without power. disaster relief now in full gear, and anything can help that you want to give. if you want to help those affected by this historic storm, visit redcross.org/fox forward. we are doing everything we can to help here at fox. we hope you will, too. thank you to everyone here at fox news for the latest, stick here with "america reports." >> whenever it gets here, hopefully it won't be as bad as what we think it is. >> literally watched my house disappear with everything in it. >> hang on tight, we'll take care of you. >> it's kind of devastating, actually, i'm starting to shake a bit, this is the first time

i've officially seen all of it. >> john: fox weather alert, hurricane ian landfall imminent in south carolina. stunning new images show the depths of the storm's destruction in the state of florida. >> gillian: crews have performed hundreds of high water rescues, the coast guard flying into some of the hardest hit areas to help people stranded. now attention turning to the carolinas as ian pushes northward where it could make landfall as soon as this hour. >> john: welcome to the program. good to spend friday with you as we follow the storm. >> gillian: good to be with you, i'm in for sandra smith. three states are bearing the brunt of the wrath. the south carolina coastline along with portions of north carolina are under hurricane warning this hour. storm surge is expected to hit just north of charleston harbor. places like georgetown, pawly's

island and myrtle beach the worst of it. >> john: fox team coverage, begin with tracking the path with hurricane specialist brian norcross. brian, where is it headed? >> john, just about to come ashore in south carolina. take a look at the satellite picture. i put a computer analysis of the wind, just offshore waiting on word from the national hurricane center for landfall. the good news is, if you look at the way the wind blows around the center of the hurricane, it's coming down like this in charleston. that's pushing the water out of charleston harbor, or not letting the storm surge come in. so, we are not concerned about a big flood threat there, but to the north of the hurricane up here, notice the wind is all blowing on shore as you'll see. it's very high right now in myrtle beach, flooding along that north south carolina, the

northern part of the south carolina coast, concave and catches the water. that's a storm surge-prone place. when you look at the radar, a couple things to note here, the bright red band something like an eyewall feature, 84 mile per hour wind gust in charleston as a result of this. the other thing is in the bands out here coming into north carolina, we have had tornadoes reported here just in the last hour. so, that's going to be a concern while this system moves ashore, and is expanding as we go, which is expected because of the way the upper level winds are blowing over it and kind of extending it out this way here, and so you see that the bad weather is all the way up in virginia already and it's going to expand to the north. storm surge is the biggest deadliest threat with this thing. there you see the alert area for

the south carolina coast up into north carolina. let's look at the observations right now and it's going up, look at this. spring made pier, that's myrtle beach, on the grand strand. and charleston, no storm surge threat there. so the northern part of the south carolina coast and up into north carolina, three and a half feet above high tide, above the normal high tide level and the tides are going down there now. so the push of the water from the hurricane. now, just now coming ashore as landfall is imminent there in south carolina. and then we have the winds. alert for strong winds that can take town trees goes all the way inland, to winston-salem, north carolina, on top of heavy rain is a significant part of power outages. by tomorrow it will peter out in terms of wind in the mountains, but rain is going to be a significant threat. this is 3 to 5, 5 to 8 inches of rain here all across the parts

of south carolina, north carolina, up into virginia, and look at this, we widen out this rain shield, heavy rain shield is going to get up, new jersey, almost to new york city here, and that's going to happen tomorrow. so, far-reaching effects, john, from this hurricane across the mid atlantic and the eastern part of the southeast u.s. >> john: and a lot of rain in the mountain areas of eastern tennessee and the western part of virginia as well. in terms of where it looks like this is going to come ashore, if i read the track correctly, bryan, looks like georgetown, pawly's island is probably in the cross hairs right now. georgetown has a bay in front -- a little south of there? >> a little south of there, john, just south of georgetown, between isle of palms and georgetown, mclellanville, i'm

worried with georgetown. we don't have an observation there, but they kind of catch the water there in the bay and also have two rivers that converge right at that town, and it's a beautiful historic downtown there. so i'm worried about that, but don't have any definitive measurements from there as there is ongoing. >> john: we'll have a look on the ground, we have brandon ellis coming up. we'll talk to him about it. bryan, thank you for the update, appreciate it. for in-depth coverage of hurricane ian, download the fox weather app, stream 24/7. you will be glad you did. >> gillian: charleston, south carolina, hurricane ian is expected to hit really hard. molly line, are you with us? >> yes, sure, hi, gillian. yeah, the big concern in the next couple of hours is the flooding. flood warnings the rain is coming down heavy, concerned

