and it might strike hard there tomorrow. not only is this a life-threatening category 3 hurricane getting stronger, packing winds of 120 miles an hour, it s also getting larger in its size. ian s wind field is expanding, which can potentially expose more of florida to destruction. the storm s exact landfall tomorrow does remain uncertain, but it could be between tampa and ft. myers. now, one of the greatest threats is the storm surge and it could reach up to even 12 feet in some areas, which could bring, as you can imagine, pretty catastrophic flooding. floridians are being urged by officials not to underestimate this storm and nearly 2 million people are already under mandatory evacuation orders all across florida. and more are at least urged to leave. police in tampa are now going door to door warning people they got to get out. 5,000 national guard members are now even activated in florida and another 2,000 guard troops are from other states to help them out. we re about t
just after 3:00 p.m. east coast, the eye crossed over a barrier island near ft. myers, florida. this is a live look at the satellite right now. you can see the immense size and strength mof the hurricane. the winds are 150 miles an hour. that s just shy of making this a monstrous category 5. this was the scene just ahead of landfall captured by a storm chaser in pine island, florida. these conditions are expected to worsen in the coming hours, believe it or not. more than 850,000 customers are without power across the state of florida. another major concern today is the storm surge. the storm surge is the abnormal rise of ocean water that s generated by the storm. the lee county sheriff expects that to be, quote, life changing today. that area includes ft. myers and the city of cape coral where the emergency management manager tells cnn, hurricane ian will likely be one of the worst the region has ever seen. we are covering the storm as only cnn can with our team of journalis
to be seen. there are programs that fema has. but it is not going to be commensurate to having had a policy. this is an issue we will have to d deal with. we deal with this. when you have this about the homeowners policy will cover certain things, but the flood policy covers probably the most significant risk for most homeowners in florida given the risk of flooding that we have in so many parts of our state. so we re sensitive to that. there is, obviously, going to be some folks that are going to be in need of support and relief and we are, obviously, going to work as best we can. i will say that people have been asking about some of the overall homeowners insurance with like citizens. citizens i think right now between 6 and 7 billion of surplus. their modelling for this was that they would still have between 4 and 5 billion in surplus. so they view themselves as being able to weather this. individual carriers have to go through a stress test to be able to have their polici
How concerned are you about what is happening, and frankly, there are people who are refusing to even evacuate. well, they are. good evening, laura. you know, gloria had it exactly right. we are about 25 miles south of where she is in clearwater. down here in st. petersburg, florida. and what we have told folks from the initial projections is that we need to run from the water and hide from the wind. and when we have a category four hurricane, now, even if it is 100 miles west of us, we still expect to get that 4 to 6 feet of storm surge. and that will be devastating. what we try to tell folks, and part of the issue in florida as we have so many new people to florida to have not dealt with a hurricane before, is, you know just look at our neighbors down in the st. meyer s fort myers area who almost a year ago had a similar situation where the hurricane was not projected to hit them straight on, but at the last moment it
Potter homes in maples and key west, they both joined me now. great to have you, victoria, as someone who has lost everything in a hurricane before, course talking about hurricane irma, how disappointing is this denial by fema? very disappointing. thank you for having me back. as a floridian, this is a disappointed this much needed aid. i do have first-hand experience losing all my possessions in hurricane irma and being displaced with pets and relying on friends and family and dealing with insurance companies. it is an overwhelming situation and overwhelming is an understatement. so, from what i understand fema official statement regarding the issue is they were not sure what was being proposed and do what was needed to help the victims. but one might be able to accept that but, you know at the end of the day with the government getting billions of dollars and