Extremely dangerous four. It's more than 400 miles across, pushing a storm surge that officials are calling unsurvivable is now hitting florida's gulf coast as much as 20 feet of water what are forecast along the shore south of tallahassee, which itself is expected to take a direct blow. Some coastal areas already flooding. Take a look live pictures right now from gulfport in tampa on the right interstate to 70 prison biden this evening, urge anyone in the storm's path that take it extremely seriously. A lot of water there is certainly there graham gulfport, especially emergency managers and florida's taylor county are telling people choosing to stay and there are people choosing to stay to write her name and date of birth on a leg to help identify their bodies. Storm warnings are now in effect as far north as charlotte, north carolina. We've got cnn correspondents all along the places now harm's way in chad myers in the cnn weather center, let's start with cnn meteorologist derek van dam, who is an apalachicola. What are you seeing there the conditions as one would expect, have gone down exponentially quick here, an apalachicola near the big bend of florida, we're going to remain on the west side of the eye of the storm. We know that as of course the most powerful, but because of the size of the storm, there's no doubt that we will feel extreme impacts here where we're standing and points further east as well the storm, the bottom is literally dropping out from itself it is strengthening and it is expanding in size as it does. So we were looking at some of the wind radiuses. So how far out the tropical storm force winds extend over 400 miles in amateur the hurricane force winds extend over 100 miles. So it's like having a tornado moved through once the strongest part of the storm comes ashore move through 100 mile wide space. That's the kind of ferocity that this storm is going to come in with. The catastrophic winds that we are anticipating with it. Now, the big bend this catcher's mitt of florida is so vulnerable to the storm surge. So all of that water is going to be pushed up on shore and the worded from the national weather service of unsurvivable storm surge values. Well, that's what 20 feet will do. That is the size of two stories high. In fact, we're on the second can floor of this building here. That would just not be a survivable storm surge. Fortunately for us on the west side, the winds will be coming offshore, so maybe just maybe that will help limit the storm surge potential here. Now, i'm trying to put it into perspective for our viewers, anderson, what it's like to ride out and approaching in category four hurricane that's strengthening and we've get these all too familiar hurricane sounds, almost the roar of a train approaching the area. We get pelted with the strong wind gusts that feels like someone is taking a pressure washer to your face but then of course there's the flickering lights. I cannot believe believe we still have electricity. But in our safe space that we have here and are our airbnb that we rented in apalachicola, we're feeling the brunt of the storm and it's becoming difficult to even open the doors so that just gives you an idea of what people here are going to have to deal with tonight. The flash flood potential his considerable the chance of water sports, waterspouts and tornadoes is real. The storm surge threat is palpable and of course it doesn't just stop at the coast. We know how fast the storm is moving, and that means it's going to bring the hurricane force winds inland at pace overnight. Unfortunately, it's really the sun has set so people have to endure these terrible conditions in the dark of night. Anderson, dark? of checking with you throughout this hour. I want to go a little further south. Cnn's carlos suarez, who's been dodging high waters and joins us now by phone, carlos, where are you and what are you seeing? yeah, anderson. So we are right now in st. Petersburg. We began the day a little bit about 15:20 minutes to the south and the west of cp, we were in gulfport. That is a part of a city in pinellas county that's really is known to flood and we began the day they're having covered two other hurricanes the last couple of years where we knew that that specific neighborhood because it's a lowlying area, was going to flood of a problem that we ran into. Is that around 23, 4:00 this afternoon as that we became unsafe for us to stay there, and so we decided to move a few blocks north where the water hadn't reached just yet, but then our team and meteorologists told us, look at this point because the storm is still to the west of you and it still has to track north. And because of the sheer size of it, you're probably going to get another four feet of snow storm surge. So you really need to get out of there. So we left gulf port and we're going to try to get back over into tampa in hillsborough county because that area is a little bit more inland, although that there's also under a mandatory evacuation, at least some parts along the bay however, all of the bridges at currently connect pinellas county to the tampa area have been closed because of the strong winds and some of the flooding. There's one bridge that takes you south into braiding tin that also closed earlier this afternoon. And so if you're in pinellas county and you didn't evacuate, chances are you're pretty much stuck at home, right? now because you cannot get inland. And so we're in the process right now of trying to find a safe location that we can go live from. But as you've covered many of hurricanes, you know, that's not as easy of a task considering how these storms can change. And more importantly, just the direction of the floods. Carlos suarez, i will check in with you again. The national hurricane center, justin to put out a new bulletin of the the language is sobering for that was going to chad myers and the cnn weather center attempt the first one, what is the latest on this per hour? it did ramp up a little bit over the past couple of hours, but it did not go up between 7:00 and 8:00 p. M. Now, normally, anderson, we get these updates every six hours and a new to track and all that. But when a storm gets very close to hurricane center doesn't every single hour. So here's what we see. Here's what we see, here's what the hurricane hunter just found. So we're now, we're ramped up to 130. That is the bottom end of a category for but it is a major hurricane and it has arms all the way into central florida, going to go all the way with a hurricane warning to macon, georgia it would take three hours from drive to drive there from apalachicola to macon. And that's how long this is going to have hurricane force winds where's it the worst right now? likely from from newport ritchie and around clearwater all the way up to hudson in florida. Anytime you get one of these bands and anderson, you know it well, inbetween the band's the wind kind of dies off when you get one of these heavier bands, the outer bands, then the winds pick up. So i'm thinking probably on land we're probably seeing 70 to 75 miles per hour as the max wind right now but the storm isn't close to shore yet, and it won't get close to shore for another, let's say, three or four hours, the closer it gets, the more winds will go up and likely will have winds around perry perry, florida around 115 miles per hour for august, without a doubt, we are going to see a lot of rainfall. It's already been raining, flash