>> dana: as you said, florida state, louisiana state game. >> bret: yeah, big game in orlando. >> dana: it's still on, right? >> bret: as of today. >> dana: i'll be watching and reporting when we get back on monday. bret, thank you for being with me again for another day. we really appreciate it. i will see you on "special report" as well. "the faulkner focus" is next. julie banderas in for harris. >> julie: historic hurricane idalia slamming florida's gulf coast as a monster category 3 storm just hours ago. the most powerful storm to ever hit the state's big bend region. unprecedented event currently at a category 2 status with more of the state in its sites. this is "the faulkner focus." i'm julie banderas in for harris. listen up. the biggest risk right now the life threatening storm surge. 12 to 16 feet for that big bend

area, on top of that destructive winds, torrential rain, and tornado warnings. scenes like this one close to where the storm made landfall. rushing water risking away the boat house here. we could hear from florida governor ron desantis again today. his message this morning. >> wherever you are, hunker down and don't take anything for granted here. this is a very, very powerful storm. there will be impacts far beyond the eyewall. those will extend to places like tallahassee as well as places like northeast florida. we have already had 11 tornado warnings and there are more tornadoes possible even and especially in the very outer bands of the storms. >> julie: we have team fox coverage across the state. fox news weather and fox news with all angles of the storm. meteorologist adam is monitoring

the path and who may be in harm's way as it barrels across florida. adam has breaking news for us. >> the update coming in from the national hurricane center just in the last two minutes, it is a category 2 hurricane now. it is rare to see such a powerful storm make it this far inland. it has been packing winds. these are some of the high winds we've seen so far running into the 80s, wind gusts. that does major damage. where is the storm and where it is going? a category 1 hurricane well inland at this point. there is our center of circulation now north of interstate 10 running up to maybe even over the florida/georgia line as we speak. the leading edge is very powerful. very strong winds there, also downpours of rain, a lot of frequent thunder and lightning. main concerns with a storm like this. the total deaths.

storm surge and rain is what kills folks. those issues are still not done. this is the path the storm is going to take. it will move across the southeast impacting south georgia that we are beginning to see and south carolina and north carolina. everything you are looking at in the orange is probably getting up to 4 to 5 5 inches of rain. additionally with the rain the storm surge is not over. places across florida will start to slowly die down here. then the storm surge threat changes. the winds circle the storm in this motion. you will see now that the storm is sitting off the southeast coast all the winds battering sea waters up against places across the georgia coast, the south carolina coast. flooding is a concern and more storm surge could be on the way. what are we looking at with storm surge?

remember, florida was the worst of it. we'll be seeing areas taking you down here through the southern end and let me jump up to what's happening next. maybe 4 to 5 feet in areas after the storm has already been moving through. julie, there is lots to pay attention to with this storm and a lot of people still in the path as we talk walls of water still being pushed up along the coasts. rain obviously still a big concern as we see rounds of these big showers across this entire region. those tornado watches are still in place. this is a multi-layer threat. tornado watches. outer bands where you see the tornadoes spin up they spin up yesterday. big thunderstorms embedded with this. still lots of activity to be tracking this throughout the rest of today and early tomorrow. >> julie: what are the current sustained winds? >> they are at 90 miles-per-hour of the system. as it -- it is now a category 1

as it crosses into georgia, which is almost unheard of for it to make that far as still a hurricane. >> julie: so many layers. storm surge is a huge one. when you look between keaton beach florida and tampa, the high tide there will be a very high tide today. 4.7 feet of high tide which is supposed to hit sometime around 2:00. factor in the high tide with this storm surge and the path, what do you predict? >> again now, probably the highest tide we've seen are currently taking place. maybe another half foot. whatever folks are seeing out there in the tampa area around four feet. keaton beach closer to six feet. the storm is becoming a threat talking about tides for the carolinas. those folks need to plan for what's coming later today. >> julie: as far as the track is concerned. the cone is moving north to east. do you see any possibility of it

circling back and hitting land again or going to bermuda. >> a small chance that it could move back and go across florida but at that point it will be a much weaker storm. just some rainshowers. that is yet to be seen but nothing that causes the type of damage we are currently talking about. >> julie: great to have you on. we were talking about the monster storm surge burying the beach appeared making sidewalks and streets look like rivers. watch. >> okay. >> julie: that is robert ray. he is in clear water, florida. much improved conditions? a lot less water under your feet. >> big time, julie, exactly. you can see this is road in

