clears that group says it is prepared to serve food in hard to reach locates, shelters or people in need as they have around the world. tomorrow on "special report" extensive coverage of hurricane and aftermath. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. a little different this "special report" but still, fair, balanced and unafraid. jesse watters continues our coverage and it starts right now. hey, jesse. >> jesse: hey, bret. thank you so much. ♪ >> boats. no, it's four boats. >> four of them. [winds] >> jesse: we start with a fox news alert. hurricane ian has made landfall in florida, pummeling the sunshine state rain and window

of biblical proportions. ian is a cat 4 storm bringing 140 mile-per-hour winds and leaving a wake of destruction in its path. the national hurricane center is warning of catastrophic window damage with an unsuburb viable storm surge of up to 18 feet. it is expected to dump 2 feet of rain across the state bringing unprecedented flooding and destruction. entire neighborhoods are now undersea as water levels continue to rise. homes are floating down the middle of the street and people are swimming in their living rooms. by the way authorities say it's a very bad idea. who knows what's in that water. and first responders rescue services can't escape the flooding either. this fire department in naples is completely under water. leaving the city's residents on their own. and things are even worse in the air where hurricane hunters are flying into the heart of the storm. watch.

>> oh [bleep] >> jesse: more than 2 million people in the state were told to evacuate, with thousands more hunkering down and riding it out from home. governor ron desantis is warning residents to brace for the worst. >> we know that this has been a big storm and it's done a lot of damage as it is. it is going to continue to move through the state of florida. you are going to see hurricane force winds in places in disvalue florida. that's going to rank as one of the top 5 hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. >> jesse: over a million floridians are already without power and things are only going to intensify from here. you know it's serious when even waffle houses are starting to close across the state. florida has survived its fair share of storms including hurricane charlie way back in 2004. consider the worst hurricane to

hit the sunshine state. charlie disseminated the region, causing nearly $25 billion in damage. but it pails in comparison to the size of ian. satellite images of the two storms show the entirety of hurricane charlie fitting inside justth eye ian. the people of florida are in for a few rough days. we start with charles watson in sarasota, florida. what's going on there, charles? >> yeah, hey, good evening, jesse. i have got to tell you in the last 20 minutes or so we have had some really powerful window gusts through here. and because of that, we are staying stationary because we have got a lot of large trees around us and we want to be safe. i. you to take my word for this. there is a lot of debris all over the place. we are talking about large tree limbs that are down. we have seen large debris just being thrown around of. that could certainly be turned into projectiles. that's on top of the rain that's fallen here throughout the day. they are expecting anywhere

between 5 to 8 inches of rain. and when you are talking about that much rainfall in such a short amount of time, you have to think about the saturated ground. and system of these large trees that i have mentioned possibly toppling over. certainly concerning when you are talking about homes being here. those trees possibly toppling over on homes. bringing down power lines. and that could be dangerous for folks who have decided to stick around and ride this storm out. so far, we know 22,000 people in the city of sarasota alone are without power. when you talk about sarasota county, that number is probably up into 100,000 at this point. as hurricane ian just -- is just relentless throughout the state of florida right now. >> so far, folks seem to be heeding warnings, the streets right now are pretty dead. folks seem to be inside and heeding those warnings to just

stay inside and be safe. but pretty dangerous stuff out here right now as the rain continues to fall. we took some time out a little earlier today to go check out the scene and see what this storm was doing. we went down to the sarasota bay and we were a little concerned because we saw some folks out there getting really close up to the edge of the bay. we saw some folks out there with a boogie board looking as if they were interested in getting out in the water and possibly trying to ride some of the large waves out there. i got to tell you it is not worth it. these are life-threatening situations. state and local officials are urging people to stay inside. not worth it to go out into the storm right now, jesse. >> thanks, charles. i appreciate it. stay safe out there. keep us posted. >> my next guest decided to stay in his hometown of sarasota and ride out the brutal storm that has no signs of slowing down. florida congressman greg steube joins me now.

congressman, that looks pretty rough back there are you sure this was a good idea? >> yeah, it's actually worse than what you see behind me right now because i'm in northeast sarasota county. so the eye is starting to make its way into this area of the state. but my heart goes out to my district. southwest florida and charlotte county because it is not going to look the same after this storm. we have people on little gas parrillo island. we have 16-foot storm surge. we have winds of 155 miles per hour. things i haven't seen i have been in this area my entire life. my family has been here for generations. i certainly haven't seen the devastation that we are seeing now. certainly in charlotte county and north fort myers which will be the epicenter of the hit. so when we come back tomorrow and the suspect comes up you on the great district of florida a lot of exasperation. >> jesse: are you satisfied with

the brave -- or are you sad a lot of knuckle heads decided to ride it out. >> we have freedom in florida. we have freedom to be not so smart. and there is 31 people -- i talked to the charlotte county sheriff earlier today and there were 31 people that stayed on little gasparilla island which is a small barrier island. i thought to myself why would you do that with an 18-foot storm surge coming your way. unfortunately, i think we are going to see some catastrophic not only human tolls but property tolls from this storm and, hey, people have the freedom to make the decision, local government said to evacuate, especially from the barrier islands. most people did agree with that and move out. i had a lot of people even in the middle of the state that lived in fifth wheels or trailer homes or mobile homes that decided to move north. and that was a smart decision because we're seeing in north sarasota county winds up to 100 miles per hour and in where the center of the storms came

