it came onshore two miles an hour shy of a category 5. as recently as this past weekend, most folks in other parts of the country weren't talking about this approaching storm. they weren't talking about hurricane michael. this was not florence where we tracked that storm starting as a low pressure system from the west coast of africa all the way across the atlantic. this was something different. and it turns out something vastly more powerful at the core. it is approaching for those folks who have roots in the southern u.s., a vital artery right now. and that's interstate 10 that runs east to west through this entire area. if you've been watching our coverage, then you know meteorologist bill karins has been on this storm for hours. i would say days, as it's approaching. bill, did the strength of this at landfall surprise even you? >> i think i'll go through a period of like shock when this is all done. look at this list behind me.

we just had a landfall of 155 miles per hour. and this is going to be behind camille and andrew and the labor day storm, which was like late 1800s. in fourth place. i mean, that's just mind boggling. if i told you we were going to have, even four days ago, the fourth strongest hurricane on record to make landfall you would have been like, sound the alarm. >> where are we going? >> three days ago, the forecast, the intenseities ity of the stoa category 1. >> you and i had a conversation live on the air last night about why this seemed to blow up immediately. tell folks who are used to flying in commercial jets at 30,000 feet how high the tops of these storms get and why we expected them to get sheered off at the top and this wasn't going to be consequential. >> sometimes 40,000, 50,000 feet and the water in the gulf, anyone goes to all the way through this month even into next month, it's still bath

water. so the energy source is there. that part of the equation is strong enough to support a category 5 every year at this time of year. what we don't know is what the wind shear is going to do. that can shear apart the top of the thunderstorms. they take all that moisture and energy and lift it into the atmosphere. if it gets blown away, the storm can't build on itself. that was the forecast four, five, six days ago. we knew we had a storm forming. it's october. typical to get storms in the western caribbean moving into the gulf. wilma did it. many other examples. the wind shear wasn't the most favorable. thought we'd still get a storm. a little disorganized and have to watch it. then the storm started getting stronger. and then we were like, it's already a cat 1. this could be serious. that's when the hurricane center was like, all right, category 3. then yesterday they were like, all right, maybe category 4. and we almost went to category 5. >> we were 2 miles an hour shy. >> which is crazy. >> and post storm analysis, we

may find out it was a 5. that was the estimate from the hurricane hunters when they're flying through the storm and giving us all this incredible information, risking their lives doing those missions. the fourth strongest winds at land speed and third lowest pressure. it's like both. had both elements to it. if this had maybe 10 -- five more hours over water it easily would have been a five. it was still growing and getting bigger right up through landfall which is one of the reasons why it's held itself together. there's some people right now on -- if they're on i-95 that are in the eye of the storm still. and it's crossing interstate 10. interstate 10. >> 95 is going to play a part in this storm before it's over. >> not until tomorrow and that will be kind of weak. >> i wanted to ask about the significance of its crossing i-10. i'm worried about folks in marianna, chattahoochee and greta and the like. >> it's going to be crossing interstate 10. i'm sure they'll have it closed.

people are sending me screen grabs of people driving on i-10. we got issues like that. and we've had the life-threatening portion of the storm, which was the beginning portion, the landfall with the supreme winds, projectiles, fallen trees. now tonight, through tomorrow, it's still going to be the wind but the falling trees. trees on houses, trees in homes. areas that weren't evacuated. people in the middle of the night, you know, hearing the winds howling, grabbing their families, pets, heading into their bathrooms. that will be taking place. it's taking place now in florida. and now it's going to start taking place in southern alabama, georgia and i am hoping it dies off quickly enough that we can avoid this tomorrow morning in like augusta, georgia, columbia, south carolina. it should be 40 to 50, maybe 60 miles per hour by then. >> if social media is active with pictures of mexico beach

and folks theorizing. >> we're trying to get permission to show you a lot of those videos. yeah, it looks like a tornado went through. >> it does look like circular wind. i'll show you that. >> that was the fear. this was the equivalent of a category -- enhanced fujita scale ef-3 tornado. that's xwhat you'd expect with strong category 4. it was just a matter of what population center was going to get hit. we didn't know that until the end. panama city, a lot of roof damage. but i haven't seen pictures of complete buildings just blown to pieces. that's what we have seen in mexico beach. >> i know you're always up for a good word for public servants. late last night you tweeted out the office photograph of the national weather service tallahassee staff. they were going to hunker down and make it through the night. their warnings on social media and over the newswires last night into today have been spot

