This is a rush transcript from "The Five," October 10, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SHEPARD SMITH, FOX NEWS: It's 5 o'clock in New York, and this is "The Five," coming up in just few very short minutes. But first, a crucial update on Hurricane Michael, which came ashore as the strongest storm to hit the gulf coast of the United States since Hurricane Camille in 1969, 155-mile-an-hour maximum sustained winds upon landfall. Now it's moving inland and headed for Georgia. The National Hurricane Center now with a live update from their meteorologist.
KEN GRAHAM, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER DIRECTOR: Welcome back to the National Hurricane Center. This is Ken Graham. And our operation area looking at the official clock here at the hurricane center, it's 5 o'clock eastern, 4 o'clock central. Let's get the latest information on Hurricane Michael. You can see well inland now, the center of it is already approaching pretty close to the Georgia border. So with time, I mean, you're going to start seeing some of these, you know, the heavier rain and some of these wind entering Georgia as well. What's interesting about it you can still see the eye of the storm well inland with time, and that just signifying how powerful this system was when it made landfall, and Michael continues to show some of those powerful winds.
So, just because you're not on the coast doesn't mean you couldn't get some of this wind damage with time. We do expect even further movement of the eye. So you could see some of these trees down and power outages into Georgia. And really looking at that forecast, and this is the brand-new one right here, you can still see some of the tropical storm force winds extending well away from the center, so that becomes a problem. By the time you start into central Georgia eventually here this evening becoming a tropical storm. But in the meantime, still some pretty hefty winds. Still could be some issues associated with fallen trees and some power outages. Notice with time, still a tropical storm moving back into the Atlantic, so as a result we have a tropical storm warning for portions of Georgia, South Carolina into North Carolina. So this system keeps on going with time.
So let's look at some of that -- the impact associated with this. One of them is going to be -- you start looking at this storm surge and really let's make this a little bit bigger so everybody can see it. I mean, the storm surge is still going to be there and you also have the rain, so both of those combining still makes some -- some dangerous with the water, so let's look at that a little closer, so still looking at some rainfall that could occur. Now, luckily were moving pretty quickly here with the movement, and as a result we're not going to have a lingering system that can produce some of this flooding rain. But at the same time, some of those rain bands could produce 4 to 6 inches in some places. Let's look at the storm surge because it is brand new. This is the latest one that we have. And notice the numbers are down. The reason is because some of that water is going to try to drain. But let's really look at that a little closer. So the wind was powerful. We had a powerful storm move in and that forces the water inland, and once you start putting it in to some of these inland areas, some of these rivers and tributaries, all of a sudden it force in but it takes gravity, it takes time for it to flow back out, so it's going to be slow movement back out.
And the other factor here is you still have these winds rotating around Michael. So you could see some onshore flow continuing with time. And as a result, it takes time to really drain some of these places. So we really need to be careful. You know, there's debris on the ground. You have power lines down. You have a lot of damage out there. Plus, you still have some places with a lot of water. So that's something that we need to continue to watch with time. If we go into the future, we start looking at that forecast. You know, we really need to start keeping an eye on some of these -- this damage down in here, keep off the roadways, especially at night time. I think it becomes an issue. And I think when we start going into the future, you could see, you could see areas that with the rotation around even the storm, some of those tides could be elevated even on the east coast and the Atlantic. So that's the update on Hurricane Michael right here from the National Hurricane Center.
SMITH: Ken Graham, thank you so much. So, the storm came ashore, as you can see. Directly over Tyndall Air Force Base which is east of Panama City, Florida, in the Florida panhandle. We have no reports yet out of Tyndall, but it took a direct hit. Just east of there and by only a few miles is Mexico Beach, and look at this video that we've gotten in by social media from Mexico Beach. There is widespread damage there, though the center of the storm did not hit it. You can see there's debris floating, there's roofs off houses, the kind of damage that you would expect to the east of a major hurricane like this one.
Again, the meteorologists got it exactly right. It was projected to hit somewhere between Pensacola and Apalachicola, and it did. There were late fears that it would go directly over Panama City Beach, which would have been catastrophic and could very well have leveled thousands and thousands of buildings with forward speed of 14 to 16 miles an hour and 155-mile-an- hour winds. This thing hit one of the least populated areas in all of Florida. The next video we want to show you came from a town called Springfield, it's right outside of Panama City, and a local guy went out to assess the damage. Look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: That's the family. They lost their whole roof. They're going to come over here and stay with us. They will at least stay dry. There's a lot of roof that disappeared. (INAUDIBLE) roof's gone. Thank God from what I can see so far (INAUDIBLE) paid good money just to have it done (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Good money for it and survived in part. So that sort of the situation there. Think of this. Panama City is a city unto itself across the bridge begins a beach that stretches for 27 miles. So Panama City on the east side of it, that's where the western edge of the eye wall hit. We have few reports from there, but are expecting more throughout the day. To the west along Panama City Beach, that's where we find the Fox Business Network's Jeff Flock. How does it look there now, Jeff?
