hurricane idalia as it makes landfill here shortly. that s where we find jose diaz-balart. good to see you. what are you seeing on the ground there, and what are the people expecting over the next several hours? reporter: good morning, willie. just about five minutes ago we were getting pelted with one of the feeder bands of this rapidly moving hurricane and now it just kind of died down. now, the water is up. these are one of the canals here in crystal river area. this is an area that, again, and bill was just talking about this, you know, they re used to storms, but what is coming down is something that they hadn t really ever seen and so just to give you an idea of where we are, just south of here and north of here is yankee town and i ve been talking to people all morning. some of the people who are at
idalia has intensified for the last 24 hours. this is tampa. tampa has not gotten the brunt of the storm. high tide at 4:00, the water is high, waves are splashing. you can see the causeway, that s the kind of things we re getting in tampa, more of the overwash, not hearing about destruction or anything like that. that s the good news for tampa. for you it s a glancing blow. for other areas it will be much worse. here s the latest from the hurricane center, 130-mile-per-hour maximum sustained winds. small eye. it is not widespread. it s about a 30-mile-wide eye where we ll have concentration of extreme winds, everywhere else like tallahassee, more tropical storm force winds and moving quickly, 17 miles per hour so moving onshore within the next two to three hours. the forecast, we have the landfill coming up and then we still think it s going to be a category 2 into southern georgia, even well after
geography. the coastal shelf gets shallow very quickly, which increases the amount of the storm surge putting more people at risk. very few people can survive being in the path of major storm surge and this storm will be deadly if we don t get out of harm s way and take it seriously. that is fema administrator deanne criswell speaking at the white house yesterday. desantis expected to deliver remarks, the president, excuse me, on the federal government s response to hurricane idalia as well as the wildfires in maui later today. let s bring in the host of way too early, jonathan lemire. so, obviously, jonathan, the federal government and state of florida know how to do this, unfortunately they do it all too often including last year with ian which hit the southwest coast of florida. an interesting dynamic and another layer this year is that ron desantis, of course, is running against potentially joe biden to become the next president of the united states.
you can expect many more states to contribute from here. desantis warning hurricane idalia could be one of the biggest storms to hit florida s big bend in more than a century. this is going to be something that will leave significant impacts and particularly in this part of the state, you really got to go back to the late 1800s to find a storm of this magnitude that will enter where this one looks like it s going to enter tomorrow. so, we don t really have a historical analog in anybody s memory so likely to cause a lot of damage and that s just the reality so be prepared for that. be prepared to lose power. and just know that there s a lot of folks that will be there to help you get back on your feet. this storm surge, this is one of the highest risk parts of a hurricane, and is especially problematic along the west coast of florida due to the underwater
effort. we really appreciate the partnership. thank you. good morning. my name is christian caban, leon county commissioner here today to assist in the briefing of our community on the impacts of hurricane idalia. residents, hurricane idalia has moved slightly east of leon county. this storm will have a lasting impact on surrounding communities. this is a historic category 4 storm predicted to have life-threatening storm surge, hurricane-force winds, and heavy rain. leon county residents, you should expect downed trees, blocked roads, power outages, flooding and overall dangerous conditions. now more than ever follow all emergency orders. everyone must shelter in place until the storm has passed. please continue to follow leon county on social media, our