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. we are tracking some major breaking news this morning. the worst of hurricane idalia is now striking florida as an extremely dangerous category 3

storm. >> idalia was packing 125 mile per hour winds as florida's vulnerable big bend coast took a direct hit, we are now seeing catastrophic storm surge and flooding, conditions have been called apocalyptic and are life-threatening. major bridges in tampa are closing as they get lashed with waves. and this, this is what winds of 125 miles per hour look like. you can see the gusts driving the rain and at one point sending debris flying across this parking lot. this is happening in perry, florida. water still rising with storm surges up to 16 feet possible in some areas. just about one hour ago white caps were starting to hit the front yard of this orange home in steinhatchee, water nearing the roofline. >> the images are simply unprecedented. this is historic because idalia is now the strongest storm to make landfall in the big bend region in 125 years.

we want to take you to the region now. "cnn news central" anchors john berman and sara sidner are kicking off our live team coverage. john is in tallahassee, sara is in crystal river. john, what are you seeing where you are? >> i'm in tallahassee, the capital of florida, where it is raining at times heavily, where the wind has been picking up, gusts here have been 40 to 50 miles per hour. tallahassee has never been hit with hurricane-force winds, unclear if that will happen as the storm is now passing south and a little bit to the east of here, but tallahassee will be very much in this severe storm zone for several hours. the major concern and the thing i think we want to stress all morning long, is the danger from hurricane idalia is not over and, in fact, might very well be increasing right along the coast. the storm made landfall in

keaton beach but in steinhatchee the storm surge could increase over the next several hours. the water levels could rise over the next several hours as the tide goes up and as that wind even though the eye of the storm has moved inland, not far from where i am right now, even though the eye has moved inland, the winds are still moving in the direction pushing the water up on the shore. so this is still a very dangerous storm and there are certain areas we don't have eyes on yet to know how bad the storm surge is, even as it continues to get worse. as i said, here in tallahassee the capital, this is where governor ron desantis and other state officials are coordinating the storm response, they can't get out much right now, they can't move around even here because there are times -- and you will see over the next few hours -- there are times when the bands move through here and the wind is coming in from this direction blowing debris and it's simply blinding. they are expecting 6 to 10 inches of rain here which could

lead to severe flesh water flooding, puddling and things. they don't want people out, they don't want people driving. there are trees, big beautiful trees in some cases all over this city and this inland region. so many reports now of trees down. major tree damage in areas. so getting around, getting the response teams to the places they need to be, whether it be in the inland areas or along the coast where the storm surge is will be very, very difficult. as boris and rahel said, we have people all over the gulf coast and now inland as the storm moves inland -- here is some wind coming in -- to cover this storm as it moves through into georgia. i'm in tallahassee. let's go down the coast, sara sidner is in crystal river. sara experiencing, i think, some of that storm surge. >> yeah, we absolutely are. it is really starting to show, rear its ugly head, if you will, now. i am about 165 miles south of

where john s i want to give you a view of what we're seeing in crystal river. now, crystal river is a very low-lying place, it's 3,400 or so people who live here, residents, it's a small town. it is also a town where the entire area of the town is in a flood zone, which is why authorities asked people diligently please to evacuate because of the storm surge, not necessarily because of the winds. we are not getting hurricane-force winds, we are getting tropical storm force winds and some of the rain is coming down. probably about 15 minutes ago, maybe 20 minutes ago this was clear. there was not water here. this is the parking lot of the best western hotel for anyone who has been to crystal river. the parking lot now has, i don't know, about a foot of water that is covering the parking lot. this was not the case 15 minutes ago, but you can see we were standing early this morning

right where that blue sign is that shows florida's treasure, which is the manatee and showing this is where people come to see manatees. now we are seeing the water really rise, really come up. here is the deal, this isn't even the worst of the storm surge. this is just the beginning. we are just past low tide. low tide. high tide is not expected until about 4:30 this afternoon. so we have a ways to go and at 4:30 this afternoon we will really see what the effect of this storm will be on crystal river because this is about a storm surge event and a rain event, not so much here a wind event. we are not seeing damage from very strong winds. we are only seeing floodwaters rise up here. we are right next to the water, but almost the entire town is at this same level, near sea level, and that is why they have been trying to get people to evacuate. i do want to give you some sense of what we've been seeing around

