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florida's gulf coast. hurricane winds up to 150 miles an hour. torrential rains pummeling towns like pensacola and destin. if you have made the decision not to evacuate, you have no choice now but to stay inside. president trump had a press conference just minutes ago. more than 30 million people across six states are under hurricane or tropical storm warnings or watches, the storm expected to swamp some area of the coast with up to 14 feet of storm surge. brooke baldwin is live for us in destin, florida. they're expecting to five to eight feet of storm surge conditions between now and 6:00 p.m. tell us, how is it looking there? >> just in the last i would say couple of minutes, the rain has really picked up here in destin. i grew up in atlanta, i came down to destin to vacation with my family.

gorgeous blue waters and stunning blue skies, it is the exact opposite of that right now. we're here in the area of destin called harbor walk marina, we're on the inland side. there's this $10 million berm between here and the ocean. all the people who live in the destin area, who grew up in the florida panhandle. they say that the benchmark is 1995 and opal. and when you listen to the experts, they're saying this is the strongest storm to hit the florida panhandle in a century. and they're saying that because the way the wind is whipping with the hurricane and the counterclockwise winds, the eyewall making landfall will be even stronger than opal. the headline for so many people down here is that a lot of people heard kind of over the weekend, maybe a hurricane is coming, and then wham, overnight it went from category 2 to

category 4, and people, especially vacationers, they just didn't anticipate and they are riding it out. east of where i am, it's getting windier. >> we have had like two hours in a row of torrential rain now, and we have seen something very interesting in our journey around this area, these cars and these boats are parked on the side of the road. and the owners have left the area. behind us one mile is u.s. 98. people who evacuated headed up u.s. 98 but they have left their cars and their boats here, hoping that when they come back their cars and boats are still here. but i can tell you that we're here in northeast gulf area, we decided to pull our cars before

our cars were under water. but that's what traditionally happens in a hurricane, particularly one as volatile as this. keep in mind, in the history of recorded weather observation, there has never been a category 4 hurricane in the florida panhandle. florida is a hurricane magnet. people in florida learn all about them. you learn to get your hurricane shutters. it is a common occurrence in florida to have hurricanes and to worry about hurricanes. but here in the panhandle, in the 1950s, they had three category 3s and then opal in 1995. and crawfordville, florida, which is east of panama city, which is south of tallahassee, tallahassee is that direction. this area got heavily damaged in that category 3 hurricane 13 years ago. many of the homes are high, built on stilts, some of the homes are 40 feet tall because

there's a lot of storm surge around here. we know within two hours, from covering these hurricanes, it will not stop, and it will be the moment of truth for people who live in this area. >> gary, stay safe as that moment approaches. let's go to brian todd, he's in panama city beach, brian, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: john, there's some very, very strong bursts of wind here, it's really deteriorating in the last few minutes, the rain is not going to be the issue at least initially, creating storm surge. this storm surge behind me is getting to 9 feet, potentially, and it's going to surpass that in just a little bit, it's going to get maybe 11 to 13 feet. wh getting a strong band of rain here. you can't really be out in this and we're going to have to retreat inland in a couple of

minutes to get away from this. but what you have to look out for now when the wind picks up like this, when the cat 4 really gets onshore is shingles blowing off roofs. so we're talking about a lot of people also having to evacuate, but not enough for local officials. they say about 4,000 people have taken shelters in several shelters in the florida p panhand panhandle. that's really not enough for local officials, they really wanted to get people in there, but at this point, they say don't move. it's really going to intensify in the next few hours, when it gets to category 4 status when the eyewall gets to where i am. and we're going to have to move just a few blocks from here to take cover from it. they say they think the evacuations went well, that most people got out, but they are worried about the tourists. the beach population just

explodes in the summer and there is still a lot of residual tourst tou tourists here in the summer months. there's about 4,000 for routourd they may not be from here and don't no ehknow how quickly thi can deteriorate. >> follow your own advice, brian, start to move away from that water. you can see right there, diane, you can see the conditions getting worse by the moment, bring us up to speed. >> reporter: yeah, john, i'm having a hard time hearing you, i think we are experiencing some very strong bands of rain and wind that are coming through right rear in panama city beach. these are definitely the strongest i have felt all day long, as i was just saying, the

