>> reporter: so, thomas, the whole idea here in cape coral is that cape coral essentially is at sea levelghout this -- almost the entire community. this is brandon morris, a lieutenant with the cape coral fire department and we're riding along in a fire engine right now where they are making -- you can hear the sirens going off. listen to this real quick. they are making announcements to tell people this is a mandatory evacuation zone, advising people to take shelter elsewhere. so lieutenant morris, if you can describe to us a little bit about what you guys are doing, where we're at right now and why you are doing this now. >> well, like you said, we're letting everybody know this is a mandatory evacuation zone. not everyone's aware of that. many people shuttered up their houses and they think they're safe. last night, zone a was declared a mandatory evacuation zone. so, not everyone knows that. all south of pine island road is a mai a mandatory evacuation zone. >> so what you're telling me, even though we could see a storm surge that is 5 to 10 feet and we're probably at about 5 feet --

>> reporter: so we're literally driving around cape coral almost door to door essentially with the cape coral fire department. this young woman is getting advice from the fire department on what do in terms of a mandatory evacuation. they are telling people to get out thousand because cape coral and the 179,000 wrresidents tha live here are subject to a storm surge in this area. because we're about 5 feet above sea level and if the storm surge as predicted, 6 to 10 feet in this area, could be catastrophic. this is lieutenant morris from the cape coral fire department. we have been riding around all day. you're saying essentially you won't be able to get to these people after the storm? >> it all depends on how much water comes in. but we can't drive our fire trucks in some of this stuff. and then with the debris, depending on how much damage there is. so it depends on how bad the storm is. >> and we've heard -- this is my person and he will opinion, knuckleheaded things. one man said he would drop the anchor from his fwhoet front bof his house. when you hear somebody say something like

this is a cape coral, naples, fort myers storm.eporter: the first hurricane-force winds measured here was 12 1/2 hours ago. so it's been nonstop battering. it's a cool phenomenon the way mother nature works. it's blowing counter clockwise, sucks the water out of the bayside of key largo. that what per will eventually come back when the water starts coming from the other direction. we could get a pretty good storm surge on the bayside of key largo. hurricane irvin was a category 4. it hit pensacola as a 3. we were in the eye of that one. this has as much power or more and we are not in the eye. we'll be 25 miles or 30 miles to the east. that's what will hit so much of the west coast of florida. if you are watching on the west coast of florida it temperatures coming slope and it's relentless. shep: adam housley live for us in key largo. we have an opportunity to go to elaine duke. big picture, how are we? >> good morning. we are as expected, a slight move to the west. the storm path has not changed anything we predicted. the storm ha

>> it's a more concerning track for cape coral. because of the location of the latest models that we're seeing. we're expecting the track to be more to the west coast of florida. that would affect the community more. currently the storm is away from florida. you mention the bands. some of the energy getting so close to the florida keys already. so yes, we'll see more storm surge in southwest florida than originally expected. things can change and shift. it's always better to be prepared for the worst. >> we'll talk to you later. let's get to the mayor of cape coral. thank you for being with us. you heard the forecast coming from bonny. she has concern as you do, so what have you learned in the last hour that you can tell us about? >> we're really just trying to make sure we're evacuating. we have about 35,000 people right now. that are under mandatory evacuation. that was taken effect about 2:00 today. so bussing them in, bussing them out i should say. trying to open up shelters. pretty much i know cape coral is the best kept secre

meantime in cape coral, officials are pleading with residents to evacuate. but a lot of the shelters are filling up fast. some of them have already reached capacity. msnbc's jacob soboroff has been driving between cape rocoral an ft. myers. what are you seeing now? >> reporter: yeah, we've left the cape coral fire department and thousand back in our vehicle with dana and arnie. we're going back down to ft. myers to retreat a vehicle of ours to get out of that low level area. the bottom line is ft. myers beach is virtually at sea level. it is not a place where you want to be whatsoever. right now we're driving along a road. it is empty out here. and that is a good thing because ft. myers is directly exposed to the gulf coast and that is where we will see irma hit with ferocity. if i'm hearing you all correctly, the storm surge could get up above 10 feet and that would be catastrophic for this area. no way in and no way out. you have many large hotels that have been evacuated. this is a place where people come for leisure, to hang out and also just to live beca

if we're here in cape coral, we'll be stuck here in cape coral, we can't get it back over. won't have shelter. now, i do need to mention, though, there is no blockade, just a reference, just don't want people to be on the roads on the bridge because of that sustained wind. as we look down the road here, you can see i want to look up, here is why it is so troubling where this branch went down. those are power lines, no more than 15, 20 feet away. and as i take you over here, if you look at the trees here behind those trees, that's a power grid. certainly a cause for concern in this area right now. i can tell you in the last 15 minutes or so, the wind speeds can -- as clearly picked up, so has the rain. we're seeing more of it. we drove around the cape coral area for the last half hour, 45 minutes or so. we have seen anything from fruit, branches, couple of mailboxes as well. the wind speed playing a factor right now. no one is on the road. people are hunkering down, getting ready for the storm or we are in the evacuation area, hopefully a lot of those people who are supposed

