storms. have you seen anything like this? >> never. i've been here since 2000 and i've never seen anything close to this, including charlie. >> what do you do now? >> nothing. so, there is one road in and one wrote out about 3 miles down the road. there's a big misconception that the bridge is out. i just want to clarify, the bridge is not out. but the road that leads to the bridge has been washed away. we cannot get back to the mainland. the bridge to the right is also out. we cannot go to the island. we are trapped in a 5 mi.b2 -- yeah. >> chip, please stay safe. if you need to get out, i hope you will be able to. i know just talk to the admiral and coast guard and they're working hard to get everybody out. thank you so much for everything. >> thank you so much.

let anyone know that if they have a boat, get people. >> our coverage of hurricane ian continues now with "anderson cooper 360." >> the sheriff here in lee county told reporters about the afternoon destruction that is everywhere tonight. no words to describe what we saw and are seeing in the present tense, which is important to note, because this is an ongoing disaster in florida and potentially in coastal carolina. hurricane in -- yes, it is a hurricane again taste is taking ada. this is what it did to fort myers beach. is the most impressive storm ever to hit this part of florida. here is our first look at the area from above. it is far from the only look at

the destruction that can be revealed from the air. in struct the barrier islands hard severing the bridge to pine island, as you can see here, along with the santa bell causeway which is impassable tonight. it also did considerable damage to marinas up and down the coast, pushing even larger boat around like toys. florida's governor called this a 500 year flood event for the state. we have some time-lapse video of the water pouring into one neighborhood here. stunning as it is, this was not eiko later. more than 500 people have been rescued as of this afternoon. at least 700 statewide. again, this is not over. even after we can be tropical storm power, in caused huge amounts of flooding. this is orlando where local

authorities told cnn that they have done at least 200 rescues today. the storm also caused major flooding in saint augustine on the atlantic side. covering parts of the historic city in water. a short time later, it did become a hurricane again and is threatening be georgia and carolina coasts. the latest from the cnn weather center on what to expect from the hours ahead. it is already taken 17 lives. first though, a better sense of what happened here. as i mentioned, late today, the lee county sheriff the night went in a helicopter to search the destruction. this is what we saw. >> all that debris is littered everywhere. this was a building right there? >> buildings, restaurants, and what used to be the pure. >> how far back does the sand go? >> it goes straight through to the bayside.

>> empty spots that you see there were homes. >> i'm sorry. so these on these beaches here, these used to be homes? >> these empty lots that you see, those lots right there, those were homes, those were hotels, those were real property, to, three, four, five stories high, washed away. -- >> the buildings were just washed up there foundations and swept backwards. >> there were actually boat thrown into the main roads. vehicles inside the water, submerged. >> there is a car in a canal there, too. >> that car.

this is like mexico beach. >> you can see that foundation of where those houses were right there. how many rescues have you done today? >> we have done dozens. look to the front. these are major, major boats thrown into the bay. >> where? oh. into the mangroves right there. >> not just one, but dozens thrown everywhere. >> how long will it take to get this back? >> when i look at this, this is not a quick fix. this is not six months. this is long-term. long-term. we are talking about non- refurbishing structures. we are talking about no structure left. we are talking about foundations. concrete. homes thrown into the bay. this is a long-term fix.

it is life-changing. >> when you see it from the sky, it almost does not make sense. you see polls with no houses left beside them. as you see, you saw that one house in a canal. you saw boats in the middle of the mangroves. things are just not where they should be. nature moved them, or in some cases just flat out erased and. look at that. just flattened, gone, pushed away. completely into the bay. the sand goes all the way back across the island there. it is stunning and it is awe- inspiring. it is in all the wrong kind of ways. more now on the extensive damage the storm did to local marinas. randy joins us from one of them. what are you seeing tonight?

