at least upon landfall. the bad news is it's still on the move as a hurricane and moving inland. areas of georgia, northwest florida, even northeast florida, can expect copious amounts of rain in the hours ahead. coverage continues now on fox news. >> it's 2 p.m. on the east coast, 11:00 a.m. on the west coast and 1 p.m. where hurricane michael has just struck along the florida panhandle. i'm shepard smith in new york on fox television stations across the nation and on the fox news channel on satellite and cable. 155 mile an hour maximum sustained winds make this the strongest storm ever to hit the panhandle. let's go to the national hurricane center for a live update. >> welcome back to the national hurricane center. on the official clock here at the hurricane center, 2 p.m. eastern, that means 1 p.m.

central. let's look at the latest information on michael. made landfall. winds 155 miles an hour. really pretty strong system continuing. lot of damaging winds associated. you can see that eye mall making landfall, issued by our weather forecast off tallahassee. just incredibly dangerous situation associated with the winds right around that eye. we got a look at different areas as well. rain bands coming out, some of the hurricane force gusts with those as well. it's not just the center. it's well out from the center. something else i want to mention. if you didn't leave and the eye comes through, it could momentarily get called, but remember you have the other side of the eye coming through. stay safe. stay sheltered. you can see the sheer size. where is it going? you look at the size of it and where this system is headed. look at the tropical storm force winds extending away from the center. even around the center hurricane

force winds 45 miles away. we need to not just focus on the center. you need to think of this as a wild storm causing damage for a large area. damaging on the coast. power outages could last several weeks. serious situation. catastrophic with building damage, trees down, power outages. but not just the coast. we still expect hurricane force winds stretching on the alabama/georgia state line. even moving into central georgia could still have some winds close to hurricane strength. so if you take the rain and take those winds, you can have power outages and trees down, remaining dangerous through georgia and portions of extreme southeast alabama and into the carolinas. taking a look at that rain, lot of flash flooding. really serious situation. any time you have a tropical systems come in, the rainfall is heavy. 6 to 10 inches of rain on the florida panhandle up into portions of southeast alabama, even into georgia. this area 4 to 6 inches of rain.

that's where you'll have some winds and could be dangerous inland. we've been talking about this storm surge. we're looking at some of the latest values coming in. looks like we have 7.4 feet innundation. you can still have the on shore flow pushing the water inland. you're still not out of danger yet when it comes to the storm surge. we are continuing to forecast 9 to 14 feet at the air force base, up to 14 feet above ground. waves on top of it. some of the images we are seeing, you can see waves that can cause structural damage as well. so getting trapped in these pockets, you get these large amounts of storm surge. well away from the center, you're still not safe.

even as far as tampa, two to four feet that's just not on the coast. you can see some of this storm surge goes inland. the winds continue to push that water further inland. this is ken graham with the latest on the powerful hurricane michael. >> shepard: we'll go straight to live reporters, but we want to show you where the storm has been and where it's going. the eye has now made landfall. you can see the direction it's expected to go. once you get into southwest georgia, it's still a category 2 storm. atlanta will feel a lot of rain from this. huntsville and auburn. all of you are going to experience rain. in pensacola, florida, all that rain to the north, but in pensacola, the sun just came out. want to show you one interesting thing about this storm. this is the eye of the storm that's just come ashore. for those who just joined us, especially on fox television

stations, i want to zoom in. we watched this eye wall come across. it entered at tyndall air force base. here's the air force base. that's where it came across. this is mexico beach here. so the strongest part of the storm, the eye wall, packing 155 mile an hour winds with gusts much stronger. enough to tear down homes, throw limbs of trees through the air like missiles. the very worst of it is in an area of almost population. if you could have said here's where the storm's gonna go, pick an area where the fewest people live and that's where the hurricane's gonna come ashore? that's what just happened. panama city 35,000 people. mexico beach pretty heavily populated. tyndall air force base evacuated except for a few people. where's it going now? north and east. youngstown, blountsville,

straight on up toward interstate 10. it will be hitting interstate 10, mariana, florida, sometime in the next couple of hours. let's go live to rick levin thal. rick, how is it? >> reporter: yeah. it's been swirling. we've just seen some of the strongest gusts since we've been out here, shep. the rain is pounding us. i want to show you a power pole, utility pole, that came down where we were standing. i don't even know you can see it now because of the visibility is so limited. can you zoom in on that pole? we were standing right underneath it. there's a transformer on it. it's at the corner of that building. you might be able to see it. just snapped in half, looks like from here, and came down in that area we were live from earlier. we were nervous. that's one of the reasons we moved where we did.

