expecting to see the wind shift continue for the next couple of hours. hopefully it doesn t get worse than what you re seeing. bob: yeah, i hope not because we have to move to higher ground. there s higher ground here. we ll find it. you re right. this storm surge will be elevated, jane, until the wind stops blowing it in. that could be 12, 16 hours, 18 hours from now. ian: that s close to where we were with ada in 2020. that was a tropical storm in a similar position. yeah, just consider what this would look like. this is about to be a major hurricane. it centers about 100 miles off shore of pinellas county where you are, bob. so this just gives you the tiniest little perspective. how vulnerable an area is to storm surge. bob, we ll be checking back in with you. jane: absolutely! tough to see. the volleyball courts there already swamped in ocean water. florida certainly feeling the impacts of hurricane idalia now. want to head out to the national weather service in tampa bay whe
brunt of this, but that s cold comfort to the people who live here and are worried about everything they have. no, their lives are there, bill. please, to you and your team, stay safe. keep up posted there. it is a treacherous situation in steinhatchee and, again, predicted to get worse. as bill just mentioned the population in steinhatchee is anywhere from 500 people to 1,000 fending on the season. it s not much. it s a sparsely populated area all along where idalia made landfall. it s a different story further south. tampa is not where it made landfall, per se, but it is experiencing very dangerous storm surge. let s go to derek van dam who is there. derek, what are you seeing? well, john, exactly what you re saying, this proves the point that you don t need to be near the center of the storm to feel the impacts of this major hurricane which now, i believe, is a category 2.
center said in their last update that it is going to strengthen rapidly before landfall is category three they are projecting still a category four, that has been projected to be about 8:00 local time somewhere in this area. but, the computer model shifted a, bit it shifted a bit more towards the west, so that means more people perhaps more populated areas, and it is a very recreational area, lots of fishing, recreational activities, and this is the forecast radar. i want to point out one, thing and that is what is happening with these a bands of showers. what, will as we go into the next several hours, heavy bands of rainfall, it is not the rainfall we are most concerned, about it is the surge. around this big bend area, that is where we are looking at the potential for 12 to maybe 16
three feet over the average high tide. yes, we re seeing significant water rise there. we ll be checking back in. fox news reporter matt finn. thank you for being with us tonight here on fox weather. jane: in marion county, we have deborah cho who is joining us right now. how is the situation unfolding inland? communities have taken on evacuees that have been ordered closer to coast line? this is actually the most rain we ve seen actually all night. we have been pretty quiet in marion county, so not the same situation that you re seeing down in st. pete, clearwater, tampa area, but, of course, we know it is coming, right? we still have a long way to go here. but, here in marion county, they re telling people to not let their guards down. just because the storm has shifted a little bit west, you still need to be on alert, because our biggest threat here in ocala is going to be the power outages. actually behind me in this area
big bend area near the panhandle, was it ready for a category 3 storm? reporter: it s a great question. i would say there are two different stories as i drove last night late last night from steinhatchee where bill weir is right now to here. and steinhatchee and along the coast, they were boarding up, putting the sandbags up and they evacuated, many people evacuated because there s nothing you can do in the storm surge. we re going to see pictures from there. and we have all morning. if that water rises 10 to 12 feet, no sandbag is going to stop that. if your house is in the way, your house very likely will be destroyed or severely flooded. as you headed inland, there was some areas around perry, i would say, where we just spoke and lost communication with those two gentlemen, i saw very few preparations. not much at all to get ready for this storm. gas stations were still open and had gas in the town of perry, which is unusual for days