>> and i just want to send a quick thank you to our first responders. i mean, you see these images of them cutting down trees, trying to remove the debris so that we can get our days back to normal. but we still have quite some time to get through. >> and we're going to do, you know, it is the firefighters, it's the police officers. >> it is just everyone working behind the scenes. >> and hurricane ian water in parts of southwest florida, streets and buildings completely flooded, power knocked out at one point over two million people. and one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the united states . the hurricane making landfall wednesday afternoon near costa protected barrier island, just west of fort myers. the hours since landfall and has moved inland. but hurricane force winds are

likely to be felt well into central florida. thank you so much for sticking with us right here on fox weather three a.m. on the east coast of mcalester. >> and i'm jim and i thank so much for joining us . and a special welcome to those watching on fox news. channel. we got the latest advisory from the national hurricane center, 2:00 a.m. eastern. we still are talking a category one hurricane, 75 mile per hour sustained winds. so what does that mean? going into these overnight hours, michael? well, we have many people still in the path of ian going to see that wind pick up or rain continue to come down. >> and it's really quite concerning. it is a multifaceted system. you think about the fact that literally it made landfall at three , 5:00 this afternoon. >> it is three to one in the morning. that means over the past 12 hours, it has been over land is still a hurricane still when it's been over land for 12 hours. >> right. and it really remained a category three for quite some time.

we're talking five , six hours of seeing those hurricane force wind gusts about one hundred miles per hour. some of these communities. yeah. so it really was quite devastating. in fact, take a listen to some of the video that we had of a woman in fort myers and the damage because of these hurricane force winds. that was my house. my house is gone. that's my grandparents house. not one right there on the ground. >> stadium. so you can see the storm surge here. and fort myers, the hurricane force winds that came through, losing both homes there. and you can already see the damage in that video of the home next door because of that storm surge that came in. let's take a look at the latest advisory from hurricane. and so, again, breaking it down remains a category one hurricane. seventy five mile per hour sustained winds. it's moving pretty at a pretty nice clip through central florida right now, northeast at about nine miles per hour. you can see we have some drier air coming in on the south side of ian . and that's helped kind of erode

away some of that rain that we have seen that has been impacting tampa, sarasota. so improving conditions on the west coast, but where things are going downhill, downhill quickly is through central florida, orlando, we have that center, that core of fon lifting up the i four corridor. and we are anticipating it to continue to impact places like jacksonville in the next twenty four hours, really expecting to see those rain bands. in fact, just beginning to wrap around and push on shore over the next several hours, opening up our day on thursday. so that's one thing that we will be watching for, no surprise, because we are still talking a hurricane in that hurricane warning stretch. both coasts from fort myers up through orlando to daytona beach. hurricane warning means that we are anticipating to see those hurricane force wind gusts impact these communities. heavy rain is going to continue. tropical storm warnings extend up through jacksonville, up the georgia coastline into south carolina. also want to highlight that the coastline of georgia and south carolina are also under a hurricane watch because

while we are going to be tracking hurricane and off the coast and back into the atlantic, as likely a tropical storm in that forecast right now, there's a very slim window that we could see that strengthening once again, those warmer waters. we do have some new video coming in to the forecast center of naples, florida, which took a really hard hit from hurricane ivan , especially in the form of storm surge. i mean, just record numbers of storm surge over six feet. and that was just as the gauge ,fortunately, was knocked out. you can see the flooding here in naples just on to the side of your screen, people trying to get through in these overnight hours and still seeing flooded roads. and this is what i really want to caution. if you yourself are in florida, on the west coast, naples, sarasota, up into tampa, where we have flooded roads do not venture out, especially not in the dark right now. taking a look at some of our live traffic cameras, orlando, florida, looks like we have some emergency officials

out there. good to see. not a lot of people out of the roads into jacksonville to as we go into these early morning hours, we have rain coming down and it is going to be quite treacherous. jacksonville, few people out there on the interstates, of course, the three o'clock hour on the east coast. i know many of you getting your day started, but i just want to leave you here with a power outage tracker. michael's going to take it with a little bit more on what we are expecting to come as far as rainfall. but we still have two point four million people in florida without power in the dark. unfortunately, going to be waking up in that same scenario. >> yeah, that's exactly it. and just please keep in. >> you are using a generator to make sure that the exhaust from your generator is well away from your home. that has been something that emergency management officials have been working on and highlighting through the storm system. we do want to head out to orlando, florida, because really orlando right. is taking the brunt of hurricane ivan . that's where we find fox wethers. katie burn for us this morning. katie, always great to see you,

of course. but of course, behind you, it just looks like a deluge of rainfall. yeah, michael. and it looks a lot darker now. i can tell you just in the last few minutes, there was a big boom of thunder. it sounded like a crack. and then all of a sudden the power went out here at our hotel and in a lot of locations right outside of where we are. so what you're looking at now is pitch black and a lot of locations, the streetlights have gone out. this as we are pretty much right on time for what we thought was going to happen for the city of orlando. as far as when we were going to see the worst impacts of the storm. you can see the palm trees there have been swaying back and forth. we've been getting pretty significant wind gusts. i'm curious how low the readings will come through, because i think from what we've seen throughout the day, some of the strongest wind gusts we've seen have been within the last 30 minutes since we've been kind of watching and waiting to see what happened. oh, look at this.