here. there are people that have stayed. there are some people who have come to this hotel because it has a second story. most homes in florida do not have basements. there is no reason for them because they would be inundated with water without a hurricane. very low water table here. so most people don't have basements, but a lot of people are very near the water. i'm going to give you an example. when i say very near i mean on the water. do you see this house right here? now, that house is not technically flooded because the bottom story of that house they have actually guilt so that water can come in, there's nothing down there. they live on sort of the second floor of that, but the water where it is right now is a few feet up that house. it is going to at least double that. so you see that window there that is closest to the boats and the water, the water could come up very close to that, if it gets to 9 feet. that's a lot of water. that's over my head by a lot. so that's the big concern here. it is the storm surge, the

flooding, and we have this thing called a king tide. something that we don't see every day. it is a strange conglomeration of a lot of different things happening at once. a hurricane, a major hurricane that has not hit this area like this in about 125 years, and you have this conglomeration of the stars, you have the moon going to be a majorly -- i've forgotten what they call it, i'm sure john will remember because he is a genius and you will see a king tide and that will cause serious problems when you have this kind of weather pushing the water off and on to shore. john? >> yeah, it's a super moon, i think, sara, tonight or expected very soon. >> thank you. i knew it. >> the moon closer chad myers keeps on telling us. chad myers tells us the moon is closer to earth than it's been, which is making the tides more powerful, which is the exact wrong time for this.

to emphasize what sara is saying, storm surge is happening right now and getting worse. i just got word that idalia is now a category 2 storm as it moves inland. the wind speeds are decreasing, but as bad as the wind is, about 100, 105 miles per hour, that's not the story we're most concerned about right now. it is the storm surge. i'm going to go to bill weir who is in steinhatchee right on the coast. bill, i was with you there last night. i just saw pictures of where we were standing last night. the water is now over where our heads were, substantially over where our heads were. just tell us what you're seeing. >> well, this is the steinhatchee river where you did that live shot yesterday, the banks of it. it norm it alley would flow from east to west, but right now, thanks to the dirty side of idalia, it is pumping upriver now. we're watching pieces of the sea hag marina and those docks and

everything between here and there floating, being pushed upriver now. i saw an entire dock, sailboat still attached, going upriver. concern for the few sailors who decided to ride it out on their boats just around the bend here. we did our morning shots down where the white buildings are, around the other side where the water was at its normal level. now it's over the road. we are hiding from the wind behind the cedar block motel and are ready to run from the water. thankfully we have a way out of here and we are at about 25 feet of elevation. it gives you a perspective now. this has got to be, i don't know -- i'd have to guess it's 10 feet of storm surge. we don't have the sea hag as difference from the long time locales here who were here in 2016 when it got to 6 feet, but, i mean, your heart breaks for the family, the couple that owns this motel and the marina across

the street and they had cleaned out all the inventory yesterday in anticipation of a worst-case scenario. this is their worst-case scenario, at least for the boat operation. the motel thankfully should be okay up here. the wind gusts now -- really it wasn't until the last 20 minutes that we started to see some really nasty winds, it was oddly calm most of the morning, but now it is pounding, john berman, and you wouldn't recognize the place. i have a pit in my stomach thinking about driving around here yesterday. it's sort of a hidden jewel, this town of about 1,000. amazing fishing, birding here, we are next to the nature coast and you just have to worry about folks' livelihood and their lives in the near term. john? >> and lives are what's most important and so many people did go, but some people did stay there. bill, you say the steinhatchee moving inland, the water is

flowing inland with the storm surge as it is. if it continues to get worse, what is worse like there? can you even fathom what it would be like if this goes up another 2, 3, 4 feet? >> yeah, it would just mean more total losses of property, you know, most of the older construction, that's what makes it so charming, the old fishing shacks are here, but there's also retiree communities, prefabricated mobile home type places are no match for this storm surge. i'm looking across the river and there's some newer construction up on stilts, it looks like they're going to be okay. again, there's always those neighborhoods that show what resilience looks like for those who put in that initial investment, but, again, this is sort of one of the least populated areas of florida, so if there's any kind of silver lining it's not like a major center like tampa taking the

brunt of this, but that's cold comfort to the people who live here and are worried about everything they have. >> no, their lives are there, bill. please, to you and your team, stay safe. keep up posted there. it is a treacherous situation in steinhatchee and, again, predicted to get worse. as bill just mentioned the population in steinhatchee is anywhere from 500 people to 1,000 fending on the season. it's not much. it's a sparsely populated area all along where idalia made landfall. it's a different story further south. tampa is not where it made landfall, per se, but it is experiencing very dangerous storm surge. let's go to derek van dam who is there. derek, what are you seeing? >> well, john, exactly what you're saying, this proves the point that you don't need to be near the center of the storm to feel the impacts of this major hurricane which now, i believe, is a category 2.

