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worst in decades as local officials warn people that the time to leave is now. the hurricane could make landfall as a strong category 3 storm. of course we're tracking all the latest. and a funeral today for the man who led a failed revolt against vladimir putin. mercenary chief yevgeny prigozhin buried in a st. petersburg cemetery. but this won't lay to rest the questions surrounding his death. and stronger than fentanyl. a potent new opioid potentially even more deadly. we're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to "cnn news central". florida's west coast is now bracing for impact. right now hurricane idalia is quickly gaining strength over the gulf of mexico. expected to rapidly intensify

into an extremely dangerous category 3 storm before hitting florida's big bend region early tomorrow morning. you can see here the first signs of impact in the u.s. on the coast. taking pictures. idalia's gusty winds whipping up waves at the southernmost point on key west. a major concern right now is the risk of a dangerous life-threatening storm surge. water could rise as much as 15 feet in some areas. ten florida counties are now under a mandatory evacuation orders. dozens of school districts, colleges and universities are closed. and with just hours left governor ron desantis is suspending tolls along highways warning residents they are running out of time. >> you will start certainly seeing effects of this in different parts of the state later on today. you still have time this morning to be able to make your final preparations. if you are in one of those areas that's in line for some of the major storm surge and you're

told to evacuate, you know, you have time to do that. but you've got to do that now. >> and here is a bird's eye view of the hurricane from the international space station. nasa sharing this video of what's just clearly a sprawling storm. the cnn team tracking every angle. let's begin with chad myers at the cnn weather center. tell us, it's getting closer, getting bigger, more powerful, all those warm waters churning it up. what's the biggest risk right now? >> the biggest risk right now would be landfalling water spouts. also some pretty big gusts across the lower keys. but this is still about 200 miles west of key west proper and then along the southwest coast of florida some of those storms could actually make some small spins. this happens on the eastern side of any hurricane, you can always get a tornado spinup. likely not big ones, just these small ef 0s and 1s. but right now the winds are picking up.

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.

when it comes to wind and damage in a big city, tallahassee, you are in the way. so many big trees. so many big things between you and st. marks. st. marks is going to get a significant tidal surge, likely 12 to 15 feet in downtown st. marks. people there just need to be out. but for you, tallahassee, even a 90-mile-per-hour wind which is in the forecast will bring down so many power lines and so many trees that that's going to be a terrible place to be. if you don't have to be there, get away and let this thing -- this is going to be a week or two before we put all these power lines back up. here's the forecast radar. you see all of these storms coming on shore here. every one of those could spin into a small tornado. and then across parts of georgia into the carolinas with heavy rain. jim, i don't know if you know this. but back before about 2000 more people died because of storm surge per storm than now. right now more people die because of flash flooding

because we know to get out of the way of the storm surge, but it's so very hard to get out of the way of the flooding. what would the people do in florida? where would they evacuate? up here. but there's going to be flooding here. that's the rub. where do you go from here just trying to stay out of the way of all of the hazards, the wind, the tornadoes, the surge and the like? this is a long duration. it's going to probably make landfall sometime after midnight before 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. >> the catcher's mitt you described really resonates because there's nowhere for all that water to go and we're going to be speaking to the mayor of tallahassee in just a few moments. chad myers at the weather center. thanks so much. brianna. right now parts of cuba are in the dark and underwater after idalia brushed by the tip of the island as a tropical storm. some areas getting more than four inches of rain overnight. just check out a time lapse video that we are seeing out of havana where the heavy rainfall essentially made cuba's capital

disappear. look at that. unbelievable. the visibility just disintegrating there. we have cnn's patrick oppmann with us following this story. patrick, we saw there what happened. tell us what you've seen, what you're seeing. >> reporter: well, a glancing blow across the western tip of cuba but still leaving plenty of pain. if you get flooding in your house, if you have trees or electric poles go down near you, it certainly feels like a direct hit. and of course idalia hit here last night as a tropical storm and this morning became a category 1 hurricane. far less powerful than what floridians are facing, but it caused flooding all across the western part of cuba here. in havana we've had heavy rain throughout the morning. it's mostly clear now and the cuban government says they are beginning the process of seeing who has been affected, seeing what communities are still cut off. beginning of course the arduous process, the long process of restoring power. you have tens of thousands of