and so did the track, somewhere in the lower keys and then on up toward cape coral. but there is cuba and there is our patrick. i want you to notice the eyewall. i'm going to get rid of this for a minute and bring up my google earth. now i'm going to zoom out and you can see exactly where he is. right there. where is the eye? right there. i'll show you patrick. he is doing a job today. so back to this. zoom in and show you what's going on. the storm as lost strength overnight because it did hit cuba. terrible for cuba and the cokey. but the pressure is still lower than harvey, so even though it doesn't look as impressive, it is an impressive storm and still a major hurricane, not to go back to your house with just yet. it is about 8 miles offshore, maybe less. you are right there. here comes the rain. rain for you and every time a rain band comes in, that mixes down the wind with it and every time it starts to rain, the rain will blow at 50 today. every time the rain blows this afternoon, it's going to blow at 60. tonight, 70. tomorrow it keeps going and the max wind

what you will see in fort myers and cape coral is nothing. will be like what charlie did as it turned to the right and made that right-hand turn upped west coast. this is the european model completely destroying key west proper with winds of 130 to 140. now, we move it on up. and this is where i'm very concerned. if you look at google maps, cape coral and florida there are so many people that live on canals connected to oceans. all of those homes are going to be in struble because of storm surge. and the water will kill you. it will. the wind, you can get away from. but you can't get away from the water as it begins to wash away your home. tampa, you're also in it to win it, 115 miles per hour. still possible because it's not over the spine of florida, it's not in the middle of florida, farther to the west, we're talking about sarasota getting a direct hit in some of these winds. here's the american model not much different a agreeing pretty much today, maybe 20 or 30 miles. but eventually all the way up into atlanta, georgia. this will be th

cape coral, florida. we have a few of cape coral from the air on a good day.s you'll see, it is a series of canals and lagoons. it's a community that is cut into a million different slices. and for waterfront living for boat owners, as i said, there are few prettier places on the water in this country. however, they're having a rough go of it tonight because of this hurricane. joining us by telephone for the second time this evening is the mayor of cape coral, florida. i heard your first responders may be busy with some structure fires there tonight. tell us about the situation. >> yes, we do. we have several structure fires actually they're trying to get access to. and so right now we -- no more information other than we know that they are happening. we can't get to them, and they're doing what they can to get throughout. but the winds are too high to get the trucks and vehicles out. and we don't know what downed power lines and as far as water and anything else. so it's, yeah, it's the challenging part. >> back up to when you were getting the eye wall earlie

on the line now is sasha duffy, who lives in cape coral, florida.for talking to us, tell us what response you have made to this oncoming threat. yes, cape coral is a town with lots of canals, and we are expecting a lot of flooding there. my home is in a mandatory evacuation area, so we have moved slightly inland and slightly north to my in—laws house. they are in an area not in a flood is owned but we're still going to be hit by the hurricane, but we won't experience any flooding, hopefully. how is this comparing with other hurricanes you have been through? i've been here 15 yea rs, have been through? i've been here 15 years, so i've been through quite a few. this is about my fifth hurricane that has threatened the area, and it is much, much worse. the last big one that i remember was in 2004, which was hurricane charlie. that was scary but it was very, very small and fast moving. this is just very, very small and fast moving. this isjust on very, very small and fast moving. this is just on a totally different scale. everyone is just this is just on

the river is up that way, fort myers, cape coral are on both sides of the river. there are evacuations happening on both sides. if the water does get up to about 15 feet, so basically here we are down at sea level. i'm under six feet tall so this has got to be about eight or nine feet tall. if water gets up to 15 feet, it might be up to the fence that's at the top of this little pev here below the hotel that we're standing under right now. if the water got up to that level, i have a feeling that people are safe and sound in this area. this hotel has been evacuated. but in a place like cape coral, it could be potentially catastrophic for the people who have not yet slaektd. and there are a good number. we just saw a good number of people when we road around the cape coral fire department who have not left their homes yet. again, if you are firing this right now in this area, anywhere in lee county, in this area of the gulf coast region of florida, you've got to get out now and get to an evacuation center. there are centers all throughout the area. you can go on the

among them, cape coral. mayor of cape coral, we looked at cape coral earlier. still aerial photo at all the lagoons and manmade cut waterways through cape coral. mayor, are you as ready as you're going to be? >> yeah, we are. i mean, i guess as much as you can be, we're prepared. but we have 400 miles of canals, and 122 square miles with 185,000 residents and 150,000 of them have been under mandatory evacuation. and, unfortunately, i'm not sure a lot of them, you know -- i'm not sure how many actually heeded that warning. >> what's your average seawall there, the average lagoon? >> oh, it varies, because we use the canal systems to manage our flooding throughout the -- throughout, so we're reduced to the lowest they can, but i can't tell you. i just saw some images from our yacht club area, and it has already taken the water out, and my two-thirds of my city is under storm surge. so it's a pretty scary situation right now for us, the tenth largest city. >> isn't that about the spookiest image to see, your canals empty? >> yeah, well, i think it's more spooky kn

