thanks for staying with us. it's now 20 miles east of key west. a satellite tap toured this. i want to retu i want to warn you. the blue you saw for a moment radar station's even been knocked out. so we can't get a good read from key west. there are reports of wind gusts reaching over 100 miles per hour. scattering debris, thrashing trees. there's a picture of mariana again. it's crawling at 8 miles per hour. slow storms mean more zee struck sthn. more than 750,000 people at last report are without power. that number expected to rise rapidly as the storm climbs further up the state. at least 23 people have been killed by irma as wrath so far. and violent winds and for ren --

across southern central and eastern portions of the state are also keeping officials on alert. i just spoke to the mayor of fort lauderdale who said the debris and tornados are the concern. let's start with nbc's report. steve, show us what you've got, what we're looking at right now. >> we've got the 10:00 update. getting every hour. 93 miles per hour measured near key largo we've seen the live shots with gadi. we now have confirmation of a 93 miles an hour gust. pressure 9.29. still a very strong storm system. winds 130. we'll get the new track at 11:00. see where this thing makes landfall.

but right now it is off to the north now so it made landfall in the southern keys, now, the million ondollar question. >> it could be here, here. we don't know where it's going. it's 8 miles an hour. >> you can't focus too much on the one or two-hour loops. you've got to look at the fritr. we've seen it wobble. >> let's go back to the wind for a second. i want to just ask a question here. why is this blank? >> we've knocked out 0 some of the data here at key west. we're not getting radar transmissions anymore so we're not seeing what's happening here. it looks like the radar went completely blank there. that's because we're not getting a transmitting signal. >> this is important, though. this is the storm surge warning. this is a new piece of information. this is stuff that we need to understand to see what kind of danger people can be in. >> the storm is coming in steps. we've gone through the wind and surge step in the keys. now it's southwest earn florida.

we've been in the wind game, now comes the surge after the eye wall passes to the north. that water is not going to come in until after of the eye wall is north of you. but it is heading to the north now at 8 miles an hour. so it's just a matter of time here. looks he like later on this afternoon and especially this evening areas like marco island, fort meyers. these numbers have not changed. >> there has been some improvement on that side. >> their high tide comes up at noon today. we're going to see the worst os of of that surge. >> h this is where the water may come up as high as 9 to 12 feet above ground level. you and you are what? 5'10"5'11"? talking about double our sizes. >> very few population areas here. >> but up north towards marco

island. areas like bon neat ta springs, naples. also a lot of new construction here in the last 10, 15 years. >> thanks very much. we have heard in the national weather service that while the winds in miami are in the 50 miles per hour gust range, the when you're up high in those condos in miami and the south part of the fort lauderdale and hollywood and hallen dale, you can get hup to 100 miles an hour wind gusts. i i've got gabe gutierrezgutier. what's is looking like for you? >> reporter: hi, there. we're looking to see some rain. wind picking up in the last hour or so. we had been at the emergency operation center for collier county. now we've moved to downtown naples. the big concern here is as you were talking about, that storm surge as it rolls through here

over the next couple of hours, as irma roars through, there is concerns parts of downtown naples could flood. and we just spoke with someone by phone who's actual lie chose to ride out the storm in marco island. of course mandatory evacuation there. the he says he's in a high-rise, conditions so far have been good. he's above ground. he expects to flood but felt more comfortable riding out the storm in his high-rise condo. but, again, here in naples, you can see behind me these palm trees just swaying a little bit. more so than the last hour or two. but we expected to get cranking over the next couple hours. i should mention first responders say that these -- because of the wents they have started to pull back and you are pulling their vehicles off the road for safety. and just to checking in as well. yesterday, we were at that main -- massive shelter in fort meyers. that one is at capacity.

remember the huge lines, thousands of people. since we talked to you last, we understand it's a very orderly night over there. but pretty much all shelters here in this area at capacity at last check, just a few seats left. >> many of these -- >> very last minute chose to evacuate. >> shelter is a last resort which means they don't often have beds ant cots. they are a place to stay dry and safe and stay alive. but at capacity, and while it's functioning very well, very, very uncomfortable for people. gabe, thanks very much. let me go back to miami. here's sam who's been keeping us posted. those trees behind you are whipping up. i want to tell you begin, because rightfully so our viewers are concerned about the safety of our reporters. as wild as those trees are behind you, the wind is coming from the east and you have something of a barrier between you and the wind right now. >>reporter: yeah. as you pointed out, over and

over again, it's been about 30 years or so of me maybe a little more, of me doing this. so one of the things you look for when you're talking about the storm, you have to have full knowledge of the way one of these storms works and then you place your crew in the safest position possible. we do that not only for the people but for the equipment, for the signal, for all of that. put everything in the safest position possible to not have to take the full breunt of the storm. you can see the big difference from behind me and where i'm standing. because we're blocked from the north and blocked from the east of the strongest winds that are coming all the way off the coast of florida around now barrelling across the state and feeding the center of that storm. you'll be in a very good position until this eye moves a little bit to the north. then the winds will come back around this way. so at that point, we'll have to decide is this okay for us to be? or do we have to shift to another place where we are safer? so it's a constant judgment call that goes on.

when you've got a crew and people and equipment that you're putting in a storm. like this, to make sure people can see. and everyone says well, look, if you're standing out in the storm, sam, how come i can't stand out in the storm? what i'm going to tell you is we do this so you can see. we'll show you how bad things are. you stay safe. one of the things we talked about very early this morning in h case people just joined us is it's not just the debris, yeah, you can get clocked by a sign or by a tree. and you can get killed by a tree hitting your car if you're out in these things. but we've got live power lines that are down right now. full electricity power lines laying on the ground because no one can get to them to pick them up until this storm is over. so there are 1,000 reasons for you not to be out in this storm. one of the things you and steve were doing something i want to catch an edge of.

and that is where the eye is now as it came off the keys. one of the things that i've been looking at about this storm and i was watching your screen as you were talking about it, is that once an eye as interacted with the land, and it is interacting with that right draw. see how that water is -- that air and that rain and moisture is coming all the way across the tip of florida, now look at the eye. look at it wobble just a little bit. the hurricane path has it headed -- hurricane center's last path has it headed north. twro have to be going almost northwest to get toward fort meyers. is that possible? yeah, it is, but i want to see what the next update is. it comes out at about 11:00. because my feeling is that that storm has shifted and is wobbling a little nor toward the everglades. >> sam, hold that thought for a

second. as you said that i see a shot of kerry sanders. hold on for a second. i'm going to come back to you. i see kerry, and fort meyers and things are substantially windier than last we talked. i'm sorry. you're in naples. they're much windier than a little while ago. >> reporter: we're getting the gusts. i'm at the napele as pier, the gusts are starting. it's just you don't mow when the gust is coming. i think the best way to look at it is now i'm down at the beach is to look up at the trees. when you're looking at the trees, understand this wind right now from irma is coming from the east to the west. i'm on the west coast, so it's coming across the state which is another explanation as to why when i take you over here, and you look at the gulf of mekts co, it looks relatively fat because that is the wind pushing out. the real problem here, beyond the fact those winds are

certainly going to pick up is when the eye passes us here and then we get -- the counterclockwise, the winds coming from the west towards the east. when those winds come from the west towards the east, it's not only going to be a stronger wind, but we're also going to that wind wushing the water, creating that surge of water that is expected to go and predicted to go anywhere from 10 to 15 feet. it's that water, as it comes in h, the surge of water that is the greatest danger. i was doing a historical look back in 1935, the labor day storm, when that storm surge came in, it actually created enough of a disaster across 40 square miles that 400-plus people died. that's why they urge so many people to move inland here, because i think we're going to see it. the it's going to be very hard for us to technically pull this off. but i think, we're going tosh able to show people a storm surge. i've been covering hurricanes for a long time. i've only seen one dramatic

opportunity where we could, on camera, ourselves, watch the storm surge come in. if we see it here, i think people will fully under stand the power of mother nature and what the water does. >> kerry you're smart enough to know not to be standing in sea level. i want to take the information you've given me and walk over to steve sosna here. right now, the wind in naples is going that way. so if you're on the beach where kerry is, you're not seeing something that looks dramatic. >> you're seeing the water levels go back out. what we're watching is this pocket right here. it's the south west wind, when this center moving to the north and look at these winds, 120 miles per hour winds are pushing that water up. that's why we have big concerns here for the southwest coast. they're living easy right now in terms of the storm surge threat. not for much longer. this outer eye wall is lifting

north. >> that's why kerry say thaurs' going -- he may have an opportunity to show people. it is important that people see this because he may be able to show you how you go from the scene he just had where sea levels are very low and lower than normal, into something where all of a sudden, this wall of water comes into napele the and fort meyers. >> we've seen this happen in the keys. winds gusting 100, 105 miles per hour. things calm down and then the high extreme wind warning. winds coming in out of the north and west are gust to go 120. that's why they're telling you to high underneath the mattress. wear a helmet. it's knocked out the key west weather observation. >> that felt like it looked like more than 47 miles an hour gusts. >> these bands happen quickly. you get hit with a 60-70 miles per hour gust and back to 40 or 50. we're tracking that next band of 70 to 80 just sougth of sam.

