hour. "outnumbered" starts right now. >> harris: hurricane irma, miami is in the cross hairs of this bracing for a direct hit. it is traveling fast towards the u.s. mainland after cutting a deadly path across the caribbean. i'm harris faulkner. sandra smith, the coanchor melissa francis. also from fbn, the anchor of the intelligence reports bringing intelligence. trish regan. it never gets old. and #oneluckyguy, guy benson is here. and he is "outnumbered," right on time for a whole lot of news. >> guy: a whole lot of news, we are keeping florida in our prayers and thoughts. a lot of breaking news this hour on that front. >> harris: let's get to it. irma prompting evacuation orders for half a million people in florida. some are stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. as they try to get to higher ground. we cover the storm expected to make landfall on sunday.

if not before. but the key is code see heavy winds and rain as early as tonight. authorities are urging people, don't try to ride this one out. >> this is a big, dangerous storm. something that has never been seen before in the atlantic. it is headed our way. are there a few people still in town? there are. i hope that they will heed the warning and end up leaving. don't call 911, nobody is going to answer the phone. >> harris: let's get to the keys first. griff jenkins in key largo. >> that's right, you can feel the winds just the prevailing winds starting here in key largo. a message from the county administration very clear, get out. because they are going to get a certain 1-2 punch. person will be the wind, then the storm surge as much as 10 feet, and that could put key largo and other parts of the keys underwater. that's why they are so worried. i'm joined now by burgess

warren, a manager here at the key largo marina and the surrounding areas. this is a big one part of them never seen it, are you worried? >> naturally, i'm worried about it. extremely worried. i've been here for 24 years, and a number of hurricanes. cat 1 into 2, and we stayed there for those, but this is 4 and 5, considerable worry. we can see that we are just passed high tide, so what will go up from here with the surge. just above high tide, and it will go up ten 10 feet from here. we have to look at everything around here, so we feel comfortable with buildings, but the big thing is that surge, what the water will do as they raise the boats up and come in. >> as we look beyond, those boats sitting over there, if this is high tide coming you had 10 feet, our viewers will be thinking that you are saying that that will go up as high as the buildings in the boats out of the marina. >> make no light of it. we have been looking at the

hulls right now. that's the ability with the surge of 10 feet or higher. >> you look right here, the boats are tied up on the cleats, are those going to hold? >> we hope so. there is no guarantee. they are bolted down very deep into the concrete, they are designed to hold. but this is obviously a different type of situation. a unique situation. and depending on what the boats do, you can see the tied off the marina here, securing each other, floating around and blowing around in the middle. hopefully the pressure will be shared amongst the cleats. >> how concerned are you with the officials warning that the wind is the destruction and the storm surge, but the fact that here in the keys you could be isolated, trapped without power and without water for days or weeks here? >> well, there is a guarantee that the power will go off. no doubt about that. i have some friends here who are supervisors coming into they say, yes, when it goes out, it goes out.

they don't turn the power out, because it takes weeks to get it back on. it will come back and they will gradually turn the power back in different neighborhoods as i can. that's a reality. we are standing out here right now at 95 degrees, over 100% humidity. it is hot. it will be hot after this. that's the nature when the storms go through. we will be dealing with this for a while before the power comes back on in these conditions. >> and finally, the officials are saying, get out, get out, get out. are they overstating it? >> not at all. absolutely not. it feels nice. there's a normal sort of wind that we usually get, but this is out of the east, northeast coming into this is what we get. it will go up to 150 knots or larger. as one goes out, one goes in. everybody should be getting out right now. i have been in cat 1 and 2, and they get your attention. i cannot imagine what this one will be like.

