it s the top of the hour on cnn newsroom. i m alisyn camerota. hurricane ian just made landfall as a category 1 storm on the south carolina coast. it hit near georgetown, between myrtle beach and charleston, and just as it did in florida, it s bringing life-threatening storm surge and heavy rains. it currently has 85-mile-per-hour winds. the tide has been going up in myrtle beach by a foot an hour. look at some of these images on your screen right now of all of the flood waters in myrtle beach. in north myrtle beach, this pier collapsed during the storm. obviously, we ll see much more damage once the storm passes through this area, and then in florida, utter destruction after the west coast got hammered. at least 25 people are dead as of last count. officials warn, though, that that number will likely rise. some areas like ft. myers beach are still impassable at this hour. stores and homes there have been reduced to shells, even if they are still on their foundations. a loc
it s the top of the hour on cnn newsroom. i m alisyn camerota in new york. hurricane ian has killed at least 13 people. it s the strongest storm to hit the west coast of florida in nearly 20 years. local officials say we should brace for that number of victims to rise. the life and death danger from ian continues as it pushes northeast, still pummelling florida. rescuers were pulling people from high water all day and night. survivors describe no time to wait as people had to carry children, as you can see, through chest-high waters. ian made landfall just west of cape coral. our cnn drone shows the devastation there. i mean obviously you can just see these are supposed to be streets, but they are completely flooded. nearby ft. myers and naples further south are both decimated. countless neighborhoods are still submerged in the floodwaters at this hour. the communities of sanibel and pine island are now cut off from the mainland after ian washed away parts of this causewa