that's the kind of thing that kills people or injures people. that's why authorities are so interested in evacuating as many people as possible. that's one pole. we don't know how many more have come down or will come down. there are a lot of trees here. many will likely come down. the rain is pelting us. the wind is still very strong here. it's whipping us from multiple directions. i guess tough to see how bad the damages are. we have no idea, no way of knowing. no one will know until this gets passed us. based on what we've seen so far and the strength, there's no doubt there will be a lot of cleaning up to do. >> shepard: certainly, rick, the eye of the storm has not completely gotten to the north of you. in another hour the winds are gonna come out of the west. >> reporter: it's clear the worst isn't over.

we're getting hit. we have been for awhile. it's pretty difficult being out here. the rain is a soaking rain. it's coming in sideways. we've seen roof tiles come off. we've seen the building exterior being thrown into the sea. now we have a utility pole that's snapped in half, and lord knows what else in this community. >> shepard: and the eye of the storm is fully over land now and inland water ways headed for broad branch within the next 15 minutes you will be in the eye of the storm. do not go outside. to the east of this where they're getting enormous winds and rain, apalachicola. phil is there. >> reporter: wind just blasting me in the face with some rain.

still whipping here, coming in from the west and southwest now. it is blowing well. down below, that's a garage of the hotel we're staying at. every car that was down there would be under half or three quarters of the wheel completely submerged. here is that water street shot again. few minutes ago there was a very large propane tank just blowing, floating, all the way down here. it's now parked under our garage. take a look over at the parking lot. the white car with the one head light on and windshield wipers going. there's nobody in that car. nobody's been in that car for probably 12 hours. in fact, i believe it's one of our fox employees. we believe the water rising up under the car, messing with the computers of the car and now

everything is unoperational. water street remains a little river. bad to be out here. shelter order is in place. for this reason. it is howling still over here. we're definitely getting the opposite side of the wind that we were getting this morning. take a look at the apalachicola river that feeds south into apalachicola bay which is essentially the gulf of mexico. it is just coming upstream pushing all that river water that needs to go from left to right out to the gulf, pushing it all back north. this means there's gonna be a lot of flash flooding. unknown at this point is how many feet it's going to be. storm surge was projected here. this is a great view. stop sign, the wind, the waves. this is just pounding.

pounding from the west to east at this point. hurricane michael really justifying every person, from the governor on down to fema. everyone should have evacuated. lot of people did not evacuate. almost this big bend area. all of the counties are in a mandatory evacuation area. it is a very low-lying area. that's why it's very prone to flooding. you're seeing it happen right now. everybody in this town, that includes us, can't get out. everybody is stuck until hurricane michael goes north, stops raining, emergency managers and sheriff deputies can get out and about and see what the damage is, how many power lines are down. but most of the area the power is out. duke energy's got a website. we don't have power. definitely not over yet, shep.

>> shepard: phil keating live in apalachicola. let's go west of the storm center along the beautiful panama city beaches. jeff flock is there from the business network. the eye of the storm missed you by 18 miles. you're a lucky man. >> reporter: i know. i'll ya, i can't imagine what it would have been like. i heard you point out earlier, fortunately over a nonpopulated area with the worst of it. we're tremendously fortunate here because this, as you know, this is tremendously populated. we've experienced only category 1 conditions, category 2 conditions maybe at the most. we're not at the height of it. i think we're past the height of it. absolutely fortunate. not that there isn't some damage, but nothing like it certainly could have been. we're still yet to know. still whether we saw a category

4 conditions at landfall or not in that eye wall. i don't know if it did. if it weakened some before it got to shore. i know we didn't see those kind of conditions here, as you say, 18 miles away. that's fine. it was a good time. we all love to see the power of mother nature. you can spare me a cat 4. >> shepard: you can spare us all a cat 4. one thing that is still to come there on the beach is a wind out of the west. you're gonna get due west winds, which means you're gonna get some water coming off the gulf of mexico onto that beach. i don't know how the dunes will hold up. can you hear us? just watch him.