shepard: i wonder about four miles in cape coral and the rest of that on the coast.s there anything to indicate the northward movement would continue or stay offshore? >> at this point it looks like where they continue possibly with the slight westward drift. this is going to be just off shore or just unsure of the whole area from naples after tampa. shepard: i assumed forward motion is about nine miles an hour. i'm guessing something like that continues. once it gets to saint pete, is it so dangerous? >> yes, it will be accelerating in forward speed and the winds will be a little less strong. we expect hurricane conditions in the tampa area. storm surge of type to eight feet and heavy rainfall. this is going to be a serious threat to the tampa area no matter whether it crosses land or short. shepard: my understanding is the greatest flooding concerns are dared in hillsboro county around saint pete and low-lying areas they are. >> yes, that is correct. similar to what we saw on the east coast of florida. the heavy rainfall makes flooding more likely. the heavy rainfa

reporter: despite the warning, jim miller and his wife linda have decided to stay put in their cape coral home even with hurricane irma bearing down on them. >> when we were deciding whether we were going to leave or not, we checked the highways, the highways were jammed. no gas. we had tents. >> reporter: so the couple who lived in san jose for years decided to stay behind with their four cats and wait out hurricane irma in their house. they did their best to prepare, covering all their windows with aluminum siding. >> the wind is blowing fairly hard. >> reporter: jim stepped outside to show us what it looked like as high winds swayed palm trees in his front yard. >> the eye of the hurricane should come a few miles west of us. >> reporter: the millers still have power but are ready if it goes out. >> we've got food. we've got water. >> reporter: jim says during hurricane charlie they also stayed in their home. he says he and his wife and cats hunkered down in their bathtub with a bottle of wine and mattress over them. they are prepared to do the same during irma. >> we are just hoping an

. >> let me ask you about cape coral. i meant what i said. nothing scarier than wind-driven structural fires and structures that are spaced together. you could lose -- you can lose a block of them. there's nothing more frustrating than knowing it is going on and not being able to get to them because routes are blocked. you can't risk your personnel or apparatus. but the mayor of cape coral said they are awaiting a storm surge up until 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. >> yeah, i heard that and i did a double take. maybe -- we tend to -- the way it kind of works is the hurricane center comes out with their storm surge forecast. those forecasts get passed on to the emergency managers for every county in florida and the emergency managers pass that information out to all the mayors and city officials that need that for their own districts. the hurricane center from what i saw, they still haven't lowered the surge values. ed rappaport told us they were likely going to. that won't be until the 11:00 p.m. update. some of that information was likely kind of old i

myers to cape coral. you can see the strong currents, the white caps. every hour that water is getting higher and higher. this is a ghost town where we were. people were driving around earlier. we are not seeing people out anymore. it has gotten very dangerous. they are listening to ft. myers mayor who we heard say stay off the roads. florida highway patrol are tough customers. they are pulling all their troopers off the roads until the winds die down. things are getting very dangerous. they will get much worse. we are only at 65 miles per hour on the wind gusts. and irmaing we know is much more powerful than that. so it is just getting started, george. >> we are seeing the winds more powerful in miami. back to geo benitez. >> reporter: we told you our building's window was cracked. we are on the other side but we are getting an unbelievable picture if here. you see this behind me? look at all that rain and wind being pushed. that is how strong these winds are right now. let's see. look at that -- oh, look at that. we have signs down. look at what's hap

anywhere between miami, fort lauderdale, boca, west palm, cape coral and ft.ee the outer band bring extreme winds like 94 mile per hour far away from where the lightning packed eye wall is going to bring the heftiest. >> that's what's so unique about the storm, it is both big and intense. >> and you don't always get that. andrew was so compact and affected homestead and when you went outside of that wind field it was much weaker. this is not the case with this storm. this wind field is very large, 160 miles across. it is taking over the peninsula of florida. >> there's nothing out there that can significantly break it up. >> the only thing is florida itself and that's what's going to do the damage to it. the friction of the land of florida. as this moves due north, you can see the eye moving,t's where you get naples and the low pressure system. this is what harvey didn't have. somebody to grab it and kick it out. >> this is moving much more quickly than harvey did. let's go to rob marciano in sarasota up the coast. likely to get hit later this afternoon but yo

so the weather comes through here and it comes up here into cape coral. let's move you ahead. key west, the air force base here. i saw yesterday, a bunch of air force planes evacuating all of these naval air stations. get those those blaens out plan the way. you hit the missouri keys and you get to the 7 mile bridge. there's so many people whoily along canals. you put a little boat on the canal, those canals are going to fill up. they're going to be 12 feet higher than they are right now. your house is going to be underwater. something else i'm very concerned about. if we put 12 feet of water into the everglades where does it go? i'm concerned there's about a 4 foot levee in this area right here keeping the everglades wet and keeping the concrete jungle here dry. if we put 12 feet of water over a 5-foot levee, i think we're going to flood western cities from west kendall, possibly, you know how high your levee is to the west so you just if you need to go or not. this is still 24 hours away, but there's always something, victor. there's always something that we forget about whe

