coverage of hurricane ian. still very much a hurricane. still extremely dangerous bearing down on orlando this mor morning at this moment. we will go there. there are so many different stories to this devastating storm. one of the most powerful ever to hit florida with winds of 140 miles per hour on landfall. at this point, 20 inches of rain have been measured in so many different locations including here in tampa. you can see some of the limited damages even here in tampa. that appears to be roofing or some kind of siding just torn off of the building. that s just part of the story. the real story is south of here, venice, port charlotte. fort myers. i m hearing a helicopter above me. which is a good sign. maybe they re leaving from here to go help people in need further south and there is so much need. enormous storm surge. 12 feet in some places. just swamped. familiar cities, naples, fort myers. you can see rivers just floating down the middle of the street. as i said, th
parts of the state on a slow, this is really an issue, it s churning on the destructive crawl north. orlando now in the crosshairs of this historic storm that s produced record rainfall and storm surge. power outages are a major problem with more than 2 million customers in the dark across florida. water is just everywhere in many communities. in port charlotte, the storm blew the roof off of a hospital and it flooded the intensive care unit. ahead, we re going to speak to a doctor there, how they managed to protect patients and what the conditions now. fort myers has experienced some of the worst flooding in the storm. torrents of water just rushing into the streets trapping people in their homes. same for naples where officials say half of the streets aren t even passable because high water has inundated them. although it s weakened, there is concern about ian regaining strength and threatening the southeast, georgia, the carolinas, and all declaring emergencies in advance.
hurricane. this storm will only continue to intensify. if you want to leave, now is your last chance. the entire state is going to be touched by this storm. it s going to be in our stream. it s going to be in our canals. it s going to be in our stormwater drains and dishes. i m not scared. i m prepared though. you can already start to see what it is doing to the waters in the gulf just slamming these waves up against the sea wall right here. it is wednesday, september 28th. 4 a.m. here on the u.s. east coast where a monster category 3 hurricane is at this hour churning towards florida and parts of the state are already feeling the effects. now these are images from key west where major flooding is being reported and hurricane force winds and strong storm surge warnings are already out there on the coast. now right now it s all hands on deck. thousands of national guard members as well as urban search and rescue teams are mobilized ahead of the hurricane s expected
strengthen to a category 4. as far north as orlando, marko island so it s not just the coastal regions. the scope of this storm shows you the vast reach of it. 120 miles an hour sustained winds near the eye wall. about 140 miles away from the center you ll feel tropical storms. key west to fort myers seeing the brunt of the storm. gusty winds, heavy rainfall all beginning to gradually move in. we ve seen the models gradually shift farther towards the south and east with every single run. within a span of 24 to 36 hours we have a 100 mile spread of where the storm was initially forecast to move into. watch this very carefully because, again, confidence now increasing a big landfall will occur somewhere near san any bell island, clear water beach. these are the areas we re watching closely.
you ve been warning us. the issue is not just how much rainfall we re going to get but being caused by the fact the storm is still moving quite slowly through the state of florida? it s going to strengthen just a little bit more, too. making landfall strengthening up to a category 4. western half of the state of florida. significant storm surge threat. about 90 or so miles southwest of naples. some of the outer bands already producing strong thunderstorms across areas of fort myers and points to the south. you work your way towards marko island. tropical storm force winds moving ashore as well. the system has responded to at least a few storms in the past 24 or so hours. you typically see with incoming tropical systems. wrap around flow and bands