people to the west of where i am who are going to be without power. and brianna, these are still the same people who are recovering from hurricane ian last year. this is a hard-hit region. already people very much impacted by last year's devastating storm. and this certainly won't help. not nearly as powerful a storm as what florida is going to face in the coming hours. but quite an impact it left here all the same. >> yeah, we can see that in the pictures for sure. patrick oppmann live for us from havana. thank you. i want to bring in cnn's carlos suarez who is live for us in tampa, where the expected storm surge could potentially be a once-in-a-lifetime event. tampa sort of benefiting from a bit of a turn with ian. we're not so sure that's going to happen this time, carlos. can you tell us what you're expecting? >> reporter: that's exactly right, brianna. so the first rounds of mandatory evacuations have gone out. one out in pinellas county just

to the west of us. that is home to st. pete as well as clearwater. and then there's another mandatory evacuation order that has gone out here in hillsborough county. that is home to the tampa bay area. and the reason why is exactly what chad laid out just a few minutes ago. the storm surge associated with this hurricane. we're talking about anywhere between four to seven feet. so you can imagine that a lot of these low-lying areas in the tampa bay area will most likely flood. you're taking a look at one of the neighborhoods out here in the downtown tampa bay area that has been evacuated because of all this concern associated with the storm surge. we expect anywhere between four to seven feet of this storm surge to move through, most likely tomorrow. so of course there is a concern that with all of this water coming into the bay as well as some of the four to eight inches of rain that then we are going to see some pretty significant flooding in this part of southwest florida.

across the river out here, tampa general hospital, they've already got their floodgates up. we're told that that can handle up to 15 feet of a storm surge. but as you mentioned, brianna, this time last year this part of tampa was seeing a similar threat with yet another powerful storm off the coast of florida. however, that storm ended up passing to the south of here. and so the folks out here, they're getting ready, they've got their sandbags, they've opened up hurricane shelters and they're getting ready for whatever may come their way although right now it seems the storm is just going to hug the coast and miss the tampa bay area. brianna? >> carlos suarez live for us in tampa. thank you. jim? >> also in the crosshairs tallahassee. and join meg now is the mayor of tallahassee, florida, john daly. mayor, i know it's busy where you are. thanks for taking the time this afternoon. >> thanks, jim. appreciate it. >> so we just heard our chad myers describe the particular threat from storm surge and just how all that water as it heads up your way has no place to go

but inland. what is the biggest threat to tallahassee right now, and how are you preparing? >> well, being a tree city usa and having over 55% of the city of tallahassee under a canopy, as you can imagine tropical storm winds and hurricane-force winds, live oaks and power lines don't mix together. we have been preparing. we have backup plans to our backup plans. we've called in our mutual aid agreements from as far away as oklahoma, nebraska, ohio, kentucky, louisiana. we know that we're going to suffer some damage with our electrical infrastructure, and we are prepared to respond after the storm comes through. >> as you know, trees are dangerous too. are folks listening to the evacuation orders that are in place now? >> our community has really stepped up to the plate and responded. i'm very proud of the citizens. we are tallahassee strong. we know that this is a serious storm. we know it's going to impact

tallahassee. and so when you drive around tallahassee you can see people are gassing up, the grocery stores are full. people are making the necessary preparations, checking on family and friends to make sure that they're safe. we've opened up our shelters as well, not only for our residents but to be able to take in evacuees from the coastal communities as well. and we are prepared. we're finishing up and getting ready to hunker down for the storm. >> you mentioned cooperation agreements. when folks have to evacuate they of course have to go to other communities. sometimes they have to travel a long distance to do so. how are those communities responding to your requests for help? are they able to accommodate the folks heading their way? >> so we are blessed to have incredible mutual aid agreements with municipalities from literally all over the country. when they get hit with storm events the city of tallahassee comes to their aid. and here we are facing this storm and they have graciously decided to come to our aid as well. again, we have mutual aid agreements with municipalities as far away as nebraska and oklahoma and ohio, and they are