raindrops feel like little needless on my hands right now. if you take a look behind me, you can see all of the trees bending with it. even some of the palms are starting to sway just a little bit, which you know just how firm those trees are in the ground. now we're still at least an hour and a half to two hours away from this eyewall coming across here at panama city beach. so this is definitely not the worst of it, it's just going to get worse from here on out. john, we're in panama city beach, we're on the island, at this point we can't get off the island, we're here, we got to ride the whole storm out because they closed the hathaway bridge, because the wind got too bad for anyone to drive across it. emergency responders in bay county stopped responding to calls because of then cans. about 12,000 people live in panama city beach. i talked to the city manager, he thinks that roughly half of them decided they wanted to ride this storm out. this is my second location of

the day. i started the morning out there on the shore. but when i went to sleep last night, it was a category 2 storm, that was what was forecasted. way before the sun came up, it was a category 4. so there were hundreds, maybe thousands of people who did the same thing. when they woke up, it may have been too late for them to get out of the homes and do a last-minute evacuation. the conditions are getting a lot worse here. we're talking about rainfall between 6 to 10 inches. a storm surge of 7 to 11 feet. and again, these gusts of wind that are coming through, we have already had some of the drains on the building that we're in right now be ripped off by these winds right now from michael. and that was early on before these gusts were like this. i keep looking up, because there are a few more around here, and there's additional debris. when we were out on the beach, there were people who had gone

and cleaned up all of the debris that was out there, the trash cans, anything that had been left. but when he came inland further on the island, there's no one who's done that, my producer went around and looked and there were people who left trash and other projectiles, even a couch left out here. we have seen some things fly at this point, we're starting to see leaves fly off. if you can look out here again, i'm not sure how much you can see behind me, but the trees are swaying significantly here in panama city beach. i focus on these palm trees, they're so strong. when you start to see them bend and/or snap, those are the kinds of winds we are expecting here in panama city beach. again, the problem here is john, so many people who didn't evacuate. they do have shelters that are full at this point, but they had plenty of shelters that still had room as of this morning.

and i talked to so many people yesterday who said that they thought they could ride this out. they figured that a cat 2 was no big deal, because they had ridden out opal or ridden out l eloise. we have not had a hurricane as strong as this one hit the area. the advice right now is for everyone to shelter in place, get into a middle type area away from windows of course. and just make sure you have a plan. the rescuer said that once the storm stopped, they will be able to come out and help you. but during the storm, you're on your own. stay in place right now. john, i apologize, i cannot hear you and i'm not sure if you' e' talk to me right now. but that's our situation right here in panama city beach right now as we wait for the eyewall

to come across this area. >> if you can hear me, diana, please stay with us. i want to bring in jennifer, our meteorologist, as we begin to see diane and we begin to see the conditions worsen behind her, and yet michael has not made landfall yet, help us understand, jennifer, as things get worse, when the worst is still to come where diane is. >> the worst is yet to come, conditions will deteriorate extremely quickly, the storm is about 50 miles from the coast and it's very important. you see all those trees swaying behind her, most of those trees in the florida panhandle, once you get into georgia, they still have their leaves on them. those trees are going to snap, there's no way these trees are going to with stand 150-mile-per-hour winds. those limbs are going to be projectiles. anybody who has not shuttered

their home up, stay away from the windows, especially when this storm heads inland, trees are going to be falling all over the place -- yes, go ahead. and also i want to make it clear that this should be no surprise to people in the panhandle. we have been talking about this becoming a major storm since it developed. it developed on sunday, and on monday, we have been talking about this is going to become a major storm. it strengthened to a category 4, but we're talking about 130 miles an hour winds on monday. now it has 150-mile-per-hour winds. this is a strong storm, it is nothing, it is something you want to take very, very seriously. >> di diane, i want to urge you to be very, very careful, especially with those trees behind you, they're whipping up a little bit. talk about if you have experienced any water coming in? i don't know how far you are

