stand by, randi. i know we are working on your signal. we'll reconnect with you. jennifer gray is at the cnn weather center. what's the assessment over there? what's the latest forecast? how long is this going to continue along the lines of what we have seen in the last several minutes? >> wolf, it's really -- it takes your breath away. so the alert that derek was talking about, the high-wind warning that they all received in that message, it said to seek shelter as -- treat this as a tornado is what the message said, that went out to people in this area. that's what they are experiencing. they are experiencing winds equivalent to what you would experience in a tornado. but this is lasting for much, much longer. so those wind of 100 plus are going to last for the next at least the next hour. the storm is not moving very quickly at all. it's only moving at about 8 miles per hour based on the last advisory. so you can see the storm right here, the wider view, the eye is collapsing quickly, indicating th

randy was the head of it. >> steve: i think that's great.ectric vehicle have a better appreciation for what you guys do mining coal than before? >> yes, sir. >> steve: i bet they did. and, daniel, tell us a little bit about that license plate that randy just mentioned. >> well, i noticed that the people who was broke down was from washington, d.c. and i do know that sometimes coal miners have a bad wrap. and we just wanted to show them, you know, we have a heart and we are good people. and i just got him a souvenir. he said he and his girlfriend were going for a weekend get away. i'm pretty sure they won't forget it. they made some new friends. >> steve: now on their electric vehicle, randy, they have a new license plate that said friend of coal which is ironic on the front of an electric vehicle but, at the same time, you guys did something q. we know environmentalists would like to see you and it out of business. right now we are not to that point. helping hand the same people a lot of people would like to see out of work. >> you are exact

should randi weingarten donate her $400,000 a year salary to help?en l miller, jessica tarlov and olivia rondeau. do you know who she run speak of? anthony fauci was going on this defensive to her because finally the blame train is making a stop in his city. and hers. >> he filters politics to science, randi weingarten does to education. this is incredulous and you have the arsonists walking up to the fire, i didn't bring this down or the hot dog guy saying we are trying to figure out who did this. you have to go back and be specific, she was crafting policies with the cdc, joe biden's cdc on, how can we better protect our teachers and things at the same time while governors were opening schools, she had teachers in body bags staging think you're going to kill us new york times op-ed, washington post op-ed saying your opening schools too soon and people are literally going to die, this is not just i tried to get schools open, it's like you are going to kill us if we have to go back to our jobs. i guess the strategy might work on any voter born after

randi, appreciate it. we'll check in again within the hour.ef climate correspondent bill we weir joins us now. bill, where are you and what are you seeing? >> i'm about a quarter mile from randi here in punta gorda. we're on higher ground here, so it gave us some sense of security with the predictions of storm surge. thankfully we haven't seen that. we saw some nasty winds on the back end of this storm. what's interesting to follow up on what randi was saying about that 2004 storm, you know, hurricane charlie came in here and absolutely devastated this community. just the county alone took $3 billion in damages. 15 lives were lost in that storm. something like 11,000 homes and 300 businesses. they retired the name hurricane charlie because that storm was so painful for them. but they learned the lesson. so, punta gorda the first city in florida to adapt a climate resilience plan, a coastal adaptation plan in concert with the federal government in some stages to really try toal build up and prepare for days like this. so, tomorrow morning, at s

we lost randi kaye in punta gorda.he important thing to know is randi and her team are trying to stay safe. that's around where the storm could make landfall. that's the area of some of the greatest concern. the surge could be up to 18 feet. michael brennan is standing by there, the 11:00 a.m. advisory. why don't you tell us what you're see now, michael? >> we're seeing the eyewall of ian starting to move onshore, to places like sanibel and captiva. it's basically like take cover now. hopefully nobody is left in those islands. hopefully people are away from that right now. the eyewall will continue to move onshore and you're going to start to see the water levels rise as the big push of gulf water comes up. that's where we is see the 12 to 18 feet of storm surge inundation above ground level. that's three times as tall as i am. that's really an unsurvivable conditions. >> you know, we keep saying this is the most powerful storm to make landfall in recorded history on the west side of florida. you talked about the storm

randy cox was arrested back in june. here is the video.hen the driver med a sudden stop, he flew forward striking his head. he was severely injured and paralyzed from the chest down. cnn's brin ging grass join us. >> there has been reformed since this incident happened. we don't know the details of the lawsuit just yet because they haven't filed it. we continue to check that docket. but we'll update viewers. it is ben crump, randy cox, his attorney and this happened back in june. just to remind your viewers. he was partially paralyzed. he flew forward in the transport van in new haven connecticut, hitting his head against the walls of the van and to make matters worse you could see on body camera that he didn't get any medical attention for several minutes, even the police didn't even check on him for several minutes. so he was partially paralyzed, injuries to his neck and spine and so certainly we'll probably get a bit of an update on how he's doing when we hear from ben crump. he's had complications since and has had to go back into the

