Now i'll see you tomorrow evening. I'm kaitlan collins. This is the source hurricane helene is about to slam into florida and i expected to make landfall and just a couple of hours from now, it's now an extremely dangerous category four storm and winds are now up to 140 miles per hour. If it stays this strong, it'll be the strongest storm to ever make landfall in florida's big bend region. That's the area that we're keeping a close eye on. This hour, more than half 1 million people there have already lost power. And forecasters are predicting tonight that the storm surge in some areas could be unsurvivable reaching as high as 20 feet surges and high winds were already the reason for the closures of several major bridges in the tampa area that we saw tonight? officials, there are telling residents to shelter in place, that it is going to get worse and don't go outside. Emergency managers and one florida county are being so blunt with their warnings for those who are in low lying areas and did not evacuate. They are telling them to write your name and date of birth on your arms or legs? so if needed, you can be identified and your family can be notified. That is how dire the situation is as we come on the air tonight, we're monitoring it all very closely. We have reporters covering every angle of this cnn's derek van dam is joining us live from apalachicola. Derek just tell us obviously you've been there all day a tracking this as the winds are picking up, tell us what you're seeing right now on the ground the most intense rain bands. And when that we've experienced so far with the approach of hurricane helene, and we know that it's only going to go downhill from here as we remain on the western side of this, i want to look directly into the camera. Franklin county, where i'm located is under a mandatory evacuation. So are so many other counties that line the big bend of florida. If you chose not to evacuate, not know, is not the time to get out and try to move out of harm's way, you have missed that for tunity, the storm is to close the conditions are too dangerous and it is going to go downhill with a vengeance. And at pace. And the reason i say that is because we can see let's say buoys in the gulf of mexico about 100 miles offshore from where we're located, with winds that have already topped 107 miles per hour. There have been waves measured at 26 feet on the western side of this storm. And that means that surge is getting pushed up with the strong winds that have moved over the shallow water, the shelf of the gulf of mexico. 1 mile per hour winds. That is a category four on the staffer saffirsimpson, that is the pothat will peel back the roof off of a house that will topple some sturdy structure sure that will also take down power poles snapped trees like they were twigs. So this is something that people need to be prepared for as the storm makes its final approach. Every once in a while we get some of those stronger bands that come through. And john berman and i have been talking about this on air for the past couple of hours it almost feels like a power washer as being taken directly to your body. It just stings every time it hits your opened exposed skin. But this is the reason kaitlan, why people we're asked to evacuate this area because they knew that this most intense part of the storm was going to approach in the darkness of night and it is going to be an incredibly devastating next 12 hours here across the big bend. Does this major hurricane makes landfall. Well, and derek, we heard from franklin county sheriff earlier saying most of the roads were already underwater. Have you seen anyone who is trying to make a lastminute evacuation? what have you seen as far as people being out kaitlan, we noticed people onlookers that traverse some of the roads here in apalachicola earlier today kind of checking out the conditions of course, now is the time that they need to move into the interior of their home away from windows. This is the same advice i'm giving my family who are several hundred miles inland and atlanta georgia, this is the time now to a bunker down and prepare for the worst of this storm because it's only going to get worse before it gets better. You know, this storm means business kaitlan, and we're feeling the impacts of it here, even though we're going to be on the western side the most extreme winds are really going to packers big bend and then move quickly inland as well. Yeah. I derek van dam, stay safe and standby. We'll come back to you and check in with you throughout the hour. I also want to go now to cnn's carlos suarez, who is in st. Petersburg, florida. Carlos obviously you've been dodging, you know, a lot of this is you're seeing the worst effects of this. What are you seeing right now? in st. Petersburg we are in pinellas county, which has effectively been cut off from the mainland and that's because several bridges that connect pinellas county over to hillsborough county, which is the tampa area as well as braiding sent to the south. They have been closed because of the strong winds and all of the flooding associated with this storm. In fact, with this hurricane to the north of where we are right now at this hour, you can still see all of this water being pushed in from the gulf as well as the tampa bay. All of this is associated with that hurricane. Were talking about at least four feet of storm surge earlier today. And we're told our meteorologist tell us that we could be getting anywhere between three to four more feet of storm surge. Again, all of this is taking place with the storm effectively having passed up an alice county and not hit the area directly. Now, here in st. Pete, much of the neighborhood that we've been driving