![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/APP-101018-Hurricane-Michael-001.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRUSH: I was told today that even the Weather Channel has evacuated their crews out of Panama City, Panama City Beach. I wouldn\u2019t blame \u2019em. I think it\u2019s ridiculous to stay out there and stand in the streets when a Category 4 is coming. The winds are now 150 miles an hour, and everybody is genuinely scared to death of this one. This one, it seems is different in terms of how everybody\u2019s talking about it. All eyes currently fixed on Hurricane Michael.<\/p>\n
It is going to devastate the Florida Panhandle, Category 4. That puts winds anywhere from 130 to 156 miles per hour. Storm surge (which is the primary killer in hurricanes, by the way) is nine to 14 feet at the… That\u2019s not… Don\u2019t think of a storm surge as a tsunami. They\u2019re two different things. Tsunami, sometimes you can\u2019t even feel it. A tsunami\u2019s not a gigantic wave. A storm surge is, and people get the two confused. It\u2019s a big eyewall.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is well established. It\u2019s not weakening. It\u2019s continuing to strengthen. It\u2019s gonna have a swath all the way up through Georgia. The way I look at it, it\u2019s gonna hit Atlanta, then Augusta, and on into South Carolina, and right through the middle of North Carolina, and it\u2019s gonna be dumping rain like crazy. The only thing different here is that this thing is not gonna stop and hover for a couple of days in the same spot.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s moving at a pretty rapid clip, which is the only thing you can say about it. Now, there was a bunch of previously damaging hurricanes. There\u2019s all kinds of misinformation out there, and it\u2019s because of the corruption of news. People are trying to report today, “We\u2019ve never had a Category 4 hit the Florida Panhandle.” It isn\u2019t true. There have been all kinds of major hurricanes that have hit the Florida Panhandle.<\/p>\n
Experts have studied sea sediment and lake and river sediment and have found that hurricanes probably hit this region a thousand years ago, when nothing was there and nobody was there. Certainly nothing there to damage. There was a hurricane that hit in a similar location back in 1906, and it wiped out everything from Mobile to Panama City, but there wasn\u2019t much to wipe out. There wasn\u2019t much infrastructure then.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s crazy to start comparing financial damage with hurricanes of many, many years ago to today because this region was not nearly as developed with infrastructure and homes and businesses as it is today. The degree of damage that this storm is going to cause is immeasurable. But people are beginning to look at it as a rebuilding opportunity and a chance to, you know, build it all over again. But you cannot miss the devastation that\u2019s coming with this.<\/p>\n
The governor, Rick Scott, says he\u2019s scared to death about this. There\u2019s no stopping it. There\u2019s nowhere for people to go, and the evacuation plans have been underway for a while. Some people in condominiums and apartments are not leaving! They\u2019re gonna stay there. There are those people that want to stay and live through one of these, primarily to see if it\u2019s really like everybody says it\u2019s gonna be. There\u2019s a curiosity among some people.<\/p>\n
You watch the news, you watch TV, and they tell you how devastating it\u2019s gonna be, how destructive it\u2019s gonna be, how much rain there\u2019s gonna be, how “you can\u2019t survive it” it\u2019s gonna be. And they say, “I want to stay and see this!” And then there are others who say, “I want to stay and I\u2019m gonna protect my home. I\u2019m gonna hang in here with my homestead. I\u2019m gonna stay here with my pets. I am not leaving; you can\u2019t kick me out.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/APP-101018-Hurricane-Michael-002.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
So there will be some people who will hang on and stay. Now, this area is properly known even among the locals as the Redneck Riviera. In modern political parlance, it means a bunch of poor, white-privilege people live there. The Drive-Bys are surprisingly interested in this. I say, “surprisingly,” because there\u2019s not a central major population center that can be totally wiped out, that they could equate with, “See? See how dangerous global warming is?”<\/p>\n
