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 offshore

somehow. so, anyway, they are getting, this is just south of myrtle beach, down there by garden city, surfside beach on the southern part of the grand strand, just south of the grand strand on down toward georgetown. georgetown in this area here, and then i want to make a note of this spot right here, this is mcclellanville, and behind it is march. it was notorious near hugo, they had a high school that flooded and they had to hang from the rafters and on top of tables and stages to save themselves. looks like right now the center of this broad circulation is going to come ashort, kind of a little face i drew there, isn't it, come ashore somewhere near mcclellanville, right about

there, that puts the worst of the water to the north with the winds like this. the worst of the water into the georgetown area, and just north of georgetown is the famous place, pawleys island, and the pier, a famous attraction there on the island, i've seen the images of that now of the end of the pier being lost and water over the island. so, along this curved coastline here is, it's like a catcher's mitt, it's catching the water. i started to say myrtle beach caught a break because of the weather, but nearby myrtle beach they are getting very, very bad weather right now. a quick check of the wider view of the radar and you can see how far north this, anything that is yellow or red, and especially red, that's really bad, and up in north carolina as well, and one more thing on the storm surge, it's starting to come down a bit. it was over five feet at myrtle

beach. the storm is still pushing the water in but the tide is coming out. so i think the storm has about peaked, pushing the water in. now the tide coming out is going to allow that to slowly, slowly come down because the tides are quite radical up there. about a 4, 5 foot swing in the tide as it heads to low tide. so, you know, mother nature, or the gravity of the sun and the moon are pulling the tide out as the storm is trying to push the tide in. so i think they have reached their peak there along the coast, although there is significant flooding, there is coastal damage that we have seen in pictures so far. john. >> gillian: what do you make, so this follows the trajectory, where is the flood danger the greatest over the coming hours? >> ok, two different kinds of flooding here. first of all, we have the coastal flooding and the coastal flooding is in the area from

north of charleston around that mcclellanville place i was saying on up, 3.2 inches at wrigh wrightsville beach, or 3.2 feet above normal high tide. so you have the coastal flooding, not hurricane hugo coastal flooding but coastal flooding for people that are, or structures that are right along the ocean. and then secondarily to that we have the wind going inland, and adding to that, we have this torrential rain issue. so the wind plus the rain ends up power outages, it makes the ground soggy and it's already been wet. so as the storm goes in, today and tomorrow up into the higher elevations here, this is where we are expecting significant power outages and look at the rain, the rain extends all the way over the weekend, it's going

to extend all the way up to new york city. so a wide, wide area with heavy rain, especially where you see the dark oranges here in virginia on to south carolina and north carolina looks like the heaviest rain and maybe some as far north as new jersey before this is all done. this thing will move out and be gone out of the picture, really, by the end of the weekend. >> john: bryan, we were just talking about that before we went to president biden that he has already approved a disaster declaration for the state of virginia. when we look at that huge swath of rain, that's just enormous. how much rain do we expect it to bring to places like north carolina, tennessee, and virginia, and how long will it be hanging around? >> well, so this rain that we are looking at here is going to take us through the weekend, kind of rain totals. the heaviest rain, and the biggest problem with the rain, i shouldn't say the heaviest rain, the biggest problem with the rain is you know, the rain

amounts, let's say 3 to 8 inches in this orange area. but when you get that in mountainous areas, then you know, it rains over a big area but then it all drains down not river or the creek or the gully or whatever it is and then you have a big flood. it's not like in florida where it's generally flat like we saw the horrendous orlando flooding, there you have rainfall of 20 to 30 inches, and that was the freshwater flooding everywhere. here you can divide that by 3 or 4 and get equivalent flooding but not in a widespread area but down a river basin or down a gully or down some kind of creek that just widens and takes everything in its path. so, this is what we are concerned about, not a hurricane florence, but on top of saturated ground this is a significant rain event, especially in the higher elevations of north carolina and

into virginia. >> john: up here in the d.c. area we have not had a whole lot of rain throughout september so we have some absorption capacity here, so hopefully the rain won't be too bad where we are. bryan, a great update. we'll get back to you later on, thanks. >> gillian: brandon ellis, emergency services director for georgetown county in south carolina. brandon, the twitter handle was warning throughout the morning about the intermittent outages at the emergency management center. can you give us an update how you guys are doing now? >> yes, we are back online, we had, still have some connectivity issues internet-wise and power-wise, but we are fluctuating back and forth between generator power as the storm is moving ashore south of us and making the best out of the situation we have. >> gillian: are folks able to get calls into the call center, is that up and running? >> yes, we have our call center back up and running for the

