good morning. breaking news. irma marching north after hammering southern florida. fierce winds ripping roofs off homes. causing cranes to collapse. major damage and flooding across the state. millions without power. >> we don't know what, you know, the next few days is going to bring. >> president trump trying to reassure anyone in its path. >> this is some big monster, but i think we're very well coordinated. >> a historic storm, its wrath still being felt today monday, september 11th, 2017. >> announcer: from nbc news this

is a special edition of "today" hurricane irma with matt lauer and savannah guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >> and good morning, everyone. yes, welcome to this special edition of "today" on a monday morning. we're going to be with you for several hours this morning trying to figure out what's happening with this storm, where she's going, and what she's left behind. >> it's been a long night, long weekend for our friends in florida. let's get to where things stand with hurricane irma. it's a category 1 storm now packing 75 mile-an-hour winds still. we are waiting an updating from the national hurricane center. they'll give a sense of where it's headed. >> we were talking 140 miles an hour yesterday down to 75 today. it can still do damage. nearly 5 million people without power this morning. record power outages for the state of florida. people could be in the dark for awhile. florida power and light is warning customers this is not going to take just a couple of

days to restore. this will take weeks before it's fully restored. >> as we mentioned, we are seeing widespread flooding across the state this morning. a storm surge of more than 10 feet was recorded in the hard-hit florida keys. and a tide gauge reported a seven-foot rise in levels in 90 minutes. that happened in naples last night. >> president trump has approved a disaster declaration for florida. that's a move that frees up federal aid for victims of the storm. we have complete coverage as you might expect across the zone. starting with dill dan dreiylan. she's in gainesville this morning. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, matt. gainesville is in north central florida. it's amazing we're dealing with the effects of a category 1 hurricane here. weaker than it was when it hit south florida. spoken to a lot of the evacuees from south florida that are staying at the hotel we're at here. they're grateful they're just dealing with a category 1 hurricane here.

you can see the wind and the rain are coming down. overnight we had winds up to -- over 60 miles per hour. we also picked up more than 10 inches of rain here in this area. so we still have a ways to go. the heaviest of the rain is moving through, but now that the storm has weakened and it's picking up speed, it's moving at about 18 miles per hour. you can see how fast it's moving north. but there are still tornado watches in effect. in jacksonville, florida, which keep in mind is 500 miles away from key west, we have a flash flood warning in effect because of the heavy downpours they're seeing off the atlantic ocean. this storm is so expansive. even up into atlanta we have tropical storm warnings for the first time ever. so this storm is going to continue to move up into the southeast, produce several inches of rain. we will most likely see more flash flooding because of that. >> dylan, thank you very much. >> irma zeroed in on the tampa bay region last night. lester holt is in tampa for us

this morning. hi, lester. i see you're still getting it. >> reporter: yeah. wishing i was 5'2," not 6'2" right now standing in this wind. very heavy on the backside here in downtown tampa. look, irma has beaten and battered this state but the state is not down. it pulled some of its punch as it came inland. now they'll be able to assess some of the damage as the police cars get out. we saw some of them go by a little bit ago. one thing is for sure. this storm has touched virtually every corner of this state. overnight hurricane irma unleashed its wrath on florida. the eyeball moving inland dumping torrential rain and heavy winds on orlando and the tampa bay area. this coming after irma's powerful winds drained water from tampa's beaches, sucking the water out to sea. the hurricane spending all of sunday punishing the sunshine

state. making its first landfall in the florida keys. sending water rushing into the streets. after making its second landfall on marco island, irma pounded nearby naples with wind gusts as high as 142 miles per hour. >> the angle of approach -- >> reporter: nearly knocking mike bettes off his feet. >> oh! >> reporter: and pelting him with rain. >> that hurt. >> reporter: just moments before the eye of the hurricane moved overhead. >> after getting beaten and bruised and battered, there's the eye. >> reporter: but just feet behind him, a tornado swoops by pushing him down the street. now marching north, irma is leaving behind a path of destruction. uprooting trees, blocking roads, and ripping apart houses. and though the eye is staying west, florida's east coast is also facing the hurricane force. in miami, parts of downtown are

