>> all right, mike brannon there from the national hurricane center. thank you. joining us from jacksonville, florida, nbc's julia bagg. julia, you've been covering the storm all week for us. you're in the northern part of the state right now. how are the preparations going? >> reporter: well, jo, we've seen the preparations happening all around town. people boarding up businesses, boarding up homes. here on jacksonville beach, know, i want you to get a look at the surf behind me. because it's very strong right now and actually the beach is closed. however, there are people out here, surfing, taking advantage of this and people coming to just get a look at this. like james who is from jacksonville. tell me what you think about seeing all of these surfers. i count up close to a dozen right now? >> yeah, they're going to be out here today, it's the best time to surf when the storm's coming in, so they're going to take advantage of it. >> reporter: how are you preparing your home here? >> just boarding up the windows,