my mind. it was so loud and things were hitting the front of the house. >> tonight all across the bay area we prepared for the first hurricane to make landfall in florida in more than a decade. right now at 11:00 live team coverage of hurricane hermine. good evening. i'm jennifer leigh. >> i'm keith cate. thank you for joining us tonight. in less than an hour hurricane hermine is expected to make land fall. let's take a live look right no the wind has been picking up by the hour. our crew has already experienced hurricane strength gusts. we'll have a live report from them in a few minutes. >> closer to home at crystal river in citrus county you can see heavy downpours had the water level higher than normal. >> here's video just in from val rico tonight. strong winds are responsible for scenes like this 1. >> we've got team coverage from

storm team 8 meteorologist steve jerve. >> 80 miles per hour winds for hermine shortly before landfall looking at it on the satellite imagery probably within the hour. our effects will be mostly wate especially high tide flooding coming up in the early morning hours, but there it is, 80 mile-per-hour winds moving north, northeast at 14 miles per hour. it will eventually move inland you can see north of valdosta, georgia,ak tropical storm and long term up the east coast as a tropical depression, could be a rainmaker in sections of the southeast, again 80 mile-per- hour winds. a tropical storm warning is still in place in citrus county. there's an intense line of thunderstorms offshore continuing to race to the east and northeast. the areas in red taking out polk cotyut include pinellas and hillsborough until 8 a.m. tomorrow. in the rain bands you can see a

tornadoes and there was damage on the beach as a result of likely straight line wind associated with these thunderstorms and heavy rain squalls coming ashore. now in inglis off the shore of hernando county and pasco county you can see it racing to the northeast at a very quick rate. we saw thunderstorms and tornadoes today indicated on radar moving 45 miles per hour south to north across the area. you could see more rain stretched offshore. with the movement of the showers you can see the training cells that produce of that just drawing energy off the gulf of mexico. sustained south wind at 26 miles per hour in st. petersburg. saw gusts there earlier at the airport to 62 miles per hour gusting to 30 in clearwater and tampa, down into sarasota as well obviously windier on the beach. there's a wide view of hurricane hermine category 1 strength and where that situation shows it's coming ashore at this point, the inner bands now coming ashore. it's the center of that dot,

fall, that's when officially the storm will make land fall. back to you. >> thank you, steve. our team coverage continues right now in patterson. >> he is in cedar key and i know it's been getting rougher there by the hour. >> reporter: good evening, guys. we're kind of standing in the middle of it. you can see the floodwater. that's the problem on cedar key. behind me is the marker that shows the water le 6 feet above the mean sea level here and they expect it to go as high as 11 feet above sea level. right now take a look downtown. there's some businesses that have flooded out. we can't even get to downtown at this point. there's a historic church over here just behind us. the water is lapping literally at the door of this church and we've seen some really heavy rain come by us right now. we are between bands at this time, but we've seen some really heavy wind and rain come onshore and it's been pushing all of this water as the eye of

north of us out in the gulf of mexico. we've been talking to some insurance deputies here. we've literally had to move our satellite truck three times tonight because of rising water. a couple of times we wanted to make sure that we got to safety. we're going to show you some video we shot just a little while ago showing some of the strong wind and rain that has been coming onshore here at cedar key and i got to tell you guys it's been a while since i've been in a storm that has been this strong and th good blow here on cedar we'll keep monitoring the situation. stay safe and we'll let you know how it goes throughout the course of evening. >> we'll check back with you jeff because as steve jerve was showing on his radar you're like in between those bands. it comes through, looks like it's gone and then it just hits and slams again. 11 feet above sea level is the danger zone here. jeff patterson in cedar key, back to you in a moment. parts of citrus county are

heavy rains flooded out many streets. some people found themselves and their houses surrounded on all sides by water. paul mueller has been checking out neighborhoods on the coastline all night long and i'm wondering how does it look for you out there right now, paul? >> reporter: just like jeff up in sand key we're seeing a little bit of a lull right now. the winds and rains are dying down just a bit. look at where i am standing on this footbridge right across this canal. i want you to take a look at has accumulated throughout the afternoon -- that has accumulated throughout the afternoon and into the night. take a look at that road out there. it's going to go clear over u.s. 19. streets turned into rivers in some coastal parts of crystal river, roads under water left behind, many homeowners who decided to ride out the storm. >> i can deal with it. >> reporter: craig ingram moved here about a year ago. he's not too worried, but just