>> are you getting out? >> i am leaving, yes. i have family, we can fix this place. but i cannot fix it if something bad happens to me or anybody else here. this is serious part of this is something that we take very seriously. >> there you have it come on guys, this is coming from one of the most seasoned general managers of the marina saying get out, get out now. as you can feel, the winds are blowing on us now. >> harris: we can hear it in your microphone and see it on the tree line behind you. healthy skepticism on the couch here with me and melissa francis. talking about how the boats were able to take a cat for, because they were tied together. i don't know, you look at that video, they have boats upside down and in trees. hopefully it will work out. a worried merchant him that is the order of the day today. we are worried for florida. thank you for the report. >> sandra: we want to get to

chief meteorologist in the fox news weather center as miami is currently bracing for this direct hit. what does the storm look like right now? >> listen, south florida, not necessarily miami, we cannot say where it will happen as we have been saying all along. all of south florida is under the gun from this. the model changing a little bit over the last day. still showing the right-hand turn, we are so confident about. take a look at this. if there is anything you will notice, still a big spread here. from the west side of florida to the east side of florida, and here we are about 24 hours away from at least tropical storm force winds getting into florida. we cannot say where the center of it will go. keep in mind that it is not just a point, a center point, it is a big storm, hurricane winds expanding 70 miles from the center. you look at the satellite picture coming to see the little fixture going on right there. the replacement cycle, that we can say it's a little bit. and it spreads out the wind field.

in the short term, does it regain the strength? very possible. at 150-mile-per-hour speed speed 4 storm, more than 150-mile storm, but we are showing that it will probably, s possible to strengthen a little bit more which would be bad. the big reason for that is the water will go over, the warmest it has been at any point since it has been going. so if it did interactive little bit with cuba, that would be horrible news for cuba, but it would weaken a little bit, one option. but you notice still, the entire both sides of florida looking at the threats of the land fall prey to the worst of it, the worst of the surge will be to the right of it. we will see a lot of water pushed up into south florida. storm surge happening back towards naples as well as towards the miami area. at this point, it looks like we could be dealing with hurricane force winds across the entire peninsula. may be expending towards jacksonville. it becomes onshore, strong

cat 4, going to die down. we will be looking at hurricane force winds throughout the entire area here. looking at them extending up into central georgia before this winds down. so a lot is ahead here. time is over. we will see rain moving in this afternoon, the first band of that. and by the morning, early morning we will have tropical storm force winds. >> sandra: it's amazing to hear about the residents in south florida saying that they are going to wait it out. buckle down and tried to weather the storm. >> i don't like hearing that. >> sandra: i think everybody right now as the miami beach mayor called this potentially a nuclear hurricane, the timing of all of this, what should we expect? it is friday and we are heading into the weekend, when should we expect first landfall? >> first landfall will probably be sunday morning. i will tell you this, any bright side, we are going to have landfall and the worst happening during the daytime hours, which is certainly -- at least you can see what is happening around you

versus it happening at night. that may be one part of a bright spot. i have a friend of mine in miami say, should i go west or east on this? should i go to the west side towards naples? there is not a good way if you are thinking west-east to escape. the only real way is north. but a lot of territory and a lot of people going on that. looking at all of the lines and people without gas. but that idea right now, not a good option on that. >> sandra: thank you. i'm sure we will be seeing a lot of you in the next couple of hours and days. guy benson is on the couch. it is really unbelievable to watch the spread of the state is taking huge preparations. >> guy: florida, thank god, very experienced with this stuff. if any state knows how to deal with a hurricane, it is florida. not to take anything away from other states, but the sheer power of mother nature, no way that humans or government agencies are a match for that. i hope the people in florida are listening to their leaders and

authorities and saying, get out. and just the scale of the exodus from the state, almost the entire part of the state being evacuated, extraordinary, but clearly the right thing to do. >> harris: what is so interesting is the dichotomy from the two storms and the response to the evacuation. texas, they were talking about it being impossible to move millions of people out of houston, and having to do almost in rapid succession in the same exact thing here in the state of florida, learning some immediate lessons. i'm looking at the death toll, these numbers are going up now, sandra, every couple of hours. now upwards about 23 commands where some of the deaths have happened. puerto rico, u.s. virgin islands, the british virgin islands. actually areas that did not get hit by the worst of this form. >> sandra: you hear about the island set have lost 90% of their structures, i'm sure that melissa will look at the economic impact in the long term fallout of this. >> melissa: my heart first of

