it s the top of the hour on cnn newsroom. i m alisyn camerota. hurricane ian just made landfall as a category 1 storm on the south carolina coast. it hit near georgetown, between myrtle beach and charleston, and just as it did in florida, it s bringing life-threatening storm surge and heavy rains. it currently has 85-mile-per-hour winds. the tide has been going up in myrtle beach by a foot an hour. look at some of these images on your screen right now of all of the flood waters in myrtle beach. in north myrtle beach, this pier collapsed during the storm. obviously, we ll see much more damage once the storm passes through this area, and then in florida, utter destruction after the west coast got hammered. at least 25 people are dead as of last count. officials warn, though, that that number will likely rise. some areas like ft. myers beach are still impassable at this hour. stores and homes there have been reduced to shells, even if they are still on their foundations. a loc
pushing heavy rain and wind into cities that are vulnerable with flooding. after the path wiped out florida s west coast leaving parts of the state swamped, draining vital resources, emergency rooms forced to turn away patients, in the state s costliest hurricane on record. plus, putin makes his land grab official, the biggest annexation and absorb in europe, as protesters here leave their mark vandalizing the russian consulate. welcome to the lead, i m jake tapper, hurricane ian making his third landfall in south carolina after previously hitting florida and cuba earlier this week. residents of south carolina are looking southward no doubt at what happened in florida with dread. in the sunshine state, clean up beginning. ian decimated parts of fort myers beach, winds whipping hotels, restaurants, it s a similar scene on sanibel island, homes, hotels, docks, destroyed, littering the beaches with debris. listen to how president biden described the destruction earlier today
thousands are without power still at last check with the emergency management, 13,000 were without power. portions of the pier have been broken off into the atlantic and there was localized flooding with roads inundated with water. as it stands right now, though, we do not know of any reports of injuries. we ve been checking with the local emergency management here. so far it s just significant damage to the piers. there was cause for concern a short time ago, about an hour ago, as we were reporting, a shrimp boat appeared along the atlantic ocean, just really out of nowhere, getting hammered by the choppy waves at the time. it was unclear if anyone was on the boat at the time, initially when we were reporting. we talked to the sheriff and he said the crew was evacuated yesterday by the coast guard. it was anchored a couple of miles away but intense wind caused it to drift onshore, just off camera there s a huge crowd surrounding the boat. somebody tried to climb on top of th
of ian s destruction in florida is still being revealed. we re seeing horrifying new images of wiped out communities, as rescue operations continue and the death toll rises. also tonight, vladimir putin vows victory will be ours. that s what he says and throws a red square celebration after annexing one fifth of ukraine. the u.s. and its allies are condemning the land grab as illegal and president biden is warning putin won t get away with what he calls this dangerous escalation of the war. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. this is cnn breaking news. we re following the breaking news right now in south carolina, ian s newest target, after its catastrophic onslaught in florida. cnn correspondents are on the scene in both states, covering this disaster. and our weather center is tracking ian s path right now. first, let s go to cnn s miguel marquez in pauley s island in south carolina
without power and at least 10 confirmed dead. todd: adam klotz tracking the storm, but we begin with doug luzader as ian approaches, doug, what are you experiencing now? doug: things are whipping up now, progressing, the wind is getting more intense and bands of rain are moving through, there are signs ian is getting closer. we thought ian was going to hit as a tropical storm and now it will be a category one hurricane, either way, you get a feeling in south carolina that most people are staying put. there is not a feeling of panic here, but there is concern about the flooding they will run into here. not so much about the wind, but the flooding. that tidal surge, storm surge, four to seven feet in the low country, four to seven feet doesn t just go up, it goes in, they are so close to sea level. we have not seen a mass exodus of people here, no real panic, but people are concerned about flooding because they deal with it so often. we saw image in the local newspaper of c