hello, everyone. thank you so much for joining me. i m fredricka whitfield. just nine days to go until the midterm elections. and the political heavyweights for both parties are hitting the trail, as the campaign hits the homestretch. president joe biden, former presidents barack obama and donald trump all fanning out across the country. this weekend, obama perhaps the democrats best messenger, rallied voters in key battleground states, trying to boost turnout. we have team covercoverage, cnna mckin is covering the final debate in georgia. let s catch up with kevin traveling with the president in delaware. what is biden s primary message this week? well, we should start by noting where the president is not this campaign weekend. and that s on the campaign trail. he is here in wilmington. he did join the 19 million americans who have cast early ballots yesterday. and we will start to see him campaigning more next week when he travels to florida on tuesday. and this is a tri
but that could rise even higher, as officials carry out more search and rescue missions today and work to access areas cut off from flooding. more than 800,000 customers are still without power in the state. and new today, the ft. myers police department is warning residents to be on the lookout for hurricane recovery scams. ft. myers beach will be closed for the next week. as some are demanding answers over whether lee county ordered mandatory evacuations soon enough. every loss of life you have to say to yourself, what could you do differently next time. should that have been done differently? unfortunately, we can t bring anything back. we ll look and find out. i want to know because it s an issue i had as governor trying to stay what did i learn to make sure we don t lose a life? the new york times had one of the six models, one model said 40% probability. and that s what they re hanging their story on. we have done everything we can from using state resources,
vladimir putin illegally annexes four regions. there s no checks on mr. putin. can the west keep him under control? plus the road to 2018, virginia becomes a battleground for one of the most competitive house races in the country. you look across the spectrum, the number is 218. i spent time in a district that could prove decisive. hello, i m dana bash in washington where the state of our union is picking up the pieces after a devastating storm. the numbers and images are staggering. at least 67 are dead in florida, four in north carolina, more than 850,000 still in the dark this morning. hundreds of thousands now essentially refugees days after hurricane ian swept ashore and swept away life as many know it. already more than a thousand civilians have been rescued and evacuated according to the governor s office. we re getting a clearer view of ian s map-altering impact. entire stretches of florida s coastline are gone. once sprawling community like sanibel island
that number could rise even higher as search and rescue crews work to reach cutoff areas, removing debris from destroyed homes and businesses along florida s southwest coastline and we re learning that miami-dade fire rescue crews are conducting helicopter evacuations on sanibel island. boris sanchez is there in fort myers, florida. boris, you just spoke with the lee county sheriff a few moments ago. what was said? reporter: fred, there have been a lot of questions today about the timing of when lee county ordered evacuations. we re in lee county right now in fort myers. what we ve learned is lee county ordered its first evacuations more than a day after forecasts met the county s criteria despite the fact the county has an emergency plan that suggests evacuations should have happened earlier. the county s comprehensive emergency ma or more of water would indicate the need for hurricane evacuations in the most vulnerable areas. a lot of lee county is a vulnerable area. one
newsroom. i m jim acosta in ft. myers, florida. first thing, we have some updated figures from here in the hurricane zone. sit the most current death toll of people who sadly did not survive hurricane ian here in florida. that new official death toll is now 74. 74 people here in florida have died now as a result of hurricane ian. of course, those figures are coming in. as they develop, we ll bring them to you. residents say there is a growing sense of fear that more bodies could be discovered. some areas remain fairly inaccessible to first responders. we ll show you what i saw on the ground. in the meantime, cnn has learned that a team that responds to mass fatality incidents has deployed equipment and personnel to assist medical examiners in boast counties here in southwest florida. officials in lee county where the majority of the deaths have concerned are facing a major concern. why were the first evacuation orders issued less than 24 hours before landfall? the county s ow