myers market and cape coral, lived on cape coral. i was curious, though, when it comes to -- as you were talking about the evacuees, were most people were a little caught in between about whether or not that wanted to g right, about whether or not they would evacuate? >> right. and we saw -- this was a difficult forecast because, you know, the cone was coming up the entire peninsula but that line was going through miami, through ft. lauderdale for a while. so, it's hard if you pay attention to just where that forecast track is. officials constantly try and tell you, it's a cone of uncertainty. it could go anywhere in this range. but i think a lot of people here where a little focused on where that exact track was. we did get here wednesday, water was sold out. i don't want to imply people weren't doing anything, but it was this question of, do we stay or do we go? a lot of people did get out. we saw the traffic on 75 but then there were some people addition we were talking to yesterday, the day before, trying to make that decision. o

that's why we'll see in the next few hours the potential to make landfall between there and cape corals it goes up the west coast, it will by tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. been around cedar key and monday 8:00 p.m. right along the alabama state line into georgia. that's what i'm talking about, the rainfall rates and the rainfall extending as far as north as atlanta. you can see six to even eight inches of rain in those metros. >> we're talking about a tropical storm. >> they'll come along with a significant amount of moisture and gusty winds. >> all across the southeast. thanks very much ginger. the wind already kicking up in ft. myers. tom llamas is there. >> reporter: george, yeah, the wind just really changed in the last 30 minutes. it started to get so strong. the rain is whipping us in the face. you can see behind me that stop sign. i don't know how much longer it's going to last. you can see the wind line perfectly from east to west because of where we are. we're in front of the marina. let's take a look at the palm trees and you can see perfectly hurricane irma's winds are going

this will rotate around and you'll get to cape coral, punta gorta.t's just the surge that we're waiting on. and right now the water is up 8.5 feet from where it was when the storm just went by and it's still going up for you, chris. i don't think that will finally end for maybe two more hours. the water will rise slowly, still one wave after another for two more hours for you. we'll see where it ends up. >> all right. good to know. and bagain, it's not easy to stand in it. but our hearts go out to the families and the seniors who stayed behind and are suffering through it indoors right now, many of them without power. over 2 million people, 2.5 mi million people without power. imagine you guys watching this have the benefit of chad myers and the science and understanding the timing. let me tell you, it can seem like an eternity if you don't have a sense of when something is going to end. our hearts go out to those people and we look forward to this being over so we can get out and see what people need and start dealing with the recovery. we're not th

where, naples, cape coral, fort myers -- when? tomorrow afternoon.t could get more intense after it passes key west. here's the storm coming off the cuban coast. patrick oppmann has done yeoman's duty. he has the southeastern eye wall all night long. it's pushing into southern florida. every time a band goes by you will get increased winds homestead down to cutler bay, you're seeing wind come in. anytime later this afternoon, a storm comes in, there's even a potential for a small tornado or two. keep that in mind. the watches have gone all the way up into georgia. hurricane warnings for the southern half of florida. but overnight, michael, what happened is the model, and we're going to talk about these models in a half hour or so. the models shifted 20 miles farther to the west. so, now, not a landfall near marathon, florida. likely a landfall in the lower keys, somewhere cudjoe key, big pine key all the way down maybe to key west. and that's a big difference because now that puts for the myers in play of a landfalling hurricane and also makes tampa

now do you. >> we prchb prp we're actually coming to you from cape coral area. all night long we started to about frrn in fact, this tree mind he was swaying -- or the brchb es we'll have about 30 minutes of bad weather and then it starts to clear up. obviously all wm a a unique city. it has lefrl hundred canals that run throughout the city. it's supposed to give boaters easy access to the gulf. so no matter where you live in the city, it allows you to get out there pretty quickly. the on problem is it going to contribute significantly to the storm surge threat. that's something people out here are watching very closely tonight. ari. >> all right, trent kelly, stay safe. that does it for my coverage but our live coverage continues after a quick break, continuing ahead with alex witt. >>> hey there, everyone. i'm alex here at msnbc headquarters. it is 2:00 a.m. in the east. 11:00 out west. you're watching special coverage of hurricane irma. irma is making her way towards the florida keys. winds up to 120 miles an hour and it very well could become stronger before

we are coming to you live from the city of cape coral. this is the largest city on the southwestern part of southwest florida and many people are bratsi bra bracing for a direct impact with hurricane irma. this is just to the "washington post" -- west of ft. myers. this area has a series of canals that lead out to the gulf of mexico to give homeowners an easy way to get out to the gulf if they want to. via boat while it does make some parts of the city more attractive for homeowners, it is not a good thing when you are talking about a major hurricane heading towards the city. storm surge is the main concern of many city officials out here. they are worried that that canal system can only help increase the flooding in some areas more inland, areas that would not normally see storm surge but because of this canal system, it may help to push some of that water further inland. we're talking about neighborhoods not right on the coastline. these are areas that are several miles inland here in the city of cape coral and they could see several fe