moment so we are able to respond to the citizens' inquiries as we trudge through the situation and experience the impacts of hurricane ian. >> john: john roberts here. if the storm is going to shore south of where you are, that means you are in the most dirty section of it, and pawleys island, a narrow strip of land, a house and a road wide, that the pier, the end of it collapsed and floated away. what are you expecting in terms of storm surge and on up toward georgetown, the bay, how much water could pile up there and what does it mean for the town of georgetown? >> we were fortunate between 4 to 7 feet of storm surge above ground level, so we are seeing, you know, values in that ballpark. we are experiencing those impacts, and we are receiving information from the flood gauges some new water coming inbound through the bay so

preparing for that. it's really, really severe storm surge, we have been talking about it for days, trying to warn residents to take the right actions and prepare themselves and their property for what was to come. >> john: do you have water in the streets there in georgetown at this point? >> yes, we have water in the streets, down around the bay, we have water that is upwards of 3 to 4 feet in some places from some of the intel we have been getting in the emergency operations center, pawleys island is upwards of four feet on the island itself and continuing to rise. >> sandra: are folks generally heeding the warnings or are you happy with the shelter-in-place follow through so far? >> we are beginning to get those calls from, you know, concerned residents who did stay back in their homes and we are having to go and retrieve some of those as we can, our crews will continue to conduct emergency response operations until conditions warrant that we cannot go out any longer without putting our folks in too much of a risk.

>> john: do you have any idea, brandon, how many people might have stayed on pawleys island? >> we are not sure. we know a good number of them did leave the island during the high tide cycle in anticipation of the severe storm surge. you know, but we are running into, you know, some cases where folks stayed back and now it's a little too much for them to bear, so we are having to retrieve them and bring them to the mainland. >> john: must be difficult, too, considering the entire island is covered in water. just got the pictures from pawleys island police, you see the pawleys island pier, looks like before the hurricane came in and then now with the end of it broken off and floating away. the storm surge is at a level that is impacting some of the infrastructure there. were you able to get everybody who needed to get off off of the island? >> last check before i came in here, yes, we were successful to get the folks who called for

service prior to, but conditions were beginning to deteriorate, the causeways were flooded, so on the verge of having to cease operations from going to the island itself. some of the town folks, or town management folks are still on the island, they have taken up reviewing in the town hall and they are safe and we are in constant communication with them. >> gillian: brandon, we have to leave it there. we appreciate it. >> john: sounds like georgetown is in the bulls eye. steve is live in northport, florida, in sarasota county, live rescues going on. steve, what's happening where you are. >> national guard with live rescues here, a rescue on the jet ski and airboat about to go out as well. can you move over, young man? this airboat is heading out, it's just really to rescue friends. we are getting reports from people here that the water came up pretty quickly, about three

feet over overnight. so we have people trapped out in their houses and they are waiting on enough resources to come here to help them out. this man right here, steve, has elderly parents out there, looks like you are going the wrong direction. can i ask you to look this way and tell me what you are doing, what's your mission today? >> get the supplies back to my father-in-law and mother-in-law and get back to my house, which is probably about a half mile over there. >> half mile there, and you are going to walk it. >> yep. >> what are you bringing them today? >> groceries for the next week. >> for the next week. you think you might be stuck there that long? >> hopefully not. >> pretty much on your own as far as help goes? >> pretty much. >> tell me about the elderly people in the house. why can't they come out? >> my mother-in-law is disabled 100%, that way for 20 years, and my father-in-law had shoulder surgery. >> so you can see, steve, i wish you good luck, i'll walk out part of the way with you.

you can see the activity, people walking on their own, going with their equipment like the airboat to get friends, and also jet skis, national guard here. anything that floats is hiding out to try and help people and heard from steve you have a lot of people who can't make it through three feet of water. disabled people, people who can't fit on canoes, people unable to make the journey, and one after another, slowly national guard going back out there, another 4 to 6 at a time. we have seen probably 30 rescues here and they are continuing throughout this sunny day. back to you guys. >> john: so steve, any idea how many people are left to be rescued? seem to have lost steve's microphone there. can you still hear us? >> so you can see, thomas, turn over here to the right. tensions -- no, i can hear you in and out. >> john: go ahead, steve,

continue. >> you can just -- just watch for a sec. there is some real tension here and some emotions running high. you have people who might not want to leave their house and people basically screaming for help. ok, looks like this woman is concerned about an elderly relative who is refusing to leave and as we see over here, steve just kissed his wife good-bye, and he's off to the in-laws, bringing them chips, soda, trash bags, water, you are not concerned about snakes or anything out there ma'am? >> well, hoping for the best, i have good live insurance on him. >> i know steve is going out there, but you are not. >> no, i've -- i'm out here because i've got my car out here. >> are the elderly people in good health in your house? are they ok? >> i'm a nurse, i was locked up at the hospice house up in lakewood ranch.