through, obviously, 104 to 150 mile-per-hour winds which is devastating window toll. and it's going to take all assets on the ground and law enforcement and emergency services can't get back out until tomorrow. >> jesse: i know you guys have a ton of local and state assets prepositioned ready to rock. >> yes, we do. >> jesse: how has the cooperation been with the federal government, the biden administration? it's been surprising being a republican and never getting answers from the biden administration. asking secretary mayorkas in the judiciary committee and suddenly he calms me on my cell phone today asking if there is anything i need. we need the coast guard to come down to gasparilla island to save individuals stranded there once the conditions are safe enough to get our coast guard in there. i have had people from the administration reach out to me. i think that's going to continue this is goods to take a federal

response and state response and county response. there is no way that the state of florida can be able to fund the type of things going it need to be funded here. i have already asked blarlt blart who is on appropriations for disaster relief funding. kat cammack. also a florida republican who is the rancher on fema. everybody is all hands on deck in the state of florida as it relates to helping everybody that needs to be helped and we are going to need it after this storm rolls through and you see the devastation that's going to come from it. >> jesse: what's going on with restoring power, electricity, the cell service, some of the towers have been knocked out. what's the latest with communications? >> my cell service is down. fortunately i have a generator here i'm able to talk to you and have wifi connectivity. i can text through iphone and that sort of thing. cell phone towers are down. a million floridians that currentry do not have power. >> and law enforcement, e.m.s.

and power companies cannot go out as long as the sustained winds are over 45 miles per hour, which is what we are experiencing right now. i bet it's 90 to 100 miles per hour in sarasota county. you are seeing that all throughout the state. they are probably not going to be able to get out until early tomorrow morning to be able restore some of those things. it's going to take a while. just here on my property we have trees down everywhere. that's going to be the situation throughout the state. they have to send push crews through to be able to clear the roads. to be able to send those crews down. and some of the hardest hit areas they may not have power for weeks. cell phone connectivity may be also challenging. but, all of those resources are staged throughout the state. we have power companies staged throughout the state and ready to respond as soon as the ability for them to be able to come out is available for them to do that. but good morning that's going to be until tomorrow morning. we could have floridians without power for weeks here in southwest florida. >> jesse: oh my god. all right, well, congressman, thanks so much for joining us,

you know, we are thinking about you and all your people in your district down there. it looks like this is just the beginning. >> yeah. ask for the americans to keep us in their prayers. >> jesse: will do. chief meteorologist rick reichmuth is now live from the fox news weather center. what's going on? >> jesse, kudos to your producers, the best compilation of video we have seen so far today. seeing this video. takes time to get some of that video in. it's really impressive. take a look at this, 140 mile-per-hour is the strongest window that we have seen recorded. you know, when we say 155 miles per hour. that's because the hurricane hunters are going -- flying through those storms measuring window over and over and over again. finding what they find as the maximum window. and this was 155 miles per hour. but, to get that to actually verify on the surface where you have got a censor to read it, the censor hasn't been blown offline and to get winds recorded 140 miles per hour is really incredible in cape coral. obviously that kind of window is going to cause massive power

outages, over 1.5 million house noldz florida last check without power. hopefully they will get that going especially later tonight if they can start to get on some of these roads. take a look at this. this is hurricane warnings. this purple and that is hurricane warnings all across the eastern side of florida. so, because the storm came on shore so strong, it's going to take a while for those winds to relax enough to get below hurricane status. that's why we even have hurricane force warnings in places like c daytona beach. once this storm pulls offshore we are going to see it again make secondary landfall here. take a look at this. go saturday into sunday, we are also looking very likely chance in the southern appalachians there of some significant flooding. all of this is going to be still from ian. center of the storm pulls back over water. get back into landfall some time friday night into saturday morning and we are going to be watching some big storm there take a look at this though.

incredible images here that we are still seeing. this shore came on shore now started to come on shore about 8 hours ago. and the coast here where it came on shore is still getting incredible rain and incredible window from this and where you see that red there, that is incredible amounts of rain. we are probably going to see some spots by the time this is done. going to be over 25 to 30 inches of rain. because of that, we have got flood warnings in effect and that's going to go on throughout tonight into tomorrow and probably throughout tomorrow night as well. jesse? >> jesse: i appreciate it. thanks so much, rick. our next guest top expert on florida's management. currently leads the state's response to hurricanes. no stranger to brutal storms like ian. kevin guthrie joins me now. you guys were well-prepared, kevin. prepositioned. you had the warnings out early. accurate reading of the path of the hurricane held. what's the latest? >> right now we are

experiencing, you know, catastrophic storm surge and catastrophic window damages the congressman mentioned two pieces ago. we are prepared to respond to that. we have more resources staged for this disaster than we have ever had staged for any other disaster in the history of florida. we plan to come in here to, again, to the congressman's point, we do plan to come in by air first. we will have search and rescue assets ready to go, and by helicopter. they will get on the ground and assess simultaneously. we will have coast guard vessels as well as florida fish and wildlife commission vessels that will be approaching from the sea. while the units that are over in on alligator alley in broward county will come in by land and push themselves into through all the debris, push themselves into the heaviest impacted area. so we are going to put a three prong attack on this thing. we are going to get started at