But there is a midterm election coming up, and there is going to be a federal response to this — and as far as the media\u2019s concerned, there\u2019s an opportunity. The federal response won\u2019t be any good and so they can call this Trump\u2019s Katrina. Don\u2019t get mad at me for talking about this, because I\u2019m telling you right now that is exactly how assignment editors and producers throughout the Drive-By Media are looking at this.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re looking at this as a potential political event that they\u2019re hoping might be somewhat helpful to them in the midterms elections that are only three weeks away. There is a heated governor\u2019s race in Florida. Mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum, running against Ron DeSantis. And then Rick Scott, the current governor, is running for the Senate against the incumbent, Bill Nelson. So there\u2019s a lot politically at stake here.<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t deny it, folks. And you can\u2019t… You cannot ignore the way the media is preparing a bunch of different scenarios to report on this. It\u2019s got the global warming component. That\u2019s No. 1. As a Category 4, 150 miles an hour, there\u2019s lots of destruction — human destruction as well. It\u2019s got all the ingredients there. It is the Republican voting stronghold of the state in the views of many. (interruption) No, no.<\/p>\n
Look, you can get mad at me all you want. I\u2019m just telling you: I know the media. You may think it insensitive of me to be speaking this way. I\u2019m not. I\u2019m telling you how they in the Drive-By Media are planning, and they\u2019ll react at some point. Little Brian Stelter will go out there, “I can\u2019t believe that these kinds of things are being said about us in the imminent danger of the storm!” I\u2019m just telling you, it won\u2019t be long to find out.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/APP-101018-Hurricane-Michael-003.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
This hurricane kind of came out of nowhere. It was little tropical storm down of the primary tobacco-growing area of western Cuba known as the Vuelta Bajo. Then it sprang to life as a Category 1, and the National Hurricane Center said, “You know, this thing is looking very bad.” Nobody was paying much attention to it, and then all of a sudden it\u2019s a Cat 3 and it\u2019s making a beeline for Panama City and Panama City Beach — and here we.<\/p>\n
The media is now focused on this. Do you think, Mr. Snerdley…? Do you think there is — and I know it\u2019s gonna sound crazy. But do you think the Drive-Bys might be looking for a bit of a respite from all this Kavanaugh stuff and…? (interruption) You don\u2019t think so? And you don\u2019t think the hurricane is providing just a momentary opportunity for…? (interruption) Oh, I know they hope it turns into Katrina for Trump. I\u2019ve just… And Kavanaugh. They hope it turns… And Rick Scott, of course.<\/p>\n
They want it to turn into Katrina for every Republican involved here.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: And all eyes remain fixated, once again, on Hurricane Michael. This next 45 minutes to an hour will tell the tale in terms of the actual landfall. It\u2019s gonna be anywhere from Mexico Beach up to Panama City northwest along the coastline. Mexico Beach, I think is what it is, all the way up to Panama City, then Panama City Beach. But this eyewall, according to all of…<\/p>\n
And I\u2019ve got some fascinating satellite photography here from the GOES-16 satellite. It\u2019s interesting the way they do this. You know how they take the radar and they attach different colors to it. And what I\u2019m looking at is sheer, solid black surrounding the eyewall, and most of the black is on the south and the west side. And then it gets a little lighter, then some gray, and then dark red, and then bright red, and then yellow, and then tan, and then orange, and then green, and then blue on the edges.<\/p>\n
Now, these colors do not represent rain intensity. They represent cloud tops. They represent the temperatures at the cloud tops, which determines condensation and can determine intensity of rainfall. But most people watching this have no idea. They think, “Oh, my God! Look at that, Mabel! Look! It must have been a hundred miles per hour. Look at that! It\u2019s black — black, right around there. Dark red.” It\u2019s designed to scare you. It\u2019s designed to get your attention.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s cloud-top temperatures. But my point is, it\u2019s solid around the eyewall. It looks like the most intense area of this is due west of the eyewall, which is where the population centers are based on where the eyewall looks like it\u2019s gonna hit now. But even on the east side… The east and northeast quadrants are where the strongest winds are, and those are gonna be blowing offshore — toward offshore — once they hit land on the northeastern side of the eyewall.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/APP-101018-Hurricane-Michael-004.jpg\")