>> reporter: can you hear me? we lost power. >> shepard: we'll all hear you soon. they've got the generator left and that's it. that's where you hide. you wonder what does everyone do when they're not out in the blowing wind? well, you hide under a parking garage. that's what jeff flock and his team were doing. >> shepard: listen to what he's going to say. i want to tell you what's gonna happen next. this storm's gonna continue to head inland north and east. georgia, a hurricane is on the way. some areas can expect hurricane force wind. if you're in tallahassee, southwest georgia. if you're in the atlanta area or the auburn area or montgomery area. listen to your locals. they'll tell you exactly what to expect. tornados are possible. extremely heavy winds.

high rains. this storm is not over. it's made landfall but the eye of the storm is still well formed and there's great danger yet to come. our coverage continues on fox news channel and cable and online and on radio. right here we're gonna return you to your local programming on local fox stations. i'm shepard smith fox news new york. continuing now on fox news channel, let's get the latest from the meteorology center. directly over tyndall air force base and an area that's almost not populated at all. you don't want it to hit anywhere, but it picked a nice spot. >> you and i both worked and lived along this portion of the gulf coast for several years. it is hitting an area maybe not the worst spot. notice something else. as this runs on shore, it's been such a defined eye wall. this has not changed.

it continues to be very strong around this eye wall. anywhere that it does bump into going to see strong winds continue. this will stay a hurricane for a little while. not one of those ones that hits and immediately falls apart. this could be a hurricane into the overnight hours. 155 mile an hour winds at 1:30 p.m. we're seeing wind gusts stretching up into the 85 miles an hour. we've seen gusts get up to 130 miles an hour. that obviously is enough to do major damage, possibly even take down some buildings when it is all said and done. these are local. get you an idea. there is still your center of circulation. each one of these bands powerful as far as heavy rainfall and wind. the wind gusts can be up to 75/80 miles an hour. those are expanding away from the center of the storm. it is a large area initially

away from where the storm is. there are bands of very strong winds. destin getting up to 55 miles an hour which is well off to the west of this system. there's your center of motion there. it will continue to be a strong storm with lightning and heavy rain with this and continuing to push farther inland. i did want to leave you with this. i know you've been talking about people being prepared and people deciding to stay. this is a very uncommon storm for this particular location. these are the panhandle major hurricanes here. you see most of this coming farther off toward the west. it's very uncommon that you see a major storm like this as we're seeing here with hurricane michael making its way through the panhandle. making its way deep in the panhandle so folks in this area, even though it's florida. they don't deal with it that often. >> they don't. 1995, opal, which was more a

pensacola thing. since then, everything is south of the mississippi. going back to camille, all the way through katrina. from new orleans to gulfport and biloxi. that's where they hit. they don't hit here. but now they have. >> yeah, you're absolutely right. you mentioned a lot of these tracks. it is. it's over towards pensacola, destin, farther off towards the west. we have this one track. you see making that turn. now you do have a first real major storm heading toward panama city beach, over toward apalachicola. >> shepard: adam, thanks. you talked about destin. destin with a small fishing village probably 35, 40 years ago and it's now an metropolos. they call this area the red neck

rivera. people from atlanta and nashville and big cities all over the southeastern united states, that's where they go. destin and south walton county. they're still getting 55 mile an hour gusts. everything along east destin, along sand destin shut down. south walton county, sea grove beach, sea grove areas shut down for now. look how broad these rain bands are. this is cape coral, ft. meyers and the lee county, collier county area of rain. saint petersburg, rain. gainesville, rain. tallahassee, rain. jacksonville, rain. columbus, georgia, atlanta about to get rain. birmingham getting rain. all the way over to pensacola and everything in between. enormous amounts of rain. here's the most striking thing to me. this eye is completely over

land. completely. yet look at the eye wall and how well formed it is. ken graham is with us from the hurricane center. how long does this eye wall maintain itself, ken? >> that's one of the problems with this storm. when you make landfall at 155 miles an hour, it's going to take awhile to get those winds to come down. we expect it to still be a hurricane later tonight as this reaches the georgia/alabama line. even central portions of georgia, we'll still see a hurricane this evening before it weakens. >> shepard: this thing is headed north/northeast. mariana, that's ahead. what about big cities say, like, albany, georgia, how much of a danger are they in? >> you know, we talk about that rainfall. some areas could see 3 to 5, even 6 inches of rain. you take that rain and start saturating the soil. you made a great point. the rain band was so large, you're already starting to

saturate that soil. once the winds pick up, then you have the problem. the winds start toppling the trees. you're going to have power outages well into georgia. >> shepard: all right ken graham, appreciate it very much. want to show you some video that's just come in to us. where is this and what is this? >> this is panama city beach about two hours ago. west of the center of the storm. keep your eye on this house right here. >> shepard: right here. oh, man. >> so apparently this is new construction. no one was inside. it was a chief meteorologist from our fox affiliate. he just happened to catch it at the moment. it all came crashing down. >> shepard: this beach is deep. it's not one of those skinny beaches where you can't walk too far. normally this is huge and

