off of the gulf coast there. we re not going to get a sense of it until tomorrow. but yes, it looks pretty path down in. and we ll be talking about this later in the hour. thanks, chris. and thank you for joining us. hurricane ian continues to create a swath of in made landfall just after 3:00 this afternoon in southwestern florida, near k o connor, a island off of the coast of fort myers. ian came ashore as a category four hurricane with 150 mile per hour winds. just a few miles per hour shy of a category five. only for hurricane stronger than that have made landfall in the united states ever. but it is not just the strength of the storm, it is the size. this is the view of hurricane in from the international space station this afternoon. just showing how massive the storm is. the national river describes in as battering the florida peninsula with tied and winds, and flooding. ian has just now weakened to a category two storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles
of biblical proportions. ian is a cat 4 storm bringing 140 mile-per-hour winds and leaving a wake of destruction in its path. the national hurricane center is warning of catastrophic window damage with an unsuburb viable storm surge of up to 18 feet. it is expected to dump 2 feet of rain across the state bringing unprecedented flooding and destruction. entire neighborhoods are now undersea as water levels continue to rise. homes are floating down the middle of the street and people are swimming in their living rooms. by the way authorities say it s a very bad idea. who knows what s in that water. and first responders rescue services can t escape the flooding either. this fire department in naples is completely under water. leaving the city s residents on their own. and things are even worse in the air where hurricane hunters are flying into the heart of the storm. watch. oh [bleep] jesse: more than 2 million people in the state were told to evacuate, with thousands more h
they re extreme positions, out of touch with the value of pennsylvanians. here s what we need to fight about inflation because it s a tax on working families. and dr. oz can t possibly understand what that is like. he has ten mansions. pennsylvania s senate race, it took center stage on debate night in america last night. i m brianna keilar with alex marquardt. such a pleasure to be back with you. john fetterman and mehmet oz trading attacks in their first and only debate. they sparred over abortion, inflation, and fracking. issues that are the most important to pennsylvania voters. fetterman s health has been a question in this campaign and the debate highlighted the recovery from his stroke. he used closed captioning for assistance. in new york, fighting crime was front and center between kathy hochul and lee zeldin. recent polls show the governor s race is tightening in the final weeks of the campaign. in michigan, gretchen whitmer and tudor dixen clashes over
senate because washington keeps getting it wrong with extreme positions. john fetterman takes everything to an extreme. and those extreme positions hurt us all. all eyes on pennsylvania on a debate in that race that could determine the balance of power in the senate. i m brianna keilar with alex marquardt this morning. it s great to have you. thank you for having me. john berman is off today. and democrat john fetterman and republican mehmet oz who you saw there, arguing the issues, also attacking each other in their first and only debate. fetterman addressed his recovery from a recent strokes. he used a closed captioning device for help. the candidates went toe to toe on key issues, like inflation and the economy. i can make the difficult decisions as you do in the operating room as a surgeon. i ll do them cutting our budget as well. he has never met an oil company that he doesn t swipe right about. he has never been able to stand up for working families across pen
just after 3:00 p.m. east coast, the eye crossed over a barrier island near ft. myers, florida. this is a live look at the satellite right now. you can see the immense size and strength mof the hurricane. the winds are 150 miles an hour. that s just shy of making this a monstrous category 5. this was the scene just ahead of landfall captured by a storm chaser in pine island, florida. these conditions are expected to worsen in the coming hours, believe it or not. more than 850,000 customers are without power across the state of florida. another major concern today is the storm surge. the storm surge is the abnormal rise of ocean water that s generated by the storm. the lee county sheriff expects that to be, quote, life changing today. that area includes ft. myers and the city of cape coral where the emergency management manager tells cnn, hurricane ian will likely be one of the worst the region has ever seen. we are covering the storm as only cnn can with our team of journalis