en route. they will be arriving this afternoon. some crews will be arriving tomorrow. what that allows us to do, jim, is not only do we have great men and women that work for the city of tallahassee electric, and we are the largest utility provider in the big bend area, but it's going to allow us to double our force so that when we talk about restoration after the storm having that type of manpower is crucial. and we are truly appreciative of all the communities that are sending help. >> you mentioned the trees. tallahassee, of course, surrounded by lakes. that can present a sort of secondary risk of flooding beyond the storm, the storm surge. how concerned are you about that, and how lasting might that be? >> sure. for the past week we have been working diligently to make sure that the entire stormwater system, which is about 450 miles' worth of stormwater in the city of tallahassee has been cleaned out, there's no clogs. we've been working with our

electric utility as well to make sure the power lines are clear. we operate over 4,000 miles of both distribution and transmission lines. so there's been a lot of work behind the scenes by the great men and women of the city of tallahassee to make sure that we are prepared as well as we possibly can be going into the storm, and then we're going to hunker down and once the storm moves through we will be prepared for restoration afterwards. but it is a concern. absolutely. >> well, listen, good luck to you, mayor daley, and the people of tallahassee, we wish you the best in these coming days. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> and we will be hearing shortly from the fema administrator in terms of federal, national preparations for this approaching storm. of course we'll bring you those updates and those comments as they come. brianna. in the meantime, the funeral of russian mercenary chief yevgeny prigozhin was held privately at a cemetery in st. petersburg today. prigozhin of course killed in a plane crash on august 23rd. two months to the day since staging a mutiny against russian

president vladimir putin. cnn's matthew chance is at the grave site for prigozhin. matthew, quite a sight to see there. tell us what you are seeing. >> reporter: well, it's been quite an extraordinary day, brianna. the authorities have gone to huge lengths to try and cover up where the funeral was going to actually take place. they put security barricades and metal detectors outside other cemeteries in st. petersburg. meanwhile, the actual funeral took place here about an hour drive outside of st. petersburg, the russian city. you can see we've come here now, we're not allowed into the cemetery, but there's all these security guards, actually members of the national guard. there's armed sort of snipers outside the various perimeter points as well. so they're imposing really tight security on this entire area to make sure that people don't go

in, presumably so people don't go in and pay their respects. i don't quite know why, but obviously they're very insecure indeed about that. i just want to show you the closest we can get, though, to the grave site because if you come over here you can look through the branches over there into the middle of this quite small cemetery and you can see a russian flag. you can see some flowers there that have been arranged. and there's a very simple wooden cross which you may not be able to see now. but that's yevgeny prigozhin's grave site. it's actually right next door to where his father was buried as well. that's obviously one of the reasons why this cemetery was picked. but i think the other reason is that it's just so out of the way and that the authorities could kind of pretend it was somewhere else but actually hold it here without much publicity. and that's what they've managed to do. i say, though, a lot of security. we're not permitted to go in for the moment. this is as close as we're going to get. brianna. >> it's a beautiful place, though, with the trees and very

peaceful area there. notwithstanding all of the armed guards and onlookers as well. matthew chance, thank you so much for showing us that. we appreciate it. jim? we are waiting for a key court decision in georgia. a judge set to rule on whether mark meadows can move his case to federal court. that decision could potentially impact the cases of donald trump and his other co-defendants. and this just in to cnn. francis suarez says he is out. the republican says he is suspending his 2024 presidential campaign. we're going to have the latest on that. and the hawaii power company facing lawsuits over the deadly wildfires, issuing their first strong pushback against claims the power company started it. what they say actually happened, just ahead. uuuhhhh... here, i'll take that! wowoohoo! ensure max protein, 30 grams of protein, 1 gram of sugar. enter the $10,000 powered by protein max challenge. ♪ ♪ my cpa told me i wouldn't qualify for the erc tax refund,

