means it potentially could sit on top of us for 47 hours. >> david connor is the spokesman for pinellas county. thank you. i know you're busy. that sounds horrible. is there a mandatory evacuation at this hour in pinellas? >> yes. we did recently issue a mandatory evacuation for our zone "a" residents closest to the water. as well as we anticipate extending that to the zone b and zone c residents tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. additionally all residents living in mobile home parks or trailers in the county are included in that evacuation order. that's just because the mobile home parks are often less stable under high winds than the more p permanently built structure. >> where are people going? >> as you heard the mayor mention earlier in the broadcast an evacuation doesn't have to be a road trip. just get out of the evacuation zone. family, friends, those are an option. we maintain public shelters both general population and special needs shelters for residents with medical equipment to work with electricity or medical care from the department of health and opening shelters tomorrow and also h

. >> reporter: officials in pinellas county, and tampa's hillsborough county, announcing mandatory evacuations for some areas, and encouraging even more to get out now, before it's too late. >> we expect to have to evacuate over 300,000 people, and it will take some time, which is why we are starting today. >> reporter: the tampa bay area now bracing for what could be their first direct hit in a hundred years. what is the one thing you're most worried about that may go awry? >> what i'm most worried about are the facts that -- that the fact that these storms are so unpredictable. >> reporter: governor ron desantis declaring that state of emergency, activating the national guard. this is the level of the bay on a normal day here in tampa. just a couple of feet below the sea wall, but during the hurricane, we expect this water to be pushed up with the surge of five to ten-plus feet, hitting downtown where it has nowhere else to go, flooding the core of the city, where evacuations are in place. at this level one trauma facility is in a vulnerable spot. they are putting up their flood protection a

we have about 60,000 people in pinellas county without power.e what services need when we contact them on the street. >> were you able to get out and see an assessment of the flooding? >> we do have some units as of 10:00 today. we haven't had any flooding. we have a couple more bands so first thing in the morning we may so more flooding but right now we haven't seen serious flooding in our city. >> as you can understand i'm standing in the wind and rain. it's hard to hear you sometimes. you mentioned power outages. can you tell us how many people in your area are without power if you know? >> sure. from pinellas county we have about 60,000 people without power. at 10:00 we received those numbers so again as the next bank comes through we may lose more power. as people call we will get those numbers and first thing in the morning assess the damage throughout the city. >> i imagine you don't know how long it will take to restore until you figure out the damage and what you need to do to get power back. >> that's correct. we know there are traffic

i was in pinellas county yesterday. it's street level to begin with. they flood, jose, when there are normal rainstorms. forget about what we're about to see over the course of the next day. this is terrifying from that standpoint. the projections right now, 12 to 18 feet where i am. the winds have not yet arrived. we're starting to get a taste of it. 12 to 18 feet of storm surge, that is double what this area has ever seen. so we're entering unchattered territory right now. there's a big footprint for health care here. i asked them if they're evacuating patients. there's a building that was built decades ago, moving members of the behavioral health department, inpatients there, out right now as we speak. they may be moving the icu in one of their buildings as well. they have staff that is dedicated to getting this accomplished. they're camping out overnight there. there's a small sample from our conversation. >> i have a lot of families that are here that -- whose houses were in evacuation areas and had to leave everything they know and are bunked dow

there are two mandatory evacuations already in effect in pinellas county. folks have until tonight to get out of here. businesses along gulfport, they've done a pretty good job of getting ready ahead of the storm. the restaurant behind me, they're still in the process of pushing stand bags up to the entrance. they have plywood already up. the neighbors have done a pretty good job of making sure they've got everything set up here. this one shop this morning didn't have a single sheet of bly wood up. as you see, they have the door covered and the windows covered. these folks have been ready since we got here early this morning. they've got their sandbags, the tarp out in front of the main door. everyone here really is trying to take the necessary preparations ahead of whatever we may get when it comes to hurricane ian. over in hillsborough county where tampa is, that part of the tampa bay area, folks there have also issued a second mandatory evacuation. those two evacuation orders bring the total number of folks in hillsborough county being told they need to

what is the situation in pinellas county right now? >> good morning. pinellas we have saint pete in clearwater are two big cities, tap days across a day in hillsboro but we're trying to balance everyone's thoughts because we really have dodged the catastrophic event are using in south florida down and charlotte and the county. it is an event but it is not anything like the catastrophic event like we thought it might be just 48 hours ago. so we've got folks telling them to shelter in place still, we have 184,000 residences without power, we still have about 5500 folks in shelters, so we've got an impact, we've got a saturated ground, about heavy winds, gusts 40 50 60 miles per hour, knocking over some trees and power lines, that kind of thing. again, we had an event, and people should be very cautious and shelter in place, it's nothing like what it could mean and what our neighbors said to the south are seeing. >> that's the tough part for some of these residents. even though you telling them to shelter in place. i'm sure the desire for so many these pe