on. these are public servants warning the public about this weather. they've all been consummate professionals. >> while their families are at home. without them. and deal with the storm and all the consequences without them. and it's an important point. i am a meteorologist, but i'm -- in storms like this, i'm more of a reporter, too. because i'm gathering the information from all the servants out there in the national weather service, the hurricane hunterers, storm chasers on the ground sending out pictures of the damage and we get to bring it to everyone else. hopefully we collect it and can get an action plan. i saw pictures of cuomo sending the national guard and pictures of them boarding and putting helicopters on the big cargo planes. they'll head down there to do rescue missions. they see the pictures and how bad it is. now people are going to start responding. >> state of new jersey sent two semis full of first responders, urban search and rescue teams on a two-week deployment.

they got on the road last night on 95 southbound. and as bill pointed out, before it's over, this storm will, in a way, link i-10 and i-95 because both major interstates will see pieces, though vastly different pieces, of this storm. mariana atencio has been in port st. joe standing by on the telephone. how much have you been able to get a look at? >> brian, we're down to one phone. cell towers are down here. i'm seeing a lot of downed trees. a lot of heavy flooding and highway 98 is completely flooded from port st. joe to cape sandblast -- 9:00 in the morning today. i know from talking to the mayor that about 200 people live there in that inlet, and many did not

have time to evacuate. we're now trying to make our way to mexico beach. we're about ten minutes from there, from where this monster storm made landfall. and we're going to try and see if we can get there and give you firsthand accounts hough things lo look. a lot of the local people wondering if their homes are okay, their friends and relatives another. i'm standing here with julie. she's an employee of the mainstay inn who took us in while the storm was really moving in. and she moved here from tampa in 2006. she's in tears because she hasn't heard from her neighbors in mexico beach. she doesn't know what state her home is in. so i've got to say, yesterday when we were there, talking to folks, again, a lot of them really caught off guard by this storm and didn't have time planning to evacuate. we'll give you a firsthand

account of how things are going. >> mariana, thank you. i hope you're able to build in down time because it's so important. we need everybody sharp and being careful when you do venture out. bill karins, she just mentioned what we've been talking about. this was the storm out of nowhere. nobody's fault. it's the fault of wind shear not showing up to cut these cloud tops in half the way it was expected. >> all of our computer modeling and mathematical formulas that spit the information out and i stand in front of and try to act confident, this is what's going to happen. we've gotten to the point where if you go back three, four days, we were saying panama city all along. all the spaghetti strands -- >> that never really changed, unfortunately for them and mexico beach and the air force base there and down towards the coast in apalachicola. the intensity forecast on this one was, yeah, d-minus?

maybe that's generous. >> the mayor of tallahassee it with us on the phone. andrew gilham also happens to be a candidate for a large statewide race this season but right now it's his city that's his number one priority. mr. mayor, anyone who has been to tallahassee knows how beautiful a city it is. and how full of trees it is. and for that and other reasons we've been thinking of you guys all night and into the morning and afternoon. give us a status report, if you will. >> yeah, brian. we celebrate our beautiful tree canopy. my city has about 50% tree cover, which is pretty substantial given an urban community like ours. but it's times like this that becomes a bit of a problem for us. already so far in this storm, our threat in this part is different than our brothers and sisters down on the coast who our hearts are going out for right now as we see the images of the storm surge coming in. for us, it's, of course, the possibility of downed trees and

already we've seen trees coming down on power lines and on homes and vehicles. so far no report of any loss of life which we're thankful for and confident that that -- hopeful that will continue. but so far, we've got north of 45,000 of our utility customers that are out. and our emergency operations center, i'm there speaking to you. we're operating off our generators. we've got lots of redundancy here which is the purpose of a center like ours but we certainly lost our normal utility here in the building. that being said, our strongest desire right now is people stay safe. the strongest winds that are estimated to hit our area still are coming in and will be between four and about 8:00 tonight and so we're urging caution on behalf of all our residents as we wait out the total impact of this storm. >> while we hope you avoid the major stuff, it's often the minor stuff that can be such an unpleasant thing for a beautiful place like yours.

the branches, the side mirrors on cars that seem to snap off in these storms, the trees, the power lines. again, no loss of life. no rise in water, but it can just tear up a beautiful community and take so long until you feel like you're back on your feet and you put the storm, forgive me in the rearview mirror. >> no, you're absolutely right. at this stage, obviously, our concerns still remain trees coming down. we are known for these trees coming down, and our hope is they don't come down on anyone's hope and injuries anyone, but we know there are already reports of those trees coming down. we're going to get back to normal. we'll get back to 100%. at this stage of the gairme it' our hope that people don't go out on the streets and begin to fiddle with trees. everybody wants to get back to normal but recognize we've got live wires. we've got other utility threats.

