good morning. i'm chris jansing at msnbc headquarters here and we are tracking a very violent hurricane irma. a storm florida's governor said is going to be the most frae catastrophic to hit the state. that is expected to hit within the hour, wind gusts could max out at 130 miles per hour. over a quarter of a million customers are dealing with power outages, that number will increase as the hurricane hits. we have teams across the the state covering every aes pect of

the storm. >> it is very violent. the storm is about an hour and a half away. >> the strong gusty winds you can see a lot of the trees, the palm trees in the area really whipping back and forth. >> i'm very concerned because we have a series of bridges that gets us to key biscayne, that's our only entrance. >> i'm dealing with these tropical storm winds, 40 to 50 miles an hour and they're gusting now 60 to 70. >> we have a situation where 6 1/2 million people are under evacuation orders. that is the largest in history. i want to go to msnbc's thomas roberts who's in tampa, florida. how are the conditions? >> we're just about at daybreak and we've been watching bands of rain come through and wind gusts. we're just outside of the skyway

bridge, i pulled it up on the map so you can get a better idea of where we are. we are at the top right of tampa bay, this would be the top portion of skyway bridge and it looped here through st. pete beach. and this is closed so up here you're going to see headlights coming over because people are trying to get north, get out. i was on the local hills borrow county app. their last update, chris, was thursday about shelters and talking about places people could go. a lot of people having listening to radios and local news to hear about shelters that were open. i think the last number was above 400 shelters open. it was yesterday when the governor was talking about the encouraging message of sending people to shelters and they

would continue to open them where needed and they would have people in place to make sure it happened. i know our colleague was in collier county just south of us here in the fort myers, naples area and we saw the long lines yesterday. so in this area we're seeing it's going to be a gorgeous morning here so far because there is light rain. there's been a big drum beat to have the area prepared. the st. pete, tampa area has not had any type of flooding in a long time. when we think about a city surrounded by water, these barrier islands, they are accustomed to have instances of some flooding. but what we're thinking here from irma is the prediction that certain areas and 1,000 miles of coastline, when you think about all the way from st. pete, wrapping around the peninsula of florida and going ult way up to

the mid south carolina beaches as well, that's a lot of real estate. people are roughly, on average, 10 feet above sea level among that swath of coastline and they are expecting 3 to 10 feet in certain areas. we'll keep an eye on the bridge and keep you posted if we see more traffic. so far it's light this morning. >> thank you thomas roberts, heading to the keys is all the bridges, the access routes there, obviously where thomas is, the calm before the storm. if you go down south to the keys just north on the mainland in florida city and then you head up to miami beach. that's where they're feeling the effects of irma. i want to go to nbc's jolene kent, who is in fort lauderdale there's a tornado watch in effect until noon. how are the conditions there changing? >> as day is breaking we are

getting the bands of heavier winds some areas of flooding here. we see the sideways range. the tornado watch is in effect till noon. there was a warning because there was a siting here in broward county last night, that was caught on video. what we're seeing is even throe fort lauderdale and broward county are no longer in the eye of the storm, the residents here, authorities are are glad to have prepared for the eye of the storm because the storm is expected to be very heavy, 100,000 people are without power in broward county we're looking at 200,000 people in the miami-dade area. so people are hunkering down here, the shelter gs are full and the streets are empty. i don't know if you can see behind me, there is not a soul on the streets here. >> we'll check back with you, but we want to get the latest on where irma is right now.