let's go toward naples and cape coral, you can see the different inlets across this region as well. and still we go to our graphic here and give us an indication that sanibel island, captiva, many visitors there, can be expected to be under water. with 15-foot storm surge. they'll be repeatedly battered, in the worst possible zone of this hurricane. other the next 24 hours. where do we expect landfall? let's go up a little bit further. we zoom in across cape coral, here we go, we're looking at the regi region right around punta gorda. if that storm surge is in your home, that's major devastation. let's zoom out a little bit more, go up the coast. here's tampa and here's st. pete, here's that waterway, an additional 15 feet of water possible across he region. this jutes out a little bit. this has already moved toward the northwest just slightly. we're looking at being battered by that upper right quadrant that's where we see the potential for very high winds, the potential for tornadoes. already i saw fisher island, 57 mile an hour wind gust. key biscayne, 65 mile per hour wind gust.

i got very lucky here in cape coral that we did not get the brunt of it. is alive and i'm thankful. >> so tell the viewers where you and your husband were. you were on st. jean. >> i left the restaurant i work with closes for the offseason, so i left for a preplanned trip and i actually was in new york when this was happening and we decided i should stay safe. so i stayed and went on my vacation. obviously a little bit hindered by these things. and when irma was coming here, i just -- i couldn't make myself go farther away from trying to get home. >> i know you haven't been able to talk to your husband in saint j john. how have you been able to communicate? >> there's one cell tower on top of a pizza plus. i get a couple minutes in the morning and if i'm lucky once in the evening or afternoon. so just basically it's a check in, are you okay, what do you need, that kind of a thing. >> and i mean, right now you can't get anything to him, right? >> no. i am working my way back there, hopefully within the week with some of the construction supplies he's reques

in cape coral where i was, it was a community that was built to have accessibility to the water for manyf not all of the homes. 179,000 people in that very low lying region. the hope is that the water does not flood that home. we have to wait and see. but the storm is approaching fast and is approaching furious. at this hour, all we can hope for is that people are safe and they are ready for hurricane irma to hit. alex? >> thank you so much for that. let's head south to the area being most greatly impacted. i'm being joined on the phone by the may yr of monroe county. that includes the florida keys. mr. mayor, with a welcome to you, sir, on this very precarious night for you in your community. first of all, may i ask you where insure. >> i am in marathon, staying at a private residence, a very heavily fortified house. we can hear the wind howling outside. however, we're not feeling any of the effects inside the house. but we can tell that it's blowing. i think the winds are 109, 110 miles an hour right now. >> that has got to be pretty frightening and pretty loud if you're able to hear i

i want to bring in the mayor of cape coral, florida, marney sawicki. thank you for being with us. are you worried? how worried are you about your tone? >> i feel -- actually, i'm feeling much better. right now i'm out in the city with an initial crew doing some initial assessments. overall what we were expecting and what we have, i'm very pleased. very pleased and relieved. >> tell me about the damage you've been able to see, the assessment. do you have power? what's going on? >> it's hit or miss on the power. actually, a lot more places have it than i thought would. there's mostly downed trees, obviously your downed branches. minor structural damage to soffits and pool cages. obviously, we have 122 square miles so i haven't been able to see all of it. and it's still night. there is flooding and the roads are -- that's where most of it is. the water is in the roads. >> i'm told cape coral has more canals than anyplace else in the world, is that true? >> it does. 400 miles of canal. 185 of that is saltwater. >> it's kind of a miracle if you are still standing after the passage of i

you can see cape coral and fort myers will be on the dry side of this. that's not to say that's exactly what's going to happen, because the storm can wobble left to right. but once the eye makes landfall again which it will. it made landfall down in the keys, then make its way north. once it makes landfall and is over the peninsula, it doesn't have the warm water to keep feeding it and it will slowly weaken as it moves up the coast of florida. we talked about some of the areas that are most of vulnerable. in the tampa bay area, st. petersburg, clearwater, and some low-lying areas that are vulnerable always along st. pete. this entire bay to flood. the thinking is the storm surge will come up. we don't know if the storm will be east of tampa by the time it reaches it or west of tampa. if it's to the west, all of this water pushed up into tampa bay it could flood downtown tampa and cause problems in the st. pete area. adam housley this key largo where they are still taking a beating. reporter: the storm is coming across. the bands of wind and rain have bee

