fort myers, vinita beach, down towards areas of naples, just north of the naples area. now we get to the second part of the storm. we get to being concerned about the high winds, still a category two. and then the rainfall, which will be with us throughout the next two days. we still have what we call an extreme wind warning, probably a weather time we have not heard that often. it only happens when we have land falling hurricanes, and usually they have to be powerful hurricanes at that. when we drop this down to a category one, probably in the next hour or two, this will be dropped. there is still probably some 90 to 100 mile per hour wind gusts here from arcadia up to see break. that is also the areas that are seeing extreme flooding right now. we have flood watches that go from charleston, to jacksonville, much of the northern half of the peninsula, from fort myers, fort pierce, through to tampa and orlando under a flood watch. but this area here is under a flash flood emergency. we have already had reports of 20 inches of rain in this region, and they're telling peo

. >>> msnbc's ali velshi is in naples. what can you tell us about the situation there off your balcony there? >> i can tell you less than i can show you. i will ask randy to take a look out here. this is what storm surge looks like. this is -- 15 minutes ago i was on this beach. i was getting ready to talk to you. i lasted about 40 seconds on the beach. you can't withstand this stuff. the reason we have had difficulty coming to you -- i was going to be with you at the top of the show. our satellite truck is in danger of flooding. we have had to get that out of the way, change the way we transmit this video to you. look at this. this was all a beach for 125 feet. this was all a beach a few hours ago. we are now -- the entire property that we are on -- if randy looks down, you can see parking gates dislodged. there was furniture stacked out here. it's all gone. everything has been wiped out to sea. the microphone i was holding in order to talk to you -- don't tell our bosses -- it's swimming with the fishes. i have this othe

look at this, i think that's from the naples fire department. there's a lot of videos, that was under water all day, i believe that is the naples fire department and i've seen pictures like that all day from fort myers, from naples, sarasota, and now people that are living in tampa, saint pete, that area, you are being told at this hour to shelter in place, those of you that were not evacuated >> joining us now with much more on what his state is now facing is florida senator marco rubio is with us. senator first our prayers, our thoughts are with our fellow americans, our floridian friends, sorry you're all going through this. this is a rough one. what do you know especially about southwest florida, what happened naples, fort myers, et cetera, sarasota? >> well, i think the reporting that preceded me on the air kind of describes the images we're going to begin to see tomorrow. we know that the storm surge is very significant, historic really and i think we're all going to be shocked by some of the images that are going to emerge. one of the wat

that's naples. naples, florida, the water road six feet above the normal high tide, nearly submerging cars. in fort myers beach the storm surge has driven the water 8 to 20 feet, flooding homes, leaving some residents trapped. one family spoke to a reporter on face time, showing their floor underwater. >> can you show me how far the water, how high it is? can anyone get up on the furniture as well? okay. so you're already up. you already have everything up. i do have a way to get into the roof? >> don't go in the. attic >> don't go in the attic. to have a way to get on the roof? >> yes. we are going to have to find out a way soon. >> okay, so hopefully somebody is seeing this. >> several cities, including fort myers beach, suspended emergency services this afternoon. conditions were too dangerous for first responders to go out. if you look out, you can understand why. the wind, of course, a big factor in that, whipping up to 110 miles an hour where the street signs were blown down. local officials a

familiar cities, naples, fort myers. you can see rivers just floating down the middle of the street. as i said, the impact still very much being felt. more than 2.5 million customers in florida without power this morning. we're only going to begin to get a full sense of the destruction when the sun comes up soon. i think everyone here up and down the southwestern coast of florida bracing for that. listen to this -- >> this morning as more than 2 million homes and businesses are without power across florida, we're seeing people who decided to hunker down and ride out the storm now trapped in the dark with flooding all around them. the roof of a hospital intensive care unit in port charlotte blew off during the storm. it sent water cascading down. the staff there scrambling to save patients as the hospital flooded. ahead, we'll be speaking with the doctor there on how the conditions are. john? >> reporter: as we said, hurricane ian still very much a storm that is causing damage as we speak bearing down on the city of orlan

naples mayor says even though there is video of the naples firehouse being swamped with water, firefightersmillion in infrastructure damage and don't even know how many vehicles they have lost. some areas of naples are still dealing with lingering storm water left over from the surge and today many residents spent today mucking out their swamped homes. i spoke to one man who rode out the storm in naples and talked to him about what it was like here. >> it was pretty rough. down on the shore, in my bedroom i had 4 inches of water. we were surrounded by water. we had trees down. we had snakes, gators, all sorts of interesting creatures coming. >> it is going to be a long process of rebuilding for folks here in naples. ian, a storm they will not soon forget. bret, back to you. >> bret: max gorden live, thanks. >> the tide has come up, really about 2-3 feet over normal tide. you can see at the end of the pier it is under intense pressure. >> bret: scenes from naples as ian came ashore. joining us now the aforementioned naples mayor, teresa heitman. mayor, thank you so much for the time. i know

