Now i'll see you tomorrow evening. I'm kaitlan collins. This is the source hurricane helene is about to slam into florida and i expected to make landfall and just a couple of hours from now, it's now an extremely dangerous category four storm and winds are now up to 140 miles per hour. If it stays this strong, it'll be the strongest storm to ever make landfall in florida's big bend region. That's the area that we're keeping a close eye on. This hour, more than half 1 million people there have already lost power. And forecasters are predicting tonight that the storm surge in some areas could be unsurvivable reaching as high as 20 feet surges and high winds were already the reason for the closures of several major bridges in the tampa area that we saw tonight? officials, there are telling residents to shelter in place, that it is going to get worse and don't go outside. Emergency managers and one florida county are being so blunt with their warnings for those who are in low lying areas and did not evacuate. They are telling them to write your name and date of birth on your arms or legs? so if needed, you can be identified and your family can be notified. That is how dire the situation is as we come on the air tonight, we're monitoring it all very closely. We have reporters covering every angle of this cnn's derek van dam is joining us live from apalachicola. Derek just tell us obviously you've been there all day a tracking this as the winds are picking up, tell us what you're seeing right now on the ground the most intense rain bands. And when that we've experienced so far with the approach of hurricane helene, and we know that it's only going to go downhill from here as we remain on the western side of this, i want to look directly into the camera. Franklin county, where i'm located is under a mandatory evacuation. So are so many other counties that line the big bend of florida. If you chose not to evacuate, not know, is not the time to get out and try to move out of harm's way, you have missed that for tunity, the storm is to close the conditions are too dangerous and it is going to go downhill with a vengeance. And at pace. And the reason i say that is because we can see let's say buoys in the gulf of mexico about 100 miles offshore from where we're located, with winds that have already topped 107 miles per hour. There have been waves measured at 26 feet on the western side of this storm. And that means that surge is getting pushed up with the strong winds that have moved over the shallow water, the shelf of the gulf of mexico. 1 mile per hour winds. That is a category four on the staffer saffirsimpson, that is the pothat will peel back the roof off of a house that will topple some sturdy structure sure that will also take down power poles snapped trees like they were twigs. So this is something that people need to be prepared for as the storm makes its final approach. Every once in a while we get some of those stronger bands that come through. And john berman and i have been talking about this on air for the past couple of hours it almost feels like a power washer as being taken directly to your body. It just stings every time it hits your opened exposed skin. But this is the reason kaitlan, why people we're asked to evacuate this area because they knew that this most intense part of the storm was going to approach in the darkness of night and it is going to be an incredibly devastating next 12 hours here across the big bend. Does this major hurricane makes landfall. Well, and derek, we heard from franklin county sheriff earlier saying most of the roads were already underwater. Have you seen anyone who is trying to make a lastminute evacuation? what have you seen as far as people being out kaitlan, we noticed people onlookers that traverse some of the roads here in apalachicola earlier today kind of checking out the conditions of course, now is the time that they need to move into the interior of their home away from windows. This is the same advice i'm giving my family who are several hundred miles inland and atlanta georgia, this is the time now to a bunker down and prepare for the worst of this storm because it's only going to get worse before it gets better. You know, this storm means business kaitlan, and we're feeling the impacts of it here, even though we're going to be on the western side the most extreme winds are really going to packers big bend and then move quickly inland as well. Yeah. I derek van dam, stay safe and standby. We'll come back to you and check in with you throughout the hour. I also want to go now to cnn's carlos suarez, who is in st. Petersburg, florida. Carlos obviously you've been dodging, you know, a lot of this is you're seeing the worst effects of this. What are you seeing right now? in st. Petersburg we are in pinellas county, which has effectively been cut off from the mainland and that's because several bridges that connect pinellas county over to hillsborough county, which is the tampa area as well as braiding sent to the south. They have been closed because of the strong winds and all of the flooding associated with this storm. In fact, with this hurricane to the north of where we are right now at this hour, you can still see all of this water being pushed in from the gulf as well as the tampa bay. All of this is associated with that hurricane. Were talking about at least four feet of storm surge earlier today. And we're told our meteorologist tell us that we could be getting anywhere between three to four more feet of storm surge. Again, all of this is taking place with the storm effectively having passed up an alice county and not hit the area directly. Now, here in st. Pete, much of the neighborhood that we've been driving around is without power and we're at a marina where the damage is quite evident here. You can see a portion of the dock, a portion of the seawall here was cut in half, it was broken apart and this afternoon's strong winds and the storm surge and all of that water that just continues to rush in and it's been pushed up against this what's left of that seawall here? it's really dark out, so you really can't see far from where we are, but all of that side is underwater. It's filled with debris. We've got buoys from some of these boats that have all pushed up a lot on shore here. We're being told that a lot of this water really, really is not going to recede until about five or 6:00, so much r0 morning. And if the folks that live in pinellas county think that there really done with the storm surge. Here's a fun fact high tide is not going to kick in until about midnight or one in the morning, which means that the water levels that we're seeing, not just here, but over in gulfport, which is about 15 to 20 minutes to the south and the west that water is only going to get higher because you've got high tide coming in around midnight, one in the morning, and then it's not really going to go back down until about five or six in the morning. So for folks that decided to stay put in this evacuation zone while chances are you're not going anywhere, you're probably in the dark and once you wake up tomorrow morning, then you're really going to get a sense of so to the part of the cleanup effort. And then we've still got to see just when these bridges might reopen because again, right now, if you live in pinellas county, you cannot get out to hillsborough county, which is home to tampa, and you can't get down to breeding season. Caitlin? yeah not