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 hour.

so that's a lot of tree damage being done. we take it through the night. notice the winds in central georgia. savannah at 43. brunswick 41 maybe a downed tree. we shouldn't see too much additional damage. notice when we wake up tomorrow morning, charleston at 48. still a little breezy, augusta, savannah, consider wag we have been through at this point in the storm, i'd say 70% of the damage is done. we have about 30% to go, mostly all tree damage. >> i'm thinking of the forest happened, they use that georgia pine the falt wood as fire starters. it is j such a pun gent and potent sap. you can smell it in the air. it will be po at the present time tonight. >> i seen numerous pictures already. it looks like match sticks with all those pine, blown over. firewood will be all over the place. >> look, it will be no fun for folks in the macon, metropolitan

area at night in the dark, 70-mile-an-hour winds howling. >> it won't be funny, you hear that whistling noise outside, even at 70 miles per hour, when a thunderstorm goes through, it gets your attention. they will have to go through it maybe two hours, middle of the night 2:00 a.m. so. >> i will ask you to stick around. we have another person joining us by phone and that's lindaal breck. mexico city councilmember. we have been horrified to see some of the early pick of damage in your town. what have you been able to ascertain by phone. has it still been too dangerous to be out and about in. >> well, i am not in mexico beach. i evacuated when they said mandatory evacuation. i haven't seen anything on tv yet for whatever reason. i just haven't. i can tell you this is going to be a long interview, because i

keep getting techs from my friends saying i'm so sorry about your house. i have no idea if i have one, if it's under water. if it's a pile of matchsticks. i don't know but i can tell you it is bad, which i'm thinking it is. it will be like going into a war zone and our town will be wiped off the map. we only have about 20 businesses and most of them are ma and pa businesses. there is no fast foods. you come out here because you love the white sugar sandy beach and some good fishing. i just can't imagine. its like wake me up from this horrible, horrible, nightmare. i'm watching thv now, i feel i

seen a lot from pan pa city beach and they weren't in the eye and we were. i just can't imagine what it's going to be like. >> linda i am so sorry you may have bad news on the personal front. how far is the water from your house in. >> i am, there is a road in front. some watt the beach and we have a very, very narrow beach and then the road and i might have crossed from the road there is nothing from front of me. we call it the dedicated beach for about four, fir, six blocks. nothing can be back in a minute on that beach. so i will be the first to get hit. so, you know, we've had other hurricane one, two, tropical storms. we lost a few shingles. that's mainly been it. but it's been interesting, because michael really -- i mean last friday was a thunderstorm

south of the yucatan. and it just appeared and both captains were nervousant this immediately on saturday and so they knew something that the normal person didn't know and so then we started to get anxious just from them talking. and so you started packing up things, mementos that you want not thinking that you won't come home to a house. so e, you know, i've asked my friends, i said you know, what are you saying? don't sugar coat it for me. tell me what it is, what's going on? but i haven't gotten anything back yet. >> you mentioned the video. it's sparce, the amount of video we've had to show of mexico beach. it's a short chicago we're airing it right now. it came to us off social media.

it just shows the debris from a home or self homes that was shot out a rainy window. there has been other video circulating on social media. we either haven't been able verify it or haven't been able secure the rights and permission to air it. linda, who are these friends who have been by your place. did they, they have just been able to get back there sooner than you? >> well, i don't know that they've been by it. >> okay. >> you know, everything i'm telling you is second chance and third-hand knowledge. >> so people are assuming are you if bad shape? >> i had a couple that i am so sorry about your house, linda. >> oh, boy. >> and that's all. and some if they saw a picture, that that they thought was my house or maybe the police chief came by and said it was linda's

house. i haven't gotten that part yet. i just don't know. >> what a terrible feeling. our meteorologist bill kierans is here. >> i know people say oh, it's just a house. they're just things. >> that's your home. >> it's my home. filled with lots of memories. had i anticipated it would be this bad, i moon i took a lot of things with me. i would have packed my van number i just thought we'd be coming back home. >> linda, maybe you can help us out. the business you were watching. you said there were 20 businesses there. >> about. >> it's about a four or maybe a fifth story window. are there any hotels that are near your home that have that view? >>. >> i'm thinking this may be a condo. i'm looking at it. i don't know if you are looking at.

