suddenly facts come out and they don't like the narrative, they label it misinformation and they try to characterize things that republicans are saying that are fact are not fact when in fact they care more about illegal immigrants in this country than they do american citizens that have been hit by a natural disaster. >> carley: it's true. and it's unfortunate that it's become political. i mean, during president biden's press conference yesterday, he said that there are no red states or blue states during a hurricane and then went on to criticize how people feel -- how victims feel in some of the red areas that were impacted by helene. congressman, thank you so much for joining us. we are praying for you and everybody impacted by this storm right now. continuing conch on hurricane milton begins right now. ♪ ♪ >> carley: this is a fox weather alert. this is a live look just north of orlando as hurricane milton tears through florida. right now the cat 1 storm is battering the space coast with wind gusts up to 80 miles per

hour. and there is major flooding in downtown st. augustine and other communities along florida's atlantic. this going up in flames. show you images like that right here. over 3 million homes and businesses are without power. our fox weather reporters were on the ground the moment milton made landfall and beyond. >> at this point the wind is pulling this right in my face. it feels like little pins and needles coming into my face. >> just over 30% at least of the county without power in a major concern is we're not going to be able to get that thing back on because this thing is not going anywhere. >> my god, the energy that's coming down this road right now, these wind gusts are remarkable. it's hard to put this into words. but i hope the pictures are telling what happens going on.

>> lawrence: strong wind ripping through the roof of a tropicana field which is home to the tampa bay rays. that stadium was supposed to serve as 10-thousand person base camp to house emergency workers. landfall a string of tornadoes leaves several people dead in port st. louisy. check this out. will 10,000 square foot sheriff's facility is in shambles. janice is here in the studio tracking the storm. mike is in jason, florida we start with bob van dillen on the east coast of florida. bob. what do you see? >> you know, it's really interesting right now, guys, because we have the southern duquesne eye wall the strongest

part of the storm right over us right now. about a hour and a half ago winds were relatively calm. we were in the lower fringe of the eye, calm winds. the wind hasn't been picking up the rain at all. plain old gust, tropical storm force. daytona beach 83 mile-per-hour wind gust that was just clocked in the last half hour. you talked about the tornadoes threat, i'm on the space coast right now, the east coast of florida. we were getting crushed all day long yesterday starting about 2:00. we had a tornado rip right across this region go, right through the parking lot and take off roofs of houses behind me on the opposite side of the street. we saw that go right by. it was amazing. 26 tornado warnings for florida. 55 issued by miami national weather service. that's the most they had to do one day in any month ever. macy amazing. tropical storm force wind area. hurricane warnings going on still. we got the storm surge warnings

also. once the winds begin to shift around, the storm peels off, throw the water right back at the beach. [lost audio] >> steve: obviously, there is some situational problems with broadband and whatnot. but we were looking at sanford as well. it would be interesting and i was going to ask bob, if we get the shot back, since he is along the space coast whether or not nasa did anything in particular like bring in any of the craft that were out on the launch pad because i believe they were just a couple of days away from blasting something off. >> brian: so many people in shelters. i'm so glad, too. >> ainsley: see all those images and all the animals in shelters, too. they put them in cages along the wall. because a lot of these shelters were allowing animals, families. i was watching -- you know what we didn't know and i can't wait to talk to janice about this. you realize there are tornadoes. >> lawrence: that's right. >> ainsley: i didn't realize so many. >> steve: never been this many. >> ainsley: i talked to somebody in palm beach i knew i wasn't in

the zone i would have left if i had known these tornadoes. a friend sent video of a tornado in wellington where it's horse country there. where all those horses. i hope nobody died. i hope the animals are all okay. >> lawrence: i'm curious about that. bob, it looks like we got your connection back. i know we are not out of the clear right yet. can you speak to that? were we anticipating so many tornadoes to happen? >> bob: yeah, there is always a tornado threat when you have a storm coming on land. but this was amazing because, lawrence, we had a jet stream that was north of us. that helped to vent all the thunderstorms coming already. picture you have got a nice chimney, you got an open vent up top the fire can build and keep on building. thunderstorms the same way. a thunderstorm that develops and got this jet stream, that just added fuel to the fire. plus it was humid, you have got this spin coming automatically with the storm itself. i had a friend down there in palm beach gardens sent me a video of a tornadoes that was