in naples, fort myers, port charlotte, punta gorda. 140, 150-mile-per-hour winds.ort myers who rode out the storm in his four-story condo. he sought 108-foot water rushing down the street. 10 feet of water rushing down the streets. cars swept away. swept across. he said the water was flashing up from the road into his fourth story apartment. a fireman in naples told us he was unnerved in his firehouse as the water was rising seven feet in his building. they weren't able to get out and do rescues as the sun was hitting. they're hoping to get out this morning as the sun begins to come up. that's what ian already did. i want to focus on what ian is doing. let's go to orlando where it is a tropical storm. our ryan young is there. good morning to you, ryan. >> reporter: good morning, john. we're waiting to see what happens next, the rain has been unrelenting at this point. the heavy winds have been on and off and picking up in the last 15 minutes or so. so many people trying to make that decision like we did yesterday to leave tampa and drive across the state to orlando

brian todd is on the scene for us in naples, florida. brian, we're just beginning to understand the scope of the damage from ian. >> reporter: absolutely, wolf. people in this town just beginning to come to grips with this devastation. we are on a gulf shore boulevard here in naples, within 150 feet of the beach. a 12 foot storm surge pushed the water up underneath these apartments. now people are tossing their biggest positions on to the street like this. debris hazards are all over the place. and this comes as rescues are still going on in the city tonight. up and down florida's west coast today, residents facing flooded homes, neighborhoods underwater, streets littered with abandoned cars, roofs torn off. boats swept after a stormy night of tearing winds, rushing water and last-minute escapes as the category four hurricane ripped through. >> all of a sudden, the house flooded. it just started going deeper and deeper. by the time we were walking out, we were mid-thigh in water. >> the naples fire department carrying out water rescues.

i am not seeing any standing water in naples at all. as i am driving i am next to a electrical truck and i see another one, and these are the trucks that are able to go up and repair the electrical lines, but they needed though winds to come down in order to do so. i probably see five of them around me. lots of electrical workers out here starting to get the power grid backup. still more than two 2 million without power in the state and more losing it because of the heavy rain over central and northeast florida. we've had an update on the official death toll which is 10 people now. lee county is where i'm headed and that is where most of them are at. >> what has been the path of destruction if you will, that you have seen as you have driven from naples to fort meyers? is fort meyers more decimated than naples? >> yes, definitely so. the highest winds that we got was 112 miles per hour and that was a gusts. this was much more of a storm surge as we had about six feet here. it was higher in the fort meyers area, and there has been images

and also to your point about naples as well, i have in-laws that live down in naples. they lost power this morning at roughly like 8:00 a.m., so the power outages like you said over 600,000 are going to continue to mount, especially as the system moves into high populated areas like orlando. remember 2017, after irma made landfall, orlando was in the dark in some spots for days and same with jacksonville. so, this is so widespread. the entire peninsula getting it, and we could even see cities up to the north in georgia, like atlanta, savanah, you name it. they are not going to see conditions like this, but you know, the topography not conducive to any kind of wind gusts like this or rain that comes in. so, we have a long journey ahead and it is only wednesday, guys. >> sandra: remarkable images there in punta gorda, florida, you see the wind so powerfully blowing, you can see the top of the palm tree there, but the boats are not moving up or down or back or forth, you have t assume they are tied down so tightly bow to stern but also the wind is moving one direction thi

but that is not the whole story naples. in fact, most of the storm behind us -- i think, i'm guessing these winds are about 25 miles an hour now. but the -- are saying stay off the streets because about half the streets in naples are still undated dated by water and the need to get out there in time rescue people. they've got about 30 rescues here. but the call center, if you call 9-1-1 in lee county, which is where fort myers is, they were hit much more severely than we were, the calls are getting rerouted to collier county, so collier trying to help other neighbors to the north. so it is calmer here. we don't know the situation is. we know about 30 people rescued and we don't know who else is trapped, who still in a house. but what have we, know it's worse off north. and we don't have a full sense of what that is. tomorrow morning, when the sun comes up, we will start to understand. >> ali velshi, we're so happy lucky to have you with us. -- i want to go to collier commissioner, commissioner castro, on the phone from marc

the naples mayor has been good enough to join us. madam mayor, i know that you've just endured something the likes of which your town and your region have never seen do you have specific reports that give you an idea of how dire things are? >> well, the team manager and i were out driving today >> let's try one more time mayor, just turn that volume down, and then we can hear you the technology is sometimes frustrating. naples is vanderbilt beach boulevard, it's one of the most beautiful towns on the entirety of the west coast, beautiful rich town with lots of emergency workers and specialized services and all the rest when a storm like this comes in when the mayor gets her technical worked out, we'll go back to her. man, i've seen storm surge what ali saw today, just a river of the ocean coming on to the land i've never seen that i know it happened in wave land, mississippi after katrina, but i didn't see it. >> that's all thanks to the size of this storm, shep. you mentioned andrew, a lot of comparisons with charlie with this as we

