category two. instead he exploded in veracity to a category four. it's going to cause a huge amount of damage. our hearts go out to those folks. >> sandra: that's it for us. special courage continues here on the fox news channel with shepard smith. >> hurricane michael, it's on the way and it is expected to be historic. i'm shepard smith on the fox news deck. often in programming including outnumbered will not be seen today. hurricane michael is a major category 4 storm set to make landfall somewhere around panama city beach, florida. it is expected to be the most powerful storm ever to hit the region. it is but an hour or two away. let's get a live update from the national hurricane center in miami. >> back to the national hurricane center, this is ken graham on the operant center. it's noon eastern, 11:00 central. the latest information on the hurricane michael. a couple of things to make note here, the latest information we have wins still at 150 miles power. the pressure has dropped. we have the hurricane hunters in the system giving us the latest information, so we are constantly being updated. we are now 35 miles southwest of mexico beach, 40 miles south of panama city. getting closer and closer to the shore. i did want to mention, as well, we are looking at the apalachicola airport getting wins 45 miles per hour sustained gusting at hurricane force. the waters coming up, as well. the national ocean service has a water level stationed there at apalachicola already reporting five and half feet of inundation. it is getting closer, we are seeing the impacts. we can see the focus here, most people tend to focus on the eye. we are looking at that movement we have been forecasting turning more to the east, as it happens. landfall somewhere early this afternoon around mexico beach. let's be careful, because we look at the hurricane-force winds away from that center. it will be a larger swab then just that center. it will be bigger. some of those rain bands are producing hurricane-force wind gusts. that's where you will see the danger of the wind damage but also the tornadoes. we concede some of these areas. we are getting closer and closer to land, and, again, have to focus on the big picture. you can see rainfall as far down as tampa, being impacted by the system already prayed let's look at the forecast with time again, tropical storm-force winds, 175 miles away from the center. a very large system. that's what we need to think about, not just the point. not just the cone. we are really looking at this as a swath of wind and impact. this hurricane making landfall, major damage. catastrophic damage. all the wind, you will see trees down, power outages for literally weeks in this area. you see damage to buildings, roofs off, some buildings could be destroyed altogether. remaining in hurricane with time. not just along the coast. anybody watching england on the alabama-georgia line, still moving into georgia. even the tropical storm still getting into the carolinas. if you take that wind, you will have trees down, power outages. florida, georgia, and maybe even getting into the carolinas. rainfall is always an issue, and that's part of the reason we are going to see the rain, 6-10 inches. that's part of the reason we will see these. you will have the actual damage from the winds right there on the coast. with time, you put 4-6 inches of rain saturating the soil, you got tropical storm force wind gusts. you can see tree damage along this entire path. write in here, 6-10 inches of rain, just catastrophic. and the storm surge. we have been talking about that. half the fatalities are from the storm surge. these values are just staggering. life-threatening storm surge. we are already seeing five and half feet and we've got a long way to go. 9-14 feet possible in these areas, from tyndall air force base along the cost of the river. that's a staggering amount. that's above ground, and you look at that and the waves on top of it could add another couple of feet. 6-9 feet in areas toward cedar key, even down to tampa. to have been 4 feet of inundation. i want to make note that it's not even just on the coast, it's on these barrier islands, they will get water. forcing northward. the red here as above 9 feet of storm surge. look how far some of that surge reaches england. we've got to be aware. even if you think you are inland, that you still could be in danger. this is ken graham here at the national hurricane center. a speed when i'm shepard smith in new york with continuing fox news coverage of this. giving details of what we are seeing. let's go over to the big wall and i will show you how this hurricane has developed. these pictures go back, this is a satellite loop. watch this, this is the latest image. watch when this reloads. see here? the eye wall is not very well formed. in the last eight to ten hours, that has really changed. you can watch that eye wall come together, it's a very significant, almost completely round eye wall. it stretches 15 miles across. remember, the highest winds -- when they talk about maximum sustained winds, 145 miles per hour, that's an extremely powerful and catastrophic window level. 145-mile-an-hour winds are all around the outside of that i wall. the eye wall is 15 miles across. everything the eye wall goes across will, in theory, experience winds maximum sustained at 145 miles per hour. with wind gusts to 165 miles an hour. what does that do? wind at that level -- i have lived through them, and there are statistics from the national hurricane center to back this up -- winds at that level pick up rocks and boulders and send them as projectiles through the air. that's what causes so much damage and destruction. those rocks and trees break windows, they break into houses. the sustained pounding is one of the most serious problems. where is this going, exactly? you had the national hurricane center talked about it. we are talking about a large area that will be affected. this is the coast itself, talking about an area from about tampa all the way up over to pensacola. you can see it is raining in pensacola. the rains are coming in tampa. i want to zoom in and show you what the storm has been doing prayed here as grand-based radar. here is florida, apalachicola. these are where the oyster beds are that are so famous. panama city, the miracle mile resort in panama city, but 180,000 year-round residents. i think that's right. 