have our fox news chief meteorologist rick reichmuth with us. rick this has been rough so far. really has. three things, the storm surge that broke records in fort myers and naples as well by a lot by the way, three feet higher than we had ever seen from any kind of storm surge in the past. that obviously causing all that flooding right along the immediate coast. then we have the winds, actual verified winds of 140 miles an hour in cape corral. a lot of this wind was really prolonged because it s such a slow-moving storm and then you have the rainfall. because it s so slow we get rainfall that just continues to batter the state and we ll see big time inland flooding concerns. this made land fall in the exact same space that hurricane charlie came on shore in 2004 which is amazing to have two massive hurricanes or two strong hurricanes like this come on shore in the exact same spot, hard to imagine, because it came on so strong, it s still a category 2 hurricane after having
refuges that are there. one of our major wildlife hospitals is on sanibel island in southwest florida. so pure devastation right now. let s talk about rescue and relief efforts. i assume there s going to be people that need to be rescued in fort myers, likely naples, likely sarasota. tell me about those efforts and when will they likely start? well, one of the concerns is the evacuation orders may not have been residents who railroad not in the direct coastal region. southwest florida, we ve been through hurricanes before and through the last several ones, even hurricane ian irma citizens were able to hunker down and ride through the storm. the storm surge warning is where the devastation is. that storm surge turned out to be real. those evacuation operations look like they re going to begin tomorrow morning when first responders can get out and it s safe. the winds are still high.