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are different tracks that would take it into other places. and other floridians even if you're not necessarily in the eye of the path of the storm, there's going to be pretty broad impacts throughout the state. you're going to have wind, you're going to have water. there could be flooding on the east coast of florida as a result of this. it's a big storm. >> reporter: and we're already starting to hear about some closures, alex. just a few minutes ago the hillsborough county public school district said they are going to start closing their schools tomorrow through thursday considering a lot of their buildings will be used as shelters. alex? >> all right, carlos suarez in tampa. stay safe out there. thank you very much. tampa's mayor has goodclared a state of local emergency as the city prepares for the storm. gas stations, grocery stores already packed as residents get ready for high winds, potential flooding and of course power outages. mayor, thank you so much for taking the time.
how are the city and its residents getting ready for ian? >> reporter: well, alex, some folks out here have started to get their hurricane supplies and pick up their sandbags. in fact, the city of tampa today opens three sandbag distribution sites, and the lines at each of these locations was quite long. city and county officials they have echoed governor ron desantis' declaration that folks need to start preparing for this storm now, not later in the week. at a briefing in tallahassee the governor said that 2,500 members of the florida national guard are now on standby, and he noted that the entire state of florida is under an emergency declaration. he said because the uncertainty of the path of ian is so great it doesn't really matter where you live in florida, you need your supplies now. >> it really is important to stress the degree of uncertainty that still exists, and so anybody from tampa bay all the way to ascambia county, there
we certainly know how busy you are and how much you have to do ahead of this storm. i do want to ask you about that. how are the preparations going? how worried are you? >> the preparations are going very, very well. and of course there's a high degree of worry whenever we have a named storm that we are in the trajectory or in the path of that storm. so -- but we are preparing. you know, we -- we like to prehorse and practice for these these but we certainly don't want to be on the main stage of ian. >> one of the most vulnerable parts of infrastructure in situations like this are wastewater facilities. there is, of course, the potential for flash flooding in tampa, so what kind of preparations is the city making to protect those wastewater facilities? >> we're -- we have had those protection in place for quite some time, and as a matter of fact our wastewater facility is not up to capacity on any given day. our bigger concern is our storm
only so many storms do this, but it gets up to category 4 status. when it hits category 4, and remember 3 and 4 are major status the warning underneath is going to become a big deal, and it's going to carry all that water to the shoreline. so even if that category drops to 3, to a 2, maybe to a 1, that's just for the winds, okay? it's going to carry that surge as a category 4 into this. so that is really, i think, the most dangerous element of all of this. now, again, this is a forecast. things can change. this is the american model. this actually looks pretty good. if you're going to have one, let's have it where the winds are lighter. the european model is quite frightening. this is worst-case scenario if this holds true. and again, if this is round let's say tampa, down toward braydenten, sarasota, all that water from that category 4 status is going to go into the bay, the canals and tributaries. it's going to be a big deal.