>> well, you saw that shot from randy. we've seen bill out there as well, and it is just incredible. the winds whipping through, they've been in these winds since 2:00 or 3:00 this afternoon. they did get a tiny break when they were in the eye, but you've seen the winds and debris that's coming. so when you have winds of 100 plus mile per hour for hours on end you know it's going to wear down the tree canopies, peoples roofs, the street signs. that's why you're seeing more and more debris litter the streets because of everything being worn down by the wind. so we have a lot of gauges that are now out. they reported well over 120 mile per hour winds where randy is multiple times throughout the day as this storm continues to venture off to the north and east. their conditions should start to improve within the next hour or two, but you're going to see the center portion of the state dealing with those hurricane force winds, the torrential rain for the next several hours throughout the nighttime hours. and then, anderson, a l

. - that is randy, rescue randy. - hello reue randy (laughs) scared me. with the discovery of rescue randy, the r-2 robot can not only alert emergency personnel, but also give them a map on how to find him. that is incredible (laughs). just knows what it's doing. these incredible rescue robots are clearly paving the path to the future of hyper intelligence. - [narrator] in the future, autonomous exploration vehicles perform search and rescue missions in every conceivable disaster zone. even in avalanches at top mount everest, incredibly, intelligent off-road vehicles are also mapping deep cave systems previously unknown to science, discovering a vast supply of rare earth elements essential for modern technology. - [shivani] artificial intelligence will clearly save human lives in the future, but there's a lot of terrain on earth that's too difficult to navigate on wheels. how will intelligent robots make their way over rainforests, bodies of water or even mountain tunnels? in philadelphia, jason derenick of exyn technologies is wking to overcome this prob

>> randi kaye in punta gorda.'m so glad they made that decision to evacuate. 155 mile per hour winds, almost no one has experienced that type of hurricane. it could be and will be one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall in the united states over the next few hours. jim and poppy, starting to pick up and rain here. all of florida -- almost all of florida is going to feel the impact of this and the concern here is that impact could be historic. >> john, thank you for being there. bill, randi, our whole team and all the crews on the ground bringing us these reports live. we will get back to you in just a minute. our chad myers is monitoring all of this from the severe weather center. chad, i understand you just got a new update on ian, is that right? >> unfortunately, that's another one, 12 to 18 is now the expected surge. it's simply because the storm has been in the water and it's been so strong for so long, now we know the bubble under the storm is even greater than it would have been had it stayed 1

let's go to randi kaye down in punta gorda. what are you seeing so far there? >> reporter: good morning, john. we are seeing conditions deteriorate here. there's been pretty heavy rains and pretty good wind gusts. i'm on the edge of downtown punta gorda. this is the peace river behind me. a lot of this water, it is going for downtown punta gorda and flood those streets. >> if you are in an evacuation zone, particularly in the southwest florida counties, you know, your time to evacuate is coming to an end. you need to evacuate now. >> reporter: governor ron desantis issuing another plea to residents in the storm's path to leave. >> now's the time to act. you need to get to higher ground. you need to get to structures that are safe. there are shelters open in all of these counties and that would be preferable than remaining in one of those very vulnerable areas. >> reporter: more than 2.5 million floridians are under some sort of evacuation order. fema issuing this dire warning. >> by the time it reaches the shores of florida the storm is going to slow down to ap

randy is not far from me. randi kaye? >> randi kaye, what are you seeing? >> we are at the top of a parking garage in downtown punta gorda. this is this house across from us. we have been watching it just get whipped. all the trees, many have come down. just in the last hour or couple of hours or so, the winds have picked up to the hurricane force winds. it was raining so hard, violently. we saw lightning and there was loud thunder. that has lessened. we were told that the eye would pass over us and we would see a little bit lighter rain, possibly lighter winds. it doesn't feel like we are getting the lighter winds. you can see just what's going on. we have been watching the transformers as well have been shaking on the poles just outside here. there's a lot of concern those could come down. just as bill said, we are not far from charlotte harbor, even though we are on higher ground, we were told about the 12 to 18 foot possible storm surge. i'm inside the parking garage. this is how fierce the wind is. we haven't seen the storm surge down in the streets be