we've got water damage threats. there's a lot that has to be kept into consideration as we make our way through the storm and then begin our recovery process. brian, i should also mention because tallahassee is closest to these affected areas, we also expect that the shelters that we now have, now six, will likely expand as our neighbors from the coast make their way here for what looks like will be a pretty long recovery for them. >> mayor, meteorologist bill karins. any word on how long your public schools are planning on closing for and any word on the university also? >> yeah, so the university of florida and university -- florida state and tallahassee community college, along with our k through 12 system has announced their closure through friday. so right now, you know, we do our job and get out there and get everybody restoerd, schools should be back, you know, early next week. we don't have announcements on that yet but so far we know it will be closed through the

duration of this week. >> mayor, thank you very much. we know you've got other things to worry about but we do appreciate the time you've given us in the news media trying to cover this story and can't stress this enough. good luck to you and that beautiful city as this storm progresses. >> thank you so much. and god speed for everyone's recovery. >> mayor of tallahassee, florida. bill, if i can trouble you to go over to the map. show folks what's already -- where the storm has already been and, for example, tallahassee off to the right edge. that's the edge of a hurricane you don't want to be on but luckily nowhere near the eye. >> they are a decent distance from the eye. you saw the live pictures we were showing you there. let me go to my next view and i can show you my distance tracker and show you how far away tallahassee is. here's where the storm made the landfall. this was the gray line, the path it took. it's been edging towards the left side of the forecast path after landfall which has been

better for tallahassee and kept it further from tallahassee. let's do the distance tracker. we call this what's left of the eastern eye wall down interstate 10. roughly about 40 miles away. that's why tallahassee and even though with that said, over here, this is a live wind report. 67-mile-per-hour winds. that's still 40 miles per hour away. you can imagine what it's like. much worse. we're more extreme wind damage is being done. the other major city in this area is, as we go through dothan. all of a sudden these bright red and pichks are staying symmetrical. doesn't look like it's about onshore for a hurricane for the last two hours. it's going to be close to how -- just you don't want to get in the bright red. you'll see massive amounts of trees down and instead of days without power, possibly weeks that's going to take to clean that up. dothan right now, roughly about 20 to 22 miles away.

and the storm in general is heading towards the north-northeast. if we take this, kind of that general direction here and like this, that's kind of the direction the eye is going to be heading in here as we go throughout the rest of the day. that was the wind map. this was the current stats. we'll get the new update from the hurricane center. we just got the new hourly update. they dropped it down to 140. >> still, this is an over land storm now, bill. >> if i was to tell you that we could have a category 4 hurricane on the border, kind of the triple point where florida, alabama and georgia meets, you would tell me i'm crazy. >> we watch eye walls collapse all the time with first contact -- >> i can't tell you how many storms in the last ten years we've had approach land as a 3 or 4 and just kind of fizzle out and make landfall as a 1 or 2. this one is holding on for dear life. that's bad news for everyone in central and southern georgia.

let's advance the path and show you. and we'll compare this. this will be a good teaching point. about 45 minutes we'll get our new path. just remember when we get our new path forecast that by the time it was up here heading into south carolina, the forecast winds are to be 45 miles per hour. the way it's holding together right now, i wouldn't doubt if that's 60 instead of 45. why is that a big difference? 50 to 60 to 70 is when you get more trees down than 45. 45 is a windy day after a cold front goes through. we're only going to bring it down to about 100 by the time we get clearly here into central portions of georgia. this is a map you don't see very often either. the red is the hurricane warnings which go all the way through central georgia. macon is almost in a hurricane warning. that's unheard of. and tropical storm warnings cover all areas back up into areas of central north carolina. so even tomorrow morning it's going to be -- we'll have pictures of very windy conditions because the way the

storm, the southerly wind is coming up, those winds will be brisk in brunswick, savannah, hilton head, going up the coast. >> mechanically, you're talking about -- you're right. macon is almost in a hurricane warning. >> macon to the beach is a long drive. >> it's a long drive. is this storm stronger aloft? is there more infrastructure higher up? >> most storms that we've dealt with have been weakening as they were getting the landfall. and then the land just does it in. this storm was strengthening. the pressure was dropping all the way through landfall. and usually the way it works is the pressure drops first and takes a little for the storm to catch up and the winds to crank. >> loses its fuel. >> so the winds in this one were holding together, trying to equalize that pressure which is still very low. i have equated this one for the last couple hours as a bowling ball. someone threw a bowling ball at this region and it's not easy to stop that bowling ball. what reduces the wind speed in

