good morning. >> msnbc world headquarters. it is 6:00 in the eastern. 3:00 a.m. out west. here's what's happening. hurricane irma now a category four storm as it comes within 275 miles of miami. the outer bands already visible from the florida keys. a storm now predicted to travel up florida's west coast with hurricane force winds across the entire state before heading inland towards tennessee. >> over five million people in florida are under mandatory evacuation orders. many standing in long lines to get into shelters like this one here in miami. county officials from miami dade are expecting at least 100,000 evacuees. governor rick scott urging residents not to take any chances. >> if you are told to evacuate, leave, get out quickly.

the roads will fill up quickly, so you need to go. i'm a dad, and i'm a grandfather. i love my fathemily. i can't imagine life without them. do not put yourself or your family's life at risk. >> governor scott also taking to twitter asking for 1,000 volunteer nurses to help in special needs shelters. florida is not the only state preparing for irma's wrath. georgia governor nathan deal has ordered residents on the coast to start evacuating at 8:00 a.m. some heeding that warning sooner, joining evacuees from florida on i-75 towards atlanta. >> irma proving already that it is powerful and deadly with at least 23 people killed across the care baep island. fierce winds up to 155 miles per hour with storm surges up to 10 feet high expected. now, downed power lines in puerto rico left nearly one million people without power. roofs were torn off buildings, and trees scattered across roads. tr

three died on that island. in haiti, the impoverished nation was left flooded. for many in the caribbean, the worst may not be over yet. hurricane jose now closing in on the area. >> let's start first with msnbc's marianna atencio who has been tracking the storm and is live for us in miami. we heard from governor scott there saying, look, you got to get out. heed these warnings. leave now. you are in the path of the storm. from what i understand, you've actually found someone who has decided to hunker down. >> that's right. we're here in miami beach. this is a barrier island. it is especially vulnerable. the city's 100,000 residents under mandatory evacuation orders. you can already start to see the wind gusts, the major threat here is that storm surge. it could go up to 8 to 12 feet. we drove into miami beach this morning. i mean, we are expecting to see no one really. hoping to see no one. we saw people walking out and

about. people like edwardo over here. >> hi. >> you live here. >> yeah, i live here. >> you decided not to evacuate. >> i decided not to evacuate. i prefer to stay here because, i don't know, i'm sure here and not other places. >> are you prepared to ride the storm out here? >> i prefer it, and i recommend it for the people buy candles and watered and food. >> you still have time to leave though, edwardo, today. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> will you potentially leave today? will you change your mind, you think? >> no, no, no. i don't change my mind. i stay here for the start of the to remember, and i'll finish the storm. >> reporter: the storm surge is really a threat here no miami beach. i have lived here, guys, and even just heavy rainfall creates heavy flooding here on the beach. do you live in a high enough apartment? >> yeah. i live in the five floor, and i recommend it for the people that change the car in an up place

where. >> you live in a fifty floornd here? over there on it is corner. >> this morning we found you just walking your dog. this is the dog. what's his name? >> tomas andres. >> for me i recommend to stay with -- >> i think our anchors want to ask us something you had a question. >> ask him has e lived in a storm. has he lived through a hurricane category four before? >> reporter: edwardo, have you ever lived through a category four hurricane? >> yeah. it's my first here. really scary. >> reporter: really scared, but you've decided not to evacuate. >> i decided no evacuate. i prefer to stay here. i'm feeling sure here. i trust in the police and the

police and the state are sure here. i prefer to stay here. >> reporter: we have seen some police cars driving around this morning, amman, and buses. city buses, sheltering people out of here. edwardo, if you change your mind, you know that you can still leave today. i'm going to kick it back to the anchors. do you guys have any more questions? >> quickly, if you could ask edwardo, has he taken sort of any preparings in his apartment at least? has he boarded up his windows for those high winds that are set to take place? >> edwardo, have you boarded up your windows, shutters? what kind of preparations besides having water do you have ready in your apartment? >> i'm stay prepared for the hurricanes, category four or five. >> have you boarded up? >> yeah. yeah. i boarded up. >> bored up the windows. >> reasonable doubt boed the windows. i protect my windows. i got water inside, and i

