all of this. i m going to get to it. i ll see you tomorrow night. thanks. this is don lemon tonight, and i m in orlando florida, and being here, what s really amazing is the amount of water. as i said last night, this has been a water storm. it s all about the water. it s not about the wind. this hurricane dumped so much water on the state of florida. what you see behind me, these trees are usually under water behind me, so people would normally be walking behind me on this path. but now, if you go there, you re at your own risk. the destruction it s caused here is amazing inland, and it didn t even see the worst of hurricane ian. their whole neighbors, homes, everything people had in the world under water right now. also, it s important to talk about the bravery of the first responders risking their own lives, rescuing strangers, some of them people who stayed in their homes that were at risk. i went out on a small boat with orange county fire and rescue today. we talked wit
in fort myers beach, it is even hard to bike through the destruction. the messages from residents there, if you can send help, we need it. sanibel and cap teva islands cut off from the main land, only accessible by boat or air after, as you know, ian destroyed this major bridge that connects them to the main land. many of the homes there are in pieces or completely washed away. the coast guard is now going door to door, still trying to rescue people. make sure you have a bag for your clothes, with i.d., cell phones, wallets. emergency officials will run barges to sanibel island to help with cleanup and recovery efforts there. but let s begin in south carolina, cnn s nick valencia is in myrtle beach. tell us what is happening around you right now. reporter: it is a little hard to hear because the wind is such a major factor, just in the last few minutes these gusts of wind have crept up to about 40 to 50 miles per hour. and, you know, the sustained wind is almost as bad. f
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
take a look at your screen right now. part of the states completely saturated still 200 people remaining without power in ten people dead. carley: tracking the hurricane with us all morning long but we began with doug luzader on the ground in charleston as ian approaches. what are you experiencing this morning? good morning, guys come a little bit of light rain is all we are seeing right now and some winds to pick up and the intensity will wrap up through the course of the day. now we have been watching a couple of things closely with this storm as always, the track. as far as the track is concerned it is shifting to the north. the second landfall might happen close disadvantage to georgia but then we started talking about charleston and now it is looking more and more like north of charleston may be closer to moreland beach. as we tracked the track itself, we are also making intensity and this is a category one hurr hurricane. this is something perhaps expecting. the con
counties. that s along the gulf of mexico, southwest corner we pointed out a moment ago. you have 40,000 linemen on the ground. they will need them in order to restore power. dana: they have restored power to a significant portion already. it is impressive the work they ve done. there is a long way to go. 14,000 people in shelters. also a call for everybody to make sure they are being very smart in using their generators in order to protect people from any problems there and from electrocution and also from carbon monoxide. follow those instructions very, very carefully. bill: we are tracking ian and get back to that in a moment. we listened to governor desantis. pine island, sanibel, those are going to be rebuild efforts. the sanibel bridge had breaks in multiple parts of it. it was not where the water and pylons were. those held up well. it is where you had it on the sandbar and it got washed out. dana: the scale of the wreckage is southwest florida is staggering. m