. >> randi kaye is there in fort myers, florida, and randi, it is devastating to see john berman's view from above, and you are at the ground level and seeing more of it. >> yes, we certainly are, john. we are at fort myers beach and just behind me, you are seeing what we have seen along the way, and captain tony's fishing adventures is a popular tourism boat, and meanwhile, it is on ground, and pushed out of the gulf and on to dryland. you can see that there is another boat behind it, the smaller boat, and the trailer, and the smaller boat was on the trailer, and all of it was pushed on to dry land, and then there's a couple of other boats behind there, and both of them are 50 tons, actually. we spoke to the owner, and this is his business and it was like a floating hotel, and he actually rode the storm out on one of the boats which now has a giant hole in it, and he was on it as he was carried to dryland, and we spoke to him earlier. >> it was windy and a lot of rain obviously. it wasn't just -- we held our own for a long time until about 3:00 or so, and we kept the boat in the slip w

randi weingarten who you just mentioned, she's the head of the teachers union, she -- even though she $130 billion plus, she is still wanting more money. the lord over parents and their kids. watch. >> even though we got a lot of money from the american rescue plan and that was really important in terms of dealing with the aftereffects of covid which we are still living through. we have to focus on what kids need this year. ultimately we need to have the ongoing investment in schools if we want to have the teachers we need for kids. >> raymond: one of the schools doing with the hundreds of billions they've already gotten? >> i saw a comment on twitter of how this commentary from randi weingarten it's oftentimes you'll find you'll find arsonists reappear at the sight of the homes in the houses they burned down. that really is an apt description of what she's doing. this is absolutely abhorrent. the nation should not accept it. what's unfortunate in this instance is more republicans worked aggressive in criticizing it at the time. you saw those ad campaigns. the ad that you ran, you saw

randi, what is the latest where you are? >> reporter: erin, the winds had calmed down for just a moment. i thought maybe we were going to get a break here. but we are not. they are still quite strong coming through downtown punta gorda where we are. we are just a few blocks away from charlotte harbor, which is where the storm surge would be coming from. the ocean's going to push -- the storm is going to push the ocean water into that harbor, and it's going to come right into downtown punta gorda where we are. but if you take a look at what's going on, winds probably more than 100 miles an hour. we're also seeing quite a bit of rain, as you can see. i actually put my glasses on just for some protection from what's going on here. but you can see there's debris that's been flying through the air now for well over an hour. there are some trees down. there is nobody to speak of on this street here. mainly because of how it feels and how difficult it is, the conditions are out here. we know that people have been told to evacuate.

kroszner randy, it's been a little while since i've spoken with you at least.s of where you think things are in terms of listening to brainard, listening to powell, bullard, anybody else you want to choose from at this point. >> i think they've been giving a pretty consistent message since the beginning of -- since the end of july, beginning of august, that we're going to keep at it until we slave the inflation dragon and make sure the dragon is dead so, that means that they're going to keep rates elevated that probably means through most of 2023 because it's going to take a while for inflation to come down. they're clear they're going to raise rates to get to a four handle by the end of this year and probably end between 4.5 or 5, at least that's what they're anticipating and then wait for inflation to come down >> randy, there's no shortage of those who say inflation is already starting to come down. they'll cite many commodities in terms of the price decline i see you shaking your head a bit. i'm curious as to your rebuttal and/or at least your response to t

you can follow up, randy.references an online survey of 750 small business owners and it says "56% of small businesses in the retail sector say they've been victims of shoplifting in the past year," according to new survey. 50% of retailers say that she was got worse and 46% of them had been forced to increase their prices over the past year as a result of shoplifting. i get it. you've dealt with serious things, murder and mayhem. shoplifting is an indicator of crime, is it not? >> absolutely, kevin. it is an indicator of crime. i've been practicing law as a lawyer in law enforcement for over 40 years and i've never seen it as bad as it is now. what i believe is necessary is that we are going to have to elect officials in these various jurisdictions who are willing to change with the time. we are in the 21st century. we cannot continue to practice crime is that we were in the 19th or 20th century. that is problem in most of these metropolitan cities. you don't have enough police officers. morale is low among p

our randi kaye is standing by here. that is where the storm might make landfall. we got word that the storm is getting even stronger. 155 mile per hour sustained winds. >> reporter: yeah, john, that is certainly not good news for the folks here considering it could be heading straight for us right here. i am just on the edge of downtown punta gorda. i'm standing on the dock holding onto the post because the winds are getting a little stronger certainly. we can feel that. they're definitely increasing in intensity. the rain much heavier than it was when i spoke to you last hour. we are on the edge of the peace river. this is a boat launch on the edge of downtown and the peace river feeds into charlotte harbor. so they are expecting, as you know, this 8 to 12 foot storm surge and this could very well overflow because the ocean water is going to -- the storm is going to push that ocean water into the harbor. it won't have anywhere else to go. it's going to flood into downtown punta gorda which is right just -- we could walk there from here. it's very, very close. the

randi weingarten tweeted this, the head of the union. thankfully after two years of disruption, schools are already working on helping kids recover and thrive. this is the year to celebrate learning by rebuilding relationships focusing on the basics. we'll have new test scores call for number four. bill bennett, you tell us how dismayed are you by these test scores and these results? >> it's very bad, devastating report. for20 years we were making modest gains in reading and math. that was reversed during the pandemic. scores have dropped to where they were 20 years ago. for kids at the bottom scoring levels they dropped to where they were 30 years ago. these are the kids who need the help the most. it is unbelievable for the head of that teachers union, randi weingarten, to say thankfully the schools are open. what was the loudest voice about closing the schools and keeping the schools closed? randy weingarten and the teacher union. they have a lot to answer for. these test scores are part of the reason. in march of 2020, my colleague a

