damage to the south carolina coast where it struck today as a category 1 hurricane. this is the cherry grove pier in north myrtle beach, one of two that partially collapsed today. and just as on the florida gulf coast and later in orlando ian caused significant flooding in the charleston and myrtle beach areas and knocked out power to about a third of a million customers in south and north carolina. so we ve also just received some new video in of a high wave sweeping several people off a pier in miami. we have a big wave and about five people so that s in miami still from the high tide and the waves being kicked up by ian. six people were hurt in that. no one, thank goodness, was killed. state-wide, the death toll is now at least 42, and that is expected to rise. and the damage especially in places like fort meyers beach became even more apparent today. it is so severe that a coast guard commander told our wolf blitzer his chopper crews simply do not have monday landma
completely blown over by the wind. but what s completely striking about this spot is the boats that have been tossed across the street here. we have a bit of a bottleneck of human activity because this is the road to fort myers beach, and the sheriff s department is not letting anybody on. if you haven t seen any pictures of fort myers beach, this is why. there is a first and former law in florida that s suppose today give us access when there s a state of emergency, but you got to feel for the sheriff s deputies just trying to manage the crowds here that are piling in. you ve got journalists, you ve got first responders, you have residents who are just curious coming by. but this is what i wanted to show you. this is across san carlos boulevard. and just get a load of this. just wanton, indiscriminate destruction. but that is nothing compared to what we saw then when we came back here to fort myers and put the drawn up over the yacht base here. this is around joe s crab shac
boats in just impossible places. reporter: absolutely. that just all of them, an illustration of the physics of the storm that did the most amazing things. i was on my way because we heard 90% of fort myers beach was wiped out. the road was closed there by the sheriff s department. it sounds like they re going to open that up in coming days, but while we re sitting there and looking around and look at the images of this crackerjack, the charter yacht parked on the top of a chevy suburban with the alarm going off inside to alert the captain something is wrong. and there is this yacht across the boulevard had to be shoved across. they re bringing in this heavy equipment to try to move all this debris out of the way. they re shoving it for the time being. but then take a look at this footage. you compare that to what s happening here in fort myers. this is near the yacht basin. it s near joe s crab shack, if you ve been there before. i looked it up. back in 2017 irma and maria took
sheriff s department. it sounds like they re going to open that up in coming days, but while we re sitting there and looking around and look at the images of this crackerjack, the charter yacht parked on the top of a chevy suburban with the alarm going off inside to alert the captain something is wrong. and there is this yacht across the boulevard had to be shoved across. they re bringing in this heavy equipment to try to move all this debris out of the way. they re shoving it for the time being. but then take a look at this footage. you compare that to what s happening here in fort myers. this is near the yacht basin. it s near joe s crab shack, if you ve been there before. i looked it up. back in 2017 irma and maria took out about 65,000 boats in florida at a cost near $650 million. it s hard to imagine that this storm won t exceed that. but it s not just property damage we re talking about, these are peoples homes down here in florida. i met a guy, a captain down here
destruction. but that is nothing compared to what we saw then when we came back here to fort myers and put the drawn up over the yacht base here. this is around joe s crab shack if you know this area right near downtown. and look at just the utter destruction of all these really expensive boats, small boats, a lot of folks live on these in this harbor there, and i just met somebody who became what they are calling the florence nighton gail of the storm. what s your name? may i call you ella? yes. good to meet you. i was talking to one of the old salts here, the captain who s a little camera shy, and he was telling me this amazing story about he was prepared to ride out with his dog and pet rabbit and everything, and when this big yacht started slamming into his, he was ready to get out and