again, from officials from pinellas county, from emergency management, from the mayor who we talked to, they're saying hunker down. that's a common phrase, but you really do have to get yourself and your family in a safe area. again, they cannot physically uproot you and pull you out of your home. you're not allowed to do that. that's your call. if you stay in, you've got to get yourself and your family to a safe place. that's the refrain here. don't come out in this stuff. it's about to get very dangerous, guys. >>> brian todd, thank you very much. >>> let's bring in timothy dudley, the emergency management dire director. your county and a number of counties are in a zone where the governor has said it's too late to evacuate. if you didn't heed our warning, or order to evacuate, you have to stay. for people who chose to stay, what is the safest part of their home or apartment where they can be, where they can take their kids? >> well, for those who chose to stay, hopefully they are out of the impact areas. we could be experiencic some tornadic activity. we ask you to go to the interio

mandatory evacuation orders in place in pinellas county and people in zones a, b and c and people inhomes told to get out. right where we're standing is evacuation zone a, the most susceptible to the storm surge and we're expecting the scene behind us to change drastically in the next day or so. all 67 can wants here in florida under a state of emergency and thousands of national guard troops have been mobilized to help out when the storm makes landfall here in florida. 36 school districts announcing school closures across the state and in some cases schools used as shelters. in the tampa area, food, water, pumps being staged before landfall power outages likely when the storm hits and governor desantis says restoring power will be a top requirety. here in pinellas county, duke energy is staging crews and upgraded power grid with technology and rerouting power around problem areas to prevent mass outages and trees falling into lines and high winds and flood waters are all big concerns. >> we serve approximately 500,000+ customers in pinellas county and everything from the storm surge

here in pasa grill in southern pinellas county, this is zone a. this is exactly what leaders of the state and the counties want to see. most people heeding the advice, leaving town, heading inland to higher ground for safety. to do that, of course, you need the gasoline. gold these days. for the past few days, they have seen a surge of demand at all gas stations. long lines of cars and trucks and often you'll find there's no gasoline left at that spot so you look for another one. the governor said there's no supply chain issues and fuel trucks are driving 24/7 at this point. he's also waved all tolls to encourage people to drive to safety. as hurricane hardened floridians expect to lose power with everything close, they've been hitting their grocery stores stocking up on all the essentials, nonperishable foods and plenty of water. the longstanding advice in florida is have a hurricane kit with enough supply to last you a week. utilities like fp&l are positioning fleets of bucket trucks to restore power as fast as they can. last night and this morni

pinellas county where we are now, about a 20 to 25 minute drive from tampa and the county sheriff's office, pinellas county sheriff's office already started to restrict some access to the barrier islands. later this morning they're going to need to show some sort of i.d. and a reason why you're trying to get this far out west, because if you don't have a reason to be there there is already an evacuation order in place for those barrier island. in hillsborough, 43 hurricane shelters opened yesterday and thousands, tens of thousands of sandbags were handed out at three locations that were opened by the city of tampa, and you mentioned in the lead-in out here, traffic cameras showing interstate 4, which connects the tampa bay area out into the central part of florida, the orlando area, that showed cars bumper-to-bumper at around tern a 10:00 and 11:00 at night. one woman at a sandbag distribution site said she made reservations for her family, going to orlando. a lot of emergency officials telling folks, look. just because there's an evacuation order doesn't mean you have to leave the state.

we have some other updates for you. 78,000 customers in pinellas county without power.sanagement. we're bracing for the worst of this because we still could get some really strong wind and rain in the next few minutes to an hour as more of these bands come through here but this whole area in pinellas county got slammed just a short time ago as you can see some of the damage here, our photo journalists mike love can pan around this area with the debris and everything. again, we've been sweeping around the neighborhoods trying to ask people how they have been holding up. a lot of people have evacuated this area because we've found a lot of homes are not occupied right now and we were told by pinellas county that at least one of these houses that had the roof ripped off, nobody was here and no one was injured. not sure if it was this one or the other one. we got word of a home burned down completely but no injuries in that. this area we're kind of now starting to be able to get out and sweep some of these areas around st. petersburg but they've got all sorts of issues ther

the mandatory evacuation for pinellas county is already in effect.olks have to leave here by tonight. over in hillsborough county, those evacuation orders are also in effect. folks right now are being told you've got to pack up and get to higher ground. >> wishing safety and the best for all of those, mike, and his neighbors in pinellas county and beyond. thank you carlos suarez and patricking ottoman. >>> joining us is fema administrator keith tory. ian expected to dump two to three months' worth of rainfall by friday with record storm surge. how is fema getting ready for this? >> thanks for having me to talk about fema's preparations along with our interagency partners. as we've all mentioned, a very serious storm. you can see behind me our national response kbcoordinatio center is stood up. we have staff in the emergency operations center with the state officials preparing. we are pre positioning equipment and supplies to be ready to move into the area as needed. most importantly, we're really trying to get the word out on evacuations and followin

from this point here in pinellas county, every other county, officials are saying it across the state you are in distress. if you have elected to stay you have to get your family into a safe place and where that is in the given home of course it varies, but you've got to start to hunker down right now. you can see just the intensity of what -- >> i think we just lost brian todd. we lost brian todd in st. petersburg. one thing to point out about where brian is right now, it's just the beginning and could last there for a day, for nearly a full day as the storm moves up the peninsula because it's going to make landfall well south of here. i want to go now where they do expect the worst of this and pretty soon, our bill weir is live in punta gorda, florida. bill, give us a sense of what you're seeing. >> reporter: good morning, john. waking up in this town today for so many people was just an ice batting of dread. when they see those predictions now, 15 to 17 foot storm surges, that's if you look at these canal houses, that's well up into the eaves, into the attic spaces of these houses.

