life-threatening storm surge and plenty of tornado warnings on this wednesday morning. >> right now our greatest area of concern is that big bend area where we had landfall, 947 pressure with 130 mile per hour wind is a dangerous cat 3 hurricane. >> brian: climbing to 138s,000. senior meteorologist janice dean is in the studio tracking the storm, we have matt finn and steve harrigan. robert ray is in clearwater. when we tossed to you last water was up to your calf and now it looks like it is up to your knees. >> yeah, close to it. it changes as the surge comes in, it can be calf or knee. up and down the street, i'm looking as far as my eye can see, it appears to be a river from the gulf of mexico surge coming in. same that way. you see that hotel, sunrise resort, there is a gentleman standing on high ground. he is smart. that vehicle probably should move thchl is what we've been experiencing all morning. the outure bands are creating surge and pushing across the beach in clearwater into the street. this is coronado drive. it is all one piece of water here right now. we expected up to seven feets, i don't think we will hit that, i hope not. no recession of this water yet as winds continue to go and landfall happened 7:45 a.m. at big bend. it shows the energy of this cat 4 system idalia, dangerous surge on big bend up to 15 feet. people, i hope they were not trying to hunker down on big bend. where i'm at mandatory evacuation, people supposed to be out last night, let's hope many have. across the inlet is clear water, some areas were under investigation, zone b, low lying areas. all we can do, as the sun just came up, go through this, as outer bands continue and hope this water heads out soon to the gulf or sewers, for sure. there are thousands of utility workers on standby to restore power as it goes down. we still have good communication, cell phones are good in clearwater beach. we have seen few people out, in facts, zero, fire engine and police and someone from pinellas monitoring the situation. we knew we would get surge and we're looking at it, standing in it, seeing it. the question is how far has it gone in and now the light is up and we can get a better assessment what is happening in clearwater beach and other communities on the gulf coast. back to you. >> steve: thank you, great reporting, two hours he's been standing there, seen water and wind come in. good feeling for what people of florida are feeling now. >> ainsley: let's go to fox news steve harrigan live in tarpin spring, north of clearwater. steve. >> this area was dry an hour ago when we last spoke temperature is about ankle deep now and water goes down to four feet deep. there are two dramas going on here. this is one straight in tarpin springs. this could be happening across florida. to the left, there is a fire going on, there is a barge on fire. we saw a fire truck pull up and firefighters couldn't get to it. imagine how frustrating to a firefighter to not be able to help on the barge. here comes another fire truck. what we're seeing are scenes of disaster and problems where the aid can't get there because of the water. the firefighters went on foot to try to put out the fire. this is an electrical transformer and i'm told by city workers that could blowup and electifiy the w5ur9 r water. we have fire and electrocution where the main part of the storm has not hit. multiply this by 20 million people, city workers, fire trucks and electrical trucks can't get where they need to because of water. >> steve: is that transformer, which is smoking, is that because there is still electricity to that area? shouldn't they cut the power? >> there is still electricity to this area. why they haven't cut it, i don't know, are they able to get to it to stop it. >> steve: good point. >> really mild storm so far and you can tell a very destructive storm, just destructive in a different way, you are not rocking back and forth and yet a fire can't get put out, transformer could blowup and rescue workers are being told to get out of the water. workers can't get where they need to. >> brian: is that law enforcement? is that an official? >> city workers are screaming at people to get out of the water and their vehicle is stuck here, regular vehicle, not high water. basically all they can do is standby and watch and prevent people from getting injured as they wait the storm out. >> steve: is it your feeling there will be more storm surge or have you seen the worst of it? high tide is mid-day, it is rising steadily, rain is pouring, i think it will be worse. you have seen enough storms, if you have three or four feet of bay water in stores, they are destroyed, not knocked down. equipment is ruined. depends what side of the street you are on, your side has more water than the worker. >> steve: he is on the bay side, right? >> the bay side there and boats are down 10 feet