around is without power and we're at a marina where the damage is quite evident here. You can see a portion of the dock, a portion of the seawall here was cut in half, it was broken apart and this afternoon's strong winds and the storm surge and all of that water that just continues to rush in and it's been pushed up against this what's left of that seawall here? it's really dark out, so you really can't see far from where we are, but all of that side is underwater. It's filled with debris. We've got buoys from some of these boats that have all pushed up a lot on shore here. We're being told that a lot of this water really, really is not going to recede until about five or 6:00, so much r0 morning. And if the folks that live in pinellas county think that there really done with the storm surge. Here's a fun fact high tide is not going to kick in until about midnight or one in the morning, which means that the water levels that we're seeing, not just here, but over in gulfport, which is about 15 to 20 minutes to the south and the west that water is only going to get higher because you've got high tide coming in around midnight, one in the morning, and then it's not really going to go back down until about five or six in the morning. So for folks that decided to stay put in this evacuation zone while chances are you're not going anywhere, you're probably in the dark and once you wake up tomorrow morning, then you're really going to get a sense of so to the part of the cleanup effort. And then we've still got to see just when these bridges might reopen because again, right now, if you live in pinellas county, you cannot get out to hillsborough county, which is home to tampa, and you can't get down to breeding season. Caitlin? yeah not very much of a fun fact. Hope everyone there is staying safe. Carlos this will continue to check in with you as well. John mills from fema is here joining us now, and it's great to have you, john, i know you're very busy tonight, so thank you for taking the time to talk to us. I just want to first get your reaction to the update that we're seeing that in the last 24 hours, this storm has gone from being a category one to now a category four. Or with 140 mile per hour winds that we're seeing in the update that we just got moments ago. What can you tell us about the latest that you're seeing kaitlan, this is a very large storm. This is going to be a catastrophic storm in some areas. This is potentially an historic storm that's about to make landfall in florida what's, the biggest concern you have as of 9:00 p. M. Hour because of the very serious situation here, we already have incident management assistance teams, ploy all across the likely path of the storm. We have teams right? now in florida, georgia, alabama, we have staff here in north carolina where i am south carolina and we're closely monitoring the progress of the storm and potential impacts in even more states along this path, you could see very serious impacts. Not only in florida, but all the way up throughout georgia, including places like albany and columbus and macon. Even the very large city of atlanta could see various serious impacts here in north carolina at the state is very concerned about potentially historic record flooding in the hills and mountains in the western part of the state. Think about the asheville, north carolina area. Such a picturesque and wonderful community there. Now facing some potentially historic record and lifethreatening flooding just in the coming hours or is the next say, 24 to 36 to 48 hours as we watch the path of this storm. And are they prepared for that right now, john has commodities, our warehouses are stocked and ready. We've deployed power restoration teams. We have urban search and rescue teams deployed across the possibly affected areas. They're going to supplement the work of the dates and local first responders to conduct search and rescue operations as needed. We also have health and medical assessment teams ready to go to work and we have personnel deployed across the entire southeast united states that can move at a moment's notice, depending on which states to ask for help. Yes. You're watching it to see which states need your help the most. But you know, don't, as i was looking at this landfall is happening in the next few hours, people are starting to go to bed, usually right around now. So i just wonder what's your message to people who are worried about this is a lot of this is happening when it's dark outside the progression that this storm is having during, throughout the night and that's what makes this storm particularly dangerous because so many severe impacts are going to happen in the overnight hours. We are really encouraging people to listen to their state officials and listen to there are local officials. If local officials issue evacuation orders were strongly encouraging people to heed those evacuation orders, follow the requests of local officials. If roads are closed and there's really any amount of water over those roads do not drive through that one water we've already seen some of that in florida. We've already seen some of that in north carolina. People driving through floodwaters and that's how you can lose your life historically in these storms, water floodwater can kill more people than the wind of a devastating hurricane is so. It's water your biggest concern because i do think some people think, well, maybe i'm not in the path of the wind as much anymore or that part of it has passed us. But when you are seeing what we were just seeing in st. Petersburg, i was reading earlier that the storm surge is predicted. It could get up to 20 feet in the big bend obviously when country now, one of the deadliest