there's some lights flickering over here to the left. so maybe, just maybe that power will come back on. but i don't know that boom was something that definitely may have woken some people up tonight because it was loud, didn't see lightning that we have seen it maybe a handful of times in the last hour or so. there's that flickering again. we'll keep our eye on it. but the hotel staff downstairs, they were concerned about this. you know, i was checking in with them within the hour. they were telling me that they were already putting some towels up against some doors downstairs because of some flooding issues that they were experiencing. and now you're seeing the power has officially, officially gone out. so i know and a lot of hotels still have the common areas available to people to kind of hang out, even though they don't have power in their rooms. but we know a lot of people are staying in hotels in orlando tonight because what happened was people were in southwest florida, had some mandatory evacuation orders, over a million of them, and a lot of them ended up here. and that's why many of

the hotels in the surrounding area are sold out tonight with families who are leaving places like tampa, st. pete and now there's almost a sense of camaraderie. and a lot of the hotels we've been to quite a few of them since we've been here. and we've met people who were making new friends, meeting other people's pets in the lobby and hanging out with them, riding this thing out when they thought they were going to be away from it. but they ended up still dealing with the hurricane impact. so we're going to keep our eye on this as things progress here. but still flickering, not looking good here as far as power for us tonight. but hopefully you're not in this part of orlando, though. this is downtown. so it's looking pretty dim in a lot of places downtown orlando at this hour. that boom happened right at 3:00 a.m., michael. >> that was only eight minutes ago. and kitty, i am looking at orlando executive airport. they have measured wind gusts at fifty five miles per hour. so i'm sure that is perhaps what may be responsible for

some of the power flickers that you're seeing. i'm curious with so many people in orange county where orlando is , it has a population over one point four million people. >> what does the generators situation look like where you're at your hotel? >> any do the hotels in the area have generators for the folks that are staying there, especially if they're visiting? >> of course, many of them do. many of them are used to kind of dealing with hurricanes or at least tropical storms being in the florida area. but i think that what you'll find in many hotels is that the common areas are where people will have to go for a lighting and things that they need. of course, something we do is a bathtub trick. and when we were live a few hours ago, we had to switch hotels. we just got here and the lights were flickering and we were like, oh, no, we've got to go fill up our bathtubs. we just got here and it felt like things progressed pretty quickly. so that's a tip for people who may be not in a situation

yet where their power has gone out. they don't have access to water . but these are things that a lot of floridians, rather, that we've met while we've been out here say they're kind of used to riding storms. they know the tips, they know the tricks, and they're ready to hunker down and ride this thing out and hopefully go back home if they're away from home. some of them are hoping to go back friday. we'll have to see about that once the sun comes up tomorrow. >> absolutely. the sun is going to reveal. so much, kitty. quick question for you is there's a flash flood warning going for all. are you seeing flooding in and around your area at all? yeah, you know, we've seen reports on twitter about flash flooding surrounding some people's apartment complexes. and throughout the last couple hours, we've seen we've heard sirens and seen police vehicles. ambulances go both directions to different locations dealing with flooding issues and right behind me here, i'm not sure if you can see it because it is darker. it looks like there's one lamp ,but there's a shed over here

that we've been watching. there. there's some flooding right there and it's been increasing throughout the hours of the night here as the rain continues to really fall down at a pretty rapid rate. in fact, we're only at 3:00 a.m. it is now. i'm losing track of time over here, but this is officially the wettest two day period in orlando since, i believe, the nineteen sixties and it's only three a.m. so, i mean, we could beat that record fully in the next few hours depending on how much more rain we get . >> wow. and something tells me that we may end up shattering that record because we were anticipating anywhere between another six to upwards of eight inches of rainfall, if not a little . >> clyburn first, i'll asking a thousand questions over here so that you can kind of regather and all. but thank you so much for your amazing reports. please stay safe for us this evening. katie, for us in orlando. >> katie, thank you. all right. still tracking hurricane ian at

this hour, even as of three a.m. still a hurricane winds up and over 75 miles per hour. >> again, it has it made landfall literally about 12 hours ago as a powerful category four storm , almost a category five storm on the sapers simpson scale. >> that is the absolute highest that you can get . >> right, in terms of the intensity of a hurricane, it is still a hurricane. even 12 hours later, after being starved from its primary source for fuel, which is moisture, which is the ocean. >> it has been over land now for 12 hours. it is still a hurricane and it is producing all kinds of rainfall. as katie burn was just so eloquently showing us . and parts of orlando estimated rainfall. you need to see this to believe it. south of tampa, this is along i 75 runs north and southbound. as you know, any interstates that end an odd numbers, those

run north to south. if they end in an even number, they run east to west. >> kind of like ifour, but let's zero in right here on this strip of burgundy. >> that's 12 to 18 inches of rainfall there with some areas picking up between 18 to upwards of twenty four inches. of rainfall. >> again, that was in this bull's eye area right here. >> and on top of all that, by the way, to add insult to injury, this is also the area where we saw extreme storm surge as well, literally record breaking storm surge down around fort myers. >> what's going on right now east of tampa, this is going to be right in the heart of orlando where orange county is . here's where we are along the space coast just to get you oriented. here's where katy burne was, orlando. that's a flash flood warning for orange county, still going until four forty five local time. orlando is , of course, on the eastern time zone. so the next day, hour to hour and a half or so on that flash flood warning, the red indicating the tremendous rainfall from what we call

