everywhere. i ve never seen damage like this in my whole life. it s unreal. reporter: boats tossed like toys. the lone bridge connecting the island cracked and crumbled with the storm s winds putting some sections totally under water. we had about 200 households that didn t evacuate on the island that we know of. reporter: anyone still trapped on the isolated island now waiting for rescue by boat or air. we joined the lee county sheriff as he surveyed some of the hardest hit areas to see the full scope of ian s power. you know that as we are speaking right now, there are people that want us and need us and we can t get to them. reporter: people like jack and betty. an elderly couple who hasn t been heard from since the storm hit their continue dope. the worst part is the waiting and the unknown and not knowing that they re okay. reporter: their son scott says his parents were unable to evacuate in time and forced to hunker down on their ground floor. but rescuer
wow. you got the video? i got it. here it is. oh, man. that s our pool. that s our deck. that was my house. my house is gone. jesse: a fox news alert, one of the largest search and rescue missions in american history is underway after hurricane ian decimated moving up the east coast. governor ron desantis says the situation is really bad. the amount of water that s been rising, will likely continue to rise today, even as the storm is passing, is basically a 500-year flood event. jesse: first responders are working around the clock. hundreds have been rescued since the storm hit. here s nassau county deputies saving two people stranded on a sailboat in the storm. hold on, hold on! hold! jesse: on the other side of the state, naples firefighters rescued a woman trapped in floodwaters. watch. jesse: it s all hands on deck. we re seeing the best side of people come out in the face of tragedy. a good samaritan used his jet ski to help firefighters with rescue
morning, particularly in the areas that were hard hit, just understand, this is still a hazardous situation. those folks that were in there, in the wee hours of the morning, were taking big risks as first responders navigating this. you have power lines that are down. you have trees that are down. you have a lot of hazards right now. we do anticipate a lot of the water will subside in some of the barrier islands and some of the coasts, but some of those inland places off rivers and off of these inlets, you re likely to have standing water there throughout all of today and even in the days ahead. so that is a hazard. and just please be aware that that is something that you if you ve weathered the storm to this point, going and doing and getting involved in that is just totally not worth it. and we want to minimize any harm to anybody as a result of what we re seeing right now in the streets. we have had 26 states provide support. we really appreciate that. it s going to be p
down, you have trees that are down, you have a lot of hazards right now. we do anticipate a lot of the water will subside in some of the barrier islands, in some of the coasts, but some of those inland places off rivers and off these inlets, you know, you re likely to have standing water there throughout all of today and even in the days ahead. so that is a hazard and just please be aware that that is something that you if you weathered the storm to this point, going and doing and getting involved in that is just totally not worth it, and we want to minimize any harm to anybody as a result of what we re seeing right now in the streets. we have had 26 states provide support. we really appreciate that. it s going to be put to use. this is i don t think we ve ever seen an effort mobilized for this many rescues this quickly. but we appreciate it and we will make good use of it. we want people to be safe. those who have who are in need of life support right now, help is on t
like a freight train. we re seeing record-breaking and terrifying storm surges throughout florida and ft. myers, the water is so high pickup trucks are almost completely submerged. water levels have risen more than 6 feet in the last switch ho seven hours. let s get to tom sater in the cnn weather center. an updated forecast should come any minute now. what should we expect? it was just handed to me. forgive me for reading off. we still have a category 4 hurricane and five miles east of punta gorda. it will stay at hurricane strength through orlando. this will rake the entire peninsula. we had grove city a gust of 128. when we talk about the southern kind here, a better picture on radar will give an indication what we re looking at. here is the new track. keeps it as a 4 of course now moving inland but notice it s a category one. it will lose strength now that it s interacting with a land mass. that s typical. however, the winds have expanded now as these storms do. in fa