concerned could sneak up towards tallahassee. anyone who s been to this portion of florida, it s forest. it s surrounded by trees and in the middle of trees so we are concerned with how much tree damage and power outages we ll have and how long that power outage could last for. the national weather service in tallahassee, the forecast for this area were saying if you re near that eye, you know, prepare not to be without power for possibly up to a month, maybe two months in some areas. this is s how serious the winds could be and how extreme the damage would be and areas of the storm surge, i mean, they were saying it could be uninhabitable for weeks to come, willie, so that s the potential we re dealing with. a category 4, category 3s, they leave behind extreme destruction. this one is a little different because of where the landfill is, not hitting a beach, not hitting a populated area, but it ll probably take a day or two to show you the pictures of where the worst is on this one.
our cars were under water. but that s what traditionally happens in a hurricane, particularly one as volatile as this. keep in mind, in the history of recorded weather observation, there has never been a category 4 hurricane in the florida panhandle. florida is a hurricane magnet. people in florida learn all about them. you learn to get your hurricane shutters. it is a common occurrence in florida to have hurricanes and to worry about hurricanes. but here in the panhandle, in the 1950s, they had three category 3s and then opal in 1995. and crawfordville, florida, which is east of panama city, which is south of tallahassee, tallahassee is that direction. this area got heavily damaged in that category 3 hurricane 13 years ago. many of the homes are high, built on stilts, some of the homes are 40 feet tall because
looking at the intensity that we did earlier around marco island. 12 years ago, 2005 wilma made landfall, the exact same location where wilma did in marco island, same latitude and longitude, both category 3s, a little ironic. we re watching the core move northward, the bands of rain moving toward daytona. the rainfall totals are heavy for a fast moving storm. you got miami-dade over 13.3. in fact, the st. lucie nuclear plant had 99-mile-per-hour wind gusts a few hours ago. the rainfall shaft will continue to make its way northward along with the damaging sustained winds and even stronger gusts. tom seder with a new forecast for irma. we want to get to the guys out in the elements. anderson cooper is in tampa, ryan young is in clearwater.