Life threatening Flash Flooding and historic Storm Surge. It left towns across the Gulf Coast completely underwater as floodwaters submerge cars, crashed over highways and seeped into homes. At least six people have lost their lives. Take a look at this, rescue crews in pinellas county, encountering homes engulfed in flames as they try to save people trapped by rising waters. Right now, helene has weakened to a tropical storm, as it heads north, putting 42 Million people under flood alerts. Millions across the south are still without power. And here is the moment when the eyewall hit perry, florida. Jesse kirsch was reporting live on the air. Reporter i can tell you that we have had intermittent moments of really powerful gusts. Were getting some right now, again. This is some of the i want to point out, i dont know if you can see it off in the distance, but there are cars out here, i can tell you, 45mileperhour winds, not to be on the roads anymore. Anyone out here, presumably, not a first responder and should not be out on the roads. The winds are really picking up right now. We have debris flying. Were going back inside. And Jesse Kirsch joins us now from perry. Good morning. Im glad to see youre doing well, the team is doing well. But, a lot of people have been affected very severely by this storm. What are you seeing this morning . Reporter yeah, and jose, despite what you saw there, remarkably throughout this area in perry, florida, not that much damage, which is astounding when you look at the Wind Gusts we were dealing with overnight. This shop, however, did take what appears to have been a direct hit from the winds. Take a look at whats out here in the front doorway, all this glass shattered from the windows that were blown out. Were going to step inside. Paul, the owner here, agreed to let us come in and give us the idea of the devastation to the shop. This is the third hurricane to hit this community in a little more than a year. Dahlia took out a window here, he replaced it with that wall, which is now gone. He also says this was solid brick. Now look at it. Lets come over here, Take A Look at this. You see the insulation on the ground and the bricks blown out on the siding here and the interior here now in shambles. He said to us, thinking about turning this into a patio because this is now two years in a row that something like this has happened here. But, again, well come back outside, jose, and just show you, despite what youre seeing here in this shop, and here in the background, hes already got repairs under way here, for the most part, Downtown Perry is doing okay. And it is really just remarkable because were looking at all the street signs. Some of it already tilted over yesterday and expecting to just see a lot of projectiles and a lot of this seems to have held in tact. We lost power overnight, still many people are going to be without power. It is sunny. It is hot. People dont have air conditioning. Might be trying to fire up generators. That brings its own risk to life. And then we did just see some preliminary information from the national Hurricane Center saying that preliminary modeling is showing that this county, this area could have seen in portions Storm Surge over 15 feet. I spoke with someone from the county earlier this morning, he told me they did not have any reports as far as this pio this public Information Officer is aware, did not have any reports of deaths in this county, which is good news. I can tell you the sheriff in Taylor County told me estimated afternoon 200 people, 200 people may have refused Evacuation Orders along the low lying coastal areas and we know that the Storm Surge is something that you cannot escape once it is on its way. So, you know, hopefully we continue to not hear anything about deaths to be reported. Officials here had asked people to write their name and their date of birth and their information, their personal information on their body in permanent marker so they could be identified if it came to that. Jesse kirsch, thank you very much. Joining us now is the mayor of tampa, florida, jane caster. Thank you very much for being with us. The storm made landfall 140 miles from tampa, but your city was hit hard and were talking about jesse was talking about Storm Surge. What did your Area Experience . Really it was a Storm Surge. We had minimal wind damage. I just saw your coverage of the damage, structural damage in perry. We had very little of that. But we did have some significant Storm Surge, right around 7 feet in neighborhoods around our community that had already been saturated from previous rainstorms. And so we had a great deal of flooding. We are although we gave the evacuation notices, our Law Enforcement and Fire Rescue began receiving calls around midnight. About 150 of those calls to be rescued from their residences that were experiencing flooding. They were able to get boats out in the water, when it was safe. And they rescued about 50 individuals and several pets. So how are your residents doing this morning . Were doing good today. Suns out, winds down. A lot of the water has receded. The tide is out. And so, you know, there are a number of streets that are still flooded. We have a particularly low