coast of florida. 155-mile-per-hour wind speeds. that s just two miles short of a category 5 hurricane. it s expected to make landfall about 100 miles south of here in the port charlotte area. rain 12 to 24 inches across much of the florida peninsula, challenge create freshwater flooding. the impact of this will be felt by millions in florida. already 200,000 people without power. that s before the storm even makes landfall. this will uproot people s lives. its a life-threatening storm. this is the sunshine skyway bridge that we have pictures of. you can see the winds kicking up. it will have an enormous impact. let s go to chad myers first at the weather center. the 11:00 a.m. advisory out now. what do you see? still see the 155-mile-per-hour eyewall winds. inside the eye it could be down to 5 or 10 in the middle, but we re working our way onshore. the eye is not onshore. the eyewall is coming onshore. this is what it looks like from space, this is called the visible image
can understand why the businesses have put the sandbags in place, but you can hear from the wind and the rain already getting much heavier, this could be a while and sit here on top of us. as you know, it s very slow moving. people are prepared. john? randi kay for us, stand by, if you will, for a moment. joining us now on the phone is the mayor of punta gorda, lynn matthew. mayor, if you can hear me, just give us a sense of your current area of concern. hi, john. good morning. i think the biggest concern is obviously going to be the storm surge. we have anticipated all along under yesterday that it would possibly be 6 to 7 feet, then it went to 7 to 10 feet. now we re just not sure where it will end up. we have a storm that will potentially be a bull s-eye at
to see this phenomenon of water being pulled out. it s happening here. carlos suarez, give me a sense of what you re seeing. reporter: john, thousands across hillsborough county are without power, and you have to talk about the ominous sign there, this is how the hillsborough bay looks like. when we got here this morning, all of this was under water. you see just how much of it has receded. hurricane ian is pushing all of this water out from a nearby require and of course the bay itself. at some point all this water has to come back in. that s the surge we ll see later this afternoon. that s the surge that emergency officials have been concerned about. when you add into that the expected rainfall we re supposed to be, up to 20 inches of rain in the ciampa area, you can
coast of florida. 155-mile-per-hour wind speeds. that s just two miles short of a category 5 hurricane. it s expected to make landfall about 100 miles south of here in the port charlotte area. rain 12 to 24 inches across much of the florida peninsula, challenge create freshwater flooding. the impact of this will be felt by millions in florida. already 200,000 people without power. that s before the storm even makes landfall. this will uproot people s lives. its a life-threatening storm. this is the sunshine skyway bridge that we have pictures of. you can see the winds kicking
thursday, and in addition, several inches of rainfall will flow in and not have anywhere to drain. it won t go out in the harbors and the gulf. so a widespread inundation event here. talk to us more about the rainfall, the freshwater flooding that s expected. i m up here in tampa where i heard 12 to 24 inches of rain possible. how much of the state will see that. what kind of problems could that caught? that s a huge problem, especially long and just north of the track, as we move from southwest to northeast across the state of florida. on the north side, everywhere you see in red is the potential of 10 to 15 inches. that would cause the potential for cat trophic freshwater flooding, including this hair highlighted in pink. they have the potential for