prepare to go inside to my building. not stay in my apartment. >> i hope you and tomas andres here stay safe and you have time to evacuate today before the storm heads our way here in south florida, guys. back to you. >> we hope edwardo is able to stay safe along side his dog as well. >> if florida officials are watching that, what are they thinking when they hear somebody like edwardo that decides to not want to stay at home? >> let's get the latest on hurricane irma, of course, with meteorologist bonnie schneider standing by for us. >> you are hearing that edwardo. >> disappointing. >> miami beach in the path of this hurricane. yeah, it's pretty scary stuff that he had decided to stay there. >> is it disappointing because of how severe this is? >> i think no matter how many times they say it, there are people that will just stay. we've seen this in fire hurricanes. i'm thinking back to 2004 to hurricane charlie that some people wait and wait, and then it's too late, and they have to be rescued. i'm hopeful that won't happen this time.

if they say to evacuate, always follow orders. >> i remember covering hurricane sandy as well. there are a lot of people emotionally attached to where they live, and they want to stay and you think hadar down. they think, oh, it's never going to be as bad as they say it's going to be. sometimes it's not. a lot of times it is. >> yes. absolutely. i always believe in preparing for the worst because you don't want to be stranded where you have no resources. somebody has to rescue you. let's take a look at what's happening with this massive monster storm, irma. it's a category four, and that might make you think, well, it's downgraded. a category four is a big storm. this storm when you look at that diameter of it, it's almost 400 miles wide. it's massive. hurricane force winds extend outward from the eye over 70 miles. we're going to be feeling those hurricane force winds across all of florida. 245 south-southeast of miami right now. the maximum sustained winds 145 miles per hour. the movement, a slight change.

at first it was going westerly. now it's west-northwesterly at 12 miles per hour, and i was really watching that because, unfortunately for cuba, boy, i mean, the torrential downpours and the hurricane force winds have been relentless for cuba. particularly on the north part of the island. now we're getting some of those feeder bands. the very outer feeder bands coming into the keys right now. winds are picking up. current winds as far north assist west palm up to 25 miles per hour. the winds are stronger in key west, and they're going to go up from there. >> if you are just joining us now, and you haven't -- most of the computer models have really concentrated this track on the west coast to florida. that means potentially we could see two landfalls with this system. one around the florida keys sometime on sunday morning, and then a second one, sunday into monday, on the west coast of florida. also, even just looking at this now, the first thing i'm thinking of, hey, i thought we thought this was going to happen on saturday. well, because the storm took more of a westerly track longer, kind of slowed that turn down,

so everything is a little bit delayed maybe since you last saw the tracks. i want to make sure everyone is aware of the timing. the models have been trending further to the west. that's why we see the track shift as well. >> it's incredible when you see that map of florida and you see how much will be covered by the hurricane at some point. >> safety is a top concern in miami. specifically talking to one respondent's exhibit there who decided to hunker down. joining us, the miami dade police department, major. thank you for joining us. we were just talking to one of your residents in miami beach who decided to stay in his apartment, hunker down, sort of ride out this storm. pretty concerning. i'm sure you have other residents in your area as well who decide to do the same. how are you dealing with that? >> well, yes, we did have a lot

of individuals that decided to go ahead and leave the area for the storm, but there is a lot of folks that are going to stay here. that's understandable. being floridians, we've been through hurricanes before, so there's some that feel more comfortable here. we're saying at this point that whatever preparations you decide or whatever is your eventual hurricane plan, those things need to have been made at this time. it's time to go ahead and hunker down where you are going to be, and get ready for impact much the storm. >> major, excuse me. if you can talk to us a little bit about your major concerns as a police department over the course of the next 48, 72 hours? what are you preparing for the most, and what concerns you the most? >> well, we spent the whole week pretty much preparing our officers, making sure -- doing a variety of things at the same time. one of the things is making sure that our officers are taken care of, and they've taken care of their home and done whatever they need to do with their

