hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states. and around the. world i m john. vause with the cnn center in atlanta. almost nine hours now since hurricane eta made landfall in southwest florida. and this monster storm continues to cause widespread flooding. and storm surges in 12 feet high in places. tonight, statewide. like trustees outed more than 2 million homes and businesses, and the power grid so badly damaged parts there are concerns it may need to be rebuilt. ian arrived at the state went just shy of a category five. it s since been downgraded to a category 1, but still remains very dangerous. authorities warning the worst may yet be to come. ian is now slowly moving into central florida, with winds around 90 miles or 145 kilometers per hour. time lapse video shows water levels rising on the streets of fort myers, south of where it made landfall. the national hurricane center said the storm surge on florida s west coast has likely peaked, and is now startin
hello. live in atlanta, 3:00 a.m. in florida. we continue to follow the path of hurricane ian. now, weaker, but still a major worry. that hurricane has finally been downgraded to a category-1 storm, but it s still moving menacingly right above the state of florida and heading northeast winds, approximately 75 miles or 125 kilometers per hour, still lashing large sections of the state.just 12 hours after it crashed in southwest florida as an almost category-5 hurricane. as you can imagine, there have been power outages with more than 2 million homes and businesses in the dark. that s about 20% of customers throughout the state the mayor of fort myers, meantime, saying, 96% of his entire city has lapsed with electricity. meanwhile, charlotte county, florida, telling cnn, rescuers can only do so much during the height of the storm. unfortunately, our dispatch continues to receive calls from the 911 center, and just like every other county, the emergency response, they get up a
category 4 storm leaving a huge path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we ll have a live report in just a moment. meanwhile, rescue crews have been busy trying to get people who decided to ride out the storm to try and save them. they re stranded now by rising flood waters and we re still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida. at this hour, it still has more to go. good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it s thursday, september 29th. joe is off this morning. along with willie and me, we have the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. without power this morning, first light this morning will begin to show the damage in florida. that s right. that s when we re going to start to see the story of what happened last night, what happened overnight. tropical storm now ian downgraded from a category 1 hurricane. in just the last hour, but still wreaking havoc across florida as it made landfall as a
punta gorda. trees whipping, winds topping 130 miles an hour. across florida there are people trapped in their homes. entire homes being flooded out, people swimming inside. one city hit hard is bonita springs. part of that city are now completely underwater. the storm surge has knocked homes completely off their foundations as well. and to the south of there, the city of naples cat 4 winds there have completely demolished buildings. look at how high up that obviously you never know what s in these waters now. you ve got chemicals and everything in the middle of these towns. according to forecasters, the storm surge reached more than 6 feet, flooding cars and homes, even leaving rescue crews stranded. the water was so high that officials had to wade through it to rescue people who did not evacuate. and let us show you one astonishing image from just before ian came ashore. look at that. it s almost like a tsunami was coming. the winds and the storm actually sucked all the w
hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m john vause, at the cnn center in atlanta. as we head into the midnight hour on the u.s. east coast, almost the entire state of florida is bracing for the impact of hurricane ian, a monster storm stressing 500 miles across. which earlier made landfall on cuba, blocking out the eyelids electricity grid and causing a nationwide blackout. 11 million people right now are in the dark, waiting for morning to assess the damage. as of, now there are no reports of fatalities. since leaving cuba, ian has grown in strength, fueled by the warm waters of the gulf of mexico, as it heads towards florida, now category 3, with sustained winds of 135 miles per hour. along with life-threatening storm surge, florida is facing catastrophic flooding and strong powerful winds. all they, long tuesday, residents across the state braced for the hurricane to make landfall. now expected the first forecast, and further south.