how many other folks are in placida riding it out with you, do you know?>> right now local officials say there's about 1,000 people in shelters. around the condominiums, we have seen probably a handful, 4 or 5 people and the electricity strangely enough is still on, and looking off to the right, i can see one after another snapped palm trees, which gives you an idea the force of the winds. i have to say over the last 20 minutes or so, it's not as bad as it was 20 minutes ago. but -- so maybe that eye is near and the back side will be flooding and first responders will be able to get to work and save some people. the challenge in florida is always, you know, one-third of the population here is 60 or older. so people are going to need help and the country is clearly focused and mobilizing to help the people that need it here. >> john: just on that point, the eye is approaching you, it looks like it's only a few minutes away, so we'll stay close with you because it's really an amazing phenomenon when the wind suddenly calms down and the eye of the storm. >> w

let's go now to fox's steve harrigan in placida, florida, in the southwestern part of the state. >> claudia, what are you doing now? >> i'm so owe -- i'm getting important stuff. my paperwork. my husband's personal things. i lost him two months ago. now i've lost my only home. so i'm packing it up, taking it to my car. >> you're packing it up in a garbage can? >> yeah. >> have you the goe gotten any p yet? >> no. but that's okay. i'm strong. i can get it, get the important things. >> all right, claudia, god bless you. >> thank you. >> all right. >> i'll be all right. claudia says she's strong, and that's what people are relying on, at least in the first early hours here, their own strength. some people have been asking us for water, food, and of course communication is a tough thing as well with all the cellphones down. right now really it's neighbor helping each other here until help from more than 35 states arrives. tucker, back to you. >> tucker: we'll assess the path of the storm and the damage that it's wrought with hurricane expert brian norcross who joins us for the third night in a

let's go now to fox's steve harrigan in placida, florida, in

this area here is placida, where steve was during the hurricane when it hit, bringing us incredible pictures. what's really kind of surprising is even though the hurricane went up this way and you would have expected storm surge to go up the gasparilla sound here, not a lot of water came up, and not a lot of flooding in pun da gorda. however, here in fort myers, a tremendous amount of flooding. marinas in here, lots of boats all broken up, and now on the ground again and they are going to have to be taken off as everything else is cleaned up. when you look at it, this is such an amazingly vulnerable area. again, as i was talking with the lieutenant general, these are called barrier islands for a reason. they take the brunt of a storm when it comes in off the gulf of mexico. those are developed now with billions of dollars in real estate and very much the same way here in the south carolina coast as well. when you take a look along charleston, there is kiowa island, folly island, isle of palms, billions of dollars of real estate. if that got a direct hit from a powerful hurricane, that would

. >> john: look at the tremendous amount of rain in placida where steve is, and being out in the wind is a singularly uncomfortable thing to do, but steve likes to put himself in the worst possible place when it comes to weather or the best possible place for pictures as we continue to watch what's unfolding there and that is just on the western side of that peninsula that forms fort myers and cape coral and charlotte harbor and punta gorda is up there. the picture of all the water, where was that -- old tape, sorry. i said the first hurricane i covered was hugo in 1989. and the people will experience the wind will wind up to the point it sounds like you are standing behind an engine from a jetliner and it will blow so hard and has this very unique whistling sound to it and then all of a sudden, within about two minutes, the wind will stop and the skies will open up and you'll actually be able to see blue sky and during hurricane hugo, midnight the eye came ashore and looked up and saw stars, and thought wow, that was over quickly and then all of a sudden, about an hour later, the win

ian shredded homes apart in placida, florida, tearing off roofs and splintering trees.e to crash through a home. in one of the hardest hit areas, fort myers, there were storm surges nearly seven feet high. nearly double the previous record more than 20 years ago. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: the massive surge of water leaving entire communities under water. roads looking more like the ocean for block after block. ian packed catastrophic 150-mile-per-hour winds, knocking out power to more than 2 million customers. >> we have seen life-threatening storm surge as was predicted. we've seen major flooding that will rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. >> reporter: this team of emergency responders unable to respond. a massive wall of water swamping their fire truck. >> now we have a truck yir and the guys are pushing the truck out of the bay. >> reporter: in port charlotte, hospital staff working through the storm to protect patients. other first responders struggling to help those in need. unable to start rescues until after life-threaten

homes were shredded in placida, florida. in naples, power lines burst into flames. this web cam captured the storm surge in fort myers. and with entire communities under water, good samaritans raced to help. this cameraman reporting for 7 news australia dropped everything to help these families across the water. while this group of do-gooders rescued an elderly man trapped in surging waters. >> we do anticipate a lot of the