already or trying to just monitor to make sure people are not out because at this point it is probably going to be too late very soon. yeah, nicole that aqua fence protecting barrier around the hospital is such an important innovation as we go into storms like this. good to see that people are heeding the warning. we ll check back in with you in a couple minutes, nicole valdes live in tampa. we talk about the storm surge especially for tampa bay and ian you spent a lot of time in tampa you forecasted down there and it is one of the most vulnerable places in the country for taking on storm water. it is the most vulnerable metro area. she mentioned bay shore boulevard i lived by there, you spill a glass of water and it floods, it is vulnerable. that s the entire tampa bay itself which is shallow shaped like a mitt and catches all this water but that can be said about the entire region the big bend and the nature coast. not just how the topography kind of shifts as you talk about th
bands too kind of lift up into jacksonville into southeastern georgia they re expected to see the impacts as we go through the day tomorrow. ian: jane this was the fear, this structure is here we saw that eye emerge earlier this evening. everything this storm needs to not just maintain its intensity but to get even stronger, in between now and the 130 miles it has left over the gulf of mexico, unfortunately that s what we re expecting in between now and then. we re at a category 2. any upgrade here is a major hurricane up to a 3. at land fall we are expecting this to be a category 4, and this particular portion of florida s coastline doesn t have any storm of reference on the period of record. jane: first time on record, in fact there were officials in the area saying don t take this one lightly. you know, you don t i know florida sometimes, you know, we think we ve been through this before but of this magnitude especially in the big bend in the northern nature coast there, you v
here in this area before where we ve seen flooding, you know, push into the residential areas, push into the commercial areas. it s extremely prone to that. we re likely going to see some of that again based on the water line that we re seeing right now, the rain on and off here in saint pete beach. back to you. ian: yeah, we ll be watching for that moving through the overnight hours tonight and into tomorrow. that onshore flow persists so the water stays high and that s where that surge risk becomes a bit prolonged through the overnight hours early part of the day tomorrow. fox news reporter matt finn, thanks for joining us. jane: we have a lot more coming up here on fox weather your hurricane headquarters, stay with us. we re expecting to get the new update from idalia coming up in just a few minutes from the national hurricane center.
actually creates better tension on some of the outer rods and is supposed to better protect something like a trauma one hospital from seeing a significant or catastrophic flood event to keep, of course, the doctors and patients inside there as safe as possible. but, jane, this is really going to be the place to be to see some of the really bad storm surge, if it happens here around the bay. it s not just the coast where bob is, not only the river walk here behind me, tampa excuse me, bay shore boulevard is an area that we know consistently floods here around downtown tampa. so it s an area that police are driving up and down. they re trying to make sure no one is driving, no one is walking. the bridges here again are still open, as bob mentioned, but they could close if wind gusts pick up to a point where they re not safe to drive over. but we are seeing emergency crews around the area, whether their sirens on maybe helping to get people out if they haven t
i want to show you some of the palms swaying in the wind. i know it s hard to see because it s dark out but hopefully with the street light next to it you can see what i mean. we did have an outer band hit this area around 6:30, 7:00. it did bring with it some wind and some rain but that has since dissipated and it s been calm. again no rain some of the wind now picking up but otherwise not a problem. the problem today has been the surf in this area. if we can i want to show you some video of what daytona beach looked like earlier this afternoon because the surf was so rough, the life guards had to fly a red flag, a single red flag to indicate at that the rip currents are dangerous especially in these conditions and tomorrow they re meeting to discuss whether to fly two red flags which would mean the beaches here in volusia county will be closed to the public. of course all of this action by the water has brought out a lot of people. we saw people coming out by the parking lot overlook