florida as well as tens of thousands of electric crews from all over the country. we do not have a complete picture of fatalities or injuries across florida as of yet. one death has officially been reported so far. we expect to hear more from authorities soon. almost 3 million people are still without power. it weakened to a tropical storm ian but back to a hurricane this afternoon as it heads for south carolina. the mayor of charleston, south carolina, is asking his city to shut down tomorrow. correspondent steve harrigan kicks off our coverage, charlotte county florida with the latest. good evening. good evening, bret. help is pouring into florida from across the country but still in pockets like this one it is largely neighbor helping neighbor. after going across florida s peninsula, hurricane ian north and along it led to coast. the numbers are staggering. more than 2.6 million floridians without electricity. rainfall totals approaching 2 feet in some places. heavy wind
down, you have trees that are down, you have a lot of hazards right now. we do anticipate a lot of the water will subside in some of the barrier islands, in some of the coasts, but some of those inland places off rivers and off these inlets, you know, you re likely to have standing water there throughout all of today and even in the days ahead. so that is a hazard and just please be aware that that is something that you if you weathered the storm to this point, going and doing and getting involved in that is just totally not worth it, and we want to minimize any harm to anybody as a result of what we re seeing right now in the streets. we have had 26 states provide support. we really appreciate that. it s going to be put to use. this is i don t think we ve ever seen an effort mobilized for this many rescues this quickly. but we appreciate it and we will make good use of it. we want people to be safe. those who have who are in need of life support right now, help is on t
strong winds and heavy rain are battering the orlando area as the storm moves its way toward the atlantic ocean. the storm created catastrophic flooding that left entire communities under several feet of water and sent cars and debris floating down streets. take a look at these images. the water was just relentless. crews are still carrying out emergency rescues on land, air and sea. in bonita springs, a group of good samaritans rescued an elderly man stranded in his car in surging flood waters, dragging him through waist-high water to safety. ian s strong winds brought down trees, power lines, knocked out power to more than two and a half million homes and businesses. the winds also literally ripped off roofs from a number of homes, including this mobile home. a short time ago, governor ron desantis call canned the impact historic ask also addressed comments from the lee county sheriff that there may be hundreds of fatalities, something that s not been confirmed. we have h
currently, they will work 24/7, until we get the lights back on again, as the governor said, not our first rodeo, but every storm is also different and always face different challenges. and i appreciate all of the support from the state, governor, thank you, and from local law enforcement as well, the national guard, and this is a team sport, and a team effort, and we re going to all work together until we get florida back up on our feet, and where we all want to be. thank you. and when fpl and the other companies have crews in, the extent to which that infrastructure has remained is critical, because you know, it is a lot easier for them to reconnect an existing system than have to rebuild it, so to see some of that thats was able to withstand a hurricane, it is also just a testament, i mean some of these folks, put money into the resiliency of the infrastructure. and this is like the ultimate test. when you ve got a hurricane that is a massive hurricane coming in at 155 m
the reality is this is just an eighth of what we anticipate will be nine atmospheric rivers we re not done severe weather is once again pounding california. looks like it s not going to let up any time soon. i ll discuss with climate expert how unusual this weather really is. and new documents mean new questions for the biden administration. look into what this new timeline means for the president, plus, a race against time in ukraine to save the people believed to be trapped in this rubble after a russian missile strike. live from cnn this is cnn newsroom. with kim brunhuber. we begin with the storm that is continue to slam central and northern california. over 25 million people across the state are under flash flood watches, where a powerful storm fueled by a strong atmospheric stormed. and another coming today, president biden approved a major disaster declaration clearing the way to help the state in the coming weeks of storm and torrential flooding, warning peo