kevin guthrie was saying that unlike ft.it's not as dense, so it takes longer to check each house. there might be two houses along a stretch of five miles. it's going to take them a while, but they will get there eventually. >> reporter: that's exactly right. this is a more rural part of the state. not as heavily populated as we have seen in other hurricanes, like ian. previous storms really includes irma and michael that i have covered. this is a part of the state of florida that normally doesn't see storms that are just this powerful. earlier this morning, whether i was in perry, the story then was the wind speed. other parts of florida as we have seen -- you have seen the dramatic pictures of the flooding. that's mostly the catastrophic storm surge that we keep hearing about. in perry where i was, there was no storm surge because it was 20 miles inland. the winds were the story there. this part of florida, keaton beach, not only did they get the massive winds, they also got storm surge. we are waiting to learn how much da

i want to bring in kevin guthrie. kevin, what are your biggest concerns right now?> our biggest concern right now leading into the evening hours is going to be individuals that do not have power. making sure that if they need power, they need to try to get to a shelter, we still have shelters across the state of florida. if you're sitting in a situation, because we had quite a bit of sunshine here this afternoon, if things are starting to heat up and you're suffering from heat stress and what not, you'll want to get to a shelter for tonight until we get the rest of the power restored. we're continuing to restore power and doing it very, very quickly! your search and rescue teams are doing their searches. you warned the process could take longer than normal. why is that? >> yeah, this topography in north florida, big bend area, is completely different than fort myers. last year we had 10 urban search and rescue teams, five of those federal type one search and rescue teams there. but it was urban. block to block. we were able to clear lots of houses very quickly. up h

i will bring up kevin guthrie, from emergency management. >> thank you, governor.ght now biggest impacted area following up on what the governor said seems to be in perry. right now we know we have a couple businesses that have caught on fire. eye few have roofs knocked off of them, maybe potentially one collapse. we have crews there working with taylor county sheriff office and fire rescue. that is going on. madison county has been impacted. they have a lot of debris on the ground. they have 99% power outages in that county. we have resources heading in that direction. i will let the general talk about that, he has a task force heading in that direction. other than that, specific detail, we continue to search, secure and stabilize areas that we can do that in. most of what we're doing in big bend area is initial search and i will say this, we don't have anybody from the cfo's office here, in search and rescue, in fort myers we were able to clear houses quickly because of the footprint of fort myers. in big bend, you may have two houses on a five-mile road. that wi

thank you to kevin guthrie, incredibly supportive sure we turn this around quickly so we can get the school buildings ready and the kids back in classrooms. we will be diligent to ensure the districts are getting what they need and i plan to go there myself to make sure we are getting the needs elevated here. if i need to get my team out there from the department of education to assist with assessments, we are ready to do that and make sure we assist especially the smaller districts who may be shortstaffed. we know there is nothing more crucial to a child's education then in-person instruction and thanks to the governor, that's exactly what we will do to get the schools back online and students back in school. >> as of 6:00 tonight, there is currently one unconfirmed fatality that the department of law enforcement is betting. this was a fatality involving a traffic incident. that is being looked at. it may end up being a confirmed fatality. that one is in the hopper and it is being reviewed. fortunately, the search and rescue operations, the hasty searches and the impacted areas, it

we will be hearing from kevin guthrie. >> thank you, governor. again, thank you for the leadership.as going with, you know, electrical companies being willing to accept the assistance from each other, and it is something that has not happened very well under any other governor. this governor pulled it off with his leadership. >>> you are listening to governor ron desantis and his second press conference and to our estimation, because he gave one at 9:00 a.m., and it is look like a major hurricane event, and saying that those who are in the mandatory evacuation zones, heed the warning. >> yes, he is warning that it is a major hurricane, and one that is headed in a direction that is a little bit unusual for the storms of this magnitude, and he pointed out there are some 25,000 linemen on the ground in florida, and it could balloon, and so they are preparing for the worst. >> and they are to heed the warnings and evacuate ahead of hurricane idalia, and joining us is kevin welsh who is the mayor of st.petersburg, and we have been heard that use this time between now and 4:00 p.m. to pre

so i will have kevin guthrie come back and we will hear from major general, the admiral scofield and nty commissioners will be here, so kevin? right on time, five second delay their generators kicked in, so thank god that is working. as the governor said, the storm is here and here nowjust off the coast of the big bend and it looks like keaton beach will be the location in which we have landfall. stay off the roads and if you are sheltering in place at home, stay inside your home and if you are at a shelter or hotel, do not leave at this time. conditions are deteriorating outside in the impacted areas and shelter in place where you can. we are seeing to a three of storm surge in the tampa bay area and about four foot of storm surge. because of this high tide which is coming, the tide is coming back in through tampa bay up to the appalachia bay. the storm surge will increase in the next couple of hours and we have some a lot of tornado warnings and as the governor said, lot of tornado warnings and as the governorsaid, it lot of tornado warnings and as the governor said, it is about thr

