publicly. so what does this mean for the minority leader s future? and idalia s destruction. we re going to take you to some of the hardest hit areas in florida as we check in with a woman who told us on tuesday she was not going to evacuate. so what happened? let s go out front. good evening, thanks for joining us. i m erica hill in for erin burnett. out front tonight, not guilty. former president trump entering that plea in georgia today for all 13 counts he s facing there and opting not to appear in court for his arraignment. this marks a shift for trump. for almost five months now he has seized on previous court appearances and last week s arist in atlanta to galvanize supporters and of course raise money. tonight we re learning the judge in georgia will allow all arraignments next week to be shown live on camera. and that s a big deal because keep in mind trump s federal cases in florida and d.c., they don t allow cameras. so could that have been a factor in his deci
poppy is off this week. sara sidner is with us after a brief tour in florida to cover the hurricane yesterday. we are going to be covering that again today. neighborhoods have been changed forever by hurricane idalia. it is now a tropical storm off the carolina shores. but officials are already assessing the damage in florida and georgia. we will be talking with fema administrator about the latest on the ground in a moment. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell freezes up in front of reporters again. it is the second time in disturbing scene played out this summer. new reporting now about what mcconnell s been doing behind the scenes. and the department of health and human services is recommending that the d.e.a. significantly ease restrictions on marijuana. it is currently a schedule 1 drug the same as lsd and heroin. it wouldn t legalize marijuana federally, could it be a step in that direction? we will explore. this hour of cnn this morning starts right now. we ar
take a look. this is actually what it looked like right where i m standing earlier today, as the worst of the wind hit. you can see the awning, there it is. and that is it tipping over. here in perry, it was a wind and a rain storm. along the gulf coast, though, it was all about the storm surge. a surge not seen in a lifetime. this is alexis de leone and, yes, where she was in the hometown, she had recently returned to, swimming down the street was how she ended up getting around. alexis will join us shortly. we are also going to speak to a resident of another hurricane hit area, the barrier island of cedar key. a man who told us last night, he was saying in part to help any neighbors who were hunkering down. and in a moment, the latest on where idalia is right now, where it s going, and who is at risk. first, though, the scope of it all so far from our randi kaye. keaton beach, florida, in the bull s-eye of idalia. just look at what is left of this home in keaton beach.
serious threats of flash flooding. idalia is now a category 1 storm, but it made landfall as an intense category 3 storm earlier today. the area of florida s big bend took the biggest hit, big bend is the part of florida where the panhandle meets the west coast of the peninsula of florida. this was the town of steam hatchy. so much standing water in the streets that only the roofs of these homes and businesses were visible. up the road near the town of perry, florida, the brutal winds toppled this gas station awnings. the winds gusted to 85 miles per hour earlier today. and look at this storm damage in keaton beach, also in the big bend area, the eye of idalia came ashore shortly before 8:00 this morning. this home has been ripped apart. the entire roof in front of the structure are gone. debris scattered all across the yard. the city of st. petersburg shared this video with us saying it rescued more than 75 people so far. more searches are still under way. the national weath
about this hurricane that as you can see is just barrelling towards the west coast of florida. one of the things that was really interesting there that the governor is warning about is the potential for as this storm is heading there up into kind of that big bend area, that catcher s mitt we ve heard it referred to, there is a potential for this storm to make a little bit of a left turn and head more towards tallahassee. his point there is that don t think that if you are there in the panhandle, you are there in northern florida that you are out of trouble. he s saying everyone should be prepared in case this storm does make a turn. and he s telling people, look, you should be prepared to lose power. you need to get out of the way of storm surge. you don t have to go far, but far enough away to get out of the storm surge. 10 to 15 feet in some areas. we re talking about a lot of water and that water can be deadly. we have our cnn team tracking every angle of the storm. i want