from the coast, have you experienced any surge or anything like that? >> reporter: we moved inland because we were so close to the coast and its so low lying, in some cases, just one or two feet below sea level. there is water to the left of me, but it's interior water, it looks to be a stream. it hasn't gone up that much, it's mostly being blown by the wind. i talked to the city manager, and talking about the wind blowing up those waves and that be the foreshadowing of this storm surge, as you well know, jennifer, it's forecasted to come in right around high tide as well here. so there is additional concern for those low-lying areas because the water is already going to be in high tide, in their minds mitigating the issue even worse. you can probably see here, it will die down a little bit, but we're experiencing now a steady wind, no matter what, even when

we are not getting these large gusts. we knew the hurricane was beginning to come in when we first heard the howling wind coming in. and we have had these big gusts of wind. but those who are right next to the ocean are talking about how the waves are and how much the water is starting to pump. >> and the worst for you is going to be the next two to four hours. because once that eye comes onshore, depending on where you are in relation to the storm, if it goes right over you, you'll have that lull period, but then you'll have the backside to contend with. it and if you're on the east side of that storm, it's going to be a period of say, one, two, 2 1/2 hours, where you are going to have extremely high winds, upwards of 150 miles an hour, and you're going to have storm surge that is going to continue to rush in. so there's going to be a period

of time where you are going to experience the worst of it. it's not going to be over quickly, it's going to last maybe an hour or two hours. so the people that are along that area, that are east of the eye, that could be in the panama city, apalachicola region, and areas to the north. it will slowly get better for you guys, but continue to worsen for people who are in south georgia where they could experience a category 2 by rush hour this afternoon. >> diane, if you could stay with us as well, and explain the conditions. if we can just split the screen for a minute and see jennifer in the weather center, if you could just show us where michael is now, vis-a-vis panama city, if you will, as we watch diane go through this again, we see the conditions worsening quickly, but michael is still how far away? >> michael is about 50 miles an

hour, maybe 45 at this point. you can see the eye of the storm right here. here's panama city right here. and there's that outer edge of the storm in relation to panama city, when storms are this big, this could wobble a little bit to the east or west by the time it makes to it panama city. so that's going to be crucial, if they're on the west side of the storm, that's the better side. you're still going to have hurricane force winds, but the surge won't be like it will be on the east side. but the hurricane winds extend 45 miles from the center. so panama city is going to get these hurricane force winds, but the east side is the dirtier side. but you can see how symmetrical this storm is. so even very close to the center, you're going to get those incredible winds on either side, east or west. but this storm could wobble a little bit, like i said, here's mexico beach, here apalachicola, where we're already seeing fix

feet of storm surge there, and the storm surge is expected to double, could be 12 to 13 feet of storm surge in that area, and all of this coastline from the east of the center, all the way across through, say, appalachian cola and through the center of florida, they're all expected to get 8 to 13 feet of storm surge, so that's going to go into the second level of people's homes. >> and to that point, you mentioned that so many people stayed behind, and they thought it would only be a cat 2 storm. when are they being told they might be able to get services again? how long after michael passing would it be before they can get emergency responders or emergency supplies if they need them? >> according to the emergency responders, as soon as the storm passes, they want to get to the main priorities, which is going to be clearing the roadways for hospitals, for the homes yes elderly people might be, things like that. but the number one priority is making sure that there's a clear path to emergency services like

the hospitals in the various parts of the area. they're also going to try and make sure that if there's any particular parts of the island that are known to have flooding or have already had calls out for help, that they weren't able to attend to during the height of the storm, they can go there. you have to understand, the emergency responders are hunkered down as well right now, so they can be healthy and uninjured with vehicles that work to come and get people at this point. the bridge hathaway bridge is closed right now, so they're not able to get to the mainland or from the mainland, again, nobody should be on the road whatsoever. it's difficult to stand, and we still have two to four hours to go of this, sadly, initially we did see some cars on the road when they weren't supposed to be. i haven't seen anything like that in the past 30 minutes or so, but i think about some of the people that we met