all goes out to the people in houston. you don't want to forget about them here. another storm here coming along. and still in so much trouble. i'm sure they feel like, don't forget about us and helping us. pretty much all of my family is in florida, and to like you said, they are actually experienced with this. so at least they know where higher ground is, what preparation to make, what to do. but at the same time, the waiting it's really hard. when you talk to people and they are just waiting for it to arrive and don't know what to expect. it is a time for everybody to pull together. >> harris: and harvey saw the second installment passed the house about 90 minutes ago, that hybrid spending bill, the debt ceiling bill at that a huge chunk of second money on top of the 8 billion they were promised in houston. so there is some movement of aid they are. >> trish: there will likely need to be a lot more in florida. one thing in all of this is that people at least because of the attention that was drawn to

houston, those in florida are aware of it. it is the storm surge that they really need to be worried about. it is important that they get out. i think in part because of the news flow that we have seen and the coverage, outstanding coverage of all that has happened tragically in houston, maybe people are a little bit more aware. let's keep our fingers crossed and make sure they get out of harm's way. >> sandra: as we are of course continuing to track hurricane irma, the very latest on the path of this monster storm is florida braces for a direct hit. plus a another potential deal with the democrats. president trump talking to chuck schumer and nancy pelosi about doing away with the need for congress to approve increases in the debt ceiling. whether that is a good idea and how it would go over with republicans. ♪ you don't let anything lkeep you sidelined.

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florida in the path with the storm no matter which way it turns at this point. we don't know where it will land, but that is some important information. you are talking about millions of people. governor rick scott has put a powerful tools in motion for the people of his state. a couple of things to mention. police escorts for a big rig trucks coming in with gasoline, because you cannot drive out if you do not have gas. he is trying to fill up the filling station set of run out of gas. also working with google, his team is, to give real time updates on the traffic flow as people head out. running out of time has been the message and updates, updating about every hour or two. we will take those as they happen live. offering free help to people if you are in an area where you have been evacuated but you do not have the resources or the wherewithal to get out. we will continue to cover the story as it happens. sandra. >> sandra: it looks like president trump is working on more deals with democrats.

president trump in talks with chuck schumer as well as nancy pelosi on doing away with the need for congress to approve increases in the debt ceiling prior to the president was asked yesterday and told "it could be discussed for many years, people have been talking about getting rid of the debt ceiling altogether." but house speaker paul ryan does not love the idea. >> as imperfect as this tool is come i see it as a good tool for a fiscal discipline. and one of the article one powers as a constitutional issue, it is congress' prerogative exercising the power of the first. >> you are not in favor of that? >> i like the fact that congress controls the power of the person, and who who gives us a fiscal deficit plan. >> sandra: you just recently spoke with the speaker of the house. where do you stand on this? >> if that was with martha on tv. i had them on fox news radio. i asked him point blank, do you categorically oppose the idea of eliminating the debt ceiling altogether?

he said, yes, we have no interest in doing that. whether it was a good pressure point or leverage point to oppose fiscal discipline, at least what he called a speed bump in the road. and if you get rid of the limits on federal borrowing and going up forever and ever, then that creates fewer opportunities for fiscal conservatives to say, we have a problem with our spending and our death. if you automatically boost endlessly america's ability to borrow. >> melissa: i wish that were true, but it is one of those fake things that is going on in washington. i would love to see fiscal discipline. i would love to starve the government of funds paid i would love to see the government gets smaller, but it feels so fake. because we come up against it. everybody acts like oh, no, they are not going to raise it, and then they do every time. if it was supposed to impose discipline, it has failed miserably. >> sandra: nobody fears that

it will actually happen. >> trish: we should not default on the debt. one of the things that has made us the most secure credit in the world is that we pay our bills. i don't think it is the end of the world, necessarily, if we did. but it's not a precedent that we want to set. we do not want to go down the path. melissa is right predicates raised every time. i don't like it. i would like to see a lot of fiscal discipline. maybe there's another way we should be thinking about this right thing now. you know they are going to raise that anyway, we are not going to default. why do we come up against this? >> sandra: i know we will deal with it and another three months. >> harris: if they were not so busy dating themselves and telling each other how wonderful they are through the process of let's not do anything, let's raise it. maybe they could get something done in terms of killing some things what we are spending and justify raising the ceiling only when it is necessary. but they seem to only want to braid each other's hair on this matter. >> guy: you are right,

