residents. people need to get ready for life-threatening storm surge that could be up to 16 feet that officials are now calling non-survivable. >> brian: all right. we have fox team coverage all morning long. senior meteorologist janice dean has been all morning long. tracking the storm on the ground. fox weather multi journalist brady campbell. nicole valdes in tampa and we begin in clearwater beach with robert ray. hey, robert. >> yeah. good morning, guys, from clearwater beach we have experienced what we expected and that is the storm surge that is coming in to clearwater beach here this morning. this is coronado street here and right off of the gulf of mexico. what do we see? we see at least a foot of water here come in. many of these roads are inundated around clearwater beach. this is what the anticipation was of this storm as overnight it just actually in the past hour kicked up to a category 4 major hurricane as it's making its way to the southeast of tallahassee where it will make landfall in the next few hours and, by the way, this is a mandatory evacuation zone where i'm standing here. they wanted everyone out by 7:00 p.m. last night. before all these elements occurred. this is now its own entity here this morning. yeah. it acts like -- this water acts like it should be here and it should not. we have the ebb and flow of the water that comes in and these winds and the rain bands. when it kicks up and the water flaps, you can taste it on your mouth, the salt water from the gulf of mexico. and, mind you, those beaches across from this giant structure that is above me are wide. some of them as wide as a football field. so all that water, rushing in to here. yesterday, national weather service telling us we could see up to 7 feet of storm surge at this point. we are around 4 feet, according to the data that we are reviewing right now. and, remember, we are nowhere near the eye of this storm. it is north and west of us. but these bands follow that eye, almost like puppies on a mom dog. just continues to roll through and throw hay mangers into this area. a dangerous situation as the water continues to rise here across the streets. if you are in the big bend, which is north of here, when it goes into the panhandle fishing villages up to 15 feet or more of storm surge expected in those pockets if you haven't left you will be in a dire situation. you will lose communication and power and trees are going to go down here this morning as we are about oh, an hour or so from sunlight and we will have a better assessment of how much water has come into clearwater beach. the inlet across from clearwater beach is clearwater. some of those areas are low-lying, guys. they will see flooding and surge that comes in. this is going to continue for hours and hours, even after landfall and it's going to make its way into georgia and the carolinas. but, in the interim, this is what we're experiencing, a road that is now a rushing creek or even river. and the ebbs and flow of the winds. here we go again with another gust. back to you. >> steve: all right, robert. thank you very much a live report from clearwater on the west coast of florida. >> ainsley: he is in clearwater. let's bring in our fox weather correspondent in tampa not too far east of robert. nicole, what are you seeing out there? as we are witnessing that catastrophic storm surge really start to take effect. we are now looking at what is likely close to 4 feet of storm surge as we see the rain continue to fall here in tampa bay. you are watching all of the water from the bay get pushed on to this main road here that's now completely inundated under water. look how far inland all far over the bay that is being pushed. i spoke to police officers here moments ago who worked in this city for 20 years. as much as bayshore does tend to flood even in a small rain event, they say they have never seen flooding and storm surge at this level. you are literally watching waves break over the edge, almost looking like a beach. i mean, it is an incredibly dangerous situation a very scary how quickly this water is moving. it really is one of the biggest threats why the area we are standing in right now has been under a mandatory evacuation since monday. recognizing that storm surge was going to be the most critical threat to much of tampa bay. as we are watching this slowly happen. and we are still waiting for landfall. we know that's imminent here. but we also recognize that high tide later on this morning could only add insult to injury in an area that is already seeing a far too much water in such a short period of time. this is not an area where anyone should be continue. foat this point.staying indoorsn is the best thing can you do keep yourself safe as this storm continues to pummel. even areas like tampa bay far from where this storm is expected. this major hurricane, i should say, is expected to make landfall in just a matter of hours. >> steve: that is correct. nicole, thank you very much. the live report from the water side there in tampa. now, let's turn to here in "studio m," we have got senior meteorologist janice dean who is tracking the storm. janice, we could see behind her some lightning strikes. what about tornadoes? that's one of the other things you have got to worry about right now. >> absolutely. land falling three-point line system clockwise winds and potentials for tornadoes. tornado watch in effect for much of the state of florida and then the risk for tornadoes as it moves -- continues to move northeast ward into georgia. georgia, you are going to be dealing with a category 2 hurricane as of the latest advisory. so 130 mile-per-hour sustained winds. it was a category 4 upgraded at 5:00 a.m. that will be, you know, the highest we go because it is about to make landfall within the next couple of hours. widespread impacts though, not only tornadoes, upwards of a foot of rain and we could see 1h would be catastrophic for this area. so, here is the la l statistics. now category 4 storm. rapid intensification last night and the national hurricane center was bang-on with their forecast. absolutely perfect. looking at the timeline in terms of the pressure, winds go up, pressure goes down, that is a strengthening hurricane. 