in force across that area. but what s new this morning from the national hurricane center is the hurricane watches that have been hoisted from basically coastal regions of st. petersburg right through the big bend. this tells the meteorologist at national hurricane center and within the cnn weather center that the potential here for this storm to strengthen at least into a low end hurricane is possible. that s what they re bracing for. the watches are up. otherwise, storm surge warnings all along the west coast of the florida peninsula. that encompasses about 6 million americans. 2 to 4 feet where i m located here, that s above normally high ground. and then 3 to 5 feet basically in the catcher s mitt if you look at the geography of florida big bend to tampa bay. that s where we re worried about storm surge if the height of the storm before it makes landfall coincides with high tide, which is occurring here the next couple of hours, and then another cycle overnight about 3:00 in the mo
potential through jacksonville and then continuing as we have our catcher s mitt here. by the time it does get up there we could be looking at a scrape of the carolinas thursday or potentially land fall. one of our computer ue througho tuesday and then heading into wednesday. so it s prolonged. you don t need to have hurricane force winds to have problems. the prolonged hurricane force winds will be an issue. by thursday, friday, hatteras gusting with hurricane force gusting by thursday afternoon into friday. certainly a terrible night in the bahamas and a tough, tough dangerous week for the coast line. thank you so much, ivan. another hurricane update advisory will come in less than an hour. a mandatory evacuation order is following extending up into north and south carolina.
heavier area of orange where we could see it almost you can look at this curve. it s almost like a bowl, like a catcher s mitt that allows all that heavy wind to concentrate all of those waves, all that water piling up. so that s why in this area you ve got that 6 to 9 feet possibility. you can t say enough to all the people being asked to evacuate along the coast in those zones to heed the warnings as al mentioned. we always appreciate you. thank you so much, al roker. joining mae now hurricane hunter pilot colonel shawn cross who actually flew through the hurricane on saturday. take me through exactly, lieutenant, what you saw when flying through the eye of the storm here. hi. thanks for having us on, first off. let me just say real quick before i answer that question al roker did a phenomenal job of explaining the storm surge. and that is the main threat of these hurricanes as they approach landfall.
error. there is a chance that this cyclone, that this hurricane goes out to sea and doesn t hit anybody. now, that doesn t mean we re completely safe because it is a powerful storm, it may get close enough to florida where we could be talking about significant coastal flooding. look at this coastline here, it s like a catcher s mitt. the good thing is about this hurricane, those cat traffic winds, the hurricane force winds would be 74 or above only extend 35 miles. so about 30 to 35 miles. so if this is 30 to 35 miles east of florida, we re in had the clear as far as the catastrophic winds that would impact the entire shoreline but we could be buffetted by tropical storm force winds. but this is looking better and better for florida, which usually means it s looking less good for the carolinas. look at that cone and how huge it is and absolutely this thing
ever. a woman being honored as employee of the month by the chicago white sox but instead of hitting the catcher s mitt, she cluchkss the prafr s camera and he tweet said that his camraw is okay. nothing wurgs worst than the worst with ever 50 cent. missed the plate by about a dozen feet. it s a tough call. i think 50 still takes the crowd. i rather enjoyed her pitch. that s a team photographerer she nailed friendship here s new day. devastation. world war 3. rounds of storms showing no signs of letting up. the house crumbled completely. it ripped off the roof. i was holding the kids as tight as i could. clearly things that violate