>> okay, hurricane ian is expected to make landfall near fort myers in a couple of hours. >> the governor will give another update at 10:15. >> stay tuned for all the latest. we have it here. dana is next. >> bill: impact is imminent. give you a live look. the skyway bridge in tampa, florida, hurricane ian lashing out now in florida expected to make landfall in a matter of hours. officials telling 2.5 million people to get out now. might be too late for that for some as we say good morning. a big part of our show today. bill hemmer, good morning at home. >> dana: i'm dana perino, "america's newsroom."enter the storm has strengthed overnight. florida gulf coast is bracing for a direct hit. this is a scene in marco island,

florida. the exact point of landfall is still unclear. the storm is growing stronger and also wider. prompting hurricane warnings across the entire state of florida. >> bill: ian tore through cuba. it knocked out power to the entire country. left 11 million in the dark. look at the satellite images. it set off a series of lightning strikes, the wind speed intensifies. 155 miles per hour clocked right now knocking on the door of category 5. >> dana: mandatory evacuations are affect being millions of people. everyone else should be ready to leave at a moment's notice. ron desantis underscoring the extreme threat this storm presents. >> it is knocking on the door of a category 5 storm. a storm of this magnitude will produce catastrophic flooding and life threatening storm surge. time to hunker down and prepare for this storm.

it is a powerful storm that should be treated like you would treat if a tornado was approaching your home. >> dana: fox news and whether have our resources covering all angles of the storm making its way to florida. now we begin with team fox hurricane coverage. janice dean in the fox extreme weather center. brandi campbell in orlando. robert ray in fort myers. let's begin in tampa where the eye of the storm is off the coast. >> the big event will soon be impacting the tampa bay area in just a matter of hours. the story of the day now hurricane ian now a cat four rapidly intensifying. the power and strength and devastation potential. it was 120 mile-per-hour winds at 2:00 in the morning. 5:00 a.m. up to 140. they're now at 155 miles per hour. that's on the cusp of a

category 5. that's, of course, the worst of the worst. it does appear most people in the region have sheltered in place. this is a busy street in downtown tampa on a wednesday morning. we have hardly seen any traffic all day. it will make emergency measures easier. the storm is 55 miles west of naples. from there it will make landfall somewhere on florida's west coast later today. with charlotte county looking like the spot at this moment, punta gorda, port charlotte where hurricane charley hit causing massive destruction in 2004. an hour ago florida's governor addressed the new developments. >> i know all of the emergency management directors in southwest florida very well. combined they have over 200 years of experience. they are preparing and expecting

a cat five. so please stay indoors, stay away from windows, get to an interior location of your house. >> the worst of this storm started hitting the keys and dade and miami counties yesterday. perry airport flipping over small private planes among the damage. terrified residents were hiding in bathrooms in the nearby area. when ian was a cat three a plane through the eye. this is what it looked like as a cat three. now potentially it could become a cat five today before making landfall. dana. >> dana: all right. thank you so much, phil. >> bill: thank you. let's go down the coast now. robert ray watching the storm in fort myers, florida. we've been watching you for hours. how are things now? >> yeah, bill, they are progressing very dangerously.

look at the gulf of mexico churning up from hurricane ian. these waves continue to get bigger and the surge comes in, the ebbs and flow here as it makes its way in. we're moments away, myself and my photographer leaving this barrier island of fort myers beach. it is not safe. surge is expected to be potentially 15 feet or higher with the energy coming in here from ian. this is a big place, bill. you would think there would be garages where people could go and hunker down with vehicles. they don't exist. the water coming in right now and hitting the small sea wall and why we're leaving. by the way, bill, this is so warm. just adding to the fuel of hurricane ian. there is nowhere to take shelter here even though it's a major tourist area, big condos. we're going to jet across the bridge to mainland fort myers

and find ourselves a place where we'll still experience heavy rain, winds and surge over there but nothing like this. we have to get out of here. it is just not safe for us. we'll lose vehicles and potentially other items unspeakable things. i hope most people here have evacuated and we are about to do the same as you see the water coming in right now, bill. >> bill: we'll be in contact with you and your crew. thank you for that in fort myers. more now with dana. >> dana: people in orlando are bracing to make their final preparations before the hurricane strikes. that's where we find fox weather correspondent brandi campbell. tell us what's going on there. >> good morning, dana. it's an interesting situation here. a lot of people have been retreating to orlando to get safe as ian will move across florida. this area will also see the impact from this hurricane. right now take a look behind me, it doesn't look like much is

