partially washed away by ian s winds and a wall of water. the island of 6,000 people now cut off. it got hit with really biblical storm surge and it washed away roads, it washed away structures that were not new and could withstand that. now the urgent search and rescue efforts to reach those still in danger. officials evacuating nursing home residents in orlando on stretchers. are you guys okay. in naples, first responders helping this woman wade through chest deep water. this elderly man rescued from his car. others could only be reached by boat, including one izara thomas. as soon as we opened the door, all the water rushed out. reporter: water so high, florida s governor calling it a 500 year flooding event. there are countless neighborhoods across the region that look skrus like this, flooded everywhere. the only way to get anywhere is to walk through the water. everything is gone basically. reporter: i met 14-year-old
especially in the way of utilities. you know, normally they put up a pole that fell down, they fix the wire and people get their power back. we have things that have been sitting in standing water, water that rose to like the governor said, biblical proportions. that s not a repair. that s a major replacement job. we have our work cut out for us. there s a monumental effort going on right now to get that started. yeah, as you say, we have had power company officials telling us even this morning, this is not in some places a question of reconnecting power lines, it s about rebuilding the grid. what does that mean for you? what does that mean for your county? that s a massive undertaking obviously. most of my district is still in the dark. i have naples, capri, these are pieces of paradise that people come to, it s going to be a slow
people who called during the heart of the storm. saying they were trapped, seeing if they were still in their homes. that was what was going on in sanibel island because that island was completely cut off. it only has one road, a causeway that goes on to the island. that bridge has been destroyed and the coast guard was running helicopters over to the island. they were also taking boats over there. they found a lot of residents who were trapped who wanted to be rescued and brought back to the mainland. others said we re okay, we ll ride this out until we figure something else out. another day of clean up and damage assessment. those pictures from the sky this morning are just extraordinary and difficult to take in. nbc s chris pollone in naples, florida, thank you so much, we appreciate it. a big concern, hospitals in florida working to restore services and protect their patients amid power outages and critical disruptions to water supplies. at least 16 facilities across the state ha
southeast of the port of charleston, south carolina, and moving east at 9 miles per hour. officials are warning about hurricane conditions along the carolina coast with flooding rains extending into southwestern virginia. amid all the destruction, the heartbreak, the pain we have been showing you for the last couple of days, there has been more of what we often see during these hurricanes, neighbors helping each other. nbc nightly news anchor lester holt has the story of floridians working to help each other. reporter: in our darkest moments we sometimes struggle to find the light but it was at first light that the helpers came. tell me when you need help. reporter: volunteers and first responders raced into flood waters pulling people from submerged cars and homes. during a live broadcast from naples, australian cameraman glenn ellis rushed to help a family struggling to walk through flood waters.
to assess the damage and get their insurance adjusters over. and you feel for these people. on the personal property front we talked to a city manager who said the personal property loss just in naples could get to about $200 million and he said that was a conservative figure. and when you see stuff like what happened to those boats and vehicles, you know what he means. certainly you do. and so many people in florida as we have learned can t even get insurance at this point. that is how hard it is. brian todd, in naples, thank you. so still to come, stay with us. this boat whichch is also on its side, this is the boats line. this is john, if you look, is still attacheded to the dockck. this piece of dock came a, long