completely submerged. nearly 100 mile-an-hour winds knocking down construction cranes on top of high-rises. and tearing the roof off this building. as rivers overflow. at camp david, president trump and members of his cabinet received a briefing on the storm from fema's administrator. the president is now pledging to visit florida soon. >> i think the hard part is now beginning to see what happens. >> reporter: the powerful winds have already left millions without power and forced thousands into shelters. >> i left my home. these people have left their homes, their families. so we don't know what the next few days is going to bring. >> reporter: there will be plenty of obstacles for those folks to get through. a lot of trees, downed power lines to be cleared. then the issue of no power. that means no power to gas pumps. so the gasoline situation will continue to be a detriment to

getting back on the feet here in tampa and other parts of florida. back to you. >> lester, i see a familiar patch of yellow to your left. so that tells me that al roker is still in tampa with you. let's talk to him now and find out what can be expected from irma. hey, al. >> reporter: yeah, hey, guys. by the way, lester, it's windy down here too. just wanted to let you know. speaking up for the little people. let's show you what's happening right now. i mean, again, we've got some pretty good winds on the backside of this system. and some wraparound moisture coming right through tampa. it's 35 miles east/southeast of the key. 75 mile-per-hour winds. as dylan mentioned, it is racing north/northwest at 18 miles per hour. now, it will continue to move to the northwest. jacksonville this morning, winds of 50 to 75 miles per hour. a lot of rain as you heard. we've got flash flood warnings going there. then as the day wears on, we are

looking for charleston and cz savanna with a storm surge of 4 to 6 feet. rainfall 4 to 7 inches. it continues to move into atlanta tonight. airport delays are going to be extensive. and tropical storm warnings. first-ever tropical storm warning. as far as any more surges, we still could see another 2 to 4 feet from tampa bay all the way down into southwestern florida. and the other surges, georgia, south carolina 4 to 6 feet. florida's atlantic coast could see another 3 to 5 feet as this system pulls away. it is bringing those really strong winds, guys. so we're not quite done with it yet. >> it's not done with you, right, al? thank you very much. we'll check back in. kerry sanders is on marco island where there's damage from a significant storm surge. it's on florida's gulf coast due

west of miami. kerry, good morning. >> reporter: well, good morning. irma made landfall here at around 3:35 p.m. top wind speed 130 miles per hour. we talked about the surge being 10 to 15 feet. you can still see the strength of the storm surge. this is a solid concrete bench. the storm surge rushed in here. take a look at a picture of a canal here. you can see where the water was pulled out. the water pulled out and then that picture was taken in naples and the water came in here. when it came in here, it rushed in about a half mile. fortunately you can see the condos here, those had most of the people were gone, their cars were not at the basement ground level here. so the flooding that took place here that washed in, washed out does not appear to be that significant. as i take you north of here in naples, let's go up to the drone as you look at the pictures of

the drone this morning, you can see the damage. if it is your house, it's extensive, it's miserable. in terms of the type of destruction that could have come with this hurricane, not as dramatic as people feared. not as many roofs, it looks like, they peeled off. in fact, we don't see any here right now. let me take you back to this hurricane making landfall in naples which is where i was. as the hurricane came in, there we have 142 mile-per-hour winds. incredibly strong winds. and about 11 to 12 inches of rain. the storm carrying mostly up trees and tree limbs, shingles. it was a brutal experience. as you can imagine this morning, no electricity in some cases. even cell phone towers are down. the authorities are promising that they're going to get this cleaned back up. but there's no sort of timetable when that will happen. >> all right, kerry. thank you very much. >> irma led to one of the largest evacuations in u.s. history. about 7 million people.

