good morning, america. breaking news for our viewers in the west. hurricane irma envelopes florida. the deadly storm plows through the state making landfall with wind gusts topping 140 miles an hour. blinding rain dumping more than a foot of water. the devastating storm leaves a trail of destruction coast to coast across florida. >> it's just total devastation. >> the keys battling a direct hit. boats tossed onto roads. parts of miami underwater. streets turned to rushing rivers. construction cranes dangling off the tops of buildings and tornadoes tearing through. >> the storm hitting jacksonville this morning. millions across the state losing power. searching for clean water. and the incredible rescues overnight. survivors of this terrifying storm now speaking out on "gma." and now the new path of irma. atlanta in its path. the entire state of georgia now in a state of emergency.

david muir, amy robach and our abc news team spread out across the storm zone. a special edition of "gma" starts right now. and good morning, america. we are live for our viewers in the west. that is our drone footage of naples, florida, this morning. look at that devastation. it has been a tough morning for so many in florida. irma has been downgraded to a tropical storm, and not a hurricane. it has led a path of destruction across there. they are seeing record storm surge, and you see that water. >> at one point, the entire state of florida was covered by the storm. such a massive force, and now it's barrelling toward atlanta, and they are facing a tropical storm warning there. we are now just starting so see images from the areas hardest hit, that being the florida keys. >> here's what we know right now. irma has claimed at least five lives in florida, 27 across the caribbean. it was a category 4 storm when

it made landfall in florida, wind gusts topping 140 miles an hour. this morning, more than 5 million customers are without power in that state. >> "world news tonight" anchor, david muir, leading our coverage on the ground. he has been throughout the storm, and our amy robach is there as well. she is in the keys for us. >> our chief meteorologist, ginger zee, has been tracking irma from the beginning. she starts us off with the latest on his path now. good morning, ginger. >> reporter: good morning to you and everyone pels. you talked about jacksonville. look at this image from above. you can see almost 5 feet or more than in some places of storm surge coming on land. the region gets 6 to 12 inches of rain overnight, and that's why we have a flash flood emergency in the city of jacksonville. 125 rescues there in orange county, florida. still parts of georgia and south carolina. the rain shield is on the northeast side, and that will stay that way.

much of georgia has to look out for significant rain as this tropical storm makes its way toward alabama. it will welcome a low into tuesday, and early wednesday, and we can stop talking about it. you have to see this. the timing is for tonight for atlanta. it will be flying through central and northern alabama, and of course, georgia, and you can see right there, up to 8 inches. >> it is headed that way. thank you. tropical storm irma is hitting tallahassee, and jacksonville. our steve osunsami is there for us. good morning, steve. >> reporter: good morning to you, robin. the rain hasn't stopped for hours, and we're feeling these wind gusts that are blowing. i want you to take a look at the trees behind me. this is one of the big dangers and as this continues to move north, this storm is going to continue to bring the rains, the winds and the flash floods. as the skies finally get parts of florida a break from this weekend's beating, what's left is one last

wind gusts reached 160 miles an hour. >> irma is here and she is not sorry. >> reporter: the rain came down so hard, they are dealing with a flash flood emergency. driving on flooded roads couldn't be more dangerous. >> the water is up past the waist out here, folks. >> reporter: in downtown jacksonville, they are reporting a record storm surge of over 4 feet. the highest they have seen since 1964. at this electric company, large sections of the building have broken off. in st. augustine, part of the city is gone. the mayor says the damage is worse than it was after hurricane charlie in 2004. emergency officials rescued 125 people in orange county, and there's now a curfew here until 6:00

you know, one of the things about the storm as it continues to move north, it's encountering cities with large trees like these, and the branches fall over power lines. we have power here, but this is one of the worries of all the people who evacuated from tampa to this city, worried that this city will also lose power as the storm continues, robin. >> i know you're concerned. you have your home there in atlanta. the storm is headed that way. take care. >> irma made landfall as we said. it was a category 4 and it hit hard. the emergency management director fears it could cause a humanitarian crisis. the entire area under mandatory evacuations, and residents barred from returning. amy robach traveled to get to nearby florida city. >> reporter: we tried to get as far as we could from miami. we ended up just north of key largo where we found this police roadblock. no one is getting in unless you're on official business, and this is a very narrow stretch of

u.s. 1 south, and police need to get in there, and they are doing that now, cheqcking the roadway and the bridges. many have lined up to see which damage was done to their homes. this morning, we are getting our first glimpse at the devastation in the lower keys. after irma stormed through withh 130-mile-per-hour wind gusts. boats on the roads. cars buried under sand. store windows blown out. houses barely standing, debris everywhere. residents advised to boil drinking water. as irma came roaring in, these two storm chasers tried to measure the wind speeds, unable to hold their ground. transformers igniting. trying to drive from miami to the keys overnight, we got a

first hand look at the devastation irma left behind. >> there's a tree down right there. wow. none of the street lights are working. all the power is out. so everyone has to drive very carefully. thankfully, there aren't many people on the road at 3:00 in the morning. >> reporter: in key largo, this man choosing not to evacuate, documenting irma as she moved in, watching his property engulfed from the storm surge. >> we're doing all right. we survived. >> reporter: this morning, the painful process of cleaning you. up. >> that's our street. >> reporter: it's remarking the only images we have of the devastation are from the people who weathered the storm. anyone who had any kind of connection because no one else has been able to get in. we saw an army convoy bringing supplies and equipment in. we saw monroe county fire and rescue going in. they told me they had no idea what to expect when they went

into the keys because it has been so closed off and shut off from everyone else. we have 50 vehicles here of families waiting to get in. they have no word on when they will be able to do that, robin. >> all right, amy. we know that hurricane irma has been so devastating. let's go to "world news tonight" anchor, david muir. he is on the ground and has been throughout the storm. he is in naples where they received brunt of the hurricane on sunday. and david, are you get a sense of the damage there now? >> reporter: robin, good morning. the sun has come up here in naples and it's our real view of the destruction and devastation left behind by hurricane irma, and you're absolutely right. you pointed out that irma came right over naples, wind gusts of 142 miles per hour, and just look at the damage left behind. some of the roofing here has come crashing down onto these cars. this is some of the damage, and we know there was significant flooding. there had been a warning of a storm surge of 10 to 15 feet. there was a surge, but not quite that much. they are dealing with flooding in the streets, but if you look behind me here, you can see the

trees came down. the fencing came down, and state emergency management officials say they don't have the scope of the damage until they can get out and survey today. nearly 6 million customers here in florida are without power this morning, and take a look at the moment the hurricane hit here. 400-mile wide storm moving up the coast of florida, that i ma this second landfall. this is just incredible. the hurricane moving slightly up the coast,hitting us here in naples after 4:00 p.m. the hurricane right above. we're blocked by concrete baaeriers, which why we're able to talk. >> the rains are coming in sideways and the winds continue to pick up. >> reporter: the highest wind gusts here in florida, 142 miles per hour. >> there is a giant vacuum sucking everything out. >> reporter: naples residents rushing sto shelters.

