zone, particularly in the southwest florida counties, your time to evacuate is coming to an end. you need to evacuate now. a life threatening category 4 storm headed right towards florida. i m john berman live in tampa this morning. brianna keilar is in washington and that is the news from overnight. hurricane ian strength jentd to a category 4 storm with sustained winds of 140 miles per hour. wind gusts of 165 miles per hour. the storm forecast has adjusted somewhat south of where i am in tampa headed right towards the fort myers area in florida about 100 miles south of here, but the threat to florida is enormous. more than 2 1/2 million people under some sort of evacuation order. yes, the wind speed is a serious threat now, a category 4 storm. storm surge where i am in tampa, they could see storm surge of 6 feet which would put the water pretty much right where i m stand going it hit the maximum levels down towards where the storm is expected to make landfall. they could
sounding the alarm along florida s west coast. people are urged to get out of florida s way. tampa s mayor tells residents if you can leave, just leave now. officials say the tampa region could see a storm of a lifetime. more than 15 million people are expected to feel the impact of ewh e ian when it arrives. 115 hour with the winds and could cause life-threatening storm surge, and storm surge is the biggest concern right now. so far ahead of the storm, the hospital in st. petersburg suspended service, transported patients, schooled and universities closed, at least three cruise lines re-routed passengers. the tampa bay airport will suspend operations at 5:00 p.m. today and nasa moved the artemis rocket back to the hangar for trekz. look at this video showing a steady stream of traffic leaving the tampa bay area monday night heading inland to safety. people hunkering down as well, though. the storm perhaps testing their patience. one tampa resident waited three hours to get
stream of traffic, a scene leaving the tampa area. this happened overnight. people trying to get inland from the coast taking cover. the storm, perhaps, testing their patience. one tampa resident waited three hours to get free sandbags. a u.s. military insulation, moving aircraft can and naval ships out of the tampa and jacksonville areas. an idea how big the storm is, nasa released this video of hurricane ian from the international space station. all right. i want to bring in michael brennan, acting deputy brechter of the noaa. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. michael, thanks, again, for joining us today as well. so tell us, obviously tampa low-liaring. what is the greatest threat? along much of the west central florida coast from tampa down to the fort myers area. since yesterday seen the track shift farther to the south or to the east. expecting the center of the end to cross the coast of west central florida near the south of the region increases r
i told each one of them, my conversation separately, whatever they need. sincerely, whatever they need, contact me directly. joining me now jamie rome, acting director of the national hurricane center. good to have you with us this hour. we saw in the most recent update, the 2:00 p.m. update that the storm was rapidly intensifying. the major concern at this hour seems to be the storm surge and also just how long this storm could sit. what are the areas that you re most focused on at this hour? i think water is going to be the big issue with this storm, both the incredibly heavy rainfall. you can see it starting to sweep over the southern portions of the florida peninsula. and the storm surge near to the east of where the center makes landfall, and those two when they combine together, it creates a lot of flooding issues. speaking the the mayor of tampa in the last hour, she was pointing to the separate saturation that they re already seeing on the ground there that they
from the national hurricane center, but first live in tampa, nicole valdez. hey, nicole. ainsley, brian, steve, good morning. florida attorney general saying this is the storm we all have feared. she called the chance of us seeing anywhere from 5 to 15 feet of storm surge, detrimental for the tampa bay area. and unfortunately we are seeing the impacts of hurricane ian across florida. brand-new video from the florida keys, you are already seeing flooding beginning in portions of monroe county. it s part of one of the reasons why we already know hundreds of thousands of people are under mandatory evacuations right now. here is a look at all six counties that those people are living in. really all along florida s gulf coast and we are already hearing reports that the number of counties issuing the mandatory evacuations are expanding. it s why people are boarding up their homes, getting all the resources, going to the grocery stores, packing up their cars, getting ready to driv