of biblical proportions. ian is a cat 4 storm bringing 140 mile-per-hour winds and leaving a wake of destruction in its path. the national hurricane center is warning of catastrophic window damage with an unsuburb viable storm surge of up to 18 feet. it is expected to dump 2 feet of rain across the state bringing unprecedented flooding and destruction. entire neighborhoods are now undersea as water levels continue to rise. homes are floating down the middle of the street and people are swimming in their living rooms. by the way authorities say it s a very bad idea. who knows what s in that water. and first responders rescue services can t escape the flooding either. this fire department in naples is completely under water. leaving the city s residents on their own. and things are even worse in the air where hurricane hunters are flying into the heart of the storm. watch. oh [bleep] jesse: more than 2 million people in the state were told to evacuate, with thousands more h
incredible images here that we are still seeing. this shore came on shore now started to come on shore about 8 hours ago. and the coast here where it came on shore is still getting incredible rain and incredible window from this and where you see that red there, that is incredible amounts of rain. we are probably going to see some spots by the time this is done. going to be over 25 to 30 inches of rain. because of that, we have got flood warnings in effect and that s going to go on throughout tonight into tomorrow and probably throughout tomorrow night as well. jesse? jesse: i appreciate it. thanks so much, rick. our next guest top expert on florida s management. currently leads the state s response to hurricanes. no stranger to brutal storms like ian. kevin guthrie joins me now. you guys were well-prepared, kevin. prepositioned. you had the warnings out early. accurate reading of the path of the hurricane held. what s the latest? right now we are
tropical storm warnings in effect because the track of the storm brings about over water and then see a second landfall from ian, so even though florida by far getting the worst of it, we are going to still deal with this storm all the way probably until about sunday. we have got bring rain coming from the southern appalachians from this. expecting to see significant flooding there. this is the official track. this takes us into landfall some time friday night probably a strong tropical storm maybe as a hurricane making landfall in georgia, south carolina border. wouldn t be as much as a storm surge story there wouldn t have that much time to build up any of that water. big window impact again and a lot of rain. there you go, hard to believe this storm still looks like this and we are about 8 and a half hours since the center of the storm or the wall of the storm first started coming out there on to those islands. now it s made its way about 40, 50 miles inland take a look at think cre
center, the storm or hurricane itself is enormous as has been talked about. the center of escalation should exit north of daytona beach and get out to the atlantic before curving back in maybe towards georgia or south carolina. but that s the center. again, we have to keep that very point in mind here that the effects extend well out from that center and they will go all the way up into north carolina, those impacts. jesse: forgive me if i sound like an idiot. but for other idiots out there. can you explain in very, very simple terms how and why a hurricane forms? sure, they are a heat engine that derive their energy from the warm tropical oceans of our planet. you have to have that warm water. you have to have a very moist atmosphere and very light winds aloft so it doesn t get sheared apart. the waters in the western atlantic have been very warm this year. here we go. ian is a result of that.
expect to get power back for along time. 16,000 people right now in orange county where we are are out of power. so, the real issue in this part of the state is the rain fall. so we are already seeing hurricane ian lose a bit of steam right now, a category 3. and it slows down also as it moves across the land of florida. now, you would think that s a good thing but the slower that the hurricane moves the more rain is dropped on this community. so, people here are trying to clear their yards of any debris because the window picks it up and it can clog a storm drain and becomes an even bigger issue. disney world is closed for the next two days. as of 10:30 today the airport is close to the commercial flights. still operating for any emergency relief that knees to come into the area. as we see the effects of this storm over the next 24 hours. tomorrow is the real day we will be of course live in orlando bringing you all the latest.