hurricanes is friction. that's all the trees that are falling. so the frictional component will slowly be weakening this storm overnight. that's the result of thousands, hundreds of thousands of trees. we're probably not done taking lives with this storm either. you get enough trees falling on houses and cars and roads and you get -- you can have fatalities. >> that's what we're worried about. enough of our viewers have already seen mexico beach is clearly the focal point of a lot of our time and attention. we have reporters and camera crews getting there as quickly as they can stymied in places by standing water and trees. but our crews are in place throughout this region. this remains a very dangerous storm over land with wind speeds of 140 miles an hour. it has been years since we've been able to say that about a hurricane. a break in our coverage. we'll come back right after this.

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we are back with our coverage of the storm that has surprised even veteran forecasters and meteorologists. the fact that we have hurricane warnings posted as far north and west as macon, georgia. this is over land and still rated as a 140-mile-per-hour wind storm. this hurricane is holding

together remarkably well. just when and where we wish it wouldn't. correspondent tammy leitner is standing by in albany, georgia. in normal times with a normal storm, you would be way out of the cone of effects from this storm, which is now still approaching your area. >> yeah, brian. we're just now starting to feel the outer bands here in southwest georgia. starting to feel the wind, the win. there's a tornado warning in effect here. about 108 counties across georgia with an emergency warning in effect. 1500 national guardsmen here ready to deploy, if necessary, if as we've seen so far in the panhandle, that could likely happen. here in albany, it's relatively flat. so one of the major concerns is flooding. when it happens here in albany, it happens very, very fast.

the flint river runs through this county. it actually dumps into this lake where i'm standing. there's houses that surround it. so that's a big concern with flooding. another concern, even though they haven't issued a mandatory evacuation order for this area, they've told people if you live in mobile homes if you live in houses that don't have sturdy foundations, go ahead and get out. take shelter somewhere else. we just visited a church in the area where they opened it up to people. they said, look. we have no cots, no supplies, no food but let's open our doors to anybody that might need shelter. they've already got 50 people there that they said don't feel safe in their homes. we spoke with one woman, her and her grandson, their dogs. they're staying there. they live in a trailer and they said we just don't think we want to take the chance. that's what a lot of people are saying in this area that don't feel safe waiting it out at

home. brian? >> i wish we had the ability to show people how beautiful it normally is right where you're standing. and you're so right that ist is so flat and the intersection two of bodies of water. one emptying into the other. that's what they really have to worry about is an influx of rainwater right now. >> yeah, and also they were saying that the flint river is actually a little higher than it normally is. they're not as concerned as they normally would be. but again, it's so flat. when it floods, it happens so quickly. they're just not willing to take any chances. >> tammy leitner with us from albany, georgia. i trust you'll stay in touch, and we'll have bill karins on the air here shortly to tell you what's going to happen there and when. appreciate that live report. with us now is retired u.s. army lieutenant general russel honore. i've said this before, but the general will always remain a heroic figure for all of us who

were in new orleans during and after katrina as his arrival there marked a turning point in that storm and its aftermath and brought hope to those folks. general, thank you very much for being with us. as you look at this storm, and i, in my memory, i cannot remember a storm with a sustained eye and 140-mile-an-hour winds at the core. this far over land. this long after landfall. what are the folks going to need in the path of this? >> well, just to put things in context, brian, you remember hurricane erma that went through florida. put 300 million without power. it arrived in georgia as a tropical system and put 800,000 people out of power. so imagine a storm over 100-mile-an-hour crossing i-10, going into georgia, with the pine trees over the power lines.

this could have a devastating impact on the grid in florida, as well as the southern portion of georgia as 60 to 90-mile-an-hour winds will take trees down, but i've never seen a storm cross i-10 with this intensity. >> yeah, that's really the landmark for us, too. to see it cross the interstate, and if you know anything about i-10, it's kind of a dividing line. question is, is there a role in this storm for the cajun navy? >> yeah, they're already on scene. and they've been active. i've talked to them a couple times this morning. they're predeployed. boats and trucks with supplies to start helping first responders. then they'll move to the smaller towns in the most desperate areas at the appropriate time. but they've moved already and they're predeployed. >> general, we're also fortunate because we have so many military facilities and bases.