crystal white sand. the beach is gone. >> there's the pier. there's docks. there's pieces of wood floating all around here. just getting smashed against these buildings. >> shepard: we've shown you very few pictures. john, thank you. we've shown you very few pictures from panama city beach, beach proper, because it's too dangerous for us to put our people out there. in addition, these areas where the storm has just come over land, we didn't have anybody in lynnhaven or parker. so on the east side of panama city. we'll have to wait to find out exactly what's happened there and exactly how serious. we have more new video in from panama city proper or out on the beach? no response. kate. oh, we'll go to kate. kate, is this from the city or beach? >> this is from panama city beach. lance craig, he shot this on his

i phone. >> shepard: can we track this, please? go ahead. >> this was as the storm was coming ashore. you can just see how strong the winds are. >> shepard: this is panama city beach. the wind is not coming from the water. the wind is coming from the land going toward the water. this is pushing the water out. the wind coming off tin land head toward the beach. this is extraordinary. from his i phone, panama city beach. >> you can see they have supplies lined up ready to go. the wind is just insane. >> that's right next to a stucky. they must be right off an overpass. panama city beach -- thank you, kate. panama city beach is really three sections. originally panama city beach had a front beach road. live pictures from panama city. everything was along front beach road. they call it the miracle mile. this long stretch, when i was a kid, it had ferris wheels,

boardwalk somewhat similar to atlantic city's board walk but not exactly. there were a lot of things to do. holiday inn style, two-story motels. as a kid we'd go stay there on the beach. you load 20 kids in the vw vans and drive seven hours to panama city beach. it was the greatest week of life. every year, you couldn't wait. you fight the whole way down there, everyone screaming, parents are furious. finally you get there and everybody gets sun burned and we all cry. but panama city beach was the place to go for people who lived in the southeastern united states. there's no one who would disagree. that's where you would want to go as a kid, of not enormous means, to have a fantastic time. it grew so fast in the 1970s and 1980s. eventually middle beach road became something.

then they had to put a bypass around it to connect destin. it all just became one sort of sprawling metropolos. many zoning concerns. and the case was always made, we don't have enough highways to evacuate from this area. there is no freeway. there's no interstate. there's no easy way out of bay county, florida. but it kept growing and growing. then other areas around it became more of an upper middle class to very expensive areas. there's something for every kind of person with every kind of different cash flow. you don't have too much to spend or you have a lot to spend, you can go there and have a hell of a time. and there were real concerns at this time yesterday that panama city beach was about to be wiped off the face of the earth. i will tell you this, if this storm, the strongest storm to

make landfall in the florida panhandle since the 1850s, had this storm not jogged to the right, but jogged to the right, panama city beach would be reduced to ruins. instead, it is not. it's going to have a very bad storm. but the great thing is the high season ended. there are still people who are owners who come down september into october. but let's face it, people move on to college football and the beaches begin to return to normal. people at fort walton beach have gone back to school. they're all closed. all across bay county, walton, all of those areas that were so concerned, you have been spared the worst of it all. the storm has gone to the eastern side of panama city proper. we don't really know what will haven is gonna look like when this storm passes.

we don't know what the eastern side of panama city will look like. we certainly don't know what tyndall air force base will look like. but we know the heavy population centers, the heart of tourism for bay county, has been spared. we are waiting to find out if the oyster beds in apalachicola, the engine for the economy in all of the big bend of florida, if those oyster beds are salvageable at least over the next couple of years. if not, there is going to be an enormous economic hardship on the good people of the big bend of florida because that is the center of the money world. the storm is still headed inland, headed right for georgia. our coverage is just beginning. this is fox news channel. we'll be right back. severe crohn's disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. is she alright? i hope so.

so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. and as if that wasn't badur brand new enough, totals it. now your insurance won't replace it outright because of depreciation. if your insurance won't replace your car, what good is it? you'd be better off just taking your money and throwing it right into the harbor.

i'm gonna regret that. with new car replacement, if your brand new car gets totaled, liberty mutual will pay the entire value plus depreciation. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ i don't care where we go ♪ and i don't care what we do ♪ just take me with you

there are roadside attractions. and then there's our world-famous on-road attraction. the 2019 glc. visit your local mercedes-benz dealer for exclusive offers.

