and don't take anything for granted here. we have already had 11 tornado warnings, and there are more tornadoes possible. even and especially in the very outer bands of the storm. steve and it's just getting started. even the governor's command center lost power twice during the press conference, but they have got generators. listen, we have got live fox team coverage all morning long. senior meteorologist janice dean is here in the studio m. tracking the storm. steve harrigan is in participaten springs. brandy campbell live in tallahassee. start in clearwater where robert ray is standing by and in coronado street, right, robert? >> cared in a dough drive to be exact. off the gulf of mexico, clearwater beach. what we are seeing and experiencing as a team myself and two photographers, fox news photographers is a very heavy band that has just come in. one of our meteorologist at fox weather in new york alerted me that this was coming and, boy, was he right. because this is coming in. counterclock wizard of oz. you see the wind, you feel the rain. the water inundating these streets. this water is acting like it should be here. like it owns the street. like it's a river. they expected this surge to come in into clearwater beach. that is why mandatory evacs went into place in pinellas county the last day or so. they began the evacs on sunday. let's hope everyone went out. all we have seen this morning a few official vehicles. pinal laths county vehicle and clearwater beach high water vehicle run through here. nobody else has been here. hopefully everyone has listen to the those evacuation orders as we are seeing an imminent landfall within the next hour of this hurricane, a cat 4 up in the big bend just southeast of tallahassee. it is -- does not happen often. it is historic for a storm to come into that part of the state of florida. a rural pocket, fishing villages, many different forest areas with lob locally pines and live oaks take on the water the surge 15 feet in some of those pockets and many of those trees will be walloped down buy by these winds even as we are southeast of the eye and we are still experiencing feeder bands than are this intense right now. the ebb and flow of this ukraine, like so many others at moments we have peace and then boom, it all comes. in as water continues to come in from the gulf of mexico, about 200 yards over the structure that we are lucky to be staying in here and safe. guys, this is a situation that people need to listen to the officials. listen to the governor, listen to the national guard. the aftermath of this is going to be hairy. moving into south georgia as a hurricane and into the carolinas. be careful. heed the warnings, stay in. find high ground. take care of your family. take care of your vehicles, guys. back to you. >> brian: robert, how long do you think you can stay there? it looks like it's getting higher while you are talking? >> well, i got to say, i mean, the water has been gradually increasing all morning. and this is about the highest i have seen it in this pocket. the good news for us is beyond the camera there is a garage that goes up many floors, in fact five floors up. so we could take shelter in that if this becomes inundated up to 7 feet. that's what the prediction was by the national weather service up to 7 feet of surge. whether we see that, i just don't know. it's too hard to tell. and especially with the sun not fully up right now it's hard to gauge how many of these roads are taking it in. if you look at this, let me back up, guys, i will council back a little bit. you start to see some of the 35u78 trees coming apart and some of the debris starting to wash through. yeah, we are being very careful. i'm probably 15 feet from the ability to cut into that garage and out of this if i have to. the winds have calmed a little bit since i have been speaking, believe it or not, and the rain just down a notch. but this is what we're going to see. as the imminent landfall, again, in the next hour or less, this hurricane will make landfall in the big bend as a major cat 4. >> ainsley: robert, be careful you don't know what is underneath the water when you are walking. i heard pam bondi say on "fox & friends first" she was hearing reports of big dumpsters barreling down streets because the wind was so bad. so just be careful. >> we will. for sure. head on a swivel. >> steve: there you go. you got your cameraman looking out for you. >> ainsley: thanks for showing us what it looks like down there. >> steve: he is in clearwater. here is a live look at cedar key, florida. fox weather has prepositioned a bunch of cameras in different locations. this is one of theirs. this is exactly where robert was talking about, the big bend area. and janice dean -- janice, how many miles away from the coast is the eye wall or rather the center of the storm? >> janice: the actual eye is about 7 miles away from the coast line. >> steve: so we're going to make landfall. >> janice: within the hour. >> ainsley: janice was thinking 8:00. >> janice: the national weather service has to make that call, not myself. >> brian: janice, we will get to you in just one minute because. >> ainsley: first go to fox news senior correspondent steve harrigan he is live in tar pen springs, florida slightly north of clearwater. steve, what are you seeing there? >> good morning, take a look at look at what downtown tar pin springs looks like right now. we are not seeing the dramatic wind yet. we have had steady rain overnight. gives you a sense of just how big this storm is and how much more than 20 million people state of florida watch warning or advisory. 20 million people having to decide there is just a huge storm see the effects are widespread. normally you hear the trees cracking and windows shaking. that hasn't happened in this part of the storm yet. yet, if you look down this main road you can see the damage is already here. the worst is still ahead. the worst is yet to come. we are talking about a storm surge here, we are already 3 or 4 feet up a lot of stores being flooded. the big challenge is going to be to try to get to people, to try to help people. we are seeing down the road some electrical repair trucks and how are they going to get through this water? this is 2 feet here. it's going to go to 4 feet up here 50,000 people throughout the state without electric power try to get them power and get people who are stuck who might need help and might need to get to the hospital. when roads are like this, that's going to be the real challenge, even far away from the center of this storm guys, are back to you. >> when did the surge start happening and has it really rained yet? >> it's been raining steadily since last night and surge has happened from the start midnight or. so over the last hour we have actually seen the water rise up. it's bad now and getting deeper. you can actually if you look at pictures from an hour ago, the water was lower, so the water has come over the sea wall. it's flooding these stores. and roads back in as well. we are seeing some lightning overhead as well. it's an eerie situation but it's not dramatic, this is a slow steady crushing of towns like tar