>> 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 that scarce us.

>> something scaring a lot of people in florida you have so many senior citizens, with health conditions, disabilities. it's hard for them to contemplate, is there a shelter, a place they can go that can accommodate them? do you have shelt theresa can help people with those kind of needs? >> we do. do have special needs shelters filling up quickly. we have had to open additional shelters. there is still capacity in the shelters. they're run by hills bureau county but there is capacity. but you're right those most vulnerable amongst us are the ones we need to focus on. anybody who is watching this, who lives in flood zone a who knows a neighbor that is infirm, that has mobility issues, go to them, take care of them. find a place for them. let them stay in your house. be a good floridian. >> if they are floridians or family members are there any

phone numbers to dial, emergency teams they should contact? we're trying to get people as much information as possible if they're only tuning in this evening. >> you can go to the city of tampa website. you can long on to alert tam. you can text tampa ready to 888777. and you will get notifications from us on a regular basis that are timely. the hilsborough county website can provide you locations and capacity of the shelters. we tried to put as much out as we could. but you're right. there will be people who are only now tuning in. and another five to ten hours it will be too late sfwla mayor, i put up the map here. i want to show people what we're talking about. we're moving the conversation up to tampa because of the latest hurricane report we've got. for people who don't know here is the fwufl of mexico tampa in here. you've got a lot of low-lying areas inside the red -- the

lashing o darkest color the a evacuation areas basically what the mayor is saying if you are in one of those areas go somewhere not there. this is obvious for people in tampa in case you don't know you can find out where the a areas it's obvious. the a areas are closest to the water. you push in a little bit inland you should be able to get it. this is now serious. if you're in this area as the mayor said there does seem to be gas in the area. we have heard from people in northern pinales county they're having problems with gasoline. but mayor you're saying resupply trucks are coming in. >> the governor has been aggressive about trying to move the fuel tankers down the interstate into the areas need going. i can't tell you there aren't stations that aren't closed or run out. but we're not hearing the gas issue as much as we have in other parts of the state. >> wenow you've got emergency teamat the ready preparing. but how is the infrastructure? how is the drainage system in the city of tampa.

>> it's like any other city in america it's 100 years old and we've been duct taping it for 30 years. only in the last two years did we get a regular funding source that allowed us to go in and start clearing out the storm water ditches and pipe. this is a great example. isn't sent me a picture of 60 inch pipe there was only this much clearance open space in the pipe until we got out the debris. i think you'll see a lot of that standing water flow quicker. but there will be pockets of standing water in tampa. there historically always has been. we are like a bowl not to is extent that new orleans is, but there will be pockets of standing water, especially given the amount of rain that we're getting tomorrow and monday morning. >> mayor, what's the situation with mobile homes? i know you have a lot of them in the area. >> they tend to be more in the county. they have been part of that evacuation order. we know those are always problematic. often times in low-lying rural

area that is flood quickly anyway. so the they -- i know the sheriff's office in hilsborough county is really going to be aggressive about knocking on doors getting people out. they are bad places to be in a storm like this. >> any thoughts about extending the mandatory evacuation area as a result of this newest report we just got at 11:00? >> well we're looking at it make that decision in the morning. the same would be true about implementing a curfew. i have authority by virtue of the executive order i signed. i in all likelihood will do that at some point over the next 24 to 36 hours. we're just play going by ear. but definitely flood zone a you need to find someplace else because if it's blowing more than 40iles an hour i cannot send the police and fire to come and get you. >> your police and fire department, are you full staffed right now? where is everyone? >> everyone is staging at raymond james stadium. we have brought in every police officer that we have, some

thousand strong. they will be working around the clock. they're not going home just like we're not. the tampa fire rescue is deployed. all of our assets for clearing the streets after the storm passed with deployed. barricades are deployed. meals are ready. wave been planning for this a long time. it's game day we don't do drama around here it's time to execute tomorrow. >> that's the way to think about it thank you to for keeping in touch and letting us tell everybody the story what's going on so people can make the right decisions. stay in close with us when you make that decision if you expanding the dwrar or impose ago curfew we are covering this for 24 hours. please come back and talk to us at msnbc so we can get the message out to floridians. >> joining usnous lori danko riding out the storm with other er nurses wife and cats in north port. midway between sarasota and fortt myers.

