todd: hurricane idalia category 4 storm expected to hit florida in just a matter of hours. bret is in keaton beach. he is a storm chaser and joins me now. bret, what are you seeing now, where are you in relation to the concerning area everybody is talking about, that unprecedented bay area that could see what we have never seen before? we re right off appalachia cola bay at perry 15 miles and this area is going to take a direct hit based on the current
About them. the wonderful job that they do. todd: you are a congressman. obviously that invokes the federal part of all of this like you mentioned. you did say look, after the fact, federal government resources will helpfully be there. i want to focus after the fact. fema resources go in coordination with the state resources to shake sure that lives are saved immediately following and like i said during the storm if it s safe enough to go in there and save people? well, that s why the declaration of emergency is so important. that unlocks those resources to be prepositioned, close to the impact zone. that s where you get 1200 national guard men and women. the coast guard coming in and prepositioning all of those resources. look, because we go through, this things like our electrical power grid we have spent a lot of money in hardening that so that the power lines don t get
Western caribbean, which is what happened with this one and made landfall across big bend. a lot of infamous storms, easy, we had tampa bay, hermine, we ve been talking about that storm thchl is different, no category 4 has made landfall in this area thchl is historic talking about a 15-foot storm surge for big bend, that never occurred and this is most vulnerable coast line in the u.s. we will be dealing with a hurricane for south georgia and carolinas. this morning and afternoon, your time is running out, if you re preparing for a hurricane for parts of georgia and carolina. this storm will make landfall in next couple hours, lowest pressure point. effect of this storm widespread, heavy rain upward of a foot. 15-foot storm surge, which will
Those that have stayed? so we have got 900 search and rescue first responders sitting on go. they can t go save lives until they have a clear path. if you did not heed warnings, you will be taking your own life in your own hands and that is unfortunate because your devastation could have been avoidable. ashley: any places that were told to evacuate, this was going to be widespread, any places people can still heed the warning and leave or people who didn t leave are stuck where they are? ashley: you are pretty much stuck where you are. i m in tallahassee at the state eoc. this morning it was mild, the storm has not made landfall. outer bands can be spinning off tornados. i care about safety of first
The area it is in. typically you don t see major hurricanes in ap palachian bay. the wind may impact areas such as tallahassee, gainesville, lake city and as far north and east as valdesta and savannah, georgia. rare scenario out of gulf of mexico that made major hurricane status, that does not happen in this region. todd: in a storm of this size and you are in it, what are you looking for? what is your coverage plan? in simpler terms, why are you there, bret? well, best thing for me to do while i m here is a, report the story and not become it. we ve been here a couple days scouting the areas and found safe spots where we can go to