hurricane ian regained strength, now once again a hurricane barreling towards south carolina as a category 1 storm with 85 mile an hour winds expected to make its third landfall just a few hours from now. the governor of south carolina after seeing the catastrophic damage in florida imploring residents in his state not to underestimate this storm. warning, we know what is coming. officials in florida say ian is likely the largest natural disaster in the history of that state, prompting the largest emergency response ever in florida. and the toll is coming in. at least 19 people killed so far, that number sadly likely to rise. more than 2 million people in the state it s a huge number remain without power. in fort myers beach the damage described by officials there is total devastation. look at those pictures, it s like a tornado just swept through there. 90% of that island destroyed, most of the homes there completely flattened. it just is destroyed and it s ruined an
strength and swirling off the northern california coast. a second landfall expected hours from now in south carolina. i m harris faulkner and you are in the faulkner focus. the after math of the storm, destruction, loss of life. i always caution everybody when we give out numbers they do fluctuate. right now it is believed 21 people have died from this and we have been told to expect that number to fluctuate again. so we ll report the news as we get it. this side-by-side comparison shows fort myers, people describe it with one word and you hear it over and over and over, gone. boats and cars in piles. homes and businesses shredded. florida governor ron desantis calling the magnitude of the assault biblical, historic. the governor with an update a short time ago. there is life rescue making sure people are okay, following up on any type of calls. there has been really a great effort. the power is a big issue. there are 1.9 million people customers without power. the other
of the florida coast of that this is sanibel island, an island decimated by hurricane ian. right now there s no way to get help in to sanibel. the only bridge that connected the island to the mainland, it s a long causeway, it s caved in. so there s no way to get on or off the island unless you travel by boat. and that s been incredibly difficult for anyone to do. and that loss right now spans the florida coast. i ll show you cape coral. our bill weir was here today. this is a picture he took. you can see home after home totally destroyed and flooded. the ones that are still standing, you can see siding ripped off. at one point ian s winds were 155 miles an hour. we re going to have much more from bill weir in a moment. not far from where he took those images, ft. myers beach, striking images of what is left. not much. the beach community 48 hours ago looked like that. now, take a look at this. estero boulevard, 24 hours later. a restaurant called the whale surrounded by debr
wow. you got the video? i got it. here it is. oh, man. that s our pool. that s our deck. that was my house. my house is gone. jesse: a fox news alert, one of the largest search and rescue missions in american history is underway after hurricane ian decimated moving up the east coast. governor ron desantis says the situation is really bad. the amount of water that s been rising, will likely continue to rise today, even as the storm is passing, is basically a 500-year flood event. jesse: first responders are working around the clock. hundreds have been rescued since the storm hit. here s nassau county deputies saving two people stranded on a sailboat in the storm. hold on, hold on! hold! jesse: on the other side of the state, naples firefighters rescued a woman trapped in floodwaters. watch. jesse: it s all hands on deck. we re seeing the best side of people come out in the face of tragedy. a good samaritan used his jet ski to help firefighters with rescue
i was on the police department for almost 25 years. saw a lot of storms here. this is by far the worst storm i have ever witnessed. i promise you i m never going to stay for another storm ever again here. however, i am one of the lucky ones. recovery efforts begin after utter devastation in parts of florida. while millions more people are now at risk as ian moves north. also tonight, he isn t tossing paper towels but governor ron desantis is handling this hurricane in a weirdly trumpy way. what we re learning about ginni thomas meeting with the january 6th committee when she wasn t texting the white house in the days leading up to the insurrection, she was encouraging states to reverse trump s embarrassing defeat. ian is one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the u.s. now, the state begins the colossal task of picking up the pieces. we get a first glimpse at the destruction. from what we have seen so far, it is staggering. this is ft. myers, homes completely des