And now let's hear more about the preparations and the concerns in
the Tampa area. William Branham is back with that.
As we've been reporting major evacuations are continuing this evening,
and officials are warning about a significant storm surge that could
hit Tempeh and Southwest Florida Very hard. Jane. Castor is the mayor
of Tampa, and she joins me now from the emergency Operation Center
in that city. Mayor Castro. Thank you so much for being here. Could
you just give us a sense of how preparations are going right now?
Well, actually, we are finished with our preparations. We've been
in that for quite some time.
But we have called for a mandatory evacuation and zone. A. For those
who aren't familiar with Tampa. We have over 120 miles of coastline
just in our city. So zone A is really those individuals that are
in close proximity to the water. So we've we've evacuated individuals
in that zone we've given over 50,000 sandbags out.
We have prepared as much as we possibly can. Here in the city of
Tampa. Our residents are heeding the warnings and they are leaving
for higher ground. We've told them you don't have to leave the state.
We just need you to get up to higher ground out of the storm surge,
which at this point is still anticipated to be anywhere between 10
and 15 ft. Which is simply catastrophic. Indeed. I want to ask you
about those evacuations because the head of
Today echoed the concern that some people share that
That residents may not heed those warnings, in part because it feels
like especially along the Gulf Coast. There's warnings quite often,
and the residents of your city may not have had much experience with
a direct hurricane coming into their neighborhood. Are you confident
that people are going to heed the warning and get out while they
can? Yes, from all indications that we've seen, you know, on our
interstates on our expressways, individuals are leaving.
Northward and easterly out of the city of Tampa. And I think that
looking at the severity of the hurricanes over the last couple of
years, even the most seasoned of us Floridians understand that attend
to 15 FT. Tidal surge is something that you don't need to take for
granted. And you certainly don't to see need to see if you can ride
that out.
As for the newer residents in our community, hopefully they will
heed that warning as well and understand that this is not something
that we should wait and see what happens. We need to get out of the
way of this is we like to say you hide from the wind and run from
the water, and so we're trying to get everyone out of the way of
that storm surge.
As you well know, Much of your city is very low lying and there has
been a lot of development right up along the coast because everyone
loves to live near the beach. Um and and and those two factors. The
low lying and the lots of people living near the water makes your
city one of the most vulnerable. What's considered one of the most
vulnerable cities to this kind of storm surge? How much does that
worry you that this
Really could be an unprecedented event for your city. Well, that
certainly is a concern for me. But what is most concerning is really
our geographic layout in the Tampa Bay area are are bay is very,
very shallow. And so the original predictions of Hurricane Ian stalling
right outside of Tampa Bay for anywhere from 24 to 48 hours.
Dropping 20 to 30 inches of rain on us with 10 to 15 FT. Tidal surges
was really nothing short of catastrophic. So that concerns me a lot
more than the development or the idea that individuals aren't going
to get out of harm's way. I know you spoke with President Biden.
You were among several mayors who spoke with him earlier today. What
did you convey to him about what you most need now and what you might
most need later.
Well, I first and foremost conveyed my appreciation.
We have had incredible collaboration not only on the local level
here in the Tampa Bay with our partners in Hillsborough County, but
in the state to with the state emergency manager and on the federal
level with FEMA. Everybody has been very collaborative. They have
resources staged all over. So we have as far as governmental resources.
We either have them here in our community, or they're being staged
in there. They're available and then talking to
To our private partners.
With our electorate companies talking to the communications providers,
gas companies just making sure that everybody has those resources
pre position to be in here as soon as the wind stops blowing Mayor
Jane Castor of Tampa, Florida, We wish you all the best and hope
this. You all get through this storm. Okay. Thank you so much for