and now off the water coming over that bay wall. you see officials trying to tell people don't go down there, that transformer could blowup. >> steve: boats will float and be on land when this goes the other way? >> it is a possibility and we've seen boat owners coming out and anxiously looking at their boat and a few people sleep on the boat and let the boat out as it rises. there are people watching like they watch their house with anxiety. >> brian: sadly, people who can't afford payments let go of the boat or leave the car in the water to get insurance. >> i am being told one boat is topped over the sea wall. hopefully a few more hours and this will go down. the worst is just ahead. >> ainsley: people work hard for boatings and cars and one day could be destroyed. thank you. >> brian: go to matt finn live in st. pete southwest of tampa. matt. >> these are probably the best conditions we've seen over the past eight hours. throughout the night soaking rain and strong winds, things are starting to settle in st. pete and clouds are breaking up. we're on the beach a block or two inland, substantial and dangerous flooding happening around us. st. pete police released video of a rescue they did not long ago inside of a mobile home park and also the sheriff office in pinellas county closed access to the barrier island in st. pete beach. you cannot get on or off right now. many other islands are closed. the sheriff is not allowing people to get on or off and the sheriff did warn if you reach for the phone or try for emergency officials, they may not be able to respond to you. this area is prone to flooding and we saw the gulf be pushed inland to the point where i was standing would have been water. it has receded, a lot of water did make it inland. flooding in st. pete beach and hopefully will get inland and bring you new video as we see it. >> brian: good news, i hope i can keep tossing to you and see it is relatively calm like that. thanks, appreciate it. >> steve: let's go back to tampa, take another look at the highway. the howard franklin and just this is amazing, last 10 minutes, four lanes on the right side, water receded and you could drive down two lanes, if you were a dare devil, i would imagine they probably turned off traffic flow to that side. we have, however, seen in the last 20 minutes a car go forward and one in another direction, there is activity on 275 interstate in the tampa area. >> ainsley: check in with janice dean. once high tide rolls in -- do we know that is midday? >> janice: depedepends, cedar k surpasses hermine, the storm a lot of people were talking about. there were folks on cedar key and i'm concerned. high tide comes around noon and you have six-foot storm surge that will continue to rise. here is official landfall from national hurricane center. we were here live as the eye came on shore, keaton beach. we have been reinforcing this last few days, wind you can hide from it, you have to run from water. talking about 15 to 16 foot storm surge, that is catastrophic damage. purple here is coldest cloud tops with thunderstorms and we have strongest core of wind right now, 100 mile per hour sustained wind for matter of hours and we have extreme wind warning for counties as backside comes ashore and threat of tropical tornados. several storms within the last 12 to 24 hours, tornado watch from tampa toward charleston will continue as the storm moves north and eastward. cedar key 6.5 feet surpasses hermine and cedar key is going to continue to rise because we have high tide yet to come. historic storm, again, storm surge over topping homes, inundating communities and it could take lives. keaton beach florida wind gust 83 mile per hour, certainly see those storm tropical storm force winds and storm moves north and eastward, quick moving, into georgia and south carolina. category two hurricane in some cases, they need to complete preparations now. heavy rainfall 5 to 8 inches, some isolated amounts of 8 to 12 over next 24 to 48 hours. core of strongest wind, gusts in orange and tropical storm force winds will be felt across florida to southeast and up to mid-atlantic and watch this storm meander into the weekend. widespread power outages, it is hard for first responders to get to some areas. if you are in a community inundated with storm surge, it will be hard for them to get to you and could see power outages for weeks. storm surge, worst still to come with high tide approaching around noon hour. midday hour. that is going to be upward of 16 feet comparable to what we saw in ian last year for fort myers, 10 to 15 feet and you saw the damage from ian. this is incredible event, one that is ongoing. we had a landfall and have backside of the storm to come onshore and i am concerned people will let their guard down. here is the man of the hour brian norcross. glad to have you with fox weather doing