lori tell us where you are. give us an update. >> so we made it down to north port, got to our friend's house earlier today we planned on ride going out at our house in sarasota. but our landlord came over and basically said if it's a hurricane, category 4 or higher the whole neighborhood will be wiped out you need to go to a shelter >> you are now -- where do you plan to go after this thing mas landfall and you're able to move? are you looking to get back to sarasota or do you have to get back to work? >> so i have to be able to be at my job at sarasota memorial hospital within four hours of the all clear. so as soon as they say the storm is done and it's safe to go on the road i have to be available to go in because that's when we'll see the surge of patients. >> tell us where you are staying right now. you said at a friend's walk us through where you are how safe

that house is. >> it feels much safer than where we were at. we're actually sheltering in place we have three nurses, another adult, an older adult and they're also shellering eight dogs for people in the storm. >> you have a bunch of cats. >> we have three. so, yeah. we have our. >> right now you've got four adults, three cats and eight dogs? >> yes. yes and a couple of chickens. >> wait, wait did you just say a couple of chickens? >> the homeowner has clickens. it's a little bit out in the country here. we are actually closer to where the storm is supposed to hit worse. but they. >> you're in a safer place. >> it's a much safer place. >> you need to to take your phone and shoot a pilot for a reality show. >> can i just ask animals usually know before hand are the

animals acting strange. >> it's hard because ours got put in boxes and transported 35 minutes south they are acting strange. >> that could be because of the transport situation. >> right. but i will be honest with you, over the past 24 hours our backyard we normally see a lot of birds and squirrels and things. we haven't really seen any. it was getting spooky for us. >> even the drive, the 35-minute trief from your home to where you are now what was it like on the road? we're o where a ewere people on the road? were you able to get gas. >> we saw no open gas stations at all. there was one 7-eleven that doesn't sell gas was open. all the gas stations were closed. and there was not much traffic on the road. it's very windy already. even our little car was blown all over the road. this is just the outer bands not even the actual storm. >> lori, we hope you and all the animals and all the people stay

safe. sounds like you made the right decision. frankly we need a houseful of er nurses to stay safe so they can get back to work. help everybody out. please stay in touch and do stay safe. >> yeah, thank you very much. >> you know our team tends to prepare us very well. but there is nothing in my notes about chickens. >> i wasn't ready for chickens either. let's bring in nbc news correspondent kristen dahlgren. kristin you're just south of fort my myers. still in the reg walk us through where you are how the weissinger has changed in the last half hour or so. >> hey there, guys. we're out at fort myers beach. we're at a resort. closed down. but they do have the people who work here who are sheltering here with families. they have an interior stairwell ready for when things get really bad and that's where they're

going as their safe place. it's u off the ground but here the storm surge is the issue. the gulf just right there. storm surge predicted to be catastrophic. as far as the conditions over the past bit here we are definitely feeling the outer bands now. high gusty winds the rain coming down. but this is nothing compared to what in area is going to get. we were out in it. we were coming over here. we still saw people out on the roads. a lot of police vehicles. but then also just some regular looking cars and suvs out there. there are people in the area who haven't evacuated. i was at a trailer park earlier today and spoke with a number of residents who said they're not getting out. they think they can handle it. pits an area just flooded two weeks ago when harvey came through. that didn't hit here as a hurricane it was just a bad rainstorm here. that moisture cause add foot of

flooding they are expect going to be much worse here. and the people are still saying. one had a homemade boat he planned to get in ifs things got bad. another woman said their plan was to flow up an air mattress and float away. >> that's not a plan at all. >> people in dangerous situations that didn't get out. and we're running out of time now. officials said if you hadn't left by 11:00 in many places it's too late now. and so these people are just hunkering down. and i was physically nauseous talking to them because i was so worried. i was asking is there anything i can do to change your mind? and they were determined to stay. >> kristin thank you for that. that's unbelievable. >> there are now 76,000 people witht power. i wa toote something we mentioned in the last few mites differen numbers you can tech if you want to let