our randi kaye is there. randi, can you hear me? >> i hear you, john.tside here, you can see, whoa, just how strong these winds are. you can understand why we are staying inside. that water is just whipping around on the streets. last time we were on air, which wasn't that long ago, there was not any water on the street, and now it's already starting to gather, and if you look on this side, there's the gas station there, which obviously isn't doing any business today, but that's the area, that's the direction, i should say of charlotte harbor, which is where it likely is going to overflow from the storm surge where they were expecting 12 to 18 foot storm surge here in punta gorda. you can see, it's remarkable when you look at the trees there, you can see some of those trees have already broken over. yet the screens, somehow miraculously are still on that house there. we've also been watching very closely there are these transformers around the bend there. those poles have been shaking, certainly a lot of concern about that because of the pouwer outages

cnn's randi kai is live in fort myers for us. randi, you've been watching all morning.hat are you seeing right now? >> reporter: a lot of water still and a lot of concerned residents. there's been a steady stream of residents in the community. we are in north fort myers. the caloosahatchee river came through here and just walloped this community. people here we spoke to were describing it as a wall of water, came crashing through their door, crashing through their windows, you can see it's still pretty deep. their personal belongings are just all over the place. even right here, there's a pair of pants just missing -- just laying there in the street and a lot of neighbors have been helping neighbors, the cajun navy here as well and boats have been all around. people rescuing their neighbor, fire rescue was here searching, knocking on doors seeing if they could do some search and rescue, see if people had stayed here during the storm. we have a drone shot too we could show you just overhead of what this community looks like. you can see how much water. the problem is peo

randi weingarten who you just mentioned, s and randi weingarten, who you just mentioned, she's the headf the teachers union, even though she got one hundred and t $30 billion plus, she is still kinting more money to laud over parents and their kids. >> watch even we got a lot of money from the american rescue plan, and that was really important in terms of dealingwih with the after effects of cogat, which we're still the c g through. on we really have to focus on what kids need this year. but ultimately, we need to havee the ongoing investment in schools if we want to have the teachers we need for kids.s. >> what are these schools doing with the billions, hundreds ofu billions they've already gotten ? you know, i saw a comment on twitter about this commentary from randi yoingarten that said that, you know, oftentimes you will find that, you know, arsonists reappear at the site ofn the hos the homeess and houses that they've burned down. and that really is an act description of what shedescript is doing here. look, thisshe's do is absolutel. abhorrent. the nation should not accept it. k

and lucky for us, we have the tape to prove it randy and her teacher union friends had zero interestthe classroom. >> we have an obligation to make remote better because until we can really decrease community spread throughout the united states, distance learning and distance working is going to be a fact of life. >> the reason we raise the issue about as a last resort on a local basis, a safety strike action is because we are really concerned as schools start opening in august that you got the deniers and you have got the mac thinking. >> we know people need in person learning and remote instruction is no substitute for it but it has to be safe! >> pete: she said she has been fighting for it since april of 2020. all of those collision are from july and august of 2020 they say they are about protecting the kids. if these people wanted to make schools safer who kids could return to the classroom they would have actually spent, i don't know, the money designated for covid changes in schools to make it easier to reopen? i mean, isn't that what they say they wanted all along? more money?

calles de edimburgo miles de personas se congregaron sobre las aceras para despedir a la monarca, randyde escocia donde permanece el féretro de su madre la reina isabel ii >> este lunes el rey acompañó el féretro en una procesión solemne por las calles de edimburgo desde el palacio hasta la capital acompañado de su esposa la reina consorte camila se unió cientos de personas que llegaron a saludar al nuevo monarca y a despedir a su reina isabel carlos y camila se detuvieron a saludar a algunas personas y aceptaron las ofrendas que le han dejado su madre horas antes de llegar escocia carlos estuvo en (nombre) donde dio su primer discurso ante el parlamento británico dijo que no podíaevitar sentir el peso de la historia que lo rodea y prometió seguir el ejemplo de su madre de mantener los preciosos principios del gobierno constitucional y reinar de forma desinteresada el evento se llevó a cabo en (nombre) la parte más antigua del complejo parlamentario y no en el pleno del parlamento como tal ya que nos se permite que los monarcas entren allí fue una ceremonia solemne en la que los legisla