some folks here in pinellas county made the decision to pack up the things and go. if you're a business owner that's decided to stay put and maybe finish boarding up the business you may have run out of time. a business owner told us they went to pick up plywood and told they were out and pick up sandbags and told they were out. a majority of the stores are boarded up and have been for a day now and got the sandbags out and plywood up and moved the items to higher ground. all in anticipation of whatever might come our way with hurricane ian. there are two mandatory evacuations for pinellas county and the last one this morning. officials told people in this area of the tampa bay area you have until tonight to get out. a few folks we talked to said they are taking some precautions. they have the hurricane supplies in order but going to stay put because they feel it is a high enough area to make this through. >> biggest worry? flooding maybe. i hope it doesn't come up further than it normally does. that's the biggest worry, flooding. >> reporter: over in hillsborough c

let's bring in david connor, lead information officer for pinellas county.hat is the most important thing you want the public to know? >> the most important thing we want the public to know. this is the time to stop thinking about acting and it's time to act. we have ordered evacuations for residents in our zones a, b, c and all mobile home and trailer parks. that's because like your meteorologist talked about we're anticipating life-threatening storm surge. a wall of water affecting those areas and people don't have to go far. they don't have to drive to georgia. they just need to get out of an evacuation zone. we anticipate experiencing the first storm-force winds tomorrow morning around 2:00 a.m. it might change by an hour or two. at this point if someone is in an evacuation zone and haven't left or have a loved one there and they haven't left that's a conversation and action that needs to take place. >> dana: how do you encourage the complacent to get going? >> here in tampa bay, we had a pretty devastating near miss back with hurricane irma. it hit a hu

pinellas county emergency management director cathy perkins joins us now. cathy , thank you for being with us so early in the morning. i know these overnight hours, but they're also very important hours because you've gone all day feeling the impacts of hurricane ian . talk us through how things are in these overnight hours and what your plan is for the day ahead. so we've been monitoring any impacts we hear. we certainly have about two hundred thousand people without power right now. we're not seeing major damages here, but it will be felt like before we really get to see that, we're very fortunate we didn't get the rains that we thought we were going to get . i mean, two days ago, we thought we were going to be ground zero for this storm . so this is a very different scenario for us . we have our damage assessment crews ready to go out and just look at the county and see if there's any areas of concern. we have debris crews. they'll on the roads, just make sure that everything is good. we need to just check our bridges that come into the county, just make

the clock is ticking for folks that live in pinellas county to get out. a second mandatory evacuation order went into effect this morning. we're in gulfport, that's about a 20 to 25-minute drive from tampa, where a number of businesses out here, they have already got their plywood ahead of a possible impact with ian. the folks here kept a sense of humor, spray painting "good vibe." they've got several sandbags set up, as well as a plastic tarp at the entrance to their business. this goes all the way out to the p marina. on the other side of this marina, we're being told that the sheriff's office is now a asking folks for a driver's license if they're trying to get out on the barrier islands. if you don't have a home there, have an apartment there, have a business there, they're saying you need to get out and get out now. the evacuation order for that part of the barrier island went into effect yesterday. over in hillsborough county, that evacuation order for the coastal communities there went into effect at 2:00 in the afternoon. around that same time, do

where we are in pinellas county, there aren't any evacuation orders just yet though they are expectedch is where tampa is located, there are mandatory evacuation orders in places closest to the water with voluntary evacuations in other places. 5,000 national garden troops have been mobilized here in florida with 2,000 from other states. schools here in pinellas county will be closed starting tomorrow, some schools used as shelters as the storm bears down. folks are getting their boats out of the water, filling up sandbags and boarding up windows. we talked to one couple who were applying protective sheets, and they said they've lived in the house for decades but have never had a hurricane hit before, and they don't know where they're going yet but told us they'll likely be getting out. >> where are we going to go and what are we going to do, big question mark. never have we had the idea of what are we going to do. so i'm a planner. i taught 38 years, so i plan. >> reporter: emergency officials are also telling folks that they need to heed evacuation orders because first responders are

