i'm scared of what welcome home too. but my family is out of the way safe. my friends, my neighbors are as safe as they can be and just looking forward to getting back to them yeah. >> well, good luck with the family. we hope for the very, very best vic underwood. thank you. very much for all the important work that you're doing for all of us. we appreciate it very much. thank you very much. and as i always say, stay safe and to our viewers. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. erin burnett outfront starts right good evening. i'm erin burnett and welcome to a special edition of outfront, the breaking news tonight, closing in, hurricane milton, the

biggest storm of the century could make landfall within the hour. live images from st. petersburg on your screen right now, you see our bill weir there in that picture. he'll be with us in a moment hurricane milton now on a much faster track toward land, expected to hit florida with 150 mile an hour wind gusts and a destructive storm surge. conditions deteriorating by the minute officials now saying it is no longer safe to be outside. and let's show you what it looks like on the roads already flooded right now, the monster storm, one of the most powerful on records still growing after nearly doubling in size in just 24 hours absolutely incredible new satellite images here on your screen. the lightning strikes from a storm that officials warn james the coastline of florida forever. and right now, tropical storm winds now stretch it's more than 300 miles from that. i and let's just show you some of the pictures of what it looks like about 40 miles from the eye in the gulf. some of these waves is just taken by a drone. but

again, 40 miles from the eye, 30 foot waves and as you can see from these pictures in naples, these are live images milner already pushing a massive storm surge on shore will cast her stake could get as high as 13 feet in places on top of high tide historic for tampa funding entire neighborhoods and districts under water and changing florida's coastline forever right now, making things worse, the storm is creating a number of destructive tornadoes, a record 100 warnings posted already today, we've got new video in of just one of them. just to see the sheer size of that. and then already 100 of those warnings around that i already i'm around on land already a major concern tonight. the millions along florida's is the debris not just from those tornadoes and the winds now, but hurricane helene 13 days ago, concrete chunks, cars, mattresses everywhere now, just lot flying around, becoming a deadly missile picked up by milton's wins. we have a team up and down the coast here. i want to start with anderson cooper, who

is outfront live in bradenton, florida, and anderson, what is the latest that you're seeing? hey, where you are right now yeah. >> well, conditions are definitely getting worse. we've been seeing a lot of heavy rain, obviously, a lot of wins for for several hours now, the storm is going to be coming from that, from the west, from that direction. tampa is north in that direction of greater than is south of tampa. and were north of sarasota about 13 miles or so. we expect the eye to make landfall in to pass over greater, didn't i'm not exactly sure where it's going to be making land and fall, but we're on the manatee river. this is the riverwalk is completely deserted. we haven't seen a lot of people as you sometimes seeing hurricanes out trying to get photographs to things like that. this place has been pretty deserted now for many hours, people have taken this very, very seriously here. the river is definitely, i mean, there's whitecaps on the river. the water is lapping over onto onto the river. walk.

one of the problems erin is to the rain has just been pouring down. so this ground is already saturated with inches of rain now, for hours, there's rain literally running down the street here going into the river, just walking to this location through grass. i mean, usually your heat sink in the grass, the bridges have been closed a number of shelters have been set up officials here are just hoping for the best they have warned people. they've tried to impress on people the importance of getting out, getting to safety. but at this point, obviously the storm is here and there's nothing more that people can do. they've just got to stay where they are and just try to ride this out. >> erin anderson. and you're talking about how you are. there's no one there on that on that walk us. sometimes there might be and many people seem to have heated the evacuation warnings behind you in the distance? i did still see some lights and i know powers already started to go out over these next hours. all of that likely to completely descend into darkness, right? i

mean, you know, just with them with all of this kind of a loss. yeah. >> yeah. i mean, one of the things as you know, from covering her hurricanes is it is very common in the midst of a hurricane to start to see flashes of blue light which has transformers transformers, stations exploding it's a very eerie thing to witness. >> there is still electricity that you see across the location where we're saying a hotel that they still have electricity he's still have wi-fi they are confident they have in there and generated, they're confident that the power may stay on, but already the wi-fi has been flickering on and off. the televisions that were on in that hotel. they have they have shut down. you can no longer access information chin from television, which is obviously for people who are saying in their homes, it just makes it all the more scary when you can't get immediate information if your wi-fi has out, if your tv isn't working king but there's a lot of people who have gone to shelters, a number of shelters have opened here and we'll see what happens in the coming hours.