70 mile-per-hour sustained winds -- or, rather, these are wind reports. so gusts in sarasota florida of 70 mile-per-hour, almost hurricane force winds. and i just got an update from sarasota, basically -- sorry, tallahassee, florida, saying be prepared for a duration of hours of 100 mile-per-hour sustained winds. so, hide from the winds. you have to run from the water and, unfortunately, people who stayed in place, you are going to be there for the next several days because it's going to be very hard for emergency vehicles to get out. looks like we have a couple tornado warn storms just south and east of the tampa area. so we could see the potential for structural damage with these three-point line tornadoes. and we are looking at landfall within the next couple of hours. but the core of the strongest winds now scraping the big bend of florida. we have been telling you this is the most vulnerable coast line along the gulf coast and the east coast and the west coast, obviously. tornado watch in effect for the next several hours and that has moved into georgia. they just issued a new tornado watch. these are the latest storm surge reports. water above normal, dry ground for the st. petersburg area, for clearwater beach, of course, where we have our reporter. so upwards of 3 feet approaching 4 feet for this area. cedar key is where we think the landfall potentially could be of this hurricane. and we have got, you know, the wind gusts certainly upwards of 50 miles per hour. here is the latest track. we get one every hour now as we are approaching landfall. category 4 hurricane, we do think this will be a cat 4 as it makes landfall. and then it will continue to move north and eastward very quickly. that's good. but, as it moves towards georgia, a very strong hurricane for them, right? and we're going to be dealing with the potential for power outages and heavy rainfall on order of 6 to 8 inches. some isolated amounts of a foot of rain and then this area of low pressure will move up towards the carolinas, offshore. and then we're going to have to watch it this weekend as it lingers. some of the computer models shows it looping towards the southeast coast as we get into next week. here are the peak storm surge reports. upwards of 16 feed, that's never happened in this area of the big bend in historical records. that is going to overtop homes, it's going to inundate roadways. it's going to cause life-threatening flooding for these regions. here's the wind gusts forecast for some of these areas. again, if you live across the big bend, if you live across the panhandle, you could be dealing with hurricane force winds for duration of hours. so now you have to stay put, right, until emergency vehicles can get to you if you need that power outages certainly likely and, of course, hurricane warns stretching now into south carolina. we will continue to monitor. this 130 mile-per-hour us is the stained winds. cat 4. it will probably be a cat 4 when it makes landfall but we have peaked in terms of winds. not that that makes a difference, this is still a catastrophic, historic storm for this region. over to you guys. >> steve: no kidding. janice, what is going on now and we are looking at perry florida, they are on the dirty side of the storm as you guys in the weather business refer to it because that's the windiest part of the storm right now. this is all hang and it's rare for a hurricane to make landfall during our program. i remember katrina did back in the day. we were in the chairs at that point. but, what's different about this is there is a full moon down there. and there's a king tide. and that just makes the water really substantially high. they say this could be a foot or two higher than even ian, which made landfall with like 15-foot tides. >> janice: this will be comparable to what ian did to the for fort myers. it's the continental shelf so all of this water goes on top of shallow ground and then when you talk about the tide so the natural rise in water, 16 feet with waves on top of that? i mean, it's devastating for this region. i'm so concerned for the people who decided to ride it out. i was listening to the first responders saying "we're not going to be able to get to you." >> ainsley: cedar key you have mentioned that. that little island the closist big city is gainesville but it's out there. and there is one little bridge. >> janice: you are cut off. >> ainsley: 100 residents decided to stay and they say every home could be flooded. and we saw that, remember, with ian we saw was it sanibel island and remember the governor built that bridge back very quickly so he was praised for that but you worry about the families that are there. >> janice: still people can't get into their homes. >> ainsley: sean's his parents had to put him in the home. i had to transport my mom with her oxygen. >> janice: her mom did get out of tallahassee because her father does have respiratory issues and he does need oxygen. they had to move inland. it's a decision that you have to make if you live in florida. you know, potentially with these devastating systems. you have to -- we give you the information, but it's up to you to do with the information and protect your family and your property. >> steve: as we look at cedar key, and that's what you guys were talking about, yesterday and now we have moved on to tampa. yesterday, in cedar key. state troopers went door to door, knocked on every door in the town and said we are expecting a storm surge of 16 feet. leave now because if you don't leave now, tomorrow, when the storm is hitting, we cannot come and save you until the storm, i think the wind gusts are below 40 miles per hour. something like that. so, you know, it's too late for the people if they did not leave. >> janice: the messaging has been good. the national hurricane center has done a very good job. we didn't have a lot of time because this storm, you know, basically formed in the caribbean and we only had a couple of days. but, with the time we did have the national hurricane center did a great job. the governor has been really good with the messaging. i think it really is up to the residents what they do with the forecast info. >> brian: janice, stay close. governor desantis will have a live press conference in 15 minutes. we will continue the coverage on that. also, i want you to follow us on the fox weather app. a little bit later on in the sohio senator rick scott is cued up. he is no will former governor there and can congressman greg "studio b" were will be here as well as kevin guthrie. >> ainsley: executive director of the florida division of management. in the meantime, steve, what's next. >> steve: now a little news this morning. this is new. email apparently from hunter biden's laptop he helped coordinate a plan to stop investigations into that ukrainian gas company. you ever heard of burisma. that's what we are talking about. >> ainsley: this as a ukrainian prosecutor said the country engaging in activities. >> brian: maneuvering to fire shokin. lucas tomlinson is live with more. >> that's right. those emails claim hunter biden orchestrated a plan to shut down viktor shokin's investigation of burisma one email from a burisma executive. the scope of work should also include organization of a visitor of a number of widely recognized influential current and/or former u.s. policy makers to ukraine. in november, aiming to conduct meetings with and bring positive signal message and support