about that. the 6 to 12 inches of potential rain. we are standing here in the ashley river, the downtown, the beautiful historic downtown is just a little further down the ashley river. they have been urging and asking people to stay off the roads, so we have a good view of some of the bridges and we have seen the number of cars that have been out and about throughout the early part of the day that has trickled down, so hopefully people are listening to the officials and will make it easier on the first responders. the national guard is standing by, they have high water vehicles. we have not heard anything about potential rescues or rescues right now, but a chance to speak with the folks who handle the boats on the ashley river, they say some lines have broken, they have been out there tying down boats, a battle against the high winds of such a concern over the next couple of hours. high winds can mean downed power lines and trees down, and we know that there have been various parts of the storm, up to 16,000 people without power, but dominion energy is out there

working trying to keep the lights on for folks in this part of south carolina. we do know that things are pretty rough to the north, the storm surge is a major concern to the north of the city, but we are hopeful that here in charleston they'll be spared the worst of it, particularly in the historic downtown area that's prone to flooding. we know there is some water gurgling up down there, and hopefully a chance to take a look in a couple hours once the high wind and heavy rain trails off into the distance after a couple more hours. gillian. >> gillian: molly, are you seeing any people out and about? >> we were seeing some folks out and about, but just in the last hour or two we have seen it stop. quite a few folks out in pickup trucks, checking out the storm. at this point in time we are not seeing a lot of folks. early this morning there were people walking their dogs and out in some of the drizzle, but now is the time to hunker down, and that's what authorities are asking people to do, they worn

if you are someone affected by hurricane matthew and irma in recent years in 2016 and 17, flooded then, you might be flooding now. a lot of folks were urged to get their cars to higher ground, garages were free and they were full last night. so we'll get -- hopefully people were able to get ahead of this and protect property and their lives as well, gillian. >> gillian: it's our understanding things ramped up where you are just at 11:00 a.m. eastern, so that's what, two hours ago now. does that track with what you have been experiencing on the ground that the heavy rainfall, the heavy winds, just kicked in a couple hours ago? >> just a little bit after 11:00 we saw things pick up. 11:40, was the high tide, that has ended now, and the water expected to recede and head out. you can see, though, how windy it is out there. they are tearing across the water on the river. hopefully in a couple hours things will taper off and we'll assess the damage.

they were making, you know, people were bringing in the lawn chairs and hunkering down and making sure things were cleaned off and trimming some trees yesterday, so did what they could to prepare. sandbags were handed out. the downtown area had sandbags against some of the beautiful old homes. with any luck we could really hear some gusts now here in the distance, with any luck things will turn out ok. we won't know for a few more hours. this is the time, stressful time of the storm where the winds are high, the winds are the big concern at this period of time now that the high tide has ended to keeping an eye on that. gillian. >> gillian: we are going to check back in with you later in the show. stay safe until then. thank you, john. >> john: touch screen and give you the lay of the land of where the hurricane is and where it could potentially hit. according to bryan norcross, he thinks the hurricane is right about here, center of circulation. right here, this is a bay in here, this is georgetown right here, pawly's island is right there. looks like the hurricane will go

over this area, so that could potentially get the most amount of damage from this category 1 storm, only 85 miles an hour, how much damage can it do, don't forget it's not the wind, it's the water. and you could have the water that could pile up in the bay and rivers come down this way as well. you could have a convergence of a lot of water in the small community. a little further up the coast, you've got the murrells inlet here, one of the big cuts for getting boats in and out of the area, that opens up to the atlantic ocean. myrtle beach is up here, of course, and acadian shores, quite a substantial mobile home campground, apache campground and a pier as well that, could be open to storm water damage as well. as bryan norcross was mentioning, the circulation is counterclockwise is the winds

are headed in this direction, this way and then curbing around this way. so anything that's happening here in charleston where molly is, the wind direction is going to be that way, and as we saw in tampa bay a couple days ago, it will actually probably help to push water away from charleston. cooper river comes down there, a lot of water there, so it's not going to push a tremendous amount out, probably not see bare river bottom but it won't be the same flooding we saw in 1989 during hurricane hugo. however, if you come up here, if you come up here into this area again with the circulation going this way, you are going to get a lot of water that's piling up here in myrtle beach and in murrells inlet as well. myrtle beach has a fairly substantial dune barrier on the beach, i don't know how much water will get further inland from that, but upwards of 5, 6 feet of storm surge, wind-driven waves as well, it could top the barriers. that's what we are looking at. here is the cape fear, by the

way, in north carolina, the border is around here or so. wilmington, north carolina up there and seeing so many hurricanes, does not look like it's affected by this one. we'll talk about where it's going after this a little later in "america reports." right now, let's bring in charleston county sheriff, she's in charleston county. what's it looking like where you are right now as we see the counterclockwise winds coming around, hopefully keeping the storm surge away from the city of charleston. >> yeah, well, thank you, first, for checking on us and before i get to that i want to offer our prayers and our thoughts to our friends and our neighbors to the south in florida who are suffering much more devastating effects from ian than we currently are. but we are getting the wind, we are getting the rain. the rain has not been as bad as the wind is picking up right now, i think we are at 62 mile an hour sustained winds with 87 mile an hour gusts being

