0 our growing family. i need a home office and i needed us to not have a roommate anymore. and real time alerts made sure i never missed out on the listing. it makes home buying so much easier. >> start saturday, strong saturday on fox .com. we called michigan's dominant ground game in a tough protest against dial. a lot of big names saturday on fox. this is fox, whether on fox news and we're tracking hurricane in a powerful and dangerous storm making landfall as a cat for her game this afternoon in southwest florida, just west of fort myers. yeah, incredible video out of the bay. and i'm sure it's only going to continue to, well, stream in this in all the video. let's just say that an overall slow moving, bringing those catastrophic winds, as you see, playing the video, as well as that life threatening storm surge, widespread flooding, power knocked out to more than two million across florida. the devastating winds, all of this is heading north northeast. so we'll talk about the flood threat as we head into tonight. even that isolated threat of a tornado. all right. good wednesday evening and welcome to foxwell. there's breaking coverage of hurricane ivan . we'd like to welcome our fox news viewers here as we head into the wee hours of the morning here on the east coast. and we're late into the evening as you get further west. >> it's good to see you, kozar, or as a as we do appreciate you joining us . >> it's been a very long 12 , 20 for 30 hours with a very dangerous, dangerous storm that continues to present quite a threat across parts of florida. yes, not so much the western coast anymore. the west central coast that took that battering earlier this morning and into this afternoon. now we're talking about central portions of florida and really it's the east coast and the northeast coast of florida that is in the crosshairs right now as we're taking a peek at some of the footage that has been showing up all across the state. there's naples on the left, fort myers on the right, and again, everything under water, right? the ocean is moved inland. we've also got freshwater flooding from all of the rain that's been falling. again, that video there out of naples gets me every time i've seen it three or four times already. look at that. that power line down and just and going nuts in the middle of the street. and that's why some two million plus customers are without power in florida. as of right now. that happening all across the state as ian continues to push further inland. it's still a hurricane as it made landfall early this afternoon right around 3:00 o'clock. that was a category four storm strength. now we're at a category one , but it's still a hurricane, which is unbelievable. it's been cut off from its moisture source for going on a half of the day now. and it still has maintained that strength. look at that on the left hand side of your screen, by the way, that's in jacksonville, florida. that gentleman had to be rescued from his sailboat. he was in a dire situation. we're going to start to see places like jacksonville and daytona beach and even savannah and eventually parts of south carolina probably start to take on more water and see more issues. and storm reports here as we go through time. that's where ian is headed, possibly now reemerging into the atlantic waters here soon. and that's problematic because that is right back over its fuel source. and so it could start to strengthen here pretty quickly. all right. so we're taking a peak, a three day peak just below me there, kind of a three d rendering of what ian looks like right now. again, it is not the storm was when it made its landfall earlier today. and that's as expected because it is over land and it does not have that fuel beneath it, which is the warm tropical waters, 90 mile per hour winds as of the last advisory. we're going to get another advisory on this here in about another hour. and it's moving northeast at eight miles per hour with the pressure of nine seventy to this thing really maintained its strength for quite some time. tuesday, 11:00 a.m., you see, it was at one hundred and fifteen miles per hour with those winds. cat three , cat four speed right there at one hundred forty. that was wednesday evening. and now we're at 90 mile per hour winds. and so finally, we've dipped below triple digits with those wind speeds. >> meanwhile, the pressure has been low. look at that. got all the way down to nine thirty seven wednesday. here's the track that we anticipate and take as we move forward. and right now, it's got those 90 mile per hour winds. it looks like it's going to get down to sixty five miles per hour here as we go through tomorrow. and that would make it a tropical storm . >> so we'll see what happens if it gets back out into the water here. you know, it's got a shot. maybe it could. if it does get weak and become a tropical storm , it could restrengthen over the atlantic and become a category one again . as of now, we still have this hurricane warning still right through central florida. >> you do notice, though, miami is in the gray. so no more tropical storm warning there. and we still have tropical storm warnings from daytona beach in tampa right through the coastline of georgia and into south carolina. as well. and so that is going to be next up here in its path. peak storm surge is down, which is good news. fort myers, they're still saying eight to 12 foot storm surge. and well, speaking of fort myers, that is where right around where it made landfall earlier today. and foxworthy's will nunnelee is there has been reporting for us all night in fort myers, florida. and , you know, will , a lot of people don't necessarily understand storm surge. the folks there in fort myers certainly do now. right. that's just the amount of water that comes onshore as a hurricane kind of bulldozes the water beneath it up and into the coastline. they understand it. and now with historical perspective, because records have been set from what we have seen tonight, and a tremendous loss of property. and i think when we have a chance, truly lunch, our flight team, drones tomorrow and have a better picture of what the totality of what has happened here is just going to be incredible. meanwhile, it's unreal to think that you're talking about the effects of this storm in jacksonville and savannah when we are still dealing with wind gusts and rain right here in fort myers. it's just been within the past hour and a half or so that we've been able to get out of the place where we were sheltering for about 12 hours. but we didn't have to go far before we ran into more damage that is the type of thing that is going to be hindering the rescue efforts that are just now starting. by the way, we've just had enough of a break in the wind and the sustained tropical force winds for rescue crews to really start to get into these areas. as i talk to you tonight. we're not too far from a major highway and we see convoys now of ambulances and rescue water rescue crews and fire trucks making their way towards downtown fort myers. and , of course, you can imagine from there, that's just a staging area likely for them. they're trying to get to the coast. they're trying to get to some of these barrier islands where hopefully there aren't too many people trapped in dangerous situations, but they're really still trying to field those calls for help at this point. and another thing making that difficult tonight and complicating