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

buildings. >> reporter: it's not just the rain doing damage but this powerful wind. >> reporter: whoa, i just got part of a wave. >> reporter: tremendous amount of wind. it feels like a sandblaster here. >> hundreds of thousands remain in shelters this morning. >> trying to just survive, helping one another whatever way we can. >> as irma moves north threatening millions more across the southeast. >> reporter: still affecting charleston and savannah today. every now and then we get something that almost knocks us off our feet. >> there's no advantage to being tall. >> those guys are still in it this morning as is gainesville. morgan radford is there. hi, morgan. good morning. >> reporter: matt, savannah, good morning. the eye of that storm is headed our way as we speak. you could feel these winds. the rain has been battering down on us. because we are on the east side of that eye. that means woo ere in the thick

of it right now. we're getting the worst of it because it's about 50 miles southwest of us. we've seen it cause three things. one, there's been minor flooding along the streets on the sides of the street. the winds have knocked down power lines, knocked down trees. that's cause number two. 50,000 people now across the county are without power and half the city of gainesville's traffic lights are currently not working. and third and finally, it's these hurricane-forced winds. they're traveling now at 85 miles per hour. we could feel the gusts of them as our crew was driving in around midnight. it was shifting our car and we could feel and hear those winds battering the windows. and that means that the emergency forces in response are now in full effect. one, the national guard is here. two, there's been a state of emergency. and three, emergency shelters have been set up throughout the county. 21 shelters in the county. remember this is home of the university of florida. so there are about 160,000 residents here in the city of

gainesville when school is in session. the shelter at the university already at capacity. as are the two special needs shelters already at capacity. officials are saying stay off the roads. we've seen a few cars in passing this morning. mostly they're national guard and police officers. they've been warned to keep off the roads because as winds reach above 45 miles per hour, which they are now, the emergency responders, the sheriff cannot get to them on the roads. so if people are not already at their shelters, they are being asked to stay in place and off the roads to make sure people stay safe. >> all right. morgan, thank you. >> let's do a little check in with al roker for the latest on the storm. hey, al. >> reporter: hey, guys. thank you so much. one of the side parts to this as question show you where currently irma is, not just the wind, but also the rain. the northeast quadrant of the state suffering a lot of flooding. and so we've got 23 rivers in

major flood stage mostly in the northeastern part of florida. right now irma category 1 storm, 35 miles east/southeast of cedar key. 75 mile-per-hour winds. it's just barely still a hurricane. the tropical storm winds stretch out more than 415 miles from the center of the storm. and the hurricane force winds at 75 miles or more stretch out 60 miles. so it's still packing a punch even though it is weakened considerably from 24 hours ago. and the current wind gusts really continue to push through. i mean, it's going to cause problems as far north as atlanta as far as airport delays are concerned. but you can see orlando wind gusts over 60 miles per hour. airports shut down there. we're looking at tallahassee today. we clocked the wind gusts about 50 miles an hour here on our

corner. it is going to be a windy day throughout the southeast and not to mention a very rainy one as it pushes up to the north. guys, back to you. >> all right, al. thank you very much. florida governor rick scott is with us now. governor scott, good morning. and i was just watching al's maps and his satellite images. i know the northern part of your state still being lashed by these heavy rains and the high winds. what does that mean in terms of when relief supplies and power trucks and things like that can make their way from staging areas down into your state? >> right. first off, i hope everybody continues to pray for us. we need everybody's prayers. we prepositioned assets all along the state. so we already have teams in the southern part of the state going out with our utilities. when i talked to the head of power and lights this morning, he is sending those crews out. i've talked to the president three times yesterday. we had 28 states sending us

resources. as you know, you just heard from al, the storm is still in state. we're sending rescue teams headed towards the jacksonville area. and just to make sure that if we need any assets, we are working to get food and water all around our state. i'll be going with the coast guard this morning to assess the damage in the keys. so everybody's working. >> we may be losing our signal. >> a bit of a dodgy line there. >> so everybody -- are you still there? everybody's working their tail off. >> you cut out a bit. but try again. do you have a sense, governor, of do you have a handle on how much damage and how bad this was in terms of its impact? >> we're -- you know, we're just hearing spotty reports. i'm going with the coast guard down to see the keys.