generally headquartered in the south. one of them had the eye of this storm move right over top of it. >> yeah, we've got tindle and panama beach, strategically important to the nation. but well prepared and well rehearsed on saving the aircraft as well as our naval services along the coast. the long evacuated but the impact on that infrastructure could have a significant impact on our readiness in days and weeks to come. depending on how much of the power grid is taken down. and i think that is the biggest threat now other than trees falling on people's homes is going to be the impact on the grid, sir. >> here's the question. are you confident that at fema headquarters they have the right plan to bring in air assets and pallets of water and mres and power companies from surrounding states? >> yes, the state of florida,

the dilemma is this. we spent all day yesterday talking about a category 2. and a lot of distracting political discussions dominated the air waves. that's just the way things happen coming out of washington. so a lot of people who respond to categories stayed put. people that are in atlanta, along that i-10 corridor that probably would have moved if the prediction was category 4. but we've got to remember, mother nature always has a vote. the storm had a vote, and it moved up to a 4 overnight. and that is going to catch a lot of people who may have evacuated early to be in the path of this storm. there's still time for people to evacuate that have calm winds and this storm continued to move at over 100 miles an hour. if you are in an unsafe structure, we still need to be

getting people to shelters. and that's my biggest concern that we don't have enough shelters open to take care of the vulnerable population who live in vulnerable housing. >> yeah, i share that concern with you. and this storm as we've been saying truly blew up out of nowhere. nobody's fault. nobody was wrong. it's human nature to want to blame folks for something like this. but this was simply a matter, as bill karins tells it, of wind shear not showing up to reduce the intensity of this storm in the way the forecasters thought it was going to be. it's a genuine act of god that this blew up from a comparatively minor storm off the coast of cuba to now making landfall two miles an hour shy of a category 5 today, general. >> i always used to train my first army staff to treat every storm at least as a category 4.

we can prepare everything we need. we don't have to deploy. but you've got to respect the storm because you never know what they're going to do. and mother nature reminds us again, as good as we are, we're not perfect at predicting. >> general russel honore, thank you, sir. always a pleasure to have you as part of our coverage. we are joined on the telephone now by beau patterson who is mayor and christiommissioner of port st. joe, florida. what's your early read on damage and tell us all lives have been accounted for? >> yes, we've got a lot of damage. we are having a lot of flooding. my house has never flooded. it looks like a river going down the street in front of my house. a lot of trees down falling on houses, covering the roads. i had to wait 45 minutes to get someone with a chainsaw. we had two trees in the road. i drove a little up town. there's a lot of damage

downtown. first baptist church, a lot of the roof is gone. the side of one building is gone there in town. storage building. and facade on the sides of the buildings have been ripped off. and there's debris everywhere. we've got a big cleanup. as far as loss of life, i haven't heard of anybody that's lost their life in this storm in port st. joe but it's early and i haven't been able to get out as much as i want to. >> how far is your home from a substantial body of water. you say it's never flooded before? >> i'm probably about seven blocks away from it, from the water there in the gulf. >> when did it -- what type of day did it reach its worst in your town? >> probably about an hour, hour and a half ago maybe. the storm is blowing pretty hard, the wind is and lots of rain. of course, we lost power.

i've been without power for about four, five hours already. luckily i have me a generator to run my essential stuff like hope the other people that stayed had the same thing. >> we're looking at the radar here. unbelievably, it looks like after one more band of rain is done with you, you may be done with precipitation for a while. and i know that will be good news for you. at least no more rain will fall. >> exactly. we just -- i don't think we can take much more rain. >> you'll notice, mayor, we're looking at the radar. you still have the winds out of the southwest piling up that water at the coast. it's going to be a while before that water is allowed to retrea back to the coast. did you see any structures totally destroyed and uninhabitable? >> not yet. i haven't been able to get in the residential area a lot because there's so many downed trees and flooding. you can't get in there. >> and how did your essential

businesses and schools make out so far? >> i think we did okay. not too bad. some of the places downtown may have gotten water in them but other than that, and i was going to say, some major and some minor. it was a bad one. >> mr. mayor, we've been watching you get interviewed for the better part of 24 hours and we've been following the plight of your town. we are hoping that when you do get out, it's minimal, though we know you've already taken quite a hit from this. we're also hoping for no loss of life. and we're hoping everybody is okay in port st. joe. >> thank you very much. >> thank you for spending time with us. best of luck to you. bill karins, again, we mentioned before the break a lot of attention, especially social media. mexico beach down there. >> and that will be one thing that's interesting. that was the mayor of a town

