We want to extends a special welcome to our Fox News viewers. Im meteorologist are arti from our studios here in new York City and weve been covering helene over the last several hours over the last several days. This has been an extremely well forecast storm, before it even formed down in the western caribbean. It looked like something like this was going to happen, so again, we still have technically a Hurricane Storm and Hurricane Center will probably see it downgraded slowly throughout the night, but one unique thing about helene, this particular storm is that it was very large, right . So large storms take a longer time to lose their strength as they move inland so you look up here to the north. Not only do we have a long Wind Damage to get, were going to see some hikely catastrophic rain, and i want to bring Ian Oliver. He started out in st. Petersburg beach and hes now made the trek over to tampa, so kind of on the other side of town, and ian, whether you started on the of other side of the beach, it gradually disappeared throughout the day. Yeah. And i think thE Water is still rising, right . Shortly after Midnight Gevening to you, and gooD Evening to our viewers on Fox News and Fox Weather Channel and lets move to our local television station. This has been a brutal day, a historic one, going across let history of record which goes back to the mid70s and the great hurricane of 1921 that cut johns pass over on Pinellas County and moved on to Tar Opinion springs and thats tarpin springs. The Winds Arent closed to whether a we experienceD Earlier today on st. Pete beach, but theyre still formidable. Its less about the intensity, ari and less about the direction of this wind, which is pushing more and morE Water into Tampa Bay. Were actually close to the overhang and this is the Tampa Museum of art. And in front of me, and if you live in Tampa Bay, if youve been down this way, this is where they host just abouT Everything for big events in tampa, when the superbowl was here, they had the Superbowl Village at This One, and this is where they had all the big events and its this slope that goes all The Way down to the Hillsborough River bits and hanging over here, because our equipment has had a longer day than weve had, but i want the ooh show you if you can see this. We started the Day Today yes, i was out in st. A petes Beach And Michael was right down on the river walk, one of tampas treasures. I think it was about 15 years back, 10,15 years back they put that in and it runs miles all The Way down to the Convention Center and at the Hillsborough Bay, and you can see the minor lit up behind them but theres one line just beyond where they had the restroom there and the concessions, thats the railing of the river walk, which is probably three and a half, four feet high, and then typically it drops off another two or three feet to actually get down to the Hillsborough River. So, yeah, this is a Record Surge, not just that all these officials gajsses that we have going back to the mid70s, but for the Hillsborough River, clearly coming up makes it all The Way to the bottom and then probably at least half a way back and you can see the park ill Lool Minute aided, and downtown illuminated, and Downtown Tampa. This is the shot of Downtown Tampa, and i was lucky to call myself a Tampa Resident for half a dozen years. Ever in seen anything like. This i dont think anybody going back to let great hurricane of 19dbe to the great hurricane of 1921 has ever seen anything like. This its been a historic and terrible day. Im not sure, based on what weve seen, the Power Flashes, billboards are shredded, multiple communities, as we were making our way around Tampa Bay flooded that We Saw. I dont have numbers on rescues or the amounts of homes that have been flooded. Its got to be up into the hundreds, thousands im not sure yet. Well get those official numbers tomorrow. I dont think itll be until Daylight Tomorrow Morning that we actually know on the full day of this. You said it we had about 50,60 yards of beach whether we got there. Two hours later, we were back into the do not as st. Pete beach was completely overtaken by the Gulf Of Mexico and then it got scary from there from water, and we got over the byway, the causeway that takes you into pinellas, all of the Tampa Bay bridges are all closed. Its very difficult and very dangerous moving around in this area, so if you can i know pinellas had the shelter in place order, a stay home, Stay Safe. Were almost to High Tide, and the storm is racing further up to the north. So then well see those levels come down through the rest of the hours but ari, again, this has just been an awful, awful event for Tampa Bay and this is just part of the story. This is the first phase of what we knew would be a multiday, multihazard threat. Yes, its been an unbelievable day, and the crazy thing is that the Tampa Bay area was, un, 150 miles away or so from where the center of where the Storm Made Landfall. Made landfall up in the Big Bend and were also going to go right up there, a little bit closer to where we made landfall. Let me ask you one more question here, ian again, with you being so far away from the center of it, i know this is in the forecast. Is It Still weird to experience that, knowing that the Eye Wall is so far about away; yet, you still have surge thats this bad. What a winfield on this thing, right . When we were on st. Pete beach, we measured it, about 85,90 miles off the Pinellas County coastline and we knew that the tropical storm winds extended this is more like the size of irma. We had tropical storm winds that are well off over 50 mileperhour and the Hurricane Force made it to the coast and were on st. Pete beach. Albert wooded airport, which is on the Bay Side of Pinellas County, gusted to 82 mileperhour. So that was a full Hurricane Gust that occurred in downtown st. Pete, and we felt every