Transcripts For MSNBC Ana Cabrera Reports 20241010 : vimarsa

Hurried preparations, theres also a new worry. Limited resources. Gas stations literally running on empty, and Grocery Store shelves picked clean. Nbcs marisa is joining us from tampa. Jay gray is standing by in ft. Myers. And Meteorologist Michelle Grossman is tracking the storm for us. The track of this storm has shifted slightly since yesterday. Where do we expect landfall now . Yeah, this has kind of wobbled back and forth, ten miles north or south. As we go throughout time, we are anticipating that westcentral u. S. Coast impact on The State Of Florida. We are looking at a category 4 storm. This is catastrophic. People are going to lose homes. Theres a threat to life and property. So were going to watch this very closely, we are about 16 hours away from landfall. Were looking at winds of 155 miles per hour. Yes, it weakened to a category 4, but keep in mind a Category 5 is 157 miles per hour, so this is a very strong category 4 strong. Its heading northeast at 6 miles per hour, now 210 Miles Southwest of tampa, florida. On top of this, the Outer Rain Bands are reaching the state. Were looking at the reds, the oranges, the yellows where we see the heavier rainfall. We do have a Tornado Watch until 9 00. Where you see this pink outline on the map here, you see the red boxes in Southern Florida, tornado warnings, as well. This will be a concern as we go throughout the day, as this makes landfall later tonight in the overnight hours. Lets track it for you. A category 4 storm, moving through a super charged gulf, really warm waters, record warmth. It will stay a category 4 storm, anticipating that throughout the next 12 hours or so. As it gets closer to land, we anticipate it to interact with dry air, and weaken it a bit. But still a major hurricane as it makes landfall between Tampa And Ft. Myers. A category 1 Storm By thursday. At 2 00 p. M. Still over florida, and then moves over the waters of the atlantic. It will bring heavy bands, well see the Storm Surm increasing, the heavy rainfall up to 18 inching. As a result, 17 Million people are at risk for flash flooding, river flooding. Well see Street Flooding and Road Closures as we go into tomorrow. Lets end it here, because this will be the legacy of the storm. We could see a Storm Surge of 15 feet above dry land. That is unsurvivable and catastrophic. Well see Winds Gusting over 100 miles per hour, bringing Power Outages for weeks maybe. Were going to check this all day long and watch this closely throughout the night. Obviously, its going to be a big 24 hours here. Michelle, Thank You for staying on top of this. Marisa, in tampa, officials are warning large portions of the city will be uninhabitable. How are residents preparing . Reporter well, for the past couple of days, we have been gathering all of the information on that. Just for editorial information, we are reporting from where were going to be hunkering down during the storm. It is much further inland, we have plenty of walls. So what youre seeing right now, what were broad casting right now and the difference between 12 or so hours from now when it makes landfall. We have watched the progression out of st. Petersburg and the Barrier Islands, out of the tampa area, and we have seen such a marked difference between what we saw right before helene and what were now seeing as Hurricane Milton is approaching closer. A lot of the reasons were seeing so many more people evacuate, what we have heard is that helene opened a lot of eyes. We think the messaging really started to get out there, that people told me they couldnt find transportation to the shelters or couldnt afford it, we understand they were able to get the message on different resources, because there were and are still free uber rides. There are still shuttles that can take you to a shelter. Thats so important to communicate. Look on the Florida Department of Emergency Management for those resource it is you are watching and you still need those. Its not too late. Officials are hoping everyone has made it out, but it is not too late. That is the messaging tomorrow, but time is really running out. You need to hit the road as soon as possible, because theyre hoping by noon, any time within an hour or so of noon, people are out of the area, because theyre not sure what people are going to find when they come back. It will be too dangerous for first responders to do rescues as Hurricane Milton is here. Marisa, Stay Safe as we ride this out together. Thank you. Jay, well get to you in just a second. Right now, florida governor Ron Desantis is giving a briefing. Lets listen. We are prepared, and we will respond. I have spoken to the president. We remain in regular contact with fema, and we are marshaling all available resources to be able to prepare and respond to Hurricane Milton. I also want to thank the 20 other states who are assisting florida ahead of the storm. This is just what we, as americans, do. We have had opportunities to help other states in the past, including most recently in western north carolina, and i think it shows the spirit that these states are stepping up and providing really valued support. We still have a State Of Emergency for 51 florida counties. Hurricane milton is still a major, very strong hurricane. Its currently a category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour. That is just a whisker shy of a category 35. While there is the hope that it will weaken more before landfall, there is high confidence that this hurricane is going to pack a major, major punch and do an awful lot of damage. As you can see behind me, the Florida Division of Emergency Management is fully deployed, fully active. This has been a footing now for over two weeks, given both of these storms. The state is activity fulfilling over 1500 missions. Weve delivered massive amounts of supplies, meals, water bottles, sandbags, tarps, generators to help our local communities respond to this storm. Weve also deployed more than 11,000 feet of Flood Protection systems to hospitals, Waste Water Treatment facilities. Generators have been deployed at shelters and to support sheltering operations. Star Link Internet has been deployed across the entire state of florida. We have surged an additional 600 ambulances, currently in Operation Helping in the effort. The state of florida has considerable Fuel Reserves ahead of milton, and itsstaged and will be utilized. We have dispatched a lot of fuel, but we still have on hand 1. 6 million gallons of diesel, and 1. 