area is how far inland you can expect this storm surge, areas people -- bill was talking about it earlier, my mom lives 10 minutes inland, never would you think if you live that far from the ocean you could get gushes right through your home. >> this coverage continues. we're noticing loud noises and explosion of green and blue lights in the air. those are transformers blowing throughout the area. not one but two, we saw it three different times. >> if i try to walk any farther, at this point the wind is pulling me back. not far, feet from the hotel. >> the thing most sorriy to me that's going to have the potential to take lives is this 10 to 15 feet of storm surge from fort myers down there naples. >> the storm surge could rush in

and kill you. when it happens, the storm water just rushes in and rushes out. >> we're expecting straf catastrophic conditions shortly, they won't send their first responders either police or fire into the neighborhoods. >> i need to seek a little shelter. we have heavy rain, but these rain bands have lightening. >> if you have ordered to evacuate, you need to leave now. this is your last chance to make a good decision. >> good evening. it is 10:00 p.m. on the east coast. thank you for being here for our special coverage. wind gusts nearly hurricane force occurring in the florida keys. irma is due to make a direct hit on the keys tomorrow early morning, possibly strengthening from a category 3 to a category 4 storm.

>> heavy squauls of rain with tornados imbeed in them are already sweeping across southern florida. this video just in shows what appears to be a twister in the town of karl ridge. more people are losing power. power officials are reporting power outages. that part of florida likely not getting the worst of it, it is getting damage, power outages and heavy rain is coming. let's bring in our meteorologist. >> we're one hour away from t latest update at11:00 p.m. and we'll get the new forecast path. i don't expect any changes in the path. looks like we're locked in on the west coast of florida we'll see if they play with the intensity. i want to show you in imagery behind you, on the wall over

here, joe, this is the zoomd in few, we have a good view of the eye. what has happened finally, it's now making that northwards move. this is what we've been waiting for, it's moving to the north, north west, away from the coastline of cuba after being near cuba for about 24 hours. this bright red is where the really intense hurricane winds were t. the center is not very organized right now. it doesn't have a very well defined eye. it has two eyes. we have a outer and inner one. you can see at the very last frame, that's some of what's left in the inner eye. this bigger one on the outside looks like it's trying to take over. if it can consolidate itself, clear the inner one out, we can have a larger eye and it can intense fy. that's what we're waiting to see what happens. >> there's something called eye wall construction. >> when they're really powerful, we don't understand all of it.

but they have a natural process of getting rid of one eye, and another one forms, that one slinks and it will repeelt itself. it's been disorganized but now it's back over the open water. you can see as soon as it gets over the open water, you see more yellow and red, it's starting to feast on the warmer waters. everyone in the key, that bght yellow band, that's going to be eir first hurricane force gusts they'll get. this is the close zoomed in. the other thing is the storm surge, that's something that -- nothing is going to matter, at the en of the last hour, stephanie, you were mentioning about sandy, how you created this crazy storm surge from a category 1. that's a important one. the category you hear for the storms is only dependent on its wind speed, has nothing to do

with how left arm or small the storm is, the size of the storm is really what's depending how much water it can push and what terms the storm surge. >> how does that work. walk us through how a storm surge works. >> i'll give you this example when i give talks at elementary schools, get like a shallow baking pan, fill it with water, you can do it with your kids, go and put water in it with a kind of black marker mark each side, put a fan and put it on one end and blow it on high and see how much the water rises on the other end of the pan. that's what the hurricane is doing, pushing the water in a certain direction. in this case, unfortunately, it's pushing all of that water up into the keys with that storm surge that they're starting to see now, and then you get to 10 to 15 foot. storm surge is alsoependent on the terrain under the ocean. along the gulf the water is very

shallow. when we get the water piling in it's like a tsunami effect. the water gets bigger toward the coast, the shallower the shelf the water gets higher and higher. some areas are very prone to storm surges, and this is one of them. big bend of florida is prone to it, all of the west coast because it's very shallow. you go a little off the east coast and the water gets miles deep. you can go only 50 to 100 feet pretty far off the west coast of florida. >> all of fort myers, sandoval, tiny islands. >> extremely vulnerable. >> that's what we're going to be watching, the two elements, the wind -- there's more than that, there's the rain too. this is florida is the soil is very sandy. i haven't talked about epic flooding, someone may get 15 to 20 inches of rain, it won't be like harvey.

this is the current -- i want to get to this. this is the wind field. now the red is all through the keys, the hurricane force, as we go through the night, this will inch its way inland. when you get in the hurricane force winds, that's when the transformers blow, it will -- >> we saw in miami transformers bursting behind our last guest.. where are you? >> well, i'm in miami. we left the beach area. now we're in downtown. first of all, can i say how much i love bill karns? he makes it all so incredibly interesting to watch. when he gets into it, he understands everything and he wants people to hear what he's got to say and understand it. i love his explanations. it's just great tv for me. >> we need his explanations.