that's only 10 -- what did maria say, 10, 15 miles away and one town sounds like it has damage. not where they can't go back and fix it whereas we're hearing reports from mexico beach there's many structures unfixable. >> how do you go back and see if there was rotation? see if there -- >> for gets messy when you're in the eye because when i was in the eye of charlie in orlando, there was a lot of tree damage similar to what we'll see here in florida. there were some areas where the wind and trees weren't all blowing down in the same direction. when you start to see that and any twisting of the trees and stumps, what's left of the trees standing, that's when you start to think maybe there was some tornadoes within the eye. >> only one reported tornado from any of the bands. sometimes you get these tropical systems and they produce a significant number of tornadoes. this hasn't done that. we had the report there in central georgia of an active tornado warning but no

confirmations on that. the problem right now and it looks like through the night will be following the eye and who is getting the supreme damage. we see these pictures, the daylight. we're also up against the clock here. >> this is panama city. >> also up against the clock. we'll get some pictures from the landfall damage but it won't be until tomorrow, tomorrow afternoon that we find out how bad the damage is in interior towns from the tallahassees to the dothan, everywhere in between and communities along i-10. >> a lot of this is signs out in front of hotels like that. they have often a concrete rebar infrastructure but they're often big targets. wide, flat surfaces. you see that board right through the windshield of that car. a projectile. this is why the national weather service tells everybody not to drive, not to sit in their cars. to stay inside. and bill was referencing circular wind. you'll see on the right-hand side of that picture, national

weather service is interested in trees that break like that. we just had four tornadoes north of new york city, no more than ten days ago. the national weather service sent out teams. and they look at how trees break. they look at that. the white part of a tree. the meat of a tree. the bark of a tree toee if it breaks in a straight line way or to see if it is twisted on the way down. they look at debris to see if it's in a counterclockwise direction. then and only then do they make the determination aided by imagery on radar. you can see with modern doppler quite clearly when there's rotation aloft. then and only then do they decide, bill, that it was tornadic activity. >> and the problem with some areas like panama city beaches, they had strong easterly, northeasterly -- >> until they didn't. >> i guess even a little more difficult. when we look back at the storm,

you know, my guess is that we're going to say, absolutely horrific the mexico beach area, some other areas we haven't talked about pretty bad. but this is a good lesson because we've always said the biggest nightmare scenario would be a rapidly intensifying storm coming toward a major metropolitan area. imagine if this, instead of -- imagine this was further toward the west if we were talking about pensacola or biloxi or even new orleans. really anywhere that's along the gulf coast. tampa, for example. charlie rapidly intensified daytime, almost similar to this one. that's why they always try to tell you to caution -- i always tell people prepare for one category worse than the forecast. this would have been preparing for two or three categories worse than the forecast. >> and, remember, with every storm that doesn't measure up to every bit of the warnings, that breeds cry wolf complacency among people. this one, my specific worry was

how late it exploded. as you pointed out it was still growing in intensity as it crossed the meridian onto land. >> and i've said this a couple times. no easy way to say this without, you know, the people that got hit by this that have their houses destroyed. it's horrendous. you look at a population density map of florida, this is the right side of this, the strongest portion of the storm has traveled through the least populated areas. if it was slightly further to the east, could have been a little less. but, you know, we haven't seen -- we're going into the storm like the biggest concern is the storm surge. 9 to 14 feet. we haven't seen pictures of 9 to 14-foot of storm surge and that should have already happened. it's very, very rural, remote areas, swampy areas that people were smart enough to get out of. so we haven't seen that video or the damage from those coastal communities and the fishing villages along the northern

gulf. >> we're so thehappy to have bi karins along for the ride as we cover this still intense hurricane over land. a defined eye, maximum winds at 140, though we are awaiting an update on that. another break in our coverage. please stay with us. come back to us on the other side. is mealtime a struggle? introducing ore-ida potato pay. where ore-ida golden crinkles are your crispy currency to pay for bites of this... ...with this. when kids won't eat dinner, potato pay them to. ore-ida. win at mealtime. about the colonial penn program. here to tell you potato pay them to. if you're age 50 to 85 and looking to buy life insurance