clear water. the winds and rain hit us a few hours ago. look at the recession of this water. we have just had incredible wind gusts start to come through again. amazing. the storm is way up already made landfall 200 miles fought north and we are still getting the wind bands. thankfully no rain. here is the thing about all the surge. high tide coming soon we may see a little rise off the gulf of mexico with the high tide. i just talked to police in the last hour and there is silver lining in this part of where the storm has affected. that is they've been patrolling this area. they think that most people heeded the mandatory evacuation orders and left the island. they aren't finding anyone injured or perhaps worse. they aren't seeing incredible structural damage here. the water that has come in has caused some damage to the lower end of hotels and businesses, a

few inches in some and the north end of the island they're saying water is a little higher because of the fact that the ground is a little lower. but nothing significant at this point at least. they are still patrolling to report here. there are two confirmed deaths from this hurricane and not to negate what is happening on the big bend with all the surge and that beautiful area of the state of florida, fishing villages. a lot of big pine trees and live oaks. many of them have been torn down. power is out in some of those spots. so utility crews, thousands are on stand by to come in and try to cut down the trees and restore when they can when the winds and rain bands stop to the north. having said all that, governor desantis is still giving us updates as well as fema, as well. national guard is on the ground in the state of florida and there are dozens of counties

that are in emergency mode still as this system as you guys have been talking about, it is very rare for a storm to continue to be a hurricane, category 1 as it goes into the southern georgia area and cross and into the carolinas, we're nowhere near done which what could be catastrophic in some areas, two dead now unfortunately. >> julie: thank you so much. appreciate it. tampa fire rescue chief joins me now to talk more about the latest there. you guys basically have been watching in and hoping people heed the warnings. there were evacuations. i guess the biggest warning now is for people not to get ahead of the storm. because it has passed through your area it isn't time to check out your house. you have a storm surge that could follow and major flooding, right? >> that's correct. actually since 3:00 this morning we have made a couple of rescues where people actually went out and did not see the warning and

got stalled. we have made a couple of rescues for individuals. we are urging everyone do not go back to your home. let's wait until the surge is over with, later on this afternoon. >> julie: storm surge is the most catastrophic after math of the storm. if you look at the water here in gulf port, florida, what we're showing on our screens you can see boats bobbing on moorings. with the high tide coming into tampa around sometime around 2:00 this afternoon, you have to factor in the wave height with the storm surge, right? i just checked on the national data center, the current wave height is 8.9 feet. i'm a boat geek. when it comes to wave hit when they measure wave height they take the third of every way. it could be double that height. if you look at 8.9 foot wave it could be double that. talk about the storm surge you are expecting with the waves

coming in off the shore. >> that's correct. we have some areas that are low lying and they are being affected now we're seeing 3 to 4 feet. when the storm come in this afternoon with that surge, that it is actually going to affect a lot of families. that's why we urge everyone to make sure they evacuate now before it get too late and urge everyone don't go into those areas and heed what local authorities are telling them. >> julie: not much of a wind event. you are worried about flooding, is that correct? >> that's correct. wind has ceased. overnight we reached up to 60, 65. it is not the wind. we're more concerned about the water. >> julie: any advice for those at home except stay in the shelter, don't go to your homes. when do you believe they will be given the all clear? people are anxious to get out there and see if their sump

pumps are working and basements flooded but try to be patient is the hardest advice to heed right now. >> that's true. we've been sending information out to the public to let them know we'll give them the all clear. most likely after 5:00 this afternoon. when the surge comes in with our high tides which will be around 2:00. we've been told the water will hang around for a while. we urge everyone to take heed to local authorities and don't go back in. if you are in the area now told to evacuate, please, please listen to authority and evacuate. >> julie: tell me about power outages. it's daylight now. 5:00 is the cut-off time people can go home. will people be sleeping in the dark tonight? >> well, actually we have probably about 5,000 residents without power right now. our electric company is working hard to get that power up and we are hoping that everything will be taken care of before 5:00