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needs that they may foresee and we'll remain in close contact with all of them in the hours and the days to come as hurricane idalia makes landfall and moves across these states. as the president said to governor desantis in his own conversations yesterday, fema and the entire federal family are activated to support the people of florida. the president also quickly approved an emergency declaration in advance of the storm in florida, turning on the many tools that are available at my disposal to provide the governor any support or resources he may need in advance of landfall and then after. this allows me to prestage people, equipment, and resources in florida, georgia and the carolinas. and i have done just that. we have prepositioned different

types of resources across all three states to include several incident management assistance teams, our urban search and rescue teams, our disaster survivor assistance teams. and they are all ready to pivot to the most impacted areas immediately after the storm passes. we also have warehouses filled with commodities like food, water, blankets and medical supplies that are ready to rapidly move into the impacted area at the state's request. but we are not in this alone. we have an entire federal family that is postured to support. our national response coordination center here in washington, d.c. is fully activated, and this means that there are several hundred staff from across the federal family that are working together to support any requests for federal assistance. we have our partners from the u.s. army corps of engineers who are prepositioned to support any power restoration needs. health and human services is assisting with evacuations from hospitals and assisted living

centers. and the red cross has 50,000 meals to support the immediate needs as requested and has restaged shelter support to supplement the 19 shelters that are already open by the state. this is a really important point that i want to talk about next. it's unpreparedness. and again, i really ask for all of your help to help me ensure the people in the storm's path get this message. while we are engaged with our states to prepare for the path of this storm it's critical that the people that are in the path of this storm are also prepared. and i know that the people of florida are no stranger to storms, and i encourage all floridians to take this storm seriously. this storm is very strong and is expected to strengthen to a major hurricane by the time it makes landfall due to high surface temperatures in the gulf of mexico. this means heavy winds, high winds, heavy rain and a

forecasted 12-foot storm surge in some of the areas along the western coast. this storm surge, this is one of the highest risk parts of a hurricane and is especially problematic along the west coast of florida due to the underwater geography. the coastal shelf gets shallow very quickly, which increases the amount of the storm surge, putting more people at risk. very few people can survive being in the path of major storm surge, and this storm will be deadly if we don't get out of harm's way and take it seriously. so i ask all floridians to be vigilant and heed the warnings of your local officials, have a plan to communicate with your family and your loved ones, charge your cell phones, your batteries, any devices that you may have and ensure that you are receiving emergency alerts. and most important, please listen to the warnings of local

officials. if they tell you to evacuate, please do so immediately. and remember, you don't have to evacuate far. if you are in a storm surge warning area, it could mean just traveling 10 or 20 miles to get out of the most significant impact areas. it does not mean having to travel hundreds of miles to get out of the storm's path. and finally, we are all in this together. i ask that you check on your neighbors, especially those who are older adults, people living with disabilities or may need additional assistance. but before i close i want to provide an update on another topic that has been widely reported in recent days and asked by many of you. fema's disaster relief fund, which as of this morning has a balance of $3.4 billion. so today i am directing the implementation of immediate needs funding. this means that fema will prioritize available funding for

critical response efforts to idalia, the maui fires, and any other extreme weather events that may come our way without interruption. while continuing to meet the immediate needs of survivors through the remaining weeks of the fiscal year. i want to repeat, we are prioritizing funding for idalia, for the maui fires, and any other extreme weather events that are coming our way without interruption. and i want to stress that while immediate needs funding will ensure we can continue to respond to disasters, it is not a permanent solution. congress must work with us on the supplemental request that the administration has made on behalf of fema. and you are going to hear more from me on that soon. my primary responsibility at fema is to ensure that we are always postured to respond to any disaster and to provide the life-saving and life-sustaining

support when needed. and with that i'll take any questions. >> can you relate what your conversation, what you talked about with governor desantis and add any details about what coordination you're undertaking with florida officials? >> yes. when i spoke with governor desantis yesterday, my main question is always what are your main concerns, what are the areas that you have the greatest concern about and do you have any unmet needs or resources that we can bring in? he shared with me what his posture at the state is going to be and where he has some great concerns, and we are working and embedded with his staff, and i assured him that we have teams working side by side with our colleagues, our emergency management colleagues there at the state emergency operations center to be able to quickly respond as needed. >> can i ask, following up really quick, what were those concerns that he had at that time? >> he shared with me the concern, again, about people taking this seriously and being able to evacuate as a result of the storm surge. he has concerns about the

