remembered as the strongest storm ever to hit almost nothing except for tyndall air force base and the east side of panama city. when the rains clear and the blue skies come out, as they always do after hurricanes, we ll be able to see what happened in eastern bay county. we can hope it isn t too bad. of all the places to hit, it picked a damn good spot. emily is a multimedia reporter for fox news, meaning she works across all of our platforms. digital, radio, social, everywhere. who is probably experiencing her bad storm ever. is it, emily? and how are things in apalachicola? well, you know, i did just come from covering florence. i will say michael is giving florence a run for its money. we re just watching the water continue to rise and rise here in apalachicola. for the past couple of hours, been watching my car as the water slowly rises up my crew
we re getting hit. we have been for awhile. it s pretty difficult being out here. the rain is a soaking rain. it s coming in sideways. we ve seen roof tiles come off. we ve seen the building exterior being thrown into the sea. now we have a utility pole that s snapped in half, and lord knows what else in this community. shepard: and the eye of the storm is fully over land now and inland water ways headed for broad branch within the next 15 minutes you will be in the eye of the storm. do not go outside. to the east of this where they re getting enormous winds and rain, apalachicola. phil is there. reporter: wind just blasting me in the face with some rain.
we don t know what the eastern side of panama city will look like. we certainly don t know what tyndall air force base will look like. but we know the heavy population centers, the heart of tourism for bay county, has been spared. we are waiting to find out if the oyster beds in apalachicola, the engine for the economy in all of the big bend of florida, if those oyster beds are salvageable at least over the next couple of years. if not, there is going to be an enormous economic hardship on the good people of the big bend of florida because that is the center of the money world. the storm is still headed inland, headed right for georgia. our coverage is just beginning. this is fox news channel. we ll be right back. severe crohn s disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. is she alright? i hope so.
vehicle. we tried to find the highest point, one of the parking lots close to our hotel. we re on the third floor of the balcony. i can no longer see any road way from where i m standing. there s a lot of water here, shep. shepard: i want to listen to wala fox 10. their meteorologist giving us a live look. the drive along happening in miramar beach. we ll get there. let s go back to emily. have the winds subsided? have you noticed any changes in the last 30 minutes? do you know what? you can actually physically see these massive waves. they re continuing to come through here. maybe slightly we saw it subside slightly over the past 30 minutes but not very significantly. shepard: she s far, far east. i m sorry, emily. speaking to the control room. lots going on back here. where you are in apalachicola is
your house absolute horror because it is still way too dangerous to even venture outside. in fact, the local authorities in every single county do not want anybody leaving their house until the hurricane s gone, the rain has stopped and the roads are determined to be safe for travel. most likely, based on previous experiences, there will be a lot of roads with fallen pine trees, blocking access, making driving a whole lot of u-turns trying to get around, as well as live wires possibly down there in the water making that even more dangerous just to be walking in or standing in. the bridge that connection east point with apalachicola, a very low-lying bridge, completely closed. so everybody in apalachicola cannot leave until the water goes down. that s the deal. shepard: yep. phil keating live in apalachicola for us. want to give you an update on