JEFF FLOCK, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: Fortunately, not catastrophic damage. But, Shep, as you can see this is characteristic of what has happened, windows blown out. I don't know if you could see, actually. Look at that. A water -- the line broke and water just pouring out there. I know they'll turn that off in a moment. This is the kind of damage here, not catastrophic damage, largely because the building boom here put up buildings like this one back there, huge steel, concrete, hurricane proof, allegedly, and based on the category 1 or maybe category 2 conditions that we had here, withstanding a hurricane of that magnitude. If it had been a cat 4 or a cat 5 here, we don't know.
SMITH: No, we don't. Jeff Flock live on Panama City Beach. So you go east of there and that's where the hurricane actually hit. Go east of the hurricane, the west side, and to the oyster town of Apalachicola. If you eat an oyster in the state of Florida, largely it came from there, at least until today. Phil Keating is on scene. How does it look?
PHIL KEATING, FOX NEWS: Things are looking flooded right now. But thankfully the rain has finally stopped. We're still getting some decent bursts of wind, but certainly not tropical storm strength by any means, much less hurricane strength, much like multiple hours throughout today where it was absolute ferocious here. All of this flooding came from storm surge from the Apalachicola River, which you could see up there on your left. That spilled into the streets. As well as Gulf of Mexico water that was being shoved upstream, pushing the river further north of Apalachicola, which could reveal in the next day, maybe even tonight, or the day after, a lot of flooding because all of that water has to go somewhere, and it couldn't for hours escape to the Gulf of Mexico. But the water here is finally receding.
This is Water Street below us, as in asphalt, drivable street and, obviously, it's very appropriately named. Power outages throughout the panhandle and big bend, 200,000 households at this time have no electricity. The first search and rescue teams over in Panama City have now been deployed. We can presume that Franklin County where we are, is already doing that or about to do that themselves. Now that the rain has stopped, that's what really the sheriff's department, the police departments, as well as the state emergency operations center, all of the deployed teams down here really needed. So now they can go out, assess the damage, and hopefully find minimal fatalities if they find any. But with a storm like this, it certainly seems likely, Shep.
SMITH: Phil Keating, wet and on scene for us. Phil, thanks very much. As the storm went inland it crossed interstate 10, right about Marianna. Just west in there is the town of Bonifay, and teams from our station WLAL, Fox 10 in Pensacola, mobile, driving along interstate 10 there. Let's listen live.
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: -- but not a lot -- not as much as we were seeing when we were in state Pensacola.
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: And talk to us about the intensity of the wind and the rain right now.
UNINDENTIFIED MALE: The rain -- I mean, it's hard to see more than a 100 - - to 100, to 150 feet in front of us at this point because of where we are, because we don't have trees protecting us, but the wind definitely picking up. We can feel it hitting the car and it's definitely knocking us around a little bit. Nothing to the point that we feel uncomfortable, but there is a lot of -- there has been a decent amount of rain building up in the median. You can see some water pooling there. But at this point, nothing is blocking I-10. There's no water is blocking I-10, but there are some trees that have fallen down and, obviously, the public works departments for these cities that we're passing will, obviously, once the storm does pass, will then begin to clean the road here. Actually, a trucker, a truck driver, emergency fuel company driving out on the roads as well. Obviously, they have their flashers going, so I guess people can see where they're going. And here in Florida, that's actually against the law to be doing something like that. If you're out for a drive, you're not supposed to have your flashers on. But, obviously, with how little the visibility is, you can't see more than.
SMITH: Yeah. And the reason that's breaking up is, this vehicle is eastbound on interstate 10, about 25 miles away now from the spot where the hurricane passed over interstate 10 right about Marianna, Florida. It's headed into Georgia now. If you're in Tallahassee, there's rain. If you're up toward Atlanta, there's rain on the way. The storm expected to be a hurricane into the late evening hours tonight. And there's that latest track as it head across the state of Georgia and up into the Carolinas. This won't be offshore until very early Friday morning. We'll have continuous coverage throughout the afternoon and evening on Fox News Channel, at foxnews.com, and on Facebook Watch.
"The Five" is next with all the latest from our friends in New York. I'm Shepard Smith. Thanks for checking in. "The Five" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Donald Trump unleashed his midterm message inside our nation's hotel doormat, USA Today, predicting that if elected Democrats will turn us into Venezuela where the currency is printed on perforated rolls because it's worth less than toilet paper. In fact, toilet paper is a rare commodity there. Never shake hands with a Venezuelan socialist. If William Devane were doing commercials in Caracas, he'd be saying, now has never been a better time to buy Charman, because, sadly, toilet paper is gold, which they may not need anyway because there's no food. It's gotten so bad zoos have become a Sizzler for the starving. Eating a zebra isn't just for lions anymore. The Democrats see this as progress maybe, because the poor things are no longer caged.