mostly water. i'm thinking that this might be a condo and that white thing i see would be a boat cover a boat slip. >> okay. >> yeah. so when i look at that it doesn't look like a home. i do know that i have been told, this is not my first-hand knowledge driftwood in is gone and two chance western is gone and el governor hotel was something about broken in three spots. something like that. so i do know that a number of our businesses are gone. we only have two gas stations in the up to. one they said was gone. so i, and i don't know where they're getting this information. >> linda. >> i say, this is just hearsay right now. >> linda, i know you had some very difficult days ahead with your property, being a

councilwoman for your town. when the town is right, go down greensburg, kansas, somewhere, a small town that got hit by an ef5. the whole town was destroyed. they that they would never rebuild it. maybe there is a partnership or through donations maybe you got a thousand people right in your town. you know in. >> yes. >> we don't want you wiped off the map. maybe we can find a way. >> thank you so much. thank you. >> it's the downside of living in paradise. living along the water. especially in this day and age in this country. >> yeah. you know, we have good weather and sunshine most of the year and this is a major bump in the road. >> i'm so curious about what you said, linda, about the fishing captains, because those of white house have lived anywhere near the water. they often know things and can sense things that other folks can't. this storm exploded so rapidly in these last few days, still

was strengthen as it made land fall as it came near your town, but how interesting that they had a fear about this one. >> they had a fear and one of them, you know, we would always use the national hurricane web map and he never needed it. he described something else. and he uses it like a book. and he always tried to say, this is what i need. there were a couple of them that i talked to. there is something different about this one. you don't take it for granted. >> always listen to a marineer, i guess, is the -- >> yeah, it's their business. it's their business. and you've got to trust who jeff is the expert. >> how far away are you? how long will it take you to get back? when do you reckon you can get

in a car and travel? >> well, it takes about six hours. >> oh boy. >> from what i understand, the police chief and his officers about, oh, after the about four hours after it passes, mexico beach, they will start a search and corescue. when they have everything completed they will then contact the city administrator and say it's okay for the essential employees to return. and as a councilmember, i would be able to return at that point. if he said they could return tomorrow or friday. so i would like to return as soon as i can, but then i have to look at the roads between here or there to make sure i can get through. so i'm hoping that i can return on friday. when everybody else will be returning, i don't know, that's not up to me.

. >> i'm here to tell you it's a weird feeling and everyone who has suffered coastal damage knows this feeling and our community and the jersey shore, after sandy to get stopped before you can see your house to show the national guard your license and proof of residency. it puts a lump in your throat and it tightens your chest. because you are obviously fearing the very worst. >> sure. sure. right. you know, i've always had empathy, empathy for those that have diameter with it. because living on the coast, but, having empathy and having to be involved with it and being part of the same club. >> yeah. >> are two different things. >> that's right. that's right. only those that have been through it really know the feeling. >> caller: i don't like being in the same club as anybody else, but i am. i will embureaucracy it and do everything i can to spread the word. >> first of all, i think will

you get a lot of imagery. will you have friends and neighbors the first folks back, including but not limit to the police chief and first responders. so you will probably know more in a few hours and we are just trying like blazes to get camera crews into the town and so we hope to have some imagery from there. in the meantime, linda all before the accident of membe-- albrecht of florida. we can't thank you for sharing a little bit of your time during this time in your life. >> all right. you are welcome, brian. thank you. >> thank you. bill kierans, it's a tough, tough business. >> a thousand people live in the town. everyone knows each other. she's a councilwoman. >> yes. >> likely sounds like she may have lost her home and she's worried about red building her town where she has all her memories. she has her life. she evacuated. she may not have her life if she