this afternoon so they will be some power for them this evening. >> julie: the chief is saying 130,000 residents, now more than 200,000 residents across the state of florida without power. so that is something to keep in mind, folks, as well, if you don't have a generator and go home, maybe you are better off staying in a shelter with a generator. when you go home you may have no power which could make things a lot trickier. the water isn't going anywhere so no rush to get home. stay in the shelters if you have to. chief, thank you for talking to us. we really appreciate it. up next we'll take you live to tallahassee, florida, fox weather's brandi campbell is there with the latest. florida's lieutenant governor will join us with more on this historic hurricane tearing through her state. veteran homeowners, need to save money every month? call newday. pay off your high rate

credit cards and car loan with an affordable va home loan from newday. you can save $500 every month. rates on credit cards have gone up to 22%. for late payments, as much as 30%, more than three times higher than a newday va loan. pay off your credit cards and car with a newday100 va loan and save. i brought in ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! uuuhhhh... here, i'll take that! woohoo! ensure max protein, 30 grams of protein, 1 gram of sugar. enter the $10,000 powered by protein max challenge. ♪ ♪ i need it cool at night. you trying to ice me out of the bed? baby, only on game nights. you know you are retired right? am i? ya! the queen sleep number c2 smart bed is now only $999. plus free home delivery when you add a base shop now only at sleep number. hi, i'm stacey, and i've lost 60 pounds on golo. (guitar music) i decided to try golo

when i had an international flight coming up and i realized i couldn't fly being the size that i was. my sister-in-law tried golo and had lost 50 pounds, so i thought i'd give golo a try. i didn't expect the results i got on golo. i was hopeful, but i did not expect it to be like this. golo just makes sense. this plan works. (announcer) change your life at golo.com. that's golo.com.

♪ believe it or not baby... at university of phoenix... you... you... you... you could earn your... master's... for under than 11 thousand! 11... yes! 11! master's degree for under 11k in less than a year. some things are too obvious to be a coincidence. earn your competency-based master's at university of phoenix.

(♪) ♪ you're just like a satellite ♪ (♪) ♪ like a satellite ♪ viasat satellite internet. learn more about our plans at viasat.com

here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch, it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today.

>> julie: we have much more on historic hurricane idalia coming up. we want to bring you other news popping today. the white house dancing around questions on the issue of trans athletes in women's sports. it is a debate that has been raging across the country as you very well may know. many parents and athletes are concerned about not only the physical discrepancy between male and female athletes but about safety in locker rooms as well. hillary vaughn is asking the press secretary point blank about this yesterday and live at the white house. once again should be interesting to hear the dodged answer you got, hillary. >> hi, julie. presidential candidate and former governor nikki haley is calling it the women's issue of our time whether or not biological males should compete in women's sports.

the white house is walking a fine line between standing up for women's rights but also protecting the rights of transgender athletes. >> does the president agree it's a women's rights issue? >> we have talked about this many times. the title ix specifically. look, and again we talked about this multiple times. it's a complicated issue and there are a wide range of views on this. >> does he care that girls are allowed to compete in sports without fear of injuries, does he think it's fair for girls to have to compete against biological males? >> i answered the question. it is a complicateed issue with a wide range of views. there is no yes or no answer to this. it is complicated. >> for many americans it is not complicated. they have made up their mind. a gallup poll found 70% of americans say transgender athletes should be allowed with

sports team that match their birth gender. nikki haley reacted to the white house side stepping my question. >> the biden administration is wrong to say it's a complicated issue. it is not complicated and we aren't going to have to make our daughters get used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms. it is pretty simple. biological boys play in boys sports. biological girls play in girls sports. >> the white house is really caught in the middle, julie. the answer it's not complicated won't cut it with republicans but also a lot of democrats, progressives want the president to stand up and say transgender athletes do have a right to compete in sports that align with their chosen gender identity, julie. >> julie: it seems like she really enjoyed your question. i love to watch how defensive she gets. just answer. great job as always. thank you so much. fox weather alert. frightening scenes across