>> well, john, when you say that things are not where they are supposed to be, we have a perfect example. just another example to show you. we are just on the edge of legacy harbor. were not in a boatyard. this was not ever a boatyard. but these boats are now on dry land. for example, these boats were in the harbor during the storm. and before the storm. but they have ended up here because of the force of this 10 foot storm surge and these high winds that came along with her cane in. i just want to show you. from the side, there are about one, two, three, four, five boats stacked up right next to each other. they were in the water. once again, not where they are supposed to be. they are here on dry land. this is a huge piece of the dock. this was in the water with the boats. now, the water is well on the

other side. they have come through the air with this giant piece of the dock as well. there is a couple of oars on the ground as well. i just want to share something from another perspective here, which is really remarkable. let me just climb over here. just look at this. this is taste on this but which is also on its side they should this is the boat's line. this, john, is still attached to the dock. this piece of dock came along. this boat but this piece of dock is with it. i am also told -- be careful there. one more rope. as we go along here, i understand the owners of these boats they should many of them actually lived on them. we try to speak with some of them. they are obviously distraught by what happened. they did not want to speak on camera. just look at the damage you can see here. how much force was used to

carry these boats and these pieces of the dock, john. now, we have this new makeshift boatyard. we will see how long they will be able to stay here. of course, so many people will be trying to rebuild. john? >> people live on this boats. their homes are the things that are upside down. literally, a block away from where they used to sit in the water. what about rescue mission in your area, randi? >> we know, even last night, before the storm ended, the coast guard here in fort myers was plucking people off the roof tops. that is how desperate they were. that have rescued about 200 people here in fort myers. the fire department said they are not rescuing anymore. they have not received any more calls.

and love people did decide to ride out the storm. they thought it would go closer to tampa. there are no more rescues to be made in the city of fort myers. we know at least 500 people have been rescued in lee county here and in charlotte county. that is where i spent the day yesterday. certainly, a lot of people needed rescuing. it is unclear how many others might be out there, john. >> randi kay, thank you so much for being there tonight. with everything that happened, cell phone connections can be spotty. getting around, not so easy, either. were hoping for a live report from bill. he is on the island as we speak. we have just heard from him, we are expected to be getting some of his video from there, soon. he also spent some of the day in cape coral. this is some of what he saw there. >> it is so fascinating now. i have spent the last 36 hours trying to picture what a four storm surge looks like, giving

the projections as a unit was screaming to shore. 3 feet is enough to destroy lives, to take everything. the sad part is, a lot of these folks had no insurance. search and rescue has been going to some volunteers. this is the florida search and rescue. some of the best trained people in the country in that field helped out with the tower that collapsed a couple of years ago near miami. the coast guard has trained with urban search and rescue as well. but, oh my goodness. i am just feeling with my feet. hazards that you cannot see. that is what officials are worried about now. people maybe wanted to see what is left of their lives and may accidentally electrocute themselves. there have been fires that

started because of natural gas leaks. you have to worry about snakes. you have to worry about sewage and maybe oil spills. this is just the beginning. >> well. i doubt it. wow. amazing. it is absolutely amazing what

that water can do. >> my goodness. >> reporter: my goodness. to get back home to that. bill weir in cape coral today. he is on his way back. what people here continue to go through takes on even more significant further north along the eastern seaboard out that in his back to hurricane strength. for more on where the risk is highest tonight, let's go to cnn's jennifer gray. jennifer, the storm is not done yet. what is the latest on its path and it strength? >> this is a strong that just keeps on going. it will not let up. we are back to a hurricane with 75 mile an hour winds. gusts of 90. all along the georgia coast,

they have been feeling tropical storm gusts all throughout the day. it is more than 400 miles, the wind storm. we are feeling very strong winds for a wide, wide area. this is moving to the north northeast. it looks very disorganized as it is. even though it does not look impressive, it is going to be impressive. we will see a push of a watcher. we could see five to 7 feet just to the center. now, the national hurricane center made it clear on their update that the storm, even though it is so close to making landfall in tomorrow afternoon, it is still very uncertain to where exactly this will come in. just as we saw on the southwest coast of florida, it makes all the difference on where that storm surge is going to be. we have been talking about places around here, as we

should. it will depend on where the center of the storm comes in. just to the east of that i, that is were the strongest surge is going to be. we know that places along the coast in the southeast u.s. are very, very vulnerable. it is very low lying. they can flood even with an abnormal high tide. if you bring several feet of storm surge unit there, it will flood downtown charleston and the rivers and inlets that go all through their. it is going to be very important to see. watching this, john. it will be important to see what makes landfall just because along the eastern edge is where it will make that surge. it does include charleston in that. we could see it all of the coast, even into north carolina. wilmington is under that storm surge threat. 2 to 4 feet there. we will watch this through tomorrow morning. it should make landfall as a category one. i failed to mention, this will