>> be careful. regular people can't handle this kind of wind, nor can street signs and coconuts and wood. you get hit by something at 75 miles an hour it's going to hurt a lot. i want to be to tiffany chew. she's a miami dade resident riding out irma. debris is surrounding the area. tell me where you are, what you're hearing and feeling. >> caller: i'm in rest view right now. we're hearing wind gusts coming past the windows. we do have shutters down, but it's still pretty loud. lots of rainfall. there are trees down within my neighborhood. we'll been out of power since about 3:00 a.m. this morning. luckily we were able to put some bottled waters and save ice so that we're able to have some cold water as it's getting kind

of hot in the house now. >> you have -- are you in a building? house, or -- what kind of structure are you? >> i'm in a one-level house. >> all right. so one level house, has it been fortified since hurricane andrew? do you have these hurricane windows and things like that? >> yes. we have hurricane windows. like i said, we have the shutters down. they're bolted down. but we can still hear some gusts of wind and rain. as i'm speaking to you now, it's flying past the window. so it's pretty loud in here. >> shutters can be life saving in instances like this as things possibly hit the windows. what are you thinking in terms of flooding? what normally happens to you? are you one of those areas susceptible to flooding? >> only -- we're not that far from opaloca, and they have flooding. but we haven't experienced any where i am currently. which is a blessing, because

over there, i've been told it's pretty mass ifive over there. >> thank you. she's staying there. got her shutters down. got the strong windows, let's hope that's what she needs to stay safe throughout the hurricane. we've been talking about how dangerous the wind is. the weather channel's mikesi ju got it. >> we were there up on the roof back on tuesday to start our coverage. and i can't even imagine being up there right now. so what we're dealing with is the outer bands of hurricane irma for more than 100 miles from the sen tesh. but if you look on the radar, you can see some of the strongest bands are coming from miami dade county where half the people were without power.

this is going to be the situation all afternoon into the evening, the winds which will eventually switch direction. how about that gust? boy, that will take it out of you. all right. that was mike. a few minutes ago. now let me show you what that picture look like. we're going to try to get it back. that is miami. that is not a flood. when you think of a flood. that looks a lot like the ocean running through the streets of miami. let's go back to miami beach. i got to cringe ever time i go back to the shot. but there's a lot more debris on the ground. what's the situation and how far are you from the ocean? point to the own scean from whe you are. >> reporter: there is a lot more debr debris. the ocean is about a quarter mile to my left. it's hard to look that way because there's so much sand, with the velocity of the wind,

it's pounding your face right now. you can see what the avenue looks like and see how the destruction is worsening minute by minute. i know you're worried about me. i appreciate it. just know that we're making sure that we're safe when we're not on the air with you, so, please be sure we're doing that. i want to show you some of the trees that have fallen here. i mean this just is such a chaotic scene around me. something i haven't seen on collins avenue. i want to talk over to the left because these are some decent size trees that this thing hit land fall at 9-something in the morning. it's that much time hasn't even passed right now and this is already what you're seeing. also, cause for concern, there are businesses around me here. this is a sector of miami beach where there a a lot tourism. a lot of businesses didn't board up. you can imagine what the damage will be a couple hours from now if this situation keeps developing the way it has been.

again, the worry here is that storm surge that many authorities are calling deadly. that is going to come from the ocean to my left about a quarter mile, and is going to bring a lot of sand, water this way and will eventually flood these streets. miami beach is an area that floods very quickly. i spoke to a city commissioner yesterday. they placed temporary pumps in certain areas of miami beach. they're hoping that that will alleviate some of the flooding and some of the similar things that we saw with harvey in houston, but, they have never faced a hurricane like irma. these pumps, this is the first test they have and with the hurricane this size, and this strong, even if if it's not a direct hit here in mooiciami, i going to be incredibly challenging for the city. if i can just show you some other things around right now, it's a lot of flying debris. just a lot of palm trees that

have fallen down. we've seen in the short time here street lamps, awnings, street signage, that are flying around everywhere. like you were saying, a little while ago, when those things come at you, at 75 miles per hour, they could potentially be deadly. >> anything coming at ow at 75 miles per hour. that is wa what's important. it's not a matter of a tree falling on you. at no miles an hour is a problem. but any of these little things so often in hurricanes, that's what we worry about. a shingle off a roof at 75 miles an hour can till ykill you. this is why it's important for you to be off the streets. you're showing people how serious this matter is. >> reporter: also something important to point out. miami dade police tweeted out a little while ago that their officers are now officially sheltered. they cannot be out here patrolling the streets. they tweeted out our officers

cannot respond to emergency calls at this point. so they said stay safe and don't venture. unfortunately, we've seen a couple people walking around. we've alerted the authorities, so, really urging people to stay safe. >> stand by i'm going to go to mike seidal. >>reporter: later this afternoon the wiptdss will shift direction but still be strong. definitely a day to shelter in place. look at this. some of the water now rolling down the walkway here. as these waves crash over the sea wall. here in the brickle section of downtown mooic downtown miami i'm meteorologist mike seidal. >> that is a waterway, by the way. that's not a street. it's not that the street has been flooded. that's a waterway that has now risen more than two feet since mike has been there. and again, it's not meant to be the ocean. ant it is clearly the ocean at

this point. so that is something that we're keeping a close eye on downtown miami. joining us on the phone is fiph levine, the miami beach mayor. we are seeing pictures of at least at this point, still minimal destruction, trees broken, tines fallen over, street lights down. nothing major as of yet. >> caller: that's exactly right but as your reporter said there is flying debris, branches, certain roads are impassable. most importantly to all residents keep yourself hunkered down, do not go outside or near any windows. the crucial most important your safety is number one. our first responders are hunkered down. they are not on the street. the winds are too high for them. we want to keep them safe as well. as soon as the storm pass, we have major teams being deployed

from within the city as well as from the mainland to come begin clearing the roads. also, no one should return back to miami beach. the sur few is in place for tonight as well as tomorrow. >> all right. hour peak gusts in the miami area right now. talking to both mariana and sam and we're seeing gusts. the measurement i've just seen is we've had peak gusts in your area at 95 miles per hour. that's at street level. up there where you've got higher buildings, we know those gusts are actually higher than that yet. as things stand, are things what you expected they would be, mayor? >> absolutely so far. now of course we are seeing no major flooding on miami beach. i can tell you the portable generators are already running doing everything they can to relieve any water. of course we expect some type of

tide dal surge. we will try the best they can to mitigate. once again, it is not safe to be outside, it is not safe to be by windows, we hope everyone continues to be hunkered down at this time. >> she was talking a little bit about the pumps. this is the biggest test those pumps are getting. tell me about them. >> these are only designed forsea level rise in moderate rain. not designed to with stand a hurricane or massive tropical storm rains. there haes no pump that is could do that whatsoever. what they can do is after the storms help to alleviate the water over a period of time assuming they have electricity, and we of course have generators deployed everywhere we possibly can. >> mayor phil levine thank you soap for keeping us inform. the people should not return to miami or miami beach or those areas of the atlantic coast of florida. if you have left, don't go back

yet. this thing is not over. in some cases it's going to get worse before better. the even though things are not going to be as bad on the east 0 coast as we thought a few days ago. this is serious stuff. look at the palm trees. wind is blowing west off the atlantic ocean. that is pretty strong. look at the small bits of debris. if it's 50, 75 or 94 miles an hour as we've seen in miami, that is going to be dangerous if anything. including a roof shingle hits you. let's bring in nbc news correspondent miguel almaguer in florida city florida. what have you got there? >>reporter: we're about ten mielgs in and the wind is doing a number on us. we don't actually have more damage -- i haven't left this location because it's a safe place to stay. we don't want to ven ure out into the city across these kind of conditions but the mayor says for the most part he believes the damage is fairly minimal. it's shocking to believe with

how strong these winds have been. we've seen trash cans and signs literally wash down the street. you can probably seen the fronds on top of the palm trees or blowing sideways. for the most part, from our vantage point here to remain mostly intact. they were prepared for catastrophic damage here over the last several days. fuss buses picking up any vaevacuees. they say as of yesterday, there was only one bus here halve full. they took those last out. most of the city is hunkering down in place and like lie riding out the storm. as a matter of fact, the mayor told us the majority are riding out the storm. they're certainly -- this is about as strong as -- very

powerful. secured ourselves and belongi s belongings. anchored them down. safe place for us to be right next to the police department embedded with those crews who tell us they're not going to venture out in these conditions. >> all right. miguel. we will continue to check in you. he is in florida. msnbc weather contributor sam. we're going to keep your shot up. do what you v. to do. get to safety if you need to. if you're walking up and down, that's fine. sam, i rinnterrupted you. you were talking about the projectiles that can hit people. if you're talking about 50, 70, or 100 miles an hour winds, where you are, we've now seen gusts up to 94 miles an hour. this doesn't have to be a palm tree. this doesn't have to be a coconut, or a gas station sign. it would be anything. >> yeah.

