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 keys before it would hit

any other parts of southern florida with ft. myers, sarasota and naples in the hurricane's path. the storm surge in southwestern florida is currently projected to still get as high as 15 feet. that is potentially deadly with southern parts of the state already experiencing storm level winds. while irma is category 3, that is 120-mile-an-hour winds. the national hurricane center expecting it to gain in intensity as it approaches the waters of the lower florida keys near daybreak tomorrow where it could get back up to category 4 status. florida governor rick scott has been issuing regular updates on the storm. more than 163,000 people are reported to be without power and that number is expected to surpass the million mark. 7 million people have been ordered to evacuate in the state.

we're going to show, here, a live picture of ft. myers, florida. this is how it looks right now. what can you tell us? >> reporter: hey there, ari, right now a welcome relief as far as the wind and the rain goes. we've been seeing the outer bands just starting as we've gone through the evening tonight and so it was blowing a little bit, coming down a little bit. it's calm but things are going to get much, much worse and you mentioned the storm surge. that's what a lot of people are talking about and very concerned about. we are on ft. myers beach. not far from here the gulf. it's expected to come up past where i'm standing and into these buildings. on the beach they are built up but we are talking about a 10 to 15-foot storm surge in some places in southwest florida. if you don't have something built up that will completely

fill the first floor of any home. so that could be deadly, especially in places like where i was earlier today in a mobile home park where you only do have one floor on many of them. and there are people that are still staying. deciding to ride it out. they say they've been here a while and they'll be safe and they didn't think they had options of where they were going to go. they heardhe shelters that were filling up and turning people away or the long lines to get into other shelters. they felt their best option was to stay at home. one woman we talked to said she started to really regret that and we saw her later in the day and she said she decided to evacuate and was packing up and running. she said i have no time to talk to you, we are getting out of here. a lot of people quite concerned

as this moves closer. >> and last question, there are reports that this is not necessarily as bad as once thought, at least according the worst-case scenario projections. put that in context based on what you're seeing. >> yeah, you know, i think it's very dangerous to say that this isn't as bad or we dodged a bullet just to give you an example i've covered a lot of these storms. and after katrina, people said new orleans dodged a bullet. and we know what happened there with the levee failures. devastating punta gorda and port charlotte. we have seen what this has done in the last few days.

forecasters are very good but they are not exact with these storms. i think people really need to be careful. this could still strengthen evening though it is not projected to. so breathe a sigh of relief could be deadly. >> important context. thank you very much. we talked about people who are not leaving. i want to bring in a florida keys resident staying in the keys and willing to speak with us for that rspective, we want to speak with you, renny thanks for joining. >> going all right. 12:05 a.m. on the east coast. set the scene for us. what informed your decision? >> well, born and raised here in key west, florida. and this isn't the first hurricane. i was born into a hurricane. so it's kind of natural to go through one of these.

as long as you feel comfortable. and apparently i feel very comfortable sitting on my back balcony porch right now about two stories up. facing the west right now. looking into the gulf of mexico. kind of being protected to the east right now by a couple buildings. so i really -- i'm really in a comfortable location. >> what are you seeing? any signs of the hurricane at this juncture? >> well, right now, the power is out across the entire island. you're really -- it's really hard to see your hand in front of your face. you have a couple of buoys out on the horizon that are bouncing. and really, i was downstairs under the condo about an hour ago. and i haven't noticed much of

the storm surge. maybe one to three foot of -- from the very beginning, since probably yesterday. so it's still really relative. i mean, i do know when the storm gets near and possibly passes over us, the wind direction will shift and my sanctuary that i'm talking fr rightow will no longer be a sanctuary. >> we're speaking with a florida keys resident who decided no it to evacuate. you mentioned power is out. what precautions have you taken? how long can you go in terms of food and water without power there? >> i could live off the island for the rest of my life without power. food -- i can -- >> what do you mean? >> i can go fishing if i really needed to.

that's the worst-case scenario. but i have a supply of food for ten-plus people. i have six with me. and that will last at least this month, if not another month. other than that, water, we're set on water. probably have somewhere between 200 gallons of water. so we're really set. we knew what we were getting into. >> i don't know you and you don't know me. we are speaking through television. but you sound chill about this. is that your demeanor or do you feel chill because of the precautions you've taken? >> possibly a little bit of both. i look at the glass half full a lot of the time. sure, we're getting hit by a storm of the century and, sure, it's downgraded a little bit. but yet, it's a powerful storm.

