good morning. welcome to this special edition of early today. we bring you the latest on hurricane ian. storm has weakened from a category 4 to a 1. it is still packing a powerful punch as it slowly turns north. 2 1/2 million power outages report add cross the sunshine state. plunging cities into darkness as a flooding threat rages on.

>> in port charlotte is just north of where ian made land fall. they were hit from above and below. the storm surge flooded the emergency room and tore apart the fourth floor roof which is where theic intensive care unit is. doctors there forced to evacuate the hospital's sickest patients. >> the top of the hour, ian is posing a serious flash flooding risk. it movesin closer to orlando. the he feblgts are being felt along the west coast. this is video here from daytona beach. this morning we haveon an nbc tm covering it all over florida. standing by to give us live updates of the impact of ian. >> we're getting a clear look at just how hard hurricane ian hit cuba. let's bring in our reporter. what more can you tell us about the conditions on the island. >> good morning. what's going on in cuba is an

unmitigated disaster. and as we remember that ian slammed into cuba, a cat 3 hurricane focusing primarily on this area. it is the center of cuban f cigars. it was devastating. as of today, this is cording to the cuban government,di the cub government is the, only sourcef information in that country. so according to the cuban e government, two deaths to report. the devastation is just widespread. just the effects of this and just think of an island going through a cat 3 hurricane. and yet we saw groups of cubans take to the seas on rafts and on boats to try and get out of that

island. one capsized off the stock island here in the florida keys yesterday.s yesterday, let's remember, that's whenst the storm was already barrelling towards florida. that boatrr capsized. 23 people are still missing as of this morning. four were able to swim to safety, to government coast guard officials who were there on the scene. three people were rescued. they are in area hospitals. but as i say, that's the level of desperation that it s. going none cuba. as a matter of fact, we spoke to a woman from cuba on that gomez. we talked about what they experienced with hurricane ian.

she said, i am left without anything. i have never seen anything like that. that's the reality that's going none cuba right here. and as you have been showing, philip and francis, the storm is now heading as a cat 1 towards the orlando area. let's check in with michelle grossman who has the latest on this hurricane's path and, michelle, just extraordinarily slow, the movement of this hurricane right , now. >> t yeah. yeah, we talked about that yesterday. it is slow. as we talk about yesterday, didn't make it to that three to four walking pace. it is still that eight, nine. that is really crawling across the state ofly florida. that's why we're seeing that heavy rainfall. it's a big storm. it made land fall at 155 miles per hour. now we're seeing barely a

category 1 storm. it is still strong as it is so much further inland. take a look at the wind gust that's wein saw yesterday. so many spots, winds gusting over 100 miles per hour. in cape coral, 180 miles per hour. naples, 112 t the rain was heavy, it continues to be heavy. we're going to see life threatening flooding.en punta gored yashgs nearly 20 inches of rain. some spots will see 20 inches of raine today. some 2 1/2 feet of rain. so that is a big, big story on this thursday. and that will continue into later part of thursday as well.a taking a look at radar right here, we're looking at heavy bands. many will come in and out. where you see the darker colors, reds, oranges, yellows, that is the heaviest rainfall. that's where we're seeing the rain pile up. so here is the latest. orlando, florida, that is the bulls eye for dangerous weather

today. daytona beach, jacksonville. winds at 75 miles per hour. so category one storm. the c criteria is 74 miles per hour and a little greater than that. so movement at 9 miles per hour. jose and i talked about, it is very slowen that is allowing all this rain i to fall. it will stay in land as we go throughout most of the morning tomorrow. then it will pop into the atlantic. tropical alerts in place. this tells that you this story is notu over. getting started in some places. and haven't started in georgia ort carolinas. so we're going to continue to watch this tomorrow and through the t weekend. hurricane warning, this is rare. we're seeing it coast to coast. where you see the red that, is your hurricane warning. the warnings stretch through the carolinas. heavy rain falling. some spots hearing the wind howl with the dark excuse. not really knowing what damage wast caused yesterday. so 66 mile-per-hour wind gusts in daytona beach right now. up to 35 in orlando.

and flood threat as well. flash flood warnings as well. back to you. >> back to jose, sorry. just amazing. thank you. just amazing the amount of water that this storm brought and continues to bring. we're just finishing the rainy season in floor. it's unbelievable the amount of rain that this storm is bringing to tflorida. the storm is heading over there as a cat 1.as i he keep thinking about the large puerto rican community that is in the orlando area. that actually moved to that area fivey years ago after hurrican maria slammed into puerto rico. and now they're waiting for another hurricane. this one category 1. but with a lot of water and a lot, a hot of wind.

