. good morning, everyone, it's monday, september 11th, this morning hurricane irma continues to bring flooding rains, high winds and storm surges moving north over the state of florida. it has weakened to a category 1 hurricane. but that does not mean the danger over, far from it. irma hit the florida keys early sunday morning before making a second landfall on marco island yesterday afternoon. right now, nearly 5 million people are without electricity according to florida and light. 866,000 customers are in the

dark. downtown miami swamped even though the storm passed well west of the city. on? on florida's west coast, drone damage showing wind gusts of 42 miles per hour, winds were so strong they caused the tide to recede into the gulf of members colorado can you see people there walking up, taking pictures, it's an unbelievable site there. this morning, hurricane irma will continue to move over the western peninsula before move nook southeastern states. overnight, miami-dade police saying 28 arrests have been made so far because of burglary and looting. our affiliate wtlv in st. augustine, they're getting heavy rain bands, give us an update on what you have been see sock far this morning. >> hey, good morning, as you can tell, heavy rains right now in eight augustine the winds

proceeding. we measured it a few minutes ago, over 46 miles per hour. already this parking lot flooded and the lights just went out. right now so we're standing, you know, as close as we can to the power source as i move up to tell you, that most of downtown st. augustine completely under water at this point. and we're doing our best to try and give you an update from inside there we seen police going around, making sure that they are able get into those points in case of any emergency situation. so right now, a very wet situation, a lot of wind, power out annuals across this part of florida. so that is the current situation. we'll send the one back to you, guys. >> all right. thank you. well, joining us now from tampa nbc's thomas roberts, i know the eye has passed you this morning, bring us up to speed in terms of what tampa sustained over the next 24 hours and the conditions there now. >> it has been brutal, and the paper here in tampa says it

best. the headline saying slammed. here we go again with another band of rain pouring through it. it had been calm for a good period of time. now the wind is whipping back up. the rain is coming down. certainly not as dramatic or as harsh as it has been for the last eight, nine hours, but definitely enough to make a difference when we think about what people have come to expect in this area from irma. one big thing that we have been watching, though, is the issue of water, flooding is going to be a major concern for this entire area. all along southwest florida. as you loop around the peninsula to the east coast of florida as well, but the storm surge is something to take photoof. five-to-eight feet is what they are worried about. it's prone to flooding to begin with. but this river, it had receded earlier today the water being used for the energy of irma. it has come back quickly. i know we have chatted before.

i know you probably noticed, it is getting bigger t. water is coming. we'll see walls like this and other areas like tampa and st. petersburg able help and act as the barrier that is needed. light will be up soon as people will be getting the opportunity to survey what happened to their homes, for those who have been evacuated. they may have the opportunity to go back, for example pinellas county to our west, clear water, they were geting wind gusts of 50 miles an hour within the last hour or. so since that area was evacuated the sheriff said those that left will not be able to come back until given the all clear. so the bridges the causeways that would get over to that area are closed. so a lot of people are going to have to wait until a lot of emergency officials get out first and decide to say, okay, we think it's safe for you to come back and also pinellas county, they didn't have occur few t. curfew was set at excuse

me 5:00. that is for folks that stayed here in tampa. it was 6:00 p.m. last night. as light comes up, that will change. again for people coming to pinellas county, they have to wait for the all clear. >> thank you. let's go somewhere else in tampa as well. we have thomas on one side and sarah, give us an update from where you are, darah dallof. >> reporter: hey, guys, here in tampa on the hillsborough river, we are seeing the rains begin, now all day long yesterday, we saw the effect of what's known by some as hurricane bulge, when that water is pulled out to the ocean, to the storm by the sheer power of that weather system. with el that water has now returned. it appears to be about where it was when it stirred. it is not overflowing its banks

