and hurricane irma, which veered at the last second. businesses are putting plywood up on windows. this is an ice cream shot trying to inject some levity, no ice cream for ian. sandbags are on the ground to prevent flooding. that s small potatoes in terms of mandatory evacuations. pinellas county and hillsborough county have about 2.5 million people collectively. the whole tampa bay area is 3.2. 75%, 08% of the people are in two counties that have mandatory evacuations. they re looking to move a million-plus people. that process started last night, 2:00 for hillsborough, 6:00 for pinellas. but you ll see the biggest chunks of people fry trying to get out today. the topography of this area, there are bays and inlets, barrier reefs, the bay on one side, the gulf on the other. the water has nowhere to go. storm surge right now certainly the biggest concern as the projections are between 5 and ten feet. for historical context, the last time a major hurricane struck tampa direct
cross i 96 or i 94 into metro detroit i-75 from detroit all the way on through that s going to be a very dangerous travel stretch, especially on thursday, friday and into saturday. which you know is christmas eve. so heavy snow expected and all the areas shaded in pink coloring. we can see very heavy snow in the lake of belts 1311 thing to watch out for at this point it looks like the east coast of our models continue to trend in this way but should seat majority rain from d.c. up to philadelphia. all five boroughs of nyc up to boston. not to be left out that s two 3 inches of rain. a factor in the wind and all that, again travel going to be travel on the eye 94 corridor periods check this out by chicago saturday morning we are talking about wind gusts over 40
concerned with. this is a wall of saltwater that pushes water onto dry land in addition to the rainfall. the fresh water that is falling from the sky. widespread and destructive gulf water inundation. we could see up to ten feet of storm surge from cedar key to ft. myers, especially where you see the pink coloring. tampa is included in that and tampa bay as well. now, what is storm surge? it s when the normal sea level rises and moves over land, that saltwater, and this is where we see the deadliest threat from the hurricane. water is the deadliest threat, the storm surge in addition to those flashflooding rains. where you see the darker colors, i say it often, the brighter colors are the most rain. we could see up to 24 inches of rain in some spots. generally 12 to 24 because that storm is going to be sitting off the coast, bringing heavy, heavy rain. of course with the hurricane, you think of the winds. we re looking at destructive