>> clearly. >> just a minute ago, i -- not just a minute ago, but possibly about two or three hours ago, there are boats that are moored out in key west that are ripped from their moorings. those people taking what they thought were the right precautions but yet, look at where it gets them. so, honestly, you know, i know how dangerous this storm is. i don't plan on walking the streets right now. and by daybreak, i know i'll be ready for a different storm. >> right. >> well, renny, i appreciate you sharing your perspective and the decision you made. some people second guess from a distance. we have reported on all the

experts who advised on evacuation. we wish you the best down there. stay safe. >> definitely. appreciate it. we have been through it before. we'll get through it again. >> god bless. i want to turn to the meteorologist tracking irma's path. tell us about the path and the reaction you have to the florida keys resident i just spoke to who sounded pretty chill. >> we can't have that attitude right now. you're not in the heart of the storm system. you're in the outer bands with winds gusting 65 to 70-mile-an-hour reports there. but the inner eye wall is still offshore. so they're not into t hea of the storm yet. this attitude is not going to save any lives down here. hopefully he's in a secure structure and up on a higher floor. it's only at 3 feet of storm surge that can be life threatening and we are

predicting 5 to 10 foot surge in the keys. i would like to check in with him in about six to seven hours to see if it is the same situation when the northern eye wall comes ashore. it looks very dangerous with winds gusting 110 to 120 miles an hour. you see this pink box. this is the secondary threat. it's a tornado watch in effect until noon tomorrow. every once in a while these red boxes will show up. they will be brief spin ups of tornados and we expect that through the overnight hours. we have only seen the outer bands and we have lost to 100,000 to 200,000 customers without power. and we're not in the heart of the storm yet. 90 southeast of key west. and here's the projected path. at 8:00 tomorrow morning, this is when the conditions around key west will be at their worst. as we go through the morning

hours into the evening, notice this is only 12 hours here. and we only have the storm to ft. myers. i think the key take away of this is that it's slow-moving. so you're into these bands and you're expecting it to be terrible right away but it's going to take a while with the storm system moving so slowly. this is the storm surge, this is the threat with irma. unlike the flooding. and that is coming up tomorrow morning through tomorrow afternoon. this is only just begun. >> right. i appreciate the context there. the take away being there's a fine line between slow and chill. >> right. and i think it's important that people's sensitivity don't wear down quickly. the effects started last night. you've had it all day today. a lot of times that, you know, that overstimulation of the news and hearing it, where is it? it's tomorrow. >> right. we're still in the early front end and the fact that the media

and the discussion down there and the local government officials have been hitting hard the threat the fact it hasn't materialized yet or that it's a 3 versus a 4. >> i think a lot of people took this seriously and got out. obviously there's people that stayed. but this is a really destructive storm and has a history. you follow it back to barbuda where it basically wiped it off the map. and the size of this storm is what counts here. each storm is different. everybody likes to look back at the last storm and say here's what happened. the impacts from this storm will be different from storms in south florida. >> you make a basic but important point. in the news and the culture we make distinctions about borders. hurricanes don't know borders. we know from barbuda, wiping out the island. >> there is a curveball with every major storm.

we have seen this storm behave on its own. last night the interaction with cuba. tonight it weakened a little bit. what will overnight into tomorrow hold? the models are not doing a great job with this. the dirt is in the details and how that all plays out through tomorrow morning. that's why it's an hour by hour situation. >> now for more i want to go to msnbc's jacob who is on the ground in naples. what are you seeing? >> reporter: a loft people trying to get into shelters. jermaine arena had an enormous line out the door. the storm was tracking to the eastern part of florida and made the turn to the west. a lot of the people waited until the last minute and may have not have had the resources to get to a shelter. and today was a mad dash and a very, very long line. the line stretched city blocks

to get into the shelters around the ft. myers beach area. these are people in low-lying communities often around sea level that will have nowhere else to go once the storm surge comes up to 5, 10 or that devastating 15 feet that we have heard projected in some cases. ultimately, everyone did get into that arena that is normally used for sporting events and political rallies. i walked inside briefly today. it's a tough scene, honestly, to tell you the truth. there are people not well there, people on oxygen tanks. but other people sort of breakthrough what would otherwise be a hard situation with a lot of hope. i met a man named dan. we had him on the air on msnbc with his dog cowboy and said inside this place, even though people are packed in like sardines and sleeping next to each other, the human spirit is coming through and people are pitching in to help other people. this is a huge event and

