Page 17 - Bradenton News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm john vause, at the cnn center in atlanta. as we head into the midnight hour on the u.s. east coast, almost the entire state of florida is bracing for the impact of hurricane ian, a monster storm stressing 500 miles across. which earlier made landfall on cuba, blocking out the eyelids electricity grid and causing a nationwide blackout. 11 million people right now are in the dark, waiting for morning to assess the damage. as of, now there are no reports of fatalities. since leaving cuba, ian has grown in s...

life-threatening storm surge. we just learned the updated storm surge projections for those areas is now staggers. it is now 12 to 18 feet. that is the warning. already more than 16 on,000 customers are without power across the state of florida. more than 2.5 million people are under an erag ways order or warning. governor desantis said residents in the cross hairs need to shelter in place, because it is too late to leave. >> if you are in any of those counties, it's no longer possible to safely evacuate. it's time to hunker down and prepare for this storm. this is a powerful storm...

just after 3:00 p.m. east coast, the eye crossed over a barrier island near ft. myers, florida. this is a live look at the satellite right now. you can see the immense size and strength mof the hurricane. the winds are 150 miles an hour. that's just shy of making this a monstrous category 5. this was the scene just ahead of landfall captured by a storm chaser in pine island, florida. these conditions are expected to worsen in the coming hours, believe it or not. more than 850,000 customers are without power across the state of florida. another major concern today is the storm surge. ...

like a freight train. we're seeing record-breaking and terrifying storm surges throughout florida and ft. myers, the water is so high pickup trucks are almost completely submerged. water levels have risen more than 6 feet in the last switch ho -- seven hours. let's get to tom sater in the cnn weather center. an updated forecast should come any minute now. what should we expect? >> it was just handed to me. forgive me for reading off. we still have a category 4 hurricane and five miles east of punta gorda. it will stay at hurricane strength through orlando. this will rake the entire p...

to be seen. there are programs that fema has. but it is not going to be commensurate to having had a policy. this is an issue we will have to d deal with. we deal with this. when you have this about the homeowners policy will cover certain things, but the flood policy covers probably the most significant risk for most homeowners in florida given the risk of flooding that we have in so many parts of our state. so we're sensitive to that. there is, obviously, going to be some folks that are going to be in need of support and relief and we are, obviously, going to work as best we can. i...