has been declared in florida as a tropical storm heads straight for the coast. live from the cnn weather center on the latest. and a look at russia s referendums across the russia-occupied ukraine in the way of annexing which president biden is calling a sham. node. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with kim brunhuber. and we begin in the north atlantic, where a deadly storm that caused massive destruction across several caribbean islands just made landfall in eastern nova scotia. damaging winds and heavy rain are pounding the region as the storm races northward. residents from all across atlantic canada did what they could before the sun went down to prepare including in nova scotia where people waited in long lines to stock up on supplies like food and propane. as you can see, it s not too bad. but we ll know for a week for, i m fine, because i have a trailer that i m staying into. so hopefully, it doesn t get blown away. this is completely useless. we
hello and welcome. friday, september 23rd. 9 a.m. here in london. 11 a.m. in ukraine. voting begins today in the four occupied regions on whether to become a part of the russian federation. the areas make up about 50% of ukraine s territory. if they join russia many believe that will provide vladimir putin the pretexts to claim russian territory is under attack and escalate the war. it s prompting people to flee the country in all directions. a long line of cars backed up at russia s border with finland. the government in helsinki is thinking of new restrictions to keep russians from entering. they re crossing into armenia and turkey. according to one witness, traffic at one checkpoint stretched 5 to 6 kilometers. it was a similar scene along the border with kazakhstan. trucks lined up as far as the eye could see. ticket prices are soaring for flights out of moscow. most of which is sold out for the next few days. the kremlin calls reports exaggeration and fake news. the mobi