flood warnings are already in effect. Here is the hurricane warning. There's atlanta and make and you can look at a map, how far it is from way down here it's going to be landfalling and that's how long it's going to take. Two cycle down there. We hope he always say, hey, it's going to hit land, it's going to die. This thing is moving so quickly when it hits land, it isn't going to die. It's just going to keep right on going. And that's what's causing a lot of this surge as well. And derek will get surge in apalachicola st. Marks. Absolutely. Cedar key without how would a doubt and all the way along this little hook area through here that's 15 to 20 feet. That's the that's what that's talking about. The unsurvivable city that's why if you're six feet tall and you got to waive or water over you another 14 feet above you you're not going to survive that. So why they're talking like that. And what time is it expected to make actual landfall? and and like, where do you think it will make landfall i think it will make landfall very close to st. Marks. The good news about this area is from about apalachicola and then just points a little bit farther to these all the way down to about hudson. There's just a lot of natural land there kind of manga grove areas and not a lot of beach area. If you go to the beach shadow, i'm sorry. It'll beach they're just going to talk to about these pictures from out of tampa, florida. I mean these are people driving on the highway though the water i mean, it's just pouring over on to that highway. These are incredible images is this live? i don't think so. This is video, this is from earlier. Well, this was still horrible to be doing something like this. They got caught where they thought they were going to get over this bridge or this causeway in time and they did not. That is well, not one not good for your life and certainly not good for your car driving through these are live images also tampa, i'm not sure which all road this on. I'll try to find out, but its eye to on the way to skyway. Yeah. So the water obviously coming over the top of that? no. No cars have it on this now for quite a few hours, it was shut down as soon as the wind got to 60 miles per hour, they said, you're done nobody over the top of that bridge anymore so i'm sorry. I'm sorry. I interrupted helene is expected to break records in some areas, right? oh, without a doubt, there will be more trees and power lines down in tallahassee in valdosta in lake city than they have ever seen before without from thomason. All thomason all the way down even to about savannah, probably more power outages from a gulf landing storm, then an atlantic lane ending storm because the winds and savannah tybee all the way down to jekyll island, your wins off that ocean are going to be at 85. It's a big storm. This is this is tropical storm from south carolina to south of tampa. That's what we're seeing in about two or three hours as this storm continues to move to the north a large area and you're going to have to be very patient. There will be so many millions of power lines down. And customers without power. This is going to take a long time because you can't just put 5,000 crew in one city, you have to try to spread them out. There's so many people are going to be without power, right? chad, we're going to check in dan with you also throughout this hour we're going to coastal while cola the county could get up to 20 feet of storm surge and we'll color ralph thomas is a county commissioner and he joins us now, mr. Thomas, thanks for taking the time. Your county is set to take a direct hit, i think from the storm, what are you experiencing right now? well, we're we're about 60 miles north apalachicola, so we're not seeing being quite as much wind as the reporter earlier. We are seeing an increase in the rivers and the coastal areas. We do have some roads that are underwater already. And so that's that's being breached and that's rising we expect that to continue to rise. What color county off off the coast and the gulf is very shallow compared to a lot of the other golf. And so you can see we're already in the bin, so there's nowhere for that water to go. And now we're pushing it into a shallow area and so definitely the surge is our biggest concern. I mean, residents in your area were warned that the surge could be unsurvivable? that was the word that was used there. There was a countywide mandatory evacuation obviously, nobody is forcing people out of their homes. Do you think most people heeded the evacuation order? most most did. I've never ever seen a countywide evacuation. We frequently will do the coastal areas, but we definitely put out a push to that and i think people he did it better than normal. A lot of folks become complacent and we've all written out storms and said we think we can do that. But this there's not the same storm. This is not anything like we've ever seen. Yeah i mean, that's always the problem is storms changed directions. There can be a slight turn, makes all the difference. And so in the past, people will warn, oh, this is really bad and then they ride it out and then the next time they think, well, i did it last time, so i can do at this time well, we tried to quantify exactly what 20 feet means. If you tell someone as 20 feet high at the beach, they think, well, i'm just not going to go to the beach, but in local the county, the models show us that 20 feet storm surge will push water 2020 miles from the coast and possibly in the south leon and county into, tallahassee to the north. And so that's a big deal that is only 20 miles from the coast absolutely hopefully that does not happen. And hopefully we are spared that. But under the right circumstances, it's not going to be good the gentleman mentioned saint marks. My house is five miles due north of st. Marks. I've never had a drop of water anywhere in my house, but i'm afraid that that may end tonight. As this approaches what are you going to be looking for? like what's top of your list? i mean, you're looking at the storm surge that's number one in the in the big bend region it is mainly first of all, the wind speed when the wind gets up to 35 miles per hour, we're going to shut down all first responders. And so you could have a heart attack, you could have a simple medical need and we can't come get you. We can't do anything that's what we're going to monitor is when we can safely get our people off the roads and then then get them back as quickly as we can. Soon as that wind speed gets back below 35, we're going to have road crews out there. We're going to have chainsaws and equipment. We're going to have our first responders. We're gonna go back and revisit these people that we know for sure did not evacuate. We sent teams out three different times, at least today, knocking door to door, speaking with people face to face, and encouraging them to leave and take him their information and so that will be an initial search and rescue as soon as this clears, we're gonna go back to those folks and hopefully not find a bad situation. We're showing some pictures of first responders in the county jazzing ready. So you have folks are ready to go. Obviously, they can't go out and some conditions, but as soon as conditions allow, they're going to go out and it seems like you've got to good amount of people there absolutely. That's that's the true heroes in this story because they sent their families away, their family had evacuated an