right now. high tide is coming probably within not probably but it's coming within the next half hour or so now elsewhere in the county, have you about 28,000 people who decided to hunker down in shelters to ride out this storm. they are now waiting for daylight and the all clear. as thomas mentioned from authorities to be able to go out and see their homes, see their businesses, see their livelihoods and how theyford during the storm. it was a weakened irma that hit this area. it's still a hurricane. can you certainly understand why it was an anxiety-filled night for residents. >> that's certainly stage 3 of this storm, the assessments. >> power. >> yes, it's interesting, we have been seeing these rain bands, it's interesting to see, we see thomas and sarah throughout the morning. gow from having a tee-shirt on to putting a jacket on t. rain bands are making their way out

of the tampa bay area. hopefully, you guys will be in the clear pretty soon. we will check in on that. darah dallof, thank you so much. appreciate it. for the latest on irma's track. we want to go to meteorologist bill karins who has been standing by. bill. >> good morning the storm is finally winding itself down. it is still a huge tropical storm. that will be the legacy of the storm. today we have life-threatening weather in the jacksonville area a. lot of bad flooding. near record flooding on the st. john's river t. heavy rain bands have continued into northeast florida and the storm surge of that on shore flow in areas of georgia and even south carolina will cause storm surge flooding issues as we go throughout the day today. i know in charleston, they're expecting this afternoon to have water high as well as matthew. it was that big huge hurricane, this is weakening. we are down to a low hurricane 1. if there are gusts left, cedar key north of tampa, a little

area in hernando county t. windfield goes 160 miles. this is all yellow, if rule of thumb, few get inside the tropical storm force winds, you have a chance of losing power. here it is on radar. there are a lot of tornado warnings with that, a lot of heavy rain and flash flood issues. >> that has caused a all the problems as it slowly winds up through jackson victim beach to brunswick, georgia, eventually into savannah. we will track that band. what's left of that northern eyewall is still moving up into northern portions here, it's just exiting near ocala, up towards gainesville. the winds are not as strong as they were earlier. can you see how high the rainfall is. here's a closer view to show you where that northern eye is. there is the gains victim, ocala, down to the south of

that. winds are reported there in tampa. it looks like things aren't too horrendous in the tampa area. here are our current wind gusts. we get winds 50 to 70. trees will fall. that's when we start to get the more power out annuals. we're not done with the power out annuals, cross city 56. gusts currently south of jacksonville. a new station at 55. >> at what point do they get to first responders getting ready to call? >> at atlanta southward, they're already out. they get you all clear. in napements, the mayor sent the first responders out. as soon as the storm surge went out, they sent them out immediately. >> power will be the real challenge this morning, trying to restore power to southern florida. >> anywhere, in florida. we were showing pictures yesterday of power crews amassing from indiana on their way down, we're up to 4.5 million. we will end up with 5, 6 million

people without power. >> that will be a part of the legacy. as far as who was the worst devastation storm surge, the stuff out of the keys is going to be, especially the lower keys, we know we had a storm surge there of 10 to 14 feet. >> we do know that? down in the keys. we didn't get the storm surge in napements or marco iechld there it was in the 5 or 6-foot range. >> we want to go to florida city. are you riding through the state's southern-most tip area sometimes defined as a faetway to the keys. what is the priority for officials in the area of florida city as they try to make their way down to the florida keys? >> at the moment, it's keeping first occur few, enforcing a curfew county wide and here in florida city. let me show you some of the first looks at the damage here that we're seeing, really, it's been a wind story here instead of flooding that had been here.

but they don't want anybody out on the streets right now because of things like this. tree branches blocking roads. we're trying to get around that. we are right near a trailer park actually and it's a little hard to see, of course, because you have power outages to most of these areas, that's unusual, in fact to see that stop light ahead that's actually functioning. it's incredible to tell you, some people we understand rode out the storm in these trailers, just on the other side of these trees. a very dangerous scenario when you recognize just how many trees were dumped down in this storm. it's hard to see right now. we just passed a cable, a cable that's oak here. another reason why officials don't want anyone out and about right now. you have to be careful where we are going, certainly, including on the highway, some of the turnpike blocked by debris. you can see flashing lights in the distance.

