good morning, america. breaking news, hurricane irma envelopes florida. the deadly storm plows through the state making landfall with wind gusts topping 140 miles an hour. blinding rain dumping more than a foot of water. the devastating storm leaves a trail of destruction coast to coast across florida. >> it's just total devastation. >> the keys battle a direct hit. boats tossed onto roads. parts of miami underwater. streets turned to rushing rivers. construction cranes dangling off the tops of buildings and tornadoes tearing through. >> millions across the state losing power. searching for clean water. and the incredible rescues overnight. survivors of this terrifying storm now speaking out on "gma." and this morning, the new path of irma. atlanta in its path. the entire state of georgia now in a state of emergency.

david muir, amy robach and our abc news team spread out across the storm zone. a special edition of "gma" starts now. and good morning, america. florida has never seen a storm like this. that is naples. that is drone footage of naples. the destruction there yesterday. right now the storm hitting jacksonville and expecting a powerful storm surge there. >> at one point sunday the entire state was covered by this storm. such a massive force. now making its way toward atlanta where they're facing a tropical storm warning. and we are now just starting to see images from the areas hardest hit being the keys. >> it hit there first and hit there hard. hurricane irma has claimed five lives in florida, 27 across the caribbean. it was a category 4 storm when it first made landfall in florida shortly after 9:00 a.m. yesterday with wind gusts

topping 140 miles an hour. this morning more than 5 million customers without power in the state. >> "world news tonight" anchor david muir is leading our coverage on the ground and has been there throughout the storm and amy robach is there headed to the devastated florida keys. >> chief meteorologist ginger zee tracking the hurricane from the very beginning. she starts us off with the latest on its path. good morning. >> good morning, george. the impacts still being felt for 415 miles. that's how far the tropical storm-force winds go and this morning jacksonville is under a flash flood emergency. 6 to even 12 inches of rain has fallen. they had aid record storm surge in jacksonville but those flash flood warnings go up into brunswick, georgia. see where it will go next. it will move through georgia and then eventually into alabama as a tropical storm, and then it will just be a depression. either way you still have gusty winds. extremely heavy rain in places and, remember, these are places and times that it's going to be tough on a monday morning heading into atlanta through the

afternoon and then finally dying out as it goes into tennessee but look at some of those numbers. you could see more than 8 inches on top of what's already fallen. i'll give you an idea of what happened and what's going to happen. >> hurricane irma heading north hitting tallahassee right now and abc's steve osunsami is there on the ground for us. good morning, steve. >> reporter: good morning to you, robin. i'm soaking wet. the rain is coming down and wind gusts have been a real problem here. i want you to take a look. you can see the trees are blowing and we're not even during one of the highest wind gusts. the big concern for people who live here in tallahassee is, of course, they're afraid they'll join the millions across the state who are without power as these branches fall. there are many people who came here from south florida hoping to escape this storm who are now dealing with this now, but the big problem is ginger mentioned in jacksonville, florida, because of that storm surge and the high, the heavy rains they're dealing with a water

emergency. police are having to rescue families from flooded apartment buildings and other buildings. that's going on right now. also overnight, we have some really, really incredible pictures from orlando and lakeland, florida, as the storm moved through. those families will have to wake up and see whether the pieces of their roofs are still there and as ginger mentioned atlanta. there is now a huge concern in atlanta, schools are canceled. i know the generator at my house is on the ready as people are worried whether they're going to lose power because of all the trees and the wind knocking down tree branches over power lines. >> all right, steve, stay safe there. >> the massive scale, hurricane irma first made landfall as we said in the florida keys. just after 9:00 a.m. sunday and it hit hard. the emergency management director fears it could cause a humanitarian crisis. the entire area under mandatory evacuations, residents still barred from returning and amy robach traveled through the night to get to nearby florida city. good morning, amy.

>> reporter: that's right, george. good morning to you. we got up very early and drove for about an hour from miami and we got to this point. yes, near florida city where there is a police roadblock. no one who isn't on official business can get through past this point. this is the point of u.s. 1 where it narrows into a two-lane highway surrounded by water and so officials have to get in there, clear the debris from the road, assess the damage and make sure those bridges that take you to key west are sound and safe before they will allow residents to return home. this morning, we are getting our first glimpse at the devastation in the lower keys. after irma stormed through with 130-mile-per-hour wind gusts. boats on the roads. cars buried under sand. store windows blown out. houses barely standing. debris everywhere. residents advised to boil drinking water.

as irma came roaring in, these two storm chasers tried to measure the wind speeds unable to hold their ground. transformers igniting. trying to drive from miami to the keys overnight, we got a firsthand look at the devastation irma left behind. >> it's a tree down right there. wow. none. the streetlights are working. all the power is out. so everyone has to drive very carefully. thankfully there aren't many people on the road at 3:00 in the morning. in key largo david kay choosing not to evacuate documenting irma as she moved in watching his property engulfed from the storm surge. >> we're doing all right. >> reporter: this morning the painful process of cleaning up. >> that's our sign. that's our tree. >> reporter: remarkably, as you just saw there the only insight we have into the actual damage in the keys right now is from people who are able to still use

social media or skype or have some sort of connection because no officials have actually gotten in there until just now this morning we saw a huge convoy of army trucks going in with supplies and equipment for the people who are there and certainly to clean up whatever needs to be cleaned up and there is significant damage as we can see but in the meantime, a lot of residents are lining up trying to get in and the police are having to turn them away. it is certainly an unknown what's inside. we talked to a group of monroe fire rescue and said they had no idea what they would find once they got in. >> the unknown, amy. thank you. we know hurricane irma has been so devastating. to "world news tonight" anchor david muir leading our coverage and he is there in naples where they received the bankrupt of the hurricane sunday. are you getting a sense of the damage there now? >> reporter: yeah, at first light, robin, as you knew would be the case. take a look behind me. you did see the extent of hurricane irma. in fact, the highest wind gust

reported from the storm in naples, 14 miles per hour and see this apartment building, those of these families likely evacuated during the storm but will find their cars are completely damaged. the state emergency chief saying this morning we cannot have the full extent of this damage until they're able to go out but warn everyone to stay inside after the storm. take a look at this drone video right out of naples overnight and this gives you an idea of the water from the storm surge. the mayor here was relieved it was not as big as expected. they were forecasting 10 to 15 feet but still it brought a lot of water into naples and streets underwater this morning and take a look at what it was like as hurricane irma beared down on us right here coming right over where our location was. 400-mile wide storm moving up the coast of florida making a second landfall on marco island. look at this. this is just incredible. the hurricane then moving slightly up the coast hitting us here in naples after 4:00 p.m.

the hurricane hovering right above. we are blocked by two sort of concrete barriers which is the only reason we're able to talk. >> it feels like you're being blasted with a firehouse. >> now the rains are coming in sideways here and the winds just continue to pick up. >> reporter: the highest wind gusts from hurricane irma here in florida, 142 miles per hour. there's a giant vacuum sucking everything out. >> reporter: naples residents rushing to shelters. this mother and daughter and granddaughter making it just in time. >> pandemonium. we were nervous, scared. >> reporter: the shelter door cracking under the pressure as the national guard taped up the glass. people clearing the front doors bracing for impact. >> they actually just cleared out this whole area. it was packed with people just in awe watching the winds just pick up. >> reporter: for a time our own team seeking shelter in a stairwell. this is what happens when these buildings and just be careful, tom. the awnings on the outside of the building are crashing down breaking these windows inside

the hotel. but hurricane irma was not finished yet. continuing on her northward path, ft. myers next. tom llamas was there. >> reporter: hurricane irma is right over us and i'm concerned about the projectiles but at this hour ft. myers is getting absolutely ripped apart. >> reporter: at 11:00 p.m. the storm was centered 50 miles southeast of tampa. the mayor of that city said they were about to be tested. >> we have a densely populated area, some 3 million people who are now either need to be out of here or they need to be hunkered down. >> reporter: the eye wall of the storm containing the storm's ferocious and violent winds then passing over sarasota. >> for sarasota for tampa bay, the wind is blowing offshore with the current track so there is no storm surge here yet but hopefully folks are in shelter and away from the water. >> reporter: this morning, sarasota is still on high alert. amid storm surge warnings up the coast. so many of these families have

y yet to come home and see the damage. i remember being in the superdome in katrina as that storm barreled through the roof, sort of ripping off as we were all inside and i can only imagine what it was like for the thousands of floridians inside these shelters throughout the state and that track shifted very quickly over the weekend, many people had to very hurriedly get out of their homes and to the nearest shelter. >> what was it like being in that high-rise? >> reporter: it was stunning to see on the balcony protected but the top of the roof began coming off and tiles going through the air and that's when we went in the stairwell and as ginger and rob predicted the eye was over us and this lull in the storm. sort of extraordinary to see the science overhead and should point out nearly 6 million people in florida without power this morning and likely waiting to come home to see the damage. >> yeah, that number could grow. david, thank you. hurricane irma raced through

tampa. the first hurricane there in nearly a century. t.j. holmes was there for it all. good morning, t.j. >> reporter: hey, good morning to you, robin. so how bad was it here in tampa? frankly, we don't know yet. it hit in the overnight hours. it was dark now the curfew still in place and emergency officials are trying to assess how bad the damage was from the storm. what do we know? it wasn't as bad as it could have been. this area that's so vulnerable to flooding and that was the huge fear, we know that the storm that surprised everybody by starting to make a beeline here over the weekend also made a little bit of a shift to the east, so it spared this area, tampa, that huge, huge hit from a huge, huge storm. it was a category 1 still a hurricane but still the surge and so much expected and feared did not come to fruition. i'm standing next to the hillsborough river that dumps out into the bay. this yesterday was essentially drained and dumped out as we often see as the water gets sucked out and then the surge comes back. well, that water as you see here

live with me is back so there's still a flooding fear possibility here. we're still getting wind gusts of 40 to 50 miles an hour and driving rain so not out of the woods just yet. >> still reason to be concerned. t.j., thank you. >> tampa spared a direct hit and miami was spared a direct hit. cities still pounded by fierce winds that knocked down cranes and heavy rain that turned streets into rivers. gio benitez was there for all of it. he joins us now. good morning, gio. >> reporter: george, good morning to you. there's so much destruction here in south florida. i want you to take a look at this. this might look like a park. this is actually a city street here in downtown miami. there's the bike lane and we're seeing so many dangers right here. you have this giant branch just dangling there. you have downed power lines, glass everywhere. irma was just a beast. this morning, miami waking up battered and soaked to the bone. >> things have gone from bad to worse. we keep waiting for the winds to die down and they just continue

to pick up. it actually looks and i'm not exaggerating here apocalyptic behind me. >> reporter: completely uprooting trees. >> just pulled straight out of the ground here. >> reporter: watch the ferocious wind rip the roof off this apartment building. the torrential downpour flooding downtown swallowing street signs. this hotel swamped. the city's financial district entirely underwater. i had a front row seat as irma unleashed its wrath on this city. i just want to reassure people i am roped down. i've never seen anything like this covering storms here. we feared -- whoa. we feared these winds are really intense. seeing branch, pieces of trees come from the sky obviously trees aren't up there which means that a lot of these trees are sort of whipping around and coming around like that. look at this. you can see this whiteout condition. >> reporter: the winds almost proved too much for our hotel's shatter resistant windows.

>> looks like windows have started to pop open and getting reports now of some cranes in danger of collapsing. three of those massive construction cranes ended up collapsing. and so we heard before the storm even hit people were talking about how it just felt different. well, when it hit it absolutely was different. it was just so big that we were constantly just hammered by all of that wind, all of that rain. it was just relentless, george. >> we could see it all day long. latched to that balcony but one thing we saw miami made so many changes after hurricane andrew back in 1992 and those appear to have made a difference. >> reporter: oh, absolutely and s resistant. they were hurricane resistant so that's the good news, george. >> okay, gio benitez, thanks very much. >> as we know hurrica

abc's alex perez is there in atlanta where they are bracing for the storm. good morning, alex. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, good morning, robin. a state of emergency declared here in georgia. this is the world's busiest airport and they are bracing for some major, major problems as irma makes its way into georgia and right here into atlanta. now, today alone already some 2700 flights have been grounded because of the storm. and as you mentioned since it started the hurricane as canceled some 13,000 flights. now, the big concern here, those powerful, damaging winds. that could make landing or taking off very, very dangerous. this is a huge hub for delta air and delta air lines spent the weekend telling all of its passengers they should try to make other plan, try to connect at a different hub when possible. officials have been doing everything they can to try to get ahead of the storm here but as we've seen in florida, it's not easy. robin. >> okay, alex, thank you.

we want to go back to ginger. more on irma. a lot of warnings for the southeast this morning, ginger. >> this morning, jacksonville, water rescue, flash flood emergency in place there till in that hurricane warning as is everyone in david murphy here with an

update from accu-weather weather, gorgeous day, kind of a can continuation of weekend, dry on storm tracker 6 live double scan sky six showing you sunshine with a little bit of high cloud cover, chilly with temperatures in out lying suburbs in the 40's, philadelphia 50's, but this afternoon, looking good, mostly sunny and noise in the city, 78 the high, tomorrow high clouds start to build in 82 high, then wednesday, spotty showers irma, a high of 76.

fter it hit the keys and look at that graphic. the hardest hit area in the everglades so no one lives there. that was a real blessing. as it weakened even lesser winds on the back side meaning less storm surge and a lot of those western beaches. >> ginger, just dr. to say your coverage of this has been incredible. calm, accurate. absolutely tireless. thanks to my team and everybody out there in the field. >> thanks so much. we'll be live all morning and track irma as it makes its way north. a storm chaser giving us ace firsthand look. thousands of american tourists trapped in the caribbean. we're with the coast guard in some the most devastated areas right here on "gma." walgreens is easier than ever. just walk right in and pay zero dollars with most insurance. plus, when you get a flu shot at walgreens, you help provide a lifesaving vaccine to a child in need

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good morning i'm tamala edwards, it's 7:23 on monday, let's head over to karen rogers watching the situation with the overturned tanker >> more on breaking news, it is a mess in burlington county. speeds of five miles per hour on route 70 and chopper 6 overhead showing you this tanker on its side leaking fuel and there you see it right on route 70 eastbound here in southampton township, burlington county, traffic is crawling along right now. at red lion circle where that accident is and police tell me that they've been out there and it's leaking fuel, causing a big problem with that tanker that's completely on its side this morning, it's been this way hours. and still creating a big backup in this area about five miles an hour, i wish that were the only problem, this is new a vehicle

fire on the northeast extension approaching lansdale coming down from quakertown one of many accidents and issues on the road. >> ok, we'll take a short break and come back to accu-weather.

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tam >> thank you, coming up on gma more special coverage of hurricane irma, we'll see you back here in 30.

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ask your dermatologist about otezla today. otezla. show more of you. welcome back to "gma." that is a live look athurricane irma hitting jacksonville. it's been spitting over there the last 24 hours moving north. it has already caused so much destruction. water overtaking roads. some buildings destroyed. more than 5 million without power this morning. >> here's what else we know at this hour. hurricane irma is deadly. it has killed at least five people in florida. 27 across the caribbean. now a category 1 storm with winds of 75 miles per hour and president trump says he will visit florida, quote, very soon. we want to go to our senior meteorologist rob marciano in sarasota and how did sarasota do last night, rob? >> you know, could have been worse, george. but the wins are still ripping here and what was a reverse or negative storm surge yesterday has come back in ferociously.

this isn't the gulf of mexico. this is saratoga bay. they're crashing against that coast guard station. there's been power flashes throughout the city. still some spots without power here but this is such a big storm and widespread across the state getting reports out of jacksonville that are urgent and orlando just west of orlando in orange county, 120 homes had to area an entire department building had to be evacuated. a 60-foot sinkhole in west orange county just to the west of orlando there. the to top that off, they had hurricane wind gusts in orlando as well. near that in jacksonville right now with a record storm surge happening there, we have tropical storm-force winds that now extend across nearly 600 miles. this storm may be weakening, but it is expanding and growing and now even more americans are in play, especially across northern

florida getting into georgia and you see that rain shield and the winds whipping into georgia as well. so, irma far from over, george, as we roll through today, day two of irma after landfall yesterday morning. >> so, rob, it's still covering a very wide area even though it's weakening. does that mean it's starting to break apart? >> well, it's just morphing and starting to interact with features on the weather map basically that are in the northeast and high pressure that's kind of squeezing and amplifying some wind and ripping it off the atlantic ocean and typically as these things get north in latitude and make landfall, they will spread out their wind field but irma has been a spectacular to use a bad word storm from the beginning so we're seeing that even as irma decays. george. >> rob marciano, thanks very much. ginger, when you see the scene behind rob, what goes through your mind. >> i think that's what i want people to see when they wake up and hopefully know it's not over

because i think when they hear weaken and start to hear category 1 they say, oh, okay, we're all right but you can still do major damage and have power outages and have debris flying so nice to be able to see that in a way. it's a strange word to use but it's powerful? and so important for people to know that because they have that lull sense of security when they see something like that. as we know tens of thousands in florida are in shelters and abc's victor oquendo was with some of them as hurricane irma made landfall and he joins us from naples with conditions there. good morning, victor. >> reporter: good morning, robin. this is where we rode out hurricane irma even before the most powerful winds arrived. take a look at what happened. the main door, the main entrance, the glass dooring kraed at one point and the national guard had to put up c duct tape to put it up and keep the people away from the doors and windows. thankfully everyone was safe throughout the storm. let's give you the latest numbers. about 600 shelters opened up across the state. temporarily home to more than

200,000 people who were seeking refuge. school gyms, cafeterias and arenas quickly filled up with young and old. even pets sleeping on cots and air mattresses while waiting for the storm to pass and we hunkered down with about 400 evacuees in naples as irma just raged around us. take a look at this video. you can see right outside the window how powerful winds were. one moment we felt the force of the eye wall and everyone inside just watched in awe, the pounding rain and wind shaking the front doors. everyone told to clear out of the main room and away from the windows and now for so many weathering the storm inside of the shelter was just the beginning. they're now packing up their things heading back to their hopes to see what kind of damage they sustained. robin. >> i know they're anxious to get back home, thanks. >> matt gutman, abc's matt gutman was in naples. want to bring him in right now. matt, we watched you all day getting whipped around by incredibly heavy winds then that eerie calm of the eye. >> reporter: and, again, this morning, it's eerily calm here

despite the punch that irma delivered. you can see some damage here and some moderate flooding. i want you to take a look at this drone image. it is live coming to us right now over us in naples which got this category 3 storm hitting it. winds of up to 142 miles an hour registered right here in naples. it felt like being in an industrial washing machine, a fire hose just blasting right into our face. and given the fact that there is no water here, no running water here in naples and no power, phone lines are down. it is going to be a very long slog and a long recovery period for folks along this entire stretch of the florida coast, george. >> yeah, but as you say, matt, that storm surge could have been so much worse. >> that's right. it only reached about two feet, george and was predicted to be up to 15 feet so emergency officials here were enormously relieved calling me last night saying, we just can't be any happier with what happened.

minimal damage and nobody at least in this part of florida hurt or killed, george. >> such a relief. we've seen hurricane irma packing powerful winds, the storm chaser jeff patrowski rode it out and here's his story. >> it's 11:00 a.m. and i'm in the north side of marco island. the water in the bays and inlets is -- went out and as the eye approaches, that storm surge will come back in over marco island. look at this. total whiteout now. winds sustained at 80 going to 90. look at this right here in front of me, oh, my gosh. here we go. i'm escaping marco island now. the water is coming up rapidly now on the north side of the bay. wow. oh, my gosh. it's -- it's surging in here. i'm off the island. now i'm northbound. the water is rapidly coming up here. now we're about ready to get pounded here around 3:00 to

4:00. 6:00. it will be tough. hurricane irma, the eye wall, it's unbelievable. continuous little and the winds gusted to 130, 135 at this location. the whole park behind me is coming apart. shredded trees and it looks like a tornado went right through here. look at all these trees shredded. it debarked them. i haven't seen this before in a hurricane. this is on the road to marco island. one of the most difficult storms i've ever chased in my 40 years of chasing and this will go down in the history books. >> you saw the helmet he was wearing taking every precaution. explain to people the purpose of his work. >> yeah, that's the thing. there are storm chasers out there doing science as they're storm chasing and have observation tools and those observations help us forecast in the future. without that information and jeff has been around forever. just said 40 years. he has been doing this and has the experience and they want to get out there, get those and really the video. i know that sounds strange but the video to pair that with

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back now here on "gma." thousands of americans still trapped in the caribbean after hurricane irma. let's take a look at these images. some people were able to evacuate. others were not so fortunate. the u.s. virgin islands also seeing extensive damage and abc's linzie janis saw it up close with the coast guard. she is now in san juan, puerto rico. good morning, linzie. >> reporter: good morning. this is the first time we have been able to get our boots on the ground in one of these devastated islands and the detux to st. thomas is massive. hurricane irma ripping through there as a category 5 damaging almost every structure we saw leaving people without power, drinking water and growing increasingly desperate. this morning, our first look at the devastation in the u.s.

virgin islands from the ground. >> it's going to be a little rough on the way over. >> reporter: this u.s. coast guard team is doing an aid drop bringing everything from generators to food, water, clothing and law enforcement personnel to help with the security situation here. as we drove through the streets, utility poles and power lines downed everywhere. trees stripped bare. this once green lush landscape now looks like this, dead trees everywhere and debris like this overturned car. windows blown out, roofs ripped off, buildings crumbling under irma's force. >> we're inside a church here in st. thomas, just look what irma did to it. that was the altar. the entire front of the building gone. tourists and residents desperate to get off the island. but with the airport destroyed, the only way off is by boat. >> i've been told there are a couple of cruise ships coming in tomorrow that are taking people to puerto rico. >> reporter: government planes and choppers landing only for emergency evacuations and to

drop off personnel and supplies. while we were on the island, police responding to looters. attempting to raid a shipping container. a curfew in place between 6:00 p.m. and noon. some of the 1200 tourists so far evacuated from st. thomas by the national guard telling us about the dangers that emerge after the storm. maureen puckeren said robbers wielding long swords invaded her hotel. >> they started stealing food from our fridge and then they beat up one tourist. hit a lady in the eye and then they robbed the bank down the block and ran into our compound. >> reporter: of course, some of the looting is just people getting what they need to survive but clearly criminals are taking advantage of this situation. it's becoming a very dig problem. today with hurricane jose out of this area, the u.s. military resumes trying to evacuate the thousands of americans that remain stranded. robin. >> all right, linzie, we got to keep in mind these smaller

islands impacted, devastated. >> leveled in many places. lat ittest on irma's path. so many devastated including the animals. next we'll show you the people stepping in to save the manatees.

and we are back on "gma" with the latest on hurricane irma as it passed up the western coast of florida on sunday, one of the hardest hit areas was ft. myers. you see tom llamas getting

whipped around. tom, you're with us right now. boy, we could see you struggling almost like you were surfing that hurricane. >> reporter: it was incredible, george. the power of this hurricane hitting you right in the face and those hurricane-force winds almost knocking me down. this is the scene in ft. myers, the big story is the power outages because of all this water on the ground and all these trees, i can count six behind me. this one fell right in front of the house where we're staying, a massive palm tree. luckily no damage to the house. owned by an abc/"20/20" producer, the mother's house. luckily nothing happened. but the big story, all those power outages throughout ft. myers. 55% of the county right now with no lights and no power. george. back to you. >> amazing it stood up there. >> that's right. as we know, irma is on the move. the storm is sparking rescues overnight. some of the most vulnerable are the animals and, ginger, you have the manatees. >> these were breaking your

heart. the manatees were actually beached in the tampa bay so all that water was pushed away with the offshore winds and a lot of people were walking on the beach and came across two manatees, these folks and were 100 yards from deeper water so they had gotten themself in that situation and rolled out the tarps and rolled them on and got them back to the water so it happened before the people were told you got to get out of here. we're worried about the surge coming back. >> at that moment you didn't mind it but we did see people walking their dogs. >> not understanding the power of water. it goes away, it's got to come back. >> luckily they got the manatees out this time. coming up much more on hurricane irma. on board one of the cruise ships preparing for a relief mission heading right into the storm zone and the best way you can help.

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welcome back to "good morning america." you just saw those beached manatees. well, this is what it looked like from above. drone video of the tampa bay when all the wins pushed the ocean away and people are out there walking. what robin and a were talking about. a lot were wondering. they saw this sucked out feeling from bays and canals. the water gets pushed. that long time with east to west wins on that west side of florida then that bubble of water ahead of the storm pies up and the surge cops back toward the coast. fortunately it was a lot less than it could ♪ health, is having the freedom to do what you want to do with your life, every single day. so at aetna, we promise to keep finding new ways to join you so nothing gets in your way. because no matter where it is you're going,

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>> ♪ >> good morning, i'm tamala edwards. 7:56 on this monday september 11th. and matt pelman continues to watch the aftermath of a tanker truck turning over. good morning. >> happened a little after 5 o'clock this morning, tam and we continue to watch it and the slow speeds resulting from it, just 3 miles per hour on the westbound side of 70. chopper6 hd was overhead earlier looking at that overturned truck that was also leaking fuel. this is right at 206 and the red lion circle and traffic heading into the circle especially coming westbound is moving really slowly this morning along 70. out here elsewhere in south jersey gloucester township have a crash along the black horse pike at lower landing road by saint joseph's cemetery. delays spilling back to the 42 freeway. in delaware big northbound delays on highway one because of a wreck approaching new castle red line. center lane blocked there. just 17 miles per hour coming north of biddles corner and in bucks county 95 northbound north of street road there's a crash here partially blocking

the left lane causing delays here as well. tam. >> all right, thank you, matt. now let's take a look there on sky6 out across center city. it is a gorgeous start to your week. what can you expect as the day goes on? let's go over to dave murphy. good morning. >> well, we are starting out a little chilly, tam. take a look. we're at 58 degrees in philadelphia. allentown out of the 40's. your seven day shows a much warmer afternoon with a high of 78 degrees. mostly sunny and nice today. tomorrow still fairly bright although we are going to see an increase in how clouds during the day. warm with a high of 82. and then what's left over from irma spreads a couple showers high on wednesday 76, at times damp. thursday, friday, saturday highs close to 80 all day and spotty showers around. tam. >> thank you david. today is the 16th anniversary of 9/11. volunteers placed american flags at the we shall never forget monument in pennsauken overnight.

each flag represents a life lost in those attacks. a number of communities across our area will hold remembrance ceremonies today. indeed we will always remember. back now to "gma" and continued coverage of hurricane irma. >> ♪

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good morning, america. it's 8:00 a.m. hurricane irma nevadas florida. the deadly storm rips through the state leaving behind a dangerous trail of destruction. streets turned to rivers. >> it looked and i'm not exaggerating apocalyptic. >> overnight it plows through tampa and orlando and targets northern florida, jacksonville taking the brunt with a massive storm surge and water rescues happening right now and all of georgia under alert. right now in florida millions across the state without power. thousands of people across the state in shelters with no idea when they can head home. the scope of destruction in the florida keys only starting to become clear. the rescues are now under way. cruise ships headed in with rescue supplies and offering to pick up evacuees. the incredible images coming in

of so many taking cover and riding out the storm and how you can help. david muir, amy robach and our abc news team across the storm zone this morning. good morning, and welcome back this monday morning. we just got word that hurricane irma, hurricane no more. it is now a tropical storm weakening but look at that drone footage there from naples. so much devastation. so much water. could have been a lot worse but it's still had a path of destruction across the entire state of florida in it certainly did and irma has claimed at least five lives in florida. 27 across the caribbean and made landfall in florida as a category 4 hurricane as we've said now a tropical storm with winds of 70 miles per hour and more than 5 million people are without power across florida this morning. the storm still in florida right now. jacksonville in the bull's-eye as it moves toward georgia.

our chief meteorologist ginger zee has been tracking the storm from the very beginning. good morning, ginger. >> good morning. now tropical stormirma is moving in jacksonville under a flash flood emergency and water rescues all morning. you say, good, it's weakened. look at this video. this is what tropical storm-force winds can do. a video of a reporter, i believe we have, in jacksonville and if we don't have it, i'll show you this picture because this is how much rain has already fallen in parts of jacksonville. 6 to even 12 inches in north florida and southern georgia. the threat with this thing is not over. so just because it becomes a tropical storm, i don't want anyone to let their guard down. you still are flash flood potential and a tornado watch in places because you could still see the spin from the circulation onto the earth and there is the high wind and wind advisory that goes to eastern mississippi right through nashville, the high wind warning, gusts to 60. that's going to affect flights. tropical storm warnings in atlanta down to dough ththan.