let me set the stage here. this is bay shore boulevard. tampa directly over my shoulder and a very angry tampa bay over my left shoulder. we've been watching the water pound in across this beautiful boulevard. as john was mentioning this is a more highly populated area compared to the cedar key region, for instance. remember that this is the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the big bend in over 125 years. so why are we here? we are talking about the storm surge and we just a moment ago before crossing to me we saw high water rescue vehicles from the tampa bay police drive behind us so they are out investigating these communities directly impacted here along the shoreline of tampa bay and what we've noticed here is the water receding by, let's say, 6 inches, perhaps a foot, but we're concerned because we know that we are in a low tide cycle right now, the high tide occurs about 2:00 this afternoon.

we already set record high -- record storm surge in the east bay and old port tampa, old tampa port, earlier this morning, and now as we approach another high tide according to the mayor who we had on in our 8:00 show is talking about the worst is still yet to come. there are three factors at play and that being the super moon, which is on its closest approach to earth, so that has that tug on the tides, it makes the low tides more exaggerated and it makes the high tides more exaggerated. so super moon, we have inland flooding from the interiors parts of the florida peninsula and then we had that tremendous amount of water that has surged in ahead of idalia. so all of these three working in combination to create the storm surge threat from tampa bay, northward into the big bend and we are worried that this water will continue to rise as we reach that high tide level later this afternoon with all of those

three working against us. the tornado threat here is real, we understand that as well. the flash flooding inland is real. so so many components to this very dynamic storm, but really our storm surge threat is our greatest concern here, john. remember, you can hide from the wind, but you can't outrun the storm surge, right? this is dangerous and it means busi business. >> yeah, absolutely. derek van dam in tampa. it is dangerous and the storm surge is why tens if not hundreds of thousands of people up and down the gulf coast, around the big bend where i am right now up to tallahassee need to be on high alert and need to be vigilant for several more hours because the storm surge could very well get worse. as bad as it was where derek van dam is standing in tampa and as awful as it is in steinhatchee where bill weir is could see the

waters rise even more. sara, it's hard to even imagine what that means at this point. >> i agree. and you talked about in several hours things could get worse. we are not going to see high tide here in crystal river, florida, until 4:00. that's in seven hours. so we have seven hours to watch this water. by the way, it's not inching up, it is -- it is flooding up quickly. we keep moving back because the water keeps coming. we are almost at the end of this parking lot here as we are watching the water just rise and rise and rise. if it hits the maximum of what they think it could do, it could be 9 feet. i'm 5'9". we are talking way over my head if those -- that storm surge happens in the way it has been predicted. we are hoping it doesn't. we are hoping it stays a bit lower but no one has ever seen that kind of a storm surge here in modern history. it's been 125 years since the west coast and this part of the

west coast has seen a storm like this, so people need to beware. most people have already evacuated. there is still time, by the way, here in crystal river to leave. we see people actually leaving as this water starts to come up. now, i wanted to get to our next guest who is with us, his name is rob haren, he is well hillsborough county fire and rescue. thank you for what you do and thank you for joining us. can you tell us now at this moment in time what are the dangers for the people who live in hillsborough county as you know it? >> right now it's water and rising water. we have several teams that we had pre-positioned since yesterday that have begun surveying the areas of our lowest-lying areas where hopefully we have had residents that evacuated, sending back the information to our command center. we have law enforcement helping with road closures and we have these teams out doing what we

