lath hurricane irma battling florida bringing more wind, rain and damage. >> the storm downgraded to category 1 storm but the danger is not over yet. heather: you're watching early edition of "fox & friends first", i'm heather childers. >> and i'm todd, has left half of the state without power. heather: griff jenkins and brian

llenes tracking the storm. >> emergency crews are ready to hit the ground running this morning. julian, good morning. >> good morning, today and heather to you as well. i think a lot of people in tampa waking up feeling relieved that we did not see what was left anyway of the eye of the storm. take a look, people are still waking up with a lot of damage, you're seeing a lot of wind and a little bit of localized flooding, this is a palm tree blocking the entire intersections avenue. we actually drove a block down the other way about halfway up the street, you saw the same situation, you will see a lot of down trees, you will see a lot of debris out there. just in the 35 minutes or so we have been along the bay shore, we saw cops pass by four times, our cops asked near our crew and asked if we needed anything. they are assessing damage, 30 minutes before that i saw fire

rescue truck. they are out and about this morning. i mention we are on bay shore. this is an area that typically floods. i want to show you video that we came out to this location exactly and shot yesterday and i had a phone conversation with janice dean about it. i was in awe of what was going on and so were so many people around here. the winds actually pushed basically all of the water out of this portion of the bay, anyway, and you could just see the bottom. people are actually walking literally on the ground of the bay yesterday, it was insane to see. i will tell you the water levels are back to normal right now but we are expecting high tide at some point in the next hour or so so we are going to keep an eye for more flooding in this area. of course, we will remain safe because you don't know what the flooding is going to look like. things will continue to change throughout the morning and dealing with wind as well, we will keep you updated as the changes. >> those shots of individuals walking on the bay where water was absolutely hours before,

absolutely stunning, julian, thank you so much for the coverage thus far. heather: thanks to hurricane irma. >> cities under a lockdown after fears of looting. heather: more on chaos and destruction from monster storm there. good morning, brian. >> good morning, heather and todd, in complete darkness right now. take a look at some of the damage, most of it is this, down trees which is keeping people from getting down in roads, down power lines, that's a traffic light and the power lines, a danger situation which is why the curfew was 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., all around florida we've got -- south florida, we got 90 to 100-miles-per-hour gusts yesterday despite being

135 miles away was intense here. we had 3-foot surge, miami beach flooding, not opening till tuesday at noon. miami airport only doing limited flights starting on tuesday. there's lots of down power lines and down trees and now the miami-dade and much of south florida without power and then we continue to show you this. we were live when panels were falling off the tallest building in miami, 6'panels flying off after the storm, remember, it is the dangerous part in which most people get hurt is after the storm when you think you're okay but there's tons of debris. the other concern we have been seeing, lots of police patrols in this neighborhood for looters, that's right, looters, we have videos of looters in foot locker in miami, unbelievable. people taking advantage of

situation down here and miami police department tweeting with a photo of looters, they have caught 28 looters thus far warning other looters that they are next if they continue. that is the latest here in a dark miami-dade county and the restoration begins, guys. >> all right, brian llenes, live. >> live in the weather center of where the storm is going and what is next in terms of other storms. heather: another right behind it. >> let's talk about that very quickly. obviously concentration is on irma but we do have josé and the big question mark on the storm, this is a major hurricane out in the atlantic, look how close it's coming to the caribbean over the next five days we will have to watch this obviously as it gets closer to the u.s. right now i don't have estimation if it will make landfall but we will watch it. irma is category 1 storm, we saw winds in excess of 140 miles per

hour, those are wind gusts but those are category 4 wind gusts, naples, florida, 142 miles per hour, we are seeing devastation in naples, florida this morning. the radar now, the bulk of the highest concentration of winds is now moving through central and northern florida, gainesville, you see the yellows and the oranges on your screen, daytona beach as well. that's where we have the core of those very strong hurricane forced winds, also with the right front quadrant of the storm, we have seen tornado reports, dozens of them within the last 48 hours and we still have a tornado watch in effect, we are going to continue to see ongoing tornado threats throughout the day today for north florida as well as georgia, the carolinas and kentucky. storm reports, we heard of tornado damage in and around the miami area. the storm damage is going to potentially continue. there's the future radar, by the way, we have the first ever

