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strength and it s taking aim at the carolinas, where people now are bracing for the worst. i m john berman in ft. myers, florida. the storm now barreling towards south carolina with 85-mile-per-hour winds. it is expected to make its third landfall in the coming hours near myrtle beach. after seeing the damage in florida, the governor of south carolina says, we know what s coming. so this storm might be the largest natural disaster in florida s history. the destruction here in ft. myers, i m standing in the middle of it, it is hard to comprehend. ft. myers beach, i had a chance to fly over it in a helicopter, much of it flattened. one official there describes the damage as, there s really nothing to come back to. at least 19 people have died from this storm. power is out this morning across the state. there have been hundreds of rescues. the coast guard has been out in force, airlifting people from flooded homes and neighborhoods. sanibel island hit very hard. the storm ....
somehow. so, anyway, they are getting, this is just south of myrtle beach, down there by garden city, surfside beach on the southern part of the grand strand, just south of the grand strand on down toward georgetown. georgetown in this area here, and then i want to make a note of this spot right here, this is mcclellanville, and behind it is march. it was notorious near hugo, they had a high school that flooded and they had to hang from the rafters and on top of tables and stages to save themselves. looks like right now the center of this broad circulation is going to come ashort, kind of a little face i drew there, isn t it, come ashore somewhere near mcclellanville, right about there, that puts the worst of the water to the north with the winds like this. the worst of the water into the georgetown area, and just north of georgetown is the famous place, pawleys island, and the pier, a famous attraction there on the island, i ve seen the images of that now of the end of ....
parts of the state on a slow, this is really an issue, it s churning on the destructive crawl north. orlando now in the crosshairs of this historic storm that s produced record rainfall and storm surge. power outages are a major problem with more than 2 million customers in the dark across florida. water is just everywhere in many communities. in port charlotte, the storm blew the roof off of a hospital and it flooded the intensive care unit. ahead, we re going to speak to a doctor there, how they managed to protect patients and what the conditions now. fort myers has experienced some of the worst flooding in the storm. torrents of water just rushing into the streets trapping people in their homes. same for naples where officials say half of the streets aren t even passable because high water has inundated them. although it s weakened, there is concern about ian regaining strength and threatening the southeast, georgia, the carolinas, and all declaring emergencies in ad ....
this storm will only continue to intensify. if you want to leave, as the governor has said, now is your last chance. we cannot send first responders into harm s way because you decided not to leave. 155 mile per hour winds. that is what hurricane ian is now producing as it bears down on florida s coast. i m john berman live in tampa this morning. brianna keilar is in washington. this is cnn s special live coverage of a storm that is getting more powerful by the minute. the national hurricane center just reported it had a plane flying through the center of this storm measuring sustained winds, sustained of 155 miles per hour. that is just 2 miles per hour short of a category 5 storm and it could still strengthen before it makes impact over the next few hours. expected to make landfall, direct landfall southwest of where i am south of where i am near the fort myers area. the wind speed just one of the major concerns here. the storm surge, which the wind speed only exa ....
air we are looking at key west. this is a live look you the entire state is bracing for potentially catastrophic the say s response 90 minutes from now. pete: we have live fox team coverage janice dean standing by with the latest storm track. nicole valdez live in florida. we start with multi media journalist robert ray live in fort myers. robert? good morning to you here in fort myers beach. a key inlet to the gulf of mexico and, guys, the storm is starting to come in. we are seeing the deterioration of this island. take a look. if rick can look up here into the palm trees and you see they are starting to sway. we get these heavy rain bands that come in from time to time. i have to say the big issue here is the storm surge. where i m standing right now here later this morning, expected potentially 8 to 12 feet of storm surge. we need to get out of here at some point. and we are monitoring that. the gulf of mexico just a football field away. we re monitoring those w ....