happening. light rain on and off all morning. some heavier bands. we can expect a foot of rain in this area and going into overnight and tomorrow morning, wind gusts up to 75 miles per hour and we're actually under a tornado watch right now. things are happening and will progress in this area. right now people have retreated to this area. some trying to fly out. orlando airport will be closing in about two hours. there are still several flights left to go. on the other hand, some people are booking hotels here. i spoke with one couple who came from tampa because they lived in a trailer home looking for a safer place to be. they had trouble finding one but they did and they are not the only ones doing that here in orlando. we'll ride out the storm here when ian arrives. back to you. >> dana: thank you so much. senior meteorologist janice dean

is tracking the storm's path. how does this one measure up? >> his for i can. the southwest coastline of florida will be changed forever. we talk about the fact it is a strong category 4 potentially category 5. even if we don't reach category 5 status it doesn't matter. the storm surge has been up to 18 feet in the fort myers area. that's new information from the national hurricane center we are getting updates every hour. a few hours before landfall and you can see the storm is still strengthening. it is really incredible how it has gotten its act together over the last several hours going from not much of a hurricane to almost a category 5. so that's a big deal. the fact that we have a strengthening storm as it approaches landfall is very dangerous. we're 75 miles away from the potential landfall. we think somewhere between sarasota, florida, and fort myers. and the heaviest rain bands are

moving into the west coast of florida. tornado watch we were talking about that in the orlando region. several tornado-warned storms. that's an added danger. look at the peak storm surge for the vulnerable coastlines. if you haven't gotten out of this region i'm concerned. they upped it to 12 to 18 feet and when you talk about high tide an additional two feet because of the high tied moving in this afternoon, we'll have water overtopping homes in this region. the coastline will be changed forever. a lot compared it to charley in 2004. this storm is three times the size of charley. it is going to devastate these areas. we're expecting a landfall sometime this afternoon between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.enter if the storm slows down that will change the trajectory a little bit. 5 to 8 inches of rain in fort

myers but 12 to 18 feet of storm surge, this is going to be devastating. national hurricane center is saying this will be a catastrophic event. historic event. one that florida has not seen before. bill and dana back to you. >> dana: ask you a quick question. the water is very warm where robert ray is. he was in the ocean. because the water is warm it's fueling the hurricane even more. how is that? >> absolutely. the hurricane -- it gets fuel from the warm tropical ocean waters. this is untouched, right? the first major hurricane we've had all season. so it's very deep, warm water. 85 to 88 degrees and when you have nothing in its way and no upper level winds to tear it apart eventually it will weaken but this has rapidly intensified over the last several hours and that's the dangerous part of this. it's happening as it makes landfall. so yes, the warm water is

crucial. the most crucial ingredient in a hurricane's development. >> dana: janice dean. thank you so much. >> bill: back with you in a moment. >> dana: we have great people to cover the storm. >> bill: we took you from tampa to marco island. if you were to drive in a car that's about 175 mile area where there is potential for extensive damage from this storm. we talked about level of complacency. the u.s. mainland hasn't been hit in two years. florida hasn't been hit in four years. when we were on the air yesterday we thought tampa was the target. overnight that moved slightly south below sarasota toward fort myers, maybe punta gorda. they have had terrible memories of 2004 hurricane charley in that ten. >> dana: ten years since hurricane sandy in new jersey. with high tide what it can do and look at the damage that could happen there. this is much more low lying. >> bill: so we're on the verge

of a category 5 storm. it's hard to say this, dana. if there is a silver lining in this, the storm is still moving north/northeast at a good clip. ten miles per hour. we talked a lot yesterday about the potential for the storm slowing down, which could happen. that would be the absolute worst case if you've got a category 41/2 let's call it hurricane that parks itself off the coast of florida, it doesn't appear to be doing that at the moment which would be good news. >> dana: let's hope it moves as quickly as possible indeed. >> bill: we're on ian throughout the show here. we're on this story from overseas, the unrest in iran continues. fighting erupting in more than a dozen cities. our next guest calls it a critical moment for the iranian people. you will want to hear what she has to say. >> dana: senator amy klobuchar saying that americans can