that process, not only the fact that the wind and the rain just won't seem to let up is the fact that so much of the infrastructure has been hurt, has been destroyed, let's just say that it's just been destroyed in this area. we have the electric poles down. we have cell phone service that is extremely limited at this point. and so that is a hindrance not only to the rescue workers trying to communicate with each other, but the people around, of course, call in to 911 one for help. and so we have a lot of exhausted you know, you can imagine rescue workers do that have been up experiencing this storm with all of us today. i will i believe we're going to take it back from you. thank you for that report right there. and all right. so there you have it. so well well, not only reporting live in fort myers right there and we appreciate that, will . >> let's get it back over to marissa at the desk. and we were just talking about video that is now all over twitter, but stuff that's been filtering in of the flooding out of fort myers in the downtown area. right along the caloosahatchee river, in particular, battered ,battered, inundated with water. and tomorrow we're going to get a light on everything. but don't forget high tide. we still have to hit that around five forty five this morning. so the worst is not over yet. it's going to be some time till water recedes. let's go out and talk about the flash flood threat. so coastal flooding, storm surge, that's one big story and a big danger and factor when it comes to dealing with . the other part of it is the inundation of tropical moisture and very heavy rain. we are monitoring certain areas in florida for flash flooding where we do have some warnings that are already coming down the line and very possible in the next few hours as we continue to see just heavy rain filter through the area, pin wheeling through areas from orlando upward towards daytona beach, noticing that we do have. okay, so this is a look at the radar. the flash flood warnings. and now we have a live look, wofl coming out of orlando right there. very difficult out here. and the storm passes the main part of it. but we're still getting those heavy bands of wind and rain. it's going to be a long day here in lakeland for these people who've already dealt with so much so much rain and so much in this hotel. is booked solid as well as the other seven in this area. it took us forever just to find a place to stay. most of these people were escaping mobile homes. that's what some of them were telling me. and it's just been a it's been an experience out here. but we're going to have more throughout the morning with the fox 35 storm team thunderstruck as we continue to track hurricane. that's the latest in lakeland. fleecy, back to you. all thanks a lot, dave. and that area, by the way, polk county, about half of all people are without power at this point. so that's one of those counties that's really taking it hard right now. and i think he was showing us a good example of, hey, we have power here right across a street over there. we don't have power. so it just goes to show you the difference, really, block by block. >> but he was also a little further south and block by block is going to be a difference scenario playing out. the big one that's playing out for so many is the loss of power. at last tally, about two million customers without power at this time. the hope is that some have generators, but i'm sure many do not. as generators, they're quite expensive. here is a look at some of those flash flood concerns mentioned orlando, where we've already had several inches of rainfall . we're expecting maybe another foot in some cases. we also have a new flash flood warning as you shift further to the north and east. and this does in corpus incorporate cape canaveral there up towards titusville, coyotes circling it. they're out of weather command in this particular area. six to nine inches of rain has fallen, according to the national weather service, another four to six is expected. so flash flooding, it is either about to happen or more than likely, it already is . now, i will say we're in the overnight hours. so all you can hope and is what we've seen so far through some of these traffic cameras is that most people are not currently on the road. most people are hopefully resting at home, staying safe . look at some of these estimated rainfall totals, however. so this is a look based on radar, an estimate of how much heavy rain has come down, notices you take it further south of kissimmee. their areas where we have a flash flood warning, that red indicating eight to 12 inches that has fallen. and then when the warning came out, it was looking like another four to six inches. on top of that, you can move a little bit further to the north into the orlando area. we could have about a foot in spots. what we're encroaching on , you see just very heavy rain coming down and because of the winds, the last gust, by the way, daytona international airport, 60 miles per hour. so tropical storm force winds are the other factor here. look at the power outage trackers. we've seen this really just spread out and now illuminate parts of the east coast of florida, where we have about ten to 25% of customers without power at this point. one of our correspondents, katie, has been riding out the storm in orlando from start to finish, from calm to now gusty, gusty rain coming down. katy, last time we checked in with you, sirens were going off. and i got to say, we haven't heard a lot of sirens throughout a lot of the reports because for many areas we had emergency response that was put on hold until the conditions improved. yeah, you took the words out of my mouth because that's kind of what's unique about what area we are in compared to where a lot of our crews are as well. there aren't any mandatory evacuation orders in orlando. so a lot of people who were evacuating other parts of florida end up here in orlando. but we still had a hurricane warning, flash flood warning. now a tornado watch up until one o'clock in the morning. so the difference is that those emergency response crews are able to respond as these things are happening, which is what we saw in the last half hour. and you could see behind me that there were sirens, there were police going back and forth. we were looking at that as that happened. i was listening in on the police and fire radio. i heard reports of downed trees, downed power lines and apartment complex potentially dealing with flash flooding. i'm seeing people tweeting about that as well. so some things that were going to keep our eye on as the night progresses, as the storm heads towards us . but now we're there we go . we're getting a little bit of a gust of wind. i wanted to show you what happens when we go through these cycles. every so often we get a gust of wind and you're going to see these tall, skinny palm trees toppling from side to side. and that's a little bit scary because in other parts of florida, we've seen trees like snap. and , you know, we're in a parking lot here. you can see cars down below, right below these trees as they shift back and forth. if you look over that street lamp, now that we're getting a gust of wind, you can see the rain is sideways. so we're getting these wind gusts that we've been seeing them around 60 miles per hour. we're thinking that they could potentially get over 70 miles per hour once we are in the thick of this. but