180,000 or so. in the county itself, 185,000. about 36,000 live in panama city itself. i want to show you what this i wall has been doing. i will zoom all the way in. this is ground-based radar that is coming to us from here. you can see this very well-defined eye wall, the center of simulation is here. everything clear in the middle. the worst of the winds around the outside. here is the worst of the rain. right now, just to the north. where is decided? there is panama city itself. this is the very tightly-net high density area for this community. remember, these are small towns all along here. it looks like from the last terms -- you heard the national hurricane center say, rather than going north, which would get panama city in a bad way, the eye of the storm at least appears to be moving toward mexico beach. this is mexico beach. here is panama city. tyndall air force base. i will talk about that just a minute. mexico beach. it looks to the national hurricane center like the eye of the storm is going to make a trip just like this, somewhere between tyndall air force base and mexico beach. that is not to say anyone else is out of danger, because, remember, the hurricane-force winds -- that means winds above 74 or 76 miles per hour are extending 45 miles from the center. tropical storm-force winds extend 175 miles from the cente center. this entire region from gulf breeze into destin, south walton county, panama city beach, down into port saint joe, apalachicola, around to the big band, and certainly once you go inland to tallahassee. here is tallahassee. the storm is expected to move in this direction. this will be a tallahassee storm without any question. the mayor of tallahassee will be on with us in just a little while. the productions from the local authorities there are people even from the tallahassee area could be without power for weeks on end. this coast is in extreme danger. exactly where it comes ashore is going to make a significant difference because of where the population centers are. i want to zoom in here. actually, let's turn that off and clear about. zoom in here to show you exactly what we are talking about. here is panama city and panama city beach. oof, i hate it when it does that. note here the typography of this land. if the storm is coming in here, which they now believe -- here is panama city -- if the storm is coming in here into this area, they get the backside. remember, the storm is circulating this way so the water would be coming out. that could drain all of these areas here. st. andrews bay, grand lagoon, all the rest around panama city. if they think the storm is going to come ashore here, the worst of it will be to the right. that is not to say these communities aren't in some sort of jeopardy. i want to switch to the satellite version, here. this is rosemary beach and seaside south walton county. the locals call this area 30a. it's largely a second-home community, people from atlanta, nashville, points north. michigan, ohio. they have settled here and second homes and in some cases retirement areas. these used to be very moderately-prized, small-town communities with houses on stilts. very quiet, sort of beach community area. that has all changed. from seaside, down to seacrest and rosemary beach. sunnyside, laguna beach. all of this 30a area is now heavily populated, lots of high density right around the beach. it is an upper-scale area. down here is port saint joe. the rest of this is largely rural. fountain, this is an area where i worked and lived for years. my parents -- my mom lived here for 32 years. there is a lot of poverty in this area. the great concern moving into this storm, from the locals there in bay- county florida and beyond, so many people have made a decision not to evacuate. the last big storm, probably oval. way back in 1995, it was. it hit way over here to the east of pensacola. but they got a lot of really bad weather because of it, when it hit. 23 years ago. they haven't seen anything like this ever on this coast. if it moves into the east of panama city beach in the next couple of hours, which they seem to think it will, all of this will have a lot of trouble. mexico beach, these small communities. a bigger problem may end up being inland. inland is the area where -- there is so much poverty, and so little help for people. then you move over to the state capital of tallahassee. tallahassee has 181,000 people, leon county around it is a total of about 290,000 people. it is obviously the center of government in florida, with a huge election coming up. they are expecting this storm to move in this sort of a direction when it comes ashore. it is expected to come ashore right to the east of panama city. here is the storm right now. it is expected to move in this direction. moving just like this, and in the general direction of tallahassee. the news is better for fort walton beach and destin, though they will get very strong winds and very high waves. it will be a serious event or they are. panama city beach could very well be in hurricane-force winds, and everything to the east of it. all the way down the big band of florida. this entire region, from cap all the way up to pensacola, going to have a serious and historic day today. griff jenkins is in alligator pointe, florida. that is a beach community local located. the weather he is a so bad. but see if we can hear from him. the weather is deteriorating. >> can you hear me? i am in alligator pointe. we want to give you a look from an iphone. it is really -- that storm surge -- what they're talking about is really going to be hitting us anyway -- just the water coming -- [no audio] >> shepard: well, it is on and off. we will try to get there. our reporter nicole in south florida is actually an panama city beach now. let's listen into nicole. >> back to you guys. >> nicole, thank you. meantime, from all over, the storms on coming into the news. our team is having coverage with some of those images. omar? >> this afternoon we getting video showing those conditions worsening. getting reports of downed trees, downed power lines in some areas. areas. with stickies to some video from shell pointe beaches afternoon showing those streets starting to flood there. the wind began. we are hearing that nearby and the town of mexico beach, florida, they have artie lost power. people now without power. those winds gusting as you saw. a lot of live shots. we are also hearing that of course trouble in this area is greatly impacted by all of this. several airlines already canceling flights to many of these areas. we are talking about airlines like united airlines, delta, as well as allegiant airlines. it's affecting travel across this entire region. you are looking at video from shall pointe beach, that is in the panhandle. they are starting to get those first impacts from the storm. you see the flooding right now. we can tell you that there are downed power lines in certain areas, also. we are following the story, of course, all afternoon. as soon a son anymore video comes in, we will be sure to bring that to you. >> shepard: we can go live now to the zone, i have been talking to about apalachicola. here is panama city beach, and here is this oyster area. a community