A very high level. Some are saying its one of the biggest storms ever to hit our country. It built very rapidly,ed a briefing with secretary of Homeland Security and the administrator of fema and we are watching Hurricane Michael. Its just hitting shore now. Winds are going up to close to 200 miles an hour. Category 4. You dont hear about that. Its the most powerful recorded storm to strike the Florida Panhandle ever. It will bring with it anywhere from 150 mile to almost 200 mile an hour winds. The storm surges could be up to 15 feet. Additional rainfall could also produce Flash Flooding at the highest levels. We have been in constant communications with governor rick scott of florida. With all the authorities in the various states. Were very well prepared for massive amounts of food and we have First Responders all over, the Electrical Companies are staged and ready to go in after the storm. Over a thousands trucks. We have large amounts of food and water and Everything Else that you
look at tampa, st. pete. some of these places could see inundation of the low level roads. even moving north where you get to crystal river, four the six feet. you can get some places where the water piles up. look at the shape of the coastline. it s the water piles up in the area and moves upstream and piles up even more. those are the areas we get the high levels of water. thanks very much for your help in understanding this still remains having made landfall, still remains a very serious form with consequences for people inland and along the coast. ken graham at the national hurricane center. thank you. i just keep thinking back here, we re looking at video from mexico beach. that is panama city beach. just a few minutes ago when we were speaking to lester holt and he brought the microphone to the window, today door and it wasn t open. it sounded like a jet engine. there s lester in a three story
who arab horrible happen. these aren t small trees. these are massive at least two story palm trees. the leaves look like tissues. these are tropical trees in a tropical region that are meant to blow. when you see them doing that, that tells you it s very serious. it takes a lot to make a palm tree do that. this is, as lester said, this is real. it s something to stand in winds that are that high. that are that forceful just to keep yourself up and not get hit. if you re a structure, a house, there s windows, it s old, there s a roof, there s roof tiles, there s furniture all over the place, there s mobile homes, there s trailers, things that are not aerodynamic. it s like a tornado. that s the way you have to think about this. it s not just the force of the wind. it s everything that can get blown away in the force of the wind. here in new york we have our electrical wires under the
that. do you think the structure will hold? i do. we have hurricane shutters on. we have a three inch gap. where in the house are you? i believe you re there with your husband, your daughter. have you covered the window in mattresses? are there closets or bathtub for you to get? bathtub. our master closet has been filled out. we have a mattress up against our front door because it s half glass. the rest of the windows are covered by hurricane shutters. in the event we haven t been discuss as much baskecause you re in the middle of a wind event. you re about to get your storm surge, what s your plan for that? we do have an attic, access through our garage. that will be our flood plan.
they were prepared to get out. matt is on a college campus. you have thousands of students to worry about. thanks. let s go to terry vega who is riding out the storm in panama beach. what s your situation? raining and the wind was blowing and a tree just snapped in half in our backyard. tell us a bit about your home. are you on the first floor, second floor? what s the structure like? our structure is a ranch. it was a brand new home. it has two by six studs and we thought with a category 2, even a 3 we were fine. so far we have been but it s a little scary now that it s a four, almost a five. how are you feeling at the moment? we were just talking to lester holt who is saying the windows