the storm barreling through the northeast. governor desantis spoke to us on the massive search and rescue operation that continues at this hour and will for some time. we ve had coast guard rescues, urban search and rescue teams from the state of florida, we ve had the national guard down in southwest florida. people have been being rescued on a minute by minute basis and it will continue to go. dana: we have live fox news team coverage. jonathan serrie, robert ray and janice dean are standing by. want to go to janice dean in the fox weather center for an update. hi. good morning. we ll get the official 11:00 a.m. advisory coming out shortly but we do know this was historic, it is the top four storms, strongest storms to make landfall in florida. 150 mile-per-hour sustained winds. pressure was 9.40 close to a category 5. still the chance they might upgrade it. there were winds indicated at 158 miles-per-hour from hurricane hunters yesterday. the current wind gusts over
torrential rain. hundreds of miles away from where ian first came ashore as a hurricane at this hour they are inundated by water. i m harris faulkner and you are in the faulkner focus. breaking news with new developments now. let s go to orlando. look at these pictures. tropical storm ian hitting that metro and already our reporters are showing us conditions where high water rescues are underway. some 127 so far. returning now to sanibel island. look at the left side of your screen. those were the moments just before hurricane ian hit. look at the right side of your screen. the height of the storm with 155 mile-per-hour winds and a massive storm surge that left sanibel in ruins. the way in and off the island, the sanibel causeway major destruction. this was the only option for vehicle travel between the island and florida s mainland. we ve had coast guard rescues, urban search and rescue teams from the state of florida, the national guard down in southwest florida. people
rescue there. you can see these people absolutely devastated and so fearful that they weren t going to survive this. so grateful to the people that are helping them. you have a baby there wrapped in a blanket. a family that is just trying to get to some dry land. winds and flooding. they ripped up asphalt. look at this highway. look at that. that is sanibel, florida. lee county is devastated in a way that we have not seen in a very, very long time. the sheriff there fears he said this earlier today and it got a lot of attention and we hope the numbers don t come to true whigs. he fears there could be hundreds that lost their lives here. the house burst into flame in sanibel isle area. and now we have georgia and south carolina. what they re preparing to get ready where they are. we have fox team coverage across this devastating situation. first to steve harrigan who joins us. we watched him get blown hard around there in placada, florida. good afternoon to you one day lat
florida as well as tens of thousands of electric crews from all over the country. we do not have a complete picture of fatalities or injuries across florida as of yet. one death has officially been reported so far. we expect to hear more from authorities soon. almost 3 million people are still without power. it weakened to a tropical storm ian but back to a hurricane this afternoon as it heads for south carolina. the mayor of charleston, south carolina, is asking his city to shut down tomorrow. correspondent steve harrigan kicks off our coverage, charlotte county florida with the latest. good evening. good evening, bret. help is pouring into florida from across the country but still in pockets like this one it is largely neighbor helping neighbor. after going across florida s peninsula, hurricane ian north and along it led to coast. the numbers are staggering. more than 2.6 million floridians without electricity. rainfall totals approaching 2 feet in some places. heavy wind
off of the gulf coast there. we re not going to get a sense of it until tomorrow. but yes, it looks pretty path down in. and we ll be talking about this later in the hour. thanks, chris. and thank you for joining us. hurricane ian continues to create a swath of in made landfall just after 3:00 this afternoon in southwestern florida, near k o connor, a island off of the coast of fort myers. ian came ashore as a category four hurricane with 150 mile per hour winds. just a few miles per hour shy of a category five. only for hurricane stronger than that have made landfall in the united states ever. but it is not just the strength of the storm, it is the size. this is the view of hurricane in from the international space station this afternoon. just showing how massive the storm is. the national river describes in as battering the florida peninsula with tied and winds, and flooding. ian has just now weakened to a category two storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles