we are still getting these very strong bands of rain and wind. i do think the big story here, there is a storm surge in place. we re in evacuation area here. a few people trying to get shots. we have police patrols constantly telling them they re in an evacuation zone and should go home. i think power will be an issue. last report around the state and certainly to the south of us 193,000 people now without power. that number is expected to go much higher as it goes throughout the rest of today and into tomorrow. right now we re just at the beginning of hurricane ian. back to you. bill: good to have you down there. back with you momentarily. ashley webster in st. pete s. dana: lauren is live in st. petersburg. tell us when you re seeing there. we are on st. pete pitch a little way from ashley. police are trying to check any one trying to come over here
vulnerable here in charlotte county. we hope our residents took heed of that, and have sought shelter. now is the time to hunker down. we re experiencing the impacts and being out on the roadways, not in a hardened facility is not the place to be. for folks listening in these areas, what does husker down mean? we had an official on earlier this horng, who said with winds above 40, 50 miles an hour we re well above that rescue crews cannot go out. can you make an emergency call, they may give you advice, but you will not guess rescued. what do people need to know and do? hunker down means get inside a structure, the firmest structure you can, move to the interior of the building, away from windows. hopefully if you are in your home outside an evacuation area, the shutters are put up if you
further south, the winds are actually pushing all of this water out of the bay. it is happening up and down from here all the way down to fort myers. strength of the storm is pulling the water out of the bays. in some places dry. now authorities are say don t be deceived. right now the storm is moving onshore. once it moves onshore all the water will rush into the bay area. it is very low behind me. this will start to grow and we are in an evacuation area here. we could still see a storm surge. we re only just getting going and again as i say, harris, 100 miles north of the storm. i think the biggest problem will be the rainfall, trees coming down with winds up to 80 miles per hour later today and it will lead to power outages. we re seeing more than 200,000 in florida. governor earlier this morning said he is expecting millions of
comes onshore, moves up toward orlando. luckily, orlando is only in a hurricane category, now this cat 2. that s a large zone with trees down. we already have 175,000 people without pow e. and then this area up north of orlando, maybe toward the villages, 20 inches of rain? so many hazards. another hazard, tornadoes, tornado watch in effect, too. the last thing they need. chad, thank you. we ll also speak next with the sheriff of pinellas county, completely closing access to the barriers islands, and his message to anyone who stays behind. that s next. later, in nearby fort myers, and thesese are live pictures, r guest made the decision to s st in what is a mandatory evacuation area. that s not whahat officials are
pence caved. if pence caved? we re gonna drag people through the streets. hang mike pence! hang mike pence! bring out pence! the threat to the vice president s life was so intense in the media, that the secret service hustled him and his family quickly, downstairs, to a secured evacuation area where they stayed for four and a half hours. these are images of the vice president of the united states, in wet a looks like a parking garage? and it looks like something that you would see out of a movie, where a high-ranking public official sometimes becomes [inaudible] . that s the plot. this is real life, and the pressure campaign by trump and his allies on pence to block the certification of joe biden s win, including, in quote, a heated phone call between trump and pence on the morning of january 6th. which ivanka trump, and others,