A very high level. Some are saying its one of the biggest storms ever to hit our country. It built very rapidly,ed a briefing with secretary of Homeland Security and the administrator of fema and we are watching Hurricane Michael. Its just hitting shore now. Winds are going up to close to 200 miles an hour. Category 4. You dont hear about that. Its the most powerful recorded storm to strike the Florida Panhandle ever. It will bring with it anywhere from 150 mile to almost 200 mile an hour winds. The storm surges could be up to 15 feet. Additional rainfall could also produce Flash Flooding at the highest levels. We have been in constant communications with governor rick scott of florida. With all the authorities in the various states. Were very well prepared for massive amounts of food and we have First Responders all over, the Electrical Companies are staged and ready to go in after the storm. Over a thousands trucks. We have large amounts of food and water and Everything Else that you
wee talked to one mayor south of tallahassee said the power is already out. then we have to keep saying who s next as we go throughout the day? as we go further north, the storm in about two hours from now across interstate 10, that s when the storm will be as close as it will get to tallahassee and then it will hold. kerry sanders is out there in panama city. he can t hear us but i think he s already talking to us as though he can. let s go to kerry. that s brutal. that s a good wind. kerry may not know he has a hot mic. kerry, if you can hear us,
beach. we re back looking at images from panama city beach, florida. it looks as though the rear view mirror on the passenger side has been ripped off. we spoke to kerry sanders on panama city outside his hotel and lester holt who is inside a three-story structure and he couldn t even show us outside the window because it was too dangerous. lester and his crew put the mattresses against those glass sliding doors. for people who do this on a regular basis, those of us who have covered a number of hurricanes, you don t really hear the words too dangerous from us a lot. we run toward these things. it s what we do. so when you have veteran hurricane reporters telling you that it s dangerous, it s the real thing her glasses blew off her head. while she was on tv. kerry sanders baseball helmet blew off his head. mariana was holding onto something.
it was is upsunny and then t water game up. all the storms are unique. this one isn ts big and doesn t carry as much moisture. it s moving faster. if it was moving slower, we would be talking about potential for rain. we expect localized flash flooding. nothing that will be close to huge river flooding or anything like that? it carries a lot of power. let s go back to kerry sanders. he s just outside his hotel the. i m kerry sanders in panama city beach, florida. we re facebook live reporting as the hurricane is hitting us with the hardest winds that hurricane michael has presented to this community so far. the eye wall passed about 15 miles from us. the mexico city beach or the
has come ashore just to the east of us. the wind is blowing. there s hopefully no debris in this area. i m going to wrap it up. even though we have some protection here with the helmet. probably safer to move inland and get up to a building where we have some protection. i m kerry sanders, nbc news for facebook live. kerry has done a lot of hurricanes. he knows how to keep himself safe. he saved a dolphin last year. he did. i saw it live. when you hear these guys telling you how damgs it is, you know it s serious. this is what we saw earlier. there goes his helmet. losing a baseball helmet. that s really wind. i ve seep him deal with hurricanes for a long time. that s a struggle. i m fascinating that bill says