this mother and granddaughter making it just in time. >> we were very scared. >> reporter: the shelter door cracking under pressure, and the national guard fixing it up. >> this room was packed with people, just in awe, watching the winds pick up. >> reporter: for a time, our own team seeking shelter in a stairwell. this is what happens when these buildings -- and just be careful, tom. the awnings on the outside of the building are actually crashing down, breaking these windows inside the hotel. but hurricane irma was not finished yet. continuing on her northward path, ft. myers next. tom llamas was there. >> reporter: hurricane irma is right over us right now, and i'm concerned about the project isles, be you at this hour, ft. myers is getting absolutely ripped apart. >> reporter: at 11:00 p.m., the storm was centered 50 miles southeast of tampa. the mayor said they were about to be tested. >> some 3 million people are now

either need to be out of here, or they need to be hunkered down. >> reporter: the eye wall of the storm containing the ferocious and violent winds, and then passing over sarasota. >> for sarasota, for tampa bay, the wind is blowing off current, and there's no storm surge here yet, and by then, hopefully folks are here in schetter and away from the water. >> reporter: sarasota is still on alert up the coast. back in naples now, and you can see what these family wills come home to, and we were thinking about the thousands of floridians that were in shelters as the storm hit. i remember being in the superdome in katrina as the roof began to peel off, and what that was like with the families waiting. these families will come home to the damage after being in the shelters overnight, and i have to tell you, robin. so many families had so little notice because of the track over the weekend. it gave them just saturday to

evacuate and try to find a safe spot to ride out this storm. >> what was it like for you being in the high-rise with the winds in huge force? >> reporter: it was something, robin. it crossed right over our heads as we were reporting live during our breaking coverage and parts of the roof peeled off. our tiles were sent soaring along with the other debris, and that's when we knew we had to get over to the stairwell when it was finished. just as predicted, as the hurricane passes through, and you get that lull, that calm before the back end of the storm hit us then, robin. >> that number could grow. okay, david. thank you. hurricane irma also raced through tampa. t.j. holmes was there for it all. good morning, t.j. >> reporter: officials here this morning are using words like grateful, blessed, to describe what happened here last night. they know they dodged a bullet by the name of irma. the storm did arrive here, and it brought those hurricane force

winds and the heavy rain, but it arrived as a category 1 storm, and it missed tampa just a little bit. all right? it didn't give the direct hit, and so many fear that storm surge in this area that was already so prone to flooding, it just did not develop, and that is a major development. we saw the hills were a river here. it was dumped out into the bay. we saw this drain out yesterday, and getting ready to come back in overnight and today with the storm to bring that huge surge. it didn't happen. the water is back. the surge isn't there. they had downed power lines and trees. they are assessing some of that. 300,000 customers are without power, but for the most part, there are no injuries, fatalities to report, and they are ready to move on, and they believe they dodged a major bullet. that storm was a gentler giant for tampa. >> t.j., thank you. >> miami was also spared a direct hit from irma. the city still pounded by fierce winds that knocked down cranes and heavy rain that turned

streets into rivers. gio benitez was there for all of it. he joins us now. >> reporter: george, good morning to you. there was so much destruction here in south florida. i want to you take a look at this. this might look like a park. this is a city street. there's the bike lane, and you have this giant branch just dangling there. you have downed power lines, glass everywhere. irma was just a beast.beast. this morning, miami waking up battered and soaked to the bone. >> things have gone from bad to worse. we keep waiting for the winds to die down and they just continue to pick up. it actually looks -- and i'm not exaggerating here -- apocalyptic behind me. >> reporter: completely uprooting trees. >> just pulled straight out of the ground here. >> reporter: watch the ferocious wind rip the roof off this apartment building. the torrential downpour flooding downtown swallowing street signs. this hotel swamped. the city's financial district

entirely underwater. i had a front row seat as irma unleashed its wrath on this city. i just want to reassure people i am roped down. i've never seen anything like this covering storms here. we feared -- whoa. we feared -- these winds are really intense. we're seeing branches, pieces of trees, come from the sky. obviously trees aren't up there, which means that a lot of these trees are sort of whipping around and coming around like that. look at this. you can see this whiteout condition. the winds almost proved too much for our hotel's shatter-resistant windows. looks like windows have started to pop open and getting reports now of some cranes in danger of collapsing. >> [ bleep ] this is crazy. >> reporter: three of those massive construction cranes ended up collapsing. and so we heard before the storm even hit people were talking about how it just felt different. well, when it hit it absolutely

was different. it was just so big that we were constantly just hammered by all of that wind, all of that rain. it was just relentless, george. >> we could see it all day long. you were latched to that balcony, but one of the things we also saw, miami made so many changes after hurricane andrew back in 1992 and those appear to have made a difference. >> reporter: oh, absolutely and that's why our windows didn't completely shatter, george. they cracked but they didn't shatter through because they were impact resistant. they were hurricane resistant so that's the good news, george. >> okay, gio benitez, thanks very much. >> and george, as we know, hurricane irma is creating a travel nightmare. more than 13,000 flights have been canceled since irma first barreled into the caribbean. abc's alex perez is there in atlanta where they are bracing for the storm. good morning, alex. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, good morning, robin. a state of emergency declared here in georgia. this is the world's busiest airport and they are bracing for some major, major problems as irma makes its way into georgia and right here into atlanta.

now, today alone already some 2,700 flights have been grounded because of the storm. and as you mentioned since it started, the hurricane has canceled some 13,000 flights. now, the big concern here, those powerful, damaging winds. that could make landing or taking off very, very dangerous. this is a huge hub for delta air and delta airlines spent the weekend telling all of its passengers they should try to make other plans, try to connect at a different hub when possible. officials have been doing everything they can to try to get ahead of the storm here but as we've seen in florida, it's not easy. robin? >> okay, alex, thank you. we want to go back to ginger. right now, more on irma. a lot of warnings for the southeast this morning, ginger. >> there certainly are, and you have to see. this is a1a, and the sand left behind. those warnings like you just said, advisories go up through nashville, and high wind warnings up to 60-mile-per-hour

gusts. let's get to your select cities brought to you by carmax. good monday morning. beautiful sunrise. because of the sun and clouds warm rksz not as high as yesterday. a little more humid. storms possible today and tomorrow and cooler during the mid week but warm again for the weekend. low to mid 80s around the bay. mid to upper 80s. tonight temperatures low to upper 60s. warmer than

and, george, you and i were talking about it after it hit the keys yesterday, it really -- and look at this graphic -- started going north. the hardest hit area in the everglades, and that was the northeast quadrant, so in one live there is. that was a real blessing. as it weakened even lesser winds on the back side meaning less storm surge on a lot of those western beaches. >> ginger, just have to say your coverage of this has been incredible. calm, accurate. absolutely tireless. >> thanks to my team and everybody out there in the field. >> thanks so much. we'll be live all morning and track irma as it makes its way north. a storm chaser giving us a first hand look inside the deadly hurricane. and thousands of american tourists still trapped in the caribbean. they're trying to escape. we're with the coast guard in some the most devastated areas right here on "gma." escape. we're with the coast guard in some the most devastated areas right here on "gma." plus, when you get a flu shot at walgreens, you help provide a lifesaving vaccine to a child in need

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good morning to you. gusting winds knocked down trees in several cities in the south bay. this morning crews are working to restore power to 4,500 customers. you can see the video from the area. a tree went down during the wind storm landing on a power line there. in campbell people got is them using a tow truck. let's get to alexis smith with your traffic. >> we are still trying to recover from an earlier crash we had for about two hours this morning on westbound 580. we are up to seven miles per hour. 16 miles per hour approaching the pass. pretty haeft delays.