that's florida city police. we have been check income with them, you know, what we are starting to see here this morning, most of these people have not seen even yet. we are about the turn into a trailer park here, show you a little bit more. but this is something that most of the people in town sheltered in place, well after sun down, so they're going to be waking up and just confronting everything that you are seeing here. >> julia bagg with a street level level eye view. still ahead, we continue to watch hurricane irma as it moves north over florida. >> we will get a first clear picture of the damage across the entire state. we'll keep an eye out for you, we'll be right back, everybody.

welcome back, everyone. we are tracking hurricane irma

as the storm makes it way up the coast. if you are just waking umm, irma has been downgraded to a category 1 as it moves off the mainland i should say off the if you feel into the land t. big difference in many places storm surges on florida's atlantic coast about 55 miles north of west palm. this was the scene there, a pig way you can see and more coming ashore. >> all right. let's go live from miami. marianna, i know you have been tracking the storm from the ground there give us an update as to what you are seeing. >> reporter: i want to different you guys one last look at star island. so you can see some of the damage hurricane irma caused to the sole entrance. this is the sole road in and out of star island. an island that is known for

these big celebrity homes. can you see how these winds brought down these trees. it's the metal fence behind me. it came crashing down, bend it right there bass of these high winds we, ourselves, yesterday, you had that storm surge pounding many of the roads along the peach with sand, police officers this morning telling us they are impassable at the moment, some parts at least. we also spoke to the miami beach commissioner who tells us there is still occur few in place. much of miami beach is without power at the moment. police telling us, they are afraid of looting. they also made two arrests this mornin morning. they don't want people to take advantage of this situation year e clearly, as people check out scenes like this up with. we have one piece of news for you guys, a story of bravery, miami beach police rescuing a mother and her baby as rising

waters were flooding their homes, it is a rescue miami beach are happy to report today. we will be monitoring them, to see if there are any more rescues happening, what exactly the scope is on the beach. back to you, guys. >> on star island, was it an evacuation area as well or were those people able to stay in place during storm? >> reporter: the houses here are pretty big. again, we are talking celebrity homes with huge gates and concrete walls, that miami beach per se 100,000 residents were under mandatory evac orders. this small island connected to that i cannot say for sure. again, when you talk about our barrier island, it is pretty big t. smaller islands connected to that, they were probably under the voluntary evacuation order. the one road in and out as can

you see looks luke this, this is what residents here will be waking up to here today. >> thank you. so we want to get a little sense of irma's way. >> the 5:00 advisory, we're not caring about the forecast of the storm. we are almost done doing all the damage that it's going to do with the exception of what's happening in north florida, georgia, possibly charleston area. so that's some storm surge flooding. rainfall that could cause flooding issues. >> that any possible tornadoes this afternoon, so let me get you into the latest of the storm, catch you up. because this will be the end of hurricane irma. pretty soon it will be a tropical storm. wind are at 75 miles per hour. it is moving to the north northwest at 18 miles per hour, continues to accelerate here a little quicker, help us with the

cleanup. we would like nice dry weather out there. we don't want gusty conditions with the broken tree limbs. the cloud shield extends from west virginia there are clouds and showers to the keys. an enormous storm located 60 miles north of tampa, it's headed back to the west. let me show you the new updated forecast path and intensity a. lot of people in georgia were worried what we will deal with, if people will lose power. a lot of big powerful pine trees, the storm crosses the border will be going from a hurricane to a tropical storm. again, 50 to 70-mile-per-hour wind gusts, you will get downed trees, monday at 2:00 p.m. still max winds at 65. possible gusts probably 75-to-80 or. so so if we get power out annuals in georgia, it will be here in the southwest corner, tuesday at 1:00 a.m., we get a weaker tropical storm. after that it becomes a rain maker and a tropical depression,

