Being felt everywhere. It has come in as a category three storm with 120 mile per hour sustained it went even higher gusts according to the national hurricane center, we are talking to Rental Rain extremely dangerous wind. What is being described is lifethreatening Storm Surges that are now pounding portions of the state. At this hour, a Lifethreatening Flash Flood warning has just been issued for nearly 2 Million people. That includes tampa, saint petersburg, and clearwater. You just saw Bill Weir in st. Petersburg. You could see all of that developing there right now, over half 1 Million homes and businesses have lost power with conditions deteriorating by the minute this storm has also spawned a Record Number of tornadoes, all across the state of florida, far beyond where the storm has actually making direct hit tonight, there have been 19 confirmed tornadoes. So far, the sheriff Of St. Lucie county has just confirmed that there have been multiple fatalities after an outbreak of tor
That Storm Surge could be the worst part of this storm. So we will be on that during this hour. Ill be watching. Thanks alex. Thank you. We are going straight to bill karins. Msnbcs meteorologist. Nbc News Meteorologist for the latest on the situation there. Bill, what can we expect now in florida . This is when all the damage is happening. We cant show you where the worst Storm Surge is. But we know it is moving in. We have had reports of a ten foot Storm Surge in sarasota. As we go down the coast, all the way to naples, its been at least five to six foot Storm Surge. That is higher than helene in most cases so we have new significant damage that is being done tonight. As the storm is moving inland. The winds are still pushing that water against the coast. It is still rushing in. The other thing you will notice, the black line is the center. Just north of the center which has been the past five hours over tampa, torrential rain. We are talking two to three inches per hour. Now that is
People are being urged to leave coastal and low lying areas of florida as Hurricane Milton, expected to be the biggest storm to hit the area in a century, moves closer to the states West Coast. President biden has warned evacuating is a matter of life and death. These pictures are coming into us live from the state of florida. This is the sunshine skyway bridge, the gateway to Tampa Bay, normally a very busy road even early in the day but pretty much deserted now, clearly very exposed and certainly not somewhere anyone would want to be as the hurricane approaches. Although those winds and rain not being really fully felt yet, if we look at this picture of some Palm Trees you can see they are moving a little bit in the breeze but those winds will get stronger and stronger. The national Hurricane Center saying that milton is bringing sustained winds of around 155 miles per hour, as we look at this track. It was downgraded a short while ago to a Category Fourfrom Category short while ago
Could be too late. JoInIng me tonIght on the panel we wIll get to our panel shortly, but before we do that, lets get to the latest bbc news. PresIdent bIden and the IsraelI prIme mInIster, BenjamIn Netanyahu, have held a Telephone ConversatIon In whIch theyre thought to have dIscussed Israels Response to Irans MIssIle Attack last week. In Israel today, two people were kIlled by hIs brother rockets In the northeastern town of kIryat shmona. The IsraelI MIlItary saId It had struck more than 180 targets In lebanon; four people were kIlled near the southern cIty of sIdon. RobertjenrIck and KemI Badenoch are through to the fInal round of the conservatIve LeadershIp Race after knockIng out james cleverly. The shock result, was met wIth gasps from some mps who had expected cleverly to get through to the last two. The partys members wIll now vote for theIr preffered leader. Ratan tata, the chaIrman of the sentIence conglomerate, tata, has dIed aged eIghty sIx. He Is credIted wIth dIversIfyIng
Is going to be different here just so the difference what they are used to and what this will be as a way to hopefully give them more encouragement and know they need to get out there to speak with thank you, madame Vice President. We have been emphasizing Size And Intensity of the storm which is unusual and really raises that Storm Surge Risk for the West Coast of florida. We typically see hurricanes west Coast Florida South Southeast Parallel to the coach, coast and raises the Storm Surge Risk and size of the storm will produce hazardous impacts across much of the peninsula. But the Surge Risk on both coasts of hurricaneforce winds and Flooding Rain Fall threat and tornadoes to try to reemphasize the Scale And Breadth of the threat which is somewhat unusual for milton. Thank you and thank you for your work. For people listening, what is the width of the state of florida from Tampa Bay Area across to sebastian and in that area, Palm Beach . What kind of distance are we talking about .