Very much for being here. Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks to All Of You for joining us. Im kasie hunt. Dont go anywhere cnn new central starts right now all right. The breaking News Water rescues underway across several states right now in Life And Death situation, after Hurricane Helene made landfall as the strongest hurricane on record to hit floridas big ben. Im John Berman in tallahassee, florida this morning where its mostly just messy this city did not see the worst of it the Storm Made Landfall near harry about an hour from now as a category four storm with 140 mile per hour winds, it is now a tropical storm as it moves over georgia this is affecting so many states in as everyone wakes up this morning, were only beginning to get a sense of the impact this morning. First, responders they are seeing scenes like this. This was south pasadena, florida, flooded home on fire Dumpsters Gloating through the floodwaters and steen steinhatchee, florida A House just voted away on the Way
That region. This was disrupted by the storm. Jeff flock first with whats going on in lake charles, louisiana, i saw the wind whipping around a little earlier today, jeff and that looked pretty strong. That looked very strong. Reporter pardon maya experience but ive been in a hurricane and youre absolutely right and how strong . Well, look what its done. I mean, power lines down, trees everywhere. Look at this tree here. Im always fascinated by up close and personal with these things. Thats the definition there, of a tree snapped like a match stick. 150mile an hour winds can you see what it did through that house . Right down through the middle of the house and this is a story in a lot of places. Everything, you know, trees everywhere down, power lines down. They are going to be forever trying to get the power back restored here, and i think these are one off. Every house that i have seen, i said this two hours ago and ive been looking at houses since then, and ever since then, ive not
strong winds and heavy rain are battering the orlando area as the storm moves its way toward the atlantic ocean. the storm created catastrophic flooding that left entire communities under several feet of water and sent cars and debris floating down streets. take a look at these images. the water was just relentless. crews are still carrying out emergency rescues on land, air and sea. in bonita springs, a group of good samaritans rescued an elderly man stranded in his car in surging flood waters, dragging him through waist-high water to safety. ian s strong winds brought down trees, power lines, knocked out power to more than two and a half million homes and businesses. the winds also literally ripped off roofs from a number of homes, including this mobile home. a short time ago, governor ron desantis call canned the impact historic ask also addressed comments from the lee county sheriff that there may be hundreds of fatalities, something that s not been confirmed. we have h
currently, they will work 24/7, until we get the lights back on again, as the governor said, not our first rodeo, but every storm is also different and always face different challenges. and i appreciate all of the support from the state, governor, thank you, and from local law enforcement as well, the national guard, and this is a team sport, and a team effort, and we re going to all work together until we get florida back up on our feet, and where we all want to be. thank you. and when fpl and the other companies have crews in, the extent to which that infrastructure has remained is critical, because you know, it is a lot easier for them to reconnect an existing system than have to rebuild it, so to see some of that thats was able to withstand a hurricane, it is also just a testament, i mean some of these folks, put money into the resiliency of the infrastructure. and this is like the ultimate test. when you ve got a hurricane that is a massive hurricane coming in at 155 m
gulf coast more than five people rescued in charlotte and lee county so far. if you need to be evacuated step out of your front door. the fort meyers fire chief said they conducted 200 water rescues overnight. lee county was the hardest hit. this is a home on fire after the storm. fire crews as you can imagine unable to reach it. this is a neighborhood completely inundated as you can see floodwaters have yet to receive. new video from the lee county sheriff s office confirming the work worse. whole towns have been completely level and mayors giving details about their town out the day. i came here in the mid-70s and was on the police department for 25 years and saw a lot of storms. this is by far the worst storm i have ever witnessed. debris is everywhere. my yard looks like a war zone. as of this hour there is some places that are impossible to reach by road. this is the only bridge destroyed in multiple spots as a result of hurricane ian. this is fort meyers bea