florida as a life threatening storm surge inundates streets, bridges and homes. national weather service calling hurricane idalia an unprecedented event. the first major hurricane to mack landfall in the big bend region of the state in recorded history. warnings issued for nearly all of florida's gulf coast. right now over 300,000 power outages. that number is climbing. it doubled in the last couple hours. so far have been reported. the number could go up. brandi campbell is here from tallahassee, florida, with latest there. >> right now we're still feeling some slight impacts from this storm. as you can see it is still raining out here. it hasn't stopped all morning. every now and then we get the gusts of wind. we have a slight one coming through now. the main impact they were expecting in tallahassee was the power outages. you noted the large number, 300,000. 50,000 of those are here in the

city of tallahassee. they noted it's likely going to be caused by all their tree coverage. they have about 55% tree coverage here in this city. they are known for it. they were concerned about the winds knocking them down. that did happen. good news is they've started power restoration as of last night restoring at least 12,000 customers. some people are happy the lights are coming on already. where we are the lights are still out unfortunately. it will be a waiting game for some people. also waiting for the rain to stop. the storm is clearing out of this area. julie. >> julie: thank you, brandi reporting live. lieutenant governor of florida joins me now. it is not over, although the winds have died down significantly. now we are talking storm surge and trying to get people to stay put. the governor warned for people basically not to go out there and do anything to put themselves at risk and to

evacuate and heed warnings. are people listening? >> yeah, the vast majority of people did what they needed to do and evacuated the coastal low lying areas that would be exposed to the storm surge. as people start to begin to want to get back to their homes we're encouraging people to stay put for the time being. a lot of action has happened post storm. what you see is people being exposed to dangerous situations like downed power lines, downed trees, so we're just urging people to proceed with caution. as soon as it's safe for our emergency responders, our urban search and rescue teams and linemen to continue working, they will be doing that and doing it as quickly as possible. >> julie: an early morning news conference from the governor. we expect him to speak later today. he said to residents don't mess with the storm. it will be a significant impact. how significant of an impact was this? was it more or less than what

was expected? >> we have been coordinating very closely with the weather service and making sure we alerted people for the potential for a major catastrophic storm. that was communicated in the past several days. what we'll be doing is ascertaining what the damage is like. helping individuals rebuild. we know that the storm surge was significant. we know the winds and the rain significant as it continues to go through the state and go on up to georgia and the carolinas. but this is a process that we are accustomed to under governor desantis's leadership. he has taken great pains to make sure we prepare, we present position assets and everything ready to go and stand by floridians every step of the way and help them as they rebuild. >> julie: the florida national guard activated. their response operations have a 5 5500 soldier and airman.

they are out there now. you have over 300,000 people in the state without power. that number seems to be climbing dramatically considering an hour ago it was somewhere in the hundreds, like 150,000. what are you expecting and how will you handle the widespread power outages? >> that's something that we're very accustomed to in florida when you see the extent of the damage. a lot of trees are down. a lot of power lines are down. that will take some time. we do have over 25,000 linemen that are actively working. we have more ready to come in if we need that. that is our number one goal other than, of course, the top priority is preserving life and that's our number one goal to get the power back on. that's something we'll be focused on making sure that we have a sufficient amount of personnel working round the clock to do that. yes, that number will climb and we will ask people to be patient and to report as quickly as they

can when they have a situation. but that we are monitoring, county by county, location by location. >> julie: the video is from cedar key florida that we're showing now, just about north of where the eye of the storm right below steinhatchee. just south of that. the rain has stopped and the wind has stopped and it's the flooding people are dealing with when they return to their homes. thank you so much, lieutenant governor of florida for talking to us. good luck to you guys down in florida. much more on hurricane idalia and its impact on fox news. we have an update from our meteorologists and peter doocy will talk about the federal response to the dangerous storm. also here to weigh in on that florida senator marco rubio. stick around.

kayaking is my thing. running is awesome. but her moderate to severe eczema would make her skin so uncomfortable.

i was always so itchy especially when i was hot. now my skin doesn't itch as much. now we're staying ahead of her eczema. there's a power inside all of us to live our passion. and dupixent works on the inside to help heal your skin from within. it helps block a key source of inflammation inside the body that can cause eczema. so, they can have clearer skin and less itch. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. healing from within is a wonderful thing. ask your child's eczema specialist how dupixent can help heal their skin from within. (vo) antarctica... you have to experience it to truly appreciate the beauty, the wildlife, the sheer majesty.

experience it with state-of-the-art expedition equipment and hands-on scientific research activities, all in exceptional viking comfort. we invite you to discover the world's seventh continent: antarctica. viking. exploring the world in comfort.