tropical storm warping for -- warning for atlanta, georgia area. that has never happened in meteorology history. heather: thank you, janice. >> as power punch goes up the coast, the path of destruction causing rapidly rising life-threatening water levels. heather: could climb up to 15 feet, the biggest threat in naples, florida, that's where griff jenkins picks up team coverage for us. he joins us live on the phone. griff, how is it looking right now? >> hey, heather and todd, total carnage, communication is at a minimum. we couldn't get up on this thing. it's pitch black. we are feet from the beach. it's absolutely a mess, thousands of down trees, down signs, home destruction. we are literally in a mind

field. it is a mess. [inaudible] >> we haven't seen another single person, we haven't seen a single light on here but what we are standing in 4 feet of water. [inaudible] >> 5 or 6 miles inland. it is just absolutely -- the power lines are down. it's a mess here, guys. as you can hear, the wind is still -- todd: make sure you're safe because the wind sounds absolutely horrible.

griff jenkins live from naples. hurricanes have so many things that can really go wrong during them in houston it was all about the flooding and now yes, we did see flooding in naples but the wind, oh, my goodness. heather: the storm surge possibility of up to 15 feet, no lights on, 3.3 to 3.6 million people without power, all of those people that had to evacuate to 7 million people. the largest mass evacuation in u.s. history. it's going to be a long time in terms of recovery in getting all those people back in place. todd: this is going to take infrastructure rebuild to get everything back online. heather: time now is 9 minutes after the top of the hour and rapid response, president trump promising to visit the flood ravaged state of florida. >> we are going to florida very soon. heather: first lady just

weighed in as well. todd: caught on camera mission to rescue two people who decided to ride out the storm

i think we are very well coordinated. todd: president trump vowed to go to florida, he spent this weekend with cabinet and monitoring the storm.

hurricane irma briefing by fema, thank you to first responders, stay safe. it's unclear exactly when the president will head to florida. in the meantime hurricane's raft will cancel house in case some members are stuck in florida and cannot make. house is rescheduling votes for tomorrow evening. the senate still plans to vote today. heather: deadly hurricane irma climbing up florida's west coast overnight, the storm so strong that rescuers had to be called off the roads in some of the areas leaving residents to fend for themselves. todd: jeff flock picks up team coverage, jeff, what's the situation there. jeff: yeah, we are still out here in the gulf, this is the backside of the storm. it's pretty amazing when you see the enormity of this over the entire peninsula of florida as well as the keys. this is madera beach which is a

barrier island in st. petersburg. i don't know if you're able to see. let's take a walk if we can to see if we -- water is coming in. are you okay? but now with the backside of the storm we are getting it now off the gulf and so the water is coming back in and that's where you get the storm surge, yesterday, whoa, watch yourself. yesterday the storm surge hit places like naples. >> he's up there. jeff: okay. where is bob? up top? i don't know if you can see. this is where the storm is now surging in. i don't know if bob is up there and and if he can see it. this is john's path. this was cause bid hurricane many years ago, look at the boat, these guys weathered it

out, it's a wild ride, that's a fishing boat. that's the latest from madera beach. we will see if it's any worse than what we have already. heather: that's exactly why they are telling people not to go out until the sun comes up because you can't see what you're walking into. jeff, be careful out there. jeff: good point, i agree. heather: tampa is now under mandatory and indefinite curfew. todd: the city concerned from everything from down power lines, from sewage and toxins. heather: good morning, mike. >> good morning, guys, a short distance from jeff flock. there was so much fear about the hurricane making a direct hit on tampa with devastating

consequences, but we are here through the worst of it last night, there was a lot of rain, a lot of wind, there was enough rain to fill up the streets here but not so much rain that it overwhelmed the storm drains, as i look behind me, the streets are dry and you see debris, but that's pretty much dead drove, it goes to phase two, the storm surge, a lot of attention being paid to that. as you mentioned in the intro, the curfew remains in effect right now. here is the mayor on that. >> i'm serious about that and tampa police is serious about that. if you don't need to be out, don't go out. we will be very aggressive with anybody who we find looting. >> military vehicles are staging now outside of raymond james stadium. we see the teco electric trucks

staging last night getting ready to what they presumed to be a major task of rebuilding the grid but as you look up behind me now the lights are still on. we saw the lights flicker in the tampa area, unaware of any power outages and where we stand right now, other neighborhoods i've been to, the power is still on, we are all concerned about phase two now. guys, back to you. todd: mike live for us in tampa, mike, thank you. look at the difference on conditions of mike's shots and jeff flock's, wow. heather: who knows what is next. hopefully they're in the clear at this point. todd: that's the reason why you have to stick with up. 18 minutes after the hour. heather: change of plans, national guard members deployed

