n ordered to evacuate as hurricane rita now is bearing down on the state shr gulf coast in just a moment.t. florida governor rhonda santos will join us first herest with the very latest from thisrs category three storm weather. in meteorologist ian oliver is with us in thisoliver. looks like it s going to be a direct hit right over. looks like somewhereoks li nortr fort myers, right towards tampa. yeah, anywhere from naples. igto the southern part of tampa bay, the mouth of tampa bay: stl still a reasonable scenaril o ao here. this is a monster of a storm, still a category three , as your mentioned,ee max, winds at 120we miles per hour. we actually had this inner eye wall that s been degrading, but there s an outer one that s forming. what that does is it spreads out the wind field overh a much larger area. we ve seen these impacts starttw already. tornado warnings throughouarnint the afternoon and evening across much of south florida. we ve got some active onesh flom right
personnel stationed ready toione go in to get the power back on in these communities.e we ve gogot folks on the telecommunications front that have folks ready to go inte to repailecommdy to gor any of the infrastructure that may be damaged. and the state of florida alone, you we havwe havee contracts tog fuel in if we need that. and so so those i gettingrmal, everybody kind oyofu back to normal. you re right on some people sst. homes may end up being totally destroyed. but fortunately, most people sbk homes will not be they just need to get back in there and have normal servicespre-st restored. at so allght no ow.f that is pre sd right now. and as soon as it s safe to go in, they re going tohr clear the roads and they re going to get those linemen in there li toe to get the power be allrn right, governor , looko like every agency in florida at your disposal for full mobilization for this storm . yt i know your fellow countrymen from otherrymetates ar states ag ready to help as well.