wonderful work. we remember brian from hurricane andrew. >> ainsley: 31 years ago. >> steve: you were probably america's premiere authority when it comes to hurricanes, you have lived in florida so long. our family was watching all night long at the command center. you're a scientist and were looking at computersings and watches stuff. how does this storm as it preceded in the hours and thank you for getting up early, how has it progresed according to the forecast? any deviation that surprised you or right on the nose? >> the surprise was yesterday, strength of the outer band. you have not seen much wind, they are in between bands, somebody is getting the bands that are still going on and it is going to continue. another thing is that it is transitioning to a different kind of storm. left side we normally talk about the right side being bad side of the storm, the dirty 1d. that side is pushing the water in and continuing to happen, but to a lesser degree. the tide is coming up. i think the tide we're seeing is about the tide we'll get, it will sustain and go down this actual. >> brian: where especially? >> steve: you see the eye. there is the eye. >> janice: still in tact. >> look how the storm transitioned to purple on the left side. what is happening is dip in jet stream and enhancing left side of the storm, purple is scarier than red. purple is stronger thunderstorm. >> janice: coldest cloud top. >> that part of the eye wall, this eye wall eroded, we were lucky that happened, we didn't get, wind came down just before. that was lucky. this will be horrendous, the thing that causes storm surge is the wind blowing 1tw 20 miles p hour. >> why is this the most vulnerable spot in the u.s.? >> you have a big shelf out here, when wind is blowing in the water it gets lifted. if you go to clearwater beach, you can walk and walk and it gets lifted by that shelf and pushed inland and flat. on east coast, the shelf is narrow and energy comes here and you get big waves. energy goes to waves more into pushing inland. >> brian: what speed is it moving at and do people on east coast have to be concerned? >> it is moving 18 to 20 miles per hour. good clip. phase two of this is going to be big, i think, that is in the carolinas. in the carolinas, three factors come together. one, a big, massive tropical moisture, all this is coming toward carolinas and shifting to all this moisture on the left side, which is going to be uphill side. you have low country and up to piedmont and in the mountains. air you hava the atlantic getsy lifted by that. we have a cold front coming, weird weather pattern, more october weather pattern. tropical moisture with mountain and cold front mean heavy rain in corridor away from coast and all that rain has to come down to the coast same time that circulation is pushing storm surge in the inlet holding water back trying to get to the coast. significant flooding is forecast, plus flash flooding due to heavy rain and band in the carolina. >> janice: 6.5 is historic for them? >> in modern time, there used to bes a lot of hurricanes. >> steve: you are not that old. >> in 1950s, i remember it so well, hurricane easy and talk about tallahassee, they had hurricanes in the 1870s, hit by one after the other. modern era, it inland and have to have one barrel right to you and they don't happen that often in that part of florida. you can get a big hurricane. >> ainsley: we have a lot of viewers that live in charleston, and south carolina, when do you expect it to hit that area? >> underway now and -- >> ainsley: within 24 hours >> janice: it will be happening today and out of here. this time is 2 a.m. tomorrow morning. the center is here. it will improve quickly. it is when the front is, but remember this side, too. tropical purely tropical hurricane, right side, gets up and interacts with atmosphere, left side in terms of intense rain. >> ainsley: and charleston floods all the time. >> water is rising, just at peak tide that we have, adds six inches to the tide. six inches in charleston, water level is there at high tide. six inches brings it up to that top of the seawall. >> janice: anything on the horizon we need to watch next couple weeks? >> nothing, few systems, but for now nothing in long-range computer projection. >> messaging has been excellent. national hurricane center has done excellent. >> another thing we did on fox weather and i have switched. i show the storm surge forecast first. when i show the cone, i show the forecast outside of the cone. here comes the cone, the storm surge is forecast outside the cone, impacts are outside the cone. >> brian: what worries you most at this point? >> we don't know what is going on, this is a path of destruction through here, not only is this not to -- sparsely populated, this is not built to miami dade building code, these are fish camps and these are winds that