Hurricane helene continues right now our viewers in the united states and All Around The World for our special coverage of Hurricane Helene. Im michael holmes. Thanks for being with us tonight. Now, Hurricane Helene is the strongest storm ever to make landfall. Full in floridas Big Bend, sweeping across those less than two hours ago as an extremely dangerous category four with winds of 140 miles an hour. The national Weather Service describing it as unsurvivable up to 20 feet of Storm Surge expected in some areas. There have been at least two deaths reported in georgia and one in florida we have had a report of a fatality on the roadway. Car driving on i94 near Ybor City in tampa was hit when a sign fell onto onto the highway. So that just shows you that its very dangerous conditions out there. We are going to see downed Power Lines. Those are very hazardous as well, please do not mess with any down Power Lines in and around your home or anywhere. You may come in contact with them now. The storm has knocked out power to more than 1 Million homes and businesses in florida, rescues to around the way and officials in one county told people who didnt evacuate to write their Name And Birth date on their Arm Or Leg to be identified if needed later. Severe flooding has reported up and down floridas west coast, far away from where the storm made landfall beyond florida, georgia, tennessee, and the carolinas. Now, bracing for helenes impact, the Deputy Director of the national Hurricane Center says, this will likely be a historic Inland Flooding Ben and warned that a lot of people might not make it through the night people have got to be ready to Take Care of themselves, Take Care of themselves for several days without power. Somehow we got to get people to realize that these arent just to interesting phenomenon, theyre very, very deadly, especially with this setup that we talked about with his preexisting rainfall. Were probably going to lose a lot of lives in this setup with this much flooding potential Chad Myers joins us now to bring us the very latest, wheres the lane . Where is she headed . What are you saying . Its valdosta, georgia. And what is special about valdosta . It is at right on the middle of an interstate, a northsouth interstate where truckers roads are veers, all dry up and down northsouth from Florida All The Way up to michigan. I hope No One is on the roadway right now because the winds are still 110 miles per hour, 17180 kilometers per hour right now, down to a category two michael from where it was, which was a category four. And we are still seeing those gusts now somewhere around 90 to 100 miles per hour around perry, we still have tornado watches in effect, which means a tornado could form overnight if you live in any of these red areas, make sure you have your phone on, that. It will alarm you whether theres a tornado in eurozone. Now, these are not big tornadoes, these are not these things you see on movies, but theres still enough if youd hit your house, it would do some damage. Here is the rainfall that you talked about, how much rainfall is coming down here with this rain this is a front that kind of stopped in the Appalachian Mountains right here over the last couple of days and it rained a little bit. But now, now this moisture from the hurricane is just feeding into that front and it is raining it is just not going to stop. We are going to see likely 200 millimeters, eight inches of rainfall in some spots that is going to be a big deal on top of ground that it has been raining on for 48 hours already. So every Little Red spot you see here, theres Flash Flood Warnings are going on heres the saltwater flood. My goal. Heres what were really concerned about, because the Water Levels are still going up even though the storm is in georgia, the winds are out of the west blowing this water onto this, call it shore. I want to call it land the good news if theres any good news about where this landed, is that its a national seashore area, not really a populated area, not like tampa or miami. It landed in where we see trees, shrubs, bushes, animals, plants. So if Theres Anything good about this, thats it. But if youre caught in a 20 foot six Meter Salt but water flood, its going to be a long night all right. Chad, thanks so much. Well check in later. Chad myers there with the very latest on helene. Now, before helene made landfall Tallahassees Mayor told cnn, this could be the most powerful storm ever to hit floridas capital. He said his mind im concerned Power Outages, structural damage. And of course down trees. Cnns Ivan Rodriguez is live in tallahassee, florida year youve been out there for hours now, what what is the situation there now . What have you been saying . Well, michael, it really feels like in the last 30 minutes, maybe even less than that. Weve started feeling a lot stronger rain and wind. And thats interesting because weve now really arent close to that. All we know that eyewall was east of where tallahassee is, especially where we are here in downtown tallahassee, but maybe that back those back bands, Outer Bands coming back again, giving us a little bit more of that heavy rain fall, a little bit stronger winds here where i am here elevated a bit of a hilltop area, get a great Backer Background of the city here, of tallahassee still see some areas for years with power that are on here where i am just on this Street Couple of minutes ago, these Street Lights went all out a couple of minutes later, we saw them come back gone, but its sort of been like that throughout the evening now, its been a lot calmer earlier now its getting a little bit stronger. And you mentioned that the mayor mentioned that as well. The big threat that they were facing also was the when and how strong that was going to be if we were going to see trees toppled over Power Lines down and then the whole mess that it was going to make to then try and get Power Restoration back on because we know they cant start doing that until they clear all of these roadways. And then those crews are able to safely start that Power Restoration process . Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. More than 1 Million people without power in florida alone, there have been deaths reported. I know theres not Storm Surge where you are, but there are increasing reports of that being an impact as well. Yeah, im more than 1 Million customers without power in the state of florida and he when we go down into Leon County, where we are here in tallahassee, theres about 130,000 customers without power, which doesnt seem like a lot michael. But when you put it into perspective in this county, theres only about 300,000 people who live here. So youre almost looking at half of the population here in the county without power. Its going to be a big emphasis going into tomorrow. Now you mentioned debts. We heard from governor ron desantis, who confirmed one death in the Tampa Area from a person who was driving a car on interstate four. He says after a sign fell on that car for killing the driver, we also are learning of two deaths in georgia, also related to Hurricane Helene. But because of a tornado and that happened about 75 miles south of macon, georgia, which is now in that trajectory of Hurricane Helene alright. Ivan rodriguez in tallahassee, florida. Appreciate the reporting there, ivan. Thanks and joining me now is Vincent Long, the administrator of Leon County in florida . He oversees part of the socalled Panhandle Region that includes the state capital, tallahassee, and seeing some major universities as well. Thanks for taking time out. By crazy busy night. You i was reading before i came on air and local town of Tallahassee Newspaper which wrote that helene is, is quote, a storm Whos Fury has never been seen in this area whats it like where you are now . How the last few hours being well, thanks for having me, michael. Yeah. We would certainly grip a lot of experience with with storms here since 2016, we have had we felt the impact of five hurricanes here in our community. Helene would be number six and is number six as you reported, just within a couple of hours, helene made landfall here just about 30 miles east of us as a cat four. So certainly that is never happened here before and were riding it out. Now, that its that its nighttime and the winds are expected its good to continue for the next couple of hours and we truly wont know the extent of the damages in our community until first light when we have an opportunity to do our damage assessments. And to respond to the needs of our community and to begin the work, the hard work of getting our community back together. But we know that even when the winds do begin to die down, that were not Out Of The Woods where we ask our citizens to be as vigilant as ever in especially when navigating around the community with downed trees and downed Power Lines, as you mentioned and certainly again, we asked them to exercise extreme caution in those cases. Its going to take some time to get our community back up and shape, but i can assure them that the County Government is going to be working with the city, working with the state, working with our local partners to get the community back up as quickly and as safely as possible. Yeah. As you said, you no stranger to big storms . What do you expect to see when The Sun comes up . What do you fear . You might say how bad could it be well we expect to see what we have been saying now for a few days to our community and advising our citizens that we expect thousands of trees down, we expect hundreds of roads to be blocked and we expect prolonged Power Outages and again, so those are those are real issues that were going to face. It takes a enormous manpower to clear roads and to get Power Lines restored and so again, we just asked the community to have patients with us. We know that we will be responding to emergencies. We may very well be responding to critical infrastructure failures and so getting back to the conveniences that we all enjoyed pre storm, its going want to take some time, but well get to get there as a community and really we look forward to having that happen just as soon as we possibly can and importantly to as just as soon as we can begin to help our neighbors too, are east and even to our north. As youve been reporting, yeah. Yeah you mentioned power and things like that. Florida now up to more than 1 Million customers without power youre a seasoned administrator. Ive been dealing with the hurricane itself is one thing. How will prepared is the steak to deal with the aftermath that that damage done and the recovery well, i cant say enough about the coordination that we have enjoyed with our state. While under the leadership of our governor. And with our municipal Utility Provider the resources that they have brought to the community are extensive, not not everybody realizes that those contracts are in place. Those mutual aid agreements are in place all year long. And so when a disaster strikes those resources can be made available very quickly. The work still takes time, but those those, those contracts are in place again so that we can effectuate that just as soon as, as soon as It Safe to