threat across the state. residents are urged to stay inside. our team is on the ground and crews mobilize and janice dean is tracking ian in new york city. todd: lauren, we begin our coverage with you in st. pete. in st. pete beach, they were prepping for the worst, but it struck more southeast. let me show you what is looked like yesterday in the naples, fort myers area. ian came with category four, wind speeds 155 miles per hour, dropped a foot of rain and life-threatening storm surge turned roads into rivers and left homes on the other hand water. take a look at the radar, ian has weakened since making landfall as it moves to florida. latest update has it 75 miles per hour, making it a category one hurricane, officials warn communitiess in central and northern florida, they are still in danger from flooding and hard to process amounts of water. central and northeast florida, 12 to 20 inches of rain possible, some areas according to national hurricane center, looking at
this is what forecasters are warning about as hurricane ian, a dangerous category 3 storm, maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour. it s strengthening, with florida right in its sights. take a look at this. there s the radar. if you are in florida right now, or you know someone there, the next few hours could really be crucial. millions of people, millions are under warnings and watches as this massive storm takes aim at that state. the numbers are staggering. 15 million people under hurricane warnings in southwestern florida. the national hurricane center says they need to rush to finish preparations to protect their lives and their properties. more than 7 million are under a tornado watch in central and southern florida. and that includes miami, and that through 5 am. and that could change. we re going to get updated forecast about the hours here. over two and a half million people are under evacuation orders right now. one and three quarter million of them under mand
hurricane. this storm will only continue to intensify. if you want to leave, now is your last chance. the entire state is going to be touched by this storm. it s going to be in our stream. it s going to be in our canals. it s going to be in our stormwater drains and dishes. i m not scared. i m prepared though. you can already start to see what it is doing to the waters in the gulf just slamming these waves up against the sea wall right here. it is wednesday, september 28th. 4 a.m. here on the u.s. east coast where a monster category 3 hurricane is at this hour churning towards florida and parts of the state are already feeling the effects. now these are images from key west where major flooding is being reported and hurricane force winds and strong storm surge warnings are already out there on the coast. now right now it s all hands on deck. thousands of national guard members as well as urban search and rescue teams are mobilized ahead of the hurricane s expected
just after 3:00 p.m. east coast, the eye crossed over a barrier island near ft. myers, florida. this is a live look at the satellite right now. you can see the immense size and strength mof the hurricane. the winds are 150 miles an hour. that s just shy of making this a monstrous category 5. this was the scene just ahead of landfall captured by a storm chaser in pine island, florida. these conditions are expected to worsen in the coming hours, believe it or not. more than 850,000 customers are without power across the state of florida. another major concern today is the storm surge. the storm surge is the abnormal rise of ocean water that s generated by the storm. the lee county sheriff expects that to be, quote, life changing today. that area includes ft. myers and the city of cape coral where the emergency management manager tells cnn, hurricane ian will likely be one of the worst the region has ever seen. we are covering the storm as only cnn can with our team of journalis
around the eye some distance away, what happens is once it goes through the eye wall replacement cycle, the eye collapses and we ll watch the convection around it tighten back up like getting strong again. each time it goes through one of these and it can take several hours to do so, it gets stronger and it gets larger. this has enough time unfortunately to go through this cycle before it makes landfall so on a grander scale we re already starting to see some tornado warnings in the everglades right now. they have now posted a tornado watch that will be in effect until 5:00 a.m. that s an extraordinary amount of space and time to deal with that and the problems with the tornados, they re not like in the midwest and plains, they spin without notice, usually ef 1st and ef-2s. there is significant differences, jake, as we mentioned from where it would stall off the coast of the bay and turning to the right and we still could see that happen. there is plenty of time for this to h