didn't. you are frais facing the fact you have to rebuild your home and your town, how overwhelming is that? >> this will become to the point you made earlier ranking this among storms this will be one of those benchmark storms, people will be talking not near the strength of hurricane michael in 2018. this is one of those. >> it will be interesting to see with the death count. there will be fatalities. it's almost impossible to have a storm this strong and nost. go take a look at katrina and how popular a name that was? when was the last time you met anyone named katrina? michael is one of the most popular names there is. there is a lot of people out there that want nothing to do with this name. it will be interesting to see what happened to the years ahead with the name michael. it will be retired. obviously with a hurricane name,

they get asoviet unioned, every five years they come back up if they weren't retired. this will guarantee it's retired. >> before or mostly a storm? >> significant. sandy, there will never be a sandy again, that was a category 1. it must have to do with the impacts to life, property, and, you know, to society. >> let's take another break in our coverage, when we come back, we will follow the coverage. the last few hours with the last update this has fallen to a category '. that it is still a 3 hurricane with the defined eye traveling over land is nothing short of extraordinary. our live coverage of hurricane michael continues after this.

we are back. our continuing coverage of this extraordinary storm, hurricane michael still a category 3 while traveling over land, still a defined eye, while traveling over land. lesser storms have been shredded by this. ken graham is one of the busiest men in these united nations today because he is the director of the national hurricane center. he has been very kind with his time for us. he is back with us live from the national hurricane center. ken, have you ever seen anything quite like this in the florida region in all your time studying storms? >> no, not only in my time, going back to 1851 the records, we haven't had a cat-4 hit this area of the gulf. a significant system. we were talking about a category 3, these winds well inland. you start off that strong. it will take a while. we see some damaging hurricane

force winds. by the way, right now, it looks like we are starting to enter into georgia. >> i'm worried about those georgia pines. there is so much forest happened ahead of this storm. so much of it mixed residential. you will have folks going into the night with no power. the howl of 70-mile-per-hour winds the sound of snapping trees. a lot of folks are in for a bad time over the next hours. >> you see the rain band, it's saturating the soil. then you put the wind on top of. that they will lose trees and power outages. they will put the debris on the roadways. at night you will not see when a tree is crossing the road. >> this was a case for people who say to you. we have been pointing out all day. this was no one's fault, not the failure. in fact the professionals with the national weather service has

been going out of their way to warn people about this sudden intensity. this was a case of wind shear not showing up in time. correct? we expected this storm to get cut in half by upper level winds. >> that didn't happen. you have a gulf full of hot water. >> a gulf full of hot water. the atmosphere is conducive, really from the beginning looking at the potential of that category '. but this is the other factor that makes things difficult. when you have a coast that forms off the coast of affect. you have literally a week of travel time to get ready. you get late in the season in okay. they form in the caribbean. as a result, there is not a lot of real estate. there is not a lot of time. so our time windows, comparing the different types of storms. in some cases you have a week. in these cases like this you may only have a couple days. >> we watched florence starting when it was a depression off the west coast of affect. it gave everyone a visual

representation of the lead time. how long they had to prepare. this was off the coast of cuba as a rain storm this weekend and it exploded if size and intensity. >> we had plenty of warm water. it was interesting. when the highest sheer was over this system. it was still developing. that was near cuba. fully sheer, still developing. so at that point we had to look at that forecast increasing. we knew there would be less sheer as you traveled across the gulf. >> can you name times when you saw pressure gradients still tumbling. this made landfall as it was intensifying? >>. >> it's interesting up you have these systems, gustav and katrina, sometimes they can't maintain it.

sometimes i seen a developing storm where its actually strengthening. once it does, it will strengthen all the way in. i'm glad we ran out of real estate, we would have kept on getting stronger. >> that's a big fear. ken graham, i can't stress to our viewers the responsible your job brings. thank you so much on top of all your warning functions for making time to talk to us at regular intervals. we really appreciate it. ken graham is the director of the national hurricane center in miami. we have now made contact with unof our many correspondent and camera crew teams. kerry sanders is able to join us once again after what's already been a long and sporty day in panama city beach, florida. hey, kerry. >> hey there, how are you? we're getting the cameras set up. bear with us. i came down here to the beach to sort of show you what did or did not happen. as you understand what a hurricane is going for on the eastern side of the states the