myers, cape coral has a place like that. it is peeling off flimsy structures and not near the worst. >> jacob, we will check back in. migel almaguer is in florida city, on the eastern side of the peninsula of florida. so when we saw the storm come across the florida keys, this is the effect it is having in the east. migel, for members of the audience that can't see, you're tethered to your location, shouldn't worry about losing you as we talk to you. >> reporter: yes, brian. using a tow rope for security. we are in a safe place, connected, attached to the police department here. this is where we have been hunkering down, we rode out the storm overnight. we're about ten miles off the coast. the storm surge here isn't the major concern and neither is this blinding, punishing rain. it is the powerful winds here. i would say three or four hours ago, winds completely knocked out power to the entire city. it hasn't come back, as we know. power outages are continuing across the region, conditions are more catastrophic. first respon

and cape coral interestingly enough about 20 miles away from here could see some catastrophic flooding in addition to fort myers beach. that community was designed to have accessibility by boat to almost every one of the homes there. there is about 179,000 people living there today. when you talk about policy and planning, the convenience of having a boat near home and being able to hop in and go out for recreation has terrible potential consequences in event of a hurricane like irma when you're talking about storm surge 5, 10, 15 feet when you have entire community with canals running throughout it at sea level it's terrifying. the local firefighters have a big task on their hands. when we look out tonight over napeles, florida, the one thing you thifrmg about is hopefully everybody has gone to evacuation center, hunkered down in a building or facility they know is safe. because it is - the-s n debating the fact the storm is coming and coming withferosity many people here have never seen before. i know earlier tonight at the fire station one of the firefighters said they had seen andr

. >> now he is going back to his home in cape coral near fort myers. windows gone. >> hard to keep the tears back because my friends are there and see destruction. a foundation is all you need to start over. >> even as we are standing here we are seeing more cancellations from jackson, mississippi, and miami. this is a effect. if the planes can't get up in the air tonight or tomorrow morning it's likely there will be more delays. a lot of folks keeping the fingers crossed. reporting live, richard reeve, abc7 news. michelle: thanks. before irma hit the u.s. mainland the hurricane killed at least 36 people in the caribbean. don't lose sight of that. cuban officials say ten people died when the storm pushed water into a havana neighborhood. the eck tent of the damage varies depending on the island. but across the caribbean there are shortages of food, water and medicine. u.s., french and british military are recovering in the operation. jonathan: we will continue to monitor irma's impact on florida and the southern united states. find our continuing cover

we have been speaking with families all over florida in cape coral, west palm beach, and orlando, heading to stay with family in new jersey, new york, and pennsylvania. everyone we spoke to said it is not an easy decision to leave behind your home and your irma's path, they knew they had to get out. >> when i found out about the hurricane, it was category five, i left my job and i rented a car and i went to pick them up. >> with my children, it was just safety first. we decided to go. >> i'm afraid if i get out of the state come i will have a hard time getting back in because of the devastation. ryan: we also found people evacuating from north carolina and georgia come everyone telling us they are concerned about their homes and what irma might do, but they are even more worried about their friends and loved ones who decided to stay behind and ride out the storm . adrianna: we will be covering every angle of the storm as it barrels its way towards florida. brad bell and meteorologist josh knight are in florida. they will have reports this even we will have breaking hurricane updates from

call your county, naples, cape coral and beyond. >> the latest on hurricane irma as of 11:00 this morning

and southwest florida, ripped through marco island, sana bell, naples and heading north towards cape coralhe target later tonight, the city of tampa and st. pete. ordering mandatory curfews for residents at this hour as the storm spawned several possible tornadoes throughout the state and many waiting for the dreaded storm surge, the killer water slamming in from the backside in the gulf. janice dean has been following this all day. what's the latest status that the hour? >> i will get you the latest but want to show you five days ago how well the national hurricane center predicted this storm. this was their kohn five days ago. look at the center of where the storm went, over cuba and into southwest florida. now there was a shift in the cone days out, but this is remarkably amazing forecasting. so, of course, hats off to the national hurricane center who do an amazing job tirelessly day in and day out to try to save folks, that's exactly what they're doing. good work for them. looking at the radar, so we had two landfalls around the keys area, and marco island, we're expecting the potenti

jacob. >> yeah, yes, brian, you know, i just keep thinking about people 20 miles to the north in cape coral, they all live at or below sea level. canals dot the entire landscape. look at the trees right now, brian, they are basically like an inverted umbrella. whoa, those are tiles flying off the roof next to me, brian, as i'm talking to you. the wind seems to consistently change direction. now you're looking at the trees being uprooted as if it were an umbrella, we've all had that experience, but to see a palm tree treated like that by mother nature is an extraordinary thing to see. i'm just watching pieces of trees picked up off the ground and fly around into the air. brian, i'm going to go inside, we have tiles flying everywhere off the roof here. >> that's a really good idea. >> you got it. jacob sb jac jac jacob soboroff, who's been forced inside because of portions of the roof coming off. on the left of your screen is the weather channel remote where we saw mike bettes. mike bettes is inside the vehicle, i believe. they are really in the teeth of this now. bill karins has settled upon