call windshield assessments, it's kind of a rapid, you know, where we need the most needs and then we will do a technical search and rescue team as citizens need rescue from their homes, we will be there to do it. >> thank you for that. we know that people were told in low-lying areas that they really did need to evacuate. we also know that every hurricane that has ever come through florida or anywhere else for that matter there are always residents who stay. some of whom maybe they can't get out in time o tomorrow of whom are hard headed like me and they stay in place hoping they will survive the storm. can you give me a sense have you seen it like this? your county has seen storms before. your county has gone through tropical storms, flooding, hurricanes, sometimes you get more than one during hurricane season. how is this different or is it? is this something that you think people have seen before there? >> i don't think we've seen anything of this nature in quite

a while within the tampa bay area. you know, we warned against this storm surge. as you said previously, it's now combined with a super moon, a king tide, it's kind of like everything is coming together and it's this delay that we fear that residents will walk outside, see it sunny outside, think everything is fine, but there's more water coming. so we haven't really faced anything like this in a while and like you mentioned, we do have some residents who feel like the tampa bay area has a bubble over it and hopefully, you know, this is enough to keep everybody safe, but get their attention so that if anything in the future happens again they will heed some warnings and go ahead and evacuate. >> the tampa mayor we spoke to last hour, she told us that there were a couple of brings linking pinellas and hillsborough county that have been closed at this point. so those stuck on either side will just have to be there until those bridges are reopened. can you give me some sense of

whether you think that those mess dents who may or may not have heed the warning if they may underestimate these storm surges because where i am, and i know it happens where you are, it gets sunny, it gets nice or it gets a little windy and it seems like everything is okay to go out and go check things out. do you think that there are some people who are seriously going to underestimate the power of this storm surge? >> i think there will be and i'm hopeful that, you know, they do kind of stay -- if they decided not to evacuate, our message now is to stay where you are until you hear the all clear from local officials. we don't need you out on the roads, the roads a lot of those, especially if you are in an area you should have evacuated with impassable, electrical lines could be down. there are so many hazards after the winds and rains have cleared that we need to make sure our residents and visitors are aware of. i'm hopeful there a little bit of a wake-up call for those, i

hope everybody makes it through safely, confident for that, we're ready to respond but at the end of the day i hope it's maybe a little bit of a wake-up call moving forward they will evacuate when asked. >> can you give me some sense, sir, of how many people that you have available, because i know that you all have said this over and over and it's something that people are going to have to live with, that in the midst of this major surge that you can't go out and rescue somebody if you are putting your own people in danger then they would need rescue and it would be a domino effect that does nobody any good. can you give me some sense of the numbers of people that you have from your department who are ready to go when the time is right for them to go out and help people and try to clear roads and try to get to people if they have stayed and are in danger. >> yeah, we have rubbed down our normal crew during a shift. so we have several hundred

firefighters that are ready to respond from the stations. we have also spun up, you know, well over a dozen technical search and rescue teams and rapid needs assessment teams that have specialized personnel. we have boat assets with swift water rescue technicians, several of those that are standing by, we've even moved those to the areas that we anticipate the most need. so hillsborough county fire and rescue is certainly in a position and has already exemplified we're ready to respond and assist those citizens that need us that may not have evacuated. >> rob herrin, thank you so much not only for joining us, i really appreciate that, but thank you for taking care of the citizens the way you do. thank you to your firemen and women who are out there and are going to be there for people. we love our firefighters in this country, they take care of us when times are absolutely the toughest, putting themselves in danger. we surely appreciate you. please take care of yourself and your family for us.

we will check back with you in the next few hours as this storm surge continues to rise. appreciate you, sir. >> thank you. >> all right. let me toss it back now to boris, the pride of hialeah, and ms. rahel. >> thank you, sara. share ration thank you for being there in crystal river, bringing us these pictures. our thanks to sara, john berman. we have reporters up and down the western coast of florida who we will be checking with throughout the show. hurricane idalia now weakening slightly to a category 2. 100,000 people in florida still without power, still flash flooding warning, that sort of thing. >> and the storm surge continues and it is going to get worse because as sara noted a moment ago, high tide is coming in a few hours, already on top of a 12 to 16-foot storm surge in some areas. there is going to be quite an effort at cleanup and obviously as this is ongoing a focus on emergency rescue and other

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welcome back to our breaking news coverage of hurricane idalia. our affiliate was in gulf port, florida, as floodwaters were rising there. >> reporter: all morning long we have been hit with kind of those outer rain bands. it will be raining and then it will stop for a little while and then the wind will move in, the rain will just move in. this area behind me is gulf port, florida, in pinellas county, florida. this area is prone to flooding.