>> i want to show what you is supposed to be a pool deck. now just a t pool. the water has been making its way up this staircase. it appears to have slightly receded in the last half hour or so which is great news. rain is at a trickle. we talked about the puerto rican community. he came to mainland u.s. in the aftermath of maria. he talked about when we're talking about the potential threat of what could happen here, you could tell that he was thinking about what has happened in the pachlt he brought his young daughter and wife and family members to go to a shelter even though they had a third floor home because they

didn't want to chance it even here in orlando which is not supposed to have been seen the worst of this storm. but here you talk about the wind, jose. it is really about the flood threat. we're looking at the potential of 30 inches of rain in some parts of i this area.of and the potential for flash flooding, you and i talk often, we've been talking about flooding in other parts of this country. and we know from the survivors of t the incidents that those floods i can come before you ha time to realize that you have a real serious concern in front of you. i'm talking about the back deck here. seeming to recede a little bit. too late for the front of this property. just on the other o side of our camera on the other side of a bar area that is up a couple stairs, we got water in the lobby of this property. bunkering down. we're well past the point where officials wanted people on the roads. so anyone in the p orlando area should bean sheltering in placet

this point to finish seeing through what is left of the ian comingf through this area. it is heading this way. it still has not arrived. the rain which is calm right now could be picking up pretty badly again in the hours ahead. jose. >> thank you so very much. putting a little more perspective on this. 11 days ago, hurricane fiona slammed into puerto rico.co and today 11 days after that hurricane struck the island, there is a i large percentage o that island that still today does not have electricity and running water. it is still a commodity in a lot of places around puerto rico. p jesse, thank you very much.ha i want to go back with francis and philip. kind of send it back. i can tell you francis and philip, we expect -- well, we've been nonstop in the last 24 hours or so, you know, covering

this storm here in the braidenton area. for the couple hours that we were able to go to a house here, a wooden house right by where we have our studios here, that house was shaken. there was a wooden structured house. that house was rocking. the wind extremely powerful.er severely damaged. 80 plus% of sarasota county was withoutta power. we have seen since then a lot of powern coming back. and you can't yale see it. right behind me is the bay of sarasota. and behind that is the gulf of mexico. sarasota is around there. and we're seeing a lot of lights coming back. but still more than 2.5 million households in this state are still withoutth power. >> yeah. that's reassuring to know the power isg coming back on.

it is also what that will reveal when the power comes back on, when theom sun comes up as well. that will be telling. jose, always great to have your perspective. thank you so much. we'll check in with you in a little bit. >> we're back in just a minute. we have continuing coverage on this storm. you tlouf an area where tornado warnings were triggered by this hurricane. triggered by this hurricane. plan b helps prevent pregnancy before it starts, and it won't impact your ability to get pregnant in the future. find it yourself in the family planning aisle no prescription, no id. i've got this. ♪♪

we're back in bradenton. i want to bring in andrew sullivan. he is with the oceola fire rescue. what you have heard as far as tornadoes touching down. describe what you've been dealing with the last 24 hours. good morning. thank you for having me on.

yeah, my day started actually yesterday at 5:00 a.m. my wakeup call was a tornado warning for the southern part of oceola county. so spreading that word and getting safety information out is the last 24 hours for me. our emergency operation center here has been activated at a level 1 since yesterday morning. so we've had a full day of response to this storm. we're thankful to see it start to dissipate somewhat. i think it's just hanging ton a category one status right now. so thankfully those heavy winds and damaging winds weren't as much of a factor in osceola. but we are still going to face serious flooding as this goes on. we're waiting for, you know, day break to happen. that's the main threat to us. so tell us a little bit about osceola county.

what kind of industry, what kind of structures, tell me a little bit about the county. >> so we're definitely a mix of agricultural. we have a lot of tourist industry here as well. a lot of folks that are on the western portion of the county that were more affected by the heavy winds. that's where the people going to the theme parks stay. a lot of the tornado activity we had were indicated. we didn't get a lot of reports for damage. they happened on the east side. it's more agricultural, thankfully. but what we're seeing now, like i said, we're seeing heavy, heavy rains and as things continue, even as folks wake up to see what's going on around them, the rains to the north of us in the areas north of us in orange county and those places are coming down to us still for a day or two afterwards.

so we won't have seen the worst of it still for some time. >> andrew sullivan, i thank you for being with us this morning. snil. >> thank you. >> nearly 2 1/2 floridians are without power. stay with us. next, we have allison barber on the ground in tampa. rber on the ground in tampa. you can resume your regular birth control right away. i've got this. ♪♪ i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance i've got this. through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54, what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month.