first light in the morning, so long as the window cooperate with us. the first aircraft into the area will be the coast guard's aircraft because they have lower minimums than what the regular dod military and national guard have. so that's how we are going to attack it. we are prepared. there is a lot of people that doesn't leave we are founding out. hundreds of people calling into # 121 call centers asking for assistance that we can't get in there and help out. >> jesse: if floridians are flooding the 911, are there other ways to contact your emergency rescue teams? how do floridians do that? >> right now, if it truly is an emergency, then we want them to call 911. if they are just trying to tell us that they are okay but they want us to know where they are at. they can go to our website at florida disaster.org/info and fill in a survey that actually gives their address and demographic information where they're at and they need help. we can actually do that if they have internet and wifi. we can actually take that via

that self-reporting system and they won't have to clog up the 911 system. however, if they have a 911 issue, they need to call 911. >> jesse: okay. good. the governor warned people that a lot of the time at first impact that's not really the most deadly time. it's the day or two after where a lot of fatalities occur. what are the warning signs to look for? what should people not be doing tomorrow or the next day in florida? >> yeah. so he me and my friend ken graham the former director of the national hurricane center. we have been presenting on this for probably three or four years now. that is more people die of indirect deaths than direct deaths in a disaster. the number one cause per se is generator misuse. move that generator out of your garage. move it away from windows. most people will run those cords through the windows and leave just a very small crack. leave the generator just

outside. it's got to get away from the house. it's got to get away from the window. second, get it up on some blocks so if it get in some water you are not going to electrocute yourself. generator safety. electrical safety. and then, if you cannot get on -- if you have no business getting on a roof and cutting your own trees, and all that, stop and wait for professional. we have a lot of people that die from chainsaw accidents, falls off of roofs and falling out of trees. and those traumatic events. so, again, leave it to the professionals. basic generator safety, watch out for those cords and whatnot running through standing water. >> jesse: you have also gotten help from other states, i assume, national guard, air assets. hopefully naval assets, describe the kind of collaboration that you guys are experiencing. >> yeah. so, again, from congressman steube's interview before, we have a lot of federal assistance right now, the u.s. coast guard. i have never had a two star

admiral sitting in my eoc. i usually have a captain from the coast guard sitting in here. but i have got a two star admiral in here helping us coordinate with a best of your knowledge of captains now. i have got defense coordinating officer karl from the army. i have got a lot of federal assistance right now. probably in the neighborhood of 100 people just in tallahassee. and then who knows how many more stretched across the theater all across florida. we are getting a lot of federal assistance. we are getting a lot of state assistance. again to the congressman's point, we will -- we are getting plenty of federal assistance. we are getting a lot of state agency assistance. and the locals are going to be depending on us to come in and help them out. we are getting all the assistance we need. we have got a lot of metropolitan. coming in to help these individuals out. >> that's really great to hear. if other people throughout the country want to help out, is there a website that you can go to to donate money or anything like that? >> yeah. right now i would have them -- we do have it set up on our website. so i'm just going to use our website for the time being.

if you go to florida disaster.org, there will be a donate cash type button there. and it will pass you through to the volunteer florida where we have opened up that donor portal. so, the easiest way to do it right now, jesse. just go to florida disaster.org and go to our website. click on that and it will pass you through. please don't send us your leftover stuff. that is not the way to go. we know you want to clean out your closets and donate all your materials. that is not the way to go. right now, what people are going to be needing more than anything else is cash donations. that can be converted by agencies into some type of debit card if you will so people can start rebuilding their lives. >> jesse: all right. kevin, thanks for joining us. i think everybody i speak for the country is very proud of what you guys have done to prepare for this. thank you. >> thank you, jesse. appreciate it. >> jesse: jonathan serrie is live in atlantic beach, florida. jonathan, whoa, that looks a little windowy. >> yeah. it's extremely windowy.

understand, jesse, we are near jacksonville. it is in the extreme northeastern part of the state while the brunt of the storm made landfall in southwest florida. we are on the opposite side of the state and, yet, can you see how blustery it is off in the distance. there is heavy surf. you can see the sand, heavy equipment was piling up earlier this evening to prevent the ocean from washing over these natural do do dunes with the --y thing protecting this barrier island community from any storm surge. and that is a concern as they anticipate that the eye of the storm, although it will weaken as it travels through the middle of florida over land, that it will go back out over water, over the atlantic and give these island communities a glancing blow. people in atlantic beach and jacksonville and the surrounding area, they have memories of

hurricane erma back in 2017. although they didn't sustain a direct hit, there was extensive flooding, including in downtown jacksonville. in fact, the mayor of jacksonville urging residents who suffered flood damage in you are that to take precautions during this storm because he believes that there are some parallels. but, just take a look at how blustery it is. if i can get my recover from, photographerkathy to pan up. blowing in the window. obviously not hurricane force winds just yet not tropical storm force winds but blustery when you consider that the eye of this storm is pretty much on the other side of the state. a very large and very powerful storm. jesse? >> jesse: your cameraman or woman caught some thrill seekers heading to the beach right there. have people not fully evacuated? i know they are on the east coast but it looks like it's headed their way.