vulnerable populations and making sure we are providing any assistance we can to help them get out of harm's way. >> you mentioned the supplemental requests after getting a fuller idea of what has happened in hawaii and with the storm threatening a severe impact do you anticipate raising the level of the supplemental request? >> right now the supplemental request that we have put in is $12 billion, and that will be a bridge to get us through the end of the fiscal year. if we continue to see more storms, we're going to continuously monitor very closely the health of the disaster relief fund to determine what more may be needed. but right now as the situation stands the supplemental request will get us through the end of the fiscal year. >> in some places there is frustration with institutions and authorities. we've seen that in the wake of some other disasters. do you have concern about people taking the warnings from public

officials, acting on them? and what we saw with hurricane ian there was a -- the forecast indicated it was going one place. it went farther south. and some people did not get out of the way. so my question is given what we don't know, are you concerned that there is any wariness, mistrust, or fatigue about listening to officials in times of crisis like this? >> i think the important thing to look at and when we look at hurricane ian is it's not just the path of the hurricane we need to be concerned about. we have to be communicating what the entire risk and the significant risk and the highest risk for loss of life is storm surge. and that storm surge right now shows impacts all along the western coast. and so i encourage people and i really appreciate your help in getting that message out that it's not just the path of the storm and it will continue to change, but look at all of the risks that are associated with this storm, storm surge being

the most life-threatening, not just where the path is going to go or where the eye of the storm is going to make landfall. >> and in terms of the credibility of authorities, do you sense that there is any erosion of that at a time when you're trying to get that message out? >> i don't have any indications that there are. i think what we are seeing right now in florida is people are heeding their advice, of local officials, and people are moving out of harm's way. >> thank you. i want to go back to hurricane ian. when hurricane ian hit, you had many communities of color, you also had poor communities complaining that they were not prioritized during this time. so they didn't get necessary relief that they wanted and they felt like they were kind of put on the back burner. many of these areas are in places that are more physically vulnerable. what is your message to those who have that concern that there may be a repeat in their community? >> so during hurricane ian we had a large amount of people that were impacted by that storm

and we had teams of personnel that went out into communities across the state. and as we heard stories of maybe pockets of people we may have missed we immediately sent our teams out in those areas to make sure they were getting registered for assistance and we were bringing all the resources that were available. what i would say is if you hear about groups of individuals in parts of the state that after the storm passes are of need and they aren't getting that let me know. i will send my teams out to those areas to make sure that they're getting all of the assistance that they're eligible for and that they need. >> thanks a lot. fema of course has been dealing with the aftermath of the wildfires in maui and now you're preparing for a very powerful hurricane hitting florida's southwest coast. to what extent is fema overtended or stretched too thin in dealing with these two natural disasters? >> we are certainly postured and have the staff that are available to support multiple large events at the same time. we do have several open recovery

disasters that we can pull some personnel from if we needed to extend or increase the amount of personnel we have. we also have a very layered approach. we can also reach out into all members of the department of homeland security through what we call the surge capacity force for individuals that have volunteered to support during the disaster. so i'm confident right now that with these two storms we're currently dealing with in maui and this one or even another one to come that we have enough personnel to go in and support these immediate life-saving efforts. >> one last question. >> you mentioned just extreme weather that we've seen all summer from, you know, hawaii, storms in southern california. is this in your view the new normal, just summers where we're seeing these kinds of events more frequently and maybe more intense events than before? >> what i can say is that we don't have a typical operational season like we've had in the past. we would normally prepare our

staff to be extra alert during the peak of hurricane season, which is where we find ourselves right now. but our operational tempo has been year-round. we started with atmospheric rivers in california in january, extreme tornadoes in the spring, to the wildfires. and now we are in peak hurricane season. and we have had an unprecedented number of disaster requests from governors because of the extreme weather that they're experiencing. this is our new normal. this is the operational tempo that we find ourselves in, and we have to continue to invest in mitigation, in resilience to help these communities reduce the impact from these storms so we don't have such complicated recoveries afterward. >> all right. that is fema chief deann criswell who is worning about the storm surge in florida. she's been in touch with governor ron desantis who says he's concerned about