[♪] how you feel can be affected by the bacteria in your gut. try new align probiotic bloating relief plus food digestion. it contains a probiotic to help relieve occasional bloating, plus vitamin b12 to aid digestion. try align probiotic. >> julie: fox news continued

coverage of hurricane idalia. the storm making its way across florida after slamming into the gulf coast as a category 3 storm. looking ahead at the projected path in the next 24 hours it is set to impact the georgia and the carolina coasts. the center of the storm already over southern georgia. we'll check back with in meteorologist adam klatz. >> it is sitting further to the north now, guys. in the control room i do need max 16. you are looking at the path cur currently a category 1 hurricane along the georgia coasts. you can see your center of circulation there. right on the leading edge. this is a very powerful storm. winds getting up to 70 miles-per-hour. very heavy rain. catastrophic flooding happening. on the back side of the system

strong winds still pushing water up along the coast. the big bend coast there of florida. areas a little farther out like jacksonville, outer bands of rain but still winds at 40 miles-per-hour. they won't see a whole lot worse than that. the winds moving across that water i was showing you still doing some damage there as you look at still at cedar key a total storm surge of close to five feet. enough to really impact some of those low-lying areas. farther to the south taking you to tampa. storm surges closer to 3, 3 1/2 feet. as the storm continues to push up toward the coast of georgia and the carolinas, the winds will back down and see the numbers recede a little bit. they are currently seeing some of the worst of it. the path one more time. you will see this run across south georgia into the carolinas and those are the next people to see this. julie really from right now when you start to look forward what does the storm lay in front of it? it becomes a rain maker. you see how much rain you've seen in florida.

a lot of those greens and yellows. the oranges from now up to the carolinas, that is going to be what we can start to look at next. you could see 4, 8, isolated maybe 10, 12 inchs of rain. it becomes mountainous regions where flooding is more of a concern. that's what i am worried about next. the motion. by 7:00 p.m. you will see the storm moving from georgia into south carolina, dropping all of that heavy rain. some storm surge along the carolina coast as well. >> julie: thank you so much, adam. fox weather is your hurricane headquarters for all things tropics and weather news. stream it on your favorite connected device. always on and free. grab your phone if you aren't buy a tv and watch the latest as we track the storm. president biden pledged his administration's full support by the people affected by idalia.

i spoke with governor desantis and it allows the department of homeland security and fema to coordinate all disaster relief efforts. peter doocy is at the white house. >> the administration to the wildfires in what hawaii was highly planned. president biden plans a whole of government response to this hurricane and also to maui. >> talked to the governor last night and we're providing every he needs. we're in constant contact. i had the director of fema in here earlier talking about it today. there will be, i think, we're worried about the surge, the ocean surge. we don't know exactly it's hour to hour we're watching this. >> we're told fema administrator has touched base with the governors of other states in the path. south carolina and georgia.

but for now what the white house is putting out is a lot of detail about their chats with ron desantis. >> i spoke with governor desantis a few days ago before the storm hit to get a better understanding of what his concerns were going to be. that's how we were able to posture through the emergency declaration our resources to make sure we could come in and support. we have rapid assessment teams that are ready to go out and begin assessing the overall impact so we can make a determination if further assistance is needed. >> she will join the white house briefing about an hour 15 minutes from now. >> julie: thank you very much. senator marco rubio joins me now. what do you think of the president and administration's response to this hurricane considering we just went through their lack of response when it came to hawaii? florida obviously knows how to handle these things with government assistance, obviously is all the better. how are things going?

>> we would hope that hurricane recovery and things of this nature that is nonpartisan and encouraged the president had that response. we have a disaster relief fund inside of fema is very low. we knew that back in june. since june i've been trying to get money into it knowing we go into hurricane season and not knowing we would have fires in maui and so forth. they don't have enough money to do any of this and moving forward as we get into recovery when you add in the storm and the fire in maui. there are a bunch of previous storms when reimbursement to governments is one thing. they use the limited money they have to prioritize these storms. the one i hope they back off on. they've been saying we'll do disaster relief but pair it up with ukraine funding. no matter how many people feel

