apalachicola river flows north to south into the gulf of mexic mexico. typically, on the left side of your screen to the right side of your screen, that s the way the water would be flowing. the wind of the hurricane and the storm surge are shoving all of that water. it is a ferocious look at it. this river is heading back upstream. it s going to have to get out of the banks somewhere. most of franklin county is extremely low-lying. in fact, all the counties around this area are are very low-lying. shepard: phil keating, please be safe. i m cutting you off only because the president of the united states is speaking. ten seconds from now. landfall of this hurricane is within the hour. here is the president speaking from the oval office. reporter: when he update you on hurricane michael prete is about 40 miles off the coast, starting to feel the effects now. it is a very dangerous
the way down in tampa bay. as you know, it is very low-lying and floods very easily. to give you that idea of the breadth of its past, it is quite large. president trump: is almost the entire size of the gulf. when you look at it topically, it s almost the entire size of the gulf. they haven t seen that maybe they haven t seen that at all. nobody has seen that before. of the eye diameter is pretty wide, which, unfortunately, is not good news as it makes landfall. some people may say it s similar to an ef three tornado making landfall in areas that are close to the eye. reporter: the infrastructure, is there any way they would struggle to deal with not necessarily. irma did not heavily impact the florida panhandle. most of the hits from irma were in the southwest portion of florida. then it moved up and created some issues in the jacksonville area, northeastern portion. but this area, it s been a long time since it has been hit.
category 4. just to remind the press. hurricane harvey, irma, and michael are big storms. it will have the panhandle come as you can see here, and will go for georgia. it will be expected to rain in carolina. could be additional flooding. fema is leaning forward, as we are it s ready to go. very quick contact with state and local authorities. also the governor and local officials. moreover, even to unfortunately this is a gulf coast hurricane of the worst kind because all of the elements associated with hurricanes come into play. as you see on the left, the storm surge estimates are anywhere between nine and 14 feet. storm surge is going to be the worst where the eye makes landfall just to the east or south of where the eye makes landfall.
here, the latest information we have wins still at 150 miles power. the pressure has dropped. we have the hurricane hunters in the system giving us the latest information, so we are constantly being updated. we are now 35 miles southwest of mexico beach, 40 miles south of panama city. getting closer and closer to the shore. i did want to mention, as well, we are looking at the apalachicola airport getting wins 45 miles per hour sustained gusting at hurricane force. the waters coming up, as well. the national ocean service has a water level stationed there at apalachicola already reporting five and half feet of inundation. it is getting closer, we are seeing the impacts. we can see the focus here, most people tend to focus on the eye. we are looking at that movement we have been forecasting turning more to the east, as it happens. landfall somewhere early this afternoon around mexico beach. let s be careful, because we look at the hurricane-force winds away from that center. it will be
how long it and looking at the red area, it is the area to where it is going to hit heavily, and that is a lot of shore. that is a lot of land. it is going to be four feet of storm surge all of the way to tampa bay which as you know is low lying and floods and to give you an idea of the breath of the path it is quite large. almost the entire size of the gulf when you look at it top cli and they haven t seen that maybe they haven t at all. nobody s seen that before. the eye diameter is pretty wide which unfortunately is not good yous making landfall so some people may say it s similar to an ef-3 tornado making landfall in areas close to the eye. did last year s hurricanes in the area impair the infrastructure or weaken that they would struggle to deal with this hurricane? not necessarily. irma did not heavily impact the florida panhandle. most of the hit of irma in the