hour. the category 4 storm is currently barreling across southwest florida with winds up to 150 miles per hour. more than 1.5 million people in the state are currently without power, and that number is growing. but the most imminent and life-threatening concern is the storm surge. some areas seeing 12 to 18 feet. to give you an idea of just how severe that is, a meteorologist for the national hurricane center says no one alive has seen 12 feet of storm surge in that area, and many areas could take years to recover. just take a look at this surge today. the dangers are a reality for many who chose to hunker down and wait out the storm despite the evacuation orders. take a look at what family told nbc affiliate wbbh as their house flooded. so this is ft. myers beach on cutlass drive. it s four of us. four of us? on cutlass drive. and you re on the second floor already? yeah. six of us in here. do you have do you have a roof? 15 feet of water now. there s 15 fe
extreme wind warning, this area of purple heading to the northeast of punta gorda, what that means it s the equivalent of a tornado heading your way. everyone s phones are going off. if they re watching tv, they re getting the message alert on their tvs telling them to get to their safe rooms, an interior room, put pillows on top of you, blankets. put the twin mattress on top you in the bathtub. we still have a major category 3 hurricane that s moving over. you get that feeling of we don t have the reporters getting blown around anymore at the coast. but for the people inland from the ft. myers, cape coral, port charlotte area, this is still a very significant event and a very scary evening where it sounds like a train, the house is shaking, the windows are shaking and the power is out, so you don t even know what s going on. it s scary and that s what s happening right now, joy. i know you were wondering about the water situation.
likely 120 to 130 miles per hour. so you got extreme wind damage and you had catastrophic, historic storm surge. that s kind of like when we see the pictures tomorrow of, okay, what area was hit the worst, it s cape coral and ft. myers, both low-lying areas where the water went miles inland during the peak of the storm surge this afternoon. the water s still up, but it s on its way down finally. that s kind of the stage we re getting at. and then as far as the winds go, anywhere from port charlotte northwards, it wasn t a surge event because the storm made landfall over you. so you had mostly the tide the wind was blowing the water out to sea. from arcadia to venice, inwood i m not talking about surge. we have to deal with flash flooding concerns. that hasn t developed yet, but that will tonight as the storm tracks up towards orlando. so just in the last hour, this