you have to go well away from the water to get away from the storm surge threat. same situation especially on the south side of naples. another very vulnerable area where the water just comes on in here and it comes in like a wall. and unfortunately can infiltrate into buildings. this water picks up sewage and debris. it's very harmful. you can develop rashes if you're in it. this is why we tell people to get out. or if you are riding out a storm, you better be in a structure that has several stories where you know the water is not going to rise above. there's still time in southwestern florida to get out because we don't want to see the inundation of water. what happens? it's a fetch in off the gulf of mexico. it heads towards the shoreline. we can see the water levels rising here because the land is so low to the ground here. many areas at or below sea level. so that's why that water just piles on in

duration of this storm. let's see if we can advance this graphic here and i'll show you the wind speeds that are going to be happening here as well, if my computer will. there it goes. this is the eye wall. this is at 5:00 in the morning. the eye wall passes the lower keys as we head through 9:00, 10:00 in the morning. there's that force of wind and water in the keys. still persisting around 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning. look at this, key largo gusts up to 80, 90 miles an hour, even in downtown miami gusts of 60, 70 miles per hour. from 3:00 to 8:00 tonight. i'm really concerned about the eye moving off to the north and west and the piling of water up towards marko island, fort myers around 7:00 because 7:00 is high tide for them. so this water is coming on shore and it all depends on the track how much this coastal flooding and storm surge will ride up the coast. if we can get this thing on shore and on land, it will start

a weaker storm. if the storm parallels the coast or stays just off shore, this wind fetch is going to continue and the coastal flooding will be severe all the way up to the tampa, st. petersburg area. >> steve, we'll continue to talk to you. as steve said earlier in case you weren't with us, at the top of every hour we're getting updates. he'll have that for us at the top of the hour. the next big update at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. i want to bring you rob gold from florida power and light coming to us from palm beach. what's the story now on power? >> it's really pretty much where we expect it to be. we've got about half a million customers who are now out of power. i would say though we've already restored about a quarter of a million. so we've been at it all night. we do have an army of about 16,000 restoration workers. it's arguably not just the most preset, prestaged before

in history. so we're ready to get at it. we're going to have some challenges today because the weather is going to prevent us from getting out, particularly with the high wind. once the wind subsides in certain areas such as miami-dade, tri-county area, moving up the east coast, we'll get about restoration. what we're saying to our customers, the real challenge on the east coast, we're talking about days. it's going to be a restoration, repairing equipment. on the west coast if our worst fears are realized, we could be facing an entire rebuild of a system which could last weeks. >> what will separate those who you can actually go in and you've already restored power, as you've said, in some places very quickly from those who will be without power days, weeks even? >> well, the challenge will be we need to wait until the storm comes through and then we go out and

24 hours to truly understand what we're facing. if it's a rebuild situation, we're going to be in that situation because we've had terrible flooding, devastation to the area we're talking about potentially having to actually replace poles and wire, substations, the entirety of the infrastructure. but the wind field and the surge is going to define that. >> what are your biggest areas of concern right now? i'm assuming that you are staging people based on the track or have you been staging them more broadly not knowing exactly that things could change hour by hour? >> no, this has almost been a military movement as you think about it. as the storm has been moving, we position our troops, if you will. we started in north florida around lake city which is i-10, i-75. as we saw the shift yesterday we moved a portion of our folks down to the eastern coast towas

treasure coast area and miami-dade. we also have them pre-positioned ready to move to the west coast. as the storm moves, we will move with it, but we will be restoring at the same time. >> let me just ask you finally, i know you guys must have done projections, worst case scenario how many people could be without power? >> well, we're looking at millions. there's no question about it. this is a really, really nasty storm and we're really pleased that so many of our customers heeded the warnings of governor scott and local, state and federal officials. our biggest concern right now is safety. we'll get through this, but our customers and your viewers need to make sure they do not touch wires, go out in water that could have a wire down. it's a -- it's a fact that most fatalities occur after the storm has passed. so we don't want to see anybody get hurt.

and safety first for our customers. >> well, without a doubt that is an incredibly important piece of information. rob gould, good luck to you. good luck to the 16,000 restoration workers who are going to have a big job ahead of them. we appreciate it. let's go back to msnbc's phillip menia who is in ft. lauderdale. how are things looking since we talked an hour ago? >> reporter: well, the weather conditions here have deteriorated. it's doing so rapidly. there were gusts of wind that were just blinding for a long time, but i want to show you something that we noticed just in the last few minutes here. that parking lot behind me that was full of cars and -- when we started just a couple of hours ago, we can see the pavement and now there are vehicles where their tires are halfway covered in water. and to the right there's a concrete barrier where they have -- not barrier, but containment for trash bins usually. that is all filling up. and that is a