evacuations, people taking this storm seriously, taking that storm surge seriously, which in some places could be as high as 10 to 15 feet. and he's concerned about vulnerable populations as well. she has and fema have positioned people from fema in florida but also in georgia, south carolina and north carolina because this is a big storm that is going to be moving through those states with flood risks in those areas. and it was interesting to hear her warn about how that warmer ocean water that we have seen in the gulf this year is really expected to rev up this particular hurricane, south florida last month maybe setting a world record. triple-digit water. that's right. over 100 degrees on two different days. this is really seriously a concern that it could be fueling this hurricane idalia that we are watching. so we are going to continue to

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we are awaiting a major ruling on a major player in donald trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. mark meadows, his former white house chief of staff, testifying for more than three hours yesterday, and he did not shy away from his role as trump's point person in the weeks after the 2020 election. instead, he sought to convince the judge that coordinating trump's strategy to upend the election was actually part of his official government duties. meadows' lawyers say that's why his georgia case should be moved to federal court. but whatever the outcome of that hearing, the testimony could have huge consequences for both election cases that trump is facing. let's talk about this now with cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider. first off, jessica, we should talk about the timeline here because the judge did not give a firm timeline on when there would be a ruling on this and we are expecting on september 6th for there to be this arraignment process for all the georgia

defendants. could we see meadows actually get arraigned before this decision comes down? >> it's unclear at this point. because the judge did acknowledge in this hearing that he was well aware that mark meadows and of course the 18 other defendants including the former president are scheduled to appear in court on september 6th. but i will note it's likely that most if not all of these defendants actually won't be physically in court on that day. we've already seen one of the defendants, ray smith, who was a campaign attorney for the 2020 election for trump, he's already waived his appearance sig i'm going to submit my not guilty plea, i'm waiving not being in court. so it's likely the former president will waive, meadows will waive if he needs to, other defendants will waive or appear virtually. it's likely we won't see anything in the courtroom itself. >> meadows is trying very hard

to convince this judge to move his case out of georgia to a federal court. we heard marc short tell alex markrd on "the situation room" last night, in a way sort of wondering, hey, on this call meadows was a part of he was bringing in outside lawyers. this isn't meadows bringing in white house counsel, an indication that this isn't actually part of his job as white house chief of staff. >> and that was exactly the point prosecutors in yesterday's hearing were trying to make. of course mark meadows was up on the stand for about 3 1/2 hours pressing this idea and this argument that as the president's chief of staff he had to really intervene or oversee every single thing that the president wanted to do including making this call to brad raffensperger. but the prosecution had exactly the point that marc short was making yesterday on our air, saying that this really went way outside the bounds of his role as chief of staff and because of that fani willis and her team,

they called one of these trump campaign lawyers to the stand to talk about, well, you were a campaign lawyer, so obviously this was along the lines of a campaign, this wasn't official business. that was the point they were trying to hammer home. but i will say meadows made a forceful argument being on the stand for 3 1/2 hours really trying to say everything that i did was within my realm as chief of staff just because it's such an expansive job in his view. >> it seems like maybe anything goes in a white house where they hold the convention in the white house. but actually, anything does not go. so it's going to be interesting to see how the courts decide. >> it could be any moment. it could be today. it could be later this week or could be early next week before the wednesday arraignment date. >> we'll be watching for that. jessica schneider, thank you so much. jim. the super pac supporting former new jersey governor chris christie's presidential campaign is out with a new campaign ad in the state of new hampshire today. the ad goes directly after donald trump and it features trump's new mug shot, trying to make the case that he cannot win

