hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states. and around the. world i m john. vause with the cnn center in atlanta. almost nine hours now since hurricane eta made landfall in southwest florida. and this monster storm continues to cause widespread flooding. and storm surges in 12 feet high in places. tonight, statewide. like trustees outed more than 2 million homes and businesses, and the power grid so badly damaged parts there are concerns it may need to be rebuilt. ian arrived at the state went just shy of a category five. it s since been downgraded to a category 1, but still remains very dangerous. authorities warning the worst may yet be to come. ian is now slowly moving into central florida, with winds around 90 miles or 145 kilometers per hour. time lapse video shows water levels rising on the streets of fort myers, south of where it made landfall. the national hurricane center said the storm surge on florida s west coast has likely peaked, and is now startin
in the united states and all around the world. i m john vause at the cnn center in atlanta. i knelt when i am in florida where hurricane ian bringing record storm surges, flash flooding in an unknown amount of destruction. it made landfall with winds just under category five, now it s a category one slowly moving into central florida with winds around 145 kilometers an hour. millions of homes and businesses have been left in the dark. some so badly damaged by ian that there is concerns that they may not be able to be rebuilt. the governor of florida warns about the dangers that lie ahead. overwhelmingly it s been that surge the biggest issue and the flooding that as resulted of that in some areas we think it s hit 12 feet. this is been a big storm and it s done a lot of damage as it is. it s gonna continue to move through the state of florida. you are gonna see hurricane-force winds in places in central florida perhaps. it s clearly a very strong tropical storm. a storm w
hello. live in atlanta, 3:00 a.m. in florida. we continue to follow the path of hurricane ian. now, weaker, but still a major worry. that hurricane has finally been downgraded to a category-1 storm, but it s still moving menacingly right above the state of florida and heading northeast winds, approximately 75 miles or 125 kilometers per hour, still lashing large sections of the state.just 12 hours after it crashed in southwest florida as an almost category-5 hurricane. as you can imagine, there have been power outages with more than 2 million homes and businesses in the dark. that s about 20% of customers throughout the state the mayor of fort myers, meantime, saying, 96% of his entire city has lapsed with electricity. meanwhile, charlotte county, florida, telling cnn, rescuers can only do so much during the height of the storm. unfortunately, our dispatch continues to receive calls from the 911 center, and just like every other county, the emergency response, they get up a
have our fox news chief meteorologist rick reichmuth with us. rick this has been rough so far. really has. three things, the storm surge that broke records in fort myers and naples as well by a lot by the way, three feet higher than we had ever seen from any kind of storm surge in the past. that obviously causing all that flooding right along the immediate coast. then we have the winds, actual verified winds of 140 miles an hour in cape corral. a lot of this wind was really prolonged because it s such a slow-moving storm and then you have the rainfall. because it s so slow we get rainfall that just continues to batter the state and we ll see big time inland flooding concerns. this made land fall in the exact same space that hurricane charlie came on shore in 2004 which is amazing to have two massive hurricanes or two strong hurricanes like this come on shore in the exact same spot, hard to imagine, because it came on so strong, it s still a category 2 hurricane after having
without power now. the winds are extremely high. and the water is rising. you can see forces of trees just clinging to i just don t know what they are they been flying through the streets. it s a center block wall that was the entire width of this area came down. no word on the back and now, and the great eye wall is coming through. we ve had some of the strongest winds here so far. good morning, i m philip mena. good to be with you at this hour, i m frances rivera. it s 3 am in the east, midnight out west. thank you for joining us for a special edition of early today as we track the devastating path of hurricane ian. here s what we know at this hour. the strong wind of even already impacting daytona beach along the western coach, as it slowly moves towards orlando. the storm has been downgraded to a category 1, but it still packing a powerful punch. ian made landfall in south must florida, in the fort myers area, where the storm surge submerged buildings. it