blast of wind and rain that we got. and that is a big concern out here is the wind and the rain that has picked up. we had been seeing it in bands but those bands are becoming -- are coming through a lot more quickly, a lot more frequently and it's hitting us that much more stronger every single time it comes through. and at its peak it's hard to even keep your balance. i mean, 45-mile-an-hour winds is enough to keep broward county sheriffs pulled off the street. they mentioned earlier, we talked to them earlier they said they're going to start pulling some deputies off of the roads as the conditions deteriorated. any time the wind gusts got up to 45 miles an hour, they're going to take them off of patrol. that's some of what we're seeing because of the intensity. >> phillip, thank you very much. there are urgent storm surge warnings. this is a life threatening situation. powerful waves just tng

boat around biscayne bay. check that out. coming up, we'll speak with the chief specialist of the national hurricane center about irma's next moves.

just now, wow, it just kind of picks right up and you feel the force of this. keep in mind we're not expecting a direct hit from irma, but we are expecting damage all throughout the night. we've had a tornado warnings, we've had even a funnel cloud spotted off the coast of miami and further north. i'm not sure if you can tell, but it's certainly pushing against us right now. in the next few minutes we're going to need to take shelter again because this is a dangerous situation. of course, very dark out here. difficult to see when pieces of debris may even be flying. that's what we're keeping our i eyes out for now. >> that's one of the concerns for

is all approaching is that flying gree. that was wtbj's julia bagg. we appreciate that from her. hurricane irma now gaining strength as it's approaching the florida keys over the warm water. it's now a category 4 storm. irma is bringing with it a life threatening storm surge. it could get up to 15 feet in some areas. already we're seeing water levels two feet above normal. i'm going to michael brennan, the chief hurricane specialist. thanks for joining us this early morning. give us your latest projections. what are we looking at? >> we can see on the radar from key west the eye is within 35 to 40 miles to the southeast of key west. these oranges and yell lows you can see, that's the northern eye wall. that's where the 130 mile per hour winds are. those are going to be moving into the lower florida keys in the next hour or two. that can bring

damage. that will bring the storm surge to the center where it crosses the keys. you'll see 5 to 10 feet of storm surge inundation. they're not out of the woods to the west because as it goes by, it will push it into the gulf into perhaps key west and parts of the lower keys. it will be a dangerous few hours in the lower keys. >> last night when i was on the air i was talking to somebody who decided to hunker down who felt at least that she was in a pretty strong building, something that was made out of concrete nevertheless, when i asked her if she was scared, she said she was terrified. understandably so. what is that going to sound like? what is that going to feel like if you're in one of the florida keys and decided to stay? >> it's going to be a very, very, very scary few hours. anyone who is there wants to be in a safe room, interior room or closet in your home with no windows at this point, especially here in the lower keys where you're going t

that's almost winds of a tornado coming through but over a very, very large area and for a long period of time. you're going to want to be in the safest room you can find, lowest floor of a building. the problem is, the storm surge is going to come, too. you have to -- that's why people were told to evacuate to begin with, because the combination of the surge and the winds, so deadly there. >> then we're going to see it going up the coast. everglades city, naples, cape coral, port charlotte. >> yeah. >> give us an idea of what you're looking at and what's the chance of it moving? >> at this point the forecast uncertainty is pretty small. with this track parallel to the coast. it's a small jog to the right could have it make landfall in the fourth myers area. to the left, big bend. everybody along the west coast of florida has to prepare for major hurricane landfall potential going through today and tonignt

not just from the wind hazard, the storm surge. we were mentioning the 10 to 15 feet of inundation that we were concerned about from cap tetiva naples, life threatening surge here. we could see surge as high as eight feet up into the tampa bay region, big bend, very dangerous day. also, widespread this wind impacts across the entire state of florida. it will see sustained winds. along the west coast and into the central part of the state. hurricane forced wind gusts will be widespread. i'd expect widespread tree damages, winds. >> governor scott said something very important the other day as he's been getting the warnings. he said a lot of times when you have the high winds, once they die down people feel like they're comfortab

that's when the storm surge comes, right? don't leave your home because you hear the strong winds die down? >> right. especially for anybody who's going to be experiencing the eye. you definitely don't want to go out in the eye. the storm surge is going to be coming up and the storm is moving about 8 miles per hour. so within a few minutes the strong winds on the back side of the eye will return. you certainly don't want to be outside for that. you brought up another good point, that even after the storm passes we have so many people in this country who die from these indirect deaths after the storm through an electrocution, from driving into areas where water covers the road, from falls and accidents. people want to be very, very careful after the storm passes and heed the advice of their local officials about returning to areas that have been evacuated and any other advice they might get. >> after you survive the storm, stay put for a while. i know it's hard for people and the natural inclination is to want to get out and see what's going on. don't do

