from reaching the east coast. lisa: radar showing the powerful category 2 storm that s expected to unleash 110 mile-per-hour winds and storm surges up to 13 feet high. pete: the cajun navy, my second favorite navy a volunteer group now sending more than 1,000 people to the carolinas and virginia to help. steve: janice dean is tracking florence s path and yanice, it is such a wide storm. janice: yep. steve: this is going to pump a lot of atlantic ocean water into the carolinas. janice: right. when the storm makes landfall, which we think it will do so friday, it s going to stall for, perhaps, 24 to 48 hours. so that s why we are predicting 20 to 40 inches of rainfall. and this is a very big storm. so, tropical storm force winds 40 miles wide and that s what we are talking about in terms of wind. so a prolonged wind event. a prolonged surge event. a prolonged rain event. new advisory coming out at
that was one of the big things of course that draws people to the french quarter. there s been very light rain, ana, as our meteorologist was mentioning moments ago. it almost feels like new orleans is completely missing this hurricane, which would be great news. but of course this city prepared heavily for it, recommending that people secure their patio furniture, clear their catch basins, move their cars to higher ground, to the median because here in new orleans that is higher ground. and asking people to secure food and water and supplies for at least three days. this city is expecting not only a wind event but also a surge event. i know we talk about storm surge all the time when we talk about hurricanes but there are so many low-lying areas in south louisiana along the gulf coast.
there are many sights, sounds and smells that you experience here. we re not experiencing any of that right now because as you mentioned, that curfew expected to kick in in about an hour and the mayor of this city, mayor mitch landrue, asking them not to panic but to prepare, saying and advising that this could be our rain event, a wind event and also a surge event. now, what you re seeing is probably a wedding. we have seen many of those today here in new orleans, but i want to show you around a bit because you will see the signs that people are heeding the warning. i m standing on the sidewalk by a cafe closed. the businesses around me are closed as well. you can see from the iconic new orleans balcony that don t have any patio furniture, that s another recommendation. remove the patio furniture so it doesn t become flying debris.
is critical to forecasting the path of the storm. i could talk to you for hours about this. just fascinating in terms of scientific perspective. appreciate your time. stay safe up there. well, yeah, i just do want to emphasize to your audience. don t pay too much attention to whether it s a category 1 or category 2 storm. this storm is generating a very large wind field. the wave height at buoys south of new orleans are very, very high. and all that energy is going to hit the coast and so you re looking at storm surges of up to nine feet in mobile bay. and along the mississippi and alabama coast. and up to six feet all the way east to okaloosa island in the florida panhandle. that s a very significant surge event. people who live in the barrier islands really need to pay
event. this is a wind and also the surge event for you, and i believe the eye is going to be very, very close to the marathon airport, key colony beach. just south of grassy key and duck key, and that s going to push the water north of there to surge, key largo, islamorada and points northward. push all the water eventually over make surprise into key biscayne. that s when you flood downtown miami and looks like six feet of water will do a lot of damage in that town which is at sea level. yes. certainly will. chad, stand by. west palm beach, florida, certainly one. areas under mandatory evacuation now. just under 1.5 million people live in the county. and brian todd, cnn, is on the scene. in west palm beach across the water over there from palm beach. how is the evacuation process going? reporter: well, wolf, a complicated process, and very anxious process.