morning on philip meta. good to be with you i'm frances rivera and welcome to the special edition of early today as we bring you the latest on hurricane ian. storm as we can from a category four to a one. it is still packing a powerful punch as it slowly turns north. more than 2 million power outages are being reported across the sunshine state plunging cities into darkness as the storm flooding threat rages on. and amid landfall in the fort myers area, storm surge

completely submerging buildings. full extent of the damage will be measured in the coming days and weeks maybe beyond. but we were told overnight that they are getting a sense that the community has been decimated. >> the hurricane is cutting it devastating path through central florida at this hour. the national weather service warning of widespread catastrophic flooding. orlando really beginning to feel the storms power overnight. standing by throughout florida ready to give us live updates on the storms impact. >> turning now to tampa where hurricane ian was originally forecast to hit the city head on. the storms powerful winds drained massive amounts of water from tampa bay causing rivers storm surge. from this we bring in alison barber who is on the ground right there. alyssa, good morning, give us a sense, do residents feel the they've dodged the worst of the storm now? >> francis there were some very scary moments in the days,

hours moments leading up to hurricane ian making landfall. but last night you had the mayor of tampa saying even though it was early in the evening and while she didn't think the impacts of the hurricane had totally cleared out from this area, she felt like tampa bay area dodged a bullet. those were the words that she used. ultimately what we saw happen here is what did happen in the early evening, 5 pm early in the evening. we do feel some intense winds and heavy rain. but all of that fairly quickly seemed to die down, instead sending zeroed simply come. where we are in this county hills berry county, over 200,000 homes and businesses without power. it seems like that pales in comparison as to what other parts of the state are dealing with. ultimately what could we could see here into happens that this becomes a vital first stop, a

vital resource for aid they need to go to other parts of the state that would be more heavily impacted.

see it maintain its strength.

thank you so much for putting this up. where we see this green floodwaters portions of florida under a flood watch into georgia, also the carolinas a flash flood warning, that is in red, that is because we are seeing very heavy rain falling right now. it is nighttime a lot of people are gonna wake up some, homes maybe washed away. some homes will be never the same as to what they saw yesterday. it is gonna be a tough day and we will continue to see this heavy rain falling. let's talk about the flash flood, because that is the big story right now. right along the coast here, there's a high risk, that's a hot pink color, the doctor killer is red that's a moderate risk. that will continue this thursday into friday. also looking at a chance for

the potential of some strong storms. tornadoes, they would be brief, but powerful. the impacts here, we saw this yesterday all day long, roads turning into rivers, that's gonna be the case again today. this is far from over. we're looking at today into the weekend into the carolinas and then eventually into the atlantic. >> the toughest part seeing those cars just slowly being inundated and then totally submerged on top of those vehicles. michelle, we'll check with in the funeral but thank you. >> let's get an official on the ground response to ian. we want to go to charlie justice, in st. petersburg, tampa and clear water. commissioner, welcome. what is the situation in pinellas county right now? >> good morning. pinellas we have saint pete in clearwater are two big cities, tap days across a day in hillsboro but we're trying to balance everyone's thoughts because we really have dodged

the catastrophic event are using in south florida down and charlotte and the county. it is an event but it is not anything like the catastrophic event like we thought it might be just 48 hours ago. so we've got folks telling them to shelter in place still, we have 184,000 residences without power, we still have about 5500 folks in shelters, so we've got an impact, we've got a saturated ground, about heavy winds, gusts 40 50 60 miles per hour, knocking over some trees and power lines, that kind of thing. again, we had an event, and people should be very cautious and shelter in place, it's nothing like what it could mean and what our neighbors said to the south are seeing. >> that's the tough part for some of these residents. even though you telling them to shelter in place. i'm sure the desire for so many these people as i want to get home, it's not that bad we've dodged this one.

