you can see it starting to sweep over the southern portions of the florida peninsula. and the storm surge near to the east of where the center makes landfall, and those two when they combine together, it creates a lot of flooding issues. >> speaking the the mayor of tampa in the last hour, she was pointing to the separate saturation that they're already seeing on the ground there that they had ahead of this storm, separate rain issues they're having. with all that water, the concern, of course, is where does it go? >> it's not just tampa we're concerned about. it's points to the south. ft. myers, sarasota area as well. the strongest push of water is going to be near to the south of where the center makes landfall. the peak storm surges could be down in this area of ft. myers. >> so closer down to ft. myers. as you mentioned, the effects are being felt in the southern part of the state. there's a tornado watch for southern florida including miami. this storm is so massive. what are the warnings in some of these other areas that may not be hit, may not be taking a direct

catastrophic wins and flooding expected on the florida peninsula. worst storm threat sets hurricane irma in 2017, and the worst in modern times to hit the peninsula because it's so big, it's can affect the entire florida peninsula and a significant way. let me give you the details. it's actually going through a reorganization process 85 miles off the coast of key west, you can see it expanding. it's growing in size. it'll continue to do that overnight tonight and intensify in the morning up to a category four, which is a 130-mile-an-hour storm. this line indicates where given modern science, somewhere on the line is where the center is going to be tomorrow afternoon. but if it's here, in the wind is coming run this way, like this, pushing water against the coast, then it's going to push water and a whole different place than if it's located over here. an entirely different set of towns affected. between fort myers and tampa, now you've got all the communities between sarasota and charlotte. between tampa and fort myers look like where land falls can

ian was twice as wide as the florida peninsula to see it on the cover of the miami merld this morningicane ian made land fall at almost the exact same spot on the very same barrier island that hurricane charlie did 18 years ago gym fa are, rell tracked it then. >> watch where it goes it's not going due north anymore. now, if we extrapolate that motion, assuming that doesn't change, that means that it could come in in the vicinity oflee county. >> jim farrell called it, and everyone in southwest florida remembers it that was jim in august 182024 correctly predicting that turn in hurricane charlie that it eventually took. jim's now retired after 30 years of forecasting storms. we hoped to have him on the internet, but as you might imagine, internet is down. i know you got a condo on cape coral, jim tell us what you have been seeing today, because cape coral, that's the first land mass hit. >> hey, shep, you are correct. i'm actually in a very good spot because we picked this condo for its elevation. we're at probably 15-16 feet above sea level. so no problem with storm surge here, but s

set on the sunshine state, hurricane ian spent most of the day ravaging its way through the florida peninsulas is a really, really significant storm. it will be one of the storms people always remember. >> reporter: in the heart of the storm, entire buildings swept away. homes torn apart. families trapped by floodwaters. ft. myers beach in sanibel devastated. >> we are beginning to get a sense that our community has been, in some respects, decimated. >> reporter: this map showing how much of this area has been flooded by storm surge with the hurricane still raging. 2.5 million under evacuation orders across the state. st. petersburg and sarasota among the cities taking the brunt of ian's wrath. winds hitting as high as 150 miles per hour when it made landfall. ripping roofs off of houses. storm surge overtaking coastlines. washing away anything in its path. roaring onshore as a category 4 hurricane, the strongest september hurricane to hit the gulf coast in 17 years. landfall coming after hours of intense wind. my colleague, ginger zee, in fort myers in the eye of the storm. >> our ears are p

this is don lemon tonight, you're watching our coverage of in, making its way up the florida peninsula. we have all the news coverage this evening, it is dumping rain on this entire area. lots of water. but also the wind, pushing the wind all across the state of florida. our crews are out in the field, we're covering it all for you. we've got bill weir, bill is joining us from punta gorda florida, also brian todd is in -- is in derek van damme is in breaking tin for us. i want to other meteorologist, our expert, mr. tom seders in the weather center. tom, i am getting so much rain, lots of rain that have been dumped on me for the last hour. and it seemed to come in on cue, we're watching the radar, the rain came right in. it's just sitting on top of us, not going anywhere. >> in fact that northern periphery of the storm system in the last couple of model runs in the last couple of days really has been showing that that northern periphery is where we're gonna have that heavy rainfall. already, we have seen as much as 12 to even 19 inches of rain. that's 2 to 3 months worth of rain that i