don't sway in the wind. they snap. we saw it in 1989, and with michael, go to panama city and look at vast areas of pine trees that are snapped, that is this area here. it will be changed for years to come and concern folks in lake city, inland cities in florida that are not used to having 100 mile per hour hurricanes with beautiful, long limbs that don't do well in with the wind. >> ainsley: everyone loves going to charleston. iowa palms used to be a small town, hugo wiped it out, the whole coast. people used that property and rebuilt homes and selling five, 10, 15,000 dollars. it changed the landscape in south carolina. this will change parts of florida and florida and georgia and carolinas, but new homes built are built up. >> ainsley: they are on the second floor, the air conditioners and kitchen on the second floor. >> it is true and what is happening folks used to be able to afford to live there can't now because what it takes to build. >> brian: and insurance in florida is through the roof. >> the insurance system in florida has collapsed, serious problem. >> steve: fox weather is lucky to have you, if you want his forecast, watch fox weather. check in with fox weather c correspondent nicole valdes in tampa. the water is not going down, nicole. >> nicole: it is not and probably will not for next several hours, saw landfall in keaton beach in the big bend of florida, 3-1/2 hours north of us along florida gulf coast. it is not really about where we see that landfall happen. we see the intense impact of the hurricane and what you are seeing here is that storm surge threat that we have been forecasting for the last several days, what could be three feet of water completely submerged. bay shore boulevard along tampa bay, this is not the coast, not clearwater, not st. pete beach. you are looking at still water, it is part of the gulf coast here and a little more inland, impacts are more bizarre than what you would expect to see along the beach during a hurricane of this magnitude. idalia packing a punch as you watch really what the winds are doing creating waves and sending them inland and debris line out lining how far that water has got ebb up to thises point. we are two hours away from high tide. there is chance we could see additional foot of water. we have city of tampa police here blocking the road trying to keep people who maybe are getting up this morning thinking worst is over from getting in their cars or trying to walk through the water. you never know what is in there, debris, power lines that could pose a hazard to you and strength of waves coming onshore are impactful and bizarre for this particular area. we have barrier islands closed, major bridges are closed because of how strong wind gusts are. we have all these factors very much at play despite what we notice when you look at the storm itself impacting northern tier and big bend of florida. this goes to show and part of the conversation is east side, dirty side of the storm where we see impactful storm surge as wind pushes onshore rather than against shore. tampa general hospital on one island is under mandatory evacuation and for good reason, look at several feet of water and could continue to see more as day goes on, guys. >> steve: thank you very much. we have another live camera in cedar key, we've been watching cedar key all morning and through the night. yesterday state troopers went door to door warning people to leave saying storm surge could be 15 feet. leave. we were talking about a moment ago, storm surge in that region was about 6.5 feet and not close to high tide and look at the interstate causeway, water is receding. it was over four lanes of traffic about 20 minutes ago. >> edward reyes, joins us now from tampa. good morning to you, edward. >> good morning. good morning. >> ainsley: what time did you wake up this morning? >> i woke up around 6:30 in the morning. >> ainsley: what have you seen, compare 8:30 to 6:30. >> it's picked up quite a bit. in the morning, it was calm and i looked outside, now there is a lot of wind. actually a lot of trees moving side to side. wind has picked up. >> steve: yeah, do you have electricity or are you on a generator or what? have you lost juice? >> i have not lost any juice, we have electricity. it flickers from time to time, my house, generator is attached to my house. i have seen on the news, they have lost electricity, glad that is not my case. >> brian: are you convinced you are not going to get flooded? >> i don't think where i live i will get flooded. there is a lake, i may have flooding from the lake. but i don't live off the coast as people in pinellas do. >> ainsley: depends who you talk to, i am sure you have friends in different areas. i talked to someone in palm harbor and her house is elevated and not, her friends that live on the waters, front yard and backyard submerged. what stories