>> anderson, we're going to be checking in with you and of course, anderson will be there throughout the night, but such an important point, people rely on this instantaneous information, their phones, their wi-fi that has changed in these past 1015 years. and now, people truly descended into being alone and how afraid that can make you bill weir is outfront in st. petersburg so building what are you seeing where you are right now? obviously can see just these massive waves coming ashore behind you already yeah, just about an hour ago, we were marveling when the first wave breached. >> whoa, this deck that we're standing on, we're nearing you know, a little rum bar here on the st. pete's peer out in the distance. i know if you could see that erie lights that's another restaurant of power ceylon but as you can see, the waves i'm just kidding higher and higher. it seems by the minute this will probably our last live shot in this location, storm surge here, if it gets up to the predicted, i don't know 1012 feet could be a huge problem for downtown st. petersburg and especially for all the folks who are still

reeling after hurricane helene, it came through here less than two weeks ago and in addition to the tornados you talked about, that's why this storm scientist's are warning about these multiple threats multipliers, a peaceful >> so quickly after the other it's so hard for people to brace even in a good day after coming out of something like that. >> and then with these tornadoes, there's never a good time to lose a hostile tornado, but the absolute worst time just, hours before a hurricane like this one makes landfall. now, years ago, hurricane charlie, they studied it, disaster managers and less than half of the people cool within the a category one to three evacuation zones, dan evacuated all so so much of this storm is going to come down to how many people heeded it'd be a advice of officials, aaron all right. >> bell. thank you very much. and please go get somewhere safe there as those waves are coming out, i want to go to brian, todd, and tampa brian, i know things are deteriorating

where you are right now. >> why elon deteriorating is putting it mildly. we just got slapped with some of the strongest wind gusts that we've experienced. getting another one right now you know, when winston the rain starts to hit, you horizontally, that you're really input was a chance i might have to go and grab onto this light pole and a second here just to kind of get my bearings. but what i can show you is that the water is starting to kind of build up here on bayshore boulevard along tampa bay good question tonight is, is this storm surge and it's getting stronger he is going to push the water up from tampa bay and start to flood these areas here. now the storm surge is now not predictably to be quite as strong as they thought it would be for here in tampa. however, the rain and the wind are going to be huge issues here. this could get up to 12 inches of rainfall well, that means that drains are going to overflow a canals are going to overflow. sewers are going to overblow. we've already seen this. here on bayshore and another huge problem here. as we've been talking about this all day of

mr. mayor of tampa told us that the contractor that was supposed to pick up all the grief and hurricane helene never showed up. so with kicking up in on this deal and it's really getting stronger. where we are that debris flying around is going to be a huge hazard doing a live shot like this, even in the dark, you know, i find myself, you've got to kind of look around and make sure >> looks like brian to know your shot. >> obviously was taking a couple of hits. their bryan just because obviously with the winds and everything that you're experiencing, your and your team you know, as those wins come through, can you just tell us what it's like? i mean, you're out there. obviously you have for journalists out there at what exactly is it like when those when you get hit with a gust? >> well, the first thing you do is you try to look around to see if there's like a light post around you or maybe a stop sign like that one that you can grab onto when you toss to me a

few minutes ago, i thought it might have to grab onto something yeah, because we were getting hit by some of the strongest wind gusts that we've gotten hit by all day long. that's an issue, of course, for first responders to aaron because what we're told by officials is once the wind gets 45 miles longer, go out and take 911 calls and respond. we're about at that point now, i think it might be the point of no return. so if you're out there and you're prices, he called 911 what all right. >> we're going to we're going to let brian go there, obviously been asked to move as well to just to try to, you know, they're trying to give you this shot to understand what's really happening. so everyone can understand what's happening, but also as brian said, just to try to be safe here, at least a raft but is with me now at least, you know, when you look at what's happening to brian, you logos having to bill weir anderson, all of them, they're starting to really use these waves coming up one knocking bill the win there. what when, when, when mountains going to make

landfall, obviously that that could happen here in these next moments in our, what does that going to look like? but yeah, the odd wall pieces of the eyewall is coming on shore, right now. >> that's why they're shots look like that. you see this box here. this is the extreme wind warning. it's a very rare warning for extreme winds up to 115 miles per hour or greater. this is for the it's tough part of the eyewall includes st petersburg and includes tampa. it includes bradenton. when you have this extreme wind warning, you need to treat it like a tornado warning getting into an interior room away from windows in a basement because those wins will just be so vicious and you can see the rukare on the radar where we've got this piece of the a.i. that came through saturday so it is up your brain eaton and then swinging through some of that tampa bay area, the wind gusts we've already seen wind gusts above 77 miles per hour in parts of venice and sarasota, as well as st. petersburg right now, gusting to 66 miles per

hour, tampa wins getting over 40 miles per hour. so again, the winds picking up because we have the corps that is the most dangerous park. this is also it's going to pack the biggest surge that's coming on shore, pretty much as we speak. it is still a category three hurricane with 120 mile per hour winds. and again, it's sitting that i that center of the eye is just swirling onshore right now, we are looking at these 110 mile per hour he wins in this purple here. and hurricane force winds will extend through the entire peninsula. so that's why we're worried about these widespread power outages, because this won't just be a west coast problem. this will stretch even to the east side of the state. the wins that what you're seeing right now and all of those live shots, again, that's the pieces of the eyewall coming on sure. and that's what's going to drag in the nine to 13 feet of storm surge from sarasota to venice. that's what's going to take the biggest push of the ocean we're looking at six to nine feet up in the st. petersburg and tampa bay area era. >> alyssa, thank you very much. and we're going to get back to you here as little saying