at this point, we're definitely talking about -- in many cases when we're expecting a big storm, you try to crews go through and take the big interstate signs down. anything that could be a projectile in this wind that could damage people or property, if you have time, you really try to undo it. it's one of the things i know the conversation has been had several places this morning about all the construction cranes in miami. it takes about two weeks to take one of those cranes down. one of the most impressivenings i noticed yesterday we did a survey, we went all the way out on the mcarthur causeway and we were out on miami baechl and surveying around for a safe place to take a life shot. there aren't many places. one of the things we noticed in that port of miami area that is right awrong the mccar they are causeway, that's where all the big cruise ships and tankers come in to unload. they have spent an enormous

amount of money, one of the busiest ports in the world and they have put all these brand new cranes to take that cargo off. they laid a majority of those cranes down. they had time to take those cranes and put them down. but, apparently it takes longer to take those construction cranes down around the buildings. so, they haven't taken those down. but they put them on free swing, which means they've pinned -- got those things up, but the crane that loads the -- takes up the. >> containers. >> right the containers of the the building materials and moves them around, they dropped that and it's in free swing. in sandy, there was one in new york we saw doing a full almost like a pinwheel. it was unbelievable to watch that move like that. it didn't look safe at all.

the they're telling us they can stand up 140 miles per hour winds. they were telling people to evacuate, they were telling people to get clear of those. because even though there is the belief that everything will be fine, at the 90 miles per hour, 80 miles per hour wind gusts that we're going to see here, it's untested. so there's the potential for those cranes to give way near those buildings. but so impressive that the port of miami put their cranes down, put everything down, and when you look at that island that the port of miami is on, everything was just flat smooth and clear. however, those cargo container, if the winds get tough enough, anything that's left out there can be a projectile. and if you think that these winds can't move cars, can't move trucks, they certainly can. so when we see all of this go buy, that's when they'll know whether we're good or not. it's one of the reasons where we just tell everybody -- you're going to get tired of me saying it. the stay inside.

it's worse out there. >> we're not going to get tired of hearing you say it. stand by with me for a ekd is 6 678 -- jacob, what's going on? >> i'm having a hard time hearing you but here we are in naples florida, we expect to get the brunt in a couple hours. this is just a place called vanderbilt lag gone. the beech is on the other side of the road behind the camera. i don't know if you can see in the distance, the boat up on the moorings. probably about three or four feet between the boat and the la go gone. that will take that boat up, put it on the road behind it. that's the least of the worries. if it you look at the apartments, homes right there. that is in the direct path of the storm surge that we expect to get in this area. right now the wind is just died down a little bit, but starting

to gust and quite a remarkable way. i've never felt anything like this bch. first time out in the elements like that. crazy to think this is the very beginning of this in this area. look around, water smashing up. this is not the atlantic ocean. this is a lagoon maybe 100 yards on the other side the water. it's already starting to crash up on to the roads. the on van der built baechl. it's very quiet. there were not any people. maybe one or two cars about a four-mile drive. which is exactly what authorities want to hear. it does feel like we're getting into ta tropical storm wind category or level. as we've been talking about all morning, that means there will be no first responders on the streets. last night i was with the greater naples fire rescue and they basically are staging now. families are in the station. and they don't want to be out

once it gets much worse than that because they've got to be ready to save people once the time comes. once this water comes up and over and floods these neighborhoods where you've got thousands of people. hopefully most of the people in this area are gone for now. i haven't seen a lot of people out. maybe one or two. again, knuckle heads down at the beach, but for all intent the and purposes, pretty eye yet out here other than the storm. >> we saw it in galveston a few years ago people going to the beach to check it out and getting killed. i want to bring sam in. you're in miami. i want to put the wind gust, the maximum sustained gusts we've seen up on the screen. so we can see what you've been dealing with and what jacob has been dealing with. in miami 94 miles per hour peak gusts, in key west, 94, in big pine key, which is as close to

where the landfall was, 120 miles per hour. the key west, by the way, is now off line for some reason. maybe the readings got off line. i want to bring something else in here, sam. keep on reminding people about your 34 years in the business. if something you have not seen in 34 year is a tropical storm warning nor atlanta georgia. the national weather service has issued a tropical storm warning for atlanta. it is worth remembering this storm will continue. it's not ending over florida, and by not coming ashore on the southern tip of florida, that means this storm is going to have a lot of life in it once it makes landfall somewhere. i want to -- stand by and listen to mike seidal. >> after the shot i'm going do a quick as live for use after 11. >> this is mike -- is mike listening to me? >> we're just watching mike.

mike is in brickle. let's just explain what's going on. it's not a flooded street behind him. it is a waterway and it looks like the ocean has taken over. >> right. so that's exactly where we were yesterday when we were talking to you guys. we were sharing that spot with mike yesterday. and let me explain exactly where mike is chkt so mike is on right behind a hotel kwaucalled the e hotel on biscayne bay. the buildings belined them, that's brickle key. a small island that has really tall buildings on it. it has a little bridge that goes from miami across to it. now, on the other side of him is a road surface that is also taking water from biscayne bay. the one thing i'll tell you about that that i don't like where mike is, there's only one way for him to get out of that water that's lifting right there. mike has a lot of experience in doing that, and he and his crew

are blocked by a very big structure, but there's open water on one side of him and a flooding street on the other side. there's only one way for him to get off that little area that is he. that's to head up toward the epic hotel which will be open to be winds and the lobby is about two stories above where he is, which will be a safe place to go. but he won't be able, if that water comes in, won't be able to go on the street and certainly won't want to be able to go on the pier because it's already lost a lot of its wood. he's in a little wedge area right there solidly protected from the winds but i don't like his position for the water. but they do have one exit way out. i 0 would rather have, if it it was me i'd rather have two. and he's giving you a beautiful shot, an incredible shot of that water. it's at the mouth, right there, of the miami river. so what you're seeing is biscayne bay, all of that water

right through the opening you're looking, those are the two bridges. one bridge goes to biscayne bay and you can't see that in a distance. but, so, all bridges you're watching the washover there. when you were standing there yesterday, right along with mike, there was a five-foot drop. four and a half five foot drop. there's a boopier below that. just about all those boards are off the pier right now and that lift that he's got is about a foot and a half there. it's about knee height and you're already getting washovers. >> look at the pier. you can see bits of that pier. there's wood in that water. that's the kind of thing that is happening. the power of this storm had washed away that pier. i assumed as you were talking about the pier that once that water receded we we'd see a pier again. >> that's all going to be gone. and, again, as managing editor of the weather channel for three

years, these people really and truly know how to put themselves in a good position but we are moment by moment right now where i don't like where mike is, because that's all open water to biscayne bay behind him. around those islands. and let me also tell you there's a lot more people in those buildings than you think. one of the residents came down and talked to us last night when we were standing there, and he was in the building that's right above where that shot is. and he said, you know, there's 100 people in this building and i looked at him. he said the building management told them about 30% of the building decided to stay and he was kind enough to offer us a way to get out of the storm if it got bad. the problem with that, for mike today is that mike would have to wrauk through that flooded street to get to the billing. and if that water gets above knee level. right now, as we've seen him, that water's been to about calf level in the street, but once it gets to about knee level, it's

not going to be safe to make that move. they're only have one area out. >> stand bid for a second. i want to just turn around what mike seidal was recording. >> not one bit, jim. the only thing between us and the atlantic is miami beach. so high-rise condos and hotels. for all intents and purposes, there's nothing blocking this wind. there is something blocking the wave action, but with that said, look at the waes out here. this is just amazing. this looks like a nor easter. we're not on the ocean front, back inland. this water is blowing up the miami river. i don't know what the impact is down stream, but look at what's going on here. the water's crashing -- whoa. that one came right over the sea wall right here. you can see the board walk is

getting ripped to shreds. that's about three feet below the sea wall. this is going to be toast. it's going to be gone in the next couple hours. but we're seeing these boards. see it out here. right there. so this is the debris that's floating in the water. the condos, the power -- looks like the power's still on. i see lights on. look at this. this just blew up. everything's going down the riffer into downtown miami. as far as peak wind gusts over virginia key at the rose ensteel school where they have the wave pool and they measure the gust at 100 miles an hour. we're not that far away. no place to be. we've seen one vehicle out this morning and he came down the street and then backed up and went the other way for good reason. so the water is beginning to

come up with little bit but still, i would suspect the surge is not more than about three feet, but we're going to be dealing with this onshore wind for quite a while. it will be mid to late afternoon as the hurricane goes north of our latitude, that's the east/west line. once it does that, the winds will shift around from onshore to offshore. at that point the surge usually go as way abut we're still going to have all this wind. >> the weather channel's mike. we wanted to show you something before i go to sam because he was in the midst of explaining this. we've got the everglades over here. one thing that's really important is as the storm system has shifted west, we initially thought it was going to go over there, maybe even east of the atlantic coast of florida. as it shifted west, these are the areas that are going to get hit hardest. there's one advantage of an uninhabited area from the south of florida up around this area almost until you get up to the

populated area. the so i want to talk to you about that, sam. there's one advantage. you talked about the wetlands. this is something people need to think about. >> yeah. absolutely. because nature provided this amazing thing on many coastal areas to absorb the impact of the ocean and the wind. and those are the wetlands. they were put there naturally and in many places, we have dredged them and built over them and fill ld them in. and we've built right up against the coast line, and we've taken dunes down in a lot of areas. that's fine until a storm like this happens, and then it's not fine. because those dunes, those wetlands are what would naturally protect you from a surging ocean. most of those wetlands remember all grasses and natural palms and trees and bushes of all varieties. and as we saw in mexico, we were on the coast of mexico that was all natural wetlands, as a cat 5 moved in. and we were amazed, amazed at

