hurricane ian. 65 people here in florida did not survive the storm. search and rescue efforts in many areas are ongoing. 2 million people in multiple states are without power. the sunshine here revealing more and more damage, hour-by-hour. the hurricane and storm surge laid waste to entire towns, including ft. myers beach, robbing people of homes and livelihoods. rescue efforts will take months and years for some of the areas to get back to normal. i tell you for myself, i spent much of the day out there. that is the case. it will take many months and weeks to get back to normal. south of here, naples, florida, officials say it will take months or longer to recover. prosecute damage could top $2 million. the fire chief says the city is having challenges with restoring power. brian todd is in naples for us. brian, i know you ve been doing this hour after hour. every corner you turn, every street you go down, you re seeing more and more devastation. tell us what you re seeing.
let anyone know that if they have a boat, get people. our coverage of hurricane ian continues now with anderson cooper 360. the sheriff here in lee county told reporters about the afternoon destruction that is everywhere tonight. no words to describe what we saw and are seeing in the present tense, which is important to note, because this is an ongoing disaster in florida and potentially in coastal carolina. hurricane in yes, it is a hurricane again taste is taking ada. this is what it did to fort myers beach. is the most impressive storm ever to hit this part of florida. here is our first look at the area from above. it is far from the only look at the destruction that can be revealed from the air. in struct the barrier islands hard severing the bridge to pine island, as you can see here, along with the santa bell causeway which is impassable tonight. it also did considerable damage to marinas up and down the coast, pushing even larger boat around like toys. florida
strength and swirling off the northern california coast. a second landfall expected hours from now in south carolina. i m harris faulkner and you are in the faulkner focus. the after math of the storm, destruction, loss of life. i always caution everybody when we give out numbers they do fluctuate. right now it is believed 21 people have died from this and we have been told to expect that number to fluctuate again. so we ll report the news as we get it. this side-by-side comparison shows fort myers, people describe it with one word and you hear it over and over and over, gone. boats and cars in piles. homes and businesses shredded. florida governor ron desantis calling the magnitude of the assault biblical, historic. the governor with an update a short time ago. there is life rescue making sure people are okay, following up on any type of calls. there has been really a great effort. the power is a big issue. there are 1.9 million people customers without power. the other
authorities have been urging peoples to stay inside and stay off of those roads, we are talking about some of the vehicles that are out there and still attempting to lead. they asked people to hunker down and get to that high ground. they have made city parking garage is available for people to park their ground cars on higher grounds until the storm passes. a lot of those are full, they were absolutely packed to the gables last night. sandbags have been handed out. at this point in time, the city has done what they could to prepare and it is these next couple of hours that they have asked people to really stay put, stay safe, and then let the first responders, do it they are work and to not get in the way. that is the big goal, it is the next couple of hours, the high tide, the surge, the water that is coming down that it is an greatest. kayleigh. kayleigh: the last time south carolina sought make landfall was 2016 with hurricane matthew. what a resident saying with that i
quote, for weeks or months. there you see the calm waters now. that was nothing like that in the midst of the storm. in lee county officials try to defend their actions after facing hard questions over just how soon they ordered people to evacuate. critics asking why those mandatory evacuations were not issued there until one day before ian s land fall, surrounding counties have been told to evacuate. this morning the death toll from hurricane ian is climbing. boris sanchez has the latest. reporter: the death toll rising from hurricane ian. as people recall harrowing tragedies and those lost. storm surge came all the way up and they had the windows were sucked out. these guys pushed their wives out the windows to where a tree was and they were looking at them and the guys were holding on and they just looked at their wives and they said, we can t hold on any more. we love you, bye. and that was it. does they make it. no, they didn t make it. speaking to john sayin