, because, as you said, it's so big, it's going to affect the entire florida peninsula in a significant way. >> let me give you the details here. here you see the center of the storm. now it's actually going through a reorganization process. it's about 85 miles off of key west with the center. but i think you can see it expanding as it goes here. >> the storm is actually growing in size and it will continue to do that overnight tonight. and we think intensify in the morning up to a category four, which would be this one hundred and thirty mile an hour storm . >> now, here's the thing where it is on this line. >> so this line indicates where, given modern science, the best we can do somewhere on the line is where the center is going to be tomorrow afternoon. but the thing is that if it's over here and the wind is coming around this way, like this, pushing water against the coast, then it's going to push water in a whole different place than if it's located over here. i mean, whole different towns affected up in here, somewhere between fort myers and tampa. now you've got all the communit

mance trous hurricane ian now lashing the florida peninsula. ian roaring on shore as a strong category 4 with winds of 150 miles per hour. official landfall, 3:05 p.m. eastern time. hurricane ian now making landfall, and the wind is just ripping across tampa bay. look at the action leer on these waters. we've got a reverse surge where the bottom of the bay is exposed in places that probably have never seen the light of day, and at the same time, these huge swells on a normally calm bay, with big white caps smashing into that jetty, which protects the airport. so you got water that's exiting, and water that's piling up, and the power of the wind and water combined is relentless. landfall coming after hours of intense wind. as as ian came closer, our ginger zee in fort myers, broadcasting live in the eyewall. >> we are in the eye wall of hurricane ian. you can see almost knock behind me, but if you could, the eye is only about five miles to my west. look at what's happening right here. we finally saw the wind start to shift. and we've got the sur

hurricane ian has re-written the history books here across the southwestern florida peninsula as onethe strongest storms to reach this shoreline. i'm in bradenton and we are nearly we are part of nearly the 2 million customers that have been plunged into darkness. that's one of my greatest concerns for people as as the storm slowly marches across the state with its powerful winds and extremely heavy rain and dangerous conditions is that people will have to endure this weather, this onslaught in the darkness of mcknight. very scary moments for people to say the least. as a meteorologist, i witnessed something i've never seen before in my entire career. it is called reverse storm surge. the wind was so intense here this morning and actually pushed out the water from the river that's behind me here, some of the sailboats were actually sitting on their kills in bradenton harbor. absolutely incredible. we actually had a moment here where our communications and our electricity was disrupted because transformers were blowing behind us in the distant, sending sparks well into the sky. we als

it's expected to leave t florida peninsula on thursday. york. >>> more than two million people >>> ian pummels florida. streets flooded, homes damaged, more than two million without power. it's not over yet as one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the u.s. continues moving across the state. >>> dramatic rescue. good samaritans pull a man from a flooded vehicle carrying him through waist-high water to safety. >> it was my main focus was getting him to safety. >>> families take cover. we go into two schools turned into emergency shelters for people who evacuated their homes.

it's clearly a strong storm all the way until it exits the florida peninsula in the atlantic ocean. as much as we're focused on southwest florida, very important, obviously, when you have a storm of this nature, i think at landfall it's going to be behind only the labor day hurricane, hurricane andrew and hurricane michael in terms of intensity. i think we're going to end up seeing that. it may end up being a category five, but at a minimum it's going to be-very strong category four that's going to rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. that damage is ongoing. under the circumstances very, very important. but the fact is, there's going to be damage throughout the whole state. people in other parts of the state, be prepared for some impacts. you are seeing counties in different parts of the state issue evacuation orders. clay county in northeast florida, which we do anticipate some major, major flooding events in northeast florida. i think folks that are familiar with the st. johns river know when you have weather like this you will see this. clay co

reporter: yeah, wolf, it was like this storm was a spinning top on its final approach to the florida peninsulaup, it really started to strengthen near the center. it rapidly intensified and then it pushed its way inland and brought the most intense winds at its peak point and that was the worst-case scenario that we had all feared. the national hurricane center fearing the same thing using the words like catastrophic in the lead-up the to storm and now we are starting to realize those words are coming if you think about a hurricane of this magnitude, you got a tornado, right? those things are 500 yards wide, and their winds are over 110, 111 miles per hour. that would make it an ef3. a hurricane of this magnitude has winds that stretch over 80 miles in diameter, hurricane-force winds. so we literally have an ef2 or an ef3 moving through a large portion slowly crawling through the southwestern florida peninsula as that spinning top that i talked about a moment ago starts to unwind itself and slowly, slowly but surely loses its energy as it does so. but we know that the threats don't stop at the

in fact, ian was twice as wide as the florida peninsula to see it on the cover of the miami herald this morning. ian made landfall at almost the exact same spot on the very same barrier eye land that hurricane charley did. jim farrell tracked it. >> watch where it goes it's not going due north it has taken on more of a north northeasterly motion if we extrapolate that motion, assuming that doesn't change, that means that it could come in in the vicinity of lee county. >> jim farrell called it and everyone in southwest florida remembers it that was jim on august 13th, 2004 correctly predicting that turn in hurricane charley that it eventually took jim's now retired after nearly 30 years forecasting storms as a weather legend across southwest florida. jim's on the line with us tonight. we had hoped to have him on the internet, but as you might imagine, internet is down. i know you've got a condo on cape coral, jim. tell us what you've been seeing today. cape coral, that's the first land mass hit after the barrier island. >> hey, shep, you are correct. i'm actually in a very good spot we p