do so. Yeah. Yeah. I think its pretty well organized. I mean, i when it comes to the people and the people of most important things in these situations, do you think people took the warnings seriously enough early enough . Well, i think weve got some indications here that they that they certainly have. We have about 1,600 people shelter tonight and about well, in 09 shelters that we opened throughout the community and so weve weve heard that weve we know that we had a large number of people evacuated from the community who perhaps felt like the homes that they were living and whether it was a manufactured home or mobile homes, whether they were not safe enough to withstand a storm like this so again, weve received a lot of good feedback. We havent received the number of emergency calls that perhaps might have otherwise, if people didnt do. As we advise them to do and as, as theyre prepared to do, which is to effectuate those those family plans early and we certainly hope they did so and again, will truly understand the impact to our community and what the needs of our citizens are at first light as i a busy night for you, but youre a seasoned administrator all the best and good luck with that Vincent Long in tallahassee, florida. Appreciate you making the time all right well in. Steinhatchee, florida, Joules Call is hunkering down with her husband three kids, and their pets, and shes done this before while pregnant joules college, joining me now jewels you were On Cnn earlier. I watched that interview was a few hours ago. One of conditions been like in the last few hours since then now to be honest, as far as the wind and the rain goes, its pretty wild died off with can get some pretty heavy guests right now, the major concern is that we are definitely having flooding. This town is seeing more flooding than its ever seen. Its about halfway up the pillars on our House And Weve heard reports around town of people needing rescue that theyre in chest height water. Some of our friends so its not its not looking so good here. Yeah. You were moment, but not everybody is. Yeah. Yeah. You you were a Storm Chaser. You and your husband . I think youve experienced that tornadoes when you lived in kansas, you gone through several hurricanes since moving to florida compare what youve seen in the past with this and what youre going through is undoubtedly the worst ive seen either tornadoes or hurricane just the sheer amount of water that is pouring into this town its unlike anything weve ever seen, anything. Even we had Record Flood i think like 56 years ago. And its well past that. Well i think even past storm of the century back in 93 but its the worst ive seen yeah. Way you are steen hatchie. It is a flood floodplain. It is susceptible to flooding did you think about leaving do you do you now wish that you had rather than dont i still feel like having known, you know, my my elevation in my house i still feel like were probably safe for a lot of people, especially like i was saying On Cnn earlier tonight, not knowing if further inland houses are built to withstand kinds of wind that they are around the coast. As far as that goes, i think were a lot safer than that. Its just the water that coming in but i dont think that its going to reach inside our house. Its already just slowed down a little bit. And of course, the hurricanes almost passed as at that point. Yeah. Yeah. And i dont want to point out to you and also our view as it is now a category two hurricane officially now that it is crossed onto land its still significant and dangerous, just theyre link people know that you wrote out hurricane idalias while you were 34 weeks pregnant last year. And now that Baby Kai is with you for another one house he and the kids doing what what are they doing . That was doing pretty good right now theyre all just kind of hunkered down and weve got them in the closet. So there an interior room, just like you would with the Tornado Theyll Kind of sitting here with daddy plan, plan around and he got a little bit asleep, but its definitely not sleeping super well tonight just quickly, if i may, when i saw you on a few hours ago, you were a lot more chill that you sound now, you more worried than you were a few hours ago . Im not as worried as i am part sick especially on that ive Got Friends out there that are that are currently underwater and needing help its just its hard to read comments from people saying, hey, on water, plan on on helping her neighbors because were spent her house sdk you read that kind of thing and theres nothing you can do its just heartbreaking. Yeah. First school nurse. Are you worried . Its kind of rise higher when it comes house . No not so much weve still got id say three or four more seeks the before its actually into our house. Its more my concern of her over the very lower than us. Yeah. Yeah. Close knit community. I know Jewels Colin in steen steinhatchee, florida appreciate it. Good luck and well hopefully talk to you when The Suns up and things are looking a bit better right. Sounds good. Thank you all right. Well, please stay with us. Our Breaking News Coverage of the monster hurricane. Helene continues right after the break well also have a report from asheville, North Carolina where residents are fleeing their homes in expectation of what could be historic flooding in the area. Youre watching cnn newsroom, well be right back. 20 seconds a week to lose 20 of your weight in a year with Diet And Exercise thats the power of glpones through Row Connect with the Provider Today at row. 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