are you hearing? did all your family decide to stay? >> yeah, we decided to stay and my family because of our -- i have my parents that live with me, my wife and daughter are in orl orlando. i don't think it is hitting in orlando yet, i haven't talked to her this morning. my youngest daughter and my mom and dad are here at the house at the moment. >> steve: we've known the hurricane would impact that part of florida for last couple days, do you feel the state gave plenty of warning what you should be doing and how to plan for this storm? >> i think so. one thing that is a little bit alarming sometimes, depending where you live, you get alerts mandatory evacuation. >> steve: did you get one? >> i did, not yesterday, day before 2:30 in the morning, it woke me up and i couldn't go to sleep for a couple hours and it wasn't raining at all. that could be better how they put alerts out. what happens in times is the masses start to go to the gas station and flood gas stations and traffic gets bad and i almost got in two accidents because people were trying to hurry and get to the gas station. i think mass hysteria, beside the storm, biggest problems i see. >> brian: if you look down your block, how many people stuck around? 50%? 70%? >> i would probably say i haven't seen anybody leave in my neighborhood. last year when it hit pretty hard, not many left. there was a lot of damage, a lot of power lines and issues, a lot of debris. it took hours to clean up the yard. i didn't see anybody leaving. i think if you're from florida, you got to make sure, it is a big deal, you have to be k cognizant of it, you know how to prepare and what you need to do. >> ainsley: edward, last year we thought ian was going to hit tampa, even all the meteorologists and it went further south and hit fort myers. what did you do last year when that was coming toward your area? >> well, last year we definitely strapped everything down outside and we had where i live, i have land and a lot of trees, it was pretty substantial actually. it changed course and i'm glad for that, for our side at least, we had a lot of damage. the neighbor's house had, they have a shed that flew away. we had a lot of damage outside. i'm glad my house didn't have problems, my neighborhood, you could see power lines on the floor, mobile homes devastated, no power. hurricane can cause a lot of damage for sure. god forbid you get in a car accident. >> brian: thank you, appreciate your perspective, hope you will have a good news story. thanks. to fox weather correspondent robert ray who is in clearwater. that water is moving quick. >> yeah, it is. we have another band moving through here with pretty good wind gust, at least 40 mile per hour wind gust. no rain right now. what happens, wind kicks up, gulf of mexico ush approximates water in and the surge. seeing ebb and flow of water, it rises and comes down. we will see this throughout mid-afternoon. we have high tide coming up. i want to show you something, guys, right now. look at this restaurant across the street. they had steel barriers to put up to stop water from coming through. they are beginning to maneuver and move some of that around as landfall happened 7:45 a.m. mandatory evacuees on clearwater beach fchl we had like ariel shot of where i'm at now, but too windy for a drone. as far as i could see, both sides, all full of water and clearwater tweeting, asking people that decided they were not going to leave, asked them to not flush their toilet or turn on the water until this receded. the sewer systems are maxed out because of this. we knew this was going to happen, whether we hit seven-foot mark of surge that will not likely happen. we are just under four feet as i stand here this morning. live on fox and friends an hour and a half ago, bands that came in, barely make out me when i was walking through here, incredible photographery team. very intense moment for everybody on this barrier island and even island in tampa, been reporting in there. as brian norcross and janice dean were talking, i was listening, we fear the path of destruction moving through the panhandle, we are nowhere out of the woods and look at cedar key. i've seen visual out of that, town under water right now, expect up to 15 feet plus of storm surge. we are not in dire situation here, this is bad enough. if you had your vehicle anywhere out here during this and taking on salt water, it could be floating away. we hope that these winds slow down and we don't get more rain bands and try to assess what happened here on the ground in clearwater beach, along with officials, so many national guard on the ground and utility linesmen awaiting to restore power to areas that lost it. we are okay here with power. >> brian: robert, i don't see water in the buildings, can you or the hotel behind you? looks like it is high in the street, any strip malls or areas