wrapping up his first term in office with a tradition that goes back decades, hosting the previous president for the unveiling of his official presidential portrait. on that day, in may of 2012. obama made this statement about the point of these portraits, as an enduring member of the presidents temporary time in office serving the people. now the white house is many things at once. it is a working office. it is a living museum. it is an enduring symbol of our democracy. but at the end of the day, when the visitors go home and the lights go down, a few of us are blessed with the tremendous honor to actually live here. i think it is fair to say that every president is acutely aware that we are just temporary residence. we are renters here. we are charged with the upkeep and tell our lease runs out. but we also leave a police of ourself in this place. we are renters here. charged with the upkeep until our lease runs out. in 2012, we did not know how precious those remarks wer
they have four shelters opening this morning at this hour here. they can hold about 4,000 people. but the evacuation order right now under way for zone a is about 40,000 people. so they re hoping that they will use those shelters as a last resort and go find family or friends on the east coast of florida or just get out of town. i spoke with the spokesperson for the emergency operations center here in punta gorda and he told me that their motto is hide from wind and run from water. he said a wall of water is not your friend. so you don t want to stick around here in punta gorda. certainly the north of here as you know, there is a lot of concern and the tampa area, the st. peterburg mayor certainly has been voicing his concern saying this could be the storm that they never hoped would come to their shores. and, of course, the director of the national hurricane center saying that this could be the storm of a lifetime and the near worst case scenario for tampa bay and that is be
we have teams on the ground as we prepare for the eventual landfall. we are in florida, and carlos suarez is in tampa in gulfport, and carlos, as we ve been discussing, tampa, that is where the real worry is because they re worried about storm surge and a lot of the residential areas there are vulnerable. reporter: that is exactly right, jim and poppy. the concern is the forecasted five to ten foot storm surge with hurricane ian. we are in gulfport. that is about a half hour drive outside of tampa where a number of businesses right before the barrier islands have already boarded up. they have their plywood out and sandbags in place. other business owners, they re about to start doing that right now. in fact, mike jackson, you own a shop out here. you ve got your sandbags almost in place but you have to start doing some work out here. we have to board up the windows and try to cover up these windows an the door. we still have to sandbag our door after we put some spray foa
things at once. it is a working office. it is a living museum. it is an enduring symbol of our democracy. but at the end of the day, when the visitors go home and the lights go down, a few of us are blessed with the tremendous honor to actually live here. i think it is fair to say that every president is acutely aware that we are just temporary residence. we are renters here. we are charged with the upkeep and tell our lease runs out. but we also leave a police of ourself in this place. we are renters here. charged with the upkeep until our lease runs out. in 2012, we did not know how precious those remarks were. there was no president biden fighting for the soul of this nation. there was no president trump fighting to stay in office, no insurrectionists storming the capitol. no top secret classified records taken from the white house and stored in a florida closet. none of that had happened yet. in fact, we wouldn t see an official white house portrait unveiling again for an
it could cause catastrophic flooding. aishah: i m in for sandra smith. state and local officials are telling more than 2 million to leave their homes and get out of the way of the massive storm. ian strengthening to a category 3, ripping through western cuba, 125 mile per hour winds and heavy rains slamming the island and causing heavy flooding. john: i said good wednesday, only tuesday, wednesday is when it s go time in florida, just hours to go now until the storm makes landfall, many are attempting to avoid the storm-packed highways, and those hunkering down have been clearing supermarket shelves and emptying the gas pumps. aishah: and charles watson and max gordon are live in the tampa bay area, where officials are bracing for what could be the first direct hit on the region from a hurricane in more than a century, john. john: looking ugly there in the next 36 hours. first to steve bender tracking ian for us. where is it headed, how strong is it going to be? we