how little damage there was to the homes and biddinuildings fr behind the wetlands because for miles they absorbed everything that was coming at them. that water and wind. now, we don't see that as much on the east coast of florida. >> right. >> because on the east coast of florida, we've allowed people to dredge down those dunes and build. everybody wants to be on the water. and everybody wants to build a million dollar home that you can see the water from your living room. and so they've allowed in many cases -- they don't anymore just would be clear. i don't want anyone in florida to get upset. they don't allow it anymore. that water then is free to come right into where people live. that wind is free to come right into with are people live. the everglades is one of those protected areas that is just filled with those wetlands that can, can absorb sorm of the

impact of that storm if that eye continue to wobble in that direction. if there's anything we can hope for here, and truly, there's not a lot of hope for the west coast of florida to avoid the storm, but if there's anything and people to belief in the power of positive thinking, getting that storm to wobble a little bit into the everglades would be the best thing for the operation north of th population north of the storm. >> there's the physical absorbing because there are trees and because there's brush, and you'll see on east coast they've stopped letting people take away the most basic brush close to the water. concrete does not absorb the water. the flooding issue is exacerbated by the fact southeastern florida is full the concrete. >> i understand it. i get it. it's one of those things that you take away something that is

there, a natural protection, natural barrier for 120rstorms you're go asking for trouble. people are re-evaluating and they did after andrew. they re-evaluated the strength of the building codes. 245e that's why we have these high-rises with the hurricane protection. we'll see how they do after the storms. but the other thing that you want to look at is that natural protecti protection. i don't want people think i'm just talking about something that isn't a real. it's real. they absorb these storms in a very big way and can lessen the impact for people behind them. >> all right. thanks. want to go back to florida city. miguel almaguer is there. he was being blown around last time and now i see something around your built. are you tied to something? >> yeah. just as an extra step of prooe

caution, using a tow line. just an add the layer of security because the winds are beginning to pick up. we're still in a fairly safe place hunkered down with first responders. le the winds are going to continue to pick up. i've got the safety goggle the on because the rain here is literally brienlinding. the bringing down trash cans even some smaller trees down the street. just out of the corner of my eye you can't see because it's off camera, we saw a van go down the street. not a first responder so we do know some folks are out in h these conditions which first responders will tell you is incredibly dangerous. the for the most part here they are hunkered down. they are not responding to emergency calls because of these conditions, too dangerous to go out in. this area is fairly safe because we're literally tucked up against a big concrete building here built to with stand a cat 5

hurricane. anyone out in the open areas, even a car driving by or a heavy van is exposing themselves to some risk. power's out in the area. many did not evacuate so they are hunkering down. may be living at home without power, without any source of communications with the outside world because phone lines and even some cell phone towers have gone down for quite some time. >> just to have your photographer show us what you're attached to. i want to go down that way. the when that wind is as hard as it is it's probably like sandpaper on your face. >> yeah. absolutely. the wind and rain is really pelting me. it can hurt your face a bit, but here's what we've got attached. literally a tow line. we got those big tow ropes just in case we got stuck in flood waters. we used them when we were in harvey just so when we follow each other through flood waters we can tow a vehicle out if it got stuck. it's really sturdy heavy duty

stuff. we tied it around this -- to be able to come out into the elements a bit so we can show you just how dangerous these winds are while i'm safely secured attached to the pillar here. >> i don't know if your photographer can hear me but he showed us a light post a moment ago. it was shaking. the and the interesting thing is that little thing on top of it is a sharp disk and that's what people have to remember. that a thing like that comes off. it probably doesn't weigh a pound. but if that comes ought you at 75 miles an hour, that's what the problem is. >> absolutely. it's why we're trying to use this building for add the protection. i got to tell you, we're quite amazed that we haven't seen more light posts, more news stands fly down this street. we have seen some trees, we have definitely seen plenty palms and fronds from the trees. this wind is incredibly

powerful, but you're right. even the smallest thing, whether it's the disk on top of a light post, or even a newspaper stand or even a garbage can lid flying down this street at high speed could certainly injure if not kill somebody. >> we do have confirmation. let's walk over here. we have a crane collapse in downtown miami now. we were discussing the number of cranes up there. there are more than two dozen. the arm of the crane has collapsed on top of a building. this happened just a short time ago. this is one of the biggest concerns with high rises going up in the area. there's a lot of construction going on in miami. we don't str any word of injuries. one would hope a construction site was vacated. what we had heard was that the standing pillar of these cranes were solid. they could handle winds of up to 145 miles per hour. it's the t part of the crane that in many cases were being allowed to swing around.

we're not quite sure what happened here. the but you can see clearly a crane has collapsed. again, the hope would be there's no construction there now. it would most certainly be closed an everything around it should be gone. so we're hoping this is a crane that has fallen and no fallen a there at all. sam champion, this is something you and i talked about awhile ago. there's a lot of construction. tell me again what preparations are that go into dealing with cranes. >> reporter: ali, these construction cranes, i have seen them fail in storms before, seen them crumple, so the structure itself gives in and fails, you can see it is a triangular structure with supports. there's three poles and they we have small poles in between tall

ones. they're mounted at a base. they're bolted into construction on top of the building. sometimes, that one looks like it failed and folded actually, but sometimes those bolts when you get that much force on the crane structure, the bolt can give way, and it can fall. if you have the top of the crane that lays out like that, and you unpin it here and it will be able to swing so you're not holding yourself against the wind, sometimes you see a problem with that, giving it more motion for the crane to fall. in this one, you can see how it is crumpled. i am looking at the image on the top of the building. >> it is bent, yeah. >> reporter: it is one of the huge concerns about having those cranes in the area, why as part of the evacuation order there was an entire separate line about we know these cranes are

in miami. we have i think two dozen, between 24 and 28 of them, not sure how many there were. we know the cranes are here in the miami area, and if you live in one of the buildings near those cranes, you should also evacuate. >> the issue is this one seems to have, again, we have no more news except this picture and confirmation the crane is down. we verified the picture is real. it does not look like it hit anything else, good news. bottom line of cranes, it is not your cranes, it is the crane near uh-you you have to be worr about. >> reporter: that's right. anything can happen at that point. that's the huge concern about having them up. unfortunately the people we talked to, again, i am kind of relaying information i got from people who work with them, they tell me it takes two weeks to take down one of the cranes, fully disassemble one of the cranes. if that's the case, even the advanced warning that we had on

this storm wouldn't really have allowed crews to take it down. if you truly need that much time to dismantle one, and it is a great question to ask of someone. is there a way to partially dismantle it. can you lean it over. look how tall they are. sometimes they're taller than tops of buildings are. it is very difficult to get those out of the way of a storm like this. >> sam, we are expecting an update to the hurricane top of the hour, sometimes comes early. brian williams will take over in a moment. want to give you a few minutes, when we get that new report, you know everything you have to talk about. thanks for being with me. i'll be back with you later on. let's look at pictures from miami beach. this is nearby to where mariana atencio is. here's the issue. we knew miami beach was flood. that was a fact. they have a pump system there. one of the problems in miami beach, there's mike seidel, by the way, he is there now.

one of the problems we knew about miami beach is there's a pump system meant to deal with rising sea water. miami beach in the middle of a sunny day, you see water bubble from the storm drains because of rising sea levels. had a pump system installed for that. that's not here for hurricanes, not here for storm surges, now what we've got, we're an hour and a half from high tide in that area, and we have storm surge. this was fully, fully expected that miami beach would flood. miami beach is now flooding. more on that in a minute. back to migel getting whipped, he was there, maybe get him back. migel is in florida city, florida, where the road from key west, from florida keys comes in to miami. that's where a lot of first responders from the florida keys are. they decided to vacate the keys yesterday to be ready to go in ahead of residents that evacuated or to evacuate people in there. key west and florida keys,

marathon, places like that are 5 to 10 feet above sea level at their height. u.s. 1, the only road in and out of the keys is at its highest, ten feet above sea level. we are looking at 10 to 15 foot storm surge. once you get out of the keys, you end up in florida city, which is why we pay attention to where migel is. he is in an area where people haven't necessarily evacuated. it is possible the florida keys have more people in it from normal because of first responders from the keys. >> reporter: yeah, ali. as a matter of fact, we know that the road going into the keys is blocked off. it is much too dangerous for them to try to traverse at this hour. folks in the keys are staying put. we heard reports of storm surge there of a foot or two. that could change as the eye of the hurricane continues to push on. we are out about ten miles from

the coast, not far from the florida keys. we're not as concerned about storm surge. it is the wind that's a major issue. as a matter of fact, just as you know, we are transmitting via live view, a network of cell phone towers to transmit a signal to you live. we are astonished the cell phone towers haven't blown over in these winds. we did anticipate we would lose communication at some point. >> migel, stand by. hang on. i want to go to mike seidel in miami beach. >> 50 plus miles per hour, we had gusts over miami international, not the official reporting station, but one of the -- 94. i checked the observation. the wind direction and speed is mia. >> i don't know if it is