serrano se encuentra ya con lo Último adelante randy. >> muy buenas noches fÁtima falta poco mÁs de>> por primera vez se escuchÓ que anunciÓ formalmente. >> fue un evento cargado de tradiciÓn e historia. >> nunca antes transmitido en vivo. >> al que solo asistiÓ la elite inglesa y los mÁs cercano a la corona entre ellos la primera ministro liz truss, despuÉs apareciÓ el nuevo rey junto a su esposa la ahora reina consorte camila y su hijo william. >> (hablan en inglÉs) >>> soy profundamente consciente de los deberes y enormes responsabilidad que conlleva ser soberano que prometiÓ esforzarse para seguir el ejemplo de su madre >>> lleva 30 aÑos >>> dice estar esperanzada que el nuevo rey continÚe con el legado de la reina isabel para mÍ fue muy buena reina. >> muy buena con los migrantes. >> otros no estÁn tan convencidos y siguen teniendo preguntas de cÓmo serÁ el reinado de carlos que inicia complicado para su paÍs y algunos consideran que podrÍa adoptar. >> se dice que estÁ muy metido en la polÍtica y es algo que no gusta a la gente de aquÍ >>> mientras tanto los nuevos prÍncipes de

in "the wall street journal" entitled it saying that randi weingarten flunks the pandemic. she punches back, blaming you, among others, for the failures, he or she is back in may 2021. >> i begged them to do exactly what the joe biden administration did there are different estimates. some say that less than half have ever been touched or used, some of them are lower than that. >> even at the end of 2020 the initial round could be funds for schools less than 10%. even today, more than 90% of funds haven't been spent, and they try to extend the time so they can can continue to drive their political agenda. it is inexcusable. we teach kids to own up to and take responsibility. and randi weingarten should talk about how he harmed kids, harming families across the country, yet all she is doing is blaming everybody else. but this is not about teachers, this is about randi weingarten and all of her allies that continue to control everything with the democratic party going directly to democrats to do bidding. >> we see millions of students trickling away and we are also seeing peop

american federation of teachers president, randi weingarten is accused of flufrnging the pandemic, randiarten hitting back at critics. teachers deserve our ear and our help, not shame and blame. beth, let me get this strange, rampant school closures were donald trump's fault according to randi weingarten, right? >> absolutely not, and as i've shared before on the show, i'm not a big trump supporter, but i can tell you president trump made it clear schools should reopen and that is not what happened in democratic states. >> todd: this is part of dems attempt to rewrite history ahead of the midterms, take a listen. >> democrats voted for american rescue plan to help kids get back into school safely. >> step back to where we were when this president walked into this administration. it shows how mismanaged the pandemic was. >> todd: opposite day on "fox and friends first," dana, your reaction to what you just heard? >> i find that laughable, residents and parents have kids go back to school full time if they crowd funded lawsuits. there is no way that what the white house is putting out is t

now randi weingarten are showing up there, she is probably a of james taylor.was rewarded by biden for getting out the vote. she's a political player. that's all that is. steve jobs, do you remember them. said something -- he said stuff that if he said today he be a sexist. the parents both of them stopped paying attention to what was happening at their children's schools. that's when the school started to go downhill. because the consumer, or the customer, the person paying the taxes to get the end for a nation had no idea what was going on behind the counter. the teachers and the administrators started pushing this crazy stuff. the next thing you know that pandemic comes in your licking and zooming you like that out of my child is learning? this is better now -- sounds like the parents could use the union. you just basically argued for a union. right to work. what's to be done now? it seems like it so politicized that even education is hopeless. >> geraldo: one thing we have to do is not to lock down these calls ever again really is a plague and we know about

cnn's randi kaye is there for us. randi?ou want to talk about the power of this hurricane and the power of this storm in the fort myers area, we have a perfect example for you. this is not about yard. let me just say that up front. this boat though is now on dry land. carried over from legacy harbor, which is just on the other side of where we're standing, that's where the water is, carried over here by the force of the winds, the water, in the storm. not only that, but you also have this massive piece of concrete here, this is part of the dock. this is not supposed to be here. it's supposed to be well on the other side of us. back in the water. but was also carried over here. this is incredibly heavy. you can only imagine. if you look out there in the distance, there's some more votes. not supposed to be here. completely out of place. there's maybe one, two, three, four, 56 both out there. all smashed together. definitely not supposed to be here, carried here by the storm along with other pieces of the dock. there's a coupl

ohio senate candidate ryan hitting the campaign trail with randi weingarten.e new subway series menu. the greatest sandwich roster ever assembled. for more on the new boss, here's patrick mahomes. incredible - meatballs, fresh mozzarella and pepperon- oh, the meatball's out! i thought he never fumbles. the new subway series. what's your pick? i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. the three what? the three ps? what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54 and was a smoker, but quit. what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65, retired, and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month. i just turned 80 and i'm on a fixed income. what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the #1 most popular whol