family know you're safe. >> don't use the internet. >> my mom doesn't use a cell phone my mom doesn't use the internet. think how important it is for these people pfennig on having a land line sfwla there are numbers people have to know. i will tell if you you're watching tv in florida, your local station is going to have a lot of the immediate information for you. if you do have people in florida, do contact them and let them know this is serious. i just got a tweet saying nothing is happened. also disappointed nothing happens. >> i will not be disappoint first degree this went away. i have been been through seven. i will not be disz appoint first degree it fizzles out. but the reality is as you heard kristin talk about saying they might ride this out on a mobile home and get away on inflatable mattress. but this doesn't happen in the serious weather events with winds 70, 90, 80, up to 120-mile-per-hour. with storm surges 10, 15 feet

you don't ride it out. >> if you're complaining about ali and are too excited we're not banking on it we're begging people in the area to take every precaution necessary if they can. let's bring in msnbc chris hayes in napeles, florida. it's still range behind you my friend. give us an update. >> we've had these varying intense bands of rain come through. coming and going. the wind picks up. it's strange how quickly they come up and how quickly is goes away. there are weird moments of odd calm. you can see it matches looking at the satellite images you can see the space between the intensity. if you have the national weather service map you can sort of zoom in and see even how small some of the most intense pockets of the storm will be as they shoot through. wave been getting the outer bands spordically here.

as kristin noted it's just past 11:00. that's basically the kind of go or stay moment that local authorities have been giving to residents here when you should be not be out on the road. at this point the authorities told folks after 11:00 you should be in a safe place and not out on the road. that's the hour we reached. >> chris where are you? is that where you're going to sleep tonight where you are now? >> yeah we're in a secure structure, four miles inland, six pete up -- six stories pup there is two concerns right now. the you were talking about folks in mobile homes, elderly folks particularly. we were at hotel earlier a lot of elderly folks with pets. hotel that was the best they could do, inland in fort myers. but that hotel was not a particularly imposing structure. if the winds are really bad and if the storm surge is high. that first concern is where

folks are if there are building strong enough. there was some concern that even the shelter building that it weren't rated for cat 4 and above. but the huge problem after the storm surge is all the basic mechanics of life here. we have no gas in this part of florida as far as i can tell. you got to worry about clean water and electricity. if you get the kind of storm 're going to get here that's when things start to be rough in terms of folks even surviving the storm surge or survive the first part getting the help they need and being able to be sort of attended to once we actually get the hurricane moving past. >> and we are now at that point -- i'm going to ask you maybe we are at that point. have we shut off emergency services yet or are the winds low enough that people dialing 911 can get police or fire? >> well i do not -- i should say i do not know authoritatively but my instinct is the wind is

not high enough right now. it's interesting because of the counterclockwise motion some of the images we saw hours ago in ft. lauderdale where far more intense than anything here. what happens is the wind goes across the land mass knocked down as it goes. by the time it's coming around here it's slower. in terms of the wind rating we're okay for wind here. >> right. >> the problem is is that rain is going to start to come down very heavily. >> we are getting word now from the national weather service that hurricane force winds are hitting the florida keys. they have started pushing across the florida keys, not where you are. as you mentioned you are still getting bands that come and go. you can see that on the map. it's getting more intense quickly where chris is right now. but as we speak hurricane force winds, meaning 75 miles an hour and higher are in the florida keys. >> you know they've got north but when you and i sat down tonight they were just above

cuba and consistently making their way north. i mean this is extraordinary. chris hayes, stay with us. we want to bring in johnny boynkins from pinales park, florida. first what made you decide to stay? >> well weren't in an immediate evacuation zone. my house is not near a coastal area. and i wanted to give those folks in zone a and b a chance to get on the rooted and i didn't want to get bogged down in traffic trying to get out of pinales county and the state of florida. >> let's talk about what you've done to protect your home. what precautions have you taken? >> well we've taken steps to you kn secure all of the lawn furniture, moving things from the outside to the inside. making sure that the windows and doors are secured. you know helping our neighbors put sand bags where they need to

