right before my eyes, we will see where we can go from here because there is no moving back in, this is all we had. this is everything i worked for. i think i have lost everything i own,, my family and i are safe and we will worry about all that other stuff later. according to nbc they have claimed vilest 34 laps in for the admirable are still unaccounted for, first responders are busy trying to reach those left stranded, stranded by the coast guard on santa belle island, cut off from the mainland. president biden but joining me from charleston, south carolina, but emily, what is the latest, what are you hearing? 70, behind me they sights and sounds, and you re very welcome probably here of cleanup efforts are playing out here in charleston, all along south carolina s coastline, after many trees like this one were knocked down by hurricane-force winds, sustained winds around 85 miles per hour, gusts topping 95 miles per hour, will it just uprooting hundreds of trays
climb along with the flood waters. we re learning at this hour that sheriff offices across the coast getting a number of calls from people trapped in their homes they didn t evacuate but as the lead county sheriff s office said winds need to drop to 45 miles per hour for them to safely attempt these rescues. we re going to have every corner of this disaster covered from reporters on the ground to residents in its path. but we begin in an area where residents have been advised to shelter in place, the tampa saint pete region and that s where we find fax weather s max gordon who is standing by. max what are folks bracing for there tonight? p pfrjts hey there, laura. well, this is an area where folks here were expecting the storm to make a direct hit and although it moved further to the south we aren t necessarily out of the woods just yet. some areas here are expecting around 20 inches of rain, and we are experiencing some of those heavy bands of rain right now as well as those
have our fox news chief meteorologist rick reichmuth with us. rick this has been rough so far. really has. three things, the storm surge that broke records in fort myers and naples as well by a lot by the way, three feet higher than we had ever seen from any kind of storm surge in the past. that obviously causing all that flooding right along the immediate coast. then we have the winds, actual verified winds of 140 miles an hour in cape corral. a lot of this wind was really prolonged because it s such a slow-moving storm and then you have the rainfall. because it s so slow we get rainfall that just continues to batter the state and we ll see big time inland flooding concerns. this made land fall in the exact same space that hurricane charlie came on shore in 2004 which is amazing to have two massive hurricanes or two strong hurricanes like this come on shore in the exact same spot, hard to imagine, because it came on so strong, it s still a category 2 hurricane after having
threat across the state. residents are urged to stay inside. our team is on the ground and crews mobilize and janice dean is tracking ian in new york city. todd: lauren, we begin our coverage with you in st. pete. in st. pete beach, they were prepping for the worst, but it struck more southeast. let me show you what is looked like yesterday in the naples, fort myers area. ian came with category four, wind speeds 155 miles per hour, dropped a foot of rain and life-threatening storm surge turned roads into rivers and left homes on the other hand water. take a look at the radar, ian has weakened since making landfall as it moves to florida. latest update has it 75 miles per hour, making it a category one hurricane, officials warn communitiess in central and northern florida, they are still in danger from flooding and hard to process amounts of water. central and northeast florida, 12 to 20 inches of rain possible, some areas according to national hurricane center, looking at
images as the monster storm made its approach. the life threatening storm surge. up to 18 feet expected along florida s southwest coast. more than a million customers without power, and that number only expected to grow as we move into the night. the state of emergency from 2.5 million people under evacuation orders. the governor telling residents if you haven t gotten out, it s too late. and urging them to shelter in place to ride out the storm. tonight, the new track as ian begins its march across the state. where it s headed next. emergencies declared in georgia and the carolinas. our team in place across the storm zone. our special coverage begins right now. this is nbc nightly news with lester holt, reporting tonight from bradenton, florida. good evening, everyone, from the southwest coast of florida where we are still being buffeted by hurricane ian, just hours after the eye of the storm made its much dreaded landfall south of us this afternoon. blasting a