upon springs. it's been officials this is going to reshape the coast line. this is a catastrophic big deal across the entire state. steve no kidding. janice told us it is a cat 3 hurricane. been downgraded a little bit. it's that storm surge which is incredible. have you seen many people out and about. camera pans over boats. those people are okay. you are near one of the lakes in tarpon. are people out or did they take the governor's advice and get the heck out of town? last night pretty mild. we saw people out and families out people with children walking out. now a lot of people have retreated very hard to move around now. talk about evacuations and leaving their houses. a lot of people didn't have very far to go to just get to highland if the wind does hit weird situation where you are trying to escape from 70 mile-per-hour winds. get high. trying to escape from flood water get high. some people can be caught in the middle of this storm. >> steve: that's the worry. steve, thank you for the live report from tarpon springs, in florida. >> ainsley: here is a live look at i-275. >> steve: look at that. >> ainsley: which is in tampa, florida. it looks like some people are on the road the waiter is not going over the road on the left-hand side it is on the right-hand side. this is tampa. >> steve: a lot of bridges. >> ainsley: clearwater. saint pete in that area. some of those bridges that take you to those areas have closed down the department of transportation made that decision to close them down because winds were so strong they didn't want people to get in their cars and be blown over. >> brian: drive over those bridges without a storm wow it wouldn't take much for these bridges to flood. i almost feel like it's at water level so it's already happening. >> ainsley: remember in sauna bell and then the bridge collapsed. >> steve: luckily around tampa a lot of those causeways are built up 10, 15 feet for just such an occasion, 16 feet is what they are forecasting as a flood surge in certain parts of florida. particularly the big bend area. janice dean has been over at the maps and looking at the very latest. and the information you guys in fox weather have been able to provide is stunning because these maps, i have never seen these kind of maps on tv before. >> janice: right we simulcast last night. >> ainsley: great coverage. >> janice: 140 mile-per-hour sustained winds overnight. they upgraded did to a category 4 storm. the winds down to a category 3 but we have been telling you, you know, don't focus on the category. the damage is going to be the storm surge. and when you are talking about 16 feet across the shallow land, it's going to cause massive catastrophic damage, unfortunately. you talked about ian last year. remember what happened at fort myers, they had a 10 to 15-foot storm surge. very capable to that. wind gusts 81 miles per hour at hoarse shoe beach. sarasota 70 miles per hour. looking at the satellite imagery and put a marker on here a few minutes ago, probably about 20 minutes ago. we are 7 miles from the center of the storm. so that is just an historical point. the lowest pressure point that comes on shore. national hurricane center deems the place where it comes on shore and the time. it's just for historic purposes. we are seeing the worst of the winds right now, that core of hurricane force winds is going to last for a duration of hours here. and we actually have an extreme wind warning. it doesn't happen very often but because of how strong this storm is, and winds in excess of 100 miles per hour, you can see the really strong core of winds, you know, right there. so extreme wind warning until 9:15 for the counties of dixie and taylor. so the core. >> strongest winds making landfall now. we will get the imminent landfall, the actual eye of the storm coming across land within the next few minutes, really for the next, i would say, half an hour or. so tornado watch in effect. we do have the potential for tornadoes as the center of circulation comes on shore. you have counterclockwise motion with those bands moving inland. already the spin in place. look at the latest storm surge, 5.5 feet in cedar key. apalachicola 1.8 feet. we have been stressing that this area of the panhandle of florida has never experienced a storm of this strength in recorded history. that's why this is such a big deal. here is the latest track. again, we are getting the information every hour from the national hurricane center. expecting an imminent landfall. that lowest pressure point moving on shore in the big bend. and then we are dealing with a category 2 hurricane that moves across georgia and the carolinas. so that's part 2 of this storm. it is moving pretty quickly, 17 miles per hour to the north and east. but it's going to dump a lot of rain. we could see upwards of 5 to 8 inches localized amounts of 1, the storm surge. the biggest story with this and this vulnerable coast line. power outages in some cases they are not going to be able to get to you for a matter of days, maybe weeks in some of these areas that are cut off. but we could see the potential for widespread power outages from north florida through georgia including charms stolen up towards wilmington for the next couple of days. so peak storm surge again we been stressing this 15, 16 feet, you know, just being pushed all of this ocean water be pushed inland. this fresh water flooding. and, again, that is what kills the most people unfortunately. that's why there were evacuation orders in this area. so vulnerable, horseshoe beach, cedar key up to 16 feet. again, historic for this area. not paying attention to the category of storm, of course, it's a big deal. but the storm surge is what is going to cause the incredible damage. >> hurricane warnings still in effect for a big portion of the west coast of florida, including you in tampa. we also have tropical storm warnings for the east coast of florida and the inland flooding. this is going to be affecting much of the state of florida now into georgia and the carolinas where we still have a hurricane warning parts of georgia into south carolina. not done yet. flash flooding. we haven't talked about that, of course. that's going to be a big deal, 5 to 8 inches in a very short period of time. you know, you can't travel across water. you don't see the bottom of. and if you are in an area that is getting storm surge or flooding, rescue crews are going to have a hard time to getting out to you. know that and this is what we are dealing with today and tomorrow. by friday the storm is offshore. it's out in the atlantic. but i do want to put a little as asterisk. models bring it back towards the southeast coast over the weekend, yeah, so we have to pay attention. we are into peak season. sometimes the steering currents will bring these storms right back towards land. that's something we're going to have to watch. right now our main concern is for the folks in florida, imminent landfall hang within the next few minutes but the core of the strongest winds right now at least 100 mile-per-hour winds for the duration of a couple of hours in some of these vulnerable areas. it's going to be a very scary morning