dump up to a foot of rain across south carolina. even if you're not in the biggest storm surge threat area, john, you can see incredible amounts of flooding. we saw what the storm has already done in places like e orlando. this is no joke. >> reporter: and the people in florida will tell the e people south carolina, , pay very clos attention to allll of this. jennifer gray, thank you very much. >> thanks. >> reporter: we will be joined by the fort myers fire chief. and the mayor of santa bell which is cut off from the mainland tonight. peaceful state. full plate. wait, are you my blind date? dancing crew. trip for two. nail the final interview. buy or lease? masterpiece. inside joke. artichoke. game with doug. brand new mug.

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>> a vastly different story today. chief, thank you so much for joining us. the fort myers mayor told cnn that more than 200 people had been rescued by your department. can you describe some of those rescues today? >> yes. a lot of it actually happened in the early hours right after the winds died down. was around 11:00 or 12:00 am. it was pitch dark. we utilized some of our military vehicles. and fire engines. we got in there to find where people were. as you know, our procedures call for us to just go. we knew where they were and that was an opportunity to get them in the early wee hours. we got them out. >> are there any areas where you are worried that people are still trapped in their homes? any places you have not been able to reach? >> we were able to be pretty

aggressive last night and get out there. this morning, we were able to utilize our parks and rec to actually do a lot of road clearing. we were able to do some searches in the daylight. that was neighbors checking on other neighbors. we don't know what we don't know. even though we have a full day of daylight, there are still areas that we, you know, still have to get to and knock on those doors and make sure all the residents are okay. it is going to be a dynamic situation for a few days here. >> reporter: i was able to gulp in a helicopter this afternoon over fort myers beach and it is hard to put into words the scope of devastation there. what the storm left behind. excuse me. can you tell us about the damage you have personally seen? >> yes. at fort myers, we actually sent a couple of text to that fire chief at fort myers beach. here in the city of fort myers, we have boats in places where

boats should not be. some of our docs were actually relocated a half-mile down the road. trees are down. cars are displaced. some of our iconic, historic landmarks that were actually here since thomas edison and henry ford, damaged. these are things that are really impactful to our community. we were all awestruck when we saw these things and the damage. >> reporter: so there is still a curfew in place. what is your message to residents here? and what is your number one concern as we head into a another night here? >> my number one concern will always be our people and residents. our business owners. our slogan is, help us out, don't go out. our main thing is that we can kind of come out during the day and do whatever a mediation they can do and just lock it in. this way, the roads are clear. a lot of roads are dark.

there are still trees down. there are still things that could actually become hazards. obviously, our nature and wildlife. at night, those are things that might be a little more active. we want folks to his state in. our slogan, don't go out. >> figure for so much for taking a moment after what has got to be a very hard day. and there still will not be much sleep for you tonight. >> yes sir. you know it. thank you. >> just ahead, we will be joined by the mayor of a small community on santa bell island where we showed you earlier parts of the bridge connecting into the mainland were wiped out by the hurricane. i will check in with sandy about mayor holly smith next.

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another small community that felt the brunt of the destruction, sent about myers. not only a santa bell in island community, but it is connected to the mainland by a causeway, parts of which were just washed away by the hurricane's storm surge. the destruction may potentially require a complete rebuild.

operations to help people have been mostly by air. am joined now by holly smith, the mayor of sanibel. have you or your emergency services been able to get there since the storm hit? >> yeah. i just want to say, some of these images you are showing me, it is the first time i have seen them. when i take a look at this, it is pretty emotional for me. yeah. in answer to your question, yes. actually, today, our first priority was getting on the island for search and rescue. there were a significant number of people that remained on the island during the catastrophic weather event that we faced. we were able to coordinate that effort. fwc coordinated with us. we got boats over there. search and rescue started to go based on the information we had of people on the island.