on this path, the heaviest rains would be atlanta through augusta, to savannah, columbia to the coastal areas, near charleston, isolated flooding problems during the day today on that path. and the other story is, we are still getting the high winds on shore. we heard from one of the reporters on the beaches from volusia county north wards towards jacksonville up into savannah, those areas have high morning issue the morning high tide cycle is happening now especially want to ask you about the storm surge ended up being that. >> in about 6. >> so i know that part of the reason is a part of it hitting so many land masses and sort of the storm becoming weaker an weaker. did that have something to do with the size of irma? did it have anything to do wit or no? >> the storm surge the hurricane center takes what they are predicting for this storm. they were predicting for it to

come off of cuba, actually regain strength and make landfall as a category 4. fought just in the keys, but a category 4 up in the napled area. they had the force of the hurricane path a little on the west coast or a little bit off. >> that didn't happen. it was weaker. it was a category 3 when it came into naples. it wasn't a 4. and the path instead of going along the coast was inland. so that prevented those two factors, see, we have computers, also give us predictions on these storm surges, it's called the slosh mid-el. that's the technical term for it. they put those parameters and it spits out the numbers. that's how they got the 10 to 15 feet. if you put bad information in, the computer will give you bad information out. >> this is one case where we have bad information. >> there is no one upset. >> bill, thanks, very much for that. let's go live to kristen dolgren

in ft. meyers. after spanning the city yesterday, it appears the storm has passed with as we were saying with bill, some relief for folks the storm surge has not been that bad. what itself the scene on the ground there this morning? >> reporter: we're still trying to see exactly what the scene is on the ground there, some neighborhoods are cut off. while there is this sense of relief that maybe the storm surge wasn't as bad and the winds weren't as bad, for some people, it may have been. so we are still waiting to see rescue crews, really working harold now to try to get out to the hard-hit areas like marco island, where that eye came ashore, they're still not sure if there are people trapped, if there are casualties out there so that is within place they are really focused on getting to right now. also everglades city to the south of that, we are told that the road into town is under water. so at this point no vehicles able get in or out of everglades

city, so that's a city that's under water, they're still trying to get into. here in ft. meyers, there are neighborhoods blocked off by trees and water, so right now damage assessments undergoing as rescue efforts. >> kristen dolgren live for us there in ft. meyers, thank you. still the destruction left by hurricane irma, we are getting live reports from the east and west koefts throughout the morning. we'll be right back with the latest. stay with us.

>> welcome back. the storm has now weakened to a category 1 storm. still massive winds and the threat of storm surges exist. now in the coming dis, places in central and north georgia are also preparing for heavy winds. the transit system in atlanta already can selling rail and bus service, believe it or not. in some areas, schools are closed today. some are, in fact, closed tomorrow as well. >> all right. let's go back to florida where nbc news' bill manna is standing by in hollywood, florida. you have been making your way around that city to sort of assess the damage and the situation there. so different us an update, phili philip. >> yeah, i actually spoke to you

on saturday night, up with of the last gas stations opened. this is a1a known as ocean boulevard around here. they have really nice condos and hotels and this is one of the areas, they're trying to get opened now, you can see a canopy there that flew you a one of these high rise buildings. we are only a block away from the ocean. the storm surge or a concern they had some we know these hurricane force winds were knocking down these trees. we know we talked to police here, they said there was a downed power line, so that's why we had to keep our distance, they're trying to make sure they stay their way. they have a specialized team called the rapid intense -- it's a specialized team, what they do is they go and check rapid impact assessment, there you go, it finally came to he, they go and prioritize the damage really. >> that i have public works who then come and clear it off. they're telling me the foley is to have the done by 10:00 in the

morning, because this is such a rod that needs to be utilized. it's usually such a popular road. obviously, it's not daylight yet. >> that is one of the first roads they will prioritize and get it cleared away and get everything up and running again. >> thanks, so much. appreciate it. still ahead, we continue to follow the latest on hurricane irma. >> we will keep a check on the forecast next. keep it here.