we're going to be keeping our eye on how things progress as they do. you know, we're expecting this to really unfold here in the orlando area from two to eight o'clock in the morning. so that's something that we're going to be paying attention to monitoring and keeping up with people on social media. so if you're watching this, you've got something going on around you. make sure you tweet us so we can make sure to share that and at least get the information out there melissa. >> all right, katie. well, we appreciate all the updates you've been providing us . it's going to be a long night for so many in orlando. as we continue on . >> are there's a look at orlando right there. and we want to take it over to seminole county emergency management john lockwood. he's joining us now near orlando, florida. john , we appreciate you being with us here. >> how are you guys holding up there? we're looking all right. for the meantime, we're projecting to have about 30 , 20 to 30 inches of rainfall and the gusts of wind have been a bit a little bit more than we projected a few days to go . but we have been planning for these for the past about 48 hours. we have about forty one thousand people in our county without power. >> and we have a few reports about 50 to road closures in our county right now. and also many traffic lights as well out. >> right now, we don't have a current a curfew or anything like that, but we are urging individuals to stay at home in the safety of their home or when one of our shelters, the shelters around our county ,we also have swiftwater teams on standby just in case of an emergency where people need to be aware, evacuated from their homes just to be safe and get them to one of our shelters to have constant power. >> so, john , at this point in our reporter is out in orlando, actually , and she was she heard sirens. police sirens and an evacuation zones. you don't have police response in an emergency situation. it's just too dangerous. let me ask you if there is someone who calls 911 one and we know that there are areas under flash flood warnings at this time near you ,will there be response? and at this point, what sort of things do you anticipate the emergency crews are going to be up against? okay, so we're projecting around 2:00 a.m. our department and our sheriff's office to stop their non critical infrastructure, cause we're projecting that to stay like that into the future. we don't have a set time yet for when reinitiate their services. we're thinking probably by the time our next operational period begins around 7:00 a.m. . >> all right. well, how about this? we've been talking a whole lot about how much rain is going to come down and the wind is currently taking place. let's fast forward a couple of days. how are you preparing for the aftermath of hurricane or have you even let yourself go there? >> are you just trying to get through what's going on right now? >> so we have our damage assessment teams on standby ready to get out there and assess the community's roads, infrastructure, the homes, windshields, even. we're ready for that. we also have a bunch of locations for sandbag operations because where we are on the st. john's river, actually , it could be a delayed response for that flooding. it could be even in monday or tuesday when we see flying on the st. john's river, lake harney or in sanford, florida, where we are. so we are going to be reopening sandbag operations as well to make sure that we mitigate against any potential flooding and that aftermath of this as well, we have debris crews ready on standby as well, start picking up debris that blocking roadways and also making sure our traffic engineering folks can get those traffic lights back online so our people can move around our county. >> it's such a different narrative when you compare it to what the west coast was up against. and now you guys on the east coast, it's been more of a delayed reaction. however, as you mentioned, you're still expecting some pretty vicious flooding and threats, especially with the st. johns river as you head into tomorrow as well as saturday. i guess the biggest thing at this point, you want people to take away, because i do think by tomorrow people get antsy. people want to get out there, they want to see what's happened. and maybe they've been in their home now for twenty four hours. so best advice you could give to people as we head now into thursday. into thursday, you're going to want to monitor your local weather. staying tuned to the weather reports. and you don't really want to be going outside and driving in tropical storm conditions, anything above thirty five miles an hour. we recommend. don't drive around in if it's possible. we recommend people are staying in their homes to at least 7:00 p.m. around us because that's when we think that and we'll move through our county enough to where we can start picking operations and opening up our county. >> several county emergency management, john lockwood, thank you so much for being with us here tonight. great information in and best of luck moving forward, sir. we know that you guys are certainly going to be having your hands full here over the next couple of days and even weeks. >> thank you so much. >> let's get it over to meteorologist adam clot's. he is joining our team coverage here. there it is right there, adam. ian has undergone a decent amount of weakening. still category one storm, still a category one storm. >> it made landfall just after 3:00 p.m. so obviously it's been over land for a really long time. that's going to force something like this to weaken. but, boy, what a storm it still is , 90 mile an hour winds after all that time over and lifting to the north northeast at eight miles an hour. now, mostly, as you look at it here on the eastern half of the state, it stayed strong. a really long time. >> and it's actually before too much longer to get back out over water. and when it does that, the water's warm. that could fuel the storm a little bit longer. so this is our future forecast. we are expecting the winds to drop down to sixty five miles an hour. that would be a strong tropical storm . but right at that kind of breaking point where it could be a weak hurricane, could be a strong tropical storm . but this particular forecast, sixty five mile an hour winds and then it hovers there. why? why doesn't it weaken the way it's been weakening? well, it's back over the water and that fuels these systems. it makes a big turn, turns it back into the southeast and it's going to stay strong. so we're going to be talking about another landfall as this system kind of wraps that its way back around. so no surprise here because of all of that. we've see tropical storm warnings from northeastern florida wrapping up all the way around georgia to south carolina and then even inland as this ultimately makes this move brings a whole lot of moisture with it. you're going to be seeing tropical storm watches, gust to columbia, florida, all areas where it starts to get a little hilly, a lot of rain. there could be some flooding. the winds are still going to be an issue because you're right there at that border. we now see a hurricane watch in place for all of these regions. again, jacksonville running you all the way through savannah and charleston areas where the winds are going to be right at that level, where it could be hurricane force, at least very strong tropical storm force. >> this is our