pick up dramatically over the next several hours. jay, one last quick one for you. is there a sense people have listened to these requests from officials to evacuate the area as the storm bears down? reporter: you know, jonathan, i hesitate to say many haven t. it was crowded yesterday. we made the trip from tampa into gainesville where the storm is also making the trip, and there were a lot of people out. a lot of people preparing but preparing to stay, getting supplies, getting into place. so it looks like a lot of people in this area have decided to ride this thing out. it is a bit inland, so that surge won t be an issue. but they best be prepared, jonathan, to go for weeks if not longer without power and with problems to the infrastructure across this city because it looks like they re going to take a tough hit here. nbc s jay gray live for us from gainesville, florida, thank you and please stay safe.
out. what will we see when it happens, this is an area heavily populated with trees. we ll see trees pulled down, power lines pulled down as well. national guard troops have been deployed and they re ready to move in when this storm clears and all the power teams stay just outside the strike zone, and they ll have quite a task once this thing clears and gets out of the way. right now everything focused on the coastline and seeing this storm make landfall in the next couple of hours and bringing with it you talked about really an unprecedented storm surge as the forecast holds 12 to 16 feet, water taller than a first story building. that s something catastrophic as the hurricane center says of damage in areas that are hit. right now a bit of a spinning rain. we ve seen it harder at times, but we expect that s going to
operator, is joining us to discuss more details. we re seeing a wind shift. what are your biggest concerns going into the rest of the night? you guys have talked about here recently, especially the storm surge. we could be looking at up to 16 feet up there in cedar key like you guys were covering and already seeing the storm surge impacts down to clearwater beach as well. 4-6 feet of storm surge moving into tampa bay is what is forecast. and, again, we re already seeing some of those impacts. there on the video there from cedar key like you guys have been showing, potentially 16 feet. hurricane hermine, the category 1 several years ago, produced six feet of storm surge there. so we re expecting up to 16 16 feet, just incredible, um, you know, amount of storm surge and water we re expecting. ian: yeah, matt, we re staring at a live picture of the poorly-placed cadillac there on cedarky key up in cedar key
urle of the big bend area. this purple area of the big bend area. this purple area could - of the big bend area. this purple area could see - of the big bend area. this purple area could see a i of the big bend area. ti 3 purple area could see a surge of up to 10 15 feet. 10 15 feet. less surge to the south and west but still very impactful and potentially life threatening storm surges all the way down into the tampa bay area and all the way around here. , ., ., , bay area and all the way around here. , . ., , ., here. jamie, that s a huge volume here. jamie, that s a huge volume of here. jamie, that s a huge volume of water. - here. jamie, that s a huge volume of water. in - here. jamie, that s a huge volume of water. in a - here. jamie, that s a huge - volume of water. in a practical sense, what is that going to mean for people? what would they see? it might turn having 50 feet is hard for a lot of people to fathom. and in vision. but i stand 60 that would be over to have m
just look at this rad area here which is the hurricane warning area or area where people can expect hurricane conditions. you can see just how many large cities, tampa and tallahassee into southern georgia can be impacted by these powerful winds. , ., winds. the wins, the one thing. you are a winds. the wins, the one thing. you are a storm winds. the wins, the one thing. you are a storm surge - you are a storm surge specialist as well. what is the impact of the storm surge going to be? ~ ., , impact of the storm surge going to be? ~ . , impact of the storm surge going to be? ~ ., , ., to be? we re really looking at storm surge to be? we re really looking at storm surge being to be? we re really looking at storm surge being maximised here in what we call the nature coast of the florida big bend area. this purple area here could see storm surge of up to 10-15 could see storm surge of up to 10 15 feet. could see storm surge of up to 10-15 feet. i could see storm surge of up