robin. >> ginger, we go to abc's steve osunsami who is in tallahassee where they are feeling irma right now. good morning, steve. >> reporter: good morning to you, robin. we are seeing some of that rain falling right now. the wind as you can see is just starting to pick up. we are seeing high wind gusts and the big concern here are the storm is now hitting cities like this with lots of trees, branches that are falling, coming down over power lines. more people who are afraid that they're going to join the millions who are without power. but as ginger mentioned, one of the big issues is happening in jacksonville, florida, where there is a water emergency. they're having to rescue people from apartment buildings because the water is so high. also in orlando, in the orlando area and orange county there are also water rescues there. we're told that they're having to rescue people from about 120 homes. this is only going to continue to be a problem as the rain continues to sit over this area and, of course, as ginger also

mentioned, in atlanta where they're now worried about what's left of this storm coming that way and causing some of the same issues up there. robin. >> right to be concerned. >> we're getting a sense of the damage in the florida keys which took a massive hit and officials fear humanitarian crisis there. house-to-house searches beginning today and our news anchor amy robach traveled to nearby florida city all through the night. good morning, amy. >> reporter: that's right, george. we drove early this morning to see how close we could get to the florida keys and we were stopped here at this police roadblock. it's about 20, 25 miles from key largo and this is the portion of u.s. 1 that turns into that narrow two-lane roadway that is surrounded by water. officials are inside now. they are assessing the damage and the integrity of that highway and its many bridges. hurricane irma leaving a path of destruction in its wake. the ferocious storm barreling through florida. these winds are unbelievable.

the trees that are down, the debris that is flying. >> look at this. this is just incredible. >> feels like you're being blasted with a fire hose. >> reporter: winds topping 142 miles per hour. the streets of miami transforming into raging rivers. >> this is a street. this is not a river but it looks like it. >> reporter: naples residents rushing to shelters. this mom, daughter and granddaughter making it just in time. >> pandemonium. we were very nervous, very scared. >> reporter: continuing north, the hurricane tearing into ft. myers. >> hurricane irma is right over us right now and i'm a little concerned about the projectiles but at this hour ft. myers is getting absolutely ripped apart. >> reporter: the florida keys taking the first blow sunday morning and this morning we're getting a firsthand look at that devastation. boats on the roads. cars buried under sand. store windows blown out. houses barely standing. debris everywhere. trying to drive from miami to the keys overnight, we got a firsthand look at the devastation irma left behind.

a tree down right there. wow. none of the street lights are working. all the power is out. so everyone has to drive very carefully. thankfully there aren't many people on the road at 3:00 in the morning. as irma came roaring in, transformers igniting. these two storm chasers tried to measure the wind speeds unable to hold their ground. this man making the mistake of trying to get an up close look at irma's strength knocked right off his feet. and this morning, the painful process of cleaning up. >> that's our sign, that's our street. >> reporter: just a short while ago we saw a large convoy of u.s. army trucks carrying much needed supplies to the people who are still there in the florida keys who decided to ride out the storm. they also had some heavy machinery on a lot of those trucks. they will aid in the cleanup and the recovery effort that will likely continue here for months to come and, robin, i know this

is an area you know and love so well and our hearts go out to all the people dealing with so much devastation there. >> thank you, amy. i've been trying to get in touch with friends down there and haven't been able to but they are -- the group down there very strong and good to know that help is on the way. thank you, amy. "world news tonight" anchor david muir has been leading our storm coverage and he joins us now from naples that saw water levels rise seven feet in 90 minutes. david. >> reporter: it was incredibly quick. as you know they were forecasting a potential storm surge anywhere between 10 and 15 feet. that would have been catastrophic so if there's any silver lining in this it's that the storm surge was lower than what they were forecasting but there's still a lot of water here in naples. families are going to come home to significant damage. take a look at these drone pictures. we have live pictures flying over naples. it actually shows you the water in the streets. a significant amount. a number of communities dealing with major flooding here this morning. the other part of this storm

here in naples was the sheer force of those winds. as you know the top wind gust in florida was 142 miles per hour. naples airport, not far from where we were reporting live and see some of the damage here. the good news there aren't many families out this morning. they told them to stay inside after the storm but looks to me like so many heeded the warning to get out of here and didn't have a lot of time because as you know that westward shift of the track was saturday morning and gave them saturday to get out, but, look, no families out but you can see the damage that they're going to come back to. so many trees down, parts of this apartment roofing down on top of the cars and see behind us, the fences and trees snapped all throughout this community and we're going to go out and survey the damage with local authorities. the mayor saying that he does believe the city did its best in preparing and i think there's a lot of relief here, robin, that the storm surge wasn't quite as high as they were forecasting. when you think 142 miles per hour we felt it. it was stunning when the roof began to come off, the tiles

flying in the air. we're just glad that so far, so far we don't have reports of significant injuries in this area. >> that is great news, david and great to know that people got out of dodge. all right. in the afterwatt of both hurricane harvey and irma we have seen so many people, so many heroes. one of harvey's greatest is j.j. watt. you know how he raised ang incredible $33 million for all those in need. well, playing a little football game back in houston for the first time on sunday and the stadium where so many took shelter after harvey hit, well, j.j. watt ran out in the introductions raising the texas flag and you can imagine the ovation -- >> more than a wave. >> oh, yeah, oh, yeah, he's like, bring it. >> watt carrying the texas flag. and the crowd goes crazy. >> you know, people have said this. he's a phenomenal football

player. this is what he's going to be remembered for most. what he -- >> amazing, amazing work. >> he did. coming up an american tourist that is stranded with her family in turks and caicos. they'll join us live. and we also are going to be live with a cruise ship prepare forego a relief mission that will head right into the storm zone. and the best way you can help, what to donate now and the items to wait on. plus, how to spot scams. so come on back. just walk right in and pay zero dollars with most insurance.r. plus, when you get a flu shot at walgreens, you help provide a lifesaving vaccine to a child in need through the un foundation. it's that easy to get your flu shot and make a difference. so swing by your local walgreens today. walgreens. at the corner of happy & healthy.