peninsula and even north. over 2 million people out of power in florida. and we have not even had our sun advise yet. >> so the devastation, the scope is not even clear at this point. under water yesterday. those scenes we saw on social media were just devastating. we can only hope that search and rescue can get out there when the sun comes up this morning and that everyone is okay. many people did evacuate so the hope is that folks will be all right there. but the devastation structurally intense. we don't know how much is going to be the power outages and the scenes of window, rain, and the power of the energy that came in from sean remarkable. historic storm here in the state of florida. as it's not over at all. we have to remember that there are states to the north, georgia, and the carolinas. that should be bracing for the remnants of tropical storm ian as it moves to the north, guys. >> ainsley: robert, what do the roads look like now. i don't know if if you have had a chance to drive around. the governor said massive standing water in lee collier. h

but the entire florida peninsula and florida panhandle regions need to be ready for impacts. we've already got a tropical storm watch up for the lower florida keys from the 7 mile bridge down to key west. and then after that conditions will be going downhill from south to north, mainly starting on wednesday and going north from there. we could have major impacts even without a major hurricane on the wind scale. jericka. >> all right. rick knabb for us. thank you. >>> as floridians prepare for ian, canadians on the atlantic coast are reeling from fiona's flurry. officials called the scope of the damage there unprecedented. tonight hundreds of thousands remain without power. soldiers with the canadian armed forces have even been called in to help with the cleanup efforts. >>> well, russia is looking to boost the ranks of ukraine. this weekend people in kremlin-occupied territories in eastern ukraine are being forced to pick a side. cbs's debora patta is in the capital of tekyiv with more on what's next. >> reporter: staged polls in occupied cities like these, referendums amid t

rain 12 to 24 inches across much of the florida peninsula, challenge create freshwater flooding. e impact of this will be felt by millions in florida. already 200,000 people without power. that's before the storm even makes landfall. this will uproot people's lives. its a life-threatening storm. this is the sunshine skyway bridge that we have pictures of. you can see the winds kicking up. it will have an enormous impact. let's go to chad myers first at the weather center. the 11:00 a.m. advisory out now. what do you see? >> still see the 155-mile-per-hour eyewall winds. inside the eye it could be down to 5 or 10 in the middle, but we're working our way onshore. the eye is not onshore. the eyewall is coming onshore. this is what it looks like from space, this is called the visible image. when the sum comes out, you can truly see how large this storm is right now. the eyewall is very big around. that's good news. the smaller the eye, the higher the wind speed could get. it doesn't look like that will happen, because we'll make landfall first. this is the naples pier from earthcam. i

from coast to coast on the florida peninsula rescue crews continue to wade through flood waters to helpf people trapped amid shattered buildings and flooded homes. more than 2.5 million homes and businesses lost power. for more news download the cbs news app on your cell phone or connected tv. i'm dan lieberman, cbs news, new york. >> announcer: this is the "cbs overnight news." >>> good evening and thank you for joining us. and as we come on the air tonight, ian has regained hurricane strength. as it moves into the atlantic, taking aim at georgia and the carolinas. but what it left behind here in florida is unimaginable in scale and historic in reach. the president saying tonight this could be the deadliest hurricane in florida's history. we witnessed the trail of destruction this category 4 storm left. florida governor ron desantis said today this is a once in 500-year flooding event. the hurricane-force winds and record storm surge caused widespread damage to entire communities and cities, washing away roads and bridges and knocking out power to millions. tonight more than 2.6 millio

it's not done yet, as the storm emerges off the east coast of the florida peninsula. cnn meteorologist, derek van dam from braden, florida. >> our thanks to derek and his team there. even veteran hurricane watchche like derek continued to tell us, they had never seen a storm like hurricane ian. >>> coming up, we will take you to thehe storm slamming into another part of floridida. stay with us. mornin oh, eat. there's two of them. good days start th good nights. so i would ask your doctor about both. calling doctor johannes. no, please, i can do that. all right? zyrteeeec works hard at hour one and twice as hard when you take it again the next day. so betty can be the barcode beat conductor. ♪ go betty! let's be more than our allergies! zeize the day. zyrtec. >>> all right. 3:20 in the morning. daytona beach. almost over with. that's the eastern coast of florida. hurricane ian continues to unleash its wrath. yes, the winds still look quiet bracing there. the storm, not done with florida yet. the mayor of naples, florida, urging everyone to stay indoors, after several