Donald Trump hit on this last night:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You don't hand matches to an arsonist and you don't give power to an angry left-wing mob, and that's what the Democrats have become. They would turn our country so fast into Venezuela, and Venezuela is not doing too well, folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: There's that M-word again, which should never be used to describe threatening hordes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN: Is it mob behavior? No, it's not mob behavior.
MATT LEWIS: Yes it is.
LEMON: It's people who are upset and they're angry with the way the country is going and the policies.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Will you let me finish, Matt, please before you jump in, OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Someone needs a timeout.
Meanwhile, Trump says that the Democrats lurch to the left, quote, "every single citizen will be harmed by such a radical shift. Virtually, everywhere it has been tried, socialism has brought suffering, misery, and decay." But maybe that's the point. What happens when you destroy prosperity? Well, besides vacating zoos, you vacate a country and elect a Bernie. It's the Democrats version of the wall. Who wants to come here if here is worse than there? The Dems backward thinking actually reverses traffic, but maybe I'm wrong.
If only there were examples of people fleeing lousy places that once were great before leftists took over. Oh, yeah, Venezuela. I think we have the Democrats slogan for 2020: Zebra, it's what's for dinner.
So, I've noticed this, Jedediah, that Trump's message is to link the Democrats with Venezuela. It's kind of like what he did with crooked Hillary and -- what's that guy was? Slow eye Nick or whatever.
(LAUGHTER)
JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST: Sleepy eye Chuck.
GUTFELD: Sleepy eyed Chuck, yes, yes.
JEDEDIAH BILA, GUEST CO-HOST: You were close, Greg.
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: Slow eye Nick. That sounds like a drink.
BILA: It does.
GUTFELD: Yes, but he's doing that thing.
BILA: Well, it resonates. He has a way of saying things in a way that's very relatable to people, and that really hits home. And one thing that always strikes me is that Democrats like to present themselves as pro- choice on abortion, of course. They make the argument where pro-choice -- on everything else, they're anti-choice. And when I was listening to what -- looking at what he wrote, I was thinking, wow, the Democrats don't want to give people the opportunity to choose their doctors, to choose what kind of healthcare they want. They have some audacity calling themselves pro- choice. I know they're limited to abortion, but it's insane.
I think the point needs to be driven home to people, why do you trust -- especially on healthcare, why do you trust bureaucrats to do a better job for yourself than you can do? Why? Because people -- government is not God. And the left likes to treat government like it's a doer of good and it's a public servant. It's just a bunch of bureaucrats that sit in rooms and make regulations and make laws. When it comes to your health and your well-being, don't you want to be in charge?
GUTFELD: Not me.
(LAUGHTER)
GUTFELD: I want people to make decisions for me. Juan, you know, I think the Democrats only hope in the midterms is Donald Trump because you've got about, what, 20-some odd days for him -- for something to happen that will make us forget the Kavanaugh momentum, Kavanaugh momentum.
JUAN WILLIAMS, CO-HOST: I think the big issue here, and it touches on socialism monologue is healthcare, because I think that is, Jedediah, what people are upset about. I mean, the number one issue for so many people is high cost of prescription drugs.
BILA: I agree.
WILLIAMS: . the viability of things like Medicare and social security. And so, right now, this is amazing to me, but according to the polls, you have 70 percent of Americans who support Medicare for all, single-payer, including 52 percent of Republicans. And something like Obamacare, I'm sure any Fox viewer remembers, oh, Obamacare is terrible. Now, Obamacare has the majority of support of the United States of America.
GUTFELD: May be because they feel like there's no choices left because it's been around. When something sticks around for a while, and I know this because I'm describing myself, people just get used to it, right?
(LAUGHTER)
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Never. Never get used to it.
GUTFELD: Yes, never get used to it.
WATTERS: But people like you, Greg.
GUTFELD: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
PERINO: That's why we tune in every day.
GUTFELD: Jesse, it's interesting that Donald Trump actually penned a column in USA Today. For young people at home under the age of 30, it's a newspaper. It's kind of like your phone except the stuff on your phone is printed out.
WATTERS: That was mean, Greg, what you said about USA Today. I can't believe that. I hope they never run any of your columns. He should have written in the New York Post or the Wall Street Journal, by the way.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: He tried to reach a broader audience.