But it\u2019s a solid eyewall, and it\u2019s a large eyewall. So it\u2019s a very, very intense storm, and the next 45 minutes it\u2019s gonna hit land, and then we\u2019ll know where and the speed with which it will continue, the amount of rain and storm surge. So it\u2019s gonna be a very, very bad bunch of days and intense, bad few hours here for people who live in that region, the Panhandle of Florida.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Pressure is dropping in the hurricane. That\u2019s not good. It\u2019s now 35 miles south-southwest of Mexico Beach, which is what I think the closest populated landfall area could be. But that\u2019s just my wild guess. One thing about these storms: They\u2019re reporting winds at 150 miles an hour, and they just showed neighboring cities and what the wind gusts are. The highest wind gust right now around 64, 65 miles an hour in the Panama City, Panama City Beach area.<\/p>\n
These 150-mile-an-hour winds are in the eyewall, folks. They are not the entire storm. I\u2019m not trying to minimize the impact here. It\u2019s just the reporting on these storms and the education on these storms in general is, I think, wanting; it\u2019s lacking. Such as the way they colorize the graphics of these storms to make it look like hell on earth, when in any hurricane the strongest winds are in the eyewall and a little, you know, extended from it.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s not too many places they\u2019re gonna get 150-mile-an-hour winds today. Where the eyewall hits and maybe 20 miles, depending on the size of the eyewall. Now, from there it will fall off. Nothing… I mean, 125 is no slouch. If you think that you\u2019ve experienced 75-mile-an-hour winds and say, “Well, that\u2019s not bad. I can…” The effect of 150 versus 75 miles is not twice when you\u2019re in it. There is a multiplier effect of massive wind speed.<\/p>\n
So if the fastest and the highest winds you\u2019ve been in is 75 miles an hour and you think, “Okay. A Cat 4 is gonna double this,” it won\u2019t. On the ground, miles per hour it is. But the impact of 150-mile-an-hour winds versus 75? Just destructive capability alone is a factor of three or four. So 150 miles an hour is dead serious. That\u2019s where the storm surge will be or the worst of it. The further you get from the eye and depending on the structure, the more the wind speed decreases.<\/p>\n
The rainfall is pretty consistent throughout a much larger area of the storm. But the devastating winds, the worst winds of the storm are only in the eyewall area. People can look at these storms and the graphics, “Wow, 150 miles an hour… Oh, winds all…? That\u2019s all…? It\u2019s the whole Panhandle.” No, it isn\u2019t. I\u2019m not trying to downplay the damage. I\u2019ve just learned all this. We live in Hurricane Alley here, and every time one of these things…<\/p>\n
I moved here in 1997, and I quickly became a consumer hurricane expert. I became an expert in how to interpret and watch the media. I became an expert in how to analyze the graphics that they use, and I became an expert in where the actual worst damage of a hurricane is. You do not want to get a direct hit. Everybody says, “Yeah, of course, Rush. Everybody knows that.”<\/p>\n
Yeah, but outside the direct hit the damage or the strength of the hurricane diminishes quite a bit. It\u2019s always the direct hit that is the most destructive, and then it starts to decline as you get away from the eye, depending upon the strength of the storm. Is gonna have a wide, destructive swath as a Category 4. Here\u2019s Governor Scott of Florida. This was this morning, a press conference, audio sound bite No. 1. Just to give you a taste of how local officials in the governor\u2019s office are dealing with this…<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-10-10-at-1.18.04-PM.png\")