electrical malfunction. with that said, pretty powerful stuff, pulling water down the street. for that reason we're going to be packing up and getting to higher ground in about 15 minutes after the top of the hour. you have a sense of the wind. it is whipping through here, right up through the bay, down the miami river. we'll show you that shot again at 11:00 eastern, give you an idea what it looks like out there. just some jaw dropping video over there with the wind. you can see how the wind is blowing the bay down the street here around the financial district. there are people here in these condos, 30% of the people behind them, the power is still on. that's not the case for majority of the folks that live here in miami-dade county. this wind will stay like this for awhile as the center goes by us, it will shift direction and

then tonight as it continues to whip up the coast and away from south florida, winds slowly subside. that's after midnight tonight. wow. the power of the atmosphere. we are more than 100 miles from the center of irma and we're getting slapped pretty good. back to you. we're going to come back at 11:00 a.m. eastern in a few minutes and show you what this wind is doing, creating waves on the other side going up the miami river. carl, take it away, buddy. >> that is mike seidel. says miami beach there. i am not 100% sure that's true. he was in brickell a few minutes ago. wherever he is, there's a lot of water in the streets of miami,

and that is part of the issue that we've got. miami is in a situation where it is surrounded by rising waters, and there are waters that flood streets in moderate rains. they have a lot more than moderate rains now, they have a storm surge pushing in. important to remember while the storm is much more serious on the west coast of florida, the pattern of wind is that the wind is coming off the ocean from the east to the west, which is why miami, ft. lauderdale, hollywood, hallandale, all those places are getting water. they're going to get a lot less storm surge than anticipated. no serious storm surge anticipated in areas north of miami but this thing is about to get pretty serious, if it hasn't already, more than three quarter million people are without power in florida. so for the next several hours, brian, you're going to have a lot of work on your hands. >> thank you, my friend. thanks for hours of coverage leading up to this. you've gotten us on landfall.

we have been talking about a tremendous storm now having passed over the florida keys. it is the path from here forward that gets truly interesting. we've been talking about this critical 11:00 a.m. update from the national hurricane center. bill karins is at the wall, is going to take over some critical coverage as we bridge the top of the hour. our meteorologist, bill karins. >> good morning to you. for everyone watching coverage this morning, you've seen a strong tropical storm. that's it. we have been seeing reporters in miami and areas like naples in a strong tropical storm. we couldn't give you the pictures when the eye went over the keys, wasn't safe for crews and a lot of them got out smartly. later today, we'll find out how bad it was when 120 miles per hour winds hit areas from key west to big pine key. now we're getting into the heart of the storm for the west coast of florida.

this is where the billions in damage will begin. as far as miami goes, showing sam champion and mike seidel, the storm now as close as it is going to get to miami. anyone with interest from homestead to miami to ft. lauderdale, what you see now in the next six to eight hours will continue. won't get worse. it will be what you're seeing. that's for the most part a strong tropical storm, low end, category one type hurricane. we have trees down, signs blowing, water over washing with 3 to 5 foot storm surge. that's nothing compared to what we will experience up the coast. very important going through the day to give you distances, when you talk how far we are from certain elements of the storm. this is the eye in here. unfortunately we lost our radar sight out of key west. this is the center of the storm. from miami to the center is 90 miles. hurricane force winds extend out 80 miles from the center.

we don't think we're going to get sustained hurricane force winds in miami. i said this is the worst it gets for miami right now. further to the north is the main concern, where it has been for two to three days. anyone that has anyone from naples to marco island, here's the eyewall. northern eyewall. you don't want to go through this. that's where the 120 miles per hour winds are very possible. let me get a different tool to go in closer on this. here's the eyewall. from there, up to naples is now only about 58 miles. you're into the hurricane force winds in naples, but the eyewall, which is where you can get the 130 compared to 80, get a lot of destruction of homes, that's further north. let me get into the new advisory, give you an update from the hurricane center. 11:00 a.m. advisory. one positive thing is it didn't intense fee that much overnight. we're at 130 miles per hour. going from category three at 129

to category four at 130. this is moving north 9 miles per hour. we wonder how much westward component we have, center further off the west coast, that's not happening. now it is heading due north. comes close to landfall in about five to six hours in marco island and naples. if it doesn't go direct center there, may go inland. that would be 10 to 12 hours from now. let's get into the path. show you what we are dealing with the path of the storm. here's the updated position. still a four. they drop down to three. that would only be one miles per hour. kind of irrelevant. they have 125 miles per hour storm almost due over the top of fort myers, cape coral area. that would be the next landfall, 6:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m. this evening. then take it new northward over the top of tampa, literally over the top.

remember, over the top is better than being on the dirty right side of the storm, for tampa, close call storm surge, it is iffy, maybe not as bad to friends to the north. holding on to category one, to ocala national forest, gainesville area, we could see hurricane force winds as far north as tallahassee, and mentioning tropical storm force winds further to the north. as we go throughout the next couple hours, we have three or four more hours of tropical storm winds, brian, where we see reporters out there, get into squalls, looks dramatic. if you're with us this afternoon, starting about 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., when we go to reporters and crews in naples area, that's when they go from i am standing in the wind to i'm kind of scared. when you get that eye going through naples area, about 50 miles, 10 miles per hour, around 4:00 p.m. when the northern eyewall goes into naples area.

we will get the most extreme wind damage, and also when the highest storm surge arrives suddenly with that eye. the way it works, wind is blowing offshore. that's keeping water away. as soon as the eye gets close, water surges up the eastern side as winds shift to the south. this isn't like the wall where the water is rising, this could be a quick storm surge, catching people off guard. that's the fear for the lives through the afternoon. >> just off your shoulder, looking at this radar loop that everyone has become accustomed to looking. >> this one here is the satellite imagery, that's the eye that crossed over big pine key between key west. this is live radar that's coming at it. look at the lightning strikes in the northern eye. even though the southern eye kind of lost it a bit, dry air is succeeded in, and wind shear knocking off the top. southern portion of the eye, but the northern is very strong.

>> for every wobble, one degree made so much difference, depending on the community where you were waiting for sandy. with every one degree wobble, this is big news for marco island, naples, ft. myers. >> even tampa. if you're in tampa, lot of people care about your family and property, you would rather see it go further inland at the expense of ft. myers and naples because it may be weaker by the time it gets to you. they're calling for 120 miles per hour wind gusts in tampa. >> that's not built to withstand that. >> that's category three wind gust in tampa. even though i am more concerned with storm surge as we go through ft. myers, cape coral, san bell island, but the whipped gusts may be in tampa as they are this afternoon. >> lost the weather station in key west. >> that will happen. we lose reporters when we get to peak winds.

weather equipment starts to fail. there will be times it will be a blackout. after you get the eye, oh, this is horrible. it will get dark before we know how bad naples will be, how bad faur fort myers. might not be until daybreak tomorrow that we see what the storm surge did. >> jacob sober off is in naples. you still have several hours, most of the day before the storm in chief slides over top of you. >> reporter: tell me about it, brian. i am listening to bill karins describe offshore winds now. basically, i am looking at vanderbilt lagoon. when you talk about offshore, that means wind is blowing there way. vanderbilt beach there, florida gulf coast behind the camera

position you can't see. this lagoon is churning. i have been watching the roof on the building behind me slowly start to peel back. boats on moorings, water is coming up. you talk storm surge, we were in cape coral, that's a community to have a canal behind just about every home so everybody could have access to water. seems like a disastrous position. we were also at ft. myers beach, this area will take a catastrophic hit. the idea this is the beginning of the storm, i don't know if we are in hurricane force winds. this is tropical storm sfoforcer the beginning of it. it is pelting. feels like needles being thrown at your face. i am looking behind me, people that bailed, left stuff. i see a skidoo, wave runner. that will be totals. that will be on the street

behind the lagoon without a doubt. all these homes, there will be water on the first floor if storm surge goes to where it is projected. and we are not talking about the wind yet. there are palm trees, projectile coconuts flying all over the place. stuff that i can't comprehend standing here. bill karins is 100% right. we are not out here in a couple hours' time. if this is the beginning of it, i can only imagine what it is like when it gets to the worst. >> bill karins will look at the winds. >> gusts in 60 to 80 miles per hour range where he was standing. you have to focus on water levels behind him, look at the pilings on the pier, different shot than naples. shots with the water behind him, i don't know how long they're safe to stay out there. we talked yesterday. high tide 3:00 this afternoon.

