got clobbered with all of the furniture and stuff that was floating. that is how i got this. i got shoved into a wall. when i got the front door open and there was a surge, it took me to the middle of the yard and i fought to get back on the porch. the shear force of the monster storm. we are standing in the middle of some of the destruction. i am john berman in fort myers, florida. in hurricane ian, it is a hurricane again. it has intensified to a category 1 storm and after tearing a destructive path through florida it is headed at south carolina with 85 miles per hour winds and it is expected to make landfall around midday near myrtle beach and could bring life threatening flooding there after what it did here. parts of the state just decimated. south carolina s governor says that we know what is coming. thursday was the first chance to assess some of the damage. cnn is reporting at least 19 storm related deaths. that number will almost certainly rise. here in fort myer
destruction in its wake. governor ron desantis says more than 1,600 rescues have been made so far. after the storm turned roads into rivers, destroyed or damaged thousands of buildings and homes, leaving some coastal communities just unrecognizable. that s right. and right now nearly 600,000 homes and businesses are still this morning without power in florida. some floridians still have no clean water. officials say they are only now beginning to really assess the full scope of the damage. in lee county where more than 42 people died as a result of the hurricane, that is more than half of the deaths from hurricane ian, officials in that county are defending their actions after facing quite a bit of criticism over the evacuation timeline there. critics are asking where mandatory evacuations were not issued in lee county until one day before ian s landfall. while surrounding counties had already been told to evacuate prior. our reporters, correspondents, are all standing by t