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well if you just switch maybe you don't have to be vampires. whoa... okay, yikes. oh sorry, i wasn't thinking. we don't really use the v word. that's kind of insensitive. we prefer day-adjacent. i'll go man-pire. let's turn now to tampa. hurricane ian was originally forecasted to hit the city head on. the storm's powerful winds drained massive amounts of water from tampa bay causing this reverse storm surge. for more on this, we bring in allison barber on the ground there. good morning. people having to feeling lucky, like they dodged a bullet here.

>> they really r the mayor said there is no doubt in her mind that this community dodged a bullet. that being said, there are still hundreds of thousands of people in this county alone waking up in the dark without power. over 200,000 homes and businesses are without power right now. and there is still a risk of threat, a warning for rivers to perhaps crest over. so did the impact of the hurricane hit tampa in the way that maybe they thought it would two or three days ago? absolutely not. and for that, there is a lot of relief here. all in all this could have been so much worse. but other communities are impact sod badly that this community while they feel like okay, let's take a breath, they know how many people really help beyond here. and that's one thing the mayor talked about that, you know, going to be re-adjusting some of the resources that they have available here, that they plan for here anticipating much bigger impact from hurricane

ian. and they will be shifting that to get it to other communities as quickly as possible. one thing the airport here has been closed since yesterday evening. they told us they expect to open tomorrow. and the national guard will likely use the airport as a hub of sorts to deploy resources further down the coast. francis? >> i'm sure the residents are eager to come back home. thank you so much. coming up, michelle is back keeping an eye on hurricane ian's track as it barrels across florida.

welcome back on this thursday. we continue to track the wrath of ian. we'll continue to do this over the next several days. a strong storm category 1 storm. as it makes its way throughout today, it will merge into the atlantic. a tropical storm. then make a turn towards the north and also the west.

impacting georgia and south carolina. we'll get rainfall in south carolina. we'll be right back. n south carolina we'll be right back.

the west coast of florida assesses the damage from ian, the east coast braces for the worst torrential rains, winds, and high surf. joining us is the deputy mayor of palm beach, florida. you've seen what ian can do as it swept through the state. how prepared do you feel your city is for the threat of the storm coming? >> we've been making sure -- first off, thank you for having me. we had all preparations in place

for our city and for our residence while we cannot, you know, our thoughts and prayers and we'll send out support in the southwest. we made sure that all of the residents took proper precautions and hunkered down and made sure they had everything in store. given that, talk about your constituents. not knowing what the state of the homes will be when the sun comes up, when they try to return. what you are telling them? >> many of them, i'm sharing strongly support whatever their decision is whether they decide to hunker down or leave. at the end of the day, you have to do what you feel is best. we want to make sure we show support for our residents whatever decision they want to go with. >> how many people do you get a sense, percentage wise that were able to heed that and evacuate and now decided we've seen hurricanes before. i think i'll stick this one out?

>> i would say majority. majority chose to hunker down. many hurricanes we dealt with in the bay have come from the east side, not so much the west side. so being that many of our residents saw coming across land from tampa, ft. myers area, many hunkered down. >> so that is a different scenario for many other communities. people have evacuated and now it's a waiting game, right? they're trying to see when it's best, when they can go back home. talk to me about the resources that you have there. if serve at home and there is not a lot of rescues that need to be taking place, where can you actually have those resources shared by other communities? >> yeah. so we do have our hotline. and i'll say the number quick.

321-726-5683. this is in regards to florida power and light. >> okay. i appreciate that. we have the number. we have a hard break. apologize for having to cut you off. we appreciate your time, mr. johnson. >> thank you. >> thank you for watching "early today." watching "early today. by temporarily delaying ovulation—and you can resume your regular birth control right away. i've got this. ♪♪ ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or

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