families so that they don't have to worry about that as they can focus on providing services to the residents of miami dade county. getting our equipment ready, our vehicles,ure trucks, our atv's, whatever it is that we think we're going to need post-storm to make sure those things are prepped and ready. we've got our command post going. we've even, you know -- we have to shutter our buildings too, so we have got all that stuff taken care of, and we're as prepared as we can be right now. we're patrolling the neighborhoods. we have a full mobilization of our department. half of the department is working on the base ship for ft the other half on the night shift. it's all hands on deck. >> the citizens that decided to go out there and get their own boats and help people rescue people. especially people that decided not to evacuate and hunker down there. there wasn't necessarily a mandatory evacuation in a lot of areas that were hit by hurricane harvey, as there is now with hurricane irma. keeping that in perspective, do you have any plans to sort of

help the people that have decided to hunker down, or are you saying, look, if you decided to stay, you're kind of on your own for the next 48 to 72 hours because we don't want to necessarily put our officers in harm's way and then after that we could feesably get to you. >> we're going to be responding to calls as long as it's safe to do so. as long as we can go out there, we're going to go out there and help. when it becomes unsafe, our officers are going to have to take shelter, and as soon as we're able to go out again, we'll be right back out there again. we're ready, and we'll immediately jump in to the first -- one of the first things we'll be doing when the storm passes is any emergency calls we couldn't get to, we'll try to get to those first. we're going to go out there and determine, you know, what the extent of damage is, what areas need to be cleared, we'll get our helicopters up as fast as we can. we'll get our high water vehicles and all-terrain vehicles out as fast as they can. miami dade county is a close knit community. it's a big community, but people

here work together, and we're going to get through it and work together, and as soon as the storm passes, it will be all hands on deck, like i mentioned before. >> we know the entire country is pulling for you, major hectare yavad. thank you for your time. we wish you and your staff the best. >> thank you. well, damage from irma is extensive and devastating across the caribbean islands, including the bahamas where rahema ellis is. she joins us by phone from nassau -- on camera, i should say. it's great to see you. give us an update. we know that obviously the caribbeans have been hit very hard by hurricane irma. what is the latest in the bahamas? well, in the bahamas, i can tell you about that, but i if irs want to tell you about what's happening in cuba bah uz that's here in our region. the point is that kauba is be a pounded by the fury of hurricane irma. the storm is expected to linger over cuba for a while with winds

of 150 miles per hour. that is punishing and devastating. people there have been experiencing the force of the hurricane overnight with rain and thunder and torrential rain, i should say. what will be left in certain sections of that area once the storm has passed, it's anybody's guess. if you can base it on what's happened in other parts of the caribbean, it could be devastating. already 23 people have been killed as a result of this powerful storm. we had a lot of people down in the southern bahamas who found that they had to be evacuated for fear that they were going to be hit, and their area was indeed hit. one section, they say, it is so much damage there. they're not sure that people have much of anything to go back to once authorities can get back into the area and start really assessing all of the damage. what we say here in the nassau area, authorities are saying that the hurricane warning remains in effect for central parts of the country as well as

where we are right here in nassau. they're expecting tropical storm force throughout the day. overnight we've had thunder and lightning, and rain, and that could continue throughout the day as well. what they're doing is continuing to brace themselves. some areas that the storm has already passed, again, as i say, it has been deadly and devastating. islands like barbuda. 90% of that island was devastated, demolished by the storm. irma is powerful. irma is deadly. people here in this area are continuing to hunker down because the threat is not over yet. back to you. >> are a i meana, do the residents there feel like they may have donnelldged a bullet considering the worst case scenario? >> maybe here in central bahamas where i am in nassau. some people may be thinking that when they wake up this morning, but when they have an opportunity to talk to their

relatives and friends and their countrymen who were in southern bahamas, they're not thinking that at all because the reports are very devastating about what's coming out of that area. >> i'm sure we're going to start seeing the images come out of cuba as well. live for us there in the bahamas, rahema eli says, thank you. much more to come, hurricane irma is now on track to hit both coasts of florida, and also new footage of the extentive devastation across the bahamas where rahema ellis was first reporting from. we'll be right back. keep it here.