dirty side. you have all of that wind pushing the water up on the beach. >> that is a huge storm surge. and then on the western side, west is best. you don't have as much. so what you are looking at here is what fortunatelies with not a huge storm surge. it ended up bafbally to the sand dunes. here there is not much of a sand dune. so in the beach area here, panama city beach, things are looking pretty good. in and around the damage, we're doing assessments right now. the authorities say that they can't determine for us in the state of florida the number of injuries and deaths. inland in the city of panama city. there, one of the hospitals reports that when the winds were hitting, there were some tremendous winds associated with this. at one point i almost got knocked out by the winds. the winds were blowing so hard. i had a helmet on at the time. the wind broke windows inside

the hospital. now, the hospital tells us when the windows start to break, they were able to start moving patients to another more secure area in the hospital. there are no reports of any injuries. clearly, there are some problems associated. excuse me with that structure one thing we did interesting, there was a structure in a building. there were two giant cranes. they were set to spin around. if the winds were at about 140 miles per hour. i think we were 13 piles from the eyewall. we clearly had winds of 145-150 miles an hour. those cranes were spinning. they did not come down. so that's a little bit of good news. in terms of assessments and damage, can you see the bridges are off the island here. they remain closed. so it's only an early assessment

of what's going on. as you know because of your time with the fire department. you don't go out in the storm to try to respond. you go out after the fact. the last thing you need is for a first responder to have them -- >> meteorologist bill kierans here. first thing, obviously, panama city, all the reports i saw pictures of the hospital that you were just talking about. i saw pictures of a bank. one of those banks that's all glass. every window busted and gone. how far away are you from panama city where you're standing and also can you give me an estimate on like, you know, by looking around at the minimal damage that you are seeing, so many people have been there on vacations, how long do you think it will be before they can get back up and running? just a rough estimate? >> reporter: let's talk about first of all panama city, it's about a 23 minute drive from here to there on a good day in regular traffic.

you know, getting over the bridges, taking your time to get there. so it's really not that far. but as you know when you look at the map, you have the deep and inner coastal and the bay where all the water collects up in st. andrew's bay. with the rotation of the it will, it looks like, actually again they are making assessments. authorities on the beach are making assessments. it looks like it's worse inland than along here on the coast. now when will they be back up for business? i have to tell you, the hotel that, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. ten stories tall. there is about one window that's shattered. not one window had a problem. the only thing, the rain water driving through the roof, actually and dripping down and, of course, there's no power. so you know when you talk about people getting their lives back

together. you got to have power. the authorities need to give you the all clear. there are power lines down. it takes a while for them to get the power lines up. depending on where they put their teams and do assessments. i think you will see this community back up in about seven-to-ten days. >> excellent. that's good to hear. is your camera person able pan to the dunes at all? that's what it's there for in. >> reporter: let me do this. we will take the camera way down this way. why don't you come off and see if you can go all the way down and then i'm going to take you at least to a dune right here, which is, this is one of the dunes right here. so we sort of explain what happened they did, which is very interesting. 18 miles of this beach here. if you go back to oval, it was very close to the water.

and so it's always bringing sand from about two or so miles out there and dumping it here on the beach. what that beach renourishment did, everybody thought, it's to make it from tourists. the real gooal here is the distance from the sand dunes to the water became 100 feet versus what it was in some places it was non-existent or about ten feet so when they pushed it out, as the water came in, during this storm, i have 100 feet up to the dunes, all of the time we had to now, gave these dunes a chance to actually grow and that's the protective barrier along the way here. but, bill, you know best, we were west is best of the eye. we didn't get the storm surge. you see what the storm surge can be. it's not that far, about a

43-mile drive from where i am to mexico beach. >> kerry, do you have sand goggles on? >> reporter: i took the sand goggles off and i have my back to the sand. we rushed out here at the last minute. i have been wearing a helmet earlier today, sand goggles. i know this will sound it's all in relative nature, brian. right now it doesn't feel that bad. earlier today it was just brutal. >> it feels like little bullets. we are watching the sand wiz by you and we're able to hear you better when your back is to the wind. we now our friend meteorologist jim cantore over at the weather channel in a video that's making the rounds on social media. >> jim's pretty strong. he stepped up and helped you on the air today and then was almost taken out by a 2 by 4 i am told. >> reporter: yeah. look. i worked with jim many years covering hurricanes side-by-side.