yesterday, john, and there was a woman named karen who came up to us when we were doing live shots from the beaches, karen sent her dog to alabama because she was afraid she couldn't take it to a shelter, but she was going to stay in her home because she says i don't have much and i'm going to get some sand bags and i'll be okay. she lives in a one-story home. i'm very worried about karen right now, because she was very upset. at that point we knew it was going to be a bad storm but not to this degree, so there are a lot of people like her who come from modest means, there are a lot of people who do not evacuate storms, it's very easy to sit there and tell everyone to get out and that is what people should do, but there are reasons why they don't, they are handicapped, they have medical issues, they're injured, they're poor and karen had some of those issues, and she said i just don't think i can do it. we're hoping she went to the shelter. we wanted to take her to the shelter, but she wanted to do

sandbags first. but as you can see, we have another one of these lulls where we don't have the same sort of wind intensity. to tell you the truth, the wind that we had out here this morning, these were the stronger gusts that we were experiencing. so to watch what he thought was strong go through our break in just a matter of hours, does for us show how quickly this storm moves. and just last month i was in the northern part of north carolina, in new bern, so we didn't get slammed by the winds, but i didn't see anything when i was in burlington, north carolina. it is already stronger than what we felt in new bern, and that blew boats out of the war. what people are dealing with in panama city beach again is something they have never experienced before, no matter how many hurricanes you may have ridden out, you have never ridden out something like

michael. >> diane, stay with us, we'll get back to you within the hour. but as we note, michael is making landfall, but is continuing to strengthen. michael making landfall across the florida gulf coast. we'll be back in just a moment. ] say hello to your fairy godmother, alice. oh and look they got gain scent beads and dryer sheets too!

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live pictures here's, hurricane michael, with hurricane force winds, it's a category 4 storm. that's panama city beach, florida. the chief of police in apalachicola. give us an idea of the conditions right now in apalachicola. >> right now the winds are

extremely high, and it's as bad as i have ever seen it. i've been here 35 years and it's blowing hard right now. the water is up. i figure we're going to get even more in the next few hours, but it's pretty bad here. >> it's been a few years, but i love your town, i've been there a few times. great shrimp, fishermen and the like, not many people leave. how many people do you think are still within apalachicola. >> i would say probably say 60% people stayed. >> what emergency services are available right now if somebody needs help? >> right now there's no emergency services. if they need help, they can give a call, but it's probably too dangerous, but there's no ambulance service, no medical, so they're pretty much going to be on their own until it lets up. >> and projections right now,

you should be looking for rain in the ballpark of six to ten inches, the storm surge in the ballpark of 9 to 14 feet. you mentioned you've been there 39 years, what is that going to do to apalachicola, if that's what comes through? >> it's going to be devastating. all the way downtown will probably be flooded. all that downtown, it will be under water. >> when you say 60% stayed, how much of that is stubborn pride, people just decide they're going to always try to ride these out. and how much of it is some people have been telling us in the last day or so, we thought it was going to be a cat 2, not a cat 4 and they're caught a little bit by surprise. >> i think a lot of it here is

every time people do leave, it's not bad and they take it for granted, instead of leaving, they got help. >> population about 2,300, apalachicola? >> oh, it's a little more. >> i don't know that it's that number, but i think it's a little more than that. >> stay with us it you can. our meteorologist is also in apalachicola. derek, if you can hear me, tell us what you're seeing? >> hey, john, good afternoon, listen, here in apalachicola and we have sustained hurricane force winds where we are, but what's the most surprising and the most astounding to be quite honest is out quickly the storm surge has taken over this town.

