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expecting water to come in, but if you notice where the water is right now, it s over that small embankment there, that s going to be a business at some point, they are planning to put a business in there, but let me give you a look at how choppy things are here, and how high the water has gotten. this was well below this area here, well below, you had to really lean down to get close to the water. now it s coming up and it s almost completely onto that. this is nothing compared to what is being expected here. the highest the water has ever gotten here in crystal river is about four feet above the flood zone. the entire community is a flood zone. it s in a flood zone, why they have told people to evacuate. at this point in time this is a wind event right now. it has been raining as well as the bands come in, but the real fear is the water, and what do officials always say? you run from the water, you hide from the wind. hopefully people have heeded the warnings, as this ....
be stronger gusts and it s expected to intensify to a potentially category 3 hurricane before making land fall in florida tomorrow, where millions are already under hurricane and storm surge warnings. right now, western cuba is feeling the brunt of the storm. then the track, idalia in florida s big bend. but, this is a very important reminder a small shift in the track could put that population center more at risk. sara arrived in florida a few hours ago. some parts of florida will see and feel the impact soon. what are you seeing on the ground now? reporter: look, like every other hurricane, it is calm before the storm, but this is when people are being told to evacuate in ten counties. and preparations are under way as idalia, who started out as a tropical storm and is now a hurricane, it is expected to grow and grow and grow to a major hurricane, a category 3 hurricane. right now listen to what people are doing as they try to get out of the way of a high storm surg ....
white. we didn t even have time to get anywhere. it was right on top of us. the house was shaking. we were all close together in the middle room of the house. wow. it s the craziest thing i ve ever been involved in. more than 20 million people are under high wind alerts in the mid atlantic, northeast and western u.s. meteorologist alilison chinchar is keeping an eye on all of this. this storm is heading out into the open atlantic, hopefully giving folks a break 24 hours from now. we still have heavy bands of snow across maine, new hampshire. you re getting a little bit of wraparound in upstate new york, places like watertown new york continuing to see snow. when you factor in the snow and wind component, it can lead to whiteout conditions. travel going to be very dicey in some spots. even farther south away from the snow, you still have wind advisories in place, looking at wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour. that could lead to trees down and additional power ou ....
of ian s destruction. look at the pictures in front of you. this is what it looks like, including in lee county, where rescue crews, this is a live look now, a live look at that location, rescue crews are trying to get to people, with millions of floridians without power and water. we re going to take you live to the hardest-hit areas including lee county, which you re looking at now, for what is expected to be obviously a years-long recovery. i m halle jackson in washington. let s get to shaq brewster live for us in charleston, south carolina, nbc news meteorologist janice is with us today. shaq ian has made landfall in the last 40 minutes. tell us what you re seeing. the landfall was several miles up here from charleston, and that does not mean that charles was not impacted by this storm. throughout the afternoon and into the morning, and throughout the afternoon, we saw heavy rain bands, heavy wind bands. that tropical storm weather, that was expected for many peop ....
all covered for you. it is packing winds up to 115 miles per hour at this point and where i am now in central florida is expected to get worse overnight as we are on the air now so stay tuned, we have got it covered for you. you have to see this moment. this moment is from earlier. it is on the southern tip of pine island earlier today. check it out, if you will. whoo! whoo! you got to be kidding me! you got to be kidding me right now! and the threat is not over yet. there s still people who are out there sheltering in place. gaoept know their condition. we don t know if they re in a safe place now. there are power outages up to almost 2 million people across the statement we have our correspondents and our crews fanned out over the state of florida. bill is in punta gorda. brian todd is in largo. jerry is in bradenton and jeremy the weather center. bill, ace understand you re on lockdown tonight. you ever seen some of the biggest action with the wind and rain. wh ....