tonight. we appreciate it. al roquer from the rainy, windy streets of tampa. >> al has been doing this a long time. he has a very good feel. he has been right in forecasts. he has been wrong in forecasts. he has a really good feel for not getting too excited when the line was over miami, when the lines shifted to tampa. the focus on that cone, the probability cone instead of the red line on the maps. some meteorologists argue you shouldn't put the red line on the maps. you can't help but to be drawn and stare right at that red line. the red line is over me. that's horrible. the hurricane center gives us the center points. maybe we shouldn't. maybe we should. >> to know it and not broadcast it, we would feel strange doing that tire, we would. now we're at the top of the hour. we're here back up at 10:00. and i want to kind of just walk you through here and just give you a view. i just put this imagery up. we called this our satellite in

radar composite. and the white shows you the cloud cover shield, which still goes from cuba all the way to clouds now. if you walk outside in north carolina and look up in the sky, those are the clouds from irma far to your south. the green shows you the rain shield. all the way now approaching central sections of georgia and south carolina. and we still have rain bands down there in the florida straits. i can estimate it would take me about 15 hours to drive that far, to go all the way through this storm. this is the eye of the center as it made landfall, as we went throughout the 4:00 hour near marco island. and now it still hasn't even reached the i-4 corridor here. it's taking its sweet time. i want to point out we still have tornado warnings in effect. one is for the titusville area. look at this outer band. it comes up approaching areas in the bahamas. it comes back up into the space coast. and there is probably 70 miles per hour wind gusts like that. we had a tornado warnings with this band as it's moving

onshore. so my friends that are up here in d-back, new smyrna beach, you're next with that heavy band. that's going to have significant power outages with it and the possibility of tornadoes. so you want to get to your safe place if you're volusia county and flagler county as that band heads north. and then we're going to continue to track the eye there in center of the storm. we were talking about the orlando area, lakeland. these are the areas who will be next to go through the really heavy stuff there in that northern portion that of eye, of what's left of the eye. it's still maintaining itself pretty good. the one thing i was noticing, brian, on the maps here was the up to the north here so, if we got i-4 here, here is hane city down toward wards through polk county. towards the eye of fort immediate, bowling green. look at this thunderstorm that still is with us here in the northern eye. this is intense convection. florida is very flat. the friction doesn't affect the storm as much as say areas that

were hilly or mountainous. plus florida has been soaked with all this rain. this is still a very intense they're we could have 100 miles per hour wind gusts in. and that is heading north wards in. everyone in orlando is looking at that eye, what we have of it. you want this to weaken more. it's still regenerating thunderstorms in that northeast quadrant. and wherever that cross is, somewhere between tampa and orlando, probably right in the middle, maybe even close to the disney complex, you will get significant wind damage out of that. >> bill, i'm amazed at a point you just made. the size and scope of this thing. you've got that squall line that as you pointed out starts -- starts in the florida keys, goes pretty much the geographic length of the peninsula of florida. what an incredible reach. and by the way, it travels, picking up fresh fuel, warm atlantic waters on its way. than that's amazing. that is one heck of a squall that is still approaching the bahamas. and going to move up through

northern florida. we've already had numerous tornadoes. we know we just had the one interview. but they say 20 buildings had their roofs torn off in brevard county near the palm bay area. and that band can cause a lot of problems as it goes up the coast. we've got the intense winds still with the eye. and then we've just got this huge wind field of tropical storm and hurricane-force winds, brian, that is going to cause problems through the night. we're almost up to four million people without power, or approaching that number. and that number is going to grow. it's not going to -- those power crews, i don't know, is cal still with us? we were talking earlier about how we're going to need so much help from other states and these agreements. this nice lady in indiana sent me this video, cal. you can throw it up whatever we do have it. is there convoys of these power crews from other states that have agreements with florida.

and they are all heading toward the sunshine state. watch how long this video goes. these are all the crews that are leaving the families far, far away. this is indiana. >> indiana. >> and they're getting in these convoys and they're heading south. and they'll probably be down there away from their family two, three, four weeks. >> there is a power official tonight that guessed that putting the lights back in southern florida would amount to the de facto rebuilding of the power grid in southern florida. we have millions of people without power right now. >> and getting it back up. we haven't talked a lot about it. but we got a lot of people struggling around houston. we've got people there that still need help. the beaumont area in port arthur, you have the water is receded. but there is still a lot of people there that still need a ton of help too. >> the control room can go to

the radar again for the orlando area, i just want to point out one feature. that folks unfamiliar with florida may not know. when we look at orlando and then to the right, when we talk about places like titusville, what we call the space coast, when you're nasa back in the 1950s looking at the best place to shoot off a rocket, eventually to the moon, you're going to pick this place that juts out from the coast of florida for safety reasons. and to keep it away from land. if you're living out there on the space coast tonight and in a lot of past hurricanes, you're feeling awfully vulnerable out there as in often that little jut is often the first place weather arrives. >> that area took it really hard. when we talk back to the gene and the francis, that area hit that area especially hard there on the space coast and just south of there down towards

indian river. and i'm sure that they're impressed. that people that have lived there for a long time that have dealt with matthew last year and then the scare from floyd previously, you know. >> yeah. when i think of the space coast, i think of gene. but everybody has their different weather memories. let's go briefly to the weather channel. we're going get an update from miami. but i want to show you what a 46-miles-an-hour gust looks like in tampa, florida. >> with how large of a storm this is. but not only that, the wind associated with this, and how far reaching from miami to the keys, up to j. here in tampa, getting over hurricane-force gusts at times. and pretty much this whole state of florida dealing with a wind tunnel effect. just strong winds across the state, even 100-miles-per-hour gust there's off the east coast. we're here in tampa, and the winds have really been ramping up over the last hour or two. a lot of people are now losing power here with tampa electric and then duke energy over in

pinellas county. and keep in mind if the winds have now gotten to the point where it is unsafe for local law enforcement to go out and help you if that were the case. so keep in mind, you're kind of on your own right now until the weather settles down. so hunker down, stay safe. and don't get yourself in a predicament because the law enforcement, the fire department, the police, they're not going to be able to risk their lives to go out and make these calls, until winds start to subside which is going to be a long time for now. again, the winds only getting stronger. and the rain has been coming down. we're going to see minor flooding here. nothing like what we saw in harvey. keep in mind 5 to 8 inches on top of already wet ground, that can do a lot of damage and cause issues, especially in areas that are typical flood-prone zones. if you live near a area and you watch the water rise in a heavy thunderstorm, that's going to be expected areas that will flood, especially since even here around our hotel, we've been noticing ponding on the

sidewalks about 5 inches. and there has been reports in pinellas county of the water coming up because of the shifting winds as the center of the storm continues to push up the middle of the state. now it's likely going to pass to our east. so we won't get in the center. >> i just want to show you again, the weather coverage channel coverage goes on 24/7. they have people dispatched across the state. and as far as we can tell, none of their employees ever sleep. if you were filming a hollywood movie about a hurricane, you would have a ladder and a big fan and buckets of water, if not a fire hose that you were fire into the fan, and it would look just like that scene. but this set to say for all the fake news advocates is so real. and it's the sign of a massive storm that is still proving its strength and vitality tonight in this endless supply of water. speaking of that, to the

atlantic coast we go. the southern tip of the state of florida. maya rodriguez remains in dark and highly flooded miami. maya? >> reporter: yeah, brian. i wanted to give you sort of a sense of how that storm surge affected the downtown area of miami. this is the brickle area. as you know, the biscayne bay is right behind me. it's about three blocksiest east of me as we walk away from brickle avenue, the water keeps going. this is an alleyway that actually connects to the next parallel street. and it is just loaded with water here. what actually caught my eye here is the fact that i saw the reflection of the water on a back wall down the alley. i thought let me go take a look at that. is that a pool maybe from one of the residential towers here. no. it is storm surge brought in by irma. and you may notice there is actually a saving grace here. when you look down, you can see there is an incline, the next

street over from brickle avenue is actually higher up in elevation. it's about five to six feet higher than where i'm standing right now. and that may have been what prevented water from getting further into downtown there is sort of a natural elevation there. the street is higher over there. we're seeing cars driving back and forth over there. on the other hand, over here, not so much. i mean, it is so flooded. we have seen car after car come down a couple of blocks from here, stop, take a look at this dark, murky water. you have to be very careful as you make your way through here. they see this and say you know what? i'm going to turn around, try to find another way. we have seen no cars coming from the south here, none. we have no idea how far down this water extends. as far as the eye can see, we see no vehicles during the same thing, meaning they're not stopping and turning around. it's one saving grace here, though. you were talking about electricity and how many people do not have electricity? well, downtown smooim lit up like christmas to be honest with you.

the power lines are buried. so it does not appear that they were affected by irma. so all of these buildings here have power. and you actually hear fire alarms going off in a lot of the buildings, possibly because of the effects of irma setting off those alarms. we've had fire rescue making their way through here. some of them have stopped to check on some of these fire alarms. there are a lot of buildings here that are under construction. we've talked about the crane situation. two of them that we know did collapse during irma. the others looked fine to us as we were driving by. but again, that's something the experts will need to take a look at as they try to secure the cranes and see how they can move forward here after this storm. brian? >> maya, thank you so much for that. and maya shows us that scene when we start to talk about the economic hit that florida is going to take. you can start the conversation right there in the business district of miami. another great point maya made about the buried power lines. that takes urban planning.

that also goes by the title infrastructure. you might have heard some discussion about infrastructure in washington and perhaps spending billions as a nation. well, the damage from this storm alone, say nothing of harvey in texas, is like a road map. if congress wants to come together and decide where federal dollars should go, flood control, infrastructure, they can have at it. and they can do nothing but fix up these two states before they get started on the rest of the country. we want to go to a reporter from our nbc station in miami who is actually in tampa right now. jamie guirola. jamie, i see the conditions have deteriorated there since the last correspondent we spoke to in tampa. >> yeah, hey, brian. it may seem like hurricane irma is kind of going inland, but she is still drilling on the west coast. and here in downtown tampa, you

can take a look at how strong the winds are. it's already knocking off signage and some brush. we're going to step away from under these power lines. they're swinging pretty hard right now. this is actually a pretty intense gust. for a while there while we were waiting to come on air, it was quite calm. but it just happened to pick up right when you tossed to me, brian. also you can see here the wind is so strong, it knocked over this newspaper stand. it's a little bit heavy. earlier these flag poles were clanking really loud and blowing there the wind. what i want to do is i want to take you over to the hillsboro river. it's an interesting thing over there because earlier today, the river was going in the opposite direction. the water was going toward the gulf of mexico. so supposedly now, the hurricane coming, it's going to swirl everything and put back the flow of the river, back toward the bay. and that is what is going to cause some major flood surge here. take a look. you can see the river right now

is going that way toward the gulf. what should it be doing is going in the opposite direction. manny, that's over here to the rite. what officials are concerned about is the storm surge. the hurricane is going to whip this all back, put the water back in the correct direction, and then it's all just going to flood this area. a major concern. as you can tell, let me catch my breath for a second. this wind is really strong. if you can see with the lights there, you can see just how much hurricane irma is whipping the winds. we're doing our very best to stay safe out here, obviously. but the hurricane is just really drilling down in this tampa area. and this just the beginning. we're being told that the really bad conditions will start to kick in around midnight. and then again around 3:00. so between midnight and 3:00, we will know the complete devastation here, whatever irma brings here during that time period. back to you. >> jamie, if you're trying to impress us with the river running the wrong way, you're going to have to work harder

than that because we saw tampa bay emptied earlier today. >> yeah, well, i mean that's pretty much this is. you know, what's going to happen is the hurricane is going to whip it all right back into the right direction. this is why the levee is so small. the water has never been this low, manny. if you can go across the river there, usually the water covers those rocks or that bank. because all of this water is going out toward the gulf instead of the water coming from the gulf, that's what's going to be the big problem. and that's what officials are really worried about. >> jamie, thank you. take a breather. and we understand these winds actually do exhaust the air from your lungs. it's pressure and it's hard work. and we appreciate you joining us. jamie guirola from our nbc station in miami who is pulling duty tonight, explaining the storm to us and viewers back home in miami, in tampa tonight, where we're joined by the mayor now, bob buckhorn has joined us

again by phone. mayor, perhaps you have heard the audio of that report from your town. you've got tampa bay emptying and rivers running the wrong way. i don't know what to think. >> well, brian, i was just down there this afternoon at that very place. it is going to be a long, difficult night. it appears as though the trend moving in our direction, and we are thankful for that. but we are assuming the worst and we're planning for the worst. we expected cat-4. we planned for it. we trained for it. we deployed our assets accordingly. and if it's anything less than, that we will be grateful. >> as i said, all the cities on your side of the state got handed this late in the game. it's not because of anything you did. it's not because of mismanagement. quite the contrary. you all had limited amount of time to do your part in launching the largest single movement of people and assets in florida history. and you're saying that you're

confident that all the hard work that went into tonight, when we come out the other end, tomorrow or the next day, it's going to all have been worth it, correct? >> well, it's going to be okay, brian. this is a city that is a giving city. it's a resilient city. we are tampa strong. and tomorrow when that sun comes up, regardless of what we are faced with, we're going to pick up the debris. we're going to fix our houses. we're going to wait for the storm water to drain, and we will go back to being the city that was on such an amazing trajectory over the past ten years. it's not going to be without its challenges. we will find flaws in our plan, i am sure. but i think it's not because of hard work and years of preparation. we knew at some point, brian, that our number was up. we hadn't been hit in over 90 years. we knew that some day soon that the odds were against us, and that it was going to be our time. this is the moment that we've trained for. >> mayor buckhorn of tampa, thank you, sir, very much.

we'll be thinking all good thoughts for you as we go on through the night. we hope you can get some rest. we're hoping the best for your city where we have spotted two individuals standing in the middle of an intersection. we have identified them as lester holt and al roker. and we thank them very much for joining us. al, was this squall line part of your forecast earlier tonight? >> oh, yes, yeah. and we're just getting into this. the irma is still a ways away, probably it shouldn't get -- it probably won't get here until about 12:00 million night, 1:00 a.m. this is just going to increase as the evening wears on, brian. >> and lester, like the rest of us, you have watched the progression of this storm all day. are you as impressed as we are at the strength this has so many hours into its landfall?

>> you know, i didn't quite hear everything you said, brian. but i can tell you -- i can tell you that al and i were in the fort myer area yesterday. we finished the broadcast with a beautiful sunset and looked at each other it doesn't look like a hurricane is coming. we sat here on the river starting at about 5:30 this morning. and light sprinkles and barely a breeze for much of the day. and suddenly it's here. all day on the radar. so you know it's coming. but everything around you. it is here. and i don't think we're at hurricane-force winds, are we? >> i'm sorry, say it again? >> hurricane-force winds yet? >> no, not yet. we're right now about a 55, 60-mile-per-hour winds, which still is tropical force. so, you know, we still have a ways to go. but the good news is one of the things when we talked with the mayor this morning, he said over the last couple years have removed 50 tons of debris in the drains, that we're looking at these drains here.

and the water is running through. that's probably one of the things that's going to help them, if and when that storm surge comes. >> this is a vulnerable city and possibly one of those most vulnerable in the country with its 700 miles of shoreline. i noticed everything sloped down. so we're higher ground here. this street goes up. this street goes up. looks to be in somewhat less risky area. but there are many parts of this town that there are real concerns about with storm surge. even if it ends up being a little less than they predicted with the high tide, it's still a big concern. >> al, if i hadn't done what both you have are doing now, and if you weren't both family, i'd say you were both crazy. >> well, one has nothing to do with the other, brian. >> al roker and lester holt, outstanding in their field. in this case, out standing in an intersection in tampa, florida.

bill karins, this is the storm, and i don't mean to be cute, that keeps on giving. these rain bands are unbelievable. >> you were focusing on the big band coming into the titusville area. they're under a flash flood warning. some areas near titusville has picked up 5 inches of rain. we haven't talked a lot about the rainfall with this storm. up to this point, florida is very sandy soil. it's very good at absorbing the rainfall. when you start to get concentrated areas, getting 5, 7 inches of rain in a short period of time, that's going to flood just about anywhere there is a flash flood warning for the titusville area as we head near the space coast. the other thing that i'm watching very closely on the eye, that you can still see where the center. and if you're in the lake wales area, bartow, lakeland, these are the areas that are just south of i-4 or on i-4 in that drive from tampa to orlando, you are about to go through that northern eye. and it still has a punch with it. and you still could get gusts up

to about 100 miles per hour. so if we're focusing on an area or region, if you're with your family and you haven't lost power yet and you're still listening, you want to get to your safe area. again, that's this area. there is the northern eye. and when we see these magenta colors in here, that's when we get to the extreme rainfall. and that actually helps bring down some of the stronger winds from aloft. and that's when you can get -- that's when we saw our reporters in naples gust to 142. we shouldn't get that anymore. but the hurricane center still has us at 105, gusts to 130. so it is possible in this pink in here, if you get the purple over the top of you, that you could go through some of that. there is the ft. myers area there is ft. myers, you cleared out nicely. the back side does not have a loft rain to it. and in sebring, there is a lightning strike right there. so this still has convection with it and there are still thunderstorms. and there is fort immediate area. in sebring, this is as strong as the winds you have experienced. this is all sliding north wards. here is the lakeland area i just

mentioned. wauchula, that would be the city right there or the town because you are going through that northern eye wall right now. i'm sure it has your attention and it's dark outside. you probably don't have power. and it's just -- the winds are whistling. you probably never felt your house shake the way it is right now. it's interesting, brian. a lot of people are saying this has taken a path very similar to what charlie did when it came on shore near port charlotte. and it was supposed to come up to east of tampa and ended up going right over the top of orlando. a lot of people are saying is this going to happen again in the orlando area? we'll watch it. there is winterhaven here. this right in here, that's the strongest winds, up to 100 miles per hour. that's what you want to avoid. >> hey, bill, question from a high school graduate. i hope i can articulate this. the embedded pink doesn't move

around counterclockwise with the storm. it seems to remain a constant as the storm moves up. why is that? >> the thunderstorms that are regenerating themselves. normally, if you get a storm that is a cat 4 or cat 5, kit are the ring around it. but what we're having is we're having a sheer. so what shear is fast upper-level winds that destroy and eat away thunderstorms. that's happening. and also there is dry air. so we get these thunderstorms that are forming, popping up into the atmosphere. and they try to wrap back around. notice they make it about halfway with the bright yellows. and then the dry air gets sucked into that. >> wow. >> and then they collapse. and also that shear kind of blows the top off of them too. it doesn't allow the thunderstorms to wrap around the back side. i mean, if i stand in front of this, and you only watch the top side of this, you're like wow. how impressive is that rain shield and those wind gusts that we just saw tampa and lester and allen. and now all the way back over here with the titusville area.

the northern half, there is two more lightning strikes with that convection in the northern half of this. irma doesn't want to die quickly. it's on a slow journey, painful journey. and millions of more are going to lose power up there as we go up the coast. and we'll continue to monitor that. >> now understand that. thank you. i had not understood that. >> it's very similar to other storms. if you go back and if you want to google it, you can look at the radar loop of katrina when it came on shore. we lost the back half of that storm too. it's not uncommon radar signature for a land-falling storm, especially one that sucks in a little bit of dry air. >> i can always return the favor if you have questions about v-8 engines of the 1970s. i can go deep on that subject. >> pilot training. i always wanted to fly. >> yeah, i always wanted to fly. let's go to tampa. chris bruin is the meteorologist for the weather channel. we have been watching. he doesn't know this, because we've really been eavesdropping on his broadcast with stephanie abrams.

on the weather channel. and chris, i have to say, we accused your scene there, i know you have a big hmi light illuminating the incoming squall lines. we accused your scene there of looking like a martin scorsese hollywoodesque version. it's unbelievable how productive these rain bands still are. >> yeah, you know, you are really are, brian. and we are getting gusts here even within the last 10 minutes of definitely hurricane-force. i wouldn't be surprised for these to be upwards of 80 miles per hour wind gusts here. and we're near the airports away from water. we're a couple of miles away from any body of water. we're not worried about the surge here. keep in mind this is the area of land that's filled with high-rises and trees. and we're still getting this strong of wind and areas where

the winds dealing with the friction. you can just imagine what areas near open bayous of water are dealing with that onshore or offshore wind. lately it had been offshore. and we had incredible footage earlier. i think that was the talk of the town. pretty much tampa bay draining out because of the offshore flow. and that happened well in advance of any of the strong winds moving in. the winds have really been picking up here over the past couple of hours there is a curfew in the city of tampa. i think everyone is heeding the warnings. and tampa, you know, has been spared over the years. but this is not going to be the case. now even though the center may not go over tampa directly, we're still going to get hit hard by this. and as the mayor put it earlier today, he said we're going get punched in the face by irma. and that's exactly what the case is here. again, we're only in the beginnings of what is going to be a very long night with gusts easily over 80, 90, and as you said, 100 miles per hour. so yeah, irma may be weakening.

but keep in mind that eye wall is expanding as it becomes less and less organized. and those stronger winds are going to have to be pushed out. even though the winds are coming down a lot larger of a land area will see those higher gusts of 80, 90 miles per hour than 23 it were just a tight core of the eye. so less and less about where the center goes, and know that this is going to be a statewide storm from west coast to east coast, all are fair game to see those gusts well over hurricane-force. >> tell me the truth. is it already the stuff of folklore around the weather channel that while mike bettes was on the air today, a junior ef-1 rotation went right behind him and threatened to suck him in the cone? >> i absolutely would agree 100%. i didn't see the actual footage. but i've seen the hype. >> you've got to esite. >> i know. i will check it out. first thing when i'm dry and can scroll through my phone. but i have no doubt that he was

potentially sucked up or almost sucked up by a minor little sorticity near the city. and the strongest winds in naples. devastating news coming out. >> we are buoyed by the news that the storm surge apparently is not going to be as bad as promised or threatened earlier in the day. thank you very much for your work tonight and for explaining these boisterous rain bands that you're still facing down this late in the game, this late in the storm. a storm of dynamic intensity tonight in tampa. another break for us. we have a lot of the state yet to cover. this tremendous hurricane named irma that tonight is showing such great strength over land, still about the size of texas having subsumed the state of florida, heading north into georgia. clouds now visible in north carolina and virginia. a lot of storm left.

a lot of coverage left for us after this.

yeah, wow, i got to say, guys, this is the strongest. in fact, i'm going to take a knee for a second. because it's kind of like exhausting to stand there for a little bit. >> this is rain that -- wow, is hitting me. wow. >> okay, why don't you get under the overhang. >> these winds are coming and they have not stopped in the

last five, six, seven minutes. and it does not look like, brian, there is any signed sein of them letting up. >> right now it's full force hurricane, no question about it. and the beating that marco island, naples, everglade city, ft. myers are going to take are going to be something you're not ever going to forget. >> that last guy there, mike bettes of the weather channel, these are all friends of ours. these are all friends of ours who chose to put themselves in the line of danger today to bring the story to you. and i know a good many people watching will have a lot of fun with another round of people standing out in storms when there is the safety of a concrete wall next to them, the safety of a rental car. but they do it to show you the effect it would presumably have on you if you were living outside in these storms, and to drive home why the warnings were as severe as they were. this storm is proving

dangerously resilient, dangerously sprawling, overarching and powerful. look at how much of the atlantic ocean this storm takes up. and it's proven it has the ability to surprise us well into a sunday night. with the involvement of places like orlando, florida in ways we did not fully predict earlier today. about an hour ago, we saw our own catie beck getting gripped in the teeth of this storm with some oncoming winds. and there is catie beck with oncoming rains and winds still in the teeth of the storm. s that still the same squall line we saw you in an hour ago? >> it absolutely, brian. and we keep getting these wind gusts. they're so powerful. it really is hard to keep your feet on the ground, not to mention that whistling sound we were talking about before. it sounds sort of like a teakettle on the stove. but it's so loud, we've been

hearing that off and on as these bands come through orlando. now orlando has been desolate, really, for the past two days in terms of the roadways and the theme parks, completely empty. a total ghost land, which would typically be a high population tourist area with lots of families on vacation. they are hunkered down in hotels. if you drive through international drive, every parking lot is packed with cars. and those folks are hunkered down because of what we're experiencing now. for most of today, the weather has been pretty mild. but as irma moved up the coast, orlando was in sight and now is really at the center of the storm. so we're seeing wind gusts that are up to 75 miles an hour. we can feel the rain still pelting down on us. and again, that whistling sound is what really starts to shake folks, because that is really what is concerning about the tornado warnings, the threat of tornadoes hitting this area is very high right now. we're under tornado watches and warnings for most of all of central florida. and that is because of these

high force winds. brian? >> there is that sound. for people who aren't familiar with it, it sounds a little bit like a teakettle. and would that it were something as innocuous as a teakettle. it's a terrible noise because it only happens at the upper levels of the incoming winds. catie, tell us about power. we'll let you go, but do you have power where you are? and is there power in the orlando metropolitan area? >> there is power at this point. the worst of this storm is believe it or not still yet to come for orlando. the strength that we will see later will happen between 12 and 2:00 a.m. we're told. and that is really going to be a critical window where we'll find out will all of these families that are hunkered down here be without power for the next few days. and that is still yet to be seen. but with the winds the way they are, it would seem likely. >> that's our own catie beck who by the way has spent a good part of her career doing investigative journalism and covering some very unsavory

characters. i guess we can add irma to the list of unsavory characters she has been forced to hang out with. catie, thank you very much. get inside and find shelter. >> thanks, brian. >> mylai person's question continues to be sebring, 78 miles per hour. >> that's the first hurricane-force gust that we've seen in a while. that's a serious gust. and it's not even in the bright pink northern eye that still refuses to dissipate with this storm. and it is now closing in on very populated section of i-4 between tampa and orlando with winterhaven in the way, lakeland. how about our friends out here? coco beach has had a gust to 68. it was 72 previously. and i was just looking here at my radar app. we have tornado warnings in effect now with this band coming onshore here. the port orange area, new smyrna beach, north of the space coast and right around mimbs. that's in this area, i can zoom

in on these areas too. that's right in this area here. this is where the potential, at least the rotation were a possible tornado. that was in the dark. and you can't tell and you can't confirm any of this stuff until the morning. here is the loop of the radar to show you that eye. it doesn't look like it's going very west, does it? >> look at the intensity, though of those purples. >> right. it actually -- those darker shades, the reflectivity here, the extreme heavy rainfall is actually wasn't even -- it's actually gotten stronger, that little northern portion there. >> again, that's because it's drawing its fuel from external to land. so it's counteracting the advice s you usually give us which is land is a corrosive factor to the lands. >> florida is extremely flat there is really no mountains there is no hills. the bands are clearly out here in the gulf over the warm water. we've got bands in the atlantic over the warm water. it's been pouring rain over the state of florida. there is just water everywhere.

the storms need warm water. we're not saying this is strengthening over land, but it's maintaining its strength. now it's closing on the i-4 corridor. these winds tonight are going to be pretty scary it looks like as if we hold this together with possible 100-miles-per-hour gusts here coming up to the north. so we've been doing this since the storm in the eye was to the south. and for our friends here and the lakeland area, you are only 26 miles away from being in that northern eye. let's go take it up here to orlando. the downtown orlando area now only 56 miles away. we only have, we're right now around 14 miles per hour to the north. a little quick dirty math on that. about 3 1/2 hours, you'd like to see that weaken in three and a half hours before it gets to the orlando area. the little bend in i-4 here as you head down towards the disney complex in celebration, and you're only about 46 miles away now from that northern eye. i got to tell you, the morning started, i never thought i would

be tracking the northern eye heading towards the disney complex and the orlando area. that just shows you there is still a lot of science to be learned here about predicting the paths of these things. and here is the wind field. and smack in the middle of the state right now, the hurricane-force winds are shown in the red. that's where we're getting the hurricane potential gusts. and that's the northern edge of this who is getting power. the southern edge is all right. let's finish this and get this over with. we've been in this for the last 12 to 18 hours, brian. and finally, the keys are finally out of the tropical storm-force gusts. and now that it's all the way up here heading into the georgia border for the first time, we're now watching the tropical storm-force gusts trying to head up towards brunswick, georgia and the cross the border with florida. and also the other new thing that we had was the city of jacksonville far to the north is now under a flash flood warning for a heavy band of rain that is set up over them. and they know it's going to rain all night long. >> i'm most worried i guess

about the keys. they were the first landfall. they had the most to lose because of they had no height above sea level at all. we've heard there are two major breakups in the highway. we're getting sporadic pictures, not much. key west seems to have fared better than expected because the storms split the difference. we've seen this video, this home video of this once beautiful sailing vessel up against the ski wall. the seawall. i'm worried what we find tomorrow. >> the marathon area. >> yeah. >> key west was on the -- what we call the quote/unquote weaker side of the storm and the lower storm surge. but it was really as you go from marathon and you go up the coast. if you go north wards, that's where towards the key largo area, i've already seen a couple of pictures of structures that were completely washed away. i know in key largo a famous bar there was completely washed

away. and we're just -- we've only gotten a small sample. at last report, they're still trying to get down the highways. and there is islamorada. and what you're looking at there is after the storm surge came in and did its destruction. >> look at that. >> as the storm surge went out, just dropped whatever it was carrying down on the ground. >> that's a great place. there is going to be a long time to get it back to normal. i know this isn't aerobics, but can you good back to your board and just key in to sarasota for me? >> sure. >> i have a reason. mayor shelly freed laiedland ed on the phone with us. i've asked bill to highlight your current weather on the board for us. tell us about how you're doing, especially versus expectations. >> good evening, brian. thank you so much for having me on. we are actually much better than we thought we were going to be. we actually are at a category 2 at this point.

we thought we were going to be a category 4. so that is a much better situation for our residents here within the county. that being said, we still are going through a major gust of wind at this point. we're not at the hurricane-force winds anymorement we' menanymor. we're at the tropical storm-force winds. but that is still 40 to 50, even 75 miles per hour sustained for the next several hours. it's still whistling outside like the teakettle that someone else mentioned earlier. we still have 16,000 in shelters throughout the county. we still have about 130,000 within the county without power. they're telling us that it could be days or weeks before power gets back on. some of our neighboring counties to the south have lost power and water. so we in sarasota county are faring much better than we thought we would be. >> about storm surge, how will you know what you know? what's the timing? what have you been told?

>> with regard to storm surge, you know, we only had our zone 8 that evacuated and that's under 10 -- there is 9 feet in terms of the storm surge above sea level. so that's our downtown. that's our barrier island. they were evacuated as of late last night, early this morning. once the winds die down and it's below 45 miles per hour sustained, then our first responders and law enforcement will be authorized to come back out and assess any damage. i do know as of a few hours ago we had at least two homes in the county that suffered downed trees, that caused damage to homes. we are aware of power lines that are down in one part of the county that is being addressed. but with regard to the storm surge and water damage, we'll be able to assess that in the morning. >> we don't want anybody to suffer, but let's hope that's the worst of it for sarasota, and that dawn monday morning is

full of good news and beyond expectations. how about that? >> we're certainly praying for that. we want to be able to help other counties to the south that fared much worse than we did. and we are keeping the rest of the state in our prayers, as you said. now it's central florida and orlando area. earlier we thought they were out of the cone of uncertainty. and now it's coming for them. keep on going as quick as possible and get off the state and hopefully back out into the water. we're thinking that. >> it's a big job with a lot of worries from the keys clear north to jacksonville. and -- >> exactly. >> mayor, thank you very much. shelli freeland eddie, mayor of sarasota, florida. very much a part of the mix tonight. a quick break for us. 10:47 eastern time. >> i do have the new 11:00 advisory. >> okay. we're not going break. we're going get the 11:00 p.m. >> they put this out a little early. we're now down to 100 miles per hour sustained winds.

so only down. only went down from 105. >> gusts are still possible. >> still a category 2, yes. 100-mile-per-hour winds. it is now located about 40 miles east-northeast of sarasota. about 50 miles southeast of tampa. the pressure is not rising all that fast. the key thing i was looking at, i was waiting for the hurricane center to redo their storm surges and they have. so here is the new one. cape sable to captiva, they're saying 4 to 6-foot storm surge. the captiva area, they have dropped that. that was in the 5 to 8. they dropped that to about 4 to 6. captiva to ana marie island is now 3 to 5 foot storm surge. >> that's much better news. >> that is. >> north miami beach to cape sable, including the florida keys, they're still saying storm surge of 3 to 5 feet. that's because the winds are still out of the south. and we haven't really changed the wind direction. >> you see maya rodriguez's live report. >> yes. >> here is some good news. anna marrie island, 2 to 4 feet.

they can handle that. >> that's almost best case scenario for them. we just talked to the governor, the mayor of clearwater. >> that was lowered. and then here is -- you know, we've flipped. with the storm being closer to the middle of the state and the winds still being strong on the east coast, now we're going from fernanda beach 4 to 6 foot storm surge. >> on the east coast? >> yeah. >> oh, day is night and night is day. >> and fernanda beach to jupiter inlet 3 to 5 feet. clearwater beach, now jumping back to the other coast, to ochlockonee river, and i know i didn't pronounce that one right, 4 to 6 foot is in that range. so the tampa is the good part of this. we still are concerned. the highest they're saying the cape sable to captiva 4 to 6 and the south sandy river to fernanda beach also 4 to 6 and

same with clearwater beach that was really the key. that's biggest update. and then they also talk about they're getting more concerned with the rainfall amounts. they're even mentioning now in georgia isolated totals of 12 inches. and possibly still tornadoes that's kind of the headlines with the 11:00 update. if we get to a break i will tweet the maps for the storm track to let friends to the north in georgia where they think it is going. >> sounds like an excellent offer. we will take that break we promised. while we do mr. karins gets to work at the board. live reports coming up. our coverage goes into the night here on msnbc as we are tracking still a sprawling and dangerous storm.

just came off one of the palm trees to the east of me. i'm not going to let go of it because it can fly around.

probably weighs about 25 pounds. you can see the wind really hard. this is the kind of projectile that can be a real danger in a hurricane. so rather than let it fly across when i saw it i picked it up and now i will dump it to a place where the wind isn't. this is the danger of things flying around. >> kerry sanders who deserves to spend the remainder of september towelling off after today was in the grip of the storm and these relentless rains all day. here in our news room in the safety of interior 30 rock in new york city cal perry has been on the computer all day and all night. >> i have another one for you. let's roll the tape. this is one of our friends. this is friends and family nbc. there we go. downtown miami earlier today. any guesses?

that is something. and to the camera crews, photo journalists, producers that was their day today. >> jose was on the air all day for telemundo. >> they are all sleeping in the dark. just before i toss it back to you let's talk about the power situation. 3.4 million people in the state of florida without power. >> is that people or customers? >> customers. >> that's more customers is a low ball because that includes multi member families. >> the county of pinellas county is only 27% outage. that will go way up to about 90% in the next hour. once it does we are looking at about 4 million without power. that is a growing problem. >> that sure is. the only thing worse than a nighttime storm is a nighttime storm in the dark without communication, without tv, radio, that kind of thing. we promised right before the

break that bill karins was going to update his maps. i would love to just take that first map tracking irma. can we just dwell on this? this is clouds associated with one storm. it is conceivable that from the tip cape may, new jersey, the chesapeake bay, very shortly you will be in clouds associated from this storm. that's unbelievable. >> i did a distance tracker on here. it didn't work. the elevations are a little messed up. if i go from west virginia and extend cloud shield to the north coast of cuba that is 1,100 miles of solid clouds from this storm. i was able to throw it together. the new update with the 11:00 advisory from the hurricane center. we had landfall in the keys

early this morning right around 9:00 a.m. and then around 4:30 we had second landfall at marco island. one of the keys was a category 4. marco island was a 3. here we are now eight hours ago it made landfall and it is still a category 2. refusing to die off as fast as we would all like. winds are still highest sustained winds estimated at 100 miles per hour moving to the north at 14. it's not crawling anymore. it is moving but not fast enough. let me give you the new update with the forecast path from the hurricane center. here is our position point right now. they do think that it will stop moving almost due north which it is now. they think it will take more curve here and head towards cedar key. this would put the area around gainesvil gainesville, the villages, the retirement complex.

>> huge population. it would be located about here. that would be close to the northeast eye portion. they may get the winds in the middle of the night a lot higher than they were thinking. that's 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morn. let's point out a little farther. this is as we go through monday at 8:00 p.m. down to a tropical storm. notice that they don't have it going into the atlanta area. this was the other amazing step. it kind of rains itself out. once we get through monday night the winds won't cause many more issues. this is from the hurricane center. irma has a very large wind field. the hurricane forced winds still extend 80 miles from the center. so that's still 60 miles, 160 miles in all different directions. this is the mind boggling part. the tropical force winds extend outward from the center 415 miles. that's only from the center out.

so from north to south that's 850 miles of tropical storm force winds. when we hear these astronomical power outage numbers all you need is tropical storm force winds to lose power. that's the reason why. the wind field is still huge. 58 in west palm. we are solidly into the 60s here where the weather -- they had wind gust to 84. they are not even in that really nasty part of the eye. as we go farther north daytona beach had a wind gust to 68. you get the picture. everybody up here waiting for the storm. across i-10 into jacksonville your power outages will start soon. >> especially to folks in places like the villages. a huge localized population. they were not expecting to get much out of the storm. we are thinking of you and we are quite sure all the public safety directors in that region

have your safety first and foremost. 12 hours ago will karins and i sat down to cover this storm without really a road map. the amazing thing is how vital, how powerful, dangerously power and unpredictable this still is. this is a storm that has sent ocean waters out of bays. it has made rivers run the wrong way and prior to getting here it has left island territories unable to support human life. if you watch any hockey at all you know they have shifts. they have the next shift that comes in over the wall. the next shift to come in over the wall as our coverage continues throughout the night is a guy who has come over the wall for me several times, my friend ali velshi. >> get some rest because this is going to go on for a while. hurricane irma is not done with florida, not by a long ot