>> yeah. that's a great question. actually, you can see that the power is still on. there is still some traffic some tourists have been exploring the beach. ing to get a last glimpse before the heavier rains and winds start. there are no mandatory evacuations here in duval county. that includes atlantic beach. it includes the jacksonville area. so at this point no manned that tore evacuations but, again, the mayor of jacksonville saying that people may want to voluntarily evacuate in they are in these low lying areas, especially if they suffered flood damage during erma. because the same thing may happen again. >> jesse: john that you have experienced a few of these in your career. what's your sense of this one? >> yeah. this is an unusual beast. just the size of this, again,

going into this i thought that being in the jacksonville area, being here on atlantic beach, if the storm was making landfall in southwest florida and it's not expected, the eye is not expected to pass by this area until well into thursday maybe even early friday that there would being a little bit more calm before the storm. >> i'm used to more calm before the storm. but really since this morning things have been blustery and they keep getting worse and worse. i'm not used to the storm essentially announcing its arrival this far in advance. >> all right. jonathan, thank you very much. great job counsel there. what's crazier than these images on your screen people who dedicate their lives to chasing these terrifying storms. >> next guest is an official storm chaser for weather nation and has been following these

types 6 storms since he was in high school. ben mcmillen joins "primetime" now. so, ben, you are chasing this bad boy. what do you see? jesse, though the is third hurricane that has covered the area punta gorda on the west part of florida. and this town is a tragic story. they had 11,000 homes, damaged or destroyed in 2004 for hurricane charlie and 300 businesses and then in 2017 they were exacted by hurricane erma and then on top of those two as i mentioned the third storm in 25 years today hurricane ian a major hurricane shutting down the town once again. wigging out. palm trees and night fall sits. in power sought across the city. i think it's going to be a large effort for all the emergency responders to get into this area of florida and start to help these folks pick up the pieces. >> they're saying at sunrise tomorrow they will be able to

get in or that's the goal. do you think that's a realistic expectation? >> well, these folks are true heroes many last few years they do have to navigate many dangerous conditions, power lines down, trees down, debris that's been scattered about the countryside. they do have a lot of heavy vehicles, big trucks. i think they will be able to make their way into some of the areas. jesse, the areas that i'm most concerned about places like sanibel island or fort myers that were virtually underwater the majority of the city today. areas much more challenging. as we know when you have fast moving water rush around homes and streets wipe away transportation and arteries to make it much more difficult to access those areas. >> jesse: how scary is this? you have been there and been inside of these things. was your heart racing? this is you are that and then some. why had window reading from the

hurricane hunter 155 miles per hour. that is a deadly window. anyone caught in that is probably not going to survive. just a few miles short of that category 5 status strongest hurricane on earth. floridians dealing with a rot today. i think their spirits are still pretty high. i talked to one man that rode out the storm on his boat after dropping off his wife and dog and coming out to do it no senator what the category and he was ready for it. >> jesse: what about you people drives to do this insane kind of thing? is it the adrenaline rush? is it to flirt with death? what drives you? earlier years adrenaline. getting out in quick manner was key in helping officials learning what to do to help save lives. of also i try to do a little bit of both. we try to dedicate ourselves to be a resource for people that might not have seen as many as of these storms. i have seen two ef 5 tornadoes.

i have seen many of the stronger hurricanes and devoting my expertise to helping people and the communication process. >> jesse: thank you, you are communicating perfectly and we appreciate it. stay safe. i can't even believe i just saw a guy rescue a dog into the water. sarasota has been hit particularly hard as well. 100 mile-per-hour winds have been ravaging the community all day. joining us now over facetime is first year sarasota mayor eric arroyo. all right, mayor, sarasota got walloped. what's it looking like? >> well, right now i was expecting be facetime but actually our power is all out. i believe 80% of the county has its power out right now. we had about 3800 in shelters. we had you know, we're being hit with the worst part right now. actually just coming in and i have already seen when i had internet i was able to see the

pictures that were being sent to me of trees falling down and flooding and you definitely saw some storm surges. so, i honestly don't know what the situation is right now. hoping for the best and hoping we get through. this our main priority is our residents. so we are just going to wait this out and hunker down and we're going to rebuild together. >> jesse: there's a report that the president called you. how did that conversation go? >> senator scott called me. the governor was here yesterday. i attended the press hearing with him. and but the president wrote an email. his assistant wrote an email or one of the people on his staff so we rea really didn't talk directly. >> jesse: you have people in shelters right now. that's god got to be incredibly

frightening. how are people dealing with this and processing? this? >> i disopsd by one of the shelters. the individual are, you know, largely vulnerable individuals that had to be evacuated because of some, you know, they live in a zone a which is what we evacuated first. homes on the waterfront or on the barrier islands or those living on mobile homes or rvs or those individuals who got evacuated because of living in an assisted living facility that was in one of these zones. or it was just, you know, people that had nowhere else to go. they couldn't just go to a friend's house or couldn't leave the state. so, it was -- it's a mix of people but they are definitely safer in these sites, these shelters than they would be staying at home. i'm glad they are there. >> jesse: i have been to sarasota a few times. it's a beautiful city. tons of great restaurants. great shopping.