>> shepard: hurricane michael coverage continues at half past the hour. on the left side of your screen is destin, florida. on the right side, panama city beach. the destin drive along is coming to us from fox 10 wala which is a mobile, pensacola station. destin is the extreme eastern end of their market. they're driving through the streets of destin. you can see signs blowing in the wind. there's a lot of rain. last place anybody should be is out on the water. but you can see the high rises that are sort of a staple of the destin area.

those high rises should have sustained this pretty welsh because the storm itself went so far east of destin, everyone in destin and fort walton beach should be thanking their lucky stars and saying a prayer for folks in the east side of bay county, east of panama city, tyndall air force base area. the lights are flashing. this is clearly a construction zone, which is a common thing in destin. still has the largest tarpon fishing tournament in that part of the world. brings thousands out in the summertime. high season is over there. there is still some tourism, but all the tourists were asked to get out. you can see there is some flooding in the street. we're told winds reached 50, 60, 70 miles an hour.

when you consider it's a good 70 miles west of the center of circulation, that's some pretty extreme stuff, to be so far from the center of the storm itself. again, this is a drive along from fox 10, wala. this is in -- we've been saying destin. i'm told they're in mirimar beach. is that right? they're now in mirimar beach? anybody? is anybody still in our control room, i wonder? i guess not. so this is mirimar beach. you can see some rain, some flooding. we've got a new thought now about where to go. mark heiner in our control room was trying to tell me we had another option. adam is in the extreme weather center. adam, it looks like the next part of this storm is headed toward mariana and shipley, florida, before moving into what

appears to be donaldsonville, georgia and chatahoochie. >> you're right. part of the thing that makes this so interesting is the storm is still so strong at this point. you typically see an eye wall begin to collapse when you see a storm hit landfall like that. but, no, you're talking about inland communities, communities an hour off the coast of florida and into portions of southern alabama, portions of southern georgia. we still have this very defined eye wall. as a result, we are talking about just these very strong winds, these rain bands. it does seem like this storm is staying incredibly compact so far. that's gonna happen when you have something that hits the land with such power, such low millibars. we talked about 919. it's the lowest we've seen. >> shepard: we've gone from

destin east bound now, mirimar beach. you keep traveling, anybody in the southeast knows about. topsail. huge vacation destinations especially for families between destin and panama city, just east of destin itself. as you can see, the trees are not down. some areas here, this is well away from the center of the storm. don't look at this and go, oh, this storm was nothing. this is far west of the storm. course, they were concerned a couple days ago. they didn't know if it was going to go somewhere between pensacola and apalachicola. in the end, hurricanes make their own decisions. there was no wind sheer that kind of knocked this thing apart. the water was extremely warm. north of 85 degrees, which is hot, even for the gulf of mexico here in the middle of october.

and the water is so shallow along that area. so the shallower the water, the more it heats up, the more energy you can get. this storm might get stronger as it heads towards the beach. especially as it heads over toward bay county and the area it did hit. sure enough this came ashore at a historic 155 miles an hour. strongest storm to hit the united states since 1969. i was 5 years old in 1969. hurricane camille had hit the coast. back then, people didn't have the forewarning that we have now. camille hit that coast and wiped from the face of the earth everything in south mississippi. it was gone. foundations of buildings were lifted and removed and they were down to nothing but sand. and for the next 30 years,

everyone on the gulf of mexico compared every single storm to camille. your set back lines from the beach. how high you had to build your houses. how far above sea level your houses had to be on stilts. the ruler, the one that decided, was hurricane camille. all of a sudden hurricane katrina comes in and makes hurricane camille surge, per storm surge, look like kindergarten action. when hurricane katrina came along the louisiana line, by the way, katrina did not hit new orleans. katrina hit christian, mississippi. it was a mississippi storm. it removed from the face of the earth the western part of the mississippi gulf coast and had a storm surge of 32 feet. meaning a three story building would have been completely

covered by the water. everything along the shore a mile into the rail road tracks was a pile of rubble like nothing you have seen in all of your born days. if you saw it on tv, you don't get it because it went on for so many miles. so many lives forever destroyed. an entire coast line rearranged. well, this has come ashore as a much stronger storm than katrina. much stronger. when katrina finally made landfall, it was barely a category 2 because at the very end, as they always seem to do, it lost strength as it made that jog. it was about to hit new orleans, everybody knew better. it was gonna make a turn to the right and hit mississippi, because they always do. it did. it lost strength. it didn't lose that huge mound of water that was pushing. this storm is different. it's been moving at 12 to 15 miles an hour forward progress for three days. when it hit the warmer water, it got bigger and stronger.