melissa, these are cliffs and crises, and we lurch from one to the next. nothing gets accomplished. one exception of this was 2011, the budget control act, not a perfect piece of legislation by any stretch of the imagination, but at least an acknowledgment that the debt is a problem. one of the big issues in d.c. is that both parties, especially the democratic party, they do not think about that, they do not care about that. >> harris: because it is not their money. >> guy: we need to focus our minds on the issue. >> melissa: i hear what you're saying, but the only problem is when you watch washington, it is people who are compounded and befuddled by the problems that they themselves created. it is so frustrating to watch. into this is another artificial speed bump that they created, they stumbled over. but they still stumble over it. >> guy: i am pushing back here. it is like this. for up, up, forever and ever with no brakes on it. >> sandra: i want to point out

the fact that the u.s. dollar, i'm sure that you at fbn are watching this, the lowest level of the year today amongst other world currencies. lowest of the year in the treasury, and gold is going up. highest it has been for a year. photo bracing for impact as hurricane irma barrels towards the sunshine state after wreaking havoc on the caribbean. good slam headlong into miami and take aim at georgia and south carolina. we will talk to phil keating on the ground in miami beach. he is braving the elements. top republicans has he smelled a rat, once james comey to testify again on hillary clinton's email scandal. alike he says, the conclusion of the case just does not add up. ♪ c in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory.

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♪ >> sandra: fox news alert,

bracing for irma's wrath. expanding evacuation orders as that hurricane is on track to slam into south florida in miami. home to 6 million people. governor rick scott warning of dangerous storm surge along with a life-threatening wins. he says that if you have been ordered to get out, time is running out to do so. >> the storm surge is forecasted to be 3-10 feet. think about that. 3-10 feet in many areas. that is life-threatening. hurricane andrew is one of the worst storms in the history of florida. irma is more devastating on its current path. at this storm is powerful and deadly. we are being very aggressive in our preparation for the storm, and every floridian should take this seriously and be aggressive to protect their family. >> sandra: phil keating joining us live from miami beach, under a mandatory evacuation order, and there goes a car passed through. i'm thinking, have people left? >> sandra, almost all of the

people have left. this is friday afternoon in the noon hour, ocean drive, world-famous, i'm standing in the middle of the street. this is the most -- least crowded i have ever seen ocean drive on a friday. that's the news cafe over there where a person how to use to hang out, that is closed. quite willies, all closed up. and sandbags on the ground. sandbags in high demand over the past few days because of the protected storm surge of 5-10 feet. if, in fact, we get 10 feet down here, you will see all of the foliage over there, that it's on top of the sand dune which is a protective barrier for the beach, if we get 10 feet, there is undoubtedly going to be ocean water streaming at least through the pathway and flooding all that you see behind me. governor's warning everybody to get out, cruise ships are out as of today -- the port of miami will be closing down. we still found a few people

putting up plywood earlier today, and we met a couple of people who absolutely refuse to leave. >> i'm hunkering down for the hurricane! >> i have an apartment on the second floor, this is a 1980s building, save a solid cement, i never thought about leaving. >> you think you will be safe, what about the water? >> it's okay. we are on the second floor. unless it is about 20 feet rolling in the streets, which, come on. >> out of miami airport last night and this morning, massive crowds, people trying to get their flights and get out of town before the worst of the worst comes to town. which is projected to happen saturday and sunday. at the last flight out of miami international in less than three hours. 3:00 p.m. the last flight. otherwise your only option is driving. a massive issue with shortages of fuel and gasoline for cars, but the mass exodus out of here

began a few days ago, and miami beach which typically has a whole lot of residents who ignore the warnings and just think that they can deal -- clearly today we have seen this place is really merely a ghost town. >> sandra: i think that we are all sitting here fearing for the couple with whom you just spoke, and we heard them say because they are on the second floor they are going to stay. did they provide -- could they not get out? you wonder what is in the mind of somebody who says, i'm going to stick around. >> typically it is the same thing. i think that i can make it. i will be okay. my building seems like a brick house. or it has hurricane impact windows. or it has a generator. i talked to several people that live in high-rises coming in to keep in mind that there are 650,000 people in miami county alone under a mandatory evacuation order.