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>> bill: we won't leave this story. this is ian. marco island screen left, tampa florida, screen right. it will get worse moving throughout the program today and into the afternoon hours, hoping for the best for everybody in the west coast of florida and parts inland. we'll see what we get when mother nature is in charge. stand by. we'll get back to that story in just a moment. >> dana: president biden speaking to florida governor ron desantis last night to discuss the fast-approaching storm. peter doocy is live on the north lawn. how did that conversation go? >> we have some new details. it's interesting that president biden called a bunch of mayors in florida before he called the statewide leader governor desantis because we were led to

believe that maybe that was president biden's m.o. has he has manageed other crises without reaching out to republican governors. >> when you mentioned the governor of mississippi, you are right, they didn't speak and we were still able to deliver for the folks in jackson and for the folks of mississippi. >> then 7:47 last night the press secretary said biden talked to desantis to help florida prepare for orc ian. the president and governor committed to continued close coordination. desantis is now talking about that call. >> it's my sense that the administration wants to help. i think they realize this is a really significant storm. there is a lot of people that we're working with the locals. we work very well with them. at the state level. we really need everyone working together to make sure people have their needs tended to.

>> president biden is urging local leaders in florida to call him directly if they need help and they now know how to do that. >> dana: beautiful day at least there, thanks. >> bill: another major story we're watching. protests spreading in the country of iran over the death of a young woman earlier this month in police custody. her alleged offense violating the dress code. iranian journalist and activist tweeting if the biden administration signs a deal with the republican of iran it will feed the apparatus to kill protests. this journalist joins us here in studio. >> actually that's correct, now millions of iranian saying we're all mahsi. she got killed because a bit of her hair was visible.

more than welcome call me mahsi. >> bill: you have been in the u.s. for seven years. the protests sparked in 2019 and more in 2009. do you believe what you are seeing now will make a difference in your country? >> of course. look, this is the first time actually iranian women decided to burn one of the most visible symbols of dictatorship, the hijab. we aren't fighting just because we want to show our hair. this is the regime kick you out from school if you show your hair after the age of seven. they are showing their hair like normal people. we go to prison and jail. we won't exist if we walk like

this. iranian women are like us. they deserve to have the same freedom and dignity. mahsi is becoming the turning point for iranian women and tipping repoint for the islamic republic. we're risking guns. more than this, [inaudible] these people are -- more than 100 people got killed. in american who one got killed by police the whole world got united and shouting say her name, say her name every where in europe, in the streets. people were angry. the crowds were every where. where are they now? >> dana: what do you need from people who believe in freedom in order to help these people of iran who want a better life? especially the younger women out

this fighting back against this regime. >> stop hypocrisy. if they really care about democracy, just show their action. we don't need empty words. right now people made up their minds. they know that if they go to the streets they will face guns and bullets. they know that this is dangerous for them to take to the streets but it has been 11 days. the uprising is on going. this is a revolution. this is a revolution. iranian women want to get rid of. what can save them? the western countries. if they send the wrong signal to our murderers there is no point for them to stop killing their own people. >> bill: jake sullivan said this about the nuclear deal. >> we're in negotiations with iran on its nuclear program in no way impacting our willingness and our -- we're taking steps to

sanction the morality police who caused the death of mahsi. >> bill: do you believe that to be the case. if you continue to pursue a nuclear deal what does it do for the current regime? >> just imagine jake sullivan when you condemn morality police and brutality of police i have a simple question. how come at the same time you are going to negotiate with the murderers, with the same murderers? you are giving billions of dollars to those who killed mahsi. i hope to have a meeting with them that iranian people are in the streets -- we don't want you to save iranian women. iranian are brave enough to same

themselves but don't stop helping our murderers. that's all. i have been in touch with thousands of people and when you see that i'm angry when i go every where because this is personal for me. this is very personal for me. when people talking to me and asking where is president biden? jake sullivan said it was a mistake for obama to not support the green revolution. don't do the same mistake. take action. >> dana: you are an incredible advocate for your people. let's stay in touch. >> thank you for having me. >> dana: back now to this florida bracing for impact from hurricane ian as it strengthens into a category 4 or more store. more coverage as it gets closer to landfall. >> i don't know what we come back to on friday. >> they're clearing everyone out of tampa. so i had no choice but to leave.