>> steve is about waist deep right now. >> i know. he got out here, so i'm pretty sure he can get back. >> it's chest deep we are hearing out there, reports about snakes as well, g dodge rams cannot make it through but the jet ski did. let's see what he is up to. sir, are you on your own helping people out, is that what you are doing? you have a jet ski? tell me what you have done so far, who have you taken out? >> just brought my first one out. >> first one. how do you go about doing it, drive up and down the street. >> see who needs help. >> that's it. >> your own gas, your own jet ski? >> oh, of course. >> what's motivating you, why are you out here today? >> i'm still good in my house in venice, it's tore up up there, but i'm safe. i want to make sure other people are safe. >> you are safe, you want to make sure other people are safe. that's what we are seeing out here. all right, guys. we'll check in in a little bit, as we see the kayak coming in,

looks like he's solo. >> gillian: going to wait to get the kayaker in or say good-bye to steve? all right, we hope steve getting to the in-laws with the week's worth of groceries. molly line is joining us from charleston, south carolina. talk to us about what's going on since we checked in last hour. >> we are still fighting these heavy bands of wind that have been coming through. right now we are having a moment where i can talk to you, gillian. the rain has been coming down, some concerns about flooding, particularly in the downtown and the lower areas and keeping an eye on that. but the bands of wind, over 100,000 people without power, they are working to get the lights back on, and this is the ashley river, runs along the side of charleston, south carolina. we have been watching these boats bobbing in the water, trying to keep things steady.

the dock master is out there tying things back down, and people do seem to be, for the most part, staying off the roads. the james island highway up here, this big bridge, and we have not seen that much traffic. so at least during these really impactful hours, authorities have been begging to stay inside, it does appear for the most part people are going that. we have seen a few pickup trucks here and there over the course of the last hour or so, but the most part people are staying inside and heeding warnings. the big concern in the coming hours now that high tide has left, that the rain continues to fall is the power outages. it's the high winds, the trees down. no reports of major damage in this area at this point in time, and also thankfully no reports of any fatalities. but the storm is far from over. we have hours to go before it moves inland and it is still dumping a lot of water, that's the big fear right now. gillian. >> gillian: molly, stay safe out there, stand by for us. >> john: breaking news,

according to the national hurricane center, ian has made landfall around georgetown, south carolina. we were talking a minute ago with brandon ellis, the emergency services director of georgetown. he said it was going to hit just a little bit south of them, so that would be just a little more toward the isle of palms. apparently it hit about 2:10 with 85 mile an hour winds. joining us now is lieutenant general scott spellman, u.s. army corps of engineers commanding general, we will switch near south carolina, may need them in the days ahead but the most immediate need is in southwest florida. thanks very much for being with us. in terms of priorities here for the army corps of engineers, when you look at the massive damage along that coast, which has been really highlighted i think by when you look at that causeway going out to sanibel island, cut in half, that there is a lot of work ahead. how do you prioritize what goes

first? >> john and gillian, start out by saying thanks for having me on the show and on behalf of all the men and women in the army corps of engineersrs our hearts go out to the people of south carolina as you just reported just made landfall of hurricane ian, the people of florida and puerto rico. we have our experts across the region working in concert with fema, our other federal partners and certainly the states are very, very good at disaster response and we are in a reinforcing role for them. priority right now obviously is life and safety. so for us, capabilities, water, the challenge down in lee county where we have our experts on the ground now working with local officials, certainly getting the power turned back on, under fema we have temporary emergency power, we can hang a large generator on the governor's priority facility. so, say, a hospital, nursing home, wastewater treatment plan,

and then mobility. getting debris off the corridors to allow the first responders to get in and do the lifesaving work. the plate is full at the moment, but full support of the states and we are hard at work and will remain so for the foreseeable future. >> gillian: general spellman, does it cost you any time when the storm moves, you know, landfall, florida, touchdown, not where we initially predicted, where they initially predicted, and looks like it's going to happen in south carolina. how do you reroute the boots on the ground. you strategize where to touchdown, you are in every nook and cranny, talk to you how you navigate that. >> one of the things we learned over many years, we like to preposition our people, experts and tools and equipment. so for ian under fema's leadership, we prepositioned over 100 generators in montgomery, alabama, and those