speigel rain bands from ian that are persistent along the i four corridor. again, katy mentioning the fact that this is nearly a historic rainfall for them. and unfortunately, it looks a whole lot more rainfall is on the way as well. quick look, live conditions in parts of orlando as we speak. temperatures in the 70s, rain still to come. as we mentioned. notice daytona beach. this is going to be over the next couple of days as ian works through central and eventually northeast florida, right along i-95. that is a bull's eye between 12 to 18 inches of additional rainfall on top of not what's already fallen. but as adam was sharing with those earlier, right along the coastline here, we're going to see storm surge that is going to enhance the rivers that flow out into the ocean. we're expecting more flooding in and around places like jacksonville. >> so this is really going to be almost a worst case scenario

for parts of northeast florida, much like what we saw with ida, especially along some of the rivers there in jacksonville. and it's the reason and one of the primary reasons why throughout the day today into early tomorrow, on friday, notice the thatched areas there of red , meaning extreme rainfall. this, my friends, a live look at daytona. look at this camera. it is shaking. we were saying before that orlando executive airport wind gusts well over 50 miles per hour. >> and if you look very carefully there, again, perhaps up toward the upper right hand corner, looks like that could be a parking lot. and quickly filling with water due to all of the tremendo rainfall that we're seeing smack dab there in the center of the state. temps outside, by the way, in the mid 70s. but as katie was saying, before ,there are power flickers that are going on , meaning that we are just moments away from losing power in places like

orlando. katie mentioned that if you are visiting orlando, that a lot of the hotels, thank goodness, do have generators. i wouldn't depend on those generators. but again, thankfully, it looks like most of the hotels in and around that are newly constructed, especially after, say, two thousand, one to two thousand to do have some generator power and usually are capable and well-built enough in terms of their structural integrity. to withstand winds over 50 to upwards of hurricane force winds, which would be seventy five miles per hour as well. >> so, again, lots of visuals coming in. this is another snapshot of orlando, florida, and orange county, where, again, they are under flash flood warning through four forty five this morning. and that rain is coming down quick. it is coming down heavy. >> that rain is going to pull into places like st. those streets could look like rivers at times. so it is imperative really at this point when we're talking

about excessive amount of rainfall that we've seen. >> history shows us just all we've got to do is look at what ian has already done, and that's an indication of what we could see in the future. so places like orlando, if folks are visiting friends and family down that way, we're talking about that threat for perhaps life threatening flooding in parts of orlando. >> that's right. and all of this happening now at this point when most of us are off to sleep. danger that is happening outside our window on the east coast of florida. also feeling the impact of hurricane. and in fact, that's where our eyes turn to where those impacts are really going to begin to go downhill. we took a live look at daytona beach where the rain is coming down. i've been watching on my radar in the fox weather app, those rain bands continuing to wrap around hurricane in volusia county, florida. sheriff mike chitwood joins us now. and sheriff, tell us about what the conditions are like in volusia county. i know the southern part of

the county is under a flash flood warning right now. are you getting reports of some roadways that are impassable right now? you know, our big concern is nothing's been impassable, but we're going when this is over, trying to get over 30 inches, that's going to be a rain that's going to be devastating to this county, in particular, to the little towns like ashtar and lake harney that sit on the st. john's river and lake monroe. they are going to be absolutely inundated and flooded out. winds gust right now around fifty two miles an hour. orlando is only 60 miles down the road from us and they're getting hit with a huge impact right now. >> and we're going to we're going to follow with that probably around that 2:00 afternoon, i think is our big window from to a to to piece where we're looking at the biggest impact from this storm to us . >> absolutely. after seeing hurricane and did to the southwest coast as it's made its way through central florida, what's been the messaging around the county

,especially to your residents, for preparations that were really hopefully underway throughout much of the day on wednesday? because at this point it's a go period and just waiting to see all of this rain come through. yeah, we've stationed high water rescue vehicles throughout the county because we are expecting flash flooding and major flooding to inundate a lot of our community. and we're just telling people you've got to hunker down. there was a point in time where i could get in to get it. we're at a point now where we're probably not going to be able to get in and get you out. so you're going to have to hunker down. you're going to hunker down in place. we have a curfew in place. did all expire at 7:00 a.m. this morning. unfortunately, up until an hour ago when i was out and about the roads passable. but, you know, it's really dark . the wind is incredible. you don't know what dangers are looking out there. downed power lines been about 13000 people without power. so it's it's not as impactful as what happened in southwest florida, thank god . >> but it's going to be something we have not seen

here in this county ever when it comes to the flooding and the massive amounts of rain and wind that we're getting. >> absolutely. i mean, you mentioned the power outages. what about utility crews? have you been speaking with any any emergency officials out there? you know, planning ahead for what could come in the coming hours? >> yeah, actually , we're blessed. the daytona international speedway is located here, and that is ground zero for power companies who have come in throughout the southeastern part of the country. so we're in a good position in volusia county because that's the staging area. >> we have that access to those power companies. thank god for those folks that came in from other states , because it's going to be a while. i mean, i think we have over two million people statewide who are without power. >> and so for the volusia county police department, what's your plan in coming? twelve to twenty four hours as far as taking emergency calls, waiting for really the worst of the weather to start to move in in fact,