bringing a lot of people together. it's forcing everybody from their house. my uncle lives here in naples florida. he had to evacuate to atlanta. there are stories like that playing out all across this great state tonight. and as we wait for this unbelievably powerful storm, the fact that people are coming together is a bright spot and something that is a tough thing for so many people in florida. >> there's a human quality quality to it. jacob, appreciate you sharing some of your reporting. >> you got it. >> msnbc continues our live coverage coming up, we have a live report from miami and a group that's been going door to door to get people to their much-needed shelters.

12:20 on the east coast. i'm joined by mya rodriguez who is in miami. what you seeing? >> reporter: we've had such strong wind out here at this point. we started at about noon today. the conditions have deteriorated consistently throughout the day. we are experiencing pretty strong wind gusts right now. we have also had rain bands moving through. the outer rain bands started moving in at 3:00, 4:00, 5:00,

and we are getting rain pretty much in sheets at this point. we are seeing a lot of electrical outages. and with are about 12 stories up in the hotel we're in right now. you can look out over miami. it is lit right now. but in other sections of the city you can see the blue and green flashes and then you'll see certain sections of the city kind of go dark. on a normal day from here you would be able to see the miami skyline. you can just not key it at all. that rain is so intense. i just heard an explosion there. sounds like another transformer blew out nearby. normally you can see the skyline from here but today you can't. the rain is obscuring all the glittering skyscrapers you would normally see out here. we are told that there are nearly 200,000 people in the state of florida that do not have power. half of those are here in

miami-dade county alone, ari. it's going to be a long night in the dark. >> clearly. thank you so much. we want to turn now to a phone interview with the executive director of the new florida majority. this is a grass roots organization that engages in progressive politics. but we are not here to talk politics tonight. this weekend they have decided to go door to door trying to get people to shelters, obviously an important cause. what can you tell us? >> yeah, i mean, it's a time of high stress and anxiety while you're waiting out a storm. but many of us have been preparing not only our homes but helping our parents and neighbors and friends prepare and we have been helping prepare for storms and get to shelters especially in low income communities where people may not have the resources for the supplies they need or for

transportation and just couldn't afford to evacuate. >> how much of it is an economic issue? we've had these discussions. some people saying they're not leaving, period. that's a choice. others having, obviously, real-world economic barriers to being able to pull up, leave, pay for it, go somewhere, stay somewhere, et cetera. what are you seeing? >> we've been speaking with people who live in mobile homes and who have had to evacuate and are worried their homes won't be here come monday or families who live paycheck to paycheck and couldn't afford to purchase wood to board their homes or even have the money to get transportation to the shelters and so there's been just a really vibrant coalition of community organizations that have come together to make sure that every family that wants to get to a shelter has the transportation to get there or the supplies to board up their homes and we're prepared to

support communities after the storm with community operation centerers th centers that we have setting up. we are ensuring that low-income communities and seniors and the disabled and people who are afraid of seeking assistance like undocumented families can get the help they need. >> have you seen any evidence that is an issue for the undocumented? >> absolutely. i mean, we have been talking to families who have expressed that they're afraid to leave their homes and, you know, we -- there are some -- while some elected officials have been saying that immigrant families shouldn't be afraid we know that people have been experiencing a political storm as well as this natural storm. and the fear of deportation runs very high. and so, you know, i think we've been -- we'll have to be really vigilant to ensure that -- that

people know that disasters are time for us to come together and no time to threaten to check people for their immigration status or for warrants when day come to a shelter or seek disaster relief. and we've seen recovery efforts fall short before and we're determin determined not to let it happen again. we have launched a community recovery fund so that families who may be afraid of seeking assistance can get the assistance they need. the irma recovery dot fund. to help people with supplies they need and if they need help to go through the fema process or navigate programs and resources. >> we hear a lot of talk about putting politics aside. you are the head of an organization that has literally done that and taken your human power to help the people in the community. it's an interesting story and one we wanted to reflect in our

