but we are just so thankful that it s not as bad as it could have been. we were at a category 4, and at the time that it was actual landfall, we were down to a category 2. so although it sounds bad, it could have been much worse. of course. it s still pretty serious. anybody who hasn t been in those kinds of winds, you know, most people haven t felt winds sort of above the 50s. you re still gusting to about 54 right now. at what point can you have your emergency services go out and evaluate what s going on in sarasota? once we get below a sustained-mile-per-hour, 45 miles per hour, then we will begin to redispatch our law enforcement and first responders to go out and assess damage, looked for any downed trees, downed power lines, connect with our local authorities, and begin to start responding to 911 calls that were made during the storm. do you have any sense of what the major complaints have been,
it s still a tropical system. it s generating these very large rainfall totals. we re starting to see flood warnings go up along these coastal counties, not with surprise here because areas like the st. john s river starting to flod. th flood. to go along with it, nasty winds which remember when you throw water down into the sandy soils, it uproots trees, and you get flooded roadways that you can t see during the overnight hours. that s the major concern here. as we advance into the time period, you ll be able to see at least this thing s on the move. it s not stalling like harvey did. it s moving on to the north at about 14 miles per hour, so the projected path with it brings up through the big bend of florida and up into the georgia vicinity. but with that comes severe weather across georgia. also the high tide cycle. so as far north, which is kind of unprecedented, we re having areas of coastal flooding in
we heard about tropical storm force winds 400 miles from the center. this storm is just getting going for our northern neighbors. northward up through georgia and south carolina where the storm surge is still yet to come in. flooding, damaging winds still on the table here and the tornado threat, as well, as we go through the overnight hours. what s the situation as it relates to tampa? we have been wondering whether this thing will bob and weave, whether storm surges will be as dangerous. things are looking a little better. we have a surge going on but numbers have been revised downward. we are not going to see epic storm surge amounts. now between three, four, five, six feet which is about a moderate storm surge. it will cause some damage. there will be definitely some property inconveniences there. we are not looking for that far inland inunidation of water.
it is amazing to think and we are not really in the full effect of irma yet because we have to get through the eye wall and what they call the dirty side even though the fact that the storm has been over land is a good thing because it has absorbed a lot of energy although irma doesn t seem to be over it yet in terms of what forces she wants to bring certainly to tampa right now. look at this. it is amazing to look at how fast this is moving in terms of the water. sometimes it looks more ocean-like. the fact that this water is pouring in and it is almost as if a rip current of curling is creating. we ll keep you posted. again, the big number, though, north of 1.3 million people reported without power right now. so we ll get more information for you and get back to you when we learn about it. the winds are whipping. a lot of people were talking about power outages in florida, the numbers provided by fpl are not in the region you are in. these are extra people without
bring you the latest information. here is a sample of what they have been dealing with. 10:15 a.m. and the wind is battering us here in downtown miami. hurricane forcedmiami. we ve had hurricane-force wind gusts and look at the angry bay. we ve also got structural damage on the pier. i think some of this walkway is beginning to cave in here. reporter: we ve got about 2 1/2 feet of water in the street, and it goes all the way around here. i don t know how far it goes. earlier it was down about two blocks but the surge has come up higher with these persistent winds. the wind is still howling. right down the street, i can barely see the water up there because we re getting so much blow-off, the wind picking up the water and blowing the rain on the surface right in my direction. reporter: now it s really ripping, and this is the part you fear so much. it happens for just brief minutes. literally it will just happen for minutes, but this is the part of the storm you fear all