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otezla. show more of you. and welcome back to "gma." we have breaking news for our viewers in the west. that is now tropical storm irma. it has been downgraded, hitting jacksonville right now. still spinning over florida, moving north towards georgia, and so much destruction across the south. water overtaking roads, destroying buildings. more than 5 million customers are without power this morning. >> and here's the very latest on the storm. irma is deadly. killed at least five people in florida. 27 across the caribbean. it's now a tropical storms, winds of 70 miles an hour. and president trump says he'll visit florida very soon. >> we want to go to rob marciano. he is in sarasota, and how did you do last night? >> reporter: it could have been worse, but the winds are still ripping here. yesterday it has come back in

ferociously. this is saratoga bay, and the winds are whipping these up, and crashing it against that coast guard station. there have been power flashes, and still spots without power here. this is such a big storm, and widespread across the state. we're getting reports out of jacksonville that are urgent, and west of orlando, orange county. 120 homes had to be evacuated late last night and this morning, because of nearly 8 inches of rainfall there. and there was a sinkhole where an entire apartment had to be evacuated. a 60-foot sinkhole in orange county, and to top that off, they had hurricane wind gusts in orlando as well. near that in jacksonville right now, with a record storm surge happening there. we have tropical storm force winds that have crossed nearly 600 miles. this storm may be weakening, but it is expandsing and growing and more americans are in play,

especially into georgia, and you see the rainstorm, and the winds whipping into georgia as well. far from over as we go into day two of after landfall. >> it's covering a wide area even though it's weakening. is it starting to break apart? >> reporter: well, just morphing basically, and it's starting to interact with features on the weather map that are on the northeast, and the high pressure that's squeezing and amplifying that wind in the atlantic ocean, and typically as these things get north and latitude, and maybe landfall, they will spread out their wind field, but irma has been a spectacular to use a pretty bad word, storm. we're seeing even as irma decays, george. >> rob marciano, thanks very much. >> when you see the scene behind robert there, what goes through

your mind? >> that's what i want people to see, and know it's not over. when they hear weaken and category 1, they say, we're all right. you can still have power outage, and it's nice to see that in way. it's a strange word to use, but it's powerful. >> it's important for people to know because they have that lull sense of security. tens of thousands of people across florida are in shelters this morning. abc's victor oquendo was with some of them as irma made landfall, and he joins us from naples with the conditions there. good morning, victor. >> reporter: good morning, robin, and this is where we rode out hurricane irma. even before the winds arrived, look behind me. this is the main entrance. it cracked at one point, and the national guard had to put up that duct tape to patch it up, and keep away all the window, and thankfully, everyone here was safe lout the storm. let's give you the latest numbers. about 600 shelters opened up across the state, temporarily

home to more than 200,000 people who are seeking refuge. school gyms and arenas filled up with young and old, and even pets sleeping on air mattresses, and we hunkered down with about 400 evacuees in shelters. take a look at this video. you can see outside the window how powerful the winds were. one moment, we felt the force of the eye wall, and everyone just watched in awe. the pounding and the rain and wind shaking the front doors and everyone was told to clear away from the front doors and the windows. now weathering the storm inside the sheflter was just the beginning. they are now heading back to their homes to see what kind of damage they sustained. >> convict e thanks. >> matt gutman was with there. we watched you getting whipped around by those incredibly heavy winds, and then the eerie calm of the eye. >> reporter: and again this

morning, it's eerily calm here despite the punch that irma delivered. you can see damage here, and moderate flooding and i want you to take a look at this drone image. it's live coming to us right now over us in naples, which has this category 3 storm hitting it. winds are up to 142 miles an hour registered here in naples. it felt like being in an industrial washing machine, a fire hose just blasting right into your face, and given the fact there is no water here, no running water here in naples and no power, phone lines are down. it's going to be a very long slog and a long recovery period for folks along this entire stretch of the florida coast, george. >> as you say, matt, that surge could have been so you have much worse. >> reporter: that's right. it's only reached about 2 neafe george. it was predicted to be up to 5, and people were calling me saying, we couldn't be any happener, and there was minimal

damage. >> thanks very much. >> such a relief. and we have seen hurricane irma packing powerful winds, and a storm chaser rode it out where the second landfall was made. here's jeff story. >> reporter: it's 11:00 a.m. and i'm on the north side, and it went out, and as the eye approaches, that storm surge will come back in over marco island. it's a total whiteout now, going to 90. look at this in front of me, guys. oh, my gosh! here we go. i'm escaping marco island now. the water is coming up rapidly on the north side of the bay. oh, my gosh. it's surging in here. i'm off the island now. i'm northbound. the water is rapidly coming up here. we're about ready to get pounded

here. around 5:00, 6:00 time frame. there's the eye wall. it's unbelievable. the continuous lightning, from this location. and behind me, it's coming apart. it just shredded the trees and it looks like a tornado went through here. it shredded these trees and de-barked them. i haven't seen this in a hurricane. this is one of the most difficult storms i have ever chased in my 40 years of chasing and this will go down in the history books. >> you saw the helmet we was wearing, taking every precaution. explain to people the purpose of his work. >> that's the thing because people are doing science as they are storm chasing. they have observation tools and those are what help us forecast in the future, so without that information, and jeff has been around forever. he just said 40 years. he has been doing this, and he has the experience. they want to get out there, and get the video. i know that sounds strange, but

the video to pair that with what's happening. if we didn't have those ground records, we would have no idea going forward, you know, what we can do. >> it's not just thrill-seeking. >> not just. you can see there is some of, that but they are takesing an observation. i like the ones that are placed out and you can be in a safe place, but these are choices that everyone can make by themselves. >> you benefit from further knowledge. >> you do. >> thanks. coming up, thousands of american tourists stuck after hurricane irma. our correspondence with the coast guard in some of the hardest hit areas. for millions of baby boomers there's a serious virus out there that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c. one in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most don't even know it. because it can hide in your body for years without symptoms, and it's not tested for in routine blood work. the cdc recommends all baby boomers get tested. if you have hep c, it can be cured.