you are right on the water. there's boating, there is fishing. there is pretty much everything. the devastation that you're expecting is going to cost a lot of money to rebuild. what are we thinking here? >> one of the beautiful things about sarasota. caring community, very successful, smart community. "u.s. news and world report" ranked us the number one city to live n florida. because of that, we are blessed in a ways that other communities are not. in that you, you know, we have a very large tax base. we will get through in. i can't put a number to it, but we have the resources to rebuild our community. and we may be able to help out, you know, our communities as well lending a hand. lending resources. but, i have received calls from just everyone throughout the state, including our -- senator scott called me yesterday. he called me the day before and he is a great resource governor,

governor desantis also, you know, was criticized for creating the florida guard for situations just like this. look at it now. it's one of the best things that we vnged done to have these men and women on the line waiting for this ukraine to pass us so they can come and help the most vulnerable among us. >> jesse: i'm glad to hear that the communication is flowing on all levels and thank you for those inspiring words. and god bless you and your entire community. sarasota is a beautiful place. and we expect it to continue to be a beautiful place. >> thank you. thank you for having me on the show. >> jesse: fox weather correspondent will nunley is live in fort myers. what's going on there, will? >> i will tell you what, we are just not anywhere near out of the wood yet with this. the window has changed directions of course as this storm has pushed more and more on shore. i'm very concerned for the hours

ahead and what daylight is going to reveal here in terms of not only, of course, of the tremendous loss to infrastructure, buildings and homes but possibly human life as well. we are beginning to really lose cell phone service in this area. power is out with many areas in the millions of customers without posh. for a us, we still do have a streetlight or two and that's amazing because so many of the businesses around us in fort myers don't. 10 minutes outside of downtown because it is still too dangerous for us to move and get you those pictures out of downtown. getting emergency alert tonight on our phones with rescue workers saying we cannot perform rescues right now. shelter in place, stay where you are, because we are still dealing with tremendous went gusts. can you imagine the feeling tonight of people that are trapped in their homes with water rising around them that are wanting to be rescued and there is no help immediately available because we are essentially still in the height of this storm.

so that's something i'm very concerned about and, again, i think that some of the images, once we are able to get to some of these areas with our fox weather team and drone crews what we are going to see out of barrier islands and places like sara so the, naples, is going to be very powerful imagery. this is an emergency taking up the entire state of florida. eve if you are not in the path you will be affected by it just like you were talking about there the ramifications of how far reaching this storm is. we are seeing it play out tonight all over. >> jesse: do you think people didn't evacuate because they waited too long and by the time they got out on the road the roads were all jammed up? i think there is element of that if you believe everything you read online which is dangerous of course, people think they are invincible. their house is going to hold up. i have been through a hurricane before. i'm going to be fine. every storm is different. we are seeing record setting storm surge here in multiple

locations and even the gage that measure how high these waves are and the storm surge is in some places. these gauges tell the story. we are looking at a tremendous picture not felt in some areas before in terms of this storm. gleathat's why we say it's frustrating. there is a reason. keep in mind we have been dealing with hurricane conditions where we are standarding right now since 10:00 this morning. this is incredible amount of long sustained force to put on any city and it is just absolutely wreaking havoc and chaos tonight on fort myers, florida. >> jesse: if you are a floridian, psychologically, every hurricane season you have seen it all. you think you have seen it all. you have seen forecasts not turn out the way they were and, you know, sometimes you gamble. sometimes you win. sometimes you lose. but this looks like the real deal. all right. keep us posted down there. i know that's a really, really tight spot. stay safe. curfews are in effect in

counties all across florida, including lee county where reports of looting at a local gas station have been reported to authorities. carmine is the sheriff of lee county and she joins us now. sheriff, this always happens of. bad apples try to exploit vulnerable people. vulnerable situations. what do we know about these reports of looting? >> well, i will tell you first and foremost, thanks for having us. this is a ripped storm. we got hit really really hard as you can see. very unpredictable. our great state is great because we have law and order. our great governor desantis, at every level you see we have law and order. those that thing they are going to prey on other people's this horrific event are sadly mistaken. can i guarantee you we will be out in full force. the second we are out of we are. and those that push the envelope are going to be going to jail. no questions asked.

>> jesse: yeah. lock those guys up. you have got set an example. we are looking at incredible images on the screen. it looks like a bus is floating down one of the side streets there in cape coral, florida. gouging is also a situation you see in situations like this. people exploiting, poor people taking advantage of opportunities whether that be gas, whether that be water or food. do you expect to see that and what would the consequences be for gouging? >> well, gouging, of course, is on the radar. i spoke to the attorney general ashley moody this morning. and she also was out in full force with her team. if there's any report of that my economic crime will report that immediately to the attorney general's office. we are not going to tolerate that behavior. bad enough the horrific event. we will make sure we are out on every angle. senator scott called me this

morning a couple times to see -- everybody here is working hard together as a team to ensure that we get back on that right track as fast as possible. again, we have houses that were completely demolished by water. i have not been out to assess. but we are getting those reports. so, again, in the morning hour, when we are ready to get out as soon as we can. i won't wait one second and i'm anxious to see what we have. i want to be out there now. >> buy bet you do. a lot of people are respecting that and ginding on you to do it. it seems like the communication is just clicking on all cylinders between local, state, and federal and we are really really heartened to hear that. you don't have any prisoners near the water? they are on high ground, we assume, there are not going to be any jail breaks anything stupid happenings like that. >> not at all. our jail have no issues spoke

