need millions to be prepared for the storm system because we have a lot of uncertain variables. through saturday very good agreement, south florida dealing with an impact from a category 5 storm. after that does it hug the coast of florida? does it move up the peninsula? does it skip the coast of florida and moving to georgia or the carolinas as a category 3 or 2 storm? those things are yet to be determined. i need folks to listen to local officials and forecasters as well and keep you posted. heather: the virgin islands have not been able to get in touch since the storm went through. before, they were not taking it seriously and they were devastated. rob: that storm is obese, those winds are insane. heather: the strongest storm they have seen in their history.
the seventh coast guard district in miami and he joins us by phone as well. thank you so much for joining us. what is the coast guard doing right now to prepare for this hurricane? thank you, don, for the opportunity to explain what your united states coast guard is doing. and i would add that in addition to being responsible for florida, i m also responsible for coast guard operations in puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands where we re dealing with the onset of the storm. we have several hundred people in puerto rico right now who are h hunkers down as others are. we re working to respond as soon as the sun comes up tomorrow. we have a number of helicopters that remained in puerto rico to provide live search and rescue. how are you protecting that rescue fleet right now? the helicopters are in a reinforced concrete hangar on
windshields have been ripped off, bumpers ripped off. it s an absolute disaster area. and you re used to hurricanes because you re from florida, right? vo south florida. i m on the west coast south of tampa. my family lives in bradenton on a bayou. how does this compare? we ve been evacuated before but we ve never seen anything like this. this was insane. there s a balcony that flew off above us, where other groups were staying before they caught the flight out before the storm. it s hanging on by a thread. we tied it to our balcony so that it doesn t move but it s just it s really scary because it came down at one point when the rain was blowing so hard and we were pretty nervous it was going to blow right through the doors into our unit. i m not sure what we would have done had that happened. loren, you be safe. i appreciate it. thank you for joining us here on
evacuation orders in place throughout much of florida but some are staying behind. two storm chasers join us next. i ll ask if they ll stick to their plans to stay through the storm. that s next. look at the eye. cancer challenges us.
people, when you talk to them on the street is, well, i can take a category 3 storm. if it s higher than a 3 i ll leave. if not, i ll stay. every message from the government is clearly stating it s time for people to leave. they should adhere to that. the o piece we can be cognizant of, florida has taken extreme measures to help their people be prepared. it s the only state with a generator law, requires certain gas stations along the evacuation route. the program you re talking about with the elderly and disabled. that s a federally funded program. there was a retired marine colonel that s advocacy for people with disability and they make sure they have them organized so they re prepared to evacuate them. but we must not take comfort in