>> we do. i think people get it when they hear it like that. we're in downtown miami. you can tell it's dry. we've had a lot of those rain bands moving in from the beach, we shifted to a dryer location. remember the beach areas wanted to put everyone on lock down and get everyone out of the street, we wanted to do the same thing to encourage people to go back in their homes and stay there. we're still in this point where everything we've seen so far is basically nothing compared to what we'll see tomorrow. i think the forecast is giving you the idea, but i want to drive that idea home to people. not even on the east coast, certainly not on the west coast. we're going to keith worst in the keys. if you've got the wind gust maps in order, i'd love to show you that, show you what we expect to happen, give you miles per hour. >> he says go ahead, you've got them. >> okay. good. so let's start with like about a hour from now, when we think -- he showed you that orange hurricane field.

we'll gift the colors around. the wind gusts will be a bright color. we'll see it pick up to that 90 miles an hour in the keys, 84 in key bagger oe, you'll start to get those colors, the bright colors of wind get into those areas. shift it up to what we say about 8:00 a.m. on sunday, i'll take 1:00 p.m. on sunday and work off these that are there. see the white area? that's where the heavier wind is. even though the eye is passing a little bit. we've got a good strong wind in the southern part of the state. look at the east coast, miami at 77 miles an hour, look over there at the west coast, marco island at 70. this is why we were telling you, the cone is the forecast for the center. all day long when people were saying, oh, the east coast is out of the cone, fort lauderdale or west palm beach is out of th cone. you're out of the direction of

the eye, not the storm. you're definitely getting hurricane force winds. you need to stay put tomorrow. by the time we move it up to 4:00 sunday. check out fort myers, that wind picks up. look at marco island in the eye area, it gets dead calm for a moment. then look north where the wind field is spreading out, to the east coast. west palm beach is almost as high at fort myers on the wind scale. everybody jump in, when a eye moves on shore like this, there's a couple things i want you to notice about that. we needed to get on land before it gets to tampa bay because -- and this isn't exactly my perfect scenario, i don't want it in the water passing tampa because that puts the strongest winds and that storm surge driving into the bay and that's exactly what we don't want to see. we need to get this eye on even

before the forecast models show. yes it'll get hit by the hurricane, yes some flooding and surge and the wind, but i don't want it to get that right front quadrant. the other thing i want you to notice how now, look at all this splitting up. look at how the pink colors are not in one tight area anymore. they're spread all over the place. those winds are going to spread. so, fort pierce, at 53 miles an hour, orlando at 62 pirmiles an hour. look at see bring. it's wild, isn't it? the winds are going to be a problem for everyone. that's going to continue as it drives all the way up to the top of the florida, into georgia, as well. so will the rains. just to give you the idea that all the way into georgia, you're going to see almost a cat 1 wind field and very heavy rain into georgia and tennessee by the time we get into the middle of the week. >> for us mere mortals, cat 1,

cat 2, these are new words for us. give us a sam champion weather history, when was the last time you had concerns like this? >> i got to tell you, you know, stood there in sandy, watching everything go down, and was very, very, very concern. we were standing on battery park and was very concerned about at was going to happen to the new york area in that storm. this is -- i'm actually more concerned about the kind of destructive water and wind that this storm will carry. as sandy was breaking apart, this one is so well organized, i don't know, i'd be interested to see what someone else felt. i'm not great and comparisons, but this to me as me more concerned. >> i'll jump in, storm surge wise, this is katrina esk.

i'm not talking about the new orleans flooding, i'm talking about what happened in gulf port mis-mississippi, that is what -- >> we talked the water casinos and moved them on to the shore. we took them out of the water and put them across the road. i know what you're talking about. >> chris hayes is naples florida. chris we were talking about hurricane sandy. i know that's something you followed when it happened and after. there you are in naples where it is raining. it's not raining in miami, but it seems the weather for you has shifted even in the last hour. >> yeah these rain bands keep coming through. every time they come through, you think okay the storm is starting. as sam was explaining and bill was showing on the radar, it's these very, very narrow bands and they're moving across us in such a way you get intense bits of wind and rain and they pass. those are going to increase in

