millions there on tornado watch. is the west coast that could really feel the brunt getting slammed directly with life threatening storm surge and flooding in a day or so. millions of people in ian s cross hairs and boarding up the homes. people waiting in line for hours for free sand bags. mandatory evacuations were expanded. they re told it s time to leave now. fema s chief urged people to get out of harm s way. our biggest concern as we wait for this storm to make landfall is storm surge and i will note that storm surge is a leading cause of hurricane related fatalities. the decision you choose to make may mean the difference between life and death. overnight the storm made laufld in cuba with rain and winds. it is churning in warm waters of the gulf of mexico. jennifer gray is in the cnn weather center. there is a slight shift in the forecast path to the south. what does this change? basically means that areas just to the south get the bulk of the surge. with this s
plus this hour live near russia s border where russians try to avoid putin s war on ukraine. going there next. the new lawsuit. the challenges president biden s plan to cancel student loan why what it could mean if you thought you would get the loan forgiven. welcome to the lead. hurricane ian barrelling toward florida. it is a category 3 storm meaning ian s winds could reach up to 129 miles per hour. ian is expected to strengthen into a category 4 storm later tonight with winds up to 156 miles per hour. as it churns over the warm waters of the gulf. mandatory evacuations are in effect. airports in tampa and orlando will be shut down. today the governor is warning people should expect to lose power once the storm hits and it could be days or longer before power is restored. parts of cuba lost power today with ian slamming into the western part of that country earlier. already the outer bands of ian are lashing the southern tip of florida in the keys as you can see in th
disaster. good morning. welcome to way too early on this tuesday, september 27th. thank you for starting your day with us. we ll begin with new reporting on what to expect from tomorrow s hearing. according to the washington post, the committee plans to show footage of roger stone, the trump ally recorded in the weeks before the capitol attack by danish documentary filmmakers. they focus ond six hours of material and selected about 10 minutes worth of footage. cnn obtained several clips and one clip recorded a day before the election after a rally in georgia stone can be heard calling for violence. excellent. let s get right to the violence. shoot to kill. cnn-tifa. shoot to kill. gone this. [ beep ] f the voting, get right to the violence stone said the day before the election. he reportedly followed up that remark claiming he was kidding. here are two more clips of stone explaining how the trump campaign planned all along to reject the election results if he lost.
and hurricane irma, which veered at the last second. businesses are putting plywood up on windows. this is an ice cream shot trying to inject some levity, no ice cream for ian. sandbags are on the ground to prevent flooding. that s small potatoes in terms of mandatory evacuations. pinellas county and hillsborough county have about 2.5 million people collectively. the whole tampa bay area is 3.2. 75%, 08% of the people are in two counties that have mandatory evacuations. they re looking to move a million-plus people. that process started last night, 2:00 for hillsborough, 6:00 for pinellas. but you ll see the biggest chunks of people fry trying to get out today. the topography of this area, there are bays and inlets, barrier reefs, the bay on one side, the gulf on the other. the water has nowhere to go. storm surge right now certainly the biggest concern as the projections are between 5 and ten feet. for historical context, the last time a major hurricane struck tampa direct