downtown naples still has water, flooding in it they've also relocated -- redirected the phone calls that are going to lee county, which you were just talking about, to collier county, and there are people who are desperate for help they're putting out word in this county, please, don't call us unless it's a dire emergency we can't come and get you anyway those barrier islands are trying to figure out who didn't leave those barrier islands. they were under mandatory evacuation all that means is if you don't leave they won't come and rescue you until they can they can't the winds aren't down enough the water is not far enough gone there's not even going to be a beginning to rescues and things like that until tomorrow, let alone the 1.5 million plus people who don't have power in florida, and that number is going up there are a lot of people without cell phone service as you say, we're starting to see the end of this thing, the back of it in points north of me, tampa, northeast to that in orlando and jacksonville, they're actually seeing the worst of it because the storm has slowed dow

what are you hearing from people in naples? any people trapped? tough time with communications. a lot of cell towers are down. we probably dealt with a full 24 hours of tropical force and hurricane force winds. we're having a hard time communicating with the rest of our area, but we've been pushing out messages the best we can through social media and through internet. so we're hoping to stay inside to stay safe. they wait for us to come by and clear the roads and wait for the surge to recede so they can get out safely and start to get back to normal. >> i don't know if you've been able to step out the door or even look outside but what does it look like outside this morning? >> well, we can certainly see that there's water lines or all the buildings around us, where we're situated a half mile from the gulf, a lot of the structures, a lot of debris. i don't know that there's as much debris as some other storms but the storm has caused a tremendous amount of damage in our area. >> can you describe what was like when the water was coming? >> we were

we've seen the worst of it passed by naples. even in the area around tampa, you're gonna see a lot more of that happen in the later hours of tonight. it's far from being over. >> understood, she's doing the reporting on the ground for us, please stay safe and thank you sir. i wanna return to florida >> good evening everyone i've seen mother nature test resiliency of many palm trees around here. we have some intense winds and we are waiting for the rains to pick up. when tampa sees four inches of rain routinely it is as much as 24 inches of rain. it makes flooding like we have never seen before. we are bracing for widespread power outages that are already underway. they are continuing to spread. i'm telling my fellows to shelter in place. it's too late to be locating it. we are a city of champions and they take care of each other we are still facing potential winds. we are still -- bacteria and viruses, we are far from being away from this. >> you mention to now shelter in place with this path to have any idea how much compliance

in parts of naples. this was the nable, the the naples fire rescue department, having to go out there and rescue folks that were stranded, perhaps in vehicles, perhaps even in their homes. >> as storm surge inundated people's homes and , of course, washed away their livelihoods. unfortunately, you're seen here video from orlando. this is live where it is a tremendous amount of rainfall that is ongoing. and look at the wind and what that wind is doing to the water over the roadways, specifically on the left bottom side of your screen, almost looks like waves is what we're seeing as of this point. it is one of the reasons why, although parts of southwest florida, we are slowly working our way out of the woods. we are certainly not out of the woods in central and parts of northeast florida. included in that would be along the space coast here as well. so still hurricane in again, this is it made landfall 12 hours ago. but still a hurricane, despite the fact that it's been cut off from its main fuel source,

this is storm surge, the ocean coming into naples. there is no delineation anymore between the gulf of mexico and naples. >> there is the wind speed as they stand next to a building, which is somewhat protecting me. i will take a knee -- i will try to take any again. >> we both tried to take any at their. signs blowing over, debris flying around. >> about 90% of our city is without power now. the winds are extremely high and the water is rising. >> you can see portions of trees clinging to i don't know what they're. they have been flying around the streets. >> it's a cinder block wall, the entire width of this area came down. >> we were on the back and now, the back eyeball commenter. we had some of the strongest winds here so far. >> good evening, once again, i am stephanie ruhle. we are continuing live coverage of hurricane in, the category four storm made landfall on florida's west coast this afternoon, and it is still battering the state with heavy rain and hurricane-force winds. right now, more than 2 million homes and businesses

your favorite hurricane girl over here in naples.he bay. >> on fire. >> because why, chief? >> truck catch on fire and smoking and we didn't want the station to burn down. >> they are now unloading the truck. this is a storm surge that we talked about but we weren't sure about. >> bret: sure about it now. that's video from the naples fire department dealing with that storm surge. joining us by phone, the person you saw in that video, tarren with naples fire and rescue. tarren, thanks joining us. this video is really unbelievable. you said you were kind of seeing that it was coming but weren't sure that it was going to develop but, boy, it seems like it's all over the place there. >> that's correct. i also have with me our deputy chief dan and maria that's willing to speak with you on this as well. >> bret: great, how are things looking in naples? >> go ahead. >> formall form furniturely fos are starting to recede and hoping to do a assessment. >> bret: did you have a the love damage besides what we're looking at with these vehicles.