WATTERS: Maybe, perhaps. But he does have a gift for making big, bold contrast. Look at how he's setting this up, America versus Venezuela, capitalism versus socialism, greatness versus misery, and it's not just a good midterm message, it's a good general election message because he's right. The Democrats once they got their claws into healthcare, they're not going to stop there. You just have to listen to what they say. They have talked about capping CEO's salaries. They've talked about guaranteeing housing is a right. They've talked about universal pre-K, universal college. In California they're experimenting with guaranteed income, so -- carbon tax. There's a lot of socialist ideas that they're kicking around which are very dangerous. And if the Democrats get a hold of any level of government, especially the economy, they are going to slow down this boom so big wage growth is going to slow down. Investments are going to slow down. Entrepreneurships are going to slow down. It's going to be very dangerous. It's a very good message going into the midterms.
GUTFELD: Dana, I know you have something you want to say.
PERINO: No, but I will wait. Whatever you want to talk about.
GUTFELD: Do you think CNN got a memo about the mob? Is like you don't say.
(CROSSTALK)
WATTERS: The M-word.
GUTFELD: The M-word, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
PERINO: It's not just CNN. It's across the board on the left because what's happened is President Trump has the ability to make the contrast and he has the left on defense. So it's on its heels. You have this -- the idea that now the Democrats -- on every show or social media, it's not a mob. We're not socialist. We're not for abolishing ICE. Like there's no proactive message that they can get across because he always has them responding to him.
GUTFELD: Right.
PERINO: And so, that's why -- like he's already setting up 2020. It's like, basically, it's America versus what do you want to be?
GUTFELD: Yeah.
PERINO: America or the socialists. It's a great civics and economics lesson these past three years. It's incredible.
GUTFELD: It is.
PERINO: One thing we didn't get a chance to talk about this week because of all the news is that, for the first time in history, over 50 percent of the world's population is middle-class or higher. Never happened before. It Didn't happen without capitalism.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
PERINO: And we didn't have really a chance to talk about that.
WILLIAMS: You know, I think capitalism is great. The other day I was at a ceremony and this young woman came up and said, you know, so many people are down on capitalism, but the reality is if you involve not just profits, quarterly profits, but you start talking about stakeholders, employees, workers, investors, it has made us richer. But I think that's why people are concerned about the high cost of drugs in this country, and the high cost of -- I mean, we have -- we pay twice as much per capita as any country in the world, and yet we have 30 million people who are uninsured. And we know if you get a bad accident, it can be catastrophic for your economic well-being in America.
BILA: Totally unaffordable, though. Medicare for all is unaffordable.
WILLIAMS: I don't think so. I think there's savings involved.
PERINO: Thirty-two trillion.
GUTFELD: All right.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: We'll have an update on Hurricane Michael in a moment. But first, Democrats getting slammed for attacking Republicans, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Welcome back. Democrats taking heat for some recent comments attacking Republicans. As you recall, Hillary Clinton said this yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. That's why I believe if we are fortunate enough to win back the house and/or the senate, that's when civility can start again. But until then, the only thing that the Republicans seem to recognize and respect is strength.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: And former attorney general, Eric Holder, he's doubling down with this comment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC HOLDER, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: It is time for us as Democrats to be as tough as they are, to be as dedicated as they are, to be as committed as they are. Michelle would say, you know, when they go low, we go high. No. No. When they go low, we kick them.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Counselor to the president, Kellyanne Conway, slamming that rhetoric earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: Usually, when she opens her mouth, respectfully, she offends at least one half of the country and she did it again. But I think her discourse now is a little bit dangerous. I don't like the implications there. So I think it's not just unfortunate and graceless but a little bit dangerous. And I would ask her to check that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So I'll go to the gentleman in our midst, Jesse Watters.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: So, she says -- Hillary Clinton says you can't be civil with a party that wants to destroy what you stand for. She's cited the GOP shut down -- I guess by the courts of the 2000 election, the swift voting of John Kerry. Lies, she said that people tell about her, I guess she's referring to the Benghazi episode. How do you respond?
WATTERS: This is what I would say to her. Rand Paul had his ribs cracked open and Steve Scalise was shot. Ricin has been sent to Trump cabinet officials. Anthrax has been sent to Trump family members. A congressional Republican candidate was almost stabbed. People have been chased through restaurants and airports with their families. It's really scary out there. When you add up that in totality, I know you're going to say, Juan, oh, well, Charlottesville or someone shot someone in a pizza parlor, and I condemn those shameful acts. And those are disgusting and they have no place in America. But when you look at numerically attacks on Republicans and the level of attacks. Because these are not just random people in the streets. People that are being attacked on the right are Trump cabinet officials, congressmen, senators, Trump family members. And when you do that to someone, it's an attack on all of Americans, because these are democratically elected officials. You're attacking the republic. You're attacking democracy. It can't stand.
And when the left gives it license by either not condemning it or actively encouraging it, I think they're eventually going to have to be a little bit responsible for some of the dangerous stuff. Because we've been pretty prudent on the show as saying, "You know what? Someone does something crazy, you can't blame a Democrat. You know, people are crazy.