so we got on there very quickly and got to go to the locations that we were informed that those people might be at. >> how many people decided to stay on the island? is it your belief that you have reached all of them now? >> it is really a moving target. so far, we have had about an accumulation of about 200 residences that were checking in. honestly, john, i am getting texts as we speak from people saying, can you check your, can you check their. so, today, i will look at some of the facts that i had. they made a number of the household checks. a lot of the checks we were doing was to say, are you okay. are you okay to remain? we wanted to make sure we get to those people that had the

injuries as much as we could. so we were able to have 12 people that were taken off but did have injuries. we did have about 40 people that were uninjured and were able to get transportation off the island. via the boats and our teams. sadly, we did have a couple of fatalities that were verified today as well. >> reporter: for the people who want to stay at this point, what services exist for them? i mean, how much damage is there? is it livable? >> frankly, no. but they do have the right to stay there. right now, it is important for us to go ahead and say, do you have food and water and are you okay? it will take a few days for us to get all of the places that there have been reports. we

continue to get those reports coming in. we are coordinating right now with our other services to make sure we get barges over there so we can get the assets we need to start clearing those roads all around. we need to see what the power grid is and if we even have a power grid left. we have to be making those decisions to find out what the next step will be. it is such a coordinated effort of what we need to do before we can even allow the residence to get back on the island. we need to make sure it is safe for them to get on a get to clean up everything. wildlife is all over the island as you can imagine. we just want to make it safe to see if people even can get on to look at their homes to see what is there. as far as livability, from what i have seen, not right now. i will be doing my flyover tomorrow and getting on the

island. my boots are on the ground tomorrow so i can get a better assessment. again, and watching what you have for the first time.'s >> reporter: i can only imagine how hard that is and what a mammoth effort it will be going forward. mayor holly smith, thank you so much. we are thinking about you and we are thinking about your community. >> i appreciate that so much. we need it. >> so before introducing our next guest, i want to show one of them confronted in their naples apartment building. he took that video and got some bumps and bruises in the process. he joins us with his wife, alexis, tonight. it is nice to see both of you. thank you for joining us. we just showed the video of the

door in your building caving and due to the water pressure. what happened after that? >> i lost my shoes. i got completely submerged underwater. and i ran up the stairs barefoot after that. >> i'm sorry. am looking at this for the first time. it is unbelievable to have survived that. how did you escape from the watcher? >> i grabbed onto a guard rail. initially, the water pushed me up the stairs and then it sucked me back down as well. i had to grab onto a guard rail. >> i keep watching that again and again and again. i am so glad that you made it through that. what is the status there in naples? do you have power? what are the conditions? >> we do not actually have

power right now. we have flashlights pointed at the ceiling. it looks like a bomb went off here to be honest. i do not think this was capable of happening. >> alexis, i understand you went to naples hoping to escape the worst of the storm when everyone thought it was initially headed to the tampa area. what were you thinking when you saw how bad naples was getting hit? >> i honestly cannot believe it. all of the prediction said that tampa was going to be hit the hardest. i was in complete, utter shock at the devastation that we were seeing outside of our window. all of the cars just floating down the road and a floating halfway into the canal across from our window. there is dumpsters floating. it was just insane. i feel that a lot of people here were underprepared for these horrible events that happened. >> well, alexis and radu, , i a

glad you are both okay. i know how hard it must have been to go through this and how daunting it will be going forward. you are okay and have each other. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you for having us. >> up next, the flooding in orlando. the congresswoman who represents part of that area represents what she has seen on the ground there. -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan? i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes we just need a reminder not to take today for granted. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance starting at just $9.95 a month. there are no health questions so you can't be turned down for any health reason.

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are right. just to give you a quick idea of why the storm is still so troubling going forward, this is a wider shot of what it looks like here. again, this is a storm that is still destructive. earlier today, orlando's fire chief emphasized the historic levels of flooding and the danger that it poses saying, standing waters actually electrified in some areas. floodwaters are expected to remain for sometime in the worst hit areas of the storm. no time frame for opening the state's airport. and surrounding areas like orange county are without power. i went to bring in congresswoman val demings who represents part of the area. her husband is also mayor of orange county. thank you so much for being

with us. i'm glad you are safe. especially under the circumstances. what is the situation where you are in orlando? >> well, john, earlier today, my husband and i had a opportunity to go out and tour some of the flooded areas. i drew up in florida. i was on duty in the orlando police department in 2004 with hurricanes charley, frances, and jean, but i've never seen or experienced anything like the flooding in west orlando that we saw today. the county received anywhere from 12 to 16 inches of rain. and the devastation has been overwhelming. we saw people in basically knee- deep and even higher watcher today. many of them were being rescued by orange county fire rescue. i just thank god so much for them and their duty to service. but look, john. we have a long way to go until