tracked. for the most part we are hunkered down and riding out what we can. >> gillian: sheriff, we understand over the last two hours the number in south carolina without power has doubled, now 69,000. does that track with your numbers on the ground? >> it does, and we expect it to climb. the winds are heavier, gusts more frequent and sustained winds, we anticipate that number to go up as well. we have -- the key to this is preparation and we put our assets and personnel in places throughout charleston county. so it runs north and south along the eastern seaboard of the atlantic. we are a long county and where we expect the storm to hit, make landfall is the furthest north

in the county over towards georgetown. >> john: north of the isle of palms which got hit badly in 1989 during hurricane hugo. it was like a giant hand just put its hand down and scraped all the houses. you would see little stairways, steps that went to nothing and empty concrete slab. hopefully that's not going to happen this time because it looks like the wind is going the other way. there won't be the storm surge. we did hear, kristin, in myrtle beach, 4.8 foot storm surge, charleston will probably just get the wind. in terms of what we think about when it comes to hurricane damage, the wind is one thing. the water is quite another. if you just get the wind, what do you expect the damage will be? >> so the bad thing about it, when we have had a lot of rain over the last 45 days, so the ground is saturated.

even with the slightest winds, trees tend to be uprooted and whatever is in its way it's going to take with it. we have seen trees across the roads, a couple cars run into those trees. these are big trees, so we can't remove them and right now we are not moving. ems and law enforcement/fire are not moving in the middle of the storm until it's safe to do so. so people can get stuck, that's why we asked people to stay indoors, off the roads, it's the wind coupled with the trees with the flying debris. yes, the standing water is a problem but we can't get to you to help you. so, that's been our biggest fear. that with power lines coming down. >> gillian: fortunately you did have lead time there. talk to us about the preparations that you undertook before this moment to try and protect the historic part of charleston. >> yeah, luckily the key to everything, you know, number

one, trying to preserve and protect life first and then property and we take that very seriously. so we have prepared with our maximum staffing, putting -- prepositioning the assets and personnel in the areas so that they are close enough to respond if they do have to respond to a certain area throughout the county. it's 115 miles of coastline, so it's a long area for us to monitor. for the most part, people are heeding the warnings. i know there's a few people in the shelters, we have an animal shelter set up not too far from the building, a few people in there with animals, and then another shelter to the north of us a little bit and i'm told that is not at capacity but people that needed to be there are there and we are glad they are there. >> john: and unless i missed something in the last couple of hours, i don't believe the governor has ordered evacuations along the coast. have you seen anybody trying to leave in the last hours before

the hurricane came in? >> i know of people that have left but they left days ago, so you know, the folks that have ridden the storms out before take it seriously. either don't want to be without electricity, they know it's a possibility and don't want to be stuck in traffic or get back to their homes. they left days ago. very few have left -- i have not seen anybody leave today, we are just hunkered down, riding it out. this is a very resilient area, resilient community. we are used to storms. we lose power when the wind blows and it floods often, so they are used to that. but the thing that we fear the most, really, is the heavy, the big trees coming down, people getting struck by trees and power lines and that sort of thing. for the most part, people are heeding the warnings. i did see surfers earlier on the beach. they were trying to surf this weather. >> john: as they do, hope they

stay safe, it's not exactly the smartest thing to do, probably a thrilling thing to do, though. great to talk to you, good luck. we'll check back with you later on. >> thank so much, appreciate it. >> john: steven murray, the mayor of beaufort, south carolina, near paris island, marine training base, what's it like where you are? >> good morning, we woke up this morning feeling pretty fortunate for us, unfortunate to the folks just north of us. also say all the folks in florida, heavy on our minds this morning as they begin the recovery process from the devastation down there. the tracked a little north overnight, so we have winds, rain, track 50 plus mile an hour winds gusts in the low country. but we are doing pretty well.

