cuba saw significant flooding and, is just now getting power back in some areas after nearly the entire island was plunged into darkness. now this morning, is ethan s world toward tampa, residents woke up to this eerie sight. nearly all the water had receded out of tampa bay. the storm pulled all the water from the shore as it s winds whipped around, counterclockwise, before shoving it back towards land hours later. around the same time, the natural hurricane center increased their predictions for how much storm surge ian will bring. the revised estimates stand 12 to 18 feet along the coast, from inglewood to benin a beach. you can see here in the purple section on this map. you have seen waters rise to record-breaking levels throughout the day. that s naples. naples, florida, the water road six feet above the normal high tide, nearly submerging cars. in fort myers beach the storm surge has driven the water 8 to 20 feet, flooding homes, leaving some residents trapped. one fam
and water is rising. were you looking at the screen? just some of the scenes as hurricane ian made a devastating land fall in southwestern florida. the category 4 storm left a large path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we ll have a live report for you. rescue crews are busy trying to get to people who decided to ride out the storm and were then stranded by rising floodwaters. and we re still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida at this hour. welcome to way too early on this thursday, september 29th. thank for starting your day with us. it made land fall as a category storm. there is widespread flooding and damage as the powerful storm batters the state with torrential rain and wind. more than two million people are without power across florida. in naples, authorities said that more than half of the streets were not passable. this video released by the naples fire department shows a power line bursting into flames as the hurrican
category 4 storm leaving a huge path of destruction and millions in the dark this morning. we ll have a live report in just a moment. meanwhile, rescue crews have been busy trying to get people who decided to ride out the storm to try and save them. they re stranded now by rising flood waters and we re still tracking ian as it slowly makes its way across florida. at this hour, it still has more to go. good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it s thursday, september 29th. joe is off this morning. along with willie and me, we have the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. without power this morning, first light this morning will begin to show the damage in florida. that s right. that s when we re going to start to see the story of what happened last night, what happened overnight. tropical storm now ian downgraded from a category 1 hurricane. in just the last hour, but still wreaking havoc across florida as it made landfall as a
hour. the category 4 storm is currently barreling across southwest florida with winds up to 150 miles per hour. more than 1.5 million people in the state are currently without power, and that number is growing. but the most imminent and life-threatening concern is the storm surge. some areas seeing 12 to 18 feet. to give you an idea of just how severe that is, a meteorologist for the national hurricane center says no one alive has seen 12 feet of storm surge in that area, and many areas could take years to recover. just take a look at this surge today. the dangers are a reality for many who chose to hunker down and wait out the storm despite the evacuation orders. take a look at what family told nbc affiliate wbbh as their house flooded. so this is ft. myers beach on cutlass drive. it s four of us. four of us? on cutlass drive. and you re on the second floor already? yeah. six of us in here. do you have do you have a roof? 15 feet of water now. there s 15 fe
millions of floridians in this storm s path. those who have not evacuated are urged to shelter in place immediately. almost 800,000 people are already without power. that s according to florida utilities. the director of fema has warned that recovery from hurricane ian will be a very long road. that agency has already begun to pour resources into the state. in an event earlier today, president joe biden said he spoke with florida governor ron desantis and added he already requested aid saying, quote, the federal government is ready to help in every single way possible. ali velshi who has been doing the heroic job of bringing the story to all of us from naples, florida, is our first guest. ali, tell me what you re seeing. i ve been watching all day long. please tell me how you re staying safe. reporter: we always appreciate that. what did we just lose there, peter? something has come off the building that we re in. in fact, we re seeing a lot of that. moments ago we saw a fr