quote, for weeks or months. there you see the calm waters now. that was nothing like that in the midst of the storm. in lee county officials try to defend their actions after facing hard questions over just how soon they ordered people to evacuate. critics asking why those mandatory evacuations were not issued there until one day before ian s land fall, surrounding counties have been told to evacuate. this morning the death toll from hurricane ian is climbing. boris sanchez has the latest. reporter: the death toll rising from hurricane ian. as people recall harrowing tragedies and those lost. storm surge came all the way up and they had the windows were sucked out. these guys pushed their wives out the windows to where a tree was and they were looking at them and the guys were holding on and they just looked at their wives and they said, we can t hold on any more. we love you, bye. and that was it. does they make it. no, they didn t make it. speaking to john sayin