October 10, 2024 • 28 mins
Shannon is out again and Fox 11’s Christina Pascucci fills in in with Gary! Swamp Watch. #TechTalk.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty The Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We will continue to watch what's going on in Florida.
President Biden is giving a quick update right now and
just basically says that FEMA is going to open a
bunch of disaster recovery centers throughout the state of Florida
and anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
That they would be needed.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
There are, i mean images out of let's see, that's
Madera Beach that I'm looking at right now, where there's
just all kinds of detritus still sitting on the streets.
It looks like they're still in piles from a couple
of weeks ago, from when Hurricane Helene went through. That
was one of the big concerns that Governor DeSantis kept mentioning,
was that he wanted to get as much of that
(00:41):
out of the way as possible so that it didn't
become a problem. When Hurricane Milton barreled through last night,
it was a Category three by the time it made landfall.
That made its way all the way across the state
of Florida is now out over the Atlantic and It's
the weirdest thing to me about hurricanes is it's a
beautiful sun. It's a beautiful eighty degree day on the
(01:02):
west coast of Florida right now, but they're dealing with
what was last night. As we heard from your family friends,
six or seven hours of just continuous rain and you know,
eighty five one hundred mile an hour winds.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
They had lived in Florida their entire lives and said
it was the worst they had ever seen. And my
in laws right now, they're still struggling to get power
back there in Orlando, which wasn't even hit, you know,
nearly as hard as they thought, and their backup generator
didn't work. So even those who thought they were prepared
are running into problems and with no sign of exactly
when that power could come on. And millions of people
(01:36):
were impacted by this, Not to mention the tornado aspect
of this is what I find particularly terrifying. Where at
least twenty were confirmed to hit and those are just
the ones that we're seen.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, the power outage numbers are encouraging.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I guess we're right.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
After this thing happened, it was about three point four
or almost three point five million that were without power,
and they've already gotten a few hundred thousand people back online.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Oh that's fast.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I mean that that's a testament to not just Governor
DeSantis and his administration for planning the way they do,
but the men and women that are out there, you know,
humping the equipment to get those lines back up.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's and it was great to hear and very unusual
to hear from people who are on the ground that
they felt so calm in a sense, even though this
was a monster, unprecedented, historic storm, because they had so
much communication from the government. They had so much information
flooding in and so they knew what to expect when
they were getting, you know, up to the minute updates.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And that's unusual that people say they feel reassured when
they're the government.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
I know, imagine that.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
It's eleven o'clock. It's time to jump into swamp.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Watch. The swamp is horrible.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
The government doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Good man, you're gonna make this like a reality TV show.
Was a bad dos always a pleasure to be anywhere from.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Hey Joe, a town all too clearly built on a swamp,
and in so many ways still a swamp.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I have to watch my work. Somebody said, drain the swamp.
I said, oh, that's so hell keeppp man.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
You know the thing, Well, we might as well jump
into the swamp. You're not from the swamp, and I'm
just saying you have to spend some time there work there. Yeah,
the congressman from the fight in twenty seventh, my congressional districts,
Congressman Mike Garcia is here.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Thanks for coming in, Thanks for having me. Appreciate you.
I know you're busy. I mean you got a couple
of weeks before election day. Well that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
What does your day look like on days like this
outside of the interviews with us and with Woody and
all the important people.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
Yeah, it's a lot of a lot of campaigning right now.
And it's like having two full time jobs. I am still,
you know, the elected representative for the twenty seventh congressional district.
So official duties half of my time, which is six
eight hours a day, and then campaigning six eight hours
a day as well on top of that, and then
events on the weekends and getting out the boat, canvassing,
knocking on doors and making phone calls.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
And reintroduce yourself to your family every once in a while,
once in a while.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, you guys remember me. Yeah, it is great.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
We were talking about how, you know, especially for West
as congressman, how you have to traverse a country then
you have to not only do that role, but you
have to campaign. I'm curious, you know what keeps you
up at night?
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Yeah? I try to be the guy that keeps others
up at night. But the reality is is, I'm very
concerned about our country right now. You know, as someone
who served as a naval aviator in combat, as a veteran,
as someone who worked at a large aerospace and defense company,
I see our country right now in a very precarious position.
(04:30):
I think we are today as a country just as
vulnerable as we were on September tenth, two thousand and one,
and we're in a blizzard of crises. And what's concerning
me is that while we are in the midst of
all these crises, we seem to be looking inwards and
fighting each other and using this you know, political season
(04:50):
as a reason to do it.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
But it's it's persistent.
Speaker 6 (04:53):
It's a complete us versus them, Republicans versus Democrats, Left
versus right mentality, and I think we we need to
remember they were all Americans, and we still have Russias
with threat China as a massive threat right now, we
have an open border, we've got an economy that's flailing
on the verge of imploding, and we've got to come
together right now. We need weaker parties, we need stronger leaders.
(05:14):
And I see the toxicity not only in the swamp
with the elected officials, but even even with constituents, the
way they treat each other, the way they talk to
each other. If they don't agree, they banish each other.
And I think that's the opposite of what we need
right now.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, we talked earlier about this kerfuffle at CBS News
where news anchor was questioning a guy who wrote a book,
a pro Palestinian book, and was asking why he didn't
include the Israeli perspective.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It was.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It was a very civil conversation, two smart guys talking
about I mean, it seems like that's the way it
used to be. But then CBS News comes back and
scolds the news anchor for ask having the audacity to
ask a question an opposing view.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
We're losing that sort of.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Civil discs, civil discourse, yeah, about some of these bigger issues.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
And frankly, we're losing media as an objective news source
right and mainstream media there's effectively become a fourth branch
of government that is clearly biasing towards towards the left here,
and it's very frustrating. It's tough to get the truth
out sometimes. And so this is why folks like you
are very, very important. You know, I've never asked for
(06:25):
questions in advance. I don't ask for topics in advance.
I think we should be, as elected officials, be able
to answer the questions and to see, you know, sixty
minutes do what they did and effectively alter the narratives.
They are pushing narratives rather than reporting the facts. And
that's that is a very frustrating thing as elected official tocy,
especially when you're on the receiving end of it.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Obviously, in the midst of swamp Watch, we have one
of the members of Congress representing the state of California
Kaise of course, Mike Garcia from the twenty seventh currently
serving on the Committee on Appropriations, the Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence, Science, Base and Technology. But I want to
ask you these questions because some of the stuff that's
been going on, most recently hurricanes specifically, and because you
(07:06):
know a lot about appropriations.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
What's going on with FEMA funding. I mean, there was an.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Article today that suggested that because of the disasters, because
of these hurricanes, we blew through eight days in eight days,
about twelve months worth of funding. Does Congress have the
ability to then replenish that account for FEMA?
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Yeah, we can come back and do what's called supplemental
funding for agencies that see sort of anomalist demand in
many cases. I actually just passed a supplemental bill for
the VA about three weeks ago with bipartisan support, where
the VA had run out of money because of higher
benefit rates and more demand for because of the Packed Act,
we had more veterans supplying. They were three billion dollars
(07:49):
short on their budget, and so I led that bill
on the floor, got it passed. President signed it in
a law to his credit, within forty eight hours, and
prevented our veterans from losing their pensions and their disability benefits,
everything for several weeks. So when agencies do that, though,
we can't just write the blank check. You've got to
ask the why, right, Either they're forecasting incorrectly in terms
(08:12):
of their budget needs, or they're executing the budgets that
we're giving them incorrectly and inefficiently. In many cases, and
that's the case with the VA, they knew that the
demand was coming, they just weren't effectively using the money
and spending it efficiently to make sure that the veterans
were getting prioritized. In the case of FEMA, there are
documented cases of FEMA using money for illegal immigrants. For instance,
(08:35):
tens hundreds of millions of dollars being used to house
illegal immigrants. And in some years there are more disasters
than others. And when you have things the magnitude of
Helene and Milton, it is an extra demand. So when
we come back in session in November, we're going to
be looking at it. What we're being told right now
is FEMA does have enough money to service those in
need in the immediate a few weeks, and if they
(08:58):
need supplemental funding, we'll get them there. But this is
why we need to make sure that we're not in
moments of you know, non crisis eras not recklessly spending
tax payer dollars so that we have the money available
for the crisis situations like this.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
There's been a lot of talk about and criticism from
the right claiming that FEMA is sending you know, seven
hundred and fifty dollars per person to the hurricane disaster
zone while they're sending billions abroad. But from what I understand,
the seven hundred and fifty is separate from the more
than one hundred million in need, and it's actually a
good thing because they have more direct, immediate access to
(09:35):
that money than in the past.
Speaker 6 (09:37):
Is that Yeah, And I think one of the senators
who's also a Republican, did a good job of dispelling
some of these myths and some of you bad information
that's out there. The seven hundred and fifty dollars was
just an initial check sent out to try to relieve
some of the pressure. That's not going to be the
last relief effort that goes out. So unfortunately, in this
time of social media, you know, everyone gets their news
from a headline or from you know, a post that
(09:58):
comes from someone who's not credible. There's there's real news
out there, and then there's a lot of misinformation disinformation,
so all.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Those but yeah, that President Trump was one of the
people talking about that seven hundred and fifty number.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
So how do you how do you combat.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
That on I think as representatives, it's it's imperative that
we make sure that if especially if it's our district affected,
that we speak the truth right regardless of party affiliation.
We we have a loyalty to the constitution. We have
a loyalty to our constituents. Uh, and truth is what
matters the most. People seek clarity. They just want to
know clearly what's going on. They want answers, they want clarity,
(10:35):
and elected officials have access to information and we get
asked questions on a daily basis in our district about
what's going on. You know, we've got an environmental disaster
with Chiquita landfill going on right now. That's really hurting us.
And I you know, I have been the conduit of
just making sure that the constituents know what's happening there
and hearing ground truth because it's very easy to run
with conspiracy theories or any ideas that folks may have
(10:57):
that all of a sudden, everyone starts believing it is
true when it's not.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I know, you're in the middle of campaign season, right now.
But I have a semi trick question for you. Where
do you come down on term limits? I support term limits.
My number is twelve years.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
I think after twelve years, if you haven't done what
you're supposed to do in the House, then then you're
you're in the wrong business. I think, you know, And
that's true for the Senate as well. So two terms
in the Senate of six years and then six years
of two year terms for the House. I think what
happens is and by the way, I think every map
should be drawn so that it's fifty to fifty or
(11:33):
you know, you know, effectively equal party representation, so that
every race and every district is competitive like mine is.
I'm a Republican and a district with only twenty nine
percent Republican registration. It forces me to work harder, It
forces me to get smarter on the issues. It forces
me to compromise and negotiate in the House right and
actually come together with the opposite party when I'm in
(11:54):
the minority especially, And I think we need.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
More of that.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
But these these these folkolks that rely on this for
a thirty year, forty year career and come out wealthy
on the backside. It's mind boggling to me that they
do that. You know, John Adams was the second president,
and when our founding fathers used to crave going back
to the farm and actually stop having to do this
type of work. And I'll serve my country in any
(12:19):
capacity that's required. But I think we should not allow
people to stay in office for longer than twelve years.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
You hit on a lot of important points during the
last segment too. You talked about you think that we
should have weaker parties, and that was something our founding
fathers talked about, is that their fear was that the
parties would get too strong. And that's what we're seeing,
this bipolarization or this polarization between Republican Democrat. You can't
even have a civil conversation anymore. I see that as
(12:44):
one of the biggest threats to our democracy. Foreign actors,
foreign adversaries are looking at us and celebrating how divided
we are. We're imploding from within. So how do you
address that and really put a dent in that issue
to bring us back to the place where we could
have civil discussions. I mean, today, even if people shake
hands before a debate, we're like, oh, yeah, they can.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Yeah, but there's still that some that judge. And you
know when I do that, I still get the phone
calls going out. How can you shake that guy's hand
like you know, it's a it's frowned upon, right, So, uh,
the reality is you do it by example. In my debates,
I never get personal. I'm very direct. I can be
aggressive when I need to be, but I think being civil,
(13:28):
especially in these debates at town halls, when you know
my town halls are four hours long.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I listened to the questions.
Speaker 6 (13:35):
I treat the people asking the questions with great respect,
and I answer in a manner that there's a tone
in an attacked that you can take in a vernacular
that you can use that actually, even though you disagree
with them, they still end up, you know, uh, liking you, right,
and that brings the temperature down. I think, I think
if we just took a little more time to make
(13:56):
sure that we weren't pissing people off while we were
communicating our perspectives, and we were a little more sensitive
to the fact that not everyone agrees with us. And frankly,
social media incentivizes these politicians sometimes who think of themselves
as actors or you know, sociallebrity figure celebrities, and it
incentivizes them. Media, the media really large, not you guys obviously,
(14:20):
but is incentivized to polarize. They make money to provide
you know, brain candy to the voters and what they
want to hear. So but yeah, their founding founders had
it right that the two party system is probably one
of the most toxic things that our country has right now.