surge, we might be able to prevent any sort of flooding on the inside. so that's what we're hoping for. >> reporter: he spent the night stacking up sandbags and if it gets really bad -- >> i may take off. i'm not going to be like that guy on the titanic waiting for a wall of water to come in. nothing is 200that, nothing tangible -- nothing is worth, that nothing tangible. >> reporter: here at jiffy food store the power is out. the cash register may not need the juice, but the place sure does. were you expecting this? >> i was because this usually happens. >> reporter: storm or no storm, he loves his new neighborhood. would you do things differently if you had to do it over again? >> no. i love this location. i love the place. >> reporter: back live tonight right before sunrise, that is when the next high tide rolls in. that has a lot of people determined out here tonight for possible -- concerned out here

flooding. >> what about evacuations there tonight? >> reporter: there have been voluntary evacuations. the v sent out an e-mail early -- the sheriff's office sent out an e-mail earlier tonight urging people in low lying and coastal areas to either go to a friend's house or hotel. there is one shelter that's open throughout the night, la canto primary school, but most of the people we spoke to say they're going to ride this storm out. >> paul mueller live in citrus county thank you. hermine's wi several trees and power lines across the bay area. this incredible video is just coming in from val rico. several large trees there came crashing down on cars and a mobile home. jenn holloway is live where this all happened and you had a chance to speak with the family that was inside where the tree came crashing down. what did they have to say? >> reporter: keith, this is a heart breaking story. we're at the town and country mobile home park in val rico and the residents say

the rain was drizzling. there was a bit of wind and out of nowhere mother nature came out in full force and right now house after house here along this quiet driveway, most of them having severe damage. huge chunks of wet heavy tree limbs, they fell and took out roofs, porches, crushing at least one car. as we recorded this video even in the dark of night it's hard to see, but you can also make out the sections of the homes that were severed and now personal items like tvs, now exposed to the rain that is currently falling here in val rico. one woman describes a horrifying moment when she ran to rescue her elderly mother-in- law, then realized they were all trapped. >> fear, fear was going through my mind. it was so loud and things were hitting the front of the house and we all ran to the back of the house which is where the tree fell and we dragged my mother-in-law out of her room

and the gentleman that lives two doors down from us, his daughter was at her house as well and he kicked in our door and was able to open it enough to get us out. >> reporter: folks, of course, with the county are out here assessing the situation. we understand at least eight homes were severely damaged. one of the residents is looking for a missing dog. so that breaks your heart as well, back to >> lots of damage. thank you. a mother and daughter had to be rescued from their home in south st. petersburg on polonza drive. the two were in a string of homes surrounded by water. the mom and daughter were both pulled to safety using a stormwater truck that wouldn't stall in the floodwater. crashing waves and wind caused damage for shark tails restaurant on st. pete beach.

pier's decking stripped away. look at that. you can also see some driving rain and big waves washing over the parking lot. and a reminder for parents tonight, a lot of bay area schools are closed tomorrow j including hillsborough, pasco, pinellas and citrus counties. polk and sarasota schools will be open. you can find all the closings on www.wfla.com. a lightning strike now appears to be to blame for the power outage at a pasco coun night. more than 200 patients forced to relocate from regional medical center bayonet point wednesday night. ambulances from all over the tampa bay area responded to this one to pick up the stranded folks. the hospital's ceo explains staff members sprung into action after the lights went out. >> what that did is it created a completely dark powerless environment in the hospital. so we kicked in our emergency

working basically with cell phones and flashlights to begin the process of evacuating patients. >> officials are hoping to have this hospital back online by monday. in the meantime those with medical needs are being taken to area hospitals and we're still just getting started here because hurricane hermine is now heading for land, very, very close. coming up next a closer look at the heavy rains that are causing flooding, road closures and evacuations all across our area. plus. >> reporter: i'm peter bernard live in indian shores where the worst conditions of the day are chapping right now. we'll show you the -- are happening right now. we'll show you the storm surge and take you on a tour of pinellas county coming up on