we have become very good friends. it's the first time i can say, jim, i think you really saved me here. it was a precarious moment i was holding myself unable move because of the wiptd. when it caught me, it took me over to the concrete pillar. jim grabbed on to me, he was able to at least steady me. as i slid by the way into an area with a wall protective of the wind. he found himself balancing himself against the wind. we have a wind meter out there. if you told me that wind was 135, 145 miles an hour, i'd absolutely believe you. i'd say, very, very powerful strong, strong gusts that you know as you can see, i couldn't stand there. >> sadly, mike seidel, i let go of him, in south carolina. i think hilton head. he didn't travel far, luckily,

but just the wind was too much. >> i remember in virginia beach you had the same thing. so you recognize what it is. it just when the wind picks up, you are in that position, trying to do the report. you know, there's not much you can do other than hope that your balance will hold. in my case today, if i didn't have jim to my rescue, i'm not sure where i would have gone other than the fact that slightly off camera was a swimming pool out on the deck of the hotel. i might have landed on that swimming pool. >> you are so right. it was virginia beach. it gives us a chance to talk about what we do in these things. how many of these storms we've all could have had. kerry sanders, for any viewers who have been worried about him during the day is aware of his surroundings. not his first rodeo. he is standing where he is inte. he need to come back to the

hotel where the cameras are headquarters. we so often do that. we stand at the influx point between two high rises where the wind is compressed to show the viewers just the raw power of it that can pick up a car and toss it and kerry you're an expert at this. you know the difference between being buffeted by the wind and being out of the wind can be two feet. >> reporter: see how steady the camera is right now the camera is in a fully protected area. he's on a tripod as i'm bouncing around. i will show you so you get an idea as i sort of come up on the stairs and bring myself around. you can see the winds coming from down there. we got the hurricane flags blowing down there. i'm going to work my way right of to where you are. so you get an idea of first of

all how many moments. there you go. seconds it takes to walk over to you. >> look at that. >> reporter: now the wind is behind me. yes, it's blow income that direction. but earlier today we had the wind coming from this other side of this building. >> yep. >> reporter: so if i come over here and stand by the camera gear, my hair is not each blowing. see how protected we r. it's our effort to sort of monitor the wind, put ourselves in a position. but at the same time people want to know what's going on outside, if they have shutters up. they want to know what's going on and lastly, i want to taker over to the water here. as you look out here, this water has let up. it was each more furious than it is now. but that is not what the gulf of mexico usually looks like. it's usually as flat as a lake that you can go water skiing on. what we're looking at here is very unusual. so we hopefully have provided

those who wanted to know what was going on a glimpse of what a hurricanes well as i think most there is not any science to this. but why is it that bill kierans maybe can tell us? why is it that most hurricanes come ashore in the middle of the night. this one came ashore in the daytime. so we had a chance to see it. >> it sure did. i love when we show our homework. thank you. bill this is why it so often happens. you see a correspondent or a meteorologist getting buffeted, intentionally, leaning into an oncoming wind, while life goes on in some cases in the backgrounds because they're on the leeward side. we are showing it as an exam. >> not only that the crews that i are with do this numerous times every year and you talk about season people. they know exactly what they're doing and it doesn't mean you still can't get caught as you mentioned, jim cantore, there was a 2 by 4 that passed him.