specialist where they have been extraordinarily busy already obviously from harvey and now. we thank all of the folks who work there for what they do. let's go to miami beach now. that's where marianna atensio has been. give us a sense of what it's like right now. >> reporter: chris, the storm is a couple of hours away from the florida coast line, and just look at some of the damage that these wind gusts have already created here in miami beach. this is a pretty big tree that i'm standing next to completely toppled. again, this storm isn't even here. we saw similar trees like this on our drive over here. the storm surge is really the biggest threat for barrier islands, for coastal cities like miami beach. the beach is over here to my right, not very far away. if we are to get those estimated 15 feet of storm surge when this storm comes here to florida, thisle

walking now is very likely to get flooded. if you see this is collins avenue to where i'm standing, to the back of me this is a street with a lot of power lines, a lot of trees, very dangerous for people to be walking around here. again, what we've been seeing in miami is because it's not going to get a direct hit from the storm, you're seeing people, we saw a car drive through here right now. a person walking around. that is when it could potentially get very dangerous here where an evacuation order has been issued. even if miami isn't going to get a direct hit, it's got a deadly storm surge. it's been labeled deadly by florida governor scott. chris? >> marianna, thank you so much. be careful out there. seeing that tree makes you realize that there is danger there even though miami is not exactly where they thought it would be 48 hours

to feel the force of irma. this is a category 4 storm. inching closer and residents starting to witness exactly what a cat 4 can do. lightning, heavy rains already felt along the state's gulf coast, and that main concern, we can't say this enough, that potentially deadly storm surge. we've got you covered. the entire msnbc/nbc resources, we've seen so many of our correspondents that have been out there for days now. they're tracking the changes that they're seeing or feeling. we've got you covered all throughout the day. stick with msnbc to keep you informed.

hi. yeah, within the past five minutes we're seeming to get a real heavy downpour, definitely seeing the gusty winds. >> look at the trunk of the tree. it's not just theru

uprooted, a chunk of the land. it's someone's backyard. it crashed through a fence here and now covering a sidewalk. >> this is a restaurant in florida city right on u.s. 1. guys, i just lost my -- you see the fencing. that has been ripped off. >> when you look at that, you realize we're still a couple hours from it even hitting the keys, so starting already to really feel how powerful this storm is going to be. we heard, for example, from a rep from the power company they're expecting millions of people, millions of people to lose power. half a million have lost it already. joining us on the phone, cammy clark, the public information officer for florida's division in monroe county, give us a sense right now. we're looking at exactly where monroe county is, right in the path. what your biggest concerns at this hour? >> caller: i'm terrified for all the people in the

our emergency center is based on ocean reef. we're about 100 miles from key west and we're getting an amazing storm outside my window. so i can't imagine what it will be like down in key west. i have a lot of friends and people that are staying behind either as responders or as just people that didn't want to leave. this is going to be terrifying. >> give us a sense of what is in place. i know there are places that even the first responders essentially left where they were staging elsewhere to go back in. obviously you have a different situation in the keys where passage may be blocked, so you have people who stayed behind. who is there? how are they staging? what might be available for people once this storm does go through? >> caller: well, we've been spending basically five to six days first trying to get people

to leave the keys and also figuring out exactly how we're going to do the recovery the minute the storm passes. so we have staged debris removal and various other things up and down the keys. we have what we call seven critical points where bridges where we think that we have to have materials and stuff in each kind of those sections of the keys because anybody that doesn't know what we're like, we have 42 bridges. so just losing one bridge disconnects part of the keys from the rest of the keys and the mainland. so we're ready for the storm to go through. then the first thing we have to do is get bridge inspectors and road people in there to inspect the bridge and stuff before we can even let people come in to start helping with recovery. we also have plans to fly help in on c-130s and various other helicopters because that might be the only way and probably will be the only way to get resour

keys. >> do you anticipate that you will have communication with people who have stayed behind? if power lines go down and people can't charge their phones, phone lines goes down, what's the concern about being cut off from communications? >> we have satellite phones set up. so far our cell phones are working, at least mine is up here. i don't know how it could be down there. but, yeah. we're very concerned. we've got a couple special situations with these phones set up so that we will be in constant communication with key west we're hoping any way. then once the storm gets past, the biggest thing is to clear the runways at the airport if key west and also at the naval air station eight miles from there, so that we can get resources flown in. >> good luck to you. good luck to all the folks in the keys. 'r

we appreciate the time. we'll be back at the top of the hour to get another update on hurricane irma. keep it here on msnbc. we will have you covered all day long.

good morning, breaking news, irma arrives. the most powerful atlantic hurricane ever lashing southern florida right now. the storm strengthening overnight back to a dangerous category 4. >> this is a life threatening situation. >> 135 miles per hour winds and rain battering the florida keys. hundreds of thousands already without power. a potentially catastrophic storm surge going up and down the coast. more than six million people, a third of the state's population, evacuat evacuated. we have corsp