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edition we are following all the breaking news on tropical storm now irma as it moves north. >> we want to talk to kelly

rockowitz. it was a category 5 storm then. they are still stuck in the turks and caicos. now, can you hear me. how are you doing? >> yeah, we are doing all right. we're a lot luckier than the majority of this island, so that's good. but it's been surreal to see what our trip was a week ago compared to what it is right now. it's like a whole other -- >> certainly not what you signed up for. but you know you rode out the whole category 5 storm. did you have a choice? could you have gotten out of there? >> so, we found out -- we found out how bad the storm was going to be probably the day after we arrived here and not only did a bunch of us at the resort inundate the airlines and u.s. embassy and everything trying to get planes -- just two extra planes to get us all out of here, we had people in the states and canada as well

calling all the airlines and embassy and anything they could to get us out but we couldn't so there was just a moment where we realized that now we start planning and now we start just preparing for the storm because there's nothing we could do at that point. so, but we got very lucky. like our resort specifically got lucky but this island is a mess. we've been donating a lot of our clothes and toiletries because it didn't stand a chance. >> what was the most frightening moment for you and your family during the storm? >> the air pressure and the noise that was coming from outside, it was -- i feel like it -- i just can't believe that that happened. like there were -- every tree here is demolished. there's just the noise from outside. it was unreal to hear the destruction that was happening when we're in this tiny little box and anything could happen and out of our control at that

point, so -- >> cali, help people understand. we've been so focused on florida rightfully for the last 24 hours but the entire caribbean. i assume you've been able to get around and describe the scale of the destruction in the turks and caicos. >> so, a bunch of the staff from this resort has been venturing out into the rest of the island to -- because 50% of the staff -- their houses have literally been picked up and put into the ocean. so a lot of them, they just have sinks and it's -- everything is leveled so we've been giving them our food rations and giving them our -- gave them a bunch of clothing so it's -- it's -- i haven't ventured out yet because they say it's not quite safe for guests yet. he this don't know the damage but this hotel has been working

to try and -- one of the shelters was a church and it -- the whole front side of the church was just taken off and people were inside. >> sorry. any sense of when you'll be home? >> we booked flights on about three or four different airlines hoping one would stick so right now at this moment we don't know when we're going to get out. 90 canadians tried to get out yesterday via a humanitarian plane or a plane holding provisions and medical personnel but they wouldn't let the canadians on to travel back because there wasn't proper security to fly to the u.s. >> hopefully you'll be able to get home soon and glad you're doing well and that you're doing what you can to help those that have been most affected. >> good luck. >> thank you. thank you so much. all right, irma has left so much damage as we've seen throughout the caribbean and cruise line industry is bringing in action to help with the rescue and relief effort sending ships to islands devastated to deliver

much needed supplies and pick up stranded tourists and michael bayley is joining us now from the ship. he's in the command center on the bridge. you're off the western coast of cuba. have 27 -- approximately 2700 employees who evacuated that are there with you. just tell us how everybody is doing there this morning. >> good morning. well, everybody is feeling pretty good. i mean obviously we're all from south florida, every single person on the ship. we're anxious about our homes. we're starting to head back to south florida. we're literally as you say off the west coast of cuba. people were relieved and happy to leave south florida but, of course, now everybody is anxious to get home. we're planning on being home tuesday midday. >> describe what you're bringing down on this relief mission. >> well, we had to redeploy eight of our large cruise ships during the past week because of

the hurricane and obviously the concern for safety and moving these ships to safe locations. four of those ships we've actually now allocated to humanitarian relief. so, for example, yesterday adventure of the seas one of our large ships called in to st. martin. we were escorted in by the dutch navy, we were able to tie up and we landed much needed provisions, water, ice, garbage bag, clothing, canned food and we were able to evacuate around 320 tourists and local people who needed help and needed to get out of st. martin. so they all boarded the ship yesterday evening and then now they're comfortable and we're taking them on to the abc islands where they'll probably disembark. we're helping them obviously with that. one of our other ships majesty of the seas is currently -- it was fully provisioned, full of fuel and because we canceled the cruise we've now allocated that

ship to go to the virgin islands and we've been in contact with the local government in the virgin islands, the governor and the team there and they've asked us to come and help land provisions, ice, water, et cetera, also use the ship temporarily to feed and take care of their responders and then we're planning on boarding anywhere up to 2 1/2 thousand travelers who are stuck in the virgin islands and we'll take those people to puerto rico where we're working with various airlines to help get them safely home. >> such an -- >> then we have a third ship, empress of the sea, which is currently in the gulf. and our intention is to take empress into key west as soon as it's safe to do the same thing where we can land water, ice and really help out with the effort the best we can. >> michael bayley, thank you so very much. you're going to be a lot of people that will be happy to see you.

>> sure is an important mission. >> you know george, social media has played a huge role in the last couple storms. we have this snapchat from the keys where the storm is hitting. >> this is the eye wall. this is the eye wall. >> amazing to see those whiteout conditions in palm beach florida we have this, a tree falling as they catch it on video. >> she was sleeping in that room. we ignored it. my sister heard a bang last night. >> wow. it's just getting these images letting people know what has happened. here's probably one of our favorite of the entire event because this is how you do evacuation. florida does it right and especially at busch gardens, that's right they got the swimming boats out. >> they're single file. 12,000 animals at bush garden they hadsts on site.

they are all calm and collected as they should have been. that's the big picture. let's get a check closer to home. >> my daughter worked at philadelphia zoo and used to have to lead the flaming goes like that every now and then but they'll learn. storm tracker6 live double scan dry with plenty of sunshine chilly with most of us in the 50's but this afternoon in your seven day it looks good. 78 degrees, mostly sunny skies and nice today. high clouds build in tomorrow. still a pretty good day with a high of 82. and wednesday is when we get spotty showers from what's left of irma. 76 the high there. and 80 on thursday and friday with a pop-up shower. i'll post that too. florida did a great job with the evacuations as did georgia and others. but, again, if we take any lesson from it be more like a flamingo. >> that would be a long walk back. >> i'm running.

>> get over here but, you know, people do ask about the animals and want to know they're doing well. >> it's one of the biggest questions. people say obviously it's not just the animals in zoos but the animals in people's homes and sounds like the shelters did a great job. >> like a flamingo. >> evacuate like that. but so happy to hear about so many more shelters. >> accepting animals. >> because at one point they were not. >> makes a huge many basis in people's choice to evacuate. >> and you're pregnant. one person stepping up is kristen bell. she is in orlando filming and ended up riding out irma bringing comfort and even some fun to seniors evacuated to her hotel. she even treated those at a shelter to songs from "frozen." here she is singing "do you want to build a snowman." take a look. ♪ have each other just you and me ♪ ♪ what are we gonna do

♪ do you want to build a snowman ♪ >> way to go, kristen. there she is with other "frozen" co-stars. josh gad a parents and landed a hotel room for his parents and brother and family when they needed a place to stay and posted on instagram they don't make them like this, girl. truly an angel sent from above. when you have family members that are going through it and to have somebody there that can help out, oh, it means everything. >> make it work. coming up how you can help the victims of hurricane irma. no matter where you are. so come on back.