are on the move in the four zones the florida governor has established, to turn the power back on and additional generators coming in as we speak from texas and from the east coast, and we are going to get those into the impacted zones in south carolina and florida as quick as we can. we take our best guess from the meteorologists on where the storms are going to impact and put our people and our equipment in a safe place. in position we can respond quickly. >> john: lieutenant general, just looking on the left side of the screen here, a live picture of myrtle beach as the hurricane makes landfall, and the waves and the wind have increased substantially there, shaking the camera around, and looks like, i can't tell if it's blowing sand or all water, but looks like some of the water has come over the dune barriers there, and they are pretty substantial, 6 or 8 feet high. so you have the wind driving the storm surge, so looks like you can have some work to do in myrtle beach as well. do you have any idea how long it

is going to take to get that area in southwest florida rebuilt? >> yeah, it's too early to tell. john, you understand most of this area is still full of debris, still underwater and difficult to do a detailed engineering assessment. the focus remains now on life safety and for us the four areas we outlined and we will follow up when the conditions are right and safe for our experts to get in there and look at longer term plans for recovery. right now it's all about the immediate response and saving lives. >> gillian: so saving lives, power regeneration, what's the third big ticket item on the agenda as your folks fan out? >> yeah, i think it's keeping people safe and i had the opportunity to brief the president yesterday, specifically safe from inland flooding. you are showing a lot of coverage of the coastal communities and certainly a lot of damage there, but the water

basins in florida and south carolina, these are slow moving water sheds, so earlier in the week we were reporting on the extensive rainfall, say, south of orlando, and for a drop of water to fall south of orlando, it's three weeks down the river, before it goes to the lake, or four weeks down the river before it hits the atlantic ocean. so the water will be with us for the foreseeable future, impact everyone, population and the responders. st. johns river will not crest until this weekend, and tampa is major flood stage and will be there the next week. please, listen to your elected leaders, listen to your local emergency management officials and heed their warnings. we need everyone to stay safe while we work through this very

complex response. >> john: again we are looking at this picture of the storm coming ashore in myrtle beach, south carolina on the left side of the screen and the camera is really, really bouncing and now. just 85 mile an hour winds, but you can see the 85 mile an hour winds are not the 150 plus that ian was when it came ashore in southwestern florida, but it's giving the area a good ride, no question about that. we'll have to see what the aftermath of that looks like later on today and tomorrow after the storm blows through. lieutenant general, in the past there always were conversations when a storm of this magnitude comes through, should people really be living on those barrier islands and should they live so close to the water. barrier islands are called that for a reason, they keep the bad weather from hitting the mainland, we develop, get wiped out, rebuild, wiped out again and keep rebuilding. is there any conversation about whether or not we should be

living out there, or is that pretty much gone by the wayside? >> our role as the engineer is come up with design solutions, whether it's a coastal project as you are showing here on the feed or maybe it's an inland waterway project, that allows us to deal with the wide swings in weather patterns and changes in precipitation patterns across the country. we have 120 years of data on the missouri river. we think we have a good idea on how that watershed behaves until 2011 came along and record setting floods and some of the challenges we had in early 2019. it did not behave the way it has done historically. so, that's our challenge. how do we design the infrastructure moving forward to deal with the wide swings in precipitation and these ever getting stronger storms. >> john: all right. lieutenant general scott

spellmon, thanks for being with us, great work the army corps of engineers does and you have your work cut out for you. >> gillian: god speed to you, sir. and now rick from the fox weather center. >> storm making landfall just a few minutes ago as an 85 mile an hour storm, second landfall near georgetown, not in charleston, good news for charleston, they are not seeing the storm surge, but to the east or the right side of georgetown getting the significant storm surge. obviously once this storm is at this point, it's kind of in a transition between a hurricane and kind of a normal storm that you get in the northern latitudes, significant rain across virginia and west virginia and parts of southern new jersey. pushing the storm surge away from land right there, it's all

coming on shore, just to the northeast of that. this is a radar picture, heavy rain across interior sections, watch today and into tonight for potential for a lot of -- i shouldn't say a lot of tornadoes, but a big chance for tornadoes across parts of eastern north carolina throughout the afternoon and into tonight. some of those could cause some power outages but in the short-term, over 200,000 homes i believe it is in south carolina, maybe i just saw 180,000 the latest number. the storm surge, wrightsville beach, 2.4 feet of surge, coming down, and springmade pier, you see to the south side of this, the storm surge not an issue for us. take a look at this, wind alerts, wind advisories in effect once you go far inland, places like asheville, boone, the north georgia mountains, a lot of wind and rain, and a lot of that will funnel down and potentially see the threat for some pretty significant flooding

across far interior sections of parts of the southeast. and the case once you get in towards coastal areas, the storm by tomorrow morning, not much of a wind maker at all, its going to rain itself out here and with that flood advisories in effect for a big area here across parts of the mid atlantic. >> john: rick, looking at my weather radar app on the phone, and outer bands of ian are just south of us here in washington, d.c. and looks like there in new york in the next 3, 4 hours you are going to feel the bands as well. it's a huge, huge storm, and just seems to keep pulling up moisture and reinforcing itself. how long is the rain going to last and how much rain are we expecting? >> still into sunday, by midday sunday the most part it's going to be gone. but you notice here, john, a fine sharp line between places we get a lot of rain and places that are not. so new york city, long island is