storms to ever make land in the u. S. There's about a 28 foot storm surge. So what what's your concern level there of these storm surge forecast are very concerning. I was in fort myers, florida after hurricane ian. The water in some places in florida, florida for helene our forecast potentially to go even higher than that, possibly 15 to 20 feet in some of these areas, but also keep in mind the size of this storm as you follow the path, you may have significant impacts, serious flooding, tornadoes, strong gusting winds are away from the sun of the storm. So that's something people should pay very close attention to in some places, unfortunately, it may be too late for people to evacuate in some areas, you may still have time. So that's why we're really encouraging people in any of these affected communities that have the potential to be affected, to listen sinner, the instructions of their local officials there, local emergency management officials, local first responders, people who were giving you that very local information about steps you need to take. Listen to what they're telling you to do now. Yeah. Heed those warnings. John mills, thank you. I know you're busy. I really appreciate your taking the time to join us tonight. Thanks for having me. I want to go to cnn's john berman, who is in tallahassee for cnn right now. Don we just learned that florida governor ron desantis is going to be holding a press conference to give an update tell us what you're seeing on the ground in tallahassee where you are what is interesting because the florida governor is based here of course, in the capital tallahassee. Tallahassee could get a direct hit from this hurricane in a few hours in tallahassee in the last 2030, 40 years, has suffered from sustained hurricane force winds before almost certain to happen tonight, we've had gusts here of 35, i would say, 40 miles it's an hour. There was one just before you came to me, kaitlan, that kind of pushed me off my feet a little bit. You know, i'm a big guy, 64 to 20, so that when very powerful are starting to get more and more powerful in the rain bands are beginning to move through the real concern here in tallahassee, not the storm surge that's going to happen some 2025 miles south here, serious, very serious. They're here for it really is the wind and the rain because of the tree canopy here, these beautiful live oaks that line tallahassee. Tallahassee is famous for their expecting thousands thousands of trees to come down, hundreds of road closures power could be out for some time here and the ground is just saturated. It's been rainy here for the last few days and they could get six to ten inches more of rain as this storm passes through putting even more trees down everyone been told to go home right now, if you're out and about in the town tonight, not a good idea. Get into your house because it is going to be a long, long night here. The city of some 200,000 people. Most i think stayed or state around. They're just trying to be as safe as they can. Florida state. I know you're a college football fan florida state university football team, they got out and got the jacksonville so they can fly to their game. I think they're going to smu and dallas, but they need to get out of here so they can get to there and fsu the campus, the students have been removed from their dorms and put into a local shelter to ride this out. But as i said, you know, tallahassee has not been through something like this and they're hoping they're hoping it's not too bad when they wake up tomorrow. But again, it's picking up, it's going to be a long, long night. Kaitlan yeah. Who knows how long those power outages can last? john berman, you are 6, four to 20, but please be careful and we're gonna continue to take it you are on the ground. John berman doing board's work down there. We do have breaking coverage that his continuing right now. I'm going to be joined next by a mob who rode out hurricane idalia last year while she was pregnant. She is now choosing to ride out this storm as well with her hurricane baby or husband? our other children, saying that tonight, might they are prepared for the worst. 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And this is new video that was just posted from hurricane hunters showing a flyby is of course you can tell from watching this that storm is fast approaching tonight. We are waiting for it to make landfall, joining me now is joules carl, who is with her family and steinhatchee, florida. She wrote out hurricane idalia last year while she was pregnant. And she is now riding it out tonight with her oneyearold baby. Obviously, we are watching all of this very closely as officials, there i've been very worried about people who stayed on the ground were actually working to make sure we have jewels. His connection. So standby as we'll speak with her in a moment, as we're tracking all of this, you can see this storm moving very closely into the big bend area. That is exactly where steen hatchie is. It is in taylor county, right there. That's area that we're watching very closely tonight as we wait to get joules on the line with us, i do want to go to cnn's derek van dam because there is now an extreme wind warning that is in place for exactly along where these areas are in steen hatchie that is in the big bend area, derek van dam, what can you tell us about this extreme? during one warning and what it means now, for people who did choose to stay behind, like jewels these extreme wind warnings are reserved by the national weather service only issue them at the most important moments, the most extreme moment moments for the approach of a storm of this magnitude, are they really reserved them because the verbage