washington. president biden is about to arrive at fema headquarters. the president approved a major disaster declaration for florida and spoke with governor ron desantis. you have power lines that are down. you have trees that are down. you have a lot of hazards right now. today is about identifying the people that need help, who may still be in harm s way, but also beginning the process of rebuilding some of the things that we need. the tropical storm continues to barrel towards the atlantic ocean where it s expected to regain strength and make a second landfall tomorrow along the south carolina coast. right now, tropical storm winds can be felt as far as 830 miles out from the storm. let s go to bring in meteorologist bill karins. this is not over yet. the focus is northeast florida and the second landfall we are expecting in 24 hours. what are you seeing in the latest update? unfortunately, it looks like it s a hurricane when it make landfall when it hits charleston.
ian now setting its sites on the south carolina coast, as we come on the air, with the tropical storm expected to strengthen back into a hurricane as it moves, look at it there, very slowly across the atlantic and back towards the east coast, after a trail of destruction in florida. people there are reeling now from one of the worst storms that has ever hit them, and doing what they can to start picking up the pieces. sanibel island, captiva island, a storm surge, with a huge chunk of the causeway there, that is the only way in or out, in a state overall, more than two and a half million people are without power and look at where that deep red is, some counties in southwest florida are totally we re live with officials, from across florida, as well as somebody from part of the federal response to this storm. cabinet secretary, homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas, hallie jackson in washington and we have the team covering every angle, and every location, and steve p
punta gorda. trees whipping, winds topping 130 miles an hour. across florida there are people trapped in their homes. entire homes being flooded out, people swimming inside. one city hit hard is bonita springs. part of that city are now completely underwater. the storm surge has knocked homes completely off their foundations as well. and to the south of there, the city of naples cat 4 winds there have completely demolished buildings. look at how high up that obviously you never know what s in these waters now. you ve got chemicals and everything in the middle of these towns. according to forecasters, the storm surge reached more than 6 feet, flooding cars and homes, even leaving rescue crews stranded. the water was so high that officials had to wade through it to rescue people who did not evacuate. and let us show you one astonishing image from just before ian came ashore. look at that. it s almost like a tsunami was coming. the winds and the storm actually sucked all the w
torn off buildings. the treacherous situation has led to rescues all across florida. the fire chief of fort myers says his department conducted 200 rescues overnight over the course of just a few hours. this video shows a group of good samaritans who call themselves the call your county cowboys, they pulled a man stranded in his car to safety. in orlando, a reporter who happened to be on the scene rescued a woman trapped in flood waters. the situation has led biden administration to pledge a fulsome response. president biden has officially declared ian to be a major disaster, a move that makes federal funding available immediately to several hard hit counties. president biden warned of tough times ahead for floridians. this could be the deadliest hurricane in florida s history. the numbers are still unclear, but we re hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life. we re going to learn a lot more in the coming hours, but we know many families are hurting, man
of biblical proportions. ian is a cat 4 storm bringing 140 mile-per-hour winds and leaving a wake of destruction in its path. the national hurricane center is warning of catastrophic window damage with an unsuburb viable storm surge of up to 18 feet. it is expected to dump 2 feet of rain across the state bringing unprecedented flooding and destruction. entire neighborhoods are now undersea as water levels continue to rise. homes are floating down the middle of the street and people are swimming in their living rooms. by the way authorities say it s a very bad idea. who knows what s in that water. and first responders rescue services can t escape the flooding either. this fire department in naples is completely under water. leaving the city s residents on their own. and things are even worse in the air where hurricane hunters are flying into the heart of the storm. watch. oh [bleep] jesse: more than 2 million people in the state were told to evacuate, with thousands more h