already beginning to move in. i take a look at the radar and you guys have pretty steady rain band overhead right now. >> you can't hear that the smashing of my window or the entire county deputies and all the police departments. we have about 10 police departments in the county as well. everybody, it's all hands on everybody's working 12 hours on , 12 hours off. nobody's going home. we have places for you to sleep. the community has been fantastic. we have plenty of food and resources. >> and obviously we have a lot . if we can't get to you, we lock it in and make that the the the conditions are in a more favorable. being able to get to you will get there. you know, people we're told and warned about what was coming that way. >> i can't afford to be put in deputies into imminent death situations because you didn't follow the directions. so once things subside, we're going to get there. >> absolutely. the work that you guys do, you and your officers really just want to give a big thank you

ahead of time. i know things are going to continue to pick up. it's going to be quite active in the coming day. and so thank you for all the hard work you do, putting yourselves in harm's way to keep us all safe . we're going to continue to keep volusia county and our prayers that they are anticipating to see. >> quite a disruptive day ahead of us . thank you very well say. >> all right. well, let's take a look at the wind aspect of hurricane ian . this is new video coming in from naples, florida. this is brad adair. he is a storm chaser and a meteorologist. and my goodness, does he bring in some really enticing videos that just show you what's happening on the ground? of course, staying safe out there, brad , of course, if you're watching this, thank you for all of the hard work that you do. but just showing you the power of hurricane ian on the southwest side of florida, we saw intense winds. gorda, one hundred and twenty four mile per hour winds, fort myers, one hundred mile per hour winds. this is all coming in at

landfall. in fact, i was just taking a look at some new information that was coming in earlier this evening. private weather station in port charlotte, which is just north of fort myers. reporting sustained winds of 115 miles per hour, gusts up to one hundred and thirty two at landfall, which, of course, we did see in kyle costa, which is a barrier island just outside of fort myers, venice, seeing eighty two mile per hour wind gust, naples, 60 two and wind direction. these winds so powerful also led to the immense storm surge that we did see in these communities. inundating them. i mean, nearly six to 12 feet of water in these communities that are normally on dry ground. now, hurricane ivan has continued to weaken. however, hurricane force winds are still expected in the coming hours. orlando, florida, we take a look at the last five hours. we've been pretty steady hovering in that 50 mile per hour sustained wind gusts, up to about 60 or so. right now, we take a look at the current gusts, only about thirty one .

so not too bad at the moment. but we've been checking in with katy burne, who is in orlando, one of our fox correspondents, and she's been showing the lights flickering at power, struggling to stay on with these winds that are anticipated to continue to gust upwards of 50 to 60 , even 70 miles per hour as the core of hurricane ian continues to lift up through central florida. take a look at our current wind gusts in central florida right now. orlando, looks like we've lost a bit of a reading here, but cocoa beach out there. fifty six mile per hour gusts, daytona beach. we just spoke with the sheriff there, mike chitwood, who has been telling us it's been very windy. the rain has been coming down. take a look at orlando, florida. live camera here, the rain coming down in sheets and that wind also picking up 72 degrees . but temperature doesn't really mind too much. we are anticipating to see rain continue to come down in orlando flooding. we do have flash flood warnings in place. and so it's really important that especially in these

overnight hours, that we are hunkering down, staying in and especially opening up our eyes on thursday morning. once that daylight comes up, just taking our time, not venturing out too quickly, because there is likely going to be some damage and flooding that is ongoing in these communities. leesburg, we have those winds up to about 48 gusts. we also have dade city about gusts up to about 15 . >> wind is going to continue to be a big component in the forecast. some new storm reports coming in to the fox forecast center, new smyrna beach. sustained winds at 48 miles per hour. note these rain bands that are pushing onshore. that's what's bringing in the very heavy rain impacting our coastal communities. we're going to see those winds continue to pick up. we could see wind us up to 70 miles per hour. let's bring in fox meteorologist adam, because this system is going to perhaps bring in some big problems to the coastlines of georgia and south carolina. >> the most certainly this storm landfall 12 hours in 20 minutes ago. can you believe that category four hurricane still a category

one hurricane. so it's slowed down, but it has taken a really long time to do so. it is eventually, eventually going to get back over warm water and that slowdown is going to stop right category one hurricane. but by the time we exit the coast of florida, winds at sixty five miles an hour. that's thursday morning. by thursday evening, still sixty five miles an hour, still sixty five miles an hour. by friday morning. so that warm water is fueling this system. it's going to keep it a strong tropical storm . >> what it could even tip up a little bit and maybe it climbs back up into a category one hurricane status. either way, it's going to be fairly similar storm at that point. and we do have tropical storm warnings from northeastern florida stretching up around the georgia coast and the south carolina coast and even inland, because ultimately it's going to bring a whole lot of moisture up towards augusta, up towards columbia, areas where there's going to be a whole lot of rain. and yes, because of that possible intensification, a hurricane watch is in place across all of these places.

