it s wednesday, 31st january. our main story. scotland s former first minister, nicola sturgeon is due to give evidence about the decisions she took during the pandemic, when she appears before the covid inquiry today. ms sturgeon, who led the scottish response to the coronavirus outbreak is expected to face questions surrounding lockdowns, and missing whatsapp messages as the inquiry continues sitting in edinburgh. our scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports. 1,044 positive cases were reported yesterday. nicola sturgeon was at the helm throughout scotland s pandemic response. as head of the scottish government, she was the key decision maker and first in the firing line when things went wrong. we will have made mistakes on all aspects of the handling. now about to be questioned on that handling and how decisions the truth, the whole truth. the former first minister s closest political ally amongst those who admitted texts between the pair no longer exist. are those t
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
by 8:00, there s some places that will still have 100 miles an hour winds. that may surprise some people. they were expecting 24, 48 hours ago they weren t expecting a hurricane. we continue to look at the radar over your shoulder there. now we re about to exit the panama city area and about to head up towards i-10. it s one of those areas. now we ll start talking about this storm crossing into geor a georgia. all right. let s bring back ken graham, director of the national hurricane center. this has been an extraordinary two hours for ali and i sitting here watching this storm progress. how have things changed for you since we spoke? you keep making the force for
those storms that is a nervous of wreck for forecasters and all florida residents, especially in the northern gulf and into areas of mississippi, alabama. i haven t even completely ruled out our friends there in louisiana, although i d like to. let s show you the forecast path. it s just one of those storms that is it trying to snake its way around the land areas. it s hard to miss florida if you look at it. extends pretty far down to the south in the gulf. but this storm has its target to try to move through the florida straits. in other words, it s already been a rainy, miserable day in south florida. not a lot of time to do your preparations, most people indoors. the rain is going to get worse through the day tomorrow. the question is, what will the strength of the storm be? the hurricane center has it as a category 1 storm crossing the keys. there s a chance it could only be a tropical storm. it s weak right now, down along the coastline of cuba. if it happens to track over cuba in
that now that it s come ashore. it s just a tropical storm. it first made landfall last night as a cat 2 storm crossing into northern mexico south of brownsville, texas. it did not hit the lone star state very hard. dropped rain and triggered a couple of tornadoes but no one has reported any injuries. in mexico the floods killed at least two people, tore down power poles and trees and dumped more than a foot of rain in some spots. our chief meteorologist rick reichmuth in the extreme weather center tonight. still causing trouble, rick. it is. it s ringing out more moisture. maybe another 6 or 7 inches of rain across mexico. winds still around 40 miles per hour. still moving off to the west. i will tell you we are watching all of this energy kind of meet one a cold front that s diving down from the south. take a look at this picture, shepard, all along the gulf here we have got showers and thunderstorms going on. some of these pretty heavy. some areas are going to pick up another 5 to