reporting. thank you and good luck. >> thank you. i want to bring in now, officer hector lavade of the miami-dade police department. the west and southwest parts of florida are going to face the hardest brunt of this. officer, thanks for joining on this busy night. what can you tell us? >> well, we're in the thick of it right now, as you can see on your screens, the bands are coming in. we're experiencing heavy squalls with embedded tornados across miami-dade county. a lot of trees knocked over. we have live wires and it's extremely volatile out there. so right now, we're urging everybody to stay indoors and seek shelter and not try to let curiosity to get the best of you. >> what shifts are you and your colleagues working right now? >> we're working a full

mobilization which is our alpha-bravo shift. half the department is working on one shift on the days, from 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. and the bravo shift comes in from 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. to the next morning. we have over 1,000 officers all in uniform on the shift. we spent most of the day trying to tackle as many of the downed trees and power lines and things like that that we can do before we have to start seeking shelter. and then as soon as the storm passes we'll go into recovery mode and do an assessment and see exactly what the extent of the damage is. >> what is your plan for the duration of the most intense part of this storm? where do you shelter? >> i'm sheltering at home. i worked the alpha shift today. my family was able to get out of the state and made it out to alabama. so luckily i don't have to worry

about them if we run out of power and i'll be able to join my colleagues in the morning and go out and do the -- what we do, which is help the residents and visits of miami-dade county and try to get back to normalcy as soon as we can. if we are able to get out in the morning. the worst part of the storm will come in at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. >> we know that the police risk their lives every day when they put on the uniform. but obviously it's of a heightened interest here when you think about what is going on down there and what you are trying to do. we thank you for your service and your time tonight, officer. >> thank you. it's our pleasure to serve. >> thank you, sir. hurricane irma bearing down on the florida keys and there are warnings from officials to leave. some residents still trying to ride it out. we'll have another one of them joining us, next.

heavy squalls with tornados embedded in them are hitting parts of southern florida. this is just one of those tornados. this one hitting coral ridge, florida. irma is turning north and experts expect it to make landfall in the florida keys near dawn. we are in live coverage. governor rick scott announced that 390 shelters have been

opened throughout the state of florida. the hurricane is now a category 3. that means sustained winds measured at over 120 miles an hour. we can tell you that 170,000 people are now without power. a number that is expected to grow. it could even surpass the million mark. i want to go to wbbm reporter trent kelly in naples. what are the conditions there now? >> reporter: hey, ari. we're with wbbh tv here. we are coming to you live from the city of cape coral. this is the largest city on the southwestern part of southwest florida and many people are bratsi bra bracing for a direct impact with hurricane irma. this is just to the "washington post" -- west of ft. myers.

this area has a series of canals that lead out to the gulf of mexico to give homeowners an easy way to get out to the gulf if they want to. via boat while it does make some parts of the city more attractive for homeowners, it is not a good thing when you are talking about a major hurricane heading towards the city. storm surge is the main concern of many city officials out here. they are worried that that canal system can only help increase the flooding in some areas more inland, areas that would not normally see storm surge but because of this canal system, it may help to push some of that water further inland. we're talking about neighborhoods not right on the coastline. these are areas that are several miles inland here in the city of cape coral and they could see several feet potentially of storm surge. if i can, ari, i want to mention

the weather conditions we are seeing on this side of the state. we have noticed the conditions deteriorate significantly in the past hour or so. you are look at this tree here. you can see it is pretty gusty out here right now. the rain was falling at a pretty good clip. primarily, it is the wind gusts we are starting to experience letting us know that irma is on its way. if we can here, i want to show you this home behind me. we were talking to the people living here a couple hours ago. their windows are boarded up. they put these boards up just earlier tonight around 8:00 tonight. so talk about some last-minute preparations. the people inside this home, it's a family of eight. all of them hunkering down tonight, preparing to ride it out. in fact they positioned their car in front of the garage door to keep down the damage. basically we are seeing a lot of people if they haven't left town

around they are hunkering down inside their homes and just hoping that the damage out here is not as bad as many people are projecting. ari? >> trent, how typical is that, the house behind you compared to the rest of the neighborhood? how many people have you seen taking that tact? >> this is a pretty large neighborhood. overall, i've got to say, just judging by what we've seen out here tonight, only a handful of people are staying behind. i want to say maybe 15, 20. but it's really hard to say. those that are staying here, they've already hunkered down inside their homes. many front doors are boarded up, even. it's hard to door knock and ask if anyone is inside. but based on the lack of traffic that we've seen out here, it looks like most of the neighborhood has heeded the warnings. they have left town but you have a handful of stragglers who are

