursday, september 29th. thank for starting your day with us. it made land fall as a category storm. there is widespread flooding and damage as the powerful storm batters the state with torrential rain and wind. more than two million people are without power across florida. in naples, authorities said that more than half of the streets were not passable. this video released by the naples fire department shows a power line bursting into flames as the hurrican