frequency and strength as well as time goes on. >> chris, as sam just mentioned, with sandy, i think the nation learned a lesson in that in that the winds kept dropping and dropping and everyone said this isn't going to be serious and then we understood storm surge. what happened on this, you were on the atlantic part of florida i think earlier today, now you're on the gulf course and the threat around naples is significant for a storm surge. people take that seriously in a different way, perhaps less seriously? >> yeah, and it is the most deadly part of almost any storm, almost always. sandy wasn't even a hurricane at land fall, and it did a incredible amount of damage, most of that damage was through the storm surge, and most people simply weren't prepared for it. part of the reason was so destructive is it happened to hit at high tide, bill was talking about high tide and

these parts around 3:00 p.m. tomorrow which is right when we're going to see the strongest part of that storm in the latest tracking. but that hit sandy at high tide and the surge was so massive is swamped over lower manhattan, instanten island. salt water is uniquely damaging, the subway system is still getting out from what happened there because of how destructive and core owes i have salt water is. you're going to have that pouring all over coastal florida from here to fort myers. it's going to a astounding amount of property damage. >> so many people didn't evacuate in the keys, they said we're floridians, we've lived through this. when hurricane sandy hit, we weren't prepared, we were so scared, many of us took those warnings seriously. where you are in naples, does it seem like there's anyone around? >> well, here's what i'll say

having been in fort myers this morning and in naples tonight. you know, there's a lot of retirees in florida and there's a lot of retirees with pets and a lot of folks on fixed incomes and a lot of folks who have family members who live in chicago, tucson, boston and who are here by themselves. it's not always the easiest thing. to give you the demand that's in naples and lee county, just north of here, there's a shelter with 4900 people, it's closed, no one can get. there are people sleeping overnight to see if they can get in. all the shelters in naples are filled, they were asking folks to shelter in homes or bring people into their homes if they felt they were strong enough. by and large, i think the supply of shelter is not big enough for the demand. people are trying to get to safe ground. and a lot of it is timing.

look, first person, we were making this calculation today, you talk about the time got away from them to evacuate. we were making this calculation where you feel like the window is closing, you don't want to be stuck on the road with no gas. i can tell you first hand there is no gas for 75 miles up the coast of coastal florida. if you aren't 100% sure of a place you can go, if you're a senior, you get in a car, you have half a tank of gas, you can't get gas, that's as terrifying a event wallet and possibility as staying in your bathtub with your mattress over you. some people are thinking to themselves, they say it's fine, but i think more people, particularly in this part of florida, that's been the calculation. >> chris it's raining pretty consistently behind you. it seems like the rain is coming down harder, where are you

exactly? >> we are in naples. so behind me, four miles that way is the gulf coast. that is the part that's right now going to get the sort of fullest brunt of that storm. the eye will hit that gulf coast. that's where you'll see, according to the national weather service, we'll see the highest storm surge there, particularly if it comes at the 2:00, 3:00 p.m. at high tide. the storm surge maps show a surge flooding in several miles. we are on a little bit higher ground, we're on a structure right now on the sixth floor, we're pretty high up. there's a whole part of coastal naples and obviously this is the coast, right? that's the part that's built up the most, that's the part that has some of the most valuable property, that's are lt biggest businesses that service the tourist industry, all of that part is in the highest level of storm surge zone. you can see how quickly the rain band comes in. this is what we've been going

through, this rapidly accelerating rain and it'll ebb just as suddenly. >> it doesn't seem too windy, though. >> no, we're, okay right here. one of the things right now, i was talking to a scientist yesterday as we were going through the storm surge maps. the particularies, sam was talking about that in terms of where that storm hits tampa and how that counter clockwise motion is pushing, whether it's pushing up into the bay a at that moment. we're in a situation where the wind is coming toward us this way becae the bands are coming from that direction, the cycle is going like this, the bands are coming that direction, it's shielding us largely from the wind right now. >> all right. chris hayes joining us from naples. >> i'm going to ask the director to put the picture up of fort myers because the wind looks a

little more obvious there. that's a live picture of fort myers and where you see the palm trees moving around. there is some wind. but remember, in addition to the storm surge, that rain, when you get that storm surge and the degree of rain, you have drainage issues. that can contribute to normal flooding and the sea level rises as we get closer to the storm. >> think about those vulnerable places, sandoval island, those small, narrow islands, how vulnerable they are at a time like this. the winds are only starting to pick up. what it's going to look like over the next 24 hours. joining us now wbbh reporter, trent kelly. he's in fort myers. seems like in the last five or ten minutes the wind's really picking up. >> after. that's right. in fact, we've been out here, we're not in fort myers tonight.