the huge size is just spreading the impacts across the florida peninsula. slow speed is increasing the duration and of the damaging wind rains and the flood potential. look at this radar reflectivity. we're getting estimates of 4 to 5 inches port hour in those heavy winds. >> give us context for that. vessels like a lot and it seems near the high-end of what is physically possible for a storm to dump. >> those are incredibly heavy rainfall rates. i don't have reports but my suspicion is that flash flooding is probably occurring and you can see the warnings lighting up here as the system marches. those are rainfall rates you don't typically see. >> how long do we anticipate that this is going to take to get out of, move quickly enough that you can deploy both emergency personnel and folks to start working on the grid? >> that's one of my biggest fears. normally you would deploy assets immediately on the back end of a disaster. because of the slow motion of the storm, you can see, it basically, it takes all the way until thursday afternoon, maybe even into fr

storm force winds, or king ian has re-written the history books here across the southwestern florida peninsulaone of the strongest storms to reach the shoreline, i am in britain and we are part of the 2 million customers that have been plunged into darkness, that is one of my greatest concerns for people as the storm slowly marches across the state with its powerful winds and extremely heavy rains and dangerous conditions, people will have to endure this weather, this onslaught and the darkness of night, scary moment for people here. as a meteorologist i would miss something that i have never seen before my entire career, it is called reverse storm surge, the wind was so intense here that earlier this morning it pushed out the water from the river, the river that is behind me here, some of the sailboats were sitting on their kiel's in the harbor. absolutely incredible, we had a moment as well where our community and electricity was disrupted because transformers were blowing behind us in the distance blowing sparks well into the sky. we also drove down the city streets and saw debris getting l

. >> the storm was a spinning top, on his final approach to the florida peninsula. it spun up, it started to strengthen near the center, it rapidly intensified, and then, pushed its way inland, bringing the most intense winds at its peak point. that was the worst-case scenario, we had all feared. the national hurricane center, fearinthngusing words like catastrophic, in the lead up to the storm. now, we are starting to realize those words are coming true. >> despite mandatory evacuation orders from the governor of florida, many have chosen to stay in their homes, riding out the storm, including in fort myers, where frank mooney watched, as cars were swept away outside of his home. >> i'd never seen something this major before. the storm surge, we are actually seeing cars slowing down the street. we are seeing trees, nearly benton half. >> don and belinda collins, living in fort myers, spoke with cnn's anderson cooper, on monday. the floodwater, starting to fill their home. >> my significant other was sitting on his phone, doing nothing in the dark, i came out and he

and it's not done yet, as the storm emerges off the east coast of the florida peninsula. meteorologist derek van dam from bradenton, florida. >> thank, you derek. this county, just south of the city of naples -- 12 foot storm. search right, now powers out from the 250,000 homes and businesses. a mandatory curfew has been in place for one or two hours now, since 10 pm local time, and will be left by 6 am. -- castro is a commissioner for -- county, he joins us now for on the line from marco island. commissioner, thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me, john. it's been a day. and we've got a lot ahead. of us >> is their -- sense of damage especially caused by that storm surge? >> as italy, and this hurricane was all about storm surge. everybody was kind of focus on where the i was going to land. but as your previous meteorologist will tell you, a lot of people were reporting that whoever was just south of that i, sort of in that dirty part of the storm, was going to get some horrific storm surge. and we got every inch of it. you know, we lived through irma here

yesterday, we had a storm that was literally forecast to crawl up parallel with the coastline of the florida peninsula. that was going to slow down, and also weaken as it did, so but that changed over the last 24 hours. now we are getting more what is a perpendicular forecast, that means we got an earlier arrival time, and that leaves little time for the storm to weaken before it reaches the coastline. so we have the potential here for a category three or higher, major hurricane, as tom was talking about, to impact the region, where i'm standing now. and to my north, tampa bay, 40 miles to my north, and residents to the south. we are talking 100 miles to my south, it's fort myers. anywhere between those locations, we know that is the path the cone of hunter certainty, don't focus on that center line. it's important because the storms of these magnitude, they do that wobble. and miles matter. when you are forecasting a major hurricane like this. >> don? >> tom, derrick, thank, you stand by gentlemen, we have a lot to talk about. i want to turn out to at mclean, in march and the management chief for sar

this storm will impact the florida peninsula. it all has to do with an approaching cold front and trough over the eastern half of the country, something we are monitoring very closely because miles matter right now. kim. >> absolutely. we'll stay on top of this story throughout the morning. thank you so much, cnn meteorologist derek van dam. >>> a new warning from pakistan's prime minister to other world leaders. focus on fighting climate change because climate disasters won't be limited to pakistan. in a speech before the u.n. general assembly on friday, the prime minister said the widespread flooding that pushed one-third of pakistan underwater wasn't triggered by anything pakistanis have done. listen to this. >> why are my people paying the price of such high global warming through no fault of ours? we have no contribution in this. nature has unleashed her fury on pakistan without looking into our carbon footprint, which is next to nothing. our actions did not contribute to this. the real cost of global inaction and climate in