of about 2200 people near what used to be a big paper processing plant. apalachicola, famous in the region. phil keating is there. phil, it looks like apalachicola is going to have an awful day. >> absolutely. this is the worst it has been all morning, and it is only predicted to get worse than this over the next three or four hours. that is water. i was doing my live shots yesterday. as you can see, it's three to 4 feet under water right now. as you pan off to the right, that's a parking lot our hotel. it is also practically saw a-d. all of the vehicles have been moved to the highest point in the parking lot. frequent county on the southern tip of the big bend of florida is so low-lying, most of the counties under 15 feet of elevation. the whole county is under a mandatory evacuation. clearly, we saw plenty of people yesterday. a lot of people did evacuate, by far, not everybody. it's supposed to get possibly nine to 13 feet storm surge. take a look at what's over here. this is the apalachicola river. you can see the waves going from right to left. that is from the gulf, inland. upstream. this river needs to be flowing out. but the surge and the winds are putting it all back up. without forecast, is that upland it's going to be flooding there. that water has got to go somewhere. these are some strong winds coming through. the hotel lost power about 45 minutes ago. i guess that is the beginning of that. the cell service is still working, but it is certainly the most extreme wind and rain that we have had here today. it is a little too dangerous to be walking around in this, there is all kinds of debris floating around that has blown off of these storage buildings and a shrimp processing building. it's dangerous out here, for sure. that is why this whole county is under a shelter in mandatory warnings. everyone, stay inside. that's the order. law enforcement, first responders will not come to you. it's too dangerous for everybody. there is really only one road in and out for apalachicola. highway 98. ticket north, west, up to panama city, or east toward telecast tallahassee. it's close on east until further notice, until long after hurricane michael blows through here. then you get your emergency responders to assess the damage. what is anticipated is massive power outages, as well as a lot of fallen trees. this part of florida doesn't really have all that many palm trees. it is more pine trees. those can be blocking roadways and power lines down. it can be really difficult for anybody to get in or out of here for a while. >> shepard: 's cigarette there, i want to show our viewers where we are on all of this. this is where the storm is right now. this is the hurricane, and it is moving, generally speaking -- i should clear about, that's not exact the right. here is where the storm is right now. it's moving generally -- this is that -- it's moving generally toward mexico beach. here is apalachicola, where phil is. phil, they are expecting up to 15 feet of storm surge up there above high tide, which means a two-story building covered. phil, can you hear me? >> i hear you, sorry. >> shepard: a 13-foot storm surge there is a world-danger for you folks. >> absolute. for the whole town, the population is around 2500 people, just in apalachicola alone. about 16,000 in the whole count county. we were speaking to the sheriff last night. the police chief. they expect, they fully expect, that this is going to be that 6-12 inches of rain and the 9-13 storm surge. i mean -- you see the stop signs. it is already halfway up the stop sign. we still have a few hours of intensity to go. it really does portend to be the historic hurricane that fema as well as the governor of florida, rick scott, were warning the entire state all morning long. everybody who did not evacuate who should have is absolutely advised, do not even go out in this. close all the bridges along the coastline already, in the panhandle. big bend. palm fronds are flying through the air, i just saw one go by. curfew is in effect as of today. starting at sunset, to sunrise. franklin county will be under a mandatory curfew. we certainly expect many more counties in the florida panhandle are going to go into curfew mode as well. simply to get people off the street, what the first responders and law enforcement get out there and see the damage. there are 1,000 national guardsmen and women already activated. there are search and rescue -- that's what their mission is going to be -- they've got both, they've got atvs, 3500 florida highway patrol men are also working 12-hour shifts. each of them. the florida department of transportation has a lot of utility trucks prestage out in pensacola and in orlando, ready to get the power back on. that is the number one priority according to governor scott this morning. certainly, everybody is advised in florida to always have a three-day supply of food and water. that is because it is always a very real possibility that you will lose power for three days. down in miami last year, which was impacted by hurricane irma, it was only category 1 in miami. neighborhood still lost power for a full week. here we are talking about a really mean category 4, shep. >> shepard: i want to get the latest coordinates. up and just starting pray let's listen. >> on the florida panhandle as we speak. it's a very strong category 4 hurricane with 150 mile-per-hour winds. that's the latest update as of 12:00. it is finally making that north-northeast return at a slightly faster pace, 14 miles per hour. pressure has been whopping, a sign of a strengthening system. it is located 35 miles southwest of mexico beach, florida. here is the latest satellite picture. the eye is extremely distinct. you can see the rain. that is the eye wall, where you are finding the most destructive winds. once the center pushes onshore, potentially catastrophic wind damage is likely. highly likely, especially anywhere between apalachicola into panama city. it is definitely very close to making landfall. all of the same features are present to carry it into the florida panhandle. high pressure to the east, front, mid section. but it seems like this one, even as it interacts with land, will stay a hurricane for a longer period of time. possibly a category 2 system moving into sections of georgia. then, eventually a tropical storm around the middle atlantic states. we have new advisories that have been updated, four portions of north and south carol anna. here's a closer view. it is likely to make landfall between panama city and mexico beach. that will happen in the next hour or hour and a half or so. once it interacts with land, yes, we are expecting to gradually begin. by 8:00 tonight, still a category 2 system. a large area will and still be experiencing strong hurricane-force winds, consistent heavy rains, and