on our drive from pinellas county yes, sir on my way in, i was able to see one hurricane shelter and it was pretty busy. and a drive around town showed a lot of businesses closed, a lot of them boarded up. gas stations were still open. there was a couple of them that had run out of gas but a number of them just had a short line. it seems like folks did get prepared ahead of whatever impact we were going to get from hurricane ian. over in pinellas county in the gulfport area, barrier islands to the west of where we are, we're told the county sheriff was out there making sure businesses were closed and that folks got out in time. john? >> reporter: yeah, carlos. the same thing here in tampa. it does appear people heeded the warnings, at least on the storm surge front. people getting away from the rivers and streams just in case it rises above where it's safe. i'm not sure the flooding in the other direction people are ready. thank you so much. >> let's go right to the weather center. chad myers standing by with the latest forecast. chad, what are you seeing? >> john, the 140 mile an ho

particular the area spanning from pinellas county all the way to colyer county. the winds were so strong that one of the state's main power providers says they need to rebuild parts of their system. not just restore. here's governor desantis from earlier today. >> lee and charlotte are basically off the grid at this point. charlotte and lee reconnects are going to likely have to be rebuilding of that infrastructure. and so there are linemen, crews that are on their way down right now. but that's going to be more than just connecting a power line back to a pole. >> joining me now is peter robins. thank you for being with us. let's start with the update on the parts of the system that will have to be rebuilt. >> the governor is right. we're going to have to rebuild some portions of our electrical infrastructure in those hardest-hit areas. we're doing those assessments today. it's going to be difficult to access some areas because of the floodwaters. electricity and water do not mix. in some cases, we'll have to wait for waters to go down. we have drone next, though

there's also another mandatory evacuation in neighboring pinellas county. all of those folks being ask wanted to get to higher ground considering their homes are right along the water. the work out here, the storm preps, are well under way. folks have been here the entire day at this sandbag distribution site. they've been working, helping each other, trying to get as many bags done as possible, all in hopes of getting their homes ready for whatever impact we may get when it comes to hurricane ian. folks have been in line here for several hours, and they're grabbing whatever they can. in some cases they're walking them to their car just because the wait to get into the parking lot is between two to three hours. one of the folks out here that has to leave her home because of this storm is charlene. you are in zone a. you're one of about the 300,000 folks being told to get out. how's your day so far today? >> a little crazy. kind of we're used to it now being floridian. we have our protocol in place. we know to get non-perishables, water, get our sandbags whi

pinellas county had some 700,000 people that were asked to leave.otice there's not a lot of people on the roadways or bridges trying to get out. this is an area that's a retirement community where you have about 4 out of 10 people over the age of 55. i went out with a senior care center director today. they were trying to get those individuals and bring them out, and i talked to a bunch of people in that age bracket and they said we don't want to go. we like it here. we're worried about our medications. we're worried about what the shelter situation would be like, the pets. they're not leaving. that's it concern from ron desantis all the way to washington and president biden that people aren't heeding warnings. and that's really the biggest red flag at this moment as we wait for hurricane ian to make landfall tomorrow. ari. >> important context, sam brock. thank you. reporting from florida. and we pass it on to "the reidout" with joy reid after this short break. so, it's not a problem at all. you guys aren't gonna give me the fake bill fight? c'mon,

. >>> go to cnn's carlos suarez in gulfport, florida, on the west coast there in pinellas county. what are you seeing this morning? >> reporter: well, this morning we saw that second mandatory evacuation order just go into effect here in pinellas county. the other one went into effect yesterday and all of this impacts the barrier islands in the tampa bay area. we are in gulfport where a number of businesses have already started the process of boarding up. this one shop, one, two, three sheets of plywood up and also sandbags to a corner out here. i imagine going to move these a little later on to the entrance to this store and then just next door to me owner started the process getting plywood up on his business. he was telling us a few minutes ago the last time this area was hit by a storm, this part of gulfport saw about three to four inches of rain get into these shops. over in hillsborough county, the folks there, 43 hurricane shelters opened since the evacuation order went into effect at 2:00 yesterday. the emergency officials here are telling everyone to go ahead and just try

pinellas county is surrounded by water on both sides. and so the folks we caught up with here said they're trying to get preparations done, they're trying to get everything ready and they just want their homes to be safe. all right. so folks out here, it seems, they're going to try to get to -- >> carl loss, we're going to go to governor ron desantis to listen to this update. here he is. >> really big hurricane at this point. the diameter is about 500 miles wide. so if you look at the cone and if you look at where they have the landfall going, i think the landfall is still levi county. the impacts are much broader than that. of course that track is still uncertain. it could absolutely wobble further into the peninsula or even further away from the peninsula. you will see storm surge in places like southwest florida, even though the storm is projected to be 100 to 150 miles off the coast of southwest florida. and so you look in collier county, they've issued volunteer evacuations for some of the coastal communities because the storm surge

