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winter weather advisory or warning on friday. the conditions are setting travelers up for yet another day of delays and cancellations across the nation and folks are in for thousands of delays and cancellations, according to flight aware. this, after airlines were forced to cancel more than 5800 flights and more than 10,000 others on friday. the storm hasn't been easier on tens of millions of drivers hitting the roads, multiple highways were closed at least six people killed in crashes including two in this massive 50-car pileup on the ohio turnpike on friday. >> the obvious recommendation to everyone is stay home. there is significant danger that can come from driving off the road. >> yeah, and so, neil, look, for those who are fortunate enough to make it home for the holidays, they may run into
eastern u.s. are now under winter storm warnings heading into the weekend. the powerful system that spawned tornadoes across the south is threatening to bring ice and snowstorms from the an lattch a latch ens to new england. it's been mostly rain in d.c., we haven't seen ice. they salted all the roads but that didn't happen. do we expect it to be worse up north? >> well, the ice is gone, this is now a rain or a snow event. there's not much mix in between. but it's hard to believe, jim, that we were talking about 60 inches of snow in soda springs, california, on monday and this same storm hasn't left the united states yet and we are going to see significant snow across the northeast. winter storm warnings, as you said, great snow to go play in, i guess, if you can get there and do it safely, but hour after
thank you for being with us this morning. >> my pleasure, john. thanks for helping us get the message out. >> the rain bands passing through but you keep hearing these warnings and the superlatives now, the agreement superlatives as the storm approaches with winds of 155 mimes. miles per hour. >> hurricane ian barrelling towards florida. st. petersburg one of the many cities in its path. we'll be speaking to the mayor next. plus this -- as russians are trying to escape the country to avoid vadladimir putin's draft, there is an urgent warning to americans in russia, leave immediately. this is cnn's special live
storm surge and certainly the wind could take them down. the charlotte harbor is where this peace river feeds into and that is where hurricane charlie hit right at the charlotte harbor. i don't know, what would you expect would be happening in the harbor if we're seeing this kind of -- a storm of this magnitude. >> when the wind is going to be blowing from the west from 140 to 155 possibly, all of that water will get pushed up into that river. you can get a funnel effect where some of those numbers could be higher right up the river, right up the stream. that's what i'm concerned about, especially if there's someone actually staying on those boats out there. that's something that you need to be gone. but the whole idea here is that charlie, every talks about charlie. this isn't charlie. this is closer to katrina. this is a storm surge of
evacuation orders but it's your decision to leave. a lot of people have heeded those warnings but we'll see how it will affect people who have stayed. officials telling people in the area during the height of the storm, they've got to conserve water, asking you not to run your dishwasher, your laundry machine, limit flushing and showering if you can because they had issues with the sewage system here in st. petersburg. in 2015, 2016 they had some 200 million gallons of sewage water pour into aquifers and other ware spaces because the system couldn't hold up. this will be a test as to whether the system can hold up. we're expecting pretty significant flooding in the area in the coming hours.
communities could take quite some time if people are still there and they did remain there for the storm, right? >> yeah. i know of people who actually rode it out in a boat. he made it through, i don't know how. he has scary stories to talk about. i hope people get off those boats and get up on higher land. >> chad and randi, stand by. randi, you and your team stand by safely somewhere for the next several minutes or several hours. i want to bring in the mayor of tampa so people can see the situation here in tampa, even though nothing anything what rani is seeing in punta gorda is beginning to deteriorate. >> our concern is still the
currently located now. this storm hasn't weakened just yet even though we've had increate mental decreases in the wind. i'm still feeling maximum, maximum hurricane force, the violent waves of energy that continue to come through here. i mean, if i can summarize it, this is the best way i can do it. i have a 4-year-old son that loves car washes. this reminds me of walking through a car wash or literally driving through your car wash and rolling your windows down. my son would understand that comparison but literally, it's just spraying you in the face almost stinging as it does and i can't imagine anyone who decided to ride this out, what they must be thinking at this moment in time. my producer has friends in the area here, closer to ft. myers that decided to ride the storm out and in my mind, i was thinking, jake, you know, if there is one family who decided
of this hurricane. it could make landfall the next several hours and then work its way up the peninsula slowly, very slowly, bringing hurricane force winds here to tampa, to orlando before it heads out over the atlantic on the other side maybe sometime later tomorrow. obviously millions of people feeling the impact of this, a life threatening storm in some ways a near worst case scenario for some of the people south of here. there was an 8 a.m. update just in from the national hurricane center. i believe we have michael brennan at the national hurricane center to give us a sense of the very latest. sir, if you can hear me, where is ian, where is it going? >> it's located about 55 miles west of naples, we're expecting catastrophic impacts along the southwest border coast later
because we were concerned about putin's sentiments on nato expansion. well, that did not work out. we should be very blunt with him about that and say that will not be the case this time. we will provide a security guarantee and ensure it is enforced. >> it feels so far off. perhaps not as far off as it could be. general petraeus, thank you for being with us. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> i want to head back to tampa where we find our john berman and we see the winds now, john, from hurricane -- this is a huge storm at this point in time. >> 155 miles per hour. as you say, two miles per hour short of a category five storm and it still could strengthen as it approaches the southwestern coast here. this is an historic hurricane
that was the last reading from a plane flying through the storm, 155 miles per hour, just two miles per hour short of a category five storm. some 2 1/2 million people up and down the coast under some kind of evacuation order for very good reason. this extremely powerful storm is now bringing projected storm surge of up to 16 feet in some areas south of here. the port charlotte area, punta gourda, not far from fort myers, so many populated areas, right here the water, it could be underwater soon. you have storm surge, wind speed and also rainfall. we're in between rain bands here in tampa but it has been pouring all night and all morning long here. they could see 12 to 24 inches of rain before all is said and done here. and so much of the florida peninsula could feel the impact