gum brand. >>> get back to breaking news. more than 20 million people living in florida. nearly everyone in the state will be affected by this monster storm. florida governor rick scott joins us oun the phone. governor thanks, as usual, for joining us. looking at pictures of long lines of homestead, florida, just outside miami. these lines are people trying to get into a shelter ahead of the storm where do the evacuations stand right now? >> still evacuating this part of the south and we know the storm is coming up. and evacuating other parts of the state. just receiving tampa to go down to fort myers. an area of tampa is leaving now. we have shelters. i shut down all the schools in the entire state to add more shelters. i've asked for volunteers. needing more volunteers, getting more every day. opening many shelters as is necessary and i tell everybody, you cannot wait. you've got to -- if you're in an evacuation zone, get out now. if you're going to leave your home, you need to get...

tomorrow is today. >>> despite official warning, mandatory evacuation orders and the fact hurricane irma is the strongest atlantic basin hurricane ever recorded, some residents are determined to ride out the storm. our cnn correspondent rosa flores joins us from miami beach. tell us about the resident you spoke to who's insisting that, you know what? we can ignore these evacuation orders? >> reporter: you know, wolf, he says that he has ridden through other storms before and he plans to ride irma in his boat. take a look around me. we've talked to at least two people. they live on this bay. and they say that they will be riding the storm here. and as you said, we've been hearing from every public official in every level of florida, and everybody is saying, evacuate, because this is such dangerous storm. so what do you do to prepare if you're planning to ride the storm in a boat? take a listen. >> i grew up at the sea and been through a lot of storms. this i think will be the...

at ancestrydna.com. >>> warned to get out of harm's way and thousands of thousands of florida residents are taking that advice. the rush to escape hurricane irma triggered a mass exodus that could turn into one mpt largest in u.s. history. counties, home to more than 6 million people alone. our correspondent ed lavandera is on the road in south florida. ed, update us on where you are, and what the conditions are like. >> reporter: hi, wolf. we wanted to check out the evacuation routes through various parts of southern florida. just to kind of see and get a better sense how many people were hitting the road and listening to these warnings, and quite frankly, what we've seen at least down here from dade county where we are now on the southern edge of dade county, looking out on to the roads here this afternoon, from here through broward county and into palm beach county, the areas we've focused on, and the roads, at least the major thoroughfares looked like this. these are the evac...