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
waters. on the ground and from choppers overhead. a nursing home evacuated in orlando. first responders with children in their arms carrying them to safety. tonight, president biden warning of what could be a horrific death toll here. we have just learned the storm is now a hurricane again, regaining strength for its run up the east coast. tonight, nearly 2 million customers here in florida are without power. and tonight, we re with the families, those who sought shelter and who are still unable to get back to their homes. some who lost everything in the blink of an eye. georgia and the carolinas bracing in the coming hours. now the storm surge threatening charles on the. ginger zee, rob marciano, both here in florida with me tonight. and our team spread out across the storm zone. the other major news this thursday night, the stunning turn in the war in ukraine. just days after those alarming images showing pro-russian soldiers armed with assault rifles going door-to-door t
without power now. the winds are extremely high. and the water is rising. you can see forces of trees just clinging to i just don t know what they are they been flying through the streets. it s a center block wall that was the entire width of this area came down. no word on the back and now, and the great eye wall is coming through. we ve had some of the strongest winds here so far. good morning, i m philip mena. good to be with you at this hour, i m frances rivera. it s 3 am in the east, midnight out west. thank you for joining us for a special edition of early today as we track the devastating path of hurricane ian. here s what we know at this hour. the strong wind of even already impacting daytona beach along the western coach, as it slowly moves towards orlando. the storm has been downgraded to a category 1, but it still packing a powerful punch. ian made landfall in south must florida, in the fort myers area, where the storm surge submerged buildings. it
exceptional leaders, men like ronald reagan who wouldn t let america be pushed around. in the midst of simmering tensions with the soviet union, reagan went to the communist strong hold, berlin. and reminded them who ran the world. general secretary gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the soviet union and eastern europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. mr. gorbachev, open this gate. [cheers and applause] mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. [cheers and applause] history has always shown us strong leaders calm us down in times of fear like george w. bush after 9/11. i can hear you. [laughter] [applause] i can hear you. the rest of the world hears you. and the people. [cheers] and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. [cheers and applause] jesse: joe biden is not that guy. we knew joe was a bad student but i guess he flunked history, too. biden is dragging us kicking and screaming back to the fo
category 4 storm leaving a huge path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we ll have a live report in just a moment. meanwhile, rescue crews have been busy trying to get people who decided to ride out the storm to try and save them. they re stranded now by rising flood waters and we re still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida. at this hour, it still has more to go. good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it s thursday, september 29th. joe is off this morning. along with willie and me, we have the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. without power this morning, first light this morning will begin to show the damage in florida. that s right. that s when we re going to start to see the story of what happened last night, what happened overnight. tropical storm now ian downgraded from a category 1 hurricane. in just the last hour, but still wreaking havoc across florida as it made landfall as a