a news conference shortly. about 23,000 have been put on alert and are all over this place coming in yesterday we crisscrossed this area. we saw maybe 10, 12, sheriff s patrol cars, these electric vehicles, linesmen crisscrossing much of the state. a situation where everybody is on pins and needles to see what comes next and what they do around here, at least, is these feeder bands come in and then they just blow everything through. jose, what is your sense of the way the people are preparing for this as you get blown around there? obviously they ve been through a lot on the gulf coast. they ve seen hurricanes in the tampa area and north. how seriously is everyone taking this, the people you ve talked to there? reporter: people are taking it seriously. a lot of the folks i was speaking to here last night say