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back now here on "gma." thousands of americans still trapped in the caribbean after hurricane irma. let's take a look at these images. some people were able to evacuate. others were not so fortunate. the u.s. virgin islands also seeing extensive damage and abc's linzie janis saw it up close with the coast guard. she is now in san juan, puerto rico. good morning, linzie. >> reporter: good morning, robin. this is the first time we have been able to get our boots on the ground in one of these devastation on the islands, and the destruction to st. thomas is massive. hurricane irma ripping through there as a category 5 damaging almost every structure we saw leaving people without power, drinking water and growing increasingly desperate. this morning, our first look at the devastation in the u.s.

virgin islands from the ground. >> it's going to be a little rough on the way over. >> reporter: this u.s. coast guard team is doing an aid drop bringing everything from generators to food, water, clothing and law enforcement personnel to help with the security situation here. as we drove through the streets, utility poles and power lines downed everywhere. trees stripped bare. this once green, lush landscape now looks like this, dead trees everywhere and debris like this overturned car. windows blown out, roofs ripped off, buildings crumbling under irma's force. we're inside a church here in st. thomas, just look what irma did to it. that was the altar. the entire front of the building gone. tourists and residents desperate to get off the island. but with the airport destroyed, the only way off is by boat. >> i've been told there are a couple of cruise ships coming in tomorrow that are taking people to puerto rico. >> reporter: government planes and choppers landing only for emergency evacuations and to drop off personnel and supplies.

while we were on the island, police responding to looters. attempting to raid a shipping container. a curfew in place between 6:00 p.m. and noon. some of the 1,200 tourists so far evacuated from st. thomas by the national guard telling us about the dangers that emerge after the storm. maureen puckerin said robbers wielding long swords invaded her hotel. >> they started stealing food from our fridge, and then they beat up one tourist. hit a lady in the eye, and then they robbed the bank down the block and ran into our compound. >> reporter: of course, some of the looting is just people getting what they need to survive, but clearly criminals are taking advantage of this situation. it's becoming a very big problem. today with hurricane jose out of this area, the u.s. military resumes trying to evacuate the thousands of americans that remain stranded. robin. >> all right, linzie, we got to keep in mind these smaller

islands that are really impacted, devastated. >> leveled in many places. the latest on irma's path. so many devastated including the animals. next, we'll show you the people stepping in to save the man tees.

and we are back on "gma" with the latest on hurricane irma. as it passed up the western coast of florida on sunday, one of the hardest hit areas was ft. myers. you can see right there, our senior chief national

correspondent, tom llamas, getting whipped around. tom, you're with us right now. boy, we could see you struggling almost like you were surfing that hurricane. >> reporter: it was incredible, george. the power of this hurricane hitting you right in the face and those hurricane-force winds almost knocking me down. this is the sen scene right here in ft. myers right now. the big story is the power outages because of all this water on the ground and all these trees. i can count six behind me. this one fell right in front of the house where we're staying, a massive palm tree. luckily no damage to the house. this is actually owned by an abc "20/20" producer. this is the mother's house. luckily, nothing happened inside. but the big story, all those power outages throughout ft. myers. 55% of the county right now with no lights and no power. george, back to you. >> amazing it stood up there. >> that's right. as we know, irma is on the move. the storm is sparking rescues overnight. some of the most vulnerable in florida are the animals, and

ginger, you have the manatees. >> these were breaking your heart. the manatees were actually beached in the tampa bay so all that water was pushed away with the offshore winds and a lot of people were walking on the beach and came across two manatees, these folks and were 100 yards from deeper water so they had gotten themself in that situation. they rolled out those tarps and rolled them on and got them back to the water so it happened before the people were told you got to get out of here. we're worried about the surge coming back. >> at that moment you didn't mind seeing people, but we did see people walking their dogs and stuff in that area, and you're thinking, what is going through their mind? >> not understanding the power of water. it goes away, it's got to come back. >> luckily they got the manatees out this time. coming up much more on hurricane irma. on board one of the cruise ships preparing for a relief mission heading right into the storm zone and the best way you can help.

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welcome back to "good morning america." you just saw those beached manatees. well, this is what it looked like from above. this is drone video of the tampa bay when all of those winds pushed the ocean away. people are actually out there walking, what robin and i were talking about. a lot were wondering. they saw this sucked out feeling from bays and canals. the water gets pushed. that long time with east to west winds on that west side of florida. then that bubble of water ahead of the storm piles up, and the surge comes back toward the coast. fortunately it was a lot

good morning south bay. >> this is abc 7 mornings. >> good morning to you. meteorologist mike nicco has a quick look at the forecast. >> check out what is children ch --churning to our south. it is not quite as hot today. the humidity will be up. 80 in san francisco. low to mid 80s around the bay. mid to upper 80s inland except for the east bay. temperatures going to be much cooler once the chance of showers passes. >> here is a look at the bay bridge toll plaza. everyone with the exception of the car pool lanes. quick check of drive times improving. down to one hour nine minutes from an earlier crash. westbound 4 in the red at 46. no major delays from the north

bay. >> thank you. coming up, full team coverage on tropical storm irma continues. and at 9:00 chris harrison is on with kelly and brian. ♪ ♪

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odica. it's 8:00 a.m. hurricane irma envelops florida. the deadly storm rips through the state leaving behind a dangerous trail of destruction. streets turned to rivers. >> it actually looks, and i'm not exaggerating here, apocalyptic. >> tornados tearing through. overnight, the storm plows through tampa and orlando and targets northern florida, jacksonville taking the brunt with a massive storm surge. water rescues happening right now, and all of georgia on alert under the state of emergency. right now in florida millions across the state without power. thousands of people across the state in shelters with no idea when they can head home. the scope of destruction in the florida keys only starting to become clear. the rescues are now under way. cruise ships headed in with rescue supplies and offering to pick up evacuees. the incredible images coming in of so many taking cover and

riding out the storm and how you can help. david muir, amy robach and our abc news team across the storm zone this morning. good morning, and welcome back this monday morning. we just got word that hurricane irma, hurricane no more. it is now a tropical storm weakening, but look at that drone footage from naples. so much devastation. so much water. could have been a lot worse but it still had a path of destruction across the entire state of florida. >> it certainly did, george, and irma has claimed at least five lives in florida. 27 across the caribbean and made landfall in florida as a category 4 hurricane as we've said. now a tropical storm with winds of 70 miles per hour and more than 5 million people are without power across florida this morning. >> the storm still in florida right now. jacksonville in the bull's-eye as it moves toward georgia.

our chief meteorologist ginger zee has been tracking the storm from the very beginning. good morning, ginger. >> good morning. now tropical storm irma is moving in jacksonville under a flash flood emergency and water rescues all morning. the tropical storm doing damage. you can see the cars submerged. they have had 6 to 12 inch of rain. that's a lot of water on top of the storm surge in jacksonville, and as we look at this track, you have to remember the winds come along with this. look at the video. you can see the wind gusting to easily 50, and in some places, close to 70 miles per hour on top of the water flooding in the streets. that's the type of image you could still end up seeing in the communities on the northeast side of the track. throughout the state of georgia, and even in southern south carolina, as this thing heads northwest, it will take with it a lot of moisture, a lot of rain, and eventually end over there in tennessee as a low pressure system or depression. also tropical storm warning for almost the entire state of georgia. wind advisory for gusts up to 45

miles per hour in asheville. >> we'll go to steve osunsami who is in tallahassee where they are feeling irma now. >> reporter: good morning. we are seeing some of that rain falling right now, and as you see, the winds is picking up. we see the high wind gusts and the storm is hitting cities like this, with lots of trees, branches that are falling, coming down over power lines, more afraid they will join the millions without power, but as ginger mentioned, one of the issues is happening in jacksonville, florida, where there is a water emergency. they are having to rescue people from apartment buildings because the water is so high. also in orlando. in the orlando area and orange county, there are also water rescues there. we're told they are having to rescue people from about 120 homes. this will continue to be a problem as the rain continues to sit over this area, and of

course, as ginger also mentioned, in atlanta where they are now worrying about what's left of this storm coming that way, and causing some of the same issues up there. robin? >> all right, steve. thank you. >> we're starting to get a sense of the damage in the florida keys. they are fearing a humanitarian crisis, and amy robach traveled to florida city all through the night. good morning, amy. >> reporter: that's right, george. we drove early this morning to see how close we could get to the florida keys, and we were stopped here at this police roadblock. it's about 20, 25 miles from key largo, and this is the portion of u.s. 1 that turns into that narrow, two-lane roadway that's surrounded by water. officials are inside now. they are assessing the damage and the integrity of that highway, and its many bridges. hurricane irma leaving a path of destruction in its wake. the ferocious storm barrelling through florida. these winds are unbelievable.