portions that eyewall now coming on shore in florida in. these moments, it's good to the mayor of st. petersburg, can welch man, we just saw bill weir out on your peer just a few moments ago when those waves gusting over the edge and alyssa reporting that that eyewall now portions of it are already at this moment now, striking the coast of florida. so what are you expecting over these next few hours? >> so we expecting extreme winds for us. it won't be as much as a surge event if it stays on the same track but these are catastrophic winds that we haven't experienced in the eye of this storm and we are thankful that we think most of the folks in our evacuation areas responded to that. we've got a high census in our shelters. and of course, a lot of folks who are on our interstates and highways over the last day or so exiting. so we think people heeded the call and now we just have to hunker down or the next a similar hours and get through this wind event. >> and i know your emergency

responders, you have to take care of them. they have to stay safe and alive. i know you've paused all emergency operations, but that's not something you do lightly. and we talk about an eyewall starting pieces coming on shore. we see these images to give people a sense of just how dire it is amir, what do you say to anybody who? has not yet evacuated? what should they do right now if they're there if you haven't evacuated by now, you just need to find a safe place where you are and try to protect yourself for the last two days we've been asking folks if you are in those areas please evacuate to a safe place. >> we've got plenty of shelter room transportation. no excuse, no reason for someone to stay in an evacuation zone. we think most folks have heeded that call and i think particularly because just you know two weeks ago, we had hurricane helene and oblast 11 or 12 lives in st. pete in pinellas county. all in evacuation areas. so i think folks saw what happened in our understand how important it is. we don't have to lose a

life if folks just follow the instructions, know it. >> brian todd was just reporting a moment ago about, you the area that he was in, that there had been a contractor that was supposed to pick up some of the major major pieces of debris from hurricane helene you know, mattresses, chunks of concrete massive stuff. it doesn't even have to be a chunk of concrete to be a missile in a situation like you're ran right now because something light, but you have all of that, that contractor in that particular case actually didn't even pick that up, but even if they had right, you are looking at months of pickup from helene. it's all now out there. it's going to get blown around. how worried are you about that we're concerned about it. >> those will become projectiles what we think though is that because most of that debris he is in areas that have been evacuated have a mandatory evacuations we shouldn't see a loss of life or injuries from that debris. those folks those areas should be empty because they are evac areas, but again, you had six months of debris from helene that we couldn't clean that up

in six days. i think you saw that across a tampa bay, so we did the best that we could. but if folks evacuated, we should avoid any any harm from that to get two human beings. >> hi omar. i appreciate your time. i know it's going to be a very long and worrisome night of for you. thank you very much for being with us and you're in st. petersburg. let's go to veterans from change sir. mike boylan, he is there runs mike's weather page, which is a very popular hurricane tracking website mike and your regular on this show, you and i talk a lot and you're from tampa. so this is home for you this is not just work, this is also emotionally difficult for you. i know tonight you're working your family, you evacuated them, but you are right now doing your job. what does it feel like? where you are right now this spot that we're at, we actually vote and we have a lot of memories here and i've never seen waves crashing the seawall like i am right now.

>> so it's incredible to see power this, these winds and waves coming from tampa east to west in the eye is still hours away it's scary, there's an emotional aspect, like you said, not knowing what you're going to wake up tomorrow and all your memories of this area and a lot of people evacuating hand when it's your home, it's different because you grew up here and you see things your favorite restaurants and where you might have went with as a kid, might not be the same tomorrow. >> yeah. they said that we're hearing now that the coastline could forever be changed no one knows exactly how dramatic that actually might be portions that eyewall already coming on shore, obviously not yet where you are, but the storm surge 12 feet expected did on the broader tampa area on top of a high tide so what do you think this actually means, mike, can you hear me in terms of how bad it will get?

>> no audio sounds. like he's not hearing me while we try to fix. i will let everyone when noem and this is the challenge. it is incredible that we can even get these connections that we can get when you were hearing when you were hearing about you know, anderson saying the television's have gone out in the hotel behind him and the reality of people losing power, losing wi-fi, losing tv, and completely being in the dark literally metaphorically, being in the dark, unable to know what is happening over these next hours, just how terrifying that might be as we do understand our lesson from the weather center, was just reporting that portion of that eyewall have already started to come on shore over the next few hours, you're going to see more and more of that and see the full impact and wrath of the storm, which has doubled in size in just the past 24 hours. so it's doubled in size. and in fact, something really important as you look at this satellite map, this imagery. what's happened is an acceleration in the speed with which the storm is moving. so a

few hours ago, it was slated to sort of come on shore or maybe even in the early hours of the morning right before midnight. now really accelerating an already portions of that eyewall is less. there's reporting already coming ashore. an incredible accelerator in terms of how quickly the storm itself is moving and mike, i think i have you back. let me ask you about that. storm doubling in size the speed that it is moving just accelerating so quickly as you have you ever seen anything like that >> that's kind of rare. i mean, this thing started out as a tiny little storm. they compare to the charlie and now that it encompasses the whole state of florida, practically. and that's a wake-up for everybody, you know, inland i'm already seen inland flooding and the drive here i stopped at some spots that i know are underwater. a church. so we're already seeing massive water accumulation it's it's it's insane. the amount of rain. but then you've got these winds it's just