>> we've seen only one or two cars. there were not a lot of people out here, and everything seems to be boarded up, which is good news because the ocean is right there, and the storm is coming closer. i wish it was lighter out because the oats e ocean is already much rougher than yesterday. the storm is still about 24 hours away. now that it's looking like it's going to take more of a western track up the west coast of florida instead of the east coast, it will not be as bad here, but we will still see that possibly dangerous storm surge. perhaps as high as five to ten

feet, which is that water that comes on shore as the hurricane pushes that water inland. mar-a-lago, trump's white house south, is just a few, i would say, about a mile up the street from where i'm standing right now. that is board the up tight. all the windows are equipped with the metal shutters that this area tends to use for these types of events. we are certainly feeling like something is changing in the air here, and we are going to see conditions deteriorate, especially later on today. in fact, palm beach county has issued a curfew starting at 3:00 this afternoon, meaning everybody needs to be wherever they are going to be and hunker down for this storm. the good news is people seem to have gotten out of town. if not, they've shuttered up and are taking precautions as the

storm gets closer. >> i remember when covering hurricane hand every sandy with the storm surge on staten island, it happened very quickly. there were people on the roadways trying to get out. the storm surge happened. you didn't really see it coming. whereas, other storms it's happened more gradually. can you give us a scope, a sense of how this would take place? do you have any idea? >> basically, you know, if you were to take a squeegey, all of that water gets pushed on shore. that's what the hurricane is doing. it's pushing the water inland. the hurricane is moving at 14 miles per hour, which means that push of water is also moving at about 14 miles per hour. it is going to take some time before it gets here, but once it does and makes its way inland, it's going to rush at about 14 miles per hour. all the low-lying areas, first, will see that water perhaps pile up feet in just several minutes. >> you have that dual threat of the storm surge as well as the debris that dylan was talking about as a result of the wind. all right, dylan dryer live for

us in palm beach florida. thank you, dylan. also, a big concern for the florida keys as they face the brunt of hurricane irma. it's the rain and the wind and the surge that dylan was talking about. we have julia bag for us from florida city, florida. the weather is changing. talk to us about it. >> indeed things have really kicked up here. i'm taking some shelter right at the gas station. essential the rain starting to get very heavy now. the winds kicking up as well. we've also seen some big lightning crashes nearby. you can see still in the sky more flashes here. want to show you what's going on. we talked to the highway troopers, the florida highway patrol. there's more than half a dozen of them. actually holding a meeting right here. they just made a trip down to marathon, which is about halfway down the keys. remember, we're at the southern

spot of the mainland just before you hits the overseas highway to bring you southbound. just in the past couple of minutes, these crashes -- looks like power may have gone out in some places around us. not right where we are. we just saw a trooper head southbound on the overseas highway in the direction of the keys. apparently to go check that out. you could see the overseas highway as people were making their way north. that's all we're seeing right now. definitely things starting to get serious here. i hear some more thunder cracking behind me. the highway patrol, what they've been doing, the line of more than half a dozen just patrolling around this area. where we are is an area devastated by hurricane andrew. you think of miami all the time, but just to the south of it where there's a lot of farmland, there were a lot of mobile homes

here back 25 years ago when that storm hit, so what does that mean. people take this storm threat seriously with irma. many of them have either evacuated, gone to shelters, a lot of hotels have actually had their guests evacuate even just yesterday here in florida city to get out of the way of the storm. right now the good news is it looks like the worst of irma may actually skirt this area, but that's not something to -- that's not something to take lightly. we're still expecting some heavy winds here. just in what we're seeing, just as i'm speaking to you now, heavy winds and rain. the race track store there remains closed. you can't get gas for another 20 miles. >> we can see the sparks of lightning, and we can see -- we can hear as well the thunder behind you. we saw that with what seemed to be cans of fuel on the top of this car. julia bag, thank you very much for that update. we'll be in touch with you throughout the course of the morning as well.

