what a story to start our day. thanks, andy. thanks for joining us. i m john avlon. cnn this morning starts right now. good morning, everyone. so glad you re with us. i m poppy harlow with phil mattingly in new york. there s a lot going on on this monday, december 18th. happening right now defense secretary lloyd austin is back in israel, his visit part of the international pressure campaign for israel to change its tactics in gaza and restart the truce talks, pressure growing after the killing of three hostages by soldiers. republican front runner donald trump using darker more extreme rhetoric in that final sprint, the white house slamming trump for what it calls fascist rhetoric. right now storms gusting up the east coast and the travel delays it could cause this holiday week. cnn this morning starts right now. we begin with defense secretary lloyd austin meeting right now with israel s defense min minister. pressure is growing on israel to change its tactics
it is 5:00 a.m. and with daylight will come more of a sense of damage and countless homes have been destroyed. but in the middle of all that devastation, we re often seeing inspiring scenes like this, a local reporter saving ae iing ad nurse who was pleading for help. he had to carry theoryher to sa his back. pawleys island, the storm washed parts of the pier away. authorities are still assessings damage and working to restore power. and brian todd is in naples, florida with a closer look at the damage there. nothing left. zero. the full extent of hurricane ian s destruction now coming fully into view. aerial damage assessments showing coastal florida neighborhoods with roofing tore off, homes flattened, house either flooded or wiped out. some buildings with nothing left but the concrete slab. remote lotions locations cut of the mainland. these images showing how hard sanibel was hit. only way to access that is either by sea or by air. reporter: so far more than 700
of hurricane ian, what residents are finding when they return home. plus vladimir putin s brazen move, how the rest of the world is reacting to the russian president s plan to annex part of ukraine. and how south korea is reacting to the latest missile launches from pyongyang. relief and recovery efforts are ongoing in florida after parts of the state with utterly devastated by hurricane ian. this is some of the damage left behind in ft. myers, a town once brimming with life is now a flattened field littered with debris. residents say much of what they own has been washed away and lost forever. lost everything last night. everything. family is okay, dogs are okay, parents are okay. lost everything we had. pictures, memories. gone. and we re seeing similar trails of destruction in other parts of florida where some residents are still trapped and waiting for help. my grandparents are still at the house. we have animals there. they didn t want to leave the animals. s
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
people are now in 257 shelters like this woman right here. florida says it needs 5.5 million meals to feed them all. and 6.6 million liters of clean water. 2 million people still do not have power. water isn t running in five counties. 19 counties have boil water notices. and more than 200 health care facilities are evacuating, or considering doing so. 10 airports are closed. along with 24 ports. 31 transit systems. and nine railways. and then there is the death toll. the official number is now 14. though those same officials say that number is very likely to rise. and they are warning, just because it has a weaker wind speed, making it a category one storm, hurricane ian, that does not mean that the danger has passed. as we have learned over and over again, it is the water, the rain, the storm surge, and the flooding that is often the most dangerous. that right there is where we begin, looking at what the storm is doing now, joining me from charleston, south carolina, is nbc