incredible. i mean, i've been in a lot of hurricanes was seen see in the tampa bay do this is a shocking to me but people completely losing contact with the outside world. which is what's going to happen right? with no power, no wi-fi, nothing do you think the people who did stay behind truly have any idea what to expect? >> no, it's there's a lot of stubbornness in florida. i get it. i used to be that that one that didn't believe in evacuating you're left with week sometimes and they warned us, you know, kevin guthrie in the state. there's a lot of resources out of state and it could be a week with no power. and when we had helene a couple of weeks ago, the barrier islands were shut off for three to four to five days almost and people were getting angry because they wanted to go home. so that's that's why they had to do their job. they had to clean up. we've had all this debris later on in this wind is absolutely insane then the a.i. is not even close to us yet, so i can't even imagine what's

going on inland here with trees down, power lines, down a lot of things, folks that live here never experienced no, not at all. >> is sometimes a.i. can even here it they just kind of whistling and howling as it moves past you. how all right. mike, we're going to check back in with you and i appreciate i'm very glad we were able to get our communications back up with you. i want to go to jamie rhome now, the deputy director of the national hurricane center jamie, it can i just ask you about something, mike and i were just talking about, but the forecast had the storm making landfall late eight late tonight, or possibly even overnight past midnight but it's making landfall now. so it was just sort of a quick step up in the acceleration of the speed with which the storm itself was moving. how did that happen? so fast? >> oh, these storms, can, alter their speed forward and backwards or wobble around. so this is not a dramatic change in the timing, although it feels like i get it feels like it for people on the ground experiencing these conditions. but this sort of variation is

normal with storms making landfall. >> so what do you expect here over? the next hour as conditions are deteriorating so much, at least from all the images we could see from our reporters in tampa, bradenton. and fort myers for a lot of people in the path of the storm. here in the tampa bay st. petersburg area, the eyewall, is starting to move inland and that's why we have an extreme wind warning. so that's a that's a shelter in place warning. that means it's no longer safe to be outside of your home. absolutely. go inside and stay there for the rest of the night in these winds are going to spread inland over the next several hours and just cut a swath of hurricane-force winds across the florida peninsula. >> then adding insult to injury, you're gonna get this really heavy. and i mean heavy rainfall and flooding to set up a along into the north of the track that could be right along the eye i4 corridor. so definitely don't be out driving. it's not time. you

can't see if the roads are flooded or not. you can dry right into a flooded road. and the worst of the storm surge is starting to materialize as the backside of the eye moves ashore and you get the strongest push of winds towards the alright, so as part of this, when you talk about this flooding and the winds happening, the prolific tornado outbreak today, 18 reported over parts of the state major damage in some places, the warnings today, we had more than 100 already, which is the most ever in a single day in the state of florida is there anything that stands out to you about the tornado formation? >> chin from this storm so we have hurricanes in the past with it produced these big tornadic outbreaks. >> but what's unique about this one is you have the worst of the tornado is the worst of the storm surge. their worst of the flooding. and now the worst of the wind with the core moving over a densely populated metropolitan area not all for hazards in the worst of them coming to shape. and it's basically if affecting the

entire florida peninsula in some way shape, or form and normally you only get a couple of these hazards. you get the winds or storm surge to get all four like this to converge is truly unusual. >> all right. well, jamie, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. i want to go straight now to john antapasis, the tampa emergency management director. so john obviously tracking north now towards your city as that portions that eyewall are now moving on, shortage should onshore what are you doing to prepare right now or is it pretty much your whatever is done is done ready for this moment to get everything in place all day off last few days, we've been getting all our apparatus outside teams in place, equipment in place, but at this point in time, we are hunkering down as well as our residents need to be doing. so we have to hunker down on in wait for it to pass so we can get out, do or damage assessment and sort out response. >> all right. so i know obviously we've got some areas where emergency personnel have

already said you can't call 911, they can't come out at this point because it would be a risk to that too much of a risk to their own lives at this point? but at what point do emergency personnel as you see it, have to stop and they have to shelter in place for the next hours until the storm passes. bit yeah. >> like jamie was just saying we got issued that extreme wind warning of so again, it is life-threatening wind. we have our first responders. they have to shelter in place as well. obviously, we can't be out on the road with danger out there. so again, like we've been saying to our residents were in that mode right now, we have to stay where we are hunkered down be safe. and again, will ride this out and we're able to be out there as soon as we can. >> we talk about all those piles of debris from hurricane helene, which are in some of the mandatory evacuation areas now. and obviously, you don't need to have piles of debris, have anything be a missile, a branch that it comes down in a current storm could be a missile but when you have piles of stuff, it is, it is truly a

life and death situation for anyone out. how is that complicated your preparation for milton? >> it's been a challenge. i joined you about last week with helene. and again, our teams have been on the ground with solid waste and our debris haulers throughout this week, we had double shifts, we had extra contractors coming in to get all prepared for this storm, coming in to pick up as much as we could. but it was a monumental task and again, there is debris out there. we're very aware of it, and it is going to add to that first push that we get out with our public works teams that they liked tomorrow. and we know those challenges are going to be out there. so we are taking those extra precautions as those teams go out for the extra dangerous. but ultimately there is debris out there. it's going to add some challenges more and morning. >> all right. with john, thank you very so much. i appreciate it. and let's go back to bradenton where anderson is. anderson, what have you seen here in just these past few minutes? i mean, we've literally spoke 15 minutes ago now you are you are looking truly in the dark here.

>> the winds are definitely winter definitely picking up. i got to tell you when we were talking before i was thinking why always this is this, it because the winds were were strong and over whitecaps instead of on the on the river. but the winds have definitely picked up just in the last five minutes. i would say there's still lights on in buildings flickering on, on and off. i did see what looked like a transformer going off across the water to the north. but you can get it's hard to see the rain here. you can sort of see it off in the distance in some of those lights. it's really just kind of whipping horizontally. it's actually been painful to pick it up a lot of there's a lot of debris on the ground from trees the ripping off. there's not thankfully, you know, erin, you were talking earlier about debris from helene that hasn't been picked up this community has really tried to pick up, but, but there's a lot there's a lot of branches of trees that are just kind of whip and by right now. so that's something obviously, as

it gets dark, if the lights go out, that really becomes a hazard. i heard somebody talking we earlier about not going out on the roads that is really something that emergency officials here are really emphasizing. it is so easy. >> if you're driving on a road the light is the lights go out to not know where the road is, where the water is, you pull off to the side of the road and suddenly find yourself in a digital water. >> you can't get out of again, we have not seen people walking around, but its wind is definitely picking up. i'm very curious to know if this is the height of it, if it's going to get much worse over the next 30 or 40 minutes and if that eyewall does come over, this community, what that will be obviously generally, the wind should die down once the eyewall is over u.s. but i'm also curious to see what was on the back end of that if storm then kind of pick back up again or if it's sort of it has disintegrated on the far side of that eyewall so there's a lot of questions about scale of

what's going to happen here but for now, we're just we're waiting and seeing yeah, i mean, anderson, we can see your face a little bit now, but i can hear the roar of the wind as it comes through, just sort of picking up off your microphone that that roaring, i mean, are you at this point in terms of where where would you describe exactly where you are? i mean, have you seen anybody? you know regular, civilians who are still there >> there's a lot of people in hotels here. there's a hotel right here which is several stories. it's a five-story hotel. there's a lot families who have moved into this hotel in the upper floors. none of the the lower floors, obviously have been booked like this stuff is like just this is like i've been through the air all around here because there's all these beautiful palm trees here all along the riverfront. and they are really starting to come apart in a lot of different places. you can see

some of them back there. so there's people in, in buildings here, though, to folks at the hotel for you so very confident about the structure itself. obviously, the first floor, they are very concerned about storm surge. there's estimates of 16 nine feet of storm surge in this part it's expected to be even higher further south, more than sarasota remains to be seen. i don't know what it is at this point, but as i said earlier, the ground is already so wet here with that storm surge that only just obviously makes it makes it all the more difficult. >> all right. well, anderson, thank you. can you very much and what we'll keep checking in with anderson is he as he sees fit. let's go. he just mentioned sarasota and how the storm surge there is expected to be even higher. that is where randi kaye is right now so randi, what are you seeing at this moment? >> erin, we are seeing some major wins here. they're coming and going, but we know that we clocked 74 miles an hour just in the last hour and, we also

know that the center of the storm is now about 35 miles from us here in sarasota. i moved just a little bit closer inside because the winds are getting strong and this is a piece of a fan. this is a fan blade that was on a fan that was just above us on a porch that came flying down. so that is part of the reason why we moved it. and i'm not picture if you can see this fence here next to us, that's the fence that belongs to the neighbor's house. that sense is now on the ground as well. so the winds are certainly picking up. we know that we're in the thick of it. it's going to get much worse for us here. in the next hour or so as hurricane milton gets closer green closer, there's so much debris around this neighborhood, erin, and that is such a concern, so it's good that people have left because things like that, the fan blade, the pieces of the fence treatment branches, power lines, all of this can, of course become very dangerous projectiles as the storm continues. and as we clocked such strong winds, erin. >> all right. randi thank you

very much. and now let's go to scott morrison. he's in crystal beach. and crystal beach is two blocks from the ocean and he's in safety harbor about 20 miles from tampa. both are under mandatory evacuation tonight, scott and his family, though, did choose to stay that our home had been badly damaged in hurricane helene and now they're living through this nightmare again, just got mad i just ask you first what you are experiencing right now >> thanks for having me on. i appreciate it right now. the storm is starting to kick up here in the tampa bay area. we were like you said, we had to we had to finally vacate our home down off the water here late this afternoon. and where were up in another home? just a few miles inland where we're still surrounded by water here. it's getting very windy here. we've had a lot of cornejo warnings up here. >> all right. and i know obviously it makes it sometimes hard to hear you there for a second just because of that. but obviously it's got i