yesterday morning it got itself together. got as strong as it could get. began to wrap tighter and tighter. central pressure began to dip. we got to 125 millibars, then 922 millibars. finally down to 919 millibars. the third lowest pressure ever reported in america. and what for a miracle it hit one of the least populated areas of the entire coast of florida. in florida they like to talk about from coast to coast to coast meaning the florida panhandle coast, the gulf coast of the peninsula and the entire east coast of florida. if you were to take your finger and go up and down that coast, all the way around, hundreds and hundreds of miles of beach, where is the place that if the eye of the storm came ashore, it would affect the fewest people? you're horrified for, praying for the ones that hit. but where is the lowest density? right there. right where it hit. this hurricane will forever be

remembered as the strongest storm ever to hit almost nothing except for tyndall air force base and the east side of panama city. when the rains clear and the blue skies come out, as they always do after hurricanes, we'll be able to see what happened in eastern bay county. we can hope it isn't too bad. of all the places to hit, it picked a damn good spot. emily is a multimedia reporter for fox news, meaning she works across all of our platforms. digital, radio, social, everywhere. who is probably experiencing her bad storm ever. is it, emily? and how are things in apalachicola? >> well, you know, i did just come from covering florence. i will say michael is giving florence a run for its money. we're just watching the water continue to rise and rise here in apalachicola. for the past couple of hours, been watching my car as the water slowly rises up my crew

vehicle. we tried to find the highest point, one of the parking lots close to our hotel. we're on the third floor of the balcony. i can no longer see any road way from where i'm standing. there's a lot of water here, shep. >> shepard: i want to listen to wala fox 10. their meteorologist giving us a live look. the drive along happening in miramar beach. we'll get there. let's go back to emily. have the winds subsided? have you noticed any changes in the last 30 minutes? >> do you know what? you can actually physically see these massive waves. they're continuing to come through here. maybe slightly we saw it subside slightly over the past 30 minutes but not very significantly. >> shepard: she's far, far east. i'm sorry, emily. speaking to the control room. lots going on back here. where you are in apalachicola is

well south and east of where the center of circulation is now. if you go even farther east, to the big pend of florida, that's where your griff jenkins is. he is 100 miles from the center of this storm, and yet, griff, how bad is it there? griff is frozen like a fish down in the bottom of the freezer. we just can't get the digital signals to come up. there was a time when we worked off analog and you could get something fuzzy. but with these digital signals, it's either all or nothing. right now, most of our correspondents up and down the coast, we're getting absolutely nothing. take a look at this radar and i'll show you what's happening now. this is the main ground base radar based in panama city with a cross of different radars across this part of the country.

we're real lucky to have this. you can see from the clearwater, saint petersburg area, all the way up on the gulf coast side, almost all of eastern alabama is raining. from birmingham, a line straight down, all the way east into from birmingham, alabama, to western georgia, there is solid rain across city after city after city. i'm gonna zoom in and you can see where this thing is headed. the eye wall is still pretty well formed. you can see it's getting stress on the lower right hand quadrant. it's not exactly a full circle. griff general kin -- jenkins is up on the coast. how are things now? >> reporter: the storm surge flooding is getting bad. you can see hurricane evacuation sign over my shoulder. we're in crawfordsville just north about 25 miles of

alligator point because the situation has become catastrophic. it is flooding that i was very very lucky to just get out with our team. we drove through water that was three or four feet up to our tires. as they say, if the water gets up to the air breather you're done. there are sheriffs racing up and down this road. you've got situations of people getting stuck in that water in a little town called panacea. if you file straight from tallahassee down to alligator point which is considered tallahassee's closest beach area, panacea is right in the middle of it. much of it is under water. it is only going to get worse. we're on the dirty side. it's gonna take time for the full impact. the eye just made landfall recently. you have a couple bays here.

apalachicola state forest, several others that has these little water reservoirs. they are starting to rise like crazy. it has one road, road 98, that went all the way to pensacola and turned north through tallahassee impassable. we tried to navigate on back roads. several trees with power lines were down. we're hoping to get our crew out to tallahassee. i'm talking to you on my i phone because our other equipment was taking a beating. it became too treacherous. but there is a situation now. i was talking to lieutenant chris savory graduated from the fbi academy here. he said he's never seen anything like it. he tried to talk me to get out about 20 minutes ago in what was

one of the closest calls in getting stuck. if i had gotten stuck, i would be in the situation that some people who stayed behind are in. there's no roads to get out. one road in, one road out. it's just a bad bad situation. you can me, you can see far in the distance maybe a green light. there's even just a little power in this area which certainly because we have the sheriff, the first responders trying to work their way in. the hlieutenant said you'll hav to be in the elements if i can't get to you. the situation is getting worse. >> shepard: i'm gonna show our viewers where we are. here's the state. zoom in to this area where it's all happening. turn the drawer on here. here's where the storm is. make sure i get this right.