put sand bags. we live in an area that's secure. and pretty high. so we're just taking those steps to get things done. >> did your neighbors stay too? >> i think about half of our neighbors are staying in the neighborhood. we did have some people who decided to leave. but most of us are hunkering down and riding out the storm. >> who is there with you. >> my husband and my mom, my brothers. a few friends from the neighborhood. are here we're all just hanging out waiting for irma to roll through. >> the last person we asked that question said they had four doings three cats and chickens this has become a game for us. >> hold on a second ali it was eight dogs. >> johnny, you have adequate food, water and what are your plans for power if the power goes out? >> well we -- i've been preparing for this storm for the past week.

so went out last thursday to stock up on water and food. we have enough materials to last us a few days through the brunt of the storm and hopefully we can get out and if need be but we're prepared to stay for the long haul. >> how about your car? if you get maeft wind is your car under a garage. >> we have some cars parked actually at our neighbor's house, which is a little bit further out of the neighborhood. at a much higher elevation. we do have some cars parked in the front yard. and they're gassed up ready to go if we need to get out. >> all right johnny we wish you and your family safety. good luck over the next day. >> thank you. >> let me show you some of what's going going on i'm not as good as bill is. just because we heard hurricane force wind are over the keys. this is the keys it's obvious if you're looking at the

map .darkest color winds are the strongest winds, now hitting the florida keys. we were talking to chris. he is up here. that's buy his not feeling the worst of the winds yet. he is still getting bands. and they're inconsistent. they combo from the red, yellow, green but down here in the florida keys it is completely red. which means that is sustained hurricane-force winds, sustained winds of more than 75 miles an hour. here this is the part you have to worry about. there are winds and then storm surges. this isn't normal flooding from rain and lack of drainage. this is the stuff pushed up onto shore as bill described by the hurricane. still in this relatively unpopulated area of southwestern florida, going to be the highist, 10, 15 feet. marco island is where it becomes worry subpoenasome. further up fort myers there,

more populated areas and barrier islands out here then you end nup tampa where we are learning the storm is headed this way which means it may go over the outer edge of the bay of tampa. that's what becomes worrisome because there are so many low lying areas around there. this is now based on the brand new reporting we have, the brand new report from the national weather service. this is the area of concern. it's worth noting this is a massive storm. as a result of this it's still going to be completely over the rest of florida. it's still going to be -- this is bigger than all of florida. >> one of the reasons people didn't evacuate. they simply didn't know where to go. there is no gas left and it's warned into georgia. i mean when hurricane sandy hit it was go from battery park to the upper east side literally. >> right so gainesville is one of the areas more short of gas ost of the rest of

florida. people have been drying drinking driving up from the keys got to gainesvilles filling up gas and now they're empty. people in a gas with gas supply problems. >> we're taking a quick break. you are watch live special coverage on msnbc. >> that's fort myers right now live pictures. >> fort myers experiencing hurricane irma.

welcome back you're watching a special edition of velshi and rue as which cover hurricane irma making it'say up florida. just moments ago when we got the 11:00 update we were looking at the storm making it's way over the florida keys. we have to take a moment ali think about all the weather we've seen. monsoon season last in month. you saw people in southeast asia with more water than they've had before. wildfires on the west coast and two weeks ago hurricane harvey devastatesed texas. >> there are 78 wierlds right now, 8 million acres burned in the united states. 7 firefighters died. 26,000 people are fighting fires in montana, oregon abwashington and california. of course you've seen the la tuna fire outside of los angeles. >> irma isn't starting in fl st. foms, st. martin, barbeda.