the trees that are down, the debris that is flying. >> look at this. this is just irn credibncredibl. >> it feels like you're being blasted with a fire hose. >> reporter: winds topping 142 miles per hour. >> this is not a river, but it looks like it. >> reporter: naples residents rushing to shelters. this mom, daughter and granddaughter make it just in time. >> we were very nervous, very scared. >> reporter: the hurricane tearing into ft. myers. >> hurricane irma is right over us right now, and i'm a little concerned about the projectiles, but we're getting ripped apart. >> reporter: taking the first blow sunday morning. this morning, we're getting a first-hand look at the devastation. boats on the roads. cars buried under sand. store windows blown out. houses barely standing. debris everywhere. trying to drive from miami to the keys overnight, we got a first hand look at the

devastation irma left behind. there's a tree down right there. wow. none of the street lights are working. all the power is out, so everyone has to drive very carefully. thankfully, there aren't many people on the road at 3:00 in the morning. as irma came roaring in, transformers igniting. these two storm chasers trying to measure the wind speeds, unable to hold ground. getting a look at the strength, getting knocked right off his feet. and this morning, the painful process of cleaning up. >> that's our street. >> reporter: and just a short while ago, we saw a large convoy of u.s. army trucks carrying much-needed supplies to the people who are still there in the florida keys who decided to ride tout storm. they also had heavy machinery on a lot of those trucks. they will aid in the cleanup and the recovery effort that will likely continue here for months to come, and robin, i know this

is an area that you know and love so well, and our hearts go out to all the people that are dealing with devastation there. >> thank you, amy. i have been trying to get in touch with friends down there, and haven't been able to. but the group down there, and the people down there are very strong and good to know help is on the way. "world news tonight" anchor, david muir, has been leading our storm coverage and he joins us now from naples which saw water levels rise 7 feet in 90 minutes. >> reporter: it was incredibly quick, robin. they were forecasting a potential storm surge between 10 and 15 feet. that would have been catastrophic, so if there is a silver lining, the storm surge was lower than what we were forecasting. there is a lot of water here in naples. families will come home to significant damage. look at the drone pictures. we have live pictures this morning flying over naples. it shows you the water in the streets. a significant amount, a number of communities dealing with major flooding here this morning. the other part of this storm

here in naples was the sheer force of those winds. as you know, the top wind gust here in florida was 142 miles per hour. naples airport, not far from where we were roreporting live, you can see some of the damage here. the good news is there aren't many families out yet, robin. they told them to stay inside after the storm, but it looks like so many heeded the warning to get out of here. they didn't have a lot of time because as you know, that westward shift was saturday morning, and they gave them saturday to get out. you will see the damage they will come back to. parts of this apartment roofing here down on top of the cars. you can see behind us, the fences and trees snapped all throughout this community, and we'll survey the damage. the mayor saying he does believe the city did its best in preparing, and i think there is a lot of relief here, robin, that the storm surge wasn't as high as they were forecasting. when you think 142 miles per hour, we felt it. it was stunning when the roof began to come off, the tiles

flying in the air. we're just glad so far, we don't have reports of significant injuries in this area. >> that is great you innews, da and great to know people got out of dodge. in the aftermath of hurricane harvey and irma. we have seen so many people and heroes. one of harvey's greatest is j.j. watt, and you know how he raised an incredible $33 million for all those in need? play a little football game. back in houston for the first time on sunday, and the stadium where so many took shelter after harvey hit. well, j.j. watt ran out holding the texas flag, and you can imagine the ovation. >> the wave. >> he was, like, bring it. >> watt carries the texas flag. and the crowd goes crazy. >> you know, people have said

this. he's a phenomenal football player. this is what he's going to be remembered for most. what he -- >> amazing, amazing work. >> he did. coming up, an american tourist that is stranded with her family in turks and caicos. they'll join us live. and we also are going to be live with a cruise ship preparing for a relief mission that will head right into the storm zone. and the best way you can help, what to donate now and the items to wait on. plus, how to spot scams. so come on back. walgreens is easier than ever. just walk right in and pay zero dollars with most insurance. plus, when you get a flu shot at walgreens, you help provide a lifesaving vaccine to a child in need through the un foundation. it's that easy to get your flu shot and make a difference. so swing by your local walgreens today. walgreens. at the corner of happy & healthy.

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back here on "gma," a special edition we are following all the breaking news on tropical storm now irma as it moves north. >> we want to talk to cali rockowitz. she's from los angeles. she was in turks and caicos with her mother and brother when the

hurricane hit. it was a category 5 storm then. they are still stuck in the turks and caicos. now, can you hear me? how are you doing? >> yeah, we are doing all right. we're a lot luckier than the majority of this island, so that's good. but it's been surreal to see what our trip was a week ago compared to what it is right now. it's like a whole other -- at alternate reality. >> certainly not what you signed up for. but you know you rode out the whole category 5 storm. did you have a choice? could you have gotten out of there? >> so, we found out -- we found out how bad the storm was going to be probably the day after we arrived here, and not only did a bunch of us at the resort inundate the airlines and u.s. embassy and everything trying to get planes -- just two extra planes to get us all out of here.

we had people in the states and canada as well calling all the airlines and embassy and anything they could to get us out, but we couldn't so there was just a moment where we realized that now we start planning and now we start just preparing for the storm because there's nothing we could do at that point. so, but we got very lucky. like our resort specifically got lucky, but this island is a mess. we've been donating a lot of our clothes and toiletries to the rest of the island because it didn't stand a chance. >> what was the most frightening moment for you and your family during the storm? >> the air pressure and the noise that was coming from outside, it was -- i feel like it -- i just can't believe that that happened. like there were -- every tree here is demolished. there's just the noise from outside. it was unreal to hear the destruction that was happening when we're in this tiny little box, and anything could happen and out of our control at that point, so --