about ukraine funding they shouldn't be the same. it should be priority. i hope the white house backs off of that position. >> julie: i'm glad you brought that up. senator scott is demanding an immediate vote on disaster aid in the senate next week. he says quote, biden and politicians in washington are playing game with fema's disaster relief fund and insisting that this critical domestic aid be tied to aid to ukraine. we demand that congress does what's right for american families starting with insuring our federal government has all the resources it needs for disasters now and into the future. when you tie in federal aid for americans in need in florida who are going to suffer a long hurricane season considering this one hit so early in the season, this type of hurricane you wouldn't see until october. and then you look at the money that has gone to ukraine. as a floridian how does it make

you feel? >> i don't think the issues should be linked. ukraine is a foreign policy decision. we need to prioritize what that is in our national interest and fund it accordingly. but the number one obligation of the american government is safety and security of americans. and helping them recover from events such as this. it's not just florida. this storm as you can see and have been broadcasting is headed to georgia and the carolinas. and then we don't know what it does when it gets out to the atlantic ocean. i don't want to get ahead of myself. we're just into august. there are a few months of hurricane season and unforeseen events like what happened in maui. here is what will happen. we were sounding the alarm on the link with ukraine two weeks ago. this is not all of a sudden. these guys have been playing this game for a while. senator scott will try a unanimous consent agreement and try to get a vote on the package we put together. some democrat will stand up and

say i object unless you include the ukraine funding. i keep an eye on that. that is unacceptable. never happened before and shouldn't happen when it comes to this. i hope it doesn't happen, but that's what they are signaling right now. >> julie: how could any politician play politics when it comes to rescuing americans. that's what fema funding is for is to rescue americans and protect americans. i can't understand how that could be a political issue. this isn't a political issue. this is a humanitarian issue for americans. >> right. i think you see people out there like the administration who want ukraine funding and believe they won't get it through the house or whatever and the only way to get this is we have to make it as part of a deal with something everybody wants or the other side really wants, which is disaster recovery funding. and so they would link the two in that way. now again, that's what they were signaling last week. maybe after the storm, maybe after maui, maybe after you see these images that we haven't seen at all yet.

working its way through florida and other states. maybe they'll back off. the level of cynicism that i've seen in the past leads me to believe that it only takes one senator to object and they will find someone to do it. i hope i'm wrong and not the case. i think it would be hurtful to the cause of ukraine. you will turn a lot of people against it. >> julie: fema says it prioritize that extreme weather events and maui without interruption. thank you very much. appreciate you coming on. >> thank you. >> julie: we'll go live to steinhatchee, florida and watch our coverage on fox weather where they're reporting with the latest conditions. >> this current on the river was very strong this morning. it slowed down a little bit as the winds have slowed down. but we saw this -- the current carrying debris, capsized boats.

we saw a large metal structure of some sort that was flowing down the river and it looked like it stopped somewhere in this area. that's how we ended up here looking for that and we're seeing this damage, too. that's the latest here as we continue to drive around this fairly small town. not a huge population but a lot of damage, amy. >> when you look at this is it your suspicion that water as able to get in some of the structures and homes nearby? it looks like a surge carried debris onto the roads. >> i would say almost definitely. obviously it is hard to tell from the outside of a building whether water has actually gone into it. but from what we've gathered and from what you can see strewn all about here, this is a huge level of recession, the water is a lot

lower right now than it was hours ago. there were actually roads that were impassable to us driving that we can now get through. so i suspect that some of these buildings, especially these businesses along the river here, have been flooded inside as well as some homes we've seen as well. >> the roofs ripped off. we can see it. fox business reporter brady trimble thank you for being with us during the coverage. >> julie: we were watching fox weather coverage. you have to go to fox weather.com or download the free app for continuing coverage of idalia all day. fox weather.com, watching streaming channels on your connected device and scan the qr code on your screen. an easy way to get it. get it free from the app store or google play. always live, always on. speaking of live, we'll be right back.

ol. not long ago, you could pay off a car in a few years. now, car loan rates have climbed to 15% and can take five years to pay off. so get this, the newday 100 va cash out loan. our lower rates let you use the equity in your home to pay off high rate car and truck loans. and you can save $500 a month.