recovery. >> reporter: so you're a first responder for almost 30 years? and i mentioned your husband is the current mayor of orange county, florida. based on everything you know, where do you see the greatest need at this hour? >> well, it is going to take a while for people to rebuild. to be made whole. you know, i chair the subcommittee on emergency preparedness response and recovery. i am just doing back from puerto rico and assessing the damage there of hurricane fiona. now, here we are. as you know, in hit florida hard. my heart goes out to the people in southwest florida and to the families who lost loved ones. we know they are going to have to rebuild, almost from the ground up in many areas. we will continue to be in contact with fema.

we received almost daily briefings or briefing assistance of the storm. we have to make sure we improve our resiliency, cut some of the red tape so we can make people whole again, repair and restore some of the bridges and roadways that are completely closed. people are shut off. john, we have a lot of work to do. >> reporter: we heard the president say earlier today that he is committed, through fema, to get floridians the help that they need. do you believe that florida has everything it needs now to respond to the challenge at this minute? >> you know what? i really appreciate so much. people have just kind of wrapped their arms around florida from all over the country. we have about 42,000 line technicians that are here ready to restore power. we have over 5000 members of the national guard. numerous volunteers. as i said, our first responders have been such a blessing to florida. look, i will never say we have everything that we need.

a lot of people need to be made whole. i was glad to hear the president the major declaration that will help unlock additional resources. we will monitor it day by day and make sure that local, state and federal government continue to work together to make floridians whole again. >> reporter: congresswoman val demings, thank you for joining us tonight. i appreciate it. >> thank you. take care. >> i want to go to cnn's miguel marquez. we are in south carolina were a state of emergency has been declared in preparation for in, which is now approaching the carolinas. miguel, what does it look like we were? have you seen preparation for what is to come? >> we have a little bit of preparation to show you. they are preparing at the highest level. the city and county of charleston and the highest level

of emergency preparedness. i will share what is happening with the weather right now. not a lot. the last couple of hours, we started to see the screen a little bit in the afternoon. the city is handing out sandbags by the thousands. for some people, this is an area of charleston that floods a lot. charleston dust it floods quite a bit. these guys are prepped for this thing. these things are filled with water to protect these homes here. these are substantial barriers in this neighborhood that you can see. this thing is really impressive. it will protect us home from what the biggest concern is, water. water coming from the sky and from the ocean. they expect that the worst of this thing will be in about 12 hours. by that time, the tide will be coming in. it will hit at about 11:40 2 am tomorrow morning. between sort of non-:00 and 10:00 am is when they expect

the worst of the storm surge. you will have tons of rain coming down. you will have everything from trucks with very high lists so they can have water rescues by truck if need be. inflatable rafts and boats, if it comes to that as well. and they have utility vehicles ready to help with the trees if they start coming down and electrical wires. they are as prepared as they can be. now they just have to see what this storm will throw at them. john? > miguel marquez, i have a feeling i will see you tomorrow morning. you and your team, please stay safe. >> you got it. >> next, bill weir, just back within the last couple of minutes. we will check out what he saw.

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so, we showed you video earlier in the hour from cnn's bill weir when he was in cape coral, and look where he just turned up, here in fort myers, just back from a day of visiting some of the islands here that have been hit so hard. and we want to show people video we're seeing for the very first

time here. so, let's get this up and describe to us what you saw on these islands. >> so, john, we went out into the barrier islands with cajun navy and other volunteers who are coming down here on their own dime and on time to try to rescue americans, frankly. and this is st. james city, which is on pine island. and that is where we saw by far the most devastation, just complete, utter chaos. homes in the canals, motor homes in the canals, sunken yachts. and we went out there because a woman had called cajun navy and said, could you pick up my father and mother. he's an amputee, he's elderly. so, we went and found them amid all of this. kind of tough to do without gps. communication is really sketchy right now. >> waze doesn't work with the cajun navy. >> waze doesn't work with the cajun navy. by counting the number of houses down and figured out where they were. there's the gentleman there,