probably the breakoff from potentially a lot of rain to not so much, but just to the south of that, heavier rain and a lot of people and additional 3 to 5 inches of rain on top of what you have already received, we are concerned about flooding for a lot of people here. but, take a look at that, new england not much rain at all. new york city is right in the cutoff point to the south of that, south jersey for sure, significant rain in d.c. as well, john. >> gillian: rick, how long do you think the transitional phase is going to last. is it possible to predict? >> it doesn't matter at this point. it's happening at this point so the winds are going to die down very quickly by the time we get to tonight, winds will be significantly down from where they are. still winds gusting 40 miles an hour, 50 miles an hour, that can knock some trees over, especially in ground that is saturated and ground that's getting a lot of the moisture right here. but we are in the process now. thankfully this is the last that we are going to have to deal with ian over the next, say, day

and a half. we have been dealing with this for a long time now. but here you go, we still have at least all of this water that we have to get through. tropical systems, warm systems in general and warm air holds more water. a tropical flow, a tropical system, you get a lot more rain than normally in the winter if you get a cold rainstorm that comes through, those systems don't hold as much moisture but tropical systems hold a lot of moisture and therefore all the moisture will rain itself out here. >> gillian: john pointing out a minute ago, rick, the water from the storm will touch you in new york city, touch us here in washington, d.c., it is a big storm. rick, stand by for us, we will check back, thanks so much. >> john: phil keating live in fort myers beach, florida. rick was saying, phil, we will deal with the storm to come, the aftermath of the storm is much longer and you are really kind of demonstrating the impact of this storm because you are

standing on a boat that used to be moored up on the estero bay side of fort myers. how did it get where you are now? >> hurricane winds combined with most importantly, storm surge. this is a 50 ton boat, captain mike owns this one and another one behind it. he an uses them as air b and b's for tourists. all of them were in the water, all of them tied to the pylons. used to be docks here. the storm surge was 12 to 15 feet, raising the boats and the ropes tying them together so then they became untied at the mercy of the storm surge. we went walking around the boat with captain mike earlier today. he said really did not suffer all that much damage. he thinks this boat in particular is salvageable, he's been doing this for years down here, but he's from ohio, been

through hurricanes before, but suddenly he's got a much greater respect for the power of a hurricane storm surge. >> when that second wave came in, all hell broke loose. >> next thing you know you are on the road. >> cruising across the parking lot fast. >> you were scared. >> no, the boat is solid steel, not thinking there is any risk there. >> power is a big impact. 85% of lee county, no electricity down here in lee county. and this guy just showed up, you can see the power lines are damaged -- and it's great. they are here, everybody wants them here, everybody wants to get electricity back, but as it is right now, in this county, charlotte county, sarasota

county, and parts of collier county, they just don't have power, they don't have water, and so they have already rescued about 700 people on the hard hit barrier islands, but the governor said today that 3,000 have been contacted, however they are not waving for help, please rescue me, they are good, they have enough supplies. they rode out the storm, they will ride it out further, and all of this is going to take forever to klein, it's going to be a long, long time before fort myers beach, the proper beach with the white sand that the tourists and honeymooners come to is said to be perhaps the most devastated one of all these barrier islands. john and gillian. >> gillian: phil, stand by for us, thanks very much. >> john: i mean -- what an impressive demonstration the power of the storms with phil on top of the 50 ton boat, it's up on dry land, basically on the

roadway there. let me show you where phil is. here is the area around fort myers. this is fort myers beach down here, and that's where phil was. and captain mike's boat was probably moored somewhere in along here inside estero bay. so saying wasn't the wind coming this way? how would it blow a boat in the bay back up on top of the land there? well, what happens is when the storm comes in, again, the circulation is counterclockwise like this, that's basically the way the storm came in. when the storm moves past, the circulation is counterclockwise like this, so all of that wind starts to blow storm surge down this way as well, and that's what lifts the boats up out of the water. also storm surge that came over as well which probably helped flood the entire area. this here is sanibel island, we know there was so much destruction, really as highlighted by the causeway here, which was literally cut in half, and it's going to take weeks before that gets repaired because it was not just a section of bridge that could be

dropped back in, it was actually a sandbar that the roadway was built across and that entire sandbar was washed out. so likely the army corps of engineers, lieutenant general spellmon's organization will be involved in this, and trucking in tons and tons and tons of sand to rebuilt that spit of land to rebuild the causeway. so sanibel there, captiva island here, north captiva, this area here, boca grande, which was hit very hard as well. this area here is placida, where steve was during the hurricane when it hit, bringing us incredible pictures. what's really kind of surprising is even though the hurricane went up this way and you would have expected storm surge to go up the gasparilla sound here, not a lot of water came up, and not a lot of flooding in pun da gorda. however, here in fort myers, a tremendous amount of flooding.

