it is just shy of that now. we won t get ahead of the news on this. we are expecting an official storm update at any moment. i m harris faulkner and you are in the faulkner focus. hurricane ian is now carrying sustained kinds of 155 miles per hour. if they gain to 157 it s a category 5. the biggest threats facing floridians are massive storm surge, raging winds, inland flooding, tornadoes, experts already using words like catastrophic to describe hurricane ian s potential. 21/2 million people are under evacuation orders. for those people in the storm s path directly, that swath that i just told you to the south, cape coral and to the north sarasota. it s too late to evacuate if you re still there according to the governor. governor desantis also saying it is time just to hunker down for you. he spoke last hour. this amount of storm surge. it will have very ferocious winds and it will be life threatening. people are taking a risk with their health, safety and lives by bein
passed. it will be dark out not just because of the loss of utilities but also just the lateness of the hour. you brought something into the conversation we haven t been talking about. those are the recent storms you have already had and how much standing water you have and how inundated your area already is. with just a few seconds left, tell me about that. we went through hurricane ir ma a few years ago. it was dry in southwest florida at that time. the back side of hurricane ir ma. broke down. this continues backside strength. that s what s important. the backside strength is what brings the storm surge and our concern is there right now. we want to make sure the water gets out of the areas as quickly as possible and people please stay safe. harris: blessing to you and the people of all of florida. thanks for being with me this hour. our coverage continues after the our coverage continues after the
in supplies. we re co- locating the closures and hours of these and other business essential and retailers on our map available at deo s webpage. florida disaster .biz/business open close status. many starts have dedicated pages on their web sights to find their stories specific information including publix and wal-mart. dana: you have had a thorough update from governor desantis and his team on the ground. we want to bring in florida senator rick scott. the former governor who led the state through hurricane ir ma in 2017. i m sure you know very well what all they are going through and your assessment of what your state is doing. florida is ready for hurricanes. we have great local emergency management teams and great first responders, sheriffs, police
0 do on normal types of storms. and then having major structural damage to the underlying electrical infra structure. when you have a category 5 storm hitting potentially and massive storm surge, that is going to interrupt, most likely, a lot of the underlying infra structure. when fpl and other companies are going in, some of those tasks are going to be you ll have to rebuild some of this stuff. so the folks in those affected areas should just understand that if it s as simple as simply just hooking up a few more power lines that s what they will do. in those areas that will have the most severe impact it will likely require to have some reengineering, to have some structural fixes and that will require manpower but it is going to take a little more time. so people understand, fpl understands how significant and important this is to get the services back up and running. but we also understand the severity of this storm and the really, really catastrophic damage it can inflict on the
hopefully everyone is saying safe. the debris flying around and the storm surge is what is really dangerous. i have miami beach city commissioner, ricky arioli. they called in the fact, i saw her camera focused on a homeless person in front of the tgif. that is an issue. how have you get with that? we have, for the past week been out there actively with our homeless outreach department making sure they have shelter and will be cared for during hurricane ir ma and i would say the vast majority of them cooperated and are in shelters. unfortunately there might be some out there who for whatever reason declined our offer for