it will severely impact millions of people and put the barrier island communities completely under water. joining me this hour, the acting director of the national hurricane center to update the track of the storm. i will talk to mayors up and down the coast as ian comes onshore. let s go to our meteorologist with the latest on the hurricane s path. what are you seeing from the latest updates? with each update, the conditions continue to grow dire. right now, we are seeing lots of rain and strong winds moving into ft. myers. if you look at the latest trajectory, we have this making landfall as a mjor hurricane, a strong category 4, 155 miles per hour winds. once you are in 157, you are in cat 5. they are seeing strong winds move into areas. streets are under water. i want to note that it s not until the center of the eye makes landfall that we call it a landfall. we are anticipating within the next three to four hours this will make landfall just outside of ft. myers and so
wilmington. pete: eye wall is the strongest wind right inside? steve: we will get out of your way. janice: that s happening right now. wilmington 91 mile-per-hour gusts. that s happening. the landfall and here is. so wind gust that we are seeing right now. there is wilmington moments ago. 91 miles per hour. we have. so buoys out there 80 miles per hour. some of the winds have certainly topped category 3 strength in the last 12 to 24 hours. so here is florence making landfall. the core of the strongest winds coming on shore and the landfall, the eye making landfall is the calmest partly of the storm. the lowest pressure point and that will certainly happen probably within the next half hour. so there we are right now. you can see the worst of the winds west of wrightsville beach. and we think perhaps a landfall of the eye, the center of the storm anywhere between top sail and wrightsville beach. but that is just a point of history right there. the worst of the winds happening right now
obviously because of the transformer flashes we have seen. but that means that we don t see buildings breaking up and destructing at this point. and we certainly hope that continues. and if the wind speeds stay the same but i don t know. i don t know exactly how much more punch this thing has got. a lot of it is still out over water, which is why we are still getting this kind of rain. we will continue to be here and see. we could be here for a while though. hopefully not here tomorrow. steve: it sounds like, jeff, according to janice, the eye wall of the storm has started of to make landfall. the eye itself has not. i m looking south carolina, electricity and gas says that some customers could face week long power outages because of the storm. what sort of electricity, as we watch the transformers blow in your area, what sort of electricity are they operating on with those lights? is it battery? is it generator? what is it? this building, one of the
experience very similar to military service. in the middle you always have people watching outside of the objective because you can t be focused on that. ainsley: like football games. lauren blanchard is in north carolina, she is in wilmington and janice was just telling us 91 mile-per-hour winds and you said, janice, right? , that this is where you think it will make landfall soon, the worst of it okay, lauren, what s the latest there? yeah, hey, guys. we have been watching these conditions just get worse and worse over the even last hour. we are really feeling those winds. believe it or not, i am actually partially covered by a part of a building. if that gives you any idea how strong these winds are actually behind me. the rain is also just pouring down in sheets right now. we have also been watching a lot of this town lose power. transformers have been blowing up all behind us. they have been lighting up the sky in turquoise, we have seen them do that all over the area in wilming
turquoise flash in the sky earlier. as you can see no lights are on here. the sun is coming up. but no lights are on here on north ocean boulevard. the main drag here in north myrtle beach. in addition, we haven t really seen much significant rain yet and all projections are that we are going to get between 18 and 24 inches of rain by the time all this is done. add to that the projected 4 to 6 feet of storm surge, and you have to worry about flooding. for those people who say south carolina, you are good. we are not good. you do need to be weary of that flooding, because it s not just the ocean. the ocean is going to meet those rivers, those tributaries and inland areas are going to have a concern in addition to to where we are on the coast. back to you. steve: is he live in myrtle beach, thank you very much. janice, it s almost here. janice: landfall is coming. the eye of the storm is going to push over. right now getting the worse of the eye wall in