When you overlay social media on top of that, it's
even tougher. But you do it by setting an example.
(14:41):
You do it by recognizing that some people vote with
their heart, some people.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Vote with their mind.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Neither one of them are wrong.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
It's just human nature and my job as an elected
officials to get the people who disagree with me to
understand the why. And when you do that, they end up,
in many cases agreeing with you and.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Being curious about one another.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
If we were you know, whenever I see someone who
freaks me out or I kind of I feel like, ooh,
I don't like that person, I actually kind of try
to go up to them.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
And always take the meeting. Yeah, yeah, always takes a meeting.
Speaker 6 (15:09):
And again, in a competitive district, you have to take
the meeting, right, so you're forced to hear the other
perspectives and that's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Congressman, appreciate it. Thank you, Garyman to know you're busy.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Congressman Mike Garcia from the twenty seventh District, It's time
for tech talk.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
Good machines are getting smarter.
Speaker 7 (15:25):
This is tech Talk, brought to you my sky Net
and Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
It's been a couple of weeks since we've been able
to chat. But how you doing.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
Yeah, I'm all right, thanks for having me back on
and hello Christina.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Hi, good to be with you. I'm excited to hear
what you got for us.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (15:42):
Thanks, and give my best to my buddy Rich Demuro's sure,
he's the tech guy KTLA and elsewhere and on and
here on iHeart and KFI on Saturdays as well.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
He's everywhere now.
Speaker 7 (15:53):
Yeah, he's the best, great guy.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (15:56):
So yeah, it's been obviously a couple of weeks since
we've chatted. It's just been traveling and yeah, I mean
I think those in southern California have done a little
bit better over the last day compared to your other
friends on the other side of the country, opposite side.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, but and this is something we've we've talked before
post disaster about ways to make sure that you maintain
in contact and for us in terms of constantly talking
about earthquake preparation, this is something that we need to
pay attention to. But it's using satellites potentially as an
emergency way of contacting people using your cell phone.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 7 (16:33):
So we saw this coming out of Hurricane Helene, where
people were using the latest iPhone or the newest Android device.
If the Wi Fi and cellular network is down, you
can still send emergency messages over satellite and still free
for another year or two. And so I'm referring to
Apple's service called Emergency SOS. For those with a Pixel
(16:55):
nine phone, which is the latest Google device, it's called
Satellite SOS.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
The idea is the same.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
If you have no signal, or again, even if it's
not a hurricane, if you're in SoCal and you're lost
somewhere and you can't get a signal it happens, then
what you can do is hold your phone up to
the sky. It has to be in line in sight,
line of sight with satellites, so no obstructions like trees
or tall buildings and you'll you'll be able to not
(17:21):
have a phone call or anything, but you can send messages.
You just type in SOS where you type in nine
to one one when you're in your messages app, and
you're you're going to be able to send a message
to either first responders or you know, the emergency services
rather or if you have the latest iOS eighteen, the
latest operating system update and one of the newer iPhones
(17:42):
fourteen and newer, then you can actually message those on
other phones as well, like your contacts if they don't
have an iPhone by the way, then they'll just get
it as an SMS like a text message. It takes
about thirty seconds, but it goes through and you'll get
a confirmation as well. So it's a great little sort
of you know, emergency thing you can rely on in
(18:03):
the event that cellular or Wi Fi is not available
to you. And I know people use it also with
you know, with the hurricane yesterday in Florida.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
We're living in Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Right now, we are, you know, my sister in law
said she tried this, she's in Florida right now, in Orlando,
and they actually lost cell service. She said she tried
it yesterday to set up her phone because there's something
you do where you swipe down the menu and she
wasn't able to because of the cloud cover apparently. But
is there do people have to also do something with
swiping down the menu from the right top corner and
(18:33):
kind of like opting into this or is it as
simple as just sending the message as you said.
Speaker 7 (18:38):
Yeah, so if she's on iPhone sixteen, there's nothing you
need to do. If you've got fourteen or fifteen, then
you do need to go into the settings to set
it up. It's just it's a one time thing. But yeah,
you will need when you use it, you will need
to have an unobstructed view of the sky. It's just
like if you were using GPS excuse me for navigation,
(19:00):
you know, or if you're listening to satellite radio and
you go through a tunnel, it goes it goes out
because it needs to chat with the satellites above the earth.
So it's the same thing. But no, there's nothing that
you should need to do in order to set it up.
If you've got the iPhone sixteen, if it's fourteen or fifteen,
then yeah, it's just a little thing. And then with Google.
By the way, I'm glad you brought this up, Christina.
(19:21):
You do have to fill out a very brief questionnaire
and that's what gets sent to emergency services. So it's
again you go into the Google Messages part of the phone. Yeah,
if you need to do anything, you should do this obviously,
well in advance, just in case you need it. It's
kind of like crash detection. It should be ready to go.
But yeah, there's I wrote a piece yesterday for USA
(19:44):
Today on how to set up your device if it's
not one of the newer ones, and you should be
good to go.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Hey, speaking of crash detection, we had a plane crash
off of Catalina Island just a couple of days ago.
That was they apparently were notified by some on the plane.
Their cell phone detected that they were in what they
believed was a collision. I mean, I don't know why
the phone would know it was a plane crash versus
a collision. Wow, And that's how they eventually found the
(20:10):
records of the plane crash.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
The La County Search and Rescue Team has actually had
a few times they've been able to rescue cars that
have gone off the cliffs and some of the more
rural parts of La County because of this exact setting too,
So it's really making a difference in saving lives in
many cases.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
On one hand, I know people are concerned about big Brother.
Pardon me one second here, absolutely, yes, I know, right,
clearly I need a little bit of H two here.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
But yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
No.
Speaker 7 (20:38):
On one hand, I know people are concerned about our
increasingly connected lives through our mobile devices primarily, but also
wearables and stuff like that. But at the same time,
it could be a lifesaver.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Right.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
It's like your smart watch knowing that there's some irregular
heart rhythm or you know, something going on with you
inside your body that you may otherwise not know about,
or a phone detecting a car crash or you know.
