57th anniversary of hurricane donna coming through naples and pretty much destroying it in 1960, today, unfortunately, is that day. and we're doing hunkering down as best we can. there is lots and lots of branches and trees and things like that that have already come down. from my vantage point, i can see a lot of roofs that have been dislodged and everything else, and it's pretty amazing to see and hear the wind. if you don't experience that, i don't encourage people to go outside at all. they really need to stay inside, but i can tell you from my perspective, the wind is just pretty eerie. >> what percentage of people didn't get out, do you think? >> i think, again, with the hurricane that went through texas, that was a real wake-up call for florida and for particularly a lot of folks here in naples. and the reason i say that is because i know a lot of people who left. a lot of people did not take a

chance and when they heard this thing was coming, people left collier county, people left naples, and it's an amazing thing. we have in the city of naples about 19,000 people, and i will tell you that so many of them left, and we were very, very thankful for that, that they took the warning seriously. >> well, i'm afraid that northern eyewall has your name on it. we're watching it bear down on you. david frohlich, good luck to you. >> brian, i want to mention unfortunately we expect high tide coming up in about an hour. >> yeah, and it's been a counterindicator along the coast in cities where the water has been drained prior to the arrival of this vast, tremendous storm, because that only means that the storm surge is going to come in even more quickly when this storm passes. bill karins, thank you, sir. bill karins, we have reached the

3:00 p.m. hour east coast. this is -- as long as 24 hours ago you were talking about a roughly 3:00 landfall in the afternoon for naples, florida. >> up to this point this has been a wind event. this has been wind-caused damage. looks like a little storm surge damage in the miami area. there was confirmation from the national weather service of a ten to 14-foot storm surge in the keys as it went through this morning, which is very impressive and the heads-up of how powerful the winds are, how big a storm it is. this is going to be the story going from here on out, so we have the storm, now making, you know, landfall, marco island is about to come into the eye. now, the landfall point, just for technicality reasons, is the center. so if the very center does not come onshore, it will be a landfall. that's a technicality, and this is probably going to be the boringest weather graphic i show you all day, but it's the most

important if you care about property and lives on the west coast of florida. this is a tidal gauge, and the lines that you have to pay attention to, first one i'll point out is this blue line. this shows you the dates. this is the high and low tides, so this was the high tide this morning, then we dropped it down about three feet, that was the low tide. now we're starting to go back up. this red line shows us where the actual water level is right now. remember we showed you those pictures of the people walking around because the water was blown out? that was low tide, plus the storm blew it all out. look what happened in just the last hour. this water now in naples is starting to rapidly go up. each of these dotted lines is one foot, so we've already seen the water rising now about a foot and a half. some of this is because the center of the storm is getting closer. we will watch this graph and this pink line here, that's kind of like the mean height, like

the zero line. we are going to see this line ten to 15 feet higher than that pink line. it's hard to have cameras. we're not going to put our crews out on the beaches to watch these storm surges, so the government has these tidal gauges out here. we will know by watching this red line just how bad that storm surge is. right up the coast we have gauges in clearwater beach, in sarasota, and, brian, that will be the story and tell us how bad the damage is going to be and how many lives will be lost from the people that decided to stay in the evacuation zones. >> and our worry is when the water does come in, it will come in fast. >> that line is going to shoot up. we're just now beginning to see the water rises in southwest florida. >> to the control room. anything on periscope or any social media showing us the eye in marco island? anything? >> we just lost the only periscope signal that was coming out of marco island and it was

starting to get really bad. that's probably why we lost it. there is a piece of video in here, which we just got in, showing you the power of that eyewall as it moves in to marco island. we're hoping to get the periscope shot back. it was fascinating to watch. hang on, let me just get rid of this thing. as we looked at it here, let's see if it's back. it was mr. florida. mr. florida 88 had the only live signal up and the last we heard was he was going to move up one story because, of course, the concern is, as we've been talking about, that storm surge. >> cal, we lost him, weather radar shows marco island in the it last five minutes went through the heaviest band of the storm so far. you can see the bright red colors over marco island. it's no surprise you just lost that signal. >> it's back now. i've been kind of obsessively watching this, waiting to see how much worse it's going to get before it gets better, hoping that we'll get a picture of that eyewall, because based on what kerry was saying, it just sounds

amazing. >> looks like they are in a freeze frame on mr. florida on periscope. all these different technologies we're going to try to use. >> and what's going to be curious, so glad that cal is here, if people can -- if we're actually going to be able to witness and see storm surge, storm surge confuses a lot of people, it's hard to understand for a lot of people, especially we talk storm surge, storm surge tide. to see it and witness it, it will be, you know, historic. especially with the technology, if we have stuff on periscope. we don't want people losing their lives, but i think we're going to witness, you know, an epic, historic storm surge in the next four, five hours. >> 3:06 p.m. eastern time. we have, we believe, a substantial portion of marco island, florida, in the eye of this storm. where if tradition and meteorology holds, they are