on nicholai's issue to the ukrainian top officials above with the ultimate purpose to close down for any case against nicholai in ukraine. no doubt activities engaged in by the founder and burisma started bringing in people provide protection for him. hunter biden was among them. my personal firm conviction is that, yes, this was the case, they were being bribed. >> and the result was also that shokin's fired ukraine's top prosecutor, of course. he claims that then vice president joe biden was behind it, guys. i asked president biden returned to the white house on saturday about viktor shokin and allegations that he bribed him when he was vice president, joe biden ignored those questions, guys. >> brian: i'm sure is he going to try to continue to ignore it but it's amazing what the daily mail was able to push forward yesterday. this story is moving quick. thanks so much, lucas. appreciate it. >> you bet. >> brian: talk about something else that joe biden totally screwed up that's afghanistan. gold star families of the 13 service members killed at abby gate in kabul were on capitol hill yesterday demanding answers from the biden administration. >> this administration has not only failed us as americans, to provide truth and facts, but, also have shown true evil as to lie and cover up their failures. >> we deserve to know the truth and why the government sent our kids to their death. >> they are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters that were pawns in some agenda. >> i don't want to hear lies. i don't want to hear excuses from joe biden. from the administration. >> i stood there on the tarmac watching you check your watch over and over again. all i wanted to do was shout out it's [bleep] but out of respect to the other grieving families, i bit my tongue once again. well, as you can probably tell by now i'm done biting my tongue. >> brian: joining us right now to talk retired green beret scott mann who led task force pineapple which helped afghan allies escape that country because the federal government just dropped the ball and seemed disinterested. a statement to general milley gold star families. we owe them transparency, we owe them honesty, we owe them accountability. we owe them the truth about what happened to their loved ones. i believe the briefers gave every piece of information they could. if there were issues with that we need to do whatever corrective action necessary. they want explanations but it's inexplicable some of the decisions that were made. you are no stranger to making big decisions. i know you were in to evacuation but scott on further review, have you ever seen such an epic fail from the highest level of our government? >> brian, you know, first of all, thanks for having me on and our heart goes out to the families of the 13 fallen. i was at an event last night where most of them were there along with afghanistan war veterans and those that were at abby gate together. and it was really powerful. but one of the things that really strikes me is that history is going to reflect this as an epic failure the biden administration is going to own it. do you know what i think is going to even more is the follow-on terrorist strike that is likely to come from this as a result of giving afghanistan back as a safe haven. >> brian: that's a great point. when you look at the play by play of what happened that led to the decision that had you mobilize all your men and women to maybe empty their 401(k)s and get people out because joe biden wanted to move on, this guy franklin has written a book called "the last politician." at which time he gives the play by play what was going on. the president of the united states was pushing aside all military information and advisement and said i want everyone out by 9/11. then he said by august 30th. and mackenzie had to beg the president to pick up the phone and tell the taliban to hold off before they went into kabul. the taliban could not believe we weren't fighting them to keep them out of kabul. jake sullivan said i'm going to leave my people in the state department because i don't want to panic people in average. as you spent your whole life in the military, have you ever seen people make such terrible decisions that resulted in such epic embarrassment for our country and death to others? >> no. it's the worst i have ever seen. i never thought i would see it in my life, brian. we are traveling the country right now with a play trying to heal. and i talk to veterans over 800,000 people concerned in afghanistan. and so many of them are saying the same thing is that we never thought we would see this. we never thought we would abandon our allies. our special operators and our commandos. we never thought we would leave ourselves as open to a vulnerable strike as what we have done. and, lastly, the moral injury that has been inflicted not just on the families of our 13 fallen but all of these men and women who served and now they were asked to help rescue, you know, using their cell phones as if they haven't been through enough? like you said, they have cashed out so many of their resources and assets to keep afghans alive because the government has done nothing. it's had a horrific effect on the mental health. 88,000 calls to the v.a. hotline in march alone. the most on record. >> brian: i know the people there and suicides follow up there and other people said i give my life. i lost my limb. i lost my family, and this is the way it ends. here is a response from a gold star family to general milley saying i will give you accountability. watch. >> the issue is not the briefing. the issue is not the lack of information during those briefings. it is the disregard of intelligence. it is the disregard of planning. that's what you should be apologizing for. >> brian: you agree? >> i think i do. the statement on accountability, we have had two years for accountability. there's been none. the distance between the leaders and the led is vast. it seems to me that our diplomats, our politicians and our generals are tone deaf to what our warriors and our families are going through right now. they need to bridge that gap or we're going to continue to see retention, recruiting problems, morale problems in the military. and the fact that they can't get their head around that is baffling to me. >> brian: well, in this book, joe biden was -- saw the response from the media, not, of course, most outlets but ours. people falling off planes in the heat of the response he said either the press has lost their minds or i have. i will take the latter, mr. president, you have. you never owned up to it. of gooded news is his approval rating has never gone over 50% since. hopefully he will pay the price not getting another four years. thanks, scott, for everything you do on a daily basis. appreciate t let's remember the afghanistan and