we'll hear from kevin guthrie. >> thank you, governor.hank you for your leadership. >> john: there is florida governor ron desantis with the latest update on hurricane idalia and preparations being made in advance of its landfall expected sometime in the next 24 to 36 hours up in the big bend section of florida. not a lot of population on the coast. not like you would see down in miami or fort myers or even tampa. smaller towns like perry, st. mark's, crawford, tallahassee and gainesville. the governor saying they have 30,000 to 40,000 electrical linemen there or on the way. 400,000 gallons of gasoline. 600 search and rescue teams. hopefully they won't need those folks. when you get a huge storm moving in as this one is expected to be by the time it makes landfall, maybe a category 3 hurricane as janice dean was telling us, the need will be great. we'll keep watching it for you with our weather team. meanwhile, this. >> this crisis originated with the federal government and must be resolved through the federal government. the borders and

now we will hear from kevin guthrie. >> it's crunch time, we are down to the wire. the hurricane will make landfall tomorrow morning. it some parts of florida are already feeling the impact. we are seeing a lot of videos coming out of southwest florida particularly fort myers beach and those areas impacted one year ago. want to let those people know we will be there as soon as we can get to you tomorrow morning. we will have some of our southern staged assets to help you and evaluate the damage. if you have not evacuated if you are north of fort myers into the central gulf coast northern big bend area, if you have not evacuated you need to do that right now. drop what you are doing, pack up, and get to safety. if you need power, get to safety. you need to evacuate right now. we will experience historical flood search into the big bend area. this is nothing to mess around with. we were in the vehicle traveling with the governor when i got the phone call that we would be potentially 10-15 feet of storm surge. that is three feet higher than what was predicted for hurri

kevin guthrie, florida department of emergency management director. ian. it was still a monster and was still bad. but because this storm was fast. it continues as we speak. here is "the five." >> hello, everyone. i am dana perino with judge jeanine pirro, piers morgan, jesse watters, brian kilmeade. it's 5:00 in new york city and this is "the five." the white house playing some defense over the age-old question haunting the biden presidency. is the president tools? 77% of the country thinks so, saying he wouldn't be very effective if reelected. but karine jean-pierre, she is going the extra mile to try to

going to have kevin guthrie,, also major general hobbs, and one of our county commissioners will be here. >> think out the generators are working. as the governor said, the storm is here now, just off the coast of the big bend, keaton beach is going to be the location in which we have landfall. if your sheltering in place, stay in your home. if you are at a hotel, do not leave at this time. conditions are deteriorating outside in the impacted areas. shelter-in-place as safely as you can where you can. we are seeing two or three feet of storm surge in the tampa bay area. about four feet now. because of the high tide which is coming, it is starting to come back in from tampa bay through apalachicola bay. we are seeing a lot of tornado runnings. our meteorologists have indicated tornadoes, they have seen debris in rotations but that will be confirmed by the national weather service throughout the day. we will obviously see more tornadic activity as the day goes along. if you are in a tornado warning in your area, get to an interior room. avoid windows, put mattresses and things over your he

administrator for being here and i'm going to turn it over to her, and then you will hear a report from kevin guthrie. >> thank you, governor, and good morning, everybody. first, i just want to express our commitment, the federal government's commitment to continue the underling response in the recovery efforts here in florida. we have received the governor's request for major disaster declaration and that is in the process right now and as president biden has stated, in numerous phone calls, we are committed to bringing the entire federal family in here to continue to support. we do have our urban search and rescue teams and our great partners at the coast guard that have been assisting with some of these initial efforts along the way. why i'm here today is to join the governor to see firsthand the impact that the communities have had so we can determine what level of assistance and what other programs we will need to bring in to help support those people that were in the storm's path, help them on their road to recovery. what is next is we are going to see what this damage is. we are going to proce

so, i'm going to have kevin guthrie come up. we will hear from major generals who. scoffield and one of our leon county commissioners, christian will be here. so, kevin? >> right on time. 5 second delay and kick those generators in. so thank god that's working. as the governor said, the storm is here. it is here now. it is just off the coast of the big bend, looking like keaton beach is going to be the location in which we have landfall. stay off the roads. if you're sheltering in place in your home, stay inside your home. if you are at a shelter or hotel, please do not leave at this time. conditions are deteriorating outside in the impacted areas. shelter, again, as we said shelter in place as safely as you can where you can. we are seeing 2 to 3-foot of storm surge in the tampa bay area. we are seeing 4-foot of storm surge at cedar key. because of this high tide, because ever the high tide, which is come. the tide is starting to come back in all the way from tampa bay all the way up to appear latch shah cola bay storm surge will increase over the next couple hours

