this hour, and on the ground frenzy in the state. millions under mandatory evacuation orders. the entire state faces flash flooding. and then record-shattering storm surge, water officials say as high as 18 feet. enough to swallow two suvs stacked one on the other. one official warning if you are caught in that surge, you simply will not survive. let s get straight to our correspondents on the ground binning with beginning with bill weir. what are you seeing and what are you told to expect? reporter: this whole community is really bracing for the worse. the new numbers this morning sunk the pit of the stomach everyone here, trying to think about a 17 foot storm surge. and we re on the back side of the storm and this is sort of the reverse storm surge. locals never see this exposed seabed here. we re looking at crab traps and oyster beds blowing around in the wind with the rest of us here. but of course the water as the storm comes ashore will fill in fast. and we re next
parts of the state getting hit with wind gusts up to 126 miles per hour. this report coming out of redfish pass, a sform surge up to 18 feet is threatening important charlotte and the fort myers area. we have fox team coverage with steve harrigan where ian is making the direct hit. robert ray is in fort myers on how folks are dealing with this and rick reichmuth is in the fox weather center on how long the heat could last. given the slow movement, quit awhile. welcome. i m neil cavuto. a busy day right now and a monster of a hurricane that is big and also slow. that is the problem. it hangs around awhile. steve harrigan with more. steve? neil, we had the illusion for the last 15 or 20 minutes that things might be dying down. that was the eye of the storm. part of that eye passed over us. the skies got lighter, the heavy rain which has lashed for hours stopped completely. the winds died down. now the tail end of that storm is beginning to hit us, the back side of it. we ll s
it will severely impact millions of people and put the barrier island communities completely under water. joining me this hour, the acting director of the national hurricane center to update the track of the storm. i will talk to mayors up and down the coast as ian comes onshore. let s go to our meteorologist with the latest on the hurricane s path. what are you seeing from the latest updates? with each update, the conditions continue to grow dire. right now, we are seeing lots of rain and strong winds moving into ft. myers. if you look at the latest trajectory, we have this making landfall as a mjor hurricane, a strong category 4, 155 miles per hour winds. once you are in 157, you are in cat 5. they are seeing strong winds move into areas. streets are under water. i want to note that it s not until the center of the eye makes landfall that we call it a landfall. we are anticipating within the next three to four hours this will make landfall just outside of ft. myers and so
Will eventually deploy. i ll tell you inside of that room, it s pretty intense. these federal, state and local leaders are watching this situation in southwest florida. it s changing pretty fast. in terms of the governor, governor ron desantis, he s making his final rounds throughout the state. he s giving people an update on the state s plan for rescue and recovery efforts. take a listen. there s now over 42,000 linemen and other personnel ready to restore power in 30 different areas across the state. our department of transportation does have 1,200 personnel on stand by to perform cut and toss operations. supplies will be brought in by plane, boat and high water vehicle. now, as of this afternoon, governor desantis says at least
Massive numbers of linemen, but you have those staged all over the state. there is now over 42,000 linemen and other personnel ready to restore power in 30 different areas across the state, and those linemen and other associated personnel hail from, of course, many from florida but from 27 different states. of course, our department of transportation does have 1200 personnel on standby to perform cut and toss operation, understanding how important it is to get those roadways clear as soon as possible. supplies will be brought in by plane, boat, and by high water vehicle. airports in southwest florida do have teams behind and they are going to work to clear those runways as soon as the storm has passed. we appreciate the florida national guard really impressive mobilization of over 5,000 folks, as well as 2,000 additional guardsmen from other states. they have nine chinook helicopters ready to go, additional 22 helicopters will be coming in after landfall that