that adds two and a half to three feet to storm surge in the naples area. we are still talking 10 to 15 feet. then they're coming out of low tide. that water is low now. if we raise that 10 to 15 feet, you see glass windows on that building behind you, i estimate that's 10 to 15 feet. the height the water will be at at the peak of the storm. >> it will happen quickly when it happens. >> reporter: that's absolutely right. it has gone from a drizzle and light wind the last couple hours to this. and feels like it came out of nowhere. then as you drive down the street, you look at the streets here, it's puzzling, they have so many above ground power lines, not plan for this in an area can take a hit of this magnitude. haven't seen anything like this in quite some time, but again, it boggles my mind, the planning, knowing a storm like this could hit. you have hundreds of thousands

of people. i was with greater naples fire rescue yesterday. the idea that a fire department has to have a boat at the ready just in case of something like this is an extraordinary thing to think about. fire department, nobody is on the streets. first responders decided to go inside, to stay inside because it is the point of no return for residents. nobody is getting rescued now in this stuff, and as it progresses worse and worse, brian, and they're going to wait for this to pass and hit the streets and see who stayed, who didn't heed warnings to go to evacuation shelters and see what their fate is ultimately. >> is it the director, punch up weather one, show you where naples is located, he is not in a heavy rain band. na band by marco island is the first significant damaging wind band. that's probably winds gusting 80 to 90 miles per hour. that will be over to you, jacob,

in 10 to 15 minutes from now. just to prepare you. 10 to 15 minutes until you will see by far the strongest winds you've seen so far. >> jacob, question for you. we usually set up live locations especially in a hurricane where there's a corner you can turn and where there's a wind break you can come to that's safe. do you have both of those? >> reporter: yes. let me ask dana roker. can you stick that camera out of the vehicle a bit, brian. we are essentially under a parking garage here, concrete structure. let me get the microphone. come on out. >> let's not get dana wet if we don't have to. >> come with me, i got you. brian, you can see, show brian the parking garage. this is where we are for safe keeping, brian. we will be able to ditch back into here in the next 10, 15 minutes when it gets as strong

as bill says it will get. for now, hop back into the vehicle, dana, hop back in to get to safe ground. >> jacob, i'll point out, 80 to 90 to 100 miles per hour winds, most people can stand in that and be okay and fine. when we get to that northern eyewall, i will send a message out, tell all reporters and camera crews, you need to get to your shelter and safe spot. between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. this evening, that's when you have to get to shelter. >> we are here with chris hayes. we will be hunkering down in a safe place, concrete structure. that's what you have to do in a situation like this. hopefully anybody else that decided to stay here in naples area, ft. myers, cape coral has a place like that. it is peeling off flimsy structures and not near the

worst. >> jacob, we will check back in. migel almaguer is in florida city, on the eastern side of the peninsula of florida. so when we saw the storm come across the florida keys, this is the effect it is having in the east. migel, for members of the audience that can't see, you're tethered to your location, shouldn't worry about losing you as we talk to you. >> reporter: yes, brian. using a tow rope for security. we are in a safe place, connected, attached to the police department here. this is where we have been hunkering down, we rode out the storm overnight. we're about ten miles off the coast. the storm surge here isn't the major concern and neither is this blinding, punishing rain. it is the powerful winds here. i would say three or four hours ago, winds completely knocked out power to the entire city. it hasn't come back, as we know. power outages are continuing across the region, conditions

are more catastrophic. first responders say in this weather as we are hunkering down next to them, they will not venture out onto the streets behind me because they can become a wind tunnel. we have seen debris fly down the street, parts of trees, fronds from palm trees, garbage cans and other typical debris that you find on city streets, literally flying down the street here. they won't go out on streets in vehicles because they're concerned lives would be at risk. we don't know people can call for help, most phone lines are down. we are using live view system, using cell phone towers to transmit our signal. we are surprised we have been able to stay on the air this long. those winds that powerful and ferocious. it will be this way for some time, brian. >> migel almaguer in florida city. for those just joining us, the

storm has come up and over the florida keys, and technically has made landfall in the united states, after giving folks in cuba more of a battering than they planned on. that time it spent over land mass in cuba took some of its strength away. then overnight had a chance to regenerate, and the very shallow, very warm waters between the 90 miles between cuba and the united states. we are watching the eye on both radar and infrared satellite for any trip to the right or left. the motion of the storm based on the last national hurricane center update was simply north. and you see at the bottom of the screen, moving north at 9 miles per hour. 9 is slow. the storm has been a fast mover in the past, just 48 hours ago

was moving at 17 miles per hour, but 9 is slow. it is going to take awhile to get to its intended targets up the coast of florida. and after awhile, everyone has become something of an expert on storm surge and how this works. in miami beach where they have been getting all of the wind and weather they can handle, mariana atencio is standing by for us. mariana, we have been watching you all morning. tell us about conditions and how they've gotten worse or improved in the last hour. >> reporter: well brian, here along washington avenue, we are a little further away from the beach, so you're not getting pounded by sand. there's no doubt, the wrath of irma is being felt here. also something that's worrying, i don't know if you can catch some people, look like homeless folks that are out here. miami beach has a relatively large homeless population.

we have been calling miami beach commissioner to let them know people are out here that could potentially need help. we will make sure this person is okay, once we finish our conversation with you. also something that's incredibly concerning now, you see this construction over here to my right. large pieces of debris started falling. you can see this fell right over here. this is a large piece of metal. i don't know if the camera is able to get that. ask them to back it up, camera on the back of an suv to bring you these images. this is an incredibly large structure that could easily kill someone if it fell on top of somebody. among the warnings, construction in miami beach, all of the debris flying around, making the situation incredibly volatile. as we've heard throughout the shows, miami beach police telling us that they cannot be

out here rescuing people, out patrolling streets any more. they're asking people to hunker down and take shelter. this is a barrier island, as you were saying, we've all become experts on storm surge. this island, coastal city no doubt will get 5 to 10 feet of storm surge, and these streets are already flooding pretty quickly. they placed temporary pumps to try to alleviate the problem, but these pumps never faced something like hurricane irma. brian? >> mariana, thank you. i speak for everyone, try to be safe. if that landed where it did, next one could land painfully close to where you are. we appreciate it and watch winds above it. >> i am going to safety now. >> sam champion is reporting throughout miami. sam? >> hey, brian, brian, we were in a lull for awhile. it was kind of easier to get out

and take a look at what was going on, rain was much lighter, wind was much lighter. we have seen tree limbs, easily four inches snapped. 8 inches, down. also seen tops of palm trees snapped off. pauk trees are pretty darn resilient, kind of made to bend in these kinds of winds. when you start to snap tops of those, you realize you've gotten into higher gusts. where jacob was towards naples is about the position of the storm we were earlier this morning. bill is absolutely right to give him the warning all that has happened. one of the things i saw about jacob's shot that i didn't like, want to get word to him as well, he needs to think of elevation. two things to protect yourself from, did a great job protecting from wind, but as storm surge comes in, he is too low, that parking structure was only one story. you need to get more than one story elevation, if that water starts to quickly rise, he needs a position to be able to get in there. and you're correct with south beach location as well.

the problem with being in the middle of the street now and winds that we're in, we have 90 miles per hour gusts you don't know are coming until that gust is on top of you. debris becomes projectiles at that kind of wind. there's too many construction areas around for people to be walking out in open street. always need to have some protection, get down between. i have my eye on a group of trees there that have been shredded for a good part of the time we have been talking about it today. now one thing i wanted to talk to bill about, brian, i know that this projected forecast is still for it to miss the everglades. i have been looking at that wobble. i am curious to have the discussion with bill to see if we think that right front quadrant may get absorbed a bit, the energy of that, by the everglades. one of the things i was holding out hope for that some of the toughest water and toughest wind would get into that everglades

area before that eye makes its way up the coast. >> yes. we have radar up here. i will show you on the weather one computer. this is what sam is talking about. here is the eye on the bottom of the screen. this is all of the everglades, alligator alley, main highway. this is swampy areas. the really populated, highly populated areas are here, marco island, up to naples. sam hopes if we take this and continue it due north and it comes up like this, that puts this northeast eyewall which we had that 120 miles per hour gust in the keys with over the swampy areas. if it has more of a west, northwest, then the eye comes like this, then this area gets into that. that's the difference of 10, 20 miles. sam, we were going pretty much due north. obviously this eye is not symmetrical. it was heading due north. now i am seeing more of a

westerly component to due north. i would say now that center will come very close to going almost over the top of marco island and naples, but unfortunately i think it is going to go barely west of them. i think that region is going to get into northern and northeast eyewall quadrant. >> and if there's anyone, if anyone believes in the power of positive thinking now, the one thing you want to see that eye do is drift a bit north toward the east, drift more. those everglades, natural protected area with all of that beautiful brush and swamp is built to absorb one storm surge and two, deflect wind. that's our only hope for this storm not to continue to barrel up the west coast in full strength. it would be the only thing between naples and the eyewall that could deflect a little power. we're not losing any strength of the storm. one thing we are trying, what we

doemt wa don't want to see is what the forecast is for the storm, powerful eyewall to drive up the west coast, putting the worst force of the storm on every one of those cities up until tampa. that's one thing we don't want to see. i hold out hope to get most of that eyewall, whatever is left to take, absorb into the brush area of the everglades. >> i was just handed a note saying the number of power outages so far stands at 1, 300,000 in florida. second guessing has become something of a national sport, spend a moment telling people that left miami and went to shelters, went north when they could if they had gasoline that they made the right decision.

