washington. president biden is about to arrive at fema headquarters. the president approved a major disaster declaration for florida and spoke with governor ron desantis. you have power lines that are down. you have trees that are down. you have a lot of hazards right now. today is about identifying the people that need help, who may still be in harm s way, but also beginning the process of rebuilding some of the things that we need. the tropical storm continues to barrel towards the atlantic ocean where it s expected to regain strength and make a second landfall tomorrow along the south carolina coast. right now, tropical storm winds can be felt as far as 830 miles out from the storm. let s go to bring in meteorologist bill karins. this is not over yet. the focus is northeast florida and the second landfall we are expecting in 24 hours. what are you seeing in the latest update? unfortunately, it looks like it s a hurricane when it make landfall when it hits charleston.
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
air we are looking at key west. this is a live look you the entire state is bracing for potentially catastrophic the say s response 90 minutes from now. pete: we have live fox team coverage janice dean standing by with the latest storm track. nicole valdez live in florida. we start with multi media journalist robert ray live in fort myers. robert? good morning to you here in fort myers beach. a key inlet to the gulf of mexico and, guys, the storm is starting to come in. we are seeing the deterioration of this island. take a look. if rick can look up here into the palm trees and you see they are starting to sway. we get these heavy rain bands that come in from time to time. i have to say the big issue here is the storm surge. where i m standing right now here later this morning, expected potentially 8 to 12 feet of storm surge. we need to get out of here at some point. and we are monitoring that. the gulf of mexico just a football field away. we re monitoring those waves c
this is absolutely nuts. ainsley: that is new video already showing the storm s power as it brings devastating floods down it the key west area. we expect to see more of those, tossing planes around like toys. todd: we have team coverage now. fox weather correspondent nicole valdez. we start with fox weather correspondent robert ray in fort myers. robert? ainsley: trouble obviously with his microphone. we can t hear you, robert. right now, it does look bad. fox weather correspondent nicole valdez continues our coverage, she is in tampa. we are only starting to rapidly see conditions deteriorating here for the tampa bay area as hurricane ian, that now category 4 storm. you just mentioned with winds at 155 miles per hour. it is teetering on a category 5 storm. you heard governor ron desantis there saying our emergency management officials are planning and preparing to see a category 5 storm. that is how seriously they are taking this situation knowing what we could se
airport closures, the ripple effect now, and this hurricane now headed inland. headed straight for orlando before then tracking north. alerts at this hour up across florida, georgia, and now the carolinas. our meteorologists ginger zee and rob marciano on the ground tonight with our team across florida. also, the acting deputy director of noaa s national hurricane center right here with us tonight. what concerns him most as we head into the evening hours. the other major news this wednesday night, the u.s. state department now urging americans to leave russia immediately. the american embassy warning russians may force americans with dual citizenship into military service. and the allegations involving russian sabotage into the pipeline that would deliver russian natural gas into europe. ian pannell inside ukraine tonight. in this country, the major news tonight on alzheimer s. a potential breakthrough. a promising new drug and what it s shown so far. also tonight, poli