hurricane-force winds already recorded offshore from charleston. the national weather center warns storm surge is expected there. people are warned to take this storm seriously especially after what was seen and happened from ian in florida. more striking images are emerging as well. capturing the level of devastation especially where the storm came on shore in southwest florida. you re looking at have i had from sanibel island showing the community torn apart, completely severed from the mainland. people stranded without water and power. cleanup efforts have begun in some areas, including fort myers beach. residents still reeling from all of this destruction. i mean, there s just stuff going everywhere. i ve lived here my whole life, it s unreal. we thought possibly we were one of the lucky ones. unfortunately it s really too sad for me to talk about. thank you, guys. some areas, high floodwaters are still a major concern, not yesterday receded. governor ron desant
good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell in washington. president biden will speak this afternoon about the federal government s coordination with leaders in georgia, south carolina and, of course, hurricane ravaged florida. we expect to hear from ron desantis later this hour. let s begin with nbc s kathy park in charleston, south carolina. residents are used to flooding in that historic district. this looks like it s going to be an unprecedented event. reporter: yeah. good afternoon. that s absolutely right. hurricane ian is still barrelling this way. we are getting slammed with these heavy bands of rain and wind. every so often we get slammed with wind gusts you see right now. this is the pattern that we have been experiencing all morning long. i want to show you what s happening behind me. that s the ashley river you are seeing behind me. there s sawgrass, and it s almost covered by the water. it s high tide. that s the big concern throughout the day. the combination of
in georgia. but let s turn our attention now to charleston, south carolina. it s 70 miles from the center of the storm. hundreds of thousands there as we understand it, have already lost power. kathy park is there right in the thick of it as she has been for several hours now. and, kathy, charleston is the area i know reasonably well. it is also an area where on a random tuesday afternoon if they get some serious rain those streets get flooded. i can only imagine what hours of torrential rain will do to charleston. reporter: craig, that is absolutely right. this area is already very prone to flooding and over the past couple of hours we have seen the water levels rise. i want to give you a better sense of where we are standing right now. so we are in downtown charleston. and you can see this road is now a river. and we have seen for the past several hours continuation of intense wind gusts as well as
they are struggling to get through the water. i m standing in about a foot of water right now. but if you go a little farther north from here, i mean, the water gets a little bit higher and, of course, as rain continues to fall the water levels will likely rise, craig. kathy park in charleston, south carolina, god s country to the folks who live in the palmetto state. stay safe. thank you. dorian s slow journey up the u.s. coast, a warning has been extended to include virginia now. reports of tornadoes touching down as dorian claws its way up the carolina coast. that cat two storm expected to move out to shore over the next couple of days as a category one storm. but the hurricane-strength wind and rain continue to will continue to pound the area over the next few days. i m joined now by a former fema
effect. people are using the time now to kind of prep their homes, their boats to bear the brunt of this hurricane. it is a combination of things. it s flooding, storm surge, wind gusts. the list goes on and on. they have weathered a lot of hurricanes. they say they are prepared and they re willing to ride out the storm. we re continuing to kind of monitor the situation here. we re seeing some bands of rain showers. in fact, just an hour ago we saw lightning and thunder. we are starting to feel the impacts of taurean. . kathy park in charleston. we talked about where dorian is headed. how about where it has been? mariana atencio is in the bahamas. mariana, that area has been devastated. it is difficult to look at the pictures, the videos we are about to show you here. it s hard to look at. reporter: hallie when you see