>> cali, help people understand. we've been so focused on florida rightfully for the last 24 hours but the entire caribbean hit so hard. i assume you've been able to get out a little bit, and get around and describe the scale of the destruction in the turks and caicos. >> so, a bunch of the staff from this resort has been venturing out into the rest of the island to -- because 50% of the staff -- their houses have literally been picked up and put into the ocean. so a lot of them, they just have sinks and it's -- everything is leveled so we've been giving them our food rations and giving them our -- gave them a bunch of clothing so it's -- it's -- i haven't ventured out yet because they say it's not quite safe for guests yet. they don't know the damage but this hotel has been working to try and -- one of the shelters

was a church and it -- the whole front side of the church was just taken off and people were inside. >> sorry. any sense of when you'll be home? >> we booked flights on about three or four different airlines hoping one would stick so right now at this moment we don't know when we're going to get out. 90 canadians tried to get out yesterday via a humanitarian plane or a plane holding provisions and medical personnel but they wouldn't let the canadians on to travel back because there wasn't proper security to fly to the u.s. that's what i heard. >> hopefully you'll be able to get home soon and glad you're doing well and that you're doing what you can to help those that have been most affected. >> good luck. >> thank you. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> all right, irma has left so much damage as we've seen throughout the caribbean and cruise line industry is bringing in action to help with the rescue and relief effort sending ships to islands devastated to

deliver much needed supplies and pick up stranded tourists and michael bayley is the president and ceo of royal caribbean and is joining us now from the ship. he's in the command center on the bridge. you're off the western coast of cuba. you have 27 -- approximately 2,700 employees who evacuated that are there with you. just tell us how everybody is doing there this morning. >> good morning. well, everybody is feeling pretty good. i mean obviously we're all from south florida, every single person on the ship. we're anxious about our homes. we're starting to head back to south florida. we're literally as you say off the west coast of cuba. people were relieved and happy to leave south florida but, of course, now everybody is anxious to get home. we're planning on being home tuesday midday. >> describe what you're bringing down on this relief mission. >> well, we had to redeploy eight of our large cruise ships during the past week because of the hurricane and obviously the

concern for safety and moving these ships to safe locations. four of those ships we've actually now allocated to humanitarian relief. so, for example, yesterday "adventure of the seas," one of our large ships called in to st. martin. we were escorted in by the dutch navy, we were able to tie up and we landed much needed provisions, water, ice, garbage bags, clothing, canned food and we were able to evacuate around 320 tourists and local people who needed help and needed to get out of st. martin. so they all boarded the ship yesterday evening and then now they're comfortable and we're taking them on to the abc islands where they'll probably disembark. we're helping them obviously with that. one of our other ships "majesty of the seas" is currently -- it was fully provisioned, full of fuel and because we canceled the cruise, we've now allocated that

ship to go to the virgin islands and we've been in contact with the local government in the virgin islands, the governor and the team there, and they've asked us to come and help land provisions, ice, water, et cetera, also use the ship temporarily to feed and take care of their responders and then we're planning on boarding anywhere up to 2,500 travelers who are stuck in the virgin islands and we'll take those people to puerto rico where we're working with various airlines to help get them safely home. >> such an -- >> then we have a third ship, "empress of the sea," which is currently in the gulf. and our intention is to take "empress" into key west as soon as it's safe to do the same thing where we can land water, ice and really help out with the effort the best we can. >> michael bayley, thank you so very much. there are going to be a lot of people that will be happy to see you. >> sure is an important mission. back to ginger.

>> you know what, george? social media has played such a huge role in the last couple of storms and we have this snapchat we want to listen to from right in the keys when the storm is hitting. >> this is the eye wall. this is the eye wall. >> it's amazing to see those whiteout conditions and then in palm beach, florida, we actually have this. a tree falling as they catch it on video. >> heard a bang last night and she was sleeping in that room. she ignored it. my sister heard a bang last night. >> it's just getting these images in fresh and letting people know what's happened and here's probably one of our favorite of the entire event because this is how you do evacuation. florida does it right and especially at busch gardens. that's right. they got the flamingos out in single file. they were in single file. they really know what they're doing there so not just the flamingos but 12,000 animals at busch gardens zoologists on site to make sure they were all okay. those are the questions we get. people will tweet me and say

what about the zoos and the good monday morning. beautiful sunrise. because of the sun and clouds warm rksz not as high as yesterday. a little more humid. storms possible today and tomorrow and cooler during the mid week but warm again for the weekend. low to mid 80s around the bay. mid to upper 80s. tonight temperatures low to upper 60s. warmer than >> ah, the flamingos. i can't get over them so i'll post that too. everybody has to learn. florida did a great job with the evacuations as did georgia and others. but, again, if we take any lesson from it, it's be more like a flamingo. >> that would be a long walk back. >> i'm running. >> get over here but, you know,

people do ask about the animals and want to know they're doing well. >> it's one of the biggest questions. people say obviously it's not just the animals in zoos, but the animals in people's homes and sounds like the shelters did a great job. >> i'm just wondering about being like a flamingo. >> so happy to hear about to so many shelters. >> accepting animals. >> because at one point they were not. >> makes a huge many basis in people's choice to evacuate. >> and you're pregnant too. one of the people also stepping up to help others, kristen bell. she is in orlando filming and ended up riding out irma bringing comfort and even some fun to seniors evacuated to her hotel. she even treated those at a shelter to songs from "frozen." here she is singing "do you want to build a snowman?" take a look. ♪ we only have each other just you and me ♪ ♪ what are we gonna do

♪ do you want to build a snowman? ♪ >> way to go, kristen. there she is with other "frozen" co-stars. josh gad's parents. she landed a hotel room for his parents and brother and family when they needed a place to stay and josh posting this on instagram. they don't make them like this girl. truly an angel sent from above. when you have family members that are going through it and to have somebody there that can help out, oh, it means everything. >> make it work. coming up, how you can help the victims of hurricane irma. no matter where you are. so come on back e. so come on back.

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. this is abc 7 mornings. >> good morning. we are following developing news. right now sky 7 flying near lake herman road where investigators are looking into a deadly plane crash. the single engine plane was reported missing saturday. a 67-year-old man and his 43-year-old son were on board. the sheriff's office says they died at the scene. we will continue following the story. now a traffic update. >> we are following a crash with injury on the south end of the bridge. south of that 780 across that enire bridge there. a new problem westbound 205 very slow. we have a disabled vehicle that is blocking the slow lane.

>> thank you.

now your accurate weather forecast. >> a bit warmer. look at the 60s and 70s already. check out the area of low pressure bringing thunderstorms. brings us a chance in the next 48 hours. once it passes it gets cooler by wednesday and thursday and then warm again this weekend. >> we will have an update in about 30 minutes and always on

our news app. join us for abc and welcome back to "gma." we are tracking the latest on irma. it's a tropical storm now, not a hurricane, as it moves up north but you can see it is hitting jacksonville hard with heavy rain. >> it is leaving so much damage in its wake and claimed five lives in florida, 27 across the caribbean. the tropical storm is packing 70-mile-per-hour winds, 5.7 million customers are without power. that's more than half of the customers there in florida. and there's so many people stepping in to help as the hurricane devastated florida. one of them, a couple didn't evacuate. phil and his wife michelle. >> they chose to stay behind in key largo to protect eight dolphins that help with veterans and autistic children. it's wonderful that you both are here, and i know that you are the director of the zoology at the facility and your wife is the veterinarian.