forecast model. and you're seeing the main kind of line of heavy rain there lifting to the north of this. but pay attention, the winds just because of the way when circulate around the system now ,i just just not just not now, but for the last several hours, all the water has been getting pushed up to the southeastern coast. and then as the storm kind of lifts that direction and turns the water will have already been piled there. so you get all of the storm surge, you just get a lot of moisture moving on to the southeastern coast. so rain is going to be an issue. wind is going to be issue. and as you're going to see, once again, storms are just going to be an issue. it has been all day, but we've been so focused there on the western coast of florida. now you're going to be talking about getting to the east coast of florida, the east coast of georgia and the east coast of south carolina. see these yellow winds? i mean, obviously, this is a huge area covering most of the state, but 40 miles an hour, there's not a lot of interference there as you're out over the water. not a lot of friction. so water just been getting pushed up and pushed up and pushed up along the coast all of a sudden, you get these seventy five mile an hour winds up along the coast. anything that's built up is just going to be pushed right on shore. and that's when you start to talk about what could end up being a pretty significant storm surge, again, piling into different areas. and then, of course, strong winds going up towards charleston, savannah. also hurricane force gusts. how much water could we possibly be seeing? well, three to five feet is enough to do a lot of damage to move automobiles, obviously enough to move a human as you're getting up to about shoulder height for some of these areas in a large area from daytona beach, some of the georgia islands, all spots where you're going to see this. and i do want to leave you with this one on top of all of that storm surge. yes, rain is also coming. some of these areas, savannah, maybe a foot of precipitation. so water is going to be everywhere. nick, even though it's weakening, there's still some folks that need to be paying attention. absolutely. no doubt that whole map right there just covered in red . that's something you don't see every day. all right. well, thank you, adam. let's get it over to now. fox, where there's max gordon, who is in st. petersburg, florida. where intense wind and rain pummeled the area through the day and night. >> and max, the mayor there has asked residents to shelter in place. and that's got a population of about a quarter of a million. so a lot of people kind of hunkering down here tonight. >> take it away, sir. the weather is gradually improving here in the tampa st. petersburg area. it is still pretty gusty. a lot of people here expected this hurricane to make a direct hit here. and a lot of people are breathing a sigh of relief, though there has been scenes of devastation down south, we're now learning more about the assets that are going to be deployed down to southwestern florida. according to the governor's office, around five thousand florida national guardsmen are going to be responding, as well as two thousand national guardsmen from other parts of the country. they'll be using high wheeled vehicles, boats and helicopter to get in and rescue people. there's also going to be five usar teams, urban search and rescue teams from florida and several federal teams as well. they'll be able to get into those hard to reach areas because they have the expertise really to make was technical search and rescue operations. now here locally, in the tampa st. petersburg area, the ports are still closed. many bridges are still closed, including the sunshine skyway. the school closures are still in effect in 50 nine different school districts across florida. this has truly been a statewide disaster here. and for millions of floridians, they're still in the dark. you know, we have power outages all over the state and it's going to take a long time to get power restored. although governor desantis says that restoring power is going to be a top priority, around thirty three thousand utility and line workers are here in the state right now. they're weathering the worst of the storm and they're going to be deployed all over the state trying to get that power back . but it is going to take some time because these winds are still gusting in many areas and they can only raise their bucket trucks when winds are less than thirty five miles per hour. now, darkness has now fallen, of course, over florida. and many people tomorrow are going to be waking up to scenes of devastation. now for folks out there, they need to watch out for fallen trees and especially power lines in people who are running generators need to be careful with those. they need to keep their generators well away from their homes so they don't suffer any carbon monoxide poisoning. just horrible event here in florida. and unfortunately, tomorrow the daylight will bring some horrific scenes in st. petersburg, florida. max gordon, fox weather. max, thank you so much for that update. and we do want to get to this breaking news. all flights out of jacksonville international airport are canceled and the airport is going to be closed moving forward. just goes to show you how big of a situation, how big of a storm and how big of an impact this whole thing is right now. all right. many floridians had to evacuate before in hit. and joining us now is cape coral, florida. residents cody anderson. >> cody, can you hear us , sir? again, guidoni, good to have you on the show here. thank you. our first question is , was the evacuation for you difficult? >> and then how are you doing? >> yeah, i would say it was extremely difficult. i left my family, my wife, my daughter, all there is right. so they're all health care workers, heroes, they had to stay back . right. so my wife is working in the hospital now. she went in yesterday afternoon and she won't be able to leave until the storm is over. and so my parents are also health care workers. they're both nurses. so they had to stay back . they actually are the b team. so in lee county, they have a team and a b team. the team goes in when the storm hits , the b team goes in afterwards. and so my parents had to stay back , too. so i probably would have rode it out to have younger kids. and so when you have kids, right, you think a little differently, you have a different perspective on things. and so we decided to evacuate and it panned out to be the right decision for me. and so, yeah, i mean, it's a challenging situation. >> and as a parent myself, i know ultimately they come first in their safety. but it's hard when you have to split and some have to stay behind and some have to continue forward. i do want to ask you, because your cape coral resident, where we saw the strongest winds of the day, by the way, right near the landfall hurricane, have you been able to check in with your parents and your wife in the situation that's been playing out back home? >> so it's not funny. i was almost like the that i was to go to. right. so everybody lost power. everybody lost wi-fi. everything probably around 12:00 p.m. eastern time. and so they weren't in contact with anything. i was getting texts from coworkers, my wife, friends, family all day long asking for updates. where's the where's the storm? are we passed it? is there going to be a