we're in the city just to the west of it. the city of cape coral, that is the largest city on the southwest florida coast line situated right next to the city of fort myers. we've been out here pretty much all day today since 2:00 this afternoon. you're right in the past i'd say about 10, 15 minutes, we've noticed a significant increase in the wind out here, not to mention now a steady rain is falling. the wind's not so much picking up out here. earlier this tree was swaying in the winds, the gusts have calmed down a bit. as you can see the rain srting to pick up tonig. as i told you guys, we are here in the city of cape coral, this is the largest city in southwest florida. if your viewers have ever visited here one of the things that make it unique is the network of can als. a lot of homes have access to

the gulf. it's great if you want to live here, it allows you easy access to the gulf of mexico, but it's not great when you're talking about a major hurricane potentially slamming into this area, reason being storm surge. i heard bill explaining how storm surge works. that is a huge concern here. because of those canals, now they're going to see the storm surge because those canal is will rise, you'll see neighborhoods that will see a couple of feet of standing water. i'm coming to you live from a neighborhood that was under a mandatory evacuation order earlier today. we had firefighters going around the neighborhood, first responders, alerting residents that if you decide to stay here, you are doing so at your own risk. i want to show you this home you see behind me. you can see the windows are boarded up. i spoke to the family living

here a short time ago. they were out here about two hours ago putting up these boards, trying to make some last minute preparations to their home. if you look over here, they are now parking their car in front of their garage door. they are doing everything we can to shore up their home as we are now a couple of hours away from really starting to feel the impacts of irma. this family, by the way, they're not listening to that mandatory evacuation order. they're going to hunker down inside that home. they've got three young grandkids staying with them tonight. they're not leaving. they're not going to leave this area. they're going to hunker down. >> the last two hours, talking about the risk of storm surge, even a few inches or feet, how far inland is that home you're stding in front of. >> it's at least several miles inland. we're not talking about a neighborhood that's right on the shoreline here.

this is several miles inland. and it's because of those canals, it's going to primary lie see a lot of that street flooding here caused by that -- that is a major concern. >> it's going to flood twice, once because of a hurricane the water levels rise any way, and as the storm surge comes in, it'll double flood t. what's the gas situation there? i got a tweet from somebody in closer to tampa that says we don't have gas in stations around here, evacuation would be dangerous because if you try and evacuate and you run out of gas and you're on one of the roads, that's a problem. >> that's worse than being in your house. >> do you have fast in fort myers. >> gas is extremely hard to find. there's a couple stations around town in the days leading up to this, you might get lucky and catch them when they're open and fill up your tank. but in cruising around town today, about 95%, 97% of all the

gas stayings here in town, they are closed, they are out of gas, and it's one reason some people are deciding now it's too late, they have to stay here and hunker down in their homes and hope that the damage isn't as bad as many people are fearing. guys? >> trent kelly in fort myers florida. thank you. it makes me think of the mayor, how important it was that there they offered free buses and trolleys to get people out. we can tell you to evacuate but if there's no gas in your car, there's nowhere for you to get to. >> one question, why didn't they do counter flow, all the roads go one way, you change the southbound and northbound lanes to go northbound so you can get out of florida. one of the reasons there's only pun pipeline to goes into florida for gasoline, it's a spur of the cocolonial pipeline.

they have sent trucks in southbound with police escorts total get gasoline. most have generators, but it doesn't matter if you don't have gas. they'rerying to position gas there. but it hasn't actually worked. this is west palm beach. >> i want to point out, she was talking earlier about when the winds are lower than 35 miles an hour, florida power and light sends their teams out. you have to show some appreciation or a shout out to those teams working in the field trying to keep power working, running in florida. think about this. harvey. hurricane harvey raf ished texas just a week ago. less than a week ago, mexico was hit by a earthquake, a 8.2 on the richter scale. as we aquite irma, it has brutalized much of the

caribbean. >> there are places entirely destroyed. let's go to collier county. we had a lot of reporters in south eastern florida we are repositioning them one by one. the rain's coming do you know where you are now. >> after. starting to come down, not particularly windy, we're not too far away from where chris hayes is. we have been all over the gulf coast of florida today in this general vicinity. we crossed florida on the the i 75 and ended up over here. went to the fort myers beach area. we were in -- the name escapes me. coral -- no. it'll come to me. >> it's been a long day, guys. we're doing a ride along with a incredible fire department. these are people that will take save people if something

terrible happens. i want to introduce you to the greater naples fire and rescue. let's go in here. it's better than standing out in the rain. these are the guys where the wind starts coming down, these are the men and women of this department that will be saving the day. i want to introduce you to the chief. guys talk to me chief about what we're looking at, all the equipment and hou you'll be putting it to use when it really starts to come down. what we're seeing right now is nothing. >> right. well, we're expecting the bottom to drop out in the next 12 hours or so. it won't be me, it'll be these fellows here. we have 15 fire stations throughout the county. we've got about 28 pieces of apparatus ready to go. we have many different configurations, this is one of our operations that will handle some of the responses. i understand you're part of the emergency services unit. >> yes, urban search and rescue. >> check this out. it guess greater naples fire