enjoying subdued winds, perhaps brief bouts of sunshine. there's the full frame radar. reminder this radar usually lags four to five minutes behind reality. all of us scrounging social media to see if we can find live pictures of it. >> you can see now that band is now starting to lift out of marco island. unfortunately all day long this is going to be a what's next scenario. naples, you're next. you can see where the northern eye is north of marco island. naples, looks like you have a nasty band about to go through anyways right here, and that will be strong. then the really worst part of it is now 11, ten miles away. you know, within the hour is when we'll see that. marco island is quickly here coming into the actual center of the eye. it does look like we're going to have -- we could have a rare event with a major category 3

hurricane. we may have marco island, bonita springs, cape coral, clearwater beach, sarasota, fort myers, we may get all of these -- how rare would that be to have that many major cities go through the eye of a hurricane? >> some of the calmers weather in some time. >> amen, brian, it is very nice to see this because it's been so brutal and with the sideways laying rain and the quote from the airport of the 100-plus mile per hour winds is directly on the other side of the building that is blocking me from the north, so we went through a pretty rough time of it, and now i feel like we're in a much better position and watching the radar the heaviest band of wind

and rain associated with this hurricane for the east coast side is now lifted a little bit above to the north of us. there are other communities going through it right now and will spin into that. it will be a little bit in ft. lauderdale and west palm beach and kind of lift to the north and pull across the state. so i do want people in northern areas of broward county and palm beach county and all the way across the state of florida to realize that those bands are still carrying big winds and big rain, but it is really nice to talk to you. and brian, being able to hear you and be able to stand up in this storm. the good news is, we've been through the heaviest band of the day and that's a very nice thing to say. >> yeah, that does correspond with what we're seeing here on radar. we're happy for you. we're, of course, thinking of our friends on marco island and

north to naples. interesting it does correspond with you kind of being just a little bit off parallel with the eye. >> absolutely, and that's the case. in this hand there's the eyewall. in this hand that's that feeder band and they are almost parallel to each other right now. as we are side by side with the eye on the west coast of florida making impact here in the areas that you're showing in naples and fort myers, that rain band is parallel to it in ft. lauderdale and also into palm beach. brian, what i just went through and just showed you, the winds. so there will be more wind from this, and i don't want anyone to get a false sense of all-clear, certainly not at all.

will whip around the back side, so i'm saying i feel better because i can stand up and talk to you and the worst band we have been able to detect on radar is flattening out north of us. this wind from that hurricane will still fill in and be with us through the rest of the night. it's not an all-clear any wild stretch of the imagination and as the wind switches directions, remember all of these trees are in saturated ground. we have been taking rain, tropical storm force rain for more than eight hours now here in south florida. so the ground is saturated, flooded and saturated. all of the root balls from these trees now are very loose. >> we've lost the audio from sam champion, though we're also seeing at the same time some of the floatables in the water there. sam, i'm sorry, we lost your audio. let's try kristen dahlgren in

fort myers, florida, where they just had a gust over 60 miles an hour in the last few minutes. kristen? >> thanks, brian. we were out at the beach, but things got too dicey out there with the wind and things flying around, so we came further inland. take a look, we're also seeing standing water. keep in mind this isn't storm surge, this is that saturated ground that sam was talking about and standing water now. i'm not going to go any farther back, because we did see some lines down the street and so with the water could be a dangerous situation. just a reminder of how many dangers are still out there as we go through the night with this storm. i was just on the road and i'm happy to say that we were the only car out there as we were driving back from the beach, so people really have hunkered down at this point, but we did see

one man and he was battening down his boat still, because we've been talking about how that water has gone out so far. his boat was in the mud, as well as all the other boats in the marina. he is riding out the storm on that boat, and so he was fixing his line so that when that storm surge comes back in, he's trying to keep it as safe as possible. and i asked him, why aren't you going some place. he's a fisherman, so he said he's going to stay there and protect his boat so that he can feed people when all is said and done and get back out on the water. a really tough thing to see him staying out there and knowing just how bad this could potentially get as far as storm surge, brian. >> with a fogged up lens, kristen dahlgren looking like an impressionist painting in fort myers, florida. fort myers had no idea they were going to get this kind of weather. gabe gutierrez in naples,

florida, standing by. gabe, what's happening there? >> reporter: hey there, brian, little hard to hear you, of course. we are really getting pelted right now. the wind isn't hitting me directly, but if my cameraman, aaron sassman, can zoom in behind me, you can see the debris here in downtown naples. the wind has really knocked several limbs off several tree branches down and we've seen power lines down, transformers blowing. this is getting to be the worst of it here in the naples area. the national weather service said the emergency operations center recorded a wind gust of 130 miles an hour a few minutes ago. we're expecting to be really close to the eye wall right about now, and we've seen this wind and rain pick up in intensity in the last few minutes. it's howling right now behind me, and thankfully we're in the second floor balcony, one of the