don't need to tell you you're well aware you've heard all the reports, how catastrophic the storm surge will be and national weather service just ten alert telling people that it cover now to protect your life. when you hear how bad this will get. and i'm sure you were very, you know, you have your reasons for staying. do you regret your decision to stay at all and how come you decided to? >> yeah, there let's first storm out. >> we lost half our house, cars, homes, business. were pretty much everything. so we've been trying to rebuild demolition, rebuilt over the last two weeks this next storm coming in, we really just finished kind of some of the auspices still trying to home in our property was still down there before this storm hit. so you know, no regrets were in where an assailant place now that i will be fine and there's the forced sale lot more people in a lot more dangerous series than we are thankfully right now. >> well, and i know you've you did share video. you you're talking about the utter destruction that you've endured in your life here from

hurricane helene. and i'm sorry. i know it's hard for people to understand it now this happening again, this is your living room. these images floating and feet of water. you talk about your business destroyed. obviously milton, we're hearing may be worse is expected to be worse and you already are seeing water inside your house, so scott, what is your plan to get through this hunkered down here for the gunman will know weather this storm you know, god willing here. and then we'll head down to our house and back down to our community tomorrow. our community still has garbage and every row and its impassable down there. so we've got to get down there and kind of see how things are tomorrow morning and and also check on some of the neighborhoods, some of them as well. so that's my plan for tomorrow morning. we have bikes to ride debt down into the community if needed to be. >> all right. scott, thank you very much. and i do hope that you will be all right. you and your family we are just going to take a very brief break here

as our breaking news coverage continues here, hurricane milton making landfall. now, portions that eyewall on land, we're going to take you back to the ground conditions are rapidly deteriorating and fort myers right now getting reports of wind gusts from the storm already near 100 miles an hour on land and we're going to take you into the eye with a hurricane hunter just flew through hilton milton will be outfront. we'll be right back coming to cnn this fall pros and cons less pro hosted by roy wood jr. wrote with amber ruffin. >> would michaelian black? >> oh, okay. what are the cons? >> we could run out a news by then that really happened to does i'm a start flipping houses. >> i like that idea better no, that's my flipping houses with michael ian black, an amber ruffin, provide got news for you saturday at nine on cnn and streaming next day on max

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from your life insurance when you need it. with advocates anderson cooper, 360 tonight at 8:00 on cnn making landfall, right now, the monster storm now barreling onshore in florida. let's show you fort myers live images

there where the wind and rain or both picking up at this hour, you can see the water just moving by very quickly there, like a flowing river, more than three feet of water already covering normal only dry ground that's going to rise incredibly quickly. it's not a slow thing, it's going to rise very quickly, perhaps up to 13 feet. it's where at least one tornado ripped through a neighborhood today, rooves already torn off of homes that was before. you now see the storm. as i said, formally coming on shore, 18 tornadoes reported across the street, state 100 warnings. carlos suarez is up front and fort myers and carlos, as we talked about that eyewall coming on shore, how quickly is the situation deteriorating where you are right now well, erin, there is a bit of a break in the rain of bought the winds are strong and the flooding, as you can see behind me, has started here in fort myers. >> we are in downtown fort myers in an area that is known to flood. and so what you're taking a look at is the biggest sure. had with this hurricane

we're. >> seeing these kind of numbers. >> just to enable downing where it should be at this hour. >> again landfall here in lee county, it's a storm that i covered this part of fort myers flooded. it's a low-lying area. it is right next to the kaluza hatchie river which just about 20 minutes or so ago when i went over there to take a look at it, it has started breach that water is now starting to come in and a lot of this is happening because as this storm continues to make its way north, it is pushing

that water from the gulf of mexico up into the kaluza hatchie river. and then you've got all of that rainfall. that's coming down from lake okeechobee coming down from central florida. and those two forces are coming together at this one and location. and in fact, just on the other side of the river out here, i can see the lights of transformers that are blowing and the two other things that have happened here in fort myers since we've been here for the better part of the day, is there were two tornadoes, at least we believe two tornadoes hit one just to the other side of we are it's about a ten to 15 minute drive tornado there hit a neighborhood homes. there were damaged and now they're dealing with these floodwaters, which as you can see, will last well into the night and into tomorrow morning yeah, erin, i know some of the worst surge there coming your way, carlos. >> thank you. i'm going to don morales now. he is the longest serving meteorologist in south florida. he was here with us last night. and john, you were talking about how emotional it was for you when you were warning viewers about the stunning severity of hurricane

milton >> and of course, you're starting to see that. >> i apologize. >> this is just horrific just playing i play just briefly that clip so people could recall, but i mean, you're sitting there right now covering this through the night from people, some of them were gonna lose power, some of them were gonna lose the ability to even hear you when you're talking to them better gonna be turning to you. so what is your forecast for what happens here over these next couple of hours now? eyewall is already hitting land yeah. >> i mean, we're now casting phase, right? >> i mean, it's it's here, it's now, it is happening just as you saw that report from fort myers and listen, i've studied at that storm surge from hurricane ian extensively as part of my expert meteorology work in litigation because there's there's a lot of that going on because of the impact of the hurricane. and so many homes that were destroyed just two years ago in that very same area the surge it starts