>> slight. -- absolutely. we have power lines down. we have a lot of damage, we have a lot of destruction, hours left. we are in the hours of the storm where we are all on our own here. no one can come out. it would risk the life of a first responder to come out in these winds and when the gusts pick up, you don't see them until they're on top of you. one thing we are worried about is debris. that's why i keep looking off camera to keep an eye on what's going on. this is the time that if you evacuated, you made the right decision. storm surge is fine, in the latest update, storm surge for miami beach expected to be less

than it was before, but we're still going to have standing water in the areas from rain. much better than 4 to 7 foot projected in areas, then it was dropped to three to five. now looks like it is around 2 feet that they are expecting, and that's much better. those conditions will continue to improve as hours go on. these are hours to stay inside, stay in your home. no one can come get you at this point. >> sam champion. these are the hours to get a hotel towel and come back to you in a bit. take a break. this report is essential. bill karins is back with us, again, we continue to watch the eye. fractions of an inch mean a lot. >> i will tell the director, keep the distance tracker up on weather one with close in soozo. marco island, 34 miles away from the eye, moving north at ten. three hours until we start to see the next significant damage.

we assume the keys got hit hard, 120 miles per hour winds, we know we have damage there. the keys built more for that than other areas of the state. again, we'll track that. we are three hours away from the northern eye, real destruction making it to the first populated section. for marco island, add another hour, then to naples and up the coast. this is 12 to 18 hour event tracking that northern and eastern eyewall and destruction that comes with it. the reason i focus on that, what we have seen where sam is will play out on the east coast from my friends in daytona beach through brevard county, jupiter, fort pierce. everyone knows someone in that stretch. they'll see what sam is going through, something you want to be inside for. you're going to lose power. it is a big incompetent convenience, not as life-threatening as long as you stay inside. when we track the eye, that's

when people even inside could see damage to their property, and more life-threatening. those are the people when the eye comes through, head to a safe room, closet or interior bathroom, put the mattress on top of yourselves, if you get that 120 to 130 miles per hour eyewall going over your property, you don't know what will happen to your structure. >> folks in the keys wonder how their property and or favorite places or vessels faired. we are in the dark side of the moon period, it will be awhile before we know. >> hurricane force winds extend 80 miles from the center. it is only 40 miles past the keys. we still have four hours to go. maybe by end of the day before we get to sunset, probably get better pictures of the keys. i don't know how much, they don't have power. can't get cell signals and everything like that. >> the highway was topped even

before this because of rain coming in. you see the swinging topiaries in florida city, florida. migel almaguer's location. check in with chris hayes in naples. i imagine when you hear bill karins talk about how many hours it will be until this storm actually gets to you, it is cold comfort with the wind and rain already. >> reporter: the pace of the storm is excruciating, we saw this with harvey as well, slow storms can do a lot of damage, right, they sit and sit and mow down. that's what happened with harvey, sat there for days and dumped all that rain. this storm is moving so slowly. it is also psychologically excruciating, folks are scrambling and waiting, scrambling and waiting. if you look back there, trees are blowing south. that counterclockwise motion is now coming north south toward us as the storm pushes up. you can see where i am in, i am

blocked from the north, i am taking no wind now. what's happening at the coast and there's some sort of amazing photos of this, the water is being pushed away from the ocean exposing hundreds of yards of beach. that action then snaps the opposite direction as the storm moves up, starts pushing water to the beach where you get storm surge. at some point this wind behind me will push this way off the water. that's the most dangerous moment for naples when that eyewall moves in. >> you referenced pictures floating around on social media. there's been video and stills in the bahamas where out in the ocean where we normally see the ocean, the ocean is gone, it has been sand. it is a real dynamic. people wonder if it is real. it has to do with the ocean getting sucked into the vortex of the storm, has to do with on

coming low tide, and sand in places and at elevations that sand didn't occupy before. but it can happen. chris, to your point, the problem is when the surge comes, people may be lulled into false sense of low tide security. >> reporter: i want to talk about the psychology of that for a moment, partly because it is moving slowly, because the track changed. there's a way it can lull you. folks in this area, we went 12 years without a major hurricane. folks remember andrew, but between andrew and now a ton that were going to be huge, veered off to the right. matthew last year that did that along the atlantic coast. so there's a psychology that okay, maybe this won't be that bad. and then there's actually the thing bill was tauging about, sam has been talking about, inability to conceive of it. you're sitting at the beginning of the storm, you get rain bands, okay, it is windy and

range. you can't get your head around what 120 miles per hour will do, 15 foot storm surge will do. you imagine yourself as in a building that's secure until in a moment it isn't. i understood the psychology of it better being down here during this excruciating build up to when this thing will make landfall. >> to a lot of people, kind of an exciting, on coming event, especially spectators without skin in the game where property is concerned until it arrives and there are a million places to name where you would rather be. chris hayes, thanks. bill karins. >> good to see chris at high elevation. most important thing that will kill people with the storm surge today is going to be people at low elevations when the water rushes in. good to see him. throughout weather one, put naples on the map. 43 miles from the northern eyewall, four hours from now. i also added blue arrows on

weather one. drop the banner there. that's where peak of storm surge is occurring. it is on the ride side of the eyewall. winds north of that are blowing from land out to sea on the northern portion of the storm. that water surging on the eastern side. it is not until the eye is close to you that we see water levels coming up. as the eye goes past your location, winds shift to offshore. that's when we see catastrophic 10 to 15 foot storm surge. tide is now coming in to areas from naples to marco island. high tide expected this afternoon. add three feet to storm surge. >> let's hear from guys tracking it and have been and will be into the early part of this coming week. mark demaria at the national hurricane center in florida. mark, we are watching the eye, especially where it relates to

marco island. >> i am free. >> it is brian williams in new york. >> yes, brian, i can hear you just fine. >> realize you're having a frantic day. appreciate you making a few minutes to talk to us. we have been noticing this little possibly in the eye. we noticed that you have put the direction thanks to your technology and hurricane hunters at due north. where are you expecting the second landfall. we are talking about marco island. >> we are looking at typically with hurricanes, you see little wobbles in the eye. if you look for just a half hour or hour, sometimes you get fooled. we are considering direction to be primarily north and maybe a little west of north still. anywhere between naples area or further up the coast we expect second landfall. >> that will have huge consequences regarding the eyewall and water flow that comes in after it.

whether it is one degree or five degrees west of a place like naples, correct? >> five degrees west would be significant. we don't expect that much deviation. we are fairly certain this will have a big impact in southwest florida, whether the eyewall makes a direct hit or a little west. we are anticipating that significant storm surge from cap teef a island down to cape sable area coming in later today. >> has anything surprised you thus far this morning about its behavior, its direction, and do you feel justified with all the evacuations that were ordered? >> yes. i think what we showed was pretty good. we're having very significant impacts, hurricane impacts in miami-dade and broward county. we have had numerous location of hurricane force wind gusts, some sustained values of hurricane force in biscayne bay and

spreading to palm beach. we got significant effects on the east coast and west coast, with the most serious about to occur in southwest florida. >> again, tell the folks, marco island, naples, ft. myers, give them a time line today when to expect the worst of it. >> in just a few hours in naples to marco island area, locate about here, it will be a couple more hours up the coast where you get to captiva, sarasota, ft. myers. the time line will be soon to later this afternoon and into tonight. this is a long lasting event as well. large circulation. and very important point for southwest florida is that most surge is coming in after the eyewall passes. it is when you get on the back side of the storm with wind blowing on shore that you get the highest storm surge values. so even if the wind threat subsides, storm surge may not have reached peak yet. >> final question to you.

because we are worried about construction cranes in miami where we've had to bring some of our cameras into shelter. is it safe to say they've had their peak gusts already or is that to come? >> i think there's more to come. we're seeing these rain bands, but there's many more behind this, tends to come in waves in these hurricanes. and that the eye is still south of miami, so we expect gusts, hurricane force gusts to continue throughout the day. >> all right. mark, thank you so much for joining us from national hurricane center in miami on one of the busiest days there in record. we're going to fit in a quick break in our coverage. when we come back, we hear more from meteorologist bill karins, hear more from our correspondents as this tremendous storm hurricane irma makes its way due north. ♪

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we are back as we're covering the path projected for this tremendous hurricane irma as its latest path is due north. that's critical because of what's going to lie in its path and where we're going to get second landfall here because of this, the storm surge. wind aren't a problem and water is not a problem until the storm passes through. it follows the back side of a storm. in a lot of places not built to take it, places that have kind of a gentle slope up from the waters of the gulf that are normally not this torn up. they just can't tolerate 10 to 15 feet, 6 to 10 feet down the florida keys, could be awhile before we get a report on

damage. cal perry, global editor, taking in everything we can get off social media and other places on damage thus far. >> i want to talk tampa. you talked about storm surge and we're starting to become concerned about tampa. 6:00 p.m. curfew in effect in tampa. people in tampa still have power. this is useful information. we also have a tweet from the mayor saying we avoided this storm for nine years. i am going to play this video, have bill talk us through this. this is what we saw in the bahamas. this video that you were talking about, where water comes off the beach. >> this looked unbelievable. i saw this yesterday, people were sending it to me, saying is this real. and it is hard to believe someone could walk out in the bahamas in some areas they're shallow, turks and caicos, too, as far as they could see there was water in the past, it was sand. >> it is amazing video. this is our concern now here

along the gulf coast here in florida where you said, brian, absolutely, the water is shallow there. here's the model. in 2010, the government of tampa ran a scenario. they did a fictional hurricane. phoenix. what would happen to tampa. they found all of this would flood out, that water won't go anywhere. all of this should have been evacuated. this is area a. one of the things you have to look at is what's in tampa. the hospital is here. macdill air force base, venetian islands, shore acres, highly populated areas. explosion in real estate along this area. that's not good for this storm. last hurricane to hit tampa was 1921. it is now 3 million population. if you're in tampa, if you're watching the broadcast. there's the number. power still on, there's a little time. time to start hunkering down. it is the water that we are

worried about. >> and what he is talking about, showing up close tampa map, looking at the new tide predictions, trying to figure out when we expect worst of storm surge and tide to be. usually it is as the eye makes landfall on the right-hand side, what we are accustomed to. because of this angle of approach off the west coast of florida, you throw up graphics 3, has storm surge projections. naples, predict two to three hours after you go through the center of the storm is when that storm surge rushes in. you're going to go through the northern eye, hear winds like you never heard before, power will be easily out, damage to properties. you go through the calm eye. then you go through the southern portion of the eye. when that southern portion of eye goes through, winds whip offshore, that's when it all flows in behind it. going to plow water, it will quickly rise. that's how the sequence of events works up the coast.