there's going to be storm surge. there's going to be wind currently, the winds not horribly strong, but it's about the amount of time that they're going to spin there because these will intensify. you see some 20s, some 30s there. waters just already getting pushed up against the shore. it just continues pushing against the shore. it can't retreat, keeps piling up, keeps piling, keeps piling up. and then all of a sudden another burst of maybe some stronger winds. and then you start to talk about a storm surge. this is the future forecast for those winds and pay attention. the time stamp up in the corner . by the time you get into friday, some of our stronger winds are now running on shore . you do notice as soon as it gets on shore, there's just no energy there. it needs that warm ocean water. so the system falls part and it just drops all the rain. it still has left in it. and you see those rainfall totals probably widespread. a lot of five , six inches of rain, isolated areas, eight inches, 10 inches, 12 inches of rain. there's going to be a lot of it there. this is our fox model. it'll show it, bring it on onshore, pay attention.

top left corner for you. what time is it when you're getting into friday? morning when some of the heaviest rain is starting to move into south carolina? probably getting into portions of eastern georgia. also savannah area stretching up towards augusta. another spot where you could see just a bunch of rain before ultimately getting into north carolina. getting into virginia also. so a fairly wide area there where we think flooding is going to be very likely running you from georgia, the carolinas, but a huge area. and remember, this is kind of mountainous terrain. so you start to see flooding happen in situations like that. this storm is not over yet, despite how long it's been going, tossing it back over. >> you know, it is not over yet. all my goodness. adam, thank you so much for that. absolutely. fox news correspondent charles watson, he's been in sarasota, florida, riding out hurricane ian and for now, sarasota in these overnight hours is kind of breathing a sigh of relief, right, charles ? and just talk about, though,

what you go we went through much of the day on wednesday and what you're expecting to see as the day opens up today. yeah, i think breathing a sigh of relief is a good way to explain it, because if you were here in sarasota county throughout the day on yesterday ,yesterday, i can't remember the days yesterday, you would have seen that the storm here was pretty ferocious. the winds were very strong and it didn't stop raining here for twenty four hours. fast forward to now and much of the worst effects in or out of the sarasota area. so the next step now is cleanup, getting a lot of the debris that has fallen into streets, onto sidewalks, out of the way. we've got some this debris here behind me, these large tree limbs snap from these trees and have been tossed around onto sidewalks, into streets. and folks are really going to

want to get this out of the way fairly quickly, because when you can sitter that three quarters of sarasota county is without power, this debris is certainly going to cause some trouble for those utility crews that are standing by and trying to get through this this area so they can start restoring service. you know, you've got these these large tree limbs and other debris and the way it's going to make it hard for those utility crews to get around this is this has been expected for days now. governor desantis santurce talked about just the other day. take a listen. to as soon as emergency crews can get in, they are going to get in as soon as it's safe to go and clear the roadways. florida department of transportation is going to go in and clear those roadways. >> these are all on standby. yeah. and so it's going to take some time. folks are going to have to

be patient. they could be without power for a couple of days and sarasota county, the entire county has about 400 thousand plus people. so we're talking about maybe three hundred thousand people who were without power, who are without power right now. and i'm sure pretty anxious to get service restored. but again, patience is key because when these crews are able to get out there, they're going to have to prioritize public health and public safety facilities like, you know, police. but police headquarters or hospitals, things of that sort. if they've lost power. and then you also want to consider because it rained so much here, that the ground is really wet, really saturated, so you've got these trees that could possibly topple over at some point while crews are out trying to restore service. and , you know, it could make things a whole lot more difficult for them to get around and navigate as well.

as , you know, it could take power lines down again. so, again, folks are going to have to be patient. we've already seen some of these crews out here maybe surveying some of the damage. so there is work being done right now. you just got to pack your patience, guys. back , you boy. >> packing your patience. that is going to be , i think, a theme not only this evening, but really in the days to come. charles , real quick, you can still hear me. i'm curious. you know, i'm looking around you. there's a it looks like there's a tree down that's that's next to you. >> what is the extent of the damage in sarasota that you're seeing other than just debris and like trees down? is there any other structural damage that you're seeing at this point? did we fare a little better? i can't say for sure, because we've been sort of stationary, because when we were out here during the height of the storm, it was sort of danger because a lot of these tree limbs were falling down and we wanted to

make sure we were safe earlier in the day yesterday, we did go out into some of the neighborhoods, into the sarasota bay area to see what it was doing. it was still in good shape then ,but we don't know right now. so we're hoping that we can get out there and sort of get a lay of the land to see what the damage is , if any. but right now, if tree limbs and things of that sort are the extent of it, i would say that folks here fared pretty well. >> all right. and , of course, you know, with with daybreak and the dawn ,the hours and just a few hours to come, that's going to really reveal the extent. well, controlled wasn't. charles watson for us live in sarasota. florida. >> troll's, thank you. and please be safe this evening. of course. >> all right. let's take you up to orlando, florida, because if you look at this live camera, from orlando, it is just shucking and jiving. it is moving. >> it is shaking. it's really a precursor of things not only to come for

places like daytona, but you can see the winds have been whipping around there. >> the orlando executive airport reporting wind gusts over 50 to fifty five miles per hour. and then on top of that, you have the torrential rainfall and adam and jane, it's one of those deals where orlando, you know, it's a huge tourist destination since covid, nearly a half million people moved to the state of florida, i would assume, in orlando. >> one of those places, and thought for sure, a huge loss. >> and it's good to see that live camera that there's still some power on in the city. at least four million for now, but at least for now. >> and on top of what you were saying about the tourism, maybe those folks stranded there, i think a lot of people in the state thought, let's go to the middle of this. this is a place we could hunker down. >> there are a lot of folks in that community right now. and you think the fact that this is their first hurricane that they're ever going through and you're suffering through things like intermittent power outages, the torrential rain fall out there as well?