in the general election. >> tired of the drama, the distractions, the lies? it's time for conservatives to win again. a real conservative. christie tells the truth. and he'll beat joe biden, easily. >> going after the telling the truth argument as well. cnn national politics correspondent eva mckend is joining us. you've been spending a lot of time with republican voters in new hampshire. and i wonder based on what you've seen there are they receptive to this christie message? >> well, jim, governor christie has made going after the former president central to his campaign, and he is banking on the former president having vulnerabilities in new hampshire. the electorate there is just not the same as in iowa, for instance. if you listen to some of these local town halls and the issues that they raise, they'll ask these candidates, for instance, how they plan to work with democrats to get stuff done. so that is why governor christie thinks he can be competitive here. but still an uphill battle

because we know that trump's base of support among -- continues to be strong and that he's running on the mug shot himself. so he is not, you know, embarrassed at all by this i guess alleged criminality. >> i suppose what works in some states might not work in others. it's always possible. we've just learned that one in that big gop presidential field, one candidate is out, francis suarez. he was always something of a long shot. was this a surprise? >> no. not all that surprising because his campaign has gone quiet in the last several days. and if you remember, jim, he even said that if you couldn't make the debate stage then you should drop out. he narrowly did not make it. listen, he says that he'll still be involved. i'm curious to see if other candidates court his support. he has talked about the importance of being competitive in cities and also being competitive among latino voters and thought he was uniquely suited to make that case.

i don't think this is the last we hear from mayor suarez, but he won't be competing for the presidential nomination. >> maybe not his race this year. eva mckend, thanks so much. brianna. >> hurricane idalia strengthening and approaching the florida coast. any minute now florida governor ron desantis is set to be speaking about this storm. we are going to bring that to you. stay with "cnn news central." >> woman: why did we choose safelite? we were loading our suv when... crack! safelite came right to us, and we could see exactly when they'd arrive with a replacement we could trust. that's service theway we. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, felite replace. ♪

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david: i'm david goldberg, a bilingual elementary school teacher and president of the california teachers association. as we start a new school year, there's something new happening in california's public schools. jessie: they're called community schools. david: where parents and families, students and educators are making decisions as one. damien: it's a real sense of community. leslie: we saw double-digit gains in math, in english, and reading scores. david: it's an innovation that's transforming our public schools. narrator: california's community schools: reimagining public education. florida governor ron desantis is giving an update on the state's preparations for hurricane dahlia and speaking from lake city, florida, let's

listen in. >> be prepared, so we're talking about counties like columbia. we're talking about counties like hamilton, madison, all of those counties are going to be affected by hurricane idalia. we are monitoring some of these computer models. you may see the national hurricane center update, the track at either the 2:00 or 5:00 advisory. there are models suggesting this is going to take more of a westward shift that could bring it into areas like jefferson, and leon, and people know this is a possibility, and all of those counties are making preparations. that is something to look out for. there's still a range of uncertainty here. they're going to be up dating this track as the day goes on, and we'll have better resolution at the 2:00 or 5:00 advisory. that's a possibility.

we have been in contact with all the local officials in all of these areas, and people are making preparations. continue to do that. the state is feeling the effects of this in the southern part of the state. you're going to start to feel effects of it in the northern part of the state, probably later tonight, the beginning of tomorrow morning. we have expanded our executive order this morning. we now have 49 counties total. we've added brevard, orange, and osceola counties, and so, you know, pretty much that top of the state into central florida, including the panhandles. there's a huge number that are going to feel impacts from this. we're proud of all the staging that's been done, particularly for power restoration. we're now at over 25,000 linemen, as of this morning, that is going to be over 30,000, approaching 40,000, by the end

of today, and the goal is when the power, and you are going to lose power if you're in the path of the storm. you should assume that's going to happen and the goal is going to be rapid restoration of power. some of the parts where this storm is projected to go, a lot of trees, a lot of branches, a lot of power lines down, just expect that, there's a lot of manpower that's going to go to address it. it's definitely going to be something that's going to require a lot of manpower and a lot of attention. so power restoration is something that is very very important, and we want to thank all the utilities that have marshalled. we've got people coming from southeastern states. we've got people coming from nebraska. coming to florida to be ready to go to restore power here in the state of florida, and we think that's important. the local municipalities that have utilities, the electric co-ops, all of those, accept the

