we are located in naples at the golden gate area of naples and just off from i 75 and we are in right zone d, evacuation zone d but we are six miles away from the coastline in this direction so we've been watching throughout today as folks have been finishing up those last-minute preparations and getting to shelter. we are in a hotel parking lot here in naples and taking shelter because we are under a tornado warning right now, until 12:fifteen p.m. . the area of rotation is located just to the north of us so it's moving away from our location to the north at approximately 55 miles per mph so we are saf right here, however, that is not the case for every one. across the area, across south central florida we are dealing with the same situation and this is several hours ahead of milton's landfall which is still expected to occur late tonight or early tomorrow morning as a major hurricane, one of the most dangerous and destructive hurricanes this portion of florida has seen in decades. this is a significant concern. when you thing about the fact that here in naples we got nine shelters o

i'll tell you that the majority of the city of naples had certain level of water.were pretty much submerged with water coming in from the base side as well, as well as the gulf of mexico. but it's going to take us, it's going to take us weeks to recover from this once we once we get a good handle on what is in store for us in the next week or so all right. >> in djibouti shuai, the city manager for naples, florida. thank you so much for jumping on. john yes. >> so north of naples and pinellas county, these are live pictures you're looking at there of water rescue. this is some kind of an apartment building. if the cameras pull out, we can't control because this is affiliate footage right now. but that's actually like five feet of water, right there. that boat has pulled basically inside an apartment complex and we think there yeah, there you can see it right there. you can see the water up to the windshield of that car. you can see these rescuers arriving there were presumably to save people who are trapped inside and just want to get out. these are some of the ima

i want to bring in nbc news correspondent, dana griffin, in naples.t can you tell us about where you are, dana? >> reporter: hey, stephanie. so where we are, we are experiencing 50 miles per hour winds gusts. you can see the trees behind me. at one point, they were kind of sideways. so they come and go. they pick up and they saw experienced rain at the moment. but you can see it and hear it. i want to show you some video from inside the garage where we are stationed. there are these metal parking signs that are hanging up above. and the wind is forcing them against the congress. you can probably hear it if you're listening. this is just how powerful the winds is. several hundred miles south of where the impact is where some of the other reporters were going from near tampa and sarasota. so the storm surge here in naples has reached more than five feet, approaching six feet. it's likely that amount of rain will increase. the footage of the storm surge will likely increase between 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. what local officials are reporting. we have had some po

we're if the golden gate area of naples.ge road and as of right now no road closures. we're in zone b for evacuations. there's a circle k gas station behind me. there are cars there. that's because there is still regular unleaded gas. there's no supreme, no diesel. there's also another additional gas station just across the street. it's been packed all morning long. it's a racetrack. this has been the name of the game, folks trying to finish up last minute storm preparations, trying to get prepared to hunker down and ride ought the storm. where we're located, elevation right now 7 feet above sea level. we could potentially see storm surge in naples up to 8 feet. i want to point out a motel that's behind me. roughly give or take we're looking at 10, maybe at the highest peak 15 feet high. picture up to 8 feet storm surge how high that would get on that motel. so this is a biggish y issue any so many folks in the naples area were urged to evacuate. zone a is two the stoplights down if me. we're about six miles away from the co

naples? he might have been called part of the lazzaro, the urban mob of partially employed and unemployed lumpenproletariat gotti or senior did manage to sketch scratch enough money together to move the gotti brood from east harlem down to sheepshead bay in brooklyn. the migration towards ever more suburban forms of dwelling that didn't last, though the family had move to the more working class corridor of east new york, then crawling with the remnants. albert anastasia's murder inc, now dubbed the gambino family after its new boss, gambino gotti started out at a local street gang and soon wandered into many of new york's mob social clubs. it long before gotti and his first captain, carmine falco, left east new york, along with many other and italians. the crew moved to nearby ozone, opening up a new club called the called the bergen fish after bergen street. their old haunt the name was a throwback, a nostalgic nod to a slightly earlier time of white working class new york. of course, the wh

