Everywhere in the big bend area that they are going to see a storm surge and now is the time to get out. officials in taylor county, which is southeast of tallahassee, say that the surge there could possibly exceed 15 feet and that anyone who is caught in it would not be able to survive. evacuations have been ordered in at least 22 counties. the outer bands of idalia have already been hitting the florida keys and the southwest coast. here s a view of the storm from space. nasa released these images from the international space station just as it passed over it. cnn is tracking this storm across the entire region. we have full team coverage for you tonight in this hour. cnn s carlos suarez is on the ground in tampa. our meteorologist chad myers is at the cnn weather center. and we have key state officials on standby to update us. we ll get to them in just a moment. chad, i want to start with you, though, because we have seen this storm strengthening today. where does it stand right now