synwhy are you blaming randi wiengarten about this, karol?we need to understand it wasn't the pandemics, it was a trifecta of the teacher's unions with people like randi wiengarten leading the way and the liberal media covering for them. those three parties in part tried to hurt donald trump and that's why they did it. that was more important to them than the education of children and we can never forget or forgive and we have to hold these people accountability. randi wiengarten sat down with the cdc and crafted healthcare policy that kept schools closed and literally blocked the schoolhouse door for thousands of children across the country. what we've found in the latest news is that the numbers have fallen so sharply, and fallen of course even worse for minority children. she didn't care about that at all. she had her priorities, and it hurt us all. stu: why do you think she did that? why were they so keen on shutting it down and keeping it shut down? why? what's in it for them? >> i think each of the parties involved had a different purpo

randi kaye, thanks so much. >>> so ian is now a tropical storm. that's what happens when they hit land, weakening from a category 4 hurricane, but it remains extremely dangerous as it continues to move its way across florida. heavy rains, flooding, unrelenting. this is a video of a reporter rescuing a nurse just before sunrise this morning after she got stuck on a flooded road. officials are urging residents to stay where they are. goodness, we see this so often, poppy. they say, don't drive on the roads, the water rises quickly and then those cars get caught on the roads. >> what an incredible thing to see. wow. ryan young, our colleague, is on the ground in orlando, which of course is feeling a lot of this impact of this storm right now. ryan, thank you for being with us. you actually spoke to that reporter? what did they tell you? and if you -- if you can share their name, so that everyone can know what a hero they are. >> reporter: yeah, his name is tony atkins. he's a good brother. i know him very well. in fact, we saw the video and saw that

let's go first to randi kaye in southwest florida, where people are getting ready, randi. >> reporter: yeah, they certainly are, john. we're in downtown punta gorda, florida. you see here people have started to board up their businesses here in downtown. they also have put some sandbags down. that's because people here, there is a real culture of preparedness. they remember what happened here in 2 04 with hurricane charlie when it chewed through this area. that was supposed to go to tampa, might a right turn and plowed through punta gorda. they have been stocking up on gasoline, stocking up on water and certainly up and down this street they have been putting up boarding along their shops. the story with hurricane charlie was wind. the story and the concern with hurricane ian, of course, is water and storm surge. they're expecting a 4 to 7 foot storm surge here in the punta gorda area. they have four shelters opening this morning at this hour here. they can hold about 4,000 people. but the evacuation order right now under way for zone a is about 40,000 people. so they're hoping that t

randi kaye in ft. myers. first, though, let's go to cnn's miguel marquez, live in charleston, south carolina. miguel, it's coming for you. >> it is coming. we don't know how much punch ian has left, but it is already start to pour here. they have issued a flash flood warning here in charleston. i want to show you what the bay looks like here. this is the area that will flood here in the city. this floods on a good day, but what they are expecting is a 9-foot tide around noon, around noon, is also when that storm is going to sort of come into this area. they're not quite sure where it's going to hit. so if you have a 9-foot tide, where it floods around 7 feet here, on top of that, a storm surge and water coming down from the sky. you're going to have a real problem here. there goes a police officer through roads that are starting to collect water here. several roads have already been shut down in charleston. they are at their highest level of alert here in the city and the county, ready for anything that ian c

if randy tilts down, you can see, this is our parking lot.king lot of where we are staying. look at the water coming in over here. look down there. you can see cars submerged. look to the left, three cars. a dark gray car and a silver car and white car. none of those cars are where they were parked. the silver car has been pushed. that's the situation with all the vehicles. i haven't gone around to the other side of the building where my vehicle is parked. i suspect it's the same situation. look at the properties across here. these are homes and apartments that have car parking underneath. the car parking is now submerged. it's entirely flooded. we are probably -- high tide is 8:00 or 8:30 p.m. we are hours away from high tide. we are a few hours away from the worst of the storm. several miles south of where the cone is and where landing is going to be. it's a very, very big storm. over the course of the next few hours -- we are in the at 1:00. probably, 2:00, 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 will be worse. you will see this forceful flooding. there's

randi kaye, thank you so much for showing us what's still happening there.g to be some time to get people back up on their feet. in fort myers beach, where randi is trying to get to, no far from where smee ishe is, there is so damage. i went on a helicopter tour to look at the damage from the sky and i went over a restaurant that is badly damage and another destroyed. franco russo owes fresh catch bistro and junkanoo beach. your establishments, did they make it? >> no, they did not. junkanoo, as you can see, is just no longer there. it totally wiped out. and the baseistro, the structurs there but there's a whole lot of water damage, the windows are blown out, patio is gone. there's roof damage. there's not even stairs to get up to that restaurant anymore. >> we're looking at the picture, junkanoo, you can see it's gone. it's just gone. >> yeah. >> what does it feel like to see the power that this storm had? >> um, to be honest, my initial feeling was just confusion. the day of the storm i thought the water had entered junkanoo and it was about five feet high