for millions of folks across florida. >> ainsley: janice, what time do you think for or neighbors that live in georgia and south carolina? when will it hit those areas. in charleston, they are going to school for a half day today. do they need to get out earlier? >> ainsley: listen to your local officials it. depends on where you are in the path of this storm. it's going to be south georgia in towards the carolinas. quick mover, once it makes landfall we are talking throughout the day today and by tomorrow it's making its exit. if there is any good news it's not going to stall like a hurricane harvey for days and days and days. again, the biggest, most catastrophic event is that push of water from the counterclockwise winds going into that vulnerable coast line that will change the shoreline forever. >> steve: that's right. and we should point out, most of the schools have been closed for today and impacted area. one of the impacted areas is hudson, florida. let's take a look and janice was talking about the storm surge and there, ladies and gentlemen, exhibit a. as landfall is now imminent, but, listen, the state of florida has been preparing. we had the governor live from the command center about 45 minutes ago. and he talked about how they have staged generators. they have got over a million gallons of gas staged. they have got star links, which, if people are unable to communicate they have 500 star links they will drop into different communities so people can get the word out if they need help. >> brian: good job elon musk. greg steube joins us from sarasota where his district is under a storm surge warning nearly a year after being pummeled by hurricane ian. what can you tell me as you work your way around to the studio? >> yeah. we lost power about 2:00 a.m. here. at least where i live in sarasota. it's been windy but nothing like what we experienced in ian. obviously what we experienced in ian the people in the big bend area of florida are going to be experiencing. and one of the blessings of this storm, i will say and thanks to your weather team and forecast team, for almost a week, you know, as early as this past weekend, the direction of the storm where they had predicted it was going turned out to be accurate. the challenge is that we had with hurricane ian last year is the track kept moving and a lot of people weren't prepared when it hit. so, kudos to all the weather teams in the forecasters, because they have had plenty of time up there in that big end area to prepare their homes and their families to evacuate, to do the things they need to do to prepare for a category 4 storm like this. >> ainsley: yeah. we do remember that i had a friend in tampa, congressman. and she went down to your area to evacuate because she thought tampa was getting hit. we all thought it was. and then at the last minute, you know, it's weather. >> steve: it turns. >> ainsley: it turned and hit your area. you all are probably still cleaning up from that storm. >> yeah. that's the challenge here. not a lot of people, obviously talking about it. it's been almost a year. i would say 30% of my district still has tarps on their roof. they are still working through. this thankfully this category 4 didn't hit here again where we are still trying to recover from the. [broken audio] this can last a significant amount of time to get your roof repaired and all these type of things and you are going to see that south of like the sea dar key area is going to experience what the north v. county to fort myers beach area experienced because south of the eye with the way the direction of the storm is spinning is where all that surge comes. in that's those pictures you saw from fort myers beach and north fort myers beach. i had the opportunity to go down there via helicopter a couple weeks ago there are still entire houses off the pads. people living in rv trailers. we still have a long way to go before -- >> ainsley: some people are still living else where inland until their houses are finished. >> yeah. because they have been destroyed or flooded. if the house wasn't destroyed, the house was flood, so everything is having to be repaired. >> steve: sure, this video actually a live image from tampa, it shows part of the bay right there on i-275. we just saw an emergency vehicle but, i know you can't see it, congressman, but there is some normal traffic. you know, the one thing you are absolutely right. the thing about a hurricane is you can see it coming for days, and people can plan to get out and they do if they are smart. but you know a lot of people they figure it's going to wobble like the last year and i'm going to just ride it out and unfortunately, it's too late if they are stuck in their house. especially if there is going to be a 16-foot storm surge. >> yeah. we were on vacation and came home early. i want to be in my district. because i assumed this would be tracked like ian or irma. i don't know what it is with storms first letter i but ian and irma tracked to be in panhandle area and kept moving and was going to hit tampa and coming south and hit sarasota and ended up going through charlotte harbor. anybody in florida when it's coming near your direction needs to be prepared to do the things they need to do to protect their families and their homes. >> ainsley: did a lot of people evacuate from the tampa area and head down to your district? >> we evacuated -- sarasota county evacuated zone 1 i believe. the coast line the barrier islands were evacuated yesterday. so, they didn't -- the best thing to do is to go inland because then you are going to get away from the storm surge, the wind aren't going to be as bad. but then you are just having to deal with the flooding type issues. but the best thing to do is to go inland and not be on the coast line. >> ainsley: think about all those trees in tallahassee. gorgeous oak trees. >> steve: congressman, that's one of the things the governor said yesterday, you are not going to have to evacuate hundreds of miles. you don't have to drive to atlanta. just ultimately go inland until you are up 20, 30 feet and you will be okay. elevation. >> yeah. you could see down just in fort myers when i was down there recently the houses that were right there on the coast line were ripped off their foundation and then just passed the intercoastal on the other side of that. obviously they were flooded but they weren't taken off the foundation of their homes. just that little bit of distance to get away from that storm surge can mean a huge amount, especially for people's safety. >> brian: congressman, i will tell you, we have so much to talk about non-weather related that will have to wait another day because of everything moving on hunter biden story but this is a bigger story because it effects so many lives directly. thank you so much, congressman, keep us up to date. >> good see you guys. >> ainsley: brian, you have your radio stations in the northern part. >> brian: seven radio stations all on high alert. they all got backup generators and all ready to go. put the word out if anything hans to let us know. >> steve: you are looking live at tampa right now. check in with nicole