thunder into tuesday. trending cooler the second half of the week. >> rob, thanks. i'll have another local news update in about 30 minutes. again, kate snow with you in new york with our continuing coverage of hurricane irma on this nbc station. we are watching the effects of irma now all battering all of the coast. the western coast and the southeastern coast of the state of florida. i want to start with jo ling kent. she's in ft. lauderdale now. jo ling kent, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: hey, hey, we are seeing the winds really pick up. and we are completely soaked, kate. what we have here is a pretty serious band from hurricane irma. this is a community that's been prepared for being in the eye of the storm. they no longer are, but as a result, they are very well prepared. so, as these tree lines come down. they see palm fronds flying

through the streets. also the streets are completely abandoned here because there's a curfew in place until 10:00 a.m. on monday. we also have been seeing police come out after they've been suspended from these high winds. and they're also taking a look to make sure that there isn't too much debris flying around here. but what we see are some street signs coming down, hundreds of thousands of people without power. and the light has really changed over the last 30 minutes. it's gotten significantly darker. as the hurricane moves in parallel to where we are right now. and this is usually a major thoroughfare. and if you head just a couple of miles down that way, that would be the beach. and that's completely sealed off. all of those bridges were closed at 4:00 yesterday. so, in addition to the debris that we've seen, the weather and everyone who's been sheltered, we do expect to see a major economic impact in this area for both miami and ft. lauderdale, as they continue to brace for what they expect will be very heavy winds and pelting rain.

and the bands that are expected this afternoon, kate. >> jo, thank you. let's head across the state to now the southwest coast in naples. that's where we find kerry sanders right now, being blown around. kerry. >> reporter: it's hard to hear you. we now have a hurricane in this area. the winds have really picked up. naples, marco island has lots its power. i spoke to somebody on marco island, not only no power, he decided to stay behind, but they also have no water pressure. the big concern is, the winds that we see buffering this, i'm up four stories, are coming from the east coast. once we see the eye pass a little farther north of us, then we're going to see the winds coming from the west. that's where we may see some of the most powerful winds but also the storm sturge. the police have all huddled inside a hotel about two blocks from here. the fire department, the ones that respond to 911 calls, they are getting some of those calls.

but they're saying, look, we cannot put our own people in jeopardy at this point. the hurricane ask expected to see the eye somewhere around 2:00, 2:30, in this area. that means that we expect impact pretty close to high tide here. which is not a good picture for this area. you know, as a kid, my grandmother would tell me about hurricane donna coming through the area. and i feared that we're going to see something like that come through here, irma, again, winds right now coming from the east is really going to hit the area hard when we see the winds blowing in from the gulf of mexico, kate. >> kerry, first of all, go inside if you need to. stay safe. i don't know how well you can hear me. but you can talk about how many people stayed in naples? or have most folks left and gone inland? >> reporter: well, the hurricane shelter here is at capacity. they were able to find just about everybody who wanted a

place a place to hunker down. they did have a problem trying to get enough people into the shelters. they consolidated the shelters now those that needed to are there. the biggest concern is four or five blocks from the gulf of mexico. those areas are completely deserted. everybody is gone. these are some of the nicest homes in the entire state. they're mansions including the governor of florida himself. they're gone. they know that the floodwaters are going to come from the storm sturge that are predicted to be 15 feet. and they fear home s further inland, up until an hour ago, they had electricity. they knew what to expect because they've been watching television and saw what was coming. from my point what we're seeing to see later this afternoon may be worse. it's hard to determine if the eye wall is moving in the direction as predicted, we're

going to see on the back side of this storm a tremendous blow here. >> kerry, your picture is incredible. i've been in a lot of hurricanes myself and that is some tough wind. he's up on the fourth story of a building as well. kerry, we'll let you go. get inside and stay safe. i want to check farther north to tampa, hillsborough county, florida. we have the sheriff on the line. chad conatser is the sheriff. good afternoon. tampa not seeing quite an effect as what we saw in naples. you must be bracing, sir, for the absolute worst? >> we absolutely are. we know the storm is moving north. we're in full effect. owl hands on deck. and helping residents who decided at the last minute, hey, i need to get out, we're helping them get out. knowing very well that window is rapidly closing where we have to prioritize the calls for