>> they say it's almost 100% destroyed. >> if you look at the image the st. barts pb the virgin gourda is gone. it's not like irma has been waiting out in the ocean. it's ravaged many areas already. into the last week we saw an 8.29 earthquake in mexico. >> and another hurricane coming in right after this one hits one of these places. let's talk oh our meteorologist who can tell us about this last report that we have gotten in. it does seem this thing has tilted again a little bit more west. >> yeah, bill and i are actually reviewing the report right now. it's a jog to the west. it's an important jog because it keeps that center off shore. if those the case then we may spare some areas with the damaging winds we once originally thought would be hit pretty hard. we're going to analyze that data. we're still analyzing right now but follow me over to the radar picture. we'll get at good idea.

cuba took a toll on irma. tom of the terrain dislodge the center a little bit. but it's over some warm water here. the potential is for it to maintain the strg strength here or get stronger you shalling up to the north. we're still dealing with a very dangerous category 3 storm even though you may hear of a a little bit weaker storm. the impacts here probably just the same especially in the keys where i've been watching the web cams out of key west and the sea is splashing over the walls. it's a very ugly night in the keys and a very dangerous night where you don't want to be outside. latest win gusts at 68-mile-per-hour in key west. 56 in marathon. 50, 60, being occasionedly near hurricane force. the center still a couple hundred miles down to the south. we have a ways to go before the real damaging winds come in later ob tonight. up to the north we have had

occasion rain bands come through. this is just the preview if you will the outer rain bands. but occasionally we've been getting tornado warnings with the storms. this is something we need watch tornado threat all night long. we'll be watching at a that through the overnight hours. hurricane force winds are in the red. you can sigh that over the keys here tonight we'll be seeing this continuation of the hurricane force wind and continue pressing to the north here. it's the driving wind against the water and you can see that storm surge map here behind me. this is the real problem. even though we have a category 3 storm and last thoot night we were saying it would be a 5 you haven't seen the numbers come down. it's because this storm is so big, so expansive and that wall of the water comes in during highide tomorrow. and that's what were really concerned about here as we head through the next 24 hours is that high tide cycle in southwest florida with the water

coming on shore. >> all right thanks steph. >> joining us now is david baumann waiting out the storm in downtown orlando, the led media analyst it for a oxford publication appear long-term resident of florida. he has lived through and covered a number of storms. david take us where you are now. >> stephanie abali i'm in the heart of downtown orlando right now. and it's sprising. there are a bunch of different establishments still open. there are plenty of people on the street. the wind is starting to pick up. the rain is drizzling at this point. but downtown orlando, the city of orlando is opened some public garages. i'm looking to actually put one of my cars in one of the public garages just to keep it safe. >> all right. what's the -- this is kind of surprising because we we saw the win forecasts for places there are a lot of inland places like orlando that will get high

winds. it looked like an east coast storm now it's a gulf coast storm. but it's so big that folks like you in orlando are going to get the effects of a hurricane right over you. >> it's very strange. and it's strange to see so many people out right now. you know it's still just enjoy ago saturday night in the heart of downtown orlando when they know some sort of impending doom is still on its way. so you know -- but you know many of the people have been through hurricanes. they've been through some -- and some people you know are, take an approach like with hurricane matthew last year where it was pposed to hitnd didn't. you know with this hurricane, hurricane irma, just a matter of 48 hours ago the mentality was different. people were fearful but now as it looks like it's going west.

people are less fearful even though we know we're getting our butts kicked. >> what's your big concern in orlando at this point? obviously the winds will be high, may not be so high that they cause structural damage. but the flooding situation, are you worried about that? >> you know, i don't think flooding is as much a concern here in orlando. you know for the most part we are more worried baier for the people on the coasts. in orlando i don't think flood something as much a concern as the winds. at my house i have a 1950 home just east of orlando two miles, probably a five-minute drive outside of the downtown area. and you know it's a cinder block home my concern was to get rid of sort of any sort of projectile and that goes even to the garbage cans sitting ouz. >> that sounds like somebody who

has been through hurricanes before. >> exactly. >> in miami they were picking up everything that was debris that could possibly do that damage. a. >> exactly. >> including in sandy that's one of the things you heard a few of the deaths were from people hit by debris. >> garbage can lids. >> thank you david, stay safe thank you for joining us and letting us know how things are in orlando. >> i appreciate you keeping us updated thank you. >> we just got msnbc update now. more than 190,000 people are without power in the florida keys. when you look at the images -- some people saying maybe this is heading a little west, maybe not as bad as we thought. think about the people home without powe these are definitely scarey times. >> it may be the bour is because of a blown transformer. it may be because power lines are down. you got to wait out the entire storm to the other side and then rescue crews come out and the electrical crews come out to try and fix things.