staying behind and they are hoping that some of the storm surge doesn't effect their homes as much as many people are forecasting. ari? >> you can't ask why they stayed if they already left. trent kelly, wbbh in naples. thank you. i want to turn now to the mayor of key biscayne. we have heard a lot of talk tonight about the different approaches people are taking. what are you advising folks and what are you seeing? >> i'm seeing that most of our people evacuated and we were under a tornado warnings today. when the tide went up, the water was covering the causeway which is our only inguess where and egress. the roads were washed out for a period of time. and our biggest concern, you know, in addition to a pretty strong storm and we are very grateful it is diminishing in power and not coming straight for us any more. but the storm surge for all of florida is really a big concern

for safety reasons. and for you know, property and infrastructure reasons as well. >> mayor, how do you keep on top of what's happening? >> well, we're actually hunkered down a couple miles away from key biscayne. i am at a hotel in, you know, pretty high area in miami-dade with my emergency personnel, our firefighters, police, and staff and our council. and we actually had our first responders, the last group of the first responders left about two hours ago. so we have pretty good reports. we have cameras. we are observing by cameras and remotely. but we really did not feel safe staying there or leaving our resources there. >> and what's your outlook for tomorrow? >> well, we are expecting the brunt of the storm tomorrow.

so from 3:00 this morning until about 11:00 or midnight, all day, we are expecting a pretty bad storm. the effects. so we will see. we're hoping you know, hoping for the best. but it is coming. and we have -- currently we have a full moon and high tide. so we are concerned, again, about the life safety of the storm surges as well. >> understood. thank you for your time. >> thank you, ari. >> the storm surges are considered to be some of the biggest threats to florida residents in many parts facing hurricane irma. what is a storm surge? we're going to answer that ahead. i don't think anyone in this state has seen anything like this. i mean, 15 feet of storm surge above the ground level.

that's i don't know how you survive that? .

when hurricane camille hit the u.s. it was a category 5 storm with 190-mile-an-hour winds but it was hurricane katrina, a category 3 storm that's a lower category, but its winds had far more deaths and damages as people remember. the reason was this term you hear so much, storm surge. katrina's 28 feet far more than camille's 22 feet. richard louie joins us now. no wh noaa says that could be the big problem. >> wind is not the killer. we watch that often. the storm surge is the killer,

ti typically. wind as a killer, as you can see, just 8%, according to the national hurricane center. problem is irma moved directions on saturday within the last 24 hours. now headed for florida's storm surge jugular. we have a snap that does show you how the area that is in the western side of florida is where most of the natural, if you will, or inherent storm surge danger areas are, that's the southwest and west coast areas. as we go to the next visual that we have for you. we'll scroll up a little here. let me show you how a storm surge looks. this is a video from noaa. the storm surge comes in waves. it starts to deter raiorate the bottom part of the ocean. and these bulges of water.

the storm surge is above the normal tidal waves. 2, 4, 8 feet and you see the destruction of buildings, vegetation collapses. 2 feet can sweep away suvs and pickups. and it does not need to move quickly. at 4 miles an hour, storm surge can be as destructive as 110-mile-an-hour winds. and here are the storm surge from the latest advisory. surges up to 15 feet in some areas according to what we have been watching so far, the height of a home. a situation where home, not a shelter. so this is what noaa suggests. know your zone. contact emergency management agencies. follow evacuation orders. local and state authorities have the latest information. and monitor your storm surge forecast. if you look back at the estimations for harvey and katrina, they were almost right

on for harvey and noaa. and finally, sensors installed on the ground around the coast for storm surge and pressure readings, this is where they pick it up. these devices attached to the side of buildings. you get a sense of what they look like. they put them all over in key pinpoint areas that get acura datas. storm surge is not limited to coast or high coast hurricanes. tropical storms and inland areas will see storm surge as well. and they happen before, during, and after. an example of how far -- during louisiana -- during katrina, as much as 25 miles inland. >> the fact that jumps out at me is 6 inches can knock over someone who is 6 foot tall. i'm not six feet but you are almost there. i want to go now to orlando joined by an american red cross