central naples, of course, and moving up to north naples. and then the southern part there of bonita springs, just complete devastation. when you look at our coastline, as you quoted earlier, it does look like a war zone. that eight foot surge took out every first and a half floor of every building, home, along the beach all the way down through everglades city. so, construction debris laying everywhere, our dunes, the main roads, all just wiped clean. boardwalks, from our beach access points, and the majority of that material just pushed inland into the estuaries, into our streets. just complete havoc here. we've got a large project ahead of us, because this beautiful community back into shape. >> dan, our search and rescue still being conducted with throughout the city? should residents be calling 9-1-1 even now if they need help? i'm not sure if you have the manpower with the capacity at the moment. >> we actually have a very robust 9-1-1 system, thanks to our sheriff and our emergency service operation. yes, they should always call 9-1-1

naples fire station taking on water. the storm undergoing rapid intensification ahead of landfall, increasing the hurricane force wind field out 45 miles from the center. hurricane hunters flying into ian knocked around by extreme turbulence. >> there goes the bed. holy cow! whoa! >> reporter: one hurricane hunter describing it as the roughest flight of his career, that he'd never experienced that much lateral turbulence, or seen that much lightning. one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever make landfall in florida now expected to cut across the state like a slow-moving buzz saw. >> this is where we're expected to be by 8:00 tonight. it's 3:00 right now, and look, the hurricane moves barely 50 miles. this is an exceptionally slow moving storm. >> reporter: orange county fire trucks using loudspeakers to alert residents in this mobile home park to seek shelter, the storm is coming. fema ready to respond as soon as it is safe. >> we've prepositioned quite a bit of equipment so we can respond immediately. once we know wh

we've come across scenes like this with people tossing it possessions in naples.city officials telling reporters saying the property damage going's highs $20 million. the damage to personal property could go as high as $200 million that's a conservative effort. brian todd, naples, florida. >> let's check in to get the very latest on eons path. >> yes, we know that when he moved across puerto rico, it wiped out all the electricity across puerto rico. it's claimed only 16 lives. across florida all day long here we've shown you these pictures coming out of southwest florida and across the central florida peninsula, and now there's going to be another landfall more than likely somewhere along this coastal region of south carolina. it's called the lowlands for a reason. it's very prone to flooding, especially charleston. i know charleston very well. they are expecting maybe 5 to 10 inches of rainfall, maybe some isolated heavier amounts. i want to show you where that rainfall is going to head as it moves across the central sections of south carolina to north carolina.

what are you seeing and hearing happened to naples?> well, our pier has severe damage, so the pier is closed until we can have it repaired. we are working on broken lines, sewer lines, gas lines, and we have a curfew until 12. we are clearing debris and we still have some flooding in most areas. but i will tell you we are still assessing the area. >> i'm sure you are. >> catastrophic. >> i was going to ask you, how would you describe what's happened to naples, mayor? >> catastrophic, devastating. i will tell you, though, our prayers are for those up north, fort myers, they're without water. at least our water and sewers are working and they're having to send patients from fort myers to naples community hospital, but our teams have expertise in this. they've been with us for a long time and we'll recover quickly and make sure that our residents are safe and sound. >> do you have any reports of injuries or fatalities? >> not at this time. we have a 3:00 update for the community, and that will be live on our channel, local channel here an

in naples, authorities said that more than half of the streets were not passable. this video released by the naples fire department shows a power line bursting into flames as the hurricane tore through the city. there is also this frightening video near tampa. officials say it is still dangerous and a life threatening storm. the national weather service issued a flash flood warning. some areas of ft. myers were under three to four feet of water. throughout the day, ian caused record breaking storm surge and around two feet. submerging cars, knocking over house ands causing significant damage. our emergency workers rescued hundreds of people from flooded homes and cars. this as governor ron desantis is once again urging residents to stay indoors. >> we know that this has been a big storm and it's done a lot of damage. we know there are folks who are in the really high risk zone a evacuation zone who did not evacuate. some have called in and those people are being logged and there will be a response. but it's likely going to take a little time for this storm to move

myers and naples further south are both decimated. countless neighborhoods are still submerged in the floodwaters at this hour. the communities of sanibel and pine island are now cut off from the mainland after ian washed away parts of this causeway. this is a major thoroughfare right there. the governor said the area suffered a biblical storm surge. let's bring in acting deputy director at the national hurricane center and joins me from miami. michael, thank you so much. tell us, where is the danger right now? >> right now we're most concerned about this area from east central florida, say from cape canaveral, to the jacksonville area. we have the center of ian pushing offshore of cape canaveral. strong winds along the east central florida coast south of daytona beach. we also have storm surge in st. augustine. you see water pushing into the old parts of the city there. we have very heavy rainfall. so this is sort of the hunker down mode with the storm now. quickly that threat is going to shift up to georgia and south carolina and no