let's get a quick update on the path of the storm of hurricane irma. to that we turn to the weather channel, stephanie abrams in delray beach. different conditions where you are right now, stephanie, than where julia was at the very tip of florida where we expect the hurricane potentially to make two landfalls. one on the key west isles, and then further north on florida's west coast. >> if this does make landfall as a category four, this would be the first time in recorded history that the yaegts has had two category four landfalls in the same season. of course, we had harvey in texas and now we do have irma. we do anticipate that happening. i am a little bit farther north, but we're going to start to see here what she's seeing with the outer bands coming in. it is much breezier today, and what's happening is we have our low pressure, which is our storm so the south. it's actually a high pressure off to our north. there's a little squeeze play of the winds in between those. that's helping giving us a little extra breeze this morning

and on shore push. they're already seeing rains and storms into northern florida, and that is that onshore push. that is not necessarily from irma. the biggest evacuation in u.s. history over five million people leaving the state of florida, 5.6 million, and it's a number that i've been told. it's a quarter of population here as we have just over 20 million people that are living in florida and, you know, down into the miami area, it might be, you know, winds not as strong as they're going to get on the west coast, but it's a matter of you go up 20 or 30 stories, and the category, the hurricane, goes up. that's also a concern into south florida as well with some of the high-ris high-rises. >> stephanie, how confident are we that the eye is going to drive up the west coast at this point? are we pretty sure that we sort of know the path more now? >> we do. you know, what we have to do is look at all the weather systems around it, and we do have this other low pressure -- low pressure is like low pressure.

we have this low pressure in the southeast. it's going to give it a tug north. it feels that. it likes it. they want to get together, if you will, so it is going to be pulling it northbound. it's going to help with the direction of it. >> i want to ask you about the point that you made, which was the historical significance of this. on one hand, the largest evacuation in u.s. history. 5.6 million people. at the same time when it does and if it does make landfall as a category four, it will be a historic situation that we've had two hurricanes at category four and above strengths making landfall. is there any concern -- i know we're not even looking at this, but some of the other conditions that have formed in the atlantic, you had hurricane jose and the gulf of mexico. you have hurricane katia, i believe. are those concerns at this point as well? >> so they aren't, thankfully. i'm glad you asked that. days ago jose was going to, like, loop around and come back to florida. right now we are not expecting that loop. though it does kind of come near the north carolina coast. maybe they've get wave action

from that, but reason we don't anticipate anything from jose or katia. >> a lot of people making a comparison to hurricane andrew here. i think we have a graphic to sort of compare the size of hurricane andrew versus the hurricane irma. if we don't bring it up, just explain to everybody hurricane andrew, a heck of a lot smaller than hurricane irma. hurricane andrew was also very strong as well. also, there it is, we have the graphics up right now. you can sort of see hurricane andrew back in 1992. so much smaller. you could fit a couple of hurricane andrews inside of hurricane irma now. the path of hurricane andrew, if you could speak to that, stephanie, how different that was. the path of hurricane andrew over florida versus the path of hurricane irma. >> just to start off here for some facts for everybody, there's been three known category fives to make landfall in the u.s. florida keys 1935, camille in 1960. and andrew in 1992.

