southwest florida as a category 4 hurricane, making it the most powerful storm to ever hit that area of the state. the death toll now standing at 45, but that number could rise as crews reach areas cut off by flooding. people who chose to ride out the storm describe their harrowing experiences. the water was up to my balcony here. it was just you could dive off the balcony. just water everywhere, stuff floating on it. i never stay again. they say evacuate, go. right now the remnants of ian are moving along the country s northeast after the storm hit georgetown county, south carolina, as a category 1 hurricane. let s send it down to boris sanchez anchoring our coverage from fort myers, florida. boris. fred, as the sun rises on another day here in fort myers and southwest florida, the scope of the damage from hurricane ian is becoming more clear. communities are reeling as many folks are getting back to their properties and seeing what was left behind by this near categor
this before. it was nerve-racking. fortunately, we were on the third floor. we had all our provisions ready to go. our primary concern was our neighbors here. make sure they re okay. you know, once the power goes out and we see vehicles floating down the parking lot into the bay, there is nothing that you can do at that point. we can t get out. we have to hunker down and we re ready. reporter: i often ask people this. since you are new to florida, i got to ask you, does it make you rethink wanting to live here, rethink your decision to move here? no. if somebody could turn down the heat a little bit, it would be nice. anywhere you go, you have some type of weather disaster. you have to pick and choose your battles. at least i can fish here all the time. reporter: rob, pleasure talking to you. thank you for sharing your experience with us. here is something i can relate to you, boris. the building manager [ inaudible ] there is an issue here with contractors and
were declared insolvent even before hurricane ian. but it s not that simple. the cost is enormous. just look at the numbers. if you look at data from the insurance information institute, florida homeowners already pay nearly triple the national average for insurance. in florida, the average price for a policy is more than $4,200 a year compared to the u.s. average of more than $1,500. there is a lot of fingerprinting taking place. we heard from people within the insurance industry who blame florida s tort laws for a flurry of lawsuits that are driving up costs. yet the group representing the state s trial lawyers have a different take, pointing to a lack of regulation. lawyers feel the state is allowing the insurers to take the lead on rates and coverage. thank you so much, mark stewart. florida governor ron desantis says the state plans to help people with insurance
best in class care for our athletes. we want to always make the best diagnosis, to get it right, to give the best care for patients and to keep them safe. that will be no different in this situation moving forward. so there is an investigation going on into what exactly happened with tua both on sunday and again on thursday. when we get the results of that investigation, we ll certainly bring it to you. one of the things that s likely to come up is a question of second impact syndrome, one hit to the head, one hit to the brain, then a few days later another one, that can be exponentially worse for a player, something a lot of players are concerned about. so we ll certainly follow this investigation along, fred, and bring it to you when we get it. dr. sanjay gupta, thank you so much. of course we re all praying for the e best possible outcome for tua and other nfl athletes who have beeeen going through same thing. all right. straight ahead, we ll return live to florida, where ian
southwest florida as a category 4 hurricane, making it the most powerful storm to ever hit that area of the state. the death toll now standing at 45, but that number could rise as crews reach areas cut off by flooding. people who chose to ride out the storm describe their harrowing experiences. the water was up to my balcony here. it was just you could dive off the balcony. just water everywhere, stuff floating on it. i never stay again. they say evacuate, go. right now the remnants of ian are moving along the country s northeast after the storm hit georgetown county, south carolina, as a category 1 hurricane. let s send it down to boris sanchez anchoring our coverage from fort myers, florida. boris. fred, as the sun rises on another day here in fort myers