mutual aid. we want to be able to have as much manpower as possible to get the power back on for the residents, and we know how important it is for so many florida residents to be able to get back online. you should prepare to have some time without power if you're somebody that's in the path of the storm, and by the path, it doesn't mean just in the cone because there's going to be impacts that are going to be outside whatever the national hurricane center says is the path of the storm. there have been evacuation orders issued for people on coastal areas, barrier islands, low lying areas. you still have time, particularly if in the northern part of the state you have time to be able to evacuate. you don't need to drive hundreds of miles. you don't need to outrun the storms. get to higher ground, into a safe structure, ride out the storm, and you can go back to your place, but in some of these areas, like a cedar key, some of these others, along the big bend, you know, you're talking

about really, really significant storm surge potential. i mean, this is similar, 10, 12 plus feet of storm surge, could happen, in some of those areas, and the storm surge is not something, you're not going to win that battle, if you decide to stay. stay behind for that. you run away from the water. and then you hide from the wind. and so in florida, if you get away from where the surge is going to hit, you know, most of the structures that we have particularly things that have been built until the last 20, 30 years, you know, those are going to be fine for a category 3 storm. and so you can hunker down there on higher ground where the storm surge isn't going to be a threat, but if you're putting yourself, hunkering down in an area that could get hit by 10, 12 feet of storm surge, you know, that is a life threatening situation, and we saw that with hurr hurricane ian, just how massive the storm surge was. you are going to see parts of the coast, probably in the big bend area that is going to have really significant storm surge.

we actually anticipate the national hurricane center to increase their estimates for the storm surge, particularly in the big bend from where it was this morning, so please be advised. you've got time. you've got the ability to do. i know all of these counties have opened up shelters. you can go stay with friends, family, i know there's deals on hotels. you still have time to do that if you're in this big bend area. time is running out very very rapidly. we are working with counties to make sure they have the resources they need to be able to help their residents weather this hurricane. we have had more than 450 active missions. we have fulfilled or will have those fulfilled sometime today, all 450 of them, and i want to thank the florida division of emergency management for doing that. we're now up to 1.1 million gallons of fuel that is on stand by to be able to mitigate any

fuel entinterruptions, sometime you have it, sometimes you don't. we would rather be safe than sorry. that fuel is there and can be deployed as needed if there is an interruption in fuel. we have urban search and rescue teams from the state of florida are activated and ready to go. hopefully they're not going to have anything too old. -- to do. hopefully everybody got out of town in the low lying areas, and vulnerable areas. hopefully there's not a need for rescues, we assume they will be. they're going to be there and do their thing which they do very very well. we have a lot of assets available. we have 5,500 national guardsmen. we have rotary wing assets, all of that is ready, locked and loaded to be deployed as needed. we have deployed almost 250 star link internet devices, and we have over 500 staged that can be sent to areas that need it once the storm passes by. we have 3,000 state and ready to

deploy -- excuse me, we have over 700 personnel, cut and crew members with pieces of heavy equipment and trucks strategically placed across the state to prepare for cut and toss operations post storm. that is going to be necessary. hurricane ian, because it was a more populated area, the amount of tree degree and some of the others on the road, while there was definitely some, it's probably not going to be as much as this storm will be because you've got a lot of wooded areas. you're going to see a lot of branches go down, and so we have people standing by to be able to help clear the roads. and that's important just for pedestrian traffic but also important for emergency response traffic. so that's something that's going to be really really important. once the storm passes, or once you lose power, if you use a generator, please use the generator appropriately. you cannot run the generator in

your home. you can't run the generator in your garage. you can die from carbon monoxide poisoning. it's got to be outside your house. 20 feet away from doors and windows. and the exhaust needs to be pointing away from your house. please use that appropriately. there's obviously a need for power generation in these circumstances. we understand that. make sure that's being done outside and there's not exhaust coming into your house. we're going to be heading back after this to tallahassee to continue with preparation efforts. in the meantime, we'll hear from director guthrie, director morgan, and cfo jimmy petronis. >> thank you, governor, and thank you for your continued support and leadership in this disaster. i'm going to pick up where the governor left off about generator safety. please make sure that's 20 feet outside of your home. i know we've -- >> you're hearing emergency officials following governor ron desantis i