lying area, davis island, just about every street in the davis Islands Neighborhood still has standing water on it. And we actually just about 9 00 this morning we were able to gain access to that island. As you know, we have a number of bridges that connect Hillsborough County with pinellas county, so we were just able to open one of those bridges, in a westbound direction and the rest of the bridges are being investigated and ensuring that they dont have any structural damage by our Florida Department of transportation. Electric company is doing a great job getting, electricity turned back on. There were some areas they couldnt reach, like davis island. Theyre there now, restoring that electricity. So they have gone from 120,000 customers out to right around 50,000. We expect that to drop very quickly. Mayor, you know, for folks that dont know just how extraordinarily beautiful the Tampa Bay Area is, and where it is located and how it can very much be affected by issues like the Storm Surge, tell us a little bit about that. It is unique in so many ways, you got tampa, st. Petersburg, you got the bay, youve got so much going on there. Right. It is, we like to say, we have the good fortune of living in paradise and thats the majority of the days of the year. But, you know, one of the few downsides is that we do experience these storms whether theyre tropical storms or hurricanes. I try not to say this out loud too often, it has been over 100 years since we have taken a direct hit. But just to see that helene was over 100 miles off our coast, and still we had close to 7 feet of Storm Surge, and we benefited from a low tide at the highest Storm Surge. So that saved us probably three feet of flooding there. So, were very fortunate, but were going to be cleaning up for several days. Yeah, is there any kind of help youre looking for, help that you need . No, were good. Were good. Matter of fact, well be sending individuals up to the panhandle to be able to help our friends and neighbors up in that area with whatever issues that they need. Were doing our Assessment Damages right now, that includes private property. I actually went up in one of our Police Department helicopters today, so i was able to see from above what areas are still flooded, and the water is receding out of the majority of those areas. So just a lot of cleanup to do. Tampa mayor jane caster, thank you for being with us. It has been an extremely long couple of days and one long night. Joining us now, barbara tripp, Fire Chief for tampa Fire Rescue. Chief tripp, thank you for being with us. I know that you have not slept one bit. But talk to us about these last hours. How have they been for your community . Were just speaking with the mayor there. What are some of the issues that you dealt with . You know, i would say probably the peak time of the surge coming in, probably Hit Tampa around about 10 30, 11 00. The number of calls that we responded to, some of the individuals are trapped, that was in Evacuation Areas we had to go and rescue, some calls we could not respond to, the calls, it was so dangerous to my first responders. It has been busy. Busy for the last 24 hours. We had multiple situations that dealt with Lithium Ion batteries, Ev Car or some scooters. We had downed Power Lines. Wind has been blowing and flooding is definitely a must. A lot of water here in tampa. What kind of issues have you had with the downed Power Lines and the ev battery, Lithium Battery issues . As of now, still under investigation. We believe one of the homes that did burn, it was an Ev Car in the garage. And, of course, you know, saltwater and Lithium Ion batteries do not agree. And with the downed Power Lines from the heavy winds, the gusts of the winds, some of the lines come down, get on trees, start sparking, and, of course, if there is a shed, a house, of course, it starts a fire. Chief, what are some of the things when one lives in an area that is affected by these kinds of issues, as All Of Us in florida have to deal with, All Of Us have to look for, what always kind of brings me such pride is are the men and women that work with you and for you, that throughout our state are willing to do Anything And Everything to help Save Lives . What motivates people like you and your team . Thats what makes this profession just number one profession in the world. And the reason i say we enjoy helping people, the men and women of tampa Fire Rescue as well as the Police Department did not stop. They havent had no sleep. They constantly working. Our dispatchers are taking calls in. We talk about a call every second. And it is that Dedication And Commitment they want to do to serve their community as well as the country as well. My hat goes off to all the Tampa Fire and rescue men and women as well as our dispatchers and Police Department, first responders throughout the state of florida as well. And these are people who are helping others when they live in these communities. Theyre also being affected. They have families that are being affected by it and yet they are out there helping others and serving others. Barbara tripp, tampa Fire Chief, thank you for being with us. Very much appreciate it. Thank you. And joining us now, nbc Meteorologist