pete: this morning a terrifying warning out of collier county, florida, 911 services are down as search and rescue efforts continue across the state. no word yet on when they ll be back online. so far 30 people confirmed dead. 27 in florida and more than 1 million people in florida still without power. rachel: ian making its third and final landfall in south carolina yesterday battering the east as a hurricane before surging inland as a post-tropical cyclone. several piers including this one on pawley s island collapsing into the water due to storm surge. will: we have team coverage with the latest and chief meteorologist mcreichmuth standing by but we have alexandria hoff in florida. good morning. we re at a distribution site that opened up at 7:00 and a line of cars waiting on it at that point and ice and water being given out here by members of the national guard and food and some basic necessities and on the other side of this site, there s heavy machinery that s been a
customers in florida. and the other major concern at this hour, the tornado watches in effect into the night. airport closures, the ripple effect now, and this hurricane now headed inland. headed straight for orlando before then tracking north. alerts at this hour up across florida, georgia, and now the carolinas. our meteorologists ginger zee and rob marciano both on the ground again tonight with our team across florida. also, the acting deputy director of noaa s national hurricane center right here with us tonight. what concerns him most as we head into the evening hours. the other major news this wednesday night, the u.s. state department now urging americans to leave russia immediately. the american embassy warning russians may force americans with dual citizenship into military service. and the allegations involving potential russian sabotage of the pipeline that would deliver russian natural gas into europe. ian pannell inside ukraine tonight. in this country, the m
and trajectory. it s expected to bring a catastrophic storm surge with winds over 150 miles per hour. the wind speed right now at 155 miles per hour. just shy of a category five storm. the eye of the storm is expected to churn somewhere between 40 meyers and venice, just south of where i am right now. hurricane ian has spawned multiple tornados in southern florida. a wide swath of florida is on alert through 5:00 p.m. today. already, alread more than 100,000 people are without power. more than 2 million people are under evacuation orders. hurricane ian is roiling seas. a big clue for what hurricane ian is capable of, cuban authorities has said the entire island has lost power. urgency and anticipation of the storm has mounted as we expect a very busy hour ahead. we ll hear from tampa s mayor in 30 minutes. we ll be speaking with sarasota officials on their own storm preparations and fema s assistant administrator. 30 minutes ago we heard from president biden. this storm is
e-mail from a computer. it doesn t have to come from her phone. rachel: that s a good point. debbie collier deserves justice and i love that you stay on these cases, nancy. again, if you want to see more from her crime stories with nancy grace on foxnation.com, it s one of my favorite shows, make sure you watch. thank you, nancy. always great having you on. coming up, hurricane ian slams south carolina turning beach towns like myrtle beach into swamps. south carolina congresswoman nancy mace is next with an update.
52 past the hour. as hurricane ian slams into florida, it just left cuba where it hit that island as a category 3 hurricane. it knocked power out across the entire island. cuban officials say some power has been restored. it slammed cuba with 125 mile an hour winds. it downed thousands of utility poles, transformers and power lines. the infrastructure in cuba is virtually non-existent. they have been having power outages for years. now the situation is dire. reporter: cuba woke up to a national blackout. last night authorities informed the entire island was without power. we have been traveling west this morning from the capital, making our way here to the province