and to the police tell me that the rule of thumb for first responders as this, as soon as the winds hit 40 miles per hour, they go into shelter mode. so no cops, no firefighters, no paramedics until after the winds get high and then come back down. keep in mind when the winds are high, let's say 150-mile-an-hour winds hits miami beach. all the debris out on the field will fly at two-thirds the rate of speed. that is coming in here as 100 miles per hour. that's why it's so critical that people board it up, plywood it up. their shutters on their houses. and people have. everybody knows for days on end and that it is coming. you certainly can get that sensation that today is friday, the day before people know the clock is ticking. >> melissa: are you going to be safe, fill, where are you going? >> i don't know yet. i have to get a room. >> sandra: phil keating, thank you. >> we may ride it out at my

house. >> sandra: the governor making it clear, a mandatory evacuation, if you stay there, we cannot save you once the hurricane makes landfall, phil keating, thank you. >> there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information. our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. >> harris: that was former fbi director james comey last july. announcing that he would not be pursuing charges against hillary clinton over the handling of classified emails, remember on the supersecret top server. but last week it was reported that james comey drafted a letter exonerating hillary clinton in april or may of last year before clinton and other top witnesses including brian caggiano and chief of staff sheryl mills were ever interviewed by the fbi. so you exonerate them, but then you talk to them. and now senator lindsey graham

says that comey should come again before congress to explain himself. >> he needs to come back to the committee for a couple of reasons. had you predetermine the result before the interview contrary to your testimony? i want to inform the public of as much as possible. because this does not add up. i smell a rat. >> and i'm convinced that that's not how you inform the public. how many times what we have these people come up to capitol hill and they see say these words? i can't talk to you about that. there's something here. >> guy: you have to ask james comey. that is right from senator graham. >> harris: in public or private? >> guy: either one. if he questions him in public, maybe i can answer these things in public, that's up to the committee, but more questions need to be asked. one thing that is interesting to me, as you look at the time frame of this, if james comey drafted this exoneration memo in

the late spring of 2016, that was within days of president obama going on national television and saying -- she didn't do anything illegal. that's one thing that we would like to hear answered. the american people from james comey. and one other point, there is a former federal prosecutor named andrew mccarthy who worked for years with comey. he is been writing about it at the national review, and he goes through the entire fbi investigation into hillary clinton. based on his own experience, he says, you look at the fed trying to make a case. in his estimation it looks like they were trying to unmake a case against her. why? >> melissa: i don't know if there is anything new to discover though. it feels like to me we know that the outcome was predetermined. now we have even more evidence that the outcome was predetermined, i mean, the senators coming out and saying, it is in the transcript, they are, they knew that they decided. that's what it looked like to the naked eye. i don't know, she did not win

the election. i don't know what else can be achieved -- you're not going to put anybody in jail. you're not going to do anything with the information. i think we know that the outcome was predetermined and was not fair. >> harris: part of what showed the wider public this, all of these hearings were nothing came out too much of any of them. you saw a numbing within the public, well, are we going to hold anybody accountable? i remember sandra asking where is the accountability? >> trish: apparently will not hold anybody accountable. this is the message we seem to be getting. if there is a head density on washington's part to go after her to hard, because the feeling is, oh, do we look like some banana republic in with the new, out with the old, and by the way, lets us in the malted jail at the same time. you just looked down to brazil and some other places in the world that do use things like this. so there is a is a hesitancy for

this reason. i wrestle with this myself. the problem is it is president. one lawmaker can get away with skirting the law, and we are not going to do anything about it, do you run the risk of that happening again and again? >> sandra: and it is the issue of trust that comes up time and time again. >> guy: we are talking about whether there is interference from the trump administration, if the fbi has investigations that are politicized for partisan reasons or otherwise, we need to know about it. >> harris: wrote the exonerations in april, starting the interviews after. not missing words in the new book, what's it called? -- "what happened" ." >> harris: some of them calling it an enemies list. we will tell you who was on it and how one is responding. and we are continuing the storm coverage, the path of killer

hurricane irma, making its way towards florida fast. threatening the entire peninsula at this point. we will go live to the fox weather center for an update. stay close. ♪ comfortable you are in it. so find a venus smooth that contours to curves, flexes for comfort, and has a disposable made for you. skin smoothing venus razors.