Bill karins. Bill, good morning to you, again. You have just been all over this. You were so clear on what we could be expecting. Tell me what you saw, felt and tell us whats going forward. This is a storm that ill always remember, jose, as, you know, overachieving at the end. We thought it would be a major hurricane. I dont think any of us thought it would get up to 140. The forecast, all along, was, you know, toward tallahassee, the Big Bend of florida, where everyone was, like, is it going to turn toward tampa, is the one that tampa gets and then they get the direct hit and still saw a historic Storm Surge. I think that surprised a lot of people. It is hard for people to get the concept of this storm is not going to hit you directly, but yet it is going to bring you higher water levels than youve ever seen before. The pictures that we saw with people in their living rooms in kayaks, the st. Petersburg area, around Tampa Bay, i think that surprised some people. And that was i think were just beginning to figure out the scope of how many properties and houses have been flooded. And you practically now theyre ruined, have to be gutted. Mold is a big problem in florida as you know, if you get water into your walls. So thats that part of it. And then this part that is going on today is historic. People will be talking about this for decades. The Rain Event taking place with the storm. The winds are down to 45 miles per hour. Not worried about that. Everywhere you see in the pink Magenta Color is under a Flash Flood Emergency. This is where water rescues are happening right now. Water going through towns and communities. Roads being washed out. Landslides, Dams Being breached. Dams that the gates are all open because the lake is flooding behind it. This is all happening, very dangerous conditions here in the mountains of north carolina. Now pushing up to virginia, upstate of South Carolina from greenville, spartanburg, and atlanta still has about two or three rivers, still waiting to crest and we still have a Flash Flood Emergency for atlanta. This is just all because of the rain we had before the storm and then with the storm last night. Now that rain is ending. Were just about done. Knoxville, asheville, greenville, atlanta, now we have to wait for all the water to collect, head into the rivers, crest and then all the damage will be done. In addition, what is left of the storm is going to pour Today And Tonight into areas here around nashville, paducah, everywhere in between goaling green, along the Ohio River here, southern indiana. This is where we could see an additional maybe 4 to 6 inches and some additional flooding and then the other thing i have to pontial for these tornadoes in eastern north carolina. We currently have one, two, three, four, five Tornado Warnings that are going. This one here is close to the Durham Area here, outside of durham. This one to the south of raleigh. We have to watch that going through raleigh. Raleigh right now, youre under a Flash Flood warning. And eventually may be under Tornado Warning here shortly. So, a lot of the damage has been done, jose. This storm is not finished yet and i think it surprised a lot of people. There are more Power Outages in South Carolina right now than in florida or georgia. This Storm Hit South Carolina, a lot harder than a lot of people there were expecting. Bill, we got to keep looking out because the Hurricane Season is still under way until november. I wish we were done. Thank you. We all do. Appreciate it. Stay with us as we Take A Look at the devastation left by helene. Well go to atlanta where water rescues are under way. And later, were going to turn to politics where just moments ago these are the pictures youre seeing. Former President Trump met with President Zelenskyy of ukraine. 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What how do you see this storm . Probably one of the best forecasted major hurricanes in modern history. National Hurricane Center, Weather Service, were very clear about this was what was going to happen. The hurricane, you know, was forecasted to strengthen. And reach a major category. So, you know, from the standpoint of the Weather Service giving us all the information they could, i dont think they could have done better. But a good forecast doesnt mean were not going to have catastrophic impacts. This is multistate, this will it is still ongoing. Im sitting in gainesville, where i have the sound of chainsaws going, no power, no internet and we were on the good side. We didnt have that much, but we just lost a lot of trees. And this will be across the whole region as we start to recover. Craig, what are peoples lives going to look like in the next couple of days, weeks, i guess even months for some, right . Yeah, i mean, as power comes on, i think a lot of areas will start to stabilize. Most of the damage that im hearing and seeing outside of the coastal areas are trees coming down. Flood damage, you know, theyll get in there, particularly down in Tampa Bay and along the coastal communities, you know, some of it was destroyed, but a lot of it you wont know until you get in there and see how much water they got. But the big story is the inland impacts well away from th