SCOTT: I just spoke with the president, who, again, offered all available federal resources. We continue being in constant contact with FEMA and their team in the state Emergency Operations Center. That includes experts from Homeland Security, the EPA, the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, and the Army Corps of Engineers. Along our coast, communities are going to see unimaginable devastating.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Unimaginable devastating. There\u2019s a little hype always in this to get people to listen, to get their attention. But there\u2019s always a lot of hype in these things. And, as an expert, a local resident expert, I can tell you that people who live in these areas for a long time have heard this over and over again, and very rarely are these storms as bad as they predict. So people, over the course of time, adopt an attitude and whereas, “Yeah. They\u2019re making it worse than it\u2019s gonna be for whatever reason, trying to scare everybody and get \u2019em to evacuate or what have you.”<\/p>\n
People deal with these in different ways who live in areas and have experience dealing with them. Now, there have been four major hurricanes in the two years of the Trump presidency. And not a one of them, outside of this mess in Puerto Rico — not a one of them — have the media been able to label Trump\u2019s Katrina. They\u2019ve tried in advance. They have not been able to. It seems the prep\u2019s good here too.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: By the way, here\u2019s the calculation on the force of wind versus wind speed. Remember, the force of the wind does not does not double as wind speeds do. The force increases in a much greater rate, and there\u2019s a formula that scientists have developed. The force of wind goes up as a square of speed. So two times… If you\u2019ve got 30-mile-an-hour winds that will all of a sudden become 60, the force of that would be much higher, say two times…<\/p>\n
You would square the 30. You\u2019d get… No, you\u2019d get close to hundred-mile-an-hour force when you get above the 75-mile-an-hour limit is what it really is. So the two times wind is four times the force of the wind. Three times is nine times. You square the speed to find out what the force of the wind is. So 150 miles an hour, it\u2019s devastating. Now, where do those winds happen?<\/p>\n
Are those surface winds? Are those flight-level winds? And this is what you have to have the Hurricane Hunter data to know. But they are reported as winds on the surface, 150-mile-an-hour winds at the surface. I mean, there\u2019s very little that\u2019s gonna survive that. So we\u2019ll see exactly what at landfall the true wind force, the wind speed happens to be and find out how close to the forecast it was.Now, look, this is a minor technical point. I\u2019m probably gonna get in trouble for making it. There is a tweet here from the National Weather Service calling this storm the worst-case scenario. But it isn\u2019t. It\u2019s a Category 4. It\u2019s not… The eyewall doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019s gonna hit a major population center. Now, do not misunderstand me. I am not saying it isn\u2019t a big deal. A worst-case scenario would be Category 5 barreling right over Panama City or Panama City Beach.<\/p>\n
This thing looks like it\u2019s gonna hit between or has hit between Panama City and Mexico Beach. Mexico Beach is such a small place that you have to expand the map to times 10 before it reads out that there\u2019s a city there. This is basically a wooded area, not heavily populated, but Tallahassee\u2019s right down the road from where this thing is gonna hit.<\/p>\n
Now, this does not mean that Apalachicola and Pensacola and Pensacola Beach and Panama City Beach are not gonna get hit. They are. But not by a worst-case scenario. I had to look… It\u2019s a minor point. It\u2019s no comfort to people in the zone here. It\u2019s just, again, I\u2019m a stickler for the way things end up being reported. People get all ginned up and worked into a frenzy over things, particularly in politics, and usually is not warranted.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s in this way that media and others so successfully manipulate people, whereas people that try to play it straight and deal with it honestly and straight on are a bit of a disadvantage.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Hurricane Michael now 155-mile-an-hour sustained winds, gusting to 175. This is at the eyewall. This is at the area of landfall, which is not far from Mexico Beach, up the coast of Florida Panhandle, about 15 miles west-northwest. The president today had a briefing with his FEMA people and Homeland Security people and as he is wont to do, he televises the briefings. One of the reasons he does it is so that he can let the media and everybody see what goes on at a cabinet meeting, what goes on at some other special meeting. This was the president being briefed by Homeland Security Chief Kirstjen Nielsen and the FEMA administrator, Brock Long, but Hurricane Michael.<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: They\u2019re reporting that this is one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit our country. Is that actually a fact?<\/p>\n