>> it is the bottom of the hour as we continue our coverage of hurricane irma. >> this morning, hurricane irma continues to bring flooding rain, high winds, flood surges as it moves over the state. it has weakened to a category 1 hurricane. >> that does not mean the danger over. far from it. irma hit the florida keys early sunday morning before making a second landfall-of-on marco island. right now, though, nearly 5 million people are without electricity. in miami-dade county alone, more than 860,000 customers are in the dark. downtown miami swamped. >> and on florida's west coast, we have drone footage showing some of the damage if nan naple where 140 miles per hour were reported. in tampa, they left the bay on

display, letting people walk out there and seeing that. in morning, hurricane irma will continue over the peninsula before moving into the southeastern state. overnight, miami police said 28 arrests have been made so far because of lurg larry and looting there. >> let's cross over into tampa. we have been talking about the eye passing through just where tampa is in the surrounding areas. bring us up to speed in terms of what it has sustain and the conditions there this morning. >> reporter: well, they're going to find out here shortly as more people are waking up, they're very curious to get out and about and see what happened has so many people had to worry as first when we started following irma, so many were concentrated on the east coast and the keys and island nations like cuba and the u.s. and british virgin islands, once the storm track shifted.

started to go directly through the gulf and southwest florida, many people had to scramble and prep. we know there were two direct landfalls down below the ft. meyers' area, here in tampa and the st. petersburg area, one of the biggest concerns is about storm surge, so much water was taken out, energy used by irma, how it will come back in. wee are looking here right now at the hillsboro river. this was really well receded over the last 24 hours. and now we're seeing the fact that it has swollen back to pretty normal heights, but will there be any issues with water reaching over the sea walls? that's the big concern. but so far, we have our own new reporting just a half hour ago, but so far, there is no major flooding reported in this area the biggest thing, though, power. people as you have been reporting up to 5 million without pow sorry far that that will be a bigger obstacle for the technicians to restore power

to people. then it's, you know, everybody physicals out where to go from here, because if they did not sustain much damage, there are probably going to be minor fixes and people that want to go home to evacuate. >> thomas roberts, thank you. >> from nearby where thomas is, peter rascone is in st. petersburg, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: a lot of people will wake up in the tampa bay area to debris and leaves and tree branch itself and the like. there are some large trees in the road that have been toppled. but for the most part, that i will wake up thankful there isn't a storm surge of 8 feet or so, which was the worst case scenario that they were bracing for. 3 million people very so live in the tampa bay area, including on thousands of homes and buildings that packed the 700 miles of coastline here and on islands. a lot of that area was

evacuated, some people chose to stay in their homes. a lot of that area, first responders told us they expect it to be under water this morning. but because the storm moved farther east than where we were, they're not being to get that storm surge so they got the wind. they got so much rain hours and hours of pounding rain. sideways. sheets of rain even. but that was not the worst case scenario. they could handle that. they said, what was going to be difficult and the worst case scenario was the storm surge that will cause all the flooding. they don't believe they'll get that. there will be a lot of cleanup to be done. then, of course, the thousands of people who evacuated, including dozens of nursing homes, go flowing into these high schools we saw a up can him days ago. they were already to hunker down for three days. notice they will be able come back and appear sooner than that. so that's the head lean here in

the tampa bay area, what could have been much, much worse, an area that hasn't been hit by a major hurricane in nearly a century, will wake up to much better conditions, a lot of cleanup, but not as bad as it could have been. >> all right. thank you. all right, so we have been tracking irma's path for you over the past couple of days, as you can imagine. the question this morning is about the wind gust. bill karins, talk to us about where the wind gusts were. >> we get the daybreak and helicopter shots and the pictures of where the worst damage is with the wind, there will be a million pictures of tree damage. as far as structural damage, it's the naples area, when that eyewall came on shore, we had that gust. >> that did structural damage on the coast. marco island 130. as far as big pine key goes a.