. >> kevin guthrie. i was talking to him in the car. he hadn't even had a honeymoon yet.o, uh, thank you for your dedication to the citizens of the state of florida. um, look just as we saw with hurricane michael and hurricane ian, these storms can be unpredictable. they can change at the last minute. the storm surge that the governor and kevin have alluded to. you can't run from water. you just, it's too dangerous. there's no structure that could survive the type of surge surge, a storm like this can put out. so the life threatening surge is something that i really want to just heat on and listen to the evacuation orders by your local officials. as we get into the recovery, you're going to have predators that are going to pre stage outside those affected areas. and i'm telling you, mark hunter and his folks do an amazing job of keeping you safe. but these folks are going to approach you at your doorstep and they're going to offer to remove trees off your house. they're going to offer to provide your service before the storm and after the storm, i'm just going to let you

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kevin guthrie, florida department of emergency management director. yesterday at this time we were fearing a storm like ian. it was still a monster and was still bad. but because this storm was fast. it continues as we speak. here is "the five." >> hello, everyone. i am dana perino with judge jeanine pirro, piers morgan, jesse watters, brian kilmeade. it's 5:00 in new york city and this is "the five." the white house playing some defense over the age-old question haunting the biden presidency. is the president tools? 77% of the country thinks so, saying he wouldn't be very effective if reelected. but karine jean-pierre, she is going the extra mile to try to defend her boss. >> your part of the 23% of adults who are not concerned about the president's ability to be president. 77% of adults are worried joe biden has been in politics since literally before you were born. he has aged. i'm not saying he's not able to walk. >> you're talking on his strength. you are talking about how he's looking right now. >> the average american male only lives to be 77 o

for more updates on this, i will bring up kevin guthrie from the division of emergency management. >>, governor. so far, the biggest impacted area we have following up on what the governor said seems to be in perry. we have a couple businesses caught on fire. a few that have roofs knocked off. neil: i want to bring in florida congressman who sits on the transportation infrastructure committee, in trickle here, a crucial player in funding these other organizations that are there to provide federal relief. fema is running out of dough. there has been a back and forth as to whether it is up to the challenge and financial challenge here. what do you think? >> the back-and-forth goes like this, three things at play. you have work in the midst of the normal appropriations cycle that has to be done by the end of the federal government's fiscal year end end of september. we have emergency appropriations potentially pretty hurricane and what happens in hawaii with the wildfires, and the third leg of that they could throw a wrench into everything is if somebody in the house tries to tie ukraine

kevin guthrie, he has not even had a honeymoon yet. thank you to the dedication of the citizens of the state of florida. just as we saw with hurricane michael and hurricane ian, storms can be unpredictable, can change at the last minute. you can't run from water, it's too dangerous. there's no structure that can survive the type of surge a storm like this can put out. so, that life-threatening surge is something i really want to heed on, and listen to the evacuation orders by your local officials. as we get into the recovery, you are going to have predators that are going to prestage outside those affected areas, and i'm telling you, mark hunter and folks do an amazing job of keeping you safe. but these folks approach at your doorstep and will offer to remove trees off your house, provide you services before the storm and after the storm. i'm going to let you know. if you feel comfortable giving a total stranger cash at your doorstep, you might as well set it on fire. you are not going to be able to get any restitution with those types

so for more updates on this, i'm going to bring up kevin guthrie from the florida division of emergencynor. so right now, the biggest impacted area that we have following up on what the governor said seems to be in periare you. right now, we know we have a couple businesses that have caught on fire. a few that have roofs knocked off of them. maybe potentially one collapse. we're getting some conflicting information on that. but we have crews that are there working hand in hand with taylor county sheriffs office and fire rescue. so that's going on. madison county is another county that has been impacted. they have a lot of debris on the ground. they have about 99% power outages in that particular county. so again, we do have resources heading in that direction. i'll let the general talk about that. he has one of his task forces heading in that direction as well. so other than that very specific detail, we continue to search, secure and stabilize areas that we can do that in. most of what we're doing here in the big bend area is initial search. i i will say this. i know we don't anybody f