LONG: In the are, this would be the most intense hurricane that struck this area since 1851, if I remember correctly, so —<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/TrumpHurricanMichaelOval.jpg\")
NIELSEN: It\u2019s a big storm.<\/p>\n
LONG: Yeah. Intense. Very intense. But —<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: And this one is gonna be heavy rain or is it gonna be the winds that are gonna be the brunt of it?<\/p>\n
LONG: Storm surge and winds, and for Georgia they\u2019re gonna see high inland winds; so you may see sustained Category 1, Category 2 winds with higher gusts. We\u2019re expecting a lot of damage inland as well.<\/p>\n
RUSH: This is President Trump with the FEMA director and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen being briefed on Hurricane Michael in the Oval Office. Here\u2019s more.<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Almost the entire size of the Gulf. When you look at it topically, it\u2019s almost the entire size of the Gulf, and they haven\u2019t seen that… Maybe they haven\u2019t seen that at all. Nobody\u2019s seen that before.<\/p>\n
LONG: The eye diameter is pretty wide, which, unfortunately, is not good news as it makes landfall. So some people may say it\u2019s similar to an EF3 tornado making landfall in the areas that are close to the eye.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I\u2019m glad this guy said close to the eye. That\u2019s where… When you read about the high winds and the rain, that\u2019s where the brunt of it is. Now, this storm is so strong that it\u2019s bad as you get away from the eye. But the real bad stuff is the eye. This eye, I think I saw 30 miles… No, no. It\u2019s not that big. Now that I\u2019m looking, not that big. The smaller it is, the more intense, usually. And, as usual, it\u2019s the north and western quadrants here with the wind speeds speeding up and heading in that direction. Here\u2019s one more bite with the president still with the FEMA director and Homeland Security.<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: We don\u2019t know. I was going to Pennsylvania. It looks like there are thousands of people already lined up, and probably we\u2019ll do that tonight and we\u2019re gonna go down here as soon as we can. We don\u2019t want to interfere with anybody but we want to go as soon as possible. You have… You know, right nearby we have thousands of people going tonight, and they\u2019ve already… Many are there already.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Now, a lot of people… I get some emails when this stuff happens. “You know, you\u2019re falling for it, Rush. It just approves what a suck-up you are. Trump\u2019s not doing this for any other reason than he just wants to brag. He\u2019s just doing this for PR.” No, friends. You may think that, and I\u2019m not gonna try to disabuse you of it. But the president\u2019s doing this because if he didn\u2019t, can you imagine the stories that would be published?<\/p>\n
“Trump doesn\u2019t care! Trump didn\u2019t convene a meeting! Trump didn\u2019t ask very many questions! Trump didn\u2019t seem curious! Trump doesn\u2019t seem to have any real interest since he doesn\u2019t have a home there.” All this kind of stuff that they would say about him. He does this for a host of reasons. But most importantly, I believe, Donald Trump likes himself, and he\u2019s very proud of the job he\u2019s doing, and he wants people to see it. And he knows that the primary conveyors of information in this country do not convey properly information about him.<\/p>\n
This is only smart.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Screen-Shot-2018-10-10-at-4.19.52-PM.png\")
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: I was just watching a little bit of Fox News. They got a reporter out there standing in the middle of all this hurricane. His name is Jeff Flock. He was telling Shep, said, “Shep, you\u2019ve been out here like I\u2019ve been out here. Shep, I tell you, we\u2019d much rather cover man versus nature than man versus man any day,” and Shep said, “Oh, oh, yeah. That\u2019s absolutely true.” My heart melted. I almost… I almost broke down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: The winds are now 150 miles an hour, and everybody is genuinely scared to death of this one. This one, it seems is different in terms of how everybody's talking about it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":287816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n