we crested in naples. the water is going down. in ft. myers. in tampa, the water is low. in east bay, they had an anti- surge. the opposite of the water coming in. it dropped five feet. people can see the bottom of the entire bay by the shoreline. now, the water is creeping back in. there warning people not to walk around out there. the water will return. 79 right now in winterhaven. sarasota hit 102 and the power went out and we lost that engage. tampa gusting up to 82. the backside slapping pretty hard with the rain bands on the outer side. by midnight, tampa should be getting done with the hurricane gusts. by 2:00, 3:00 a.m., the topical storm winds should be dying off. by 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. the stronger winds will end. we've heard reports of numerous fatalities from the 20 was earlier today associated with the outer bans of milton. the storm has done it all. it will be gone by tomorrow and never have another name like this. will have to have a new storm with m. rubicon, art della crews. what a week it has been, tell us how your

naples city under mandatory evacuation order.and along the coast can be anywhere 12-15 feet if as forecast, militant comes to the sunshine skyway. what kind of an effect is that going to happen as the water gets funneled into tampa bay? >> well, look the division of emergency management actually exercise several years ago when i was the director a cate category 5 from coming into tampa bay. kevin is a man who led the exercise. so they have a lot of scenarios what could happen, right? i don't want to talk about what could happen. what i want to talk about his people listening to the warnings. there are going to be significant challenges on the ferry islands and possibly pinellas county's and not accessible because bridges are going to be locked down or heavily damage. some people need to leave. and also, this is not happening in a vacuum, john happening with five other states having activations from hurricane helene. so resources are going to be a challenge. things may take longer than we are used to because there is a multistate

we never get surf here in naples.whenever there's a hurricane, we try to make the best out of it and take advantage of the storm. >> reporter: any concerns, fears about what happens? >> no concerns, no fears, you know, whatever happens, happens. we love to surf and this is what we do. >> reporter: well, you heard them. no fears, no concerns. they said they were going to be out there for about two hours, and that was about two hours ago. hopefully they left the area. things are going to get a little bit dicier here. we are here in naples, which is south of where that impact zone from milton's landfall will make, but we are expected to get storm surge here, 5 to 8 feet possibly. this is a major concern even in the city. officials warning people in the evacuation zones to leave. we have seen several people bring their cars to garages, like where we are to move to higher ground because of the potential life threatening storm surge, and again, there's still a threat for other impacts, whether it's tornadoes, rain, we've se

the storm surge right there in naples could be as high as eight feet. again, up to 15 feet possible in tampa, which would be a record. long lines tonight at gas stations. more than 1,300 florida stations running out of gas. tanker trucks racing to refill them. those trucks are getting an escort from state police. chief meteorologist ginger zee standing by with the new forecast just in from the hurricane center. but we begin with whit johnson, in tampa, with the emergency preparations unfolding right now. >> reporter: tonight, mandatory evacuations on both coasts of florida. highways jammed, millions heeding the calls to get out of hurricane milton's path before its too late. tampa's airport already deserted. orlando's, packed, set to close tomorrow. authorities using tropicana field with colts, a base camp for first responders. governor desantis mobilizing some 8,000 national guard troops. >> this is probably the largest national guard mobilization in advance of a storm in florida history. >> reporter: the monster hurricane strengthening back into a cat

conditions are beginning to deteriorate in naples. we're in the golden gate area just off i-75 and pine ridge road and things are very busy. temperatures are in the low 80s, overcast, gloomy and muggy, tropical downpours all morning long. we're dealing with a break in the rain. as the bands of rain do so they produce intense downpours. one to three inches of rain in the heavy downpours and the potential for thunderstorms to produce tornadoes or water spouts. in fact, as of right now, we have two active tornado warnings in effect just to the east of us here in naples. one warning that was to the east did include portions of collier and broward county. that was confirmed moving over a nature preserve. it has been allowed to be dropped back down by the national weather service to a radar-indicated tornado warning. what that means is we're watching areas of rotation as milton is swinging its way on shore, the outer rain bands and the big concern now through the next few hours. so as we're concerned here in naples, we have the potential or