I mean it's pretty wild. I mean again, like any tech,
it can be used or abused. And I know people
are concerned, you know, the tin the tin hat, you know,
(21:08):
tinfoil hat. Folks are not a fan of this, But yeah,
I'm all for it. If it can save save lives
during a hurricane or during a car accident or you know,
cardiac event, bring it on.
Speaker 6 (21:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
So if you want to see that article Yeah, just
google my name Mark Saltzman, Mark with a C, Saltsman
with his Z and and the word and the words USA.
Today you'll you'll see the article from yesterday. And yeah,
it also has some other tips for emergency preparedness when
it's tied to natural disasters, whether it's earthquakes or hurricanes,
tornadoes and so on.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Awesome, Mark, great to hear from me again.
Speaker 7 (21:41):
Yeah, likewise, thanks for having me on you.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Thanks cheers. Guys.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Make sure you follow Mark on x M A R
C Underscore Saltsman and he's got great stuff on his
feed there. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to talk with
ABC's Jim Ryan, who decided that he was going to
ride out the storm in his vehicle in a parking
in Tampa. Jim, did the roof on your car get
(22:05):
torn off by the winds?
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Like Christina?
Speaker 4 (22:07):
What tell me more about that? Are you okay?
Speaker 5 (22:11):
I'm fine. It's all contingent though, Gary. And with the
if the power goes out where I am in the
hotel or wherever I happen to me, where do I
get power from the cigarette lighter in the car the
power and go or plug it in there and then
connect the satellite uplank, so that, you know, I can
communicate with world that I need to communicate with. And
but the power stayed onto the hotel, so I didn't
have to do all that, which was kind of a
(22:33):
nice change pace. So I stayed in the hotel upon
the twelfth floor building was swaying back and forth in
the at the height of the wind, rain is blowing
around into the windows. It's so yeah, it was. I
didn't have to spend it in the parking garage after all.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Well, to your defense, as I have background as a
journalist and we do tend to live out of our cars,
and I almost find comfort in it.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I must.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
You know, you're there is some sense of control. It's
a little workspace, it is, that's true. But once you
know where everything is and you can make it all work,
it's not bad.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
Yeah. So did how high did those winds get?
Speaker 5 (23:12):
Ninety three miles an hour here at Tampa was the
top sustained wind that they had here. The landfall came
south of here, and that's where you had the Category
three hurricane one hundred and twenty mile an hour winds.
But here at Tampa it was ninety three and you know,
a picture driving down the highway at ninety three miles
an hour, it's sticking your arm out the window. That's
(23:32):
a pretty substantial win.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
But a Governor DeSantis this morning, one of the early
briefings that he gave, seemed a little bit relieved that
things weren't quite as bad as predicted.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
Yes, the catastrophe scenario here would have been this. It
would have been Hurricane Milton coming into Tampa Bay at
a category three or a category four, and that storm
searge pushing that water into the bay and out into
the city of Tampa. This city would have been inundated
(24:05):
had that happen. It would have been you know, twelve
fifteen feet underwater, which would have been just horrific in
a population this densely you constraint here. Thirty three million
people live in this area here, and undoubtedly people did
stay home instead of evacuating, so there may have been
loss of light instead. The storm came in again south
of here, Sarasota County, a little place called Siesta Key,
(24:28):
which you know, and there was storm surge from it then,
but you didn't have the bay filling up with water
from the storm. Search And in fact, because the storm
came in south of here, and because the storm rotates counterclockwise,
water was actually pulled out of Tampa Bay. It lowered
by about two feet in certain sections of it, so
(24:49):
that you know, we had sort of a reverse storm
surge here.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
In those pictures was the weirdest ones.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
What were your thoughts on? I know it was hard
to found them. What were your thoughts on all the
tornadic activity?
Speaker 5 (25:04):
It's shocking. I mean, I've been covering tornadoes and hurricanes
and this stuff for over thirty years, and you always
get tornadoes spinning off of hurricanes like this, but the
number of them and the intensity of them this time
is just shocking as far as we know, and only
one hundred. Majorcas was talking about this a short time ago,
laying out what he's been told by state officials here
(25:24):
in Florida. Ten people have died as a result of
Hurricane Milton. Storm search No flying debris, nope, cars getting
hit by trees, no. All ten people, as far as
we know, died in the tornadoes that were spun off
of Hurricane Milton. All Right, get this these storms, I can't.
(25:45):
We're talking about it because it's so weird. So the
landfall came at Sarasota, Sarasota County. These tornadoes were being
spun off a couple of hours before landfall one hundred
and fifty miles away on the other side of the state,
on the east coast of the state. That's where we
had the most severe of the.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Tornadoes, right which is so bizarre. I mean, they're probably thinking, Okay,
it's coming for us. It's going to make landfall, you know,
after eight o'clock tonight. So I wonder if they were
even anticipating having any sort of weather event that early.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
Well, they certainly weren't on the east coast right now
on They weren't expecting March at all. This was a
Gulf Coast hurricane. It was coming in from the west,
and so we're fine over here. Right on the east coast,
not so much. Storm cut right across one hundred and
fifty miles to the northeast through Cape Canaveral and now
has jumped off into the ocean. I think it's a
post tropical cyclone at this point, but we still have
(26:39):
three point two million power outages across the state.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
I was going to say, moving forward, I'm just curious
what the future looks like because we talked about their
destruction from Halleen that remains and I imagine we don't
even know the full scope of destruction from this one yet.
Even though it wasn't as we're as bad as we
thought it would be. So what did the next few
days look like?
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Well, getting the rest of the power put on you
and getting the grid back up and running, and getting
these three point two million homes and businesses back online.
The number has dropped by several tens of thousands in
the last few hours. That's good news because I mean
the longer the power is out, the more people will
be using generators, for example, firing those things up. Somebody's
(27:19):
going to have one operating in the house or in
the garage. There's going to be a carbon monoxide emergency,
somebody's going to step in a puddle that has a
live power line in it and get heard from that.
So the sooner they can get power restored, the better.
So that's why I so job one is to get
the roads cleared so that you can get trucks in
there and cruise in to restore the power. So once
(27:41):
the debris is cleared away, then you get the power
back on you get the infrastructure back up and running
and get people back to work.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Christina travel safe.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
Thanks Garret, You bet.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
ABC's Jim Ryan.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
They're live in Tampa with the latest on what's left
after Hurricane Milton.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
You've been listening to They and Shannon Show.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty The Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We will continue to watch what's going on in Florida.