being flooded? >> good point. first of all, look at this humvee, this looks like clearwater police. i will walk over here, bear with me. you probably can't see this, the front of the hotel has sand bags and they don't have water in them. you see this is clearwater police in a humvee making their way through assessing. i will probably not be able to catch them to get a word, but i will try. they are assessing, too. even for police and fire and other officials, they have to get out here and take a look to see what damages besides the fact this is a running river, great point, these buildings have not taken in water. some homes maybe that are up and down the roads, hard to tell at this point. low lying businesses, perhaps some water. we have not hit that seven mark surge water that could have happened. if that was the case, another three, four, feet here, water would have gone into the building and other structures. >> steve: worry now is high tide. thank you very much. great reporting from clearwater and janice dean joins us. he was talking about cedar key, 6.6 feet of storm surge, most they have seen in a long time. >> janice: since we've been taking measurements since thenna00s. just because robert ray is not experiencing flooding doesn't mean it is not happening. here is landfall live on fox and friends, keaton beach just histore cal point, lowest pressure as high came on shore. we have hours of hurricane force winds and flooding rainfall and storm surge yet to come for this area. category three storm, formidable storm. talking about the surge and fresh water flooding is biggest killer. you have people panicking and water coming in, they don't know what to do. will they try to escape? you are best to stay in your home and go to highest portion of your home. 80 mile per hour wind, here are sustained winds along big bend, landfall happened an hour ago. we have the worst of the hurricane force. we have high wind warning for some of the communities in the big bend of florida. not done yet and have georgia and south carolina as category two, do not write this storm off, we are not done yet. a lot of areas we cannot get into. >> brian: we got to get out to grady trimble, 20 miles south of old town area. what are you seeing? >> yeah, this is stein hatchy, it is 20 miles south of where the storm made landfall an hour ago. you are seeing flooding combined with the stein hatchy river. in the distance, you might see moving water on the river and seen in the last 20 minutes, pretty remarkable sight and not in a good way. as we arrived, saw a massive steel structure floating down the river and this scene is sense of how powerful the storm is in terms of water and wine. we are taylor county, we came from dixie county. both counties are experiencing major power outages, about 75% of the area are without electricity right now. water creeping to the roadway here and we spoke with someone going, he stay the night in a church with his pastor seeking shelter and was coming back to assess damage and he says he's lived here all his life and never seen flood water this high. we panned over, that power line snapped in half, that is just one example of the many trees and power lines we've seen down as we made our way toward this area. big concern here of course is storm surge, which was forecast to be between 12 and 16 feet, massive storm surge, likes of which this part of the state has never seen and i will use this reference point throughout the morning, water is rising. the water line was about here, we put this stick down to see how far water is rising and past 20 minutes seen it rise to this level. high tide is 145 this afternoon. for folks who live in this area, who have not seen flooding like this in their lifetime, they are going to have to brace for more potential flooding as tide rises. end on one final point, which could be good news, we are assessing this area for first time and i see some houses are built on stilts, which is common in florida for anyone who knows along rivers, very common, that could save some structures from the worst of the flooding because they are up a floor. we heard from somebody who lived here all their life, they have never seen the water high as it is right here. >> steve: no kidding issue grady, you cannot see where water ends and flood starts. thank you very much. we saw downed power lines. that is steinhatchee. they are waiting until the storm passes. they have generators prepositioned for people who are going to take longer to get restoration of electricity. >> ainsley: 5500 national guard troops and soldiers equipping boats to go for relief effortses. thousands of line workers will assist. estimate 30 to 40,000 workers will be there to help. 29 state colleges and seven universities have closed including fsu, where brandi campbell is live. thousands of students just checked in and now they are