i'm from naples. naples, maine. where is that and how big is naples? well, i grew up in florida and the population of naples is about the size of my graduating. we'll put it that way. okay all right. so i'll go ahead and, make your point. i think the biggest difference between rural and urban voters is two things, is reliance on government and investment in our communities. i think right now with, our blue governor, we have a huge investment in. the blue cities in our state lots of infrastructure lots of apartments, lots of things to help people. most. the state is red in the red sections of the state. we don't even have we don't have transportation. we don't have very of anything. if a child grows up in rural maine and wants an apartment and to move out of his home, he's forced to to portland, where apartments are available. there is not much. there. and when everyone is funneled portland, that's where the major investment the state goes, maybe more than dollar generals would pop up in rural maine if there was more investment in the rural communities

nbc's dana griffin has more from naples beach. >> reporter: here on naples beach, you can still see people are in the water at this hour, ahead of milton, taking advantage of these waves that are usually not this high on the west side of the peninsula. we've spoken with many of them. many say they are not evacuating because they are not in the evacuation zone. many neighborhoods and many homes along the coast have been told to leave. and the mayor says that while some have left, she's hoping that more will leave, because this is a life-threatening storm. just because we are south of the impact zone of where that direct landfall will likely occur, there is a concern about storm surge here in naples. we could receive 6 to 10 feet of storm surge flooding, which is l life-threatening, and the only way to survive storm surge is to not be here when it hits. i'm dana griffin, nbc news. >>> let's get an update from michelle grossman. good morning, michelle. >> good morning, frances. we're about 24 hours away from landfall. and this is a potentially catastr catastrophic life-threatening storm. it's

this is naples. so a little farther south, so we're talking about the tampa bay area, where they're really just bracing themselves. already. utility poles have fallen, flooding has been pervasive, and entire areas are covered by debris left over from hurricane helene just two weeks ago. all of this complicates the evacuation protection and response efforts. joining us live now to discuss what's going to be needed in relief. natalie simpson, professor of operations management and strategy and the university at the university of buffalo school of management. professor simpson, thanks for joining us. >> oh, certainly. how can i help? >> well, you are an expert in emergency responses, so you can help by just giving us a sense for on the scale of emergencies that you've seen, how big is this one? you know, we're talking about the response that's going to be needed concerning uh. >> this is obviously actually a very large storm. and one of the things that i've been kind of fretting about was the particular

naples 4.8 feet above normal high tide.higher than hurricane hellion. 3.9 feet in downtown fort myers and the peak is yet to come there later this evening. so there will be another flood event for all of southwest florida. tonight 90 mile-per-hour hurricane through orlando and the metropolitan area there in the dark tonight. after that it goes offshore. there is more as to the north of the storm that i wall structure comes across this part of florida 4-4 flash floods threat on top of the wind for and tornado threat over this corridor here. it's starting over here right now through tonight across the state has its own top of the record tornadoes that occurred earlier today. >> what we are seeing as it's hitting the west coast of florida in central florida with the high wind and potential flooding there and it should be off the eastern seaboard of florida by around 2:00 in the afternoon? >> on by 2:00 in terms of the core of wind but the thing is the wind coming around on the backside is flooding the northeast coast of florid

here in naples, zones a and b have been evacuated. those are areas closest along the coast and also the area that is most prone to storm surge. so, again, officials here warning people to be safe, prepare and get out. >> we hear that rain already falling, we know flooding is another major concern with this storm. dana griffin, thanks for bringing us the latest from naples. joining us now is jodie fiske, director of public safety for manatee county, florida, which issued mandatory evacuation orders for some residents. thank you for joining us. a state senator said this, quote, evacuate, there is no tomorrow if you are caught in the midst of this storm. are people heeding these warnings? >> they are. we have seen -- we had no resistance from our responders doing door to door knocks to say, you know, you got to go. we're taking steps, we're shutting power down to the barrier islands as well as water ahead of this storm. so, 10 to 15 foot storm surge. that's a life threatening storm surge. so far we have just over 1100 people that have co