talks about how you need to treat this like an extreme wind as if a tornado was approaching your area. So what do you do when a tornado comes knocking on your door? you go to the interior of your home away from windows, you protect yourself by putting blankets, perhaps even a betting over top of you. You need to take action to protect your life and the life of your others in your home with you. Now, the safest place that they're talking about during this extreme wind warning is in a reinforced interior that's maybe perhaps under a table, if that's not a possibility so this extreme wind warning, again, it's reserved for these most extreme moments, and that is what we anticipate to take place. Just east of apalachicola where i'm located along the big bend we're feeling the brunt of tropical storm force winds that are teetering on hurricane force. But it's a miracle that we still have power that is not the same for hundreds and thousands of people here across the state of florida, that will be plunged into darkness as the most intense part of hurricane helene makes its way on shore here in the coming hours, we're really focusing in on that taylor county area very low line susceptible area to storm surge. But the catastrophic wind threat, the potential to peel back roofs off of buildings to topple structures and even toppled power poles and trees is real kaitlan and the storm. It's coming. And if you haven't evacuated now is the time to take shelter? can i ask you because this warning they're saying treat this like a tornado warning. I grew up in alabama, obviously we'd tornadoes very regularly during tornado season, but there are more sporadic like it happens and then it's gone when it's a hurricane and you're being told to treat it like a tornado in its sustained storm i mean, what kind of difference does that make for people who are trying to shelter in place? well, i'll think about a tornado that can be so erratic. You know, coming from alabama that they can often hop in skip, and jump over properties. Well, that's not what happens with hurricanes. So if you look at the diameter of the hurricane winds that are associated with helene, it's over 100 miles so in essence, you could think of that as a lowend efzero or even an ef1 tornado approaching. But over 100 miles swath. Right. So that's significant, whereas a tornado would only be a couple of hundred yards across creating that consolidated damage path. But a hurricane of this magnitude, the size and this intensity will create what i tornado was similar, wins would create, but over a much larger area my favorite hats rebels so many here. I'll get that later. All right, guys now, now as i speak in my hat, flies off the top of my head. We're starting to hear these familiar science sounds and just you can see some of the debris starting to float in me that this is this is what's going to increase in severity here in the coming hours and we need to be very mindful of what's up from us, and i'm seeing this building behind me with the metal roofs. And wood palettes on the ground these are things that could become projectiles in the strongest of winds were very cognizant of that. We have the ability to get in and shelter in place if we need to. But this is the reason why officials here in franklin county enforce this mandatory evacuation of the entire county. And if you chose not to actually evacuated from this hurricane, it's now time to treat it as if it's an approaching tornado and shelter in place, kaitlan. Derek. Sorry about your hat. We can replace the hat, please stay safe as you're out there now. This extreme wind warning that we're tracking very closely. We'll continue to check in with derek, can make sure he and his crew are safe while they're on the ground. Jewels, carl is also here with me as i just mentioned, she has sheltering in place with her family and steen hatchie, florida joules. I know you wrote out the last storm pregnant last year. You have baby kai now, as you're sheltering with the rest of your family, but you hear from derek, they are saying that there is this rare extreme wind warning that is now in place exactly where you live. And they're saying basically to treat this like it's a tornado, just tell me how this is different from other storms you've seen and what you're seeing tonight funny. You mentioned it being a tornado because with us originally being from kansas, that's something we've experienced quite a bit of. And we were both originally storm chasers before moving to florida about ten years ago. So we've we've got it set up interior room in the house we got to say if place for the kids we've got a closet set up for them to be in and of course, lifejackets, just in case god forbid the water does get up to the house but we just recently got new hurricane straps and had the house re leveled and lifted above the flood levels. So we should be safe here. And of course, there's as safe as possible. Those hurricane straps are what help further secure the roof to for when they are picking up as high as they are. I mean, does it feel different tonight from what you're seeing outside? can you tell the difference from the storms that you've seen in the past and the last ten years that you've been there yet anyway, the water is still doing the same thing that basically did what the last two that we rode through granted were in a more protected spot where this house sits, were kind of behind a giant hill so we don't take the full force of the wind here at this house i was thankfully, which is presently felt like we could stay i know like with debbie, we've even got a camper out front and it wasn't even rocking at all during wwii. So it might get rough here tonight, but i don't think that it's going