aaa relies on t-mobile s network to stay connected nationwide, so they can help get their members back on the road. and we re helping pano ai innovate, to stop the spread of wildfires. now s the time to see what america s largest 5g network can do for your business. welcome back to our continuing coverage of hurricane idalia off florida s western coast. storm preparations are under way as state officials urge residents in low-lying areas to evacuate. 49 of the state s 67 counties are under a state emergency, and at least 30 of those counties have issued evacuation orders. governor ron desantis says resources are being made available throughout the state to help restore power and respond to threats of life if
capturing this image of idalia from above. it may look calm, but the storm currently has maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour. actually want to take you now to governor desantis who is speaking now about storm preparations. let s listen. module with expedia, so if you want to find a hotel, you can go to expedia.com/florida. we are coordinating, continue to coordinate with the power companies across the state. we had as of this morning over 25,000 linemen stationed, more on the way, so you will have most likely between 30,000 and 40,000 linemen when the storm hits will be in the state of florida and they will immediately move to commence power restoration efforts. we ve also been working with counties to make sure that they know that we have resources ready to deploy and we want to be helpful to support their efforts. so we have received more than 450 active missions that we are
cut off by 8 to 12 feet of storm surge. later this hour we expect an update on storm preparations from governor ron desantis. we ll bring that to you live. until then our cnn teams are across florida covering the storm from every angle. we re going to start with cnn chief meteorologist chad myers. tell us the latest on idalia and its path. reporter: yeah, the 5:00 advisory just in. 100 mile per hour storm, a category 2 with 120 mile per hour gusts. the hurricane hunter that i said was leaving biloxi did make it to the storm, so they did get the update ot100 moving north at 16 miles per hour. that means this storm isn t going to be in the water for hours. we don t want this thing in the water for 35 more hours getting more and more strength to it. that is one of the good pieces. another thing that happened in