Page 12 - Zone A News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Hurricane ian last year, which really devastating just south of tampa. the fort myers, sanibel area. that strengthened at the last minute and it really caught residents in the area off guard. there were people i spoke to yesterday that said they normally wouldn't evacuate and they chose to because of what they saw happen. today, totally different story. what i also saw was a lot of people walking outside. taking their boats and jet-skis on the water. i saw people biking, walking their dogs. and i asked as many as i could, how are you feeling? they were saying they were unbothered, unconcerned....

Thank you for that. marisa, give us a sense of what you're seeing on the ground in terms of preparations and evacuations. that area may not be in zone a but nonetheless, it's very low lying. >> exactly. hi from tampa. yes. let me set the scene here. i've been here for about 24 hours. and it's interesting to compare the differences between the feeling in the air between yesterday and today. yesterday, there was a lot more seemed like a frantic rush from people trying to get those last minute prep. lowe's said they saw a lot of traffic. we were out where people get sandbags. when i was talking t...

I spoke to some of the people in this area to see what they can expect. so you can see some of the water behind me. this is water going up because of the tide. they told me what we have to keep in mind, if they see more than 6 or 7 feet of a surge here, then the water will be going into some of these houses into a hotel that's right next to us and they've already said we could see maybe 12 feet of a surge in florida. so if that's the case in this area here in citrus county, we would be getting the water inside of these buildings and we know what can happen when the storm surge has that water g...

Be worse. the arrival coincides with a king tide that brings some of the highest ocean water levels of the year. officials at tampa general hospital have constructed an aqua fence in an attempt to protect against what may come there. joining me now from crystal river, florida, guad and from tampa, nbc news correspondent, marisa. she'll be joining me by phone. guad, what's happening where you are? how are preparations going? >> reporter: alex, this is one of the evacuation zones. . zone a. florida has an evacuation zone that's been set. more than 20 counties have evacuation orders in place. we'...

That more than 20 florida counties are under those mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders. let's talk about pinellas county. schools have been turned into makeshift shelters for families told to leave mobile homes and low lying areas and officials say now is the time to renew essential prescriptions or buy ice to preserve food. with me, david conner, public information manager for the county. thank you for being with us. give us a read of the situation on the ground and maybe start with those evacuations. do you know how many people who should be out have gotten out? >> of course. thanks, ch...