you remember after sandy and other hurricanes they got to bring in new poles and things like that. people who lost power now may be without power a few days. the good news at least the weather is not cold. >> that's a concern for some people in the virgin islands. i spoke to people in st. thomas who said they might not get power back for months tough to live somewhere without power. >> yeah sorry you're going to have to talk that's orlando. >> we are taking a look at orlando right now. it's range. but as we just heard from david baumann some people have less concern than they did even a day ago as they start to believe the ning is heading west. but it's still going to hit. this is hurricane irma. we are watching it as the rain continues to fall. you're watching msnbc.

we're also noticing loud noise and explosions of green and blue lights in the area. those are transformers blowing throughout the area. not one not two but we saw three different times. >> if i try to walk any farther at this point the wind is pulling me back. so not too far just feet from the hotel. >> the thing that's the most

scarey to me that's going to have the potential to take lives is the 10 to 15 feet of storm surge from fort myers through naples and marco zblield the storm surge could rush through and kill you. >> it speck expecting life at the time threatening conditions here short but they sent files sore fire out in the neighborhoods. >> we got heavy rain coming but they also the rain bands have lightning. >> if you have been ordered to evacuate you need to leave now. >> this is your last chance to make a good decision. >> well that last chance passed in a lot of place. i'm ali velshi. >> and stephanie ruhle. thank you for being here for our special coverage of irma. the national weather service reported hurricane force wind across the keys and warned

anyone still there to stay away from windows. right now irma is a category 3 storm and about 90 miles away from the he keys where it's expected to make landfall by day break. new video just in of a reported tornado. this is from ft. lauderdale. for hours now heavy squauls of rain with tornadoed embedded have been sweeping across southern florida. . the latest numbers from florida power officials show the number of outages is rising fast. irma cut power to more than 163,000 customer, most will i in broward. key west is hit right now. >> which are producing hurricane force winds. joining us on the phone is mary belle coleman. riding out the storm with 19 other people six dogs and three cats. near west palm beach. thank you for being with us. and of course -- people down there happen to have a lot of

pets. you're getting a lot of them in there together with you. what's the situation? where are you it sounds windy? >> it is very windy. i'm standing out back right now because it's a little noisy in my house with everyone. we're getting about every ten minutes or so we get the squauls with the wind and rain. you heard one come through. >> what made you decide to stay? >> well, my husband is in law enforcement. and he is activated. and i didn't want to leave him behind. my dad is elderly. he is here and i knew he would not evacuate. so thankfully we have a new home. we have impact windows. we thought this would be a test but we felt safe staying here. >> tell us a bit about that assortment of people and animals we just described. who -- who is everybody that you got there? >> it's my family. i have my two brothers. i have my elderly father. i have my four children, my husband, my sister. my brother-in-law.

and his family. and there is 19 of us. between all of us we have the six dogs and three cats zbra i guess it's got to be some degree it's comforting, riding it out with all your loved ones about you. how have you prepared? what have you got in terms of water, food, necessary medication, you know tell me how you prepared. >> we've been preparing for several days. this isn't the first hurricane we've gone through. we had early on in the week filled up all the gas tanks. we have many cases of water. we had food. everyone brought food. we're doing okay. we have a generator an underground generator that gives power for two weeks in the event the power goes out. we're okay right now the power is still on where we're at. >> is your husband on duty right now? >> he actually is sleeping. he has been working the 6:00 a.m. shift. he gets up in the morning at 4:30. he goes in at 6:00. he has been coming home between

7:30 and 8:00 everyone night. >> when was the last time you left the house when you saw people out wlar the roads like. >> we had a curfew that started in our county at 3:00 p.m. all my family came over right before 3:00. i haven't been out on the roads. my husband came home about 8:00. he said it's pretty equity out there. everyone is listening staying home and doing what they're supposed to be doing. >> the people in your community are they staying home and hunkering down or did people leave. >> in my neighborhood most people stayed. we're pretty much a new build community. and so everyone feels safe. we're about 15 miles from the ocean. we're not too worried about flooding out here. it's just the damage from the wind because of you know everything here is pretty new. all of our trees is new. we were worried about that. but it looks like it's going to be a little better for us but obviously worse for families on the west coast.