lot of things in the keys are built to withstand these types of winds. thoeng i don't think we have wind damage we have storm surge damage in the keys. that's where we will see the worst devastation as far as homes and structures this that we know came open shore the winds, we have significant winds in the miami area 109 and 99, so it was widespread. it wasn't big as what we had said. right now, it's 60 miles north of tampa. still holding barely on to hurricane strength. it will weaken to a tropical storm shortly t. winfield continues to be the story. this is why we will see more power out annuals, those tropical storm force winds are now almost into north carolina, approaching atlanta and almost into areas of montgomerie. those are possible form gusts t. worst of the storm by far the along the coast line of south carolina and georgia with heavy rain and storm surge. look at orlando, still gusting to 61 miles per hour. i'm sure some more people 96 to what we have lost are losing

power with winds like this. >> certainly making it's mark. thanks,. i want to go down the coast now and bring in the mayor of bo nia springs, sandwiched between ft. meyers, naple itself, mayor, thank you very much for joining us, i appreciate it. i know a lot of your residents are without power. >> that area without power as the sun is rising, as people are waking up after this massive storm has blown through your city, what sort of assessments have you made so far? >> reporter: well, good morning. we were out last night when it was safe to go back out and, you know, yeah, the entire city was dark. especially for folks with generators, downed power lines, a lot of downed trees, and, you know, but i tell you what, there is a silver lining, there was

not the storm surge, knock on wood, that we had heard of and that was widely reported. there certainly is storm surge and there is certainly flooding, but we're cautiously optimistic that it was not to the extent that had been widely reported. >> eia, that's only going to be good news for folks, really, in various parts of florida mr. mayor, did your community feel at all a bit caught off guard by the trajectory of hurricane irma and how it has played out? >> reporter: well, i guess, i'll answer that two ways. initial initially, yes, ultimately no it was tracking east, tracking east. then for a few days it was certainly tracking west. so, we geared up. a lot of people evacuated a. lot of people are still up north. quite frankly, there was a lot of people still here and hunkered in and we were in the community out and about, people were boarding up their holes and

boarding up their windows and got ready and as you know, we were right in the eye of the storm. >> right. >> sthevthen it hit naples, the hit us. we had winds of over 100 and gusts of over 125 miles an hour. it's still dark here. we're going to go back out, right when it gets light here, right around 6:30. but i was out last night and i was down at the gulf of members colorado i w -- mexico. there is damage. have no doubt, there is damage. but knock on wood, i'm cautiously optimistic we dodged a major bullet. >> yeah, we hope you did as well, mayor. where did you ride out the storm? i don't know if you sort of lived through other storms, other hurricanes from early '90s

or not. what did it feel like in comparison to others you experienced? >> well, certainly have been. have not been involved with one on the ground when they hit had it been for an after math. i was at the emergency operation center here in bonita springs and it was surreal, quite frankly, when you look out the window and trees are sideways and rain is blowing sideways and it was, you know r, it was quit an experience. all right. sir, thank you very much. our thoughts. i apologize for that, our thoughts are with you and the community down there thank you. >> stay with us, the storm is making its way north moving across florida and towards georgia, they continue to lose some of its power. >> we have the latest from the storm's track and on the ground after sunrise to see the damage

as the cleanup begins. we'll be right back.

welcome back to our continuing coverage of hurricane irma. i want to go back to miami, we find vaughan hilliard. we know in this hotel you were staying in a couple miles from miami international airport. it seems people have arrived with that chainsaw they had requested. they are trying to get that tree out of the way? >> reporter: yes. i think this is as much of what we will be seeing in miami. we are about ten miles from the actual miami beach but only about two blocks away from miami international airport where 99-mile-per-hour winds hit yesterday. us, our crew, we have been stuck since this storm struck the area. there are two hotel the there are about 100 guests at both of

these. we seen several people get out, return to their homes. this was used as a shelter for a lot of people evacuated from their neighborhoods. he is a retired police officer, now works here at the hotel. he had the chainsaw in hand. we got three employees and one of the guests. arielle has been with us since about 3:00 a.m. that. ultimately means we will get the chance to go out as well. the airport over here sustained, five terminals sustained significant water damage. we were just over, andy and i were over on the side road here. five trees right here. if you go down the road, this is a main roadway next to us. where a lot of these people in order to get back to their homes, 85% of the homes here in miami-dade county are going to be without power for upwards of the next week. so much of the question is, while these people may leave their shelters or hotels, may

get past these trees, what will they be getting to within they get home? >> certainly a lot of people are anxious to get back to their homes and assess the damage. so we can understand why they want to get that tree out of the way. >> it seems like that will replay itself and replay all across south florida. as people assess. vaughan hilliard live there in miami. thank you. we will take a quick break. but our coverage of hurricane irma continues as the storm makes it way into florida. >> it has downgraded to a category 1. it is still hammering the state with heavy winds, all that is coming up.