there has been cases, you are in danger. we're not going to say you're not. but when the winds are strong enough look that, the littlest projectile can cause a real ton of issues. the thing i take most out about what kerry showed us, panama city beach. d destin or walton beach. all those areas, they dodged one, a big, mean hurricane. >> what a beautiful stretch of coastline. >> i know when we see the pictures of the careers that didn't dodge it, they'll say to themselves even more, wow, that was close the pictures i've seen lately out of panama city, the business district is pretty significant. >> yeah. >> a lot of businesses will be closed for a while. panama city beach may be opened for business the city of panama city. there will be a different story. probably not as bad as we will

see near the air force base and mexico beach this area doesn't look that bad. when he did the pan, the pool, i was trying to see how many palm tree branches and stuff were down. it didn't look that bad. >> not many frons. you don't get rollers starting a half mile out in normal times n. normal times, take a beach like destin, florida, at sunset, no more beautiful place on the planet the placid water of the gulf looks like a minimum pond normally. not today. not as angry as it got with hurricane michael. we will take a break. when we come back, we have a couple people standing by to talk to us, including a resident of dog island, florida, way out in the what under the circumstances who rode out this storm and has a story to tell. that and more when our live coverage continues. only fidelity offers four zero expense ratio index funds directly to investors.

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we are back with our live coverage. look at this. look at this hotel room. it looks like when led zeppelin used to check out in his heyday. >> that is shattered glass. there is water in the room. this is panama city, just after the after effects of this storm. kerry sanders was saying where they're staying none of the windows were compromised on the

water side. we don't know what building. what establishment. but this is what can happen. it's why you see people board up windows. it's why last resort you see people tape up windows. because that tape does help in keeping the shards inside. that's a tree breakage there. the weather service will look to see if the trees are broken and facing in different direction himself as they try to make a determination whether or not the winds were tornadic and not just from this hurricane. we have been waiting to talk to this gentleman for quite a while. bradley shanks is a resident of dog island florida and especially mariners who know the coast of florida know that dog island is way out there on the racked edge, absolutely beautiful place to be on a beautiful day. not so much during a cat 4 borderline cat 5 hurricane where mr. shanks built his home to sustain a cat 5 hurricane.

bradley, tell us what it's like and did you have any moments where you regretted your decision to ride it out? >> caller: well, maybe at first. but i soon realized how strong my house was. especially seeing my neighbor's house inland. yeah, it's rewarding in that way, you know, to have built a house that can withstand our storm and to be able to come out here and experience the storm. i've never experienced a hurricane before. so, it wasn't bad at all. my house is like super strong, so i'm glad it held up. >> we're fixing to show people on a map where dog island is. how, what's the population? >> caller: well, there is about 100 homes out here, mostly vacation homes. i think there is probably like

ten permanent residents, people who live out here full time. >> now, i imagine in the southern part of the island there, it was overtopped by ocean waters. how much, if you can estimate, what percentage of happened was covered by water at the height of the storm? >> caller: well, of course, i was in my home. so i didn't get to see everything. but i know from what i can see behind my home, the entire inland area, probably about a square mile was flooded presumably from the storm surge. so i'm waiting to go out and check to see what the damage is. but so far i can tell you that three of my neighbors, immediate neighbors, their house versus fallen in. >> oh man, i'm so sorry to hear that. we're sitting here talking to

you from an island but manhattan is quite different. for all the folks to wonder what it might be where you live. what do you do for fire, police protection, that kind of thing? >> well, we're a special residential district. so we don't really have any community governmental services out here. there is no stores or any kind of commercial enterprise, so we're really pretty much on our own. now, we do have a volunteer fire department, which i am a first responder. but other than that, the reason that we love it out here so much is the fact that it's really off the grid, so to speak. >> yeah, i get it. i get it. but probably a scary place to be during this storm. you also had very little notice. we have been saying all day for reasons that have nothing to do with the national weather service or the accuracy of

forecasts, a weather system didn't show up that was supposed to shred this thing before it exploded in size, but this was as it passed over or near dog island really on the borderline between a four and a five. it was 200 miles shy of a five. >> caller: yeah. it was pretty impressive. not having the experience of hurricanes like this, anyway. my house was rocken and rollin' -- rockin' and rollin', it was tough. >> we are happy to hear your voice. we are sorry about the loss suffered by your neighbors. we allawi are present and accounted for when your neighbors are present. bradley shanks a resident of