andrew made landfall as a four, and thn they upped it to a category five at its ten-year anniversary. that's just some factoids for you. now to address your question. where that was coming in, so much smaller, which made it like a buzz saw. by the way, very much like charlie, which a lot of people will remember on the west coast, which is also a good one to talk about. that was small and a buzz saw, category four. it just kind of goes right over an area and moves out. andrew went right over south florida, destroying homestead like a buzz saw and kept going. the difference with this is this is coming from the south and going up the entire spine. it's going to hold utsz own. we're talking a major hurricane, and, baugh, there's a technicality to that. a major hurricane is category three, four, and five, okay? this is going to be a major hurricane. at least a three. up towards the tampa wrar. >> you could go down to south florida and help and then go

back up to where it's located. if it's affecting the whole state, it's going to be harder to do that because everyone will be in their own communities trying to get back to normal. >> how come with hurricane erma by hitting land it's not slowing down and sort of lessening in strength as some hurricanes do? i remember yesterday we were talking to bill karins. he said, look, if it hits the mountainous areas of cuba, this could lessen in strength to the detriment of cuba and obviously, thinking about all those people that could be feesably affected by that. why is it that with irma it drives up but stays so strong for so long? >> i'm loving all these questions. i have to tell you that, first off. keep them coming here. so with these hurricanes, if irma would have gone over the spine of cuba, the center of it, then it really would have been discombob la discombobulated. it doesn't look as strong on the satellite picture. because the center of circulation is still over the water, it's still feeding the hurricane. you know, even you have the

outside of it, it doesn't get as affected as if the center goes over it, like the heart of the hurricane, if you will. remember, cube to key west, only 90 miles. that's the florida straits. just going over that 90 miles, this thing could pop back off. you have to keep that in consideration. yes, friction usually does disrupt these hurricanes. i got to tell you guys, also, irma doesn't seem to care. there was sheer back with this thing all the way back in the caribbean, and irma was accident like, sheer, what are you talking about? i'm fine. this thing has been holding its own its whole life span. >> we've been covering hurricane irma loosely over the past ten days. i remember when it was just forming. we flagged hurricane irma off in the atlantic, and so, in fact, here we are ten days later about to report on its landfall in the united states shows you how powerful of a hurricane it is. all right. the weather channel's stephanie abrams, it was great to have your insights. we'll be in touch with you throughout the course of the morning as the situation develops.

we're going to take a quick break, but obviously we've been covering the hurricane as it moves towards the united states at around 2:00 a.m. eastern time. it brushed the northern coast of cuba. there was a mandatory evacuation order there in cuba trying to move tourists, residents, cuban citizens off of the northern coast. as we heard stephanie there say, any hopes that hurricane irma may have begun to break up as it made its way off of the coast of cuba seems to not have materialized because it is making its way towards the florida keys for potentially two landfalls. one on the florida keys and later on on the actual peninsula of florida. a lot of concern there. obviously, we've already received reports of deaths in cuba. we know that 90% of barbuda earlier in the week was also damaged as a result of hurricane irma. this is a hurricane that is not slowing down any time soon. stay with us.

welcome back to msnbc world headquarters. we're closely tracking hurricane irma as it approaches florida's southern coastline. at this hour the storm is now a category four and poised to make landfall in the next 24 hours. it hit cuba as a category five before being downgraded. irma slamming the islee over the strong storm surge and winds as high as 155 miles an hour. a historic evacuation is

underway. 5.6 million floridians under mandatory evacuations. many waiting in long lines for shelters like this one in miami. even north of florida gornl george governor nathan deal also ordering 540,000 people on the coast to leave before irma hits the mainland. residents are heeding those warnings taking no chances after at least 23 people killed across the caribbean islands. just south of miami is the city of coral gables, a city that received a lot of damage from hurricane andrew 25 years ago. joining us now is the mayor of coral gables. it's been a long night. it's not nearly as long of a night as it has been for you and city officials and emergency management teams on the ground there. can you give us an update on conditions in coral gables evacuation orders obviously yurnds way.

