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
Threatening floating. overwhelmingly, that surge has been the biggest issue, and the flooding. reporter: the monstrous trumm, making landfall with winds of 150-miles-per-hour. i ve been here since the mid- 70s. this is by far the worst storm i have ever seen. i can tell you, i m looking at this, downtown, they re offloaded, windows blown out. reporter: once the worst of the storm had, people in fort myers, already with mass floating. the storm surge is very significant. we re seeing cars and boats down the street. reporter: hurricane-force winds, bringing down power lines. the head of the storm, long lines on interstates, as residents scramble to evacuate.some, choosing to stay behind and wait it out. we re 10 1/2 feet above sea level, and the water comes into our house now. reporter: governor, ron
And tempo was spared, not the worst, but what does tampa look like at this hour? reporter: that s right. the worst of the storm was expected to hit this area of tampa, where we are right now, but the reality is that, over the last few hours, the situation here has been very lenient, and very windy. things are slowing up a bit right now.the worst of hurricane ian happened about 90 miles to the south you were describing the conditions there, fort myers, 90 miles away from here.fort meyers, the area of naples. releasing historic flooding, massive destruction, as hurricane ian rolled into its path. hurricane ian, slamming the florida gulf coast with near category-5 strength, with life-
Through the middle of the storm. as we just said, ian has been downgraded to a category-1, but make no mistakes. this storm is still very dangerous, moving slowly through the state, with a huge amount of rain. also, blowing out the electrical grids across the state. you will want to see this. cnn meteorologist, jared van zandt, breaking it down for us. reporter: we re going close to 10 hours of tropical storm- force winds. hurricane ian has rewritten the history books here, across southwestern florida peninsula, as well the strongest storms to reach this shoreline. we are part of an early 2 million customers here that have been plunged into darkness. that s one of my greatest concerns for people, as this storm slowly marches across the state. the powerful winds and extremely heavy rains and dangerous conditions, that people will endure this weather, this onslaught, in the
Course, people evacuating, trying to stay safe. they are likely going to try to head back to their homes throughout the day today. what will they find, in terms of damage? in tampa, they still said, a lot of rain and heavy winds. reporter: yeah. that is the concern. you know, people have a hard time leaving the property behind, knowing that a storm is coming, but that s what people were told to do for their safety. here, in the county understanding, we know several thousand people about 7500 of them evacuated the local shelter. but that, of course, is only a fraction of the population that has been affected by hurricane ian. we have heard, over the last several hours, reports of people being trapped in their homes, crews not able to get to them, because conditions are so treacherous right now. and so, as i said, when day breaks, that s when we re going