strong category four that's going to rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. florida governor ron de santis holding a news conference about the storm this evening. the governor says , well, there are people who decided not to leave evacuation zones search and rescue crews will not be responding until the storm passes through. that's because it would be too dangerous to do so. so far, the storm has swamped streets with water and smashed. a lot of trees along the coast continues to move very slowly and threatening to cause catastrophic flooding. ktvu is tom baker has been following the storm's path and continues our team coverage now live from the newsroom. tom well as we start, let's take a look at where this monstrous heading, which is directly towards orlando, 2.6 million people. since the year 2000. florida has been hit 79 times by hurricanes or tropical storms. $123 billion in damage. 229 people killed in 4 2006 storms damaged one in five florida homes. that included hurricane charley, which landed at ko cost to the exact same place where ian landed today.

it's clearly a very strong tropical storm all the way until it exits the florida peninsula in the atlanticthere are as much as we're focused on southwest florida very important when you have a storm of this nature, i think at landfall it's going to be behind only the labor day hurricane, hurricane andrew, hurricane michael in terms of intensity. i think we're going to end up seeing that. it may end up being a category 5 but at a minimum, it going to be a very strong category 4 that will rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula so that damage is on going. it's very, very important but the fact is, there's going to be damage throughout the whole state and people in other parts of the state be prepared for some impacts and you are seeing counties in different parts of the state issue evacuation orders, clay county in northeast florida, which we do anticipate some major, major flooding events in fortnortheast florida. the pokfolks familiar with the johns river know you'll see this. clay county has mandatory evacuations of low lying areas. flagler county issued m

trace gallagher in los angeles. ♪ ♪ breaking tonight, hurricane ian still wreaking havoc on the florida peninsula rain as they now category one storm heads northeast over central florida and now expected to move into the atlantic la

>> so, we have hundreds of volunteers fled across the florida peninsula.e ready to help, as well as volunteers are already in these pre evacuation centers to support folks as they ride out the storm in the coming hours. so, we know the west coast it at first. warren marcia elder is requested to provide a safe place for people to ride out the storm in the central area of florida. and now we are even seeing shelters open on the east coast. so, we brought in hundreds of volunteers to make sure we were ready that when the county wanted open a shelter, they needed additional supplies, human resources, volunteers. we were positioned and ready to go to meet that need when it arrived. >> based on your, work what is the sense of cooperation in compliance of those communities, people in the aifa storm. >> think the best lesson is never focused on the line in the center of the country. focus on the cone. the storm move so many times of the past five or six days. where we thought it would land is in fact where did not. folks have to take those warnings very seriously.

expect the strongest winds, and impacts from this to places like fort myers, for instance, or the florida peninsulatice it the entire area is under the cone of uncertainty. what is driving this? well, we are paying attention to what is called an upper level low, or a trough, that's going to determine the exact path of this tropical storm. you can see the different computer models giving us quite a spread in terms of where the storm will be on its arrival to the florida peninsula. that's crucial, because miles matter in a hurricane. that depends on who is going to get the strongest storm surges and winds and most amount of rain. we'll be paying attention to details, kim. >> absolutely. lots to monitor the whole weekend. cnn's meteorologist derek van dam, thank you very much. if you want to help, go to cnn.com/impact, a list of verified organizations ready to help you make a difference. >>> and a warning to vladimir putin, telling him to tread carefully in occupied areas of ukraine. president biden said the boding is just a pretext to russia to try to annex those territories. he said that russia will

it is inching inland going across the entire florida peninsula. made landfall as a category 4.ople are without power. a number which our tom sater says will more than double. and we are having reports of people already trapped inside their homes as the waters have risen so quickly. florida governor ron desantis said it's going to take time until first responders are even able to go out. >> until the storm passes, they are not going to go into a situation for rescue and put their own folks at risk. >> bill weir's in punta gorda, florida, tonight. and you're right in the midst of it. what are you seeing? >> and it looks like we have -- his shot froze there. so if we can get back to him, we will do that. but he's in the full force of those winds as we speak. so as we wait for him, i want to go to nick underwood who flew through hurricane ian today as one of noaa's hurricane hunters. let me just show you part of the video that he posted. nick is with me now. nick, 76 flights, six years of storms. you say this was the worst of your career. it makes me terrified to even watch that. b