>> i'm just hearing the wind could be quite surprising, too. i remember what i went through, sandy in jersey. i just remember the sound of the wind. and i think that's for a lot of people in orlando kind of hearing that for the first time, too. this is new video coming into the fox forecast center. you can see those flickers of light going out to go yeah, down there the way we've been checking in with our katy burne has been live in orlando for us all night long and showing in there is flash flood warnings in place across the orlando metro and , you know, it's very dark. we're getting into that hour now where maybe some people beginning to wake up for work, but hopefully you're heeding those warnings, not getting out onto the road. >> you think about the fact that it's dark, you know what i mean? and all the damage that's that's that's occurred over the course of the past several hours and early in the ongoing hours as well. so we're really waiting until daybreak and sunrise to see the extent of the damage. so it's one of those things. let's stay inside. keep in mind that there could be power lines that are down. they could still be electrified

. the last thing you want is to encounter that or perhaps head into work, roll over an electrical power line. and again, there goes your car. >> right. here's the most recent storm reports. this is new into the fox weather center. this is from buenaventura lakes. and what we're seeing here is that several roadway is are flooded in the area. water actually entering at least one home. >> this is just south of orlando. this is toward st. cloud, florida. this is a public report that we got from twitter. and again, this just goes to show the extent of the rainfall where seven to 10 inches of rain has already fallen with more rainfall on the way. you know, it was one of those things. >> if you joined us earlier, we had brian norcross, our hurricane expert, talk about the fact that this is going to be a slow moving system. >> and when you're talking about a hurricane in that size ,wise was just about the size of ohio, slowly moving from

the southwest toward the northeast. >> this is going to inundate parts of central florida like we're seeing now with tremendous amounts of rainfall. no surprises here. why we're seeing reports of, again, water entering homes, a lot of homes in florida, as you know, don't have basements. that's a good thing. as of this point. but again, the problem is that a lot of your furniture is on the first floor and the furniture. oh, my goodness. these days, especially thousands of dollars worth of damage. if that water does enter your home, estimated rainfall totals on the left side of your screen looked like this in orlan. yeah, that's at least five to eight . some pockets of eight to 12 inches of rainfall right along ifour. so traveling north or south, bundalong eye for maybe making that connection along i-95. it is torrential rainfall. so much so that the local national weather service out of orlando is issuing multiple flash flood warnings. those are the green boxes that

you're seeing as we live, as we scan the skies for you live. and notice that as we really zero in on orlando, it is that strip of red that has been persistent for really hours now since we began our broadcast at about 2:00 this morning eastern time. >> that strip of red is a tremendous rainfall. you can see it confirmed there on the right side of your screen. >> along with it, power flashes that as of within the past half an hour when we checked in with whether it's katy that's live for us in orlando, she was saying, listen, the power is very intermittent. it's very spotty. it is on and off. we cannot depend on the certainty of power at this point, given the fact that the winds, again, are just wreaking havoc apart across parts of central florida. the rain still to come. that's the graphic on the left where i want to zero is beautiful. daytona beach, a great place to

go to. of course, we all know about the daytona 500, right. just a great track for folks to hang out on . >> unfortunately, that is going to be the exact location where we could be talking about at least a foot more . that's 12 inches, at least another 12 to upwards of 16 to 18 inches of rainfall on top of not only rainfall that we've already picked up, but also on top of the storm surge. that we're expecting to along the east coast of florida because as ian works up the eastern seaboard, it is going to drive in atlantic ocean water into some of those inlets. >> and again, that unfortunately into some of the rivers as well. will exacerbate the flooding concerns in parts of eastern florida. here's what things look like with our exclusive fox model forecast. this is going to work through and show you the timeline in orlando. will pick things up in the next 20 minutes at about 4:00 a.m. eastern. take through the 10:00 and 9:00 hour. it is raining all morning. >> it is raining through

the afternoon. it is raining through the evening when we catch a break, if you're in orlando, joining us from one of the many beautiful hotels. that way, we will finally begin to see some of the rain begin to taper. by the time we get to midnight tonight, so again, we're only three hours into the day, right? three , three and 1/2 hours into the day. we have the entire day to go through before we finally see jane for at least some of the rainfall to begin to taper. but in its wake, as we mentioned, daytona beach could pick up another additional foot to 18 inches of rain at the time. >> everything is said and done. and daytona beach, in fact, volusia county has that curfew in place that morning. >> hopefully, we are going to be staying off the roads, just taking the day on thursday to hunker on down now. take a look at some of the storm surge video that we have coming out of naples, florida, sanibel, florida, this is not too far from where we did see that landfall with hurricane ian , which did, in fact, happen in cairo, crossed a barrier island just