when you think that may change? is it in the daylight, when the sun comes out? >> absolutely. we've had crews out through the night and we expect at 4 am some of our reviews. we need daylight to be able to see where do we have flooding, where we have those power lines down. we need to make sure that we don't have any bridge damage. we have barrier islands, and beaches that most people are familiar with. we want to make sure that the ground is safe before people head back in. give us a little time, let us get to daylight. tomorrow is gonna be a better day so hopefully folks will heed that call. >> all right, charlie justice from the commissioners from pinellas county. thank you for joining us this morning. >> early today is back in a minute with continuing coverage, we are live in the ground in orlando where hurricane orlando is unleashing relentless winds

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across central florida. orlando is getting slammed by torrential rain overnight. we are joined live from orlando. jesse, we were lucky to be even talk to you because he had to locate after the rising water. how are things where you are

right now? >> we are actually on the verge of needing to relocate again. here is why. you can see what is supposed to be a pool deck at the property where we are sheltering. it is now just a pool. the water has been rising and it has gone up step-by-step. here is a little twist about florida as i continue to look around my feet here. slight moment of levity here but also serious concern. there are alligators nearby and some people at this property have been keeping an eye on the facility reminded us of that a short time ago. what is supposed to be a pool dak is now a place where we might have gaiters floating around, and this is always been the concern of orlando. the rain, the wind gusts. we at one point thought it might hit 90 miles per hour. now they're only expected to hit 60 miles per hour but we are looking at the potential

for 30 inches of rain in some areas. we have seen the downward sloping driveway at the front of this property continually racking up the rainfall to the point where the drainage system just isn't going to cut it. we are seeing that in the back here as well. i can tell you at this point the water is flirting with this top step and once it's there it will surely just be moving into this property. it's something we're concerned about from the front as well. thankfully we have the ability to get to a much higher level several floors up. we have looked to where the staircase is to have that evacuation place in place. now they're are people in other parts of the community who may not have been able to get to that evacuation site so people might be hunkering down at home. officials had been hoping that people would get to shelters but at this point we are well point past the point where

officials say people should be on the road, so it's likely the people are likely riding at the storm where they are. just to put a punctuation point in this, what you are seeing the right wind which is not that bad, but this heavy rainfall, this is hours before we expect to see the worst of eons impact in this part of florida, which just speaks to the ferocity, the ferocious nature of this storm and what it continues to do as it makes its way across florida. guys back to you. >> wow, something else. there are concerns, there's flooding, there is the wind but also these gators and other critters that might come. jesse curtis, we appreciate you breaking it down for us, the concern there are now at this hour in orlando. the cities around orlando and southern florida are also feeling the brunt of hurricane ian as it moves to the state. joining us now is angela e.t., city commissioner for the sydney, florida. angela, i want to ask, you are a life long resident of south

florida. how does the hurricane compared to other storms you have seen and how did you apply from what you've learned from past storms to this one? >> let me say this. i was sitting in this same spot, different dining room table during hurricane charlie back in 07, so that the storm we are experiencing right now is coming from the exact same direction. of course it's much bigger. so we learned because we went through three back to back, charlie francis and jean. the population has grown tremendously so we have to accommodate that. we have five shelters that we have open. two of them are pet friendly, so we pretty much have everything accounted for right now and these winds are really hunkering up. the rain is very, very scary. this rain is very scary. we currently have now about

15,000 homes that are without power, which is low compared to other counties like volusia. we were prepared for this as a county. we were prepared for this so we got everything down pat. we did all that we could but this is what we are doing with the, we this is what we have. we will get through this, we will get through this. >> angela like you said, your community has gone through this before. would you say -- first of all we appreciate you joining us and we're so glad you are safe this morning. >> thank you. >> city commissioner, thank you for your time. >> special coverage of hurricane ian will continue throughout the morning. and another check and what else is happening, including vice president harris's trip is to korea. korea.

