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Going to help. >> let's talk it over with cnn contributor dave halstead. he's a former director of the florida division of emergency management. dave, nice to have you on. how did the president do today? >> well, i think he said the right things. the most important thing he did though was sign that major disaster declaration which releases funds into the state. there's two primary categories, one is state assistance and public assistance. it will bring it into the states and counties and get everything back up and running. right now we're in the life sustaining mode. you saw him at places wher...

And to try to reassure the citizens. >> he talked about getting people up and running. something like 2.5 million people still don't have power and the president addressed that today. >> power is -- literally, rick, it's going on as we speak. it's going way ahead of schedule, weeks ahead of schedule. >> i mean, you know, dave, i mean, let's just get a reality check when we hear ahead of schedule. you know, obviously he wants to be optimistic and he knows way more about any of this than you and i do at the moment, but how long does this kind of thing really take to turn back on? >> well, again,...

Journalism business do you want to be wrong the way you want to be wrong in a situation like this. i hope the models are wrong. i hope it blows farther west. it's going to be someone's problem wherever it goes. but if it's accurate, you can only prepare for so much. so for all the pressers and all the detail, once it hits, there are going to be problems that are unforeseen and can't be managed. >> the way i looked at it when i ran emergency management, you've got a power curve. you'll be hee hind the power curve when the storm hits. the question is how long does it take you to catch up? how lo...

That was the secretary of health and human service, tom price. one aspect of this is how do you deal with the sick and the needity who are power-dependent in a storm that may knock out power. that shows the granular level. let's bring in dave halstead, former director of state emergency management here in florida. do you like what you're hearing in terms of coordination and management top down? >> i do, but i like it the other way. you talked to the congresswoman. it starts at the local level. you hear the message, you hear the message consistently, you hear it across party lines. then you go ...

Who knows the risks and the realities. cnn contributor dave halstead, the former director of state emergency management here in florida. dave, thank you very much. so, let's deal with points of resistance. did you see that traffic? i'm not going to do that drive. i'm better off staying home. >> that's the problem. we get so gridlocked in our thinking and gridlocked in our driving that it makes it impossible for people to see the reality that it's still better to get out of here. yes, they're stuck in traffic now. they're not going to be stuck there when the storm hits. it's going to be cleared...