experiencing this. what is the latest there? >> good evening, guys. power outages in tallahassee continue to climb. last time i checked, i saw 19,000. since we've been out here we heard two transformers blow. we know that was one big concern for this city. they are known for tree can ope, you see the greenery around me. 55% tree coverage in this area. we will have to see how many trees have come down in this area and if any have been cause for the power outages. the garage we are housed in now taking safety if needed, power has gone out there. we hear louder generators in the area. i talked to forecasters with fox weather to see how long these conditions will last and i was told it could go on for a couple more hours. we are getting gusts of wind and i've been checking and the highest gust i've gotten in the last 10 minutes was 20 miles per hour. we are considerably far from the eye of the storm. it made landfall about an hour and a half east of us, we're not in the direct mix of it, but close enough, rain has not stopped this morning and wind gusts are coming, we're hoping it doesn't knock down too much greenery in tallahassee. back to you. >> steve: which is what they are famous for. thank you for the live report from tallahassee. in a moment, we're going to the senator from great state of florida. one warning from the attorney general from the state yesterday, ashley moody, she warned there are so many new residents to the state of florida who have never ridden out a hurricane before and she is suggesting potential for bad actors looking to profit off the storm. always scammers and stuff like that. she talked about looters. a lot of spotses, zone a spots were abandoned and people were told to evacuate and they got out. if you are a looter and you get caught, we will prosecute you. >> ainsley: someone told me last year they evacuated and the father, they sent the family out and dad went back the next day and slept in the house because he heard there were looters going house to house. can you imagine someone trying to steal your belongings. >> steve: i know guy who caught looters who were trying to steal stuff out of his boat and he walked in with a gun and said what can i help you with and they jumped into the water. >> brian: a lot of people armed in florida, kaep that in mind. if you are about to leave, get your iphone out and tape everything inside and outside. this was damaged, this was damaged and a lot of adjusters love the tape. >> ainsley: anyone watching need to do that. your house was destroyed in sandy. >> brian: the,a justers can't get to all of them, if you show them a visit, they do the trust thing. the thing about florida, one thing they don't have, insurance that is solvent. rates through the roof and a lot of companies are out of business. >> ainsley: go to senior correspondent steve harrigan, who is north of clearwater. we have floridians helping each other here, chrysler pacifica trying to go through 2-1/2 feet of water. they went fast and water toppled into it is engine and the vehicle is stuck in park. they want to get it out of park. people have tried to help them to figure out this vehicle, they are googling it ho see how to get them out. they are not in danger, people are out and about. not sense there is tremendous storm hitting. nothing catastrophic, real catastrophe is around me, two feet of water here and three to four feet further back, people are getting stuck, vehicles are getting stuck. law enforcement is putting up barricades and streets need to be barricaded. we have seen rescue vehicles, fire engines not be able to get to fire today. electrical vehicles also 100,000 people in florida without power and challenge is getting not only emergency workers, electrical workers through to where they need to get, they are barrelling around corners and coming to a stop. back to you, guys. >> steve: i have a question for you, stalled car out there, i have heard from a friend that you are not supposed to drive an electric car through standing water, anything deeper than the wheel rim, have you seen any tes las try to go through the water? they have great big batteries on the bottom and water and batteries probably don't mix. >> my expertise doesn't extend to that field. it is good it hit in day time, making it easier to see the problem. also, the fact wind has not been so severe. trees usually block everything. they are getting out the hook and challenge is to get the car out of park. have you gotten it out of park? >> they got it in neutral. we will see, what is your name, sir? >> brandon richards. a good samaritan, you saw someone and you are helping them? >> she is like, we are stuck, can you help us. >> getting out trucks and ropes and going to help this young lady who made an unfortunate decision. >> brian: pacifica all wheel drive as opposed to four wheel drive. if you get the engine wet, you