break? what does it look like? and it was up to the minute info that i was sending to them. >> and so it was quite a day. >> all right. so there you go . and many florida had to evacuate before it hits . and so that's just something that's difficult, i think, for many folks. and we appreciate you bringing that perspective to us there, cody. and moving forward. what are your plans? i mean, what do you think you're going to do in the coming days? >> so i'll be here until it's safe for me to go home. my house is sitting there. i have no idea what happened or the effects at my house suffered. i think right now it's it's it's comforting to know that my family and friends are safe physically. but the stories that are coming out of where i live and where they are now is is grim, to say the least. and i think tomorrow morning the world will be able to see what kind of happened there. so i'm ready to go back and do my part to help my community and start rebuilding as i go . >> well, we appreciate your time, cody, and best of luck moving forward. thank you for taking some time out of your night. with us. >> appreciate it. thank you for having me. i appreciate it. all right. well, let's go ahead and get you an update here on what's happening there. this is looks like we're checking back in with our orlando live camera, still doing its song and dance there in the middle of hurricane, even as that camera has seen better days for sure. and that's why it's moving around so much. we've got flash flood warnings all throughout that part of florida right now as orlando in the mix. you see it's in right up against the coastline. we've got that flash flood warning going. and so not quite in daytona beach, just to the south of daytona beach, real heavy rain continues to wrap in around the center of low pressure of ian . and here's your flash flood warning. this is going until three thirty in the morning. this is , of course, eastern time. this is for polk county and it does look like. yeah, so you're looking right there, cody. yeah, that's what's left of the the eye of end right there. and so so that's why we've got such intense rain banding showing up right there. and that's why we do have some of those flash flood warnings in place. and that's why everything is rotating in counterclockwise around what's left of the center of rotation. there with hurricane ian . so we'll see. we're going to get an update on this thing here in about a half hour. we'll see if it still is a hurricane or if it's now a tropical storm . but i'll tell you this, a lot of it is now reemerging back into the atlantic ocean right there. and that is its fuel source. and so it could start to pick up steam right back up as we head into the rest of this morning and throughout the rest of our thursday. miami not under a warning or a watch. we've got hurricane warnings, though, all across that part of florida and then right up through the coastline of not just northeastern florida, but georgia and south carolina as well. we've got those tropical storm warnings and so that's something obviously that we're going to have to watch out for. >> storm reports getting much less numerous along the west coast of florida. and they're really piling up here as you look over on the eastern edge of the coastline of florida. look at these top wind reports by far and away. the highest one report, cape coral. one hundred and forty miles per hour. then you've got redfish pass, gorda, cape coral, and pelican bay, all between one hundred and twenty six and one hundred and twelve miles per hour. these rainfall totals are way up there as well. coral springs in delray beach around 10 inches. homestead nine and three quarters. st. james city about the same ancestor of fire rescue at about nine and a half inches. of rainfall. and so, you know, that's all on top of really gusty winds, a storm surge and just overall chaos there throughout the state of florida. look at that on the left hand side of your screen, it's naples, florida. much of naples completely underwater. that right there is why we tell you to turn around. don't drown, never try to drive through water that is moving over what typically would be a roadway. >> you can really get your car swept downstream quickly. that may right. there have been a part of the storm surge. but in any event, you see that rescue taking place right there. and that's just one of those situations you do not want to find yourself in. that is scary. that is absolutely life threatening. and so that's what happens when you get a storm surge on top of 10:00 inch rainfall totals. and there are plenty more of these to come as we head into the rest of our thursday, we're going to see these rainfall totals continue to pile up, especially as we get from orlando over today. to on a beach up into jacksonville and then eventually one in possibly goes into the georgia coastline and into south carolina. yeah, i do think we're going to see some pretty impressive rainfall totals showing up there as well. >> yeah, it's i agree that we're going to be talking about when all is said and done across florida. we do want to get to the very latest with the radar and tell you where some of those flashflood warnings still are and maybe where we could see more come down the line. so you're still looking at quite a few of them laid out stretching out of fort, stretching over haines city and further up into the orlando area areas, by the way, that have already seen several inches, maybe half a foot to almost a foot. and then we're going to continue to see those numbers go up, given the heavy rain, that rain falling to the surface, bringing with it some very strong winds from the loft. so this is a look at the velocity, cody, from weather command kind of clicking some of the scans at this point. so 50 mile per hour winds that you're going to find scattered throughout the region where you have those flashflood warnings . so we're still seeing tropical storm force winds, but that potential for hurricane force will go up as we continue to see really the core of and shift in that north northeasterly direction. it's all pinwheel through central north central florida heading into the northeast. so those bands bringing in torrential rain. you still have the strong winds that are going to associated. so it's just making it very challenging to be outside. now, the hope is that it's one 30 in the morning and most everybody is in the comfort of their home and safe. but this is going to be a threat into the overnight. so there's a look circling where we have the core of it. and still at this time, there's no longer the eye. it's really fallen apart as it's weakened, but it's still quite strong. keep that in mind, too, is heading in that north northeasterly direction, heading right towards cape canaveral and titusville. cape canaveral, by the way, storing or artemus won the launch, delayed because of in this moon rocket was supposed to launch a losing track of days, i believe, earlier this week. but it did get delayed because of the hurricane, as it should also should know, we're showing some of the rain totals at this time. when we talk about the amounts, this is all an estimate. so we'll get more exact totals moving forward. but radar estimates showing anywhere from eight to 12 inches coming out of avon park, as you take it, into fort meade, where we do have that flash flood warnings. that's on the southern lower part of your screen here, shifting into the