families. >> brian: those people had 20 years of freedom simply dark. >> absolutely. >> brian: over to ashley for breaking news. >> ashley: president biden is set to address the recovery efforts in maui later this afternoon as house republicans launch a probe into both the federal and state responses to the deadly wildfires in maui that killed 115 people. crews are ending their search for victims on land and will head to the ocean in hopes of finding possible remains. authorities say they don't know how many people are still missing three weeks later. new york city mayor eric adams is blaming governor kathy hochul after they both received letters from the biden administration ring apart their handling of the migrant crisis. >> i think the governor is wrong. she is the governor of the state of new york. new york city is in that state. every county in this state should be part of this. >> adams has repeatedly asked hochul to place migrants in other parts of the state but she says that is not her job. those are a couple of your headlines, guys beings back to you. >> brian: sanctuary city not a sanctuary state. people did not vote to shelter everybody. that's his problem. >> ainsley: city is a lot more liberal than upstate new york. >> steve: ashley, thank you very much. america's top story where we are talking about hurricane idalia. let's go to robert ray. he's in clearwater, florida. west of tampa. near the ocean where things are starting to pick up. and, robert, where are you? are you standing on a street or are you near the beach or where are you? >> yeah. good morning to you. coronado street here in clearwater beach. the actual beach where the gulf of mexico is about oh, i would say a football field or so away you see this road is inundated with storm surge as we expected. we expect potentially up to 7 feet. we could see here as an outer band is following the eye of idalia and it's making its way through here right now kicking up this water and pushing in to pretty heavy wind gusts right now. we had some rain moments ago, and that's what we're seeing. we are seeing the ebb and flow of this scenario. as the water comes in and makes its way through the side streets into these main arteries of clearwater beach. that's the issue. that's why they called for a mandatory evacuation. yesterday, tried to get everyone out. [horn] >> by 7:00 p.m. last night. that was the hope that that would occur. whether or not everyone left, we just don't know. but we have seen high water vehicle by the clearwater beach police department come through here. otherwise, haven't seen anyone walking around, thankfully, as this system continues to increase. now, we know that the hurricane is expected to make landfall in the next couple hours. just southeast of tallahassee on the panhandle. and the big bend. the big bend, where it turns, the peninsula turns north of me, very rural area. fishing villages, forests. there's going to be a lot of downed trees and a lot of flooded areas with cars that will be swept away, unfortunately. if people have not left that area they are in deep trouble. if you haven't left certain pockets of clearwater beach you also may be in trouble as the wind pushes in. [horn] >> continues here this morning. the sun coming up in the next hour. we will get a better assessment of how many roads are actually underwater from this surge off the gulf of mexico, guys. >> brian: do you have any idea what that siren is? >> steve: it's a car horn. >> that is a horn. that is a horn from a vehicle that is inside of a garage, beyond my camera shot here. it happens. you know, anything happens in a hurricane. we will probably start to hear home alarms go off, too, as water potentially innun dates some of the homes. hopefully that doesn't happen but we do see that in these major hurricanes. and, by the way, this major hurricane, this is not the norm by any means for the big bend. it's historic. they just haven't seen it. it doesn't occur in that part of florida. and tampa, by the way, as you know, taking in surge as well. tampa bay like a big catcher's mitt pulling in the water from this hurricane, guys. it's something else and we're going to be out here. >> steve: yes indeed. >> ainsley: robert, thank you so much. the governor said the storm surge could be as high as 15 to 16 feet. did he suspend the tolls so people could evacuate and not have to pay the tolls. he said there are 25,000 line workers on standby to assist with the power restoration and estimates 30 to 40 workers will thereby eventually to help. he has closed the schools in 50 different districts closed. 29 state colleges and seven universities have closed or canceled classes. i was talking to one woman who said she dropped her child off at school on friday in tampa, and on thursday they had dinner and met another family from their small town in new jersey, and the lady said i live here now, if your daughter gets in think trouble or needs any help i'm here. she can call me. so monday the child says mom, i need to evacuate. everyone is leaving the school. and she called that lady. the mom called the lady down there and she said i will be her grandmother. i'm picking her up. she picked up the young child, the college student, the freshmen with a bunch of her friends. they are inland house five bedrooms and hunkering down together. >> steve: that's what you got to do. looking live at hudson, florida, up the koppes from where robert was stationed a little while ago. and as you can see the winds right now, it is a category 4 storm and they are projecting that it's going to make landfall in the next half hour to hour and a half. something like that. matt fin is joining us now live from saint pete beach. not far. a little further up from tampa as well. >> how are the conditions there, matt? >> we have had really steady consistent winds as you can see for hours now and throughout the night the conditions here dramatically fluctuated several hours of heavy downpour, drenching rain at any moment the rain can pick back up here. perhaps you can make out behind me the gulf of mexico has been pushed in maybe 30 feet closer to where i'm standing. water line has been dramatically pushed inward and we have seen the pinellas county sheriff reporting flooding here in saint pete. and if you're familiar with this area it's a very popular tourist destination. very large resorts. hotels and motels up and down the beach where i'm standing right now. the area really is a ghost town right now. this is zone a in the evacuation area, mandatory evacuation. and it appears that most people heeded the evacuation warnings in this area. the governor has said if you have not evacuated this area by now, if you go to reach for the phone or if you call for emergency service, unfortunately people may not be able to respond to you. back to you. >> brian: wow. the calm before