♪ >> harris: we are awaiting rick scott of florida to give us an update. you know that he has made mass evacuations the order of the day in the last 48 hours, a lot of assets in the motion to help people out. among those are shelters across the state. as we will check in just a moment, that is because there is no east-west escaping the beast. you have to go north to out reach. and looking at the video into fox news, it is a shelter in dade county miami. it is already filling up. of the storm not set to hit for another more than 24 hours. people taking this, some of them very seriously. seeing what happened in houston

and having a history with hurricane andrew many years ago. heeding the warnings, many have left their home early, sheltering in place inside this rather large area. this is dade senior high school, one of the areas that the governor had talked about that they were going to close schools today. shut down county and city businesses, so they can utilize the space is her shoulders. chief meteorologist with the latest on the storm itself. >> it was 12 years ago since they had a marriage or hurricane anywhere in florida. and the population has exploded in florida since then. a lot of people who have never experienced anything like this, what they are going to see. about a half an hour ago here, you look at the feature in the eye going through it. to the replacement cycle, well that's get consolidated again? this view images on here look like that is getting filled back in again. the water ahead of this is very

warm, it is possible in some of the models indicating a restrained thickening of the storm, we are already at a speed to five with the storm. it does not matter, very strong. look at the showers moving in, seeing a few on the radar. a few of the showers in the first a band across band across parts of the by hamas. look at what the forecast window looks like. we are going to see the forecast winds by saturday evening, tropical storm force winds by the morning. >> harris: have to scoot away from you quickly. rick scott of florida is in tampa right now, the very latest on what you can do to help people out ahead of the storm. we will watch together. >> rainfall is forecasted to be 8-12 inches with isolated areas receiving 20 inches of rain. based on what we know now, the majority of florida will have major hurricane impacts with deadly storm surge and threatening winds.

we expect this all along the coast and west coast. the florida keys should be prepared to feel the effects of the storm tomorrow morning. here in the panhandle, you also experience severe weather. please be prepared for this. evacuations, i've ordered school buses to aid the evacuation statewide. multiple counties have accepted the buses, i encourage any any county to request buses right now. the traffic and roadways experts say that the keys are heavily evacuated. all gas stations are closed, but if you're still in the keys, get out now. we will quickly run out of good weather to evacuate. if you need any help in the state to evacuate, 1-800- 1-800-342-3557. if you are in the keys, effectuate now. anywhere in the state, if you are told to evacuate, leave, get out quickly.

i am a dad and her grandfather, i love my family. i cannot imagine life without them. do not put yourself or your family at risk. if you have been ordered to evacuate and are still home, please go to a shelter. i encourage everyone to check on your neighbors. if you know someone in your neighborhood who is not evacuate being and showed, please check on your neighbor. check on people with special needs or the elderly. if you can take people in, please do it. take your family and get to safety. today the right thing for your family and every family in the state to make sure that you have a plan and get to safety. this storm is wider than the entire state, and expected to cause major and life-threatening impacts from coast to coast. remember hurricane andrew is one of the worst storms in the history of the state. irma is more devastating on its current path. irma has already caused multiple

fatalities in the caribbean. the storm is powerful and deadly. we are being very aggressive in the preparation for the storm and every floridian should take this seriously to protect their family. possessions can be replaced, your family cannot. i know that it is hard to evacuate, and it is very uncomfortable. i think about my mom and how hard it would have been for her to be completely broke with kids and have to evacuate. but you have to do it. you cannot afford not to do it. think about your family. you have to keep your family safe. to private business owners, please be compassionate with your employees as they prepare for the storm and evacuate. i was a business owner when hurricane andrew devastated the state 25 years ago. the single most important thing right now is the safety of your employees and their families. for the remainder of the state waiting on evacuation orders, listen to your local officials. they will tell you if and when to your area needs to be

evacuated. listen to them. follow the news. we can expect additional evacuations as though storm continues to come up through the state. i cannot stress this enough. do not ignore any evacuation orders. all floridian should be prepared to evacuate. based on recent forecast, the army corps has been looking at how the army dike will be impacted. the army corps of engineers last night, they believe that there will be additional impacts from excessive wind pushing some water. they have assured me that this structural integrity will not be compromised, but they are worried about water flowing over the top. i hope ordered evacuations. in the three counties. the decision was made due to the sole focus on life safety.

