right in the path of hurricane idalia, which is now a category 2 storm, a strengthening category 2 storm. it s got wind speeds of 105 miles per hour. it s expected to get up to 110 miles per hour, maybe 115. it will make landfall it is expected as a major hurricane. it s not the wind speed that is of the greatest concern, though, it s the storm surge expected to be 10 to 15 in some places. including right near in steinhatchee. we are lucky enough to be at a marina right now. it s dark so you can t see it. but we re standing at the docks of the sea hag marina right on the river here. with me is one of the members of the family that operates this marina, chase norwood. great to see you, chase. and also with us is our chief climate correspondent bill weir. chase, you and your family, first of all, thank you for letting us be here tonight. but you have chosen to stay, despite the warnings to leave. so this marina is pretty much
spoke to someone on one of these planes, lieutenant commander josh rainenberg. lieutenant commander, i understand you have just flown through the eye wall of idalia. tell me what you saw. yes, sir, we just did. and right now on the north side of the storm. we re about 200 miles west of tampa. and we saw mostly what we expected. we saw an intensifying hurricane. and we were able to find the center of the storm successfully. and right now we re loitering north, getting ready to go back into the eye of the storm. what s it like to fly through the eye, the eye wall of a hurricane, which we all know is the most intense, most powerful part? it can be a little bit unpredictable. and at times scary. but as a pilot, we re trained to do certain things inside the aircraft to make it perform in the way we want it to.
tonight, really early tomorrow morning, right around dawn. wind speeds right now at 105 miles per hour. they are expected to strengthen north of 110, which would make it a major hurricane at landfall. now there is other news, including the funeral for wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin. we want to take a moment now to mark that. it comes six days after he and nine others died aboard a still unsolved plane crash in russia, and more than two months after the short-lived rebellion against the russian military and by connection vladimir putin. our matthew chance in russia tonight where even prigozhin s funeral site is shrouded in secrecy. don t believe the evidence of your own eye. not in russia. police checkpoints and metal detectors at the main cemetery
wasn t so much the wind as the water. i tried swimming to higher ground, but there was no higher ground. reporter: according to the national hurricane center, storm surge flooding measured 10 to 28 feet above normal tide levels. the storm surge that poured into lake pontchartrain breached the levee system, flooding most of new orleans. catastrophic flooding spread for miles inland, destroying residential neighborhoods. it came in so fast. it was from 1 inch to 10 feet in the matter of ten minutes. reporter: nearly 1400 people perished during the hurricane and the floods that followed. most of them drowned. katrina is a prime example of how deadly a storm surge can be. in 2008, hurricane ike made landfall as it swept over galveston island on the texas coast. i was a category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 110 miles per hour. much of the area saw devastating storm surges of 15 to 20 feet
forecast models, and that s what helps reduce the margin of error between forecast and what actually happens. and that will help not just for this storm, but for every storm in the future. and you said you re headed back in. how many more times will you fly through this hurricane? we re going fly through at least one more time, possibly two to three more times. we have some scientists on board with secretary objectives. so depending how much fuel we have and conditions of the storm, we may decide to go back in and reach some of those additional objectives. based on what you re seeing, is this a storm that is intensifying as it heads towards landfall? yes. so far the forecast has been true to that. it is intensifying, and it has been throughout our flight. lieutenant commander john