marinas in here, lots of boats all broken up, and now on the ground again and they are going to have to be taken off as everything else is cleaned up. when you look at it, this is such an amazingly vulnerable area. again, as i was talking with the lieutenant general, these are called barrier islands for a reason. they take the brunt of a storm when it comes in off the gulf of mexico. those are developed now with billions of dollars in real estate and very much the same way here in the south carolina coast as well. when you take a look along charleston, there is kiowa island, folly island, isle of palms, billions of dollars of real estate. if that got a direct hit from a powerful hurricane, that would all be wiped out. where we are right now with hurricane ian is here is georgetown right there, and this is where the storm came ashore right in there, that area. so, georgetown as we were talking about the emergency management director is getting the brunt of it, it's really on the dirty side of that storm and

there is this inlet here and all of the water is piling up in that inlet. they do have water on the ground, i've seen a webcam in there, there is water on the streets in georgetown. so, full story has yet to be told. we also saw some webcam video of myrtle beach where you see a lot of water, looks like it has topped the dunes and gone inland, don't know the extent of damage. it won't be as substantial as in florida, but it is going to take a while to get that whole area cleaned up, because there is so much development literally from cape fear here through what's called the grand strand, down into georgetown, pawleys island, this is wildlife sanctuary and then charleston with the really, really high end real estate. this is the area that took the brunt of the storm here. we'll see how much damage was done. >> gillian: doug is in charleston, south carolina. are you there?

>> hello there, we are in charleston, south carolina and the winds are strong but it has slacked off somewhat. the storm seems to be moving away, but we have been seeing the bands move through through the course of the day, the wind kicks up and then slacks off somewhat, but it's interesting from this vantage, we are right next to a marina, and point out a couple of things we are seeing here. first of all, if you look over there, you'll see a dinghy that is partially submerged, and then beyond that, a lot of boats, virtually all the boats are still here, but some of the sails have come loose, you see that one billowing out there, shredding a bit. a couple of boats have some shredded sails out here. now, the good news for the boat owners, despite the fact they left the boats here and through this hurricane, these docks are floating, so they have been able to rise and fall with the tidal

surge and with the storm surge. so from that standpoint, they seem to have weathered the storm fairly well. charleston itself, however, is so low, low country, they call it around here, that the storm surge combined with the high tide can really push the water into low-lying areas. charleston is a city that floods even from just a routine high tide. so, you combine this, and that's been their concern throughout this storm is not so much the wind but being inundated with water in the low-lying areas, which is why we have seen a lot of residents putting sandbags down, and also seen a lot of residents taking their cars to parking garages. the city made all the parking garages downtown free, so there's a line of cars to get into some of these, and people have been trying to get their cars up above any potential flooding so they can survive the storm. so, that's the situation here. things do seem to be easing, brightening up even slightly, so this is a change from what we have seen through the course of

the morning here but ian has certainly been heard and felt here in charleston. back to you guys. >> john: yeah, but you know, they really did dodge a bullet again. they have not had a direct hit from a hurricane, doug, since hurricane hugo in 1989, which is a good thing for charleston, they were so decimated by that hurricane. have you talked to folks what their fears were, plans were, did they consider leaving, decided to stay? >> this is anecdotal, the folks we talked to decided to stay, and in fact, you mentioned hurricane hugo, we were at a walmart yesterday and the walmart greeter, very nice guy, was talking about making it through hugo and some of these folks made it through that storm and category 1 or tropical storm they thought it would be and shrug their shoulders. exactly what officials say not to do, you want to get to higher

ground, but a lot of folks were determined to ride the storm out, just like in florida. there are a lot of gristled hurricane veterans out here. >> john: anybody who rode out hugo knows the power of the storm and treat them with a lot respect. we are going to take a quick break, right back with more on putin's threat to the west after his declared annexation of four regions in eastern ukraine.

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>> john: more on hurricane ian in a moment, first the seismic threat from the russian leader. >> gillian: vladimir putin annexing four regions of ukraine, quick condemnation from the west. >> john: trey, what's being said in kyiv and in russia. >> john, good afternoon. a very concerning development today as russian president vladimir putin announced the annexation of occupied ukrainian territory. there's a real understanding here that this is a new and dangerous chapter in the conflict.

