we had some of the strongest winds here so far. good evening, once again, i am stephanie ruhle. we are continuing live coverage of hurricane in, the category four storm made landfall on florida s west coast this afternoon, and it is still battering the state with heavy rain and hurricane-force winds. right now, more than 2 million homes and businesses in the state of florida are without power. let s get right to nbc meteorologist michelle grossman for the latest. michelle, i know you just got the 11 pm update for the national hurricane center. what have you learned? i will look at it with you, because it s right at the presses. we re still looking at a strong storm. we re looking at heavy rainfall, gusty winds, and we will look at what we are seeing in terms of wednesday, because we are holding on to the strength. let s hold back for a second because you saw wind speeds up to 135 miles per hour. this was a historical storm, if it is the big historical, catastrophic. we ll
rainfall totals, nearly 20 inches in some spots. we could get up to 30 inches in some spots. here is the latest, we are looking at a category one storm, there was a category two before the 11 clock advisory. the winds are now at 95 miles per hour, we re looking at 70 miles south of orlando florida. we will have a tough night in orlando, because we re looking at heavy rainfall falling, the rain will be falling for hours an hour, and we re looking at the movement that is slow. it s not that three or four that we thought it would be. we thought it be a slow walking speed. this is over the slow. it is across the peninsula of florida. you will see all the heavy rain, the reds and oranges, that s where we are seeing the heaviest rainfall. it s not moving far, but look how far it stretches to, so we re taking up most of the peninsula, so that s what we will see over the next day or so, category one storm, that is the latest. the brighter colors, the heaviest rain. we do have a heavy flood t
then all of a sudden, yes, you re into ft. myers. so there s no question that at the 5 clock advisory if this thing doesn t start turning the hurricane center could slide that higher surge on up to ft. myers for sure. and it s not out-the question that this thing gets into tampa. that s why i need everybody on the west side of the state to watch this. you re still in the cone, tampa, and you ve never been out of the cone. ft. myers never been out of the cone. cape coral, never been out of the cone. so, you know, this is still a great forecast, 120 hours ago, we were still forecasting this hurricane center was, and they re still right on the money. in fact, chad, last thing i heard you say in the previous hit was for tampa to expect 5 to 8 foot of storm surge and there s been upgraded. that s right. we were talking about zone one, pinellas, and hills prborohills listening to your local officials there because we may have to raise the zone from a to b around parts of tampa if it look