to 12 feet in some areas, and so that would be life-threatening storm surge. you run from the water and you hide from the wind. if you are there in storm surge, you are putting your life in jeopardy when it gets to be that high. at least 22 florida counties have issued evacuations. 10 of the counties have made evacuations mandatory. we have the cnn team tracking every angle of the storm, and we begin with eric van dam who is live with us in clearwater, florida. derek, what is biggest risk for people right now? without a doubt, storm surge, boris. it is the main concern with this storm, but so many other threats from idalia from inland flooding to constructive winds to bring down trees, power lines and you name it, it is a lot, but we will talk about the storm, and the details first, a then we
the way out was saying, you know, this is one of the last flights into chicago from austin, so we felt really lucky. and then, you know, we came to find out that everybody had gotten delayed and now we re going through l.a. but i think it s going to be fine. it s been changing by the minute. reporter: and that s the thing, all these people you re talking to are trying to figure out what is changing with our flights, are they delayed, is it canceled, am i going to have to get a hotel. we were also downstairs at o hare, a long line of people trying to figure out where their baggage is. they might check in, their flight gets canceled, they don t know if they can get their bags. so all of these factors coming into play when that demand to at least get home or to other places is as high as really it would ever be over the course of the year. omar jimenez at chicago s o hare, thank you so much. the big question, how long is this going to last? eric van dam is in atlanta where it feel
leaks. there are more than 3 dozen strong afsh shocks after the quake. no reports ofatal tis and most of the county has no power. a fast-approaching arctic blast has put the eastern two-thirds of the country under a winter holiday alert. bone-chilling temperatures, and blizzard conditions are expected, and the windchill in some areas could plummet to 50 degrees below zero. eric van dam is here to talk about what forecasters are talking about a life threatening bomb cyclone. walk us through it. yes, it means that mother nature is meaning business with this storm. it is a literal actual shock to the system, and quite literally. and in fact, denver may have the coldest day in 32 years dropping 50 degrees fahrenheit in a matter of 12 hours. bomb cyclone is a term
and stay safe. appreciate it. councilman joseph derosa, thanks very much there in new orleans. thank you. we ll see coverage from all angles. eric van dam filed this report from houma in louisiana as residents prepared for ida. last money preparations taking place. where i m standing. over a hundred thousand residents call this parish home. you can see the individuals from the government actually dumping fresh sand within this area. men, women and children coming to fill as many sandbags as they possibly can to help protect property and lives and their businesses. this is a particularly vulnerable part of southern louisiana. where i m standing now, only ten feet above sea level with a storm surge projection of 15 feet within this particularly parish. that makes this area under
eye, you don t get as much center. it s the eye wall on the outside. that s where the wind truly is right now. now, it moves up to the east coast and these computers we ve been watching for days, they haven t been great. finally a couple of days ago they started to get better. but they are human generated on human-made computers with human error. it s the error that we talk about left or right. could it be close to cape canaveral? absolutely. if that happens and cape canaveral gets the eye wall, that s 120 mile per hour. if it stays off shore, we ll get wind of 60 or 70. let s hope for the best, chad. thank you for being on top of this for us. let me take you to stewart, florida, where eric van dam is. it s just a little bit motor of