contact kevin guthrie if you have any questions about that but we are going to have power outages sot the power back on for all floridians as quickly as possible. we are likely going to be staging the majority of our resources in marion county and parts of north florida and that's going to give us the flexibility in case the track changes to be able to mobilize resources where they need to go. the florida department of transportation has now allowed expanded weight and size requirements for emergency transport so they're going to able to bring in more supplies on trucks than they otherwise would be. police just be vigilant and watch the weather channel, watch the news and listen to your local officials. we'll continue to have briefings here. if you want to know how can you prepare, go to floridadisaster.org/getaplan. you have time to make the preparations. you're going to see on that web site all the things that are recommended that you do, but i would say, again, if you are in the path of this storm, expect to lose power. >> we are listening to florida governor ron desantis there en

okay, we will hear from kevin guthrie. >> thank you, governor, and thank you for your leadership andr patrolling this. i want to start by picking up where the governor was going with. electrical companies accepting assistance from each other. this governor was able to pull it off with his leadership, and i will tell duke energy and melissa's team, 60 million plus dollars is the work they did for lee county, and that got the power back on in days versus what was going to be a total restoration of weeks and potentially months. melissa, your team, thank you, guys. thank you very much for what you did. [ applause ] >> again, you know, electrical companies in this area, you know, melissa already said that she will be more than happy to help out again. the governor has committed to making sure that gets done as well from a financial standpoint. we want to make sure if you need help call us. anything that is infrastructure communications, cell phones, again, as the governor mentioned we will be out there working most likely tomorrow night as the storm passes and doing the rescues that need

that's what director kevin guthrie is dealing with.ssets that he moved in anticipation of the storm, those days of preparation are now coming into full view. >> we're just kind of getting the full view of the damage, and what that's going to look that will take. based on what you have seen and what you have heard, how long you think that recovery could take? >> well, look, category five storms take a decade. sometimes they take a little bit longer. the panhandle is still recovering after hurricane michael. so, look, this was a category four storm. it hit just on the cusp of a very strong category three storm, when it made landfall. that eyewall came through these areas that have not been hit by hurricane over 100 years. and in those areas, a lot of them are fiscally constrained. they don't necessarily have the resources. so, there are some communities that may never look the same, and others that will get rebuilt that will look slightly different. so, look, this is a life-changing event for some of these counties. some of these fiscall

we'll hear from kevin guthrie. >> thank you, governor. good evening, everyone. as the governor said, it's crunch time -- >>> governor ron desantis warning florida residents about the significant damage that this storm is about to cause. hurricane idalia now a category 2 hurricane, going to make landfall -- he says the eyewall will hit florida tomorrow in the morning. desantis warning of what he called a major, major impact by this hurricane, not mincing any words. telling floridians you have to go now. i want to bring back in cnn meteorologist chad myers. chad, we heard from the florida governor. he said this is going to hit the big bend, that is that area, of course, between the panhandle -- the florida panhandle and the florida peninsula. he said now most of the models are in agreement when it comes to the track of this hurricane. what did you hear in there? >> i also heard him talk about the surge and how we haven't had that in so very long and that is true. anyone who has lived here has seen this type of hurricane. if you say, oh, i lived through something,

from some of the folks who have been involved in different areas of this response starting with kevin guthrie thank you, governor. appreciate your continued support. >> that was the florida governor talking about the recovery efforts of his state in the wake of hurricane idalia, which is now a tropical storm. he said that of course the biggest impact was those big bend counties. that area where the florida panhandle meets the peninsula. he talked about those who are still without power. some 250,000 residents but that is actually a, that number has actually gone down. 316,000 residents had had their power restored. the governor going on to say that all of the bridges in the state have been cleared. i want to get back to john in the city of perry, florida. john, as we were saying, you have just arrived there. we can see the damage and destruction right behind you. describe the scene there for us. >> it's interesting. i saw governor desantis' motorcade driving to perry and out of perry so he saw this, too. this is the awning blown over by the hurricane which passed directly overhead here. it ma

want to thank all the emergency management personnel, the state emergency management director kevin guthrieg to rescue people who didn't evacuate or water came where it wasn't anticipated. that's how the state emergency management response got one of the best in the country. we thank fema for coming behind that with resources and dollars to help reimburse the cost of response and to help this area recover. >> there are a lot of people who are going to require a lot of help, congressman. i thank you for bringing that up, and i thank you very much, congressman, for being with us this morning. >>> so i want to just let you all in on what and how we're doing it. the water, as the congressman was saying, it's far from receding, as a matter of fact, at least where we are right now, if anything it's growing. it's increasing, and once again, i look at the -- kind of the currents, and they're back to bringing in more water to where we are, so much so -- we were just talking about -- that it takes about every 20 minutes ev minutes we have been seeing six inches of water in the area where we are. what

