leveled. >> yeah. unbelievable. thank you so much for joining us. and as we approach the half hour mark, we're going to update you on the southeast frantic preps ahead of hurricane irma's expected in the next 24 hours.

welcome back. here is what we're monitoring at the half hour. >> hurricane irma has southern florida in its sights. at this hour, the storm is now a category 4 hurricane with winds up to 144 miles per hour. potentially 245 miles south-southeast of miami we should say. over 5 million florida yads are under mandatory evacuations this morning, many waiting for hours to try and get in the shelters ahead of this storm. >> georgia governor faithan diehl ordering residents to

evacuate the coast as the hurricane is now pounding cuba with winds up to 155 miles per hour. welcome back, everybody, to msnbc world headquarters. as this hour, the storm is now at category 4 and poised to make landfall in the next 24 hours. over 5 million floridans are under mandatory evacuation as we've been talking about. bonnie, for those people that have been just getting up in the morning, everybody has had their eye owes hurricane irma understanding the fact that florida is in the eye of the storm. the entire state. you can't outrun this thing. no, you're right. and waking up to a completely different story today in terms of where the impacts might be. the storm is working its way further off to the coast of cuba. this is where it's been pounding much of cuba right now. boy, that torrential rain just continues to bring a lot of rain to the region and strong wind, as well. we're seeing the rain bands work

towards the florida keys and it's relentless for cuba, though. 245 miles south-southeast of miami, florida. winds 155 miles per hour. this is a category 4 hurricane. possibly become ago category 5. the movement to the west-northwest at 12 and look at the winds. they picked up since my last broadcast. we want to talk about the track. if you're just joining us, things have changed. now it likes like a double landfall potentially in the keys sunday morning and second afternoon a second windfall in southwest florida potentially naples. the cone of uncertainty is fairley wide. if we see a landfall, it can be somewhere within the cone. but i want to let you know it's looking like western florida in terms of impact. many of you have been asking about what is steering irma. we wanted to break this down for you. we have this big high pressure

system that is steering irma now, but it took irma all the way to florida across the atlantic. the high got bigger, more sxaens expansive and it kept steering irma. rather than seeing that turn east, it kept pushing it further west and that's what we've been we've seen in the overnight hours. and also delayed the potential landfall, as well. many of you were thinking it would be towards saturday. now it's sunday into monday. what is going to get irma out of here? it's the jet stream dipping down and taking irma out. eventually. not immediately, but it's a better situation than we had for harvey where there was no mechanism to get harvey out and that's why we saw incredible flooding. so the water temperatures close to 90 degrees in the florida straits, that's why it's

potentially a possibility that irma could grow stronger. storm surge is a huge concern with this track. that is really high. that's at the top window of the second story of your home, really dangerous situation with storm surge, particularly in southwest florida, but all around florida. ? bonnie, quickly, when you're talking about double landfall here, for those people out there that don't necessarily know, what does that mean? i happen it means in two places, but does that mean it makes landfall in the keys and goes back out to water and makes landfall again? >> the storm is very large. even if the storm center passes through key west, it will be felt in south florida, as well. and landfall has a technical definition. it's when the center of the eye of the hurricane passes over any land. so it could be a small barrier

island, just a tiny piece of lapped, but that's when we would officially call landfall. but this is the area we're concentrating on for the most dangerous wind and storm surge. >> and we're going to go live back to southern florida just after this commercial break. everyone stay with us.

welcome back been 7:41 europe time palm beach, florida, with daybreak we're getting a better look at the storm surge. it is the proverb i can't tellal calm before the storm. you know with every passing hour, it's onlying going to get worse. phillip, in hollywood, florida,

we were speaking to you at a gas station. you've moved locations now with daylight to get a better sense of the storm. i know officials on the east .west coast have been concerned about this storm surge, potentially bringing up to 10 feet of water in some areas. >> absolutely. that is the major concern here. and it is why for the most part most of these condos and hotels that line this beach have been evacuated. those hotels and businesses are largely empty. there are still a few stragglers that have decided to stay here. we have seen places that have been boarded up and rightly so. we can see the winds pick up here, the waves are a little higher. for the motor part, people have heeded the warnings. as far as preparations, i don't know if we can swing around here and see these potted plants that

have been wrapped up. that's part of something they can do. there is not much you can do when it's going to be that intense, but really, that's all they've got. the winds will be much of more intense the higher up you go. that is why it's important for those people to have evacuated. we do not see any plywood or metal shutters there. some of the buildings we had here did have that. those you're looking at do not. we hope most of those have been evacuated. even though the breeze is pretty strong and it is a beautiful sight, we know there is something much more sinister the come here and people in broward county here, again, have heeded this advice about 80% of them, according to the police that were on patrol here all night are gone. and we have about 20% of the residents that have hunkered down and decided to ride out the storm. >> a lot of people sort of have in their mind that they can stay

in their buildings because they're higher up or you have a storm surge and i'm on the 30th floor so why would that affect me. but you talk about those high intensity winds and the debris, as well, it could fly right through a window and you could see as much destruction as you would be seeing if you're on the ground there, as well. you're talking about the authorities that are on the ground, the police officers helping round up people, making sure people are evacuating that area, saying 80% or so of the residents have evacuated so far. do you still see authorities out there or are they packing it in at this point and calling it a day and getting to safety themselves? >> not quite yet. and they're not actually rounding anybody up. what they're doing is making sure the property that has been abandon temporarily here does not get broken into, to make sure nobody is taking advantage of this situation and they're trying to prevent any looting. they haven't seen too many instances of that.

