Important things to do than think about the president s alleged infidelities. She is delivering a terse assessment on the state of their union. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. This is rcnn breaking news breaking news tonight. We are getting a fuller picture of the death and destruction unleashed by Hurricane Michael, the death toll rising to 16 a while ago. The victims found along the path taken by the brutal storm from florida all the way up to virginia. This as rescue crews are using special equipment to try to find survivors who may have been trapped in the rubble along the ravaged florida peninsula. Some residents are now returning to mexico beach to see firsthand that their homes and their entire community were decimated by michaels power. This hour ill talk with florida take senator bill nelson about the rescue and recovery operation, and our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. F
for us. that s ground zero of this storm. brian, give us an update. reporter: right, wolf. we have been able to confirm there s been one death now reported here in mexico beach, one death at least here, but that brings the death toll to 17 people overall killed in hurricane michael. we will now take you to some video from the air of a drone we have just kind of flying over area where i m standing, and it can show you kind of a wide shot of some of the areas. we have a search and rescue team that has just returned to a staging area a few yards away from me. they re going house to house, busting down doors, climbing through windows, trying to find survivors. they re using specialized equipment. they re using cadaver dogs. they re using what they called live-find dogs, which is specially trained to smell out survivors underneath the rubble. they re just deploying every possible resource that they can. they are not finished yet. they can to this at least until darkness here, wolf, which
critical documents. instead, she found despair. we re going to rebuild somehow. i just don t know how yet. if we don t get no help, we ll be living under a bridge somewhere. reporter: while coast guard crews rescued survivors from the air, cnn is learning search and rescue teams are using specialized equipment and dogs to look under the rubble for anyone who may be trapped. mayor al cathie is trying to help pick up the pieces for those who survived. his family helped found this city in 1949. we are just mom-and-pop business community. people come here to pick up a shell and read a book. so, you know, we it is so difficult, mainly because of the close-knit we re so close-knit. today florida governor rick scott toured the devastation, saying the state is offering all of the assistance it can. we re getting food, water. we re working on shelter. we re working on communication.