valdez. she is in tampa where we saw that bridge start to get a little flooded by storm surge. is the storm surge impacting you where you are, nicole? >> it absolutely is. bayshore boulevard. an area that is very low lying even after a few inches of rain. what you are looking at right now is unreal image of the really majority of bayshore boulevard now underwater and you're looking at very intense waves that are being pushed on to the shore here now reaching the median of the roadway here as these very strong wind gusts push all of that water from the bay over that bayer. you are noticing these crashing waves breaking over there and essentially heading right into the area. police now have this area blocked off. it has been under water for the last several hours. but, the intensity and the pace of the water that's been moving over here has been incredible to witness. every few minutes or so it's another couple inches higher and we are having to move further and further inland to stay safe because we know that just a few inches of water can sweep us off our feet let alone what it can do to a car. talk about the overall impact of. pinellas county close off barrier islands because of the significant threat that this storm surge is posing right now to those in and around those areas. we're looking at several major bridges in and around the tampa bay area that have also been shut down because of how strong the wind gusts are and they are unsafe to drive over. >> this is a very dangerous situation as we now watch hurricane, this hurricane is now expected to make landfall here in just a matter of maybe under an hour. it is imminent that eye wall is now approaching the florida coast line. so this is a situation but i want to make very clear that us here in tampa bay are not looking at that eye wall. this is really the outer bands of the storm. and likely really was hours ago and we're still seeing lingering impacts all along the tampa bay area. so this is an incredible image here. something that the police officers you see just next to us have told me they have never seen before here in bayshore. some telling me they worked in this city for more than 20 years and unreal and incredibly terrifying image here of that storm surge behind me, guys. >> steve: and, nicole, the police are right there next to you, keeping an eye on what's going on right there near the water. have you seen any, you know, we always see this in florida. i don't know if this is the case around tampa bay. but any time there is a big tropical storm, people do try to go out and surf. you haven't seen anybody with surf boards yet, right? >> thankfully the answer to that question is no this time around. i can't say that for other storms. >> steve: right. >> as you can tell i'm sure that surfers might see this and think that's amazing. there is so much danger out there. you can see the water level is now flush with the road. so i mean it is so beyond dangerous, beyond words there, looking at the current and the surf out there. >> ainsley: all right. thank you, nicole. stay safe. let's go back to robert ray in clearwater. he is getting hammered there. this is west of tampa. things are really picking up. >> steve: oh my goodness. >> yeah, guys. these are incredible, incredible bands coming through here. idalia is throwing hay makers right now into clearwater beach. these are the winds and rain we have seen you see the storm surge that i'm walking through here or coronado drive right now. this is as intense as we have seen here on the barrier island where evacuations, mandatory evacs were in place yesterday. they wanted everybody out by 7:00 p.m. and we hope people did, they heeded those warnings. imminent landfall very soon up to the north of me that is a situation very dangerous cat 4, southeast of the eye and all of this energy whipping through here off the gulf of mexico. 200 yards away from me where the gulf is these have started to look more intense like the own rivers, entity as if the water belongs here, which it does not. we were told up to 7 feet by the national weather service could be the surge. right now in some spots, we have got to be seeing above 4. it depends on where you are at as the ebb and flow of all of this. there is a vehicle that i'm looking at in the distance that i sure hope this car is not going to try to drive down here as this continues to rise. we are safe. my photographers are in high ground behind this water, a parking garage. if i have to duck out of this, i will. and do it quickly. this is still very, very fluid. this car is going to try to make its way through. and i just -- this is the problem. you try to drive a vehicle through stuff like this, and they are going to float away. actually this car is pulling right into the garage, good move, sir. good move. these bands that are continuing to come in are tough. again, some of the worst conditions we have seen at least here in clearwater beach, this is zone a for evacuations, barrier island. across the inlet. zone b in parts of clearwater. they need people out of there as well. up to 15 feet of storm surge we could see on the big bend. again, imminent landfall. cat 4. up there and it's going to move into south georgia as a hurricane. we don't know how the strength is going to continue. we don't know how hard that's going to be. but they are going to get walloped moving into the south carolina area. we are continuing to stay out here and monitor this as the haymakers are being thrown by idalia. back to you. >> ainsley: robert when you started this morning it was up to your calf, now it's almost up to your knees. janice telling us information this morning stay with us because we want your reaction to this. janice? >> janice: hi, robert. so we're getting information that the eye is clearly moving on shore near fish creek. it's not confirmed by the new york city but national hurricae center. near fish creek we are getting the lowest pressure point -- that doesn't mean anything except that the ---the lowest pressure point is now moving on shore. we will definitely get an official landfall from the new national hurricanecenter. >> steve: how low is the pressure that's a good way to tell how strong the storm is. >> janice: that's good information i don't have that information in front of me yet. we will get that. when the national hurricane center makes their official call we will get the lowest pressure point as that eye makes its way on shore. but, remember, the strongest part of the storm, the core of hurricane force winds has already made landfall. they are already experiencing winds in excess of 100 miles per hour for a duration of time. >> steve: and when the eye makes landfall, it's quiet in the eye. >> janice: yes. >> steve: robert, obviously you are nowhere near the eye relatively speaking. you are on the dirty side of the storm. the wind is pummeling the palm trees there and the water is rising. we should point out, you mentioned a parking structure. any time we take pictures of a hurricane, we try to keep you guys out in the weather but as safe as possible. so, sometimes you are in the shadow of a great big building that's not going to blow over. >> janice: 947 is