then storm surge continuing to remain an issue. now, all of these locations under a hurricane warning. a tropical storm warning from crystal river, and into sarasota. including tampa bay. there is a tropical storm watch. now the tropical storm warning has been extended into north carolina. the local storm tracking radar picking up at the center is definitely getting very close to making a landfall. the outer eye wall is definitely going to be pushing onshore before this center does cross through. yes, we are keeping our friends in the panhandle of florida in our prayers. >> shepard: we all are. that's a meteorology team down at wsb on seven in south florida. i want to show you the eye of the storm again. zooming in. this is 15 miles wide, right customer gets 15 miles wide in every direction. it is moving at 14 miles per hour. wherever this side comes ashore -- and it's starting to look more and more like right around tyndale air force base -- for a solid hour in the center, they will have clear skies, almost no winds. if it incredible hundred 40-mile-an-hour winds, with 165-mile-an-hour, 170-mile-an-hour gusts have come through. in the beginning, these winds going in this direction and slamming into the panhandle there. that will do an enormous amount of damage. then, people will be able to go outside and look. no one should do that. because at some point to the backside of the storm will come. instead of winds moving in this direction, the wind will be moving in this direction. they will be coming out of this side. everything that was blown over that way is then pushed back in the other direction. that can go on for one hour around tyndale air force base. tyndall air force base is the home of the f-22 raptors, 125th fighter wing is there. the 44th fighter group, the 95th fighter squadron is there. this thing opened back in 1941 as a gunnery range. right now, 2700 people live there. 81% of everyone who lives there has a child, adults who live there have a child under the age of 18. a lot of children there. it covers about 15 square miles. if this continues, somewhere along mexico beach and tyndall air force base. here is mexico beach, here is tyndall. down here, apalachicola. all of this in for a very long day. keep in mind, as the meteorology team from wsb and was saying, as it continues, tallahassee will get extraordinary rain and potential for hurricane force winds. same up into bainbridge, georgia. as you move up into thomasville, tallahassee and thomasville share a highway and they are sort of intertwined in a number of different ways. all of that area there -- and apalachicola, we were mentioning the difficulties with escaping from mexico beach all the way down to apalachicola. just a minute, they will let me zoom in and i can show you exactly how that works. it is almost impossible to get out of here easily. you can see this is state route 65 that takes you all the way. you have to get here to get up to interstate ten. this is interstate ten, that crosses and goes all the way over to new orleans and all the way to the west coast. there are no interstates in this area. evacuations are very difficult and they are expecting so much of this area to be flooded. let's go to panama city beach, now. rick leventhal is life there. rick, conditions are deteriorating? >> by the minute, as expected, shepard. just wanted to show you a couple things from this vantage point along highway 98, just to give you an idea. the pine trees up there are blowing in some pretty heavy gusts, and we expect some of those to start snapping. you see a big billboard there, there are a bunch of those around us. more of a consumer concern aree power lines. you can see some of those now just bouncing around in the wind. we have seen some pretty significant gusts. this is giving us a concern, right here. this is the strongest hurricane they are saying to ever hit this stretch of panhandle. we don't know if signs like that are going to survive or if buildings are going to survive. this is 98, the gulf is about 2 miles that way. you can see the highway is virtually deserted. one of the big concerns for it county officials is that people were not heeding the evacuation order, at least not as many people as they wanted. about 120,000 people that they said were in the low-lying areas and should get out, and they said only about half of them, 60,000, had heeded that warning and were actually leaving the low-lying areas that include areas prone to flooding and also mobile home parks. you see these street lights are on, now. they weren't a short time ago. they are flickering on and off, and the power in our hotel also was flickering on and off. hardly any traffic. we saw a couple vehicles, that's about it. that's a good thing, because it is getting really hairy out here now. officials have told people, if you didn't evacuate, just stay in place. shelter in place. don't go out until after the storm passes. >> shepard: what side of the bridge are you one custom work are you in town, or in panama city beach? >> we are in panama city beach, but we are about 2 miles from the gulf, from the actual beach itself. it's just down the road about 2 miles that way. one of the many that you need to take -- this is 98. >> shepard: okay, got it. >> its u.s. 98. if you look around this way, i don't know if you can see it, but you can see that panama city is that way. there is a bridge over there. they shut the bridges down, as they get to 40 or 50 miles per hour. we are at that point now. a lot of the bridges around here have been close. we are starting to see some debris flying around, too. we want to not put ourselves in harm's way here, shep, but the situation is progress of the getting worse. the good news is that nobody is out here. the bad news is that they are in for it. it's going to be bad, it's going to get worse. >> shepard: it clearly is. here's where he is, this is highway 98. he goes all along the beach route to sunnyside, laguna beach, down to panama city. this is the bridge that takes you to panama city proper. rick is like here, and this is inland. i want to go to jeff, he is in panama city beach, as well. jeff, where are you and what does it look like? >> this is the road that runs right along the beach. as you can see, we are getting a pretty good here, right now. you were saying earlier, this is a town that had a tremendous building boom of these large buildings. this is really encouraging a lot of people say "you know what? these things are built for these hurricanes. we can weather it out. not a problem." so there are a lot of people still hold up in these building buildings. i think a lot of them are having second thoughts right now. as we get -- the conditions of this, fortunately, right now, most of the wind is coming off the water and we aren't getting any of that debris. as you were