to we're not going to blew away, not at this house anyway. A lot of people who are watching are wondering, how do you make the decision, whether or not to evacuate or to stay? obviously, it's different for families you've got pets, you've got you're belongings and whatnot. Think about, but how do you make that decision? it's a tough one you know, it's not easy. Like you said, it's tough. You weigh a lot of different factors before you make the decision in of course, my husband and i since last monday have been going back and forth on whether we should be trying to get out of here or stay. But we feel like as big as this storm is and with at least the knowledge that we have with storms, we'd rather be in a town where we know are elevation, we know are weak points that are wind and our water and that kind of thing. And have resources and we've got friends in town as well of which. Are basically like family here, this whole town is like family so between that and our pets, and we just felt like it would be wiser to stay knowing are grounds here how is baby kai doing tonight doing great, uses sedna's bouncer, making his cooing sounds how many of your neighbors decided to stay back as well them, even ones that hadn't stayed for previous storms. And i think again, this sheer size of this thing has part of what was the deciding factor for them because most of them, even where they go, if you go inland, the wind rating on the houses and stuff is less than what it is out there on the coast, like we're at. So it's almost like if you try and go inland, you could be going to a building that's less rated for less winds, even though this thing is going to be hurricane force all the way up into georgia and joel, steen hatchie i mean, you know better than anyone else watching. It's a low lying place. And we heard from officials there early and a lot of flip plane. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of a lot of that and officials there earlier, son had a pretty scary message saying that that people who stayed behind, they said us use a permanent marker and write your name and your date of birth on your arm on your leg in case that's needed. A pretty chilling message. They didn't really have to spell it out. I just wonder how you hear something like that. The first time hearing that it was absolutely terrifying the first time i heard that was with a dahlia. And of course i was you know, 30 34 weeks pregnant at the time and so that was really terrifying knowing as heavy and big as i was, you know, it's not going to be easy to try and get away from waves or whatever what's really chilling at first, but then after making it through, i delia and seeing weak spots in town and where the the high water was in town after that, i feel more comfortable with this one jules obviously we want you to stay safe, baby kai, stay safe, everyone, the pets, everyone who is there, please keep us updated and obviously i know you said the lights were flickering earlier as the wind was picking up. So we're just hoping for all of you guys to stay safe. Thank you for joining me. Thank you and we'll continue to check in with all of our reporters. We're also going to get a live update from the national hurricane center ahead as we are expecting to hear from governor ron desantis later on this evening. The wait is over. Tim walz and j. D. Vance in their first and only facetoface debate. And cnn has covered with the best political team in the business a cnn special event that vice presidential debate, tuesday at nine on cnn ahead of your moderate to severe eczema and show off clear skin and less edge with do pixel. The number one prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergist it's that helps heal your skin from within serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection, don't change or stop asthma medicine without talking to your doctor. Ask your eczema specialist about depicts him what do you talk about? the news sports, a little family gaza, maybe now, you don't do that, right? here's another topic for you. 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That is something that is why you see so many of these evacuation orders coming from officials that we've seen throughout the day from governor desantis on down tonight, i want to bring in jamie rhome, who is the deputy director of the national hurricane center and jamie, thank you for being here. We're watching a boat rescue like the one that we just saw starting tonight. Tell us what you're seeing and what these emergency officials who may be having to go out and rescue people. What are they having to deal with right now conditions are going downhill? really, really quickly as the firewall starts to approach shoreline and move ashore over the next couple of hours. And when the eye comes ashore, you're going to get the major hurricane force winds. It's so you saw or heard you talking about earlier segment, we shoot an excessive wind warning. What that means is there is no longer safe the fleet a hurricane, you have to at that point, shelter in place and hunker down so it's just getting really tough. They are right at landfall so would that extreme wind warning that basically means if you're like joules where i was just talking with who decided to stay with her family and steen hatchie. You can't leave your home at this point? correct? it is a completely unsafe to leave your home at this point you have to start sheltering in place. So a couple of things you've got to do, you've got to protect yourself from the wind, so you've got to move to the interior of the house almost like a tornado, right? protect yourself from the wind. And if you're in the surge zone you? gotta get verdict. Right? you got to get above the