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at 4:45 p.m. east coast time, let us set the scene for you. we have a very powerful storm, and what is so rare about it right now is we see effects along the water like these pictures which we aired live in panama city at the height of it. but look at what it's doing over land right now. it still has a defined eye, like the systems we see over the open ocean. it is still listed in the

category of 140-mile-an-hour winds. this is a hurricane over land that is rated as a category 4. last night, this grew from 3 to 4, and it made landfall 2 miles an hour shy of a category 5. it was in the tight confines of the gulf of mexico. ocean water as warm as bathtub water this time of year. if you're a hurricane, it's nothing but fuel over the open ocean. this storm, tight and well defined took advantage of that high water temperature. if you have been watching our coverage this afternoon, you heard our last interview with daniel dean of southport, florida. they had to hunker down and ride this storm out. daniel's wife, as we learned earlier, 9 months pregnant. and daniel and his wife are very

aware that atmospheric pressure like this has been known to send folks into labor. especially women who are nine months pregnant. so daniel, tell us what has gone on since we last heard you on the air, and how is everybody doing? >> everybody is doing fine, all right. i'm driving through the neighborhood of the local area of southport where i live at. there are trees, i mean trees on top of trees on top of trees on top of trees that are just piled up in the roads. every power line within a three-block radius is down right now. power lines crossing the road. i'm out driving around checking on some of the neighbors i know stayed. making sure everybody is all right. i'm trying to move a couple of these smaller trees out of the way. i'm cutting them and pulling them off to the side of the road so in case at some point somebody does need some kind of medical attention or something like that, they can -- there's a safe route out of here. but right now, it is catastrophic out here in

southport, folks. let me tell you. we have garage doors that have been smashed in. almost the entire roof of the church next to where i live has been ripped off. it's just -- there's flooding everywhere. i have never seen anything like this in my entire life in the panhandle region ever. as far as hurricanes or tornadoes or major thunderstorms or anything of that nature. i've never seen anything this bad in my life. >> daniel, we're also concerned about your wife. tell us her name and is this -- i know you've got health care professionals in the family and close by if you need them, but is this your first rodeo or do you guys have other children? >> she has other children. we have a child together. she is -- she's fine. she's not having contractions. she's not feeling pressure. i told you guys earlier, the baby is kicking around a lot, though. i think that might have something to do with the barometric pressure in the atmosphere.

but she's -- she's only eight months pregnant. i don't know where nine came into play earlier today. but she's not having contractions. she's not going into labor. she's not having pressure as far as like the head trying to push itself out or nothing like that. she's 100% healthy at this point. the baby seems to be fine because obviously he's kicking around up there. >> all right. as long as he's happy staying where he is for a time, we're happy to correct the record. she is, in fact, 8 months pregnant which, in a hurricane is much better than nine. and you are absolutely right. for some reason, atmospheric pressure has played a role in this kind of thing. for folks who don't know your sown of southport, describe to them where it is in relation to panama city. >> it's about 30 minutes from panama city if you're headed north on highway 77 or up 231

north, it's about 30 minutes the same way. where i live is approximately 43 minutes from the hathaway bridge that's been closed as of last night if i'm not mistaken due to the wind. >> you know what? we're at the mercy of cell towers, and it's kind of amazing that we were able to talk to daniel dean for as long as we were. but we thank daniel dean for phoning in. we're having just a heck of a time with communications right now. our correspondent matt bradley is standing by in tallahassee. matt, we're looking at a map of wind speeds and for tallahassee, gusts of 52 right now, which you must be feeling. >> that's right, brian. and that 52-mile-per-hour wind, that's just above the 50-mile-per-hour threshold when emergency services and andrew gilliam, the mayor here said emergency services will not come

and save you over 50-mile-an-hour. that's because it's just too dangerous for them. and, really, we're talking about historic winds here. as you can see, in the last five minutes, brian, the rain kind of died down a little bit. that's why i have my hood bit. that's why i have my hood off. we're still feeling that powerful wind. it's historically power. . this is the first time ever the city of tallahassee has put up an extreme wind warning. it's unprecedented here, that's because they're expecting gusts of 130 miles per hour. you mentioned andrew gillum a while ago. he was talking about these trees, lovely oak and palm trees. they're like grace with the spanish moss. what makes tallahassee such a nice southern city. but when you get a hurricane, this is what is weaponized against this city have you all these trees falling on cars,