>> gillian: the mayor talked about the resiliency of being in south carolina, it is true you have the advantage of having experience under your belt as compared with floridians. you feel everything you learned up until today is helping you? >> yeah, absolutely. you know, our city's 311 years old, a lot of adversity over three centuries, over the last 5, 6 years, hurricane matthew, hurricane irma were good trial runs for us, go back to hurricane hugo in 1989. we were extraordinarily experienced with dealing with storms and recovery. great emergency management from the local level to the state level. they have been coordinating all week long. public works folks have been in the street making preparations. so we certainly don't want more of these things, but do feel like when they come across south carolina we know how to handle them to the best of our ability. >> john: they call it the low country for a reason, because most of that area is barely a half a foot above sea level.

do you expect -- is there a lot of rain that's coming down there? obviously flooding could be a problem? >> there is a lot of rain coming down, maybe not as much as we anticipated. i'm about 8, 9 feet above sea level where i'm doing the interview. hurricane irma we had significant flooding in the neighborhoods. since that time we have been working to try to mitigate a lot of those problems and again, just feeling fortunate this morning because we have not had near the rain, just went down to our waterfront park, we are right at high tide now and there was concerns about tide coming over the seawall and flooding some surrounding area. but right now, knock on wood, looks like we are going to survive without significant flag. >> gillian: what about the power situation? what are you seeing in terms of businesses and homes now that are completely without, do you have a numbers estimate for your jurisdiction? >> yeah, we have had a number of

power outages before sun-up this morning and give credit to dominion and their contractors, as thing go out they are jumping on them, linemen are in the trees getting the power restored to folks. i checked in a little while ago, a few small cases of power outage, but hoping to kind of keep up with it as they go out. so, no widespread power outages right now. a dozen or so trees down across the area. one of our barrier islands, dafaskie island did have some erosion and a water line break, they are working on repairing that right now. >> john: we saw the same problem in fort myers as well, the rising water just sort of lifts those lines up and they crack and takes a long time to figure out where the leak, and then a crew to repair it. steven murray, you in the

southwest corner of south carolina have lived up to your reputation of dodging the worst of hurricanes. people like to go to hilton head island, they say it never gets hit by a hurricane, they go by on the, they ride on the gulf stream further up the coast. thanks for joining us, good luck through the rest of this. >> thanks for having me on and the coverage and getting the information out to your viewers and hope everybody stays safe, we'll get through it, look forward to seeing everybody on the other side. >> john: thanks so much. again, good luck today. we have some devastating before and after photos revealing the scope of hurricane ian's destruction. neighborhoods underwater, roads wiped out and homes crushed along florida's gulf coast. to help those affected, you can donate to the red cross. fox corporation has donated $1 million to the american red cross to support their hurricane relief efforts. red cross as it is in every disaster is on the ground providing aid and resources to people who have been so devastatingly impacted by the

storm. our thought are with our teams who are affected and a big thank you to all who are covering the disaster. if you would like to join in fox's efforts, visit this website, redcross.org/fox forward. >> gillian: that's awesome. >> john: that little corner of south carolina, i guess i should put it this way, where hilton head island is, just north of is a have in an and southwest of where beaufort is, it's just tucked in enough it does not get a lot of hurricane action. >> wave hello and good-bye. >> unfortunately, looks like georgetown, myrtle beach, not so lucky. >> and southwest florida hit hardest, a lot of people are returning to their homes and finding not very much left. we are going to be live in fort myers with the latest coming up next. >> john: and south carolina preparing for ian as the storm

moves northward. myrtle beach expecting to get the worst of it. we will check in with the mayor there coming up next. >> with high tide culminating the time the storm is hitting, that is a time to stay indoors. if you go out, you put more first responders in danger. ners. are you applying for a car loan or a personal loan somewhere? those loans are not cheap. neither are cash advances from your credit cards. call newday. you may not realize it, but one of the lowest cost ways to get money is to use your va home loan benefit. the newday 100 va loan lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value at low re-fi rates instead of high credit card rates. and that makes a huge difference.

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vladimir putin declaring four ukrainian territories to now be a part of russia. in a speech today, he welcomed the partially occupied regions and railed against the west. the u.s. condemning the annexation as illegal. followed staged elections where some say they were forced to vote to join russia at gunpoint. president zelenskyy saying there will be no negotiations while putin is in charge. >> it took everything from

everyone, and it's just devastating. you don't know where to begin. >> you figure it's not that bad and ride it out, worst mistake of my life. >> gillian: folks in fort myers, florida are feeling ian in a major way. category 4 hurricane, 90% of the city is decimated. roads into rivers, entire houses wiped away. phil keating joins us from the ground there. phil, what are you seeing this hour? >> absolute devastation and destruction. we are on half of the very busy san carlos boulevard. but as you can see, it is now strewn with sail boats and huge charter fishing boats like captain tony's this takes tourists out for deep sea fishing, this is trashed. storm surge, 12 to 15 feet here, so it and other boats of the same size, you cannot see them,

they all lifted up, untied themselves from the wind and the surge, and ended up right here on the boulevard. everywhere you look, damage and destruction. take a look across the street. that is the san carlos rv resort. there is one mobile home you see in there, that's 1 of 2 left that belongs to gary and rita israel. fortunately for them, they did evacuate, but first take a look at the video from inside we shot about an hour ago. the whole place is a waste land. nothing but shrapnel and debris and where did they all go? they ended up across the water in the trees just to the east. i mean, they are mangled. here is what the israels said after they got back today for the first time. >> what you see, devastation. >> tears. >> life gone. we are going to start over, rebuild it. that's a plus.

