dagen mcdowell, amy and hegseth is here. forecasters say tropical storm ian will likely regain hurricane strength. it will pick up more power. hour by hour you have been showing so many different things as the sun has been able to come out and give a good visual on this, where are you now? i m at a marina just outside of downtown fort myers, i m standing on top of so much debris, the water is keeping me afloat. there is wood, stirofoam, boats thrown around like toys, you see here, there are life jackets and you name it, it is peer, powerful wind and storm surge that push around incredible vessels like they are nothing, they are twisted and snapped? are upside down, many have rammed into each other, just noise people described from last night. saying when this occurred, this looked like dominos, concrete piers were ripped apart and two or three blocks from here, the storm surge coming in on historic downtown fort myers making roads and beautiful quaint streets who rivers
is almost 10% of the population of florida. that means over 90% of people in florida to have electrical power. the number of people without electrical power is expected to rise as these slow-moving storm cuts across florida with hurricane-force winds. a major concern right now and overnight would be flash flooding caused by the heavy rains. more than two feet of rain is predicted in some areas, officials are warning residents to shelter in place if they have not evacuated. as many cities today are suspending rescue efforts until the storm passes. we begin with nbc news meteorologist bill for the latest. bill, what is the situation now? we are watching a storm that is weakening overland, but we still have areas that are losing power at this hour. we know we have people who need rescuing, need help from us. what happened during the day today, that is the situation as we go throughout these overnight hours. the center of the storm is over sebring, florida. it is about halfway
and water is rising. were you looking at the screen? just some of the scenes as hurricane ian made a devastating land fall in southwestern florida. the category 4 storm left a large path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we ll have a live report for you. rescue crews are busy trying to get to people who decided to ride out the storm and were then stranded by rising floodwaters. and we re still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida at this hour. welcome to way too early on this thursday, september 29th. thank for starting your day with us. it made land fall as a category storm. there is widespread flooding and damage as the powerful storm batters the state with torrential rain and wind. more than two million people are without power across florida. in naples, authorities said that more than half of the streets were not passable. this video released by the naples fire department shows a power line bursting into flames as the hurrican
category 4 storm leaving a huge path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we ll have a live report in just a moment. meanwhile, rescue crews have been busy trying to get people who decided to ride out the storm to try and save them. they re stranded now by rising flood waters and we re still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida. at this hour, it still has more to go. good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it s thursday, september 29th. joe is off this morning. along with willie and me, we have the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. without power this morning, first light this morning will begin to show the damage in florida. that s right. that s when we re going to start to see the story of what happened last night, what happened overnight. tropical storm now ian downgraded from a category 1 hurricane. in just the last hour, but still wreaking havoc across florida as it made landfall as a
with qualifying internet. thank you so much for joining me again at top of the hour on cnn newsroom. we begin this hour with an air travel meltdown. it isn t all the weather s fault, let s be clear, more than 4,000 flights grounded today again, nearly 09% on southwest airlines. southwest patients from raleigh, denver, are all lining up at ticket counters looking for answers. many customers are completely fed up. i m traveling with my senior citizen parents for their christmas vacation. i have an autoimmune disorder. i don t have medications. we have nothing. we brought no carry-ons. we ve seen a lot of families who are sleeping on the floor and it just breaks my heart. if my boss is watching this yes it s true i just didn t just blow off the day i m actually standing in the airport doing nothing and i do have a ticket and i hope to come to work at some point in my life. i love that he had some levity there. with new year s eve with just days away nearly 2500 fligh