on fire, likely causing house fires in the city of frederick. massive flames, thick smoke, billowing into the air. emergency officials are now on the scene to the city s mayor is asking residents to avoid this area. police are saying the driver of that tanker has died. when me right now on the phone is vera scates of fairfield, who took this video you are seeing. rivera, tell us what you saw. quick into action by getting this video. it was a scene out of a movie. the flames, the smoke, it was everywhere. my husband and i were driving, oh my goodness, look at all the smoke. we didn t know where it was coming from. everyone was out standing and praying. it was crazy. we were across the street from where the fire was and we could feel the heat. the firemen, the cops, and feels normal right now. the firetrucks were there, the police are still out. it was really bad, really bad. people would just like crying and praying for the driver. it looks really bad. of course, we have j
but that could rise even higher, as officials carry out more search and rescue missions today and work to access areas cut off from flooding. more than 800,000 customers are still without power in the state. and new today, the ft. myers police department is warning residents to be on the lookout for hurricane recovery scams. ft. myers beach will be closed for the next week. as some are demanding answers over whether lee county ordered mandatory evacuations soon enough. every loss of life you have to say to yourself, what could you do differently next time. should that have been done differently? unfortunately, we can t bring anything back. we ll look and find out. i want to know because it s an issue i had as governor trying to stay what did i learn to make sure we don t lose a life? the new york times had one of the six models, one model said 40% probability. and that s what they re hanging their story on. we have done everything we can from using state resources,
that number could rise even higher as search and rescue crews work to reach cutoff areas, removing debris from destroyed homes and businesses along florida s southwest coastline and we re learning that miami-dade fire rescue crews are conducting helicopter evacuations on sanibel island. boris sanchez is there in fort myers, florida. boris, you just spoke with the lee county sheriff a few moments ago. what was said? reporter: fred, there have been a lot of questions today about the timing of when lee county ordered evacuations. we re in lee county right now in fort myers. what we ve learned is lee county ordered its first evacuations more than a day after forecasts met the county s criteria despite the fact the county has an emergency plan that suggests evacuations should have happened earlier. the county s comprehensive emergency ma or more of water would indicate the need for hurricane evacuations in the most vulnerable areas. a lot of lee county is a vulnerable area. one
that responds to mass fatality incidents has deployed resources to assist medical malmers in lee and charlotte counties. officials in lee county are macing mountaining questions about the timing of this evacuation orders. the first ones issued less than 24 hours before the hurricane ian landfall despite evacuations should have been happened sooner. i ve been on the ground in lee county documenting the devastation and today matt le shay today in bonita springs. here is a look at what i saw. did you ride out the storm or anything? did i ride out the storm? . the water was up to half way to the front door with the waves crashing in the house. and our neighbors got stuck here and they had to safe harbor in our house. it was six inches of mud. i m going to see if they could salvage it. and we re just the back is worst than the front. the back is blown out. can we take a look? yeah. i said i leave in paradise and there was a roof over my head and i was literally in th
all of the work you re doing there on the ground to help so many people in need. for more information about how you could help these victims of hurricane ian go to cnn.com/impact. and the next hour of cnn newsroom starts right now. ian s death toll in florida is rising today. could we get some help down here. we have need for gas. there are four boats that just arrived moments ago. this community is never ever seen this high of fluiding before. now we re going into day four without electricity, that is when you get to the life-threatening range. we have no power, no phone service, nothing. the building is ripped off of their foundations and swept backwards. should have there been a mandatory evacuation that came sooner. i wouldn t have changed anything. this storm was very unpredictable. there is a degree of personal responsibility. i think people got complacent. lyman was completely liberated. a phenomenal strategic victory for the ukrainians. thi