dana, you're about 150 miles south of sam in naples, florida, you spoke to the mayor, what did she have to say? >> reporter: she said that mandatory evacuations started at 6:00 a.m., she hasn't seen the number of people evacuate she'd like, but there's still time to get out, but take a look behind me, this beach is now full of people, more than we saw yesterday, you'd think we'd see less people today. families showing up to the beach, a hurricane ark category 4 hurricane is about to barrel toward this state. we could get life-threatening storm surge here, some 6 to 10 feet, the biggest concern that the mayor reiterated today. they've evacuated the coastal residents and areas prone to storm surge. she wanted to give this stark reminder of how quickly storms can change and how people need to be ready to evacuate. listen. >> even with ian we weren't in the threat zone all of a sudden we were getting a direct hit. these storms are unpredictable. so don't think that it can't take a quick turn and we need to be prepared for that. >> reporter: we need to be prepared. i asked several people as

paul in naples, florida, republican, good morning. caller: i listened to some of the people discussing what their ideas are and everything. do not get me wrong. i have got relatives in ohio and california. they have been there since the 1950's and the 1940's. my parents moved here to naples back in the 1960's. things have gradually progressed with more wealth. people buying property and doing stuff. a lot of these people do have businesses and they go ahead and supply more jobs because if they can get tax breaks, they can build their businesses bigger and hire more people to have jobs. i am just not for all these jobs being given to immigrants. all of these jobs are being filled by people that are not american residents. it is kind of like we are backing up. everything is given to them. i do not see how we are going forward with this, you know. you know, the other thing, if you came down the escalator back when donald trump came down, they were going after him before . that is all it has been for the last eight years. they have been g

in florida, a life short of naples in florida, you can see the outline of hurricane milton about the have noticed the change, and the trend is set to continue as well. well, here in north yorkshire we had signs of the change, waves being driven onto the beaches here by the strengthening north to north easterly wind. temperatures on tuesday in rhyl got up to 17 degrees, but it was just 12 degrees on wednesday, a drop of some five degrees celsius. the drop in temperatures came as these northerly winds worked in. now, over the next few hours, we've still got some patches of cloud and rain to come across england and wales, with clearing skies further north in scotland and northern ireland. and it's here where we'll have the chilliest start to the day on thursday. temperatures low enough even for a nip of frost in sheltered glens in scotland. so starting the day on thursday, expect a bit of damp weather for southern parts of england and wales. that should clear out of the way as we go through the morning, and then elsewhere, loads of sunshine draped around coastal fringes. there'll be a s

now live in naples, we can see flooding behind you. and janice is talking about people evacuating, it is not too late. if cops knocked on your door, get out, right? >> that is exactly right. get out, heed evacuation orders. a lot of people are behind me this morning. we are located in naples in golden gate area just off i-75 and pine ridge. we are in zone b evacuation. zone a is just about two stop lights down from me, six miles from the coast line and we have potential to see storm surge up to eight feet. put that into perspective for you. we have a motel behind me. i want you to see, this is not lifted or elevated at all. picture how high water would reach on the motel if we had storm surge up to eight feet. this could be devastating and life-threatening. local officials are urging folks to get out. you are looking at flooding, this is already happening and this is well ahead of milton's arrival. set to make landfall late tonight, early tomorrow morning and there are concerns of flooding. circle k gas station behind me, there are a f

we're here at naples beach.u can see behind me this beach is closed, but it is full of people. more people than we saw yesterday. many coming out, several surfers in the water trying to take advantage of these unusually high waves that you normally don't get on the west side of the peninsula. i have spoke on the a few people, some live here, some don't. i asked, are you planning to evacuate? some say they live in high enough elevations. some said maybe. the mayor started the mandatory evacuation orders for the coast around 6:00 a.m. this morning. a lot of people have not left yet, but there is still time. when i asked her about what's just happening behind us here, she said this is what they do here in florida. they expect this. but she hopes that people are heeding the warnings. we heard from several people who are preparing, whether that's getting supplies or packing up their vehicles so they can evacuate when the time comes. the main concern here in naples is going to be the storm surge, which could be severa

