Page 36 - Pinellas County News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

hello and thank you for being with us. i'm ana cabrera in new york. hurricane ian is taking aim and florida is bracing. the powerful storm is expected to get stronger over the next few hours. a cat 4 before the end of the day. the track is shifting a bit, but it is still expected to be a major hurricane when it slams into florida tomorrow night. tampa's mayor says that area is expecting a, quote, devastating amount of water. evacuations are under way. people are boarding up homes and businesses. schools are closing, flights canceled. let's begin our coverage with john cangelosi from ...

millions there on tornado watch. is the west coast that could really feel the brunt getting slammed directly with life threatening storm surge and flooding in a day or so. millions of people in ian's cross hairs and boarding up the homes. people waiting in line for hours for free sand bags. mandatory evacuations were expanded. they're told it's time to leave now. fema's chief urged people to get out of harm's way. >> our biggest concern as we wait for this storm to make landfall is storm surge and i will note that storm surge is a leading cause of hurricane related fatalities. the de...

i told each one of them, my conversation separately, whatever they need. sincerely, whatever they need, contact me directly. >> joining me now jamie rome, acting director of the national hurricane center. good to have you with us this hour. we saw in the most recent update, the 2:00 p.m. update that the storm was rapidly intensifying. the major concern at this hour seems to be the storm surge and also just how long this storm could sit. what are the areas that you're most focused on at this hour? >> i think water is going to be the big issue with this storm, both the incredibly heavy...

business correspondent ashley webster live in spring hills, florida. and ashley, it is the calm before the storm where you are in spring hill right now. >> it is indeed. good morning, steve. it's a very mild, pleasant morning. but that's going to change quickly over the course of the next 48 hours. i'm in front of a gas station here in spring hill. we are about 50 miles north of tampa. everything looks fine, right? not so much. this gas station ran out of gas about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. you can see the sign no gasoline of any grade, including non-ethanol. in fact we were noticing...

hour. >> there will be catastrophic flooding and life threatening storm surge. if you are in tampa bay and counties north and south of that it could be something that happens. if you're under an evacuation order. evacuate to higher ground that will be safe from the type of surge and flooding. >> bill: our fox weather team coverage considers. adam klotz standing by to tell us the latest. >> dana: first we'll go to phil keating. he is in a beach community a half hour southwest of tampa. sounds like a good place. >> it is. it is old, classic florida. the time to get out of town is now. ...