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pushing heavy rain and wind into cities that are vulnerable with flooding. after the path wiped out florida s west coast leaving parts of the state swamped, draining vital resources, emergency rooms forced to turn away patients, in the state s costliest hurricane on record. plus, putin makes his land grab official, the biggest annexation and absorb in europe, as protesters here leave their mark vandalizing the russian consulate. welcome to the lead, i m jake tapper, hurricane ian making his third landfall in south carolina after previously hitting florida and cuba earlier this week. residents of south carolina are looking southward no doubt at what happened in florida with dread. in the sunshine state, clean up beginning. ian decimated parts of fort myers beach, winds whipping hotels, restaurants, it s a similar scene on sanibel island, homes, hotels, docks, destroyed, littering the beaches with debris. listen to how president biden described the destruction earlier ....
coverage of hurricane ian. still very much a hurricane. still extremely dangerous bearing down on orlando this mor morning at this moment. we will go there. there are so many different stories to this devastating storm. one of the most powerful ever to hit florida with winds of 140 miles per hour on landfall. at this point, 20 inches of rain have been measured in so many different locations including here in tampa. you can see some of the limited damages even here in tampa. that appears to be roofing or some kind of siding just torn off of the building. that s just part of the story. the real story is south of here, venice, port charlotte. fort myers. i m hearing a helicopter above me. which is a good sign. maybe they re leaving from here to go help people in need further south and there is so much need. enormous storm surge. 12 feet in some places. just swamped. familiar cities, naples, fort myers. you can see rivers just floating down the middle of the street. as i sa ....
yeah, that s right, look, as you mentioned it s weakened now to a tropical storm, but weakened or not, ian is still one for the record books cutting this brutal path across florida s west coast. as much as 20 inches of rain fell in some areas. this morning, there s 14 million people under flood alerts. more than 2 million homes and businesses are without power across florida. and that intense flooding that berman mentioned there in places like fort myers and naples, here you re seeing pictures of those areas, it s leaving people who decided to ride out the storm just trapped in their homes. berman. yeah, the sun will come up soon. cnn has live team coverage up and down the coast. up into orlando, where the storm has yet to hit. our first report is from our randi kaye in punta gorda, florida, rand di, i am so happy to see you well this morning. thank you, john. good to see you as well. we got up early, we re trying to make our way to fort myers, which we know was s ....
with devastating winds, storm surge and flooding. our correspondents are in the heart of some parts of florida right now. we re tracking ian in the weather center as we bring you live special coverage of this hurricane disaster. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. this is cnn breaking news. this hour ian s brutal assault is still very much underway. hurricane force winds. brian todd is on the scene for us in naples, florida. brian, we re just beginning to understand the scope of the damage from ian. reporter: absolutely, wolf. people in this town just beginning to come to grips with this devastation. we are on a gulf shore boulevard here in naples, within 150 feet of the beach. a 12 foot storm surge pushed the water up underneath these apartments. now people are tossing their biggest positions on to the street like this. debris hazards are all over the place. and this comes as ....
Winds for the last hour or so. But this is the first of some of the rain bands that we have just started to get. We may lose actually our signal. But well just keep on going as long as we can. I want to go to Patrick Oppmann who is stand big in cuba. Patrick, what is the situation there . Well, along the northern coast here in florida, weve been feeling rain bands as well as squalls coming in. It has been knocking out the power here for the last several hours. We only have lights up because we have a generator. No one else in this small town along the cuban coast where we are appears to have one. All the tourists in this area have been evacuated. The cuban government says it has evacuated tens of thousands of people along these coastal areas. I was speaking to someone who is in the next town over, and they are feeling the conditions much more because they are to the east of us. They say theyre getting absolutely hammered by the s ....