damage to the south carolina coast where it struck today as a category 1 hurricane. this is the cherry grove pier in north myrtle beach, one of two that partially collapsed today. and just as on the florida gulf coast and later in orlando ian caused significant flooding in the charleston and myrtle beach areas and knocked out power to about a third of a million customers in south and north carolina. so we ve also just received some new video in of a high wave sweeping several people off a pier in miami. we have a big wave and about five people so that s in miami still from the high tide and the waves being kicked up by ian. six people were hurt in that. no one, thank goodness, was killed. state-wide, the death toll is now at least 42, and that is expected to rise. and the damage especially in places like fort meyers beach became even more apparent today. it is so severe that a coast guard commander told our wolf blitzer his chopper crews simply do not have monday landma
if it get back in ukrainian hands, how big of a strategic step is that? what could it portend for what s next? reporter: well, if you look at the ukrainian strategy certainly when the areas around kharkiv fell, the focus of the ukrainians was a town called izium which was essentially the supply hub, strategically important to russia because it used that to supply its other forces. and remarkably when izium fell, everything fell that was reliant upon it. and there are thoughts possibly leman fills a similar function in the donetsk and luhansk areas. there are places russia has had forces in probably since 2014, so they probably have more defenses in place, but we have seen russia at times unable to regroup, unable to work out what it would do if it loses a place it didn t think it would lose.
encircling russian units in a strategically important town in the east, vladimir putin held a celebratory concert in red square today after declaring that russia would annex four regions in ukraine. that includes the same region donetsk where ukrainians appear to be encircling some of his troops, encircling russian troops. so this was a spectacle to be sure. it began with a speech in one of the grand halls of the kremlin. putin s words were at times dark, confrontations, conspiratorial. at times putin seemed to be projecting, charging the west and the u.s. with being despots who infringe on nations rights and break international law. now in the orders putin signed today they include lands his armies do not actually occupy. nevertheless, today he proclaimed all of it, quote, our land. translator: i want the kyiv authorities and their real masters in the west to hear and
used that to supply its other forces. and remarkably when izium fell, everything fell that was reliant upon it. and there are thoughts possibly leman fills a similar function in the donetsk and luhansk areas. there are places russia has had forces in probably since 2014, so they probably have more defenses in place, but we have seen russia at times unable to regroup, unable to work out what it would do if it loses a place it didn t think it would lose. perhaps thinking the idea of it actually falling was never going to happen. what have ukraine done? they ve gone around the back of it rather than doing what russia does which is the full frontal assault with lots of lives lost. they ve simply cut off the supply by going around the back of it. that s what we re seeing at the moment, and knock on effect we may see from there is the towns behind it that rely on leman for