it is now going to be to the southwest portion, possibly making landfall along the florida peninsula later next week as a category 3 storm and downgrading into a category one before it becomes a tropical depression as it makes its way towards georgia. so it actually could make its way into along the florida peninsula by wednesday night into thursday. still going to keep an eye on the timing there. but it could bring about 6 inches of rain there with a dangerous storm surge of about 3 feet. so it is going to be a very strong hurricane and it's still going to remain a hurricane even as it makes landfall. as you can the well, your full bay area outlook forecast coming up in just a few minutes. back to you. people gathered this morning at the golden gate bridge in solidarity with the people of iran amid violent unrest in that country triggered by the death of a young woman in police custody. >> you heard them chanting her saw me. the 22 year-old was arrested by iran's morality police for allegedly breaking headscarf rules. she died on september 16th. iranian police say she died of a hear

it's expected to leave t florida peninsula on thursday. president biden will also get york. >>> more than two million people >>> ian pummels florida. streets flooded, homes damaged, more than two million without power. it's not over yet as one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the u.s. continues moving across the state. >>> dramatic rescue. good samaritans pull a man from a flooded vehicle carrying him through waist-high water to safety. >> it was my main focus was getting him to safety. >>> families take cover. we go into two schools turned into emergency shelters for people who evacuated their homes. well, odorningand good to be with you. i'm anne-marie green. this morning a weakened but still very dangerous hurricane ian is slowly making its way across florida. the now-category-one hurricane is packing 75 mile-per-hour winds, and torrential rain as it moves toward the atlantic coast. ian barrelled into the state yesterday as a catastrophic category-four hurricane with 150 mile-per-hour winds. a storm surge of up to 12 feet and dren

it weakened to a tropical storm and made it way over the florida peninsula. now it's back over the open, warm waters of the atlantic, with the gulf stream running along the southeastern coast, so that provides favorable environment for this storm to regain some of its strength. it will not regain the category four strength gained in florida, but it will hold on to hurricane strength over the next 24-36 hours or so. likely 24 hours before it makes landfall, early afternoon to the north of charleston. the strongest impacts will be on the right side of the track where we are pushing that water on shore. that's where the strongest winds are generally located. it will still be a hefty rainmaker for parts of south carolina and north galena. in terms of the storm surge impact, it's likely to fall into the 5-8 foot range, but there purplearea di thpotential r eirge levels that makes its sh we will be forecast in just a few minutes. >>> let's come home, to the fema task force, now on standby, in case they are needed to help hurricane victims. this is their equipment r

the storm is growing, which means it's going to spread its impacts over a larger swath of the florida peninsula. >> i know you don't like to talk about where it exactly makes landfall because, frankly, that's not the most important thing anyway, but where there were great concerns for tampa and st. pete because of the topography there and how vulnerable it is, i wonder if there aren't even greater concerns for now cape coral and fort myers and sanibel and captiva. it looks like that storm surge, no matter what happens now, is heading there. >> that's absolutely correct, and so for to help people understand storm surge, it's where the onshore push of winds strike land. so if you sort of project this forward, the onshore push would be in this area versus tampa so the storm surge threatening tampa has gone down a little bit, but -- and this is an important but, but you're not off the hook in tamp happened i now maximized over you and the i-4 corridor. >> you talk about rain you remember in horror what happened in houston when that storm sat and spun, harvey just sitting and spinning for days. if t

threatening meantime, into thursday, this is a slow moving storm dumping feet of rain across the florida peninsula, ian's i path over the next few days shows it will gradually weaken in its intensity as its forward speed slows. that's going to dump serious rain across central florida, especially how about the wind forecast here. this is very dangerous between 1 21 40 mile an hour gusts. between tampa and cape coral. the worst of that wins will be tonight into thursday morning. ian storm surge will be formidable tampa 3 to 6 ft, but cape coral 10 to 15 look at the storm surge here from ports charlotte to cape coral. that's life threatening 10 to 15 ft that could alter the coastline. the rainfall forecast is also very dangerous 18 to 24 inches of rain just dumping down between these major cities of jacksonville, tampa and orlando, and if you look at the impacts moving forward pretty much the entire state will have impacts for the next several days back to you, ryan and andrew. all right, kevin. thank you. let's head to the florida coast. now abc is justin finches in tampa. justin. what's the scene l

florida decimated. ferocious hurricane ian shredding parts of the peninsula. >> oh!e today as the storm is passing is basically a 500-year flood event. >> reporter: ian slicing onto the coast wednesday afternoon on the barrier islands near fort myers. we were right there. overnight more than 2 million customers throughout the state losing power. >> that's my grandparents' house. >> reporter: in fort myers beach, many waking up to find they've lost almost everything. >> we're accessing the bridges. we're seeing what's compromised and what's not and this will be a life-changing event for the men and women responding. >> that was my house. my house is gone. >> reporter: this neighborhood turning into an extension of the gulf. w.i.n.k. tv in fort myers forced off the air after water submerged their newsroom. water seeping into the first floor of this hospital in port charlotte, and in tampa, powerful winds sending this tree into a home. the hurricane also one of the top ten to make landfall in the u.s. roaring ashore near cayo costa carrying 150-mile-per-hour winds. abou

