sounding the alarm along florida s west coast. people are urged to get out of florida s way. tampa s mayor tells residents if you can leave, just leave now. officials say the tampa region could see a storm of a lifetime. more than 15 million people are expected to feel the impact of ewh e ian when it arrives. 115 hour with the winds and could cause life-threatening storm surge, and storm surge is the biggest concern right now. so far ahead of the storm, the hospital in st. petersburg suspended service, transported patients, schooled and universities closed, at least three cruise lines re-routed passengers. the tampa bay airport will suspend operations at 5:00 p.m. today and nasa moved the artemis rocket back to the hangar for trekz. look at this video showing a steady stream of traffic leaving the tampa bay area monday night heading inland to safety. people hunkering down as well, though. the storm perhaps testing their patience. one tampa resident waited three hours to get
here, traffic cameras showing interstate 4, which connects the tampa bay area out into the central part of florida, the orlando area, that showed cars bumper-to-bumper at around tern a 10:00 and 11:00 at night. one woman at a sandbag distribution site said she made reservations for her family, going to orlando. a lot of emergency officials telling folks, look. just because there s an evacuation order doesn t mean you have to leave the state. just get to safer ground, higher ground. so they want folks to either head to one of these emergency shelters. if you can t get there, go ahead and make your way a little bit more inland. again, a lot of folks leaving the tampa bay area heading central, the central part of florida. most likely orlando being their destination. john? carlos, the storm surge the concern. the most important thing is to get inland. carlos suarez in gulfport, thanks so much. right now in cuba, the powerful storm is slamming the