with my chief in the jail of the facilities. no danger of anything like that. smooth sailing. vacancy. for those who want to commit and break the law there is plenty of vacancy and they will be going to the jail without question. >> jesse: good. show, thank you so much for joining us. stay safe. i know a lot of people are counting on you. i know you are going to deliver. >> thank you, sir. >> jesse: turn it over to nate foy outside of orlando. what's the latest? >> jesse, this mammoth of a hurricane is heading right where we are right now. it's expected to land in the to see the. people here are certainly bracing for the worst. especially when you see what's happening in southwest florida. i have to say i lived in fort myers for six years leading to up to this past february. i have interviewed and talked to sheriff multiple times. my heart goes out to the people in my former home market. absolutely horrible to see what people are dealing with this

hurricane. the people in central florida are in good shape. they don't have to worry with storm surge that doesn't subpoena they have to worry. >> keep oob identity theft out for you are strong window. we are experiencing strong window and but get more intense the next 24 to 48 hours. >> in this community where we are right now. you see this tree, this lookth like it was rotting a bit of. >> this tree is down if i can ask my photographer nic. speaking to the phoney home ons far left of your screen. light peeking out. they are operating on a generator right now. every other house right now in the dark. that happened about an hour ago. i told you on "the five" that we got kicked off the property of the hotel that we were at doing live shots there we are staying at my uncle's house right now and they lost power. everyone out and they don't

expect to get power back for along time. 16,000 people right now in orange county where we are are out of power. so, the real issue in this part of the state is the rain fall. so we are already seeing hurricane ian lose a bit of steam right now, a category 3. and it slows down also as it moves across the land of florida. now, you would think that's a good thing but the slower that the hurricane moves the more rain is dropped on this community. so, people here are trying to clear their yards of any debris because the window picks it up and it can clog a storm drain and becomes an even bigger issue. disney world is closed for the next two days. as of 10:30 today the airport is close to the commercial flights. still operating for any emergency relief that knees to come into the area. as we see the effects of this storm over the next 24 hours. tomorrow is the real day we will be of course live in orlando bringing you all the latest.

right now everyone is destruction is worse than we saw in southwest florida. >> jesse: i don't know why they could kick you out of the hotel. i don't want to speculate. >> i know, man. >> jesse: tell your uncle we say hello. >> i will. he is a big fan, jesse. >> jesse: all right. thanks, nic. how are the small business owners of florida doing during this disaster? florida central restaurant owner carolina amnesty joins me now. what business do you own? >> well, i own a small restaurant north orlando but i'm also the vice president of central christian university. we just opened our awz tore yum to serve our community to make sure people stay at home they can dom in our auditorium as a shelter. >> jesse: that's great. how many people can you fit in the auditorium? >> about 700 people. >> okay. so you heard it. if you still have power and signal, go over to the auditorium and they are going to

give you shelter and probably some food and water. what kind of economic impact is this going to have, are you predicting? >> [no response] >> can you hear me? what do you think the economic impact of this storm will be? >> i'm very concerned about the economic impact specifically for our small business owners and you, of course, the tourism industry. as you know the tourism industry is one that's very empowering in central florida. it's the main economic force. so it's important that after this hurricane we all unite and all get together no matter what political party or differences we may have. we must all unite as a community as a whole to support our small business owners to support our local businesses and, of course, to rebuild the tourism industry. >> jesse: well, i will be going down to florida christmas time. and we always go down and we expect to go down again. and that is important. if you are looking for a trip to

take, florida is a great place. they can use the revenue and tourism. >> that's right. >> jesse: everybody watching right now consider booking a trip down there and helping that great state recover. carolina, thank you so much for joining us and, again, tell us where people can go to this auditorium. >> that's right. central christian university and they can visit www. ccu.education. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> jesse: we are lucky can to have the top storm experts in the country walk us through what i'm seeing. next guest a gohl going toographer for hurricane track.com who studies the impact of these types of storms. mark joins "primetime" now. tell us what you are seeing from analytical perspective. florida we have seen quite a bit of damage. this was well forecasted even four to five days ago from the

national hurricane center. believe it or not, that first forecast showed it making landfall in southwest florida and that is exactly what happened. buff, that doesn't change the outcome. we are still looking at a tremendous amount of damage and, jesse, it is still going on. this isn't over as you well know from all the other reports we have seen. we will still be dealing with this in central florida in the northeast coast of florida and then the southeast u.s. long after it was left southwest florida. >> jesse: is there any chance it could get squirrely and wiggle east or west in a more dramatic way or do you still think it's going to heading up the southeast coast? >> yes. it shouldn't be too dramatic. but there are these wobbles that happen and we have seen that and these last few days a track change overall. people watch the models all the time, trying to figure it out ahead of time. but the general idea is that this will exit north of daytona beach, and when i say it, the

center, the storm or hurricane itself is enormous as has been talked about. the center of escalation should exit north of daytona beach and get out to the atlantic before curving back in maybe towards georgia or south carolina. but that's the center. again, we have to keep that very point in mind here that the effects extend well out from that center and they will go all the way up into north carolina, those impacts. >> jesse: forgive me if i sound like an idiot. but for other idiots out there. can you explain in very, very simple terms how and why a hurricane forms? >> sure, they are a heat engine that derive their energy from the warm tropical oceans of our planet. you have to have that warm water. you have to have a very moist atmosphere and very light winds aloft so it doesn't get sheared apart. the waters in the western atlantic have been very warm this year. here we go. ian is a result of that.