But it's getting pretty close where this rhetoric is getting really, really hot; and something really, as Rand Paul said, is going to happen, and it's going to be bad.
WILLIAMS: Now we go to the gentlewoman from Colorado. You know, I heard Mitch McConnell say, "Oh, so this means that Democrats will leave no peace until they get their way." And of course, in my mind, it was like Mitch McConnell, he's a -- he's a hardball guy.
PERINO: Isn't that what Hillary Clinton just said?
WILLIAMS: But I'm just saying, Mitch McConnell is a hardball player. So it puts the Democrats, Dana, in a position --
PERINO: Mitch McConnell is a strategic and effective player.
WILLIAMS: Well, you can say that from your perspective.
PERINO: But hardball, he's never said something like that. He is effective and that's their problem. They're wasting all of this time. And I think, like, this is not leadership when you're talking about, like, don't be civil. Like really? That's really where they want to go?
And what's happened is I think people have gone from, if you're a conservative or Republican and you're making choices about who you're going to vote for, even if you're on the fence, when it came -- you know the saying, "Better than Hillary." It's now become "Better than any Democrat."
So they have dug themselves in such a hole. Their whole plan has backfired. And then the call for incivility, I don't think that's going to help you win back independent suburban voters.
WILLIAMS: The very civil Mr. Gutfeld.
GUTFELD: I don't think I can improve upon Jesse's list, because that was a very comprehensive list.
I would add Antifa, the rise of fake hate crimes on campus, suspension of due process, defacing private property, calling for assassinations, glorifying the beheading of a president, and chasing Brian Kilmeade.
WATTERS: That's a great list, too.
GUTFELD: But I want to focus mainly on Hillary. It's hard to take a lecture on civility from somebody after the way she treated her husband's alleged victims, which wasn't too civil.
And also, the logic that she -- she's pretending to espouse. Like, "Hey, when we ruin your life, when we create a false allegation about a gang rape -- a gang rape conspiracy, you're free to respond, as long as it's civil." That's what she's saying. I mean, you accused a guy of running a gang rape conspiracy.
PERINO: In high school.
GUTFELD: In high school.
WILLIAMS: Did you -- did you ever watch pro wrestling?
GUTFELD: No.
WILLIAMS: Because I -- there's this dynamic. You know, pro wrestling is like a story. Right?
GUTFELD: Don't tell Tyrus.
PERINO: Oh, boy. Do not save face.
WILLIAMS: And then -- you've got one guy is beating the living daylights out of the other.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WILLIAMS: And he's using all kinds of things. And the ref is looking the other way. That's what it sounds like. You guys are, like, "Oh, it's only the Democrats who play hardball and say horrible --" It's like the Tea Party never existed, never threw a brick through a window.
GUTFELD: They never did! They never threw a brick. No, they didn't.
WILLIAMS: Yes, they did. Ask Louise Slaughter.
BILA: Did you see any leaders of the movement talking like --? I mean, this woman could have been president. She's disgraceful. I think she sounds unhinged.
WILLIAMS: Are you kidding?
BILA: I absolutely think --
WILLIAMS: You think Republicans didn't defend Tea Party behavior?
BILA: No, I have never heard -- have you heard Mitt Romney say stuff like this?
WILLIAMS: Oh, I heard -- I heard --
BILA: Telling people that you only need to be civil if you're in a position of power. That's outrageous. She's basically saying, "Hey, if you're losing elections, if you're out there and you're struggling, you're entitled to cause massive unrest." This is coming from someone who could have been president. She should be embarrassed to be saying that.
WILLIAMS: I think I've heard the president of the United States say fine people were involved in the mob action in Charlottesville.
GUTFELD: No, no, no, you got it wrong.
BILA: No, come on.
WILLIAMS: Why is that?
BILA: This is -- they're going on a tour, her and her husband. You're going to have her out there telling people, "Be -- don't be civil." And you're going to have Bill Clinton out there lecturing people on the #MeToo movement. Sounds like a great -- great combination.
GUTFELD: No, when he says "me, too," he's at the bar, looking at the women. Me, too. Me, too.
WILLIAMS: All right. The latest on the monstrous Hurricane Michael. That's just ahead for you on "The Five."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: FOX News alert. Catastrophic Category 3 Hurricane Michael still beating down on the Florida Panhandle. The latest from our live team FOX coverage. Correspondents Phil Keating on the ground in Florida and chief meteorologist Rick Reichmuth from the Weather Center.
Let's go to Phil Keating in Apalachicola, Florida.
PHIL KEATING, FOX NEWS: Hey, Jesse.
Apalachicola was just east of where the hurricane, Cat 4, 155-mile-an-hour Hurricane Michael made landfall around 2 p.m. And so we were on the dirtier side of the storm. More rain, more wind, more storm surge.