elsewhere here in pinellas county we came across homes in a manufactured home park that had their roofswe are just fanning out now and seeing some of these scenes of devastation. first responders are just barely able to get out at this point. they said they were pulling them off the streets earlier because it was too dangerous. they are just starting to get to some of these areas right now. but, again, a lot of these areas they won't be able to get to until much later, wolf. >> what other kind of damage in the area? i know you've been traveling around as much as you can safely. what else have you seen as far as damage is concerned? >> well, we did, as i mentioned, we saw some houses, some manufactured homes not far from here in largo that had their roofs ripped off. we've seen debris and downed powerlines, downed trees all over the place. this is not necessarily a safe situation here. you just saw this thing, this slab of metal here blowing around. it's very dangerous to go into houses like this. we've been told this by first responders for years. when you've got a house like this, you

in pinellas county, florida, mexico, gordon fox weather and what's left of hurricane fiona is now causing flooding in canada. the storm swept its way up the eastern seaboard over the past week and eventually hit the canadian provinces of new brunswick and nova scotia. the heavy rain and strong winds toppled some buildings and caused flooding and now the canadian military is being deployed to help clear roadways and begin to clean up hurricane fiona traveled 1800 miles over the past nine days. last week it hit puerto rico, where thousands remain without power. a criminal investigation is now underway into the possibility. that pg and e equipment started the mosquito fire, currently the largest fire in california, it's burned more than 76,000 acres in eldorado and plaster counties. and right now it's 85% contained 78 structures. some of them homes have been destroyed. according to a filing with the securities and exchange commission. the fire started in an area near pg and e power lines in the tahoe national forest. as part of the investigation, federal officials have taken possession of a

. >> we're assessing the damage in seminole, which is in pinellas county right now. shopping plaza sign its massive. it collapsed on its side. this is on the corner of waltzing him and seminole roads. it looks like the tires. plus sign is the next to go. you can see and probably here through the microphone how this wind is whipping through. >> the microphone as well as the palm fronds. and the sign over here, the flag pole. we do know from pinellas county leaders that about 4500 people evacuated from their homes and took shelter after the county opened dozens of shelters at elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. this area has power, but we know from county leaders, thousands of people are without power. for now, i'm brittany mueller in seminole covering hurricane ian. >> and we'll continue to track that storm as well here on the kron. 4 morning news. also coming up, the east bay mud cracking down on people who use too much water. we'll have the latest on fines that of this been issued so far. and we continue to celebrate hispanic heritage month. coming

people are coming out with like 6, 7, cases getting prepared is the message from pinellas county emergency management. >> one big concern this season is all of florida's new residents who have never experienced a hurricane. it's a concern because they may not understand the risks of a hurricane. it's really important that. >> all of our residents, not just new ones, look at their evacuation zone to determine if they might have to evacuate. were. >> hoping for the have a kit prepared >> we've got some batteries and stuff today to kind of start one. but we have the essentials already pretty much. kevin cook in addi padgett just moved to the bay area from california a few weeks ago. >> they're taking the warning seriously, getting ready to potentially experience their first hurricane as it on right thing or anything like you know, it is a little nerve wracking, but i think coming from california, you know, we have earthquakes and you can't really predict those. and with this, you know, you have a little bit more predictability. so it's nice to at least have that kind of sense of. >> preparedn

ordering evacuations of nearly half a million residents in low-lying areas of hillsborough and pinellas counties hurricane ian lashed the cayman islands with 85-mile-an-hour winds. it is expected to intensify rapidly over warm waters as it approaches the florida coast, bringing a storm surge of up to 10 feet. governor ron desantis has already declared a state of emergency. >> we will see on the gulf coast of florida heavy rain, strong winds, flash flooding, storm surge, and perhaps isolated tornado activity. >> reporter: in clearwater, residents are stocking up on plywood and water. at one of several sandbag sites, it was bring your own shovel. gabriel alley, who moved here from california, filled his allotment of 15 bags. >> we're going to get these sandbags in front of the garage, in front of the garage door, in front of the front door, you know, and pray we're good. >> reporter: farther north, a weakened fiona still packed a punch as extreme storm surge tore apart homes on canada's east coast on saturday. >> anyway, we survived i guess is all we can say. >> reporter: back in florida, resident

we are already seeing bridge closures, the bridge is closed now from manatee to pinellas county.tages reported. outside of southwest florida crews are responding to those power outages. don't go outside in the eye of the storm. it's still dangerous. there's actually a calmness. if the center of the hurricane is right over you. you think maybe the storm has passed. that is not the case. it's still very discuss dangerous. there is possibility of tornadoes. it would also be very difficult to potentially get back into your home. so even if it seems calm, wait to make sure that the storm has actually passed. once the storm is passed and it's safe to go outside, i urge you to be cautious. avoid downed power lines. avoid standing water. stay clear of damaged trees. if you are using a generator for power, make sure that that is being operated outside your home. do not operate that indoors. and then don't drive in flooded streets. people will look and think they can drive through it. and it doesn't work out well for them. as the storm has approached. we have already had enough winds to ha