pointing out earlie earlier, when that wind shifts around it we begin to see debris from the land. that is when it will be time to take some cover. we think we have a pretty good spot, here. in a tall, concrete building. that's where you want to be. if you're going to be in a category 4 storm -- i haven't been an actual cat 4 since hurricane hugo back in 1989. as you know, even those big buildings, those big hotels in charlston, they were blown through by the tremendous wind that hit them. the windows went out to, even huge buildings did not survive unscathed. that remains to be seen, but as you report, this storm is moving fast right now. we hope that perhaps it would weaken on landfall. as you know, when the storm is moving that rapidly, there is less of a chance for that to happen. you see police and vehicle still patrolling out here. i think they are about ready to come in, though. that would be my guest. shep? >> shepard: i would think. the scary part of all of this is that you are increase dramatically, episodically, over the next hour. every 10 minutes it will get much stronger. within half an hour, rock should be fun. >> i know. that's when we want to take cover. we have been looking at the direction of debris, and there is nothing coming at us at this point. as you point out, that is going to change. we are going to get -- as long as these winds are right now, it's nothing like what is in that eye wall. even if it doesn't hit right here, if it's east of us saw him as you know, got some debris coming by. it's going to be quite an event. quite an event. >> shepard: you are not -- you are close twoyards from the beach. you are right on it. the first thing to hate will be you. >> exactly. that's the thing. we wanted to be close, obviously. i have gotten down to the beach earlier to see what the surgeon was like, and, you know, it's not coming directly at us right yet. we don't see any evidence of the surge coming over the berms, but that can happen. as you point out, we've got a long way to go. we are just starting. the real fun stuff, now. >> shepard: i hear what you mean about fun stuff, but it doesn't look like this is going to be fun. it looks like you are going to be just on the west side of the eye, which means the dry side. your wind will be coming eventually from the shore. enormous force. >> exactly. we are seeing these big high-rises out here. to the other side of the road, there is a lot of regular homes. regular roofs on them. god knows, they are the kinds of buildings that will start to come apart. that's when we will start to see debris watching back this way. that is, of course, when we will be careful to take cover. you know, none of us are out here because we don't want to be here. we certainly appreciate these tremendous displays of mother nature. those of us that cover the storms come as you know, and as you have done many times yourself. you have to have an appreciation for this. frankly, not to speak editorially, but i would much rather cover man against nature of van man against man, any day. >> shepard: i am with you all day. jeff, thank you. nicole and slot on the beach in panama city, panama, city beach with some damage now. >> you might be able to see the winds and the trees, it is absolute -- shooting through here. a little while ago -- i don't know if you can hear that. that sounds like roof or something. something is going. i'm not really sure if the microphone could pick that up. boy, that was really loud. you could tell that was not wind. that was something that was starting to move. okay, another transformer just blew. i'm just being told. let's walk down here. again, we are undercover. we are okay. i want to show you now, the water -- now you can start to see all the debris that is in the water, that is flying this way. flying toward the gulf. there you go, see all those people? that metal? none of that was here. there's another one. it feels like the wind is coming from the north. there went something else. see all this debris? none of this was here 5 minutes ago. you might be able to hear it -- >> shepard: that's because as the storm approaches, remember, the eye of the storm is to the east of where she has. she said it feels like the wind is coming from the north. it is. because there is counterclockwise circulation around the eye of that storm. they are the storm is to her right as you look at a map. the wind would be coming off shore. remember, the coastline of northwest florida is like and east to west thing. the wind is coming out of the north. offshore, into the water. eventually the beaches will have no water on them for some. as that eye moves to the east of panama city. let's go straight to the national hurricane center. ken graham is there. ken, you have been saying as far as i wall crossing, it's looking more like mexico beach, which is east of panama city and east of tyndall air force base. >> getting really close to mexico beach. you can take a look at here, just write off. that is the area where you have the highest winds. the latest reading is 150 miles an hour, getting really close to the coach. coast. even the rain bands at the center, apalachicola just gusted to 80 miles an hour. it's around this eye wall, incredibly damaging. the structural integrity of the structures could collapse. you can have some roof damage. in critical power outages associated with the trees down, as well. >> shepard: looking at that particular area, you certainly hope the eyeball doesn't go over a heavily-populated area like panama city. it looks like it will go east of there. ken, that is not to say catastrophic damage isn't ahead for that whole coast. >> it really is. when you talk about a cat 4 hurricane, and you look back in history, shep -- back to 1851 in the records we have, we haven't had a category 4 in this area. it's unprecedented, extremely dangerous. you think about the wits, when you step back a second and look at the tropical storm force wind extending come of the latest we have is 170 miles. her case force winds around ther pray the way to look at it isn't that center point. it's a swath of winds. the singer again, even as georgia. much as those power outages and damage on coast, even in central georgia. to be when you look at the scum of the rings are all the way up to montgomery. that's 100 miles of coast. this is going to cause enormous water. atlanta, it's on the way. >> you look at the rain fall, that's one of the problems we have. we have been taking a look at the storm surge, but the rain, as will pay look at this swath. 6-10 inches right on the coast, the panhandle, stretching into georgia. this is the other problem. 