you look at collier county, downtown naples is flooded.bside as the time goes on, but 1 they're prepared for a lot of different eventualities, so, we're thankful for the states that have sent us resources and we're very, very appreciative of them stepping up and helping florida. as this storm passes your community, understand, it's still a very hazardous situation. you're going to have downed power lines. you're going to have a possibility of harm's way because of standing water. misuse of generators. i asked the department of emergency management, kevin, to produce for me the rundown of the fatalities through direct impacts of storms versus the aftermath, and in hurricane irma, there were seven fatalities directly because of the storm and there were 77 that were a result of post-storm and a lot of that is standing now >> activated the florida disaster, offensive time chivas say they want to help. what can we do? >> there's really two things that you can do. one, send some donations. the other can be to donate your time. what is not helpfu

this is storm surge, the ocean coming into naples. anymore between the gulf of mexico and naples. >> there is the wind speed as they stand next to a building, which is somewhat protecting me. i will take a knee -- i will try to take any again. >> we both tried to take any at their. signs blowing over, debris flying around. >> about 90% of our city is without power now. the winds are extremely high and the water is rising. >> you can see portions of trees clinging to i don't know what they're. they have been flying around the streets. >> it's a cinder block wall, the entire width of this area came down. >> we were on the back and now, the back eyeball

here in naples we have the back end of it. there's 1.3 million people reportedly out of power in florida. that number is going up by the minute. and remember, this storm is now moving northeast very, very slowly. the rain is being dumped, the ground is being softened, the trees are falling, more power lines are going down. so they're not even going to get started on fixing that power until at least tomorrow in places like this when the wind dies down. it's still very windy here. the water has got to recede and they got to get cars out of the street and then they start working. we heard emergency calls from people who are trapped. lee county, ft. myers, they've redirected some of their emergency calls here so the police here are saying please don't call us unless you actually have an emergency. we can't do anything for you. we're trying to help those meme in ft. myers where things are much worse. >> the thing about it, ali, i can remember riding out a category 3 hurricane wilma, which was a couple months after hurricane katrina

naples recorded more than 8 feet of storm surge. that's a record. cars and debris are piled up in the streets. fox weather's max gorden has assessed the damage for us in naples. >> water still fills the streets here in naples, florida, after a massive storm surge inundated the city as hurricane ian came to shore. you can see this roadway still filled with water. behind me, right here, folks cleaning up the damage. lots of palm fronds, other debris from the storm. streets are blocked off here. as you can see, the winds were really whipping. you can look and see this palm tree stripped from the winds. we've got a vehicle driving up here. really almost up to the bumper there. you can see how high the water is. you can see how this storm surge came. if you come over here, you can look at the line of debris on this house. really houses filled with water. it looks like between 2 to 3 feet of water in some cases. going to be a lot of work mucking these homes out. >> tucker: food price, if you've been to the grocery store, you know are continuing to climb.

the storm surge that we saw in places like naples, florida, in fact, naples, florida, we lost the gauge because of the immense amount of power from the water that moved inland. and it really inundated these homes. we had curfews in place, shelter in place for naples, florida, because all of that storm surge that reached record levels, fort myers, florida, top water levels. i mean, we smashed the record in fort myers the last time that we saw the record of storm surge is three point three six feet. and that was actually from gabrielle that we saw in two thousand one . i mean, we're talking over seven point to six . and i say over because this was just the last reading that the gauge in fort myers got to before it went offline. and so we'll likely be seeing storm surge levels anywhere from 10 to 12 feet as a forecast. unfortunately, did verify here in southwest florida. fort myers taking the brunt of that concern and that damage. take a look at the current conditions right now where we are expecting that storm surge to continue. fort myers, we have storm surge right now reading at about f

here is what naples pier looks like. a couple hours ago you could see the sand, now you can hardly see the bottom of the pier. it has been crashing over the pier for quite some time. at least the people were gone. but the 12 to 18 foot surge, that will be the problem because many of these homes in these areas, they are only 3 feet above sea level. you put an 18 foot storm surge on top of the ground, all of a sudden the water is up to your gutters or more. napeleles 5.7 # ssurge and is t one third and it is not even onshore. one third of what we thought already. and tapmpa, it looks a an awful lot like what bill was just showing you, the water is flowing away. it is going out of tampa bay. and the good news is they won't get much of this back side, so it is not going to come in a lot like, you know, like this down here will be. this is going to be a 9, 10 foot surge in places that are already above ground. if you get all the way down toward the sea surface, down toward sea level, that is where that significant number, 18

