strength and it s taking aim at the carolinas, where people now are bracing for the worst. i m john berman in ft. myers, florida. the storm now barreling towards south carolina with 85-mile-per-hour winds. it is expected to make its third landfall in the coming hours near myrtle beach. after seeing the damage in florida, the governor of south carolina says, we know what s coming. so this storm might be the largest natural disaster in florida s history. the destruction here in ft. myers, i m standing in the middle of it, it is hard to comprehend. ft. myers beach, i had a chance to fly over it in a helicopter, much of it flattened. one official there describes the damage as, there s really nothing to come back to. at least 19 people have died from this storm. power is out this morning across the state. there have been hundreds of rescues. the coast guard has been out in force, airlifting people from flooded homes and neighborhoods. sanibel island hit very hard. the storm destro
i m john berman in ft. myers, florida, and the storm has intensified again. 85-mile-per-hour winds, heading towards the carolinas. this after tearing the destructive path across florida. it is expected to make landfall in south carolina around midday, somewhere between charleston and myrtle beach. it could produce life-threatening floods there in the carolinas. this is already liskely the largest natural disaster in florida s history. i m standing in the middle of some of the damage, in a marina where the boats have been washed up on to the shore here. parts of florida have been seriously damaged. as of this morning, 19 storm-related deaths. that number will almost certainly rise. in ft. myers beach, some of the destruction is breathtaking. i had a chance to have an aerial view of it, take a helicopter ride over, and there were sections that were just washed away. the pier, the large pier there, you can see it almost better from air. that s just been completely washed away. a
could be power outages from this in virginia. but it s the tide. it s the surge we re worried about today, 4 to 7 feet there along the coast. why are we worried about this? this is charleston harbor tide gauge. in the gulf of mexico, the tides were only up and down about a foot, foot and a half. but here along the east coast at this point, we are up and down 6 feet twice a day. and if we put this all the way up, the forecast is for 9 feet, that s only just a couple inches, 3 inches short of matthew, about a foot short of irma, and the record with hugo, which was the biggest storm ever, was over 12 inches and we re only 3 feet from hugo. a lot of water in the streets of charleston. a lot of downtown going to be flooded, john. yeah. a lot of potential for problems there. chad myers, thank you very much. we ll check back in with you shortly. to back here in florida, i want to bring in cnn s carlos suarez, who is in englewood, not that far from where i am. carlos, what are you seeing
convoys now rolling in to southwestern florida where i am. nearly 21,000 workers from 30 states have arrived in florida to help. they ll be here for some time. with me now is the spokesman and chief communications officer for florida power and light, dave rioter. we ve been talking to you for days. we appreciate you telling us what you ve been going through. we re hearing more than 2 million customers statewide still without power. i do understand only a portion of them are your customers, but is that what you re hearing? good morning, john. that is correct. y yes, we re still hearing about 2 million commustomers are acrosse state are without power. for florida power and light, in total, we had 2 million customers affected by hurricane ian and lost power. however, to date, as of this morning, we ve restored more than a million of those customers. however, that does still mean that we have about 980,000 customers without power. and that s the real focus that our teams are going to con
i m john berman in ft. myers, florida, and the storm has intensified again. 85-mile-per-hour winds, heading towards the carolinas. this after tearing the destructive path across florida. it is expected to make landfall in south carolina around midday, somewhere between charleston and myrtle beach. it could produce life-threatening floods there in the carolinas. this is already liskely the largest natural disaster in florida s history. i m standing in the middle of some of the damage, in a marina where the boats have been washed up on to the shore here. parts of florida have been seriously damaged. as of this morning, 19 storm-related deaths. that number will almost certainly rise. in ft. myers beach, some of the destruction is breathtaking.