>> at a ceremony in moscow, putin signing a decree that makes four ukrainian regions part of russia. under the guise of legitimacy, pageantry under scoring putin's need to tell his own people of a victory. >> i'm sure the federal gathering will support the creation of four new regions of russia, four new subjects of russian federation. >> annexation will not be recognized, even by russia's closest allies, like serbia and kazakhstan have vowed not to accept the results of the see elections, and slaughtering the very people they claim as their own. bodies of innocent ukrainians amid the wreckage, the grim reality of the on going invasion. ukrainian troops continue in the

occupied territory, a supply city is expected to be back in ukrainian hands within days as soldiers grind forward with artillery support. >> this afternoon, president biden reacted to president putin's annexation call it a sham routine. and the second general said the most serious escalation since the war began, he's right. the russians are losing momentum in the battle and vladimir putin is threatening to use nuclear weapons. john. >> gillian: trey, this is gillian with john in d.c. this kind of puts page to the claims out of russia and putin defenders last year before the invasion began a response to alleged nato expansion, doesn't it. >> absolutely. and you heard that today during the remarks in moscow. vladimir putin is trying to point a finger at the west, blaming them for everything that

goes wrong in this conflict, and also everything that goes wrong across europe. he blamed the west for the nord stream 1 and 2 pipeline leaks that are taking place right now there, is no evidence that the west is behind that sabotage. the europeans believe that this is one of many things in the coming weeks that could be a step up on the escalation ladder, and it is something to watch out for. vladimir putin in these remarks today expressing anger with the united states. many analysts who have watched vladimir putin speak for years, for decades, have discussed what today's remarks meant. annexed ukrainian territory in a legal violation of international law and even his closest allies, kazakhstan, serbia, chinese, are not weighing in. putin is painting himself into a corner. >> john: putin has never cared a lick for international law, a

convenient foil for putin to blame the west but his own problems at home with the draft. he's got tens of thousands of draft-age men and draft age is basically from 18 to 65, fleeing the country. protests in the streets and he even had to kind of back off a little bit in recent days. >> absolutely. the russian leader announced the partial mobilization of 300,000 reservists and almost immediately people tried to flee the country. there are still at this hour lines of cars at the finnish border and the border to georgia because people are trying to leave the country at all costs. they are getting on planes, taking trains internally to get to the borders because they don't want to be sent to ukraine to die. and the ukrainians are making very clear that they welcome a russian surrender for the new untrained reservists, and they understand it's a critical turning point in the conflict. vladimir putin is facing immense

internal pressure and not only the reservists fleeing the country, but also protests in large cities like st. petersburg and moscow putting renude pressure and urgency to make decisions and part of the reason the entire world is watching the war right now, concerned that vladimir putin may try to escalate in order to deescalate part of the russian playbook, something could take the conflict to a whole other level. john, gillian. >> gillian: tray, the entire world is watching and concerned, the u.s. has a billion dollar plus aid package to ukraine. you get the sense from the european allies the latest move from putin is firing up concern, firing up motivation to take more action? >> absolutely. concern if vladimir putin keeps climbing the escalation ladder it could lead to nato

involvement. today satellite images showing russian bombers recently moved near the finnish border. one of many indications the russians are prepared if it does escalate to a broader conflict. and due to article 5 in nato, a collective response and part of what we have seen from the biden administration so far since the war began. americans and the europeans are trying to work hand in glove together to push back against russian aggression and the threats being made and the point that the nato secretary general tried to make today and under score that if the west gives in to these nuclear threats by vladimir putin, that he won't stop with ukraine, and that he ultimately could expand this conflict and set a precedent for authoritarian leaders that you can take territory from neighbors and there won't be a joint response from the west, and that's exactly what the americans and the europeans are trying to avoid. >> john: all right, trey yingst

with the latest, thanks. hurricane ian making landfall this hour in south carolina around georgetown, a little north of charleston. this, of course, after leaving a trail of devastation in the state of florida. transportation secretary pete buttigieg is going to be a big part of the recovery effort and joins us now. mr. secretary, thanks for being with us. appreciate it. i imagine the biggest job of the transportation department right now is to get the airports in the area back up and running, some are open, some remain closed. where are you with that? >> yes, so the latest information i have now is that both orlando and tampa are back open for flight operations but we also see fort myers, daytona beach still closed, don't yet have timing for when those will be back online. as you know, a severe impact there and that's something that affects both the ability to maintain air traffic control, which you have to have in order to have safe flight operations and we are getting assessments on other equipment owned by the

