in the united states and around the world. i m john vause at cnn s world headquarters. in atlanta. it seems hurricane it is not done yet. in florida with a rising death toll on ongoing rescues, and looking like a wall zone. this color storm is gaining strength right now a category one, bearing down on charleston, south carolina, with all expected later friday. the death toll in florida stands at 19. a number of which is almost certain to rise in the coming days. the u.s. president on thursday warning of a substantial loss of life for me and. which one official has described as likely the biggest natural disaster the state has ever seen. and that is triggered the biggest disaster response in florida s history. tens of thousands of emergency workers deployed statewide. at this hour, almost 2.2 million homes and businesses remain without electricity. large areas of the state are underwater. in georgia, ian produced a rainfall, it up deterring some of the worst-hit areas. gover
i m john berman in ft. myers, florida, and the storm has intensified again. 85-mile-per-hour winds, heading towards the carolinas. this after tearing the destructive path across florida. it is expected to make landfall in south carolina around midday, somewhere between charleston and myrtle beach. it could produce life-threatening floods there in the carolinas. this is already liskely the largest natural disaster in florida s history. i m standing in the middle of some of the damage, in a marina where the boats have been washed up on to the shore here. parts of florida have been seriously damaged. as of this morning, 19 storm-related deaths. that number will almost certainly rise. in ft. myers beach, some of the destruction is breathtaking. i had a chance to have an aerial view of it, take a helicopter ride over, and there were sections that were just washed away. the pier, the large pier there, you can see it almost better from air. that s just been completely washed away. a
up. there is a business next to it. we talk to the managers in this bar and grill, though, and they were even talking about potentially staying open later today. we re right on the beach here and you can see those waves are starting to really get more aggressive, as the morning develops. but the worst of it isn t going to come until much later this afternoon into the early vng. the ems don t have any reports yet of anything bad. there are some power outages in the northwest part of the county, but that s much further inland. they re not sure if that s storm related or not. at this point, it s wait and see. they ve activated their emergency operations center, expecting this myrtle beach area to take a hit from hurricane ian, but really all eyes are on charleston, where the hurricane is expected to make impact initially. right now, though, the wind is picking up, the rain is starting to come in and it is getting pretty breezy here, but the worst is expected for much later today. john?
in the united states and around the world. i m john vause at cnn s world headquarters. in atlanta. it seems hurricane it is not done yet. in florida with a rising death toll on ongoing rescues, and looking like a wall zone. this color storm is gaining strength right now a category one, bearing down on charleston, south carolina, with all expected later friday. the death toll in florida stands at 19. a number of which is almost certain to rise in the coming days. the u.s. president on thursday warning of a substantial loss of life for me and. which one official has described as likely the biggest natural disaster the state has ever seen. and that is triggered the biggest disaster response in florida s history. tens of thousands of emergency workers deployed statewide. at this hour, almost 2.2 million homes and businesses remain without electricity. large areas of the state are underwater. in georgia, ian produced a rainfall, it up deterring some of the worst-hit areas. governor ron de
the legislative bodies across this country. self-described experts are demandin accep forg you acceptt responsibility for whatever natural disaster has just occurred. it sed. your faul your fault, ir hurricane ian . you did thisbecaus because you s support giving joe biden trillions of dollars to figh tt climate change.watch. t watchou caused i now with clima it used to be one or two c a season. what happened now with climate changehange, and extreme warm wl it s almost you know, it sl happening all the time. this the warm in a way, is kind of bad news for the people that are still trying to denyepublica climate change as a factor. a florida republicans denys wil climate change as a monster storm barrels towards the coast . this will be a first time test for how you adapt to theser new , stronger storms on a on a warmer planet as a result of climate change. the threat exacerbated, of coursef , by climate change. p on charleston, like miami, gets water that comes on a good sunny da