>> you are determined. >> yep. >> at least the remaining positive, they tell me they lost everything they owned, their whole life but they are going to start over again. this is some of the other part of the street. you have the former office of the marina, that's destroyed. the storm surge really was the big factor here, not necessarily the wind. that was a restaurant for years and years, it's now blown wide open, it's got a roof, and there are three guys currently sleeping in there right next to the roadway, it's, at least they have a place to stay because they were riding it out on a sail boat, believe it or not and ended up in a mangrove across the way. so a lot of people are very fortunate. however, the sheriff's department and the governor and the emergency operations director saying they think they have 21 confirmed and unconfirmed fatalities. that number is expected to exponentially surge.

that's because a lot of people did not evacuate, they stayed on the barrier islands, and they rode the storm out as the storm was coming and the water is getting higher. they are calling 911, but too late for first responders to rescue them. so that's why the sheriff believes a lot of those people probably did not make it, but as the search and rescue teams, this is day two of that, and they are coming in by helicopter and vehicles as they search through every piece of rubble left behind, they are going to see the cost of this category 4 hurricane. >> gillian: phil, those land-wrecked boats all around you are pretty extraordinary. have you talked to any owners? where do you start with that? >> they are working on getting a crane in here as soon as they can, it's very difficult because right now this roadway is dominated by first responders,

ambulances and fire trucks, front end loaders, not only local but across the state as far as miami-dade county, they have all come over to help out. the sail boat trashed, buildings behind it are completely destroyed and the cracker jack, that big sport fishing yacht on the other side of the street on top of it right now assessing what is salvageable and what's not. most likely not be. >> gillian: we'll check in with you next hour, thanks very much. >> john: hurricane ian expected to make landfall between charleston and myrtle beach, south carolina. any moment now, produced dangerous storm surge and high winds with significant flooding expected in coastal areas. joining us now on the phone is brenda, the mayor of myrtle beach, south carolina. last time we talked, a couple years ago, i was vacationing in myrtle beach, a hurricane was off the shore, dodged a bullet but this time you are not going

to. what's the situation there? >> well, it is definitely starting to pick up, the wind gusts, bands of rain, not as bad as i thought it would be at this point, but we are hunkered down and prepared for whatever comes. >> storm surge right now, i think, mayor, about 4.8, almost five feet. how does that stack up historically? >> well, i'm not sure how it stacks up historically, it's not the worst we have ever had. but we have prepared the city, our crews were out lowering the levels of our storm water ponds and doing the best they could of cleaning out drainage ditches and things like that. so we feel certain if we have some flooding it will be short lived and we are ready and on stand by for when this passes to get out and assess the damage and help anybody that needs our

help. >> gillian: mayor, this is gillian turner, i'm here with john. what are you seeing from folks in the jurisdiction as far as guidance. are people listening to the evac and shelter-in-place orders, are you optimistic they are going to, when you go into the very tough, dangerous 24 hours? >> i hope so. we don't have an evacuation, but we have asked people to stay in place and i'm looking outside of my kitchen window, which is right on ocean boulevard, right across the street from the ocean, and i'm seeing way too many cars on the street and i just want to encourage people, you know, stress the importance of staying inside. we could have downed power lines, limbs, etc., flying debris, and it's not only for their own safety, but for the safety of our first responders. >> john: all up and down the grand strand, madam mayor, you have a lot of condominium

buildings built to hurricane standards but up near arcadian shores, you have a mobile home park. are you concerned that could be the scene of damage? >> always concerned about areas like that, and that is why we have been on the phone with other municipalities that are around us. areas like that that are more prone to flooding that will potentially see more damage so that we can be there to help them with the repair and clean-up efforts. >> gillian: you mentioned you have seen more traffic on the streets than you would like. where should folks go who are not close to home this hour? where should they try and get to to hunker down? >> well, at this time it still looks safe enough to get home, and that's what i would encourage people to do, you know, businesses, for the most part that i know of are closed

today. so people need to go home and stay home. there's just no need to take a risk by being on the road right now. >> john: and what's the situation with power? we saw in florida with those huge winds that came in from hurricane ian off the gulf of mexico. a lot of the power infrastructure was damaged beyond repair. it's got to be rebuilt. and so many people, more than 2 million without power. is the power holding up there, or starting to go in places? >> so far from what i've seen power is holding up. our governor, henry mcmaster, just did a press conference. i think he said the number was a little over 5,000 across the state that are without power. i don't know what number that is in our area, but i'm seeing power wherever i can look. >> john: that's good, that's encouraging. >> gillian: definitely good news. what are you worried about being the biggest danger for folks