mandatory evacuations have been ordered for parts of hillsborough county and pinellas county, affecting hundreds of thousands of people and more mandatory evacuations are expected today. several hospitals and care facilities all already evacuating vulnerable patients. level one trauma hospital in the evacuation zone is scrambling to prepare. they're putting up their flood protection all around tampa general, this is their aqua fence. it only comes out during the hurricane. it's mobile. it's modular, and it's necessary. this trauma center sits in the evacuation zone. it will likely flood and this wall is designed to keep the water out. so they can keep the patients in the storm strikes a direct hit on tampa bay. it will be the first major storm to do so in more than 100 years. businesses are now boarding up and families are fueling up. we don't know. trust god. and do what we need to do to get sandbags stretching for hours. one family waited three hours in line just to get 10 sandbags. and tampa bay international airport now set to suspend operations beginning at five p.m. today before c

ordering evacuations for nearly half a million residents in low-lying areas of hillsborough and pinellas countiesricane ian lashed the cayman islands with 85-mile- an-hour winds. it is expected to intensify rapidly over warm waters as it approaches the florida coast, bringing a storm surge of up to 10 feet. governor ron desantis has already declared a state of emergency. >> we will see on the gulf coast of florida, heavy rains, strong winds, flash flooding, storm surge, and perhaps isolated tornado activity. >> reporter: in clearwater, residents are stocking up on plywood and water. at one of several sandbag sites, it was bring-your-own shovel. gabriel alley, who moved here from california, filled his allotment of 15 bags. >> we're going to get these sandbags in front of the garage, in front of the garage door, in front of the front door, you know? and pray we're good. >> reporter: farther north, a weakened fiona still packed a punch, as extreme storm surge tore apart homes on canada's east coast on saturday. >> anyways, we survived, i guess, is all we can say. >> reporter: back in florida, resid

people are coming out with like 6, 7, cases getting prepared is the message from pinellas county emergency management. >> one big concern this season is all of florida's new residents who have never experienced a hurricane. it's a concern because they may not understand the risks of hurricane. it's really important that. >> all of our residents, not just new ones, look at their evacuation zone to determine if they might have to evacuate. were. >> hoping for the you have a kid prepared >> we've got some batteries and stuff today to kind of start one. but we have the essentials already pretty much. >> kevin cook a nadie padgett just moved to the bay area from california a few weeks ago. they're taking the warning seriously, getting ready to potentially experience their first hurricane as it on or anything like you know, it is a little nerve wracking, but i think coming from california, you know, we have earthquakes and you can't really predict those. and with this, you know, you have a little bit more predictability. so it's nice to at least have that kind of sense of. >> preparedness ahead

we were spared in pinellas county. as you know a couple of days ago we were the target of this hurricane, and we were expecting a storm surge from 10 to 15 feet, and 10 to 15 inches of rain which would have been overwhelming. i think what this storm showed us again is that these storms are very powerful, but actually the track was actually accurate, if you looked at the entire potential track and not just the single point of the forecast, and these storms are known to take a turn as charlie did in 2004. that's exactly what happened here. we were spared. we have about 190,000 power outages and our focus at 7:20, at sunrise is to get our teams out for a first push to clear our roadways and allow duke energy to come in and start restoring power. certainly to our neighbors in lee county and charlotte, they bore the brunt of this storm. >> yeah, what are you hearing in terms of how bad that was, the brunt of this storm, and in terms of your conversation with president biden, water damage, getting the power back online, do y

charlotte, pasco, manatee, pinellas, sarasota. those counties under mandatory evacuations. this area un voluntary but we expect that to change. 14 different schools locations. we are expecting storm surge here 5 to 8 feet. a lot of rain, 12 inches or more potential. and the winds, 75 to 90 miles per hour, some time late tomorrow evening and into thurebsz morning. more a water story than a window story. as they say you can hide from the window but you have to run from the water. one last note, guys, very quickly. the tampa bay buccaneers they have now moved their practices to miami because of the storm. they are set to face the kansas which i chiefs in tampa. based on what i know about ian there are doubts that game will go go ahead but we shall see. back to you. >> steve: thank you very much from the live report from the gas station where someone got 18 cents worth of gas. desperate. >> ainsley: they're. we are praying for all those people down here. >> brian: check in with senior meteorologist janice dean for fox weather forecast. take a bigger picture, janice. >> janice:

. >> everyone and i mean everyone in pinellas county will witness some degree of impact from the storm. >> reporter: nearly 170,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. >> we are looking at the possibility of 10 to 15 foot storm surge. clearly that would be very devastating for our community. >> that's five. >> reporter: residents taking it seriously. >> i wasn't worried yesterday but today you start making your preparations. tie everything down, secure your cars. make sure you've got enough food and water at the house. >> i think we're taking it pretty seriously. up until yesterday we were thinking it was going to hit panama city but now it's real. >> reporter: the tampa area more vulnerable. >> there are a lot of low lying areas compounded with a lot of development so we have a large population that's built up and it's built up in low lying areas. we have a lot of exposure. a lot of risk. >> reporter: the florida national guard has activated 5,000 florida guardsmen as well as 2,000 guardsmen from tennessee, georgia, and north carolina. >> reporter: every official with dire warnings