we have the updates coming at the top of every hour, or thereabouts. steve just got this latest 7:00 a.m. update, any changes? >> it's right on target. they said between 7:00 and 8:00 the eye wall will come ashore. you can see on our satellite and as it cycles through onto the adar imagine this is coming on shore and thrashing areas of the keys with hurricane wind gusts, a 94 miles per hour wind gust just recorded in key west. we will see these wind gusts up to 115, possibly 130 miles per hour through about 9:30 this morning. they're calling it an extreme wind warning, meaning do not be outside at any cost here as we have a very dangerous situation unfolding here. this is the brunt of the storm here for the next several hours in the keys, this is as bad as

it gets. the northern eye wall is now coming ashore. as we zoom in i'll show you where it's hitting the hardest. it's thrashing, the wind and waves right now must be scary in the keys, hopefully everyone has gotten to their safe place and is hunkered down there because this is life threatening situation going on now in the lower keys and it will be that way for the next several hours. if you lose your power, which most people here don't have any power, you can stream us on our phone that goes for areas of southwestern florida too where you'll lose pow ur if you haven't done so already, just to keep up on the information. even where mike siedel has been this morning and miguel, we've seen wind gusts of 60, 70 miles per hours, even the outer bands we've been seeing 60 to 70 miles per hour wind gusts and almost

all the way up to the georgia, florida state line, some of these outer bands winds gusting 50 to 60 miles an hour. so it's massive. some of the top wind gusts we've seen, we've just topped it in key west with a 94 miles an hour wind gust. so we have the extreme wind warning. this is the national weather service in key west tweeting this out trying to spread the information you do not want to be outside in these conditions. it's like a tornado hit you, swaths of tornado-like damage here over the next couple hours. we've been talking about the wind it's really the surge, this pile of water that will come on shore here, it's happening now in the keys and will continue through the late morning hours and then the focus shifts to the southwestern coast of florida. it depends on the track of the storm. if the storm does track closer

to the coast, we keep the water piling in here. now if we get the storm to make a landfall, which will be devastating at least we can get it to weaken a little bit. that's the dilemma all day, does it stay offshore and maintain its strength or move inland and weaken. that's the wild card. one thing we do know is this storm has delivered a lot of surprises. >> thank you so much for that. we have been seeing the most dramatic changes in miami beach, which many of you as that coastal resort city, a barrier island between the atlantic and biscayne bay. mar y mariana has been holding down the fort literally, how are you doing now? >> i just spoke to the miami beach commissioner he told me according to his estimates as of right now 60% of the power grid

is completely out in miami beach. i don't know if you can see some of these power lines behind me, he said 95% of the power lines, telephone poles -- it's all above ground it's an old structure compared to miami. so that's a real safety hazard in the next couple hours. he also told me that first responders cannot do anything right now for those people that need to get to safety hp he said there's nothing we can do. the wrath of irma is being felt here in miami beach and she's not here yet. he said we have to ride it out for the next couple of hours. also telling me flooding will be the biggest concern here as the storm surge is about a mile to my right right now, i don't know if you can see and our cameraman is doing the best he can, you're seeing the wind here in miami beach. it is going to be incredibly dangerous for people in the next couple hours.

>> i know you said you're a mile off the water. you're talking about the atlantic? >> the atlantic ocean, correct. it's about a mile to my right. this over here, ocean drive, this is sort of the last street with these very famous hotels where a lot of tourists stay and this gives way to the beach here. a lot of businesses to my left have been boarded up. we're seeing debris lying around. our crew had to move from our previous start because we started to see some street signage flying around. our cameraman doing the best he can do bring you these imagines. starting to feel the wrath of this hurricane in miami beach as it's moving toward the keys right here in florida. chris. >> take care, we're going to check back with you again. you have the barrier island, the

atlantic, biscayne bay, all of that water is going to start coming in because we are potentially within minutes of irma hitting the florida keys. she was talking about 60% of the power grid in miami beach already out. when we were talking to power officials a couple hours ago, they said they had 15,000 restoration workers who are ready to address problems that happen. the biggest prestaging they have had in florida history. having said that, it could be weeks in some of these areas. the most important thing is to survive this storm just north of where it's really getting hit, which is obviously the keys. as miguel, who is in florida city, you guys have been experiencing those tough and harsh rain bands, a little bit calmer than when we spoke to you the last time, but i know this stuff does come in waves.

