deteriorating. good evening, omar. reporter: good evening. hurricane ian made landfall less than 100 miles from where we are, but you can see how powerful the storm is that far away. this is the manatee river, and it is choppy. water is am category over the riverwalk. we re expecting a storm surge that could be anywhere from 7-10 feet. part of that will be driven by some of the wind you re seeing around me. 50 miles an hour, some of the gusts up to 80 miles an hour. rain right now. this is actually a little bit of rain right now. we re expecting 10-12 inches. speaking of water, it s a problem here in bradenton, because one of the plants is out so the city is urging people to try to conserve water. we are starting to see some severe tree damage but people are indoors. that s the good news. they are riding it outs. norah. o donnell: omar villafranca, thank you very much. ian s hurricane-force winds and record storm surge is dangerous for the millions of residents
winds to arrive in the next 24 hours. this bridge, we do anticipate closing several times because of floodwaters. reporter: saint augustine fire chief carlos aviles. on thursday, it will be very windy, very rainy, and there will be a significant amount of water covering most of the roadways. reporter: in 2017, during hurricane irma, almost 400 gallons of sewage leaked into water during power failures. the city has spent millions to prevent that from happening again. brad s wife and two young daughters are also getting ready. how do you feel about riding out the storm? a little nervous. but hopefully everything will be fine. reporter: forecasters are predicting 15-plus inches of rain up and to five feet of storm surge through friday. now, if the melvins are flooded out of their home, they say they have a boat and a kayak to try to reach higher ground. norah. o donnell: so much of florida affected. meg oliver, thank you.
although tampa missed a direct hit from hurricane ian, this city right here is not out of the woods just yet. we are experiencing wind gusts at more than 60 miles per hour. and record rainfall and flooding will continue through the night. cbs david begnaud is here with us as well. good evening, david. reporter: good evening, norah. it s starting to rock n roll. we re not too far from you. i m standing where there should be water, but all day we ve been watching something quite phenomenal water pulled out of tampa bay and literally pushinto the gulf of mexico. it s known as reverse storm surge. five to six feet of it pulled out of here. now, at some point it s going to come pubbing back in with potentially damaging results. so we re on the northwestern side of the storm where you re seethe reverse storm surge, and on the southeastern side where manny and omar other and people are, you have storm surge in excess of 16 feet. bottom line tampa was going to take a direct hit. it s no
thank you, jim. meteorologist alex wilson is also with our partners at the weather channel. she s in orlando and tracking where hurricane ian is headed next. good evening, alex. reporter: good evening, norah. yeah, already seeing the tropical storm conditions here in orlando. hurricane-force gusts possible by mid-morning tomorrow. the storm will move off towards the north and east, tracking across florida, weakening as it does so, but moving slowly and bringing heavy rain, also tornado risks, and strong winds across the peninsula. then by the end of the week and into the weekend, actually moving into parts of the southeast, bringing the same issues. the most widespread threat though out of ian moving forward likey to be the flooding rainfall. here in the central part of florida, we could see well over a foot, easily exceeding, even doubling our average september rainfall. norah, back to you. o donnell: yeah, still many more millions to be affected. alex, thank you.
an emergency trailer breaking loose and floating down the street. several feet of water flooded this fire station. please, people, we encourage you all to please stay off the road. reporter: president biden says fema is ready to help as soon as the storm is over. the federal government is going to be there to help you recover. we ll be there to help you clean up and rebuild, to help you florida get moving again. reporter: a difficult day will become a long night. we got an alert, an emergency message on our phones late this afternoon saying that water rescues would again, but after the storm passes, but saying that some of these impacts also are expected to last through the night. norah. o donnell: all right, manuel bojorquez, stay safe there. thank you. we should note the storm continues to pummel the west coast of florida, and cbs omar villafranca is in bradenton, that s just south of us here across the bay. the iwall is approaching him there where the situation is