one went into effect at 2:00 this afternoon in hillsboro county, the other in pinellas. folks have been lining up for several hours to pick up ten sandbags they're being allowed to work on themselves. they've got to come up, get their bags, fill them up and figure out how to get them back to their car. we've got two lines going on at this hour. one, folks that showed up by car, and the line you're looking at there, those are walk-offs, folks that most likely ditched their cars because it's taken them that long to get in. the sandbagging effort should continue throughout the rest of tonight, hopefully tomorrow. but of course all of this depends on ian's track and just how bad the weather gets. i can tell you right now, not related to the storm, but because we are in florida, the rain is about to move in. the folks that are in line waiting to get the sandbags, they're about to get wet. >> a lot more water coming that way very soon. thank you so much. best of luck to you and your team. please stay safe. >>> i want to bring in the mayor of tampa, florida. thank you so much f

this area, this county in florida, pinellas county has high numbers of people under evacuation orders. 442,000 people in this county were under mandatory evacuation orders. many people are heeding those warnings. john, a big test here is going to be of the sewage system here in st. petersburg. that has been a huge issue in recent years because the sewage system for years was antiquated, got backed up when a major storm hit. in 2015, 2016 they had about 200 million gallons of suage spill into the aquifers when there was a major storm. just this past december they started to revamp and renovate that sewer system. this is going to be a huge test of whether that sewer system in st. petersburg is going to work. the public works administrator here in st. petersburg is telling people, conserve water. don't run your dishwashers. don't run your washing machines. limit your flushing and limit your showering when this storm is at its peak. that's going to be in the next ten hours or so. again, st. petersburg not only going to face maybe severe flooding in these areas here behind me and downtown

people are coming out with like 6, 7, cases getting prepared is the message from pinellas county emergency >> one big concern this season is all of florida's new residents who have never experienced a hurricane. that's a concern because they may not understand the risks of hurricane. it's really important that. >> all of our residents, not just new ones, look at their evacuation zone to determine if they might have to evacuate. were. >> hoping for the have a kit prepared >> we've got some batteries and stuff today to kind of start one. but we have the essentials already pretty much. >> kevin cook a nadie padgett just moved to the bay area from california a few weeks ago. they're taking the warning seriously, getting ready to potentially experience their first hurricane as it on or anything like you know, it is a little nerve wracking, but i think coming from california, you know, we have earthquakes and you can't really predict those. and with this, you know, you have a little bit more predictability. so it's nice to at least have that kind of sense of. >> preparedness ahead of time. >> th

>> here in pinellas county we lifted our evacuation orders an hour ago which affects a large portionlation that lives in coastal areas. conditions have finally settled down in terms of the storm impact, the wind, the rain, and some limited storm surge that we experienced over the last 24 hours. we fortunately for our area received more tropical storm-force winds being on the north side of the storm but just a couple of days ago we were prepared for a direct hit just like our neighbors to the south. >> bill: josh, will you be able to take any of those assets and help the folks that are just below you 70 to 80 miles? >> yeah. i know in florida, the local, state and federal level everybody works together. everybody who has been a floridian for a long time knows it's always a possibility for their community even if your community hasn't had a storm like this for a long time it only takes one. in the days ahead i know that a lot of teams from all levels of local, state and federal agencies will be doing mutual aid requests and going down there to try to help as best we can in the recovery

what they're worried about, especially the folks in pinellas county, that storm surge is going to flood things no matter what. even if that forecast track ends up having ian moving parallel to tampa bay and the tampa area, they still believe we're going to see a lot of that water making its way inland. so they want folks to go ahead and come out and get these sandbags. the lines at these three locations were pretty long. it's our understanding they're going to continue to do this today and tomorrow and most likely into wednesday. however, emergency officials again have been telling folks, try to get this done early because we could see some of these effects starting tuesday. >> all right. very good advice to heed there. carlos, thank you. >>> for a closer look at the path of the storm let's get straight to cnn meteorologist chad myers. chad, right now aiming for cuba. florida comes after. >> that's right. we do know where this is going for the next one and two days, but after the third day, the models are still not in agreement. the meteorologists are still not in agreement. it's a 75-m

florida does not have to vac wait but those counties, those zones on western side, hillsborough, pinellas county, sown a need to consider packing up to move on out before hurricane ian moves in. neil: steven, thank you very much on that. update you on things that steven is pointing out here, maybe the better part of valor cancel as much as you can for the time-being. looking to do that the tampa international airport 5:00 p.m. today to shut down. we're hearing reports that the miami international airport might move to abbreviated schedule. don't know what that quite means a number of schools on the eastern part of the state not in the direct path of the storm will be closed at an abundance of caution. that would include south florida, broward county, palm beach county, miami-dade canceling classes for tomorrow. the backdrop of this, something happening at the corner of wall and broad after a big runup had the dow up 400 points. something happened. connell mcshane, what happened? reporter: good news is bad news environment in the market a little bit. to your point stocks were up in a big way. loo