randy, you have been a community that's been devastated by the flooding. tell us what you see, what you have been seeing. >> wolf, it is really remarkable what we have seen today. right now we are at legacy harbor. we are just on the edge of the river. let me just show you the power of this hurricane. what it did here in this harbor. just take a look at these boats here behind me. i will step out of the way so you can get a full view of it. that boat is on land. if you look at the others to its right, they are just all stacked up. and as you just sort of pan around, you can see the sheer force that this hurricane had. if you keep going, you see that joe's crab shack restaurant. they had a bunch of their windows blown out. as you go around the harbor here, you can see all of these boats so badly damaged. it is not just right here, wolf. we were in the city of fort myers earlier today. you know of course that was underwater yesterday. the water receded, but you can imagine the force of the hurricane because we found huge chunks, giant pieces of the dock, pie

randi, thank you. you've been doing an amazing job of stories of survival and what they are up against. thank you so much. >>> another hard hit area in florida is sanibel island, the storm just tore apart the causeway, cutting off the barrier island from the main land. and they travelled in there with the cajun navy to see what was left and who needs help. >> reporter: after ian's violent visit, this is what is left the causeway bridge from mainland florida to sanibel island, and this is the now unpassable bridge to pine island. so for residents of both, boats and helicopters are the only exit options. and while coast guard blackhawks and chinnocks buzzed over the barrie barriers islands, two of the only boats in this part of the gulf of mexico carry civilian volunteers from the cajun navy. those good old boys with bass boats and big hearts. >> give us the name or tell us somebody to pick up and we'll try to go get them. >> and a newer outfit known as project dynamo, more custom to saving americans fro

randi kaye in ft. myers. >>> the national hurricane center expects ian to continue strengthening and to become a hurricane once again in just a few hours. it's a tropical storm now off the coast of florida in the atlantic ocean. cnn's meteorologist jennifer gray is in the weather center for us. where is ian right now exactly and how strong is it expected to get as it regains strength? >> right. so right now it's just off the coast of orlando. you can see that little swirl there. the storm is quite disorganized right now, as you can expect. but it is starting to get back together again. right now with winds of 70 miles per hour. we only have to get to 74 before this becomes a hurricane once again. keep in mind tropical-storm-force winds extend hundreds of miles from the center. we're already seeing tropical-storm-force winds all along the coast of georgia, south carolina, and very gusty winds extending inland. a lot of these trees in the southeast have big tree canopies, so we'll see a lot of trees go d

after the break, cnn's randi kaye has a look at the damage in south florida. surge took out my sliding glass doors i made it was intense against the water was up to my armpits and at that point it was a struggling to try to get out of the house. . cnn.com/impact. cnn.com/impact. ♪ out your name? ♪ ♪ youou know that i've falling♪ ♪ and i don't know what to say ♪ ♪ oh, i ♪ dude ♪ i want to be with you everywhere. ♪ from bolt to blazer, equinox to silverado, chevy evs are for everyone, everywhere. we'll make a new bet around every two seconds. not only on the game, but on the game of life. betting that le is just a swipe away. ♪ being on picking up that curious hitch hiker carrying a bowling bag. ♪ and tting that he doesn't turn out to be a corn hole prodigy. ♪ every moment is life is a bet, but life doesn't up to $1000 back in free bets if you don't win. so bet on america's #1 sportsbook, fanduel, and make every moment more. (classical piano music) - in terms of the hate crimes. i think there is so much more work to be done to make that choice, to continue to lo

what are things like there, randi? >> reporter: anderson, we are now seeing steady rains here. 120,000 people under mandatory evacuation order in charlotte county where we are, about 2/3 of the entire county. we are just outside on the edge of downtown. we came over to this boat launch to see what the situation is with the water levels before the storm. and they look okay for now, but this is the peace river here that feeds into charlotte harbor. what they're expecting is 10 to 12-foot storm surge, what's going to happen is, the peace river and the charlotte harbor is going to both flood. that is the real concern. when the storm comes, the ocean water is going to push into charlotte harbor. it will overflow and the same thing will happen to the peace river. and then where is that water going to go? right up through here and other parts of the harbor and push its way all the way into downtown punta gorda, which is right there. we can back over to downtown, so that's how close all of this storm surge could be. lots of pe

with self expression. african style is into tried with his pre tradition, halla and design through randy's work and fashion of photography and her phone. best of all, she helps africa say a powerful stories, threads, people, and what they choose to where these videos are a shondra on its own. so are fashion forms. fashion forms can be used on television as a small narrative. they can be placed on social media. we can play fashioned forms that are always store as a design um and we use it to tell the narrative of the artist or the designer themselves. what inspired them to create the range or the actual brand from wait spotted to weird is at that moment in time. the landscape of fashion forms in africa and in south africa, it's not much, you know, at this point we are educating a lot about fashion funds. people don't know what a fashion form is, and i think there's a whole lot of work that we still need to do as a continent. and as a country, i want to help build the saundra of full making because my mission is to push african stories and african designers forward. the african story is what