And take a look. Good news is the rain has stopped, the winds have significantly died down, and the water is receding. However, much of this town all on low-lying areas. In fact, most of the county, Franklin County, low-lying. So low-lying everybody was ordered to evacuate mandatorily. Of course, not everybody did. That's always the case.
But the water is finally receding here. Everybody remains under a stay-in- shelter order, meaning if you didn't evacuate, you stayed in your house, don't leave your house until we tell you you can. Sunrise to sunset. That is the curfew that remains in effect, absolutely mandatory. And that will trigger in just a couple of hours.
That's the Apalachicola River over there to your left. It flows from screen left to screen right all the way towards that bridge. Beyond the bridge is the Gulf of Mexico, and that's the natural outflow of the river.
Well, all morning and afternoon long, the river was being blown and pushed back upstream because of the super-high hurricane winds. The last recorded-mile-per-hour I saw from Apalachicola was 87 miles an hour, but I'm certain gusts were stronger than that, because there were periods of hellacious impact weather that we were standing in and being hit by. So it was pushing all that water upstream beyond Apalachicola. So in the next hours, days, we will have seen and it will reveal how much flooding all of that created here and not only here but far east of us and beyond.
The storm surge here was supposed to be 9 to 13 feet. It was 9 feet officially as the highest reading that we got for Apalachicola. But east of here, definitely other parts of the coastline which, fortunately, is very sparsely populated. So fewer people impacted. There's a lot of forest land, state and national. But a lot of the storm surge remains to be revealed.
Search and rescue teams have now been deployed by helicopter and boat, by the Bay County Sheriff's Office. That's Panama City, which took a heavy hit, as well. We're expecting Franklin County, where we are, to also deploy the search teams now that the weather is decent enough. Get your high-profile vehicles, ATVs and shallow-draft boats, you can really get around.
We don't know yet whether there are any fatalities here, but with a storm and hurricane of this magnitude, it would most likely be a sure thing at this point. But a lot of work to be done to see what the damage is over the next day or two -- Jesse.
WATTERS: All right. Phil, thanks for the reporting.
Now to FOX News chief meteorologist Rick Reichmuth in the Weather Center. What's going on there, Rick?
RICK REICHMUTH, FOX NEWS: Hey, Jesse.
It's really interesting. One thing that Phil just said, and that is when the water goes, then it will reveal what happened. We've already been getting incredible images and video out of so many places showing the damage there. But it often takes till that water is gone until you can get into all of the locations and really get a good sense of the damage.
It will certainly be extreme because of this storm. It's one of the strongest that we've ever had come on shore, really anywhere in the U.S., not just here in the Panhandle. Moving pretty quickly, that's kind of the good news of this storm, however, because it came onshore so strong at 155 miles an hour. It takes a long time for that energy to go away. And now it's just crossing in towards southwestern Georgia. Right there is the center of the storm right now. Came on at 155. But we still have officially from the National Hurricane Center 125-mile-an-hour storm all the way in towards Georgia.
Here's how this plays out historically. Strongest by wind, making landfall in the U.S. It's the fourth strongest that we've ever seen. As far as pressure goes, the central pressure of the storm, 919 millibars, that puts it as the third most intense storm that we've ever had make landfall anywhere in the U.S.
I will tell you this also. Hard to believe this did come very quickly. Just had a couple of days for it to grow. Water temperatures out here in the Gulf are around two to four degrees above average for this time of year, and that just gave it the fuel. Hard to predict that that was going to happen, though.
Still seeing the winds here. I will tell you, a lot of the wind measurements here got blown out. So it's very difficult to get that verification right there. But they did test 155 miles an hour when that came onshore -- Jesse.
WATTERS: Wow, Rick, thank you. A lot of records being set.
REICHMUTH: Yes.
WATTERS: All right. Don't go anywhere. "Wild Card Wednesday" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PERINO: And now a brand-new edition of "Wild Card Wednesday." We each picked a topic and put them in this hat. None of us know the stories each other selected, but everybody said they picked a good one. So I will start with this one. Here we go. Greg's hoping that it's his.
I've got a new poll finds just one in three Americans can pass U.S. citizenship test. This is mine. A poll revealing an age discrepancy, revealing 74 percent of respondents 65 and older passed, compared to only 19 percent of people 45 or under. This isn't to make fun of them.
GUTFELD: No.
PERINO: This is to say, America, pull it together. We can do this.
WATTERS: I did it to make fun of them. We watched 12 "Watters' World," and I can show you this poll is accurate. We've asked people what "The Star-Spangled Banner" was, who the Founding Fathers were, how many colonies there were.
PERINO: Yes.
WATTERS: No one knows.
GUTFELD: You don't need it. You've got your phone. This -- all this stuff is being put on your phone.
BILA: "#DoNotDisturb," Greg. Thank you for that lead-in.
WILLIAMS: But you know, I mean, like last week, we were just intense about Kavanaugh and the Supreme Court.
