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
also at this hour, hurricane hunters are flying into the eye of the storm right now and they will be talking with us live. what they re seeing right now with this hurricane. they are the noaa team sending real-time data back. and they re joining us tonight. the other news this tuesday night, the first results coming in from vladimir putin s referendums in eastern ukraine. russia tonight saying 96% of people are in favor of becoming part of russia. we saw the images, pro-russian soldiers armed with assault rifles going door-to-door to pick up ballots. tonight, the u.s. calling this referendum a sham. the new satellite images showing the mass exodus from russia. russian men looking to avoid the new draft. the line, ten miles long. and when putin is now set to address the russian people. ian pannell in ukraine tonight. back here at home, the january 6th rioter convicted of attacking an officer. the world has seen those images. tonight, sentenced to more than seven years in p
keep coming. willie? yeah. start in florida, though, this hour, mika. millions of residents are bracing for hurricane ian as that powerful storm barrels towards the state getting stronger by the hour. just this morning it became a category 4 hurricane expected to make landfall in the southwest coast of florida as early as this afternoon. the center of the storm forecast to move over the central past of the state with winds reaching more than 130 miles per hour. the national hurricane center also warning of dangerous storm surge and flooding with up to 18 inches of rain expected in some areas. more than 2.5 million people under evacuation orders along parts of coastal florida. the powerful storm passed the florida keys last night causing a couple of tornadoes and some damage there. officials say there also is significant flooding across that area. yesterday the hurricane battered western cuba knocking outing the island s electrical grid, causing a nation-wide blackout. offic
now hitting south florida and the storm s eye is off of cuba s coast moving into the warm waters which means the storm could grow and get for powerful. it hit werp cuba hard overnight with winds and heavy rain just at-battering the island. the forecast models have it projected to make landfall in tampa bay as a major hurricane. storm surge is one of the biggest threats from the storm. and as much as two feet of rain could be falling in some parts of florida from this. officials there saying right now they are urging people into the storm s path to make the final presentations and of course to get out before it is too late. let s start with cnn s meteorologist chad myers tracking this for us. what is the latest. it does look like the 11:00 advisory has brought this storm a little bit farther to the south. we re still waiting for what we call the discussion. all of the words that they use to describe what their reason was, what the meaning is, where this is going from here. s
coast. here is what we know right now. you re looking live at key west, florida where rough surf from ian has churned up. soon the national hurricane center will provide an update on ian s strength and path. it seems to be changing. right now projected to hit florida as at least a category three storm. major airports are closing. tampa international will suspend operations in about an hour. orlando will be doing the same tomorrow. the city of tampa will be issuing a curfew soon when winds hit 40 miles an hour. welcome, everybody. i m neil cavuto. they are battening down the hatches as they say and preparing for the worst hoping it won t be that bad. right now this storm, well, it looks very bad. doesn t max gordon know it. he s in st. pete with more. max? neil, mandatory evacuations are underway in pinellas county. we re talking about zones a, b and c and for folks in mobile homes. all of those people need to get out as soon as they can. right now we re standing in evacuati