service, contrary to my deputies helping everybody have to suspend service. >> give us a sense of the time line. it's 12:30 eastern right now, how much longer can your deputies be outdoor, do you think? >> that's going to vary. we'll wait to see if the storm picks up speed or shifts. if the once is 145 miles per hour i'm not going to allow the deputies to go out. i'm going to tell everybody remain calm, shelter, we'll get to you as quickly as possible. we're all in this together and we'll get through it together. >> is it your opinion that most folks have left the bay side area of st. petersburg? >> we have, we have over 20,000 people in our shelters. i think they heeded the warnings and have found shelters. i've been out visiting shelters. i can tell you how proud i am of this community saying, hey, listen, it's not going to be safe. i can replace my belongings but

we can't replace even other and headed to the shelters. >> how long you have been sheriff, sir? >> i officially became sheriff october 1st. >> are you acting now, acting sheriff? >> i am. imagine one heck of a coming out party. >> this is baptism by fire for you. how long you have lived in the area? have you lived in the area for long? we keep talking about tampa not having endured a hurricane of many years? >> i have, i've been with the department 26 years now. and have lived here 29 years. and i've never seen such a large evacuation, or such a magnitude of a storm that's getting ready to come. we've been very fortunate and we know that today we're not going to be able to dodge this bullet. it is coming. it is going to have catastrophic effects and we are prepared and we'll move forward. >> that's the sheriff of hillsborough county. sheriff, thank you. and be safe. let me check in with jeff

rossen. go back to him. we saw a few minutes ago that he's out in tampa, in the same town where we were just talking to the sheriff. you were showing us -- maybe you can show us again, jeff, for those who weren't with us, that the water is going, if you will, in the wrong direction right now. explain what's happening. >> reporter: yeah. it's the winds. it's the outer bands from irma. remember, we're not getting it here, kate, the worst of it until overnight tonight, 12 hours away. but the winds are already sucking the water out of tampa bay. this is surreal to see. the water should be going that way, right? but instead, look, the current is going that way. pulling it out into the bay and into the gulf. this sets up potential catastrophic flooding for later on tonight when irma hits, a huge surge. because the water is being sucked out and then it will come crashing back with irma. where i'm standing right now, kate, see this band? yeah, a few hours ago, this was all water. several feet of water and it's being sucked out.

i also want to talk about why tampa is so vulnerable. they haven't had a hurricane in nearly 20 years. 1921. there were only 135,000 people that lived in the area. now, it's nearly 3 million people. the world bank did a study several years ago saying tampa is one of the most vulnerable cities in the world, number seven, in the world for how much damage there will be for a hurricane like this. here's why. it's a low-lying area. a low-lying area with lots of roads like this. this is a road over here. can you imagine how that's going to be cut off so quickly during irma tonight when the flooding comes in. i want to show you a bridge. look at the apartment buildings at sea level. you can get that, bill? it's far. but there are a lot of bridges like that, kate, very low-lying. that's what tampa looks like surrounded by water. you've got the gulf, tampa bay, all of this water getting forced back out with violence tonight. and that's why it's going to be

a scary night for a lot of people here. >> it's a beautiful city in normal times. you pointed out, jeff, they've had a lot of development there over the past decade. they've brought a lot of companies in, a lot of industry, and a lot of new growth, tall buildings. >> let's get back to dave price, he's our wnbc weather anchor on duty today, helping us, guide us through the weather system that we're seeing here. there's so much going on, dave. there's almost too many things to talk about. give me the highlights of what you're looking at on the radar right now. >> well, let's pick up on what you and jeff were just talking about that is the development in tampa, before we talk about the wider picture. the issue in tampa, of course, is that there's been such a remarkable amount of development. the economy and the sheer number of people in these cities right along southwest florida's coastline has exploded over the last 10 or 15 years. keep in mind, the last major hurricane that kind of rolled

