state of emergency tonight, it comes as florida is dealing with catastrophic damage from in, at least 17 people dead tonight. there are fears that that number will go up. cnn s chief climate correspondent is bill weir, and he joins me now. bill, hello once again to you. you say this is some of the worst damage you ve ever seen in your career. covering these disasters. tell us what you saw? well, by that i mean, don, there are certain sort of moments and scenes in storms that are just burned into your brain, katrina for a lot of the reasons that we all know. that was such a man made disaster in so many ways, same with maria in puerto rico. you think about those comedians. michael which took apart the panhandle. but i will always remember, i will equate even with what i saw today in st. james city. that s on pine island. and this is a tight little community, a lot of manufactured homes, mobile homes, people whose vote might be worth more than their home, and all of it complet
this is don lemon tonight, you re watching our coverage of in, making its way up the florida peninsula. we have all the news coverage this evening, it is dumping rain on this entire area. lots of water. but also the wind, pushing the wind all across the state of florida. our crews are out in the field, we re covering it all for you. we ve got bill weir, bill is joining us from punta gorda florida, also brian todd is in is in derek van damme is in breaking tin for us. i want to other meteorologist, our expert, mr. tom seders in the weather center. tom, i am getting so much rain, lots of rain that have been dumped on me for the last hour. and it seemed to come in on cue, we re watching the radar, the rain came right in. it s just sitting on top of us, not going anywhere. in fact that northern periphery of the storm system in the last couple of model runs in the last couple of days really has been showing that that northern periphery is where we re gonna have that heavy rain
of the state. buffalo and other cities are struggling to dig out of 43 inches of snow and freezing temperatures and power outages. i ll talk with the buffalo police commissioner this hour. many americans are still feeling the effects of the arctic blast, including millions of air travelers. southwest airlines experiencing massive disruptions, with more than 65% of its flights canceled just today, adding to the holiday travel chaos. also tonight, vladimir putin claims he s ready to negotiate a solution to the ukraine war, but a key ukrainian official says the russian president needs to get back to reality, as moscow continues to slaughter innocent civilians. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin this hour with the deadly weather emergency in western new york. governor kathy hochul is calling it, and i m quoting her, the blizzard of the century and she is warning it is far from over.
call from the white house to a rioter on january 6th. the rioter s identity now revealed. the house select committee is preparing to hold what is likely to be its final investigative hearing. and dissent and chaos are spreading in russia. thousands have been detained amid protests against the war in ukraine as huge lines of cars jammed the borders, packed with russians desperate to escape vladimir putin s new military draft. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i m alex marquardt here in the situation room . we begin coverage tonight with hurricane ian barreling toward florida, amid urgent warnings and evacuations. let s get straight to meteorologist tom seder standing by in the cnn weather center with a new forecast from the national hurricane center. tom, what is that new forecast saying about ian? the 5:00 p.m. advisory from the national hurricane center, we re seeing an increase in the winds because the p
these brothers and sisters, aged 2 to 8, dead, family members say they were ripped from their parents arms. witnesses say the waters were so powerful that in just seconds they swept away homes that had been standing for generations. cnn just obtained new video from one flood victim who says his family is trapped and cannot get out of that neighborhood. the whole road is blocked off. survivors are pleading for some help after losing every tangible thing. it is unbelievable. i took a chance to go up in the hollers. there s no internet or power. in a lot of places they say we won t have water for months. people are bringing stuff in, but as fast as they bring it in, it goes out. we need help more than anything. i don t care if it s a pair of fruit of the looms. babies need diapers, formula. we need everything that s possible to get here. cnn s evan mcmorris is there. are the rescues still happening right now? reporter: yes, victor, they are. i will say in perry county