about potentially shutting off power when there s high wind incidents. i m wondering if this deserves an appropriate response from the power companies or do you think they should be working to the power structure rather than just ending the power? i think both. it s very expensive to secure these power lines. both in terms of actual structure, you know, we look out there and we see large towers carrying multiple wires, and the wires are like that thick, and you know, they re carrying an awful lot of energy. sometimes those entire towers come down. i am not expert enough to know when it s appropriate to shut down that line. that s one of the reasons why i think having the technology to have these meters on each of these facilities tells you where the danger is. so i can picture, i m getting beyond my expertise here. reporter: you re talking about huge numbers of americans suddenly not having power because the company makes the determination that well, we also know th
we are in tallahassee. derek van dam is in tampa. bill weir is in steinhatchee where landfall happened 20 miles away. that storm has been picking up there. the effects have been rapidly intensifying there as well. we will get to everybody throughout the course of the hour. i want to start, sara, with you. looking at your live shots throughout the course of this morning, talking to you, the intensity, the up and down, bands as they have gone through, it s something to see. we experienced landfall about 15 minutes ago? reporter: yeah, we have vacillated from beautiful to terrible. beautiful to terrible. back and forth. that s just the way hurricanes work. but this is a very dangerous storm no matter how beautiful it is where you are on the west coast of florida. it has made landfall in the most dangerous position for people in that area, the big bend area. they need to shelter in place according to authorities. they need not to try to evacuate if they haven t at this point in
good morning, everyone. poppy is off this week. saraside sidner is here. let s get started with five things to know for this thursday, august 31st. north carolina now getting pummel led by heavy rains from idalia. the tropical storm is packing a punch with 60 mile per hour winds after leaving a path of devastation in florida. mitch mcconnell freezes up in front of reporters, again. it s the second time this has happened this summer raising questions about both his health and his political future. and the attorney general says donald trump inn flated his wealth by $2.2 billion in a single year. this is part of the civil fraud lawsuit against the president and the trump organization. also a federal judge says rudy giuliani is liable for defaming two georgia election workers in his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. this is the first legal judgment against his former attorney ask an unsparing one after he failed to hand over crucial evidence in the case.
this is what that actually looks like or looked like in keaton beach, florida. and gabe showed us the aftermath there. some boats are being sent in to check for survivors. the water thankfully seems to be receding here after all of the storm surge. but i just wanted to show you the national guard here. with response to your question where we could see the wind, we saw a lot of tree damage. a lot of tree damage. downed power lines. you can kind of tell where the worst of it was. as it blows through. and in some places it looks like a tornado came through. it is remarkable when you see the intensity of this storm. the power of a hurricane as it comes on shore. that is our colleague gabe gutierrez. he spent his morning in perry, florida, about a half an hour north. where roaring winds blow over this gas station awning before knocking out a billboard right where gabe was doing some of his reporting. a few minutes later, gusts nearly lifted him and his crew and their equipment
the impact. this extremely dangerous hurricane is now a category 2 storm and expected to intensify. one of the greatest threats is a storm surge. perhaps it s 15 feet high in florida s big bend region. officials there say it could be a once in a lifetime event. florida s governor warning that now is the time to get out. mandatory evacuations are under way in county after county. thousands of national guard members have been activated. we are monitoring it all. i m kaitlan collins, and this is the source. hurricane idalia is intensifying very rapidly tonight, now packing winds of 105 miles per hour. the eye of the hurricane is now 155 miles or so southwest of tampa and moving north. it is expected to slam into florida as a category 3 storm by early tomorrow. governor ron desantis is warning everywhere in the big bend area that they are going to see a storm surge and now is the time to get out. officials in taylor county, which is southeast of tallahassee, say that the surge