hotels here in downtown naples. not too far from me is the beach, and again, local residents, they are fearful about the storm surge and it's incredible, the pictures that you've been talking about. we've seen kerry sanders reporting on it, as well, all that water going away, going out to sea, being pulled out to sea. the fear is when this eyewall crosses, what's going to happen when it's -- when it slams back on to shore. so we expect that to happen over the next couple of hours. right now we're getting some really strong winds and heavy rains as we try to stay inside in a safe location and away from this stuff. brian? >> floridian gabe gutierrez thank you very much for that from naples. scott is a storm chaser, happens to be in marco island and joins us by phone. scott, are you in the eye? >> hi, yes, i'm on the outer -- the northern edge of the outer eyewall here on marco island.

>> and describe conditions there right now. >> well, they were completely whiteout conditions. i've got palm branches flying everywhere and i think i just experienced a very small tornado that just went by. it moved my car sideways here at the awning i'm at. and i saw the winds whip up and spin around briefly and got it on video, so i'm going to check back and see what that was, but looked like a small tornado. >> we'd love to see it if you can isolate it. is this your periscope feed we're watching of two windshield wipers? >> no, i believe that's someone else's. my feed is down. the verizon tower, i believe, is down here on marco island. i'm not able to stream any video anymore since the eyewall came in. >> any sight of the sun? >> no, not yet. i am still -- i'm probably a mile away from that point.

right now i'm still getting ferocious winds, over 100 miles per hour estimated at my location. >> yeah, perhaps you heard they took an official gust of 130 a while back. >> we want to give credit, brian, the feed you're watching on the left is from another storm chaser, well known, pretty famous storm chaser. there's a couple of them there on marco island. >> okay. >> yes, that's correct. the other storm chaser, he's up the road at naples manor. that's where he is. >> so, bill, why, if our radar image is showing that marco island should be in the clear, what's the discrepancy here? >> they are close. that radar image can be as old as four to five minutes or it could be 30 seconds to a minute old, and the northern edge of the island where we're getting that live feed from is still in the red. if you look at the map on the right there, the "o" in marco

island is the northern edge. that's where he said the signal from jeff was coming from. and you'll notice pretty abruptly that tree outside his front window and the other trees will start to not sway as much. obviously, he's still in some torrential rain and so would you say, are you still with us? >> yes. >> would you say, is the northern eyewall, was it worse, better, or as expected as it went through? >> it was -- it was what i expected. it was really intense. it was whiteout conditions. the rain was coming in sideways. it looked like a mist. that's all it looked like. that's all i could see. of course, got the spin-up in front of me and moved the car sideways. i did not expect that. >> yeah, i'm sure you know it is possible in eyewalls to get these weaker tornados that rotate through. how much wind damage do you expect from what you experienced and seen in the past? how much structural damage?

>> well, i was seeing lawn chairs coming up off the condos here. there are some trees that are down. lots of palm -- excuse me, lots of palm branches on the ground covering the road. yeah, there are a few trees. i'm starting to see one or two spots of blue sky now, but there are some small trees down on the road here. >> so not devastating? there's damage, but just from the wind now we're talking, not complete devastation? >> not at my location, but i'm also protected by a bunch of concrete. i'm on the third story here on a car turn around, so i had to take shelter because the winds were just so intense. i haven't had a chance to go out on to the main street here. i'm just looking at what's on the surface street off the condos here. >> scott, i know why you're on the third floor. do you care to tell everybody

else why you're on the third floor and what you expect in the next two hours? >> so that's the back-up plan i have. if there's a storm surge, that's where i'm going. there's actually multiple spots on the island that i can go to immediately when that storm surge and if that storm surge happens. i'm pretty sure it will as soon as the eye passes by, so i've got multiple back-up plans on the island here, multiple parking -- for me to get to safety in order to avoid the storm surge. >> now, scott, one thing that a lot of our viewers may not know is a lot of the storm chasers out there actually act as first responders in situations like this, because the fire departments won't go out. what is your plan immediately after the storm surge, and can you let our viewers know, have you ever been in a situation where you've actually helped people before the first responders got there? >> yeah, so a great example, i was one of the only storm chasers in joplin, missouri, got the video of the tornado in joplin.