you never even thought about leaving there? you were going to stay there and help the dolphins, help everybody you could there? >> yes. that was -- >> as you can tell -- >> -- made that decision long before the storm. >> i think we got him now. >> you got me? >> yep. keep going. >> yeah, can you hear me okay? i can't tell. so, yeah, so we -- so we're here for these eight bottlenose dolphins, and it wasn't just for the storm but for after the storm because we knew monroe county in the keys would be shut down and had we left, had everybody left, it might be a week before we could get down here and there's just no way i would leave the dolphins unattended without being fed and just without knowing that they're safe for a week so we

stayed. >> so what steps did you take to protect them? >> sorry. what? >> what steps did you take to protect those dolphins? >> well, the steps that we took is our facility, we secured as much of the loose stuff as we could. we -- well, that was the biggest thing is just securing that. we strung some extra fencing up above water line. we just cleared this area out and that's really it. then, of course, my wife and i and our dogs and cats moved into our building over here, and our building is a very large, safe building that's ready for a category 5 hurricane. and that's pretty much it and then we just -- we hunkered down and we waited. we were able to -- we were able to come out and do fairly normal training sessions all the way the night before last. it was still pretty windy out

here, but in the day of the hurricane it was pretty bad out here. we had -- you can see over here these fences, want to point it over there. we had the water above that, so the water was above the fences and the dolphins -- the dolphins pretty much stayed just in the middle breathing and we were just keeping an eye on them. at one point we had to come out here and secure these floating docks back -- you might not be able to tell but they're no longer running poles. they were coming unsecure. the fences were coming -- floating down so we had to come out and try to secure this stuff. because this floating around would be dangerous to the dolphins. >> wow. hey, philip, thank you very much. when you have someone like that -- >> dedication. >> that is dedication. i don't even think they know the condition of their home because they were there. coming up, the best ways to help victims of irma and what they really need you to donate. come on back. coming you, th been trying to prepare for this day... and i'm still not ready.

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we are back covering irma all morning long. it impacted millions of people and could turn out to be one of the most expensive storms in u.s. history. chief business economic correspondent, rebecca jarvis, here with a closer look at the cost. good morning, rebecca. >> good morning, george. they're still assessing those damages trying to get a handle on things. one thing absolutely clear. two back-to-back hurricanes mean there will be months, even years of rebuilding ahead and the need for help is great.

>> reporter: the relief effort is now in full force. former presidents are joining together for one america to raise money for victims of both hurricanes harvey and irma. >> we want to help our fellow americans begin to recover. >> a special calling that compels us when others are down to step up and do whatever it takes. >> reporter: but there are other ways to give, as well. one of the easiest by texting irma to 90999. you can donate $10 to the red cross. experts recommend donating money to established organizations like the united way, salvation army and save the children. some organizations are also asking to hold off on those material donations like clothes. >> when people are donating things like shoes or clothes, we recognize that's incredibly generous, but at the same time it slows us down. those need to be sorted and cleaned and we don't have time for that right now. >> reporter: consider waiting to donate. affected communities will need your money weeks or months from now after most collection drains have dried up.

>> if somebody is on a fixed budget, we do recommend setting up a recurring donation in perhaps a smaller amount so you know you're continuing to support the relief operation, not just for today, but for months and years in the future. >> reporter: some scammers, though, will take advantage of a stranger's kindness. >> don't assume that simply because an organization says it's a charity or that it's out there trying to do something to help people that they're actually able to do it. >> which is why it is so important before opening up your wallet you have to consider the source. keep an eye out for unsolicited e-mails. charities with sound-alike names and organizations that may not actually have boots on the ground in the wake of the tragedy. unfortunately, george and robin, we see this all the time. these bad actors that come out of the woodwork and also charities who might not actually be doing the service they claim to be doing. >> and that advice, though, for recurring donations over time really can help with long-term efforts. >> absolutely.

that's the thing. a lot of the time, with big events like hurricane irma, you get that initial push, and that initial rush of donations, but over time, they need it more. so setting up a recurring donation and some of the places where you can go and check charitynavigator.org and charitywatch.org are two great resources. if you're not sure about the charity you're thinking about giving to, you can go to those websites and search the name and they will tell you exactly when it's a legitimate charity but also what they're doing with their money. >> they say where the money is going. >> yeah. >> exactly. they say where the money is going which is so important because sometimes that money is going to the overhead and not necessarily to the damages themselves. >> other things to watch out for? >> you want to watch out for new organizations, unfortunately, and we saw this with hurricane harvey, as well, 500 new organizations came out of the woodwork, most of them scams. anonymous crowd funding. so there are a lot of crowd funding sites. we know this. they can be good, but ultimately if there is no name attached and sometimes there are fake celebrity names attached to these.

you have to watch out for that. e-mails again, e-mails that come out asking you for donations. if you don't know the source of that e-mail, be careful. i would just delete it because there are phishing scams that come up at these times and finally, don't wire the money. don't give cash, give by your credit card, the safest way to do it. >> good advice. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> people want to help. >> they do. ginger, you've been getting a lot of questions on social media about the hurricane. >> which i love because it's so easy then to get people direct answers. there's very educated questions, which is where i'll start with my first one. did you expect the westward movement? did it have anything to do with the bermuda high? i love how meteorological this person is. that was the question from ed. the answer is yes and no. this is what we were dealing with. with harvey you had two high pressure systems. it was an easy explainer. it was sandwich asked it was stuck. with this one that high kept it to the south and moved it west and then that low you see up there interacted with it. so it was how quickly -- they work like gears and how quickly

they could work together so every mile counted and that's why that cone was so wide encompassing all of florida for so long. that was the answer to that. one other great question, will georgia be affected? we're already seeing the effects. brunswick, georgia, has already had more than 6 inches of rain and flash flood emergencies and there was a lull and the answer tells you all the way through tennessee there is a potential for heavy rain and high winds up to 45 miles per hour and finally shannon, i want to answer yours. when is it safe to return? this is the one everybody wants to know and they've got, you know, maybe they evacuated. the grandmother is here in new york and waiting. it's going to take a couple of days at least to assess damage especially in the keys or naples, and the hard hit areas. the winds still extended 415 miles north to south on this, and so you can see right now those outer bands in south florida. give it a day or two. >> and power lines down that you

might not know. >> so many threats that are still out there so i think that's where we see people get hurt after a storm. we don't want to see any more fatalities. >> one more question. a lot of people look at these two back-to-back hurricanes, two powerful hurricanes and think there must be some connection to climate change. >> it's irresponsible not to talk about the warmth of the earth and you have to get that but remember this has a lot to do with how we plan our cities. where the water is kept and i think the sustainability needs to be addressed just as much as the climate change when they are linked to that potentially f hi there. kind of mild this morning. we will be in the 70s, 80s and 90s. notice it is more humid. that will lead t >> we'll be right back. >> we'll be right back. >> we'll be right back.