get the engine wet. >> steve: steve, when you showed us that loc, there was electrical transformer smoking because they had not cut thes juice to the area, did that thing blow? >> it has not blown, that is why we moved positions. when a man in orange vest is yelling at you to move, trying to find a new position. you can see this guy, he is waist deep in water trying to hook this up. >> steve: you are under power lines, you are standing under power lines. >> yeah, i think i'm all right, steve. good thing i feel here is that you see this all over florida, we saw it 11 months ago with ian. you saw people stuck and people with big vehicles, look, he's lying down in this water trying to help this stranger out and get her on her way, great part about cacast officery. >> steve: steve, can you walk over to the driver of the car and ask what happened? >> yeah. they want to ask what happened. >> so jayla, this is embarrassing for you, what were you thinking? >> no, you don't want to be on camera? >> she is embarrassed. >> ainsley: bless her heart, that is stressful. if you have been in a natural disaster -- >> brian: no one has been in more than steve harrigan, he's been in war and hurricane after hurricane. >> steve: what is that guy in the water trying to do. >> let me ask him, can you explain what you are trying to do? >> just trying to find a place to hook it to. >> you don't mind being in the water? >> no big deal. trying to help this lady from destroying her car. >> steve: she obviously didn't realize the water was that deep employs >> they say janice says, don't go through it, when you worry about losing your car or something you worked hard to get. you think, i can do this, other people are doing it and you realize you can't. they are trying to save it. it is stress. those situations, ever had to drive in ice and done this in middle of the highway, that is stressful. natural disasters. >> brian: if you want advice, steve harrigan is the guy. we found him in afghanistan in a lean to with one camera. >> ainsley: janice said -- >> janice: turn around, don't drown and don't travel across water you can't see the bottom of. people are nervous and we've been focused on big bend. flash flooding is a huge killer, water comes up quickly and you don't know how to react and people are trying to get out or get somewhere and officials are saying stay back. they can't get to you, they have so many calls. >> brian: three minutes, what is latest >> janice: we had landfall, 125 max sustained winds, it was a category 4, still a category 3 storm. we're not done yet. we have hours to go as storm lifts north and east and cross the panhandle to georgia and south carolina. here are wind reports, 85 mile per hour winds at perry and we have extreme wind warning, which is new for the landfalling hurricanes. warning place where people see we have sustained wind at least 100 mile per hour. extreme wind warning for areas across big bend of florida. storm moves 18 to 20 miles per hour. valdasta and toward savannah and georgia, south georgia, experiencing category 2 hurricane. we will be dealing with flooding, 5 to 8 inches, upward of 12 inches of rainfall, still rising, cedar key 6.8 feet. since we've been recording, water continue to rise in these areas above normally dry ground and haven't reached high tide. here is where we are, category 3 storm, it will continue to move north and eastward and we have tropical tornados to be aware of, we had reports overnight tonights, tornado watch in effect until 3 p.m. local time toward georgia. we could see spin up of tornados that could cause structural damage. track, we are getting updates from national hurricane center. the storm will move north quickly, georgia and carolinas we will be watching you over next few days. i can't advance my map, they have been working. still getting updates from national hurricane center. we are not done yet. core of strongest wind 100 mile per hour for panhandle and big bend and that will curve toward georgia and carolina over next 12 to 24 hours. category 2 storm moving offshore, we're not done, some areas we cannot get to with cameras and sometimes takes days and weeks to see the scope of the damage. think about ian last year for fort myers, some of the same type of landscape changes will occur with this storm. >> steve: and the key is it is not done, >> janice: not done. >> ainsley: it is still major hurricane going to impact millions of people. >> brian: if any state can handle it, been used to it, florida. >> janice: georgia and south carolina >> wow. okay. here we go. >> dana: impact is here. hurricane idalia slams into florida as a category 3 storm. you are looking at perry, florida, floodwaters are moving fast. bill is off today. good morning, bret. >> bret: this is "america's newsroom." this is a big storm,

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