the city says it flooded in the past during tropical storm ada a couple years back. it's right in front of the gulf port casino. the bay is nearby. that's really that storm surge that's pulling the water on to land. this is what county officials were warning people. they say overnight the storm surge would move in and they were concerned about flooding. county officials are surging people not to walk through the water. we have seen several people walk through the waters today and even try to drive their cars, but the cars kind of turned around when they realized that the water might be too deep. >> a slice of what we are seeing in low-lying coastal communities along the gulf of florida as hurricane idalia and that powerful storm surge barrels in. but the issues don't stop at the coast as we head to john berman who is in tallahassee for us, strong winds are being felt

further inland. >> that's right. the storm has moved inland as a category 2 hurricane, winds above 100 miles an hour as it moves slowly towards georgia at this point. the wind not the concern as we continue to see pictures of devastated storm surge around the big bend area and as far south as tampa. with me now is fema administrator deanne criswell. administrator, thank you so much for being with us. we're talking to our correspondents up and down the coast who are seeing some of this storm surge firsthand. what's your area of greatest concern? >> good morning, john. you know, i think our biggest area of concern right now is as this storm is moving inland, making sure that those people who did not choose to evacuate that we have our search and rescue teams ready to support the state's already, you know, really capable search and rescue teams that they have to go in and help support and help anybody that was stuck in harm's

way. right. so that is our focus this morning of making sure that anybody that was left in this area and needs help, that we can get in there. but i think my other concern, as you mentioned, as the storm continues to move inland that the people in the path of this storm in georgia, in south carolina, that they still need to take this very serious. even with a category 2 that brings excessive winds with you it's also bringing rain. there's parts of georgia and south carolina that are prone to catastrophic inland flooding. so people need to still listen to their local officials and listen to what they're telling them to do to make sure they're making sure that they stay safe during this storm as it passes through. >> yeah, here in tallahassee they're expecting anywhere from 6 to 10 inches of rain total. it feels like it from where i'm standing and they're concerned about fresh water flooding, they don't want people driving. the storm surge at the coast,

10, 12 feet in some areas. do you have a sense of when it will finally pass. how many more hours do people need to be on high alert there? >> you know, i think as you're seeing, this storm with the different bands that it has, you know, it's coming in spurts, right, where we're seeing heavy winds and rain and the storm surge. you know, i think that we still have several more hours of this, and this is, again, where people really need to listen to their local officials so they know when the storm has passed and it's safe and they're not going to get another band of moisture that comes through. this is, you know, bringing all kinds of different hazards and as people do go out into the community, they leave their home, they need to take a lot of caution because there is going to be a lot of debris, downed power lines, hazards in the area and we don't want to lose anybody as a result of some of these hazards that happen after a storm. >> you respond to so many different kinds of disasters. if the worst of this is the

storm surge, what's unique in terms of your response to that? what is the response to severe, even record-breaking storm surge? >> you know, what we have seen with these hurricanes over the last several years is that the increase in the water, storm surge as well as the rainfall, that's what's killing the most people, right. and so that's why we had so much focus on making sure we got the message out to people to not just focus on the cone but to evacuate. again, our biggest concern, as always, those people who chose not to evacuate, making sure we can get in and account for everybody that perhaps stayed behind and making sure we can get them to safety if they need to. in terms of -- i'm sorry that i only have a small window as to where i am right now, i can only see the rain and feel the wind here in tallahassee. power outages, utilities, things like that. what reports are you hearing in terms of how many people are being affected?

>> yeah, right now the report that i got this morning is somewhere over 130,000 people without power, but we expect that number to go up as the storm, again, continues to move inland. i have to tell you that the amount of mutual aid that the state of florida brought in to support power restoration is significant. what we saw during hurricane ian is that they were able to restore the power rather quickly. i expect the same thing to happen here, as soon as the storm passes and it's safe to restore the power. people need to be prepared for it to be out for 24, 36, maybe even 72 hours in some areas. making sure they have what they need to protect themselves, have their medicines, to stay cool and whatever else they need to make sure they can support themselves until the power is restored. >> you talked about what's next. georgia, the carolinas, what can they expect?

