have made a difference? plus how is russia going to respond now that ukraine is taking back land that putin wants to say is his. and what kind of roller coaster ride are we in for as the supreme court kicks off its new term today. this is what we re watching at this hour. thank you for being here. i m kate bolduan. the dem toll from hurricane ian is rising still in florida. as rescuers are now working through some of the hardest hit areas. at least 76 people have died in the state from this monster storm. governor ron desantis said more than 1600 rescues have been conducted in parts of southwest and central florida. more than half of those people killed are in one county. lee county. and now county officials are facing questions about how long they waited to order a mandatory evacuation, despite repeated forecasts of the life-threatening storm projections from the national hurricane center. i m going to speak with a top fo official in just a moment. still over 600,000 are w
sating wait a minute, we don t know this was coming. this was 4 to 7 until 11:00 on tuesday and then all of a sudden it went to 8 to 12 and got worse and worse and we know what happened. that is true. it is a lot to be learned. every time we sigh one of the storms, that is for sure. thank you so much. joining me now on the phone is cecil pendergrass, the chairman of the lee county board of county commissioners. you could hear me, mr. chairman? yes, kate. thank you. thank you so much for spending time with me. first off you could describe for me the progress that has made in getting help to people. how is it going into lee county right now? it is begun here all my life and worked many hurricanes throughout my career and law enforcement now with this county commissioner, it is unbelievable the amount of resources between the state and federal and local agencies. day five today is, we started rebuilding a bridge today with f dot here on one of our barrier islands that was cut of