congressman charlie crist. former florida governor. stand by for a second because i want to show our viewers this is the map of the tampa area and this is the level a areas. all the red stuff basically everything that touches water is low lying. this is what the mayor of tampa has asked people to leave to go at least to the level b areas which are not very far. sometimes it is a matter of a block or two to get to level b and level c and d and e. you don t have to go far in the tampa st. pete area to get away from the most dangerous parts of it. congressman crist, the measurements we are getting in naples with respect to the storm surge are for the moment optimistic. it bodes well for points north that the storm surge doesn t seem to be at the moment as high as we have been expecting it. the night is young yet, though. that s a good point. and we are getting the same reports here in st. petersburg. i can tell you that what thomas
as tampa which is where we find thomas roberts in tampa where they are bracing for a rise in the waters. they have evacuated those areas that are closest to the water. thomas, tell me what the situation is with the lights down now in tampa. reporter: as you know tampa st. petersburg area is a beautiful one that is surrounded by all these different coastal water ways on the southwest florida side. we have seen this storm move in much more ferociously as the sun has gone down. the light of the day has gone down and biggest worry is the river. this is one of the main drinking reservoirs for the city and they have a dam in which they can control and release some water but there was an issue of concern with what we saw with tampa bay receding and giving energy to irma. as you see down there one of the cross ways you can tell how deep
it magnifies the storm surge. it enhances that rise of water and we have a graphic to show you what eight feet of storm surge looks like, what 12 feet of storm surge looks like. it s unimaginable to most people. tampa has not been hit directly by a hurricane since 1921. there s a consulting firm in boston, karen clark and company, they did a big study a couple years ago, a category 4 storm the size of katrina hitting tampa could produce $175 billion in damage. pinellas county second only to new orleans when it comes to low land elevation and flood risk. so with each passing hour, the computer models seem to be unified, converging on a track right up the gulf coast, naples, sarasota, ft. myers, and tampa st. pete, and i m really worried about what might happen in tampa, especially late tomorrow, and sunday night. paul, you showed us that
season. florida is not the only state that will deal with the wrath of this storm. you can see the path of it there on the screen as it heads up the east coast. steve harrigan is live in florida this morning where they are already feeling this one. hi, steve. reporter: martha, conditions here really deteriorating over the past hour or so in the tampa-st. pete area. we re seeing heavy rain as the band comes through here. the storm is center of it is north and west of here but really this area could get hit the hardest. we ve seen winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour. the real problem will be the rain, anywhere from three inches already has fallen. that could get up to six to eight incheses in some areas. the concern if you couple that with a storm surge of two to four feet, we could see real heavy flooding both along the coast and inland. another concern too is tornadoes. two have touched down. minor damage was reported. no injuries from the two tornadoes. multiple counties in florida
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