storm. draw red. the storm is about right here. course it won't do it. i love technology. it just won't. here's what happened. this is panama city. you see this cup. this counter clock wise circulation. all that water pushing in here. this is port st. joe where we talked to the mayor. just getting inundated with flooding. this is alligator point. see how it has another one of those bends? all of that water coming up in that direction, just flooding. the national wild life srefrb. here's that little town of panacea. when you get to ball point state park and alligator point, it heads north. if you go north there, you'll get straight to the capital of tallahassee. if you're in tallahassee, the closest place to go is right here. highway 98. then you get on highway 319.

all of this is flooded. with this counter clock wise circulation is inundating all of this. for this area, this is going to be a big rain storm. for this area east of panama city, this is where the worst of the winds are. this area right here. we've not seen this area yet. we don't have cameras here. for the rest of you, the rain is on the way. we'll talk to jeff rogers now, communications manager for gulf power in pensacola, florida. gulf power is one of those big power companies that services much of the gulf coast region. if you're wondering what's happened, go to that gulf power website. i understand you got about 100,000 without power right now. >> that's right. about 118,000, believe it or not. we've got more than 4,000 boots on the ground getting ready to restore power once this big

monster moves through. >> shepard: i have got your website up. i'm looking at tyndall air force base which is where the storm came ashore. it looks like the vast majority of the area where the eye crossed all of that is out of power. >> there is. it's going to be one stretch of outages. we're talking with our customers now. it could be weeks before power is restored. and it will actually be a rebuilding process because of the devastating effects of this sto storm. >> shepard: when you say rebuilding, you got to put the poles up again. you got to put in power lines. build from the dirt up. >> exactly. new poles, new infrastructure, new lines. not everywhere. in the hardest hit areas specifically. and again, we're looking at weeks. this is not something that will be overnight. this is a devastating storm.

>> shepard: when you look across the area, the population density is not very high. our viewers can see the numbers on this map. this is the number of places without power within the area where the storm came ashore. tyndall air force base is its own thing, it handles its own thing. but around it, 50 plus, you can see these number. the population density just isn't very high. if you had to pick a place on the coast where a devastating storm would hit, this might not be the worst, right? >> it's not bad. we were hoping it would be farther east, but you're right. it's not bad. >> shepard: how long -- go ahead. sorry. >> i was just going to say except for the folks that will be without power for awhile. >> shepard: i wonder, if you have a rebuild coming in eastern bay county, up into these affected areas, up to fountain, that area there, could they be weeks without power? >> they could be weeks without

power, yeah. that's not a stretch at all. this will take a huge rebuilding effort. >> shepard: do you have plenty of help coming from other places? >> we've got crews from all over. indiana, kentucky, louisiana, michigan, alabama, arkansas, mississippi, ohio, oklahoma, texas, all points in between. descending on northern florida. they're ready to roll as soon as this thing moves through. >> shepard: jeff rogers based in pensacola beach, glad it missed you guys. unfortunately, east of there in apalachicola those oyster bays are in peril. phil keating live in apalachicola, right in the middle of it all. how's it looking? >> reporter: it's still flooded. it's coming from west to east here. you can really notice that down here between the storms building. hot tin roofs, bad day for those. look at it. trashed, ripped apart, flailing.

i just hope they don't start flying off causing even further damage, if not injury. this is not a safe place to be yet by any stretch. this is water street. lining water street, the sidewalks aren't made out of concrete. they're made out of all those oyster shells. kind of cute. but we were talking about what a juggernaut that industry is down here, this apalachicola bay. that is the truth. you can also see how dramatically the river, the apalachicola river, no longer really being surged by the really strong hurricane winds, storm surge from the gulf of mexico up north. it's all flattened out now significantly through much of the day. i would say the winds and the rains are some of the lightest and if you're a human standing in it, some of the best they've

been in several, several hours. still getting some serious tropical storm gusts at least. i certainly would rate these as hurricane strength. it's the back side of the hurricane. it's supposed to go down. gradually go down for the rest of the afternoon. the center of the storm keeps on marching north/northeast. the streets are flooded. power is out all across apalachicola and across the bay, east bay, over to east isle, or east point is the name of the town, beg my pardon. duke energy and gulf energy control a lot of the utilities and the power grid up here in florida. lot of power lines down. lot of people without electricity now. no tv's. hopefully, they have some battery powered radios. right now, it is a stay inside

