have our fox news chief meteorologist rick reichmuth with us. rick this has been rough so far. really has. three things, the storm surge that broke records in fort myers and naples as well by a lot by the way, three feet higher than we had ever seen from any kind of storm surge in the past. that obviously causing all that flooding right along the immediate coast. then we have the winds, actual verified winds of 140 miles an hour in cape corral. a lot of this wind was really prolonged because it s such a slow-moving storm and then you have the rainfall. because it s so slow we get rainfall that just continues to batter the state and we ll see big time inland flooding concerns. this made land fall in the exact same space that hurricane charlie came on shore in 2004 which is amazing to have two massive hurricanes or two strong hurricanes like this come on shore in the exact same spot, hard to imagine, because it came on so strong, it s still a category 2 hurricane after having
the homeowner s policy will cover somebody things but the flood policy covers probably the most significant risk for most homeowners in florida given the risk of flooding we have in our state. we are sensitive to that obviously going to be some folks that are in need of support and relief we will work as best we can i will say people have been asking about some of the overall homeowner s insurance with like citizens. citizens, i think right now they are between 6 and 700 billion of surplus. modeling in terms of paying out a lot of money in claims still have 4 and 5 billion in surplus. they view themselves as being able to weather this. individual carriers they have to go through a stress test to have policies approved. this year they had tested under a direct impact on tampa bay and what would happen they have policy and reinsurance and wrap program and cap fund. citizens feel strongly they will be able to handle this and still have pretty significant reserves. okay. thanks s
before seen. reporter: in a matter of seconds a country music festival turned tragic with a storm of gunfire raining down on an innocent crowd. he was shooting everybody and there was dead people everywhere and i don t even know what was happening. it was just shooting, randomly. reporter: it began a massive loss of life and hundred injured in the worst mass shooting in modern american history. the 2017 las vegas shooting was the worst mass shooting in modern american history. 58 people were killed, several hundred were wounded and two victims later died from their injuries. there have been more than 3500 mass shooting since then according to the gun violence archive. the las vegas shooting remains the deadliest and there is a reason for that. the shooter used a bump stock. america is the most unfriendly democracy in the world, yet even here it is illegal to own a fully automatic machine gun. but a bump stock essentially transforms the average semi automatic rifle int
florida, we re expecting up to two feet of rain that s going to fall because of this storm. now, of course, we re also talking about power outages nearing two million customers in the dark, millions of floridians now without power. and so it s going to be a massive effort to restore that power. now, in the parking lot of our hotel here we have lots of linemen parked here waiting out this storm waiting to make sure it s safe so they can go out and restore power. about 33,000 utility workers and linemen are here from all across the united states. but they can t start to restore power until it s safe to do so. a lot of these linemen can t go up in their bucket trucks until wind speeds are below 35 miles an hour and it s going to be at least another day or so before a lot of areas are going to be safe with those types of wind speeds. meanwhile down to the south of us, very significant storm surge in the fort myers area, just absolute devastation down there. it s going to be incredible to
st. petersburg, florida tonight with the latest there. good evening, max. good evening, bret. we are about even though we are not getting a direct hit. we are still being pummeled by window and rain. hurricane force winds still expected here in the st. petersburg area. the big concern for folks is the amount of rain. up to 2 feet of rain according to the national weather service. now, we are seeing these winds whipping these palm trees right here. but i want to show you this as well. because power outages is a big concern here. more than a million people currently without power all across florida. more than 100,000 people here in pinellas county without power. you see these utility trucks staged here in the parking lot of the hotel we are staying in. more than 33,000 utility workers from across the united states here in florida right now waiting out this storm waiting to respond when it s safe to do. so when it s safe to do so is really the key word here. these bucket trucks can t go