outside of fort myers. i mean, really just devastating. i've been following the story in naples, florida. i mean, storm surge that came into naples, florida, at about six feet. and that was just before a gauge and fortunately went offline. and so there are going to be communities did see that inundation of water higher than that. i mean, i stand at five foot two and six feet of storm surge covers my head. and so i can't even imagine what it's like in some of these communities. and it still does take some time, even though the worst of it and moved away from the southwest coast. now it still takes time to see that water recede. take a look at our top water levels from in the surge. this is here in fort myers, seven point to six feet. and while this number is very high, in fact, smash the record all time for top water level storm surge in fort myers, we take that back to gabrielle three point three six feet there in two thousand one . but that seven point two six foot storm surge was really just before the gauge there itself went out. and so we are likely verifying

which was in the forecast storm surge upwards of six to 12 feet in these communities. and unfortunately, you can see in that video there on the left or on the right side of your screen that people's homes were completely lost and destroyed because of this storm surge. we talk storm surge in the forecast. it's not just water that comes inland and is all quiet and calm in fact, think of yourself when you're on the beach and you wade into the water waist deep and you have those waves that continue to push you. and that's what happens. and we have that storm surge and that comes into these communities. it add all of that added energy and pressure onto buildings, and that's what brings in the collapse and the damage as well. so here's a look at our current conditions. we have our winds wrapping around. storm surge has come down a bit in fort myers, three point seven feet, but that's still some problems. we are going to be watching the east coast down in south florida on the eastern side, no storm surge because we have that offshore flow with winds wrapping around from the south.

that's going to keep that water at bay. however, where we have concerns now is going to be northeast florida, georgia and south carolina, where we have storm surge warnings in place still to come, especially throughout our day today and into friday. we could see one to three feet of storm surge from their island up to daytona beach. so on top of that freshwater flooding that we are anticipating in daytona beach, that is likely ongoing with a flash flood warning in volusia county right now, we are anticipating to see that flooding in our coastal communities. and i think what really could be a bit of a sneaky one for us , adam, is going to be our storm surge along the coast of georgia and south carolina, tybee island, savannah, charleston, floods and a normal thunderstorm. we're going to get rain and storm surge up to three to five feet in these low lying communities. and it could be quite devastating. yeah. >> jane moore is to me what a day it's been, what a storm it has been. and tracking this now for 12 and a half hours from

the time it made landfall all the way back at three oh five yesterday afternoon. yes, yesterday afternoon. so a major storm we continue to watch it winds at one hundred and fifty miles an hour at the peak of this system. and as we said, just over 12 1/2 hours ago, category four hurricane, when it made landfall very low pressure with this system. and it ranks as one of the most powerful hurricanes, not just the state of florida has ever seen, but the entire country has ever seen in the state of florida, the fourth strongest hurricane actually the fifth strongest in the whole united states, tied with a bunch of other storms there at number five . but outright number four in the state, florida. and if you think back of like a hurricane, michael, that just was a few years ago that hit the florida panhandle, that a very powerful storm did a ton of damage, but a smaller storm , this on the other hand , in covering a good chunk of the state, really a huge chunk of the state, getting at least some sort of advisories

from as far south as miami getting you up into now northeastern florida, a huge area, a very large storm that we continue to follow. >> now, the winds for a good chunk of the day. one hundred and twenty miles an hour, jumped up to one hundred and fifty five miles an hour. and it's been here through the last 10 hours, 12 hours, where you've really started to see this go down because you've spent so much time over land. it's lost that fuel, been able to slow down a little bit as we know it might pick back up at some point. >> but, boy, those winds, when we initially made landfall, they were high. >> one hundred and twenty four miles an hour, one hundred miles in fort myers . those were some of our highest winds. but those are absolute insane to have that kind of wind coming onshore. no surprise when you talk about that wind that there are a ton of power outages. now, everything you're seeing there in those red colors on the western side of the state, about 75% of the folks within that county are without power. across the entire state, two point five million people are without power.

and what we've seen here in the last several hours, you get to the east side of the state, power still going out now. it's not going out as quickly because the storm is as powerful. >> the winds are a little lighter, but the rain is there that softens the ground. there's still enough wind to knock over some trees. and that is where we've been seeing additional power outages. so a couple of hours ago, it was that two million. so they are still adding to these totals. and i think we likely still will as we continue here through the night. so power outage is still something to pay attention to. that's been the history of the storm, michael. but as we know, there is still more to come. >> all right, adam, thank you so much for that. i really appreciate it. check out this video. tremendous amounts of rainfall is what we were seeing around florida.

>> and look at this, water rescues ongoing. this was from earlier yesterday. in parts of naples. this was the nable, the the naples fire rescue department, having to go out there and rescue folks that were stranded, perhaps in vehicles, perhaps even in their homes. >> as storm surge inundated people's homes and , of course, washed away their livelihoods. unfortunately, you're seen here video from orlando. this is live where it is a tremendous amount of rainfall that is ongoing. and look at the wind and what that wind is doing to the water over the roadways, specifically on the left bottom side of your screen, almost looks like waves is what we're seeing as of this point. it is one of the reasons why, although parts of southwest florida, we are slowly working our way out of the woods. we are certainly not out of the woods in central and parts of northeast florida. included in that would be along the space coast here as well.