overnight nearly 200,000 rode out the storm in emergency shelters all across florida. gabe gutierrez is in naples. a city that was hard hit. gabe, good morning to you. >> reporter: matt, good morning. this is where the eye of the storm blew through. you can see there is plenty of damage here. trees toppled, power lines knocked down. but as kerry mentioned, the storm surge that so many people feared did not materialize, so while there was some overnight flooding, the water here in naples has been receding. and this morning at first light, crews are now out assessing the damage. downtown naples is just being hammered right now. after wind gusts topped 115 miles an hour, this morning many in naples feel relieved. there may have been some flooding and wind damage overnight, but not the massive 10 to 15 foot storm surge the city had feared. >> the surge is done. and, you know, we'll deal with

whatever damage was done, but i think it would have been absolutely catastrophic had it been a huge storm surge. >> reporter: instead, irma slammed on shore sunday afternoon with howling winds and relentless rain. first the eye slicing through nearby marco island. then naples. this is the rain that is hitting me. wow. geez. just a few minutes after that close call -- >> it would appear right now we are in the eye of the storm right now. look how quiet this is. how calm it is. for some residents, it was anything but calm. we're in 234e eye. what's going through your head? >> if i'm going to have to home to go back to. >> reporter: i'm sorry, ma'am. across the state, other evacuees crammed into the 500 emergency shelters. but the roof of this massive one near ft. myers sprang a leak and lost power. officials insist the building is safe.

>> helping one another in whatever way we can. >> reporter: kelly instead chose to ride out the storm at home with her family and her employees. >> it's scary, of course. i'm more concerned about the storm surge than anything else because we're so close to the beach. >> reporter: naples now recovering after being caught in the eye of the storm. there was a curfew in effect overnight, so many people have not been able to come out and see the damage until now. but again, the mayor here says that given all things that they were expecting, given the fears over that storm surge, for naples at least, it could have before much worse. >> all right, gabe. thank you very much. >> that brings us to florida senator bill nelson who joins us now. good morning. >> good morning. it's still howling outside. >> i bet it is. and yet there is this sense of relief at least from the correspondence we're hearing from some of the mayors we're talking to saying this could have been much, much worse. what's your perspective on it? >> reporter: if it had stayed in

the gulf, all of that warm water would have killed it and it would have been much stronger. much unexpected and mother nature has a mind of her own. it left around north of naples, it came over land and it came straight between tampa and orlando. i'm in orlando. we didn't expect getting 100 mile-an-hour winds around 1:30 in the morning. but that's exactly what happened. >> by the bay, you got a lot of company in orlando. app lot of folks from southern florida headed there because they thought it would be a safe haven. let me ask you this, senator. if you're a floridian waking up this morning and your house has been either severely damaged or destroyed, what's the first phone call you need to make? where can you call to get money to live over the next couple of weeks? where can you call to start the process of rebuilding?

>> emergency operation centers will have a whole bunch of instructions. they're staffed with every kind of agency and volunteer organization to know exactly what to do. what advice to give. where to tell you not to go. all of thainformation and emergency operation center in your locale. >> and sir, as far as fema's concerned we think about harvey and what's going on there. now facing this widespread damage in florida with the storms covering pretty much the entirety of your state. is fema up to it? >> yes, but fema is stressed. no doubt about it. they held people back from going to texas so they could send them to preposition in florida or in some cases embedded in those

emergency operation centers. but fema's going to be stretched. and of course the $15 billion that we passed last week in congress, it's going to be gone in just a few weeks. we're going to have to do an emergency supplemental appropriations for fema the middle of october. and that's just going to be another down payment. it's going to keep going on and on. >> yeah, you look at the loss of infrastructure. you look at the loss of tourism dollars. you look at agricultural losses. the long-term financial impact on the state is going to be severe, isn't it, senator? >> yes, sir. but let me tell you, i'm proud of floridians. now, we've never seen a storm quite like this. it's an unusual one. not only did it wobble, but it was first east coast and then west coast. now it's the middle of the state. but almost the entire state is

covered up except for the far west out near pensacola. >> senator bill nelson, senator, good luck to you and the folks of florida. we thank you for joining us on this busy morning. >> thanks, matt. >> all right. we spoke to the senator about the need for federal assistance after the storm. president trump was quick to declare a major disaster to make it easier for people to start to receive funding. nbc national correspondent peter alexander is at the white house with more on that. peter, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. president trump delivering a clear message here that his administration is prepared to deal with the aftermath of irma. after returning to the white house from camp david where he spent the weekend monitoring the storm, the president said he'll be going to florida in his words very soon. this morning he's going to get another full briefing on the hurricane and the damage it caused. he said we may have been a little bit -- we may have been a little bit lucky that the storm veered from its original course after shifting west.

