or not is a tough one for a lot of folks. the governor has been pretty clear, it s time to leave yesterday at least, jose diaz-balart, thank you so much, sir. we ll back to you throughout the morning. joining us is the director of the national hurricane center in miami, dr. michael brennan. dr. brennan, thanks for being with us today. what s the latest information you have on what s becoming and now is a category 4 storm, winds 130 miles an hour. yeah, idalia s worst effects are moving into the big bend. you can see the eye moving steadily toward the north-northeast quickly at 17 miles an hour, maximum sustained winds around 130 miles an hour and now starting to see the catastrophic storm surge start to take place across portions of dixie, taylor counties like cedar key, water levels will come up here very, very quickly in the next hour or two as the eye wall of idalia moves onshore and brings those catastrophic winds that you see in the core of a category 4 hurricane to the coast
as we track that deadly hurricane, morning joe starts right now. this is crunch time right now. we re going to get hit with a major hurricane. if you re there while that hits, it s going to be very difficult to survive that. it s critical that the people that are in the path of this storm are also prepared. very few people can survive being in the path of major storm surge and this will be deadly if we don t get out of harm s way and take it seriously. hurricane idalia now a category 4 storm as we wake up this morning, forecast to make landfill sometime in the next couple of hours along florida s big bend where the peninsula merges into the panhandle. it will have winds of 130 to 156 miles per hour with a high risk of injury, death and will produce catastrophic damage inevitably. another major concern, expected
likely to see, you know, a high level of wind damage here. all right, gabe, with that warning from bill and mine we ll let you go duck inside. the eye wall headed your way, bill says, in the next 15 or 20 minutes with some incredibly powerful winds and let you and the crew take cover. we appreciate your reporting this morning. thanks so much. again, hurricane idalia, a category 3 now, but just by a few miles per hour of wind is it not a category 4. incredibly dangerous storm set to make landfill at keaton beach, florida, according to governor desantis and his team there within this hour. before 8:00 eastern time. officials warning residents to leave immediately as 54,000 people remain without power. actually they say it s too late to leave, hunker down. we ll tell you where idalia is headed next and speak with the mayors of tallahassee, tampa and st. petersburg, updates on what they re seeing on the ground as the sun now rises and the hurricane prepares to make landfill. morning joe