it is strengthening. we have new information about what florida is bracing for. this could be the most powerful hurricane to hit the panhandle in more than a century. more breaking news coverage after this. from the first loving touch everything that touches your baby should be this comforting pampers swaddlers, the #1 choice of hospitals, is 2x softer and wraps your baby in our most premium protection so every touch is as comforting as the first pampers the #1 choice of hospitals, nurses & parents
this runs along the big bend of florida s coastline in the panhand panhandle. this is toward panama city, one of the only exits out of apalachicola. let me turn to the deserted downtown area of apalachicola. you see street lights blinking in the background. virtually no cars or people because most people have left. population about 2,000 people. we hope that that number is down to zero. of course, storm surge, that s the threat we continually talk about. do yourself a favor, look on a map of florida. check out how it forms of shape of a c, almost like a catcher s mitt. all the water being pushed up by major hurricane michael will be forming as water rushes in from the gulf of mexico. the vegetation, trees, palms, we have lots of coniferous trees,
surge. 9 to 13 has been the forecast all week. that s when it was a cat two, then a cat three. now we re cat four, heading to 145. that 13 may be shy of what is going to get into the bay. power outages will be absolutely widespread. millions without power for a long time. it was 1:00 a.m. when the florida governor said get out now if you re getting out. it is now 5 in the east. is it too late to leave? not if you re running from the surge, no. you need to get out of there. the surge will kill you. water, absolutely, way more powerful. it will drown you. it will kill you with the force of that. if you re worried about the home and have a about the wind and have a strong home, not an r.v., something attached to the ground by cinder blocks, you can probably hide from the storm. if you re freaked out and going, wait a minute, it was a two, now it s a four, there are still paths to the north. that s the only place to go. like we set earlier, use an app.
orleans and affecting the florida west coast. the storm turns into a 145 storm before landfall. this is 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. that s when the eyewall will likely be making landfall. that s the worst part of the storm. but that s not the ieye. it has nothing to do with the eye. it could still get to apalachicola, but probably not any farther left. i think pensacola, you re completely in the clear for eyewall. that doesn t mean you re in the clear for wind. it will still be 75 or 80 miles per hour there. tallahassee, you think you re inland, but there s not really much between you and the coast. you re still going to get winds over 100 miles per hour. think about what the big pine trees will do in tallahassee. are you on the dirty side, as mr. howell has been talking about, the dirty side of the hurricane. talking about it all day. we make a line through the hurricane. this not only has the wind speed but has forward speed, too, pushing all the water into the bays. then this is an of
gosh. there have already been evacuations. i know there s an air force base there along the coast. there s a lot of tourism along the coast there. the big highrises. one hopes that those highrises are built to withstand 140 mile-per-hour winds. yeah. i mean, you know, i m sure they were high codes, being on the beach there. there are substantial structures. but wind speeds of that magnitude, all bet are off. we re expecting all bets are off. we re expecting structural damage. all right. no question there will be flying debris, storm surge there. flash flooding all the way into georgia. the national hurricane center saying this is a very big storm. thank you very much. hurricane michael bearing down on the florida panhandle. never have seen a storm of this magnitude since records were kept all the way back to 1851. a love look on the ground next. minimums and fees. they seem to be the very foundation of your typical bank.