The eye of Hurricane Michael is approaching the southeastern part of Alabama and southwest Georgia.
It has been downgraded to a category three storm with sustained winds of 201 km/hour.
The National Hurricane Center said this is the third strongest hurricane to hit the United States, behind only the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane and 1969's Hurricane Camille.
Storm surge could reach as high as 20 feet in some places.
The eye of the storm is expected to move across Alabama and into Georgia this evening — it will continue across the southeastern United States through tomorrow and then move into the Atlantic Ocean late Thursday or early Friday.
Mark Robinson, a storm hunter with The Weather Network, is in Florida tracking the hurricane.
The Cooter Stew Cafe starts taking water in the town of Saint Marks as Hurricane Michael pushes the storm surge up the Wakulla and Saint Marks Rivers which come together here on October 10, 2018 in Saint Marks, Florida. (Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images)
He told AM800's The Afternoon News that Hurricane Michael was stronger than Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
"We're just starting to see the damage now," says Robinson. "I can see a lot of roofs off, I see a stadium or warehouse style builidng and it looks like it's partially collaped."
Florida officials said roughly 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast had been urged or ordered to leave.
Robinson says unfortuantley a lot of people didn't evacuate and decided to shelter in place.
"I'm seeing pepople still staying in place now but the winds are beginning to drop so I think people are going to start moving about and try and check out what happend, how much damage has been done."
Tweets by StormhunterTWN