and four minutes after the tornado hit, we got into town and we were pulling people out of the rubble, just like jeff was. we were the only two that were there, and we were pulling people out of the debris and helping with the rescues. and in this situation, most of the people have abandoned the island, marco island, so i haven't seen anybody out here, but if there are -- if there is anybody that needs to be rescued, i would be more than happy to do that. but as of right now, i am just making it out on the surface street. there is a lot of tree branches down, there's some trees blocking the road here on the island. there's metal pieces off of buildings that are on the ground, not very large, but looks like gutters and all that. there's signs down, but i'm sure once the winds go the other direction, that will cause a lot more damage. >> yeah, just going to be -- there's going to be cleanup for weeks and months from corrugated

aluminum, palm fronds, coconuts, we've seen car tires, we've seen a floating television set not long ago. scott peak, thank you very much for joining us and you stay safe out there, especially as this storm surge comes in, as we know it will. >> it's beginning to happen now. >> okay, what are you seeing? >> yeah, the -- there's -- you can't see the curbs anymore. looks like it's about to begin here. we've got some flooding happening. looks like it's about to begin here. >> all right. well, get back to us if you need to, and record as much of it as you can. >> most definitely. >> what we're being told by the national weather service, you're about to witness something pretty extraordinary. chris hayes is up in naples, florida. chris, what changes have you noticed over about the past half hour? >> so, if you saw before on that radar, there was that gap that bill karins was talking about.

we had a band come through and there was this little gap, it was bizarre, the skylightened considerably, the winds came down, we could sort of come out here and look at all the downed trees, the palms behind me have been sheered down to the light green, the newest parts of the trees, the only ones exposed now. so we are now starting to get the beginnings of that eyewall. if you look on the radar as it moves up from marco island, we're going to start getting it now and you can feel the change really just in the last few minutes, that shift as these clouds start churning through and the wind picks up extremely suddenly. it's now coming at us hard from the north, down to the south, and what will happen here, it's important for folks here to understand and more broadly, after the eyewall passes, will be the dirty part of the storm, which means we'll be getting that water off the wind on that counterclockwise motion off the water, the wind off the water, and that's when the storm surge is going to come up, so even

after the eyewall passes, it's still dangerous conditions here in naples. we're really starting to feel what the brunt of that wind feels like here. >> certainly dangerous conditions in naples. bill karins? >> just waiting to see in case we had the official landfall from the hurricane center. not yet. >> tell us what constitutes that again. >> well, you have the eye, it's 17 miles wide, and they calculate where they think the actual lowest pressure is, where the center of the storm is, and when that crosses, that is when we get the official it has made landfall, this would be for the second time, because the official first one was this morning down in areas of the keys. if we could throw the radar up, we have chris there, he's not far away from that northern eye. it is five minutes away probably. and you're going to go through exactly what they were going through down there in marco island. do we still have jeff's feed up there, cal? cal says we have it. i told you a couple minutes ago, wait until you see the trees

stop blowing. >> they've stopped. sitting calm. >> he still has the windshield wipers going, so the rain hasn't completely stopped. >> will we see it brighten? >> we should. the storm chaser we just had on saw some blue skies. this eye has been a little cloud covered, some of the high, thin cirrus clouds have been obscuring it a bit, so we're not going to get the picturesque e photos. it's not going to look like that. there's going to be a little more clouds, but yes, it will brighten up from the shot you're looking at. from what we understand, that's the northern end of marco island and that's the last ones that are now just starting to clear out. and they will go through the calm eye, right over the top of them. i'm looking at the radar and there's a big red bright band right over the top of naples and there's one to the south. naples, you're next.

>> so, in the center of the eye, where you presumably will have the lowest pressure. >> correct. >> it's the part of the storm that most resembles a high pressure system here on earth. >> yes, that is where we have the air that is sinking. think of a hurricane as a machine. if all the air was shrinking, you wouldn't have thunderstorms. thunderstorms are rising air. it's natural to have around the largest thunderstorms, somewhere the air has to go down and that's where the center of the storm is. that's why it's called the calm eye, the center of the sinking air is. that's where the lowest pressure is. >> mark at the hurricane center is with us. it's a luxury to be able to talk to the national hurricane center at this point. mark, any surprises, anything that's happened that was not part of what you expected since we spoke to you last?

>> looks like it's continuing about what we expected. this system is just offshore marco island, naples area. we're seeing the very high winds, reports up to 130 miles per hour, so we're seeing the high winds. we haven't seen the high storm surge yet, but we feel that's coming soon. >> do you have any reports along the coastline of how quickly the water is coming in? some of the canals in places like marco island have been drained prior to the surge. >> yeah, i haven't seen any reports yet. we did get a report earlier from the naples area of the water actually receding by about four feet in the naples area. so that was a precursor to the offshore flow. when we get the onshore flow, we'll be expecting all that water to come rushing back in and also continue to rise over a very short period of time. >> it looks to us like marco island should all be now in the eye. is that what it looks like to you?