be. welcome back. we've been up, tracking hurricane irma. the latest, the storm has weakened to a category 1 storm. places in central and north georgia preparing for heavy winds as well. the transit system in atlanta has canceled rail and bus services, believe it or not, and some schools are already closed. let's go back to florida now. joining us from hollywood, florida, is msnbc's philip mena. give us a quick assessment of what you're seeing now in hollywood, an area you've been in the past couple of days since we first spoke to you, i believe, on friday of last week. >> i wanted to show you about the power of hurricane irma and what it did to the beaches here. we pan down here.

see this coconut and right behind you here is that palm tree. this is literally the line in the sand. beach patrol is telling me waves were here, to this point. since it's dark right now we had to use one of our vehicles to light up the waves so you could see it. they were diligent trying to get people off the beach. people were trying to take it in before hurricane irma came through. people didn't want to leave. it was a beautiful sight, until it got dangerous. those winds were whipping up so much, it was causing waves to get higher and higher until they were crashing. that is the difference, just in the 24 hours or so since hurricane irma came and went. that is the power. that is what it did to the beach here in hollandale beach. all of this was under water at some point, all the way back from where we saw.

yasmin? >> that beach is sort of lined with apartment high rises. as we were talking friday when you were standing there, the big conversation was those buildings were built to sustain the storm surge that was predicted to hit, which did not hit in that area, to the amount that was predicted. but are we -- do we know any sort of assessment of damages to the buildings, from the high winds that were on that beach there? >> reporter: we don't. she wants to -- if you can step on this right here you might be able to get a good look at down the beach. we were talking about the safety of the buildings and the integrity, if they held up. for one, lights down at the very end of the beach -- it's hard to see because it's dark. you may be able to see that red building down there. and the lights have come back there. we can cannot see until daybreak, yasmin. we do not know what the winds did up there. we know it was more intense up

there, the higher up there you g that's why it's important for those people to evacuate. a lot of them had been boarded up. it will take a couple of hours, until the sun comes up, and we'll have a chance to see what hurricane irma did to this area. they're starting to come back here and there. but, again, daybreak is just 90 minutes away or so and we'll get a better idea of exactly what hurricane irma did here. >> we'll be in touch with you throughout the course of the morning. thank you. confusion at a shelter in tampa shortly after 2:30 in the morning, an alarm sounded at raymond james stadium where tampa's police force along with evacuated marines and members of the tampa bay buccaneers are staying. within 20 minutes the alarm was shut off and people headed back in. no idea why that alarm was sounded and then water was leak tlug the roof at the minor

league hockey stadium where thousands of evacuees have hunkered down. american red cross has opened five shelters ahead of irma's arrival in that state. nashville, chattanooga, johnson city and memphis. stick with us as our coverage of hurricane irma continues throughout the morning. >> as people in florida wake up to irma's destruction and the cleanup getting under way.

welcome back this morning. hurricane irma will move into southeastern states. >> as it moves north right now 5.5 million people without power this morning. >> that does it for us on this monday morning. i'm yasmin valongside ayman.

and willie geist and chris jansing continue our coverage. >> the first direct hit since a major hurricane since 1921. the storm weakened to a category 1 at 2:00 a.m. but huge and wide reaching. good morning, breaking news. irma turning its theory on northern florida after pounding the southern half of that state. this morning millions without power. widespread damage coast-to-coast. streets turn to rivers. the storm downgraded but the destruction for the over today monday, september 11th, 2017. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is a special edition of "today" hurricane irma. with mat lauer and savannah guthrie from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >> and the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. devastation in the state of