so still hurricane in again, this is it made landfall 12 hours ago. but still a hurricane, despite the fact that it's been cut off from its main fuel source, which is , of course, the warm waters of the gulf of mexico. it's entering into the atlantic here soon. still category one , as of the two o'clock advisory, we are expecting another advisory with the next few hours moving toward the northeast at a snail's pace. only about nine miles per hour. >> barometric pressure just to reset at 9:00. 80 is where we're at right now. those are millibars. and if that falls as that heads over water, it would it would be indicative of the strengthening storm . so let's get you through the watches, the warnings and basically what's going on right now. >> so although we still have hurricane warnings in effect for parts of fort myers to sarasota, i feel pretty confident in saying that those will be allowed to either expire or those will get chopped out of the hurricane

warning box live shortly. however, places like orlando, we are not out of the woods yet. daytona beach, absolutely not out of the woods. and you can see in red , those are tropical storm warnings that we're still seeing as well. >> no surprises here. one of the big hallmark of even moving forward is going to be that risk for flooding. flood watches posted from orlando to jacksonville and notice that savannah, georgia, and charleston, south carolina, also in that. here's the reason why, because category one storm, ian , currently going to be moving toward that north northeast northeasterly trajectory and through the day today and tomorrow, it's about 65 miles per hour. there is a slim chance we could see some strengthening as that head towards the southern eastern coastlines of georgia and south carolina. >> that would take place by friday morning into friday afternoon. and it is one of the reasons why along some of the coastal areas, we have tropical

storm warnings in effect for places like tybee island to savannah. >> but we also have a hurricane watch in effect. >> why the reason for this hurricane watch it is because as ian moves back over the very warm waters of the atlantic ocean, there is a very slight chance that we could see some minimal strengthening, only about 10 miles per hour strengthening would send it back into a hurricane should it become a tropical storm here as it works over land. but from jacksonville, florida, through brunswick, georgia, savannah included, that would be tybee island all the way up toward hilton head and just south of myrtle beach. >> it's a hurricane watch that is in effect. so, again, we just need to make sure that we are still paying very close attention to this, especially if you're joining us along the coastal regions of northeast florida, georgia, south and north carolina, where over the next five days we could be talking about another five to eight inches of rainfall, generally eight to 12 inches of rain, jane , is what we could pick up, as in again, slowly

turns up the east coast of the continental united states. >> thank goodness, just 12 hours ago, making landfall, hurricane in just after about 3:00 p.m. wednesday near fort myers and cape coral. foxworthy's robert ray was in fort myers, florida, in the height of the storm. >> oh, i see these massive storm coming into the downtown area like this or as these area is . so you and i want to turn the camera so you can see exactly what is happening. it's block after block of water that has come in from the river over there. there is debris floating and flying boats are on . tangled vehicles are submerged at this point.

and you see the wind just pushing, pushing the water all around the surge. and it is phenomenal, the power of bertani. and even at this point, the water, parts of palm trees and other things are flying around right now as we go into the night, we're losing light here in fort myers. just wreak havoc here with these gusts. hardy even walk. all these storefronts are taking it. and this town of fort myers that we're just pushing, it looks like whitecaps on here. it's not safe for a storm just being unleashed. and it's nowhere near over

because the peninsula, there are over a million power outages here this evening. yeah, out here somewhere. but reverse search right? reporting in fort myers, robert ray, fox weather. >> can we get the biggest shot out in the world to our reporters that are out there? on the front lines are eyes and ears. i mean, what a day they've had, robert ray. i mean, you see the power of hurricane in there, the wind, the storm surge, those communities and buildings, unfortunately, that are waking today and assessing the damage . and i mean, not even just waking up today, but having to go through it. i haven't myself gone through a category four hurricane like that. >> and , you know, you hope that a lot of people did heed those evacuation warnings and get out of town .

but there are some people who did perhaps choose to ride it out. it really was just devastating to see the amount of storm surge that came through fort myers, naples, verifying the forecast. it's never what you want to see as a meteorologist. >> you know, and i feel like, you know, with with robert ray taking us there, it was it was so compelling for me. and i was watching through this afternoon. he brought us to downtown fort myers. >> i mean, this is a it's a beautiful development of fort myers, a wonderful vacation destination, great spring break destination. >> for the college kids. >> right. but, you know, when he took us there and he was showing us the different landmarks that we're all familiar with seeing ,at one point he was on fort myers beach before crossing over to get back into like downtown area and knowing what has happened on fort myers beach. >> i'm , you know, with with sunrise is that's going to reveal a lot. >> and , you know, of course, you know, robert ray is going to be down there and crossing over the bridge if he can

safely do so. >> i am expecting the imagery to be startling. >> and the one thing i have to say that i think has been more on the positive light for us is that hurricane ivan made landfall during the day. and so a lot of the worst conditions that came through fort myers or when we still had daylight and so you could see the flooding, you could see the damage in front of

flooding could be a real and present danger, the storm surge is something we'll focus on and

harping on and letting our friends and family in southeast georgia, south carolina, know if you are on the coastal region, inland, flooding due to storm surge could be an issue for you, as well. >> absolutely, stay with fox weather, we'll be here taking you through the storm all day long, watching hurricane ian, we have seen the damage it has done in southwest florida. >> fox news alert, central florida being pounded with 75 mile per hour winds as hurricane ian inches east as category one hurricane. >> todd: you are watching "fox and friends first" on thursday morning, i'm todd piro. >> carley: i'm carley shimkus, central and northeast florida could get up to 20 inches of