>> julie: we continue to track hurricane idalia. fox weather meteorologist britta is following the storm through

florida. she joins us along the georgia border in jasper, florida. britta, how is it looking there? >> well, thankfully the eye has made it through. unfortunately the impacts have been left behind. i left gainesville early this morning. while we were driving north on interstate 75 away from gainesville, we saw a car that flipped over. we arrived on scene right after the accident. thankfully only one passenger. we did touch base with the driver. he was already out of the car saying he was okay. shook up. as we continued to drive north an interstate 75, we saw the prolific tree damage. this is a huge tree. we're in jasper, florida. again very close to the florida/georgia line. it extends all the way across this highway. we're literally off of interstate 75. they are several large trees that have gone onto the interstate but you can pass

them. you have to be really careful because you will see some debris left behind. then we have these side highways that hook into interstate 75. something like this is hard to get around unless you are driving into the ditch. which this is saturated with mud. look how deep this mud is. it is easily -- definitely some treacherous driving conditions at that. looks like somebody is pulling up with a chain saw right now. just a local resident. my photographer, if you can go over here. this guy is coming in with a chain saw as we speak. residents are showing up trying to clear the roads so folks can get in and out. we still have some tough weather conditions. winds are gusting above 40 miles-per-hour. despite the fact we have separation between us and what is still a hurricane working across the florida/georgia line, you know, it is tough stuff out here. you can see this gentleman doing hard work. thank you so much.

until we can get some of these trees up a lot of local residents will have a hard time accessing their neighborhoods. we'll follow this gentleman around the corner. i just want to give you a shot down the street, down the highway just to show you how this is just one representation of more trees. down here i can see at least three more trees that are this size that are blocking the highway that gives you access to interstate 75. there you have it, julie. it's the residents of florida getting this job done. we've seen the state troopers out big time helping out the residents. >> julie: thank you very much. we appreciate you coming on. you have to see residents like that, they go out there hands on and know the drill. good to see they're already in action so they can clear up

these roads. search and rescue operations underway in florida right now after idalia brought a record storm surge. more than 300,000 power outages reported. that number will rise. we're expecting an update from governor desantis in a half hour. we'll bring you that live. let's bring in andrew, a florida emergency management director to talk about the latest conditions there. storm surge is an issue. high tide in the tampa region. in that entire area between 1:30 to 2:00 in the afternoon. high tide is looking at a 4.7 foot tide on top of storm surges. what do the companies lines look like right now? >> we have four feet of water on the coastline. we have about 6,000 residents that have been impacted. with the additional surge coming in this afternoon, we are probably looking at another two

feet. we have multiple active structure fires going on. we'll see about six feet of water on the coastline. we still have our mandatory evacuations in place. we still have shelters open. what we're asking the citizens please heed the warning for the evacuations. if you are able to get out of your residence now, please seek shelter whether at a friend's house or actual shelter. once this water comes back in we're once again going to have to cease rescue operations. >> julie: state of emergencies are issued for florida, the carolinas and georgia. the water recedes at the onset of the storm after it goes inland, right? then the storm surge follows it. a lot of people get the false hope it is time to go to your home and see what the damage is and check it out. the main advice we want to tell people don't go home until the evacuation orders have been lifted, correct? >> correct.

if you are in shelters right now please remain in those shelters. don't go out and look. don't try to make it to your residence especially on the coastline. >> julie: okay. we ran out of time. i apologize, we have ten seconds left. the emergency management director. thank you, stay safe. continue your great wo. we'll see you back on "the faulkner focus" tomorrow. some of those rates can be 12 to 15% or higher. our rates are a fraction of what some of those banks charge. veterans across the country are using the newday 100 va loan to get cash to update and improve their homes. whether you need to replace your roof windows or hvac or want to upgrade to your dream kitchen, call newday.

mlb chooses t-mobile for business f clear

let innovation refunds help with your erc tax refund so you can improve your business however you see fit. rosie used part of her refund to build an outdoor patio. clink! dr. marshall used part of his refund to give his practice a facelift. emily used part of her refund to buy...

i run a wax museum. let innovation refunds help you get started on your erc tax refund. stop waiting. go to innovationrefunds.com you really got the brows. ♪ >> emily: news conference with florida governor ron desantis on hurricane idalia, strongest storm to make landfall in big bend in 125 years. the storm is now category 1 and lashing the state with storm surges and winds of 99 miles per hour. in clearwater, the