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panhandle. >> mandatory evacuation orders are in place for coastal communities in in levy county. >> in the bay area meantime high tide flooded out several roadways in clearwater beach. you can see the water right up to people's front doors. the city of clearwater public safety took this video from inside their humvee while they were out patrolling flooded streets. all the rain from hurricane hermine is putting a big strain on sewage treatment plants around the bay area. you can see in t clearwater have failed, the sewage overflowing into marshall street, not a good sign to see earlier this evening. meantime coastal counties feeling the effects of

torrential downpours. >> barrier islands are on the front lines of the storm's powerful wrath. peter bernard is on the shores and it looks windy where they took a direct hit. it certainly looks windy. what are the conditions like there in addition to the wind? >> reporter: it is very windy. i'm going to estimate 40, 45- mile an hour winds. look at how windy it is. you can tell by this palm tree bent back. many people out here haven't er their lives, so this is proving to be a draw in places like this, but for others this storm is serious business. an angry gulf of mexico looked like a frothy danger with its white caps and by gulf standards high surf. what are you doing out here? >> why not? >> reporter: but that didn't keep some intrepid beachgoers from suiting up and getting in. these seminole high students braved the churning waters. >> we're staying like pretty close to the shore, so i mean i

county the storm flooded roads like this main drag. in north redington beach a good set of boots came in handy. this neighbor remembers hurricane sandy. >> we've been through this before and we have still damage in our house up north. so it kind of freaks us out a little bit. >> reporter: in treasure island strong winds picked up this awning, hurled it over a house where it landed in the front yard. in the process it lines. on park -- down power lines. on park boulevard a semi blocked traffic until deputies pulled it out of the way and look at facebook. who said there isn't an upside to hurricanes? all right. you're looking at the surge right now, the storm surge. we've been watching this about every seven to eight minutes. a new gush of water and sea foam makes it into land into the area here.

on snell isle and shore acres. st. petersburg police are warning people to slow down because they don't want any wakes going into houses and that is an area that seems to flood every single time we have a hurricane and it's no exception this time. >> a couple thoughts as i leave you. one, beach erosion, you got to worry about that going away and replacing all that, but the 2nd thing is we don't encourage you to surf behind a vehicle. it's not a wise idea. people do that time to time. >> reporter: >> peter bernard live at indian shores. of course, we have that tropical storm warning in e for coastal areas. this goes all the way through citrus county up into levy county where the effects will be felt a bit more closer to the center of the system. hurricane warning for areas north of us, but this includes the coastal regions and we're especially concerned about the high tide coming up in the early morning hours. that will push the water

and seawall up a couple feet and add to that a southwesterly flow and you'll have a decent tide here. it's mostly about the downpours, fortunately appears to be weakening a little bit. the red colors indicate the new tornado watch that goes into effect until 8 a.m. and north to n see the banding features. they can come with some very violent weather, certainly some very strong wind gusts we w today as well as damage associated with wind gusts and tornadoes, too, moving south to north at 45 miles an hour. back to our west they continued to come onshore. inland quiet, eventually maybe a light shower, an occasional wind gust and to the north we're watching our radar out of ruskin, the national weather service radar, and you can see the center of the system, the eye of the lurk, so to speak, because it -- hurricane, so to speak, because it is a

at 4 p.m., breezy, an occasional shower possible and the winds 26 miles per hour sustained in st. feet as we talked about, 40 mile-per-hour gust in clearwater. you can also see in st. petersburg 37, 22 bartow, 36 miles per hour in sarasota. that's what's happening. a hurricane is making contact with the state of florida officially for the first time in 11 years since wilma in 2005, not as strong as wilma but nonetheless a hurricane. we've seen -- tropical storms, depressions, but not a hurricane. now a category 1 hurricane with 80 mile-per-hour winds and eventually moving off the east coast of the united states up into the northeast. labor day weekend could be some showers there along the shore. hurricane hunters indicate some pretty strong wind gusts, 104 miles per hour. so what we've seen with this

strengthening. it finally got closed off with thunderstorms around the center, still fighting dry air on the western side starting to drag some of that into the storm. that can tend to weaken it. we're on the moist side, always have been picking up 10 inches of rain plus in some areas. additionally some more rain could fall especially northern counties, citrus, hernando, pasco, possibly a few portions of hillsborough. keep that chance in the forecast. thho onshore, cause more showers and possibly some local flooding. watch high tides around 3 a.m. and again in the afternoon about 3 p.m. that's a rough estimate, but just early morning hours that's tides will come up especially as the winds come around more south and eventually southwest. southwest wind flow is not good for us because it pushes water into the bay and other waterways that face to the west. if you live along a river, a

concern during a high tide situation. >> my family in tallahassee are hunkered down preparing for this. >> some good wind gusts and rain. those powerful winds are relentless and the rain is causing evacuation in places. >> coming up we head north as the gulf braces for hurricane

