known as zone a, is under mandatory evacuation orders. this gas station here is one of the first stops that a lot of people are making before they continue their journey more inland. we spoke to one man this morning who said he lived in tampa for over a decade. he said he s never evacuated in the past. but this time from watching the models, hearing the warnings, he decided to pack up and go. listen. i have never left before. they are showing this one is movering slow so they are predicting a lot of water. i live south of tampa. this one feels different. yes. reporter: there are mandatory tack vags orders in seven counties. you said it earlier. you can go online to get more information on what to do, how to prepare. most importantly to check to see
here. the mandatory evacuation again two of them already in place for pinellas county. the folks that live on the barrier islands have been told you have to get out here by the end of the day. carlos, thank you very much. we ll get back to you. let s go to our colleague randi kaye. evacuations in charlotte county. what could you tell us. they ve been under way for the last 24 hours. they are evacuating zone a which is the coastal communities and barrier islands. 140,000 people under evacuation orders. a couple of hours ago four shelters opened up here in charlotte county. they could only hold about 4,000 people so they re not sure where the rest of the people go to when they evacuate but they need to get out of town. you can t talk about hurricane ian without talking about charlie from 2004. buzz that was supposed to go to tampa and barreled through here
that was unpredicted and a direct landfall of the eye wall with this particular storm no matter where it is-t hits is going to be a catastrophic event. we are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. the evacuation order, i believe just came this morning. is that correct? and if so you could speak to people who feel rushed and they don t know where to go? yeah, i mean, we have two different evacuation zones in our city. zone a and d. we have zone c and d. so our recommendation if you re in zone a or zone b, you do not have the opportunity to leave the area, to go to family and friends that are at least in zones c or d, please evacuate these other two zones with five to ten possible storm surge.
they have four shelters opening this morning at this hour here. they can hold about 4,000 people. but the evacuation order right now under way for zone a is about 40,000 people. so they re hoping that they will use those shelters as a last resort and go find family or friends on the east coast of florida or just get out of town. i spoke with the spokesperson for the emergency operations center here in punta gorda and he told me that their motto is hide from wind and run from water. he said a wall of water is not your friend. so you don t want to stick around here in punta gorda. certainly the north of here as you know, there is a lot of concern and the tampa area, the st. peterburg mayor certainly has been voicing his concern saying this could be the storm that they never hoped would come to their shores. and, of course, the director of the national hurricane center saying that this could be the storm of a lifetime and the near worst case scenario for tampa bay and that is because they
and then all facing seditious conspiracy charges. the impact this one trial could have on others surrounding january 6th. let s start with hurricane ian battering cuba before lowly making its way towards florida. joining me, bill karins, and ellison barber. ellison, let s go to you. the national hurricane center projects the tampa bay area could see up to ten feet of flooding. what is it like on the ground? reporter: yeah, i mean, we just heard this, hillsborough county are extending their mandatory evacuation orders not just for zone a but for zone b, and in this county alone, 300,000 people are under