rescue special operations. this is one of the vehicles with which you're going to be expanding once people call you after the hurricane comes through. what's on board here and why are you going to be using this equipment. >> pretty much what happens with when truck, we come out and survey with some of our smaller vehicles, in the event of collapse, small space, we have equipment on here to shore up a collapsed building, access a victim stuck in a small confined space area. we have more indepth equipment on this struck to truck to do t >> you usually use this in brush fire. >> we have five of these heavy military is your plas apparatus, we had significant fire. the advantage is we can put two firefighters on board, minimal firefighting capability, but we

have high ground clearance, we can go in significant water with these vehicles. >> we're talking about 300,000 people? >> we have about 175,000 full-time residents. >> in the greater area, there's double that? >> in the county around 300,000. >> how many people do you have to get out of here, how many are left over? >> it's a interesting point because that is so hard to tell right now. you know if you look at some of the numbers out there in florida they're saying 3ilonple have left. there are thousands that have left. but we're getting a lot of phone calls of people that stayed back, they need welfare checks, to be honest i can't tell you how many people are out there. >> many of the members of your department's families have had to shack up here? >> that's true. we do a shelter of last resort and we have about 25 family members that we take care of. we bring them in. we try to give them a place of refuge if they have no where else to go. we bring in some of the pets and

put them in the back rooms. >> between now and when the storm -- we know it's not going to hit with full force until tomorrow. between now and then what will you be doing? >> if you ask these guys, they're going to do a lot of eating, sleeping and resting. they need to do that. they'll make great meals, bunk down. we go on regular routine calls. >> there was a lot of talk, go over here and talk to the guys. there was a lot of talk in miami and miami beach the department wasn't going to be going out over 45 miles an hour winds. >> our rule of thumb, about 45 miles per hour we question that. at 60, we shut down the doors. depends on the severity. we expect to run our calls throughout the night as our folks over to the operations center kind of tree auj this. >> i want to get all you guys in here. have you ever seen anything like this, ever responded to a event

like irma? >> yeah, back when andrew, i was working. >> what did you learn from andrew how will you put it this use this time around? >> you know, just be more diligent and careful where we drive, not find ourselv in situations where we can't help other people. take things slow and just try and be more efficient and effective. >> you seem quite calm about this. is this something that scarce you? >> no. it's -- i think we're up to the challenge. it's going to be devastating for the area, we know that. our thoughts are with the citizens. >> there you have it. i mean, that is professionalism at its best. members of this department will be on call. i know the citizens will be relying on them. we'll certainly be checking back with you guys. good luck in the next 24, 28 hours. >> those are the professionals, we're the mere civilians, jacob

thank you for your great reporting. >> many rescue teams from come from other parts of the country to this area, they are trained to deal with this, getting people out of their homes, it was live saving in hurricane harvey. we're thankful for them. >> we're seeing first responders preparing after irma. >> on the phone, we have another couple and their cats riding out the storm. nick oel, why did you make the decision to stay. >> it wasn't a easy decision obviously. i'm in a pretty secure house with a pretty new roof. there were a lot of people more in the coastal areas that were under monday tear evacuation orders. gas was hard to come by, the gridlock was real. it was taking 12 to 14 hours to get from miami to orlando which is normally a two, three hour

trip. >> talk to us about the structure of your house. >> i recently put on a new roof six months ago, and i'm fully shuttered up. i think that my house is strong enough to go through whatever is coming at us. >> i was in a condo during roof repairs during hurricane season, but we didn't have any shingles on our roof. we have the roof paper and tacks, but i didn't have shingles, i thought i better not stay here, so that's why i decided to come here. >> you have a good understanding of the storm surgend flooding you're likely to face? >> my home is upn a ridge in coca nut grove, the flooding is usually minimal, up against the coast, we were up at a boat ramp today and the docs are pretty much covered up and a few had gone down. up on this little ridge, we're safe from flooding.