you flunked the pandemic, randy, and set america's children back a year.tt says probably for a decade, an entire generation, maybe. >> we should hope it is only a year. children at a critical stage of learning to read and improving their reading skills, if that doesn't happen they are set back for a long, long time. >> byron, great to see you. sandra. >> facebook's communications director in regards to policy, andy stone. worked for a democratic super pshg ac, senator barbara boxer, and press connect for the campaign committee. he's deciding policy. >> sandra: that was joe concha on the relationship between democrats and big tech, appears to be through recently uncovered emails. this as the who us is being accused of colluding with social media giants to censor what they call misinformation. we just heard a moment ago a response from the white house on this. >> that's right. what the white house is saying, this all happened before, during the trump administration and they are citing a tweet from andy stone with facebook that this has all happened before, d

i want to go to randi kaye, where this storm could have a direct impact. tel tell me what you're seeing. >> reporter: the conditions certainly are deteriorating here. the rain comes in waves, it lessens a little bit and then comes back at us pretty hard. the wind is certainly starting to gust as the storm gets closer to the western coast here the florida. i did just talk with the emergency operation center and they said they are considering more evacuations. there is still time for people who haven't evacuated to get out. this would be zone c in this area, people, it's a much more residential area but they're quite concerned about the storm search that we're talking about now, this 12 to 16 feet. about two-thirds of the county has already been under this mandatory evacuation. but here is the river behind me, some concern about this. there's still boats docked out there as well and this feeds right into charlotte harbor and charlotte harbor is where hurricane charlie raced across back in 2004. so certainly a lot of concern about a lot of this water ending u

randi, good to have you there. you've been talking to people. sharing how hard it is. i wonder if you could describe to folks what you're seeing out there. >> reporter: it's been a really tough morning for a lot of folks as you can imagine. we came to this community, the caloosahatchee river flooded this entire community in north fort myers as you said and a lot of these homes are just filled with thick mud, lots of water, we spoke to some people, they said the water just -- it was just a matter of seconds before it got to share shoulder level and just broke through their doors, broke through their glass windows, it came rushing through. very, very scary for a lot of people. and a lot of these -- you can see the water is still pretty deep here. we have seen some rescue crews finally showing up here this morning but it's been a lot of locals helping locals, neighbors helping neighbors and have seen people in their boats like this one here rescuing other neighbors. we've saw one guy come and rescue his gecko he left behind when they evacuated. they've come to save neighb

what about rescue mission in your area, randi? >> we know, even last night, before the storm ended, the coast guard here in fort myers was plucking people off the roof tops. that is how desperate they were. that have rescued about 200 people here in fort myers. the fire department said they are not rescuing anymore. they have not received any more calls. and love people did decide to ride out the storm. they thought it would go closer to tampa. there are no more rescues to be made in the city of fort myers. we know at least 500 people have been rescued in lee county here and in charlotte county. that is where i spent the day yesterday. certainly, a lot of people needed rescuing. it is unclear how many others might be out there, john. >> randi kay, thank you so much for being there tonight. with everything that happened, cell phone connections can be spotty. getting around, not so easy, either. were hoping for a live report from bill. he is on the island as we speak. we have just heard from him, we are expected to be getting some o

randi, you rode out this hurricane as it came ashore.tuation on the ground tonight where you are in ft. myers. >> we are just south of where we rode out the storm in punta gorda. we came here to ft. myers beach to see the damage, because it's such a hard-hit area. and wolf, this is one of the things that we found here. this is the san carlos rv resort in ft. myers beach. you can see, this is where the rvs used to be. that is now empty. they're gone. we talk to people who said that there were rvs parked there before the storm. this is what the rv park looks like now. and then if you look out there in the distance, there's only one soul surviving rv. we talked to the owners. they cannot believe that their rv is still there. it's totaled, but they can't believe it didn't disappear with the others. over here, they have washing machines for those in the park, and those are obviously destroyed as well. let me take you up to the right side and show you, there have been power companies all day here working. you can see some of them. they've been

randi kaye is there in fort myers beach, and randi, you reached there a short time ago, and what are you seeing? >> we are just on the other side of that beach area, ana, the other side of the bridge, and we are here in a big tourism area. i wanted to show you that we are at the san carlos rv resort as it is called, and this right here, this empty lot used to have a whole bunch of rvs in there, and i am told by people who know it well, and they were parked there in the storm, and they have disappeared. they either floated away or were taken a way by the wind speeds. this is what the rv park looks like now, and out there in the distance and i talked to the owners of the one rv and it is the one surviving rv from the rv park which is incredible. you can see what it has done here, and there were washers and dryers in the rv park twisted as well. but coming back out to street, a ana, and this is the situation here. there are boats everywhere. the boats that were in the gulf are on shore in the dryland. and look at that, that is captain tony's fishing adventures and behind it, two other g

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