President Biden is giving a quick update right now and
just basically says that FEMA is going to open a
bunch of disaster recovery centers throughout the state of Florida
and anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
That they would be needed.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
There are, i mean images out of let's see, that's
Madera Beach that I'm looking at right now, where there's
just all kinds of detritus still sitting on the streets.
It looks like they're still in piles from a couple
of weeks ago, from when Hurricane Helene went through. That
was one of the big concerns that Governor DeSantis kept mentioning,
was that he wanted to get as much of that
(00:41):
out of the way as possible so that it didn't
become a problem. When Hurricane Milton barreled through last night,
it was a Category three by the time it made landfall.
That made its way all the way across the state
of Florida is now out over the Atlantic and It's
the weirdest thing to me about hurricanes is it's a
beautiful sun. It's a beautiful eighty degree day on the
(01:02):
west coast of Florida right now, but they're dealing with
what was last night. As we heard from your family friends,
six or seven hours of just continuous rain and you know,
eighty five one hundred mile an hour winds.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
They had lived in Florida their entire lives and said
it was the worst they had ever seen. And my
in laws right now, they're still struggling to get power
back there in Orlando, which wasn't even hit, you know,
nearly as hard as they thought, and their backup generator
didn't work. So even those who thought they were prepared
are running into problems and with no sign of exactly
when that power could come on. And millions of people
(01:36):
were impacted by this, Not to mention the tornado aspect
of this is what I find particularly terrifying. Where at
least twenty were confirmed to hit and those are just
the ones that we're seen.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, the power outage numbers are encouraging.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I guess we're right.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
After this thing happened, it was about three point four
or almost three point five million that were without power,
and they've already gotten a few hundred thousand people back online.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Oh that's fast.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I mean that that's a testament to not just Governor
DeSantis and his administration for planning the way they do,
but the men and women that are out there, you know,
humping the equipment to get those lines back up.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's and it was great to hear and very unusual
to hear from people who are on the ground that
they felt so calm in a sense, even though this
was a monster, unprecedented, historic storm, because they had so
much communication from the government. They had so much information
flooding in and so they knew what to expect when
they were getting, you know, up to the minute updates.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And that's unusual that people say they feel reassured when
they're the government.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
I know, imagine that.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
It's eleven o'clock. It's time to jump into swamp.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Watch. The swamp is horrible.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
The government doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Good man, you're gonna make this like a reality TV show.
Was a bad dos always a pleasure to be anywhere from.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Hey Joe, a town all too clearly built on a swamp,
and in so many ways still a swamp.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I have to watch my work. Somebody said, drain the swamp.
I said, oh, that's so hell keeppp man.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
You know the thing, Well, we might as well jump
into the swamp. You're not from the swamp, and I'm
just saying you have to spend some time there work there. Yeah,
the congressman from the fight in twenty seventh, my congressional districts,
Congressman Mike Garcia is here.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Thanks for coming in, Thanks for having me. Appreciate you.
I know you're busy. I mean you got a couple
of weeks before election day. Well that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
What does your day look like on days like this
outside of the interviews with us and with Woody and
all the important people.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
Yeah, it's a lot of a lot of campaigning right now.
And it's like having two full time jobs. I am still,
you know, the elected representative for the twenty seventh congressional district.
So official duties half of my time, which is six
eight hours a day, and then campaigning six eight hours
a day as well on top of that, and then
events on the weekends and getting out the boat, canvassing,
knocking on doors and making phone calls.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
And reintroduce yourself to your family every once in a while,
once in a while.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, you guys remember me. Yeah, it is great.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
We were talking about how, you know, especially for West
as congressman, how you have to traverse a country then
you have to not only do that role, but you
have to campaign. I'm curious, you know what keeps you
up at night?
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Yeah? I try to be the guy that keeps others
up at night. But the reality is is, I'm very
concerned about our country right now. You know, as someone
who served as a naval aviator in combat, as a veteran,
as someone who worked at a large aerospace and defense company,
I see our country right now in a very precarious position.
(04:30):
I think we are today as a country just as
vulnerable as we were on September tenth, two thousand and one,
and we're in a blizzard of crises. And what's concerning
me is that while we are in the midst of
all these crises, we seem to be looking inwards and
fighting each other and using this you know, political season
(04:50):
as a reason to do it.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
But it's it's persistent.
Speaker 6 (04:53):
It's a complete us versus them, Republicans versus Democrats, Left
versus right mentality, and I think we we need to
remember they were all Americans, and we still have Russias
with threat China as a massive threat right now, we
have an open border, we've got an economy that's flailing
on the verge of imploding, and we've got to come
together right now. We need weaker parties, we need stronger leaders.
(05:14):
And I see the toxicity not only in the swamp
with the elected officials, but even even with constituents, the
way they treat each other, the way they talk to
each other. If they don't agree, they banish each other.
And I think that's the opposite of what we need
right now.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, we talked earlier about this kerfuffle at CBS News
where news anchor was questioning a guy who wrote a book,
a pro Palestinian book, and was asking why he didn't
include the Israeli perspective.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It was.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It was a very civil conversation, two smart guys talking
about I mean, it seems like that's the way it
used to be. But then CBS News comes back and
scolds the news anchor for ask having the audacity to
ask a question an opposing view.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
We're losing that sort of.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Civil discs, civil discourse, yeah, about some of these bigger issues.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
And frankly, we're losing media as an objective news source
right and mainstream media there's effectively become a fourth branch
of government that is clearly biasing towards towards the left here,
and it's very frustrating. It's tough to get the truth
out sometimes. And so this is why folks like you
are very, very important. You know, I've never asked for
(06:25):
questions in advance. I don't ask for topics in advance.
I think we should be, as elected officials, be able
to answer the questions and to see, you know, sixty
minutes do what they did and effectively alter the narratives.
They are pushing narratives rather than reporting the facts. And
that's that is a very frustrating thing as elected official tocy,
especially when you're on the receiving end of it.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Obviously, in the midst of swamp Watch, we have one
of the members of Congress representing the state of California
Kaise of course, Mike Garcia from the twenty seventh currently
serving on the Committee on Appropriations, the Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence, Science, Base and Technology. But I want to
ask you these questions because some of the stuff that's
been going on, most recently hurricanes specifically, and because you
(07:06):
know a lot about appropriations.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
What's going on with FEMA funding. I mean, there was an.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Article today that suggested that because of the disasters, because
of these hurricanes, we blew through eight days in eight days,
about twelve months worth of funding. Does Congress have the
ability to then replenish that account for FEMA?