just out on her backyard. amazing. we didn't expect to see this many. when you are issuing 55 tornado warnings in one day and that was what they did in miami down at the national weather service. it was a record. they have never had to do that before. you talk about a kinetic situation all day long. we had all the threats going on, you guys. >> steve: bob, i saw that the coast guard set port canaveral's condition to zulu gale force winds for the next 12 hours. i'm curious about nasa though and up at cape canaveral, did they move any craft off the pads? because i know that they do launches all the time now. >> bob: yeah. they had everything battened down because they had days to watch this thing which was nice. everything was short down. port canaveral was shut down like saying before. disney world shut down for the 12th time ever yesterday. disney world shutting down. you know that's bad and everything is moving through to the east. we're going to be out of this wind mass in another four hours

or so. it's going to calm down. get a nice scene of what has reports of roof damage around here. a guy came in last night doing a live shots who roof got ripped off and he had a flat tire. we changed his tire and he is in a hotel right now. amazing stories of people around here in cocoa beach. >> ainsley: oh my gosh saving lives. saved a lady in the last storm and changing tires in this storm. you are a good man. >> it's all good. >> steve: one hero per hurricane. >> brian: they want to hire him. >> ainsley: god called and said good job. go to fox weather mike estime who is on the ground in jacksonville beach. what is happening there? >> mike: good morning, my goodness. the big story here has got to be the winds. much like what bob van dillen was just saying, winds here at jacksonville beach, by the way, over 60 miles per hour. and just to put this in

perspective for you. i feel like i'm a dog with their head out the window driving down the interstate. it is hard to breathe just because this wind is so fast and furious. and here's the thing. this wind has knocked down a couple of trees and power lines. here where we are in duval county we have seen about 8 to 10,000 customers without power. right now not a huge issue but storm surge could be an issue in some spots. i just checked the beach by the way, and it looks like a washing machine right now. the waves out there are just humongous. you can imagine with 60-plus miles per hour winds what those waves would look like. i am concerned about a little bit of coastal erosion. now in downtown jacksonville, we were just there within the past hour and a half or so, we haven't seen a ton of storm surge but the water levels, i'm telling you, are right up at the riverwalk level. so, if you were thinking about taking a quick little walk downtown watch out for it.

but the big story where we are at, we are a little further north where bob is, of course, we are a little further removed, is going to be the wind. we are expecting the winds not just this morning but for the afternoon. the evening before things really begin to taper and simmer down during the late evening and overnight hours. but, i am telling you, i have been to daytona -- where we are at just north of daytona, many, many times i have never felt winds on the beach this strong, guys. >> steve: and, mike, in addition to the winds there at the beach, and, you know, there was plenty of warning over a couple of days where people were particularly on the west coast you have got to evacuate. any time there is a lot of wind with high profile vehicles like semis and stuff like that, they say stay off the road. when you were going from downtown jacksonville out to the beach. how many people were on the road other than tv weather guy? >> mike: you got that right. i did see a lot of first responders. obviously they are here watching over us to make sure that we are

safe and free from harm. not a ton of vehicles. here is what i will say. you cross a couple of bridges to get from jacksonville to jacksonville beach. and on that road, it was a 10 and 2 grip. i was holding on for dear life because, you know, our vehicles were swinging. they were swaying in these winds. and if you are driving like a big semi-truck on the interstate. the last place you want to be is right next to them because they swing and sway and can't maintain lane composure of, again, 60 mile-per-hour wind gusts. by the way at the airport here it looks like all flights -- or the airport is open, a couple of cancellations. couple of delays. be on the lookout for it. you better take your dramamine because it's going to be a pumpy bumpytakeoff or landing from jacksonville. >> lawrence: the storm was last night but we're not out of the clear yet, right? >> that's exactly it. the winds are really going to whip throughout the day today. so, yes, we are expecting for

the brunt of the energy to eventually move offshore but these winds are going to be with us for some time. i say that because watch where you are parking your cars on the east coast of florida. don't park right next to the palm tree. those things are going to snap like a toothpick in spots. take it slow, take it safe, take it easy until milton clears the coast line later on this evening. >> ainsley: okay, thank you so much. >> steve: we want to remind you at home that fox weather is your hurricane headquarters. you can download the app. or stream on your favorite connected device. it's always on, it's always free 24/7. we were watching it all night last night and great conch. >> how much of the coverage, how much of what we anticipated came true and what part of florida is hit and what is still getting -- still getting hit right now. let's go over to janice dean. janice, you have where these

