fort myers beach, florida, one of the cities that was hardest hit by hurricane ian, hurricane ian made landfall on wednesday afternoon in florida as a category four hurricane. it was just a few miles shy, two miles per hour shy of being a category five storm, the likes of which have only been experienced four times in u.s. history. at this hour, more than 1.2 million people across florida are still without power, and as of late yesterday parts of the county where i am now, where ian did make landfall, did not have access to clean drinking water. in fact, much of where i am now has no access to power either. hard to know exactly how many people are displaced this time, officials are estimating it is in the thousands, possibly tens of thousands, at least 34 people have been confirmed dead so far, 12 of them here in lee county. after hitting florida eons rain grain strength over the atlantic ocean. what across florida, went out in the atlantic, and made a second landfall as a ca
state of emergency tonight, it comes as florida is dealing with catastrophic damage from in, at least 17 people dead tonight. there are fears that that number will go up. cnn s chief climate correspondent is bill weir, and he joins me now. bill, hello once again to you. you say this is some of the worst damage you ve ever seen in your career. covering these disasters. tell us what you saw? well, by that i mean, don, there are certain sort of moments and scenes in storms that are just burned into your brain, katrina for a lot of the reasons that we all know. that was such a man made disaster in so many ways, same with maria in puerto rico. you think about those comedians. michael which took apart the panhandle. but i will always remember, i will equate even with what i saw today in st. james city. that s on pine island. and this is a tight little community, a lot of manufactured homes, mobile homes, people whose vote might be worth more than their home, and all of it complet
with over 6.2 million people under a hurricane warning here. sandbags lining the charleston streets, the governor says he knows what is coming. and now, zooming out, still trying to comprehend the tol tolerating pain, and the death toll. and now, sanibel island is only reachable by boat, and city after city in florida decimated by hurricane ian. and in fort myers, decimated by heaps of concrete and debris and the people trying to pick up their lives and send help. we lost everything last night, everything. the family is okay, and the dogs are okay, and the parents are okay, and we have lost everything, and we have been in the house since 1987, and everything is gone, pictures, memories, everything. and now, going to charleston where the community is waiting, and we have miguel marcus there, and the high tide just as the hurricane is set to come ashore, and what are you seeing? yeah, it is pretty miserable right now, and this is the worst that we have seen. the winds are
the southwestern part of the state. claudia, what are you doing now? i m so owe i m getting important stuff. my paperwork. my husband s personal things. i lost him two months ago. now i ve lost my only home. so i m packing it up, taking it to my car. you re packing it up in a garbage can? yeah. have you the goe gotten any p yet? no. but that s okay. i m strong. i can get it, get the important things. all right, claudia, god bless you. thank you. all right. i ll be all right. claudia says she s strong, and that s what people are relying on, at least in the first early hours here, their own strength. some people have been asking us for water, food, and of course communication is a tough thing as well with all the cellphones down. right now really it s neighbor helping each other here until help from more than 35 states arrives. tucker, back to you. tucker: we ll assess the path of the storm and the damage that it s wrought with hurricane expert brian nor
path the danger is real to state the obvious. please obey all warnings. brian in florida desperate search and rescue efforts underway this morning. at least 10 confirmed dead. officials warn that number likely to climb. significant damage that i saw was on fort myers beach there have been more than 700 confirmed rescues and there is likely many more than that. brian: there you go. before and after photos showing the extent of the damage in fort myers. curfew being enforced there to prevent looting. more than 2 million people across florida still have no power. we have live team coverage this morning. meteorologist adam klotz is standing by with ian s latest track. but, first, fox weather correspondent robert wray is live in fort myers with a look at the damage. robert? yeah, it s tremendous. it s really everywhere you look. and especially when you start heading down to fort myers beach where all those rescues have occurred and where governor antioxidant just talked ab