the city of cape coral, that is the largest city on the southwest florida coast line situated right next to the city of fort myers. we've been out here pretty much all day today since 2:00 this afternoon. you're right in the past i'd say about 10, 15 minutes, we've noticed a significant increase in the wind out here, not to mention now a steady rain is falling. the wind's not so much picking up out here. earlier this tree was swaying in the winds, the gusts have calmed down a bit. as you can see the rain srting to pick up tonig. as i told you guys, we are here in the city of cape coral, this is the largest city in southwest florida. if your viewers have ever visited here one of the things that make it unique is the network of can als. a lot of homes have access to the gulf. it's great if you want to live here, it allows you easy access to the gulf of mexico, but it's not great when you're talking about a major hurricane potentially slamming into this area, reason being storm surge. i heard bill explaining how storm surge works. that is a huge concern here. because of those canals, now th

there's an emergency response center that has opened up for cape coral and there's an emergency response center opened up here in ft. meyers, a lot of different emergency response jurisdictions, and what we're hearing from the national guard is they're not -- they're staging, basically, right now. they will respond once the storm hits, rescue and recovery is necessary. the mission right now is to get people to shelters like the one that we passed where gabe is in estero on the way here to make sure people are safe. the scary thing is, hearing what gabe is saying from over there at the arena is that not everybody has a place to go at this point and when you're waiting onning long lines and know your home may be a matter of feel off the water, it's a terrifying prospect and again it is only a matter of hours before we really start to feel the impact. the sun is still out. the wind is starting to blow and the water is starting to churn but this is nothing. nothing compared to what we expect to come through here in a matter of hours over the course of the next 24 hours. >> well, and you thin

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 warnin

cape coral, never been out of the cone. so, you know, this is still a great forecast, 120 hours ago, we were still forecasting this hurricane center was, and they're still right on the money. >> in fact, chad, last thing i heard you say in the previous hit was for tampa to expect 5 to 8 foot of storm surge and there's been upgraded. >> that's right. we were talking about zone one, pinellas, and hills prborohills listening to your local officials there because we may have to raise the zone from a to b around parts of tampa if it looks like the surge may get into tampa bay. right now it's 5 to 10. you know what, anderson, this just a bad flashback. you and me standing in tampa waiting for charley, a category 4, strong storm and it turned right into punta gorda and we had to chase it to the south. that was 13 years or so ago. the same thing can happen today. i have a wind gust possible in punta gorda, florida, tomorrow, of 150 miles per hour. the storm is still expected to grow as it gets into the warm water. this is serious a

you can see out the warning goes to fort myers in cape coral. peak surge. in the tampa bay we can look at five to eight feet and there's millions of people that live in the tampa bay area along the oceanfront. everyone here a little further north has time to prepare and get out before the tropical storm winds earlier today. trade for national hurricane weather center. busy day. thank you. we will bring in phil keating in miami beach is the winds pick up they are. still. reporter: john, these are really moving if you are standing around and you shouldn't even be outside today at all. it's very dangerous. the wind is very strong. by jimmy dade county bordering on the 60s and 70s. so far reported in the storm in miami-dade county 70 miles an hour. also fort lauderdale yesterday. seven minutes ago. a tornado warning has been issued in miami-dade county for a patch of land in neighborhoods they go from miami beach to miami guard in pembroke pines. right now there have been numerous counties put on warnings and watches as this all began in earnest lat

again, it's going to be impacting areas like cape coral. we've got areas like naples. then making almost the newest track really has it making a direct hit on the tampa st. petersburg area as a category 4 storm. that is a major hurricane. that's going to be around 2:00 a.m. monday morning. late ostomy night into monday morning is when we're going to be expecting to see those major impacts in the tampa st. petersburg area. one thing you'll notice is this storm really holds onto its strength, remaining category 1 possibly as it moves into southern georgia after which appoint as we move to the week the remnants will be northern alabama and tennessee. that's about wednesday at 1:00. again, subject to change, especially this far out, but it seems as though the track is becoming more and more defi western coast of florida. so here is a look. the miami radar right now picking up heavy rain bands. remember the eye where we see strongest winds further south. look how far reaching the rain bands are. they are experiencing tropical storm force winds pretty soon in southern florid

you get into around a little closer and even around cape coral and 101. as it continues to move and around punta gorda we are still thinking about 8:30, 9:00 and if the system continues to move at 15, our question is will it move due north or will it start to move back toward tampa. for you, anderson, it's still a good -- it may be late tonight in the darkness and six, seven hours or so and that's the frightening part of this and if we get closer and we look at the other side besides looking at the tornados and the east to the northeast, we look down to the south. marco island right now, they are completely seeing water now not just submerge the dots and it's over to the sea wall and now we have in fort myers and this is napel, excuse me, naples, we're seeing a 4.9 increase. that's above normal tide. 4.9, that's above the ground. the forecast is five to say the so after the water receded and pushed out and away toward the west and the last three hours, the water height has increased by nine feet. so it continues to go up at 4.9. that's above normal height

