this hour, and on the ground frenzy in the state. millions under mandatory evacuation orders. the entire state faces flash flooding. and then record-shattering storm surge, water officials say as high as 18 feet. enough to swallow two suvs stacked one on the other. one official warning if you are caught in that surge, you simply will not survive. let s get straight to our correspondents on the ground binning with beginning with bill weir. what are you seeing and what are you told to expect? reporter: this whole community is really bracing for the worse. the new numbers this morning sunk the pit of the stomach everyone here, trying to think about a 17 foot storm surge. and we re on the back side of the storm and this is sort of the reverse storm surge. locals never see this exposed seabed here. we re looking at crab traps and oyster beds blowing around in the wind with the rest of us here. but of course the water as the storm comes ashore will fill in fast. and we re next
I have to tell you, we may not be able to get a live shot from patrick ottman, but if we do, it will be incredible. he will experience the 165-mile-an-hour winds which is where we are right now. gusts to 200. that wind is going to come from the north and then it s going to go calm. you can see the stars in the sky from that center of the eye zero in and then on the back side, 180, 165 at this point-mile-an-hour winds coming from the other direction. so no matter how you slice it with an island, you re going to get a storm surgeon the other side. this is not as populated as freeport is. 20, 25 folks here. there you see the eye wall beginning to approach freeport. that will happen within the next hour or so hopefully because it s moving so slowly that once it does get there, they re going to be in that wind for hours and hours and that is going to be a disaster. some of the pictures we showed you there, by the way, that is going to be nothing compared to i think once we get ariels from
It is going to bring high winds, high surf, heavy rain in sections of the tri-state area, all the way into new england over the next 48 hours. we have tropical storm warnings and watches in effect. all eyes right now on maria. look at the fury and see the eye wall beginning to form. there are the leeward islands. this storm now picking up to 125 miles per hour. rapid intensification expected. with winds at this point really beginning to howl and extend well outside with tropical storm force. it should travel west-northwest at 10. the wind speed picks up and that s why that concern over the leeward islands and a direct hit potentially for puerto rico. we ll continue to watch it but, again, at this point, the news is awful for folks who have already endured so much in this region. hope that trajectory changes just a little bit, give some of those people some peace. dave price monitoring the storms