>> ♪ >> good morning, i'm tamala edwards. 8:27 on this monday, september 11th. let's get the latest on traffic with matt pelman. good morning. >> thankful to be around here this morning, tam, where it's nice and dry but we still have some issues even on the dried road surfaces. if you look down the road around the corner and through the tree here along 95 northbound there's an accident between street road and 413 in the northbound direction taking out the left lane. so coming north of street, it is extra heavy here on 95 northbound in bucks county. our crash is gone in new castle county on the northbound side of highway one but the bad delays are not. just 5 miles per hour as you come northbound away from the biddles corner toll plaza up over the ross bridge. stick it out, wait to head to highway one. or head to free nine, 13 as an

alternate. overturned tanker truck on the westbound side of 70. chopper6 was overhead a little bit ago right at 206 and the red line circle. there was an oil spill. they're still cleaning up. big delays especially as you head westbound into the circle on this monday morning, tam. >> all right, thank you, matt. now let's go outside to meteorologist, david murphy. he's got your accuweather. good morning. >> all right, tam, we've got sun up. it's a little cool but starting to feel better with that sunshine in play. 58 degrees right now in philadelphia, some of the outlying suburbs up north like allentown still sitting on 50. this afternoon it's going to be nice, lots of sunshine overall and a high of 78. tomorrow fairly bright to start out high clouds will begin to ride in during the day, a high of 82. wednesday is the day when we think what's left of irma will probly throw a few showers in through the region and high of 76. thursday and friday warm and humid, highs of 80 and both days, tam, another spotty shower but neither day looks

like a washout. >> thank you david. that's it for us. we'll send you back to "gma." >> ♪

and welcome back to "gma." we are tracking the latest on irma. it's a tropical storm now, not a hurricane as it moves up north but you can see it is hitting jacksonville hard with heavy rain. >> it is sleeving so much damage in its wake and claimed five lives and 27 across the caribbean spacking 70-mile-per-hour winds, 5.7 million customers are without power. that's more than half of the customers there in florida. and there's so many people stepping in to help as the hurricane devastated florida. one of them, a couple didn't evacuate. phil and his wife michele -- in they chose to stay behind in key largo to protect eight dolphins that help with veterans and autistic children. wonderful that you both are here and i know that you are the director of the zoology at the facility and your wife is the

veterinarian. you never even thought about leaving there? you were going to stay there and help the dolphins, help everybody you could there? >> yes. that was -- >> as you can tell -- >> made that decision long before the storm. >> i think we got him now. >> you got me? >> yep. keep going. >> yeah, can you hear me okay? i can't tell. so, yeah, so we -- so we're here for these eight bottlenose dolphins and it wasn't just for the storm but for after the storm because we knew monroe county in the keys would be shut down and had we left, had everybody left, it might be a week before we could get down here and there's just no way i would leave the dolphins unattended without being fed and

just without knowing that they're safe for a week so we stayed. >> so what steps did you take to protect them? >> sorry. what? >> what steps did you take to protect those dolphins? >> well, the steps that we took is our facility, we secured as much of the loose stuff as we could. we -- well, that was the biggest thing is just securing that. we strung some extra fencing up above water line. we just cleared this area out and that's really it then, of course, my wife and i and our dogs and cats moved into our building and our building is a very large, safe building that's ready to category 5 hurricane. and that's pretty much it and then we just -- we hunkered down and we waited. we were able to -- we were able to come out and do fairly normal training sessions all the way the night before last. it was still pretty windy out

here but in the day of the hurricane it was pretty bad out here. we had -- you can see over here these fences, want to point it over there. we had the water above that, so the water was above the fences and the dolphins, the dolphins pretty much stayed just in the middle and we were just keeping an eye on them. at one point we had to come out here and secure these floating docks back -- you might not be able to tell but they're no longer running poles. the fences were coming -- floating down so we had to come out and try to secure this stuff. because this floating around would be dangerous to the dolphins. >> wow. hey, philip, thank you very much. when you have someone like that. >> dedication. >> that is dedication. i don't even think they know the condition of their home because they were there. coming you, the best ways to help victims of irma and what they really need you to donate. come on back. cancer is smart.

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we are back covering irma all morning long. it impacted millions of people and could turn out to be one of the most expensive storms in u.s. history. rebecca jarvis here with a closer look at the cost. good morning, rebecca. >> good morning, george. there's still assessing those damages trying to get a handle on things. one thing absolutely clear. two back-to-back hurricanes mean there will be month, even years of rebuilding ahead and the need for help is great. the relief effort is now in full

force. former presidents are joining together for one america to raise money for victims of both hurricanes harvey and irma. >> we want to help our fellow americans begin to recover. >> a special calling that compels us when others are down to step up and do whatever it takes. >> reporter: but there are other ways to give, as well. one of the easiest by texting irma to 90999. you can donate $10 to the red cross. experts recommend donating money to established organizations like the united way, salvation army and save the children. some organizations are also asking to hold off on those material donations like clothes. >> when people are donating things like shoes or clothes, we recognize that's incredibly generous but at the same time it slows us down. those need to be sorted and cleaned and we don't have time for that right now. >> reporter: consider waiting to donate. affected communities will need your money weeks or months from

now after most collection drains have dried up. >> if somebody is on a fixed budget we do recommend setting up a recurring donation in perhaps a smaller amount so you know you're continuing to support the relief operation, not just for today, but for months and years in the future. >> reporter: some scammers, though, will take advantage of a stranger's kindness. >> don't assume that simply because an organization says it's a charity or that it's out there trying to do something to help people that they're actually able to do it. >> which is why it is so important before opening up your wallet you have to consider the source. keep an eye out for unsolicited e-mails. charities with sound-alike napes and organizations that may not have boots on the ground in the wake of the tragedy, unfortunately, george and robin, we see this all the time. these bad arcs that come out of the woodwork and also charities who might not actually be doing the service they claim to be doing. >> and that advice, though, for recurring donations over time really can help with long-term

efforts. >> absolutely. that's the thing. a lot of time with big events like hurricane irma you get that initial push and rush of donations but over time, they need it more so setting up a recurring donation and some of the places where you can go and check charity navigator.org and charitywatch.org are two great resources. not sure about the charity you' you're thinking about giving to go there and search the name and they will tell you exactly when it's a legitimate charity but also what they're doing with their money in they say where the money is going. >> yeah. >> exactly. they say where the money is going which is so important because sometimes that money is going to the overhead and not necessarily to the damages themselves. >> other things to watch out for? >> you want to watch out for new organizations, unfortunately and we saw this with hurricane harvey, as well, 500 new organizations came out of the woodwork, most of them scams. anonymous crowd funding. so there are a lot of crowd funding sites. we know this, they can be good but ultimately if there is no name attached and sometimes

there are fake celebrity names attached to these. you have to watch out for that. e-mails again, e-mails that come out asking you for donations. if you don't know the source of that e-mail, be careful. i would just delete it because there are phishing scams that come up at these times and finally don't wire the money. don't give cash, give by your credit card, the safest way to do it. >> good advice. >> thanks. >> people want to help. >> they do. ginger, you've been getting >> which i love because it's so easy to get people direct answers. there's educated questions. did you expect the westward movement. did it have anything to do with the bermuda high. i love how meteorological this person is. that was the question from ed and the answer is yes and no. this is what we were dealing dealing with. with harvey it was sandwiched, it was stuck. with this one the high kept it to the south and moved it west and then that low interacted with it so it was how quickly they work like gears and how

quickly they could work together so every mile counted and that's why that cone was so wide encompassing all of florida for so long. that was the answer to that one. another great question will georgia be affected? we're already seeing the effects this morning. brunswick georgia has had more than 6-inches of rain and flash flood emergencies are already in place so i think that we've talked about this, not getting into that lull and that was a great question and the hopefully the answer tells you all the way through tennessee there's a potential for heavy rains and high winds up to 45 miles per hour. and finally shannon i want to answer yours. when is it safe to return. this is the one everybody wants to know and maybe they evacuated their grandmother she's here now in new york and sort of waiting. it's going to take a couple days to assess damage especially in the keys or naples some of these really hard hit areas. the winds still extend 415 miles north to south on this and so you can see right now those outer bands in south florida, give it a day or two. >> and the power lines that are also down. >> there are so many threats that are still out there. that's where you see people

get hurt after a storm. we don't want to see any more fatalities. >> one more question. a lot of people look at these two back to back hurricanes, two powerful hurricanes back to back and think there must be some connection to climate change. >> it's irresponsible not to talk about the warmth of the earth but this has lot to do with how we plan our cities and sustainability has to be looked at also. lot more science has to be done. >> tropical storm watch in atlanta for the first time ever the national weather service has never done that before. storm tracker6 shows us we're dry. we start out chilly in the 50's but wind up with a nice high of 78. 82 tomorrow. some irma showers wednesday.