northeast. anything highlighted red ? we're looking at about a foot at this point. and notice the rain is still coming down. we'll take it into the orlando area. you guys still under that flash flood warning. and notice the winds that are associated with these rain, the heavy rain. we're looking at current winds. thirty three looks like that might be the sustained wind in orlando sustained coming out of it. looks like leesburg around 30 as well, gusting even stronger than that. so you're going to get these bursts of winds and then they'll they'll maybe fall back a little bit and then they'll come back again as we continue to see and move throughout florida. this is the look at the forecast models. so our exclusive box model, we're going to kick it off at two o'clock in the morning. the heavy rain is indicated by the red that you're seeing there. so the reds and the oranges kicking it up over orlando by 10:00 tomorrow morning. you're still in it, heading up towards daytona beach, 10:00 in the morning. now, we're going to get into lunchtime rain. still a threat. heavy rain, still a threat in towards daytona beach where it could be just those torrential situations of rain continuing to come down throughout the day. so it will not be a safe situation to be out on the roads. i'm sure folks are getting antsy and a little bit of cabin fever by the time we hit that point. but just know that flash flooding, more than likely will be occurring of the rain still to come, maybe five to eight , if not a foot, in terms of how much we're going to be talking about, specifically from orlando up towards daytona beach, that's where we could see another foot of foot and a half in addition to what's already fallen. so nowhere near done with the wrath of ian as it continues to pivot off into the northeast and by the way, when it eventually spits out into the western atlantic sometime between thursday and friday, it is likely going to maintain strong tropical storm status. and that's going to be taking aim then as it takes a westward turn towards the coast there. so that's the latest with the run there. we're going to go out and take it out live. we do have is it we're going to will nunley. okay, thank you. okay, so we're going to take it out to fort myers are well, nunley braving the elements throughout the day? well, i am in awe of all of our correspondents. you started out the day with whipping rain, torrential rain and now a calmer scene in terms of what mother nature has been throwing at you. >> now, compared to what we've been through for hours today, we still have a little bit of rain element. you can detect that between us right now and some wind as well. but this is the most calm we've experienced in 12 hours so far as our conditions. meanwhile, we're using the fox weatherby's to light up this scene because the power is out . as you can imagine all around us , the only thing we're seeing the night when we look out on the highways here are the flashing lights of ambulances and fire trucks beginning their convoys into fort myers, trying to, as you can imagine, proceed down to the water and really begin some of those rescue efforts. but this is what they're up against. this is a side street here, not too far from our hotel and trees down here knocked down a light pole. this is not, you know, shrubbery or bushes that are normally here. these are all branches from the palm trees here. more trees snapped over there. and what this poses is another challenge, logistically, another burden for these emergency workers to try to get through as they're doing their important work to try to reach people who are in trouble tonight. because even though we've had the height of the storm pass and we've had slightly calmer conditions now for a couple of hours, we're just now starting to see this rush of rescue assets getting down to the areas where they're most needed. and possibly starting to get to that point where some of the utility workers can also begin power restoration efforts. but again, that all depends on the wind. even though they are ready and waiting, we've showing you images all throughout the past couple of days of the staging efforts that so many of these crews that come in, thousands of them, by the way, from different states that have mobilized and come here to florida ready to race in and do as much work as they can. they are limited by mother nature still and this powerful, powerful storm . so i can tell you that for the next few hours at least, there are going to be a lot of critical search and rescue operations underway here in the darkness with rescue boats out in the water trying to reach homes, people that may be stranded, that had rising water to fast may have gotten into their homes and now they need to get out. i'm like i said, we stopped by our hotel just a moment ago to check on everybody just to see how was doing. of course, there's branches and things down in cars. and i took a moment to talk to the hotel manager and i said, what's the mood here? he said, well, you know, people are, of course, grateful that they're okay, that they're safe . but at the same time, we've had several people that are staying with us tonight learned that their houses are gone. and so we've also had to comfort and witness that pain of people now having nowhere to go that are seeking shelter here. in this hotel tonight. so you can imagine just the tremendous sense of loss and uncertainty for a lot of those families. and , of course, let's all talk about, of course, the people who can't reach loved ones at this hour that want to know not only how their property is , of course, but more importantly, how loved ones are that they can't reach. so there's still a lot of critical hours ahead of us in terms of getting people accounted for, making sure those rescue efforts can happen, and also trying to rebuild so much damaged infrastructure. that is all around us and really all around southwest florida tonight. back to you. yeah, a lot of anxiousness, awaiting to see what we're going to see when that sun comes up. devastating to hear, of course, when you lose your home in such a catastrophic event. but, well, as you mentioned, the focus is now shifting from first it was just surviving a storm and getting through it. now it's what are we going to see tomorrow morning? and you're right, there are probably a lot of folks out there, especially fort myers. those evacuation orders came down a little bit later than everybody. so i'm sure there were a lot of folks that couldn't evacuate. so the fear that's brewing and folks that's going to be with them throughout the night tonight. and , you know, we were able to track so much of this in real time during the day with landfall happening in the day. and we saw all these conditions change so rapidly right on camera, really, until those cameras gave out because of communications issues. but the timing for all of that to happen throughout the day and then the critical rescue part, those first few hours after a disaster like this, when you need to have those rescue workers out now, for that to happen in the middle of the night just makes it all that much harder. you have to really feel for everybody trying to get out there tonight. >> yeah. and we do appreciate you bringing the story out of fort myers as every story out of a different part of florida is varying at this time. well, natalie, thank you so much, live from fort myers. in the meantime, let's get a check on what