this afternoon it came ashore as near category 5 strength, as a high category 4 after bidding for hours as it approached. oh, you got to be kidding me! you got to be kidding me right now! right now it is still a category 3 storm, still a major hurricane with damaging winds spanning out 175 miles from the center. oh, my god. no less troubling than the winds tonight, potentially even worse hurricane ian is still pushing a massive storm surge onshore. forecasts as high as 18 feet in places where buildings living close to the water was why so many people moved there. take a look. this is fort meyers beach, and that is a community outreach center knocked off its foundation and floating down the street. making matters worse, the flood waters affecting residents who are doing the same to rescuers. a fire station here in naples is what first responders are up against along with anyone needing emergency help. and again, these conditions are not expected to improve throughout t
this is don lemon tonight, you re watching our coverage of in, making its way up the florida peninsula. we have all the news coverage this evening, it is dumping rain on this entire area. lots of water. but also the wind, pushing the wind all across the state of florida. our crews are out in the field, we re covering it all for you. we ve got bill weir, bill is joining us from punta gorda florida, also brian todd is in is in derek van damme is in breaking tin for us. i want to other meteorologist, our expert, mr. tom seders in the weather center. tom, i am getting so much rain, lots of rain that have been dumped on me for the last hour. and it seemed to come in on cue, we re watching the radar, the rain came right in. it s just sitting on top of us, not going anywhere. in fact that northern periphery of the storm system in the last couple of model runs in the last couple of days really has been showing that that northern periphery is where we re gonna have that heavy rain
parts of the state on a slow, this is really an issue, it s churning on the destructive crawl north. orlando now in the crosshairs of this historic storm that s produced record rainfall and storm surge. power outages are a major problem with more than 2 million customers in the dark across florida. water is just everywhere in many communities. in port charlotte, the storm blew the roof off of a hospital and it flooded the intensive care unit. ahead, we re going to speak to a doctor there, how they managed to protect patients and what the conditions now. fort myers has experienced some of the worst flooding in the storm. torrents of water just rushing into the streets trapping people in their homes. same for naples where officials say half of the streets aren t even passable because high water has inundated them. although it s weakened, there is concern about ian regaining strength and threatening the southeast, georgia, the carolinas, and all declaring emergencies in advance.
12 feet higher, devastating communities like for the myers, naples and some 2 million homes and businesses are without power in florida, that is 20% of the entire state and 96% of fort myers is in the dark. one official saying it could take weeks for the power to come back on in some areas. floodwater inundating areas like naples and port charlotte. these are pictures of that area leaving some people who decided to ride out the storm trapped in their homes, others rescued from their cars, berman. the danger also continues, we should note. reporter: it absolutely does continue. the storm not done yet. brianna, i m sorry for communication problems earlier. the fema administrator told me they are prepared for thousands of displaced people, thousands perhaps of long-term displaced people. so that is what people are up against here in florida right now. cnn s got live team coverage of ian still very much a powerful force. first i want to go to the national hurricane center. mike
and they ll have to be rebuilt. unfortunately, there are also homes and businesses that will simply not be able to safely take the power once it s ready. but the 20,000 plus men and women who are already here are staging and getting on the field currently. they will work 24/7 until we get the lights back on. again, as the governor said, not our first rodeo, but every storm is also different and always poses different challenges. but appreciate all the support from the state. governor, thank you. from local law enforcement as well, national guard. this is a team sport and a team effort, and we re going to all work together until we get florida back up on her feet and where we all want her to be. thank you. when fdl and the other companies have crews in, the extent to which that infrastructure has remained is just critical because, you know, it s a lot easier for them to reconnect an existing system than to have to rebuild it. to see that was able to withstand is encouraging.