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>> announcer: this is an abc news special report. now reporting, george stephanopoulos. good morning, and for those just joining us we are going to take a moment now to mark the 16th anniversary of the september 11th terrorist attacks. there you see the four sites where 16 years ago terrorists struck at the world trade center families of the victims are gathering to read the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died in that attack. people also gathered at the pentagon, also hit. vice president pence in shanksville, pennsylvania, and, of course, president trump at the white house before heading to the pentagon. there you see him with the first lady. we're going to observe a moment of silence now at 8:46.

that marks the moment that american airlines flight 11 hit the north tower world trade center. ♪ and the home of the brave [ applause ]

♪ >> you hear the bagpipes there at the ground zero. after america pauses to remember the victims of those terrorist attacks 16 years ago. the names will be read at the

world trade center. memories also at the pentagon and shanksville, pennsylvania. and, of course, the white house. as the president and first lady will now head to the pentagon. we're going to return to our regular programming. for those of you on the east coast, of course, that is "good morning america." >> announcer: this has been a special report from abc news. i'm danny.

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back here on "gma" and many are concerned about loved ones there in florida. many of them are senior sit searches, now dealing with the aftermath of irma facing possible health issues and our senior medical contributor dr. jennifer ashton is here with that. about 20% of floridians are over the age of 65, 65 or older. there are special challenges there. >> absolutely and as of sunday night there have been about 400 skilled nursing facilities assi assisted facilities evacuated and this is one of the largest of that nature in the state's history and there are special needs with elderly a lot dealing with chronic conditions. you know, we're talking about the potential in a disaster like this for exacerbation of any chronic musculoskeletal, heart, lung condition. a lot need nursing aid with them and certain medical devices. that presents a challenge and just at cute storm. i mean, the stress, the falls, you know, that's a stress test

for a lot of these people and we have a saying in medicine it only has to happen once so it's always best to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. >> and there are ways that you can get in touch with your family members down there in if you can't reach them by cell phone there are two sites that people can go to, fema has a site, the national emergency family registry and locator site, the red cross has a safe and well list. if you are able to make contact with a loved one there who is a senior or elderly and they do have a cell phone you want to make actually an emergency backup plan if they lose power so who can you contact at the facility and try to get a number and give them a secondary number. >> you have any recommendations going forward. >> you know what, september is national preparedness month for disasters. go to ready.gov wherever you are in the country, heat emergency, mudslide, fires, even blizzards, this motivated me to get a bag ready. want to have a go bag with a list of medication, emergency contacts and extra battery,

charger cord, always looking for that even in the best of condition, rain poncho, change of clothes and none perishable foods. this is a wake-up call for all of us. there were millions that had to get out with very little advance warning. we all can take a lesson from this. >> yes, because when the storm shifted at the last moment like that. >> yes, so ready.gov. >> rebecca jarvis told us about the best ways to donate money to the victims of irma. a lot of people wondering what they can do besides giving money and becky worley has a look at that. hey, becky. >> you're right. so many people want to help so i want to get right to it and start with those who are close to storm damaged areas. huge need housing. many people finding out they're displaced and won't be going back home for a long time. one big way to help, open your home to both displaced families and relief workers. airbnb has an entire section of their site devoted to this waiving knees to help match people in need of hopes with those who have spare rooms,

george. >> you know, i also want, george, to mention to people that if they're thinking about volunteering, contact the organizations you're already affiliated with and think about your own skill set so talk to your employer. if you work to are a big company. they may have volunteer opportunities that they organize, leveraging the skill set and equipment to your industry. i.t. companies helping to rewire damaged schools or big grocery chains who can help bring food into the region. even professional organizations if you're a lawyer think of all the help that vics will need navigating red tape so volunteering with legal aid, even on their phone banks can help. also, consider big volunteer organizations like habitat for humanity, catholic charities, they also may be looking for volunteers, it can't hurt to call your local chapter and a great time to give blood. the blood supply chains and refrigerator may have been disrupted in the south.

never hurts to give blood. i gave six weeks ago so i think i'm eligible again this week. finally, i want to touch on pets. it's already happening that they're doing pet lifts. it happened in hurricane harvey, southwest airlines flew 64 dogs and cats to san diego. shelters all over the country like my local adoption center, the animal rescue foundation in walnut creek, california are taking shelter dogs first from the hurricane affected areas. the second wave will be surrendered pets so if you've thought through the idea that a pet is in your future, reach out to a local shelter and see if they have hurricane animal as valuable, guys. so many different ways to help. >> there will be a need for a long time, becky worley, thanks very much. >> so many great suggests there. we are following, of course, the latest on tropical storm irma all morning long. tay with abc for breaking updates. >> thanks for watching. have a good monday.

>> ♪ >> good morning, i'm tamala edwards it's 8:56 on this monday september 11th. let's head over to matt pelman taking a look at the schuylkill.

>> less than shocking news we're wrapping up this monday morning commute with big slowing on the eastbound side of the schuylkill expressway, tam, from just past belmont through this point at the boulevard approaching montgomery. that's there was a broken down pickup truck now pushed off to the side. word of a school bus accident in chester county but it sounds like everybody is okay. that's the good news. however, 23 ridge road is shut down at coventryville road by the coventry parlor. old ridge road or harmonyville road would be alternates. 95 in bucks county a crash northbound between street road and 413 still partially blocking the left lane so it's slow coming north of woodhaven. on route 70 an overturned tanker truck at the red line circle. >> another beautiful day. we're looking pretty good right now with lots of sunshine tam. we've also eclipsed the 60-degree mark. we're at 62 in philadelphia. still a little cool.

mid-50's in some of the northern suburbs. this afternoon everybody warms up though. we'll get up to 78 in philadelphia. mostly sunny and nice not much wind around. tomorrow still fairly bright to start out with high clouds mixing in as the day goes on, a warm high of 82. and on wednesday that's when the remnants of irma spread over the region we get a couple of showers at times with a high of 76. tam. >> okay, thank you. coming up today on "action news" at noon the 16th anniversary of 9/11. we'll take you to ceremonies across our region. also live team coverage as irma continues to batter florida and make its way up the coast. we are now starting to see the full scope of the damage. but for now we send you off "live with kelly and ryan" right here on 6abc. i'm tamala edwards. have a great monday. >> ♪

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>> announcer: it's "live with kelly and ryan!" today "who wants to be a millionaire" host chris harrison. and you will need an amazing 4-year-old whiz kid as we kick off our "totes amaze week." plus u.s. open tennis champion buy all next on "live!" ♪ [cheers and applause] and now, here are kelly ripa and ryan seacrest! [cheers and applause] ♪ >> kelly: hi!