sounding the alarm along florida s west coast. people are urged to get out of florida s way. tampa s mayor tells residents if you can leave, just leave now. officials say the tampa region could see a storm of a lifetime. more than 15 million people are expected to feel the impact of ewh e ian when it arrives. 115 hour with the winds and could cause life-threatening storm surge, and storm surge is the biggest concern right now. so far ahead of the storm, the hospital in st. petersburg suspended service, transported patients, schooled and universities closed, at least three cruise lines re-routed passengers. the tampa bay airport will suspend operations at 5:00 p.m. today and nasa moved the artemis rocket back to the hangar for trekz. look at this video showing a steady stream of traffic leaving the tampa bay area monday night heading inland to safety. people hunkering down as well, though. the storm perhaps testing their patience. one tampa resident waited three hours to get
trump had staffed at his country club. we will have more on the special master ruling. florida s other senator is facing questions about campaign cash. it comes after a report from the new york times that the gop has blown through a record fundraising fund nearly two months before the midterms. and also ahead, a white house re-do for the white house and the obamas as the former president and first lady finally get their portraits unveiled. good morning, and welcome to way too early. on this thursday, september 8th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. we ll begin with a key and fast approaching deadline for the justice department, following the fbi s search of former president donald trump s mar-a-lago home and club. the d.o.j. must decide by midnight tomorrow whether to accept judge eileen cannon s ruling that approved the request by trump s attorneys for a special master to review the documents seized from his florida estate last month. the ne
lifetime. we made the decision we were going to get out and go take some somewhere else. we were going to go to a hotel, i dobt have the money to go to a hotel, this was our best bet. todd: tampa international airport will suspend all flights 5 eastern tonight in preparation for the storm. carley: janice dean is tracking the storm andin jos us now. janice: this is a strengthening storm, about to move over the western portion of cuba, strengtheneds to category three storm and has a lot of warm water ahead of it. i m concern this is already a strong storm and fact it has all of the environmental conditions conducive to more strengthening. let s take a look, i m sorry, have problems with my map. here is what we know, ian continues to intensify to major hurricane in the last hour in cayman islands and cuba and those along the florida panhandle, don t want you to say this is not going to hurt me, this will impact the whole state of florida over next 24 to 48 hours. wat
business correspondent ashley webster live in spring hills, florida. and ashley, it is the calm before the storm where you are in spring hill right now. it is indeed. good morning, steve. it s a very mild, pleasant morning. but that s going to change quickly over the course of the next 48 hours. i m in front of a gas station here in spring hill. we are about 50 miles north of tampa. everything looks fine, right? not so much. this gas station ran out of gas about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. you can see the sign no gasoline of any grade, including non-ethanol. in fact we were noticing the last person to use this particular pump managed to squeeze out 18 cents. but it s not just the gas that s a problem and the shorts damage as we see people driving around early this morning looking for a pump that actually has gas. but the supplies are starting to go down. batteries, flashlights and water in particular. it s hard to find right now. you can t find a isca of water anywhere. i wan
could be called catastrophic conditions there. we ve never seen storm surge like the kind that is predicted in this area of florida. they re expecting surges up to 15 feet, the height in the past was four feet. so they re trying to shut it all down right now. that s what you re looking at on the right-hand side. airports closing, schools closing, waterways. ever battening down the hatches ahead of what is termed a 100-year storm. so most people by far have not witnessed anything like this who are living in florida right now, this is the stunning space image for you the space station. gives you a sense of how mammoth this area that is affected is, that is ready to lit florida. max gordon is live in st. petersburg on the ground in one of those areas that is expected to see some of this devastation. i can see just a little wind picking up there now as you get ready for this. hi, max. hey, good afternoon. mandatory evacuations are in place in pinellas county. folks in evaluatio