GUTFELD: Yes.
WILLIAMS: And you know, most Americans don't know how many people are on the Supreme Court.
GUTFELD: I learned the word "cloture." I've never heard of it.
PERINO: We need to bring cloture to that one, because I have another one.
A woman was kicked off a flight after bringing an emotional support squirrel onto the plane.
BILA: Aww.
PERINO: She noted in her reservation that she was bringing it. She didn't indicate it was a squirrel. And Frontier Airlines only allows dogs or cats, not unusual or exotic animals.
WATTERS: There she is flipping the bird.
PERINO: Any guess?
WATTERS: She brought the bird on.
PERINO: A guess who chose this one?
BILA: I can't imagine who picked it.
PERINO: Greg?
WATTERS: No, that was actually me.
BILA: Why'd she bring a squirrel?
WATTERS: Because I've had a woman with an emotional support squirrel on my show, so I have sympathy. But you've got to have a dog or, like, a kangaroo. Something fuzzy and warm and nonthreatening. People are terrified of squirrels.
GUTFELD: But because also, the squirrel had brought an emotionally support reptile. That was, like, the problem.
WATTERS: The squirrel had an emotional support chameleon?
BILA: Squirrels are so cute. They're like little munchkin --
PERINO: So here's one more. Al Gore dropped a surprise endorsement for a penguin four weeks ahead of the midterms. This is, like, really stupid -- on -- for a congressional candidate. He's trying to, you know, bring attention --
WATTERS: Don't insult the other host's picks.
PERINO: No, I'm insulting the former vice president of the United States.
WILLIAMS: I thought she was insulting me.
PERINO: No, no.
WATTERS: Are penguins left after global warming?
WILLIAMS: Earth. The idea is to get young people locked into discussions about the environment, especially after this week with President Trump's not paying attention to the U.N. noted the difficulty with --
GUTFELD: With Gore, it's like about Earth and more about girth.
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: Yes, yes, yes. I've got time for one more.
Michael Avenatti wants to fight Donald Trump Jr. in the octagon for charity. The two have a rivalry, and they want to take it to the ring. This is yours?
GUTFELD: Yes, and I'll tell you why I picked this one. He uses people in order to camouflage his quest for fame. So he used Stormy to get to the spotlight. He used the gang rape accuser to the spotlight. And now he's using a charity to get to the spotlight. And he goes, "Oh, it's only about charity." He'll do anything to stay in the spotlight. It's almost clever.
PERINO: The Republicans should encourage it.
WATTERS: And I think Junior would knock him out.
GUTFELD: Yes. Yes, with his hair. With his hair.
PERINO: I can -- they said I have time for the last one. Hotel forced to apologize for sexist ad of couple enjoying breakfast in bed. I think we have a picture of it here.
BILA: Yes.
WATTERS: What's sexist about that?
PERINO: Seemingly innocent ad of a young couple enjoying breakfast in bed has led to a hotel, they've had to apologize.
BILA: They think it's sexist --
WATTERS: Why?
BILA: -- because she is reading a Chanel coffee book, and he's reading the Financial --
PERINO: Review.
BILA: -- Review.
PERINO: The Australian Financial Review.
BILA: And they said, who's to assume that women can't read the Financial Review? And all the fruit was on her side, and he had all the bagels and bread. So does that imply that women eat a certain way?
I mean, come on, man.
PERINO: They forced them to apologize.
GUTFELD: Juan -- this is your fault, Juan. I blame you.
WILLIAMS: How is this my fault? I'm innocent. First you call me stupid, now it's my fault. How is this my fault?
GUTFELD: I have no reason to blame you, but I have to blame you.
WILLIAMS: you know what?
PERINO: Never apologize.
WILLIAMS: Spears, the spears. I've got to take lessons from Trump. Yes.
PERINO: All right. "One More Thing" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: "One More Thing" -- Jesse.
WATTERS: OK. Andre Righetti (ph) is a freestyle skier over in Europe. I don't even know where, but in Europe. And he's got a really ridiculous training regimen. Check this out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MAN JUMPING THROUGH CHALLENGING OBSTACLE COURSE IN GYM)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Drop the chyron, please.
Look at this. Look what he does. Look what he does.
BILA: What?
WATTERS: People make fun of skiers. They say they're not athletes. This guy is training for the Olympics. Look at the dynamic skill set here. Look at the agility, look at the balance, look at the focus.
PERINO: You don't see any golfers doing that.
WATTERS: Look at this. Look at that.
BILA: That's amazing.
GUTFELD: That's like a Rube Goldberg device.
WATTERS: Look at -- trampoline.
PERINO: Wow. That's mesmerizing.
BILA: I love it.
GUTFELD: This is how he gets to work.
PERINO: Did you watch it all day?
WATTERS: I watched this twice.
