Got failed is coming up into minutes, first this update residents of the big bend gulf coast of florida who have not already evacuated are weathering the worst of hurricane helene tonight the major category 4 storm now expected to make landfall in about 1 hour in a region that has been battered by big storms the last couple of years the senior correspondent steve harrigan is live on the ground in crystal river, florida, up here it how are the conditions where you are right now? the wind has definitely picked up in the last hour appeared we ve seen gusts knock down some street signs up your kiss is going to come to show sure as a category 4 storm. It s good to be a huge storm also. The effects will be felt not just in florida but in georgia and the carolinas as well there are also concerned about a storm surge that could reach 20 feet in some places. That s being called on survivable. Evacuations have been in effect of the past 2 days here. Cruise are set to go out as is the national gu
Cnn breaking news good evening. I m abby phillip in new york. Our special coverage continues tonight of hurricane helene, a monster category four storm that is now moments away from making landfall in florida. At this moment, it was too late now for folks along the coast too evacuate. Officials warned that the winds and the storm surge will be be catastrophic in some areas, the word that they are using is unsurvivable helene could be the strongest storm on record for the big bend region. And we are already starting to see a major surge in these cities. So we have our anchors and our correspondents. They re fanned out as the storm is now hitting and we have chad myers as well with the latest forecast in the cnn weather center. Let s go first to john berman. He s out in tallahassee in the socalled dead on a hit zone, john, what s happening where you are right now? yeah the winds have really started to pick up abby over the last half an hour. The rain really coming down here, you can see
Tallahassee within the next few hours. Now, right now, helene is an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour. So, for more than 545,000 households in florida, they are reportedly without power and thousands have been ordered to evacuate from their homes. As you can see from these satellite images, helene is huge and is expected to affect nearly the entire state of florida with damaging winds and heavy rain. So, what may bring the most danger are the storm surges. Earlier today, residents experienced flooding in places like pine island, which is just outside of fort myers. But, flooding will likely get much worse across the state as the night continues. A storm surge warning is in place for almost the entirety of florida s west coast. This video is a simulation of what could happen if the storm surge rises to approximately 10 feet. But, in some parts of florida, officials look worn that a hurricane helene could cause storm surges of up
Now on the last word with lawrence o donnell. Good evening, we will get to andrew weissmann and other news, but we will begin with the hurricane. As you just heard from alex wagner, there are 600,000 people are ready without power. We will go straight to nbc news meteorologist bill karins at this hour for the latest on exactly what the track of the storm is. What do you see coming? we are in the impact his own. We are now watching the northern eye move onshore and it is like the equivalent of a tornado that is 40 miles wide that is now moving into florida and it will knock down everything in its path if it is not made of concrete or brick. You can see where the storm is. It has intensified all afternoon and all evening long. It is a solid category 4, almost to the higher end of category 4. The hurricane hunters said it is still intensifying right up until landfall. This is the coast and where the really destructive winds are and now they are starting to close in on populated areas. Thi
Theyre saying it could Go To 9 . That would be worse than two years ago, except it would be selfinflicted, really key line from the authors here. They say that we find ironically that the spot fight his make the foreigners pay rhetoric. This package of policies does more damage to the u. S. Economy than to any other in the world which kate, i just think brings us to one of the ironies here, right . The economy is the number one issue. Voters say they trust trump over harris on the economy. And yet these experts, when they dig into the policies, they he say that he wouldnt just fail to fix inflation. He would actually make things worse brutal, brutal analysis for sure. Thank you so much. Matt were going to head over to florida right now where the governor of florida is holding an update on Hurricane Helene as its making its way to the Gulf Coast and major general John Haas from the Florida National Guard as you know, as of 8 00 a. M. Hurricane helene is now a category two hurricane. It