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hurricane-force winds already recorded offshore from charleston. the national weather center warns storm surge is expected there. people are warned to take this storm seriously especially after what was seen and happened from ian in florida. more striking images are emerging as well. capturing the level of devastation especially where the storm came on shore in southwest florida. you re looking at have i had from sanibel island showing the community torn apart, completely severed from the mainland. people stranded without water and power. cleanup efforts have begun in some areas, including fort myers beach. residents still reeling from all of this destruction. i mean, there s just stuff going everywhere. i ve lived here my whole life, it s unreal. we thought possibly we were one of the lucky ones. unfortunately it s really too sad for me to talk about. thank you, guys. some areas, high floodwaters are still a major concern, not yesterday receded. governor ron ....
and as you would expect, time is running out to get to them. there are also questions about what officials should have done before the storm, and regrets from those who stayed. we were just about ready to take her out. and you so don t want to see this. you re right. you re right. three days. three days. the water came up to me on here. and when it got to there, the way they were saying on the news, i thought it was going to eventually go over our heads. i called my daughters and said goodbye. it was very traumatic. i actually, i went into the water and saved three people, and i lost one friend, i couldn t save her, she got washed away. the devastation is unbelievable. you know, i was a paramedic fireman for 25 years, and it s just devastating. the confirmed death toll is 88. state medical examiners say many of ian s victims were older than the age of 60. bodies in flooded cars and inside destroyed homes. the president will see all of this with his own eye ....
the interstates are, the major highways, state highways are shut down. we keep on trying different routes. and we come to the end of the road where it s flooded and then we see rescues. we see the same kind of scenes unfolding in these small towns in east texas that we saw unfolding in houston. and there are real fears that the kind of flooding they re talking about in beaumont is going to be even worse than what we saw in houston. and there is a perilous situation unfolding in port arthur, which is just slightly east of bomon. there is a city center there that they re using as a shelter for hundreds of people. that civic center is filling up with water. officials have to figure out not only how to get those people out of there, but where they re going to go. these roads are impassable. they are limited. and to give you also a frame of reference, we had a crew of ours that was staying in a hotel in beaumont. they had our satellite truck. that crew is now surrounded by w ....
is in the hard hit city of panama city. matt bradley is in the state s capitol in tallahassee. let me start with you, kerry. first of all, what are we seeing in panama city right now? reporter: let me just sort of paint the picture. you see this boat turned up on its edge, and you can see in the background an entire debris field. what i m going to do is take you out here to really show the power of this hurricane, and i suspect likely, although this is yet to be confirmed, a tornado. let me step back here and just sort of look up at this boat warehouse here that was completely ripped and torn apart. now, if you come with me, let s go down, and you can actually peek inside to get an idea of, there was no storm surge here. this was all wind damage. remember, we have gusts clocked a the t at top speed of 155 miles an hour. some of the boats still on the rack, the twists and turns, the roof here that is off. then as we go even further down, and we re going to walk out and ....