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
the forecast is somewhere around 2:00 landfall, likely north of charleston. and that might be some good news for charleston, but bad news for places up there along the grand strand, because that s where the biggest surge may be. but we have this charleston issue, which honestly i heard what he said, he kind of broke up. charleston can flood on a sunny day with a king tide. but all of a sudden, if you get up to high tide and push a hurricane into charleston, you get significant flooding. and we re going to have the rain. the rain is all the way up even into virginia right now. tropical storm over the gulf stream. the very warm water of the gulf stream. and i said this last hour, the same gulf stream that kept fiona so strong all the way up into atlantic canada and up into newfoundland and nova scotia. right now, we have hilton head, gusting to 43 miles per hour. for now, the wind is not right onshore, it s down along the shore. so not piling the water in just