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back now on "gma." we saw irma race through tampa. overnight, officials expected the worst hit of the century. it w it was spared a direct hit. t.j. holmes is there with the aftermath. >> the curfew on the city of tampa has been lifted. the rain has stopped. it even looks like the clouds might be parting. it's all a sign that things went much better than expected for the city of tampa. yes, the storm hurricane irma started hitting the city of tampa in the overnight hours when it was dark. people are waking up and realizing they may have dodged a major bullet. the huge fear here was a storm surge, in a city like tampa, and

thankfully, that did not come to fruition. got a lot of that driving rain. because irma made a little track to the east and it was a category 1. they very much were spared in a large way. they are waking up this morning in tampa, feeling like things could have been much worse. >> t.j., thank you. hurricane irma ripped through sarasota last night. the winds ripping through that city. our senior meteorologist rob marciano is there. >> reporter: good morning again, guys. even as irma weakens, we have winds here in sarasota gusting over 50 miles an hour. they are ripping off sarasota bay. look at the white caps off this bay. the water was blowing out into the gulf of mexico. now the winds have turned. they're blowing these waves in and crashing them up against this sea wall, and that coast guard station. this wind field has been incredible. it's expanding as this storm weakens. now almost 600 miles across. orlando is getting hammered with heavy rain and high winds,

rescues happening there. rescues as far north and east as jacksonville. hurricane irma, unfortunately, continues to impress. >> rob, thank you. naples experienced the heaviest winds. now the road to recovery begins. matt gutman was in the eye of the storm. let's go to him. >> good morning. some of these flooding -- this is not the dreaded storm surge. it was supposed to be up to 15 feet. this was more like 3 to 4 feet right here. that's remarkable given the punch that irma hit here with category 3 storm winds topping 142 miles an hour here in naples. we were right in that eye wall as it hit. it felt like being hit with a mallet of wind. the rain coming down felt like putting your face in front of a fire hydrant. and then all of a sudden, it stopped. the clouds parted, the rain moved out, and we were even able to shoot a drone image of the

destruction. but this morning, more drone images of the destruction here not as severe as officials had worried. still in this part of the state there is no power, no running water for so many folks. it's going to be a long recovery. >> all right, matt. thanks. we'll be right back. did any bag of dog or buy cat food at petsmart we give a meal to a pet in need? buying your favorite bag of food at petsmart will help us reach our goal of donating more than 60 million meals to shelters and food banks. that means millions of hungry pets across the country (like this little guy) get to eat. buy any bag any size we give a meal to a pet in need. petsmart - for the love of pets. and now come celebrate our grand opening in your neighbourhood.

back here on "gma," and many are concerned about loved ones there in florida. many of them are senior citizens now dealing with the aftermath of irma facing possible health issues, and our senior medical contributor, dr. jennifer ashton, is here with that. about 20% of floridians are over the age of 65, 65 or older. there are special challenges there. >> absolutely and as of sunday night there have been about 400 skilled nursing facilities, assisted nursing facilities that have been evacuated. this is one of the largest evacuations of that nature in the state's history, and there are special needs, you have to remember, with elderly, and lot of them dealing with special needs, with a lot of chronic conditions. you know, we're talking about the potential in a disaster like this for exacerbation of any chronic musculoskeletal, neurologic and heart/lung conditions. a lot need nursing aid with them and certain medical devices.

that presents a challenge and just the acute storm. i mean, the stress, the falls, you know, that's a stress test for a lot of these people and we have a saying in medicine it only has to happen once so it's always best to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. >> and there are ways that you can get in touch with your family members down there in if you can't reach them by cell phone. >> if you can't reach them by cell phone, there are two sites that people with go to. fema has a site, the national emergency family registry and locator site, the red cross has a safe and well list. if you are able to make contact with a loved one there who is a senior or elderly and they do have a cell phone, you want to make actually an emergency backup plan if they lose power so who can you contact at the facility and try to get a number and give them a secondary number. >> you have any recommendations going forward? >> you know what, september is national preparedness month for disasters. go to ready.gov wherever you are in the country. there can be heat emergencies, mudslides, fires, even blizzards, this motivated me to get a bag ready. want to have a go bag with a list of medications, emergency contacts and extra batteries, charger cord, always looking for that even in the best of

conditions, rain poncho, change of clothes and non-perishable foods. this is a wake-up call for all of us. there were millions of people who had to get out with very little advanced warning. we all can take a lesson from this. >> yes, because when the storm shifted at the last moment like that -- >> yes, so ready.gov. >> thank you, jen. >> rebecca jarvis told us about the best ways to donate money to the victims of irma. a lot of people wondering what they can do besides giving money and becky worley has a look at that. hey, becky. >> good morning, george. you're right. so many people want to help, so i want to get right to it, and start with those who are close to storm damaged areas. a huge need is housing. many people finding out they're displaced and won't be going back home for a long time. one big way to help, open your home to both displaced families and relief workers. airbnb has an entire section of their site devoted to this waiving fees to help match people in need of homes with those who have spare rooms,

george. you know, i also want, george, to mention to people that if they're thinking about volunteering, contact the organizations you're already affiliated with and think about your own skill set so talk to your employer. if you work for a big company, they may have volunteer opportunities that they organize, leveraging the skill set and equipment that's specific to your industry. i.t. companies helping to rewire damaged schools or big grocery chains who can help bring food into the region. even professional organizations if you're a lawyer think of all the help that victims will need navigating red tape so volunteering with legal aid, even on their phone banks can help. also, consider big volunteer organizations like habitat for humanity, catholic charities, they also may be looking for volunteers. it can't hurt to call your local chapter and a great time to give blood. the blood supply chains and refrigeration may have been disrupted in the south. never hurts to give blood.

i gave six weeks ago so i think i'm eligible again this week. finally, i want to touch on pets. it's already happening that they're doing pet lifts. it happened in hurricane harvey, southwest airlines flew 64 dogs and cats to san diego. shelters all over the country like my local adoption center, the animal rescue foundation in walnut creek, california are taking shelter dogs first from the hurricane affected areas. the second wave will be surrendered pets so if you've thought through the idea that a pet is in your future, reach out to a local shelter and see if they have hurricane animals valuable, guys. so many different ways to help. >> there will be a need for a long time, becky worley, thanks very much. >> so many great suggestions there. we are following, of course, the latest on tropical storm irma all morning long. stay with abc for breaking updates. >> thanks for watching. have a good monday. ♪ king updates. >> thanks for watching. have a good monday. ♪

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good morning bay area. let's get up and get going. >> this is abc 7 mornings. >> good morning from abc 7 mornings. let's check in with mike nicco. >> warm again today with a little bit of humidity out there. 70s at the coast. 80s around the bay. and 90s in our inland east bay neighborhoodism this area of low pressure will bring us humidity and bring us a chance of showers and thunderstorms. closest ones right now are in monterey. my forecast coolest wednesday, warmest this weekend after today. >> we have a lot of heavy spots on the road right now. walnut creek not terrible. i want to show you drive times. still have the disabled vehicle slowing you down. not as bad on westbound 4 or southbound from the north bay. thank you. time for a live with kelly and

ryan. we will be back at 11:00. >> announcer: it's "live with kelly and ryan!" today "who wants to be a millionaire" host chris harrison. and you will need an amazing 4-year-old whiz kid as we kick off our "totes amaze week." plus u.s. open tennis champion buy all next on "live!" ♪ [cheers and applause] and now, here are kelly ripa and ryan seacrest! [cheers and applause] ♪ >> kelly: hi!