nbc as chris bologna joins us live from tampa in florida. chris, the situation where you are, it doesn't look too bad at the moment. what's happening a little further south yeah, adrian. that's right. tampa. many people here breathing a sigh of relief. those who have remained because it looks like this area is going to avoid a direct hit from hurricane. but just to the south, it's a far different story. this storm is about to make landfall somewhere in the santa bell island, fort myers beach area. it's moving very slowly, but it's still packing. extremely, extremely strong winds in the range of more than 200 to 250 kilometers per hour. that is a major hurricane, almost a category 5. and in that area, we're already seeing incredible storm surge from that constant wind blowing on shore. they said that the storm surge could be in the range of up to 6 meters. if you can imagine that, you know, a couple of stories high. so all that beach front property homes business, a downtown area is all could be under water by the end of this. and this is rea

a mistake for my sister from florida that's go live to nbc, chris bologna and tampa bay. a. tell us about the people who are missing and the rescue operations on the way. yeah. lauren, rescuers were not able to do very much last night because the storm was so intense and it was so dangerous out. but before dawn this morning, teams started going out to some of the hardest hit areas about 2 hours south of where i am right now. looking for people who might have been trapped in their homes when that devastating storm surge washed ashore and cut off many neighborhoods from roads and submerged many homes. and so in just the past few minutes, the statewide search and rescue team said so far they've been able to rescue about 500 people who had been stuck in their homes and unable to get to safety. and the coast guard said that they used about their helicopters to rescue 23 people this morning. flying in and getting people mostly who are trapped on barrier islands and they couldn't get back to the mainland. so those search and rescue operations is continued on unabated at this hour.

chris bologna joins is not from tampa bay in florida, and chris at with daylights comes the reality of what's happened, i guess. yeah, nick, that's absolutely right. these 1st responders in the hardest hit area's place, like fort myers and naples were a little bit stymied overnight because number one, the storm lasted so long into the night hours and then on top of it, it was just too dark. too much water, too many trees and power lines down for them to really get a sense of what they were dealing with. so at 1st light this morning, 1st responders went back out there clearing brush from the streets. they're using boats to navigate some of the water to get a sense of exactly what they're dealing with. how many structures are gone? how many structures are flooded? are there people still trapped? we heard that the coast guard said this morning that they were able to rescue about 23 people using helicopters. so there is a sense that there are people who need help out there in the hardest paid areas. and that 1st responders, the coast guard, federal agencies are able to start going out now