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AccuWeather's Bill Wadell reports from Sarasota, Florida, where torrential rain has picked up in intensity. Hurricane Milton looms closer to the Sunshine State with landfall expected late tonight.
Transcript
00:00Accuweather's Bill Waddell is in Sarasota. Bill, the timing of the tides also plays a huge role
00:05into the amount of storm surge that we're going to see here. Yeah, absolutely. That's something
00:10that Accuweather expert meteorologists are going to be watching closely. The wind and the rain is
00:15picking up here in the Sarasota area this afternoon. And you can see with the water,
00:19I'm going to step out of the way, we're near low tide right now at one o'clock today. But
00:24the tides will be rising all afternoon, all evening with high tide at 4 a.m. This is not
00:30good news because the later that we see a landfall into the evening and the overnight hours, the
00:35closer we are going to be to high tide. And that means Hurricane Milton will have the potential
00:39of pushing in even more catastrophic storm surge into places like Sarasota. And you can see here,
00:45there are still a lot of boats here in the harbor. Some people telling us they're surprised to see
00:50how many boats are still here. Now, Accuweather expert meteorologists have been warning people,
00:54if you are on those barrier islands, you need to get out. 15 to 20 feet of catastrophic storm
01:02surge. That is what we're worried about. That's why officials have closed the bridges for people
01:06trying to get to the barrier islands. You can't get on them, but you are allowed off. And they
01:10are urging any holdouts to leave those barrier islands. Now, the bridges, the roads to some of
01:16those places, they are still closed. They're asking people, again, to evacuate. And Sarasota
01:21Mayor Liz Alpert is pleading with those holdouts in the high-risk areas, you still have a bit of
01:26time. Please leave. They do not want to try to survive a 15 to 20 foot storm surge. It's not
01:36survivable. We'll get through this and we'll build back better. It can be dangerous. There could be
01:44electrical wires in there and who knows what else. So, please, after the storm, stay where you are.
01:56Yeah, and take a close look at this video. All of the boats that are still here in the harbor. This
02:01is what it looked like before the wind and rain from Milton arrived. A beautiful shot of downtown
02:07Sarasota from above. The mayor telling us she has no idea what her city is going to look like
02:12tomorrow at sunrise when the sun comes up. This is what is so tough for so many people. Impacts
02:17are going to keep going downhill throughout the day, but we know the worst impacts, the worst
02:21storm surge is going to be happening after dark. They are extremely concerned for any holdouts
02:25saying that last-minute evacuations in the dark are going to be incredibly dangerous. Rescues are
02:30essentially going to be impossible. And they know there's going to be damage. They know they're
02:34going to be dealing with flooding and storm surge. The mayor says she has no idea what to expect
02:38tomorrow morning when the sun comes up.

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