you the evolution of the storm from wednesday to friday, when it became a monster, category 4 hurricane making landfall. the first time we ve seen a category 4 make landfall since 2004. also want to make mention here, we have a tornado watch in effect until 1 p.m. local time, i think if we zoom in, we have a tornado warn storm right now in the beaumont area, north and east of beaumont. so, with these land falling hurricanes, with the tropical systems we ve got the rotation from the counter clock-wise motion, that s why we have the severe threat going on for tonight for tornadic activity. so watching this, now, watch the european model. this is one of our reliable forecast models, as we go further out in time. that s why i people to not let their guard down and because this model actually shows the
america. elizabeth: that is breathtaking when you look at that overpass. it always looks like the water is getting close. thank you for bringing that to us. we hope the people of houston stay safe. some of the most incredible pictures were getting for the storm as it came ashore is from social media. it was oftentimes the police and fire departments uploading their own images to get the word out to the public about what was happening. a police department using social media to say sorry, you re on your own. they re monitoring all of that and ordinary citizens riding out the storm. good afternoon. this is the strongest hurricane to hit the u.s. from 2005. it s the strongest to hit in this area. facebook was a-year-old,
are able to mobilize and supporter state partners. again, the storm is incredibly unique. it s a landmark event for texas. it will be frustrating for the citizens because of the duration of rain s anticipated over the next 72 - 100 hours. we cannot put our support teams in areas where their lives are in danger. it backs up our ability to get the people and help them. we are asking citizens to set their expectations that this is going to be a marathon. leland: we heard from the governor last night and he said this is a texas size storm that will require texas size response. what i m hearing is a lot of help from the federal government.
we re getting some preliminary reports of being upwards around $40 billion for the state for damages, but there s really no way, there s no way for us to gauge that right now because not only can they not get into the areas, but the storm is staying and hovering. when we talk and hear from mark, he s saying there s nothing to push it out. yes, it s slowly churning a little slower, but it s still a hurricane now and still dumping rain and think about 4.6 million people affected by the storm, a lot of them can t get into their homes. at the same time, officials are very concerned with the fact that when it was coming in, category 1, category 2, category 3, category 4, people perhaps stayed home. that s the biggest concern. we have no idea how many people stayed home during the storm. leland: no idea how many people stayed home. south of galveston in rockport, the mayor said if you decide not to evacuate, write your name and
elizabeth: let s check in with the national hurricane center for the latest. the deputy director mark, thank you for joining us. as we talked to the congressman their people getting out a about. can you give us advice as we take the next step. the storm is very dangerous. you know curiosity will get the best of people and they ll be trying to navigate roadways. what advice do you have? people need to heed their local advice from the officials and don t go out until you get the all clear. elizabeth: we talked about how the storm is staggered. has anything changed? are we still seeing the same rainfall predictions? yes. the storm is almost stationary