the storm it seems somewhat calm compared to other shots, matt. >> ainsley: matt, you are wearing shorts. what's the weather like there? >> steve: three-point line. >> brian: matt, what's the temperature? >> it's been very warm. warm and muggy all night long despite the wind and rain. you can stand out here and not be very cold. very hot, actually. >> ainsley: so is the water, which makes it worse. >> steve: makes it like a fire. that's what janice has told us. matt, thank you very much. he is at saint pete's beach which is just a little south of clearwater where robert ray was. listen, last night, we were watching fox weather. if you don't have fox weather if you don't watch fox weather you should. we watch it on our roku tv. they have the best reporters and the best maps. and they got it all going on. and there, once again, you see hudson, florida again. we are going to go to the governor, i believe, in tallahassee very shortly. the interesting thing about this particular storm, as it makes landfall in the next half hour to 90 minutes, as a category 4, thankfully for the most part, it is a rural area, unfortunately it's -- there's a lot of marshland, low lying. and not far from the coast is tallahassee. and tallahassee, in recorded history, has never had a hurricane strike until today. >> brian: all right. so, we're waiting now. this is hudson, florida. just north of where robert is in clearwater. and this is -- this is not even with the landfall. so it's obviously going to get worse. but, when you are the governor of the state and you have been there for two days, he has been saying the same thing, this is where it's coming. this is what you do, and here's the latest from the governor. >> in excess of 130 miles per hour. the hurricane will make landfall within the next two hours in and around terrell county and the big bend region of florida. the national hurricane center expects storm surge to reach up to 16 feet in some areas of the big bend region. that level of storm surge is life-threatening. do not go outside in the midst of this storm. if it's calm where you are it may be because you are in the eye of the storm and those conditions will change very, very quickly. so, wherever you are, hunker down and don't take anything for granted here. this is a very, very powerful storm. there will be impacts far beyond the eye wall. those will extend to places like tallahassee as well as places like northeast florida. we have already had 11 tornado warnings. and there are more tornadoes possible, even and especially in the very outer bands of the storm. these are places way outside the cone that you see on the tv screen. so please keep in mind those are very, very dangerous situations don't go out on the streets. assume all downed power lines are hot and live. there is going to be people working to remedy that and we have a lot of people staged. but that is very hazardous in the immediate aftermath of the storm. we currently have 54,000 households that are out of power throughout the state of florida. but there have been over 100,000 households that have already been restored through hard work all through the night. and those restoration efforts are ongoing any place that's safe to do people are there. working to get that done. we have 8 urban search and rescue teams staged, ready to go. 33 ambulance strike teams. 5500 national guardsmen. we also have the coast guard on standby should that be mess. there will be an immediate effort to restore power to people who lose power. there's 30,000-plus linemen stationed and ready to go to commence restoration efforts. for local municipalities and co-op accept mutual aid they can supplement your efforts. the goal is to get everybody back online as quickly as possible. there will be a lot of debris from this storm. there is going to be a need to have all hands on deck to be able to do. and, accordingly our florida department of transportation we have 650 pieces of heavy equipment in trucks staged for cut and toss operations post storm. we anticipate there to be a lot of debris, a lot of downed trees, a lot of downed power lines and there's going to be a need for this. we also have 1100 generators staged for traffic signal restoration. we anticipate that's going to be a problem in a number of communities as well. fuel, we have 1.2 million gallons staged. we're also arranging more fuel to come in by truck. just to make up for whatever may not be coming in through the normal course of business with things like the port of tampa being closed. and so there's a lot of fuel that has been arranged to be here and our goal is to not have any major fuel interruptions. in terms of communications, there is 500-plus star link internets ready for deployment to places that need to be. there has already been almost 250 that have been deployed. so affected areas need that connectivity. florida division of emergency management is going to work to provide that. they also have 3,000 generators staged and ready to surge for areas that need some power. now, if you are using a generator in your personal home, please do not run that generator inside your home, do not run it inside your garage. it must be run outside your house. it needs to be at least 20 feet away from doors and windows. and you have to point the exhaust away from your home. we do not want to see any fatalities as a result of misuse of generators. so there's a lot of people that are on deck right now. there's going to be a lot of efforts as this storm passes. but this thing is hitting really within the next hour and a half, most likely. it's going to make landfall. it is a major hurricane, as we have been saying it was likely to be for the last couple days. we just hope everybody stays safe. don't put your life at risk by doing anything dumb at this point. this thing is powerful. if you are inside, just hunker down until it gets past you. you don't want to be messing around with these winds. there is going to be things flying all over the place. obviously if you are in a place that's close to the coast, and you see that surge, that's going to be legitimate surge, it's going to be a big, big deal. and it's going to be very, very dangerous. and there we go with our power here. we're back. so, i'm going to have kevin guthrie come up. we will hear from major generals who. scoffield and one of our leon county commissioners, christian will be here. so, kevin? >> right on time. 5 second delay and kick those generators in. so thank god that's working. as the governor said, the storm is here. it is here now. it is just off the coast of the big bend, looking like keaton beach is going to be the location in which we have landfall. stay off the roads. if you're sheltering in place in your home, stay inside your home. if you are at a shelter or hotel, please do not leave at this time. conditions are deteriorating