4-6 inches of rain that stretches from georgia into the carolinas. you take hurricane-force winds, tropical storm force winds, you saturate the soil with a string, he will drop the trees. you will have power outages deep into the inland areas. run on the coast, apsley catastrophic. the category 4, unprecedented win. >> shepard: what would you expect to see along the coast where that 15 miles of eye wall crosses? at 145, 150 miles per hour? >> you are going to see all the trees down. you see power lines down through the power outages will last for weeks. you will see structural damage, roofs off houses, buildings collapse, buildings completely destroyed. part of it is the rain, but even the storm surge damage, it could be as damaging as well. think about this -- inundation, 9-14 feet, that's not even just the waves. that's the inundation above ground. he put the waves on top of that. those areas, the waves plus that water, that's actually destructive, as well. that storm surge can actually destroy houses and structures, as well. >> shepard: ken graham at the national hurricane center. thank you, the forecasts have been right on track. remember, the difference between the storm of the last one -- the last one came ashore, it wandered around, it sat, it spun, it became 40 inches of rain in some areas. the wind area of highest winds was smaller, so it kind of damage once he got to shore. we were talking about a categor. it finally got for sure as a category one. the difference is enormous. this will hit as a very strong category 4. it will hit within the next hour or hour and a half. never in recorded history of this swath of land in america has a storm of this magnitude hit. i want to show you what we are learning now. this is the local radar. this shows exactly where the eye of the storm is right now. it is moving at 40 miles an hour. the front end of the eye wall, here, is about 15 miles away. about an hour from now, the eye wall is going to hit. what does that mean? 150-mile-an-hour sustained winds. in other words, as it crosses, it will cross over particular area. the eye itself is only about that wide. about a mile wide. if it crosses, they will get that level of wind, the highest, strongest winds, for just a few minutes. 10 minutes or so. 10 minutes of 150-mile-an-hour wind with gusts to 175 can destroy everything. exactly where the eye goes across. remember, this is 15 miles across. where is it going? we can now see where it's going. moving in this direction. the pattern is very clear. it has not deviated in any way. it's moving to the north, northeast. what does that mean? that means -- this is panama city beach, here. panama city beach, it looks like, will be on the left side of the storm. part of the eye wall, it might. see this large area of rain? this is extraordinarily strong rain, with wins at about a category to trend this far out. we know that because hurricane-force winds extend for 45 miles. panama city beach, panama city, parker, callaway, the east bay, all the way up to highway 22. cedar grove, even up to the lagoon. shell island. all of that is about to get hurricane-force wind. the eye of the storm itself, if we can see now, this is local radar. this isn't some speculation about tomorrow. it is moving. it's moving in this direction. tyndall air force base will get a direct hit from the storm. alan ten as well, down to davis beach. mexico beach is right here come also. a direct hit from the storm. the eye wall is 15 miles wide. that's where it's going to go. to the right of this, look at all this wind. apalachicola with a huge band of rain coming right now, hurricane-force winds, especially gusts should be there. the rest of the day, the story is inland where the population centers are so much larger. tallahassee will still be to the right of the storm, that means hurricane force winds, extreme rain, very heavy and sustained rain for tallahassee. there hurricane center, power outages, potentially for days or weeks. bainbridge, georgia. as we move north and east, albany, georgia. columbus, georgia. montgomery. it's all on the way. hunker down now. phil keating's life for us now, panama city beach. phil -- i should say come apalachicola. phil, the worst is an hour or so away, but now it's bad. >> the cat 4 beat down is well underway here in apalachicola. what you are looking at down below us, this is water street. that is a paved street. people watching at home may think that is just a river. it's not part of the river. that is just the floodwater, and the storm surge being blown in by the latest, highest gusts recorded for apalachicola with 87 miles per hour. it is projected to get potentially even stronger and worse. i tell you, the rain is flying horizontally. we are in that big outer rain band right now. i guess, at this point, it is an inner rain band. but the raindrops feel like bullets. it hurts. come over here and check out the river again. apalachicola river flows north to south into the gulf of mexic mexico. typically, on the left side of your screen to the right side of your screen, that's the way the water would be flowing. the wind of the hurricane and the storm surge are shoving all of that water. it is a ferocious look at it. this river is heading back upstream. it's going to have to get out of the banks somewhere. most of franklin county is extremely low-lying. in fact, all the counties around this area are -- are very low-lying. >> shepard: phil keating, please be safe. i'm cutting you off only because the president of the united states is speaking. ten seconds from now. landfall of this hurricane is within the hour. here is the president speaking from the oval office. ♪ >> reporter: when he update you on hurricane michael prete is about 40 miles off the coast, starting to feel the effects now. it is a very dangerous category 4. just to remind the press. hurricane harvey, irma, and michael are big storms. it will have the panhandle come as you can see here, and will go for georgia. it will be expected to rain in carolina. could be additional flooding. fema is leaning forward, as we are -- it's ready to go. very quick contact with state and local authorities. also the governor and local officials. moreover, even to -- >> unfortunately this is a gulf coast hurricane of the worst kind because all of the elements associated with hurricanes come into play. as you see on the left, the storm surge estimates are anywhere between nine and 14 feet. storm surge is going to be the worst where the eye makes landfall just to the east or south of where the eye makes landfall. it's projected between panama city come up logical. not only will being 14 feet of ocean water and coastal flood in addition, they will be wave action on top of that which is the primary factor of why we evacuate, sir. coupled with that you've got over 145-mile-per-hour winds. structures built before 2001 are not designed to handle that type of wind, typically. it unfortunately will push through the state. we are asking citizens in southwest