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Yeah, we can come back and do what's called supplemental
funding for agencies that see sort of anomalist demand in
many cases. I actually just passed a supplemental bill for
the VA about three weeks ago with bipartisan support, where
the VA had run out of money because of higher
benefit rates and more demand for because of the Packed Act,
we had more veterans supplying. They were three billion dollars
(07:49):
short on their budget, and so I led that bill
on the floor, got it passed. President signed it in
a law to his credit, within forty eight hours, and
prevented our veterans from losing their pensions and their disability benefits,
everything for several weeks. So when agencies do that, though,
we can't just write the blank check. You've got to
ask the why, right, Either they're forecasting incorrectly in terms
(08:12):
of their budget needs, or they're executing the budgets that
we're giving them incorrectly and inefficiently. In many cases, and
that's the case with the VA, they knew that the
demand was coming, they just weren't effectively using the money
and spending it efficiently to make sure that the veterans
were getting prioritized. In the case of FEMA, there are
documented cases of FEMA using money for illegal immigrants. For instance,
(08:35):
tens hundreds of millions of dollars being used to house
illegal immigrants. And in some years there are more disasters
than others. And when you have things the magnitude of
Helene and Milton, it is an extra demand. So when
we come back in session in November, we're going to
be looking at it. What we're being told right now
is FEMA does have enough money to service those in
need in the immediate a few weeks, and if they
(08:58):
need supplemental funding, we'll get them there. But this is
why we need to make sure that we're not in
moments of you know, non crisis eras not recklessly spending
tax payer dollars so that we have the money available
for the crisis situations like this.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
There's been a lot of talk about and criticism from
the right claiming that FEMA is sending you know, seven
hundred and fifty dollars per person to the hurricane disaster
zone while they're sending billions abroad. But from what I understand,
the seven hundred and fifty is separate from the more
than one hundred million in need, and it's actually a
good thing because they have more direct, immediate access to
(09:35):
that money than in the past.
Speaker 6 (09:37):
Is that Yeah, And I think one of the senators
who's also a Republican, did a good job of dispelling
some of these myths and some of you bad information
that's out there. The seven hundred and fifty dollars was
just an initial check sent out to try to relieve
some of the pressure. That's not going to be the
last relief effort that goes out. So unfortunately, in this
time of social media, you know, everyone gets their news
from a headline or from you know, a post that
(09:58):
comes from someone who's not credible. There's there's real news
out there, and then there's a lot of misinformation disinformation,
so all.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Those but yeah, that President Trump was one of the
people talking about that seven hundred and fifty number.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
So how do you how do you combat.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
That on I think as representatives, it's it's imperative that
we make sure that if especially if it's our district affected,
that we speak the truth right regardless of party affiliation.
We we have a loyalty to the constitution. We have
a loyalty to our constituents. Uh, and truth is what
matters the most. People seek clarity. They just want to
know clearly what's going on. They want answers, they want clarity,
(10:35):
and elected officials have access to information and we get
asked questions on a daily basis in our district about
what's going on. You know, we've got an environmental disaster
with Chiquita landfill going on right now. That's really hurting us.
And I you know, I have been the conduit of
just making sure that the constituents know what's happening there
and hearing ground truth because it's very easy to run
with conspiracy theories or any ideas that folks may have
(10:57):
that all of a sudden, everyone starts believing it is
true when it's not.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I know, you're in the middle of campaign season, right now.
But I have a semi trick question for you. Where
do you come down on term limits? I support term limits.
My number is twelve years.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
I think after twelve years, if you haven't done what
you're supposed to do in the House, then then you're
you're in the wrong business. I think, you know, And
that's true for the Senate as well. So two terms
in the Senate of six years and then six years
of two year terms for the House. I think what
happens is and by the way, I think every map
should be drawn so that it's fifty to fifty or
(11:33):
you know, you know, effectively equal party representation, so that
every race and every district is competitive like mine is.
I'm a Republican and a district with only twenty nine
percent Republican registration. It forces me to work harder, It
forces me to get smarter on the issues. It forces
me to compromise and negotiate in the House right and
actually come together with the opposite party when I'm in
(11:54):
the minority especially, And I think we need.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
More of that.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
But these these these folkolks that rely on this for
a thirty year, forty year career and come out wealthy
on the backside. It's mind boggling to me that they
do that. You know, John Adams was the second president,
and when our founding fathers used to crave going back
to the farm and actually stop having to do this
type of work. And I'll serve my country in any
(12:19):
capacity that's required. But I think we should not allow
people to stay in office for longer than twelve years.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
You hit on a lot of important points during the
last segment too. You talked about you think that we
should have weaker parties, and that was something our founding
fathers talked about, is that their fear was that the
parties would get too strong. And that's what we're seeing,
this bipolarization or this polarization between Republican Democrat. You can't
even have a civil conversation anymore. I see that as
(12:44):
one of the biggest threats to our democracy. Foreign actors,
foreign adversaries are looking at us and celebrating how divided
we are. We're imploding from within. So how do you
address that and really put a dent in that issue
to bring us back to the place where we could
have civil discussions. I mean, today, even if people shake
hands before a debate, we're like, oh, yeah, they can.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Yeah, but there's still that some that judge. And you
know when I do that, I still get the phone
calls going out. How can you shake that guy's hand
like you know, it's a it's frowned upon, right, So, uh,
the reality is you do it by example. In my debates,
I never get personal. I'm very direct. I can be
aggressive when I need to be, but I think being civil,
(13:28):
especially in these debates at town halls, when you know
my town halls are four hours long.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I listened to the questions.
Speaker 6 (13:35):
I treat the people asking the questions with great respect,
and I answer in a manner that there's a tone
in an attacked that you can take in a vernacular
that you can use that actually, even though you disagree
with them, they still end up, you know, uh, liking you, right,
and that brings the temperature down. I think, I think
if we just took a little more time to make
(13:56):
sure that we weren't pissing people off while we were
communicating our perspectives, and we were a little more sensitive
to the fact that not everyone agrees with us. And frankly,
social media incentivizes these politicians sometimes who think of themselves
as actors or you know, sociallebrity figure celebrities, and it
incentivizes them. Media, the media really large, not you guys obviously,
(14:20):
but is incentivized to polarize. They make money to provide
you know, brain candy to the voters and what they
want to hear. So but yeah, their founding founders had
it right that the two party system is probably one
of the most toxic things that our country has right now.
