us. what we're feeling here is the concern about tornadoes as well. there was a warning and a watch throughout the day today and last night. you can sometimes see wall clouds forming. some people have spotted a funnel cloud or two. but with the changing weather out here on atlantic coast, that's what the major concern is, is what about tornadoes. >> jo ling, what's the situation with the airports? you're near a private airport. obviously ft. lauderdale is a major airport near you. you're about 25 miles north of miami airport. what's the situation? >> reporter: well, the situation is the airports are closed. this private airport here -- ft. lauderdale airport is closed, of course. but this smaller airport is also completely shut down. what we have seen as some of these smaller airplanes airplaairplan, not the jets but smaller aircrafts, their doors have been blown open and some of these trees in the nearby area have fallen down on them. that's also what you're seeing on the streets as well.

those palm fronds flying around and a huge tree went down in front of a wendy's. animals even getting pretty confused about this weather. we've seen some squirrels and ducks be in places they probably shouldn't be in. all of this continues to change by the minute. but ft. lauderdale may not be in the eye of the storm, but we are feeling it. >> that's important to note. if we can show you the bands that are going around ft. lauderdale. we'll show you the bands of the storm. it's consistent around miami and ft. lauderdale. you're still getting winds and they're going to be gusts over here. take a look at this. this is the area that jo ling is in. you're still in that red band so the gusts are not going to let up for you for a while. that continues to be saltwater which is corrosive and dangerous and the mayor of ft. lauderdale was telling me earlier that flying debris and tornadoes continue to be a concern for him, along i-95 going in and through ft. lauderdale from miami. we've seen billboards with holes punched in them so that those billboards don't fly off and cause damage. but there is nobody on i-95 right now, which is good.

and frankly, there should be nobody around you either. jo ling, we'll check back with you in a moment. in plantation keys, florida, ga gadi schwartz has been standing by. what's the situation in plantation keys? >> reporter: we're starting to see the first of the devastation. behind me right here is basically the result of the storm surge coming up. you can see it going all the way down. people are coming out to survey the damage. then it just goes on over here. this is kind of a somber moment. pardon us here, but there is a boat and a gentleman here who lives at this mobile home park. we were talking to him a little bit earlier. sir, i'm just so sorry about what you're going through here. tell me, this is your home right across the street here. >> yeah. this is my home right here with the big trees on it. >> what have you seen in there? what's the situation? >> well, the farther you get to the water, the closer you get to the water, the worse it is. back in and around -- there are

two marinas. trailers are pretty well piled up. it is hard to tell which one is which. >> what we're seeing here, were these in people's houses? were niece in people's homes? >> this is debris that washed up with the surge. this is the water. this is the water line right here. we got up almost to the highway. what's happening down there was a combination probably of the surge moving them off the foundations, then the wind tossing them around. we h >> you just did kind aftof a qu look. >> i did a quick walk-through. i was staying up the street at a very sheltered house. tried to get here sooner but we had to cut through a lot of trees to get here. my phone is burning up with all the people that live here calling me asking if their home is here. and it's going to be hard talking to them. >> i can imagine. what's the assessment? how many homes do you think are gone? >> there's 100-some buildings in

here. i'd say all of them have suffered some damage. maybe 70% are totaled. >> 70%. >> maybe more. maybe even 80%. i mean they're so piled up, it is hard to tell. >> sir, i'm very, very sorry. so sorry. so sorry for what you guys are going through. >> well, we lived here knowing this could happen. you know? so this is maybe some of the price you pay to live on the water. >> is there any word on what's south of us? >> i have been out of touch. like i say, i've had my chainsaw in my hand cutting up palm trees just to get here. i heard the draw bridge is okay, but i'm not sure. there is a lot of rumors. but literally been out of contact. i haven't had time to answer the phone. >> thank you so much. our thoughts and prayers are with you. thank you so, so very much. so again, that's the first look that we're getting of the devastation here on basically florida's coast. this is going this way is going to be key largo. going that way is key west. and going up towards key largo,

the wind damage is basically what we've seen. going that way towards key west, we have not gone that way yet. but as we've been making our way south, things have been getting worse. >> just a second, gadi. i'm going to show folks where you are. you were in key largo. you were over here. you're now down around here. this map keeps on changing. i'm going to walk over to bill because he has a map of the keys just to give folks a sense of what's going on over here. this is important because this is the first visit that somebody has made back in to the keys to see what that damage is. >> i've seen pictures of houses on stilts with water up to that, like 14 feet. now we're seeing pictures of what that storm surge damage has done. that's what we are afraid of, now starting to develop around marco island and naples area because that water is quickly going up. i think at the top of this last hour i said it went up 5 feet.

now it is 6 1/2 feet. very quickly. so we continue to watch the water rise there. that's really the biggest concern. we thought we'd have these pictures. the wind damage we've seen all those pictures of what that's done. now we're starting to see the pictures of the storm surge. >> that's kind ever remarkable where gadi is. >> a lot of this stuff -- you had the wave action on top of it, too. the water just goes wherever it wants. >> gadi, i just want folks to see this. walk me through and tell me what you're seeing. >> reporter: so right here we're seeing refrigeratorrefrigerator. this is somebody's cell phone over leer. and a chair. that's a refrigerator that's open. that's people's food inside of there. we've seen people coming through. that's what they're looking for. see that red can? that's a gas can. so people that stayed here on the keys right now scavenging all of these areas looking for propane and looking for gasoline. because those are going to be

very hard to come by over the next few days. ali, the wind is starting to pick up again. it is starting to blow and debris is being thrown around so we're going to have to fall back to our suvs and probably head little bit south but we'll check back in with you in just a little bit. >> i understand. you get to safety as that wind picks up. is he getting the back end of this? i want to listen in to the weather channel for a moment while i catch up with bill on what's going on. jim cantore on the weather channel is reporting now. let's listen in. >> reporter: we're maybe a little southeast, brian, still. >> wow. jim is talking to the weather channel at the moment. he's not middle -- he may be in the middle of a conversation with them. that's ft. myers, florida. tell me, bill, where ft. myers is in the course of the storm. >> the last two stories we were

slowing you, the northern eyewall is now going through where jim cantore of the weather channel is located out there. our reporters in naples went through this same northern eyewall, went through bonita springs. it is weakening as it moves north but still capable of producing wind gusts up to 135 miles an hour. we got up to 142 in the naples area. at the same time, our reporter, gadi, was down here making his way down the keys. he's all the way down here where -- i was just looking where he was located. there's marathon. he may have passed key largo. he's located right here. remember it was raining pretty hard. he's in this little squall that's going through the southern edge of the circulation. >> so in theory they'll be clear in a little while. >> yes. he played it down to here. we saw how bad the damage is up here just north of islamorada. >> this is u.s. 1 all the way down here. >> if it's that bad up here, we

have to go all the way down the keys. >> this is where it came ashore, around there. >> it. didn't even -- this is where the center was and the worst is on the northeast side. i'm afraid to see what it is going to look like in marathon. >> we had 120-mile gusts measured. >> that was the highest gust until the 142 there in the naples area. >> cudjoe key is the official landfall. that was landfall. >> there's key west right there. >> this area could have sustained a great deal of damage. winds are much higher here than they were when we first saw gadi and we've seen boats and refrigerators. >> gadi's only made it down from key largo to right here. that's it. the center of the storm came onshore right about here. so this whole area from marathon to where he's located doesn't look pretty. >> i want to bring chuck lindsey, city manager for marathon, florida. chuck, you made a decision to get a little closer to the

mainland before you could evaluate what happened. have you had a chance to get back yet? we've just been watching gadi and it is not looking terrific. >> yeah, ali. we're on the move. we've got all of our emergency service personnel and county fire, we're just going tree by tree, pushing our way, getting back south. our objective right now is to get to marathon, get that airport open so we can start getting aid and assistance in and out of the middle keys. yeah. we made the decision to move our emergency personnel services up here and now we got to get back and we're pushing to get back as fast as we can. >> have you had any contact with anybody in marathon in the recent hours to find out what the situation looks like there? >> no, we're not getting -- we're not getting any -- very limited co mms from marathon south. i was able to talk to some of our folks that were down there

this morning. we were talking right before the eye had passed and we lost service and they had a really good plan because they knew -- we anticipated it would take us some time to get there. and they had a plan to start getting to the airport and working on the airport to get help to folks. >> all right. and how many people do you think stayed in marathon? >> we don't have a good calculation. if i had to guess, i would say maybe 10% of the community remained. it was really hard to tell. we had a really robust evacuation plan. we notified folks very, very early and we know that we've got a lot of people evacuated. we were very, very happy about that, but i don't really have a good number on who stayed. >> chuck, tell me what the plan is. you want to get that airplane open. is that so that you can get fixed-wing aircraft in or you want to get helicopters in? i'm showing our viewers right now on the screen, i'll show them where this airport is but you have an operating airport there. you don't know the condition of it right now. >> right. and it is really a couple

phases. we're still experiencing extremely high winds here in the upper keys which is surprising, but this storm is just moving very slow. we're all thinking about our families and everyone that evacuated up north that i know that are experiencing it so we're thinking about them as well. but first things first, right. we got to get the airport open enough to get rotary aircraft. once we get rotary aircraft in we can start moving. then we get the front-end loaders and start pushing to get the runway open for c-130 support that can help get us going if we need medical transport, we get aid assistance, whatever we need. the airports are going to be a hub for us right now, kind of our lifeline until -- >> no kidding. you can get c-130s into that airport? >> we can. we can. we can get c-130 support into marathon. no problem. it is an extremely long runway. >> we're looking at the runways now. i hope when you get there, it is going to be in good slahape.

bill, for chuck making their way down from key largo, he is saying there's still heavy winds over there. >> they're still going to get gusts throughout it the evening probably up to 50 miles an hour. this is the population area and this is the airport here. we haven't really heard about all the bridges that connect. what's accessible yet and what's not. they're cutting their way through. >> chuck, have you gotten to any bridges yet? >> yeah. listen, this is a really important point, ali. thank you for bringing it up. there's a lot of information that gets flown out there. some of it is accurate, some is inaccurate. there's been numerous reports that there's been bridges out. however, we've already confirmed that one bridge isn't. and so we want to be real careful what we push out about the brijdges. right now our intent is to get to marathon and put eyes on every single bridge and check along the way so we can get accurate information back to our emergency manager who's in the temporary eoc in key largo. >> chuck -- because everything you tell me goes out to the nation so we appreciate having

real eyes on. you are not -- it is not just marathon you are worried about right now. you're hunkered down with a bunch of officials from a few places in the central keys. right? >> yes. i apologize just to talk about mayor triathlon. we got everyone with us and we're checking and going along the way as we go. we're concerned about all of our families all throughout to the entire florida keys and the best message to get out to everybody is we're doing our absolute best and we're going to work all night long to get to everybody and get help. >> chuck, real credit to you and the decision making of your team to get out of there so that you can actually go back and do it the way you are doing it, in an orderly fashion. so thanks very much, cluck. stay in touch with us as you get eyes on things. please keep in close touch with us and we'll report that out so people know what to do. >> i think it is important for us to give a quick update. we spent so much attention on naples, that northern eye. it hasn't weakened that much and now it is over an even bigger city, right over the top of the ft. myers area. north ft. myers and cape coral.

this is the northern eye, right in here. that's the leading edge. >> just getting up to ft. myers now. >> that's the eyewall. that's where we still have the chance for significant wind damage that will still sound like the train outside your door. trees will come down. that's when you want to be in your shelters. areas around that, i can zoom in on. some of these small towns that are very close to this. there's ft. myers there. san carlo park. cap t captiva, winds are probably very strong. you're getting into the eye. >> i want to go back to ft. lauderdale. florida power and light is reporting over 2 1/2 million outages, power outages, up another half a million right now. total customers are 4.9 million. half of all florida electrical customers are out of energy right now. largest outages are in miami-dade, 888,000.

broward which is just north of miami-dade, 666,000. in palm beach county north of that, 458,000. right now all of the outages that are being reported are on the east coast. we know for a fact that there are outages because our reporters are telling us on the gulf coast of florida. so you know that 2 1/2 million number is going to go up. back to ft. lauderdale. jo ling kent, i hope that thing didn't fall on you. >> reporter: no. the reason you are seeing so many outages here in broward county and ft. lauderdale is because of wind gusts that are bringing down stop signs like this one. we have seen the wind continue to increase throughout the day, ali. that has resulted in some downed power lines. of course, these palm tree fronds, those major branches that those leaves flying through the streets here. we also want to show you here, there is a major mega church right next door here. it is called the cavalry church. and the wind brought down its

main sign. let's just walk right over here. that was brought down just a couple of hours ago. so you've got 600,000 people in broward county without power. they've all been under a curfew until tomorrow morning. broward county sheriff saying stay safe, get into the safest place in your home. because even though we are no the in the eye of the storm here, you can see that the damage is really starting to materialize in a different way here. we have seen some pretty significant downed trees as well, some flooding. we actually haven't even been able to get to the coast yet because those bridges are closed for safety reasons. but we have heard that there is significant flooding, subverged cars along the beach side now, ali. >> this is important. this sign is sort of telling us something that chris hayes and i were just talking about, and that is an after the saturation gets into the ground, it's going to take a lot less effort for poles, for signs, and for trees to be uprooted. the amount of wind that it would take ten hours ago to uproot a tree is now substantially lower because that ground is so wet.

>> reporter: yeah, absolutely. the ground is sopping wet. a lot of this ground on this street here we've actually seen covered in water and then it is no longer covered in water, then it is covered in water again. so that sogginess is definitely a real factor here. as this wind continues to pick up, we're getting hit with these outer bands. we may not be in the eye of the storm, but it certainly feels very serious. that's why folks are continuing to stay home. >> i want to just show people, jo ling -- stay safe. i want to go over here and show people about the fact that there are still hurricane warnings in all of this area. jo ling's over here south of melbourne, north of miami. over here. this whole area -- we were just talking to bill nelson in orlando. all of this is still under a hurricane warning. so remember, this is very, very serious. this is where you have to go to get into a tropical storm warning. atlanta. for the first time ever got a tropical storm warning. not a watch. a warning. atlanta, there's no water

anywhere around the place. they don't get these sorts of things. and atlanta is in a tropical storm warning. so this is important to understand how big this thing and how it is not done. it is going to hit the georgia coast. you're going to get into alabama over here and you've still got florida. not even anywhere clear of all of this. let's go to kristen dahlgren in ft. myers which is now getting -- seeing a pixelated picture here because it is actually pretty serious now. ft. myers is getting the back end of this storm. we're going to see if that picture comes through for us. kristen, can you hear me? >> reporter: yeah, i can hear you, ali. hopefully you can see us. you know the cell signals we have problems with during these storms around the winds now are just whipping. this is really the eyewall that we have been waiting for coming ashore. you can see what the winds are doing to these trees. keep in mind, we're inland a bit. so along the coast this is going to be even worse. take a look back leer. we've been talking so much about water and how that's a big

problem in hurricanes. so we have this standing water on the road here. this isn't storm surge. this is just the ground here is so saturated already that any rain, any water in some of these lower-lying areas, and you're getting water on roads like this. that could be very dangerous if people think they can head out. you don't want to drive through water like this. then of course, the storm surge as we go through the back half of this storm is going to be very dangerous, potentially deadly along the coast. so still a long night ahead for people here in ft. myers. >> a couple of key points you just made. first one that jo ling made. at these wind speeds, little things that otherwise won't be hurtful to you can be deadly. people die from signs and little things being shot around. the second thing is this is a storm surge which means it's going to come inland. it is going to go east, and then it is going to wash out west again. so you're going to get it twice. this isn't just a flood,

kristen -- you're getting blown around pretty well there. this isn't just water flooding. this is dangerous. if you think you're going to walk out in it and drive around in it, you have to know this is moving water which is more powerful than you and more powerful than your car. >> reporter: right, exactly. just so people don't think we're being careless here, one, we're out here so you don't have to be. but, look, i've got a baby at home. i'm not taking any advances. i know my husband's probably watching so i want to tell him, we're being really careful out here. we are by a big building here. so we're not even getting the worst of the winds towards us. we've been hiding out inside there a little bit to stay out of it. then i've got my producproducer aaron, who i am having watch for anything flying my way. that's just the smaller thinks but we are really aware of how dangerous this can be. >> one thing you have to be careful about because it is hard to see -- i'm glad aaron is out there keeping an eye for you -- tornadoes inside of a hurricane are about the worst combination

you can get. it is important to show our viewers that our reporters know what to do in the event that it gets harrier than it already is. it is a dangerous job anyway but you are always ready to take cover. never mind if i'm asking you questions, if it gets dangerous, just get inside and seek cover. kristen, i'll ask bill to yell it out at me. are they fully on the other side of this storm yet in ft. myers? >> no. they're just in the northern side. they just started. >> they just started the northern side. kristen's going to get the eye. >> she's in the northern eye right now. >> then it is going to calm down for a while for her. then she's going to get it again coming from the other side. >> then we'll worry about the storm surge this evening. >> kristen, you can hopefully get ready to relax for just a little bit. we'll have some good conversations about what's going on when you're there. but look at these pictures. is that ft. meyers? that's naples. all right. take a look. this is naples. they're getting the other side of the storm. >> that's the back edge of the storm. >> that's the wind coming from the other direction. coming from the east to the west. >> that's the wind that is pushing it.

that's the northern, jim cantore in northern portions of ft. myers. he is in the northern eyewall right now. >> let's listen to limb forhim second. >> how can you not see that? look at how bright it just got. wow. wow. >> what he's worried about is projectiles. >> yeah, no kidding. i'm worried for him. >> yeah, this is nuts. i've never seen that kind of brightening -- okay. that's that brightening and darkening, brightening and darkening. it looks like off to my northeast a little bit, it looks -- yeah, exactly. so off to my northeast, that's where the eye went. off to my south and west it is a little bit brighter here. so we're kind of -- you're

right, we're right at the edge, brian. right at the edge. wow, look at that. yes, it is. >> going to just show -- explain what's happening to jim. he is now the -- the eye is passed over. >> he's located in the ft. myers area. he was saying that he saw some brightening. he may actually be in between the bands. it does not look like -- ft. myers itself, the eye is still down here in bonita springs. he may have been in between this heavy band and a little break -- >> where he sees some sky and it looks like a relaxed -- >> he's not in it yet. this is the strongest winds with the storm that is left. the storm is further inland. we were thinking earlier of this track could be a little bit further off the coast, maybe over the water. it is now going to remain onshore for its duration, all

the way up until areas -- until it gets into georgia. that means it is a weaker storm for people to the north. tampa, this is better for you. inland storm, the storm surge maybe a little bit less. so this trend inland, a little shift to the east -- >> a little bit of a blessing. >> especially for our friends tampa and north wards. the storm will be weaker by the time it gets to you. we saw how strong it was naples, marco beach and bonita springs and even port charlotte, heading into sarasota, this trend further east means less damage for you. but you will still get the storm surge. that hasn't changed. >> right. that's important for people to remember. bill, hang on for a few minutes. are we going to take a break or not? you and i have been in this all day. when we come back, for those of you who are watching, we're going to reset this, tell you what's happened, where it is going, where it is right now, when we come back. you are watching continuing coverage of hurricane irma on msnbc. stay with us.

mpb we're here and directly above me, i am covered. this is the rain that's hitting me -- wow. >> why don't you get under the overhang there, buddy. >> it's a good thing. it's a good thing i was covered, brian. welcome back to msnbc. i'm ali velshi. our non-stop coverage of hurricane irma, a very, very serious storm, continues. i'm going to give you the full track, tell you all the information. but here's what you need to

know. almost half, maybe even more than half, of all florida customers are without power right now. this thing still hasn't worked its way through some major, major population centers in florida. these are your storm surge warnings. you still have to worry about this. it is not nearly as serious on the east coast, southeastern coast, atlantic coast of the florida but there is some serious weather there and we'll take you there to show you how serious it is and a lot of damage. here in the keys we've still got a lot of damage. our reporters are starting to move their way into the keys to see the kind of damage. but we've still got high storm surges and heavy winds. this is where the storm is now. just about to hit ft. myers. it came aboard at marco island. the issue is what happened at ft. myers. will it weaken because it is over land as it gets toward tampa which is the biggest population center on the west coast of florida, the gulf coast of florida. these areas are still under hurricane warnings. we've got tropical storm warnings going all the way north now to atlanta, into parts of alabama. so that's going to be serious as well. let me come over here to bill

karins who is going to tell us with be for folks who haven't been following this as much as you and i have. >> three things threaten lives right now. the storm surge is coming in, the northern eyewall over the top of ft. myers and we have numerous tornadoes that keep coming in to areas on the east coast. it is not safe yet for people from melbourne area to space coast, ft. pierce, jupiter, all the way down through west palm beach and ft. lauderdale, miami and even the keys. you kind of want to get out? you think the storm's way past? we still have the threat of tornadoes and tropical storm gusts coming in. the biggest question mark, we know we'll have a chance for isolated tornadoes the next 24 hours. we know the northern eyewall is going to go up through sarasota and towards tampa and weaken a little bit as it does. what we are not sure of is just how bad this tidal surge is going to be. this graph, very boring, but there is really important. >> yes. >> this right here shows you how high the water is right now in

naples. the last reading. this blue line is where you are typically at high tide, low tide, high tide, low tide. this goes over a couple days here and over time. this is where the water is supposed to be at a normal high tide. right now the water is up here. this is the storm surge. the water right now is up about three feet higher than normal at even high tide. >> this is in a very, very short period of time. >> this shows you at the last low tide right here, the water blew out as the storm was approaching with an offshore wind. >> at 12:30 the water level was 2 1/2 feet below normal. >> right. and so that water was down negative five. so we've gone from about -- that water has risen eight feet in literally two hours. that water is quickly moving in. so far that storm surge has been about three feet in the -- >> higher than where it should be at this level. >> -- should be at the normal tide. >> but now tides are going down. >> tides are going down so that helps a little bit.

with the forecast is 10 to 15. so if we get that 10 to 15, this line, they're going to have to -- we'd be up here. that's what we're waiting to see. we're waiting to see how bad and what happens in naples is what's going to happen the rest of the way up the coast. >> you're like a financial journalist. your most boring chart is the most important one. >> this is what is going to change everything else. this map shows you how astronomically huge this storm is. the yellow shows the tropical storm winds that are now up here in flagler county and heading into st. augustine, this red means you have the potential for hurricane gusts. >> i want people to understand this. this is florida. this is the peninsula. miami and tampa are both in hurricane-force winds, tropical force winds. >> potential for hurricane force gusts. that's just huge. even the keys are still in the -- almost all the way down to cuba they still have a chance for tropical storms. it is going to be a long time. that's why it is not safe yet.

they're starting to wander around down there in the keys but every now and then you'll get a squall going that will slap you pretty good. of course, if we have a lot of considerable wind damage that's still taking place, there it is. there is still really intense rain and thunderstorms. this area is the northern eye. that's still into the ft. myers area. that's shifting north. this was a good trend for the storm not to go right along the coast. >> it loses its energy if it is going on land. >> over land. this will also mean some stronger winds are potential in areas like orlando and towards the disney complex, the south side of town there as we head towards lake county. we'll continue to monitor this, because that's life threatening. the tornadoes. as soon as i get more information, that storm surge updates, i'll let you know. >> i'm going to ask the control room to put up the tampa -- we've got the mayor there. i want to put the tampa flood zones into here, please, so when the mayor talks about them we can show them to the folks.

mayor, good to see you in person. little bit of good news from bill there, that this thing will have some chance to weaken before it comes to you. and you're going to be needing to send cakes and flowers to folks in towns south of you for wearing some of that energy out. but it is still going to get there and you are still going to get that storm surge. your low-lying areas are going to get a lot of water. >> we are indeed, ali. although we are thankful that the storm that is slowed and minimized a little bit, we are planning as if it were going to be a cat 3 coming through full force. we can't afford to let our guard down. i mean this is serious stuff. we've watched these things wobble back and forth, we've watched them dissipate, we watch them pick up strength. we are assuming the worst and we are planning for the worst. that surge is going to be what's going to make a difference here in tampa. the low-lying areas around our downtown, my house included, have been in level a flood zone, ordered to evacuate as of 48 hours ago. >> mayor, i'm looking at the map

here with my audience. this is the map of tampa, the legends here is that the level a that you are talking about is the mandatory evacuation zone. there's nothing surprising to anybody who doesn't know tampa, right? level a is the stuff that touches the water. >> that is exactly correct. all the way around the county. >> so you have not asked for any more evacuations than that. does that mean that if somebody has moved to level b, level c, level d, that they're generally going to be safe? >> we hope so. certainly that's where my family is. we think they will be fine. it is the level a residence that we were concerned about primarily. >> tell me about the power and the gas situation. >> well, power and gas we're seeing sporadic power outages. we're having some issues with one of our water plants as a result of some power outages. the gas, the availability seems to be okay. although we don't know for sure once you get outside the city limits. we anticipate there will be trees down. there will be power outages as this storm comes through. what i am concerned about is

power to our plants because that affects our ability on the storm water and waste water side of the equations. >> you've got -- florida power and light has 5 million-plus customers in florida which 2 1/2 seem to be out of power right now. we've got to tell folks in and around tampa that while this thing may, we are hoping, continue to weaken as it heads toward you, it is still not safe for people to be wandering around. >> no, it's not, ali. our provider is tampa electric company, which has been a great partner for us over the years. we anticipate that return will be seamless. it may take a little while but it will be seamless. but absolutely right, you shouldn't be wandering around downtown. we've imposed a curfew as of 6:00 tonight on residents of the city of tampa, not the unincorporated county. we'll keep curfew in place until we are able to get through with our clearing teams, make sure that there are no live wires, make sure that there are no trees down. anybody who thinks that they're coming in to loot or burglarize,

we have a whole nother story for you. >> no kidding. mayor, tell me what you are worried about right now, given all the planning you have done. you and i have been talking about this for the last several days. given all the hard work that's been done right now, what worries you right now? >> you just never know. you have to be able to adapt and react quickly. the fog of war, if you will, is when plans can get thrown out of the window pretty quickly. we are pretty confident. i'm confident if the people that are here behind me. we're ready to go. we're waiting for this storm to blow through. then we're going to hit the streets hard to make sure our friends and our neighbors and our community is safe and that they can get back to their lives. >> mayor, we are thankful that you continue to keep in touch with us. everything you say goes out to our audiences so they can tell their frents aiends and family r area to stay safe. mayor bob buckhorn of tampa. we'll stay in close touch with him. see some of these pictures over here from the weather channel? we've been getting video like this all day.

these guys are animals. i just want to show you some of the stuff that's been going on. the weather channel's been doing, and other video we've been getting from our own reporters. i want to go over to cal perry who ebeen monitoring that for us. my old friend, cal, we actually brought him back in here. he's working in london now but we needed you to come in and tell us about some of the remarkable, rackable video that we've been seeing from around this storm. >> you've been talking about it for 24 hours. tornadoes. especially whether it's dark, much more dangerous. you've been talking about the weather channel. mike bettes a couple of hours ago was doing a live shot on our air. roll the video. watch lined him what sweeps past him and catches him almost off his feet. watch this. it's coming. when you think -- roll back the top. watch behind him here. there it is. that's the danger right now across the state of florida. we can rack that one baltimore time. you will see this thing almost sweeps him off his feet. this has gone viral now online.

almost sweeps him off his feet. here is comes on the sidewalk behind him. there it is. this is the concern now as darkness falls. >> because you can't see that coming. >> you can't see it. you go out, you look for damage, a tornado, you can't see it, and it turns everything into those flying projectiles. >> things that are nothing. our cities, our developed cities, are full of "things" that you wouldn't pay attention to. kerry sanders always points out, coconuts on these palm trees are now weapons. >> the other thing that happens, people go out before the storm and think i'll cut down all of the limbs to the trees hanging over my house so they don't go into my roof. that becomes shrapnel. just sitting in your front yard, wind picks it up and throws it around. >> you've been following a lot of the disaster in the rest of the caribbean. by the way, some of those places were so hard hit by this storm that it is going to be months to years for their recovery,buarbu. u.s. virgin islands. we're having trouble getting

good communications out of cuba, out of u.s. virgin islands where there is immense damage. >> we owe cuba a big thank you because that's what really weakened this storm from a 5 to a 4, then to a 3. cuba we're seeing waist-high water, especially in northern cuba. again, very difficult to get transmission out of there. other thing to be aware of in the caribbean is there is another hurricane coming. hurricane jose. a lot of people don't have cell phones, internet or access to broadcasts like this so governments are very concerned. >> cal, thanks for that. now back to naples, florida. this is the serious part of there. naples is about to get the other end of the storm. kerry sanders has been there for us and judging by the way he is holding on to his hood, looks like the other side of the storm has begun to reach you, kerry sanders. >> reporter: it's actually to hear you in the tremendous sound. i've got the earpieces in my ear to hear you. let me sort of describe what's going on here in naples. okay? so if you've been watching us during the day, you've seen the wind coming from a completely

different direction. it was blowing from the east to the west. now the eye passed over us. it was a glorious quiet moment that we all enjoyed. but now we are on the back side of the storm where the winds may be less than the 131-mile gusts that we've experienced. but it is coming directly from the west. the reason this is the most important part of a storm for the residents of naples is because, as we've seen these pictures of the water that had dried up and the boats and their -- sailing boats on their keels and the manatee without any water, the gulf of mexico is now being driven back in. it will take some time, but in a couple of hours, it may be less, we'll continue to see the storm surge making its way maybe even down this street. i'm not sure whether we'll have light when this happens because there is no real sort of

timetable on it. but that's how the storm surge will work. and it could be upwards of 15 feet. so all the homes that you see over there will be inundated if a storm surge comes ashore as we believe it will. and of course, we saw what happened in miami. again, that is the water being driven by the wind. and so you can just tell by me standing here, ali, with the flapping of everything and what you probably hear -- listen for a second -- >> yeah. pretty severe. kerry, earlier today you said something which was interesting. you are not looking at this just to get excited by it. you were hoping that we would see while there was still daylight that storm surge. because the service that would be to viewers across america, to understand the power of a storm surge as it comes in is really, really important. because those streets have no water on them. they could have 15 feet. >> reporter: ali, it is a really hard thing to capture on camera because you put yourself in jeopardy if you go to the beach.

i mean this stuff comes in quickly, it can capture you, it can cawash you away. you're not exactly where the storm surge is going to happen so you can't pre-position a remote camera. it is just a hard thing to capture. but when it happens, it is sort of the reverse of what we have seen in these images of the dryness, the canals that went dry, parts of tampa bay that went dry. people are scratching their heads going, how curious. i think that the flip side of that where the water comes in, if this all happens while we have daylight, i think it will be the most instructive part of understanding the power of a storm surge during a hurricane for the future. because people don't understand it and i guess we will see the 15 feet of water or something -- >> don't put yourself in danger to get it but i want your cameraman to just show us over your right shoulder. there is a pool of standing water. now you can go into a pool of standing water up to your waist, up to your chest and you'll be fine. the difference between a pool of standing water and a surge, you

might be getting 15 feet of surge, is that 15 inches of surge will knock you off your feet. six inches of surge will knock you off your feet. 15 inches of surge will take your car away. >> reporter: so, ali, if i'm following -- it is a little noisy out here, you're right, that's a puddle out here. that's rain water. weaver's had some incredible driving rain here today. they said that this storm might be carrying upwards of 20 to 22 inches of rain. i felt we probably saw that. we don't have a monitor. but it's been a stinging day of rain in the face and everything else. but that water right there, while you wouldn't want to necessarily drive through it, it is not the storm surge. the storm surge is moving water and it comes in. i saw it during matthew and i got to say, it is so much of what is in the water as the water itself. there is so much in our gulf of mexico here, so much in our nation's oceans. driftwood. sometimes as big as a telephone pole. when that's moving through there, you get hit, it will

break your leg, it will take you down, or worse. so it's mother nature's power. you cannot push back water. water wins every time. >> nobody really has a sense of the weight of water. kerry, just to be clear, just to reposition yourself, those buildings behind you, that line of buildings, is that the coast? is that the ocean? >> reporter: okay. that's the gulf of mexico. so what you have is -- whoa. we're here in a parking structure. we're about three blocks from the gulf of mexico. those are some of the condos and hotels right here in naples. popular place for tourists. just beyond there is where the gulf of mexico is, and that's beautiful beaches, except for today. it's where the storm is beginning to push that water ashore. again, i noted that we're pretty close to high tide. so it really adds to the problem. >> kerry, this is bill karins. just so that a lot of people north of you, up around sarasota

and tampa and ft. myers, they want to know what percentage is the southern half of the eye compared to that northern eyewall. because they want to know what they're going to go through after the center passes. >> reporter: okay. so if i follow, again, it is noisy, i think you said folks north of here, up in ft. myers are probably already beginning to experience some of the eyewall, i would think, at this point. then sarasota, and then further up into tampa. the strength of the wind is, at least for us, we had it at 131 miles an hour. that's what was calculated. could have been stronger. some of the gusts certainly felt like that. the items that are left in somebody's yard that become airborne, we saw tree limbs flying around in that. we see not too far in the distance here roof tiles that have come off, the paper underneath that has revealed the wood so there's probably some leaks now in people's homes.

we have not seen so much damage where a roof has been pulled off, but -- >> kerry -- >> reporter: it is important to note that the construction you are looking at here is relatively new. if you get into a home that was built in the '80s especially, because it was in the '80s when there was a lot of lax construction standards in this state. we may find that some of those roofs at 130-plus miles an hour just lift right off. >> kerry, how would you say the back side winds have been ? since you have cleared the eye, how have the winds been on the back side of the storm? >> they have been less. quite frankly, i'm getting buffeted and i'm exlofted. we've spent a lot of time out here today. it is hard for me to say these are not strong winds. >> it is exhausting. >> reporter: they're not as strong. look, i'm tired. >> you've been pushed by this heavy wind all day. >> the thing that's so valuable about what kerry is doing, he told me that below him on the

street was an elevation of six feet from the ocean. the storm surge is now, kerry, the latest is three feet. so now the water level is up three feet higher than what you'd normally expect at high tide. we still have three more feet to go. we're trying to see how bad the storm surge is. is it going to be as bad as predicted. they said it would be two to three hours after the eye went through. kerry, how long would you say it's been since the eye went over you? >> reporter: well, i think that we're talking about almost an hour now since the eye has passed through here. so that's in the calculation, in about three hours. if you go a little bit further south of us, you can go down to everglade city. that's even beyond marco island. that's a ghost town there. the water being driven in there, if we were able to be there, is probably where we would have seen the highest 15-foot storm surge. the reason for that is the residents have their homes up on stilts. they know what can happen in a storm. so that whole community after many, many, many years of

rebuilding just about every house there now is rebuilt on stilts. >> let's go over here and just show people what kerry was just talking about. this is the area he was talking about. >> predictions are for 10 to 15 feet of possible storm surge. >> that's where he was. >> that's the live picture that is we have. that's where kerry is, if he's at 6 feet, we'll have water moving a couple miles in land. he's kind of located of this, he's right here. >> reporter: so this is what is expected from fort myers. the river is a large river, body of water, it is going to see this water drooi ive up. i am not on fort myers beach, i am in land. no, that does not mean you are going to be okay.

the same effect by wind and p n pushing in land so the flooding is similar there as it will be right along the island. ju >> the idea that when you are in the eye is much calmer and he's on the backside of the storm. the backside is much easier than the northern eye wall. it is not as bad as it gets for him or is it getting worst? it is slowing weaker and weaker, the winds are not much of an issue anymore. you know we still got this really significant band that's up here that's heading towards port charlotte. we are starting to move actually through port charlotte and sarasota. in the northern eye kind of what's left down here, where the center of the storm is, this will be considered the eye and it is a dirty eye now.

this ban hd has the highest win of the storm right now. >> fort myers is getting the most. it is starting to shift north of fort myers. the storm is weakening, which is good. we'll have to see how many problems we have there with the wind damage. this is a few of the storm packed that took through the keys and wiggled its way here. >> we are focusing so much on this, that's where the most extreme winds were. now that this is starting to weaken, we can widen our perspective and bringing a lot of people that have a lot of interests. this wind gusts of 72 miles per hour. that's palm beach, that's no joke. they have the tornado threat on the coast here. a lot of these gauges stop working. >> miami had about 94 miles per hour. >> it was nearly 109. >> all right. let me go back, give kerry a

break a few minutes. lets go over here, sam champion who's been standing in the wind all day. sam, this is important to discuss, you know we are trying to carry a few thoughts at the same time. winds gusting around you guys. and i think they put up some big wind gusts for you. naples of 142 and marco island is 130 and we have the 90 miles per hour gust that took the first crane down in downtown miami. bill, we have some models for what we expect from the winds here over the next few hours. i don't know if you guys went through that or not. >> bill, pull that up.

lets pull the models for the win winds. >> 8:00 p.m. on sunday. >> reporter: you see it right now? by about 8:00 p.m. on sunday night, you can see where we are looking at the 94 miles per hour around sarasota. how marco island have dropped down to 79 but still above hurricane strengths. i was surprised how long the wind stayed up here, how long those bands repeating the powerful gusts up here. now around midnight. you still have sarasota about 88 miles per hour. marco coming down about 55 miles per hour at that point. all the way to the other side of west palm beach. at midnight so this thing is still, this huge widely spread field of red, lets see what else we got. we got about an 8:00 p.m. producti prediction here.

>> how about georgia? >> reporter: 62 miles per hour. >> finally the winds towards orlando and south florida's coming down a little bit. this thing is pushing winds all over the state all night long. >> again, while we warn people on the gulf coast of florida, that surge, deceptive surge that looked like the opposite of the surge today, it is going to be a dangerous part. we don't want to lose site of other important matters, you are goic going to have a lot of winds, they still have tornado watches and warnings in certain places. tornados are definitely possible tonight. and still with these winds, this is the power lines down and trees down. the totals we are seeing for power outages have been central

florida south. so we are seeing that off of georgia, wind speeds about 62 miles per hour. trees down for power lines. we have florida power likely channel south florida, electric that had about 5 million customers and half of them are out of power right now. other parts of florida use other utility. lets take a look over here. the storm is around here, around fort myers and naples. i want to go to jacob soboroff who's in naples right now, what's it look like to you right now? >> reporter: it is literally hitting us from the backside, about four miles behind me is the gulf of mexico, the border gulf coast, the storm surge is co coming right up to us, for much

of today, we did not feel the full effect from the winds. we were hunkered down between two concrete walls. it is hitting us directly from behind us today. picking them up right off this roof and throwing they will all over the place. we had to get down, actually taking cover, hey, it is important for everybody out there to know. the winds is picking up strong and picking up quickly. it is going to push the storm surge in. kerry going out there and taking a look at palm trees, look at the debris down in your front yard and chris hayes was with you a little while ago, now, it is not the time to go out there. you have got to wait out the storm, over night and let it get dark and let the sun come out tomorrow. you are going to survey your damage. again, you are feeling how strong, taking up close and

picking up those blinds in front of cameras from right inside our room alley. as i turn around, this is the first time today, we have seen these palm trees swinging this direction directly towards us verses basically the inverted umbrella look. >> your winds is changing. you are towards the backside of the storm. you are not actually in it yet. that's the interesting thing. you are going to get more winds, you still have the back end of the eye going over you. it is going to get windier than it is right now. how does it feel compare to the front end of the eye, what would that be, two hours ago? >> reporter: ali, strangely, we are in the back end of the eye and it is coming up now, the visibilities is pretty good. four miles from here is the florida gulf coast.

it is actually remarkably clear visibility right now and given how blind it was earlier. you are asking me what it was like and now it was a couple hours ago. before we had the eye and which we basically had drizzle and a remarkable thing. it was almost white out conditions and as if you were looking out snow from a blizzard and rain wind was coming in and now strong gust of winds with all the dry and rain that we have seen before. i feel like any of the moistures that we are getting right now is blown up of these trees and coming up from the ground. feels like we got much stronger winds. >> jacob, you take coverage for a while, i am going to go to kristen, it is important to understand that jacob and kristen is on the opposite side of the eye. jacob is now getting the backside of the storm.

the winds from the other direction and kristen is on the topside of it. have i lost kristen, is she still there? we are trying to get down to kristen, i hear her voice. >> sorry, ali, we are having some trouble with our camera obviously. it is been getting rained on, are we good, brad? >> lets head back out and we can show you here what's going on. it has not slowed at all. we are still, i am just always checking. >> yeah, you watch and be careful. you know, you can see how this is whipping here and if you look back that way, we are seeing more and more branches coming do down, this eye wall is coming through fort myers here and we are just still getting the rain and the wind through all of this, so no sign of letting up at all. we were looking forward to