patterns are heading. >> janice: the national hurricane center did an incredible job with forecasting this storm. i think the center of circulation came on to sarasota. that was within 10 miles of cone of uncertainty days out. so the forecast was excellent. it went south of tampa, so tampa didn't get the worst of the storm surge, but someone did. parts of sarasota, down toward fort myers. and then north of that is where we got incredible rainfall, over 18 inches of rain in saint pete in just a matter of hours. tornadoes. this will be one of the big takeaways from this storage. so, as mentioned, yes, with these tropical storm land tropig hurricanes. tornadoes. weak and could cause structural damage. steve are you talking to me? >> steve: we have got a press conference down in tampa. >> janice: okay. let's go to that. >> steve: assessing the damage. let's listen in. >> actively making the city and

the streets safe. please stay indoors until we give you the all-clear. again, we are in this together. we will be safer together if you heed our warnings and stay in and stay off the road. next i will bring in maribel for our spanish translation. [speaking spanish] >> steve: pardon the interruption, janice, go ahead. >> janice: and we'll bring you the very latest. obviously we are going to have press conferences throughout the day as the sun comes up, we're going to see it the scope of the damage. the forecast was correct right on the money and then the tornados, that's going to be, again, one of the takeaways which i was mentioning. the prolific tornadoes reports all day yesterday in south central florida. it was -- and i mean we set records in terms of most tornadoes warnings in one day.

that's in any day. not just a hurricane or a severe weather outbreak that was planned, 55 in miami, in orlando -- sorry, tampa area 29 warnings, that's the most tornadoes warnings in one day. so, already, making history with this storm in terms of the tornadoes. and it typically takes a very very strong tornado if you look back in history. ivan, charlie, wilma, very strong hurricanes. there are many tornado reports with those storms as they make landfall. but you can see the last 24 hours, and many of those tornadoes did incredible damage. you know, the sun is going to come up. we already know that there has been deaths, unfortunately. the st. lucie area, in particular, we think probably an ef-3 tornado. so that's one of the risks with these hurricanes when we talk about surge and flooding and winds. tornadoes are a risk. but this hurricane brought

prolific numbers of tornadoes. 18 inches of explain st. petersburg, that's going to leave a mark. we will find out what the storm surge totals were later today and for the next couple of days as the national weather service goes out and assesses. we had 24 flash flood warnings. we had a flash flood emergency for the tampa area where we had upwards of over 10 inches of rainfall. and the forecast was correct. we had wind gusts in excess of 100 miles per hour for venice and st. petersburg and sarasota. so, the storm itself is about to move offshore. but you saw the reports from fox weather, michael estime he is like almost 200 miles away from the center of circulation. you talk about how big this storm got, affected. of the state of florida tropical storm force winds for duration of the next several hours. over 3 million people without power. we, of course, predict would that. and then look at the wind gusts

here. daytona beach, hurricane force winds, orlando, 45 mile-per-hour winds. vero beach, 66 mile-per-hour winds. so, still packing a punch on the east coast of florida. and you talk about top wind history, charlie, 106. this is for orlando. milton is 4. so this is a formidable storm. and i have always said don't concentrate on the category when it makes landfall. it was a 3. the results are going to be immense even though it was just a category 3. back to you. >> steve: and to your point, janice, i remember after katrina, first thing in the morning we had live reporters in the french quarter and elsewhere, they said it didn't seem like it was that bad. >> janice: on the newspaper the next day said they dodged a bullet. i remember. >> steve: it wasn't until about 7:30 when the crews started going out and they saw the devastation and they saw all the flooding. that's when it hit everybody. that was one of the worst storms

ever. >> janice: last storm helene, right? it took us a couple of days to realize the scope of the damage not just for florida but for the carolinas. for those of you saying dodged a bullet, tampa did okay. we need to wait and see. >> ainsley: what about the storm surge? were you expecting it to be higher with this storm? >> janice: i don't want to say anything because we still have to get those reports. >> ainsley: yeah. >> janice: for tampa we didn't see what could have been the catastrophic storm surge but somebody got a big storm surge because the storm was south of tampa and the worst of the storm surge was going to be south of the center of circulation. so we have to wait for those reports to come in. >> brian: thanks, janice. let's go to florida senator rick scott he joins us naples. two term governor used to running navy background. where are you right now what have you ascertained from what have you seen and heard? >> i'm in naples, we had to

