newsroom. i m jim acosta in ft. myers, florida. first thing, we have some updated figures from here in the hurricane zone. sit the most current death toll of people who sadly did not survive hurricane ian here in florida. that new official death toll is now 74. 74 people here in florida have died now as a result of hurricane ian. of course, those figures are coming in. as they develop, we ll bring them to you. residents say there is a growing sense of fear that more bodies could be discovered. some areas remain fairly inaccessible to first responders. we ll show you what i saw on the ground. in the meantime, cnn has learned that a team that responds to mass fatality incidents has deployed equipment and personnel to assist medical examiners in boast counties here in southwest florida. officials in lee county where the majority of the deaths have concerned are facing a major concern. why were the first evacuation orders issued less than 24 hours before landfall? the county s ow
in the united states and around the world. i m john vause at cnn s world headquarters. in atlanta. it seems hurricane it is not done yet. in florida with a rising death toll on ongoing rescues, and looking like a wall zone. this color storm is gaining strength right now a category one, bearing down on charleston, south carolina, with all expected later friday. the death toll in florida stands at 19. a number of which is almost certain to rise in the coming days. the u.s. president on thursday warning of a substantial loss of life for me and. which one official has described as likely the biggest natural disaster the state has ever seen. and that is triggered the biggest disaster response in florida s history. tens of thousands of emergency workers deployed statewide. at this hour, almost 2.2 million homes and businesses remain without electricity. large areas of the state are underwater. in georgia, ian produced a rainfall, it up deterring some of the worst-hit areas. gover
we are carrying out search and rescues across the state. there have been at least 700 rescues confirmed as of thursday. first responders are doing targeted searches. going home by home, checking to see if people are okay. there will be many more rescues that are added. the absolutely expect to have from the surrogate. so far, at least 19 people are confirmed dead. there was a significant number of people that remained on the island during the catastrophic weather event. right now, it is important for us to go ahead and say, are you okay? it will take a few days to get to all of the places that have reports continue to to get them coming in. the scope of the overall destruction is coming in. areas cut off by rubble. look at this mess. we met they were left without power in central florida. falling debris, tornadoes, life-threatening storm surge. in some cases, we need to rebuild rather than simply repair. reporter: cruz look to restore power. floodwaters contin
at 19, a number that is almost certain to rise in the days ahead. the u.s. president warming up thursday poll of a lot of loss of life as one official sank likely the biggest natural disaster disaster the state s ever seen. that s the biggest disaster in florida s history. tens of thousands of emergency workers and deployed statewide. now 2 million homes and businesses stay with the electricity. large parts of the state are underwater. instead it s a one in 1000-year rainfall. the governor ron desantis decided describe the storm surge is biblical. some of the damage was almost under scribe-able to see a house just sitting in the middle of a sterile bay. you must be flown because of the massive wind speed and storm surge and deposited in a body of water. there were cars floating in the middle of the water. some of the homes were total losses. he is expected to hit south carolina and coincide with high tide on friday, greatly to increasing the potential for flooding. the go
looks like something fell hard on your carport. careful. i don t know if i can open it. is it unlocked? i ll help you. let me try. does it work from the inside? can you reach around? right over here. i think it s wedged against the frame. but you can careful. i got you. yeah. hold on to my arm. i got you. there you go. wow . wow. amazing. it s absolutely amazing what that water did. reporter: my goodness . this is disgusting. what do you think? done. reporter: i think so. i hate to say. i know you were so hopeful. as i said, there s people worse off than us. all those people out there on sanibel. all those people that don t have a second home to go to. wow. it s amazing too. reporter: isn t it? describe what you re stepping in here. it s just like muck. our thanks to bill weir for that report. i want to go live to orlando, florida now and cnn s ryan young. ryan, tell us what you re seeing there. reporter: yeah, jake, so much pain in this area. pe