the pressure right now. >> steve: that is low. >> 947 the pressure. wow, that's low. that's the rapid inferenceification, right, janice? >> janice: absolutely. when you see the winds go up. 5:00 a.m. advisory they downgraded it to a category 3 i always say don't pay attention to the category because it's always been the storm surge. when you see the pressure dropping as it has dropped in the last six to 12 hours that was rapid intensification. this time yesterday we were at a category 1 storm. so the fact that we have got the warmest waters in the gulf of mexico off the coast of the big bend of florida has inenhanced that rapid intensification. >> steve: robert, out of curiosity, over the last couple of weeks we have been talking about how the waters off the does it feel like you are standing in a bath tub? >> to your point, indeed. the gulf of mexico is running high 80 fair height. sometimes even 90 degrees up and down this gulf coast all the way up from naples up to here. it does not feel like it's bathtub water at this point. but that's because it's a mix. so the water that's rushing in from the gulf is now being mixed with the water from above, the precip coming. it's just not as warm. but i will say you can taste the salt, that's for sure. when the water comes in and it laps up and it comes up, got it right on your lips. it's just amazing i'm this far away from that eye that's making landfall and we are still getting this kind of energy here in clearwater beach. it shows you how powerful the surge is. and i cannot even imagine what is happening on the big bend where up to 15 feet is expected and what is happening on the landfall right now. just tremendous amount of energy. i will say this and i have said it again. we need to fear these hurricanes. always have the fear of god in you. they have their own entity in mind. they will rip us apart. be careful. >> ainsley: robert. great advice. i have been hearing we can replace our homes and cars. we can't replace our family members and loved ones. definitely listen to all of these warnings, robert. great job. we will continue to check in with you throughout the morning. don't forget to download the fox weather app. that's been extremely helpful to all of us. it was great to watch our coverage last night. watch our coverage today. because we have a completely channel devoted to weather. so, fox news channel is working with fox weather channel and we're sharing information. sharing meteorologists and reporters that are on the ground. so it's just been a wealth of information. if you want to watch this morning and see how it's affecting these families, our loved ones down in florida. and then it's going to effect georgia and move on up to south carolina and then keep it right here on the fox news channel. >> brian: all right. kevin guthrie executive director of the florida division of emergency manage wanted and joins us live. kevin, what's your greatest area of concern right now. >> hey, good morning, guys. appreciate it, brian. right now our greatest area of concern is going to be that big bend area where we just had landfall. that 947 pressure with 125, 130 mile-per-hour winds. that's a really strong cat 3 hurricane. just coming down from that cat 4 that we saw about an hour ago. storm surge, the 12 to 15-foot of storm surge along the coastnot a really populated area but nevertheless we still got some fish camps and things like that in there. lots of people in manufactured housing. that's a concern. and then moving inland with these 120 mile-per-hour winds, 120 mile-per-hour gusts bringing down that live oak canopy. i know, brian, usc up here in the tallahassee area you know there is a really strong live oak tree canopy here. that's going to go into power lines. take down power lines and knock out power outages to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of customers. >> steve: when you guys gave the briefing an hour ago the governor said don't mess with this storm. clearly that's great advice because this is going to wind up being a killer. you watch. because probably the storm surge. kevin, you talked a little bit about how the warnings went out and particularly along zone a, you know, it was emphatic, get out when you can. how many people do you think stayed home or stayed wherever they were thinking this is going to go some place else? >> so, i don't know exactly how many people stayed across the greater area, but i will say cedar key, local sheriff's office and local florida highway patrol we are going door to door down in cedar key. a hundred people would not leave their homes. they refused to. so, we know we got about 100. the good news about that is we know what those addresses were. we are going to be focusing on urban search and rescue efforts to get back in there as soon as we can. winds down die down. storm surge low enough where we get in there and check on them. we will be going in by air boat and flat bottom boats first. so we are going to get in there just as fast as we can and check on them. we know we had about 100 that did stay behind in the cedar key area. >> ainsley: kevin, there is this map on the wall where janice has been reporting. can you see how tallahassee is just getting drenched. janice, can we show him that map? can you go back -- can you see where tallahassee getting drenched which is where florida state is gainesville is to the right of this storm and uf is all these kids went back to college a few days ago. what's happening with them? i know ron desantis says 50 districts are closed. 29 state colleges are closed and seven universities have canceled classes. where are they going? a lot of their parents live elsewhere in the united states? >> yeah. so, most of these campuses have shelters on the campuses, florida state university, florida, university of florida they have the ability to shelters their students on campus. a lot of their buildings are obviously rated for cat 3, 4 and 5 winds. and they also have full generation. so, most of these campuses, especially with their international students that can't evacuate, they are very robust in taking care of those students on campus. i would highly encourage parents and kids stay in constant communication. that's a fundamental basis of any all hazards if you will, plan. we highly encourage people to have a way to communicate with each other and make sure they stay in touch to the best extent they can. >> steve: kevin, when you guys gave the briefing, the governor said you had prepositioned something like 3,000 generators if power is lost. where will those generators go? we just had grady trimble from our team at a gas station. i would imagine a gas station would be a primary place that if they don't have electricity you want to get juice to them. the bulk of our tracking expose them to the risk of traffic moving around. the department of transportation has almost 1100 of those. the division halls another 400 of those. we right now have well over 3,000 generators designed to go into schools, hospitals businesses gas stations like you mentioned. you know, we have done this before. we know a thing or two about responding to hurricanes. so we -- you know, we have enough generation power to generate small cities, small county right now in staging. we are prepared to do it. we want to get the gas stations back on line. 1.2 million gallons of gas staged all ready to go into gas stations. more on the way from louisiana this morning. the ports, we do have all of our ports closed with the exception of one port everglades. down to one fueling port in the state. that's not unheard of. we do that dwigh quite a bit whe have these hurricanes. all the necessary tools in place. we are responding and making sure we meet the needs of the citizens all the way key west and apalachicola bay. >> ainsley: if there is silver lining you know what you are doing down there. national guard 5500 of them. search and rescue teams already in place. soldiers from the 153rd cavalry regiment equipping the zodiac boats to go out for relief efforts. 