sarasota down number of storm surge that happened in helene just two weeks ago, even as far south as naples and merkel islands still looking at up to eight feet of storm surge again, just some remarkable numbers. these this is what the un-survivable part is of a storm. you have to run away from the ocean, that ocean coming inland is the part that is unsurvivable when you look at the wins again, the purple here winds of 110 miles per hour or greater hurricane force winds stretching to the east coast of florida as well. this we'll call it widespread power outages, not just on the coast. we're looking at even orlando, looking at wind damage from hurricane force winds stretching all the way to the atlantic. another complicating factor is we have this front that's what's in part, is steering milton here. it's what's turning it into the florida peninsula, depending on where this front is? well, really control those wobbles that we've been watching now, wobble to the north and the wobble to the south, that will really put that bullseye and who gets the worst storm surge. but what it's also doing i

that is what we have been experiencing throughout several hours here in naples. we are safe, hunkered down in a garage where we are protected from the extremities happening outside. obviously, precarious situation as the storm is passing through florida. earlier today, we were at naples beach where surfers were still in the water catching waves before milton came ashore. people say this is something that surfers do, they want to catch in on the waves before the hurricane hits. >> day, i hear loud banging behind you so i urge you to go inside, thank you for the update. for us in new york city, that does it. i wish you all a safe night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up with me. let's all think of florida tonight. i will see you again tomorrow. >>> millions of people under threat from a monster -sized hurricane milton. the powerful category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles an hour has come ashore, the eyewall made landfall half an hour ago in siesta key, which is a barrier island off of the coast of s

we are live in naples, florida. i'm just fine on the fringes of zone b and zone a evacuation sink close to the coastline right behind me where we have known later a evacuations. as of this morning, as you can see, not raining but that hasn't been the case this morning. we have had fans have heavy rain to push their way through and when it occurs, it is intense. that is the name of the game without a rain bands of milton will continue to sweep their way through the area. as they do so, the concern is going to be for instability in the atmosphere. it is 76 degrees and the dew point is right around 76, meaning it feels tropical, hop, you made. and the outer rain bands can spend up spin up to tornadoes. collier county, we are not currently under tornado warning fit to the south of us we have active tornado warning in effect throughout the night. we also had additional tornado warnings issued in and around naples area. that is what i'm watching very carefully in the short term. right behind me, we have been watching prol

hi, dana. >> reporter: hey, tyler, we're here in naples, florida. this is naples beach behind me. it's empty. we saw swimmers in the ocean just moments ago, and we've seen several tourists taking a look before milton makes landfall. right now we're hearing that winds are at 175 miles per hour as milton has increased to a cat 5 just over a short period of time, expected to make landfall on wednesday. right now you've got several airports including orlando, tampa, st. pete that are suspending operations starting tomorrow. you've got people who are already being told to evacuate up and down the coast. one of the major concerns is the debris. there's so much debris left behind from hurricane helene less than two weeks ago that even the governor is asking people to step in, pitch in any way they can. listen to what he said earlier today. >> we had a lot of debris left from hurricane helene on florida's gulf coast. that creates a huge hazard if you have a major hurricane hit in that area this week. >> reporter: we may have lost ifb, but i'll keep talking in case you can still hear us. r

as we go down the coast all the way to naples it has been at least 5-6 foot storm surge. we have new significant damage tonight. the winds are still pushing the water against the coast. the black line is the center, just north of the center which has been over tampa, torrential rain, 2-3 inches per hour and now that is sliding along interstate 4. that is heading to disney and universal complexes as we go throughout the night. it is rare when i see purple on the map, that is 2-3 inches. you have another 3-4 hours to go which is why you could end up with a 4 1/2 of rain. that is why you are under a flash flood emergency in the tampa area. we have a couple of pages giving us readings, there is five feet in naples, fort myers, you are 4-5 feet in most locations. closer to the center in inglewood, venice, toward sarasota, that is where the peak of the search has occurred. we are also moving toward high tide and we get the damaging waves on top of it. there were concerns for tampa bay ahead of the storm. these are negative numbers because the wind is still blowing out. the wind