look at the streets behind me, we have had measurements within the past hour about 6 1/2 feet above low tide, so high tide hasn't even occurred yet and water is still fill thing this area, we have seen submerged vehicles, and dumpsters. and it's kind of hard to stand up in these conditions, but appalachian cola a apalachicola is taking a really, really powerful hit. highway 98, which is the major artery in and out of this location, it goes to tallahassee and it goes to panama city. it is no longer accessible. the bridges are closed off. emergency personnel are begging for people who decided to ride out the storm to hunker down, stay indoors, stay away from windows as the peak of major hurricane michael starts to sink

its teeth into this area. john, if you can hear me. >> i can hear you, derek, i hope you can hear me. help us with the context as we see those rising waters, how far are you from the coast. >> back to you, john. >> derek, if you can hear me, how far are you from the coast? as we see the rising waters in the streets. >> i'm going to keep talking buzz because i don't know if we're still transmitting or not. but i just want you to see how incredibly fast this water has come up. this has changed -- all right, guys, we're going to have to call it quits. i think it's time where we have to go inside. so john, i'm going to send it back to you in the studio and we're going to get to a safe location because hurricane michael is about its strongest. >> derek, you and your crew get some cover, get to safety

please, that is always priority one. j jennifer, help us understand, the map put up on the graphic model. >> where derek is, they're seeing some very strong bands right now, there's appalachiala right there, he's right here, the center of the storm is right there, so you can see the eye of the storm so he's getting some of these have been strong bands, you see those oranges that come through there, those are some of the strongest winds, of course not the strongest winds that are contained within the storm, but some of the strongest winds he's experienced so far. and for apalachicola, they are going to experience a little bit stronger winds. they're getting the stronger surges. to see the water where he is now is expected to

apalachicola is getting about six feet of storm surge, and they're expecting to get 18 feet of storm surge. that's for st. joe, for mexico beach. i'll highlight it for you, it's very hard to see on this radar scope. that's the coast of florida so all of these areas along the coast are expected to get that 8 to 13 feet of storm surge. i understand that we have diane back. diane, can you hear me? >> uh-huh. >> are you, has it gotten worse for you? the winds are picking up for you, at this time, i'm sure, the storm is about 30 miles from the coast where you are. >> yeah, and jen, we're starting to experience, the it's the longest sustained period that we have had all day long. like i said before, we were getting the bands of intense winds and we're just not getting the breaks anymore. i'm going to go ahead and

apologize in avance. my producer is watching, we have got some stuff that we're afraid might fall. we're in a good position, i'm far enough back that it's not going to hit me, but it might mess with some of our equipment. look, there go assign that just popped off of this gate area right here. the trees in some cases are literally bending over right now and so it is just part of this as it begins and comes around here. i know our last set we just did with john, we're in the safest place we can be right now. i can walk just a few feet away from me, and be in a very safe area, which is the best thing to do when you're in a place like this. my question to you, we're on panama city beach, we're on this barrier sort of island area connected by the bridge. will this impact the landfall or the speed of the winds or anything like that on the main land here on the panhandle, on

any of these barrier islands? >> not much, when you have a storm this big, the barrier islands aren't going to slow it down really or weaken the storm. what it's going to take is getting on to that main land mass, we get it on to the mainland, that's going to finally slow this storm down. that storm has amazing strength, incredible amounts of wind speed and when it starts to push inland, that's when it starts to grab gradually lose its strength. so we're going to have people in south georgia being caught off guard. because a lot of trees that are in your shot that we're seeing right now, that's going to be one of the biggest hazards with this storm is going to be the winds, it's going to take down those trees, those branches are going to snap and so that's going to be incredibly dangerous. you, diane, are still going to be in it for the next couple of hours, when that eye goes over you, you can actually see clear

skies above you, and it's going to be peaceful and calm, and it's themost eerie feeling. so the winds going to then pick up and you'll get the backside of the storm. you're in panama city here, and here's the eye of the storm, so you're getting not the worst of the winds yet. your winds are going to increase even more. when you start getting into these shades of purple or oranges and reds, that's when you're going to get these very strong winds and that's when you're going to see those winds 100-mile-per-hour plus, with this storm, diane. so you're still in it for the next several hours, unfortunately. >> reporter: it definitely feels when those gusts come through with that rain, but the raindrops feel larger than they did before, we have more debris coming off here, flying back into the areas behind me. it feels like i'm basically getting slapped in the face with michael right now. it is intense, it hurts to be

