Page 2 - Making Impact News Today

Im john berman live in tampa, florida. this is cnns special coverage of hurricane ian which is expected to make landfall sometime in the next several hours. we just got new information from the national hurricane center. listen to this. they had an aircraft in the center of this storm measuring sustained winds, sustained winds of 155 miles per hour. that is just two miles an hour short of a category ar5 hurrica and there is still time for it to strengthen. 155 mile per hour sustained winds. this...

As that wind speed picks up, 15050 miles per hour now, it does increase the threat of the storm surge. that wind pushes the water even more potentially even higher which is why there is still so much concern up and down the southern coast. down here in tampa where the wind has let up, weve been getting the bands repeatedly. up and down the coast you see businesses boarded up, homes evacuated. some 2.5 million people under some kind of evacuation order. there is certain to be a very bad economic ...

Closed its airport. orlando, meantime, officials say it will stop commercial operations after about 10:30 eastern. one thing theyre not expecting a major impact to is the price of oil and gas. thats simply because florida, john, is not a major producer or refiner of oil and gas. the impacts of this could be quite significant. still too early to know but certainly a lot of questions moving ahead, john. >> yeah. wont be good. rahel solomon, thank you for that. i want to go to brian gleeson, offi...

Going to slow down to approximately 5 miles per hour. this is significant because what this means is floridians are going to experience the impacts of this storm for a very long time. >> reporter: southwest florida already feeling the impact of the storm with hurricane force wind gusts and heavy rain. >> if there is a flooded roadway, do not drive through the flooded roadway. you do not know what is going on with the roadway underneath. please turn around and do not drowned. >> reporter: a torna...

Watching and hoping for the best on the human toll, the human effort. the storm will have pretty significant economic impact. how large it will be depends on how large the storm is and how long it lasts. one of the states largest employers, disney, announcing that it will be closed today and thursday. similar announcements coming from other amusement parks like seaworld, orlando, universal, busch gardens. we know 11 waffle house restaurants are closed. supermarket chain publix says it will close...

Tropical depression fred could start making impact in south florida as early as tomorrow. team of rrps reporters following all of it. emilie ikeda is in california. >> reporter: forecasted dry lightning and officials are having to juggle numerous variables at this point. first and foremost, extinguishing that massive dixie fire. secondly, these bone-dry conditions and preparing for what theyre describing will be a very, very long wildfire season. after the currently 11 large wildfires burning in...