>> people are more worried about their cars than themselves sometimes. i think that cars have been evacuated to our garages and inland. whereas, i think that more than 50% of the people are going to stay in their homes, and they forget about andrew. i mean, with andrew, which there was a direct impact, think it was less harsh, less severe than this one. with andrew, we had areas of our house, and we had 48 miles of coastlines, including -- we had areas of our coastline that were totally flattened. you could see for blocks without seeing a house standing up, and some people, you know, my home is my castle kind of attitude, but they're thinking of staying, and i want to remind everybody that when winds go above 45

miles an hour, which is going to be soon here, when i'm going to put out police or rescue or whatever officers in danger because that is dangerous for them. to the extent that, you know, we're not going to be able to go out and rescue them when it goes over 45 miles an hour, those are very strong winds, and it's not anywhere 150-mile-an-hour winds that we're expecting. there are many, many times with orders and whatever that evacuate, and some just don't. >> mayor, in saying that 50% of your citizens are deciding to stay in their homes, how is it that you are at this point are you having conversations with them still saying, hey, look, you need to get out. it's going to be really bad. are you sort of just telling them to hunker down and wait it out? there's really no point. >> we are -- i'm calling neighborhoods and i'm calling neighborhood leaders and encouraging other people to get

out, and reminding them that if they don't get out, then they need to be ready to survive for three days without electricity, water, and food and anything. they have to be able to be on their own for three days. if they don't -- at least three days. if they don't get out, if they don't follow instructions, then, you know, may god bless their souls. >> we're certainly hoping the best for your residents there for sure, mayor raul valdez. very much appreciate you joining us this morning. good luck to all of you and the people that live in your area. all right, irma is making landfall in the wick wag of hurricane harvey in texas. now, five former leaders are coming together to help. take a listen. >> hurricane harvey brought terrible destruction, but it also brought out the best of humanity. >> people are hurting down here, but as one texas put it, we've got more love in texas than water. >> we lot of you.

>> former presidents, we want to help our fellow americans. >> all five -- all five living former presidents have launched one american appeal, fundraiser to help hurricane vemgsz. they promise to distribute 100 cents out of every dollar raised to those affected by hurricanes harvey and irma. >> you can go to nbc news.com/irma. we'll be right back. stay with us.

welcome back. we are following the path of hurricane irma. right now it is pummelling the north coast of cuba as it heads towards florida making landfall sometime tonight or early tomorrow morning. we want to go now to marianna who has been standing by in miami for us. last time we talked to you, you had a guest with you who decided to hunker down and stay there with his dog as well. from what i understand, you have someone else as well?

>> that's exactly right. in this barrier island that is under mandatory evacuation orders, you have people that have decided, you know what, i'm going to ride the storm here. i want to bring ken in today to tell us, sir, you have decided not to evacuate here in miami beach. >> absolutely. my wife and i decided stay out the storm here in miami beach. >> reporter: you understand the entire city of miami beach is under a mandatory evacuation order. the mayor has said this is a nuclear hurricane we're facing. >> i know. it might not be the smartest thing, but we're still doing it, and it's quite cool that ocean drive is totally empty. >> reporter: ken is referring to sort of this very touristy area of miami beach, which looks like a ghost town. i'm still surprised to find people like you who decided to stay. any chance you will change your mind? there are real risks at hand here. you may lose power. you may not be able to be rescued. are you aware of that? >> yes. we feel 100% comfortable with our decision. we'll find out by monday if we

made the right one. we live in a great place that's strong. it's a condo. it's a strong building on the island. i think we're 100% safe. i'm not the slightest bit worried. >> reporter: ken lives on venecian island. it's a smaller island that connects. we're talking barrier islands here. hard to get to for the fire department if anything were to go wrong. have you ever experienced a category four hurricane in this area of the city before? >> well, i road out wilma, and i made it. i'm going to be riding out this one, and we're going to make it. i just know we're going to make it. i have total faith in the universe to deliver health and safety. >> we have a question from our anchors. >> mariana, i understand his passion and desire to stay there. can you ask him why he is so committed to staying there? is there a personal reason? does he not to leave his home? does he have nowhere to go? why is he so attached to staying there? >> ken, why are you so attached