traffic, i know many of you are stuck in traffic. i know that you have to be frustrated. i will ask you to be patient. evacuations are not convenient. but the goal is for them to be safe. i'm glad so many people are driving to safe places places. we have increased the number of troopers on the highways to move traffic and keep it moving down the road. we have 1700 troopers working 12-hour shifts. these dedicated officers are 100% focused on safety and are not taking a day off. also all administrative duties have been suspended. that means the officers on roads helping people of evacuate and bringing supplies to areas of need. we have also increased the number of road rangers who are looking at the roadways 24/7 to assist motorists. around the state, we have hundreds of d.o.t. workers on traffic cameras 24/7 to assure that traffic flow continues and

evacuation is proceeding without interruptions. all of this is to help everyone that will evacuate to get safely where they need to go. we still need southbound lanes to get needed gas and supplies down to shelters and families that needed in the southern part of the state. counter flow inhibits our ability is to get -- shoulders on i-75 on to the georgia line. drive safely and listen to law enforcement. they are working to keep you and your family safe. real-time traffic information and evacuation routes are available. we are seeing bottlenecks at a major highway junctions, bringing up an important point. if you do not need to evacuate out of the state, hundreds of miles away to stay safe, there is an -- you don't always have to do that. there will be shelters all around the state. so if you do not need to be on the road, get off and get to a

shelter. we are working with google emergency teams to give real-time updates and look at hurricane irma closer to any roads. all the tolls and roads for the state have been waived. look at the information centers to help evacuate use with the most updated information. visit the welcome center staff and all red cross certified and will assist where needed. if you are concerned that you do not have a way to evacuate due to traffic, please call the emergency hotline. we will do everything possible to get you out. fuel, one of the top priorities has been fuel availability. i was alerted yesterday by vice president mike pence that the program has waived rules to allow fuel to get to florida fast. i want to thank the epa, the president, the vice president for all the efforts to get the fuel to the state.

we know there are problems with supplied gas stations, state law enforcement providing escort services to gas trucks to get them through traffic so that they can get to the stations faster. the law enforcement escorts have continued throughout the night. they will go as long as possible. you have probably seen some of them around the state. the gas stations and evacuation zones, we need you to stay open as long as possible so that people can get fuel and get out. we will arrange police escorts for your employees so that they can get out safely. so please stay open, if you are in and evacuation zone and you are a gas station, please stay open as long as you can. we all know how important fuel is. we have every state resource looking to get all the fuel that we can get here. three tanker trucks -- tanker trucks in delivering 1.2 million volumes of fuel.

trucks from tampa bay and jackson directed to the gas station. as of 6:00 p.m. last night, 8.4 million gallons of fuel was shipped and more than five millions gallons of fuel to tampa bay. we are looking to move excess volumes to communities throughout north central florida. while we are making progress, unfortunately you will still see lines and outages. i cannot imagine how frustrated you have to be. i can just tell you, none of us are going to stop working on it. however, if you are in an evacuation zone in south florida, just remember that you need to leave now. the bridge will be closing tonight for safety, and gas will no longer be resupplied into much of south florida until after the storm. if you are concerned that you do not have enough fuel to evacuate, please call the state of emergency hotline. 1-800-352-3447.

you have to call now so that we can get you out. if you know that you're going to a shelter in your county, you do not have to fill up your tank all the way. be considerate of others, others might have to go further away. there is a gas by the app, a great resource to find stations with fuel. all ports still remain open, and are operating to bring fuel and supplies in. shelters, last night i directed a closure of all schools in the state. all state universities and all state offices from their normal activities, and that's today through monday. the goal is to ensure that we have all the space ability for sheltering and staging. floridians have to have access to as many shelters as possible. we will see more of actuations in the northern part of the state. fortunately over 17,000 people have signed up to volunteer. we need more volunteers. you can go to the volunteer florida website.