>> yes, it looks like the northern eyewall is just passing them. the exact center might go a little to the west of them, but they should be through that northern eyewall now or shortly. >> do you think we're still at a 3? >> our best estimate is, yes, it came ashore as a 3. a 3:00 estimate was 120 miles per hour. >> and how fast will it degrade, or is this the kind of storm that grabs its fuel from the warm waters off the coast and will keep its spin up to the florida-georgia line? >> in this case it depends a lot of the exact details of the track. you can see here if it moves inland from the naples area northward, it's likely that inner core part, the wind will start to decrease fairly rapidly. if it stays more offshore, it can stay a little stronger, but because the circulation is so big that we've seen the east

coast of florida have many reports of hurricane force gusts, we don't expect that to spin down very slowly, so we expect a significant wind event all the way up to northern florida. >> mark, thank you very much for joining us once again from the national hurricane center, where they are about as busy as anybody is in the country these days. we keep looking at these pictures from naples, florida. chris hayes made the point if you're familiar with palm trees that a lot of them have been topped. they've had their tops sheered. others have had the old growth torn off of them, and you see the new growth, the lighter green underneath. naples is of special concern because of the number of canals and lagoons. north of naples there are a number of communities. remember, it's not like this storm becomes less of a storm once it moves through marco island and naples.

there are so many communities on up the coast. among them, cape coral. mayor of cape coral, we looked at cape coral earlier. still aerial photo at all the lagoons and manmade cut waterways through cape coral. mayor, are you as ready as you're going to be? >> yeah, we are. i mean, i guess as much as you can be, we're prepared. but we have 400 miles of canals, and 122 square miles with 185,000 residents and 150,000 of them have been under mandatory evacuation. and, unfortunately, i'm not sure a lot of them, you know -- i'm not sure how many actually heeded that warning. >> what's your average seawall there, the average lagoon? >> oh, it varies, because we use the canal systems to manage our

flooding throughout the -- throughout, so we're reduced to the lowest they can, but i can't tell you. i just saw some images from our yacht club area, and it has already taken the water out, and my two-thirds of my city is under storm surge. so it's a pretty scary situation right now for us, the tenth largest city. >> isn't that about the spookiest image to see, your canals empty? >> yeah, well, i think it's more spooky knowing what's to come. and, you know, the anxiety that that brings to me and my residents. and my emergency personnel, who are absolutely phenomenal and trained in this kind of -- for this type of catastrophic event, but, you know, hope never happens. >> what percentage do you think of the construction in your community is up to post-andy

code? you know, up to two years ago, most of our homes have to be, i'll say, between 130 and 150. two years ago any home built within the last two years are at the 185. we have structures in our most vulnerable areas that are built so long ago, we can't be confident that structure will even be there when this is over. >> do you have any trailers within your town limits? >> we have one, only one. and so, no, that hasn't been the problem. the problem has been getting people to evacuate from those low-lying coastal high hazard areas. and, you know, at this point i think what's most heart breaking for me as mayor, we have, you know, suspended any emergency personnel from responding at this point, because the winds are so high. and we continue to get calls

from people who did not heed the warnings and they are in that area, and at this point, you know, we're just giving out a number for a welfare check for after. and, you know, as a may kror or city, that's something i never, ever have to -- no one ever wants to deal with that. my emergency personnel are trained and phenomenal. and so i know once this is all over, we're in great hands. it's just, you know, how do you calm your residents as they are going through it? >> i understand. i can hear the concern in your voice, and we join you in that, and we hope as many people as possible and as much of your town as possible rides this out and comes out the other side successfully. so good luck to you, okay? >> thank you very much, brian. >> all right. kerry sanders is in naples. kerry, just get sportier there?

>> i can hear you, barely. let me sort of take you through what's going on here with the winds. it's getting pretty rough. we've had the winds coming out of the west and they are shifting now and coming more out of the north because of the way the storm is circulating. pretty soon we're going to have those winds, because the eyewall is about right there, we're going to have the winds coming in from the gulf of mexico. as we look down the street here, you can see the trees are snapped and down on the street, but the way we positioned ourselves here is when the wind finally shifts coming on from the gulf of mexico, that's when we're going to see all that water potentially coming down the street. we're about three blocks from the beach. if you look down on the street, you can see all the palm fronds that are down. that's, of course, one of the dangers here. those things are heavy.

you can see where they are snapping off here. mother nature designed palm trees in the hurricane center, they handle well, but for the people living in this area and did not evacuate, it's pretty miserable. i did speak with somebody down in marco island a short time ago. he tells me that at this point he is at least with his wife holding her hand going through something miserable but feels safe in because he's three stories up. he hasn't seen the storm surge yet because he's inside with storm shutters down and he's not going to open up the doors. he think it's possible he's going to get out during the eye passing over, then he'll be able to take some pictures, but i told him don't risk it too much going outside, even in the eye, even though it's calm, you could

get caught flat footed. it happens really quickly and next thing you know, you're in the storm of 130 mile an hour winds, maybe 150 mile an hour gusts. as you know, the strongest winds are right there in the eyewall. brian? >> yeah, kerry, we're watching you on radar and bill karins is here with us. >> kerry, just got an official report of 115 mile per hour wind gusts at the naples airport. >> reporter: yeah, i got to tell you, naples airport is that way. the winds i'm feeling here at times are definitely exceeding that 115 miles an hour. if i could show a mirror to you right now, cameraman joe vasquez who is here, producer, carmen gonzalez who's almost like a football player holding him from lu losing his balance, and a team behind her all sort of stacked up to keep a steady picture here, so these winds, the gusts that are getting us really. >> kerry, you are now in the northern eye.

you have just entered into it, and it's about -- it's about five miles wide, so you've got about the next 30 minutes or so, 30 to 35 minutes of going through this, then you will clear into the center of this eye. >> reporter: okay, let me see. i don't want to put the camera in the water too much, but just look real quickly at that direction there. that's where the wind is coming from. it's sort of circulating and coming here. way off there you can see sort of the gusts are stronger over there, then we come over here and we catch what is the rain. actually, you know what, this is about the hardest rain that we've seen, as well. it really matches up with what you're talking about in terms of, like, we can barely see the buildings over there now. that's how strong the rain is. >> yeah, it's eerie, because we can see your red band on radar and you've covered so many of these, you know how it's going to change and you know when it's going to change. and if we can keep your camera position up, we've got to scoot

to a break. we will be able to see what passes for the eye of this storm. so, again, a quick break in our coverage. when we come back, our veteran correspondents, our meteorologist bill karins, the best possible team in storm coverage covering the biggest storm the state of florida has seen in generations. our coverage of irma will continue right after this.

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naples, florida, is about to experience the worst of the storm, the northern eyewall, that orange, red, the deep purple there with the lightning bolts you see. prior to experiencing the lightest weather this storm has to offer, and that is the eye of the storm. kerry sanders remains at his post on a multi-level parking garage. kerry, it looks like the bulk of the wind is just hitting you right now. >> reporter: moved to a different position where i could put the wind to my back. it's still very hard to hear you and you can see the wind gusts are extremely strong. as bill karins said, we're really feeling the eyewall here. the wind is shifting a little bit, which, of course, is the counterclockwise rotation of the storm, so as it continues to move north, we expect it to circle around and pretty soon

the wind will be coming directly at me if i were to continue to stay in this position. for the residents who wonder about how things look, i'm only in one little tiny snapshot on the fourth story looking down, but i could say as i gazed around, despite the fact i've seen trees snapped, palm fronds down, some palms are actually down, i have not seen any indication of serious roof damage. i haven't seen any indication of even a store sign being blown away, but we are beginning to feel, even though i have a lull right now, we are beginning to feel perhaps the strongest winds, as bill said, because we're right near the eyewall. so maybe too early to assess the damage because the real threat here is going to be that storm surge, but it's bad, but i expected to see actually more roof tiles, more roofs lifted off. at least at this point i have not seen that. >> well, a couple of things

here. >> reporter: quite frankly, as you can see on the camera, it's really hard to see through this driving rain. >> as the point you've made and you and i between us have covered a lot of these, no two of these are alike. there does come a moment where you feel that first gust from another direction. it has to happen some time, and it does happen gradually, but normally it's pretty apparent that it is turning a corner. kerry, finally, about andrew, it couldn't have been a more different storm. if the sheer wind strength of andrew made it look like the earth had just been sanded, bill karins has been saying correctly that only about 20% of the damage from this storm was going to be wind, that the headline from this storm is what's going to hit you there after the eye passes north. >> reporter: okay, kind of hard to follow with the wind noise, it's just actually incredible. i'm sure you can hear it on the

microphone when it blasts through here, but, yes, the wind damage is not going to be the leading cause of the damage that we see. and that's why as much as we have seen so far, it's what is yet to come that is the greatest concern. you know, and the people in marco island are dealing with it right now, we're about to see it here, and it's really a prelude for people who live up north, who live on the west coast in punta gorda, sarasota, and tampa. a tremendous amount of water is going to pump through here. we're going to see if it all goes as we expect it to, we're going to see the high tide and we're going to see the winds timed pretty close to the same time period, and when those winds start blowing in, we'll try to put our camera over the edge and see if we actually see that water rising. >> kerry, we have gotten official word from the national

hurricane center an official category 3 landfall on marco island. the second landfall, first on the lower keys this morning, now official landfall, category 3. >> reporter: the person i spoke to on marco island said that he felt comfortable, even though he was in what you described as a category 3 with his wife, but, you know, the drama is as much outside as it is for the people inside who can't see what is going on. the fire chief down there, chief murphy, is telling me that they are all locked in to what location. they feel safe, they have one building there they think will protect them and they are waiting now for that eyewall to pass over so they can maybe during the eye head out and help some people, but they are going to judge that at the moment of that. you know, i've got to say, i'm kind of surprised, but the cell phone signals are holding, we're able to continue to talk to people and text back and forth, which is a good sign. anybody who is inside who decided not to evacuate can feel