evacuate our house. so, you know, this is the assessment time. this is the time that all of teams starting up daylight. they have been responding all night, of course. but they are going to go out, try to make sure everybody's alive. it's pretty scary when you think about what the storm surge was south of tampa. like janice dean said, the flooding is going to be unbelievable in places. we're going to continue to have a lot of trees down. a lot of power outages. >> this is a time for people to be very, very cautious. you need to continue to shelter in place. you need to continue to listen to the local officials tell you whether you can go out. where you can go. it's not the time to be out there gawking at what happened. so, and then we got wind. we got rain. we have got flooding and storm surge and tornadoes. talked to the sheriff of

st. lucie county and he said there is several deaths but that wasn't the only county. we had a lot of counties that had horrible tornadoes. and my heart goes out to everybody who went through. this we are strong. we are going to rebuild. we have great emergency response team. our chief fire marshall work hard already. >> brian: senator, you said there were deaths in st. lucia county. we understand 17 different twisters down there. is that in the retirement home? is that what you heard? >> yeah. they said there were several deaths in the retirement community. we will get a better assessment today exactly what happened. but, unfortunately, we're going to have fatalities way far away from the storm surge, way far away from the path of the storm with these unbelievable tornadoes. the most tornado warnings i guess in the history of the state of any day and talking to some of these sheriffs they say

it was just horrible in their counties. not so, senator, tell us we are learning about 3-point-point. over 3 million spoke toes are waking up without power. what's the timeline on getting it restored? i know line workers already on standby. what do you know about this? last couple days i talked to all of the utilities. they have unbelievable number of linemen come in. they are prepositioned. so, here it's going to take a lot of work, especially where there is -- rural areas where they have a lot of water, it really is hard. but, it's going it take awhile. i think with irma we had 13 million people without power it. took quite a while to get everywhere. we had thousands of linemen come

in. and this is what is hard now we have a lot of linemen that are just tired. i mean, they have been working because of helene in all these states trying to restore power and you still have power outages in places in north carolina and places like that. so it's going to take a lot of work. it's going to take a while. especially the rural areas, which is harder to get to all of the houses and all the downed trees and things like that. so, but, hopefully in the next few days power will start coming on quickly. >> steve: good. >> rick: we will start rebuilding and we will not have any death. you can rebuild all this stuff it. scares you, it's just the number of people that are going to die. >> ainsley: senator, were you surprised by all the tornadoes in your experience? have you seen this many south of the storm and steve with meteorology experience said that's on the dry side that's why you see all of these. i talked to people not in the cone area if we had known all these tornadoes were going to pop up, we might have decided to

evacuate. >> yeah, never before, you know, we have had bad rain bands way outside the path of the tornado or the hurricane. but the tornadoes, the number of tornadoes and severity of these tornadoes, yeah, it was devastating. i just talked to -- i talked to the sheriffs in the impacted area, they were just shocked with the damage unfortunately we're going to lose life as a result of it. >> steve: senator, when are you going to be able to get home? going to wait for law enforcement to give you the high sign? >> yeah. hopefully -- hopefully in naples we didn't get as much rain yesterday but it's raining now. so we will see. the issue most likely is going to be how much flooding we have here. >> steve: right. >> i'm going to do whatever i can. i have nine offices upstated. we are open, working remotely,

trying to help anybody that needs help. trying to coordinate anything we can do with federal resources, with federal and state resources to get help. >> steve: people can reach out to your senate office. senator, thank you for joining us on this very busy thursday down there. >> brian: he knows all about handling hurricanes. he did a great job. >> lawrence: as governor as well. >> steve: 6:22 in the morning. you are looking live at daytona beach, florida right there as milton heads across the state. our conch is going to continue right here on fox. ♪ ♪