so the circulation coming around the bottom like this, earlier this morning drove the water into naplesand it's all about the angle that it hits the coast. then a little later the winds changed direction a little bit, drove the water up the caloosahatchee river, and that flooded downtown fort myers. so now we had both those downtowns flooded. but look at the top side of the storm the circulation this way drove the water out of tampa bay so it's going to take the whole system moving in order to get that water to come back into tampa bay, and that's a concerning but that's not going to happen until later tomorrow at the earliest. and then we have another part of this disaster, which is going to be the rain. up to the north, what's left of the circulation here. and you don't see it on the radar so much but there's still plenty of wind coming around down here. but in this northern part, 12-19 inches of rain fell today, and they have record flooding in a place called arcadia, which is not too far from sea bring there and that's the weather going to orlando. here's the track, it takes a step

this was in naples.morning, crews are pulling people off of roofs of flooded homes. >> joining us now from fema headquarters here in washington, d.c. is vice admiral pete gautier, the deputy commandant for operations of the u.s. coast guard. good to have you on, sir. thanks for taking the time. >> thanks, jim and poppy. >> your teams have been out in force, coast guard crews. i wonder how many rescues have you been able to carry out in the last 24 hours? >> well, as you mentioned, we've been preparing for this storm for the past week. we've moved our coast guard cutters and boats and helicopters and aircraft out of the impacted area and we've mobilized others from around the country to be prepared to quickly come in behind this storm, to first and foremost do rescues and evaluate the situation. we've done 23, rescued 23 individuals so far, and we expect many more to come. >> we just heard governor desantis say that this is a 500-year flood event. we heard him say we've never seen a storm, a flooding even

we're here in naples bay here at the naples city. dock has been so much rain, but a lot of wind are to keep my eyes open. but take a look at these waters. the waves crashing up. >> and out against the dock here that just off of that is that it feels boats. they have been bobbing and weaving all morning long. something else we have noticed the lights there flickering going in and out. the thing about ian is directly west of us where we are right now. so we're really feeling those winds, some rain off and on heavy downpours. that's really the situation in naples right now, of course, is going to get worse as we get on later in the day. >> xavier walton, send it back to you. >> our winds last i heard that's pretty close to a category 4 5, miles per hour below category 5 status right there. so that's the strongest storm to be making landfall in florida and around 20 years. if it stays this strong, is there a chance that it could go down or not? so as of this point that i was directly west of fort myers and naples. as a category 4 system,

it's going to take some time for the folk here in naples to rebuild. jackie, back to you. jackie: let me ask you, max, i spent some time on the ground covering hurricanes. what amazed me even in the face of tragedy, death, difficulty, power outages, flooding, the way communities came together, the way strangers helped each other. are you seeing that on the ground? >> reporter: jackie, absolutely. today we saw neighbors helping neighbors mucking out houses, really just coming together for each other. you know, it's truly in times like these when we see the strength of americans, and this is no exception. jackie: yeah. and the resilience of human beings. it's incredible to watch. we are praying for everybody in florida who has been impacted by and anybody else who's going to get in the way of this storm's path. max, thank you so much. good to see you tonight. >>> and thanks so much to you at home for watching the show tonight. for all the latest updates on hurricane ian, download the fox weather app at fox weather.com. i'm jackie deangelis in for kennedy

brian todd is in naples florida. first, i want to bring in our chief climate correspondent, bill weir, who is right now in fort myers. and he just got there after seeing some of the hardest-hit and most cut-off areas today. bill, it's good to see you. we need you on the ground. just minutes ago, you got back from north captiva island. tell me, what did you see there? >> reporter: well, laura, it was really interesting. we went right to the -- sort of the bulls eye of the storm and the barrier islands around that, including sanibel island in north captiva, as you mentioned there. but the most striking damage was in a place that we're looking at here, which is st. james city on pine island. and what struck me about this trip out there on sanibel, you know about the bridge being blown down. but a lot of the houses there looked pretty good. they escaped pretty unscathed because of the quality of the construction. this is a high-end neighborhood for lack of a better term. same on north captiva. there's no cars. it's sort

let me show you what is looked like yesterday in the naples, fort myers area. ian came with category four, wind speeds 155 miles per hour, dropped a foot of rain and life-threatening storm surge turned roads into rivers and left homes on the other hand water. take a look at the radar, ian has weakened since making landfall as it moves to florida. latest update has it 75 miles per hour, making it a category one hurricane, officials warn communitiess in central and northern florida, they are still in danger from flooding and hard to process amounts of water. central and northeast florida, 12 to 20 inches of rain possible, some areas according to national hurricane center, looking at a possible up to maximum of 30 inches. northeast florida, be careful today, national hurricane center saying there is possibility of six-foot storm surges, what will happen today, ian is going to continue to make its way across the state out into atlanta up the coast of georgia, possibly making landfall in south carolina tomorrow, guys. >> todd: lauren, thank you, let's bring in janic