>> what's your situation as far as you know about gasoline availability where you are? >> as of yesterday and this morning we still had gas and some of the area gas stations closed to us. on wednesday and thursday it was bad shortages pumps shut down. but they brought down fuel for us friday and today it seems to be okay. >> all right. mary belle, please get rest tonight. you have a houseful and gfl to your family. >> thanks to your husband for the great work. >> thank you. >> he is doing. >> lucky. look at the incredible video from miami beach from parts of irma hitting land. >> look at this stop sign. spinning like a leaf. i'm pointing out as you look, chris christie tweeting to the governor of florida we are here for you. said everyone in new jersey understands how floridians feel tonight. we have sent new jerse sp, new

jersey national gartd and utilityman. we stand by you today. chris christie remembering hurricane sandy. look at the image. hurricane sandy was only a category 5 florida looking at a 3. >> in all the headquarters i covered in the days after you see utility trucks going from the entire country toward the hurricane site to help put the utility, power poles up. you see the tree cutting baskets out there. we have 193,000 people without power in florida at this point. >> think about all of those utility trucks that have made their way to texas in the last two weeks. >> yes. >> and they are still there. remember, texas -- it has not covered, many people have not returned to home and still won't. now here with the state of florida face ago dire situation. >> the number of people without power in florida jumped dramatically in the last few minutes. up to 193,000 getting the first

reports of flooding in miami. now i will tell you as i discussed with the mayor last night and it's the same reason i say -- i've been saying the last 72 hours we have to talk about climate change here because miami floods on a sunny day. if you live in miami you know that you have seen instances of water coming up through the storm drains in the middle of a sunny day. if it gets a little bit of rain it floods. miami has a an infrastructure problem. chris hayes put it well. the city of miami is ongoing decadeslong battle between civilization and the forces of nature. in many cases it succeeded. but the bottom line is miami floods easily and miami started to flood. if you are in that area it will flood that's a give zbloon richard bransen on nicker island in the virgin islands when irma hit there he was in his wine cellar with his team since he is safe as with his family. he has said if this isn't a call

to action to really start to take climate change research and science seriously to the point made earlier by a senator from the state of florida. >> senator nelson. >> put climate change aside think about the funding going to the national weather service, the hurricane authorities, to really do the research all the data that's provided to help keep people prepared and safe for emergencies like this. >> right 100 years ago we wouldn't have been sure where this was going to hit. people wou evacuate the wrong way. we wouldn't know. now people can dodge and weave with accuracy because we have the hurricane hunters fly flying through the storm. we have the great information we learn. whether or not -- it's certainly not an argument about why you think the earth is warming and why think sea levels are rising it's just acknowledgement that sea levels are rising. >> climate change aside for a moment and talk about the importance of funding science and research and technology and why it matters most at time like this.

you take it for granted in good times and in bad times you want to have that data. >> all right let's go to larry, the city council chairman on marco island on florida's west coast at home on marco island. why are you at home in marco island until a few minutes ago looked like where it was coming to land it you may have dodged it. >> we have not dodged it. we are prepared for a storm surge of frightening proportions. wove been preparing for two weeks now. we're fortunate we have 17,000 residents and probably 16,000 of them took our advice to evacuate voluntarily. we issued a mandatory evacuation order two days ago. we're down to 1,000 citizens and 100 first responders on the island ready for what happened next. we are sheltering in place. >> what percentage of residents in the marco island are there

during the month of september? or are a lot of your residents only there in the winter months. >> that's a great question. the 17,000 number is the number that might be here in the months of august and september. we swell to maybe 40,000 during the know bird months. >>lay, i want to show our viewers what we are talking about marco island is ove here. you're on the outer bands now you're starting to feel some of the heaviest winds you'll feel but they're not consistent with you are be. they are going to be gusts and bands. but you're really the first point on southwestern florida where there is a population center. below you there isn't that much. the pattern remain off possibly far northwest of you you are going to storm surge of 10 to 15

feet let me have a sense what that means it marco island what happens with a 10 to 15-foot storm surge. >> the island itself has a level above 7 feet.