as we go down the coast, all the way to naples, 5 to 6 foot storm surge. we have had new, significant damage being done tonight as the storm is moving inland. the winds are still pushing the water against the coast and it's still rushing in. the other thing you will notice, the black line is the center. just north of the center, for five hours over tampa, torrential rain. we're talking 2 to 3 inches per hour. that is starting to slide along i-4 to the disney universal complexes later today. very rare that i get this purple on the map. that is two to three inches of rain. tampa, your rainfall rate will diminish but you have three or four hours to go. that's why you could end up with maybe a foot or foot and a half of rain. that's why you are under a flash flood emergency in the tampa area. st. petersburg is also included in that. we have a couple of gauges giving us readings. there's the five feet in naples. ft. meyers, you are about 4 to 5 feet in most locations. further up, closer to the center, right in here, this is inglewood, venice, up towards sarasot

clearwater beach, things are turned up there in naples 170 miles south of naples, florida, and thingson the beach checking out the waves. but we are now hours from milton making landfall and we are keeping an eye on these live pictures, john. >> john: remember we had the mayor from naples on and how much water there was in the city hall area. more now on the biden administration calling criticism of hurricane helene response "misinformation." doug schoen, former client advisor and democratic strategists and poster. i want to get to an op-ed you wrote on the hurricane response that first of all this happen a little while ago when the white house made available a very rare live hurricane briefing in which the subject of misinformation was quite prominent, including this question from the vice president. listen here. >> are we concerned about any misinformation or disinformation regarding evacuations that we need to clear up at this point? because there has been a lot of misinformation out there, madame vice president, that is for sure. but i have not heard anything specific to the evacu

that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and still unafraid as you look at the pier at naples, florida, "the ingraham angle" is next. ♪ >> laura: good evening, everyone, this is laura ingraham from the engram angle in washington. a fox news alert. a massive hurricane that could be the most destructive in the history of the country is about to slam into florida. hurricane milton could make landfall as early as 8:00 p.m. eastern, exactly one hour from now. now, the national weather service says the window to evacuate has closed. shelter in place now. tampa, fort myers and orlando are all expected to face life-threatening impacts. tornadoes have already been seen and many of florida's west coast beaches are at risk as well of being wiped out. now, first responders in st. petersburg have paused all operations. not responding to any emergencies until it is safe to do so. we will bring you conch from across the state but, first, we start in brayden ton florida where fox weather robert ray is standing by, robert? >> yeah. laura, good evening to you. and you see the manatee river behi

let's go to florida senator rick scott he joins us naples. term governor used to running navy background. where are you right now what have you ascertained from what have you seen and heard? >> i'm in naples, we had to evacuate our house. so, you know, this is the assessment time. this is the time that all of teams starting up daylight. they have been responding all night, of course. but they are going to go out, try to make sure everybody's alive. it's pretty scary when you think about what the storm surge was south of tampa. like janice dean said, the flooding is going to be unbelievable in places. we're going to continue to have a lot of trees down. a lot of power outages. >> this is a time for people to be very, very cautious. you need to continue to shelter in place. you need to continue to listen to the local officials tell you whether you can go out. where you can go. it's not the time to be out there gawking at what happened. so, and then we got wind. we got rain. we have got flooding and storm surge and tornadoes. talked to the sheri

fox weather meteorologist kendall smith is live in naples.ts? >> yeah, steve, i mean, the arrival time of milton has been pushed back. so we are looking at late tonight. perhaps early tomorrow morning. and when you think about this, this is in the dead of night when most folks will be asleep. this is a big concern, right? located right here in naples. we are just about seven feet above sea level. miewnsz airport down the road from me. that's where we're concerned with the potential to have storm surge anywhere between 4 to as high as 7 feet above normally dry ground. so to put this into perspective, i'm 5 feet tall. so this is a big issue. when you are looking around me though this morning, as we are just off of i-75 highway, located right along pine ridge road, and we already have flooding. so there is flooding on either side of me. and this is because of how much rain we have picked up the past few days and we could see several inches of rain. wind gusts 70 to as strong as 100 miles per hour. steve, conditions are going to begin to deterior