storm surge. If you've got if you got a second floor of your home, you got to move up or tried to get up above the storm surge, but fleeing your home at this point is just just not safe well, and we were hearing from jewels who was saying, you know, it's a tough call to make whether to leave or to go. She was saying and that they've made preparations that they feel are good and that they have life jackets for their kids who were in the house and gazing comes to that. Is that a situation that a family like that they did decide to stay could see tonight, we're having to put there kids in life jackets because the storm surge that's never what you want to hear in this situation we hope in strive so hard here at the national hurricane center to give people the necessary information, the data ahead of time so that they can make good decisions. It was stunned to hear someone say that's they're going to put their children in life jackets what do you say to someone like that? who made a bad decision and stayed and now doesn't know what to do next. What's your message to them if they're watching right now they're just going to have to do everything possible to protect themselves for the next several hours they're not going to be able to call for help. Emergency services are not going to be able to get out into them in those conditions so they're just got to take every necessary precaution, do everything imaginable to protect themselves for the next several hours? jamie rhome, it's a scary message. Thank you. You're the deputy director of the national hurricane center. Thanks for taking the time to join us and informed us that it's really helpful. I want to go now to cnn's john berman. He's in tallahassee as we just noted tonight, john, tell us what you're seeing now that we're it's getting i mean, just even from moments ago when we last saw you, it seems noticeably different on the ground yeah, i'm not seeing much frankly because the rain is coming right to my eyes. Kaitlan, this is a very serious ban. The most powerful we've seen yes with just this whipping, whipping rain and the winds have picked up, you can see sort of the winds taking the branches of these trees are all around me and pushing him down. This is really just the beginning. I don't think the wind gusts have pushed up much higher than 45 miles per hour once the storm, once this hurricane makes landfall, about 20 miles south of here will make landfall as a category four will push up here, but they're going to get wins here. Wind gusts that are north of 100 miles per hour. So, you know, three times what we're seeing now and you can see how powerful it is already with this it is driving, driving rain, though the water pooling on the ground here and there to get so much more of this rain, six inches more over the course of this very long night, which is going to be such a problem with all these trees, these live oaks that line tallahassee. And again, they're expecting thousands and thousands of trees to come down, but we just saw this this band coming in here and this is i think unfortunately kayla just a small taste of what's to come well, john, i was listening to governor desantis earlier who was saying how worried you do have to be about trees coming down and he was saying essentially, if you're in your home and you start to hear limbs snapping, he said it almost sounds like fireworks. He was saying to treat that like a tornado by getting into the center of your house and taking those precautions because that is a lot of times the deaths that you see in a storm, injuries certainly is it a tree falls on a house after as much rain as when as you're seeing right now in tallahassee yeah. That was such a vivid description, wasn't what he was saying. Listen for the cracking of those limbs in those branches. It is such a sign of danger the jury is on the way i was here, 13 months ago when hurricane dahlia passed by, her pass through not far from here. And there really just were trees down everywhere and you saw these giant live oaks sitting on rules and limbs that had crashed through windows it's one of the dangers of living in this area they're getting this relentless series of storms that are passing through. And yes, you need if you're going to sleep tonight, you want to sleep this storm out, do it in the center of your house. You would away from the trees, do it in a place that will be saved in case one of the trees does come down and while you're sleeping and clearly, that's what you have to watch out for here. Kaylan. Yeah. I made a lot of people go to surf with their tennis shoes on because you never know what you might wake up to an a situation like this. John berman, we'll continue to check back in with you. I want to go to jane castor is the mayor of tampa. Mayor. I know you were saying earlier that tampa was already in the throes of hurricane helene, can you just tell us give us a sense of what the conditions are like there right now right well we're not seeing much rain, right now and we are still having a wind gust, but they're not as severe as they work couple of hours ago are issue right now is widespread flooding from the storm surge all of our bridges are closed our first responders have been called off of this streets and we are seeing massive flooding throughout the entire region. Were also under tornado warnings because on the bottom bands, as helene moves into the the panhandle, were getting those bottom fans that are coming around and pulling massive amounts of water into the tampa bay region. The saving grace for us right now is the fact that we only have one tie today and low tide was a couple of hours ago and it's rising very, very slowly. But we will see flooding not just this evening associated