this hour? >> well, water is always a concern, especially for people that are along the ocean front and people who are in the areas that are more prone to flooding. i don't think -- i mean, i know we won't see the type of devastation that florida has and you know, our hearts just go out to them. we want to do all we can to help them and you know, thank god we are not going to see that type of devastation, but it doesn't mean we won't have damage and people need to be mindful of that. >> john: one of the big differences between the east coast of south carolina and the west coast of florida there is a substantial natural dune system built up along the atlantic coast. do you believe the dune system is high enough it will keep most of the water from flooding the areas beyond it? >> you know, luckily we have not had a storm in a while, so the dunes have had an opportunity to build up. like i said, i'm looking out of

my kitchen window, i can see the waves from across the street, so i don't know that they will hold up completely. i hope that they will, because you know, beach renourishment is a big issue for our area, but you know, we are just praying for the best. >> gillian: you did have a little bit, not as much as, you know, colleagues over in charleston but had some, a little bit oto hunker down to bear the brunt of the storm, to be maybe in the eye for landfall. for city officials now, what's the top priority as you are waiting for the storm to hit? what are the last-minute adjustments anyone is trying to execute? >> we have already executed everything that we can to this point. right now our crews are at the emergency operations center. they are at the fire stations, and really on stand by for any emergencies that may arise and

to be prepared and ready to get out when the storm passes. >> john: mayor brenda bethune of myrtle beach, thank you for taking time out of what is an extraordinarily busy day to talk to the folks in south carolina. we wish you a lot of luck for the rest of the afternoon. appreciate it. >> thank you so much, and thank you. >> john: thank you. >> devastating to see our beautiful green jewel and the disastrous conditions that we have. it, you know, we are a beautiful community and we'll rebuild and thank goodness it's just structures and homes and our yards, but it's devastating to see our community this way. >> gillian: the mayor of naples, florida saying the town is starting to pick up the pieces slowly now after the worst of hurricane ian has come and gone.

that town is just south of fort myers why the then category 4 storm ian first made landfall. also where we find lauren blanchard, live on the ground. lauren, what are you seeing this hour? >> well, gillian, we can really see how powerful this storm was. take a look at this. this boat pushed up out of the water, wedged in between the dock here. the manager tells me this bench comes from a park a half mile away and now the manager, at the venetian isle in naples, they are trying to clean up. you can see what the storm has done to this community, all of this waste, there are doors they say they have no idea where they came from, but debris all over. let me show you this. this is the water mark, the manager here says they think they got about 16 feet of storm surge inside all of these homes. first floors completely decimated. and it's the sludge really,

really slippery, cars, any car parked in these garages, completely a total loss at this point. thankfully most of the residents in this community left, but one did not. 87-year-old gentleman did not leave. i'm told by his daughter he spent nine hours in waist deep water until someone with a paddleboard was able to come and get him. thankfully he is ok, gillian, but is obviously very shaken. >> wow, and lauren, when you talk to folks out and about today trying to pick up pieces, trying to assess the damage to their homes, businesses, cars, boats, what is the number one concern you are hearing from people? >> honestly at this point, they are just so stunned. the gentleman, don, the manager here, he's been here 14 years, he has never seen anything like this. couldn't imagine it could even happen. so at this point they are not sure where to get some of their

supplies, how do you even begin to rebuild, how do you begin to clean all of this up. already inside wood floors i saw inside some of these units that he showed me, they are already buckling so have to be completely ripped out. all of the cars that were parked in the garage destroyed. so thankfully no lives lost here, but a lot of property lost, completely gutted and at this point where do you even begin. that's the concern. >> gillian: it's hard to imagine. lauren blanchard, we'll check back to you. thanks very much. >> john: and as a homeowner, it's a frustrating process as well. you have to take the house back to the cinder block and then rebuild it and when you have it -- everybody -- >> gillian: the insurance p payout.

>> john: and everybody is trying to do the same thing, and then shady contractors come in and gouge you, you have to feel for the people. not only have they lost so much, not only been so inconvenienced by not being able to go back to their homes and find someplace else to live, they have to go through the process of rebuilding. >> gillian: interesting to hear, when i asked lauren what the biggest concern is, she said they are still in shock, like processing a death. it's a while before people can take concrete action and planning for their futures in a meaningful way. >> john: and they are the ones fortunate enough the house is still intact. something to go back to at some point. all the poor people in the mobile home parks, their place of residence was destroyed as steve was showing us yesterday. we should mention we are waiting for the president to make remarks about the hurricane, the roosevelt room, he should be there in a couple minutes. the president has approved a disaster declaration ahead of time for the commonwealth of virginia. the storm will be heading up our

