coast guard deployed 16 rescue helicopters, six fixed wing aircraft and 18 rescue boats and crews. that s just one element of the many federal search and rescue teams staged in florida and the governor talked about how impressed he was with what the coast guard is going this morning. these are dangerous missions and i m grateful for the brave women and men, federal, state and local governments working as one team, risking their lives to save others. and we re going to learn a lot more in the coming hours. but we know many families are hurting, many are hurting today, and our entire country hurts with them, because all over the country we ve seen so many crises, but in florida today is the epicenter. we re continuing to see deadly rainfall, catastrophic storm surges, roads and homes flooded. we re seeing millions of people without power and thousands hunkered down in schools and commune centers. they re wondering what s going to be left when they get to go home, quote, unquote
is up. we see contrast from before and after pictures. for example, fort myers, where the hurricane first hit last. 2.5 million people are without power. i can tell you specifically for florida power and light, we have just over 1.1 million customers across the state at the moment, that said, we ve been out and about throughout the storm, it s been safe to do so restoring power to our customers and we ve already restored power to 500,000 customers, but majority of lines are still above the ground and that will take time to assess. we ll use drones to figure out where biggest damage is and that will allow us to get power back on as quickly as possible. ainsley: ian is hitting central florida and we expect to hear from governor ron desantis 8:45 and will bring as it happens, meanwhile, live across the state. senior meteorologist janice dean is standing by and brandy campbell is back in orlando and fox weather correspondent robert ray is live. we are learning the sheriff in
dagen mcdowell, amy and hegseth is here. forecasters say tropical storm ian will likely regain hurricane strength. it will pick up more power. hour by hour you have been showing so many different things as the sun has been able to come out and give a good visual on this, where are you now? i m at a marina just outside of downtown fort myers, i m standing on top of so much debris, the water is keeping me afloat. there is wood, stirofoam, boats thrown around like toys, you see here, there are life jackets and you name it, it is peer, powerful wind and storm surge that push around incredible vessels like they are nothing, they are twisted and snapped? are upside down, many have rammed into each other, just noise people described from last night. saying when this occurred, this looked like dominos, concrete piers were ripped apart and two or three blocks from here, the storm surge coming in on historic downtown fort myers making roads and beautiful quaint streets who rivers
off of the gulf coast there. we re not going to get a sense of it until tomorrow. but yes, it looks pretty path down in. and we ll be talking about this later in the hour. thanks, chris. and thank you for joining us. hurricane ian continues to create a swath of in made landfall just after 3:00 this afternoon in southwestern florida, near k o connor, a island off of the coast of fort myers. ian came ashore as a category four hurricane with 150 mile per hour winds. just a few miles per hour shy of a category five. only for hurricane stronger than that have made landfall in the united states ever. but it is not just the strength of the storm, it is the size. this is the view of hurricane in from the international space station this afternoon. just showing how massive the storm is. the national river describes in as battering the florida peninsula with tied and winds, and flooding. ian has just now weakened to a category two storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles
washington. president biden is about to arrive at fema headquarters. the president approved a major disaster declaration for florida and spoke with governor ron desantis. you have power lines that are down. you have trees that are down. you have a lot of hazards right now. today is about identifying the people that need help, who may still be in harm s way, but also beginning the process of rebuilding some of the things that we need. the tropical storm continues to barrel towards the atlantic ocean where it s expected to regain strength and make a second landfall tomorrow along the south carolina coast. right now, tropical storm winds can be felt as far as 830 miles out from the storm. let s go to bring in meteorologist bill karins. this is not over yet. the focus is northeast florida and the second landfall we are expecting in 24 hours. what are you seeing in the latest update? unfortunately, it looks like it s a hurricane when it make landfall when it hits charleston.