with, but all the way into tomorrow evening as well. Okay. So the low tide that is a bit of good news there, but, but how do you deal with that dual threat of of being this worried about flooding, as you said, is your main concern? but also tornado warnings having essentially a dual threat of both of those potentially coming your way right? you just deal with it as it comes. Fortunate that we aren't in the direct path of helene, but again, we are dealing with the storm surge and flooding related to that. Fortunately, the majority of our residents have either been through these types of events before or they paid attention and heeded the warnings that we gave them and went to higher ground, getting away from the storm surge again hiding from the wind and running from the water. So i would count ourselves fortunate, although there's going to be a lot of property damage, you said first responders are off the road. How long do you think that those first responders aren't going to be able to go out right now. There'll be off the road and to gusts come down to about 40, 45 miles an hour. And there'll be able to go back out. They'll respond to calls for emergencies throughout our community. We have a lot of electrical outages spread out, but the electric company was working prior to the wind gusts there off the roads. Now good to get the gods. Okay. So, so our companies are off the road. First responders are off the road, bridges, shut down obviously, a big changes to life there in tampa. Mayor. Thank you so much for joining us. An obvious so i'm pleased to hope everyone in your community stay safe tonight. Up next, we're going to get the very latest on the forecast track. We have just learned a better estimate of when hurricane helene is going i'm going to make landfall. We're also expecting to hear from florida's governor all of that ahead after a quick break the tv moments that took culture over the edge, people are watching and then our world change. He had an explosive reverberation tv on the edge sunday at nine on cnn with powerful, easy to use tools, powered etrade makes complex trading easier. Reacted fast moving markets. Gaetz with dynamic charting and to futures ladder, the lets you place, flatten or reverse orders. So you won't miss an opportunity etrade from morgan stanley hi, grandma. I played baseball well, today. Oh, that's great. What position did you play first base that's my grapple. I used to play. 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So which dad is pain? you're healthcare knows you've got your whole life ahead of you it's nice to know your free to focus on what matters which reliable medicare coverage from united health care welcome to the now way to network. They switch to junipers. Ai native network, so they can take their game tool whole new level that's the way to network at work with real ai letting you rise above it all is cnn. The world's news network news tonight as hurricane helene is about to make landfall, we are told at 11:00 p. M. Eastern tonight, we're also expecting to get an update from florida governor ron desantis on the conditions in his state. We last heard from him a few hours ago. We'll take that live, of course, when that happens right now i want to go to cnn's national correspondent, michael yoshida. He is in the coastal town of steen hatchie, florida. That is right in that big bend area that we have been looking at all night. We were just talking to someone who actually lives in steen hatchie and decided to stay and not evacuated. What can you tell us about what it's looking like on the ground there right now lynda, this point that we've really started to see those winds and rains pick up. We just lost power in this part of town just a few minutes ago. He see we brought out our lives to try and give you a sense a visual of how things are deteriorating here in steen hatchie for most of the day, we were further how do you see those buildings in the distance that's right along the steen hatchie river. And that's where all the concern is with this storm surge because that leads right out into the bay, into the golf. So as helene is making its way towards florida, and that's why officials were warning about those 50 and potentially, you know, 20 feet of storm surge, you mentioned the people so you spoke with who are staying here while we've been here the last day andahalf, we had a chance to speak with some who are considering and deciding to ride out the storm officials a few days ago put in that mandatory evacuation order and it was because of the water because of these these wins in that potential loss of power short time ago we learned still hundreds have decided to stay here in taylor county. We're seeing how she sits and just conditions quickly changing and deteriorating that's more moves closer, hundreds of people decided to stay even though there was that mandatory evacuation emergency management i met with the sheriff's office, put out a short time ago talking about for those who had decided to stay, they were requesting that if you did choose to try and ride out the storm, reach out to us with information about where you we're how many people are with you if they did need to do those those rescues once once the storm hits. So not the news that emergency management or the sheriff's office was hoping to hear. We also know earlier today, pretty sobering message from that as well, saying if you were one of those riding out the storm, they wanted to take a permanent marker. Write your name, your date of birth, other identifying information on your arm and leg? just in case things took a turn for the worst so very sobering message from them and i see you can see conditions starting to go downhill. Here. Michael