southwest airlines canceling the majority of its flights for today. we have team reporting. mona kosar abdi in buffalo, elwyn lopez in atlanta and meteorologist rob marciano timing it all out. the nationwide virus threat. covid-19 on the rise. with the holidays under way, the new warning tonight that all those gatherings and travel could send cases soaring, while flu activity remains high. the new strike inside russia. for the second time this month an air base 300 miles from the border hit. putin s forces claiming they shot down a ukrainian drone. ukraine signaling hope for negotiations. are peace talks possible? britt clennett from kyiv tonight. the urgent investigation in washington state. four power substations disabled on christmas day, knocking out power to thousands on the holiday. what officials are saying tonight. the crisis at the border reaches washington, d.c. hundreds of migrants bussed to the nation s capital from texas left in the cold. families with ch
this could be the storm that we have hoped would never come to our shores. the one thing i hear most common after these disasters is if i had only known it would be this bad. and so i think that s my message to them is we re trying to communicate to you that it can be that bad. okay. many in florida are heeding those warnings with long lines for water, fuel, sand bags and other supplies. schools and parks are closing and tampa s international airport is set to suspend operations entirely tuesday evening. hospitals meantime are transferring patients and putting up these large barriers to protect them from the potential storm surge. now the nags wall weather center has a storm surge in effect for large swathes of florida. they re bracin g for the storm s. people need to heed the warning and get out now especially where the storm-filled waters surge and affect them. we re not going to have the ability to come out and get them. then there are these images from the gran
just moments ago making landfall in cuba. the storm is over the island s western tip as a major category 3 hurricane with a storm surge that had been forecast up to 14 feet. within hours ian will bear down on florida s west coast with high winds, heavy rains. what really has officials worried in florida and urgently calling for mass evacuations is a huge storm surge expected to peak tomorrow. tampa bay is pretty shallow and is going to be pushing a phenomenal amount of rain up into our bay. there s really no place for this water to go so the flooding, the surge is going to be monumental. while we talk about tampa bay, we really need to focus on the warned area and why the hurricane center is so worried about storm surge is this is some of the most vulnerable coast line in the united states with high populations. meteorologist pedram javaheri is live in the weather center with the latest update. they ve published a new outlook a minute and a half ago. what are they sayin
you can see sustained winds are still 45 miles per hour gusting up to 60 miles per hour, still trying to get itself fully organized, but it is going to be heading into a more favorable environment in the next 24 to 48 hours, lower wind shear, lower sea surface temperatures. you have tropical storm watches for jamaica but hurricane watches for areas of the cayman islands. that s because in the short term we anticipate that storm will strength sboon a category 1, maybe a category 2 as it s crossing over the cayman islands. further strengthening is expected as it crosses over cuba and into the eastern portion of the gulf of mexico. then we anticipate it s going to make that right-hand turn back towards florida. at this point, the cone is very large. we are talking anywhere from destin, florida, all the way down just north of key west, still an option at this point. so, basically, if you live anywhere in florida, you need to go ahead and make those preparations just because of th