governor ron desantis leading a briefing in tallahassee, florida, a briefing that illustrated the power of this storm when the power dipped out briefly while the governor was speaking before the generators kicked in just a few seconds later. that s a live picture at 6:54 of perry, florida, just since we came on the air a little under an hour ago. that picture has changed pretty dramatically. that s gabe gutierrez, our reporter. the winds have picked up. the rains have picked up. what we learned is keaton beach, florida, according to fema, will be the place of landfill there on the big bend. that s about 180, 200 miles north of tampa. 75 miles southeast of tallahassee, keaton beach, florida. making landfill just over an hour from now. governor desantis saying:00 eastern time is when they re looking for this storm to hit land. at this point they say if you decided to ride out the storm, you got to stay inside, hunker down and hope you survive it. they gave warnings for days to
with their property. you know, willie, we were actually in cedar key late yesterday, we decided to leave there and move up to here since the forecast was tracking this way in terms of landfill. but in cedar key, for example, the mayor there had said that, you know, it s a small series of aisles but 700 residents. about 100 had decided to stay behind and ride out the storm as of yesterday afternoon. the hope is that more of them have decided to leave there in cedar key, the concern and we ve been seeing reports from there will be storm surge but here in perry, not storm surge but the wind is going to be the biggest concern here and, again, starting to see wind gusts really pound this area and we expect power to be more widespread power outages here in this particular area within the next hour or so, willie. we want to get you in to safety in just a moment, gabe. you mentioned cedar key, some riding it out, exposed in the
big bend. there is a man who runs a hotel an inn who said i ll stay with my inn. it s been here for 150, 200 years, we hope for the best for those who decided to stay. gabe, bill karins, our meteorologist is here with a question. gabe, just to update you and your crew looking at the radar where you re located in perry, the northern eye wall is ten miles to your south, so this is traveling at 18 miles per hour. you guys have about 15 to 20 minutes until this northern eye and the winds will be about three times as strong as they are right now will be over the top of you so to give you guys timing from when you need to get yourself in to safety. that eye is about to move onshore only five miles off the coast where you ll officially get landfill. i just have to repeat for people that are just joining us, you re were to go through what will be the equivalent of a 30-mile-wide tornado, how are you guys planning on what are you doing over the next hour or two?
likely to see, you know, a high level of wind damage here. all right, gabe, with that warning from bill and mine we ll let you go duck inside. the eye wall headed your way, bill says, in the next 15 or 20 minutes with some incredibly powerful winds and let you and the crew take cover. we appreciate your reporting this morning. thanks so much. again, hurricane idalia, a category 3 now, but just by a few miles per hour of wind is it not a category 4. incredibly dangerous storm set to make landfill at keaton beach, florida, according to governor desantis and his team there within this hour. before 8:00 eastern time. officials warning residents to leave immediately as 54,000 people remain without power. actually they say it s too late to leave, hunker down. we ll tell you where idalia is headed next and speak with the mayors of tallahassee, tampa and st. petersburg, updates on what they re seeing on the ground as the sun now rises and the hurricane prepares to make landfill. morning joe
me and my crew, there s a concrete wall here to our left and we re trying to really get the brunt of this storm expected to make landfill not far from here, local authorities again say for people to hunker down at this point. if they haven t evacuated they re not going to be able to but we ve been seeing the conditions deteriorate in the last 20 minutes or so especially, willie. gabe, governor desantis a few minutes ago echoed what you re saying which is we issued the evacuation warnings and told you to get out of the way. at this point the best you can do is hunker down, stay inside, ride it out an hope for the best and the governor said we ll get you just as soon as we can, as soon as conditions allow. is it your sense that some people have stayed behind to ride this out in perry? reporter: yeah, you know, look, there have been people that decided not to heed the evacuation order. local authorities say they re disappointed to hear that. but, you know, this is something that some