to come in slowly many hours, many hours before the hurricane makes landfall. but then suddenly it really starts to accelerate the water levels start to rise so quickly and so shockingly that that's when people really get caught off guard. and that's why we ask people to leave the coast. hopefully they all did, and hopefully they'll all be safe regarding the other impacts. listen, there's an extreme wind warning right now and the tampa bay area because they've had to face the eyewall. the eyewall has brought those gusts near 100 miles an hour in some locations. in addition to rainfall intensity in that area is extreme. so flash flooding and river flooding across a swath of central florida that includes from tampa all the way today, jonah can be anticipated and you've discussed the fact that there have been tornadoes at one 1.50 peak four tornado warnings issued in the state of florida, including super cell thunderstorms. that is normally something you see in kansas and

texas while we saw that in florida today out ahead of hurricane milton and johnson get the storm doubling in size in 24 hours and then sort of speeding up in these final moments before it hit land. and i know so that it would have been maybe it was going to around midnight or just after just before, but suddenly now the eyewall already onshore and it's sped up. what does all of this mean on the actual ground? and we're looking here now, even at some images of the surge coming all the way down in key west well, it means those folks that were able to hide from the wind and not have to run from the water. they only to be hunkered down right now. now, those that ran from the water, hopefully you are in a safe space. those that did not run from the water and i'm talking about storm surge here. well, you know, things are going to start to get really dicey real fast. and that includes anywhere i would say from sarasota down to charleston harbor, port charlotte, cape coral, fort myers a further south to

naples, even down to naples. that inundation is coming in as you and i are talking and it's it's only going to get worse all the way until landfall and it won't start to recede until after landfall on landfall could be, you know, from this point, we're talking a couple of hours away because landfall is defined, erin as the moment that the center of the eye of the hurricane reaches the coast all right, john. >> thank you very much, john, as i said, longest-serving meteorologist in south florida watching this epic storm and let's go back to bill weir a moment ago, we saw bill in st. petersburg and bill at that point, you are there was a wave literally came shore of where you were standing. i know you've moved a few hundred yards inland, so exactly where are you and what's happened since we spoke just i guess now at this point, what 2025 minutes ago

gotten nastier. >> we just had an 89 mile an hour wind gusts will take you around the corner here. this is bayshore drive here in st. petersburg of the municipal boat basin where we were before and the pier is on the other side of this road here but just peaking around this corner is where we're going to start catching these gusts. it's amazing how it in an urban setting like st. petersburg, the way the wind moves around down through the buildings, especially we're going to head that way later as the water comes up. >> but completely deserted. >> thankfully wind, rain palm fronds blowing everywhere. you can't see it anymore. after sunset, but hundreds of boats in this harbor, one long time sailor just came by and told me he thinks most of them are uninsured folks, just plan their luck and we'll see whether the wind of milton milton ends up putting those boats

downtown st. petersburg it's soon too soon to tell of course, the little jog north as this storm sped up in the last few hours that advanced are anticipated landfall but the storm surge could become an up at 6:00 a.m. at high tide tomorrow will be a long time common as you talked about earlier the fact that some people were just trying to dry out. i met a woman yesterday, had her her belongings on her front launch. she was looking for her mother's wedding ring, but had to stop that short end evacuated once again, this is over by indian shores near here. so, so much uncertainties tonight, and so many folks who took shape shelter from the coast, having to worry about these super cell tornadoes that john morales was just talking about, erin it is devolving the store will keep you posted for those wins as we see them sort of gusting and moving, i can see them because of that one light that there still is behind you, bill, have you noticed that? real change in

those winds in just the past bit >> yeah. it's just it was the outer bands were flirting with us a bit and now these are slaps these are full-on make a catch your balance of gusts i'm low could go walk around in it. you can see how oh violent. the wind is right now but again, i mentioned earlier that the city of st petersburg, they're worried enough about these big construction cranes, these tower cranes that they put out, put it on their website to be to be worried about these things. you can imagine, they're hanging on my bolts up there. we don't know what wind speeds they are tested for, but they're going to get a test tonight. we saw them sort of blowing around like wind socks earlier but yeah, the wind is really kicking up. but again, you can hide from the wind. it's not water which has been pushed by category five wins for hundred if it's a miles regardless of the wind speed when it makes land. all of that kinetic energy is coming up here all

right phil, thank you. special coverage continues as hurricane milton making landfall, as we speak decimating florida's coast, we're going to be of course, all over on the ground there through that bay area plus milton's destructive storm surge could alter the state's coastline forever in a moment, we're actually going to show you what that could look like. >> you'll see wherever you get your podcasts choice hotels is a family of brands with a hotel for any traveler you want to be. >> like number one chef, dad, cook it up a free hot that was for the entire family and a comfort hotel. >> mom. >> i added the garnish stay two nights and get 8,000 points when you book direct and harbor fray, we design a test, our own tools and sell them directly. you know, middleman whatever you do, do it for less at harbor freight, save even more at our parking lot sale this weekend