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♪ >> ainsley: this is a fox weather alert. you are looking at live picture of daytona beach as hurricane milton tears through florida's east coast. >> steve: amanda mackenzie is live in daytona beach right now. and she joins us with an update. what do you see? it's still very windy there, amanda. >> oh, yes. we are still dealing with very dangerous wind gusts here from a category 1 hurricane now. hurricane milton is making its way off the east coast. we are still greatly affected by it. and debris like this, this piece of a gutter is what is so dangerous about these wind gusts. we are experiencing about

80 miles per hour. i want to show you what that looks like here. can you see the wind picking up the rain and really just going mortal, can you see the palm trees in the wind. can you see some of these light posts also shaking. right now we are under a mandatory curfew here in volusia county until 8:00 this morning. the emergency operation center says right now they have no injuries to report, but that could very well change as emergency responders get out on this roadway for the next couple of hours to really inspect the damage from this storm right now because of these wind speeds no, one should be on the road. in fact, the bridges are not even safe to pass right now because anything over 39 miles per hour is a danger to people out here. right now more than 150,000 people just in volusia county are without power. here in the state of florida, more than 1.1, and that is quickly escalating. i don't know when power will be restored, we are getting estimates it could take about a week to happen. but here the wind is just so

strong. you really hear it with that howelling effect. it comes right through some of those sliding glass doors and windows through the cracks. i know for me trying to get any sleep last night, i could see my drapes flowing in the wind with all of the doors and windows shut. rain also finds its way into those crevices and here where we are staying at the hard rock hotel on daytona beach, part of the building shake at times from the shear force of that wind. and you would even see the water swaying in the toilet. so that gives you a sense of how great this wind gust is. some points in the night it was more than 100 miles per hour very significant. we do expect to find damage later on this morning as we get around. but what is of most concern for a lot of folks is this storm surge. there is still a warning for flash flooding out in effect. and this is going to effect all of the homes that are along the beach. just on the other side of this building, we are currently a little more protected from the wind right now where we are

under this awng and the building. but on the other side where all of those horms are located, the storm surge from the waves. the wind, it could contribute to great erosion. and this community has already been so vulnerable ever since hurricanes ian, nicole and helene. so it is just going to be probably devastating to see what will happen when we get out and about later this morning. and just a matter of a couple of hours and as the sun comes up in about an hour now. so we hope that we can find great news for folks here but from what we have already seen -- sorry, go ahead. >> steve: i was going to say for the folks watching right now, one of the things when you are out in the field is you, for the most part, find a very big strong building and in your case it's a great big hotel with impact glass and you stand essentially in the shadow of it. because if you were out in the wind, you know you would be out in the beach right now. so my question is there in

daytona beach. >> oh, yeah. >> steve: we know on the west coast of florida, there was a mandatory evacuation along a lot of the zone a, b, and c's. you are in zone a on the atlantic side as this exits to the east. was there a mandatory evacuation on the east coast particularly in the daytona beach area? >> yes, there were some mandatory evacuations for certain zones within daytona beach and volusia county but not in its imirtd. so folks were able to ride out the storms. those in low lying areas. mobile homes, or those with special needs were encouraged to evacuate this area. and you were mentioning how the beach is on the other side of the building, well, i'm still feeling and tasting the rain from where i am. and i'm tasting salt water. so the wind is picking up the ocean water. and bringing it all the way around to the other side on highway a 1 a here. that just gives you an idea the

shear force of these winds at this hour. >> steve: that is the story there on the east coast. amanda mckenzie live. thank you very much. she is on the east coast. now let's go to the west coast of florida. 25 miles north of where the storm made landfall last night. the famous anna maria island waking up to heavy rains this morning. homies beach police chief william talk their joins us now from his home, good morning to you, chief. >> good morning. >> i was talking to amanda about mandatory evacuations on the east coast. you are on the west coast. you laid down the law. everybody has got to get out. how many people did? >> that's correct. >> i would say 98 to 100 percent of our people did leave the island. they took heed to our warnings. helene was very dangerous. when helene came in, the waters rose so quickly that we lost police cars because we couldn't

get them to high ground. it went from one foot deep to 3-foot deep in minutes. and it was just devastating. and people saw that and they had 95 to 100 percent of our homes, single story homes had between n accommodation in them. so people took heed and they know that we weren't going to be there to do rescues like we did in helene. helene was just a water issue for us. it was not a wind issue. this was both. >> steve: right. because you are a barrier island, you have got a bridge going in and out, the bridge, you locked it down. i think you had somebody posted right there just to make sure nobody went in. at what point do you go back across the bridge to see how your island sustained any damage? the police department public works and west manatee fire