very honest, when these big gusts come, just on your skin for a little bit. and it's odd, because it's really warm outside, but it feels cold, as that wind comes through right here. it really does chill you down. i've got a really good grip on how i'm standing right here. but if you can see, again, the best thing i can point to are the trees, i'm trying to turn my face away from the wind here, just to avoid it getting into my eyes and my contact lenses. but if you watch this, it is just skirting across this parking lot area. and we're at higher elevation, this is why we moved inland for safety reasons instead of being just a foot or two above sea level there at the coast. we came to a higher elevation here in panama beach. the mayor talked about how interesting the topography here is, it can go from just a few feet above sea level to several feet above sea level, you never

want to say you're safe from storm surge or things like that, we moved up here for safety and we still have to worry about rainfall and any flooding or anything like that, we're talking 6 to 10 inches of rainfall that they predicted here. it feels like we're not even in the heart of it yet. >> right, you still have a ways to go, you are going to get 6 to 10 inches of rain, the biggest deal with this storm surge, john, they're expected to get 8 to 13 feet of storm surge in panama city, all the way through the big bend of florida, so, john, this is a serious storm, it's still about 20 to 30 miles from shore, so it should be making landfall within the next couple of hours. >> 20 to 30 miles from shore. diane, stay safe even as you keep us informed. safety, make sure that's priority one. when we come back, the president just received an update from his team of teams preparing an

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let's listen to the president. >> harvey, marie and irma were cat 4s. here in the panhandle, as you can see right here, sir, then it will go through georgia and the carolinas. we do expect additional rain in the carolinas, which could lead to additional flooding. fema is moving forward, as we are with our interagency partners, we are in contact with state and local authorities. >> unfortunately, this is a gulf coast hurricane of the worst kind because all of the elements associated with hurricanes come into play. so as you see on the left, the storm surge estimates are anywhere between 9 and 14 feet. storm surge is going to be the worst where the eye makes

landfall just to the east or south of where the eye makes landfall. right now it's projected between panama beach and apalachicola. not only is it going to bring ocean water and coastal flooding, there will be wave action on top of that, is the primary driver of the why we evacuate. and on top of that, you have 140-mile-per-hour winds, either structures built before 2001 are not designed to handle that type of wind typically and it's going to unfortunately push through the state. so we're asking citizens in southwest georgia, central georgia to be vigilant and make sure that they understand what's about to come, because this area is going to see a cat 1, cat 2 storm as it moves inland and with the vegetation there, what we're anticipating is a lot of downed trees impacting the area.

and you're going to see power outages throughout the state. and unfortunately, you're going to see rainfall into south carolina and north carolina. the cape fear was projected to start receding from hurricane florence two days ago and this be basically exacerbate the problem and add to it, and it will keep those waters from receding a little bit as it e t exits the state by friday. >> they're saying this is one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit our country, is that a fact? >> in this area, this would be the most intense hurricane since 1851, if i remember correctly. >> it's a big storm. >> intense, very intense. >> and this one is going to be heavy rain or is it going to be the winds that are going to be the problem? >> storm surge and winds. for north georgia, they're going to see high inland winds. so you may see sustained category 2 or category 3 wins

with higher gusts. we have leaned forward with governor scott and his staff and right now there's no identified short falls when it comes to prepositioning, so we have teams, equipment, personnel, not only with, embedded with state of florida staff, and some of the local county emergency managers and we have equipment from maxwell to atlanta to orlando that can move in once the storm surge kind of push through. >> about 14 states, different utilities from 14 states are already ready to help with any outages. >> they're all lined up, as soon as it goes by, they're going to be working and we have got food supplies, food chains, we're working with all of the states and. let me ask you, this started out very innocently a week ago, it

was a small storm in an area they never thought it was going to grow into a monster. >> it the first estimates from the national hurricane center came in around saturday and they picked it up and saying this is going to rapidly intensify. unfortunately, that's typical of the gulf coast, and when they do this, citizens have less time to prepare or heed the warnings. we are concerned that many citizens chose not to heed those warnings. but we're prepared with search and rescue teams to try and go? and do what we can. >> any questions? >> yes, are you concerned that folks in florida and georgia are going to work through the night? >> yesterday, we were concerned that we did not like the level of evacuation activity that we were seeing and, you know, governor scott, kudos to him, he leaned forward, used the new