>> it is coming in waves, and we just got hit with a heavier rain band and heavier wind. it comes in surges we have a gust then it lays down, and then it kind of picks up again here. the concern is first responders who say they will not be able to go out home-to-home or door-to-door for anyone that needs help with because the conditions are too dangerous. we're base td at the police station, city hall, with first responders who hunkered down as the storm began to roll in. we've been experiencing conditions like this in city hall where we hunkered down over the night. we had storm shutters over our windows so you couldn't see anything, but you could hear it. it sounded like the roof was going to peel off. this building was devastated by hurricane andrew and was rebuilt with a better building code, it did well last night.

you can see the trees are beginning to sway and power lines are beginning to sag. that's a concern later today. we've seen transformers explode here. we lost power several times in the police department but we have backup generators. we haven't seen people on the streets but from time to time we do see a civilian car driving the street, looking at the situation here, but police say that can be very dangerous. they expect the conditions to turn catastrophic over the next hour or two. they're asking everyone to hunker down, do not go outside and ride outside the storm. >> the governor has said it so many times, this is a life threatening storm, pay attention. take care miguel. we have been checking in with our folks in miami. we don't have any pictures. there's a big headline in the

"mia "harold" it says good morning south florida, the worst is yet to come. reminding people the dangerous winds are expecting to come sunday night which means it may not be safe to come out of your home, out of your shelter until monday morning. so that's important to know. even if it calms down. we've seen the waves coming in, it gets better and then worse, look at the way that storm is whipping that sign around. the chance of debris very high. be very careful if you're anywhere within the path of irma. we're going to take a quick break, we have more to come. we have you covered as the storm comes close to florida. we'll be right back.

coming up on 20 past the hour, we're looking at live pictures from fort lauderdale. that, in many ways, is just the beginning of what they're about to see. we saw some of the shots from miami where it is absolutely picking up steam. and just south of miami, the city of coral gables. joining us is the mayor. thank you for joining us. where are you and what's the situation where you are. >> i'm in north gables. i'm close to the emergency operations center. and the situation is we have very, very strong bands of wind, rain, sometimes you can't see out the window because of the rain. but then, it's calm and we're in

the north side of the storm now and our concern is that it is such a slow-moving storm we're going to have this for a long, long time today until tonight and maybe even into tomorrow morning. we haven't had the flooding that we expected, thank god, in our low lying areas. i think people obeyed the evacuation order. but it's a very, very concerning storm because the bands we're seeing, if that keeps up, it's going to be terrible. we have a lot of felled trees, power is off in most areas because of downed lines, but we're here. we're surviving. >> give us a sense of how your emergency operations are set, and what is your biggest concern? >> our biggest concern later on will be flooding.

it will be. we're very, very well prepared. we're very well prepared. we're not out now because we don't go out when the winds are over 45 miles per hour. we're very well prepared. and we're also very well prepared for the after storm. we have our crews set into -- cleanup set to clear our streets, and historically we've done a very good job at that because most of our roads with andrew, for example, 25 years ago, our roads were impassable. now, we're ready for that. we're ready for that. >> mayor good luck to you, and thank you so much. we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. >> thank you very much. >> nbc's al roker is in tampa. we've seen bands roll through

there. what we've been waiting for could be happening as we speak, hurricane irma hitting the keys. >> we're looking at about 15 miles from landfall in the keys. and once that happens, we are talking about the first time two category 4 storms will have hit the united states in the same season. we've never had two category 4 storms in the same season as it is. so it's impressive. so we're watching, it has its forward movement at 8 miles an hour. 100 miles an hour winds so it's a.4. and then that storm surge is going to set up in southwest earn florida from fort myers, naples. we're talking 10 to 15 feet of storm surge it continues up the cost. and because it's so large it will affect the east coast of