that's why they've created these roadblocks. throughout the night, we've seen much more police activity than anything else. it wasn't even close. that's a good thing because that means it's less for them to have to do as far as targeting the resources to preventing any property from being damaged or burglarized. >> phillip, quickly, a lot of people out there asking when they see you reporters out there covering hurricanes like this one that are going to be so intense. at what point do you go and find safety, phillip? at what point do you go in? >> that's a good question. i think it's one of those that we'll feel it when it comes. right now, you can see i don't even have a jacket on because it is not raining too intense yet. plus it's mid 80s on it out here right now. we'll start to feel it and when it starts to feel dangerous, we are going to do the same and take cover when the time is right. but right now, i think we're in an okay position. >> let's hope you have gas in your van, that's for sure. >> make sure you and everyone

and the teams out there stay safe. center we will. >> north of miami is delray beach, abdomen area where shelters are open and a curfew is in effect.the joining us by phone is carrie glickstiene. the mayor of delray beach. it's great to have you with us this morning. the question we've been asking officials throughout the course of the morning is at any given point, your concerns as of this moment, as this hurricane both intensifies after leaving the coast of florida and make its way towards florida -- cuba, i should say, and makes its way towards florida and it has shifted slightly to the we have the coast of florida than the east coast. >> good morning. yes, the shifts -- the shift was a bit of a surprise. but given the windshield wiper

like models we have seen throughout the week, we'll we're still prepared for category 4 impacts and if it happens to be less than that, we're okay with that. but our curfew went into effect at 2:00 a.m. the time for preparation has passed. >> quickly, if we were to look at this preparation in stages, right now you're still in stage one in that preparing stage in that evacuation area. is there any take aways from this part of the stage of of this hurricane that you can have so far that you can learn from going forward when you have hurricanes ahead and the next hurricane soap or the next hurricane around the corner, which we have sort of hovering in the caribbean right now? >> that is a good question. we took some cues from matthew

last year, which at one point in the forecast it looks like it was going to be a direct hit and wobbled a bit and changed very close to the impact time. we had a curfew in effect well in advance of that. we were criticized a bit for being early on the curfew given the nonevent that it was. however, we applied that same lesson. our curfew went into effect at 2:00 a.m. the county's doesn't go into effect until later this afternoon. we learned that people will push preparations to the deadlines, so evacuations were early, ur fews were early so that people are done. >> yeah. and it has been a historic evacuation. mr. mayor, it's great to have you with us this morning. thank you for your time given

everything that is unfolding at these hour. we have a lot more planned. we'll check in on its path over the past couple of hours at as it pounded cuba and other caribbean islands. stay with us. joining us with m

hurricane irma is meteorologist dylan dreyer. morning. know we'm surges. obviously the scene behind you >> reporter: you can see how the ocean is already getting churne scoping out a location. seemed

down. everything is boarded up. we've driven along the main drags. mar-a-lago is up the street fro. we've seen people with their cameras trying to capture things hopeful little before they leav west palm beach try to ride th. there's a different feel in the certainly getting closer. >> dylan, talk about the timing. there's been a significant change in the weather bre hind afternoon than earlier predicte. >> reporter:right. that the tra farther to the west, the timingt if it were to hit us, it would

obviously get here sooner. that florida, it makes it seem like forward speed is still the same beach. after that we'll start to see some of the outer bands. see ho. those outer bands of rain will thunderstorms, possibly start to produce isolated tornadoes. conditions will rapidly deteriorate overnight and then tomorrow morning and into tomorrow afternoon it is going picture here. gusty winds up to 80, 100 miles per hour, torrential downpours because atmosphere is so humid, it can hold so much moisture, so you'll see those tropical downpours and that's picture here tomorrow. dylan, perspective, there anything co campen this, or are we bracing y

possible? >> reporter: that's a good question. since the storm moved over cuba, winds have weakened to 130 miles per the storm has weakened. pr over the water and approaches the florida keys, the water temperature is 90 degrees. that's is ideal fuel for a hurricane. though it's trying t weaken right now with the terrain of cuba, the warm water seconds left or so. advice for watching now that decided to ar tampa. decided to stay. this we structure. really getting safe,t

structure withstand the better supplies because if the power wart, even if you have city water, you want to make sure yo through next couple days if do particular areas. time to leave over. you haven't left yet and . otherwise sure you're in a str >> dylan dreyer, thank you for joining us. hope you stay safe, family as well. msnbc be talking to you throughout the day. we'll have e course of the next 48 hours. alex witt is taking over. we're getting started on msnbc. with us throughout the de .

i'm alex witt in new york at w. we're approaching 8:00 a.m. in . you're watching special coverag florida. storm a category 4 butl considered extremely this is a florida to islands flattened inf storm. let's get you the very latest with the final preparations under way across virtually the entire state of florida right now. landfall is expected in less 2 shifted the storm to the west. that's putting the florida keys directly in