faa, like the equipment and the runways that allows for safe instrument landing key to getting that up and running. they can move pretty quickly. we have mobile assets that can come into play and support air traffic operations when a tower is still evacuated or unusable, but still getting some damage assessments and closely watching what is going to happen as the storm makes its way toward south carolina. >> gillian: mr. secretary, obviously you don't have an exact answer for us, are we talking months or years when it comes to rebuilding some of these bridges that are the primary only thoroughfares to some of the outlying barrier islands? >> well, as you have noted, in some cases we are talking about the only way to get vehicles into and out of these communities, and there was a major, major damage to assets like the sanibel causeway. so, that is still being assessed but we are going to make sure the resources are available as

quickly as possible. we have an authority, especially now that the president has directed this whole of government effort working in partnership with the governor and the state and everybody there on the ground, we can work with the state on what's called emergency relief, quick release funding and to give you a sense of the timeline, as you know, it was just a few days ago that that hurricane fiona struck puerto rico, they are still very much dealing with the impacts of that and we have been able to get about $8 million on the move to help with that. so similarly in a matter of days, more specific damage assessments leading to the florida dot making a determination what they need first and when, we'll be there to help as quickly as we can. >> john: the other day as the lrn was coming in, the president warned the major oil companies don't take advantage of this to gouge people on prices. fuel is going to be a huge issue for all of those people trying to get around the area and wondering in your experience, have you ever known the major oil companies to take advantage

of a hurricane to gouge people? >> look, any time that there are disasters there are people who take advantage of that, when it's a large or small organization, hopefully that is not happening in this case. if there are any reports of that, they'll be taken very seriously by the administration, and where it violates laws it will be prosecuted. i'll tell you right now the biggest thing i'm seeing is an inspiring response. so many people are doing the right thing. i just saw a statistic, there are utility workers from 33 different states on the ground, about 44,000 people working to get power restored. we are seeing the way non-profit groups alongside federal, local government agencies, first responders are all part of the solution. my hope is that everybody will seek to be part of the solution when it comes to recovering from what is clearly a shocking, shocking and heartbreaking tragedy still unfolding for

those in the path of the storm. >> john: mr. secretary, i've been to more of these covering on the ground than i would like to remember and i've seen obviously episodes of people in the local level selling generators or whatever, maybe cans of fuel gouging people, you have contractors, unscrupulous who come in and they gouge people but i've never known chevron or exxon or bp to gouge people and wondering why the president would even say that. >> look, again i think the president cares very deeply about making sure that americans are treated well and fairly, supported. sometimes when there is a terrible situation that's also, unfortunately, viewed as a business opportunity. but his hope, and all of our expectation is that any company, large or small, will act responsibly and do everything they can to be part of the solution. >> gillian: mr. secretary, the president has been emphasizing for days before the storm even hit that the federal government

will work hand-in-hand with the state on this. the president said we'll be with you every step of the way. do you anticipate the biden administration granting a cost sharing arrangement with south carolina in the wake of the storm touching down there this afternoon as they have in place with florida. are you guys considering that? >> so i won't get ahead of any formal disaster authority that might be coming down the line. what i will say is that you are going to continue to see a determination by the administration, again at a whole of government level, whatever department you are in, whatever part of the administration we are in to try to help. we have seen that with the work that's going on in puerto rico, we are seeing that certainly right now in florida, and yes, you can expect whether we are talking about what fema does, my department can do, or anything that can happen to help that we are going to continue pushing and make sure right now people are trying to safely survive this storm and then as the recovery and the longer term

work begins, you are going to continue to see that partnership of state and local. it is beyond state, local and federal. it's beyond the dividing lines of different levels of government, certainly beyond politics. we are here to make sure anybody impacted by the storms is supported, and not just today but for the long run. >> john: mr. secretary, a few seconds left here. subject of partnerships, as you partner with the state of florida and its governor, desantis, the massachusetts congressional delegation has sent you a letter urging you to investigate his sending of migrants to martha's vineyard, what's your response to that in the middle of this? >> we are always getting requests to make sure the law is being followed. we are obviously going to meet our responsibilities there. right now our focus certainly when it comes to this emergency and when it comes to florida is to team up and work as effectively as we can to benefit anybody who has been impacted by

this storm. >> gillian: mr. secretary, thank you for taking the time today. we wish you the best. >> john: we will continue to watch and bring you the story all weekend long. i'm john roberts. >> gillian: >> thanks. good afternoon. i'm trace gallagher in for martha maccallum. hurricane ian making landfall moments ago in south carolina where the most life threating storm surge is expected over the next few hours. myrtle beach now experiencing some of its highest water levels ever recorded. hundreds of thousands in south and north carolina without power now and that is the case for almost two million people in florida. about a quarter of them in hard hit lee county. the sheriff of that county joins us in moments. and senator lindsey graham is as south carolina now feels ian's wrath.