create our own first m team. we will go out and drive the island once we make sure that the bridge and causative is cau. start going down every road to make sure there is no power lines down. putting up barricades where we need barricades l business ownes out today. >> steve: we thank you for joining us with an update from the west close. >> my pleasure. thanks for having me. >> steve: thank you. good luck to you. the hurricane also brought a deadly tornado outbreak to st. lucie county, destroyed 10,000 square foot sheriff's facility. that apparently is it. the county spokesperson on what happened on the east coast of florida yesterday. ♪.

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>> ainsley: orlando is under a threat for flash flooding. some areas could get as much as 14 inches of rain. fox weather's ari sarsalari is there. what are you seeing? >> i will tell you the situation has improved very significantly over the last i would say half an hour to an hour. between the hours of 2:30 a.m. and 5 :00 a.m. the back side of that eye wall, the west side of the eye wall of milton came through here and the wind was absolutely ferocious. disgusting over 70 miles per hour for a while. here in this couple of block radius around our hotel, where we chose to set up this shot, the damage has not been too, too bad. there is a lot of tree debris all over the place. we got ponding on roadways, but one really interesting thing is as that west eye wall was coming through, we kept looking up toward the north.

and it was power flashes galore. the entire state of florida has over 3 million people without power right now. here in orange county, it's the numbers approaching 100,000, but, again, the worst of the storm is over. we are getting wind gusts over 30 miles per hour right now. it is nothing like it was a couple of hours ago. definitely going to be one of these situations whereas the sun comes up. we will go around, we will see what the damage is like. and i can guarantee you there is going to be plenty of it to find. >> brian: all right, ari, thanks so much. appreciate it. check back in with you. meanwhile, let's move ahead. the hurricane unleashing deadly tornadoes, claiming the lives of several victims in st. lucie county and completely destroying the 10,000 square foot sheriff's facility as you are seeing. st. lucie spokesperson eric guild joins us now live from the inside of the emergency operation center. eric, great to see you. what -- how did st. lucie county do last night and is it doing now? >> yeah, i think we took the brunt of the storm, really yesterday afternoon.

we started getting significant tornado warnings. we had at least two confirmed tornadoes touched down by the national weather service here in st. lucie county. and there has been reports of maybe up to a dozen different tornadoes that ripped through our area you say one tornado one person thought 17. you say tragically the spanish lake club village had at least four fatalities. can you describe what you saw -- what you know? >> yesterday, after the storms pushed through we had search and rescue crews out there trying to get folks into shelters before the storm actually made impact to our area. the tornadoes were ahead of the hurricane. some of the images you are showing right now was twisted metal, cars upside down. our medical examiner has confirmed at least four

fatalities throughout the county. we expect that number, you know, potentially to go up. but we -- as the sun comes up this morning, we will have crews out there doing additional search and rescue. we had two-hour time frame we had over # hundred calls to our emergency operation center about potential tornado activity. >> brian: pretty amazing. you did not have an amandatory evacuation order in. so what went into your decision on whether you should put your people in danger to answer those calls? >> you know, tornadoes can pop up even on an afternoon thunderstorm, unfortunately. so they don't -- we don't issue, you know, evacuations for our thunderstorms. >> brian: right. >> we were well ahead -- we were sort of on that edge of the storm. if we were going to be impacted with category 1 hurricane force winds we usually do issue those evacuations. but, all the projections yesterday coming in from the gulf coast, we didn't expect to see the tornado activity that we saw yesterday i have worked in

st. lucie county 21 years and multiple storms out here and this has been the worst i have ever seen. >> brian: people watching right now that might have power in your county, what are you recommending they do? >> stay home. please stay off the roads. first responders still need to get out. we still have roughly, you know, 50 to 60,000 residents without power. so, we need to get those roads clear so the utility trucks can get out and put those power lines back up. people need to stay home and let first responders do their job. >> brian: so i asked you, what about the spanish lakes club village? why did you have four fatalities? you just said it's been devastated roofs ripped off? is that what you mean? >> tornadic activity, yes. cars overturned. roofs, you know, ripped off, like i said, i have been here 21 years, this is the 20th anniversary this september with francis and jean where we had two category 2 and 3 hurricanes within three weeks of each

other. and i think this is going to rival that devastation. >> brian: eric, thanks so much for sharing what you're seeing and what you know as the sun comes up you will get more answers. we will check back. eric guild, thank you very much over in st. lucie county. meanwhile we move ahead and try to find out what is going on in florida. life-threatening flooding reported in tampa. the city's fire rescue chief is next. ♪ ♪ 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 r and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browsel but it blocks cookies and creepy ads that follow youa and other companies.

