top of the hour, this busy thursday morning, i m jim sciutto. i m poppy harlow. welcome to our viewers. the breaking news we are following this morning, hurricane ian leaving just stunning devastating destruction in florida as a hurricane then a tropical storm. still pummeling the state though. 14 million people in florida are currently under flood alerts. 2.5 million businesses without power along with homes. they re rescuing people trapped inside flooded homes. governor ron desantis spoke about the devastation so many are waking up to this morning. there s 1.5 million outages in 7 southwest florida counties. lee and charlotte are basically off the grid at this point. the amount of water that s been rising and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing is basically a 500-year flood event. the impacts of this storm are historic. and the damage that was done has been historic and this is just off initial assessments. well, the risk of storm surge and
12 feet higher, devastating communities like for the myers, naples and some 2 million homes and businesses are without power in florida, that is 20% of the entire state and 96% of fort myers is in the dark. one official saying it could take weeks for the power to come back on in some areas. floodwater inundating areas like naples and port charlotte. these are pictures of that area leaving some people who decided to ride out the storm trapped in their homes, others rescued from their cars, berman. the danger also continues, we should note. reporter: it absolutely does continue. the storm not done yet. brianna, i m sorry for communication problems earlier. the fema administrator told me they are prepared for thousands of displaced people, thousands perhaps of long-term displaced people. so that is what people are up against here in florida right now. cnn s got live team coverage of ian still very much a powerful force. first i want to go to the national hurricane center. mike
i m kate bolduan. we want to welcome viewers in the united states and around the world. we re following the devastating impact of hurricane ian right now and some of the first pictures of the devastation and destruction left behind, here s a look in fort myers of the destruction there. new aerials just in here of the catastrophic damage across southwest florida, which took a direct hit from this storm. the storm surge and relentless rain really causing widespread damage that officials are already acknowledging will take a very long time to recover from. and it seems obvious when you see this kind of damage, bridges, roadways wiped out. the bridges, the only vehicle access to sanibel island and pine island are now impassable says the governor. entire sections of these bridges have been washed away essentially cutting off those barrier islands. in port charlotte, the monster winds blew the roof off the intensive care unit at a hospital and also flooded the er, just really scary
first confirmed hurricane related death in osceola count. 14 million people right now under a flood advisory. the scale of destruction is hard to comprehend. we are learning more by the minute. any minute from now, president biden gets a briefing on the scope and devastation of this storm. millions of floridians right now without electricity. lee and charlotte counties in southwestern florida knocked entirely off the power grid, that according to florida s governor. emergency responders working through a backlog of calls for help. for some, that help won t get there in time. in naples, scenes of desperation, first responders wading through shoulder-high water to carry, drag people to safety. in orlando, regret for not following orders to get out. i heard the evacuation going off on my phone, but i was, like, we re going to be all right. i kept saying, we re going to be all right, you know what i m saying? but, boy, was i wrong. i was wrong. if i would have known it was goin
and they ll have to be rebuilt. unfortunately, there are also homes and businesses that will simply not be able to safely take the power once it s ready. but the 20,000 plus men and women who are already here are staging and getting on the field 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 poses different challenges. but appreciate all the support from the state. governor, thank you. from local law enforcement as well, national guard. this is a team sport and a team effort, and we re going to all work together until we get florida back up on her feet and where we all want her to be. thank you. when fdl and the other companies have crews in, the extent to which that infrastructure has remained is just critical because, you know, it s a lot easier for them to reconnect an existing system than to have to rebuild it. to see that was able to withstand is encouraging.