florida. we want to thank our next guest for being patient as well, rick so sorino is a former director at fema. sorry it's taken us a while to get to you with what we are covering. if you were back at your old job or appointed administrator of fema, what would be your priorities right now considering we have a category 3 hurricane that is while we have this conversation churning over land? >> right now the main effect is to worry about life safety. it's worrying about keeping people alive, keeping people safe. for the next 72 hours. as the storm goes through, we want people to listen to the local officials who are closest to the area so they understand what's going on better than anybody else. they're right there. and listen to them on the radio. also, over the next few hours, and into tomorrow, as people start to go out, one thing you know watching the reporters out

there was one thing. but people shouldn't be out in this weather at all. now is the time to keep safe. if people need help, a lot of people can go on social media to get help. they should call 911 for help. tell people you are okay. even though, first responders are not going to be able to go out to help save you initially. it's going to take a little while before they can go out there. >> it's also not impossible that we are a few hours away from hearing that some fe na forces were behind the 8-ball, which can be forgiven in this case because this was so difficult to predict. no one's model had this crossing on the land as just a sub-5. so, for example, you could have -- look at some of this tree damage, this drone video just arriving. it looks like we're going to see the drone operator there as it comes in for a landing. panama city, florida. will you have residential

neighborhoods in macon, georgia, that are going to be in need of fema's help that no one could have anticipated. we will see a category 3 or a 2 hurricane i don't have night. >> one of the things that fema, the state of georgia, state of florida, south carolina, initially florida and georgia, they have been in contact with fema the last number of days. they were not expecting calls, preparing, now in itself it's somewhat amazing. as we think about, where are we going? fema has moved in, urban search and rescue teams moved in supplies for shelters, working with red cross, all the federal partners in coordination with the states in order to support the states. yes, this exploded a little more than people thought. at the same preparing for the worst and moving a lot of resources in place already just

on the outside, someone will be able to go in once it's safe to go in. >> when you look at our projection graphic on the right-hand side of the screen, can you believe that we're going to be talking about more precipitation over an area in north and south carolina where folks from fema are still in place from the last one. >> as the water continues to come down that are inundated. it's a wind event and having the ground saturated it will cause more damage for trees to go down and impede first responders to get there. a lot of people will end up in shelters for a while. i think with power out annuals, with difficulty to get around, people need to be patient as well over the next number of days. the first thing over the next number of hours is for people to stay same. be in a safe place. a safe location as the wind comes through as the rain comes

through, to keep them safe. then as we continue on past that, as people go into the next stage, be careful, if people have their generators, generators go outside, not inside. prevent annual delts. outside, inside. that's where we usually see a lot. getting the message out the people to stay safe, stay indoors during the storm, after the storm. make sure they are safe if they use chain saws but also patience. mblg 3-- more than 300,000 peope have been evacuated. fema is working with them. we see it after disaster, people want to donate things. first thing is money and then contact your local red cross. there's many ways to donate. usually it's money. people don't need a lot of stuff

unless asked for by the local over the governor of the state. >> thank you for that. congratulations are you order after you crushed the hopes and dreams of the yankees fans in new york. prior to this storm was the biggest story we were covering locally. >> i won't rub it in to the yankees fans but oh, well. >> just had to mention it. it was obvious. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thanks for being so patient with us. our meteorologist has rejoined us here. what do you have? >> it's mind boggling numbers, i just saw an excellent meteorologist say right now is the first time we've had a major category 3 hurricane in georgia in 120 years. >> that's an unbelievable fact. >> who knew it would come from the gulf.

you would think the atlantic. right now we have the graphic behind you, we have extreme wind warning for major category 3 hurricane. it's not like any other day. we would still be like we have a -- mind boggling. >> this radar loop that we show on television, it's known in the trade as wall paper. it's easy to get used to it. don't. this is a circulating hurricane. a defined eye over the state of georgia inland that came off the gulf of mexico. obviously, florida has born the brunt of this storm damage and we are joined right now on the phone by republican senator marco rubio of the state of florida. give us a status report. i know that if our camera crews can't get into places like mexico beach, i bet a lot of state folks have yet to give you a full assessment of how bad it

