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
stream of traffic, a scene leaving the tampa area. this happened overnight. people trying to get inland from the coast taking cover. the storm, perhaps, testing their patience. one tampa resident waited three hours to get free sandbags. a u.s. military insulation, moving aircraft can and naval ships out of the tampa and jacksonville areas. an idea how big the storm is, nasa released this video of hurricane ian from the international space station. all right. i want to bring in michael brennan, acting deputy brechter of the noaa. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. michael, thanks, again, for joining us today as well. so tell us, obviously tampa low-liaring. what is the greatest threat? along much of the west central florida coast from tampa down to the fort myers area. since yesterday seen the track shift farther to the south or to the east. expecting the center of the end to cross the coast of west central florida near the south of the region increases r
Going to one particular shelter near ft. Myers. Many of them are still waiting to get in. Were going to check in with our drew griffin whos there in the hour ahead. But first, lets get the latest most porntdly on where this storm is headed. Allison chinchar is in the Weather Center. Bring us up to date. Right, anderson. Take a look at what we have right now, imagery where we can see the latest on irma. Winds 125 Miles Per Hour gusting up to 155 Miles Per Hour. The movement its been what we call wobbling where its going back and forth between west and north and west and north. The question is when does it finally start to make that really sharp turn to the north. We focus on the maximum wind gusts. Notice for the most part its the western half of florida where we have our strongest winds. Key west, this will be our peak maximum wind gusts around 138 Miles Per Hour. But say up around ft. Myers 136, even tampa going to be in the triple digits right around 116 Miles Per Hour. The track its