naples y fort myers, sigue subiendo el nivel del agua por el huracÁn.on detalles. reportera: buenas noches. me encuentro en fort myers. la ciudad ha sido impactada por milton. se han sentido lluvias y fuertes vientos. fuertes vientos que se pueden ver en la pantalla. la playa estÁ cerrada. ya pudimos ver inundaciones. se experimentÓ un tornado que arrasÓ una comunidad, de destrozÓ techos y derribÓ tendidos elÉctricos. estamos en un Área donde no hay electricidad, el centro de la ciudad. tuvimos que desplazarnos, estÁbamos cerca del rÍo. el rÍo comenzÓ a aumentar el agua y fue inundando calles. es lo que tenemos por ahora. maity: gracias. son muchos videos que destacan en redes sociales por el impacto del huracÁn. vamos con detalles. reportera: el impacto de milton se ha sentido desde temprano. en florida se reportaron mÚltiples tornados y las imÁgenes son impactantes. este tornado fue captado por una cÁmara del departamento de transporte de florida, y descrito como grande y peligroso. el tornado estaba en una zona no muy poblada del condado de broward y

>> i'm calling from naples maine . >> where is that and how big is it?>> i grew up in florida and the population of naples is about the size of my graduating class. i will put it that way. i think the biggest distinguishing difference between urban and rural voters is two things. one is investment in our communities. i think right now with our blue governor we have a huge investment in the blue cities in our state. lots of infrastructure and lots of apartments and lots of things to help people. most of the state is red. in the red sections of the state, we don't have streetlights and we don't have public transportation. we don't have much of anything. if a child grows up in rural maine and wants to move out of his home, he is forced to move to portland where apartments are available. there is not much there. when everyone is funneled to portland, that's where major investment in the state goes. there is more assessment in the rural communities where people do prosper and don't ask for much. i think that is the start difference between our rural and urban

this we're looking at, this is naples florida.pite all the pleading though, that people have heard to seek safer ground despite seeing this traffic at people, a lot of people were getting out. there are still people choosing to stay to ride this one out cnn's paul murphy actually spoke with some of those people. he's live in st. petersburg for us. paul, what did they tell you? >> joe? we're here in st. petersburg. >> we're in one of the barrier islands in the gorda mouth of tampa bay these two people despite what officials have said, we're in evacuation zone a here, this is going to be the worst storm firm area or the tampa bay the greater tampa bay area. they said, look, we're high above the ground. we are in a cement structure. we believe that we're safe. now, what you're seeing are this bridge, this is, that is the dawn saves our hotel right there this is pretty much far as you can get. >> you cannot go further. >> these cars that you see here all of this area was really devastated and leave the storm surge really did a number

but all the way from port richey, all the way down to basically almost naples. you're still very close to the cone. you cannot take your eyes off this because they do wobble. and when they wobble, they catch people by surprise. please do not be caught by surprise. we got this rapid intensification two days before it's going to hit, please pay attention because when they rapidly intensify six hours before they hit that's when you get really caught off guard. >> jake. >> alright. chad myers. thank you so much. cnn's isabel rosales is tampa directly in the path of the hurricane isabel, the storm surge from this hurricane could smash the record which was set by helene less than two weeks ago. how is the city preparing? >> my being extremely blunt when we heard tampa mayor jane castor telling people, if you decide to stay in an evacuation zone, that's a mandatory evacuation zone against what we're asking you to do you're going to die i worder i lived here for several years in the tampa bay area. i have never heard such blunt language from tampa mayor ever before, and

as a ron announces its 1st ever joint naples rel.

