sounding the alarm along florida s west coast. people are urged to get out of florida s way. tampa s mayor tells residents if you can leave, just leave now. officials say the tampa region could see a storm of a lifetime. more than 15 million people are expected to feel the impact of ewh e ian when it arrives. 115 hour with the winds and could cause life-threatening storm surge, and storm surge is the biggest concern right now. so far ahead of the storm, the hospital in st. petersburg suspended service, transported patients, schooled and universities closed, at least three cruise lines re-routed passengers. the tampa bay airport will suspend operations at 5:00 p.m. today and nasa moved the artemis rocket back to the hangar for trekz. look at this video showing a steady stream of traffic leaving the tampa bay area monday night heading inland to safety. people hunkering down as well, though. the storm perhaps testing their patience. one tampa resident waited three hours to get
there it is expected to explode into an intense, powerful category 4 storm. then ian will likely weaken a bit before charging ashore somewhere along florida s gulf coast. florida s governor saying the storm s massive size means the entire state, the whole state wail be impacted. and he has activated the florida national guard. cnn meteorologist tom seder has been tracking all this in the weather center. what is the latest? well, it continues to look a little disorganized, really. it is a tropical storm. it s not moving very quickly, alex. only at 12 miles per hour, but it s getting ready to enter some of the warmest water in the entire atlantic. higher elevations, winds are light, so once it starts to feed on those warm waters, all cylinders are going to be firing up. now, the last few frames of this animation if you look near the center here, so deep convection is starting to occur. this could be the beginning. we ve been watching this since last thursday off the coast of
$965 million to the victims of the sandy hook school shooting massacre. we re getting reaction about the verdict and impact of jones lies about the shooting. also tonight, russia launches mass casualty missile strikes in ukraine. as the u.s. and nato scramble to beef up ukrainian air defenses. i ll ask white house national security official john kirby about administration s response to vladimir putin s provocation and learning more about tomorrow s january 6th hearing and new evidence that will be presented. the select committee poised to argue that former president trump remains a clear and present danger to democracy in america. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re the situation room. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. let s get right to the top story. a connecticut s jury massive judgment against alex jones for spreading lies and conspiracies about the sandy hook elementary school shooting. for more on
whether to become part of russia. ahead a warning president biden has for moscow. and later, why all los angeles schools will be stocked with the drug naloxone. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom. we begin in the north atlantic where a deadly storm that caused massive destruction across several caribbean islands is now battering the canadian east coast. hurricane warnings are in place as damaging winds and heavy rain pound the region. in a tweet sent late friday night, justin trudeau urged those in the path of the storm to listen to authorities, reassuring him that his team is ready to provide support if needed. residents from across eastern canada did do what they could before the sun went down to prepare, including in nova scotia, where people waited in long lines to stock up supplies like food and water. and now that the storm has arrived in earnest, hundreds of thousands are without power across eastern canada. nova scotia power says it activated an emergenc
miles per hour, gusting up around 60 miles per hour. with this storm, you have tropical storm watches in effect for jamaica and hurricane watches for cayman islands. that s because looking at the frarsz we anticipate that this storm will become a category 1 storm maybe even as high as a category 2 storm as it s crossing over the cayman islands. it is then expected to intensify further as it makes its way up towards cuba and crosses into the eastern portion of the gulf of mexico. at that point, perhaps, it could get into that major hurricane strength. here s the thing, though. a lot of that has to do with sea surface temperatures that are in the mid and upper 80s for the area in which it s expected to travel through. that sea surface temperature is a big fuel for these storms. it s not just at the surface but going down tens of feet, talking about the ocean heat content, even down there that water is warm, and that s what these storms need to strengthen and intensify as they c