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bit of trouble in touch screen, but that's okay because we still have a lot to talk about. what we are going to see right here is a video, false screen of it. there we go. this is video, this is unbelievable of a couple being rescued after they decided to ride out the storm on their boat. this is shocking footage. as you can see in the background, the waters are extremely choppy, the rescue workers should have never been put in that situation but the rescue effort was successful. good news on that front. also on social media, a lot of updates from politicians who are working pretty tirelessly right now. this is a tweet from florida governor rick scott who thanked the president for quickly committing federal fund to go help floridans, absolutely necessary right now, this from vice president mike pence, he said the president sent me to tell them that wherever

hurricane irma goes, we will be there first to rescue, recover and rebuild, so that should be very comforting to a lot of people in florida in the surrounding areas right now and also this tweet from president george h.w. bush, americans have answered the call to help with hurricane recovery, praying for all floridans. nice message from the former president there. one of the most surprising things about the storm is that the winds were so strong that it actually sucked some of the water away from the shoreline but what that did was put animals in a tough spot. manatee stranded on the shoreline and people got together to try to save the guy's life and they successfully did just that. they wrapped animal in a tarp and dragged it 100 meters to deeper waters.

so many good souls and another tweet says, thank you to all that are helping the animals affected by hurricane irma. we cannot forget about those animals that are having a rough go at it today. some people are just determined to go on with their lives despite the devastating effects of the storm. you're looking at two of those people. this is a couple o. they're actually national guard member who is were suppose today get married next weekend but they were sent to florida instead so they decide today get married yesterday, a rush wedding, they had the whole white wedding planned out, they got married in convention center instead. a lot of people are thanking the brave people who are working hard right now. sarah says couple goals, thank you for your service. unforgettable wedding that. i'm sure it was just that, congrats to the happy people. nancy says, finally a good story

out of all of this, congratulations. heather, todd, of course, we see the best of people during the worst of times. that's exactly what we are seeing in social media during hurricane harvey and throughout the weekend as well. heather: we like those type of stories. carley: absolutely. why not? todd: 26 minutes after the hour and remembering 9/11, 16th anniversary of tragic attacks. we are live at ground zero remembering those who lost their lives. heather: plus millions in florida waking up to destruction as crews hit the ground running as continuing coverage of hurricane irma continues live up next. ♪

>> >> >> >> >> a fox news breaking alert

the hurricane pattering florida. >> the storm has been downgraded to category one but the danger is not over yet as many prepare for irma's punch. >> we begin to live in naples where the streets have turned into rivers reporter: good morning. the situation continues that it is an absolute ghost town you can see just behind me a totally downed sign for the girl she storm or the cbs. one of the main thoroughfares and

communications there is nobody in their the only light we have seen driving around for more than an hour that it seems to be the neon sign of of paying for the stairwell literally the only light we see. millions are waking up to no power we are under curfew but that does not matter if you do wake up there is no power or a light i cannot emphasize enough hundreds of thousands of trees just littering their roads officials said yesterday's debt of the road and that is the case. i remember a couple of days before this began starting in miami in the said likely one of the biggest restoration of power in history and that is the

case. i heard reports of cruz out but that is not the case. we have not seen a single person. it was a flood the event. weird scene that it was a win the event because things are literally in -- littering the road. heather: since you covered hurricane harvey now with hurricane irma can you compare and contrast the community?. >> without a wide view of the flooding but my impression this was a win the event with a storm surge where harvey was catastrophic flood event houston is a flood prone area perhaps this not so much and also 51 inches in

houston may be 20 at the most in this area. todd: an amazing comparison. the city of tampa under a mandatory curfew. nobody is to be on the streets until further notice until they assess the damage. heather: rescuers are back on eroded daybreak but now we pick up the live team coverage in tampa. good morning reporter: ride along the shore boulevard another to officers have passed us they're all looking to see if anybody needs help. we haven't seen anybody else look behind me you can see though water definitely back to normal levels but we are expecting a high tide.

