it s the top of the hour on cnn newsroom. i m alisyn camerota. hurricane ian just made landfall as a category 1 storm on the south carolina coast. it hit near georgetown, between myrtle beach and charleston, and just as it did in florida, it s bringing life-threatening storm surge and heavy rains. it currently has 85-mile-per-hour winds. the tide has been going up in myrtle beach by a foot an hour. look at some of these images on your screen right now of all of the flood waters in myrtle beach. in north myrtle beach, this pier collapsed during the storm. obviously, we ll see much more damage once the storm passes through this area, and then in florida, utter destruction after the west coast got hammered. at least 25 people are dead as of last count. officials warn, though, that that number will likely rise. some areas like ft. myers beach are still impassable at this hour. stores and homes there have been reduced to shells, even if they are still on their foundations. a loc
pushing heavy rain and wind into cities that are vulnerable with flooding. after the path wiped out florida s west coast leaving parts of the state swamped, draining vital resources, emergency rooms forced to turn away patients, in the state s costliest hurricane on record. plus, putin makes his land grab official, the biggest annexation and absorb in europe, as protesters here leave their mark vandalizing the russian consulate. welcome to the lead, i m jake tapper, hurricane ian making his third landfall in south carolina after previously hitting florida and cuba earlier this week. residents of south carolina are looking southward no doubt at what happened in florida with dread. in the sunshine state, clean up beginning. ian decimated parts of fort myers beach, winds whipping hotels, restaurants, it s a similar scene on sanibel island, homes, hotels, docks, destroyed, littering the beaches with debris. listen to how president biden described the destruction earlier today