georgia, central georgia, to be vigilant and make sure what's about to come. this area is going to see a cat 1, cat 2 storm as it moves inland. with the vegetation, what we are anticipating is a lot of downed trees impacting the power grid. here again, we are going to see a lot of devastation along the coast. structurally, and then as it moves and you are going to see power outages throughout the state. then, unfortunately, you're going to see rain fall into south carolina and north carolina. cape fear was projected to start receiving from hurricane florence two days ago, and this will exacerbate the problem and add to it. we are going to keep those waters from receiving a little bit by friday. >> president trump: they are reporting this is one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit our country. is that actually a fact? >> in this area, it would be the most intense hurricane that has struck this area since 1851, if i remember correctly. >> it's a big storm. >> intense. for to make a very intense. >> president trump: is the wind going to be the problem? >> storm surge and wins. they are going to say high it in then macy sustained cattery 1, category two train wins higher gusts. we are expecting a lot of damage inland as well. we have governor scott, down in florida, they have been leaning forward as well. right now there is no identified shortfalls when it comes to prepositioning. we have teams, equipment, and personnel not only with an embedded with the state of florida staff and some of the local county emergency managers, but we have equipment teams staged in maxwell to atlanta, to orlando, ready to move in, once the push through. then we can get intact. >> listen, really quickly, 14 states, utilities of 14 states are already ready, ready to help with the energy. >> president trump: electric companies from all of the country, they are lined up come as soon as it goes by. they're going to be working. we have got food supplies, food chains we are working with all the states. let me ask you -- starting a week ago, this was a small storm in an area they never thought, and that grew into a monster. speak of the first indications from the national hurricane center started coming in around saturday. they picked it up and started raising the flag that, hey, the system is going to go from a wave to a depression and could potentially rapidly intensify. unfortunately, that is typical of the gulf coast. when they do this, citizens have less time to prepare or heed the warnings. we are concerned that many citizens chose not to heed those warnings, but we are prepared with search and rescue teams to try and go in and do what we ca can. >> president trump: any questions? >> reporter: are you concerned concerned -- >> we were concerned that we did not like the level of the evacuation activity that we were seeing. governor scott kudos to him. healing forward, use the new emergency alert capabilities that we have. sent out texts, text messaging last night. leaned forward and said "hey, get out of there." we were trying to get people to really take the storm seriously. a lot of people did heed the warning, but then there are those that chose to stay behind. unfortunately, first to first s may not be able to go in and rescue those who dial 911 at this point. [indistinct question] >> president trump: i have, and they are all either contacted or in the process -- had a long talk with rick scott, a governor scott of florida. very well cornered with all of the states. one of the things that must be said is it's not so easy for some of these people, some of the areas are very poor. not easy for a person without the necessary money to leave. what we have done is we have sent buses. we have sent a lot of different -- we are doing a lot of different things to try and remove people from the area. a lot of people are very poor and certain of those areas. it is very tough for them to leave. that's one of the problems you are finding, i guess. >> yes, in some cases -- what we asked to do is ask people who may not have the means are the mechanisms to get out of town to register with their local emergency management agencies, and florida has been pretty robust in doing that. so we have some idea how to preplan for that. we do what we can to be able to support the movement of people. when it comes to georgia, we are not evacuating for storm surge in georgia. this is going to be high wind. we are asking people to get within a facility that can withstand the winds, and try to shelter in place or seek out public shelters that may be open in southwest georgia. >> president trump: take a look at that, the red area basically is the area that is going to hit pretty heavily. that is a lot of sure. it's a lot of land. >> there will be storm surge all the way down in tampa bay. as you know, it is very low-lying and floods very easily. to give you that idea of the breadth of its past, it is quite large. >> president trump: is almost the entire size of the gulf. when you look at it topically, it's almost the entire size of the gulf. they haven't seen that -- maybe they haven't seen that at all. nobody has seen that before. >> of the eye diameter is pretty wide, which, unfortunately, is not good news as it makes landfall. some people may say it's similar to an ef three tornado making landfall in areas that are close to the eye. >> reporter: the infrastructure, is there any way they would struggle to deal with -- >> not necessarily. irma did not heavily impact the florida panhandle. most of the hits from irma were in the southwest portion of florida. then it moved up and created some issues in the jacksonville area, northeastern portion. but this area, it's been a long time since it has been hit. vegetation hasn't been stressed. we will see a lot of damage and devastation, unfortunately. we have to set the citizens' expectations that the power will be out for a while. fema's role in that, as a e was saying, our partnership with those directors -- we work with the florida power lines, the gulf power, the southern compan company, the georgia power to help facilitate their aid to come in. they've got power crews coming in for multiple states across the country that are already prestaged. we work with them to do what's called the first push debris to get the roadways open so we can get down the roadways to start fixing the power. that will take some time. >> [inaudible question] >> president trump: we don't know. i was going to pennsylvania, it looks like there were thousands of people already lined up. probably we will do that tonight. we're going to go down here as soon as we can. we don't want to interfere with anybody, but we want to go as soon as possible. you have come a right nearby, we have thousands of people going tonight. they have already -- many are there already. what