to sign up. we cannot thank the ones that have signed up enough, but we are going to need more. there is absolutely no reason for anyone not to evacuate if you are ordered to do so. shelters are available around the state, and you should follow the direction of local officials to go to the shelter that fits your needs. you can go to florida disaster.org to find a shelter in your county or neighboring county. if you need a hotel, you can go to expedia.com/florida. trying to help us on real time hotel occupation c. if you are an evacuee in a place -- in need of a place to stay or an error bmb host opening up a house for evacuating. the photo restaurant -- encouraging all hotels to waive pet policies, provide shelter and be courteous with cancellations. national guard, we have already

activated 7000 members, right now every available member of the national guard that we have has been a activated. law enforcement, the wildlife conservation providing rescue teams for deployment, more than 200 officers standing by for the first wave of response and impact. we have been reaching out to law enforcement across the state to make sure that they have the most resources to keep people safe. utility providers, actively preposition resources throughout the state and in neighboring states. we all know how important both fuel is and how important power will be. we will aggressively work with utilities to make sure that if you lose power, to get your power back on as quickly as we can. i want to think the governors of other states that have provided -- every time i have asked for something, they have provided it. i know the entire country is behind us. i know the president is behind us. we have the best first responders in the country ready to help. but we are running out of time. the storm is almost here, if you

are in an evacuation zone, you need to goad now. this is a catastrophic storm, the state has never seen it before. we can rebuild your house. you can get your possessions again. we cannot rebuild your life. we cannot rebuild your family. protecting life is the absolute top priority. there will be no resource or expense spared to protect a family. florida is tough. florida is resilient. florida is unbreakable. we have to stay together and help each other. florida is an amazing melting pot of loving people and proud to be governor of the great state. [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish]

[speaking spanish] >> i would like to introduce the attorney general, one thing is it is discussing if anybody price gouges, i've said this around the state and on national television, we have an attorney general that will prosecute people for a price gouging. this is the time to help our neighbors. not a time to take advantage of our neighbors. >> think you governor. thank you for everything you are doing. >> harris: we will pull away from this. they may step up to the microphone. a lot of information as we always do from governor rick scott of florida. at the number one thing is that there is a hotline. we have asked the team to put it up on the screen. we will leave it up until we go off the air. i called just to make sure that it was verified, people can call there, if you need to be

evacuated from your home, you know that you need to go based on what you have been told in your area, what they are saying now is called that number and they will do their best to come and get you ahead of the storm. the headline that i got it, everybody we will very quickly run out of good weather to get you out. >> sandra: this is not just florida residents we are talking about. a state of emergencies have been declared in the carolinas and just moments ago the president just confirmed that he has declared georgia a state of emergency. the governor of georgia tweeting out a thank you to the president for his support in all of this, calling this a very dangerous storm. they are telling their residents there in savannah and some of the coastal areas that have been told to evacuate. listen to your local officials. that is really key right now. >> harris: i want to get a couple of more things in paired one of the things i governor was talking about was all the buildings that they have closed. we showed you the senior

high school in dade county. people lining up to get into the sheltered area so that they will have plenty of places to put people. this is a fast moving storm. the difference between this and harvey will be that you may not have to be in the shelter position for very long, depending on the electricity and the utility outlets. of those outages that are happening, but foreseeably not as long. >> melissa: just to make the point, he said to use the number now, we will help you get out, but once the storm starts, we cannot do that any longer. >> guy: he said that over and over again. >> melissa: we do not want people to think that the number will help you during the storm, it is before the storm. >> guy: the effects starting as early as tomorrow morning and the keys. >> harris: we saw griff jenkins so early, and the tree line was blowing, he said, we can feel it, and i already put a shepard smith will have a special coverage of this as we continue to get updates. this is 5:00 p.m. eastern today on the fox news channel. be sure to catch hurricane irma

with shepard smith, the special coverage this afternoon. of course, stay right here for all the breaking news throughout the day. guy benson, it was a pleasure as always to have you. thank you for being here. have a great weekend. "happening now" >> heather: we have a fox news alert, we are awaiting the white house briefing which is set to begin about a half-hour from now as hurricane irma heads for florida. >> jon: congress approves a bill tying hurricane harvey relief to funding and the federal government and raising the debt ceiling. we're covering all the news is news "happening now." >> do not put yourself or your families lives at risk. >> jon: governor risk scott encouraging everyone in the evacuation zones to leave. >> today is the day to do the right thing for your family. >> jon: time is running out, traffic jams are massive and gas