with over 6.2 million people under a hurricane warning here. sandbags lining the charleston streets, the governor says he knows what is coming. and now, zooming out, still trying to comprehend the tol tolerating pain, and the death toll. and now, sanibel island is only reachable by boat, and city after city in florida decimated by hurricane ian. and in fort myers, decimated by heaps of concrete and debris and the people trying to pick up their lives and send help. we lost everything last night, everything. the family is okay, and the dogs are okay, and the parents are okay, and we have lost everything, and we have been in the house since 1987, and everything is gone, pictures, memories, everything. and now, going to charleston where the community is waiting, and we have miguel marcus there, and the high tide just as the hurricane is set to come ashore, and what are you seeing? yeah, it is pretty miserable right now, and this is the worst that we have seen. the winds are
in fort myers beach, it is even hard to bike through the destruction. the messages from residents there, if you can send help, we need it. sanibel and cap teva islands cut off from the main land, only accessible by boat or air after, as you know, ian destroyed this major bridge that connects them to the main land. many of the homes there are in pieces or completely washed away. the coast guard is now going door to door, still trying to rescue people. make sure you have a bag for your clothes, with i.d., cell phones, wallets. emergency officials will run barges to sanibel island to help with cleanup and recovery efforts there. but let s begin in south carolina, cnn s nick valencia is in myrtle beach. tell us what is happening around you right now. reporter: it is a little hard to hear because the wind is such a major factor, just in the last few minutes these gusts of wind have crept up to about 40 to 50 miles per hour. and, you know, the sustained wind is almost as bad. f
zone, particularly in the southwest florida counties, your time to evacuate is coming to an end. you need to evacuate now. a life threatening category 4 storm headed right towards florida. i m john berman live in tampa this morning. brianna keilar is in washington and that is the news from overnight. hurricane ian strength jentd to a category 4 storm with sustained winds of 140 miles per hour. wind gusts of 165 miles per hour. the storm forecast has adjusted somewhat south of where i am in tampa headed right towards the fort myers area in florida about 100 miles south of here, but the threat to florida is enormous. more than 2 1/2 million people under some sort of evacuation order. yes, the wind speed is a serious threat now, a category 4 storm. storm surge where i am in tampa, they could see storm surge of 6 feet which would put the water pretty much right where i m stand going it hit the maximum levels down towards where the storm is expected to make landfall. they could
millions of floridians in this storm s path. those who have not evacuated are urged to shelter in place immediately. almost 800,000 people are already without power. that s according to florida utilities. the director of fema has warned that recovery from hurricane ian will be a very long road. that agency has already begun to pour resources into the state. in an event earlier today, president joe biden said he spoke with florida governor ron desantis and added he already requested aid saying, quote, the federal government is ready to help in every single way possible. ali velshi who has been doing the heroic job of bringing the story to all of us from naples, florida, is our first guest. ali, tell me what you re seeing. i ve been watching all day long. please tell me how you re staying safe. reporter: we always appreciate that. what did we just lose there, peter? something has come off the building that we re in. in fact, we re seeing a lot of that. moments ago we saw a fr
else. you were going to a hotel, i don t have the money to go to a hotel, this was the best bet. [indiscernible] carley: tampa international airport will shut down and suspend flights beginning at 5 p.m. eastern time in preparation for the monster storm. todd: janice dean is tracking the storm. janice: 125 miles per hour and just made landfall across the western portion of cuba and has warm water ahead. we are expecting this to become category four storm, making winds upward of 125 miles per hour, we are almost there. the storm will affect this storm going over land and losing its water source, once it gets to gulf of mexico with temperatures close to 90 degrees, we ll see explosive development over next 24 hours 6789 we have 125 mile per hour sustained winds, pressure is dropping. talk about a strengthening storm, when we see the pressure dropping that means it is getting stronger issue but the winds get bumped up. we re dealing with a category three storm, almost ca