hurricane ian is doing at this time. we'll take it over to meteorologist adam checking in with the latest there. hey, morris says doing it has done and is still a large storm , 90 mile an hour winds moving to the north northeast at eight miles an hour. a category one you were just talking about where the center of circulation is . and it is actually back behind what you'd see here. and this is the infrared of the the cloud cover. why is it being driven out in front of where the center of circulation? well, that's the shear or the upper level winds that are really steering this their powerful they're going to drive this out into the ocean again. and that's where we could pick up maybe a little bit of strength as you get to some more of that warm air. my clicker. there we go . was not clicking, but it's clicking. now, what have we seen so far ? with this well made landfall? one hundred and fifty mile an hour max winds as a category four hurricane that was back just after 3:00 p.m. this was a strong storm and actually a historically strong storm , the fourth strongest to ever make landfall in florida. if you remember, michael, back in 2018, a very powerful storm that hit the florida panhandle. it was very narrow, though, this obviously covering much of the state, which means it is doing damage for millions and millions of people. we're seeing it in a lot of different ways. one of those is power outages. you start to see some of these red and orange colors, which is a good chunk of the state. a lot of those folks. 75% of them in those counties do not have power at this point. obviously, when this first came onshore, that's when you really saw a big ramp up of power outages going out as the storm has weakened a little bit, those winds have weakened a little bit. we are seeing less power outages, but the ground still soggy. there's still enough when you take down some trees that takes down power lines. you could see some more. but over two point two million are right around is how many folks are without power this evening? that'll take a while. to clean up. winds got up to one hundred and fifty five miles an hour. now, as you're over land, obviously, you begin to see those wind speeds drop down. >> you don't have the moisture, you don't have the fuel. that kind the keeps these things going. >> but that doesn't mean that just because it's dropped so quickly over the last half a day, 12 hours, 10 hours, it could maintain itself a little while longer. >> so comes on the shore, you're over land. you start to drop off pretty fast. and then all of a sudden you're back out over the water. and that is where maybe you stick out as a weak hurricane one . >> maybe it's just a strong tropical storm . but the point is that you're over the warm atlantic ocean and there is going to be another landfall. ultimately, a lot of different models here, but you run out over, you take a turn back up into the southeast and the consensus is the middle there brings a lot of moisture with it, a whole lot of rain with it. we're going to be tracking probably some flooding across parts of georgia, the carolinas, over the next couple of days. >> already. adam, appreciate it. and with that, let's get it back out to katy byrne, who is in orlando. >> and katy, it seems like in has really turned its attention to orlando. >> a lot of heavy rain, very gusty winds and last time we checked in with you, there were a whole lot of police sirens going on in the background. we can see from your vantage point now that those palm trees are still swaying pretty good in those gusty winds there. so, yeah, it does look like orlando taking it on the chin. so to speak, right now, huh? >> yeah. and , you know, it's interesting. i think right now the mood, it's a bit eerie, not to sense that there's no activity. that's definitely not the case. but everyone is asleep. people at the hotel decided to pack up from the lobby, go back to their rooms, go to bed early. and so this is all happening as people are sleeping. they're going to wake up to it tomorrow morning because we're really going to see the biggest impacts overnight and we're really getting to that time right now. so you're talking about those palm trees swaying behind me. let's take a look at them as we're getting some wind gusts now. you're going to sometimes see bark from the palm trees there, fall down and you'll hear them ,unfortunately, in some cases, land on people's cars. i'm not sure if you can see that corner. my photographer is with me, but there are some pieces of bark landing on cars like that black vehicle there and feel bad for them because look how prepared they were. they had six gas cans ready to ride out the storm. and then they're going to come up to their car and see that tomorrow. but it looks like no damage. that's not that's not going to cause any major damage. but you see how much these trees are swaying and you kind of worry that there's the potential they could snap depending on how strong those wind gusts get . and that's something we're following. the winds are a big story, but also the sheer amount of rainfall that we're getting in this area. you know, we're under a flash flood advisory and we even heard from some people that were living in an apartment complex over near the orlando international airport. we got this video that shows what appears to be flash flooding nearby. i think that was what some of those emergency response vehicles were responding to at some point earlier this evening, because we were listening in on the police radio and they were headed to an apartment complex in that general region. but i can tell you, we've been hearing those sirens and emergency vehicles have been moving back and forth. we've been seeing lightning. we actually just saw a little bit of it. but sometimes you'll lightning over in the distance right on that city skyline in downtown orlando where we are. so things are picking up here. i think that, you know, we're right on schedule for what we were thinking right around that 2:00 a.m. hour. we're going to see things continue to worsen here. but i feel like every hour it's just continued to get worse and worse. i'm curious to see where we end up in a few hours from now. nick, all right, candy, we appreciate that. and , you know, let's go and talk a little bit more about what's happening there throughout central florida as the radar's lit up right now with greens, reds, yellows and , well, very bright green thanks to these flash flood warnings that continue to show up in the area. that includes flash flood warnings. there is what radar looks like right now. and you can see all of that super heavy rain and those rain bands that continue to pinwheel around the center of circulation there that even still has left with its. and so for flash flood warnings continuing right now from fort meade right up to titusville, right along the coastline. and you see the heaviest, the rain showing up as you get right into this area here. and of course, that does include the orlando region. also, you could see that is what is left of the center of circulation with right down there. >> i know the banner is kind of over over the top of that center of circulation circle, but and so, yeah, you can see how far away that is from titusville. that's the coastline. >> and eventually ian is going to make its way towards the coast and eventually get out into the open waters there of the ocean. by the way, i-95 really getting hit with