no significant flooding along bayshore boulevards but that does not mean it will lot have been. it is still not a bad idea to come on in your house to check it out. a little bit of rain and some cast nothing compared to last night looked at the video that we shot last night. >> it is midnight here 61 miles per hour with a wind gust we are dealing with the rain and the wind but it can be pretty strong. we have seen a ton of transformers blowing. >> we shot that to give you an idea what the residents are looking at obverses this morning you can tell the difference of the video. last couple of hours have improved drastically.

heather: that is good news. will it continue? now let's go to the weather center reporter: we will still see there marine band in the tampa area but the surge story has diminished because the storm is weakening and moving inland. not to say we're not getting hurricane force winds gust on the eastern side of daytona beach for orlando with the tornado threat that is ongoing. this is a very large storm extending 200 miles from the center with the tropical forests will and as long as hurricane force wind. ongoing from today through northeast florida through georgia and hurricane warnings for millions of people in central florida up into georgia the first time in history atlanta georgia

is under a tropical storm warning. and definitely somme rainfall in the next couple of hours. we will give you the latest but thankfully the storm is weakening and will continue to do so on its trajectory over 24 hours we will talk about jose and the atlantic as well. todd: a busy hurricane season. heather: hurricane irma carving a path of destruction through the heart of miami. we are life in miami with the chaos and destruction from the storm there. good morning bryan llenas reporter: we are in a neighborhood outside of downtown miami with a developing situation we had passed up at 100 miles per

hour they knocked down trees they will get in the way of people getting back to their homes and tire roadways completely blocked off. road after row after row in miami dade county and brought word even palm beach county. the developing situation you can see a bus that was meant to pick up utility workers in fort lauderdale to get power restored but the paul -- the problem is is stock he cannot even get into this part of the neighborhood he is having a tough time trying to weave around of trees so they will start restoring power but now that bus is stock so imagine this

situation throughout the day todd: that is unreal. so many people there to help but like we said earlier this will not just be fixed in a few days it will take massive infrastructure. so now we are commemorating the anniversary of the 11. we are my background is euronext. heather: national guard now preparing to go to restore ravaged florida in the man leading that charge. we will talk with him next.

heather: welcome back thousands of national guard soldiers headed to florida as recovery efforts begin. todd: we have the response of the of brigadier-general

from the florida national guard and joins us on the phone. good to talk to again monday begin by asking how or your team is doing right now?. >> right now they're doing well. this is where governor scott begins to pay off. to everybody that was sheltered and ready to operate so nothing will hold us back. but the reports the you have made with respect to those conditions on the road. heather: you have manpower. 30,000 troops so what is the equipment you can use?. >> 8,000 soldiers and airmen from the national guard, and that number is pretty accurate and active duty

partners are also coming with different equipment of course the primary equipment is that we have pre-positioned many of those prior to the storm but a lot of those other forces coming to you joining us would be additional engineering with security and the actual clearance for the citizens. todd: brigadier-general what is your strategy when the sun comes up?. >> we have already made contact with the counties in south florida. we were doing this as the storm was clearing.

so we will touch base to make sure they are k to get the initial assessments. then once with day go through that a normal process we will begin assigning missions so we can begin recovery. heather: we'll let you get to work we appreciate you joining us and keeping us up today. thank you. also today marks 16 years since the 9/11 attacks in new york city and pennsylvania and new york city and washington d.c.. >> honoring those who lost their lives with a sacrifice to save others. joining us live from ground

zero is former veteran pete. >> 16 years ago a plot hatched by al qaeda happened right here on this site with the two towers was now the freedom tower. but 16 years ago the flights that headed out from boston and dallas and new york headed out with 19 terrorist crashing into four different targets here in lower manhattan also the pentagon as well as pennsylvania before the patriots took it down. there will be a ceremony hear we will follow when they read the names that have fallen for when the north tower in the south tower hit and when they fell and when the planes struck the pentagon and the fateful flight 93 the day that changed our lives in the man

who'd killed osama for those said attacked our country and a 11 so to touch an entire generation we are covering all aspects in remember rita he rose that day police officers said military personnel to save others on that day. i am honored to be here we will bring it to you all morning long on fox and friends. todd: 46 minutes after the hour trying to get out of a hurricane irma path and in the florida keys to ride out the storm. >> we do have high wind right out and read understand. heather: we will see how he made out of next.