i grew up in florida, lived if in naples for almost 34 years.hat came two days ago was just incredible. we had a moat around city hall. i couldn't believe it. i've never seen such flooding. i have a sprinter van and the water was all the way up to the windows. maria: i mean, yesterday i saw video of a shark swimming in the street. it went viral after ian made happenedfall because it was hard to understand where the water was, where the street was and next thing you know we see a shark swimming in the street. was that the effect of how significant the winds were? >> well, you know, maria, the ocean and our bay met at one point in time and you couldn't see the streets. we just look like one big river and we also had large grouper and fish cleaning up yesterdays. as far as city hall and city hall is eight blocks from the beach so it was a little bit stunning to see dead fish on the streets. maria: it was incredibly stunning. let me get your take on the cost of this. do you have any assessment in terms of what kind of money will be needed in this re

south of there, a fire station was inundated with flood water in naples. one fire truck even had to be emptied because of its gear because it was smoking. new pictures show damage to a local hospital. the emergency room is flooded and part of the hospitals. roof was torn off. florida's not out of the woods just yet, and watches and warnings are now being posted in other states. so let's get to the latest on the storm's track from meteorologist kevin costner. good morning, andrew and rhiannon. hurricane ian made landfall the southwest florida coast on wednesday afternoon as a strong category four hurricane with a record storm surge places like naples and fort myers, but florida is just at the beginning of seeing impacts here. we've had a lot of flash flood warnings between tampa and orlando, and that will continue . we've seen some areas that have already seen more than a foot of rain and check out the rainfall forecast moving forward for the next several days. we've got feet of rain forecast between tampa to jacksonville and orlando and up into savannah ,

petersburg, and then headed down to fort myers, naples area, people went to orlando. so a lot of those hotels are now booked up with people. people are starting to go home to the southwest area but it's really important and you're starting to see a lot of standing water. turn around, do not try to go through the water. you are going to have these times where people are looking for friends, they're gonna be looking for support. fema trailers at some point we'll get to florida to make sure there places for people to live. and then of course there are the insurance claims, and make sure the people if not rebuild, can replace, and reform their lives. >> how about you and the governor communicating. in normal times, politics divide you you are not allies. right now, are you to communicating and working together for floridians? >> i've been in contact with the governor's staff. we've approached the operation center, and you are absolutely correct. these are times when politics has to be put aside. it's florida first it has to be florida first we have received the food and w

i don't know if you heard i go down to naples almost every christmas. i got married in naples.y heart is aching for that town tell us what you know and how are people doing? >> hey, jesse. we are a big fan of you and, yeah, do i hear that you frequent fort myers and naples quite often. it's been quite a day today. weren't quite sure of which way the storm was going to go or how much the surge was going to come up. >> we were all here for you are that. erma. it surprised us a little bit and our hearts go out to the first responders and all the folks up there north of us in fort myers and punta gorda that actually got hit harder than we did. >> you are not on your yacht right now, are you? >> not mine personally. shooting from a different angle. a little bit dark now. sailboats on the rocks by the charter club. obviously you can't see that right now. >> jesse: there looks like there is going to be a major search and rescue mission underway. coming in on the water and ground. what do you expect to see in the next 24 hours. >> well, you know, we abandoned the boat today when we tho

brian todd live on the ground in naples.> we want to bring you other important news, jenny thomas is meeting with the january 6th committee. sarah murray joins us with the latest. >> reporter: that's right, this is part of a voluntary interview. she is here in person. our team caught up with her when she was on her way in to sit with the committee this morning. take a listen. >> did you speak with your husband about the beliefs of the election being stolen? >> thank you for your question. i look forward to answering the members. >> reporter: she was all smiles on her way in but very tight-lipped about what she may be discussing with the committee. the attorney said she wanted to clear her name. we know members want to talk to her about text messages she changed with mark meadows about efforts to overturn the election. we've heard from members who say they want to hear about the exchange with john eastman. that interview is still going on, john. >> appreciate the update on that. ana cabrera and d john berman pk up our coverag

>> you know, chrissy, i was watching pictures out of naples, just a short while ago. there was a video of a firehouse, in naples, where you could see firefighters with water up to their waist. nearly, entirely, covered by floodwater. those are the people who will be having to go out, to rescue people. very much, they are in the thick of it. that is why it is important for people who can stay inside, in a safe place, to do so. but, as the night goes on here, and don arrives, in the next couple of hours, it will be a different picture. certainly, there will be people across the states, who are in need of rescue, and some of those crews may have a hard time reaching them. not just because of dangerous conditions, but, because they, also, have been affected by the floodwaters. >> waiting for daybreak, to get that full damage assessment. gloria palomino, we thank you, indeed, for your reporting. take care, stay well. let's head back to cnn's world weather center, to our meteorologist, pedram javaheri. pedram, hurricane ian, so destructive. it is a superlative storm, in siz