25,000 line workers on standby to assist with power r restoration. american airlines added flights to help with the evacuations there too. thank you so much. >> steve: can i ask a quick question, kevin, before you go. i read this morning in the orlando newspapers that it sounded like, as of late yesterday, places like disney world and sea world and universal florida were actually open today? i talked with the florida amusement park i don't have that latest update, steve. we can certainly check on that and get back to you. that would not surprise me because, again, they were going to be on the southern end of this. they may have to close rides periodically but, again, the orlando airport was closed for sure. i'm looking over at a map right now. the orlando airport was closed. but it might be that some of those amusement parks could function, maybe not all the rides but some of the rides. >> steve: sure. all right. sir, thank you very much. we know you have got your hands full today. >> absolutely. thank you guys for having us. >> brian: all right. kevin. we will talk with you again. check in with senior meteorologist janice dean. how are we moving? >> janice: the eye is coming on shore. i expect the national weather service to make an announcement very soon around fish creek. keaton beach area and you can see it right now on the radar where you have the reds and the yellows. that's the core of the strongest winds. and then you see the eye, the calmness part of the storm. if you're in the eye, you will actually experience, in some cases blue sky. so that's the incredible part of this system is we have got a period of extreme calm in the eye of the storm. and some people are taking off guard, right? they think the storm is over and go out and start doing whatever, making sure that everything is in place and, you know is my lawn furniture okay? and then the back side of the storm comes. and that's why we heard governor desantis say, you know, don't be fooled. some of you might feel the calm of the storm, but then we have got the strongest core of winds that's going to come on shore with the next cup bell of hours. so we have got landfall happening right now around fish creek, we think. keaton beach area. and then the strongest core, the back side of the storm will move on shore. so, that's going to be imminent, happening right now. i'm sure we will get the official data from the national hurricane center and, again, that is just the lowest point of pressure as it comes on shore and i believe it was at 947 but we will get that information. overnight category 4 storm downgraded a little bit to a category 3. the results are still the same. the storm surge is still going to be catastrophic. 16 feet over this very vulnerable coast line is going to cause, you know, it's going to change the coast line of this area very rim reminiscent of iaf you went through michael across the panhandle a couple of years ago, it's going to be kind of the same catastrophic damage. this is the latest storm surge by the way. so look at cedar key approaching 6 feet right now. where i believe we have robert ray and we are looking at cedar key the florida storm surge trend it's obviously peaking right now and depends on when high tide is. some coming in now. then you have feet of storm surge on top of high tide and then the waves on top of that. that's why this is the most dangerous part of this ukraine hurricane. some of the wind gusts 81 miles per hour. strongest winds over 100 miles per hour. that's going to be for the duration of hours. that's the scariest part of the storm right now for people inland and north of the core of the strongest winds is the duration of those strong winds. just looking at the forecast track, part 2 of this storm is for georgia and south carolina dealing with a category 2 hurricane. the good news is a quick mover. we will have to watch it though as it moves out into the atlantic and meanders over the next couple of days. keeping you posted. landfall happening right now. we will probably get an official report before 8:00 and we will bring it to you live. >> steve: and it's making landfall as a cat 3. now we're going back to that interstate 275 in tampa. as you can see the water is coming up. kurt the cyberguy, who has got family in that area, he just sent me a text that said that bridge right there, that causeway, is called the howard franklin. and it is one of three major bridges and causeways that connect tampa to pinellas county. and as you can see it's perilous going the other direction. also, i had asked kevin, the emergency management guy about orlando and disney world. and one of our friends, dr. sent me a note disney world select closures as orlando is in a state of emergency. >> ainsley: i'm sure they are going to get a lot of rain in orlando. they are inland but it's going to be too messy. >> steve: parents live just north of orlando and we were talking to them a little before 6:00 and they said essentially it was only drizzling there. >> ainsley: it's amazing to see how the water is coming up so quickly because the ride side of this interstate as we were say something completely submerged. it wasn't the case just 30 minutes ago. and then when we go to our reporters they are standarding in water and it's inching higher and higher. >> brian: is that a bridge? >> ainsley: causeway. >> steve: that's the howard franklin. >> ainsley: in south carolina governor mcmasters declared a state of emergency. the tropical storm warnings and storm surge watches in place for coastal georgia as well as south carolina. if you live in those areas and the water is coming up, the rain is coming your way, get your car into a parking garage, go up to the second or third level. on times cities will work with you and they will let you park for free on some of the higher levels so you can save your car. >> steve: yeah. >> brian: all right. let's check in now with kelly cowen from our tampa affiliate. she is gulfport, florida. just southwest of petersburg. kelly, see the wind you can definitely see it and hear it as well. you can see street flooding that's going on because of this storm. and because of the high tide. so we had high tide, king tide coincide with this storm's arrival. its approach as it passed by us. so it brought significant wind from the south pushed