schools here in pinellas county will be closed starting tomorrow. as shelters. folks are boarding up windows, trimming trees. we went to a nearby marina where people were preparing their boats for the storm. >> a lot of guys have taken their boats out. i don't have a trailer. i'm stuck. it's going to happen. i'll do as much as i can. i don't have a trailer. it will stay on the lift. >> emergency officials are saying that folks need to heed the evacuation orders. even first responders will have to get at it at some point in time that means for people are going to hunker down and wait out the storm there might not be any help. martha, back to you. >> martha: thanks, max. we'll catch this one. the key issue that could prove to be pivotal in deciding who gets control of the united states congress next november, that comes next. psoriasis really messes with you. try. hope. fail. no one should suffer like that. i started cosentyx®. five years clear. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. be

speaking of overnight, there are power outages here in this area in pinellas county 120,000 customers are without power. in hillsboro county, that's tampa just east of here. about 30,000 customers are without power. a lot of people did evacuate earlier today we saw people actually riding their bikes here along the beach and throughout the neighborhood they're locals they said they were prepared for the worse. they were prepared for the forecast that we had heard about a couple of days ago when this was supposed to be the worst of it so they were prepared. they say they're relieved that they weren't as hard hit but they do have family and friends down in the fort myers area. they say they were in contact with them throughout the day they say all of the resources they gathered and were prepared for, they know they're going to have to distribute those resources further down south, days, weeks, probably months they say they know communities will need their help >> no doubt about that valerie castro, thank you very much >>> let's turn to jason dunyan from noaa. i'm watching the storm heade

pinellas county and hillsborough county have about 2.5 million people collectively. the whole tampa bay area is 3.2. 75%, 08% of the people are in two counties that have mandatory evacuations. they're looking to move a million-plus people. that process started last night, 2:00 for hillsborough, 6:00 for pinellas. but you'll see the biggest chunks of people fry trying to get out today. the topography of this area, there are bays and inlets, barrier reefs, the bay on one side, the gulf on the other. the water has nowhere to go. storm surge right now certainly the biggest concern as the projections are between 5 and ten feet. for historical context, the last time a major hurricane struck tampa directly, 1921, 11 feet of storm surge. the speed at which this storm is traveling is perhaps the biggest problem. it is projected to go 3 to 4 miles per hour, the pace we would walk at, so it would be sitting on water and on land dumping rain for hours. if you're look for a historical precedent, hurricane harvey would be the extreme example. it is in the window of possibility for

now, where we are in pinellas county, we are expecting those in the afternoon area. but in tampa, mandatory evacuations in places near the water, as well as some voluntary evacuations in other areas as well. preparations are underway, florida governor desantis has called up 5,000 florida national guard troops, 2,000 others called in from other parts of the country. reports of empty shelves in supermarkets and hardware stores, fuel shortages are a big concern, but governor desantis says stations are constantly being resupplied, no need to panic buy. restoring power and fuel supplies will be a top priority after the storm. schools here will be closed starting tomorrow, and some will be used as shelter as the storm bears down, taking boats out of the water, filling up sandbags and boarding up windows. one couple are applying protective sheets ahead of the storm, they have lived in the house for decades but never had a hurricane hit before. they don't know where they are going yet but told us they will likely be getting out. >> where are we going to go and what are we go

mandatory evacuations are in place in pinellas county. folks in evaluation homes a, b and c and in mobile homes are being told to get out. this is zone a. this is one of the most vulnerable places. we're expecting to see conditions worsen the next day or so. all of florida is in a state of emergency. all 67 counties. so 5,000 florida national guard troops will be ready to go with 2,000 guardsmen from other parts of the country. 26 school districts have announced closures. in some cases, schools will be used as shelters. in tampa, food, water and generators are being staged before landfall. power outages will be likely when the storm hits. governor desantis says restoring power is a top priority. duke energy says they're staging crews and upgraded their power grid with technology that reroutes problems to prevent mass outages. trees falling into lines and high flood waters are big concerns as this storm draws. people have been scrambling for supplies. some gas stations have run out of fuel. drinking water has been snatched off of store she

the skyway bridge is closed now going from manatee to pinellas counties.power outages reported but outside of southwest florida, crews are responding to those power outages. don't go outside in the eye of the storm. cheryl: i'm going to to keep monitoring the comments from the governor for you and we want to let our viewers know you can stay with fox weather, there's 24/7 coverage on fox weather, get the app, go to foxweather.com. we'll stay on it for you. back over to you. the big concern you heard the governor say it here is those that didn't evacuate, you've got people -- there's video right now what that we're seeing, people are outside taking pictures and selfies and stuff. get in inside. do not get out there and take pictures of the storm. shelter, hunker down now. maria: two and-a-half million have been told to leave their homes. meanwhile, russia announcing four partially controlled ukrainian regions have overwell mingly voted to join moscow, this being dismissed by ukraine and western nations as illegal sham r referendums, lawmakers ae set to sign