outside in the impacted areas. shelter, again, as we said shelter in place as safely as you can where you can. we are seeing 2 to 3-foot of storm surge in the tampa bay area. we are seeing 4-foot of storm surge at cedar key. because of this high tide, because ever the high tide, which is come. the tide is starting to come back in all the way from tampa bay all the way up to appear latch shah cola bay storm surge will increase over the next couple hours. we are seeing a lot of tornado warnings. so far there have been 11 as the governor has said. of the four or five that happened since about 3:00 a.m. this morning. at least three of those by our meteorologists have indicated -- radar indicated tornadoes; in other words, they have seen debris in those rotations but that will all be confirmed by the national weather service, local forecasting offices throughout the day. we will obviously see more tornadic activity as the day goes along. if you are in a tornado warning in your area, get to an interior room. free from windows, consider putting mattresses and things over your head, even to include helmets. we can replace a lot of limbs but we cannot replace your head, obviously. so, please protect your head, cover your head at all cost. there will be also life-threatening winds in the big bend today. we could see gusts over 100 miles per hour. we could see sustained winds. well over 130 miles per hour as we have this cat 4 landfall. all of these are life-threatening conditions. so please do everything you can to stay safe where you are because first responders may not be able to reach you during the storm. you need to be prepared to take care of yourself and your family while you are sheltering in place. ambulances, search and rescue teams, other first responders will get to you just as fast as we possibly can once the winds die down to a point where we can respond to you. we do not want you putting first responders at risk unnecessarily. in southwest florida as the governor has already mentioned we have already restored over 100 now, accounts with power. i want to thank the men and women of our utilities both are all three independent owned utilities. municipal electric and cooperatives. really appreciate the hard work they have been doing even here in tallahassee as i was coming back in the early wee morning hours. tallahassee electric was out restoring power here in the capital region. so, again, very much appreciate what they're doing. we will continue to respond as we can, as, again, as i said, we have already started to responding to issues in southwest florida. i talked to representative adam bow tana from 40 myers beach this morning at 4:00 a.m. he says it's very irma-like conditions. not a lot of storm surge, not a lot of damage but certainly not ian i have reminiscent that they experienced in hurricane irma. happy to hear that and appreciate him giving me a call and ground truth. we are here and ready we will deploy our response and recovery teams just as quickly as we possibly can you know we like to move very quickly here at the division. we are ready to provide the needed support to our big bend communities as well as communities withstanding impacts from the other bands of the storm under the governor's leadership we have amassed a great team here at the division with state agency heads that have moved bureaucracy and red tape to get things done to where we are restoring 100,000 accounts in less than 8 hours. so please rest assured we will do whatever it takes to help our communities recover from idalia. i got general -- or we have general last here this morning. i can't tell you how much i appreciate your team admiral scoffield the same way. i have appreciate everything you are doing. they have helicopters ready to go as soon as they get back in this area they will be flying and in the area. thank you for both of you being here. governor? >> good morning, and good morning governor, again for your leadership and your continued support of your florida national guard. >> director guthrie, thank you, again, for your tremendous work and the work of your team to protect our florida citizens our thoughts and prayers go out to the affected -- those being affected already. as i mentioned already yesterday the florida starring in is fully mobilized with 5500 soldiers and airmen ready to support we expect we will be engaged in a multitude of missions including search and rescue, damage assessment, and route clearance. in addition we continue to man state logistics response center and many other logistic and staging areas throughout the state of florida. as well as support the 26 county emergency management operation centers the florida national guard currently has on hand 2400 vehicles available, including high mobility and high water vehicles 14 rotary wing. neighboring states through mutual aid agreement and 23 small watercraft to support search and rescue operations and delivery of supplies to flooded areas. your florida national guard is prepared to accomplish any missions required by the department of emergency management. and we stand ready to support our neighbors and fellow citizens in need. thank you. >> all right. good morning. governor, director guthrie, and fellow floridians. the coast guard is standing the watch to support our state and federal partners. our highest priority is always saving lives. we pre-positioned 15 aircraft and more than 25 cutters and 20 flood response teams. prepared to respond in the wake of this storm as soon as conditions safely allow. we have prepositioned aircraft in miami and west palm beach and they will be the first ones to respond in the wake of the storm. yesterday, these flight crews conducted overflights of the western florida area up to the billing bend area. and made call-outs to mariners to seek shelter as well as familiarize ourselves with the landscape prestorm arrival. so we're ready to go. we are also assembling our flood response teams from both inside and outside the state so we can assist float the florida team and fema with the urban search and rescue also ready to launch aircraft for air time search and rescue in the city of tampa and big bend area as the storm passes our second priority is the reconstitution of ports and waterways really critical to our marine transportation system, so urgently needed so that resources can make it to the communities in need. we expect to begin overflight damage assessment of the west coast of florida at first light, as soon as the storm passes and safe flight conditions allow. we will follow in the wake of the storm to also assist with impacts on the east coast of florida. we our buoy tenders and units will conduct port assessments and reconstitution efforts with aid to navigation teams and the army corps of engineers. depending on sea conditions and port conditions, we hope to have