florida as well as tens of thousands of electric crews from all over the country. we do not have a complete picture of fatalities or injuries across florida as of yet. one death has officially been reported so far. we expect to hear more from authorities soon. almost 3 million people are still without power. it weakened to a tropical storm ian but back to a hurricane this afternoon as it heads for south carolina. the mayor of charleston, south carolina, is asking his city to shut down tomorrow. correspondent steve harrigan kicks off our coverage, charlotte county florida with the latest. good evening. good evening, bret. help is pouring into florida from across the country but still in pockets like this one it is largely neighbor helping neighbor. after going across florida s peninsula, hurricane ian north and along it led to coast. the numbers are staggering. more than 2.6 million floridians without electricity. rainfall totals approaching 2 feet in some places. heavy wind
is almost 10% of the population of florida. that means over 90% of people in florida to have electrical power. the number of people without electrical power is expected to rise as these slow-moving storm cuts across florida with hurricane-force winds. a major concern right now and overnight would be flash flooding caused by the heavy rains. more than two feet of rain is predicted in some areas, officials are warning residents to shelter in place if they have not evacuated. as many cities today are suspending rescue efforts until the storm passes. we begin with nbc news meteorologist bill for the latest. bill, what is the situation now? we are watching a storm that is weakening overland, but we still have areas that are losing power at this hour. we know we have people who need rescuing, need help from us. what happened during the day today, that is the situation as we go throughout these overnight hours. the center of the storm is over sebring, florida. it is about halfway
the devastation in very direct terms. the impacts of this storm are historic and the damage that was done has been historic and this is just off initial assessments. take a look at fort myers, close to where ian made landfall. you see the downed trees and the boats tossed around like toys. storm surges as high as 7 to 10 feet swept through surrounding areas making streets look more like oceans. ian has left more than 2.5 million floridians without power. folks who were in shelters are leaving to see if they even have a home to return to. the focus is now on the people who did not evacuate. finding a lot of the roads are impassable. we have a lot of power lines down, a lot of flooding going on. i don t want to speculate on fatalities, but we have had some reports being called into us in reference to potential bodies being found. right now the storm is moving eastward through florida with the carolinas and georgia in its sights with flash flooding a major concern. you c
good evening, everyone. i m laura coats, and this is cnn tonight. well, they re going to come back and do it all tomorrow. the house voting to adjourn until noon. that s congressional time for 9:00 a.m. and they barely got the votes to do that tomorrow, giving kevin mccarthy is few more hours to try to make a last-ditch deal that would give him the speakership. i think it s probably best that people work through some more. and i think i don t think the vote tonight will be any different but a vote in the future will. do you have a deal with those guys now? not yet but we re making a lot of progress. our reporting indicates that some members may actually be moving in mccarthy s direction, which maybe there is a break in the clouds for him. but there is no doubt the horse trading will go on well into the night, but it s been a long and chaotic and frankly embarrassing display so far. i mean, there were three votes yesterday. three more votes earlier today. no memb
gulf coast more than five people rescued in charlotte and lee county so far. if you need to be evacuated step out of your front door. the fort meyers fire chief said they conducted 200 water rescues overnight. lee county was the hardest hit. this is a home on fire after the storm. fire crews as you can imagine unable to reach it. this is a neighborhood completely inundated as you can see floodwaters have yet to receive. new video from the lee county sheriff s office confirming the work worse. whole towns have been completely level and mayors giving details about their town out the day. i came here in the mid-70s and was on the police department for 25 years and saw a lot of storms. this is by far the worst storm i have ever witnessed. debris is everywhere. my yard looks like a war zone. as of this hour there is some places that are impossible to reach by road. this is the only bridge destroyed in multiple spots as a result of hurricane ian. this is fort meyers bea