up plenty of water from the streets. this is downtown gulfport right now especially in the low lying areas. in sev some places several blocf downtown gulfport have been absolutely flooded out. some of locals tell me that's kind of typically when they have a big rainstorm that coincides with a major high tide. what is not typically is seeing damage like this that we are seeing out here in the bay. we see plenty of sailboats pushed up against the shore. this one that we are looking at here this whited and red one tipped over on its side. quite a bit of damage seeing here. very reminiscent what happened with hurricane ada. you can see one of these peers just rocking and rolling in those waves. the wind is still pushing up plenty of water over the shoreline for the bay over the sea wall plenty of the boats still hanging in there just hanging with the waves, rocking and rolling. we hope the best from them. we are hearing from some of the locals they are seeing quite a few boats that have been hunterd up, pushed around this morning. swing things just this way. can you see how flooded out this park is right now. plenty of watercraft, personal watercraft that people have normally have docked along here have been pushed up even further along here so this all normally dry land not so much at this point. guys? >> steve: well, kellie, cece at least one person has come out to watch the lady on tv. have you seen many other locals? we have had company all morning long. hurricane tourists if you will. i even had a bikini clad woman running behind me around 3:00 this morning. so this is not exactly unusual for folks in gulfport they tell me they are not exactly impressed by this storm. >> brian: not yet. hopefully they will feel that way soon as well. meanwhile, go in with janice dean. janice, you have an announcement. >> janice: yep. official landfall from the hurricane center keaton beach, florida, 7:45 a.m. 125 minor sustained winds. major hurricane strength. the pressure at landfall was 949. again, that's just historic. for historical purposes. they are feeling ferocious winds, a categories 3 storm. you know, north of the eye which is what this is. this is the actual pressure point coming on shore. which we were broadcasting live as it was happening here on "fox & friends." but this is the official report from the national hurricane center and they are the ones that have -- that make this for the history books. >> brian: janice, if you want to know however inland it will go, what do you look for? >> janice: i mean, the national hurricane center has been very right on with their forecasting. it has been for the last couple of days almost perfect. in where we thought it was going to make landfall along the big bend of florida. then we also have a trough that's going to interact with this storm. going to move very quickly up towards south georgia. south carolina, as a category 2 hurricane. so they have to be making their preparations now for a category 2 hurricane. heavy rainfall in the forecast, certainly 5 to 8 inches. the storm surge, the biggest storm surge impacts right now for the big bend of florida but that water is going to move well inland. you know, gainesville, where we have one of our reporters, we are seeing surge into tampa bay. so widespread impacts and then we also have the tornado risk, which is the potential for these rotating, you know, storms, tornadoes that form because of the counterclockwise motion and interaction with land. that tornado watch is good until this afternoon moving in towards georgia and the carolinas. so, the national hurricane center has done a really great job of warning people. we knew exactly where this storm was going to go. >> steve: yep. >> janice: and the intensity, which is one of the hardest things to forecast they had right on. category 3. border wall category 4 and that's exactly what we had. >> steve: you were talking about when it made landfall and that is for historical purposes. >> janice: yes. >> steve: so they can say it came ashore at this point. speaking of history. history is going to be made shoy in tallahassee. the state capital, has never in recorded history, going back to 1851, i think. tallahassee has never experienced a hurricane and it's heading their way, janice. >> janice: i think we have someone that's going to tell us about that, right? one of our multi media journalist? >> ainsley: i remember when i went to school in tallahassee we would have hurricane parties. >> brian: so there was a hurricane. >> steve: you were just looking for an excuse. >> ainsley: they did close classes and we were concerned about it. whether or not it was like traveling, barreling exactly toward tallahassee, i can't remember. this was 20-some odd years ago. we have fox weather multi media journalist brandy c campbell isn tallahassee north of where the hurricane made landfall. >> we are a hour and a half away from where it made landfall right now the rain is starting to pick up and wind gust in that year. that has been the concern here because tallahassee is known for its tree coverage. you can see them just behind me blowing in the wind 55% tree coverage. worried about the wind impact blowing down the trees and causing power outages. i just checked according to pour out damage u.s. there are about 10,000 in this county alone. that's not the most when you compare it to other counties. so, that is the main concern here in this area there was a mandatory evacuation for those living in mobile homes because of reasons like that. so, with this landfall, we know the impacts will get stronger for us. i will be here monitoring these conditions here in tallahassee. guys? >> ainsley: brandy, we watched your coverage yesterday, today it's wonderful to have fox weather, our app. i know you work for fox weather. we work for fox news channel, but we are all under the same umbrella and all a family helping each other out. so it's great to hear all these different perspectives and have reporters from both channels really telling -- painting the whole picture. because we have so many viewers in florida. so many in georgia. so many in south carolina that are watching this. >> exactly. >> ainsley: i think the concern there are those trees, right? people are worried they are going to fall on their cars and houses and the power lines. >> exactly. yeah. and so that's something they are going to be keeping an eye on. i know they actually have already been calling to get additional help to double their workforce so they can go ahead and tackle this issue once the storm passes. i know they have already been at work overnight as well. >> steve: and we were talking a moment ago about the historic nature of a hurricane making landfall and proceeding to tallahassee. never happened before in recorded history, right? >> yeah. that's right. i spoke with the mayor yesterday. and he said this was going to be a storm, quote: of epic proportions for tallahassee because the wind speeds and such is just something that this area has not experienced. so it will be really interesting to see what official numbers do come out of this. i last checked our fox weather app. and i was seeing wind speeds recorded here