through here was donna. that was back in 1960 on this day. now, let's go, again, if you can think back to just a few minutes to when we saw kerry sanders, he's in naples. all right? here is the center of the storm right now. so, as that continues to work its way into where kerry was, those rain bands, those wind bands, are going more intense. currently, the location of the storm is 55 miles south-southeast of naples of where kerry is. now, let's go to the east coast of florida for a second. let's talk about what's happening there. there you have an onshore wind, beginning to work its way through. this is what we call the dirty side of the storm. and on this side of the storm, you have risks of tornadoes, hearier rain bands which begin to roll on through. and they are seeing small breaks and then very, very heavy gusts of wind. and, again, significant amounts of rain. now, what's going to be happening over the next little

while is this wind, which is going this way, which is going counterclockwise will eventually shift as this storm moves to the north. so, in other words, just imagine with me, here is that flow of air. it's coming onshore right now. it's pushing all of that water off into the gulf that jeff was just showing us, that odd circumstance where the water was actually going away from the shoreline. so the wind continues, the storm continues to push to the north. and then, later on tonight, and through into the late night, as the storm moves through. all of that, and i'm going to switch sides for just a minute, all of that is pushed back on to land with the tremendous wind speeds that we're talking about, the low pressure of the storm which lifts the water as it is. and you were talking about a storm sturge which could get upwards of 15 feet. that is the major concern, as we roll through the rest of the day. two things are the pillars of concern here -- number one, the

wind speed, and number two, the surge. that's what we're watching for. we'll send it back to you, kate. >> all right. dave. thanks so much. that was really instructsivive. i want to go to the mayor of naples, bill barnett is on with us. mr. mayor, thanks for being with us. our reporter is standing on a fourth floor balcony, and the wind is just whipping hill around. how are you -- how are you faring right now? >> well, i'm in lockdown pretty good. relatively safe. we are watching exactly those winds that you're talking about. you know, it's one minute, one minute it slows down a little bit. and the next minute it just becomes intense. as you were talking about, kerry, the storm sturge absolutely positively our first concern. i do not just want to say that,

the aftermath and what we're going to be left with after this is, of course, up to the imagination from the worst possible scenario of the massive flooding and homes and businesses in our low-lying areas. being wiped out. the worst case scenario, where a little bit of flooding and no major damage, so taking that into consideration, everybody else seems to be safe. i haven't had any calls from citizens or people that are stranded. those that are hunkering down, hopefully, are at least in a room with very few windows or none, if possible. as you said, it's 65 miles south-southeast of us. and we're ready for the brunt of it. >> yeah, unfortunately, it does look like it's heading right towards you. and i'm glad to hear that you've had no calls at this powehour.

people aren't in trouble. is it your sense that most people have left the low-lying areas, mr. mayor? a lot of people know naples. it's a beautiful downtown. gorgeous buildings, shopping district with designer high-end stores. is that all pretty much locked down? >> oh, absolutely. there's certainly no people around. and hopefully, they've all evacuated. they started evacuating early in the week. naples is like a ghost town like it certainly should be right now. no concerns. just the aftermath. >> you have talked to the governor? you mentioned that he's asked the president to declare a state of emergency for all of the county, just to try to start the process of relief ahead of the damage even happening? >> right. and, yes, i spoke to the governor a few times this past week. and we were on, all. mayors and a lot of city officials, city and county

managers were on conference with him with him for like three nights in a row. he's been doing a great job. but we're getting e-mails from state agencies, from washington, d.c., from a lot of places that are saying, hey, we will be there for you. when this is over. so, it's a positive -- it's definitely a positive sign. >> mayor bill barnett of naples, florida. thanks so much for joining us for a few minutes. we really appreciate your time. let's check back in with sam champion. we spoke a little earlier this hour with you, sam. you've been feeling those bands coming through miami. it looks like it's a little better than last time i checked in. >> reporter: yeah, kate, we've had a little bit of a break for a while. but, kate, if you guys have live radar that you can kind of box-in-box put up. i want to show you what's headed for miami. miami will now -- if you haven't are lost power within the last

couple of hours, you probably will. and the worst winds yet that we've seen with the storm are on their way in. so, i want everybody from homestead to miami, there you are. look at that red band, kate. that red band that's in the tip of south florida in the keys. and just about to swing through and approach homestead. that red band that is outside of the middle red circle, but the one that's kind of there -- you see the little red circle and the one off to the side. that band is carrying winds in excess of hurricane strength. so we're looking at winds at 90 miles per hour plus in that red band. so what we've seen several times today as the northern bands moved through, they kind of fell apart on the eastern most sides. so, we didn't really get that intense line of winds much past this morning. but in the next several hours, as that band approaches homestead and miami and then swings in and crosses -- it's going to be a very destructive line.