>> they're going to get a lot of wind, john, and they're going to get a lot of rain. i'm concerned about some of the areas of georgia and south carolina that have already gotten a lot of rain. i spoke with both governors and heard what their concerns are and we know that there's a lot of local areas that can have catastrophic inland flooding. so people need to be really cognizant of those areas that they know can flood, with this increase in the amount of rain, making sure that they are not walking through it, they are not driving through it and that they're waiting until the storm passes and the water recedes. >> i'm going to give you one more opportunity to send that message for anyone listening, anyone lucky enough to still have power and access to a television signal along the gulf coast where the storm surge is happening all the way to georgia right now, what's your message to people who are in this? >> the biggest thing people can do right now is listen to their local officials. they are going to tell them what the current state of the storm

is where they are at. that's going to be in different phases along the -- from the western coast of florida all the way to south carolina. your local officials have the best information. listen to them and don't put yourself in harm's way. >> fema administrator deanne criswell, your work is just beginning. this storm still bearing down in florida, now georgia and the carolinas in the crosshairs. you won't be able to even get the aid to the people who need it until it moves through. i know you have thousands staged throughout this state. thank you for being with us and thank you for your efforts. >> thank you, john. >> boris? >> all right. john, thank you. i will pick it up. we appreciate you being out there for you live in tallahassee. the pictures have been incr incredible, to see the flooding and water on traffic signals as high as the stop signs. it's been incredible. dozens of counties are under some sort of evacuation order.

>> incredibly dangerous conditions for anyone who decided to brave the elements and stay behind. obviously that historic storm surge we've been talking about likely to get worse in the coming hours in part because we are anticipating high tide. it is a unique time of the month for the moon and that will impact the tide and it will impact the amount of water we see in coastal communities. for more details on the storm surge let's go to allison chinchar. weak us flew what that means. >> you hear these numbers, 3 feet, 6 feet, 10 feet. no one understands what that means in real life. here is a look at what it would normally be, you have those waves coming in one by one. as that water level begins to rise that normal sea level starts to creep closer and closer towards houses, towards businesses. then you get to 4 feet, now you've started to see that inundation, those floodwaters are entering those buildings. once you get to 12 feet you have now exceeded the first story of any property that you're going to have.

i know these numbers seem extreme, but above 4 feet where you would have that inundation creeping in we have already had two i remember i can't say that have picked up that number. two separate areas have picked up at least 4 feet of storm surge, the first being cedar key, we have had full reports of over 8 feet of storm surge and east bay near tampa picking up over 8 feet. we have had numbers verify as we go through the numbers. those numbers are going to go up, more places dealing with that storm surge. as this storm, even as it moves inland, it's still going to be pushing from outer bands all of that water back towards cedar key and these other communities along that eastern coast right there stretching down through cedar key and st. petersburg. it's going to be a concern for the next couple of hours as the storm moves inland. down to a category 2 storm, sustained winds of 110 miles per hour but the wind gusts are still going to be the equivalent of category 3.

even though the main storm is sustained at category 2 the wind gusts will be a category higher. it's expected to be a category 2 as it crosses into the state of georgia and continues to weaken as it pushes into the state of south carolina in the next 24 hours. so you've got some of those at least triple digit mile per hour wind gusts that are going to cross over into georgia, even as you come over towards savannah you are still looking at wind gusts about 75, up to 100, 110 miles per hour so still significant numbers there, and that's part of the reason why power outages are going to be a concern. right now between both the state of florida and the state of georgia that number is up to about a quarter of a million people, yes, over 250,000 people looking at power outages right now across these two states, that number is likely to go up as we go through the day and that storm continues to spread. you're going to see those power outage numbers go up through the states of georgia and south carolina as they start to get more of those heavy bands and

heavy winds. georgia and south carolina filled with trees. as they come down they can take out power lines with them which is another concern as to why we're going to start to see numbers go up. rainfall a big concern for those areas inland. tallahassee all the way up to the outer banks, you're talking widespread rainfall of 4 to 6 inches but there will be some spots that pick up 8, 9, even 10 inches of rain before it's all said and done. you have a lot of factors here. storm surge will be impactful, you have strong, devastating winds as well as the potential for flooding. >> we have already seen storm surge in some areas setting records. allison chinchar, thank you. still plenty more news to come on "cnn news central." we're going to speak to two men who are riding out the storm and we will also take you to steinhatchee where the water right now is rising as we see some incredible video. take with us, we are back in just moments. written by those who work it. like the upshaws. the nelsons. and the caggianos.