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. >> it is ripping off of there now. we were going to try to walk to the beach but it is not happening. todd: will get that our senior correspondent olmos blown over. heather: that is not happening. [laughter] with the of bridge closure say of tornado watches now he is like for us in daytona beach with the latest reel able to make it down there? reporter: it hasn't got much better. i thought it would lead up

but we're told now we will have a few more hours of this the best is pretty impressive with a lot of rain but to at his it is too much to handle because the power lines are down with those flood waters they're encouraging people to stay off the streets there is a curfew in the fact and we have not seen a car in the hours. between the beach and the mainly and it is closed with those tropical storm force winds can determine the fate there is a lot of stuff flying around that parking sign is a good example. across the street there ruth of the domino's if you just want to look this way there

is a design on atlantic avenue i know this does not compare to the west coast but there is a lot of damage here to deal with in the days and weeks ahead with the power outages as well. we visited the storm down the block with a the window blew out so the stuff in there is wet and ruined with ridiculously relentless conditions. then they can get out to assess the damages but these utility workers will be repairing the downed power lines and is in is they get to the point where they can travel they will head to their trucks over the state there are millions of people and customers without power. it will take awhile to get back carmine.

heather: we heard 75% of the state. todd: live from daytona beach if they think the east coast and did not get hit. heather: from one coast to the other coast of florida. todd: 53 minutes after the hour the crews are ready to rescue those from the monster storm you are watching fox and friends first.

. .

♪ >> oh. heather: it is monday, september 11th, and this is a fox news alert. breaking overnight, hurricane irma battering florida bringing more wind, more rain and damage. todd: storm downgraded to a category 1. the danger is not over yet. heather: you are watching

"fox & friends first" i'm heather childers. todd: i'm todd piro. it has left more than 4 million people without power. heather: we have fox news team coverage for you live all across the state. brian jenkins, janice dean. todd: we begin with jillian mele with emergency crews already to hit the ground running. good morning. jillian: good morning todd and heather. we moved over to davis island. we wanted to give a grand scope of what is going on it is raining right now. winds are picking up a little bit. i know it is dark out here but you can see debris along the roadways. nothing significant just yet. wait until we get up here a little closer. you will be able to see we have a pretty big downed tree in this area, completely uprooted if we come over here for a second. we made a call to the sheriff's office to find out if they were making any emergency responses, emergency rescues anything like that. they didn't have anything

specific to give us. right now we are scouring the area, taking a look oat what is going on. take a oak over here real quick. i mean, that's wind damage, that's what you are looking at right now. this is the type of damage that people are waking up to. i realize that a lot of people in this area are waking up here not seeing significant flooding right now but that mean it's safe to come outside. the wind as i mentioned has picked up and rain as well. we will keep you posted. todd: jillian mele live for us in tampa. heather: thanks, jillian. todd: as the path climbs up the coast destruction causing rapidly rising water levels. heather: the stowrges we have been talking about them a lot. they could climb up to 15 feet. the biggest threat in naples, florida. and that is where griff jenkins stands by. he picks up our team coverage from there. griff? >> good morning, guys. you know, collier county emergency management put out on twitter overnight stay sheltered in place. the roads are impassable.

don't come out. that is certainly the case as we wake up today. we haven't seen a single person. the roads are absolutely littered with trees. downed power lines and we have learned that 90% of collier county is without power this morning. it is as you can see the sign behind me just crushed. knocked down. every road is like it. we haven't seen any car or emergency management people out here. we yesterday talked to. so folks in and around the area where we were after the event who had ridden out that storm as the eye passed, which bass just terrifying between 4:00 and 5:00 yesterday. here's what one young man who stayed with his parents, it was his first hurricane ever, but he stayed with his parents to try to help them survive. his name is jack. here is what he had to say. >> there was a solid probably like 15 minutes wh