When you overlay social media on top of that, it's
even tougher. But you do it by setting an example.
(14:41):
You do it by recognizing that some people vote with
their heart, some people.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Vote with their mind.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Neither one of them are wrong.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
It's just human nature and my job as an elected
officials to get the people who disagree with me to
understand the why. And when you do that, they end up,
in many cases agreeing with you and.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Being curious about one another.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
If we were you know, whenever I see someone who
freaks me out or I kind of I feel like, ooh,
I don't like that person, I actually kind of try
to go up to them.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
And always take the meeting. Yeah, yeah, always takes a meeting.
Speaker 6 (15:09):
And again, in a competitive district, you have to take
the meeting, right, so you're forced to hear the other
perspectives and that's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Congressman, appreciate it. Thank you, Garyman to know you're busy.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Congressman Mike Garcia from the twenty seventh District, It's time
for tech talk.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
Good machines are getting smarter.
Speaker 7 (15:25):
This is tech Talk, brought to you my sky Net
and Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
It's been a couple of weeks since we've been able
to chat. But how you doing.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
Yeah, I'm all right, thanks for having me back on
and hello Christina.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Hi, good to be with you. I'm excited to hear
what you got for us.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (15:42):
Thanks, and give my best to my buddy Rich Demuro's sure,
he's the tech guy KTLA and elsewhere and on and
here on iHeart and KFI on Saturdays as well.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
He's everywhere now.
Speaker 7 (15:53):
Yeah, he's the best, great guy.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (15:56):
So yeah, it's been obviously a couple of weeks since
we've chatted. It's just been traveling and yeah, I mean
I think those in southern California have done a little
bit better over the last day compared to your other
friends on the other side of the country, opposite side.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, but and this is something we've we've talked before
post disaster about ways to make sure that you maintain
in contact and for us in terms of constantly talking
about earthquake preparation, this is something that we need to
pay attention to. But it's using satellites potentially as an
emergency way of contacting people using your cell phone.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 7 (16:33):
So we saw this coming out of Hurricane Helene, where
people were using the latest iPhone or the newest Android device.
If the Wi Fi and cellular network is down, you
can still send emergency messages over satellite and still free
for another year or two. And so I'm referring to
Apple's service called Emergency SOS. For those with a Pixel
(16:55):
nine phone, which is the latest Google device, it's called
Satellite SOS.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
The idea is the same.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
If you have no signal, or again, even if it's
not a hurricane, if you're in SoCal and you're lost
somewhere and you can't get a signal it happens, then
what you can do is hold your phone up to
the sky. It has to be in line in sight,
line of sight with satellites, so no obstructions like trees
or tall buildings and you'll you'll be able to not
(17:21):
have a phone call or anything, but you can send messages.
You just type in SOS where you type in nine
to one one when you're in your messages app, and
you're you're going to be able to send a message
to either first responders or you know, the emergency services
rather or if you have the latest iOS eighteen, the
latest operating system update and one of the newer iPhones
(17:42):
fourteen and newer, then you can actually message those on
other phones as well, like your contacts if they don't
have an iPhone by the way, then they'll just get
it as an SMS like a text message. It takes
about thirty seconds, but it goes through and you'll get
a confirmation as well. So it's a great little sort
of you know, emergency thing you can rely on in
(18:03):
the event that cellular or Wi Fi is not available
to you. And I know people use it also with
you know, with the hurricane yesterday in Florida.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
We're living in Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Right now, we are, you know, my sister in law
said she tried this, she's in Florida right now, in Orlando,
and they actually lost cell service. She said she tried
it yesterday to set up her phone because there's something
you do where you swipe down the menu and she
wasn't able to because of the cloud cover apparently. But
is there do people have to also do something with
swiping down the menu from the right top corner and
(18:33):
kind of like opting into this or is it as
simple as just sending the message as you said.
Speaker 7 (18:38):
Yeah, so if she's on iPhone sixteen, there's nothing you
need to do. If you've got fourteen or fifteen, then
you do need to go into the settings to set
it up. It's just it's a one time thing. But yeah,
you will need when you use it, you will need
to have an unobstructed view of the sky. It's just
like if you were using GPS excuse me for navigation,
(19:00):
you know, or if you're listening to satellite radio and
you go through a tunnel, it goes it goes out
because it needs to chat with the satellites above the earth.
So it's the same thing. But no, there's nothing that
you should need to do in order to set it up.
If you've got the iPhone sixteen, if it's fourteen or fifteen,
then yeah, it's just a little thing. And then with Google.
By the way, I'm glad you brought this up, Christina.
(19:21):
You do have to fill out a very brief questionnaire
and that's what gets sent to emergency services. So it's
again you go into the Google Messages part of the phone. Yeah,
if you need to do anything, you should do this obviously,
well in advance, just in case you need it. It's
kind of like crash detection. It should be ready to go.
But yeah, there's I wrote a piece yesterday for USA
(19:44):
Today on how to set up your device if it's
not one of the newer ones, and you should be
good to go.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Hey, speaking of crash detection, we had a plane crash
off of Catalina Island just a couple of days ago.
That was they apparently were notified by some on the plane.
Their cell phone detected that they were in what they
believed was a collision. I mean, I don't know why
the phone would know it was a plane crash versus
a collision. Wow, And that's how they eventually found the
(20:10):
records of the plane crash.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
The La County Search and Rescue Team has actually had
a few times they've been able to rescue cars that
have gone off the cliffs and some of the more
rural parts of La County because of this exact setting too,
So it's really making a difference in saving lives in
many cases.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
On one hand, I know people are concerned about big Brother.
Pardon me one second here, absolutely, yes, I know, right,
clearly I need a little bit of H two here.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
But yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
No.
Speaker 7 (20:38):
On one hand, I know people are concerned about our
increasingly connected lives through our mobile devices primarily, but also
wearables and stuff like that. But at the same time,
it could be a lifesaver.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Right.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
It's like your smart watch knowing that there's some irregular
heart rhythm or you know, something going on with you
inside your body that you may otherwise not know about,
or a phone detecting a car crash or you know.
