hour. the category 4 storm is currently barreling across southwest florida with winds up to 150 miles per hour. more than 1.5 million people in the state are currently without power, and that number is growing. but the most imminent and life-threatening concern is the storm surge. some areas seeing 12 to 18 feet. to give you an idea of just how severe that is, a meteorologist for the national hurricane center says no one alive has seen 12 feet of storm surge in that area, and many areas could take years to recover. just take a look at this surge today. the dangers are a reality for many who chose to hunker down and wait out the storm despite the evacuation orders. take a look at what family told nbc affiliate wbbh as their house flooded. so this is ft. myers beach on cutlass drive. it s four of us. four of us? on cutlass drive. and you re on the second floor already? yeah. six of us in here. do you have do you have a roof? 15 feet of water now. there s 15 fe
you mentioned the storm surge. but that heavy shield of rain is now near winter haven on top of orlando. orlando will have gusts up to 80 to 90 miles an hour. that s enough to knock out power and 2 feet of rain tomorrow morning. things ugly on the i 4 corridor. joy, how cruel is this going to be that we re not just done with this storm because we have to track this thing for two more days. our friends up in jacksonville to brunswick, georgia, all the way up through savannah, hilton head, charleston, they could possibly see a strong tropical storm or a category 1 hurricane landfall on friday. ian is not done yet. i d say 80% of the damage from this storm is done, but there s still that 20% to go. yeah. it s unbelievable. i ll tell you, i lived through earthquakes, tornadoes, i ve lived in colorado and hurricanes are the scariest.
with the latest on the path. so mara, give us an idea. 12 to 15 feet would be off the screen. it would be above your head, just so everyone understands what that means. so please go ahead. absolutely, absolutely. you know, storm surge the deadliest aspect of a hurricane. as night falls, this is when we ll see the storm begin for some folks. my hearted goes out to southwestern florida because for a lot of folks it s going to be the longest night of their lives. let s take a look right now. 125 miles per hour. so hurricane ian is now a category 3. this just happened. it s starting to weaken, but it is still packing a punch. traveling to the northeast at 8 miles an hour right now. let s take a closer look. right now we re seeing some of the strongest winds hitting parts of florida, including arcadia and right now they re experiencing some heavy rain along with those strong winds. we re seeing colors like pink
i emphasize too crazy because a couple wind gusts did catch my attention because i was sitting inside a chevy suburban, a massive suv, and the car started to wobble a little bit, joy. wow. yeah, powerful winds indeed. stay safe. nbc s jesse kirsch, thank you very much. coming up, storms like hurricane ian are only going to get stronger and more dangerous as the climate crisis progresses as we were just talking about a short time ago. we ll talk more about that next. before we begin, i d like to thank our sponsor, liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. and by switching, you could even save $652. thank you, liberty mutual. now, contestants ready? go! why? why? only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.
bay to go sight-see and look where the tide has receded and they re saying that s incredibly dangerous because they re still expecting significant storm surge here. it s so ill-advised. if you get in trouble, that means somebody has to risk their life to rescue you. please don t do that. this is not a tourist thing. this is dangerous stuff. weather is dangerous. nbc elson basher, thank you so much. let s bring in jesse kirsch in orlando. you are aware of where the storm is headed. what is happening where you are. reporter: a perfectly timed wind gust coming through right now, joy. we got what is really just stronger bands of wind and rain coming through sporadically. it has definitely deteriorated here throughout the afternoon into the evening. what i want to stress is what you re seeing right now are just the northern bands of ian. we re still hours away from the worst impact of this storm here