>> ar and laroue ary what e you doing about the people who chose to stay? they were reminded over and over through local and state officials to evacuate. and they decided to stay. those people who end up needing emergency services what are you going to do about it? >> well we have been very fortunate to have many local homeowners bend us boats and personal water craft our police and fire departments own personal water craft. we will do what we can to get to the people needing us during and after the storm event. >> larry please stay safe and we wish the best to you and your fellow residents. >> we will thank you for the good wishes. >> let's bring in nbc news correspondent. live in napeles florida. what's the situation where you are, jacob. >> honestly, ali there isn't much rain or wind at this point. it was actually far more severe earlier today in cape coral

which i could not remember where i was earlier today when i was talking to you. the reason being of course is the storm surge. and in that area. and cape coral interestingly enough about 20 miles away from here could see some catastrophic flooding in addition to fort myers beach. that community was designed to have accessibility by boat to almost every one of the homes there. there is about 179,000 people living there today. when you talk about policy and planning, the convenience of having a boat near home and being able to hop in and go out for recreation has terrible potential consequences in event of a hurricane like irma when you're talking about storm surge 5, 10, 15 feet when you have entire community with canals running throughout it at sea level it's terrifying. the local firefighters have a big task on their hands. when we look out tonight over napeles, florida, the one thing you thifrmg about is hopefully everybody has gone to evacuation center, hunkered down in a

building or facility they know is safe. because it is - the-s n debating the fact the storm is coming and coming withferosity many people here have never seen before. i know earlier tonight at the fire station one of the firefighters said they had seen andrew. you hear people, it's part of the justification stubborn folks you talk to out here from coast to coast in florida saying i went through andrew and i think i can handle this. when you talk to the experts, though if you think you can handle this because you went through andrew you may not know what you're talking about. >> you know, jacob there are two camps. while with i completely and fresht and understand all the senior citizens living in florida and the fact that their evacuation options in their eyes are limited and people are concerned without a lot of gas in their car. those saying i lived through andrew pu don't have to think back to andrew. look at the images of irma two, three fewer days look at the

virgin islands, places decimated, people need to take this seriously. >> and honestly it just sort of is an issue of people not listening to their local elected officials. it's even more galling the honestly when i you talk about the idea of climb change. a place like miami. ali you and i were talking about this. theory signs out on miami beach that show the sea level rice and how catastrophic it could be over a long period of time. when you see it happening when you see these crazy winds and when you see storm surge pushing sea levels up 5, 10, 5 feet over a matter of minutes or hours and not years or decades, the idea that you wouldn't want to get out of there it's sort of stup fieing. that's whathe firefighters they don't want to say on camera. but many of them ialk to feel it's idiotic for people not to get out and go to safety. >> jacob, thanks.

we'll stay with you through the course of the night as we continue reporting and coverage of hurricane irma if you had you'd like to help right now here is what you have to do. call 1-800-red-cross or text irma to 90999. you can also visit red cross.org. >> remember the 800 number. i know not everyone uses cell service or has a computer. you can call the red cross. 1-800-red-cross. >> we are going to sign off and ari melber is taking care of things the next few hours for us. i'll be back at 8:00 a.m. eastern. our coverage will not stop, our coverage of hurricane irma continues after this break.

good evening to you, hid night on the east coast and

hurricane irma continuing to batter florida as it moves closer to landfall. >> you guys can't hear me. but this is a -- [ inaudible ] >> we're also noticing loud noises and explosions of green and blue lights in the air. those are transformers exploding in the area. >> at this point the wind is pulling me back. >> the thing that is the most scary to me that's going to have the potential to take lives is this 10 to 15 storm surge. >> the sturorm surge will rush and it could kill you. >> that is the latest here at midnight on the east coast. and we are tracking its path. the storm reportedly beginning to turn north and strike the florida