i've heard there was some significant damage in the keys right where the eye of the storm hit. so we'll find out. i'm going to do everything i can to get all around the state. >> governor, we're having a bit of communication problem with you. we're going to try to re-establish and get back to you later. we know the message is you guys have a lot of work to do and we're praying for the people of florida. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> all right. >> let's go back to al. we've been seeing him. he's in tampa and still not looking great for you, al. good morning. >> reporter: hey, good morning, guys. we want to again look at what's going on around the country and show you that, again, where you are fabulous weather. it's going to be gorgeous through the great lakes. mid-mississippi and ohio river valleys. of course the southeast dominated by irma. hot fire danger through the western plains. southwest looking pretty good. little on the toasty side. in phoenix today, high of 106

that's what's going on around good morning, i'm meteorologist kari hall. we have issued a microclimate weather alert for the south bay with storms to the south of us. we have seen a lot of lightning strikes coming out of the storm, the low pressure offshore. we felt the winds picking up here in the south bay, knocking out power and tree limbs and we are only seeing spotty rain around the monterey area and moving closer to the south. there will be a chance of rain throughout the morning. for the most part, we are looking at strong winds for the next several hours. >> reporter: that's your latest weather. get that weather any time you need it especially these days. check out our friends at the weather channel on cable. coming up 20 minutes, top of the hour, we'll have e the latest from the national hurricane center. and we still have hurricane jose to talk about. >> you just did mention that. yeah. all right, al. more on that in a little while. thank you. coming up next, riding out

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just ride out the storm at home. joe fryer is in tampa with more on one of those families. joe, good morning. >> reporter: savannah, matt, good morning. still a lot of wind and rain here. but tampa's breathing a sigh of relief knowing the storm surge could have been devastating. still it was a sleepless night throughout the region. we spent time with a family that evacuated to tampa hoping to escape irma only to face the hurricane here. >> we're in the eye now. >> it's just north of naples. >> reporter: they could track the forecast on tv. >> the eye is actually moving east? >> no, it's moving north. >> reporter: or perhaps by simply looking behind them. >> well, it feels like irma is following us. >> reporter: a few days ago as irma crept closer to their home near miami, these empty nesters fled thinking their friend's house in tampa would be a safer option. then the hurricane's track shifted west. >> there's no escape from this

storm. the entire state's under a hurricane warning which has really been unprecedented. >> reporter: now with sandbags and plastic bags guarding the doors, they're hunkering down with another family who escaped south florida. they've grown concerned realizing experts deemed tampa one of the most vulnerable in the world when it comes to major storms. >> it's completely out of our hands. you know, there's nothing that we can really do at this point. kind of curious about how the night's going to go. because it's out of our control. >> reporter: as the night wears on, the winds are growing stronger. the rains are getting heavier. though it's not the category 3 hurricane that many here had feared, it's still causing no shortage of anxiety. >> every time i hear sounds, it's terrifying. >> reporter: early this morning, we caught up with jill to see how they're holding up. >> it appears to be dissipating a little bit, but there's still

the fear of the unknown. >> reporter: in the end, the stevens were probably better off here in tampa. they know their community near miami key biscayne has seen quite a bit of flooding. but they don't yet know if their house has actually flooded. back to you guys. >> all right, joe. thank you. just one of the stories that many people have. many are evacuating and then the storm is bearing down. >> there's be a time you have to make a decision. you have to go one direction or another. sometimes that works out. and sometimes it doesn't. all right. we'll have much more on irma including the impact it's having on travel all across the country. but first these messages. 3 hey allergy muddlers

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. coming up, much more of our special coverage of irma. we are live across the entire state with a first-hand look at all the damage that has been left behind. also, the storm chaser. this is the guy responsible for one of the most talked about images of this storm. he's going to join us live to discuss why this

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issued a microclimate weather alert. laura a wind storm whipped through the coverage continues in a moment. we have issued a microclimate update. >> a wind whipped through toppling trees and power lines. there are more than 7,000 outages right now in the south bay. that's down from 12,000 just about 30 minutes ago. kris sanchez has an update for us. >> tell us what you have been able to see. i know the wind is blowing a little bit, but not as much as earlier. >> reporter: yeah, just a human weathervane out here for you. the power is back to those signals at lark avenue. the wind is still blowing. there's lots of debris on the road. be careful when you hit the road this morning. we saw a crew heading the other direction. here is what it looks like within the last couple hours.

road signs flipped by the wind. we have video of a tree down. that's often how folks lose their power. of the 7,000 pg&es we will keep you up to date here on www.nbcbayarea.com, twitter and facebook. we are going on the air at 5:30 and will bring you know what know then. >> sounds good. we'll check back with you. >> we want to bring in kari hall. have we seen the worst of this? >> i think we are going start to see those winds winding down. it's because of this area of low pressure that is just offshore and it has produced a lot of lightning strikes, shown here by those lightning icon. a lot of lightning has been offshore, but we are feeling the outflow, the winds rushing away from the storms into the south bay and peninsula. the rain has been spotty around the monterey area and moving offshore. we'll continue to monitor that

with the wind speed. at times, 20 miles per hour. >> thank you, kari. >> we'll have another update.

it's 8:00 on "today." coming up, breaking news. >> that hurt. >> irma barrels toward northern florida leaving a path of destruction in its wake. torrential rains and heavy winds whipping the southern part of the state. trees uprooted. homes destroyed. this morning millions of people without power. thousands packed into shelters. uncertain of the damage they'll return to. >> we don't know what, you know, the next few days is going to bring. >> "today" september 11, 2017. all right. we're back now. special edition here on a monday morning. matt lauer with