all of us have neighbors that have nothing good neighbors, naples, that's how the exploits at home goes governance gaps. that is no doubt that rolanda benefits must of the, from the instability in the d. c, most of the gold rolanda exports is believe to become the least gold smuggled across the border. while the d. c is the world's biggest colton producer, the biggest cold on export to is rolanda. but despite the smuggling, the european union struck a controversial mineral deal with for london, local and g. o say this deal even fuse the complex. rwanda is not the only place these results is get to you and act, but found gold and other minerals from the d. c will also, thanks level to you kind of burn the tons in it. and even the united arab emirates from the, you know, they make their way into international markets. so each of the international block market, again, possibly into your smartphone. so where are we in international efforts to tackle these problems haven't worked. ceasefire agreements have broken into pieces, do you ins. biggest at a peacekeeping mission has logically failed

. >> things aren't a whole lot better there naples, we're told is about five-and-a-half feet and over in fort myers, we are told that that number is close to about 4.5 to five feet. again, we expect that if that forecast holds, that we could see anywhere between eight feet to 12 feet of a storm surge i haven't covered hurricane ian, uh, two years ago and i've been here in fort myers things are not as bad as that storm. but remember, a hurricane ian made a direct landfall. here you're in lee county and the storm surge totals for this location where we are right now for hurricane ian, was ten feet and so we're not going to get to that number at least we don't want hope. but of course the concern still is that we're looking at a nine perhaps even ten feet of storm surge by the time sun, sun comes out tonight tomorrow, at least at midnight, 1:00 in the morning. we expect things to kind of amped up a little bit because that's when high tide is going to happen. and so you got to add that variable into this and you can appreciate, you can understand why you might be able to make out behind m

all the surge that we talked about it on the south side of the eye from punta gorda back to naples into our reporter there in fort myers. but here's what's going on. the northern part of the eye is still very filled with rain >> in this wind warning, we're winds are been gusting over 100 miles per hour at times, the good news is talked about the tornadoes. they are offshore, they have moved away from florida. they were right along that i95, a1 a quarter earlier today, but we are still seeing the wind now gusting to 90 miles per hour at the airport here's what has already fallen here, right through here. this entire area of purple tampa, there's the bay that's greater than ten inches and what's to come more in the same places plus moving some of that rain into orlando as well. and then on up toward daytona beach, more areas here of purple, ten inches or greater still to come kayla? >> yeah. i'm just thinking what the tampa mayor tony anderson, just a few moments ago that it's 915 there. she thinks this is going to be going for until 2am and you're seeing where a bill we're as just the am

, even down to naples. that inundation is coming in as you and i are talking and it's it's only going to get worse all the way until landfall and it won't start to recede until after landfall on landfall could be, you know, from this point, we're talking a couple of hours away because landfall is defined, erin as the moment that the center of the eye of the hurricane reaches the coast all right, john. >> thank you very much, john, as i said, longest-serving meteorologist in south florida watching this epic storm and let's go back to bill weir a moment ago, we saw bill in st. petersburg and bill at that point, you are there was a wave literally came shore of where you were standing. i know you've moved a few hundred yards inland, so exactly where are you and what's happened since we spoke just i guess now at this point, what 2025 minutes ago gotten nastier. >> we just had an 89 mile an hour wind gusts will take you around the corner here. this is bayshore drive here in st. petersburg of the municipal boat ba

they were went to naples and then genoa just did a night to naples, i think. and then a night in genoa. and the second half of the book is sort of a little bit like harry truman's excellent adventure part two. it's like harry truman's european adventure. and so he, you know, he's always getting into these crazy, you know, crazy scenarios. everything. one of them i love when they went to when they went to genoa, they accidentally crashed a wedding and they went to observation deck of the tallest building, tallest building in genoa. and there was a wedding reception going on. and harry already had his picture taken with. the bride i would have i would have love about a when i read it was marissa mahaffey and tulio vivaldi were the couple and that is marissa there in the genoa paper the next day said when truman entered, there was a wedding celebration and the former of the united states, after having taken part in the celebration some time, wanted to pose for photographers with the bride and groom. will does have a completely memory of their wedding wedding, and