rain right now. look at that stripe of rain. a lot of orange , a lot of red right in this area. so it's no wonder why we've got all those flash flood warning polygons going for that area right. >> and so when you get into the oranges and the reds, you're talking anywhere from five , eight , eight to 12 inches. and that's still over the past 12 hours. so that hasn't even added up over the course. of the day. it's taken less than that. matter of fact, one half of a day. and , my goodness, have things really deteriorated there in florida very, very quickly. and so that's obviously an imminent situation. and we continue to monitor this whole thing. let's get you over on the west side of florida where the rain is starting to lighten up just a little bit. remember earlier today, that's where it made landfall. so let's go straight to fort myers fire chief tracy mcmillan in fort myers, florida. >> tracy , do you have us ? yes, i'm here. let's go and talk about what's what's going on right now. at least on radar. it looks like the rain has eased up a bit and hopefully the wind has as well. >> yeah, it has. you know, it's not you know, it's not completely, you know, gone is still here. but we have the wind speeds below where we need to have it. so our crews are out there now working, putting in a lot of efforts to be able to meet the needs of our residents and our community. we're out there doing damage assessments. there are several areas within our city that were flooded. so we're we're getting these people to safety and checking on some of these homes that actually collapsed. and believe it or not, we actually had a structure fire right when we started going out. we had a two story wood frame home catch on fire. and our crews are able to actually get there to get it taken care of with no no injury or no issue. so a lot of work going on right now. >> i mean, fortunate as fortunate as it could be . let's just say that i want to ask you to, as you continue to, i guess, diagnose what has occurred in fort myers. what have you seen so far ? i know for me, when i just look a lot of the video on twitter at this point that's being shared, a lot of flooding downtown fort myers, as well as anything really surrounding the caloosahatchee river in particular. >> absolutely. and so those those, you know, storm surge came through there. there's still some residual flooding and residual waters. we actually have our military vehicle that our police department actually utilizes and that's out there. and that's what we're utilizing to be a water recovery is able to actually get through, you know, roughly about four or five feet of water. and that's what we're using, utilizing to get to our residents. so it's still a lot of flooding. there's still a lot of trees down. there's still a lot of, you know, power lines, street and street signs. there's a lot of damage that actually has taken place that we're trying to mitigate even in these dark conditions. >> what's the overall temperature of the residents there in fort myers? our folks, you know, kind of kind of dealing with it with maybe a smile on their face, or is it a little more grim is tough. you know. you know, you got to realize, you know, and i think you guys do how how impactful this storm was. the fact that ian was so slow. this is ours. this is ours, that our residents and our folks have been dealing with this in fact, you know, a lot of these storms that come through and they're fast moving, you know, nine to 10 miles per hour and just sitting on top with all the winds and the rains. it's emotionally taxing. it's physically taxing. so they're tired. you can tell our residents are worn. they're appreciative, obviously, but you can tell that they're just tired. >> just just need to get to a place where they can actually rest. there is a sense of trauma that goes along with experiencing a natural disaster. such as this. and i and i want to ask you, because you're in fort myers, fort myers, we saw that southward steer of ian and then we saw some evacuation orders come in place. from what you're seeing, did most people evacuate in the areas that they needed to evacuate as we head into tomorrow? what are you anticipating is going to be the scenario that you're going to be walking into, especially in areas that were particularly hard hit? >> yes. so, you know, you know, we came out with our evacuation aid and then moved quickly to zone c, as are zones of evacuation. but we did notice that there was only about 4000 people in our shelters and those shelters actually hold somewhere around 40000. so about 10% of those shelters were full. so we don't know if people want other places where anticipating that a lot of our residents did not evacuate. we're anticipating a lot of residents actually stayed home. we're hopeful. we're prayerful that we go out and start doing some of these daylight urban search and rescue and looking into the different houses complexes that everyone's, you know, found. okay, some of the drive around that we've done, actually some that there myself personally, we can hear generators running . we could see people kind of looking at the houses, just kind, you know, cautiously so that that was a little bright, a ray of sunshine to see folks still out there. but we're always prepared for the worst and we'll be ready, geared up tomorrow to be able to handle that. if soviet. >> so, listen, our last question here, and i'm not asking you this question as the fire chief, i'm just asking you this question. is a guy that lives in fort myers, what's it like to go through something like this? >> you know, right now i'm full of adrenaline, but to be able to go through this, you know, i'm a homeowner in the city of fort myers and where i work, so is taxing, you know, because you're worried about the folks that we're here to serve as a service. but also i'm worried about my home. i'm worried about my family that, you know, that's here also. and , you know, mother law and things like that. so it's really is something that's mentally, physically taxing, especially if you don't have or if you have that unknown, you don't know what's coming next. so that is something that actually , you know, for a lay person or something like that can be really, really impactful . >> so i can imagine what our residents went through. we appreciate your time, sir. and best of luck moving forward. let's get it back out to robert ray, who is in fort myers. >> earlier, during the height of the storm, oh, this massive storm coming into the downtown area, like all of these here or i guess these downtown area is so, you know what, the cameras. so you can see exactly what is happening. it's block after block, the water that has come in from the river over there. there is debris floating and flying boats are untangled. vehicles are submerged at this point. and you see the wind just pushing, pushing the water all around. the surge. it is phenomenal. the power of haiti. and even at this point right now, the water, parts of trees and other things are flying around right now. going into the night. we're losing light here via wreak havoc here with these gusts of to even walk. all these storefronts are taking it. and this town of fort myers that the wind just pushing it looks like white caps out here. it's not safe for a storm just being on the energy and it's nowhere near over tip of the peninsula. there are over a million power outages here this evening. yeah, out here somewhere