those cutters near shore in the next several days. our third priority is environmental response to address pollution. or contamination concerns as a result of the hurricane and the storm surge flooding. the marine of environmental response to mitigate and clean potential pollutants and damage to infrastructure will be a long, committed effort. we are are in the response phase of this operation. this is one of the most critical and certainly the most dangerous of our operations in response to the hurricane. because these are dangerous conditions we need to ensure that our aircraft and crews can operate safely as they may encounter downed power lines, surging and receding floodwaters and other visible and subsurface hazards. our crews are really highly trained and fully equipped to meet this challenge. once again, our highest priority is to save lives here for fellow floridians. if you need assistance, but are in a safe location, we ask you to communicate your for first responders dialing 911 or calling on vhf radio channel 16. definitely stay where you are. we will come to you. if you don't need assistance, we ask you to stay put in safe shelter. please allow the emergency responders to do their job safely without interference. thank you to our local, state, and federal partners working together in this hurricane effort. we really appreciate the partnership. thank you. >> good morning. my name is christian cavan i'm the leon county commissioner. i'm here today to assist in the briefing of our community on the impacts of hurricane idalia. leon county residents, hurricane idalia has moved slightly east of leon county. this storm will have a lasting impact on surrounding communities. this is annual historic category 4 storage. predicted to have life-threatening storm surge, hurricane force winds, and heavy rain. leon county residents, you should expect downed trees, blocked roads, power outages now, more than ever, you must stay informed and follow all emergency orders. everyone must shelter in place until the storm has passed. please continue to follow leon county on social media, our website, and local radio station wfsu. i encourage everyone to try to hunker down and stay safe until the storm has passed. once the storm passes, we may have many people without power and there may be lots of debris in the roads. public works along with its partners will be working 24/7 on the recovery effort of restoring power and clearing roads. many roads will be blocked by trees or flooding. waters are dangerous to drive on. please do not use roadways unless it is safe or an emergency. stay home if you can. please give first responders time to clear the way and restore power. folks, leon county staff is the best of the best. i'm thankful and confident that our team will be working around the clock to restore normalcy to our community. i would also like to thank the governor and state staff for for their ability to respond quickly and assisting not only leon county but our neighbors on the gulf coast as well as we prepare for impact this morning. thank you. and god bless. >> so we are going to have the full landfall impacts very, very shortly within the next couple hours. most likely probably by 0800 it's going to make landfall on florida's big bend. please hunker down wherever you are. don't mess with this storm. don't do anything to put yourself in jeopardy. there will be a lot of help come in on the back end of this storm. we're ready to go. as soon as it's safe to do so, you're going to see all these different assets deployed. so, stay safe. any questions? >> do you feel like the state and residents here are prepared for this strength of a storm? potentially category 5? i know we are in category 4. >> i think if you look at the counties, i think that they mobilized very quickly. i think that they have been very clear about the storm surge threat and all these zone a's across the gulf coast. and probably more so than any storm that i can remember in recent years. so, people understand, you know, we have said from the beginning it was probably going to be a major hurricane and that's what it is. so we're here and we're ready. and we're going to work hard on the back end to make sure everyone gets back up on their feet. >> is the message to shelter in place for all 49 counties that are under the state of emergency? >> so, it's -- if you are in a part -- there are counties where the storm has passed so there may be some outer bands. that's not necessarily saying shelter. saying if you are in the path of where the eye wall is going at this point you have got hunker down, those big bend counties as we get into north central florida, you know, you are in jeopardy at that point. and so it's really those places where it's going to hit the eye wall. where the eye wall is coming in to be able to not mess with it. it's going to be a significant, significant impact. >> any concerns about the hundred that decided to stay on cedar key? >> well, sure. i think that it's a hazardous situation if you end up with storm surge that approaches that 16 feet, the chance of surviving that is not great, you would need to be maybe even like a 3-story building because it is going to rise very, very highly. but, there were some -- now, most people did heed the warning, but there were some that just -- that's what they wanted to do, and so once this passes, there will be rescue efforts done, done if need be, and hopefully it's not necessary. hopefully they knew what they were doing and they have a spot. it's potentially very, very hazardous when you are talking about really anything approaching 10 feet. but when you start talking about potentially 16 feet, that's a huge, huge deal. >> yesterday, the exception was there would be 40,000 electrical linemen in state to respond to the restoration effort. >> we said up to. we said probably between 30 and 40 and that's where we are at. >> we are between 30 and 40. we haven't talked to the crews this morning because they are actually out in the field doing what they're doing. we're not worried about the numbers as we are getting the power restored. >> yep. >> do you think florida caught a break here in the fact that this is in the big bend and not areas like the tampa bay area. >> not a break for the people in the pathway so i think any time you have it it's difficult. if you just look at the way florida is cut, to have something go in this big bend and it's going to be to georgia relatively soon whereas we have had some hurricanes, i mean like ian, it rams into southwest florida and cut across the entire state. and really impacted many, many millions of people. so, you don't want to get hit at all. you want it to be as modest an impact as is humanly possible. and i think there is different paths some of these storms take. ian is one that was a really bad path just because it impacted