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To derek van dam. he is joining us from tampa. every hour we get an update from the national hurricane organization. please let us know what is the latest forecast for hurricane idalia? reporter: well, you are starting to feel the system as well as much as we are. but we are on a highly susceptible road, this is called bay shore drive. and we re approaching high tide which is roughly 4:00 in the morning, 4:07 to exact. and we re staring down the eye of a monster. latest satellite shows it is 125-mile-per-hour, a powerful category 3. and we re teetering on a category 4 hurricane here. but i want to show you around, look at bay shore drive, this is normally filled with vehicles closer to around 5:00 in the morning or approaching early morning rush hour in tampa. and of course that won t be ....
Winds of 125-mile-per-hour just shy of a category 4 storm. the storm currently 60 miles from the state s capital of tallahassee, florida. and 90 miles west of cedar key where they have measured sustained tropical storm-force winds and gusts of 47 miles per hour. florida s west coast is already being whipped by the outer bounds of the storm. streets are flooding and already impacting roadways. tornado watches are in effect for 7 million people across western florida and flood watches are in effect for 21 million people across florida, georgia and the carolinas. for more, let s turn now to the public information office lieutenant yarborough. landfall will happen soon. there has been a lot of preparation leading up to this moment. where do the efforts stand, what still needs to be done before ....
Sarasota now 20 miles per hour. i was watching some video there out of key west, and the palm trees are ripping there. so that could be at least 30, 35. right now the storm itself is 85 miles per hour. it is not gaining strength that rapidly yet. we expect this rapid intensification up a number of miles per hour over a 24-hour period. sometimes 35 miles per hour over a 24-hour period. but it s the storm surge up here in the big bend. think of this like a catcher s mitt. this is going to catch all of the water. all of the surge that tries to come up along the coast can t go any further. it s going to be from apalachicola all the way to cedar key. that s where the biggest threat will be. for tampa four to seven feet. but that doesn t start till tomorrow morning. there may even be water running out of tampa bay for today. but for tomorrow morning all the wind shifts back from the west and all of a sudden you start to push that water back in. so 125-mile-per-hour landfall. ....
To work its way to a category 2, over very warm water and it is pretty much heading up to where my hand is right here, almost going to go due northwards from here. and that s the current motion at about 14 miles per hour. this will give us landfall tomorrow morning, roughly around about 8 to 10:00 a.m. or so. now, as far as the hurricane center, here is the 8:00 a.m. position off the coast, 125-mile-per-hour winds. that s a strong major hurricane, bordering almost getting up to category 4. so the inland cities i m most concerned with for wind damage is areas like perry, florida, cross city, tallahassee, if we get more of a west shift or possibly gainesville a right shift. right now in the middle here. notice that the tampa area, pin pinellas county, you re 100 miles away from the center of the storm. not going through the core of the hurricane. your winds are more like tropical storm damage. that s what you should expect. the storm surge is a different story. we ll talk about that in a ....
As we come on the air tonight, hurricane idalia has strengthened into a category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 100 miles per hour. and right now picking up forward speed as it remains locked on a track expected to bring it ashore along florida s northwest coast tomorrow morning, likely as a major category 3 hurricane. the storm stretching more than 300 miles across as it spins across warm open waters in the eastern gulf, churning tropical storm-force winds at its outer reaches. the national hurricane center warning of life-threatening storm surges of up to 15 feet. torrential rains, high tornado risk, 125-mile-per-hour winds expected when idalia makes landfall along what s known the big bend region, the literal bend or curve on the map between the florida peninsula and the panhandle. tonight there are mandatory evacuation orders in place in more than a dozen florida counties. we ll get to our team ....