left millions in the dark hours after weakening to a tropical depression while crossing the florida peninsula regained hurricane strength this evening after it crossed into the atlantic ocean. our correspondent elizabeth lane joins us now from fort myers, florida. elizabeth, that area was particularly hard hit, wasn't it? >> and devastating. it really just doesn't even begin to describe the damage and destruction that we're seeing here in fort myers, especially in a fort myers beach area. we rode out the storm here we were able to get out early this morning and start to survey the damage and it's really bad. you drive up and down the streets here. most of them are flooded. the water has started to recede a little bit. but you see commercial boats stacked on top of each other. then you remember that that is someone's livelihood. so we've heard from other people who rode out the storm quite literally on top of manufactured homes. and it's unbelievable that in 150 mile per hour winds in this hurricane just shy of a category 5 really that they would be able to sur ive that. so we've also see the

tonight as the massive storm rumbled across the florida peninsula, things are getting worse as far as the low-lying city of saint augustine, and cbs's meg oliver is there. i understand people are feeling it there as well? >> that's right, heavy rains and high winds are intensifying as hurricane ian approaches saint augustine. the worst is expected to hit tomorrow afternoon with winds topping 60 miles per hour and a storm surge of up to five feet. >> are you going to ride it o >> you going to ride it out? >> so that's the plan. >> reporter: on anastasia island, brad melvin spent the day piling sandbags and securing his home to ride out hurricane ian. why did you decide to stay? >> so, i... part of it was i had to work. i also wanted to protect my house. >> reporter: as the monster storm pummels the west coast, floridians in central and northeast sections are preparing for extreme flooding and high winds to arrive in the next 24 hours. >> this bridge, we do anticipate closing several times because of floodwaters. >> reporter: saint augustine fire chief carlos aviles. >> on thursday, it

well, tonight, as the massive storm rumbles across the florida peninsula, conditions are rapidly getting worse as far away as the low-lying city of saint augustine. that's actually on the east coast of the state. and cbs' meg oliver is there for us. hi there, meg. >> reporter: hi, norah. that's right, a mandatory evacuation went into effect at 6:00 a.m. today. hurricane ian is still about 200 miles away from us, but the outer bands are intensifying with wind gusts expected to reach more than 60 miles per hour. that would close bridges, like that one behind me, sphranding folks who decided to stay on those barrier islands. >> you going to ride it out? >> so that's plan. >> reporter:on anastasia island, brad melvin spent the day piling sandbags and securing his home to ride out hurricane ian. why did you decide to stay? >> so, i... i had to work. i alsowanted to protect my house. >> reporter: as the monster storm pummels will the west coast, floridians in central and northeast sections are preparing for extreme flooding and high winds to arrive in the next 24 hours. >> this bridge, we do a

tue: eye of the hurricane slammed into the florida peninsula not farfrom where i'm standing bringingon, a dangerous storm surge, and heavy rains in its wake. # as i walk through the valley of the shadow of death. # and tributes to the american rapper, record producer and actor coolio, who's died at the age of 59. coming up in the sport on the bbc news channel, the magic man, nine wickets for norwell as warwickshire stay up with a win over hampshire, a result which sends yorkshire down. good evening. no change — that's the essence of the prime minister's response to the widespread criticism of her government's economic policy. liz truss was speaking for the first time since the mini budget last week, which led to a collapse in the value of the pound, higher interest rates, and extreme volatility on the financial markets. she insisted that her tax—cutting plans are right for the british economy and that the volatility is part of a "global crisis" caused by the war in ukraine. and she pledged that she would support people and businesses affected by rising energy prices. our economics ed

the rain is just sitting on to have of us and we are following ian on the florida peninsula.'t go anywhere. hello, how can i? sore throat pain? ♪honey lemon♪ try vicks vapocool drops in honey lemon chill for fast acting sore throat relief ♪ahhh!♪ wooo! vaporize sore throat pain with i've been telling everyone... the secret to great teeth is having healthy gums. crest advanced gum restore. detoxifies below the gumline... and restores by helping heal gums in as little as 7 days. crest. the #1 toothpaste brand in america. 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. yes on 30.