is the sense that they, they can tell how many people did not evacuated when they had sent out that message. Write your name on your arm and your date of birth so we can identify you if we need to tell your family they were also saying, let us know if you didn't leave so if we do come when we can't and get out in the emergency officials can get out there. They know where to look. Essentially for sure that was that was the reasoning. So our messaging there talking about how they've started to receive those emails, those messages this is from from those people spread out across taylor county here where individuals again decided to ride out this storm. You talk about those first responders, the messaging from the sheriff's office, from emergency management was when these conditions really started to deteriorate and when he got to those 45 mile per hour or so so sustained winds, that's when they weren't going to be able to respond. So not a great situation and again, we saw the power go out maybe 510 minutes let's go as these winds have really ramped up in the last half hour or 45 minutes michael yoshida and see hatchie, florida, please stay safe and we'll check in with you. I do want to see the track of hurricane helene and where this is going. We have our meteorologist, chad myers with us. Chad, what can you just tell us what you're seeing in the weather center right now? if you can hear me, go ahead. Yeah sure we have chad's audio for a second. I do want to see where this is going as it is projected to make landfall. Obviously, it's being felt in many other areas as well. We've got mayor bow duro with me. He is the mayor of albany, georgia, and mayor this has been a question for, you community as well. Given allbody is shown along the projected path, will check in with chad myers what that looks like. What is your biggest concern right now well obviously the safety of our citizens is always our top priority we have prepared for this event. I think our citizens have been compliant with the instructions they received and we are ready. We've learned over the years that you can control what you can control, and that is being prepared for a storm event like this. And i'm convinced that we are and you've got a curfew in place. How long does that curfew go until seven in the morning and so is that your message to people? do not leave your house unless it is absolutely necessary until 7:00 in the morning. What what do you want people to hear from you tonight? well every elected official that's smoke tonight said the same thing stay at home, get in the interior of your home, remain there until it passes. And that's the instructions were providing our citizens were watching as you are the model, it appears they were projections that the eye of the storm will pass right over all benny, as did hurricane michael. But it appears now that the path is moving somewhat to re how much further to your east does it look like to you right now from what you're hearing i don't know if it's ten miles or 20 miles, but the emergency management director has explained to me that this means the intensity and speed of the winds will be lower than anticipated and that means of course, there'll probably be much less on structural damages fewer power outages. However, amount of rainfall might be more than what was anticipated when obviously that's the tricky things with these storms is maybe you think it's when the next thing it's the water that is actually going to be the biggest threat they are a standby for a moment because i do want to go to chad myers, who we've gotten his audio. Chad you were just hearing the mayor say he thinks that the storm is actually further east of albany than they were initially anticipating. What can you tell us? it is going to move right over our reporter in steen hatchie and those families that you were talking to. So kind of on the right side of the cone kind of motion right now, heading toward paying very even though you're gust is only 43, that will gust well over 100 miles per hour just in the next hour, there will be some tornadoes those tonight. All of this, every single storm here is rotating including the center of the storm itself, about to make landfall here i would say probably within the hour. Yes, we do have that high wind warning here that is just take shelter. This is not a surge, this is going to be when to like a tornado because you're going to be in the eyewall one more and more thing that he was just talking about the amount of rain that is still to come. We've had four to seven inches of rainfall already, not even associated with the hurricane over the past 24 hours across the southeast from asheville, charlotte, atlanta, heavy, heavy rainfall, part of a cold front will now we're going to push all of this tropical moisture, all of this hurricane moisture on top of it. And there is a high risk for flash flooding and even for making. I've never seen this before. Hurricane warning 150 miles inland for making. That means you're going to get hurricane force winds and higher than that for gusts even in atlanta will see gust to 75 miles per hour so far away from the coast, so far away from landfall, there are big as townsend here, valdosta, thomasville, thomas than all the way up toward make it there will be millions. I think people of customers without power i mean, one of the scariest things i think that can come out of your mouth is, i've never seen this before. Chad myers, obviously. I know you're going have a long night. Please keep us updated throughout the evening. Thank you. We'll have you standby in the weather center. Thank you all for joining us. This hour. Our breaking news coverage will continue seeing a news night with abby phillips starts now