sideways winds. some of the highest wind gusts we've seen so far. and remember when that surf band came in, that's the band that took down that crane. that's the band that pushed that water from the bay over the top of the sea walls, into biscayne -- into the biscayne road there. and that's going to happen again. so, i just want to get people prepared for that. it's going to be a very -- and i'm very concerned that we're not only going to have the wind damage with that and the very heavy rain, but we'll really up our power outages in that. and that's not too far away from us. it's just within the next hour or so that we're going to see that. maybe even a little bit before. i haven't been able to time the travel of it yet. how quickly it's move to get north, kate. >> right. we already have more than 2 million households without power in south florida. sam, earlier, we were talking about that crane that fell over. i don't know if we have a picture of it, in miami. you've got a lot of construction

in miami. a lot of new construction in miami. any sense around you of what kind of damage there's been? it looks okay behind you. i'm just wondering are there trees down or are we okay? >> reporter: so, here's the deal with where we are, miami proper is well off to our east. and it's only by the water where this boom of building has done -- has redeveloped. there's been two booms in miami since i've been here in the past -- probably within the past ten years. this is the second one. and right now, to our knowledge, the numbers that i have are somewhere between 24 and 28 cranes that are tall enough to be building these 40-story plus buildings that are going up in downtown miami. so, it takes about two weeks, as we've been told. this is to the people i've talked to. i don't have direct experience in dismounting them, but the people told us it takes about two weeks to really dismantle one of those cranes. so it isn't a problem in the

wind. and those cranes are supposed to be certified to about 140 miles per hour in the wind. that's why it became a big concern when all of the cranes when earlier in the storm, the thought was the strongest winds above that critical mark would move through miami. now, these, we've only seen wind gusts of 90 to 100 miles per hour in that miami area. and already, one of those cranes toppled -- folded, it looks like it kind of crumbled because of the punishment it's taken. and rolled over, bent over, one of those big buildings that's under construction. >> yeah. >> reporter: so, the debris on the floor also a floor. now with the next line of wind i just want everybody within the next couple of hours in miami to get inside. i'm talking about even in the reporters we have in the field get wind protected as the next line thinks to come in within the next hour or so, kate. >> i'm glad you say that. we're trying to keep safe. just to tell our viewers we were showing pictures of that crane and different angles.

it's just one crane that we so so far that has toppled over as sam said. let's check in with the fort myers mayor, randy henderson is on the line. mr. mayor, thanks for joining us at a really busy time. i'm wondering what you're seeing and what you're most concerned about as we go into the middle. afternoon? >> well, we need to make sure that all citizens are bunkered down in a safe place, well out of the surge zone. we have evacuated, mandatory evacuations out of "a" and "b" flood zones. proud of those citizens who have taken their initiative to get out. preservation of life is the focus at this time. it's too late to be moving down. and we're bunkering down again, to take the ill-effect of this storm. >> and have you gotten any calls i'm hoping not? or people relatively well off and in shelter now, as far as you know or are you getting any calls from people who still need

help? >> i can share with you this morning, i've had at least one call of a concerned family member in southern california has a loved one, a relative on daniels parkway in south fort myers. i've got her dialed into our local management officials and sheriff there. making sure we're reaching out to her to assess that situation and make sure we're getting her out of harm's way. yes that kind of thing is going on. >> mayor, give me a sense of whether you're seeing wind and rain? or are you starting to see any flooding in the city of fort myers or on the barrier islands? >> i'm looking right out, i'm in the core of the city, let me say that, i'm looking right out into this right now. it's what i would call spitting rain. there's squalls and surges of wind that's bending our trees. i'm going to estimate 30 to 50-mile-per-hour winds at this time. obviously, it's gray and ugly.

