casting ballots for one of nine people running for mayor, but it could be weeks before we find out who wins. growing fears in east palestine, ohio. the head of the epa is there now taking questions directly from residents who say they will caught in a political fight. the gang of eight getting its first briefing on classified documents. found at the properties of joe biden, donald trump and mike pence. what they will and won t be able to find out. and a rare live report from inside russian occupied crimea. a critical area russia annexed back in 2014. ukraine s president says the war will not end until his country gets it back. our nbc reporters are across the globe following all of the latest developments. we start with nbc s chief international correspondent, keir simmons, in crimea. you re the first western journalist to enter since the invasion. talk to us about what you re seeing and finds out. reporter: there s a lot of talk about crimea, that russia and ukraine will
strength and it s taking aim at the carolinas, where people now are bracing for the worst. i m john berman in ft. myers, florida. the storm now barreling towards south carolina with 85-mile-per-hour winds. it is expected to make its third landfall in the coming hours near myrtle beach. after seeing the damage in florida, the governor of south carolina says, we know what s coming. so this storm might be the largest natural disaster in florida s history. the destruction here in ft. myers, i m standing in the middle of it, it is hard to comprehend. ft. myers beach, i had a chance to fly over it in a helicopter, much of it flattened. one official there describes the damage as, there s really nothing to come back to. at least 19 people have died from this storm. power is out this morning across the state. there have been hundreds of rescues. the coast guard has been out in force, airlifting people from flooded homes and neighborhoods. sanibel island hit very hard. the storm destro
suppression and repression that we re seeing today. this year, state lawmakers in at least 32 states introduced 150 bill to restrict voting. many of which disproportionately affect black and brown communities yet hip hop remains key to the conversation. sometimes showing up in surprising ways. if you don t know, now you know. hip hop has the power if we choose, to be the movement we always, you know, dreamed about. thank you tremayne lee and he goes more in depth on the latest episode of into america. finally, we ve got good news to share. five months after hurricane ian battered southwest florida with sanibel island hit especially hard, the sanibel lighthouse survived the storm and now is shining again.
rescues. the coast guard has been out in force, airlifting people from flooded homes and neighborhoods. sanibel island hit very hard. the storm destroyed a major section of the causeway, which cuts off that island s access to the mainland. let s now go back to where the storm is headed this morning. as we said, it s back to hurricane strength, headed towards south carolina. miguel marquez standing by there. miguel, i can see it s already coming down hard. reporter: it is. and officials here in charleston say that we are at the highest level, starting to shut down streets, because the rain is coming down. this is an area that often floods in charleston. i want to show you what it looks like here. this is the estuary here. it is very low, because we re just past low tide. here s the problem. you have all of this rain coming from the sky. you re also going to have a very big storm surge and that s what they are most concerned with. around noon, which is when the storm is going to be clo
you know, most of this county, you know, did evacuate, because we were worried about the storm surge and this isn t the first time we ve had hurricanes, but fatalities here have been an extremely small number. there have been deaths for numerous reasons, not to the severity as we ve seen north of us. yeah. no, we did see the pictures of the storm surge in naples, as it was happening. good work getting as many people out of there as you could before hand. rick lecastro, county commissioner from collier county, thank you so much for being with us. i can tell you hard you re w working. thank you, john. yes, sir. we re digging out and my prayers for everyone. thank you for your support. thank you, rick. so governor ron desantis said sanibel island hit with biblical storm surge. cnn takes a look at whaet effors arare being made to reach peopl there. and huhurricane ian forcing