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>> dana: live pictures from tampa, florida. tampa was going to be what they thought the eye of the hurricane would go for that. it will probably be a little south of there. as you can it's a very dangerous storm for tampa as well. no cars on the bridge. hopefully people got out and got to safety through the storm. we also have brand-new footage in from st. petersburg, drone video we shot. empty streets, a lot of high winds and this is just the beginning of this hurricane as it -- bill has already gotten up to a category 5 in some cases. between a 4 and 5. it has hit over 155 mile-per-hour winds even just this morning. >> bill: it really battered cuba. the country is suffering quite a

bit. power is out as it crossed over the western edge of the island nation down there. meanwhile we're waiting for landfall. it will happen. the question is when and the question is where. unfortunately in circumstances like these, dana, someone will take the hit. we just don't know which town that is just yet. fort myers, though, is an area one of the places where people are being ordered to evacuate. liz bellow-matthews is the city manager. what do you have right now? >> good morning, yes, we're in our emergency management office and we're all extremely safe. we're monitoring the storm. we have been making a ton of pre cautions for approximately a week now. we believe we're safe and ready and we are hoping that it doesn't hit us. we're ready if it does. >> dana: so what do you know about this response rate on

evacuation orders? >> it's been a bit low. lower than we hoped for. we do have capacity for 40,000 in the shelters in lee county and we aren't seeing near that number. what happens in florida, a lot of our residents are used to this and think they can ride it out at home. at this point we have notified all residents we do have those shelters open but now prefer not out in the streets and the winds we're experiencing at this time. we hope everyone is safe and remains safe for the duration of the storm. >> bill: how much construction has gone into that part of florida to prepare for a storm this size? >> well, you know, storm preparedness actually doesn't happen right before the storm. it happens for many months in advance. because we have been through hurricane season for a number of months now, we started preparing

back in june. we cleaned out the catch basins, monitoring water levels, making sure our foliage was trimmed and controlled. so last week when we started seeing the storm coming, we enacted those efforts again and we started enacting our emergency management efforts as well. we activated our emergency teams and make sure everybody was staffed and ready. so the last two days our offices have been closed but we have been working. of course, monitoring, coming in, last night we had some folks that went home for a couple hours to get some sleep. others stayed here at emergency management and at 5:00 this morning pretty much everybody was here again and we were manned and ready to go. we've had meetings back-to-back so you can imagine it is pretty crazy but we're ready and we're hoping that we can ride out the storm and that we will not have any major issues or casualties. >> dana: liz, have you been through one of these before? how does this one compare?

>> yes, yes, i've been through quite a number of them here and in other municipalities. you know, it is pretty standard. it is what we expect. at this point floridians are used to dealing with this. everybody puts up their shutters, everyone secures their items out of backyards. those are things we're used to doing. we expect everyone has done that this time around. it feels pretty standard for us. we feel like we're pretty ready. >> bill: louisiana got hit by a hurricane last august, ida, a cat four. moved quickly through that state. florida has been kind of in the shall we call it the lucky zone for a while, liz. when that happens you have to worry about complacency. do you get a sense of that today? >> yes, we have been spared. we've been extremely lucky and that also makes people think that perhaps we're not going to be hit and maybe that's why they

don't evacuate. but at this point i think most properties in florida are built extremely strong. our code is also very positive of hurricane conditions. and so we're hoping that even though some people may not have responded in the way they wanted them to that they do have conditions that will not be harmful. we do believe that most people who live in the trailer parks, they have gone ahead and gone to the shelters. so -- a lot of elderly homes have also been evacuated. so those high-risk areas we think have been tackled. in general lee county has done a great job making sure all municipalities are ready. this morning we had a meeting at 8:00 in the morning making sure everyone was connected and we were all on the same page. so i have to say that everything has been running pretty smoothly here. >> dana: liz bellow-matthews you

are very good at what you do. the public information officer for the city of fort myers. we'll stay in touch and good luck to you. we're continuing our coverage of hurricane ian all morning. in a moment we'll speak with florida senator rick scott. we talked to him about what florida is doing in preparations as ian is within hours of landfall. you see that? that's when i realized we can't let another year go by. i think we're good. okay. let's go. mom, do you know where some wrapping paper... need to wrap something for grandma. uh, yeah. ready? yeah. this is the plan to finally connect with our family's heritage. grandma! start your plan today with a northwestern mutual financial advisor and spend your life living. ♪