>> do you have a emergency plan? we've heard from city and state officials if you're in the miami area now, stay home. but first responders can't get to you once the winds kick up. do you have a plan if you need help? >> absolutely. there are all kinds of, you know, concrete block buildings around here that are certainly secure if we need to get out and go somewhere that we can. there are a few buildings in the grove that are four, five, six stories high f-we need to go up a couple more floors. we have friends in the area that have stayed and we're all in touch with each other to get where we need to go. >> how are you going to get from where you live to other safe buildings. >> a lot of walking distance, might not be safe to walk with some pft winds and wind gusts, we have a truck here and ways to get in and out. there's chain saws, it happens from time to time when we have major storms here where there

are trees that go down in the road and you have to cut them up and get them out of the way. >> how long are you prepared to stay where you are in case this thing inundates the area and you have to stick around for a while? >> i think as long as we need to. a lot of friends in the area have generators we can use if necessary if we are out of power. if that happens, we're out of power for three, four weeks like we have been in the past with some of these storms, we'll make the decision if we need to go to orlando or tampa or a area that has powers, maybe on the east coast. >> you've lived through that before, three, four weeks without power. >> i think back in 2005 we had a series of hurricanes back-to-back and, yeah, the whole south florida area was without power a few weeks. steve was here for andrew and was without power for a long time. >> we'll keep our thoughts with you. >> can i ask one more question?

how about your neighborhood? to me, it's -- it's stunning to me. i would be so scared to stay. that's why i ask. you two are staying, your cats, i know one other couple. other people in your neighborhood, are they staying, too? >> on my street, most of the neighbors have gone into coral gabeless and other houses a little further inland, but i've heard they have no power, we currently do. >> i don't know if you can hear, we're outside, right now it's not raining, there's a little wind, a little gusts, not much at all. we've been in a sweet spot where we're between the outer bands that are coming through. we're not getting a whole lot of anything so far. knock on wood. >> i hope you stay in that sweet spot. >> thanks. >> thanks very much. let us go to orlando now, a national spokes woman for the american red cross -- i'm sorry about mispronouncing your name. >> no problem. >> thank you for joining us.

let's talk about the shelter situation. i believe you have 385 shelters open across florida right now with more expected to open tonight? >> absolutely. and the red cross really has mobilized thousands of trained red cross disaster relief workers, truckds of supies and we're getting that set up an making sure those places are safe. we know last night we had a sometimed 48,000 people that spent the night in those shelters. today early this morning we got the call. i'm here in the orlando office where the call came in to make certain we had more evacuation centers open. they began to process additional volunteers and put them on buses and getting them to those locations while it was still safe to do so. we're really, really out there, we've got the place for people to go. one of the things that we want people to do is to down load the emergency red cross app. this app has several things that will help people in this situation. first of all, there are alerts

on there, you can set it up. we know we're seeing, i'm hearing it on mine, mis, the tornado alerts going off. watching the weather, making sure you know what's happening. the other thing it has a i'm safe feature. we want to make sure people stay connected with their family. you can preset the app with your text message, many times communication might go down, you can't make a phone call, but you can get a text message out. this app will allow you to message several members of your family at one time, let them know that you're safe. that's very important to stay connected. >> are you seeing a lot of floridians that decided to stay and regret the decision. with so many seniors, their family and friends had tried to convince them to leave. and then today they had new concerns, no gas.

>> i've not been able to see what that number looks like. i can tell you that we do have a service that's called safe and well. we're encouraging people to register themselves as safe and well. so that their family and friends may be able to find them through that program. you can do that by texting the word safe to the number 78876. and it will -- >> with the rain coming down, we can't hear you. can you please say that again? it's such a important number. >> absolutely. you can text word safe to 78876 and it will walk you through the process of registering yourself so after the storm passes, if your family cannot reach you, they can call 18800 red cross and we will be able to see if you have registered yourself in that system and where that place was that you last registered. >> talk to us about the shelters, i guess they're all different. but what's provided, what's not

provided. if somebody's headed to a shelter, and they can gather things, what should they bring. >> we have evacuation centers that provide the immediate protection, to save lives throughout the storm. a evacuation center will likely not have cots and blankets, people have brought their blankets, pillows, a shelter situation is a little different, it's set up for longer term. the evacuation ceers,e have those, again, those trucks of supplies we've been bringing in to ensure if we need to shelter people in the long term, we are able to do that at a moment's notice. >> red cross, 365 days a year around the world heros. right now you have a call out there for volunteer nurses, 2500 have already stepped up. how can other volunteer medical professional sign up and get involved. >> you can go to red

cross.org/hacross.org cross.org/volunteer. medical professionals, those folks, those are the people to go into a specialized skill set. we are working to ensure that people who want to help are able to help and we do appreciate that help. >> how do people donate if they want to use their phone right now. >> text word irma to the number 90999, that's a $10 donation, all of those dollars add up. we're still responding in harvey as well. we have multiple responses happening right now and the red cross is on the ground. >> the governor has specifically asked for nurses. they need trained nurses. that's a urgent need? >> so we do work very closely with our partners and the governor has been explicit in making sure people know how to help. there are great pieces of information on the website for the governor website for the state of florida so i'd