buildings, power lines and that's the real risk here, andrew gym up, the mayor, he's up against it here this hurricane is colliding with his own political ambitions. he's running for the governor of the state as the mayor of tallahassee. he's trying to do better than what happened last i'm in i time, two years ago under hurricane hermine, when he said 90% of the electrical grid was impacted by trees falling and the hurricane. the hurricane will be two-to-three times more powerful than hearn hermine. so he will try to really get those rescue workers and those power workers, those municipal workers out into the streets as fast as possible to correct the situation with the power and bring the lights back on. his political life depends on it. >> matt, what you said about the vegetation down there is so true. they are so enormously proud of how green their city is. how old and established the vegetation is. matt, to your right, we noticed on the wide shot the base of a

tree that is absolutely enormous. can you live your hole life in this country and not have something that large in your town. but they're all over tallahassee. you mentioned something else, the spanish moss. there's just so much vegetation and that just doubles the risk oof what can come down. >> reporter: it's not just the wind. you know, brian, you are starting to see it pick up just now. there is also the risk of tornadoes. there has been a tornado watch that will be lasting until tomorrow morning. so that spells kind of double trouble for the city of tallahassee. you mentioned this huge tree here. i walked down a little while ago to the end of the street. there is not one but two huge trees like this one that are downed. we're right here in front of the campus of florida state university. i imagine that throughout the city. there is tons of these massive trees that have gone down, causing massive damage, threatening people's lives, as i

mentioned, turning the lights off when floridians and people of tal t tallahassee really need it. >> i don't want to think if the more central part of the storm had passed over the capital of tallahassee. matt bradley, thank you so much. we're updating folks along the bottom of your screen with the very latest on category wind speed. this is still considered a category 4 maximum sustained winds at the core. still estimated to be 140 miles per hour. a lot of that information comes to us from the hurricane hunter aircraft, whose job it is to nigh from eyewall to eyewall all the way through the center of this storm and report their readings back to the ground. we have seen wind gusts to 175 miles an hour. with this storm, we have seen a couple unique things. this is a history maker for the florida panhandle.

we don't say this enough throughout our coverage. what makes this extraordinary. they don't see this down there. they don't usually have a storm of this intensity in the panhandle. this storm was still intensifying. the pressure at the core still dropping as it crossed over on to land. two miles an hour shy from the highest category, a category 5. it's making more than its weight in history as it spins to the north and here's something else to consider. we have never seen this organized, this tight ostorm, still together crossing over interstate 10. the main east-west artery to that entire region. we're looking at communities like macon, georgia, who before the end of the evening could be under a full on torn -- hurricane warning. matt bradley mention tornadoes and so did i. those are so often the spawn of storms like this. there's reason to believe we've

already seen a couple today right alongside the hurricane winds. because of the embedded thunderstorms. they spin off. one more break, when we come back, our meteorologist bill kierans has joins us. he'll be at the map with the latest readings on this storm. let's face it everybody hates fees. now sofi has no fees on personal loans. that's right no fees on loans to remodel your bathroom. ♪ no fees on loans to consolidate your credit card debt. see no fees just feels good. ♪ boo yeah. if you've got the drive, you can do a lot with no fees on personal loans. boo yeah. with my bladder leakage, the products i've tried just didn't fit right. they were too loose. it's getting in the way of our camping trips. but with a range of sizes, depend fit-flex is made for me.

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we are back approaching the 5:00 top of the hour here on the east coast and, thankfully, we have the advice, counsel and

wisdom of meteorologist bill kierans who is at the board and has just come back from your computer. have we have a downgrade? >> category 3, 125 mile an hour winds. we still have a 125 mile hurricane that is about to travel through southern georgia. that's the bottom line. we go to show you here. here's the storm on radar, centered up the state of georgia the rain bands are making it up to atlanta in the maconary. these are worried potentially overnight that could get isolated tornadoes. it hasn't proud many tornadoes, if any, so far. there is that storm, now we will travel it into areas of central georgia. so here's the forecast path of the storm. this will take it into the next seven or eight hours. about 2:00 a.m., it will almost make it as a hurricane, all the way to macon, georgia. >> that will be about 12 hours

half-making landfall. early morning 8:00 a.m. augusta, columbus. it loses its tropical characteristics. a little storm. we shouldn't see problems with wednesday with that. they expect the rain forecasts have increased. washington, d.c., the norfolk the richmond area. there will be a good soaking. there is flood watches through southern new england. with will get a quick drenching of rain yielded from this storm. you notice the communities hit the hardest. we have about an hour-and-a-half now before it gets dark the last rain bands have exited this region that was hit so hard. so that's one little piece of good news. the other story will be the wind i don't have night. this is our computer model, notice, albany, georgia, winds at 70 miles per