this is about 40 miles away from naples, florida. we will likely see this anywhere from 9:00 until 11:00 a.m. our time. kumasi: the man who assassinated robert f kennedy fighting for his freedom after decades in prison. reggie: confronting gun violence in the east bay, the significant changes being made inside the police department. kumasi: we are keeping a close eye on ian close to becoming a category five hurricane. reggie: this thing, it's making me get an ice bath again. what do you mean? these straps are mind-blowing! they collect hundreds of data points like hrv and rem sleep, so you know all you need for recovery. and you are? i'm an investor...in invesco qqq, a fund that gives me access to... nasdaq 100 innovations like... wearable training optimization tech. uh, how long are you... i'm done. i'm okay. >> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> now at 6:00, breaking news, a man wanted for malt crimes barricaded right now and we are live at the standoff that has been going on throu

in naples it toppled power lines, sparking a fire. more than two million homes and businesses in the state have no electricity. the storm surge flooded the newsroom and studio of our affiliate in ft. myers. as the hurricane churns toward the atlantic ocean up to 30 inches of rain is expected to fall on parts of central florida. cristian benavides is in orlando with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, anne-marie. as we are feeling the -- as the storm starts to move east, we are now feeling the effects of this storm. now we saw the massive destruction that this caused in southwest florida. the concern in central florida is for historic flooding. some good samaritans jumped into action rescuing an elderly man trapped in his car in rising floodwaters. scenes like these somewhat common as ian roared into southwest florida with a vengeance as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the u.s. this morning ian is still churning its way across the state after making landfall yesterday as a category-four hurricane with 150 m

this is coming from naples, florida. take a pause for a second. wow.oor, this from naples florida on the coast there, an apartment complex just as hurricane ian was hitting the full force of it. last night cnn spoke with a man who confronted and filmed that harrowing moment. >> i grabbed on to a guardrail because initially the water pushed me up the stairs and then it sucked me back down as well. and so i had grab on to a guardrail. i lost my shoes, i got completely submerged under water. all above my head cand i ran up the stairs barefoot after that. >> my lord. that water, poppy, engulfed him. i didn't realize it. that is the part of the voideo that you don't see that came in and sent him up the stairs. >> brian todd is in naples this morning. good morning. thank you for your coverage. tell us about the damage and g give a better assessment. >> we could show you an illustration in the aftermath. take a look at this suv behind me. it is dangling here by this canal. it didn't get pushed in the canal but it is a total loss. and we were told by the owner

this is a rescue out of naples, florida.ie, we always say, turn around, don't drown, water is fast, it's furious, and it rises very very quickly. there's people who have to go out and rescue this person, and it puts them in a dangerous situation. look how high that water is. it only takes 6 inches to stall a car. it only takes a foot of rain to move a car. that is a dangerous situation. let's get you the latest on ian. this is not over. we're looking at heavy, heavy rainfall. we could see life threatening rainfall, heavy rainfall falling right now. the latest, winds at 65 miles per hour. i know it's a tropical storm, i know it weakened. there's a chance it's going to enter the atlantic later. we'll definitely enter the atlantic later this afternoon. it could strengthen before it makes a third landfall. let's take a look at radar. we're looking at bands of heavy rain. i have been working since 9:00. watching these bands go on shore over and over and over again. this is why we're seeing the flooding. this is why we have flash

how are people in the naples area? >> it's going.ad multiple rescues this morning early, early in the morning. we had a structure fire. guys had been out all night working. our crews are extremely tired. they actually just got back some of them are still on scene it's an ongoing effort it's nonstop. >> chief, last question, your men have families, men and women have families there as well. so the double duty of, you know, caring for their family and the community. >> yes, sir. what we find with most of our personnel is i should say all of our personnel is they -- just dedicated to serving our community. so they made sure their families are safe at home and in a nice place for now. but, when they get here. they are dedicated to the doing whatever they need to do to serve this community and step up to any challenge that is we are faced with. so, we are still -- morale is still high and still responding and continue to search. serve. >> pete: we appreciate you and i know everyone in the naples does. i know there are folks coming in and

the city of naples is just south of where ian made landfall. officials say the district was hit with a 12 foot storm surge. right now powers at more than 250,000 homes and businesses. a curfew has been in place since 10 am 10 pm local time, until 6 am. he's a commissioner joins us right now. mr. castro thanks for being. with us >> thank you john, it's been quite a day. >> is there an early assessment at this point caused by that storm surge? >> absolutely. this hurricane was all about the storm surge. everybody put a 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's was just south of that i, was going to get some horrific storm surge and we got every inch of it. we lived through irma here in 2017, and a big storm surge was predicted but the last moment it changed and gave people a little bit of a false sense of security, that the thought the meteorologists were perhaps overestimating that that wasn't the case. the storm did all the wrong things, maybe all the