but he still called it some big monster. he has been in close contact with the governors of florida, alabama, georgia, tennessee as well. the president deflecting questions about the billions of dollars that the government's going to be asked to spend to rebuild large parts of texas and frankly houston after harvey. his main worry, he said lives. not the cost. this morning we should note he and the first lady melania trump will lead a moment of silence here at the white house. this is 9/11. they will remember the lives lost on this 16th anniversary. they'll also head to the pentagon today to participate in a 9/11 ceremony there. >> thank you very much. >> let's go back down to tampa. al's got the rest of the forecast. hi, al. >> reporter: all right, guys. thanks so much. let's show you what we've got around the rest of the country. luckily things relatively quiet. irma dominating the southeast.

we do have a fire danger back through the plains. abundant sunshine through new england. we're going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 secon oh, you brought butch. yeah! (butch growls at man) he's looking at me right now, isn't he? yup. (butch barks at man) butch is like an old soul that just hates my guts. (laughs) (vo) you can never have too many faithful companions. introducing the all-new crosstrek. love is out there. find it in a subaru crosstrek.

>> reporter: and that is your latest weather. we're waiting for the next update which will be at 8:00. >> buddy, you're going to have a stiff neck on the right side. >> reporter: i tell you. i'm going to need a massage. i think i'll go see lester. >> i was going to volunteer matt. al, thank you. coming up, we're going to have much more on the devastation being caused by irma. >> we're going to talk to florida's governor about the long and difficult roads that faces his state. but first this is "today" on nbc.

coming up, dangers now facing millions in georgia as irma moves to the north. >> we'll show you what it's like >> we'll show you what it's like for people who ♪ ♪ be a powerful force. nature valley perfect.at carmax, . uh, all the cars? all the cars. old cars? yes. new cars? oh, yeah. sports cars? indeed.

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ah! still a little tender. (vo) go national. go like a pro. continues in a moment. at 4:26 - )nbc bay area ) has issued a microclimate weather alert. a wind storm whipped through the south bay a short time ago - toppling trees and power lines. take fiber 19 there are more than 12-thousand outages right now in the south bay. this is the map from pg&e. boxes our kris sanchez is in los gatos. kris, what are you seeing? =kris live= take vbox =kris live= marcus/anim kari - what )s going on?

of those 1200 pg&e customers in the dark, the majority are in campbell. we are going to keep you updated on www.nbcbayarea.com, also twitter and facebook. if you have a choice between contacts and glasses, go with glasses. a lot of debris is flying around. >> good advice. we want to bring in kari to explain what is going on. >> we have an area of low pressure producing showers and thunderstorms to the south. most of the wind impasse we have had is in the south bay and parts of the peninsula. we are seeing the rain moving through, moving close tore monterey and rolling farther to the north as it dis pates. the wind speed is 21 miles per hour in san jose, 16 in san francisco and half-moon bay.

we'll continue to monitor that and the winds throughout the day. back to the "today" show for hurricane irma's coverage.

morning, everybody. morning, everybody. 7:30, it's monday morning the 11th of september, 2017. these are the scenes we have been seeing the last 24 hours hurricane irma rolled ashore in florida. it's been a long night there. >> let's get to the latest on this storm. millions without power across florida this morning as hurricane irma flattens homes and floods neighborhoods up and down the state. >> reporter: the angle of approach makes all the difference and a storm that's more parallel -- oh! >> cranes crippled dangling on high-rises were sheared off