residents are urged to stay inside. our team is on the ground, crews mobilize before sunrise and senior meteorologist is here tracking ian in new york city. todd: phil keating, where we begin our coverage in st. petersburg, we got the latest update the hurricane has been downgraded to a tropical storm, what are you seeing right now? good morning, had u.s. coast guard helicopter land across the water at tampa general, now flying off, they have a real busy day doing search and rescue operations all day, still unknown whether they have numerous people that need to be rescued or whether the day will actually be better than they feared. here in tampa right now issue most people are still sleeping after a night of heavy pounding rain and wind, but for the most part, the bulk of the storm right now, not raining here issue mostly moved east by now, slamming around orlando and the east coast along i-95 corridor and the winds here, you can see, not too blustery, only maybe in the 2
dark. the governor clown ron desantis is set to speak at 8:45 this morning after this chilling assessment of ian s wrath. it s going to rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. pete: flash flood warnings are in effect. we re live across the state with a firsthand look at the devastation. senior meteorologist janice dean is standing by. fox team weather starts with robert ray in fort myers right where the hurricane hit. robert? good morning guys. look at the devastation on the streets of fort myers. this was completely under water yesterday evening as the surge came in you could see some of that video will remnants of what was published in and around downtown here. there is just debris everywhere. the window field here yesterday was just tremendous we could barely stand by. this vehicle coming through. it s an active scene here this morning as believe it or not, there is some power that has come back at least in this part of fort myers, s
is up. we see contrast from before and after pictures. for example, fort myers, where the hurricane first hit last. 2.5 million people are without power. i can tell you specifically for florida power and light, we have just over 1.1 million customers across the state at the moment, that said, we ve been out and about throughout the storm, it s been safe to do so restoring power to our customers and we ve already restored power to 500,000 customers, but majority of lines are still above the ground and that will take time to assess. we ll use drones to figure out where biggest damage is and that will allow us to get power back on as quickly as possible. ainsley: ian is hitting central florida and we expect to hear from governor ron desantis 8:45 and will bring as it happens, meanwhile, live across the state. senior meteorologist janice dean is standing by and brandy campbell is back in orlando and fox weather correspondent robert ray is live. we are learning the sheriff in
dagen mcdowell, amy and hegseth is here. forecasters say tropical storm ian will likely regain hurricane strength. it will pick up more power. hour by hour you have been showing so many different things as the sun has been able to come out and give a good visual on this, where are you now? i m at a marina just outside of downtown fort myers, i m standing on top of so much debris, the water is keeping me afloat. there is wood, stirofoam, boats thrown around like toys, you see here, there are life jackets and you name it, it is peer, powerful wind and storm surge that push around incredible vessels like they are nothing, they are twisted and snapped? are upside down, many have rammed into each other, just noise people described from last night. saying when this occurred, this looked like dominos, concrete piers were ripped apart and two or three blocks from here, the storm surge coming in on historic downtown fort myers making roads and beautiful quaint streets who rivers
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. appreciate all the support from the state, governor, thank you, from local law enforcement as well, the national guard, this is a team sport and a team effort and we are going to all work together until we get florida back up on our feet and where we all want to be. thank you. and when fpl and the other companies have crews in, the ex ten to which that infrastructure has remained is critical because it s a lot easier for them to reconnect an existing system than to have to rebuild it. so to see some of that that was able to withstand is encouraging. it s also just a testament. some of these folks put money into the resilience of the infrastructure, and this is like the ultimate test. you have a hurricane that s a massive hurricane coming in at 155 miles an hour, producing this type of