washington. president biden is about to arrive at fema headquarters. the president approved a major disaster declaration for florida and spoke with governor ron desantis. you have power lines that are down. you have trees that are down. you have a lot of hazards right now. today is about identifying the people that need help, who may still be in harm s way, but also beginning the process of rebuilding some of the things that we need. the tropical storm continues to barrel towards the atlantic ocean where it s expected to regain strength and make a second landfall tomorrow along the south carolina coast. right now, tropical storm winds can be felt as far as 830 miles out from the storm. let s go to bring in meteorologist bill karins. this is not over yet. the focus is northeast florida and the second landfall we are expecting in 24 hours. what are you seeing in the latest update? unfortunately, it looks like it s a hurricane when it make landfall when it hits charleston.
strong winds and heavy rain are battering the orlando area as the storm moves its way toward the atlantic ocean. the storm created catastrophic flooding that left entire communities under several feet of water and sent cars and debris floating down streets. take a look at these images. the water was just relentless. crews are still carrying out emergency rescues on land, air and sea. in bonita springs, a group of good samaritans rescued an elderly man stranded in his car in surging flood waters, dragging him through waist-high water to safety. ian s strong winds brought down trees, power lines, knocked out power to more than two and a half million homes and businesses. the winds also literally ripped off roofs from a number of homes, including this mobile home. a short time ago, governor ron desantis call canned the impact historic ask also addressed comments from the lee county sheriff that there may be hundreds of fatalities, something that s not been confirmed. we have h
ian now setting its sites on the south carolina coast, as we come on the air, with the tropical storm expected to strengthen back into a hurricane as it moves, look at it there, very slowly across the atlantic and back towards the east coast, after a trail of destruction in florida. people there are reeling now from one of the worst storms that has ever hit them, and doing what they can to start picking up the pieces. sanibel island, captiva island, a storm surge, with a huge chunk of the causeway there, that is the only way in or out, in a state overall, more than two and a half million people are without power and look at where that deep red is, some counties in southwest florida are totally we re live with officials, from across florida, as well as somebody from part of the federal response to this storm. cabinet secretary, homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas, hallie jackson in washington and we have the team covering every angle, and every location, and steve p
torn off buildings. the treacherous situation has led to rescues all across florida. the fire chief of fort myers says his department conducted 200 rescues overnight over the course of just a few hours. this video shows a group of good samaritans who call themselves the call your county cowboys, they pulled a man stranded in his car to safety. in orlando, a reporter who happened to be on the scene rescued a woman trapped in flood waters. the situation has led biden administration to pledge a fulsome response. president biden has officially declared ian to be a major disaster, a move that makes federal funding available immediately to several hard hit counties. president biden warned of tough times ahead for floridians. this could be the deadliest hurricane in florida s history. the numbers are still unclear, but we re hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life. we re going to learn a lot more in the coming hours, but we know many families are hurting, man
and it might strike hard there tomorrow. not only is this a life-threatening category 3 hurricane getting stronger, packing winds of 120 miles an hour, it s also getting larger in its size. ian s wind field is expanding, which can potentially expose more of florida to destruction. the storm s exact landfall tomorrow does remain uncertain, but it could be between tampa and ft. myers. now, one of the greatest threats is the storm surge and it could reach up to even 12 feet in some areas, which could bring, as you can imagine, pretty catastrophic flooding. floridians are being urged by officials not to underestimate this storm and nearly 2 million people are already under mandatory evacuation orders all across florida. and more are at least urged to leave. police in tampa are now going door to door warning people they got to get out. 5,000 national guard members are now even activated in florida and another 2,000 guard troops are from other states to help them out. we re about t