so many people. like, people saw the images of fort myers beach and obviously those were catastrophic images. but you would go hundreds of miles away and had you major, major flooding. you had erosion on the east coast of florida in places like volusia county, the beaches and things like that. you had structures falling down because of that you had massive, massive impacts. any time you do this, you want it to impact as small amount of places as possible. >> what do you think about trump, you know, he is a resident here in florida, he hasn't commented on vidalia at all yet? >> it's not my concern. my concern is the people of florida being ready to go and we have done that and, look, in florida, you just have to do. this this is something we put a lot of time and effort into throughout the course of each year knowing that there is going to be time where you are going to have to activate it. now, we had a major one last year. one of the most expensive on record. we were honing not to have any this year. maybe we would get off lucky but that just -- that wasn't in the cards. so you deal with it. but that's been our focus getting all this stuff ramped up. i think the counties things happen over the next few days that require support and we want to be there to support folks. we will be back with doing more briefings, as soon as the storm passes i think we will end up trying to get on the road and figure out where the damage, the worst damage is, and get down there and see what we can do to be able to help those folks. thanks. >> steve: there you have got the governor of the great state of florida he made it clear don't mess with this storm. right now it is a cat 4 with maximum sustained winds at 130 miles per hour. and janice just showed us the map and right now and if we look at the big wall right now, right now the center of the storm, the eye of the storm is 8 miles away from the coast of florida. >> ainsley: janice was telling us put it into perspective. the category, it does matter. but that's not the only thing you look at. you have to look at the storm surge. this is a cat 4. it's not going to increase to a 5, she said. katrina was a 3. and janice, you said the storm surge was how much with katrina? >> janice: 30 feet. >> ainsley: this one could be 16 and a cat 4. this is a cat 3 january january that's why it's deceiving and that's why we have always been saying don't look at the winds per se. you can hide from the winds. but you have to run from the water. this was always a storm surge event. just because of the vulnerable coast line and how and the fact that we are seeing this incredible amount of water pushed in from the gulf of mexico. that's why this is catastrophic. don't even pay attention to the category at this point. right? you are still going to feel strong winds, hurricane force winds for a duration of hours and they are saying treat that almost like a tornado, right? go to the lowest portion of your home away from the windows. but this is a storm surge event like fort myers was during ian. >> brian: i love governor desantis' tone over the whole thing. not sensationalistic. right to the point. as a matter of fact. >> ainsley: not dramatic. >> steve: he has had practice. >> brian: not hair on fire. here is the surge, this is what we have got to do. this is where the vaccines belong. it's very similar style from when we were dealing with him with two years of the pandemic. >> steve: janice has a bunch of maps she is going to show us in four minutes. the governor made it very clear that the state of florida is prepared. he was talking about how they have got over a million gallons of fuel prepositioned. they have 3,000 generators. they needed it at the emergency headquarters because the lights went out twice during the press conference. so, once again, as janice has told us, we just heard from the governor the landfall of the hurricane is imminent. it's 8 miles away from the coast. right now though, let's go to check in with grady trimble. is he live in old town, florida, about 20 minutes from the gulf coast into the west of gainesville and, grady, it looks calm right now you are on the dirty side of the storm. what's going on? >> yeah. so what we're seeing is lulls in the bands. so about 20 minutes ago. if you had come to us you would have been seen whipping winds and very heavy rain. it just calmed down in the last couple of minutes and, of course, that's the nature of these storms as the bands move through we are 20, 25 minutes from the coast line where they are seriously concerned about that 12 to 16-foot storm surge. i want to set the storm where we are in dixie county, florida, which includes part of the coast line. this gas station where we are, the pumps are covered but, even if they wanted to be open, which they are not. but if they wanted to be, their power is out here. if you look across the street, you can see that the power is still on at that gas station for this county a quarter of the county is outpower. the same for terrell county north of us, 25% of that is without power. that's tens of thousands of people as we look across that big bend area as we are awaiting this landfall any minute now. what we saw as we drove through this area and fortunately it is still safe to drive. we have seen emergency responders still out and about with their lights on responding to some sort of issue gainesville this morning. trees down. obviously we have seen power outages but on top of that we have seen the power go out and flicker out in places like this gas station right across the street. it went down, and then it came right back on dixie county power outages, trees down; you know, debris flying into homes. those are the major concerns in these inland areas. and of course we are going to be monitoring the storm surge 20, 25 minutes here coast line as this storm moves in and lawful is imminent. i have just been made known of this passing behind me by my producer these are the emergency responders that we have talked about. we saw two fire trucks go down that road. and at least two police officers as well. that is actually good news that they're out and about because there are times that i have seen in storms where it gets so intense that the first responders say we can't get to you if something goes wrong that's a good sign where we are in old town. >> steve: grady, thank you very much. we are coming up on 7:00 east coast. our coverage of hurricane idalia continues right now. ♪ >> ainsley: this is a fox weather alert. hurricane idalia is set for imminent landfall as a category 4 storm. 85,000 are now without power already as dangerous winds and flooding are shutting down roads and some of the bridges. >> brian: that last hour governor ron desantis urged florida toreach possible tornad. >> do not go outside in the midst of this storm. wherever you are, hunker dow