encourage people to check out those resources for signing up and gting directly connect wd people that can put them right to work. >> we want to say thanks. we appreciate your time. and before we move on, i want to repeat a few of these things we told you. if you are in florida and you are -- >> i'm going to could you remember control room to put it up. >> if you're unsure if you can contact your family you want to be sure they know you're safe text number 78876 and type in the word "safe "that american red cross will put you through the system and they'll be able to contact your family this they call 1-800-red cross, they'll know you're okay. if you want to volunteer go to red cross.org/volunteer and if you want to donate text 90999 irma, you'll give a $10, i believe, donation, 9 or $10, either one, they need the help. joining us now wnbc reporter, he

is at black point marina in miami. adam, give us a update. >> well, guys, over here, the rain's coming down, the wind has just picked up, and this is a street, although you wouldn't know it -- show you what is all -- marina -- so you can see it's about -- >> as you can see, things are getting pretty bad in miami. adam cooper stein for us. these are images of fort myers. if we can go back to the imagine of adam. are you there? >> i'm still here. >> okay. that's what happens in a hurricane where those shots st go art todown. >> did you see, i mean, already, it was just -- >> the water. >> within 157 minutes a minutes

was nothing, it wasn't even raining, now it appears he was in ankle deep water. >> these come in bands. it doesn't mean it gets worse, it can get better then worse again. if you look at the big picture of the storm, miami is going to get massive amounts of wind of rain. we think we've reestablished with adam. are you there? >> there he is. >> so, guys, yeah, this is a perfect example. there's a crab, this is a street, there's a crab floating around. they've been all over the place, the sea life coming out from the bay, here's a huge one. sorry guys, obviously a tough situation now. a big crab. just walking through the street in miami. look at this thing. just kind of crawling around, hanging out. you can see the white of the

road, that's the middle of a street in miami. about 20 to 30 miles south of downtown miami. we're out here, but, you know, this is not something you're used to seeing. this is a area they're always concerned about flooding, especially now, storm surge issue, you're here with the bay, and it goes right into the atlantic ocean. we've been monitoring the situation here. on the way here, downed trees because of some of the tornadoes they weren't expecting to come through, a big surprise with the early bands of the hurricane bringing in tornadoes with it. even though miami, a little sigh of relief for the residents, not in the eye making landfall in south florida, a lot of people concerned about tornadoes which you don't see too often like this in a hurricane coming through. this is the marina, there's a ton of boats back there. that's the other issue. i'm watching my step, not stepping on any sea life.

back there, they have -- yeah, people left their boats. walk with me. i want you to see what people have to do from this area during a hurricane. coming way up -- look, this is a boat that's -- there's a crab right there, another one. then here's the boat. you see that? boat's kind of tied up to this little whatever it is, this little guard rail, and that -- that over there -- those are boats, smaller boats, one over here, called hard money, it's going to be a hard boat to survive. this is just the beginning and it's only going to get worse out here in this part of miami. very big concern for the owners of this stuff. they knew it, they knew it was coming in, obviously didn't have much of a choice. i've worked in miami 12 years, this is always a area, even during a category 1 hurricane,

gets pretty beat up during the storms. >> that's like a 10 foot boat there with a outboard motor, i guess so many people in florida, they've been through so much, let it ride. my gosh. things are getting rough out there. adam sounds like the wind is bic picking up. it's gotten significantly louder in the last few minutes. is this the worst you've seen? >> actually it's not. i didn't see a tornado, but when our meteorologist, the local miami meteorologist was talking about the tornadoes picking up and the really strong outer bands, we were measuring in miami beach gusts 25 miles an hour, this feels like 35. that tells you, look, we're talking about this kind of wind you you can see it's uncomfortable to be standing out here, all the residents either evacuated or they're inside

hunkerring down. that tells you what it will fee like you're in the heart of hurricane force winds, you're talking 150 miles an hour, which obviously isn't safe for anyone to be outside. this isn't fun and it's only 35, 40 miles an hour winds. >> that's where the emergency workers stop coming out, where the electrical workers can't do anything else. whatever happens now, power is out, that's what it'll be like for the rest of the night. >> i remember in hurricane gustav i was in louisiana and we were with the fire chief, it was a navy s.e.a.l., and he had a big flashlight he was shooting into the sky as i was doing my reports. i kept asking why. he said to see if there's flying debris from a tornado. when you're in the midst of a hurricane, you can have a tornado. adam was saying this can be damaging that can be very different, with a hurricane you