very much of a fun fact. Hope everyone there is staying safe. Carlos this will continue to check in with you as well. John mills from fema is here joining us now, and it's great to have you, john, i know you're very busy tonight, so thank you for taking the time to talk to us. I just want to first get your reaction to the update that we're seeing that in the last 24 hours, this storm has gone from being a category one to now a category four. Or with 140 mile per hour winds that we're seeing in the update that we just got moments ago. What can you tell us about the latest that you're seeing kaitlan, this is a very large storm. This is going to be a catastrophic storm in some areas. This is potentially an historic storm that's about to make landfall in florida what's, the biggest concern you have as of 9:00 p. M. Hour because of the very serious situation here, we already have incident management assistance teams, ploy all across the likely path of the storm. We have teams right? now in florida, georgia, alabama, we have staff here in north carolina where i am south carolina and we're closely monitoring the progress of the storm and potential impacts in even more states along this path, you could see very serious impacts. Not only in florida, but all the way up throughout georgia, including places like albany and columbus and macon. Even the very large city of atlanta could see various serious impacts here in north carolina at the state is very concerned about potentially historic record flooding in the hills and mountains in the western part of the state. Think about the asheville, north carolina area. Such a picturesque and wonderful community there. Now facing some potentially historic record and lifethreatening flooding just in the coming hours or is the next say, 24 to 36 to 48 hours as we watch the path of this storm. And are they prepared for that right now, john has commodities, our warehouses are stocked and ready. We've deployed power restoration teams. We have urban search and rescue teams deployed across the possibly affected areas. They're going to supplement the work of the dates and local first responders to conduct search and rescue operations as needed. We also have health and medical assessment teams ready to go to work and we have personnel deployed across the entire southeast united states that can move at a moment's notice, depending on which states to ask for help. Yes. You're watching it to see which states need your help the most. But you know, don't, as i was looking at this landfall is happening in the next few hours, people are starting to go to bed, usually right around now. So i just wonder what's your message to people who are worried about this is a lot of this is happening when it's dark outside the progression that this storm is having during, throughout the night and that's what makes this storm particularly dangerous because so many severe impacts are going to happen in the overnight hours. We are really encouraging people to listen to their state officials and listen to there are local officials. If local officials issue evacuation orders were strongly encouraging people to heed those evacuation orders, follow the requests of local officials. If roads are closed and there's really any amount of water over those roads do not drive through that one water we've already seen some of that in florida. We've already seen some of that in north carolina. People driving through floodwaters and that's how you can lose your life historically in these storms, water floodwater can kill more people than the wind of a devastating hurricane is so. It's water your biggest concern because i do think some people think, well, maybe i'm not in the path of the wind as much anymore or that part of it has passed us. But when you are seeing what we were just seeing in st. Petersburg, i was reading earlier that the storm surge is predicted. It could get up to 20 feet in the big bend obviously when country now, one of the deadliest storms to ever make land in the u. S. There's about a 28 foot storm surge. So what what's your concern level there of these storm surge forecast are very concerning. I was in fort myers, florida after hurricane ian. The water in some places in florida, florida for helene our forecast potentially to go even higher than that, possibly 15 to 20 feet in some of these areas, but also keep in mind the size of this storm as you follow the path, you may have significant impacts, serious flooding, tornadoes, strong gusting winds are away from the sun of the storm. So that's something people should pay very close attention to in some places, unfortunately, it may be too late for people to evacuate in some areas, you may still have time. So that's why we're really encouraging people in any of these affected communities that have the potential to be affected, to listen sinner, the instructions of their local officials there, local emergency management officials, local first responders, people who were giving you that very local information about steps you need to take. Listen to what they're telling you to do now. Yeah. Heed those warnings. John mills, thank you. I know you're busy. I really appreciate your taking the time to join us tonight. Thanks for having me. I want to go to cnn's john berman, who is in tallahassee for cnn right now. Don we just learned that florida governor ron desantis is going to be holding a press conference to give an update tell us what you're seeing on the ground in tallahassee where you are what is interesting because the florida governor is based here of course, in the capital tallahassee. Tallahassee could get a direct hit from this hurricane in a few hours in tallahassee in the last 2030, 40 years, has suffered from sustained hurricane force winds before almost certain to happen tonight, we've had gusts here of 35, i would say, 40 miles it's an hour. There was one just before you came to me, kaitlan, that kind of pushed me off my feet a little bit. You know, i'm a big guy, 64 to 20, so that when very powerful are starting to get more and more powerful in the rain bands are beginning to move through the real concern here in tallahassee, not the storm surge that's going to happen some 2025 miles south here, serious, very serious. They're here for it really is the wind and the rain because of the tree canopy here, these beautiful live oaks that line tallahassee. Tallahassee is famous for their expecting thousands thousands of trees to come down, hundreds of road closures power could be out for some time here and the ground is just saturated. It's been rainy here for the last few days and they could get six to ten inches more of rain as this storm passes through putting even more trees down everyone been told to go home right now, if you're out and about in the town tonight, not a good idea. Get into your house because it is going to be a long, long night here. The city of some 200,000 people. Most i think stayed or state around. They're just trying to be as safe as they can. Florida state. I know you're a college football fan florida state university football team, they got out and got the jacksonville so they can fly to their game. I think they're going to smu and dallas, but they need to get out of here so they can get to there and fsu the campus, the students have been removed from their dorms and put into a local shelter to ride this out. But as i said, you know, tallahassee has not been through something like this and they're hoping they're