wireless emergency alert capabilities that we have and sent out text messaging last night. lean eed forward and said hey, t out of there, so a lot of people took this storm seriously, who did heed the warning but a lot chose to stay behind and unfortunately, first responders may not be able to go in and rescue those who dial 911 at this point. >> do you get a sense of the officials that have been contacted? >> i have and the other governors, depending on what happens here, but they are all either contacted or in the process. i had a long talk with rick scott, governor scott of florida. very well coordinated with all of the states. and one of the things that must be said is it's not so easy for some of these people to leave. some of the areas are very poor. it's not easy for a person without the necessary money to leave. so what we have done is we have sent busses, we have sent a lot

of different -- we're doing a lot of different things to try to remove people from the area, and people are very poor in some of those areas, and that makes it tough to leave. and that's one of the problems you're finding, i guess? >> in some cases, what we ask to do on blue sky days is ask people who may not have the means or the mechanisms to get out of town to rengister with their county emergency services so we can plan for that and we do what we can to support the movement of people. when it comes to georgia, we're not evacuating for storm surge in georgia. this is going to be high winds, so we're asking people to get within a facility that can with stand the winds and try to shelter in place or seek out public shelters that may be open in southwest georgia. >> if you look at the size, how long it is, and you look at that, the red area is basically the area where it's going to hit

pretty heavily. that's a lot of shore. that's a lot of land. >> there's going to be storm surge all the way down in tampa which is very low lying and floods easily, but to give you an idea of the breadth of its path, it's very large. >> it's almost the entire size of the gulf. and they haven't seen that, maybe they haven't seen that at all. nobody's seen that before. >> the eye diameter is pretty wide, which unfortunately is not good news as it makes landfall. some people may say it's similar to an ef-3 today making landfall in areas that are close to the eye. >> is there any way that they would struggle to deal with this hurricane. >> not in this area, irma did not seriously impact the florida panhandle. most of the hit for irma was in the southwest portion of florida and moved up through and created

some jacksonville area, northeastern portion, this area has been a long time since it's been hit so the vegetation hasn't been stressed so we're going to see a lot of damage and devastation unfortunately and we have to set the citizens expectation that the power is going to be out for a while. and fema's role in that, is as the secretary would say in our partnership with the power sectors, the georgia power, the florida power to help them -- they've got pour crews coming in from multiple states across the country that are already prestaged and when they hit, we're going to do first push debris to get the roadways open and then start pushing down the roadways to restore the power. but that's going to take time. [ inaudible ] . >> i was going to pennsylvania, it looks like there's thousands of people already lined up and

probably will do that tonight and we're going to go down here as soon as we can. we don't want to interfere with anybody, but we want to go as soon as possible. you have, you know, right nearby, we have thousands of people going tonight and they have already, many are there already. what time were you planning on being there? >> around 10:00. >> i don't know what to do, because you have so many people already there, it's sort of unfair to them. so it's a mix, i'll be totally focused on this. but we're going to make a determination over the next little while. [ inaudible ] >> i have great people, including these two. but i have great people. it wouldn't make any difference in that sense, but i would like to see what's going on. we want to get down there as soon as possible. at the same time, i don't want to go down where we're interfering with the people, the first responders, the fema

people. i want them to focus on the storm, not me. to we'll probably look to sunday ormond monday to go down and m with the governors like we did in north carolina and south carolina. they're going to get also, north carolina and south carolina are going to get a lot of water. nothing like they had two weeks ago, but they're going to get a lot of water also. and that water is still draining out. so this is a pretty big problem. i really worry a little bit about south carolina and north carolina from the standpoint they're already saturated and they're going to get a reasonable hit, right? >> they will, so you're going to see as much as -- possibly eight inches in isolated areas in south carolina and north carolina, and as i said, it's all about being able to process the rivers from florence, and some of them haven't had the sometime to do that so this doesn't help.