joining us by phone, the mayor of cape coral, florida. surge where you are and the storm surge would spread seawater a couple miles inland. that did not happen. >> we were so blessed, that did not happen. stuart: give a status report. what did happen? >> i don't know how we escaped it but driving around with our emergency personnel, there are downed power lines, but no structural damage, no shingles off. our heart goes out to marco island. hoping -- they took the brunt of it. stuart: you can drive around in fort myers and naples which means crews can get in to fix the power supply. maybe you can come back quickly. >> we are telling residents, i don't know the exact figure but more than half of residents have power last night. this has been amazing. it is amazing. so fortunate. stuart: those of us with a connection to naples and the fort myers area, several here do, we were all very worried we would lose friends, relatives and property in the storm surge. you are telling us you dodged a bullet. >> in cape coral we did. i got off the phone

i want to bring on the mayor of cape coral, florida. that's a town of -- as we were saying, another one of the cities that could be impacted by the storm. south of fort myers. mayor marny zawicky is with us. give us an idea? >> basically, the winds are starting to pick up. from this point on, even though the shelters are accepting evacuees. at about 2:00 today, when we expect hurricane force winds. and our biggest thing is what you just said, storm sturge. making sure how do we get to our residents and information out so they know who to contact. >> and is there information in terms of shelters, you just mentioned they're still open. but you're not supposed to be out on the roads at this point. so, are you at the point where you're telling residents just hunker down and don't go anywhere? >> yeah, actually, we've been saying for the last few days, a storm this magnitude, stay in, please. we have 150,000 people under the evacuation order because two-thirds of our city is under the surge zone. so, we know we're going to be impacted 400 mi

we have on the line representative francis rooney which includes fort myers and cape coral, in urban's path -- irma's path. >> thank you for having me on. --heller preparations going? how are preparations going? >> about as well as one can expect. the government has been -- the governor has been in constant medication with people. -- constantod medication with residents. we have tried to do our part in making sure on our website, people know who to call with different kinds of problems and what resources are available to them and how fema can be engaged to clean up as the storm receipts. recedes. change things on the coast? >> it geometrically heightens the problem, the devotees -- the devastation we are going to see. a are going to see devastating amount of flooding west of i-40 one and some of 1 and some of it east of i- 41. >> when you return to washington, what do you and your colleagues want to do? givens a long-term issue the number of hurricanes we have seen. what would you like congress to do? >> i think fema will blow through that $7.8 billion pretty quick on harvey and irma a

georgia and florida, and are speaking with those families, one from cape coral, west palm beach. they are heading to stay with family in new york, new jersey, pennsylvania. they have the kids and pets and are putting irma in the rearview mirror. once they saw irma's track they had no choice but to get out. >> i just told work i will not be back until i can get back. i am afraid if i get out of the state i will have a hard time getting back in because of the devastation. morning, a lot of people are eating those warnings which is nice to see, but there are of course -- heeduing those warnings which is nice to see, but there are of course others who decide to ride out the storm. live in dale city, ryan hughes, "good morning washington." larry: updates around the clock on the .tormwatch 7 app we will be on your side as the monster hurricane hits the united states. 6:30 seven, and the weather in the dmv will be calm as the redskins kickoff. larry: john gonzalez is live at fedex field, johnny g. john: it is getting bigger and bigger, d.c. frei has joined us for some games. . am playin

. >> we were speaking with the mayor of cape coral, right about there. she was saying now because of the adjustment further west, she has 30,000 more people to evacuate. as this moves in the next who knows number of hours, the mayors, county leaders, the governor, they have so much more to do and don't know yet necessarily. >> a lot of it has to do with the storm surge and the wall of water that's likely to increase depending on where the track is. here's a look at some of the computer models. and you see that as we looked kind of toward the next 24 hours, there's more of a consensus, more tightly together. then as we start going into the forecast period, there's still a consensus, but a little movement here. i would say that they are as we speak -- before they were so spread out. we're getting a better idea that the westerly track will occur. you mentioned people having to evacuate. this is the state of florida. and this is irma superimposed around it. >> 360, 370 miles wide. >> at least. >> some saying the size of texas or wyominwyoming. huge. >> it is

this is what it looks like just a few miles away from jim and linda millers cape coral home, where they've hunkered down with their four cats to wait out hurricane irm aa. they say so far their house has held up, but they lost power today. >> our batteries are running down. the storm has only got off to up to 80 miles an hour where we are right now. >> when we talked to jim miller last night, he said most of his neighbors had evacuated and explained why he and his wife decided to ride out the storm. >> when we were trying to decide if we were going to leave or not, we checked the highways. the highways were jammed. no gas. where we were going to go, and we had pets. >> reporter: to prepare they covered their windows with aluminum siding and prepared food and water. reception is spotty at best as they wait for the worst in the next few hours. president trump announced this afternoon he has approved a florida disaster declaration, making federal funds available for people in affected areas. >> i think we're really well coordinated as well as you can possibly be. i'll tell you what, we have g