about 24 miles per hour. we will see if that increases as the day goes on. for now i'm telling you, i look up at the sky, dark skies, the clouds, they are moving fast here, guys. >> ainsley: i remember when i went to school there, brandy, my parents we drove on to campus and they said this doesn't look like florida. because it looks like really georgia. lots of greenery. >> it's different. it's a beautiful, beautiful town. >> very hilly. >> steve: we can't tell from the screen we see rain and water rising. does it feel real three-point line? is it real warm and humid right now? >> well, i am soaking wet, so i'm cold. so it's hard for me to tell. [laughter] i'm going to be honest but we got a breeze. if you are out, you are going to get wet. it might not feel so three-point line. i will say that. >> steve: you know, so many times we talk about download the fox weather app. on your device, on your phone and stuff like that. we actually have roku tv at our house, and we have been watching it nonstop because you guys have been -- >> -- there you go. >> brian: 24/7, brandy. and so many people are getting a look at fox weather and your coverage has been fantastic. >> yes. definitely. you can watch it on so many different platforms now. i know my mom probably has it on. she goes to sleep with it on because it's just a good resource to stay updated. and we're constantly out here. and thankfully speaking with you guys to get more people aware of what is happening with idalia, too. >> steve: ultimately, a public service we are able to warn people when things are coming. >> brian: thanks, brandy. another live look at 275 over in tampa. it is nearly underwater as we switch shots to that. and that's the one that we saw about an hour ago. we saw some waves hitting it. now it's transcended it. so, and i will tell you, i am always struck by how low those bridges are to begin with. >> steve: you can see this is like -- let's see like an 8-lane highway. the four lanes on the left of the screen and that is, according to kurt the cyberguy that is the howard franklin bridge and causeway. it looks as if there is a little -- there was traffic moving very slowly to the screen left. but the four lanes on the right side of your screen are completely inundated with water. >> ainsley: one guy is trying to get through it. that left hand lane looks like it's kind of clear on the other side you can see it looks like a white truck that just went past. >> steve: i wonder if that's emergency services guy. >> ainsley: maybe. so. >> steve: there is a lot of water. i don't think i would go that way. let's check in with nicole valdez in tampa where we -- okay. and there is -- nicole, point out that fence behind you. tell us what that white fence is back there. >> well, yeah, i will paint the picture for you. >> in the distance is tampa bay. but it looks like i'm standing along the bay, except i'm actually on the road if you can believe it. it's completely under water at this point. as we are now looking at what is likely close to 4 feet of storm surge that has been pushed in from the bay on to this main road and has been this way for the last several hours, really kicking into gear overnight as the wind gusts associated with hurricane idalia really have just sent these intense impacts and packed a punch here in tampa bay despite the fact that landfall about three and a half hours north of us just minutes ago as janice pointed out. but, i mean, you can just tell that this is not -- it is very unusual scene here. especially police officers who tell me they have worked in this city for 20 years and they have never seen water this deep. and i'm not going to step in the road because we recognize that only how deep it is but how strong the waves that are being pushed in from the bay are continuing to push inland onto the road here even this median that's a little bit higher ground here you can watch as it hits my boots here. a very unreal situation here as we now start to see the sunshine for the first time in over 12 hours, if not more here in tampa bay. you mentioned those bridges. those were closed by florida highway patrol several hours ago. we're also hearing several of the barrier islands in pinellas county have also been shut down. the winds just too strong for those people to feel confident that they're safe to drive through. but all night long we have really been dealing with the outer bands of this system. but, really, the outer bands, just as strong. we are still talking about significant storm surge here. the anticipation in the forecat was anywhere from 4 to 6 feet. we are looking at about 4 now. but we have got high tide coming up in just a few hours. there is a very good chance that this water will continue to rise at an alarming rate. it is not hard to imagine it going further inland and threatening a lot of the homes and businesses that line bayshore boulevard here. guys. >> steve: nicole in addition to hurricane and you mentioned high tide is coming, you have also got something that is known as the king tide going on and you have got a full moon. it's like everything is working against you. >> we do. and that's not going to make things any easier, especially for officials trying to keep those people who are waking up who may think that the worst of the storm is over likely seeing landfall made, maybe closer to tallahassee. they must think we are in the clear. but what they may not realize until they try to maybe get on the road for the day, is that there are still very severe and dangerous impacts all across the tampa bay area that are going to really play a very dangerous part all throughout the day today as we deal with all of the factors you just mentioned. >> steve: no kidding. and do they have -- you said the storm surge right there is about 4 feet. are they able to forecast how many more feet before it turns the other way? >> it's tough to say. i know we have been talking about high tide, potentially adding another foot on top of what we see right now. but, to get that nailed down seems to be really difficult. it also could against on will we see any more rain that comes as a straggler with this system? all of those factors could really change the exact numbers. >> ainsley: i know there are 5500 national guard troops and search and rescue teams that are in place. they are ready. they have already been equipping the zodiac boats do go out for relief efforts if need be. when you look at that water behind you, it's amazing. at first when we tossed to you earlier today, we thought you were on the beach. and then you turned and we noticed you were on the street next to the beach. so thank you for being out there for us. >> steve: you can tell she is not in the ocean because generally they don't have the stripes. >> ainsley: the yellow lines. >> steve: no kidding. nicole. thank you so much. great coverage. >> >> ainsley: all right. it is 8:00 on the east coast and our coverage of hurricane idalia continues right now. ♪ >> steve: fox weather alert dang dangerous hurricane idalia made landfall in big bend area as category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 120 mile per hour. people are feeling the wind all over