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fine of outfront where we are following the breaking news, hurricane milton making landfall live pictures. this of heavy rainfall and bradenton on your screen tenet colonel mark with he joins me now, air force hurricane hunter, who just flew through the storm and colonel let me just show some of the incredible video that you just fell in while you were up there. what what did you see up close? >> well, what we saw was a very powerful storm obviously the pressures have been rising in the center of the storm has been decreasing off some of those peak intensities, but it's also expanding the wind field. so it's very large. it's still very powerful storm. fortunately, it's less

intense than it was, but it's still big and been heading for tampa how did it compare just in this last fly through to many of the other storms you've been through well, this is certainly a, been a very unique storm and it is spun up to extremely high levels in very short notice and has gone through several fluctuations certainly it's in a very high-end class of storm with it it's intensification. fortunately, it has weakened some but it's still bringing a lot of that energy into shore we're talking about how there had been a drone footage a little bit out, you know, and i know you saw this close to 30 foot waves. >> and i was miles out from the eyewall you know, what what is it like when you're up there and you sort of were able to look down and see the power of a storm like this when it's out in the open ocean or in the open gulf as it was in this

case, to see waves like that well, it is very impressive to see the power of these storms to generate those, those waves oftentimes, we were in the, the went through the inner bands of the storm. >> we can't actually see the surface, but butt out at the periphery. we can still see those enormous waves that are being generated but, even once we're in the eye and can see the surface, you still see those very large waves that are coming. it's as hurricane hunters, we were kind of in a unique position because we can see the storm from the air and we're also not being directly affected by like those folks on the ground. so it's a very unique and special perspective that we have when we're out there flying to gather the data for the national hurricane center, all the data that makes all the difference for people on the ground. but as you said, so unique and special and colonel, i appreciate your time. thank you very much as that. eyewall is hitting land

on the coast of florida. you have heard for every official, every meteorologist talk about this storm, how historic it is. and that's storm surge that florida is facing right now that those waters are rising as we speak, the scale hard to imagine one official describing it as the ocean coming into your living room. well, that gives you an image. but what is it? our jason carroll has incredible demonstration shouldn't of it. just what are we about to see jayson aaron, i know it can be hard to imagine so we want to visualize for you here in the studio with graphics just what the impact will look like if you were caught in that catastrophic storm surge that you've been hearing so much about. >> we want to raise the graphic water graphic to just three feet, doesn't sound like a lot, but it's certainly enough to take you off your feet, certainly enough to move a parked car and to move much of that debris we've seen on the ground from hurricane helene. now we're going to double it. the water graphic now at six feet. now, when you think about six feet of storm surge in combination with the wind, the

wind is predicted to top 100 thread miles per hour. now we're going to bring it up to ten feet. imagine ten feet and you're living in one of those single homes there in florida. you're only course of action under this type of condition might be to get on your roof and hold on and hope that someone can come and save you. this is why emergency officials have been saying for so long on for so many days to get out, because under this type of dire situation, these type of dire predictions, your chances of survival are very, very low. >> erin, jason, thank you very much. very low. and just to think about that north carolina family, they did get to their roof, right. and the mother had to watch her child die as that child was taken away by the floodwaters. boris sanchez is in tampa. that rare extreme wind warning already in fact, catastrophic flooding happening already boris in areas near you, what are you seeing? >> yeah, erin, we actually had to move the previous position that we were in less than an hour ago. it was right on the coast with tampa bay and it was

just way way too intense that the rain was coming sideways at us. the waves were getting closer and closer. so we moved to an area further inland and this is just tampa proper, just outside where the bay is by a couple well, miles or so. the wind here is picking up, the rain is also coming down. we've seen about six inches of rain since this storm started coming in that is expected to accumulate up to five to eight inches more. so we will almost certainly see flooding in the tampa bay area and on top of that, obviously, we're talking about this storm surge for coastal areas is predicted to be anywhere between eight to 12 feet. we already started seeing, as i noted before, some of those waves coming in this part of the neighborhood, things are relative italy quiet. we saw some residents walking through the neighborhood, obviously going against what officials have been suggesting that folks shelter in place and stay inside as you can see behind me, several of these businesses there's a big boarded up. i'm seeing sandbags as well is just

starting to create serious problems here in tampa. there were streets that were difficult to access as we were driving away from the location where we were earlier. i imagine that as this rain picks up, as officials have said, again, five to eight inches before this all wraps up. in addition to what's already coming down it is going to be a very difficult situation for folks that have decided to shelter in place, especially in those evacuation zones, will keep you posted on the very latest as we get it. >> all right? of course, as you are watching that happening and we should let our viewers know that already has that eyewall has started to come on shore there are many places already saying that there will be no response if you call 911, they are already unable to send any emergency responders out as this eyewall has hit land and these names special edition of ac360. i'm