florida. so for those folks who focus on the eye, don't do that. look at the cone of uncertainty when you see that track. it will affect both coasts as it makes it way up the coast, chris. >> that's the concern, we've been talking to officials, we heard it and i mentioned it earlier and we were talking to a reporter from the "palm beach post" she said once they saw the tracks had changed a lot of people decided to stay and yet as i'm reading the headlines in the miami nups they're saying even though it's not as bad as we thought it was going to be, it could be unsafe to come out of your house until monday morning. >> that's what we're trying to tell people. the diameter of the storm is bigger than the width of the state. so not only are you talking about strong storms, heavy wind,

rain, storm surge, we have a tornado watch in effect. tornados have been spinning up. this is a big deal and it's going to affect the entire state and it's going to traverse the length of the state unlike andrew that went from east to west. we're going to be talking about it this time tomorrow and it will only be about two thirds of the way through the state. so it's more than 24 hours affecting the state of florida. so this is a -- it really -- and the rainfall. we've been talking about storm surge and that's a big deal. but the rainfall could, in the keys, be about 25 inches of rain, generally 10 to 15 inches of rain throughout the state of florida, chris. >> the other thing, partly where you are, but obviously a critically important component of this in the florida keys and that's these bridges and the concern they have about access to get people, access to

potentially try to get people out and then just talking to one of the spokes people for the power company who said millions of people will be without power. they are prestaged for a situation unlike anything they've seen before. >> when we drove -- we started in miami, we went to fort myers and then came up here. we have seen at a lot of rest stops, gas stations, i've never seen as many power trucks from different power companies from all up and down the east coast staged, ready to go. in fact, they have said they have staged more power trucks and repairs trucks for this storm than they have any time in u.s. history. so it really is pretty incredible. the other thing, we were talking about this in miami. in miami they were worried about the cranes. look here we're just across the river here, we have a couple of cranes here. and they are built to swing. they're supposed to swing.

but those are theoretical tests and how long can they do that without some sort of failure. not suggesting they will fail, but it's a concern. so there's a lot of infrastructure issues that are going to be happening here. and they're going to be dealt with for weeks to come when this is all over. >> let's go back to what we're going to see in the coming hours. z a meteorologist and someone who's seen far too many of the storms -- you have duane scott with you, so you have a great video. f as well. but over the next couple of hours, where are the areas of big concern,al? >> as you've seen in miami, they are getting pounded even though the hurricane is on the other side of the state. and as the system starts to make its way past the keys, which will be now, in the next hour or two, it's moving northwest at 8

miles per hour, so it's taking its own sweet time. it's going to be a long time for southern florida. they're going to get pounded with heavy rain, the storm surge has started in miami and as we get into the mid district attorney midday areas, it's going to be around sarasota, winds of 120 miles per hour, storm surge of 10 to 15 feet on the east side of the state. we're talking about heavy rain and a storm surge of 6 feet. as we get into late tonight we'll be into the soup, the heavy thunderstorms and the winds of upwards of 75 to 100 miles per hour. we'll have a storm surge of about 6 to 8 feet on the eastern side of the state, we'll probably see a storm surge of 4 to 6 feet with winds of up to 75 miles per hour and then overnight we get closer towards

jacksonville on the east side and making its way up to the panhandle, into early tuesday morning when it makes its way past the panhandle and gets into georgia chris. still as a tropical storm or even a category 1 hurricane. they have tropical storm watches up right now for parts of central and southern georgia, including atlanta, which is the first time they've had a tropical storm watch since the national hurricane center started issuing inland tropical advisories since 2000. >> al roker who's been on the scene for days will continue to be reporting for us. thank you. he makes a really good point about the length of the storm. we've been talking a lot about comparisons, obviously, to harvey, that was a sustained rain event, 40, 50 inches of rain. but on tuesday weir going to

still be looking at a powerful storm as it looks to the north of florida but we're focussed today on the people in harm's way. the eye of the storm maybe 15 miles from key west and the lower florida keys. already being bat erred by hurricane irma, and it's setting its sights on the rest of the state. our live coverage continues for you in just a moment.