WILLIAMS: It's amazing.
BILA: It's like an obstacle course.
WATTERS: He's got a balance beam. He's got some exercise balls on there.
PERINO: Wow.
BILA: I want to do it. I don't think we'd --
WATTERS: I didn't know if I could make it past, maybe the first stop.
BILA: I'd try. I would definitely try.
WILLIAMS: I love it. Talk about core strength.
WATTERS: Core strength, there it is.
WILLIAMS: That man is going.
GUTFELD: I think that's just disgusting. He should be ashamed of himself.
Dana.
PERINO: Well, we haven't talked about Brett Kavanaugh --
GUTFELD: No, we haven't.
PERINO: -- in this episode. So I wanted to bring it back up. But, Lindsey -- Senator Lindsey Graham is now the kind of unsung hero.
GUTFELD: Yes.
PERINO: But he's kind of being sung now, a sung hero. All these video mashups are popping up all over Twitter, taking his interaction with a protester and putting it to music. I'm going to play you one from Credence Clearwater. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM ADJUSTING TIE AND SMILING WHILE WALKING AWAY FROM PROTESTORS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PERINO: We have been watching these all day. There's about 80. And it goes all kinds of music from AC/DC to James brown, something for everyone. If you've got a few hours to watch, you can check them out.
GUTFELD: All right. I've got to promote my podcast, which is a fantastic one. You go to FOXNewsPodcasts.com, or you can go to iTunes, I believe. I interview Doctor -- Professor Gad Saad. He's an evolutionary behavioral scientist. It's very -- it's a great half-an-hour interview about the behavior of the population when faced with a mob. How do people react when they're accused and what you can do. It's a really -- it's really impressive.
PERINO: Was there something that surprised you that he said?
GUTFELD: No. There's just a lot of science, a lot of science. And it's just very interesting.
BILA: Every now and then --
PERINO: Is it really a mob?
GUTFELD: Well, no, we call them mobsters.
PERINO: OK.
GUTFELD: That's a better way of putting it.
So anyway, where are we going to. Is it -- Juan.
WILLIAMS: All right. All right, so I'm sure you heard of a mic drop. That's when a comedian tells their best joke and then drops the mic. Well, what about in a political debate? Take a look at this one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MAN DROPS MIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BILA: Whoa.
WILLIAMS: Dropped that mic in the midst of a public library debate preceding in the Minnesota legislature. There was a question about inflation. The Republican incumbent, Duane Quam answers first. Then his challenger, Jamie Mahlberg, took her turn. But Quam wanted more time, so he took the microphone out of Mahlberg's hand to give the question another try, and when he was finished, boom, he dropped the mic in front of her.
This video has become a hit on YouTube, people laughing at the outright silliness that goes on in American political debate.
PERINO: I think it's rude.
WATTERS: Maybe he's going to lose.
BILA: Yes. Maybe he should.
WILLIAMS: I don't know. He's the incumbent guy.
GUTFELD: All right. Jedediah, it's up to you to finish this show on a high point.
BILA: High point. My new book is now out.
GUTFELD: There you go.
WILLIAMS: Yay!
BILA: "#DoNotDisturb," it is out, and I am doing a signing in New York City on the Upper East Side, on 86th Street, at the Barnes & Noble, October 11 -- that's tomorrow -- 7 p.m. We're doing a Q&A. I'm going to do a discussion. I want FOX News people to come.
GUTFELD: You've got to go, because she's going to be outnumbered.
BILA: Thank you for supporting my former book. I'm just making sales all day.
Listen, I take on Greg's robot revolution. Personal responsibility warriors. I need you to buy this book. You've got to help me. I'm taking on --
GUTFELD: Can I tell you my favorite part of the book?
BILA: Yes. Sure.
No, no, no. He picks the most salacious part of the book, and he's been bothering me all day.
PERINO: Salacious sells.
BILA: There's a lot of dirt in the book.
GUTFELD: There's a section in that book --
BILA: There's a lot of dirt in the book.
GUTFELD: -- and it's a must read. I've got to tell you.
WILLIAMS: I was telling Jedediah that the Mormons -- apparently Mormon leadership has told Mormon women to take a ten-day diet. No selfies.
BILA: It's like a digital detox. Yes.
PERINO: Like a cleanse.
BILA: It's really good. It's -- it is my passion project, and it's going to make you a better, healthier person. And all those people on social media that are driving you crazy, you've got to figure out why that's happening, how to avoid it. I give you the best steps. I'm telling you, you're going to thank me. You've got to go and you've got to show up, because you know what? I've got a lot of liberals that are going to show up, and they're going to harass me. Someone's going to be there.
GUTFELD: Exactly.
PERINO: Congratulations.
GUTFELD: Well done. OK. Set your DVRs. What are those? Never miss an episode of "The Five." "Special Report" is up next.
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