know where the wind is coming from, if you're on the right side of a wall you can be safe if you can avoid the storm surge and flooding. but where it comes -- these are pictures of tornadoes. they are -- we have images right there. ft. lauderdale. all the senior citizens who said i'm going to ride this out, knowing that things like tornadoes could be ripping through, you know i think about earlier in the bruft you and i spoke to jose lopez, a man who came to florida specifically to help elderly neighbors who live in a high rise apartment building in the same building where the parents left an apartment. the best friends in their 90s. the husband has early on set dementia. they have food up to the ceiling in their -- i want to say their apartment building was 22 stories. the position these people are,

this is scarey. >> right and that's lucky. that picture we're looking at is a tornado you can see coming. you can actually see it. right now at night if a tornado is where adam is where we were talking to him you won know it's coming. and that's what the danger is in these things. the atmospheric conditions are ripe for tornadoes. a hurricane is a storm system that you can map. tornados are not storm systems you can map. they happen because the iermt is right for one. this is another concern. >> when i was with al roker for the eclipse i asked him the most extraordinary weather he experienced and he said seeing the tail of a tornado. >> we're taking a break but or coverage of hurricane irma is continuing at 11:00 p.m. eastern we will have a new track and a new forecast for irma we will bring it to you without delay. you're watching msnbc. .

welcome back, eveon i'm stephanie ruhle. >> ali velshi. thank you for being here. bill karins is joining us now. we are specking latest forecast

a few months. >> you guys ever seen a hurricane clear the eye out? usually we used to get the imaging every 10, 15 minutes we have a new satellite up there giving us one minute imagery. you can clearly see the eye. usually we see these on infrared. that's the eye through the clouds. >> what does that mean clear the eye out. >> that's mean it's getting more organize, strength be beening. far enough off the coast usually a sign the pressure is dropping. when you see the pictures of the clouds what we do is give a temperature range to those. the thunderstorms go the highest up in the atmosphere and the temperatures get colder higher. these are where the thunderstorm are in the bright reds. this shows no thunderstorm clouds no sire ecirrus clouds that means the pressure is dropping. that's the calm, sinking air

with rising air around if it. you see where the eye son the radar. we also noticed the normal trend. let's see if we can get new information in here. it looks like some of the numbers change. the new 11:00 information. the 120-mile-per-hour winds stayed the aim. still strong right in the middle of major category 3. moving at 6-mile-per-hour. i said thisserier. anks human we walk 4 to 5-mile-per-hour. this is a painful slow crawl. >> over warm water which is detrimental. >> that's a great point. the florida straits. these are the keys this is cuba this is the florida straits. some of the warmest water on the planet 86 to 90 dree water right sitting between florida and cuba. that's why the hurricane are the center things this jumps to category 4. i didn't have have a chance to

tweak this map. this is probably the new update. i may have the pause points a little off. but they still have it category 3. retires advance and see what they do. of course they got the w over the top of key west tp it looks like that's a 3 underneath. >> looks like 3. >> this doesn't look like a 4. they a off the coast of napeles. they may be thinking it's not going to have enough time to get back up to category 4. we're talking the difference of 5 and 0-mile-per-hour. we'll soo what the specific numbers are. to get up to category 3 you get to 130 backup 135 you're category 4. it could be a 5-mile-per-hour difference. as i was telling stephanie earlier. don't pay attention to what category it is because the storm surge is going to be epic, catastrophic all through the region. this is where the worst of the wind damage will be. then to the right of the line is where the wor storm surge will be.

and this i don't like. this line is now over pinales county. we did have it over tampa. >> bill hang on a second that piece of information you gave us is relevant. if that's over pinales county where we have tweets we don't have gas. bob buck horn, the mayor of tampa, mayor we were talking to you yesterday when you made a decision that you were going to order evacuations for the area a in tampa, the low lying area. you have an awful lot of low lying area in your city. >> we do. we are surrounded by the bay. some of the most affluence areas are on the water around the bay. it's still only a mandatory evacuation for level a. i think people heeded it. obviously some will not. we'll do the best we can to encourage them not necessarily to leave the state but go to a different flood level. >> let's talk about this because

we have not spent a great deal of time on this. i'm asking the control room if they can put the map up of area a, the area a it's only area a you're asking people to get away from. >> yes, that is correct. >> do the gas station haves any gas? because that's a concern throughout the day. people who have been asked to evacuate suggest the can't get anywhere because they don't have much gas in the car. >> we have not found that to be as much of a problem as on the east coast. governor scott has been great about clearing the path for the tankers coming into florida. that may slow a while as the storm moves up through the heartland of florida. but folks are able to get now. that next flood level could be only be a few blocks away or half mile away. you don't have to go to georgia or tennessee. you just need to get to a different level of flew. as you talked about all day it's the surge