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this morning we're seeing all kinds of signs of hurricane idalia's strength as it makes its way across florida, but there is one incredible video we want to share with you that came ahead of the storm's arrival. it's a rare weather phenomenon known as st. elmo's fire. look at that. >> yeah, so during this week's evacuation in tampa the 50th air refueling squadron captured what is really a stunning display. what you're seeing, this is actually not lightning, but it's plasma, continuous electric spark in a charged atmosphere, also known as a witch's fire and often appears during thunderstorms.

incredible. >> impressive display of mother nature house power. we want to take you live back to crystal river where sara sidner has been reporting. sara, i see you've recently moved in part because the water keeps getting further and further in. >> yeah, i'm not a fan of standing in high tide. we are not there yet, but it looks like it. we are probably -- we're actually more -- i'm going to get out of the way so adolfo can give you a look at the scene. we are more than a football field away from where we were standing literally 30 minutes ago, that's how far the water has come. what you are seeing here is the driveway and the parking lot of a hotel where some of us are staying on the second floor, of course. it was drier than a duck's back about 30 minutes ago, now it is underneath 3 feet or so of water. so the storm surge hasn't even begun. the worst of it isn't even

close. we are still several hours away from high tide and, as you know, you have king tide, which is happening, you have the super moon, which is happening, all at the same time as you're seeing these surges. it's going to get much more messy here in crystal river and up and down the west coast of florida. but first, speaking of messy, speaking of a dangerous time, we have two brothers who are waiting out the storm in perry, which is very close to where the storm made landfall, it is now a category 2 storm, and it will diminish as time goes on, but that doesn't mean the danger is gone. we've got chris and his brother who is with us, they are in perry, florida. fellas, tell me what it is that you are seeing right now. >> lots of trees down. we are coming through [ inaudible ].

>> trey, if that's you, chris and trey, if that is you, again, these are brothers who stayed in perry. are you seeing any flooding where you are? how is the place where you are, i don't know if you're still in your home, but what are you seeing as far as floodwaters right now, as far as storm surge? >> we don't have any. just driving on the roads. >> good. are you seeing any of the effects -- okay. we're having some technical difficulties, as you might imagine. that's what happens during the storm. that was chris and trey in terry, we're having a little bit of difficulty kind of getting their signal out, as you might imagine, that's one of the things that happens in a hurricane, in a weather event, in a tropical storm even, you have lines go down, you have towers go down where it's hard to hear from people. if you haven't heard from a family member that is in the midst of where this made

landfall, that is not all that unusual if they stayed in areas that they were told to evacuate, but in the coming hours we will see some movement of crews to go out and try to fix these things, but not until the winds and rain have completely died down where it is safe. people need to watch out for power lines, for example, and they need to watch out for water. we have seen a couple of people taking some chances, going through this flood water. it is never a good idea, you could get stuck. i want to go to john berman now who is in tallahassee. that place has experienced something they haven't seen in more than 100 years or ever with hurricane-force winds. what's happening where you are? >> yeah, it's interesting, sara, we lost those two guests who were in perry. i drove through perry last night on the way here and perry is one of the bigger towns in taylor county, still a small town, some 7,000 people. the issue is not the storm surge, it's very much the wind and the trees. big trees. everywhere. we're seeing all kinds of

reports of serious tree damage in perry. one big giant oak after another just falling down. i would not be at all surprised if the people you were speaking with have lost power in the process of losing internet. because of all the tree damage and some of the freshwater flooding, they are undoubtedly going to get there. here in tallahassee, this is where the state storm response is being coordinated -- where it's being coordinated from is being hit right now with tropical storm force winds. the gusts feel like they've been 40 to 50 miles per hour. tallahassee has never been hit by hurricane-force winds. it doesn't seem like they'll get them this time, not from what i felt. as the storm passes a little bit to the south and east of here as it heads up into georgia, it doesn't seem as if it's going to get the worst of it in terms of