to staying given the threat that we're facing? is there a personal reason, a medical condition, a pet, your home? >> well, the home, the pet. it seemed like a lot of work to leave. it's not that easy to just book planes, jump on flights, get hotels, traveling -- >> there are shelters, though, available here? >> i didn't want to stay in the shelter. there was no thought to stay in the shelter. we never thought about leaving. >> have you made preparations for your home? >> we have water, food. we cooked all day yesterday. we cooked all day today. we're in touch with the people in our building. >> have you boarded up? >> no. oh, yes, yes, y. we have shutters out. we have alcohol, rum, food. i think we'll be fine. >> actually, you guys, we've been here in miami beach, and they were giving out sand bags. ten for residents, for people like ken, will decide to ride the storm out here. do you have your sand bags ready? sand bags are ready, and if i may, i am a realtor, so if you

need any property down here in florida, please give me a call. >> sales pitch from ken, guise guys. he has everything ready, he says. that's what we're seeing here in miami beach. surprising, but that is what we're seeing. >> yeah. again, as we go to a commercial break, i'm curious -- i would be curious to know what officials in miami dade county think when they hear the responses that somebody like ken and edwardo, we were talking to earlier in the show, had to say. interesting to see that they're going to try to weather the storm. >> stick it out. yeah. passionate about their home to say the least and wanting to sort of protect that. >> understandable. >> up next, emergency response teams are on stand by across florida, but will they be able to reach those in need? we're going to ask officials that question when we come back.

welcome back, everybody. we are tracking hurricane irma, right now hammering the coast of cuba b, being downgraded from a category 5 to a category 4 storm, just 5 miles an hour difference in the wind seeds. not much of a difference. bonnie, what are you seeing out there? >> well, you know, it's still a very large and powerful storm. we have hurricane winds and it extends 70 miles. when you talk about the width of florida, most people will be impactsed by those hurricane-had force winds. when you see where the eye of the storm is, it's just kind of riding along the coast of cuba. i mean, it's incredible. for hours and hours through the center of cuba, we've seen that

heavy, heavy rain just pounding the region and strong wind, as well. and those feeder bands are working there way closer to florida. >> so here we are, 245 miles south-southeast of miami, florida. winds 155 miles per hour. we'll see that turn today i think towards the north. let's take a look at the rain that's coming. heavy downpours through the florida keys and just towards miami. strong winds in marathon, up to 38 miles per hour. and in the bahamas, winds are churning at 36 miles per hour. if you're just joining us, we have a hurricane watch as far west as tallahassee, florida, as far west as jacksonville, florida. pretty much all of florida is under some sort of advisory right now. not vicing when you have a category 4 major hurricane getting close to florida.

things have changed with the track since yesterday morning. hugging more of the west coast of florida, so a double landfall is possible along the florida keys perhaps early sunday morning and then again sunday afternoon near naples. sth a possibility in terms of exactly where it will pinpoint and we'll see the eye pass over. the national hurricane center mentioned one of the reasons that the forecast is difficult to make for the actual eye or center of the storm is because of the angle at which it's approaching florida. so something to keep watch on. but most of those models are trending west, so that's what we're seeing right now. if you look, notice how tightly those lines are together. there was a time when it was pretty widespread, but now we're confident that it is going to move towards the west. the potential to go back to a category 5 exists. the water temperature in the florida straits, 90 impress. of course the storm surge in southwest florida sunday morning, very high. >> and this could potentially make two landfalls, one on the

aisles of florida, the florida key west and we'll have extended coverage on hurricane irma as it continues to move into the caribbean, pounding cuba right now expected to hit the united states mainland.

good morning, everybody. >> here is what's happening now. hurricane irma is now a category storm 4 pounding cuba with storm surges as high at 10 feet on the coast. thousands of tourists have been evacuated on low lying areas. >> the storm is now 24 hours away from florida. when we started the show at 5:00 a.m., the storm was 300 miles away, now 240 miles, so moving pretty fast at that. irma is expected to travel along florida's west coast hitting the entire state with hurricane force winds and heading inland. over 5 million people are under mandatory evacuation orders, many waiting for hours to get into shelters like this one. you see right here in miami, people lined up there. governor rick scott