richard, who we met. they were so grateful. she got very emotional when she was told that her kids were worried about her because that was, like, the next level of stress, right? after tla survived the storm, they know that their kids have been watching the storm on tv and are worried sick about them. so, it was a great relief for her and her husband to get back to dry land. and they're with their family tonight. >> and some of these islands you can't get to by road. the causeway is wiped away. >> exactly, exactly. we did also go out to sanibel island. we haven't cut that video yet. a lot of people know about that. it's sort of a shell collector's paradise. beautiful homes that were not as damaged. what i witnessed today, it's a tale of two storms based on how much of a house you can afford to build around yourself. that is the great problem with the climate crisis. those who contribute the least suffer the most pain, can't afford to evacuate, can't afford

the gas so to speak. so, these are a lot of prefabricated homes. and the heartbreaker is a lot of them don't have insurance. either they gambled and it's too expensive and they're going to play hurricane roulette and see how they work out. the woman you saw, the video you saw running throughout the day, that i was walking into her house today for the first time seeing the damage -- forgive this not being cut more artfully. we're going to put this together in a beautiful -- >> no, no, no, bill literally just drove up here from being out in a boat with the cajun navy, ran here, they plugged the video in, and we're seeing it together for the first time. you've been working nonstop for days and days and days. were there people associated with the houses? were people in the houses? were the houses empty? could you tell? >> most of them were empty. we found a few people who were frankly in shock, just trying to take things in and maybe tidy up their yards just to give them

some agency, something to do. but for the most part it was evacuated. but on captiva island, north captiva island, which is one you can only get to by boat, again, better constructed homes there that held out. there's over 30 people who rode it out and didn't want to be rescued. >> i spoke to the mayor of sanibel earlier, which is now cut off because the causeway is cut off. i asked her, are there services for people who want to stay. she said, no. >> no. that's the thing when you realize you have to give these folks some time to adjust to the reality of the situation. yeah, you don't want to be out there. it is -- we walked by -- there's downed power lines everywhere. there's toxic stuff that has spilled into the water. on sanibel island, there was a hissing sound as we turned the corner, and it's a natural gas tank. it's leaking out. and there was a house fire just over the horizon, no one to put it out. >> you're kind of the human embodiment of the three aspects of this storm.

you lived through the wind in punta gorda when it was coming at you 140 miles an hour. and then this video we're looking at, which is of you in cape coral, which is a mixture of all of it. it's some storm surge remnants and the fresh water flooding. there's so much flooding, water is still in a lot of places like this. >> i know. and it's going to subside slowly. but then you've got to deal with the mold, you know? and if you've ever had that much water in your house -- >> no. i've never had this much water in my house because it doesn't happen in the northeast like this. >> and i don't know if you came up -- i don't know which of these clips used, but the point i was trying is make is you and i spent all last night worried about 17 foot storm surges and what would that look like. it takes knee-high water to ruin your life, you know what i mean? and depending on where that storm turns, this is the result. and it's just -- your heart aches for these folks.

>> what do you think the hardest thing is going to be for people to come to grips with, bill? >> letting go of some places that aren't either salvageable. we saw that again and again. i'm hopeful i can save it and she walked in and saw -- this is laura, who took us into her home. who saw, yeah, i'd like to be an optimist, but this is a teardown. and to come to grips with that. and at some point you've got to decide, is this a livable place anymore. given the trajectory of storms over time, how long do we keep rebuilding in these places? but what else is interesting is right where the eye of the storm came over, our boat captain took us over to his house, and it was unscathed, dry inside. so, for some people who have won this bet, it might give them a sense of security like, hey, you know, this is just another one. this is the cost of living down here, so why think about anywhere else. >> bill, thank you. thank you for how hard you worked today. thank you for racing here with ththis. i know you've got more video that you're going to share with

viewers over the next several hours, maybe tomorrow morning. maybe you'll squeeze some sleep in there, because, man, you've earned it. >> thanks, john. >> you too. all right. we'll be right back. onal loan with no fees, low fixed rates, and borrow up to $100k. go to sofi.com to view your rate. sofi. get your money right. ♪ pain hits fast. so get relief fast. only tylenol rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast for fast pain relief. and now get relief witht a pill with tylenol dissolve packs. relief without the water.

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-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com stay with cnn for the latest updates on hurricane ian. the news continues, so let's hand it over to laura coates and "cnn tonight." laura? >> john, thank you. it's so good to see you. please stay safe and keep us informed, as you're doing so well, please. i am laura