it's going to rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. david: wow.e is a live look at orlando where the hurricane is now heading, about 1.5 million if floridians are now without power all over the astronaut. -- state. even rescue personnel don't feel safe to eventture out, so we won't know the full extent of the damage perhaps until daylight. joining me now is fox weather correspondent max gorden. what is the extent of the damage from your perspective? >> reporter: so right now we are, as you mentioned, along old tampa bay. the wind is whipping, the rain is coming down where we are. but really we are just on the edge of this storm. originally, it was thought that this storm was going to make a direct impact into the tampa/st. petersburg area, but it did move south. we're about 60 miles or so from the if eye of the storm, but you can still see that it is ferocious where we are. now, an interesting thing happened here on old tampa bay. the wind actually pushed the water out of the bay. that's because we are on the north side of this storm. so what occu

western cuba by early monday and into tuesday and wednesday a potential impact into the southern florida peninsulaight is that the consensus, the various computer models that we look at as meteorologists have all honed in on southern florida. so we're going to keep a close eye on, again, the differences between the global model and european model showing very little spread whereas a few hours ago there was several hundred miles between the two outcomes of these two particular models. >> good to know. thank you so much for that, derek. >>> conspiracy theorist alex jones warned by the judge for instigating the explosive exchange in court during his trial on thursday. >> reporter: alex jones on the stand for the first time in connecticut. where a jury will decide how much he owes in damages for lying about the sandy hook school shooting that left 20 children and 6 educators dead. among his claims, that it was all a hoax, that the grieving families, victims, many of them in the courtroom on thursday, were just actors. >> sitting right here, and he's real, isn't he? >> yes, sir. >> and for years you pu

to the cnn weather center and cnn's allison chinchar, it looks like it's headed right to the florida peninsula. >> right, it is. if you live in florida, this is not what you want to see. fiona has winds of 90 miles an hour. this is a significant, very potent storm making its way to canada. 26 miles per hour to the north. you still have hurricane warnings in the red and some tropical storm warnings for surrounding eras like newfoundland and quebec. you're looking at 95 miles per hour around sidney. halifax still up around that 60 to 70-mile-per-hour range. once we get into late saturday and especially into sunday, you'll see it come back down in the 20 to 30-mile-per-hour range. even across maine, you have wind advisories and high wind wa warnings. even though the system is still far enough away, it's close enough to bring significant winds to areas of northern maine. now we switch gears to the secondary system. this is tropical storm ian named very late last night around 11:00. sustained winds at 45 miles an hour, gusting to winds at 60 miles an hour. we have hurricane watches out for the kama

it is about halfway across the florida peninsula. the winds are starting to die down, that's why we are at a category two. they probably won't weaken that much, they will still be close to a category one at daybreak or strong top tropical storm. the wind damage is going to be mostly tree damage at this point, minimal roof damage, and gas station awning staff like that. we still have power outages from the orlando area southwards and over towards this area. heading up to cocoa beach, those are areas that could have some power outage problems during the overnight. as far as the flooding goes, this is really the story as we go throughout the overnight. flood watches are everywhere in green. this area in the moon down here, we have already had reports of 20 inches of rain. this is a slow-moving storm, roughly about eight miles per hour, that is the speed that you walk. imagine walking across 160 miles of florida, that is roughly gonna take you a good 12 hours or so. that is why we have these epic rainfall totals, a possibility at least o

southwest florida later today as a major hurricane and will slowly move aacross the central florida peninsulathe northeast florida coast, probably sometime on thursday. much of southern florida is already experiencing impacts from the storm as it moves he closer to landfall. there have been several tornado warnings issued during the overnight hours. we expect to see that continue today. a storm of this magnitude will produce catastrophic flooding and life threatening storm surge on the the gulf coast of florida and the highest risk areas are ranging from collier county up to sh sarasota county. the current track has the storm making landfall in charlotte county. if you are in any of those counties, it's no longer possible to safely evacuate. it's time to hunker down and prepare tor for the storm. this is a powerful storm that should be treated like you would treat if a tornado was aapproaching your home. if you're out on the roads, get to a safe place as soon as possible. there's more than 200 shelters open in just the southwest florida region alone. we're already seeing bridge closures. the

florida without power. how many people are you anticipating will be affected ultimately? >> good afternoon, jake. with the nature of this storm and the fact that it's now made landfall and making its way across the peninsulaard to say how many power outages we will have. there are several million florida power and light customers in the panel th of th storm. we have about 1 million outages. we have been restoring power for the last 24 hours. as the outer bands come through our service area, we have restored power to about 350,000 customers so far. presently, we have about 1 million out of power. >> are you expecting all or most of the outages to be on west coast? could they go into the center part of the state as well? >> we are expecting power outages throughout the service territory, through pout the pat. you expect power to be out. as it goes through the state, there will also be additional outages due to tornadoes, flooding and the high winds that will accompany the storm all the way across the peninsula. the expectation from the national hurricane center is that this will still be a category 1 storm when it exits florida on the east coast possibly tomorrow. >> how quickly are you able to restore powe