bit of that on the beach. It was probably just a touch higher. That was when we knew we had to get out of there and thE Water started to come out quick at that period of time, the storm is off to our side. It was south of due west, as it was moving in the eastern Gulf Of Mexico, so the wind was blowing more or less parallel to the beach and it wasnt generating that surge until it turned as the storm got north, Wind Direction was perpendicular and that surge came up fast with awful results across the area. Great fast from Fox Weather. Ian oliver who is in Downtown Tampa. Another person that we have in Downturn Tampa is Fox Weathers Brandy Campbell. So brandy, you know, how do things progress right now obviously, its not every day you seE Water in Downtown Tampa. This is obviously a very historic storm. Obviously its pretty late. Anybody out . You know whether a, were not seeing a lot of folks out. We were seeing a lot of people coming to take a look at things. That seemed to have slowed down, especially whether youre seeing scenes like this, this is a block that is completely flooded. The last time i checked with the presentation, they said the Storm Surge is about six feet. Thats where the weather is ending and its continuing to go up i need somE Water. No problem, brandy. Youve been talking pretty much nonstop for the last couple of days, and look at the scene out there, it really is something else. I mean that is just a Sight And Weve got a couple of storms in recent history where initially the forecast was for the storm to come to Tampa Bay and it made a little bit of a turn towards the east and the south. This is where this Storm Made Landfall by The Way. Youre good now, brandy . Reporter ian is about 50 feet from where im standing and if you go Cross Street To cross street, youll see that they are flooded, the war just continuing to rise. You can look at my feet and you can see a lot of bark probably from a Garden Somewhere thats been kind of that Line Showing where thE Water is, and it continuing to go up. Theres a Police Officer if we can show him right behind us he keeps having to move his car. To make sure that his Car Isnt now in the flooded area of this road. We also have video from earlier. This is about an hour and a half or so, cars trying to make it through this. There was a Red Truck or so. They made it through thE Water and got on top of The Bridge and saw how flooded it was on the West Side of tampa. It was about half a mile of, you know, roadway that was flooded on the other side, so they decided to turn around, come back, and theynt up getting stuck on their pass here. They pushed the car out and gotten it towed somehow but those are kind of the hazards that people are dealing with at this point. Before The Sun well, we were there past sunset, really that was completely flooded i can imagine the situation is probably getting really bad. I mean, we have some barricades there, and some knocked over, and some floated or knocked over to this point. And also before you guys came to us, we had a van that came through with some pretty gusty wind in this area so showing were not done with this storm. Were still getting beat up Just A Little Bit. Obviously nothing will i be in the big Bend Region but to say that were so far from that storm its still very impressive that were seeing this historic flooding. Back to you. Thats Fox News Brandy Campbell. And yeah, the High Tide is 1 42 am so thE Water may still go up as we approach next hour or two, so yeah, its been a crazy day in Tampa Bay. Thats for sure. Stay with us, Hurricane Helene as a category four hurricane made landfall in florida about one hour or more, about 11 10 Eastern Time anD Even catastrophic storm and youre looking at a camera that was set out to record Storm Surge. And as the waves go down, if you look on the righthand side of thE Screen, you can see houses that are completely almost completely covered up with water absolutely devastating Storm Surge happening in places like cedar ridge, which is about four feet, which is much higher than it was in dalia. Were going to continue to track helene for the rest of the evening, nonstop 247, Fox Weather always on, always free. woman look i got the new Iphone 16 Pro at verizon. Apple intelligence is pretty awesome. man nice. woman you can get it when you trade in any phone. man whoa, whoa, whoa vo now, every phone can be the new Iphone 16 Pro at verizon. Just trade in any phone in any condition and get the Iphone 16 Pro, on us. Only on verizon. Take my word for it, take mine. Your total Body Sweat Solution is available at my carpet. Com Visit Today and get free shipping. Welcome back to Fox Weather live coverage of historic Hurricane Helene. Ian, we talked about tampa quite a bit during the last block, but the Eye Wall actually went farther to the north and missed you guys, didnt it . Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, clearly We Saw the effects and we were on the wrong side, the dirty side of this storm, which pushed thE Water into the Tampa Bay and generated all the Storm Surge flooding but this was truly only the first phase of Hurricane Helene. The second phase was a more violent one and thats where our specialist Mike Seidell experienced and mike, watching that Eye Wall move in, that was an incredible scene. Whats it been like since . I know this storm has been especially powerful . Reporter yes, we got into The Eye, and were kind of in The Eye now but getting into the Back Side. The wind has shifted from the eastnortheast around to the westsouthwest. Its on the bottom side its a pretty good gust. The winds didnt get calm but they backed off and The Rain came to an end. We still have some light Rain Shower and not a whole lot of rain. It was such a quick the thing here, and we have about an hour here, and that was about it. Rainfall about two and a half inches at the nearby airport and the Peak