is down there. >> that's right. i think we'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to get a fuller assessment. one thing i'm concerned about is the wind start to die down and every one of these storms, you live in florida long enough, you live through a few of these, it's human nature. you want to come out and see what happened. i think that's a terrible idea. part of wh happeat happens is tl of this thing keeps pulling around, it's pulling the water. you see the graphic, that backside of the storm is still a hurricane. it's pulling that water up in there. we'll have some storm surge going on for a while. i hope people aren't on the road. tonight is a good night to stay where you are. you're safe and ride this thing out. tomorrow morning we'll figure out if we're all clear. there's still a few dangerous

hours ahead and the storm surge of the water is dangerous. >> we watched that. we traced its progress starting as a low pressure system off the western coast of africa. it went from east to west and made a beeline across the atlantic. it was a slow roller. we had days to prepare. this was an angry rainstorm off the coast of cuba. it gave the panhandle so little time to prepare. >> the typical storm comes off the coast of africa. the tropical depression and comes across and you have days to watch it. you may not know where it's going but you have a sense of something in your vicinity. the national hurricane center, one of the things they plan for is a two day intensifying storm. that's what happened here. we have to remember these are

natural dis astasters. these are forces of nature. they are predicting paths to where we were. in the last couple of years has been implemented. there's a reason why there's a cone and there's a reason because there's deviation. it didn't make all the difference in the world. people have known this is coming and they should have heeded the warnings. i pray we don't wake up tomorrow to the news that a bunch of people lost their lives because they didn't leave. there's still some tough times ahead. it's about 35 miles an hour.

>> good luck to you and your state. >> thank you. >> bill, we're interspersing video. >> that's one of those classics that you see in tornadoes or high wind events. most of the video is areas that were hit by panama city. that's the damage you would expect from 90 to 100. port st. joe had 106 miles an hour. we still haven't showed you the pictures. the one high-rise shot where it was the most extreme. it was 129 miles an hour.

that was report and that was at the air force base. >> it's been a while since we have been able to check in on folks who are familiar with florida know what a great town it is. a great downtown. it's all about boating and fishing and mariners. it's a beautiful place to live and work. you did not want to be there earlier today. gabe has been able to establish contact with us again. how are they doing down there? >> reporter: now that the wind and the rain and the worse of it has passed, we're hearing clan saws. this is something we're seeing over and over in this area. all these down trees.this is so

over and over in this area. all these down trees.saws. this is something we're seeing over and over in this area. all these down trees. this shows the massive power of hurricane michael. this tree is unrooted. u.s. 98 impassable in both directions. can't go to the west of places like mexico beach. this is something local officials say they will be dealing with for quite a while. he calls this catastrophic for this area. they are doing their damage assessments. they will be throughout the night and into tomorrow. this was a very difficult place to be. the hotel we were staying at started, the water started rising around it. four feet of water in and around that hotel. parts of it were flooded. seven feet of storm surge. the worst of it has passed. the wind and the rain is gone. this entire area is without

power. back to you. >> thank you for fitsing infit report to us. i know you've been gathering your forces to come back on the air after the height of the storm. bill, you ever to be meteorologist and part time botanist in this storm. >> the sandy soil. shallow root ball. >> it makes you wonder how did the tree stand up all these years. these storms will thin areas. this area hasn't been hit by anything like this. we need like the chain saw calva calvary. the trees are still falling. p i can't imagine just the helicopter aerials will become mi

mind numbing of just trees down. >> that's a lot of property.i c helicopter aerials will become mind numbing of just trees down. >> that's a lot of property.i c helicopter aerials will become mind numbing of just trees down. >> that's a lot of property. i'm looking over your shoulder at columbus, all the communities in its path. >> focusing on the eye . the rain has made it into north georgia. the rain has ended on the coastal areas but it's going to pour all night long. it's not going to be a good sleeping night in columbus and every one will be wondering if they are losing their power. most likely 60 to 80 miles an hour overnight. that will probably take you right through 2 or 3 in the morning. some of these communities will go through the eye. it's still the eye. it's still at this hour mostly rain free. we saw landfall 1:30 to 3:00. >> so well defined. it's hard to believe. if you're watching us in the charlotte metropolitan area, the rain you've experienced is