in the united states and around the world. i m john vause at cnn s world headquarters. in atlanta. it seems hurricane it is not done yet. in florida with a rising death toll on ongoing rescues, and looking like a wall zone. this color storm is gaining strength right now a category one, bearing down on charleston, south carolina, with all expected later friday. the death toll in florida stands at 19. a number of which is almost certain to rise in the coming days. the u.s. president on thursday warning of a substantial loss of life for me and. which one official has described as likely the biggest natural disaster the state has ever seen. and that is triggered the biggest disaster response in florida s history. tens of thousands of emergency workers deployed statewide. at this hour, almost 2.2 million homes and businesses remain without electricity. large areas of the state are underwater. in georgia, ian produced a rainfall, it up deterring some of the worst-hit areas. gover
strength and swirling off the northern california coast. a second landfall expected hours from now in south carolina. i m harris faulkner and you are in the faulkner focus. the after math of the storm, destruction, loss of life. i always caution everybody when we give out numbers they do fluctuate. right now it is believed 21 people have died from this and we have been told to expect that number to fluctuate again. so we ll report the news as we get it. this side-by-side comparison shows fort myers, people describe it with one word and you hear it over and over and over, gone. boats and cars in piles. homes and businesses shredded. florida governor ron desantis calling the magnitude of the assault biblical, historic. the governor with an update a short time ago. there is life rescue making sure people are okay, following up on any type of calls. there has been really a great effort. the power is a big issue. there are 1.9 million people customers without power. the other
top of the hour, this busy thursday morning, i m jim sciutto. i m poppy harlow. welcome to our viewers. the breaking news we are following this morning, hurricane ian leaving just stunning devastating destruction in florida as a hurricane then a tropical storm. still pummeling the state though. 14 million people in florida are currently under flood alerts. 2.5 million businesses without power along with homes. they re rescuing people trapped inside flooded homes. governor ron desantis spoke about the devastation so many are waking up to this morning. there s 1.5 million outages in 7 southwest florida counties. lee and charlotte are basically off the grid at this point. the amount of water that s been rising and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing is basically a 500-year flood event. the impacts of this storm are historic. and the damage that was done has been historic and this is just off initial assessments. well, the risk of storm surge and
you are asking for the opportunity to leave the new at least have the wherewithal and the confidence and the integrity to say i m going to tell it like it is. because i would hope again, i recognized but i m saying. people are probably chuckling and say that is not how washington d.c. works. well that s how it should actually work. don t call me baby girl. you call yourself a bigger. hey, i can say baby girl. [laughs] but you can t? i would say you are right. you are right though. that is how it should work and so we see some evidence i will believe it when i see it, how about that? i will believe it when i see it. i keep hearing people saying things are changing and things are backing weight, but we will see. in terms of coming up we will have more evidence of it. sure. all right baby girl. amen. [laughs] i you get a pass. i was going to say you sound like oprah, in the red dress and everything, i will see you tomorrow. this is don lemon tonight and we ve got a l
As I reflect on Black History Month, I am inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively