torrential rain. hundreds of miles away from where ian first came ashore as a hurricane at this hour they are inundated by water. i m harris faulkner and you are in the faulkner focus. breaking news with new developments now. let s go to orlando. look at these pictures. tropical storm ian hitting that metro and already our reporters are showing us conditions where high water rescues are underway. some 127 so far. returning now to sanibel island. look at the left side of your screen. those were the moments just before hurricane ian hit. look at the right side of your screen. the height of the storm with 155 mile-per-hour winds and a massive storm surge that left sanibel in ruins. the way in and off the island, the sanibel causeway major destruction. this was the only option for vehicle travel between the island and florida s mainland. we ve had coast guard rescues, urban search and rescue teams from the state of florida, the national guard down in southwest florida. people
we think they re the right plans because those plans make our economy competitive. and european countries scramble to protect key infrastructure, following the suspected sabotage of two critical gas pipelines. we start in florida where hurricane ian, a powerful category four storm, is right now making landfall, bringing with it winds of almost 250 kilometres per hour. heavy rain is lashing the west coast. millions of people are braced for catastrophic damage and life threatening storm surges which could be nearly two metres high this is the scene right now in punta gorda. brutal conditions. it s under a state of emergency. the storm had been stregnthening as it hit florida. these are the latest pictures from marco island in florida. and here s the state governor speaking in the last hour. ian will produce hurricane stren-th ian will produce hurricane strength winds and massive floodin-, not ust winds and massive flooding, notjust where it makes the initial landfall but throu
it is just shy of that now. we won t get ahead of the news on this. we are expecting an official storm update at any moment. i m harris faulkner and you are in the faulkner focus. hurricane ian is now carrying sustained kinds of 155 miles per hour. if they gain to 157 it s a category 5. the biggest threats facing floridians are massive storm surge, raging winds, inland flooding, tornadoes, experts already using words like catastrophic to describe hurricane ian s potential. 21/2 million people are under evacuation orders. for those people in the storm s path directly, that swath that i just told you to the south, cape coral and to the north sarasota. it s too late to evacuate if you re still there according to the governor. governor desantis also saying it is time just to hunker down for you. he spoke last hour. this amount of storm surge. it will have very ferocious winds and it will be life threatening. people are taking a risk with their health, safety and lives by bein
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
parts of the state getting hit with wind gusts up to 126 miles per hour. this report coming out of redfish pass, a sform surge up to 18 feet is threatening important charlotte and the fort myers area. we have fox team coverage with steve harrigan where ian is making the direct hit. robert ray is in fort myers on how folks are dealing with this and rick reichmuth is in the fox weather center on how long the heat could last. given the slow movement, quit awhile. welcome. i m neil cavuto. a busy day right now and a monster of a hurricane that is big and also slow. that is the problem. it hangs around awhile. steve harrigan with more. steve? neil, we had the illusion for the last 15 or 20 minutes that things might be dying down. that was the eye of the storm. part of that eye passed over us. the skies got lighter, the heavy rain which has lashed for hours stopped completely. the winds died down. now the tail end of that storm is beginning to hit us, the back side of it. we ll s