>> jesse: that makes sense for me thank you for dumbing it down. i really appreciate it. anything else we can expect from this thing? we are not looking at another one forming south of this? is this all you are seeing on your radar? >> so far this is all we are seeing in the short-term. but, as we know, the hurricane season, at least we should know, goes through november 30th and frskt florida, believe it or not -- more major hurricanes, those are category 3 or higher strike the coast of florida in october vs. september only by a little bit. buff it does matter. for example, just four years ago coming off on the four year anniversary here of category 5 hurricane michael making landfall near the mexico beach area. so we still have a ways to go even after ian exits the stage here unfortunately. >> jesse: oh so we are really in the heart of the order when it comes to hurricane season? unbelievable. let's just pray that does not happen. thank you so much for explaining that to all of us.

>> thank you. great to be with you. secrecy jess fox weather correspondent g max gore den is live. >> where we are right now truly the window sounds like a fraft train-freight train. we were expecting the eye of the storm really to hit the tampa-st. petersburg area. it went to the south. we are still experiencing some pretty extreme conditions here and we saw a pretty unique phenomenon earlier in the day. in tampa bay, we saw the water actually empty out when we were expecting a storm surge earlier. we verse storm surge that we saw was really from these northerly winds pushing the water out of the bay ahead of this storm. now, of course these waters are now starting to return but sort of an erie sight earlier in the day. you could walk out to some of the mud flaps that wasn't

viable. really starting to get strong bands of rain amend window as it pushes its way into florida proper. we are experience fers a lot of power outages all across the state of florida. more than 1 million customers throughout the state and more than 170,000 customers here in pinnal less county alone. it's going to take some time to restore power to a lot of people. that's because these linemen, they can't get up in the bucket trucks in these high winds, you know, you can't have these guys working in conditions like this. so a lot of the linemen are hunkered down right now. but there are a lot here. more than 33,000 utility workers from across the country here in florida right now waiting out of the storm, ready to respond and help get the lights back on. now, also, we have gotten a lot of national guard troops that van globalized and they will be ready to go as well. 5,000 florida national guard troops as well as 2,000 from other parts of the country;

however, in a lot of places right now, it is simply too dangerous for first responders to get out and help people especially for those who decided to ride out the storm in some of the hardest hit places in florida. >> >> as night call come it's going to be a rough one. >> where are you in old tampa bay and it's kind of dark in your back drop. rough right on the coast. >> yeah. we are right on the water right now. we are sort of on a dlofsway. we are in a verify exposed area here. cuff feel the power of this storm as it most across the behave. according to our meteorologist we are going to get very heavy bands of rain. some estimates show up to 2 feet of rain falling in this area. once this storm is all said and done. so flooding is going to be a major concern as we look to the hours ahead. >> jesse: all right. max.

great reporting. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> jesse: fort myers was one of the first major cities to be hit hard today. look at this video. 150 mile-per-hour winds just pummeling the beach town. major effects are underaway to assess the brutal damage. the leader of those efforts joins us now fort myers' mayor kevin anderson. kevin, i know you have been through a lot already. it looks like the worst could be yet to come or no? >> jesse, i'm located right in the heart of opportunity fort myers that first and hendrix street all day long i'm two blocks away from the river. all day long i watch of the are water's rise about 4 feet right now. on the back end it looks like the water has quit rising. i'm hoping it's going to start to sun said a little bit but it's going to be a long night. >> are you seeing cars floating around, are you seeing tree

branches falling down? give us a little description of the atmosphere. >> there is all kinds ever debris floating down first street. i received a call from a gentleman who was telling me about the cars that were floating just two blocks away. i can't see them from where i am. but that's where the water is probably the deepest. 80% of the city is without power. >> jesse: 80% of the city is without power. that is absolutely terrifying. has the federal government spoken to you? >> i have actually received calls from the president, the governor, senator scott and several mayors from around the straight. >> all of them pledge a hefty recovery effort. >> jesse: good. if you could give us at popular beach town a lot of economic activity. what's the character of your people? >> you know, we are very verse

of the. >> we have got a lot of retirees. recently we have had a lot of young families move in. we have some sections where there is levels of poverty. a lot of people going to be affected that are going to hurt more than others. as i said i'm right in the heart of downtown, almost every business in downtown is flooded. >> jesse: oh my goodness. it's going going to take a lot though get these people in witnesses on their veto. >> a lot of people moved down to florida in the last tweer or so. >> yes, they did. >> jesse: getting walloped right now. any advice for any first time hurricane people? maybe they moved to florida this summer? >> just that we are very resilient when it comes to hurricanes. our response teams are fantastic, florida power and light does a great job at restoring the power. it does take time. be patient there will be food