direction, virginia across the potomac on the weekend, and expected not to bring a lot of wind damage but a lot of rain, and in the southwestern part of the state, very mountainous, eastern tennessee as well and on up into kentucky, and real danger there, gillian, of flash flooding, the full story has yet to be told. >> gillian: federal response, disaster declaration issued by the president, florida, for south carolina and georgia, and now virginia, interestingly yesterday governor desantis had requested president biden grant fema the special authorization to cost share with the state for damage repair. he agreed to it. waiting now to see, you know, if this storm is going to hit south

carolina's coast as hard as it looks like and the weather folks look like it's going to, are they going to make a similar kind of request, is the president going to grant it. he has been saying over and over again since days before the storm even hit that he was going to be there every step of the way to support these states. we are all in this together. >> john: and going to be a lot of states involved by the time this thing finally blows itself out. even though it's just a category 1 storm hitting the coast compared to a cat 4 storm, obviously the wind damage, water damage not near as much but can still wreak havoc. bryan norcross is with us, we may have to jump out quickly, what are we expecting for myrtle beach as we see on the right-hand side of the screen? >> myrtle beach is lucking out. they will get storm surge there, but we are waiting on the landfall. i drew a circle here to kind of estimate where i think the circulation, it's hard to tell

with the storm disorganizing itself, but the landfall when the center of the circle, more or less, comes ashore, and you can see how close it is. >> john: bryan -- >> seems like the storm has stalled. >> john: hang on just for a second, here is the president. >> hours away from hitting south carolina. some parts have hit. update you on what we have done since i last spoke to you on this 24 hours ago. i directed that every possible action be taken to save lives and get help to survivors. because every single minute counts. it's not just the crisis for florida, it's an american crisis. we are all in this together and i have spoken to governor desantis on multiple occasions, as well as this morning, as well as mayors and county officials both republican and democrat from places most affected and i spoke with governor mcmaster of south carolina this morning as well. last night i received a request for emergency declaration from governor mcmaster which i

approved right away. just as i did for florida. this allows for immediate federal funding for the state to shelter people and provide other essential support. by approving it early ahead of the storm's landfall in south carolina we can get supplies in and provide shelter if necessary. my message to the people of south carolina is simple. please listen to all the warnings and directions from local officials and follow their instructions. as you all know, the situation in florida is far more devastating. we are just beginning to see the scale of the destruction. likely to rank among the worst of the nation's, and worst in the nation's history. you have all seen on television homes and property wiped out. it's going to take months, years to rebuild. and our hearts go out to all those folks whose lives have been absolutely devastated by the storm. america's heart is literally

breaking just watching people watch it on television. i just want the people of florida to know we see what you are going through and we are with you. we will do everything we can for you. i say to the rest of america, just imagine yourself in that situation. water rising, walls collapsing, streets turned literally into rivers, charter boats on top of automobiles, watching the home and the community you worked so hard to establish literally washed away. and folks across the country are now waiting to hear from parents and grandparents who live in florida, just hoping and praying they are ok. at my direction, we predeployed the largest team of search and rescue experts in recent history. because so many of the rescuers need to take place now, need to be there in place now in the water now.

coast guard as well, fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, boats, at it again today. working with the defense department, national guard, state and local first responders, they have rescued 117 people on the southwest florida coast in fort myers and naples so far. this morning i spoke with lieutenant commander of the coast guard, christopher hooper, leading the search-and-rescue operation there. he emphasized this is one fight. everyone working together, coast guard, defense department, customs and border patrol, florida fish and wildlife, local officials, they are doing everything they can to rescue people. he said mr. president, we will not rest at night until we know they are safe and sound. he talked about how they rescued a 94-year-old woman who had the courage to be hoisted up into a

helicopter, the wind blowing, and as well as a 1-month-old baby. not the same time, but a 1-month-old baby as well. and so much in between. he also spoke to aviation survival -- i also spoke to second class technician second class, zach lech, described how difficult the decision for people to leave everything and come to safety. i told him how proud of him i was, and thanked him for all the work he and his coasties are doing to save lives. i'm grateful for the brave women and men, federal, state and local folks working so hard, working as one team, you hear that from the governor as well as federal folks. in the past 24 hours, my administration has approved four more counties in florida for individual disaster assistance, in addition to the nine counties we had announced yesterday. and what that means is the federal government is covering every cost, 100% of the coast,

to clear the massive debris left in the wake of the hurricane in these counties. and all needs to be cleared out for communities to begin the hard work of trying to get back on their feet. that declaration also means that we will cover all the extra cost for emergency personnel who are saving lives and providing for public safety. because phone lines and internet might go out, fema is registering people directly, directly to be able to get help. setting up disaster recovery centers and shelters across the state to get survivors registered for the help they need as quick as they can possibly get it. if you can't get to a center, we are sending out mobile teams in the communities to meet people where they are. getting the power back on is also critical. i want to recognize, this is i think impressive, 44,000 utility workers and restoration personnel from 33 states and the