>> but not any flooding yet on the city of fort myers or the islands that you know of? >> well, the islands are overcome, i will tell you this, the caloosahatchee river is emptying out right now. with the surge, it will be when it swings back around. >> right. >> but not significant flooding right now. >> okay. good to know. that's the same situation that we've seen in tampa, florida, where the bay is sort of emptying out the winds -- our meteorologists have been explaining that the wind is pulling the water out to sea. and your concern, mayor, is when it comes back in? >> yes, indeed, it's reminiscent of donna. and i'd like to say, it's a very different situation than donna. >> all right. mayor of fort myers, florida, randy henderson on with us. thanks very much. let's turn to gabe gutierrez also in naples, florida.

gabe, where are you at and describe what you're seeing. >> reporter: hi there, kate, we're here in a neighborhood inside of naples not far from downtown. and we've been seeing the wind and rain pick up quite a bit in the last hour or so. lfl all of a sudden, we'll get a wind gust that will almost knock you over. we were speaking to a family that decided to hunker down. they say so far things seem to be okay. what local authorities say and as you were just talking with the fort myers mayor, we're seeing all of that water push out to sea. the concern is when the storm passes through on the back end of the storm, all of that storm sturge, there's concern for major flooding near naples. the governor said we can expect 2 to 15 feet of storm sturge. you can see behind me, you can see the trees blowing in the wind. there is bdebris in this area, quite a bit of it already. and we've heard heard transformers start to blow in this neighborhood in naples. the worst is yet to come,

officials say. there are big fears on the storm sturge on the back end of this storm. kate. >> thank you, gabe. let's get one last check of dave price. what are we looking at? >> the worst is yet to come. the storm continues to slide on up. as it does, kate, the wind is going to pick up for the west. the issue of storm sturge is going to become bigger. of course, we're looking at the strength of this storm continuing. winds 130 miles per hour. this is the path we're projecting. all eyes on naples with winds 75 to 100 miles per hour. high tide, 10:26. and 125-mile-per-hour winds for naples and fort myers. >> stay with this nbc station, msnbc, and nbcnews.com for the latest on hurricane irma. lester holt, al roker and the entire team in the hurricane zone will be recording live from florida, 4:30 eastern time, 1:30

pacific. for now, i'm kate snow for nbc news in new york. my sweetheart's gone sayonara. this scarf all that's left to rememb... what. she washed this like a month ago! how's a guy supposed to move on?! the long lasting scent of gain. now available in matching scents across your entire laundry routine.

good morning. it's 9:59. i'm kira klapper. you've been watching an nbc news special report. hundreds of people flew to the bay area to escape hurricane irma. you can see their stories right now on our website. also on nbc bay area.com we speak with a former bay area couple now living in florida riding out the storm. and our own vianey arana is in south florida covering irma. follow her on facebook and twitter where she's posting new pictures, videos, and stories. let's go to meteorologist rob mayeda with a look at a warm sunday forecast. a taste of summer today, 80s from texas into oakland. mid-90s near downtown san jose. east bay close to 100 today. we will get cooling tomorrow. the chance of showers for san francisco and our inland valleys once we pass the middle part of the week. temperatures cool down as the sea breeze fires up thursday.

>> the cooldown looks good, rob, thanks. we'll have more news tonight after "sunday night football." until then stay up to date on our social media platforms. that's educational and informational. the more you know, on nbc. - today on "naturally, danny seo"... did you know you can eat your way not only to a healthier body, but also a healthier planet? - that's fresh. that's farm fresh. - then danny's having a tea party, but this tea isn't just for sipping. - this is one of my favorite go-to soups. - and if you think laminate surfaces are just for floors and countertops, think again. - this could be more than a garage. this could be a man cave. all that and more, next, on "naturally, danny seo." - do you want to feel good inside and out? live a healthy, natural, good-for-you life? wow. ever since i was a teenager, i've loved finding creative ways to marry style and sustainability. do just one thing. as an environmental lifestyle expert,