very lonely, but with a cell phone and able to text and maybe even post on the internet, they don't feel quite alone as they could be. wow, that's a heck of a wind there, guys. wow. >> kerry, you gave us a tour earlier and i don't want you to move around and give a tour. how protected are you compared to the trees behind you? >> yeah, you know, it can be deceptive, so i'm going to see if we can sort of show you by pulling the lens all the way out. first of all, as you look up, we've got a roof here, because we're on the fourth floor of a parking structure and that's four stories down, and then you can see that we have the columns here. we have the concrete wall here, and i'm going to see if -- we have a car parked right here. so if we parked a car here, this is our cameraman's car, we have a car here and now because the wind is shifted, when i move over here, i can hear you

perfectly and things are calm right here because i'm now protected and out of the wind. so if you've been following us on our coverage today, you may have noticed us sort of doing these sort of catty corner of different positions because we keep putting ourselves in a different place. you know what, people want to know how we're doing this, so i'm going to give you a behind the scenes. kay is our audio technician here, miserable, all wet, plastic gear and some of the gear has been coming in and out. >> absolutely, even carrying this thing at 27 pounds in the gust of wind, i'm hanging on like an anchor. >> you're doing an amazing job, so thank you. >> then as we turn around, we're going to show our producing team here that's behind the scenes here. we have sam, who is a cameraman, who's holding the light right now because it's kind of dark out here, we have audio technicians, producers here, so we have a pretty large team here, and then when i sort of

walk back out here, just to demonstrate, i walk back out and you'll see the difference in the sound and the difference in the visual of how this all comes together now in us trying to show and give a decent view of what's happening, but at the same time trying to not overextend ourselves in any way. but, honestly, there's a danger in everything that happens. we're just trying to use the proper caution with everything we're doing here. >> understood, kerry. your colleagues looked absolutely thrilled to be on camera. we're going to ask as you listen as we talk to a resident of naples. megan king dory standing by to talk to us. megan, you had no choice, you had to hunker through this thing. you're in a private dwelling. how old is the house and what's the house doing right now? >> the house is eight years old. it's category 3 rated. right now it doesn't sound that

great. >> is it creaking? are the windows bowing in? is anything moving? >> well, we have our windows boarded up with plywood and you can hear the plywood rattling on the windows. the house is rumbling a little bit, kind of similar to a very bad thunderstorm. but other than that it's okay. we haven't ventured out to the main area of the house, we've just been hanging out in the closet here for about an hour and a half. >> do you have power? >> we do not. we lost power at 12:30. >> you have a lot of company. 2.1 million floridians is the latest estimate. and that's just, you know, we're just trying to think of what this is going to be like in the days to come for you and all of your fellow citizens, but that many people without power is tough. who else is there with you? >> my two kids, my husband, and my two dogs are with me

actually. >> goodness. you have plenty of company. how are the dogs doing? they can usually sense low pressure very acutely. >> yeah, the dogs were not happy this morning and they've been very subdued this afternoon as it's gotten worse, but they are definitely staying close to us. they know, as you said. >> you're in what you think is the strongest point of the structure, and what kind of noise is the house making? >> the water noise from the rain has gotten increasingly bad. the trees, we can hear, we've got a couple of trees near the house that are kind of whipping up against the house, and just the rumbling and the shaking that we feel from the wind. >> and how are the kids doing? is this a big adventure? >> they think it's an adventure. they think it's a sleepover. luckily, they are young enough that they are not super scared. >> that's fantastic. that's the best. that means you've parented them

well through this, let's go with adventure. >> right. >> we hope everything comes out okay for you guys. it's very soon we're going to be able to say you've been through the worst of it. you look about midway through this band and as the doctors tell kids around the country, only going to hurt for a brief little bit and we're hoping you'll be okay. and soon you'll be able to tell the kids they are going to see something very rare, and that is the eye of the hurricane, when the rain calms down and the wind and the noise, only to pick back up again a little bit on the other side. thanks for talking to us, megan king dory, who's in naples, florida. with a few of her closest friends, children and canines and husband. so, kerry sanders, we're watching you get whipped.

we see gabe gutierrez, jacob soboroff. gabe, looking at you right now. what do you got? >> hey there, brian. we're here in downtown naples. this is it, isn't it? we are being slammed right now. we're trying to stay close to our hotel. my cameraman is under a canopy right now, surrounded by a concrete wall. i'm just a few feet away from him, trying not to get into the street, but as you can see, this is very heavy winds. no power here, obviously. we're about getting ready to get the worst of it, and it's just incredible thing to see the power of this storm as it comes onshore, just making landfall, as you said, on marco island a short way from here. we expect to possibly see that eyewall within the next few minutes, as well, but it is blinding right behind me.