and water available. within a couple months, actually within a couple weeks, we will be getting back to normal. >> jesse: sound like help is on the way. mayor of fort myers, thank you so much. really glad you are okay and your people are hanging in there. >> thank you, jesse. >> jesse: hurricane ian absolutely pummeled naples, florida earlier today the worst may not be over. peterson is a yacht captain in naples and he joins us now. i don't know if you heard i go down to naples almost every christmas. i got married in naples. my heart is aching for that town tell us what you know and how are people doing? >> hey, jesse. we are a big fan of you and, yeah, do i hear that you frequent fort myers and naples quite often. it's been quite a day today. weren't quite sure of which way the storm was going to go or how much the surge was going to come up. >> we were all here for you are

that. erma. it surprised us a little bit and our hearts go out to the first responders and all the folks up there north of us in fort myers and punta gorda that actually got hit harder than we did. >> you are not on your yacht right now, are you? >> not mine personally. shooting from a different angle. a little bit dark now. sailboats on the rocks by the charter club. obviously you can't see that right now. >> jesse: there looks like there is going to be a major search and rescue mission underway. coming in on the water and ground. what do you expect to see in the next 24 hours. >> well, you know, we abandoned the boat today when we thought the docks were going to are -- t

describe it. how high is the water right there. >> well, we had to make the call when the water got high enough on the piling because we didn't know how big the surge was going to be. and the docks would come off and the boats would float. we knew the water was piling up here on the land side so we just wanted to be able to walk somewhere and walk to our cars.

so, that was about 3 feet at the time. then it rose 5 feet. that's when we were up at the second balcony watching everything. i think all in all came up 6 feet here. >> jesse: 6 feet. thank you graham. maybe i will run knew over the holidays. >> thanks, jesse. >> jesse: head back to jonathan serrie in atlanta beach. >> hi there, jesse. incredibly blustery palm trees blowing around. the winds in the 30 mile-per-hour range. may not sound like much. consider the center of the storm is in southwest, florida. we are in the northeastern corridor of the state and so this hurricane is really announcing its arrival well in advance in this area. the main concerns here are flooding. both from storm surge but also from the heavy rains. people here remember hurricane erma back in 2017.

which caused severe flooding in portions of downtown jacksonville, and other parts of duval county. and so the mayor urging residents in low lying areas who experience flooding back in 2017 to take this storm very seriously. jesse? >> jesse: all right. thanks, jonathan. let's go over to chief meteorologist rick reichmuth at the fox news weather center. all right? been here the whole hour, wrap it up. >> rick: power outages are climbing now at about 1.6 million households. everywhere you see that red about 75% at least to the people without power right now. we are in the dark. hopefully they can get some of that power restored back tonight. going to take a long time for that to weaken. hurricane warnings in effect still across the eastern shore of florida. places like daytona beach, cape canaveral? notice this. go a little bit up in towards portions of georgia and south carolina.

tropical storm warnings in effect because the track of the storm brings about over water and then see a second landfall from ian, so even though florida by far getting the worst of it, we are going to still deal with this storm all the way probably until about sunday. we have got bring rain coming from the southern appalachians from this. expecting to see significant flooding there. this is the official track. this takes us into landfall some time friday night probably a strong tropical storm maybe as a hurricane making landfall in georgia, south carolina border. wouldn't be as much as a storm surge story there wouldn't have that much time to build up any of that water. big window impact again and a lot of rain. there you go, hard to believe this storm still looks like this and we are about 8 and a half hours since the center of the storm or the wall of the storm first started coming out there on to those islands. now it's made its way about 40, 50 miles inland take a look at think credible amounts of rain, jesse, that are going to bring really dangerous flooding throughout the night tonight. no power, flooding going on. if you have decided to stay at home, just stay at home, if you

can. you don't want to go outside on these roads. it's going to be a really dangerous night. still ahead by tomorrow afternoon things start to improve. >> jesse: stay inside. tell us about the window. i remember katrina just obliterated roof tops. shattered trees. we looked at the devastation the next day and it was everything had exploded. are we going to tune in tomorrow morning and see that kind of impact? >> rick: yeah. we are going to see -- i mean, katrina all of new orleans flooded because of the failure in the levee system, not really because of the storm. kind of a different thing. we are going to wake up tomorrow to a lot of images from coastal areas of southwest florida that is going to be pretty hard to believe. already getting some of those images is in by tomorrow afternoon when the water recedes get a good sentence of the damage and no doubt it is going to be extreme. >> jesse: all right. rick, thank you so much. all right. that is all for tonight. thanks for staying with fox

during our continued coverage of hurricane ian. we are going to pray for all of our people down there in florida. we love you. stay safe. and we'll talk to you tomorrow. tucker carlson is going to continue to cover the storm, and he's up next. >> tucker: good evening. welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." the hype turned out not to be hype. hurricane ian slammed into florida this afternoon, and caused shocking destruction. we want to begin tonight with a story unfolding as we speak. joining us first from fox weather is hurricane expert brian norcross, who we spoke to last night. brian, what did this storm do? >> it did pretty much what we talked about last night, tucker, and it's going to keep doing it. this is going to a multiday slog of the worst hurricane event t