the scope of hurricane ian s devastation is becoming clearer for days after the category four storm slammed into the coast of southwest florida, with record-breaking strength. 85 people are dead, 81 in florida, and four in north carolina. the death toll rises each time rescue crews reached new areas. and searches are going on around the clock. but some people are still stranded and waiting for help, like these residents of sanibel island. there has been no communication, nobody official has come on to the island to tell us what is going on. we don t have places to go, we have no cars to get their. lack of food, medicine, clean water, and electricity. these are all on the list of tops concerns. more than 1 million people are still without power across four states. now, president biden says he and the first lady will travel tomorrow to puerto rico, which is still reeling from hurricane fiona, and tour damage in florida on wednesday. our hearts, to state the obvious, it
without power and at least 10 confirmed dead. todd: adam klotz tracking the storm, but we begin with doug luzader as ian approaches, doug, what are you experiencing now? doug: things are whipping up now, progressing, the wind is getting more intense and bands of rain are moving through, there are signs ian is getting closer. we thought ian was going to hit as a tropical storm and now it will be a category one hurricane, either way, you get a feeling in south carolina that most people are staying put. there is not a feeling of panic here, but there is concern about the flooding they will run into here. not so much about the wind, but the flooding. that tidal surge, storm surge, four to seven feet in the low country, four to seven feet doesn t just go up, it goes in, they are so close to sea level. we have not seen a mass exodus of people here, no real panic, but people are concerned about flooding because they deal with it so often. we saw image in the local newspaper of c
ashore yesterday afternoon, we were knew it was one of the strongest storms to hit the united states. day tligt day brought harrowing evidence of the destruction a storm like that brings. this is ft. myers beach, one of the barrier u lands that ian slammed into as a category five storm. before the hurricane, it was a popular beach defendant naugs destination. much of it is leveled. one local resident told the local paper, ft. myers beach is gone. this is the causeway leading to sanibel island to the west of for the murz beach. it s the only road to that island. it impassable. all the bridges to pine island also failed. this evening nbc nightly news anchor spoke with the mayor of sanibel for her concern about the people that didn t evacuate before the storm and maybe trapped there. we have significant numbers of people contact us, people they knew that were on the island. we ve been logging those meticulously and getting those out to our first responders. we had about 200
President biden visits stormdamaged parts of florida. That states governor was not by the president s side. Bearing down on taiwan, a powerful typhoon could be the first to make landfall there in four years. And war isnt keeping these kids from going Back To School. Students in ukraine face another year of books and Bomb Shelters. We begin this hour with Extreme Weather and those enduring the effects of what is more and more becoming inescapable events. In the wake of hurricane idalia, President Biden visited florida Saturday Viewing Damage by air and on the ground and met with those impacted by the storm. At the same time, a massive typhoon, equivalent of the category 3 hurricane, is barreling toward taiwan at this hour. Its set to be the first typhoon to make landfall there in four years. At the same time in the state of nevada, Extreme Weather has stranded participants at the popular annual event called The Burning Man Festival. Left it looking like a mudcovered dystopian nightmare.
Been destroyed. there are five breaches within that bridge, so it makes it impassable. so we encourage people to evacuate as quickly as they can to protect their own health and welfare. and when they are evacuated, where do they go? we are showing folks, as you are speaking, images of the island, and as people can see, there is nothing there in some instances. buildings are empty, windows are blown out. so we are people going? the city of sanibel has provided boat shuttle service between sanibel and the mainland. and there are emergency medical technicians through the emergency operation center in lee county. they have people standing by to assist people, and there are buses that will take them to one of the larger shelters in the area. there is medical attention, food, water, air conditioning that they have been without for days now. and then it s also a place where they can be reunited with family members and friends.