the wind in perry. which is why they've seen more severe damage. the concern here is with the trees. you can see some of the trees here as the wind and the rain soaks the roots, there is concern that these trees could topple. not getting any reports of power outages, major power outages here. the fema administrator was saying they have some 130,000 customers, reports of 130,000 customers in florida at this point without power. that number is going to rise, but it's probably going to rise more in georgia and the carolinas as the storm moves in that general direction. the major concern, though, does remain the storm surge where sarah is in crystal river, down the coast to tampa where we were before. the storm surge is sending that water rising several feet above where it's been above and then

steinhatchee is one of the areas -- the control room is telling me, do we have bill weir in steinhatchee? okay, okay. sorry, we're trying to get bill weir up in steinhatchee. while we try to get his signal up, boris, you are a florida native. you've seen storms like this as they hit miami. that feels like a more common occurrence than what's happening here. no storm this powerful has ever hit the big bend area and they're feeling it now. >> absolutely. and, governor, desantis was talking about the unprecedented nature of this kind of storm, a storm of this magnitude hitting that area. of course, the infrastructure for hurricanes in south florida far more developed because storms of this size are far more common there. as you were driving to tallahassee yesterday, i'm wondering what kind of preparations you saw. was there a concern that perhaps the infrastructure in this northern part of florida, the

big bend area near the panhandle, was it ready for a category 3 storm? >> reporter: it's a great question. i would say there are two different stories as i drove last night -- late last night from steinhatchee where bill weir is right now to here. and steinhatchee and along the coast, they were boarding up, putting the sandbags up and they evacuated, many people evacuated because there's nothing you can do in the storm surge. we're going to see pictures from there. and we have all morning. if that water rises 10 to 12 feet, no sandbag is going to stop that. if your house is in the way, your house very likely will be destroyed or severely flooded. as you headed inland, there was some areas around perry, i would say, where we just spoke and lost communication with those two gentlemen, i saw very few preparations. not much at all to get ready for this storm. gas stations were still open and had gas in the town of perry, which is unusual for days

sometimes before a storm hits. now here in tallahassee, i will say, it did seem as if there were some preparations. i don't think, obviously, i didn't have to worry about storm surge here. it was the rain and the winds they were concerned about. but theizations were closed. there was no gas to be had overnight and most of the stores were closed as well and there's very little action on the streets. i think people by and large in the capital city are paying attention and staying hunkered down, boris. >> that's a good sign that folks there seem to be prepared. john, as you were speaking, we were seeing video from steinhatchee and from perry, florida, where it appears that the rain is just pounding because of the powerful wind there. obviously, storm surge, wind, tornadic activity, all of these many concerns. john berman, thank you so much for the reporting. >> and let's stay in perry because we're hearing from a resident of keegan beach florida who is riding out the storm in his home.

idalia made landfall near keaton beach. take a listen. >> are you from this area? >> keaton beach, man. my house is down in keaton. i don't know if there's there or not. >> do you have anyone you're in touch with? >> there's a guy a couple of miles off the coast. he says it's horrible. trees are falling in the yard. he said he's scared. >> reporter: is he okay, though? >> as of 20 minutes ago, i haven't called him back. >> reporter: and you know we were trying to get a gauge on how many people stayed behind and how many people left and got shelter like you did. >> almost everyone at keaton beach. if they stayed, i mean -- i've been there 40 years, man. i went through the storm of 1993. it was called the no-name storm, the storm of the century. we didn't know it was coming. we rode it out. 12-foot surge in the house. but this right here, i don't know. i don't know if i'm going to have a house to go home too.

>> reporter: i'm feeling for you and the people who stayed behind and i'm worried about them. real quick, the people of perry, if you were to describe it to someone, how would you describe the town of perry and the people here. >> it's horrible. it's horrible. we've never seen this before. category 1 has scared us, man. usually a category 1 or a tropical storm, we come to perry and ride it out. this right here is bad. this is bad. >> i mean, it doesn't get more clearer than that. it is horrible is what he says. if there was any good news in what he said, at least from his perspective, most people in keaton beach had evacuated. that is where idalia made landfall. conditions changing by the minute as idalia moves through the state. just ahead, we're going to speak to a storm chaser who is watching the storm unfold. stay with us. hey little bear bear. ♪ ♪ ♪ i'm gonna love you foforever♪

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