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>> dana: right now on the hurricane, ian is bearing down. this is a live video of key west, florida. i have never been there but would love to go. they are used to these hurricanes. this one is a big monster storm. hopefully everybody is safe there as this hurricane starts to make landfall. we have radar pictures for you as well to show you the track of the storm here. i think we can see that there.

you can see on screen right as the hurricane swirls and it is just devastated cuba. all 11 million people there without power. some of the video from over the top of the hurricane. i was surprised at how much lightning was. >> bill: look at the rotation of the storm. the eye is easy to spot. the very little breakdown in the wall of that eye and that's not what you want to see this close to land. >> dana: joining is now is tampa fire rescue chief. how do you assess the situation as we're at 9:45 today? >> the current conditions in tampa is a little rain. overcast. we're experiencing a little wind. probably 15, 20 miles per hour. we know it will pick up later. we are prepared. with the shift of the hurricane, we are are still keeping our

guards up. >> bill: it has not yet taken the hard right turn. don't know when that is going to happen. 24 hours ago we thought tampa was in the crosshairs. do you think you might be just far enough north or not? >> you know, of course ian has taken multiple turns throughout its journey so like i say, we're not putting our guards down. we are hoping and praying we are but we'll be available to assist the more south community if they need assistance. we're geared up. initially it was coming to tampa. we're geared up and ready for it. there is a shift. we hope it will shift again. >> dana: tell us the resources you have to deploy and being geared up. >> additional resources, we've called in additional manpower to assist and reached out to the state for additional resources for utilities.

with hurricanes and tornadoes power outages are big concerns. we've reached out to vulnerable populations to make sure they're in shelters so they don't have to experience any of the natural disaster that may take place. we have probably additional give or take probably another 2500, 3500 additional resources standing by to assist. >> bill: chief, we were speaking with one of your colleagues further south in fort myers. that's 100 miles at left. she said the shelters are open but not filling up. she wanted to see more people go in there. have you gotten a report where you are about the shelters in tampa? >> well, i was going to say further south, initial destination of hurricane ian was supposed to be north coming through tampa a lot of our shelters are at full capacity. we have a couple that still have room. for the most part our special needs shelters definitely full. we have over 46 shelters that

opened throughout the city of tampa. >> dana: i was wondering you talk about power and the concern for the power to be down and out for people possibly for days. but what about in the signal, a lot of people getting their information on their phone or apps. what's the best place for people to keep up to date as the storm comes ashore? >> basically hopefully -- we put out preparation kits earlier when hurricane season started to tell you about using radios. we know the signals may be affected and phones may be affected. if they can't get on the internet through their phone or home computer hopefully they have a radio transmission that we can put information out as well. so when you actually talk about communication when it comes to power outage, we know a lot of individuals have generators in their homes and want to make sure they understand the risks behind generators.

they shouldn't power it up until after the storm is passed. there are a lot of different hazards that we are geared up and pushing that information out to the community to be aware of. >> dana: that's important information to have about the generators. thank you for that. >> bill: chief, saw a tweet from the florida division of emergency management saying the following. stop, do not walk out into receding water in tampa bay or charlotte harbor. the water will return through the storm surge and poses a life threatening risk. have you gotten any reports about people wandering out there? >> so far the roads have been pretty clear. with law enforcement we've made barricades where we tell individuals they can't travel. we have road closures in certain areas. and that is true, we've been looking at the coastline down by one particular area bay shore and notice the water has receded. we are telling everybody don't go out there. it will be coming back. >> dana: all right. chief, thank you so much and