thankfully, i'm being covered to my left a little bit by a tree, so the wind isn't hitting me directly, and still you can see behind me just this torrential rain, this pounding wind. we're not too far from the beach again, brian. saying, obviously, we're seeing the water pile up here from the rain. obviously, this is not storm surge yet, but it's expected to get much worse on that end once the back end of the storm hits us in a few hours. again, the concern is here that incredible storm surge that they are expecting. talking to locals, this is not something they've ever seen before. we spoke with one family that was trying to hunker down in their home. they were looking around and saying, wow, they did not think it would be this bad. they think they'll be just fine for now. again, the concern is in a few hours with that storm surge. >> oh, wow, gabe. >> i am feeling the winds really hitting. i think i'm going to head on in,

brian. >> okay, buddy, i understand that. >> by the minute it's getting worse. i'm coming on in. >> can't get worse than right now. >> they are in the middle of the northern eye. >> that zero visibility due to precipitation in the air. >> yeah, eyewall, the rain rates are that intense, yeah, visibility went really low there for a second. i have been saying throughout our coverage today, i think about maybe 20% of the total cost of problems will be from wind, about 80%. i am a little encouraged that this is the worst of the winds that we are going to see. of course, we still don't know what happened down in the keys too well, but as far as the west coast of florida is concerned, now we're down to 115, lowered it down. if we go any lower we're going to be down to a cat 2. the lower the winds, the less wind damage will happen. it's a simple equation. i'm encouraged we're not hearing about any extreme wind problems.

now, that's not going to help us with the storm surge at all, so it means less roof damage and maybe less trees, maybe power can get on instead of three weeks maybe in two weeks. that sort of equation. little glimmer of positive in this horrible situation. >> note the sandbags outside the entrance of the inn on 5th, while they have nothing to do with potential wind damage, and everything to do with storm surge. they may, indeed, be needed before this is over. but just look at that shot. zero visibility, not due to whiteout snow conditions, not due to fog, that's due to the amount of rain in the air falling between the camera lens and across the street. you will rarely on earth see it raining any heavier than that. seen it in the philippines just about that hard, but it will get your attention. jac jacob soboroff, i've been

watching you look up perhaps for a brightening. >> brightening and we hear the clanking of tiles. we've heard these tiles on the roof of this building that we're in starting to move around. i want to back up something you were saying a couple minutes ago. we're further inland in naples than kerry sanders and gabe gutierrez. we're starting to feel those winds, as well, but we're having that moment where you feel the direction of the wind shifting. we were feeling it earlier. you could almost see the winds and right now they seem to be going north to south and see the bands of rain going in this direction. then every now and then you feel this giant gust come up behind us from the west, from the florida gulf coast to the easterly direction. we're getting a huge gust right now, brian, and just looking out it's strange, because i hear you talking about zero visibility. almost as if in the change of direction we're starting to get more visibility and then less

just depending on which way the wind is going. brian? >> thank you, jay sob soboroff, over to kerry sanders. kerry, how's it doing? >> did he say he has more visibility? i can't believe we're that close and it's such a different storm where i am. goes to show how this changes almost block to block to block. i'm not sure how far jacob is from me. what i'm going to do for a moment is give you the atmospherics. when i get a good gust, i'm going to shut up and you can listen to what we're hearing, you can take in what people in their homes, what people inside their homes as we heard that woman, able to actually look outside, but actually hear the creepy, scary sounds that are accompanying irma. let's get a big strong gust here, probably if i hush up right now you'll hear it.

hours upon hours of that sound and it can really grade on you. >> back to viewers at home, we are not trying to indicate this is a storm that is about naples, florida, not trying to indicate naples will be the hardest hit, but we knew enough to preposition many of our correspondents and camera crews because we knew it was coming. kerry? >> yeah, we just had a major wind shift direction. almost like we were getting a tornado. that was a tremendous wind shift direction in a matter of a moment. we're still waiting for the wind to finish its turn as the eye

moves up. remember, it's a counterclockwise motion as the eye moves up, the wind begins to turn, and when the wind turns and starts coming as opposed to this direction, which i got to tell you, that really hurts to ta stand there and do that. i've got protective goggles on here, so just bassically ically is exposed. feels like sand. when the wind turns and we start -- wow. okay. hang on. yeah. is bill telling me by looking at the radar we're getting right to that eyewall? because this is the strongest stuff right now. >> kerry, you are smack in the middle of it. this is the worst. this is the worst, kerry. you are smack in the middle. >> definitely, definitely. >> you are six miles away from the eye. >> you can see the strength of it right now against me, i guess what we're going to see is the wind push the water in, and ideally because of our position,