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♪ >> lawrence: all right we got a fox weather alert. wind is picking up in jacksonville beach. that's where we find fox weather michael estime there. can you see wha say what you arg there. >> now i know what it feels like to be in a wind tunnel. the winds at jacksonville beach gusting at times over 61 miles per hour it has been atrocious in terms of these winds this morning. and unfortunately that knocking down a couple of trees, those trees, of course, falling on to a couple of power lines. we have about 8 to 10,000 customers here in duval county without power because of these strong winds. and, you know, pardon the shot,

our recover from has arms of steel trying to face these winds out here. the problem is that these winds are going to persist not just through this morning but through this afternoon. and bearing in mind that high tide here on jacksonville beach is 2:15ish or. so we could see just a little bit more storm surge. so that's going to be an ongoing issue that storm surge, lawrence as you know eetsd away at the coastal areas. erosion becomes a problem. watch for that especially later on this afternoon. downtown jacksonville, by the way, we were just there thank goodness the storm surge there not as high. the water levels definitely elevated. but that's going to be the big concern moving forward is the fact that these winds, although it's rain-free winds are going to come with a ton of wind. and that wind, again, could create some more power outages whereby we are here. flights by the way in and out of jacksonville international airport. most of them right now there is

no closure of the airport but a couple of cancellations, a couple of delays as expected. ainsley, all i got to say is, you know, being out here in the elements, i have been on this beach 1,000 and 1 times vacationing with friends and family. i love the east coast of florida. these winds mean business today, ainsley? >> ainsley: stay safe out there, michael. thank you so much. we will be checking back with you throughout the morning. now to tampa on the other side of florida where life-threatening flash flood warning remains in effect. tampa's fire rescue chief barbara tripp joins us now with an update. good morning, barbara. >> good morning, good morning. >> ainsley: good morning. i know you have been up all night. what's the story there in tampa? y'all were in the cone. we thought it was going to hit. it hit a little south in the sarasota area. what are you experiencing? >> right now we are experiencing a lookout of power outage. we have over half a million residents without power in the hillsborough county. and we are going to go out and start doing an assessment as

soon as day break. >> ainsley: okay. what about fires? do you have any reports of fires? >> so, of course we did have to suspend services because of the wind. you know, we had gust winds up to 85 miles per hour. and usually after 40, we stop the services. and during that time we had three house fires and of course in the area that the house fires, it was also flooding. we couldn't take the equipment into area as well. >> ainsley: barbara, what do you do in a situation like this i remember in the last storm helene i talked to someone down in your area, there were three house fires on her old street and all of them burned to the ground. what causes that and how do we prevent that? >> well, it can be a couple of things. we don't know if the power lines actually hit the house. we don't know some of the houses that we went to with helene, they had electrical vehicles that was plugged. in and water and electricity doesn't mix. so, we actually put out a lot of messages to the community, to make sure they understand the importance of how to disconnect and how to make sure that home is safe by turning off their

power if they evacuate. >> ainsley: that's interesting the evs. >> yes. >> ainsley: what about fathers, fatalities no, fatalities in camp so far. >> knock on wood no fatalities so far. >> how do you compare this storm to the one a week and a half ago. >> the week and a half presented challenges we weren't prepared for with the water surge. so far we have high tide -- with helene. one of the major concerns have is the power outage and individuals getting out into the storm. >> ainsley: right. [lost audio. [. >> ainsley: barbara, thank you so much for your hard work. i know you are the first female fire chief of tampa. thanks for staying up for your community. we will continue to keep our viewers posted and talk to a little later. hurricane milton is moving east. we will bring you full coverage of the historic storm as the sun

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>> lawrence: "fox & friends," we start with a fox weather alert. auto live look at florida's east coast. right now hurricane milton is a category 1 storm. packing wind gusts u