>> president trump. [ inaudible ] >> i will have to take a look at it exactly. when you're saying release the journalists, who are you talking about? [ inaudible ] >> that, i would have to look into, i'm not familiar with that. [ inaudible ] >> i would certainly concerned in fact we have a call in to hi his wife, in fact his wife wrote a letter addressed to my wife and myself and we're in contact with her know anow and we want bring her to the white house. it's a very sad situation, it's a very bad situation is, and we want to get to the bottom of it. >> do you think he's dead, mr. president? >> i hope not. >> do you know who's responsible? >> we have to find out who did it. people saw him go in but they didn't see him come out as they understand it. we're going to take a very serious look at it, it's a

terrible thing. >> do you think it was the saudis? >> i would rather not say, but the answer is yes. [ inaudible ] >> i would say fairly quickly. i would say fairly quickly. they're in touch, you may just speak to the first lady's folks because they're in touch and she'll be most likely coming to the white house and we'll work on it together. >> lindsay graham says there will be help. [ inaudible ] >> lindsey can speak for himself. but this is a bad situation. and we cannot let this happen. to reporters, to anybody. we can't let this happen. and we're going to get to the bottom of it, okay? you may want to speak to the first lady's office about it. [ inaudible ] >> i would rather not say, but at a very high level, the highest level. let me say this, it's the highest level.

>> you mentioned that you talked to -- >> more than understand with. >> you had mentioned that you talked to -- >> i do anyway and i have always found him to be a fine man, we have always had a very good relationship. i'm not happy about this. we have to see what happens. nobody knows over there, but it's a very serious situation and it's something we're taking very seriously. [ inaudible ] >> we'll take care of that. we'll take care of that. [ inaudible ] >> well, they won't do it without our approval. they do nothing without our approval. they do nothing without our approval. >> we'll talk to you about that later. >> by the way, when we get alice

johnson situated, a great person, and such a great case. i would like to find a lot of people like alice johnson and there are a lot of people that are in a situation like that. and we are actively looking for those situations. she's a terrific woman, i have been watching her a lot and what a great spokesman she is for that situation. and that's covering a lot of people, there are a lot of people like that, that will unfortunately be locked up for many, many years and there's no reason for it. so we are looking for -- we're actively looking for other situations exactly like that. [ inaudible ] >> she's someone we're talking to, dana did great here, she then went back into the private sector for a while, but she always wanted to come back, and

we're looking at dana and some tremendously talented people. nicki will be here until the end of the year, i want whoever it will be come and spend some time with nicki, before nicki goes out. i think nikki will come back at some point too. but she's an extroaordinary midwestern, person, we're looking at many people, many people want that job. >> what do you make of the fact that she announced her departure -- >> there really is no good time. she told me about this a long time ago, and frankly it's almost four weeks, so it's not that bad. i don't think so, i think it was very elegantly done, if she waited until after, and then say, oh, if we win, they would say why is she doing it? and they'll say it's obvious why she's doing it. there's really no good time to do it.

but she and i have spoken at least six months, maybe even a year ago we had conversations. she wanted to be here about two years. and the point really was last week at the united nations. she wanted to get through that. and then go probably into the private sector for a while. and i'm sure she's going to come back into government. because she's a terrific person. >> what was the that process look like, mr. president? >> very strong vetting, but some of the people we're already vetting, some of the people that are already with us. and we have some incredible talent in this administration. there's some great, great talent and they have already been vetted, they're already approved. any other questions on this. [ inaudible ] >> i know they did. yeah. >>. [ inaudible ] >> india is going to find out, aren't they? india will find out.

you'll see. sooner than you think. >>. [ inaudible ] >> i'm wolf blitzer in washington and we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. you've been watching president trump get a briefing in the oval office from fema officials as one of the most powerful hurricanes in united states history. that will hit the coast, that's getting ready to make landfall in a couple of minutes, this hurricane will make landfall in florida. hurricane michael lashing northwest florida right now. thousands of people have been evacuated ahead of the storm, but many more are now sheltered in place, as 150-mile-per-hour winds tear through coastal communities. the governor admitting the area could suffer, quote, unimaginable devastation. our correspondents are spread out across the area to bring you the very latest. we're in panama city, right where the leading edge of the storm is crashing into the coast in