I mean it's pretty wild. I mean again, like any tech,
it can be used or abused. And I know people
are concerned, you know, the tin the tin hat, you know,
(21:08):
tinfoil hat. Folks are not a fan of this, But yeah,
I'm all for it. If it can save save lives
during a hurricane or during a car accident or you know,
cardiac event, bring it on.
Speaker 6 (21:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
So if you want to see that article Yeah, just
google my name Mark Saltzman, Mark with a C, Saltsman
with his Z and and the word and the words USA.
Today you'll you'll see the article from yesterday. And yeah,
it also has some other tips for emergency preparedness when
it's tied to natural disasters, whether it's earthquakes or hurricanes,
tornadoes and so on.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Awesome, Mark, great to hear from me again.
Speaker 7 (21:41):
Yeah, likewise, thanks for having me on you.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Thanks cheers. Guys.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Make sure you follow Mark on x M A R
C Underscore Saltsman and he's got great stuff on his
feed there. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to talk with
ABC's Jim Ryan, who decided that he was going to
ride out the storm in his vehicle in a parking
in Tampa. Jim, did the roof on your car get
(22:05):
torn off by the winds?
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Like Christina?
Speaker 4 (22:07):
What tell me more about that? Are you okay?
Speaker 5 (22:11):
I'm fine. It's all contingent though, Gary. And with the
if the power goes out where I am in the
hotel or wherever I happen to me, where do I
get power from the cigarette lighter in the car the
power and go or plug it in there and then
connect the satellite uplank, so that, you know, I can
communicate with world that I need to communicate with. And
but the power stayed onto the hotel, so I didn't
have to do all that, which was kind of a
(22:33):
nice change pace. So I stayed in the hotel upon
the twelfth floor building was swaying back and forth in
the at the height of the wind, rain is blowing
around into the windows. It's so yeah, it was. I
didn't have to spend it in the parking garage after all.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Well, to your defense, as I have background as a
journalist and we do tend to live out of our cars,
and I almost find comfort in it.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I must.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
You know, you're there is some sense of control. It's
a little workspace, it is, that's true. But once you
know where everything is and you can make it all work,
it's not bad.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
Yeah. So did how high did those winds get?
Speaker 5 (23:12):
Ninety three miles an hour here at Tampa was the
top sustained wind that they had here. The landfall came
south of here, and that's where you had the Category
three hurricane one hundred and twenty mile an hour winds.
But here at Tampa it was ninety three and you know,
a picture driving down the highway at ninety three miles
an hour, it's sticking your arm out the window. That's
(23:32):
a pretty substantial win.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
But a Governor DeSantis this morning, one of the early
briefings that he gave, seemed a little bit relieved that
things weren't quite as bad as predicted.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
Yes, the catastrophe scenario here would have been this. It
would have been Hurricane Milton coming into Tampa Bay at
a category three or a category four, and that storm
searge pushing that water into the bay and out into
the city of Tampa. This city would have been inundated
(24:05):
had that happen. It would have been you know, twelve
fifteen feet underwater, which would have been just horrific in
a population this densely you constraint here. Thirty three million
people live in this area here, and undoubtedly people did
stay home instead of evacuating, so there may have been
loss of light instead. The storm came in again south
of here, Sarasota County, a little place called Siesta Key,
(24:28):
which you know, and there was storm surge from it then,
but you didn't have the bay filling up with water
from the storm. Search And in fact, because the storm
came in south of here, and because the storm rotates counterclockwise,
water was actually pulled out of Tampa Bay. It lowered
by about two feet in certain sections of it, so
(24:49):
that you know, we had sort of a reverse storm
surge here.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
In those pictures was the weirdest ones.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
What were your thoughts on? I know it was hard
to found them. What were your thoughts on all the
tornadic activity?
Speaker 5 (25:04):
It's shocking. I mean, I've been covering tornadoes and hurricanes
and this stuff for over thirty years, and you always
get tornadoes spinning off of hurricanes like this, but the
number of them and the intensity of them this time
is just shocking as far as we know, and only
one hundred. Majorcas was talking about this a short time ago,
laying out what he's been told by state officials here
(25:24):
in Florida. Ten people have died as a result of
Hurricane Milton. Storm search No flying debris, nope, cars getting
hit by trees, no. All ten people, as far as
we know, died in the tornadoes that were spun off
of Hurricane Milton. All Right, get this these storms, I can't.
(25:45):
We're talking about it because it's so weird. So the
landfall came at Sarasota, Sarasota County. These tornadoes were being
spun off a couple of hours before landfall one hundred
and fifty miles away on the other side of the state,
on the east coast of the state. That's where we
had the most severe of the.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Tornadoes, right which is so bizarre. I mean, they're probably thinking, Okay,
it's coming for us. It's going to make landfall, you know,
after eight o'clock tonight. So I wonder if they were
even anticipating having any sort of weather event that early.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
Well, they certainly weren't on the east coast right now
on They weren't expecting March at all. This was a
Gulf Coast hurricane. It was coming in from the west,
and so we're fine over here. Right on the east coast,
not so much. Storm cut right across one hundred and
fifty miles to the northeast through Cape Canaveral and now
has jumped off into the ocean. I think it's a
post tropical cyclone at this point, but we still have
(26:39):
three point two million power outages across the state.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
I was going to say, moving forward, I'm just curious
what the future looks like because we talked about their
destruction from Halleen that remains and I imagine we don't
even know the full scope of destruction from this one yet.
Even though it wasn't as we're as bad as we
thought it would be. So what did the next few
days look like?
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Well, getting the rest of the power put on you
and getting the grid back up and running, and getting
these three point two million homes and businesses back online.
The number has dropped by several tens of thousands in
the last few hours. That's good news because I mean
the longer the power is out, the more people will
be using generators, for example, firing those things up. Somebody's
(27:19):
going to have one operating in the house or in
the garage. There's going to be a carbon monoxide emergency,
somebody's going to step in a puddle that has a
live power line in it and get heard from that.
So the sooner they can get power restored, the better.
So that's why I so job one is to get
the roads cleared so that you can get trucks in
there and cruise in to restore the power. So once
(27:41):
the debris is cleared away, then you get the power
back on you get the infrastructure back up and running
and get people back to work.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Christina travel safe.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
Thanks Garret, You bet.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
ABC's Jim Ryan.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
They're live in Tampa with the latest on what's left
after Hurricane Milton.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
You've been listening to They and Shannon Show.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Gary and Shannon News
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