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coverage of hurricane in there are other headlines making news this hour. vice president kamala harris is in south korea underway to the demilitarized zone between north and south carina. she toured the area after receiving a briefing from u.s. commanders in meeting with u.s. soldiers. sir second last leg of her asia trip. earlier this week she attended japan attending the funeral of slain japanese former prime minister shinjiro abe. on saturday, the kim john fired a ballistic missile off the coast. >> and an icon cleo died yesterday. according to the associated press no cause of death has immediately be made product. some of wraps big names are offering their condolences. ice cube, and tweeted resting

gangsters paradise. porn iv junior, khalil rose to fame in the 90s with the grammy winning gangsters in paradise. julio was 59 years old. >> yankee slugger aaron judge on his way into the record books last night. >> and the three to. jolted to left field. this could be it! sia! he's done! it number 61! he's been chasing >> there it is after seven straight games without a home run, judge finally blasted his 61st of the season tying roger maris is 61 year old american record. after the bleaches 8 to 3. it is mom clapping. judge has seven more games to break the record as the aggies return home tomorrow for a three game series against the orioles. >> next on earlier today, michelle is tracking hurricane

ian as it barrels across florida towards the atlantic. s the atlantic

our meteorologist michelle grossman has been tracking hurricane since its inception but especially throughout the night. michelle, the storm has been very catastrophic. >> it certainly has. we are going to see scenes that we have never seen when the sun comes up. some people go back to homes that are not there is a longer. we'll continue to track the storm. we're looking at very heavy rainfall into thursday, then it's gonna merge over the atlantic, that is gonna take a turn for the carolinas also georgia. so tomorrow the center of the storm makes its third landfall, fully flooding rains. could be some strong storm surge, then it moves into the mid-atlantic by saturday. back to you guys. >> something to watch michelle. or back in just over a minute

with an update for near where the hurricane force made landfall. you're watching early today. re watching early today. kevin: i've fought wildfires for twenty years. here's the reality we face every day. this is a crisis. we need more firefighters, more equipment, better forest management to prevent wildfires and reduce toxic smoke. and we need to reduce the tailpipe emissions that are driving changes to our climate. that's why cal fire firefighters, the american lung association, and the california democratic party support prop 30. prevent fires. cut emissions. and cleaner air. catastrophic flooding we've yes on 30.

already seen flooding somebody and i who is new to florida thought i could ride it. i'll say never again. once i hear that warning, i'm gonna get in that car and get out of here. >> that was a sarasota resident speaking yesterday to our colleague katie tour about his decision estate despite evacuation orders and right at the storm. we want to bring in now the commissioner rick locastro of the county. it's unfortunate we know that

there's similar residence in similar situations who decided to write at the storm. what is your vice to them right now? >> i like to say that was the exception not the rule. there were plenty of people who stayed but i can tell you that our roads were filled with people who stayed accident and did the right thing, got to safe place said higher ground. you don't have to drive to california or colorado. he just needed to get out of the path of the storm to get safe. we had people went over to the other coast and i want to say thank you very much for saving face. when also think the first responders who who responded to folks who are in harm's way. >> we are looking at images from naples and markle island which is your county.

we are talking about images that are astounding with vehicles that are totally submerged. looks like they're floating in a bathtub at this point. talk about how some of the residents there have been riding this out. talk about the ones who have evacuated and, about their experiences. >> so many people were focused on where it's gonna make landfall, and where it's going to go after that. a lot of the meteorologists were saying wherever makes landfall and as you know this hurricane was moving quite a bit and that's when it is so serious, but in the end when it comes to storm surge -- it went into the most vulnerable position for a very dangerous storm surge and that's exactly what we had. what a lot of the meteorologists were saying wherever it makes landfall, whoever is just south of that eye is going to be what they call the dirty part of the storm, the worst part.

that was us. in naples, marco island >> apologize for jumping in but we enough to wrap for a quick break. but i appreciate you coming stay safe. rick locastro. >> our continuing coverage of hurricane right after the break. after th break.

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