1 Million gallons of gasoline. There is no, right now, Fuel Short an. However, demand has been extraordinarily high and some Gas Stations have run out to be able to help ameliorate that. The Florida Highway Patrol has facilitated 106 longdistant Fuel Tanker escorts with sirens, getting through traffic, totalling almost A Million gallons of gasoline from ports in tampa, jacksonville, everglades and manatee. And they are continuing with the Fuel Escorts as we speak. Ive been in contact with the ports on the West Coast of florida. Well see how this storm impacts those. Clearly, theres a chance that you could have a major impact on Port Manatee as well as On Port Tampa Bay. That could interrupt their ability to receive fuel shipments. So we are working on contingencies to keep fuel flowing throughout The State Of Florida. As we saw this new storm develop, it was clear that a lot of the hardest Hit Areas on the West Coast of florida, from Hurricane Helene, had not had major, robust Debris Removal contracts in place or operations in place. Some of these contractors were good, some were not getting the job done. So you had a major hazard on Barrier Islands in Sarasota County and other places. So this weekend, i authorized mandated 24 7 Debris Removal. We took all the Florida Department of transportation and other agency vehicles, brought them from across the state and they are engaged in other missions as their normal course of business and dedicated it to Debris Removal. So in a little over 48 hours, and they were working all through the night, in the wee hours of the morning in manatee, sarasota and pinelis. They were able to remove 55,000 Cubic Yards of debris. So thats over 3,000 truckloads of debris, and its our estimation that on those Barrier Islands, they were able to make a dent in the debris and reduce it by over 50 . So i want to thank everybody thats been involved in that. It did not stop since this weekend. Were now in a position where its likely conditions are going to deteriorate. So were going to have to wind that down. There will be less damage from this storm as a result of getting that debris out than there otherwise would have been. The Florida Department of transportation is staging the following assets. 156 bridge inspectors, 328 Cut And Toss personnel and over 1500 pieces of heavy equipment, Florida State National Guard, and the Highway Patrol have activated additional personnel in advance of this storm. We have hundreds of State Rescue personnel on hand. 26 total teams. They are embedded in the potential impact sites along the West Coast to begin immediate Rescue Operations as soon as the storm passes. The National Guard is deploying 6,000 florida National Guardsmen, as well as 3,000 National Guardsmen from other states. So we thank them for the support on that. We have 34 Search And Rescue crews brought in. We have 500 tactical vehicles, aerial Water And Ground national Search And Rescue teams. This is the largest florida National Guard Search And Rescue mobilization in the entire history of The State Of Florida. Our Florida State guard is also deploying almost 200 soldiers, ten maritime crews, two uh60 black hawk helicopters, four drone teams, 15 Cut And Toss crews, two amphibious rescue crews. We want to thank them. This was just a dream a couple years ago that they would be involved, and there was a lot of unfair criticism when we stood it up, but they have made a huge difference in this Hurricane Season and will continue to do it here. We have also worked with the utilities to have the largest staging of Utility Workers and linemen in advance of the storm at any time in american history. We will have in florida, by the time the store arrives, over 50,000 linemen, and they will be brought in from places as far away as california. So as soon as that storm passes, youre going to see the assessments and the Power Restoration efforts commence immediately. Additionally, The State Of Florida has assisted in the evacuation of 352 sites. 16 hospitals have been evacuated. The State Veteran Nursing homes that are in the cone are all accepting families of their residents to shelter with them. All of those are Hurricane Proof and all outside of flood zones. So if you do have a Family Member in one of our State Nursing homes, you can shelter with them. Thats a safe option, and i know the veterans would appreciate it. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is directing deployment of additional 500 outofstate Law Enforcement officers. They will help respond after the storm to maintain law and order. There is going to be a lot of damage from this storm. Theres going to be opportunities for people to try to take advantage of that. My message is, dont even think about it. We are going to come down hard on you. You are going to regret that you tried to do that. So i appreciate all of the other folks from out of state coming in to supplement this effort. We need to maintain law and order. The mutual Aid Team is managing more than 70 active Law Enforcement missions, including identifying Post Storm Response squads. And these are really important missions, and were happy for that. So were preparing for Hurricane Milton, but were also still recovering from Hurricane Helene. When Hurricane Helene hit, we reactivated the Florida Disaster Fund. We are now accepting donations into the Florida Disaster Fund for both storms. Both helene and for milton. This is a private fund. Its affiliated with the state in terms of disaster, but its Tax Deductible donations. We distributed 63 Million after Hurricane Ian to help people largely in Southwest Florida. This is something that is really important. So i have directed Volunteer Florida to keep the fund activated for Hurricane Milton. Theres already been millions raised for helene. I want to thank wells fargo, and others for making significant donations and there will be a lot more to contribute. You can text disaster to 20222 or visit floridadisasterfund. Org. Now were bearing down on where the storm will arrive in the next 24 hours. You still have time to evacuate if you are in an evacuation zone, particularly if youre in manatee, sarasota, charlotte, those areas. This track can bounce around. Its not guaranteed its going to hit there. A lot of the solutions have it going there. You have time to do that. Now, conditions arent going to be great today. I would say that the roads and the interstates are flowing. We have waved tolls, but the best option would be just to evacuate within your own county to one of the shelters. All those counties have multiple shelters that are open. Theres a lot of space in those shelters right now, and certainly it would be safe to do a very short evacuation tens of miles, rather than get on the interstate and go. The roads are still open. People can do that. But i just want to warn people that the conditions are likely going to continue to deteriorate throughout the course of the day. We had, of course, on monday when the initial evacuations were Coming Down in the Tampa Bay area, had a lot of traffic on i4 and i75, fdot did the emergency shoulder plan. That helped. But it was slow. Those roads can be very slow anyways. By the time we got to The End of the night, it was going quickly. Yesterday was not as bad on those roads as it was on monday. But what we did see is Alligator Alley in Southern Florida wa