district of columbia. working around the clock to get power back on for millions of floridians who have lost it. i've ordered more than 400 personnel from the army corps of engineers to florida with more than 250 generators to enable power supplies for key locations like hospitals and shelters. and last night my homeland security advisor met with electric sector leaders to ensure they are cooperating with owners and operators of the grid so nothing will stand in the way of getting the power back on. yesterday i was briefed by the leaders of fema, coast guard, the army corps of engineers and other organizations at the tip of the spear right now. i directed them to provide me with information on where housing and health facilities and power and self-service and other critical infrastructure has been most effective so we can prioritize and focus our efforts and expand them where the help is needed the most.

in addition, to what we are doing for florida and south carolina, we remain focused on recovery efforts in puerto rico as well. i will say it as long as we are going to stay with it, and stay at it, as long as it takes. i spent a lot of time with people in the aftermath of disasters. i have immense gratitude for the first respondsers and emergency crews who always show up no matter what. times like these americans come together, they put aside politics, they put aside division, we come together to help each other because we know if we are us, we just lost our homes or loved one, we would hope people would show up to help us as well. red cross volunteers, volunteers as far away as oregon and the dakotas, and utility workers from minnesota and nebraska and vermont, have traveled to florida in the past few days to help do whatever they can.

that's america. that's who we are. we are going t keep doing everything we can, and we'll do it as the united states of america. so, god bless all of you who are hurting, may god protect the troops and all those brave souls risking their life for fellow americans. and one more thing. i want to also speak to mr. putin's remarks this morning. you know, america and its allies, emphasize, are not going to be intimidated, are not going to be intimidated by putin and his wreckless words and threats. he's not going to scare us and he, or intimidate us. putin's actions are a sign he is struggling, a sham referendum he carried out, and this routine he put on, don't worry, it's not on there if you are looking, ok, it's -- the sham routine that he put on this morning showing unity and you know, his people holding hands together, well, the united states is never going

to recognize this. and quite frankly, the world is not going to recognize it either. he can't seize his neighbor's territory and get away with it. simple as that. and they are going to stay the course. going to continue to provide military equipment so ukraine can defend itself, including additional resources congress is going to give me today of 13 billion more dollars to help ukrainians defend themselves and fight back. and we are fully prepared to ci defend, i wantou to say this again, america is fully you ha prepared -- the territory. every single, and so mr. putin,n don't misunderstand what i'm saying. ever y inch, and i have to be i clos ie touch with our allies,

are announcing now sanctions io today as well including new authorities to sanction anyone who provides political or ic economic support to russia's fraudulent territorial claims. and i've been in close touch with ourin nato allies who are united in our resolve to take on his aggression. i thank you all very much. you also asked me earlier about the pipeline, and let me say this. it was a deliberate act of sabotage and now the russians are pumping out disinformation and lies. we work with our allies to get to the bottom of exactly, precisely what happened, and my direction have already a begun help ourun allies enhance the protection of this critical infrastructure and at the appropriate moment when things calmmo down, we are going to se divers down to find out exactly what happened. we don't know that yet, exactly, but we are not, just don't d listen to what putin is saying.

what he's saying we know is not true. thank you very much. >> john: president biden talking about the nord stream pipeline, a couple of explosions, it's believed sabotagplose is behind explosions and the president talking about puti tn and his ceremony today to announce the annexation of four regions in the eastern ukraine saying it's a sham, we are not going to recognize it t, and we are not going to be intimidated. >> gillian: also said we are noa going to take putin's word at face value, which is a good thing. we will sendd divers there as soon as we can to find out t what's going on underneath the water, see what's goinderng on. a lot of people will have their eyes hav trained on that, becau that is something that is going tos impact not just energy prir acrossic western europe, even he in america. >> john: and with the winter looming, big problems. >> gillian : a difficult time. >> john: back to the hurricane coveragene, bryan norcross.

we were talking just before we had to go to the president there about three myrtle beach area a why you think it may not be as bad as it potentially might be. >> they have been lucky up until now. right now, let me take that circle tha off, i was going to about landfall, but what flared up just since we were talking a moment ago, john, you can see this bright red area, sort of comparable to what we had seen near charleston where they had 84 mile an hour wind gust. so, what had been happening is dry air, you can kind of make out, nothing out here, dry air had been wrapping into the system and that had been affecting myrtle beach, but looks like just as the system is making landfall, which sometimes happens, is tightening up a bit and we are seeing, i think this is part of what is loosely an eyewall right there that comes around and then loosely over to there, and then of