Anderson cooper in braden florida, where the winds have really picked up significantly just in the last ten minutes or so, they are really starting to whip here in downtown by, by The River. I just want to get a sense of sort of the wins. Its sort of hard to tell when youre actually in it you get a sense in the light over there. Theres just been a steady downpour of rain and you can see it there. It reflected in the light as i was talking to erin in the last hour, there is a lot of along The River here. Theres a lot of Palm Trees, a lot of these really large branches of these Palm Trees are just ripping off flying through the air and there are sort of littered all over the ground. I want to walk if i cant over here a little bit and show you the Manatee River is over here. And nellis, is that way. About ten minutes ago, we could see lights over in pinellas obscures me in palmetto, we dont see the lights over there anymore. I dont know if theyre still there and just the visibilities. So
damage to the south carolina coast where it struck today as a category 1 hurricane. this is the cherry grove pier in north myrtle beach, one of two that partially collapsed today. and just as on the florida gulf coast and later in orlando ian caused significant flooding in the charleston and myrtle beach areas and knocked out power to about a third of a million customers in south and north carolina. so we ve also just received some new video in of a high wave sweeping several people off a pier in miami. we have a big wave and about five people so that s in miami still from the high tide and the waves being kicked up by ian. six people were hurt in that. no one, thank goodness, was killed. state-wide, the death toll is now at least 42, and that is expected to rise. and the damage especially in places like fort meyers beach became even more apparent today. it is so severe that a coast guard commander told our wolf blitzer his chopper crews simply do not have monday landma
mid-atlantic states. after leaving florida, ian did make landfall earlier today near myrtle beach, south carolina, as a category one hurricane. it heavily flooded a local street. do you see this? this was a scene a few miles south and nearby pawleys island. the streets are turning into rivers look at this. the power of the storm surge as the hurricane was churning, the atlantic ocean, it sliced a peer into. as ian news northward tonight, a tornado watches now in effect for parts of the carolinas and virginia for at least one more hour until 10 pm eastern. meanwhile, back in florida, the extent of the destruction, well, it s staggering. this, that we re looking at, that is aerial video of fort myers beach. much of the committee has simply been totally obliterated. the result of a hurricane smashing into that part of florida as a massive category four storm. last night, the sheriff s office in lee county what you campuses the fort myers area, is releasing this new video, showin
it s the top of the hour on cnn newsroom. i m alisyn camerota. hurricane ian just made landfall as a category 1 storm on the south carolina coast. it hit near georgetown, between myrtle beach and charleston, and just as it did in florida, it s bringing life-threatening storm surge and heavy rains. it currently has 85-mile-per-hour winds. the tide has been going up in myrtle beach by a foot an hour. look at some of these images on your screen right now of all of the flood waters in myrtle beach. in north myrtle beach, this pier collapsed during the storm. obviously, we ll see much more damage once the storm passes through this area, and then in florida, utter destruction after the west coast got hammered. at least 25 people are dead as of last count. officials warn, though, that that number will likely rise. some areas like ft. myers beach are still impassable at this hour. stores and homes there have been reduced to shells, even if they are still on their foundations. a loc
of the florida coast of that this is sanibel island, an island decimated by hurricane ian. right now there s no way to get help in to sanibel. the only bridge that connected the island to the mainland, it s a long causeway, it s caved in. so there s no way to get on or off the island unless you travel by boat. and that s been incredibly difficult for anyone to do. and that loss right now spans the florida coast. i ll show you cape coral. our bill weir was here today. this is a picture he took. you can see home after home totally destroyed and flooded. the ones that are still standing, you can see siding ripped off. at one point ian s winds were 155 miles an hour. we re going to have much more from bill weir in a moment. not far from where he took those images, ft. myers beach, striking images of what is left. not much. the beach community 48 hours ago looked like that. now, take a look at this. estero boulevard, 24 hours later. a restaurant called the whale surrounded by debr