mentioning naples near marco island, high tide is 3:00 p.m. we think the storm is close to you at 3:00 p.m. if the center is over you at high tide, two hours after that center goes over you is when the worst storm surge will be. maybe time it out a little bit where high tide is coming down. >> all right. more on that in a moment. want to go to tom costello with elaine duke, acting secretary of department of homeland security, fema is part of all that. hey, tom. >> we're at the command center here in downtown washington, d.c. these guys have been working around the clock for two weeks keep in mind. first we had harvey, then we had irma barrel through the caribbean, puerto rico and florida. madam secretary, can you give an update as of this moment, how many people do you have without power in florida, what are the projections? >> we have increased to well over a million customers without power and that's nearly tripled since 7:00 this morning.

we expect over 5 million at minimum without power by the end of the storm. >> is this progressing as you expected or as you originally thought, given that it is going up the west coast of florida. >> it is pretty much how we expected. the course is a little more westerly, we expected it to stay strong throughout florida. >> you have a big challenge. you've got to preposition all resources in to respond to the disaster, but you have to keep people out of harm's way. you have 2.5 million meals, 1.5 million liters of water. where do you put that to position response? >> it is positioned in various locations. a lot is at military bases. important to until it is safe and the governor requests it, we will not move in supplies. those that shelter in place should be ready to sustain themselves for a period of time. >> you said all along, if you stay in your home, for whatever reason decide to, three days of food, three days of water,

medications, and if you go to shelter, don't forget medications. what are concerns about numbers of people that you care for in shelters? >> shelters are well stocked at this point. american red cross and other shelter providers are used to this level of storm. our biggest concern is search and rescue, especially in the keys. there's no place to land. winds are still high. we cannot go in with search and rescue at this time, it is not safe. >> you have to wait until it all dies down enough to get choppers in there, move ground troops and everything else. this could be not until tomorrow i would imagine. >> could be tomorrow, it could be days. there's no place to land right now. so both movement of air assets and then replenishment of fuel and people is a real challenge in that area. >> lastly, give a sense of what the people behind you are doing. they represent many agencies, including nonprofits like salvation army and red cross and americorps. what are these people doing?

>> these people have been working 12 hour shifts for weeks. they're from across government, doing coordination of all their agencies. we have reps from small business administration, dod, and they coordinate all of the resources of their agencies into the national response coordination center, which is one of the key roles of fema in this type of disaster. >> congressional -- congress allocated money for harvey and irma. >> we have the commitment of president and congress that we will have funds necessary to recover from these zadisasters. thank you. back to you. >> acting secretary is in that role because the former secretary, general kelly, is now at the white house in the position of chief of staff. we'll take a break here. when we come back, we reset coverage on exactly where this

storm is, exactly where we believe it is going to hit next, areas we're in touch with and areas we lost contact with. all of it ahead. >> this is a straight shot all the way out to the beach. the band that we have been seeing are coming from that area that mariana is. >> with the velocity of wind, it is pounding your face now. >> this is a precaution, use ago tow line to secure myself to a pillar, added layer of security because winds are beginning to pick up. >> generally south, southwest direction later this afternoon. how about that gust? that will take it out of you.

welcome back to on-going coverage. an few minutes, technical crews have to reset in a few places

because this is a dynamic situation. one of those places is naples, florida. so while we can, let's get msnbc jacob soboroff to talk to us. jacob? >> reporter: brian, obviously the palm trees are a beautiful thing when it is not a hurricane, but we've got palm fronds and trees down in naples florida. as we have been talking about, not even at the beginning of that stuff. the evidence in front of me and behind me about the power of storms, two, three, four trees about that size already down. you hear from time to time the big pop of electrical transformers blowing. the longer we stay out here, stronger the gusts are getting. a lot of residential neighborhoods are lined with

palm trees and lush trees like this. this is one street. what we are on is one street. every street in naples, florida is going to look like this, you won't be able to pass these roads. haven't started to talk about storm surge. this is damage from the wind. when the storm surge starts coming through, just looking up to make sure we have no flying palm fronds. when the storm surge comes through, not only will there be trees with debris passing the roads, they will be filled with water as well, obviously. >> jacob, i speak for all watching. be careful. if a tree fell behind you, it could fall in front of you. get back to safe position. >> amen to that, brian. >> migel almaguer speaking of this, how bad compared to when we last spoke? >> reporter: brian, conditions seem to be getting worse.

heavy wind has been an issue. check out this piece here. conditions we are expecting to get worse the next several hours. power is out across the region. in these conditions, no one will be restoring it any time soon. power lines are dangling in places, we also heard transformers explode in the distance. that's happening the past several hours. don't expect power to return to the area anytime soon. first responders tell us weather has turned catastrophic. they cannot come out further than where they're located. we are hunkering down at the police department, they say it is safe to be here, safe for them to stay here. this building is secure. what's unsecure is so many of the side streets going up and down them the last several hours, we know that most homes are boarded up. we know many families are in

those homes riding out the storm. there's nothing you can do other than wait and try to ride this out. >> migel almaguer. looking like he is behind a jelt engine. bill, want to hazard a guess on miles per hour. >> maybe 60 to 70, strong tropical storm. you can stand in it without assistance, don't have to lean into it. we are still watching that northern eye. it is moving north. sam champion saying maybe it is going into the everglades. it was just a wobble. you can see it over here. this is visible satellite imagery. we get these every minute. we get this every one minute. tax dollars put a gorgeous satellite go 16 a year ago in space, we get those images. this is radar, this is the eyewall heading north. this black line represents the center. here comes satellite imagery. see it heading north. watch my hand over the eye, now

going northwest. it resumed a northwest motion. that means that eyewall that we want to avoid will rake and go over top of marco island and naples, not going further inland over swampy areas. highest winds with the storm in three hours from now will be here in naples area, marco island. brian, we weren't that fortunate, weren't lucky enough. >> it was wishful thinking it would go into the swamp. when we say the highest winds are three hours away from marco island, naples, give us just for people that need repetition, give us miles per hour estimates. >> keep it on the map a second. the weather producer behind the scenes are doing a fantastic job providing me with information, making me sound smart. they put all of these totals together for some cities. these are max wind gusts anticipated going through the event. naples, winds sustained this afternoon, 90 to 110. max gusts 135.

that's 135 miles per hour gusts possible in naples area. that's a cat four. going up the coastline, tampa, gusts peak at 125. orlando, 75. not doing too much damage, mostly trees and power outage. ft. myers, 130 for them. >> remember, the infrastructure in orlando from -- >> way there earlier, 90 miles per hour and it was a week without power. >> that's a tough one. mariana atencio is in miami beach, she has been able to change locations. a lot of water piling up behind you, mariana. >> reporter: yes, brian. so this is sunset harbor, an area of miami beach, there's a marina behind me. this pier you're looking at behind me is a couple feet high. you can see the water, not going to walk there, wind is picking up so much. the water covered the entire pier behind me, goes to show

what storm surge can do. that's why this is an area specifically prone to flooding. that flooding can be catastrophic in the next couple days. you can also see some boats behind me, hopefully those are sailboats tied down. again, you see them wobbling around, wind gusts picked up fast the past couple hours. told you about the pumps city of miami beach put in place for the storm. this is one of the pumps. they're hoping this pump is attached to a generator, brian. it is connected to the sewer. they're hoping pumps can suck that water, kick it back to the ocean and avoid some flooding. i also want to say we are taking every precaution, bringing these images live. as soon as something happens, i will jump back into the car.

>> please do that. you read my mind, all our minds. thank you, mariana. >> that's two to four feet of storm surge. that's winds gusting 50 to 70. we could probably stand up easier. the miami area is seeing the worst of the storm now. they're as close to the center of the storm as they will be. >> that's what storm surge looks like. >> that's two to four feet. was three to five they estimated, lowered it to two to four. hopefully only go two to four, that limits the amount of water in people's properties, basements, homes. again, the worst case scenario, three or four days was the miami area. doesn't look pretty, but this is as bad as it gets there. times that by five and that's what we're going to experience in three hours from now, starting in southwest florida. >> talk about tornadoes. veteran watchers of this, folks that have been