time were you going to be there? what time are we planning on that? >> probably 10:00. >> about seven. >> president trump: i don't know what to do, because you have so many people already there. it sort of unfair to them. it is a mix. >> shepard: moving onto other topics, i want to show you now that there are changes that are significant that are happening. this is the local radar. they make their forecast as close as they can. you are at the national hurricane center say "we think this is going to hit in a particular town, mexico beach." that's what they thought it would do. this is live radar. this isn't a projection, this is what the storm is doing. that is the eye moving in real time. this is a time lapse, and that last view is where it is at that moment. it is not moving to the northeast in the way that was suggested before. it is to the north, northeast. it is moving in this direction, and it appears now, if it continues on this track, that the eastside of panama city -- meaning calloway and parker in the east bay in panama city, everything to the east of that, it is appearing now that the eye wall might actually cross over. there is a possibility, now, that the western edge of the eye wall itself may cross over parts of panama city and panama city beach. remember, panama city beach is this way. here is panama city. you come across a bridge here, and get over toward panama city beach. it's this long stretch. if memory serves, it's about 27 miles of white sand beaches. some of it is residential, with older residential homes on stilts. some of it is high-rises. some of it is sprawling resorts. but it is 27 long miles. again, all of that is to the west of panama city. we aren't talking about the eye hitting that. look at this i come here. it's coming this direction. here is panama city. here's the city, here is the beach. it is looking like this going to -- here is tyndall air force base. it is looking like the eye of the storm may clip panama city. that means the suburban towns of parker and calloway. not large populations, but parker and calloway, at least, may get a touch of this eye wall. same with cedar grove and springfield, and maybe panama city itself. not the western side of panama city like over by the bridge, but on the eastern side of panama city. i am going to back out now so you can see where this is going. this is the eye wall itself. this is real-time movement. here is tyndall, here's mexico beach pray the national hurricane center has been singing the last hour, it looks like mexico beach may take a direct hit. this is moving this way, and tears mexico beach. instead, to the left of mexico beach. could panama city be hit by this? the town itself, not the beach? it could. look at this rain wrapping around. this is extremely heavy rain. all of this area is still hurricane-force winds. for instance, panama city beach would have wind coming off the land and onto the water at 120, 110, 130-mile-an-hour plus winds. rather than the winds going onto the buildings on panama city beach, it will be coming from the land and off because of that counterclockwise circulation. everything to the right, this is where the more serious storm surge would be. ten to 13 feet, they said. all the way down to apalachicola. look how far the rain extends, now. is that? all the way up to alabama, which is basically, auburn is right there. that's auburn university, that's montgomery, alabama. columbus, georgia. it's on the way to tallahassee, macon, georgia. this is headed in that direction and it is going to be disastrous. phil keating is in apalachicola now, and the conditions are deteriorating. phil? >> they certainly are, shep. some hellacious wind and rain happening right where we are. this is another view looking westerly from our second-floor balcony here at the hotel. incidentally, this hotel is now surrounded by a moat. three to 4 feet and rising. no one can leave, unless you want to wade chest-deep out to your car. off in the distance you can see the cars in that parking lot, the water is already up to the wheels. that is the highest ground of the parking lot. heading back over here, this is water street again. that's an exit sign here at the hotel that was coming off. there has already been a lot of debris and trash washing up the street. that's water street again. you see the buildings, these 10-roof buildings, peeling back now. there has been gutters on this hotel falling off. as well as things flying through the air. the danger of the wind speed, because everything that is picked up by the wind flies at the rate of speed of two-thirds that of the wind. you have 150-mile-an-hour hurricane, that's 100 miles an hour of two by fours and whatnot flying in her direction. that's why everybody has been ordered in this county. in fact, all the counties in the big bend and pensacola -- panhandle area. shelter in. stay home. it is an order, not a recommendation. everybody. nobody is on the street throughout this entire region of florida. it is simply too dangerous and you can look right there and see why. it is too dangerous to go down to that water. the water is moving fast. the wind is whipping, the rain hurts, and we will show you again the apalachicola river which runs down into apalachicola bay. st. george island to the southeast of here, that is an extremely low-lying island. according to the sheriff's deputies that i was speaking with last night, everybody evacuated that island very smartly. >> wow. that's the river that should be flowing left or right but instead is being blown back upstream. that's why this entire region is expected some serious flooding in the next day or two, if not r than that. the water has to go somewhere and right now it's not going where it needed to to go to the gulf of mexico. >> shepard: it has passed to the north and west of you, so the winds are going to shift. >> absolutely, the winds coming from the golf, once the rotation changes we are going to get the wind and the waves and the storm surge coming from the west side. >> shepard: that will be happening very, very soon. it's almost time for a top of the hour reset. this is fox news channel, america's choice for news and information on cagle cable. our coverage continues right no now. >> shepard: it's 1:00 on the east coast, 10:00 a.m. on the west coast and high noon on the florida gulf coast where a storm of historic proportions is now barreling down. it's not about predictions now, this is a live look. this is the storm, with rains extending from st. petersburg all the way up to birmingham and hoover, alabama. hundreds and hundreds of miles of rain but here's where the storm is. this is live weather radar from the land showing not a prediction but the actual location of the eye of the storm, and here it is. their projection was just about an hour ago that this storm, the