hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states. and around the. world i m john. vause with the cnn center in atlanta. almost nine hours now since hurricane eta made landfall in southwest florida. and this monster storm continues to cause widespread flooding. and storm surges in 12 feet high in places. tonight, statewide. like trustees outed more than 2 million homes and businesses, and the power grid so badly damaged parts there are concerns it may need to be rebuilt. ian arrived at the state went just shy of a category five. it s since been downgraded to a category 1, but still remains very dangerous. authorities warning the worst may yet be to come. ian is now slowly moving into central florida, with winds around 90 miles or 145 kilometers per hour. time lapse video shows water levels rising on the streets of fort myers, south of where it made landfall. the national hurricane center said the storm surge on florida s west coast has likely peaked, and is now startin
city are you okay? rescuers, helping guide residents through submerged intersection, since, having been turned into a lake. then, there is this. the electricity crisis. the storm, knocking out power lines, in more than 2 million homes, and businesses, which have been plunged into darkness, across the state. meteorologist, pedram javaheri, tracking ian. he joins me. pedram, ian may have weekend, but is unleashing very dangerous conditions. where does it stand right now? kristie, we ve got the latest update from the national hurricane center. 11 hours overland, since it made landfall. you will notice, still, a category one. a drop from 90 miles per hour, to 75 miles per hour, leaving this as a low-end, category one hurricane. notice, on the back side of the storm system, the cloud field, beginning to break. as far as clearing skies, around portions of marco island, around areas up towards tampa. all of these areas, finally, seeing drier weather persist. just east of i
first confirmed hurricane related death in osceola count. 14 million people right now under a flood advisory. the scale of destruction is hard to comprehend. we are learning more by the minute. any minute from now, president biden gets a briefing on the scope and devastation of this storm. millions of floridians right now without electricity. lee and charlotte counties in southwestern florida knocked entirely off the power grid, that according to florida s governor. emergency responders working through a backlog of calls for help. for some, that help won t get there in time. in naples, scenes of desperation, first responders wading through shoulder-high water to carry, drag people to safety. in orlando, regret for not following orders to get out. i heard the evacuation going off on my phone, but i was, like, we re going to be all right. i kept saying, we re going to be all right, you know what i m saying? but, boy, was i wrong. i was wrong. if i would have known it was goin
we had some of the strongest winds here so far. good evening, once again, i am stephanie ruhle. we are continuing live coverage of hurricane in, the category four storm made landfall on florida s west coast this afternoon, and it is still battering the state with heavy rain and hurricane-force winds. right now, more than 2 million homes and businesses in the state of florida are without power. let s get right to nbc meteorologist michelle grossman for the latest. michelle, i know you just got the 11 pm update for the national hurricane center. what have you learned? i will look at it with you, because it s right at the presses. we re still looking at a strong storm. we re looking at heavy rainfall, gusty winds, and we will look at what we are seeing in terms of wednesday, because we are holding on to the strength. let s hold back for a second because you saw wind speeds up to 135 miles per hour. this was a historical storm, if it is the big historical, catastrophic. we ll
category 4 storm leaving a huge path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we ll have a live report in just a moment. meanwhile, rescue crews have been busy trying to get people who decided to ride out the storm to try and save them. they re stranded now by rising flood waters and we re still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida. at this hour, it still has more to go. good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it s thursday, september 29th. joe is off this morning. along with willie and me, we have the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. without power this morning, first light this morning will begin to show the damage in florida. that s right. that s when we re going to start to see the story of what happened last night, what happened overnight. tropical storm now ian downgraded from a category 1 hurricane. in just the last hour, but still wreaking havoc across florida as it made landfall as a