Wind Gust was 99 Miles Per Hour. We were sustained at 5555, gust to 99 and that was at 11 10 eastern here in perry, florida. Whether a we can see across The Street, the Gas Station lost its awning and the coral gated corralgated aluminum, buT Everything else, as far as The Eye can see is out and it is dark. Temperatures in the upper 70s. It came up a couple of degrees after The Rain ended and we got into The Eye, but were going to stay breezy overnight, still a little bit more rain, but the extreme Wind Warning has been lifted for this area. Now, the worst of it is moving across the Floridageorgia Line and The Eye getting into but, ari it was quite the hour of Wind Gust, successive Wind Gust over 60 Miles Per Hour and the very horizontal rain and also we had seven i think it was seven Power Flashes On The Air. You may remember On The Air live just boom, boom, boom in the distance and the sky just lit up this screen almost consistently. Ive never seen so many Power Flashes. Ive seen one or two, but not seven in a row just backtoback to back. A great step from Mike Seidel. You should have seen that before. Lets go to Robert Ray. Robert was not directly in the Eye Wall he was just to the east of it but still had some very nasty wind and were talking Chris City florida, a Little East of skeen hatchee. Robert, whether a is the situation where you are now in Cross City . Rain has definitely let up and that is a good thing here in Cross City. The power is out in this entire area. A million customers without power at this point and i think, you know, our biggest concern right now is what happened and what is still probably happening on the coast, 20 miles away. Skeeahatchee, a very small town, but its taking a lot of Storm Surge dont know how much at this point. What we will likely do is make our way over there at some point when the light comes up tomorrow, and some of that water has reseated and weve seen some of the cameras from Cedar Key and we know the incredible surges have come in and i just hope that anyone who has stayed on the coastline is okay tonight, although, we have seen . Reports on twitter of some Storm Chasers that decided to stay and have abandoned their cars because thE Water came up so far and that is really why we did not end up right there. Weve got hotels steinhatchee, but we were worried about our vehicles and our safety but here, tonight, yeah, we diD Experience some pretty heavy winds, even though we were not in the Eye Wall, and it will be probably not surprising to see this area when The Sun comes up and see damage in some of the spots. Though, as ive been saying throughout the night, at least where we have been stand, i have not heard a catastrophic audio, and what that means is homes or structures being ripped apart. I have not seen Anything Blow by really, except for Tree Debris, so Tree Debris is going to be Everyone And Power poles, expect to see that and the System Moves up into georgia, and by The Way, speaking of georgia and the lat ter metro, i got a text message, the head commander, a suburb of atlanta just to the north, and he said they are already responding to downed Trees Tonight as The Darkness Happens and The System is moving up there. Expect to hear a lot more of that and Power Outages up in the atl as we know, even South Georgia is experiencing, many, many problems right now. Back to you. Robert, i know the reporter in you is probably a little disappointed that you didnt get into the worst of it but there is a reason, you know. Theres a reason that we do not any reporters that are up along the Big Bend, right along the coast. That storm is unbelievable. Theyve had record levels of surge and it was almost at nine feet and it looked absolutely devastating and it was halfway up houses so you just behaj what imagine what 10 to 15 feet would be up there. Its from yeah, its pretty much under water, look at that. I mean, when the waves move a little bit. This is the camera that i was referring to. They took a nasty hit last year with Storm Surge from Hurricane Ida hidalia. This is a record Storm Surge now in cedar creek, and it made just a tiny bit of an east job and i think that ended up being a worst thing for Cedar Key, but robert, you did not get in the actual Eye Wall. You were in the closest outer band to the Eye Wall. Im just curious how did This One stack up . I saw you in Hurricane Debby and i think you were in perry, if im not mistakenly that was a category two, i believe, at landfall and how did This One stack up . Reporter well, i mean, its hard to tell at this point, because of the darkness, as far as damage as far as winds go, i have Example Spear yuvns experienced a lot worse. And when youre on the fringes, it often is a less impact. That doesnt mean that there is not impacts in this area that will be that well be able to assess when The Sun comes up. Think about it, this entire town is out of power, over A Million people and we will say, this over A Million customers without power man, is that significant . So as far as, you know, what ive experienced in that realm, that is really, really bad and first responders cannot get to that, especially on this shoreline. I just worry about it and we will go, hopefully to Stein Hatchee whether The Sun does come up. You did Mention A a lot of people without power in the central of florida and those numbers are going ooh skyrocket. You saw that on the bottom of the Screen And Governor desantis, at least, one person has died in tampa. That is the first death that ive heard of so far from this storm and hopefully the number stays low. Oh, my, my goodness, this is a category four Making Landfall. It is moving up to the north as we speak. Val dosta, georgia. Its moving right through Val Dosta right now. So we have a Long Way To Go before this is done. Stephanie, would you mind giving me a wider view with the composite radar right now, just so that we ca