good luck to you there. sounds like you are extremely well prepared and we'll stay in touch. >> bill: you have long days ahead of you, chief. thank you for sharing your story with us. we'll be back with you in your office, the western side of the state of florida is in the crosshairs. the question is who gets it the worst. >> dana: indeed. >> bill: hurricane ian now a cat four storm intensifying, may go to a cat five, we don't know. republican senator rick scott is the former governor in florida. he dealt with numerous storms during his time in office. he will talk to us in a moment about his state is bracing for impact. stay tuned for that coming up next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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noaa from above. if you're a meteorologist you study this stuff in school but rare when you see a storm that is literally this -- >> dana: look how fast it's moving. >> bill: perfect cylinder as it rotates. >> dana: super organized storm. >> bill: we have that. also on the map we're cat four again. two miles shy of a category 5, which is as high as we go. we had a cat four in louisiana a year and a half go. katrina was a cat five. right before she hit land she was downgraded a little bit. andrew in florida was a cat five. you know the devastation of that in southeast florida. we're holding our breath and hoping for the best for the people down there. we also have live picture from fort myers in florida. the situation is going to continue to deteriorate while we're on the air this morning

and into the afternoon. >> dana: we'll watch that. we have amazing people on the ground there to give us reports. we'll keep you updated on that. let's get mid-term coverage in there. 42 days to go until the elections. new polling shows threats to democracy is now the biggest concern for democratic voters in multiple key states. for months democratic candidates were mostly focused on abortion. that changed a little bit. michael yen joins us now, a co- founder of axios and author of a new book. congratulations. you have covered a lot of elections. i wonder what you think about the overall state of the race at the moment in terms of the issues people care about. >> you were pointing to democracy as a rising issue in several polls. there is a fox news story points out it has been rising in pennsylvania where it is a big issue, wisconsin, ohio, and even in florida and texas. in the spirit of smart brevity

two things to watch. one, whether it's abortion or democracy, those are democratic base voters. republicans say those aren't voters that are moving. second, republicans will tell you that in their polling, you put any issue up against economy and inflation. so pocket books that are so strong. republicans wanting it to be a gas and groceries. you put it up against abortion, put it up against january 6th, you put it up against democracy, with independent voters the voters they are hoping to turn out and persuade, every time economy and inflation wins. what democrats have in their back pocket is they are looking at abortion as a huge driver of registration among women. that's where they hope they get their independents. >> dana: i saw in georgia actually google searches for abortion have gone way down. mike allen.

governor desantis will give an update on the hurricane. >> bearing down on the southwest coast of florida. really monster hurricane. this is a hurricane that has strengthened. it is category 4 plus. may be a category 5 by the time it hits the florida coast. we've been in contact all morning with a lot of the local officials in places like charlotte andly county and they understand this will be a major, major impact. we're asked about some of the evacuations and basically what they report to me is that, you know, we were talking to folks in charlotte. most of the people in those vulnerable areas did leave. not everybody did. and that was provided the mandatory, some did not do that. so they are keeping tabs on kind of where you still have people in very vulnerable locations. but you have a category 5 storm

hit, that's going to produce an enormous amount of storm surge. ferocious winds and life threatening. people are taking a risk with health, safety and lives by being in the eye of that storm. you have search and rescue that will be poised to go to respond to people that are in difficult circumstances once the storm breaks through. of course, safety is what we've been stressing. and the preparations over these many days leading up to this storm. you have had millions of floridians who have made preparations, many have evacuated to higher ground and safer surroundings. of course, you have local level official, state as well as federal marshalling. this is an unprecedented amount of resources marshaled.

it was a massive mobilization. this is more than that. we understand how significant this storm is and even when it was a disorganized system, far away, we saw the potential for what this could do. the power restoration and the resumption of services is something that's very, very important. you look at the number of people that are on the southwest coast of florida, for example. you know, fortunately most of them are not going to have their homes destroyed but almost all of them will lose power and you will have services that will be interrupted. so resuming services is a top priority. that's going to require to make sure that the bridges are safe, going to make sure the roadways are clear of any debris so these guys can get in and do their work. it is also something that, given the severity of this storm there is a difference between simply having a downed power line and

repairing that, which you would do on normal types of storms. and then having major structural damage to the underlying electrical infra structure. when you have a category 5 storm hitting potentially and massive storm surge, that is going to interrupt, most likely, a lot of the underlying infra structure. when fpl and other companies are going in, some of those tasks are going to be -- you'll have to rebuild some of this stuff. so the folks in those affected areas should just understand that if it's as simple as simply just hooking up a few more power lines that's what they will do. in those areas that will have the most severe impact it will likely require to have some reengineering, to have some structural fixes and that will require manpower but it is going to take a little more time. so people understand, fpl understands how significant and important this is to get the