official. hello and what requeand what ca tell us? >> thank you for having us. we are encouraging people to download the emergency app and be able to provide communication back to their family. so we know on friday night an estimated 48,000 people spent the night in more than 250 red cross and government evacuation centers across florida. those people that are out there, the people who have stayed at home. we know the important thing right now is to think about making sure that family members know they're okay. i came from colorado. my family is a little bit out of this devastation that's happening here in florida. and i want to make sure that they know i'm safe once the hurricane has come through. i've downloaded the american red cross emergency app. you can preset your safe message. you can have it text your family members. what we know from experience with disaster. many times communications

infrastructures go down. but you may be able to get a text out when you can't make a phone call. you can preset that and let people know you're safe and well. >> what else are you asking the public to do, folks no it in florida but want to help? >> you know, the best way to help the people here affected by this and also the response that we're still working in hurricane harvey response in texas is to make a donation to the american red cross and you can do that by ex-ing the word "irma" to 90999 and that will make a $10 donation. every bit helps. more than 1,000 disaster workers and 80 response vehicles on the ground to help. >> and we have that on the screen as well. a lot of people looking for different ways to engage and help as we track the oncoming storm. thank you for joining here late night live. i appreciate it. >> thank you for helping us share this important message. >> winds now picking up in

miami. we have a live report from there next.

we want to show you some of the remarkable work our friends at the weather channel have been doing here during hurricane irma. >> these gusts have got to be 50 to 60 miles an hour. these are sustained tropical storm force winds. just listen to the wind and the roar. we've had tornado warnings and seen some damage in broward county and we're on the northern extreme, northern extent of the this huge gyre. >> talk about an area that is not just a gulf front problem. this is inside tampa bay. look at these areas in yellow

and red. >> midday tomorrow when the eye may be at its closest, ft. myers, myers, 95 sustained. wind gusts at 130 miles an hour. tomorrow evening the forecast doesn't change that much. but tampa, sustained at 62, gusts to 92. gusts in ft. myers, 114. in naples, 134 miles an hour. i've been through two dozen plus hurricanes, i'm getting nervous what it may look like here in ft. myers and naples tomorrow because 100-mile-an-hour winds, 135-mile-an-hour gusts, so many things could become unrecognizable because of what irma dishes out. >> meanwhile conditions in miami could be getting worse. the reports as much as a foot of water in downtown miami.

joining us from miami is philip mayna. what can you tell us? >> reporter: i'm in ft. lauderdale, broward county. the winds are gusting, topping 45 miles an hour. because they've reached that intensity at some point broward county's sheriff's office about an hour ago made the decision to pull some of their deputies aof of the streets. we had been expecting it for about a day or so which is why it was so important for people to heed the mandatory evacuations so it wouldn't be such a burden when this moment had come. when the storm hits there is no one to come and save you. the sheffs that are out here they were mainly out here to try to make sure that everybody's property was not messed with or

broken into while they had evacuated because so many people had taken that advice and evacuated. so that was mainly to protect the people that were left here in this area. but they have now made the call to start pulling them off the streets because their safety could be in jeopardy at any moment as the winds co-abontinu pick up. >> what preparations are they doing for the storm surges? >> they've evacuated. they were actually going through on the beaches, the places most vulnerable to that and sweeping the beaches, making sure that everybody was off of those beaches and making sure that a lot of the high-rises had been evacuated. they were boarded up. we saw them boarded up plywood and metal shutters to protect the property and making sure that people got the message to get out of there. as we have been talking about so much and rightly the so, that's the most dangerous part of that

from this part of the area on the east coast of florida here. >> philip, thank you and stay safe down there. hurricane irma inching closer to the florida keys. the winds and rain continue to increase. msnbc is with you through landfall and beyond. we're going to this storm wherever it goes. we're going to fit in a quick eaand be back with more reports from the ground live after the break.

good evening. 1:00 a.m. on the east coast. msnbc world headquarters in new york, we are live, the fate of hurricane irma here. the eye of the hurricane irma is ready to cross the florida keys. we are bearing down on the arrival of this hurricane. it is going to turn north and expected to hit the florida keys before it hits other parts of florida. while it's a we' we are now reporting flooding has already begun in