your house absolute horror because it is still way too dangerous to even venture outside. in fact, the local authorities in every single county do not want anybody leaving their house until the hurricane's gone, the rain has stopped and the roads are determined to be safe for travel. most likely, based on previous experiences, there will be a lot of roads with fallen pine trees, blocking access, making driving a whole lot of u-turns trying to get around, as well as live wires possibly down there in the water making that even more dangerous just to be walking in or standing in. the bridge that connection east point with apalachicola, a very low-lying bridge, completely closed. so everybody in apalachicola cannot leave until the water goes down. that's the deal. >> shepard: yep. phil keating live in apalachicola for us. want to give you an update on

tallahassee, the state capital. 180,000 people there, maybe 230,000 in leon county. they've been having 55 mile an hour sustained winds, widespread power outages, though not every home, which normally -- and not every business, which normally means they're knocking over power poles. some places there's power. some places there's not. tallahassee proper with 1500 outages. the electric cover, 30,000 customers without power. there has been concern this storm would get closer to tallahassee and there might be some hurricane force winds there. it looks like instead it's heading north and east. blount town, generally speaking, is in the general direction of the eye of the storm as it continues to make its way north. now, it has crossed land and the coastal areas are beginning to

get a little bit of relief. it's nothing to be put aside for people who are inland. people inland and to the north. georgia and the carolina coast, this storm is headed your way, with very heavy rain, very high winds. the chance of tornados. certainly the chance of widespread localized flooding and lots and lots of rain ahead. from one of the strongest storms ever to hit america and the strongest storm to hit the coast, this coast since the 1850s. while all of this has been happening, an extraordinary thing is taking place on wall street. the dow jones industrial average is off more than 2%, off 535 points. the nasdaq off more than 200 points, or about 2.4%. and the reason, treasury yields. stocks slumped as treasury yields continue to rise. yields on a ten-year treasury note climbed to 3.21% while

30-year yields edged to 3.38%. that puts downward pressure on stocks. so if your money is in stocks, you're taking a beating today. continuing coverage of the storm and of the activity on wall street after this on fox news. make a smart choice. replace one meal or snack a day with glucerna... made with carbsteady to help manage blood sugar... ...and end the day with a smile. glucerna®. everyday progress. glucerna®. thousands of veterans get the money they need for their family and home... thank you, admiral. by helping them use the valuable va home loan benefit they've earned with their service. thank you, admiral. it let's you borrow up to 100% of your home's value. thank you, admiral. with today's high home values,

that could mean a lot more money to pay debts and get ahead. thank you, admiral. it's an honor to help you get the peace of mind every veteran and their family deserves. call 1-844-383-1571. smile dad. i take medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol. but they might not be enough to protect my heart. adding bayer aspirin can further reduce the risk of another heart attack. because my second chance matters. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. not in this house.? 'cause that's no ordinary family. that's your family. which is why you didn't grab just any cheese. you picked up new kraft expertly paired cheddar and swiss for eggs. beat that! kraft. family greatly. 4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom... is a stroke. 80 percent of all strokes and heart disease? preventable. and 149 dollars is all it takes to get screened and help take control of your health.

we're life line screening... and if you're over 50... call this number, to schedule an appointment... for five painless screenings that go beyond regular check-ups. we use ultrasound technology to literally look inside your arteries... for plaque which builds up as you age- and increases your risk for stroke and cardiovascular disease. and by getting them through this package, you're saving over 50%. so call today and consider these numbers: for just $149 you'll receive five screenings that could reveal what your body isn't telling you. i'm gonna tell you that was the best $150 i ever spent in my life. life line screening. the power of prevention. call now tow to learn more. because when you want to create an entirely new feeling, the difference between excellence and mastery, is all the difference in the world. introducing the all-new lexus es. a product of mastery. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

>> shepard: it's 3:00 on the east coast. noon on the west coast. 2:00 p.m. along the florida panhandle where right now the hurricane continues to move north and east. it crossed over land at a historic 155 miles an hour. maximum sustained winds and hit with drew dead force at tyndall air force base near mexico beach in the florida panhandle. let's get to the hurricane for a live track of the storm. >> i'm ken graham here in the operations here. it's 3:00 p.m. eastern, 2:00 central. the latest update on hurricane michael, you can see most of the center, the eye wall, the area

of t