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sports on news channel sponsored by your gulf coast honda dealers. hurricane hermine expected to make landfall within the hour. >> the storm is already causing a lot of headaches across the state. >> warnings to our north are expanding and evacuations in several places has been ordered at this point. our team coverage continues now in tallahassee go our reporter matt galka. >> reporter: we're about 40 miles south of tallahassee. every thursday night at this

right now it's no joke. take a look at this. we're sloshing through some water right now. this road is flooded. that bar is flooded. we're going to get out into the street a little bit more and we get into deeper water. that road takes you up to tallahassee. it's blocked off. now let's take a look at some video we shot a little earlier. when we first got here, a couple of folks were having a hurricane party. they really weren't too worried about the storm because before. >> you never really know if it's coming up the peninsula at after -- at apalachicola or come up from the east. waste no time, drink. >> reporter: his house is on the road and this man's family lives there. he was getting his boat ready and said he's not that nervous, but he won't be truly at ease until the sun comes up

water gets too deep and no electricity, whatever the situation may be, yeah, we're ready to rock. >> reporter: people are preparing, not too many people around this area right now which is probably the safest thing for folks. we've got a couple businesses on the road where the water is getting dangerously close to getting in there, but they're used to it. they said they've been through these kind of things before. some of the folks that are from here, they told me the low tide really helped because it could have been a lot worse, but when the high tide hits tomorrow mornor we'll see some major flooding. we'll continue to monitor the storm through the night. for now we'll send it back to you. >> for the latest news on hurricane hermine you can head to our website www.wfla.com. we are posting updates including road closures as well as school closures on our homepage. >> we'll be right back.

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hurricane hermine is getting ready to make landfall in the big bend area. let's meet one more time with jeff farther son in cedar key. >> reporter: we're seeing some amazing things right now, furniture floating by us. there's a very large commercial ice chest that has just floated by us. some downtown businesses are

corner here, water is lapping at the corner, but let me show you real quick right over here, when we first arrived an hour ago, the water was 5 feet above flood stage. now it's approaching 7 feet above flood stage. they expect it to go to 11 feet and that's why levy county has ordered a mandatory evacuation and we're about to head up the hill because the sheriff's deputy has asked us to. >> good idea. jeff patterson, be safe, thank you, live for us in patterson key. this storm is onshore, but the eye is the center that has to make landfall to make it official. >> absolutely, but very interesting product on the national hurricane center website and you can look this up on your own at nhc.noaa.governor and this basically shows a storm surge, the yellow areas indicating 3 feet plus, the farther north you go much more than that. but you can check that out. there's that line of thunderstorms coming onshore.

coming in the early morning hours say around 3 a.m. that water will get high. >> hurricane hermine is here. thank you, steve. thank you for joining us. jimmy fallon is next. my son has meningitis b. but how did we end up here? his mom thought he had the flu vaccine he had received. until 2014 there were no vaccines for meningitis b in the u.s. now there are. while uncommon, meningitis b can lead to death within 24 hours. trumenba is a vaccine for 10 through 25 year olds to help prevent group b meningococcal disease. trumenba should not be given if you had a severe allergic reaction after a previous dose. most common side effects were injection-site pain, fatigue... headache, muscle pain, and chills.

all the risks and benefits of trumenba and tell them if you've received any other meningitis b vaccines. meningitis b can be spread by typical sharing like... a drink... a spoon... a kiss. it all started here... it might have been prevented with trumenba. ask your doctor or pharmacist about trumenba. [ cheers and applause ] ? >> steve: from studio 6b in rockefeller center in the heart of new york city, it's "the tonight show starring jimmy fallon." tonight, join jimmy and his guests -- harry connick, jr.,