so i'm going to have kevin guthrie come up, we'll hear from major general haas, admiral schofield, and so kevin? >> right on time, five-second delay, and kick those generators in, thank god that's working. as the governor said the storm is here, it is here now, it is just off the coast of the big bend looking like keyton beach is going to be the location in which we have landfall. stay out of the roads. if you're shelting in place. stay inside your home. in you're at a shelter or inside a hotel, please do not leave at this time. conditions are deteriorating outside in the impacted areas. shelter, again, as we've said, shelter in place as safely as you can, where you can. we are seeing two to three foot of storm surge in the tampa bay area, we're seeing about four foot of storm surge right now at cedar key. because of this high tide, because of the high tide which is coming, the tide is starting to come back in throughout the -- all the way from tampa bay through apalachee cola bay, storm surge will dramatically increase over the next couple hours. we're seeing a lot of tornado warnings

kevin guthrie executive director of the florida division of emergency manage wanted and joins us livekevin, what's your greatest area of concern right now. >> hey, good morning, guys. appreciate it, brian. right now our greatest area of concern is going to be that big bend area where we just had landfall. that 947 pressure with 125, 130 mile-per-hour winds. that's a really strong cat 3 hurricane. just coming down from that cat 4 that we saw about an hour ago. storm surge, the 12 to 15-foot of storm surge along the coastnot a really populated area but nevertheless we still got some fish camps and things like that in there. lots of people in manufactured housing. that's a concern. and then moving inland with these 120 mile-per-hour winds, 120 mile-per-hour gusts bringing down that live oak canopy. i know, brian, usc up here in the tallahassee area you know there is a really strong live oak tree canopy here. that's going to go into power lines. take down power lines and knock out power outages to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of customers. >> steve: when you guys gave th

so, i'm going to have kevin guthrie come up. we'll hear from major general haass. and one of our county commissioners will be here so, kevin. >> right on time, five-second delay and kick those generators in so thank god that's working. as the governor said the storm is here. it is here now. it is just off the coast of the big bend looking like keaton beach is going to be the location in which we have landfill. stay off the roads, if you're sheltering in place at home stay inside your home. if you're at a shelter or hotel, please do not leave at this time. conditions are deteriorating outside in the impacted areas. shelter, again, as we said, shelter in place as safely as you can where you can. we are seeing two to three foot of storm surge in the tampa bay area. we're seeing about four foot of storm surge right now at cedar key. because of this high tide, because of the high tide which is coming, the tide is starting to come back in throughout the -- all the way from tampa bay all the way up through apalachicola bay, storm surge will dramatically increase over the n

so that is what director kevin gittary guthrie is looking at now. >> we're starting to get the full viewhat it's going to look like, how long it will take. based on what you've seen and heard how long do you think that recovery will take? >> well look category 5 storms take a decade, right. sometimes they take a little longer. pan panhandle is still recoverg after hurricane michael. this was a category 4 storm some it hit on the cusp, very strong category 3 storm when it made landfall. that eye wall came through areas that had not been hit by a hurricane in over 100 years. these areas are a lot fiscally restrained, they don't have the resources. others will get rebuilt that will look splielt different. this is a life changing event for some of these fiscally constrained county. but look all of those resources from the state, all of those resources from fema is going to come in, the hud money that comes in for house housing, all the cdbg money that is going to come in, all that will help the community recover. >> you have worked with governor desantis in previous disasters in your previou

right now in the atlantic as we speak so we're monitoring, but, look, the governor is leading, kevin guthrieng prepared, but it is florida, florida is going to be susceptible to storms. we're not going to be able to change that. we can continue to harden our homes and increase building codes to make sure our homes are more resilient and we handle the litigation environment the insurance companies and the carriers we met in new york last year, they said, jimmy, we can model for hurricanes, we can't model for your litigation environment you got in florida this is exactly, exactly why we had to have the special legislative session last year. not one, but two, in order to fix those challenges in the market >> jimmy patronis, the chief financial officer of florida jimmy, thank you for your time good luck with the rest of the efforts dealing with the remnants of this storm >> sure. thank you so much. and, look, visit volunteerflorida if you can help us out we have people hurting we would love to have support of the generosity of your viewers and becky, you got your a-game on, thank you for having